fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Why Books are the Key To Learning A Language On Your Own
By: Fraser Mince
Tags: Language, Books, Fluency, Language Learning

Photo by Lysander Yuen on Unsplash

Why Books are the Key To Learning A Language On Your Own Fraser Mince Follow Sep 7 · 6 min read

Whenever I am asked how I was able to succeed in many languages in a relatively short period of time, I always make a bow in spirit to the source of all knowledge: books Kató Lomb

Learning a language is challenging. It takes a ton of time and consistency, and even then it is really easy to feel stuck. You can spend hundreds of hours doing Duolingo or taking classes only to still feel like there is this giant gap between you and actual fluency. It only becomes more difficult if you are trying to learn independently. Many spend a lot of time trying to discover how to learn a language on their own and end up feeling very lost.

It can start to feel like there’s a divide that’s impossible to cross. You may know how to say some basic expressions but the second someone starts to speak, everything you know seems to disappear.

You, learning a language, probably

It’s not uncommon to feel stuck at some point in your language learning journey. You may feel like if you moved to a foreign country, and you had the immersion you would learn but short of that it feels impossible.

But there are ways to learn a language quickly at home. All you need to do is simulate immersion by consuming content you love in your target language. One of the most underrated ways to do this is by reading novels.

Now if you’re like me I know what you’re thinking: “oh someday that would be amazing! I just need to get to the point where I can even begin reading”.

Maybe you have even tried picking up a book like Harry Potter in a language you’re learning. “This will be great! How hard can it be?” You say. But then you open it. “Wow, that’s a lot of words. And I know like six of them”.

That first feeling of being overwhelmed is often enough to scare people away. Looking at that first page is just intimidating. So why is reading worth your time?
How to Use the Kaggle API in Python
By: James Briggs
Tags: Python, Technology, Data Science, Programming, Machine Learning

Datasets

Kaggle gives us several options for downloading datasets. The two you’re most likely to use are for downloading competition datasets, or standalone datasets.

A competition dataset is related to a current or past competition, for example, the dataset used in the Sentiment Analysis on Movie Reviews competition.

Standalone datasets are not accompanied by a competition and can be uploaded by anyone — like this 1.6M Sentiment of Tweets dataset.

We use two different methods for each of these.

Competition Datasets

We can see that our dataset is paired with a competition through the URL of the dataset, it will always begin with kaggle.com/c/ — the c representing competition.

To download a competition dataset, we use the competition_download_file method, take the competition name (given in the URL) and write:

Here we download both the training and test datasets to the current directory ./ — both are zipped.

Alternatively, we can simply download all competition datasets with:

api.competition_download_files('sentiment-analysis-on-movie-reviews', path='./')

You may need to setup your local directory to receive them without error — I always find downloading each individual dataset more convenient.

Standalone Datasets

On the dataset page, we can see the user’s name and the dataset name (or in the address bar). We put both together like user/dataset , and execute dataset_download_file like so:

This will download the zipped file into our current directory ./ .

Again, just like we did with the competition datasets, we can download all files for a specific dataset like so:

api.dataset_download_files('kazanova/sentiment140', path='./')

Unzipping

A final point, every dataset you download with the Kaggle API will be downloaded as a ZIP file. You can unzip the data manually, or simply use Python like so:

Once unzipped, we read our data into Python as per usual!
Why Brand Strategy Matters More Than Ever, Even Online
By: Ilya Lobanov
Tags: Online Strategy, Strategic Design, Branding, Marketing, Brand Strategy

Why Brand Strategy Matters More Than Ever, Even Online

The biggest lesson I’ve learned in my eighteen years in the industry is that design is not art

Photo by Kaleidico on Unsplash

Design needs to help solve a particular problem — usually a business one. And we need to become more aware and considerate about that. Brand Strategy is one way how we can marry design and business results more efficiently.

If, as a designer, you had a client dismiss your perfect design concept and were told to start again, you may have just met a client from hell. And if, as a client, you needed to ask the designer you’ve hired for half a dozen revisions to something as simple as a business card, you may have hired an incompetent mac operator.

Or, in both cases, it could mean you need to adopt a more strategic approach.

But first, a quick story about how I got started in the world of strategic brand design.
My Love, Let’s Throw Away Our Books and Live
By: Jean Carfantan
Tags: Poetry, Books, Kiss, Garden, Love

My Love, Let’s Throw Away Our Books and Live

Let us get out

Photo by Eugenio Mazzone on Unsplash

All these books full of letters are too heavy for our lives.

We are saturated of these abstract signs running from page to page.

So much dust, we don’t dare make a move that would displace some air,

We hold our breaths and our voices like in a dead church dedicated

To abstract knowledge. Come in the garden and read some poetry aloud.

I love listening to your voice and your silence, your breath cleanses miasmas.

