fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Five great reads to understand the age of cyber conflict
Tags: Google, Cybersecurity, Hacking, Disinformation, Politics

Ukraine’s power grid goes dark, thousands of computer systems across Europe suddenly stop working, your computer demands payment in bitcoin to decrypt your files — you’ve all seen the headlines. Cyber conflict is reshaping how nations go to war, how criminals do business, and how spies steal information. But amidst all the news coverage of the latest cyber attack, it’s worth spending some time to dig deeper into the history of the new age of cyber conflict to better understand how these attacks work and how we can protect ourselves and our institutions. Here we’ve pulled together some of our favorite recent pieces that delve into the shadowy world of digital crime and conflict.

WIRED | Andy Greenberg | June 6, 2017

Cyberattacks and online disinformation campaigns will define the next generation of conflict, and they will unfold silently, invisibly and inexpensively. Nowhere is it easier to see the future of conflict than in Ukraine, where institutions in media, military, politics and energy have become a testing ground for Russian cyberattacks.

The New York Times | Azam Ahmed & Nicole Perlroth | June 19, 2017

Activists, journalists, human rights lawyers and their families are being targeted by advanced spyware that was sold to the Mexican government under the condition that it could only be used against cartels and terrorists.

The New York Times | Sheera Frenkel | July 2, 2017

More than three billion people are expected to get access to the Internet in the next few years. As developing countries rush to go online, they provide a fertile testing ground for hackers to test their skills in an environment where criminals can evade detection.

Wall Street Journal | Melanie Evans | June 18, 2017

Hacking healthcare facilities has become a billion-doIlar industry. But because of an obscure regulation that says hospitals don’t need to report ransomware attacks, the healthcare system is weakened in its ability to fight cybercriminals. If hospitals aren’t aware of the attacks hitting their competitors, they’re less prepared to defend against the attacks.

The New York Times | Sheera Frenkel, Mark Scott & Paul Mozur | June 28, 2017

As increasingly complex ransomware attacks happen with more frequency and cripple companies around the world, experts find themselves questioning the attackers’ motives. Are they out to make money or make a statement?
How To Change Your Financial Future By Adopting A Money Mindset
By: Jazz Parks
Tags: Success, Finance, Money, Self Improvement, Startup

What are the qualities of your everyday millionaire? Why do the rich keep getting richer while the poor get poorer?

I’ve spent years studying wealthy people's mindsets in an attempt to find the answers, and I discovered that there’s one key difference between the rich and the poor; their mindset.

What Is A Money Mindset?

Having a Money Mindset means being actively engaged with your finances. It also means that you’ve adopted a set amount of core beliefs revolving around money.

Do you honestly believe that you deserve to be rich? Or are you holding some previous financial mistakes against yourself?

What’s the most money you’ve ever had at once? How long would it take to make even more than that?

Before you can really think like a rich person, you have to eliminate all unnecessary beliefs about money.

“Your money — and hence your life — is a reflection of your beliefs about money ” — Ken Honda

Here are a few things you can start doing now to adopt a Money Mindset.
Five Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Running
By: Lisa Lindey
Tags: Womens Health, Fitness Tips, Fitness, Running Tips, Running

Running down Kent Ave

When I first started running I would grab my first generation iPod, throw on some whatever shoes, and go as fast as I could until I ran outta gas (which was never very far) and would then walk home. I was living in Boston and basically would run around Jamaica Pond everyday.

Sidenote: Does anyone remember the Nike pod that you put in your shoe that would connect to your iPod and Lance Armstrong would give you encouragement during your run? I don’t think Strava or any kind of online tracking existed then.

Thankfully, I loved the feeling I got while running to keep going even when I had no idea what I was doing. I was rocking Nike Frees (I just got them because they came in black and they definitely were too small), knit gym shorts and baggy t-shirts. Running definitely wasn’t as fashionable as it is now.

It was just a way for me to clear my head, get into nature, and, more often then not, help with my hangover. It took a few years, a subscription to Runners World and some advice from a client who was running marathons on the regular for everything to click. This is what I wish someone had told me when I first laced up:

How you feel running will change day to day. There are some days where I feel like I could run forever and then the very next day I feel like my legs are filled with concrete and 3 miles seems like it takes forever.

If you run, you’re a runner. For some reason when I first started running I didn’t think of myself as a runner. I didn’t think I was fast enough, or ran enough races, or looked like one. That’s bullshit. If you run, you are a runner, doesn’t matter how long or fast, if you just log a mile on the treadmill or are busting out ultras.

Go slow. You don’t have to go fast every run (and you shouldn’t). Go slow on your slow, recovery days and go for it on your speedy days. I know its counterintuitive but going slow will make you faster. I found the book 80/20 by Matt Fitzgerald super helpful. Basically, do 80% of your runs slow and 20% fast.

Shoes matter. Do yourself a favor and go to a running store and get fitted for the right shoe. What you think may be cute to walk around in could hurt you running…trust me on that. I love my Nikes, but I can’t run in them. Also, go up a shoe size. I wear 8.5 in regular shoes and a 9.5 in running shoes. Wearing shoes too small is the quickest way to get blisters and lose some toenails.

