fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Deploy Django Project on Heroku
Tags: Web Development, Heroku, Django, Github

Django, Heroku, Web Development

Deploy Django Project on Heroku

Take your Technical projects to next level.

As we know Django is python based open-source framework which follows MVC(Model View Controller) architectural pattern used in the rapid development of the website with clean design without worrying too much about setting up an environment to start.

I am using python 3.8.3 version and VS code as my text editor. deploying a Django project on Heroku is often difficult. To deploy it with ease some steps are needed to be followed :

Create a Heroku account :

creating a Heroku account is very simple. visit https://dashboard.heroku.com/ so signup as a new account by tapping on signup button located in the top-right corner

After successful signup and login proceed to next step.

2. Create a Django app :

create a fresh Django app using -

or you can use your project make sure you are inside your project folder where manage.py file is present.

3. Create a Virtual Environment and Install required dependencies :

Install basic libraries using pip like pip install Django and most important install gunicorn(WSGI application server) and white noise.

After installation of all libraries run the command :

It creates a new file in the root directory which consists of all libraries used in Django named requirements.txt which helps Heroku to install dependencies before deploying.

4. Create an App on Heroku site :

By clicking on creating new app add the name you want for your app then open settings tabs, tap on add build pack and tap on python to set python as your build pack and save changes.

5. Addition of required files :

Now create two new files runtime.txt in which specify the version of python used and other Procfile with no extension.

here gunicorn in place of vidz you need to enter your project folder name which contains settings.py file

5. Changes in settings.py file

Click on your Heroku project then tap on an open app button present in the top right corner it opens up the link where the project will be deployed. copy the link and paste it in settings.py allowed host section with local server to run it locally and change DEBUG to false as well.

Now add white noise as middleware in Django settings.py middleware section.

Add STATIC_ROOT to configure static files

6. Connect GitHub repository to Heroku :

After changes push the project to Github

In Heroku deploy section connect GitHub repository by tapping on connect to Github.

After completion tap on deploy

Voila, Project is Deployed.
Work in Progress
By: Sanjit Sengupta
Tags: Poetry, Self Improvement, Spiritual Tree, Spirituality, Life

Free verse poetry

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

For six decades and more

I have tried to make meaningful contributions

To my friends

To my family

To my co-workers

To my students

To the world at large.

Now I see myself turning inwards

Focusing more on my inner self

In harmony with the universe

Becoming a better person.

Still a work in progress.

Spiritual Tree Weekly Prompt: Becoming
How to Backup All Databases at Once in MS SQL Server
By: Sithum Meegahapola
Tags: Ms Sql Server, Stored Procedure, Database Backups, Sql Server Backups, Sql Server

How to Backup All Databases at Once in MS SQL Server Sithum Meegahapola Follow Aug 19 · 2 min read

In this article, I will show you how to backup all the Databases at once that you have in the MS SQL Server using a SQL Store Procedure.

Lots of people who work with MS SQL Server is facing this problem when they try to migrate the DBs to a new server from an old server. SQL Server has no option to backup all the Databases that we have in the current instance at once. So I have to face the same problem and found a solution for that.

After going so many forums on the internet I have finally managed to develop a Stored Procedure to run in the Server instance and it will automatically backup all the Databases you have in the Server to the location you will provide.
5 Tips from Warren Buffett about Life & Money
By: José Lourenço
Tags: Money, Life Lessons, Work, Success, Life

5 Tips from Warren Buffett about Life & Money

The Oracle of Omaha knows a thing… or two about Money & Life

Photo by lo lo on Unsplash

Warren Buffett is one of the best investors of all time, if not the best.

He turned 90 years old last August, and he’s currently the 6th richest person in the world, so I guess it’s safe to hear his advice on money and life.

Even though he is one of the world's richest people, he still lives in the same old house he bought in the late ’70s, and he still eats the same breakfast every day for years.

So, without further ado, here are the five tips from the Oracle of Omaha on Money and Life.
Derek Fisher, the Unsung Laker
By: Loren Kantor
Tags: Lakers, Sports, Kobe Bryant, Derek Fisher, NBA

Derek Fisher, Lakers Legend.

Derek Fisher was an underrated Lakers star during their 2000–2009 championship era. While Kobe and Shaquille monopolized the limelight, Fisher did the little things needed for victory. He dove for loose balls, took charges, set hard picks and guarded the opponent’s star player. He was humble, tenacious and tough. He was also a calming presence in the the ongoing feud between Shaq and Kobe.

Fisher was drafted in 1997, the same draft as Kobe Bryant. Where Kobe was a prodigy, Derek had to toil for everything he achieved. During their rookie year, Fisher and Kobe played constant one-on-one games after practice. They went at each other hard almost coming to blows. Fisher earned Kobe’s respect, and the two became a back-court pairing for nearly a decade.

Lakers fans remember Fisher for his “0.4” miracle shot against San Antonio in 2004 but he’s assembled a career of great basketball moments. In 2001, Fisher missed the first 62 games with a stress fracture in his foot. The Lakers struggled in his absence. After his return, the Lakers went 24–5 and rolled into the post-season.

