fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Hope of the 12th Month
By: Moyosore Sheriff Quadri
Tags: Poems On Medium, Cultural Prompt, Free Verse, Blue Insights, Writing Prompts

CULTURAL PROMPT- “WHAT DOES DECEMBER MEAN TO YOU?”

Hope of the 12th Month

Hope is renewed in the 12th month

Photo by Hert Niks on Unsplash

12;

Etched between an end and a beginning,

You are a beacon of both relief and hope

12;

Upon your arrival we are thrown into faux nostalgic adoration of the previous 11 months,

Regardless of whatever may have transpired,

Something about reaching the end of a thing makes it all the more beautiful

12;

We look back on the year,

We celebrate ourselves for resolutions achieved,

We forgive ourselves for resolutions abandoned,

We gear up and prepare to go again

12;

“It’s been a good year”

“It’s been a bad year”

None of it matters because the 12th month is a clean slate,

We celebrate it no matter what

12;

Hope is renewed in the 12th month,

Hope borne of thanks for another year survived,

Hope borne out of strife survived in 2020,

Hope that 2021 will bring better tidings
Turning #PRIDE🌈 month into pride year.
By: Cameron Callanan
Tags: Nonprofit, Philadelphia, Events, LGBTQ, Transgender

Pride protest. Photo by @uh

Every June, pride month comes to Philadelphia, causes a whirlwind of emotion and support for the LGBTQ community, and leaves in the blink of an eye. Although June is coming to an end, it’s also very important to realize that just because pride month is leaving us, doesn’t mean your pride and support needs to go with it. If your excitement over this past month just can’t be contained, here are some events in the Philly area throughout the year that you can attend to make Pride month last the entire year.

National events

Philadelphia Trans Wellness Conference- Is one of the largest trans-focused events in the country. It will be held August 2nd-4th in the Pennsylvania convention center.
Why Stoicism Works for Some People, but Not Others
By: Caleb Tuttle
Tags: Life, Aristotle, Philosophy, Self, Stoicism

How the Golden Mean Relates to Stoicism

The Stoic emphasis on emotional detachment, on accepting circumstances that seem out of our control, is near an extreme on a continuum. The continuum is one that has complete lack of emotions on one extreme and completely unrestrained emotions on the other extreme. In the middle lies moderate restraint of emotions. Stoicism is near the high-restraint extreme.

Stoicism’s emphasis on one extreme is terrific for people who tend toward the opposite extreme. For some of us (or, more accurately, for all of us at certain times), a dose of Stoic calm is exactly what we need. It brings us to the golden mean of moderate restraint of emotions. We do not give up emotions entirely; we simply tone them down to the appropriate levels.

However, sometimes we need just the opposite. Some situations call for emotions. If I am a natural overthinker and under-feeler, I might benefit from learning about the advantages of following my gut or leaning into my emotions. Hearing the Stoic call to action to remain calm will likely leave me in my unfeeling state, even when the situation calls for something different. What I need is something that pulls me to the mean.

Example: What Do You Do?

Imagine you are in elementary school (with your current brains), and your little brother is bullied by someone from his class. If you know you have the chance to interact with the little bully, how might you handle the situation?

If you are an under-feeler, you will likely be unmoved by your little brother’s misfortune and will therefore do nothing to help.

If you are an impulsive over-feeler, you might attack the bully as soon as you can and with no forethought.

In the first case, teaching the detachment-emphasizing principles of Stoicism will certainly not incite your sense of justice, a sense of justice that is requisite for helping your younger brother.

In the second case, you could benefit from some Stoic reserve. You might, instead of rashly attacking the younger bully, first issue a warning to the bully or approach a teacher or even give the little bully a light shove to get the message across without seriously injuring him.
10 things I learned from Covid-19 with D3.js
By: Stacy Cho
Tags: Technology, JavaScript, Programming, D3js, Web Development

10 things I learned from Covid-19 with D3.js

A Guidebook to making an OpenSource project

Global Timeline of Covid19 by Stacy S. Cho

Overview

Global Covid19 Timeline has earned a lot of 💌 👏 😍from many people. I really appreciate for everyone’s support

As of now April 16, 2020, Global Covid19 Timeline has earned - 9K+ User Traffic - 58 Likes & 15 Comments from LinkedIn Post - 100+ Visits & 25+ Clone from Github repository

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Douglas Noel Adams, an author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy once said,

Programming gets things done

I was actively looking for software engineer jobs in NYC before the Corona Virus swept New York & New Jersey. I had many interviews scheduled and I was very hopeful and motivated to start my career as a software engineer.

The virus swept the U.S., especially New York and I received many emails and messages about interview process being pended and rejected due to the the virus. New Yorkers were asked to Stay at Home and my job hunting period stopped until further notice.

