fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Beginner Guide on Attacking and Defending FTP Server | PART 1/2
By: Pawan Jaiswal
Tags: Defense, Security, Hacking, Beginner, Ftp

Attack & Defense on FTP Server

From this post, we will learn how an attacker is able to target the FTP Server and what steps should be taken by the administrator to secure the same.

This is the first post of the series. Make sure you read the full post to have a comprehensive understanding, and in case of any doubt drop me a note.

Introduction:

Many organizations usages FTP service exposed to their clients so that, they can send over huge files. Later, be it a legacy server or when the business use of this service is over, the administrator tends to leave the server open knowingly or unknowingly.

Does not matter whether the FTP server is exposed to the internet or is internally hosted, the attack vector and defense are equally important. Here, I am not going to walk you through how to set up an FTP server but instead, I have already installed vsftp on my local server and considering ftp.exploit-writeup.com as our target machine for the demonstration.

What is FTP, I have never heard about it?

File Transfer Protocol aka FTP is one of the popular network protocols used for the transfer of files between client and server. The default port for FTP is 21. We can connect to the FTP service either using nc, telnet, or ftp command.

Being said that, let's get started.
A Poem By Melissa Stein
By: The Awl
Tags: Melissa Stein, Poetry, The Poetry Section

A Poem By Melissa Stein

Polar Vortex

The air pinned us like a two-ton

duvet. We painted all the walls

blue. We sipped icebergs

to cool down. When it got really bad

we imported San Francisco fog

and tethered it over the pool.

Small benevolent wild creatures

joined us, splaying out their bellies

on the tiles, taxidermied by the heat.

At least we were unpelted. And while

we’d extract our own kidneys

with a dull pair of left-handed scissors

before suffering another body within twenty feet

of our parboiled flesh, the stupefaction

cultivated erotic dreams so robust

and depraved we fell to our knees

in gratitude every newly

unbearable morning.
Web Hosting Using Python Part 2
By: Ayush Kalla
Tags: CSS, Flask, Python, HTML, Web Development

In the previous part of this tutorial we saw how to run a basic web page on a server using Flask. The tutorial can be found here. Now we can take a look at how to render an already present HTML page which can also include CSS in itself.

Creating the HTML File

Below is a basic HTML file that also contains CSS (between the Style Tags) and some JavaScript (between the script tag). This is a dynamic page as its output changes on button click.

The output of the above code is as shown below

Output Before Button Click

Output After Button Click

This HTML file runs smoothly on the machine (without any server), but to run this on a Flask server we will need to add the entire HTML code for the file in the return statement, which is not really feasible. Let’s see an easier way to do it in Flask.

File Structure of a Flask Server

All the HTML files are stored in a folder named templates which can be in the same directory as the Flask application. Hence, to include the HTML file in the application, we create a folder in the same directory as our Flask application and name it as templates. Now we need to add our Flask file to this templates folder.

File Structure

The HTML file is included in the templates folder.

Changes to the Flask Application

Making changes to the Flask application is fairly simple. We just need to specify the name of the HTML file from which we want to render the HTML code. Flask by default looks at the templates folder to search for HTML templates.

Code For Flask Application

The only changes made in this Flask application is on lines 1 and line 6. On line 1 we import the render template module and on line 6 we include it in the return statement, by passing the name of the HTML file.

The process to run the application on the local server remains the same as discussed in the first tutorial. Lets see the output of the application on the local server.

Output Before Button Click

Output After Button Click

As we can see, our Flask application runs perfectly fine now on the server.

Thanks for Reading

In the upcoming Publications we will see how to render CSS and JavaScript that are present as separate files and not included in the same HTML document.

Please comment your views about the publication in the comment box.
You Have To Visit These 5 Uniquely Charming Southern Cities
Tags: Travel

The South has a lot to offer, but we’ve narrowed our “to-visit” list down to five uniquely charming cities. Whether you’re interested in high-class cuisine and craft beer, or if you want to shop for trinkets made by local artisans, these Southern destinations are sure to tickle your fancy.

When you’ve decided on a city, don’t forget to book your vacation through Government Vacation Rewards — our ultra-low prices are specifically designed to benefit veterans, current members of the military, and government employees. You’ll earn additional Travel Savings Credits when you book, and you can even earn credits just by registering for an account. So, what are you waiting for? Hop on over to Government Vacation Rewards today!

Check out the full article here!
Overnight to the Near Shore
By: Harry Finch
Tags: Short Story, Fiction

A stone sleeps a long time. Under butternut shade her toes work the cobble streambed, and one of us says, A stone sleeps a long time.

War ruins everyone, from the sunshine of casualty counts to the yellow ribbons that come and go on her mailbox post.

Before I knew her house I believed in all its lonely hours.

The brook behind our homes, a Proteus sneaking to the sea. I woke this morning, heard it, and knew where I lay. I let her sleep. Making myself at home in a foreign country, I found the coffee pot.

Stones everywhere. Riverclean, their stories polished. Dozens, maybe hundreds. On window sills and side tables, mantles and corners. Cairns in a chapel.

