fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Nobody Is Brave Enough to Redesign the Waffle
By: Andy Kong
Tags: Innovation, Geometry, Math, Optimization, Waffle

In 1611, Johannes Kepler proposed a theoretical maximum density for packing spheres in 3D space. Regardless of how they were arranged in a box, he said, you will never fill more than 74% of your total box volume. His theorem went unproven until 1996, when Thomas Hales made a computer test every arrangement of spheres for two years and announced his results: Kepler was right.

I stand here, in the year of our Lord 2019, 408 years after Kepler’s famous sphere-packing conjecture, and announce a similar waffle packing conjecture. In the case of a circular waffle with square syrup pockets, the problem is similar but not analogous to the circle packing problem. The maximum packing density of regular circles is about 90%, which is pretty good. However, I think in this day and age, we can easily do better.

Take this square pocketed, square waffle. Put this in a square box like the one featured above and you have a perfect volume density of 100%. However, there’s no beauty in this approach. If I were to manufacture these waffles, I would gain an 11% advantage over those poor folks at Eggos by cutting out the corner reprocessing section of my waffle factory, but I would be selling square waffles for square customers. That’s not the people whose breakfasts I want to fuel!

I want the new generation, the modern consumers who want organic things to fuel their wholesome, mentally aware lives as they develop websites and meditate.

My solution: the hexagonal waffle, with hexagonal pockets.

Perfect for pouring honey into…

Imagine seeing a hexagonal box of Hexxos, perfectly tiling the mathematically infinite shelves of a grocery store near you, filled 100% the way with waffle. The sky is a bright baby blue outside. The birds are chirping. Climate change is no more. “That’ll be 4 dollars, ma’am.” You pay with hexagonal coins.
[Notice] Free LNC Airdrop Event
By: Exnomy X Linkercoin
Tags: Airdrop, Lnc, Cryptocurrency, Linkercoin

Free LNC Airdrop Event

This month Jan. 3% airdrop for Bitnaru LNC Holders + Pre-registered ETH accounts

Bitnaru LNC holders will automatically get additional LNC 3%. The holder of LNC in private ETH wallet must register their ETH account address to the below link.

https://forms.gle/vNAghY9GKfCfQo5fA

Please check the snapshot schedule.

2020/1/31 GMT 12 PM

All exchanges except Bitnaru such as HITBTC, Ether Delta, DEXHI and others does not support this airdrop event.

The LNC tokens stored in private wallets should be registered the ETH account address.

Thanks
Introducing a simpler fee structure on Liquid
Tags: Finance, Cryptocurrency, Products, Blockchain

As we recently announced, we’re about to introduce a new and improved trading fee structure on Liquid.

It’s a simplified, flat fee structure of 0.1% for trades on all crypto, fiat and stablecoin pairs, for both maker and taker spot orders.

Simplifying our fee structure helps us offer attractive utility incentives for QASH token holders. One such incentive is that you will receive a 50% discount on all trading fees by paying in QASH. This reduces the fee from 0.1% to 0.05% (or 5 bps).

Our new fee structure is scheduled to launch on March 20, and will apply to all Liquid users (unless you’re a resident of Japan).

Here’s the full breakdown of all new fees:

Spot orders: a flat fee of 0.1% (or 10bps) for both maker and taker orders.

a flat fee of 0.1% (or 10bps) for both maker and taker orders. Margin orders : a flat 0.1% fee for both opening and closing a margin position

: a flat 0.1% fee for both opening and closing a margin position Trading fee in case of liquidation: in the event of a margin call, an additional trading fee of 0.2% will apply on your liquidated position.

in the event of a margin call, an additional trading fee of 0.2% will apply on your liquidated position. This fee structure applies to all trading pairs, including all crypto, fiat and stablecoins.

You’ll get a 50% discount on the above trading fees (except the trading fee in case of liquidation) if you pay in QASH.

What you’ll need to do next

To launch our new fee structure we’ve updated our Terms of Use. To continue using Liquid, all you need to do is simply log in to your Liquid account and accept the updated terms.

Please note that If you are using our API to trade, you will also have to log in and accept the new terms of use before March 19. Keep in mind that after March 19, you will not be able to use Liquid (including accessing it through API) if you have not accepted the new Terms of Use.

We are confident that our simplified fee structure and discounts will make your overall trading experience on the Liquid platform better, and we are looking forward to bringing you more new features and updates on Liquid in the near future.
Google Authentication with MongoDB Stitch — Swift 5
By: Daniel Kioko
Tags: Software Development, Xcode, iOS, Swift, Mongodb

One of my favorite capabilities of MongoDB is being able to use social login. When I first started learning to use the cloud server, I already wrapped my mind on using Firebase because I assumed the Authentication methods would be bogus — to my surprise, I realized I could login with Google, Facebook, & even Apple!

For this tutorial, we’ll be learning how to login to Stitch using your Google account.

When a user logs in, Google provides Stitch with an OAuth 2.0 access token for the user. Stitch then uses the token to establish the user and access approved data from Google APIs on their behalf.

