fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
December 21, 2017
Tags: Steemit, Blockchain, Crowdini, Games, Questions

STEEMIT TOOL AND LET’S HAVE A MINI TOURNAMENT

But first…

I paid all the 100% Prize winners yesterday. I did it manually but I can already tell this is going to be something I need to build in such a way I can do it automatically. So at some point I will. :)

You can check my work here: https://steemit.com/@crowdini/transfers or here: https://steemd.com/@crowdini

SteemD.com is the tool I wanted to tell you about but it looks like it is currently down so I will save that for tomorrow.

It’s 4 days until Christmas and I haven’t asked a single question about Christmas yet so I thought let’s have a mini-tournament to find out what the best Christmas carol/song is.

Two semifinal rounds with 4 songs each. The top two voted songs from each semifinal will be in the Final on Saturday.

It was very hard to just choose 8. Maybe next year I plan this better and we do a proper tournament!

All the best,

Jason
Bittersweet
By: Joseph Emmi
Tags: Life, Personal, Venezuela, Journal

That’s exactly what Venezuela have become.

You go for the full roller coaster experience, in a matter of seconds you can go from being incredibly happy after spending some time with amazing people you just meet, to completely broken-hearted after running into an old friend who’s struggling due to the serious economic crisis in the country.

From enjoying delicious food with the family, feeling “full” and paying the bill taking advantage of a favourable exchange rate, to realising there’s people that can barely eat once a day, because of that same exchange rate.

From the desire to go to the beach or take your family somewhere nice, to just avoid both due to the severe insecurity.

From enjoying every second with the people you love, to remembering I will leave and they will stay there.

It is bittersweet for a guy like me, who luckily have the chance to get out.

For those that have to stay, there’s nothing sweet. It’s all bitter.
Cryptocurrency and Solar Will Disrupt How we Invest in Energy
By: Irene Sun
Tags: Solar Energy, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Ethereum, ICO

Both cryptocurrency and renewable energy are growing industries. These disruptive technological improvements will change the world very soon. Although they might sound unrelated, solar energy is increasingly incorporating blockchain technology. Through a symbiotic relationship, these innovations are supporting each other.

Many digital currencies are digitally mined. However, photovoltaic solar power plants can actually make you earn cryptocurrency through the generation of solar electricity. Unlike Bitcoin, it is eco-friendly !

Investing in solar energy, as well as its projects (such as power plants and smart inverters) is very low risk. And the benefits are not only monetary. Knowing that you are doing the right thing for our planet is also very rewarding.

KiWi New Energy for example, aims to crowdfund its solar projects as well as its brand new smart inverter; the redistribution of profits will be made through a safe and transparent way thanks to blockchain technology. Blockchain technology enables investors to cross borders and bureaucracy all the while making investments that were previously not accessible to them.

KiWi New Energy aims to change the way people invest in green energy by making solar investment easy for everyone. Unlike conventional solar energy companies, who look for large investors, we crowdsource solar projects. The income of investors will be distributed through our brand new cryptocurrency, the KIWI Token; this helps us cross borders, as well as help participants avoid lengthy bureaucracy. Our highly lucrative solar projects are ideal for investors who want to make the world a cleaner and better place.

To learn more about us and our investment opportunities, click here. Follow us on Twitter, or like us on Facebook.
用大數據在上海開一間外送餐廳?!
By: Roy Lin
Tags: Data Analysis, Urban Design, China Trends, Location Intelligence, Data Visualization

Thoughts on urban research & innovations. The collaborative content from our greater IVC community. Visit: ivc.city

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Burp Suite: Webpage Enumeration and Vulnerability Testing
By: Nicholas Handy
Tags: Pentestbootcamp, Security

Basic Features

To start let’s get familiar with some of the common tabs available in Burp Suite — Intruder, Repeater and Sequencer

Intruder

With Burp Intruder, customized attacks can be automated against web applications. Customizing attacks requires that we specify one or more payloads and the position where the payloads will be placed in the website.

Use Cases: Enumerating identifiers, harvesting useful data and fuzzing for vulnerabilities.

Repeater

The repeater can be used to repeat manually manipulated individual HTTP requests. This becomes tremendously useful when trying a variety of payloads on the same request. With repeater you can try parameters on the same page without doing any extra work with the browser. Issuing requests in a specific sequence becomes much easier and you can identify how the page reacts to changing parameters at each step.

Use Cases: Testing a set of specific parameters on the same webpage request, reissuing requests to manually verify reported issues.

Sequencer

Burp sequencer can be used to analyze the quality of randomness in a sample of data items. This ultimately means that the sequencer is good for testing data items that are intended to be unpredictable.

Use Cases: Testing anti-CSRF tokens or password reset tokens etc.

Example Vulnerability Exploitation with Burp

Burp Suite gives us additional automation tools to use while testing a web application.

Damn Vulnerable Web Application

In order to practice attacking vulnerabilities we will use the Damn Vulnerable Web Application (DVWA). DVWA comes pre-loaded with metasploitable 2 but can also be downloaded independently and run off a local server. DVWA is sectioned off for specific attacks as seen in its side navigation bar. This gives us an opportunity to explore common web attacks at varying levels of difficulty.

