fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Forcing an employee down the “Management Path” rarely ends well.
By: Larry Cornett
Tags: Career Path, Coaching, Careers, Management, Leadership

Forcing an employee down the “Management Path” rarely ends well.

Yet, that’s what many companies do with their most talented individual contributors (IC).

Now, you end up with a manager who doesn’t really want the job and you’ve “lost” your best IC.

Some people love the craft of their profession. They don’t want to be responsible for the work of others. Leadership has never been their “thing.”

However, they can guide and mentor others without a formal reporting structure. They can elevate everyone through the excellence of their work.

There’s no need to force them into management. It’s a different skill set. It requires a different personality.

Choose someone else who is great at building teams, nurturing the talent of others, and navigating organizational issues.

You need career ladders for both paths.
Running with the Wolves
By: Anna Rozwadowska
Tags: Wolves, Poetry, Metaphysics, Collective Intelligence, Spirituality

What should you know about the common man?

Is there a drive to understand

3–6–9 in its purest form, triangular cohesion where Earth joins Sun

where Sun joins Jupiter; secrets of the ether world,

they are not hidden from the sky, neither from the wolves; they are partaking in the creation of structure;

just like you,

just like I.
The Map Within
By: Priyanka Srivastava
Tags: Written Tales, Poetry, Poetry On Medium, Reflections, Poem

The Map Within

a trail which leads nowhere

Image from Unsplash by Evanthewise

There is a map within me

which leads nowhere,

sometimes I follow a trail

other time I walk back.

The only difference

I am never alone,

there’s always a poem

with me

like a friend.
Behind Every Window, A Story
By: Kahli Bree Adams
Tags: Life, Psychology, Self-awareness, Self, City Living

The thing is, I just can’t look away. The glittering lights, flashing intriguingly against the black backdrop of the night. The dozens, no, hundreds of window — some dark, some lit. The lit ones are especially fascinating.

‘Behind every window, a story’, I always tell myself when I watch live scenes of cities at night time. So many windows, so many stories. And behind each window is a person experiencing their version of reality; each room is the world for someone. It’s mind-blowing if you think about it.

And that’s why I can’t look away. The twinkling lights command my full attention. Trains go past in the distance. Endless streams of cars move along, like snakes slithering between the skyscrapers. Bright neon billboards flash and show off the latest wares. A sea of blinking red lights alerts aircraft of the presence of the concrete giants.

Unlike in times gone by, ‘there is now life after the day. Emancipating themselves from natural constraints, our metropolises are coming to life’ after dark. Like ants, people populate the high-rises and streets below. So many seemingly individual lives, yet the city brings them all together. A sense of connection is in the air. In a way, ‘at night the real city is laid bare.’
Clay in the Potter’s Hand
By: Michele Thomas
Tags: Koinonia, Writing, Poetry, Self, Religion

Walking towards the sunlight,

my soul senses His presence

and is warmed. Lifting my hands,

I offer praise to the Lord, my God.

To Him who heals and makes

whole, in His overwhelming

presence I bow down yielding,

like clay in the potter’s hand.

Etched with care, impurities

and self-doubt is rubbed away.

He bends low to breathe in me and

Being revived, life has new meaning.

Made fully alive, I stand in awe

speechless, as if seeing myself

for the first time in His image,

fearfully and wonderfully made.
Why You Should Build Your New Startup on Kubernetes
By: Robert Quinlivan
Tags: SaaS, Programming, Docker, Kubernetes, Software Development

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

During the last interview cycle I did back in early 2019, I spoke to a handful of startups.

I always ask about the deployment pipeline for startups because it helps me have an idea of what stage of technical complexity the company is at. Some businesses can go really far on a simple PHP web app deployed with SCP.

Others hit limits and have to rework the system into several services with infrastructure components like Redis or Kafka used to communicate between them.

When they see Kubernetes on my resume, interviewers often ask about it. There was a lot of interest in dipping toes into Kubernetes but also some anxiety about whether it was appropriate for the particular use case. How did we use it at my last company? Was it difficult to learn? What were the development teams’ experience of working with it? Sometimes there are horror stories of bad implementations and fears that moving to Kubernetes was a mistake. Often I hear some very reasonable skepticism alongside a desire to keep deployments simple and a hesitation to jump on the bandwagon.

So I will jump to the punchline here. If I were starting my own startup from scratch today, I would very likely start with Kubernetes. I’ve used it in two very different companies now, and this is my (admittedly subjective) conclusion.

Quite simply, the few negatives are so greatly outweighed by the positives that I think it’s worth the investment for many startups. Not all startups. Not necessarily your startup. But a lot of them.

Let’s take a look at the reasons why.
Best Practices to Outsource Projects to Mobile App Development Company
Tags: Mobile App Developers, Business, Mobile App Development, Technology, Mobile Apps

Outsourcing is probably the most trending word in mobile app development companies. Being a kind of technique that makes it easy to manage the heavy load of your project, outsource is becoming more and more popular than it was a few years back. The idea of outsourcing a piece of job is to get exceptional services at an affordable rate. This technique helps get effective services from mobile app developers who are available at a much lower cost.