Right now, I want to hear your clear laughter and give you a tender kiss.
First neural network for beginners explained (with code)
By: Arthur Arnx
Tags: Perceptron, Artificial Intelligence, Neural Networks, Guides And Tutorials

Creating our own simple neural network

Let’s create a neural network from scratch with Python (3.x in the example below).

import numpy, random, os

lr = 1 #learning rate

bias = 1 #value of bias

weights = [random.random(),random.random(),random.random()] #weights generated in a list (3 weights in total for 2 neurons and the bias)

The beginning of the program just defines libraries and the values of the parameters, and creates a list which contains the values of the weights that will be modified (those are generated randomly).

def Perceptron(input1, input2, output) :

outputP = input1*weights[0]+input2*weights[1]+bias*weights[2]

if outputP > 0 : #activation function (here Heaviside)

outputP = 1

else :

outputP = 0

error = output – outputP

weights[0] += error * input1 * lr

weights[1] += error * input2 * lr

weights[2] += error * bias * lr

Here we create a function which defines the work of the output neuron. It takes 3 parameters (the 2 values of the neurons and the expected output). “outputP” is the variable corresponding to the output given by the Perceptron. Then we calculate the error, used to modify the weights of every connections to the output neuron right after.

for i in range(50) :

Perceptron(1,1,1) #True or true

Perceptron(1,0,1) #True or false

Perceptron(0,1,1) #False or true

Perceptron(0,0,0) #False or false

We create a loop that makes the neural network repeat every situation several times. This part is the learning phase. The number of iteration is chosen according to the precision we want. However, be aware that too much iterations could lead the network to over-fitting, which causes it to focus too much on the treated examples, so it couldn’t get a right output on case it didn’t see during its learning phase.

However, our case here is a bit special, since there are only 4 possibilities, and we give the neural network all of them during its learning phase. A Perceptron is supposed to give a correct output without having ever seen the case it is treating.

x = int(input())

y = int(input())

outputP = x*weights[0] + y*weights[1] + bias*weights[2]

if outputP > 0 : #activation function

outputP = 1

else :

outputP = 0

print(x, "or", y, "is : ", outputP)

Finally, we can ask the user to enter himself the values to check if the Perceptron is working. This is the testing phase.

The activation function Heaviside is interesting to use in this case, since it takes back all values to exactly 0 or 1, since we are looking for a false or true result. We could try with a sigmoid function and obtain a decimal number between 0 and 1, normally very close to one of those limits.

outputP = 1/(1+numpy.exp(-outputP)) #sigmoid function

We could also save the weights that the neural network just calculated in a file, to use it later without making another learning phase. It is done for way bigger project, in which that phase can last days or weeks.
Meet Edgar Goetzendorff — ARK’s Newest Full-Stack Developer
By: Rok Černec
Tags: Development, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Crypto, Developer

Given the extensive roadmap that we want to tackle this year, it was necessary to bring in more developers to help speed up development. Our newest hire is Edgar, whom most of our community already know under the username ‘dated’.

As our roadmap for this year is packed with new and upcoming products and services (MarketSquare, Deployer, Desktop Wallet v3, Mobile Wallet v2, Core v3, and Platform SDK) we needed more developers who write solid code, have a proven track record of being reliable and are familiar with ARK and all its mechanics. Who better knows that than our all-star participant and winner of our GitHub Development Bounty Program multiple times over, Edgar Goetzendorff.

About Edgar

Edgar’s childhood started with computers, as his father is a programmer and always had old computer parts lying around at home. Edgar used to pick the best parts and assemble his own computers. He was constantly repairing and tinkering with things when something broke — figuring out while trying to fix them. Edgar was around the age of 12 when he started building simple websites using HTML and CSS. One of his first hobby projects at the time was developing a website that could showcase achievements and gear for players of an Italian online text-based role-playing game. Software programming soon caught Edgar’s attention and one thing led to another.

During his studies and his work towards a degree in computer science, he worked at an online travel agency that focuses on B2B and VIP travel, redesigning the backend applications and helping out with day-to-day operations and customer support. For the last three years, he has been employed by a company that builds software solutions for traffic engineering and public transportation.

These days, he is mostly working with JavaScript and TypeScript, the predominant languages of ARK technology. Other languages and frameworks he is familiar with are Python, Ruby and PHP. In the past, he’s used CakePHP and Yii PHP frameworks, but as ARK is using Laravel for its projects, he wants to get his hands dirty and learn that as one of his next professional goals.

Edgar will, first and foremost, help with the development of the next generation of Desktop Wallet that is coming out this year, but he is versatile and will jump around on other products as needed.

When asked how he learned about ARK:

Actually I found out about ARK through one of its early Bridgechains. Only after submitting some bugfixes for the then available commander on GitHub and unexpectedly receiving my first bounty, I joined the ARK Slack and was instantly hooked by the warm and welcoming community which ultimately allowed me to become a Forging Delegate.

Outside of his career, he is a husband and a father. In his free time, he likes to solve riddles and go geocaching, as well as photography.