Once DVWA is up and running, login and navigate to the security tab to change the security level to low. This will make the website vulnerable to a wider range of attacks which makes it easier when getting comfortable with a new tool.

Brute Forcing a Login Page

For this example we will use Burp’s Intruder to alter the HTTP request for the login page within DVWA.

Start by logging in to DVWA using the username “admin” and the password “password.”

using the username “admin” and the password “password.” Verify that the security for DVWA is on low for this attack. Higher levels of security will prevent this attack from working.

is on low for this attack. Higher levels of security will prevent this attack from working. Navigate to the Brute Force section of the side navigation. Here you will see input boxes for username and password.

Passing in the wrong credentials will pop up an error.

Attempted username: admin and password: 1234 which threw an error

Let’s suppose we know the username for the logged in user on the site. We can use Burp to intercept requests and attempt a list of passwords on this login page.
Trump Signs the Relief Bill Too Late to Help Millions of Struggling Americans
By: Caren White
Tags: Pandemic, Politics, Congress, Government, Trump

Politics

Trump Signs the Relief Bill Too Late to Help Millions of Struggling Americans

We are suffering while millionaires in Congress bicker

Image by Chronomarchie on Pixabay

Trump belatedly signed the COVID Relief bill on Sunday evening. Unfortunately, the extended unemployment benefits that millions of Americans depend on ran out the day before. States are unable to update their systems to restart weekly benefits to suffering families until next week.

To a wealthy man like Trump, missing one check is no big deal but for families who have exhausted all of their resources and now live week to week, it is a disaster.

I’ve been there. You know exactly how much you will receive. You have budgeted accordingly. So much for groceries, so much for utilities, so much for car payments. Suddenly, 25% of that money is missing.

It doesn’t matter that you will receive that money at the back end. You need it now, not later. You have bills to pay, mouths to feed.

Trump held up signing the bill in hopes that he could blackmail Congress into increasing the one time payout to $2,000. Congress refused to budge. Trump had to sign the bill to avoid being perceived as a loser.

Americans suffered just to satisfy Trump’s ego.
Hypnotic Pantoum
By: A Singular Story
Tags: Pantoum, Relationships, Poetry, Love, Humor

How could I look away?

Your heart holds my gaze

A glorious gateway

Into the candor of days

Your heart holds my gaze

Keeping darkness at bay

Into the candor of days

Language as foreplay

Keeping darkness at bay

With prose and purpose

Language as foreplay

We’re poetry-curious

With prose and purpose

Rekindled by empathy

We’re poetry-curious

Lyrical love is stealthy

Rekindled by empathy

Every word a doorway

Lyrical love is stealthy

How could I look away?
Winter Always Comes to Whidbey
By: Barry Dawson Iv
Tags: Haibun, Challenge, Community, A Cornered Gurl, Poem

Winter Always Comes to Whidbey

A Cornered Gurl Challenge: Haibun A Heart

One of the last good weather days on Whidbey Island. Image by Author’s wife, Erin. Used with permission.

I asked her point-blank what she wanted for her birthday because although levity and love seem to be my heart’s lifeblood, I’m lacking in sentimentality and in gifting people things they could easily get for themselves. We see each other exclusively every day, whether we both like it or not, and though I can’t speak for her, I’m mostly okay with it.

We’ve already shared hopes, dreams, and bank accounts. We’re even more joined at the hip as ever due to this year’s unrelenting quarantine and well, I’m quite stumped when it comes to gifting material items that carry symbolic meaning during a global pandemic. I know; #FirstWorldProblems, right?

But yeah, mental health and suffering is all relative, and whatnot and so forth, and so back to the point, I asked her point-blank what she wanted this year. Wanna know what she said? She replied that she wanted a new condo or a villa or even her own private island in the Hawaiian chain, or hey, why not a piece of New Zealand since they seem to have their quarantine protocol in order, right? Anyplace but here.

We compromised, and she took a ferry over to Whidbey Island for a day trip alone to gather rocks for her art collection and clear her head. When she returned, I held her as she finished sobbing herself raw. I may have the order mixed up, but you get the idea.

sun barely rises

fall shadows brace for winter

flannel resists chill
Ephemeral Gold
By: Jessica Lee Mcmillan
Tags: Change, Poetry, Chance Encounters, Nature, Melancholy

November in ephemeral gold

pauses, scales tipping

to shine’s burial

sun drop apparatus,

draws last breath of dream

before spilling rain

before architecture of dark

makes widow of colour

this tilt of brazen tone,

of diffused focus

is richest in mind,

fully in the eye

but dies in the heart sweetly
ON LABOUR, MIRACLE, and COSMIC WEBS
By: Legacy Russell
Tags: Work, Labour, Miracle, Art, Spiders

Tomás Saraceno, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Jan Beccaloni

