fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Before We Had Google, There Was Googie Architecture
By: Brian Deines
Tags: Architecture, Art, Google, Design, Tech

Before We Had Google, There Was Googie Architecture

Few things are more representative of the modern zeitgeist than Google. But there was a time when the same thing was said about Googie architecture.

Between the late 1950’s and early 1960’s Googie was the undisputed “look of tomorrow.”

While Kennedy spoke of Man going to the Moon, it was Googie-style architecture that made the Space Age come to life via cantilevered elements, parabolic boomerang shapes, bold colors and whiz-bang angles.

Famous examples of Googie Architecture are the Theme Building at LAX, the Space Needle in Seattle, Space Mountain at Disney and the TWA Terminal at JFK Airport.

But Googie design elements became directly accessible to the everyday consumer at places like the Original McDonald’s restaurants.

You can see the Googie influence in both the architecture and cars in the parking lot.

The mecca of Googie-style was Southern California, and architects like Eldon Davis and Stanley Metson brought the space-age to the every-day.

Gas stations, bowling alleys, movie theaters, motels and restaurants like Norm’s, Pann’s, Chips’ and Googie’s (the style’s namesake), became the iconic epicenters of a future that was already here today.

Googie was pure, eye-sugar escapism. At a glance, we could escape the mundane with the rush of the future.

To the business-owner, Googie meant profits.

From a design standpoint, Googie combined the groundbreaking architectural design use of cantilevered concrete, steel and plate-glass popularized by Frank Lloyd Wright — with the abstract art of painter Wassily Kandinsky.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, designed in 1935.

Those iconic Googie signs are like the 3D rendering of a Kandinsky painting. You will see the same bold, primary color patterns, shapes and raygun zaniness.

Points, 1920, by Wassily Kandinsky. Note the Golden Arches!

The true impetus behind Googie-style was the boom of American car-culture. Even in the 1950’s, L.A. was a driving city. And the eye-catching Googie designs and bright neon helped businesses entice patrons from the road.

‘Norms’ by Ashok Sinha

Successful Advertising and Commerce helped move architectural design choices and car culture in a similar direction as the entire Googie aesthetic emerged. And cars of the 1950’s became the rocket ship of the Everyman.

1959 Chevy

There was a moment in time when you could drive to Disneyland Anaheim for vacation in your ’59 Chevy and be utterly immersed in a Googie world of the future.

Gas up at a Googie filling station, grab lunch at a Googie burger joint, go to Tomorrowland at Disney, catch a movie at the Googie cinema, go bowling at Googie Lanes, then head back for a swim at the Googie Motel.

The Future was awesome.

Imagining a life inside a futuro-fantasy is not entirely unlike our world today.

Only now, we’re immersed in Google’s brand of escapism. The entire world at our fingertips on Google Search, Google Maps, YouTube, Gmail — all on a Google Smartphone.
Plotting Equations with Python. This article is going to cover plotting…
By: Elliott Saslow
Tags: Math, Data Science, Matplotlib, Developer, Science

This article is going to cover plotting basic equations in python! We are going to look at a few different examples, and then I will provide the code to do create the plots through Google Colab!

Goals:

Learn to Create a vector array Manipulate vector to match an equation Create beautiful plots with a title, axis labels, and grid

y = x²

Let's go ahead and start by working on one of the simplest and most common equations! y = x². To do this, we are going to be doing a few things but first of all, we need to cover a few concepts.

Modules in Python

A module allows you to logically organize your Python code. We will be using 2 Modules: Matplotlib.pyplot and Numpy.

NumPy

Numpy is the fundamental package for scientific computing in Python. It is a Python library that provides a multidimensional array object, various derived objects (such as masked arrays and matrices), and an assortment of routines for fast operations on arrays, including mathematical, logical, shape manipulation, sorting, selecting, I/O, discrete Fourier transforms, basic linear algebra, basic statistical operations, random simulation and much more.

Matplotlib.pyplot

Matplotlib.pyplot is a collection of command style functions that make matplotlib work like MATLAB. Each pyplot function makes some change to a figure: e.g., creates a figure, creates a plotting area in a figure, plots some lines in a plotting area, decorates the plot with labels, etc.
Anderson Cooper’s “Obese Turtle” Rant Is a Reminder That Fat People Are Punchlines to the Right and the Left
By: Shannon Ashley
Tags: Social Media, Culture, Mental Health, Society, Politics

At this point, Anderson Cooper’s recent viral video has been seen more than 10 million times. In it, he talks about Trump’s absurd claims of election cheating by likening the president to… an obese turtle:

“I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like this from a president of the United States. And, I think, like Jake said, it is sad, and it is truly pathetic. And of course it is dangerous, and of course it will go to courts, but you’ll notice the president did not have any evidence presented at all. Nothing. “That is the president of the United States. That is the most powerful person in the world, and we see him, like an obese turtle on his back, flailing in the hot sun, realizing his time is over. But he just hasn’t accepted it, and he wants to take everybody down with him, including this country.”

