fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
BIoT: Real examples of work of our system
Tags: Bitcoin, Blockchain, IoT, Cryptocurrency, Technology

The development of the main core and payment channels of our system is brought to the state where everyone can test our solutions. More information about our project in the first article. Therefore, the time has come to move from words to action — we want to show the real workings of our system. To this end, we constructed two DIY projects: ‘Acquisition of activity’ and ‘Payment per use’.

Project #1 — Acquisition of activity

For the first project we took a simple idea — buying something through our system, by using payment channels. In this situation, we have taken the use case of purchasing led lights of different colors, when you click on the buttons.

Devices for DIY #1

For realization, we needed two “Raspberry Pi-3 B”: the first device— buys, the second device— sells. And also other details that connect and enliven the devices of the project.

Watch this video to see it in action:

Source code: https://github.com/BIoTws/DIY-1_Acquisition_of_activity

Project #2 —Payment per use

Our second project is an idea that can be widely used in a real-life environment — payment per use. The essence of this is that payment goes while something is been using. In our case we took the ‘Parking’ use case, where the payment goes per unit of time using the Parking Place.

The car, before entering the Parking, scans the RFID-card, after that the payment channel opens and allows access to the Parking Place — payment begins to arrive. When the car leaves the Parking, it scans the RFID-card again, then the payment channel closes and the system allows the car to leave the Parking.

Watch this video to see it in action

Source code: https://github.com/BIoTws/DIY-2_Pay_per_use
Learn Our Lingo
By: Special Olympics
Tags: Diversity And Inclusion, Special Olympics, Disability

Every organization uses their own lingo or set of acronyms, and Special Olympics is no different. But, since #inclusion is our goal, we can let you in on a few of our secrets!

Below, you will find some of our most used abbreviations:

“SO” + any combination of other letters: You probably figured it out but “SO” is short hand for “Special Olympics.” But, wondering what those other letters are tacked on at the end? These letters are used to reference one of our regional programs, countries or states. So for example, Special Olympics Massachusetts = “SOMA” or “Special Olympics Europe/Eurasia = “SOEE”

“ID”: Abbreviation for intellectual disabilities. Often times, you will see us write “people with ID” in reference to people with intellectual disabilities.

“EKS”: This abbreviation is used to refer to our visionary founder “Eunice Kennedy Shriver” or “Mrs. Shriver”. While we use this abbreviation often, you are most likely to encounter it in September for our annual #EKSDay, a designated holiday in Special Olympics used to recognize the dream of our founder & celebrate her legacy.
Insane DJI Spark RC Mod | Drones
By: Jason Yeaman
Tags: Mods, Drones, Spark, Dji

Got Range?

One of the many things that separate the Spark from other drones in the DJI consumer line of aircraft is limit in range. DJI states that the video transmission signal has an unobstructed LOS range of 1.2 miles.

I have verified this:

Software limitations

Limitations of the Sparks range aren’t always caused by hardware however. The Spark supports 2 modes depending on the region the Spark thinks it is in. In the U.S., FCC mode is used and is the less restrictive mode. In Europe and other parts of the world, CE mode is used. CE restrictions have spawned ways to software modding the Spark to use FCC mode irrespective of region. There are other modifications that will also allow the Spark to fly faster.

Hardware limitations

There are also hardware based limitations that affect the Sparks performance. Flying the Spark using just a mobile device will restrict the range and speed of the Spark.

Using the Spark Remote Controller in conjunction with a mobile device will allow the Spark to fly out to its regional limit which for the U.S. is 1.2 miles in FCC Mode which is 28 dBm @ 630.96 mW of power. In CE Mode with the RC, .3 miles is max range with 14 dBm @ 25.12 mW of power.

Hardware mods

There are things you can do to the RC to make it a better listener. The cheapest way is to get a couple of $9 parabolic reflectors like this:

On the other end of antenna mod spectrum, for about $100 there are products like the 4hawks Raptor that claim to provide an 8–10 dBi gain and 4x range:

The Spark Side

Over at DJI Mods — The Spark Side (it is private but petition if interested) a member named Matt Adamiak took the 4hawks antenna mod one step further:

Both channels get powered Sunhans dual band amplifiers, giving a full 2W of extra power.

He hasn’t taken this rig for a ride yet, but I’m following his progress and will update when results are posted.
Colendi 宣布加入企业以太坊联盟
Tags: 加密货币, 以太坊, 区块链, 比特币, 金融科技

in In Fitness And In Health
An Introduction to Stacks and Queues
By: Samuel Guo
Tags: Queue, Algorithms, Data Structures, Stack, Programming

Stacks

Let’s take a deeper dive with stacks and start off with an empty stack.

We don’t have anything at the moment. Next, let’s add 10 to the stack.

Adding “10” to the empty stack.

After adding the 10 to the stack, it falls to the bottom of the stack. Keep in mind that the 10 is the first one into the stack. If you add 20 and 30 in that order, the stack should now look like the pictures below:

Adding 20 to the current stack.

Adding 30 to the current stack.

