fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Facing My Shame
By: Jennifer Loring
Tags: Mental Illness, Ocd, Dermatillomania, Mental Health

I was able to hide my excoriation disorder pretty well until my late twenties. I lived alone a lot, or with people who were frequently not home. As soon as they were gone, I’d run to the bathroom and start digging into my face. I’d keep lights low, or sit a certain way so no one could see where I’d been doing the most picking. If someone asked why my face was so blotchy and red, I’d make an excuse. I have sensitive skin, so it wasn’t too hard to come up with something that sounded like a reasonably rational explanation.

Then, in April 2005, I met the man who would become my husband.

Excoriation disorder isn’t one of those things that comes up over dinner. Or ever, if you can help it. Literally no one in my life up to that point knew what I’d been dealing with. My future husband was already taking on someone with dysthymia and two anxiety disorders — what more could I ask from him?

I don’t remember exactly how he discovered my disorder, not the way I remember being a ten-year-old staring into the bathroom mirror and pressing my fingernails into my face for the first time. But when you live in a small apartment with your romantic partner for many years, it becomes almost impossible to hide. I tried to explain it to him but left out the OCD part. It felt like too much. “Stop picking your face,” he still admonishes me, as if in the past three decades the only thing preventing me from doing that is a stern lecture. If only it were that easy. This being America, I can’t afford more of the cognitive behavioral/exposure therapy that worked so well for my anxiety disorders. And I already know that my primary care physician will insist on my going to a psychiatrist for OCD treatment rather than prescribe something herself. I have yet to find a psychiatrist in this city who charges less than $250 an hour and takes insurance. (I did my previous round of therapy through an adult anxiety clinic at a local university.)

So, as many of us with mental illness, I’m fighting this one alone.
100 Funny Programmer Quotes
Tags: Humor, Software Development, Coding, Software Engineering, Programming

100 Funny Programmer Quotes

For when coffee isn’t enough to bring a smile to your face

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

As I was looking for some useful coding quotes, I discovered many funny ones. Enjoy reading them — I thought these should be compiled together.

Most are from other sources (as per linked), with the exception of a handful that are my own.

I have separated them down into:

Hope you enjoy at least some of them!
There is Only Poetry
By: Jenny Justice
Tags: Spirituality, Expression, Writing, Life, Poetry

There are no experts,

Only poets are worth listening to.

There no moral authorities,

Poetry has always been the language of spirituality, of God.

There are no politicians, no leaders,

Poetry has always been the arbiter of truth, of law.

Poetry is how you know what love is,

Poetry is how you know what humanness is,

Poetry is how you know what life is.

There are pieces of heaven here,

Every day

In each moment.

And if the poets don’t point them out

Who will?

There are ways through, ways above, ways to rise

Every day

In each moment.

And if the poets don’t show us the way

Who will?

There is nothing that can move

As many, as quickly, as deeply.

There is only poetry.

It is everywhere,

It is in every one.

Just listen.
Cross platform Mobile Apps
Tags: Outsystems, Mobile App Developers, Flutter, Mobile App Development, Kotlin

Hi everyone.

Today I would like to share Correlation diagram of those platform for developing mobile applications.

Cordova

Outsystems

ReatcNative

Flutter

Kotlin/Native

Correlation diagram

I summarized those applications as the following correlation diagram.

The first major category are Native UI or Non- Native UI.

Then, in Non-native UI, we can categorize Original UI and Web UI. It means Non-Native UI consists 2types.

Original UI: Rendering with original UI

Web UI: Rendering on web view

Let’s see each group!

Native UI

Platforms in this group compile source code to generate a bundle file for iOS and Android.

So they would be generated.

iOS→UITableView

Android→ListView

Therefore, the performance is same with other platforms.

Original UI

Flutter is categorized to this group.

Flutter compiles the source code and generates a bundle file for each iOS&Android.

Flutter uses Skia Graphics library as rendering engine and Google chrome also use it.

Web UI

Cordova and Outsystems are catogorized in this group.

The group’s platform is configured to generate only a WebView natively on iOS&Android and render the UI on that WebView using HTML/CSS/JavaScript.

The advantage is that they use a familiar web technology.

Comparison

Comparison

Non-Native Platform such as Cordova and fultter has more libraries which made by 3rd party because they cannot use native library

On the other hand, ReactNative has less libraries which made by 3rd party because it can use native library.

Summary

Technology used in the background

Universal technology or not

Easy to get support and information or not

Necessity to develop web app or not

Depending on the app development situation described above, which platform to choose is different.

Thank you for reading.
200 universities just launched 560 free online courses. Here’s the full list.
By: Dhawal Shah
Tags: Programming, Startup, Self Improvement, Technology, Education

In the past three month alone, more than 200 universities have announced 560 such free online courses. I’ve compiled this list below and categorized the courses into the following subjects: Computer Science, Mathematics, Programming, Data Science, Humanities, Social Sciences, Education & Teaching, Health & Medicine, Business, Personal Development, Engineering, Art & Design, and finally Science.

