fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Hotel of the Month January 2019
By: Ashley Kooter
Tags: Awards, Education

What do you do when you achieve your goal? You set the next one of course. For Villa Rosa Kempinski, 2018 was a remarkable year in learning with many accolades. Now, they’ve started the new year with a bang as Lobster Ink’s Hotel of the Month by completing 1029 subjects with an average score of 85%.

This fantastic achievement is the result of smart planning and a healthy competitive drive to continually raise the bar. Taking advantage of a quieter January, People Training Manager, Nancy Magara, encouraged her teams to refresh their skills as a way to stay abreast of industry trends and consistently exceed their Guests’ expectations.

Kempinski Villa Rosa learners devote a lot of time and effort to completing their assignments. This is facilitated by leadership from day one. Learners are made aware of the importance of learning, and the expectations surrounding it, by their managers who also ensure that adequate facilities are provided and dedicated time is scheduled. This personalized approach allows both managers and learners to address any knowledge gaps timeously while building the confidence of every colleague.

“Support is the most critical thing learners need from the leadership. Support in terms of the equipment required, for example having a conducive learning environment with computers and internet provided. Support also in terms of time. Hospitality can get very busy most times and it takes prior planning to allocate learning time for each learner.” — Nancy Magara

Kempinski knows that when learners succeed, they all do. Data from regular audits and checklists, in combination with Guest and Manager feedback, allows Nancy and her team to identify and celebrate top performers. Learners who have excelled on Lobster Ink receive incentives, are celebrated in town hall meetings and their stories are shared to inspire their colleagues. And this month they definitely have plenty to celebrate.

Congratulations to the team at Villa Rosa Kempinski — here’s to continuing to achieve your learning goals!
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT impactChoice — EARTH Token
By: Allan Saunders
Tags: Blockchain, ICO, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Environment

It is with much sadness, that on behalf of Angus, myself and the entire impactChoice and Earth Token teams, I have to inform you of the untimely and tragic passing of our very dear friend and colleague, Leonard Harley.

Leonard’s boundless energy, passion and commitment to his vision of building a better environment for future generations, was a constant source of inspiration to us all. He will leave a big hole and some very huge shoes to fill.

Over the past week, the executive team has been reviewing the contingency plans we had in place to ensure a smooth transition and realignment of roles and responsibilities to meet the commitments we have to our EARTH Token stakeholders.

We will be keeping you informed with regular updates, but want you to rest assured that we do not foresee any deviations from the EARTH Token launch plan at this point.

Leonard was a firm believer in the community supporting EARTH Token and the Natural Asset Exchange. Please reach out to earthtokencommunity@impactchoice.us with ideas, comments and/or thoughts on how you could play a more active role in making this very important initiative a major success.

Best Regards,

Allan Saunders

Product Management & Marketing Director, impactChoice — EARTH Token
Week 111: “Cheesecake” Moments
By: Aaron Charles
Tags: Cooking, Patience, Food, Short Story, Marriage

My ears perked up right away. Chills ran down my spine and goosebumps began to pop up on my arms. I think I even saw doves emerge from a bush outside our apartment window.

Ok, that may be overdoing it. But when Sarah told me we’d be making cheesecake, I was just a little bit excited.

I love cheesecake. I would even go as far to say it’s my favorite dessert. Yes, that’s a nearly impossible distinction, but if I had to choose, cheesecake gets my vote.

I was on cloud nine walking through the store to pick out ingredients. Though, I must say, as I moved through the store checking items off the list, I was a little surpised at some of the ingredients.

For starters, the recipe called for an egg-based cheesecake. I mean, it sounded a little weird at first. But I like eggs! And hey, it’s still cheesecake…in some form. Keto form, to be exact. I was also intrigued by all the frozen fruit on the list. Anyways, I made my way through the grocery store and came home.

Sarah got started on the recipe right away, mixing together all the ingredients for the cheesecake mixture. Then we poured it into a baking dish and added in the fruit. After that, it was time to let it bake. Little did we know, there’d be a good lesson in the process.

Patience

The recipe called for it to be in the oven for 30 minutes. No problem, that’s one episode of The Office!

Except…problem.

When we pulled it out of the oven after 30 minutes, it was still all mushy in the middle. So we put it in longer. And longer. And longer.

Finally, after more than an hour in the oven, it looked ready to try. We cut up some pieces and shared it together.

It was really good. I liked it! Sarah wasn’t a huge fan, and even I have to admit that it tasted more like egg than cheesecake. But it was still warm. We just needed a little more patience.

I had some the next day after it had sat in the fridge. Not only did it taste like cheesecake, it tasted like INCREDIBLE cheesecake.

Patience is a difficult virtue to come by. In my experience, it doesn’t come naturally. It’s learned and practiced. Cultivated, even. Cooking has been a powerful way for us to cultivate patience in both our personal lives, as well as in our marriage. It’s an ongoing process, one I’m so glad I get to share with my wife.

