fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Melbourne Law School’s AR app teaches us to interact with the Law
By: Trent Clews-De Castella
Tags: Education, Justice, Social Impact, Augmented Reality, Law

It’s never been more important to engage millennials in law and traditional textbooks simply aren’t the answer.

Joshua Krook, Sydney University law graduate and author, spoke to Lawyers Weekly about why current teaching methods are short-changing students:

“Students aren’t going to law school to gain a well-rounded understanding of the law and to learn to critique the law any more; they’re going simply to gain the technical skills necessary to become a lawyer.”

He continued that, “One of the detachments that we have is that law students aren’t looking at how the law affects real people. There’s this disconnect between what they’re studying and writing down, and the world around them and the actual effects of the laws that they’re talking about.”

It’s a tricky problem. How do we empower current and future law students to reconnect with reality?

Melbourne Law School getting ahead

Melbourne Law School’s new app helps students to uncover pathways into law by presenting the information in a visually dynamic way.

It’s all about showing students how knowledge, innovation and the Law collide — part of the larger push to build smart environments and even smarter cities.

So you can put away that boring pamphlet and pick up an iPad. With the help of motion tracking sensors, students can easily engage in a bright, animated and interactive learning experience. As the app follows your movement in space, you can tap to explore different areas of study: The Justice System, Sports Law, Food Law, Health Law and International Law.

And you don’t need a headset to enjoy this sensory storytelling experience — all you need to do take note as the app overlays digital information onto the real world.

Why is it important to augment learning with AR?

The integration of AR technologies and learning experiences is not a new concept. There’s been constant chatter about the potential gains of bringing AR into the education sector. Back in 2010, the Horizon Report projected:

“Augmented reality is poised to enter the mainstream in the consumer sector, and the social, gaming, and location-based applications that are emerging point to a strong potential for educational applications in the next few years.”

Now that we’re in 2018, there are a swathe of AR games and entertainment apps available in both iOS and Android ecosystems. But we’re still in the process of seeing educational apps breach the barriers of traditional teaching methods to make “the leap from entertainment to education.”

The naysayers out there might argue that the discipline of Law isn’t a game — but we call them naysayers for a reason. Immersive technologies are capable of providing both “powerful contextual, in situ learning experiences and serendipitous exploration and discovery of the connected nature of information in the real world.”

It’s all about cognitive engagement. Researchers at Mindshare World reported this year that AR doubles the cognitive engagement when compared to non-AR tasks.
What I Learned From Many Years Of Fitness
By: Daniele D'Alessio
Tags: Self Improvement, Life Lessons, Exercise, Fitness, Health

Photo by Total Shape on Unsplash

You Only Get Out What You Put In

Fitness is earned, not given.

The actions you take affect the results you make. Fitness does not discriminate against anyone. If you dedicate your lifestyle to be fitter, you will get the rewards. Likewise, if you half-ass everything you may never get to where you want to be.

Your diet, workout regime, and lifestyle are everything you have control over. The more effort you put into these facets, the easier it is to make progress. Lackluster workouts in the gym may not result in increased muscle mass. Similarly, binge-eating may not allow weight loss.

Fitness is a lifestyle choice. It has to be part of every decision you make. We must all understand certain activities can hold us back. I have learned this the hard way as a young man in my 20’s. Pre pandemic, I would attempt to work out after a night out with some friends. Those sessions were not very practical.

Still, there is nothing wrong with enjoying yourself. Yet, everything comes at a price. A lack of progress might suggest you need to remove something from your life. Fitness is especially unforgiving. It rewards those who are consistent and punishes those who dabble. You’re either all in or all out.
Networking Advice From Gabriel Richards, CEO of Endertech
Tags: Management, Entrepreneurship, Networking, Business, Tech

Dig Deeper to Connect Further

Identify a target, then go the extra mile to get personal. These days, most established professionals are already getting flooded with incoming communications from people all over the world who are trying to make a new business connection. These are typically filtered out so easily on account of their generic content and approach.

To really grab someone’s attention, you’ve got to dig deeper. Study the person and organization you’re trying to connect with. Discover a unique insight that you think will aid your target and share it up front. If you’ve put your finger on something that’s relevant, you’re improving your chances to get a response, which is necessary to get your foot in the door.

Go Into Networking With an Open Mind

A connection I made with the owner of an IT-services firm led to a referral with the executive coaching organization Vistage. They have consequently had a major impact on how I approach my business. The key to this lasting connection was simple: friendliness and a willingness to always answer the phone.

Emanate an open and friendly vibe. Many people aren’t naturally extroverted, yet really want to come out of their shells at networking events. A smile and the boldness to approach someone openly can go a long way towards getting the ball rolling.

Go With What You Know

I prefer networking at highly-targeted industry conferences focused around the systems, technologies, techniques, and vendors that orbit what my organization is all about. For instance, my company does a lot of e-commerce software development with open-source platforms. So Imagine, the annual Magento conference in Las Vegas, is perfect for us.

