fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Top And Easy to use Open-Source AWS(Amazon Web Services) Tools
By: Mrinal Walia
Tags: Computer Science, Cloud Computing, Open Source, AWS, API

It’s a command-line tool, providing scaffolding, workflow automation and best practices for developing and deploying your serverless architecture. It’s also completely extensible via plugins.

The Serverless Framework consists of an open-source CLI and a hosted dashboard, also they provide you with full serverless application lifecycle management. Develop, deploy, troubleshoot and secure your serverless applications with radically less overhead by using the Serverless Framework.

3. Awesome Kubernetes — 10, 818 stars

Awesome Kubernetes is a curated list of awesome Kubernetes sources. Kubernetes is an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. It groups containers that make up an application into logical units for easy management and discovery.

Kubernetes is an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. It groups containers that make up an application into logical units for easy management and discovery.

It includes:

articles

case studies

projects and much more

4. AWS CLI — 10, 400 stars

AWS CLI is a Universal Command Line Interface for Amazon Web Services. The AWS-CLI package works on Python.

The safest way to install the AWS CLI is to use pip in a virtualenv :

$ python -m pip install awscli

Before using the AWS CLI, you need to configure your AWS credentials. You can do this in several ways:

Configuration command

Environment variables

Shared credentials file

Config file

IAM Role

The aws-cli package includes a command completion feature for Unix-like systems. This feature is not automatically installed so you need to configure it manually. To learn more, read the AWS CLI Command completion topic.

5. Awesome AWS — 8, 750 stars

Awesome AWS is a curated list of awesome AWS libraries, open-source repository, guides, blogs, and other resources.

It contains:
Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers
By: Jacquelyn Lynn
Tags: Self Improvement, Self Publishing, Writing, Grammar, Creativity

Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers is a skinny book that’s fat with great information for all writers — whether writing is your full-time job or a part of your professional responsibilities.

Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers is an addition to Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s earlier book, The Frugal Editor. The core of this little book is a list of what Howard-Johnson calls “Trip-You-Up Words” — those errors that creep into our writing either because we typed them wrong but spellchecker didn’t catch it, or we didn’t know we were making a mistake.

Photo courtesy of the author

What makes the book a fun read is Howard-Johnson’s style. This isn’t a dry glossary of definitions; it’s a conversation with an editor who genuinely wants your work — whether it’s a novel destined for the bestseller lists or an email to your mom — to be accurate and clear. In addition to explaining what the words that tend to trip us up mean, Howard-Johnson offers practical tips for testing yourself if you’re not sure you’re using the right word.

While the target audience for Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers is writers who are pitching their manuscripts to editors (which explains the mention of gatekeeper in the subtitle), anyone (including self-publishers, staff writers, and anyone who appreciates correct word usage) can use the information in this book. Get a copy for yourself and as a gift for the other writers in your life.

This article was originally published on my site at CreateTeachInspire.com. You can reach me there or email me at jacquelyn@contacttcs.com.

You might also want to read:

Here’s a little more about me:

Finally, here’s how to get a beautiful inspirational quote delivered to your inbox every Saturday:
SpatialKey
By: Francisco Inchauste
Tags: Web Apps, Case Study, Data Visualization, UX, Design

Background

The Journey

If you were to map (sorry, pun intended) my journey, in the field we call UX, SpatialKey would certainly be one of my bigger stops. I was the first and only UX person at the time.

SpatialKey was a startup under Universal Mind. We had a very small team of people for many years as we built up the product. I learned a lot about more than just product design; the pressures of startups — make money as of yesterday — and especially how difficult it is to design applications that do a lot of very, very complex things.

Five-O

SpatialKey began as a demo that was on its way to becoming an MVP when I was hired. The intention was to pilot with a police department in Utah, and then explore other industries for product/market fit.

For the police department, we were pulling in datasets and then enabling them to map criminal activity and help police officials make informed decisions about staffing and also help their team to investigate crimes.

Early version of SpatialKey

Start wearing a lot of hats

In a startup you learn to wear many hats. So I did more than just work on the interfaces and IA; I designed and coded the first SpatialKey site, and also storyboarded and art directed the launch video.
To empathise with developers is to learn the basics of coding
By: Simon Hoang
Tags: Development, Design, Tech, UX, Coding

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

In early 2019, I started a Codecademy online course to learn the basics of HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Every evening after work I would go through each lesson. Let me tell you — it was painful. I didn’t understand any of it. Why did things have to be done a certain way? Why can’t code be much simpler? I just didn’t get it. I didn’t get why coding works the way it does. For example, why do you need to add a Float property to push pixels around the screen? It is very difficult to transition from a UX to a Front End mindset. After a month of the course, I still understood very little and would have no idea where to start if I were to put it into practice.

