fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Edie’s Three
By: Edie Tuck
Tags: Perception, Opinion, Top 3, Conversations, Life Lessons

Edie’s Three

My top 3 picks for the week — 09/02–09/08

I’ve been doing a lot of soul-searching lately, and it can get to be a bit overwhelming. I love that when it becomes too much, I can just sign-in to Medium and escape my own head for a little while. There’s never a shortage of inspirational, throught-provoking, comical, intellectual, and everything else in between. It’s always hard to pick favourites but these are the three that caught my attention this week!

I hope you can find some nuggets in here the way I did!

I Don’t Care What You Do — Jason Newton

Jason opens the conversation on a topic many of us, I’m sure, have inwardly rolled our eyes at a few times over the years. He talks about how our jobs do not define us, and that we need to start putting more importance on the person rather than the occupation. I couldn’t agree more — there’s a better way to get to know a person than asking about what they do. Let’s stop asking ‘What do you do?’ right away, and find a new ice-breaker, shall we?

2. Being Invisible, Is It My Superpower? — K. A. Bennett

Kerry hit me where it counts with this one. My whole life, I’ve felt rather invisible. But the older I get, the more I find that it’s not such a bad thing. Being invisible to the masses can be a blessing, and gives you more visibility with the people who matter. It really can be a super-power.

3. Fool-Proof Tips To Ace That Job Interview — Jon Peters

Last but definitely not least. I love a laugh — and I love sarcasm and dry humour. I think it’s great when we can take a not-so-nice experience and turn it into something that we can look back on and laugh, and something that will also connect to others. Not only is this piece entertaining, but I also find it relatable. Although I haven’t personally been in a position to conduct interviews, I’ve had friends who have and who can definitely relate to many of the points Jon makes in this piece. Brilliant.
The Far-Right Guide to Disrespecting the American Flag
By: Heather M. Edwards
Tags: Racism, America, Culture, Politics

The Far-Right Guide to Disrespecting the American Flag

A quick & hypocritical picture guide

If we’ve learned anything about dog-whistling in the last few years that we didn’t already know it’s that there’s nothing more “ungrateful” than a Black man kneeling during the national anthem. Many critics were quick to point out that “ungrateful” is the modern equivalent of “uppity” — as in, how dare professional athletes use their own profession and platform to express their opinions and share their values. They should be grateful for the opportunity bestowed upon them. As if the NFL isn’t a for-profit enterprise (I don’t care if they’re inexplicably still registered as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit) that is not in the business of doling out opportunities to anyone who won’t turn a profit for them.

According to jaw-clenching conservatives, no one has disrespected the American way of life and the sacrifices of U.S. troops more than Colin Kaepernick peacefully silently demonstrating for civil rights.

But despite their podium-pounding insistence that Kaepernick disrespected the flag there is absolutely zero outcry about the things that explicitly do disrespect the U.S. Flag Code.

Not even burning the flag actually disrespects the flag, according to the Supreme Court, (Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397, 1989.)

But all of the following (and many more) examples do.

Promoting your sports team:

And lest anyone accuse me of bias I’ll use my own team as an example of disrespecting the flag:

According to the website selling the above “distressed design … custom printed on a flat MDF base to mimic the rustic look of real wood”: “Put your allegiance to the Oregon Ducks on display for everyone to see with this USA Flag Cutout sign.”

2. Politicizing the theoretically apolitical non-partisan law enforcement agencies:
Happy New Year, Dear Comrades!
By: Dasha Ziborova
Tags: Russia, Memoir, Christmas, Comics, Dasha Ziborova

New Year’s used to be the most beloved holiday of the Soviet people. It was the only holiday that offered a true joy of festive traditions free from heavy communist propaganda, even though those traditions were made up and kind of weird, since the New Year’s celebration was combined with Christmas.

Before the Russian Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, Russia, along with Europe and the US, celebrated the two holidays separately.

However, after the Revolution, the Russian Orthodox Church was outlawed along with all other religions and philosophic doctrines beyond socialism, communism, and atheism.

All religious holidays were cancelled, and people got busy disassembling churches, as well as killing and imprisoning priests and believers.

One probably wouldn’t go to Gulag for putting up a decorated tree at home, but since it was strongly discouraged, my great-grandparents drew their curtains to prevent outside glimpses of their precious tree, just in case.

It was only in 1937 that the Soviet New Year’s Eve celebration was given a decorated tree and attended by Father Frost (Russian Santa) and his accomplice, Snow Maiden Snegurochka, who brought presents to Soviet children for the first time.
Edam
By: David Angell
Tags: Edam, Comics, Cartoons, Cheese

A little known story from WW2: a battalion of mice were parachuted in to occupied territory. They were fondly referred to as the Dam Munchers. 🐭 (this may not be true)
Why we invested in xDAI Chain
By: Peter
Tags: Xdai, Poa, Metacartel Ventures, Venture Dao, Mcv

Why we invested in xDAI Chain

Supporting the grassroots scaling solution.