Outsource being an exceptional technique has still not made its ways to the newly established mobile app development companies. The problem being these companies do not know how and where to outsource their projects in order to get the best returns. While one way is to do a thorough internet research to find the exceptional ways, the other way is to take a journey along with us to know more about:

How to Outsource Projects to Mobile App Development Company?

#Decide Your Requirements & Ask the Developers About the Same

The choice of your mobile app developer completely depends upon you. So, basically, you need to be focused while choosing the resource for the job. There are plenty of less-than-reputable developers available in the market to offer you nothing but off-the-shelf services. These services are never going to fulfill your purpose.

So, the suggestion is to look for the resources from reputable marketplaces, like Appdexa. You can get preferred mobile app development companies under a budget that suits you the best.

#Creating Detailed Developer Profile

While contacting marketplaces like Appdexa is one solution, you can always create a detailed list of developer’s profile you will be contacting in the future. Here are the suggestions you can put together to search and maintain the developer’s’ profile:

Researching about the developer thoroughly.

Digging deep in order to exploit the professional skills of the developer.

Real-time communication with developers to know more about their technical expertise.

This Article is Originally Published here.
The Importance of Hash Maps
By: Supriya Sirbi
Tags: Data Structures, Startup, Programming, Computer Science, Software Development

Applications of Hash Maps

One of the biggest advantages of using hash maps is that they provide a constant time of O(1) for search, insert, and delete operations. This makes them more suitable for problems related to finding duplicates, finding the frequency of items, and finding distinct elements.

1. Problems related to item frequency

Hash maps are useful for solving most problems related to item frequency. An example of such a problem is finding common characters in a list of strings. If an item appears twice in all strings, it needs to be included twice in the output:

Input: ["bella","label","roller"]

Output: ["e","l","l"]

To solve this problem, we can use two for loops to compare one string with a list of other strings. But the time complexity of such an approach is O(n²). To minimize the time complexity, we can use a hash map to store the characters as keys with the string number and frequency as a pair for value. We can then iterate the hash map to check for common characters found in all strings along with their frequency. This reduces the time complexity to O(n).

2. Dictionary

A dictionary is another common example where hash maps are used more frequently. If we were to make an online portal for searching the meaning of a word, we would be building a dictionary in the back end to store the word along with its meaning. When a user searches for a word, it uses the find hash function to retrieve its meaning.

3. File systems

Hash maps are used to link the file name with the path of the file. To store the correspondence between the file name and path and the physical location of that file on the disk, the system uses a map. That map is usually implemented as a hash table.

4. Password verification

Consider a web application that allows user login and authentication when a user enters their username and password. In most modern systems, the username and password are not sent as plain text to the back-end server for authentication. Instead, they are encoded as a hash value and sent to the server. The server then checks the received hash value with the stored hash value. If there is a match, the user is allowed to log in. Special cryptographic functions are used for this purpose, so the user is secure.

5. Storage optimization in the cloud

Dropbox uses hash tables for storage optimization in the cloud. Suppose there are multiple users who upload the same video to their Dropbox accounts. Since storing multiple copies of the same video will consume too much storage, Dropbox stores a single copy of the file with the link provided to each user for access. When a new user uploads the same file, Dropbox computes the hash value for the file. If it matches the value stored in the hash table, the user is returned the link to the file.

6. Compiler operation

To identify the keywords in a programming language, the compiler stores them in a hash table. The compiler then checks the program with the hash table to verify if the program syntax is correct.
A Complete Analysis Of Trump’s 102nd Unpresidented Week As POTUS
By: Ahmed Baba
Tags: Journalism, Unpresidented, Government, Politics, Donald Trump

Trump’s first major typo after winning the election was spelling Unprecedented incorrectly. He infamously tweeted “Unpresidented.” This typo is a personification of his administration: An impulsive, frantically thrown together group of characters with virtually no oversight. After Trump was sworn in, I started writing the weekly “Unpresidented” column, analyzing his every move. This is week 102.

This was the week Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi secured her place as one of the most successful politicians in American history.

This was the week members of the most female and racially diverse group of people elected the House of Representatives in American history were sworn into office.

But it was also the week President Trump’s administration continued their federal funding hostage situation and tactics of disinformation, authoritarian-like behavior, and shameless hypocritical rhetoric.

Hostage situation: President Trump is still continuing his government shutdown and holding federal funding hostage for his unnecessary, unpopular, and costly wall.

Disinformation: President Trump regurgitated Soviet-era propaganda about Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan (and several other lies outlined later in this piece).

Authoritarianism: President Trump threatened to declare a state of emergency so he can bypass Congress and build the wall (sure to have legal challenges.)

Hypocrisy: President “Grab Em By The Pussy” Trump said that Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s “impeach the motherfucker” comment was “disgraceful.”

