fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
piston: how be idle
By: George Shuklin
Tags: Learning To Code, Linux Desktop, Piston, Rust, Game Development

I done two things today. I’ve migrated Equart (my toy project to learn Rust and to draw cool function graphs) from framebuf to Piston (with a rather large amount of glue and clutches, leaving refactoring for later). It worked well, but I noticed 8% CPU use at idle display. It was way better than with framebuf, but not a 0% I expected from well-behaving graphical application.

I dug into source code and found ‘lazy’ attribute. It was in the docs for event_loop (my original code had used window.next() ).

Old code:

while let Some(e) = window.next() {

if let Some(_) = e.render_args() {

window.draw_2d(&e, |c, g, device| {

image(&texture, c.transform, g);

});

}

}

New code:

let mut events = Events::new(EventSettings::new().lazy(true));

while let Some(e) = events.next(&mut window) {

if let Some(_) = e.render_args() {

window.draw_2d(&e, |c, g, device| {

image(&texture, c.transform, g);

});

}

}

Basically, I use customized event loop in a ‘lazy’ mode.

When enabled, update events are disabled. Idle events are emitted while receiving input.

It worked perfectly for now, as I do rendering before displaying anything, and do nothing after displaying it. All redraw events are handled correctly (minimize, maximize, move, partial redraw, etc).

If you are interested (you shouldn’t, as code is like a sewage after drought), it’s here.

Too many syscalls

One problem I found is that application getting a lot of syscalls on all keyboard and mouse events, including those outside of the window.

I compared it with behavior of other good low-cpu applications ( xterm ) and found they have select activated (returning control) only if something happening (mouse, keyboard) inside their application window.

It’s either bug in Equart or in Piston (or SDL and so on down the stream), but before getting into refactoring code I want to make it behave well. Quick look into event_loop documentation did not yield anything on this matter, so I asked about it on Rust forum.

Anyway, I’m really, really happy to see a good library with excellent performance I can use without diving too deep into X11 madness.

Next goal

My next goal is to cleanup code. Currently there are two independent ‘canvases’, and it’s frankly a Frankenstein monster now.

I want to switch from my ‘canvas’ to Pison’s canvas. Initially I’ll keep rendering stage separated, but my final goal is to create some kind of worker pool to make a parallel root search (my application brute-force roots for all points on the canvas), or try other parallelization. Before that I want to have iterative drawing (update screen as new roots are discovered) and, may be, add some interactivity (search roots more thoroughly at mouse location).

But before all that, I need to switch to Piston’s canvas as a main data structure.
Wagner, Adams, And Beethoven — Breaking The Mold
By: Donato Cabrera
Tags: Donato Cabrera, Music, Wagner, Beethoven, Reno

Siegfried Idyll runs nearly twenty minutes and is clearly composed in sonata form. In other words, there is an introduction of two contrasting themes, a development section of these two themes, a recapitulation (return) of these same themes, and a final coda that puts it all to rest. However, even this formal structure of composition is used only to tell the story, rather than adhering to any pre-arranged game plan.

In order to make it more marketable, Wagner expanded the piece to 35 musicians. However, I feel that this version doesn’t capture the intimacy and tenderness that is so apparent with the original 13 musicians. This is the version that I’ve always preferred and is what you will hear.

Samuel Carl Adams Chamber Concerto

In choosing the repertoire for this concert, one of my goals was to find repertoire and, perhaps, a soloist that had a real connection to Reno. As luck would have it, I remember hearing that the composer, Samuel Carl Adams, had married a violinist who had grown up in Reno and was a recent addition to the San Francisco Symphony violin section. It became a fait accompli in discovering that Samuel had recently written a chamber concerto for violin and ensemble.

As Adams writes in the program notes for the premiere of his Chamber Concerto in May 2018, he finds the idea of a traditional concerto, “a bit suspect.” He goes on to say, “I am not particularly drawn to lopsided musical hierarchies, and the ‘hero’ narrative found in the standard nineteenth- and twentieth-century romantic warhorses doesn’t seem altogether relevant in the twenty-first century.”

Fair enough. In this statement, we find an artist creating within a structure in which he is consciously working in opposition. Picasso, James Joyce, and Nijinsky quickly come to mind as artists who not only thrived creating in a contrarian manner, but led their respective artforms into entirely new directions.

However, what is revealed to us in his Chamber Concerto for Violin and Ensemble, and perhaps what was revealed to Adams as he composed this piece, are the aesthetic principles of the compositional form of the concerto grosso, from which the concerto was born, and a form of composition that was found from the era of Bach and Handel — the Baroque

What is a concerto grosso? It literally means big concerto. There were two types, the concerto da chiesa (church concerto), which had a form that alternated between slow and fast movements, and a concerto da camera (chamber concerto), which was a collection of movements that often started with a prelude, and which was then followed by movements that were based on popular dance forms. A concerto grosso also meant that there were usually a very small group of maybe three or four instrumentalists, that would play in dialogue with a larger group, often surrounding them. You can clearly see how this works with this fantastic performance of Händel’s Concerto Grosso, Op. 6, №6.
Vue.js and Malina.js Comparison
By: Oleg Nechaev
Tags: Vue, JavaScript, Programming, Svelte, Vuejs

JavaScript Block of Components

Let’s start with the JavaScript block of components:

Vue.js on the left. Malina.js on the right.