Must work and miracle exist on opposite ends of the spectrum? Hans Ulrich Obrist across a myriad of discussions these past two days has sprinkled in suggestion that hard work often produces an experience that parades as miracle, transcending any traces of labour by appearing effortless. Perhaps Obrist has the energy put into the production of this Miracle Marathon itself on his mind, an endless symphony of logistics and timescales, emails and texts for miles, teams of people running back and forth behind the scenes to keep all moving forward for an expectant audience. This is the essence of entertainment: tucking away visible seams, taping hairs in place, painting pallid faces, adroitly cutting to the next scene. A fine balance between embracing the organic and letting the imperfect act as a relatable reminder of humanity, and, alternately, the jingling of bells to draw attention away from moments of human error, protecting the magic, fighting to maintain the casted spell. Are genuine miracles exempt from sweat beading on a quivering lip? Is part of the grace of the supernatural that it occurs without remnant of strain? And is there such a thing as a “genuine miracle” at all — or is that in itself an irreconcilable contradiction?

In conversation this afternoon with Tomás Saraceno and Jan Beccaloni, the triad turn to the work of the spider as inspiration, their creation of “cosmic webs”, compositions that find strength and beauty in their intricacy, yet are impermanent, eternally vulnerable, and therefore always subject to an imminent destruction. Their consideration of webs — beautiful, functional, and seemingly miraculous in how they appear to the human eye — makes me wonder as well about the aesthetics of miracle. As Naidoo pointed out yesterday (using Donald Trump as grim example), maybe miracles are not inherently beautiful. Maybe miracles, to be genuine — to be crucial — draw more from the realm of the impossible, the absurd, the unreal, the surreal, the macabre. The beautiful miracle, as found in the cosmic webs of spiders, or the mythology of an Immaculate Conception (a woman at work to produce human life, a production scrubbed of pain, sweat, tears, blood — a fantasy propagated by and for men, for sure), perhaps those miracles in their sterile precision and poise are more coincidence than anything else, entertainment for a collective consciousness that strives to subsume function into form.
PEP Network’s Business Model
By: Sharik Khan
Tags: Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Investing, ICO

PEP Network business model revolves around the 3 main entities, namely Services, Participants and Revenue.

Mobigraph will invest in and building tools, services and most importantly a thriving community.

This will enable a flourishing ecosystem leading to an exponential growth in content creation & consumption. More content and innovative apps around the content will lead to greater revenue. Revenue generated by the ecosystem would be reinvested for building more services enabling new use cases for content trade.

This interdependent cycle of reinvesting the revenue made via the ecosystem for the development of the ecosystem ensures profitability for all participants and expansion of PEP Network. Participants will also be incentivised for their contribution to the ecosystem.

Revenue Model

Mobigraph will generate revenue through the following revenue streams 1. Revenue from sale of content created by Mobigraph 2. Revenue from subscription o Content Studio usage by content creators o API/ SDK is a tier based for developers, more the usage less the subscription fee 1. Revenue from Ads and Marketing Campaign 2. Listing Fees — Listing of content on Market place attracts a one time listing fee. The fees varies based on the duration of listing, listing priority, number of contents to be listed, type of content (animation, AR filter, Ad format, etc.) and the mode of sale (exclusive, license rights etc.

The below table summarizes the PEP token flow (spend/ earn/ pledge) among participants and ecosystem
Am I Yours?
By: M Sahr Nouwah- The Hunter S Grandson
Tags: Rape, Liberia, Advocacy, Abuse, UN

I am 13

My sister, younger than I am is just two days old

Our aunt, the tall woman is just 34

All of us are being raped and we can’t explain why

Only fate and the other sex has the answer

But He is so silent

Even those who we call ‘’sisters’’ are quiet.

Maybe I am not loud enough

Or my dress code is blinding them all

But what about my two-day-old sister?

Why is she being molested, raped, torn, and killed?

Is her blood not flowing like a river?

Or the object used to penetrate her is missing?

Or maybe she is cursed

She deserves even more — I mourn.

Our tears have filled buckets until no bucket is left in the house

That alone could give attention

But we are left to ourselves.

The promised care, love, and better future all dwindling

While the courts are empty and the jails are full of petty criminals

Our devil is seen roaming and enjoying the freedom of his evil

What a country I call mine.

Oh mama, I am bleeding

My future is gone

Tone by razors, penis penetrating with a turbulent force

We sleep in fear of those protecting us

We school in their mercy

We eat only to later fill their manhood

Living at the mercy of another human!

We are nothing but their prey.

Holy name! holy name!

Pastors are rapists!

What about caring fathers impregnating their 12-year-olds?

Did you not hear that lawyers and lawmakers are part of the syndicate?

I see why I am left unattended

I see why my voice is too low in their ears

And I see why they made rape bailable

Why God?!!

Am I yours?

Do I belong to this nation?

Am I a member who deserves better?

Then wake up people!

Stand up and protect my siblings and me.

Do the needful and the urgent

I am bleeding and my cries are full

Make me home.
5 Red Flags You Must Not Ignore in People You Hang Out With
By: Haris Mohammad
Tags: Life, Personal Development, Life Lessons, Advice, Personal Growth

There are certain kinds of people we hate to have around us. Most notably, the kind prone to abusive and violent outbursts. However, not everyone bad for us gives out such loud and obvious signals.