While we’re on the subject of hypocrisy, this week we learned more about Trump’s hiring of undocumented immigrants. The man whose entire political platform is built on the xenophobic idea that Latino immigrants are rapists, criminals, and taking American jobs, hired undocumented immigrants. Perhaps the wall would be more effective if it surrounded Trump’s golf courses.

But never fear, because this week was a step forward. Historians will mark January 3, 2019, as the day decency began to be restored during a depraved presidency that put America on the brink of authoritarianism.

It will mark the day women, LGBTQ people, and people of color found their rightful places in Democratic leadership, as the Republican Party continued their descent into political powerlessness.

It will mark the day that the first step towards a restoring a U.S. government that spends time tackling the most serious challenges of our time like climate change, healthcare reform, education reform, income inequality, and systemic racism.

All of that will happen, but only if we work every day as relentlessly as we would if November 3, 2020, was tomorrow.

So let’s get to work.

New Years Eve Weekend

Day 709, 710, and 711: Saturday, Sunday, and Monday — December 29, 30, 31
A Notice Regarding Current Pants Trends
By: Justine Neubarth
Tags: Humor, Style, Clothing, Fashion, Pants

INTERNAL MEMORANDUM

TO: THE COOL-ADJACENT WOMEN

FROM: GLOBAL SENIOR MANAGEMENT

RE: GAUCHOS

DATE: SPRING 2017

Hi All,

Earlier this spring, you may have noticed various elite Cool Women wearing giant, ballooning pantaloons and swelling, sail-like culottes and wide-legged, high-waisted, raw-hemmed flood pants and thought: “wait, when did that happen” and “oh, okay, so everyone is wearing a different type of pant than the type of pant that I thought we were supposed to be wearing” and “but how did they all know that those pants were suddenly the pants that everyone should wear.”

With any sharp reversal in policy there is inevitable uncertainty, and we’d like to clear up any confusion.

Following an initial beta-testing phase, we are pleased to announce to the wider community of cool-adjacent women that gaucho pants and all gaucho-like pants are, without question, cool again. We have full confidence that this strategy will be upheld in a coordinated and consistent fashion. Furthermore, we trust you stored your gauchos in a safe, dark place following our 2006 memo on the subject, titled “Gauchos: Briefly In Style But In Style No More, So Go Ahead and Burn Them and Use The Ashes To Fertilize Succulents, Which Aren’t Cool Yet But Will Be In Six or Seven Years.”

After years of static growth in the experimental pants department — primarily due to our relentless pushing of skinny jeans as the paragon of pants—we are pleased to see growth in the wacky trouser sector.

Some might be wondering how, exactly, to pull off the high-waisted wide-legged denim look. Our guiding suggestion is that comfort is not key. In fact, if the denim feels as though it is made out of the withered trampoline of an ancient catamaran that has washed up upon the shore of a parched Pacific island … PERFECT. Especially if the pants are short enough to leave your ankle exposed, and high enough such that the waistline digs in right beneath the tender flesh of your belly-button.

In conclusion, we appreciate your understanding and cooperation. Please stay tuned for our follow-up memo, entitled “Even When the Permafrost Melts and the Entire Human Race Is Decimated By Ancient Bacteria, Athleisure Will Never Die.”

Ciao!

Global Management
Bring Back Your Joyful Spirit
By: Kelly Neuer
Tags: Lifestyle, Joy, Self, Creativity, Self Love

Bring Back Your Joyful Spirit

You’re worth it (30 days — One small action a day)

Photo by Lidya Nada on Unsplash

We all know it doesn’t take much to get into a rut. The same thing, day in and day out. Well…let’s change that. Let’s bring back your joyful spirit. Your creativity. Your momentum.

I’ve done everything for you, my friend. All you need to do is one small action a day. For you, and only you.

You’re a beautiful person and deserve all the wonderful things your life has to offer. You’re never stuck. You’re never alone.

Let’s do it together!

The Plan

Below are 30 different action items, covering six categories. If you want, you can write these out on popsicle sticks (like I did) and pull one a day, at random, from a cute jar. Or you can print them out and cross them off, like a checklist. We all love a good checklist.

Ready, Set, Go!

Mindfulness

Make a list of everyone you’ve ever said “I love you” to

Find the least used space in your house and stand/sit there for 4 minutes

Say something you like about yourself every time you open the fridge

Spend the rest of the day without your cellphone

Breathe in silence for 7 minutes with your eyes closed

Love Your Body

Rub your belly clockwise for a few minutes to stimulate digestion

Do an ice facial treatment before bed

Give yourself a relaxing foot massage

Close your eyes and brush your hair for 1 minute

Floss your teeth then gargle with warm salt water

Keep it Movin’

Walk the interior perimeter of your entire house (2x)

Turn on the tunes and dance for 10 minutes

Gentle arm windmills for 20 seconds (4x)

5 couch squats (3x)

Flex your abs during commercials or between episodes today

Friends & Family

Call a parent/grandparent you don’t see often

Write letters to the oldest & youngest people you know and mail them

Text someone you haven’t messaged in over two months

Find an old picture of someone you love and text it to them

Make a weekend coffee date to see your best friend

Food & Drink

Throw away expired food items

Eat something sweet

Drink 1 gallon of water today

Use an online recipe generator for tonight’s dinner

Assemble and fill a food donation box for you local shelter

This & That
Men Vs. Women
By: Tito Varghese
Tags: Memories, Poetry, Scrriblings, Thoughts, Life

Bringing back some of my oldies from dusty recesses of the internet, Usha and Sashu might just remember this from its original days :D

Men and women invairably stand..