For the first few days of my status being changed from Job seeker to the unemployed, John Hopkins’s Covid Website & Google’s Coronavirus (COVID-19) map became my Netflix. I was checking the graphs and the world map every hours hoping that the trend goes down and everything comes back to the normal, but the trend goes an opposite of what I hope so.
2018 Joint Economic Report: Building a Secure Future, One Blockchain at a Time
By: Daily Bit
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Cybersecurity, Blockchain, Economics

The Year of Cryptocurrencies

In an unprecedented act. Blockchain was tapped by US Congress as a means of “building a secure future”, receiving its own chapter in the 2018 Joint Economic Report that discussed blockchain’s resistance to cyber attacks, connection to digital currencies, and recent regulatory qualms.

The blockchain is a big deal for cybersecurity

The report pegs cybersecurity as a top priority for economic growth and cites blockchain for its potential to “help the economy function more efficiently and securely.” A more avid statement is made when blockchain is described as“nearly invulnerable to cyberattack”. With intellectual property a top bounty for cybercriminals, Congress thinks they might’ve found their Achilles.

And only a heel of blockchain’s potential (ba ding) is battle worn. While governments are still clamoring to reel in digital currencies, the report acknowledged “valuing items in those denominations could become easier” with decreased volatility, and that “individuals might begin using them more frequently as a medium of exchange.” So while there’s been no official endorsement of Bitcoin, for example, central bank digital currencies are a likely contender to win Congress’ approval.

First Impressions Matter

And that’s about where we stand today. Our working knowledge of blockchain technology basically exists around digital currencies, and the nauseating(some would say exhilarating) investment journey that comes with them has led to blockchain being branded as The Bad Guy.

The crew on Capitol Hill agrees. They noted that “with all the headlines focusing on financial applications… people could be frightened about new developments with the technology as they associate blockchain with negative headlines.” Apparently, Morgan Stanley concurs — the bank clocked Bitcoin’s rally to December highs at 15 times the pace of the Nasdaq back in 2000.

Takeaways: The short version
Using social media to build your personal brand
By: Ipg Media Lab
Tags: Socail Networks, Raquel Krouse, SEO, Online Identity

“We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.” — Tom Peters

Although Tom Peters coined “The Brand Called You” in an article in FastCompany magazine back in 1997, with the explosion of social media, personal branding is more important than ever.

Personal branding, a summation of how individuals are representing themselves online, is a phenomenon where people and their careers are perceived as brands. Your online presence including news, blog posts and comments, profiles on social networks, images, videos and personal web sites — essentially content of any kind that connects to you, makes up your personal brand. For individuals and executives, it’s important to gain control of this image you are presenting to the world. New tools for personal branding can help you create and manage a unique and powerful personal brand online.

Self-Packaging Through Social networks

Social networking is essential to growing a personal brand. Having an online presence today means creating and managing living and breathing profiles on the major social networks, including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. The profiles and status updates are a great way to help you promote your personal brand. There are even companies like JumpStart offering profile set-up services, helping the not so tech savvy build an online identity. Since there are so many social networks out there, profile aggregators, such as profilebuilder and profileomat can help you to bring together all your online identities in one place.

SEO for Online Identity Management

Search Engine Optimization is a great tool to help manage a personal brand. With the focus on the keyword as the person’s name, the intent is to get high rankings for positive references when someone searches for that individual. Ziggs promises top visibility in search engines. And you can now control how you appear in Google by creating a personal Google Profile.

Personal Ratings and Reviews

We’ve been reading reviews on books and restaurants for years, and now we are reviewing each other. Encouraging business contacts to leave personal references and reviews on sites like LinkedIn and Naymz can help to build and enhance your online reputation.

Not sure what your personal brand looks like? Search for your name on a major search engine and see what is being said about you. People use the Internet as a tool to find information about people we meet in our personal and business lives. HR departments are using search engines and scanning social profiles on social networks to vet candidates. Social media has quickly become a part of our culture and has turned out to be a great way to create and promote your personal brand. Marketers can also benefit by offering these services to your clients. So whether your Web presence is minimal, or like mine, in need of some tweaking, the time is now to manage your online identity.
What’s Going On Behind Your Mask?
By: Janie Emaus
Tags: Humor, Beauty, Satire, Aging, Self Improvement

What’s Going On Behind Your Mask?

Are you preparing for the future?

Photo by Stefan Heesch on Unsplash

It finally happened. The day I’ve been dreading. I knew it was inevitable. But still, I wasn’t ready for it.

Not this morning. Not yet. Not during a Pandemic.

But as I dipped my finger, oh so gingerly, in my jar of very expensive cold face plasma, it touched the bottom. The. Bottom.

We all know what that means. Time to replenish.

And if the plasma is facing this demise, the firming facial lift, the anti-puff eye cream and the nourishing moisturizer can’t be far behind.

The question now is — Have these facial products lived up to their potential?

I’d like to think so. But fact is, I’m not entirely sure. Yet if I stop now, I’ll never know.

Turning my back on these promised benefits of youthful skin, would be like leaving the main character in my novel running toward the man of her dreams only to find him the victim of the delete key. Or like knitting a one armed sweater.

