fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
The End of Innocence
By: Andrew Pilkington
Tags: Childhood, Innocence, Life, Life Lessons, Growing Up

Photo by Dakota Corbin on Unsplash

I received my first Medium payment yesterday. It was for $0.57.

I was ecstatic!

Yes! Only two weeks into The Medium Partners Program and I was a earning a financial reward. And other benefits: exposure!, more followers!, and opportunities to connect with other writers and those they were following. A door had opened…and I entered!

And a now, a grand opportunity to decide what to do with my new riches. I pondered. What could I get for $0.57? And it came to me quickly, precisely: Ice cream cones!

Why ice cream cones? The backstory…

It was 1959 and Eisenhower was president. “I like Ike” was the slogan. He was the only president I had known and had one more year left in his term. He seemed nice. Grandfatherly, to a five year old.

34th President of the United States

I also remember going to the Fourth of July fireworks that year and celebrating the states of Alaska and Hawaii being admitted to the Union as the 49th and 50th states.

Back in 1959 that $ 0.57 would be worth eleven ice cream cones, with two cents left to spend. Penny candy was a thing then, and it’s amazing how important one penny could be. A penny was real money then. A nickel was riches!

I went to the Dairy Bar one afternoon to get an ice cream cone, with a nickel in hand, going up to the counter and asked for and received an orange sherbet cone, and the girl behind the counter asked for, “Six cents, please”…

I stood paralyzed, holding that nickel forward, not having a clue what to do. I already had the cone in hand and all I had was that nickel. It had been enough before. What happened?

I was in shock, unsure, when the girl said, “They raised it a penny last week”, and she quickly reacted, and told me, “I have a penny here for you”.

“Thank you” I replied. She smiled back, saying “Remember for next time, bring an extra penny”.

My stable and static world had suddenly been changed. I was being crushed by a one cent increase in the price of an ice cream cone. Quite an awakening for a 5-year old. I had no idea that this would only be the beginning; other changes were coming.

A lot has changed since 1959.

I’ll hang on to my $0.57 and when I write and submit more works, maybe next month I can afford an ice cream cone. Or the month after that.

It’s good to have goals…
How Can YOU Treat People Differently?
By: Katie Brydon
Tags: Spread The Word, Inclusion, Respect

A testimony by Paul Brooks, a Best Buddies Global Ambassador, an employee at the Bellagio Resorts and Casino through the Best Buddies Jobs program, and a Best Buddies Nevada Board Member.

Paul Brooks speaking at the Minnesota Champion of the Year Gala in November 2018

Growing up being called called names because people thought I was different hurt me growing up, especially through my years of school. I was picked on almost every day. Coming home upset — wondering why I was called names like the R-Word — since I didn’t understand fully what the word meant; it used to make me feel numb and angry inside. To me, this type of interaction shouldn’t be normalized. It’s not okay. My disability is that I am Autistic, not the R-Word. And to me, Autism is Awesome!!

The question I have for you is: how can you treat people differently? How can you make sure everyone feels included and like they belong. Try putting yourself in my shoes when I was younger; imagine that. I am sure that you wouldn’t feel good at all. But we can make it so that no one has to feel this way.

Together we can make a difference and to influence our culture for people with disabilities, if we spread the word for inclusion! We have the power to use language that invites people in and encourages them to be themselves. Pledge your commitment to this goal by sharing why you choose to include; visit spreadtheword.global and #PledgetoInclude today!
How to adapt a research strategy gaining support along the way
By: Augusto Bianchi
Tags: Product Design, Design Process, UX, Ux Strategy, User Research

How to adapt a research strategy gaining support along the way

Cowboys and data in a quest for meaning

“Welcome to Texas”, by Giedre Kazlauskaite

This story is about a team with a great mission at hand: Upgrade an existing collaboration tool to a new version, something that would improve collaboration for everybody in their company.

The end-users were distributed across several countries, and there was a myriad of nuances to consider before the rollout could take place. From teams working across time zones to different ways in which people might approach change, success for this project would mean having a high adoption rate regarding the awaited new version.

Beyond tech improvements, the project had the implicit opportunity to influence the way in which lots of people worked, laying the groundwork for further positive changes to happen.

The stakes were high, and so was this team’s determination.

To get things started they had decided to allow some end-users to give the new version a try. This way they could all understand and map different adoption patterns, to then support the wider population of end-users for a smooth transition from the current version to the new one.

A challenging mission, the chance to begin a shift within an organization’s culture and a well-intentioned team driving the project seemed to me like an ideal party to join.

Welcome to Texas

By the time I joined them there was already quite some data available.

Some surveys had taken place, and the usage of the new version had been tracked, so there was plenty of quantitative data waiting for somebody to analyze it.

There was also word-of-mouth feedback available, reflected both in comments on the internal social network and collected informally by the project team. They just needed to make sense of the data.
Ingame Advertising
By: Susanna Belli
Tags: Programmatic, In Game Advertising, Content Curation

in Eudaimonia and Co
A New Wave of Touch Technology
Tags: Science, Coding, Tech, Touch

Imagine your body used a as a medium for sending digital information. Well, researchers at Purdue University have recently developed the technology to accomplish just that. So, by the touch of our fingertips, we will be able to easily relay the credit card information from our phone, send photos to other people, and much more.

