fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Sophia’s Strawberry Scones
By: Sophia S Sweets
Tags: Strawberry, Scones, Baked Goods, Delicious, Dessert

When I think of a classic scone, I think of a dry treat. That’s right. SCONES ARE SUPPOSED TO BE DRY, NOT MOIST! If you want a moist treat, you can bake muffins or biscuits but scones are supposed to be dry and delicious. It is as simple as that. Sorry, I don’t mean to sound aggressive but I have to make sure you understand that before you bake my recipe.

This recipe is for all you scone lovers out there who have been dying to bake this buttery, delicious, DRY treat. This recipe is easy to follow and any baker of any level can make this. This is a strawberry scone recipe but you can substitute the strawberries with blueberries or any other fruit of your choice!
I Went to the Place Where They Made Heidi
Tags: Verse, Poetry, Poetry On Medium

Oh wait, you forgot to plug in the “nobody cares.”

They didn’t betray anybody; they just came through for your opposite.

One guy died and was brought back to life when they played his fav song,

and a bird broke its neck on the rearview mirror.

Nobody said you had to be an armadillo; you made the decision outright.

“We will never have F’in ketchup on our hotdogs!” That kind of conviction

was something you weren’t used to; start acclimating.

You thought you were a teenager, but your birth year was wrong,

like how that Ethiopian guy was, like, 40 and kicked ass straight through.

I imagined that the Nazis were good to us POWs,

but they became quiet and pissed when the Chick-fil-A wrappers

rustled in on the breeze with the stars and stripes in tow.

He just chose to farm sorghum in the middle of Ohio,

and you knew it was inefficient and bad for the planet,

but he loved molasses and American couscous.

He had some sort of tongue knowledge you couldn’t get around,

and it won’t keep you warm at night with all your complaining.

Even your friends will give up on basketball game

and come in to the air conditioning.

Folk art was legitimized a long time ago; did you forget?

Even if he banged a pig, you’d still buy his garden gnomes

made of Studebacker rims and tailpipes for the wide open mouths.
‘MacGyver’: S05.E03. “Eclipse + USMC-1856707 + Step Potential + Chain Lock + Ma”
By: Shain E. Thomas
Tags: Macgyver, CBS, Entertainment, Television, Lucas Till

The latest MacGyver, episode, televised on Friday, 18 December 2020, opens with the team taking a suitcase weapon off the streets. David Straiton’s Eclipse + USMC-1856707 + Step Potential + Chain Lock + Ma, with a story penned by Stephanie Hicks and Jim Adler, series as the mid-Winter finale.

The next instalment, with there not being another MacGyver episode this year, doesn’t hit television screens until Friday, 8 january 2021.

Image Credit: IMDb.com

Russell “Russ” Taylor (Henry Ian Cusick), when on route to Angus “Mac” MacGyver’s (Lucas Till) residence, is kidnapped. The person holding Russ hostage, Roman (Zach McGowan), simply demands USMC-1856707 in exchange for the hostage.

USMC-1856707, not an object, is former United States Marine Corps Sergeant Eric Andrews (Joe Pantoliano). Andrews, previously a murderous psychopath, is now a pacifist. Andrews, back in the day, had been under Leland’s (Tobin Bell) command.

With Andrews being held in a federal prison, presenting Mac with a momentary problem, breaking the former sergeant out is the only option. Who knew mixing bleach with paint could create chloroform?

Andrews, having escaped from Mac and Desiree “Desi” Nguyen (Levy Tran), doesn’t make life easy. Leland, via a video call, threatens to kill the people Russ loves. Mac seemingly cares more about stopping Codex than he does saving Russ.

Mac and Desi, with Andrews’ help, eventually rescues Russ. The FBI, searching for Andrews, show up. Andrews, for the second time, escapes.

Previously …
The Myth of Echo & Narcissus under the Lens of Gilberto’s “Misty Roses”
Tags: Poetry, Mythology, Death, Love, Greek

The Myth of Echo & Narcissus under the Lens of Gilberto’s “Misty Roses”

What Echo Wanted to Say Before Her Death

Echo & Narcissus by John William Waterhouse, 1903

A short song, Astrud Gilberto’s “Misty Roses” was released in 1967. The first time I heard it, it numbed me in a trance. It is one of the most mysterious musical experiences I ever had. It is a Bossa Nova track with a gorgeous orchestral composition. But it was her voice that captivated me and gave the song an enigmatic tone. I probably repeated the track more than a hundred times to understand what she was saying, and thoughts about the song arose.

At first glance, it may simply be a song about her experience with roses, perhaps a desire for a particular set of them. Or on the other hand, it may be a metaphor for loving someone. But I would like to imagine a third possibility: it may also be interpreted to have parallels with an ancient mythological tale, Ovid’s Echo & Narcissus — The rose is a metaphor for Echo’s desired object, the handsome Narcissus.

The story goes that Narcissus became obsessed with himself while ignoring the mountain nymph Echo, who fell in love with his youthful appearance and tried getting his attention. Narcissus kept on looking at his reflection in a lake, and he thought himself so beautiful that in his death his body transformed into the so-called narcissus flower.

