fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Three Programmers, Three Paths, One Road to Glory
By: Zachary Minott
Tags: Work, Productivity, Programming, Software Engineering, Software Development

Three Programmers, Three Paths, One Road to Glory

Which path will you take?

Photo by Jacob Mejicanos on Unsplash

Three Programmers on a Level Playing Field

Imagine three different junior programmers, all working in the same company with relatively similar sensibilities. Each one makes the same $60k per year starting salary, has similar educational backgrounds, and possess the energy of anyone just starting out.

Let’s give them some names: Nathan, Jack, and Devin.

Nathan goes about his career as he always has. He punches into work, completes his tasks for the day, and his most exciting part of the day is when it ends, so he can come home and relax. He thinks he’s happy but sometimes complains that nothing ever changes for him. His head is filled with pestering “what-if” questions and he wonders how long he’ll have to wait until he can get a promotion or simply ascend to a mid-level developer. He’s a good programmer, but he sticks to confidently doing what he knows how to do.

Jack starts making a few poor choices but nothing crazy. His mind often wanders at work and would intermittently get distracted by his phone or other internet browsers he has opened. He focuses on getting the bare minimum requirements done and lives by the “if it works, don’t touch it” programming philosophy. He drinks red bulls at his desk every day to help him focus and regularly indulges in an unhealthy diet of pizza and chips. He’s a great coder, but his knowledge of that fills him with a sense of pride that keeps him from seeking the help of others, asking too many questions, and sharing information with his colleagues. Needless to say, he still gets his tasks done on time and still meets his deadlines.

Devin decides to start making subtle, positive changes. He starts off his days reading at least ten pages of a non-fiction book that may help improve his career and coding skills. He decides to start meditating and even tries brushing up on his coding skills with an online course for 30 minutes a day. He doesn’t hesitate to ask questions at work and he decided that it would be a good idea to send his boss a progress report twice a week to showcase what he’s got done and what he still needs to do. He doesn’t do anything rash and he makes no grand acts — they’re just simple things anyone could do on a consistent basis. He knows he’s a decent coder, but realizes that he could always be better and so he is constantly looking for ways to improve.
Never Let Criticism Hurt You
By: Dr Jeff Livingston
Tags: Criticism, Self Improvement, Personal Growth, Mindset, Self

Never Let Criticism Hurt You

Take back control of your emotions

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Your boss says, “you suck at your job.” Your mother-in-law points out your expanding waistline. Your business receives a new one-star online review. Your coach benches you because “you are too slow on the basketball court.” Critics are everywhere. They will always be there.

Being criticized hurts. It hurts because we are human. We experience pain when others point out our weaknesses and our faults. Often, our critics go for the jugular, attacking the areas where we are the most insecure. This augments the pain.

How do we manage omnipresent critics?

Choose how you receive detractors

We frame negative comments as either helpful or hurtful. When criticism is valuable, we call it constructive. We understand our boss, coach, spouse, or colleague has our best interests at heart. When criticism is hurtful, we cast off the detractor as a jerk. In both circumstances, our focus is on the person attacking us. We are reacting to the detractor.

In a growth mindset, we shift our attention inward

Reacting to the other person does not serve us. It gives power to the critic. But it is not the critic who triggers our feelings. Our interpretation of their words do. The thoughts in our head trigger our emotions. We can choose how we interpret criticism. Our thoughts determine whether these moments become constructive or destructive.

The easy path leads nowhere

Most of us take the easy way out, allowing criticism to be destructive. The negativity feeds our self-doubt. It empowers the voice inside our heads telling us we are not good enough. We get down on ourselves. Our self-confidence sinks. We become angry, depressed, resentful, or withdrawn. Inadvertently, we relinquish control to the critic, giving them strength, as they now control our emotional response.

The harder path leads to self-discovery

Our critics expose our blind spots. They open a window that we prefer to keep closed. We are exposed. Instead of slamming the window closed, muster the courage to stick our heads in and look around. Seeing ourselves from a different perspective, we get a glimpse at our blind spots. In these moments, criticism transforms into opportunity.

Listen to our critics

Elements of truth are often present when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable. When we listen and process the words of our critics, we find opportunities to learn. We can categorize criticism as true or untrue, and useful or useless. None of our attention should be waisted on that which is false or useless. All of our energy should be focused on what is true and useful.

Criticism transformed

Ignore what is untrue. Expend no energy on criticism that is not useful, even if it is true. Spend your bandwidth on criticism that is true and useful to you in achieving your goals. Embracing the useful truth robs the critic’s power over your emotions. Find the truth. Embrace it. Ignore the rest.
How To Get the Most Out of Every Book and Article You Read
By: Sinem Günel
Tags: Ideas, Life, Books, Learning, Reading

How To Get the Most Out of Every Book and Article You Read

3 simple questions will help you remember more of what you read.

Photo by Fabiola Peñalba on Unsplash

If I’d ask you to summarize the last three books or articles you’ve read, how much would you be able to recall?

If you’re honest, your answer will be not much.

That’s among others because we’re experiencing a massive information overflow.

