fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Code Smell 06 — Too Clever Programmer
By: Maximiliano Contieri
Tags: Clean Code, Code Smells, Programming, Complexity, Software Development

Programming can be fun, so can cryptography; however they should not be combined.
I Don’t Know What to Do With My Racist Grandparents
By: Evan Mccoy
Tags: Culture, Family, Social Justice, Personal Development, Racism

When I brought this up to my parents over wine on their backyard deck as the first summer fireflies sparked up the June air around us, they oscillated on the issue. My parents, like me, are learning more and more each day about what it means to be anti-racist, and all of us are on this journey together.

To them, it’s not worth causing tension when we know that nothing we say or do is going to change my grandparents’ minds, even though it’s the right thing to do.

To me, though, what’s more important than maintaining familial peace is standing up for what’s right — and I can no longer listen to blatantly racist comments without objecting.

I’m still learning — but when dealing with the mile-high tightrope of family dynamics, I think the most productive approach is to remain as calm as possible in your refutation of racist remarks.

For example, when my grandmother makes a comment about the “little Black lady down the street,” I can respond to that with a statement of my own: “Hey Grammie, that comment made me uncomfortable because it’s racist — here’s why.”

While I will not turn my grandmother into an anti-racist warrior by providing the occasional counterpoint to her racist remarks, I may plant a seed of doubt.

The more seeds I plant, the more likely they will be to sprout in her mind and grow into a garden of alternative viewpoints until maybe, one day, she will have learned enough to think critically about her own views and why she holds them — and it might lead to one less racist remark in the future.
SCI Daily Crypto Digest: Power Surge!
By: Jervis C. Tinimbang
Tags: Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Fintech, Philippines, Bitcoin

April 13, 2018

Image from Coindesk.com

Bitcoin surged past $7,000 and briefly hit $8,000 before settling at around $7,700 — $7,800. The price spike happened in just 30 minutes as big buyers lifted offers and as shorts were squeezed. The altcoins also moved higher, pushing the cryptocurrencies’ total market cap past $300 billion.

Support levels are at $6,500 and $5,900 while resistance levels are at $7,500 and $7,800.

*BTCPHP: 427,970 / 398,330

*USDPHP: 52.052

*BTC market cap: $132B

*Crypto market cap: $308B

Heatmap image from coin360.io

News:

*Fintech startup Blossom Finance has commissioned and released a working paper exploring the Islamic permissibility of bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and blockchain. The paper concludes that Bitcoin fully meets the definition of Islamic money under certain conditions and is generally permissible under Shariah law. Muslims make up nearly a quarter of the world’s population and this paper will clear up the confusion among Muslims on whether they can get into crypto or not.

*OKEx, the second largest exchange by 24-hour trading volume, is moving to crypto-friendly Malta. OKEx CEO Chris Lee describes Malta as a forward thinking nation which shares many of their same values. Malta’s plan of attracting Blockchain and crypto related companies by trying to lead the world in crypto regulations has been working so far. Just a few weeks ago, Binance said that they are planning on opening an office in Malta.

*Moody’s reported that blockchain technology could help cut costs and redundancies in the mortgage process. The firm touched on the technology’s promise in a new in-depth report that analyzes the impact of new technologies on the U.S. housing sector. For example, the tech could improve the monitoring of loan performance, the authors argued, while boosting the degree of transparency throughout a mortgage’s lifecycle, allowing “mortgage insurers to transfer discrete mortgage credit risks to reinsurers and other alternative capital providers on a cost-effective basis.”

*The Nasdaq is delisting the Long Blockchain Corp. and Longfin Corp., two companies who tried to pivot to the cryptocurrency or blockchain business to boost their stock. As Bitcoin streaked toward a record high in December, a rash of firms that had little or no experience with cryptocurrencies or blockchain technology used the buzzwords as an antidote for lackluster stock returns. Long Blockchain, in particular, was given a delisting notice by the Nasdaq last February, saying that the company “made a series of public statements designed to mislead investors and to take advantage of general investor interest in Bitcoin and blockchain technology.”

*Vietnamese authorities are investigating two fraudulent ICOs, Pincoin and Ifan, which conned 32,000 investors out of 15 trillion Dong ($658 million). The ICOs were ponzi schemes, disguised as cryptocurrency investments, attracting investors by offering returns of up to 40% per month.

SCI | buybitcoin.ph | Bitbit | Keza | Rebit
Amazon’s Unfolding
By: Felix Ingla
Tags: Amazon, Tech, Business, Ecommerce

E-commerce hasn’t taken over just yet

If we look at e-commerce sales over the total retail sales in the United States, it may give the impression that we are still at the infancy stage of online shopping. A mere 14.3% of retail sales have been done through online channels in 2018, and according to the last Forrester report, in 2022 e-commerce will have reached 36% of retail sales. If Amazon maintained its market share, it would be on its way to doubling its e-commerce sales in less than 4 years.

