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9 Social Media Goals You Can Set for Your Business | The thing we love most at Buffer is to help you succeed at social media. And a key part of social media success is knowing which goals and targets to set for your team.
Without goals, it’s hard to know exactly how well your social media strategy is performing and where you need to iterate to continue moving forwards.
Today I’d love to share with you a bunch of super-actionable social media goals you can use to help your team achieve great things. In total, we’ll walk through 9 very different, but effective social media goals and for each goal we also relevant metrics to track and share how to measure your results.
Let’s get started…
Social media isn’t only a marketing tool. It can affect almost every area of a business. For example, as we discovered in our State of Social 2016 report, social media is a key channel for brand awareness, engagement, lead generation, customer support and much more.
We know that social media can aid businesses in many ways, but how can we ensure we’re getting as much value as possible from the time and resources we put into social media?
One way is by setting goals. And a super-interesting piece of research I found, shares that goal setting can have a significant effect on an individual’s performance and happiness.
In 2010, a group of researchers in Canada studied the effect of goal-setting on the academic performance of 85 students. After four months, they found that the group that went through an intensive goal-setting program achieved significantly better results and than the control group.
If you want to stay motivated and achieve more results for your company through social media, science recommends setting goals. But which goals should you set?
Below is a list of 9 ultra-effective social media goals to help you maximize your returns from social media:
1. Increase brand awareness
According to our recent State of Social Media 2016 survey, brand awareness is the top reason marketers use social media. It’s easy to understand why:
The average person spends nearly two hours on social media every day, and therefore social media is one of the best places to grab consumers’ attention.
Social media has also enabled marketers to have a more quantitative understanding of their brand’s presence and reach in the online world. And now most social media platforms provide data on the reach of your content, allowing you to report your online presence more accurately.
Potential metrics to measure brand awareness:
Followers count — “How many people can you potentially reach?”
Reach of your social media posts — “How many people have do reach each day / week / month?”
Mentions, shares, and RTs — “How many people are talking about your brand or sharing your social media posts?”
How to track brand awareness:
While most social media platforms provide native analytics, third-party management tools make tracking and reporting brand awareness metrics much easier. For example, using Buffer, you can find out your followers growth and reach on the various platforms.
To do this in Buffer, select the account you are interested in and head to the Analytics and then Analysis in the sub-menu. Next, to see your followers growth and reach, select “Followers” and “Reach” from the two drop-down menus.
2. Drive traffic to your website
One step further from having a brand presence on social media is driving visitors to your website or blog, who might turn into your customers.
Three in five marketers use social media to distribute their content and drive traffic to their sites. A team at HubSpot, for instance, grew their monthly blog traffic by 241% over eight months through social media experiments.
Potential metrics to measure traffic:
Traffic from social media — “How many visitors are coming from your social media channels?”
Share of overall traffic — “How much of your overall traffic does social media account for?”
Bounce rate of social media traffic — “What is the quality of the traffic from social media?”
Clicks on your social media posts — “How well is the messaging of your social media posts?”
How to measure traffic to your website:
Google Analytics is probably one of the easiest tools for tracking web traffic. It provides you with information about your website or blog traffic from various traffic sources, including social media.
To understand the traffic from your social media channels, go to Acquisition > All Traffic > Channel.
This view shows you the number of visits from each channel, the share of overall traffic (the percentage in brackets), the bounce rate, and more. For instance, in the image above, you can see that social media drove about 46,000 visits, which accounts for about 4 percent of the traffic.
You can break this data down even further in Google Analytics by clicking on the ‘Social’ link and seeing which platforms were driving that traffic:
3. Generate new leads
Lead generation is typically used by companies with a long sales process, such as enterprise software companies.
According to HubSpot,
It’s a way of warming up potential customers to your business and getting them on the path to eventually buying.
This “path” is essentially your sales funnel. With the huge number of people you can reach, social media can be a great tool for getting people to the top of your funnel (or warming them up to your business).
The definition of a lead is quite broad, but it usually means that the person has provided your company with some form of information about themselves such as their name, email address, and similar. There are many ways to track your social media lead generation efforts and the list below includes a few of the more common metrics to track to quanitify your social media leads.
Possible metrics to track lead generation:
Personal information (usually email addresses) collected through social media — “How many leads have you collected through social media?”
Downloads of your gated content — “How many people visited from social media and downloaded your gated content?”
Participation — “How many people participated in your social media contest or events and shared their information with you?”
Clicks on your lead-generation social media posts — “How well is your messaging on those posts?”
Conversions of leads from social media — “How good are the leads from social media?”
How to track social media lead generation:
Google Analytics is extremely powerful and if you have some conversion goals set up, you can effectively track your social media lead generation using Google Analytics reports. (If you haven’t quite set up any conversion goals in Google Analytics, here’s a comprehensive guide on how to do so.)
Once you’ve got a conversion goal set up, to view reports, go to Acquisition > Social > Conversions within Google Analytics and ensure you select the conversion goal you’re looking to measure. You should then see a screen like this:
The conversion report will then show you how many leads your social media channels are bringing in or which channel is bringing in the most leads.
Other analytics tools like KISSmetrics and Mixpanel can also tell you such information (and perhaps in greater detail).
4. Grow revenue (by increasing signups or sales)
If you don’t have a long sales process, you can use social media to turn your audience into paying customers directly. For example, social media advertising, such as Facebook ads, is a becoming an increasingly popular strategy to boost sales.
Possible metrics to measure revenue growth:
Sign ups / Revenue — “How many sign ups or how much revenue is your social media channels bringing in?”
Revenue from ads — “How much revenue is your social media advertising bringing in?”
How to track revenue growth:
Again, you could track revenue in Google Analytics by setting up a new goal conversion. But this time, you’d need to assign a dollar value to each conversion:
If you are an e-commerce site, Google Analytics’ Ecommerce Tracking might be more appropriate. And if you are using Facebook ads, you can also set up conversion tracking with the Facebook Pixel and attribute values to the conversions. Here’s a great beginner’s guide to the Facebook Pixel by Shopify.
5. Boost brand engagement
Engagement is the second top reason why marketers use social media. And research has found that social media interactions improve brand perception, loyalty, and word of mouth recommendations.
Furthermore, social media platform’s algorithms, such as those on Facebook and Instagram, are prioritizing posts with higher engagement on their feeds due to the belief that users will be more interested in seeing highly engaging content.
To summarize, if you want people to see your social media posts, you have to produce enagaging content and respond to your community.
Potential metrics to measure engagement:
Likes, shares, and comments per post — “How many people are interacting with your social media posts?”
Mentions and replies — “How many people are mentioning your brand, and how many have you replied to?”
How to track engagement:
Just like brand awareness metrics, you can manually track engagement metrics through the social media platforms themselves (Facebook Insights or Twitter analytics, for example) or you could use a social media management tool to help you.
For example, with Buffer, you can view all your social media posts by platform and filter your most engaging posts. For example, here’s out ‘Most Shared’ Facebook post from the past 30 days:
6. Build a community around your business
Tracking audience numbers such as total followers and fans is great, but we’ve also noticed a rise in the number of closed communities and chats business have been focusing on over the past year-or-so. For example, we run #Bufferchat every week on Twitter, we also have a Slack Community (and some businesses are even experimenting with Facebook groups, too.)
The types of goals you want to set for these communities may feel very different to your overall fan / follower growth goals and, of course, the type of community you choose to build will have an effect on the metrics you choose to measure success by.
Here’s a list to get you started:
Possible metrics to track community building:
For Facebook groups: Number of posts, likes, and comments — “How engaged is your community?”
For Twitter chats: Number of participants and tweets per participant — “How many people are involved in your Twitter chats, and how engaged are they?”
For Slack communities: Number of daily active users — “How many people are actively involved in your Slack community?”
How to track community building:
There are many great tools that can help you track such data automatically. For Facebook groups, there are Grytics and Community Analytics. For Twitter chats, there are Keyhole and Hashtracking. While most of these tools aren’t free, they provide free trials for you to see if they suit your needs before you pay for them.
If you don’t have the budget to pay for such tools at the moment, manually counting and recording the numbers in a spreadsheet is entirely possible, too! I also find that manual tracking helps me understand the data better in the beginning (though, it might get too tedious eventually).
7. Effective social customer service
Having a good customer service on social media can help to increase revenue, customer satisfaction score, and retention. But in our State of Social Media study, only one in five respondents (21%) said that they use social media for customer support.
The trend of people turning to social media for customer support will likely continue, and we think there’s still a huge opportunity for businesses to differentiate themselves from their competitors with great social media customer service.
Possible metrics to track your customer service effectiveness:
Number of support questions — “Is there a demand for social media customer support for your company?”
Response time — “How fast are you getting back to your customers?”
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) — “How satisfied are your customers with your service?”
How to measure your customer support effectiveness:
If you have a low volume of customer support inquiries on your social media channels, you could manually track the number of support questions and your response time. Otherwise, using a social media customer service tool will likely be more efficient. For example, in Respond, our social customer service software for support teams, you can access to data, such as Average Time To First Reply.
8. Increase mentions in the press
Despite the fact that social media has enabled companies to own their news and share stories directly with their fans and followers across social media, the press and media can still drive significant results and PR still plays a key role in many businesses’ marketing strategies.
This makes it easier to build relations with relevant publication journalists for getting press mentions and to build thought leadership in the industry.
Possible metrics to measure your PR success:
Potential reach — “How many people did a PR campaign potentially reach through social media?”
Shares and mentions — “How many people are sharing or talking about your thought leadership articles?”
Influencers — “How many and who are the influencers or journalists talking about your articles? What’s the size of their following?”
Outreach — “How many people are asking your company about industry-related questions? How many journalists are asking questions about your company through social media?”
How to track your PR mentions:
If you are just starting out, it might be possible to manually track all the social and press mentions of your company. When it comes to hard to keep up with the mentions (congrats!), Mention is a great tool for tracking mentions on social media.
To start tracking mentions of your company, there are three simple steps:
List the keywords you want to track Set up your priority pages (pages that you wish to be notified about when they are shared on social media) Select places where you want Mention to be tracking (e.g. Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest)
If you go to Dashboards > Listening, you can see the data of the mentions. From here you can begin to discover and filter the most important and furthest reaching mentions of your brand.
9. Never miss a mention through social listening
Social media has brought businesses and their customers closer and now it is much easier for customers to share their feedback with companies than it ever has been before. It has become a common trend for customers to air their thoughts about products and companies on social media. By catching and replying to these posts, your customers will feel heard.
Possible metrics to measure social listening:
Customer conversations — “How many conversations have you had with your customers on social media?”
Suggestions or feedback from social media — “How many suggestions are you getting from your customers through social media?”
Product/content improvements made from those suggestions — “How many of the suggestions influenced your product development or content production?”
How to effectively listen to social media conversations:
TweetDeck is a great, free tool for social listening and research on Twitter. By setting up the right keyword searches, you can capture and respond to the relevant tweets from your customers.
For example, if you have tweeted us about our iOS app, you might have received a reply from Andy, one of our iOS developers. He uses TweetDeck to “listen” for and reply any tweets about our iOS app.
Top tip: As most social listening tools allow you to track keywords, you could even surprise and delight your customers when they didn’t tag you in their social media posts. For example, at Buffer was keep an eye on all Tweets mentioning ‘Buffer’ as well as those that mention our handle ‘@Buffer’.
What are your social media goals?
With the social media landscape moving so quickly, new goals and ways to measure success are regularly emerging, and I’d love to hear what goals you’re currently focused on:
What social media goals do you use?
What new social media goals or use cases do you think will emerge, and why?
I’m excited to continue the conversation with you! Thank you.
If you like this post, you might also like these posts: | https://medium.com/social-media-tips/social-media-goals-e2c35e672516 | [] | 2017-11-06 09:01:01.267000+00:00 | ['Social Media Strategy', 'Social Media Marketing', 'Social Media Analytics', 'Social Media', 'Social Media Engagement'] |
Journal Your Way Through Anxiety To Have A Better Relationship With Your Emotions | Journal Your Way Through Anxiety To Have A Better Relationship With Your Emotions
Ten minutes per day is more than enough to make an impact.
Photo by Ava Sol on Unsplash
I used to be an emotional wreck. My anxiety was high, and my self-esteem was at an all-time low. Negative thoughts often got the best of me. So as you can imagine, it didn’t take long to enter an endless cycle of mental health problems, from which it was incredibly difficult to escape.
Overthinking became commonplace. I struggled to look at myself in the mirror because I was deeply ashamed of what I looked like. Frequent feelings of anxiety took over my mind, and I often struggled to go outside because I was afraid of what other people thought of me. Saying my life sucked would be an understatement.
But one day, I stumbled across the habit of daily journaling. At first, I thought it was some cliche self-help gimmick. Deep down, I was incredibly skeptical. But after trying it out for a few weeks, I noticed the incredible impact it had on my emotional wellbeing. Quoting an article published by Harvard Medical School:
“The act of thinking about an experience, as well as expressing emotions, seems to be important. In this way, writing helps people to organize thoughts and give meaning to a traumatic experience. Or the process of writing may enable them to learn to better regulate their emotions. It’s also possible that writing about something fosters an intellectual process — the act of constructing a story about a traumatic event — that helps someone break free of the endless mental cycling more typical of brooding or rumination. Finally, when people open up privately about a traumatic event, they are more likely to talk with others about it — suggesting that writing leads indirectly to reaching out for social support that can aid healing.”
If you’re anything like my past-self, you overthink… a lot. So if you want to improve your mental health and emotional wellbeing, writing down your emotions could be a great way to ease any feelings of anxiety, depression, or stress.
Here’s how to start. | https://medium.com/live-your-life-on-purpose/journal-your-way-through-anxiety-to-have-a-better-relationship-with-your-emotions-ef29d0908d20 | ['Matt Lillywhite'] | 2020-12-23 23:02:41.806000+00:00 | ['Anxiety', 'Self Improvement', 'Writing', 'Mental Health', 'Psychology'] |
Far East Cafe closing: Native Chinese San Franciscans share affectionate memories | Linda Shen, left, and David Lei held their wedding at the Far East in 1974. (Courtesy photo)
The century-old landmark restaurant in San Francisco Chinatown, the Far East Cafe, will close at the end of 2020. Though the owner still has a glimmer of hope of returning sometime in 2021, the community less optimistic is saddened by the news.
An outpouring of affectionate memories from native San Franciscans about the Far East follows, revealing how deeply this popular banquet space was connected with the City’s Chinese American culture.
Decades ago, Chinatown had a number of restaurants that could single-handedly accommodate banquet settings for hundreds, if not over a thousand. Now, only two remain, one being the Far East.
Long-time Chinatown activist and former president of the Rotary Club of Chinatown Vanita Louie 楊文姬, has both attended and hosted events at the Far East, whether “it be a red egg party celebrating a birth, a wedding banquet, a benevolent annual association dinner at Chinese New Year, or assisting a worthy non-profit to help raise some needed funds.”
“This landmark legacy banquet restaurant will be truly missed if the City, the owners, and the community leaders let it disappear,” Louie told the World Journal.
Julie Soo 蘇榮麗, a fourth-generation San Franciscan, remembers a vibrant and festive Chinatown in the 70s to 90s because of the nonstop banquets events.
“Four Seas, Empress of China, and Far East were the go-to restaurants for big parties,” Soo recalled, noting that even if she forgot which restaurant her event or party was being held, she would just go from one place to the next, then inevitably she would run into friends or make rounds at multiple parties.
According to Soo, the tight family and community relationships fostered by the social gatherings in those banquet restaurants contributed to a stronger community, influencing generations of Chinese Americans to carry on the tradition.
“I hope that for the sake of maintaining our culture that we can rebuild (the Far East) after the pandemic,” she said.
The Lee family association 2020 spring party at the Far East. (Photo: Han Li)
Another native San Franciscan, Myron Lee 李永明, called the Far East his “home.”
“I’ve been there more than 100 times,” he said. “Going to a banquet at the Far East is like going home.”
Lee began dining in Far East’s second-floor banquet room as a child because his father held senior roles at various Chinatown family and benevolent associations. He describes the Far East as the “dining room” for Chinatown, serving Chinese chicken salad, honey walnut shrimp, and other Cantonese-style dishes.
Others recalled celebrating their most cherished moments at the Far East.
In 1974, David Lei 李萱頤 and Miss Chinatown beauty queen Linda Shen 沈元元 held their wedding reception at the Far East. Lei, who later became a Chinese American culture expert and is a former board member of the Asian Art Museum, said the reception had 700 guests and a dragon parade down Grant Avenue.
“I ate there quite often,” Lei said, highlighting the dishes of paper-wrapped chicken, the hand-pulled chicken salad, the “pressed duck,” a sweet and sour “tourist dish,” and the shark fin soup which was “the best in Chinatown”.
But in his youthful recollection, the Far East had a titillating atmosphere with dining booths that were once supplied with curtains to maintain guests’ privacy, making the Far East a dating hotspot for passionate lovers.
“Once you pull the curtains, the waiters will not come until you ring the bell. This was where you brought your girlfriend to have privacy — like renting a cheap hotel for the price of a meal,” Lei said.
“We old-timers did pretty well without smartphones and internet — great fun growing up in old Chinatown.”
***
The Chinese language version of the story appeared on the World Journal on December 25, 2020.
***
My personal favorite Far East cuisine:
Steamed whole fish.
Usually, you will be asked to put on flowers at a Far East event.
04/29/2018
***
The tale of the Far East booth & curtain follow-up:
I was told that the Far East took away the curtains from the booths because too many couples were making out and the turnover of the tables was too slow.
*** | https://medium.com/@lihanlh/far-east-closing-native-chinese-san-franciscans-share-affectionate-memories-9ddf43c0c3de | ['Han Li'] | 2021-01-02 19:32:22.963000+00:00 | ['San Francisco', 'Chinatown'] |
Journey To Networking [Part:3] | Journey To Networking [Part:3]
OVERVIEW
Did anyone think about how the internet handles every sort of request and response? Let us consider Facebook which handles 13M requests per second. It’s been too difficult for us to imagine because more than 7.5 billion people around the world are accessing the internet, how are these requests being carried out from the one end and receiving the result from the other end? In this journey, you may get the overall idea of how the internet handles the request and response without any sort of failure.
Table of content
How servers handle every request
How Servers Handles Every request
I think this question has been raised majorly when we start learning networking, it’s been difficult for everyone to imagine the entire process even i too initially struggles a lot for understanding how the website handles requests and responses?
Before answering the question we need to understand some common technical terms and its relevant meaning for understanding the entire process,
Client-Server Get — Post
Let us discuss one-by-one.
Client-Server
These two terms are opposite to each other, when we start learning networking we sure came across this word like Client — Server. but what it means.
What is the Client?
Generally, people thought that the clients are the end humans or the people who access the computer it’s a false statement,
Clients are the piece of computer hardware or software that gone access the server. In Networking terminology, the client gone run some sort of programs and access data that are stored on the server
For example: lets us consider the web site when we type google.com for our local PC, the PC will automatically be made a request to the Google web server and return with the result page, in this above scenario the requested generated by the PC is considered as a Client, it’s been an initial point where all sorts of requests are been generated
What is Server?
A server is a computer which has some special power than a normal computer hence it can perform various task like Hosting web services, Maintaining the mail services and act as a centralized medium for file transferring,
web services, [where the web content is stored] mail services, [where the Mail content is stored and transferred] file services [where the content of the files is stored and transferred]
Each service has its unique functions and working, servers act as a centralized management medium which used to handle all sorts of requests and replies back with the result to the requested Clients.
How Normal Desktop differ from Server?
We all have the question how server differ from normal PC, its been to easy to differentiate
Home PC: A computer Minimal configuration with normal windows OS [Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 10]
Server: A computer with high configuration + the server OS[ Windows server 2016, Windows server 2018 etc]
The major different is on Operating system in-case of server it requires high end configuration like Huge storage medium, high amount of RAM with high speed internet connection.
Get and Post
Is anyone imagine how the request and response are been transferred across the client-server, as we already discuss the client which gone make some sort of request and the server which gone replay back the client with the relevant result, in this process, the network needs some help from the protocols to take palace the request and response action. In this scenario, the protocol is gone help the client-server to transfer the request and response,
Lets us consider some scenario:
In day-to-day life when we access the internet we usually notice some sort of words like HTTP/HTTPS. What does it mean? These two are communication protocols which are been responsible for handling request and response from the client to the server vice versa,
HTTP Methods:
HTTP methods are the function which has some unique roles while transferring request and response. We can see how these methods are been used while transferring the request in some sort of illustration
GET : Is used to request data from a specified resource
: Is used to request data from a specified resource POST : Is used to send data to a server to create/update a resource
: Is used to send data to a server to create/update a resource PUT : is used to send data to a server to create/update a resource.
: is used to send data to a server to create/update a resource. HEAD : is almost identical to GET but without the response body.
: is almost identical to GET but without the response body. DELETE : is used to delete the specified resource.
: is used to delete the specified resource. PATCH : is used to provides an entity containing a list of changes to be applied to the resource
: is used to provides an entity containing a list of changes to be applied to the resource OPTIONS: is used to describe the communication options for the target resource.
We can look at every sort of method on the upcoming journey, but most commonly GET and POST are used for every sort of communication.
Working
We are more familiar with some sort of programming languages like HTML, Python, PHP and much more, let us consider the Login page which has been developed using PHP
Every login page validates the users with some sort of personal identifications like password pins etc, in this scenario we illustrate how the login page transfers the credentials to the server and how it validates a
and replies to the request.
Request Using the GET method
Request Using the GET method
The illustrated image will help you to understand how the request are been made via the GET method
STEP: 1
Initially the client enter some sort of login credential [username and the password] on the form.php when they submit the request are been generated as mentioned below
GET/test/form.php/name1=value1&name2=value2
The main disadvantages of the GET method are the parameter which we enter in the login are been visible in a clear text its seem to be more vulnerable and the attacker can easily sniff or spoofing you request
STEP: 2
After the request generated from the client the server receives and validate the request with the existing MYSQL database [it a database which used to store some sort of data], it will compare every sort of record in the database to check whether the value exists or not in the database
STEP: 3
If the user request exists on the server it will respond to the request with the status code 200 which means OK and with the webpage where the user needs to redirect.
Request Using the POST method
Request Using the POST method
The illustrated image will help you to understand how the request are been made via the POST method
STEP: 1
Initially the client enter some sort of login credential [username and the password] on the form.php when they submit the request are been generated as mentioned below
POST/test/form.php/
In this scenario the value you which you entered are been stored in the request body, As a result, the entered details are not visible at the URL tab and it’s been safer to use POST method rather than the GET,
STEP: 2
As same as GET method after the request generated from the client, the server receives and validate the request with the existing MYSQL database [it a database which used to store some sort of data], it will compare every sort of record in the database to check whether the value exists or not in the database
STEP: 3
If the user request exists on the Database it will automatically generate the response to the client with the status code 200 which means OK and with the webpage where the user needs to redirect.
