fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Nielsen’s Heuristic in Our Team
By: Ariel Miki Abraham
Tags: UX

We implement this by maintaining the consistency of color scheme and font of our design. As you can see, our logo is based on the color scheme on our design guideline. Font and color is the one that we strictly prohibited to be changed beside in Microwatch Dossier because we can’t modify it.

Error prevention

Warning Message

We use frontend form validation in Login form. We do this for preventing user enter password that does not match with our criteria. For example, a password should be 8–20 characters and user cannot submit if it does not match that criterion.

Recognition rather than recall

We use good language in all of our button and action. Therefore, our user shouldn’t memorize how to do something. We never use icon without explanation in our button. Because icon can mislead some people and every people have their own perspective for certain icon.

Flexibility and efficiency of use

We also don’t implement this point because we don’t have advanced users yet because Microwatch is a new product and we don’t need it yet. We want our user to familiarize our product first and maybe in the future, we will create some shortcut to help people.

Aesthetic and minimalist design

Login Form

We provided a minimalist design and don’t give useless helper in the login. We also show feedback when a user enters the wrong information or another mistake. We also do not use box form that we consider not aesthetic.

Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors

We don’t provide this point yet because there is sometimes an unexpected error that even for us is hard to recover. Besides, we still focus on the functionality and we think it is necessary but it’s not that much important.

Help and documentation

This point is not implemented yet. The main reason is the time because we don’t have time to create documentation for every action that user use. The only thing that may be can be used as help is an error message when the user enters the wrong password or username.
3 Simple Tips for Landing Page Optimization
By: Chris Milton
Tags: Landing Page Optimization, Conversion Optimization, Marketing Strategies, Landing Pages, Marketing

Understanding the path a customer will take on your website to covert is extremely important. However, the path doesn’t mean much if your bounce rate is high from customers never getting beyond your landing pages. Each landing page should have a distinct purpose and get your customers to the next step. This first impression is crucial and to help your copy and content, here’s 3 simple landing page tips for you that you can apply right away.

1. Headlines focused on Customer Benefit

Most products and services offer a solution to a problem customers are having. The way your company goes about solving a problem can determine how strong your product-market fit will be. Positioning headlines to reinforce the benefit you give to customers keeps them on the page because you have taken the time to think of their needs. Your headlines make you relatable.

Simple Landing Page Tips: remind the customer in your headlines that you can solve their problem…CLICK TO TWEET

2. Clear and Concise calls to action

Call to actions should follow the same communication tips as the rest of your copy. I first heard about the “C’s” of writing in school, but Nikki Ellidge Brown did a much better job of remixing them and explaining how to use them in business writing in this interview with Pat Flynn.

Be Clear. People need to literally understand what you’re saying Be Credible. Which does come with competence and your value and your experience whenever you communicate. Be Conversational. As long as you’re clear and as long as you’re credible and we believe you, we don’t think you’re a slimeball, then yeah, play with it and be conversational. Be Connected. Be mindful of the purpose of what you’re sharing. — Nikki Elledge Brown

Simple landing page tips: every word on your landing page counts. Don’t waste them CLICK TO TWEET

3. Content to back up both

Having copy, graphics, testimonials and videos can all be used to backup your headlines and calls to action. Each should have a different goal and the customer won’t need to consume all before making a sale.

If they have a need for your product that is almost 10 out of 10, they will need little convincing and may only get a few sentences of content before purchasing. However, the person who is a 5 out of 10 will need more convincing. Each additional line they scroll, the case for you product should get stronger and make the customer have a harder time saying no. The offer doesn’t have to change. Just layer on the facts, testimonials, trials and product benefits.

Simple landing page tips: headlines and your call to action get attention, then it’s time to convert. CLICK TO TWEET

Go Apply these Landing Page Tips

Developing good landing pages are a key reason your sales funnel will succeed. The transition to your website should give a positive impression and improve the customer’s opinion of your product or service. These simple landing page tips can help you create great landing pages.
Worried if GPT-3 is going to take over your job?
By: Injurious Answer
Tags: NLP, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Gpt 3, OpenAI

If you haven’t heard, OpenAI released a language model that can generate remarkable text and even functioning code from a short description and it’s really impressive. GPT-3 is the most powerful language model ever. Its predecessor, GPT-2, released last year, was already able to spit out convincing streams of text in a range of different styles when prompted with an opening sentence. But GPT-3 is a big leap forward. The model has 175 billion parameters (the values that a neural network tries to optimize during training), compared with GPT-2’s already vast 1.5 billion. And with language models, size does matter.

OpenAI first described GPT-3 in a research paper published in May.

Recent work has demonstrated substantial gains on many NLP tasks and benchmarks by pre-training on a large corpus of text followed by fine-tuning on a specific task. While typically task-agnostic in architecture, this method still requires task-specific fine-tuning datasets of thousands or tens of thousands of examples. By contrast, humans can generally perform a new language task from only a few examples or from simple instructions — something which current NLP systems still largely struggle to do. Below is the link to this research paper.

