fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
No, I Will Not Remove The Word “Dick” From My Family Film “Dog Dicks”
By: Dr. Bill Bradley
Tags: Pets, Comedy, Film, Books, Humor

Photo courtesy of the author

My Dearest Motion Picture Association,

Thank you for the suggestion to re-name my studio’s film “Dog Detectives” in order to receive a G-rating. However, I insist that it remain titled “Dog Dicks.”

This picture is adapted from an adorable 1930s children’s book about a ragtag family of stray dogs who solve mysteries. Back then, “dick” was just slang for “detective.” I assure you, words that were innocent before will be innocent again. “Dick,” “hammer,” “shaft”… sure, they all mean penis today. But what about Dick Tracy, Mike Hammer, or John Shaft? Those aren’t penises, they’re famous detectives. I’m bringing “dick” back, and with your help, Dog Dicks will rise again.

I own the rights to the entire series, so I plan on making sequels starring Spotty, Minnie, Slobber, and Chomper, the beloved Dog Dicks. An uplifting cinematic universe, all with the original titles:

“Dog Dicks Get Licked”: the Dicks don’t solve their toughest case. It’s a cliffhanger!

“Dog Dicks Come Hard”: the Dicks put everything into finally solving the mystery. It’s triumphant!

“Dog Dicks Slide Down Smooth”: the Dicks investigate a water park. That book won a Newbury medal!

But, I cannot produce sequels until we resolve “Dog Dicks.” While I understand that you must consider the optics of “dicks,” this adaptation is clearly wholesome entertainment. In fact, the source material inspired the canine sleuths children know and love today, from Scooby-Doo to McGruff. If those dog dicks are acceptable, why not mine?

Please don’t slap an R-rating on a film which must be seen by every family. Let me tell you a story to illustrate why this means so very much.

It’s about a lonely orphan boy, whose only friends resided in the pages of books. In his local library, he discovered a section filled with Dog Dicks. He was only happy when he had Dog Dicks in his hands. They made him clever, resourceful, and upstanding because nobody stands up like a Dick. Why, acting like a Dick made him a billionaire.

Because that orphan boy… was me.

Please help me share those values with the general public. All my considerable resources have been put into this picture, because all my dreams are of Dog Dicks.

Fond regards,

Antoine Robb

Robb Studios

Los Angeles, CA

P.S. I will also not remove the dog penises from my film. Those are animal actors in their natural state. What would you have me do, put pants on my Dicks?
Time and Memory
By: Paul Mulliner
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Self, Dreams, Poetry, Life

The music’s playing low, a tune from long ago,

as time just drifts away, through the final moments

of the day.

There’s a warm and lazy breeze, and while the music lingers on,

the singer sings a song, and memories flow,

sweet and slow.

The trees move gently in the humid air

as images drift by, a life that might have been

and never was, and now could never be.

Choices cast our life into a certain path

leaving other lives unknown,

unlived.

Doors we never opened, into a life

never experienced.

Images evolve and shift, they slide

and glide and slip away.

Moments pass by too soon,

leaving only half-forgotten memories

like the echoes of a dream.

The music’s playing low, a tune from long ago,

as time drifts slowly through

the final moments

of the day.
Damian Arrillaga’s ROBOT story
By: Blog Moove-It
Tags: Sumo Contest, Sumo Fight, Artificial Intelligent, Robotics, Programming Contest

Writing about these things makes my day.

Today: Damian Arrillaga’s ROBOT story.

Damian is a very young and clever System Engineering student from the State University of Uruguay; he is also an important member of our team. He is simply brilliant. I have no other words to describe him.

His interest in Robotics started in 2009 when he and his friends heard about a contest in which everyone has to program a Robot which would have to compete one-on-one against another Robot. This is called “Sumo.UY” (Sumo Fight Contest).

Once Damian found out about these Robot’s contests, he couldn’t help but falling in love with them. This is why he has decided to study System Engineering (aka Computer Science) and to major in Robotics.

In 2009, he and his friends Ismael, Nacho, Marcos and Anael decided to take part in the annual Sumo Fight Contest. After long hours of programming and hard work, they enrolled in the competition and won the contest. It was a fantastic experience for the whole team.

Last year, they did it again. Won again.

This year they decided to take this contest to the next level. They built a Robot from scratch, using tape, paper, mouse pads’ pieces and basically anything they came across.

“CachaBot” the Robot. Look at these pictures:

And they got the 4th place! For some reason “CachaBot” consumed more energy than they had expected. The funniest part was when Damian had to run away in the middle of the competition in order to buy new batteries for their robot … so it would not get rid of energy to finish the fight.

They didn’t win this time, but it was definitely worth it. It was a wonderful experience. A new challenge, though an old passion…
My Fat
By: Debbie Walker
Tags: Poetry Sunday, Relationships, Self, Beauty, Poetry

My fat.

It is an insulator from pain.

My fat.

It perpetuates my pain.

My fat.

It has become my identity.

I have a love/hate relationship with my fat.

In the mirror, I hate the way it looks.

But I love the way my fat makes me feel.

Strong.

Powerful.

Intimidating.

People move outta my way.

Muggers worry about me.

I look in the mirror again.

Defeat.

Shame.

Gluttony.