Work that core and foam roll your sticks like your life depended on it. 5 minutes a day for each, that’s all you need. After each run I try to do 5 minutes of core work (planks, V sits, etc) and it makes a difference! This is a good video if you don’t know where to start. A stronger core means better form. No one looks good hunched over running. And I foam roller every night. It feels good (most of the time) and it helps you from walking like the tin man.

I hope this helps you get started on your running journey! Remember, everyone starts somewhere.
LEDU Listing on a Top 15 Crypto Exchange Next Week
By: Dr. Michael J. Garbade
Tags: Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Ethereum, Exchange, Bitcoin

We know that one of the wishes of our community has been for LEDU to be listed on some of the largest crypto exchanges. We’ve been working hard to make it a reality and we have some good news. We’re pleased to tell you that LEDU will be listed on a bigger exchange next week. One of the top 15 exchanges. When LEDU coins are listed the exchange will make the official announcement and we will provide updates on our blog and social media channels. Stay tuned for more details.

Get LEDU Coin

Get LEDU coins now with ETH or BTC on Livecoin, Mercatox and Exrates. Read more about LEDU coins on our project page and ask any questions you might have in our Telegram group chat.
The Deep Meaning of “Worship”
By: John Diamond
Tags: Mindfulness, Poetry, Worship, Religion, Spirituality

The Deep Meaning of “Worship”

The “wor” is derived from the root WER2, the basic meaning being to bend.

Photograph by John Diamond, M.D.

Our word worship:

the ship means the state of,

and the wor the worth.

So, basically, the worship is to invest the other with the state of being worthy.

The wor is derived from the root WER2, the basic meaning being to bend, hence verse and vertebra. We bend our knees, we bow our heads, to those we feel are worthy of our worship.

Interestingly, the root WER1 meant to raise, to lift. We raise our thoughts in worship.
The Travelopia Agile Playbook — or Brochure?
By: Mark Beauchamp
Tags: Agile, Software Engineering, Product Management, Data Science

Something really exciting is starting to happen at Travelopia.

OK – so we admit – when it comes to Agile Software Delivery we are starting a little way back from the bleeding edge.

If we were to liken our project delivery to some of our fantastic destinations – we’d be Iguazu Falls.

But that doesn’t mean we’re not striving for better. Over the past 6 months we have gathered together the largest number of Agile-focused Product owners, Scrum masters and engineers that Travelopia has ever assembled to work on the Catalyst programme.

The crux of Catalyst is enabling a number of initiatives which puts our customers first, through the application of test and learn hypotheses, data science and agile system integration and delivery.

In the short term we’ve decided to follow some elements of the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), but over time we believe we will “take the stabilisers off” and create Travelopia’s own approach to Agile delivery which will cherry-pick the parts of Scrum, SAFe, XP and other approaches that work best for our people, teams and partners.

We are collecting and collating our own Agile playbook, or glossy brochure to keep with our Travel theme, to pass on to future Travelopia Agile teams what we learn.

If we like them a lot, we will share them with you!
Love Over Safety?
By: Felix Gussone
Tags: Travel, 2020, Germany, Covid 19, Coronavirus

My parents and me in Germany, Christmas 2019. Who would have known…

What Metallica has to do with me pondering whether I should travel to Germany for Christmas and spend time with my parents.

In a normal year, I would see my parents (70 and 68 years old) at least twice. They would fly to the best city in the world for a summer vacation, spend a few weeks with me and take videos of Central Park squirrels and firetrucks passing by. In December, I would travel to my small hometown in Germany near Cologne for Christmas and sleep in my childhood bed (I’m 6'4), right under a fading, dusty ‘Ride the Lightning’ Metallica poster (teenage rebellion, you know?). In a good year, my brother Johannes who works as an anesthesiologist in Zurich would also return to the family basecamp, if his schedule permits, and by 11 pm on Christmas Eve, us four would snuggle up under the XMAS tree (not made of plastic), stuffed with turkey, Spätzle, and Haribo Goldbears.

Quick reminder: it’s 2020. My parents didn’t make it to the US this year, a) because they didn’t want to die from a respiratory virus and b) even if they wanted to, they couldn’t enter the states thanks to restrictions on travel from the EU to the US. The only way for me to spend time with my parents this year is to book a flight to Germany this December (which technically works because I have a German passport).

Do I want to go? “HELL YEAH!”, says the metalhead son who loves his parents and didn’t have a chance to hug them for almost 12 months. “HELL NO!” says the metalhead son who loves his parents, but also went to med school, and understands that Covid-19 is no joke — especially for a 70-year-old man and a 68-year-old woman. I really want to see my folks and convince myself that “Nothing Else Matters”. But I also know that there’s a small but real chance that I could be an asymptomatic carrier and bring home “Creeping Death” in the form of Covid-19. Sad but true. I’m banging my head.

Well, emotions aside. This doesn’t have to be as dramatic, destructive, and thunderous as a thrash metal album. Let’s look at the science. There’s actually a way I could fly to Germany this year and see my parents while minimizing the risk of exposing them to the novel coronavirus (I’m aware that there’s no zero risk scenario, but as a scientist, I’m comfortable with 99.9%).