Welcome to the ARK family, Edgar! We wish you the best in continuing to do the great work we have seen from your long tenancy in the Development Bounty Program.
มาทำ auto-deploy Vue.js ขึ้น Firebase Hosting ด้วย Bitbucket pipeline กันเถอะ
By: Sorawit Trutsat
Tags: Ci Cd Pipeline, Pipeline, Vuejs, Bitbucket, Firebase

Let you learn and share your Firebase experiences with each other.

Follow
Chase Your Dream, Not the Money
By: Tim Denning
Tags: Money, Inspiration, Self Improvement, Life, Entrepreneurship

Chase Your Dream, Not the Money

6 reasons why dream-chasing unlocks more joy than money ever could

Photo by Ádám Berkecz on Unsplash

I’m sure you have had at least one time in your life where you’ve become focused entirely on money. Money can help you gain your time back, which has value, but there is nothing that beats the fulfillment you get from achieving your dream.

In my life, there has been poverty, plenty of money, then poverty again. The contrast between rich and poor is humbling and has led me not to want to chase money.

Making your dream come true will take you to new heights and show you a side of life that you may not have known existed. If your life feels meaningless, or you feel stuck, or you have no idea what’s next, or you are just existing, your beliefs about money are part of the problem.

Maybe everyone around you seems as though they are winning. Social media tells you that everyone is having a great time, and you need to up your game. The photos you view online are blurring the reality of life. These photos, accidentally, tell you that money helps make everything better. “Money is what you have been missing,” they say. I’m here to say that is wrong.

What is missing is chasing a dream.

The defining factor that has led me to write this article is that I recently published an article about making $11,000 in 30 days. The money was not the point of me sharing this; it’s the achievement of a dream I have had for the last five years. The focus should be the joy from that.

Here is why you must stop chasing money and chase a dream instead:
Welcome to OneZero
By: Siobhan O'Connor
Tags: Medium, Onezero, Technology, Culture, Science

Welcome to OneZero

Introducing Medium’s new tech and science publication

Today, Medium is launching a new forward-looking tech and science publication. We have a few reasons: We’ve seen reader interest in this subject area explode, we care about it, and we want to go deeper. (Yes, we are launching a portfolio of new brands, and we are doing so strategically.) We also know that many of our readers are passionate about — or work in — tech and science. This publication is for you. Medium has a unique ability to tap expert minds, because they live here on the platform (and if you’re not here, please come), and they can contribute to the conversation of the day, the week, the month, and the year.

Thanks to our thoughtful journalists, who will lead this effort, we can take it even further. And we will.

OneZero will be a place to find timely analysis and commentary from a stable of the sharpest thinkers and writers out there, as well as rich, colorful deep dives into the most unexpected corners of our digital universe.

We’re thrilled to begin this journey, and even more excited to have you join us. OneZero is here. And we’re just getting started.

Thanks for reading,

Siobhan O’Connor

VP, Editorial at Medium
How Convolutional Neural Network works.
By: Harsh Mittal
Tags: Machine Learning, Classification, AI, Convolutional Network, Deep Learning

First let’s understand the Convolution operation

Take 2-D tensors of size 5*5 and 3*3 and Now place the 3*3 tensor over the 5*5 and take the dot product, repeat this process by sliding the small tensor over the large tensor.

This operation is Known as Convolution. As the smaller tensor is sliding in 2-Dimension so specifically it’s called 2-Dimensional Convolution.

Now, In CNN's the resulting tensor is Known as Feature Map.

Gif by Freecodecamp.org

So in CNN's the large tensor is an Image while the small tensor is a Filter.

Wait, did I just said Filter.

Photo by Kai Pilger on Unsplash

Okay, Let’s see what exactly a filter is.

As the name says, its job must be to filter out something right?, so that “something” is Feature.

Low and High-level Features.

So CNN's are basically converting the High Volume of Image in a Low Volume Feature Map by extracting the relevant features like edges, shapes e.t.c.(As you can see above)

Suppose the Input is a colored Image of (500*500) so Its volume or total no. of Pixels are (500*500*3=750000). Now after applying multiple convolutional layers, its volume may be reduced to 50000 pixels.

Gif by Freecodecamp.org

As you can see above the convolution operation between the Colored Image and a Filter.

Since the image is colored so It has 3 color channels, and as I mentioned above that this convolution is specifically in 2- Dimensions, so there must be 3 channels in the filter too.

You must be thinking about the Bias term. Filters and Bias are just the weights that get updated during the training part. With the help of Algorithms like Gradient Descent, the weights of the Filters and Bias terms gets updated to reduce the Loss.
Tips during the first two weeks of your any “Design Internship”
By: Geunbae, Gb
Tags: Internships, Career Advice, UX, UI, Design

Congratulations on your internship!

It’s Summer and many of us are embarking on our new and exciting journeys as design interns. At first, I thought about focusing my topic around a specific type of internship but while I was writing, I actually decided to keep it general so that the tips apply to Visual/UX/Product/Interaction or any other design-related internships. Assuming that you’ll have someone there to guid you through the internship, I won’t really stress on the size of the company either.

