fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Design In Sweden
By: The Team W
Tags: Design, In Use, Sweden

In this podcast episode we talk with Johan Berndtsson about design and business in Sweden. Johan invites listeners to submit suggestions for speakers for his next “From Business To Buttons Conference” and also invites people to come do design work in Sweden.

Your browser does not support the audio element.

Throughout the podcast we refer to videos, give web addesses and so on. Here is the list of links and recommendations from Johan:

Check out Europe’s greatest Business, Service, and UX-design conference, From Business to Buttons at https://frombusinesstobuttons.com/, and the videos from past conferences at https://frombusinesstobuttons.com/archive . All of them are excellent, but be sure to watch:

Jared Spool

Mike Monteiro (both talks)

Kim Goodwin (both talks)

Eric Meyer

Golden Krishna

Patricia Moore, and of course

Susan Weinschenk

Also, if you want to learn more about inUse check us out at http://www.inuseexperience.com, and e-mail johan.berndtsson@inuse.se if you have questions or if you’re interested in joining. =)

Further reading:

The story behind the conference: http://www.inuseexperience.com/blog/story-behind-business-buttons/

Thoughts behind UX and Service Design moving out into the physical world: http://www.inuseexperience.com/blog/experiences-services-and-space/

A template for the Impact Map, our perhaps best tool to connect business goals to user behavior and design: http://www.inuseexperience.com/blog/template-impact-maps-here/

The history behind the Impact Map (http://www.inuseexperience.com/blog/evolution-impact-mapping/) and how it has evolved over the years (http://www.inuseexperience.com/blog/evolution-impact-mapping/).

And… The invitation for designers to come to Sweden: http://www.inuseexperience.com/blog/dear-us-designers-welcome-sweden/

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.
Which Should You Use: Asynchronous Programming or Multi-Threading?
By: Patrick Collins
Tags: Python, Programming, Data Science, Concurrency, Asynchronous

Python Example

Let’s look at how the three examples above (single-threaded synchronous, single-threaded asynchronous, and multi-threaded synchronous) would work in a Python example.

Let’s look at a few different ways to get stock data from the Alpha Vantage API, using the Python wrapper pip install alpha_vantage

Synchronous

We want to get the current price of four tickers, 'AAPL', ‘GOOG’, ‘TSLA', ‘MSFT' , and print them out only when we have all four. The simplest way to do this is with a for loop.

This is the most brute-force way. Once we get a value from our API call (done in `ts.get_quote_endpoint(symbol)` ) we print it out and then start the next symbol.

But after learning about async and multi-threading, we know we can start another API call while we wait for a value to be returned.

Asynchronous

In Python, we have the keywords await and async that give us the new power of asynchronous programming. These are new as of Python 3.5, so you’ll need to update if you’re still on Python 2. A lot of Python 2 is being depreciated anyway, so please update.

It may be a little confusing as to what is happening here, so let’s break it down. The loop is where the processor will keep looping between waiting tasks and doing other tasks. This is to keep checking to see if a task (an API call, in our case) is done.

The tasks variable is a list of method calls. We put those tasks in a gathered list for asyncio, called group1 and then run them in loop.run_until_complete . This is much faster than our original synchronous version since we can make multiple API calls without waiting for each one to finish.

NOTE: Asyncio is odd in Python notebooks, see here for more information.

Multi-threading

I have already written a little bit more intensely about some multithreading, so if you’d like to learn more and see some examples in Python, check out this link to learn more!

A quick note about Python…

For beginners, the article is over! But for more advanced users there is a bit of an asterisk on python. Python actually is a little different than other languages when it comes to multithreading. It technically runs concurrently and not in parallel due to how it was created. This makes it great for I/O work too, and not as good for tasks needed high computing power. You can dive a little deeper into these concepts with this post.
Introducing, Fearless She Wrote
By: Jessica Lovejoy
Tags: Feminism, Equality, Women, Writing, Sexuality

In case you missed it, Maggie Lupin, Gillian Sisley, and I have started a new publication. We are thrilled to introduce everyone to Fearless She Wrote!

The three of us have been a source of support and inspiration for one another for some time now, and we were happy to lean on each other after each of us received continuous harassment from misogynistic trolls. It felt comforting to have other women writers to converse with and share our pain after being criticized and bullied for being victims of sexual assault.

We decided to open up our conversation to every person who has ever been made to feel like they should stay quiet. That’s how Fearless She Wrote was born.

Our goal is to shed some light on the harassment that women everywhere receive when they speak up and tell their stories.

This is a space to say that we will not be silenced, we will continue to write and share our stories, and to anyone who has ever been criticized for speaking their truth, you are not alone. We hope that Fearless She Wrote will be a place to empower differences, tell stories, and share our lives with one another.
Deconstructing Dieter Rams’ ten principles for good design — part 1
By: Pascal Barry
Tags: Design Process, Product Design, Design, Dieter Rams, UX

More from Pascal Barry Follow

Designer of digital products, brands, websites and type. Co-founder at akord.com, a tech startup based in Paris. Visit the source at www.blogofpascal.com
Writing
By: Liane White
Tags: Tanka, Comfort, Words, Writing, Poetry

Haiku is a form of poetry usually inspired by nature, which embraces simplicity. We invite all poetry lovers to have a go at composing Haiku. Be warned. You could become addicted.

