fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
The art of refactoring
By: Jose Maria Valera Reales
Tags: Refactoring, Software Development, Software Engineering, Programming, Software Refactoring

TL;DR: If you see something, in the scope of your current task, that can be easily improved, improve it. And if you have any questions about it, ask.

What is refactoring?

Refactoring means improving your code. It can go from making a variable name more readable, extract some lines of code into a private method, or separate the responsibilities of a class into subclasses, for example.

Refactoring is the action of showing that you care about what you do as a professional. It can be a controversial topic; it is indeed one of the major controversial topics since a long time ago. But we shouldn’t stop trying our best in order to improve the quality of the system just because of that controversiality.

When and how should we refactor?

Always in the scope of your current task unless it is an already planned task, something like “architecture refactoring” or similar, where the scope of the task is actually to do refactoring.

Refactoring should be part of our daily job by default, not a separate task.

We do not need to ask permission to refactor. Or do we ask our managers for permission to do our best job?

In order to do proper refactoring, the intention of such refactoring needs to be clear. What is intended to achieve and how? Pair programming (or even pair thinking!) certainly helps in this topic because it syncs two brains on the same topic and that encourages team building and a better understanding of them.

Applying refactor in a collaborative way, in a “bidirectional channel”, is fundamental when working within a team. Refactoring shouldn’t be a tabu topic, on the contrary: it will be helpful in order to unify the goals and the direction of the team code quality.

Some personal advice about the “how”

Continuous improvement is what we’re looking for within this topic, but…

If you realize your changes are generating more noise than help, stop immediately and think again if your changes are worth in the current system status.

Maybe it’s not the right moment for that refactoring.

Maybe you are polluting your current diff with out-scoped changes.

Or, maybe, your refactoring idea is too big to be applied in your current task. In such a case, a follow-up task (in order to apply the refactoring) would be a better idea.

If you see that refactoring is perhaps needed even before starting your current task, do the refactoring first.

We usually refactor in order to increase our productivity, making the code more readable and therefore easier to understand.

Testing

Be aware that you should have a pretty well suite of tests covering the logic that you might have changed. Without tests, refactoring can be really risky. Usually, the easier something is to be tested, the easier it is to be replaced or removed.

You can read more about how testing is related to quality here.

Why should we do it?

Wouldn’t you want to have a better system as time goes by?
Trimester Project: Documenting Growth & Reflecting on Connections Using Sutori with Embedded Flipgrid Responses & Desmos Graphs #edtech #mathchat
By: Stacey Roshan
Tags: Technology, Education, Learning How To Learn, Mathematics Education, Edtech

My school has always administered exams in the first and third trimester (meaning that students usually are taking their trimester exam right about now). However, this year, we moved to a one exam model, which will be given at the end of trimester 2.

As I thought about what I would do to shift things without an exam, I asked myself what part of the exam period I thought brought the most value to my students’ learning. To me, the studying and synthesizing of material from the beginning of the school year, the organizing of information, and the focus on helping students make connections between the various units and topics is where the value lies. And so I decided to create a project for my students focused on these aspects.

Metacognition

Metacognition — “thinking about one’s thinking” — has been linked to improved learning outcomes. Research has shown that metacognition promotes deeper learning and affects whether students can transfer and apply their knowledge to new scenarios. Teachers can scaffold metacognition by asking students to explain their thought process. By asking, “how did you figure that out?” or “talk through your solution,” teachers can help students reflect on the process and tease out the strategies they chose to use in solving problems. What’s more, by providing opportunities for students to revise and analyze errors, teachers help students see more clearly how their thinking has improved and oftentimes allows them to see the solution differently.

Documenting Growth & Reflecting on Connections

The final trimester project I created asked students to use Sutori to “document their growth & reflect on connections in AP Calculus.” In the first trimester of AP Calculus, we have studied limits, derivatives, and begun applying properties of derivatives. This project allowed students to demonstrate their mastery of these sections by highlighting the connections they have been able to form between the “old” and “new” material.

All trimester long, we have been doing reflective activities — through Flipgrid posts, homework revisions, and in creating self-made study guides. In this project, students pulled together work they completed in the past and wrote reflective statements talking about why they chose to showcase this specific question and how their understanding of the topic has grown.
Be the Stillness
By: David Hope
Tags: Poetry, Nature, Stillness, Haiku, Zen

I think therefore I write. I have an MA in Creative Writing. I write fiction and short thought pieces. There is more about me and my other work on LinkedIn.

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How to Leave A Legacy
By: John Gorman
Tags: Self Improvement, Personal Growth, Life Lessons, Careers, Leadership

My death is my most common recurring dream. I imagine it’s also yours? I’m not sure what else people dream about. I also once dreamed I was on a roller coaster with a friendly dragon, who lightly toasted my marshmallows with his breath so I could make s’mores. That’s when I resolved, “no more micro-dosing before bedtime.”