One without the other always damned..

What do we have so different i wonder..

Physical and mental differences i ponder..

Oh, the almighty did play a wicked plot..

Dividing us amongst our own lot..

A knight stands strong fighting his side..

On the other a lady scorned and weapons drawn wide..

Both in eternal battle engaged for now..

What attacks and counterattacks, and oh how?

One without the other incomplete..

Each in the other their match do meet..

From time immemorial to future unending..

One to the other is bound , body and mind..

Try as we may to escape it..

The thing is thats the only way we fit..

Two pieces of a puzzle simple..

Two faces of a magical coin till we wrinkle..

Fight it or embrace it choose u can..

But lie not to ur heart and to ur own clan..

For even in the deepest of hatred..

A little care and love has somewhere bred..

I have my reasons to choose my path too..

But logic gives me reasons few..

To ensue in a fight ages old yet new..

As always i stand by as i have no clue…
#SmearMyWoman: Free Cervical Screening for 100 Women
By: Uchechi Onuoha
Tags: Cancer Screening, Cancer, Cervical Cancer, Csr

As some of you may know, the month of January is dedicated to raising awareness on cervical health and cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is a type of cancer that occurs in the cells of the cervix which is the lower part of the uterus that connects to the vagina.

Females from the age of 14 to 65, especially when they become sexually active, can contract the disease. This puts over 50 million Nigerian women at risk of cervical cancer, which remains the number one cause of all cancer deaths in Nigeria among women of reproductive age (15–44).

Globally, cervical cancer kills 720 women daily; that is one woman every two minutes. In Nigeria, out of the 14,000 women diagnosed with cervical cancer, about 30 of them die from the disease on daily basis, totalling over 10,000 daily.

Strains of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), a sexually transmitted infection, is the major cause of cervical cancer. 95% of cervical cancer diagnosis is attributed to lack of knowledge and failure to undergo pap smear screening.

For this reason, Chain Reactions Nigeria, a leading public relations and integrated communication consulting firm, is partnering with St. Ives, a leading multi-specialist hospital to reduce the scourge of cervical cancer in the country.

Chain Reactions is commemorating the Cervical Cancer Awareness/Prevention Month with an initiative titled, ‘A Smear in Time Saves My Woman.’ The initiative is infused with an awareness campaign tagged #SmearMyWoman, and an activation part: “100% Cervical FREE” that will deliver Free Cervical Screening to 100 less privileged girls and women who otherwise might not be able to afford the test. This is to enable early discovery and treatment of the disease.

Speaking about the campaign, Managing Director/Chief Strategist, Chain Reactions Nigeria, Israel Jaiye Opayemi, said: “Women are gatekeepers of life. They contribute to every part of our lives as mothers, sisters, daughters, wives, friends and colleagues offering support to men and the family. At Chain Reactions Nigeria, we celebrate our women, which is why all of us male executives are championing this cause to share their experience, to empathise with women who are going through cervical cancer. Truth is, whatever affects the women in our lives, affects every one of us”

To benefit from the free screening, visit www.smearmywoman.com to nominate yourself or someone else for the screening on or before the 29th of January, 2020. Beneficiaries will be contacted on the 30th of January, 2020.

More details about the #SmearMyWoman campaign and 100% cervical free screening initiative, can be found at www.smearmywoman.com
The Holidays That Were and Those That Were not
By: A Singular Story
Tags: Travel, Family, Self, Love, Relationships

The yule log sports a cabbage-shaped crater, the result of an impromptu collision during transport. Adults and kids stand around the table, staring at the aberration, and holding their stomach because we cannot stop laughing. Next to the log is the offending vegetable, an enormous cabbage lovingly grown by my auntie. She also spent hours making the traditional Christmas French cake and yet she too is amused by what happened.

She, her husband, and their three children live in the countryside and have traveled two hours to have Christmas lunch with us in Paris. As befits French tradition, they’ve turned up with festive food plus some homegrown produce to share. More than likely, my uncle had to brake unexpectedly because Parisians are notoriously bad drivers. That’s when the cabbage flew and landed on my auntie’s pastry creation and gave it this very unexpected and memorable look.

To make a yule log, you have to bake a Swiss roll then slather it in buttercream before rolling it, hoping it won’t fall apart as you do so. For pastry chefs, it’s a doddle; for home cooks who make it once a year, not so much and many will have go through several tries before getting it right. Into the fridge it goes for a few hours before you decorate it, which also takes some time and creativity; cabbage isn’t generally used.