A few weeks after the course, I discussed my need to understand more about coding with a former colleague named Rodolfo, (who is now a good friend) and has agreed to be my mentor, and from then on, things started to change drastically. He agreed to teach me how to code everyday for 1 hour after work including some weekends. I am thankful for that.
Please Put TypeScript Down for a Moment
By: Kris Guzman
Tags: Programming, JavaScript, Typescript, Web Development, Software Engineering

Code Easily Becomes Verbose

As mentioned in the comments, I’m viewing this mainly from a React + Redux perspective. Your experience will highly depend on the libraries you use!

In general, the irony of using TypeScript and Flow is that manual typing is something we want to avoid as much as we can! It can make code more verbose, error-prone, and harder to manage.

In an ideal world, we let TypeScript infer types from our libraries and those already defined in the language. That way, we get the benefit of type safety while only having to manage custom object types.

However, sometimes there is no avoiding the verbosity. Let’s look at a simple class-based React component written in TypeScript:

Here is a vanilla class-based React component:

The TypeScript version has 248% more code. Yes, props and state are clearly defined, but is that really what we call readable these days?

Just look at this example of a type to handle redux actions. It’s very clever and useful — I highly recommend reading it — but why is it necessary in the first place?

type InferValueTypes<T> = T extends { [key: string]: infer U } ? U : never;



type Actions = ReturnType<InferValueTypes<typeof actions>>

I won’t even get into the ugliness that typecasting brings…
Surviving as an Empath in the Time of Corona
By: Rachael Hope
Tags: Self, Health, Mental Health, Pandemic, Empathy

A few weeks ago, I attended a training about dealing with difficult people, during which the instructor spoke about people being in control of their own emotions. He said we should not let other people’s feelings affect us “too much,” but this fails to recognize that some of us don’t have a choice, or that there is no real gauge of what is too much to feel, to little, or just the right amount.

It’s not that I want to take on other people’s emotions, or even that I do that on such a base level. I’m sensitive to energy, and the feeling of a room. The state of the world effects me in much the same way temperature affects me. Vibrations, auras, and planets in retrograde are things I would have made fun of 25 years ago. Through my experiences, I’ve been forced to open my mind and reach for words and concepts that will help me to make sense of my journey in this world.

I have to be careful about my consumption of media and social media. Stories of abuse and hardship my eyes fill with tears and my heart aches, and when I reach the end of the page, that isn’t the end of it for me. The lingering heaviness of secondhand grief and the weight of other people’s mourning is not easy to capture. It slithers through my fingers and runs through my veins for hours, my heart beating with the rhythm of our collective pain. Sometimes I cry. Sometimes there is a part of me that wants to let go completely, to curl up in the dark and let all of that pain channel through me, a ground for the emotions people emit.

My capacity for love and caring is immense, but in the same ways it lifts me, sometimes it undoes me.

My heart breaks over sorrowful things, but also over joy, something hauntingly beautiful might send me reeling for hours or days. These are not choices I make, things I can just be rid of. My receptiveness is also a huge positive in my life because it allows me to make deep connections with people, to love with rapturous abandon. The flipside is that sometimes, the world is really hard to keep moving through without feeling depleted. My capacity for love and caring is immense, but in the same ways it lifts me, sometimes it undoes me.
How to Write a Feminist Story
By: Pratik Mishra
Tags: Feminism, Writing, Creativity, Bechdel Test, Essay

How to Write a Feminist Story

8 tips to validate characters in your story

Photo by Isi Parente on Unsplash

Writers around me often ask these questions:

how to write in solidarity with feminism,

how to make my writing resonate with feminists, and

the strangest of all — how to target the feminist audience.

It was surprising to me that it’s now a genre in itself!

My short response usually goes like this — stories we read impact us, and we impact society with our words. Stories mould our culture, and in return, cultures shape our stories. Society and stories live in a symbiotic equilibrium. Ergo, if you want to write a feminist novel, or want to attract feminist readers, be a feminist. Your work will reflect you.

Eliminate sexism, not sexes.

Now, of course, everyone who asked this claims to be a feminist, but what they wanted to know was how to become a feminist writer. What does being a feminist means for the writer and their process? The answer is simple: research your characters without gender bias.
Share Your Story!
By: Patrick Flores
Tags: Storytelling, Christianity, Writing, LGBTQ, Muslim

Reaching Out is made of raw and honest lives like yours. We are strengthened by hearing your story, wherever it leads.

A little about us:

We are a Medium publication & community dedicated to LGBTQ people of all backgrounds and religions.

We are not afraid of stories of faith lost, deconstructed, or renewed in unexpected ways.

Pat Gothman started Reaching Out in November of 2017.

If you have a story that relates to…

Coming out in a religious community

Working through your sexuality with your family

Working through your sexuality with your faith leaders or community

Celibacy or conversion therapy

Intersectionality, especially from POC & women

Finding a new faith community or witnessing within the one you grew up

Raising an LGBTQ child

Pastoring gay members of your faith community

Romantic relationships in a faith community

WE WANT TO SHARE IT!

Basically, if you understand the tension and struggle of being a queer person of faith, we want to hear from you!

First, make sure you have a Medium account and follow Reaching Out!

Then, fill out this form!