With Vue.js, you need to register components and return used objects and functions (probably it can be optimized in future versions because it can be done automatically). Also, reactive objects require some way to use it, so to use other types of libraries, you may need some adaptation to transform from/to observable objects. For example, in the code above, I have to add .value to observable objects.

Malina.js doesn’t use reactive objects. It operates with the usual JavaScript variables and vanilla JavaScript, so it’s easier to use other types of libraries and the code itself looks slightly cleaner.

Also, I noticed that the new Composition API looks like Knockout.js, which was popular in 2011. Maybe syntax was inspired by Knockout.js, which was proven by time, and some developers really like it:

But I personally prefer a more clean syntax, close to vanilla JavaScript.
Week 8: pain
By: Amanda Oliver
Tags: Deser, Prose

I haven’t heard any quails this morning, but I did hear a man I barely know told a woman I like very much that I sent him “bikini photos.” He told me I’d led him on by doing it.

I want to describe the photo, tell you how it was 109 degrees that day and I was outside and the point of the photo was how comfortable I was and how good the sun felt and that the book I was reading was very good and I felt happy, but it’s not important. I shouldn’t have to explain.

My body is mine. My body is still mine if you see a photo of it. My body is still mine, even if you fuck it, which he hasn’t, but what good has explaining that ever done me?

My body was mine when I was raped. My body was mine even when I hated it. My body is mine. Do men know how much women need to repeat these things to themselves to survive? Do men know how much women need to repeat these things to themselves because of them? Do men know what it feels like to try to trust anyone again after you’re told your body is everything and then they take it from you like it’s nothing?

This man also called me unkind. Said if I was unkind again he’d make me feel “fucking terrible.” All of this because I had, with the no of my voice and my body, made him feel some version of fucking terrible.

My body is still my biggest weapon. I know this. And I am also aware that it will grow dull with age.
Mega Bank Nepal joins REMIIT Network
By: Team Remiit
Tags: Nepal, Blockchain, Ann, Remittances, Partnership

Mega Bank Nepal Limited is Nepal’s renowned commercial bank with 102 branches and more than 8000 anywhere instant cash payout locations. The bank is under the guidance of Nepal’s reputed personnel and professional management team having extensive experience with proven track record in the banking industry.

Mega Bank Nepal Limited has been offering a wide range of products and services tailored with latest technology to meet all type of customer/client. The bank have a broad network covering all major cities, towns and villages of the country. Mega Bank Nepal Limited has in house remittance product known as Mega Remit, which is itself recognize in Nepalese remittance market.

REMIIT plans to actively pursue the South Asian remittance market through its collaboration with Mega Bank Nepal. When the REMIIT’s remittance platform is launched, under this partnership, Mega Bank Nepal will handle remittances from the platform.

REMIIT officials said, “This MOU with Mega Bank Nepal is a first partnership with a bank. We will closely cooperate with Mega Bank Nepal to attract the remittance market in South Asia. We will continue to strengthen the infrastructure within the REMIIT remittance platform by exploring various banks and remittance companies.”

Join REMIIT’s Community

Telegram: https://t.me/remiit

Website: https://remiit.io/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/remiitplatform
The Griot Freedom Song
By: M Sahr Nouwah- The Hunter S Grandson
Tags: Freedom, Power, Advocacy, Politics, Africa

A Poem

Image by Hans van Tol (from unplash)

I own this land just like all

Understood in supreme

Blessed with this beauty around me

Yet still, I am poor.

Politics has dwarfed me

Hatred has taken me to the slaughter

Man’s envy for vanity cannot be measured as it is

filled in foolishness and the silliness of the heart.

On the mountain top

There I see the light beyond the hate

Down the valley, I see the green in the rain

All made to abundance — scarce by man against man.

The trumpet has gone out like a wailing fire;

As I welcome a new day deemed needful

My hunger sings no more like nature once was

Finally, my thirst melts into the sands of freedom.

This is my world,

Changed and carved to fit the powerful.

But this will end this day,

as we climb on top of the hill to sing the Griot.
Stateful Widget のパフォーマンスを考慮した正しい扱い方
By: Mono
Tags: Flutter, Programming, Performance, Mobile App Development, Dart

Avoid changing the depth of any created subtrees or changing the type of any widgets in the subtree. For example, rather than returning either the child or the child wrapped in an IgnorePointer, always wrap the child widget in an IgnorePointer and control the IgnorePointer.ignoring property. This is because changing the depth of the subtree requires rebuilding, laying out, and painting the entire subtree, whereas just changing the property will require the least possible change to the render tree (in the case of IgnorePointer, for example, no layout or repaint is necessary at all).
Why We Left O’Reilly’s Online Learning Platform
By: Louis Rosenfeld
Tags: User Experience, Publishing, Publishing Platforms, UX, Books

Are these Rosenfeld Media book covers or O’Reilly Media book covers?

As of February 1, 2020, Rosenfeld Media books are no longer available on O’Reilly Media’s Online Learning Platform. We‘ve heard from a number of the platform’s users who’ve lost their notes and highlights, and are understandably disappointed. Why did we discontinue this arrangement with O’Reilly?

