fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Introducing IBM Watson Studio
By: Armand Ruiz
Tags: Announcements, Machine Learning, Watson Studio

Professionals are putting AI to work to turn our most valuable resource — data — into new ways of doing business. With AI, we are no longer wrestling with data, but using it to recommend with confidence, accelerate research and discovery, and enrich interactions with customers on their terms. The purpose of AI systems is to augment human intelligence, and today, we are excited to announce the next step on our journey to make AI more accessible for everybody with IBM Watson Studio.

Watson Studio: accelerating value for enterprises with AI

Watson Studio accelerates the machine and deep learning workflows required to infuse AI into your business to drive innovation. It provides a suite of tools for data scientists, application developers and subject matter experts, allowing them to collaboratively connect to data, wrangle that data and use it to build, train and deploy models at scale. Successful AI projects require a combination of algorithms + data + team, and a very powerful compute infrastructure.

Until today, there was a gap between data experts and domain experts. Only highly technical professionals in IT could organize and make sense of the vast amounts of data. Only domain experts could successfully convert data into the rich knowledge needed by AI. But domain experts and IT professionals worked in silos, with different tools and no visibility to each others work. The result was AI that fell short in its promise to augment people’s expertise.

Watson Studio closes the gap with a unified experience to create new insights from knowledge contained in the data. Watson Studio enables multidisciplinary teams across the organization to collaborate. We are convinced, after working with clients around the world, that rich collaboration is key unlocking the full potential of AI.
Top Algorithms/Data Structures/Concepts every computer science student should know
By: Coding Freak
Tags: Computer Science, Programming, Coding, Data Structures, Algorithms

Top algorithms –

Insertion sort, Selection sort,

Merge Sort, Quicksort

Binary Search

Breadth First Search (BFS)

Depth First Search (DFS)

Lee algorithm | Shortest path in a Maze

Flood fill Algorithm

Floyd’s Cycle Detection Algorithm

Kadane’s algorithm

Longest Increasing Subsequence

Inorder, Preorder, Postorder Tree Traversals

Heap Sort

Topological Sorting in a DAG

Disjoint-Set Data Structure (Union-Find Algorithm)

Kruskal’s Algorithm for finding Minimum Spanning Tree

Single-Source Shortest Paths — Dijkstra’s Algorithm

All-Pairs Shortest Paths — Floyd Warshall Algorithm

Top Data Structures –

Along with above algorithms, every computer science student is expected to implement below data structures –

Linked List Implementation | Part 1

Linked List Implementation | Part 2

Insertion in BST

Search given key in BST

Deletion from BST

Stack, Queue

Min Heap and Max Heap

Graph Implementation using STL

Graph Implementation in C++ without using STL

Trie Implementation | Insert, Search and Delete

Memory efficient Trie Implementation using Map | Insert, Search and Delete

One is also expected to be familiar with other programming paradigms like Backtracking, Dynamic Programming, Divide & Conquer, Greedy Algorithms and concepts like Hashing and Recursion.
Who has control over the top four cryptocurrencies?
By: Harsha Reddy
Tags: Bitcoin, Crypto, Cryptocurrency, Cryptocurrency News, Cryptocurrency Investment

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Decentralization is a spectrum. This article looks at where Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and EOS stand on it. Some might surprise you.

Bitcoin

The one that kicked it all off. How decentralized is it?

👽 — It was created by an anonymous developer known as Satoshi Nakamoto who is not involved any more under the same pseudonym.

👬 — More than 360 individuals have contributed to the bitcoin code.

👷 — Blocks are created by miners and anyone can become a miner.

🕹️ — There are nearly 10,000 bitcoin nodes which confirm that transactions are accurate.

And how centralized is it?

⚒️ — The Bitcoin network is operated by miners. They join together in mining pools to get more consistent mining rewards. However, mining company Bitmain owns mining pools BTC.com and Antpool, controlling more than a quarter of miners.

🖥️ — The mining difficulty is so high that miners can’t use their desktop computers and have to use expensive processors instead. This means not everybody can afford to mine it.

🏢 — 16,000 addresses hold 60% of the total supply of bitcoin, although some will be exchanges holding on behalf of their customers

Conclusion:

Looks like Bitcoin is very decentralized, although it has become less decentralized as it has scaled.
“Why am I so much happier pining for someone?”
By: Lisa Martens
Tags: Blood Orange, Short Story, Spirituality, Fiction, Magical Realism

“Why am I so much happier pining for someone?”

Blood Orange in the Eisbach.

There was a park called the Eisbach where you could actually surf in a certain part of the river.

It seemed to surge up over rocks and create a wave. I wasn’t sure if it was natural or not…but it seemed like a good place to people watch.

I took the train. I was a bit confused. It didn’t work like the New York subway. There was a place to scan tickets, but there wasn’t any barrier or turnstile. No one checked my ticket. It seemed based on the honor system.

Very strange.

I walked onto the train and felt a little afraid that I would be arrested at any moment.

When I got off the train, I walked a bit past what looked like a university. There were young people all around.

Blueberry was not there. I relaxed. I could just be a normal person today. I could have fun. I could meet people. Maybe I could even party. Do normal young people things.