Ever since Anderson made those comments, people have been absolutely giddy at the image. Social media is filled with people cheering on Gloria Vanderbilt’s journalist son, some even joking that he’s now a poet laureate.

People really seem to love it, and that’s putting is mildly. Even Vogue published a story calling Cooper’s words “the Perfect Response to Trump’s Shocking White House Speech.”

So, here’s the problem with that. Once again, the Left, which supposedly gives a damn about human rights, is using a fat body as an insult, and those of us who despise Trump and are obese ourselves? We’re supposed to pretend it’s no big deal. That it’s even funny.

But it’s not fucking funny.

We see this attitude time and time again. You on the Left care so much about human rights, but you don’t give a damn about those among you with eating disorders or larger bodies. You use us as punchlines. You use us to make weak or effortless arguments.

Fat people aren’t stupid, though.

When you mock Trump’s body and make jokes about “obese turtles,” we know exactly what you’re saying.

Hahaha.

To you, and folks like Anderson Cooper, obesity equals laziness, gluttony, and self-destruction. Sometimes, you use it to denote mental health issues, but you almost always liken it to something we the irresponsible fatties have done to ourselves.

It’s just one more extension of diet culture and the ridiculous notion that an individual’s bodyweight has some direct correlation to their worth. It’s arrogant and shitty. It’s not even rational. But you do it, and most of you reading this are going to keep making fat jokes and using fat as an insult because you really don’t get it.

And honestly, I don’t believe that most folks even care.
Using Differentiation to Stand Out From The Competition
By: Daniel Hopper
Tags: Strategy, Marketing Strategies, Marketing, Business, Startup

What is differentiation?

Product differentiation is a marketing management strategy that aims to distinguish or differentiate a company’s products or services from the alternatives offered by competitors.

Businesses communicate their unique and distinctive benefit through the marketing strategy to make it more attractive to a targeted group of customers.

Also referred to as a point of difference, providing customers with a unique and distinct benefit can create a competitive advantage in that marketplace.

It is a powerful strategy when a target group of customers is not price-sensitive (a price increase will not reduce demand), when a market is competitive and saturated with options, or when a group of customers have specific needs that are under-served.

“Point of difference — even seemingly contradictory ones — can be powerful. Strong, favourable, unique associations that distinguish a brand from others in the same frame of reference are fundamental to successful brand positioning.” (Keller, Sternthal & Tybout, 2002)

Objectives of differentiation

The underlying objective of differentiation is to make your brand different to and more attractive than your competitors. Develop a position in the market that potential customers see as unique and valuable.

Perceived differentiation is subjective from customer to customer, from brand to brand. It is marketing’s job to alter this perception and customers’ evaluation of the benefits of one brand’s offering compared to another.

When a product or service becomes more unique, it will attract fewer comparisons with competitors, and it moves away from competing on price.

This uniqueness helps to achieve a competitive advantage in a crowded marketplace.

Product differentiation helps develop a strong value proposition, making a product or service attractive to a target market.
Moths in Space
Tags: Self-awareness, Self, Creativity, Life Lessons, Poetry

Moths in Space

A poem

Which are the stars, and which are their paparazzi?

The stars hold my gaze.

They wink and sparkle

and burn ablaze.

My atoms: moths

knocking each other askew

in a whirlwind rocket

to the modest moon.

But it’s being afar

that makes bright beautiful.

The sun is a star

that will eat you whole

if you get too close.

So we learn:

don’t touch the stove.

Be a flower, or a tree.

Reach for the warmth,

light and energy,

but keep your roots

in the cool shade of soil.

Grow up with ambition;

grow deep from turmoil.

The top-heavy only tumble;

The heavy-rooted never fly.

So you see,

there’s significance in our scars;

only humans lose their way

while reaching for the stars.
Why You Should Read More to Write Better
By: Gary Mcbrine
Tags: Writing Tips, Writing, Reading, Art, Creativity

Writing and playing music have many parallels.

When you learn to play the guitar, what do you learn first?

Do you start composing your own songs and playing complex chord progressions right from the start? Unlikely.

Most people who learn to play the guitar start by playing other people’s songs. Then, when they’ve become comfortable with the instrument, they may or may not decide to create songs of their own.

Why is it helpful to practice someone else’s songs? Because it develops skill. It gives you the tools and musical vocabulary to express something yourself.

The same is true with writing.

Novelist Steven King speaks of the importance of reading and writing:

“The more fiction you read and write, the more you’ll find your paragraphs forming on their own.” — Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft

To become a good writer requires both reading and writing a lot.

It’s the same with music. If you never listen to or learn other people’s songs, it can be very difficult, if not impossible, to learn to write your own songs.

Paul Simon met his musical partner Art Garfunkel when they were children. Their idols were the Everly Brothers, who were known for their beautiful harmonies in songs such as “Wake Up Little Suzie” and “Dream”.