In a nutshell, brand confusion. We’ve seen too many references to our own books as O’Reilly titles. We are a tiny publishing house—orders of magnitude smaller than O’Reilly—and we live (or die) by our brand. Frankly, it’s painful to see the books we and our authors work so hard to create being mistaken for another publisher’s.

Brand confusion can play out in other ways. A larger publisher wields far greater sway in the battle for Google-controlled eyeballs. If our books are lumped into a larger competitor’s catalog, we’re paradoxically contributing to our own decline in terms of SEO. In the end, the brand and marketplace confusion was simply not worth the minimal financial return we and our authors received.

Publishing ain’t easy. When you’re a small publisher, you’re as much labor of love as business. You’re required to both compete and depend upon Amazon. So when you can avoid—or cut out—another middleman, well, that’s what you do.
Sunrise 20201226
By: Jenny Lawton
Tags: Mindfulness, Nature, Gratitude, Haiku

entrepreneur, mentor, advisor, mother, wife, dog parent and lover, tennis player : changing the world one woman and entrepreneur at a time

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Announcement: Relaunch of Private Sale Round
Tags: Decentralization, Sports, Blockchain, Ethereum, Betting Tips

Hey everyone, we’d like to announce that we are relaunching our Private Sale round for our project. After much deliberation, we felt that this would be in the best interest of our project and investors as we go forward. There are some changes to take note in light of this new and exciting news:

The Private Sale will start on May 21st and run until a Hardcap of 15 million MVU tokens. The Public Sale has thus been been moved to September 10th, 2018 and will run until October 22nd, 2018. There will be 45 million tokens allocated for the Public Sale. The pricing structure and official start time can be found in our updated Whitepaper found (HERE). MeVu will hold back a total of 44 million tokens at the end of the sale. Of the 44 million, 3.6 million will be reserved for referral and ranking rewards, 2 million will be reserved for bounties, an additional 6 million will be reserved for the advisory team, 2 million allocated for the founding team subject to an 18-month vesting schedule. 4.6 million will go to a user adoption fund, 13 million will be reserved for partnerships and 13 million will go to the treasury. There will be a special campaign associated with the FIFA World Cup. Users who participate in our Beta and correctly predict the World Cup game will be rewarded MVU tokens.

All in all, we couldn’t be more grateful to our community for their understanding and support as we continue to work to make MeVu the absolute best it can be. Stay tuned for more updated as we move along and be sure to follow us on all our social media accounts:
Fatehpur Sikiri
By: John Schupbach
Tags: India, Travel

Fatehpur Sikiri

Agra District, Uttar Pradesh, India

After getting up early and fighting enormous crowds to see the Taj, we were already tired by one o’clock. I also thought that nothing would seem impressive after visiting a wonder of the world. However, we rallied with the help of some pizza hut, hired a car, and took the hour drive west to Fatehpur Sikiri and were very pleased that we did. Fatehpur Sikiri is a hilltop walled city that was built by Mughal Emperor Akbar in 1571 and served as the capital of the Mughal Empire for 14 years.

In case you are wondering, most of the major monuments, including the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort in Agra as well as the Red Fort and Jami Masjid in Old Delhi were all constructed by the Mughal Emperors (usually called Mogul Emperors in America), who ruled most of the Indian Subcontinent from 1526 until their decline from power in the early 1700’s, although they were officially ousted in 1858 by the British Raj.

List of the reigns of the prominent Mughal Emperors and the projects created under their control:

1526–1530 Babur 1530–1539, 1555–1556 Humayun (Humayun’s Tomb) 1556–1605 Akbar (Fatehpur Sikiri, Agra Fort) 1605–1627 Jahangir 1628–1658 Shah Jahan (Red Fort, Jami Masjid, Taj Mahal) 1658–1707 Aurangzeb

Emperor Akbar reigned here before moving control to Agra Fort. If you ever go to Agra, try to go to Fatehpur Sikiri as well. Here are some glimpses of palatial quarters in the 1570’s.

Intricate carvings adorning one of the many sandstone buildings
3 Tips on How to Research a Website
By: Paul Myers Mba
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Website, Life Lessons, Personal Development, Innovation

As an eCommerce professional, I regularly encounter amazing websites. I often spend my spare time researching websites, seeking out Entrepreneurs behind online trade, particularly those who exhibit Innovation.

This article is an extension of Design Thinking, Innovation and Value Proposition discussed in my previous articles. My aim is to share three simple tools (free version) that reveal a lot about a website — research — the what and who behind any website.

Why? Because market research should be part of any project you and I undertake in 2020 and beyond.

Volunteer

To demonstrate each tool I need a volunteer — A website owner?

Oh, Dr. Mehmet Yildiz, I see you raised your hand. Are you willing to be the guinea-pig for the benefit of ILLUMINATORS?

“Yes, Paul” “Wonderful Dr. Yildiz”.

What is your URL? — https://digitalmehmet.com

Fantastic, let’s begin.

PS — didn’t actually get approval … but … what the hell!
Pesto Recipes — Basil and Cilantro
By: Nan Fischer
Tags: Food, Health, Gardening, Recipe

Pesto Recipes — Basil and Cilantro

Add the ingredients to your garden plan this winter

Pesto is a versatile food to have around. I put it on cheese and crackers, pasta, and rice. I also add it to salad dressing that I make with olive oil, soy sauce, and chopped garlic. It’s good right out of the jar on a spoon, too, and it freezes well.

