fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Telling Your Story With Data
Tags: Urban Planning, GIS, Big Data Analytics, Big Data, Data Analysis

Telling Your Story With Data

Normalization: What is it and why does it matter?

Data is one of the most powerful tools we have for making decisions, but as Uncle Ben once said to Spiderman, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

The problem with data is that the way it’s displayed can sometimes be misleading and confusing. When used correctly, normalization can make data easier to understand.

So, what exactly is normalization?

Simply said:

Normalization makes your data comparable.

Let’s look at an example. Below is a map showing ‘Total Households Below Poverty Level’ at the state level (use the tools on the map to zoom in and explore).

As you can see, Texas has significantly more households below poverty level (1.4 million) than Mississippi (230,000), but Texas also has significantly more households. Since Texas has a population of 26 million, and Mississippi has a population of 3 million, it is nearly impossible to meaningfully compare the two states based on raw household data.

If we take that same dataset, ‘Total Households Below Poverty Line’ and normalize (divide) by ‘Total Households’, we create ‘Percentage of Households Below Poverty Level’.

Take a look at the map below.

The selected states now show percentages of households below poverty level. We can see that Mississippi, at 21%, has a higher percentage of households below poverty than Texas, at 16%.

The big takeaway: It’s important to interpret data in the universe in which it exists. Normalization makes your data comparable across different geographies and makes it easier to spot trends.

Remember: Don’t let the process or the complicated nature of data analysis intimidate you. With powerfully simple analysis tools, anyone can make sense of and understand data.

Like this article? Subscribe to our newsletter to read more like it here.

About mySidewalk: mySidewalk is a data analysis tool for people who want to understand places. With the ability to access more than 800 sets of pre-loaded data, perform one-click analysis, and instantly share insight, it’s easy for anyone to make better decisions using data. To learn more about the type of work we are doing, visit our website.
Scalable Vector Graphics(SVG)
By: Samantha Lurio
Tags: Coding, Beginner Coding, SVG, Scalable Vector Graphics, JavaScript

The Basics

Computer graphics are either a bitmap graphic or a vector graphic.

Bitmaps are made of pixels, while vector images are software-created and based on mathematical calculations.

A bitmap graphic is a graphic composed of pixels. Which explains why some graphics can appear pixelated depending on their resolution. Vector graphics are basically shapes written in code that can maintain their quality when being scaled up or down unlike a bitmap graphic.

Some bitmap graphic file types are .png, .jpg, .jpeg. For vector graphics, the file type is .svg. That comes with no surprises 🙂.

Twitter’s logo is a popular vector graphic I am sure you have seen!

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)

What really is a SVG? Developer modzilla says it best…

it’s a text-based, open Web standard for describing images that can be rendered cleanly at any size and are designed specifically to work well with other web standards including CSS, DOM, JavaScript, and SMIL. SVG is, essentially, to graphics what HTML is to text.

So now that we know what a scalable vector graphic is. How can we use it? SVGs are used to make some amazing animations and graphics. As beginners, let us create a basic SVG.

The Syntax

The first step is the SVG element <svg></svg> in your Html file. The SVG element is the container where we create the graphic. There are two main attributes viewBox and xmlns .

ViewBox

Viewbox has four attributes: x coordinate, y coordinate, width, height . These create and define where the graphic’s position and dimensions are.

xmlns

This specifies the xml namespace for a document. This attribute must always be included in the opening SVG tag.

SVG Basic Shapes

Below are the basic SVG shapes used for drawing. As an example, I will use the circle tag. To see the syntax for all shapes below, click this link.

<circle/>

<rectangle/>

<ellipse/>

<line/>

<polyline/>

<polygon/>

<path/>

The circle element sounds like what it does, it renders a circle on the screen! It takes 3 basic parameters to determine the shape and size of the element, r is the radius of the circle, cx is the x position of the center of the circle, and cy is the y position of the circle as below.

index.html <svg viewBox="0 0 100 100" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"> <circle cx="50" cy="50" r="35" /> </svg>

I want my circle to be center to the viewBox so I made the cx and cy both, which will appear like below! I added a little CSS so we can see the viewBox border and make it a little more presentable.

That looks great, but wouldn’t it be even cooler if we could layer more circles? It is as simple as just adding more circle tags.

<svg viewBox="0 0 100 100" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"> <circle cx="50" cy="50" r="35" /> <circle cx="50" cy="50" r="20" /> <circle cx="50" cy="50" r="5" /> </svg>

which will give you…. this!
Why Build Products?
By: James Van Dyne
Tags: Product Design, Makers, Entrepreneurship, Startup

Given the choice to work more after a long day or watch the latest episode of Game of Thrones, most will pick the later. Some, however, do not. They instead choose to build. They write, they edit, they draw, they code, they imagine. Why?

Inside most Product People there’s this need to create. A desire to hone our craft. To make something from seemingly nothing. Profit is always a nice goal, but timelines aren’t strict.