If you don’t have a Medium account and want to submit a story anonymously, email Pat at heyreachingout(at)gmail.com. We prefer to publish stories through Medium accounts as they are YOUR stories. But we also understand that sometimes you have something you need to share but aren’t in a place to do so publicly right now. So shoot over a draft and let us know what you are comfortable with sharing!

Best,

Pat Gothman, Reaching Out
How Glossier tapped into customer empathy to build a $1.2 billion brand
By: Michelle Chiu
Tags: Marketing, Branding, Design, UX, Tech

How has the company been able to reach these levels of success? With a direct, authentic 1:1 relationship with customers.

The value proposition Glossier brings to the table is the extra-special attention individuals receive in every interaction, perfectly serving what they hear about others’ requests.

For instance, Glossier allows customers the ability to FaceTime representatives to ask questions about products they may not have time to test in-person. The team has also created a rep-based program to reward those who create social content for their products — flying out top-performers to shadow Glossier’s offices and collaborate with their product and creative teams.

Image source: Run UK

2. Involve the customer at every stage.

At Glossier, the customer is king (and rightfully so). According to Weiss, the company’s success has been largely attributed to involving customers at every stage of the product lifecycle.

For instance, initial ideas for one of Glossier’s earliest products — the Milky Jelly cleanser — originated by asking consumers about their dream face wash. Questions asked pinpointed ingredients individuals were looking for, the kind of texture people looked for in a cleanser, and names of actors who would play the cleanser in a movie (spoiler: Eddie Redmayne got top pick).

Image source: Run UK

“Their responses proved they have really smart and educated opinions around beauty. You should never underestimate the consumer.” — Emily Weiss

From there, the surge of valuable suggestions were sent straight to chemists in Glossier’s lab. It was invaluable towards crafting the perfect product and the team was able to collect product needs they hadn’t thought of on their own: a travel-friendly pump, absence of fragrance, and a balanced pH level.

Today, the Milky Jelly cleanser is a top-selling product and has also been dubbed as one of the best cleansers of all-time by Cosmopolitan, Allure, ManRepeller, and Elle Magazine. The team has also since then applied this approach to other products such as the Priming Moisturizer Rich cream, Cloud Paint eyeshadow and blush palettes, and Glossier You fragrance.

3. Promote authentic conversations.

When Weiss was working at major beauty editors such as Vogue in her pre-Glossier days, she was often asked for advice on how to create engagement based on her experience as a beauty blogger.

Her answer was always to cut the gimmicks and simply involve readers. Ultimately, she learned that customers are micro-influencers for their own circles—it’s imperative to lend a huge voice to those who deserve it in the company that you build.
Getting Out of My Comfort Zone Made My Depression Worse
By: Mariana F.
Tags: Depression, Comfort Zone, Mental Health, Self-awareness, Anxiety

The clash could have been avoided

After that initial realization, I was able to pinpoint one major mistake I made in my quest to becoming a better version of myself by moving thousands of kilometers away from my comfort zone: I neglected to work on my self-awareness first.

In an interview with Forbes, Andy Molinski, author of the book Reach: A New Strategy to Help You Step Outside Your Comfort Zone, Rise to the Challenge and Build Confidence, says the best way to successfully get out of your comfort zone without negatively affecting yourself is to start with small actions that match your personality. Overall, start with something that makes sense to you at the moment:

The first steps, I believe, should be small and doable. Instead of jumping right into speaking at an industry event, sign up for a public speaking class. Instead of speaking up in the boardroom, start by speaking up in smaller meetings with peers to see how it feels.

Molinski calls this “customization”, which is the ability to take into consideration your own quirks when performing a certain task and adjusting it so it doesn’t feel too uncomfortable or unnatural for you.

Psychology professor Art Markman also shared his thoughts with Fast Company on the importance of self-awareness before deciding how far you should stretch yourself when looking for opportunities to grow by venturing into the unknown:

“Since you can’t really change where your own sweet spot falls, you simply need to get to know yourself: (For example) Are you able to get a lot done without much prompting, or do you need lots of help to energize yourself before getting down to work?”

If I had been more self-aware before deciding to just board a plane away from everything and everyone, I would have known that a big move wasn’t what I needed to feel better and that it was more than I could handle at the time. I stretched myself too far when I didn’t have the right tools to do so.
Better Iteration in Python— 6 Ways to Filter Iterables
By: Yong Cui
Tags: Python, Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Data Science, Programming

5. Conditional Abortion

Suppose that you start with an iterable, and for particular business needs, you need to iterate it and the iteration doesn’t stop until some condition is met. In this case, you should consider using a function called takewhile, which is also a higher-order function that is available in the itertools module. Let’s see its usage with some example code before I explain it to you.

Use of takewhile Function

In the above code, we have a stream of HTTP responses with the code and data saved. We want to log all valid responses until we encounter an error. To do that, we use the takewhile function with a predicate or evaluation function lambda x: x[0] == 200 , which means that the iteration will continue to run until the first element in the iterator can’t satisfy this evaluation criterion. In our case, the first three elements are eligible, while the fourth one isn’t. Thus, the iteration will abort at the fourth position.