I’ve always taught the children in my life that they need to see a project through to the end. If halfway through the baseball season, they wanted to quit, I wouldn’t let them. If they planted a garden, they needed to make sure it was watered regularly. When they wanted a puppy, I demanded they fed the poor thing. (Of course, we all know how that turns out.)

But on the whole, I taught them that making a commitment means something. No matter how small.

And so, in order not to be hypocritical, I must hold firm to my beliefs.

I must see this project through to the end.

Of course, my favorite beauty supply store is closed. How long until I get a new shipment? How long can my skin fight the wrath of gravity?

On the plus side, no one can see the lines around my mouth. But on the day we get to walk outside without resembling bandits and bank robbers, I want to be ready!

Thanks for reading! Stay safe & healthy.
MFChain Announces Key Leadership Additions
By: Modern Finance Chain
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Leadership, Blockchain, Ethereum, ICO

Coming off a highly successful Blockchain Economic Forum event in San Francisco, MFChain is in the final stages of negotiations on a number of key partnerships. Each will add tremendous value to the MFX payment processing solution as well as the MF Mainnet ecosystem that will launch in 2019. With these changes, MFChain realizes that in order to stay on track with our roadmap, additional attention to development and additional leadership resources are necessary.

In an strategic move, our parent company Mammoth Project LTD will be taking a forward facing role within MFChain and leading all business and operational tasks within MFChain. Effective immediately Craig Neil, Founder Mammoth Project LTD and Jayson Rellis, Managing Director Mammoth Project LTD will join MFChain in a full time capacity. These key additions allow Viacheslav Shybaiev and the development team to focus on fully integrating all new partners API’s within the MFChain payment solution and also complete the full development of the MF2x protocol (full detailed announcement to come on MF2x).

In combination with the addition of Craig and Jayson to the MFChain core team, we are pleased to also announce that Naviin Kapoor has accepted a new role. Effective immediately Naviin is joining MFChain as Head of Blockchain Integration Asia and Middle East. We are excited for Naviin’s role and look forward to his leadership in driving adoption and partnerships in the Asian and Middle East Markets.
Simple Todo List in Angular. Basic ‘To do list’ that can be improved
By: Yurii Kuznietsov
Tags: Programming, Angular, Front End Development, Web Development, Angular2

Angular examples

Simple Todo List in Angular

Basic ‘Todo list’ that can be improved

Our to-do list will be as simple as possible. The task will have just two fields title and description. Users will be able to add or remove tasks.

Simple to-do list

We have the requirements, now let’s write a code. We start with a model.

model

The next step is to create a component — List. For that, we can use command of Angular CLI

‘ng g c list’. This component will contain two methods ‘addTask’, ‘removeTask’, and one property for a list of tasks. In ‘removeTask’ function we pass the index of the task that we need to delete.

ListComponent

In Html, we need to create one cycle for tasks, two buttons, two inputs and number of task. For numeration we using index in ‘ngFor’.

Html of ListComponent

In input we are using two-ways binding that means if the property will be changed in code or in UI new value will be saved and the user will see the new value.

To use that functionality we need to add ‘FormsModule’ in our ‘AppModule’.

AppModule

Our to-do list is ready. If you need to take a close look on the project here is the link.
PIRATE ARRR Solution for sprout funds
Tags: Sapling, Privacy, Sprouts, Piratechain, Arrr

Dear Pirate!

When we forked to a sapling only chain, anyone who did not complete the migrate process before February 15th has had their funds locked.

This was to ensure that no exploit of the zcash inflation bug had occurred.

We have now a solution for your locked sprout coins.

After discussing options, we concluded that opening another migration window involves the risk of exploiting the sprout inflation bug*.

There are currently 1'294'336 ARRR/PIRATE locked in zc addresses.

The Community is currently collecting Donations for your refund.

If the raised funds are less than the claimed funds on 30 June 2019 you will get the proportional amount to your stake.

First Payout will start in first week of July 2019.

After 30 June 2019 you can still claim up to the end of the year 2019, we will refund you if we have funds left, first in first out rule applies.

In order to get your refund you MUST

1) provide the private key for your zc address. Send the request to CHMEX#0686 chmex@dexstats.info

2) provide a new sapling address starting with zs where the funds shall be sent to you need to be in control of that address.

3) indicate the % amount you want to receive of your stake. We suggest you claim less than 90%

This refund process involves a lot of work and uses a substantial amount of goodwill from the community and personal funds.

If you wish to Donate ARRR/PIRATE for this Community Refund please send them to

ARRR Donation Address (you can also point your mining gear to that address)

zs1qr0ef4z9l0s3c0pnwz4zh93dvc28t3grghc3uaxwsehsj9g63jfx3ccrzs8xswhqkw9fquu04zt

KMD Donation Address:

RGZ2QN1Pe4565AgNqBv7YePD1fXiyc9fGJ

BTC Donation Address:

18GqKr873EGX1AKBN1vzT841FQ58KfxsU4

Please remember there was no ICO and no premining so any amount you are willing to waive or donate is highly appreciated.