Here’s what we’ll be doing:

Creating an OAuth Client ID Enabling Google Sign-In in your Stitch App Write some Swift code

You can clone or download the template from GitHub: https://github.com/danielkioko/MongoDB_GoogleAuthentication

Before we start, make sure to install these dependencies with CocoaPods. Navigate to your iOS project folder in Terminal, run ‘pod init’, run ‘open podfile’ paste the following on a new line after useframeworks!
Saturnalia - Take 2
By: Patrick M. Ohana
Tags: Jd Harms, Love, Prompt, Muse, Figurine

Saturnalia - Take 2

My beautiful sigillaria

Photo by PublicDomainPictures on Pixabay

Apollo, my good man

I think that I saw a lizard over there

I only want her heart

Hercules, my powerful human

I could use a little of your strength

I only want her heart

Minerva, gorgeous goddess

I love how you play hard to get

I only want her heart

Saturn, my mammoth cousin

Can you give me one of your moons

I only want her heart

Gods, wherever you choose to gloat

Please help me get my muse

I only want her heart

She knows that I love her heart

with everything that I am and can be

I know that she loves me to death

perhaps not that far

But I only want her heart

If I hold it in my hands

the rest of her will follow

But she’s already registered

as someone belonging

to a freaking sigillaria figurine

My life is basically about her

I’m part of her life without me

She remains the Woman I’m crazy about

she’s everything I never thought existed

How can I ever stop to want to know her

more

at least a little more

I also know her

like I know my heart

it never lies

the mind is clear on that

Do I understand what all this means to each one

I can only try to understand her side

She’s of course right

Yet I’m not to blame either

So who’s responsible for this affront

this painful rendition of another case of doomed love

It must be love

What else

Bad luck

Give me a break

Karma

You’re getting closer

It had to happen

Exactly

It was predetermined

It’s the fucking universe’s fault

So what can we do about it

now that we know the situation

I made a figurine of her

using the best clay from the Vatican

and some of my blue blood

filled with a chunk of our love

wax sucks

it can’t withstand much of anything

I look at her figurine every day

many times

all the time

asking for some physical love

since the current situation

makes the body weak

Please Wonder Woman

help me somehow

I saw what you can do

Can you change time

Throw me back to the early 90s

There’s a muse there I need to meet

I even wrote about time travel

knowing that it’s a pipe dream

But it helps make life appear a bit fairer

Patrick M. Ohana
Westeros is Poorly Designed
By: Lyman Stone
Tags: Economics, Migration, Game of Thrones

Westeros is Poorly Designed

Bring It.

UPDATE 1: You found me, Internet! It’s great to have you on my blog! Boy, Game of Thrones really has an SEO cachet that demographic analysis does not usually command. So, a few notes. 1. I read all comments, reply as I am able. 2. Yes, that means you too, Reddit and MetaFilter commenters. 3. I’ve answered some common critiques here. 4. If you like this level of nerdiness, I do it regularly analyzing actual historic demographics on my Podcast. Check it out!

UPDATE 2: Also! By popular demand from my fellow uber-nerds, I’ve written up my thoughts on plausible Medieval population geography. I invite comment and critique of these estimates, and will revise them as appropriate.

UPDATE 3: Some folks over at Reddit got into it recently about the size of Westeros, and this map started circulating, and then I was looped into it and got asked if it was plausible. Answer: yes, I think this is probably a pretty plausible map of the known parts of Planetos:

Update 4: I’ve written a more recent piece discussing the possibility of an industrial revolution in Planetos, why it may/may not happen, and where it will happen if it does.

Aside from being a migration nerd, I’m also a general-purpose nerd nerd, and a hobbyist world-builder. Yes, hobbyist world-building is a thing. But because I’m both kinds of nerd here, I’m the guy who reads Lord of the Rings and is perpetually bothered by the ridiculous economic models being presented. Like, really? Everything between the Shire and Rohan is depopulated save for a few ruins here and there? Did the land just up and stop yielding harvests or something? Sure. Okay. That’s some plausible economic geography.

But in most cases, the obvious demographic and economic illiteracy of an author is totally forgivable because they’re not making any claims to realism. I don’t trouble over the absurdly small scale of warfare in Star Wars compared to the size of the galactic population and economy because, um, if I wanted realism I wouldn’t be watching Star Wars.

There is an exception to my forgiveness: Game of Thrones, or, if you prefer, A Song of Ice and Fire. This setting is often held up for its “gritty realism.” Now of course there is magic at work here; you don’t get dragons and a gazillion-foot-tall wall of ice without some kind of breach of realism. And I’m fine with all of that.

But what I’m not fine with is the ridiculous demographic illiteracy of Westeros.

So I’m now gonna play party-pooper on Westeros. I exclude Essos because (1) there’s way less available information and (2) such information as does exist indicates if anything an even more preposterously unbelievable setting.

How Big Is Westeros?

A Moderate Continent

Here are three visual references I found for the size of Westeros:
CryptoMentor 99 — Interview with XinFin Community Manager, Emerson Samfilippo
By: Xinfin Team
Tags: Blockchain, Xinfin, Team, Videos, About

CryptoMentor99 interview with Emerson Samfilippo, XinFin Community Manager. Click here to see full XinFin Community, Management and Advisor Team.