One thing that can be confusing to beginners is how it’s different from the filter function. The filter function will go over the entire iterable and keep all the elements that pass the evaluation criterion. By contrast, the takewhile function has the conditional abortion feature, and it will stop the iteration completely once the next item evaluates True for the predicate.
Don’t let 2021 start without a solid publishing plan.
By: August Birch
Tags: Medium, Marketing, Money, Life Lessons, Writing

Don’t let 2021 start without a solid publishing plan. Now is the time to gab a piece of paper and flesh-out your writing plan for next year. Don’t wait until January.

January becomes July, then November. Then your here. A year later. Wondering why your audience hasn’t grown.

Make a plan now, as the year winds-down. Look at what worked for you. Do more of that. Look at what didn’t work and do less of that.

This story may help too:

Enroll in my Free Email Masterclass. Get Your First 1,000 Subscribers
3 to read: Pokemon Go & newsrooms | Who defines your startup’s success?
By: Matt Carroll
Tags: Journalism, Startup, Media, Pokemon Go, Statistics

3 to read: Pokemon Go & newsrooms | Who defines your startup’s success? | Why stats stink (w bad drawings)

By Matt Carroll <@MattatMIT>This week:

This week: How Pokemon Go will help usher in an era of “augmented reality” stories for newsrooms; don’t let outside expectations define your news startup’s success; and hey, let’s laugh a bit — some bad cartoons about how lyin’ stats.

Get notified via email: Send note to 3toread (at) gmail.com

“3 to read” online

Matt Carroll runs the Future of News initiative at the MIT Media Lab.
What to Stop and Start Doing in SEO in 2020
By: Tochukwu Okoro E.
Tags: Marketing, Content Marketing, Writing, Copywriting, SEO

Dead SEO Strategies

Putting your website in directories and stuffing your post with links

This was a good idea in the past. Where the off-page SEO efforts were just as basic as putting your website links into directories and in forums.

While for on-page SEO, you just stuffed in backlinks from various sites and wait.

There weren’t as many websites, and people were not trying to rank as much either. So, whoever knew these strategies sat comfortably at the top. There are still many people putting their websites in directories, but you have to be smart about it. Put your website links in niche-focused directories.

Keyword stuffing

Adding keywords is still a top SEO ranking strategy. But it is way different now. Google is like a delivery man that tries to deliver quality content to whoever makes an order for content via Google search.

So naturally, they would show the best article for the particular search term. When the Google crawlers check your page and see the keywords and what’s it’s about, you would rank, but if your article is not easily readable, Google will bury your article. Why? Because you didn’t produce quality. You should focus on putting out the best quality and relevant content rather than trying to rank.

Stuffing your post with keywords is dead. You should just use about two keywords and mention them not more than five times in the post. Google is more sophisticated, and they can tell if you stuffed in keywords. So, an article with stuffed keywords wouldn’t even be given a chance.

Paying for backlinks

This has more disadvantages than benefits. In an attempt to try to play on Google, people used to pay for backlinks so they could rank.

But when you do this, you put yourself at risk of getting blacklisted.

Blackhat SEO practices

People used to get away with Blackhat SEO practices in the past. Not anymore. Some of these practices include:

Cloaking involves showing one piece of content on the search engine while having another article on the page.

Comment spamming. This is one of the oldest tricks used by digital marketers. You know those links on your comment sections that look like if you click on them, you will get hacked? When you continuously do this on different sites, your page and website, in some cases, would be blacklisted.

Sneaky redirects. It is keeping links that redirect you to results other than what you wanted to get. Most websites that use these are download websites which have been paid for an ad or something.

Blackhat SEO practices automatically make your website blacklisted. So, you shouldn’t expect to rank doing them.
One Year Since Julian Assange Was Detained, He Faces Greatest Threat To His Survival Yet
By: Kevin Gosztola
Tags: Journalism, Wikileaks, Julian Assange, Human Rights, Coronavirus

One Year Since Julian Assange Was Detained, He Faces Greatest Threat To His Survival Yet Kevin Gosztola Follow Apr 11 · 8 min read

Photo taken and owned by Kevin Gosztola

It has been one year since the United States government, with the support of the governments of Ecuador, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, dramatically escalated their political prosecution against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

On April 11, 2019, Assange was expelled from the Ecuador embassy in the U.K. British police arrested him and charged him with violating bail conditions when he sought asylum in 2012, but the arrest was also connected to an indictment and extradition request filed by the U.S. government.

Video showed police carrying the body of a long-haired and bearded Assange, who was in clear distress. He begged the UK to resist President Donald Trump’s administration as officers loaded him into a van.

Assange was taken to Her Majesty’s Belmarsh Prison, where he served a 50-week sentence for the bail charge imposed against him. He remains in jail, despite his deteriorating health, the way it inhibits his ability to work with his legal team on his extradition case, and the reality that the global coronavirus pandemic threatens the lives of every incarcerated or jailed person.