Summary
We just successfully started our Journey To Networking, on the upcoming journey you can found some sort of continuation,
if you miss the previous journey the below link will be more useful to you
1. Journey To Networking [Part:1]
2. Journey To Networking [Part:2]
Your feedback and reviews are always welcome
Thanks you all catch you on the next blog. | https://medium.com/@harryhari176/journey-to-networking-part-3-3b96d2322f40 | [] | 2020-12-01 07:36:13.356000+00:00 | ['Network Security', 'Series', 'Journey To Networking', 'Networking', 'Computer Networking'] |
Alive With Hopeful Visions | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/spiritual-secrets/alive-with-hopeful-visions-a24998e6de43 | ['Kevin Doberstein'] | 2020-10-03 06:02:27.577000+00:00 | ['Reading', 'Fiction', 'Culture', 'Poetry', 'Spiritual Secrets'] |
Tesla is One of The Greatest Marketing Success Stories of Recent Times | Tesla is One of The Greatest Marketing Success Stories of Recent Times David Ferrara Follow Dec 28 · 5 min read
Tesla famously has zero sales and marketing budget yet has some of the best marketing of any company
Photo by Tech Nick on Unsplash
Have you ever seen an add for Tesla on TV? Heard one on the radio? Seen one on Facebook, or off to the side in your Google search?
Nope, that’s because Tesla does not do any paid advertising. Similarly, they don’t have a network of auto dealerships with ads all over your local TV, and clowns and banners and those dancing wind puppet thingies.
Let me tell you how absurd this sounded to me when I first heard it especially given my last job in the SAAS world where this ratio is king.
Sales and Marketing (S&M) Cost to Annual Contract Value (ACV)
I’ve sat in front of venture capitalist who insisted that in order to be a successful company we had to spend $1 in S&M cost for every $1 in ACV. Even better maybe we should be spending $1.50 for every $1.
Now, in case you’re not a finance person let me tell you how absurd this sounds when you first hear it. Let’s say you sell a product that cost you $0.2 cents for every $1 in revenue (i.e. you have a 80% margin). Then you spend $1 in S&M costs to earn that revenue.
Well then you’re already $0.20 cents in the hole.
And we haven’t even gotten to overhead costs such as rent, utilities, salaries of everyone else in your company other than the developers. i.e. management, finance, HR, product etc.
By the time that gets added in well you’re bottom line is you are spending $2 for every $1 you make. Sometimes you’re spending $3 or $4 dollars.
This is what companies do
Well, this is just how it works. Have you ever wondered how AirBnB and Doordash to take the two most recent big IPO lose so much money year after year? As well as WeWork, Uber, Facebook and well you name it, all of the Silicon Valley startups lost huge amounts of money in the early years.
This is standard practice. All big venture backed tech companies (especially SAAS companies) take this approach.
The theory is that
The money is recurring revenue so once you get that customer into the pipeline you will have that $1 of recurring revenue year after year for only spending $1 in year one. There is endless competition in these spaces and you have to hit critical mass (i.e. capture a certain customer share and hit a certain company size) before your competitors. So spend, spend, spend in the early years to hit that critical mass and then worry about profitability later.
I’ve always thought there is a third reason that nobody is ever willing to talk about. In order for a venture capitalist to get as much of the cap table of a company in their pockets and out of the founders pockets they need the company to spend as much money as possible.
i.e. “here’s more money Mr/Mrs. Founder, now give us more equity… this is just how it’s done, have to spend spend spend if you want to succeed… oops now we own 90% of your company”
How did Tesla get away with this? How did they grow to where they are without spending any money on marketing?
They didn’t fall into the above practices. In fact, they spent the majority of their costs building their product, innovating and building out manufacturing capacity.
There have been articles written about this walking through a ton of reasons. I just have two that I think really matter.
Free Marketing
The first reason is Tesla is a lot like Donald Trump. For whatever reason they just receive a ton of free marketing. The Tesla owners and probably even more critical Tesla stock holders are as to Tesla as CNN and MSNBC were to Donald Trump.
Superior Product
The second reason is because Tesla is the polar opposite of Donald Trump. That is to say unlike Trump, Tesla just has a really damn good product. In fact, not just damn good, but ridiculously good, game changing good. In fact a product that is so good it generates its own press.
Actually, let me just have Jay Leno summarize how good the product is and why he thinks Tesla will succeed.
Leno writes that he bought the Tesla because it is the fastest four-door car he could buy, and that it turned out to be electric was secondary. When he bought it, he wasn’t specifically thinking of the environment, so the reduction in emissions was just an added bonus.” by Jay Leno via www.tesmanian.com blog December 19, 2020.
The Chicken vs the Egg
Here’s the question everybody should have. How did this happen? I think everyone knows this general marketing concept…
“You can have the best product in the world, but if nobody knows about it, what good is it?” Phil Knight, Chairman Emeritus Nike
So, Tesla made a great product how did anybody know how great the product was before anyone bought one? And in case we forget, for a long time nobody did. It took a long time to get the first Tesla rolled out.
Well, that’s where the free marketing came in. See Tesla has a built in advantage in that they have access to perhaps the single greatest influencer in the world (and definitely the single greatest influencer on Twitter).
Of course I’m talking about Elon Musk who makes the news about once or twice a week due to a tweet. His latest one, that’s all over CNBC and all the rest of the news channels was this one about how he almost sold to Apple a couple years ago.
Elon Musk tweet screenshot from Author’s Twitter Account
So, that’s the answer. Tesla might not spend any money on sales and marketing. They just figured out how to get it for free. Elon built up his celebrity and reach and then leveraged that reach for free marketing valued equivalent to many millions if not billions of ad spend.
As a bonus now all of that money that most companies spend making sure you are aware they exist Tesla is able to pump into their product. Not a bad strategy if you can make it work.
Gain Access to Expert View — Subscribe to DDI Intel | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/tesla-is-one-of-the-greatest-sales-and-marketing-success-stories-of-all-time-1457188c062a | ['David Ferrara'] | 2020-12-29 16:52:49.177000+00:00 | ['Business', 'Investing', 'Finance', 'Technology', 'Marketing'] |
How Much Should You Have in an Emergency Fund? | Keeping emergency fund cash on hand is good-but maximizing return is still important. So, how much should you have in an emergency fund?
Emergency funds are an important part of your financial plan designed to cover unexpected events like job loss, major medical bills, car repairs, home repairs — there are no shortage of financial curveballs in most of our lives. Having enough money saved in a rainy day fund will also give you invaluable peace of mind — if an emergency situation should occur, you have quick access to cash.
When it comes to emergency savings, there is no shortage of differing opinions about how much cash you should have or where it should be kept. A traditional savings account, a checking account, a money market account, or other low-risk investments that are easy to liquidate? And what is too much cash? What is too little? Can’t someone just provide the “Goldilocks” amount? Actually, there is a “just right” number-but it is highly individualized and subject to change, which explains a lot of the confusion. Where you keep you cash, however, is much more clear-cut.
What is Your Emergency Fund Goldilocks Number?
Personal Capital advises individuals to save enough cash to cover three to six months of expenses based on your average monthly spending. Narrowing that general statement requires getting personal.
First, you need to calculate your average monthly spending. This number can exclude nonessential spending, such as dining out, travel or shopping. Just concentrate on your unavoidable costs, such as housing, healthcare, transportation, food, debt or credit card payments or other expenses. Once you have a number, multiply by three, six or something in between. Picking your multiplier depends on your personal circumstances. Is your job secure? Do you have a family depending on your income? Do you have other sources of income? Are there ongoing health concerns?
If you are healthy, have a working spouse and no children, three months of savings will likely suffice. If you support children, have one income source and some health costs, six months, perhaps more, might be the right number. As your circumstances change, your savings goal may need adjustments, as well.
Once you have a well-considered, rational amount for your emergency-fund level, you’ve found your Goldilocks number.
Too Much of a Good Thing?
Resist the urge to over-save for emergencies. Specifically identifying a rational amount of emergency savings is important because holding too much cash has drawbacks. If you have cash unnecessarily tied up in emergency savings, you may be undermining your long-term goals, such as a retirement funding. It’s a balancing act.
Where Should You Keep Your Emergency Fund Savings?
While how much emergency savings you need varies depending on life circumstances, where you keep your savings is much more clear-cut. Remember that your emergency cash is a long-term investment-you may never need to use it-with a short-term access requirement.
Because of this immediate access requirement, you need a short-term investment vehicle that pays interest. There are several options, such as certificates of deposit (CDs), your bank’s checkbook-affiliated savings account, a local savings institution, a diversified bond fund, or an online cash account. We recommend choosing an account that is secure (FDIC insured), liquid (no major withdrawal or transfer restrictions), and has no sneaky banking fees. Make sure you read the fine print — you may be losing more to fees than you are earning in interest!
Personal Capital Cash™, an online cash account, is a good place to keep your emergency funds, as it offers competitive levels of FDIC insurance, has flexible deposits and withdrawals, and no hidden fees.
Our Take
How much you have saved in an emergency fund will depend on your unique situation, but ensuring that you have a good safety net in place to cover unexpected expenses is a major pillar of any successful financial plan. A safe, liquid account is generally the best place to park your emergency savings to ensure that your cash is still working for you while remaining easily accessible.
Learn More About the Personal Capital Cash™ Account | https://medium.com/daily-capital-by-personal-capital/how-much-should-you-have-in-an-emergency-fund-932221eb3a2a | ['Personal Capital'] | 2020-05-28 23:31:01.020000+00:00 | ['Emergency', 'Saving Money', 'Finance', 'Money', 'Personal Capital'] |
Building charts with ApexCharts and Angular | This blog gives you the information to start Apexcharts with Angular.
There are several libraries, where you can build different charts based on your need like D3, chart.js, highcharts. And as I have tried different libraries and now I am exploring this library to know it more. According to my experience, the Apexchart library gives more features and visualization to build your graph.
Apexchart has its integrations with Angular, React, and Vue frameworks. ApexCharts is a free and open-source charting library that helps to build charts for your website. This library has beautiful and interactive charts. This link provides the demo of the ApexCharts.
Let us learn how to integrate ApexCharts with Angular to create some charts. Also, let us build an application that reads the data from an XLSX file.
Initiating A New Angular Project
So, let’s create an Angular project with the name “chartMania” with the help of the following command.
ng new chartMania
You choose the proper options to create a project folder.
Let’s go inside the “chartMania” project folder
cd chartMania
Installing apexcharts and ng-apexcharts
Now install ApexCharts library from the npm by executing the following command.
npm install apexcharts ng-apexcharts — save
And also to use apexcharts, you need to save the path “node_modules/apexcharts/dist/apexcharts.min.js” to scripts in angular.json file.
Now add NgApexchartsModule to imports.
import { NgApexchartsModule } from 'ng-apexcharts';
...
imports: [
BrowserModule,
NgApexchartsModule
]
Adding Basic HTML structure
First, let us create a button on click of which reads an XLSX file. We need to read the data inside the .xlsx sheet and then convert it into the JSON data. So let’s add a basic button to read .xlsx file.
<input type=”file” value=”Upload” (change)=”parseExcel($event)” accept=”.xlsx”/>
And we need a method to read the data from the .xlsx sheet and convert the data to a JSON object format. So let's add it.
declare let XLSX: any;
.....
async parseExcel(file) {
let fileData = [];
let reader = new FileReader();
reader.onload = (e:any) => {
let data = e.target.result;
let workbook = XLSX.read(data, {
type: ‘binary’
});
workbook.SheetNames.forEach((sheetName) => {
let XL_row_object = XLSX.utils.sheet_to_row_object_array(workbook.Sheets[sheetName]);
let json_object = XL_row_object;
fileData.push(json_object);
});
};
reader.onerror = function(ex) {
console.log(ex);
};
reader.readAsBinaryString(file.target.files[0]);
this.chartData = fileData;
};
I have used google sheets for data. here’s the link. Download the google sheet and use it for this application.
let us create one more button for loading the chart and we create an HTML element for loading apex charts. Here’s the code.
<input type="button" value="Load Chart" (click)="loadJSONChart(chartData)"/> <div *ngIf="fileOnLoad" style="text-align:center">
<apx-chart [series]="chartOptions.series [chart]="chartOptions.chart"
[xaxis]="chartOptions.xaxis"
[title]="chartOptions.title">
</apx-chart>
</div>
and let’s configure the chart options in your component.ts file. So let's add it.
Importing necessary imports in your copmponent.ts file.
import {
ChartComponent,
ApexAxisChartSeries,
ApexChart,
ApexXAxis,
ApexTitleSubtitle
} from "ng-apexcharts"; export type ChartOptions = {
series: ApexAxisChartSeries;
chart: ApexChart;
xaxis: ApexXAxis;
title: ApexTitleSubtitle;
};
....
fileOnLoad:boolean = false;
chartData = [];
chartType = "bar"; @ViewChild("chart", {static: false}) chart: ChartComponent;
public chartOptions: Partial<any>; loadJSONChart(chartData) {
this.fileOnLoad = true;
let dataArray = [];
let dataLabel = [];
chartData[0].map(data => {
dataArray.push(data.Units);
dataLabel.push(data.OrderDate);
});
this.chartOptions = {
series: [{
name: "My-series",
data: dataArray
}],
chart: {
height: 500,
type: this.chartType
},
title: {
text: `My First ${this.chartType} Chart from xlsx file`
},
xaxis: {
type: "datetime",
categories: dataLabel
}
};
}
That’s all. Now let us see the results.
Checking the Result
After selecting a .xlsx file
After clicking on the “Load Chart” button
Surprise
So let us provide an option to change the chart type on the fly. We know there are different types of charts and we might wish to change the graph type in real-time. ApexCharts and Angular provide an easy option to change the type of graph.
So here’s the code.
<input type="button" value="Change Chart" (click)="changeChart()"/>
.....
changeChart(){
if(this.chartType == "bar"){
this.chartType = "line";
} else if(this.chartType == "line") {
this.chartType = "radar";
} else if(this.chartType == "radar") {
this.chartType = "bar";
} else {
this.chartType = "area";
}
this.loadJSONChart(this.chartData);
}
See the result now.
Line chart:
Click on “Change Chart” button to see this
Area Chart:
Click on “Change Chart” button to see this
Conclusion
ApexCharts is an awesome library that provides responsive charts with some of the default options. The options are zoom-in, zoom-out, panning, the menu for downloading the chart in PNG, SVG, and CSV formats. The ng-ApexCharts is an Angular wrapper component for ApexCharts ready to be integrated into your Angular application to create stunning Charts.
Try this out and let me know your feedback in the comment section.
Thank you. | https://medium.com/@darshantheerth/building-charts-with-apexcharts-and-angular-db58475fae2b | ['Darshan Theerth'] | 2020-06-24 07:01:36+00:00 | ['Apexcharts', 'Web Development', 'Angular', 'Charts', 'JavaScript'] |
Chasm | Poem: 35
Saturday, 05 August 2016
As a leader,
I am confronted by a chasm
What a challenge to transfer
My immense knowledge
And communicate it
I am ready to teach.
Who is ready to learn?
But what an arrogant fool am I
To think I have to teach
Anything
That I need to do
Anything
I am ready to learn
Who is ready to teach?
Teach me, I know nothing
All this is just therapy for the complicated mind.
To know what the simple intuit
Insanity,
chains of mind.
Words are redundant.
Explaining what already is.
I don’t need to enlighten others.
Unless they ask.
I don’t need to teach.
Unless they ask.
Complicated minds need complicated answers.
But simple minds don’t.
Let them be. | https://medium.com/francis-pedraza/chasm-95fa77a934a | ['Francis Pedraza'] | 2017-04-10 06:07:16.223000+00:00 | ['Taoism', 'Poetry', 'Philosophy', 'Business', 'Leadership'] |
DEx.top Meets World Tour: Amsterdam, Seoul, Wuzhen, and Shenzhen | Last week, the DEx.top team travelled to 4 different cities (Amsterdam, Seoul, Wuzhen, and Shenzhen) around the world attending blockchain conferences and meetups. Since the inception of DEx.top, one of our main goals is to establish a decentralized exchange (DEX) that is able to serve every cryptocurrency trader, regardless of geographical location. To this end, DEx.top’s team members are based out of several different countries including Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore and the United States, with additional volunteers in Russia, Latin America and Africa.
Tour Number 1: Amsterdam, Netherlands; Blockchain Expo
Hosted on the 27th and 28th of June 2018, Blockchain Expo is Europe’s largest enterprise blockchain event. This year, the event saw over 8000 attendees from multiple sectors of the blockchain industry come together to discuss the impact of blockchain on healthcare, supply chains, energy, logistics, manufacturing, retail, real estate and much more.
As one of the major sponsors of the Expo, DEx.top was invited to speak at the event about how we can drive the evolution and application of blockchain.
Attendants carefully reading DEx.top’s brochure and listening to our team (right) explain about our Replayed on Chain (ROC) trading mechanism.
Our team member (left) discussing our three core advantages: security, instant trading and low gas cost.
Tour Number 2: Seoul, Korea; Blockchain Open Forum
Next up was the Blockchain Open Forum held on the 28th and 29th of June and hosted by Korea’s leading blockchain media outlet Token Post. The forum’s discussions centered around the future of the blockchain industry, blockchain protocols, exchange platforms, the development of auditing and other financial services as well as investments.
A major theme for the forum was the future of cryptocurrency exchanges. It gave rise to a lot of discussion, especially regarding the differences between centralized and decentralized exchanges as well as the different trading models being rolled out by exchanges.
As a decentralized exchange utilizing a unique double-ledger Replayed on Chain (ROC) trading mechanism that confirms trading actions on an off-chain ledger then asynchronously sends them to the blockchain for settlement, DEx.top received generous compliments from many blockchain enthusiasts.
Our team also had the pleasure of meeting with KChain, Korea’s leading blockchain consultancy. We talked a lot about future collaborations so be on the lookout for news about this!
Our senior analyst (left) with Philippines’ leading technology company’s team members.
Tour Number 3: Wuzhen, China; World Blockchain Conference
Our team arrived the day after at the World Blockchain Conference in Wuzhen, held over two days from 29th to 30th June. With over 4000 attendees, 10 conference rooms, 48 booths, 500+ management representatives, 50+ institutions, 30+ VC/PE investors and many more blockchain and mainstream media outlets, the World Blockchain Conference is one of the biggest blockchain events in China. This year, major speakers at the event included Bitmain founder CEO Micree Zhan, author of famous science-fiction novel “The Three Body-Problem” Liu Cixin, and 8btc.com founder and CEO Chang Xia.
DEx.top was again a major sponsor of the conference and hosted a booth in the centre of the convention hall. We shared not just the purpose of our decentralized exchange and our insights into the exchange industry with conference participants, but also gifts including DEx.top fans and T-shirts for those who came by our booth!
Our team member (right) explaining DEx.top’s user-friendly trading experience to attendants!
Our team with a blockchain project team from Italy!
Tour Number 4: Shenzhen, China; Blockchain Unchained
Immediately after, our COO Leo was invited to give a presentation on July 1st about DEx.top’s trademark secure, rapid and low-fee decentralized exchange implementation at Shenzhen’s Blockchain Unchained meetup hosted by MyToken. During the talk, Leo also discussed the current market environment for cryptocurrency exchanges as well as DEx.top’s strengths and mission.
The CEOs of Swissborg, Tontine Trust and MyToken also spoke at the event, bringing together an epic series of talks about blockchain technology applications in credit, finance and exchanges.
Leo on stage sharing his insight on decentralized exchanges
Leo (middle) with speakers Swissborg CEO, Tontine Trust CEO, and MyToken CEO
This world tour is one small step for our team members, one giant leap for the future of DEx.top. We’ll continue to go on more world tours and travelling to even more places, to meet more of all of you! In the meantime, we’re working hard to fulfil our goal to be a DEX that serves a global market of cryptocurrency traders across the world, while making a positive impact on the blockchain ecosystem. | https://medium.com/dex-top/dex-top-meets-world-tour-amsterdam-seoul-wuzhen-and-shenzhen-81fd13c6d7a2 | [] | 2018-08-31 03:58:40.451000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin', 'Ethereum', 'Decentralized Exchange', 'Blockchain'] |
“I died twice.” Michael | I learned how to drink alcohol in college, fun times. Pints of beers, and shots of whatever. Two weeks after I graduated, I got a call from Lenny Silver, owner of the Record Theater Store, in Buffalo. I thought I would work there in the store, putting price tags on albums. During my interview I saw that he had a poster of the band Spyro Gyra, and I had my (operated) heart in my mouth. I said: “Hey, I know their drummer.’ Mr. Silver called him and the guy said I was great with numbers, so Lenny hired me as his Chief Financial Officer. Two weeks after graduation, I tell you! The job was lots of pressure, lots of pizza, and lots of pot. I lasted for nine months. I knew I had to grow up.
Then, I went into the mortgage industry for many years. The most recent gig was as a telephone mortgage person. I could close 20 loans in 6 weeks, I don’t know anyone who can do that. I had a computer in my bedroom, big speakers, headphones. I got up at 5AM so I could talk to people in Asia, Africa, whatever. But I didn’t get my payments in time, so I had to leave my home on Pine Street, because I couldn’t pay the rent anymore. I wish I hadn’t been drinking at that time so I would still have some money.
“If nobody had found me, they could have pulled a sheet over my face.” | https://storiesbehindthefog.com/i-died-twice-michael-cea9fa974c9d | ['Stories Behind The Fog'] | 2020-02-20 19:31:49.577000+00:00 | ['Alcoholism', 'Recovery', 'Stories Behind The Fog', 'Homelessness', 'Stories'] |
Six Things To Consider before you 'Startup' | Lessons from Pakistan
I begin with a disclaimer that I am not, by any means, a successful entrepreneur - I’m still dabbling and learning four years down the lane. There are many things that people learn about entrepreneurship from books, articles, TV shows and gossip, this note isn’t about them. It is about things that you learn as you 'dabble' (thanks Ammar). I am sharing these for my friends who have jobs and get excited about entrepreneurship.
1- Passion
What’s your passion? — Warren Buffet’s favorite question
Entrepreneurship is about passion - dare I say, its not the passion for money. You have many ways to earn money and entrepreneurship isn't the most certain way of getting there. I am not talking about the paid CEOs (executives) or the business tycoons that you drool upon. A large share of business owners pay themselves much less than their fair market salary and in many cases they pay their employees first, settle other liabilities and then consider their payout. So why is passion important? It sets the bar higher, gets you in 'hustle mode', makes your heart pumping faster and brings the meaning to this otherwise crazy choice. Different entrepreneurs derive meaning from different passions: some want to create a cliché 'dent', some want to leave back legacy, others want to solve problems, some set measureable and well defined goals about creating difference in lives of others or improving things. There has to be something really strong that keeps you going for decades while you go through the roller coaster.
2 - Entrepreneurs’ Mindset
Once you are clear that entrepreneurship isn't about 'earning money' and more about your mission, a fundamental shift has to occur in your life. You must have heard people say 'job is like opium' - you get addicted to the salary and can't live without it. I won't comment on it but I can share the transformation that happened in my life. Once it was clear that there is no guarantee that I will have income coming anytime soon, the calculation went from 'minimum comfort budget' to 'minimum survival budget'. Not buying any clothes or personal items for a year is a pretty normal stuff in this journey. This does not mean that you start living like a homeless person, rather you can call it 'living like poor' - no negative connotations here. You will start thinking of everything you buy as an investment. Can I survive in this pair of sneakers for another few months? How much money will I save if I buy a second hand phone or two models below the topline model? Luxuries become very calculated and precious - sparingly consumed with the loved ones. 'Where can I save money to be able to take less salary and invest the earnings towards achieving my mission?' becomes the mantra of life. Needless to say that you need a really understanding and supportive life partner who shares your values and mission. I am alhumdulillah, lucky to have one who is an active part of this entrepreneurial journey (thanks Aneeqa). Your family and parents will always be your strength in this journey - be kind and respectful to them as they grapple with this 'insane' twist in your life.
