fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Because, Plot
By: Yate Subfusk
Tags: Absurd, James Bond, Existentialism, Fiction, Heroes

Bullets ricocheted everywhere, it’s like the damn building was made of steel. John got his Remington out of his tactical duffel bag and didn’t even think twice to shoot, without looking at the threat. After spraying the area with lead, he rolled and ducked to get to another cover near the exit. No one took a shot at him, it seems no one left. John breathed deep and jumped out of his cover and ran through the exit. The car was within 100 feet; he dashed through the old junkyard to the street.

He cranked the keys and flatten the gas pedal when a thug appear out of nowhere in the backseat of the car and put his sawed-off shotgun to John’s head. “End of your adventures, Mr. Bond” he said. “I don’t think so…” replied John with confidence, “pull the trigger” he continued to drive. The thug looked puzzled, but he complied. “Click!” but no bang. It didn’t fire, he squeezed the trigger once more, and again, and again… “What the hell?” he uttered. The thug cracked open the shotgun and two brand new, non-fired shells flung out of the barrel. John didn’t even acknowledge the struggle of the guy, he kept on cruising. He was driving even slower than before. The thug reloaded his gun and this time he shot it from the hip. “BANG!”. The gun did fire and hit the thug in the stomach because of the recoil. John looked at the red lights, they did not seem to want to turn green anytime soon. Thug checked the back of John’s seat. The bullets dented everywhere but the silhouette of John. He quickly fired another, this time from far right of the back seat. Another bang and the windshield and the driver window turned into a million pieces. John didn’t even flinch at the sound, he just drove the car, incredibly slow.

“You see…” finally said John, “I am the good guy in the story, and you’re but a simple thug. I have defeated hundreds of villains and I am supposed to die sometime around next year when I face the master villain Emiliano. Because he is my match, and our final battle will be incredible, maybe the fight can even get an epic soundtrack that will be used in countless fan made videos.

“What the fuck? What fans, what soundtrack, what the fuck are you talking about?”

“I made myself perfectly clear, I am the hero of the story, you are a simple henchman. We are no match, go get killed by an explosion that you’re not even in the blast radius of.”

John pulled at the side of the road and drop off the dude, he then gently drove and joined the traffic. The thug left on the sidewalk was not puzzled anymore, deep down he knew what he was. A single tear slowly went down on his cheek.
Red Bull’s $30 Million Marketing Stunt Almost Didn’t Happen
By: Russ W
Tags: Social Media, Live Streaming, Business, Advertising, Marketing

The Right Stuff

The team had even invested in former fighter pilot and astronaut trainers to help him prepare for the daunting challenge. They were there to help him with the test simulations and make sure he had the right stuff.

Felix was well aware that the stunt wasn’t without risks. In addition to the “normal” skydive risks, there were two other big ones.

First, if the capsule or his suit lost air pressure near the peak of the ascent, the thin atmospheric air could make his blood start to boil. That wasn’t even the worst risk. No, the worst risk was the fatal “red out,” which would occur if Felix lost control of his body during the free fall and began to spin so fast that blood would begin to shoot out of his eyes.

Oddly enough though, none of that remotely scared Fearless Felix. Given his long track record, he wasn’t really worried about those risks at all. And after he passed the first test run in the bulky spacesuit in a wind tunnel with ease, the engineering team was confident in his abilities as well.

That is precisely why Felix’s call was so surprising.

Early on the morning before the team was set to head out to Texas for a simulation of the five-hour trip into the stratosphere, Art Thompson received a call. Art was the Red Bull Stratos aerospace engineer directing the project, and Felix was on the other line.

“Art, I’m sorry, I can’t do this,” he said, before explaining that he was about to board a flight home to Austria.

Incredulous at first, Art soon realized he wasn’t joking and raced over to the airport to prevent him from leaving.
Time and Tide
By: J.D. Ranade
Tags: Spirituality, Time, Haiku, Spiritual Secrets, Life

A Tanka is a Haiku with two lines added at the end. These lines can introduce a change in time, place, person, feelings, and emotions, or show a connection between different situations and things.
Voice Summit 2019
By: Raika Sarkett
Tags: Google Assistant, Alexa, Conversational UI, Voice Assistant, Amazon Echo

1. It’s still early

As we all know, voice is delicate. Without thoughtful design experiences easily break. And while the learning curve is low, there still is one for voice. Precision is needed in commands to get the desired result. And adoption from brands is still a work in progress. Voices.com shared that half of marketers say no voice app in the horizon, they’re in “wait and see mode”. Right now they see the most potential with Alexa, on mobile, and in the car.

2. Enterprise is next

We saw this with mobile apps, first wave was fun applications then came the explosion of business applications. Overtime paying for apps became common behavior from customers. Voice too is seeing this evolution to complex experiences with monetary value. With speech recognition and speaker identification enterprise applications, voice is ready for business use cases.

3. Voice is everywhere

We’re entering phase two. Phase one was mobile and smart speakers like Alexa and Google Home. Now we’re seeing voice assistants being incorporated into all types of devices. Voice isn’t like Apple vs Android tho, where you buy into an ecosystem. There will be countless voice assistants people bring into their homes, offices, cars, and stores. What it boils down to is voice is about speed. The challenge is to offer something that is easier and faster to do via voice.