Vaughan Smith, a friend who allowed Assange to live with him under house arrest in 2010, wrote on April 9 that Assange is “confined alone in a cell 23 and a half hours every day. He gets half an hour of exercise and that is in a yard crowded with other prisoners. With over 150 Belmarsh prison staff off work self-isolating, the prison is barely functioning.”

“We know of two COVID-19 deaths in Belmarsh so far, though the [Ministry] of Justice have admitted to only one death. Julian told me that there have been more and that the virus is ripping through the prison,” Smith added.

On March 25, British Magistrate Court Judge Vanessa Baraitser denied Assange bail, despite widespread calls for the release of detainees and prisoners to halt the spread of the coronavirus.

Assange’s legal team asked Baraitser to postpone a three-week extradition hearing scheduled for May 18. Baraitser refused to move the date.

According to Smith, “[Assange] is convinced this is happening to disadvantage him legally. Unable to meet with his lawyers, he cannot prepare his defense properly.”

Baraitser rejected a plea from lawyer Stella Morris to protect her anonymity as Assange’s fiancé. They fell in love while he was living in the embassy, and they had two kids. The tabloid press marked Assange’s one-year anniversary in detention by spreading salacious details.

“Forming a family was a deliberate decision to see, to kind of break down those walls around him, and imagine a life beyond that prison,” Morris said. “So, while for many people it would seem insane to start a family in that context, for us it was the sane thing to do. It was what keeps things real.”
Your Outrage Doesn’t Mean You’re Right
By: Diane Lee
Tags: Nonfiction, Experience, Outrage, Viewpoints, Writing

A while back, I posted the following essay to a Facebook group of women writers that I’m in. In a nutshell, this essay is about me — while I was living in Hanoi — dating a much younger Vietnamese man for 10 months, who turned out to be a covert narcissist. He almost killed me.

You would think that the comments about my essay would centre around the cycle of narcissistic abuse, or trauma bonds or intermittent reinforcement. Or how a smart, educated woman like myself could be drawn in by manipulation and lies. How I was gaslighted and controlled. Or why leaving emotionally abusive relationships is so difficult. Or about an older woman was busting stereotypes by dating a younger man.

No.

There was none of that.

The commentators were outraged that I said my ex was Vietnamese, that I described his physical features, that I was attracted to him because of these characteristics, and that I said his manipulation was cold, calculating and reptilian. These are all facts, all true. And this— I’m paraphrasing — is what was said about my essay:

You need to think super critically about racial disparities in this piece

You have eroticised him

You have positioned yourself unflatteringly as a fearful victim, deceived and entrapped

You need to take a course about writing memoirs

You need to discuss Vietnam’s troubling history and colonialism

You shouldn’t be analysing his words and actions.

Say what?

The commentary completely missed the point of my essay: that I was a victim of narcissistic abuse. Yes, it was perpetrated by a Vietnamese man who was much younger than me, but would this even be a bone of contention if the narcissist were an older, white guy? I don’t think so. Narcissistic abuse is narcissistic abuse, no matter who perpetrates it.

I was deflated by their outrage.

Then I got curious. Who were these women who were so outraged about my writing? Why had they missed — or completely ignored — the point of my story?

Turns out one is a cultural critic. Another is an editor. The other offers writing coaching.

Aha.

They have criticised my story through their own lenses, their own agendas, their own positioning. Just as I have written my story through mine. And I’m the bad guy? Please.
How to use Pipenv with Jupyter and VSCode
By: Daniel Deutsch
Tags: Python, Vscode, Jupyter Notebook, Pipenv, Pyenv

Currently, I study Artificial Intelligence at the JKU university and for some exercises, we need to use jupyter notebooks. Having worked a little bit with Python the package manager pipenv proofed to be valuable. Now, I encountered some problems using it with Jupyter notebooks and within VSCode. Therefore, a short guide on how I solved it.

Table of Contents

The Issue

As I described in my last article Working with Jupyter and VSCode I use pyenv and pipenv for managing all packages in my python development. I also referenced some articles why this way is helpful and easy to use. Now, it is necessary to dive a little more into it. There are two ways you would want to develop with jupyter notebook. Either you work with it directly in the browser or inside VSCode. In both use cases, there can emerge problems.

Developing with Jupyter Notebook in the browser

Jupyter Notebook in the browser

Let’s say you already have the proper python environment on your system and now you want to create a specific one for a project.

First, create a Pipenv environment. Make sure to navigate into the correct directory. Use pipenv install <packages> to install all your packages. Then use pipenv shell to activate your shell. Then use pipenv install jupyter and afterward pipenv run jupyter notebook .

Now the jupyter server is started and your notebook will have access to the correct environment.

Activating the right environment for Jupyter notebook in the browser

Develop with Jupyter Notebook in VSCode
8 Things to Know to Master Python Function Arguments
By: Yong Cui
Tags: Programming, Machine Learning, Python, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence

8 Things to Know to Master Python Function Arguments

All you need to know to write readable Python functions

Photo by Marc Marchal on Unsplash.