This flood of information in the 21st century is a curse and a blessing at the same time: It enables us to learn anything quickly and at low costs, but at the same time, it often overwhelms us.

According to Jim Kwik, our capacity to learn is limitless; we simply need to be shown how to access it.

Kwik is a brain coach who’s been working on figuring out how our brains work for decades. In his book Limitless, he presents three simple yet powerful questions that might help you get the most out of every book or article you read.

Answering these three questions while reading might seem like unnecessary additional work. However, the truth is they will help you retain what you read and ensure the knowledge gets transferred out of the book into your mind.
Starting again is always hard, very hard
By: Joseph Emmi
Tags: Writing, Journal, Life Lessons, Motivation, Commitment

It doesn’t matter how many time you’ve done it, if you mastered it and you became used to do it regularly, almost without thinking, if the time comes and life makes you stop, you will need to start all over again.

Writing is something that have been significantly growing for me and in me over the last couple of years, but it was not until last year that became something else, something important, something that was able to do and I felt comfortable doing. I loved it and even start calling myself a ‘writer’.

Complex ideas where able to be translated faster and more clearer the more I wrote. I had voice, a way of thinking and way of writing that was constantly improving. I was also doing it EVERY-SINGLE-DAY.

Let me tell you something, it made a massive difference, as that was the period were I experienced the most significant improvements.

Fast forward exactly a year later and things look very different. This is the same period of time when in 2018 decided to take part on the 100 days challenge, a project created by one of my favourite artists elle luna; and it simply consists on choosing something you like and/or enjoy and would like to do regularly and do it for 100 days in a row. For me it wa writing.

Now, after and hiatus and several life hiccups, I’ve been finding myself struggling to get back into it, questioning why is not working and how to start again. The answer? You’re reading it. Just start.

Some might say that it is easier said than done, and it is true, but it is nothing less than deciding to take action and go with it.

As I’ve struggling to get around the words and sentences, to structuring ideas, and times, even finding inspiration, is not until we decide to act and make the effort to stick to it that things actually happen.

It’s a chain

I once read about this advice a comedian received from Jerry Seinfeld when he asked him about sitting jokes. The article said that Seinfeld’s response to his questions was simple: “You need to write jokes every day. Get a calendar and mark with an X the days you write jokes, after a while you will have a chain. You don’t want to break the chain”.

That’s exactly what it is. Practice. Consistency. Repetition.

Who ever you admire, musician, athlete, writer, actor, business person, there’s one truth that I observed, the secret is always the same. Beyond talent and the exuberance of the outcomes we all see and dream to one day replicate or that inspire us, there’s a lot of practice, a lot of consistency, a lot of repetition.

Nothing else. No accidents, no miracles, no coincidences, no chance. Practice.

Time to take action.
’Tis the season for open source!
By: John-David Dalton
Tags: Vscode, Sonar, Open Source, Microsoft Edge

Millions of developers and companies, including Microsoft, benefit from open source software (OSS). Over the years, Microsoft has grown to embrace open source and today has some of the most active repositories on GitHub. In fact, the majority of my work on web apps and frameworks at Microsoft revolves around open source software.

I ❤️ open source. It gives me a sense of accomplishment, community, and purpose. For me, it’s an every day thing that keeps me connected, sharp, and always learning. At its core open source, and software in general, is about people. People, from all over, working together to build and improve shared tools.

Whether it’s FOSS February or Hacktoberfest, anytime is a great time to contribute to open source projects. In keeping with the spirit of giving back, this December it’s time for 24 Pull Requests, a yearly initiative to encourage developers around the world to send 24 pull requests between December 1st and December 24th.

Getting involved in open source can be a bit intimidating. Luckily, there’s guides to help you get started and find projects that might interest you. Contributions can take many forms including improving documentation and examples, fixing issues and bugs, hacking on type systems and test coverage, or adding missing features to your favorite projects. Even small contributions can make a big impact on projects and their maintainers.

If you’re looking for a place to start, consider contributing

Happy contributing!
363 scientists and students register for the Frankl airdrop in its first week
By: Elise Roberts
Tags: News, Airdrop, Universities, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency

On Tuesday last week, we launched the Frankl token airdrop — a way for the global science community to access cryptocurrency created for research.

Thanks to overwhelming support from the community and media, including Blockchain News, Coin News Telegraph, Finder, Lab & Life Scientist, the Australian Institute of Medical Scientists, Top ICO list, Science Distributed and Bitcoin Exchange Guide, we’ve had 363 unique registrations in the first week alone.

Our airdrop recipients hail from 33 different countries including the United States, France, India, Nigeria, Canada, Russia, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey, New Zealand, and of course our home country — Australia!

The majority are undergraduate and postgraduate science students, with 39 PhD’s and PhD Candidates also in the mix. Research areas cover biochemistry, psychology, physics, biology and computer science among others.

The airdrop will be open for another three weeks at frankl.io/airdrop, and there is a handy beginner’s guide to the airdrop available here.

We look forward to further updates as the community grows!

Are you on Telegram?

Telegram is our favourite place for chatting about all things blockchain, science and Frankl — and the quickest way for us to respond to questions from our community. If you’re not already part of the group, you can download the Telegram app here and find us at t.me/franklcommunity.