It’s an exciting time to be in this space amongst the pioneers. But given where voice is today, while there is immense potential, over-promising can be very detrimental. It’s better to deliver something simple and lovable, iterating over time.

Want more? Each day was filled with rich insights, for a deeper look, here are my highlights by day:
New Love Dies
By: Phantom Soul Poetry
Tags: Breakup Poem, Love Poems, Poetry Writing, Poetry, Poems On Medium

I can’t quite say exactly what it was,

But something just happened,

Like a change in the direction of the air,

That cleared my eyes to see you,

No longer as the magnificent goddess I had worshipped these months,

But open and weak and dying and lost,

Your words no longer kissing me,

Your smell no longer steals my mind

To hold my thoughts only to you,

Instead, I see the broken world behind you,

Broken again after you had fixed it so beautifully,

So perfectly, so tenderly, so wonderfully,

And I wonder how will I ever forgive you?
Celebrate Me
Tags: Birthday, Friendship, Introvert, Poetry, Life

Today I’m older

But not wiser

Silent, shy little girl

Sitting in a corner

During breaks

Watching other kids play

Trying to fit in

Being cheerful

Ironic,

Just teasing a bit

But I need my moments

Of peace

Can’t stand people talking

Too much, too loud…

For me

Friends I have but a few

Because deep

I open myself

Only to special ones

They know who they are

Thanks for supporting me.
Pandora
By: Kim Rashidi
Tags: Pandoras Box, Poetry On Medium, Love Poems, Sunset, Poetry

Pandora

A poetic space between knowing and not

Photo by Dennis Buchner on Unsplash

Across the water,

some_________where,

you lie,

without a thought on your mind.

It’s night, but the colours of the sun linger,

it’s right, but the timing could be better.

Just a few days more,

and I’ll know if time went wasted.

Just a few sips more,

and I’ll forget why I even started.
“I don’t want my children to be talking to WFP in 25 years”
By: Edward Johnson
Tags: Food Assistance, European Commission, Ethiopia, Somalia, Refugees

Hinda was born in eastern Ethiopia 25 years ago to Somali parents. Violence in Somalia prompted them to seek shelter across the border. Hinda has never stepped foot inside Somalia. She’s never left Somali region where her parents settled. She’s an animated woman with an answer for everything and grins every time she looks into the eyes of her eight-month daughter Sumaya.

But when I ask her about her ambitions and hopes for Sumaya, she pauses, looks down and says:“I want to go home, but I don’t know where that is.”

Hoping it’s not forever

I met Hinda sheltering from the noon sun at one of two distribution points in Kebribayah refugee camp. Established in 1991, it’s the oldest camp in Ethiopia and is home to 15,000 refugees, mostly Somali. She’s been receiving food assistance from the World Food Programme (WFP) for as long as she can remember. It has become a source of stability and familiarity in her life.

Noticing that she hadn’t got any food with her yet she was at the back of a distribution centre, I ask her why she was there. She explains that her allocated day was tomorrow but she attended today because the centre is a social hub for mothers in the camp.

Sumaya clings to her mother as Hinda explains: “I grew up on WFP food, and now her family is doing the same. I hope it’s not forever — I don’t want my children to be talking to WFP in 24 years.”

Only option to survive
The Mind-Blowing Sex I Enjoyed in My Marriage
By: Marie Lynne
Tags: Relationships, Self, Marriage, Sex, Sexuality

In some circles, sex and older marriages have gotten a bad rap. I’ve heard words like boring or vanilla tossed around. That certainly hasn’t been my experience, and I’d lived with the same man for thirty-one years.

Despite a lackluster start, my husband and I became accomplished lovers. We found a way to overcome his eagerness to get to the business of intercourse a bit too quickly, while I learned how to relax and enjoy myself after growing up in a religious home. With time and plenty of practice, our familiarity with one another’s desires grew.

Sometimes I would be so excited that the pressure would build fast as we kissed. He’d tease me by grinding his hips into me.

Just wait, I’d tell myself. Hold on. I didn’t want to cum this way; I wanted more — to be filled with him.

“I need you,” I’d whispered.

We feverishly would pull off our clothes. He’d then recline on the bed and pull me over top of him.

His stiff firmness made me moan as he penetrated. I wanted all of him fast. He’d thrusted several more times quickly as I clung to him. He’d know it wouldn’t be long now.

As I’d ride him, the intensity became sharp. The sensations would grow so strong that it neared the edge of pain.

“Yes, yes, yes,” I’d gasp. I’d pant and dig my fingernails into the sides of his arms.

He’d watch as I threw back my head in pleasure and climaxed. A small smile would tug at the corners of his mouth. We’d pause and grin for a moment as we waited for my shudders to slow.

Then, the rhythm of his thrust would start again. This time he’d allow himself to get lost in the sensations.

I’d bend down to lick his nipple and feel it become a small rosebud in my mouth. With my other hand, I’d graze the top its companion in small slow circles. His firm penis would become bone rigid, and he’d let out a groan.