Doing things right is more important than deadlines.

Others come to product from a pure profit mindset. They can still be successful product makers, but the road will be less fulfilling.

Part of sculpting your products is how your products sculpt the maker. How have you changed? What have you learned?

With Kwoosh we’re pouring everything we’ve learned about software into it. Over 30 collective years of tinkering, making and testing things out. And while profit is a destination on our road map, it’s not the destination.

First and foremost our goal is the build a useful product that helps us and our customers make better software. Once we can do that, we are confident we can find profit.

In the end, profit may mean we only made $2–3 an hour when bootstrapping, but we march forward. We dream. We build. We create. We are Product People
Learning to Walk
By: Pablo Pereyra
Tags: Warm Hearts, Poetry, Society, Forgiveness, Self

Now I wonder.

In this time of chaos and pain,

When we are hurting one another,

Daggers sharpened thirsty for blood,

If may-be the time,

To begin to forgive,

Before the offender,

Our brother, our sister,

Even gets to repent.

I know.

It is a bold statement.

What do we do with the cheater?

What do we do with the one who consciously enough discriminates against us?

What about the authority figure who is only happy when his or her feet are over our throat?

How do we resist while forgiving?

I don’t remember if this happened to me or if I dreamt it.

Someone was attacking me. I grabbed this person by their arms. Then, I held this person against my chest.

For those who know martial arts,

There is a small difference between grappling someone and a hug.

Grappling looks to dominate and control.

While the hug attempts to hold, connect, perceive the other.

Should I forgive?

Should I be forgiven?

When did we act without malice?

When is the hunger too much,

And we steal, and then we kill?

Of course, ultimately, this is a very personal question.

I suspect, to forgive in such a way, we need to be willing to let go of the past. To not to keep a record of wrongs. To ultimately let go of the aggressor.

Maybe to keep a memory of the steps that took us into the predicament that led to a particular situation.

Like we live among humans. And many of us are deaf and blind. And they, like us, are learning to walk.
Warm the Frostiest Benches of Cold-Hearted Storms
By: Francine Fallara
Tags: Inspiration, Poetry, Meditation, One Line, Motivation

As emotionless as life can become, keep on walking the insecure icy crispy nonlinear traverses, offer yourself vital mind-body breaks, and warm the frostiest benches of cold-hearted storms.
Masks
By: Erik Smith
Tags: Masks, Snapshot, Photography

Level 5 Security- Red zones only

photo by Erik Smith

photo by Erik Smith

Well, if it’s just hangin’ there it’s not doing any harm, but it’s not doin’ any good either, is it??

Come to think of it- there’s another benefit to this: none of us has to see each other chewing gum anymore. (and better stop blowing gumbubbles- you’ll néver get that stuff out of your mask)

photo by Erik Smith

Yep- a mask wearers best friend! Try peppermint…or lavender if you will ;-D

#If times are troubled, follow reasonable rules and regulations with a smirk and a wink- but follow them nonetheless…if it helps to fight Covid, it’s worth your effort!
An Overview of Selected Real Analysis Texts
By: Joshua Siktar
Tags: Math, Book Review, Research, Teaching And Learning, Graduate School

Real analysis, more than any other subject of math I’ve encountered, has been illuminating to me as to why math is cool. At least at the basic level I’ve found the results of real analysis to be intuitive and the proofs elegant, even if said proofs were often far more than straightforward applications of the definitions. This is in contrast to abstract algebra, where I found my first exposure to the subject to be overwhelming and unintuitive. That’s not to say it’s bad or unimportant, just that studying analysis relatively early on was more conducive to my desire to study more math, and in fact begin a PhD in mathematics.

The undergraduate-level real analysis sequence I took during my sophomore year at Carnegie Mellon laid a foundation for other courses I took later, including complex analysis and measure theory. I will also be taking my first functional analysis course next semester at the University of Tennessee. Through all this coursework I’ve amassed a collection of books in these different facets of analysis, and wanted to share some of them. I want to compare and contrast five of them, emphasizing what level of background is needed for each book. That way you have some guidance if you’re looking to add another book to your collection for self-study, or maybe even to teach a course in your home math department.

I’m not going to rank the books against each other because they all have slightly different audiences and approaches to writing about mathematics. The content also varies widely from book to book. Instead I’ll alphabetize them by the authors’ last names.
Insights on Presenting Data and Research to Your Audience
By: Shahneela Shaukat
Tags: Google, UX, Data Visualization, UX Design, Web Design

Insights on Presenting Data and Research to Your Audience

Webfox Issue 3 | Think With Google

Welcome the the third issue of Webfox. This week, rather than looking at an entire website, we will look at one landing page on Think With Google.

Think With Google is Google’s content hub aimed at marketing professionals. It’s full of rich content across different countries, regions, industries, business sizes, and audiences.