If you’d like to know more about Frankl, read our whitepaper, check out ourwebsite, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter @FranklOpenSci.
Building Cross-Platform Voice Apps With VOXA — Part 5
By: Octavio Menocal
Tags: Nodejs, Alexa Skills, Programming, Software Engineering, Google Assistant

Alexa Presentation Language

Alexa Presentation Language (APL) is a set of visual components you can leverage to create wonderful visual experiences for devices with screens. Before APL, Amazon had the Display Render Template interface, but it was not as flexible as APL. With APL, you can customize your screen more easily. In our source code, we also support the RenderTemplate interface because there are still some devices with screens that don’t support APL. If you try to send an APL directive to a non-APL device, the skill will crash.

In our Quick Maths Alexa skill, we’ll use APL to show users the leaderboard. They’ll be able to see their position, name, city, and score if they are among the top 10 players. If they didn’t grant permission to access their address in either of the platforms, we’ll simply show their locale; if it’s en-US, we’ll grab the U.S. part, if it’s en-GB, we’ll grab G.B.

The APL leaderboard screen will look like this:

Leaderboard in an Echo Show 2nd generation

Leaderboard in an Echo Spot

You can find the code to show this position table in the part5 branch of the repo, specifically in the file ./src/app/model.js

showWinnersDashboard function

For Google Assistant, we’re using the table card. This grid will group our leaderboard to show the positions, similar to what we’ve done in Alexa, giving both apps the same experience.

Leaderboard view in Google Assistant (phone)

Leaderboard view in Google Assistant (Smart Display)
Ask Panayote 4 — Clash of the Titans: Secular and Religious Ideals in Greek Society
By: Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Tags: Secularism, Ask Panayote, Panayote Dimitras, Religion, Scott Douglas Jacobsen

By Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Panayote Dimitras is the Co-Founder and Spokesperson of the Humanist Union of Greece, and a Board Member of the European Humanist Federation.

Here we talk about religious ideals and secular ideals in Greek society.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What are the arenas of the clash between the religious ideals and the secular ideals in Greek society?

Panayote Dimitras: The Church of Greece, quite unlike other Orthodox Churches abroad, has a predominant very conservative set of ideals that runs counter not only to secular values but also to the secularized version of religious ideals. Civil marriage, same-sex partnerships, homosexuality, etc., are “sins.” In recent days, the Church has stated that Holy Communion, i.e. some alcoholic drink with bread administered with a spoon, because it is blessed does not create a risk of contagion of coronavirus; alternatively, cleaning the face with Holy Water serves as protection! Greek Helsinki Monitor filed a complaint against the Church for those claims. And the government decided to shut down all religious services when the Church of Greece was unwilling to do it.

Jacobsen: Where are the main points of piety intruding on the private lives of citizens through public institutions including the government in Greece?

Dimitras: The presence of icons in all courtrooms and offices of judicial officials, in some cases up to 10 per office. The still mandatory religious oath taken by the President of the Republic — the new one, a secularist, had to take it last week but refrained from crossing herself. The presence of priests/bishops in almost all inaugural ceremonies including at the Parliament of the Presidential Office during the swearing-in of Ministers and Prime Ministers, as well as the beginning of the judicial year in almost all courts. Etc. And the confessional character of religious education, as well as the mandatory declaration of the religion of parents and children in the birth registration certificates (currently before the ECtHR in GHM-submitted Papanikolaou v. Greece). Please see this https://greekhelsinki.wordpress.com/2020/03/10/1-390/

Jacobsen: How can these points of contention be resolved in Greece?

Dimitras: It takes the determination of the political parties to change all that, but it does not -and is not expected to- exist.

Photo by Cristina Gottardi on Unsplash
You Will Never Be Enough For Someone Who Has No Intention Of Loving You
By: Brianna Wiest
Tags: Self Improvement, Love, Life Lessons, Relationships, Psychology

If someone has no intent of seeing the best in you, they won’t. ⠀

⠀

There is absolutely nothing you can do that will satisfy or impress someone who is committed to finding fault in you.

There is no level of perfection you can reach that will be good enough for someone who has no intention of being with you.⠀

⠀

If you want to see the good in someone, you’ll find it. If you want to see the bad, you’ll find that, too. Sometimes, your best efforts fall short not because you’re not enough, but because you’ll never be enough to someone who has no desire to see you that way.

You will never be enough for someone who has no intention of loving you, no matter what you try to do to become the person they say they want to be with.

Sometimes, it’s not that you aren’t what they want, but that they aren’t really looking for anything right now — and no matter how perfect you are, you’re never going to be someone they put first. This isn’t a reflection of your lack of worth, but incorrect timing. You know what they say: the right person at the wrong time is the wrong person.

There’s this theory about relationships called the “taxi cab theory of love,” and it’s the idea that people — often men, in particular—do not have a successful relationship with anyone until their “taxi light” is on. If you happen to be the person who hails the cab when the light is on, it tends to be a long ride. If you hail the cab when the light isn’t on, you’re going to sit there until they either are ready to turn it on, or you get so fed up you go hail another one.

