fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Cleaning a messy dataset using Python
By: Reza Rajabi
Tags: Data Cleaning, Python, Data Science, Data Cleansing, Data

Data cleaning

Data cleaning is a scientific process to explore and analyze data, handle the errors, standardize data, normalize data, and finally validate it against the actual and original dataset.

Data cleaning tasks

Sample dataset

To perform data cleaning, I selected a subset of 100 records from IMDB movie dataset. It included around 20 attributes, which was reduced to 12 for our analysis. The dataset is available at here. I used Python for the analysis, as a powerful, flexible, and open-source language. Python has a set of libraries for data manipulation, analysis and visualization. However, there are other data analytics tool that you can choose for data cleaning such as: Tableau, R, QlickView, SAP, Excel, Apache SPARK, etc.

Data cleaning process

Data exploration

First step in data cleaning is understanding data by exploring the dataset and its attributes. The type of analysis might be different for each attribute type. The following table shows 12 attributes we consider for data cleaning with their data types. I categorized the attributes into different groups:

dataset’ attributes

Nominal: an attribute can be categorical like color that can contain a set of restricted values (e.g., blue,red, brown, ... )

an attribute can be categorical like color that can contain a set of restricted values (e.g., ) Text: an attribute can be a free text or string.

an attribute can be a free text or string. Numeric: an attribute can be numeric (e.g., currency, scores ).

Missing or repetitive values in columns

Handling errors

Based on the type of error, we choose a specific strategy to handle it. If we have missing or repetitive values for one attribute we may decide to drop the column from our analysis. Based on experience, if more than 60% of a column contain null values, we can drop that column for our analysis. This is true for repetitive values of one column. If all the values of a column are the same, it is definitely useless. In our example, all the movies in our selected dataset is in English language, that can be dropped for our analysis.
10 Things About Me You Probably Didn’t Know
By: Tre L. Loadholt
Tags: Memories, Life, Music, A Cornered Gurl, Nonfiction

10 Things About Me You Probably Didn’t Know

Because alto Tagged Me

Always giggling: Baby Tre. Someone was making me laugh. Probably my dad. Heej loves this photo. Classical Sass

For nineteen years, I was the only girl. My sibling accompanying lineup was five brothers. Then, our sister was born. “Bless" is her name and every single day, she blesses me with her existence.

I am short, 5’2 and 1/2 (you think I’m gonna leave that out? Nope!), but I have a long torso. Go on and marinate on that for a minute.

I am most at peace alone, reading, writing, or listening to music. This has been what most in my family consider “oddball" behavior.

I have four best friends, all extremely different in both race and ethnicity with vastly different personalities, however, they’re my people and I love them all with a love that cannot be fully explained. The Powerhouse, The Outstanding, Sunshine, and Fighter-Firefly. These three women and one man have seen me at my worst, loved me through my best, and have grown with me for over fifteen years. Two, for over twenty.

I can do quite a number of impersonations, some, I’ll even do by request.

People walk up to me and begin full-on conversations about their day, what’s got them down, etc…and guess what? I listen. It’s always been this way. It’s one of the reasons why I was drawn to the medical industry.

I have been in healthcare for fifteen years. The primary focus for eleven years? Medical billing. Now, I am trying my hand at registering patients for various imaging scans in a number of modalities. And, I love it!

I did not think I’d ever want my Mother living in the same State as me again, but as I get older, I find that I do not want it any other way. What we have now is something for which I am beyond grateful. I tell her this as often as I can. She is a flower that cannot stop blooming.

For the first five years of my life, I had seizures — often triggered by high temperatures/fevers. At age two, I ended up getting lead poisoning. How? Eating the paint chips off of my parents’ apartment walls. At that point, my Great-Grandmother told my parents to bring me to her. We ended up staying with my Great-Grandmother for several years. She had a BIG hand in raising me. After all, I had teenage parents who ended up having a sickly child, someone had to take over.

A pet peeve of mine? Loud chewing. It drives me up the wall!
The Girl in the Forest with No One around
By: Lee Ameka
Tags: Writing, Poetry, Friendship, Connection, Love

A girl left her home one day

followed her feet away

knowing, she could no longer stay.

Tied to her wing

was a heart on a string

It was all, that she needed to bring.

She walked through the wood

where the monster-boy stood

Sneering his notice from under his hood:

‘Crazy creepy little me

Once tied my heartstrings to a tree

There was no one around

when the tree hit the ground

But of course, there wasn't a sound’

‘There’s none that will hear you, there's none that will see

There's no one to witness, what happens to thee.’