Keeping the penetration deep, I’d begin to tighten and release my pelvic muscles, kneading his penis.

“What are you doing to me?” he’d mutter.

“Torturing you,” I’d smile coyly.

He’d begin to thrust faster.

“No, no, not yet.” I’d halt him with my hips.

“I need to,” he’d say.

“Not yet.” With him deep within me, I slowly would pull the shaft of his penis in and out.

“I can’t wait any longer,” he’d say.

He’d move his hands to my hips and held me tight.

I’d cling to him and ride his passion as he moved in and out, in and out. Then he’d shudder. I’d feel it both deep within me and in his body beneath me. I’d laugh and kiss his mouth.
Old Trees
By: Deborah Barchi
Tags: Life Lessons, Nature, Self Improvement, Aging, Poetry

( A poem from an unapologetic tree hugger)

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

The wonder of a tree I think is this:

It doesn’t seem to mind or keep close tabs.

The older it grows, the less it seems to miss

its slender arms, smooth bark, and tight tree abs.

Beauty in trees grows deeper with aging:

the fiercer the fight, the stronger the core.

Trees in their youth are constantly waging

a war for the right to grow — and change — more.

If only we humans could age with such glee —

Excuse me, I must go hug an old tree!
Designing Timeline: Lessons Learned From Our Journey Beyond Gantt Charts
By: Nicolle Matson
Tags: Timeline, Asana, Design, Gantt Chart, Product Design

Looking back

After launch, we were pleasantly surprised by how many customers quickly adopted Timeline, but the best part was how they were using it. The vast majority of tasks — 94 percent of them — were scheduled via drag and drop, and customers took full advantage of the different ways to arrange Timeline, including side-by-side, waterfall, and mental mapping. We’d known the risks of designing a system that went beyond the traditional Gantt chart, and it was extremely rewarding to see those risks pay off, both for our customers and our team.

There’s no strict formula for designing new features. Like all new projects at Asana, it was important to begin Timeline with a deep understanding our customers’ pain points and the problem we were trying to solve. Here’s a few key takeaways we’ve learned to help us make good design decisions on future projects:

1. Keep listening

As obvious as this sounds, by continually listening to what our customers were saying throughout the entire project, the team was able to identify solutions that made sense for a range of workflows. By embracing research from the start, we were able to accommodate a wide variety of customer needs.

2. Prototyping is worth it

Communicating via prototype was the easiest way to get our ideas across and make decisions. The animations we built were the best way to illustrate the complexities of a new feature and demonstrate what it would actually feel like to use Timeline. The prototypes helped us get buy-in from all stakeholders, including our teammates and our customers. And because we were able to get aligned quickly, everyone felt empowered to contribute more toward the overall design.

3. Make calculated trade-offs

When we realized Timeline would not be ready for our planned launch day, we were thoughtful about our priorities — including the projects we pushed down the list. We accepted that key components would need to be added in order to make the feature ideal for all workflows and recognized that we’d require additional time and resources. We made calculated design trade-offs to ensure we launched with a high-quality product, and also followed up on other issues by shifting our product road map for the subsequent months. At many companies, little time is dedicated to fixing bugs and polishing a feature after it’s launched. At Asana, we’re committed to improving our product.
Introducing Spedn — a smart contract language for Bitcoin Cash
By: Tendo Pein
Tags: Blockchain, Bitcoin, Bitcoincash, Programming

When new opcodes were added (or rather re-enabled) in May 2018 hardfork of Bitcoin Cash there was quite an expectation of a smart contract boom. What can we see today, nearly half year later? There were some cool new ideas mostly revolving around token protocols utilizing OP_RETURN to store metadata attached to coins. There’s also ChainBet protocol utilizing OP_MOD to provide cryptographically proven random bets, and recently Forfeits were proposed that use OP_CHECKDATASIG (that is expected to activate in November hardfork) to prove doublespend attempt.

I re-read the paragraph above and found it too technical.

This is a glimpse of what I struggled every time I tried to read some spec or article that proposes a new, clever Bitcoin Cash smart contract. This is because of Script. This famous, intentionally not Turing-complete, FORTH-like language feels for me almost like one of those esoteric languages made with the sole purpose of making your brain hurt. This is mainly because it belongs to a quite obscure family of stack-oriented languages. That means no ordinary variables that programmers are used to. Instead you have to keep the entire execution stack in your head to understand what’s going on. And it’s Reverse Polish Notation. Oh, I know it! I remember doing that exercise on a blackboard during a CS 101 lecture 10 years ago.

Maybe I’m too sarcastic. Script is both brilliant and just hard to use. And I think I’m not the only one that is repelled from it because of that.
Laravel : Database Indexing Workflow
By: Burim Shala
Tags: PHP, Laravel, Tutorials

While admiring the Laravel flexibility on many architectural patterns and discussing with a friend of mine we ended up on the conclusion that Laravel tries to embrace you into some very Laravel specific patterns, and one of them is Database migrations.