But walls like Shakers. A house that wants no history.

At the kitchen window I watched the day moving into her front yard, and with it a car to her mailbox, then a man, perhaps from the republic of small earnest church cellars, tying a yellow ribbon bow to the post.

She came downstairs. I poured coffee. We stood at the window together. A man came by, I said. I bet he did, she said.

Yesterday she said, You think a hawk will bother a cat? I stood at the end of her driveway, scratching the cat’s chin while its back swept the dust. Depends on the hawk, I said. Maybe the cat too, she said.

Morning lay on her lawn. Her cat watched from the stoop. Putting her cup in the sink she says, You might come by for lunch. I guess I might, I said.

My house is the fourth upstream. The brook, more determined, falls over rocks in pigtails and dreadlocks. My walls and shelves fester with tales of betrayal. Perhaps there should be stones.

When I come back I see the yellow ribbon lying atop the garage bin.

We sit along the brook, eating tuna sandwiches, drinking iced tea. Her toes work the streambed.

So many stones.

Sedimentary.

Igneous.

Metamorphic.

I know so little of stones. Surely some, the deepest dreamers, will find great waters.
by Martino Pietropoli
By: Martino Pietropoli
Tags: Psychology, Illustration, Humor, Comics, Thursday

First thing in the morning: a glass of water and a cartoon by The Fluxus.

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Creating Playlists out of Setlists from Chris Cornell’s Live History
By: Lee Martin
Tags: Marketing, Concerts, Music, Programming, Design

Two years ago, I visited the Tate in London to view the Robert Rauschenberg retrospective and by the end of it I was in tears. A retrospective gives you a linear perspective on the successes and failures of any artist and it was clear by the end that Bob had so much more to say. I was especially touched by how he revisited some of his initial concepts in his final compositions. He knew what he loved. Robert died at the age of 82.

I remember hearing Black Hole Sun for the first time like it was yesterday. I was stunned. Chris Cornell. That voice. Fucking hell. I was hooked and Soundgarden was a welcome addition to my sister and I’s early 90’s alternative repertoire. I followed Chris’ career from Soundgarden to Audioslave and consumed his solo efforts as well. I was numb when I heard of Chris’ death last year. Every year it feels like we’re losing more friends, family, and inspirations to the plague of depression. For someone who loves art and music, losing someone like Chris at such a young age is a sobering reality of the fragility of life and art. Both can come to a halt in an instance.

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1–800–273–8255.

Since Chris’ passing, he has been celebrated in many ways. Recently, a bronze statue of Chris was unveiled in his hometown of Seattle and there will be a Tribute Concert in Los Angeles next year. In addition, a massive retrospective of his career has become available covering work from Temple of the Dog, Soundgarden, Audioslave, and solo efforts.

I was tasked with coming up with a simple idea that could pay respect to Chris’ life as an artist while revisiting intimate connections between he and his fans. Chris was a rock legend and being part of multiple projects means he toured a lot. There is nothing quite as intimate as the relationship a fan and artist forge via a live performance. His gigography serves as a sort of physical memory of where he walked among us through the years. I shared these thoughts with my cohort Harold Gutierrez and asked him to come up with a single sentence on what we should build. Harold sent back the following:

Find the setlist from Chris Cornell shows you attended and create a playlist in your Spotify or Apple Music library.

I loved it. The setlist, an arrangement of songs chosen by the artist for your night, is a perfect memory fragment to remind us of that moment spent together. Let’s convert it to a modern format you can take around and make it easy to do so. Check it out here and read on to find out how we tackled it.

Setlists and Songs
More old school wines: Pinot Noir and Merlot
By: Ronan Mclaverty-Head
Tags: Bulgaria, Merlot, Sideways, Pinot Noir, Wine

Number four in a series about wine by a recovering teetotaler (#1 Syrah/Shiraz; #2 Chardonnay; #3 Riesling).

“Black pine” grapes. Source: Wikipedia.

Pinot noir means “black pine,” referring to the tightly clustered nature of the grapes. Pinot noir grows well in cooler climates such as Burgundy; if you drink a red “burgundy” it’s probably from pinot noir or a pinot noir blend.

Pinot grapes produce lightly coloured, low tannin wines. Expect them to be lower in alcohol. Pinot noir is a difficult grape to get right, so if a bottle makes its way to market, chances are that it’s decent.

Describing Burgundy the region, Thomson (The World Atlas of Wine) writes that if Paris is France’s head, and champagne her soul, then Burgundy is her stomach, “the land of long meals.” This is a wine to buy with food-pairing in mind: bring up the cheap burgundy for the summer charcuterie — ham and other cold meats — and save an expensive, silky bottle for roast meats.

The popularity of pinot noir shot up after its merits were praised in the film Sideways. This is as good as a love letter to wine as you will ever see:

Go west from Burgundy and you will be among the merlots of Bordeaux. Expect inky wines that are full, velvety, and have you tasting juicy plums and ripe blackberries. (Incidentally, Sideways hated merlots, which killed sales in the USA vs. pinot noir.)