In all weightiness, though, death weighs on me. How could it not? It’s the only condition, truth or state in recorded existence that’s both universal and permanent: everything dies, and once it does, it’s dead forever. I know I’ll meet my end — same as the rest of you. We’re here, and then we’re gone — every human, animal, plant, organism, cell — up and vanished like waves that dared to rise above the shoreline.

So of course death dominates my mind: how to delay it, how to defeat it, how to defy it. That’s what led me, initially, to write this:

At its apex, I conclude:

… the only way to live forever is to densely pack your life with creations, experiences, people and memories, so it would be impossible for someone to know the entirety of you. What matters is what you do, how you live, how much joy and meaning you smash into the sides of every waking second.

And that is a satisfactory answer to an altogether foolhardy question: Actually living forever is impossible, but if we learn, make, experience and share enough of ourselves, we can at least present the illusion of immortality. We can approach the asymptotic, even as we’ll never touch it.

Maximizing our cosmically infinitesimal plot of space-time is a fine way to supercede the prison of the life into which we were born, and yet it is not the complete picture. It is the merely half of the brokenhearted locket. The other half must be gifted to you, ascribed to you, bestowed upon you by the outside world — your family, friends, community and humanity itself. That half is shattered into millions of shards, and can only be reassembled and rejoined with you by how you contribute to those who hold the pieces. That half is your legacy. Let’s talk about how to leave one, or — more appropriately — piece one together.
Black Pearl
Tags: Romance, Poetry, Ipoetry, Love, Imad

Black Pearl

A poem

Photo by Eric Prouzet on Unsplash

Beautiful black pearl

Precious stone

So dare to me,

I have been searching for you

Your authentic self

But you are hard to find.

When I am near

You are always evading

How elusive you are

Slipping away

Like you do not want me.

I crave the day, that I would know

How you feel on my bare chest,

Would you warm my heart

Like I have dreamed?

Or perhaps you will remain a fantasy

A character in a fictitious tale,

Something that will never be,

And I, in turn, will forever remain

The lone participant in this love story.
Cyber Security: Sparse coding and anomaly detection
By: David Vassallo
Tags: Security

I’ve recently published the thesis I wrote in fulfillment of my Masters in Computer Security, entitled

BioRFID: A Patient Identification System using Biometrics and RFID

Anyone interested can download and read the whole thesis here:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317646400_BioRFID_A_Patient_Identification_System_using_Biometrics_and_RFID

In this article I’ll give an extremely compressed version of the thesis and how the work therein can be translated to the cybersecurity domain — along with some practical code to illustrate my points.

In the physical world, we often translate visual data from one “dimension” to another. For example, looking at the picture below, on the left hand side we see … Read more at David’s Blog
Creativity Hasn’t Come Easily in 2020
By: Kathryn Dillon
Tags: Creativity, Mental Health, 2020, Writing, Pandemic

In some ways, the beginning of 2020 feels like eons ago, but it also flashes up close in the rearview mirror, like my mom standing on the stoop of her house to wave goodbye, every time we drive away.

In January alone, we experienced one cat’s medical emergency and said a heartbreaking but not unexpected goodbye to the senior matriarch of our feline family. My husband hit the midpoint of his 50s, and I baked him a mini chocolate layer cake with buttercream and ganache, topped with cherries.

In early February, I visited my cardiologist and wrote about what it’s like to live with an aortic aneurysm. I had my hair cut and colored, which (for the record) was the last time I saw my stylist. I kept thinking I’d go again when the salons reopened, but concern for my safety and that of my family held me back.

These days, I’m firmly committed to the reverse-hombre effect of my naturally-colored roots against the darker shade I usually dye my hair. My eyebrows have gone au natural as well since I usually get them waxed when I see my stylist, and tweezing them myself makes me feel like I’m going to throw up and pass out simultaneously.

In late February, we attended the Cleveland Kurentovanje festival, and the following weekend, a fundraiser for the Waterloo Alley Cat Project, a wonderful, local not-for-profit we support. That was the last thing. The last thing we did that felt normal. After that, everything starts to blur together.
How to Be a Leader People Love
By: Max Klein
Tags: Emotional Intelligence, Productivity, Work, Leadership, Leadership Development

How to Be a Leader People Love

A little charisma goes a long way.

75% of employees consider their direct manager to be the “worst part of their job” according to a survey of almost 5,000 employees conducted by Hogan Assessments.

This is a troubling statistic for both managers and employees.

A hard-working technical genius of an employee doesn’t necessarily translate to a good leader.