I caress my fat.

I stroke the immensity of my upper arms.

I gaze at the lumps and bumps of stretched skin that covers a mountain of jiggly jello.

My fat is useful.

It becomes a third hand.

I put a pen, or comb, or small object in between the fold of my stomach and upper thigh.

The thing sits securely until I retrieve it.

I reflect on the impact of my fat.

If I peel away the layers of insulation, I wonder what lies beneath?

Here is my 4-Step Action Plan to create a vision for your life.

Debbie Walker is a great-grandmother, blogger, and writer with a BA in Psychology. Her vision is to help others live the life they aspire to live…one word at a time. Stay in touch with her at middlepause51@gmail.com
The Fiercest Tug of Tide
By: Elle Rogers
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Nature, Love, Redemption, Poetry

I will not leave you

to this rolling sea

of scrolling words

that dip

and pierce

your soul

with their

important truth.

I will dive deeper

than the fiercest

tug of tide

and pluck you

from even

the ocean’s

vast divide.
Tessellations: A Curated Lesson of Free Resources
By: Marla Szwast
Tags: Homeschooling, Mathematics, Learning, Education, Art

Tessellations: A Curated Lesson of Free Resources

An easy way to explore the fun side of math with your kids.

Image by author, tesselation credit: OpenClipart-Vectors 27424 Source: Pixabay

This blog post is designed as a lesson, you can follow the links and use them directly with your kids to teach about tessellations. I placed the article links at the top because I did not find any video’s that adequately covered what a tessellation is, so make sure you start at the top. I read through articles, watched videos, and made sure links to printables worked before choosing the best of what I could find to share with you. I have also tried to limit resources to a reasonable number. (Nothing bothers me more giant lists that need intense whittling down before entering the realm of usefulness.)

Read About Tessellations

Math Salamander Tessellations

Cool Math Tessellations

Some of the explanation in the following link is a repeat of what was covered in the previous two links, however, there is a link at the bottom, Tessellation Artist, that takes you to a free program where your student can draw their own freehand tessellations. You can skip to the second link if your child understands the concepts and just wants to explore the drawing program.

Math is Fun Tessellation

Tessellation Artist

Look at Tessellations

You can click on any of these animal pictures to pull up a graphic of the image in a tessellation.

Animal Tessellation Art

Biography of M.C. Escher, an artist who was fascinated with tessellations.

The Mathematical Art of M.C. Escher

Print, Color, & Draw Tessellations

Super Teacher Worksheets Tessellations

Chose a Coloring Page

Draw a Tessellation on Tracing Paper

A video lesson for drawing a chameleon tessellation

A video for drawing a tessellation (requires basic drawing skills, although the concept could be used with younger kids to make geometric tessellations):

Draw a Chameleon Tessellation

Print your own tessellations, (for serious artists)

If you have an art student you may want to watch this video, it is an interesting way you can make print tessellations. It does require some specific supplies but is fascinating to watch even if you decide not to do the project. It will cost about $45.00 to get started, but if you have a budding artist who wants to try it, most of these supplies can be reused. (Supplies she mentions are linked below for your convenience. No affiliate links.)

Print Tessellation Art

If you found this helpful and would like to see more curated lessons, please leave a comment and let me know.
15. 3Sum
Tags: Algorithms, Leetcode

The basic idea is to reduce the problem to 2Sum which we’ve already solved. The reduction leads to an O(n) * O(n) algorithm. Since the final complexity is O(n²) we can afford an extra sort to get rid of the hash table.

Still, think of the input:

Will the array be empty or less than three elements?

Is the array sorted?

Are the elements of the array unique?

Since the output must not contain duplicates, we have to carefully arrange our triplets.
Cultivating a Growth Mindset in User Experience Design
By: Eva Schicker
Tags: Ux Writing, UX Research, New York, UX Design, UX

Macroscopic surroundings, on the other hand, linked by context, reveal the opposite–trees grouped together to form a complex system, a forest, that can be viewed in its entirety only from a distance.

UX design spans both of these worlds, and everything in between

While we might view the microscopic aspect as the research environment where insights are discovered, and the macroscopic aspect as the design environment where solutions emerge, the same is true vice versa. Each environment is dependent on the other. They do not exist individually.

We start to understand that evolutions are brought about by collective behaviors carried out individually by human interactions.

When we look at a tree in terms of its life years, we might be looking at many more years than a human life. This represents the UX growth mindset as well, basically the condition that we are not identifying finite solutions, rather, we are looking to adapt to ever changing parameters, even the ones that we are not be able to capture yet.

A UX growth mindset keeps us organically linked to change

When we conduct UX research, we become the advocates for users. We want the users to tell us their experience with the product freely and without constraint. To achieve this symbiotic state of mind, we encourage users to relate their stories back to us so that we can emphatically embrace their problems. It is the UX designer’s challenge to then arrive at solutions that answer these pain points.
WHY THE HYDRANGEA ABOVE DIDN’T LOAD
Tags: Questions, Games, Crowdini, Steemit, Steem

About 10:04 am eastern yesterday I realized the picture wasn’t loading. The image was the same as yesterday’s email.