Thank you

CHMEX#0686

Help:

How do I produce the piratekey?

- If on CLI type this:

./komodo-cli -ac_name=PIRATE z_exportkey ZCADDRESS

- send your private key to

chmex@dexstats.info or discord to CHMEX#0686

You can find all the contact information on GitHub including PGP Key.

You can also send a 7zip / zip / rar file and password protect it

github.com/CHMEX/NotaryNodes/tree/master/notarynodes/chmex#contact

Once received I will verify your claim and confirm.

Payment/ refund to your zs address will happen in July

*read about it here

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-7167

https://z.cash/blog/zcash-counterfeiting-vulnerability-successfully-remediated/
Error Handling With GraphQL, Spring Boot, and Kotlin
By: Manish Jain
Tags: Spring Boot, Kotlin, GraphQL, Android, Programming

Solution

1. The setup

Let’s set up a Spring Boot project with GraphQL. Also, the code to this is available here.

Go to https://start.spring.io/.

Select a Gradle project, and set the language as Kotlin .

You don’t have to select any dependencies for a bare-minimum implementation.

Download the ZIP file, and open it in your favorite IDE.

Jump to build.gradle.kts , and add:

These are the GraphQL libraries you’d need to get started with your first endpoint.

2. Endpoint without error handling

Let’s create two endpoints to create and fetch a resource.

Add Service to provide the creation and fetching of car .

We have created a function to create a car and another to get back the car with the name as input. But in case the car isn’t found, this will throw an exception, and that gets translated to the response shown:

3. Implement error handling

To be able to provide something sensible in case of an error or exception, we’ll add some more code.

Let’s understand what’s going on here.

There’s a message field, which is self-explanatory. The overridden function, getExtensions() , is to provide a map of parameters. This could be different properties like ErrorCodes that you want to pass for an error. The overridden function, getErrorTypes() , is to provide a classification of the error — for example, DataFetchingException or ValidationException .

In the above exception , you can see it extends from GraphQLException , which is the bridge between our custom CarNotFoundException and GraphQLError .

Now we’re going to add GraphQLException .

When we add that, we need to make sure we create a separate Java module and add that GraphQLException in the Java module.

Why?

Because a Kotlin class can’t extend RuntimeException and implement GraphQLError at the same time. The reason for that can be found here.

So now we create a GraphQLException class.

And from the CarService , we throw the exception when the car isn’t found.

With that change, the response will contain a lot more detail than before.
What I learned after Al-Anon
By: Thomas P Seager
Tags: Addiction, Al Anon, Maslow, Addiction Recovery, Personal Growth

Photo by Nonsap Visuals on Unsplash

What I learned after Al-Anon

Failing to save my marriage was only the beginning.

Al-Anon is the 12 step program for people who are in love with an alcoholic. When my children yanked me out of denial of my wife’s alcoholism, several of the people in my life whom I respect advised me to attend.

So I did.

The best thing about groups like Al-Anon isn’t the books, or the steps. It’s the other people you meet that have been down a road that might look a lot like yours.

I chose an all men’s group, because my qualifier was my wife and there were going to be aspects of my story that I needed to talk about without the additional static of being observed by women.

What I remember most is was this exchange:
A Hot Girl Can Change Your Life
By: Ashley Cleland
Tags: Relationships, Sexuality, Advice, Life Lessons, Inspiration

A Hot Girl Can Change Your Life

On the ‘What ifs’ you can’t miss.

Photo by Sonnie Hiles on Unsplash

I avoided my hot girl for two years. Something about her made me afraid. I couldn’t put my finger on what exactly. Then I stopped avoiding her. I stopped avoiding her so hard that instead I wrote a romance novel inspired by her. That seemed safer at the time.

My husband said he knew that our marriage was over when he heard the plot of my novel. It was a coming into your identity story featuring a steamy affair with a woman named Summer in a sweet Southern town on the water. I think you can guess which element of this story he wasn’t okay with. (Hint: it wasn’t the Southern town on the water.)

My therapist had even endorsed the idea at first. She encouraged me to find a way to get this hot girl out of my system when I shared about this overwhelming attraction. Which wasn’t in and of itself that surprising, given she was, as I mentioned, pretty dang hot.

I can acknowledge that sexuality is fluid and I am only human. But this was different. It was lightning strike out of nowhere attracted. The kind of attraction that simmers through your veins, filling you up with unexpected desire.

There was that one pesky detail: I was completely and happily (or so I thought) married.

I didn’t know what to do with these feelings. I surely couldn’t act on them and this wasn’t a reciprocated feeling. Even if I had intentions, there was nothing to act on. So I got to know her. I used my interactions with her as inspiration for a romance novel that had been tapping on my heart for a long time.

The irony is not lost on me that in writing a romance, I found myself living the research/writing and then falling for your subject trope. Did I learn nothing from watching Never Been Kissed at sleepovers for years?