Many crash and burn as a leader simply because they don’t understand what makes people want to follow them. They don’t understand how people see them. They don’t understand what makes people like and respect them.

Because leadership is all about people, it’s all about how your people feel about you.

Here are a few ways to be a more likable leader.
Emmet: HTML Expansion and Traversal
By: Alex R. Young
Tags: HTML, Scripts, CSS

One of the things I love about Vim is it has some efficient tag editing features: I use cit (change inner tag) all the time when editing HTML or XML. However, there's always room for improvement. Emmet is a project that brings workflow improvements to editors for working with HTML and CSS. It can expand CSS selectors to the equivalent HTML. CSS selectors are an efficient shorthand for those of us who write a lot of CSS and client-side JavaScript.

Emmet can also wrap lines in new tags, expand self-closing tags to a pair, insert snippets, and more. All of the features are documented with videos at docs.emmet.io.

Emmet-vim by Yasuhiro Matsumoto brings some of these features to Vim. For example, html:5 then C-y will expand into a basic HTML5 document. This also works for CSS-style expansions. If you've got ImageMagick installed then it can even add width and height attributes to img tags.

Installation and basic usage instructions are included in the project’s readme on GitHub, otherwise see the full documentation for all of the commands.
My Aunt’s Stew a gastronomic prose
By: Daniel A. Teo
Tags: Food, Prose, Life, Poem, Hungryforever

Author’s narration: Nothing beats the taste of my Aunt’s beef stew! Although she passed on many years ago, my family and I still eat it every year as a “family tradition” — to commemorate our Aunt and the happiness she’s brought us ( as well as our contented stomachs).

Here is a recipe you can attempt to satisfy yourself and your families during the lasts of 2020!

Best,

Your always hungry

Daniel A. Teo
My Corona Diaries
By: Jason Mcbride
Tags: Webcomics, Family, Cartoon, Comics, Coronavirus

My Corona Diaries

Chronicling my coronavirus experience with haiku collage comics

Image by Jason McBride

I’m not much of a journal keeper. However, even I recognize how important it is to capture the events and my feelings about them during these strange times. I’ve created a series of comic strips that are black and white collages with a haiku caption. I write one or more haiku a day about what’s going on in our family. Eventually, I get around to creating the collage comic strips.

For background, I’m a work from home freelance marketing writer, weird poet, webcomic creator. My wife is a pediatric nurse at a nearby hospital. We have four kids and a dog. I refer to our kids by their grades in these comics instead of their names: Third Grade, Fifth Grade, Seventh Grade, and Freshman.

Image by Jason McBride

Image by Jason McBride

Image by Jason McBride

Image by Jason McBride

Image by Jason McBride

Image by Jason McBride
Attachment
By: Anna Rozwadowska
Tags: Inner Growth, Sonnet, Poetry, Identity, Discovery

Endowed, perpetual distortions in alchemy,

wrapped around conundrums, ‘je ne sais quoi’

giants love the effervescent quality of a gentle breeze,

caught inside the chamber; thereby confusing love and infatuation,

meandering with awareness, embracing ocean tides,

a prismatic equation falls into the being of me and I wonder, I wonder,

love is an affiliate.

Blades of grass swirling together with qualities of the winds,

reverting back to when man emerged from the underground,

tilling the soil, bringing back the salt of freedom,

reclusive is the being becoming, another attempt.

Ultimatums buried in mud, truth seeks profound understanding,

enter the sphere of existence, portals are profound,

only in this time history-space-continuum, beloved is seeking from afar.
Just Clowning Around
By: Sarah Firth
Tags: Civil Disobedience, Disruption, Joker, Disillusionment, Contrapoints

Written by

I’m an award-winning comic artist, writer and graphic recorder. All words + images © Sarah Firth. Contact me www.sarahthefirth if you want to use them.
How to Easily Raise Your Prices (Seriously)
By: Josh Hoffman
Tags: Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Digital Marketing, Business, Customer Experience

Last week I was in Da Nang, a mid-size city in central Vietnam.

I lodged at a homestay, and the host and I started to talk about her business one day.

The homestay is beautiful, clean, completely modern and close to the center of town (but far enough that you don’t hear the city noise). In other words, her product is fantastic. Yet, she was only charging a modest rate. “I want to raise my prices,” she told me, “but I can’t.”

The fact is, most businesses are in this same boat: They have great products and services, but they’re unable to charge significantly more than the market rate.

Can you relate?

We started by browsing her website and social media channels — and I immediately noticed her problem. The website looked and felt like it was designed by a ninth grader, totally lacking the kind of customer experience on which effective websites are built. (In this case, effective means a website that turns prospective customers into paying ones.)

And her social media channels? I commend her for trying to use social media, but she was promoting the wrong message — “Look how amazing my homestay is!” — instead of a message that compels people to both book a room at her homestay AND pay a higher-than-average price.