‘Oh good’, said the girl — ‘then I'm where I should be;

When it broke from the tree, it floated to me

I’ve come to return it: your heart back to thee’.
Mercedes-Benz搵香港人錢殺香港人
Tags: Mercedes, 香港, 水炮車, 黑警, Wawe10000

in Both Sides of the Table
Almanya’nın İlk Açık Veri Yasası Yürürlüğe Girdi
By: Veri Okuryazarlığı Derneği
Tags: Open Data, Açık Veri

in Both Sides of the Table
“Thomas Pynchon Shows Us How White Writers Can Avoid Appropriation”
By: Jess Brooks
Tags: Race, Cultural Appropriation, Literature, History, Pynchon

“You learn about the way the Germans tortured the Hereros, the way they killed them — and you learn it from the point of view of a German character, Kurt Mondaugen. This deliberate choice is part of Pynchon’s responsible storytelling technique: first, it’s one of the only ethical ways of recounting the genocide as a foreign author, since the Herero point of view is not appropriated. The massacre should be told by the Herero people: it is their trauma, their story. Pynchon couldn’t just put words in their mouths, words they didn’t choose. It would have been a third silencing of the tribe: the first being the literal silencing of the people by death, the second the silence of history on the event, and the third, the bleaching of the Herero’s (fictional) voice. Instead, by telling the story slant, Pynchon leaves space for the true voice to come…

In the [later Pynchon] novel, the Hereros have traversed continents and now find themselves in Germany. There, they grapple with their identities, their displaced condition, the massacre of their people… through his fully-fledged Herero characters — you’ll find no essentialist, indeterminate ‘African’ descriptions here — we learn more about the tribe’s rich history: we are introduced to their culture, language and religion, an account that is well-researched and highly accurate. In this way, the Hereros aren’t seen as faceless victims of a genocide: they are a people, with history, with culture, identity…

What about the would-be Pynchons of today? The justice warriors, sickened by events around the globe, wanting to help but afraid of speaking for the Other? If that’s you, then the greatest thing you can do is help us speak for ourselves, and read our work: be an ethical megaphone. Social media, obviously, provides multiple platforms for you to engage with writers and showcase their work. A Google search will easily tell you all about authors in different, ‘remote’ countries: contact them, and if they write in a foreign tongue, contact their translator or agent…

Or if you want to tell our stories, tell them with us.”
The Mythical Power of Streaming Playlists; Spotify Reports Modest Rise in Paid Users
By: Platform
Tags: Music, Spotify, Streaming Music

www.musicbusinessworldwide.com

Suddenly, the music industry’s coolest job is becoming increasingly vacant.

Music Modernization Act Was Verse One — variety.com

Music Modernization Act was a big step forward, but there is still a long way to go, says SoundExchange president/CEO Michael Huppe.

Music streaming leader Spotify reports a modest rise in paid users — www.cnbc.com

Spotify reported a modest 5 percent rise in premium subscribers for its third quarter, while revenue and gross margins were roughly in line with market expectations.

Merlin Highlights Growth, Global Indie Trends at 15th Tokyo Music Market — www.billboard.com

The 15th Tokyo International Music Market was held Oct. 22–24 at the Shibuya Excel Hotel Tokyu in the bustling Shibuya district of Tokyo and the crystal edition proved to be one of the most successful yet.

What is FLAC? The high-def MP3 explained — www.cnet.com

CNET explains what FLAC is, where to buy music in the format, and how to play it on your phone, computer or hi-fi.

Waze for Android and iOS adding Audio Player integration w/ Pandora, more — 9to5google.com

Earlier this month, Google Maps added music streaming integration with a handful of popular services.

Smart Speakers Lead Consumer Trends in Audio — www.radioworld.com

CTA data gives insight into developments affecting radio and the broader CE business

Spotify Briefly Touches Record Low But Goldman Still Says Buy — www.bloomberg.com

Spotify Technology SA momentarily brushed up against a record low on Tuesday, following global technology stocks that were also briefly pummeled.

Music’s $20M A Month Man: Spotify’s Daniel Ek Shows Tim Westergren How It’s Done — www.hypebot.com

The industry gave a collective gasp of horror when founder Tim Westergren was pulling down $1,000,000 by selling of Pandora stock while simultaneously fighting artists with royalty loopholes.

NetEase Cloud Music Signs Copyright License Agreement with Loen Entertainment — platformandstream.wordpress.com

NetEase Cloud Music, the popular Chinese music streaming platform owned by leading Chinese internet company NetEase, Inc., announced the signing of a copyright licensing partnership with Loen Entertainment, one of the largest entertainment firms in South Korea.

Garmin adds Spotify to its Forerunner 654 music smartwatch — www.digitaltrends.com

Garmin fans looking to get Spotify on their fitness watch now have another option besides the Fenix 5 Plus series.
Updates on the LoyalWallet
By: Miko Ilas
Tags: Crypto, Bitcoin, Loyalcoin

Hi, Loyalists. As promised, here is an update on the LoyalWallet.

We did our global test launch a few weeks ago, and to make things interesting, we included an airdrop promo. And to further strengthen the app’s upcoming features and promos, we decided to enlist the assistance of and secure partnerships with some heavy hitters in the tech industry.



First, a world-class cyber and information security team will be partnering with LoyalCoin to guarantee that the LoyalWallet is secure and functional on all levels. This team, which is highly sought after by banks, telecom companies and multinationals, has a long history with large corporations and maintained an excellent reputation.