So if you struggle with patience, you’re not alone. I think we all do in some way. But let me encourage you, look for those “cheesecake” moments this week. Look for moments that are inviting you to wait — just a little longer — for something even better.
September 16 Devotional Poem
By: Steve Frank
Tags: Love, Christianity, Poetry, Life

Love.

So undefinable.

Yet we know what it is.

We feel it.

We know it by its actions.

We recognize it when we see it.

We know when it is absent.

Selfless.

Not selfish.

Outwardly focused.

Not inwardly.

Caring.

Giving.

Kind.

Supportive.

We yearn for love.

We strive to love.

And we fall short.

We often end up back at self.

But you Lord, you are love.

Perfect love.

True love.

And you have offered yourself to us.

For us.

When we let you in,

You dwell within us.

Your love dwells within us.

And we can show your love.

We can share your love.

Lord, today, let your love show through me.

Share your perfect love through my actions.

Spurgeon September 16 Morning Devotional
Bird Market, Mong Kok
By: Sherryl Clark
Tags: Birds, Poetry, Writing Prompts, Poem, Poetry Writing

Bird Market, Mong Kok

A poem, a poet’s note, and a writing prompt

Photo by Katherine Thad on Unsplash

At dusk, it quietens slowly –

cages are covered with thick hoods,

birds chirp reveille before sleep.

Booths still sell packets of seed,

jewelled swings, tiny bird treats;

a woman pushes plastic bags

across the table and a thousand

grasshoppers and crickets

leap and crackle together.

A dusty, bedraggled macaw

shifts on his perch.

Eight canaries squeeze close,

a rainbow of yellow and orange,

heads dipping into sleep.

In the corner cage, a bulbul flutters

and jerks like an over-wound toy,

red cheeks flashing in the gloom.

Who trapped him from his woodland perch

and crammed him in his tiny prison?

He can sense the sky and trees

above him somewhere, bangs his head

over and over

on his new horizon.

Photo by Deleece Cook on Unsplash

Poet’s note: I spent regular time in Hong Kong a few years ago, teaching writing courses, and had the opportunity to go beyond the usual tourist sights and see all kinds of markets places and events. I visited this place to see the flower market at the front, and found the bird market behind it just as dusk was starting to fall and most people were packing up.

Writing prompt: The key to writing a poem about a particular place is in the details. Choose a place you have been that you remember well, or that you have plenty of photos of, and refresh your memory by free writing or making fast notes on every detail that comes to mind. Don’t censor yourself or edit as you go — see how much you can draw out by persevering. Then write a poem by firstly choosing the most interesting details, then secondly thinking about what you want to convey in the under-levels of the poem. For me in the bird market, it was the gradual realization of how many birds were wild and had been trapped and caged.
Referral program token distribution announcement
Tags: Token Economy, Referral Marketing, Cryptocurrency, Taylor App

The Taylor team is happy to announce the distribution of the referral program commission tokens. This distribution was handled automatically and delivered to the wallet you provided to us.

Here are some numbers we would like to share:

Tokens sold: 1,866,659.1191387055 TAY

Commission: 111,999.54714832241 TAY

Participants: 220

If you have any question about your referral commission tokens, please get in touch with us. Your help was invaluable to us in making our token sale a success.

Please note that the Referral Contest is part of the Bounty program and 120,000 TAY from this contest will be distributed in conjunction with the Bounty program reward tokens.

We would like to thank each 220 of you for your efforts.

Enjoy your tokens!
Switcheo Lists Bridge Protocol (TOLL) — Open for Trading
By: Stephen Hyduchak
Tags: Ethereum, Blockchain, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency

Great news everyone! Our evolution from IAM to TOLL brought immediate upgrades and listing on our partner; Switcheo Network Exchange! The new Bridge Protocol token (TOLL) is now listed on Switcheo Exchange and you will be able to trade TOLL with NEO, GAS and SWTH directly.

For more information on Bridge Protocol, visit the following links:

Web: https://www.bridgeprotocol.io/

Telegram: https://t.me/BRIDGEprotocol

Twitter: @BridgeProtocol

Facebook: BRIDGEprotocol/

Reddit: /r/iambridgeprotocol/

Discord: https://discordapp.com/invite/yrj6p5K

Switcheo Network:

Switcheo is a Decentralized Exchange (DEX) built on the NEO platform which allows for the trustless and seamless exchange of NEP-5 tokens. Switcheo ultimately aims to be the first multi-chain DEX facilitating the transfer of cross-chain tokens. The team has already begin working on QTUM, making cross-swapping of QRC-20 tokens possible after the initial contract release. Accompanied with strong focus on user experience and intuitive interface design, Switcheo Network will bring users a trading experience like no other.

For more information on Switcheo, visit the following links:

Medium: https://switcheo.network

Twitter : @switcheonetwork

Reddit: /r/switcheo

Telegram: https://t.me/switcheo

News & Updates: https://t.me/switcheoANN
Unbiasify: New Technology Eliminates Bias in Recruiting [Video]
By: Maggie Clapperton
Tags: Technology News, Technews, Startup Life, Diversity And Inclusion, Diversity In Tech

We sat down with our Director of Talent, Martin Hauck to go over how new technology is helping build more diverse teams. Diverse teams that in turn, build better technology. One of these technologies is Unbiasify, a free Chrome extension available now.