The current stack, from bottom to top, is now 10, 20, and 30. What if I want to get the 10 out? Well, we can’t at the moment because 30 and 20 are blocking the way. We would need to take out the 30, then take out the 20, and then finally we would be able to take out the 10. The 10 would be the last one to come out of the current stack.

Removing 30 from the current stack.

Removing 20 from the current stack.

Removing 10 from the current stack.

This is what it means to be first in, last out (FILO). The first element placed into the stack will be the last element to be removed from the stack. The 10 was the first element to be placed into the stack (first in) and it would be the last element to be removed from the stack (last out). I know this sounds redundant, but explaining these terms as explicitly as possible will help avoid any confusion.
Implantation, mobilité interne: les nouveaux défis de l’entreprise
Tags: Recrutement, Ressources Humaines

in In Fitness And In Health
What the Bakkt — Market News & Price Movements
By: Coss Team
Tags: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Trading, Cryptocurrency, Crypto

Somewhere between ‘wen moon’ and ‘wen Bakkt’ we grew up.

Just as it seemed like Bakkt would never see the light of day, at 11:15 AM Eastern Time, this happened.

Bakkt broke the news that it has finally got the green light from CFTC to launch its physically-settled Bitcoin Futures trading platform.

Market Analysis

At the time of the news, experts were calling for $9,000 BTC with the bearish trend continuing over the weekend.

Minutes after Bakkt made its grand re-entry into the news, Bitcoin price spiked from near $10,000 to a just under $10,500.

Notable Cryptocurrency Influencer and Co-founder or Morgan Creek Digital, Anthony Pompliano said (regarding the Bakkt news) that the future is being built in front of our eyes.

Price Movements

With Bitcoin getting a quick price surge to $10,500 after the news, it seems like the World’s largest Cryptocurrency has broken its bearish trend and will keep testing the $9,500 and $10,500 range for a while.

Interestingly, many traders are calling out for a drop in BTC price after the Bakkt scheduled launch on September 23rd.

@CryptoChartsJoe predicts a market selloff on the D-Day as well.

While liquidity and price movements up till September 23rd will benefit short term traders, in the long term, a physically-settled Bitcoin platform like Bakkt is overwhelmingly bullish for Bitcoin.

What do you think? Does Bakkt make you Bullish or Bearish about Bitcoin?

We’d love to know your thoughts below.
✅Lesson 12| What is Lightning Network?
By: Matteo Ek
Tags: Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Ethereum, Lightning Network, Cryptoprofessor

Lightning Network is a technology for executing cryptocurrency micropayments within a peer-to-peer network of bidirectional payment channels. LN is the superstructure over the main blockchain of bitcoin (or other cryptocurrencies), which provides a solution for the scalability problem by external scaling. The idea was proposed in November 2015 by Joseph Poon and Tadge Dryja. You can read the whitepaper here.

The technology key point is that several users can open a separate payment channel and place the amount of money they intend to make operations with. The userundefineds micropayments within the established amount will be made within the Lightning network over the main blockchain, and after the whole amount has been spent, or one of the participants decides to withdraw his funds, or the channel time expires, Lightning Network algorithm considers the final balance, returns to each participant the unused money, and afterwards the fact of spending and receiving money by users is fixed in the main blockchain. Security of operations is provided by smart contracts.

Thus, the technology implementation solves the problem of small block size, since most of the operations are performed in LN and the main blockchain is significantly unloaded, and also the high fee problem.

Micropayments are becoming much more practicable, which means it will be possible to pay for small purchases with digital money, which will allow the cryptocurrency to reach a new dimension of development. In addition, global implementation of the Lightning Network greatly simplifies crypto exchange operations by removing the need of a third party, such as the exchange. This is made possible by the technology of atomic swaps.

So, the Lightning Network advantages are:

✔️ultra-fast payments (several milliseconds);

✔️high bandwidth (up to a billion transactions per second);

✔️low fees, and hence the possibility of making micropayments;

✔️cross-interaction between different currencies blockchains (atomic swaps).

At the moment, the technology is going through the last testing stage in the Bitcoin network. The first payment with the help of Lightning Network in the Bitcoin mainnet was executed on December 27, 2017 . Alex Bosworth, a developer at Bitrefill, paid for his phone bill, about what Alex reported on his Twitter account. On November 16, 2017, Lightning Labs and Charlie Lee, CEO of Litecoin executed cross-channel atomic operation between litecoin and bitcoin. Atomic transactions have already been tested inside four blockchains — Litecoin, Decred, Vertcoin and Bitcoin.
Cristina García Rodero un viaje a través del tiempo detenido.
Tags: Fotografía, Cristina García Rodero, España

in In Fitness And In Health
Celer Network Partners with Binance Labs as a Mentor for the Binance Labs Incubation Program
By: Celer Network
Tags: Blockchain, Celernetwork, Celerpartners

We are very excited to announce that Celer Network partners with Binance Labs as a mentor for the Binance Labs Incubation Program.

Binance Labs is the venture arm of Binance and an initiative to incubate, invest, and empower blockchain and cryptocurrency entrepreneurs, projects, and communities. Binance Labs Incubation Program is a 10-Week On-Site incubation program designed to identify and help top early-stage blockchain projects deliver something that has strong product market fit. This partnership will allow Celer Network team to share experiences and lessons learnt in the early product growth phase, technically empower the new projects with Celer Network’s advanced layer-2 scaling platform and organically grow Celer Network’s ecosystem.