If you want to use the gpt-3 generator for yourself, then follow this link —

The reality is, as the CEO mentioned, “It still has a lot of weakness and makes mistakes. GPT-3 is just a glimpse of what future Al can do”. What do you think? Are you optimistic or scared?
Fetch joins the Wyre Podcast
By: Hansmeet Sethi
Tags: Fetchmusings, Blockchain, Ethereum, Regulation, Finance

Thanks to the team at Wyre for having our CEO, Hansmeet, on their podcast last week. We had a great time covering a range of topics from the state of wallet software, regulation to the future of Fetch and financial services.

You can listen to the podcast below and there is also a transcript of the conversation on the Wyre Blog.
Episode #17: It’s Like a Mailbag Episode, But Decentralized
By: Coin Talk
Tags: Blockchain, Crypto, Coin Talk, Podcast

COIN TALK is produced in partnership with Medium and hosted by Aaron Lammer and Jay Caspian Kang. Press “Listen to the story” above to play the episode or read the transcript below. (You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts, download the MP3, or email us at hi@cointalk.show)

In this episode:
I Don’t Think I’m A Writer
By: Chad Raybourne
Tags: Depression, Writing, Motivational, Quitting, Writers Block

The numbers are worse. The pay is worse (not that it was ever good), and my confidence is blown. Maybe it’s my attitude in my recent articles, since I started writing about what irritates me in the world, screaming for people to have some sense and conform to my beliefs.

After doing this for months and leaning towards the triple digits for published articles, I thought there might be some progress. My stories in publications aren’t getting much exposure and maybe I’m simply not writing on interesting topics.

They’re mainly soapbox opinion pieces which I found as a way to vent when I am angry. And I see angry writing doesn’t really work. I defined that as passion because my emotions were high.

It comes with a blow to the ego to one month reach the all time high of 3 dollars, then the next sitting at 61 cents with 10–20 reads.

I have had no recent overcoming of obstacles to chat about, if anything it seems as if my life is falling apart. Writing was something I always thought as promising and I could grow with and expand. I even called myself a writer on Facebook.

Now I don’t even feel I deserve that title. If anything I need to be reading motivational articles right now instead of writing. Maybe I’ll push on, right now I don’t know.

If anyone else is out there having hard times I’m right there with you. I wonder if this is adding more stress than relieving.

Maybe I’ll keep pushing, maybe I won’t.

I guess we will see. Everyone else keep writing. I’m sure I’ll enjoy one of your articles one day.
Announcing LytePay — The Decentralized Finance Platform for the Gig Economy, powered by $OST
By: Jason Goldberg
Tags: Blockchain, Ethereum, ICO, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency

We’re excited to announce today that LytePay — the decentralized finance platform for the gig economy — has partnered with Simple Token, OST, to launch a branded cryptocurrency token for their growing economy.

LytePay’s current core service is invoice factoring for freelancers, such as online influencers and web designers. Lytepay is currently in closed beta and it has achieved initial validation, processing more than $400,000 in transactions over the last 3 months. LytePay hopes to build the industry-standard decentralized finance platform for the gig economy as freelancers are expected to make up more than 40% of the global workforce by 2020 and their needs are not being met by current financial institutions.

Over the next few months, OST and LytePay teams will partner closely to launch LytePay’s own branded token economy powered by OST, and then to rollout LytePay services to freelancers globally.
Loving my Friend
By: Suzanne V. Tanner
Tags: Heartbreak, Poetry, Love, Life Lessons, Sadness

I am so troubled sweet girl,

our three hour coffee

spilling and mixing with your tears.

The stove top is hot,

let me stop you from touching.

See my scorched hands?

Proof of what you can avoid

by listening to my advice.

I thought my pain was enough

for us both to endure.

Not so.

I must let you go

to discover your own path

and how to navigate these

devastations of your heart.

For humans

there is no other way

but self discovery,

in sickness and in health.

So I put tape over my lips.

I give you my ears.

My arms securely hug

your trembling frame.

I visualize my first aid kit,

at home on a shelf.

I will be ready to bathe your

singed finger tips

and apply

comforting bandage

on your weeping wounds.

Notes from me to my kind readers:

Thank you for your time reading about my struggle today with such a dear friend. Her dilemma breaks my heart. I was attempting to post something from my draft work. Nothing did it for me. I was overcome with sadness for her situation since early morning. It was so similar to lessons from my own past. And then…then I read what the amazing Ann Litts wrote. Ann, I cannot thank you enough. Most of us find ourselves in similar positions when wanting to help those we love.

Folks, here is Ann’s very wise article. I know you will enjoy reading it. “So What Do You Think?” by Ann Litts
What is Accessibility?
By: Teri Chadbourne
Tags: Disability, Offline First, Accessibility, Web Development, Connectivity

What is Accessibility?

An Offline Camp passion talk from Jesse Beach

As a Front End Engineer at Facebook, Jesse Beach specializes in accessibility and improving the platform’s user interface. She attended Offline Camp California because she sees offline functionality as a form of accessibility, which treats network disruptions as one of many forms of temporary disability which we can help our users overcome.