I have few childhood memories but this is one of my favorite ones, back when our families were unbroken and untouched by tragedy. My uncle would die suddenly a couple of years later, leaving my stay-at-home auntie to raise three young children alone. And then my parents would divorce soon afterward, turning what was already a difficult childhood into hell.
Getting Started with MARKET Protocol and DDEX
By: Seth Rubin
Tags: Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Ethereum, Ddex, Bitcoin

Here is a quick walkthrough for trading long and short leveraged bitcoin on DDEX. First, check out our pricing post and trading post to understand more about SBTC and LBTC.

Select LBTC (long) or SBTC (short)

2.) If you want to buy leveraged Bitcoin at $10,000 this means you need to buy LBTC at $4,000.

3.) Use MP tools to help with pricing, leverage and max gain/loss. Adjust the slider across the top to find the token price needed to get the desired BTC price or leverage. The cheaper the token price the more leverage implied.

We love to help! Please reach out to us on Discord or Telegram with any questions.
From Girl To Woman: How Childhood Bullying Manufactures Misogyny.
By: Samantha Clarke
Tags: Bullying, Feminism, Mental Health, Children, Relationships

My Childhood As ‘The Smart Girl.’

I am not unlike many other women and girls who had to endure bullying from their classmates as a child. I have always known that this greatly impacted my life in negative ways, but until now I haven’t been able to fully quantify the dynamics of what happened to me growing up. After careful reflection, I am ready to share that story with the world now.

I was bullied throughout my childhood for being intellectually gifted.

I had been an exemplary student until I reached my pubescent years. But then, something changed.

I was suspended in 7th grade for dressing in black and giving one of my bullies, the principal’s son, an “evil look.” He said I threatened him.

I fought back against violence with my mind, and I was punished.

In 8th grade, I became the class clown, and I refused to do classwork to cause social disruption. I didn’t agree with the unfair treatment I saw of students based on bias.

Until then, I’d made 100 on my assignments; my standardized test results were always above the 99% percentile.

Why in the world would such a student behave in the ways I did? At the time, I wasn’t fully aware of what was motivating me to take the actions I did, but looking in retrospect, my intentions were clear.
Be Your Own Physical Therapist and Defeat Runner’s Knee
By: David Liira
Tags: Health, Inspiration, Fitness, Lifestyle, Running

What Is Runner’s Knee?

The complicated thing about Runner’s Knee is that it has many names. It was formally labeled as Chondromalacia Patellae, and it’s now known as Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome or simply ‘anterior knee pain’. It is an overuse injury being caused by inflammation of structures (bursa, synovial membrane) around the knee cap. The pain will present itself at the articulation between the back of the patella (knee cap) and the patellar surface (groove at bottom of the leg bone). There is often popping and grinding present, and occasionally minor swelling will arise.

“Runner’s Knee is an overuse injury caused by excessive & repetitive strain. Or simply put, doing too much, too soon, too frequently.” — Alinda Kennedy, B.Physio

This can occur based on overtraining, and it’s typically spurred on by muscle imbalances. The knee is a high-pressure hinge joint that can take often take a beating. If there are deficits within the abductors, hamstrings, or lateral rotator muscles, we can pay the price over time due to the repetitive nature of running. Furthermore, if we feel tight or ‘muscle-bound’ within the quads, or notice that the ligaments around the knee are loose, this condition can also creep up.

For most individuals, this pain will gradually increase during a run, especially one of a longer distance. For severe cases, it may be bothersome throughout other aspects of the day like walking up stairs or down a hill.

Image from Comprehensive Orthopaedics

Think of Runner’s Knee as a warning sign that your training status and physical health needs adjusting. When you experience this discomfort, your body is throwing you a white flag stating that its tissues aren’t yet adapted to meet the needs of your current level of activity.

This is where knee-specific strengthening exercises come in.

Before we talk about therapeutic options, I want to be clear. As already mentioned above, some cases of Runner’s Knee are worse than others. Please use your discretion when applying any new exercises, and check with your health provider if you have any concerns. Some may need more invasive care, but we can always do our best to start with physical therapy. For the majority of us, completing these exercises will go a long way to improving running outcomes and overall strength/function within the knee joint.
Bither v1.8.3 Supports SegWit
By: Bitpie Wallet
Tags: Segwit, Crypto, Cryptocurrency, Cryptocurrency Investment, Bither

Hi Blockchain! Buy, Store & Use multi-chain cryptos with ease & safety! Join us: (link: http://t.me/BitpieInternational) t.me/Bitpienews

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Early Morning Mystery Meetings
By: Sharon Brandon
Tags: Writing, Short Story, Pentina, Illumination, Dreams

Early in the morning is when I hear the characters from whatever book I am working on speak to me. Sometimes they are presenting ideas and other times they are going through an actual scene. Often the imagery seems real and I feel like I am part of the action.
How To Make Your PHP Code Beautiful With Chainable Methods
By: Chris Geelhoed
Tags: Programming, PHP, Coding, Functional Programming, Software Development

How To Make Your PHP Code Beautiful With Chainable Methods

Functional programming, meet PHP

Photo by William Zhang on Unsplash

PHP has a bad reputation for being ugly. The language evolved piecemeal over time, and it shows.