Here’s what I would do:
8 Actionable Strategies to Give Your Side Projects an Extra Boost
By: Filipe Silva
Tags: JavaScript, Startup, Programming, Side Project, Software Development

8 Actionable Strategies to Give Your Side Projects an Extra Boost

Don’t let your side projects fall by the wayside

Photo by david henrichs on Unsplash

Software developers don’t agree on a lot of things. You have infinite fertile ground for debate around programming languages, IDEs, frameworks, operative systems, libraries, patterns, best practices, or counter variable names. What we all do agree on is that we hate wasting time on code that won’t bring any measurable benefit, or worse, will be deleted in two weeks. With experience, we become pretty good at sniffing that code out from a distance — it’s our responsibility to always steer the work we do into meaningful territory.

When we tackle our programming side projects we tend to have a higher degree of control than when developing software for others. No programmer ever started a side project planning to get the least out of it as possible, so I’m going to go out on a limb and say that we always have great ambitions for the software we craft.

We always want to get the most possible out of side projects we build. Who knows, maybe we can even finish them!
The Pink & The Blue
By: M. J. Murphy
Tags: Race, Diversity, LGBTQ, BlackLivesMatter, Racism

A few weeks ago, at a campground in southeastern Missouri, I eavesdropped on a group of middle-aged gay men reminiscing about their criminal pasts.

They told of plainclothes police officers in parks, highway rest areas, and public restrooms, masquerading as gay men looking for sex with other men. Often chosen because they were handsome or conventionally masculine, these undercover cops would exchange suggestive glances, initiate conversation, and even display their genitals in attempts to get other men to make sexual advances. One cop even attempted to get a guy to point out in a gay porn magazine which (at the time, illegal) sex acts he preferred.

If a guy was unlucky enough to encounter one of these cops, he would be arrested on charges of “lewdness,” “public indecency,” or “soliciting a police officer.” Then his photograph, name, age, address, and place of employment would be published in the local newspaper. Publicly shamed, their lives in ruins, these often-married men would rarely contest the charges, which ensured a criminal record would follow them for the rest of their lives.
Announcement #21 — ETH meets Bitdroplet
Tags: Sip, Cryptocurrency, Investment, Ethereum

Dear users,

Last year, we launched the Systematic Purchase Plan (SPP), infused it with Dollar-cost Averaging (DCA) strategy and we kicked it off with BTC. To say the least, it quickly went viral among users of all classes and types; hodlers got a new way of growing while holding their crypto funds, long-term investors could invest in BTC, and some even found a way to start investing towards an early, carefree retirement. All this, without the typical volatility risk that a common man fears when it comes to investing in BTC.

A lot of you have enjoyed the videos that we have made over time.

Bitcoin versus Mutual Funds

Bitcoin versus gold etc.

In short, we reduced the fear of investing in volatile crypto markets among the masses, to bare minimum. And with the confidence we derived from that, fearlessly, we move towards our next announcement — Ethereum (ETH) SPP.

Yes, Ethereum is coming to Bitdroplet and we are all set to let you experience investing in it, in the same DCA style. Ethereum is going to be the 2nd asset to be listed on Bitdroplet, and everything from depositing to investing to withdrawing is the same as how it’s been for BTC investments. Ethereum has been a long standing demand from users and recently with a lot of exciting innovations happening in the decentralised finance space has started seeing major activity happening on it.

Why shall I invest in Ethereum (ETH) SPP?

Ethereum has always been one of the strongest contenders in the crypto markets. Don’t believe us; believe the ‘2nd Rank’ it holds on CoinMarketCap. It has always been a fundamentally healthy crypto project with crucial technological contributions to the field of crypto. But just like BTC, it has been volatile and that shouldn’t keep anyone from making long-term investment in a fundamentally healthy crypto project like it. Hence, we bring you Ethereum (ETH) SPP. We would reveal information over ETH SIP as well so users can compare the data and calculate it for different time periods just like they can do it for BTC.

In terms of investing, is ETH SPP different from BTC SPP?

No. ETH SPP works just like BTC SPP. You can invest in an ETH SPP with the same INR and USDT. The only thing that changes is that while creating a goal, you will have to select BTC or ETH in order to start a goal that draws investment for the selected crypto (BTC or ETH). While creating an ETH SPP, select ETH as the asset.

We believe the launch of ETH SPP is a remarkable step towards expanding the universe of cryptocurrencies for DCA style investments, and this is just the beginning. Imagine a whole list of cryptocurrencies listed on Bitdroplet; just choose and start investing right away and building long-term wealth. It’s going to be that easy :) ETH SIP on bitdroplet goes live tomorrow 8 pm.

Also one last thing: a BNS FIP is going live on 26th August 12 pm here. You can always find information related to bns FIP in our medium article around it.

Till then,

Onwards & Upwards

Team Bitbns
Review: DeepLabv1 & DeepLabv2 — Atrous Convolution (Semantic Segmentation)
By: Sik-Ho Tsang
Tags: Deep Learning, Convolutional Network, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science

1. Atrous Convolution

The term “Atrous” indeed comes from French “à trous” meaning hole. Thus, it is also called “algorithme à trous” and “hole algorithm”. Some of the papers also call this “dilated convolution”. It is commonly used in wavelet transform and right now it is applied in convolutions for deep learning.