In the 2001 Conference Finals against the San Antonio Spurs, Fisher set an NBA playoff record by shooting 75% from the three-point line (15–20). In the 2001 Finals against the Philadelphia 76ers, Fisher was outscored in a Game 1 loss by Allen Iverson 48–0. Fisher responded in Game 2 by posterizing Iverson with a dunk, a moment that changed the series momentum and spurred the Lakers to the championship.

In Game 2 of the 2009 Western Conference Finals against Houston, the Lakers were being manhandled and bullied by the Rockets. Fisher gave a cheap shot elbow to Rockets’ center Luis Scola. Fisher was ejected from the game, but the incident woke up the Lakers physicality and changed the series in the Lakers favor. This was a seemingly small moment that highlighted Fisher’s basketball IQ. The Lakers needed to awaken their toughness and it took a 6'1" point guard to do so.

In Fisher’s one year with Utah, he led the Jazz to the playoffs. He returned to the Lakers and saved Game 4 of the 2010 Finals against Orlando with two amazing end of game 3-pointers. The following year in the 2011 Finals, he helped defeat the hated Boston Celtics in Game 3 with an amazing 4th quarter scoring spree.

Derek nearly gave up his basketball career in 2007 to devote himself to his one-year old daughter Tatum who was diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer. His daughter survived and Derek and his wife became spokespeople in the battle against retinoblastoma. Derek was so respected by his peers he was voted as president of the NBA Players Association. He helped end the owners lockout against players which saved the 2012 basketball season.
Executive Summary: Blocktown Proposal for Zcash 2020 Network Upgrade
By: Greymatter Capital
Tags: Zec, Blockchain, Privacy, Zcash, Bitcoin

Projected Value of Founder’s Reward

As of August 2019, the cumulative Founder’s Reward is estimated to be 1.4M ZEC, which, if sold on the corresponding days it was received, aggregates to 250M USD. At today’s low ZEC price of 55 USD, the Founder’s Reward still amounts to 80k USD daily or 30M USD annually.

Current State of the Market

ZEC has been one of the worst performing large cap digital assets in 2019 — vastly underperforming bitcoin and most large cap altcoins, including privacy coins Dash and Monero. Sentiment for ZEC investors and the Zcash community is likely near an all-time low. We must be cautious making projections on the USD value of an extended Founder’s Reward at such a time.

ZEC Projections

It would be a mistake to make projections on the USD value of the Founder’s Reward based on the speculation that the exchange price of ZEC will remain in the vicinity of 50 USD over the next 5 years.

Bitcoin’s history has shown us that a decrease in the USD value of mining rewards after halvings is short lived. Actually, USD denominated rewards are often magnitudes higher merely a year or two after halving events (Figure 4).

USD value of mining rewards increases after halvings

A magnitude peak increase of 10x for ZEC from present value within the next 5 years would result in a 10% Founder’s Reward valued at a projected 37M USD annually and aggregated sum of 150M USD.

Fiscal Responsibility

While the efforts by the Zcash Foundation and ECC this past year — specifically in research and development — deserve applause, we find recent expense reports released by the Zcash Foundation and ECC concerning.

In late 2018 and early 2019, most blockchain and cryptocurrency companies dramatically downsized operations. While operating at a loss, the Zcash Foundation and ECC, increased operations and expenses during this time. We are concerned that this spending behavior is reminiscent of that of state departments and governments. That is, a nation state will be spiraling into debt, yet state departments rapidly exhaust resources near spending deadlines in order to justify budget renewals/increases and avoid spending cuts.

It is the community’s responsibility to ensure that this behavior does not plague the Zcash Foundation and ECC at the expense of network decentralization and security. Decreasing the Founder’s Reward to 10% would be a step in the right direction.
“Information, then, teaches you about the world.
Tags: Data Analysis, Data Driven, Data, Data Driven Decisions, Oracle Cloud

“Information, then, teaches you about the world. Sometimes it does so by reducing your uncertainty about future events, and other times by enlarging your perspective”

— Thomas C. Redman, Data Driven: Profiting from Your Most Important Business Asset
How to install Apache, PHP, MySQL on Windows manually
Tags: Phpmyadmin, PHP, MySQL, Apache

How to install Apache, PHP, MySQL in Windows manually

STEP 1 Install Apache

Download Apache 2.4 binaries

http://www.apachelounge.com/download/

e.g http://www.apachelounge.com/download/VC14/binaries/httpd-2.4.25-win64-VC14.zip

Extract the downloaded file in your drive C:



$ cd \Apache24\bin

$ httpd -k install

$ httpd -k start



Go to your browser and type http://localhost/

You'll see a message "It works!"

Problem:

Installing the ‘Apache2.4’ service

(OS 5)Access is denied. : AH00369: Failed to open the Windows service manager, perhaps you forgot to log in as Adminstrator?

Solution:

You should run the command prompt as administrator.

Find Start > All programs > Accessories > Command Prompt, right click, and select ‘Run as administrator’.

STEP 2 Install PHP

Go to http://windows.php.net/download/ and download the stable thread safe release. Choose x64 for 64-bit OS or x86 for 32-bit OS.

e.g. http://windows.php.net/downloads/releases/php-5.6.30-Win32-VC11-x64.zip

LoadModule php5_module “C:/php-5.6.30-Win32-VC11-x64/php5apache2_4.dll”

Note: Make sure that your Apache and PHP should matched with their bit either 64 or 32-bit.