“What I’m trying to do in my job is to think about the abilities we have, and the disabilities that are either temporary or congenital, as just access issues. There’s no single human who’s perfectly capable in every way, at every point in time. And when we think about how we provide information offline, we have to think about how we provide information to humans in all the conditions that they’re in.” (Jesse Beach)

In her interactive passion talk at camp, Jesse asked us to brainstorm limitations to access and limitations to accessibility, then helped us connect the two concepts:

What is Accessibility? (Video of Jesse Beach’s passion talk from Offline Camp California 2016)

Here’s a peek at our brainstorming notes from Jesse’s session:

Brainstorming notes from our session. (Left column — Limitations on Access: connectivity, money, geography, location, time (leisure), physiology, political/permission, proficiency/literacy, infrastructure/404/305. Right column — Limitations on Accessibility: accessibility, noise, body position, font size, contrast, low vision, no vision, mobility, money, brightness, role/permission, physical size of device, default, language, distractions, cognitive ability, vocabulary.)

For more on access and accessibility, have a listen to Jesse’s chat with New Builders podcast co-host Jim Young, which starts at 22:47 in this compilation episode of camper interviews:

The New Builders Podcast, Ep. 24: A Hodgepodge at the Lodge — Live from Offline Camp California

Jesse also wrote a fabulous article recapping a camp discussion on the unique design patterns needed to keep users informed about the state of their content under spotty or unavailable network conditions:
IntoTheBlock Analytics now available in African crypto portal Bitnetco
By: Alfredo Terrero
Tags: Ethereum, Intotheblock, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency

Users will find ITB analytics in the Markets Page

Bitnetco is an Africa-based online platform that uses crypto news and events to educate and inform the general public about crypto assets. The platform not only informs about developments in the African crypto market but also has special news sections dedicated to news events in Europe and Asia, as well as other topics such as Blockchain and DeFi.

Today, Bitnetco takes another step to provide its audience with more tools to understand the behavior of crypto assets by adding IntoTheBlock’s crypto intelligent signals to its Markets page. When users navigate to this section of the website, they are presented with a dashboard about Bitcoin with some of IntoTheBlock’s indicators. This dashboard is divided in two sections: The Token Summary displays, as the name implies, a quick view showing several of IntoTheBlock’s indicators, which together provide a holistic view of Bitcoin’s behavior. The Actionable Signals section contains momentum signals based on IntoTheBlock’s underlying indicators.

For those users interested in more detailed analysis, the “Dive Deeper” and “See More Signals” buttons redirect them to the IntoTheBlock Platform with access to a portfolio of over 120 intelligent signals about traditional crypto assets, specific markets such as DeFi and event price prediction models .

At IntoTheBlock, we are excited about this new partnership that enables us to deliver crypto intelligence to the African crypto audience. We look forward to hearing about your experience with Bitnetco and IntoTheBlock.
Celesbians Bi-Weekly: Poussey Is Married
By: Katie Heaney
Tags: Feminism, Celesbians, Amber Rose, Celesbians Biweekly, Lesbian News

Celesbians Bi-Weekly: Poussey Is Married

And it was a Martha Stewart wedding too boot.

Welcome back to the bi-weekly column about the comings and goings of famous (and famous-ish) women who date other women. Should I have called it Ceeping up with the Celesbians? Haha.

Samira Wiley and Lauren Morelli got married!! (To be perfectly clear: it was to each other.) Lauren is wearing a wedding cape! They look beautiful and perfect. Mazel.

Cara Delevingne posted a mysteriously blurry photo of her and an unnamed tall brunette who I first thought was (maybe?) Annie Clark but turned out to be Phoebe Waller-Bridge, now an honorary celesbian for having appeared on Cara’s arm. Look how fuckin’ cool they both look. God, it’s actually rude.

Monica Schipper/WireImage

Amber Heard talked about coming out as bisexual in 2010 in spite of industry concerns that doing so would limit her ability to lead a film. She also said “If every gay man that I know personally in Hollywood came out tomorrow, then this would be a non-issue in a month,” which is a little emoji-side-eyes of her, and probably a little over-optimistic.

Young M.A. confirms rumors she’s dating model Tori Brixx with a Snapchat. Brixx (also a DJ) is signed with Amber Rose’s MUVA Management, and has 2.7 million Instagram followers. And you thought it was exciting when you cleared 300.

Your queer moms Abby Wambach and Glennon Doyle Melton took in a Broadway play called Hamilton to celebrate Glennon’s birthday. They loved it at first sight. It was the best play of all time.

Don’t ask me what the former Australian Bachelor lesbians are up to; it’s still too sad. (But the answer is mainly: blogging.)
Her Şeyiyle Lineer Regresyon (Makine Öğrenmesi Serisi-1)
By: Mehmet Fatih Akca
Tags: Makine Öğrenmesi, Linear Regression, Machine Learning, Lineer Regresyon, Regression Analysis

Point-Slope Equation of a Line

The equation is useful when we know: and want to find other points on the line. Have a play with it first (move the…
Hourglass
By: Mike Essig
Tags: Ageing, Time, Poetry, Life

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

Follow
Exchange Updates: IEO Round 2 and BFX listing
By: Bitfex Exchange
Tags: Blockchain, Bitcoin, Announcements, Token Sale, Cryptocurrency

After the raging success of the first round of the BFX IEO on ProBit Exchange, with the entire round’s tokens selling out in just 90 seconds, we are ready for round 2, starting 30th August 2019 at 6 AM GMT!