In fact, certain traits make people likable to us when it’s in our best interests to stay away from them. Besides, sometimes even well-meaning friends can cause us much harm through unintended consequences of their actions.

The thing is, when we are with our friends, we feel comfortable enough to shed our inhibitions and let our guards down. And why not? Life would be miserable if we couldn’t be our true selves even in the company of our friends.

But that also makes us vulnerable.

So you must recognize early the kind of people who are deceptively dangerous and guard yourself against them. These are the people who can make your life miserable without your having the slightest idea of what’s going on.

So, here are the five red flags you must watch out for in people you hang out with.
Blockchain Wallet’s MASSIVE Crypto Giveaway!
By: Shane Moser
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Blockchain, Altcoins, Crypto

Blockchain, the widely popular bitcoin wallet provider is preparing to airdrop $125 million worth of cryptocurrency to current wallet holders to celebrate their integration and full support of Stellar (XLM) for their system.

Blockchain Wallet has decided to reward their huge user base of over 30 million users by airdropping each of them $25 worth of XLM starting this week!

Blockchain Wallet CEO, Peter Smith, and his team carefully chose which cryptocurrency to giveaway and settled on Stellar for a number of reasons, most importantly that of scalability.

This momentous giveaway also comes with a number of very valuable partnerships to bolster the growth and further mass adoption of crypto as a whole. Blockchain Wallet will be working alongside Code.org as well as Stanford University’s Energy Innovation and Emerging Technologies programs and Network for Good who altogether desire to create a better future through the use of cryptocurrency.

With 30 million people soon to be using Stellar Lumens (XLM), the value of this token will surely see a change as adopters start utilizing this token and its network. According to CoinMarketCap the Stellar Lumen has already seen growth in value over the last week and may very well continue to grow.

There’s no doubt that this tremendous gesture will have an impact amongst the global crypto community. As Blockchains CEO, Peter Smith said yesterday at Lisbon’s Web Summit conference “We’re doing this because we want you to truly understand crypto, and the only way to truly understand it is to use it.”

It’s initiatives such as this one that provides real hope for the future of crypto and real experience for those who have yet to use cryptocurrency.
MITI durante el Covid-19
Tags: It Industry, Covid 19, Technology, Miti, Remote Working

Thanks to Jose Luis Reyes and Ignacio Parada .
SQL and AdventOfCode 2020, on Snowflake
By: Felipe Hoffa
Tags: Sql, Snowflake, Database, Advent Of Code

SQL and AdventOfCode 2020, on Snowflake

More than 100,000 of coders are working out the Advent of Code challenges in their favorite programming languages. What if I could use this opportunity to highlight the power of SQL and the latest Snowflake features?

2020 has been a year full of surprises — one of them being that I left Google and joined Snowflake. Last year I did my first run for #AdventOfCode with SQL, and this year the challenge is helping me get acquainted with a different SQL syntax than the one I was used to with BigQuery.

I’ll leave some notes here on my major discoveries and learnings — while developing my new Snowflake expertise.

Find the full code on Github for these solutions..

Day 1: Multiple joins

The first problem was pretty easy to solve with SQL.

Part 1 took only a cross join, and making sure to only count each combination once with a.i>b.i . Part 2 was easy to solve with some regular expressions.

Notable differences when transitioning from BigQuery to Snowflake:
How to Run SQL on PDF Files
By: Shawn Adams
Tags: Sql, Pdf, Data Science, Json, Data Preparation

Authored by Kshitij Wadhwa

PDFs are the de facto standard for distributing and sharing fixed-layout documents today. A quick survey of my laptop folders reveals account statements, receipts, technical papers, book chapters, and presentation slides — all PDFs. Lots of valuable information finds its way into all manner of PDF files. Which is a great reason for Rockset to support SQL queries on PDF files, in our mission to make data more usable to everyone.

Fast SQL on PDFs in Rockset

Rockset makes it easy for developers and data practitioners to ingest and run fast SQL on semi-structured data in a variety of data formats, such as JSON, CSV, and XLSX, without any upfront data prep. Now add PDFs to the mix, and users can combine PDF data with data of other formats, from various sources, into their SQL analyses. Or analyzing multiple PDFs together might be valuable too, if you have a series of electricity bills like I do, as we’ll see in our short example below.

Uploading PDFs

From an existing collection, click the Upload File button at the top right of the console and specify PDF format to ingest into Rockset.

Querying Data in PDFs

I uploaded 9 months of electricity bills. We can use the DESCRIBE command to view the fields that were extracted from the PDFs.

Rockset parses out all the metadata like author , creation_date , etc. from the document along with the text .

The text field is typically where most of the information in a PDF resides, so let's examine what's in a sample text field.

+--------------------------------------------------------------+

| text |

|--------------------------------------------------------------|

| .... |

| .... |

| Statement Date: 10/11/2018 |

| Your Account Summary |

| .... |

| Total Amount Due: |

| $157.57 |

| Amount Enclosed: |

| ... |

+--------------------------------------------------------------+

Combining Data from Multiple PDFs

With my 9 months of eletricity bills ingested and indexed in Rockset, I can do some simple analysis of my usage over this timespan. We can run a SQL query to select the month/year and billing amount out of text .