Usually the indexing workflow goes parallel with querying Models, and on Laravel the proper way of altering tables is using migrations. Migrations are really powerful if you want to ship some sort of database versioning and even DevOps sometimes might struggle into migrations. But creating a new migration each time you need to add an index might be a pain in the ass and usually on small projects you might just live with the DB facade.

While on Quora you see like tons of suggestions that you have to apply design even to the smallest part of your code, so using a DB facade will break Single Responsibility Principle very quick.

In order to make your classes testable, those which are responsible for persistence you have to use Repositories.

The rules is really simple, only Application Services can talk to Domain Models and there’s no exception, this way you can create a really good system which provides an awesome separation of concern.

And one of the features you get by doing a proper design, you get also a single class(The repository) which is responsible for persistence and after you’re done with all your queries which are only performed by repository you can built up indexes by having only one or few migration which created previously table structures.
TEMCO, Backed by South Korea’s Largest Venture Firm: KIP!
Tags: General, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain

Hello everyone!

TEMCO is the first blockchain company in Asia to secure funds from a traditional venture capital!

It is an exciting time for all!

Korea Investment Partners, also known as KIP, invested in TEMCO!

This is the first time in history of traditional venture capital in Korea to invest in a blockchain company.

As many of you already know, TEMCO is the first dApp in Asia to become a partner of Rootstock (RSK) as well.

So, this is the first giant step for all and TEMCO team feels like the first man on the moon! Yes!

Thank you for supporting TEMCO, and we will always work hard to improve the existing supply chain process by using RSK technology on bitcoin network. Without your help, we would not have made it this far and thank you all for keeping up with us!

Please check out the press releases below for more information.

“South Korea’s Largest Venture Firm Backs First Blockchain Startup” (CoinDesk)

TEMCO Secures Investment from №1 Korean Venture Capital “Korea Investment Partners” (Cointelegraph)

[About TEMCO]

TEMCO aims to disrupt the supply chain management system. Contemporary supply chains fall short during the pre-delivery stages in the supply chain. By utilizing bitcoin smart contracts blockchain technology, TEMCO aims to reinvent the supply chain process. Envisioned as a public supply chain blockchain, TEMCO utilizes Smart Contracts and Public Ledgers to build the next generation of supply chain management systems.

[About KIP]

“Korea Investment Partners” (KIP), the foremost leading venture capital of Korea. KIP has been investing in growing billion-dollar companies such as: Naver, Kakao, Korbit, DoubleU Games, Bithumb and now TEMCO. KIP will serve as one of the key business partners in TEMCO’s exponential growth.
Have I Lost My Sense of Humor?
By: Rachael Hope
Tags: Culture, Social Justice, Human Rights, Feminism, Society

Have I Lost My Sense of Humor?

The truth about knowing better, doing better, and my missing funnybone

Seriously? Photo by Michelle Tresemer on Unsplash

Something shifted in me, and I’ve noticed recently that things other people seem to find funny don’t seem funny to me anymore. It came to a head on Monday, and I posted on Facebook that I felt like I’d completely lost a large portion of it, at the least. After being asked which part, I revised my statement. Maybe it’s not so much my sense of humor that’s gone missing, but my tolerance for bullshit?

Meme screenshot courtesy of author.

Several months ago, someone posted a meme in a group I’m in, encouraging women to send a photo of a speculum to their partners then share their responses in the comments. Among the replies were a lot of men using words like “vagina spreader,” “vagina stretcher,” and “that thing for your pussy.” Everybody seemed to think this was a hilarious exercise in mens’ ignorance. Except me. I shrugged it off- perhaps I was being too sensitive, a wet blanket ruining the fun of men not knowing what a vulva is or that a speculum allows a doctor to look at your cervix.

Sometime during the same month, another viral post with the most ridiculous things men had actually believed about periods came across my feed. I’m not saying that I found zero humor in some of the anecdotes. Largely, though, it felt increasingly sad and horrifying that there are so many men out there who have no idea how close to half the bodies on earth actually work.

To be honest, the idea of having grown sons who don’t know how periods work or what happens when a woman gets her annual exam is mortifying to me. I would be beyond ashamed to find out that my children didn’t know the basic functions of the human body or care enough about their partners to know about basic medical procedures. Additionally, when is the last time you met a woman who didn’t know how a prostate exam was performed? Why do we find it cute/funny/acceptable as a society that men don’t make the same effort?
The Real Victims of Trans Bathroom Rights (Or Lack Thereof)
By: Jason Li
Tags: Transgender, Bathroom, LGBTQ

In response to @bring-me-dawn-after-dark‘s post about his friend:

EASILY HELP A TRANS PERSON OUT

My trans friend recently got beat up for using the “wrong” bathroom. They are so brave for continuing to use the guys bathroom after that. My friend is my hero and I was hoping they heared that from not just me but from a lot of other people.

So please, if you could repost this with something nice at the bottom or anon me something kind to show them that would be so kind! Thank you!!!
4 Noku insights you have missed
Tags: Tech, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Blockchain, Technology

4 Noku insights you have missed

New features available, New platform coming soon, Blockchain World Summits.

Welcome to our community weekly recap, where we sum up the main news from Noku.