3 - Increasing the Pie
Business is about 'shared value' not about transactions. When I was starting off, I failed to digest why businessmen around me were miser and won't pay me decent compensation for solving their challenges? A lot of people in my network are waiting for the golden moment to 'jump the ship' when they get enough compensation/earning that replaces their salary. News flash: that's not coming - you've to create these opportunities. Businesses owners measure your capabilities in terms of 'shared value'. How much do you believe in their mission? How committed are you to leave your perks to get down in the trenches? Are you willing to work on bare minimum expenses to create 'value' in terms of revenue, profit, growth or any other tangible metric of value and be patient to get your upside in future? Go to any business(wo)man and pitch them to pay you top dollar for your services to increase value or ask them to cover your costs and share the upside with you when you deliver.... Which one do you think has better chances of success?
4 - The Elon Musk effect
Our popular culture has idolized the few icons of technology businesses like Steve Jobs, Jack Ma, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Mark Cuban and others. The sooner you realize that these blokes are all statistical anomalies, better it is for you! The stories you hear about their lives and success are just a few 'trendlines' that connect the interesting data points in their life to the storytellers' narrative. More than 95% of technology startups fail - this is just the cold reality which our adrenaline makes us forget. But, I am much better than average! I used to manage multi million dollar projects in my job, i can certainly manage a $200K business effectively! Wait till you become the CEO aka Chief Janitor and Fixer and realities will dawn on you.
5 - Is this business worth it?
"This idea is not ground breaking enough to leave my job and start a new business".
Unfortunately, no idea will be good enough for you! Many young people are high on this weed that they want to crack some nut which is worth giving up everything for. Certainly, you need a very strong mission to startup and survive (see point #1) but don't dismiss viable business opportunities that may not be 'groundbreaking enough'. Shooting for stars is awesome but it almost never works - except for one in a 100 million. No idea is good or horrible - a lot depends on execution, hustle, market dynamics and your luck. You are not super(wo)man and can't become the king (/queen) of the hill overnight - all overnight success stories take decades of work. Recognize these facts, keep your expectations real, dream big yet stay humble.
Pakistan’s culture is 'toxic for failure' - we are still an underdeveloped economy and our culture doesn’t support the silicon Valley mantra 'fail early, fail often’. You need, in Pakistan, what I term 'Shortest path to success’. Success remains relative to your context. For some, success can be earning enough to stay near break-even, so as not to ask parents for money; it could be having an office space and some employees (this usually satisfies parent’s F&F); it could be securing first paying customer and delivering the product/service end to end. Whatever is the minimum viable success for your stakeholders (parents, wife, family, social network) get to that as fast as possible - this is your escape velocity from the 'culture which is toxic for failure’. This is your first turn of the entrepreneurship wheel - it surely will have thousand more miles to travel. Now that you have oxygen mask on, caliberate your spaceship for strategic short and long terms space stations (you still need these stations on the way to stars).
6 - By now it must be clear that entrepreneurship isn’t as it appears in Forbes magazine. While you go to war, you might as well pick some 'partners in crime' who believe in joint vision and are willing to do whatever it takes to get to the other end. Your team mate, life partner, classfellow or best friend is not the default criteria for business partnership. It is important to consider skill sets and competencies, so that your team has complimentary skills essential for your business, but it is not mandatory. You need warriors who hold the fort, take fire for you, are dead on time and commitments, honest and transparent in all matters valuable to you, can offer you their paycheck for the month and choose to 'grind it out' themselves and share your passion over. Partnerships are built on trust, humility shared values.
I'll pause here and would love to learn more about your thoughts on these themes. Let's learn together! | https://medium.com/@uzairsukhera/six-things-to-consider-before-you-startup-8a945ddf7cc5 | ['Uzair Sukhera'] | 2019-01-20 16:05:48.559000+00:00 | ['Entrepreneurship', 'Bootstrapping', 'Pakistan', 'Startup Lessons'] |
100 BIPOC and Woman Owned Brands To Support This Holiday Season and Beyond | End 2020 by lending support to the underrepresented small businesses that deserve sales and recognition.
Image via: UNSPLASH.COM
With all of the challenges that 2020 has brought us, from mounting racial tensions to a pandemic that has squeezed the global economy, owning and operating a small business this year is nothing short of an act of resistance.
The businesses of BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color) and woman owned brands have always historically been either underfunded or not supported widely and this year they have been hit the hardest thanks to a disease that brought the world to a halt in March.
However, optimism holds strong and the commitment of many BIPOC and woman owned businesses to weather the storm is awe-inspiring.
The following small businesses represent that core group of entrepreneurs that are not letting an economic recession or collective trauma dampen their dreams of success.
These are the brands that deserve your support this holiday season and well beyond.
Connect with these brands, follow them on social media, share their goods and services, and patronize the ones that are a perfect match for your needs.
As a whole, with effort and compassion, we can turn the outlook of the future around. Do your part to be the change you want to see in this world.
For your convenience and organization, the following small businesses are divided into the following categories: arts — music — fashion — beauty — food — health/wellness — business services.
Each brand is linked to their Instagram.
ART
Artist Shannon Smith @artisanshannonsmith — indie artist
Fabefo Magazine @fabefo_com — Canadian based magazine
Create With Shan @createwithshan — personalized gifts
Naj Evolving Art @najevolvingart — handmade glass pottery
Air Designs @airdesigns lifestyle photographer
Elev8 Yourself @elev8.yourself — handmade holistic gifts
In Her Corner @inhercorner — indie artist
Apple Nunez @applenunez — indie artist
AC Suarez Art @acsuarezart — indie artist
Sunflower and Stone @sunflowerandstone — handmade spiritual gifts
First Lady Arts and Oddities @firstlady.arts.and.oddities — art and crafts
Emily Lar Photography @emilylarphotography — wedding and lifestyle photographer
Fashion
Shop The Curvy @shopthecurvy — plus size fashion
J. Kwan @j.kwan — women’s boutique
Elevate Me Apparel @elevatemeapparel — athleisure brand
Tania Tonello @taniatonello — stylist and personal shopper
Mauve Boutique @mauveboutique_ — women’s boutique
Shop Taj Charles @shoptajcharles — loungewear and lingerie
Sock Footage Co @sockfootageco — sock apparel brand
Got It From Nikki @gotitfromnikki — women’s boutique
Nice Ice With H @niceicewithh — jewelry boutique
Plus Size and Thrifty @plussizeandthrifty — fashion blogger
Refreshingly Human @refreshinglyhuman — mask disinfectant
Mask Toronto @masktoronto — designer face masks
P Kreative Studios @p_creativestudios — custom apparel
Los Angeles Garbage @losangelesgarbage — unisex clothing boutique
Music
Ella Clarens @ellaclarens — singer
City 2 Gritty @city2gritty — music producer
Melimurfy @melimurfy — music producer
Chris From New York @chrisfromnewyork — music producer
Im. In. Here. Man @iminhereman — music producer
Magicienmaartree @magicienmaartree — music producer
Jarvis Jamar Music @jarvisjamarmusic — music producer
The Real T Major @therealtmajor — music producer
Beauty
Delush Crown @delushcrown — beauty consulting
Lover of Shades @loverofshades — makeup artist & YouTuber
Breeze Lashesss @breezelashesss — premium eyelashes
Claws By Lay Lay @clawsbylaylay — nail tech and teacher
Lady Clipper @ladyclipper — DC based lady owned barbershop
Jadore Hair Collection @jadorehaircollection — Luxury hair extensions
Hey Zeus Cutz @heyzeuscutz — Bronx, NY barbershop
Trazor @trazor — Toronto based barbershop
Weakness For Sweet Beauty @weaknessforsweetbeauty — Toronto based hairstylist
Supreme Clientele Barbers @supremeclientelebarbers — Toronto based barbershop
Superior Brand @superiorbrand.ca — shea butter moisturizers
Fresh Beauty @frshbeauty — skincare and haircare clean beauty brand
Food
Chefi Nari Cooks @chef_nari_cooks — personal chef
Starlit Designs @starlitdesigns — desserts company
The Irie Cup @theiriecup — tea company
Dream Am Bites @dreamambites — cake bakery
Brown Sugar NYC @brown.sugar.nyc — desserts company
Sweet Indulges @sweetindulges — desserts company
Electrici Tea @electrici.tea — tea company
Health and Wellness
Wisdom Speaks In Quiet Places @wisdomspeaksinquietplaces — life coach for women
The Holistic Babe @theholisticbabe — spiritual counselor and psychic
Higher Love @higher_love — yoga and meditation
NRG Elevation @nrgelevation — reiki healer and oracle reader
Naturally Ayinde @naturallyayinde — healthy lifestyle blogger
Amanda Marie Senior @amandamariesenior — lifestyle content creator
Dana Myers XOXO @danamyersxoxo — self-love and sex/sensuality coach
Brook Write @brookwrite — mindset and productivity coach
Lesley Ann Parris @lesleyannparris — wellness coach
Bodied By Q @bodiedbyq — fitness coach
Ilana Gershon @ilana.gershon — holistic nourishment coach
Muva Yoniverse @muva_yoniverse — yoni health consultant
Cynthia Roy @cynthia_roy — reiki healer and tarot reader
Glowlistica @glowlistica — manifestation coach
Simply Gratitude @simply.gratittude — affirmation messages
Mind Body Belly @mindbodybelly_ — holistic nutritionist
By Cal Vine @bycalvine — fitness trainer
Jessa Bastian @jessa.bastian — fitness blogger
Business Services
Entice The Brand @enticethebreand — women’s empowerment & business coach
Christa Negron @christanegron — music teacher
Quasha Ross Writes @quasharosswrites — freelance copywriter
The Occasion By Me @theoccasionbyme — luxury events company
I am Pam Dorsey @iampamdorsey — life coach for women
The I Can Collective @theicancollective — event space
Soles Source Digital @solessourcedigital — web and graphic design
Zen House NY @zenhouseny — New York based AirBnB
Dia Orengo @diaorengo — lifestyle creator
Cali and Co. Creative @cali.and.co.creative — brand and graphic designer
Candle WTF @candle.wtf — indie candle company
True Luxury Creations @trueluxurycreations — home decor and furniture
Savvy Clover Coaching @savvyclovercoaching — CEO and business strategist
Hey Crystal Lace @heycrystallace — lawyer and blogger
Holistic Colour Design @holisticcolour_design — interior colour consultant
Just Cuz Balloons @justcuzballoons — event decor, balloons, and florals
Corey Wisdom @coreywisdom — business consultant
Shes Fit Financially @shes.fit.financially — personal finance coach
Shauna T The Realtor @shauna.t.therealtor — Maryland based realtor
Sapphire Dream Events @sapphiredreamevents — events company
Better Homes RC @betterhomesrc — home renovation contractor
Jonnie Agresta @jonnie_agresta — business coach
Vee Myself and I @veemyselfandi — Dementia care women’s founder
I hope you discovered some brands that you are going to go and immediately connect with and support. We thank you in advance for reading and being our indie cheerleaders. Happy Holidays!
Cholia (rhymes with “Sha-leah”) Johnson is a freelance journalist and copywriter that loves to support other indie talented professionals and brands. When she’s not writing for a deadline, she’s writing film scripts in her head or dancing in her living room. You can connect with her on Instagram or email her directly: choliajchildress@gmail.com :-) | https://medium.com/@iamcholia/100-bipoc-and-woman-owned-brands-to-support-this-holiday-season-and-beyond-be09e077b2d5 | ['Cholia', 'Cj'] | 2020-12-22 18:45:17.113000+00:00 | ['Holidays', 'Online Business', 'Retail', 'Small Business', 'BlackLivesMatter'] |
Starting a New ASP.NET Core 2.2 C# Project with Visual Studio 2017 | Install Visual Studio 2017
If you don’t already have Visual Studio 2017 installed, you can download it from visualstudio.com. This guide is for the Windows version of Visual Studio, not the Mac version. The Mac version can be found here.
Download the Windows version of Visual Studio
When you run the Visual Studio installer, it is going to ask you which Workloads you want to install. You need to select either ASP.NET and web development under the Web & Cloud section and / or .NET Core cross-platform development under Other Toolsets.
Select the ASP.NET and web development Workload
Select the .NET Cor cross-platform development Workload
Install the .NET SDK 2.2
You will also need the .NET Core 2.2 SDK. Depending on when you have downloaded Visual Studio 2017, you may not have it yet. You can download it here. You will probably want to download the x64 installer. If you are not sure which version of Windows you are running, you can find it under Windows Settings > System > About.
Install the x64 Windows version of the 2.2 SDK
Create a New Project
Run Visual Studio 2017 and Select File > New Project.
On the left menu select Visual C# > .NET Core.
On the list of application templates pick ASP.NET Core Web Application. Name your project and pay attention to where the project location will be. Leaving the Solution name the same as the Project name is fine. Some people prefer to name the web project to a more specific name like MyProject.Web instead of MyProject. This can always be changed later.
I would recommend keeping the Create directory for solution checked to keep your file system cleaner.
Check Create a new Git repository if you plan on checking this project into a source control repository like GitHub.
The next screen will ask a couple of important questions. Let’s go through each of these.
Template settings for a new project
Make sure that ASP.NET Core 2.2 is selected in the dropdown list. If you don’t see it, you need to install the SDK listed above and restart Visual Studio. Select Web Application (Model-View-Controller) or Web Application. The later will create an application using the newer Razor Pages framework. Leave Enable Docker Support unchecked unless you know what this is and plan to use it. Leave Configure for HTTPS checked. No site should launch without this. If you know you are going to have user accounts on your website, change the Authentication to Individual User Accounts with the option Store user accounts in-app. That will allow users to sign up on your site. There are more options available but this one is the most common.
Individual User Account settings
Click OK and your project will be setup. You should be able to build the application now.
Default solution
Default solution with authentication
If you picked Individual User Accounts for authentication, you have an extra step before you can run it. Open the Package Manager Console window (under View > Other Windows > Package Manager Console) and run the Update-Database command.
Update the database from the Package Manager Console
You should now be able to run your application.
Application running without authentication
Application running with authentication
Some Minor Changes
Technically you are ready to go. But let me give you a few tips on some changes you should make.
Database Connection
If you picked Individual User Accounts for authentication your database name is going to be ugly. Open the appsettings.json file and change the name to your project name.
Before: Database=aspnet-MyFirstProjectWithUsers-98A44C6A-341D-46B3–8236–00A310A387A1;
After: Database=MyFirstProjectWithUsers;
Application Name
If your application name has more than 1 word, put spaces in the name in the _Layout.cshtml file. You will find it in 3 places:
The title tag in head. The site name in header. The site name in footer.
Scroll Bar Fix
Notice the scroll bar is always showing on the right? It’s a bug in the current version of the CSS for the site. Near the very bottom of the site.css file, reduce the line height of the footer by 1 pixel. That should fix it.
line-height: 59px; /* Vertically center the text there */
Update Your NuGet Packages
It’s a good idea to get an up to date start. So ahead and update any NuGet packages that may already be out of date.
I’ll have more tips on customizing your project setup in the future. Be sure to follow me so you don’t miss out.
Have fun coding! | https://medium.com/@scottkuhl/starting-a-new-asp-net-core-2-2-c-project-with-visual-studio-2017-5346ceb5fd7a | ['Scott Kuhl'] | 2019-02-10 23:21:41.761000+00:00 | ['Microsoft', 'Aspnetcore'] |
Ephemeral Life | Johannes Plenio/Unsplash
In solitude, I listen to the voice of Spirit. I am guided by an unseen presence, an energy that sparks my intuition and allows me to navigate the physical realm. Our telepathic dialogues bring me peace amidst the turbulence of life. When the seemingly endless storms tyrannize the atmosphere of my experience, I am centered in the presence of Divinity, a watchful observer of transient images.
And for a moment, I become nothing. I become the formlessness of pure being, and in this state, I realize that the world is an illusory fog that will one day dissipate into the ethers. It is like winter vapor released from the lungs of creation, disappearing as quickly as it appeared.
I let go. I don’t hold on, for what is there to hold on to? None of this is real. It only feels real in the moment, while we’re living in it. Once it passes, it becomes the past, a phantom in the distance that travels on subconscious roads before encountering a black hole, an ancient monster that consumes the lost souls of time. And all becomes still again. | https://medium.com/@Roy_Gillett/ephemeral-life-94b6c111f17c | ['Roy Gillett'] | 2020-12-23 04:59:07.677000+00:00 | ['Philosophy', 'Spirituality', 'Memoir', 'Fiction', 'Poetry'] |
What are the ways of gardening for beginners? | Gardening is one of the best hobbies that people adopt in their spare time to keep them busy. It keeps a man healthy. It is a rewarding hobby. Gardening is necessary for all the being on Earth. We know that the atmosphere of
Earth is ruining day by day. So the genius people do the gardening to save them and their environment. So gardening is suggested to everyone who wants to improve his health. But there are some problems to start gardening for beginners so they should learn some methods or techniques to start gardening. Home gardening is also very famous these days because it provides fresh fruits and vegetables to one.
Techniques for gardening
Most common gardening techniques are
Organic gardening
Organic gardening is a type of gardening in which we don’t use fertilizers and pesticides. That is the most environment-friendly technique.
Conventional gardening
Unlike organic gardening, conventional gardening is a type of gardening in which we use chemical herbicides and pesticides in different amounts. The number of chemicals depends upon the types of plants.
Companion gardening
Companion gardening is a type of gardening in which we grow plants in relation to others so that we assure insects to keep away from our plants.
Biodynamic gardening
Biodynamic gardening is the same as organic gardening as we don’t use chemicals to grow crops faster. In this type of gardening, we use ancient techniques of a different culture.
What are the steps to grow a plant?
1 Firstly we should decide on an area of our house for planting
2 you should choose quality soil
3 Buy seeds from a nursery
4 Sow seeds in the soil
5 Water them timely
6 If needed, fertilize the soil
7 Make sure seed can get enough sunlight
8 Now wait for seedling
How to protect your plants from insects and pests?
No matter where you purchased your seedling or plant, pests are always there to ruin your plant. You are thinking that you are purchasing a plant from the greenhouse and there would be no pests then its wrong. There are insects or pests in every plant.
So to avoid insects there are many sprays available for protecting plants. Some of these sprays are
1 Herbal water spray
2 Neem water spray
3 Spray made of dishwashers
4 Black pepper spray
5 Alcohol water spray
6 Soap water spray
7 Chilly water spray
8 Diatomaceous spray
9 Tomato leafs
10 Oil-water spray
You should know what to grow
An individual must know what he should grow in soil. Because the quality of a plant depends upon the matching of soil with the seeds. If you plant a seed in soil that doesn’t have maximum nutrition for this type of seed, your seed cannot grow properly. For this reason, you should know the quality of your soil and you should select the seeds according to your soil. For example, if you have a sunny place then you should plant vegetables because vegetables grow best in a sunny environment. For example, you should plant vegetables so you can get neat and clean food from your home garden. Moreover, you should also plant fruits so you can get organic and chemical free fruits.
Frequently do a soil test
It is necessary to set your soil frequently. For this purpose, you should have a soil testing kit that can be bought from any nursery and from online. The soil test tells you about the pH level, phosphorous, and nitrogen level of your soil.
Soil test indicates that what you need to add to your soil such as fertilizers to improve growth. Seed starter is also a good option for better growth because they are not as heavy as fertilizers.
Label every plant
It is a good tip for gardening that even if you grow only four to five plants in your garden you have to label them properly. So you can give them nutrition as they required.
Fertilizers usage
The use of fertilizer is also a very important factor for the better growth of plants. Some types of soil don’t have enough nutrients to nurture the plant due to frequent crops so we have to provide extra nutrients by fertilizers. A gardener should know about good and accurate fertilizers.
conclusion
Plants are important for us because they are the source of oxygen and without oxygen, we shall die in mints. If we want to live a healthy life that we must grow plants for ourselves. It is not compulsory to be a farmer to grow plants instead a common man can get the principles of planting and can plant trees, flowers, herbs, and shrubs. | https://medium.com/@munibajamil321/what-are-the-ways-of-gardening-for-beginners-f658aa8761f6 | [] | 2020-12-15 11:42:47.565000+00:00 | ['Basic Steps Of Gardening', 'Ways Of Gardening', 'Strategies Of Gardeners', 'Gardening', 'Beginners Gardening Tips'] |
Coronavirus in Wikipedia by language — visualized | Wikipedia pageviews by language for Coronavirus
Coronavirus in Wikipedia by language — visualized
Check the Wikipedia pageviews for language to get deeper look into how the news has spread and trended around the world. First we’ll extract the data out of terabytes of Wikipedia pageviews to create a new dashboard. Stay until the end to see the secret for extremely configurable visualizations in Data Studio with Vega and Vega Lite.
Some interesting trends you can quickly visualize:
Coronavirus in Chinese started trending 9 days earlier than any other language.
Japanese and Korean were the first languages to catch-up.
Italian, Norwegian, and Persian had the strongest rebounds these last few days.
Some interesting trends you can quickly visualize
On the opening chart you can find the views per language for each language Coronavirus page. The next chart shows the same for the Wikipedia article following the current news:
Wikipedia views per language for the topic 2019–20_Wuhan_coronavirus_outbreak. See opening picture for Coronavirus instead.
Get all the Coronavirus page titles out of Wikidata in BigQuery:
CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE `temp.wikidata_coronavirus`
AS
SELECT REGEXP_EXTRACT(site, '(..)wiki') language, encoded value
FROM `bigquery-public-data.wikipedia.wikidata`, UNNEST(sitelinks)
WHERE numeric_id = 290805
AND LENGTH(site)=6 # 1.9 sec elapsed, 9.7 MB processed
Fix for Spanish, Dutch, Slovak renaming of pages:
INSERT INTO `temp.wikidata_coronavirus`
SELECT 'es', 'Orthocoronavirinae';
INSERT INTO `temp.wikidata_coronavirus`
SELECT 'nl', 'Coronavirussen'
INSERT INTO `temp.wikidata_coronavirus`
SELECT 'sk', 'Coronavírus'
Create a table for Data Studio:
CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE
`fh-bigquery.wikipedia_extracts.wikipedia_corona_views`
AS
WITH sumviews AS (
SELECT * REPLACE(IF(date=CURRENT_DATE(), views*24/hours_day, views) AS views) # last fractional day correction
FROM (
SELECT SUM(views) views, SUBSTR(a.wiki, 0, 2) wiki, title, DATE(datehour) date, COUNT(DISTINCT datehour) hours_day
FROM `bigquery-public-data.wikipedia.pageviews_20*` a
JOIN `temp.wikidata_coronavirus` b
ON ((a.title=b.value AND SUBSTR(a.wiki, 0, 2)=b.language))
WHERE DATE(a.datehour) > '2019-12-28'
GROUP BY wiki, title, date
)
)
SELECT *, (FORMAT('%s - %s', language, title)) wiki_title
FROM (
SELECT *
REPLACE((SELECT STRING_AGG(DISTINCT title ORDER BY title) FROM sumviews WHERE a.wiki=wiki) AS title)
, (views)/ (MAX(views) OVER(PARTITION BY wiki)) ratio
, (SELECT language FROM `wikipedia_extracts.wiki_langs` WHERE a.wiki=wiki ) language
FROM sumviews a
WHERE wiki IN (SELECT wiki FROM (SELECT wiki, SUM(views) FROM sumviews GROUP BY 1 ORDER BY 2 DESC LIMIT 28 ))
) # (13.4 sec elapsed, 411.3 GB processed)
Optimization to-do: Those 411.3 GB can be optimized heavily — especially if in an ongoing basis I just load the incremental hour of views, instead of re-processing the whole thing.