Celer Network shares the same vision of product market fit with a proven track record. Recently, Celer Network launched Sirius Testnet along with CelerX, the user entry point to Celer Network on mobile platforms. Within one month, CelerX quickly acquires 22,000 monthly active users, has more than 20% 7-day retention ratio and engages each active user for more than 12 mins per day. One interactive game application, Gomoku, in CelerX is played 110,000 times monthly, generating more than 4 million transactions on the testnet. Even though Gomoku is the only decentralized application on Celer Network and still runs on testnet, it has become one of highest-DAU blockchain applications and achieves the level of user engagement statistics resembles centralized applications. What’s more, Celer Network’s growth is truly global with users coming from 58 different countries.

“Mo will be a valuable mentor at the Binance Labs Incubation Program as Celer has been focusing on product market fit and user adoption since day one. We also expect to see and will support synergies and new growth points amongst Celer Network and the project teams through their interaction during the program,” said Ella Zhang, Head of Binance Labs.

Dr. Mo Dong, CEO and Cofounder of Celer Network comments: “We truly appreciate and applaud the efforts and vision shown by this great incubation program from Binance Labs. This is exactly what blockchain industry needs right now. We thank Binance Labs for the opportunity to onboard us as a mentor. We look forward to meeting all the new teams and sharing our experiences on product growth, marketing, community and technology. We will also look out projects that are good fit for Celer Network ecosystem.”

Together, we hope to bring mass adoption to blockchain technology.
Data Science Every Day: Our Monthly Edition is now The Daily Pick!
By: Tds Editors
Tags: Tds Daily Pick

Hi everyone!

We want to help you make it a habit to learn data science every day.

We are constantly publishing amazing articles by incredible writers, and it can be challenging to stay on top of everything we have to offer. To help you easily stay up-to-date with the best of Towards Data Science, we’ve decided to replace our monthly newsletter with a new daily newsletter that you’ll receive Monday through Thursday.

We’ll continue to publish our monthly edition and feature it on Towards Data Science where it will be easy to find. The Daily Pick will feature hand-picked, carefully curated posts that we think you’ll love. Let us help you learn data science one article at a time.

The Daily Pick begins next Monday. We hope you enjoy it! If you don’t want to receive it, feel free to unsubscribe here.

The TDS Team

If you don’t want to receive our daily newsletter, you can just subscribe to our weekly digest. If you only want to read our monthly edition, the best way is to come to our publication once a month. You will find it on our homepage.
Hydrogen Will Make The Term “Blockchain” Obsolete
Tags: Blockchain, Ethereum, Hydrogen, Cryptocurrency, Hydro

In the Web 1.0, companies minted millions by adding “Dot-Com” to their name. According to a 2014 article in The Atlantic —

In 2001, when people were still sorting through the pixelated debris of the dotcom bust, three finance professors from Purdue University published a study of the fates of 95 companies that added “.com,” “.net,” or “Internet” to their names during the bubble. They found that on average, the stock prices of these companies increased 74 percent over the period of time from five days before the name-change announcement to five days afterward.

Not only did the dot-com bubble burst, but having a company with “.com” in its name became repetitive. Is the website a separate platform from the main brand (e.g. ESPN vs. ESPN.com)? Why else would you have .com in your company’s name? By 2002, having a .com was no longer a choice, it was a necessity.

We are in a similar moment in the blockchain industry. Take a look at this Sentieo study —

There is increased buzz and talk from large companies about using blockchain, accepting crypto, even adding one of these terms to their name! Yet, in a few years, being a “Blockchain Company” will be obsolete. Like having a .com website that users could interact with in 1999, utilizing a blockchain in 2019 will be assumed.

As we approach 2019, it will be implied that you have already built your tech stack in a more decentralized way. The world is becoming more decentralized, billions are pushing for more ownership of their data (see GDPR in Europe), and there is less trust in institutions than ever before.

If you don’t leverage blockchain in the future, your business will fail, PERIOD.

Hydrogen Changes the Paradigm

While the world obsesses over which blockchain protocol will be “the winner,” we view the industry a bit differently.

Hydrogen is doing for fintech in the Web 3.0 what Paypal did for fintech in the Web 2.0.

We are making it simpler, making it easier to interact with new technology, making it faster, making it more efficient, and most importantly, focusing on the layers above the protocols that add that most value to the end users.

As our Blocktoberfest series highlighted, we are working to finalize partnerships that will make using blockchain as simple as viewing your Facebook feed now. Interoperability, APIs, one-click payments, identity aggregation, privacy protocols, Layer-2 payment rails. These might seem like alien terms to most, but they are integral to making blockchain usable.

Take a look at our end state app prototype —

Can you spot where we are using all of the technology we just described above? 99 out of 100 people will not be able to, and this is exactly what we are striving for. Blockchain is assumed here, it is not explicit. The end consumer experience has been enriched and made much more secure through the blockchain underpinnings.