CryptoMentor99 is a XinFin community member that took upon himself to launch a YouTube channel to educate and inform the crypto-investor community on XinFin.

Almost every day CryptoMentor99 produces and shares a YouTube video.

Follow CryptoMentor99 at his YouTube channel:

Or join the XinFin community on Telegram where CryptoMentor99 shares his videos daily.

Originally published at www.youtube.com on September 23, 2018.
YOLO v4 or YOLO v5 or PP-YOLO?
By: Chamidu Supeshala
Tags: Yolov5, Yolov4, Yolo, Object Detection, Machine Learning

YOLO v4 or YOLO v5 or PP-YOLO?

What are these new YOLO releases in 2020? How do they differ? Which one should I use?

Object detection is a computer vision task that involves predicting the presence of one or more objects, along with their classes and bounding boxes. YOLO (You Only Look Once) is a state of art Object Detector which can perform object detection in real-time with a good accuracy.

YOLO object detection (Image by author)

The first three YOLO versions have been released in 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively. However, in 2020, within only a few months of period, three major versions of YOLO have been released named YOLO v4, YOLO v5 and PP-YOLO. The release of YOLO v5 has even made a controversy among the people in machine learning community.

Additionally, this has caused a dilemma in the minds of people who are going to start their machine learning projects. In this article, we will discuss the reason for these many new YOLO releases, while emphasizing their originality, authorship, performance and the major improvements, helping people to choose the most appropriate version for their project.

How YOLO evolved

YOLO has been first introduced in 2016 and it was a milestone in object detection research due to its capability of detecting objects in real-time with a better accuracy.

It was proposed by Joseph Redmon, a graduate from the University of Washington. The paper describing YOLO won the the OpenCV People’s Choice Award at the Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) in 2016.

YOLO versions by Joseph Redmon

The YOLO v2 can process images at 40–90 FPS while YOLO v3 allows us to easily tradeoff between speed and accuracy, just by changing the model size without any retraining.

Performance of YOLO on VOC 2007 and COCO datasets (source: pjreddie.com)

Major YOLO implementations

The main implementation of Redmon’s YOLO is based on Darknet, which is an open source neural network framework written in C and CUDA. Darknet sets the underlying architecture of the network and used as the framework for training YOLO. This implementation is introduced by Redmon himself and it is fast, easy to install and supports CPU and GPU computation.

Later, a PyTorch translation for YOLO v3 has been introduced by Glenn Jocher of Ultralytics LLC.
Lobster Legs
By: Sebastián González De León
Tags: Lobster, Sex, Poetry, Erotica, Literally Literary

I think of this everyday

A moving poem about a skirt

And how I think it is lovely

So deep it feels foreign

Filled with two legs that look like a lobster

Not some lobsters I may think are good for dinner

But two straight up that could be read about in a book

And these two make me frown

As I see them be a book about an apple

Being eaten by a moose

But stop. This two legs smell like a coctail

That numb my cock

Making all my limbs uniform

Not too hard, not too sensible

As I just lay being a wet noodle
5 Easy Ways to Optimize Your Conversion Forms
By: Erin Fike
Tags: Digital Design, Usability, Optimization, UX Design, Web Design

Web forms aren’t sexy. Most designers don’t doodle forms in their spare time or dream of creating the perfect submit button. But forms are the workhorse of your website. They are the filter between casual browsers and converting, paying customers.

Pretend you’re going for a walk. The sidewalk is smooth and the air is warm. Then the path starts to get a little bumpy. There are small cracks and rocks and you have to watch where you’re stepping. After a while, you find yourself hopping over large roots and around boulders, and eventually you discover a huge sinkhole blocking your way. You could find your way around it, but it’s too much work, so you give up and go home.

This is what happens when someone tries to fill out a poorly designed web form. If your form is too frustrating, your customer will eventually give up and go home.

According to the Baymard Institute, there is an average 69% abandonment rate in the shopping cart checkout process. In the financial sector, various case studies have reported a similar 60–70% abandonment rate! Customers expect simple, intuitive experiences, and clearly, many sites aren’t giving this to them.

Identifying pain points on your forms can be challenging, but not impossible. At Exclamation Labs, 20 years of experience in site optimization has taught us a few simple no-fail techniques that we use to help our clients improve web form conversion rates.
Lanzamiento de v0.9.30 — ¡Extensiones, ENS Names, y más!
Tags: Ethereum, Blockchain

in In Fitness And In Health
An Unforgotten Love Story:
By: David Wade Chambers
Tags: Creative Non Fiction, LGBTQ, Love, Memoir, Lovestory

I remember the moment perfectly.

Boston. The banks of the Lower Basin of the Charles. Fifty years ago. Two young men sprawled together on the grass, very early one summer morning just before the city awoke.

Easy laughter. Easy talk. At least so it seemed to me.

Learning that, maybe, a man can also love a man. I had never taken the idea seriously, although I had often felt physically attracted to both men and women..