Play with the results
The full table with the results only has 1,239 rows, and you can find it on BigQuery with:
SELECT *
FROM `fh-bigquery.wikipedia_extracts.wikipedia_corona_views`
New to BigQuery? Get started here.
Data Studio
You’ve seen charts like this:
A typical Data Studio area chart
But how cool is this?
A Vega Lite visualization connected to BigQuery in Data Studio
The secret: We can now use Vega & Vega lite charts in Data Studio. So with this community visualization, I just needed to provide Vega lite a configuration:
A different attempt:
Playing with Vega Lite in Data Studio
Want more?
Stay tuned for an interactive dashboard, and more updates. Please leave me your comments with any suggestions or corrections.
Thanks: Denny Vrandečić, for Wikidata and last minute corrections to this post. Marc Cohen for building a reliable pipeline for Wikidata and Wikipedia data in BigQuery. More details soon.
Coronavirus and Meetup RSVPs
Oh, I’m also looking at how Meetup RSVPs around the world have been affected. Check this one out: | https://towardsdatascience.com/coronavirus-interest-inwikipedia-by-language-1b3e6562040d | ['Felipe Hoffa'] | 2020-03-31 19:07:10.920000+00:00 | ['Bigquery', 'Visualization', 'Wikidata', 'Wikipedia', 'Data Science'] |
JavaScript is The New Plastic | JavaScript is The New Plastic
Same level of pollution, just different space
JavaScript is an awesome language, it really is. Just like plastic was an awesome invention 100 years ago. But everything comes with consequences, whether it is environmental pollution or computing pollution alike.
Reader discretion advised: this is my personal view, which may or may not align with yours, and this is fine. If you have any constructive criticism to provide, I will be more than happy to reflect on that.
The problem with plastic
While some forms of such synthetic materials existed long before the 20th century, the true breakthrough came when we started making materials from oil. It eventually led to ability of creating durable materials with carefully designed characteristics at the lowest possible price. The economist’s idea of heaven.
It is important to remember that plastic (as a material) is inferior to most other types of materials (metals, carbon fibre, other types of composites) in specific applications. The advantage of plastic was that it was suitable for 90% of massively manufactured goods and this advantage outweighed the obvious superiority of conventional ones.
The fatal consequences of this decision was realized almost half a decade later, when it was a bit too late. All supply chains are centred on oil and plastics, consumers are used to it, alternative materials forgotten or never invented in the first place. “Specialists” in plastic industry deprecated instantly, while scientists and companies working on new types of materials are valued highly. Our ground, water supply, and most of the living organisms on earth are polluted with microplastics and there is no known way for man to filter it our. All thanks to cheapness, convenience, and reusability.
The problem with JavaScript
When JavaScript was invented, its sole purpose was to add a bit more interactivity to the web page. This resulted in a very simple language with many crucial features and practices overlooked. Then, bit by bit we started adding features to it, until it became a giant monolith that is able to run anything anywhere.
When I say a giant monolith, I mean the size of the runtime required to run it. Electron apps are shipped with a whole Chromium installation even for the simplest of apps (like a calculator). While there is an argument that we have all this computing power, might as well use it. Yes. We could use it to cure cancer, to sequence DNA genes, explore the stars. Instead, we use it to draw buttons.
JavaScript, much like plastics, had tied itself deeply in our everyday lives. You will find it in your browser, desktop apps, operating systems, phones, appliances and even rockets. Now, before reading the rest, just suppose that at some point in the future we will have to abandon JavaScript as fast as possible (like we do right now with plastic). Will it be easy?
The similarities with plastic do not end here. Let’s talk about npm packages now. Package-based dependency systems have existed for a long time. It includes both Linux-style package managers ( apt , zypper , packman , ...), ported Linux-style package managers (Homebrew, chocolatey , ...), and language-based managers ( pip , gem , Maven, ...).
Now, if you used any of those, I need not explain why npm is such an abomination to work with. You get tens of thousands of packages in your node_modules that may or may not work with each other, or contain malware, or be simply abandoned. The odds of this happening in a package are minuscule, but when you scale it up exponentially, the situation becomes frightening.
How often did you run rm -r node_modules and npm i again? Does this compare with how often you reinstall your OS? Developers are encouraged to depend on stuff, without thinking of the implications this dependency represents (much like building supply chains). This is all driven by the open-source dogma, saying that since anyone is able to fix the code, someone will. Well, he may or may not.
The last similarity with plastic is that JS is very cheap. Not as in the price for the SDK, like Java, but in terms of manpower. JS, being an overly simple language, allows literally anyone to build an app after watching a 2-week long course.
Not that it is bad as it is, but we use these apps in production. In production in cars, rockets, health systems, private communications and so on. So, JS is a very cheap language, that lets you create very cheap applications. For every use of JavaScript (except websites, for now) there is a more robust language that will be better-suited for the task, but looks like we are not in it for quality.
Do not get me wrong
I love JavaScript. This is the perfect playground, that lets you practice, learn, prototype, and iterate at a backbreaking speed. But I stand on these 3 views that I think are imperative:
JavaScript is not going to be the most popular language. Just because the JavaScript interpreter and the OS that runs the JavaScript interpreter has to be written in something else by definition. In addition, the rise of WebAssembly will bring most of the compiled languages to the browser, creating a very tough competition for JavaScript We should consider the level of responsibility of the system we are building and ask ourselves this question: was the language and framework we are using built using the same level of responsibility? For a lot of apps, this allows the use of JavaScipt and the like. But for systems that human lives depend on, JavaScript is not an answer. For example, if the 9–1–1 call on your phone was implemented in JavaScript, how confident would you be? Or a gas leak detection system? Or your webcam? The situation is getting better both in regards to plastic and JavaScript. You can now see the tree-shaking efforts in popular packages and security audits. But this is only the beginning of our JS detox.
Closing notes
Thank you for reading my rant on JavaScript, I hope we can still be friends. Let me know your views on JavaScript!
Resources | https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/javascript-is-the-new-plastic-aba1d6cc59bb | ['Michael Krasnov'] | 2020-07-06 17:40:12.840000+00:00 | ['Coding', 'Programming', 'JavaScript', 'Frontend', 'Comparison'] |
James Has Fallen | James Gilliand was one of those kids who, on the first day of school in any random grade, appeared at a desk, having moved from some other school district far far away. He was a tall kid with close-cut and somewhat oily black hair. His complexion was a tint or two darker than most of ours, too, but even on that first day, he smiled wide and seemed ready to belong.
James wasn’t a loud guy. He didn’t make trouble either, and on the playground fields, he accounted well for himself. Tall enough to be a basketball go-to; rangy enough to be uncoverable in football; and agile enough to make infield plays, though never too fast.
What I’m saying is that James exuded a non-threatening air; he fit into our boy clique of Keith and Mark and Randy and Reggie well enough. I suppose I learned where his family lived, maybe way down Clarendon Avenue, but that didn’t matter so much. Our school friend group didn’t always carry over into neighborhood games. Many of my neighborhood friends were older, anyway, so there was enough “play” to go around.
So James became an easy, comfortable, uniform school friend. I feel like once, on some early fall day, I threw a touchdown pass to a wide-open James and we celebrated as boys do afterward. I wish I could see the moment as clearly as I do his smile, but with memory, nothing stays certain for very long anyway.
What I do remember, to my shame and near disbelief, was the day I saw James get up from his desk behind me and walk up to the teacher’s desk at the front of the room. Maybe he was asking for permission to use the restroom; maybe he was heading to the blackboard to solve a division problem. Maybe I went temporarily insane. We’ll likely never know.
But on his way back to his desk, as he was clearly minding his own business and thinking nothing of what could happen to a tall, well-liked new boy, I took a very strange, and uncharacteristic for me, chance.
I stuck my leg out in the aisle just as he got to my desk.
Now, boys in my grade often did this, usually to no success. The best that had ever happened was someone stumbled or hopped up, causing a distraction that our teacher, Mrs. Shivers, chalked up to no harm, no foul. Of course, we boys did much worse to each other: using two fingers to snap down on each other’s arms; popping each other on the arms for no reason other than suspected cooties.
Or, in the worst of near-puberty games, hiding behind doors and cracking each other in the “nuts” as we entered some unsuspecting space.
Who really understands boys of this age anyway?
So, did I think my leg trick would work? Did I want it to work? Did I think James Gilliand would see my leg and stand there smiling at me until I moved it? Did I convince myself that James was such a friend now that any trick on him would be friend-fitting?
I no longer remember what I thought before, but I do remember what I thought as I saw James hit my leg at ankle-level. I remember what I felt as I saw what happened next.
I truly never had and have never since seen a live human being imitate a felled tree before. It’s like he stopped dead, teetered for only a second, and then fell straight and true, forward onto his face. Nothing broke his fall or tried to: not his hands, not his knees, not anyone else’s mercy.
Right on his face, he fell.
He wasn’t hurt, and he wasn’t mad, either, when he rose. He just looked at me, shook his head, and grinned.
I want to tell you that Mrs. Shivers yanked me up from my seat, whacked me, and then sent me to Coach Howell’s, our principal’s, office. But she didn’t. Did she even scold me? Did she make me write sentences on the board or for homework:
“I will not trip James Gilliand or anyone else ever again?”
No, she didn’t.
I know that I apologized to James, and though I was mighty impressed by his fall and my power in that moment, I also know that I have felt appropriately bad about my act ever since.
Sometime later, though not that day, James and I got into an argument. It wasn’t about religion or politics or even about Alabama-Auburn football. I really don’t know what had happened, but I do know that for the only time in my life, I neither backed down from a “fight” nor could release myself from the headlock James gripped me in. In our boyhood wrestling matches, my brother Mike, our friend Robert, and I had imposed imitation headlocks, but when James caught me, I understood their power.
“Stop fighting Terry,” he said. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
I continued struggling for another few seconds, but I’ve always been a realist, and I knew in those seconds that James Gilliand’s hold on me couldn’t be broken.
And that’s an apt way of sealing this memory, I think. A way I can try to make peace with. | https://medium.com/weeds-wildflowers/james-has-fallen-63ce77298ea6 | ['Terry Barr'] | 2020-11-10 06:02:33.007000+00:00 | ['Weeds And Wildflowers', 'Schools', 'Religion', 'Nonfiction', 'Friendship'] |
Take me there, | Take me there,
Where I fear and let me bear
The seeping pain alone,
Just to be together till the road ends. | https://medium.com/@aiswaryaravi09/take-me-there-19395c72e107 | ['Aiswarya Ravi'] | 2020-12-19 07:33:52.630000+00:00 | ['Poem', 'Pain', 'Love', 'Poetry On Medium', 'Poetry'] |
Modelos CNN en la clasificación de imágenes clásicas y modernas | Jonathan Quiza | LinkedIn
View Jonathan Quiza’s profile on LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional community. Jonathan has 10 jobs listed on… | https://medium.com/datos-y-ciencia/modelos-cnn-en-la-clasificaci%C3%B3n-de-im%C3%A1genes-cl%C3%A1sicas-y-modernas-d072a6718689 | ['Jonathan Quiza'] | 2018-07-17 04:46:38.941000+00:00 | ['Deep Learning', 'Español'] |
Cashless future | Hi everyone! I’m continuing to go back to the history and discovering new things. In my previous article, I took some example from history and I learned how it can teach us and show a way, which can lead to success. This time I want to spend some time to discuss money and its various forms from shell money to cryptocurrency. What I found surprised me and what we considered as a cashless payment appeared very long time ago. I was once again convinced that history repeats itself. So, without spending time let’s take a look at some example from history.
The money is constantly changing throughout the history of human beings. In the beginning, there was only one way of exchange. This was a direct exchange of one commodity for another. Since it was not effective and at least uncomfortable, just imagine how difficult it was to exchange knives for example to tomatoes. So people began to look for another way of exchange in order to simplify the commodity turnover. People in ancient China used shells and pearls as money in the 18th and 16th centuries BC. Generally, shell money was a very popular currency in the world. The shell money is a medium of exchange similar to coin money and other forms of commodity money. In western Africa, this method of exchange existed until the middle of the 19th century AD. It’s about 200 years ago. There are very few people who know that the first cashless payments were made 2000 years ago on the Pacific island called Yap. The inhabitants of the Yap island carried out calculations through huge stone disks with a hole in the middle. Usually, these stones weighed about 4 tons. The inhabitants were not able to transfer these “coins” to each other obviously because of their huge size and weight. Interesting thing people of Yap island sent each other notes on the right of ownership and thus the “coins” did not move from one place to another. Doesn’t this remind you of electronic payments or cryptocurrency? Yes, there is a little bit different between them, but the concept still the same.
Stone money
Coins were introduced as a method of payment around the 6th or 5th century BC and they spread all over the world very quickly. The first paper money appeared in China in the 6th century AD. With the invention of paper and printing on its account, this country was almost destined to produce the first paper money. Just imagine it took more than 2400 years to get people from shell money to paper money. However, not all countries used paper money till the 19th century as you can see above. The most interesting thing here is that the money which we use today is called “banknotes”. Therefore, we can consider that the money we use refers to the banks. A note from a bank. Initially, the function of the bank was simply the storage of coins. Not printing them. You put the coins in the bank and received a note that you have coins in the bank. And this tells us that banknotes were a method of cashless payments in the past. Wait, what? Remember that exclusively coins were considered as a cash at that time? Then amazing things happened.
These notes from banks that show you how many coins do you own became real money. It was a turning point. The first time, when people started accepted notes as a real money was in China in the 6th century AD.
Nowadays, people get tired of banknotes, because we always looking for new ways to pay for goods and services without cash. In 1949 businessman Frank X. McNamara was dining with customers in a restaurant and suddenly he realized that he had left his wallet in another suit. Of course, he was embarrassed by this situation and he had to call his wife to able to pay the bills. After that, he decides to issue a “Diners Club” card, which allows the owner of this card to dine without paying bills with cash. One year later in 1950, McNamara returned to that restaurant and paid with a card. The McNamara’s idea developed very quickly and after 10 years over 1.3 million people had owned “Diners Club” card. So, it was the beginning of plastic cards, which today almost everyone uses it on daily basis. About 70 years ago a simple idea was a cause of “revolutionary breakthrough” in the financial world and then in 1960, the first plastic card was issued.
We are living in an amazing time, isn’t it? We do not want to carry a lot of paper money, so we put them in the bank. A bank gives us an electronic note (for example a plastic card) which can be cashed out in ATMs. But does not it remind you of transition from coins to paper money in China in the 6th century AD?
We just launched the next stage of the transformation of money. A long time ago, we started the transition from barter exchange to coins in ancient times around the 6th century BC. Then we started the process of transition from coins to paper money about 1200 years ago. It was bank notes which originally show about the amount of money in the bank. Notice that these were bank notes, not money. Then 800 years later we came up with a new idea. It was the new format of note — electronic note, which is credit and debit cards and etc. A familiar scheme isn’t it? We simply transfer to each other electronic notes of the notes of the coins that existed a long time ago. Yes, seems crazy. But it is what it is. All these electronic notes make possible to create a cashless society. Recently, we often start to see articles and videos about a cashless society. A cashless society is essentially the same transition from coins to paper money, that happened 1400 years ago. Nowadays, we have cryptocurrencies, which is the next stage of transition money.
All money in the world we have now is about 90 trillion dollars, including all the money in bank accounts. Only 8% of them are the cash money and all the rest is electronic notes about the amount of money. Why not remove the remaining 8% and just use an electronic version of money? You think it is madness? Well, actually all the facts tell us it is more likely going to happen. According to demographers research, 27 % of the global population or about 2 billion people are the Millennial generation. It is easier to attract them to the idea of a cashless society. Because they are the world’s most important for consumer spending growth, sourcing of employees, and overall economic prospects. They will become even more important as previous generations retire and move into a life stage of lower consumption.
In 10 years the average size of the transaction fee has fallen by about 2 times. We can easily use cards for small purchases. According to the research, the amount of cash withdrawal is decreasing every year. These explain why people increasingly trusted the cards. | https://medium.com/predict/cashless-future-1e240d287717 | [] | 2018-09-23 03:25:01.631000+00:00 | ['Future', 'Payments', 'Banking Technology', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Cashaa'] |
Small and Cottage Industries | INTRODUCTION:
Small and medium enterprises are very important for any developing economy. These businesses do not need any major financial support to run their business and the owners can easily manage it. Small and medium-sized businesses are non-subsidiaries, independent firms that employ less than a certain number of employees. This number varies from country to country. Like the European Union, the upper limit for setting up an SME is often 250 employees.
SMALL AND COTTAGE INDUSTRIES:
The second most important sector for any growing economy is the cottage industry, which is relatively larger than SMEs. Is small This small-scale, decentralized manufacturing business often runs out of convenience rather than purpose. The amount of investment required to start a cottage industry is determined, as well as the number of people employed and even the occupants of the home can do everything to end the business.
In Pakistan, cottage or home industries have an important place in rural areas. Most villages are self-sufficient in the necessities of life. They have their own carpenters, cobblers, potters, artisans, and cotton weavers. Many families depend on the cottage industries for income. Cottage industries have also gained immense importance in cities and towns. Handmade carpets, embroidery, brassware, carpets, and traditional bangles are in high demand. They are also considered important export goods and are in great demand in international markets.
The cottage industry often focuses on the manufacture of labor-intensive equipment but faces a significant disadvantage when competing with factory-based manufacturers that manufacture large-scale equipment. SMEs and the cottage industry are interconnected because, in some products, SMEs outsource their production to small-scale manufacturers. The purpose of this outsourcing is to reduce the cost of production and reduce the production burden from SME facility units.
TYPES OF COTTAGE AND SMALL-SCALE INDUSTRIES IN PAKISTAN:
There is a network of cottage and book industries. In almost every village, there are several such industries depending on the size of the village and the demand for the product. The establishment of such an industry is closely related to the traditional expertise of raw materials, climatic conditions, and, in many cases, local expertise in the field of the organized factory.
A large variety of handicrafts is available in Pakistan. Not only are they aesthetically pleasing but they also cater to the needs of the locals.
CARPETS
In small industries, the most important is carpet weaving and its center is located almost all over Pakistan. It is also economically significant and contributes significantly to exports. Cotton is the raw material required for this industry. They also employ women to make handmade carpets and to make wool silk or a blend of both, as carpets are of great importance which creates equal economic opportunities. It is valuable for the country’s gross domestic product.
TEXTILES
Textiles are found all over the country with a variety of designs and techniques. The most famous of these are Khaddar, Susi, Khes, Chunri, Boski, Karandi, Shawl, and Ajrak. Designs are always bright colors with the traditional emphasis of blue and red.
EMBROIDERY
Embroidery is made in the form of fine art with specific regional designs and patterns.
JEWELRY
There is a large group of gold and silver craftsmen. Most jewelry made and sold in cities is complex and delicate.
CERAMICS
The practical significance of clay and terracotta pots and pans remains. Many of the designs of pots, pots, bowls, jugs, plates, and utensils that are seen today are almost identical to those found in archeological sites across the country. Many large mosques in Pakistan are decorated with different colored blue tiles with glass.
CUTLERY
Wazirabad is a city of the cutlery industry in Pakistan. The industry is growing day by day and accounts for US 65 65 million in 2010 exports. The Damascus Steel of the High City is manufactured in this city and meets 95% of the world’s needs.
WOODWORK
The Swat Valley is perhaps best known for the fine wood art and furniture it has built, although wood carvings are common in the northern mountains.
SPORTS GOODS
Sporting goods make up about 3.3% of our total exports. The main raw materials for the sporting goods industry are leather and mulberry wood which are available in Punjab but are also imported PVC. Football, hockey balls, hockey sticks, cricket bats, and rackets are mostly handmade. Skilled workers are available in Sialkot and Lahore. Large and medium-sized factories in the industry contract small and cottage concerns.
IMPORTANCE OF SMALL AND COTTAGE INDUSTRIES:
There are meager resources for the development of large-scale industries. However, a program for the development and promotion of small industries is more feasible in both rural and urban areas
I. Cottage and small industries are labor-intensive and employ 80% of the industrial workforce. It reduces unemployment and creates self-employment opportunities.
II. Traditionally, women are not encouraged to work outside the home. Cottage or small-scale industries such as carpet weaving, candle making, and handicrafts can be set up at home and women can be brought into lucrative employment. This increases the active force of the workers.
III. These industries also meet the local demand for industrial goods and save on foreign exchange spent on imports.
IV. The international market is in demand for carpets, rugs, brassware, handicrafts, and embroidery. These goods provide 30 receipts for the manufacturing sector.
V. When people in rural areas are employed in lucrative jobs, the migration of people from rural to urban areas will decrease. Severe housing, sanitation, education, transport, and health problems in urban areas will be reduced.
VI. Many districts are less developed. With the expansion of such industries, the regional disparity in income can be reduced.
VII. These industries make efficient use of local raw materials that also promote basic industries such as agriculture and mining.
VIII. A small industry does not require much capital and high technology. I.T is suitable for traditional economic setup.
IX. Cottage and small industries do not use more imported materials or equipment.
X. Waste from large-scale industries, especially cotton, sugar, and steel, can be used to make synthetic products.
XI. Home Decoration
PROBLEM OF COTTAGE AND SMALL-SCALE INDUSTRIES
The contribution of the cottage and small-scale industries to the GDP is only 5%. There are some issues related to these industries which are mentioned below.
Profits are limited and they are mostly spent on the daily expenses of the owners. They do not have the extra capital to expand these industrial units.
Economies are not widely available, so production costs are high. If the same goods are manufactured on a large scale, the goods manufactured in small industries cannot compete in the open market.
The wholesaler, who makes the most profit, exploits small business owners. In some cases, the goods are sold to wholesalers at exorbitant prices, which discourages owners and reduces the quality and quantity they produce.
In rural areas, where electricity is not provided, it is difficult to set up small-scale industries. Even strong fluctuations in voltage and power intervals can damage electric motors. There has also been a significant increase in commercial electricity rates, which is an obstacle to growth.
Craftsmen and artisans learn their skills and production methods from their elders. Provision of technical advice and further training is limited.
STEPS GOVERNMENT SHOULD TAKE:
The government and relevant departments should encourage these cottage industries and facilitate them to improve their registration and production with quality and international standards. SMEA is playing a very important role for SMEs but very small-scale unregistered production units have been completely ignored by the concerned authorities.
PMIC should also give priority to supporting these cottage industry type production units at the grassroots level. The government should help the cottage industries to enhance their capabilities in terms of how they can approach the international market and compete with the competitors in the international market.
SMEDA should provide them some funds for exploring the international market including overseas exhibitions, certificates of the business management system, certification of various products, overseas patent applications, international market promotion, e-commerce, overseas. Includes nationwide advertising and trademark registration, international market research, business. Training, overseas acquisition technology, and brand.
Relevant departments should reduce electricity rates and taxes for their production units. This will make them work harder and produce better quality products at the micro-level. Since these units are run by the lower middle class, by giving them some leeway and facilities, these production units can play an important role in increasing the GDP and help in improving their economic condition.