But it has a lot of redeeming qualities as well. The PHP development team has consistently improved the language with every release. PHP 7, in particular, made great strides in both features and performance.

Other benefits of the language include friendly documentation, ubiquitous hosting, and a considerable amount of online resources to draw from (on Stack Overflow and otherwise).

And yes, all the biggest CMS platforms (Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla) are PHP-based and there is a lot of work to be done in that arena.

So, for those of us that use PHP and want to write beautiful code, how can this be achieved?

Naysayers might claim that this isn’t possible, but I disagree. Frameworks like Laravel (“the PHP framework for web artisans”) have already proven them wrong.

One pattern that Laravel and other respected PHP frameworks often implement is method chaining.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about, Laravel’s query builder API:

$users = DB::table('users')

->where('votes', '>', 100)

->orWhere('name', 'John')

->get();

Reference: https://laravel.com/docs/5.6/queries.

This “chaining” syntax is nice because it allows developers to write code that does one thing at a time in an expressive and readable way. In the example above, it is easy to see what is happening:

Look at rows in the users table. Where votes are greater than 100. Or where the user’s name is John. Get the results.

Pretty slick, right? Let’s dive into how this pattern can be brought to life.
【動區專欄】一個虛擬貨幣的價格，有錨點嗎?
By: 動區塊聚 Blockmeet
Tags: Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Investment

in Both Sides of the Table
How the Justice Department Helped Bring Down the Largest Criminal Marketplace on the Internet
By: Heritage Foundation
Tags: Cybersecurity, Alphabay, Law Enforcement, Defense

Commentary by Riley Walters.

The Department of Justice announced the shutdown of “the largest criminal marketplace on the internet.”

The site, AlphaBay, was launched in 2013 after authorities shut down a similar dark web marketplace known as the “Silk Road.” According to the Justice Department, AlphaBay has been hosting over 200,000 users and at least 40,000 illicit vendors.

While these efforts may only slow the selling of illegal drugs, weapons, and other “dark” material, the announcement shows a continued effort by U.S. and international law enforcement to crack down on criminals.

On July 5, the creator of AlphaBay, Alexandre Cazes, was arrested in Thailand. The United States and Thailand were not alone in the investigation.

As Attorney General Jeff Sessions noted in a speech regarding the incident, “international partners at Europol and in Thailand, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Canada, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany … worked closely with [the United States] to take down the criminal enterprise” that used computer networks across numerous countries.

At the time the site went offline, it contained over 300,000 listings for drugs, toxic chemicals, stolen identification documents, and illegal software.

Shutting down the site was more difficult than one may believe at first glance because of a lack of a central location. The dark web is not accessible through usual browsers like Google Chrome or Internet Explorer, and thus is not easily accessible.

Moreover, the site is only accessible if users operate through a “The Onion Router” (Tor) network, which makes IP addresses difficult to trace.

The site also used only digital or crypto-currencies, which allowed users to maintain anonymity during purchases unless the digital code assigned to each purchase was already known by authorities. Its data can be used across numerous systems.

The shutdown of the Silk Road clearly led to an increase in demand for AlphaBay’s services.

After international law enforcement took control of AlphaBay’s infrastructure, they were able to monitor specific sellers and buyers — and once AlphaBay shut down, authorities were able to watch as buyers and sellers migrated to other dark web marketplaces.

One site, known as Hansa Market, was quick to populate with AlphaBay’s users. Coincidentally, Dutch law enforcement were simultaneously working to shut down Hansa Market.

The case is still under investigation by the FBI, and more such cases are sure to follow.

These efforts highlight the need to combine traditional law enforcement, both domestically and internationally, with law enforcement’s cyber capabilities to crack down on new-age cyber threats.

This piece originally appeared in The Daily Signal
ZERO — The part of infinity
By: Swati Kadam
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Writer, Mathematics, Entreprenuer

Zero… where multiplying produces the own replica and dividing generates infinite possibilities. Zero is quite a mystery to understand deeply. Zero is the beginning, which no one ever wished to start. Zero is the lovely ending, which no one ever wants to stop.

The invention, the need and usefulness of ‘Zero’ in every field and aspects of life is different. Zero is our view. It is small enough to be neglected and is wide enough to cover the philosophy of the life.

Zero: To an entrepreneur

‘Zero’ is the identity of the success of an entrepreneur. The longer the train of zeros in bank account, beginning with any number except zero, higher the volume of net worth. To add those zeros, the person has literally given zero worth to all the activities besides his business.

Zero: To a tech nerd

In the world of technology, only Zero and One speaks. Zero implies ‘off’. Zero carries a storage. Zero has potential to encrypt the data. Zero is circuit closed and electrons flow. Zero produces factorial of 1. Zero is not a number in the technology, it is the language of technology. Dumb is telecommunication without its usage. Zero is half the technology, rest is One.