Maybe I didn’t have to feel so distant all the time.
The White House, Before And After
By: Liza Donnelly
Tags: Biden, Politics, White House, Trump

Since the election, I have increasingly felt more normal. The final straw was when the current administration signaled it would cooperate in the transition. Then on top of that, President-Elect Joe Biden started making appointments to his cabinet, and it appears to be a group who are thoughtful, kind, competent, honest — and logical —people.

It’s as if the sun is returning. I feel badly for those whose candidate lost, and that’s an honest statement. I don’t understand why they voted for him, but that’s another column. But I do believe that Joe will work for all of us, he means it when he says that.

Let the sunshine in. Not only for us to see what our governement is doing, but also for us to feel less stressed and confused and dark. I look forward to a happy, giving and inclusive White House.

This was the subject of my daily live draw on HappsTV. Follow me there to get updates when I will be drawing! And I invite you to become a sponsor, it would be wonderful. https://happs.tv/@Liza
5 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About JavaScript
By: Joseph Chi Lin
Tags: Software Development, JavaScript, Programming

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, Image: SpaceX

After countless hours of memorizing idiosyncratic syntax, you finally find yourself a master at selecting nodes and modifying the DOM, but how much do you really know about JavaScript?

Here are five things you probably didn’t know about JavaScript.

Netscape Nativity

Netscape browser, Image: Wikipedia

Before becoming the ubiquitous programming language that it is today, Javascript can trace its humble origins to the now defunct company Netscape. It was at Netscape that Brendan Eich was tasked to create JavaScript in order to create a more dynamic experience for web browsers. Eich would create the prototype for JavaScript in only 10 days.

A Script Has No Name

The original Java logo, Image: Oracle

JavaScript began its life under the code name Mocha, a name coined by Marc Andreesen, co-founder of Netscape. It was eventually changed to LiveScript by marketing before finally being renamed JavaScript to capitalize on the popularity of the Java programming language. The name “JavaScript” itself is trademarked by Oracle, the company that develops Java.

Firefox Family

The original Firefox logo, Image: Mozilla

Brendan Eich, the father of JavaScript, would go on to co-found Mozilla Foundation, the parent organization that produces the Firefox browser. Eich would serve various roles in the organization including CEO of Mozilla Corporation before stepping down due to controversy surrounding his opposition to same-sex marriage.

Microsoft Makeover

The original Internet Explorer logo, Image: Microsoft

Microsoft’s introduction of Internet Explorer in 1995 led to an eventual browser war with Netscape. Its answer to Netscape’s JavaScript was their “totally-not-reverse-engineered” language called JScript.

To Infinity and Beyond

Image: Pixar

Although primarily used to create dynamic experiences for the internet, JavaScript has also been repurposed to manned space flight operations. JavaScript was one of the languages used to program the flight interface for Crew Dragon, SpaceX’s Dragon 2 manned spacecraft variant.
I forgot “Hello world” program on my first Interview
By: Dilbag Singh
Tags: Success, Technology, Jobs, Interview, Learning To Code

Finally the day come , I was sitting in front of interviewer confident about my marks , projects and knowledge about mobile app development I gathered in last few days. He was impressed with my marks , asked few question about lists,map ,sorting algorithms then some questions based on loop and then further he want to ask some questions about computer language I know , so he asked my preference for the programming language.

He asks me to create a algorithm for a situation he provided ,even after I knew how to solve the question I was confused , I have not practiced these thing in python , even after writing the solution I was loosing the confidence. because I was feeling I am making some mistakes in syntax , I was trying to write the code more in a way I used to write in java. I was feeling so guilty to answer the python as my refereed language.

When he checked my program and he found multiple syntax issue , he than gave me another problem and I made same mistake again. suddenly ,out of nowhere he asked , I have projects in java too, can I code in java too ?

I only could say yes , and he said me to write the legendary program “Hello World” , It was easy task for me but soon I found I am making syntax mistakes here too.and a sudden guilt trip made to accept my defeat.then the interviewer realized my problem, asks theoretical and logical question and ends the Interview.

I realized my mistake at the moment , why it is necessary to stay true in an interview, the lie can help you to showcase a nice first impression but in end it will land you in trouble, and also I never went for a interview after that just to pass the interview and get a job , now I chooses only those interviews which will lead me to work on things I really wants to work and it helps me to win those interview even before the interview happen.
“Friday Night”
Tags: Poetry, Relationships, Poem, Love, LGBTQ

Can’t really focus

On anything

Other than you

Scared to admit

You got me open

Got me hoping

You hand me the key

To your heart

Had me hooked

From the start

Saw you across the room

And wanted nothing but you

Drinks downed

Liquored confidence — a mission to pursue

Words were few

And far between

Jolly ranchers

Swimming in vodka

Drowning in alcohol

Looking for anything but Allah

RnB spilling from the speakers

Stealing touches, kisses, and rubs

As if we snuck under the bleachers

Throw it back for me

Watch me catch it — wide receiver

Look back at me

Got you speaking tongues

No need for a preacher

Drunk in love —

Disguised lust

Locked the guest bedroom door

So we don't have any need to rush

Kissing every inch of you

Leaving no parts untouched
As We Stop the Spread, What Are We Doing for Children?
By: Terranie Clarke
Tags: Technology, Parenting, Covid 19, Edtech, Education

As We Stop the Spread, What Are We Doing for Children?