We are also very excited to share that the project will soon cross one of its biggest milestones, with BFX getting exchange listed next month! BFX listing on ProBit is now confirmed for September 30th, 2019 at 0800 GMT (1700 KST). BFX trading on ProBit will start with 2 listing pairs, BFX/BTC and BFX/KRW. Going forward, more trading pairs will be made available.

The Bitfex exchange is getting close to going live and a launch date will soon be made announced.

About BFX

BFX is an ERC20 token that powers IDAP Ecosystem’s exchange, Bitfex. The tokenomics of BFX have been designed to transfer maximum value from the business to the token holders.

There are several benefits of holding BFX:

For Retail Traders: HODL a minimum number of BFX and get rewarded with Zero-Fee Trading

a minimum number of BFX and get rewarded with For Institutional Clients: HODL BFX and get rewarded with Free Master Account

BFX and get rewarded with USE BFX to pay trading fees and get 50% discount

BFX to pay trading fees and get HODL BFX and get free access to the desktop trading application

BFX and get to the desktop trading application HODL BFX and get early access to various exchange events, referral programs and more

BFX additional features:

Dis-inflationary in nature : BFX equivalent to 20% of revenue will be burnt till supply reaches 500 million BFX

: BFX equivalent to 20% of revenue will be burnt till supply reaches 500 million BFX BFX priced at a minimum of $0.03 while calculating trading fees

Benefits for IEO Participants

BUY & HODL 100,000 BFX and get commission-free trading

42% Bonus for participants buying using PROB

40% Bonus for participants buying using USDT, BTC, ETH or XRP

About IDAP

IDAP is the first complete crypto derivatives ecosystem, whose exchange Bitfex will go live on bitfex.com, introducing users to low-risk trading instruments like crypto spreads and butterfly, along with a highly advanced desktop trading platform that sports the revolutionary point-and-click ladder trading interface. Through its institutional grade infrastructure, diverse product line and trader-friendly platform features, the IDAP ecosystem will attract traders and investors of all kinds to its exchange.

About ProBit

ProBit is a global exchange that offers fast and reliable trading engine and hardware security keys that match more than 1. 5 million orders per second and only provides the users with promising, qualified, and worthy investment cryptocurrency projects.

ProBit recently established the Korean branch to support KRW transaction.

ProBit Global: www.probit.com

ProBit Korea: www.probit.kr
I’ll Expose My Body, but My Pleasure Is Private
By: Ena Dahl
Tags: Women, Sex, Oral Sex, This Happened To Me, Short Story

I find myself in extremely fortunate circumstances; my man not only loves going down on me, but he does it with gusto—and, if I may say—with excellence. For a long time. As often as he can.

He’s so eager that I occasionally have to turn him down:

—Thank you, but I really can’t handle another orgasm!

If that’s not a luxury problem, I don’t know what is. It wouldn’t even be fair to call it a problem—it’s a straight-up luxury.

While I absolutely love to reciprocate, a lot, he certainly has me beat when it comes to the sheer amount of hours spent offering lip service. Not that I’m keeping track—nor am I complaining!

But, there’s one thing I just can’t let him do.

Apart from when I’ve already had a handful of ecstatic orgasms and desperately need to sleep or start my day, there’s one other occasion where I have to decline:

Cunnilingus in public.

My lover, I’ve come to learn, is quite the exhibitionist. I always thought I was bad, but I have nothing on him when it comes to getting silly in public without giving a damn what people think.

I know he fantasizes about going down on me with an audience. Not only has he told me—and written about it:

We tried.

It all happened when we were out dancing. While not an actual sex joint, the techno club comes equipped with darkrooms and other semi-private areas where people do get down to business. Besides, the majority of the club’s clientele is more naked than clothed. Let’s just say it’s not a prudish atmosphere, and few things will cause anyone there to bat an eye—unless you try to take a photo inside. That will get you thrown out and banned.

Anyway, you get the vibe.

We made our way to a chillout area on the lower floor and found a spot. There were a couple of people around, but they mostly minded their own business and didn’t linger.

I had to tell him to stop.

We started making out and soon, as usual, he made his way south. My skimpy hot pants allowed for easy access without rendering me completely nude. Still, lying there on my back, with him all the way down there, I felt oddly alone—and very naked.

I promptly pulled his arm and made him resurface.

—I can’t do it!

—Why? He didn’t understand.

—I feel too exposed.

—But no one can see anything, I’m covering you with my head, he reassured.

—No, it’s not that…

I asked if he could use his hands instead. That way, he’d be up there with me, and, with his body shielding mine, we could kiss and connect while he was giving me pleasure.

He agreed, of course, and even with the sterilized latex gloves we had brought for hygiene reasons, it was one of the absolute best manual sex experiences I’ve had. Then—with a few people in the background, and one guy, who’d respectfully asked if he was allowed to watch—I came, hard, with my face buried deep in my partner’s neck.