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With No Choice, I Said Goodbye to My Baby Boy.
By: Tmi Project
Tags: Reproductive Rights, Abortion, Storytelling, Roe V Wade

It’s August 8th, 1964. Joe is twenty-five. I still have fairytale notions of finding a prince who’ll treat me like a princess.

If I had been a whole girl, one with boundaries, solid with self-esteem, I would have refused his ride. But I wasn’t, and I didn’t.

I’d romantically envisioned Joe showing up for our first date in some kind of chariot; he shows up drunk, in an old car with a hole in the floor and one door tied shut with a wire. I willingly get in, rain peppering me through the window that won’t close.

As the evening progresses, Joe gets drunker. At the drive-in, he pushes me down. “NO!” I shout. He doesn’t seem to hear me. I have never had sex before and am not sure what happened. I stumble to the ladies room and yes, I am broken.

My cycle had always reliably been 28 to 30 days. When it gets to be 35 days and nothing is happening, I start to panic. When Joe calls to arrange a date, I tell him I’m late. He says we’ll talk about it at 7:30 that night, when we are to meet. He never shows up.

My girlfriends say to buy Humphrey 11 pills. They’re supposed to bring on your period. Then I hear quinine pills will do the trick. I walk alone to the drug store to buy them. I’m embarrassed and ashamed. They don’t work. I talk with my girlfriends about abortion, but none of us know how to get one. We hear you can go to Puerto Rico, but you have to pay $600. I keep playing hooky from school because I can’t concentrate.

When I finally tell my parents, my father says, “Don’t you know that a woman can run faster with her skirt up than a man can with his pants down?” I quit school. I visit the priest, who tells me, “Adoption is the only option.” I arrange to go to St. Martha’s Residence in Newark. At home, we pretend that my belly isn’t growing bigger. This is not really happening.

I can’t understand how my mother won’t talk to me about this when she went through the same thing! In 1938, when she was twenty-two and unmarried, she got pregnant and had to run away from home. She told no one. All by herself, she had my sister, Lois, and gave her up for adoption. Twenty-five years later, she watches me go through the same nightmare, but says nothing. How is that possible?

At St. Martha’s, I am with other women who share the same shame and find strength in each other’s company. Each night we sit around sharing stories of our pasts and our hopes for the future. We don’t discuss the pain that is to come, or what to expect with labor and delivery. We’ve heard horror stories from the girls who went before us about the mean nurses at the hospital. No joy will be found in this birth.

When the baby is born, I spend two days with him, counting ten baby toes and ten baby fingers on his perfect baby body. I tell him how much I love him. I keep his first baby picture. I feed him and name him Paul Joseph. On the third day, I say goodbye to the sweet baby boy. Mom and Dad finally come to take me to sign the papers. On the way home, we stop for drinks.
Book Coach Success Spotlight: Marni Seneker
By: Terri M. Leblanc
Tags: Coaching, Freelancing, Coaching Skills, Writing, Success Story

Q: What was your experience in the Advanced Training and Certification course? What did you find most satisfying? What did you find most challenging?

Marni: There were times when I was working in an unfamiliar genre (fantasy!) where I found the exercises to be uncomfortable — hello world building! There were also times when my feedback differed from the answer key in one of the exercises and I wished I could discuss it with someone.

I loved the practicum work! It was so exciting to work through a fresh project using the tools from the course. The responsibility to the writer is so critical and it forces one to bring their best work to the task.
Peanut Butter Sandwich Caper
By: Louise Peacock
Tags: Photography, Friendship, Sharing, Chance Encounters, Nonfiction

Sometimes you start off on a photo-walk, and you end up sharing a peanut butter sandwich with a stranger.

In 2012 we used to go on a lot of photo-walks, organized by our friend and fellow camera enthusiast, John Carvalho. The group would meet at some designated Mississauga park or street and off we would go, sometimes as many as 25 people.

John Carvalho forges ahead, leading the group. Photo by Louise Peacock

During those walks we met and got know a lot of very nice people.

On one such walk, a brisk but lovely morning, I ended up walking with lady I had not met before. Her name was Missi and she and I and our dog Tessa went forging along, looking for interesting scenes to capture.

We had completed almost half the route, when Missi looked at her watch and announced that she would have to leave the walk and go home.

She seemed stressed. I asked her if everything was alright, and she responded that she had missed breakfast and was starting to feel a bit weak and dizzy.

Peanut Butter sandwich and makings. Computer art by Louise Peacock

It seemed a real shame for her to leave part way through, and then I remembered that I had brought a midmorning snack. A peanut-butter and honey sandwich on some light rye bread. It was pretty plain but I told Missi I’d be pleased to share it with her. I got my backpack off my shoulders and hauled out the snack, which thankfully, I had cut in two. I offered her half.