“The ones who will win knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces” — Sun Tzu, Art of War

Today, we are announcing our investment and stake (no pun intended) in the xDAI network ($STAKE), an EVM POS chain that aims to address Ethereum’s problems of high gas fees and tx congestion.

It is capable of handling Ethereum’s transactional volume during peak hours while remaining 100% permissionless and compatible with EVM/Solidity.

Venture DAO will be operating a validator node, participating in the long term governance of the chain, and play a key role in securing xDAI’s token bridges to the Ethereum mainnet.

We believe xDAI to be one of the only immediately effective scaling solution for the Ethereum DApp ecosystem today.

Teams aren’t only looking for a technology solution but also a community of builders that are value and ethos aligned. You cannot buy community.

No amount of grants funding can win passion and true grassroots enthusiasm.

We believe that bridged sidechains to mainnet Ethereum will be abundant and that xDAI will play an important immediate role in scaling DApps and providing the most approachable solution for most Ethereum developers.

xDAI’s relationship with the Ethereum ecosystem

The project was initially launched during the first EthBerlin in 2018, and has since become a defacto solution for rapid transactions and lower value usecases. Some of xDAI’s earlier pilots include Austin Griffith and David Mihal’s work around ETHDenver’s foodtrucks (both during 2018 & 2019).

It’s also seen adoption by early OG Ethereum games such as Clovers Network by Billy Rennekamp, and SlugRoad by SlugKing. Uniswap v1 has also been successfully deployed on xDAI by the 1Hive team, with v2 in the works. Today, a range of projects are using/making migration to xDAI, including: DAOhaus, MetaCartel DAO, PowerPool, SpankChain and Aragon (1Hive).

For a more technical take addressing xDAI’s security concerns, read fellow Venture DAO member, Ameen Soleimani’s post on “Why xDAI (STAKE) deserves to win Reddit’s Scalability bakeoff challenge”
Byzantine Failure — 블록체인 개발이 어려운 이유
By: Seulgi Kim
Tags: Failure Model, Blockchain, Planet, Byzantine

in In Fitness And In Health
The Limit
By: J.D. Harms
Tags: Poetry, Relationships, Illumination Curated, Image, Others

The Limit

A Poem

Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash

And still there is a wall beside you

and you do not tell me

to climb over, to reinvent myself

Or you have written these notes

on paper towel sheets

shredded them up with the pencil

as you wrote

and now I must begin the deciphering

I see you at your limit

and I keep climbing higher hills

to keep track of what you’re doing

I want to be braver

maybe packed with a few more muscles

I want to be hard

and armed with your face always on me

I resist the walls

but pushing with my broken hands

doesn’t move a damned thing

I want to bring you

to my limit, but I fear you with think

it’s a trap

to get you in front of your fort

Reconnaissance continues

and the belligerent words that always

make themselves felt

begin their pooling now

The bags of supplies whisper and tremble

on the invisible boundaries

the triumph or failure of one side

will mean some eating later

and I try to get past the strategies and hope
If You Have to Use Power Plays to Feel Safe, You’re Dating the Wrong Person
By: Ellen Nguyen
Tags: Relationships, Self, Dating, Power, Love

Every relationship has a power dynamic.

In healthy relationships, two partners have equal or close-to-equal power. It means that both partners have similar abilities to exert influence over the relationship, and this influence is generally positive and reciprocal.

Though, the power can come from different sources. For example, one partner might have better financial power while the other has more social power. These different power sources are respected and valued by both partners, which creates a healthy balance in the relationship.

On the other hand, some relationships can have an imbalance of power. An example is a relationship between a woman in her early twenties and a middle-aged man.

Assuming that he’s ahead in his career, has more money and social connections, he has more power than her, and thus more influence (or control) over the relationship. He’ll usually be the one who decides where to live, what to do, and who does what.

As a result, the relationship will likely serve him better than it does her. She’ll struggle to challenge the status quo to meet her changing needs. If he abuses his power and acts disrespectfully towards her, it’ll be hard for her to set things right or leave.
Freckles
By: Laura Culberg
Tags: Self Help, Self Improvement, Healing, Pets, Change

Photo by Adam Grabek on Unsplash

I recently cashed in all of my work credit card points to buy a ticket to Oakland to get my sister’s dog. I bought a stupidly expensive and impractical ticket leaving Friday, returning Saturday to meet a deep need I didn’t fully understand. I just knew that I wanted to bring Freckles the dog into my life.

I arrived around 7 pm on Friday with enough time to hang with Freckles and my sister, collect his bed and a few of his belongings, stuff him into a too-small soft travel kennel, and get on a noon flight Saturday. When I arrived in Seattle I freed Freckles from the too-small kennel and we headed for light rail. I planned to walk the mile and change to my house but Freckles was simply too tired so we got on the bus. When we got home Freckles, severely overweight and out of shape, was limping and exhausted. So, I did what any good dog owner would do — I gave him a long bath. That night we had the biggest thunder and lightning storm in recent history and Freckles spent his first night squeezed between me and my partner Nancy with Nancy holding her hands over his ears and me rubbing his fat tushy. It was a really hard day and night for Freckles, but he woke up the next morning ready to start the day anew with a walk and few naps between morning and evening meals.