STEP 3 Configure Apache and PHP

Extract the downloaded file in your drive C:



C:\Apache24\conf\httpd.conf

LoadModule php5_module "C:/php-5.6.30-Win32-VC11-x64/php5apache2_4.dll"

AddHandler application/x-httpd-php .php

PHPIniDir C:/php-5.6.30-Win32-VC11-x64

In the same file. Search for the line starting DirectoryIndex. Change it as follows:



DirectoryIndex index.php index.html

Now, navigate to C:\php-5.6.30-Win32-VC11-x64, and copy php.ini-development to php.ini. Edit this file, find the following lines and modify them as follows (all should exist already):



memory_limit = 256M

post_max_size = 128M

upload_max_filesize = 128M

## Next, add the following extensions:

extension=php_curl.dll

extension=php_gd2.dll

extension=php_mbstring.dll

extension=php_mysql.dll

extension=php_mysqli.dll

extension=php_pdo.dll

extension=php_pdo_mysql.dll

extension=php_xmlrpc.dll



STEP 4 Test and debug

Navigate to C:\Apache24\htdocs and create a file called test.php

<?php phpinfo();
The mountains here are old.
By: Pasta
Tags: Poetry, Short Story, Prose

The heaviest of all is the hello

from the man with the shirt sleeve holding the cigarettes.

And it sits in your memory,

buffeted by all of the others,

but unmoveable in its density.
7 Recomendaciones para una Fan Page Atractiva
By: Guadalupe Lima
Tags: Digital Marketing, Cinemagraphs, Trends, Social Listening, Engagement

in In Fitness And In Health
ランキングコンペティションイベント：Kings of the Hill
Tags: Gaming, Japanese, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Ethereum

in In Fitness And In Health
Project Update: 28.02.2019
Tags: Fuzex, ICO, Erc20, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency

We would like to announce opening of online cryptocurrency payment platform and share updates on exchange listing.

Online Cryptocurrency Payment Platform OPEN

FuzeX team will launch a cryptocurrency payment platform for online!

While FuzeX team is planning to launch a payment service which will enable cryptocurrency payment anywhere and anytime with FuzeX card, we have decided to open online payment platform in advance to enable the cryptocurrency payment service in real life a little sooner.

To prove FXT payment and the token utility, we will initialize the platform with FXT payment, and the very first product available for the purchase will be FuzeW, the cryptocurrency mobile & hardware wallet.

FuzeW(www.fuzew.com) is the safest wallet service for cryptocurrency storage and management, which consists of a mobile application and the card-type device(HW). Up to 1,047 coins and tokens including BTC, ETH(ERC20), FXT, LTC, and DOGE can be stored within the wallet. Within March, BCH and XRP will also be supported. Also in the near future, FuzeW will be supporting coin monitoring service from major exchange and swapping service with lower exchange fees.

There will be a promotion at the time of service launch on March, where you can get FuzeW with up to 30% discount. To improve the payment platform, we will add more cryptocurrencies for the payment starting with FXT. Also, we will be expanding online shopping mall to provide more convenient and useful service.

Cryptocurrency payment platform with FuzeX card is yet in preparation with issuers in each country, and we will come up with the good news as soon as possible.

Updates on Exchange Listing

FuzeX team has been submitted an application to participate in a round of voting in PickThumb and received a response that FuzeX is qualified to participate in the event. We are currently in discussion with PickThumb to select the right round with right time to participate. In addition, the FuzeX team is actively negotiating for the FXT listing with the US and Hong Kong large exchanges for the successful expansion of the FXT ecosystem and the FuzeX project.

The FuzeX team is working on a diversity of options to increase the value of FXT’s token utilities and services so that its service can be applied quickly to real life. We promise that Community will be the first place to disclose all the new contents of FXT. As we noticed in previous Bi-weekly, the Bi-weekly project update posting will be updated once a month in order to focus on renewing the website and preparing for service launch. We will keep you updated.

Thank you.
“White people are still raised to be racially illiterate. If we don’t recognize the system, our inaction will uphold it.”
By: Jess Brooks
Tags: White Privilege, Racial Literacy, BlackLivesMatter, Education, Parenting

“Historical narratives of racial exceptionality also leave us unprepared to address current conditions. For example, they hide the role of race in the response to the opioid crisis versus the crack epidemic, the Parkland shooting versus the Black Lives Matter movement, gentrification versus Flint, Michigan, the Bundy Standoff versus Standing Rock. We are left without the analysis needed to engage with these deeply complex social dynamics…

As a product of my culture, my racial illiteracy has rested on a simplistic definition of a racist: an individual who consciously does not like people based on race and is intentionally hurtful to them. Based on this definition, racists are purposely mean. It follows that nice people with good intentions who are friendly to people of a different race cannot be racist… The mainstream definition of a racist set me up beautifully to not only deny any impact of racial socialization, but also to receive any suggestion of racially problematic behavior as a personal blow — a questioning of my very moral character. Of course I would take umbrage, feel hurt, attacked and misunderstood; this is what I term white fragility.”
The Last Thing Millennials Need is Work From Home
By: Mehboob Khan
Tags: Economy, Life, Remote Working, Digital Life, Work

The Last Thing Millennials Need is Work From Home

There is a reason why offices exist

Photo: Robert Bye/Unsplash

Before the pandemic became a buzzword, our offices were not only a place to slog, they were also a source of pride. Employees felt regal as soon as they stepped inside their cathedrals of innovation. Clicking selfies of the various drool-worthy corners in the office and gloating about them on social media gave them the much-needed dopamine shots.