Zero: To a writer

Zero describes the life. The situation and place value affect the treatment we are getting. Zero has the power to decide the status of the person. Zero is neutral at times, adding and subtracting no value to the life. It is everything that matters in life, without it not even a bread is earned, neither a heart. Life is all about operating and functioning, as zero is.

Zero: Purpose of invention

Although there are several uses and implementations of ‘Zero’, the core purpose of the invention was:

1. Using Zero as an empty place indicator.

For instance, in the number 7809, zero is placed to indicate the accurate place values of numbers 7 and 8.

2. Using Zero for counting.

Zero has endless possibilities to consider. The Zero is an only infinite number of probabilities about what Zero actually imparts. Zero has, however, made its irreplaceable place in the world of technology and business. The value of Zero in technology, in mathematics and in life is unpredictable. The Zero indicates what and how we perform and operate on it. Zero is the result of our efforts and stillness.
[BLOG] Token Staking For The Users
Tags: Blog, Blockchain, Users, Temco, Staking

Benefits in the GUHADA platform

In the GUHADA platform that TEMCO is currently in the process of developing, all the users can take advantage of the staking TEMCO tokens. The following describes the benefits that users can receive through staking TEMCO tokens, in the GUHADA platform.

1. Receive more benefit on TEMCO point reward.

Within GUHADA platform, TEMCO token staking users have a higher chance of earning more TEMCO points.

2. Participate in Review and Community Q&A

TEMCO token staking users can participate in 100 percent of the community activities in the platform. Especially, only TEMCO token staking users can participate in the product review and the Q&A section.

3. Upgrade to a VIP User in GUHADA Platform

The users are differentiated by the membership level in the GUHADA platform. The benefits that users can receive are differentiated by the membership level, and the staking users can receive better benefits by automatic membership level upgrade.

4. Receive Discounts on Selling Fees

Within GUHADA platform, the vendors must pay the selling fee for sales of the products. The staking vendors can receive discounts on the selling fees.

5. Receive Discounts on Product Ads

Throughout the GUHADA platform, including main page and community pages, there are advertising sections for the vendors to promote their products. TEMCO token staking vendors can receive a discount on the product ads.

6. Receive Shorter Statement Cycles

When the vendors sell their products on GUHADA platform, there is a simple accounting function that shows a shorter statement cycle automatically. Staking users can receive such benefits as automatically calculated weekly statements.
Goodbye October
By: Lark Morrigan
Tags: October, Poetry, Life, Spirituality

Goodbye October,

you hold every tear I cry,

but I will always remember you,

and your art will never die.

Goodbye October,

for now, I must say goodbye,

but I hope I see you

again before I die.
May’s way: Brexit means Brexit, and Brexiteers
By: Connor Daly
Tags: Connor Daly, Current Affairs, Brexit, Boris Johnson, Featured Article

Prime Minister Theresa May

Announcing her candidature for Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister, Theresa May declared “Brexit means Brexit.”

Brexit, then, was always likely to influence the appointment of more Brexit-minded MPs to government positions under her premiership.

With “impressive ruthlessness” the backbones of David Cameron’s cabinet — George Osborne, Michael Gove, Nicky Morgan and others — have been dismantled. We have witnessed not a reshuffle of ministers but wholesale change in the make-up and, May will hope, the branding of the government.

In 2002, May famously warned the Conservative Party to shed its image as being Britain’s “nasty party”. In her maiden speech as Prime Minister on Wednesday she pledged this government would not to be driven by “the privileged few”.

Going by this speech, the mission of the new administration will be to advance social justice, exit the European Union and unify a divided United Kingdom as “one nation”. By her cabinet shake-up she clearly seeks to unite a fractured Tory party too.

Key appointments like Philip Hammond (Remainer) as Chancellor, and of Eurosceptics like David Davis as Secretary for Exiting the EU, Liam Fox as Secretary for International Trade show a willingness to unify. So too does the appointment of May’s recent Tory leadership rival (and Leaver) Andrea Leadsom as Environment Secretary.

The appointment of Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary has raised eyebrows, but as leader of the Leave campaign — a vote he arguably swung and won — surely the onus should be on him to spearhead Britain’s new era of international relations.

In the referendum’s aftermath, Remainers complained prominent Leavers Johnson, Gove and UKIP’s Nigel Farage were allowed to abdicate responsibility. With BoJo’s appointment the Brexiteer-in-chief will not be afforded opportunity to fade into the shadows.

May’s way looks set to be calm and considered, with the EU exit gradual. From a Northern Ireland perspective, the appointment of James Brokenshire as Secretary of State — a former lawyer, security and immigration minister at the Home Office — may fit another piece of the May jigsaw.

This week Britain has a new Prime Minister and new government. Both put the onus on Brexiteers to negotiate the best deal possible for the UK leaving the EU, and on both sides of the Conservative Party to come together.

To May, the Brexit vote means Brexit and bringing more Brexiteers on board too.
JWT Tokens: The What, How, and Why
By: Colton Kaiser
Tags: Security, Software Engineering, JavaScript, Programming, Software Development

What’s the Difference Between Authentication and Authorization?