That message is this: Promote the experience, not the product. (In the case of this business, promote the experience of traveling in Da Nang and Vietnam, not the homestay.)

Why? Because people are willing to pay as much as 25 percent more for experiences than they are for products and services.



This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to turn your business on its head and start creating additional experiences for your customers. Instead, it means making customer experience the focal point of your marketing (e.g. your website, social media channels, email newsletters, online and offline ads, et cetera).

Do this and you can easily raise your prices.
What can the Nation’s Report Card tell us about school choice?
By: American Federation For Children
Tags: Naep, Advocacy, Education, School Choice

What can the Nation’s Report Card tell us about school choice?

By Katie Linehan

The National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) is a biannual measurement of student learning in core academic subjects and is the only barometer to compare student achievement across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. This week’s release of the 2017 results tell us not much has changed since 2015; as a country, student performance remains stagnant. However, two leaders in the school choice movement — Washington D.C., where nearly 50% of students are enrolled in charter schools, and Florida, home to the largest scholarship tax credit program in the country — defy national trends.

Once a low performer, Florida now performs near the top on NAEP. And the achievement gaps that persist elsewhere between white students and students of color, as well as low-income students and their wealthier peers, have narrowed significantly. Though the District of Columbia remains a low achiever when compared to other states, a review of past NAEP performance speaks to significant growth across demographic subgroups in the nation’s capital. From 2005 to 2017, black student performance in fourth grade reading improved by 20 points in D.C. Students who are eligible for free or reduced lunch saw similar gains. (According to Educational Testing Service, 12 points on the NAEP equates to one year of learning.)

Of the roughly 60 million children attending primary or secondary schools today, nearly half a million in 26 states and D.C. participate in private school choice programs, and another three million attend public charter schools. Though in high demand by families, entrenched special interests continue to work to curtail growth of successful school choice programs. And, although private school students do participate in NAEP, the choice program participant data is not disaggregated. So, while we are limited in using NAEP to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of specific choice policies, results from D.C. and Florida speak to the erroneousness of any claim that school choice hurts traditional public schools.

As the results released this week confirm, in most parts of the country, little has changed in the last decade. That’s just one reason why families in every state should be empowered to choose a school that works best for their child and why we should emulate and grow the success of popular — and effective — choice programs like those in Florida and D.C.
Lorn — Acid Rain
By: Hogan Torah
Tags: Dance, Music, Death, Electronic Music, Music Video

Lorn — Acid Rain

The ancients believed that when Death comes, you have a chance to dance your final dance. Death has no choice but to watch.

“If a dying warrior has limited power, his dance is short. If his power is grandiose, his dance is magnificent. But regardless of whether his power is small or magnificent, death must stop to witness his last stand on earth. Death cannot overtake the warrior who is recounting the toil of his life for the last time until he has finished his dance.”

— Journey to Ixtlan — Carlos Castaneda
Sudan: ‘As a refugee, it is not easy for me to provide food for my six children’
By: World Food Programme
Tags: Zero Hunger, World Food Programme, Sudan, Refugees, Wfp

As mother of six children at the age of 33, she struggles to make ends meet and relies on food assistance from World Food Programme to get by. She is among nearly 36,000 refugees in the camp who receive monthly food rations from WFP that include sorghum, lentils, vegetable oil and salt, enabling them to put food on their tables.

“I am very thankful to WFP for reducing our suffering,” she says. “Without this assistance, we would not be able to stay here as we have no relatives to support us or any reliable source of income to depend on. It is this assistance that enables us to survive.”

Beneficiaries of General Food Distribution at Um Sangoor refugee camp waiting for their turn to receive food rations for the coming month. Photo: WFP/Abdulaziz Abdulmomin

The little money Susana earns as a domestic housemaid in the nearest town, she invests in the education of her children. They are living and studying in schools in Kosti, some 60km away from Um Sangoor refugee camp, due to lack of schools in the camp.

“As a refugee, it is not easy for me to provide food for my six children and pay for their education at the same time,” she says. “Fortunately, the food burden is being taken care of, thanks to WFP’s continuous support throughout.”

Susana hopes to see her children become doctors or ministers who can serve their communities and contribute to the development of South Sudan.

“I am doing all I can to see my children complete their education,” she says. “I am praying day and night for stability and security in my country so that we can return home to our farms and reunite with our beloved ones whom we greatly miss.”

Thanks to support from WFP, she has been able to persevere in spite of conflict and hardship. Despite all she has endured in her life, Susana sees the light at the end of the tunnel.