The two boys would imitate the close two-part harmonies of the Everly Brothers until they developed a style of their own. We hear those beautiful harmonies in songs such as “Sounds of Silence” and “Scarborough Fair/Canticle”. What they learned from imitation became their own style.

What you learn from reading can develop into your writing style.

Read read read. Write write write.

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.” — Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft

Stephen describes himself as a slow reader, yet he reads seventy or eighty books a year, mostly fiction. Not for research, but because he likes to read.

Do you like to read? If you want to be a good writer, it’s important to take time to read a lot. If one of the most successful writers does it, maybe we should too.

Will reading a lot influence your writing to sound like someone else?

If you’re a new writer, sounding like someone else isn’t all that bad. If they’re a good writer that is.

With time and practice, you will develop your own style. That’s the key.

Even the Beatles honed their craft by playing other people’s songs. As a new band, they played in Hamburg Germany every night for a couple of years. This helped them to develop their skill and unique sound that made them famous.
Submission Guidelines (Updated)
By: 𝘋𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘢 𝘊.
Tags: Writing, Submission Guidelines, Know Thyself Heal Thyself, Inspiration, Creativity

Greetings!

I bring to you some new updates regarding the submission guidelines for Know Thyself Heal Thyself. Please make sure to read them thoroughly in order to avoid any confusion in the future. Thank you!

Themes:

Spirituality Philosophy Holism Life Lessons Mindfulness Self Awareness/Improvement/Growth Love Other (private message/email me at cdiana.enq@gmail.com to clarify whether what you want to submit fits in with the publication or not)

Types of writing:

Essays Poetry Fiction Non fiction Storytelling (parables/tales/fables) Journal entries How-To Articles

Both drafts and published stories are accepted (however, please make sure the published story is very recent, otherwise it will get lost in the publication’s archive and won’t receive much exposure).

Only one article per day/per contributor is accepted. Anything that exceeds this number will be published the following day. Please make sure your private notes are open so we can communicate if there are any issues to resolve.

Please note it my take longer than a few hours to publish your submissions on certain days such as Saturday/Sunday and holidays. Allow at least 12 hours before removing your draft and submitting it elsewhere.

Submission frequency:

As editor of KTHT, I reserve the right to remove contributors who have been inactive on the publication for longer than 90 days. The goal is to build a community of active writers who support, encourage, interact with each other (clap, respond, tag, etc.)

A weekly+weekend prompt, poetry challenge and stories/quotes/sayings are sent out weekly for inspiration.

Write with us:

If you’d like to become part of Know Thyself, leave a response to this article stating that you’d like to be added. It shouldn’t take longer than 24 hours for you to be able to start submitting.
What are *Args and **Kwargs in Python?
By: Toni Domenech
Tags: Python, Data Science, Matplotlib, Software Development, Programming

What are *Args and **Kwargs in Python?

Boost your functions to the n-level.

Photo by SpaceX on Unsplash

If you have been programming Python for a while now surely you’ll have had a doubt in how to use a function properly. You went to the paper and have met with *args and **kwargs inside the parameter of this function.

In matplotlib or in seaborn (to name but a few) there are regularly these words in the attributes of a function. Let’s take a look at a caption.

Image by Author

When I started seeing these attributes my brain usually did like them didn’t exist. Until I recalled the power of this attribute and the commodity they provide. Using them your functions can be a lot more versatile and scalable.

Usually, the functions have some ‘natural’ attributes and each parameter are regularly predefined. For example, in the matplotlib function seen above, we have the “Data” attribute where its value “=None” is predefined. This meaning that if you don’t use a value in “Data” the calling of the function will return an empty figure. A none by default.

What happens with the *args and**kwargs seen above? The args here are usually used to introduce the data, x1, x2 whatsoever. And the kwargs are used for the tunning of your graph. The properties of each graph come determined with the kwargs you introduce. Linewidth, linestyle, or marker are just some of the keyworded attributes you could already be familiar with. So you have been already using this **kwargs-thing unconsciously.
COVID-19 Vaccine Is Not Effective as Companies Tell Us
By: Mike Ortega
Tags: Health, Lockdown, Coronavirus, Vaccines, Covid 19

The world is creeping deeper due to coronavirus. Coronavirus which is born in China and brought up in Europe and America has made disastrous damage to the American economy and health system. Many vaccines companies have developed a vaccine to eradicate coronavirus but they are rushing to make it available for the public.

The main problem is how effective is COVID-19 vaccine prepared by vaccine companies. Companies which are telling about their efficiency and effectiveness are not sure about their vaccine’s public performance.

Many politicians like Donald Trump have used a vaccine to grab votes, and it’s still followed by many world leaders.

Recently, I read about a mutation of coronavirus in the UK. Many countries in the EU have imposed lockdown to curb the new spread of coronavirus. Coronavirus has unique properties like changing its RNA according to the surrounding which leads to fast mutation and spread.