Basil Pesto

2 cups basil leaves, packed

1/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup walnuts (or piñon or other nuts or seeds — experiment!)

3–4 cloves of garlic

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese — (I buy a block and grate it myself.)

Coarsely chop the nuts and garlic, and whiz everything but the basil in a food processor or blender. Add the basil, and whiz again until it’s all blended. If it’s too watery, add more nuts or cheese. If it’s too thick, add more oil.

Experiment by adding chervil and/or parsley. I use parsley when I'm short on basil. Try this with lemon basil, too! It tastes fresh and light. I’ve also heard of pesto being made with arugula, kale, and radish or turnip greens.

Cilantro Pesto

Beware — cilantro is a great herb for detoxing. I can eat a small spoonful of this a day and feel the effects immediately. I do it for a few days or until I feel cleaned out. It doesn’t seem to have that effect when it’s mixed with food, though.

This is the basil pesto recipe with cilantro and a jalapeño pepper in place of the basil. You can add a TBS of lime juice if you like. I didn’t care for it. If I’m short cilantro, I add basil or other greens. I’m after the kick of the jalapeño!

– 2 cups cilantro leaves, packed

– 1 jalapeño — seeds in or out depending on how hot you want it

– 1/3 cup walnuts (or piñon or nuts of your choice)

– 3–4 cloves garlic

– 1/3cup olive oil

– 1/3 cup shredded parmesan cheese (I buy a block of this and grate it myself.)

I put everything but the cilantro in the food processor first, then add the cilantro at the end. The nuts and garlic chop up better that way. If it’s thin, add more nuts and/or cheese. If it’s thick, add more oil.

These recipes take less than 30 minutes.

Pesto has the best flavor for about two weeks in the fridge. After that, it loses its kick. I stock my freezer, because there is only so much pesto you can eat when the garden is overflowing with ingredients!

To freeze, put it in a quart freezer bag, flatten it, and lay it flat in the freezer until it’s solid. Then you can stand it up like a book on a shelf and save space that way. I have a plastic bin that I ‘shelve’ mine in. I do this with everything I freeze in baggies, like fruit and chiles, too.

Make room in your garden plan this winter for lots of basil, greens, cilantro, and peppers!
Is ThreeFold a Token Scam?
By: Lucien Lecarme
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Scam, Threefold, Token Sale, Internet

Is ThreeFold a Token Scam?

ThreeFold Project Examined From a Critical Point of View

ThreeFold’s website ( Screenprint: Author)

ThreeFold token project is about building a new decentralized storage & capacity Internet. Among other crypto projects, it stands out for its ambitious call to become the new Internet for everyone — by everyone. Is threefold the resurrection of Tim Berners-Lee dream of a sovereign Internet for all, or do hidden red flags signal the way to what might be yet another crypto scam, The ThreeFold Token Scam?

Read more here >>>

Thank you for your attention and have a lovely day

Lucien Lecarme
Super Mario Maker: a learning design pattern
By: Shaun Thompson
Tags: Instructional Design, Videogames, Education, Design Patterns, Learning Design

LEARNING DESIGN PATTERN

Imagine a student is in their first year of university. They haven’t narrowed down a major area of study yet, so their classes are still quite varied.

On a particularly busy day, they are asked to consider the following four problems in four different tutorial sessions.

Write a program that accepts 10 test scores from a student, removes the highest and lowest scores, and then calculates the average of the remaining scores. Discuss whether Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby is great, and why. Work out what basic cipher is being used in this message, and decipher it: NFFU NF BU UIF TUBUJPO A class has to vote in a secret ballot to select a class president, a vice president, and 4 (equally ranked) prefects. There are 10 nominated students up for election. What is the probability that two randomly selected students vote the exact same way?

Many people would agree that one of these four tutorials stands out clearly against the other three. The Gatsby question probably came up in a literature subject, whereas the other three would appear in STEM-based classes.

Building on that, we can unpack the differences a little further, to three (very related) ways the Gatsby challenge diverges from the others.

Difference #1 The Gatsby question would easily spark a lot of discussion — and probably even some fierce debate — in the tutorial. The others might prompt some quiet working out with each learner’s own pen/paper/device. Sure, they might work together if they were made to…

Difference #2 As they stand, the three STEM questions don’t naturally prompt the learners to build their understanding together. Learners in these classes might work together to try things out, to think creatively, and to teach each other while they learn. Or, they might not. In contrast, the Gatsby question starts with a word that is powerful in any tutorial: Discuss.

Difference #3 All of the questions — other than the Gatsby one — essentially have a correct answer that isn’t up for debate.
Will It Be Worth It?
By: Camille Deputter
Tags: Permission, Encouragement, Storytelling, Writing

So what do you think… should you do it?

Should you write that book you’ve been thinking about…

Should you share that story you’ve been keeping to yourself….

Should you follow that idea that doesn’t seem to be going away…

I can’t answer that question for you, but I can share a couple things I’ve learned.