Second, to be a truly global company, we must comply with the laws of the countries where we want to have a presence in. This means implementing proper know-your-customer (KYC) procedures. We have closed a deal with a global KYC vendor to allow KYC procedures to be performed well on the app. We recognize some customers are not comfortable sharing their data unless it is with a reputable KYC company. For those who have done KYC, we may need to ask you to perform it again so we there will be just one database.



Third, we are building on a separate blockchain to make the LoyalWallet a true blockchain product, secure with your own private keys BUT still practically frictionless (e.g., extremely low fees) for any wallet-to-wallet transfer. This will also create a strong bridge between the LoyalWallet blockchain and the Main Net (NEM Platform), making the two platforms interoperable.



Fourth, the LYL Store, where the vouchers of all our big-brand merchants will be found, will be released once the above items have been completed. We have finished the testing, and we are excited to roll them out for the public to try.



We expect the new and improved LoyalWallet to be re-released before the 2nd week of October, with all features available by the end of October. This will include functions such as Earn and Redeem, Cash In and Cash Out, and Withdraw and Deposit. For those accounts that have been frozen, there will be a speedy due process in determining the reactivation of your accounts, with certain parameters that just have to be satisfied.



We are also entering a partnership with NEMChange, which in a few weeks will be purchased by a company in Europe and will undergo a total overhaul. This partnership will allow us to grow our franchise business models, as well as our remittance products.



That’s it for now regarding the LoyalWallet. Let us know if there are other things you would want clarified.



Thank you so much for your faith and support, true Loyalists!



Stay Loyal!
I Ate 385 lb. of Fat over Three Years Time — Here Are My Lab Results
By: Reinoud Schuijers
Tags: Health, Fitness, Fat Burning Foods, Food, Diet

Back in 2015, I was overweight, tired and depressed. I craved sleep throughout the day. I tried to exercise, but couldn’t keep it up. I was absent-minded. I had lost my libido. I didn’t feel like doing anything. I was stuck.

I’m not someone who reaches out for help easily. But I went to see my doctor a couple of times that year. He deemed me physically healthy, a little heavy. Next step: mental health.

I saw a psychologist for a while. Went back to being tired. Tried more exercise. Tried more sleep. Saw another psychologist. No help. Nothing changed. Was I deemed to live that life, and just accept that this was the state of things?
The Temperature on Mars
By: Samantha Lazar
Tags: Poetry

The Temperature on Mars

A Poem

Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

I have a case of sky fever

I want my head up in the stars

I want the winds to take my worries

and freeze them out on Mars

© Samantha Lazar 2019
How to Make iOS App Secure from Jailbroken Device?
By: Shashank Thakur
Tags: Security, iOS, Ios Development, Mobile App Development, iOS App Development

How to Make an iOS App Secure From Jailbroken Devices

Detect jailbroken iOS devices in your app

Photo by freestocks on Unsplash.

Thanks to the mobile era, we have mobile apps for everything these days. Every business from a barbershop to huge retailers has apps so that they can be closer to their customers. On one hand, we really leverage this convenience. On the other hand, there are risks of exposing a lot of confidential information while using these apps. This becomes vital when dealing with payments and other sensitive information.

As developers of these apps, it is our responsibility to put checks to make sure privacy and security are not compromised. Here is a comprehensive list of security best practices. With that said, this article focuses on detecting if an iOS device is jailbroken.

Jailbreak detection techniques basically fall under the following categories.
Gift
By: Sarah E Sturgis
Tags: American Haiku, Birdsong, Mindfulness, Poetry, Gift

Sign up for American Haiku Steamship To Writing History

By American Haiku

Writing takes practice. American Haiku is a great way to put your words from your fingers to your piece of paper. Don't quit, you can do it. Take a look
How Coroutines Shape New Ways to Develop
By: César Gómez
Tags: Android, Jetpack, Android Testing, Kotlin Coroutines, Development

A simple example

Let’s see an example that clarifies that launching a coroutine isn’t the same as starting a thread. We’ll do this by materializing the great example that Roman Elizarov made from his article on the difference between blocking a thread and suspending a coroutine.

Let’s have a computationally intensive operation run on the main thread in an Android app. We want to press a button to start calculating a large probable prime number, show a loading progress bar while it is calculating, and display the result once done. We’ll use a ViewModel to hold the data values.

Let’s observe the number value in our view (could be an Activity or Fragment). Here, Resource is just a class that manages the state of the information retrieval:

When the information is being computed, we should see a loading ProgressBar by our logic. However, look how the app’s UI freezes when we press the button to call viewModel.findBigPrime() to start computing the value:

Ok, so how do we fix this? We can try making our ViewModel’s method a suspend function:

Notice how the suspend modifier is greyed out, indicating that the modifier is redundant. We’ll get to that shortly. We’ll also need to run this function inside the scope of a coroutine. We can use the lifecycleScope of our view to launch this function:

Now let’s see what happens to the UI:

The UI still freezes. That’s because calling a suspend function:

suspend fun foo() { // Blocking operations can go here... }

… doesn’t make the code inside it non-blocking. So, let’s make our function launch a new coroutine that uses the Default dispatcher.