It’s not surprising that 78% of millennials consider workplace quality as a criterion before choosing an employer. Or 69% of them will give up other perks to work in a well-designed place.

Contemporary workplace designs increase employee productivity without freaking them out with the workload. The decor and open spaces act as a balm on overworked minds.

But the pandemic sheared all the fluff off our work-life, reducing it to the bare bones.

Working from home has become more about “work” than about “work-life”. It’s more about meeting deadlines, closing deals, attending grumpy customers, and less about hitting the gym after work, chilling out in the lobby, or hanging out in the cafeteria.

At your home, you might have set up the desk away from the family din. You might have even figured out the Feng Shui to help you stay focused and calm during the never-ending working hours.

But what you still miss out on are the impromptu water cooler talks. Daily chit chats in the cafeteria. The intense round table discussions with your team about how to bring in new clients. Or the chance meetings with the employees of different departments.

That might look trivial at first, but is an important ingredient in creating a culture of innovation. As explained by Peter Crush in an article,

Every day employees at Google’s 8th Avenue HQ are being subtly manipulated by workplace design. Permanent desks don’t exist and its lifts are seemingly slower, both of which force staff to move around more. It’s all in the name of a workplace environment ethos around so-called “orchestrated chaos”, encouraging what it calls “casual collisions” or interactions that provoke unexpected conversations and new ideas. It just can’t happen when staff stay put.

These creative forces can’t be bottled up and carried to our homes. Creating such a culture needs years of nurturing in a controlled environment.

So in short, we left behind the good stuff that made our work a walk in the park, while the unpleasant stuff has accompanied us to our homes. Is it a sustainable arrangement? Only time will tell.
Teaching Data Science with Myanmar’s Policy and Education Community
By: Fsi Student Programs
Tags: Political Science, Internships, Myanmar, Fsi Students

About the author: Jason Luo is an FSI Global Policy Intern with the Yangon School of Political Science. He is currently PhD candidate in Political Science at Stanford University.

As COVID-19 hit globally this spring and summer, Myanmar has also shut down its borders to foreigners and closed most educational and commercial operations since it had the first outbreak in the middle of July. As a result, I was unfortunately unable to travel to Yangon to do my internship at the Yangon School of Political Science (YSPS), something I had been long looking forward to. However, my first Skype call with Mr. U Myat Thu, the chairperson of YSPS, unexpectedly opened an exciting opportunity for the best use of my time with Myanmar.

Rather than doing regular basic research work as an intern, I was tasked to teach a social science research methods course for their staff and students and to develop a curriculum for the training and education at YSPS. In doing so, YSPS hopes to attain accreditation to be the first private university in Myanmar, with the legislation of the modern Higher-Education Law through the national assembly. Therefore, I started designing an introductory data science and econometrics course for not only the staff and students of YSPS, but also the much larger policy and education community of Myanmar.

After a long pause due to the COVID-19’s impact in Myanmar and thus on YSPS’s operations, I finally resumed contact with Mr. U Myat Thu in late August and was assigned to work closely with Zeyar Htet, a senior research assistant from YSPS. Based on the results from a pilot survey assessing the statistical knowledge and computer skills of prospective students, I determined course coverage and depth and set the following learning goals.

Quoted from my syllabus:

At the end of this course, students should:

• Be comfortable using basic features of the R programming language.

• Know how to create visual depictions of statistical patterns in data.

• Be able to run regressions in R and interpret results accordingly.

In short, students are expected to leave the course with entry-level ability to combine political data with statistical concepts to answer political questions.

Surprisingly and happily, the course was met with large interest in Myanmar, with its Facebook announcement post receiving nearly a thousand “likes” and more than seven hundred reposts. In the end, we had 1,953 applications by the time we closed the channel, less than a week since the posting. I used an enrollment test to screen applicants and admitted 43 students into the class, a portion of which were chosen by YSPS. Now the course is going well into the second week.

Students had set up R and familiarized with R basics, brushed up probability theory, and are now working on measurement and visualization techniques. More details will follow in my second blog.

Stay tuned!

Figure I: Announcement of the course on YSPS’s Facebook Page
This is Why You Should Have Morning Sex
By: Alexandra Tsuneta
Tags: Relationships, Morning Sex, Love, Sex, Self

This is Why You Should Have Morning Sex

Honestly, do I even need to explain?

Photo by Dainis Graveris on Unsplash

I’m tired. Most days I wake up early, workout, have coffee, head to work for eight to nine hours, and then I’m back home, cooking dinner, and I’m exhausted. Don’t get me wrong, I love and enjoy my life, sometimes I am just absolutely beat. My mornings are my free, sanity time. I give myself 2+ hours before work to take time for myself, but recently I realized I have about 15 extra minutes, sometimes even 20–30, to be able to do whatever I want. This is when it hit me: why am I not having more morning sex?