Day by day coronavirus will become more dangerous and as it mutates faster than vaccine up-gradation. Vaccine companies are looking for profit and they are rushing for storage and delivery. It's harmful when you deliver a vaccine with little research and trials.

Many people will refuse to take the vaccine. You can compare corona with polio, which is with us for a long time. The series of vaccination will continue, as epidemic waves of corona arrives frequently in the world.

We must use a mask and sanitize our hands to curb the coronavirus spread. Social distancing and mask can curb spread than a vaccine. I think, more we can implement self restrictions, more we will find success against COVID-19.
8 Important Lessons for Programmers That I’ve Learned at 18
By: Alec Jones
Tags: Programming, JavaScript, Software Development, Python, Startup

Don’t Fall for the Appeal to Tradition

The logical fallacy “appeal to tradition” is an issue than can frequently appear among software developers. The key phrase to know if you’re falling into this trap is “we’ve always done it this way!”

Especially as a new developer, it can be hard to suggest new ways of doing things. If a more experienced developer is falling into this logical fallacy, it’s important to call them out on it. Or if you are an experienced developer, don’t be afraid to try new things.

Everyone benefits if there is a faster, more efficient to do something than the old way — so always keep an eye out for ways to improve.

Developers like to do things so that they can know it will work and so they can get the task done quickly. This usually means doing things in a way they already know, but it certainly doesn’t mean that’s best.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Building Event-Driven Microservices With RabbitMQ
By: Tek Loon
Tags: Microservices, Nodejs, Programming, JavaScript, Rabbitmq

Step-by-Step Guide

Here is TekLoon’s Dev Rule No 1:

Always start with the easiest part.

The easy entry will allow you to complete the first task and gain the confidence to face the upcoming challenges.

Step 1: TimerService development

Let’s start by creating our TimerService:

Code for TimerService. View full code here

Let’s look at what we did here. We:

Created a connection to our RabbitMQ server.

Created a channel

Created a direct, non-durable ‘quote’ exchange

Published the message to the exchange during each interval (60 seconds)

This code fulfills the purpose of TimerService.

Step 2: QuoteService development

Let’s continue with our QuoteService development. The main function of this service is able to scrape a motivational quote from the Internet when it receives a message from the RabbitMQ queue.

First, create a consumer and listen for the event sent by TimerService. Let’s make it very simple; when we receive the message we call the scrapQuoteOfTheDay() function:

Next, we proceed to scrape the quote from the Internet:

I’m getting my quotes from wisdomquotes.coms and writing them to a JSON file. Pretty straight forward right?

Now that we have our business logic in place, let’s make an HTML page to display the quotes that have been scrapped. After doing some research, the simplest way to dynamically render the HTML in ExpressJS is by using the template engine Pug. Let me show you how I did it:

This is the UI that will be created based on the index.pug template.

You can get the full source code for QuoteService here.

Step 3: Express Server settings for QuoteService

In order for QuoteService able to listen to RabbitMQ queue, we would have to do some setup during our server initialization. Besides, there is also rendering the quotes HTML based on the index.pug template we have created in step two.

Aside from booting up the web server, this configuration also fulfills the following purpose:

Renders the index.pug template (line 17)

template (line 17) Listens to RabbitMQ queue (line 23)

Step 4: Run and test It !!!

Let’s run our project and test it locally. Ultimately, you can get my full source code from Github.

Let’s boot our QuoteService component. Go to QuoteService folder and do npm run start Boot up our TimerService component by going to the TimerService folder and running npm run start Below are screenshots for you if you run it successfully:

TimerService publishes two events to the RabbitMQ exchange

QuoteService is able to consume two events listening to the RabbitMQ queue
AWS — Deploying React With NodeJS App On Elastic Beanstalk
By: Bhargav Bachina
Tags: AWS, Programming, Nodejs, Web Development, React

AWS — Deploying React With NodeJS App On Elastic Beanstalk

A step by step guide with an example project

Photo by Moritz Kindler on Unsplash

AWS provides more than 100 services and it’s very important to know which service you should select for your needs. If you want to deploy an application quickly without any worry about the underlying infrastructure, AWS Elastic Beanstalk is the answer. Elastic Beanstalk reduces management complexity without restricting choice or control. You simply upload your application, and Elastic Beanstalk automatically handles the details of capacity provisioning, load balancing, scaling, and application health monitoring.

In this post, we are going to deploy React application with nodejs environment. There are other technologies or environments that AWS supports such as Go, Java, NodeJS, .Net, etc.

Introduction

Example Project

Prerequisites

Build the Project

Deploy on Elastic Beanstalk

Debugging and Update the Deployment

Route 53

Cleaning Up

Things To Consider

Summary

Conclusion

Introduction

If you want to deploy an application without worrying about the underlying infrastructure, Elastic Beanstalk is the solution. When you build the app and upload the app in the form of the zip or war, Elastic Beanstalk would take care of provisioning underlying infrastructure such as a fleet of EC2 instances, auto calling groups, monitoring, etc.