I thought maybe it was the URL that was not allowing it to load. I have seen this happen when using an image from some websites. So I downloaded it locally, uploaded it to imgur and then changed the image URL. Only it didn’t load.

By that time it was about 10:08 am and we had already had a nice number of votes. Because of this I decided not to fix it. I left the image broken for everyone who voted on purpose from that point forward so the vote was fair.

The issue was the “ I used. Evidently on the iPad virtual keyboard a “ is different than a “ on my computer’s keyboard. So dumb.

I fixed it just after the question closed this morning just for posterity.

Reminder new game starts tomorrow and it will be tournament style.

All the best,

Jason
Compartiendo experiencias digitales
By: Victor Tisnado
Tags: Social Media Marketing, Newspapers, Advertising, Storytelling, Digital Marketing

in Both Sides of the Table
Multi-Currency Light Wallet Design Preview
By: Stakenet Team
Tags: Xsn News, Bitcoin, Lightning Network, Decentralization, Stakenet

Design preview images of the stand-alone lightweight Lightning Network client & Decentralized Exchange powered by our native token XSN to be released in 2019.

To stay updated with all our latest news and announcements, including information on the Multi-Currency Light Wallet, please join us on Discord and follow us on Twitter.
USF Data Institute Launches Center for Applied Data Ethics
By: Mindi Mysliwiec
Tags: Tech, Data Science, News, Ethics

The Data Institute at the University of San Francisco launched the new Center for Applied Data Ethics (CADE) hosting the inaugural Data Ethics Seminar on Monday, August 19. Funded by a generous gift from Craig Newmark Philanthropies, the organization of craigslist founder Craig Newmark, the Center will address issues surrounding the misuse of data through education, research, public policy and civil advocacy.

(L to R) David Uminsky, Deborah Raji, Rachel Thomas, Craig Newmark

Rachel Thomas, Director of CADE, introduced Newmark, explaining to the crowd the primary areas of study the Center will focus on now. “We’re alarmed about misuses of data, particularly in three areas,” Thomas explained. “Racial and gender biases are coded and amplified in algorithms, surveillance and bad actors amplifying and incentivizing the spread of disinformation. Here at the Center, we’re working on these problems and creating positive solutions.”

The first year of curriculum will include a tech policy workshop, the data ethics seminar series and a data ethics certificate course, all of which will be open to the community at-large. Newmark discussed the need to address how to move forward ethically.

“I’ve been doing this a long time…we hadn’t considered the consequences,” Newmark said. “Tech decisions do affect people’s lives, and we have an increasing responsibility to consider the consequences of our work. I look at it as a way to remind people to treat people like you want to be treated. It’s incumbent on all of us to do something to address these ethical consequences.”

A research fellow at the Partnership on AI and an incoming tech fellow at the AI Now Institute, presenting speaker Deborah Raji shared her thoughts on “Actionable Auditing and Algorithmic Justice.” She highlighted the study Gender Shades, identifying classification bias issues in technology.

Deborah Raji delivering the Inaugural CADE Data Ethics Seminar.

“Facial recognition has been making its way into every corner of life. There is an urgency to AI ethics and accountability work, because real people are being affected and we know that because they are suing and fighting back,” Raji explained before she illustrated the shortcomings in the accuracy of such technologies. “If you’re an engineer and you built a model with 68% accuracy, you’d be fired.”

Raji pointed out the importance of “paying attention to missing voices,” because the people affected are not part of the creation of or discussions around this technology.

“Ignorance is bliss, but it is irresponsible.”
Is Anal More Intimate Than ‘Regular’ Sex?
By: Ena Dahl
Tags: Health, Psychology, Self, Advice, Sexuality

For someone who really enjoys anal sex, I’ve hardly written about it. The truth is, when it’s right, it happens to be one of my favorite sex acts, but, akin to a gourmet meal, it’s not one I indulge in every time I work up an appetite. Not only would that cause it to lose its appeal, but, that good stuff requires both extensive preparation, as well as the right company to enjoy it with. And if not done well, the whole thing could turn into an utter disaster!

Sex, in general, is as physically intimate as you can get with another person, and, to me, anal sex is the most intimate of all. While our bumholes have been given all sorts of disgraceful nicknames and euphemisms, the only one I’d use from this linked list is mystery-zone: “Behold the inner sanctum. Only those deemed worthy may enter.”

I know, I may sound like I’m joking, but I’m not. Anal sex is near sacred to me. Let me try to explain why…

The anus and rectum are incredibly sensitive

First, with one of the densest concentrations of nerve endings, the external anal sphincter is one of the most sensitive parts of the human body. You, therefore, don’t even have to go inside to experience a lot of pleasure. Internal stimuli can be incredibly delightful when you’re able to relax and open; then you may enjoy the wonderful feeling of fullness. Rousing the prostate, for those who have one, or reaching the internal part of the clitoris can provide added layers of pleasure.

If I’m not relaxed and open, on the other hand, anal sex can simply be excruciatingly painful.
How a Shrill Yellow Whistle Keeps Me Sane During the Pandemic
By: Maria Milojković
Tags: Coronavirus, Culture, Lifestyle, Self, Society

With a pandemic, things change without warning. Suddenly the curve soared. I went from margarine tub ships to trying to remember the person who’d take care of our children if we got sick. In Serbia, you don’t get the option of a home quarantine. Even with a milder case of COVID-19, you get put into a military bed in a fair hall. It looks like a Soviet gulag.