In the mornings I am awake, alert, and ready to go, but by the time I am off of work I’m too exhausted to even think about sex. Add to that the fact that I am currently working on two books, plus working, plus juggling general COVID-19 madness.

So, this past week I worked out a plan:

Each morning after I had finished yoga, coffee, etc. I would crawl back into bed, turn on my husband and either have sex or have him get me off in his cute, sleepy way. It worked in more ways than I had expected.

I got laid or at the very least, I came. I was hornier the rest of the day, and thus when I came home we’d have even more sex.

It’s a win-win for everybody, but especially for me, who often goes through droughts of sexlessness because I’m too exhausted to perform.

Sex, in general, has a funny way of making you feel either really good about yourself or, oftentimes, not great about yourself at all. For me, when I am more sexual with my husband I feel sexier, I feel wanted, and my self-deprecating nature tends to fade. It may seem petty, but knowing that my husband wants me, know that he loves me and he loves my body, makes me feel a hell of a lot better about myself.

On the other hand, when we go through bouts of sexlessness, I feel down about myself. Does he not want me? Does he not find me sexy? Are our days of hours and hours of fuckin over? Though my insecurities are in my own head, I know that I am not alone in feeling the feelings of:

“sex=love & no sex = oh my god, he must hate my body”

It’s no quadratic equation, but it is the thought process of very, very self-conscious women. This brings me back to my point: morning sex is good and you should be having it because it boosts your self-esteem, your endorphins, and you feel better and happier in an all-encompassing way. Instead of being too tired after a full day of doing god-knows-what, tackle that shit first thing, start your day by orgasming and finish it off by orgasming too.

I mean in the year of sadness, uncertainty, and a lot of (and I mean a lot of) bullshit, the least we can do for ourselves is to make sex a priority, because pleasure makes a lot of things a hell of a lot easier.
“JOCK”
By: James S. Baker
Tags: Dogs, Memoir, Short Story, Childhood Memories, Comics

The uppercuts keep me from falling down..
Granja M. Viader: This Is Not Your Momma’s Hot Chocolate
By: Juan O. Aguilera
Tags: Photos, Coffee, Travel, Food, Photography

Granja M. Viader: This Is Not Your Momma’s Hot Chocolate

A Gastronomic Photo Essay. WARNING, there may be images considered messy, sloppy, or food-porn. Bibs are recommended.

I love chocolate, the richer the better. My wife Nong also loves chocolate, but I wondered why she kept talking about the “must try” hot chocolate here, in Barcelona, the land of Ibérico ham, Sangria, and Flamenco, to name of few of my favorites.

But Chocolate???
Broken Wings
Tags: Childhood, Idiocy, Life, Fiction, Short Story

How old was I when I realized that this was life and not some introduction to something bigger, an overture, a prelude?

In this dream I have, this crazy dream, there’s a boy who can fly. He does amazing loops and impossible rolls and shoots past me with a rush of wind.

“Go higher,” I yell. “Brush against the sun!”

He does and then he spirals down to earth to crash in a heap only to pull up at the last moment. He lands gently beside me. “Your turn,” he says, “It’s easy.”

“Oh, no,” I say. “I could never fly like that.”

“Yes you can, because I couldn’t fly until you dreamed it.”

“What if I fall?”

“I never do.”
Recap of Origin’s Talk at the SF Bitcoin Meetup
By: Coleman Maher
Tags: Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Events, Ethereum, Bitcoin

My first introduction to blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies was via the internet. I read about bitcoin and various altcoins on forums like Reddit — you can read a personal history of my online exploration here. However, it was the in-person meetups and resulting conversations that really cemented my interest in the space and made me want to pursue it as a career. One of the first meetups I ever attended was the San Francisco Bitcoin Meetup. I have been a fan of their user-friendly talks (and their happy hours at El Rio) for a long time and things came full circle for me when I was invited to one of their meetups as a speaker.

In my remarks, I talk about some of the user adoption, technological challenges, and regulatory concerns Origin is faced with when trying to build a massively scalable and open source infrastructure for truly peer-to-peer marketplaces and the future of the sharing economy. I am a better writer than speaker, so I leaned heavily on the ideas I expressed in previous articles I wrote. Notably, that I think decentralization will disrupt the sharing economy and centralized marketplaces. People often take it for granted that the first mover advantage and network effects produce an inevitable outcome that we see today, centralized and monopolistic marketplaces. However, I argue that the internet was originally developed to be decentralized and open and that if we there were baked in, open-source protocols for things like payments, identity, and instant messaging, things might have turned out quite differently. This has been something that is being talked about more and more as the original sin of the internet. I believe blockchain technology and decentralization will give us a second chance to move away from centralized monopolies and the negative externalities they present to society.

Here I am answering questions from the audience about Origin.

I also expressed renewed confidence that Ethereum can and will scale. I try my best to keep up on all the new research going on on ethresear.ch and /r/ethereum. I gave a brief overview about Casper (Proof-of-Stake), sharding, Plasma & Plasma Cash, Raiden, and TrueBit in an article I wrote after attending EDCON. Every time I meet the incredible people who are working on scaling Ethereum, my faith in the project and overall ecosystem grows.