Missi accepted the humble snack gratefully, and we continued on, munching happily and finished the walk.

A simple thing, but it forged a special link between us.

Since that time I have lost touch with Missi, but I will always remember that special, shared moment and how it made us friends.

You never know where a peanut-butter sandwich might lead you.
Mapping Drones for Professional Surveyors
Tags: GIS, Mapping, Drones, Surveying

The information below was given to us during an interview with drone operator Madison D. from Landpoint, a surveying company in Louisiana. Madison is researching the potential applications and benefits of unmanned technology in the surveying industry. Madison uses a Stratos Aerial fixed-wing UAV with DroneDeploy (and a DJI Inspire 1 on the side).

Click to open the maps below (in a new tab) to explore them:

The story

Topographic surveys are an essential part of all land development projects

In this instance, a new real estate subdivision was under development in Northern Colorado. Before homes could be constructed, an extremely accurate topographic survey was necessary for a couple of reasons:

To ensure the initial land development (physical alteration of the land) was successful so that it allows for proper water runoff for drainage. To document subdivision topography in relation to the adjacent river’s floodplain for flood damage prevention and flood insurance purposes.

Subdivision development can be an expensive operation — especially if progress has fallen behind schedule

This particular project was weeks behind due to frequent inclement weather (notice the low-lying areas in the orthomosaic reference map above that are still holding rain water).
How Robin Sharma’s 90/90/1 Rule Can Help You Achieve Your Most Ambitious Goals
By: Alexa V.S.
Tags: Advice, Self Improvement, Habits, Success, Productivity

The 90/90/1 Rule

“A genius? They all have one trait in common: They were able to spend extended periods of time in isolation, focused monomaniacally on their most valuable project.” — Robin Sharma

According to Sharma, one factor that differentiates the top performers from the herd is how they spend the first 90 minutes at work. Instead of chatting with coworkers, scrolling through social media, or checking their email, the top 5% focuses on a single task.

Based on this insight, Sharma teases us with a challenge: For the next 90 days, can we devote the first 90 minutes of our productive schedule to a single life-changing goal?

First thing in the morning, our willpower and mental focus are at their peak. Sharma calls this time the “platinum hours”. If we invest them in our most valuable project, our life will irrevocably change. The 90/90/1 Rule gives us a taste of this life-altering habit.

But it isn’t easy.

The first time I heard about Sharma’s rule, my blood pumped with drive. I had a book I’d been writing for years, unable to get through the first 50%. Finishing my first fantasy novel seemed impossible, but I gave the 90/90/1 Rule a shot.

After the first week, I succumbed to my phone’s notifications. Disappointed, I said, screw it, and returned to my inefficient routine. Months went by without any progress.

Then — as if by fate — I came across Sharma’s challenge again. Bracing myself, I went all in.

This time, though there were mornings I fell victim to my phone or email, I didn’t quit. For 90 days, I feverishly wrote.

To my surprise, when the 90 days ended, I didn’t stop. And when the 90 minutes were up, I didn’t leave my desk if I could afford it.

As if by magic, I installed a writing habit.

Fast forward to today, I’ve not only written that fantasy book (which was crappy), but two more as well. Though I can’t say I dedicate the first 90 minutes of every day to writing, I make daily progress on my books or articles.

Inspired, my partner followed the 90/90/1 rule to fantastic success. Though it’s still in its infancy, he’s now proud to own a profitable side hustle.

In the end, we have realized that the 90/90/1 rule works as a trigger. Because of its challenging nature, it will motivate you to stay on course. Because of its duration, it will stick with you long after the 90 days are over.

Sharma’s rule is an effective habit-implementation tool.
In Theory, we all Need sex
By: A Singular Story
Tags: Relationships, Mental Health, Culture, Sexuality, Self

All humans are sexual creatures.

If we weren’t, our species would have gone extinct long ago. And yet, many of us remain reluctant to accept sex as part of our shared humanness, a key component of our relationships and interactions.

Some of us have been conditioned to view sex as dirty and reprehensible, something we should endeavor not to want, think about, or even discuss.

As a result, we either go without, have bad sex, or do not trust ourselves to state our needs, preferences, or fantasies. We all have them but we pretend we don’t so as not to appear wanton or lewd, so as not to jeopardize the carefully curated exterior many of us present to the world.

This unwillingness to embrace our sexual selves creates myriad issues that can destroy lives.

Gay folks end up trapped in heterosexual relationships; trans folks end up trapped in a body that doesn’t fit; hetero folks end up trapped in lies.

With courage and communication, almost any situation is reversible. But not everyone will find it in themselves to accept their sexuality in all its complexity. Further, not everyone has the good fortune of living in an open-minded and supportive society. Or of having a partner with whom we’ve created a safe space conducive to the joint exploration of sexuality.