Noku Custom ICO platform under development

Last week we announced the upcoming launch of the Custom ICO platform, dedicated to businesses and individuals who want to launch their customized ICO but don’t have:

· Coding skills

· Blockchain developers in their team.

Find out more!

Noku Swap now available on the Platform

For those who didn’t see it yet, you can now swap your ETH for NOKU tokens directly on wallet.noku.io.

Thanks to the new Noku Swap Service you can bypass the Exchanges and get Noku tokens directly from the Noku Platform 👉 https://bit.ly/2N1ZRh2

Coming Up: Blockchain World Summit in London

We announced last week that we are attending the Blockchain World Summit in London on Wednesday and Thursday this week (12–13 September). Anyone else is going? We hope to see you there!

The relationship between Blockchain and Banking System

As interest towards Blockchain grows, the biggest question is: will the traditional banking industry adapt to this new technology or be replaced by it?

We address the issue in one of our last posts: have a look and share with us your thoughts!

👉 https://bit.ly/2oS8zQq
Mon Secret
By: Edie Tuck
Tags: Lust, French, Fantasy, Poetry, Secrets

Here you’ll find the bits and pieces that don’t really fit anywhere else. A place for everything and anything!

Follow
Today My Daughter Retrieved the Personal Effects of Her Dead Middle School Life
By: Kasey Q. Tross
Tags: Coronavirus, Teens, Covid 19, Parenting, Life

Today My Daughter Retrieved the Personal Effects of Her Dead Middle School Life

Sudden endings are closer than they appear.

Photo by pisauikan on Unsplash

Today I took my 14-year-old daughter back to her middle school for the last time to retrieve her personal items from her locker. I was told to wait in the car while she was told to go directly to her locker, and her items would be inside, already bagged up for her by a staff member.

As I sat waiting in the car at the curb, watching for her in the rearview mirror, I noticed the text printed at the bottom of the mirror: “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.”

I couldn’t help thinking that I wish back in March we’d had some kind of warning like that: “Sudden endings are closer than they appear.”

There were so many 8th grade things my daughter was looking forward to this year– the 8th grade formal, middle school graduation, her school play she had a part in, spring field hockey club, the special activities planned for 8th Grade Week, and, of course, time spent with friends and teachers she won’t see again as she moves on to a magnet school for high school next year.

It all ended very suddenly, and it was so weird seeing all the items from her locker– items that have been entombed in a metal box for nearly two months now– spilled out over the kitchen table when we returned home.

A Spanish notebook, a paper from a map project, a hall pass, a gift bag from something a friend had given her, a pencil sharpener filled with pencil shavings, a half-filled water bottle– it was like a glimpse of her everyday life in middle school that was rolling along perfectly normally until…it just stopped.

She went home one day, fully expecting to return the next– but she never got that chance.

And now, just like that, it’s over, with nothing to show for it but a snapshot of a life suddenly interrupted, a time capsule stuffed into a clear plastic trash bag.

My daughter didn’t die, but her life as she knew it did. And today she had to go collect its personal effects from the scene of its death.

We’ve all been forced to move on, encouraged to not look back, but I think it’s okay to pause for a moment, to touch the extra pencils, the decorative magnets, and the pocket-sized pack of tissues, to look in the rearview mirror and mourn everything we’ve left behind.

Because we weren’t ready.

The end was much closer than it appeared.
Startups: Pulse Surveys are Dumb.
By: Brennan Mceachran
Tags: Employee Engagement, Startup Lessons, Startup, Management, Hackernoon Top Story

2. HR is responsible for the feedback, but the problems are rarely HR issues ↬

Even if you’re doing weekly pulse checks, you’re still running valuable feedback through a needless cycle of HR and senior leadership before it gets back to the person that should actually care about it: the manager.

Not only are you running a serious risk of broken telephone. It’s also super inefficient and a waste of time for a number of people. Yes, it’s sometimes more awkward for the employee to deliver feedback directly to their manager, but that awkwardness is part of the vulnerability that makes the relationship strong.

Imagine you’re walking into a meeting with spinach in your teeth. Can you imagine how insane it would be if your employee stood up, walked out of the room and rushed to HR to let them know that you had food stuck between your teeth? Is that seriously less awkward?!

But most importantly, it sends a horrible cultural message: that feedback SHOULD come through HR — and managers aren’t responsible for pulling feedback from their team. Really, surveys are a cover for bad managers who don’t care to take the time to talk to their team.

Instead of doing surveys, you should be coaching your bad managers on asking the right questions and creating the right environment. Or for that matter, spending the time fixing the fact that you’ve hired bad managers in the first place (after all, companies fail to choose the right manager for the job 82% of the time).
PdMは信頼と突破力。プロダクトマネージャーカンファレンスに行ってきました。
Tags: Product Management, Pmconfjp, Conference, Machine Learning

in Both Sides of the Table
InterValue Signs Long-term Strategic Cooperation with HashStor, the Most Cost-effective…
Tags: Internet, Bitcoin, Ipfs, Blockchain, Bitcoin Mining

InterValue Signs Long-term Strategic Cooperation with HashStor, the Most Cost-effective Professional IPFS Mining Machine on the Market

As blockchain technology has been taking up more and more space in the economy, InterValue has begun to cooperate with other parties and participate in the construction of blockchain ecosystems across multiple industries. InterValue and HashStor, the most cost-effective professional IPFS mining machine, officially signed a long-term strategic cooperation agreement.