After concluding our performance with a hot doggy-style blow-off—where I suddenly didn’t mind being watched and also got to gaze out on the dancefloor below through a gap in the baluster—we sat down to talk.
What I Learned from 323 Consecutive Days of Meditating
By: Chad Prevost
Tags: Self Improvement, Mental Health, Meditation, Life Lessons, Psychology

Anxiety at the Breakthrough to Success

The first show was aired from the SiriusXM Studios on the 35th floor of the Rockefeller Center building. I was well-prepared, but some things you can’t prepare for. “Five minutes to air,” the production manager’s voice in my headphones said.

My anxiety shot from trending high to redlining. I got panicky. My heart started racing, my palms sweating. I became terrified that I would sound nervous right out of the gate, and the more I thought about how nervous I would sound, the more nervous I got.

“Sixty seconds.”

It felt like you were about to be called on in school, and you knew the answer and you were so excited about giving the answer, but at the same time that all eyes would suddenly turn to you while you were giving the answer that you got nervous and didn’t even want to give the answer after all.

I went through a cycle of calming down and then growing full on nerves again.

“Ten seconds.”

And there it was, the moment of truth. My heart hammering so hard I could barely hear my own voice. This was not the cool, calm, fun-loving, beer-drinking podcast guy. This guy was nervous and stiff and sticking to the script. I relaxed into the show, and it all came and went, and I flew back home, and the company lauded our efforts and the production team at SiriusXM liked what we did.

But as the countdown began for the second show I went through the exact same near panic attack. And again after the third show. This time the CEO ripped into us. He hated it.

The show marched on, and so did the nerves until the 9th episode. My brother suggested meditating. I downloaded an app, performed the breathing and visualization techniques for ten minutes leading up to the show, and incredibly, I was totally calm as the show began. For a few weeks, I only meditated prior to a show, but as I began to do some research and learn more about meditating, I started my own daily practice.
Bitcoin & Blockchain Reference & Reading List
Tags: Blockchain, Reference, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Readinglist

Articles on ICO, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain. If you like the blog then please help support the publication via https://www.patreon.com/cryptbytestech. You can join to chat with me at https://t.me/joinchat/E-6WAkQsiIyJ2tQ4423hrA.
Remiges
By: Rebeca Ansar
Tags: Women, Feminism, Poetry, Art, Poem

so we are

a pile of clipped wings

swept into the dustbin

unceremoniously

destined to commingle

with

yesterday’s newspaper,

used dryer sheets,

a shattered plate,

and the decaying medley

of leftovers.
Written Tales Writers Group
Tags: Poetry, Writers On Writing, Fiction, Short Story, Writing Tips

Writers

Written Tales Writers Group

Come join us on mewe

Photo by Andraz Lazic on Unsplash

With the current censorship on Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms, Written Tales can no longer tolerate or support it. We created this print and online magazine to defend free speech where readers and writers connect through writing.

Anyone who believes what’s happening is not an issue, then they better rethink where they sit. Speech is a fundamental right that separates us from dictator nations. Once they silence one side, the other is next. Read history; it repeats.

Most writers fail to realize is under socialist or communist regimes, the creative arts are the first removed. Writers are executed or locked away. Look into the Gulag, and you will be astonished at the numbers of writers and poets silenced as political prisoners (1). Some died. Their crime? They spoke out.

This is not about right vs. left or Biden vs. Trump. If you believe it is, you are foolishly naive and bought into the propaganda hook, line, and sinker. Without getting full-blown political, I leave it where it is.

One last note, many in the mainstream media and social platforms are lying outright about the owner of Mewe. To set it straight, here are the words directly from him. Please meet us on mewe where we can all enjoy lively chat, wonderful articles, and tips to help you get promoted and your work recognized. Free speech is free speech and not censored speech.
WSJ: The State of Your Muni Bonds
By: Derek Horstmeyer
Tags: Finance, Debt, Municipality, Investing

Municipal bonds (Munis) are often an attractive option to investors due to their tax-exempt income features. Most investors look at Munis and assume — municipal debt is municipal debt — it has to offer basically the same yields and returns around the country since it is all just the same product/security.

Investors might be surprised to know that although this line of logic seems sound, there are actually some pretty large differences across the country on the returns to Munis. In fact, based on where you live you may be getting a full 1 percentage point more in post-tax returns per year on your state’s Municipal debt, which makes a huge difference in this near 0 interest rate environment.

Investigating the full sample of dollar denominated, US issued mutual funds, I include all mutual funds that focus on the municipal debt issued in particular state. Keeping all observations that include at least 25 state-specific muni mutual funds, I arrive at 17 state muni observations.

Exploring the average post-tax returns of each state-specific muni fund, an interesting picture emerges — all state issued municipal debt is not the same. On one end of the spectrum, municipal bond funds in Colorado, Missouri, and Florida have averaged a post-tax return of 4.07%, 3.89%, and 3.78% respectively per annum over the past 10 years.

On the other end of the spectrum, states like Maryland, Virginia, Michigan, and Connecticut have averaged a return of 3.06%, 3.24%, 3.31%, and 3.34% respectively per annum over the past 10 years.

This means that there is a 1.01 percentage point spread in per annum returns between the best state in terms of muni fund returns (Colorado — 4.07%) and the worst state (Maryland — 3.06%). This spread may not sound like a lot but over a 10-year period this amounts to a 35% return for the average Maryland bond fund, while the average Colorado muni fund yielded 49%. On a 10,000 dollar investment this amounts to a 1384 dollar difference in balances at the end of a 10 year period.