Although sex is never a solo pursuit, how many of us go it alone regardless of partnership status? How many of us hoard our desires for lack of a willing interlocutor? How many of us outsource our fantasies to strangers via specialized websites or by hiring a sex worker?

How many of us have resigned ourselves to a sexless existence in which the only relief we get comes in the form of erotica or porn, when we’re able to react to it at all?
A faster way to deal with email — “Slack-style email guideline”
By: Christoph Magnussen
Tags: Slack, Communication, Productivity

1. Do you actually need an email for this

Ask yourself if you can reach out to your client via another channel. The best way to reduce mails is not to send mails. So be part of the group that does not use email per default but establishes other channels against all odds.

2. Keep it short to make it fast

One of the big advantages of tools like Slack is the short message style. It’s more like a Whatsapp group or chat. Our average attention span dropped below the attention span of a goldfish. So the faster people understand what you want the easier they find it to answer. We of course do not chat via mail that would be nonsense but we keep it super short. Ideally not longer 3–5 sentences.

3. Stay away from formatting — you’re not sending a fax!

Especially younger people hate emails because you need to 1. find the contact persons email adress, 2. come up wit a subject, 3. start with an intro, 4. make it look nice and 5. end with an outro. Oh and of course attach an offical signature with company logo the legal section and of course your 5 social media profiles. In fact every email programm shows your email in a different way so even if you use a nice font it’s a waste of time. All this makes you slow.

4. Work with “mentions”

Group communication tools like Slack or Hipchat works with so called “mentions”. Instead of writing “Hi Christoph” or “Hello everyone” you write “@CM” or “@everyone”. Mentions allow you to structure an email and pull the readers attention to their section. That’s how a section can stay short even of your email in total is longer.

5. Work in groups not in a silos

A big advantage of tools like Slack is the searchability across all channels even if you just joined the a company. You have a full history to work with. CC’ing everyone is not an option but you can also build Slack like channel with a history if you leverage the email distribution groups e.g. Google Groups. These are projekt or client email adresses that include all project members. You would CC these groups, run a filter on them in order not to have an overflowing inbox and be able to search through everything even if you just joined the company. This helps a lot with onboaring and knowledge management.

This guideline just covers the basic ideas. We wanted to keep it simple in order to make sharing with others easier. Spreading this idea is actually what will help all of us to save time and nerves.
Storm and Fire
By: Sharika Hafeez
Tags: Global Warming, Earth, Climate Change, Poetry, Creativity

Storm and Fire

A poem about a dying earth

I see the fires raging,

the fumes blanketing the skies.

I hear a continent screaming,

as its perishing ecosystem sighs.

The powerless koalas are burning,

unable to outrun the flames.

The does and joeys are embracing

over a charred buck’s remains.

The mighty glaciers are melting,

tumbling down to the seas,

and the little islands are drowning,

as we go up a few degrees.

The helpless turtles are emerging

with plastic in their throats,

and the lively dolphins are choking,

no longer chasing the steamboats.

The coral reefs are vanishing,

and with them, our oxygen supplies.

And the earth’s balance is tipping,

with brutal winters, hotter Julys.

I see the dead barks adorning

the one place we call home.

I hear the dying earth whispering

that we too shall perish, but never alone.

— Sharika Hafeez
Let it all unravel
By: John Walter
Tags: Grief And Loss, Life Lessons, Mental Health, Being Present, Progress

Let it all unravel

When soldiering on doesn’t work anymore.

My grandfather was a fisherman. Never owned a car. Didn’t drink.

I think of him in winter sitting by the window watching the boats in the harbor. The open fire roaring, his pipe nearby ready to add aromatic smoke to the scene.

On his lap and all around his feet is a tangled mass of string. Over days, it will slowly transform back into something recognizable as a fishing net.

This is not a linear process. He is not starting at one end and finishing at another. Before he can start mending the net there is a period of unraveling. Loosening the tangle and knots. You cannot pull it apart, that would only tighten the knots.

You cannot focus on one area to the exclusion of others. You have to loosen the whole mass of string equally before working on any repairs. Let it all unravel.

This is where I find myself now in my grief process. My daughter took her own life 18 months ago. At first, my response was to find ways of coping. I organized the funeral. I checked in on people. I made sure they were ok.

There was some need to keep normal things going. To keep the job I had. To carry on with a musical project. There was a sense of struggling through the days.

I knew it couldn’t carry on. I started to hear stories of those who had soldiered on in their grief for decades only to succumb to mental illness themselves. One man had lost his job, was struggling in his relationship, and was returning to counseling and a grief support group after 30 years.

Let it all unravel.

Photo by Brook Anderson on Unsplash

This is where I am now. Trimming my life down only to things that allow this unraveling. No big plans, no purposeful path stretching into the future. Just paying attention to this tangled mass in front of me.

Noticing that the more I experience my sorrow, the easier it is to let in the joy. Feeling my anxiety. Then feeling the layers of commitment behind the anxiety. Noticing anger and blame when they arise, looking behind that. Noticing that any feeling directed outwards has a source from within me.