We will discuss their featured article What Makes People Around the World Click “Add to Cart”? This page presents information on Google’s research study on online shopping habits. It’s an interesting look into presenting data and research to users in an intuitive way.

The Experience
Which Android Animator to Use?. A guide to decide which Animator class…
Tags: Mobile, Java, Programming, Android, Kotlin

2. Use ObjectAnimator for Repeating Animation

If you only want to animate one view and one basic animation, but you want it to repeat, use ObjectAnimator .

ObjectAnimator.ofFloat(txt_animate,

View.ROTATION_X, 0f, 3600f).apply {

duration = 5000

interpolator = AccelerateDecelerateInterpolator()

repeatCount = INFINITE

repeatMode = REVERSE

start()

}

Animate infinitely and reverse the animation each time.

This is the most commonly used animation approach. It forms the base of the most basic animation. Unlike ViewPropertyAnimator , it has a start animate value, so it’s repeatable.

As shown above, it’s still limited to basic animation, as the View Properties (e.g. View.ROTATION_X ) are limited to ALPHA, X, Y, Z, TRANSITION_X, TRANSITION_Y, TRANSITION_Z, ROTATION_X, ROTATION_Y, ROTATION, SCALE_X, SCALE_Z . For more information see the article below:

Animating any property

If we need other property types to be animated too, we could use the reflective approach, where we just provide the string name of the properties to ObjectAnimator as below (i.e. textColor ).

ObjectAnimator.ofArgb(

txt_animate, "textColor",

Color.parseColor("#FFFF0000"), Color.parseColor("#FF0000FF")

).apply {

duration = 5000

interpolator = AccelerateDecelerateInterpolator()

repeatCount = INFINITE

repeatMode = REVERSE

start()

}

Animate on the text color from red to blue

The above shows an example of animation on textColor using the ofArgb functions on ObjectAnimator . This makes ObjectAnimator relatively powerful and capable of animating properties of any view.

Nonetheless, it is preferable to use the given Property View for animation using the reflection approach, as it has better performance.

XML based object Animator

We could also use XML to define our object animator:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<objectAnimator

xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"

android:interpolator="@android:interpolator/accelerate_decelerate"

android:repeatCount="infinite"

android:repeatMode="reverse"

android:duration="5000"

android:propertyName="textColor"

android:valueFrom="#FFFF0000"

android:valueTo="#FF0000FF"

android:valueType="colorType"/>

Then load the XML using the following code:
Introducing The Crème of The Coffeelicious
By: Editor Coffeelicious
Tags: Call For Submissions, The Coffeelicious, The Crème

Want to be considered for The Crème?

Look at the photograph below. Tell me something about it.

Feel free to choose whatever medium speaks to you, be it fiction, non-fiction, poetry, visual art, spoken word, video, audio, any mix of the above, or anything I’ve left out.

If you can create it, I want you to submit it.

Make this your best work yet. There is plenty of time to submit a response, and I want only the most polished example of what you can do.

Now go and make something amazing.

Your Prompt

RULES

Do not begin unless you intend to finish.

This group of thirty will be the cream of the crop and I will expect results that reflect this. Each piece you submit to The Crème will be subject to an editorial process that helps you up your game as a creator, regardless of your chosen medium.

That includes pitching, revisions (as many as it takes to get to your best), and a dedication to promoting your work across all social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube, etc.

I will work as hard as you do, but if you don’t want to operate at that level, don’t submit.

2. This will be a team of thirty top creators, so I want us to act like one. Promote others’ work as well as your own.

We succeed or fail together.

3. A bit of a technical thing, but if accepted, you’ll be invited to join a Slack group specifically for The Crème. Join by downloading the free app or using it in your web browser of choice.

I want us to communicate as a team and develop ideas as a team, so we need a space for us to chat as a team.

Submit your art as a response below.

Submissions will be accepted until July 4th at midnight EST.

Members of The Crème will be announced by submission title on July 31 on The Coffeelicious.
Can Your Relationship Pass the Test of Time?
By: Jaye Frances
Tags: Happiness, Life, Love, Life Lessons, Relationships

One of my favorite sanctuaries lies on the west coast of the U.S.

Located a few miles north of the California border, this restful and inspiring respite is one of the few locations where nature found a way to ward off humanity’s best efforts to leave its mark.

Long stretches of beach reflect the sunrise off lightly-treaded sand while rolling waves from a glistening ocean wash against craggy cliffs separating the lush forest from the sea. Scattered piles of sun-bleached driftwood break the landscape with texture and shape, leaving undeniable evidence of the ocean’s power and underlying disruptive force.

It was during a recent visit that I remembered seeing them — together — on the same vacant stretch of beach.

From my vantage point on the cliff above, I’d noticed the elderly couple carefully making their way down a steep trail created from stepping-stone rocks and gravel — a make-shift staircase to the sand.