HashStor is a distributed storage miner designed for IPFS mining. It uses a professionally designed chassis, CPU and motherboard for IPFS mining needs. HashStor has been engaged in the development of blockchain infrastructure and related hardware equipment for many years, providing customers with professional integration solutions about software and hardware. The specially designed Web configuration management interface makes the mining machine easy to use.

HashStor’s belongs to Hachnet Company, which specializes in the development of blockchain infrastructure and blockchain-related hardware equipment. It provides customers with professional software and hardware integration solutions.

HashStor’s family Edition is designed for home environments and boasts a beautiful appearance. It features low noise and low power consumption despite being stable and efficient. User-friendly design helps customers flexibly purchase based on their own needs. The product is suitable for different environments and bandwidths, which is a priority for IPFS mining.

HashStor’s Enterprise Edition is suitable for hosting. It has high space utilization, high reliability and flexibility. Besides, it supports cluster management and has a multi-layer protection which ensures it operates steadily for a long time. A variety of models are available, making it the most cost-effective IPFS professional mining machine on the market

The cooperation between InterValue and HashStor can be described as a strong alliance. InterValue will provide HashStor with comprehensive support for blockchain distributed storage. HashStor will also serve as a high-quality blockchain solution provider, driven by InterValue technology. The cooperation scope will gather both parties to jointly work in order to provide quality services to customers.
Using Design Sprints to fight smog in Warsaw
By: Gialdo Muller
Tags: Warsaw, Design Sprint, UX Design, Air Pollution, Workshop

One of our core values here at 10Clouds is that we’re always striving to learn about new and exciting processes that we can use to help our clients reach their goals.

We get clients that approach us that have only an idea. That’s why we decided to offer the Design Sprint, particularly the 2.0 version of this (you can read all about it here), to our clients. It’s the ideal collaborative process that allows us to define a challenge from an idea that can quickly be transformed into a clickable prototype for testing. All of that in just four days!

The team

The Design Sprint was going to be run with and for the students of the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht. I wanted them to experience this fast-pace process that would benefit them in the long run, while working on a design solution to improve the air quality in Warsaw, where our HQ is based.

The team itself consisted of me (facilitator), four students that specialised in Communication Multimedia & Design and Product Design, and their two mentors who run the Co-Design exchange programme.

The design challenge

As hinted before, the challenge was to design a solution to educate Warsaw citizens about air quality and improve it in their environment.

Air pollution is measured in 5 levels on the CAQI scale, from very low (0–25) to dangerously high (>100). The levels are based on 3 major pollutants of PM10, NO2, O3 and 3 additional pollutants of CO, PM2.5 and SO2.

Most countries in the EU rarely pass the value of 50. Unfortunately in Warsaw, it’s a different story, where this winter the lowest value recorded was 49.

At the end of October 2019, there was a day with a value of 153, placing Warsaw among the 10 most polluted cities in the world on that day. So we knew that there is a strong need to design a solution that could encourage people to educate themselves on this topic and in return encourage them to take action. We were now eager to start the design challenge!

Day 1: map and sketch

The goal for the first day was to define the challenge and produce some solutions together. We kicked off with the expert interviews to give the students the best understanding of the air quality situation in Warsaw.

Throughout this first part we made notes in the How Might We (HMW) format, allowing us to already define some ideas. After the expert interviews, we placed all the HMW notes into categories. After this came the opportunity to add a vote on the idea that aligns the best with solving the design challenge.
Menjadi Nahdliyin Itu Harus Progresif: Wawancara dengan Muhammad Al-Fayyadl
Tags: Jil, Urutsewu, Kedaulatan Alam, Featured, Islam

in Both Sides of the Table
March 23 — injection molding is WAY TOO EXPENSIVE
By: Ruth Grace Wong
Tags: Startup, Manufacturing

I did a quote online and because my part is so big, they quoted me $300,000 USD! Today I was at Noisebridge and met a mechanical engineer named Jacob, and he confirmed that injection mold would be way too expensive.

We brainstormed about it and eventually came to the conclusion that I should just cut existing buckets. He also said that painting is really annoying (it’s hard to get it to stick to plastic), and I should avoid it. Pictured below is our brainstorming, including an interesting estimation of how long it would take for a worker to manufacture each bucket.

I messaged my manufacturing WeChat friends and they agreed that injection molding was definitely not the right path. Some suggested alternatives included:

Buy ready made buckets and cut the plastic with hot tools such as the one below

Thermo form the part and paint the inside and outside white and black respectively

Other WeChat advice

LEDs would be much better for the user. Jin: “Be careful not to build bucket heaters instead of grow buckets B-)”

I really need to talk to a real contract manufacturer about what manufacturing processes they would actually use

Thanks to Noisebridger (who I forget the name of! please message me to correct), and Olivier, Angelo, Jin, Hans-Joachim, Alexey, Tom, Scotty, Greg, and Federico for WeChat discussion.
How I Made $14.73 on One Article and Other Lessons Learned in August.
By: Lon Shapiro
Tags: Medium, Humor, Self Improvement, Financial Independence, Writing

Making money by writing is much harder than those perky emails informing us that one writer made $6720.35 on one story… in July.