In the context surrounding Echo, the Goddess Hera, due to jealousy and suspicion of Zeus mingling with the nymphs, cursed her to only repeat the last words someone has spoken to her while her not having sentences of her own. In the midst of her curse, she encountered Narcissus, whom she fell in love with, in a forest after driving some frightened deer and thereafter followed him. One day, Narcissus became separated from his friends, he called out “Is anyone nearby?”, and Echo startled him crying out “nearby”. Nowhere in sight was Echo. Narcissus then called “Come, come.” only to hear the same. Narcissus decided to say “Let’s meet!”, and when Echo heard this, she repeated him with joy, and believed to have the opportunity to ring her arms around him, she jumped out of the woods and ran towards him.

When Echo finally reached Narcissus, he rejected her, shouting “Do not touch me! Don’t cling to me! I’d sooner die than say I’m yours!” Echo repeated, “I’m yours.” And in shame, she concealed herself within the woods to never be seen by him. But her love for him grew every day and more intense. She died in the caves, and with her flesh withered, her voice was all that was left.

In the meantime, Narcissus, having rejected everyone, came upon a lake. He saw his reflection, laid next to his image face-down, and could not look away. With time, without food nor rest, he transformed into a pale, white flower.
Not All Here
Tags: Mood, Humor, Comics, Life, Cartoon

Written by

Almost famous cartoonist who laughs at her own jokes and hopes you will, too.
FAQ для новичков о криптовалюте
By: Igor Geronemo
Tags: Bitcoin, Blockchain, ICO, Beginner, Cryptocurrency

in In Fitness And In Health
Building a generic Swift Stack
By: Jared Jarvis Williams
Tags: Swift, Generics

Let's build a basic Stack data structure with Swift. We will have to cover a couple of core concepts: Generics in Swift, and Basic Stack operations. Let's get started!

First, let us create the basic data structure that we will add to

class Stack<T> { }

Things to know about the code above:

We define a new Swift class called Stack The Stack class is parameterized by some type T as denoted by <>

We will see shortly how the Type T is going to help us.

Now let us add the two basic operations of our Stack

class Stack<T> { private var rep: [T]! init() { self.rep = [] } public func push(element: T) { } public func pop() ->T? { }

}

Above we add two methods: Push and Pop. The push method adds an element to the top of the stack, and pop removes an element from the top of the stack.

As you can see in the definitions for Push and Pop that both accept a parameter of type T, and return a value of Type T respectively. What does this mean? Remember how we defined the class Stack to be parameterized by Type T? The <T> used in the class definition tells the Swift compiler that we are defining a class that will use some Type T that will be defined at runtime. After defining the generic class we can use the generic type T anywhere within the class definition. This means that methods push and pop can also return and accept parameters of some type T that we can define at runtime.

Let us see what our implemented methods look like

class Stack<T> { private var rep: [T]! init() { self.rep = [] } public func push(element: T) { self.rep.insert(element, at: 0) } public func pop() ->T? { if self.rep.count > 0 { return self.rep.remove(at: 0) } return nil } }

As you can see our implementations for push and pop are completely agnostic to the underlying type that they are operating on.

Now let us see how we can use our newly created stack on multiple different types.

var stack = Stack<Int>() stack.push(element: 1)

stack.push(element: 2)

stack.push(element: 3) stack.pop() stack.pop() stack.pop() // Output: 3, 2, 1

Here we are able to use our Stack to add and remove Ints, let us see if we can do the same with Strings

var stack = Stack<String>() stack.push(element: "1")

stack.push(element: "2")

stack.push(element: "3") stack.pop() stack.pop() stack.pop() // Output: "3", "2", "1"

See how we were able to utilize the same stack for multiple different data types? That is the value of generics, code reuse.

Homework: Create a similar generic data structure that implements a Queue
Don’t Tell Me
By: Saugat Acharya
Tags: Relationships, Love, Feelings, Warmth, Poetry

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

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Being and Nothingness
By: Clio Hartzer
Tags: Hamlet, Sexism, Racism, Queer

To be, or not to be, that is the question.

I am a White person in a male body, 52 years old. I am married to a woman. I have a child, a stable job, and a home. I am so ordinary.

I could live the rest of my life out with my head down, taking full advantage of the privileges of my station and letting others fend for themselves.

In so doing, I would suppress major parts of myself. I would also continue to be complicit in feeding the three-headed hydra of White Supremacy, the Patriarchy, and Cishet Primacy.

This is what so many people in my position choose to do. It’s the easy choice.

For me, it is not-being.

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing end them.

Hamlet, literature’s most famous emo boy, is speaking of the choice between suicide and continuing to live his miserable life as an ultrarich White man who, for his troubles, has to live with the uncle who killed his father.

But here among lesser beings, this choice is meaningful. While the nobler choice may feel like cultural suicide, it needn’t be physical suicide.