There is no need to call Hydro a blockchain platform. It is just a better platform, helping to advance financial services for billions globally.
Here’s What Buying Bitcoin On Robinhood Is Really Like
By: Fox Van Allen
Tags: Bitcoin, Robinhood, Investing, Cryptocurrency, Robinhood Crypto

A painless buying experience

Pardon me if this reads like a love letter to Robinhood. It’s everything I want a crypto buying experience to be. Well, almost.

The Robinhood app itself is pretty slick. The Robinhood Crypto side has a Tron-esque, ‘80s-inspired neon aesthetic. It’s easily my favorite user interface of any crypto app.

It’s fun to use to track price movements in Ripple, Dogecoin and other major altcoins. Unfortunately, though, Robinhood only supports purchases of bitcoin and ethereum. Minor bummer.

I’d been a Robinhood account holder for about a year before I got access to Robinhood Crypto, so the app was already connected to my bank account. Transferring money to Robinhood is as simple as logging in to your bank and choosing a dollar amount. The money shows up immediately (up to $1,000), so there’s no waiting when you want to BTFD.

Unlike my experience with using a bitcoin ATM, Robinhood quoted me a fair, market price for bitcoin without any hidden fees. I can either buy a specific amount of bitcoin, or a specific dollar amount. I chose to buy $10 worth of bitcoin.

I placed a market order, so it was filled immediately at the April 2 bargain price of $7,065 per BTC. I was credited 0.00141689 BTC. Unlike my experience at Coinbase, there was no commission. (Coinbase would have charged me 99 cents for this same buy.)

Best of all, the bitcoin was available in my account immediately. At Coinbase, I needed to wait over a week to take delivery of my coins.
The Illustrated Interview: Sophie Lucido Johnson
By: Edith Zimmerman
Tags: here, Sophie Lucido Johnson, Illustrated Interview, Spiralbound, Comics

Every week on Spiralbound we ask one of our featured artists: How do you make comics? This week we spoke (emailed) with Sophie Lucido Johnson, of “The Beetle Room.” (Check it out if you haven’t already! And see here for our full interview archive.)

So, Sophie, how do you make comics? (Text from Sophie, drawings by Edith Z.)
Delivering Safety: Nuro’s Approach
By: Nuro Team
Tags: Autonomous Cars, Retail, Self Driving Cars, Mobility, Robotics

When we built the first fully self-driving, on-road vehicle designed to transport goods, we had two goals in mind. We wanted to give people more time to spend on the things they love, and to make our roads safer.

From the ground up, our vehicles are designed for safety. They incorporate creative innovations that give them the potential to be the safest vehicles on the road.

To explain to the world how we are prioritizing safety, today we’re releasing Delivering Safety: Nuro’s Approach, our first public safety report. The report outlines both our vision for safer roads with Nuro’s vehicles on them, as well as the specific progress we have made to include safety considerations into every step of the design, manufacturing and operation of this new type of vehicle. This report follows National Highway Traffic Safety Administration guidance, and reflects our significant engagement with community and government stakeholders at the local, state, and federal level.

Our approach to safety started at the company’s inception, with the choice to design a custom goods-only vehicle. This vehicle could be engineered for safety more comprehensively than traditional passenger vehicles. Some of our strategies include:

A passengerless design that enabled engineering innovations in our first custom self-driving vehicle, making it lighter, narrower, nimbler, and operated at lower speeds.

that enabled engineering innovations in our first custom self-driving vehicle, making it lighter, narrower, nimbler, and operated at lower speeds. Custom hardware that is among the industry’s most advanced, coupled with self-driving software capable of continual improvement validated through extensive testing.

that is among the industry’s most advanced, coupled with self-driving software capable of continual improvement validated through extensive testing. A layered fallback strategy , including the continual development of multiple backup trajectories, so that we can always choose the safest option.

, including the continual development of multiple backup trajectories, so that we can always choose the safest option. Hardware redundancy — including in some cases triple redundancy — across all critical components: computer systems, communication, power, steering, braking, and throttle.

— including in some cases triple redundancy — across all critical components: computer systems, communication, power, steering, braking, and throttle. A comprehensive vehicle operator training program featuring extensive screening, on-boarding, on-road training, and continuous improvement.

While Nuro is a young company, we’re proud of the progress we’ve made, our focus on safety, and the real service our manned vehicles are currently providing to people in Arizona. We believe it is important to share our approach to safety now as we prepare for the deployment of our custom vehicles on public roads this fall.

Read the Nuro Safety Report »
Become a business-aware designer in 2021
Tags: Business Strategy, Ux Strategy, Design Thinking, User Experience, UX

Become a business-aware designer in 2021

Five things you need to know to have a bigger impact.

Photo by XPS on Unsplash

In 2021, design is no longer an afterthought. The popularity of ideation sessions and design sprints, programs like Stanford’s D.School and frameworks like IBM’s Enterprise Design have meant that ‘design’ is being seen as a required input to get a competitive edge.

As Google’s Kate Aronowitz puts it: designers finally have a seat at the table.

It’s a change that’s been incredibly successful. One example: at the end of last year, Airbnb’s share price surged on the day of their IPO, leaving them with a valuation of more than $100bn. Airbnb is a company that is proudly design-led (as opposed to other unicorns that focus foremost on product engineering). They regularly publish detailed articles and videos about their design process.