Businesses like Shopify are empowering company owners to make the online transition. Wix, which was originally only focused on being a website builder, also allows users to create their e-commerce. Companies are sustaining the retailer exodus towards online platforms.

The main value proposition offered by these two companies is the ease of creating a platform embodying the user’s brand proposition towards the public, something Amazon has never offered nor plans to in its foreseeable future. The company has always offered a simplistic almost bland user experience, entirely focused on frugal-shopping — many of Amazon’s products allow users to “Buy now with 1-Click”.

And so even though Wix and Shopify offer a very attractive customer solution, third-party sellers are turning into selling through Amazon. The main reason behind it is that they gain instant access to Amazon’s 30M monthly users, whereas building a website from scratch will turn into investing in promotions and brand development to build traffic.

The tremendous success of Amazon’s fulfillment centers and Amazon Prime are the main reasons behind this spurt. Sellers love focusing on the core of their businesses and leaving the hefty shipping and customer service to Amazon’s fulfillment centers. On top of that, Amazon Prime is a total sensation among its users, building on the retention and growth of the platform’s user base. As a co-effect, the more users sign up for premium, the more the userbase grows and the more attractive Amazon becomes for sellers.
Thousands of Hungarians Protest Against Orban’s Election Victory
By: Johannes Riese
Tags: Immigration, Europe, Hungary, Protest, Politics

Tens of thousands took to the street in Budapest and other cities to protest the re-election of right-wing Prime Minister Minister Viktor Orban.

The protests took place only a week after Ordan’s party Fidesz won two-thirds of the parliamentary seats despite winning only 49% of the vote

This was Orban third straight election victory following an anti-immigration platform

The size of the demonstration was similar to one prior to the election in support of Orban

Bernadett Szabo / Reuters (New YorkTimes)

One of the Orban’s primay campaign promises was to draft legislation targeting groups supporting immigrants. The bills have been labeled “Stop Soros” following Orban’s harsh criticism of George Soros, an American-Hungarian billionaire who has raised billions of funds for philanthropic causes such as pro-democracy advocate groups.

The protests was organized through a Facebook group title “We are the Majority”. They demanded recounting of the ballots, free media, new election legislation and more cooperation between the opposition parties.

The demonstration attracted many younger people, especially in Budapest where the left-leaning opposition won two-thirds of the voting districts. The youthful opposition support was also reflected in the entire election result with Orban’s Fidesz carrying 37% of the vote for people below 30.

Estimations puts the total number of protesters at around 100,000. Many of them were seen holding Hungarian and Europe flags in protest of Orban’s nationalistic and anti-immigration agenda.

Sources:

Reuters, New York Times, BBC
The Storytelling Beauty of Found Things
By: David W. Berner
Tags: Writers On Writing, Writing Life, Portraits, Art, Writing Prompts

How the discovery of a portrait of my mother sparked my writing

This is my mother. A portrait painted by my father sometime, I believe, in the mid-1960s. My mother would have been in her 30s at the time. My father was an amateur artist, charcoal drawing dogs, pheasants, trout on a fly line, and occasionally portraits—there was one of Jackie Gleason and another of the Pittsburgh boxer, Billy Conn. But until recently, I had never known that my father had painted this watercolor of my mother. I never knew it existed.

When I showed the portrait to anyone who knew my mother, there was no doubt who they were looking at. “Beautiful,” they said. “He truly captured her,” they said. Dad’s talent was not surprising to me. What was, however, was that this portrait was uncovered by mistake, a complete surprise, found tucked inside a small stack of Life magazines (including the edition after the JFK assassination) without anyone now alive knowing it was there. When I saw it, it took my breath away.

Found things. They can ignite buried emotions, new depths of sentimentality and memory. Finding an old photograph of you and your sister, smiling around the candles on a frosted cake at a kids’ birthday party. Finding the key to your boyhood home in a drawer full of what you thought was junk. Finding the baseball you caught after it sailed into the field box seats along the third baseline at a Pirates’ game sometime in the late 1960s. Finding the wooden-shafted putter that your uncle, your father’s brother, used to keep in his Sunday bag. Discovery uncovers chambers in the heart, and found items tug on the tender tissue.

When I write, I look for those discoveries in story. What will surprise me? What revelation unearths something unforgettable? What discovery opens up the box where all the remarkable things are kept? Found things are what we are looking for in our writing, little gems that reveal a bigger truth, an emotion that had been cloaked or forgotten. As writers we are always trying to take something old and give it newness, attempting to uncover the meaning it once had and deliver it with a fresh perspective.

This portrait of my mother may never become the subject of a new story, or the centerpiece of a personal essay, or the motivation for a poem, but it has reignited something deeper, something partially lost in time—a memory forgotten and then found. This portrait is a symbol of the unwavering love my father had for my mother, of the heart that beat for her for more than fifty years. And that rediscovery for a writer lies at the center of everything. Love is what drives all art, and by reminding ourselves of this truth, the act of finding lost things we will always give us stories to tell.
Programmer Protocol.
Tags: Programming

1. Learn How to Read Other People’s Code

Everyone but you writes terrible code.