The point is simple: a relationship with a person who does not want to be in a relationship is not going to be a relationship at all.

It doesn’t matter how electric your connection is, how much self-work you’ve done, how much you’ll offer long-term, how perfect everyone thinks you would be together.

There are no stars that can align that will cross out the sheer fact that a person who is not ready for a relationship is not a person who is going to be with you, no matter what emotional gymnastics you do in order to try to convince them otherwise.

Sure, meeting the right person can make it the right time — but if despite all of your perfection someone is still not choosing you, the answer is clear: they aren’t choosing you, and sometimes, it doesn’t really have anything to do with you.

So the next time that you’re all caught up on why you weren’t the right person for that person, why you weren’t attractive enough, successful enough, good enough, remember that you’re never going to be enough for someone who has no intention of seeing you as enough.

People will see what they want to see in others.

People will see what they want to see in you.

Instead of worrying that you can or cannot convince someone to see what you want them to, maybe focus instead on trying to find a person who is ready and able to see everything you have to offer, because maybe they’re ready for someone to see that in them as well.
Vasya and Chess. Problem link here
Tags: Chess, Programming, Data Structures, Competitive Programming, Algorithms

Problem link here

You are given a grid N*N with white queen on 1,1 and black queen on 1,n. Now all the other squares are filled with green pawns. Each queen can capture a green pawn or the opponents queen. The game then follows standard chess rules. And the turns alternate between white queen and black queen. The green pawns just stay where they are. For more details if you do not know chess rules check out the problem statement link above.

Solution

Try a few examples with n = 2, 3, 4, 5. I tried to play such that I wanted to win no matter whether I was black or white. The strategy was to get to the closest row to the black queen as possible first. This way the black queen cannot cross that row since I have left all the green pawns on every other row unkilled.

You can then notice that if (n-2) is odd always black queen will win. Otherwise white and the move will be always towards the closest row to black queen which is (1,2)

Here is a code below. Find next question to practice here

#include<bits/stdc++.h>

using namespace std;



int main() {

int n; cin>>n;

if((n-2)&1)

cout<<"black";

else

cout<<"white

1 2";

}

Next Problem
Caution: What if a user sends XinFin Main-net token XDC to XDCE address?
By: Xinfin Xdc Hybrid Blockchain Network
Tags: Xdc, Token, Xinfin, Xdce, Cryptocurrency

Caution: What if a user sends XinFin Main-net token XDC to XDCE address?

Learn how to recover tokens, in case XDC tokens are sent to XDCE address.

XinFin Network mainnet coin XDC and ERC20 token XDCE create confusion between new community members. This guide will help to understand the difference between XDC and XDCE. Regularly few users send their XDC to XDCE wallet and vice versa, this article will help those users to recover the tokens that were sent to different wallets by mistake.

Differences between XDC and XDCE.

XDC (XinFin Digital Contracts) is a mainnet coin with a consensus algorithm of XinFin Delegated proof of stake (XDPoS). XinFin mainnet coin XDC was live on 1 June 2019 and acts as a settlement mechanism for DApps built on the XinFin Hybrid Blockchain. The XDC token address will start with xdc, for example, xdc0x167na90knnsjadbjkbj…

XinFin Network mainnet coins can be stored on various wallets such as XinFin Andriod Wallet, XinPay, Web wallet, Copper Custodian wallet, Guarda Wallet.

XDCE is an Ethereum token (ERC20) with a consensus algorithm of Proof of Work (POW) that gives the token holder flexibility to get benefit from the Ethereum Network’s various utilities DApps. XDCE is compatible with all decentralized exchanges and has a presence in liquidity markets and supports XDC liquidity. The token address of XDCE starts with 0x, for example, 0x12hgsjdkj45knjxb…

On the Ethereum network user always creates a wallet with Keystore or with mnemonic phase and stores their Eth or ERC-20 tokens on a wallet. XDCE can be stored on any ERC-20 Compatible wallet or hardware wallet. But it’s mandatory to take the back up of keys.

How to recover XDC that was sent to the ERC20 wallet?

If the user has sent their XDC token to any ERC-20 wallet address, it can be easily recovered. Users need to log in with the same Keystore, Privatekey or mnemonic phase to XinFin Original web wallet at https://wallet.xinfin.network after login with the ERC-20 keys user will find their XDC token on XinFin web wallet.

Users can also download a mobile wallet or extension wallet (XinPay) and log in with the ERC-20 keys and recover their XDC tokens.

Smart contracts deployed on the Ethereum network can be easily ported to XinFin Network. Bounty worth 10000 USD is applied to the users porting from Ethereum Network to XinFin Network.

Reference articles for the port to XinFin Network.

Visual Reference for the port to XinFin Network.

About XinFin

XinFin is an open-source enterprise-ready Hybrid Blockchain for Global Trade and Finance. It combines the power of public and private Blockchains with interoperable smart contracts. XinFin is fully EVM compatible. For more information on XinFin, please visit www.xinfin.org or learn more about XinFin in this video.