The answer to that is a big yes, apparently. I fell hard and my life as I knew it was simply not built for the fallout. This person and my feelings for her were extremely inconvenient.

As inconvenient as these feelings were, they were also an indicator of a much bigger problem. I was filled with a haunting ‘What if’ and tortured by my unlived life. I never thought I’d understand why people had affairs until I read that relationship expert Esther Perel refers to them as “the revenge of unlived lives.”

While I didn’t have an affair, I deeply resonated with the unlived life concept. At some point, my temporary fix, the romance novel, would no longer satisfy my curiosity. As the words spilled onto the page, there was my unlived life revealing itself before my eyes. A possibility I had never dared to consider. A big, important ‘What if.’

My unlived life was this inner wanting to be with a woman. What if I said something to this hot girl (or any woman)? What if I didn’t? Would I regret it for the rest of my life?

Spoiler alert: I blew up my life. I decided I couldn’t miss this ‘What if’ on my heart. Whether it was this particular hot girl or someone else, I needed to be with a woman or I would regret it later.
JavaScript coding interview — Array — Part 3
By: Sathish Kumar Arumugam
Tags: Arrays, Coding Interviews, JavaScript, Frontend Interviews, Big O Notation

Array related questions and answers from brute force to better optimal way of achieving Big O

Photo by Ulises Baga on Unsplash

Find the maximum value of an array

Remove duplicate from an array/ unique array

Get duplicates from an array

Flatten the array

Find the median value of an array

Find two sum of an array twoSum(arr, sum)

Maximum consecutive sum of integers in an array

Union of arrays (merge two arrays without duplicates)

Intersection of arrays/ find common values of arrays (multidimensional)

Given an array of integers, every element appears twice except for one. Find that single one

Given an array of integers, find the largest product yielded from three of the integers

Being told that an unsorted array contains (n — 1) of n consecutive numbers (where the bounds are defined), find the missing number in O(n) time

Given an array of integers, find the largest difference between two elements such that the element of lesser value must come before the greater element

Given an array of integers, return an output array such that output[i] is equal to the product of all the elements in the array other than itself. (Solve this in O(n) without division)

DNF problem (An array just contains 1s, 2s, and 3s. Sort the array)
Three Wishes
By: Lady Foxx
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Poetry, Wishes, Poem, Aladdin

Three Wishes

If I Was Aladdin

Photo by Cesira Alvarado on Unsplash

One wish…..

To be whole and humane

In a world of much pain

Spreading love,joy and kindness

When all around is depravity and madness



If granted another wish…..

To be up and about

Nurturing the growing sprout

Of the world long forgotten

Amidst the clamour for wealth ill-gotten



And the barely thought of wish….

To be enlightened and not harm

And be not a man with an arm

In a world bedevilled by corruption

Of man ; singly and as a nation
Happy Holidays!
Tags: Christmas, Cryptocurrency, Beaxy

On behalf of the entire team, we want to say thank you to our valued community and supporters who stuck with us through thick and thin.

We want to wish everyone a happy holiday season and as an expression of our gratitude, we have and continue to deliver many of the features you’ve been asking for and need.

To view the full release notes of our latest upgrade, please click on the link below:

https://support.beaxy.com/hc/en-us/articles/360040057093-Platform-Update-12-22

As we approach the end of 2019, we are turning the page on all of the challenges we faced throughout the year. We are now looking forward to 2020 with a clearly charted path to propelling Beaxy Exchange to the forefront of digital asset trading.

We have some exciting things in store for the beginning of the year and we are eager to continue delivering greatly anticipated improvements. Stay tuned for more about these upcoming changes.

From the Beaxy family, we wish you a safe and happy holiday season!

— The Beaxy Exchange Team —
Surge in REVOLUT business after integrating Cryptocurrency
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Revolut

TransferWise a fintech company based in Europe dominating the market by transferring the money with cheap fee and shorter verification period since a long time. Revolut surpassed TransferWise this month after integrating cryptocurrencies in its platform and become a $1.7 billion and now taking lead in the market.

Earlier this week Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman also hinted that cryptocurrency exchanges becoming the worlds second biggest market and was very optimistic about the future of cryptocurrency.

She said “Certainly Nasdaq would consider becoming a crypto exchange over time. If we do look at it and say ‘it’s time, people are ready for a more regulated market,’ for something that provides a fair experience for investors. I believe that digital currencies will continue to persist it’s just a matter of how long it will take for that space to mature. Once you look at it and say, ‘do we want to provide a regulated market for this?’ Certainly, Nasdaq would consider it.”

At present the market is of nearly $400 billion which relatively small but if we see the pace through which market is growing is incredible and now giving tough competitions to banks too. Binance biggest cryptocurrency exchange surpassed the profit Deutsche bank, Germany’s largest financial institution. Cryptocurrency centered startups giving competition directly to banks and institutions giving financial services. The primary reason for this is the manifold increase in buyers of cryptocurrencies.