That is why a great skill that has multiple benefits is being able to follow other people’s code.

No matter how messy or poorly thought out a previous engineer’s code is, you still need to be able to wade through it. After all, it’s your job. Even when that engineer was you one year prior.

This skill benefits you in two ways. One, being able to read other people’s code is a great chance to learn what bad design is. While you are looking through other people’s code you learn what works and what doesn’t. More importantly, you learn what type of code is easy for another engineer to follow and what code is hard to follow.

You need to make sure you gripe as much as possible as you are reading over other people’s code. That way, other engineers understand how much of a superior engineer you are.

Make sure you bring up points about the importance of maintainable code and good commenting. This further shows your dominance in the area of programming.

Your code should be so well-designed that it requires no documentation. In fact, you shouldn’t document any of your code if you are a good programmer. This is just a waste of time and you need to spend your time coding and in meetings.

Being able to read other people’s messy code also makes it easy to make updates when needed. This occasionally means updating code you lack experience in. For instance, we once followed a script from Powershell to Python to Perl. We had limited experience in Perl, but we still had enough context to figure out what was going on and make the changes needed.

This comes from having a decent understanding of all the code as well as being able to read the Perl scripts.

Reading other people’s code makes you valuable because you can follow even over-engineered systems that might stump others.
React Native Stability Monitoring
By: Words With Friends Engineering
Tags: Android, iOS, React Native, Mobile App Development, React

We do get a call stack, but it is the call stack for the native exception thrown by React Native. JavaScript does not crash, but when an unhandled JavaScript exception occurs, React Native throws a native exception that causes a crash. While these reports are still useful for tracking the volume of crashes coming from JavaScript code, it’s not immediately actionable like a typical native crash report. The JavaScript call stack is all part of the crash report message, and is also minified and obfuscated. Further, all crashes from unhandled JavaScript exceptions are grouped together because these exceptions all have the same native call stack, making it hard to see how many different issues we have.

Symbolicated call stacks with source files and line numbers that are grouped by the top stack frame are table stakes when monitoring and fixing stability issues on mobile apps, so we didn’t feel like the reports we were getting were sufficient. The call stacks we really care about in these cases are the JavaScript call stacks that trigger the native exceptions.

Solution — Bugsnag

Official React Native Library capable of automatically symbolicating JavaScript reports via source maps

capable of automatically symbolicating JavaScript reports via source maps Native SDKs power their React Native library under the hood, allowing us to continue to capture native crashes as well

power their React Native library under the hood, allowing us to continue to capture native crashes as well Robust Indexing enables powerful search functionality which improves the efficiency of resolving stability related issues

Here is what a Bugsnag crash report looks like for an unhandled JavaScript exception in React Native:
Subverting Cult Tropes in ‘The Other Lamb’
By: Manor Vellum
Tags: Film, Cult, Independent Film, Feminism, Horror

The narrative around cults both in fiction and the real world is that the paternal figure gains power only to drag his followers down, and that arc certainly has real-world precedence that would be impossible to ignore. Cult leaders, from Charles Manson and Jim Jones to any number of lesser-known figures, tend to revolve around a central, often male, leader who gains power, becomes overwhelmed by his own paranoid rants, and ultimately causes the deaths of several followers.

While this is all true to life, it isn’t all there is to the sociological phenomenon of cults. Often, women are utilized as weapons against other women, drawing each other into an increasingly horrifying lifestyle via assurances of sisterhood despite overwhelming patriarchal overtones. Yet still, there are the children that are simply born into cults, who are raised within a world of indoctrination and cannot imagine a world outside of that. It is here that filmmaker Małgorzata Szumowska finds her inspiration for her film, The Other Lamb (2019).
How We (Usually) Don’t Get Sick From Raw Sushi
By: Sam Westreich
Tags: Health, Fish, Food, Science, Sushi

Here’s the difference between delicious sushi, and dangerous undercooked chicken or hamburger

I certainly did not write this article just so I could share all these incredibly cute animations by Marcus Gestré and Brikk studio… Source.

It’s almost anathema for me to admit it, living in the Bay Area, but it took me some time to come around on sushi.

Part of this uncertainty came from growing up in the Midwest, where there wasn’t much opportunity to really enjoy fresh fish. After all, any salt water fish, like tuna or salmon, will have to travel quite a ways to get to Minnesota — and does anyone really want to risk dodgy, gas station sushi?

It wasn’t until I started graduate school, out on the West Coast in California, that I started trying really good, really fresh sushi — and I was hooked. The good stuff is fresh, with a great flavor; it’s not “fishy” in the same way as cooked fish, but has a milder flavor that pairs great with the umami of soy sauce and wasabi.

(Don’t even get me started on the first time I tried wasabi, by the way. You know the story, I’m sure you’ve heard it before — thought it was some sort of avocado-based paste, like guacamole, put way too much in my mouth, and then spent the next several minutes gasping and gulping water.)