If you have trouble figuring out how to signup for Coursera courses for free, don’t worry — I’ve written an article on how to do that, too.

Here’s the full list of new free online courses. Most of these are completely self-paced, so you can start taking them at your convenience.

COMPUTER SCIENCE

MATHEMATICS

PROGRAMMING

DATA SCIENCE

HUMANITIES

SOCIAL SCIENCES

EDUCATION & TEACHING

HEALTH & MEDICINE

ENGINEERING

ART & DESIGN

BUSINESS

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

SCIENCE
Goody Bags Clothing Co.
By: Shabazz Publication
Tags: Design, Marijuana, Clothing

Goody Bagz 420 Check out what all talk is about in the smoking community. Goody Bagz 420 Clothing Co. represents everithing that is 420 and what is the herbal community. They would appreciate your support and love for the 420 community. “All Our Products Are 100% New without tags, All brand-new, unused, and unworn item (including handmade items) that is not in original packaging or may be missing original packaging materials (such as the original box or bag). The original tags may not be attached. We guarantee that all our products are high quality without coming with a high price tag. We value your business and we are so thankful for you!. We will keep you up to date every step of the way to ensure that you are satisfied with your order. “
Lessons I Learned Dealing With Extreme Fear While in the Hospital Operating Theatre
By: Tim Denning
Tags: Life Lessons, Inspiration, Self Improvement, Life, Psychology

Lessons I Learned Dealing With Extreme Fear While in the Hospital Operating Theatre

In moments of panic, your life is reborn.

Picture by Jason Lloyd-Evans

“Come this way. We need to check your blood pressure.”

This is a sentence that has haunted me for the last 5 years. Before I enter the hospital operating theatre each year, I get to hear it.

This sentence is a mental trigger. It triggers extreme fear in me. It’s the sentence where I begin to panic, my hands start shaking, I feel sick, and my heartbeat goes through the roof.

Everything changed yesterday.

As I entered the hospital waiting area ready for my procedure, I sat there and began to daydream. What if this regular visit to the hospital didn’t need to be so unpleasant?

I began to think how one could take a moment of extreme fear and turn it into something different. These are the lessons you can take away and use to beat fear and overcome panic.

You’re stronger than you think.

The walk to the nurse’s office made me make a split-second decision. “Today is going to be different,” I said to myself.

I had nothing to lose. Every other visit to the hospital was a disaster. The worst that could happen is what occurred every other time. I repeated in my head “you’re stronger than you think.” I knew that phrase to be true because I began collecting evidence to back it up.

Many years ago I wrote a list of all the times I had beaten fear and triumphed. I thought about the dot points on that list. The evidence was overwhelming. I was way stronger than I gave myself credit for. It was time to use that forgotten strength.

The nurse went to test my blood pressure. (This part never goes well.) Getting my blood pressure checked reminds me of a fear worse than death: needles. I wanted this time to be different. While the blood pressure game occurred, I started talking finance to the nurse. We had an interesting conversation to act as a distraction. It didn’t work.

“All the talking made your blood pressure explode. Let’s do it again in silence.”

The second attempt meant I had to be alone with my thoughts. I made a conscious decision to let the test be a success and it was. It was a tiny success — but it was a success worth focusing on during a day where my world normally collapses into a state of panic.

Lesson: Use evidence of your prior courage to defeat fear.
Quincy Larson
By: Medium Staff
Tags: Medium, Creativity, Noteworthy, Coding, Writers

Raised in Oklahoma City, Quincy never intended to be a programmer. Before learning to program, he worked in schools — first as a teacher, then as a principal. In a sort of proto-hack, Quincy automated teachers’ basic tasks (attendance and other headaches). Aha, he thought: tech + education = impact. A code camp was born, and Quincy has hardly taken a day off since.

A virtual water cooler for all things tech, Quincy’s freeCodeCamp publication is a space to swap tips about entrepreneurship, analyses of big-picture tech trends, and personal stories from the Silicon trenches. Contributors geek out on JavaScript, machine learning, and what “minimum viable product” actually means. With almost 250,000 followers, stories race across the interwebs, sparking discussion about what tomorrow brings.

In one of his most popular stories, Quincy sounds a (thoughtful) warning about the future of net neutrality. The internet “is a Cambrian Explosion of ideas and execution,” he argues, and it’s at risk of becoming just another maze of walled gardens (think: cable TV). The solution? Education. Read, contact your representatives, and — better yet — learn to code. The story encapsulates Quincy’s passion to ensure the internet stays as free as it was born. With over 100 responses, it’s clearly making people think.

Why is this conversation so important, especially today? “Technology helps people have a voice,” believes Quincy. It’s our digital megaphone, the place where we go to cut out the middleman. Access to tech, and our ability to shape its development, has the potential to solve some of humanity’s trickiest problems. (Of which there seem to be a lot lately.) Luckily, Quincy knows “there are already a tremendous number of developers out there who care, who have an itch to scratch and create their own tools.” The key is giving them the skills to do it.