Click here to download Unbiasify for free!

Unbiasify is a free, open source Google Chrome extension found in the Google Chrome Store. “It allows [recruiters] to focus on what really matters instead of people’s names or what they look like,” says Hauck.

“As a recruiter myself,” he continues, “I use LinkedIn, I use Twitter, I use all kinds of applications and online profiles to source candidates… [with Unbiasify] you’re actually looking at ‘what are this person’s skills?’ ‘what’s their education?’ Those are the things that actually matter when it comes to hiring people. Not what their name is or what they look like.”

Blind recruitment is not a new phenomenon. Other industries, such as music, eliminated recruitment bias as far back as the 1970s. “As a result of this,” states Hauck, “orchestras saw a higher amount of women succeeding through the audition process.”

Not only is diversity and inclusion the right thing to do, Hauck maintains, it is “important to businesses because having a diverse team means you are representing the people that are going to be using your product.” At the end of the day, building a more inclusive product is simply better for business.

Unbiasify is a follow up to StackAdapt’s short documentary #HackDiversity:
Medium Earnings Survey —September
By: Medium Formatting
Tags: Surveys, Medium, Blogging Tips, Making Money Online, Medium Partner Program

Every month, there are lots of posts asking about earnings on Facebook and other Medium chat groups, so I regularly post this Google survey.

I encourage everyone to submit their data!

The survey is completely anonymous and there are many interesting insights for authors based on the data.

Without surveys like this, writers have a limited understanding of the realistic Partner Program earnings.

Overall, the past earnings charts above suggests that readers of Blogging Guide are more successful than the general writing population.

Some useful articles for writers looking to better understand their Partner Program earnings:

In the general Medium writer population, typically 7%-9% of all active writers earn more than $100 in any given month. Among the Blogging Guide respondents surveyed last month, 51.2% earned over $100 per month!

In the general Medium writer population, typically 7%-9% of all active writers earn more than $100 in any given month. Among the Blogging Guide respondents, 51.2 % earned over $100 per month!

I am not surprised by these results, since Medium Blogging Guide readers tend to represent a group of highly engaged writers, who actively look to boost their earnings.

While this survey can only tell us so much, it is one of the few data points tracked other than the official earnings results from Medium, which focus on extreme outliers (highest earning author and highest earning article each month).

While these stats are fun to look at for inspiration, they fail to report earnings information for the vast majority of writers (with the exception of the over $100 per month, metric).

Please consider filling out the survey below. It is immensely helpful to other writers and only takes a few seconds.

The total survey group results are viewable after you submit your own. Your answers are completely anonymous. I’ll keep this open for the next week or so.

Please let me know if you like this/find it useful, and I’ll be sure to do it again!

Medium Earnings Survey

After submitting your own results, click the “see previous responses” button to view all the earnings data.

— Casey Botticello
Storiqa (STQ) — Review dan Market Capitalization
By: Rendy Herdiawan
Tags: Blockchain, Storiqa, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Indodax

Cryptocurrency‎ and Digital Asset in Indonesia (BTC, ETH, ADA, XLM, XRP, etc)

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If Young People Talked About Being Young The Way Old People Talk About Being Old
By: Alex Baia
Tags: Humor, Youth, Generation Z, Culture, Aging

Photo by Brett Sayles from Pexels

When you’re young like me, you appreciate the big things in life. Lit parties. Your fam. Bangin’ a hottie. It’s hard to explain. It’s just different when you’re young.

Nothing hurts. My back feels great. My knees work perfectly. I can run up and down stairs for hours. I spring out of bed each day feeling awesome. Being young slays.

Life, to me, is like a fine White Claw: tasty for a sec, then you grab another. Keep going till you’re all fucked up.

I’m so young, I remember Minecraft. I remember Gangnam Style. I even remember Harambe. But not Nirvana, Seinfeld, or 9/11. That’s ancient history, gramps.

When you get young, things change. You’re bad with money and you want to have wild sex while screaming “LOLZ! Yeet!!” You’ll understand it when you’re young.

Back when I was growing up, in Obama’s second term, we didn’t write some boring letter to our crush. We texted a dank meme of a ferret twerking while the word AWESOME flashed across its ass. That’s how you show your babe you care.

Jesus, look at my hair! So shiny. So fleek. I’m so damn young.

They don’t make ’em like they used to. My new iPhone 11 can do 4K slow-mo selfies, but my old Samsung Galaxy is a real gross piece of shit.

I miss my love, Susie. I miss her every day. But she’s in a better place right now… NYU.

Let me explain something to you about how young I am: I can do four shots of Tito’s, smoke weed, and eat pizza at 2 am, then wake up the next day and go to class, no cap.

The 80s, man! The 80s were incredible. I saw Stranger Things, then read about it on Vice.

When you’ve lived as few years as I have, you really learn to take your parents for granted and trash your body. Deal with the fallout later. Fuck shit up. No limits, biatch.