Crucially, I experience all these things together. My image of my Grandad helps me to trust that I can only heal by allowing this unraveling. Lay all my feelings in front of me. Allow them to loosen, to gradually spread out and reveal the hidden layers.

Only then when it is all visible can I begin the repairs

LET IT GO

Let it go,

Let it out,

Let it all unravel,

Let it free

And it will be

A path on which to travel.

(Michael Leunig)
ORCA platform secures first e-money institution for SEPA payments, partners with MisterTango
Tags: Token, Startup, Finance, Cryptocurrency, Banking

EU-based fintech ORCA just signed a partnership with an e-money institution MisterTango making the first step into the world of payment processing. From now on ORCA, a platform bridging traditional banking and cryptocurrency services, will have the ability to develop solutions for SEPA payment account creation using technology utilized by MisterTango.

Moreover, in the future ORCA will also be able to issue debit payment cards. Only a handful of companies in the cryptocurrency space can offer these services at the moment. ORCA aims to join the list before the end of this year. Cooperation with a licensed e-money service provider is opening a lot of doors for the evolution of the ORCA project. Identifying and securing beneficial partnerships is one of the fastest ways to grow the digital business.

MisterTango is one of the fastest growing payment processor enterprises in the region and has grown more than 20 times in revenue and scope over the last year. The newly formed partnership will enable ORCA to set up SEPA accounts and initiate payments on behalf of platform users for a seamless fiat and crypto experience inside the same digital application. MisterTango’s vast network of payment options and operational convenience will go a long way to help ensure ORCA platform’s quality of service.
How to Break Apple’s M1 Chip
By: Ernie Smith
Tags: Apple, Tech, Macbook Air, Apple M1 Chip, Gadgets

How to Break Apple’s M1 Chip

My bad Dropbox organization habits brought Apple’s power-sipping MacBook Air to its knees in just a single day

Photo illustration: Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

I’m not a video editor, but I’m pretty sure I brutally slayed the M1 MacBook Air I just bought (8 GB RAM and a 512 gigabyte SSD, in case you were wondering) in less than a day of use.

It comes down to two reasons, really: The lack of an Apple Silicon-optimized Dropbox app (it’s coming), and a solid decade-plus track record of bad habits in terms of how I store my old projects.

So, here’s the deal: For a number of years, the content management system I used for my newsletter was based on Node.js, which generally stores its many parts inside of folders called node_modules . Any small Node applet inside of the primary Node app can also have a node_modules folder. These apps basically build on one another, creating a Russian nesting doll of sorts, each folder filled with its own tiny folders, of which there can be thousands included in a single directory.

Dropbox traditionally has not handled lots of small files particularly well. And in the past, my Dropbox folder has brought computers large and small to their knees… and made them kick up the fans.

Here was a fanless, highly optimized computer with a chipset said to allow for comically robust battery life — Apple claims 18 hours, and many reviewers have gotten close to that. How’d it do? Well at first, I thought it was holding its own. However, I soon noticed that Dropbox was taking up three-quarters of my RAM, and that my swap file was reaching 10 gigabytes in size. Even after letting it sit around overnight to sync, it still wasn’t done — and worse, I started seeing beach balls.

The culprit? All those dang node_modules folders. I would keep these old folders of my CMS around as backups of local installs on the off-chance something would break. (Eventually, I started compressing them.)

At some point, it sucked up so much power I decided to unplug my laptop to see how fast it would drain the battery. In about two and a half hours, I managed to knock out two-thirds of the computer’s battery life, by which time I had made a point to remove syncing capabilities on every folder with node_modules as a subfolder. It seems on track for about four and a half hours while plugged into a monitor… even after all that.

I’m a special case. I experiment a lot with random things, and my Dropbox folder is like a storage locker that’s never been organized. It is totally unfair to Dropbox to blame them for my bad storage habits.

And on top of all that, it’s not fair to criticize Dropbox for having an app that appears to otherwise work fine on a brand-new architecture at a time when around 15% of Intel apps aren’t, according to “Does it ARM.” (And glitches are common; my web browser of choice, Vivaldi, does this on the Twitter website right now.)
Why Reading Fredrik Backman’s Books Will Make You a Better Person
By: Anita Coltuneac
Tags: Book Recommendations, Self Improvement, Books, Life Lessons, Life

Why Reading Fredrik Backman’s Books Will Make You a Better Person

These are the books you won’t be able to stop yourself from hugging after you’ve finished reading.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

If I’d have to name one writer who had a great influence on me as a human being, it would be Fredrik Backman. I discovered his books a few years ago through my mom — she’s my Goodreads when it comes to book recommendations — and I’m very thankful for that.

All of Backman’s books focus on the amazingly complicated, beautiful, funny, unexpected, and sometimes tragic experience that we call life while featuring quirky characters that try to do their best at living it. That’s exactly where the magic of these books lies.