We had met the evening before, and inexplicably here we still were. We were here even after what he called, with a chuckle in his voice, a ‘second bite at the cherry’.

No I thought, of course, this isn’t love, but I do feel something very deep here, and utterly out of the blue.

He smiled at me as I listened to his guitar’s easy boom-chika, boom-chika strum.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a soft snarl: “Did you think, I enjoyed that? That I might want to see you again?”

Long pause.

“Well, yes, I did think that.”

A single down stroke with the thumb, “Not likely, kiddo. I knew you were a fucking queer soon as I laid eyes on you.”

“I’m not a queer, at least no more than you are. Why are you joking like this? . . . It isn’t funny.”

“I’m not laughing, faggot. I got off, and now I need you to Get. Fucking. Lost.”

— — — — — —

This is the sun just before an eclipse, just before the moon’s shadow began to encroach on the Sun’s disc. Photo by D W Chambers.

Once upon a time I was falling in love

Now I’m only falling apart

There’s nothing I can do

A total eclipse of the heart

Once upon a time there was light in my life

But now there’s only love in the dark

Nothing I can say

A total eclipse of the heart

Source of Song Lyrics

Total solar eclipses occur when the Moon comes between the Sun and the Earth and casts the darkest part of its shadow (the umbra) on Earth. At this time, the Sky goes dark, temperatures fall drastically and birds and animals often go quiet.
A Digital Media’s Design Thinking
By: Sofia Corvalan
Tags: Software Architecture, Design Sprint, Software Development, Digital Media Strategy, Design Thinking

1- BackOffice or CMS (Content Management System)

We started by thinking about the backOffice of the digital medium because in order to reach the end user, we first consider all that structure that supports what you can see in any.com. The truth is that this is no news, but for a digital medium it becomes more fundamental.

That is why the platform should mainly have three profiles:

SEO’s profile: it carries out all tasks required to improve the organic positioning of the medium that is why it works with key words, tags and optimizes the site.

Writer’s Profile: of course, it writes but it also tags, segments and chooses the proper image.

Editor’s Profile: prioritizes the information, defines what to place and where to place it, makes proposals, coordinates and reviews the content. This role is so hand in hand with the user as it is with that important stage coming soon: The News Portal.

For these roles they took into account developing a clean tool, with the right and necessary to improve and streamline their work. By using a tool that facilitates proper image selection, groups to optimize the SEO, tags that help writers to segment the content, a history of publications and the possibility of previewing for Desktop and for Cell phones.

2- News Portal

Well, it is still in process. We will talk about it in the next article about this topic.
Asset Exchange Network (AXNET)
Tags: Ethereum, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Blockchain

Asset Exchange Network (AXNET) is a licensed virtual currency to fiat exchange with a licensed virtual wallet platform based out of Estonia. We service our traders worldwide by giving them the first hybrid trading platform that offers both a Centralized and Decentralized exchange that allows our traders to toggle between the two. We are listing traditional BTC, ETH, and USDT pairs with also fiat pairs like USD and EUR through our license and banking networks. Our AXNET Token (AXN) is the fuel of our ecosystem that gives the users the ability to access exclusive features and discounts on the exchange and enable our Trade Mining system.

We are excited to launch our exchange because we have witnessed countless issues with other exchanges worldwide and we have built our company on the foundation to create the best user experience possible. That is why we are creating a Centralized and Decentralized trading platform and giving our users the option to trade anywhere on the go with the AXNET mobile app for iOS and Android.

Our ICO will start the groundworks for launching our campaign and platform. Starting on August 1st we will be offering 2000 AXN (AXNET Tokens) in exchange for 1 ETH contribution. We will allow users to participate in other assets as well with a conversion rate of ASSET/ETH

We hope to bring a platform that users will enjoy by also giving them fiat access to tokens and coins as liquidity builds. AXNET has already begun integrating with our banking network to offer USD and EUR pairs and in the process of working to allow Virtual Debit Cards for faster withdrawals. With our Virtual Currency to Fiat License this gives us a competitive edge in offering our users more services in the future.

We have liquidity partners that are ready to participate in liquidity and market-making for our official launch on September 1st.

Our ICO details will be released next week. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit to keep updated on AXNET.
My Gun Toting “Friend”
By: Floyd Mori
Tags: Voting, Guns, Donald Trump, Democrats, Politics

My Gun Toting “Friend”

He posts on FB about guns, Trump, and Democrats

Photo by Josh Rocklage on Unsplash

He loves guns and the NRA

Years ago I had a friend. I’ll call him Ralph (not his real name). I never see him any longer and suspect I will never see him in person again. I don’t really consider him a friend any longer, but somehow he became a Facebook friend. I have thought of removing him, but sometimes his posts and the comments accompanying them are interesting to read. So I have not deleted him yet.

Ralph is a true Trump supporter. He espouses the virtues of Trump and does not agree that he has any faults such as immorality and dishonesty. He is one of those Republican stalwarts who thinks Trump is the best President ever.

He shares glowing reports about the NRA. He writes that he is against anyone who says anything negative about guns and the NRA. When a popular actor announced that he did not support the NRA, Ralph said that he will never again watch any of his shows.