Now let’s see if it solved the frozen UI problem:

Ok, now we finally stopped blocking the main thread and our app shows a loading indicator while the number is being computed. Let’s inspect our suspend function a little bit to see what’s going on. Is the function itself running on the main thread or on a different thread?

Even though it is launched from a coroutine, findBigPrime() is running on the main thread. However, the function itself launches a new coroutine, configures it to run using Dispatchers.Default and suspends its execution until the block invoked finishes. That specific block is run in the background, thanks to the Default dispatcher, which is backed by a thread pool on JVM. You can see that the line where the coroutine is launched is marked with a green icon. This indicates a suspend function call. The suspend modifier allows a function to launch other suspending functions. So now you see that the modifier isn’t greyed out since it isn’t redundant anymore.

If we have functions that may block their caller thread, we should make use of dispatchers to make the code run in the background:
The Power of Latent Variable Models
By: Manuel Brenner
Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Science, Data Science, Statistics

Let’s put this into more formal language: in a classical machine learning setting such as a regression problem, we are faced with a set (x_i, y_i) of predictor variables x_i and regressor variables y_i.

We want to figure out how the variables x_i relate to the regressor variables y_i by fitting a regression model. After building this model, we can, for example, use it to make a prediction for a novel data point x_0 →y_0.

This might sound oddly specific, but this is, in fact, one of the most common uses of machine learning: while the old way of doing statistics used to be mostly concerned with inferring what has happened, modern statistics is more concerned with predicting what will happen, and many practical machine learning applications rely on it.

In supervised classification tasks, the set (x_i, y_i) corresponds to the training data x_i and the class labels y_i. The quality of the predictions are tested on a sample from the test data (x_t,y_t). The inference of the model is therefore conditioned on a situation where we have observed both the predictors and the outcomes, and we can assume that the relationship between them can be encoded in some kind of function we can successfully approximate, using e.g. a multi-layer-perceptron (a deep neural network).

While in latent variable models, we can also have predictors and outcomes, we assume these are not straightforwardly connected but can depend on a hidden underlying process in a complex way, modeled by latent variables z_i.

Let’s look at an example from real life: say that the x_i denote a set of governmental policies in reaction to the current Covid-19 pandemic, and y_i are the current estimates of the one-dimensional reproduction number R_0.

Now it is clear that governmental policies only influence R_0 indirectly, mediated through the influence of the policies on the underlying epidemiological dynamics, which themselves involve a large set of variables and complexities.

Therefore, it might either be in practice or even in principle impossible to explicitly understand all these factors contributing to the underlying dynamical model. If we nevertheless we still want to get a half-way realistic model of this complex underlying process out of the variables we did observe, it can be helpful to move towards a latent representation.

The latent variables z_i could model the individuals in a population, denoted by the labels infected, recovered, healthy, or dead as in usual SRI models. Considering we don’t have the capacity to test the entire population, this true number is always hidden from our view, and the interaction between these variables also depends on a complex set of unobserved factors like lifestyle, social structure, hygiene measures, cross-immunity, etc.
Mathew Rosenblum on Borrowing from Berlioz
Tags: Immigration, Mathew Rosenblum, Music, Ukraine, Documentary

Mathew Rosenblum on Borrowing from Berlioz

A lament from days past.

By David Bernabo

Mathew Rosenblum, composer, professor, and co-director of Music on the Edge, is working on a new concerto, Lament/Witches’ Sabbath. And I’m making a film about it — In A Dark Wood. In this new clip from the in-process documentary, Rosenblum discusses how he is taking inspiration from the last movement of French composer Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique.

Beyond Berlioz, “The piece references — in a non-narrative way — my grandmother’s story about how she fled from Proskurov, Ukraine in 1919 to escape the well-documented massacre in that town,” relates Rosenblum. The concerto incorporates field recordings of Jewish and Ukrainian laments — a spoken or sung expression of grief, rendered in poem or song form — along with “traces of my grandmother’s voice.”

The piece allows Rosenblum to reconnect with his family history, while also writing for and working with renown clarinetist David Krakauer, an old high school friend.

Watch the above clip to gain some insight into the composing process of Lament/Witches’ Sabbath.
A Day in the Cosmos of Infinite Suns
By: Akshay G
Tags: Science Fiction, Poetry, Cosmos, Fantasy, Life

Yellow sun beating,

The world is just begun,

Let’s go out into the daisies,

And play under this sun.

White sun overhead,

Let’s not give up this game,

We’ll find a little shade,

To continue this play.

Yellow sun to the side,

Stop. Take a break.

We’ve played so long, so fast,

Let’s sit awhile,

Look at the world dance.

Red sun sleeping,

In cool pastures and piping tea

Playing games in our minds,

With memories running to infinity.

Sun died, ever after,

In the cold and the dark,

There is no coming after.

Except another spark,

A burning star

In a galaxy afar.
How to Virtually Work with a Financial Advisor
By: Senior Finance Advisor
Tags: Financial Planning, Finance, Money, Money Management, Finance And Banking

Thousands, if not millions, of Americans, were financially affected by COVID-19 and the economic downturn. Now, the need for financial advisors is higher than ever. Because of social distancing and staying safe, many financial advisors are offering their services virtually. Here are some benefits.