These are the stories that will take you through the ups and downs of life and leave you wanting to hug the book, the cat, the dog, and really every other person within the perimeter of your house.

You’ll most likely find yourself laughing out loud at page twelve, only to feel something tugging lightly at your heartstrings a few pages later that reminds you of all those little things that make us so fragile.

Without giving too much away, here are 5 things you’ll learn from Fredrik Backman’s books that will help you become a better person:
friday lost and found: touch my lion edition
By: David Connell
Tags: Nonprofit, Technology, Green Tech, Environment, Links

[caption id=”attachment_947" align=”alignnone” width=”600" caption=”Touch my Lion! Love it! Liebe mein affe-Lion!”]

[/caption]

Apple released Lion this week and MG Siegler immediately made sweet, sweet love to it.

More useful than @parislemon’s 3,000 word opus: Greg Kumparak’s, “Nine Things you Should Do After Installing Lion” and Cult of Mac’s ludicrously comprehensive, six-page review/manual.

Via TechChrunch, Cult of Mac

***

Speaking at Fortune BrainstormTech, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said the company will eventually offer self-serve ads for brands and is looking to get into the commerce game. Twitter, he said, wants to “remove friction” from the process of buying stuff on the platform.

If I may offer a humble suggestion from a lowly non-profit marketer: Can you please also help “remove friction” from the process of donating to charities through Twitter?

Via Fortune

***

Mmm…. That’s some good Gojee. I’ve seen a lot of people using Gojee recently and am trying it out myself — I’ve been in a bit of a cooking rut these days. The service lets users input ingredients they have in their pantry and spits out recipes (an gorgeous photos) based on those ingredients. I wonder what it will suggest for pita chips, Kraft mac & cheese and craisins? Seriously though, I just typed in “black beans” and favorited 10 recipes. This thing is seriously addictive.

***

Dude… your Prius is pretty badass. Toyota responds to the Honda CR-Z Sport hybrid with the Prius Performance Package. For an extra three grand, you get front and rear spoilers, 17-inch alloy wheels, custom tires, a tuned rear sway bar and…. wait for it… limited edition floor mats. w00t!

Via PSFK

***

Finally, start your weekend off right with this awesome video of the Sesame Street Muppets rockin’ the Sure Shot, by the Beastie Boys:

Sesame Street breaks it down from Wonderful Creative on Vimeo.

Via LaughingSquid
The Pandemic Won’t Kill My Love for Sports
By: Keith Dias
Tags: Fitness, Lifestyle, Sports, Psychology, Parenting

The Pandemic Won’t Kill My Love for Sports

But some things change when you age

Photo By gilaxia

Mistaken identity

My daughter said something to me the other day that surprised me.

“Daddy, do you play sports?”

“Well of course I do”, I replied.

“But I’ve never seen you play sports”, she said.

Since the start of the Pandemic, I haven’t been able to play any organized sports. So, my 5-year-old, with her limited frame of reference, doesn’t recall a time when her father enjoyed sports.

To her, my identity as her dad doesn’t include the 4 decades of hockey or basketball or any of the other team games that I’ve amassed in my sports résumé.

This conversation made me realize that the way in which others perceive us is constantly changing. Nobody, not even my own child, sees me as I see myself.

To me, I’m still a 12-year-old ice hockey goalie.

Even though I haven’t really been that guy for decades.

Me, at 12:

Staring out the window of my dad’s Chrysler New Yorker, at the passing houses and cars, while the radio plays a song by Alphaville. It’s early Saturday morning and we’re on our way to ice hockey.

“Forever young,

I want to be forever young,

Do you really want to live forever?” — Alphaville

Dad generally stays silent on the 15-minute drive to the rink. So do I. This is a time for both of us to think about the upcoming game.

In my town, in my league, on my team, I’m a budding superstar goalie. And nobody should interfere with the pre-game thoughts of a pre-teen prodigy and his dad.

There will be lots of time to talk afterward, on the drive home.

And we will.

Sometimes we’ll chat about the game, or about how I played, or about something completely different.

When we get home, mom will have pancakes ready for breakfast. My sister and I will sit on the shag carpet in the living room, with our plates on our laps, and eat them while watching Saturday morning cartoons.

Scooby-doo. The Smurfs. Spiderman.

Later, I’ll ride my bike over to my friend Darren’s house, and we’ll call the other kids in the neighborhood over to play a massive game of street hockey.

And then, when it starts getting dark, I’ll ride my bike home, and eat dinner with my family.

The Saturday night Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game will glow brightly on the TV for a few hours, and I’ll probably fall asleep watching it.

This will be a great day. This will be a time in my life that I will probably remember forever.

For me, these moments will happen every Saturday.

But one day, they will stop happening.

And when they stop happening, it will barely be noticeable.

Because I will have started to grow up, and my life will have changed.
3 Ways to Dynamically Render UI in a React Component
By: Robert K.
Tags: Coding, JavaScript, React, Programming

Photo by Denys Nevozhai on Unsplash

Dynamic pages allow you to show users what they need without having any extra markup on the page diluting the user’s attention from what they are trying to do on your application.