Gas used to cost $4 a gallon! Can you believe it? $4! That’s enough to pay off 0.003% of the student loans I took out Freshman year!

You oldsters might have more years under your belts, but we youngsters know a thing or two about the shit that goes down when you slide into those DMs.

You want to talk to me about doctors? Yikes. I don’t go to doctors. I guess I’m just young.

What’s the world coming to? Gay people can marry in Alabama! We can 3D print prosthetic hands! Some things just keep getting better!

When you’re young like me, you start to see that Spring Break isn’t just a seven-day vacation in late March… it’s a state of mind.

The 70s were unreal. Literally nothing compares to hearing David Bowie for the first time, live in the theater, during Guardians of The Galaxy.

Can you believe old people these days? They have all the cash, but they spend it on cringe couches and dumb ashtrays their cats piss in. Old money is wasted on the old.

You want to know what I regret the most? Oof. Weird question, bruh. I don’t think about my regrets. I’m young.
Stop Faking Your Success, Unlock It
By: Rachele Alvarado
Tags: Success, Self Improvement, Influencers, Life Lessons, College

Why Is It Dangerous to Fake Success?

We’re the generation of the fake it until you make it.

A few days ago, I read an article about a young girl, trying to live the influencer lifestyle, accumulated $10.000 of debt.

We’re increasingly overwhelmed by the confrontation with others and by expectations that we place on ourselves. But we forget something.

There’s nothing wrong with not achieving success at 23. You’re not a failure. You haven’t done anything wrong in life. Your career has practically begun.

Your 20s are the most critical decade to experiment with, to hop from job to job. To travel. To discover yourself.

This social stigma fed by social media and 21 years old life coaches is dangerous. It changes your priorities.

When you’re committing all your time and mental energy to trying to impress others, you’re taking away essential efforts to build up your future.

It all starts because you feel alone. You feel the only one in your group of friends who doesn't have a clear idea of the future. You feel awful.

But you forget something. We’re all in the same boat. And once you realize it, you can start doing something about it.

Get Faster to Success Asking for Help

A closed mouth doesn’t get fed.

The naked truth is this: no one will help you unless they know that you need help.

If you show yourself on social media as a person who has already figured everything out of life, no one will give you advice.

If you keep posting that you’re always busy between meetings with gurus and seminars, no one will ask you to collaborate on his project.

Show others that you’re hungry to learn, that you’re curious. Ask for help with humility.

Are you ashamed to be so vulnerable? Start doing it online. Ask feedback on your Medium articles instead of waiting to get to the $100 club, and brag about it.

If you ask for help, success will be easier and faster to gain.

One of my favorite communities to get advice from is Reddit. Surprisingly, it’s one of the most empathic places I’ve found on the internet.

Ask for advice from those who have already been there. Ask for advice from your peers.

It’s ok not to have everything figured out. And you’ll avoid uncountable mistakes.

Retain Success Helping Others

The fastest and rewarding way to retain success is to help others succeed. Don’t wait to be a famous guru to advise other people. We all have something to teach each other.

Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. — Brian Tracy

In our society, success is seen as a limited resource. As if there were only one success-cake for all the inhabitants of the earth. And we want to ensure us a slice. We want to stop others from succeeding to have more for us.

But success is not a limited resource.

You can help others by giving honest feedback about their work, being available to reply to emails from people just starting out. Introduce people from your network to others.

Helping others does not take it away from ourselves. It will always give us something back. Always.
How to Make Long-Distance Friendships Work
By: Veronika Jel
Tags: Friendship, Love, Advice, Life Lessons, Relationships

There is a lot of advice out there on how to make long-distance romance work. But what about long-distance friendships?

Because of the current situation, many of us aren’t able to see our friends. The lockdown has separated us from each other. Some of us might be isolating in different cities or even different countries. The people we are used to seeing every day are no longer there.

Friendships are some of the most important relationships in our lives. We need to take care of them. But how do we do that?

“True friends are always together in spirit.” ― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

When I was 19, I moved to a different country. I was away from my friends and family. Still, I managed to keep these relationships very much alive. In some ways, my best friend and I have gotten even closer during the time we spent apart. I thought long and hard about how we did it and came up with a list of ideas that might help you.
How to Survive the First 30 Days as a New Writer on UpWork
By: Tim Schröder
Tags: Freelancing, Writing, Writer, Upwork, Writing Tips

Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash

How to Survive the First 30 Days as a New Writer on UpWork

It’s not as difficult as it seems

I know how it is. It’s overwhelming, causes anxiety, and sometimes even sleepless nights. You have no idea where to start, what to do, and whom to consult.

It feels like too many tasks at once.

What am I talking about? I’m talking about starting to work as a freelancer and making your money outside the 9-to-5 cubicle. But as difficult as it might seem, I promise you, it’s not.

One place to start is UpWork, which is one of the best-known freelance platforms out there. In fact, it’s probably the easiest of them all. It offers all you need, you don’t have to compete with ridiculously low offers of other freelancers, and it’s reliable.

I’ve been working on UpWork for several years now. In the beginning, I was as headless as it gets. More precisely, I didn’t realize how easy it could be to work there full time.