Follow XinFin on:

Twitter: @XinFin_Official

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/xinfin/

Telegram: https://t.me/xinfintalk

Slack: https://launchpass.com/xinfin-public
Multicolored
By: Jenine Bsharah Baines
Tags: Poetry, Haiku, Monoku, Roses, Poetry On Medium

the dew scented rose stabs me with its beauty while where thorns bite blood pools

©Jenine Bsharah Baines 2020

Whew! Made it — 17 syllables! My first stab at monoku, a form introduced to me by Lubna Yusuf. The prompt was “winter,” and while this monoku does not appear to fit that season at all, it actually was inspired by action I was taking yesterday, December 20. I was pruning roses — prepping them to ‘hibernate’ — and let’s just say one day I’m going to write a magical poem about roses graciously retracting their thorns! Here is Lubna’s monoku, Dreamless:

This article explains everything about monoku except how to pronounce it! Lubna, can you help me out? Which syllable is accented???

Thank you, Tracy Aston, for offering my monoku a home. Thank you, dearest readers, for dropping by for a visit.
Nor the Rain
By: Rose Butcher
Tags: Poetry, Romance, Self-awareness, Relationships, Poetry On Medium

Nor the Rain

A Poem — Reacting to a Pleasantly Unexpected Series of Events

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

Your train motions

Cutting through this night

And I stand here

Allowing my eyes to carry it

I don’t feel the cold

Nor the rain

Just the memory

Of your hand holding my face

Its gentle embrace

Imparted a promise

Upon my cheek

Of its return to me

Walking home

I trembled

But not from the cold

Nor the rain

Just the thought of knowing

That your hand’s promise

Seeped its way into my skin

And is being held by the memory

Body on course

My thoughts did tremble

But not by the cold

Nor the rain

But simply by knowing

That your hand’s promise

Successfully warmed my heart

This winter night

I still don’t feel the cold

Nor the rain

I hope I never feel them both again

© Rambling Rose Butcher, 2020
“Space is deep, Excellency.”
By: Jack Herlocker
Tags: My Wonderful Wife, Poetry, Space Is Deep, Star Week, Love And Stars

For my wife, Debra, who pulls me back from… out there.

And Jenny Justice, for Star Week:

About the title: in Robert A. Heinlein’s book The Star Beast, a senior official of a galactic federation has just been told that a race of super-beings has landed and they have specific demands they want fulfilled NOW. When the official expresses surprise that he’s never heard of this species, despite the long history and wide span of the federation, the envoy shrugs and replies simply, “Space is deep, Excellency.”
How to Write Anything
By: Ross Mccammon
Tags: Create, Writing, Connect, How To Write Anything, Live

In “Tweeting is Writing, Too,” Drew Magary, a writer of columns, blogs, and novels, reminds us that Twitter is a powerful platform for ideas — big or small, fun or weird — that requires authenticity and a healthy respect for your audience.

In “How to Write an Article Millions of People Will Read,” Darius Foroux offers wisdom about writing a story that speaks to people’s concerns and aspirations (and may well go viral). It’s a writing clinic from one of Medium’s most popular authors, and it’s about going deep over wide, specific over general.

Kara Cutruzzula, a freelance writer and playwright who’s on a quest to master professional etiquette, writes about an underrated kind of email: the nudge. In “The Follow-Up Is the Most Important Email You’ll Ever Write,” she gives you precise templates on how to get a response when one doesn’t seem to be coming.

In “The Most Powerful Obituary Is the Social Media Memorial,” the veteran writer Chuck Thompson explores the world of the “digital eulogy,” the messages we write and post about the dead on social media. The wisdom in this story applies just as well to sympathy cards and spoken eulogies.

Finally, former Cosmopolitan relationships editor Julia Pugachevsky writes about the art of the dating profile in “What 5 Serial Daters Can Teach You About Personal Myth-Making.” The story is an important read even if you’re not on a dating app, because crafting a dating profile is really just about knowing how to tell “your story.” The lessons can apply to everything from writing a work bio to introducing yourself in a speech.

Throughout this collection of stories, we’ve included timeless rules about writing anything. Some specifically address a certain format, but many apply to virtually any kind of writing, like these:
Recipe 94: Hot Chocolate
By: Sarah Charles
Tags: Drinks, Cooking, Recipe, Food, Marriage

This is one of the many recipes that Aaron and I want to share with you. We are overjoyed for you to come with us on our journey as we put together different concoctions and laugh together (all while hoping to not burn our apartment down). Please enjoy these recipes as much as we have. We welcome you to a small, but intentional, part of our lives.

If you would like to read the post that accompanies this recipe, check it out here.
Android App ডেভেলপমেন্ট গাইড লাইন
By: Hasan Abdullah
Tags: Bangla, Android App Development, AndroidDev, SQLite database, Android Development

Get this newsletter By signing up, you will create a Medium account if you don’t already have one. Review our Privacy Policy for more information about our privacy practices.

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My Visit to Ozette Lake
By: Jeff Suwak
Tags: Outdoors, Photography

Ozette Lake is a beautiful spot. It doesn’t get visited much, particularly outside of summer when it’s generally grey and rainy all the time. I had the whole beach to myself. This is actually from last winter, but I wanted to share the pictures. These are among my favorite that I’ve gotten.