Day after day we watch the news about the virus keep changing. We learn it can live up to 3 days on plastic; but on that Japanese ship, they found it after 17 days.

We hear you need a mask; but you can only wear it for two hours.

The WHO says healthy people don’t need to wear masks; but the Serbian government stipulates that you must.

We’re reassured when German researchers find out you don’t have to wash the groceries. But we hear the next day that scientists in Finland discover coronavirus can cross 2 aisles and stay up to 6 minutes in the air when someone sneezes.

At the start, we’re even confident the symptoms are evident — shortness of breath, cough, and high temperature. And some people never really develop serious symptoms. But it can be diarrhea and vomiting as well. And it can attack the brain.

You can’t rationalize the virus because the scientific conclusions constantly change. You still don’t know what makes you safe when you leave your apartment.

So, you end up doing everything. You clean like crazy. When you come back home, you throw away the mask and the gloves. You wash the shoe soles and the corridor with chlorine. You take off your clothes and wash your hands. You wipe your mobile with hydrogen peroxide. And you gargle with it. Then you try to remember every knob and switch you touched and disinfect it.

Wait — you touched your face a few times while you were out, so you go back to wash it with soap. Then you wash your hands again.

You feel for your Grandma who used to wash eggs before putting them into the fridge. Although you recognize your actions are ridiculous, your fear is stronger than your reason.

You remember the quote from The Island (the Sci-Fi movie with Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson):

“We’ve been contaminated.”
Is Numerical Analysis useful to improve state-of-the-art Deep Learning architectures?
Tags: Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Inside Ai, Data Science, Numerical Analysis

AI Paris-based start-up, We are sharing our vision of AI, scientific research and the every day life of company builders that we are.

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World Aids Day: The ‘blue box’ clinic bringing hope in Mozambique
By: World Food Programme
Tags: Africa, Sexual Health, Hunger, Mozambique, AIDS

HIV prevalence among long-distance truck drivers here is 15.4 percent — the national figure is 12.6 percent. This is due to connected factors such as the absence of appropriate accommodation and resting time, limited access to safe health services at key points along routes, as well as unprotected sex.

Tonderai is a truck driver from Zimbabwe who has been working along the Corridor since 2003. As assistant secretary-general of Zimbabwe’s Truck Driver Union, he explains that truck drivers have little time to stop on journeys. So mobile clinics like the blue box that are easily accessible provide fast services — an HIV test takes less than ten minutes.

Mary is a sex worker living in the community of Inchope, near the blue box, where she moved to from Zimbabwe with her son.

She learned about the clinic from Adelaide and goes regularly. Adelaide frequently visits and calls Mary and other female sex workers in the community to check in on them and to remind them to get tested for STIs. Mary likes the dialogue groups targeted at female sex workers offered at the blue box.

At one of these, she learned she could be tested for HIV free of charge; now she goes every three months. Thanks to the intensive focus of the blue box around HIV prevention, Mary has access to condoms and has been taking Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), an HIV prevention medication, since it opened.

“I used to go the hospital in Zimbabwe to get tested, but there I never heard about PrEP, here at the blue box I did,” she says. “It is thanks to PrEP medication that me and other female sex workers here we feel more protected from getting HIV. The blue box helps.”

Mary’s story testifies to the cross-country impact of this intervention, which is crucial due to the mobile nature of the target groups accessing the clinic.

A medic prepares to administer an HIV test at the blue box clinic. Photo: WFP/Rafael Campos

After only four months of implementation and despite the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic poses mobility, the number of people visiting the blue box has exceeded expectations.

This is thanks to additional awareness-raising efforts by lay counsellors, such as Adelaide, who play a key role in encouraging key target groups — truck drivers, female sex workers and adolescent girls — to access its services.
Here’s How I’m Learning to Light 3D Environments
By: Leigh Fisher
Tags: Unreal Engine, 3d, Digital Art, Design, Design Process

The idea of trying to learn to use game engine software seemed overwhelming. Most of my colleagues debate Captivate versus Articulate for creating e-learning content; game engines are the last things on their minds.

I’ve been a gamer since I was a child, but I never touched the pipeline of creating 3D graphics or games until just recently. Now that I’m getting my hands dirty with Unreal Engine in my Motion Capture course at NYU, I’m starting to conquer my Unreal demons. (Capitalization optional; my Unreal demons are technically unreal demons — demons that don’t actually exist in the real world — after all.

For the first time, I’ve got a project that I’m actually happy with.

I’ll start with the finished video then break things down into the process. It was a slow one since I’m still getting the hang of Unreal’s basic navigation. I wanted to create a relaxing scene soaked in warm, morning light. I wanted to pan around the environment and highlight its most interesting parts similar to how you might see the camera move around a character’s room at the start of a Pixar movie. I also wanted to make the room look dreamy and welcoming.

Though this might be a little premature, I’m also starting to think about what sort of cinematic project I want to create for the final project of this course. I have a few ideas for stories that I’d love to tell with animation. One of them would take place primarily in the main character’s apartment, so I figured I could start tinkering with environments I might be able to reuse as a small piece of a much larger project.