You can watch a replay of my remarks and the meetup below:

Watch a recording of the livestream from the event

It’s a bit nerve-racking to speak in front of an audience, but I always enjoy sharing Origin’s mission and discussing blockchain technology with others. If you are interested in seeing us in person, you can find out where Origin team members will be speaking by subscribing to one of our social links below or checking our Eventbrite page for future Origin meetups.

Learn more about Origin:
Android Serverless Notifications via Firebase Cloud Functions
By: Samir Khan
Tags: Android, Push Notification, Firebase, JavaScript, Programming

Creating Cloud Functions

Install Node.js and npm from the official website. It’s essential for writing cloud functions in JavaScript. Once installation is completed, run the following command in shell for Firebase CLI.

npm install -g firebase-tools

After Firebase CLI installation is completed, login to your Firebase account and choose project in shell by running the following command.

firebase login

Now, initialize Firebase cloud functions and select JavaScript when asked about language.

firebase init functions
GLX Global Stablecoin Listed On The Lykke Exchange
Tags: Stablecoins, Globcoin, Glx, Lykke, Cryptocurrency

We are excited to announce that the GLOBCOIN Global Stablecoin GLX will be listed on the Swiss-based Lykke Exchange — as of the 1st of February 2019, at 9 AM CET, and available for trading. “Lykke has a high reputation in the industry for their seriousness and professionalism” expressed Helie d’Hautefort, Globcoin CEO.

The GLX Stablecoin is linked to a basket of the world’s top 15 currencies and gold, acting as the most universal stable means of payment today. As it is not based on a single currency, but 15, it truly represents the World Economy. Beyond its use as payment token, the GLX also represents a powerful hedging tool either against crypto volatility (it has proven to be more stable than the Swiss Franc) or for traditional fiat investors looking for a safe haven.

Lykke is an exclusive Exchange in Switzerland that operates under Swiss quality standards. They partner with tokens based on their merit and potential. All their tools and services are open source and have a very transparent technology. We had already chosen Lykke to list our utility token GCP, which is also available for the Lykke community alongside the GLX.

The GLX enables high-speed, low-cost, truly global payments. Join the GLX Global Payments Community now and don’t miss any important update!
Where is Thy Sting?
By: Background Noise Comics
Tags: Quarantinelife, Humor, Gardening, Comics, Murder Hornet

Written by

Daily comic by Lisa Burdige and John Hazard about balancing life, love and kids in the gig economy.
Hate Is Too Great a Burden to Bear
By: Lisa Beth Wright
Tags: Personal Growth, Life Lessons, Relationships, Self, Life

I spent time with a bitter person yesterday. She complained about everything and everyone. She has a remarkable amount to be grateful for in life, yet she could only say, “I grew up with nothing and I still have nothing.”

Nothing?

She has a home, car, food, health insurance, and money to buy anything within reason that she needs. I would say that she is richer than a significant portion of the world.

But she is still unhappy.

As we talked, she criticized various people that we both know. In her eyes, all of them had slighted her and it was clear she hadn’t moved on. She called them all “low-class people”. She had an insult for everyone on her list.

I finally asked her, “Do you ever forgive anyone?”

She replied, “No, not really. I can never let it go.”

It saddened me to hear this because it was my mother who spoke these words.
5:22 Overlooking the Mekong
By: Cathy Clarke
Tags: Travel, Art, Life, Reflections, Life Lessons

5:22

There is a special peacefulness this morning.

A peacefulness that you can’t really capture on film.

This is the last moment of quiet throughout the day. A brief moment in time when the soundtrack of Phnom Penh is paused and dominated by silence. The hammers and horns are resting.

The boats of the Mekong frame the distance, gently balancing their cargo as if suspended in space.

The sun illuminates the sky, transforming grey strokes into a color wheel of crimson.

A painter's delight. Pigments burst onto the scene and dominate the sky, penetrating the atmosphere for a moment with an intense vibrancy before instantly disappearing.

A gracious gift from nature to my memories.

5:40

Motorcycles, tuk-tuks, and cars make a constant swoosh sound on the road below me. The soundtrack of the city gains volume as the day officially begins.

The rooster above resumes his role as nature’s snooze button.

Ready for another day.

You just read another post from World Traveler’s Blog

A collaborative project from a diverse group of adventurers and digital nomads sharing the world through inspiring stories.

The more you know, the better you travel!
Reflections from a JavaScript Interview
By: Kelsey Shiba
Tags: JavaScript, Web Development, Interview, Work, Programming

Don’t Skip the Fundamentals

I had been working so hard on algorithms and creating my own portfolio that I forgot to go back and do some studying. I was asked some really basic stuff that I could not articulate in a way that I was satisfied with while doing the interview.

One of the questions was: “Was does the ES6 stand for in JavaScript?”

I honestly did not know. I knew that the year was 2015, and that there was another one forthcoming. I guessed that the “S” stood for “syntax” and that the 6 was the version. As it turns out, ES is ECMAScript, and it is the 6th version.

After letting it percolate for a while, I realize what an interesting interview question it was. Will I really be asked this in my every day work at my prospective job? Maybe — not likely. However, it shows that I’ve been curious enough to want to know about JavaScript. To have been exposed to it or wonder about how it works, where it came from. It almost seems like it could be more of a personality question than a technical one.