During this trip, I also stopped by Clallam Bay and got some pictures.
The Unofficial Weekly Stratis Retrospect #57 — Khilone
Tags: Blockchain, Stratis, Crypto, Stratisweekly, Cryptocurrency

It’s time for The Unofficial Weekly Stratis Retrospect #57.

For anyone wanting to read my previous blogs, you can find them all here.

Disclaimer: Never take anything I say (or anyone else on the Internet says) to be investment advice. Consult with a professional, and extensively do your own research before ever investing into anything.

Stratis Academy

If you are a developer who is interested in learning blockchain technology in C#, Stratis is the blockchain for you. To assist you as a developer Stratis created their Academy which you can visit here.

Stratis is dedicated to sharing the knowledge of blockchain and nurturing a global C# and .Net developer community. The Stratis Academy will train the next generation of blockchain developers around the world to prepare them for in-demand blockchain projects in different industries. By providing course materials, worked examples, technical infrastructure and hands-on projects, we are aiming to build a community empowered with a knowledge of the Stratis blockchain.

MediConnect

MediConnect is a verified ICO on the Stratis Platform who currently utilizes the Stratis ICO Platform for their presale. Last week, MediConnect released new information about their project:

That’s it for now. All the best to everyone!

Khilone

Follow me on Twitter to get all the news right away: https://twitter.com/Khil0ne

And be sure to read all my stories on Medium over here:

https://medium.com/khilone

Other things to keep your eyes on:
Playboi Cartiの正しい聴き方①
Tags: Hiphop, Music, 日本語, Column, 音楽

Playboi Carti: Playboi Carti

Whatever Playboi Carti lacks in substance, he makes up in sheer audacity. For the better part of two years, he kept his…
Episode 67: Vimeo promotes Anjali Sud, a whole new Doctor, Airbnb karma and the Roomba
By: Ada S Sisters
Tags: Roomba, Vimeo, Airbnb, Doctor Who, Startup

Listen here: iTunes | Libsyn | Spreaker | Stitcher | BluBrry

You might remember an AirBnB story we talked about a few months ago where a host cancelled a reservation when he found out his guests were Asian.

Happy to tell you about the happy ending to that story — because karma is ALSO Asian.

We also want to tell you about X factor Ventures, a new VC fund that will invest $3 million US in female-led startups. Vimeo just promoted Anjali Sud as their new CEO and we’re thrilled, as well as Google’s promotion

We are excited for the newest Doctor Who and not that concerned about her gender because the Time Lord is an ALIEN.

And don’t turn your back on that Roomba! It’s making a map of your house!
The Five Stages Of Grief While Building An Ikea Entertainment Center
By: Marcia Kester Doyle
Tags: Humor, IKEA, Home Decor, Home, Home Improvement

Pixabay:Claudia Wollesen

Denial

I ordered a 10ft x 6ft wall unit. Why is the box only 4ft x 6 inches?

Seriously, 932 pieces? This can’t be the right package. They made a mistake!

Sixteen small, plastic bags filled with nuts, screws, and dowels. Impossible! No one could transform all of this stuff into a wall unit.

Why does it come with three separate manuals? And why are some of the instructions written in Egyptian hieroglyphics? I’d never order something that says “Assembly Required,” even if it’s written in small print. I don’t even own a hammer!

Is there a return policy on this thing?
Feast of the Nativity of our Lord
By: Alan Bentrup
Tags: Church

Priest in The Episcopal Church. Co-founder and curator of Missional Voices. I write about mission and innovation in the Church. I root for Frogs and Rangers.

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Bitonomy — Ultimate utility of Cryptocurrency.
Tags: Ethereum, Revolution, ICO, Bitcoin, Token Sale

Bitonomy, not gold or prestige, is the ultimate utility of Cryptocurrency.

You don’t want to be rich — you want to be happy. Money can certainly help you achieve your goals, provide for your future, and make life more enjoyable but only when it’s utilizable.

Hurry Up. Be the part of Revolution.

Join us

Telegram :- https://t.me/joinchat/IstPWhAj86Hie7Ol8r3_ow

Instagram :- https://www.instagram.com/bitonomy

Facebook :- https://www.facebook.com/bitonomy

Medium :- https://www.medium.com/bitonomy

Twitter :- https://twitter.com/bitonomy_global
Cicada
By: Noe, Lisa Arana
Tags: Environmentalism, Poetry, Allegory, A Cornered Gurl, Social Justice

Cicada

An Allegory

Santa Elena, Costa Rica — Photo by Noe

The cicada sings the day to sleep

closes her eyes and surrenders her turning child

to the cricket who is watchful and tender

to care after the breathing oceans that rise …

and the land that is falling, silent and still.

The sky glitters — filled with a multitude of questions

the silver moon stays quiet as a mentor, teaching …

not everything that shines is a flame

not everything that sings is joyful.