Below is the equation of atrous convolution:

1D Atrous Convolution (r>1: atrous convolution, r=1: standard convolution)

When r=1, it is the standard convolution we usually use.

When r>1, it is the atrous convolution which is the stride to sample the input sample during convolution.

The below figure illustrate the idea:

Standard Convolution (Top) Atrous Convolution (Bottom)

The idea of atrous convolution is simple. At the top of the figure above, it is the standard convolution.

At the bottom of the figure, it is the atrous convolution. We can see that when rate = 2, the input signal is sampled alternatively. First, pad=2 means we pad 2 zeros at both left and right sides. Then, with rate=2, we sample the input signal every 2 inputs for convolution. Thus, at the output, we will have 5 outputs which makes the output feature map larger.

If we remember FCN, a series of convolution and pooling makes the output feature map very small, and need 32× upsampling which is an aggressive upsampling.

Also, atrous convolution allows us to enlarge the field of view of filters to incorporate larger context. It thus offers an efficient mechanism to control the field-of-view and finds the best trade-off between accurate localization (small field-of-view) and context assimilation (large field-of-view).

In DeepLab, using VGG-16 or ResNet-101, the stride of last pooling (pool5) or convolution conv5_1 is set to 1 respectively to avoid signal from decimated too much. And atrous convolution is used to replace all subsequent convolutional layers using rate = 2. The output is much larger. We only need to have 8× upsampling to upsample the output. And bilinear interpolation has quite good performance for 8× upsampling.
Being Thoughtful Could’ve Made The World A Much Better Place
By: Christie Li
Tags: Life Lessons, Careers, Advice, Education, Life

The story told, from a vet’s point of view

Every industry has its own bright sides and dark sides, the vet industry is no different. As I continue my progression in the veterinary pathway, these insights in the industry become more and more relevant to me.

Whilst a minority of vets might be the real “bad guys” who are deliberately destroying the trust bond with clients.

Still, not all of them are frauds.

Unfortunately, they are the ones that are often underappreciated and get blamed together with those truly responsible.

Though there should be no excuse to penalize those breaking the code of conduct for their unprofessional behavior; clients, on the other hand, can also take part in resolving this toxic trend in society — by being more thoughtful and considerate.

Errors do occur unfortunately by accident in clinics, especially for fresh graduates who are not as confident.

After all, the level of confidence comes with the level of experience. If the world is more accepting, to begin with, there will be more room for improvements.

Not only so, but clients also have the right to decide which clinic to go to, ultimately, which clinic to trust. Consumerism is just the same when it comes to visiting the vet; clients can always gain a second opinion from a second clinic for comparison.

It takes two to tango.

Both parties are responsible for resolving the toxic trend in society and the bad reputation that existed. On one hand, vets who break the code of conduct should be held accountable for their actions. Clients, on the other hand, could be more thoughtful and less derogatory towards the clinicians.
How Slow-Eating is Healthier than the Fast One
By: Sanjeev Yadav
Tags: Health, Obesity, Hunger, Lifestyle, Food

My college friends used to hurry when eating in the hostel mess. They said, “Eat fast. Otherwise, we’ll miss the lecture!”

I missed the class anyway, independent of my eating speed. That’s how boring nerves college lectures have.

Ask any of my college friends the best nap they’ve ever had. They won’t say their boyfriend/girlfriend’s lap. They’ll say, “one hour of lecture in cool AC”.

I am even yawning while writing this because I have some clear ( and embarrassing ) sleeping memories from college lectures.

But my dad didn’t force me to eat fast. He suggests eating as slow as possible while enjoying the food. He also says to focus solely on the food while eating — single-tasking or mindful eating; you name it.

He still practices mindful eating nowadays. He has been going at it since I can remember.

But he eats fast. I don’t know if it has any effect on his health. But when I look at my situation, I wanted to know if 30-minute of eating time is good or bad.

Then my roommate told me that slow eating is indeed beneficial than devouring in a hustle. He even dared me to Google if he is wrong. I searched online out of ego. You can also try.

To my surprise, I did find some research studies that show slow-eating has been the cool-way since forever.

Covering all the aspects will take a long article. So here is the one where I pay attention.

Fast eating means over-eating.

Especially if you are eating in a dining-mess or someplace where there is a continuous supply of food, you will over-eat because of fast-eating.

Why am I saying over-eating? Because the brain takes some time to receive signal of fullness. And if you’re fast-eater, then by the time your mind gets the message that you’re appetite is full, you’d have already crossed the limit.

Now you already know what are the effects if you eat more than your appetite. One of them is obesity. Isn’t it enough? You want more side effects of over-eating?

So, here is a tip that works. I applied this in my job life. Currently, I am using this in my daily life also:

Take a fixed amount of food and don’t go for a second sitting.

You know your body, your appetite, and with the time, you also learn how much you can eat in one sitting. The only patience factor is to eat slowly.

I won’t tell you to do single-tasking because I’ll be a hypocrite if I don’t practice it myself.