I know what you’re thinking: “We’ve been able to use our fingerprints to unlock our phones for years. What’s the big deal?” Well, that kind of technology, relying on a fingerprint to unlock devices, is accomplished through biometrics. Biometrics are simply measurements that are used to identify individuals. So, unlocking my phone using my unique fingerprint or training Siri to understand my distinct, New York-accented, husky voice are examples of using biometrics. It is simply granting authentication based on stored genetic characteristics. However, this new kind of touch technologically can actually send data through your body, making it more dynamic and potentially more secure.

Right now, many wearable technologies that contain sensitive information, such as smartphones, smartwatches, and insulin pumps rely on communication via Bluetooth signals, radiating out from the body. This kind of data-transfer is very susceptible to hackers, who can intercept these signals from 30 feet away. However this new kind of technology actually works through the body to allow devices to communicate. This way, for anything to have access to the sensitive information, it would need to be accessed through touch. There would be no other way for it to leak out.

Purdue experimented on this theory in the lab by situating a person using the touch-technology with two adjacent surfaces. Each surface had an electrode, that, when touched, turned on a corresponding light, indicating data-transfer. The observation was that the person’s finger would have to touch the specific electrode for data to transfer to that one. When the person touched one surface, the other surface’s light would stay off, showing that there was no data-leak. These surfaces must be explicitly touched, too. Hovering over the surface by a centimeter wouldn’t cut it.

The implications for this kind of technology are pretty amazing. Imagine just leaving your phone in your pocket and touching a surface to transfer money from your digital wallet (not just apple pay), or even using it to redeem Subway Sandwich rewards. Instead of using key fobs, we can potentially just have the doors respond to our grasps in order for them to open. With interactive games today, the only kind of data that is transferred is the location of our finger. Imagine if these games had access to so much more.

While this is all very exciting, there is so much that needs to be done in order for this technology to find its way in our society. Surfaces must be configured to receive our digital touch as well as be designed to be restrictive in what information it is allowed to extract from you. You wouldn’t want to graze your hand on some high-tech railing and all of a sudden give somebody your social security number.

Sources:
perhaps
Tags: Poetry, Strangers, Relationships, Poem, Poetry On Medium

A light rain is falling tonight

Between me and the city light

And you

Perhaps

Are looking at the same rain

But in a different light

Perhaps

Like the first time we met

We’re both surprised

I guess

I with your beauty

And you with my surprise

Thus we didn’t smile

But left one another

With a surprised beauty

In our mind
The future is going to happen a lot faster than the past did.
By: Matthew Boutte
Tags: Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Future, Technology, Deep Learning

In 1965, a young engineer named Gordon Moore predicted that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit would double every two years.

In layperson’s terms, this means that the power of computers would double every two years.

Moore made the prediction in a paper speculating about what the next ten years would hold for the nascent field of computers. In 1975, his prediction turned out to be shockingly accurate and a new law was born: Moore’s law. However, the law was even more profound than Moore’s original prediction.

In addition to computing power doubling every two years, the cost of that computing power would be cut in half every two years.

And it turns out that Moore’s law has held true ever since then. Computers have doubled their computing power every two years, while the cost of all this incredible new computing power has continued to tumble. That is what has enabled all the technological marvels we’ve seen over the past few decades. Computers have gone from clunky arithmetic machines, to spreadsheets, to graphical interfaces, to video editing, to smartphones, to sequencing the human genome because of Moore’s law. All those things have required more and more computing power, and Moore’s law has delivered.
Exit polls have shown that Trump has performed better with Latinos in the 2020 election compared…
By: Andrea González-Ramírez
Tags: White House, Donald Trump, Election 2020, Joe Biden, Latinos

Exit polls have shown that Trump has performed better with Latinos in the 2020 election compared to 2016. This comes as no surprise to those of us who’ve paid attention.

As I’ve reported before, about 30% of Latinos have voted for GOP presidential candidates each cycle since 1972. The Trump campaign aggressively courted them in Florida and beyond, investing in outreach efforts as early as March 2019. On the other hand, Democrats largely ignored alarms from Latino activists who begged the party to pay attention to this constituency and stop treating it as a monolith.

This failure might have cost Joe Biden and down-the-ballot candidates enough votes in key battleground states to make the difference between victory and defeat.
Restoration
By: Michelle Berry Lane
Tags: Weeds And Wildflowers, Wellness, Poetry, Solace, Healing

Restoration

Clouds cruise above dark branches;

small, lacy mandalas

slowly come to meet you

and melt upon your tongue.

In the clearing, moonlight

is grace’s touch beneath

an open zenith of night sky

punctuated with stars.

Come home, kindle the fire,

brew fragrant tea, and pour it,

steaming, into your waiting cup

rest your feet, eyes closed: sip.

Deep within, you are borderless.

There are mysteries

not meant to be solved,

only felt, and received

in the gifts that

sing your being well.

*******************************************************

As 2020 draws to a close, many are almost afraid to hope for a better year. Interior restoration can be found regardless of the challenges of the world. Simply noticing beauty in the moment, or engaging in small acts of self-care are practices that help me to turn from despair and remind me of a wholeness that exists despite all the fracturing that has been so prevalent. In those moments when I can feel gratitude, there is healing.

May you feel your way toward restoration if you are experiencing brokenness.
Studio Smashers Vol. 5
By: Martha Bergmann
Tags: Design

The InVision team’s top picks of Studio produced content created by the community

Welcome to Studio Smashers, where we share some of our favorite content from the community.