Staff of SRCS, WFP Cooperating Partner, checking refugee registration cards before assistance distribution. Photo: WFP/Abdulaziz Abdulmomin

The assistance that WFP has given her much more than just food on her plate. Without the constant worry of her family going hungry, Susana is still able to hold onto the dream of a better future for her children and strives towards that ambition.

Susana is among nearly 100 million people who receive WFP food assistance each year, many of whom, like Susana, are affected by conflict. In eight out of ten of the world’s main food crises, conflict and insecurity are among the key drivers of acute hunger. Over 60 percent of the world’s hungry live in countries affected by conflict.

Women refugees patiently waiting under a shade at a food distribution point in the camp. Photo: WFP/Abdulaziz Abdulmomin

Susana’s story is just one of many that demonstrate the link between conflict and hunger and the critical role that food assistance plays in supporting the first steps towards peace and stability.

Learn more about WFP’s work in Sudan and South Sudan
Above All
By: Mahesh Cr
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Poetry, Poetry Writing, Sri Aurobindo, Yoga

Give me a heart stout and adamant,

Courage that walks the night unarmed,

That rues not all the choices made

In pursuit of Thee most distant.

Give me a mind deep, wide, supple;

That ranges the abyss and the heights,

To scout for all of heaven’s lights

For each Thy mystery to grapple.

Give me limbs like a titan reckless,

That tireless labours through opposition,

Without stint or fear of every negation

To prepare for Thee a ground spotless.

Give me unflinching will to alarm gods,

A sliver ray of Thy mystic sun golden,

To tremble the spheres and embolden

Matter to shatter inconscient’s knots.

Above all, give me many lidless eyes

A sweeping vision that sees to become

What it sees. All distance thus overcome

Between Thee and I for all coming ages.
World Cup sample dapp on MOAC: from start to finish
Tags: Dapp, Blockchain, Moac Technology, Moac

in In Fitness And In Health
Fighting the Imposter In My Head
By: Leo Guinan
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Patience, Self, Imposter Syndrome, Mental Health

I have been working pretty much nonstop since August. I saw an opportunity to achieve financial freedom and I jumped on it. Except, it isn’t a single opportunity, it is more of a collection of potential opportunities. I just have to figure out the right one. If one opportunity pops, that will be enough.

As part of my plan to achieve financial freedom, I am pursuing various income streams.

There is my writing on Medium. I am up to almost $100 in two months, so not quite the gold mine I was hoping for yet. I am in the process of writing a book as well. Much of my blog is going to go into the book, so at least there are multiple income streams being served by a single action of writing.

I am also in the process of launching a startup. I am currently in search of funding. That is a process that is… ongoing. I think that I can convince an investor of my ideas if I can just get in the door. The doors are hard to open when you manage to find them. Unfortunately, I spent the majority of my decade in tech focusing on tech and not the people in tech. Now I have an uphill battle.

I still have my regular day job as well. I have a few ideas of opportunities I am trying to pursue within the company as well. I have a couple really cool ideas that I would like to kick off. Certain outcomes allow me to drop my own startup as well.

Lately, though, I have hit a bit of a lull. I have laid a bunch of groundwork and have to work on being patient. That is where I struggle in life. I am probably the least patient person you will ever meet. Now, there are days where it seems all I can do is wait. These days can be excruciating at times.

That is also when The Imposter shows up.

He waits for the quiet times when things are not actively happening. Then he starts whispering to me.

“If you were good enough, you would already have succeeded.”

I have been keeping him away by working constantly. If I don’t take a break, he never has a chance to show up. But there is always a time where he can appear and he does. He is fast. It doesn’t take a long break in the action for him to show up.

When he does, we battle. I try to remove him from my head. Some days, it is easier than others. A few days lately, it has been a real struggle. I manage to eventually get him out but it is a struggle. It is a drain on my energy and motivation. Each little doubt he whispers in my ear is a bit more energy that I have to spend on ejecting him.
Celebrating W.A Dwiggins, the first “graphic designer”
Tags: Dwiggins, Paperposts, Letterform Archive, Typography, Design

Before you pounce on me for the title, I know he wasn’t the first ever person to practice the various crafts that make up graphic design. But William Addison Dwiggins was exceptionally talented in all things graphic design — illustration, typography, book design, calligraphy, layout, advertising, information design. And more importantly he was first to coin the term “graphic designer” back in 1922 to describe what he did. So in my reckoning he gets to be called the first.

I’d heard of Dwiggins but it wasn’t until I visited the Letterform Archive that I really got to know his work, and his brilliance. As a graphic design student in the UK, most of the historical design teaching focussed on British graphic designers like Abram Games, F.H.K Henrion etc. Or on graphic designers that influenced the look of Britain like Hans Schleger and then on the truly historical type designers. I don’t remember ever hearing about Dwiggins (this is probably just me being a bad student). So for me it’s been a wonderful awakening to his work.