The infrastructure provisioned by Elastic Beanstalk depends on the technology chosen while uploading your app. For example, we are going to deploy the React with NodeJS backend on Elastic Beanstalk so we need to choose the NodeJS environment. If you want to know more about Elastic Beanstalk here is the link.

Environment Setup

As you see in the above figure, we build our project and create a zip. Once we build the zip, we upload that zip on the Elastic Beanstalk environment. If you have a custom domain you can point that to the elastic beanstalk URL so that your app can be accessible to the public through that URL.
Happy First Birthday, Better Programming!
By: Zack Shapiro
Tags: Python, Medium, Programming, JavaScript, Writing

Happy First Birthday, Better Programming!

A story about our first year, some fun numbers, and a look at what’s ahead

Photo by Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash

Better Programming is officially one year old today!

Last year we launched with six articles and hoped that readers would show up and care. 2,373 of you did, and we were off to the races! Slowly but surely, authors we reached out to gave us a chance, entrusting us to do a good job of copy editing, publishing, and distributing their hard work.

In the last year, we’ve worked with over 1,500 authors, built an audience of more than 117,000 followers on Medium, and became Medium’s best-performing publication to launch in 2019. Better Programming is also Medium’s fastest-ever publication to reach 5 million pageviews a month after launch — which we did in just 6 months.

Cumulatively in our first year, Better Programming has garnered over 38 million pageviews from readers around the world!

We have a lot of exciting things in store for this year: We’re going to expand some of the topics we cover, launch our job board, and a few other things we can’t wait to tell you about.

Our goal continues: To build a high-quality publication — based on thorough tutorials and actionable advice — and an inclusive environment for people to learn, no matter your skill level.

Thank you for being a part of our first year.

Be well,

Zack and Tony

Co-founders of Better Programming
I came up with this crazy formula to help me write faster and better…
By: Linda Caroll
Tags: Writing, Advice, This Happened To Me, Inspiration, Creativity

I came up with this crazy formula to help me write faster and better…

I used to write when the muse struck.Which wasn’t very often because turns out the muse tends to favor people who show up regularly. Which I wasn’t.

So I’ve been trying to build a daily writing habit. And I’ve done pretty well — only missed 2 days in the last 20. But wow. Writing every day sure made me see what I struggle with. Maybe you struggle with this, too?

It’s not the blank page that slays me…

I learned that constraints mean the blank page is not a problem. Just pick a thing. Like a writing prompt. Because if a writer is asked to write about dogs, or summer or a favorite food — heck, we can all do that.

So I use constraints and the blank page isn’t the problem anymore.

You know what is? Brain pong! And rambling.

I pick a topic, and start writing and all the ideas about that topic show up. And then the writing rambles on and on and — blah. No.

Walk away. Edit.

Walk away. Edit.

That’s painful. And it takes too long. Who has that kind of time?

(and people do this twice a day? are they still sane??)

Then it dawned on me that constraints work for topic, so why not try them for the whole writing process?

So I created this crazy formula to speed up my writing.

It looks like this…

1. What’s the topic?

The topic is usually inspired by some small nugget of an idea. Some random thought, or something I read or heard or saw. When I get those ideas, I jot them down so I can dig into the idea bin anytime.

2. Is there relevant data or statistics?

It’s more powerful to use real numbers and cite a source than to generalize. For example… children witness 68% to 80% of domestic assaults. See how much more powerful that is than a generalization?

3. Can I add a personal experience?

A personal connection strengthens every story, so I dig around in my head to find a personal connection. Sometimes #1 and #3 are the same. Bonus!

4. How can I start with a bang?

Once I have the topic, some legit data and a personal story, now I can ask myself — what’s the most powerful way to open?

5. How can I connect the end to the beginning?

I love when writers end by looping back around to the beginning and connecting the whole piece. So how can I do that?

6. What’s the emotion I want to evoke?

Then I try find a cover image to evoke that feeling — and hope I can find something a little offbeat that everyone hasn’t seen a zillion times.

7. Title last!

I struggle with titles. So now I ignore the title and just write the piece first. When I’m done, I re-read to see if the title is hiding inside. You’d be surprised how often it is — right there, staring at me from inside the piece. No wonder I couldn’t think it up in advance.

So now I have this handy-dandy formula…

And I’m going to use it. I swear I am. But ever since I came up with the idea, every time I open the page to write, poetry shows up. Go figure.
The 5 Kinds of Award-Winning Commercials
By: Kiran Jain
Tags: Research, Marketing, Advertising, Business, Creativity

2. Larger-Than-Life Results

This strategy involves showing the experience the user will go through, once they start using the company’s product.

The successful ads tend to exaggerate what you receive. The greater the exaggeration, the more comical and unusual the advertisement is, making it more indelible.