Bulgaria makes a nice merlot: this ultra-cheap bottle was juicy, oaky, yummy. Back in the day, Bulgaria exported most of its wine to the USSR; nowadays we can all sit back and drink wine from the Thracian lowlands and think about the Iliad. Homer has Thracians appear as Trojan allies. Perhaps Troy was drunk on Thracian wine as Odysseus’s horse was wheeled in?
*Feelings (unfinished)*
Tags: Poetry, Anxiety

*Feelings (unfinished)*

<For when anxiety wants to get the better of you>

Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

Heart thumping heavily

Clarity making its way slowly

Paranoia getting scared

Voices nonexistent

Heart thumping mildly

Mind racing swiftly

Concentration coming and going

Euphoria peeking through gingerly

Doubt resurfacing and fading just as fast

Obstinacy defiant and determined

Mind moving calmly
Goodnight: Haiku
By: Patsy Starke
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Poetry, Haiku Hub, Haiku, LGBTQ

Six Years of poetry-only publishing, PoetsUnlimited was a diverse, engaging and authentic poetry magazine. For most of that time a daily publication, it was always diverse and original, and free-to-read by all.

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Creating a revolving moon around a rotating earth with Unity/Vuforia
By: Sid B
Tags: Augmented Reality, Unity, Vuforia

Our objective here is to first create a rotating earth and then add a revolving moon around it. The end product will look like this:

Revolving moon around rotating earth in AR

Replacing the cube with the earth object

Our starting point is the completion of the DreamAR tutorial with Scale, Rotate, and Translate functionality completed. The existing setup must work with all the 3 axes (X, Y, Z) with positive (increase) and negative (decrease) functionality.

Our starting point

In Unity’s Asset Store, search for “globe” and select the “Free Assets” option. Select the “Stylized Earth” asset — download and import it.

It will not show “Purchased” if you’re downloading it for the first time.

In the Project window, a new folder “LowPolyEarth” would appear. Within it, drag and drop “lowpoly_earth” into the Hierarchy.

When you do this, the default size of the globe will be huge, so it needs to be resized.

Reduce the scale to 0.15 along all axes and move it a bit to the side so that you can see it more clearly.

Rename the object to “earth”.

Drag and drop it into the existing ImageTarget

Testing it out should show the earth on the side of the cube.

Open the “transform” script which is part of “ImageTarget”.

Replace all instances of “cube” with “earth” and add a line in the beginning of Start() function.

earth = GameObject.Find(“earth”);

Remember to save the transform.cs file and then go back to Unity.

Delete the “cube” object and move the “earth” object to y-axis = 0.15

Run the code. The “earth” object is now modifiable just as the cube was.

After rotating the earth and moving it along the x-axis

Rotating the earth object by default

Add the following above the Start() function:

public float speed = 20f;

And add the following function:

void Update() { earth.transform.Rotate(Vector3.forward, speed * Time.deltaTime, Space.World); }

Now running the code will allow you to manipulate the rotating earth.

Adding a revolving moon around the earth

Add a sphere to the Hierarchy

Set the position as (0, 0.15, 0.35) and scale as (0.1, 0.1, 0.1)

The sphere should be positioned similarly to as shown:

Rename it to “moon” and then place it within “ImageTarget”.

Create a new script within the Scripts folder called “orbit”

Drag and drop this script onto the moon object.

Double-click to open it.

Add the following public variables:

public GameObject orbitAround; // what we are orbiting around public float speed = 20f; // making the speed of the moon match the rotation of the earth

And create Start() and Update() as follows:

void Start() { orbitAround = GameObject.Find(“earth”); } // Update is called once per frame void Update() { transform.RotateAround(orbitAround.transform.position, Vector3.forward, speed * Time.deltaTime); }

Running the code should show you the “moon” revolving around the “earth”.

Note that modifying the earth’s scale/rotation/translation(location) will not modify the moon’s position! :)
Spring is nature’s way of saying, Let’s party!
By: Bernardo Masiero
Tags: Nature, Outdoors, Flowers, Children, Spring

We can all agree it has been a long winter, but finally Spring is officially here! Temperature is rising, bird song is filling the air and more and more species of birds will arrive until late May. Some of the signs winter is over:

Magnolias will bloom.

When the weather warms up, monarch butterflies come out of hibernation and mate. After mating, they begin their trip to southern United States to lay their eggs on milkweed. Spot them in our gardens and among roadside plants.

Daffodils! New York City’s official flower is no stranger to spring’s bright colors.

These are just a few of the signs spring is upon us. Join Treebath for a Forest Bath and reconnect with nature!
Dealing with anger in few words
By: Stephen C. Rose
Tags: Anger, Poetry, Music, Peace, Community

in Everything Comes
When Did You Start Being in the Closet?
By: Emmy Lipman
Tags: Coming Out, Religion, Self-awareness, LGBTQ, Youth

At some point in each of our lives, we had that moment of realization that we were different. Some of us eased into it, some experienced it rather quickly. For me, it was a sudden feeling. I laid eyes on the girl that would change my life forever and felt a way that I hadn’t felt before. Little 13-year-old Marnie was afraid and she didn’t know why. Was this the moment that I entered the closet?