You know me by now.

I’m a truth-teller, not some starry-eyed shovel salesman exhorting you to work your fingers to the bone because one person on Medium made a ton of money from selling the aforementioned shovels.

Do you want the truth?

Well, you can’t handle the truth… and neither can I.

Think of Medium as a quaint 700-foot high ice wall that extends from one end of the continent to the other, and is protected by magic spells.

Your goal is to climb to the top without tools, or the ability to see the climbing holds.

Jon Snow is looking down at us, shaking his head, and mumbling, “and everyone says I know nothing…”

You have a better chance of avoiding arrows, rocks, burning oil, and the scythe as you scale THAT WALL than reaching the top of Medium.

The good news is, if you fail in the lands of Medium, you get unlimited chances to climb the paywall again.

You have a better chance of avoiding arrows, rocks, burning oil, and the scythe as you scale THAT WALL than reaching the top of Medium. The good news is, if you fail in the lands of Medium, you get unlimited chances to climb the paywall again.

Welcome to Part 5 of the series as we continue to scale the paywall.
Why Elon Musk Survived on a Dollar a Day
By: Shivendra Misra
Tags: Life Lessons, Philosophy, Mental Health, Self, Stoicism

The gentleman makes things his servants. The petty man is servant to things — Xunzi

There was one man who Alexander the Great couldn’t do anything about. He couldn’t lure him with riches, nor threaten him to take his possession. His name was Diogenes, the founder of Cynicism.

The meeting between Diogenes and Alexander is one of the most cited anecdotes with an alarming lesson.

According to a legend, when Alexnder came to visit Diogenes, the philosopher did not take the slightest note of the emperor’s presence. He was enjoying his leisure basking in the sun.

Blocking the light that Diogenes was happily basking in, Alexander came to fulfill his wishes. He asked Diogenes if he wanted anything.

“Yes”, Diogenes replied, “stand a little out of my sun.”

It’s not often that the emperor himself insists to give you something. You could ask for a gift so precious that can set you up for life.

But no, Diogenes, denied without hesitation. The people saw it as an act of disrespect.

But as Alexander’s followers were joking about Diogenes, Alexander said, “But truly if I were not Alexander, I wish I were Diogenes.”

Such is the power of poverty, figuratively.

When I talk about poverty, I mean poverty as a condition, not as a mindset.

Poverty as a mindset is one of the limitations. Where you believe that you cannot have what you want. That the world and your achievements are limited. That is, by no means, the goal.

However, poverty as a condition is powerful. Especially when practiced consciously.

The Stoics talk about this all the time.

“Appoint certain days on which to give up everything and make yourself at home with next to nothing. Start cultivating a relationship with poverty. For no one is worthy of god unless he has paid no heed to riches. I am not, mind you, against your possessing them, but I want to ensure that you possess them without tremors; and this you will only achieve in one way, by convincing yourself that you can live a happy life even without them, and by always regarding them as being on the point of vanishing” — Seneca

Here’s why you should make this an active part of your life.
OHF Weekly: Finding Gratitude in 2020
By: Our Human Family
Tags: OHF Weekly, Gratitude, Humanity, Equality, Growth

OHF Weekly: Finding Gratitude in 2020

Volume 2 Number 41

Photo by Karolina Badzmierowska on Unsplash

Thanksgiving 2020 has certainly been unlike any other we’ve seen before. With the various challenges we’ve suffered through during the last eight months, it’s easy to enter the holiday season with a sense of dread and anxiety. We hope this week’s gathering of memories and musings will help you buoy your spirits and recalibrate — if not rejuvenate — your perspective about the state of your union and the world at large. Remember, one’s outlook on life, much like the proverbial glass of water, depends on how you look at it.

This week’s writers — Meister Käßner, Brian Kean, Tre L. Loadholt, Leah Olson, Sylvia Wohlfarth, and I— composed our works specifically with you in mind. So grab that slice of pie and a mug coffee, and dive into some soothing and enlightening reads!

New This Week

“Celebrating Thanksgiving in a Fractured Land” by Meister Käßner

A Diverse Flock of Turkeys. Photo by Mikkel Bergmann on Unsplash

Thanksgiving is especially challenging in 2020. The surging pandemic, bitter partisan and racial divides, and collective mourning for the 250,000 victims of Covid-19 have dampened moods and soured appetites. Large family feasts have been canceled or are preceding despite official warnings and significant risk. Yet gratitude is most resonant in hard times. Practicing thankfulness despite intense grief and soul searching is a step towards healing. As we reflect on past challenges and halting steps towards justice, we can begin to mend the brokenness in ourselves, our communities, and the nation.