So that being said, congratulations on landing your design internship! I bet you’re extremely pumped up but at the same time, nervous of what’s at stake and what you would need to start doing. That is why I decided to come up with some people and work related tips based on my personal experience that you might find useful.

If you have any other personal tips, please feel free to leave comments below!
Free Market Token selected to pitch at GITEX Future Stars global event in Dubai
By: Free Market Token
Tags: Blockchain, Events, Nem Blockchain, Startup, Free Market Token

GITEX Technology Week in Dubai October 14–18 2018 is one of the largest global tech events of the year. Free Market Token will be attending the event with NEM, exhibiting and presenting to an expected audience in the hundreds of thousands.

With attendees from 120+ countries and global media outlets in unpacking the big conversations and latest solutions around AI, blockchain, robotics, cloud and other mega trends, GITEX takes is a multi-sensory experience of Future Urbanism across 18 halls with 4,000 exhibitors across 16 sectors.

This is where the world’s most imaginative ideas are seen live in action, where technologies like blockchain and AI go beyond being buzzwords to become business realities, and where industries evolve in real-time. This is where the hype gets real.

Selected from some of the best in the world, Free Market Token will pitch at GITEX Future Stars . GITEX Future Stars is the region’s biggest and fastest growing startup show with 1000+ startups, across 19 sectors, showcasing their inventions, and competing for top honors in the Supernova Challenge and four industry-sponsored Innovation Cups.
#TimetoTalk Review
By: Inspirited Minds
Tags: Mental Illness, Islam, Mental Health

#TimeToTalk was a brilliant success Alhamdulillaah. We had videos from many people, such as Dr Faraz, Dalia Mogahed,Naz, Ameen and many, many more. View these short clips below!

Further, we asked for people to send in their messages so we could post them on our social media platforms. Maa shaa Allaah we had some brilliant entries, some of which are also below

Alhamdulillaah. More of these entries can be viewed on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

We also had people opening up about their suffering. Read a short story from a very brave sister here Maa shaa Allaah.

Even after the 5th of Feb — entries came flooding in, showing that Muslims are ready talk. We are ready to tackle this stigma. We are re ready for this battle.

We pray that this is the beginning of many more people opening up. This is the beginning of Muslims breaking the silence. This is the beginning to the end of this stigma!

We’d like to send our greatest gratitude to all those who got involved, who shared, who spread the word and who helped sufferers feel safe to speak out.
How To Increase Productivity, Reach Your Goals, And Become A Literal God In Just 5 Easy Steps
By: Sebastian Sd
Tags: Lovecraft, Satire, Productivity, Self Improvement, Humor

How To Increase Productivity, Reach Your Goals, And Become A Literal God In Just 5 Easy Steps Sebastian SD Follow Jul 16 · 3 min read

Photo by Iker Urteaga on Unsplash

So you think you have what it takes to succeed? Can you put the work and really grow into a better person? Are ready to embrace the Great Lord of Darkness?

If you want to DOMINATE your goals, listen up.

I have traveled everywhere that is and isn’t on a map.

I have met the wisest religious leaders everywhere I went.

I am a top writer in Quora and Yahoo Answers.

And now, I will share with you my accumulated knowledge. My secret to literally win at life and become a God amongst men. And believe me, becoming successful and dedicating your life to the High Priest of the Great Old Ones is no easy task. But it is quite simple, you just need to follow these five steps:

1. Get off your couch

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, says the ancient Chinese proverb. Get off your ass you lazy bum, parents still used to say in the 1960s. Both are wise words that echo the same concept. The first step is usually the hardest, but it’s also the most important one. If you want to reach your goals, you first need to get out there!

2. Set SMART goals

Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound. In short, SMART! This method has been proven to be the most effective way of not just setting goals but also sticking with them and eventually accomplishing them. Whatever your end goal might be, remember to break it down to specific steps that you can realistically achieve, and you can measure the results in a time-specific manner. SMART!!!

3. Accept the all-mighty Cthulhu as your supreme overlord

I first met the cosmic entity mortals know as Cthulhu in a deserted island in the South Pacific sea. Just a glimpse of the awe-inspiring tentacled God, shook me to my core. I felt as if for the first time in my life I had finally seen the light of day, in the scaly wings of the Lord of Darkness. And now, you can too! Accept the Great Cthulhu now!!!

4. Relinquish your mortal soul to the Dark Lord

You want to lose weight? You want to advance in your career? You want to be famous, and wealthy, and happy beyond belief?!? Give your eternal soul to the master of darkness and transcend the limitations of your pathetic life! Yield to the power of the Old One and become a god on earth yourself!

SUBMIT YOURSELF TO THE SLEEPER OF R’LYEH!

ACCEPT YOUR DESTINY AS A SUBORDINATE OF THE GREAT DREAMER!!!

PH’NGLUI MGLW’NAFH CTHULHU R’LYEH WGAH’NAGL FHTAGN!!!!!

5. Drink water

Hydration is important. According to the Mayo Clinic one should drink about 11 to 15 cups of water a day. This varies based on where you live, how active you are, and general health of course. Just remember that keeping a healthy body is paramount to be a good vessel to the Great Cthulhu!