I am practising slow-eating since I joined college. It has been working for me since then. Mindful eating is another thing, but since every food is not tasty, mindful eating is quite difficult nowadays.

So, yes, I still multitask while eating. But I make sure I am never over-eating. EAT HEALTHY. EAT SLOWLY. Time is precious, but not more than health — this goes without saying.

This blog belongs to a series of posts I am publishing on a daily streak. Target-1 was 21 days. Target-2 was 100 days. Today is day 104. Target-3 is 150. Here is the first blog that started the streak.

Thank You for reading! See you tomorrow!

~ S.
Creativity Behind Unconventionality
By: Felipe Ardila Villa
Tags: Matlupbchronicles, Matlupb

Taken from tenor.com

“Do I really look like a guy without a plan?” Said Dr. Berry, misquoting Heath Ledger on The Dark Knight. Even after getting to know each other for a really short time, we all knew, without any doubt, he didn’t.

There will always be some sort of mistrust within the first interactions we, as humans, have with others of our kind; and the classroom is not the exception. But that fear is what gives us the first impulse to hook ourselves deeply with learning, something that does not take place without a purpose, and without giving a deeper meaning to all its bonds with what surrounds us. This is where Dr. Berry’s teaching methods steal the scene: there’s a purpose behind everything, and it’s the teacher’s work to make students question themselves by giving them the tools to find their own foundations. In this sense, prior unification of each idea, method and purpose enrich the classroom with an environment totally prepared for students to find meaning deconstructing what can be seen as a subjective approach from a teacher’s perspective to what really matters; also known as a giant ball of tied nonsense that students must find a way to untie. Behind the reason for untying that mess is where the bigger purpose for students lay: What do we do with what others make of us?

Now that we got to our main focus, #MATLUPB, I thought that it would be important to note the fact that motivation (purpose, and meaning) has transcended more than a simple act, becoming an immersion mechanism on the class experience. There is something about making things up as the class goes that really appealed my creative instinct while thinking about lesson planning. You could just adapt everything that happens while the class develops into new authentic learning, leading to a unique experience for both students and teachers, right? Wrong. We don’t just do things, like dogs chasing cars, planning each session has become one of the most important parts of developing that learning environment for our students.

Through the whole semester, #MATLUPB gave us a totally new perspective of how behind properly planned unconventionality and creativity will always lead to success and engagement, without leaving behind order. Even the most simple rules could be felt every second on the class environment, and that kind of order and self reflection is one of the best things that we can take from this semester. We must aim to be what Gotham needs us to be (Yes, I’m still into The Dark Knight references): teachers like Dr. Berry, who everyday inspire everyone around to become the very best of them; the very best of us.
Largest Cryptocurrency Exchange Predicts $1B in Annual Profits, Surpassing Major Banks » Fortune Insider
By: Simon Manka
Tags: ICO, Binance, Cryptocurrency, Exchange, Bitcoin

Despite the cryptocurrency market tanking over 70% since the start of 2018, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange is on pace to generate between $500 million and $1 billion in annual profits.

In one year, Binance went from 2 million users (end of 2017) to over 10 million active users. This rapid growth and massive revenue stream has allowed the exchange to surpass many major banks. Binance was started in 2017 after raising $15 million through their Initial Coin Offering (ICO). The activity on the exchange peaked last year with over $11 billion in trade volume per day.

Binance’s CEO, Changpeng Zhao, said in an interview with Bloomberg that he expects Binance to generate at least $500 million in profit in 2018 alone. The best case scenario has the exchange making over $1 billion in annual profits.

The cryptocurrency exchange has grown rapidly, having hit 10 million users already this year, generating $1.5 billion per day in trade volume. Binance makes money off both the sale of BNB (Binance Coin) which can be used to make trades at a 50% discount of 5% instead of 10%, as well as through the exchange fees collected.

Now their $100,000 fee for listing a new cryptocurrency makes sense. The worlds largest exchange has only been online for a little over a year, so their growth is staggering.

Binance’s Expansion Plans

In March, Binance opened offices in Malta due to mounting regulatory pressure from from Asian governments. Upon the firm’s announcement, Maltese governmental employees immediately issued statements on social media to welcome the exchange with wide open arms.

Executives at the exchange explained that operations in Malta would help the company secure the proper licensing required for fiat to cryptocurrency transfers, which they have been working on for some time. This would also make them an even larger competitor to US-based CoinBase.

The move to Malta has already been proven as a success, with Binance Uganda, the first fiat to crypto portal, opening late last month. The company has made it clear that this is just the beginning, reiterating its plans to secure banking licenses on a global scale.

BNB/BTC Performance

BNB’s performance surprised many, as it was one of the only cryptocurrencies to grow substantially against relative Bitcoin value in this bearish trend. This growth may indicate that investors see even more potential in the platform, which is now the 17th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

One thing is clear, Binance is not going anywhere. As of writing this article, they are the #1 largest cryptocurrency exchange as ranked by CoinMarketCap.com by trade volume, with over $1.3 billion in trades in the last day. Binance’s ambitious plans will be quite interesting to watch unfold.