Just like you, I always had this lurking dream of working as a freelance writer. Remotely and whenever I want. At my own pace, without someone yelling at me. Or measuring my performance continuously with KPI’s.

But I had no idea where to start. I tried to educate myself. Flooding myself with information: I read blogs, watched videos, and took courses. Nevertheless, it finally needed Corona to sit myself down and start working there effectively.

As it turned out, it wasn’t as tricky as I always thought. Moreover, it only needed specific steps I wish I’d known earlier. Because of this, I’d like to tell you what I would’ve wanted to know when I came to UpWork.

Here’s how to survive your first 30 days as a writer on UpWork — without any signs of desperation or burnout.
A Guide to Making Demo Videos of your App for FREE (Windows)
By: Wesley Chen
Tags: Videos, Software Development, Webdesign And Development

After I finished my coding boot camp, one important thing I felt had to be done was to make demo videos for the projects that I created. I didn’t want to spend money on software, so every piece of software here is free.

The three software that I landed on are as follows

OBS Studio: Used for screen recording, this is also advertised as a streaming software. OBS studio is quick to setup and allows for easy scene management (as in, change what windows are being shown without stopping your recording).

Lightworks: Cut and edit your videos and manage the audio tracks. Fast export time but only does 720p on the free version.

Audacity: a classic and straight-forward audio recording and manipulation software. Simple to use and easy to extract files. I like to clip my videos in Lightworks and voice over it through audacity because it allows me to more precisely cut and trim my audio without having to see the video in the way.
4 Things You Can Do Immediately to Become More Productive
By: Victoria Kurichenko
Tags: Self Improvement, Startup, Business, Productivity Hacks, Professional Development

4 Things You Can Do Immediately to Become More Productive

If applied, they will transform your life and career

Image credit: Emma Mattews on Unsplash

Working in open-space offices is challenging. It is almost impossible to concentrate on actual work. Someone always walks around, holds meetings in common areas, or talks over the phone.

What a disaster for those individuals involved in deep work, like me. I often have to come up with new marketing strategies, conduct research, or produce content for blogs.

I was wondering if there is a better way to concentrate on work and become more productive. Likely, I’ve stumbled upon a word bestseller by Cal Newport called “Deep Work,” which helped me to optimize the way I organize my office life and treat my working time.

Cal Newport explains the concept of a deep worker as an individual involved in creative, highly brain consuming activities. Deep workers manage to complete the challenging, creative tasks with high quality, faster than others.

Wondering how to master deep working skills and nail your tasks like a pro? Here are the most valuable insights from the book that you might find helpful as well. When put in practice, these recommendations should help to improve concentration, increase productivity, and your value on the job market.
Attention Brands: Your Users Are Your Real Stars
By: Eric Brandner
Tags: Branded Content, Video Marketing, Márketing, Content Marketing, Content Marketing Tips

You know your customers’ tastes.

You have a hard drive full of Excel sheets that tell you how they’re viewing your product, why they’re looking and when they’re most likely to buy.

But how do you differentiate your brand in crowded categories where your competitors can offer similar (or in some cases identical) items and build infrastructures to aggregate that same data? You need something better than a fancy logo or a race-to-the-bottom pricing strategy to fall back on.

That’s where superior messaging comes in. And that’s where you can differentiate yourself with branded content about your users.

People want to see themselves reflected in your brand’s values. And we’re not talking stock photos with perfectly curated demographics. We’re talking about bringing authentic representations to the screen by telling the stories of users who represent your ethics or ethos.

Cynics might say you’re co-opting their stories for your gain. But that won’t be the case if you’re doing it right. Business is never going to be altruism, but a brand can still effectively stand for something that people believe in.

And that type of storytelling will draw — and keep — an audience’s interest.

Here are seven brands who’ve done this well:

So what do these have in common?

First, they’re all making a point beyond appealing for a sale. The Charles Schwab mini docs are about attainment and fulfillment, which aligns perfectly with why customers invest with them. Dove — the most famous of the bunch — is about inner beauty, which syncs up with the company’s products. The Scott Clark Auto Group example is about community, which aligns with their superior service brand message. The videos set them apart from other regional auto dealers who may also sell Toyotas and Hondas, yet don’t speak about their community connection in the same way.

Second, they’re all series. Dove spun off “Real Beauty Sketches” into videos for #RealBeauty and #BeautyIs. Charles Schwab has several beautifully shot mini docs both in the “Own Your Tomorrow” series and in other verticals. The Jeep, Coors, BMO and Scott Clark examples all featured multiple protagonists, too.

Third, they all follow an authentic theme. The stars of these videos are often from different backgrounds, and many will never cross paths. For some of the series, that’s the beauty of it, as the brands can implicitly demonstrate they appeal to diverse audiences while staying true to each subject’s experience and feelings.
Predicting Churn on Insurance Data
By: Frederik Bussler
Tags: Church, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Data, Data Science

Getting new customers is expensive — from 5 to 25 times more so than retaining an existing one, according to HBR¹.