It is important to note that the returns stated above are all post-tax returns. Since interest income from investing in municipal bonds is generally exempt from Federal and state taxes for residents of the issuing state, these post-tax return numbers put all states on an equal footing in terms of the correct comparison.

Read the rest at:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-buying-muni-bonds-investors-should-look-beyond-their-own-states-11599490801
Modelos CNN en la clasificación de imágenes clásicas y modernas
By: Jonathan Quiza
Tags: Deep Learning, Español

Jonathan Quiza | LinkedIn

View Jonathan Quiza’s profile on LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional community. Jonathan has 10 jobs listed on…
Trump Is Just a Symptom, But This Isn’t Just a Pun
By: Jm Miana
Tags: Politics, Nonfiction, Election 2020, Philosophy, Psychology

The Real Reason For Trump’s Victory

Trump won the election because people were angry, and he knew how to harness that feeling for his own benefit.

He wasn’t the actual winner, the anger of Americans was.

Over the last few decades, trust in the government has drastically decreased, as politics have decayed to some kind of scheme. America has been continuously lied to, it has been infantilized.

All of that while the gap between the political class and the people kept growing more and more.

The economic crisis of 2008 only accelerated this, with it came massive job destruction and a huge rise in poverty. The families that before were middle class found themselves ruined and the lower class became even poorer.

This helped to grow a distrust in democracy and the government, after all, while they behaved as if nothing had changed.

Imagine the feeling of having lost everything and watching your politicians behaving as always.

Society failed to see those growing inequalities, or if it did, it tried its best to ignore it. But everyone could see this coming. So when someone like Trump appeared, they found the guy they were waiting for.

He promised to make America great again — a romantic idea that most like, he promised jobs, and he pointed at enemies to hate. Those are the most basic points of cheap propaganda.

He offered oversimplified solutions to complex issues, and the masses love that, even more in difficult times.
5 Must-Read Cryptocurrency Newsletters
Tags: Ethereum, Newsletter, Crypto, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency

Bitcoin is about to hit $10,000 and the interest in it and other cryptocurrencies are higher than ever. There’s a lot to learn and a lot to keep up with if you’re looking to get involved. Check out these 5 great newsletters that give you everything you need to get started.

CoinPride Club is a curated weekly newsletter with 7 important cryptocurrency and blockchain news and events in each issue.

This is a daily newsletter that lets you select cryptocurrencies you’d like to monitor and each day it’ll send you an email with changes in the last 24 hours.

CryptoWeekly gives you a more comprehensive look at the industry with news, insights, price analysis, exclusive interviews and more.

Published by MIT Technology Review this weekly newsletter offers a high-level look at the crypto landscape.

Inside Bitcoin sends you trends in the most popular cryptocurrencies as well as curated links with brief summaries every day.

Want More?

You can find more great Cryptocurrency and Bitcoin newsletters at InboxReads.co as well as newsletters for every other topic you might be interested.
Announcing Gitcoin Grants
By: Vivek Singh
Tags: Blockchain, Ethereum, Technology, Tech, Open Source

Announcing Gitcoin Grants

Recurring payments for your work in open source

We’re excited to kick off 2019 with the announcement of Gitcoin Grants! Our newest product focuses on providing recurring funding for your work in open source software.

Want to receive funding for your open source project? We think creating a Gitcoin Grant is a great path forward.

If you’re interested in supporting a project, Gitcoin Grants — powered by the EIP 1337 standard — is a fast, easy, and secure way to provide recurring token contributions to the best OSS maintainers in your community. Your contribution is amplified by the signal it provides to other (potentially, larger) funders on important infrastructure projects.

To read the full story visit: https://gitcoin.co/blog/gitcoin-grants/
Why Not Change The World?
By: Jocelyn Soriano
Tags: Self Improvement, Christianity, Catholic, Personal Development, Life Lessons

“God wants you to be in the world but so different from the world that you will change it. Get cracking.” — Mother Angelica

Never think that you can’t do anything to change the world. You can always do something, and you can always start where you are.

Sometimes we tend to think that only the big people can change the world — the rich ones, the influential ones, the powerful ones.

But you have power deep within you. Power from above which no one could ever take away.

You can do something. You can change from within and you can be that spark of hope you wish to see.

Remember that it took but one Man to overcome death forever and save all mankind. It took but one Man to restore paradise and blot out sin forever.

Wake up from your slumber and make an offering of yourself. Do everything you can. And leave the rest to Him who can still make miracles happen.
Using Environment Variables With React & WebPack
By: Craig Stroman
Tags: Dotenv, Webpack4, React

There might be times when you’re developing a React app that you want to use environment variables. That may be because you don’t want the values of those variables being pushed to a repo that’s either public or for various other reasons. If you are using DotEnv there’s a couple more steps you have to take to get it working unlike if your using DotEnv in Node. In this short post I’m going to show you how to configure WebPack to make it work.

I usually use NPM for my projects but this should work with Yarn also because there is a dotenv-webpack package for Yarn also.