Another question: What is the difference between classes and prototypal inheritance?

I kind of understood this, but I couldn’t articulate it. I feel like I kind of blacked out during this part of the interview. The point being — I agonized about it later. There’s a great blog about it here.

Another Question: What is special/unique about the arrow function?

I remembered several specific use cases for the arrow function, and that it was used frequently with DOM events in JavaScript because it could bind the keyword this to whatever object created the function. I forgot that the arrow function also has implicit return — which I thought would’ve been an important point to make to my interviewer.

Technical Question: If I had 100 integers stored in an array, what is the best way of going about returning a sorted array without duplicates? This question was also presented as a verbal answer, not to be written in code.

I kind of froze up on this one. I mentioned the built in function sort, but the making it unique or without duplicates kind of stalled me for a moment. More on this below.
The Double Demise of Keeley McSnot
By: Wendy Scott
Tags: Poetry, Humor, Rhymes, Animals, Rhymes For Kids

Comic verse

The Double Demise of Keeley McSnot

A cautionary tale of greed, snails and reincarnation

Photo by Jasmin Schreiber on Unsplash

Keeley McSnot is a wee tiresome grot,

She moans and she wails, and she likes eating snails.

Crunchy and brown, she washes them down,

With a drink from a bottle, she found on the ground.

The snails are so juicy, and crunchy and munchy,

Just what a gross girly enjoys for her lunchy.

Lips smacking loudly, she searches for more,

Scrabbling and scratching she crawls on the floor.

Face-down in the dirt, she slurps and she dribbles,

A fat snail is trapped, in terror, it wriggles.

She grabs it with greed, the poor snail is squashed,

All gooey and slimy, his small life is lost.

Unknown to cruel Keeley, the snail gods are plotting.

When she dies of old age, her moist body rotting,

Snails travel for miles to converge on her grave,

“We will eat you all up”, they scream in their rage.

“Our anger is righteous, our magic is strong,

You will come back and suffer, like we did, ‘ere long.”

So Keeley woke up, but things weren’t quite right.

“I’m squishy and slippy, my back feels all tight.”

“My eyes are on stalks, I don’t feel so well,

The sun burns bright yellow, and what is that bell?”

The ground started shaking, as school was let out.

“A snail”, shouted Harry, “It’s lunchtime, about.”

“My grandson”, shrieked Keeley, “please don’t be so hasty.”

But Harry, from Granny, knew snails were so tasty.

He snatched up poor Keeley and bit off her head,

With a sickening crunch, cruel Keeley’s twice dead.
Avanti And The World We Leave Behind For Her
By: Maruti Naik
Tags: Children, Hope, Terrorism, Parenting, Mumbai

Photo by Raj Rana on Unsplash

Avanti was born on 25.11.2008 at a hospital in Bandra. I remember the doctor coming out with her — all covered in some kind of greenish liquid, all tiny, all pink and extremely beautiful. It is a moment that stays with every parent I guess, the first time they see their child.

The next day began on a normal Mumbai note, as cold as it can get in November, nothing out of the ordinary in terms of traffic. I remember spending the day in hospital meeting people who had dropped in to wish us well and say hello to Avanti. The day drew to a close and it was around 11:00 p.m that I decided to head back home.

We had absolutely no clue about what was unfolding in South Mumbai — no TV in the hospital. I remember wondering that something seemed off, there was hardly any traffic and for some strange reason, I knew something was amiss — it was just that kind of vibe which had settled onto my beloved city. Reaching home, put on the telly, and settled down to dinner; that was when the visuals started pouring in of the terrorist attack on parts of South Mumbai.

The news flew thick and fast, commandos flying in, the bravery of the Mumbai police force, the dogged determination of the staff at the TAJ, and finally the mention of the Mumbai spirit. I do remember writing to Mr. Ratan Tata and getting a reply in return — the old fashioned handwritten variety both ways.

It was a bewildering first few days of parenthood and a few thoughts sprung up then and have stayed with me.

Is this the world we will leave behind for Avanti, where terror strikes are as common as day and night, fueled by an incessant display of intolerance, polarisation, and machoism. Where a refusal to break with the past feeds on insecurities and turns into a weird unstoppable search for nirvana through the sword or any weapon. Bullets do not distinguish between religions and castes. Bombs once dropped will do the inevitable and be met with more from the other side, sometimes detonated by hand and at other times served by a remorseless drone somewhere high in the sky.

Things have only got uglier and a grim future seems up ahead. How does one prepare a child for this world? How do we equip her as parents to make her way through this maze?

Like in all adverse times one must go back to the basics. We can only teach her to reach out to everyone around her as any human would, that decency and trust should be her weapons of choice, that love will eventually triumph and that all swordsmen have always stepped aside to the righteous. That will have to do i guess.
Power of Compound Interest — a Mathematical Deep Dive
By: Col Jung
Tags: Business, Bitcoin, Money, Work, Economics

Power of Compound Interest — a Mathematical Deep Dive

The Secret Sauce Behind Financial Independence

Image source: Forbes

Albert Einstein is reputed to have said:

“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it — he who doesn’t, pays it.”