Do I tread water in the safe part of the stream, taking on the safe mantle of White Straight Male, complicitly silent in the face of racism, sexism, and anti-queer bias? Quietly suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune?

Or do I take arms against them, living my true self and doing my part to tear down the systems that benefit my golem-self? Swimming out into the sea of troubles in order to destroy it?

With the exception of my disability (a prosthetic left eye), my differences are easy to render invisible. It would be so easy to succumb to appeasement, to fold myself into the mainstream.

It would harm others, but it would be safer for me.

I have done so in the past: My willingness to be myself, fully myself, in public has waxed and waned inversely to my fear of repercussions. I have let fear box me in, multiple times over my life.

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all.

And while I have pressed against the walls, I still let fear box me in.

The system functions based on that fear. It persists based on that fear.

Sure, there are those who enjoy the three-headed hydra, who get drunk off the milk it sprays from its nipples. I do not know if these drunkards are salvageable.

But there are so many of us who respond from fear, who maintain the system because to rise against it is seen as futility and pointless risk.

These are the people who need to speak up, to stop letting “the native hue of resolution” be tainted and derailed by “the pale cast of thought”.

I am one of these people.

And I need to remind myself of this routinely, because the hydra is so large, and has driven its tentacles so deeply into my flesh. The easy route of non-being, of simple surviving; the hard route of being, at the risk of what can be lost.

I am White, but I am not a man. I am queer. I support women. I support BIPOC. I cannot abide an oppressive system.
#日記_2020年_12月_30日
By: Noah Coin
Tags: Blockchain, Noah City, Noah Project, Cryptocurrency, Defi

CREATING A BORDERLESS WORLD. Noah Coin is one of the cryptocurrency that supports economic growth through blockchain technology. info@noahcoin.org

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what’s in a name?
By: Priyanka Bose
Tags: Culture, Self, Identity, Personal Essay, Creative Writing

“What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

So says Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, rationalizing why such a thing as simple as a name should not be what defines your identity.

Juliet, of course, is referring to her surname here, as well as that of Romeo’s — Capulet versus Montague, and how unfortunate it is that such a small thing can prove to be such a barrier to a relationship between two people otherwise perfectly matched.

However, the quote resonates with me for an entirely different reason, because I have three different names, each of which forms a core part of my identity.

In West Bengal, the part of India where my family is from, it’s common practice to have a bhalo nam, or “good name”, the one on your birth certificate, and a dak nam, or a family name — essentially, an official nickname.

My bhalo nam is Priyanka. My dak nam is Piya. Both names were chosen for me when I was born.

My third name, Priya, is one I chose for myself.
Project Euler — Problem 64 Solution
By: Yan Cui
Tags: Functional Programming, Project Euler Solutions, Programming

Project Euler — Problem 64 Solution

Problem

All square roots are periodic when written as continued fractions and can be written in the form:

For example, let us consider ?23:

If we continue we would get the following expansion:

The process can be summarised as follows:

It can be seen that the sequence is repeating. For conciseness, we use the notation ?23 = [4;(1,3,1,8)], to indicate that the block (1,3,1,8) repeats indefinitely. The first ten continued fraction representations of (irrational) square roots are: ?2=[1;(2)], period=1 ?3=[1;(1,2)], period=2 ?5=[2;(4)], period=1 ?6=[2;(2,4)], period=2 ?7=[2;(1,1,1,4)], period=4 ?8=[2;(1,4)], period=2 ?10=[3;(6)], period=1 ?11=[3;(3,6)], period=2 ?12= [3;(2,6)], period=2 ?13=[3;(1,1,1,1,6)], period=5 Exactly four continued fractions, for N <= 13, have an odd period. How many continued fractions for N <= 10000 have an odd period?

Solution

(see full solution here).

Based on the algorithm on continued fractions from Wikipedia, we can implement the expansion algorithm as:

From the Wikipedia page:

The algorithm can also terminate on ai when ai = 2 a0, which is easier to implement.

which corresponds to the termination condition we have in the Repeat active pattern (which also checks if the accumulator is empty):

Also, this algorithm doesn’t work on numbers that are perfect squares, i.e. 4, 9, 16, … hence we need to exclude them when searching for our answer.

Here’s the solution in full:

This solution took 92ms to execute on my machine.
My Angel
By: Elise Edmonds
Tags: Fiction, Very Short Story, Microfiction

Her jewels sparkled in the sunlight, green emeralds and bright white diamonds.

From my vantage point, the princess resembled an exquisite angel. Her golden silk dress shimmered as she glided through the crowds.

I watched her spin around to take the bouquet offered by a blonde child. The princess’s luminous smile made a shiver run down my spine. Perfection.

I drank in her features. Her petite face, her delicate hands. Hidden from sight as I was, I couldn’t stop staring.

I shook my head. Enough. I had a job to do.