To put it simply, authentication is the first step in any security process. This beginning process verifies credentials (an example being a password or the facial recognition on your phone) and confirms the user is who they say they are. Authorization (where JWT comes into play) gives the user access to specific functions or resources. An example could be authorizing that the user has access to financial records, if they can perform admin actions, etc.

A simple definition from an article from okta.com:

“Authentication confirms that users are who they say they are. Authorization gives those users permission to access a resource.”

In other words, authentication is the bouncer at the club checking your ID to make sure you’re 21 and allowed in the building; authorization is the stamp he gives you to allow access back into the club or confirming you’re allowed in the VIP area.

Key point: Authentication validates a user and authorization gives the user access to specific functions or resources.
Meadow Memories
By: Thalia Dunn
Tags: Memories, Nature, Wildflowers, Poetry, Reflections Of Life

photo by Thalia Dunn

I wandered over

to the meadow today,

expecting to see the field

ablaze with black-eyed Susans

dancing in the morning sun.

It’s the first time in years

I’ve returned to this field,

wanting to relive

the memory

of standing here with you.

But as I turn the bend,

no tapestry of yellow greets me.

A blanket of purple fireweed,

swaying on their green stalks,

spreads across the meadow.

Where are the black-eyed Susans?

When did all this change?

If you were here, you’d laugh

and use your favorite phrase,

“How jolly!

A new color scheme

to dive into!”

I sink into the grass until

the shade saturates me;

somewhere deep within,

maybe in my toes,

something nudges;

Perhaps I, too, can change

my vista,

my life.

Wherever you are,

I bet you’re smiling right now.
This month, I experimented with writing short-form posts for Medium.
By: Rebecca Sealfon
Tags: Content Creation, Blogging, Monetization, Short Form, Ｍedium

This month, I experimented with writing short-form posts for Medium. Those are short posts where, instead of having a header, the first sentence is bolded. This post is an example of one. I started by writing two per day and continued by writing one per day. This post is my thirty-fifth.

I published them in ILLUMINATION and in ILLUMINATION’s new technology-related publication Technology Hits. I started running out of ideas. And I made a modest sum of money.

Only one was in my top five earning stories for this month, making $0.68. The next earning story was $0.43. These two were about other popular writers. I published them on ILLUMINATION and Technology Hits. Mostly, I earned a few cents and ten or twenty views for each post. As an ordinary 300-follower writer, I found they were hardly the goldmine Thomas Smith claims here. Any advice?
在面試中不應該給出的10個不可接受的答案
By: 胡家維 Hu Kenneth
Tags: Interview, Programming

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How to invest in one of the biggest opportunities — Platform (infrastructure) Coins
Tags: Crypto, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency Investment, Investing, Palettes

There are roughly 2000 cryptocurrencies, and the majority of the Top 100 (in terms of market capitalization) are platform or infrastructure projects. In 2017 platforms like Ethereum, EOS and Icon captured the markets with not only massive market appreciation, but with the potential of what kind of technology can be built on top of these.

Why invest in Platform Tokens ?

If there is a consistently high percentage of platform coins in the top market caps, this would indicate their popularity as an investment. Considering in 2017 most of the 221 ICOs were built on Ethereum — erc20 tokens, we can begin to understand the potential of platform (infrastructure) tokens.

Primarily Developers can build dApps and other technologies on top of these platforms, thus making the potential much more than just a single use case.

In the face of market volatility, we can focus on the fundamentals. As already listed, the fundamentals and potential of platform coins, outweigh many others.

Let’s package crypto platforms into a basket — If you’re not aware of crypto baskets, please see our introduction here.

WHAT WOULD A CRYPTO PLATFORM BASKET LOOK LIKE?

Top platform coins to add in your crypto basket

ETHEREUM

Ethereum is the second largest cryptocurrency, behind Bitcoin.

A platform that allows developers to build decentralized apps (dApps) and technologies. With each new innovation on the platform, this has increased the adoption rate of Ethereum and hence creating a network effect, increasing its value. Ethereum appreciated 3000% in 2017. Currently, there are 1749 dApps operating on Ethereum — explore some of them here.

EOS

EOS, Ethereum Operating System, is a network and platform for applications built on Ethereum that performs many of the same functions, with much greater capacity — up to millions of transactions per second. The purpose of EOS is to enable highly-scalable applications that can interact with the Ethereum blockchain. By defining new governance method in blockchain and $4 billion in funding, EOS hails at 5th position in the market. To read more about EOS read the article

NEO

NEO cryptocurrency, initially AntShares (ANS), was launched in 2014. It is a platform to make decentralized applications and is treated as China’s answer to Ethereum. Both cryptocurrencies use smart contracts but NEO takes advantage of its unique blockchain in order to improve on Ethereum’s network.

Palettes gives you the option of investing in intelligently weighted crypto portfolios, from the comfort of your own trusted exchange account. Palettes are developed from baskets — like the platform basket listed in this article. You can be a part of the Palettes Alpha and even have a say in what sort of Palettes you would like to see available — join the conversation in the Palettes Telegram community.