I couldn’t resist adding a little music to the scene to set the mood. I combined a sound effect track of birds chirping with some soothing, rights-free stock music. I brought the final video rendered out of Unreal Engine into Premier for that bit of post-processing.

Now that you’ve seen the final product, let’s take a look at all the mess it took to get there.

I’m amazed at the difference simple lighting can make in an environment.
The Teachers’ Conundrum
By: Joseph Brown
Tags: Teaching, Poetry, Teachers, Education, Sonnet

A Sonnet for the Teachers, from a Teacher

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash.

Welcome friends, colleagues, educators all,

You teachers who care to enhance your art.

They put out the word and you answered the call,

To inspire the children to make a great start.

We came to teach, empower, and change the world,

Encouraging the future with courage and heart,

And all the modern approaches we’ve packed in our cart,

But sometimes, try as we might, the momentum stalls.

Those wonderful little cherubs don’t follow our lead,

Why don’t they see the genius and magic we provide?

They talk too much, they game, lie, cheat and hide,

Where are the fruits? I thought I was planting the seed.

That’s teaching I guess, a thankless profession,

Or maybe that’s me, a frustrated teacher’s confession.
‘Music & More’ coming to Kiddie Academy Warminster
By: Samantha Bambino
Tags: Music, Children, Learning, Education, Dance

The child care center invites local families to participate in age-appropriate dance, art and music activities on April 6

The Times

Kiddie Academy Educational Child Care invites local families to participate in age-appropriate dance, art and music activities at an indoor “Music & More” event. Activities are based on its “Music & More” curriculum, created in partnership with Kindermusik International, the world’s leading provider of music-based education for children ages birth through 7.

The curriculum aims to help children develop language skills, and learn about nature, colors and different cultures through song. Research shows that music makes children better learners, and “Music & More” lessons build on their natural love of music, stories, movement, and pretend play. Music and movement instruction improves children’s memory, cognitive development, learning skills and expressive ability.

Register online at kiddieacademy.com/events/music/.

Kiddie Academy of Feasterville, 105 Philmont Ave., Feasterville, will host this event on Saturday, April 6 at 10 a.m. For more information, contact Jane Mahle at 215–494–9415 or feasterville@kiddieacademy.net.

Kiddie Academy of Warminster, 260 Veteran’s Way, Warminster, will host it at the same time. For more information, contact Chris Roehl at 215–443–5988 or warminster@kiddieacademy.net.
Managing Your State Navigation Data is a Breeze Using Angular and Akita
By: Inbal Sinai
Tags: Akita, Angular, JavaScript

The Akita ng-router-store is a neat package offered to Akita users, which enables binding the Angular router state to an Akita store. The benefits of this approach are:

The router state is stored in an Akita store named router , which serves as the single source of truth for things such as URL, state data parameters, query parameters, etc.

, which serves as the single source of truth for things such as URL, state data parameters, query parameters, etc. Our components don’t have to be familiar with the data source. The RouterQuery can be injected in any one of the queries to create an encapsulated derived selector.

can be injected in any one of the queries to create an encapsulated derived selector. The library exposes Akita style queries, saving you from dealing with all the required boilerplate code.

We can examine the current router state in the Redux devtools and perform ‘time-traveling’.

To get started, install the package and add it, as well as Akita’s devtools module, to the app module:

At this point you should see the router store in the Redux devtools, and you have at your disposal the following query API:

For example, let’s say we want to query the current entity based on the URL id parameter, we can do the following in our ArticlesQuery class:

And use it in our component:

Voila — easy breezy navigation management!

Last but not least: A new version of Akita just landed in Github! You can check out the breaking changes and the new features here.
Cruising In the Time of Coronavirus
By: Matthew Woodall
Tags: Travel, Health, Family, Experience, Life

When news started to emerge in December of a previously unseen type of pneumonia that was affecting people in China, I sat up and took notice. As a Risk and Emergency Management Consultant, a big part of my job is to look ahead and see what is coming down the pipeline. If I can give my clients advanced notice of something that might become a problem, then I’ve done my job.

China has long been identified as one of the most likely sources of a new or emerging virus that could sweep across the world. That being said, my money was on a bird flu, not another coronavirus.

I’d lived in Toronto during SARS in 2003 and had seen what could happen with a new virus. At the time, I was working at Canada’s Wonderland — an amusement park north of Toronto in the city of Vaughan. I had seen what happens to tourism during a major outbreak, it doesn’t just drop — it plummets straight off a cliff.

So, when the people diagnosed with this new pneumonia were cleared of SARS and Influenza, I figured that we were in for a bit of a rough ride.

Oh…and that it would really start to ramp up in 6–8 weeks, just about the time I was scheduled to board a cruise ship for a week with my family.
Poem: Letter To My Protégé
By: Chika Ebuzor
Tags: Leadership Development, Self Development, Management And Leadership, Poetry, Mentoring

Image Credit: QuickBase

Dear Protégé,

When we began this journey, and I held your hands and urged you on, I knew it felt hard, but you needed the push, so you can sojourn on your own when the time comes.

I urged you on, because I saw the future, I saw a vision of a better plain. It burned in my heart.