To start you should install the Dotenv-Webpack module within your project. Note, I’m assuming you already have a project started and are using WebPack to build it already. But to do this run the following command:

npm --save-dev install dotenv-webpack

Once you’ve done that the next thing you have to do is add a configuration to your webpack.config.js file so that Webpack will know how to handle environment variables included within your code. The first thing you do is you add a variable including dotenv-webpack to the top of your config file like so:

const Dotenv = require('dotenv-webpack');

Then within the plugins array you initialize Dotenv by doing the following:

plugins: [ new Dotenv() ]

Once you have that set you need to create a .env file within the root of your project. When you have created that you can then place any variables within there that you need to use throughout your code like this:

VAR1=valueForVar1

Then within your React code you can use that environment variable like so:

process.env.VAR1

You should then be able to build your project using WebPack without any problems.

Here’s a full example of a webpack.config.js using dotenv-webpack:
Another Kind of Eye Anatomy
By: Alexandra Androne
Tags: Poetry, Emotions, Blue Insights, Beauty, Eyes

The look of kindness, like a warm hug

Too much or too little light, the iris blossom

The vision is clear, the breath is there

In the eyes everything makes sense

There are unspoken stories

Iconic bonding

Lost natural beauty into the deep ocean

Take that look at someone in slow motion

A glance is enough to see inside

There are smiles and storms

Tests, examinations, nothing to compare

The view may change but anyway you’ll never be the same

A.
Turn Off the Lights With Angular-Dark-Mode
By: Tal Ohana
Tags: Front End Development, Angular, Programming, Typescript, JavaScript

Turn Off the Lights With Angular-Dark-Mode

Integrate dark mode into your application with ease

Photo by the author.

Recently, I launched my minimal portfolio. As minimal as it is, I wanted to add dark and light modes since it’s something I’ve never done.

Using React and Gatsby, I have a ton of options to choose from, but I stumbled upon a minimal yet powerful library called use-dark-mode. Ten minutes later, I already had dark mode integrated into my portfolio!

As an Angular developer, I thought it would be nice to have such a library in our ecosystem as well, so I created angular-dark-mode!

Note: Final code and demo available in this stackblitz.
The 5 Greatest Blunders in the History of Science
By: Charles Stephen
Tags: Science, News, Discovery, Culture, History

The 5 Greatest Blunders in the History of Science

What did we learn from their mistakes?

Photo by Chokniti Khongchum from Pexels

Throughout history, every generation has looked to science for the understanding of the world around them and solutions to problems. Some of these scientific contributions have been significant enough to affect the entire future of humankind.

Amid our admiration, there is one thing that we don’t hear about very often from the field of science. And that is their failures.

When you think about it, scientific failures happen far more than discoveries. The irony of this is that there must be lots of failures before uncovering the ultimate answer. They must first learn what doesn’t work to refine their discovery process.

And then there are times, when their theories and answers come with great promise — only to fall way short of expectations. Sometimes they are a flawed part of the discovery process, and sometimes they are pure deception.

With that said, here are the five (5) greatest blunders in the history of science.
How to Scan Your Docker Images in Your Local Machine
By: Alex Vazquez
Tags: Security, Programming, Docker, Software Development, Cybersecurity

How to Scan Your Docker Images in Your Local Machine

Learn how you can leverage the use of Snyk inside your Docker engine installation

Photo by Alberto Restifo on Unsplash.

Security is the most relevant topic in modern architecture. It needs to be handled from all different perspectives. Having a single team auditing the platforms and the developments that we built is not enough.

The introduction of DevSecOps as the new normal, including the security teams and policies being part of the development process to avoid security becoming a blocker of innovation and make sure that the artifacts we deploy are secured, have made this clear.

Docker image scanning is one of the most important topics we can cover regarding the container images to know that all the internal components that are part of the image are safe from vulnerabilities. We usually rely on some systems to do so.

I wrote an article regarding the usage of one of the most relevant options (Harbor) from the open source world to do this job.

And this is also being done by different Docker repositories from cloud providers like Amazon ECR as of this year. But why do we need to wait until we push the images to an external Docker registry? Why can’t we do it in our local environment?

Now we can. Version 2.5.0.1 of the Docker engine also includes the Snyk components needed to inspect the Docker images directly from the command line:
Trump Makes His One Last Stand
By: Speaking Fiction To Power
Tags: Constitution, Humor, Poetry, Donald Trump, Election 2020

Trump Makes His One Last Stand

(Remaining True To His Brand)

Art provided with permission of artist

It appears Trump is a bit confused,

On Biden’s win he totally refused

To recognize or even acknowledge.

Did he learn this from his own Trump College?

Trump now plans to release his dogs,

Giuliani to lead his pack of lawyer hogs.

He’s sure somehow they can find his votes!

Where? Tossed into some abandoned moats?

The man just can’t accept or do the math,

And when he does, it makes us laugh.

He continues as a very dangerous joke,

A sorry fool, one destructive bloke.

But what troubles me most, if Trump continues,

Is his destruction wrought on the highest venues.