If we compare TransferWise and Revolut a year ago then there will be no logic you find it because Revolut based in London was valued less than a billion and user base is also very less compare to TransferWise but in late 2017 company made some transforms and integrated cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin for its users and find a surge in the business and profit later company also added a debit card related to Cryptocurrency for purchase.

A 70 percent surge has been seen In the company’s user base and now company’s value is around $1.7 billion compared to TransferWise which is valued $1.6 billion and all this happen after integrating cryptocurrencies to its platform.

Apart from Coinbase, Revolut remains as the only bank-like network in Europe that allows users to spend, store, send, and receive payments from both bank accounts and cryptocurrencies.

Featured image from Revolut.
Four Cartoonists on The Biggest Lie of Their Lives
By: The Nib
Tags: Humor, Memoir, Family, Caribbean, Comics

Sign up for Taking Stock of COVID: New comics from The Nib

By The Nib

New comics from Matt Lubchansky, Keith Knight, and Niccolo Pizarro. Plus How Seniors Are Living With COVID-19. Take a look
Breaking Monotony — How Soul Blazer effectively uses GAR-Cycles
By: Yvens Serpa
Tags: Soul Blazer, Game Design, Level Design, Gameplay, Games

If you understood the concept of a GAR-cycle, you might have asked if a simple quest system would be considered one — and it does. However, quests might be engaging but are not strong enough of a mechanism to keep you into repeatedly doing so for hours on end (although, some MMORPG fans might disagree). Even if you just randomize your quest reward, it might still not achieve the same engagement that Soul Blazer has. Let’s see why.

The souls in Soul Blazer affect the environment. Each soul gives you a sense of progression and completion. For example, the game starts in Grass Valley, empty, and as soon as you begin to defeat Deathtolls goons, you have houses, people, goats, and talking tulips (yes, you read it right) populating the valley. Some reward you with items and information, while others just chat with you (even tulips — Cool, right?).

Whenever you release a soul, a small clip of its effect is displayed, but the player is not transported back. This mechanic gives you a little taste of what you just unlocked but does not stop you. Also, it is very common to have lairs very close to each other, reinforcing the cycle.

Soul Blazer’s detailed overview of its gameplay.

A more detailed gameplay cycle is visualized in the diagram above. Two of its steps, “Shows what was unlocked” and “Player sees a lair close by”, are meant to motivate the player. The first by visually rewarding the work done (not the Reward from the GAR-cycle) and the second by triggering the player to repeat the cycle since it is nearby already. Compare this to a traditional quest system that requires you to return, report the quest, be rewarded, fetch the next quest, and move all the way back to continue “questing”. Soul Blazer cycle does not break the gameplay flow.

Also, notice that the Reward was omitted from the diagram because it happens in another moment. It only takes place when the player decides to return to the freed souls and interact with them. This aspect creates tension: while you want to continue progressing, you also want to go back and check on what you unlocked. For this, the game uses other mechanics, such as fairies that transport you back. A more interesting mechanic for this is death!

Dying in Soul Blazer has the only downside of removing all your gems (the resource consumed to cast magic). Everything else, including destroyed lairs and experience points, is kept intact. You are transported back to The Master teleport device, in which you can safely save your progress, and then proceed to return to where you were, or stop by the cities and valleys to check on what you unlocked. Maybe there is a new and stronger sword for you this time.
Biden’s Cabinet Nominees are a Hot Mess
By: Caren White
Tags: Politics, Diversity, Biden, Cabinet, Government

Another problem with choosing candidates for his cabinet based on their race, ethnicity or sexual orientation, is that Biden is risking alienating Trump voters.

Biden has promised to be the president of everyone. He wants to bring the country back together again. That is something that is desperately needed. But to do so, you have to act like the president of everyone, and not just the special interests.

I do not condone this, but many conservatives are against affirmative action which they view as quotas that exclude White candidates. As I said, I don’t agree with this belief but, by choosing candidates for his cabinet based on their race, ethnicity or sexual orientation, Biden is using what conservatives consider quotas.

Trump voters will look on this as a slap in their faces. It isn’t meant that way, but perception is everything.

Biden should be choosing his cabinet based on the best person for the job. Choosing Deb Haaland for the Department of the Interior makes perfect sense. She is Native American and has spent her life working on issues that affect Native Americans and our public lands, many of which are sacred to indigenous peoples.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield is another inspired choice. She has spent her career in the Foreign Service, working in posts around the world. She is the best person for UN ambassador.

But choosing a lawyer to run Health and Human Services during a pandemic? Successfully suing for healthcare in a single state has nothing to do with actually administering healthcare countrywide during a public health emergency.

Choosing a small town mayor for transportation secretary because he worked on infrastructure in the downtown area of South Bend? That’s like choosing my small town mayor to be head of the CDC because he happens to be a doctor and organized COVID-19 testing in my town.
Invisible Illness
By: Bre Bitz
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Chronic Pain, Pain, Empowerment, Poetry

Invisible Illness

A poem about resilience

Bre Lembitz by Tim Obremski — originally published in Ten10 Magazine

"Please sit down ma’am," he says to me

"I cannot," I say with simplicity

I tore my hip,

and now it’s sick

and won’t let me be rid of this egocentricity.