Now, let us pray:

Ctu-hu-lah-ha — Ctu-hu-lah-ha — Ctu-hu-lah-ha
36 JavaScript Concepts You Need to Master to Become an Expert
By: Mahdhi Rezvi
Tags: Technology, Programming, Nodejs, React, JavaScript

36 JavaScript Concepts You Need to Master to Become an Expert

Mastery takes time, but knowing what to master makes it easier

Photo by Angela Compagnone on Unsplash

You’ll hear many people complaining that JavaScript is weird and sometimes worthless. People complain like this because they don’t understand how things work under the hood. Although I do agree that some scenarios in JavaScript are handled differently, that does not make it weird but rather beautiful in its own way.

To start loving a programming language, you should start by looking deep within and mastering its concepts one by one.

Here is a list of 36 JavaScript concepts that you need to master to become an all-round JavaScript expert.

Although this piece is one of my longest, I assure you that it is worthy of your time. Kudos to Stephen and Leonardo for the resources.

The resources section contains a link to the GitHub repo by Leonardo which contains learning material for all these concepts explained below. Please take your time in understanding each of the below-mentioned concepts.
Logo Casestudy: Cell Stress & Immunity (CSI)
By: Dhananjay Garg
Tags: Logo, Logo Design, Design, Illustration, Graphic Design

Breakdown of how CSI logo was brought to life

In early 2020, I was roped in to design the Laboratory of Cell Stress & Immunity (CSI) logo, a part of KU Leuven (Belgium), Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine. I have always ever designed logos for tech startups, and this was the first time I was about to jump into designing something that is well out of my comfort zone. But having a fair bit of experience and interest in logo designs, I decided to trust in the process and go one step at a time while working with the client in unpacking the expected outcome.

It is always important to remember that the logo is a symbolic representation of the company/brand; and it often requires inspiration and art and research, analysis, hard work, and rigorous testing to design it.

Tools

Pencil sketching, Adobe Illustrator

Understanding the background 🗒️

I wanted to do my own research around competitors in this space and color palettes that are not favored in this domain. The logo design is for a lab that focuses on cancer cell death's immunology, and for starters, I know nothing about this field and its technicality. So I send across a questionnaire to the client to help me steer in the right direction and start building a mood board of shapes, color palettes, and inspirations. Here are the questions that I chose to ask —
9 tips to quickly improve your UI designs
By: Marc Andrew
Tags: Design, UI, UI Design, Web Development, Visual Design

Originally published at marcandrew.me

Creating beautiful, usable, and efficient UIs takes time, with many design revisions along the way. Making those constant tweaks to produce something that your clients, users, and yourself are truly happy with. I know. I’ve been there many times before myself.

But what I’ve discovered over the years is that by making some simple visual tweaks you can quickly improve the visuals you’re trying to create.

In this article I’ve put together a small, and easy to put into practice, selection of tips that can, with little effort, not only help improve your designs today, but hopefully give you some handy pointers for when you’re starting your next project.
Submit Your Story to Transform the Pain
By: Mateja Klaric
Tags: Transformation, Medium, Writing, Grief And Loss, Call For Submissions

People need to hear your story. Share your experience, tell us what you are going through, how you are coping, what makes it hard, and what helps.

It’s through sharing our stories that we connect, learn, and help each other. Sharing your thoughts and feeling related to loss can be a healing experience that can also help others relate and better understand the process of grieving.

Click here to submit for the first time: https://transformthepain.typeform.com/to/QDLDn4

If you have Medium account, we’ll add you as a writer when your story gets published. From then on, you will be able to submit your stories directly through the Medium interface — for those of you who are not familiar with the process, here is how that goes:
This Illiterate Went From a Starving Shepherd to a Man of $3 Billion
By: Mohammed Ayar
Tags: Investing, Money, Biography, Poverty, Entrepreneurship

Entering the business world

Chaabi thereafter roamed the country for a few years doing menial works before he finally settled in Kenitra as a blue-collar worker.

While working in masonry, Miloud developed a keen interest in real estate. So, he decided to start his own construction business at the age of 18.

The start-up consisted of two workers and wasn’t generating big profits in the beginning. But it was a good occasion for our entrepreneur to develop shrewd business acumen and set aside some money.

16 years elapsed before it was time to expand the business and explore new market opportunities. And the next station was the porcelain market.

Miloud, therefore, founded the porcelain business “SUPER CERAME” and kept increasing his assets even beyond Moroccan soil.

He said that before he became a businessman, trading and business were restricted only to some Jewish, French along with some famous Moroccan families at the time Morocco was colonized. Hence, setting his foot in the trading industry was a long arduous journey.
Kubernetes Security With Falco
By: Gaurav Agarwal
Tags: Programming, Kubernetes, Cybersecurity, Containers, DevOps

Kubernetes Security With Falco

Comprehensive runtime security for your containers with a hands-on demo

Photo by Dominik Jirovský on Unsplash.