I tried to paint the picture, because words failed me to describe the beauty of the future we belong, so I decided to take you along.

Along to this place that burns in my heart with a heat so intense, hoping that you will catch the fire and fan the flames within you.

The flame consumes self and produces a zeal for service. It burns pride to ashes.

Yes! I see the frown on your face, and sometimes, the confusing silent questions in your heart. I know you wonder if I ever feel fear or if I ever get tired. Yes, I do.

I nurse my wounds in the silence of the dark and fight the demons of fear that want to throw me out of this path of destiny when the curtains are down and the lights fade, but a leader does not infect his followers with his fear.

I know that you get scared and weary sometimes, that is why I slow down to hold your hands and reassure you of the power that lies in you.

Always remember the picture of the beautiful future. Only the daring reach there.

This journey is not for me alone, though I can, but I will not, because I gain nothing If I go on my own. My joy and gain is complete when we win together.

We will stride through the odds, and though we might disagree sometimes, know that my desire is always to help you grow and bring out the best in you.

I will always look out for your good.

Best Regards,

Your Mentor.
Seventh Grade Hell
By: Kim Mckinney
Tags: Relationships, Microfiction, The Bad Influence, 50 Words, Youth

Thanks to Marla Bishop and The Bad Influence for another excellent microfiction prompt. Read about it here. You still have time to join the party!

Here are a few more responses I recommend.

Melissa Speed

Stephen Dalton

Melissa Bee
Release notes Feb. 2018. The first post in a series of articles…
By: Martin Flucka
Tags: Music, Release Notes, Development, Changelog, Features

The purpose of this series of posts is to highlight newly deployed features. It will be the users’ primary source of information about the evolution of our platform. In addition to changes to the user interface we will also provide updates on important bug fixes. It is important that all our users, whether they are an artist, venue, or fan, are kept up to date with any improvements and changes we have made. Each new post might include one of the following sections.

The Frontend section will include changes to the main page. These changes will affect all users and will therefore be at the top of each feature log. In the Dashboard section we will talk about changes to the artist dashboard. From time to time we will also have Other notable things that we want to tell you.
Take Me Away
By: Marta Mozolewska
Tags: Sea, Lit Up, Cinquain, Challenge, Poetry

Take me,

take me away

to a place where the sun

lights up every dark corner of

my heart.

A place

where the wind blows

to chase deftly away

all my doubts, dreads and worries off

my mind.

A place

where soft sand sends

its kind warmth from my toes

to every cold body cell and

my soul.

A place

where the sea flows

to grace me amply with

its precious might by entering

my blood.

Surely

that’s exactly

the place I’ve been missing

all my life, so take me, take me

away.
Making a Side Project, Part 3: Minimum Usable Product
By: Mubashar Iqbal
Tags: MVP, Software Development, Startup, Side Project, Product Hunt

What is a Minimum Usable Product

A Minimum Usable Product (MUP) is the minimum features that we need to build so that a user can use the product for the purpose it was intended. No nice to have features, just the minimum required. Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is another popular term for this, but I don’t think that accurately describes what we’re trying to do.

For each release of the product, the user is able to use it to achieve the goals of the project.

I’ve often left out things like the “Forgot Password” feature until after launch. The chance that a user will forget their password the day they create the account, well it happens, but not very likely. Typically that is the only feature in the MUP that needs to be able to send emails, so not only do you save time by not having to build the feature, but you also save time by not having to signup for and setup an email delivery service.

Features like this usually get added pretty quickly after launch, don’t let that stop you launching though.

On one project, I waited until someone emailed that they forgot their password, then I sat down, built and deployed the feature and emailed the user back with a link an hour later.

It takes a lot of discipline to define the MUP and then stick to it, you’ll get sucked into the “oh I really need this one more feature” before I launch. You don’t, trust your gut when you started the process.
Manjaro #4: Nvidia graphic drivers
Tags: Manjaro, Arch Linux, Linux, Nvidia

Notes on optimizing the video drivers of my Asus Intel with Nvidia graphic card using the Optimus technology. The following guidelines matches this specific setup.

Manjaro by default installs the Nouveau open source drivers for my graphic card, leaving the GPU unused. The first step is to install the Nvidia proprietary drivers, using the Manjaro hardware utility tool ( mhwd ).

Installation

First, some requirements:

> sudo pacman -S xorg-xdpyinfo xorg-xrandr dmidecode hddtemp

Then, use the Manjaro Settings Manager to install / remove / reinstall the non-free: drivers video-hybrid-intel-nvidia-bumblebee

If anything goes wrong when testing your install (GPU drivers not loaded, not running etc.) the first step is to reboot and reinstall the drivers.

Bumblebee service status

In order to use Bumblebee, it is necessary to add your regular user to the bumblebee group:

# gpasswd -a user bumblebee

Check the Bumblebee service status:

> sudo systemctl status bumblebeed.service

Restart the service:

> sudo systemctl restart bumblebeed.service

Testing

How to test both the CPU and GPU to confirm the installation:

first command for Intel CPU

second command for the GPU, activated through the optirun argument:

> glxgears -info

GL_RENDERER = Mesa DRI Intel(R) Haswell Mobile

GL_VERSION = 3.0 Mesa 19.0.6

GL_VENDOR = Intel Open Source Technology Center > optirun glxgears -info

GL_RENDERER = GeForce GTX 850M/PCIe/SSE2

GL_VERSION = 4.6.0 NVIDIA 430.14

GL_VENDOR = NVIDIA Corporation

Suppress tearing

This method works for an Intel / Nvidia dual GPU with latest no-free drivers. Add the lines in bold to 2 config files:

Intel config file:

> sudo gedit /etc/X11/mhwd.d/intel.conf [...]