Use #InVisionStudio so we can see all of your beautiful designs and feature you here!
Add Tests to Express Apps With Jest and SuperTest
By: John Au-Yeung
Tags: Expressjs, Nodejs, Programming, JavaScript, Technology

Creating the App We’ll Test

We create a project folder by creating an empty folder and running the following to create a package.json file with the default answers:

npm init -y

Then we run the following to install the packages for our apps:

npm i express sqlite3 body-parser

Then, we create the app.js file for our app and write:

const express = require('express');

const sqlite3 = require('sqlite3').verbose();

const bodyParser = require('body-parser');

const app = express();

const port = process.env.NODE_ENV === 'test' ? 3001 : 3000;

let db;

if (process.env.NODE_ENV === 'test') {

db = new sqlite3.Database(':memory:');

}

else {

db = new sqlite3.Database('db.sqlite');

} db.serialize(() => {

db.run('CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS persons (id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, name TEXT, age INTEGER)');

}); app.use(bodyParser.json());

app.get('/', (req, res) => {

db.serialize(() => {

db.all('SELECT * FROM persons', [], (err, rows) => {

res.json(rows);

});

})

}) app.post('/', (req, res) => {

const { name, age } = req.body;

db.serialize(() => {

const stmt = db.prepare('INSERT INTO persons (name, age) VALUES (?, ?)');

stmt.run(name, age);

stmt.finalize();

res.json(req.body);

})

}) app.put('/:id', (req, res) => {

const { name, age } = req.body;

const { id } = req.params;

db.serialize(() => {

const stmt = db.prepare('UPDATE persons SET name = ?, age = ? WHERE id = ?');

stmt.run(name, age, id);

stmt.finalize();

res.json(req.body);

})

}) app.delete('/:id', (req, res) => {

const { id } = req.params;

db.serialize(() => {

const stmt = db.prepare('DELETE FROM persons WHERE id = ?');

stmt.run(id);

stmt.finalize();

res.json(req.body);

})

}) const server = app.listen(port);

module.exports = { app, server };

The code above has the app we’ll test.

To make our app easier to test, we have:

const port = process.env.NODE_ENV === 'test' ? 3001 : 3000;

let db;

if (process.env.NODE_ENV === 'test') {

db = new sqlite3.Database(':memory:');

}

else {

db = new sqlite3.Database('db.sqlite');

}

So we can set the process.env.NODE_ENV to 'test' to make our app listen to a different port than it does when the app is running in a nontest environment.

We’ll use the 'test' environment to run our tests.

Likewise, we want our app to use a different database when running unit tests than when we aren’t running them.

This is why we have:

let db;

if (process.env.NODE_ENV === 'test') {

db = new sqlite3.Database(':memory:');

}

else {

db = new sqlite3.Database('db.sqlite');

}
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
By: C. C. Francis
Tags: Personal Development, Quote Of The Day, Personal Growth, Quotes, Self

Things are bad right now.

Really bad.

But remember, they won’t always be. The pandemic will end. People will finally wear masks. We will have a vaccine. Then, in all likelihood, it will be over.

Where will you be when the dust settles? How will you look back on this time? Can there be some silver lining to these months of isolation?

Pandemics are times of change. Individually. Collectively. That makes this is a good time to think about the future — to plan your role in it.

Our world will never be the same. And you might not either.

What decisions will you make differently?

Where will you aim to be in this new world?

What problems will you face, and how will you overcome them?

Think about these things now. It may seem unrealistic to think about a broader future under the circumstances. It’s not.

Broad decades lie ahead. Younger generations will define this future.

Aim carefully.
Drill Down into Spring Boot Actuator metrics
By: David Vassallo
Tags: Developer, Development, Opensource, Java

We’ve only seen this very useful feature documented in the official Spring Actuator API Documentation, so maybe not many are aware that you actually have some control over what the Spring Actuator metrics return to your requesting client.

The Spring Actuator API allows you to expose several useful metrics that you can use to monitor your Spring-based application. You can use these metrics to monitor your application health, the last few HTTP requests processed, system load, and so on. All this is rather well documented both by Spring themselves and other bloggers. However, when consuming the … Read more at David’s Blog
Morpheus Labs is proud to announce an alliance with NEO
By: Morpheus Labs Team
Tags: Blockchain, Morpheus Labs, Neo, Dapps, Bitcoin

Morpheus Labs has a direct interest in aiding talented developers, smart contract writers and blockchain specialists. On that note, a 7-week Blockchain Curriculum with Dreamplus Blockchain Academy backed by a renowned South Korea conglomerate was rolled out to emphasize our commitment towards blockchain education. Fortunately, more blockchains, companies and universities are joining hands to facilitate opportunities across the globe to ensure blockchain will grow to its full potential.

Morpheus Labs and NEO have found an abundance of possible synergies on which we’ll explore in the short and long term. In order for this to be meaningful, we’ll ensure frequent contact between both teams and will promote NEO across the curriculum of the universities that Morpheus Labs will work with.

Morpheus Labs simplifies the process of blockchain adoption by enterprise clients, offering a wide range of interoperable dApp solutions across a variety of blockchain platforms including NEOs incredible Smart Economy solutions.