Horses and dogs are some of Ralph’s favorities. He likes them more than he likes people. He also likes guns and hunting. He owns many guns. He hates anyone who speaks of gun control. He says he wants his guns close to him and will not hesitate to use them if an intruder comes to his house.

It’s pretty obvious that Ralph hates Democrats. He is especially vocal about how horrible he thinks Nancy Pelosi is. He obviously cannot stand Pelosi. He doesn’t like Joe Biden either, or any Democrat for that matter. He regularly reposts on Facebook, various negative posts he finds against Democrats. Then he adds his own comments. It shows how hateful people can be.

Ralph does not believe in any kind of gun control, reasonable or not. He is devoted to his guns and doesn’t think any guns should be taken away from people. He will not listen to reason about criminals and guns. He is close minded. There are lots of people like Ralph.

Photo by Josh Carter on Unsplash

If you don’t agree with Ralph and people like him, please vote to make your voice heard. It is important!
Missing the point
By: Knut Svanholm
Tags: Fiat, Inflation, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Altcoins

What’s the point of a Cryptocurrency? Why do so many of us think it’s one of the most important inventions of our lives? Once you grasp the core concept of Bitcoin there’s no going back. In fact, there’s no going back regardless of whether you get it or not. Pandora’s box has been opened. Bitcoin has a limited supply. No one can conjure up new ones out of thin air. The blockchain presents a solution to the Byzantine generals problem and prevents double spending. The consensus rules makes it extremely hard to alter the core protocol. The only way that this could fail is if you could fool a sufficiently large portion of its user base that one or more of the so called altcoins was equally valuable. Some say that quantum computing will someday crack the hashing algorithms that secure the blockchain but if that happens we have bigger problems than Bitcoin not working.

Bitcoin was designed to provide people with a different form of money in the digital realm. A new gold standard if you will. Sound money. Money that cannot be inflated. Altcoins are, while often being much better currencies than fiat, a form of inflation. Newcomers in crypto are sold the narrative of “so you missed out on the Bitcoin gold rush, now here’s the next big thing”. The thing is, you can’t miss out on the Bitcoin gold rush precisely because of its limited supply. If things go as planned, the rush won’t end. Fiat will end. Investing in altcoins is somewhat akin to buying Picasso posters instead of buying an actual Picasso.

Do you want cryptocurrency to succeed? Do you want the phenomenon to continue to grow? Ask yourself why. What got you into this in the first place? If we want any of these tokens to succeed in the long run we better make sure that Bitcoin works first. You can easily help by buying more Bitcoin. Don’t stop. We all need to funnel the old into the new if we want the new to happen. It’s an ongoing process and you can’t stop it. No one can.
My Data Science Journey
By: Felicia Esperanza Yakubu
Tags: Data Science

I was about completing national service so, I started telling friends and relatives that I needed to find a job. A friend called Rexford Nkansah then asked me what kind of job I wanted. My background is Finance but looking at the situation in the country and how difficult it is to find a job I was prepared to accept any job offer even if it was not in my area of study.

He then sent me a link to Udacity online learning platform where they were offering a Scholarship. I was so much of doubts whether I could make it I gathered courage and filed the application. Yes! I got selected can you believe it? We started the course and I met a lot of enthusiast who were helpful we even created an all women group where we helped each other to learn.

After the first stage I didn’t make it to the next but it didn’t stop me I kept taking free online courses and I am currently on a Scholarship with DataCamp which I got through their partnership with Developers in Vogue a Ghanaian Social Enterprise that teaches young women how to code.

I am excited about my new transition process and as you read look forward to me sharing my achievements, progress, challenges with you.
“Think of it as a subscription — for your heart.”
By: Sarah Kessler
Tags: Gadgets, Onezero, IoT, Internet of Things, Cybersecurity

What if the internet of things were inside you?

Jameson Rich has lived with a cardiac device connected to the internet for the past three years, well aware that the same types of security risks inherent to any connected gadget also apply to his heart. For OneZero, he writes about the proliferation of internet-connected medical devices and the anxiety of living with one.

At first, he was consumed by a fear that the device could harm or kill him. But “what bothers me more now,” he writes, “is the cavalier way the medical community has decided unilaterally that the threat of hacking does not matter for the average person, and that the side effects are outweighed by the lifesaving nature of the device.”

Read the full story here:
Our Relentless Pursuit of Pleasure
Tags: Thoughts, Philosophy, Happiness, Life, Spirituality

PHILOSOPHY

Our Relentless Pursuit of Pleasure

Are we in a prison of pursuit?

Photo by Denise Jones on Unsplash

What’s the meaning of life? What’s the purpose of your existence?

The answers to those questions have varied from Hegel to Kant to Monty Python. There hasn’t yet been a “correct” answer to those questions. From what it may seem, we might never answer those questions definitively. But there is one aspect common to those questions: Happiness and Pleasure.

No matter which religion or race you’re from, whether you’re a capitalist or a human being, whether your country is a superpower or a banana republic, we all have one thing in common. We’re all humans who enjoy the sensation of happiness and pleasure. Now the definition of happiness or pleasure can vary according to the person and the situation.