The humble rat, the hungry snake and the frog,

even the shy and greatly misunderstood opossum

emerge welcomed and unashamed — to belong

from cool shadows and deep pools of rain.
Toss Some Data to Your Witcher
By: Markus Rene Pae
Tags: Exploratory Data Analysis, Python, Data Visualization, Netflix, Data Science

Toss Some Data to Your Witcher

An article that analyzes different characters and their sayings on “the Witcher” and visualizes the results with Seaborn

About a month ago I read a nice article about visualizing the transcript of a “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” pilot episode (thanks Melody Zap for a good read). Now that I’ve recently binge-watched the first season of “the Witcher”, I want to do something similar. I was interested in finding answers to the following questions:

Who says the most words?

Who uses the most words on average once he/she gets a chance to speak?

How many words are considered as stop words (they deliver no meaning)?

How positive/neutral/negative are the characters based on what they say?

What is Geralt’s second most used word, assuming that “hm” is obviously first?

It has to be mentioned that I have only seen the Netflix series and I’m not familiar with the original book series nor other derivatives (board games, computer games, card games and so on).

Underlying code

In my opinion, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel for this sort of analysis and thus I used Melody Zap Github repo as an origin point. The repository itself can be found below:

Obviously I had to make some adjustments to the CSV file and Jupyter notebook. If you are interested in finding my version of the code, please visit my Github repository.

Data

The first 11 lines of the CSV file (censored)

For this analysis, I used scripts of the first five episodes that were found here. They were all stored in a single CSV file where the first column represents a character and the second is a text line that this particular character said. Since the script contained tons of remarks, I removed everything that was placed between rectangular brackets.

The resulting file contains 1479 lines of text, which, in my opinion, is quite a lot to work with. Once I can get my hands on data regarding episodes 6, 7, and 8, I would be happy to update this article.

Now we are ready to proceed with the analysis itself
Cancer Courage
By: Harper Thorpe
Tags: Poetry, Courage, Writing Prompts, One Line, Cancer

Facing a life-shortening diagnosis, a courageous couple makes every minute count. (Image is theirs)

Challenged by cancer’s cruelty, her courageous character is comforted by clan and community compassion, a cure of Chemo cocktails and cannabis creatively combined conquer the challenger! CELEBRATING!

At the hospital, Sam (son) and Leslie (daugter-in-law) have just learned 8 tumors have disappeared. (Image is theirs)

Inspired by Dewi’s wonderful prompt, Courage. Thanks, as always, to our host, Kathy Jacobs!

P.S. This poem was written when the saga began:
Inspiration
By: Rebeca Ansar
Tags: Inspiration, Poetry, Creativity, Emotions, Poem

inspiration is

the rapid current

in a day’s fabric

scintillating freeway

the writer

at her most

alive.
Why Eurobits was already in GitLab
By: Ernesto Arroyo Ron
Tags: DevOps, Deployment Automation, Docker, Gitlab

This week Microsoft bought Github development platform. Since the announcement, there has been an important movement to migrate repositories to Gitlab (and other git-based platforms as bitbucket).

We, at Eurobits, are in some way, surprised… nor Github is now a worse choice as a development platform now, nor Gitlab is better just because of Microsoft. Honestly, Github is going to be much better now, bet on that!

So do you discover GitLab,… now?

This is true…

Eurobits decided that GitLab should be their global devops platform several months ago.

GitLab is not perfect: sometimes is slow or their Git repositories are down; as Git is a distributed VCS is not a thing to be worried and were just anecdotic downtimes, but is far from perfection in this sense.

GitLab is git but… actually, this is only accidental; the best part is their really awesome devops features, and they have an impressive releasing pace, just crazy sometimes.

Docker registry : when we go into the cloud and the microservices world, having a registry on every project is just a dream.

: when we go into the cloud and the microservices world, having a registry on every project is just a dream. CI/CD : we use Jenkins for some projects, but we decided to use the GitLab continuous deploy tool (based on docker runners you can run privately) for most of our projects and tools (and we have a lot!). We really love to “push-code” and have a pipeline testing and then deploying the image into production without manual intervention.

: we use Jenkins for some projects, but we decided to use the GitLab continuous deploy tool (based on docker runners you can run privately) for most of our projects and tools (and we have a lot!). We really love to “push-code” and have a pipeline testing and then deploying the image into production without manual intervention. Merge Request is one of our loved tools; we know this is not unique to GitLab, but the interface is, for us, friendly and clear. When are embracing now the “pair-programming” and we are also doing “code review” with this feature.

is one of our loved tools; we know this is not unique to GitLab, but the interface is, for us, friendly and clear. When are embracing now the “pair-programming” and we are also doing “code review” with this feature. Kubernetes and Prometheus integration: just two more really awesome features.

and integration: just two more really awesome features. Things like 2FA and Audit (to be GDPR compliant) the WebIDE, or the Pages features are not minor but really interesting things.

The main reason for us was…

GitLab is better because is a full solution for our whole development cycle, as we embrace the “you build it, you run it” principle and we do at least a daily production deployment (and sometimes more).
Catching Fyre: 4 Takeaways That Marketers Can Learn From Fyre Festival
By: Kevin Escalera
Tags: Fyre Festival, Advertising, Marketing, Social Media, Influencer Marketing

Fyre Festival was a complete disaster from an execution standpoint, yet at the same time, it proved how a powerful social media strategy can get someone to buy into almost anything.