Tech Empowerment vs. Tech Dependency in the Age of COVID-19

Photo from NME

While most of us anxiously await the chance to put 2020 behind us, there is one unhurried soul merrily reveling in the bounty of this year — Baby Shark.

Indeed, just this month, the beloved underwater character and his entire Pinkfong clan claimed the title of “Most Watched YouTube Video of All Time,” soaring well above 7.04 million views.

While this feat may come as a surprise to many, a quick glance into the data will reveal that this isn’t astounding at all, especially considering the video’s appeal to one of the largest demographics in YouTube’s consumer base: children. In fact, in 2019, YouTube was hailed “the most popular babysitter in the world” and a Pew Study found that videos featuring children were viewed three times more than videos in any other category.

One can only imagine how much those statistics have skyrocketed since the onset of the global pandemic, with a 60% increase reported in technology use at-large. Quite frankly, it would be absurd to expect otherwise, as COVID-19 has shaken our world to its core, changed the course of life as we once knew it, without a discernible end in sight.

Our new normal consists of work-from-home culture, virtual learning, masks, and face shields, and at the crux of it all lies our indispensable friend, technology. Once an arbitrary tool, now a permanent fixture, that we simply cannot do without, but as with any tool, mishandling may lead to risks, like obsession and misuse, especially for adolescents.

Photo from iStock Photo

Fortunately, there are ways to mitigate these risks and teach children to actively master technology, rather than passively letting it control them. And with the possibility of another shutdown in our horizon, there has never been a more opportune time for them to learn.

Teach them to Create, Not Just Consume

The most notable innovators in the tech industry have spoken publically about limiting screen time within their home. Apple’s late and great Steve Jobs, Google’s Sandar Pichai, and Snapchat’s Evan Spiegal, among others. They all expressed a need for balance in childrens’ lives to embolden imagination and independent thinking.

While we would be wise to follow their example, considering their expertise in the industry, COVID-19 has completely thrown any semblance of “balance” out the window. Even pediatric experts have urged parents not to obsess over the amount of time children spend utilizing technology. What matters most is how they use that technology. A new era demands new rules and by not only ensuring that kids injest quality content, but inspiring them to build content of their own, we can cultivate a generation of leaders who are ready to rule tomorrow.
St. Jean Baptiste Church
By: Haytham Ad-Din, The Photographic Muslim
Tags: Photography, Christianity, Catholic, Religion, History

The Relic was purported to have brought about miracle cures, causing Marquis to extend his stay by several weeks, in order to accommodate the great streams of pilgrims that continued to visit the Church. Eventually, after his return to Quebec and with the permission of Cardinal Taschereau, the Relic was split and Marquis returned to the Church with the fragment in July. The Shrine of St. Anne was initially in the Lower Church of the first edifice, then moved to the Lower Church of the current edifice, before finally being placed at its current location within the Main Sanctuary in the early 1990s.
How we helped to successfully digitize a card game for a wider audience
By: Ville Yli-Knuutila
Tags: UX, UI, Technology, UI Design

At Kodan, we’re passionate about modern web development and user interface design. We also love building awesome applications that offer meaningful experiences for the user. Add to that our keen eye for detail and enthusiasm for experimentation, and it’s easy to see why we were so excited to be asked to digitize a popular team-building game, Topaasia. Gälliwashere, the game’s creator, also wanted to make use of our love and experience of creative design and building infrastructures. We were happy to oblige.

The project: Digitizing a popular game

Our challenge was to change the format so the game could be played in digital environments and remotely, via conferencing and video call solutions. Digitizing the format also meant changing the old school business model from a one time purchase of traditional playing cards, to a monthly digital subscription that would allow regular updates. Teaming up with the software development company Vincit, our designer Ville was tasked with designing the format.

Creating the digital version through a user-driven process

We wanted to know what the game was all about, so we monitored some players, and then had hours of good times by playing the game ourselves. But the fun didn’t end there. We then created the wireframes and developed the style guides and visual components for the new format.

Once we were happy with that, we designed and played around with several prototypes of the game which were tested with customers, until we had a product that was technically advanced, user-friendly and visually pleasing for the player.

We followed the agile method throughout, and finished the development side of the task in two-week sprints. Throughout the journey, our designer Ville worked closely with Gälliwashere who provided consistent feedback on our work, allowing us to experiment some more to develop the best possible version of their much-loved game.
How new age media companies are disrupting sports broadcasting
By: Nilesh Deshmukh
Tags: Sports, Broadcasting, Digital Marketing

When Lad bible group live streamed Table Tennis England’s championship no one imagined that they will help Table Tennis England 0.03p cost per viewer acquisition cost with a reach of 2.2 million viewers for a 4-hour event.

This not only demonstrates the command of mushrooming new age (Social) media houses over the target audiences but it also is a sign of newer business models and how sports rights holders can reach its target audience directly, moreover this is the begging of a new wave of disruption in the sports broadcasting sector.