1. Sometimes we just need someone to hear all our doubts and say, “yes, yes, go ahead.”

There’s plenty of reasons to not do it. Making time for creative projects can seem indulgent, or selfish. Pursuing a dream project that is uncertain or unlikely to “pay off” might seem silly, even reckless.

Look, I write a lot. I’ve written two books, over two years of newsletters, many years of blog posts, and lots more. And even I struggle with this one from time to time.

Knowing that none of us is alone in that feeling, I actually built a permission page right into my workbook, Share Your Story. Because sometimes that’s exactly what we need: someone to tell us to just go ahead and make the thing, no matter what.

Luckily, I had a friend give me “permission” and encouragement to write my latest book, contrary to all the reasons I thought I shouldn’t. He even wrote a blog post about it, here: Little Poems for Big Hearts.

So here’s the deal, if you’re looking for permission to make your thing, you have mine.

2. Still, you might wonder — with good reason — will it be worth it?

Making your own thing isn’t always easy. In fact, a lot of the time, it can be hard.

The writing process can be long. If you’re writing about difficult, highly personal, or sensitive subjects, it can be emotionally taxing.

If you want to get published, you may have a long road ahead as you chase that goal. And if you’re self-publishing, you have a lot to consider, including editing, design, publishing software, marketing, sales, shipping, etc. This can take time and resources — possibly more than you might expect.

Like any challenging undertaking that requires us to dig deep and keep going, there are a number of “Things it Might Be”:

3. So will it be worth it? Heck yeah, it probably will be.

I told you I can’t answer the question “should you do it?”.

But I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that if you love the thing you’re making, if you really believe in it, then it will probably be worth it.

There are no guarantees of “success,” however you define that. You might not get rich or make money or be well-received or any of that.

But I’ve come to find that if you put your heart into something, your heart is usually repaid.

That’s how I felt with the launch of Little Poems for Big Hearts.

As I prepared and shipped my books out to my first batch customers, I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude and fulfillment.

“Yes,” I nodded to myself. “It was definitely worth it.”

Finally, I’ll wrap this up with a picture from the new book. If you’re working hard on a project, pursuing a dream, or putting your heart into your work, this is for you:
What is Seal?
By: Desley Mooij
Tags: Nfc, Blockchain, Ethereum, Seal, Token

Everyone deserves to get what they pay for. When you pay a high price for a brand-name product, you expect that product to be genuine. When you discover that your upmarket purchase is substandard, you’re either going to realise that you’ve been duped into buying a cheaply-made knock-off or you’re going to lose your trust in the brand. Both cases result in a loss of consumer confidence in the brand and/or the retailer who sold you the counterfeit item.

As frustrating as unintentionally buying a knock-off Gucci handbag or Hugo Boss suit can be, counterfeit goods impact our lives in far more sinister, and even fatal, ways.

At Seal, we’ve devoted ourselves to protecting the value of the world’s most beloved brands. So we developed a product authentication platform that combines two cutting-edge technologies: blockchain and near-field communication (NFC).

Brands will find it easy to add Seal’s supply-chain information into their production and distribution processes. Retailers will be able to integrate it into their ordering and sales systems swiftly. Consumers will appreciate its ease of use and, of course, the assurance that they’re buying genuine brand-name goods. Sellers on the secondary market will value the trust that Seal provides.

Throughout a Seal-authenticated product’s existence, each of its owner can officially register and claim ownership of that product for a micropayment in Seal Tokens (SEAL), facilitating theft protection and insurance processes.

Four components drive the Seal platform:

● The Seal Chip is embedded in physical products to identify them and validate their authenticity

● The Seal App, which anyone can install on a NFC-compatible smartphone

● The Seal Token (SEAL) is the medium of exchange between the different parts of the platform

● The Seal Network is an immutable blockchain database, the nodes of which record and validate all transactions involving products containing the Seal Chip
Taimi Upgrades Its Livestreams with a Promising LIVE DUET Feature
Tags: Streaming, Social Network, Livestream, Dating App, LGBTQ

Taimi, the biggest LGBTQ+ platform that features a social network and a dating app, launched livestreaming at the end of August. After just two months, Taimi significantly upgraded its in-app livestreams with the launch of Live Duet. The feature allows Taimi users to join any streams via video.

Live Duet can be a universal tool for anyone on the LGBTQ+ platform, be it influencers who can use the feature to get to know their audience better or people looking to connect more organically.
A brief Stint
Tags: Poetry, Snow, Heart, Ballad, Poem

A Ballad

My coffee was hot, my hands began to warm,

My strides became careful, as I exited the shop,

Looked up at the sky, was ladened with heavy snow,

Looked down at my side, aware of my longing eyes filling hope.

Ignoring, kept on walking, leaving that memory behind,

Sat down in my chair, my office nearby,

Sipped down my coffee, thinking of that less fortunate man,

The warmth of my coffee began to leave my hand.

Snow fell covered hair, frost-tipped eyelashes,

Cheeks turned red, and lips blue,

Thoughts of a reprieve, for some change, granted from nature,

ignored while standing in the cold, ooh!

Mind returned unsettled, I backtracked,

Him standing there, tall and slim,

End of the day, returned for a coffee and a meal packed,

This time it was for him.