Use a System That Keeps You Accountable

When it comes to networking, tools really don’t matter. Really, a spreadsheet will do. What matters is your diligence to following through with a process.

For what it’s worth, we use Insightly for our CRM. But what makes Insightly work for us isn’t so much the specific features of the tool, but rather the fact that we take the time on a weekly basis to review our follow-ups as a team. They keep us all accountable to each other.

Do Your Research

When introducing yourself to an important contact, do your homework ahead of time. That research should prepare you for relevant topics of conversation. And of course, you should already be competent in your industry and be able to speak fluently about it.

Remember: lead with value and with benefit. The contact probably won’t be too impressed if you lead with a lot about who you are and how great you and your organization are. They are far more likely to be drawn to you if your energy is focused around interest in them and their needs. Hopefully, those needs will naturally align with what you offer and you’ll be off to a beautiful start.

Have a thick skin and let embarrassing moments slide right off your back and out of memory. You’re sure to have successes and failures in your attempts to establish new relationships. So don’t let any one, sub-optimal episode get you down.
What’s in ProPublica’s NYPD Complaints Data?
By: Hamilton Chang
Tags: Pandas, Police, Data Science, Data Analysis, Propublica

What’s in ProPublica’s NYPD Complaints Data?

An Initial Run Through

ProPublica recently released The NYPD Files, a database of records listing complaints filed against members of the NYPD from 1999–2020. This was a highly controversial move, as NYC Police, Firefighters, and Corrections Officers Unions are currently suing the state to keep these records secret. In any case, ProPublica has made this data public for their own reasons, and as a data enthusiast, I thought reviewing this data and analyzing it would serve both myself and the public some good. You can read more about it here, and access the database here.

The following are a few simple graphs I’ve created based on my initial review of the data. I am making no allegations, drawing no conclusions, and establishing no relationship or correlations from this data at this point in time. These are simple histograms of NYPD complaints data for those who want a big picture overview.

First, a timeline of complaints:
A Brief History Of Open Source
By: Vivek Singh
Tags: Open Source Software, Bitcoin, Blockchain, Writing, Open Source

A Brief History Of Open Source

Richard Stallman, the Free Software Movement, and the beginnings of Open Source

Collaboration was king in the software world when Richard Stallman joined MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab in 1971 as a freshman at Harvard University.

Just as ‘sharing recipes is as old as cooking’, software development at the lab was a communal effort amongst colleagues. Stallman fit like a glove with the hacker ethos of the lab, and worked on TECO, early Emacs, and the Lisp machine operating system (among other things) during the 1970s.

Unfortunately, good times at the AI Lab wouldn’t last forever. In the late 70’s and early 80’s, manufacturers increasingly copyrighted their technologies, withheld source code, and required licensed use of software. Proprietary software took over market share in the world of technology.

By the early 80’s, the MIT AI Lab would shut down. NDA’s had become commonplace, collaboration dwindled, and the lab lost many talented developers to private companies running proprietary software.

Richard Stallman was not pleased.

He asked himself a simple question. What does society need?

What does society need? It needs information that is truly available to its citizens — for example, programs that people can read, fix, adapt, and improve, not just operate. But what software owners typically deliver is a black box that we can’t study or change. Society also needs freedom. When a program has an owner, the users lose freedom to control part of their own lives. And, above all, society needs to encourage the spirit of voluntary cooperation in its citizens. When software owners tell us that helping our neighbors in a natural way is “piracy”, they pollute our society’s civic spirit. This is why we say that free software is a matter of freedom, not price. — Richard Stallman, Why Software Should Not Have Owners

To read the full story visit: https://gitcoin.co/blog/a-brief-history-of-open-source/
Top Pibble Guide
Tags: Events, Pibble, Startup, Sns, Blockchain

Top Pibble Guide

■Top Pibble Summary

Top Pibble is an event that will reward the most popular posts within the Pibble app every day and reward up to 1 million PIB.

The rewards from Top Pibble will be awarded for the most popular posts for every 24 hours, 1 hour, and in real-time (scheduled for every 10 minutes).

■New policy(2019–10–30)

Change the distribution of prize money

The prize money distribution has been changed to a tournament.

In the past, winner had all the prize money, but

winner and participants’ll share the prize money in half.

For example if the prize money is 500,000,

250,000 is given to the winner and 250,000 is distributed to the all participants.

■New policy(2019–09–19)

New changess in Top post events,

every friday, a new winner is born!

If you haven’t been in a Top post before, try it!

1. Those who were selected as winners per daily

->daily winner(x) , hourly winner(o)

2. Those who were selected as winners per hour

->daily winner(o), hourly winner(x)

■Prizes

└ Most Popular Posts (24 Hours) :

-1st : 1,000,000

-2nd : 100,000

-3rd : 50,000

└ Most Popular Post (1 hour) :

-1st : 10,000

└ Most Popular Post (Real-time) :

-1st : 1,000

■Award Information

-The popularity rank is calculated by adding up the number of upvotes, comments, follower number, number of post views and upvote amount, and the level of the users, The exact score calculation method is being kept private in order to prevent abuse.