We always use functions in our projects — no matter what our projects are about. When we call functions that are written by others, we need to understand the function signature (i.e. what parameters we should pass to get the desired function output). Sometimes, we need to write functions for others to call when we should be clear about the desired use cases without causing any ambiguity. In either case, it’s not the easiest job.

In this article, I’d like to provide a comprehensive overview of arguments in Python functions. Specifically, I’m referring to the input parameters. I hope this article can eliminate any questions that you may have when you’re calling others’ functions or defining your own.
Design Patterns Saga: Manta Ray vs Butterfly
By: Gene Zeiniss
Tags: Design Patterns, Object Oriented, Composition, Java, Programming

What’s the problem?

Before you jump to create a swimmer guide, take a look at the description of the movement of each stroke. Just to make it visual, I organized everything into a spreadsheet and highlighted things that caught my attention.

The Freestyle and Backstroke both swim in a horizontal position, but Backstroke swimmers do it on their back (obviously). Breaststroke and Butterfly use a prone position, but in different ways as well. Butterfly’s body executes a wave-like undulation. The same notes on arm movements. Now, take a look at leg movement and breathing. Freestyle has exactly the same flutter kick as Backstroke and same breathing instructions as Butterfly. In Backstroke, there are no special instructions at all, since breathing is not restricted.

Consider the implementation of the swimming guide above. We can override each behavior by concrete swimming stroke classes. Let’s assume that flutter kick is the default leg movement, then whip kick and dolphin kick are overridden behaviors. Butterfly with Manta paddle and Dolphin kick, that’s what I call a naming embarrassment.

So far so good. Now you want to add the additional swimming stroke, let’s call it Pupa (still think about 🐛 → 🦋) that has a 100% dolphin kick. I’m guessing you will add an additional base level (or will just copy the Breaststoke’s leg movement implementation).

Then you will add some additional strokes, heaven forbid, Synchronous Swimming, that has hundreds of positions. From here on it’s a short slide into madness 🤪.

It’s becoming apparent that our previous example suffered from excessive tight-coupling. When code is tightly coupled to a specific solution (or the current model of the problem) it becomes difficult to extend it. The world, for better or worse, is a dynamic place. The problems we already fixed change and our old solutions become irrelevant like yesterday’s news.

The Strategy Design Pattern is an attempt to provide extensibility in a dynamic world that achieves a set goal. The method of doing things may change but the end goal remains the same.
Dieting Addiction
By: Rachel Miller
Tags: Poetry, Life, Mental Health, Self Improvement, Psychology

Dieting Addiction

A poem about poison

Photo by i yunmai on Unsplash

She is addicted.

She has been hooked since she was young.

Sold it as the solution for life.

She was told it’s health-giving, necessary.

That it will save her.

Yet, it’s taken away her life.

Stolen precious minutes of every hour.

Robbed her of other thoughts, dreams.

Her life is no richer.

She’s never known the fruits of her labor.

Rather, she even denies herself fruit.

Yet, she labors on.

Believing in the promises they fed her.

Believing she will never be enough until she loses “the weight.”

Believing she is not enough as she is.

She has been fed lies.

The “cure” is the poison that keeps her sick.

As long as she diets, she will never be free.
Work with private repositories and other updates of the FlyElephant platform
By: Dmitry Spodarets
Tags: Science, Data Science, Big Data

Work with private repositories and other updates of the FlyElephant platform

The FlyElephant team has prepared a number of upgrades that allow you to work with private repositories with an improved system security and good task functionality.

FlyElephant is a platform for scientists, providing a computing infrastructure for calculations, helping to find partners for the collaboration on projects, and managing all data from one place. FlyElephant automates routine tasks and helps to focus on core research issues.

The Azure cloud is used as a computational resource. Users can run computing tasks written in C++ (with support for OpenMP), R, Python, Octave, Scilab, Java, Julia, OpenFOAM, GROMACS, Blender on servers from 1 to 32 cores and up to 448 GB.

Here is a list of our updates:

· Working with private repositories.

The possibility of working with a private repository using a RSA key, which you can get at your account settings.

· The process of running computational tasks was improved.

Now the starting command can be specified directly in the form of a task creation. The necessary files — run.sh and build.sh — were removed from repository.

· The functionality for saving, stopping, deleting and duplicating tasks was added.

· Improved log system.

On the task details page you can check in real time all logs of the computing task.

· Public API.

The public API was realized, which allows to interact with the platform (to manage tasks and data), also to integrate FlyElephant with your solutions or to build a new one on the platform.

· New payment system.

Users have two accounts now: Computing Hours (CH) and General ($). CH is a bonus account that gives users free calculation time. General — the main account, can be replenished using a credit card.

· Referral Program.

Invite your friends using a personal link, which you find in the account settings and you’ll receive a bonus (200 CH).