The woman held on to a walking stick, occasionally digging it into the hillside for added stability. The man kept a grip on her elbow, guiding her with steady support.

With every step I held my breath, watching them slip a few inches on the loose dirt, then grab the nearest low branch to maintain their balance. Persistent in their efforts, they continued making their way down the trail until, finally, both were on solid ground.
Magic Within My Migraine
By: Katherine Grace
Tags: Self Love, Self-awareness, Migraines, Magic, Self

Dear One,

I spent all of last week within the icy, raging grasp of a migraine. Trying different combinations of medications and cool wet rags on my brow in a dark, quiet bedroom. I did find some good measurement of relief in a round-the-clock Benadryl and Tylenol combo. Some relief, but not enough really.

I am beyond grateful to share with you that we figured out what the trigger was and were able to remove it from our home last Friday. By Saturday evening I was not only migraine, but headache free!

I was blessed by those days of darkness though.

Laying there, blind from pain and that cool damp rag, I had nowhere to go but within — so I traveled deeply.

There is healing in traveling within IF you are able to carry a heart full of self-compassion and curiosity.

I found my way into healing pools of the sweetest rose scented waters within.

I cried silent, soft tears for hours as I witnessed my grief.

I slept in the arms of Divine love and woke to the damp nose of a dog who loves me more than I can ever love to love myself.

It was, in many ways, beautiful.

Below is a poem that emerged from those moments:

The never ending tumult, the battering between my bones tore me apart… again within that abyss i refound myself… again i fell down on my knees and kissed the dark, wet Earth, whispering “Thank you . Thank you” over and over as tears of gratitude for this amazing life, this resilient body this most grateful and hopeful heart

In the few moments of mental clarity that were gifted to me last week, I spent most of them working on my new planner. Plenty of space for my mundane AND my magic. Places to reflect, to daydream and to conjure. Places to take note and places to release.

It is exactly what I’ve been needing. I’ll be sharing it with you when it’s done, because maybe it’s exactly what you’ve been needing too ❤

It’s been a week, for sure, and now here in Washington state we are having to go back into Covid lockdown again — all thanks to the thousands of people refusing to wear masks and social distance.

I’m exhausted from worrying about catching this thing.

I really want to be free from it, but we aren’t yet.

Why won’t folks act appropriately, protect themselves and others?…

Please, stay socially distant, wear your mask, and stay safe!

Love,

Kate

A Blessing

May we all protect each other from this horrific virus as loving members of the same human family.
My Girlfriend Is Polyflexible. Here’s What That Means For Us
By: The Sex, Secrets Column
Tags: Feminism, Sexuality, LGBTQ, Love, Relationships

My Girlfriend Is Polyflexible. Here’s What That Means For Us

Since I’m monogamous and we’re exclusive.

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels

Just when I thought I knew all the types of relationships and attractions, my girlfriend told me about a new one: polyflexibility. She casually brought up her being polyflexible in conversation once, and I asked her about it.

Polyflexibility is the state of being satisfied in exclusive and open, monogamous and polyamorous, relationships. In other words, you’re happy to love and be loved romantically by multiple people at once, and you’re happy to love and be loved romantically by only one person.

As someone who’s tried to be in open relationships and basically hated it — though maybe that was just because of the people I was with — I identify as monogamous. Hearing that my girlfriend was polyflexible ignited insecurity in me I fought to shake. I knew she loved me and I didn’t want to respond to this part of her identity in a hurtful way, but I was nervous.

However, after letting the information sit, learning more about it, and mindfully enjoying her affirmations about me and our exclusive relationship, I felt a lot better. For more about what I learned and my story, keep reading.
XP to be accepted on Kamoney Brazil
By: Experience Points, Xp
Tags: Crypto, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Xp

Our team is excited to announce that eXPerience Points (XP) will soon be accepted as a form of payment on the Kamoney platform!

Kamoney Platform

Kamoney is a Brazilian company looking to provide an easy to use service to allow users to pay their utility bills, internet purchases, mobile phone data recharges and much more.

www.kamoney.com.br

They are currently accepting 15 coins and will soon be adding XP to the platform. Special thanks for our Brazil team for setting up this great partnership!

www.kamoney.com.br

Our Take

This is a major step in our goal of spreading eXPerience Points (XP) as a means of payment to all parts of the globe. As we continue to expand our reach with vendors and other providers, we ask that our community do the same and spread our project.

It is as simple as talking with local retailers or service providers to try and get them to accept our currency. The XP team is here to help you, so if you have ideas on how to increase adoption of XP in your country or town/city please don’t hesitate to reach out!

Click here to visit Kamoney: https://www.kamoney.com.br

Please be sure to follow us on our social media pages for more updates!