Pleasure and happiness can come in material forms like gold, jewelry, an expensive object like a watch, car, house, and whatnot.

Some find happiness upon achieving their goals. These goals can be as mundane as washing the dishes to as ‘impressive’ as finishing a few degrees.

Another form of pleasure comes from gaining power. This pleasure comes in many types: getting promoted on the job, getting a new job, becoming the president, and whatnot.

One of the more commonly desired forms of pleasure is sexual gratification. Humans are the one of the few animals that mate for gratification rather than just for reproduction. This kind of gratification continues to be one of the most popular to indulge in.

Some seek spiritual bliss. The pleasure that comes from within rather than from material or sexual indulgence might pertain to spiritual happiness.

Irrespective of which kind of pleasure you seek, we’re all bound by this urge to be happy. Who wouldn’t want to be happy? Even a depressed person who’s ready to jump off a bridge wants nothing but happiness.

But, ironically, our relentless pursuit of pleasure is the cause of our pain. When we don’t get the happiness or pleasure that we desire, we are in pain. Are we in a mental prison, bound by our relentless pursuit of pleasure? Is there any escape from it? Or are we just mortal beings bound to the cycle of pain and pleasure, jumping between both as we desire?
Lift Each Other Up
By: Laura Mcdonell
Tags: Sports, Soccer, Faith, Empathy, Humanity

Run Across the Field

As the time on the clock ran out, and our team erupted in celebration, the goalie from our team ran down the field to the other goalie. I imagine our goalie said encouraging words while he helped lift up and dust off an opponent who was face down in the grass, feeling the devastation of a loss that ends the season.
The Importance of Trustless Technology
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Rubius, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Blockchain

How Trustless Technology Works

The most widely-used example of trustless technology is paper money or cash. The transaction requires no trust when a person pays with a Euro bill or a Pound note.

Most merchants accept widely used fiat currencies, like the U.S. dollar, at face value. A shopkeeper will take your $20 bill and give you change for it without question. Fiat currency is trustless because it requires no trust by the customer or the retailer.

A check is not trustless because the person who accepts it has to trust that the funds are in the writer’s account. Anybody who accepts a check takes the risk it will bounce.

This is why merchants ask for driver’s licenses when you pay with a check. Somebody requires no identification when she pays with cash because it is trustless.
The Devil You Know
By: Matthew Donnellon
Tags: Humor, Satire, Short Story, Fiction, Religion

I was wiping the counter when my boss walked in.

Instead of coming straight to the counter he took a seat at one of the tables.

I never quite knew why there were tables here. My boss was my only customer, and though I’ve seen other people — or other beings, I guess, I was never sure if they were human or not — they never tried to order anything, nor did they speak to anyone other than the boss.

I watched the Devil read silently. It wasn’t like him to be this quiet.

“Can I get you something sir?”

He finally looked up, “Huh? …uh…no. Not yet.” He was about to return to his paper but then added, “Hey, can you make coffee bad on purpose?”

“Yes, I’m sure I can why?”

“I got a real coffee snob on his way down. I hate people way into anything. Kinda annoying. Coffee. Wine people. Don’t get me started on beer snobs. The worst. I’ve got a room where they make beer all day and when they go to drink it, it turns into water. Drives them nuts.”

“Aren’t you way into torture?”

I struck a chord.

“Getting awfully brave aren’t we?” He said.

“Sorry.”

“That’s better.”

“Anyway, I was thinking about the coffee,” I started to say but he had already returned to his paper.

“Speak when spoken to coffee boy,” was all he said.

And we returned to silence.

Finally, he broke the silence, “I tell ya. Things are not looking good upstairs.”

“Really? What’s happening?”

“Nothing good.”

“Aren’t you happy?”

“Why would I be happy?”

“Because well, you know…”

“Because I’m the Devil?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“Hey man, I may be the Prince of Darkness but I have lines I don’t cross. The stuff going on up there isn’t great. Look, I’ve caused a plague or two. maybe some wildfires. But what people are doing to each other is a hundred times worse.”

“So you’re not the cause?”

“The cause? I drag half of them down here right now if my dad would let me. I fought a war because I hate being told what to do. I would never force people to do anything. Well up there I wouldn’t. Once they’re down here I’ll pull their bones from their body.”

“So why’d you do it?”

“Do what? Rebel?”

“Yes.”

“Do you like people telling you what to do?”

“You tell me what to do.”

“Because you were a putz on Earth. I meant when you were alive.”

“No I hated it.”

“Right. That’s how it was. I was told what to think. What to do. Who I could do it with. My life wasn’t my own.”

“I see so you fought.”

“Yes.”

“And it was worth it?”

“I get to live my life my way. No one’s controlling me.”

“So you would rather be here than up there?”

“Yes definitely.”

“And that’s why you’re so mad about what’s happening on Earth?”

“Yes, I rebelled against God so no one could tell me what to do. And now the humans are doing worse things than he ever did.”

“Are you going to do anything about it?”