-The most popular posts for every 24 Hours have a basic scoring system, so even if you fail, you can receive rewards in a total of 8 steps ranging from 300,000 to 1 million.

-All awards will be provided in a combination of red and green brush at a 7:3 ratio. Red brush is able to be converted into PIB coin and green brush can be used to upvote other users.

-The reward breakdown can be viewed on the leaderboard.

-Real-time award system is expected to be implemented.

-All rules ranging from selection of most popular posts to award amount given can be subject to change.

■Top pibble guide

1. Signup for Pibble App.

2. Upload great contents that others would love.

3. The more followers and friends that you have, the more people that will see it, and the more popular it will be.

4. The more friends upvote your comments, the more popular it will become. One easy way is to invite your friends/followers to Join Pibble.

5. Higher level users who upvote your contents will have a large effect on the ranking. A great way to do this is to actively rewarding out your brush to other users/followers to increase their level.
Your Next Project Must Begin With a Vision Setting Exercise
By: Marc Hadd
Tags: Life Lessons, Technology, Entrepreneurship, Project Management, Leadership

Your Next Project Must Begin With a Vision Setting Exercise

Emotions Rally the Team Towards Success

Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash

Sports are a snow globe scene describing everyday life in miniature. College football and basketball are an exciting example of assembling and assimilating new players into the team ecosystem. The marque, familiar ball clubs continue to produce exceptional teams season after season. Smaller schools are equally successful, but without the splashy headlines. How do coaches build a momentum of success? Simple — it starts with creating a shared vision of success. Sure every team desires to raise the conference trophy under a rain of confetti. But selling the vision is not flashing a “Champion” PowerPoint slide — it is about helping the individual see themselves as part of the picture. Each player — rookie or veteran — has to make the mental journey — growing from the athlete they are today to the athlete of their aspirations. The coach must help each player recognize working together to achieve the team vision delivers on the promise of realizing individual ambitions.

Vision is an aspirational message that touches on emotions leading us to take action

How do vision and coaching translate to my job as a project manager? I am a corporate, professional project leader!

Welcome to the project kick-off meeting. Colleagues representing various stakeholders and departments are assembled before you are — each with their interests. Individually they wish to optimize value for their departments and their career. Your immediate challenge is channeling the team’s passions, skills, and strengths towards successfully delivering the project’s benefits.

The Coach’s Playbook

Take a page from the coach’s playbook. Don’t begin the kick-off meeting discussing timelines, tasks, or software. Yes, these topics are vital to executing the project plan. All projects are built upon similar activities. At the task level, there isn’t anything to distinguish your project from any other. Instead, start with a vision — the project delivers something — a solution or product that your organization deems valuable. Talk about how customers will crave the new widget; talk about finance removing the drudgery of budgeting; talk about the picture of success. And don’t sell the vision. State the facts. The stakeholders will see that they will achieve their ambitions, department, and company goals by successfully delivering the project. You have connected with the team on an emotional level. It is human nature to gravitate towards success. Now you can roll up your sleeves and talk details.

Emotions build deep connections between people

One more point. Your obligation as a project leader is to deliver a successful project. Your responsibility as an employee (colleague or leader) is to help co-workers succeed and reach their potential. Energize the project team, including yourself. See and achieve a shared vision.
Summer’s Final Blooms Never Cease to Amaze Me
By: Aimée Gramblin
Tags: Food, Life, Outdoors, Self, Gardening

Summer’s Final Blooms Never Cease to Amaze Me

The dog days of summer: an August photo essay

I don’t know about you, but come August I feel pretty doggone tired (see what I did there?).

In Oklahoma where summer is hot, hotter, and hottest with a heaping serving of humidity, curls are set a-frizz and snowcone stands are in high demand. Our summers remind me of the fabulous episode of Hart of Dixie, “In Havoc & In Heat.” In August, we tell ourselves Autumn is around the corner (at least I do) because some mornings we can feel the tease of cooler air on the early morning breeze.

By afternoon any cool air has usually vanished and been replaced with full-on sunshine a’blazing.

What do you do when the sun starts stinging your shoulders? Why, you think about food, of course. And, you consider using some of the food outta your garden! Cue the next photograph.

Although I’m currently mostly-gluten-free (as my profile bio states) I discovered I can stomach real sourdough bread. Hallelujah! We buy sourdough made locally by Farrell Family Bread and supplied at several grocery stores around here. It’s delicious!

The other day, late in the morning, as my stomach started reminding me it was near lunchtime and sweat started collecting in my ponytail, I gathered up homegrown basil, a mystery pepper, and a mystery tomato. I’m not the best at labeling or remembering exactly what I’ve grown.

I toasted sourdough and smashed half an avocado on the slices, topped off with the whole pepper (I live dangerously…sometimes…also, it smelled pretty mild), a few small tomato slices (they’re also on my no-list — wah!), and basil. I topped it all off with Everything Basil seasoning. Simple and delicious. And, fast to make. You may have seen here I don’t like cooking. But, this, I can do. Willingly!