This is a strange time in my life. My daughter is in high school and it feels like she’s in college. I never see her and when I do, it’s fleeting and unfocused. But I know she’s happy and doing what she’s supposed to do. I’ve been doing my job for close to twenty years, a whole generation of my life. The yoga studio mostly runs itself and I have time to explore new creative and spiritual passions. Why in this time of newfound freedom do I want a dog?

Today I went on a walk with Freckles. Then I brought him to a meeting. Then he came to work with me. Then the bank. He’s sitting right here as I type this. The obvious answer to why I chose to bring Freckles into my life is to fill a void, to refocus my need to take care of someone, and to be in charge. And there is that. But there’s also the pure joy that comes from my new little sidekick who simply is exactly who he is. He doesn’t look at his phone when we take a walk. He isn’t distracted by work or friends or money. Seeing Freckles live every moment as he does is just what I need. In this time of constant change and the potential to get highjacked by things I have no control over, it helps to check in with the energy Freckles brings. It’s not that complicated, his eyes tell me — some food, a walk, maybe a nap, more food, and a good night’s rest. Then do it all again tomorrow. Thanks, Freckles.
Mothers: Paying Forward & Reaching Back
By: Ann Litts
Tags: Mothers, Grandmother, Family, Love, Christmas

Five Generations of Love

My Mom — Author’s Photo

January 2018:

This week it was forty six-years since my mother died. She loved Christmas and had the strength of will to die on the day after Epiphany, thus saving all of us from associating her death with the Christmas season. My mother was just cool like that.

She was cool in a lot of ways. Her own mother died when she was fifty, I was about seven. I remember my mother going to stay with her siblings at my grandmother’s house the last week of my grandmother’s life. They all gathered around her and took care of her. My grandmother birthed her own hospice unit. Two daughters and four sons, with associated spouses — who cared for her on her death bed. They left their own families and helped their mother transition from this life to the next in the comfort of her own home.

My mother was a wonderful daughter and a wonderful mother. In the twelve years I had her, she loved me so well, it has lasted me for the whole of my life. She taught me how to be a mother. And that gift has passed through me to my daughters.

My younger daughter produced my granddaughters and is cut from the same cloth as her grandmother. I hear my mother’s patience in the sound of her voice. But I can also hear the echo of my mother when my daughter adds a sharp “capisce?” when her instructions are not followed. My mother used to punctuate many a sentence with that same word throughout my childhood.

Both my daughters reach back to me with love and affection. They show me the kind of care and respect I remember my mother giving to my grandmother. Even though they never had the chance to see me reach back to my own mother, somehow, they know.

Innately, they know.
Windows 7 and the Microsoft Strategic Commander
By: Eric Vanderburg
Tags: Strategic Commander, Windows 7, Drivers

Microsoft released one of the greatest gaming controllers with the Strategic Commander back in 2001. The controller fits perfectly in your left hand so that your right hand can still use a mouse. It has six programmable buttons and three shift keys for 24 possible combinations. Besides the buttons is zoom bar that allows you to zoom in and out. The entire unit swivels on a base so that you can change orientation in a game. A toggle switch on the side allows you to change modes. Three modes can be programmed giving you 72 possible programmable buttons. Using their Sidewinders software you can assign complex actions to the buttons such as shift and 1 or a series of steps like shift + 1 and then alt + C. You might wonder how this could be useful so let me explain.

You are playing a real time strategy game and you want to build a barracks to produce units. Normally you would click on a free worker and then select build structure and then select the barracks. There are key combinations to perform each of these tasks but most of us do not memorize all of them. Some gamers might memorize the last one which in this case I will assume to be the letter B. With the strategic commander you can do all that with the press of one button. Program a button to execute Shift + A to select an available worker then S for build structure and then B for the barracks. It is easy to see how this controller can improve your gameplay.

The strategic commander can also be used for regular windows tasks. The programming works in the same way. You can set a button to open your favorite programs or copy, paste, delete. Photoshop users can program macros into the buttons to perform edits quickly. The device is really amazing.

You’re probably wondering why you’ve never heard of it if it’s so great. Well, Microsoft discontinued the device in 2003 citing poor sales as the reason. Still, enthusiasts created drivers for Windows XP and then Vista and now Windows 7. For Windows 7 you can use a driver called ATK0110 ACPI Utility (Download for Vista works on Windows 7) and software called Strategic Engine to program it.

So for those of you with strategic commanders, dust them and use them again. If you don’t have one an eBay search will still turn up results.
In Blue
By: Tasha Lane
Tags: Poetry, Haiku, Poem, Poems On Medium, Poetry On Medium

Here you’ll find the bits and pieces that don’t really fit anywhere else. A place for everything and anything!