Effective use of technology and innovation is also essential to reduce costs and make products attractive with good quality. Standard packing, marketing, and sales techniques can also help small-scale production units.
The government sector should take the following measures:
Establishment of industrial estates.
Providing marketing facilities.
Setting up of technical service centers.
Establishing handicraft development centers and carpet centers.
Providing per-investment counseling and guidance to newcomers.
Providing local and foreign loans to small industry owners on easy installments. | https://medium.com/@fizamemon37/small-and-cott-7c606b0fce3d | [] | 2020-10-07 05:40:41.235000+00:00 | ['Problems', 'Cottage Industries', 'Solutions', 'Importance', 'Type'] |
Gili Air Divemaster - Why The Gilis Is The Perfect Place For Your Internship | Thinking of finally taking that leap? Considering where in the world you’d like to become a divemaster? It’s easy to get overwhelmed with all the options out there. If you’re considering Indonesia, you’ll want to consider the Gili islands. This post will provide you with everything you need to know about living and diving on these magical islands we get to call home.
Where are the Gili Islands?
“Gili” in the local “Sasak” language (which you will inevitably pick up while living here) literally translates to “small island”. The Gili islands are composed of three, very small islands, located off the coast of North West Lombok, Indonesia. Each island has its own charm and something a little different to offer.
3W DIVE is located on the island of Gili Air. Known for its chill vibes, Gili Air offers a little bit of everything between the three islands. There’s plenty of space on the island if you’re looking for a more tranquil and private setting. Yet, there’s always music and dancing a few nights out of the week if you’d like to go out on the town and maybe even catch some fire spinning performances.
For further insight on the island life of the Gilis and Gili Air and what it’s like for a Gili Air divemaster intern, check out our blog post: Life on the Gili islands.
How do I get there? | https://medium.com/@3wdivebrand/why-the-gilis-is-the-perfect-place-to-do-your-divemaster-internship-e0f5c81d4308 | [] | 2020-12-16 04:15:58.887000+00:00 | ['Gili Islands', 'Divemaster Internship', 'Indonesia', 'Internship', 'Marine Conservation'] |
Data visualization using R | Customer Churn | Exploratory Data Analysis | 1. Introduction
What is ggplot2?
ggplot2 is a data visualization package for R. It can create various charts such as line charts for comparing data, scatter plots for understanding the relationship of data, etc.
Here is the documentation for ggplot2.
ggplot2 is a system for declaratively creating graphics, based on The Grammar of Graphics. You provide the data, tell ggplot2 how to map variables to aesthetics, what graphical primitives to use, and it takes care of the details.
sources: https://ggplot2.tidyverse.org/index.html
Cheat sheets provided by the website are super nice, highly recommended.:)
2. View the data& data preprocessing
The first thing we need to do is install ggplot2 package into R studio. We only have to install package one, but we need to import the package as needed.
#you only need to install the package if you don't have ggplot installed install.packages('ggplot2', dependencies = TRUE) #call library
library(ggplot2)
I used a telecommunication company’s customer churn dataset from Kaggle. There is customer demographic data such as age range, gender, and account information such as plans they selected and target variable whether the customer left the program last month. The dataset contains 7043 customer row data and 21 variables. The churn column is the target variable for the analysis.
View(telco.df)
some raw data in the dataset
str(telco.df)
Data Cleaning Steps
Check if there is null data in our dataset. Convert and relevel senior citizen variable. I converted the column from integer to factor, then change 0 and 1 to “No” and “Yes”
Let’s start to build some charts to understand more about customers!
3. Comparison chart
Pie chart
Let’s see the distribution of churn customers by a simple pie chart!
It is clear to see that about 27% of customers churn last month. We can start to see the churn rate breakdown by different customer demographic variables.
Bar chart
#code snippet for bar chart ggplot(telco.df, aes(x=variable,fill=Churn))+ geom_bar() + labs(title="your title", x="x axis", x="y axis")
For the first part, I would like to know more about demographic data. Let’s understand the age range, gender, partner, and dependent using a bar chart. The bar chart is a good way to compare counts or values.
Customer demographic
For gender, the distribution of male and female is fifty, and the churn rate is almost the same. Move on to the senior citizen chart, we can see that most of the customers in the dataset are younger people. Lastly, about 50% of customers have a partner, and the churn rate is lower than customers who don’t have a partner.
Different internet service
Online security, online backup, device protection, tech support, streaming tv, and streaming movies are services used by customers with internet service. The churn rate for customers who use the add-ons service is lower than for those who don’t use the service. For example, customers who have used tech support's churn rate is much lower.
line chart
#code snippet for line chart ggplot(data = telco.df) + geom_line(aes(x=tenure, y= variable, color=Churn)) ggplot(data,aes(x = tenure, color=Churn)) + geom_freqpoly(size=2)
Customer tenure
The line chart displays the trend of value over time. In addition, we can compare different items’ trend in one graph. In this analysis, tenure would be the x-axis. Let’s plot some charts to understand the relationship between different contract types and customer tenure.
Obviously, most of the monthly contract customers churn from the company within the first few months. After that, the number of churn customers decreases. For longer contracts, customers are more loyal to the company.
Next, the chart shows the average monthly charge and tenure. We can see that overall, churn customer’s average monthly charge is higher.
4. Distribution Chart
Scatter plot
A Scatter plot is used to displays the relationship between two numerical variables. In the dataset, monthly charges and total charges are numeric variables. We can use scatter to learn more about their relationship.
#code snippet for scatter plot ggplot(data=telco.df) + geom_point(aes(x=MonthlyCharges, y=TotalCharges))
Monthly charge vs Total charge
We can see that as the monthly charge goes up, the total charge increase.
Box plot
Boxplot displays the distribution of the data set. The width of the box shows how data dispersed from the median point.
#code snippet for box plot ggplot(data=telco.df) + geom_boxplot(aes(x=Churn,y=TotalCharges,fill=Churn))
Customer churn vs tenure
Customers' tenure ranges from 1 month to about 70 months. It is easy to see that the tenure of customers who don’t churn is longer than churn customers.
Customer churn vs Total charges
For churned customers, they have a lower median point and a smaller range of IQR. It is reasonable to assume that since most of the churned customers did not stay with the company for a long time, thus they have a lower median total charge. It’s interesting to see that there are some outliners for churned customers. Their total charges are much higher than most of the customers. The company may want to look into what caused those charges.
Histogram
The histogram is really similar to bar charts, but it groups data into bins. The height of each bar helps us know the number of observations under different bins.
Here, I would like to use histograms to see the monthly price distribution for different services.
#code snippet for histogram ggplot(subset(telco.df, PhoneService %in% c("Yes") & InternetService %in% c("DSL"," Fiber optic")),aes(x = MonthlyCharges, fill = Churn)) + geom_histogram()
For customers who have both internet service and phone service, their monthly charges range from 40 to 90. For only the phone service plan, it seems that customers pay around 20 to 25 per month. The price range for internet service is wider compared to the only phone service.
5. Conclusion
I have used different types of charts to learn more about the dataset. Here are some key takeaways.
About 27% of customers churned last month.
Churned customers’ tenure is short than customers who don’t churn.
Most of the customers in the dataset are younger people.
The churn rate for customers who use the add-ons internet service is lower than for those who don’t use the service.
Customers with the monthly plan have the highest churn rate.
More…
Data visualization is a good starter to understand more about data. It is easy to see the distribution and trend by visual charts. I hope you enjoy doing data visualization as I do.
The code is available in this Github Repository.
Check out more data visualization I created here Tableau Public. | https://medium.com/@thejasmine/data-visualization-using-r-customer-churn-exploratory-data-analysis-a17769c4b1d0 | [] | 2020-12-06 02:34:07.556000+00:00 | ['Tableau', 'Sql'] |
The Best Thing for Your Productivity? Get Uncomfortable. | I moved to Virginia Beach, a city where I don’t know a soul besides my boyfriend and his mother.
Under normal life circumstances, I would never pick this city as a destination I desired to call home. But it’s 2020, so hellooooo new normal.
A decade ago, I moved to Los Angeles for my career in the entertainment industry. I swore I would never leave, I was wildly determined to “make it” in LA. I told my family they’d have to cart me off in a straight jacket to get me over state lines.
Flash forward to October 1st of this year, I shipped my belongings across the country and my ass willingly walked onto a plane
My career has never been better. And it’s not because I’m some badass. It’s because I’m so damn uncomfortable.
I have tossed everything in my life that made me feel safe out the window. The place I called “home” for the last decade is gone. The “normal” of my life doesn’t exist anymore.
My perspective has completely shifted. The mental barriers I had set on what I thought to be true in life have dissipated. What I believe I’m capable of has expanded and the possibilities in my life seem more limitless.
We avoid getting uncomfortable because… it’s not sexy or fun. It’s coupled with a lot of emotions, soul searching and change.
Humans resist change, yet change is the only thing that’s certain in life besides dying.
We try to create as much routine as possible and fill our schedule up with plans to predict what is going to happen. If we know what’s going to happen, we can expect how we’re going to feel, and we can try to avoid pain at all costs.
When trying to be more productive, you take on the challenging task of looking at yourself in the mirror. And being honest as fuck with yourself about where you’re at in life and with your goals.
It’s more “comfortable” to keep using the same tactics towards your goals, hanging out with the same people, going through the same routine of life. And then sitting in the “woe is me” victim club complaining about how hard you’re working and still not achieving any results. Instead of analyzing what’s working, what needs to change, and then shaking up your life.
Forcing yourself to get fucking uncomfortable and changing how you’re working towards your dreams.
Look at your life. What routines are you so ingrained in? Are they serving you? Or do you feel like a newborn baby that’s swaddled into an infant burrito, feeling all snug and safe?
It’s time to bust out of that blanket baby and climb some mountains. | https://medium.com/curious/the-best-thing-for-your-productivity-get-uncomfortable-6893e4310b69 | ['Maddie Mcguire'] | 2020-11-30 22:18:58.892000+00:00 | ['Self-awareness', 'Self Improvement', 'Productivity', 'Goals', 'Change'] |
Dodger offense rallies after Snell’s departure in familiar comeback win | (Photo by Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers)
by Rowan Kavner
The teams changed. The stakes differed considerably. But as Padres starter Blake Snell departed with a one-run lead and one out in the sixth inning Saturday, the parallels to Game 6 of the World Series were hard to ignore.
Especially with what came next in a 5–4 Dodger comeback win.
Much like that deciding Fall Classic game against the Rays, the Dodgers struck immediately against the opposing bullpen after Snell left on Saturday. Three straight singles and a bases-loaded walk by Mookie Betts tied the game, and a two-run single by Corey Seager provided the Dodgers their first lead in a 5–4 comeback win to snap a two-game skid against the Padres.
“I did feel that just getting somebody else in there might’ve changed the tide,” said manager Dave Roberts. “Fortunately, we got some runs and tied the game up, took the lead. We needed every run tonight.”
There were, of course, some obvious differences. In the World Series, the Dodgers hadn’t scored a run at the time of Snell’s departure. They only had two baserunners against him and struck out nine times.
On Saturday, Roberts thought the Dodgers were seeing the ball better against the talented left-hander. They scored runs against him in the third and fourth innings, though they played from behind most of the night.
The sixth-inning breakout snapped a skid of six straight games scoring three runs or fewer. On Saturday, the Dodgers’ 12 hits equaled their hit total of their previous three games combined. Their 23 hits over their previous six games were their fewest in a six-game stretch since September 1909.
“We’ve had good ABs,” Seager said. “We’ve had moments where we’ve hit the ball hard. We just haven’t had that big hit in that moment to kind of pass the baton and keep things going, and tonight we did.”
The Dodgers’ first run came across when Justin Turner worked the count from 0–2 to full before singling to finish off a two-out rally in the third inning. The second an inning later was more of a gift, when Snell fielded a chopper down the third-base line from Sheldon Neuse on a ball that looked destined to trickle foul.
That tied the game, but Fernando Tatis Jr. untied it. Tatis homered to start the scoring in the first inning off Trevor Bauer and did so again on a cutter off the plate in the sixth. It was his second straight multi-homer effort against the Dodgers.
After the home run, Tatis fully celebrated, closing his eye rounding first base and strutting after crossing home plate, both an ode to Bauer mannerisms. Bauer took no issue with it.
“If you give up a homer, a guy should celebrate it,” Bauer said. “It’s hard to hit in the big leagues. So, I’m all for it. I think it’s important the game moves in that direction and we stop throwing at people because they celebrated having some success on the field.
“Another one of those moments today, I got (Eric) Hosmer on a curveball in the dirt and hit him with a sword celebration. Next at-bat, he hit a curveball at my face and gave me a sword celebration at first. We kind of laughed about it. We’ve got a little history together, played against each other for many years. That’s what it is to be a competitor. I’m going to go at you and I’m going to get you sometimes, and you’re going to get me sometimes. We can have fun and we can celebrate it while we’re still competing at the highest level.”
Bauer allowed three runs (two earned) while striking out nine batters without a walk in his six innings. He was pleased with the outing and thought it was the best he commanded his slider all year. It’s the only pitch he threw to Manny Machado. He threw 13 of them to get three outs against Machado, who had entered 12-for-19 against Bauer.
“It’s my best pitch to righties,” Bauer said. “It’s always the gameplan to throw sliders to righties, and then you read based on what they’re doing, how they react to it. I had a really good slider tonight, so it was a lot easier to lean on it.”
After the Dodgers took their first lead on Seager’s single, the Padres continued to threaten late. They got one run back on a wild pitch, but Blake Treinen struck out Tatis and Trent Grisham with two runners in scoring position in the seventh inning to hold onto the lead.
Kenley Jansen secured a four-out save, stranding a runner at third base with a strikeout of Grisham to end it.
“It’s good to get a chance to split the series tomorrow,” said AJ Pollock. “That’s a good team over there. We’ve played some close games, but to come out and lock it up in the end there felt really good.” | https://dodgers.mlblogs.com/dodger-offense-rallies-after-snells-departure-in-familiar-comeback-win-a5419e2d5aad | ['Rowan Kavner'] | 2021-04-25 07:06:32.467000+00:00 | ['Dodgers', 'Padres', 'MLB', 'Postgame'] |
SALESFORCE EINSTEIN ANALYTICS… | What Is Einstein Analytics?
Salesforce Einstein Analytics is a product of Salesforce and a cloud-based platform. It is a rebranded analytics tool formerly known as Wave Analytics. Einstein Analytics is used for data exploration, visualization, and getting insights for business. Einstein Analytics being native of Salesforce is secure and scalable to meet the changing business requirements. We can add more functionality to analytics from the app exchange.
Salesforce Einstein Analytics gives deeper insights from large and complex data than pre-built reports and dashboards in Salesforce CRM. Reports and dashboards have limitations but with analytics, we can import data from external sources and Salesforce into datasets where analytics stores data.
Analytics gives tools to prepare data, explore data, define logic in dataflow, and design dashboards. Create customizable analytics applications.
Figure 1 : Salesforce Einstein Analytics
Key points:
Explore data quickly and automate actions with prebuilt apps.
Automatically analyze millions of rows of data and get predictive analytics with Einstein Discovery.
Connect directly to your CRM data, explore for the answers, and post insights directly on to the Chatter feeds.
Visualize business data on a single screen. We need not switch between systems, apps, or pages.
We can build custom apps and dashboards with instant click and customization. We can also install 3rd party apps from the app store.
Discover insights from your phone.
Any data from any source.
Spot opportunities, predict outcomes, and get recommendations with Einstein Analytics.
Data Visualization With Einstein Analytics
Data visualization is the method of presenting data in graphical format. This helps the decision-makers to process data fast, understand difficult concepts, and identify patterns. Data visualization has no meaning if the data is raw. Data presented in the charts and graphs should first meet the requirements of the business. It is part of Einstein Analytics tools, Einstein Analytics gives context to data which is presented as a dashboard.
Benefits of data visualization:
We can identify the area which needs attention.
Identify the factors affecting customer behavior?
Understand product and service sales.
Predict the organization’s performance.
How To Use Einstein Analytics For Decision Making?
The statistical facts are used to guide companies to make a conclusion and focus on growth. Decision making is a process in which we choose the best solution suitable for our current needs.
Einstein Analytics can help companies find reasons for improvements, find answers to the positive and negative things that happened to provide the information, they might or might not have. It can instantly uncover answers to key business questions, we can get smarter and predictive about the customers.
Figure 2 : Salesforce Analytics Cloud Wave
Einstein analytics apps have below listed components to explore the data and get insights. This tool gives us the answers in the form of charts, tables, and metrics.
Datasets: Analytics datasets store data from Salesforce and external resources. Data flow defines logic in which data is stored. We can then do data exploration. Datasets are faster as they do the processing before, so a large amount of data shows up fast when compared to the reports and dashboards which we use in Salesforce. The data from datasets are used in the dashboard.
Lenses: When we explore the data in an analytics dataset and query to get a business answer, it is saved as new lenses. This later can be clipped to dashboards.
Dashboards: Dashboard is a pictorial presentation of data with tables, charts, and metrics based on the data in one or more lenses. Dashboards in analytics are similar to dashboards in Salesforce CRM.
Benefits Of Einstein Analytics
These are enlisted below:
Improved and accurate reporting.
Valuable business insights.
Competitive analysis.
Better data quality.
Identifying market trends.
Increased operational efficiency and revenue.
Important trends.
Identify performance problem which needs attention.
Can be viewed visually using dashboards.
Awareness of customer habits & increased customer satisfaction.
Used for internal audits.
Figure 3 : Salesforce Architecture
Conclusion
We have learned that organizations need tools to make sense of data present in the system. With reporting and analytical tools offered by Salesforce, we can help the businesses with answers they need for simple and complex questions.
Analytics is an app with datasets, stories, dashboard, and lenses. Fast to deploy and customize we have prebuilt apps for sales, services, and marketing, we can build new apps for new business use cases.
With Einstein Analytics, business leaders can make decisions based on hard facts and predictions. We can create dynamic visuals and custom dashboards, drill into data. It is native to Salesforce and hence it is secure and scalable. We get a free trial of analytics for 30 days after which we can subscribe to the service. | https://medium.com/@manjot11091992/salesforce-einstein-analytics-f5532ab5c78a | ['Manjot Singh'] | 2020-12-21 13:36:03.191000+00:00 | ['Einstein Analytics', 'Analytics', 'CRM', 'Salesforce Productivity', 'Salesforce'] |
How Service Area Routing can help people discover the world around them. | ThinkGeo Service Area API
This is the ThinkGeo Service Area Routing API which you can demo on your own here. It’s an isochrone map utility that can calculate what is reachable within a set time or distance from any starting location in North America. It’s quite simple: just pick your starting location, set your time or distance parameters, and then the service will render the areas you can reach with color-infused shading to show you where and how fast you can get there. This tool is and can be used for everything from emergency vehicle dispatching to locating all of the pizza places within 10 minutes of your home.
Where it all gets very interesting is that these renders can be applied within personalized mapping applications; so with access to the guts of the functionality developers with the data in hand can really put this thing to the test. Want to maximize fleet efficiency? It’s easy with something like this to find your fleet’s ideal operating area and hone in on the sweet zone. Opening a small business with heavy competition in the area, yet another use-case for something like this would be to get a gauge for where the optimal store location would be.
ThinkGeo is adding useful high-level tools to their Cloud offering routinely and this latest addition coupled with their point-to-point routing service really highlights how powerful the combination of multiple mapping APIs can be. It’s and accessible and affordable on-ramp for GIS mapping professionals who want to illustrate specific points and showcase the brilliance of data visualization in today’s development world. To keep up with all ThinkGeo news and notes make sure to check out their blog and you can also get hands on with free API keys that unlock these routing services and more. | https://medium.com/@sachadesjardins/how-service-area-routing-can-help-people-discover-the-world-around-them-d0094a7813a9 | ['Sacha Desjardins'] | 2019-07-01 19:17:16.234000+00:00 | ['Routing', 'Fleet Management', 'Mapping', 'Emergency Response', 'GIS'] |
What Is It Like to Live With 130 Rescue Dogs? | The miracle of birth becomes nothing more than a bunch of puppies you’re going to have to find homes for.
In the beginning, before the 2011 tragedy, we joined the local community of animal protectors and attended the adoption fair every weekend trying to find homes for the stray dogs we fostered. After the tragedy, we gave up on that. There are way too many dogs and not enough homes.
If they’re puppies, our friends still advertise them online for adoption, but there’s no hope for the older dogs.
And then, there’s the noise
Nothing screams ‘home’ for me louder than the sound of 100 barking dogs. You can hear them from miles away. As soon as the dogs notice a car driving up our road, they will all start barking in unison.
There’s no such thing as arriving discretely, which can be frustrating for a teenager coming home from a party hoping that their parents will be asleep. That’s not something I’m familiar with.
But there are other peculiarities related to the noise.
Photo by Robert Gramner on Unsplash
You get in trouble with the neighbors
Not everybody appreciates what you’re doing for the dogs.
My mother had to move out of her previous home because her neighbor was throwing homemade bombs onto our garden. I can understand how maddening the noise can be but throwing Molotov cocktails onto your neighbor’s garden seems a bit over the top, even for Brazilian standards.
One of these bombs once landed in our swimming pool and it looked like a nuclear explosion. Luckily no one was hurt. But, it worked. My mother got scared and we ended up moving a bit further out into the countryside.
There were no neighbors around her land when she bought her current house. The people who moved there afterward knew of the problem when they decided to buy their houses.
In any case, they still sue her, all the time. There has not been one single year in the last two decades when my mother wasn’t involved in a legal case because of the noise.
She’s always won, so far. Since there is no facility to accommodate stray dogs in her town, the judges understand that she’s providing an indispensable public service and help her out. But it’s still a big pain in the ass.
You are very careful at night
Once it gets dark and the dogs fall asleep, you finally have some silence. It feels so precious that you don’t want to disturb the new status quo. We also don’t want the dogs to wake up the neighbors after 10 pm.
So we walk around at night like burglars in our own home. Tiptoeing our way around and trying not to drop anything.
Any noise can wake up one dog and then it’s the domino effect. Once it starts it doesn’t stop. So we need to be careful.
And there’s the occasional death threat
My mother has received a few death threats since she started helping the dogs. It’s usually from animal abusers who she denounces to the police.
One case was against a local hotel tycoon who went bankrupt and left his dogs to starve to death. Another time it was from a crack addict who had burnt his dog with cooking oil.
This side of life with rescue dogs is not pretty and to be honest, we would much rather not have all these dogs. The real dog heaven would be a world where everyone looked after their pets responsibly and did their share. | https://medium.com/the-masterpiece/what-is-it-like-to-live-with-130-rescue-dogs-b13147ae46e3 | ['Daniele Ihns'] | 2020-12-06 20:38:06.344000+00:00 | ['The Masterpiece', 'Kindness', 'Dogs', 'Love', 'Adoption'] |
What would a supermarket just for guys look like? | We do most of our grocery shopping online, but this still applies. Why is the site showing me 10 different colors of soap? I buy the same one each time (don’t ask me what it’s called, it’s the one my wife puts on the list…).
The paradox of choice (watch the great TED talk below if you haven’t yet), states plainly that too much choice isn’t good for us, so why isn’t there a shopping establishment (off or online) that offers me only one choice?!