A single tear marred my face as I lifted the sniper rifle, took aim, and fired, immortalising my angel.
Which Cookie Recipe is Searched the Most Across the US?
By: Patrick Strickler
Tags: Google Data Studio, Search, Google Search, Data, Data Visualization

The answer you’re looking for is sugar cookie recipes. Happy Holidays!
My Father, Driving
By: Not Another Tv Dad
Tags: Poetry

By CL Bledsoe

He drove so slow, Death

got out to walk.

* * *

It saves on cleaning,

because he doesn’t raise dust.

* * *

Everybody was so friendly;

they all waved, but real

cool-like with just one finger.

* * *

Sometimes, he liked to race old

Grampa Taylor; he usually

won now that Grampa was dead.

* * *

Hard to tell if he’s going

forwards or backwards until

somebody lays on the horn.

* * *

When the horizon comes up

too fast, he gets scared he might

fall off the Earth and miss supper.
On The Inside
By: Mark A. Schrader
Tags: Poetry, Emotions, Friends, Relationships, Personal Expression

On The Inside

(a poem)

Photo by Logan Weaver on Unsplash

Say you’re laughing on the inside

Well I think you ought to get that checked out

Sounds like a bad situation to me

To have emotions you just can’t show

…

MAS
284
By: Jeri Hilt
Tags: Poetry, Revolt, Sacrifice, Love, Patchwerk

Jeri Hilt is creating film | Patreon

Follow Jeri Hilt on Patreon: Read posts by Jeri Hilt on the world's largest platform enabling a new generation of…
The Circle
By: Vixen Lea
Tags: Nature, Environmental Impact, Awakening, Poetry, 2020

🌍 As 2020 nears its much-awaited end, I reflect on the lessons of this year. We can no longer afford to believe that we, as humans, are outside the laws of nature. We must begin to awaken to our place within Earth and appreciate that we are subject to her power. We are recipients of the fallout from the damage we have been inflicting on our planet from our place of imagined superiority.

💞 If this pandemic has taught us anything, may it be that as a species we are far from immortal. We are intricately connected to one another and to all life, and we must act accordingly.
Pixar’s Rules of Storytelling Applied to Product Managers & UX Designers
By: Shahed Khalili
Tags: Product Design, UX Design, Ux Writing, Product Management, UX

5. Impactful story structure

Every story has a start, middle, and an ending. A good story delivers the middle in a well-defined structure. Similar to a good speech, telling the story of a product capability is more impactful with a Tell-Show-Tell structure: First you Tell them what’s about to unfold, tell them you understand your user and what the user needs and wants to get done. Then you Show them how it happens. And finally to wrap up, you Tell them why they should care. What’s at stake if the job doesn’t get done.

Tell-Show-Tell method is commonly used for pre-sales demonstrations. It’s also applicable in product management and UX design. To elevate this method to Pixar level, we can apply Emma’s suggestion, which is Kenn Adam’s Story Spine structure:

Rule #4 — Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.

Khan Academy video on this topic

This structure is brilliant! For someone to buy and adopt your product, the pain of status quo needs to be greater than the pain of change. In the structure above, “every day” is status quo, “one day” is the event that tips the balance, series of “because of that” statements are the benefits they gain by switching to your product, and “until finally” is the expansion play. This format is just great!
The bridge that holds our margins
By: Nuno Ricardo
Tags: Love, Bridge Prompt, Distance, Poetry, Ballad

The bridge that holds our margins remains undone

unfinished pillars hold our ego fed by wounds

amulets of love are being shattered one by one

while hell exposes underrated living rooms.

Drowned in tides that rise too high

for hope new ports can bring some comfort

where rides which burn the boat at every crossing

are lessons mastered with the smallest effort.

Posterity finds many spaces for hesitations

in shadows of our redeemed history

we were two maps with different scales,

our compasses fine tuned at faulty symmetry.

This ship has sailed, it belongs now to the sea,

left behind you’ll find the porous shore,
by Martino Pietropoli
By: Martino Pietropoli
Tags: Hugs, Humor, Comics, Thursday, Cartoon

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

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Shifting the world with the Financial Stability Board
By: Shyft Network
Tags: Crypto, Fintech, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin

This week, Shyft flew to present at Banco Central do Brazil, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) Financial Innovation Network‘s semi-annual meeting. It was an absolute honour to have Shyft chairman Joseph Weinberg and Shyft advisor Loretta Joseph in that room, presenting.

The presentation focused on addressing crypto-assets and regulation across jurisdictions. It was important to spend that time to the record straight on cryto-economics and various business models that enable our ecosystem, and reframe some of the ways top 38 central banks that were in the room think about the cryptocurrencies and blockchain ecosystem and what it is really enabling at a global scale.

Key takeaways

It took over 300 years to building the financial system we have today

Since the launch of Bitcoin Blockchain, the crypto ecosystem and networks have managed to create $250+ billion in network value

It felt great to be sitting in this room together

We don’t live in a vacuum, and scalability breakthroughs going into implementation in the next 12–18 months will change everyone’s tonality

Bitcoin is not energy intensive when you begin to build layers and anchor new assets classes and industries on top of it — and Joseph Weinberg asked the leaders of the world in the room to tell him what the 24-hour energy consumption costs look like to enable the European financial system alone.