You could argue that the metaphorical closet all of us gays have been in begins when we gain an understanding of the culture we live in. Once we’re able to view society’s norms in a way that influences our decisions, we begin to understand that the majority of cultures across the world frown upon being gay. For some that grew up around more diversity than others, this may be slightly altered.

“I knew [my sexuality] was something to hide from the beginning. I knew upfront how terrible the stigma was.”

Gabrielle, a writer and digital creative from Brooklyn, told me about her experiences with identifying within the LGBTQ+ community and being from a big city. With parents that come from a traditionally homophobic island in the Caribbean, coming out hasn’t been easy. “I feel like they may know,” Gabrielle says. She is currently not out to her parents.

A year after coming out to her friends, Gabrielle says it’s much easier now than ever. “I swear, people be like ‘hello,’ and I’m like ‘Hi, I’m bisexual.’ It feels like I’m smacking people in the face with how bisexual I am sometimes.”

I asked about what her closet was like. Gabrielle tells me, “I knew I was in the closet during junior high/high school…but at 20 was when I understood the political implications of claiming that identity.”
The Feds Just Found $20 Million Hidden Under A Mattress
By: Diamond Brown
Tags: Money, Crime, World, Culture, Law

The Feds Just Found $20 Million Hidden Under A Mattress

This isn’t a Mark Wahlberg movie — it’s real life.

Picture federal agents bursting into a bedroom, finding a crap-load of money hiding under a mattress. No, it’s not a scene from Mark Wahlberg’s next film — it’s real life.

The US Attorney’s Office of Massachusetts recently tweeted a picture of $20 million in cash found in the box spring of a Brazilian national. Homeland Security was investigating Cleber Rene Rizerio Rocha on suspicion of money laundering when agents found the cash in his bedroom.

It’s probably the closest we’ll ever get to seeing $20 million worth of 20-, 50- and 100-dollar bills. And, of course, it’s all illegal.

Rocha, 27, faces jail time for his involvement in a massive pyramid scheme masked by a company called TelexFree. The company tricked people into paying a $1,425 fee to act as recruiters for the voice-over-internet phone service. As NPR reported, TelexFree “took in millions of dollars from people signing up to receive financial bonuses from advertising and recruiting.” The money went into the pockets of company heads and nearly 1 million people worldwide lost money.

One leader of the scam pleaded guilty, while another retreated to Brazil. The investigation is ongoing, but we’re hoping Mark Wahlberg is frantically drafting up a script based on this drama.
Desfachatez
By: Gb Rogut
Tags: Poesía, Poetry, Relationships, Poema, Feminism

Jack of all trades, mistress of poetry. Mexicana. Bi. Autistic. Find all things Gaby here https://linktr.ee/GabyRosales

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Yoga, its kinetics and form (Part I)
By: Natasha Singh
Tags: Creative Coding, Computer Vision, Performing Arts, Data Visualization, Yoga

This was a Woaaah! moment for us already, because as we were appreciative of the sequence of Surya Namaskar and its effects on the physical and mental domain, these trails had a lot more going on visually. We had just only begin to scratch the surface. Before we could go on any further with the creative exploration of these forms, because remember we are computer artists, We wanted to learn more about Surya Namaskar, and we found this quote by Swamy Satyananda

Surya Namaskar generated prana, the subtle energy which activates the psychic body. Its performance in a steady, rhythmic sequence reflects the rhythm of the universe, twenty-four hours of the day, the twelve zodiac phases of the year and the bio-rhythms of the body.

This was it! This explained everything. The ebbs and flow we see in the recordings, the complex net of formation intertwined between key postures resonated well with what we had learnt.

Surya Namaskar is a deterministic sequence of 12 postures done first on the right then on left, with every 6th posture, the body experiences the lowest gravity in Ashtanga Namaskar (shown in the image below, where its marked in a pink color). As the 12 postures are repeated on the left side, the second half of Surya Namaskar set, you see a natural vertical mirror in the linear trail as shown below. Does it talk about duality, we still had to discover..
Chaos
By: Dr. Deborah M. Vereen
Tags: Politics, Education, Society, Leadership, United States

Chaos has found a place to comfortably dwell within our boarders.

The experiment to celebrate the one who makes deals instead of building bridges to unite humanity has failed. The experiment to endorse the one who declares their deep pockets (but no one knows what is really in those pockets) are fill with extreme generational financial wealth but does not have the capacity share a glimmer kindness with those classified as the least of these has failed.

A true leader leads. Chaos has erupted in our nation because our leader has not been a leader. Instead, the one elected to lead has mocked, discriminated, favored, intimidated, floundered, hated, disrupted, deceived, lied, agitated, humiliated, denigrated, scoffed, instigated, violated, belittled, whitewashed, wounded, and destroyed.

Chaos is its name.