And plot the results in Superset.

My October bill was surprisingly zero. Was the billing amount not extracted correctly? I went back and checked, and it turns out I received a California Climate Credit in October which zeroed out my bill, so ingesting and querying PDFs is working as it should!
Cosmic
By: Hannah Whiteoak
Tags: Space, Poetry On Medium, Astronomy, Poetry, Poem

Unseen, black holes swallow galaxies,

shield singular secrets from sight.

Infinite space, boundless time,

but not for you, dirt-born,

gravity-cocooned,

dead in a blink,

dreaming of

azure

skies.
Using Advanced Dialog Features in Watson Conversation
Tags: Watson, Watson Conversation, Editorial, Bots, Watson Assistant

Bots are smarter than ever, but sometimes they’re not able to show off how smart they really are. Humans say and type in unpredictable ways, that even an expert conversationalist can’t always account for. What if a user asks a bot two things at once? Even a human would have to process one request at a time. What if a user is going through one dialog flow, and decides they want to do something else instead? A human would have to stop the process they’re going through and switch gears. Designing a dialog is no easy feat. Luckily there are tricks and tips that make sure your bot sounds as smart as it really is. This post will show you how using the Watson Conversation service (which you can try out for free).

Watch this step-by-step video on how to utilize the more advanced features of Conversation or continue reading through this post.

This tutorial goes over how to handle two intents, manage handlers (how your bot will respond when the user’s answer to a prompt is not found), use pattern entities, and add a counter. You can find the workspace json for this tutorial here to follow along.

Handling two intents

If a user asks a question or a request that contains two intents, for example, placing and order and making a return, the bot (and humans) will need to take it one at a time. To do this, you want your bot to be able to detect if multiple things are being said, and then clarify which one to process first.

In your dialog tree, create a node to disambiguate between the intents. This node is checking to see if the top two intents returned are higher than 40% confidence (40% was chosen because there is not much training data). If yes, then the bot can respond with “Sorry, I can only handle one request at a time. What would you like to do first?”
What Are Keyframe Animations in Swift 5?
By: Zafar Ivaev
Tags: Programming, Mobile, iOS, Xcode, Swift

Let’s Start

We have a simple rounded UIView centered vertically in a UIViewController :

As we can see, we have references to two NSLayoutConstraint s we will animate.

Currently, nothing happens and the circle stands still:

Let’s change that. Add the performAnimations() method and call it inside the viewDidAppear() method:

We implement the animateKeyframes method in which we will add all our animations. We give three seconds for the overall animation process to be completed.

Now it’s time to add individual animations. Create a new method called addKeyframes(count:) that will generate a number of keyframe animations that will alter the constant property of the constraints:

A few takeaways here:

The withRelativeStartTime parameter takes a Double value indicating a relative starting time for the keyframe animation. For example, if we pass 0 as a parameter, this particular animation will start first.

parameter takes a value indicating a relative starting time for the keyframe animation. For example, if we pass 0 as a parameter, this particular animation will start first. Similarly, the relativeDuration parameter specifies the relative time the provided keyframe will take. In our case, we previously specified three seconds of time for the whole chain of animations. Therefore, as we passed the 0.1 value here, it means that this particular animation will take 0.3 seconds.

As we can see, we sequentially alter the centerXConstraint and centerYConstraint so that the circle moves in both x and y directions. For the actual constraint animation to happen, we run the layoutIfNeeded() method on the root view .

Now let’s call this method inside the performAnimations() :

We pass in eight animations that will take 80% of the three seconds of animation time.

Now we can see the circle shifting to the right and rising to the top at the same time:

Let’s now add the remaining touches to our work.

We need the circle to fade out after it has risen to the top and then show up at the beginning of its route. We also want the animation to run infinitely. These animations will take the remaining 20% time of the total of 3 seconds.

Update the performAnimations() method like so:

We add two additional keyframes:

One places the circle -20 points from the left and makes it transparent.

Another brings it to +10 points from the left and makes it visible.

Note that we also recursively call the performAnimation() method inside the completion handler.

Finally, we have achieved our task:
Git aliases at mySugr
By: Philipp Hofmann
Tags: Git, Command Line, Shell, Software Development

Using git alias on the terminal

Some developers at mySugr love to use the command-line for git. If you don’t want to type all the commands in full length all the time, you can use Git aliases. Examples:

git status turns into git s

turns into git commit -m turns into git c

turns into git checkout turns into git co

The following shows our favourite Git aliases. Just add this to your .gitconfig file in your $HOME directory.

Thanks to Lukas Streiter for the git log aliases.

Push to origin

A common scenario for us is to create a branch and then push it to the origin. If you use the aliases, you just type git p . But then Git tells you that your branch doesn’t have an upstream branch yet:

user$ git psu

fatal: The current branch feature/login has no upstream branch.