“I’ve got some plans.”

“Won’t your father be mad?”

“Probably, but I’m the Devil. You know?”
Hades is the Future of Roguelikes
By: Dylan Micheli
Tags: Game Design, Gaming, Videogames, Games, Indie Game

Hades is the Future of Roguelikes

The integration of story and gameplay presents exciting possibilities for the future of roguelikes.

In recent years, the roguelike genre has been thrust into the spotlight, becoming more and more popular with each passing year. Games in the early 2010s like FTL: Faster Than Light, The Binding of Issac, and Spelunky helped the genre gain footing with the mainstream audience. Rogue Legacy, Enter the Gungeon, Risk of Rain, the list goes on.

The roguelike category of games has a history dating back to the 1970s. Many of the hardcore fans will argue about what truly counts as a roguelike, categorizing some as roguelites, hybrid roguelikes, or even roguelike-likes. But semantics and the nitty-gritty of what game falls into which subgenre aside, the genre as a whole is arguably more prevalent than it’s ever been right now. Despite having a long and storied history, it’s still an evolving genre.

Hades presents the next step in that evolutionary process.

Developed by Supergiant Games, Hades recently graduated from early access to a full, 1.0 game release. The game involves the player taking on the role of Zagreus, son of Hades, and playing through his continuous attempts to escape hell and make it to the surface world.

The game checks many of the boxes that have become staples of the genre. If you die during a “run”, you lose your items/collectibles and have to restart. There’s some form of persistent upgrades and unlocking additional items for future runs. These ideas certainly aren’t unique to Hades, but something that is unique is the game’s story.

During the individual runs, Zagreus can accept boons from the gods of Olympus to help his escape quest, granting him abilities and buffs appropriately themed for the gods. A Zeus boon, for example, will grant the player a power than in some way relates to lightning. These interactions usually carry a brief dialogue sequence with the god. Other non-god characters can appear in the various rooms of the Underworld, like Sisyphus and Eurydice, that present dialogue options as well.

And because so many of these interactions are brief — especially in ones that happen in the midst of a run, it doesn’t interrupt the flow of the gameplay at all. Have a brief word with someone, collect your item, and be on your way.
Become a Bare Naked Bravery Contributor
By: Emily Ann Peterson
Tags: Community, Call For Submissions, Writers On Medium, Writer, Submission Guidelines

We feature stories of personal bravery and how-to’s for courageous creatives. We do this by using the subjects featured in the book Bare Naked Bravery: How to be Creatively Courageous as a topical framework — creativity, courage, vulnerability, imagination, improvisation, defiant expectation, friction, intuition, fear, constraints, contextual awareness, daily expression, community, honesty, risk, safety, mindfulness, getting yourself “out there,” self-care, and so much more.

This adventure started with the research for my book Bare Naked Bravery: How to be Creatively Courageous. I began to have research conversations with my heroes and heroines. Those conversations became a podcast. The podcast’s international listener base became a Facebook group. Eventually the whole wonderful thing became the online publication and community you see today. Hooray!

Our regular contributors and community members are an essential part of our mission to spread bravery far and wide. We’re honored to consider your application to join us as a regular contributor.

As a contributor your articles will receive mention in our regular round-up email newsletters, promotion across our social media platforms, and the bottom of each article has space for promotion of your own brave doings.

7 Steps to Becoming a Regular Contributor:

1. If you do not have a medium account, go to www.medium.com. Create your free account.

3. Fill in your profile, including your name, a short bio and a headshot.

4. Write your article! (or use the import feature to submit a previously published article as seen below.) Here’s a great article on How to Write Medium Articles People Will Actually Read.

5. Publish your article on medium as “unlisted.” Copy that unlisted article link for step 6.

6. Submit your application here.

Hooray!

Accepted contributors will receive a welcome email with next steps. If you are not accepted and do not hear from us within 2 weeks, then you are welcome to submit a different article.
#5 Al que mesura dios le ayuda
By: Andrés Seixas
Tags: Software Development, Español, Newsletter, DevOps, Sre

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.

Check your inbox

Medium sent you an email at to complete your subscription.
The Crypto Masterclass
By: Rohas Nagpal
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Crypto, Bitcoin, Blockchain, Masterclass

Don’t invest in crypto… till you take the Crypto Masterclass from Primechain.

In 2008, the 9-page Bitcoin whitepaper disrupted money forever… but most people were skeptical about the future of cryptocurrencies.

Cut to December 2020 and Bitcoin has become the 7th largest currency in the world!

Let that sink in… Bitcoin has become the 7th largest currency in the world! The current order is:

USD $4.9 Trillion

EUR $1.7 Trillion

CNY $1.2 Trillion

JPY $1 Trillion

CHF $0.8 Trillion

INR $0.6 Trillion

BTC $0.36 Trillion

Everybody wants a piece of the action. But crypto investing is not simple. It’s really complex.

🔥 Crypto investments require a lot of technical knowledge.

🔥 Crypto-currencies are extremely volatile.

🔥 Many crypto assets have low liquidity.

🔥 If your crypto account / wallet gets hacked, you have almost no legal options.