Chaos has been void of concern for others outside of the ultimate sphere of influence. Chaos has been void of love for those who do not possess similar characteristics. There is a very dark and empty space in the heart of chaos for those who are powerless. But, chaos finds great delight in power and control.

Chaos has caused unrest in our educational systems. Chaos is putting the safety of students, school employees, and their families at a high level of risk.

Chaos lives and breathes among us.
Is Instagram making a mistake?
By: Sajal Ghimire
Tags: Social Media, Information, Report, Instagram, Tech

You need not agree with me, but I know that some people actually judge others or feel proud of the number of likes they got on their photos. Yup, people use the like counts as a measure of success. And, maybe Instagram also realized it too, as it has given an announcement recently that it will eliminate the “Likes” (or love, heart) counter in some accounts globally.

If this new update goes live, we will not be able to check the number of likes someone received in their photos or videos. However, this does not mean that you can not see the number of likes on your photos or videos. You can not see the number of likes on other user’s photos/videos.

This feature makes me somehow sad and happy at the same time. Sad because Jennifer Aniston recently joined Instagram, and I would like to check how many likes or hearts she got. And happy because now likes would not be the factor with which some measure their own or other people’s success.

But, this test might alter some people’s business. The business of many artists and influencers is measured in their visibility on Instagram. Advertisers use the “like” counter as a visibility metric. To this point, the Instagram team shares their thoughts —

“We understand that likes counters are important to many creators, and we are actively thinking of ways to allow creators to communicate value to their partners.” — An Instagram core team-member

“We will make decisions that harm the business if they help the well-being and health of people,” said Adam Mosseri, the CEO of Instagram. Hiding the likes counter will give a break to people who live obsessed with it. An obsession that Instagram itself helped create when it borrowed the “like” from Facebook and turned it into a heart in their social media platform.

Perhaps Instagram should provide an option to its users to chose whether or not they want to make their “like” counter public or private instead?
Summer in the Forest
By: Yael Wolfe
Tags: Spirituality, Nature, Outdoors, Summer, Nature Photography

I love the way the light falls at this time of year. It is pure gold, painting the land so unselfishly with its riches.

I wonder how it feels when it’s falling on a bumblebee’s back as he’s stumbling drunkenly across a flower head. Is it warm and comforting and as intoxicating as its petaled lover?

I wonder how if feels to the willows. Do they stretch toward the sun’s light for one last caress as it sinks below the horizon?

I wonder how it feels to the huge stones that pepper the land, perhaps the inhabitants who have been here the longest, the inhabitants who have come to know the patterns and cycles of this light better than anyone else. Do they settle down into the earth just a little more snugly as the light warms them before the cool night to follow?

It comforts me. That I know. I stretch toward it. I settle down into the earth as it warms me.

I orient myself toward it. I turn my face up to it. I am eager to receive it.

It’s already past the solstice and this time of year comes with a tug at my heart. The days are still long, still golden. But that will pass. All too soon.

I want to take it all in while I have the chance. I want to feel all that light, I want it to bathe me, I want it to fill me.

This is the last of its magic…at least until next year. And I don’t want to lose a second of it.

© Yael Wolfe 2020
Create Your Own Virtual Green Screen
By: Lila Mullany
Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision, Machine Learning, Programming, AI

Create Your Own Virtual Green Screen

Detect the person on the screen and the area around them to give them their own custom background

Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash.

Have you noticed how your colleagues appear to be in a different location in every Zoom meeting? Most likely, they’re using a virtual background. Increased numbers of people are now working from home, learning from home, and using video chat features to connect with friends instead of meeting in person. Adding a green screen feature to video streaming applications offers users more privacy or interesting options while still being visually present for online meetings, parties, or game nights.

You can build your own virtual green screen app using computer vision!

In this tutorial, we will use semantic segmentation to separate a person from their background and subsequently blur the background or replace it with a different image. If you’re unfamiliar with semantic segmentation, you can check out this overview article that describes this concept as well as other types of computer vision models.

This tutorial utilizes code found in two other articles: The first demonstrates how to separate configuration information for your code using a configuration file, and the second shows how to remove unwanted items from images using semantic segmentation.

All of the code from this tutorial, as well as setup instructions, is available on GitHub. To follow along with the tutorial, you can first create an alwaysAI account (it’s free!) and get alwaysAI set up on your machine (also free). This app was created by modifying a starter app. You can get the starter apps by running ‘aai get-starter-apps’ on the command line in a folder where you’d like to store the example apps. Then cd into the ‘semantic_segmentation_voc’ folder to modify the app to create virtual green screens (or copy the contents into the desired area). However, the code to create the virtual background can be applied to any Python computer vision application!
A Greater Pleasure
By: Fleur Sauvage
Tags: Sex, Sexuality, Poetry, Orgasm, Love

Photo by Emiliano Vittoriosi on Unsplash

We shudder and quake

We shiver in tiny explosions

knowing what I can do

how I can make You feel

Is a greater pleasure

than any I could receive.
Tips to grow as a Product Designer
By: Jatin Gupta
Tags: Product Design, Ux Designer, UX, UX Design, Share Learnings

Question: Is there a product you have come across that you thought was designed really well? Why did you think so?