How many types of bread do I need to see before I pull a bun of the shelf? How many types of cereal do I need?
I want a shop that knows me and displays to me only the items I buy, don’t try to have me move to a different product, that’s a slippery slope, simply show me only the brand of coffee I drink, all the rest is noise!
I couldn’t care less about how many types of yogurt you keep in stock, I care about you making it thoughtless (effortless) for me to find it.
Save me time, save me grief and I’ll be loyal! | https://medium.com/on-banking/what-would-a-supermarket-just-for-guys-look-like-3a819e54ea1d | ['Eitan Gersh Kaplawi'] | 2015-12-13 22:10:32.676000+00:00 | ['Online Shopping', 'Supermarkets', 'Ecommerce'] |
Be critical in this ETF love affair | “Know what you own, and know why you own it.” - Peter Lynch
Everything about the other person is perfect in the first few weeks of dating. Short of kicking puppies, there is pretty much nothing your new person can do wrong. Even habits that you already know will annoy you one day are temporarily adorable. But just like a new relationship, most investors don’t care about the details of what they invest in and don’t try to find out more. Although ETFs aren’t exactly new to the market, growth in the industry has been astronomical over the last few years. As everyone fawns over ETFs and jumps on the bandwagon, it’s important to take the love goggles off and make sure you know what you’re buying.
The first ETF was launched in 1993. In 2009, assets topped $1 trillion; this year they hit $4 trillion. This has been on the whole a boon for investors, who have benefitted from the lower cost of ETFs and performance of passive investing (which we know almost always outperforms over the long-run) versus active funds. We love low cost investing, but there are some things to look out for when making decisions around ETFs.
Tracking error. ETFs, for the most part, are passive instruments that track the returns of a benchmark index rather than trying to beat the market. Many investors are surprised to learn that some ETFs do not exactly track the indices they were created to mimic. The higher the tracking error from its benchmark, the less the ETF can be used to represent it. The ETF issuer can try to reduce tracking error, but this can potentially add expenses, which are typically passed on as a higher management fee to investors. You can’t assume that two ETFs that track the same benchmark will perform identically or cost the same amount.
Synthetics. Sometimes, an ETF is just a wrapper. You need to dig deeper to see what the ETF is actually invested in. For example, United States Oil Fund (USO) is one of the more popular commodity ETFs. What investors don’t realize is that the ETF invests only in oil futures, and doesn’t directly track the performance of oil’s spot price. Always understand the underlying products you are holding through an ETF.
Cost. Similar ETFs from different providers, or even the same provider, have highly variable expense ratios (the cost of the ETF, which is taken out of the ETF price every day). Take for example Blackrock’s emerging market ETFs IEMG (iShares Core MSCI EM ETF) and EEM (iShares MSCI EM ETF): their expense ratios are 0.14% and 0.72% respectively. That is a huge spread for very similar exposure. There are also other costs involved in executing an ETF portfolio strategy such as brokerage fees and bid-ask spreads when trading. Another lesser-known fact: Sometimes ETF issuers generate income by lending out their underlying securities to hedge funds to enable short sales. This does result in lower management fees, but also increases the risk to you.
Mythbusting: ETFs are always cheaper than mutual funds (unit trusts) is false. There are mutual fund providers such as Vanguard and Dimensional Fund Advisors that have management fees in-line with or below ETFs for similar and even better implemented exposure.
Drink the koolaid, but take the goggles off. | https://medium.com/endowus-insights/be-critical-in-this-etf-love-affair-a46d8838c42e | ['Sin Ting So'] | 2018-04-10 06:01:20.347000+00:00 | ['Index', 'Investing', 'Etf', 'Fees', 'Mutu'] |
Connections | Head laid back against the reclined chair, feet up, pillow, blanket, and earbuds set to relaxing music. To my left is an industrial strength infusion pole with my meds hanging like expensive ornaments. To my right, a tray holds crackers and cocoa, a treat on this cold December day. I’m in Atlanta at Emory University hospital receiving Rituxan, a monoclonal antibody that modifies the production of B-cells; cells that both protect and destroy, at least in my body that’s what happens. B-cells are meant to protect against infection yet when things go awry those same rescue cells interfere with muscle movement for myasthenics. Amongst other things, my treatment protocol includes these infusions every other month. An aggressive approach considering most patients are on six month schedules. I’m eighteen months into my Rituxan treatments, it has become mundane, routine, predictable.
Wake at 3:00 a.m., pull out of the driveway by 4:00 a.m., arrive in Atlanta around 9:00 a.m. (don’t forget the time change — we lose an hour!) infusions begin at 10:00 a.m., out by 1:00 p.m. for lunch. Not much has changed since I’ve been switched to rapid infusion. Not much of the routine, that is. Wheeled plexiglass partitions now separate patients, for our protection, really. Gone are the days of idle chatter between patients. Not that there was a lot in the “before times”, but there was enough. Enough to create solidarity. To feel connected to someone who knows just a smidgen more than your regular loves, what it means to be the patient in the chair, with the tubes, the toxic medicines, the devastating disease. Those brief moments of connection were always a personal highlight of my day-trip for treatment. But today, I look around, and there are fewer patients. Fewer nurses. Less talk. More space. Less connection.
The place has changed. I have changed. We have all changed.
Masks hide our smiles. The gentle knowing nod to the fragile patient across the way, no longer happens. We’ve become individuals wrapped in protection. Necessary. Absolutely necessary to protect us, the immunosuppressed, the immunocompromised, the cancer patient, the pre-existing conditions, the sick, the ill, yes… even the dying. We need and frankly deserve these protections.
Today I wonder, where and how are we getting our connections? Humans are social creatures after all. We take them in the small moments we have with our clinicians, our care team, our families, and sometimes friends. I used to look forward to these Atlanta infusions for those fleeting, yet special moments with other patients. Although it’s different, I’m still finding them here and there. The phlebotomist catches me up about the latest with her kids and grandkids, how Covid has affected her family, the grand baby she can’t visit. The way she asks how my kids are doing with school, friends, jobs, now that Covid affects everything and everyone. I treasure the extra moments with my clinician when he asks about the rural community I live in, which are his old stomping grounds. His delight when I say I think I’m ready for a light exercise program, the exchange of Christmas cookies for the office staff. More moments come when I chat with my nurse, “are those new glasses?”, “did you get your hair done?”, “are you the new one here, or am I the new one? — I only come every two months!” or they say, “you’re walking so well!”, “you’re looking so good!”, “nice to see you moving again!” And it is good. It feels good to find my seat. To walk to the snack center and grab my own goodies.
I’ve not needed long-term health interventions before. Not many people do. But what I’ve learned is that the longer I’m with a practice, the more they feel like a good friend. Someone you see occasionally, immediately reconnect with, and who cares deeply about your best outcomes.
It’s been about an hour and my infusion bag is quickly emptying, drip by drip. Before too long I’ll be finished, I’ll have my port de-accessed, the next appointment will be set for February, I’ll check out at the front, someone will compliment my glasses, and on the long elevator ride back to the car, Bruce and I will discuss lunch. Most days we find a stop several miles out of town, to get a jump ahead of afternoon traffic. Someday I hope to leave this office using nothing more than my own two feet. And when that happens I want to celebrate with something more than a quick stop for lunch. I want to use the strength these drugs have given me to explore Atlanta. To taste her foods, to learn her history, see her art, meet her people, and to celebrate nothing more than being alive with enough health to enjoy the special moments of life.
That will happen.
And when it does, it will be a glorious, COVID free day — a day we can all celebrate. | https://medium.com/@jennifer-m-crow/connections-f490924736 | ['Jennifer Crow'] | 2020-12-27 18:50:44.707000+00:00 | ['Chronic Illness', 'Myasthenia Gravis', 'Health', 'Covid 19', 'Atlanta'] |
4 Ways to Be Happy With What You Have While Still Wanting More | Your desire for continuous improvement is what drives you. It motivates you to get out of bed in the morning, to put in the long hours and fight through the stress and setbacks. It allows you to dismiss the inevitable naysayers saying you’ll fail.
Continuous improvement can be a double-edged sword though. It can rob us of happiness because we’re always yearning for more, never content with where we’re at.
“One of the greatest challenges in life is being happy with what you have, while in pursuit of what you want.” -Jim Rohn
How can we strive for more while maintaining happiness now?
#1: Understand that to strive is to be human
What motivates us varies, but the drive for continuous improvement is a common human trait. When you accomplish something your brain releases a small dose of dopamine, a type of neurotransmitter that’s responsible (among other things) for motivation, learning, and mood. It helps you feel pleasure; it allows you to focus, to strive to complete tasks, and to find things interesting. After accomplishing something even as small as checking an item off your to-do list you’ll get a small dose of dopamine, which propels you forward to do and accomplish even more.
#2: Seek balance and moderation
Like most things though, too much a good thing can be a bad thing. This is where balance and moderation come in. Let all things serve but not intrude, because sometimes your innate drive for accomplishment and goal setting can have a detrimental impact on your life. You might end up running in circles, chasing that next high.
#3: Practice gratitude and patience
Express gratitude for all that you have. You have many things to be thankful for. You’re alive, you’re able to read the words on this screen. You probably even own the device you’re using to read these words. There’s a lot to be thankful for, if you look in the right places.
Also express gratitude for what you don’t have. When viewed correctly this can be a blessing.
Do you have poor health?
Are you still in that negative relationship?
Do you have an empty refrigerator and wondering where your next meal is coming from?
No? Be thankful!
Next, be actively patient. Don’t passively wait for the good things to happen to you, but take an active role in making them happen. Know that all good things will come in their due time. Be patient.
“Inch by inch everything is a cinch” –Steve Harvey
You won’t get there today, and probably not even tomorrow. Nothing truly worthwhile is accomplished so easily.
Eventually though, you’ll get there.
#4: Look both ways
Sure, look out the front window while you’re driving down the road, but don’t forget to enjoy the scenery along the way. Take the opportunity to glance in the rear-view too and appreciate where you’ve been.
Attempt to implement these 4 practices to be happy with what you have in life, while still wanting more for yourself. | https://medium.com/afwp/4-ways-to-be-happy-with-what-you-have-while-still-wanting-more-ac6818d3ee0a | ['Chris Schatz Ed.D'] | 2020-04-09 15:31:00.954000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Life', 'Happiness', 'Life Lessons', 'Inspiration'] |
The Purge | The Elections! Have you Voted or are you Purged?
Photo by Freepik.com
What is Democracy?
Democracy finds its origin from the Greek word ‘demokratia’, which means “rule by people”. In other words, Democracy gives the citizens of a state the power to govern or elect their representatives. However, no system is perfect and the corrupt eventually discover loopholes or find a way to manipulate the system. So a system designed to empower the citizens, at times ends up suppressing them. And that’s what we are going to talk about today, Voter Suppression. So how does one suppress the voters? They just take away your power to vote. It’s that simple. There are two forms of Voter Suppression. Voter Caging and Voter Purging
A candidate is put on a Caging list when an official mail from the Election body doesn’t reach them. This is called Voter Caging.
Similarly, when a candidate’s name is removed from the voter registration list, it’s called Voter Purging.
Now while both of these terms may sound like total villains against Democracy, they are heroes if rightly used. Yes, that’s right. When Voter Purging and Voter Caging are properly conducted, they can eliminate the duplicate names, people who have moved, died, etc. This would of course mean dependable, accurate, and up-to-date Voter lists, and hence effective Elections. However, in a flawed system, these potential tools are used by corrupt politicians and administrators to deprive certain sections of people of voting in elections for their benefit. So they eliminate the people who they think won’t vote for them.
Photo by Aclu.com
For instance, consider the last Presidential elections of the United States. Reportedly from 2014 to 2016, states removed almost 16 million voters from their voting list. Yeah, that’s a massive purge. So what actually happened was that the Republican Party headed by Trump got these huge numbers of potential voters purged in the name of Voter fraud. While the truth is the actual number of Voter fraud allegations was too insignificant to even consider. Anyway, what matters now is that you are careful enough to prevent such suppression from happening to you. Do make sure that your registration in the official Voter list matches your Voter card. And if you receive mail from the Election commission, respond to it.
Photo by visuals on Unsplash
So if you want to bring change, make your vote count! | https://medium.com/indian-thoughts/the-purge-18ad60a5eae1 | ['Abhinav Bhatnagar'] | 2020-11-02 15:43:28.565000+00:00 | ['USA', 'India', 'Vote', 'Trump', 'Elections'] |
9 Modern && Practical JavaScript Code Snippets | 9 Modern && Practical JavaScript Code Snippets
Photo by Eugene Shelestov en Pexels
This article shows you how to resolve everyday JavaScript tasks by writing less code and using the language's latest features more straightforwardly.
There are ten small hacks that you can use in any part of your code without any difficulty.
Let’s start
Index
Transform && Filter an Array at the same time. Fetch && Retry. Recursive setTimeout. Get Fields and Length from an Array by Destructuring. Reverse a String. Clear an Array. Trimming an Array. Extending an Array. Create an Array from an Object.
1. Transform && filter an Array at the same time
We can transform and filter an Array using the map() and the filter() method in two steps, but why we don't transform it and filter in one step?
In two steps with filter() and map():
let anArrray= [ 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]; let by2= anArrray
.filter( (n) => n >= 5 )
.map( (n) => n * 2);
Result in the google chrome console.
In one step with flatmap():
let anArrray= [ 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]; let by2= anArrray.flatMap( (n) => n >=5 ? [ n * 2 ] : [] );
Result in the google chrome console.
2. Fetch && Retry
We can use the ES6 Fetch method to recover data from the server, but sometimes, the server or the network will be down, and we will not receive the correct answer. For example, The server can fail because it is busy. In this case, we can retry the call.
Using promises:
fetch("/someUrl/json").then( function handleResponse (response) {
if (response === 200) {
return response;
} else {
fetch("/some/json").then(handleResponse);
}
catch (err{
console.error(err);
}
});
Code image for small screens.
Using a loop and ES7 async-await
n: Number of retries
const fetch_retry = async (url, options, n) => {
let error;
for (let i = 0; i < n; i++) {
try {
response = await fetch(url, options);
if (response === 200) {
return response;
}else{
throw new Error(response)
}
} catch (err) {
error = err;
//1.
if (i + 1 === n) throw err;
}
}
throw error;
}; let response = fetch_retry("/someUrl/json", options, 10);
Code image for small screens.
If the number of retries is reached we trigger an error.
Using recursion and ES7 async-await
n: Number of retries
const fetch_retry = async (url, options, n) => {
try {
response = await fetch(url, options);
if (response === 200) {
return response;
}else{
throw new Error(response)
}
} catch(err) {
//.1
if (n === 1) throw err;
//2.
response = await fetch_retry(url, options, n - 1);
if (response === 200) {
return response;
}else{
throw new Error(response)
}
}
};
let response = fetch_retry("/someUrl/json", options, 10);
Code image for small screens.
If the number of retries is reached we trigger an error and the execution is stopped. We retry the request by calling the fetch_retry function and decreasing the number of attempts.
3. Recursive setTimeout()
To execute a function at regular intervals to we can use the setInterval() method. This choice is the right choice as long as the function to be executed fast and synchronous. In another case, it is better to call setTimeout() recursively.
With setInterval()
const everySecond= () => console.log("Second:" +new Date().getSeconds()); setInterval(everySecond, 1000);
Result in the google chrome console.
With setTimeout()
const everySecond= () => console.log("Second:" +new Date().getSeconds()); setTimeout( function namedFunction() {
everySecond();
setTimeout(namedFunction, 1000);
}, 1000);
Result in the google chrome console.
4. Get Fields and Length from an Array by Destructuring
I think the example is self-explanatory:
let anArray= [ "a", "b", "c", "d", "e", "f", "g", "h"];
let { 0: v1, 2: v2, length } = anArray;
Result in the google chrome console.
5. Reverse a String
const hello = "Hello Kesk!";
const reverseString = (s) => [...s].reverse();
With Destructuring and the Reverse method, we obtain the array with the letters in inverse order corresponding to the string “s”:
Result in the google chrome console.
And now, we only have to join all the letters again using the “join” method, without spaces in this case.
const hello = "Hello Kesk!";
const reverseString = (s) => [...s].reverse().join('');
reverseString(hello);
Result in the google chrome console.
6. Clear an Array
We don’t have an “Empty” method for empty the array, but we have the length property. This property of the Arrays reflects the number of fields contained in the array. If we set this property to zero, the array is emptied.
let anArray= [ "val1", "val2", "val3", "val4" ];
anArray.length = 0; anArray.forEach(element => console.log(element))
Result in the google chrome console.
Or:
let anArray= [ "val1", "val2", "val3", "val4" ];
anArray = []; anArray.forEach(element => console.log(element))
7. Trimming an Array
Also, we can Trim an Array using this property:
let anArray= [ "v0", "v1", "v2", "v3", "v4", "v5", "v6", "v7"];
anArray.length = 4; anArray.forEach(element => console.log(element))
Result in the google chrome console.
8. Extending an Array
Or we can extend the Array in the same way:
let anArray= [ "val1", "val2", "val3" ];
anArray.length = 10; anArray.forEach(element => console.log(element))
Result in the google chrome console.
9. Create an Array from an Object
We can use Object.keys() and map() to do this simply:
const kesk = {
name: "Kesk",
age : 36,
eyes: 'green'
} const convertoObjectToArray = obj => Object.keys(obj).map(e =>
[e, obj[e] ]); convertoObjectToArray(kesk);
Result in the google chrome console.
Conclusion
I hope you liked these little “tricks” and that they help you in your every day.
More tips here:
Thank you for reading to me! | https://javascript.plainenglish.io/modern-practical-javascript-code-snippets-4002a7a4ba9c | ['Kesk - -'] | 2020-12-14 21:02:40.533000+00:00 | ['Javascript Tips', 'JavaScript', 'Javascript Development', 'Web Development', 'Software Development'] |
My Boyfriend Was Nervous About Getting Pegged | My Boyfriend Was Nervous About Getting Pegged
How to introduce prostate play into your sex life
That’s me with my hair dyed blonde taking Aron to the pier and talking to him about his prostate. Photo by Tiko Giorgadze on Unsplash
We were out at a party, each of us mingling with other guests, when I went over to my boyfriend Aron and whispered in his ear, “Tonight’s the night.”
He looked at me nervously. I was pretty sure he knew what I meant, because we had been discussing it. But then I made it quite clear, by adding in a sexy whisper, “Your ass is getting fucked tonight, boy.”
Aron smiled weakly at me. I squeezed his hand and whispered really closely in his ear, “Don’t worry, I’ll be gentle with you.”
Then I breezed away and joined a conversation on the other side of the room.
We had ordered a special curved vibrator for men online that was supposed to stimulate the prostate. Aron was mostly excited by the prospect of multiple orgasms. He was jealous of me having five or six orgasms in a session, while he was limited to just one. I explained to him how a man can keep going while his prostate is being tickled. Also intriguing to Aron was the possibility of reaching an orgasm without his penis being touched. But he was nervous about the ass fucking part of prostate stimulation.
“What if I really like it?” he had asked me. “Will that mean that I’m gay?”
No, it does not mean that you’re gay
If God had not meant for us to play with the prostate during sex, why on earth did he make it feel so good?
I had to explain to Aron that sexual orientation has nothing to do with what feels good. It’s about which gender you are attracted to. So it was quite possible to enjoy having your ass fucked while still being attracted to women.
But it didn’t feel good when the doctor did it!
Every man has had their prostate examined by a doctor, usually a male. The MD will put a latex glove on, and tell the patient to turn around. Then he quickly shoves his finger in and pulls it out as soon as possible. He’s checking for an abnormal or swollen texture.
He’s not trying to arouse the male.
I explained to Aron that this was going to be a lot sexier than getting ass fucked by the doctor. And I promised him that if he wasn’t enjoying it we could stop at any time.
But he was still understandably nervous.
It is a change for the male to be the passive receiver of penetration
Some men might resist being so vulnerable with a woman. I mean, we’ve all heard about the “man box” where men are trained to be tough all the time, and heroic and the boss and so forth. But I explained to Aron that courageousness is one of the man box traits, and what takes more courage than to open your ass to a female? It is a risk to open your mind and explore the other side of things. But we only have one life — isn’t it worth exploring other options?
When a man becomes the passive partner in sex, and the woman takes charge, it’s a psychological transformation for both. I know I feel exhilarated and empowered by the, well, power that is granted me when a man exposes his butt to me. And men, too, feel excited by the loss of control. Life is suddenly less predictable when they aren’t dictating every second of it.
It leads to a more balanced relationship out of the bedroom as well, I have found. A man who is willing to let me fuck his ass is much more likely to stop and ask for directions when he gets us lost on that road trip. In fact, he is much more likely to let me sit in the driver’s seat (I know, even in 2020 some guys refuse to let the woman drive them!).
Why does prostate stimulation cause orgasm?
The prostate produces prostate fluid that is converted into semen. The prostate squeezes tight to releases that fluid during orgasm. This is the feeling a man gets when he is about to ejaculate. But when you cause this contraction by direct stimulation this feeling lasts much longer than the few seconds that it does during “regular” ejaculation. Under stimulation, the contractions can last for a minute or more.
How good can you stand it?
Can you stand to have an orgasm that lasts for a minute or more? I asked Aron. And not only that, how about the fact that if the penis is not involved in the orgasm, there will be no refractory period, and we can start again right away on giving you a second, third, or fourth long and incredibly intense orgasm?
How could a man say no to that?
The penis doesn’t even have to be erect to ejaculate
Men are shocked when during prostate stimulation, they have not achieved an erection, yet suddenly a ton of cum comes shooting out of their limp dicks.
I have found that multiple orgasms are much more likely to occur to a man who does not get erect before cumming. If he gets a hard-on, it’s more likely that he’s going to put his hand on it, and then the genitals are going to get involved.
A hybrid orgasm is also possible
With an erect penis and stimulation of both the penis and the prostate, the orgasm is a combination of prostate and genital induced. This one, unfortunately, is most likely to bring a refractory period, but it will be shorter than the normal one. If you can usually get hard again after an hour, say, you will be able to achieve another erection after half an hour.
But here’s the thing — even if you cum first in the hybrid orgasm, you can continue with the prostate stimulation and have a second, non-genital orgasm. The refractory period only prevents you from becoming hard again — it will not prevent you from ejaculating if your prostate is stimulated.
Where is the dang thing, anyway?
Push your dildo, vibrator or butt toy into the anus and then begin trying to angle it toward the front, where his penis is. Some toys are made with this angle built in — I would recommend starting with those.
You’ll know you’ve hit the sweet spot because he will begin to make sounds of great pleasure. Yes, it is quite a revelation. So then just apply up and down pressure on that spot with your finger or your toy, and soon you will bring him to his first ass-gasm.
Taking my boyfriend’s ass virginity
When we got home from the party I told Aron to take a shower, and I changed into the sexiest French bustier thingie I had, with fishnet stockings and a kind of burlesque dancer look. Aron came out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist.
“Oooh baby, you look nice,” I told him.
“You look nice too,” he said, eyeing me in my sexy outfit. I saw the towel begin to bulge.
“Why don’t you drop that towel and lie face down on that bed right there.”
The towel hit the floor. I was so excited. I was about to take my man’s ass virginity!