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DesignOps at Cisco Umbrella: Delivery
By: Claudia Love
Tags: Product Design, Ux Leadership, UX, Designops

In my article Six months as a DesignOps manager, I discuss how I think of DesignOps having three main pillars: process and tools, team, and delivery. This post is about the third pillar.

An all-star team and a great process do not matter if designers are unable to deliver great experiences. Whether is design or research, UX professionals are responsible for performing activities and producing artifacts that enable the organization to deliver value to customers and users.

These are what I consider delivery traits of a high-performing design team:

Designers produce the right artifacts at the right time

There is a myriad of artifacts that designers can produce. This doesn’t mean that they should use them all, all the time. Artifacts (or deliverables) are meant to record work that has happened and to communicate concepts and ideas. A good designer knows which deliverables to produce at what time depending on the type of work and the audience. This includes choosing the right level of fidelity for mockups and prototypes.

Designers are not blocking engineering

This gets into the whole “agile and UX” conversation which is a much broader topic I’m not going to get into. All I can say is, I’ve worked in both agile and waterfall organizations, and there is always the possibility of engineering getting blocked by design — whether it’s waiting for specs, UI reviews, test results, etc. As a manager, I consider a designer’s ability to keep the engineering team moving as a key performance indicator.

In general…

Engineers can’t deliver great experiences without design, and designers can’t deliver great experiences without engineering.

Designers stay involved through project delivery and post-delivery

Once the UI has been implemented and it looks and works well, designers are typically tempted to move on to the next big thing. A good designer, however, knows that the stage of a project that goes from engineering implementation to actual delivery of a product or feature is critical because it’s an opportunity to measure success and continue to iterate.

Finally, a note on design systems

Design systems are a delivery catalyzer. They enable designers to produce better artifacts faster and reduce friction during the designer-developer hand-off. Building a design system and a well-oiled process around it is a whole sub-domain of DesignOps.
Yes, I’m black. No, I don’t eat chicken.
By: Shamontiel L. Vaughn
Tags: Black History Month, Race, Racism, Stereotypes, Food

When another co-worker friend of mine at the same job (also a black woman) asked if I would help her plan a Black History Month party, I was 100 percent on board. This sounded like so much fun. We were taking monetary donations and/or food contributions, whichever guests preferred. A white female co-worker sent an email asking, “What do you bring to a Black History Month party?” I didn’t miss a beat before I sent out a flood of soul food options. My friend shrugged, saying she would’ve sent the same response if I hadn’t responded already.

Shortly after, we both received a lengthy email from a black male co-worker, complaining about stereotypical foods and how this party was an insult to all things black. I rolled my eyes. He was every possible characteristic of a hotep, who always felt the need to send me spoken word poetry emails and talk about a bunch of nothing every single time he saw me. I found him painfully annoying and would take a different hallway to get away from him. But I never expected him to get so mad over a list of soul food items. I barked back that if he had a problem with black folks liking soul food, then that’s on him. That’s something we have historically made for centuries, so why would we not have it?

My annual vegetarian Thanksgiving: Hot water cornbread, dressing, sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese, collard greens, green beans and potatoes, cranberry sauce (Photo credit: Shamontiel L. Vaughn)

Why would he get so mad about something that was clearly so common? I responded that I would lose no sleep if he didn’t come. If he was insecure about soul food, that’s on him. (It wasn’t until weeks later that I played devil’s advocate with my own opinion: Could the sista who assumed I must eat chicken feel the same way? Touche.)

My co-worker friend emailed him back, encouraging him to come and said she was comfortable with my food choices, but he was welcome to bring whatever he preferred. I rolled my eyes, still hoping he’d take the day off. The last thing I wanted was someone spoiling what would be a positive and educational day to celebrate with a diverse group of people. I’d never been to a Black History Month party, never mind helped to organize one. (Four years later, I found out what Juneteenth was and celebrated it in a major way.)

I shook my head when he showed up to the party with hummus, crackers and a few black history T-shirts. He refused to come sit or hang out with the hundreds who came and went, and I was relieved. Let him be mad by his damn self. Our party was a success.
10 Awesome Chrome Flags You Should Enable Right Now
By: Sanjeet Chatterjee
Tags: Programming, Technology, Browsers, Google Chrome, JavaScript

10 Awesome Chrome Flags You Should Enable Right Now

Enhance your browsing experience with these experimental features

Image source: Author

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could magically upgrade your browser with features not known to the average Chrome user?

Below are ten Chrome flags that help you to do just that.

Chrome Flags are experimental features that aren’t yet enabled by default. To enable these, see chrome://flags. The flags stated below may be in the pipeline for official release in the near future. However, as of writing, they are still in testing.
Hack Your Career: How to Use Data to Monitor Job Markets
By: Alice Corona
Tags: Job Hunting, Growth Hacking, Data Visualization

I recently gave a tutorial on how monitor job markets by scraping data from AngelList and pushing it into the data publishing platform Silk. Here’s the step-by-step tutorial on how to analyse the growth hacker job market to see who’s hiring and to discover employment hubs, most requested skills, average salary and most common job benefits.