"It's for your own safety," he says with insistence.

This is ridiculous.

Three colors of resistance,

Gather in thickness;

Persistence.

How can we further handicap

And call it assistance?

"But ma'am, what are you sitting on?"

Knives, guns, axes, needles

Pincushions and Chinese beetles

"A pillow Sir?"

What does he think?

That I cannot sit so I'm going to cause a stink,

and then prop myself up with a kitchen sink?

"We need you to sit down"

Yes.

I know.

Believe me,

I'd rather not be

half standing for hours,

using my strength to overpower

my pelvis's natural inclination to devour

Itself.

Keeping my weight on my shoulders and toes.

Using every muscle to balance between chair and the floor.

I'd pretty much rather do anything:

Catch a ball on the upswing,

Search for coconut milk in Beijing,

Find mushrooms while they're sporing,

Lose hours to T9 texting;

But,

I want to see my grandfather for Thanksgiving

So

I will balance myself.

Here,

In this airplane

With these people

Who will disdain

And have dismissed.

Because they cannot fathom

How a young madam

Could exist

With such an

Invisible Illness

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What does the time complexity O(log n) actually mean?
Tags: Efficiency, Optimization, Binary Search, Time Complexity, Algorithms

Knowing the complexity of algorithms beforehand is one thing, and other thing is knowing the reason behind it being like that.

Whether you’re a CS graduate or someone who wants to deal with optimization problems effectively, this is something that you must understand if you want to use your knowledge for solving actual problems.

Complexities like O(1) and O(n) are simple and straightforward. O(1) means an operation which is done to reach an element directly (like a dictionary or hash table), O(n) means first we would have to search it by checking n elements, but what could O(log n) possibly mean?

One place where you might have heard about O(log n) time complexity the first time is Binary search algorithm. So there must be some type of behavior that algorithm is showing to be given a complexity of log n. Let us see how it works.

Since binary search has a best case efficiency of O(1) and worst case (average case) efficiency of O(log n), we will look at an example of the worst case. Consider a sorted array of 16 elements.

For the worst case, let us say we want to search for the the number 13.

A sorted array of 16 elements

Selecting the middle element as pivot (length / 2)

Since 13 is greaterthan pivot, we remove the other half of the array

Repeating the process for finding the middle element for every sub-array

You can see that after every comparison with the middle term, our searching range gets divided into half of the current range.

So, for reaching one element from a set of 16 elements, we had to divide the array 4 times,

We can say that,

Simplified Formula

Similarly, for n elements,

Generalization

Separating the power for the numerator and denominator

Multiplying both sides by 2^k

Final result

Now, let us look at the definition of logarithm, it says that

A quantity representing the power to which a fixed number (the base) must be raised to produce a given number.

Which makes our equation into

Logarithmic form

So the log n actually means something doesn’t it? A type of behavior nothing else can represent.

Well, i hope the idea of it is clear in your mind. When working in the field of computer science, it is always helpful to know such stuff (and is quite interesting too). Who knows, maybe you’re the one in your team who is able to find an optimized solution for a problem, just because you know what you’re dealing with. Good luck!
A Letter to My Mom
By: Priscilla Leon
Tags: Parents, Nostalgia, Depression, Relationships, Advice

Mom, I miss you. I miss you so much. I miss hugging you. Hearing your voice calling out my name. Listening to you getting all excited when sharing the latest neighborhood gossip. Seeing the light in your eyes.

I even miss moments I never thought I would, like studying for a test while rehearsing someone's bio in front of you.

I miss waking up earlier than usual and finding you sitting on your rocking chair, with the front door open and a coffee cup wrapped around your fingers. Enjoying the first moments of the day in calm and quietness.

The saddest thing is, I know you miss those mornings too.

Your life has changed so brutally in the past 7 years. It must be rough for a person to endure so much in such a short span of time.

I know you are blocking it, of course. You are alienating yourself from reality, like an addict who prefers to stay under the influence to avoid confrontation with “the other”. Moving the wheel without even wanting to stop to think about why it is moving.

That kills me the most, because it’s exactly that alienation which keeps you from climbing out of the hole that you find yourself falling deeper into.

I would like to say something, but I am so afraid to hurt you. The awakening is going to be tough. At the same time, I know that it will be so worth it.

Abstinence days are the equivalent to self-reflection days. It will turn you inside-out, if you are true to yourself. It is supposed to.

Confronting demons that we have kept locked in a bag for years doesn't come at a cheap price. Nor does the process of sitting with them, analyzing why they are there and what made us lock them up. It takes a lot of energy and willpower.

However, once it's done, and you have clear your system, your self, it will feel as if a veil has been removed from your eyes. You will see colors again. You will have plans. You with feel joy. I promise this.