Falco is an open source runtime security tool that can help you to secure a variety of environments. Sysdig created it and it has been a CNCF project since 2018. Falco reads real-time Linux kernel logs, container logs, Kubernetes logs, etc. against a powerful rules engine to alert users of malicious behaviour.

It is particularly useful for container security — especially if you are using Kubernetes to run them — and it is now the de facto Kubernetes threat detection engine. It ingests Kubernetes API audit logs for runtime threat detection and to understand application behaviour.

It also helps teams understand who did what in the cluster, as it can integrate with Webhooks to raise alerts in a ticketing system or a collaboration engine like Slack.

Falco works by using detection rules that define unexpected behaviour. Though it comes with its own useful default rules, you can extend them to define custom rules to harden your cluster further.

So, some things that Falco can detect are the following:

Opening of a shell session from a container

Host path volume mount

Reading secret and sensitive files such as /etc/shadow

A new package installation in a running container

A new process spawned from a container that is not a part of CMD

Opening of a new port or unexpected network connection

Creating a privileged container

and much more…

All these features make it particularly useful to understand less about whether you have the appropriate security in place and more to ensure you know when there is a potential breach so that you can stop it before something terrible happens. Falco, therefore, complements the existing Kubernetes native security measures such as RBAC and Pod Security Policies that help in preventing issues rather than detecting them.

There are multiple ways of running Falco within a Kubernetes cluster. You can install Falco in every Kubernetes node, bake Falco as a second container in the pod, or you can use a Daemon Set to inject a Falco pod in them.

Using a DaemonSet is a better and more flexible option, as it requires the least amount of changes in the Dev function and also does not take a toll on the Ops function as the first option requires. Also, it is Kubernetes-native, so it is the preferred way.
We Need to Be Kinder to Ourselves
By: Chloe Cuthbert
Tags: Life Lessons, Women, Self Improvement, Mental Health, Self

When it comes to self love, I’m a huge advocate.

For other people. Not so much for myself. I mean, it sounds awesome, in theory. It’s not so easy, in practice.

Spending your life being put down by those closest to you, your mother, your former husband, supposed friends, makes it difficult to see the good in yourself. I’ve never had very high self esteem. I would even venture to say that I truly don’t have much at all.

Through the years, some of the harsher things I’ve heard have stuck with me like glue, and I can’t seem to find the Goo-Gone. Sadly, I have a much harder time remembering the good things I’ve heard, though I know they are there. My current husband tells me I’m beautiful and smart. I tell him he’s delusional.

I don’t take compliments well at all.

It’s not that I don’t like to hear them, I really do. I just don’t respond well, because I always wonder why that person would say them. I’ve thought so little of myself for so long, it’s difficult for me to believe that someone else would think anything different.

Today, a fellow writer, Leslie Wibberley, posted an essay about what your future self would say to you, given the chance.

“Because saying all those horrible things about myself means that someone else doesn’t have to. And if I’m the one saying them, it doesn’t hurt as much.”

This hit home, hard. When I allow myself to think about it, this is exactly why I do it, too. I’m horrible for calling myself fat, unattractive, a bad wife, bad mother, bad friend. Deep down, I know that I’m at least partially wrong, but I feel this must be what others see when they look at me, so I say it, so they don’t need to.

It hurts less. But at the same time, more.

I would love to be the woman who is confident in herself, who knows she’s attractive in her own way, intelligent, worthy. Not cocky, but carries herself in a way that says, “I’m a bad-ass and I know it.”

I can pretend to be that woman. I do it quite often actually. But when it really comes down to it, that’s not who I really am, just who I aspire to be.

When we’ve gone through trauma and abuse, it seems it’s harder to accept ourselves. Sprinkle in mental health issues, and you may find yourself at full-blown negative self esteem status. I know I have. I still struggle every single day.

But it does get better, even just a little. And that’s better than nothing. The biggest change you can make is the conversations you have with yourself.
What is Data Exfiltration?
By: Ella William
Tags: Cybersecurity, Data Science, Big Data, IoT, Analytics

If we talk in terms of our general life, Exfiltrate means to surreptitiously move personnel or material out an area under enemy control. In terms of Computer science, Data Exfiltration is the unauthorized removal of data from a network e.g. leakage of Archives, Passwords, Additional Malware and Utilities, Personally identifiable information, financial data, trade secrets, source code, intellectual property, etc. For a hacker, it is easy to move things in a box. E.g. RAR file, ZIP file, CAB file, etc. Data Exfiltration via outbound FTP, HTTPS is most common these days.

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Pitch Deck
By: Nicholas Teague
Tags: Data Science, Entrepreneurship, Machine Learning

So I threw this pitch deck together a little while back, wanting to share as part of application for an accelerator program I’ll just go ahead and post online since no one reads these things. Oh yeah all inquiries please direct through contact portal on our website at automunge.com. Cheers.
What Do 90-Somethings Regret Most?
By: Lydia Sohn
Tags: Happiness, Wisdom, Wellness, Culture, Age

My preconceptions about older people first began to crumble when one of my congregants, a woman in her 80s, came into my office seeking pastoral care. She had been widowed for several years but the reason for her distress was not the loss of her husband. It was her falling in love with a married man. As she shared her story with me over a cup of tea and Kleenex, I tried to keep a professional and compassionate countenance, though, internally, I was bewildered by the realization that even into their 80s, people still fall for one another in that teenage, butterflies-in-the-stomach kind of way.