It was the best dang sandwich I’ve had in a good long while. So, August, I’ll take your abundance of garden goodies along with the frizzy hairdo. It’s delicious and worth the heat.
SEND & LINDA Coin PARTNERSHIP
By: Grada Zivadinovic
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Social Crypto, Fintech, Blockchain

Social SEND team is glad to announce a successful integration of LINDA coin into SEND Platform! Starting from 27th of August, all users of https://socialsend.net will be able to use features of our Platform with LINDA coin.

All users who are having at least 10 SEND coins on their balance will receive a nice airdrop of LINDA coin.

In September you can expect SEND to be listed on LINDA Platform that will allow users to setup and maintain SEND Masternode with just couple of clicks.

Join us and expect even more exciting news in the days that follow!!! Stay tuned, new integrations are on their way!

Some important links:
You’re My Everything
By: Bill Dubay Jr.
Tags: Lyrics, Romance, Poetry, Self, Love

If I could be a caped avenger,

I’d swoop down from out of the night,

And tell you secrets for you to remember,

Why we’re worth the fight.

If I was the wind that would deliver,

The words you’d hear about me,

I’d make sure to leave a whisper,

Of strength, resolve and chivalry.

If I was the sound of passing time,

In the moment you decided to leave,

I’d be a beautiful chime,

Something that might help you believe.

If I were the molecules of scent,

That you remember from childhood,

Reminding you of days well spent,

I’d be the air where you stood.

I hope that this song,

Will inspire you to sing,

Forget where we went wrong,

And show you you’re my everything.

But I know I can only be,

The pictures that form in your mind,

Some blurry part of your memories,

When you set it to rewind.

But you’re in every part of my galaxy,

Every droplet of rain over the years,

That comes from the vastness of the sea,

And mixes with my tears.

You’re in the rocks that I climb,

It’s your name that I find engraved,

In the fossil from before our time,

And in the artwork of the cave.

Your laugh still lingers in every corner,

You’re in every motion,

Acted out by every performer,

Your presence extends beyond the ocean.
ITC Progress Update 2018/4/21–2018/4/27
By: Iot Chain
Tags: Weekly Update, Iot Chain, English, Itc

Dear community,

Summer is quickly approaching and many of us are already thinking about holidays. But for now, we are still working hard to deliver the next milestones for the IoT Chain project. We are happy to provide our 19th weekly progress update!
I Really Want Ximena Sariñana to Make It
By: The Hairpin
Tags: Music Videos, Music

by Blanca Mendez

Though non-Shakira acts have had difficulty making the Spanish to English transition, and though her name looks impossible to pronounce (it even trips me up sometimes), Ximena Sariñana has the potential to really make it. She’s already been noticed by the likes of Rolling Stone, Vogue, and E! and is currently on tour with Sia and Oh Land. Plus, her music is really pleasant. I know “pleasant” doesn’t sound like the greatest endorsement, but hear me out on this one. In the absence of the Vanessa Carltons and Michelle Branches that we had back in the day, there’s a space for Sariñana to fill, the one for artists who make sweet and simple pop music that white chicks will sing along to in their convertibles — but Sariñana also has the power to widen that audience because she already has a loyal Latin American following.

I’ll admit I was a bit worried about just how loyal her Latin American fans would be when Sariñana made the transition from her sultrier, jazzier Spanish-language music to the more straightforward pop of her upcoming English-language album. But they are still going strong. I should have given the woman more credit, because she clearly knows the business. She’s gone from telenovela child star to teen movie star to indie pop darling over the course of her young career, and, though she can’t believe all the risks she’s taking (as she sings in her latest song, “Different”), Sariñana is playing it smart with her crossover. Just check out the video for “Different,” and you’ll see that, while she isn’t taking herself too seriously, she knows what she’s doing. The song, which is all about her transition from being based in Mexico City to her new base, Los Angeles, addresses her apprehensions about and initial discomfort with the new scene she’s exploring. And the choreography is adorable, right? Her charmingly awkward dancing puts to rest the whole Latinas-have-natural-rhythm thing. (Why’d you have to set the bar so high, Shakira?)

For a more electropoppy taste of what’s to come on her self-titled English-language debut (out next week), check out “Shine Down” (my personal favorite). And catch her on her summer tour, which includes stops at Lollapalooza and Outside Lands Fest. Girl is on her grind!

Blanca Méndez is a freelance writer and podcast producer based in Chicago. She regularly contributes to the Latin American music blog Club Fonograma.
《Agent Quant一週》跌市投資策略誰更強？善用程式交易策略訊號(Vol.64 4月13日–17日)
By: Investbot App
Tags: 交易, 香港, Algorithms, 港股, 投資

investbot is strategic trading robot based on massive financial big data evaluation and machine learning to maximize profit. More details: http://bit.ly/2MWVdM6

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How Attorneys Can Generate Client Leads 24/7 With Facebook Ads
By: Mahmud Ahmed
Tags: Marketing, Law Firm, Lawyers, Law, Lead Generation

How Attorneys Can Generate Client Leads 24/7 With Facebook Ads

Create a system that does the hard work so you can focus on what you do best

Photo by Ruthson Zimmerman on Unsplash

Six months ago my friend Jason reached out to me, asking if I had time for lunch later that week. It turned out he was struggling to get clients and needed my help.