There’s a first time for everything
There’s something about first times. I love taking a female’s “lesbian virginity,” that is, being her first time in bed with the same gender. When I touch a woman between her legs who has never been touched by a female before, it’s like taking her to a completely new land, and I go there with her. I mean really, it is like going out the back of the wardrobe into lesbian Narnia. It a break from reality, I guess. I think I’m an escapist at heart. I used to love drugs for that reason. Now I just love sexual adventure. And also writing. Those are the only two escapes from reality for sober me, sob sob.
Anyhow, if you are a woman who is nervous about doing this with your guy, think of it like going through the back of his wardrobe (no pun intended) and into Prostate Narnia.
Prostate Narnia is a very magical place
I like to rub my own clit as I put the vibrator or dildo into my man’s ass. That’s why I don’t like to wear a strap-on — I find that gets in the way of my hand.
What I try to do is to time it so my orgasm comes at the same time as his first, earth-shattering, Narnia explosion.
He will be shocked to see that cum’s shooting out of his un-erect penis. And to see it continue shooting. The ejaculation is not like the ordinary one, in little dribbles. This is more like a fire hose that the fireman dropped and is shooting all over the place, out of control.
As the man begins cumming, I rub myself like mad and I find myself achieving vicariously the same long, intense climax. I sigh as loudly as he sighs — and believe me, you have never heard your man sigh like this. It is pure poetry.
After this intense journey into Narnia, you can just cuddle him and caress him, and listen to him talk about it. Men are very blabby after their first “passive” penetration — it’s like they finally discover the “chatty Cathy” that’s been hiding inside them.
Or you can go again through the wardrobe and go deeper into Narnia. After five or six climaxes things will get positively altered state-like, I assure you.
There’s a reason that C.S. Lewis gave that name to the talking lion who is Narnia’s guardian and savior.
Aslan.
Bet you didn’t know that whole children’s story was about getting fucked in the Aslan, did ya?
Well, now you know.
Use a dab of water-based lube
I put a dab on the vibrator and a dab on my boyfriend's butthole.
“This is gonna be so good, I said. “Are you ready, baby?”
I pushed it in. As my boyfriend started sighing sweetly, I saw the back of this wardrobe/prison/reality begin to open up like a door and we stepped into a magical world.
“My God!” cried Aron.
“That’s right, baby,” I said as the toy hit his gland and the pleasure flooded his brain. “Give me that sweet ass!” | https://medium.com/sexography/my-boyfriend-was-nervous-about-getting-pegged-178169d62065 | ['Christine Stevens'] | 2020-12-28 01:44:55.336000+00:00 | ['Sex', 'Humor', 'Sexuality', 'Relationshps', 'Dating'] |
novo nordisk and Machine Learning | INTRODUCTION
The technology has been continuously evolved, and new resources and systems more and more intelligent come emerging throughout the years. Natural language processing (NLP) principles and Machine Learning have contributed actively to the scientific advances, and Novo Nordisk wants to explore more these new technologies of intelligent systems, to boost its clinical researches at the health field once that Real-world data (RWD) has not been being satisfactory to the corporation by itself. The Novo Nordisk is willing to generate access improved to its data silos, data lakes, migrating the NLP platform and Tableau, integrated to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud-based global big data platform. However, there are ethical concerns about how these researches and clinical trials are conducted.
BACKGROUND
Novo Nordisk is a big successful pharmaceutical organisation, which is more commonly known for its set of products at the diabetes treatment, where the company is a market leader (Bakiny, 2019). The Novo Nordisk is a multinational healthcare organisation with over 85 years of excellence, innovation and expertise in diabetes care. The corporation also is a leader in haemophilia, developing hormone therapy and treatment. Novo Nordisk has its matrix located in Denmark, the company has over 30,000 employees in 76 countries and markets its products in over 170 countries (Novo Nordisk History, n.a).
Intelligent systems are machines advanced in technological terms, which perceive and react to the environment around them. Intelligent systems may assume several types, from automatic vacuums such as Roomba to face recognition applications to customised Amazon shopping tips (University of Nevada, n.d). These intelligent systems are revolutionising several industries, such as health care, logistics, automation, education, entertainment, security, military application, manufacturing, robotics and transportation. The systems assist in enhancing the energy efficiency, flexibility and quality of those systems. Intelligent systems are dynamic and use a wide variety of innovations technology such as cybersecurity, AI-artificial intelligence, NLP — natural language processing, machine learning, embedded CPUs, wireless networking and visual signalling and distributed storage (Lewis University, n.d).
Novo Nordisk initiated its researches working with RWD, which is information data, derived from sources other than conventional clinical trials that currently has been becoming more and more relevant in decision making at the healthcare industry. The growing ubiquity of biometric monitoring systems in the form of mobile phones, smartwatches and other wearable electronics is one of the most promising features of the RWD studies. These smart devices that has become instruments to gather quantitative biological data such as pulse rate, blood pressure, electrocardiography, mobility and sleep cycles has the potential to improve massively clinical trials due to powerful capacity. In traditional RCTs, these parameters are registered at discrete time points in a regulated environment. The use of biometric tracking systems could permit these criteria to be continuously gathered and remotely, turning the data even more expressive in terms of accuracy and efficiency at the therapies (Nuventra, 2019).
RWD has demanded much effort in terms of manual scanning and extraction techniques to go over and process severals medical its sources. The RWD extraction process took work-intensive and ineffective. The proceed database is difficult to search and non-interactive, and as data quantity and requests for accessing raised the scalability significantly became a problem (IQVIA 2020, p. 02). For these reasons, Novo Nordisk sought for new methods and tools such as NLP, machine learning and Tableau as a solution to those problems.
METHODS AND TOOLS
Methods Applied: Systems Integration — At the first part, the team of Novo Nordisk has iteratively filtered, enhancing the application algorithms to extract well-structured clinical information from non-structured RWD sources.
The second part of the project is to migrate all the applications to the cloud AWS solution base don Big Data and OASIS. Python and Zeppelin Notebooks were used to make a data pipeline, extracting RWD sources to the data lake, running in the NLP application, and deposits the extracted outcomes back into the data lake automatically for evaluation, visualisation and manipulation by Tableau (IQVIA 2020, p. 03).
Figure 1. Linguamatics NLP Extracting from RWD and other Sources (Reed & Breyette, n.d).
Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a linguistics sub-area, computing science and AI artificial intelligence referred to cooperation human language to the computer and interactions between them, and how computers can be programmed to handle and interpret vast quantities of natural language data. NLP text-mining platform Linguamatics makes effectiveness, produce valuable perspectives and reachable around the business.
Machine Learning is an implementation method of artificial intelligence AI, which generates the systems the ability to learn and build on knowledge without being directly programmed automatically. Machine learning has as its objective the creation of computer programming that may access data and learn by themselves (Luxton, 2016).
Tableau is a data analytics application, which is commonly used for BI, business intelligence. This visualisation tool generates dynamic diagrams, graphs and mapping in the form of dashboards and worksheets to achieve business perspective (Kaur, 2017). For information about tools such as Big Data and AWS consult the appendices.
Figure 2. Data Pipeline (Reed & Breyette, n.d).
RESULTS
The adoption of intelligent systems and tools speeded up the Novo Nordisk’s researches and consequently maximised its business success in many important areas and aspects. It is what did Novo Nordisk win the company’s Innovative Practices Award in 2018 (Moore, 2020).
· With the adoption of new intelligent systems and integration among them, Novo Nordisk has saved around $100,00 annually. Previously, tasks that used to take six weeks to finish through a high number of employee now is done in a few hours.
· Within Health Economics Results Research (HEOR) ethnographic insight research, the NLP framework is used to mine transcripts of patients, caregiver consultative boards and customer committees and to extract useful information from over hundreds of pages of conversational content.
· In the continuing analysis of clinical trial protocol anomalies, the NLP platform replaced the unreliable, quarterly, manual method with extracted data made accessible via dynamic dashboards which generated deeper understanding and perspectives.
· Within social media project to recognise prominent obese opinion leaders, the NLP system was applied to mine Twitter feeds. Recently, medical affairs teams used to pay dozens of thousands of dollars to outsource this task, however, the NLP application allows Novo Nordisk company to reuse these capabilities in-house.
· Novo Nordisk will be able to work on many more different projects at the same time more effectively and efficiently. The organisation is using NLP to find out ambitious and competitive perceptions from Dow Jones DNA news data (IQVIA 2020, p. 04).
DISCUSSION
The health care sector is hugely relevant, thus the AI and its resources have been revolutionised positively, the way and precision on the health researches development, treatments and diagnostics. However, there are significant ethical aspects which involve the use of NLP and intelligent systems in overall.
The innovation systems speeded up the health care sector in terms of technology, efficiency and effectiveness, for example, diagnosing skin cancer much more accurately, better than a dermatologist specialist with highest medicine degree and faster than a decade of too extensive and expansive medical education. (Rigby, 2019). Despite benefits, also there are constant concerns about in the Health field regard to ethics and social issues. Some of them:
· Transparency and Responsibility
· Data Bias, justice, and Equity
· Effects on Patients
· Data Security and Privacy
· Malicious use of AI
· Challenges for Governance
· Legislation in terms of Breaking ethical using AI.
Figure 3. Guidelines for Trustworthy AI issued by European Commission, 2018 (Muthuswamy, 2019).
Clinical test Ethics Novo Nordisk endorsed clinical trials are undertaken using a single global standard. This standard is established in compliance with the Helsinki Declaration and the Recommendations on Good Clinical Practice (GCP) of the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH). The Helsinki Declaration, established by the World medical committee, is a reference pattern of ethical guidelines for clinical studies. The ICH-GCP Guidelines aim to ensure the rights and preservation of trial participants and maintain the legitimacy of the results of the tests. For those who have been engaged in clinical studies, the concerns of the patients of the study must take precedence over the concerns of science (The Blueprint for Change Programme Novo Nordisk, n.d).
RECOMMENDATIONS
· Follow the successful leading corporations, which have used the same systems and learn with them mistakes and hits.
Roche’s methodology is an example of patient-centred medicine production (FDA), which means that clinical illness models environ patient needs. The organisation Linguamatics congratulated Roche on winning the well-deserved award and on their creative use of technology to advance scientific research. 2019, is the third straight year that Linguamatics or one of Linguamatics’ associated has received the Bio-IT World Award (Moore, 2020) Roche also is an Australian health care successful company specialised in diabetes studies (Roche, n.d).
· That’s important to know what the competitors are doing, analysing their studies, researches, surveys, results, growth, finding out how they are applying the technological resources and intelligent systems, and then to learn with them.
· It is fundamental to keep studying and exploring continuously the new technologies, which are new intelligent systems, resources and tools, to maintain the company success growing.
· Outside of Health field, there are other examples from the big corporations, such as Google, Netflix, Amazon and Uber, which are from different industries that also can be observed, followed, studied, adapt and applied in the health sector. Explore that.
· The ethical aspects are fundamental to preserve the patient’s data integrity, treatment and interests above the researches.
The patients’ data cannot be shared or disclosed without previous authorisation from them. The Health Companies Researches must obtain this authorisation by contract with the patient allowing the disclosing of their details, data and results within the research. Otherwise, the disclosing of patient information without previous authorisation may be considered a crime.
CONCLUSION
The integration of new intelligent systems and Novo Nordisk’s implementation text mining tools, together with Tableau Visualisations and AWS cloud-based pipeline, allows efficient and systematic analysis across six valuable sources of data integrating real-world evidence and scientific research. Through migration to the Aws cloud, the data pipeline saves considerable time and ensure stakeholders with on-demand insights to support evidence-based decision-making. Novo Nordisk is expanding usage of cloud technology for big data efficiency, connectivity, versatile provisioning, and robust computational and data analytics tools, which is not a trend exclusive within the pharmaceutical industry, but rather in the many other sectors. If Novo Nordisk keeps going to respect the ethical issues and prioritise the patient interests beyond its researches, the corporation will definitely consolidate itself in the market and achieve its goals successfully.
APPENDICES
Figure 4. Tableau Dashboard (Kaur, 2017).
Figure 5. Linguamatics Award — Winning NLP Platform (Linguamatics , n.d).
Figure 6. NLP Interaction Context (Boulwafa, 2020).
Figure 7. Natural Language Processing (NLP) — Applications of NLP (Boulwafa, 2020).
Figure 8. The Suggestion for a process to “Ethics by Design” in an Organization (Leidner & Plachouras, n.d).
Figure 9. Oasis (Reed & Breyette, n.d).
Figure 10. Amazon Web Services (AWS) (Amazon, n.d).
Figure 11. Big Data Definition (Segal, 2019).
REFERENCES
Amazon. (n.d). Cloud computing with AWS. Retrieved from https://aws.amazon.com/what-is-aws/
Bakiny, J. (2019, December 31). Up More Than 20% This Year, Is Novo Nordisk Worth Buying? Retrieved from https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/12/31/up-more-than-20-this-year-is-novo-nordisk-worth-bu.aspx
Boulwafa, M. (2020, April 11). Natural Language Processing (NLP) — What is NLP ? Retrieved from https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/natural-language-processing-nlp-introduction-fe48e9b7ec8d
IQVIA. (2020). Using Natural Language Processing At Novo Nordisk To Generate Actionable Insights From Real World Data. Novo Nordisk Case Study
Kaur, P. (2017, July 27). Tableau for Beginners — Data Visualisation made easy. Retrieved from https://www.analyticsvidhya.com/blog/2017/07/data-visualisation-made-easy/
Leidner, J., & Plachouras, V. (n.d). Ethical by Design: Ethics Best Practices for Natural Language Processing. Retrieved from https://www.aclweb.org/anthology/W17-1604.pdf
Lewis University. (n.d). What are Intelligent Systems? Retrieved from https://online.lewisu.edu/mscs/resources/what-are-intelligent-systems
Linguamatics. (n.d). Linguamatics NLP Platform Overview. Retrieved from https://www.linguamatics.com/products/linguamatics-natural-language-processing-platform
Luxton, D. D. (2016). An Introduction to Artificial Intelligence in Behavioral and Mental Health Care. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/machine-learning
Moore, M. A. (2020, July 2020). Roche awarded the 2020 Bio-IT World Innovative Practices Award for use of IQVIA Linguamatics NLP in patient-focused research. Retrieved from https://www.linguamatics.com/blog/roche-awarded-2020-bio-it-world-innovative-practices-award-use-iqvia-linguamatics-nlp-patient
Muthuswamy, D. (2019). Ethical issues in Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare. Retrieved from https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/Workshops-and-Seminars/ai4h/201911/Documents/S4_Vasantha_Muthuswamy_Presentation.pdf
Novo Nordisk History. (n.a). Retrieved from https://www.novonordisk.com/content/dam/Denmark/HQ/aboutus/documents/HistoryBook_UK.pdf
Nuventra. (2019, December 5). What are Real-World Data and How Can they Benefit Drug Development? Retrieved from https://www.nuventra.com/resources/blog/real-world-data/#:~:text=Real%2Dworld%20data%20(RWD),avenue%20for%20achieving%20product%20approval.
Reed, J., & Breyette, T. (n.d). Using Natural Language Processing to transform real world data. Retrieved from https://www.lexjansen.com/phuse/2019/rw/RW05.pdf
Rigby, M. J. (2019). Ethical Dimensions of Using Artificial Intelligence in Health Care. Retrieved from https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/ethical-dimensions-using-artificial-intelligence-health-care/2019-02
Roche. (n.d). Roche. Retrieved from https://www.roche-australia.com/
Segal, T. (2019, July 5). Big Data. Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/big-data.asp
The Blueprint for Change Programme Novo Nordisk. (n.d). Retrieved from https://www.novonordisk.com/content/dam/Denmark/HQ/sustainablebusiness/performance-on-tbl/more-about-how-we-work/Creating%20shared%20value/PDF/blueprint-diabetes-clinical-research.pdf
University of Nevada. (n.d). What are intelligent systems? Retrieved from https://www.unr.edu/cse/undergraduates/prospective-students/what-are-intelligent-systems#:~:text=Intelligent%20systems%20are%20technologically%20advanced,to%20the%20world%20around%20them.&text=The%20field%20of%20intelligent%20systems,dynamic%20physical%20 | https://medium.com/@silzemar/novo-nordisk-and-machine-learning-dfc97925a3d5 | ['Silzemar Donizetti Felicio'] | 2020-12-08 06:54:03.762000+00:00 | ['Naturallanguageprocessing', 'Tableau', 'Novo Nordisk', 'Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence'] |
Watch | American Music Awards 0f 2021 [Full Show] | >> WATCH LIVE HERE <<
LINK : https://cutt.ly/eTnWZr0
Details :
Event : American Music Awards of 2021
Date/Time : Sunday November 21, 2021 at 08 PM
Venue : Microsoft Theater, USA
✓ I do not own this song or the Image, all credit goes, It’s so Awesome. Subscribe and Share with your friends! to my channel. See for more videos!!. I want to say ‘thank you’ for being the friend!! A television show (often simply TV show) is any content produced for broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, cable, or internet and typically viewed on a television set, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed between shows. Television shows are most often scheduled well ahead of time and appear on electronic guides or other TV listings. A television show might also be called a television program (British English: programme), especially if it lacks a narrative structure. A television series is usually released in episodes that follow a narrative, and are usually divided into seasons (US and Canada) or series (UK) — yearly or semiannual sets of new episodes. A show with a limited number of episodes may be called a miniseries, serial, or limited series. A one-time show may be called a “special”. A television film (“made-for-TV movie” or “television movie”) is a film that is initially broadcast on television rather than released in theaters or direct-to-video. Television shows can be viewed as they are broadcast in real time (live), be recorded on home video or a digital video recorder for later viewing, or be viewed on demand via a set-top box or streamed over the internet.
♕ CREDITS ♕
The first television shows were experimental, sporadic broadcasts viewable only within a very short range from the broadcast tower starting in the 2021s. Televised events such as the 2021 Summer Olympics in Germany, the 2021 coronation of King George VI in the UK, and David Sarnoff’s famous introduction at the 2021 New York World’s Fair in the US spurred a growth in the medium, but World War II put a halt to development until after the war. The 2021 World Series inspired many Americans to buy their first television set and then in 2021, the popular radio show Texaco Star Theater made the move and became the first weekly televised variety show, earning host Milton Berle the name “Mr Television” and demonstrating that the medium was a stable, modern form of entertainment which could attract advertisers. The first national live television broadcast in the US took place on September 231, 2021 when President Harry Truman’s speech at the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference in San Francisco was transmitted over AT&T’s transcontinental cable and microwave radio relay system to broadcast stations in local markets. The first national color broadcast (the 2021 Tournament of Roses Parade) in the US occurred on January 231, 2021. During the following ten years most network broadcasts, and nearly all local programming, continued to be in black-and-white. A color transition was announced for the fall of 2021, during which over half of all network prime-time programming would be broadcast in color. The first all-color prime-time season came just one year later. In 2021, the last holdout among daytime network shows converted to color, resulting in the first completely all-color network season.
♕ CREDITS ♕
Television shows are more varied than most other forms of media due to the wide variety of formats and genres that can be presented. A show may be fictional (as in comedies and dramas), or non-fictional (as in documentary, news, and reality television). It may be topical (as in the case of a local newscast and some made-for-television films), or historical (as in the case of many documentaries and fictional series). They could be primarily instructional or educational, or entertaining as is the case in situation comedy and game shows.[citation needed] A drama program usually features a set of actors playing characters in a historical or contemporary setting. The program follows their lives and adventures. Before the 2021, shows (except for soap opera-type serials) typically remained static without story arcs, and the main characters and premise changed little.[citation needed] If some change happened to the characters’ lives during the episode, it was usually undone by the end. Because of this, the episodes could be broadcast in any order.[citation needed] Since the 2021, many series feature progressive change in the plot, the characters, or both. For instance, Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere were two of the first American prime time drama television series to have this kind of dramatic structure,[231][better source needed] while the later series Supernaturallon 231 further exemplifies such structure in that it had a predetermined story running over its intended five-season run.[citation needed] In 2021, it was reported that television was growing into a larger component of major media companies’ revenues than film.[231] Some also noted the increase in quality of some television programs. In 2021, Academy-Award-winning film director Steven Soderbergh, commenting on ambiguity and complexity of character and narrative, stated: “I think those qualities are now being seen on television and that people who want to see stories that have those kinds of qualities are watching television. On January 02, 2021, WHO announced an outbreak of a coronavirus new (COVID-19) as a Concerning Public Health Emergency World. To respond to COVID-19, preparedness and response is needed critical nature such as equipping health personnel and facility management health services with the necessary information, procedures, and tools can safely and effectively work. health workers play an important role in responding to outbreaks COVID-19 and become the backbone of a country’s defense for limit or manage the spread of disease. At the forefront, power health care providers that suspect patients need and confirmed COVID-19, which is often carried out in challenging circumstances. Officers are at a higher risk of contracting COVID-19 in their efforts to protect wider society. Officers can be exposed to hazards such as psychological stress, fatigue, mental exhaustion or stigma. WHO is aware of their duties and responsibilities this big responsibility and the importance of protecting health care facility personnel.
♕ Aim
This material aims to protect health workers from infection and prevent it possible spread of COVID-19 in health care facilities. This material contains a series of simple messages and reminders based on technical guidelines WHO is more comprehensive about infection prevention and control in facilities health services in the context of COVID-19: “Prevention and control infection in health services when the new coronavirus (nCoV) infection is suspected “(031 January 2021). Further information can be found in the WHO technical manual.
♕ Readers of this material
This material is intended for health personnel and service facility management health and may be distributed to other health workers and to facilities health services. The Ministry of Health can provide this material to all hospitals and government health service facilities. Copy this material needs to be provided to private physician networks, medical associations, medical, nursing and midwifery to be shared and fitted accordingly necessity. The contents of this material can be adapted into local languages and placed in places in the service facility. | https://medium.com/@2021-AmericanMusicAwards/watch-american-music-awards-0f-2021-full-show-4587d426ad06 | ['American Music Awards Live Streaming'] | 2021-11-17 06:17:04.083000+00:00 | ['Awards', 'Festivals', 'Music', 'American Music Awards', 'America'] |
Can writers be ‘genre-fluid’ in Medium’s new ‘relational’ model? | Can writers be ‘genre-fluid’ in Medium’s new ‘relational’ model?
Do the changes to curation penalize those of us who cross from one genre to another? Does it depend on your audience? Your content? Where you’re publishing on Medium?
What do you think? I’d love to know.
Also, Thanks to Elaine Mead — I enjoyed your article! | https://medium.com/everything-shortform/can-writers-be-genre-fluid-in-medium-s-new-relational-model-eb8a82012504 | ['Jl Matthews'] | 2020-12-14 20:38:36.733000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Curation', 'Questions', 'Genre', 'Médium'] |
Why UX is important to the online checkout process | Why UX is important to the online checkout process
As a gym enthusiast and possibly even a gym rat, products that will help me train and recover better are extremely important to my routine. That is why when I heard about Honey Stingers products I was super eager to try them and will admit I have now tried their honey, waffles, and protein bars.
Before going into the breakdown of the checkout process I experienced, I do want to be clear that I am not categorizing my positive experience with the physical product here. I am solely talking about my experience with purchasing the product.
Now that I have made that clear and I hope I have inspired you to try this awesome product, let’s understand the pain points.
After loading the website and exploring which products I wanted to try I added them to my cart and then clicked the checkout button under the cart icon in the navbar. Once on this Checkout page, my UX instincts came out.