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheBigXP

Facebook: https://facebook.com/XPDigitalCurrency

Discord: https://discord.gg/Q4XAUD
Crowd Machine and Game Loot Network Announce Strategic Partnership
By: Crowd Machine
Tags: Game Loot Network, Crowd Machine, ICO, Decentralized Apps, Token Sale

Crowd Machine and Game Loot Network Announce Strategic Partnership

PRESS RELEASE: Decentralized app development platform and mobile social gaming company partner to create tokenized mobile social gaming product.

San Jose, CA & Sheridan, WY, United States — 14 February 2018

San Jose, CA & Sheridan, WY, United States, 14 February 2018 — Crowd Machine, the distributed computer for building decentralized apps, today announced that it has formed a strategic partnership with leading mobile social gaming platform Game Loot Network.

The partnership will see Game Loot Network use Crowd Machine’s platform to create a blockchain-enabled extension to their existing Loot Hub product. This new product will then proceed to a Token Sale scheduled for mid 2018.

“We knew that in order to realize our vision for extending and tokenizing the Loot Hub, we needed a best-in-class partner and technology platform,” commented Lance Baker, founder and President of Game Loot Network.

“The partnership with Crowd Machine will help us to significantly accelerate our plans for this project. We are excited to not only gain access to their very impressive platform, but also to their substantial expertise in blockchain and decentralized app development.”

Crowd Machine’s platform has 3 parts: The Crowd App Studio, a zero-code app development tool; Crowd Share, a developer repository of app components; and Crowd Computer, cloud hosting facilities. Throughout its development, the platform has been road-tested with Fortune 500 organizations; customers include GE, Kone and Aon Hewitt.

Launched in 2016, Game Loot Network is a mobile gaming community that provides gamers with a live, social gaming system. With over 45,000 registered users, the company’s affiliate program provides both gamers and games developers with the opportunity to earn money while pursuing their passion for social gaming.

“The growth that Game Loot Network has experienced to date is very impressive, and speaks to their innovative approach,” said Craig Sproule, CEO and founder of Crowd Machine.

“Taking the next step and creating a blockchain-enabled, tokenized product only reinforces their position as the market leader. We’re excited to work with them to create a cutting-edge new product with a decentralized mobile app.”

To further cement the relationship, Crowd Machine will be extending a special invitation to Game Loot Network users to join their bounty program and whitelist, in advance of their Token Sale scheduled for 1 April 2018.

“We’re delighted to be able to offer our users the opportunity to participate in Crowd Machine’s bounty program and upcoming Token Sale,” commented Baker. “We believe that Crowd Machine’s offering will have great appeal, particularly to our games developers and cryptocurrency enthusiasts in our network.”

<end>
Cultivating Emotional Intelligence and Emotional Maturity
Tags: Self, Emotional Intelligence, Emotions, Awareness, Anxiety

So what can we do?

We can create a healthy inner environment that will have a ripple effect on our outer world.

Your inner environment allows you to breathe with relief even in the midst of a triggering situation because you know that you can always rely on your inner support system.

If we try to bypass our feelings and human experience with motivational techniques and with regurgitating spiritual anecdotes we are leaving a very important part of ourselves behind.

The part that is scared, anxious, and overwhelmed.

What we truly crave is a safe environment where we can express all of who we are without feeling ashamed of our human feelings and where we will feel accepted no matter what.

The world needs more people and leaders who are no longer numbing out, getting defensive, ruling by fear and scarcity, and feeling overwhelmed.

Becoming aware of our wholeness instead of trying to fix ourselves is what allows us to experience peace, joy, and freedom more often.

When we take our power back from searching for relief in the outside world, we can finally come back home to ourselves.

You take your power back by doing the inner work first.

If we feel stuck in the endless cycle of triggers and if we let our emotions and perceptions drag us on the drama rollercoaster we´ll rarely fully experience the joy and peace that we all desire so much.

Staying neutral when dealing with a triggering situation is the key to your empowerment.

This process is not about trying hard or becoming the “better“ version of yourself. It´s about recognizing the old programming of saricity, self-hate, and competition that stirs up fear.
5 Cliches to Avoid at the Beginning of Your Novel
By: Brian Rowe
Tags: Success, Writing, Fiction Writing, Creativity, Novel Writing

The beginning of your novel is absolutely crucial.

It’s the part I fixate on the most. The part that I tear my hair out over. Because here’s the honest truth: you can write a super compelling book, but if that opening chapter bores your reader to tears, or if it lacks imagination and a hook of some kind, or if it features a common cliche, you’re in trouble.

You do not want to spend a year or longer on a novel that’s really, really great… but has a terrible first ten pages. Or mediocre even.

When I’m revising my work, I pay close attention to those first ten pages. I want them to do so much. Intrigue the reader. Excite the reader. Entice the reader to go on. Give enough backstory and conflict, but not too much.

I’ve written twenty-one novels since 2010. Figuring out how to begin a story is something I’ve had a lot of practice with, and I do feel like I’ve gotten better at this part of the writing process in the last few years.

But it still remains a struggle, of course. I’ve agonized over the opening chapter of my most recent novel, trying to make sure it works.