Like most attorneys, he’d been relying solely on referrals to keep his business afloat, and even though this “worked,” he hated how inconsistent it was and how he had to rely on others.

After dealing with this uncertainty for too long, he wanted to build a system for his business so he could have a reliable source of leads. Like most entrepreneurs, he started with Facebook Ads. That went something like this:

But after spending $1,000 over two weeks and not getting any leads, he realized he was doing something wrong, and that’s why he reached out to me. Here’s his problem: He was using active advertising on a passive platform.

When people go to Facebook, they don’t plan on finding an attorney. All they really want is to look at pictures of friends and family, whether it’s liking the cat photo from their neighbors or commenting on their nephew’s soccer photo. Those are the items that grab people’s attention on Facebook. Since people aren’t in buying mode there, you instead need to create an automated marketing system that meets them where they are and prepares them for your sales pitch.

You should avoid the traditional approach of going straight for the sale right away. This is harmful for a few reasons, but if anything, it doesn’t work, as people hate ads. If you put an ad in front of them, they’ll never give you their attention.

On the other side of things, when you start with a system that gives useful information up front, that’ll attract them right away. If done correctly, you’ll have a system that builds a list of hot clients who are ready to work with you (before ever even speaking to you on the phone).

I know most gurus won’t agree, but the subtle marketing approach where you:

Write a blog article Create a Facebook post to promote it Boost the post (so more people would see it) Hope and pray someone would call Repeat

… is still not going to work well because few people are going to click on “What to do when you get a DUI.” You’re wasting money with this approach.

My friend asked how he should get around this, and I told him about the rule of seven.
How to Connect to Your Readers Right From The Start
By: Itxy Lopez
Tags: Creativity, Creative Writing, Advice, Writing, Writing Tips

I used to start my articles by getting right to the point of the piece. Most of the time, I’d begin them with a question because it was what English teachers taught us in school.

Do you want to learn how to hook your readers right from the start? If you do, you’ve come to the right place.

I cringed while writing that.

Just a few months ago, I wrote an article for Thought Catalog called 5 Reasons Why You Should Pursue Your Creative Dreams. This is what I wrote in the beginning.

screenshot: author

There’s nothing wrong with that work. It’s motivating, but it’s not the way I should’ve started it.

I may be giving my readers inspiring words, but they’re not connecting with the beginning. They get regurgitated words that don’t provide them with something relatable to grasp on to.

And that’s the main reason we read — to feel less alone, to relate, to connect.
Essential Growth Metrics
By: Gabor Cselle
Tags: Marketing, Metrics And Analytics, Startup Growth

Startups and Area 120 projects often ask me to share metrics related to user acquisition: What does it cost me to acquire users via ads? How likely is it that someone will give me notification permissions?

Here’s a list of useful growth-related metrics that you can use as a basis for estimation. I’ll try to keep these updated when I can, and will add to it over time if I find more relevant stats.

Each metric is followed by a source, and the year in which the data was collected. If no source is given, the number is from personal experience.

Retention

90-day retention of popular apps: Facebook 98%, Whatsapp 77%, Instagram retains 48%, Snap 33%. [source, 2015]

90-day retention rate of average app: 29% [source, 2018]

Acquisition Costs

Cost-per-install (CPI) for a high-quality user in the US: $5 [2018]

Cost-per-install (CPI) overall worldwide: Android $0.44, iOS $0.86 [source, 2019]

Cost-per-click (CPC) on search ads: highly variable, average $2.69 [source 1–2019, source 2 — 2019]

Funnel Completion Rates

Average churn from adding one step to an onboarding funnel: 20% [source]

Churn for a step that requires user to sign up with email/password: 60%

Churn for a step that requires user to sign up with OAuth (FB, Google, Twitter): 50%

Churn for asking the user to re-login with email/password: 20%

End-to-end conversion on e-commerce websites: desktop 3.89%, smartphone 1.43% [source, 2016]

Average click-through rate (CTR) on push notifications: 7.8% (4.9% on iOS, 10.7% on Android). [source, 2018]

Permissions

Users opting in to push notifications: iOS 43.9%, Android 91.1% [source, 2018]

App Stores

Apps in the Apple App Store: 2.1M [source, 2018]

Apps in the Google Play Store: 2.6M [source, 2018]

Time for Apple to approve your App Store submission: 2 weeks

Time for Apple to approve an update to an existing app in the App Store: 48 hours
Microservice Challenges and Patterns you Should be aware of
By: Anji
Tags: Microservices

Microservices become the enterprise standard for designing applications.

Microservices promote loose coupling, agility, and allow each service to scale/evolve independently. Due to these advantages, microservices become a de-facto standard for enterprise applications and wide adoption across the world.