When the Letterform Archive announced a kickstarter to publish a new book W.A. Dwiggins: A Life In Design, I had to get a copy. I’d seen his data visualisation artwork and the fabulous book designs for Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll & Mr Hyde and H.G Well’s Time Machine for Random House (1929, 1931) at the archive and I’d fell in love with the work. The illustration, colour work and detailing is incredible, here are a few pics from my visits.
Pergeseran tren dari ‘Termurah’ menjadi ‘Terdekat’
By: Reza Baita
Tags: Mobile App Development, Software Development, Indonesia, Jakarta, Product Development

Productivity Junkies, Problem Solver and I love to help people figure things out. | Founder @UrbaneRoom @Bihaviour

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Fishy Tales
By: Imλbөпg Fλmiпц
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Poetry, Pom Prompt, Poem, Poems On Medium

I caught him again — the fraud

He had his hooks and tentacles in another

When I confronted the slimy sleaze

He said the sea is teeming with fish

His words, ‘There are bigger fish in the sea’

The temerity of the bagga!

Indeed, I retorted

‘Big enough to wedge in your throat and choke you’

© Imabong Faminu

In response to POMprompt by Christina M. Ward below:
Data Analysis End-to-End IMDb dataset
By: Ognish Banerjee
Tags: Machine Learning, Data Visualization, Data Science, Data Analysis, Business Intelligence

Introduction

Since it’s my first article on Medium. I thought of writing a detailed explanation of my analysis of the very popular yet common dataset on the IMDB movie rating. Anyone who is a newbie and beginning a journey in data science surely came across this data set. Different types of analysis, predictive modeling, articles, etc are all over the net on this, but even if you haven’t, don’t worry. Before writing this one, I also went through many blogs, Kaggle kernels, and GitHub notebooks on it, I still believe that this analysis is quite different from the rest and I decided to share my readers who are interested in learning beyond the mainstream :-D

To give a brief about my background, I started my career as an analyst and now pursuing PG in Data Science and Machine Learning, and this analysis was an assignment as part of our curriculum. So all the different visualization and analysis that I’ll be going through in this article has been meticulously crafted by our faculties and industry experts and therefore the reason for it standing out from the rest.

How we will proceed

I would like to state that the whole analysis has been done on Python and the platform is Jupyter notebook. Anyone who has prelim knowledge of the language can easily understand the code. If anyone wants to have the R version of it, please let me know, I’ll start making an R- notebook. But I would suggest trying to replicate the same on your own! That will help you learn.

Before I begin I would like to set the expectations of this article. This article aims to make you think like an analyst, how to approach a business problem analytically, what is the business logic behind it, etc. It contains simple python codes, basic viz, and no predictive modeling — because the objective here is not to share knowledge on coding or any high-level stats. Since it would be a bit long blog, my suggestion to the readers would be not to read this all at once, try breaking them in parts, and whenever you think it’s too much, just stop! bookmark the page and come back after having a cup of coffee!!

Enough of talking let’s dive into it:

Link to IMDb dataset and data description

IMDb data set

“Your approach is your key to success”

A scientific approach should be followed for solving any business problem using data we have in hand to derive valuable insights and recommendations.

Data analysis flow

My suggestion to everyone would be not to see the code or explanation at first. Read the various steps and try to solve it on your own, give some time to it, and when you think its enough then look into the various code chunks and explanations!

Good Luck!! :-D

First, we’ll carry out the usual steps needed for the analysis after that slowly we’ll start building context and solve problems.

Importing libraries

Import numpy, pandas, seaborn and matplotlib and assign aliases to them for easy use
2020 Florida Legislative Session Turns Attention to Affordable Housing
By: Orlando Free Press
Tags: Rent Prices, Housing Funding, Housing Crisis, Florida Legislature, Affordable Housing

Photo by Brandon Griggs on Unsplash

by Hayley Michelle Clemmer | The Florida Free Press

TALLAHASSEE — Florida lawmakers are seeking solutions to the affordable housing shortage through various forms of legislation. These efforts are a response to mounting concerns over the availability of affordable housing in the state of Florida, which has the third largest homeless population in the nation.

During this year’s legislative session, state officials will address the misallocation of affordable housing funds, in particular the money raised by the Sadowski Trust Fund. In 2018 alone, the Sadowski Trust Fund raised approximately $182 million to be used by the State Housing Initiatives Partnership Program. Nearly $2.2 billion has been diverted to cover other deficient areas within the state’s budget — such as hurricane relief and school safety programs — over the past 15 years.