You’ll hear a lot of advice about what to do in those opening pages, but one thing we can all agree on you should avoid is opening with a cliche. With something we’ve all seen before in a hundred other books.

Here are five cliches you should avoid in the beginning of your manuscript at all costs!
dApp Builder team presented to blockchain community in Shenzhen on July 31
By: Dapp Builder Team
Tags: Blockchain, Ethereum, Community, Dapps, Technology

The dApp Builder team in China has presented the Platform at its meetup in Shenzhen on July 31

dApp Builder team presented to blockchain community in Shenzhen on July 31

The has spoken on a topic “dApp Builder: Blockchain App Store and Smart Contracts Marketplace” at the meetup. They also explored how dApp Builder plans to establish a community reviewed smart contract marketplace and make it in a way where anyone can make an Etherium dApp.

dApp Builder team presented to blockchain community in Shenzhen on July 31

Rafael Soultanov: “dApp Builder: Blockchain App Store and Smart Contracts Marketplace”

Rafael Soultanov has over 16 years of IT consulting and marketing experience in product development, marketing, and technology management.

He has implemented marketing automation and built demand generation infrastructure and developed over 50+ enterprise platforms for Fortune 1000 companies such as France Telecom, InterContinental Hotel Group, Quest Software (DELL), Protective Life Insurance, Nielsen Media, AllScripts, Ethereum Blockchain and technology startups.

Rafael Soultanov presented the dApp Builder Platform

What is dApp Builder

dApp Builder is a platform to create Ethereum dApps from prebuilt smart contracts (no coding) and instantly deploy them to blockchain.

dApp Builder establishes a community reviewed smart contract marketplace.

dApp Builder exists to make it so that anyone can start an Etherium dApp.

dApp Marketplace will enable anyone to create, customize, and deploy their decentralized applications.

If you are interested in trying the released functionality please go here https://dappbuilder.io/ and sign up.

Stay in touch for updates via
For Marlene, Who Knows
By: Andrea Juillerat-Olvera
Tags: Poetry, Genius In A Bottle, Death, Poem, Insects

For Marlene, Who Knows

A tribute to the Sacred Monster

Image by author, derived from Marlene’s self-portrait

Flowers turn their faces

to see yours

my friend

you, who are wind and rain

but also sunlight

that permeates

slender blades of grass

merely to caress

the head of an ant.

Though you fall, tumbling

into blackness

fear not

for the spiders know your name

and sing your praises in their secret meetings.

“Marlene,” they say

“will never abandon us

she is our mammal queen

the ambassador of our kind.”

And when your sorrows

evaporate like morning dew in the sun

and when earth’s waters find a path

through your body

there will be peace at last

and you will find that those who love you

have paid your way

and the ferryman knows your name.

Andrea Juillerat-Olvera 2016

*Written for my friend Marlene Azoulai, who passed from this world in 2016.

See some of her artwork here ~ Marlene loved not just the animal kingdom, but the insect kingdom as well, and would go to great lengths to save any insect whose life was threatened. Her amazing poetry is no longer accessible at her original website www.sacredmonster.com. I miss her acutely, she was a remarkable and fascinating human, one that I felt honored to know. I first published this piece on my Facebook page shortly after her death.
3 Reasons Why Being Helpful To Anyone In Everything Will Help You Grow
By: Dev Rayray
Tags: Coding, Humanity, Programming, Helpfull, Life Lessons

As a kid, I always had a natural feeling for helping others. I helped friends, family, classmates. In every age in my life, I helped people with different things.

My classmates during cooking lessons. My grandmother with her groceries. Later on my classmates with some Photoshop, even when the got higher rewards because of my help.

Because I helped people so much, I grew in my skills in all kinds of fields. I wanted to be very good in Web Development at a young age. I started helping others with that.

To help others, even if you don’t know everything about the topic, forced me to dive more into it.
Creative Websites Roundup — Ep. 1
By: Stefan Vitasovic
Tags: Portfolio, Digital, Design, Development, Roundup

Episode 1: Creative Portfolios

Creative Websites Roundup is a blog series that showcases different styles of creative web projects, shedding some light on various (non-conventional) approaches in web design and development. We’ll dive into select works of digital designers and creative developers, analyze their key elements and see what’s so unique about their features that makes our heads turn. This first roundup explores digital portfolios — websites that exhibit work of modern-day creatives. So, let’s dive right in.

The portfolio of Vladimir Gruev, a UI/UX designer, welcomes the user with a minimal fullscreen layout. But in comes a twist — or better yet, an outside-the-box element (🙈).

When loading the website, a box-like object — a cube shape — rolls into view while scaling up toward the middle of the screen, positioning itself as the hero component on the homepage, suggesting interactivity while the headline animates in.