Morpheus Labs has integrated NEO in the staging and live environments of the platform. Developers are able to spin up a private NEO network and use a pre-defined NEO-python and node.js based stack for NEO DApp development. Furthermore, Morpheus Labs has published a NEO Python smart contract sample and a NEO DApp demo in our App library.
The Curious Case of Banana in Javascript
By: Ferenc Almasi
Tags: Case Study, Frontend, Programming, Web Development, JavaScript

The Curious Case of Banana in Javascript

Uncovering the secrets of JavaScript

Photo by Eiliv-Sonas Aceron on Unsplash

Everyone knows, that JavaScript is a weird language, where things often don’t make any sense. When you first started out, you had to first understand why

JavaScript is a single-threaded, high-level, often just-in-time compiled, multi-paradigm, prototype-based object-oriented dynamic language. — Wikipedia

And now you may want to understand why it has seemingly meaningless rules where

and

At first glance, they seem counterintuitive. How is NaN not equals to NaN, and how is an array equals to not an array? There are countless other examples where JavaScript doesn’t seem to do the things we want it to do. Take the following as an example; the whole point of this article:

What will be the return value of the above call?

Seems like we are trying to write out “bacteria” to the console by concatenating strings together. But in fact, this is what we get back:
Build Your Own Serverless Subscriber List With Golang and AWS
By: Victoria Drake
Tags: Email, Programming, Marketing, Go, Golang

Subscribing

The subscription process begins with a humble web form. A form input with the attributes type="email" required helps with validation thanks to the browser. When submitted, the form sends a GET request to the Simple Subscribe subscription endpoint.

Simple Subscribe receives a GET request to this endpoint with a query string containing the intended subscriber’s email. It then generates an id value and adds both email and id to your DynamoDB table.

The table item now looks like this:

email: subscriber@example.com

confirm: false

id: uuid-xxxxx

timestamp: 2020–11-01 00:27:39

The confirm column, which holds a boolean, indicates that the item is a subscription request that has not yet been confirmed. To verify an email address in the database, you’ll need to find the correct item and change confirm to true .

As you work with your data, consider the goal of each manipulation and how you might compare an incoming request to existing data.

For example, if someone made a subsequent subscription request for the same email address, how would you handle it? You might say, “Create a new line item with a new id .” However, this might not be the best strategy when your serverless application database is paid for by request volume.

Since DynamoDB pricing depends on how much data you read and write to your tables, it’s advantageous to avoid piling on excess data.

With that in mind, it would be prudent to handle subscription requests for the same email by performing an update instead of adding a new line. Simple Subscribe actually uses the same function to either add or update a database item. This is typically referred to as “update or insert.”

In a database like SQLite, this is accomplished with the UPSERT syntax. In the case of DynamoDB, you use an update operation. For the Go SDK, its syntax is UpdateItem .
Pati
By: Bhavna Narula
Tags: Humor, Poetry, Husband, Marriage, Poetry On Medium

Bhavna Narula, 2021.

Thank you so much Tree Langdon for tagging me for this wonderful challenge. I thoroughly enjoyed taking this yet another time after being tagged by Agnes Laurens. Selecting one word is so difficult in itself but it's a fun thing too. I hope to have such interesting challenges coming my way in the future too.

Have a blessed New Year everyone.
Poor Meal Planning Can End Your Marriage
By: The Good Men Project
Tags: Divorce, Love, Advice, Relationships, Marriage

Before my wife and I were married, we sometimes fought about dinner plans.

I thought it was stupid and wasn’t afraid to say so. Like: Just eat food! Who cares?! I thought.

Figuring out what to do for fun, making sure I was getting to class or work, keeping my schedule clear for Cleveland Browns football games — now THOSE were important.

Having a conversation about what we were eating later that night, or God forbid, later in the week? Who in the hell could ever know what they might want? Why would someone subject themselves to that? And why does it matter?

I didn’t care. It’s because I was 21, and peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, pasta with canned sauce, Hamburger Helper, fast food, pizza, Chinese takeout, and boxed macaroni & cheese weren’t just acceptable — they were awesome.

But she cared. “We can’t eat the same three things every night. People eat dinner, Matt. Eating dinner requires a little thought as to what might be needed from the store to make those meals.”

It all came back to me while reading this comment on an internet message board:

“My H seems to think that dinner is magic and just shows up. No planning, no groceries required, etc. When I ask him on Sunday at 8 a.m. what he wants for dinner, he gets all annoyed. Um, I have to defrost or go to the store. Thanks,” she wrote.

I remember getting annoyed about things like this, too. I’d be watching or reading or playing something, and then my girlfriend/fiancée/wife would have the audacity to ask me what I wanted to eat for dinner.

Sometimes the easy and delicious path of least resistance like ordering pizza would win the day. Other times it wouldn’t because she wanted to, like, eat vegetables and stuff.
Mentor Leadership
By: Wes Voth
Tags: Leadership, Mentor, Mentorship, Sports Psychology, Leadership Development

It is likely that at different times in our life, we will encounter people who will make a significant impact in a positive way. These people may be in the form of a parent, teacher, coach, teammate, friend, or colleague.

Words that come to mind when I think of my mentors include experience, motivation, success, guidance, and development. Mentors are needed in all types of settings within the community, especially the field and classroom, and mentorship is unrelated to age, position or status.

Mentorship and leadership work hand in hand. In the book The Code. The Evaluation. The Protocols. written by former Navy Seal Jocko Willink, mentorship and charity are pillar attributes for leaders. According to Willink, mentors “identify the need in others to be led.”

Mentors LEAD others!

Language- Verbal language and body language tell a story. As a leader, these should align. Mentor leaders should also be honest, sharing experiences of both success and failure.

Effort- Mentoring will take effort and patience. Mentors are investors in personal growth. Based on their experiences, they know success and achievement take time.

Attitude- Mentors have a positive attitude and are encouraging. Mentor leaders offer motivation and support. They are passionate about helping others succeed.

Discipline- Leaders are consistent with the standards they set for themselves. Character and dedication matters.

Ways to build qualities of a mentor leader:

1) Help a new student learn their way around the school and introduce them to new people.

2) Volunteer and serve in your community. This can help open new doors and show you ways to offer your gifts to others.

3) Motivate and build confidence in an underclassman teammate who may not yet realize their level of talent.

4) Encourage collaboration among coworkers and be willing to do the same work as any member of the team.

Mentor leadership can be found in all avenues of life, not just athletics. You don’t need a PHD, a million followers on social media, or fame to influence.

Whatever platform you have to mentor others, that is right where you are meant to be.

A positive impact on just one person can cause a ripple effect and lead to the success of many others. In the words of Theodore Roosevelt, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
Free Courses — 05.07.2020. I share today’s free tutorials below.
By: Mert Alemdar
Tags: Free Course, Free Courses Udemy, Udemy, Free Course Site, Udemy Free Course Site

I share today’s free tutorials below.

I hope it helps you guys. If you’re taking advantage and participate to the courses please comment below. So other friends who see what you write can also be motivated and take free courses.

Thank you very much.

Business:

Design:

Development:

Digital Marketing:

Finance & Accounting:

Health & Fitness:

IT & Software:

Lifestyle:

Marketing:

Office Productivity:

Personal Development:

Teaching & Academics:
Remote Year Month #6 in Review: Prague
By: Vanesa Cotlar
Tags: Remote Year, Digital Nomads, Lifestyle, Travel, Experience

And with that, my first 6 months of Remote Year have wrapped up. It is hard to believe that it has been 6 months since I was last working in Toronto. Now spending a few days at home in Winnipeg, it feels both strange and familiar to be home. I love seeing friends and family but also miss my Tramily (never really thought I would use that word). The Remote Year group really becomes part of everything you do and it feels a little strange to be removed.

Prague was the only city on my Remote Year itinerary that wasn’t new for me. I loved getting to see it from a more local side, learning about the nuances that make the city so unique. Below is my month in review.
A Pocket Thesaurus for Describing Design Work
By: Neil Shankar
Tags: Language, Design Thinking, Design, UX, Tools

Words like “clean,” “flat,” and “whitespace” have become banal catchalls for tech-oriented design work. Generally speaking, I no longer find these words effective in communicating the specificity of a composition.

When presenting work and giving feedback, I aim to use language that is descriptive, specific, and clear. Here are some of the words I use:
The Ridiculousness of the Military’s Transgender Ban
By: The Nib
Tags: Queer, Comics, Political Satire, LGBTQ, Transgender

Sign up for Taking Stock of COVID: New comics from The Nib

By The Nib

New comics from Matt Lubchansky, Keith Knight, and Niccolo Pizarro. Plus How Seniors Are Living With COVID-19. Take a look
My thoughts on Xbox One
By: Eric Vanderburg
Tags: Xbox, Digital Rights Management

I watched the XBOX One launch video today on my XBOX 360 console dashboard. It is impressive in some ways but I am really disappointed that they are going to charge you if you buy a used game. I only buy used games so this made me quite upset.

Actually, I got so angry at Microsoft that I canceled my Xbox live subscription so it will end in January and I will not renew it. They will only be hurting themselves. A minority but still significant portion of people who buy new games count on being able to sell them when they have finished playing the games. They use the money they get from the sale to buy more games. Those that buy the used games when they are still relatively new might still buy the game new if it was not available used but many of the other used buyers like me would not buy the game new. I get about $10 of fun out of the average game so I will not pay more than that for it. Some games like Civilization, Dragon Age, Sacred or Kingdom Under Fire were worth a lot more to me but then there were games that I bought and then only played once or twice. Maybe they will realize the economics of the situation when they finally start selling the system and as games age. Maybe that will cause them to reverse their policy but that will take a while.

The media components of the Xbox are cool but many of the new TVs or blu ray players have social networking, video on demand, chat and audio streaming built right into them and those who do not have that can get a Roku or an Apple TV. I would rather get an Apple TV for $100 than pay several hundred for an Xbox One.

I didn’t see anything on it but is it going to output in 4k resolution? I am looking forward to the 4k technology. If I was designing a game system I would make sure it had 4k video and 7.1 surround sound and make it very social for gamers. Make it easy to take pictures and videos of games and to post those to social networks. Let gamers update their social networks with gamer stats and live updates from games and create parental controls to keep kids safe.
How to Research for Your Story
By: Jason Cormier
Tags: Writing, Publishing, Research, Writing Tips, Creative Writing

How to Research for Your Story

Write what you know; we’ve all heard it. Now, let me explain what it means!

Write what you know! If you are a writer, you have probably heard this phrase before. It is one of the most important pieces of advice you could receive if you want to write a good story that doesn’t have half of your readers thinking you are a complete idiot. The misconception with these words is when people interpret it to mean: You can only write about things you already know.

We live in a world where you can learn nearly anything about everything within minutes. There is no excuse to put misinformation in your stories (unless it is intentional and in that case, it needs to be clear it is intentional). Having inaccurate information pulls your reader out of the story. No, not every reader is going to know how to change the tire of a specific vehicle, but if you are going to write it in your story, you better know yourself.

Well, I write fantasy, so not everything in my story is going to be the same as real life.

That is a valid point, but a lazy argument. Just because you are writing fantasy doesn’t mean it shouldn't make sense. There must be rules for how things work, and if something breaks that rule, it should be an obvious paradox or explained in a way that makes sense to the reader. Take Doctor Who for example. Within the dimensions of a small police-box is an entire space ship that seems to be boundless. It is, however, fully understood in nearly every episode that this is not normal.

Here are three methods you can use to write what you know:

Use personal experience

This is how most people understand the ‘write what you know’ phrase. Using personal experience is a great way to get it right, without having to take the time to learn new information.

Ask an expert

If you know someone with knowledge on the topic, ask them. Pick their brain. Let them read what you have written and tell you what doesn't make sense and how to fix it.

Educate yourself

Modern technologies are amazing. Everything you need to know is at your fingertips, so writing something that is completely wrong is just lazy when you could have spent five minutes researching on your phone.

The film industry pays massive amounts of money for experts to train actors how to look like the real thing. If a police officer doesn't act, move, or speak like a real police officer, it stands out and the viewer is taken out of the experience. Your stories are no different. If your reader knows the information in your book is wrong, it prevents them from being submerged in your world.

Before my current work-in-progress, I didn’t know how widely used hemp was for so many different things. Now, I know the soil conditions it grows in, the different methods for treating the fibers to be used for rope and clothing, and I even learned a few laws about hemp farming from around the world.

You want your story to be at its best. Take the time to educate yourself so you can always write what you know.
When it comes to terrorism, yes, jump to conclusions
By: Jd Rucker
Tags: Islamic State, ISIS, London Bridge, London, Terrorism

Whenever a vehicle/gun/bomb/knife attack hits a western nation, the left and their media cohorts are quick to drag out their broken record, better known as “the narrative.”

“Wait for the facts.”

“Don’t assume it’s terrorism.”

“Stop jumping to conclusions.”

Let’s put aside the fact that the vast majority of these incidents turn out to be terrorist attacks. Let’s also ignore (for now) the fact that the vast majority of terrorist attacks are perpetrated by radical Islamic terrorists. Even if we take away these facts, there’s still a very valid reason to jump to conclusions first and fix the record later.

It’s better to be safe than sorry.

Tonight’s attacks in London were the latest in a rash of “Ramadan incidents.” It’s not a coincidence that the Islamic State and other organizations have been calling for attacks on western targets during their holy month. It’s also not bigoted to point that out. The terrorists don’t play the politically correct game. They aren’t worried about how the world will view them if they’re associated with Islam. They’re proud that they’re representing what they believe to be the true fulfillment of their religious beliefs.

That’s not to say that Islam is to blame or Muslims are bad, but we have to address the issue with our eyes open.

The media and everyone playing the politically correct game are quick to crank up the rhetoric. They either willfully ignore the facts or are too blind to see that it’s no coincidence the vast majority of terrorist attacks are perpetrated by people claiming the mantle of Islam. If one out of every 10,000 Muslims are potential terrorists, that’s still nearly 200,000 people worldwide. This can’t be brushed away as politically inconvenient to the left’s narrative.

We need to handle every situation like this as if it’s a terrorist attack. There’s a difference between a drunk driver swerving into a group of people and what took place on London Bridge. When it appears that an attack is willful, we need to put our guard up. There’s no harm that comes from doing so if we’re wrong. On the other hand, if we “wait for the facts” before taking on a defensive posture, the results can be deadly.

The left is so worried about hate speech. Such speech should not be condoned whether there’s a terrorist attack or not. However, we cannot let fear of hate speech prevent us from being aware and diligent. The terrorists want to kill or subjugate all of us. Their greatest ally is a weakness propped up by fear. We cannot give them that.

Article originally published on Soshable.
On A Dove, Taking to the Sky
By: Zach J. Payne
Tags: Loss, Love, Grief, Death, Poem

for Naya Rivera, STTL.

The Lord in Heaven teaches us to dream

and, someday, we return unto that host;

all metaphors belie that spirit-stream

beyond our comprehension. At the most

we see a jagged light, a rainbow cast

in ultraviolet, well beyond all sense;

a promise of the kingdom that will last

despite the heat death destined to commence.

Now you will never need these bones again

no matter shall pin down your vital force.

We bid you go and rest with saintly kin

without egregious grief or long remorse

for we are temporary in these shapes;

forever only lives in our escapes.
Smooch
By: Riku Arikiri
Tags: Poetry, Romance, Haiku, Love, Fiction

We curate and disseminate outstanding articles from diverse domains and disciplines to create fusion and synergy.

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John Singleton Quotes
By: Jada Gomez
Tags: Black Directors, Culture, Movies, John Singleton

More from Momentum Follow

Momentum is a blog that captures and reflects the moment we find ourselves in, one where rampant anti-Black racism is leading to violence, trauma, protest, reflection, sorrow, and more. Momentum doesn’t look away when the news cycle shifts.
Coding challenges in Python !
By: Elliott Saslow
Tags: Developer, Python, JavaScript, Learning, Algorithms

Challenge #4

You are given a sentence, and want to shift each letter by 2 in alphabet to create a secret code. The sentence you want to encode is the lazy dog jumped over the quick brown fox and the output should be ’vjg ncba fqi lworgf qxgt vjg swkem dtqyp hqz’

Steps to a solution:

Create a dictionary mapping each letter to its number in the alphabet Create a dictionary mapping each number to its letter in the alphabet Go through each letter in the sentence and find the corresponding number, add 2 and then find the new corresponding letter Make sure to take care of the edge cases so that if you get the letter z, it maps to b… ect Print the encoded string

My Solution:

import string

Number2Letter = {}

Letter2Number ={} # Make both dictionaries

for i,letter in enumerate(string.ascii_lowercase):

Number2Letter[i] = letter

Letter2Number[letter] = i # Encode the string!

s2 = ''

for letter in 'the lazy dog jumped over the quick brown fox':

if letter in Letter2Number:

current_letter_number = Letter2Number[letter] + 2 # take care of the edge cases

if current_letter_number == 26:

current_letter_number = 0

elif current_letter_number == 27:

current_letter_number = 1 s2 += Number2Letter[current_letter_number] else: s2+=letter

How would you decode?
China Defends Its Growing Trade With Sanctioned North Korea
Tags: North Korea, Meditation, Global Social Witnessing, Personal Development

This initiative of the Academy of Inner Science (under the leadership of Thomas Hübl) decontextualizes current events for contemplative practice. Editors are @joanabp @haefliger @bmadach @rollow @ThomasHuebl_en http://www.innerscience.info/en

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Treasure Seeker
Tags: Hawaii, Love, Books, Story, Libraries

The smell is the first thing that hits me — the smell of books: a distinct, not unpleasant odor of well-thumbed paper, cardboard and buckram, and polypropylene jacket covers. As I pass the counter I notice the usual librarian, a spry local-Japanese woman with white-streaked gray hair chopped at her shoulders, is not there. In her place stands a youngish Polynesian woman whose brown eyes seem to analyze and welcome me simultaneously. I duck my head slightly at her and move on, passing shelves of nonfiction and a row of desks separated into cubicles with wooden sideboards. In the last boxed-in seat, a young man wearing earbuds hunches toward his laptop, absorbed in wifi. He is right next to the shelf I want, so I slip past carefully, hoping the movement doesn’t disturb him. Running my eyes down the spines before me, I feel the familiar thrill of anticipation. There is treasure laid bare at my fingertips, but I seek a certain jewel — one clutched close an age ago, when earth was yet enchanted. Wait. Is it here? I rake over the books again. It’s not here. The author herself is gone. As understanding sets in, I feel the shades flit by, following the spoor of stories through the locked doors of musty storerooms.

A gentle presence tugs at my peripheral vision. I look up into my husband’s questioning gaze.

“Ready?” he says with a soft smile.

“Yeah.”

We walk down the scuffed concrete stairs toward the car, and I tell him about the missing book, the absent author. I can’t keep the sadness to myself.

He squeezes my hand. “You can probably reserve it online.”

“True.” I squeeze back.

As we leave I stare at the peeling 1960s structure through the car window. Unbidden, an image comes to mind: a dark-haired girl sits mesmerized, immersed in worlds unveiled on time-resistant pages.

I love the smell of books.
Introducing asdf ipsum
By: Kurt Braget
Tags: Programming, Web Development, Design, UX, Software Development

asdf ipsum

Aadf jkak lsjdf kkdf jk akjafd kjlasdjf kj kkjask df. Kjaskdfjk aksdf. As kfj askdf k jaskdfj k ja skjdf asjkf ja sjd fkjakj skdjf. A sd asjkdfjk asjdf kjasdkjf jjkasjd fkj kj jasfjkj ak sjdf jjsadfjk akjjkf jkja jfakjdjk fjkj dsjkfjkfjk jdfjk sfj kfjk sadjk fasjd fjf jsdfj. Jdkf jksadfjk. If jkasjkdf jkfj jk sdfj k.

Jfj jaklsjdf lk asjf klajsfd kjjflkaj jdfklja kjf jlasdjkf asf l jalk sf lklasdfjkl ajsflk jasfkjkjasdkfj. As fdkj askjf lkasdjf jaskfj klaskfjk j lasf d kjasjd fkj askjfjk a ksdf jask jdf kjas kdjfkljaskdjfkjaskfj.

Asd f sdf s fd. As fdj dj fjkasfjkjasf a fdjjasdfj. J a ksd fjjasd fj asf jjkd jasdj fja sd. Fkjasdjf lajk sldfjkasdljkfjlk asfjjasdfjas f sdf ajksdf jsdjfjsfjjkasdf sf f fjas jdfjk asdf kjkjasf sd f f jf fs jkf s f jfjk sjkajskfdjkl;as;asfdlk lkj.

Random Ipsum (Special Bonus for you)

N;la fpoheof o;jasfjk. Y 89gygiuyg ;lkasndv;on jbaosndfinjabs fbahjbsfbabjsfoiapuyv9ynjnsjadfuphqwphfnascnjaouhsdf9unasdinjfabnsfbnf afiasf asofja sfopasf qaw;ipef-39fpnqer qjsfoasdf a[wfq wef[qwfjo[as d[asfijasf qwerh2i3r qwerfp2r q wefpq rl naosdfhohasnf ashfooihasf.