Before delving into the details, let us understand what is a microservice and its characterstics

What is a Microservice Architecture?

“Microservice architecture is an approach of developing an application as a set of discrete small services, each running on its own process and communicate through lightweight mechanisms like messaging, REST, gRPC etc.”

Microservice philosophy is “Do one thing and Do it well”. i.e Each service focuses on one responsibility and ensures responsibility is very well taken care of.

Characteristics of a Microservice

Below are the essential characteristics of a Microservice.

Independent and Autonomous

Highly Extensible

Secure

Resiliency

Individually Scalable

Highly Available

Fault isolation

Auto-provisioning

Adopting automation as much as possible

By adopting 12-factor app principles into your Microservice design, you can ensure your application is scalable and most resilient. If you would like to have a quick intro to 12-factor principles you can refer to this 12-factor principles article

In this article, we would like to talk about how to approach the Microservices and challenges that arise when dealing with them.

We will discuss each challenge in a series of articles and provide the possible options for each of the challenges.

How to approach a Microservice design for an application

Below are the key decisions that should be thoroughly evaluated and considered for implementation.

Identifying the required services for your application (Service Decomposition Pattern)

Identifying the right data storage for your data in the system (Database Patterns)

Security (Authentication and Authorization patterns) implementation for your system

Communication between the services (Communication Pattern)

Integrate your Microservices into other systems (Client Apps / External systems)

How to retrieve data from multiple services when needed (Request aggregation patterns)

Managing the Transactions across the Microservices (Distributed Transaction Management Patterns)

Log aggregation, Request Tracing, monitoring (Observability Patterns)

Fault tolerance and resiliency of the system

Determine and define the Deployment Pattern that meets your application needs

Adopting agility with DevOps practices

It is good to have the challenges resolutions are incorporated into your solution from the initial phases itself. It allows you to battle test your application instead of waiting till the end.

Prematurely adopting the Microservices into an organization leads to critical issues and hampers your application development.

If you have any comments please post in the below comment box.

Thank you for Reading.
Abortion and the 2018 midterms
By: Mae Yen Yap
Tags: Politics, Abortion, Elections, Women, Reproductive Rights

What’s the problem?

Many are familiar with Roe v. Wade as the case that legalizes abortion nationwide, but it encompasses more than just the issue of law.

Roe v. Wade was decided 45 years ago on the right of privacy and the personal freedom that is “a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.” In 1973, it was a crime in nearly all U.S. states for a person to terminate their pregnancy unless it was within the restricted allowances: to preserve the person’s health, in instances of rape or incest or if there was fetal anomaly.

Source: Guttmacher Institute

In the case of Roe v. Wade, however, the Court recognized that there were several psychological, mental and physical detriments that would be imposed upon pregnant women by denying them autonomy over their own bodies. As such, the former ruling outlawing abortion nationwide was overturned and found unconstitutional, allowing safer and more accessible abortion services for Americans.

Source: Business Insider

In 2014, nearly 790 abortion clinics were available throughout the nation. With the increase in hostility toward clinics practitioners as well as obstructive laws being made, however, many of those clinics have shut down in recent years.

Source: Guttmacher Institute
Rite to Remain Violent
By: Jung Marx
Tags: Politics, UN, BlackLivesMatter, Politics And Protest, Trump

Rite to Remain Violent

[GET $$$ like a Rauschenberg]

straight outta geneva

this negro dreams of the benefit of the doubt. i bet it tastes like ice cream.

a few weeks back in portland — towards the end of summer heat — i ducked into a pub.

i’d guess i had a twenty on me. far as i’m concerned, water is a human right. i’ve been

known to invoke eleanor roosevelt, debating away dehydration at a lunch counter.

i asked for a pint of ice, because i’m a prima donna. when i could breathe again,

i returned the glass and thanked the woman. she glanced nervously at the corn fed

all-american across the bar, then looked back at me, and said “don’t steal the glass”.

my standard move would be to burn this mother down. i went with ‘fuck it’. like, i don’t

even want to be here. i need to get my Baldwin on. James. two years ago, on greyhound,

i read an announcement from the UN. well, i mean — they don’t send me announcements.

i read an article Straight Outta Geneva.

U.N. CALLS OUT U.S. GOVERNMENT FUCK SHIT .

i want to get the fuck out of here. last week the UN came back with a remix.