Cube loading animation

Relying on a technique that builds upon the basic 3D CSS cube, which all of the dev people can have a look at here, this cube, besides being an eye-catching component, has an interesting purpose. It responds to mousemove events and complements the site navigation. While hovering over the middle of the screen, the cube shows brief info about the designer. Moving the mouse toward either of the edges of the screen causes the cube to roll itself into the position which corresponds to the link the user is hovering over, showing a bit more information about what the one can expect when clicking on that link. It’s an unusual and interesting way of adding to the minimal composition of the homepage.

Cube navigation animation

When clicking a link, the cube switches its purpose and becomes a page transition element, which shows fullscreen animations while the content loads, preserving an app-like feel for the whole website.

Note: Easter egg: open the console. 👀

And to provide some more context on the tech specs:

Vue.js framework

Modernizr feature detection library for detecting touch events

Hammer.js for extensive touch gestures support, mainly used for cube rotation on mobile screens

Cloudflare CDN

Google Tag Manager/Analytics for data gathering

View live here: https://gruev.space/
A Lot Like Love — Bar Scenes. Cocktails from across the room, glasses…
By: Shalini C
Tags: Poetry, Attraction, Love, Short Story, Poetry On Medium

Cocktails from across the room, glasses raised,

Melting-brown eyes wearing a wry smile holding my gaze.

Coordinates etched in red lipstick adorned with cutesy emojis.

We looked an awful lot like love at first sight, easy-on-the-eyes and eager-to-please.

Makin’ way to my table in a comical swagger,

He stretches out his long arm to take mine, accentuated with a Rolex so dapper.

I give my wary limb to him as a token of alms,

Utterly missing his name over the loud conversation that’s sprung between our palms.

We sit four feet apart not knowing how to close the distance or what to say,

Neither breaks the silence, indulging perhaps in this somber power play.

His lips part slightly, my fingers fidget for something,

Lost for words, we untether our eyes away to a clamor of glasses jarring.
Follow us on Instagram!
By: Frame Rated Staff
Tags: Frame Rated, Culture, Instagram, Blogging, Social Media

That’s right, Frame Rated now has a social media presence on Instagram. It would be fantastic if you’d kindly follow us there!

What can you expect from our Instagram feed?

We deal with the written word more than images, of course, but Instagram will likely become a repository of photos taken of gorgeous DVD, Blu-ray, and Steelbook covers and artwork.

If Tumblr’s become a useful way to showcase video-captures of the content we’ve been sent to review, expect our Instagram to document tangible merchandise. For instance, our first post was of Zavvi’s new Captain America: The First Avenger 4K Ultra HD Steelbook, as below:

I’m sure we’ll eventually share other people’s great content but expect lots of cover art for now. It’s a niche market.

We understandably don’t have many followers right now, but if you’re on Instagram please consider following us there! And say hello.

Where else can you follow us?

This seems like a great opportunity to briefly go over where you can find us online if you’re not already aware, so here goes:
Yeni Nesil Javascript Bileşenleri
By: Barkın Kızılkaya
Tags: Yazılım, React, Web Development, JavaScript, Software Development

JS Bin

A live pastebin for HTML, CSS & JavaScript and a range of processors, including SCSS, CoffeeScript, Jade and more...
We want your stories on the Code for America blog
By: Jillian Robertson
Tags: Civictech

Do you believe government can work for everyone in the 21st century? Great! Let’s get started.

About Code for America’s Medium blog. The blog showcases perspectives from our founder, staff, volunteers, fellows, government partners, and anyone who cares about building a government fit for the 21st century.

Areas we are especially interested in:

If you have a completed post you’d like considered for the Code for America Medium blog and you have already been added as a “writer” on the publication, submit a draft directly on Medium. If you have an idea for a post, a how-to, or a story you’d like to share and have not yet been added as a “writer,” email me at jillian@codeforamerica.org, and put “PITCH” in the subject line.

Pitches should be:

Original — How is this story unique to you? Why are you the best person to tell it?

— How is this story unique to you? Why are you the best person to tell it? Tied back to digital practices in some way — user centered, iterative, data-driven

— user centered, iterative, data-driven Focused on outcomes — Who did you help and how?

— Who did you help and how? Conversation-starters

Not sure where to start? Check out other posts on the blog to see what we tend to publish.
Haftanın Patent Raporu #40
By: Patent Effect
Tags: Girişimcilik, Yatırım, Teknoloji, Türkçe, Patentraporu

Patent Effect supports technology-driven companies and research institutes to unleash the power of patents for creating an impact on their innovation journey.

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Where Does Medium Fit Into My Life
By: John O'Neill
Tags: Médium, Writing, Medium, Creativity, Life

Where Does Medium Fit Into My Life

To Medium or Not to Medium

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

Just sitting here writing while there is a beautiful late summer day going on outside. So the question arises, what am I doing writing on Medium today or any day for that matter? Sure, there is an admitted thrill when someone claps and/or highlights something that you have written. More often, there is the disappointment when what you consider one of your best pieces is ignored.