But let’s all agree on one resolution,

We’ll not let him destroy the Constitution.
The 9-Step SEO Checklist for Better Google Rankings
By: Anna Klawitter
Tags: Marketing Strategies, SEO, Creativity, Marketing, Blog

Keyword Research

Once you have a topic, please do a little bit of research. It’s better to rank #1 for a keyword that’s searched 100 times per month than to rank #11 for something that’s searched 100,000 times per month.

It’s important to notice how saturated the internet already is for the content you are going to write and whether you can use a variation of the keywords you were originally thinking of incorporating to stand out in your specific niche.

I like SEMrush for discovering the keyword overview. The overview will tell you everything from the keyword difficulty (how difficult it would be as a new website to rank on page 1 for your keyword) to the volume (the average number of monthly searches for your keyword).
Recreate GitHub’s Contribution Graph Using Flask and Google Sheets
By: Padhma Sahithya
Tags: Heroku, Python, Programming, Google Sheets, Flask

I’m a productivity freak. I used to monitor my tasks each day with pen and paper. Then, as the tasks got more complicated, I started logging them in a spreadsheet. That worked fine for four weeks, but then I lost motivation. I needed a push to follow my routine. That’s where the contribution graph comes in.

If you use GitHub, you’ve seen the heat map in your profile that shows your contributions (commits, pull requests, etc) for every day of the year — as shown in the image above. I worked on a project every day to keep up my GitHub streak — all the time loathing that gray square in my profile! I found this tutorial in Node.js. But I fancy Python, so I built one on my own using Flask and Google Sheets API.

In this tutorial, I’ll walk through each step, from creating the application to deploying it on Heroku. I’ll also share the errors I found, along with their solutions.
New Book Releases: October 20, 2020
By: Angela Lashbrook
Tags: Literature, Culture, Fiction, Books, Reading

PLAIN BAD HEROINES, emily m. danforth. In one of my favorite novels of 2020, a group of wunderkind 20-somethings discover the terrifying truth behind a story they’re adapting into a meta horror film. Read my review here and an excerpt here. Aggregated critical reviews, Bookshop.

THE SILENCE, Don DeLillo. An apocalyptic novel about a world that loses power on Super Bowl Sunday 2022. Aggregated critical reviews, Bookshop.

POISONED, Jennifer Donnelly. A YA retelling of Snow White, in which Snow White discovers the jealous, “evil” queen might not be to blame for her banishment after all. Bookshop.

AMONG THE BEASTS & BRIARS, Ashley Poston. In a utopian kingdom whose fortune comes at the expense of a cursed forest, a young woman with the forest’s magic in her blood must work to save it when creatures from the woods begin to descend upon the kingdom. Bookshop.

THE NEIL GAIMAN READER, Neil Gaiman. A collection of Gaiman’s best work, chosen by his readers. Bookshop.
Absence
By: Alexandru Vasai
Tags: Poetry, Dogs, Genius In A Bottle, Spirituality, Christmas

© Alexandru Vasai 2020

It’s the first Christmas without my father-in-law.

Often, his old dog sneaks, with a broken heart, at his master’s grave.

My first poem.
To Deserve Love — What is it?. A short story on keeping silent, on…
By: Lisa Martens
Tags: Love, Dating, Fiction, Relationships, Short Story

To Deserve Love — What is it?

A short story on keeping silent, on feeling dirty.

Photo by Chris Yang on Unsplash

She had a memory of a boy she had a crush on. This was a long time ago. Somehow, he figured it out, and then she hid from him. He tried to talk to her, and she only turned red and walked away.

This was…third grade, maybe.

But this seemed to happen over and over, and she always seemed to hide from the object of her affection, denying even to herself that there was affection there.

The only ones who got close to her were not the ones she particularly wanted…just the ones who bullied past her shyness. The ones who saw she was timid and passive when pushed.

And now, as an adult, she felt a little like she had unearthed a box and found it full of beetles, rats, roaches, worms.

She hadn’t picked any of her boyfriends, or came clean to any of her crushes. She had never been seen in that way. She had never simply given anyone…not even herself…permission to be vulnerable.

The ones she got were the ones who circled around like vultures, who didn’t keep promises.

She was not active in deciding. In choosing. She denied herself the ones she wanted, and then ended up with whoever was cruel enough to plow right through her shaky, unsteady emotions.

Over, and over, and over.
Make bespoke photo filters with Python and get traction on Instagram
By: Kaushik Choudhury
Tags: Coding, Python, Photography, Programming, Instagram

I have taken the below photo from my iPhone during a casual evening walk last week.

Photo taken by author using own iPhone

Our aim is to generate random filters and save the photo with these filters.

We will be using the Python library Imageio to read the original photo and save the tweaked photos.

import imageio

from random import randrange #Importing the image

img = imageio.imread('01010057.JPG')

The original photo is imported using the “imread” method in Imageio library.

In the code below, 20 bespoke filters are generated, applied to the original photo and saved.

We are tweaking the original photo by changing its values with random values and using the summation operator for editing.

for i in range(20):

# Applying filter and saving the image

filtered_img = img +[randrange(25), randrange(15), randrange(25)]

imageio.imwrite(str( i)+'.jpg', filtered_img)

I will encourage you all to explore and generate your bespoke filters by changing the random value ranges and also using multiplication or division operation for editing.