In response to this issue, Sens. Sam Killebrew (R) and Debbie Mayfield (R) are presenting two bills (HB 381 and SB 306 ) during this year’s Florida Legislative Session aimed at providing specific language to protect the funds from misuse. While the bills would still allow access to the funds for emergency circumstances, such as a recession, their goal is to ensure that the funding’s usage is consistent with its intended purpose, according to the Florida Phoenix.

Rent prices will also be discussed at this year’s session. Approximately 922,000 low-income Floridians are spending more than 50 percent of their earnings on housing, making them susceptible to homelessness if even one paycheck is missed, according to the Sadowski Housing Coalition.

To combat this, Orlando lawmakers, Rep. Anna Eskamani (D) and Sen. Victor Torres (D), have proposed a bill that would help local communities enact rent controls. Florida law has historically prohibited such controls unless local governments determine a housing emergency.

Sen. Jason Pizzo (D) has proposed a bill calling for certain property tax reductions for people building or renovating affordable housing facilities, in order to encourage the development of low-income housing options.

The 2020 Florida Legislative Session began on January 14 and will end on March 13.
How To Make A Blockchain With Komodo’s Antara Composer
By: Komodo Platform
Tags: Blockchain, Antara Framework, Antara Composer, Baas

There are many different reasons why you may want to learn how to make a blockchain- you may be building a fintech application, creating a supply chain management solution, making tokenized digital assets, exploring blockchain gaming, or leveraging blockchain for secure records management. Whatever your target use case is, you’ll need to learn how to make a blockchain before developing the perfect solution.

Broadly speaking, there are 4 ways to adopt blockchain technology: you can code a new blockchain protocol from scratch, fork an existing blockchain’s source code, submit code to a single-chain smart contract platform, or you can make a blockchain on a multi-chain platform.

Of course, all of these methods come with their relative merits and drawbacks, but the last option stands out as the superior choice. Launching a sovereign, application-specific blockchain combines the independence of creating a new protocol or forking an existing chain’s source code with the security and programmability of building on a single-chain smart contract platform.

Enter the Antara Composer, a web application that lets you customize and launch a Smart Chain in just minutes. It also lets you add all the extra features and white label products you need to go-to-market quickly.

Komodo is an , Komodo’s third-generation AWS Advanced Technology Partner so can add full seed nodes and mining nodes through AWS cloud services. You can choose to protect your Smart Chain with the power of the Bitcoin hash rate with delayed Proof of Work security . Lastly, you can choose to have your coin listed on AtomicDEX decentralized exchange application.

While the Antara Composer is still in a beta phase, it’s fully functional and can help you launch your production-ready Smart Chain today. This article will explain how to make a blockchain with Komodo’s Antara Composer.

How To Make A Blockchain

Before designing your Smart Chain, you’ll need to create an account and sign in to the Antara Composer . This will only take a minute and will help keep your Smart Chain project secure. After that, it’s time to begin making your Smart Chain. Check out this video tutorial to watch how to make a blockchain with Komodo’s Antara Composer in real time.

In case you need a little bit more information, this post will break down the blockchain building process, step-by-step, and provide additional details that aren’t covered in the video tutorial. Let’s dive right in.
Biz Stone (Co-Founder of Twitter, Medium, and Jelly) Joins Gems as an Advisor
By: Rory O'Reilly
Tags: Biz Stone, Ethereum, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Blockchain

Biz Stone has truly had a hand molding the way the internet works. With Inc. magazine naming him Entrepreneur of the Decade and Time listing him as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World, you don’t just have to take my word for it.

As the co-founder of Twitter, Biz gave the world the power to connect and share ideas — ultimately creating the heartbeat of modern news. As the co-founder of Medium, Biz made it simple to share your ideas and stories with the world, and as the co-founder of Jelly, Biz created a new type of search engine, one that had humanity woven into its DNA.

Biz has seen the full life cycle of how a small idea can change the world, and it is with great pleasure that we announce Biz has joined Gems as an advisor.

I’ve been lucky enough to know Biz for the past 3 years. Whether it be creative breakthroughs, introductions, advice, acting as a sounding board, or otherwise, Biz has simply been one of the most impactful people to our projects thus far.

Through each of his companies, Biz has worked towards breaking down barriers for hundreds of millions of people. Having Biz on board, with his creativity, brilliance, and mentorship, will certainly help us as we build a socioeconomic micro task ecosystem that reaches every corner of the globe.

Biz Stone

“Gems’ decentralized approach to work, by using crypto and blockchain, amplifies humanity. This is an incredibly bright idea and I can’t think of two brighter or more principled people than Rory and Kieran to take on this task with just the right combination of humility, intellect, and craftsmanship“— Biz Stone on Gems

I couldn’t be more excited to be working with Biz again on Gems.