One of the strange and wonderful features of my job as a minister is that I get to be a confidant and advisor to people at all stages of life. I’ve worked with people who are double and even triple my age. Experience like this is rare; our economic structure and workforce are stratified, and most people are employed within their own demographics. But because I’m a minister in a mainline denomination with an aging base, the people I primarily interact with are over the age of 60. I came into my job assuming that I, a Korean-American woman in my mid-30s, would not be able to connect with these people — they’re from a completely different racial and cultural background than me. It did not take long for me to discover how very wrong I was.

We all have joys, hopes, fears, and longings that never go away no matter how old we get. Until recently, I mistakenly associated deep yearnings and ambitions with the energy and idealism of youth. My subconscious and unexamined assumption was that the elderly transcend these desires because they become more stoic and sage-like over time. Or the opposite: They become disillusioned by life and gradually shed their vibrancy and vitality.

When I initially realized that my assumptions might be wrong, I set out to research the internal lives of older people. Who really were they, and what had they learned in life? Using my congregation as a resource, I interviewed several members in their 90s with a pen, notebook, a listening ear, and a promise to keep everyone anonymous. I did not hold back, asking them burning questions about their fears, hopes, sex lives or lack thereof. Fortunately, I had willing participants. Many of them were flattered by my interest, as America tends to forget people as they age.
Everything I Discovered About GraphQL and Apollo
By: Adrien Miquel
Tags: JavaScript, GraphQL, React, Nodejs, Programming

First Things First…

GraphQL

As I said earlier, GraphQL is a new technology which modifies the relationships between back-end and front-end developers.

Previously, both teams had to define a contract interface to ensure correct implementations. Sometimes, latencies could occur due to misunderstanding on object complexity or typings.

Thanks to GraphQL, backends can provide all the data that front ends could need. Then, it’s up to them to “pick” the properties they require to build the interface.

Moreover, GraphQL offers a web interface (named GraphiQL) to test queries and mutations (if you don’t understand what I’m writing about, please refer to documentation). It’s a clever tool to enable front ends to write requests, and browse the docs and typings.

A query language

Using GraphQL implies understanding and mastering the query language included in the kit. It’s not a trivial one and is based on an object nesting syntax.

query GetProductInfo {

product {

id

name

price

}

}

When querying object seems simple, it’s not the case for the mutations. A mutation updates/inserts new data, potentially with some arguments.

mutation ($label: String!) {

addTag(label: $label) {

id

label

}

}

Here, an argument is specified with its type on L1. Then, it’s used on the second line. The ending content between square brackets id and label defines the structure of the returned object, the result of the insertion.

Apollo

Apollo is the client used to communicate with GraphQL. Whether you develop a web or mobile app, Apollo can support it.

Apollo supports several platforms:

Its configuration allows to define specific aspects such as: cache-network strategy, pipelines (covered here), Server-Side Rendering (Vue.js version), local state (Vue.js version), performance, error handling (covered here) or internationalization (covered here).
Pros of Different Python String Formatting Methods
By: Peter Xie
Tags: String Format, Python

Now let’s see the pros of each method one by one.

%-format

%-format is very similar to the classic C printf() function. So it is easy to understand or share with other people who are new to Python.

The big advantage of %-format is that you can pass a tuple or list as argument directly. This is very useful if you want to pass a long list of arguments, for instance, you read data from database or spreadsheet and format a long string in XML or JSON format.

replacement_str = '%s is %s'

arg_tuple = ('pi', 3.14)

print(replacement_str % arg_tuple)

# out:

pi is 3.14

Note: You can achieve the same in str.format() by passing the address of a tuple/list, e.g., *arg_tuple, which is not intuitive and simple, IMHO.

And it is handy if you want to define the same format for multiple data, where you define the format only once.

str_format = '%-10s, %s'

headers = ('Result','Message')

row1 = ('Successful','abc')

row2 = ('Failed','efg')

print(str_format % headers)

print(str_format % row1)

print(str_format % row2)

# Out:

Result , Message

Successful, abc

Failed , efg

Note: You can achieve the same in str.format() but not f-string.

str.format()

str.format() can avoid passing repeated arguments.

You can use the same position or argument name in replacement fields if the same argument is used more than once in the string.

print('{0} + {0} = {1}'.format('pi', 6.28) )

# out:

pi + pi = 6.28

Or you can pass one argument and access its multiple attributes or items in the string.

tuple1=('pi', 3.14)

print('{v[0]} is {v[1]}'.format(v=tuple1))

# out:

pi is 3.14

Equivalent formatting:

print('{} is {}'.format(tuple1[0],tuple1[1]))

Another useful case for str.format() is nesting argument. You can also achieve it using %-format, but it looks nicer using str.format(), IMHO.