Section "Device"

Identifier "Device0"

Driver "intel"

BusID "PCI:0:2:0"

Option "AccelMethod" "sna"

Option "DRI" "true"

Option "TearFree" "true"

EndSection

[...]

Create this file:

> sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf



Section "Device"

Identifier "Intel Graphics"

Driver "intel"

Option "TearFree" "true"

EndSection

Nvidia config file:

> sudo gedit /etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia [...]

Section "Device"

Identifier "Device1"

Driver "nvidia"

VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"

Option "NoLogo" "true"

Option "UseEDID" "false"

Option "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP"

Option "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0 { ForceFullCompositionPipeline = On }"

Option "AccelMethod" "uxa"

EndSection

[...]

Reboot.
Compensation for platform opening issue
By: Apis Team
Tags: Kor, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Notice, Finance

APISplatform

Official publication for APIS, the world-first masternode…
Right Mistakes
By: Jack Burt
Tags: Satire, Philosophy, Poetry, Education, Life

Photo by Author

I was wasted on solving gypsy equations,

So I finished first, a lifetime early.

And when I shot up to hand in my exam,

No one was double checking their answers yet,

Most plowing through multiple choice fates, hopeful for

Open ended futures with carpal-tunnel-ed fingers.

I’ll never forget the professor’s silent pulling smile,

His professional nod as I sauced over the binder of dead ideas.

Not actively pushing down on me, no contempt spilling over,

But more like a smile through a piece of pipe, those green sterile gums,

His tongue hidden somewhere back in the gullet,

It said: good luck, and take your time.
Rearview Mirror 2015
Tags: Thinking Aloud

It is late. 2016 has started. I am starting to write a rearview post right now. This is a question on punctuality and priorities. I have messed up in both. Towards the very end of last year, kind folks at WordPress sent me the statistics of my blog. I realised, that this blog does not have a lot of readership. Why? I wish I could have a direct answer to that question. But I don’t. If I am held at a gunpoint, I can, at least, think of two reasons. My mediocre writing style and the way I approach a post. My posts are not well intended for a specific audience. Those are mostly expressions of experiences. Those are for me.

Since I have narrowed it down to this, I must think of ways to improve upon. Clearly I see two things I must do. Read and write often to keep improving, and write for me. Not for an audience. Going by the Karmanyevadhikaraste teaching… Wait. This is digression this post can’t handle. So at least about writing, these are the resolutions, let me look back at the year now.

Lack of punctuality and laziness plagued me again. Even after a lot of sincere resolutions. I started lot many things for myself. I started writing regularly, about the content I read online. You can find some of the posts on this blog as well. That eventually stopped. But I started few other things. Regularly writing about movies and music that I enjoy.

This year I consolidated the Information Architecture of this site. Earlier, I had many subdomains for my blog. Each had its own WordPress installation. All that was getting heavy for the blog. So I moved to a single WordPress installation and introduced categorization. After numerous tries, I finalised the theme with a few changes here and there. Overall, it was a learning experience. Google still continues to reject my AdWord applications, hard luck.

This year went pretty fast. I went on a Goa trip in April, and then today I still recall it vividly as it happened yesterday. It was indeed a good one but since I didn’t have any significant other, I keep recalling the same. Some bad, some good.

In June, I attended my first Quora meet up. I was not much regular on Quora before, but that interaction got me interested about the platform. It gave me some really good friends too. Life was really stuck up at a point for long. Those meetups and the people I met refreshed my respect and affection towards life. And Serendipity too.

I completed my first year of MBA. Earned a diploma in management, nothing much worth recording on the career front. I got myself a laptop and a kindle though. Few more pennies spent on materialistic possessions. Albeit, for the experiences indeed.

Overall, the year wasn’t that bad. I had much more hopes from it though. It all boils down to my inaction and laziness. If only I could move my ass and start working. Yeah, I did pay for a gym membership. In this year, I hope I learn to MOVE!
World Water Day 2020: Five Ways USAID Is Helping Thirsty Cities
By: Usaid Water Team
Tags: Resilience, Public Health, Water, Sustainable Development, Economic Development

Our world is becoming more urban, and USAID is helping partner countries adapt to this rapid change. By 2030, 68 percent of the world’s population will be living in cities, with the majority of that growth happening in the developing world. The infrastructure of these cities, peri-urban areas, and market towns is under great strain as their populations grow. Access to safe drinking water in many urban areas is actually declining in response to demographic shifts, while water insecurity is growing, particularly among the urban poor, as city planners struggle to adapt to changing water supply and demand.

With severe water shortages in major cities such as Cape Town, Mexico City, and Chennai recently grabbing headlines, USAID is helping partner cities and towns avoid their own “day zero” scenarios — when taps run dry — and improving sustainable water access for the most needy.