Writing components that allow for that dynamic behavior can quickly get complicated if you are expecting a myriad of user behavior. I’m going to show you three ways you can add conditionals to your React components to render content dynamically.

1. The If-Else Condition

Probably the most explicit and easy to read is the if-else conditional. Let’s use the component below as our example.

A component with conditional rendering via if/else statement

We have a boolean in state and render a completely different snippet of HTML based on the value of that boolean. Here we are using a simple example, but based on different combinations you could continue in a similar manner to create a variety of behavior.

2. The && Logical Operator

The issue with the if/else statement is that you may have a certain piece of code that exists in multiple cases. This means you are going to have to re-write those snippets of code for each case they are needed. This gives off a bad code smell and begs for something less brittle.

In comes &&. Here’s the same component as above with a much more concise solution, but the same behavior.

What’s happening under the hood? The condition this.state.display is being checked and when it returns false it does not read the right side of the && operator and continues through the code. When the condition is true the markup on the right side of the && is returned and made visible. If your component has a lot of if/else statements that return slightly different UI configurations this method might be a better option to avoid repeating your code and being prone to errors.

3. The Ternary Operator

The ternary or conditional operator is the only JavaScript operator that takes three operands. Its syntax follows this pattern:

condition_to_test ? execute_when_truthy : execute_when_falsy

Let’s use a different component for this one.

This component takes a user’s input and renders something dynamically based on that input. The ternary expression handles all of our UI cases by checking for the default case first then using a second ternary expression in the false check to give us our second and third render options.

I hope this comparison was helpful and can help you in your next project. Overall, I don’t think there is one option that is best for all situations here and I think a combination of these techniques is probably the best way to go.

Happy Hacking!

Resources:

Connect with me:
Pica Peekaboo
By: Reuben Salsa
Tags: The Bad Influence, Poetry, Poem, Mental Health, Parenthood

Photo by Ignacio Campo on Unsplash

I’m happy she says as her world unravels

I’m happy she says as she eats the inedible

I’m content she says as she strokes the twins hair

I’m content she says when the voices whisper they care

I’m fulfilled she says as the blood runs down her throat

I’m fulfilled she says as the object sinks without a hope

The baby grows

The baby grows

The mothers’ life spirals out of control

I’m okay she says as hubby brings the boys home

I’m okay she says as voice falls flat as a monotone

I’m happy she says when hubby talks over her

I’m happy she says keeping her composure

I’m agreeing she says when the colleague asks for a hug

I’m agreeing she says nodding with a shrug

The baby grows

The baby grows

Mother longs to be hold

I’m sharing she says as the sun burns her eyes

I’m sharing she says as hubby shouts as she cries

I’m sorry she says when the doctors pull out the pin

I’m sorry she says as her weight falls wafer thin

I’m feeling good I guess

I’m feeling content with the food I digest

The baby grows

Healthy and strong

But mother knows something is wrong

I can do it

I’m in control

Leave me to it

The addiction makes me whole

Swallow

I did things I shouldn’t have

A needle

A rock

A battery

Swallow

They made me feel in control

The baby grows

Hubby wants the child

The baby grows

Mother feels defiled

Soon the baby will arrive

And all she can do is smile
If you are new at Medium and have few or no followers…
By: Linda Caroll
Tags: Writing, Hello World, Writing Tips, Medium, 100 Naked Words

My first story got 18 reads.

My 2nd story got 7.

My 3rd story got 2.

Which, I suppose, is better than none.

But, the downhill trend wasn’t looking good.

After that, I didn’t write here for 10 months.

When you’re new, and no one reads what you write, it can feel a little sad. If you were just writing for yourself, why not just save it on your computer?

It would get the same mileage, but with less of the accompanying sad.

We writers aren’t just writing for ourselves. When we’re fingers on keyboard, sure. But once we hit the publish button? There’s a whole new hope...

Please God, let someone like what I wrote.

So, I thought I’d share a couple of tips…

It’s hard for people to like your writing if they don’t even know you’re out there — If a tree falls in the forest…you know?

Start with tags. Follow tags that interest you. Follow tags that you’d write about, too. Think of it like finding your people. Brave it up and write your first story. Don’t worry if no one reads it. Remember, tree in the forest… but you want something for people to read when they do find you. Follow people whose writing you like. Some of them will follow back. Share the love. Click on the green heart when you like a story. Leave comments to tell the writer what you liked, too. It really does help.

Some people say the little green ❤s don’t matter.

They’re wrong. They do. Because “reads” are nice — but according to Medium, the little green hearts are how we tell writers we liked what they wrote. See?

A little secret about liking and sharing...

Those little green hearts made SF Ali Medium’s resident cheerleader. When you show appreciation for the people writing here, some of that love will be returned. That’s just how it works. Treat others how you want to be treated.

It’s the old Golden Rule. Old because it works. Always has, always will.