You could potentially save money

With more financial advisors willing to work with you online or over the phone, the cost savings may be passed onto you. Financial planners are in the same boat as everyone else in America right now and want to keep their jobs. They may be offering discounted services or work with you to cut down on costs which will save you money in the long run.

Save more than money

Some of the best benefits of working with a financial advisor online are benefits that make your life easier. You don’t have to spend the time driving into an office that may be far from your house. It’s easy to log in and start chatting with your advisor from the comfort of your home.

Virtual working with a financial planner may be the future

The finance sector may be one where we see a large amount of planners, advisors, and others leaving the office behind and working remotely. Like many other businesses, it’s becoming clear that work can be just as effective at home as in the office.

It’s understandable if you feel uneasy about meeting with a financial planner online. You may be thinking, “Is it risky to have all of my financial information discussed online? How do I know it’s safe?” If your reputable financial advisor wants to work with you virtually, rest assured that they have taken the precautions to make sure that your information is safe. If you still feel unsure, call your advisor beforehand and they can go over how they will keep your finances secure.

With economic uncertainty at unprecedented levels, now more than ever, it’s imperative that you have a financial plan to work through this.

Originally published at https://www.seniorfinanceadvisor.com.

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Explaining and evaluating a deep technical issue
By: Tudor Girba
Tags: Gtoolkit, Moldable Development, Development Environment, Visualization

Originally, these attributes could be added to individual characters or ranges of characters. Our goal was to add support for text attributes before and after a character. It turned out that this implied that we needed to change the internal representation of the editor. The initial internal data structure of the text editor was based on the assumption that it is enough to represent both text and attributes as indexes of the text characters. However, for describing an attribute that comes before and after a character we needed to introduce the concept of a cursor index.

Cursor indexes exemplified with an Inspector view showing a live text editor.

Changing the internal data structure was not a problem and could be done without affecting the users. But, a text editor has several layers of abstractions and a change in core representation assumption had to propagate through these layers so that the new ability is available to the developer facing interface. So, that took a bit of time, but it was still not much of a problem given that we had a good example coverage.

Once surgery performed, and all tests were green, we were happy. Rendering worked fine. And then we noticed the problem. Editing a piece of text was dead slow!

We investigated the problem for a few more minutes and we noticed an unusual situation: the underlying rope data structure was both not balanced and it seemed to split the text into too many characters.

A visualization of the rope data structure revealing the issue. (1) the tree was not balanced, and (2) there were too many characters.

Once the problem was localized, we could go ahead and create more examples that show the problem and consequently fix the problem. We knew it worked as we wanted because the Inspector told us so.
Drowning on Air
By: Esther Spurrill-Jones
Tags: Breathing, Air, Poetry, Canada, Free Verse

Photo by Rosalind Chang on Unsplash

I grew up on a mountain overlooking the Thompson River in British Columbia. The wind used to race along the river valley as if it was late for a very important date. If I stood in the valley bottom and faced into the wind, it would snatch the breath away from me. I felt like I was drowning.

Sometimes, where I live now in the Canadian Prairies, the wind is so strong you have to lean into it. It feels like you are swimming against a strong current. If I face into it, I cannot breathe. It feels like drowning.

Photo by Eli DeFaria on Unsplash

If the humidity is really high, the air can feel thick, wet, heavy. On days like this, wind would help. Wet, still air is difficult to drag into my lungs, and I feel like I’m trying to breathe water. It feels like drowning.

How strange it is that too much of the very thing you need to breathe can stop you breathing.
The End of an Era
Tags: Short Fiction, Fiction, Renewable Energy, Fossil Fuels, Microfiction

The End of an Era

How the use of fossil fuels really ended: with a song

Photo by Evgeni Tcherkasski on Unsplash

I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. You have to believe that I didn’t do it. I just sat there and watched every factory, every plane, every car, all the reserves of fossil fuels, and everything dependent on them going up in flames. And for a tiny moment, less than a minute I swear, I sat there and did nothing. That has made all the difference.
Skip a Step
By: Denis Murphy
Tags: Authors, Brands, Podcast, Creative Writing, Creativity

Skip a Step with Lisa Caprelli

I was recently talking to a dear friend Lisa Caprelli. I’ve never actually met Lisa in the real world. She lives in the U.S and I live in Ireland. Nevertheless, she has been a key figure in my development as a writer.

Lisa was the publisher for my book Taking My Life Back. Without her belief that my story was worth telling I doubt my book would be published today.

I recently invited Lisa on the podcast to talk about the work she is doing and she shared some of the life lessons she has learned along the way. Lisa is a published author herself and she is also creating her own empire in the form of Unicorn Jazz.

From talking to Lisa the power of self belief and believing in others again was evident to me. Lisa talked about how meeting people who said good things about her led to her believing that maybe what they were saying about her was true.