Growing without minimizing churn is like pouring water in a leaky bucket. Blockbuster fell from an $8 billion media giant to bankruptcy because they failed to address churn. Doing so would have revealed why customers were dropping like flies: They wanted convenient features like DVD by mail, and later streaming. Without these, customers switched to competitors like Netflix, which now has a market cap of over $200 billion.

Churn in regards to employees quitting is called “attrition,” but in this article I’ll focus on service churn, or when customers stop paying for a service. Previously, I explored how to predict churn based on a Telco dataset. Here, I’ll analyze insurance churn data.

Data

Our data will come from the MachineHack insurance churn challenge². MachineHack is an online platform for Machine Learning competitions and a popular alternative to Kaggle.

To preserve customer privacy, the data is completely anonymized, so attributes are in the format feature_x , from feature_0 to feature_15 , and our KPI is a simple boolean column called labels , which is either 1 or 0 (either the customer churned, or they didn’t).

The data is in the format needed for predictive analytics, with a KPI and attributes that describe that KPI.
Simple php templating, keeping your views passive
By: Kim T
Tags: Array, PHP, Dumb, Jinja, Library

For some projects you will need to render a page with data values, but not want to include an entire php templating library.



One of the methods you can use is to use php as a templating language itself:



<?php $item = array(‘url’ => ‘projects’, ‘name’ => ‘Projects’); ?>

<li><a href=”<?php echo $item[‘url’]; ?>”><?php echo $item[‘name’]; ?></a></li>



This is great and one of the most efficient way to render a page quickly. However the more you use this, you find your html and php becoming mixed together. The result is confusing to read, update and maintain.



The second problem with php templates is that you are encouraged to put logic in your views. This is bad because views should not know anything about the data they rely on. Views should be passive and your data should be mapped correctly to match it.



By implementing a template language you can separate your html template views from your php logic, your html templates can then be reused across any platform javascript, php, python etc



If you want a full templating solution I suggest looking at Twig for php. However this can also encourage you to put logic in your views. So for our example we will implement our own single line templating solution which will force you to render your view with the correct data!



Item.html

<li><a href=”{{ item.url }}”>{{ item.name }}</a></li>



View.php

$item = array(‘url’ => ‘projects’, ‘name’ => ‘Projects’);

$url = ‘Item.html’;

echo preg_replace(‘/{{ item.([^{]{1,100}?)}}/e’, ‘$item[$1]’, file_get_contents($url));



This uses RegEx to match all instances of {{ item. }} and replace them with the matching object data.



If we would like to use that for multiple pages we can create it into a reusable class:





Item.html

<li><a href=”{{ item.url }}”>{{ item.name }}</a></li>



View.php



class View {

public function render($model, $template) {

$html = ‘’;

if (gettype($model) == ‘array’) { foreach ($model as $item) { $html .= $this->replace($item, $template); } }

else { $html .= $this->replace(array(‘data’ => $model), $template); }

return $html;

}

private function replace($item, $template) {

return preg_replace(‘/{{ item.([^{]{1,100}?)}}/e’, ‘$item[$1]’, $template);

}

}



Load.php



class Loader {

private $templates = array();



public function load($name, $url) {

if (!$this->templates[$name]) { $this->templates[$name] = file_get_contents($url); }

return $this->templates[$name];

}

}





Main.php

$item = array(‘url’ => ‘projects’, ‘name’ => ‘Projects’);





require(‘Loader.php’);

require(‘View.php’);





$loader = new Loader();

$template = $loader->load(‘Item’, ‘Item.html’);



$view = new View();

$view->render($item, $loader->load($item, $template);



You can then extend these classes to render loops of templates or save modules and embed them inside other modules. I’ve created an example of nested module templates loading from csv configuration files at:

https://github.com/kmturley/php-simple-templates
Dust
By: Jakub Bilko
Tags: Poetry, Passing, Time, Life, Death

Why do we feel so special?

When we’re just grains of sand

On an endless desert

Bargaining for our demands

We kill time that’s so precious

Never stopping to realize

It’t can’t be bought with money

That we can’t put a price on life

We get lost so easily

In the webs we tangle ourselves

Like children without direction

We wander to our death

I hope there comes a time

To see our world from afar

So we realize how light-hearted

All our problems are
Learn to Draw with Shantell Martin and Skillshare
Tags: Drawing, Stories, Education, Shantell Martin, Learning

We’re happy to announce a new series of online classes featuring Paper created in partnership with Skillshare, an online learning community for creators.

For our first Skillshare class, celebrated visual artist Shantell Martin shows how she uses the art of subtraction as the basis for free-form drawing. (We’re longtime fans of Shantell whose distinctive black ink drawings have been featured by Vogue, The New York Times, and MoMA, just to name a few!)

Digital Drawing Workout: The Art of Subtraction

An Online Skillshare Class by SHANTELL MARTIN

Join Shantell in her NYC studio to see how digital drawing can push your creativity. Using Paper and our stylus Pencil, watch as she plays with layers, subtraction, shapes, and more — then create drawings of your own. Click here to learn more and enroll in your first class for free!