Overall, the biggest driving factor in Fyre Festival’s marketing strategy was influencer marketing. The event permanently changed the industry, and even 3 years later, there are still tactics employed by Fyre Media that can be used by marketers today.

Tactic #1

By sending all of America’s top models and celebrities to the Bahamas at once, as well as having those same influencers all post the infamous “orange tile” graphic at the same time, Fyre Media was able to generate tremendous social coverage and intrigue within the press. It goes to show the powerful, compounding effect that high-level influencers can have on a brand with coordinated efforts.

Takeaway #1: Schedule Influencers Together

When working with multiple influencers, try to schedule their activation or shoot together in order to help build their relationships so they post more, tag each other, and create a mini interconnected social web. This will increase the brand impact as users spend time going from account to account seeing different perspectives of the brand activation or campaign.
Upload Files Directly to AWS in a Rails and React App
By: Oluwadamilare Olusakin
Tags: AWS, Programming, React, S3, Ruby on Rails

Upload Files Directly to AWS in a Rails and React App

The one guide I wish I had before implementing this myself

Image by kreatikar on Pixabay

Since my last article, I’ve built two full-stack Rails/React applications, one of which is a hobby/passion project, ShowJunkie (demo login: guest@showjunkie.com , password: ShowJunkiePerson ), and another is my personal portfolio (the subject of today’s discussion).

So I decided to be adventurous and venture into rewriting my personal portfolio, and in a bid to indulge my curious self a bit more, I decided I wanted to upload my project images directly to AWS and store the link in my Postgres database for reference in my client-side React app.

Well, I succeeded — but not without high-fiving my forehead a million times and questioning my skills as a developer numerous times. In an attempt to save anyone else from reliving my last two days, I decided to write this guide.

Without further ado, I give you the one guide you’ll need to:

Set up an AWS bucket

Generate a presigned URL to use for your upload with your Rails API and send it to your React app

Upload an image to AWS with your React app

Store the image link in your database so you can reference it in your app later on

So why? Why upload directly to your AWS S3 bucket instead of first to your Rails application and then off to the AWS S3 bucket? The answer is your users. It can save a lot of time and directly improve the experience your users have with your application.

Think about it, if you were to take the latter route of first uploading to your Rails app before shipping off to the bucket, first, you’d give your servers double the required amount of work and your users double the amount of time they have to wait — not to mention the very possibility an upload could fail midway and require a restart. How awful.

The solution? An AWS S3 bucket that acts as a go-between. What’s this bucket we’ve been talking about? Think of it as a folder living on the web. It can have numerous subfolders and hold an infinite amount of wisdom or, rather, files. So let’s get started, shall we?
Simulating An Epidemic Outbreak With JavaScript — Part 9
By: Kelvin Zhao
Tags: Coding, Simulation, Virus, JavaScript, Development

TLDR: I made an epidemic outbreak simulation that can be played here.

Making It Playable

To be honest the initial simulation is meant to satisfy some curiosity on my part, to see how different settings affect outbreaks and to see how close I can get this simple simulation to mimic real-life situations. But one thing led to another and I started adding ways that viewers can interact with the variables in the simulation to see for themselves how different measures affect the outbreak curve and the final tallies.

I didn’t want it to be too open-ended and technical. So I made it so that the viewer has 10 imaginary points to use. Each of these points can go into the few different measures I have setup. Here are how they affect each parameter.
My Custom Google Maps City List #LetsGuide
By: Steffan Pedersen
Tags: Google, Travel, Maps

Having fun with Google Maps and sharing my recommendations. Will update from time to time with new gems and new cities. :)

Check out the Google Local Guides Programs and more maps in here. Let me know what you think!

Best of Barcelona: https://goo.gl/maps/mPT9bB8Vd1B2

Berlin List: https://goo.gl/maps/ZM5spCjwhiz

Copenhagen: https://goo.gl/maps/MKm7ZFLAsSp

Saint Petersburg (work in progress): https://goo.gl/maps/Wct4cEzBcm62

Atlanta:

[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=14Ne-HXGzcwb5NOfEsAIebKy2ZREAFken&w=640&h=480]

Hilton Head Island, SC:

[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1pO0F1nsAMZ_W5K-KVTen_xQn6GMhf1zM&w=640&h=480]

New York City:

[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1SjQag-oDks5dTVUcjNJ9aneQYOJwa7-x&w=640&h=480]

Los Angeles:

[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1UFHiWL8kx8odEHRo_QQ4FE9MM6nk7NdL&w=640&h=480]

San Francisco Bay Area:

[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1NC9oLIz8pd22ryY5UL-uombqQVNviA61&w=640&h=480]

Athens, GA and UGA:

[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1YU-IsF0HxDbcaBO1MkGCUO2_mh7V1oGw&w=640&h=480]

Places I’ve been:

[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1GPZmdlFy6yWLOwmB4LEaQjkooXsnXAxK&w=640&h=480]

#LetsGuide