And other companies are adopting these processes. Netflix, Uber, Microsoft, PepsiCo and Ikea are all big companies that are increasingly turning to design thinking processes and paradigms to solve problems in their industries.

But, despite design being used as a differentiator for many companies, it’s still something optional. Companies have been creating products and services at a huge scale over the last three decades. Many have been able to do so without design leaders in the room, solely using a combination of business and engineering expertise.

Design does give companies an edge… but new designers need to be aware that they’re joining a pre-existing conversation.

So, what is the best way for designers to join that conversation?

Answer: by becoming a business-aware designer.
Context, Scope, Execution Context, and Eight This Values in JavaScript, Explained by PAW Patrol
By: Carlos Caballero
Tags: Execution Context, Programming, Nodejs, JavaScript, Tutorial

Photo by Andrew Pons on Unsplash

After more than six years explaining front end to both vocational training and university students, I have found it difficult to understand the use of the reserved word this in JavaScript.

The problems of this reserved word have been hidden with the appearance of TypeScript and frameworks such as Angular, although under these layers there is still JavaScript and lack of knowledge causes errors that take hours to fix.
JEF’s Power Breakfast: Meeting the EU Ambassador to Israel
Tags: Automotive, Jef Activities, European Union, Israel, Security

This morning the Jewish Economic Forum hosted a Power Breakfast with the EU Ambassador to Israel H.E. Mr. Emanuele Giaufret at CBH Bank’s offices in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Ambassador Giaufret talked about the bilateral relations between Israel and the European Union, focusing especially on the successful cooperation programs and on the future challenges that the two need to face. “Those relations are fundamental and strategical to both parties, — stated the Ambassador — especially in the light of the fact that “55% of the Israeli citizens have or are entitled to obtain the European citizenship.”

Among the many areas of cooperation between the EU and Israel, Ambassador Giaufret mentioned the energy industry — with a clear reference to the clean-tech segment — as well as the high-tech and the automotive industry.
Anything’s Possible
By: Mike Essig
Tags: Humor, Poetry, Hope

Today may be dull. It happens. Sure.

But tomorrow remains rife with possibilities.

Podcasts of Trump on on the value of modesty.

Street fights in several extinct languages.

Hillary wins at Detroit poetry slam.

Jihadists explode poodles in crosswalks.

Island countries wave & grin as they sink.

Porno flicks found starring Merkel and Putin.

A sane, reasonable presidential election.

Angry cats with opposable thumbs rebel.

Men & women speaking & understanding each other.

Brock Turner announces sex change operation.

God announces: No More Mulligans!

Gender wars conclude. Everyone’s dead.

Debut of lost Bach Partita for Electric Kazoo.

New, hip-hop production of Treblinka: The Musical.

Shakespeare cloned. Buys poetry anthology. Dies.

End-up, instead of start-up, launches in Palo Alto.

Smart phones install apps with annoying ads on users.

Common sense becomes common again.

Victim-less rhymes decriminalized.

Medium figures out what to be when it grows up.

This is America! Never two dull days.

Take Heart! Tomorrow, there be Wonders…
Adapt. Fast.
By: Will Richardson
Tags: Teaching, Education, School

Stewart Hase:

The ability to learn, for both individuals and institutions, is critical to survival. While it has always been so, adaptation in the past could comfortably take place over a long period of time. Now, that is no longer possible.

One of the biggest challenges to schools is that the timeframe for “adaptation” is speeding up. If you don’t believe that you need only look at the current U.S. election cycle and how, at least on the Republican side, the traditional playbook has not only been tossed out but may have been totally erased from the political hard drive. Or look at the early but quickening effects of climate change on our societies. Businesses, medicine, science…everyone seems to be in “perpetual beta” when it comes to figuring out what to do next.

So when we talk about “modern learning,” we’re not just talking about the learner; we’re talking about the institution as well. And while the learner (Read: kid with a smartphone) is doing an ok job of “adapting” to this new environment, schools and “education” seem to be struggling. Adapting doesn’t mean overlaying technology on top of traditional practice when learning with technology defies those practices. It doesn’t mean hewing to traditional power relationships at a moment when modern organizational hierarchies are flattening. And it also doesn’t mean installing a maker space or a “Genius Hour” or a coding class and calling it a day.

“Adapting doesn’t mean overlaying technology on top of traditional practice when learning with technology defies those practices.”

Right now, schools that learn understand that their central function is changing, that “an education” is no longer the delivery of a set curriculum but, instead, is about building the capacity for individuals and groups to learn deeply and powerfully in the world. That moving forward, an “education” will be determined by the learner as they play out their lives, not by an institution attempting to predict what may or may not be relevant or useful in the future. That a significant rethinking of practice and architecture is required to make that happen.

The fact is, few schools reflect the ability to learn. Few have cultures where the emphasis is on questioning and wondering and iterating new practices for the new contexts that now surround us. Instead, schools are focused on doing the old stuff better. Better policies. Better assessments. Better practices, not new.