How To Use Binance: The Master Guide
The Floating Face
By: Shringi Kumari
Tags: Sea, Poetry, Reflections, Self, Life

The Floating Face

Poetry

by Author

The blur of the sea

has settled in the corners of my eyes

The flimsy homes that swayed on its waves

The light it rejected back to the world

Amongst shells, stones and silhouettes

of things I would never know the names of

There was a face, settled on the water

Calmly moving with the rhythm of the beast

That face also stays in my eyes

It projects on the letters I read

The books I open

The hazy windows I stand by

I rub my eyes

The face cracks; slowly becomes whole

A new expression appears

I am used to its yellow smile

Today, he is angry, (I think)

I imagine his body, pacing in rage

And for the first time, I recognise

— the sea, the homes, the lights,

the people that walk on sand

I know the rocks settled at the bottom of the sea

I know the ending of every book I ever opened

I know, this face, the story that I brought home from the sea

~
Garbage Collection in Python
By: Raivat Shah
Tags: Programming, Python, Data Science, DevOps, Garbage Collection

How

There are some techniques, but most garbage-collected languages, including Python, use reference counting. In reference counting, we track the number of references to an object and discard an object when the count is 0 .

An object’s reference count changes as the number of aliases pointing to it changes. The count increases when it’s assigned a new name or placed in a container such as a list or dictionary. The count decreases when it’s deleted with the del command, it’s reference is out of scope, or it’s reassigned. For example:

sample = 100 # Creates object <100>. Ref count = 1 sample_copy = sample # Ref count = 2. sample_list = [sample] # Ref count = 3. del sample # Ref count = 2. Note that this doesn't affect sample_copy and sample_list as they directly point to <100>. sample_copy = 10 # Ref count = 1 as alias was reassigned. sample_list.clear() # Ref count = 0 as list is cleared and doesn't store the alias pointing to <100>.

Reference counting can immediately reclaim objects when the reference count goes down to 0 . However, there’s a cost to this: We need to store an additional integer value for each object to indicate its reference count (a space-versus-time trade-off).

However, a problem with reference counting is the notion of reference cycles. If two objects, A and B, reference each other, they’re essentially in a bubble where the reference count will always be greater than or equal to 1 . This is common in lists, classes, and functions. For example, when an object refers to itself:

x = []

x.append(x)

Or when objects cyclically refer to each other:

a.attribute_1 = b

b.attribute_2 = a

The garbage collector periodically looks out for reference cycles and removes them. Since this an expensive process in terms of resources, this is done periodically and is scheduled. The Python Garbage Collector interface provides methods to explore the schedule and the threshold at which the garbage collection is performed.
How Timberland Became Hip-Hop’s Unofficial Dress Code and Built A Billion-Dollar Brand
By: Thakur Rahul Singh
Tags: Business, Success Story, Timberland, Branding, Hip Hop

1990's-2000’s: Hip-Hop made Timberland boots shine

In 1980, Timberland opened its first international store in Italy, and people went crazy for them. Such was the craze that people would fly down to the U.S.A. and buy Timberland boots to sell them in Italy for higher profits.

After such traction, Timberland had to open multiple stores in the U.S.A. Soon street kids, workers, and hustlers around the street saw Timberland popping up in their nearby stores.

With ever Evolving hip-hop community, they liked what they saw. The boots were stylish, durable, dashing, and does go well within their pennies.

Major credit should be given to Timberland’s lasting quality, reliability, and affordability of their boots.

Hip-hop stars like Nas, Mass Deep, and Biggie Smalls either showed up wearing Timberland boots in their songs (or) Included them in their song lyrics.

For hip-hop admirers, those shoes became the status of fashion and a badge to their community. Hip-hop stars from the 1990s to early 2000’s adopted Timberland boots and indulged it in their music.

Some popular examples will be:-

Nas — The World is Yours

The world is yours is a 1994 rap song by Nas. He referred Timberland boots as ‘timbs,’ and the line was

Suede Timb’s on my feet makes my cipher complete.

He was a prominent figure in the hip-hop community. Nas’s influence cleared showed up within his young followers who started to wear Timberland boots, and many other hip-hop artists began to called it ‘timbs’ and included in their music albums.

Mobb Deep — The Infamous

Mobb Deep wearing Timbs for his ‘The Infamous’ album cover (Source: Medium)

Back in the ’90s, Mobb Deep was considered a strong spirit with how he sings and represents himself in a dashy street look.

On the cover of The Infamous, Mobb Deep was firstly seen wearing 6-inch Timbs, and the look was as badass it gets.

Busta Rhymes

In the significant red-carpets in the early 2000s, Busta Rhymes was seen wearing customized Timberland shoes, which matched his outfits.

The impact of Hip-hop lasted over a decade on Timberland. Other significant artists like Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac adopted Timberland boots in their song lyrics and even in their fashion.

As all hip-hop stars started wearing them and talking about them in their songs and albums. In the 2000's — this craze spiked Timberland sales.