Following is an infographic demonstrating the 12th most followed website in the UK helped a sports rights holder improve cost per viewer acquisition using their platform.
Bitkub.com is now working together with DTAC Accelate,the biggest start- up incubator in Thailand
By: Lucas Cabiz
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Thailand, Blockchain, News

Co-founders of Bitkub.com joined one of the biggest start-up incubators in Thailand after the announcement of Topp Jirayut Srupsrisopa as CEO of Bitkub Capital Group Holdings Co., Ltd., which is the parent company of Bitkub Online Co., Ltd. (Cryptocurrency Exchange) and Bitkub Blockchain Technology (Blockchain Solutions & ICO consulting services), on the 24th August 2018.

During the Dtac Accelerate batch 6 event held in Central World Bangkok, the new blockchain company in Thailand, Bitkub.com, has joined as part of Dtac incubator program and won the “Global Expansion Track Awards” in order to drive the company into global scale.

According to Techsauce report, Bitkub is one of the winners out of the other 11 startup participants in the Dtac Accelerate batch 6 program that have presented their investment plans and also received four major awards during the event.

Jirayut briefly spoke on stage about Bitkub exchange that: “we have approximately 1,000 million baht in trading volume since the opening of exchange and over 19 million baht of trading volume on a daily basis. In addition, we are aiming to be the version 2.0 exchange for the secondary market and we are one of the 7 crypto exchanges that have applied for a license from the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).”

Currently, there are 7 Thai cryptocurrency exchanges (consists of 5 exchanges and 2 dealers) that have been approved by the SEC to legally operate in Thailand. According to SEC News Release, the 5 exchanges include Bitkub.com, bx.in.th, cash2coins.com, coinasset.co.th and tdax.com.
by Martino Pietropoli
By: Martino Pietropoli
Tags: Humor, Tuesday, Illustration, Space

First thing in the morning: a glass of water and a cartoon by The Fluxus.

Follow
Sacred Cows
By: Background Noise Comics
Tags: Political Satire, Comics, Politics, Twitter, Cartoon

Last we checked, satire and parody are still legal… and funny.
Azure — Difference between Azure Private Links and Azure Service Endpoints
By: Ashish Patel
Tags: Azure, Service Endpoint, Azure Virtual Network, Azure Private Link, Azure Service Endpoints

Azure Private Links vs Azure Service Endpoints — Comparison between Private Links and Service Endpoints

Azure Private Links

TL;DR

Azure Private Link allows you to access Azure PaaS service over Private IP address within the VNet. It gets a new private IP on your VNet. When you send traffic to PaaS resource, it will always ensure traffic stays within your VNet.

Azure Service Endpoint allows you to access Azure PaaS service over Public IP address. Traffic still left your VNet and hit the public endpoint of PaaS service.

Both are design to allow you to restrict who connects to your service.

Azure PaaS Services: SQL Databases, Storage, Key Vault, ServicesBus, App Services, Cosmos DB, Event Hubs, SQL Data Warehouse etc.
Scream of the Butterfly
By: Shain Slepian
Tags: The Doors, Jim Morrison, Neurodivergent, Shame, Fear

Scream of the Butterfly

I went to the grave of my childhood hero.

Photo by Fabrice Nerfin on Unsplash

Père Lachaise Cemetery is composed of meandering paths that braid over and squeeze into each other, barely contained by the brick that seems to burst from the ground. They flower into headstones and create tiers like a mossy, earthen ziggurat. The soil is dark and rich and leaks spores of life into the air where they wilt and decay.

There are many incredible humans here. And gorgeous overgrown monuments. I pass some stones with Hebrew names I can vaguely comprehend. There are many Jews in Belleville, it seems. I passed a — what I think was a — Chabad on the way here. Home follows, in a sweet, warm and suffocating way.

Oscar Wilde. His monument is emblematic of Art Deco with its soft geometric shapes. Or something.

There is a long tradition of people wearing thick lipstick and kissing his grave. A tribute to the master of temptation. A properly overdone farewell to a man that meant something to people. Not by what he did, or even really what he made. But by what he represented.

“W ould you be in any way offended if I said that you seem to me to be in every way the visible personification of absolute perfection?”

So they put up plexiglass. And it’s now covered in audacious kisses of pink and red and orange and purple.

I’m looking for a grave with a similar tradition. People go and pour a beer over his headstone. It’s probably closed off, maybe that’s why I can’t find it.

I came to France, to Europe, to visit this grave. The grave of the ghost that haunted my aspirations throughout my formative years. What if it’s gone? Or incognito? To protect it from hops enthusiasts.

Cramped between these Gothic columns of trees, I consult the map again. I can’t see the street anymore. I turn it around, then around again. I am completely lost.

Finally, I notice my hair dripping and distractedly search for cover among some thick trees. And hear a song. That song. (‘Poser,’ I think).

“You know that it would be untrue/ You know that I would be a liar…”

As expected, it’s barred off with metal fences. I maneuver around a muddy triangle of barriers to get a bit closer.

There used to be a bust. I believe it was stolen. There were flowers and paint and beads. Now, it could be the grave of just anyone.