Watch our short film to hear Quincy’s vision for programming and beyond, in his own words.

Now, Quincy has moved back in Oklahoma City from San Francisco, splitting his time between code, words, and family. What does the future hold — not just for programmers, but for tech writ large? “I think technology has always made things better,” he laughs, “I would never criticize someone for trying to make things more efficient. When they make the chips that just interface with your brain (if they’re secure), I’ll probably get one, you know?”
Can indigenous knowledge stop Australia from burning?
By: Desiree Driesenaar
Tags: Nature, Australia, Indigenous, Environment, Fire

Can indigenous knowledge stop Australia from burning? We always think we can leave nature alone and she will be healthy and flourishing. Well, in my environmental studies I gained other knowledge.

People need nature to supply oxygen, drinking water, and food. But nature also needs people. Mindful collaboration works best. The prevention of Austrian bushfires is a great example.

“Before colonization, Indigenous Australians used fire not only to control the buildup of leaf litter and other fuel but also to maintain ecosystems and promote healthy growth.” — Brooke Boland

Firesticks Alliance is sharing knowledge on cultural burning, healthy communities, healthy landscapes. Maybe Americans can learn about this practice from the indigenous tribes on their continent too?

Here’s the full article.

Amazon Rainforest. Picture credit: PX-Fuel

© Désirée Driesenaar
Building apps for editing Face GANs with Dash and Pytorch Hub
Tags: Machine Learning, Pytorch, Gans, Python

Making GANs transparent with TL-GAN

Created by Shaobo as part of a Insight Data Science project, the transparent latent GAN (TL-GAN) introduces a simple, but perfectly executed idea: shine a light on the random noise used to generate realistic faces by learning an association between the input noise and facial features like age, sex, skin tone, and whether the person is smiling or wearing glasses, hats, necklace, and more. To achieve this, the author first trained a ML model to classify images based on some 40 facial features (using labels from the CelebA dataset), which was then used this model to label hundreds of thousands of images generated by the officially-released PGGAN. Finally, a linear regression was trained to predict the features output by the ML model given the latent vectors (i.e. the random noise), and the trained weights were used to control the noise to give an output that correlated more heavily with the desired features.

Integrating PyTorch Hub with Dash

Pytorch Hub is an incredible repository of pretrained models built in Pytorch, which can all be imported and loaded in a few lines of code. For our own app, all we needed to do was to load the pggan model from torch.hub (which is included in the official PyTorch release) at the start, and start using it in our callbacks.

Traditionally, if you wanted to deploy a model loaded from Pytorch Hub, you would need to design a REST API with Flask, then communicate with a front-end built in a library like React.js. Since you are outputting images, you would then need to worry about encoding the image into string using schemes like base64, and ensure that the component for displaying the image is compatible.
Did You Know That Only 26% of Computing-Related Jobs Are Held by Women?
By: Asha Rani
Tags: Programming, Women In Tech, Technology, Diversity In Tech, Startup

Did You Know That Only 26% of Computing-Related Jobs Are Held by Women?

It’s high time that companies start investing in making technology departments more gender diverse

According to research conducted by Accenture in the U.K., nearly half (48%) of girls and women believe that STEM subjects line up more with male careers. This is the biggest reason for boys being more likely to choose STEM subjects over girls.

The following were the main reasons for young girls and women not wanting to do STEM subjects:

Two reasons that I find especially surprising in this list are:

“Perception that these subjects are more suited to boys”

“Worried I would be the only girl/one of only a few girls”

Being a female, born and brought up in India, STEM subjects are actually one of the most preferred choices for women — not just by women themselves but also by their parents, teachers, and counselors. As per a study done by 451 Research, India is now almost at gender parity in graduate-level study, in contrast to the decline in the U.S. and a stagnation in the U.K.

“Women now make up 34% of the IT workforce in India, with the majority of these workers under the age of 30. Indeed, the youth of the Indian IT labor force has significantly powered its rapid growth, and the country is now almost at 50:50 gender parity rate in STEM graduates.” — Katy Ring for 451 Research

From a workplace perspective, we still have a long way to go. As per a report in The Muse, women only hold 25% of IT jobs. In order to attract more women to IT jobs and to bring about some much-needed diversity, we really need to start from the bottom.

There are many programs — like Women in IT, Girls Who Code, etc. — where companies are trying to attract young female talent. However, I personally feel that’s not enough. Young women are always looking for female role models (I know I was back when I was growing up), and we need to do a better job of giving them these role models. Promoting women to C-suite and managerial roles can be the first step.