· Implemented SSL.

· New Documentation.

Updated documentation is placed here: https://flyelephant.net/documentation/.

We invite you to try the new features of the system. If you haven’t registered yet, go here. After registration, 500 CH will be in your account. Use the promo code 145124070132 and enter it in the Dashboard and you can recharge for another 300 CH.

We will be happy to hear your feedback and suggestions on how to improve the platform. We also can hold a 30-minute demo presentation for you with great pleasure. You can book time for a demo presentation right here.
Engage Your Audience By Writing In Different Styles
By: Jun Wu
Tags: Audience, Freelancing, Writing, Marketing, Writing Tips

One of the biggest challenges that a new freelance writer faces is the “voice”. When you are writing for clients, your writing voice might not resonate with every single client. You need to speak their branding language. At the same time, you need to figure out the style of writing that your client wants to see. Before bringing on any client, you can expect to spend at least 2 to 4 hours researching the client by reading through the client’s website and supporting materials to adopt their voice.

There’s a short cut to this process.

If you practiced switching between different styles of writing on your blogs, it becomes infinitely easier to adapt your voice to a company’s voice, a brand’s voice, and an influencer’s voice.

I liken the process to acting. Instead of channeling the writer in me, I channel the actor in me.

What does a method actor do when they want to play a part well? They have to research and figure out what makes this “person” tick. At the same time, they practice by playing a variety of parts to be able to embody any “person” at anytime

The difference between a good writer and an experienced writer is that an experienced writer will mix elements of different writing styles to truly engage the audience with a customized “voice” that fits.

For an experienced writer, writing becomes an art form and you create new colors rather than just using the colors.

Practice writing these types of articles, you will see your writing improve drastically. You will learn the nuances of each writing style and be able to mix them to write more engaging articles.
To Read More Books, Practice “The Bill Gates Effect”
By: Matt Lillywhite
Tags: Self Improvement, Productivity, Education, Books, Reading

To Read More Books, Practice “The Bill Gates Effect”

Implement these strategies if you want to read more frequently.

Photo via Flickr

I’ve reached a point in my life where I enjoy nothing more than sitting down and reading a good book for several hours. But I wasn’t always like this. More often than not, I struggled to find the time, energy, and motivation to sit down on the sofa and read the first page.

So how did I become an avid reader in a short amount of time? The answer is adopting the habits of passionate readers, such as Bill Gates, and then implementing them into my own life.

So below are several strategies that will help you to read a lot more frequently. Each of these insights changed my life for the better, and I’m confident they will do the same for you, too.
First $500k: Request for Biotech Startups
By: Brayton Williams
Tags: Venture Capital, Biotechnology, Startup

Biotech founders, apply to Boost VC for your first $500k!

Boost VC is looking to invest in 2 biotech companies in the next 2 months for Tribe 14. Apply at www.boost.vc/apply

Over the last couple years we have backed biotech companies: InterVenn (AI driven mass spectrometry), NewCulture (lab grown cheese), Dynomics (regenerative molecules to reverse heart failure), NextBiotics (engineered viruses for good) and are looking for more!

Here is a non-exhaustive list of things we are interested in backing:

Food to Change Your Mind: 🍄 Whether it be nootropics or psilocybin it is becoming more mainstream to explore how chemicals and food can enhance us all. Read Michael Pollan’s “How to Change Your Mind” and tell me this wave isn’t coming.

Super Babies: 👶 Instead of fixing problems when they happen, can we start out human life minimizing the threats of cancer and disease. Although a delicate subject, more people are becoming comfortable using tools to help conceive healthy children.

Software solutions for process problems in life sciences: 💻 As Benchling (Adam angel investment) enhanced and scaled the R&D process for life science, what other processes need improving?

Using biotech to solve mass hunger and thirst: 💧More people than ever to feed and less drinkable water. What technological breakthroughs are happening to solve these problems that we can bring to scale?

Still the best founders we back are ones who convince us of their vision of the future. We want to hear your idea and tell us how you will make it happen!

www.boost.vc/apply
Become a Writer for Chance Encounters
Tags: Community, Collaboration, Storytelling, Writing, Submission Guidelines

Guidelines

Once we’ve added you as a writer, follow these guidelines to submit your story. We only have a few, so take a moment to read them. They do matter.

New Stories Only

We only accept unpublished drafts. This is so we can ensure proper scheduling and that each story spends ample time on our front page.

Follow the Theme

Our name is Chance Encounters for a reason. We’re open to all genres and approaches. Stories can be any length but must contain an element of ‘coincidence’ or ‘the unknown’. For more on what we’re looking for, read our intro here.

Use Original Images

All submissions must include an original featured image right BELOW the title and subtitle. We only accept original images. This can be a photograph, painting, sketch, etc — created by you. Add your credit in the image caption.

We do not accept images from Unsplash, Pixabay, Pexels, etc. Using original images brings an individual quality to each story. It also helps us support and celebrate the artists who create these visuals for a living.