Despite myriad school pageants and Charlie Brown specials, the encounter with the Wampanoag in 1621 was marked by fear and great tragedy. The early Pilgrims thanked God for surviving the first year in a “howling wilderness.” Because half of their party had died, they were grateful to be alive. The Wampanoags were still reeling from the scourges of smallpox, measles, and plague that began devastating their communities even before the Pilgrims arrived.

For Indigenous people throughout the country, Thanksgiving is a stark reminder of loss and suffering. European aggression and rampant epidemics wiped out over eighty percent of their population and left them unable to defend their land. Most early Thanksgivings were declared to celebrate colonial victories over local tribes, not the development of trust and community with them. Honoring the experiences of all groups is an important step toward truth, justice, and reconciliation. (continued at Medium.com)
The Intellectually Elite
By: Ilexa Yardley
Tags: Circular Theory, Universal Relativity, Leadership, Education, Life

Always talking conservation of a circle. Using unnecessarily complex words to do so. Keeping everybody safe.

Intellectual X and Y’s. (Photo by Samuel Zeller)

If you really knew the odds to everything were an even 50–50, how would that impact you? Your life? Your choices?

Chances are, if you were born in an odd month, you’d say, I’d worry more. If you were born in an even month you’d say, wow, great!.

Chances are, also, you’d reverse your point of view every other day.

You get this. It’s what the intellectually elite are trying to tell you. In a not-so-obvious way.

Conservation of the circle is the core dynamic in nature.
Retrying and Exponential Backoff With Promises
By: 𝐁𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐧 𝐁𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐭
Tags: Retry, Exponential Backoff, JavaScript, Asynchronous Programming, Promises

Set Up

In this scenario, let’s mimic the behaviour of a browser and a server. Let’s say the server has an abysmal failure rate of 80%.

The apiCall function mimics the behaviour of calling an endpoint on a server.

Retrying

When the apiCall is rejected, getResource is called again immediately.

With a Delay

If a server is already failing, it may not be wise to overwhelm it with requests. Adding a delay to the system can be a provisional solution to the problem. If possible, it would be better to investigate the cause of the server failing.

const delay = () => new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, 1000)); const getResource = () =>

apiCall().catch(() => delay().then(() => getResource()));

Exponential Backoff

The severity of a server’s failure is sometimes unknown. A server could have had a temporary error or could be offline completely. It can be beneficial to increase the retry delay with every attempt.

The retry count is passed to the delay function and is used to set the setTimeout delay.

const delay = retryCount =>

new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, 10 ** retryCount)); const getResource = (retryCount = 0) =>

apiCall().catch(() => delay(retryCount).then(() => getResource(retryCount + 1)));

In this case 10^n was used as the timeout where n is the retry count. In other words the first 5 retries will have the following delays: [1 ms, 10 ms, 100 ms, 1 s, 10 s].

Using async/await and Adding a Retry Limit

The above can also be written in a more intelligible form using async/await . A retry limit was also added to restrict the maximum wait time for the getResource function. Since we now have a retry limit, we should have a way to propagate the error, so a lastError parameter was added.

const getResource = async (retryCount = 0, lastError = null) => {

if (retryCount > 5) throw new Error(lastError);

try {

return apiCall();

} catch (e) {

await delay(retryCount);

return getResource(retryCount + 1, e);

}

};

Conclusion

Exponential backoff is a useful technique in dealing with unpredictable API responses. Each project will have its own set of requirements and constraints, and there may be circumstances where there are better solutions. My hope is that, if exponential backoff is the right solution, you'll know how to implement it.
Video: Peer Mountain CEO Jed Grant Presents the Future of Decentralized Identity at Crypto Valley
By: Peer Mountain
Tags: Tech, ICO, Ethereum, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain

Watch this video a presentation that Peer Mountain founder and CEO Jed Grant gave during the Crypto Explorers trip to Crypto Valley (i.e. Zug, Switzerland) in January. As our Marketing Advisor Jeremy Epstein puts it,

“Jed’s presentation will triple your understanding of decentralized identity and trust, and the opportunities it creates. So this video delivers a great ROI!”
Block Republic Founder Tom Howard joins Peer Mountain as Community Advisor
By: Peer Mountain
Tags: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Technology

Peer Mountain is delighted to welcome prominent blockchain investor and founder of Block Republic, Tom Howard to its advisory board. His expertise and network brings significant value to Peer Mountain and its community.

In addition to helping Peer Mountain build new meaningful relationships with the crypto community, Tom has already secured initial allocations in the Priority List for the Peer Mountain token sale.

A crypto investor since 2013, Tom founded Block Republic to provide the community with the education, advice, and connections required to make smart investments and help the blockchain ecosystem grow. To date, the Block Republic community has participated in over 30 ICO investments.

“Peer Mountain has developed a truly scalable B2B2C solution with the compliance and speed that will make blockchain commerce a reality this year,” said Tom, “I’m looking forward to developing and strengthening ties between this groundbreaking service and the crypto community.”

Currently founding partner of BlockSauce Angel Group, Tom is also serving on the advisory boards of several notable blockchain tech companies that have run successful token sales. Previously, he was founder of Asian venture financing platform VentureMark and CEO of software consultancy Digital Engine.