Asof haois jfd as; fonoi ajsfd a;sofh jaj bsfd as;ofo iha sfd asfnaosdnf asfnaosfhipasy 87a sv igu2rouhqwp 9u fya ; j n v;oasjd[ f08aywoerh f a ’ dsvu[zh s idofjapsf idhv aojopa8 wypfgivj ksjaougiv bjknajs iuvgjjp i s bugljp 0 y8 ujouytr e wsdc vhygb c drtyuj k g ftyukguikl ji o lk iop;kiop; l jl. , kl ;. ,p;.m io l . kb hg tyh c drfxsed sawedsaqw edawe rf z w erf xdrtyhc d567y hgfr 67uhgt 678i

jhy7 89i khu89olk ju89 olku8 90plkju 890p; lk jhu89o kjb gt

Notes:

I am always coding on projects that need lorum ipsum to fill in the spots. One issue I run into is that these Lorem Ipsum sites have a bunch of garbage ads or are hard to find the actual Lorem Ipsum because they spend too much time explaining what it is. This post, hopefully is the opposite of that.

Most of you smart tech people would know what lorum ipsum is, but for those of you who don’t, check it out here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorem_ipsum
Passionate Lover!
By: Pawan Kumar
Tags: Poetry, Lovestory, Love, Dating, Relationships

He has eyes only for her.

Everyday he makes wish to be with her.

He is just a passionate lover.
The Shallow End — Not Just for Pools
By: Mama Luscious
Tags: Age Gap Love, Dating, Relationships Love Dating, Shallow, Relationships

The Shallow End — Not Just for Pools

Times When I’ve Prized Sexy Above Substance

Photo Credit: Angelo Pantazis via Unsplash

I was thumping along on the treadmill at the gym today when a man popped onto the machine next me wearing a criminal amount of cologne. Enough that I tasted it as I gasped for each mouthful of air. Total gym foul.

I was eyes forward leaning into my final mile when I glanced over at the offender assailing my nostrils.

Who happened to be drop dead gorgeous. And roughly 15 years younger than me. And who gave me a huge smile that touched his eyes. And a fist bump of encouragement.

So of course I decided his cologne tasted delicious. And felt like a very sweaty Mrs. Robinson.

Again.
Beauty
By: Rod Castor
Tags: Robots, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Science Fiction, Beauty

Beauty

When desire trumps good judgment

Image public domain, courtesy of digitalcomicmuseum.com, modified from original.

Jack cruised down Mainstreet in his rover. The holographic advertisements were dizzying. Beer, Ice, and Beauty were common themes. Beauty. That’s what Jack wanted. He pulled into an electrified joint at the far end of the street.

“Hey ya’,” greeted the droid attendant as Jack entered the boutique. “What cha’ lookin’ fo?” All droids were given a distinct origin story. Their accent and dialect reflected it. Unfortunately, most were inaccurate due to the Galatic Alliance’s anti-impersonation laws. Yet, their muddled speech was also their most interesting feature. Humans and other carbon-based lifeforms had long stopped noticing these worker drones as part of society.

“I’d like to speak with a top beautification practitioner.” Jack stuttered aloud while checking over his shoulder for any familiar faces. “I want a beauty enhancement.”

“Sura, thing.” The droid articulated. Then it disappeared behind a curtain. Upon returning, the droid invited Jack into the back. “Right dis’ way, serwa.”

Lining the hallway were holograms of the latest aesthetic trends, mostly androgynous and dark. Jack’s eyes carefully took in the samples as he surveyed them from side to side.

At the end of their trip, the droid passed Jack over to a carbonoid sporting a look from one of the samples he’d passed along the way. Carbonoids were a step up from droids — a large step up. Their appearance was so similar to actual carbon-based beings, it afforded them parity in the cast system. “Hello, darling. What may I do for you?” It said in a low, smokey voice. This particular carbonoid manifested as a human female.

“I’d like an enhancement,” Jack said.

“I see. You’ve come to the right place. Follow me.” She turned and entered the room behind her. Jack followed.

“Exactly what are you seeking to improve?” The practitioner asked.

“I honestly don’t know,” Jack said in a tone of desperation. “I’m lonely. I’m an outcast. I don’t think anyone even knows — or cares — that I exist.” He looked up, into the beautiful eyes of his would-be savior. “Just make me beautiful. Whatever you believe to be the most beautiful creature, please make me look like that.”

Her face resonated with the agony he felt. “Okay,” she said. “But this particular change cannot be reversed. Is that acceptable?”

“Yes,” Jack blurted with a faint sound of hope in his voice.

The beauty practitioner placed Jack into a deep sleep and began the lengthy process of changing his appearance. When Jack awoke, he was extremely sore. He gazed around the room for the carbonoid, but she wasn’t there. Bracing himself, Jack stood. He was taller. This boosted Jack’s confidence in his decision. A light tapping came from the door and the beautician stepped into the room. “Ah, you’re awake. Good. Would you like to see the new you?” She motioned to a mirror on the wall.

“Yes,” Jack shouted. Excitement rang in his voice. As he stepped into the mirror’s view, a sense of horror gripped him. Within its frame stood a droid.