To push the current branch and set the remote as upstream, use git push --set-upstream origin feature/login user$

What we usually did was copy git push --set-upstream origin feature/login or manually type git psu origin feature/login , but this is very annoying and slow.
Mastering the Art of French Cooking
By: Edie Tuck
Tags: Cooking, Recipe, Julia Child, Food, French Cuisine

They say imitation is the best form of flattery, so I’m hoping that my borrowing this idea won't get me into any trouble.

From the moment I saw “Julie & Julia” starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams, I knew I wanted to do that too. I wanted to be Julia — or rather, Amy’s version of Julia (love her!) I asked Santa for the book that Christmas, but he didn’t bring it, so after a day of secretly sulking (it was the only thing I’d asked for!) I went out and bought it myself. And then it proceeded to sit on my shelf and collect dust for the next five years.

I recently pulled it off the shelf and blew off the dust, thinking maybe it’s time I started exploring and discovering, experimenting and embracing my roots.

I’m going to add a little twist to the recipes, however. In my attempt at a healthier lifestyle, I understand that French cuisine may not be the healthiest type of cooking I could be doing, and so I’m going to try and follow the recipes as closely as possible, while also somewhat ‘healthifying’ them.

Unlike Julie Powell, I won’t attempt to make all 524 recipes in a year — I’m not that dedicated, and frankly, I’m lazy. I will, however, start slowly making my way through it, and take anyone who’s interested along for the ride!

Follow along to find out if my first recipe attempt — Boeuf Bourguignon — will be a win or a fail.
“‘Jackie Robinson’ documentary kills myths of civil rights legend”
By: Jess Brooks
Tags: Activism, Racism, History

“For instance, Branch Rickey wasn’t Abraham Lincoln as a Major League Baseball executive. He had social convictions, but mostly the Brooklyn Dodgers general manager wanted to get in front of New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia’s weekly radio address that aimed to slam New York’s three baseball teams for their discriminatory hiring practices.

“We sort of postulated that Branch Rickey reached down and touched Jackie, like Michelangelo,” Burns says. “He was supposed to be God, and Jackie was Jesus. Not exactly. … It wasn’t just Branch Rickey alone in the wilderness. It was a black press that had been active for decades pushing it. It was a left-wing press.”…”

Why did we preserve these stories over the years and embellish them?” Ken Burns asks. “The only real reason I can think of is because it gave white people skin in the game. They historically could feel singularly responsible for this, rather than deal with the truth: If the black press hadn’t strongly advocated over the years, if political pressure outside baseball hadn’t coalesced at this time, it never happens.”

“Cultural appropriation” can be thrown around loosely. But what greater cultural appropriation is there than convincing a group of people that their resilience was needed, but their liberation was inextricably linked to the goodness of well-intentioned white people?”
Others
By: J.D. Harms
Tags: Loneliness, Frustration, Anxiety, Image, Poem

Others

A Poem

Pitted against other eyes

an imaginary contest

of right & wrong

hiding & fully unveiled

I stand naked

For a long time

The wind captures my skin

as much as it can

invading

nothing so much as holding on

The others abandoned

the caress

& the beer-flavored moon

winks out again
Sex Miseducation
By: Lindsay Soberano-Wilson
Tags: Womens Health, Sexuality, Womens Rights, Poetry, Feminism

They will have you teetering on the tightrope of fear

before they tell you anything real

before they prepare you for a miscarriage

before they prepare you for a negative pregnancy test

before they prepare you for a stillbirth

before they prepare you.

Before they prepare you they will have you teetering on the tightrope of fear before they tell you how or that you can enjoy yourself.

No, that’s not spoken about.

No, pleasure does not exist:

don’t speak of it

don’t name it

don’t think of it

don’t dream it

don’t be it

and certainly don’t do “it.”

So they will have you teetering on the tightrope of fear

before they tell you what it’s like;

or where to get an abortion,

or how to know if you want one.

No, that’s not for you that’s for them and that’s a sin.

We don’t talk about that or this or this or that

and that’s a fact. That’s a matter of fact.

We don’t like that.

You don’t want to be that.

That. That’s that.

That’s a matter of fact.
To My Cats- Why Are You Like This?
By: Nicole Praesuo
Tags: Poetry, Love, Cats, Pets And Animals, Pets

I wake up every morning

With you heavy on my chest

Engine roaring

Your drool dripping down my cheek

Why are you like this?

Your food dish is full

And the water dish too

But still, I find you every day

Eating plastic like it’s tuna

I found a rubber band in your shit

Why are you like this?

I lie on the couch

It’s time to arise

You sense this and approach

Now you choose to sit with me?

I can’t remove you

It would hurt too much

Why are you like this?

I walk into the room

You’re on the table, not allowed

Our eyes connect

Your paw reaches out

And knocks my water glass to the floor

Shattered

Why are you like this?

Your deep onyx fur

Soft to the touch

A staple on my clothes and in my food

I brush you constantly

Its everywhere!