I can remember a time when I was scared of the judgement that goes along with writing a blog post or making a YouTube video. I dreaded the thought of other people finding my videos and posts and laughing at me. I dreaded feeling like the ultimate loser, no longer in the classroom among peers but in the real world as an adult who was still plagued by this feeling.

Just one other person believing in me has always been huge for me. It shows to me that maybe I’m not crazy to believe in my talents. It allows me to put aside time and energy to develop my skills. It allows me to ignore the voice in my head that says I am weird, crazy and nobody really gets or likes me.

If you feel you haven’t got this person in your life yet then start with books and podcasts. This is how I started. It primed my mind to be on the lookout for knowledge, wisdom and goodness and increase my chances of seeing it in others when I meet people in the real world. The people are there, sometimes it just takes a little time to break through some of your mind’s conditioning to notice them.

You can check out the full conversation with Lisa here.
How to improve your campus social life.
Tags: Networking, Learning, Belonging

It’s not uncommon to feel lonely or bored as a freshman for the first couple of weeks at school. Interacting with complete strangers can be difficult or unsettling to most. I myself found it difficult as well, but it can be done with the right amount of motivation and charisma.

Social Events

Kennesaw State and many other universities have a social media account were they post all types of up in coming events. Personally more than a few of them look boring, and seem like a waste of time: however, they provide great opportunities . Many people are also looking to make friends or have a good time. The events encourage friendly interactions, making them quite easy if you’re willing to indulge yourself.

Making Conversation

Talking to people comes natural to some and can be strenuous to others. When beginning a conversation make sure to make eye contact, it helps display interest and confidence. You should look the other person in their eyes but not to the point to where it becomes staring. Body language is another important factor when speaking to someone, slouching shoulders and fidgeting can all be seen as signs of lack of interest. One way to make people feel more comfortable when talking to them is to maintain open body language, for example don’t cross your arms or turn your back on someone.

Exiting Your Comfort Zone

Arguably the most important way to improve your social life is to sacrifice a bit of your personal life. It took me a while to realize this. I am an introvert, I prefer the comfort of my own home and rarely go out. When I do go out, I hate being alone or being by myself. It feels weird and I’m sure many other people can relate. One way I would combat being alone is that whenever I saw someone interesting I would tell myself I have to talk to them now or I’ll never see them again. A college campus can be a big place, especially Kennesaw (student population of 38,000+). There is a very real chance you can meet a dozen new people on campus every day, or never see the same person more than once.

Planning Ahead

Once you make friends the struggle is not over. Everyone has their own individual schedule and plans so it can be hard to find a time where everyone is free. Communication is key, exchange schedules with your friends so you both can find optimal times to hang out.

Get Active

Joining a club/organization, or playing a sport is a great way to meet new people. Being a part of team builds camaraderie and can strengthen friendships. Playing sports can be a good icebreaker, and playing together builds trust. When you have to rely on someone else you strengthen your connection to them. Similar to the team dynamic of sports; clubs/organizations require team work to function at full capacity. Clubs and Sports in general provide ample time for small talk and personal interactions.

Your social anxiety may seem insurmountable; however, once you overcome that barrier you can cultivate true, meaningful, relationships.
You’ve got an extra hour in bed, use it wisely
By: Ellie Clayton
Tags: Long Reads, Politics, News

In celebration of that blessed extra hour, here’s bumper edition of upday UK’s long reads roundup

The unofficial queen of sad-but-fun-girl dance music (Robyn) has released a new album

Who is Philip Green?

The unmasking of the man behind the ‘UK’s #MeToo moment’ took less than 48 hours. But what do we really know about Philip Green? (This isn’t that long, but it’s still interesting).

He doesn’t do email. He still operates two old Nokia phones and text messaging is about as much as you will get from him

Robyn, Robyn, ROBYN!

This is one of those you either really care about, or really don’t. Me? I’m in the corner, very much the former. Robyn’s much-anticipated and from what I can tell universally-adored new album came out this week. This (very) long read about Robyn, however, isn’t actually from this week, it’s from September. So sue me.

Robyn had two US hits and disappeared. But she didn’t need to sing the 90s’ most iconic song to change the course of pop music.

Life in the frozen north

This beautiful bit of writing has been named the first winner of The Independent’s Rupert Cornwell prize for foreign journalism. It’s a detailed, absorbing account of the hardships of life in a remote Canadian town.

We saw one guy jumping out of the window on the fifth floor. He was in flames. He’d burned himself

A billionaire’s murder that went unsolved

Last year, a Canadian pharmaceutical executive, Barry Sherman, and his wife Honey, were strangled in their home. The murders are still a mystery. This Bloomberg feature examines the facts.

In this vacuum, the theorizing about the Shermans has taken on a Murder on the Orient Express quality, with everyone a potential suspect.

https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2018-apotex-billionaire-murder/

What’s going on in Yemen and why you should care

This week, the UN warned that half the population of Yemen is at risk of famine. Here, Refinery29 speaks to three women to find out what’s going on, and why we should care.

Simple tasks and errands are becoming a challenge, and people are fed up and exhausted. I’m lucky to be one of the few people in Yemen who still receives an income and has a job.