The question then is not whether schools who don’t learn will survive. In the short term, most will; there is an important child care function that’s not to be overlooked. The more pressing question is will the students in those schools survive and truly flourish in their lives as adults who are constantly being asked to adapt, and not given much time to do it.

Image credit: Maico Amorim
The Birchmere Lives Up to the Legend with ToneDen’s Dynamic Event Ads
By: Joanna Novak
Tags: Facebook Advertising, Event Marketing, Venue Management, Case Study, Dynamic Event Ads

The Birchmere is a music hall with history, a place where folks like Vince Gill and Lyle Lovett feel so at home they’ll stop by to play impromptu sets when they’re in town. Originally 100-seats when it opened in 1966, the club made its name internationally with its bluegrass and folk lineup; a 2016 Washington Post article touting The Birchmere’s impact credited the venue with turning ’70s D.C. into a bluegrass “hotbed.”

The Birchmere may’ve expanded to a larger location in Alexandria, but its music-first legacy lives on. Their new spot has two rooms: the Flex Stage with a 1000-person standing capacity and The Music Hall that seats 500. The latter is a “Listening Room,” Dave Beebe tells ToneDen, in keeping with owner Gary Oelze’s request for silence during performances.

Dave Beebe, Lighting Director and “Unofficial Social Media/IT Director” at The Birchmere

Officially the Lighting Director, Beebe is also The Birchmere’s unofficial social media and IT director. He’s been in the industry thirty-eight years, the last fifteen of which he’s spent at The Birchmere, and he knows the club’s lore like his shoe size. “We are the last venue Ray Charles played live,” Beebe says. “Lyle Lovett started here as an opener. Mumford and Sons were an opener in 2008.” As the club’s programming has gone beyond bluegrass, its lineups have included artists like “Johnny Cash, Wayne Newton, Foreigner, Melissa Etheridge … Jerry Lee Lewis is here in June.”

Even legends need a leg up. When you’re routinely making Pollstar lists, the quality of your digital marketing has to match the quality of your club. That’s why, in The Birchmere’s 52nd year, Beebe turned to ToneDen.
Tolerance is not acceptance
By: Pax Ahimsa Gethen
Tags: Transgender

Today is the Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day to mourn the lives lost to transphobic violence. With at least 22 trans women, mostly women of color, murdered to date in 2015, our community has a great deal of mourning to do.

This continuing violence is the flip side of visibility in our supposedly progressive times. No trans person, anywhere, is immune. Just this week here in San Francisco, a trans woman was assaulted for a second time. Having moved here from Georgia, she lamented, “I came here to be safe, but we’re really not safe anywhere.”

Many cis people who would never dream of physically attacking a trans person are nonetheless contributing to the violence against us in more subtle ways. Every time someone deliberately misgenders or deadnames a trans person — no matter how famous or problematic that person may be — they are fostering an environment of mistrust and mockery. Every time someone tries to keep us out of restrooms, usually under the guise of protecting (cis) women, they are painting trans people as deviant and dangerous. Every time someone excludes or erases us from participation in online or offline spaces, they are telling the world that we are not worthy of being seen and respected as equals.

Merely tolerating trans people is not enough. We must be respected and treated as fully equal partners in society. That includes non-binary as well as binary trans people. As genderqueer activist Jacob Tobia points out:

The reality is that, even for transgender people who identify as women or as men along the gender binary, when you are mid-transition, you are going to most likely be read as gender non-conforming. So until all gender non-conforming people — whether that’s a place that you’re in temporarily or if that is where you are all the time — are safe, then every trans person is going to encounter discrimination, even if they identify as a trans man or as a trans woman.

Not everyone has the ability to be an activist, but everyone can pay more attention to the cissexist assumptions that fuel transphobic violence. Learn more about trans and non-binary people from the source by reading and sharing our stories.
Casual Bitcoin users! You need to know about Aug 1st!
By: Knut Svanholm
Tags: Software Development, Bip148, Blockchain, Uasf, Bitcoin

Someone told you about Bitcoin. They told you about the price boom. They used the word “disrupt”. They showed you how to install a wallet on your phone and how to get some. This article is about what they didn’t tell you or at least didn’t emphasize enough.

They probably didn’t tell you about how different a Bitcoin address is to a bank account. You see, in Bitcoin you’re responsible. For everything. In contrast to a bank there are few or no laws to protecting your Bitcoin and your wallet provider is not to be trusted. What you can trust is the protocol. The code will do what it’s been programmed to do. So, do you need to review the entire core code yourself? Probably not. There are safe ways of storing your Bitcoin which require very little technical skill. The basic rule of thumb is “your keys — your Bitcoin. Not your keys — not your Bitcoin”. A secure paper wallet can easily be set up by visiting a site like bitaddress.org, generating and printing an address offline and erasing your browser’s cache memory before going online again. Or you could buy a hardware wallet.

So, what will happen on Aug 1st 2017?

Well the basic story is that a majority of the Bitcoin nodes will try to force the miners to implement a protocol upgrade proposal called BIP148. They will try to do this to end the stalemate between the various parties in the block size debate which has stalled the evolution of Bitcoin over the last year or so. Transaction fees are very high right now because of this. This may play out in a couple of different ways but basically your main concern should be a possible chain split after a fork. A chain split will result in two different tokens. This happened to Ethereum last year and it has happened to other cryptocurrencies too.