To commemorate World Water Day, here are five ways USAID is helping thirsty cities become more resilient in the face of a growing water crisis:
How to make clear decisions
By: Charles Davies
Tags: Decision Making, Teamwork, Clarity, Ideas

So, back to my trip to York. “Travelling by car” and “travelling by train” are two potential ingredients. And which one is right depends on what I’m trying to do. And it might seem obvious that the answer to what I’m trying to do is ‘get to York’. But the trouble is — that’s not a very specific answer. It’s like saying “I want to make a cake. Do I need carrots or chocolate?” And the answer is “It depends on what cake you want to make.” Because ‘making a cake’ isn’t a very clear idea. And neither is ‘going to York’. And, in each case, my feeling of uncertainty should tell me that I need to get clearer on what I’m trying to do.

And the way I get clearer on what I’m trying to do is not by asking how. And it’s not by trying to make a decision. And it’s not by weighing up pros and cons. To get clearer on what I’m trying to do, I need to focus on what it will look like if everything turns out the way I hope it will. That means forgetting about the how and just letting myself focus on what I actually need.

The clear ideas process is designed to help you focus. You explore your vision — asking yourself what you need and want and demand and love and wish for and dream of. Then you distil that vision down into a sentence and test it — checking if the line you’ve arrived at accurately captures what you need and want and demand and love and wish for and dream of. And, lastly, you refine that line until it is accurate. (You can read more about the clear ideas process here.)

And, what you’ll find, is that by exploring and distilling and testing and refining your idea, you end up with a much richer, more accurate expression of what you need.

So, rather than ‘going to York’ your idea might end up as something like “travel to York in a way that’s relaxing and gives me space and time to relax and see some scenery and have a decent conversation with someone”. And, because that has been brought into focus, the question of whether to go by train or car becomes clearer. Or, more likely, you drop the question of ‘Is it X or Y?’ (because that’s a stupid question). And what you do instead is you start at the other end. And that means, instead of sitting here weighing up theoretical pros and cons, I ask myself something along the lines of:

“In my idea I am travelling to York in a way that’s relaxing and gives me space and time to relax and see some scenery and have a decent conversation with someone. So, in my idea, how do I get there?”

And — when the first part of the idea is clear, almost always, the second part becomes obvious. Like “Oh — I should ask my brother if he’d like to drive and then I can just choose the music, read the map and spend the journey chatting.”

If I’d stuck with my original strategy though, of trying to decide between X or Y, I’d have never found that answer though.
IntoTheBlock Analytics is available in crypto exchange Nominex
By: Alfredo Terrero
Tags: Intotheblock, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency

ITB analytics can be found in Nominex’ trading pages

The young but very ambitious cryptocurrency exchange Nominex is a trading platform for traders from the CIS, Europe, and the Middle East. Nominex hosts regular tournaments for traders in which real money is played. Every day, traders on the spot market can earn additional bonus USDT and NMX tokens by competing for the top prize. The winner is the one with the highest trading volume on any trading pair. For novice traders, the exchange provides a demo version of the tournaments, where users use a virtual deposit for trading and can win real money.

Nominex’ vision is to provide traders with the best tools to feel comfortable with their investment decisions while making trading as comfortable as possible. To that end, Nominex has integrated a new dashboard with IntoTheBlock indicators.

When users navigate to any trading page and click on the “Analytics” tab below the order book chart, they are presented with a dashboard that displays IntoTheBlock’s metrics. This dashboard is divided in two sections: The Token Summary displays, as the name implies, a quick view of a crypto asset showing several of IntoTheBlock’s indicators, which together provide a holistic view of a crypto asset’s behavior. The Actionable Signals section contains momentum signals based on IntoTheBlock’s underlying indicators. For those users interested in more detailed analysis, the “See More Signals” button redirects them to the IntoTheBlock Platform with access to a portfolio of over 60 intelligent signals about crypto assets.

We are excited about this new partnership with Nominex. At IntoTheBlock, we go to great lengths to provide the best user experience for our customers and are proud to collaborate with a company that strives for the same. We look forward to hearing about your experience with Nominex and IntoTheBlock!
Why Now, Why The Women Farmers Accelerator #BitMari
By: I Love Black People Billmari
Tags: Bitmari, Bitcoin, Womenfarmingcoin

BitMari founder Sinclair Skinner speaks about The Zimbabwe Women Farmers Accelerator and the crowdfunding program that we are running for the women’s farmers.
Reading free writing is like eating McDonald’s
By: David Kadavy
Tags: Reading, News, Writing, Media, Technology

I feel like I’m at a distinct advantage. I pay for almost everything I read.

Yes, I read a lot of tweets, and the occasional free news article. But almost all of the reading I do is of Kindle books that I buy.

I read almost no blogs. The quality of free information on the web keeps declining. The only way to do it sustainably is to attract eyeballs and then sell those eyeballs to Pepsi or Gillette or some other advertiser.

As a writer, I know that if you need to attract eyeballs, your writing suffers. You resort to prodding readers for their ugliest emotions. You might even resort to downright lies.
El quinto paradigma organizacional
Tags: Inteligencia Colectiva, Art Of Hosting, Change Management, Leadership

in Both Sides of the Table