The story of a tiny football club that took on the developers and won

Dulwich Hamlet is a South London non-league football club (they’re currently in the National League South). They also have a passionate (and growing) band of supporters — home game numbers often push the 3,000 capacity. In 2017, that was all threatened by developers. This is a story for fans of David vs Goliath epics, football, or nice pictures of cool people drinking beer.

Four minutes later he scored another, after which he skidded on his knees toward the rusted pitchside barrier as if this were Wembley, not an away game at a leisure centre off the A309.

Until next week!

You can also follow upday UK on Twitter and Instagram 👍

Questions or suggestions? Email us at hello@upday.com 👋
The right way to (Code)Push React Native
By: Liran Hershko
Tags: React Native, Deployment, Code Push, Moblile, Mobx

CodePush overview

CodePush allows you to change your application’s code, release it, and have your users get the new version almost immediately. It doesn’t require the end-user to upgrade to a new version from the app store.

It’s important to remember that you can only update certain types of files, which I will discuss below.

Continuous deployment of a mobile app

When we initially released our very first React Native app, we wanted to have continuous deployment-like updates to the app, similar to how we, at Fundbox, deploy our web applications. Therefore, we decided that all of our CodePush updates would be configured as mandatory. Thus, when an update is presented, it is installed immediately. There’s no reason for a user to run an old JS bundle when a new one is available, plus, it’s easier for us to manage.

Our initial implementation of CodePush was a simple Higher-Order Component wrapping our App component. It looked like this:

When a mandatory update is available, the internal CodePush sync process kicks in, downloading the new release, installing it, and when it’s done, the app is restarted with the new updated JS bundle. This implementation was far from user-friendly. Let me explain why.

Unwanted UI updates at runtime

The first screen that many users see, is our login screen asking for credentials for their Fundbox account. With our initial naive implementation, after a CodePush release a user who had opened the app and started typing their credentials suddenly experienced a refresh; the typed credentials were erased and had to be entered again. That, of course, was the result of CodePush’s asynchronicity. The updated bundle was downloaded and installed while the user was engaging with the UI.

Preventing UI updates at runtime

In order to fix that behavior, we utilized CodePush’s sync method in conjunction with Mobx’s reaction to changes in the update state.

Then, on our LaunchRoute.js, we simply listen to the CodePush sync status updates. When the sync is done, the appReady observable is set to true and we can navigate the user to the auth route where they can enter their credentials.

Now, when the user opens the app, the splash screen navigates away only after the sync process is done.
5 Superior Benefits of Node.JS
By: Charles Darwin
Tags: Nodejs, Software Development

SynapseIndia is a globally recognized and trusted website development company with extensive expertise in MEAN Stack development, PHP, CakePHP, YII development, Angular JS development and other website development technologies.

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Is Falling in Love Worth the Risk to My Mental Health?
Tags: Mental Health, Zuva, Self, LGBTQ, Relationships

The last guy I thought I loved ‘broke my heart’ and it was a catalyst for a series of events that ended with a suicide attempt. A year later I know I never loved him. I didn’t know it at the time but it was my borderline personality disorder at the back of all those feelings. A key component of the disorder is an unstable sense of self. So he was just a means of validation that I built myself on as foundation. So when he left I tumbled down.

The gift the past year has given me is the knowledge that he could have been anyone. Like water changing states, I transformed with every person I connect with. With two failed degrees, living in the city that raised me, I felt like I was getting complacent and coasting through life. So I moved 8000 miles away from home to do it! Now beyond the influence and gaze of others, I can re-discover myself.

My time away has made me selfish. I like where I am and I fear I will never want to give it up.

Do I want to sacrifice any improvements made for the possibility of something that could end and deeply affect me?

Rebecca Bunch from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend said it best;

I don’t want to die, ok? I’ve gotten better. I’ve progressed. But something will happen and… I know what I’m capable of when I feel abandoned. I can go to a dark place, a place I can hurt myself, & I never wanna be in that place ever again.

I am yet to start therapy but even then it’s a long process. It may take years. And in the meantime, I do what? Potentially meet someone and on the first date have to explain my need for boundaries due to my disorder? Or wait until it things become serious before offloading my baggage? Potentially blindsiding them?

My dating life has always been a mess and while I am grateful for my diagnosis. I sometimes feel trapped in lines of predictable behaviours. I think that I will always be on guard. Second-guessing every action I take. Feeling every rejection like it’s the apocalypse.
Storm Clouds
By: Sydney Duke Richey
Tags: Mountains, Haiku, Poetry, Storms, House Of Haiku

Sydney Duke Richey writes from the heart. Inspired by everyday experiences, her poems, haiku and creative non-fiction come from a slice of her life.

Sydney lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband. She has two children and one grandchild. You can follow her on Medium.
2016 Personal Review
By: Joseph Emmi
Tags: Review, Goals, 2016, Personal, Life

Alright, this is it, 2016 is gone, and 2017 is here. So in order to kick off the new year properly, I always like to take the first couple of days to do my ‘last year review’, allowing me not only to go through events and goals, but also to get perspective towards this year, and want do I want to achieve. I’m aiming for this one to be a great one, just as 2015 (my proudest year yet).