If you don’t control your keys during a chain split three main things may happen:

Your Bitcoin balance will stay the same and you will be able to use that Bitcoin token as usual. Your Bitcoin balance will be zero over night since your wallet chose the wrong chain Your wallet provider will offer you a chance to keep your token balance on both chains or to choose one of them

If you do control your keys you will have the same balance on both chains and you will be able to trade one for the other, effectively increasing your total Bitcoin balance. In the case of a chain split there’s a big chance that Bitcoin will lose its value however. Either way, you’re better off knowing what you’re doing and in Bitcoin there’s no way of faking that. Now go on and educate yourself! Google BIP148, Segregated Witness, cold storage, soft forks and hard forks! It’s your donkey that’s on the line!
Solastalgia
By: Miguel Adrover
Tags: Poetry, Beach, Climate Change, Miguel Adrover, Puerto Rico

whorls of time, sand, muscle, water —

a girl aches for Flamenco white sands.

from grain to polished planet,

when life stuff collapses into pearls;

bóvedas bivalvas horneando arena*…

anemones died off

ten years before her birth.
The New Years Resolution Everyone Needs Going into 2021
By: Bradley S.
Tags: Covid 19, New Years Resolutions, Self Improvement, Life, Self

Psychology

The New Years Resolution Everyone Needs Going into 2021

It's not what you think

With every new year rolling around, New Year's resolutions tend to follow the same promises: Lose weight, get healthy, stop smoking, get organized, etc. I have no doubt with how 2020 has gone that these same promises will grow exponentially.

But I have grown a different perspective. I have had a lot more free time this year with traveling less, commuting less to work, and attending fewer social events. I’ve had all the time in the world to lose weight, get more organized, or get healthier. It didn't happen. Promising these things doesn't seem as genuine this time around.

My New Years' resolution is to…..Stop Reading the Comments!

What does this mean? C’mon, you must know what I am referring to!

Under each inspiring story, interesting post, or intriguing world event on social media comes the army of petulant downers that make you lose any hope you had for humanity and only reinforce the cynicism you may have already after this dark year. I am done getting out the popcorn, giving my attention to the trolls, and ready to move on in life.

Social media and democracy didn’t exactly combine well for improving the peace of mind of the citizens of the world. Whether it’s a sad story or good news, the influx of negative comments saddens me more than it astounds me. It seems like most people are down in the dumps and want to take it out on others. People are not cognizant and grateful for the good things happening around them or sensitive to other people’s situations and seem to only desire to fling their narrow perspective and feckless agendas out it into the world.

There’s a good reason that when I read the comments under popular celebrities or businesses, I rarely see them respond. I don’t even think they read them, to be honest. They don't have time! And even if they did, why would they want to devote their time and energy to debating with people! That’s where I would like to be going into 2021.

One may say, then just stop reading the comments! Just like junk food or smoking, it takes serious willpower to resist their seductive power! The adrenaline, cortisol, and dopamine release associated with the fear and hate from other people’s negativity can be addictive. My mindset for 2021 is to read and reflect personally on the post or story but skip the comments. While the comments can often provide some texture or insights, it’s not worth sifting through all the negativity anymore.

This resolution may look like I’m lowering the bar for resolutions, but I feel the less I read the negativity in the comments section, the better my health will be which is most of the basis for these yearly promises. Another year arrives, we get older, and we want to think we’re getting better and stronger. Why not start small.
WOW! Ubcoin Market raised MORE THAN 🔥 $1 million at Pre-Sale!
By: Ubcoin. Cryptocurrency Reimagined
Tags: Ubc News, Blockchain, Ubcoin, Bitcoin

A very big announcement for the audience today!

We are happy to make public the fact that Ubcoin Market raised more than $1 million at Pre-Sale and is celebrating the 2nd day of the ICO Public Sale Stage 1 today.

We feel enormously grateful to all our investors and continue to work hard to come up to your expectations.

We invite everyone to participate in the ICO Stage 1 now — buy tokens on the https://ubcoin.io with 29% discount!

Press releases in English: 🇺🇸

https://news.bitcoin.com/pr-ubcoin-raises-more-than-1-million-at-pre-sale-and-starts-main-token-sale-event/

https://cointelegraph.com/press-releases/ubcoin-raises-more-than-1-million-at-pre-sale-and-starts-main-token-sale-event

http://bitcoinist.com/ubcoin-raises-1-million-pre-sale-starts-main-token-sale-event/

Press release in Japanese: 🇯🇵

http://www.mag2.com/p/money/418746

Press release in Chinese: 🇨🇳

http://www.wanbizu.com/ICO/2018033112482.html
Hands-on with APIOps
By: Marjukka Niinioja
Tags: Observability, Apiops, API, Api Development

This autumn we’ve taken some great steps in APIOps:

Apidays Helsinki meetup in September featured a discussion on how specification standards like OpenAPI and especially the upcoming OpenAPI 3.1.0 help in automating and improving the API development presented by Marjukka Niinioja from Osaango, a recent OpenAPI initiative member

We also saw a hands-on demo by Tessa Viitanen, Techie Stories on using Hypertrace, an open-source platform for compliance with APIs developed by Traceable.ai. Tessa shows and leads the discussion on how to potentially use it for real-time monitoring and even compliance checks for APIs and distributed systems.