But there’s still a little part of me that finds it weird, eating raw fish. When I was a child, it was drilled into my head that we don’t eat any meat that isn’t fully cooked. Yet somehow, sushi is the exception to the rule?

Raw chicken? Wash every surface that it touches, to avoid spending several days incapacitated with salmonella.

Raw fish? Go ahead, put it in your mouth!

And even among fish, it seems like there are some hidden, inscrutable rules. Why is it okay to eat tuna and salmon when raw, but why not pike, or tilapia? What makes these few fishy examples okay to eat raw?

Two Threats, Two Methods of Neutralizing Them

There’s two big concerns when thinking about parasites in meat — the bacteria, and the other types.

First off: the bacteria. There’s a whole host of different, potentially toxic bacteria that live in the animals we eat, mostly in their digestive systems. This includes pathogenic (disease-causing) strains of Escherichia coli, various species in the Salmonella genus, and others.

These bacteria aren’t found in the muscle tissue of these animals — that is, not in the stuff that we eat. Instead, they’re located almost entirely in the lower digestive tract, everything that comes after the stomach.

The challenge here comes when preparing the meat — in less squeamish terms, when slaughtering the animal. When fish are harvested, they’re gutted early on, removing the digestive tract and keeping the meat fairly free of these bacteria.

On the other hand, in most slaughterhouses, the bacteria from the intestinal tracts of the killed animals end up being spread over the rest of the meat, which is why that chicken breast from the store is likely contaminated with Salmonella — even though there was no Salmonella on that part of the bird while it was alive.
Don’t Let Good Samaritans Die
By: Don Simkovich
Tags: Drugs, Thriller, Society, Crime, Crime Fiction

Don’t Let Good Samaritans Die

Our newest short story shows that even Good Sams struggle

Photo by Pawel Janiak on Unsplash

Past gang affiliations and the thrill of street life are tough to break.

Caught in the Smoke Shop Shootout

It’s like a companion piece to:

What I Learned about Corrections by Visiting My Young Friend in Prison

Both accounts can drag a Good Samaritan down, depleting their energy and hope of seeing a life saved from spiraling a slow, or rapid, death.

And, yet, we believe there’s hope even though Lon Casler Bixby and I write fiction and real life, non-fiction crime stories.

Both the stories mentioned above are based off of experiences that I, Don, have had helping a man who calls me Dad.

Glad you’re reading.

Enjoy these as well:

Short story: Massage and Murder — Detective Tom Stone wrestles over the meaning of justice when he meets a woman accused of murder

Finally, how do smugglers smuggle cocaine these days?

Why Narco-subs are Drug Smuggling Vessels of Choice

Get this …

That article includes back ground info we’re using to write our 5th novel … Next week, we’ll send info on how to get a great deal on it.

We’re glad to have you as a reader — and fan!

If there are topics you want us to include, let us know.

Until then … learn more about Stone Cold Crime Stories by clicking our About page.
Alex Dresco — Software Engineer. Alex is a Software Engineer at Ravelin…
Tags: Software Engineer, Diversity And Inclusion, Diversity In Tech

Alex is a Software Engineer at Ravelin, she started attending codebar in May 2018 as a student before completing the Makers Bootcamp. She then started organising the Oxford codebar chapter before moving to London and becoming an organiser for that chapter.

You can find Alex on the internet at:

GitHub | LinkedIn

1) What did you want to be growing up?

I didn’t really know. I’ve struggled to find a career that felt like the right fit and remained interesting.

2) When did your interest in tech start?

I worked in Finance and then in recruitment where everyone always talked about “how computers will take over and we won’t have jobs”. I thought working on the other side would be more future proof. I gave it a go and I really enjoyed it!

3) How did you make the transition to being a developer?

Learned online with freeCodeCamp first and some other online resources. I found so many free resources online for beginners but struggled to go further than the basics. I then went to codebar’s workshop every week I could get a spot. That’s where I learned about Makers from one of the coaches who completed the bootcamp a few years before. I applied and got my first job through their Apprenticeship scheme with Elsevier.

4) What was your first development job?

Software Engineer at Elsevier via Makers.

5) What is your favourite thing about being a developer?

Solving problems all day long! Working in a methodical and logical way.

6) What is the coolest project you have worked on and why?

Probably my current job! We’re a fraud prevention company and use ML to prevent crime. It’s pretty cool to use my job to fight “the bad guys”.

7) How did you get involved with codebar?

First as a student for months, then I always said I wanted to give back as I literally wouldn’t be in this career. I coached and then became an organiser!

8) Why do you keep coming back to codebar?

The students having really good sessions and being really grateful. The feeling I get when I coach!

9) What are your plans for the future?

Ideally, I’d love to have my own company, I find that the barrier to entry into a tech career is still too high and scary. How many times people have said it’s super hard and that’s why they won’t try it. I’d love to have some kind of platform that’d help solve that issue. But for now, more learning, more coding!

10) What advice would you give to aspiring developers?

Don’t give up, it’s so normal to struggle. The best advice I got was “don’t copy paste code you don’t understand”. It works!
Responses to the FOURTH Writer’s Prompt
By: Susan Brearley
Tags: Humor, Satire, Writing, Short Story, Poetry

The fourth prompt started out a little conflicted, with so many choices.

But quickly led to these:
Conservancy educators launch e-learning initiative
By: Conservancy Of Swfl
Tags: Education, Virtual Learning

The Conservancy’s Environmental Education team is working tirelessly to inspire the next generation of environmental stewards. Motivating students to understand the inner workings of our water, land and wildlife on scales both big and small has become challenging, although not impossible, in the face of a global pandemic.

While the Education team has always hoped to expand their reach on a digital platform, 2020 propelled those intentions into fast forward. The team has launched a digital learning initiative, providing e-learning resources for students within Collier County Public Schools and beyond. The team eventually hopes to reach classrooms throughout the five-county Southwest Florida region.

Monty, the Conservancy’s ball python animal ambassador meets students during a live virtual animal encounter

The online content is designed for both in-classroom and at-home K-12 learners. The goal of this initiative is to inspire students to learn about Southwest Florida’s local ecosystems and then get outside and experience hands-on, place-based science in their local environment — whether it is a park, a school yard, or back yard. Resources available on the E-Learning Hub include educational videos, ecology-focused crafts, outdoor data-collecting activities, and written exercises. Live virtual encounters featuring Conservancy ambassador animals are also being offered, and can be scheduled for 2nd to 12th grade students based on availability.

After conducting experiments or completing activities, students are encouraged to report their findings and share their data with their peers, classmates, other classes in the region and the Conservancy of Southwest Florida via Twitter. This connects students from different schools with each other and with the Conservancy. Learners can compare and contrast data, report observations and interesting finds, and further explore key scientific concepts.
Come join our Community of Modern Developers and Help Build the Future!
By: Crowd Machine
Tags: Decentralization, Blockchain, Developer, Crowd Machine, Apps

Come join our Community of Modern Developers and Help Build the Future!

BLOG: The highly anticipated public release of our Crowd App Studio and Crowd Share technology has occurred

Craig Sproule — 17 May 2018

Fifteen years ago, after writing hundreds of applications and distilling common obstacles, it became obvious that we needed a better way to build apps. Complex and buggy code, constructing near-identical components from scratch, interoperability issues…you know the drill. It’s a work of art and yet I think we can all agree it’s an arduous process. And the problems with app development are further magnified with decentralized apps and smart contracts where the pool of qualified developers is even smaller. Millions of lines of code later, we have found a better way, and it doesn’t involve learning a new coding language. With the explosion of blockchain technology, it’s the perfect time to open the Crowd Machine platform to everyone, and you’ll be able to test it out on April 28.

Why?

We want to level the playing field and democratize participation in the technological revolution we’re all witnessing. And this won’t be possible without you. Whether you’re a veteran coder or have never written a line of code in your life, or whether you work at a huge company or have an idea for a new one, you can use Crowd Machine to create traditional and decentralized apps quickly and securely.

How?

The Crowd App Studio is changing what it means to be a developer by removing the need to understand how to write code to create an app. Instead of code, developers can use natural language to build the behaviors and patterns that make up an app, at up to 45 times faster than creating an app with code. In talking with developers and companies during our beta program, there was general disbelief that a solution like this exists so if you’re skeptical, you’re not alone. But seeing is believing! It’s the reason why Fortune 500 companies like General Electric and Anthem have put Crowd Machine to the test.

Github revolutionized the way in which developers collaborate to build software. What if we could apply the same concept to applications on the blockchain, and reward contributors for their efforts? Crowd Share is a library of previously created apps and app components that developers can reuse when building their own, making it even faster and easier to get apps to market. Developers can search Crowd Share for an app piece to perform a task they want to add to their app and download it for inclusion. Developers can also upload content to Crowd Share and every time that content is used, they’re compensated. Simply put, we’re allowing anyone, anywhere to be rewarded for participating in the Crowd Machine developer community.

If you’re intrigued by the benefits of our platform, join the crowd and learn how to get started here. This is just the beginning, and we can’t wait to hear about all the innovative projects you’ll build using Crowd Machine!
Building a Brand for Bees
By: Bakken
Tags: Work, Visual Identity, Bees, Design, Branding

One of the core values of the Bee Home project was that it had to be fun and engaging to use. To make people understand the problem, but at the same time provide a light-hearted way to co-create bee homes and help mitigate the crisis of vanishing bees, playfulness was embedded throughout. So also for the visual identity.

First, we had to really understand the world of solitary bees. We studied them from different angles, and looked at how they move. We were interested in what their favourite flora was and how their nests were shaped. We learned that bees can see through the ultraviolet colour spectrum, which helps them to identify nectar on flowers.

Through the use of microscopes we identified the shapes of pollen, and studied the inside of beehives, learning about round-shaped nesting tunnels containing baby bees. To add another element of playfulness to the process, and to uncover various new organic shapes, we arranged for a drawing assignment with kids.
How Severe A.D.D Changed My Approach To Development And Leadership
By: Shaun Gehring
Tags: Challenges In Life, Personal Development, Personal Growth, Leadership, Software Development

How It Started

I have a very special daughter. Throughout her life, we have had all kinds of medical challenges. One night my wife was preparing for a Drs visit for her. As my wife was reading over the material she would say things like, “This (insert random idiosyncrasy) can be a symptom of A.D.D”. Each time she said one of these my reply was always “I don’t think that is completely accurate, that is pretty normal”. It took me a while to catch on that my wife was now going through a list of A.D.D signs just to see what I would say. (it was late, I was tired, ok)

After about 20 mins I caught on, (remember it was late). I have to admit, I didn’t sleep that night. I was curious if it was true and if so, what did it mean? I set a Dr’s appointment and took the test, yes, its a test. I think that fact that its a written test in itself is funny, maybe if you complete the test without flipping the table you win! Well after about 100 short questions I was done. The result, I got 1 wrong, or right depending on the outcome you are hoping for.

Imagine you are giving a presentation in a room of your peers. You have prepared well and know all of the details backwards and forwards. While you are presenting your brain presents a thought. “Did I turn off the coffee?”, “Did I lock the car?”, “What did my wife mean when she said …”. Most of you may be able to hit the dismiss button on those thoughts. I can’t. I have to balance those unimportant thoughts with the task at hand. Because I thought it was normal I coped and most people never figured it out. — My explaination of what having A.D.D is like

The Dr confirmed that I had all of the signs that would point to severe A.D.D. How did I get this far along without knowing? Well, I was homeschooled. Obviously, the education part worked out for me, just not the psychological monitoring.

So here I am, an Architect, Development. Leader, People Leader with severe A.D.D. Now add to it anxiety because I had no idea what was going to happen next.
Dinner for One
By: Emily Wilcox
Tags: Heartbreak, Poetry, Poetry On Medium, Love, Poem

Dinner for One

A poem about stale love

Photo by Taisiia Shestopal on Unsplash

A lemon sunrise,

A custard moon.

A cherry smirk,

And a liquor swoon.

With pepper flowers,

And sugared birds.

Those minty kisses,

And bubblegum words.

His peachy fingers,

And honeyed eyes.

Those sweetened moments,

Then soured lies.

A burned memory,

A dissolving touch.

A bitter timeline,

It cooked too much.

These stale flavours,

The crumbs of her heart.

A meal once whole,

Now chewed apart.
Out of Within Reach
By: Cortland Gilliam
Tags: Love, Unrequited Love, Writing

He always managed to find himself back in that same spot, in that same position, stuck in that very same decision…

And as always was the case, until that point he’d been carrying on with an aimlessness. Living on whims, floating with the breeze, experiencing the terrific freedom of life’s lightness. Unmarried to any one thing, nor any person, place, or idea about the world. He was a balloon filled with just enough helium to catch wind and drift away—a quality of his that always hurt her the most.

Commitment is not something he ever had to do in life. At least not in any physical nor longterm sense. It only lasted as long as he decided to fool himself. Rather, he was a collector of experiences. A curator of perspective.

Yet there he was, again. Standing on the edge of possibility, staring into its depths, fearful of the unknown that lay beneath the fog of doubt.

She only wanted for him to take a leap. A leap with her. They’d just jump together, she thought, never promising to hang around after the fall. She simply wanted to hold his hand on the way down, in the dive headfirst into Love, or at least the possibility of it, and to see if he’d let go.

Each time she’d ask him if he would,

With no intention of doing so, each time he lacked the confidence to say “no.”

Each time he’d watch her turn, and then take the leap with out him,

Knowing all the while that it would always be the landing, not the leap, that would tear them apart.
How does a Real-Time Face Recognition work with OpenCV?
By: Eazy Ciphers
Tags: Machine Learning, Face Recognition, Opencv Python, Deep Learning

An eazy code from eazy ciphers

Are you keen to learn about the implementation of Real-Time Face recognition? Here eazy ciphers came with an innovative and eazy way to run a simple Real-Time Face Recognition code where you can predict the face of an individual.

When I talk about the real-time you might get confused about what I am going to discuss here it’s nothing but the implementation of the model which detects faces that appeared on the webcam.

If you want Hands-on experience on this model then go ahead and step forward in its implementation.

In day to day life, facial recognition became a part of the things. So, here is a quick example of Real-Time face recognition before getting into the topic.

When you start registering your face for a smart lock in your phone, tablet, or laptop it asks for the person’s real-time image to capture and that is stored in the database for further clarifications in recognition of that particular person.

This process of approach is done through many iterative ways of prediction with the input image. Similarly, Real-time face recognition works with the implementation of the OpenCV framework python.

These together packed in one combo level to implement a model for the Real-Time purpose.
A List Of What You Could Be Doing
Tags: Life Lessons, Life, Self Improvement

This list is more of a list for myself to remind to DO MORE and that there is always something I could be doing to maximise my output. Feel free to also use this list as a reference for yourself. (This list will constantly be updated over time).
ФЕЙНМАН & THE CONNECTION MACHINE
By: Aleksey Tikhonov
Tags: Почитать, Байки, Rus, History

in Both Sides of the Table
Aron
By: Editorial Literary Impulse
Tags: Winter, Literary Impulse, Excerpts From Li, Poetry

Aron paints a picture of a harsh cold winter night. The words conjure the image of a once-loved baby and the emotions felt by the father which look like teardrops mixed gently with ink. The blue color reminds me of an icicle which can be a metaphor of sharp pain and the brown color reminds me of autumn leaves which drifts without saying goodbye. Afsal shares the mother’s grief too “I can hear the mother scream” which tells the poet is sharing the grief of the whole family. For me, this poem is a poetic farewell for the departed soul and that wish is also there to be together. The poet is consoling himself with words but death separates us and leaves us with memories which we hide under our pillows. -Priyanka

Dig him a little grave

and bury him with care…

Here is the wonderful for your perusal. Read rest of the entries from Issue III:

I froze at the sight of my toddler

head down on the feet of the black peddler.

Ahh, his feet so cold, his lips a hazy blue,

eyes, his brown eyes, so round and lovely

just like his mother’s, rightfully.

But, Why do they look so bleak ?

I realize, his little heart is missing it’s beats.

A wave of darkness sweeps around me,

the world seemed to stop for a moment.

Kindly stand beside me ; in bestowment

the other day I sang ‘One for sorrow’

the nursery rhyme.

Today he has left me to whine….

Alas I have to fathom

My son, My Aron has died a brutal death.

I kneel down, helpless

in front of fate, cruel destiny.

With wholesome dearth

I can hear the mother scream

I the father ,as numb as my dear is ,

Dig him a little grave

and bury him with care…

I tell him, I wish I was

wherever you are my son ….

I wish I could be beside you

I wish you weren’t alone…

Edition III-Literary Impulse. Another edition of a bag, full of… | by Somsubhra Banerjee | Literary Impulse | A Literary & Philosophical Quarterly | Medium
Episode 41: Simplifying Bitcoin Development, with Bcoin
Tags: Hackathons, Blockchanneltv, Blockchain Technology, Development, Bitcoin

Press Play!

On this episode of BlockChannel, Mckie, Dee, and Dr. Petty sit down with Buck Perley, one of the core developers for Bcoin, the node.js fullnode implementation of Bitcoin. Their team has been hard at work on new modular components and plugins that make interacting with the bitcoin blockchain, and building applications atop of bitcoin, more seamless. Their newest project, bPanel, is the first ever Blockchain Management System (BMS) that takes advantage of bcoin, to allow developers to create their own unique configurations and services with their fullnode. We also discuss the importance of hackathons and their crypto hackathon for developers in the Bay Area. If you’re a developer you’ll want to check this one out and keep pace with what’s new to power your next bitcoin project.

Show Links:

Bcoin: http://bcoin.io

bPanel: http://bcoin.io/bpanel-docs/docs/bpanel-overview.html

Intro/Outro Music “Tango” by Meech:https://soundcloud.com/ovaeastmeech/tango-prod-by-mic-lee

Show Sponsor(s):

MakerDAO:https://makerdao.com/

Disclaimer: This is not investment advice, it is an engaged discussion on new technology; BlockChannel reminds you to always do your own due diligence before investing in any crypto-related project in the industry.
Мы вам перезвоним
By: Stanislav Mekhonoshin
Tags: Developer, Recruiting, Human Resources, Feedback

in Both Sides of the Table
Liquid.pro to record all stock options orders on the Waves blockchain platform
By: Evelina Lavrova
Tags: Trading, Stock Exchange, Stock Market, Blockchain, Bitcoin

Over-the-counter trading service Liquid.pro is transferring its quotes on stock options entering the Moscow stock exchange to the public Waves blockchain platform. The use of blockchain technology in trading will increase transparency and ensure greater fairness of order execution.

Liquid.pro’s over-the-counter order service has organised the transfer of its register of applications on options entering the Moscow stock exchange onto the public Waves blockchain platform. The full list of applications is available for users on the service’s site: http://blockchain.liquid.pro/.

Applications remain anonymous, with each user receiving a unique hash address that allows him to identify his applications on the list. The use of blockchain technology ensures high reliability and absolute transparency of the service. Once operations recorded in a block are verified, their history cannot retrospectively be overwritten or canceled, and the information is open and accessible to any interested parties.