I pass a sinking mausoleum: more the size of an outhouse. Someone clearly couldn’t get close enough to the man that attracted them all this way. And scratched into the wall of the small temple for all fervent and vague worshipers like myself is a line that we all remember. And no one knows why.

Before I sink into the big sleep, I want to hear the scream of the butterfly.

That just about sums up my lifelong obsession with Jim Morrison and the Doors. Worshiping, meditating, reveling in the art that would set me free.

Without understanding what that meant.

I stand there, sinking into the mud, trying to retrace the steps that had brought me here.

Who were you? What did you mean to me? Why did you bring me here?
DIGITAL NOMAD — THE ROAD IS HOME
Tags: Travel, Dropshipping, Cryptocurrency, Digital Nomads

I love my boss, I love the company I work for, and I love my pay rate — said no one at the same time ever! It’s true, now and again, you may be able to say one or two of these things if you’re lucky. But the real truth is, working for someone year after year, dedicating your most passionate and motivated self to pay for a roof over your head, feed and educate your family and then squeeze in a few holidays, is a thing of the past! Why? Because we have other options people! And, believe it or not, these options don’t always have to cost an arm to set-up, and you certainly do not need to be stuck in one place to make it happen. A Digital Nomad Lifestyle is all about being your own boss, and basically working whenever and wherever you want.

The road to financial freedom!

Scary? It can be. Exciting? Definitely! Like anything it’s going to require hard work and dedication. But when that can be done, whenever you want, wherever you want, however you want and for whatever you want… Seriously, what else could be more motivating?

Right, to sum it up — you basically rely on the Internet to financially sustain a 100% location independent totally modern nomadic life. Yep, because… 1) Digital, implies online remote work, and 2) Nomad, an individual or family who constantly change locations.

Also, Digital Nomads by nature are armed with a certain “they get computer stuff” skillset. This comes in very handy if you want to start navigating crypto trading whilst on the road. Cryptocurrency is basically just money on software platforms, open 24/7 — it literally never sleeps, and is the perfect place for Digital Nomads with some tech savvy know-how to hang out. BUT if you’re just starting out, and are a total rookie cryptocurrency trader, you really need to do your research to be positive about the cryptocurrencies you choose to invest in. Putting your money into something that you do not believe in, is kinda like just flushing it down the toilet.

To get started read: How to trade Cryptocurrency, Cryptocurrency Revolution and Blockchain.

Entrepreneur, author, YouTuber and full-blown Digital Nomad, Mike Vestil is known for building a business from zero to $1.5 million in 1 year. He created mikevestil.com to find like-minded individuals (freedom fighters) that would help him in this rad quest — to pretty much just live the most epic life ever.

Do you like the idea of running a business but NEVER actually seeing or handling your product?

Of course you do! Check out this video and learn idiot proof ways on how to start a dropshipping business with shopify. Oh and do yourself a favour before hitting play — jot these golden Mike Vestil phase bombs down.

The Research Phase The Scaling Phase The Growth Phase

Knowledge is power fellow Nomads — join the revolution!
Innovation in the Era of Lockdown
By: George Krasadakis
Tags: Lockdown, Innovation, Remote Working, Technology, Covid 19

How and why to accelerate innovation in times of crisis. I recently had the opportunity to speak to RGI in their first online innovation summit, where I shared my thoughts on ‘innovation in times of crisis’. In this article, I am summarizing the key points — and sharing the actual deck.

When ideating at scale, it is important to capture ideas using a shared, compact format. This article presents the Idea Model along with various examples of how to write effective executive summaries for your product or business concepts.

What makes a great product leader? What are the key qualities that lead to inspired teams and products that people love?
Repeating Dream Sequences
By: Samantha Lazar
Tags: Magical Realism, Fantasy, Short Story, Poetry, Magic

deeper still

you have the drive

to toe the path

mossed over

a bramble ambushed

perhaps by hooves

looking out

a potential clearing

but light only deceives

here is where you expect

to find

what holds the enchantment

in this story

what brilliance will

you turn into

what kind of wisdom

will people seek you for

alone, still seems right

but you misstep

and mistake the mist

for a change in weather

a light jacket

a stolen roll in the pocket

a slip of paper

with numbers

the tree

will emerge

they said

you just have to keep going

but it will emerge

repeating dream sequences

a waterfall, swimming hole

a tunnel, a haunted room

these settings are familiar

still alone, you walk through

them forward and back

a haunted room on the fourth floor

a tunnel under a touchable moon

a swimming hole, a rope swing

a waterfall, a path behind it

still the tree

remains hidden

a waterfall, a tiny brook

a swimming hole, a second place medal

a tunnel, where lovers meet

a haunted room, a slice in the wallpaper

and still no number tree

even in the circle

you drop the pack

and wait

rest and hear what

calls on the wind

a bird of prey

drips from rain

something scatters

and breaks your heart

again
The Last Star
By: J.A. Taylor
Tags: Aliens, Science Fiction, Judgment, Poem, Poetry

Standing in the meadow,

In fields of golden wheat,

Wind thrashes at your hair,

Your substance hums with heat.

Grayblue clouds smear purple haze.

Flat disc sun divides the sky.