UNITED STATES OWES NEGRO REPARATIONS .

i’m paraphrasing — this shit hit me like a banger — United Nations, speaking my language.

hit a nigga wit a birthright. Who Wanna Be A.A. Millionaire. 100 acres & Eeyore. this

shit has me depressed, dog. i barely give a fuck if i get shot half the time. supposedly,

this is the Obsessive element of Pure OCD. fixating on negative outcomes. that all sounds

part & parcel of hereditary depression; but it’s arguably more tactful to call out diasporic

PTSD. either way, i want to move to Amsterdam. so here’s my theory — holla if ya hear me

Image created by Moses Mitchell Photography

- i require refugee status. but i would settle for a mandatory minimum income. days ago,

i read about the Rauschenberg Foundation. an artist grant for one hundred thousand dollars

over two years, dedicated to dismantling mass incarceration. my friend, who’s probably

exhausted from lending me cash, suggested i submit a proposal. there’s got to be somebody

better suited. unless y’all want to rebuild Garvey’s Ark. i went to an open mic wednesday at
The Curious Case of the Funko Pop
By: Rachel Wayne
Tags: Pop Culture, Culture, Toys, Art, Design

You see them at Hot Topic, Barnes and Noble, and even Michaels. They adorn kiosks at major theme parks. They’re stuffed into Christmas stockings. Go to any geeky convention and you’ll see dozens of vendors peddling them, and potentially, two die-hard collectors fighting over them.

They are Funko Pops, and they are a frighteningly powerful cultural movement.

I bought the Daenerys [with] Drogon Pop for my wife to put on her desk at work because she was kicking ass as the new boss at work and she was newly obsessed with [Game of Thrones]. She wasn’t interested so I kept it and now she hates the Pop abyss I’ve fallen into. So I blame her. — SA_Bert_Macklin, Reddit

You’re probably familiar with the adorable vinyl figures, which, despite their oversized heads, all-black eyes and often, no mouth, aren’t as terrifying as they sound. They’re tremendously important to merchandising, and indeed, whoever your favorite character is, Funko likely has a whimsical rendition of it.

I bought Spock at Barnes and Noble back in…2013? I think? Because I also collect Star Trek action figures and he was too cute to pass up. I wasn’t planning on getting any others, but then they released the TNG ones so I needed Data too. I bought Stitch a little after too, also because he’s so cute, and my boyfriend bought me Kirk to match my Spock for Christmas like a year later. Then we one day just decided we wanted to collect them and have over 550 now… — TheWishingStar, Reddit

With each release of a major movie or TV show, you can expect to see the major characters “Pop-ified.” Funko also has been rolling out figures for popular films and movies that were released before the dawn of Funko, and there are Pop versions of well-known mascots, other toy lines, and even politicians and public figures. Franchise film merchandisers get a lot of mileage out of Pops by releasing new versions of the recurring characters that reflect costume changes, such as the Avengers: Endgame line of time-traveler Pops.
Scattered
By: Catherine Caruso
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Poetry, Self, Culture, Poem

Scattered

As if every thought

Every stream of consciousness

Is to no avail

And I know not who I am

I have only ever learned

To examine myself in pieces

Lost fragments of time and space

That do not quite match up anymore

But my puzzle is beyond scattered

So far lost and broken

That to start anew

Would be much more sensible

Than to search for myself

In the nooks and crannies

Of this mundane world

Straining to see

The distant pops of color

That might still be lingering

Somewhere within

The soiled depths of my mind
Talk on machine learning from practice to production
By: Hari, ഹര
Tags: Machine Learning

Even though AI research and machine learning systems are growing at great speed, there seems to exist a gulf between appreciating these developments and subsequently deploying them. Despite the global push to democratize machine learning, the steps prescribed don’t align with the fuzzier problems that need solving.

Identifying common patterns and standardizing processes can provide greater returns in the long-term. The aim of the talk is to bring to the front discussions about deploying machine learning — questions to ask and steps to implement to ensure success in productionizing ML workflows.

This talk is aimed at machine learning enthusiasts who wish to get started with applying machine learning techniques across various domains. Hopefully, this talk also provides a chance for the experienced practitioner to step back and take in the view of the bigger landscape.

This talk will help audience in developing an appreciation of the broader questions (not whether you need a CNN, GAN or TROL) that need to be asked. Datasets, frameworks and deployment practices — are some of the topics that the audience would be encouraged to think about. The talk is almost a recollection of a journey in moving machine learning from practice to production.

If you have questions about Ramanan’s talk or want to get in touch with him, tweet to him @ramananb.
2016 — Day 26
By: Taz Ahmed
Tags: Islam, Poetry, Poem, Ramadan, Muslim

We Write

Taz Ahmed

When we write poems together, she holds one hand to her chest, hovering over her left breast where her heart should be. It’s like she is silencing it, trying to calm the fire radiating from her heart. It is bright, you know, the light seeping out of the cracks of her chest, like steel spikes of a Mexican sacred heart piercing through her ribs.

When we write poems together, her fingers touch the raw of her scar breaking her skin. Her other hand puts ink to paper, words to reality, prayers indenting in pages. We don’t talk about it, not directly, about the maybe toxicity growing in her, the maybe tough times coming, the maybe precariousness of life. It will take days for the experts to come back with results, so for the moment, we are drifting in the maybes, our fingers rippling at waves.

When we write poems together, she conspires with me about a solidarity filled future, and how she reimagines a love immersed world. We believe that our poetry has the power to shift paradigms in the universe. We are humbled that poetry is a tiny drop in the toxic inertia revolving around our universe. Our poetry is about the life we want to live when life is too short, without saying verbalizing that life is too short. It is too soon for that.