‘Liquid.pro is focused on long-term, strategic work, so we could not ignore a technology as promising as blockchain. We chose Waves as a solution because the platform’s public blockchain provides high reliability and stability of work, and the development of the platform is aimed at supporting business needs. We plan to develop further cooperation,’ comments Aleksey Yurov, head of blockchain department at Liquid.pro.

Active development of blockchain applications for trading is driven by two main factors. Firstly, the use of the new technology ensures transparency of operations, which is extremely important for a process in which players participate from different perspectives. Secondly, the blockchain significantly reduces transaction costs.

‘Further efforts should be directed at transaction settlement. At the present time, this operation requires extensive resources, largely due to the fact that the participants in the process are working in different environments. The interaction of traders, brokers, stock exchanges, depositories and clearing organisations is a complex and rather expensive procedure. The use of blockchain technology can help to optimise this process, uniting participants within a single platform and allowing the automation of numerous stages of work,’ explains Alexander Ivanov, founder and CEO of the Waves blockchain platform.
Java: Factory Method Pattern
By: Akash Panchal
Tags: Android, Java, Programming, Coding, Design Patterns

A Creational Design Pattern

Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash

Before you start, heads up to here for the simple introduction to the design patterns and the index to all the design patterns deep tutorials.

Defined

Factory method is a creational pattern that uses factory methods to deal with the problem of creating objects without having to specify the exact class of the object that will be created.

is a creational pattern that uses factory methods to deal with the problem of creating objects without having to specify the exact class of the object that will be created. It provides a way to delegate the instantiation logic to child classes.

Why, When?

Useful when it doesn’t know what exact sub-class will be required during execution.

Factory method pattern can be used when there is common/generic implementation in a class but the required sub-class is decided dynamically during runtime.

Enough, Show me something

Following example is all you need to understand this design pattern.

We need to have a super class wheel.

Super class in factory design pattern can be an interface, abstract class or a normal java class. We are using abstract class in our example.

Now, we have two sub-classes CarWheel and BikeWheel as below.

Notice that both the class extends Wheel class.

Now that we have super classes and sub-classes ready, we can write our factory class. Here is the basic implementation.

We are ready with super class and sub-class, we can have a factory class: WheelFactory

Let’s have a test drive: TestWheelFactory class

And that’s it. Really! Go, try this.

Code: Find the code used in this article on github.

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3 Ways to Maintain Boundaries
By: Crystal J. Gibson
Tags: Self Care, Mindfulness, Boundaries, Self Improvement, Gratitude

I can’t help but notice.

As my children are getting older, they both have started to push against my boundaries to see what would happen.

From staying up past their bedtimes to talking back, the lines that were previously understood as the norm are being tested.

Although frustrating at times, they are helping me sharpen those skills for maintaining boundaries in other areas of my life.

Boundaries aren’t just a sign of a healthy relationship; they’re a sign of self-respect. So give yourself the permission to set boundaries and work to preserve them.

1. Be Mindful:

Paying attention to your present struggles by identifying how they are preventing you from progressing is often where we stop. However, going the extra step by recalling past moments of sadness that never had words to complement the impact of them could have a long-lasting positive result.

Pausing to think about the framework of my opinion has helped me a lot. Although some experiences were important to me when I was growing up; they may not be as important now. Issues are different and children are being raised in an environment that they are more equipped for than their parents.

2. Focus on Self-Care:

Understanding that being busy does not always mean I’m successful was a huge challenge to overcome. If I am burning out in the process; I failed myself.

Being exhausted from constantly balancing our time between school, practices, games, and recitals does not excuse me from being their source of what our boundaries are when situations arise.

When they violate them, my goal is always to focus on reinforcing the importance as opposed to their negative reaction.

By acknowledging and focusing on their backlash we are then subconsciously telling them that we are not grounded within ourselves and confident in what we want.

3. Practice Gratitude:

Changing your lifestyle can be extremely straining on existing relationships because you are reintroducing them to the new you which they may or may not understand.

Being grateful for the relationships that are able to stand up to change helps when dealing with longer periods of negativity due to a boundary reinforced.

Setting boundaries with people can actually help to improve your relationships in the long run. If you do not respect your personal boundaries (perhaps in fear of someone else’s reaction), it is likely to lead to bitterness and resentment over time. The people you want to surround yourself with are those who will respect your boundaries, even if they initially feel upset or disappointed.

Are you making sure others respect your boundaries? Now is the perfect time to start reinforcing this to those who have gone astray.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2017 Crystal Gibson
Incredible portfolios to inspire you
Tags: Portfolio, User Experience, Resources, Visual Design, UI

I hugely enjoy looking at personal / portfolio websites — they’re a great source of inspiration for exciting and creative websites. Whenever I find one I really like, I bookmark it to come back to.

Going into next year, I know many people may be looking for new work. If you’re about to update your portfolio or write new case studies, take a look at these sites for inspiration.

These 11 sites are presented in no particular order. They’re all portfolios of UX / product design portfolios, apart from a couple of developer websites and blogs. All have amazing standard of design and great readability.