Kenji Kaneko: Product Designer at Duo Security

I like the wide-open manner and usage of Miro.

Deepak Krishnan: UX Designer at SAP

Not a product, but a service. I recently looked at a YT channel called Investing with Rose. The channel helps those who are beginners to personal finance navigate the system. I found the videos and explanations really easy to understand and what was amazing was how the creator finished every video with an easy checklist of like 3 things you can start on immediately to develop better investment habits.

Nathan Magyar: UX Designer at the University of Michigan Center for Academic Innovation

Nothing comes to mind right now.

Raymond Su: UX Designer at Telenav

Recently, I have started using my iPad, Apple Pencil and the Procreate app for digital illustration. It’s quite an amazing experience and highly recommend others to try it as well.

Raden Tonev: UX Designer at Microsoft

Robinhood stocks trading app is pretty cool. I like how they let you slice the data in virtually any way you want. The interactions are quite clean and the look is sleek. I also really like how they effectively use news and notifications to supplement their core experience of trading stocks.

Jatin Gupta: Product Designer at Sprint (now T-mobile)

I really like the Pinterest mobile app. The interactions are very fresh including some hidden ones and don’t take focus away from the main purpose of the app which is to explore creative ideas.

Ruta Gokhale: UX Designer at Thomson Reuters

Lately, I’ve been listening to a few podcasts. So not a product, but I’m genuinely enjoying the audio storytelling experience. I like learning and hearing about new things as I go about my day.

Olivia Patercsak: User Experience Architect at Esri

My CamelBak water bottle. It’s insulated and keeps my water cold for hours; the bite valve makes it extremely easy to stay hydrated without even noticing.
Use Promise.race to Timeout Promises
By: James Fulford
Tags: JavaScript, Software Development, Programming, Web Development, Coding

Use Promise.race to Timeout Promises

Resolve. Reject. But what about neither?

Race your promise against the clock. Photo by Jonathan Chng on Unsplash

Promises are a nice way to wrangle your asynchronous JavaScript. When they resolve or reject, you can easily view how these 2 outcomes are handled with Promises.

However, asynchronous tasks have 3 scenarios: resolve, reject, or neither. The latter scenario, combined with delayed resolution/rejection, often goes unconsidered in our JavaScript code, perhaps assuming the underlying library is mature enough to eventually reject operations that take too long. However, this may not be the case — and if it isn’t, the handling required may not be exactly the same as any other error.

For example, consider slow network requests, database operations, or loading scripts. Depending on your use case, you may want to retry the request with a different host, notify an SLA tracker, or notify a 3rd party UI developer about their web component taking too long to load.

Note that many mature libraries convert the timeout scenario into the reject scenario, so take care to follow their documentation first. The code below demonstrates how you might add it to your library, or use it to wrap a library lacking this type of handling.

Example Code

This example tries to load a script in a browser but triggers the catch handler if the script does not load within a period of time, reducing the 3 scenarios to the more typical/explicit 2 scenarios of resolve and reject .

The key takeaways of this code block are:

Promise-ifying setTimeout can be pretty neat.

You can compose a promise with a timeout using Promise.race to effectively place a time limit on the original promise.

Your timeout-specific logic can be in a .then on the timeout promise. (The example above converts the timeout scenario into the more common rejection scenario; however, your logic may differ.)

Caveat: Cleanup

The timeout does not cause the other promise to clean up or cancel. For example, if a database-write promise were to be Promise.race ‘d against a timeout, and if the timeout completed first, then the database write operation would still be running and may (eventually) succeed, but the rest of your application will think it failed. Make sure to introduce logic to cancel the operation in case your application initiates a timeout.

Handling cleanup and canceling logic is a tricky subject, as the feature is not built into JavaScript. I’ve dedicated a separate article to this subject:

Summary

The movie Bull Durham has a nice, flexible quote:

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains.

Your code accounts for promise resolution, your code might account for rejection, but did you consider the possibility of “rain” — neither a win or a loss? Perhaps the library you use handles this, but if you have to do it yourself, race your promise against the clock with Promise.race. Make sure to clean up the promise, if applicable.
Modeling text contactability
By: Viola Glenn
Tags: Data Analytics, Data, Political Organizing, Data Science

Modeling text contactability

LMK, TTYL, BRB, but most of all, GOTV

Around this time, every two years, you can expect knocks on your doors and cheerful hellos on busy street corners from organizers looking to help register you to vote or share information about a candidate. Amidst the impacts of COVID-19, Democratic organizations and campaigns are updating their tactics to reach the voters we need to win. For many, that means reaching out to folks via phone calls and text messages.

To help programs optimize their voter outreach the DNC Tech Team has developed a new set of text contact scores.

These scores use a rich set of data aggregated from voter outreach by hundreds of campaigns over the last 18 months.

The scores identify the following:

a phone number is a working number the phone number is assigned to the person you are expecting to contact the person will respond positively to the text.