The money, at least for me, despite having over 5500 reads over the last two months, will hardly amount to much more than enough to pay for my Medium membership. Curation seems to have little basis on merit.

There are so many competing interests for my time, where should Medium fit in? My wife and our two adult kids who live with us are priority number one.There is a large house that needs to be maintained, and an outside yard while very modest in size, also needs to watered, mowed, and pruned. Then there are our two married children, each with two wonderful grandchildren to love and fawn over. Not to be overlooked are our dog and three cats that require and deserve our attention.

I relish finding time to read cozy mysteries and fantasy adventures. Reading people on Medium rarely gives me the same level of entertainment. Then there is the one television show per evening that my wife and I look forward to watching together. Our choice is usually a French or Italian detective show with subtitles to be found on MHZ.

Precious time allotted for prayer and meditation is often taken up by thoughts of whether or not anyone has read my last piece on Medium, or by an idea for a future piece that pops into my head.

I’ll have to decide soon whether or not, or to what extent I’ll continue to write on Medium. Right now, I’m going outside for a walk to enjoy the nice weather while it lasts.
Soul’s Hole…. And yesterday a platform to spring…
By: Diem Jones
Tags: Poetry, Life, Love, Music, Wisdom

Photo: Stephane Vetter

A hole in a soul is more than a rhyme and I think it’s time for a self examination. We have been programmed to self check for lumps, bumps, coughs, scabs, but very little has been offered on what I think is the number one self check: The Soul.

I was thinking of saying to myself, r.u. cyrius, but stopped the wheels of whine and grabbed my soul’s strings and played a new tune…Love me now or miss the boat.

If I can’t see what’s clearly awaiting me in the mirror, then I am not being truthful to my self and proof is in the truth, so I submit and humbly open my arms.

Love to me and loving me is how I choose to begin this and every day, as it washes clean the media’s attempt to wash my souls with the stench of yesterday…

I look forward to making tomorrow a better day and yesterday a learning platform to spring from.

U?
6 AI and Music APIs to Try in Your Next Project
By: Mahdhi Rezvi
Tags: API, Programming, Artificial Intelligence, Web Development, JavaScript

Introduction

When we learn a new language or framework, it’s a good idea to integrate an API with it and create something really cool. This will definitely help us learn all the basic skills of that particular framework.

An API is an application programming interface that allows your product or service to communicate with other products and services without having to know how they’re implemented.

Here is a roundup of six top APIs for you to try out in your next side hustle.
Building an agribusiness: One farmer’s journey from mortar to mixer
By: World Bank
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneur, Farmers, Innovation, Agriculture

“I’ve always dreamed of being my own boss,” states Rusty Guembo, who is pursuing his ambition in a society in which a career in the civil service is deemed prestigious. At 45 years old, this Congolese engineer, a graduate of the Institut de développement rural in Brazzaville, runs a cooperative of market gardeners and poultry farmers, Agro 4, with his business partner.

Guembo and three friends launched the venture in 2000 with a makeshift chicken coop in one room of his house. The early days were tough.

“To be able to feed our chickens every day, we used a mortar to grind the grains then filter them through a sieve, before using a shovel to mix them with other ingredients. For four years we worked without making the slightest profit,” he explains. Two of his business partners gave up.

Guembo and remaining friend, Gervais Kondo, persevered and, between 2004 and 2006, they formalized their cooperative and received small amounts of funding to increase their stock and build capacity in small-scale poultry feed production.
3 Quotes on Courage
By: Tripp Kirkland
Tags: Courage, Leadership

A combat veteran, prisoner of war, and lifelong servant leader to the United States, the late Senator John McCain lived a textbook case study on courage. In his essay, John McCain on Courage and American Culture, he beautifully expresses the importance of courage in leadership. Here are 3 quotes that stood out to me and my thoughts:

In short, leaders who lack courage aren’t leaders.

McCain is saying that courage makes leadership possible. Courage is the single variable that, if absent, can break the leadership formula. Take time to think about the leaders in your life. How were they courageous? When were they not? Use these as case studies to develop your own framework for what courageous leadership looks like in action.

If fear is a condition of courage, so too is love. It is love that makes us willing to sacrifice, love that gives us courage.

Love causes leaders to be courageous under fire. It is a love for something bigger than oneself. This could be love for your team, your country, a cause, or common good. What source of love would cause you to be courageous?

Courage is like a muscle. The more we exercise it, the stronger it gets.

Start acting courageously when and where you can, even in the smallest of ways. Exercise your courage, and as it strengthens, so will your leadership. As mentioned earlier, when courage is absent, there is no leadership. However, as courage strengthens, it will multiply the effects of one’s leadership. Start exercising now.

If you are a student of leadership, then you must be a student of courage. Read McCain’s full essay. I think you will find that his thoughts withstand the test of time and might be more relevant now than ever.