(Of course, this isn’t just useful for growth hacker jobs. You could insert any other job description and follow the same instructions to create your own Silk research tool for jobs for data scientists, Java developers, HR specialists, or anything else.)

Note: Silk has been discontinued as of Dec. 15th 2017 so links are broken and visualizations are static. Will replace them asap.

Here’s our full end result, rich with insights and interactive data visualizations to explore the growth hacker job market according to AngelList. Use it as inspiration and replicate with other jobs!
SynapseInteractive — Your ultimate Internet marketing company in India
By: Sajiv Kumar
Tags: Synapseinteractive, Digital Marketing Company, Internet Marketing Agency, Internet Marketing Expert, Internet Marketing Firm

SynapseInteractive is the ultimate Internet marketing company in India that offers complete Internet marketing services to clients from a diverse range of industry verticals encompassing real estate, healthcare, education, retail and wholesale, beauty and spa, law, automobiles, aviation, and many more. We understand that the success of your online venture is fully dependent on how effectively it is promoted and marketed on the Internet. Our Internet marketing services cover SEO, SMO, PPC, brand reputation management, and complete SEO consultancy. Do you want to attract more potential customers to your website? If yes, then you need our specialized Internet marketing services! For all your Internet marketing needs, please contact SynapseInteractive.

Follow us on Pinterest: SynapseInteractive Internet Marketing Company

Learn more: Internet Marketing Company PPT or Internet Marketing Company Video
Winter Comforts
By: Jane Woodman
Tags: Dogs, Poetry, Love, Winter, Free Verse

Winter Comforts

free verse for contentment

Author’s beloved Snowball in his last summer

these are the days of music

of light from every corner

when even our neighbor who scowls

changes his porch light for red

it glows on the snow

deepening on his sidewalk

where tiny dogs pass by

in sweaters against the cold

our old deaf dog

curled tightly in his bed

rouses himself to bark

at the moon’s silent passing

its light makes dark beauty

of the tree where in summer

five kinds of birds nest

in its hollow places

we who have the privilege

to love old dogs and moonlight

have no hollow places

just music and each other’s eyes
Majestic Rainbow
By: Ivette Cruz
Tags: Poetry, Nature, Haiku, Life, Inspiration

Sign up for American Haiku Steamship To Writing History

By American Haiku

Writing takes practice. American Haiku is a great way to put your words from your fingers to your piece of paper. Don't quit, you can do it. Take a look
Recycled
By: Finding Fina
Tags: Poetry, Poetry On Medium, Life, Love, Poem

Recycled

Recycled is focused on sharing old stories made anew.
Redeploy, retool, realign: Leaders adapt to survive “the new normal”
By: Susie Hall
Tags: Design Leadership, Aquentinsideout, Learning And Development, Productivity Hacks, Reorganization

The Covid-19 crisis is dynamic, impacting revenue streams and workflows that require in-house leaders to adapt or be left behind. To respond, resourceful leaders are looking for new ways to do more with less and find the talent they need to deliver on complex projects.

Our InsideOut Community recently met to discuss how they’re making the most of available resources to stay ahead and deliver results for the business. Following are some actionable tips from design and operations leaders who joined our Chicago, NY and Seattle roundtables at the end of April.

Redeploy Staff — Inside and Outside the Company

The changes required for a firm to survive a pandemic go beyond simple efficiency tactics used to increase ROI. Industrious leaders are looking to other internal teams or even other companies to share talented team members. Insights from the infusion of fresh talent can generate new ideas and enable companies to retain critical staff through the crisis. Here are two redeployment methods that can help:
Here’s What I’ve Learned About the Diversity Pipeline Problem
By: Lorena Pacheco Scott
Tags: Inclusion, HR, Diversity In Tech, Programming, Women In Tech

Here’s What I’ve Learned About the Diversity Pipeline Problem

After lots of chats and failures

Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash

You may have heard the following statement when it comes to hiring a more diverse team: It’s a pipeline problem. My understanding of the pipeline problem argument goes something like this: “There aren’t enough qualified x (insert any underrepresented group here) out there, so it’s not our fault if we don’t hire them.”

I find this to be such an antistartup viewpoint to hold. I’ve yet to come across a startup without a huge amount of obstacles to overcome. Nothing is easy, and their founders love defying the odds. Startups are founded and built despite the stats that they’ll fail and all the naysayers and nos.

And yet for all the challenges entrepreneurs must overcome, why do they simply accept this hiring challenge without a hard, thoughtful fight? My hope is that founders will be as resilient about constructing a diverse team as they are about building their product and strategy.

Beat your competition in attracting a disproportionate amount of a diverse talent pool by reframing the problem. What if this is a hiring and employee-experience challenge instead of a pipeline issue. Here are a few thoughts on how to rethink your employee journey.
Use the BitBox02 with Electrum wallet
Tags: Open Source, Security, Wallet, Electrum, Bitcoin

Use the BitBox02 with Electrum wallet Stadicus Follow Jul 9 · 8 min read

BitBox02 ❤️ Electrum: part 1

This is the start of our Electrum article series. In this post we explain how to use the Electrum wallet together with your BitBox02 hardware wallet. It is written for advanced users, so we go a bit more into details.