The quality of the image you submit matters. We are a visual publication and want our work to reflect that. If you can’t find a unique image for your story or are worried about the quality, don’t worry. You have options:

Collaborate with someone who is willing to contribute their own image(s). Credit them in the image caption area and feel free to mention your experience in the story. We call this a chance collaboration. See more about how this works here .

with someone who is willing to contribute their own image(s). Credit them in the image caption area and feel free to mention your experience in the story. We call this a chance collaboration. See more about how this works Ask for help. If you still can’t find an image, insert a description of the idea/mood you’re looking for at the beginning of your post. If we like your story, we’ll try to find a photo from our own archives. This may take a few days, but we will leave you a private note with an update.

Tag It

Please use Chance Encounters as one of your tags. The rest are up to you.

Titles, Subtitles, and Text

Please proofread your work and create original titles and subtitles for your story. We ask that you avoid using the term ‘chance encounters’ in your post, as that’s the name of our publication. Use your imagination. Often times, less is more. Look at some of our favorite stories for ideas:

Questions

If you have any questions at all, leave a comment below or send an email to: cewritingteam[at]gmail[dot]com.

~ LB and Attila
Become More Self-Aware in the Next 3 Minutes
By: Niklas Göke
Tags: Relationships, Life Lessons, Psychology, Body Image, Self-awareness

Become More Self-Aware in the Next 3 Minutes

Deciding to be alone is always the hardest part

Photo by Houcine Ncib on Unsplash

Everyone wants to be self-aware, but no one wants to be by themselves.

Unfortunately, if we never spend time alone, we’ll never know who we are.

Often, it’s not being alone that’s hard, it’s deciding to be alone. The prospect of loneliness — what we might feel when no one’s around — scares us so much that we never make time for it.

We might end up alone by coincidence, but we don’t plan for it, and we definitely don’t plan for it frequently. Thus, we rarely ever get there.

Once we actually are on our own, however, almost always, we realize: “Hey! This isn’t so bad. The world is still turning!” And then we learn something new about ourselves.

One such thing you can learn in the next three minutes, and it might not even require physical solitude. All it takes is finding your reflection.

Grab the small mirror in your bag or stand in front of your large one at home. Go to a restroom or turn on your laptop’s camera. You could even use the front cam of your phone, look at its shiny back, or stare at a window.

Wherever you can find it, once you see your twin inside the glass, take a deep breath. Sit or stand straight. Close your eyes. Inhale through the nose, hold for a second, then exhale through your nose as well. Then, open your eyes.

What you see right now is your face at rest. What does it look like? Is it a happy face? A bored face? A sad face? Are you smiling? Do you look grumpy?

Whatever it looks like, without realizing it, this is the face you’re wearing 95% of the time you’re awake.

It’s the face people see when you pass them in the street. It’s the face looking at your screen as you work, at your phone as you chill, and at your TV while playing games. It’s the face behind the windshield of your car, the face that walks into a grocery store, and the face that looks at new people as you meet them for the first time.

Unless…you change it.

If you don’t smile, people won’t see you smiling. If you don’t laugh, no one knows you’re having fun. If you don’t look focused, how should we know not to interrupt you? Facial expressions matter.

Knowing ourselves is our responsibility, and it starts with the look on our face.

It may seem small, but every day, that’s the message we’re carrying into the world. If we want to change that message, we first have to know what it says.

Self-awareness is something we all aspire to, and yet, because of what’s necessary to get there — being alone — we shy away from it at the same time.

Today, spend three minutes with the person in the mirror. Get to know them.

Take a bathroom break, pretend you’re fixing your makeup, or spend a long time “preparing for a selfie.” It’s okay to make up an excuse. If it helps you know yourself better, it’ll be worth it.

Self-awareness is a skill. It takes practice, and to practice, we must make time. Staring at yourself in the mirror won’t be the end of it, but it sure is a start.
Resources to Supercharge your Data Science in 2021
By: Nicole Janeway Bills
Tags: Machine Learning, Data Science, Statistics, Python, Artificial Intelligence

Web Resources

🔦 ML Showcase — great for project inspiration, this repository of data science projects from Team Paperspace should certainly get your wheels turning.

🎓 Codecademy — time after time, I find myself recommending this powerful learning platform to folks breaking into coding or looking to pick up new languages. The strength of Codecademy lies in its simplicity — these exercises will get your muscle memory trained up so that you’ll be typing code like a master in no time.

🖌 The Data Visualization Catalogue — this site offers archetypal renderings of all the creative chart options available to help you get your data science point across. Plus, check out i want hue as a data-science-based tool for making your color palette selection.

💻 StackShare —a powerful platform for comparing tools side-by-side. StackShare also offers the perusal of stacks used at titans of Data Science such as Stitch Fix, Uber, Airbnb, and many more.

📚 Git Style Guide — just like PEP8 for Python, git has its own guidelines for naming, commenting, and walking forwards and backwards while elegantly balancing a stack of books on your head. Thanks Agis Anastasopoulos for this resource!