Also…

If you’re brand new, or could count your followers in fingers and toes, feel welcome to paste a link to your first story in the comments here. If the comments don’t blow up, I’ll come say hi and welcome.

If you liked this or found it helpful, please click the ❤ to share. Thanks!
What is happening with solar energy?
By: Enrique Dans
Tags: Solar Energy, Sustainability, Solar, Energy, Energy Efficiency

IMAGE: E. Dans

Anyone who follows developments in the energy sector will know that solar energy is no longer just the future but the present. According to the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook 2020, photovoltaic solar energy is already the cheapest source of electricity in history. We are not talking about the future, but about the present, about current installations.

Under these conditions, the fact that solar energy was able to cover the entire demand in South Australia for the first time on October 12 should not surprise us: you can bet we will see this repeated in many more places, on many more occasions and for increasingly longer periods. The progressive increase in efficiency and decrease in the cost of photovoltaic panels is turning solar energy into the logical alternative for electricity generation. What’s more, the technology continues to evolve and that there are still incipient possibilities, such as perovskites, which promise substantial efficiency increases.

As a result, solar panels can now be fitted anywhere, covering water canals in India, on canopies over Germany’s autobahns, or on school roofs in the United States. When the economic variables of a technology change in this way, creating an oversized electricity generation grid based on solar and wind is the logical alternative, and whoever does not do so will be relegated to less efficient and, above all, dirtier energy sources.

Solar and wind are the present and future not so much for environmental issues, but economics: the British government admits that solar and wind energy has proved between 30% and 50% cheaper than initially estimated, adding that renewable energies were able, during the first quarter of 2020, to cover no less than 47% of the country’s total electricity demand. In Germany, the figures are similar: between January and June this year, 42% of electricity consumed was generated by the sun and the wind.

Decarbonizing energy and the economy is the only logical way forward. Solar and wind energy, supplemented with storage technologies, are already the most efficient way to feed the energy fabric of a country. The mathematics makes it clear: electric vehicles powered by batteries recharged by solar energy are the logical alternative to the internal combustion engine.

Everything else you thought you knew about energy, the myths and legends about alternatives that were only viable thanks to subsidies, or the alleged problems with supply when the sun was not shining or the wind blowing are either wrong or outdated. Update yourself, and act accordingly. For your sake, and for everyone’s.
Netflix vs Deepfake: The Irishman
By: Mustafa Yarımbaş
Tags: Machine Learning, Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Film, Netflix

How is De-aging Technology Works?

According to the film’s VFX supervisor, Pablo Helman, who stated that 1,750 shots were required for two and a half hours of shooting, the carefully placed on-set lighting captured the actor's facial performances from different angles, while at the same time shining infrared light on the actors’ faces without being seen on the production camera. Thus, the system was able to analyze the lighting and texture information and created a machinable geometry network for each frame.

Working with multiple cameras is indispensable in the process. While shooting, they work with a three-camera rig with a central camera, which also has a director’s camera. The other two cameras are there to record data. Why? “Because we don’t have markers on their faces, the more data we have the better the chance to recreate performance. So the software will keep an eye on these three cameras and the information from them” Helman explains. So more data means a more realistic and accurate image.

De-aging technology is not a technique Hollywood is unfamiliar with. We know that it was used in many films before The Irishman (2019), such as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), Captain America: Civil War (2016), and Blade Runner 2049 (2017). Although this technology has managed to create an astonishing illusion today, it is not yet perfect. But when it does, it is not difficult to foresee that cinema and acting will take on a new dimension.

You can check this video if you wanna learn more about how these scenes made.
Creating themeable design systems
Tags: Design, Design Systems, Figma, Visual Design, UX

Themeability is a largely overlooked feature when creating a design system. That’s an unfortunate fact as retroactively adding themeability is an arduous process. Themeability is a complex feature in that it requires forethought when architecting the design library, and the coded component library — but more-so — because it takes a bit of orchestrating between the two to get it just right.

What is themeability?

Themeability is a feature of design that allows you to easily change the look and feel throughout the entirety of a design, or design system.

Dark mode

Product specific look and feel

White labeling

Wireframe components to design with

Marketing look and feel

Those are all examples of problems a theme can solve. Often, a separate design system — coined a local design system by Spotify Design — is created to deal with this splintering of essential UI aesthetics. Most likely a new design system is overkill and all you really need is a new theme. However, this requires an engineered solution that’s able to apply the theme throughout the entire design system. The theme needs to be available when designing, and when coding, and it needs to be easily shared throughout the organization.

What exactly is a theme?

A theme is a variable system that determines stylistic features of a design’s visual atoms. These theme variables — which Salesforce calls design tokens — are referenced when building your design. Beyond just colors and other constants, a theme can also contain component specific styles. This is possible by creating a multi-tiered variable system — as defined by Brad Frost. He breaks it down into 3 tiers:

Brand definitions High-level application variables Component-specific variables

With a multi-tiered system like this you have a lot of power over your design from the theme. But, with great power .. comes a lot of complexities.