Electrum

The Electrum wallet is a powerful Bitcoin light client for Windows, Mac and Linux. It connects to an Electrum server of your choice and offers many advanced features. It can be used as a pure software wallet, with the private keys stored on your computer, but it also works very well with many leading hardware wallets.

Note: Electrum wallet is a third-party application. We don’t have control over the development and distribution of the software and can’t provide any guarantees.

Install

To get the latest release of Electrum, download and install it from the official website https://www.electrum.org. Double-check the domain name to avoid installing malware. If you want to be sure that you got an official release, follow the instructions to verify the GPG signatures.

Choose your server wisely

When first starting Electrum, you need to choose the server to connect to. You can either select “Auto connect” and use a random server, or manually select a server. Before going further, let’s quickly examine what Electrum servers are.

Electrum does not communicate with the Bitcoin network directly. Instead, it relies on Electrum servers that are indexing the Bitcoin blockchain and provide all relevant information — like transaction details, address balances or fee estimates — to the Electrum wallet.

You need to trust the server you use to a certain extent. It learns about your total Bitcoin holdings and past transactions, and can cluster all your various Bitcoin addresses. It is safe to assume that blockchain analytics companies run Electrum servers to gather information about Bitcoin transactions and address clusters.

This is why we strongly recommend to only use Electrum connected to a server you know and trust. The best way to achieve this is to run your own server, either locally with Electrum Personal Server if you already run Bitcoin Core on your computer, as a DIY solution like the RaspiBolt on a Raspberry Pi, or using a commercially available Bitcoin node.

If you choose manual server selection, provide your connection data on the next screen.
Our Sacred Little World of Dying
By: Anna Moriartylev
Tags: Cancer, Anna Moriarty Lev, Comics, Love, Family

Spiralbound

Comics for life, brought to life by Edith Zimmerman.
Waves in the Sea of Possibilities
By: White Feather
Tags: Philosophy, Spirituality, Life, Essay, Advice

Somewhere there is a drama playing out as a result of actions one took in the past. While one may be far from the ensuing drama one is connected to it thanks to the energy one put into it long ago. Somewhere a story comes together that is partially written by you even though you are not there and not even aware of the story. But our role in the creation of the story ties us to it and allows us access if we choose to connect.

Likewise, our actions today create the basis for stories to be played out whether or not we are around to witness those stories as they unfold in the future. We tend not to think of these possibilities but to become aware of the possibilities our actions create, we see a broader view of our actions and we can change our actions with this in mind. Every change of action creates a whole new field of possibilities upon which stories will be written.

Our lives are like a boat flowing through the sea of possibilities leaving a wake that flows out over the sea affecting more than we are aware of since our attention is up ahead in the boat. As our boat continues flowing through the sea, changing course over time we eventually come across the wakes we left behind and see the stories built on the energy we left behind.

As we live we create waves. These waves travel the sea of possibilities as do we. It is inevitable that we come across the results of the waves we create. Waves go out in all directions so we can come across these waves in the past, present, or future. And when we do, we come across one part of the wave while the rest of the wave spreads outward without us experiencing it directly. To experience the totality of the wave we must become the wave. To experience all of a wave can take several lifetimes and many focuses within the sea of possibilities.

Every wave eventually subsides into the sea yet each new action creates another wave. Thus we are constantly creating new stories that come to life, with or without us, somewhere in the All That Is. Being aware of our actions in this way we can imbue them with as much unconditional love as possible and thereby impact and change the world.
The Difference Between Function and Block Scope in JavaScript
By: Joe Cardillo
Tags: JavaScript, Web Development, Coding, Learning To Code, Programming

The difference between var, let and const variables

There are three ways to declare variables in JS:

var width = 100;

let height = 200;

const key = 'abc123';

var

What is unique about var ? It can be reassigned and updated. For example:

// Define the variable:

var width = 100;

// Call the variable:

width; // It returns:

100 // Reassign the variable and call it again:

width = 200;



width; // Returns:

200

var variables are ‘function scope.’ What does this mean? It means they are only available inside the function they’re created in, or if not created inside a function, they are ‘globally scoped.’

If var is defined inside a function and I subsequently try to call it outside the function, it won’t work.

For example:

function setWidth(){

var width = 100;

console.log(width);

}

width; // Returns:

Uncaught ReferenceError: width is not defined
Ecdysis ~ Nwuguru Chidiebere Sullivan
By: Chigozie Nelson
Tags: Poetry, Poetry On Medium, Poetry Writing

Photo by Teddy tavan from Pexels

In my body, depression feigns piety as a muse

And drags my fingers through the lines of manuscripts

_

Every breath is an incision on my corpse

With a six-inch skewer.