Thanks to the decade of 1990–2000, Timberland sales grew to $1 Billion in 2001. It’s was inevitable that the significant impact on the company’s growth was due to hype built by the hip-hop community.
Ripening
By: Adam Kinyua
Tags: Silence, Maturity

Not telling your own side of the story

Choosing your battles

Letting go of the need to be always right

And understanding that sometimes your side of the story…

…is not the most important thing

But listening more and talking very little,

Is!
The Hot IPO Market
By: Kyle Tang
Tags: Economy, Investing, Money, Finance

Source: CNBC

An initial public offering, or IPO, is when a privately-owned company goes public by beginning to sell shares to the public and getting listed on a stock exchange.

Despite a global pandemic, there have been 461 IPOs in the U.S. market this year, as of December 17, 2020. This is approximately double the number of IPOs (231) during the same time in 2019.

Hot IPOs This Year

Source: CNBC

Of the ten largest U.S. tech IPOs ever, three have occurred this year. One of them is the software company Snowflake, which debuted in September as the largest software IPO ever. The other two, DoorDash and Airbnb, occurred less than two weeks ago, on December 9 and 10.

In their first days of trading, the stock of Snowflake, DoorDash, and Airbnb leapt 111%, 85%, and 112%, respectively. Each company raised more than US$3 billion, and with market caps between $55 billion and $100 billion, they are all in the 30 largest U.S. tech companies by market value.

The valuations of these hot IPOs often surpass their established, long-profitable, peers. By market cap, Airbnb is worth more than Marriott International Inc., Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. and Hyatt Hotels Corp. combined, and DoorDash is valued almost double Yum Brands Inc., which owns Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC.

IPO Valuations

David Golden, a partner at Revolution Ventures and former head of technology investment banking at JPMorgan, wrote, “Other than the dot-com era (1999–2000), I’ve never seen anything like this across so many companies…. The valuations are seemingly untethered from any analytic metrics that I’ve understood.”

The rapid increase in these companies’ share prices suggests that they could have raised a lot more money without further dilution. Skeptics are irked that these companies are giving new institutional investors a “free handout” by pricing their IPOs too low.

While institutional investors may receive free handouts, that’s not so true for everyday investors. For example, Airbnb’s offer price was $68 per share, yet the day it began trading, it immediately opened at $146 per share.

Jay Ritter, a finance professor at the University of Florida, says that hedge funds are “buying with the expectation that they’ll be able to make a profit by flipping the stock.” So, while institutional investors are making the largest gains by selling their shares on the public market for much than the offer price they paid, investors who buy later on at propped up prices have much less upside.

The Future of IPOs

In the last two years, the number of unicorns — private start-ups with a value over US$1 billion — has doubled globally to more than 500. Many of these unicorns are likely to begin exiting through IPOs while stocks are at or near all-time highs.

Rich Wong, a partner at the venture capital firm Accel, says “If the [stock market] rally stays apace, 2021 will definitely be the most active IPO market in the last 20 years.”
Latest picks: In case you missed them:
By: Tds Editors
Tags: Towards Data Science, Editors Pick, Machine Learning, Data Science, The Daily Pick

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Seminary Productivity: Due Dates, Task Management and To-Do Lists
By: Alan Bentrup
Tags: Church, Work

As discussed previously, a calendar and time blocking are great ways to boost productivity in seminary by organizing days and weeks around what needs to get done. But the scope can be limited by what is immediately upcoming, and it is harder to keep tabs on projects and assignments further out.

That is where task management comes in.

Task managers can be as high-tech as apps for phones and computers, or as low-tech as a to-do list on a piece of scrap paper. I’ve used each of those and everything in between. Regardless of the medium, the process is essentially the same, and it really only has one step:

When you’re given a syllabus, put assignments and due dates in your task manager or to-do list

Don’t give yourself time to to lose track or get behind. I put all reading assignments, paper due dates and exams in my task manager so I have a running list of what is coming up and what is due when. Your list should be updated regularly to add any additional assignments or due dates as they are given.

The key to integrating your task management with your calendar (and ultimately time blocking), is the weekly review. We’ll discuss this on Friday.

My current task-management setup

I’m currently using two different apps for my own task management, one for school and one for personal. For school, the absolute best task manager I’ve found is iStudiez Pro (although the name could be better).

This app, available for Macs, iPhones, and iPads (any synching between all devices), is designed for students, contains all the features I need, and is nearly perfect for seminary productivity. I am able to set up my classes and create my assignment lists for each class. The calendar view then includes my upcoming assignments and incorporates my Google calendars, so I can see what all I have going on in the coming days.

For my personal life, I use OmniFocus on my iPhone. This currently serves as nothing more than a running list of things I need to do, but in times past I have used the various features to help organize work projects, things I need to do around the house, and more. Once I’m out of seminary, I anticipate using OmniFocus more fully again.

I think most folks tend to overcomplicate task management. If you’re a tech geek, apps can be useful and fun. But a running list on a piece of paper works too. You just need to make sure you know what is coming up so you can plan ahead and not miss anything.

What task management tips and tools do you use? What do you need to start using?
What Can We Expect in TypeScript 4.0?
By: Chameera Dulanga
Tags: React, JavaScript, Programming, Nodejs, Typescript

What Can We Expect in TypeScript 4.0?

Learn what’s coming in the next version of TypeScript

Photo by Natalie Rhea Riggs on Unsplash.