We’re all in this together

It was important to us to get this key message across — that all these regulators, banks and important institutions are not alone; we’re all in this together. The protocol developers and builders find themselves in the same business territory— we write rules, protocols are regulation, too. We can and should work together to enable interoperability between our systems and our new economies. Protocols like Shyft Network help bridge these worlds and shift the status quo.

Here’s to making dent in the universe! Stay tuned for more updates.

***

Shyft is building the world’s first modern, secure, multi-stakeholder Blockchain-based trust network that enables KYC/AML attested data transfers. Join our Telegram (https://t.me/shyftnetwork), follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/shyftnetwork), GitHub (https://github.com/ShyftNetwork) and other channels found onhttps://www.shyft.network/
5 Habits to Adopt for a More Fulfilling Life
By: Jenna Christina
Tags: Getting Things Done, Happiness In Life, Fulfilled Life, Intentional Living, Habits

5 Habits to Adopt for a More Fulfilling Life

2. Question what’s on your to-do list

Photo by Garon Piceli from Pexels

When I was overwhelmed and always rushing, I couldn’t really see what was on the other side of overwhelm — all I cared about was solving the issue I was having with too much to do.

These are some of the habits that I continuously try to get better at because I’ve noticed that they help me spend my time more intentionally:

1. A regular reflection practice

If there was just one thing I could recommend to everyone, is to have a regular reflection practice of some kind. Mine is journaling — I find that it’s helpful for keeping myself more accountable but it can also be eye-opening to see what I actually choose to write down, what feels important out of all the stuff that floats around in my mind.

I take time to journal around big picture things a few times per year, or whenever I feel stuck in some way, or need to make decisions.

I find daily journaling to be most valuable for keeping the focus on doing fulfilling things more regularly instead of waiting for all the big picture goals and milestones to come true. When I keep checking in with myself and what I want my daily life to feel like, it helps me stay on track — or shift things when I need to.
DS Interview Questions S01E01
By: Neha Mangal
Tags: Data Science

What is the difference between a model parameter and a model hyperparameter?

Model Parameters are configuration variables which are internal to the model and whose values can be estimated from the data. These are required by the model to make prediction/ classification and cannot be set manually by the user.

For example: coefficients in a linear regression model

Often model parameters are estimated using an optimization algorithm, which is a type of efficient search through possible parameter values.

Model Hyperparameters are the configuration variables which are external to the model and whose values cannot be estimated from the data. These are usually tuned(set) by the users in order to alter the model performance. for example: k-value in K-means clustering,

We cannot know the best value for a model hyperparameter on a given problem. We may use rules of thumb, copy values used on other problems, or search for the best value by trial and error.

Note: Many models have important parameters which cannot be directly estimated from the data. For example, in the K-nearest neighbour classification model … This type of model parameter is referred to as a tuning parameter because there is no analytical formula available to calculate an appropriate value. Thumb Rule: If you have to specify a model parameter manually then it is probably a model hyperparameter.

In summary, model parameters are estimated from data automatically and model hyperparameters are set manually and are used in processes to help estimate model parameters.

Reference:
일본 특허 등록 결정 소식🎉
Tags: Uprism Meetings, Video Conferencing, News N Events

in In Fitness And In Health
How to improve your search engine visibility now
By: Pennink Productions
Tags: Information Architecture, Content, Optimisation, SEO, Social Media

Getting ready for Q4 is our theme for the month, thinking about year end and preparing for the start of 2016. There’s no better time than the present to think about some sprucing up of your website or social media profiles to improve search engine visibility. Getting to the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs) takes time and effort, so to get the process underway, it pays to spend a little time reviewing your website and social media profiles to check if they’re current and what needs updating.

Social Media

Optimising social profiles is a relatively straightforward process and Social Media Examiner has done a good job of summarising what’s needed for business profiles on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn and looks at both internal search on those sites and external Google search. In addition, a few tips are also included for YouTube, Google+, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Websites

Websites are altogether more complex animals and require more work. Unless you’re equipped with oodles of free time and the right software to enable your site to feature higher in the SERPs, you’re going to need to engage a specialist in search engine optimisation (SEO) to help. There is a lot that you can achieve yourself, though, and it always starts with a strategy.

There is a lot of SEO you can achieve yourself and it always starts with a strategy. Click To Tweet

The factors assessed when ranking websites keep changing, so keeping up with those changes is a challenge in itself. Generally speaking, however, ensuring that the site loads quickly, is mobile-friendly, has intuitive navigation, and is constantly refreshed with new content in an ongoing programme of new content publication will certainly go a long way towards ensuring the site is more appealing.

Think about the user experience (and no, user experience is not design, but informs it) and whether visitors to your website are getting lost. Take a look at your analytics and work out if they’re leaving the site and where they dropped off. You might need to rejig the navigation to make it simpler and easier.