I caught a light, a gleam within his eyes, lips pursed a quiet thank you,

He rushed by in his cottage, sat next to the hearth,

Reached for the cup and gulped down his stew,

I walked back to my car, heart filled with warmth.
ABCD….. Fundamentals of digital ads.
By: Sagar Grover
Tags: Advertising, Design, Communication Design, Growth Hacking, Digital Marketing

in Both Sides of the Table
學思達國小英文科教學理念
Tags: 英文, Education, 分科應用, Sharestart

in Both Sides of the Table
Stellar vs Ripple
Tags: Ripple, Stellar, Cryptocurrency

DIFFERENCES

The main distinction stands in the ventures’ objectives. While Ripple deals with transfers between financial institutions, Stellar’s focus is on the low-cost transactions between currencies in less developed countries via its native asset, the Lumen (XLM). Ripple’s mission is to substitute common monetary transfer procedures, such as SWIFT and encourage banks to use and buy XRP in exchange for lower costs, higher speed and omission of a third party, and to tackle the present liquidity issues.

Secondly, the way consensus is reached differs from a blockchain, as Ripple uses “Proof-of-Correctness” and Stellar the “Stellar Consensus protocol” to validate transactions through nodes. From this stems the matter of being a centralized vs decentralized network, Ripple is the former since it has a previously endorsed index of nodes to trust. On the contrary, Stellar does not have a chief agency specifying a list, but the network is based on shared trust, and consensus and is being built by nodes that join in. Stellar is therefore able to cope with the limitations of traditional banking.

Whilst Stellar is supported by a non-profit, Ripple is generally considered to be profit-based because of its focus on financial institutions, and its XRP is deflationary as the amount will eventually decrease owing to the fact that XRP disappears once it is spent.
I Am Free
By: Kavya Janani. U
Tags: Introspection, Poetry, Poetry On Medium, Poem, Self Love

I Am Free

Poetry

Image Source: Pixabay

I stand amidst the clouds.

The angels bring me swan-quills

And ink from Calliope's veins.

I weave my soliloquy

on the parchments,

And Zeus watches over me.

The fairies sing me hymns,

while I wonder at this

Explosive independence

that danced its way towards me.

I am free to write,

Free to choose,

Free to listen,

Free to express,

Free to love,

Free to hope,

and free to sleep.

Oh, is this heaven?

Or, is it an alternate dimension?

Is this a black hole,

that when I wake up

I'd find myself twenty years

Into my past

and relive my life?

But, this is freedom.

Yes, freedom it is.

And nothing fancy

as I mentioned above.

Although the scars

of yesterday remain,

I still open picnic blankets

And place bowls of liberty on them.

These beings never tie my tongue.

They let me howl and wail.

I can conjure up a lagoon

Of hope and happiness here.

Fireworks of independence

dance on my fingertips,

as I finally get to decide

For myself, by myself.
Déjà Vécu
By: Giulia De Gregorio Listo
Tags: Life Lessons, Self-awareness, Poetry, Life

Déjà Vécu

A Poem

“Déjà Vú” by Zhang Hongnian

A ruffling wind opened my windows this morning.

It knew I would not, I could not,

So it did, baffling the curtains and the glass of my room.

The light came in with such violence I was startled.

You see, I paint my view very carefully as an artist with only one canvas left

And a multitude of years ahead. Every strike of ink seems like has been done

Before and, sometimes, better than the ones I’ve performed.

I look at the wall in front of me, pale and silent, and a gallery of walls extend

In the halls of my mind with all the conversations I’ve ever let ricochet.

Walls of places I cannot name or date but I recall as if, in bored afternoons,

I memorized every detail, the design of the tiles, the rusty balustrades,

The smells of people that shared those rooms with me although their faces

Did not fixate in my mind with the same luxury of details.

They’re the blurred strokes. Some even painted over, for the sake of oblivion.

For the sake of moving on.

There are days, like today, when the wind has to wake me in order to force me

To look out the window and paint a little bit more this old canvas.

The fabric has holes here and there, frayed and grimy.

It drinks solvent with indifference as an old dog does an old trick

For the same old treat. It is not the flavor anymore, just routine.

It seems like I’ve painted distinct scenarios for the same people,

That I’ve painted them diverse faces in order to capture their disguise.

The talks have been talked with lower tones and other names, but still,

In essence, all has been said before and will be said again.

The love aches will find their way back as dying wasps crying for help.

Each broken heart discharges a swarm of pain.

You’ll find new stings your whole life.

I feel I’ve opened many doors before and I never actually closed them.

There’s always a gap, a subterfuge for it all to come back, knocking,

Pretending they need an invitation and I pretend it’s all new,

We introduce each other, we play the “first-time” game but,

Truth is, we’re just living the same thing over again.
Lessons from the Fyre
Tags: Social Media, Fyre Festival, Influencer Marketing, Startup

with Marc Weinstein

We had the opportunity to speak with Marc Weinstein (entrepreneur, venture capitalist, start-up advisor, and Fyre’s music festival consultant) at 1880.

Marc Nicholson (Founder, 1880) with Marc Weinstein

Here are 2 questions from the evening:

We’ve all been in situations where we feel like something is going down and we know we can say something about it but we didn’t. Was there that point for you?