_

I do not fear death, but each time night crawls towards me

I begin to wonder how many times I will repeat death before sunrise.

_

I part my body into doors

Unfold my palms into knobs

Shape my legs into hinges

_

I wish to show myself a way of walking into a new thing

Anytime I’m done dying for a particular purpose.

_

I say my prayers; asking God for an ecdysis

That’s how I beg Him for mercies.

_

Father says we become men by growing out of needing pity

And I’m silently learning how to tuck my shadows into the breast pocket of gloom

Without inviting the eavesdropping ears.

_

Depression is how you summarize the portfolios of death with a word,

It’s a way of atoning death with too many abbreviated lives.

_

What this implies is that depression is death with an ellipsis.

__________

Nwuguru Chidiebere Sullivan is an emerging writer from Ebonyi state, Nigeria. He’s a penultimate medical laboratory science student who explores medicine in the day and worships literature at night. His works have appeared or are forthcoming in several literary journals; both online and printed. He was the winner of 2018, FUNAI CREW Literary Contest.
Why Namespaces Are Important
By: Nick Plante
Tags: Ruby, Software Development

Apparently both Extlib and the Mash library, which the latest version of the Twitter gem relies on, both define Mash as a top-level class. This is lame.

It means that if you’re building an app that uses the Twitter gem to poll their API, you can’t use DataMapper (which relies on Extlib) for your ORM. This is but one example of an affected application, of course (retweet stack trace). Integrity’s twitter notification support is another victim. Epic namespacing fail.

So whose fault is this? The Mash library? Extlib? Which came first? Which is more widely used? OMFG fight!

Seriously, who cares? If you’re asking yourself these questions you’re missing the point.

module Org

module Zerosum

module Util

class CollisionPrevention

def initialize

puts "gtfo"

end

end

end

end

end

Java users, and consumers of other modern programming languages, figured out why namespacing was important a long time ago. In fact, one of the few things I actually liked from the Java world was it’s use of hierarchal domain names in packages to ensure class name uniqueness and prevent this sort of ugly namespace collision. It’s simple and effective. And yet we don’t see a strategy like this in use in Ruby gems all that often. It’s not like Ruby doesn’t provide us with a mechanism for it; Modules provide a really easy way to accomplish this. So why aren’t we taking advantage of it in our libraries?

I don’t mean to single out Extlib and Mash in my rant here — I’m just picking on them because they happen to demonstrate an obvious problem that we’ve all run into on occasion. Hell, I’m guilty of it too. Anyway, the bottom line is, that if you intend your code to be sucked into someone else’s application and reused, please do your best to prevent obvious namespace collisions. It’s as easy as A::B::C (or Tld::Domain::Feature::Specification).

Thanks for listening! :)
Collect for the Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost
By: Alan Bentrup
Tags: Church

O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Readings for this week:

Exodus 17:1–7

Psalm 78:1–4, 12–16

Philippians 2:1–13

Matthew 21:23–32
PRICE OF OmiseGO IN INDIA (OMG INR)
By: Abhey Arora
Tags: Crypto, Omisego, Omg, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin

OmiseGO is a decentralized exchange and clearing house network built on top of the Ethereum distributed ledger.

OMG / INR combination is one of the most popular virtual currency pair in the cryptocurrency world. OmiseGo launched on July 15 2017. An Opening price of Omisego was INR 24.83. OmiseGo all time high because of its feature of solution to the co-ordination problem between payment processors and financial gateways and financial institutions.

In September 2017 the Price of OmiseGo in INR reached at 827.64

The demand of the OmiseGo is high and is currently the fourth highest market cap. As It enables financial transactions including “payments, remittances, payroll deposit, B2B commerce, supply-chain finance, loyalty programs, asset management and trading and other on-demand services.

For some moment in November it reached at it’s lowest price of OmiseGo in INR 409.62 ,Then again its price boomed and reached at max.value of OmiseGo in INR 1,177.18 in November

The price of OMG fluctuated but it closed the year 2017 with OmiseGo in INR 1,273.52

OMG Coin Entered into Year 2018 with an opening price of OmiseGo in INR was 1,251.29 and its value fluctuated accordingly but still it maintained its position in top 10 cryptocurrencies not only in India but in the world too.

To know the current rate and to buy OmiseGo at best rate in India you can check BuyUcoin rate page
DeFi hacker loots $ 8 million
Tags: Fintech, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Crypto, Defi

DeFi hacker loots $ 8 million

Nexus Mutual was created to protect DeFi investors against hacks. Now the CEO of the platform himself has fallen victim to an attack.

A spectacular hack caused a sensation in the DeFi space. The team from the DeFi platform Nexus Mutual announced the theft of 370,000 NXMs by tweet on December 14th. The platform’s own tokens come from a private wallet owned by Nexus CEO Hugh Karp. On Monday, it was worth $ 8.2 million.