Our friends at Skillshare have also extended a special offer to our community: get 3 months of access to Skillshare’s entire catalog of 1500+ classes for just $0.99. Sign up here to redeem the offer. (Please note that this offer is not available to existing Skillshare Premium members.)

And stay tuned — we’ll be rolling out more Skillshare videos to help you get the most out of Paper, and tips and tricks that our users love!

Header image courtesy of Shantell Martin
Tricky Closure in JavaScript
By: Nikhil Karkra
Tags: Functional Programming, Programming, JavaScript, Technology, ES6

Tricky example with Closure

Look at the below example and let’s try to fix the issue.

On execution of createArrFunction() function, a variable arr get created and a for loop run that pushes an anonymous function to variable arr five times and returns the variable arr

function, a variable get created and a for loop run that pushes an anonymous function to variable five times and returns the variable If you print the getArrFunction() function you will get an array of five functions as shown below

[ƒ (){ console.log(i)},ƒ (){ console.log(i)},ƒ (){ console.log(i)},ƒ (){ console.log(i)},ƒ (){ console.log(i)}]

Now, when we execute the first function within the array it return a value of 5 instead of 0.

getArrFunction[0]() // 5

Reason for this strange behavior is that the time we executed the Outer function(createArrFunction) the last value of variable i was 5 which get persevered by the inner function.so it’s returning 5 instead of 0.

Solutions to this issue are —

a) Solution 1 — use let instead of var in for loop we can solve this issue.

let allows you to declare variables that are limited in scope to the block, statement, or expression on which it is used. This is unlike the var keyword, which defines a variable globally, or locally to an entire function regardless of block scope.

b) solution 2 — Use ‘Immediately Invoked Function Expression’ (also known as an IIFE)

Immediately Invoked Function Expression is a good way at protecting the scope of your function and the variables within it

An IIFE (Immediately Invoked Function Expression) is a JavaScript function that runs as soon as it is defined.

(function () {

statements

})();
How Nawaz Sharif (Pakistan’s ex-PM) would have never attempted fraud in a U.Cash universe?
By: Kiran Vaidya
Tags: Blockchain, Pakistan, Ucash, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency

Image Source: Hindustan Times Link

One of the biggest scandals which rocked South Asia in the recent years was the sacking of Pakistan’s ex-PM, Mr Nawaz Sharif. Offshore accounts and illegal properties belonging to the ex PM’s family were discovered in the Panama Paper leaks. Sharif’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz, submitted “original copies” of two certified documents dated February 2006, refuting ownership of several plush London properties in question. However, an investigative team found out that they had used Microsoft Calibri font for the document. The MS Calibri font came out in 2007 and it would have been impossible to have a time-stamped certified document dating Feb 2006. This ultimately forced Mr Sharif to resign from the most powerful post in Pakistan — that of Prime Minister.

Legal sector will have an immense impact because of Blockchain’s notarization capability

Today, our society is embracing and transforming into a paperless solution. E-Copies or soft copies are used in every business, education, law etc. However, tampering of documents as well as false time-stamping is rampant and poses a big pain area for which there had been no permanent solution.

Enter BLOCKCHAIN! The technology to transfer anything of value in a trustful manner. The biggest use case of blockchain technology, other than digital payment, is notarization. Technically one can store even the entire document on the blockchain. But that is a bad practice. Every document has a unique digital fingerprint called as a hash. The easiest way is to just store that hash on the blockchain as part of the transaction data. If there is any change in the document, as minor as the addition of space character, then the hash changes. The authenticity of the document can be verified by anyone very easily.

#2 seems interesting :)

One of the many features of U.CASH will be to verify and “notarize” the existence of a document on the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains with time-stamping. This will enable fraud detection and fraud prevention of documents. Consider the use case of employers who can now easily verify if candidate’s documents are original and genuine. The potential is tremendous.

In future blockchain will prevent corruption and bring transparency on a massive scale. Innovative products like U.CASH will be enablers and bring this to reality. There would be more awareness and knowledge of the power of blockchain technology. In a U.CASH universe, corrupt people like Mr Nawaz Sharif will never attempt fraud and well, even save their powerful position 😀
Chance de aprovação da ETF do Bitcoin é alta
By: Financial Move
Tags: News, Etf, SEC, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency

Bitcoin, Ethereum and Blockchain News | CryptoGlobe

Read the latest news covering Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptoassets, check the daily market roundups and stay up to…
Nowhere To Hide
By: Jonathan Greene
Tags: Fear, Covid 19, Poetry, Resistance Poetry, Self

Nowhere To Hide

A Pandemic Poem

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

I slow, so you can pass by

but you slow because you want something

Human contact, a nodding glance

a head nod, some affirmation

that we are on the same plane

but honestly, I don’t see you

All I see is potential disease

and will gladly sacrifice

six to one thousand feet

of space between us

if it just gives me

some place to hide

I walk my dog because I need to

and he doesn't understand

the fate the world is in right now

He thinks we are hypochondriacs

and as much as that sounds crazy,

since he is a dog

and there is mutiny on this ship,

he doesn’t think that differently than you

because you want to pet him

with your ungloved hands

slowly transmitting the particles

of every person you’ve been in contact with

to the brushed fur on my dog’s back

and he only sees this as affection,

but to me,

it’s an act of aggression

And maybe I am taking it too far,

but in this context, I would much rather be

safe than sorry, your rude interlude

who quickly crosses the street

when you try to lock eyes with me

in neighborly ambivalence

because I don't want to be that person

who lets his guard down too early

and watches later as doctors

place a used ventilator over my mouth

all because I had

nowhere to hide
Natural Intelligence
By: Ilexa Yardley
Tags: Mindfulness, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Data Science, Deep Learning

Intuition is the basis for intelligence.