You did not come here for the view,

You came to say goodbye.

The aftermath of sunset,

Skies now clear and fair.

Now your world has gone to sleep,

There’s nothing left but air.

Our colony returns,

Releasing death upon your land.

Your offspring will not sing,

Your existence will not stand.

We mark the end of man,

So new cycles can begin.

The end of your ambition,

The remnants of your sin.

You’ve told your tale to others,

But none longed for your lies.

Further stars shine brighter,

When darkness coats your skies.

So drink your poison, drink your blood,

It’s time you’re frozen into gray.

Leave behind you everything,

Your histories and pomp displays.

There’s nothing left to say,

Except to say goodbye.

We brought you here but end you now,

As the last star burns the sky.
Roundup: The Fakest of the Fake
By: Dnn Media
Tags: Politics, News, Blockchain, Fake News, Media

Image via Snopes.com

By this point, the perils of fake news are clear. From affecting election results to spreading blatant racism or just purely fictional information about significant public figures, fake news presents a distorted and dangerous version of reality.

The perils of fake news are clear, and the internet has given authority to insanity.

As with many things, fake news is a product of its environment; today social media is so prevalent in its role as a news aggregator, that information is spread in just a few short lines, or 140 characters, and taken at face value with no proof necessary.

It is evident by now that we are proponents of asphyxiating fake news by way of community-moderated content, however, we can still appreciate the insanity that the internet has produced.

With that, a roundup of recent articles decoded as fake by Snopes, good for at least an eye roll or two — just please, don’t share them.

Here we have “a fake news piece inspired by Senator Sanders’ antagonistic questioning of Trump appointee Russell Vought [that] says Sanders proposed a ‘Hateful Bigot Identification Act.’”

“On 6 June 2017, the web site Patheos published a satirical article saying that Iceland had issued a travel ban preventing white Southern Baptists from visiting the country.”

“A fake news site spread a claim that a “furious” Chelsea Clinton was roughly detained on corruption charges after a confession by a nonexistent senator.”

“An image purportedly showing President Trump on the cover of Time Magazine with the headline “Liar in Chief” is fake.”

“Reports that the DEA raided the vacation ranch of U.S. Senator Hal Lindsay of New Jersey and seized large quantities of illegal drugs are fake news.”

The trouble is, today’s news cycle is full of controversial articles and partisan accounts of events, without a source of validation it’s understandable how easy it can be to get caught up in a torrent of “alternative facts.”

Next week, we’ll bring you another round up. Until then, we’re working hard to bring credibility back to political journalism. Join the conversation on Slack, Bitcoin Talk, or Telegram.
Creating Purchase Contract with Ethers.js Using Angular NgRx v8
By: Alex Yevseyevich
Tags: Angular, Smart Contracts, Ngrx, Ethereum, Dapps

Having Fun with Material Snackbar

When we are dealing with DApps, it often involves some time for a transaction to return from the state-changing operations on the Ethereum blockchain. From the user experience point of view, we should give some visible indication of the result of these operations. In Part I, we already implemented the loading and error states, a part of the NgRx global store. In this section, we are going to look at how to add the snackbar notification state also.

We start by defining a custom snackbar component that could receive the notification data.

The snackbar state is managed by dispatching the following action to the store:

export const open = createAction('[SnackBar] Open', props<{ payload: SnackBarInterface }>());

This action is being handled by Effect:

The immediate advantage of managing the snackbar state globally is that we can trigger the snackbar notification both from a component or directly from a side effect. For example, in case of the error effect:

The result may look like this:
How Disney’s Pixar Movie *Soul* Delivers a Salve for the World-Weary
By: Aimée Gramblin
Tags: Movies, Mindfulness, Metaphysics, Film, Inspiration

How Disney’s Pixar Movie *Soul* Delivers a Salve for the World-Weary

Jazzing up metaphysics, philosophy, and spirituality

*Warning — Spoilers ahead.*

Pixar released Soul directly to streaming on Disney+ on Christmas Day 2020. Starring Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey, Soul addresses the human search for the meaning of life through a middle-aged, struggling jazz singer. After dying unexpectedly, he drifts through other dimensions, where he befriends 22 (Tina Fey), a soul who has given up on receiving her Earth pass, which enables new souls to experience life on earth.

I hadn’t heard of this movie and hadn’t watched much Pixar since Wall-E and Up. I’d missed Inside Out and Coco, but something about Soul was calling me Christmas morning.

While drifting off to sleep on Christmas Eve, I’d scanned through my New York Times app and a blurb about Soul being released directly to streaming, due to the pandemic, caught my eye.

On Christmas morning, I awoke in a reflective and melancholy mood, thinking about how our kids are experiencing a pandemic Christmas. As they grow into pre-adolescence and adolescence, they are grappling with forming their individual and autonomous identities.