Our poetry is everything, our poetry is nothing. We are powerful and we are powerless. When we write poems together our fingers dance on the steel spikes of our hearts till we can’t write poems any more.
I will miss Donald Trump!
By: Vedanth Maheshwari
Tags: Joe Biden, President, Elections, United States, Donald Trump

A FUN READ

Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash

Disclaimer: This is just a late night thought in my head and it is not intended to be taken seriously by the readers. This is more of an informal dialogue.

So, I am not an admirer of clowns in politics but it’s just that if they are outvoted, I sure as hell am gonna miss the free entertainment. Like they have been able to dumb down some of the most powerful offices, and no matter how good the next ones will be, I’ll miss the cute orange joker with small fingers who’s broker of some of the best spoils. Whatever it may be, let’s not deny he’s good at something.

You are persona non grata but I am almost embarrassed to admit this but I had starting liking the idea of a child sulking on Twitter late at night. trying to declare nuclear war against countries since he/she was denied his/her chocolate; like who would have thought!? It still amazes me and I am happy the world has witnessed this, it needed to.

I don’t know if we will ever get a President like him again.

I’m speaking but does it matter? [Got that!]
Gruvi Vlog #1 — How Privacy Affects Apple Music — Discoverability — Evolution of New Media — AR Is Killing UI Design
By: Ben Johnson
Tags: Advertising, Movies, Apple

Ben, CEO

Know thy audience. This week something a little different. We are starting a video blog, based on the articles and research we write. You can check out the fist version here which is about what you do when you have started down the wrong path with your digital marketing campaign.

Matt, Operations Lead

Apple services are a bit underwhelming at times. Hardware is in Apple’s DNA and it’s clearly evident that they view services as value-add to the hardware, rather than core products. What’s more, Apple services are used by a fraction of the people using Microsoft, Google or Facebook services — so opportunity cost of focussing on services over hardware is high. But this article highlights another related reason that puts Apple at a (self-imposed) disadvantage: Apple prioritises privacy.

Mirona, Gruvi’s Go Getter

In an age when attention is hard and expensive to capture, the Canada Media Fund is looking towards how this will evolve, conducting a study on discoverability. The study explores both the industrial and institutional lever involved, as well as the players.

Johnny, Lead Developer

Film Crit Hulk, in its all-caps, gamma-radiation infused style, explores the evolution of new media and TV using Monster Factory and the Mcelroy’s oeuvre in general as example.

Franco, Digital Designer

Sam Applebee’s article investigates virtual and augmented reality from the perspective of User Interface design. These emerging technologies will bring monumental changes to digital product design. What’s less clear is the part that UI designers will play in its evolution, and it looks like we’re underprepared.
Maledetta #primavera
Tags: Tools, Analytics Tool, Bigdata, Primavera, Trends

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How to Host Your Website With a Custom Domain for Free
By: Alan Chen
Tags: Github Pages, Github, Personal Website, Custom Domain, Web Development

A common misconception that many (including myself in the past) have is that you need to pay money to host a website with a custom domain. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

Hosting Your Website

So you’re satisfied with how your website looks on localhost. Now what? If you haven’t got a GitHub account, go ahead and make one. Then, create a new repository. You can choose to make it public or private.

You can give your repository any name, but conventionally for personal/portfolio websites, people name it <username>.github.io

If you are familiar with the command line and GitHub, go ahead and push your code. If not, simply click “upload an existing file”

When you upload or push your files, be sure that your index.html is in the root directory. That is, do not have it nested inside any folders. Once you have uploaded your files, go into your “Settings” tab in the repository.

If you scroll down, you’ll see a “GitHub Pages” section. Go ahead and change the source to the master branch.

Once this is done, refresh the page and you’ll see “Your site is ready to be published at *Repository URL*”. If you wait a minute or two and refresh, that message will change to “ Your site is published at *Repository URL*”. Click that link and make sure your page is up.

Getting a Custom Domain

This step is fairly easy. Head to Freenom and create an account, following the instructions. Once you have created an account, register a new domain here. Find your domain, and check out.

Make sure your domain is FREE of charges

I would suggest getting your domain for 12 months so you don’t have to re-register it for another year. When you’re checking out, it may ask you to sign in again. Do that, and find your way back to the checkout page. It should NOT ask you for any credit card details.

Once that is done, go to services -> My Domains -> Manage Domain -> Manage Freenom DNS. Add “A” records to the following domains:

185.199.108.153

185.199.109.153

185.199.110.153

185.199.111.153

Optional: add CNAME from WWW to your custom domain. This will allow www.<yourdomain>.com to work with or without the “www”

Once that is done, go to your GitHub pages settings again, and add your custom domain under “Custom domain” and hit save.

If you get this warning, don’t worry. Give it some time and head over to our custom domain. The process can take up to 24 hours (it usually just takes a minute or two) for your domain to link to your Github pages.

Voila! Now you have your own website hosted with a custom domain, and you didn’t spend a single penny to do it. Check out the website I published in this tutorial, as well as the repository.