Understanding compound interest can transform your life, whether you’re investing for financial independence or scaling your startup business.

1. Compound Interest = Exponential Growth

Many people mistake compound interest for simple interest, which grows your assets linearly. Compounding assets grow exponentially*, which mathematically skyrockets their value. This effect is dramatically enhanced by the interest rate (i.e. exponent) and time in the market.

Consider putting $100 into a variety of asset types in 2010. Even though Bitcoin’s annualised return rate — at 230% — was a crazy 22 times more than the US stock market average of 10.5%, your wealth snowballed way more than 22 times that over a period of ten years. We’re talking a difference of millions of dollars versus just a few hundred bucks in your wallet.

That’s the power of compound interest.

Taken from the sister article: Want to Retire Early? Include Bitcoin in Your Investment Portfolio

*Actually, compound growth is geometric, not exponential, but the ideas are very similar.

Rate of Return makes a big difference

If you double your rate of return, you’ll way more than double your returns.

The reason for this is two different exponential functions diverge away from each other quickly.

Time in the market makes a big difference

If you double your time in the market, you’ll way more than double your returns.

The reason for this outcome is the same as above: one exponential function grows way faster than the other — the effect of which becomes amplified as you stay in the market for longer.

Combine this with higher interest rates to further exaggerate the gains. For example, doubling your time in the market at 10% per year already quadruples your wealth after 30 years. But at a 20% interest rate, you’ll 15 times your wealth. Crazy huh! 😎
But A Thing
By: Aaron Quist
Tags: Jack Kerouac, Poetry, Nothing, Self, Spirituality

But A Thing

A poem

Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash

Nothing ever happened.

Nothing ever will.

We are like a dream

being dreamt beneath

the shade of a pine tree

that grows endlessly upward.

We are like an actor

whose performance has become

so convincing that the audience forgets

they’ve arrived to just sit back and watch,

instead mouthing soliloquies from their seats.

We are like a jester

whose annoying belt of bells

jangle violently with every step

taken across the echoing stage,

upon the courtyard’s vast chess board,

and before the great hall’s empty throne,

desperately hoping to rouse the attention

of someone, anyone, anything at all.

We are like a Nothing

in search of its lost Something,

utterly convinced that either are real,

or that both have been, and both will be.

And we simply are — an answer

so hilariously hidden, sought, and discovered,

simultaneously.
Asian Private Investors Meetups 2018
By: Alex Manucu
Tags: Hong Kong, Cryptocurrency, Privacy, Ethereum, Bitcoin

2018 Asian Spring Investor Tour — May 4 – 11th: Online.io team will be attending private investors’ meet-ups during their first international investor tour. Discover how blockchain technology can help create a safe environment for individual internet users, while engaging website operators to bypass the online media market and its compromises.

Schedule:

Hong Kong — May 4th

Singapore — May 7th

Seoul — May 5th

Tokyo — May 11th

#Online.io #OIOecosystem #OIOtoken #ICEtoken #NOmalware #NOtracking #NOspam

Follow us on: Telegram — Twitter — BitcoinTalk — Youtube — Linkedin
How we broke the Ebola sexual abuse scandal
By: The New Humanitarian
Tags: Human Rights, Ebola, Humanitarian, Investigation

Early last year during a trip to the Ebola outbreak zones in the Democratic Republic of Congo, we were tipped off that aid workers might be sexually abusing and exploiting women.

“Oh, they love our ladies,” reporter Robert Flummerfelt was told in March 2019 at a bar in Butembo, one of two hubs for workers trying to contain the virus in Congo’s northeast. “They arrive in military convoys to take the sick for treatment, and they are always taking the women.”

Even though the practice seemed well known, we were warned few women would talk. “The victims of this are carrying a secret that they will bring to their graves,” one man said.

We set out to find the women.

It took us about a year to gather detailed allegations from dozens of women in what became a joint investigation between The New Humanitarian and the Thomson Reuters Foundation. In the end, 51 women spoke to us. They said they were propositioned, abused, or lured into sex-for-work schemes — mostly by international aid workers. Thirty of the women accused men from the World Health Organization (WHO). Many of the women’s accounts were corroborated by aid agency drivers and other NGO officials we interviewed.

It wasn’t easy getting the women to talk to us.

During the short span of their lives — one woman had just turned 18 — the women had already dodged bullets, massacres, rapes, and disease.

Now, they were colloquially being referred to as “appetisers” by international aid workers.

The first woman shared her story with us in October 2019, when we were in Beni — the other main epicentre and response hub in Congo’s North Kivu province — reporting on how women and girls were faring more generally in the outbreak.

The woman already had a job, but said she was constantly harassed by aid workers. “They say, ‘you’re not making good money; if you have sex with me, I’ll promote you’,” she told reporter Sam Mednick, as Mednick looked into claims of exploitation and kept reporting on another story that focused on why women weren’t being warned of the risk of contracting Ebola through unprotected sex.
Twisted Winter Air
By: Dan Leicht
Tags: The Coffee Pot, Poetry, Haiku, Poem, Winter

Fiction writer. Coffee enthusiast. Writer of romance, mystery, and humor. Discover more at Patreon.com/danleicht and DanLeicht.com

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