The movie begins with Joe in the earth realm, but a sudden death takes him to the You realm, where souls are mentored and only sent to earth once they’ve found their spark. Joe desperately wants to get back to earth to make it to a once-in-a-lifetime gig he’s been invited to play that evening. After running away from the Great Beyond, which could be equated with Heaven or a more transcendent energetic state, depending on your point of view, he gets into shenanigans with his mentee, 22. As the movie progresses, we see characters moving deliberately through time and space by getting in a meditative, transcendent zone.
Prayer Makes Possible a Communion of the Spirit
By: Chaitanya Baweja
Tags: Prayer, Hinduism, Christianity, Spirituality, Religion

Prayer Makes Possible a Communion of the Spirit

Stepping into the world of Science and Spirituality

Photo by David Beale on Unsplash

I grew up in a very spiritual household. My mom and her father were extremely devotional. As a child, I was taught meditation and the ideas of Hindu Vedas and the Bhagavad Gita.

But, I was always fascinated by logic and rationale. I dreamed about space and I spent most of my evenings deriving mathematical formulas and browsing technology magazines.

I used to believe that the function of science was to explain everything, and that unexplained phenomena were the province of spirituality.

Growing up, my biggest inspiration was Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. The story of a rural boy with humble beginnings becoming the pioneer of India’s Space Program and then our 11th President filled my heart with joy and excitement. I wanted to follow his footsteps.

For my birthday, I asked for his biography: “Wings of Fire”. It’s one of those books that I wish I hadn’t read earlier so that I could enjoy it fully every time I read it.

While the biography is filled with thought provoking ideas on science, spirituality and the human spirit, one that stuck to me the most was:

Prayer makes possible a communion of the spirit between people

Kalam believed that prayer acts as a stimulus to creative ideas. He said that Our Creator has stored within our minds — great potential and abilities. Prayer helps us to tap this potential.

This set me into a search for a middle ground. I inspected a variety of philosophies, a variety of faiths. I did this with the critical lens of a scientist, but with respect and faith taught to me by my parents.

I eventually stopped looking at science as some thing which takes man away from God. Science then became a tool for self-realization, a never ending voyage into promises and possibilities.

I always write down quotes from books and articles that I really like. I decided to dedicate this story to share some of my favourite quotes on prayer, hoping like Kalam that they facilitate a communion of spirit between all of us.
#BITCOIN 持有者分布表
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Blockchain, Bitcoin Wallet, Ethereum Wallet

Enlighten people with blockchain values - We provide blockchain solutions for helping SMBs to automate business, make growth & enjoy freedom, by education, adoption & development of blockchain technology.

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The Middle of Time
By: Jessica Lee Mcmillan
Tags: Time, Reality, Consciousness, Poetry, Self

The half-moon in mid-day

catches the gilded sun

washing its white shadow

of night into blue

mixing metaphors of time

We can meet there

in medias res,

in confused light

the inversion we can trust,

in midspace ever tilting

just like feeling

toward and away

We are past sunset

not looking ahead or behind,

the sun is off our back

at horizon of midnight

There is nowhere to rush

in the middle of time

at the middle of ourselves

midstream of knowing

our feet in the dark
A Futurist Look at Cryptocurrencies
By: David Houle
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Futurist, Education, Blockchain

As Chief Brand Officer and member of the Board of Advisors of Kidcoin, I have been doing a deep dive into the reality of crypto currencies in 2018. Attending Crypto and Block Chain conferences in Dubai, London and Dallas, and having spoken at the latter two conferences has been part of this vertical learning curve. In addition, as have most people in the space, I have been reading voraciously about block chain and crypto, along with all the other subjects I consistently research such as AI/Machine Learning, the coming energy, transportation, medical transformations and ever accelerating technological connectivity.

Taking this broad look into the future gives me a different perspective that most currently in the crypto space do not have, as they are deep into programming and execution. As a futurist, I see multiple trends, economic forces, business dynamics and technological disruptions happening all at the same time in the next 10 years and how crypto currencies may well play a significant part in all sectors. It is these topics I will explore in this space.

A bit of background first. One of the reasons I became a futurist is that I have always done things that people said wouldn’t work. I left being a top sales exec at CBS to join the small but growing executive team that created and launched MTV, Nickelodeon, VH1, and CNN Headline News when cable was in only 10% of US households and there were less than 50 music videos in the world and no one thought a 24-hour cable network would work. Then I was a Managing Director of a 90s dotcom that created on-line courses, again something people said wouldn’t work.

The Cryptocurrency space feels like the early days of cable and the early days of the Internet. Successes and failures are ahead. Stay tuned for more in this space.

David Houle
NanoVault — Open Source wallet for Nano (XRB) — Review
By: Draft On Tech
Tags: Wallet, Cryptocurrency, Nanovault, Nano, Raiblocks

Amidst the launch of the Nano Node v10.0, the beta test invites for the Nano iOS wallet and the desktop wallets, this open source wallet was also released in the past week. NanoVault is an open source client side wallet for accessing your Nano/XRB account and receiving and sending your coin. NanoVault is developed by by cronoh.

Initial Configuration

The wallet can be used through the native web interface, and is also downloadable on Windows, Mac and Linux (Download link).

Client side operation ensures your seed and private keys are stored only in your browser and are never shared with anyone else across the network.

Note: While client side wallets ensure your seeds are never stored on any external server, you still have to be extremely careful in handling your seeds.You can still be phished by malicious websites that resemble the real website.