Tessa’s demo starts on the video at appr. 30 min.

In October, we had the first APIOps Cycles coffee break discussing with community members Meenakshi Khatri, Ikenna Nwaiwu, and Miguel Angel Muñoz on how they are using APIOps Cycles method to work with their teams and API products and how to use and potentially improve the method, for example, the design style guide. We even did a short hands-on session with one of the canvases in APIOps Cycles to show how it’s used. We simulated how a German team had worked on their payment APIs.

And last but not least we had a joint event with Dallas and Helsinki (and honestly, people from at least 3 continents) in October. We had a great panel with Emmelyn Wang, Bri Crow and Marjukka Niinioja answering audience questions and discussing what are the skills needed for API development and API Economy from a recruiting point of view and how does APIOps Cycles method help multi-disciplinary teams to develop better APIs with Lean startup, product management, and MVP spirit.

Want to attend, speak, or sponsor the next events? Contact the local organizers or our community support at info(at)osaango.com and join the discussion around APIOps Cycles and get tips on how to use it in our Slack (find the Join us link at https://www.apiopscycles.com/)
Go: The Idea Behind Sync.Pool
By: Ali Josie
Tags: Memory Improvement, Go, Golang, Sync Pool, Garbage Collection

I encountered a problem in Go Garbage Collection inside a project of mine recently. A massive amount of object were allocated repeatedly and caused a huge workload of GC. Using sync.Pool I was able to decrease the allocations and GC workload.

What is sync.Pool?

One of the highlights of Go 1.3 release was sync Pool. It is a component under the sync package to create a self-managed temporary retrieval object pool.

Why to use sync.Pool?

We want to keep the GC overhead as little as possible. Frequent allocation and recycling of memory will cause a heavy burden to GC. sync.Pool can cache objects that are not used temporarily and use them directly (without reallocation) when they are needed next time. This can potentially reduce the GC workload and improve the performance.

How to use sync.Pool?

First you need to set the New function. This function will be used when there is no cached object in the Pool. After that you only need using Get and Put methods to retrieve and return objects. Also a Pool must not be copied after first use.

Due to New function type, which is func() interface{} , Get method returns an interface{} . So you need to do a type assertion in order to get the concrete object.

sync.Pool example

Benchmark

sync.Pool benchmark

Benchmark result:

BenchmarkWithoutPool

BenchmarkWithoutPool-8 160698 ns/op 80001 B/op 10000 allocs/op

BenchmarkWithPool

BenchmarkWithPool-8 191163 ns/op 0 B/op 0 allocs/op

Trade-off

Everything in life is a trade-off. The Pool has also its performance cost. It is much slower to use sync.Pool than simple initialization.

Benchmarking sync.Pool and simple Allocation

Benchmark result:
¿Cuál es la diferencia entre bisexualidad y pansexualidad?
By: Re Fab
Tags: Pansexualidad, LGBTQ, Bisexual, Queer, Bisexualidad

This is a translation of an original article: What is the difference between bisexuality and pansexuality? by Nick Gomez on 23rd September, 2018.

Translation provided by @panbilover.
APIS Monthly Report #27, november 2020
By: Sophie Ha
Tags: Blockchain, Jpn, Notice, Cryptocurrency, Finance

APISplatform

Official publication for APIS, the world-first masternode…
The scars of WW2 in the Czech Republic
By: Jana Michalcova
Tags: Travel, Tours And Travels, History, Tour, World War II

It is very important to know the past. And it doesn’t matter whether it is a good past or the past that no one can be proud of. And then there are the corners of thehistory of mankind when one would have almost lost the faith in humanity or in its ability to be restored ever again. More than 75 years have passed since the end of the World War II, but there are still many places that remind us how cruel the human nature can be. Though it is not always the most pleasant visit, but since we have restored the faith in humanity ever since, we need to restore our memory. Either by listening, or by witnessing.

So, what are some places to visit outside Prague then? Actually, we can visit all of them in a one day tour — our WW2 Memorial Tour. But first let's dive into some information.

Terezín

Nazis built dozens of concentration camps throughout Europe and some of them were located also in Czech lands. The one that is opened to public as the memorial site is called Terezín (or Theresienstadt in German). Terezín was originally a 18th century fortress that became a ghetto for the Jews and a prison for political and war prisoners. Around 180.000 people walked through its gates and many of them died here. Even though Nazis never managed to install gas chambers there, living conditions and lack of food was enough to die within its thick walls.

Terezín — Small Fortress Cemetery

The Terezín memorial offers many places to see — Ghetto museum located in one of the old barrack (actually it used to be a school for Czech Jewish boys), Magdeburg barracks with the exhibition of drawings from the ghetto or a hidden synagogue that was discover only after the communism was over. There are also places showing the worst — crematorium or columbarium, where Nazis stored urns with the ashes of more than 20 thousand cremated bodies, or the nearby prison in Little Fortress.