You need to be brave and remember that your life belongs to you. And then your eyes, mom, will start to shine again.
Back to My Childhood Bedroom
By: Darcy Reeder
Tags: Life, Childhood, This Happened To Me, Poetry, Family

December vacation in the house I was born.

The unhealthy habits I’ve tried to unlearn:

Fight or flight? You’re wrong; I’m right. “That’s impolite.” So black and white.

Stubbornness, taking sides, fighting with my dad,

Hiding under covers, impossibly sad.

My bedroom now storage, fresh painted and clean,

It housed my whole life until I was eighteen:

My nose in that corner, pressed tear-stained and flat;

Those shiny mirrored closets still make me feel fat.

Shoulder pads in my shirt, stuffed tight in my bra,

Me staring for hours, part pervert, part awe.

My crib was right here, then my trundle bed,

My Popples, my bunnies, my rainbow bedspread.

Hungry Hungry Hippos, My Little Ponies,

The millstones, the milestones; self-doubt and trophies.

My first cassette player, my clear telephone.

I’m back as a mama, family of my own.

Present day sex.

Remembering my ex.

And also the next.

And the MxPx

posters that covered my walls,

The maple out back and the previous Falls,

How I’d climb up the trunk to feel free and alone,

to imagine how strong I’d feel once I was grown.

Thanks for reading. I don’t usually speak in rhymes. Here’s something else I wrote:
Difference Between Regression Testing & Retesting
By: Jovie Anto De Sylvia
Tags: Software Development, Software Testing, Testing, Testing Tools, Regression

Many testing aspirants have difficulty in understanding the difference between regression testing and retesting. In this blog, we are going to look into the key difference between these two types of testing. Also, we are going to learn more about the relationship between regression testing and retesting.

So, let’s try to answer the question

“What is the difference between Regression Testing and Retesting?”

Regression Testing is a type of software testing executed to ensure whether a code change/update/release/patch has not unfavorably disturbed current features & functions of an application.

Whereas,

Get in Touch with us today for a Cost-Effective Regression Testing Suite

Re-testing is a type of testing performed to check whether test cases that were unsuccessful in the final execution are successfully passed after the defects are repaired.

In the Regression Testing, the test cases are extracted from functional testing to ensure that no new defects are included due to the software update/change & to check whether original features and functionality are working as expected. Regression testing also ensures that no new defect is introduced to the system. Once the regression test suite is created, the test cases can be automated using automation tool but the same is not applicable for Re-testing.

In regression testing, the defect logged by tester while testing the software application is fixed by the developer. In Retesting the same defect is checked to make sure whether the defect is fixed or not using steps to reproduce mentioned in the defect.

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Gems.org Poses Massive Disruption in Micro-Task Market
By: Bruce Hunt
Tags: Blockchain, Research, Gems, Cryptocurrency, Ethereum

What is Gems?

The decentralized mechanical turk has found birth in the protocol of Gems.org and the Ethereum Network. A mechanical turk, like that of Amazon, is a web base crowdsourcing marketplace which enables entities and individuals to harmonize the utilization of human intelligence in performing small tasks which computers currently lack the capability to complete. Gems.org will accomplish this in a revolutionary way by implementing blockchain technology to reduce the 500–1500% over-payment that entities currently encounter when implementing these microwork tasks into a project. Beyond that, the individuals completing these tasks will also be able to profit in greater magnitude.

Image from Gems.org

Who is Gems?

Co-Founders, Kieran and Rory O’Reilly are moving at breakneck speed to launch this platform under the tutelage of names like Biz Stone and Ben Maurer. This brings to the table, talent from Facebook, Google, Twitter and Medium. After dropping out of Harvard University the co-founders together successfully founded gifs.com, an online editing and artificial intelligence company, who’s customers ranged from Google to Netflix. It’s no question that the launchpad they have is built upon passion for innovation.

Image from Gems.org

The Gems Brothers, follow them on twitter!

What are people saying about Gems on twitter?

Where is Gems?

A current valuation of the San Francisco based platform is to be determined, it’s easy to see how this technology will create absolute disruption in the market and race to a sizeable share of it also. An Initial Coin Offering (ICO) will allow cryptocurrency users and investors to help fund the project and open in Late-January to Early-February. The sale is at first limited to contributors of their community content.

Image from Gems.org

Where Is Gems Headed?

Quarter One of 2018 is chock full of implementations to the roadmap for Gems. The team has already implemented their alpha and looks to have the platform on MainNet, as well as a successful token sale and many other early aspects of development. The action Gems have taken to donate $100k worth of micro-tasks will ensure a healthy balance between requesters of such tasks and miners who complete them.

Image from Gems.org

Why Gems?

In conclusion, I am wholeheartedly excited for the benefits of this platform. As an enthusiast of decentralization, one can quickly see where this technology will cut out an inefficient and parasitic middle man service. The boost to the true players in this microwork ecosystem will see a happier and healthier market and will undoubtedly change the atmosphere for the better. This follows perfectly to the theme of distributed systems and their disruptive power.

Looking forward to ICO, I will write about it when they announce the details to the public.