Why are you like this?
This LED Smart Mask Is What’s Distracting Me Right Now
By: Megan Morrone
Tags: Masks, Technology

This LED Smart Mask Is What’s Distracting Me Right Now Megan Morrone · Nov 6

Whatever the outcome of this year’s presidential election, we’re all going to be wearing masks for a while. So you might as well wear one that you can control with your smartphone. In The Bold Italic this week, Sophia Smith spoke to designer Timothy Cochran whose company created both a fiber optic mask and an LED “smart mask” that you control with an app.

Read the full interview.
What is POS / POW / Masternode ?
By: Jay Jung
Tags: Bitcoin, Aboutapis, Masternode, Eng, APIs

Today, we will explain pow / pos / masternode for basic understanding.

POW

Computer is rewarded for contribution to block creation and verification(network validation) through a number of computations.

POW is increasingly resource-heavy with considerable electricity requirement, so there is a high level of cost involved with mining through POW method.

POS(Proof Of Stake)

Wallets(nodes) are rewarded for the coins within that contributes to block creation and verification(network validation)

Fair decision making done not based on mining hash, but on coin shares

Prevents centralization through mining hash power

Economical and environmental with no energy waste

Provides fair reward based on ownership of coins

APIS utilizes POS mining

APIS COIN lowers the barrier to entry of cryptocurrency invest and expands the adoption of blockchain through the use of POS.

What is masternode?

Masternode

Masternode is a special form of node(that normally verifies transactions on the network). What sets masternode apart is its governance and voting rights as well as increased transaction privacy and instant transactions, but perhaps the most known benefits of a masternode is that some of the block reward is granted to the owners of masternode. By setting aside a set number of a coin on a masternode, an investor can get a stable reward much like how interest is given at banks.

For instance, if one held onto Dash, one of the most notable masternode-capable coins, for a year from Dec 1 2016 to Dec 1 2017, his ROI would have been 9040% due to Dash price increase. Had he set a masternode with his Dash, the ROI would have risen to 9844% due to masternode reward.

If the price of a coin rises continuously, ROI will rise higher. Even if the price decreases, one is less likely to lose out due to masternode rewards. This reward therefore enables risk management to some extent.

The main disadvantages of masternode is what is required to set up a masternode. One must construct a server or borrow from server providers(AWS, google cloud, AZURE)on which masternode can run on, and the minimum number of a certain coin required for a masternode(1,000 coins for Dash, which translates to $450,000). Such high amount of a certain coin, in addition to the professional knowledge required to set up a masternode, continues to be a significant barrier to entry for masternode.

In summary, masternode can allow stable increase of asset in a certain cryptocurrency, but it requires significant capital and professional knowledge.

Next time, we will post the scalability of APIS.

Thank you

APIS
Here’s the Thing About New Beginnings: They Take Time
By: Renata Gomes
Tags: Self Improvement, Lifestyle, Life Lessons, Relationships, Love

Here’s the Thing About New Beginnings: They Take Time

Change doesn’t always happen all of a sudden.

Photo by Sincerely Mediaon Unsplash

You’ve been feeling restless for a while.

No matter how much space you have, what used to be enough now makes you feel cramped. You don’t feel like you fit in anymore, anywhere. You don’t feel as comfortable as you used to feel at your job, or in your relationships — not even in your own skin.

Not that there’s anything wrong with any of those things — it’s all about you.

Your mental and emotional state are asking for a change. They’re begging you to leave your comfort zone and go see what else is out there.

This is what happens when you outgrow certain things, certain habits, certain people. Your body and soul crave change, new connections, a new scenery.

Change, however, takes time. New beginnings take time.

You can end a relationship, resign from your job, move cities. You can start over.

But starting over doesn’t happen from one day to the next. You don’t wake up one day a completely different person than you used to be. You change over time, you acquire new habits slowly, you begin to see things under a different lens one at a time.

You can get to the exact threshold between your old life and a new one, eyes sparkling with hope, your dreams pointing in the right direction, and you still won’t be a different person.

New beginnings take time. It takes time to make up your mind towards change, it takes time to act, to adjust and adapt.

Once you’re on the other side of change, however, it will feel as if it all happened so fast. You’ll feel like just yesterday you were living that old life, the one that’s so foreign to you right now. You’ll forget you had to go through a process.

Yes, there is a process. Just like everything else that’s worthwhile in life, change can’t be rushed.

Starting over can be done, but it requires patience. The trick is to never lose sight of where you started so you never lose sight of how far you’ve come. Embrace the process, tackle every challenge at every new step you take with courage and grace.

If change is what you want, if a new beginning is what you need, you can get there. Just remember, it will take time. It doesn’t happen overnight. Nothing worthwhile ever does.
Remembering the Amazing Seven Days in Majestic Turkey
By: Misbah Ul Haq Syed
Tags: Life, Turkey, Traveling, Culture, Explore

Have a sneak peek at the itinerary…

Istanbul — 1st stop

Dubai to Istanbul (by plane, flight duration 4h 30m)

(What is unique about Istanbul). Before starting to talk about the trip, let me tell you something about Istanbul. The city has two parts/sides. Asian side and the European side. Meaning, Istanbul borders the continent of Asia on one side and Europe on the other. The major tourist attractions of Istanbul are on the Asian side. Here all the exciting stuff happens (site seeing, museums, shopping, dining…etc.). The European side consists of big hotels, corporate offices, factories, and so on.