Today’s generation has so much screen time with smart phones and easy access to internet, and they gravitate towards “cooler” things, such as TikTok and YouTube, because they seem easy and like a quick money-making option. No disrespect to any of these platforms, but I think IT companies need to come up with creative ways to advertise how these “cooler” things are built and how the younger generation can help shape the next TikTok or YouTube.
PayPal Co-Founder and First YouTube Engineer Talks About His Work at Origin
By: Josh Fraser
Tags: Blockchain, YouTube, Startup, PayPal, Videos

Yu Pan was one of the six co-founders of PayPal and the first engineer at YouTube. He’s now working as an R&D Engineer at Origin Protocol. In this video, Yu Pan shares why he joined the Origin team and what he enjoys most about the culture.

If you’re interested in being part of the Origin team and getting to work alongside Yu Pan and our other absurdly talented engineers, we’re hiring!

Origin has an untraditional application process. As an open-source project with over 150 contributors, we hire almost exclusively from our community. There are no white-board interviews. The best way to get our attention is to jump into our Discord, join one of our weekly engineering calls, pick an issue from our public project board and send us a pull request.

Learn more about Origin:
Books That Foster Critical Thinking: How Not to Be Wrong
By: Zachary Walston
Tags: Personal Development, Personal Growth, Reading, Books, Thoughts

The irony of the title of Jordan Ellenburg’s How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking is the emphasis he places on attempting to prove himself wrong daily. He writes, “Believe whatever you believe by day, but at night, argue against the propositions you hold most dear.” Ellenburg’s mindset can benefit everyone.

I love Ellenburg’s style of blending the art of writing and telling a perspective with the science of mathematics and behavioral psychology. Ellenburg makes statistics and mathematics approachable to the lay individual and causes the clinician to challenges their assumptions. I view research and statistics in a new light since reading this book.

“Human beings are quick to perceive patterns where they don’t exist and to overestimate their strength where they do.”

Find more recommendations at zacharywalston.com

*Book link is an Amazon Affiliate Link
Stimulated
By: Yunus Celik
Tags: Motivation, Growth, Inspiration, Personal Growth, Personal Development

To become inspired it is mandatory that neurons within the mind fire in a pattern that is unrecognised by habit. Without such stimulus, the mind remains in a state of autopilot; where neural activity (and therefore brain function) remains baseline and creation-less.

With new ideas means new neuron wiring (read: new pathway of firing). This is achieved through introducing unexpected and new stimuli into sensory experience.

A short list of what may reinvigorate the mind include the following (but are not limited to):
In the Cards
By: Brianna R Duffin
Tags: Friendship, Love, Trust

Can I borrow your passionate soul one more time?

I promise if I feel your claws sinking into my wings

I will let us fly, if only you promise me in return-

Could you spare me one final moment of peace

Before we go back to pretending we never each other at all?

I’m not asking your cruel heart for forgiveness

And I won’t give you any more of myself

Than you have already taken and suckled from

Until you’d sucked it all dry and I ran away

Into the arms of a man who makes me moan with his kisses

I know you that hurts you, but I bet you didn’t even know.

No, I will not give you any more of myself

But you already are myself because in a way,

You could’ve been my soulmate, twin flame

That matched my every stride perfectly,

The soy butter to my jelly. So I’m sorry

For getting so nutty on you. I’m sorry

You couldn’t be sweet enough to mask the poison.

I’m sorry it all came undone, sorriest of all

That it doesn’t seem to be over yet.
Cea mai mare schimbare cu care se vor confrunta afacerile
By: Toma Grozăvescu
Tags: Romania, Marketing, Antreprenoriat, Strategie

Founder & Growth Hacker @SMARTERS Romania, my purpose is to show people that it can be done.

Follow
People Transform, And You Should Too So You Can Surpass Them
By: Khadejah Jones
Tags: Self-awareness, Life Lessons, Evolve, Self, Change

People Transform, And You Should Too So You Can Surpass Them

3 ways to deal with change.

Photo by Arseny Togulev on Unsplash

I remember seeing one of my old friends at Panera a couple of years ago. I got so ecstatic at the sight of him because he used to support me a ton in high school. He’d defend me against a racist-ass bully who wanted to beat me up, he gave me the confidence to be myself no matter how much of I people-pleaser I was, he’d even give me his mom’s legendary Buffalo sauce she made on Halloween (If you haven’t had it, your life has no meaning).

Let’s just call this person Joe.

As I stood in front of the counter waiting on my sandwich, baguette, and broccoli cheddar soup, Joe walked in with a few of his friends (I never really liked those people, but we were still cordial). I approached him and almost went in for a warm hug.

“Hey, Joe! It’s so awesome to see you again! How are you doing?”

*Awkward stare*

He refused to talk to me. All he did was stand to the left of me with his friends and wait to order. My heart broke. It seemed as though he had a personal problem with me. I don’t talk to him anymore after that. I chalked that whole situation down to us growing apart.
Crispy
By: Sarah Firth
Tags: Addiction, Trauma, Self Improvement, Self-awareness, Self Aware

Written by

I’m an award-winning comic artist, writer and graphic recorder. All words + images © Sarah Firth. Contact me www.sarahthefirth if you want to use them.
How Twilio Bested Hemingway
By: Andy Raskin
Tags: Strategy, Messaging, Storytelling

Ernest Hemingway has long been credited, perhaps apocryphally, with authoring the shortest story ever told: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

The other day, driving off the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, I took in the Twilio billboard and realized that Hemingway’s record had fallen:

d

What a brilliant illustration of how even stripped down messaging can convey a powerful, moving story. (By the way, I have no relationship with Twilio.)

Hemingway’s six-worder is notable because it contains, if implicitly, all of the essential narrative elements. There’s a protagonist (an unnamed mother), high stakes for a future outcome (life and death of a child), a climax (death), and a new state of the world (moving on by selling the shoes).

Remarkably, Twilio’s three-word gem similarly leverages story structure to pack an emotional punch. Although the message ostensibly speaks to an executive (non-developer), its protagonist (and target audience) is a developer. The high stakes for a future outcome? Whatever communications-related challenge the executive cares about enough to be asking questions. The implied climax, then, is when the executive’s developer overcomes that challenge — armed with Twilio, of course. The new state of the world? One in which developers are respected and valued.

Check out this response to a tweet about the billboard:

OK, “Warren Peace” might be half joking, but I think he’s half truly moved, too.
Ghost
Tags: Thesceneandheard, Writing, Poem, Life, Poetry

I’m the ghost of a girl

Who has wandered the world

Chasing after what seemed to be right

I thought I’d found it one day

And got carried away

And since then I’ve been chasing the light

I’m the ghost of a girl

With my banner unfurled

Struggling to stand my ground and not fall

Once I fell in and drowned

In the lights and the sound

But they always meant nothing at all

I’m the ghost of a girl

A gaunt face framed with curls

I was beautiful or so they say

I thought I could survive

On the fire in my eyes

But I blinked and the fire went away
A Beginner-Friendly Explanation of How Neural Networks Work
By: Terence Shin
Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Machine Learning, Technology, Education

The Mechanics of a Basic Neural Network

Again, I don’t want to get too deep into the mechanics, but it’s worthwhile to show you what the structure of a basic neural network looks like.

In a neural network, there’s an input layer, one or more hidden layers, and an output layer. The input layer consists of one or more feature variables (or input variables or independent variables) denoted as x1, x2, …, xn. The hidden layer consists of one or more hidden nodes or hidden units. A node is simply one of the circles in the diagram above. Similarly, the output variable consists of one or more output units.

A given layer can have many nodes like the image above.

As well, a given neural network can have many layers. Generally, more nodes and more layers allows the neural network to make much more complex calculations.

Above is an example of a potential neural network. It has three input variables, Lot Size, # of Bedrooms, and Avg. Family Income. By feeding this neural network these three pieces of information, it will return an output, House Price. So how exactly does it do this?

Like I said at the beginning of the article, a neural network is nothing more than a network of equations. Each node in a neural network is composed of two functions, a linear function and an activation function. This is where things can get a little confusing, but for now, think of the linear function as some line of best fit. Also, think of the activation function like a light switch, which results in a number between 1 or 0.

What happens is that the input features (x) are fed into the linear function of each node, resulting in a value, z. Then, the value z is fed into the activation function, which determines if the light switch turns on or not (between 0 and 1).

Thus, each node ultimately determines which nodes in the following layer get activated, until it reaches an output. Conceptually, that is the essence of a neural network.

If you want to learn about the different types of activation functions, how a neural network determines the parameters of the linear functions, and how it behaves like a ‘machine learning’ model that self-learns, there are full courses specifically on neural networks that you can find online!
Leveraging AI to fight COVID-19
By: Semantic Scholar
Tags: NLP, Data, Semantic Scholar, AI, Co Vid 19

Artificial intelligence has a critical role to play in fighting the global threat of COVID-19—the Allen Institute for AI has taken the lead in partnership with several prominent leaders and research groups to produce the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD-19), a unique resource of over 29,000 scholarly articles, including over 13,000 with full text, about COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, and related coronaviruses. This freely available dataset is intended to mobilize the global AI community to generate new research insights in support of the ongoing fight against this infectious disease.

A coalition including the White House, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology, Microsoft Research, and the National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health came together to provide this service. The corpus behind CORD-19 will be actively updated as new research is published in peer-reviewed publications and archival services like bioRxiv, medRxiv, and others.

Join us in sharing critical research

AI2 and many other scientific authorities are actively encouraging scientists and publishers to make their research content openly available for AI projects working to benefit the common good. If you’re a publisher or research group interested in contributing content to the CORD-19 dataset, please contact partnerships@allenai.org.

Participate in the CORD-19 Challenge

Kaggle is hosting the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset Challenge, a series of important questions designed to inspire the community to use CORD-19 to find new insights about the COVID-19 pandemic including the natural history, transmission, and diagnostics for the virus, management measures at the human-animal interface, lessons from previous epidemiological studies, and more.
3 Key Metrics to Measure Developer Productivity
By: Gwen Schlefer
Tags: Management, Productivity, Coding, Product Management, Software Development

Measuring developer productivity is a tough puzzle to solve. With so many variables to consider, it’s hard to identify a workable metric. While creating a measurement system for developers is no easy feat, it’s also not impossible. The task becomes more approachable when managers consider these three metrics:

Value of Code: Identifying the value of code involves more than just counting the number of lines. Static Object, a code management software, uses a “Line Impact” algorithm to asses each line of code and assign a value to it. This allows the software to quantify the impact on the code base and measure changes over time. Line Impact attempts to measure code in the same way a manager would — by considering many variables. While this is more complex, it also leads to a more accurate picture of how effectively individual programmers and teams are performing. Speed: Productivity can’t be measured by code value alone. On most teams, it’s also critical to get work done quickly. That’s where speed comes in. Static Object includes a velocity measurement that allows managers to see each developer’s average Line Impact per day and observe how contributions trend over time. While speed is a great indicator of productivity, it’s not a complete view. It should be weighed carefully with the value of the work being done as well as any refactoring that happens later. Tech Debt: Perhaps the most elusive measurement, technical debt can be described as extra development work that arises when code is implemented. A quick solution today might solve an immediate problem, but create other problems that need to be solved in the future. Code duplication and complexity, lack of documentation, and programming rule violations are all factors that contribute to tech debt.There is no single formula to to calculate tech debt. However, identifying the debt sources and estimating the amount of added development time is a good place to start. As Static Object continues to add new features and integrations, the ability to measure tech debt is becoming a reality. The tool will identify where time is spent refactoring and revising code after a project is considered “done”. The work done in this time is roughly equivalent to tech debt.

There are countless ways to measure software developers. These factors range from personality and culture fit to coding speed and years of experience. When measuring developer’s productivity, every organization has a different set of variables. Using the right tools, managers can get better insight into the work being done and measure performance more objectively.

Interested in exploring how Static Object could help your organization? Try a 30-day free trial today!
New Publication — Life’s Funny. and not always in a “haha” way.
By: Linda Horton
Tags: Life Lessons, Publication, Writing, Life, Humor

New Publication — Life’s Funny

and not always in a “haha” way.

Photo by Mark Daynes on Unsplash

I started this new publication — life’s funny. But what does it mean?

It’s open to interpretation, and can mean many things. It can mean different things to different people.

I started this publication for all these reasons.
The one and only Figma plugin you need to improve your graphic design skills.
By: Lorenzo Doremi
Tags: Design, Graphic Design, Figma, Design Process

As a beginner, often happens to feel that your design is dull, and there is no way to make it look better. It’s normal. So an important question is: “what’s the best way to improve?”. Well everyone is different, but between artists there is one common approach.

Quantity over quality.

Pablo Picasso is known for his masterpieces, but I guess you can’t name more than ten artworks he made, or even five. But do you know how many did he make? well, around 147.800.

That’s nearly 150k. But why? because doing a lot of practice makes you learn, and by doing a lot of different things, you learn how to do a lot of different things. That’s it. In fact, a lot of artists are extremely prolific and learned their art by doing, doing, doing.

Also, you can not get quality if you’re a beginner, so it is a huge waste of time trying to make a few masterpieces.

But how to apply this “contradictory” principle to Figma? well by designing a lot of different things. And in this case, a very famous plugin comes in handy: Unsplash.

The Plugin: Unsplash.

Thousands of designers use Unsplash, but we’ll discover a new way to use it. Unsplash has an interesting feature which is Insert Random: it lets you bring to the artboard a random image.

To apply the quantity over quality principle, get a random image, and start designing around it. No cheating. The first image you get, the first you use. In this way, you are forced to learn something new, or at least to think in different ways.

I’ll now show four examples of how using random images allows you to design completely different websites.

Case N.1: the Basketball Hoop.

The first image I got was a basketball hoop. Let’s analyze it.

The image has three main colors (orange, dark blue, and white), and the topic is sports.

This already solves two issues: which colors to use and which mood the artboard needs.
8 Surprising Tips To Help You Read a Book Every Week
By: Betsy Ramser Jaime
Tags: Books, Self Improvement, Personal Growth, Self, Personal Development

Photo by Daria Nepriakhina on Unsplash

For as long as I can remember, reading has been my favorite hobby. From third grade to my present 32 year old self, it’s rare to find me without a book beside my bed or in my purse.

In fact, keeping a book with me at all times was a habit that was ingrained in me by my parents at an early age. Growing up in the 90’s and early 2000’s, we didn’t have our own cellphones. This meant that whenever we left the house, our parents would ask my siblings and I if we had some “reading material.”

The expectation was that you should always have a book, magazine, etc. because you never knew when you’d have a few minutes to kill running errands, in a waiting room, etc.

From that point on, reading became a habit, and one that I truly love. Now, I know that this might not be a habit for you, but you’d like it to be. No worries, I can help.

8 Tips To Add More Reading Time Into Your Daily Routine:
IBM Watson SDK for Go
By: Erika Dsouza
Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Go, Announcements, IBM, Developer Tools

IBM Watson + Go

Have your first go at Go with the IBM Watson Go SDK , a wrapper for the IBM Watson APIs. The SDK includes ready to use data structures and takes care of all the underlying HTTP requests including authentication. Using this SDK, developers can now easily integrate Watson services into their applications.

How to install

Use the Go command on the terminal.

go get -u github.com/watson-developer-cloud/go-sdk/...

This will fetch the packages sub-packages and dependencies.

How to Use

First, provision a Watson service by following the steps here. Once you provision a service, you will get credentials which you would use in the following general steps.

Service Dashboard

Now, follow the below general steps in your code:

Import the service package

2. Instantiate the Watson service using the API key obtained above

3. Invoke the API endpoint using the service instance. For a successful response, it will contain the HTTP status code, response headers and API result

4. Handle responses and errors

Ready, Set, Go

Go ahead and explore the various capabilities of IBM Watson services with Go— from quickly building a simple chatbot to tagging and classifying visual content to unlocking hidden value in data to find answers and surface patterns.

There are also a bunch of examples for various services to help you get started. Play with the Go SDK and let us know what you think.
Louis
By: Victoria Ponte
Tags: Pandemic, Writing, Family, History, Family History

Miltiadis for Unsplash

Louis

My grandfather was a bounty hunter.

Louis Wasserberger was born to Sadie and Moses Wasserberger on March 9, 1904 on Pitt St. in the Lower East Side of New York City.

A brother, Henry, followed in 1911, and a sister, Adele, in 1918.

Louis met Anna Weinstein at a Young Men’s Hebrew Association dance, and they were married in June, 1925.

Anna had a daughter, Arlene, in 1927. Arlene legally changed her name to Arlyne when she was in her forties because she wanted to be different. By the time Anna was expecting her second baby, my mother, in 1934 he had left to be with Stella Raphael.

Anna and Louis divorced in December, 1941, just as the country was being pulled into the second World War.

My mother has no memory of her parents ever being together. This was during the days before divorce was common.

What she remembers of her father was when he would take her and her sister with him for visits. He carried a gun because he was a bailbondsman and a bounty hunter.

He was also employed as a gambler at the horse racing track and in a “floating crap game” that was constantly on the move to evade authorities.

Lou briefly worked in the Brooklyn Navy Yard during the war. This was the only legitimate job my mother remembers him having.

My Mom remembers going to another one of his favorite haunts, McGuries Pool Hall in New York City next to Roseland Dance Hall with him when she was a very young child.

Louis was married to Stella for a short time before she died in the Rikers Island plane crash in February, 1957:

Northeast_Airlines_Flight_823

By then my mother was married to my father who remembers going to the morgue at Bellevue Hospital in New York to identify the body. Louis had missed the plane.

Louis was involved with another woman named Gloria after Stella died.

He later married Ruth, his third wife, and had many happy years until she died of natural causes.

He then met Jackie, a woman not far in age from my mother and her sister, and married her. His fourth wife was behind the wheel of the car he was getting into when her foot slipped off the brake causing the car to knock him to the ground. His injuries proved to be fatal.

This story was written during the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 during lockdown in New Jersey. I decided to use the time at home to write family history while my parents are still answering the phone.

My mother is going to be 86 next month and is a stage 3 ovarian cancer survivor. She has been in remission for over a year. My father turned 87 in April.

Family archive photo of Louis, ca. 1920
A community of life
By: Ellen, Len
Tags: Environment, Wildlife Conservation, Arctic, Polar Bears, Wildlife

All Americans should care about the wildlife on the coast plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, even if we never visit.

(Photo credit: Credit: Alan D. Wilson via Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0)

Protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a legacy of our country’s conservation movement. Originally established in 1960 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the refuge pre-dates the publication of Rachel Carson’s seminal book, Silent Spring (1962) and the Santa Barbara oil spill (1969), which horrified the organizers of the first Earth Day (1970).

I’ve never been to the refuge, and, I suspect you’ve never been there either. In fact, the vast majority of Americans are less likely to visit the north slope of Alaska than almost any other spot in the U.S. Of course, if you’re lucky enough to have access to a private plane or you’re up for hiking and backpacking there from Fairbanks — with all of the food and provisions you’ll need — it’s surely worth the effort. By all accounts, it’s spectacular. However, that’s beyond so many of us. Still, even if we never get there, that’s not the point of protecting this place.

This reason why this wild and amazing place must be protected was eloquently explained in the 1964 Wilderness Act, which was enacted four years after the refuge was officially designated.

Its words clearly apply to this remote Alaskan area: “A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the Earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”
10 Seconds of Inspiration to Wrap Up Your Week
By: Jacquelyn Lynn
Tags: Inspirational, Inspiration, Motivation, Motivational, Inspirational Quotes

I’d love to connect with you! May I send a brief inspirational message every Saturday morning? Visit CreateTeachInspire.com/saturday to receive messages like the ones above.

Here’s a little more about me:
How to Find Stillness, Productivity, and Enjoyment Every Day
By: Jack Krier
Tags: Self, Self Improvement, Lifestyle, Mindfulness, Productivity

Success is nothing more than an accumulation of positive acts.

How can I succeed in business? What’s the secret to becoming a full-time writer? And where can I find the magic formula for learning new skills?

Those are common personal growth questions that many people ask themselves.

They believe that someone has a recipe for success and that they just need to find it. Those thinking patterns hold you back.

No matter if you’re building a business, learning a new language, or improving your physique, a combination of small habits will lead to success.

You need to become a little bit better every day and add a small piece to the puzzle.

That’s where stillness, productivity, and enjoyment come into play.

No matter what you are trying to accomplish, you’ll need those three elements daily.

First, stillness will help you remain calm, focused, and determined. Productivity, on the other hand, will help you achieve more in less time. In other words, you’ll use your time wisely. Finally, you need to enjoy your endeavor to stay motivated and retain your purpose.

Together, the three can help you attain any summit by creating a daily merger of calmness — ensuring that you do the work without distractions, productivity — boosting your time management, and fun — transforming arduous chores into playful challenges.

How do we combine the three?

There are various effective methods to incorporate these three positive states into your everyday life.

On this basis, here are five ways to find stillness, productivity, and enjoyment every day.
Timeless web design: Online portfolios today — and in the year 2000
By: Philip Seifi
Tags: Web Design, UI, Branding, Design, UX

Timeless web design: Online portfolios today — and in the year 2000

A nostalgic trip through homepages of brand agencies and type foundries on the cusp of the new millennium.

Philippe Starck, a renowned industrial designer, once said:

“A designer has a duty to create timeless design. To be timeless you have to think really far into the future, not next year, not in two years but in 20 years minimum.”

Born in 1990, I witnessed the internet evolve from text to immersive audio-visual experiences. And throughout, I wondered—can design be timeless on such a fast-changing medium as the web?

Starck’s own website unfortunately wasn’t up in 2000, but archive.org has preserved landing pages of many other agencies of the day.

Are you ready to jump into the time machine, shed a tear of nostalgia, and see if their designs would speak to the audiences of today?

Design studios

Many of the top design agencies today were founded long before personal computers and the web. As such, they had to consciously transition from print, to the Internet.

Pentagram

London

Pentagram, founded in 1972, is the world’s largest independently-owned design studio. Its list of past and present partners includes such stars as Alan Fletcher, Bob Gill, Paula Scher, and Michael Bierut.

Pentagram’s 2000 website was written in Adobe ColdFusion Markup, and like many websites of the day, tried to replicate print design elements on the web.

The menu, drop cap, titles, and image captions are pixel-perfect low-resolution GIFs. The columns — hand-crafted with <td> tags.
Ask Anything to the teacher who founded freeCodeCamp.org — via the Hacker Noon Community
Tags: Software Development, Coding, Freecodecamp, Development, Hackernoon Ama

Ask Anything to the teacher who founded freeCodeCamp.org — via the Hacker Noon Community

“There are so many aspects of civilization that can be improved through better systems — and software is just a way of telling computers how to enact those systems.” — Quincy Larson

Hey Hacker Noon community!

I was a 30-something teacher who learned to code and ultimately founded freeCodeCamp in 2014. I am now working on the nonprofit full-time to help expand these learning resources.

I’m doing an AMA here on Hacker Noon’s community forum. I’ll answer questions live at noon EST on Thursday, July 25. You can ask me questions in advance here on this thread, and heart other people’s questions to make sure I see them and answer them.

Excited to be here for this AMA on July 25th, 2019 at 9 am PST.

Feel free to ask a question. Talk soon!

And for additional reference, check out Hacker Noon’s past AMAs:
The What, Why, and How of Using a Skeleton Loading Screen
By: Indrek Lasn
Tags: Startup, JavaScript, Software Development, Programming, Front End Development

The What, Why, and How of Using a Skeleton Loading Screen

Skeleton loading screens will improve your application’s user experience and make it feel more performant

LinkedIn.com style skeleton loading screen example (Image source: Author)

What do Reddit, Discord, Medium, and LinkedIn have in common? They use what’s called a skeleton loading screen for their applications.

A skeleton screen is essentially a wireframe of the application. The wireframe is a placeholder until the application finally loads.

Here’s how usually skeleton loading screens look. Notice how they’re a replacement for the traditional loading spinner.

Skeleton loading screen for the usual blog post

The skeleton loading screen essentially impersonates the original layout.

This lets the user know what’s happening on the screen. The user interprets this as the application is booting up and the content is loading.