Outsourced SEO services will add value by linking to the site externally and monitoring using purpose-built software to track progress and provide up-to-date reports. Results usually start to show signs of improvement after about three months. Invariably there are some on-site improvements that need to be made and external links created to and from the site to widen its reach.

In short, then, there’s no time to lose if you want to get busy readying your website for 2016. Get in touch if you feel you need assistance.
Write Your First Smart Contract Using Remix IDE
By: Burakcan Ekici
Tags: Smart Contracts, Solidity, Blockchain, Ethereum, Programming

Write Your First Smart Contract Using Remix IDE

Let’s learn how to write smart contracts on Ethereum

Remix logo

In this story, we’ll examine how to develop a smart contract with Solidity by using the Remix IDE, one of the tools dedicated to implementing contracts to the Ethereum network.

We’ll be developing a smart contract for basic banking operations and making sure that, as much as we can, it includes all of the functionalities and capabilities that Solidity presents. Also, we’ll take a look at how to send ETH between any account and the contract we developed (from an account to a contract or from a contract to an account) and how to restrict the people who can use the relevant function of the smart contract.

Before starting to code the contract, knowledge of Solidity is essential to understand all that we’ll implement below. I won’t be mentioning the basics of Ethereum and Solidity as part of this article, but in the article linked below, you can find detailed information about what Ethereum and Solidity are, the principles and ideas that Ethereum was built on, and also the elements that compose Solidity.
One report — many views. How to create several charts and tables…
By: Oleg Seriaga
Tags: Trello, Tables, Reports, Jira, Charts

How to create several charts and tables for the same report data in Vizydrop

Sometimes there is a need to explore the same recordset using different data slices or using different visualization techniques. We are happy to announce the possibility to add several charts or tables for one report. Let me show some cases of using multiple views.

CASE #1: Using multiview to explore subsets of data

It is handy to use several views for quick filtering data. An example below shows financial stats over all continents. I have added two additional tabs to explore the data over Asia and Europe separately. Click on labels “Asia” and “Europe” to view the content of tabs.

Forbes Global

CASE #2: Using multiview to represent data using another way or chart type

There is a need to explore the same set of data aggregating data over different categories or using different visualization techniques. The example below related to GitHub stats of our apps repositories contains two tabs — a table view and a chart view. The table shows total commits in Github by repositories. The chart in another tab shows the distribution of added code vs deleted by authors. Click “Chart View” label to explore the chart representation instead of the table.

GitHub Stats

How to add view tab for the report in Vizydrop

Create a chart (table) or create a report from the template or navigate to an existing report. Switch to edit mode. Click “Add View” which can be found top left corner above description text box of the report area.

Add Table View

You can change tabs orders with drag and drop or using “Move Left” and “Move Right” options in the view menu.

Vizydrop is a visualization platform, can be used standalone, in Fibery and as Trello power-up or in Targetprocess. It is available as Jira add-on in Atlassian Marketplace.

Please let us know about any questions or comments.
by Martino Pietropoli
By: Martino Pietropoli
Tags: Illustration, Wednesday, Humor, Comics, Shopping

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

Follow
Special Needs…Normal Wants…
By: Karen Kilbane
Tags: Love, Disability, Life Lessons, Poetry, Education

My teen girl

With special needs

Is no more or less special than her siblings.

She sometimes needs special supports,

But her wants are the same as everyone else.

My girl wants to wear cool clothes

And copy hairstyles on YouTube.

She wants to make videos,

To sing like Demi Lovato,

To know what’s for dinner immediately after lunch,

To try overnight camp,

To mess around on her computer past bedtime.

She wants really good snacks.

She wants friendships and experiences in which she can fully engage.

She wants to develop skills in her interest areas.

She does not want behavior charts in school.

She wants to be a cook, an actress, an office manager and an Occupational Therapy Assistant.

She wants to be a Special Olympic Gymnast.

She wants to do what she likes to do and

Not do what she doesn’t like to do.

My girl wants her best friends at her 16th birthday party, plus she would Love Zac Effron to be there if he could possibly work it out in his schedule.
Movie Flaw: In Disney’s Miracle, the U.S. Team Went Off-Sides
By: Bram Berkowitz
Tags: Sports, Filmmaking, Movies, Hockey, Film

This is a tough call out because I am obsessed with the movie Miracle, but have to blow the whistle on the folks over at Disney because they allowed the unbreakable 1980 U.S. olympic team to be caught on film going off-sides.

It was during a practice and at a time in the movie when eventual captain Mike Eruzione still was missing the net with his shots. But it’s right in front of the king and I would imagine Herb Brooks — rest in peace — was a man known for his attention to detail.

Also, off-sides might be one of the most essential rules in all of hockey and one of the first rules you learn as a beginner.

For those who don’t know, going off-sides in hockey means a player on the attacking team crosses the blue line entering the offensive zone before the puck.

The rule has been this way since 1930, according to Fox Sports.

Players can have one skate on the blue line and one in the offensive zone before the puck crosses the blue line, but that is clearly not the case here:

As seen above, Rizzo (right) is entirely in the offensive zone — notice the white space between his left skate and the blue line — and the puck — the black speck in the bottom left of the photo — is well behind.