Photo by Fatih Yürür on Unsplash

(Arrival). It was late in the night when we landed in Istanbul. But, it hardly took us 40 minutes with the immigration process. Sabiha Gokcen Airport was very impressive. No doubt their tourism is picking up so well.

(Hotel). We had booked the Ayasofiya hotel on the Asian side. Paid € 206 for two nights stay. But, considering a 3-star hotel, it was expensive. Later we found out its real worth.

(Site Seeing). The iconic Blue Mosque was within five minutes’ walking distance from our hotel. So, after having a hearty breakfast, we went straight to the mosque. Took lots of pictures of the majestic structure of the 16th century. We were through within an hour’s time. As we came out of the Blue Mosque, we saw a big red Hop On Hop Off Bus across the road. We knew about these buses from our previous vacations in Singapore. Paris. and Berlin. Such beauties take you around the main attractions of the city. We ran towards it, bought the tickets, and immediately got on the bus. Within the next 2 to 3 hours, we had a good tour of the city.

It rained all morning and late in the afternoon, it started to snow. On the way back from the city tour, we grabbed a quick bite from a nearby pizzeria then straight to the hotel. We had to get some rest as there was a fight to catch the next morning.
Zenome team to help you create Ethereum wallet and purchase BTC
By: Jeff Heizmann
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Blockchain, Zenome, Ethereum

To store ZNA tokens you will need Ethereum wallet, compatible with ERC20 tokens.

MyEtherWallet is an online Ethereum wallet. So go to https://www.myetherwallet.com/

Enter password that will be used to encrypt a keystore file and press “Create New Wallet”.

Note: There is no option for a password recovery.

Download your keystore file and store somewhere safe. (Keystore file contains a private key, encrypted with your password)

Read the warning and click the “I understand. Continue”

Print your paper wallet backup and/or carefully hand-write the private key on a piece of paper.

When done, click on “Next: Save your Address”.

Login into created MyEtherWallet wallet.

In the “View Wallet Info” menu select a login method.

We recommend using keystore file to log-in. After clicking “Select Wallet File” you will be prompted to select a keystore file.

Enter the password for the keystore file you have uploaded.

Below “Unlock your Wallet” click on “Unlock”.

Find your ether wallet address. You will need it on the final step.

II. Buy bitcoin

In this part we will guide you how to get bitcoins from localbitcoins.

Open your web browser, go to localbitcoins.com (localbitcoins.net) and press sign up free to register.

Fill the fields and click ‘register’.

Now agree with the Terms of service.

You will get a confirmation email.

On localbitcoins web site click ‘buy bitcoins’ in the upper right corner. Then choose ‘quick buy’ on the main page, choose amount of money in your local currency you want to exchange and click ‘search’.

Trader’s line has the following info:

number of trades;

percentage of successful trades;

range of trade sums.

Choose the one that is best for your goal and click ‘Buy’.

You will go to the offering page. Here you need to check trader’s ‘Terms of trade’ and choose the amount of money in your local currency you want to exchange or amount of BTC you want to buy. Because of commission you maybe would like to add — $2–3. Then click a green button.

You will see the following window:

Wait for trader to send you transaction requisites and send payment using them. Be careful while filling requisites. When ready with your transaction, click ‘I have paid’.

In several minutes you will see your bitcoins in right upper corner.

Click on the sum and you will be in your wallet. From here it is possible to send bitcoins to Zenome by entering wallet address that you will see in your personal account.
PHP Series — HTTP Lanjutan. Part 3 — Cara Kerja HTTP
By: Jansutris Apriten Purba
Tags: Https, Web Development, Php Series By Jansutris, Software Development

Easy read, easy understanding. A good writing is a writing that can be understood in easy ways

Follow
Following Your Dreams
By: Mark Starlin
Tags: Life, Cliches, Ambition, Dreams, Humor

Everyone says to follow your dreams.

But the last time I got in a cab and said, “Follow that dream!” the guy looked at me like I was stupid.
Curriculum App Release Notes #013
By: Louise Swift
Tags: App Development, Learning, Programming, Software Development, Personal Development

Curriculum App Release Notes #013

As promised, new features are being released faster now.

New User Onboarding

Thanks to insightful feedback from some friends, I prioritised an interactive tutorial feature for new users this sprint.

Onboarding 1.0 is out now, ready for testing. I’ll also be roping more friends into feedback sessions. (If you have feedback, too, just give me a shout.)

In-App Study View

You can now view your learning resource directly from the Study Timer.

To enable this, just add a URL custom field to the learning item:

StudyCoins

You’ll now earn StudyCoins with daily logins or by completing the onboarding tutorial.

The next step will be to add StudyCoin costs for more learning item storage, for custom dashboard and profile components, etc.

This feature is, of course, mostly for fun. But rewards are an important part of building a study habit. I’ll be doing a lot more thinking (and talking to users) about this over the next few months.