Nexus Mutual acts as a community solution to minimize risk in the DeFi sector. Investors can secure their smart contracts there against hacks and errors. The renewed attack is, therefore, not without a certain irony. Meanwhile, the Nexus Mutual team assured that user deposits were not affected by the attack.

Hacker was cunning

It appears that the attacker gained access to Karp’s device. There he installed a modified version of the MetaMask wallet service. Although Karp stored his tokens in a hardware wallet, the hacker was able to trick him into a transaction to confirm who sent all of his NXM tokens to the attackers.

Meanwhile, it is explosive that only registered Nexus Mutual users are able to receive NXM tokens and convert them into the freely exchangeable variant wrapped NXM (wNXM). The hacker must have gone through the platform’s know-your-customer procedure. Since his identity has still not been established, identity theft does not seem to be ruled out. Karp and his team work together with the investigative authorities. There is evidence that he was able to determine the attacker’s IP.

4,500 ethers as ransom

Karp had already congratulated the hacker on his dubious success on Monday. In a tweet, he promised a reward of $ 300,000 and the waiver of a display in return for returning the tokens.

However, the hacker has other plans. According to transaction data, $ 2.7 million has already been laundered. In a message dated December 16, which was included in the input data of an Ether transaction, he asked for $ 3 million as a ransom for the remaining tokens:

Hi Hugh. I will not sell wNXM anymore until wNXM regains its value or you send me 4.5k ETH. If you need any kind of negotiation with me, send a msg [message] to my eth address.

As a result of the hack, the wNXM course had stumbled for the past few days. The sudden sale of such a large amount of tokens could push the price even further towards zero.

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The Four Archetypes of the Complete Design Leader
By: Joy Kong
Tags: Design Leadership, Leadership, Design Operations, Organizational Culture, Careers

Talk highlights from Peter Merholz at the Design Leadership Summit 2019

Leadership is about leverage. Design leaders need to provide leverage. It is about how you enable your team and broader organization to do great work. You need to develop skills that allow you to leverage. At the end of day, design leadership is more talking than doing.

Coach, diplomat, champion, and architect are the four archetypes of the complete design leader. Moving from a designer mindset to a design leader mindset, this framework is to help design leaders navigate their new roles and responsibilities.

Coach: get the most out of your team

If you aren’t pissing your team off, you are not doing your job.

Articulate a vision for success. Tell the broad story. Focus on the outcome, not the output. Let the team figure out the details.

Set clear expectations on what quality looks alike. If you see bad design, it’s probably you didn’t set the right expectations.

Providing guidance. Lead constructive critique… and speak last.

Team stuck? Reframe the problem — how can they tackle it from a different point of view through another workshop?

Let them mess up. Let the folks learn from their mistakes and develop that muscles, so they do not rely on your inputs.

Hold them accountable. make clear what’s acceptable, don’t dodge difficult conversations.
ARK Announces a MarketSquare Partnership with Bosagora
Tags: Marketsquare, Bosagora, Ark, Blockchain, Partnerships

As we approach the launch of MarketSquare, we want to give our community an inside look at some of the partnerships we have formed. These strategic partnerships will not only help make MarketSquare the new homepage for the decentralized web but will also create inroads between ARK and other projects looking to build and collaborate together. Today we would like to introduce you to Bosagora.

Background on Bosagora

Bosagora was launched in South Korea in 2017 and was regarded as the very first Korean ICO. The project is managed by the Bosagora Foundation which was established on April 7, 2017 in Zug, Switzerland. BOS Platform Foundation Korea (BPF Korea), which has 100% ownership of the Foundation develops and promotes BOSAGORA’s underlying technical protocol and applications.

BOSAGORA’s vision is to make a better world with blockchain technology as a project enabler. Underlying values upheld by BOSAGORA are democracy, legitimacy, fairness, transparency and efficiency. BOSAGORA uses a Modified Federated Byzantine Agreement (mFBA) consensus algorithm based on Stellar’s Consensus Protocol (FBA). Agora protocol is based on PoS and is a full node based on open membership, meaning that the network is open to anyone who is willing to participate and earn incentives.

Learn more about Bosagora by reading their Whitepaper

BOSAGORA’s distinctive feature lies in the public financing of project proposals using the Commons Budget. The members of the Congress can vote on what proposals are attractive and doable and support two types of proposals, system and funding proposals.

MarketSquare & Bosagora

One of the driving forces behind MarketSquare is the idea that all projects and businesses can build communities together. Bosagora is one of the first projects onboarded onto MarketSquare and they already have plans on how they would like to utilize the platform.

Like many projects in the industry, Bosagora has multiple sources where community members research and learn about their project. With MarketSquare they hope to create one central spot where new users can discover Bosagora and have access to all their information and social links in one convenient place. In addition, they are looking forward to connecting and interacting with the MarketSquare community once social features are enabled. The team at Bosagora will also be looking to list bounties on the MarketSquare platform that will incentivize people to interact with their project, as they are heavily involved in campaigns and events that promote and practice UN SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals).

As our partnership develops we will explore additional ways to continue working together and consider our new partnership a great first step.