It’s a pretty blatant off-sides.

I think this one is getting called by the refs in my men’s league game, let alone an olympic practice.

I get that this is me being overly critical and I get that this is Disney and that overall they did a phenomenal job on the movie.

But the fact that the studio could go to enough effort to get Al Michaels to recreate the broadcasting of the game where the U.S. ultimately beats the Soviet Union, and not make sure the team stayed on-sides, is puzzling.

I mean there are going to be a ton of die-hard hockey fans watching this movie.

In fairness, I am sure there were other mistakes in Miracle far worse than going off-sides. And there have been too many mistakes in hockey movies to even count:

But this is Miracle, one of the greatest, if not the greatest, hockey story of all time. Not some throwaway movie about a junior B team in Nelson, Canada, where their best player is literally a chimpanzee.
It’s In The Little Things
By: Alexandra Androne
Tags: Poetry, Self, Soul, Sky Collection

It’s In The Little Things

Genuinely caring about the magic self

Photo by Shea Rouda on Unsplash

The small details are in our soul

Running a marathon for the magic

It can really bring us the perfect spot

The loving gestures are all for our soul and mind

Spreading every day all the kindness we have inside

Finding our inner magic self

Can help us see through someone eyes

Celebrate with a big cup of sparkle

Indicated by the genuine gestures

The condition is to believe in our path

Situations in which we have to learn to manage

Those sudden things

Magical, mystical time of the year

Becoming aware of our superpower

And maybe understand what’s life about
The Simple Things People Get Wrong in Remote Interviews
By: Jeremy Aw
Tags: Work, Programming, Interview Tips, Interview, Remote Work

During the Interview

5. Establish clear communications

At the start of the video call, check that both your interviewer and yourself can hear and see each other clearly. If there are any issues with the volume or video, politely ask for some time to make the necessary adjustments. You do not want to be asking your interviewer to repeat themselves every five minutes.

If the language spoken is not your native language, do not afraid to ask the interviewer to speak slower. The reverse is true as well.

Make a conscious effort to slow down and enunciate your words. People tend to speak faster when they are nervous. This will help greatly in improving the clarity of communication between both parties.

6. Take notes

Remember the times you wished you could jot down certain things during your on-site interview? Remember how your memory failed you time and again?

You will not face that problem with remote interviews. Time to put the pen and paper you prepared earlier to good use. If you prefer to do things digitally, any decent notepad application can do the trick too.

We tend to forget things. Don’t let your memory hinder you. Write them down. Note down the important points and the nitty-gritty details e.g job scope, workflow, team structure.

Pro tip: Jot down the significant or interesting parts of the interview for the post-interview follow-up. This information can be very useful in helping you craft a personalized thank you message for your interviewers post-interview.
Twitter politics in Mexico: #PueblaConBarbosa
By: Christian Schreiber
Tags: Politics, Cybersecurity, Twitter, World, Social Media

As elections started, the hashtag #PueblaConBarbosa (#PueblaWithBarbosa) quickly became a trending topic on Mexican Twitter, with thousands of tweets using said hashtag.

So, how did this happen so quickly?

Twitter algorithm

Before explaining my methodology I think it is important to understand how trends work on Twitter. On their FAQ one can read that:

“Trends are determined by an algorithm and, by default, are tailored for you based on who you follow, your interests, and your location. This algorithm identifies topics that are popular now, rather than topics that have been popular for a while or on a daily basis, to help you discover the hottest emerging topics of discussion on Twitter.” — Twitter FAQ

Meaning that the users will see what is trending on each different day, or better said, what is popular regarding your Twitter-fingerprint or simply by location. In addition, the way trends are calculated is by a similarity process, i.e. tweets that are similar will be grouped together:

“The number of Tweets that are related to the trends is just one of the factors the algorithm looks at when ranking and determining trends. Algorithmically, trends and hashtags are grouped together if they are related to the same topic. For instance, #MondayMotivation and #MotivationMonday may both be represented by #MondayMotivation.” — Twitter FAQ

Furthermore, the FAQ also answers how anyone can participate in a trend, which is the core on how artificially creating a trending topic works.

“Simply post a Tweet including the exact word or phrase as it appears in the trends list (with the hashtag, if you see one). Due to the large number of people Tweeting about these specific trends, you may not always be able to find your particular Tweet in search, but your followers will always see your Tweets.” — Twitter FAQ

In other words, by solely using the word or hashtag in one’s tweet, it will contribute in making said hashtag or word a trend. This is important to remember.

Methodology

I mined 5k tweets that contained #PueblaConBarbosa and that were created since the 30th of March. I then proceeded to extract the top 15: 1) users that retweeted the most, 2) most retweeted tweets, 3) and the most liked tweets.

I chose to mine 5k tweets over mining more, as the results remained almost the same with minor variations, and because it was faster to process in my computer.