These scores will help text-banking volunteers spend more time contacting voters, and less time texting wrong numbers. We’ve found that reaching out to voters with phone numbers in the top 10% of text scores is nearly four times as likely to result in a successful contact than reaching out to people with phone numbers in the bottom 10%.

Whether Democratic organizations are reaching out to voters to remind them where to vote, asking them to volunteer, or inviting them to an event, these new dedicated text scores will help improve their efficiency.

To learn more about the new scores, check out this morning’s article in CBS.
Adam Smith — No longer optional?
By: Knut Svanholm
Tags: Cold War, Disruptive Innovation, Cryptocurrency, Adam Smith, Bitcoin

Did communism lose the cold war? Did capitalism win? Was there ever such a thing as a free market? Here’s an unorthodox point of view: If the supply of money in a country is controlled by a government or a central bank there is no free market there.

As long as a single entity is able to take a cut at all times, which any entity that controls money supply can through inflation, the market forces are never truly free. Rather, the opposite seems more true. This sounds a lot like central planning and in a way it is. If you control the very forces that drives the market, you’re basically a central planner. And this is just through inflation, not to mention taxes. From this point of view, almost every country in the world is a communist state. Or a corrupt capitalist state depending on your definition. A state with an elite ruling class and no true freedom. Regardless of the terminology, this is one of the main reasons for the enormous wealth gap we are currently seeing in the world. Whether this is good or bad shall be left unsaid but one could argue that a truly free market never existed. That we haven’t tried it yet.

Until now.

Until very recently there were practically no alternatives to government issued currencies. Gold, for instance, is too indivisible and too expensive to transport to be a viable alternative to cash. Enter Satoshi Nakamoto. In 2008 an anonymous entity gave the world the blockchain and from that day on the free market was no longer just a puppet show for the elite. The bold, the brave and the tech-savvy were given a way to opt out. To live their lives on another level, no longer having to bend a knee to anyone. The braver they were, the wider the extent of their emancipation. After all, from a certain point of view, a nation is nothing more than the prolonged forced take-over that a few of our ancestors bestowed upon everyone else. In other words, a monopoly on violence.

The cryptocurrency paradigm shift is still happening right now across the entire planet! This is the true grass roots movement. Anything else functions as a deception and only keeps the ducks in line longer. If you believe that there’s an imbalance in the world when the richest 0,5% owns 50% or more of it, this is for you. The truly free market is here today and we can all experience its true potential. We’re so used to having our money lose value over time so we stare in amazement and awe as the price of Bitcoin unapologetically plunges upwards through the imaginary thresholds of fiat money, year after year. But Bitcoin is for everyone and it is here to stay. This is not some Utopian free stuff for everyone dream, this is real. All you need to join the movement is an internet connection and a brain. Our problems are global. Our solutions will have to be global. Time to level the playing field.

Excelsior!
Fool’s Gold
By: Adrian Patenaude
Tags: Spirituality, Poetry, Christianity

Everything we resort to –

from the best-selling-memoir clichés

of drugs and drinking and sex with strangers,

to the “harmless” habits of

just a few more Oreos or

one more double tap ‘til 11 likes or

perfecting a playlist to fill the stillness

of a five-minute commute –

everything we resort to

is a distraction.

We chase the headrush of emotions

from party to concert to indie-vibe drive,

windows down through downtown,

hair blowing, bass blasting —

and when we have lost the scent,

we distract ourselves with cheaply won laughter,

typing lol with barely a twitch to our lips.

We could be sleeping, but

instead we watch through eyelid slits

as Netflix rolls over to the next episode.

We could be sleeping, but

we know the slow moments before dreamlessness

are the death of our façade.

We are terrified of boredom,

for that is when our mind finally wanders

to the black hole of our existence.

If we ever dare to stop and stare,

we know we will encounter

an excruciating silence.

And in that silence, everything

making life worthwhile,

everyone we claim to love –

is swallowed up in chaos.

Food will dissolve in our mouths like cotton candy,

leaving us sticky and thirsty and craving for more.

Favorite films tired and predictable,

cherished cities commonplace,

beloved bands finally failing to move us,

leaving us numb to all the wonders we’ve clung to.

So instead we amuse ourselves

with kaleidoscopic beauty, disoriented

by candy store color until we’ve learned to ignore

the creeping blindness at the edges of our vision.

Few are brave enough to confront the black.

Even fewer have met its gaze

and found the strength to go on breathing.

As for me, I tremble in the void,

overtaken by the hush

of a paralyzing eternity.

Perhaps I can’t bear the truth.

Perhaps I’m a coward,

another weak mind

reaching for a crutch.

Or maybe the only thing stopping me from

shooting myself in the face right now

is my childish hope in that one great

VOICE

breaking the silence,

brightening the darkness.

I look up

or in

or around

to that mysterious

GOD

who promises an end to all my fears,

light and singing and an inheritance of stars,

who has gone to prepare a home for me,

warm and real though I cannot see it.