Initial Configuration

When using the wallet initially for the first time, it requires configuring the wallet. There are two options — to either create a new wallet along with a new seed, and also import existing wallet from a seed.

When proceeding to create a new wallet, it is IMPORTANT TO SAVE THE CREATED KEY, and store it in an encrypted document.

On creating a new wallet or importing an existing wallet, a password can also be configured to lock the wallet locally.

Once the configuration is complete, View Accounts option can be used to access the accounts and create new addresses.

Accounts View

In the accounts section, the first account is automatically created. New accounts can also be created with the Create New Account option (An account in Nano denotes a wallet address. A wallet can have several accounts).

Accounts — NanoVault

Receiving XRB

If coins are received when the wallet is open, the receive block is performed automatically and the updated balance is instantly reflected in the balance dashboard. The account and the individual transactions and also be viewed on clicking the account to go to the Account Details section.

However, if you receive coins when the wallet is closed, you can process the receive blocks and complete the transactions when you open the wallet again. You can see the Pending balance at the balance dashboard, and on selecting “receive” from the menu, you can complete the transactions.

Receiving transactions when wallet is offline.

Send XRB

You can send XRB to any other account from the Send menu. While sending, you have to select the accounts to send your coins from, and the wallet has an inbuilt address book to label addresses and save commonly used address you transact with.
All You Need To Know About Docker Certified Associate (DCA) Exam
By: Bhargav Bachina
Tags: Software Development, Certification, Docker, Programming, Web Development

All You Need To Know About Docker Certified Associate (DCA) Exam

A Complete Guide for those who want to take this exam

Docker is an enterprise-ready container platform that enables organizations to seamlessly build, share, and run any application, anywhere. Almost every company is containerizing its applications for faster production workloads so that they can deploy anytime and sometimes several times a day. The Docker offers Docker Certified Associate (DCA) exam to validate the skillset with real-world questions designed by experienced Docker practitioners. I recently took the DCA exam and this article is all about what is this exam, tips to pass the exam, and a lot more.

Why should you take this exam

Any Prerequisites

About the exam

Where to register

How to train

Useful Tips and Tricks

Before the exam

During the exam

After the exam

Other Certifications To Consider

Conclusion

Why should you take this exam

As I said before, all the applications that we are building nowadays are meant for cloud infrastructure and we are containerizing apps for faster deployments into production so that we can deploy anytime, anywhere. This is one of the most sought after skills that companies need right now. Almost every company is either converting their legacy applications into cloud-native apps or building new apps which are cloud-native. So, this is the right time for anyone to take this exam not only to prove their expertise in this field but also to strengthen your Docker skills.

In addition, you can get exclusive access to the Docker Certified professional network on LinkedIn and invites to certified-only events, online verification of certification, pdf certificate, and logo as well.
Hadoop MapReduce — Best Practices
By: Ananth Packkildurai
Tags: Best Practice, Mapper, Reducer, Hadoop

Some of the best practices while developing MapReduce programs. You can see why we need Hadoop here

1. Use Combiner:

Combiner is a mini-reducers. Most of the time the code for Reducer will be same for Combiner. Combiner also extends your Reducer class to implement the reduce functionality. The major advantage of combiner is it will reduce data on each Map itself, that will reduce the Network IO and increase the execution time.

2. Use Data Compression:

Hadoop supports common compression techniques like DEFLATE,gzip,bzip2,LZO,snappy. Since hadoop hard split the files in to different block it is always best to use split compression algorithms like bzip2. Hadoop also supports Avro file format, which standardize the serialization of objects. Sequence file format is the best fit to input compressed files. Compression also helps to handle small files problem in Hadoop.

3. Distribution Cache : use it for only small files.

Distributed cache is a way of side data distribution. You often need to have a look up data to perform computation, say for instance using employee id, write employee name in the output or using IP Address in the Apache Log, get the city / country name. If the distributed cache is large than HDFS will store it over blocks and it will be time-consuming to read those data just to look up.

4. Choose HDFS as a larger block:

HDFS specification defined a block size to hold data should be between 64 MB to 512 MB. Hadoop designed to work on larger amount of data to reduce the disk seek time and increase the computation speed. So always define the HDFS block size larger enough to allow Hadoop to compute effectively.

5. Set Reducers to zero if you not using it:

Some time we don’t really use reducers. For example filtering and reduce noise in data. When not use Reducer always make sure to set it zero since the sorting and shuffling is an expensive operation.

6. Chain the Jobs:

The funda about MapReduce is modularity. modularize your problem and think of solving it MapReduce Way. Chain your jobs so that in a complex problems, if some failure happen in a mid way, you can still carry from the last job. It will also simplify your problem and make it easy to solve.

7. Always write unit test and run in a small data set:

It is the best practice in any programming. Hadoop comes up with good support to unit test your Mapper as well as Reducer.

8. Choose Number of Mapper and Reducer wisely:

The general rule of thump to choose number of mapper and reducer is

Total mapper or reducer = Number of Nodes * maximum number of tasks per node

and

maximum number of task per node = number of processor per node — 1 (Since data node and task tracker will take one processor)

Say like we have 50 nodes and each node has 4 processor then

total number of mapper or reducer = 50 * (4–1) = 150.