2016 was probably quieter and more stable than 2015, however, still full of big moments and accomplishments.

The main differentiator for me in comparison to the year before, was goal setting. Whereas in 2015 I had very specific list of things I wanted to do and achieve, including deadlines for all of them; 2016 was not that clear and sharp. Yes, I had things I wanted to do, but I didn’t feel that determined, at times even like I was just ‘winging it’. Although, I made a list at the beginning of the year that I kept checking every 2–3 months.

I checked this list one last time on the 30th of December (2016). To my surprise and satisfaction, I managed to achieve 65% of the goals, with a couple of those not even realising it, and in another couple of cases, not even remembering I had set it (either way achieving it). Could that have been some subconscious commitment? Was it just discipline? Maybe one, maybe both, maybe none, but they are done, and it felt really well. One of them even representing a clear stepping stone for the following year, very specific and important for 2017.

So, how was 2016 overall?

Pretty good.
AlphaWallet 3.0 — Your tokens but smarter
By: James Sangalli
Tags: Tokenization, Ethereum Name Service, Tokenscript, Ethereum, Token

Whether you are a mass domain buyer or just want to manage your personal ENS names; these features are perfect for you.

Covet a domain that someone else owns? Simply watch their wallet in the app and check their email record.

A domain is going to expire? No worries, simply renew it via the token card.

We will later integrate refunding of ENS names that have been held for a year or more, allowing you to receive a refund for the ENS names you wish you hadn’t bought. Talk to us if you want to use any other ENS functions natively.

Flush the sh*tcoins with our new manage token panel

With this release, you now have the ability to select/hide the tokens you want from the main settings menu. No more useless tokens in your wallet!

Event Support

AlphaWallet now supports the reading of events for your tokens inside the wallet. This means you can now feed updates and other relevant information inside your token cards with TokenScript.

Your token on mobile in minutes

A TokenScript allows you to showcase all the key features of your token natively in the app. No need to create your own custom wallet to suit your token.

Our new release is compatible with our ABI-to-TokenScript web tool which means you can have your own token in iOS and Android in minutes. Try it out here!

Learn more about the web tool here.

Many token issuers have their token in our wallet, what about you? See more here.

NEST token integration and many more

NEST is a new ERC20 token project that has hit the ethereum space with a vengeance. When we discovered that you have to download yet another wallet to leverage the power of NEST, we were mad and decided to integrate it within our wallet with TokenScript.

You can read more about this here.

Want to fork AlphaWallet for your own use?

Jump over to our GitHub and fork away, we don’t mind one bit. Available under the MIT license. Free for commercial and non-commercial use.
The US Postal Services and Blockchain
Tags: Postal Service, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain Technology, Technology

The US Postal Services and Blockchain

By NOWPayments on The Capital

There is almost no area left that has not been affected somehow by blockchain technology. Almost every industry is harnessing the potential of blockchain and cryptocurrency to kickstart things so that they move beyond digital. Possibly anything and everything can be secured with the blockchain.

From finance to the business industry, there is a lot that is currently dependent on blockchain for so many things. Each day innovations are being brought into the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain. Digital currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin are being used for making digital transactions everywhere.

Recently, we have come across some interesting facts about the United States Postal Services, introducing a secured voting system with the help of blockchain.

So, let’s discover what it entails for the government and the US citizens.

Read this article in the NOWPayments blog!
dxDAO digest — Sept 5, 2019. A lot has been happening with dxDAO…
By: Eric Arsenault
Tags: Daos, Blockchain, Ethereum, Daostack

A lot has been happening with dxDAO over the last few weeks, and some cool things are brewing. Below is an update on our current state and priorities.

Important updates since the beginning of dxDAO governance:

8. We had our first meeting on August 8th, a physical meeting in Berlin on Tuesday August 20th (see photobombed image below), and a meeting on the 29th of August.

Below are some high level notes on our priorities based on our first meetings:

Fundraising: dxDAO aims to gear up for a fundraising campaign. There is a lot of work required before we can execute on this. Most importantly: a) Create and sexy splash page, a dashboard, and some marketing material (a proposal was drafted to start some of this work), b) agree internally on initial bonding curve specifications, airdrop to rep holders, vesting schedule for rep holders, etc. Getting traction: Traction would help validate the need for dxDAO in the decentralized exchange landscape. Our hope is to demonstrate this prior to fundraising. Activities related to this include: Assessing use cases, and executing on one of them.

Other dxdAO stuff

There’s been a few interesting conversation in daotalk.org, below is a cherry-picked selection:

Should dxDAO open up a dapp store? https://daotalk.org/t/dxdao-dapp-store/783 What should the dxDAO fee model be? https://daotalk.org/t/dutchx-fee-model/777 Who should hold reputation in dxDAO? https://daotalk.org/t/shifting-reputation-dynamics/799

That’s it for now. See you soon!