Am I a fool to cling to this,

some illusion of gold in an unlit cave?

I stare into the empty air and find

I do. not. care.

For his voice is kind,

far too good to be false.
Matt Lauer Probably Did It, Roy Moore Probably Didn’t, and No, I’m Not a Hypocrite.
By: Cody Libolt
Tags: Politics, Leftism, Conservatism, Ethics, Conservatives

Sometimes social conservatives grant more credibility to accusations made against a leftist (as compared with accusations made against other conservatives, which we tend to take less seriously).

Is that hypocrisy? Not necessarily.

Let me explain. Granted, some random conservatives have made weak arguments, like the infamous “God has forgiven him, so we should too.”

Also, here is the needed reminder: Yes, the allegations, if true, are serious and horrifying.

That said, I and others are by no means hypocrites for defending conservatives against their accusers.

A preliminary point: Many conservatives have in fact shown great restraint and objectivity in refraining from piling-on their leftist opponents. As tempting as it may be to assume that a leftist means what he says and lives like he preaches, with improper behavior naturally springing from the improper worldview, that would in fact be a bit of a leap in logic. Just because someone says evil things, doesn’t mean they do evil things. So the objective thing to do is to ask for evidence.

Certain kinds of evidence weigh more than others. For instance, when the accusation is about an event that is recent and for which there is tangible evidence, such as a remote control lock installed in a media personality’s office.

“Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.” -Henry David Thoreau

The deeper point: Even if we were to publicly go on record as believing in one man’s innocence and another man’s guilt, based on similar kinds of accusations, that would not make us hypocrites.

Why? Because the accusations are not the only form of evidence we are considering. We judged based on *all* available evidence. The accusations are made against a different *type* of person.

Call it discrimination. I do discriminate.

One key piece of evidence that some have overlooked is that leftists are known advocates of a huge constellation of moral depravity. Between conservatives and leftists, there is no moral equivalence.

When a leftist is accused, we have a case of someone who publicly advocates all sorts of evil being called out for doing privately the same general sort of thing he publicly celebrates (give or take a detail or a degree).

Whereas in the case of a conservative accused, we have a case of someone with good character as far as is known (and morally proper ideas as far as is known) being accused of something for which we have no past indication of concern.

Context matters. Leftists and conservatives are not morally symmetrical.

I am not surprised when I find certain leftists inclined to believe that all conservatives are secretly hypocritical. Why? Because a leftist qua leftist cannot fathom how a conservative could take his own moral code seriously. The leftist — and the liar — assume all men are liars.

The irony is that leftists seem so surprised when conservatives grant that they may in fact be the kind of people their own leftist ideology would indicate.
Data 101: Correlation–What is it and how do you use it?
Tags: Smart Cities, Data Visualization, Data Analysis, Correlation, Urban Planning

A resource for people who want to make sense of and use big data.

It’s not as complicated as you think.

What is correlation?

At the basic level, a correlation is simply a relationship or connection between two things. When thinking about correlation in the statistical sense, it is a measure of the extent that two variables relate to each other.

So how do we measure correlation?

Technical Explanation:

“Pearson product-moment correlation attempts to draw a line of best fit through the data of two variables, and the Pearson correlation coefficient, r, indicates how far away all these data points are to this line of best fit (i.e., how well the data points fit this new model/line of best fit).”

So the correlation coefficient, r, is the measure of how well your two datasets are related.

The great thing about the correlation coefficient is that it is on a simple scale from 1 to -1. Values near 1 are strongly positively correlated while values near -1 are strongly negatively correlated. Values near zero are not correlated.

A positive correlation means that the values of both variables increase together. A negative correlation means that as the value of one variable increases the values in the second variable decrease.
LGBT Recipes
By: Joseph Coco
Tags: LGBTQ, Poetry, Humor, Poem

Photo by Toni Reed on Unsplash

LGBT Recipes

Who says oppression can’t be tasty?

Now we need

One cup of fear

I sometimes can’t stand being queer

Back-room mingling

Secret deals

I hate society

This anger sears

Across my arms

Flayed skin

Back to cooking

Where to begin

A sprinkle of doubt

Over the pie

Added flavor

Dress up the lie

We’re doing great

Really swell

Warped self image

Can’t even tell

Battered bodies

Abusive love

Toss in some strawberries

Just because

Another step

Salt to taste

Forgotten convos

About race

Checking the box

Of all I am

Please the census

Uncle Sam

My goodness friends

This food slams

But don’t forget

To add the jam

Butter blocks

Liquid please

Microwave melted

So much ease

Now place it in

My cute bowl

Add more sugar

Do as your told

Fall in line

Fit the mold

Now cinnamon

Focus on men

Without them

We couldn't win

Our sacred rights

To live and love

Everyone else

Just eat and shrug

Preheat the oven

Turn up the heat

This dessert soon

Will be complete

Over the rainbow

Over the sky

Perhaps under

If you try

To see past corporate

Vodka floats

Understand what so many know

Sugar can’t heal

Decades of pain

We should look up

Before the rain.