Zero and one. (Photo by Danielle Peterson)

Zero and one control everything.

They are the basis for intelligence. And, also, intuition.

This takes some getting used to.

Conservation of the circle is the core dynamic in nature.
Using Terraform Modules from AWS S3 Buckets
By: Zeeshan Baig
Tags: AWS, DevOps, Infrastructure, Terraform, Cloud Computing

Modules are used in Terraform to modularize and encapsulate groups of resources in your infrastructure. Using Modules you can write a generic code and reuse it as you need if you are from database background it is similar to using stored procedures.

Terraform provides a various way to use Modules, you can write module and use it from many sources, similar to using files from Shared Drives or services like DropBox and Google Drive.

The module installer supports installation from a number of different source types, as listed below.

Local paths

Terraform Registry

GitHub

Bitbucket

Generic Git, Mercurial repositories

HTTP URLs

S3 buckets

To learn more about Modules check this Terraform documentation link

In this post, we will see how to use Module from S3 buckets

Prerequisites

Create S3 bucket in your AWS account, the bucket could be public or private

Make sure your Terraform user (the account you are using to run terraform CLI) has access to the bucket

Solution

Note: Download the working example from our GitHub repository

Following is the source of the basic module, the module will create an S3 bucket by taking a bucket name as a variable

variable "s3-bucket-name" {

description = "Name of the S3 bucket"

} resource "aws_s3_bucket" "s3-module" {

bucket = "${var.s3-bucket-name}"

acl = "private"

}

Write your module and ZIP all files as one file for example s3-module.zip

Make sure you select all files of your module then zip it, Terraform would not recognize the module if you zip the directory, you might get the following error

Error downloading modules: Error loading modules: module s3-module: No Terraform configuration files found in directory: .terraform/modules/b06e8e34227215983c85107e22cc01

Upload the ZIP file to your S3 bucket

Copy the URL of the Module ZIP file and use it as a source of your Modules as follows

provider "aws" {

region = "us-east-1"

} module "bucket-1" { #Replace the URL with the link of your module source = "s3::https://s3.amazonaws.com/my-terraform-modules/s3-module.zip" s3-bucket-name = "my-bucket-no-1"

}

Execute the following commands to use the modules

$ terraform get $ terraform init $ terraform plan $ terraform apply $ terraform destroy

Hope you find this post useful, please leave a comment for any questions or suggestions.

@IamZeeshanBaig

About DataNext

DataNext Solutions is a US based system integrator, specialized in Cloud, Big Data, DevOps technologies. As a registered AWS partner, our services comprise of any Cloud Migration, Cost optimization, Integration, Security and Managed Services. Click here and Book Free assessment call with our experts today or visit our website www.datanextsolutions.com for more info.
Sfomo new signals launched: UpPrice and FomoPrice
Tags: Trading, Crypto, Application, Bitcoin

UpPrice and FomoPrice Signals on Huobi

Two of our most powerful signals were created with super high accuracy as well as the great return they bring to you. Both UpPrice and FomoPrice signals recognize substantial fluctuation of a coin. However, there are some distinction between them:

UpPrice signal: the price goes up quickly (sometimes less than half a minute) just after Sfomo announce on your phone. If the price has already reached 4% of growth when you enter, you need to wait because you still have the chance to get profit with the bounce back.

FomoPrice signal: Unlike UpPrice signal, there is no bounce back for this signal. You still have the chance to enter even when the coin already increased by 1 to 3 percent. This is a really strong signal which can even help you double your bid (the highest so far) with just only one announcement.

In short, UpPrice and FomoPrice signals are for Scalping mostly.

Find out more at:

https://sfomo.com/

Join our channels for support:

http://t.me/SfomoGlobal

https://www.facebook.com/Sfomo/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/BGCTradecoin/
A Closer Look At Concession, or “The Foot In The Door” Technique
By: The Team W
Tags: Concession, Cialdini

Do you want people to say “yes” to a request you make? In this episode of the Human Tech podcast we take a closer look at the original research on concessions and the Foot in the Door technique. We discuss what works, what doesn’t and why.

Your browser does not support the audio element.

Human Tech is a podcast at the intersection of humans, brain science, and technology. Your hosts Guthrie and Dr. Susan Weinschenk explore how behavioral and brain science affects our technologies and how technologies affect our brains.

You can subscribe to the HumanTech podcast through iTunes, Stitcher, or where ever you listen to podcasts.