In this example, we convert a dict to a list of string using {}-format, and join them with ‘

’, then pass it as a nesting argument to the main string in {}-format.

dict1={'k1':1, 'k2':'two'}

print('{}

{}'.format(

'Line 1',

'

'.join('{}: {}'.format(k, v) for k, v in dict1.items())

)

)

Out:

Line 1

k1: 1

k2: two

f-string

f-string, also called formatted string literal, is pretty much identical to str.format(), but just put arguments directly in the string. It has a unique function, though. You can call an argument’s methods directly in the formatted string, while str.format() can call attributes or items only.
MVC in Flutter
By: Greg Perry
Tags: Programming, Flutter, Android App Development, Mobile App Development, iOS App Development

The MVC design pattern in Flutter

In late October, back in 2018, I offered the package, mvc_pattern, to supply an MVC design pattern approach to your next Flutter app. It was a hit.

Like with many things in life, it’s only gotten better with age. It’s been improved by further integrating into and even mirroring Flutter but still retaining the spirit that is the MVC design pattern. Of course, the code is open-source for all to see. Eventually, a framework package called, mvc_application, was published that assists in the development of Flutter apps using the package, mvc_pattern, as it's core.

As time went on, twelve free articles on the subject have been published on medium.com. They and more are all presented here now for your convenience. Also, because this article serves as a supplementary resource for yet another article, Your Next MVC Flutter Project. All the articles are collected in one place for readers to ‘get up to speed’ with MVC return to ‘mainstream.’

Model-View-Controller

The articles are in the order I would read them, but the ‘World’s Your Oyster!’, read whatever catches your eye. Do realize as with any software, a lot has changed in the code and some of the older articles listed at the end are beginning to show their age, but the concepts they convey still hold up.

Live Streaming Now Available

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10 Best Data Science Reads for Students
By: Cassie Kozyrkov
Tags: Machine Learning, Statistics, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Towards Data Science

10 Best Data Science Reads for Students

Top 10 ML and stats articles for learning data concepts

It’s time for some Best Of compilations! Here are my 10 best articles for students. If you find yourself having fun with the writing, try following the links in the articles — they’re almost always from the same blog. I try to keep things unboring for your amusement.

Enjoy!

#1 Understanding Data

#2 Explaining supervised learning to a kid (or your boss)

#3 Unsupervised learning demystified

#4 A brief history of data science

#5 Machine learning — Is the emperor wearing clothes?

#6 Statistical inference in one sentence

#7 TensorFlow is dead, long live TensorFlow!

#8 Statistician proves that statistics are boring

#9 Explaining p-values with puppies

#10 What is Decision Intelligence?

Bonus: Snarky Statistics YouTube course
The Wonder of Getting Lost in a Bookshop
By: Jonny Mccormick
Tags: Retail, Local Business, Reading, Bookshops, Books

The Wonder of Getting Lost in a Bookshop

And why we should fight to keep them

Do you love visiting bookshops as much as I do? I love it! But, I don’t do it enough. There’s something so alluring about the convenience of online shopping, right? You think about something one minute, search for and buy it the next and voila…more often than not it’s on your doorstep the very next day. But, the thing about visiting a bookshop is that it’s a much better experience. Here’s why:

You open yourself to serendipity

One of the best things about bookshops is that you’ll pick up titles that you didn’t even know existed. You might even find a new subject of interest, surface an unknown author, or find an obscure title. It’s harder to do that online. Most of the time, when you’re online shopping it’s purpose-driven! You search for exactly what you want, conduct your business and badda-bing badda-boom you’re done.

However, in doing that you miss the opportunity to accidentally discover new things. You don’t broaden your horizons as much and you never know what you might be missing.

The romanticism of bookshops

What’s more inspiring to you? Finding a 500 square foot bookshop that has 1000s of titles crammed into every nook and cranny or imaging someone racing through a warehouse so big that they stopped measuring in square foot and started measuring in acres.

I know what floats my boat more. To me, there’s nothing better than discovering a bookshop. Every time I’m traveling I almost always visit a bookshop — just to see what’s going on. I love it and I could while away the hours quite easily. And, here’s a top tip…buying a book on your travels is a much better souvenir than an overpriced fridge magnet.

You have the opportunity to support your local economy

Support local, independent retailers where you can. In these shops nine times out of 10 you’ll find people who love books. Also, they usually love talking about books. This is where you can have a discussion about your recent favourite read or find out what you’ve missed in your chosen genre. They’re a wealth of information. And, what’s better is that you’re supporting the local economy and small retailers. What could feel more satisfying than that?

However, even if you visit a Barnes & Noble or a Waterstones they’re staffed by local people. They’re staffed by people who know books. They’re not staffed by people who don’t care if they’re picking a pack of dishwasher tablets, car windscreen wipers, or the latest Stephen King Novel.