Author via YouTube

This comical advertisement by Lynx starts with a single woman running across the island, in pursuit of something. The scene changes and in a few seconds you now see hordes of women, running over one another, climbing and trying to reach somewhere. And then in the climax, you get to know what was attracting all these women.

This advertisement expresses two benefits of the product:

1. How strong the deodorant is — it could be detected miles away.

2. How strongly it attracts all women.

In addition, the expressions of the main character in the climax make it even more hilarious.

No doubt a lot of other deodorant brands followed suit once the Lynx effect gained popularity. Though they had varying levels of success.

You could also use what is called inverted consequences — a version in which you warn against the implications of not following the ad’s recommendation.

For example, while promoting a brand of vitamin, one could show how the viewer is missing out on life by not ingesting the vitamin (Revital Capsules)

Risks to keep in mind: this form of advertising runs the risks of getting you trapped in allegations and lawsuits. This story by Sean Kernan serves as a great example: Pepsi made an exaggerated claim in their advertisement and found themselves stuck in a messy lawsuit.

A brand called Complan suffered a similar fate a few years back when a lawsuit was slapped on their face because they claimed to make kids “taller.”
Introducing Figma’s Live Embed Kit
By: Dylan Field
Tags: Programming, Design, Software Development, Engineering, Tech

We’re excited to announce our public Live Embed Kit to keep teams in sync wherever they are. With this development, anyone can add Figma designs and prototypes that are always up to date to their website. It’s as simple as embedding an iframe. The Kit will also allow 3rd party developers to enable Figma Live Embeds in their own tools — just like Trello, JIRA and Dropbox Paper.

It’s as simple as embedding an iframe.

To insert a Figma design or prototype into any webpage, just click share in the top right corner of the file, select public embed and copy the iframe code. If you’re a developer and want to make it easier for your users to embed live Figma documents, follow the instructions here.

We’re really excited to see what the community builds with this. Here’s a few examples of where live, synchronized designs could be helpful:

Do you run an internal wiki for your company? Add Figma and people can post live designs to articles about projects or features.

Are you building a messaging app for teams? Connect Figma and your users can share the latest versions of designs in group chats.

Do you want to blog about a project you’re working on? Embed a live Figma file and your readers will always see the most recent version of your design.

Live Embed in action with Trello:

Since Figma is the only design tool that runs on the web, these embedded designs will stay up to date and synchronized with the Figma original. Whenever a designer makes a tiny padding tweak or changes an icon in the Figma file itself, they can rest easy without having to re-export or re-upload the design.

We hope integrations like these will keep teams in sync and save them the hassle of hunting through the annals of their email history, mountain of Slack chats, or folders of their file sharing services.

This is only the beginning of our platform efforts. We’re excited to harness the power of our web-based technology to help teams communicate and build better products faster. Up next — stay tuned for a Figma API that will allow developers to pull other types of information from Figma files and incorporate them into new workflows. If you’re interested in partnering, shoot us a line at partners@figma.com.

For more details on how to integrate Figma Live Embeds into your website or tool, go to https://www.figma.com/platform.
How I decide whether to wear a coat every morning
By: Raphaël Léger
Tags: Lambda, AWS, Serverless, Home Improvement, Weather

Good evening ladies and gents, it is going to be SOOO SUNNY tomorrow.

When you get to that tomorrow:

Guys, guys, guys, where the sun at…?

Problem

Weather news are based on probabilities and those probabilities seem to get accurate only on the day itself.

But who has the time and energy to manually check the weather on the day itself, probably on the morning before leaving to work?

Well, certainly not me!

Long story short

tl;dr: with mighty programming skills, I made a bunch of lights automatically show me some weather forecast every day 💡

Let there be light

So… first step: I bought a LED strip, a band made of tiny lights that can change color.

I like the red a lot, it gives a nice cozy atmosphere.

Let there be WIFI

To talk to the LED strip through a computer program, I got myself a WIFI controller and connected it to the strip.

The WIFI controller gave my LED strip an IP address within my local network.
Vaccine Opposition, an Origin Story
By: Bashar Salame
Tags: Society, Politics, Health, Covid-19, Vaccines

Science saves, plain and simple. Science saves time, science saves energy, and above all, science saves lives. Scientific advancements have led to a vast array of efficiencies, improvements in energy production and usage, travel, as well as countless medical breakthroughs.

One reason for this has to do with clinical trials. Typically, a clinical trial begins with animals. Provided the study shows efficacy and the animals do well, only then will researchers move on to people. Beginning with small groups, researchers increase trial participants until a well representative portion of the population is studied.

Science also requires peer review. In this process, researchers and scientists evaluate each others work, ensuring studies are proper, ethical, and can benefit humanity at large. This dance is typically done in and through a variety of scientific journals and publications, with researchers submitting trials and findings for the broader community to evaluate, study, and in some cases attempt to reproduce or refute.