Excited about Gems yet? Come join us:

Thank you to Sol Kim who helped edit this piece, and to ChessMaster (A Gems Community Member) and Kieran O’Reilly who added their input.
10 Life and Business Lessons from Jeff Bezos’ Opening Statement to Congress
By: Steve Glaveski
Tags: Life Lessons, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Business, Leadership

The chief executives of the world’s four biggest tech firms appeared before Congress this week.

Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, was there to defend against Antitrust allegations that Amazon has been undercutting competitors by pricing products at a loss that only it can sustain, thus shutting out competitors in the long-term.

Bezos’ annual shareholder letters have been referenced by entrepreneurs worldwide to inform strategy, decision-making, and inspire their organizations to great heights, and weather the storm that inevitably comes with any difficult pursuit.

And like his eloquent and thought-provoking shareholder letters, Bezos’ opening statement to the US House Committee on the Judiciary, was equally compelling, drawing from his experiences growing up, to his relationship with his parents and grandfather, to overcoming the countless critics and insurmountable odds with Amazon.

Like his shareholder letters, his statement is full of actionable golden nuggets that can serve us both in life and in business.

Here are some that stood out to me.
Why Every Experienced Photographer Should Try Shooting on Film
By: Paulo Makalinao
Tags: Creativity, Cameras, Analog Photography, Art, Photography

Learning to Expose Yourself

A common thing you’ll probably hear when buying a film camera is that the light meter doesn’t work. Either that or you need some obscure battery to get the light meter to work that you probably won’t find. In any case, film teaches you to learn to set the exposure yourself. You learn to make the call instead of relying on your camera to do it for you, and so you have to learn rules like Sunny 16. You have to really pay attention to the light around you and decide, usually, what aperture or shutter speed is applicable for this type of situation.

“It’s incredibly sunny out; that’s f/16. It’s pretty cloudy; that’s f/5.6. Here are some shadows; f/2.8.”

Of course, I started off using a light meter in film. But eventually, I found myself putting down an external light meter every so often because I more or less trusted myself to know how to expose an image. And sometimes, I didn’t have the time to bust out a light meter, so I really had to trust myself. And you’ll be surprised how this translates over into digital. By learning to judge my exposure myself shooting on film, I’ve found that I can do the same on digital, meaning that even professionally, I spend less time relying on the exposure meter and more time relying on myself.
The tree
Tags: Poetry, Love, Thoughts

shutterstock.com

Remember when we used to spend time in a certain spot we called ‘ours’ , We talked about all things that matter to us.

Do you remember that tree just above us? It has seen a lot, two people who also stayed for a while and never came back.
The Beauty of Data Visualisation
By: Roy Klaasse Bos
Tags: Data Visualization, Careers, Data Science

Design matters

Back in 2012 Nadieh, a graduate student at Leiden University at the time attended Deloitte’s Business Course where she discovered that although strategy consulting may not be for her, the analytics team within the Business Intelligence department could be a great match. As such, she applied for a position and eventually received a job offer. Being a layman in the field turned out to be helpful she explains: “At the start of each case I was far from a subject-matter expert. Therefore, it was quite easy to take a step back and remind myself of how I would have explained it to a younger me.” By doing this she learned about the importance of design: “People trust things that look good. Once our slides were well-designed the client presentations usually went smoother.”

Chord diagram: Switching between mobile phone brands (Deloitte Global Mobile Consumer Survey)

Although aesthetics has always had her utmost attention, Nadieh only later found out there’s actually such a thing as a data visualizer. At a Strata conference in 2013, she was introduced to the principles of the JavaScript library D3 which turned out to be an important turning point in her career. “I fell in love with all the possibilities. For example, I saw these amazing interactive charts on the New York Times website and thought: hopefully I’ll be the one creating them someday.” However, she still needed to acquire the necessary skillset, so she started reading books about design and playing around with D3 in her spare time. Initially, she could barely put her newly acquired knowledge to use at Deloitte, though slowly but surely this changed as she became more proficient in the programming language: “Over time I became more and more efficient so that I could eventually use the tools in my everyday work for clients.”

From then on she increasingly specialized in dataviz and even changed career tracks to Adyen as a full-time data visualisation designer in 2015. After a year of primarily (re)creating dashboards, she eventually decided to continue as a freelancer because of the freedom and variety of projects.
Some of my essays:
Tags: Writers Archive, Creative Writing, Prose, Memoir, Creative Non Fiction

Some of my essays:

An archive of prose type stuff I’ve written…:

These are on a variety of subjects, but, mostly they are small memoirs that tell stories either just about me, or about lessons I’ve learned over the years about finding your center, remembering who you really are, and not losing yourself on the roller coaster that is life. I hope someone finds something in any of my stories that lets them know they are not alone. I’m sure I’ll be adding to this as time passes, but, for right now… here ya go…