Moreover, from those 5k tweets I extracted the tweets that are not retweets and ended with 973 tweets. Afterwards I extracted the users, and found that those 973 tweets were created by only 398 accounts. As additional information, 1735 accounts contributed to the creation of the 5k tweets I mined without discriminating between retweets.

Moreover, I made a discrimination of all tweets posted by accounts created in 2019, as well as making a distinction of the creation year of all users in the sample.
Plutus Monthly Report — Exclusive Early Access (November 2019)
Tags: Fintech, Finance, Cryptocurrency, Report, Bitcoin

Welcome back to our monthly report, the team is proud to announce that the Plutus platform now has paying customers enjoying our full-range feature set. This month’s report will highlight all the changes made leading up to the release and our current courses of action.

Pinned Announcements

Our community has been granted Early-Bird access to our services.

Submit your email address to the ‘waiting list’ section of our website and you’ll receive access within 24–48 hours.

A complete public version of our services will be available in the coming weeks.

General Update

Early-Bird Onboarding

Last week, our Plutus services went live for our cherished community members to enjoy and the feedback has been exceptionally positive. This is a historic moment for Plutus and marks our entry into the growth stages of our company life cycle. The team will now be adapting all future product developments and marketing campaigns around the feedback and insights harnessed from our newly established customer base.

Development Update

Getting on the Android/iOS App Store

The marketing team wrote the copy for the Google PlayStore and Apple App Store descriptions and designed three images to breakdown our app features simply. The dev team has submitted and configured our mobile application so our Early-Bird users can enjoy our services on-the-go.

Feature Implementation

The development team is continuing to deploy several new features weekly. This includes implementation of our system emails, designed to provide helpful and insightful information to reduce any potential pain points; as well as several sub-pages that thoroughly breakdown our services.

Transitioning 1.0 to 2.0 Users

During our Plutus 1.0 release, we attracted a large number of users, and the team has been investigating the best ways of transferring these accounts over to our new and improved Plutus 2.0 applications. The team has identified the most practical approach and will proceed with actioning it.

Marketing Update

Over time, we have acquired a substantial user database through our website and mobile app, we will be utilising our mailing list to raise awareness within our community and organically grow our customer base.

Marketing efforts have been spent improving our multimedia content to raise awareness, as well as encouraging and helping new users with onboarding. Over the course of the next few weeks, the team will be releasing multiple videos and guides for using the Plutus platform. Now that both our Plutus Card and apps are live, the team can promote user-generated content to continue growing our brand awareness organically.

In this interim period, we intend to provide an easy-to-use service and focus on customer service and retention. Our growth strategy for acquiring customers in mass will kick in at a later stage, for now, we intend to look after our current community who has supported us since inception.
Those which missed a mention 3
Tags: Benedict Cumberbatch, Black Mass, Humor, Thriller, Drama

I had decided that I will write about movies for two reasons. I wanted to keep track of what I watch and its effects on me, and a reference, like a movie or a book, can be a good writing prompt. For the last few months, this writing reviews had stopped. I had become lethargic about it. That didn’t mean I was not watching movies. I was. I was keeping track of what I liked or disliked about them too. I was just not penning those down. I thought to write posts as I get time, but that number is increasing. I had done this long back. Written two posts like this. Here is one more.

Black Mass, 2015 — ★★★

This crime drama makes Johnny Depp a criminal again. We had seen him in public enemies before. That was a successful movie. Although this doesn’t come close to its success the movie leaves a mark. Ironically the thing I remember from the film is the creatively made ending credits. I liked them the most. It features a huge cast. I particularly remember Benedict Cumberbatch with a southern accent.

The overall tone is mellow and that can be off-putting for some because the film drags at times, but as it progresses the audience is reeled into the narrative nicely. The music helps too. Overall it is a strangely slow crime film. You can watch it if you are interested in the genre.

Big Hero 6, 2015 — ★★

I disliked it. It is too simple and straightforward. It is definitely a children’s film. So to speak, even Kung Fu Panda is a children’s movie, but an adult has a lot to take away from it. It has richer content, dialogues, humor etc. I could not find anything in this film. It has got rave reviews from the critics but it didn’t touch me.

At least for me, animation needs to be stellar. The movie did not cut it for me.

Anonymous, 2010 — ★★★★

This was a beautifully crafted film. Based on the fringe theories that Shakespeare’s works are not his own. He took credit because the one who actually penned them could not due to his social status. These are interesting theories, but who doesn’t like a conspiracy theory anyways.

The movie assumes the knowledge of English social order and Royalty. At times, it was hard for me to follow. Yet, I could understand the broad strokes. The movie is thoroughly enjoyable.

It also makes statements about how it is lonely at the top. It is not limited to Shakespeare. It is a very good political thriller too. How Queen is systematically separated from people she trusts, and her mind is filled with fear. This reminded me of Frank Underwood. How he finished the career of the first president.

Along with being a good political thriller, it is a good drama too. It essentially becomes a story of three people. One who let goes, one who writes and the queen.

This movie is a definite must watch, for the content and execution both.