As far as medical publications go, The Lancet is among the oldest, most reputable in the world. Founded in 1823 by English Surgeon Thomas Wakley, The Lancet was named for both the surgical instrument, more commonly known today as a scalpel, and for the architectural term lancet window indicating light of wisdom. Initially distributed biweekly, it has become a weekly publication with a mission to make science widely available so that medicine can serve, transform society, and positively impact the lives of people.

In 1998, The Lancet published what would become among the most controversial studies in the field of vaccination. Led by British Physician Andrew Wakefield, The Wakefield study, as it would become commonly known, hypothesized the MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) vaccine was responsible for a series of events; including intestinal inflammation, harmful proteins crossing the blood-brain barrier, and subsequently causing Autism in the inoculated children. A follow up study by Dr. Wakefield in 2002 would essentially double down on this link between measles and autism, creating an uproar amongst parents and various groups already opposed to vaccines.

Wakefield became the scientific backbone of what has come to be known as the anti-vaxxer movement, and the MMR vaccine its primary villain.

To spread a message though, you need messengers. Among the most vocal vaccine opposition came from a growing list of celebrities, talk show and radio hosts, and alternative media personalities. Jenny McCarthy became one of many; a notable television personality, fixture on talk and game shows, as well as writer of several books. McCarthy’s son was diagnosed with autism when he was two and a half years old, she attributed the diagnosis to the MMR vaccine specifically. Although McCarthy has since claimed she is not anti-vaccine, only pro safe vaccine schedule, many have since echoed her theory and position on MMR specifically and vaccines in general.
10 Insider VS Code Extensions for Web Developers in 2020
By: Simon Holdorf
Tags: Technology, Programming, Productivity, Creativity, JavaScript

10 Insider VS Code Extensions for Web Developers in 2020

Git Graph, Auto Close Tag, Peacock, and more

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) from Microsoft will continue to be one of the best code editors/IDEs in 2020. Its great marketplace offers awesome extensions made by the community, helping web developers to become more productive.

However, most articles about VS Code extensions only recommend the same 10-15 extensions. They are great, no doubt. But there is more to explore and I will show you 10 outstanding extensions that are less-known but really helpful.
Reinforcement Learning and the Rise of Educational AI
Tags: Algorithms, Edtech, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Reinforcement Learning

Ever since the astounding triumph of Alphago over Lee Sedol at the Go contest in 2016, the world’s attention has been drawn to artificial intelligence and reinforcement learning. This victory signalled that machine learning was no longer simply about big data classification, but was making progress in the realm of true intelligence.

Reinforcement learning (RL) introduces the concept of an agent, and addresses the problem of making the most-rewarded decision a subjective entity in a known or unknown environment. It could be seen as a learning approach sitting in between supervised and unsupervised learning, since it involves labelling inputs, only that the label is sparse and time-delaying.

In life we aren’t given labels of every possible behaviour in the world, but we learn lessons by exploring strategies on our own — hence RL provides the closest problem setting to the learning process of a human brain. This accounts for the excitement that the progress elicits from machine learning scholars.

So far there have been two approaches to a reinforcement learning problem.

1. Markov Decision Processes

MDPs are a mathematical framework which model the world as a set of consecutive states with values, and inside this world there is a rational agent that makes decisions by weighing rewards caused by different actions.

If the state values are unknown, the agent may begin by interacting with the world first, observing the consequences — and with enough experience, it may exploit the knowledge and make optimal decisions. It builds on top of the rules drawn from observing human intelligence in behavioural psychology experiments, rather than modelling on a grander scale the rules that cultivate human intelligence, which is where evolutionary computation comes from.

2. Evolutionary Computation

Evolutionary computation is a family of algorithms which apply the concept of evolution to the computation area as a searching technique to find the fittest solution. More specifically, it utilises concepts from Darwin’s theory of evolution — such as mutation, crossover, and fitness — and models the computer to perform natural selection in search of an optimal solution. In other words, it does not attempt to build intelligence from scratch, as long as it renders quasi-intelligent results.

RL algorithms can be really powerful tools in a range of tasks and may potentially contribute to the realisation of general AI, which in return may greatly improve the education industry in terms of adaptive learning experience, student path prediction, and unbiased grading systems.
Change Your Life by Changing Your Posture
By: Cathlyn Melvin
Tags: Posture, Mental Health, Health, Life Lessons, Self Improvement

Change Your Life by Changing Your Posture

Boost confidence and performance with this simple activity

Photo by Michał Parzuchowski on Unsplash

If you’re reading this, you’re probably sitting down. And your shoulders are probably hunched. And your chin is probably tilted down toward your phone screen or your laptop.

How are you feeling?

Powerful, confident, and strong? Or . . . something else?

Try something with me.

Stand up, if you can (if not, play along from your seat)

Place your feet just wider than shoulder-width apart

Roll your shoulders back three or four times and then let them rest (most of us let our shoulders roll forward on a regular basis, so your shoulder blades will probably feel softly engaged in this position, as though they’re gently reaching for each other low across your back)

Lift your chin

Focus your eyes gently upwards

Put your hands on your hips and take a big, long breath

Pretend you’re Peter Pan.