A lot of the reflection I’ve been doing has been distilled to internal versus external. Intuition is often ignored and rationalised away for external desires. We often encounter situations where we trust someone more than we trust ourselves, and that was where I was at that time of my life. I was not feeling uber confident, I was on my second startup company which was teetering on the edge of failure, my first one had failed, so I really wanted a win. I ignored a lot of the signs. Had I been more grateful of what I had or more confident in myself I would have said something.

I met someone at Open Circles, her name is Erika Cheung. She was one of the whistleblowers for Theranos. This was a 23-year-old woman and when she first brought problems to the senior management she was dismissed and told that she was too young and inexperienced. Seven months in she voted with her feet — she quit; and took it a step further by writing a letter to the regulators. This woman is my hero, to have the fortitude to stand up and say this is not right and I’m going to do something about it.

Lessons from the Fyre at 1880

Why has a fairly obscure failed endeavour caught the attention of the world? Why does anyone care about Fyre?

It comes down to the influencer culture and the toxic worship of the entrepreneur — the new hero in society who went from zero to one thousand. Those 2 combined and we have entered this perverse, outcome-driven American Dream or World Dream. Talk to me about real issues, not about a bunch of people on an island who didn’t get the experience they wanted.

Special thanks to Open Circles for this collaboration.
Back
By: Cam Cheline
Tags: Struggle, Relationships, Together, Coronavirus, Personal

I know. I took a whole year off and I’m posting maybe once a month.

Well, a lot has happened this year. 2020 was supposed to be super cool. I mean, come on, 2020. We all high high hopes for that number.

It’s done nothing but disappoint. I left 2019 on top of the world. I had a hot girlfriend, was killing it at work (still am) could walk outside, breath the fresh air, also I got a break from my amazing, beautiful, hilarious and life-changing son at least 8 HOURS A DAY.

Damn you coronavirus.

I have been so proud of who I am, where I am and what I’m doing with my life. But man, this has been a beat down. From parenting to dating to just my drive as a person in life, I have felt defeated. I have stumbled, failed, just flat out fucked up in so many areas. I would love to throw it all at this global virus, but I was already working from home, still have a job and have people in my life I care about, so I’m the least that should be affected right?

Lots of posts are going out that either say you should be doing life-changing things with your free time or do you think Carole Baskin from Tiger King killed her husband? I lean towards yes, but he did say he was gonna pull off this big stunt ever if he got away with it.
Self-Care Is Much More Than Face Masks And Bubble Baths
By: Patrícia S. Williams
Tags: Mindfulness, Self Improvement, Personal Growth, Self, Life

Living in the digital age, we’re constantly bombarded with trends to follow. One of those trends is self-care. Every influencer posts a legs-in-bathtub shot, generally displaying a wine bottle and beautifully laid-out food. We’re told to buy a face mask and to take care of ourselves.

While I do agree with raising awareness about how important it is to prioritize our needs, I can’t stand this superficial version of self-care. Not only because it has no depth, but also because it is rooted in the consumerist society we live in. As if our well-being depended on beauty products or on an elegant bath setup.

In my teenage years, I too believed I had to consume to feel good. The underlying message in every magazine or TV show was that I was never good enough or pretty enough. I had to buy more trendy clothes. I had to have a beauty routine. I had to spend more money on items I didn’t even know I needed.

Time went by, and I slowly realized none of those things made me feel good in the long run.

Now I see self-care as something much deeper: doing what restores and improves my mental and emotional health. Reading. Meditating. Watering and misting my plants. Doing yoga. Cooking a healthy, delicious meal. Planning my next trip. Spending time with my dog. Cuddling with my boyfriend.

However, it’s a paradox. When it comes to the real, deep version of self-care, people tend to think it’s selfish. We’re selfish if we think we deserve some me time, regardless of how exhausted we feel. As a society, we see self-care as a guilty pleasure, not as a key part of our well-being.

“Many of my friends and patients need extra encouragement to practice self-care because they see it as selfish. Self-care involves checking in with yourself and asking, ‘What am I feeling?’ and ‘What do I need?’ when many women are more accustomed to asking ‘What is my child (or spouse or parent or colleague) feeling and what do they need and how can I meet that need?’” — Barb Depree, in What’s the difference between self-care and self-indulgence?

Ironically, as cliché as it sounds, we can’t pour from an empty cup. So try to ask yourself:
Sip Tea With Me
By: Lynda Coker
Tags: Life Lessons, Poetry, Friendship, Relationships, Aging

I write about a better world, a better life, a better me — attitudes and actions that matter, then — I write to breathe. Oh, and I make up stories too.

Follow
You Were My Boyfriend And It Was Sexual Assualt
By: Kirstie Taylor
Tags: Sex, Psychology, Self, Love, Relationships

It was 4 am, I was dead asleep. I heard Smith come into the room. He climbed on top of me, his 6'4" body pinning me down under the blankets. I groggily woke up and asked what he was doing. Smith shushed me and raised the sheets. I felt his hand slide between my legs.

I told him to stop; I was tired and needed sleep. I could smell the alcohol on Smith’s breath as he told me to be quiet; as he took off my underwear and rubbed himself against me.

I firmly told Smith to get off, but he insisted I lay there and take it from him. We had issues in our relationships, one of them being sex. He told me I should want this, that he was giving me what I asked for.

I didn’t want to start an argument, so I laid there. Let Smith force himself into me and waited for it to be over. I asked him to please be more gentle; he ignored me. I heard his breathing become faster, the groaning more intense. Then he made the familiar sound of a job complete, but still inside me. My heart sunk.

Smith knew I wasn’t on birth control. He knew he had zero permission to finish inside me.

I pushed him off of me, ran to the bathroom, and cried.

By the time I got back to bed, Smith was asleep.

In the morning, he told me I was irrational. “I’m your boyfriend.” It’s his right to have sex with me. Plus, I’d complained we weren’t sexually connected.

I justified Smith’s actions. I told myself he was drunk (and later I found out, on acid). That made him coming into our bedroom at 4 am and finishing inside me against my will ok. I forgave him as I took Plan B and let the situation go as he expected.

Because, after all, he’s my boyfriend. Sex is part of the deal.
App Clips in iOS14 — Mobile Apps Made Instant
By: Akashlal Bathe
Tags: Swift, Programming, iOS, WWDC, App Development

App Clips in iOS14 — Mobile Apps Made Instant

A WWDC20 Swift session walkthrough

Illustration via the Apple Developer Documentation

This article is a short text summary of the WWDC20 session.

App clips were introduced in iOS 14, helping more people discover apps on the go by almost instantly downloading a part of the app to do some task.

Unlike apps, app clips can’t be opened from the home screen. They’re launched with app-clip URLs, which are handled via app clips instead of a browser. These URLs can be either embedded in NFC tags, processed into QR code/app-clip code(which can be scanned or tapped with the power of NFC , FYI), or just forwarded via iMessages.

App Store submissions enforce that app clips must be very small in size — <10 MB. Earlier, applications needed to be installed, signed in, and set up before usage. App clips make it possible for someone to, say, scan a QR code to almost instantly download your app clip to use it, making it an overall smoother experience.

For developers, app clips require the creation of a second application target in Xcode that contains all of the necessary code to handle the app-clip experience. This is native Swift code, written either in SwiftUI or UIKit, meaning you could use a part of your app’s existing code for your app clips.

App clips are an additive feature to apps — meaning you need an app to make an app clip. App clips can’t be submitted to the App Store on their own. They need to be submitted as part of the app review process.

App clips in iOS 14 and apps are mutually exclusive — it’s possible to download the app clip without downloading the entire app, which is the whole point. However, if the app is already installed, the app clip URL will open up the relevant part of the application instead of downloading the app clip.

One app can have only one app clip —the URLs can be configured to open up specific parts of the app.
NFL’s “Inspire Change” Is Customary Whiteness Endorsed By Roc Nation
Tags: Race, White Supremacy, Equality, Youth, BlackLivesMatter

NFL’s “Inspire Change” Is Customary Whiteness Endorsed By Roc Nation

So Black hairstyles need to be transformed to white acceptable styles to inspire positive “better life” changes?

Photo by Innoh Khumbuza from Pexels

Want to spot an organization that is all or mostly all white at the highest levels?

Wait for something touted as jaw-dropping innovation that perpetuate traditional, stagnant whiteness. And so it sinks like a quickly deflating blow up doll.

These doltish, white supremacy ideas being slanted as benefiting Black people is not a new concept. This is not the eureka lightbulb.

Roc Nation and the NFL recently announced two organizations they will be donating a whopping $200,000 each that empower “at-risk youth” and one of the ones announced was Crusher’s Club.

This particular organization does not seem to have a goal of aiding the youth, but of ensuring assimilation, so that a white centered society can continue to thrive in the US.

A tweet that went viral from 2016 shows founder of Crusher’s Club, Sally Hazelgrove, cutting a Black teen’s locs. Optics of this are bad enough, from a white woman cutting off a Black person’s hairstyle with what appears to be children’s scissors, but the wording cemented it as offensive.
Dead Rising 4 is One of the Best Games That Killed a Franchise
By: Alex Rowe
Tags: Marketing, Gaming, Videogames, Technology, Zombies

I love Dead Rising.

It’s a phenomenal zombie action open world franchise, with a design that was a bit ahead of market norms. Dead Rising is a large-scale single-player-centric open world game. It casts you as a man of action surrounded by the undead. You have just your wits, a pile of weapons made from everyday objects, and your ever-growing skill tree at your disposal.

Most of the games also make wonderful use of time, unlike nearly every other game set in a large world. Time is always ticking along, and the story advances whether you make it to where you’re supposed to be or you don’t. Challenging bosses with weird backstories, a quirky sense of humor, and the thrill of trying new weapons propel you through the multiple playthroughs required to see everything.

Dead Rising 4 mixed things up a little bit. It still features stalwart off-and-on-again protagonist Frank West, a cynical journalist who is really good at killing zombies. He’s older in Dead Rising 4, and more snarky, and now voiced by film and TV actor Ty Olsson. He brings some good energy to the role, even though the change of casting was considered a mistake by some.

The biggest design change to Dead Rising 4 was the heavy reduction of the time mechanic. Again, I love the time limit in Dead Rising. I linked an entire article I wrote about it earlier in this piece. It gives the games a desperate panic-inducing feel that helps immerse you in the experience of surviving a zombie outbreak. It also reminds me of old FMV games that relied on a clock, like Night Trap.