In my previous article, I talked about the new features in TypeScript version 3.9. Today, I will be peeking into TypeScript 4.0, which is expected to be released by August 2020. According to the iteration plan, it seems that they are working on various aspects, including language features, performance, infrastructure, and — most importantly — bugs.

In this article, I will go through a few features that are planned to be released with version 4.0
🌊 Casually Drowned
By: Rolli, Https, Ko-Fi.Com Rolliwrites
Tags: Death, Writing, Poetry, Poem, Life

POEM

🌊 Casually Drowned

He stepped out with the sea…

In the easy same way he did everything

ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤeat a plum

ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ pluck a string

trip into an inheritance or

the arms of a bathing bachelorette heiress

(this happened on more than one occasion)

he stepped out with the sea

one evening

We felt nor grief nor affection

according to fashion

Though we each of us miss his — insouciance?

Is this the word?

We miss his insouciance

His mistress has his insurance

but misses his insouciance too

Author’s Note №1

The best way to prevent drowning is with a top-notch life preserver.

Author’s Note №2

Due both to my curation ban and the recent, devastating algorithm change, this post will earn no money. It would mean the world to me if you’d consider buying me a coffee.

Author’s Note №3

From now on, friends, I’m letting you decide how often I post new material. When this poem receives 1000 claps, I’ll post a new poem.

Author’s Note №4

My latest poetry collection is Mavor’s Bones. Buy a copy here.

Author’s Note №5

Did you know that a Medium drug lord is threatening my life?

Author’s Note №6

You might like this poem, too:
Energi Bureau of Investigation
By: Energi Cryptocurrency
Tags: Announcements, Blockchain, Energi, Cryptocurrency, Product Guide

Energi Bureau of Investigation

Attempted Earndrop Fraud Thwarted

Energi’s Earndrop aims to be a fair distribution of coins to individuals who prove their identities and are active within our community. To encourage mass-adoption, Energi sought to distribute a considerable amount of the total supply evenly to the world, as opposed to more traditional methods like ICOs. Throughout the rigorous vetting process for Energi’s Earndrop program, our Defense Department found that approximately 20% of all submissions were fraudulent.

The perpetrators amassed a vast network of sockpuppet accounts claiming other people’s social media accounts and, even worse, an intricate network of fake referrals. One nefarious network, in particular, was responsible for as many as 10% of the total submissions, which our Defense was able to meticulously identify using proprietary threat hunting analytics. We were not only able to identify the sockpuppet network but the puppet masters behind it. This sophisticated attack attempted to defraud the community of around $1 million worth of NRG via illegitimate submissions. We consider this theft, it is illegal to falsify identification documents for any purpose. Our legal team will be submitting target packages to the perpetrators’ local law enforcement bodies to aid in criminal prosecution.

We are sharing this information to keep our community informed as to why the auditing process has taken noticeably longer than originally expected. Our team is working around the clock to validate submissions and ensure that NRG coins will be distributed in Q4 2019.

Scammers, beware of attempting similar criminal acts for Round 4, as not only will it be a waste of time, but you will face legal ramifications. This case is an excellent example of why Energi’s self-funding treasury model is superior to other projects in the space. Energi has various departments with experts in their respective fields, including our Defense Department, which serves to protect the community from this sort of fraudulent activity.
How to Work with Multiline String Variables in GitHub Actions
By: Vladimír Oraný
Tags: Github Actions, Tech, Automation, Github

GitHub Actions are a great tool for automation. I'm currently creating workflows to manage changelog for a BOM file based on releases of included. On the library side, I was sending a release payload as a part of repository_dispatch action and then I wanted to add it to the changelog.

sed -i "2 a### $description



$release_body

" CHANGELOG.md

The problem was how to populate the request_body variable. The obvious option would be to extract the value from the event using ${{ ... }} notation. The problem with this notation is that it is basically a pure text replacement so the multiline string would break bash command as well as the workflow YAML file

env:

release_body: this would be a multine string

and break the syntax...

For this particular situation of reading the event, one can luckily use the jq and read the JSON which as also stored in the filesystem.

export release_body=$(jq '.client_payload.github.event.release.body' $GITHUB_EVENT_PATH)

release_body="${release_body%\"}"

release_body="${release_body#\"}"

The variable will be surrounded by double-quotes so you also need to remove the first and last double-quote.

For other situations, passing the value through the filesystem seems the only way to go.

Another problem may arise if you want to create an output from the action. When the changelog is changed then I wanted to draft a new release using a part of the changelog. You can create step's output as follows:

export CHANGELOG="$(...)"

echo "::set-output name=changelog::$(echo "$CHANGELOG")"

Again, the multiline strings are not properly handled for these situations. You need to sanitize the content first:

export CHANGELOG="$(...)"

CHANGELOG="${CHANGELOG//'%'/'%25'}"

CHANGELOG="${CHANGELOG//$'

'/'%0A'}"

CHANGELOG="${CHANGELOG//$'\r'/'%0D'}"

echo "::set-output name=changelog::$(echo "$CHANGELOG")"

Then the output is read correctly in the next steps — no need to other replacements in the consumer step.