Feel better?

Research indicates that our posture has a major impact on how we feel about ourselves. A few years ago, the idea of “power poses” went viral when Dr. Amy Cuddy’s Ted Talk became the second-most-popular in history. She claimed, based on a small-study sample, that holding our bodies in specific poses could not only affect our self-confidence, but also change our hormonal make-up.

In the years that followed Dr. Cuddy’s TED Talk, subsequent larger studies found that the effect of “power posing” on a person’s hormones is questionable at best. Even Dr. Cuddy says she is “agnostic” about the hormonal effects she originally promoted.

Hormonal changes aside, though, it’s still true that altering our physical posture can affect how we feel.

How we feel affects our performance: the better we feel, the better we perform.

And the impact our posture has on our performance actually goes even further than self-confidence. It’s not only our confidence that gets boosted when we stop slouching, stand up, and roll our shoulders back.

Because our hunched shoulders and rounded backs literally make us smaller, slouching means that there’s physically less space for our organs, like our lungs and heart, to function. In fact, according to one 2015 study, slouching can decrease our lung capacity by up to 30%. That means that when we slouch, our brains receive one-third less oxygen than they do at optimal capacity — and that affects performance.

So if you’re feeling sluggish, dull, or just-not-up-to-snuff, stand up and pretend you’re Peter Pan. Take ten slow, deep breaths, in and out. Add a smile for an extra boost.

And carry on with confidence, calm, and a fully-charged brain.
VJ Loop | Lattices RYG
By: Michael 'Myk Eff' Filimowicz
Tags: EDM, Flair, Design, Art, Creativity

This blog takes the broadest conception of sound design possible including visual effects because audio likes video. Over 90,000 views annually.

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Advanced Visualization for Data Scientists with Matplotlib
By: Veekesh Dhununjoy
Tags: Data Visualization, Data Science, Matplotlib, Python, Technology

3D Plots using Matplotlib

3D plots play an important role in visualizing complex data in three or more dimensions.

1. 3D Scatter Plot

3D scatter plots are used to plot data points on three axes in an attempt to show the relationship between three variables. Each row in the data table is represented by a marker whose position depends on its values in the columns set on the X, Y, and Z axes.

2. 3D Line Plot

3D Line Plots can be used in the cases when we have one variable that is constantly increasing or decreasing. This variable can be placed on the Z-axis while the change of the other two variables can be observed in the X-axis and Y-axis w.r.t Z-axis. For example, if we are using time series data (such as planetary motions) the time can be placed on Z-axis and the change in the other two variables can be observed from the visualization.

3. 3D Plots as Subplots

The above code snippet can be used to create multiple 3D plots as subplots in the same figure. Both the plots can be analyzed independently.

4. Contour Plot

The above code snippet can be used to create contour plots. Contour plots can be used for representing a 3D surface on a 2D format. Given a value for the Z-axis, lines are drawn for connecting the (x,y) coordinates where that particular z value occurs. Contour plots are generally used for continuous variables rather than categorical data.

5. Contour Plot with Intensity

The above code snippet can be used to create filled contour plots.

6. Surface Plot

The above code snippet can be used to create Surface plots which are used for plotting 3D data. They show a functional relationship between a designated dependent variable (Y), and two independent variables (X and Z) rather than showing the individual data points. A practical application for the above plot would be to visualize how the Gradient Descent algorithm converges.

7. Triangular Surface Plot

The above code snippet can be used to create Triangular Surface plot.

8. Polygon Plot

The above code snippet can be used to create Polygon Plots.

9. Text Annotations in 3D

The above code snippet can be used to create text annotations in 3D plots. It is very useful when creating 3D plots as changing the angles of the plot does not distort the readability of the text.

10. 2D Data in 3D Plot

The above code snippet can be used to plot 2D data in a 3D plot. It is very useful as it allows to compare multiple 2D plots in 3D.

11. 2D Bar Plot in 3D
8 AI-driven Creative Apps for You and Your Kids
By: Vlad Alex, Merzmensch
Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, Merznlp, Published Tds, Art

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Generic Table component with React and Typescript
By: Fernando Abolafio
Tags: Programming, Software Development, React, JavaScript, Typescript

Display any kind of data using the same table component while enjoying the benefits of typescript features.

A very common use case is to be able to list multiple types of data using tables. This happens quite frequently in dashboards for instance.

For example, an e-commerce dashboard might want to display a table to list the items they have in their stock, and in another table, they want to display the list of client addresses.

When using React with Typescript we want to explore as much as possible the typing benefits it brings to us by creating a consistent component API. Which is both pleasant to work with and also powerful.

We’ll illustrate this by creating a simple Table component which provides us the basic functionality to have a generic table which deals primarily with 3 things: