fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Virtual Make-up : Snapchat Style Glass Filter
By: Poulastya Mukherjee
Tags: Python, Opencv, Filters, Computer Vision

Face without filter

In this post I will describe the project that I did as a part of OpenCV vision course. The goal of this project was to take an unedited face and add glasses to it, similar to a Snapchat filter.

Step 1: Detecting Landmark points

First we have to detect the landmark points, using Dlib facial landmark detector.

Landmark points detected

Step 2: Load the image of the glass with separate alpha and RGB channels

imgRGBGlass = cv2.cvtColor(imgGlass,cv2.COLOR_BGR2RGB)

glassMask = imgGlass[:,:,3]

glassMaskIinv = cv2.bitwise_not(glassMask)

Image of Glass with transparent background

We load the image of the glass and store the RGB and alpha mask in separate variables. We also store the inverted mask in a variable.

Step 3: Calculate the face dimension to scale Glass image

glassWidthResized = abs(points[16][0] — points[1][0])

glassHeightResized = int(glassWidthResized * origGlassHeight / OrigGlassWidth)

We calculate the width of the face using points 0 and 16, and use the distance between them to scale the size of the glass image.

Step 4: Determine the region of interest

In this step we determine the exact place where we want to place the glass. For the y coordinate, we take the highest point of an eyebrow, which is point number 24 and we calculate the boundary points based on the point and the height of the resized glass image. For the x coordinate we take point number 27 which is the first point on the nose i.e. point directly on the center of the face.

y1 = int(points[24][1])

y2 = int(y1 + glassHeightResized)

x1 = int(points[27][0] - (glassWidthResized/2))

x2 = int(x1 + glassWidthResized)

Step 5: Calculate the Foreground and Background Image

In this step we calculate the foreground and the background mask of the glass image and the image of the girl. The way we do it is, we perform bit-wise and operation between the region of interest on the image of the girl and the inverted mask of the glass.

To calculate the foreground we perform a bit-wise and between the original mask of the glass image with itself.

regionOfInterestBackground = cv2.bitwise_and(regionOfInterest, regionOfInterest,

mask = glassMaskInverseResized) regionOfInterestForeground = cv2.bitwise_and(glassResized, glassResized,

mask = glassMaskResized)

Step 6: Combine Foreground and Background image with Original Image

In the final step we combine the foreground and background image and replace the region of interest in the original image with this combined image

imDlibGlassCopy[y1:y2, x1:x2] = cv2.add(regionOfInterestBackground, regionOfInterestForeground)

Which gives us the following image:

Image of girl with Glasses filter

Algorithm tried with a different image gives the following result:

Image of another girl with Glasses filter.

From the results we can conclude that the algorithm works quite well in terms of positioning the glasses on the proper part of the face.
Setting up Google Cloud Vision API with Node.js
By: Nancy Kwan
Tags: Nodejs, Software Development, Google Vision, Google Cloud Platform, Machine Learning

What is Google Cloud Vision API ?

It allows developers to easily integrate vision detection features within applications, including image labeling, face and landmark detection, optical character recognition (OCR), and tagging of explicit content.

Basically, it lets you upload an image and extract loads of machine-learning based information. Try it out here — just drag and drop your own image.
Hướng dẫn build ứng dụng sử dụng dịch vụ Speech To Text của Google Cloud trên NodeJS
Tags: Nodejs, Speech To Text Api, Infinitestreaming, Google Services, Google Cloud Platform

Sharing is a best way for learning
What’s new in Google Chrome DevTools and Boost your website Ranking by DevTools New Feature
Tags: News, Google, Google Cloud Platform, Devtools

Chrome DevTools now, finally, has support for CSS grid debugging . For Example You have a grid with three defined Areas, Banners, sidebar, and content of your post. In the elements panel, notice that there is a new grid batch added next to the grid element and you click to customize the overlay further in the new layout pane. Google Chrome DevTools has great new features to help you better debug your site and your ranking.

1. The New rendering tab and sensors tab . Do you know you can emulate locales by setting a location By this Chrome DevTools Feature?

2. The New Idle State Emulations to support the Idle Detections API Feature. This API feature allow you to detect inactive users and react on idle state changes, This is good DevTools feature for users .

3. The Next DevTools Feature is new disable locker fonts emulations For define a font family, Rubik, in the fonts-face rule, and set the source to local Rubik Light locally.

4. DevTools also added a new CSS media emulations feature to emulate prefers-reduced-data media query.

5. You can now use DevTools to force and test the focus visible state like website.

6. The Inspect Mode Tool tips now displays more accessibility information.

7. Chrome DevTools can emulate blurred visions and four different types of vision deficiencies.

8. You can fix the low color contrast texts with our color suggestions Color Tools .

9. Represents new tabs and panels in Chrome DevTools. Have you ever seen a console for browser’s warnings, and you have no clue on how to fix it ? The new issues tab aim to improve that, Very good users.

10. You can now debug the web authentication API with the new Web Authn tab feature. Open the Web Authn Tab, create a virtual authenticator, and watch it play the part of a real device.
Explorer for Google Groups
By: Ferris Argyle
Tags: Google Workspace, Visjs, Google Cloud Platform, Go

Explorer for Google Groups

Ever bumped into the Google admin-managed Groups parent limits? They can be an issue for B2B multi-tenant application authorization, particularly if you are serving Google Cloud Storage objects in a differentiated way.

Use this utility to proactively check whether you’re getting close to these limits, and to understand hotspots.

It provides a visualizer as well as CSVs for offline analysis

Batch mode enables you to run it at low load times and analyze the cached results later

You can search for an identity (user, service account, or group) whose ancestry to map, or for a group prefix for which to display summary statistics.

You can also highlight a group’s parents within the visualizer to identify potential group optimizations.

Considerations

The utility does not include group ownerships, which do count towards the quota; there isn’t a way to do this other than scanning the entire groups tree.

Each edge joining a child via multiple groups to a single parent (ie. diamond patterns) is counted; the actual Groups limits may be calculated differently for some children.

Scaling

This utility takes a number of measures to address performance and scaling in addition to the batch mode mentioned earlier; it…

caches prior query results.

supports multiple service accounts, since some aspects of the Admin SDK Directory API Groups quota metrics are per-identity; two service accounts appear to be sufficient to support reading almost 5k groups.

takes advantage of Go concurrency with WaitGroups.

implements channel-based throttling.

Note that for constant-load applications such as this utility, exponential backoff actually increases load; it is only useful for spiky load use cases.

Webserver

The Go webserver implements endpoint-specific approaches to serve static files, dynamically generated JSON, and interactive query responses.

Visualization

The graphical visualization is based on vis.js network diagrams and includes a sample data generator for simulation.

Tuning the visualization for 5k nodes required a bit of trial and error. For instance, physics-based graphs improve node spacing for large graphs, but are too slow for thousands of nodes; however, some of the physics options still have a useful effect, though it’s different than it would be with physics enabled.
Scheduled/Cron Jobs and Reporting in Google Cloud
By: Jitendra Kumavat
Tags: Cronjob, Task Scheduler, Reporting Tool, Cloud Scheduler, Google Cloud Platform

Report Generation

It could be any framework that generates reports such as BQ jobs, Dataflow jobs, or any API as well. In our case, we used Dataflow to generate the reports, and the reasons being it is a fully managed service and jobs were time-consuming, on average it would take ~1–2 hours. Once the job is complete we send a message to the Pub-Sub topic for success status.

Here is the high-level view of our Dataflow pipeline.

Read BQ Database records using a query. Perform various processing steps on the input DB records. Write the processed data to a file into a GCS bucket in the CSV format.

Sample Overview of Dataflow Job

static interface BQPipelineOptions extends PipelineOptions {

@Validation.Required

@Description("GCS path for ouput data")

ValueProvider<String> getOutputFile();

void setOutputFile(ValueProvider<String> value);

}



static class ProcessingDoFn extends DoFn<TableRow, String> {

@ProcessElement

public void processElement(@Element TableRow row, ProcessContext ctx) {

//Processing the row and do the operations

String processedData = "";

ctx.output(processedData);

}

}





public static void main(String[] args) {

BQPipelineOptions options = PipelineOptionsFactory.fromArgs(args)

.withValidation()

.as(BQPipelineOptions.class);



Pipeline pipeline = Pipeline.create(options);



String tableSpec = "project_id:dataset.tablename";

pipeline.apply("Read BQ",

BigQueryIO.readTableRows().from(tableSpec).fromQuery("select * from tablename")

).apply("Processing", ParDo.of(new ProcessingDoFn()))

.apply("Write to CSV", TextIO.write().to(options.getOutputFile()));



pipeline.run();

}

As there is no mechanism for publishing the Dataflow job failure/success on completion. We used Google Cloud Composer to achieve both Dataflow job execution and publishing of the message to the Pub-Sub topic. In Cloud Composer one task is to launch the Dataflow job and the subsequent task will be to publish the message to the Pub-Sub topic. Usage of Cloud Composer and Dataflow can be found here. Here Dataflow Job execution and message publishing are tasks in Cloud Composer.
Revisiting Google Cloud Community Days’19
By: Aryendra Prakash Singh
Tags: Google, Cloud Computing, Google Cloud, Google Cloud Platform, Community

Its a moment to cherish when you get an exclusive RSVP to an event as big as this one. Excitements aside, it has been even more nervous for me as it was an all-professionals event. The stage shining with sparkling lights and top-notch arrangements everywhere. Every attendee either sitting and listening thoroughly to the speaker sessions and the rest ones enjoying a cup of coffee and networking with each other in a corner. If you haven’t still guessed it yet, let me bring light to it, it was none other than the Google Cloud Community Day’19 , New Delhi.

Let me just take you forward to the very first thing, Google Cloud Community Days/GCCD, Since folks from around all the 8 GDG Cloud communities of India hosted their own versions of GCCD last year, It has been the biggest involvement of Cloud folks in the country parallelly . One thing that made it stand out more well was its commitment towards more professional attendees showing up and registrations from even nearby cities as well. It was a closed event and only people genuinely having cloud tech in corporate were RSVP’d. People working in cloud from years were pretty abundant here. Its motive was to bring more energy and light to the Cloud tech that less people know or talk about, also it had something or other for everyone.

From Developer Advocates to GDEs(Google Developer Experts), DevRels to Community Leads, there were some pretty BIG folks who gave their talks revolving around Google Cloud. The audience was overwhelmed with the innovative and interesting sessions by various speakers. It was even my first time when I actually heard to and met international speakers.

That’s all okay, but what about Food & Swags?

Well well well, A not to miss thing was some super-duper lunch along with some beautiful customized GDG Cloud cupcakes. The lunch hour was pretty dilemmatic, as some were just refilling their plates with food and were busy having it and the other ones trying to eat slow in order to get more time to talk and network to people around them. And at last, the best part came, yes obviously Swags. Damn Cool GCCD Tee and some attractive cloud stickers. These all made my Day!!!

FOOD & SWAGS

The GDG Cloud, New Delhi, was certainly very proud to host this mega event, within a span of around couple of years only, the community rose its bar to a high altitude, it crossed 5,000 members too, well these accomplishments were a lot to be cheered upon. I was tremendously happy and proud to be contributing my bit in its everything.

Well this year, in these challenging times, the GDG Cloud communities from all over India haven’t compromised with their zeal and have joined forces in order to make GCCDI’20 a big hit. I am pretty excited for this after DevFest’20s grand success.
Day 1,437: Trump lambastes the very courts that he helped pack for not overturning the election for him
Tags: Politics, Government, Election 2020, Democracy, Donald Trump

Day 1,437: Trump lambastes the very courts that he helped pack for not overturning the election for him TrumpTimer Dec 27, 2020·2 min read

SCOTUS was not immune from his Saturday sniveling

As the majority leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) blocked scores of Barack Obama’s judicial nominees, especially over his last two years as president. Of Obama’s nominees, the Senate confirmed just 20 in 2015 and 2016 combined, and infamously refused to even hold hearings on Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court.

The unprecedented obstructionism handed Donald Trump dozens of vacancies that he never would have ordinarily had when he took office in 2017. Four years later, in the waning days of his presidency, Trump is upset that the very judges on the very courts he helped pack aren’t rewarding his baseless claims of election fraud.

Leaning into his heavy authoritarian tendencies, Trump spent Saturday whining on Twitter that “courts are bad,” among a litany of other claims.

Trump’s incessant calls for “law and order” apparently don’t extend to the FBI when they refuse to do his bidding, as they were also the target of his wrath.

Three of the nine members of the Supreme Court — after Garland’s blocked nomination — are Trump appointees. Yet Trump referred to the court as “totally incompetent and weak” for not hearing his loony election claims.

Trump has always seen everything as transactional. To him, the nomination was the favor and the lack of capitulation is an affront.

In reality, the judiciary is a co-equal branch of government that is meant to be politically independent. That judges aren’t disenfranchising tens of millions of voters merely because the president is crying that they should is exactly what the Constitution intends and what democracy relies on.

1,437 days in, 25 to go
for your sake I hope you got out of Hong Kong after writing this article with your name on it.
Tags: Imperialism, Hong Kong, Democracy, Ccp, China

for your sake I hope you got out of Hong Kong after writing this article with your name on it. It is clearly dangerous to speak the truth within 100s of miles of Beijing.
Great points, Lauren.
By: Ann Recchie
Tags: Politics, Government, Democrats, Republican Party, Democracy

Great points, Lauren. Unless Georgia comes out in droves to vote 2 Dems into the Senate, we are DOA on Jan. 20th.

I wonder just how many poor and middle-class Republicans are going to go down the tubes before they realize they voted this Assclown into office and they are reaping what they've sown? Until they make the connection and look beyond their blatant racism and uneducated redneck behaviors, this country will be doomed.

Until Republican lawmakers start acting like they are really there for the people, and not just to collect a fat 6-figure payday every year - we are doomed. They are the enablers whose names we should remember in the mid-terms and the 2024 election cycles.

The two parties need to come together and work something out, but they are so diametrically opposed at every turn, I don't see it happening anytime soon.

Donald Trump has fed into the ugly that is the underbelly of America. He has brought it to the surface and it's exploding right before our eyes in real time.

The sad fact is that by not signing the stimulus bill he punishes everyone who didn't vote for him or respect him AND he punishes everyone who did! By not signing the bill, he is shutting down the government - which proves to his massive ego that he RULES and is ALL-POWERFUL, and he punishes the lawmakers and makes them come back to DC to sit for a week and do nothing while he golfs and stuffs his face in Florida.

This IS who DJT is! Nothing more; nothing less. Just a fool, a tyrant, a narcissist, a man blithely ignorant of others' suffering; his incompetency and his Presidency, and we are all going to suffer for it
Shift
By: Megan Lloyd Joiner
Tags: Coronavirus, Motherhood, Justice, Covid 19, Quarantine

Something shifted for me tonight. My spouse brought his phone to the bedside and held it so that I could watch “Baby TV,” a close-up feed of our eight-month-old daughter drinking her bottle before bed. She has this rhythmic way of swallowing that is excentuated at night when she is sleepy. She closes her eyes , rubbing them occasionally. Tonight her hand held the side of the bottle. The camera was close; I could see the dimples on her little fingers.

I know what they feel like, those fingers. When she nurses or when I am holding the bottle, she wraps her fingers around one of mine. As I listened and drank in her gulps and her breathing and her finger dimples, I could feel it all in my body. I almost asked him to take the phone away; it hurt too much. But I am hungry for her, so I watched and ached.

The ache took me to the border. To parents separated from their children.

It took me to prison. To mothers whose children are brought to visit them through glass.

It took me to those whose children have been lost, taken, disappeared.

It took me back to 1918. To sick parents separated from their children with no way to share time on a tiny screen.

It took me to hospital beds and nursing home windows and cemetary plots, 2020.
Great Souls?
By: Randy Shingler
Tags: Poetry Sunday, Freedom, Poetry, Equality, Justice

Great souls appear to be missing today

No inspiring leaders for just human causes

None with the stature of Mahatma Gandhi

Or unshakeable moral character like MLK

Political integrity of RFK or John McCain.

Our world could use some great souls now

To set an example of what’s right and just

Inspiring human causes for our greater good

Initiating new golden era of human rights

Breaking centuries racist barriers lingering.

Until some great soul appears on the scene

We should look to our own inner consciences

To understand what contributions, we can make

In creating equal opportunities for everyone

Helping freedom’s bell to ring loud and true.

Human rights, society’s perpetual challenge

Destroying prejudices so long in existence

Making progress towards equal justice for all,

Looking deeply into our own great souls.
Thank you for your response.
By: 𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐧𝐮
Tags: History, Justice, India, Comment, Taxes

Thank you for your response. Since you have brought about the requirement of evidence, I would like to bring to your notice that most of the Indian historical events and characters have very little or no evidence backing them. In Nangeli’s case, back in the day, a place in Kerala has been named Mulachiparambu (meaning land of the breasted woman) as a tribute to the woman’s selfless action. I suppose this will clear the air about this episode.
I hope that P.O.S., who is responsible for the abuse, murder & torture of children and animals receives some prison justice.
By: J. J. Bishop
Tags: Burn Victim, Child Killer, Justice, Child Abuse, Murder

I hope that P.O.S., who is responsible for the abuse, murder & torture of children and animals receives some prison justice.
Audrey Hepburn Writes for The Bad Influence
By: Jm Miana
Tags: The Bad Influence, Feminism, History, Justice, Nonfiction

Audrey Hepburn Writes for The Bad Influence

Source: Infobae, modified by the author

Yesterday I was watching a scene from My Fair Lady where Audrey is learning to pronounce with a London accent when it hit me.

Audrey played the lead role in a movie about a low-class woman who learns how to read and speak properly, along with good manners, so she can ascend in life. And she succeeds to a point where even aristocracy members believe that she is one of them.

My Fair Lady is thus a story where a woman from a lesser social class earns an education and makes every member of the aristocracy look like a fool. Is a movie with a complete social theme that impregnates the whole film.

Of course, I felt like I had to learn more about her, to know more than what most people see, the beautiful actress, dancer, and pop icon.

This is what I learned.

Audrey Was an Activist

Yes, in bold letters. Audrey Hepburn was involved in several social issues and spent her final years in this world volunteering for UNICEF in Africa. Not for self-promotional pictures to look good, but because she knew what was like to suffer war and malnutrition as a kid, as she suffered Nazism and WWII and was familiar with their situation.

And not only that, she fought Nazism by raising money for the Dutch resistance and the refugee Jews with her dancing skills and also helped to deliver messages, money, and food to allied troops.

“I did indeed give various underground concerts to raise money for the Dutch Resistance movement. I danced at recitals, designing the dances myself. I had a friend who played the piano and my mother made the costumes. They were very amateurish attempts, but nevertheless at the time, when there was very little entertainment, it amused people and gave them an opportunity to get together and spend a pleasant afternoon listening to music and seeing my humble attempts. The recitals were given in houses with windows and doors closed, and no one knew they were going on. Afterwards, money was collected and given to the Dutch Underground.” Audrey Hepburn

To her, it made perfect sense to help those in need in dangerous parts of the world, and while most celebrities spent their days living luxurious lives, she began to work for UNICEF, which was the organization that helped her and other children after the end of WWII, bringing them food, medication, and clothes.

Audrey kept changing the world until her end because she believed change was possible, she wanted that change, and she went for it.

Source: YouTube
I’m not surprised there was a terrorist attack in Nashville, Tenn.
By: Manny Otiko
Tags: Justice, Trumpism, Crime, Terrorism

(YouTube screencap/ Manny Otiko)

I’m not surprised there was a terrorist attack in Nashville, Tenn. today. If you’ve followed my articles, I’ve been saying that a certain section of this country is on the brink of declaring war on the rest of America. Here is a good article by a former ATF agent on who might be behind it.
SOCIETY!.
By: Taylor Witt
Tags: Racism, Equality, Society, Justice, Lgbtqia

SOCIETY!.

When we look at the world, when we look at society, what do we see? Do we see a positive environment that we would want future generations to grow up in? Whether you want to have kids or not, adopting, ivf, having your own children. Whatever it may be, is this how we want to shape the next of the human race? Do we want to look back and see how we formed a strong, intelligent generation? Or do we wanna look back n regret not changing the world for the better?

Hi, I’m Taylor, and I’m going to talk about the future of the human race.

2020 had been a rough year. In March we had a global pandemic arise, social distancing, lock down, loss of loved ones, homes, jobs, and so much more. Now here in December, waiting for the new year, anxious and hoping for a better start, we wait. Looking back on this year, we have had more than just a pandemic, riots, fighting for justice, equality, and peace. In 2020, why don’t we have that? Why are there still racists out there? Why is hating someone for the way they were born still being taught and instilled in children. Children who grow to not know any better. Why are there parents turning their children into monsters who hate people, based off of ethnicity, heritage, culture, genetics? Honestly, that what racism boils down to. Racism may not always be about the color of a persons skin. It’s because they are different. Different from how you are raised. Different because they don’t look like you. Bringing it to this point shows one thing. Acceptance. It’s what children aren’t being taught. If we were to teach our children, hey, not being perfect is okay, not looking like you is okay, different cultures are okay. By saying that they are okay, I do not mean to imply that there is a problem in anyway shape or form. However, to show and to teach that not everyone is exactly like you and to accept and respect that, is what needs to be done. Now I don’t Want to try and tell anyone how to raise their children, but it is common sense to teach that different is okay. As well as race and ethnicity, LGBTQIA+. People are born. Some people brains are different, and that is okay. Some men like men some women like women. Some non- binary like non-binary. Whatever the case it is okay. I’m no way shape or form is a lesbian relationship or a gay relationship hurting anyone. It’s simply the twisted moral that have been taught for years, and for no apparent reason. If we learn to accept and love others no matter what, earth and the World around us will be ,ore peaceful. We can change everyone, but we can start by changing ourselves. By doing so, we can show others how to love, how to care, and last but least how to accept and respect. Because the golden rule do unto other as you would have them do to you, you should treat everyone with love, respect, and equality.
The Great Pandemic
Tags: Politics, Pandemic, History, Justice, United States

We have now all entered into the time of the Great Pandemic. A time of profound change.

How the stars did gave fair warning

The great coincidence

All coming together in this our most turbulent time

I don’t know if anyone noticed

But a few of you may have missed this tiny, tiny little story

Buried in the back pages

The the U.S. Navy admitted we recognize that these objects that we have been unable to indentify

Seems to have a level of technology far beyond our capacity

We are releasing our official

Relunctantly video footage

From various naval aircraft

And state of the art radar

We have evidence of….alien technology on and near our planet

Unfortunately

The headline of the day

Day after day

Our dancing clown

Mr Presidente
‘The Handmaid’s Tale’: Distraction As a Means to Manipulate, and Other Power Plays
By: Sophie F.
Tags: Politics, Books, Society, Justice, Dystopian Fiction

Lack of Communication versus Hyper-Connectedness

The Handmaids are not permitted to speak to each other to avoid a resistance forming against the state. As the famous adage goes: knowledge is power.

Most people have busy lives, with much of the week spent working to earn a living for ourselves and our families.

Most jobs do not bring people face-to-face with the news and the realities of what is going on in the wider world. That is usually reserved for a shorter time period after work hours, if at all.

55 percent of adults in the U.S. get information about local and international current affairs from social media. Social media posts on platforms such as Twitter and Instagram have much fewer words than long-form articles on online news-sites and are therefore much easier to access for many people.

The new Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma, shows how your social media feeds are curated for you specifically. This means that you and your friend across at work could quite easily not see any of the content you are presented with:

“There’s only a handful of people at these companies who understand how these [algorithm] systems work, and even they don’t necessarily fully understand what’s going to happen with a particular piece of content. So as humans we’ve almost lost control over these systems. Because they’re controlling the information that we see, they’re controlling us more than we’re controlling them.” — Sandy Parakilas, former operations manager at Facebook, former product manager at Uber

This might explain why so many people voted the way they did, while the rest of us painfully pull at our hair, going ‘What, but how?!’. Maybe we really are having our social media trick us into using it more, by rewarding our sense of ‘I know’ with whatever it is it thinks we believe in, with its viewing-time algorithms. We like information that reinforces our existing ideas.

People are not ‘bad’ for choosing certain leaders over others, they genuinely do think that it is the ‘best’ option for what they believe is important. Maybe what people categorise is important vs. what they think is not important is the real problem that needs addressing.
And so, this is Christmas
By: Patti Hornstra
Tags: 2020, Parenting, Transgender, Christmas, Change

And so, this is Christmas

2020. A year of firsts. . . and seconds. . .and thirds. . . and fourths.

2020. A year of fourths. The fourth Christmas after. The fourth Christmas of wondering how we got here.

2020. A year of thirds. The third year that we have a Tristan in the family instead of an Anna. This is the third year that the infamous Christmas stocking hung on the mantle with Anna covered up a ribbon embroidered with Tristan.

2020. A year of seconds. For the second year in a row, I didn’t see my youngest on Christmas Day. Like last year, Tristan worked on Christmas Day this year. Starbucks is non-negotiable, even on Christmas Day; some people need their fix 365 days a year. We did our Christmas with Tristan a week early, Italian take-out and all. And for the second time, there were no kids in our Christmas card photo.

2020. A year of firsts. Christmas 2020 is the year that we did something unheard of in our family — we actually sent Christmas cards with a photo of just me and Curt, no kids. That’s a BIG deal, because photo Christmas cards are very much a thing in our family. To be precise, Christmas cards with a group photo of the entire family are THE thing, and that thing has been non-negotiable since 1990. [If you’ve read the book then you know the rest of the story and I’ve saved you from the repetition.] But last year was different; the picture on the card had no kids, just Mom and Dad. And guess what happened to last year’s cards? They were printed, but not a single card was sent. It was just too weird; I couldn’t do it. But this year I did it; the couple-photo cards were printed, the envelopes stuffed, and those bad boys went in the mailbox!

2020 — the year of endless firsts. I’ll be glad to see it in the rearview! 2021, here I come!
Different
By: Danial Naqvi
Tags: 2020, Celebration, Writing, Anniversary, Change

A year marked by Zoom is also a year marked by the word ‘different’.

Despite it nearly being a full year since the world changed, everything is still abnormal.

One thing to celebrate today, amongst others, is the day I started this daily blog 3 years ago.

I had just returned from study abroad and I wanted to document the year I was about to have.

I was so right about that year.

It was magical and transformational.

Sometimes different isn’t so bad after all.

Different
Can Amazon easily correct the wrong address that you have chosen for a purchase?
By: Rajesh Ar
Tags: Amazon, Shipping, Address, Change, Deals And Discounts

Note: It is agreed that the person who is purchasing is responsible for choosing the correct Address.

With things going so fast, and Amazon promising the next day delivery, most of us (who use Amazon) have moved the whole shopping spending to Amazon. So its one of those important days (like Prime day, Black Friday ) where you are provided with a plenty of opportunities to amass a lot of coupons/amazon cash and use it on your favorite best deal. So you spend a good amount of time and get ready to make a purchase. Product you are eyeing is already on a best sale price, and on top of that, you apply all the coupons and are pretty happy that you have the best discount ever on the product and make the purchase. In a few minutes time, you realize that you have a chosen a wrong shipping address.

What’s next!!!

Because it is AMAZON, you think, you can just call them and the change of address will happen in a Jiffy and you are done.

You will be proven wrong. By the time you reach customer care, even if its few minutes since you purchased your favorite item, your order is already in the pre shipping process (with amazing fast processing @ Amazon), due to which nothing can be done on that particular order.

You are given with 2 choices (One more additional choice was given initially which does not work at all). One, you wait for the package to be delivered and hope that the package is rejected (which seldom happens, as packages are delivered at door step). Or you have to cancel that order and replace a new one. In either case, what happens to all the coupons/offers that you have applied. Also no one guarantees if the sale price will be still on, or, will be applied later. After having multiple calls and spending few hours, you will be allowed reorder the same item with the correct shipping address as you want, with the same price. At least I did not think that there would be so much hassle for this.

So one (Me) should ensure to choose a correct address next time, when doing the best deal purchases on Amazon. Or can Amazon take its shipping choices further and make modifications along the line (till it is so that address change is not a hassle as it is now.
2021: A year of hope and happiness
By: Aswini Balasubramanian
Tags: Newyear 2021, Love, Happiness, Perseverance, Change

COVID-19 came when the world was least expecting it. No country was ready to face it. But together as a community we came forward and battled coronavirus by staying at home while the frontline workers and the social workers stepped out of the home to protect us all. This is where the word “Being Grateful” comes into play. Being thankful is appreciating what the god almighty has given us. Be thankful to people around you and be thankful for each and everything that happens in your life’s journey. In a world where there are people who don’t even have adequate access to basic needs such as food and shelter express your gratitude as you get access to all the basic needs including the extravagances.

Failure is not an eternal occurrence, you must learn to soar above it and choose to be better than you were junctures ago. Perseverance is the capacity to go on when things seem miserable. It is a measure of victory and the amount of sacrifice one does in order to taste success. Though 2020 has been a year filled with several hurdles and thorny paths for the plurality of us I would say we all have understood the fact that your tomorrow has great possibilities because of the steps that you take today. Every action has its equal and opposite reaction so hard labor has no alternative. This year has been a difficult year personally as well as professionally for many people but if we start practicing perseverance in our daily life it is sure that we’ll be successful one day or the other. There is no substitute for hard work hence stop procrastinating and start persevering. Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding in the 20th attempt.

2020 has been a year of hardships but that doesn’t mean 2021 will be the same. There’s something about hardships, if you can make it through the murky places it has the tendency to lead you into the path filled with glee. I’m sure that this blog would help you have a better 2021 filled with exhilarating joy and peace of mind.
Changes
By: Mahek Vij
Tags: Life, Optimism, Motivation, Positivity, Changes

Changes are bound to happen. Our heart is trained in a way that it keeps on clinging to the past. The good old days of the past. You don’t even acknowledge the goodness your present has to offer because you know it’ll never be the same. But how can you say? Maybe it’ll get better, maybe you will discover people who match your vibe. Maybe.

But at least give it a chance. Don’t shield your mind from exploring something new. There is so much on the plate but look at you, stuck in the maze of the past. Maybe someone out there is dying to be where you are now, maybe this is the right place for your growth. This is where you are destined to be and maybe, just maybe it isn’t so bad after all. Only when you let the clouds of the past pass, you can enjoy the rain the present has to offer. And it has a lot to offer, trust me, only if you prepare yourself to accept it. You have to let new people in and let them contribute what they have got in store for you. Each one of them is going to have their own little stories and they’ll offer you a different perspective of life.

Your pillows must be tired of your eyes getting swelled up every night. It’s high time, make your eyes shine again with positive energy. Interact with people, make a plan every day, do the little things you enjoy doing, which makes you, you. Your true self.

Don’t forget the past, forget the thought that happiness is confined in your past. Happiness has no bounds, go grab every bit of it while you still can. Take the good things of your past along with you, the people you love, the memories you cherish, and leave the toxicity behind. You’ve got a whole life ahead of you, it’s never too late to begin, is it? So start training your mind to be positive and yourself to be full of life. When you look back, you don’t want to see puffed-up eyes and gloomy life. It’s the happy days you live today which will make you smile in the days to come. This day will become a memory of tomorrow, so make it a worthy one. Make every second count. It’s a good life, my friend.

And changes, they are bound to happen. And maybe, just maybe, they aren’t so bad after all :)
Give the Gift of Bitcoin
Tags: Blockchain, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Announcements, Holidays

With BRD, you can give bitcoin to friends and family even if they have never used bitcoin and don’t have a wallet!

Let’s celebrate the holidays and bring in the New Year by spreading the gift of bitcoin. With prices at an all-time high, people are more eager than ever to learn about bitcoin and get their hands on some.

With BRD, you can give bitcoin to friends and family even if they have never used bitcoin and don’t have a wallet!

Here’s how:

1. Open your BRD app

2. Tap the Bitcoin wallet

3. Tap the gift icon on the bottom right of the screen

4. Select the amount, enter the recipient’s name, press create

5. Press the send button. You will then be prompted with a shareable link to text or email to anyone!

*If you need to re-copy the link, simply find the transaction in your transaction history, tap the transaction, and tap “share.” And of course, if the recipient does not claim the bitcoin, you can reclaim it by tapping “reclaim” on the transaction in your transaction history.

This is a great mechanism to introduce the world to crypto. No wallet needed, no public address needed, no bitcoin needed. Simply send the link and the recipient can redeem it upon downloading BRD, the simplest wallet in the industry. It’s the perfect start.

Please be sure your app is updated to the latest version!

Happy Holidays,

BRD Team

— — — —

Join in the conversations today:

Twitter : https://twitter.com/brdhq

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/brdhq

YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/c/Breadbitcoinwallet

Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/brd_wallet/

Originally published on December 23, 2020 at https://brd.com.
ViteX Campaign (80,000 VITE) for Ringing in 2021!
By: Vite Editor
Tags: Blockchain, Vite, Dex, Announcements, Vitex

In celebration of the new year, Vite Labs will be giving away a total of 80,000 VITE as a present to the entire Vite community!

Rules

For two weeks, users who have mined VX through trading-as-mining, market-making-as-mining, referral-as-mining, or staking-as-mining on ViteX are eligible for receiving our giveaway.

To be eligible, you must also follow our social media accounts (We will send a Google form to verify this at the end of the campaign):

https://twitter.com/vitelabs

https://twitter.com/vitexexchange

Like and retweet the original tweet announcement for this campaign

Campaign period

From December 28, 12:00 to January 10, 12:00 (UTC+8)

Trade as Mining

Total giveaway: 16,000 VITE (equally shared by all eligible addresses)

Eligibility: Traded at least once during the campaign period

Market-Making as Mining

Total giveaway: 16,000 VITE (equally shared by all eligible addresses)

Eligibility: Mined at least 100 VX through market-making during the campaign period

Referral as Mining

Total giveaway: 8,000 VITE (equally shared by all eligible addresses)

Eligibility: Invited at least one new user with referral code during the campaign period

The new user must complete a trade before the end of the campaign period

Staking as Mining

Total giveaway: 40,000 VITE (equally shared by all eligible addresses)

Eligibility: Mined VX through staking (received mining rewards) before the end of campaign period

Notes

No limitation on trading pairs. You can perform trading or market-making on any qualified trading pair (for mining) on ViteX.

Your reward will be distributed within 7 working days after the campaign ends.

Vite Labs reserves all rights of interpretation.

Thank you, and happy new year!
[ANN] MAP Coin airdrops for Milk Coin (MLK) holders
Tags: Map, Milkcion, Airdrop, Announcement, MLK

Hi, this is MiL.k team.

As we have announced, MiL.k team has completed the issuance of its new membership Coin, MAP and rewarded it to its users for participating in Milk Coin (MLK) burning or MiL.k Pack on the MiL.k app.

To celebrate the issuance of MAP Coin with more MiL.k users, there will be MAP Coin airdrop event for MLK holders. The total volume of the airdrop will be about 3 million MAP.

Details of the snapshot for the airdrop

The snapshot for holders’ MLK balance will be taken at 17:00 KST on Dec 28th, 2020.

Applicable MLK wallets will be MiL.k app* and all MLK-listed exchanges (Upbit, Bithumb, and KuCoin).

*MLK saved at MiL.k Pack on the app will be counted as well.

As for the MiL.k app, a user’s MLK balance will be decided according to a block established at the closest yet not past the snapshot time. We recommend our users not to transfer their MLK for 1 hour before and after the snapshot.

Details of the airdrop

0.03 MAP per MLK will be airdropped within 2 weeks from the snapshot. The same platform at which your MLK balance has been snapshotted will support your MAP wallet for the airdrop.

Important remarks about MLK deposit/withdrawal at exchanges On the day of the snapshot (Dec 28), MLK-listed exchanges may suspend MLK deposit and withdrawal, which may cause unsuccessful transfer. So, please check each exchange’s policy beforehand.

MiL.k team will keep making its best effort to offer better service and value to our users and investors.

Thank you,

MiL.k team.
Launching Frontier liquidity mining campaign
Tags: Announcements, Liquidity Mining

This blog was originally posted on the Hummingbot blog on December 26, 2020.

Right before the new year, we are excited to bring you another new 3-month liquidity mining campaign for Frontier with a total reward pool of USDT 15,000! The campaign will start on December 29, 2020, 12:00 am UTC.

In this post, we are going to introduce Frontier to the Hummingbot community and give both the Hummingbot and Frontier communities an overview of the upcoming campaign.

About Frontier

Frontier is a chain-agnostic DeFi aggregation layer. To date, we have added support for DeFi on Ethereum, Binance Chain, BandChain, Kava, Solana, TomoChain, and Harmony. Via StaFi Protocol, we will also enter into the Polkadot ecosystem. With our applications, users can participate in protocol tracking and management, staking, best-rate asset swapping, liquidity provision, CDP creation & monitoring, and more. In short, Frontierʼs core mission is to bring the essential pieces of DeFi to users across whichever platforms they prefer.

Liquidity Mining Campaign for Frontier Token (FRONT)

Frontier Liquidity Mining Campaign rewards liquidity miners for placing maker orders in FRONT tokens based on hard, quantifiable liquidity metrics. This new approach provides token projects such as Frontier with a community-driven alternative for liquidity. Instead of hiring a hedge fund, Frontier will incentivize its HODLer community and Hummingbot’s 8,000-member strong trader community to set up market making bots and trade FRONT.

The Hummingbot Team is particularly excited about this campaign because FRONT’s mission to incentivize open finance aligns with Hummingbot’s vision to democratize finance. FRONT incentivizes entry in DeFi, especially for smaller players who are unable to participate due to prohibitive costs. At the same time, Hummingbot provides ordinary individual traders and even the novice ones with the algorithmic trading superpower previously only available to proprietary investors.

Campaign Terms²

Start date: December 29, 2020 12:00am UTC

Total reward pool*: USDT 15,000 for 12 weeks (USDT 1,250 / week)

Reward token: USDT

Eligible token pairs: FRONT/BUSD

Eligible orders: maker orders placed with spreads of 2% or lower

Exchange: binance.com

*For full terms of the campaign, please see liquidity mining campaign terms.

To learn more about liquidity mining, see below:

To learn more about liquidity mining, see below:

Read the full blog here.
What is LockDex?
Tags: Blog, Lockdex, Liquidity Pool, Dex, Announcement

What is LockDex?

DeFi has produces several developments that we are proud of. In particular, farming pools provide crypto enthusiasts with a seamless method for passive income. By staking tokens, they receive rewards in pool tokens. It takes only a few minutes to create an LP and getting started. LockDex aims to take this approach to the next step by leveraging security with competitive APYs.

LockDex.org

LockDex — Secure DEX, Large APYs & Rewards

🤔How Does it Work?

Any user can take tokens available in Uniswap V2 LPs. We are creating a user-friendly UI at https://app.lockdex.org/ so that users can deposit and access LPs from the browser using web3 tools like Metamask. No installations required. Seamless connection and instant access to the latest info on APYs.

LockDex Menu with available pairs to stake and APYs

Users can profit additionally by locking their LPs. For a short period of time, locked APYs will provide 10x APY rewards — from the launch after presale during the following 15 days.

For limited time: 10x APY

LDX and LDR

A two-token system fuels the whole economy of LockDex. Both tokens will be publicly listed on Uniswap V2 LPs but the timing and prices will change.

1️⃣LDX Presale

Presale will be available for some days in various stages. Early birds will profit from the best prices and, as time goes on, the price in USD for $LDX will change. More information on the presale in an upcoming post.

2️⃣LDR — the Reward Token

Users will receive LDR by following some steps in the platform, maintaining LPs, and participating in activities for the community. LDR swap for LDX will be available in the future, in the meantime, LDR LP on Uniswap will allow users to make use of their reward tokens.

➡️Roadmap

Presale ➡️ ️ LDX Listing ➡️ App Lanuhc ➡️ LDR Listing ➡️ More features

🔒 Learn More

Website: https://lockdex.org/

Telegram: https://t.me/LockDex

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LockDexOrg