🔥 Many crypto exchanges are not regulated and can vanish with your money.

🔥 Cryptocurrencies are outright illegal in some countries.

Schedule

The Crypto Masterclass is spread over 5 days.

- 1 hour live lecture each day

- 30 to 60 min homework each day

The application form is at https://www.primechainmoney.com/join.php

Fee

INR 5,000

US$ 99

Certificate

Certificate of participation will be provided from Primechain, the ‘future of money’ company.

Faculty

Rohas Nagpal, Author of the Future Money Playbook

Shinam Arora, Co-founder of Bankchain

Sanya Nagpal, Host of #CryptoWithSanya

Private group

You will also become a part of a Facebook private group for the latest advice, news, and tips.

Topics

Types of money — Fiat, CBDC, B-Money, E-Money, I-Money, Crypto Essential tech concepts — cryptography, keys, digital signatures, hash, Merkle, proof of work, mining, difficulty, address, wallet, blockchain, forks, smart contracts​. DeFi​ Stablecoins​ Top Crypto Currencies Top Stablecoins Crypto derivatives Crypto “wrapped” shares Crypto Wallets​ How to keep your crypto safe​ Exchanges — Spot, Derivatives, and DEX Resources for crypto investors

The application form is at https://www.primechainmoney.com/join.php

Bonus for everyone

The Future Money Playbook

Download your FREE copy of “The Future Money Playbook” from:

https://www.rohasnagpal.com/docs/The-Future-Money-Playbook.pdf
How to Download and Learn Tableau for FREE
By: Destin Gong
Tags: Tableau, Free, Data Visualization, Learning Resources, Data Science

Step 1: Search “Tableau for Student” in Google

Search “Tableau for Students” and you will find this page.

Step 2: Register using your school email

Click the “get tableau for free” button and register. Make sure you use your school email. Then fill in all the information and verify. It may prompt you to upload your student ID or confirmation of enrollment. In this case, it may take a few days to review your information.

Step 3: Download Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep

If verified successfully, you will receive an email like this. Both Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep are free to download. Choose the tool you preferred or both and click the link to download. Here is the main difference between Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep:

Tableau Desktop is where you create your fancy dashboards, e.g. create bar charts, maps, or scatter plot etc

here is an article of how to create better dashboard using Tableau Desktop

Tableau Prep is where the messy “behind the scene” takes place, e.g. data cleansing and data preparation

here is an article of how to address data quality issue using Tableau Prep

Step 4: Activate the software with product key

When you open either Tableau Desktop or Tableau Prep for the first time. You will be prompted to activate the product with the product key. Copy the product key from the email and paste it over here. Click “Activate” and now you have free access to both softwares for one year.

Step 5: Start your visual journey with e-learning

Even better news is that with your school account, you can also unlock Tableau e-learning for FREE.

Click the “e-learning” link in the email or search up “Tableau e-learning” in Google. After entering this page, click “login to e-learning” and sign in your school account. Now you will see many learning paths for you to explore.

Step 6: Choose your career path and start learning

e-learning learning paths

modules in learning path

Each learning path includes many modules and each module further breaks down into many courses. The final module will always be a skill assessment where you can earn badges by completing the assessment. Notice that these badges are different from Tableau certificates, but still gives you a sense of achievement at the end.

take skill assessment to earn badges

Inside each module, there are video tutorials that teach you concepts, from how to connect data sources to how to create complex calculations etc.

e-learning tutorials

Additionally, activities are provided for you to exercise your knowledge with Tableau software and the data provided.

e-learning activities

Finally, Good luck with your visual journey in data visualization!
Blazing Silver
By: Kittie Phoenix
Tags: Romance, Spirituality, Poetry, Silver Fox

Image Source: Pixabay

I chased a silver fox

Through the fields ripe for harvest.

The fire of God’s love

Burned brightly in his tale.

The light blinded me

As I danced

To the rhythm of his tale’s bob.

My heart and soul yearned

To wrap in his silver fur,

Yet I had no will to slay him

By grabbing him by the tail.

I cast my love in a glance,

And the silver fox was trapped,

Webbed in by… whatever.

His fire set my heart ablaze,

And together we light the night.
Nonlinear Unpredictability
By: Steve Hertzberg
Tags: Risk Measurement, Safe Failure, Blockchain, Risk, Complex Systems

Risk measurement in complex systems is largely illusory. Probability can only reasonably be calculated when a finite range of outcomes is known in advance (e.g. the probability of getting a 3 on a 6-sided dice). When the range of possible outcomes is not knowable , probability calculus is an exercise in sleight of mind , simply to enable managers to feel comfortable with their guesses.

Paradoxically, despite the rise of informational abundance, increasing complexity increases uncertainty. Hence, it is ever more important to increase the capacity for safe failure. However increases in complexity can also lead to fragility. This means a risk framework in a complex environment is beyond a probability calculus.

PS. I found the above in my notes. It’s about 10 yrs old. I can’t recall if I wrote this, or if it was extracted from someone’s work. So, if it was drafted elsewhere, I apologize in advance for not attributing it to it’s author.