Problem #1: Design Mimics an Infinite Scroll
Honey Stinger Checkout Page
As with any online order I had to input my shipping address, delivery method, payment method, and billing address. From an expectation standpoint, this was great as it included all fields I expected to fill out. However, my frustration occurred due to the sheer nature that all this information was on one long web page. I had to just keep scrolling in order to finally complete the last step.
Why It’s a Problem
It causes a user to feel as if the process will never end. Hence the title of this error, the layout mimics the design of a page that legit never ends.
How to Fix it
Honestly, pretty simple fix. If I were to redesign this checkout process, I would create different pages for each section. This way, the user can click a button that reads “Continue” or “Next” and allow them to differentiate between the different steps. By doing this, it allows the user to not feel like they are just continuously scrolling, and instead, they are able to get instant feedback that they have completed one step in the process and ultimately, that they are one step closer to receiving the product.
Problem #2: Location of Promo Code Input
Continuing off of problem #1, with the current design I have to scroll down towards the bottom of the page in order to fill out all the necessary information. However, the promo code form field is at the top of the page, forcing me to then have to scroll back up to fill it in.
Why It’s a Problem
The user flow here is confusing. We think left to right, so based on the current layout our brains will expect to fill in all of our information first since the form fields are all on the left-hand side. By doing this, the flow takes us to the bottom of the page where we are then prompted with a “Continue” button. When I clicked this button, I was taken to a page to review my order. At that point, it was too late to enter my promo code, so I was forced to hit the back button and go searching for this input field. I later found it hidden in the Summary section on the right-hand side of the original Checkout page.
How to Fix it
I would move the promo code to the payment section. This idea stems from the notion of similarity and that both the promo code and your credit card play a role in the payment of this product. This is important in UX as it allows for the user’s flow to feel seamless and consequential.
Problem #3: Hierarchy of color
Color plays a major role in our thought process, both consciously and subconsciously, and can be the reason why we click on a button. Honey Stinger has done a great job with creating a strong color palette and brand identity, however, I question the usage of color for their primary buttons.
Why It’s a Problem
On the checkout page, the left-hand side has the information a user has to fill in and on the right, it has the summary of the order. The problem here occurs with the fact that under the summary section there is a bright yellow button with the words “Edit cart” on it. This button in reality is not one a user will often need to click. Instead, at that moment the button to place an order is more important and that button is at the bottom of the page and is black. Just think about it for a second, which would catch your eye more, bright yellow or black?
With all the other black copy on the page, your answer is most likely the bright yellow button.
How to Fix It
That is why I suggest swapping the colors of the buttons. This way a user’s automatic instinct to click on the more aggressive colored button will allow them to follow the “correct path” at that moment.
As with any of my previous articles, and to reiterate what I said up top, I am only talking about how I would recommend fixing the user experience of the website. Each of the three areas I have called out are relatively small fixes, but each one proves the importance of UX and why more businesses should implement the UX process into their development processes.
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Thanks for reading. Would love to hear your thoughts on this!
Want to know more about me? I am Frankie, a UX/UI Designer from New York City, passionate about building products within the Entertainment, Fitness, and Technology fields. Frankiekastenbaum.com | https://bootcamp.uxdesign.cc/why-ux-is-important-to-the-online-checkout-process-b418da8cc00c | ['Frankie Kastenbaum'] | 2020-12-23 06:02:03.179000+00:00 | ['UX', 'UI', 'Fitness', 'Online Shopping'] |
The Myth of Individualism in American Society | The Myth of Individualism in American Society
by Prof. Emeka Aniagolu
One of the popular beliefs of American society, one that forms the crux of the myth of America’s “national character,” is the notion of a kind of glorious, uncompromising “rugged individualism.” This purported individualistic bent in American society has, consequently, been romanticized in American literature and mass media. It has even become formalized into a philosophical system of thought.
The fable of “Johnny Apple Seed,” the long-running and popular television series “the Lone-Ranger,” depictions of the frontier expansion of early America — so-called “Frontier Dynamics,” and its alleged quintessential spirit of “rugged individualism;” attest to the ubiquitous nature of this image and notion of individualism in the national mythology as well as psyche of American society. However, a critical revisiting of contemporary American society does not support the existence of much individualism as an American way of life. I will endeavor to make the case in the following pages for my counterfactual proposition.
To deny that individualism is not an American way of life is not, of course, the same thing as suggesting that there are no instances in which individual Americans have, against all odds, blazed new paths — ideologically, behaviorally or creatively. My bone of contention, however, is that the exact opposite of the myth of individualism as an American way of life is what obtains in American society; that such instances of individualism constitute the exception rather than the rule in American society. Conformity, therefore, in my personal experience and copious observation, rather than individualism more accurately describes the American way of life.
This statement might seem strange to people who normally think of America as a beacon as well as bastion of economic and political freedom, as well as a nation possessed of a constitutionally enshrined Bill of Rights, all of which are ostensibly directed at the preservation and promotion of the rights as well as autonomy of the individual. I think, however, that most people would agree that a society’s culture can often differ from its formal constitutional and legal infrastructure of laws, processes and institutions. For example, while the United States has one of the most highly developed criminal-justice systems in the world, it does not have a culture of low incidence of violence or crime as a consequence of that fact. In fact, the United States has a well documented culture of violence and high crime rate coexisting side by side with its highly elaborated formal criminal-justice system, if not because of it.
I cherish and admire the legal and constitutional “freedoms” Americans enjoy. Nobody who has lived under a dictatorship or witnessed the great dangers that scores of immigrants’ brave on land and sea in their desperate attempts to get to the United States, should take lightly those freedoms. In many ways, for many people and for many good reasons, America is a shinning symbol of individual freedom and socioeconomic prosperity.
But America, like everywhere else in the world, has her own peculiar problems — her own peculiar jumble of contradictions. One such jumbled contradiction, is the gap between the reality and myth of individualism in American society. To buttress my contention that American society is characterized more by conformity rather than individualism, I will discuss five aspects of the American socioeconomic and political system: (1) Racism; (2) Eurocentrism; (3) Corporatism; (4) Suburbia Syndrome; and (5) Nationalism.
If America were truly a society characterized by individualism, racism, as a social phenomenon would have long disappeared. Racism in America, which is directed at non-white peoples, depends to a large extent on the conformity of individuals to a particular belief system and behavior. “Group-Think” and “Group-Act,” to a significant degree, sustains racism both as a belief system and as individual and group behavior in American society. For example, the biggest complaint one hears from interracial couples in America, those individuals who have exercised individualism in their choice of partners is, the pressure they face from the society precisely because of their non-conformity.
The conformity expected of such couples is to “stick with their own kind,” not cross the so-called “color bar,” “maintain the racial gridlines,” “preserve the racial status quo.” That kind of societal pressure Americans exert on racially mixed couples to conform to age-old racial beliefs and gridlines is not an example of a system that inclines towards the promotion of individualism, but rather one that leans more towards conformity.
The second kind of cultural conformity in American society which directly contradicts the notion of individualism is the cultural Eurocentrism of American society. The tendency has not been for much of America’s history to create a multicultural quilt or even to “melt down” the hodge-podge of cultures from the various parts of the world into a “New World,” but rather to homogenize everyone into Anglo-Saxon (and then other European) culture. This second kind of cultural conformity ties in closely with the first kind, namely racism. The effort at Eurocentric homogenization of American society militates against the notion of individualism, for it demands conformity to a kind of “official Euro-American culture.”
For some time, there were mutterings about the problems presented by the accents of foreigners, especially as it pertains to foreigners teaching in educational settings in the United States. Without doing injury to the understandable expectation that a person teaching students in a given language of instruction should be intelligible in that language (in the case of the United States, English); it is nevertheless instructive to note that in the United States, while European accents are accepted, and often, romanticized, non-European accents are generally viewed as problematic.
It is alright for an Arnold Schwarzenegger to have a strong foreign accent and be an American action film hero, and later, become Governor of California; or a Henry Kissinger to have a distinctly lingering German accent and to have been America’s celebrity Secretary of State; but not for non-Europeans in America. For them, their accents supposedly constitute a barrier, a handicap to “integration,” “assimilation” and socioeconomic “upward mobility.” For non-Europeans in American society, they are expected to shed their “ethnic” identities in order to make socioeconomic progress in American society. But, of course, they cannot shed their skin color, assuming that were desirable, in order to become assimilated into white America’s racially defined “main-stream!”
The effect of this kind of conformity is legitimating things European and de-legitimating things that are not, thus, reinforcing the Eurocentrism of American society; hardly a recipe for individualism in a multiracial and multicultural country such as the United States of America.
A third kind of cultural conformity in American society that contradicts the notion of individualism is corporatism. Because of the central place occupied by the marketplace in America’s capitalist society, the modern corporation, which has emerged as the dominant organizing mechanism for the management of capital and labor in the production of goods and services; has given rise to a system of norms and values, which pose major challenges to individualism in American society.
The very structure of production within the traditional American corporation presumes and requires conformity rather than individualism. The repetitive, “chain-linked” formation of the “assembly-line” production system, is designed to provide efficient harmony, through the decomposition of routine tasks which only have meaning and purpose in the context of the whole: the finished product. Added to this, is the hierarchical structure of upper, middle and lower management and, of course, the traditional division between management and labor; all of which expresses itself in terms of income, power and status differentials. This kind of hierarchical regimentation, reminds one of an army, an organization though capable of a great deal of efficiency, is not exactly known for individualism.
In addition to the organizational structure of the American corporation is the phenomenon of so-called corporate culture. From the type(s) of dressing typically considered appropriate for the corporate image (which just happens to be Eurocentric), to the type(s) of hairstyles considered appropriate (anything “too ethnic” is considered problematic), to attending golf-tournaments, and so on and so forth; all attempt to homogenize the corporate workforce in American society into the cultural, recreational and idiomatic preferences of white America. Given the importance of getting and keeping a job, especially high paying and high-status jobs in the corporate world, most people conform. They subordinate their individual and “ethnic” cultural identities to that of the corporate culture.
The fourth kind of cultural tendency in American society that contradicts the notion of individualism, is what I call the suburbia syndrome. The suburbia syndrome is that complex of behavior that includes “white flight,” the “Docker Jeans” and “Bugle Boy,” sameness looks; the “yuppie” image, manner of speech and behavior. The suburbia syndrome also involves the “they” and “us” mindset; the assumption of the possession of moral superiority or higher values than “others,” who happen to reside on the “other side of the tracks.” That “suburbia syndrome” involves the attitude that being materially better off than others, automatically translates into you being better than them. To be part of the suburbia syndrome in addition to residing in one, you have to “walk-the-walk,” “talk-the-talk,” “think-the-think,” and “look-the-look.” Such a lifestyle makes for “cookie-cutter” “individualism” rather than the much-romanticized notion of “rugged individualism” in American society.
The fifth kind of cultural phenomenon in America that tends to contradict the notion of individualism in American society is that of nationalism. Although the phenomenon of nationalism is not unique to the United States, it takes on peculiar complexions in American society that does injury to the notion of individualism as an American way of life. There are four variants of nationalism operative in American society: (1) the “my country good or bad” nationalism; (2) the “if you don’t like it leave” nationalism; (3) “the good old USA” or “God’s own country” nationalism; and (4) the “un-American” nationalism.
The first and second variants are largely directed at foreigners, who level criticism of one sort or another against the American government and/or society. The third and fourth variants address Americans, either in the form of nostalgia or in the form of conformity to a set standard of behavior or ideological stance. None of those variants of American nationalism promote individualism. Instead, they promote, to a greater or lesser degree, conformity to “Group-Think” and “Group-Act.” When otherwise patriotic Americans find themselves constrained to criticize United States domestic or foreign policy, and are hounded by the CIA or the FBI; or find few channels for the expression of their contrarian view points in the mass media or in corporate circles; what is being promoted, however disguised, is conformity not individualism.
Many people in the United States may be able to discern that they have much greater formal legal freedoms than they have a palpable sense of personal freedom; that there is an ever present feeling of an unseen, unspoken, ubiquitous “hidden hand” (belonging either to “big brother” or “Uncle Sam”), that does not so much want to liberate the individual as to maintain a social, political and economic status quo. This is, of course, not all bad, for social order is necessary. However, recognition of this state of affairs helps to put in proper perspective the much-vaunted myth of “rugged individualism” in American society. | https://medium.com/@cganiagolu/the-myth-of-individualism-in-american-society-f8943ad73b2 | ['Emeka Aniagolu'] | 2021-09-01 14:16:34.832000+00:00 | ['American', 'Nationalism', 'Popular Culture', 'Sociology', 'American Dream'] |
How to unravel Staking and DeFi’s Gaming Situation? | The Conflict Between Staking and DeFi
DeFi (Decentralized Finance) is undoubtedly one of the hottest blockchain technology application tracks, and one of the easiest tracks to land. After all, blockchain technology and finance are closely related.
Among the many Public Chain DeFi, Ethereum has the first-mover advantage and is also the best developed today, far surpassing the layout of EOS and TRON in the DeFi track, and currently developing the best DeFi application. For example, MakerDAO, Compound, Synthetix, Uniswap, etc., are all DeFi applications built on Ethereum. Especially after Compound issued the governance token COMP and proposed the “borrowing is mining” model, the platform’s business volume and lock-up volume greatly increased, and the token price also skyrocketed in just a few days Many times.
The popularity of Coumpound has not only driven ETH DeFi, but also the entire DeFi market. For a while, projects and cryptocurrency users have flooded into this “prosperous” market.
For users who hold encrypted assets, DeFi allows cryptocurrency to have more application scenarios. Users can make arbitrage on DeFi products, such as borrowing EOS from the hands of DeFi products to obtain certain benefits.
At the same time, cryptocurrency holders can also stake the tokens in their hands to obtain a certain amount of reward. Most of today’s PoS networks have relatively complete staking products, such as REX in the EOS blockchain. It is to obtain certain rental reward through staking of some free resource of EOS.
However, if you participate in staking, you will lose a certain amount of liquidity due to the locked position. If the market fluctuates greatly, you will miss the opportunity to trade.
For digital currency users, staking can be used to obtain reward, such as ETH 2.0, and DeFi can also be used to earn interests.
However, for chains that adopt PoS consensus, there is a certain contradiction between Staking and DeFi. If there is too much staking, although the PoS blockchain network is more secure, the tokens are locked, and DeFi users will decrease, which will inevitably affect the development of the DeFi market. On the contrary, if all the tokens are used for DeFi, there will be fewer staking users, and fewer tokens will be locked through staking, which will inevitably affect the security of the PoS blockchain network.
For users, not doing staking will be inflation, doing staking will be locked up, the market rises and missed opportunities, the market falls are helpless, and often it is not possible to have both income and liquidity.
So, is there a solution that can reconcile the contradiction between Staking and DeFi? Can you have both reward and liquidity?
What problem does Bifrost solve?
In order to reconcile the contradiction between Staking and DeFi, and to solve the problem between reward and liquidity, Bifrost was born.
Bifrost is a cross-chain network that provides liquidity for staking. It is developed based on the Substrate framework and relies on the Polkadot relay network to achieve cross-chain multi-asset support.
Bifrost uses Polkadot’s cross-chain network engineering to bridge various PoS networks (such as ATOM, EOS, ETH2.0) into Bifrost, and map out vTokens (such as vATOM, vEOS, vETH) with staking revenue and liquidity through the Bifrost protocol to help users hedge the risk of staking lock-up.
As the basic protocol for accessing the Polkadot network, Bifrost can safely provide staking liquidity for all kinds of PoS public chains. Users can use Bifrost to complete the risk hedging of staking lock-up. DeFi can use Bifrost to achieve staking for users. Cross-chain You can use Bifrost to realize the transition of staking income.
Users who have done staking know that sometimes the reward generated by staking in a year is less than 10%, but it is very likely that it will fall in a plunge, and users will lose a lot because of being locked. Bifrost allows users to trade while staking, avoiding the loss of funds due to staking lock-up.
For example, in traditional EOS staking financial products, after users staking, EOS will be locked. If the EOS price plummets during the lock-up period, users cannot unlock and sell EOS quickly, and can only passively bear losses.
However, in Bifrost, users only need to exchange their PoS Token into vToken through Bifrost, and hold vToken to obtain staking reward and liquidity (sell at any time).
In the above example, the user converts EOS to vEOS through Bifrost, and holds vEOS. Not only can they enjoy staking reward, but also without losing liquidity, they can sell vEOS in their hands at any time, that is, holding vEOS can have both staking reward and Liquidity, when the price fluctuates significantly, vEOS can be sold in time without being restricted by lock-up.
So, where does the reward from holding vToken come from?
In terms of revenue, it is divided into two parts. The first part of the guaranteed revenue depends on the staking rules of the public chain. For example, the current nomination rate of KSM is 20%, then vKSM will also be at least 20% of the annualized revenue; the second part the reward comes from the bidding for voting rights in the Bifrost Staking Pool. Different nodes are willing to pay a higher premium to purchase the nomination rights, so the corresponding user’s staking income will even exceed the 20% income set by KSM.
At the same time, the Bifrost Staking Pool nomination bid will give small nodes with high-quality services but low votes have the opportunity to compete with giant whale nodes, making the PoS network more decentralized and safer.
Stages of development of Bifrost
Bifrost released the Bifrost Asgard CC1 network on May 21. Asgard is Bifrost’s pre-production network, which can be simply understood as a test network. The project party can connect to the Asgard network for testing before officially connecting to the Bifrost main network, thereby eliminating business risk.
Asgard is like a testing ground. After practice, more valuable features are selected to be integrated into the Bifrost main network. With the development of the Polkadot ecology, the planned Bifrost Asgard will also become Kusama’s parachain network to complete the first parallel chain connection.
In the Bifrost Asgard CC1 network, the EOS Jungle Testnet testnet cross-chain, Token and vToken exchange, SWAP transaction and other functions have been supported.
Bifrost has released the Asgard CC2 network at 12 pm on July 21.
In the Bifrost Asgard CC2 network, EOS two-way cross-chain will change from a single-node signature to a multi-node signature, making the cross-chain more complete! Bifrost plans to open EOS cross-chain at CC2 activities to encourage users to participate in cross-chain testing. Currently, it is possible to connect EOS Jungle Testnet nodes through wallet or Cleos to initiate cross-chain transfer transactions.
In addition, the Validator campaign will be opened in CC2, so that all nodes in CC1 can participate in the block generation verification of the CC2 network. At the same time, Validator will also be included in Bifrost’s incentive plan. Users can receive the test ASG at the Faucet faucet to conduct self-mortgage and nomination operations, and complete the Validator campaign.
In order to cooperate with the operation of the Bifrost Asgard CC2 network, full-node construction, Validator election and EOS cross-chain (vEOS exchange) will serve as the three directions of incentives to make Bifrost more robust by testing network parameter settings, multi-signature logic, and operating load.
This Asgard CC2 incentive is divided into three modules, namely the node duration competition, the EOS cross-chain big PK, and the Validator king contest! The start and end times of the three activity modules are July 21-August 21, and the total reward is up to 15,000 BNC! Compete for BNC and win CC2! | https://medium.com/bifrost-finance/how-to-unravel-staking-and-defis-gaming-situation-1f379b30d74d | ['Bifrost Finance'] | 2020-07-23 09:54:09.955000+00:00 | ['Staking', 'Defi', 'Crypto', 'Polkadot', 'Blockchain'] |
The Rise Of Drones In Construction | The impact of the drone the development industry is taking new turns because it is revolutionizing the way construction projects are handled.
FREMONT, CA: Drone applications are utilized in several industries. However, the fastest-growing commercial adopter of this technology is that the housing industry . Drones are aiding project managers, superintendents, and technology managers. because the industry grows, drones in construction will still skyrocket. Read on to understand more about how this futuristic technology is transforming the industry.
• Land Monitoring
Drones are increasingly replacing conventional land-monitoring methods. Drones significantly reduce the time and energy needed to derive accurate surveys. They remove much of the manual error involved within the surveying process and have the potential to capture relevant data in remarkably less time than the normal means would require.
• Accomplishing Large Infrastructures
Drone technology offers higher-level intelligence and endurance on construction sites.
The ability to collect and report data allows drones to realize faster results. the necessity for human labor is reduced significantly, and therefore the technology is continually evolving to performing even complex tasks concerning large infrastructures. as an example , drones will enable the development firms to chop down on time, and therefore the costs required to create structures.
• Enhancing Communication and Connectivity
Drone technology has considerably improved to the purpose where instant communication and connectivity on the work site are standard. Drones are getting used for monitoring the everyday work. UAVs equipped with monitoring cameras provide video footage to facilitate surveillance and communication.
• Improving Security
The use of drones in construction is leading to a steep rise in security capabilities. The technology is offering significant support to extend the security of the on-site workers. Drones also are allowing the development firms to watch their expensive equipment and assets remotely, thereby securing the work site from vandalism or theft.
Social Links
Twitter | Construction Business Review | https://medium.com/@jackmathew/the-rise-of-drones-in-construction-2e74901936c2 | ['Jack Mathew'] | 2020-11-17 09:38:29.276000+00:00 | ['Security', 'Communication', 'Drones', 'Technology', 'Technews'] |
Project Web Whisperer: Chirp speaks to the web | The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the ever-growing network of physical objects that feature an IP address for internet connectivity, and the communication that occurs between these objects and other Internet-enabled devices and systems. The Internet of Things extends internet connectivity beyond traditional devices like desktop and laptop computers, smartphones and tablets to a diverse range of devices and everyday things that utilize embedded technology to communicate and interact with the external environment, all via the Internet.
Cisco defines the Internet of Everything (IoE) as bringing together people, process, data, and things to make networked connections more relevant and valuable than ever before — turning information into actions that create new capabilities, richer experiences, and unprecedented economic opportunity for businesses, individuals, and countries
But what about all those many devices that don’t have, and won’t have, network connectivity? How can an autonomous device without any form of connectivity speak to that central network of interconnected devices, or to the ‘central brain’ in the cloud?
Chirp already has the world’s leading technology for sharing data between devices over sound, but we didn’t want to stop there.
Last month we show-cased our most advanced new SDKs embedded into our smallest low-power chipset ever, and we called it Baby Chirp:
Last week, we demonstrated how Chirp technology, embedded into our partner’s — grvty.io — app and solution, allowing a Chirp to be sent from within a secure website to the app connected to the network to authenticate a user and instantly log them into the site with unrivalled multi-factor security through the cloud:
Our team of expert technologists have now developed a prototype technology that does exactly that. Without any connection — whether Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, cellular or other — it allows any autonomous or disconnected device to speak, interact with, and send data directly to the network, or even directly into a website, without having to go through the cloud at all. The network can now decode new data itself, in real-time.
We named this project “Web Whisperer”, and it marks the birth of a new way to bridge the divide between any device that can be connected to the wider IoT, and all those devices that can’t:
We were so exuberant with how well this performed on its maiden tests that we decided to give it the ultimate test, and brought in the big guns… Baby Chirp — a little device completely disconnected from the network but with a very powerful voice. We asked her to perform one more time, and this time she sang directly to the world wide web:
What our team have achieved here is truly groundbreaking — one of many groundbreaking innovations this incredible team have created. Project “Web Whisperer” has so many real-life applications, and we are delighted to have a long waiting list of clients specifically in the areas of Industrial IoT, Medical IoT, and the Toy and Entertainment industries, who have been so supportive of what we have been working on. Patiently waiting, and in many cases, working with our team to develop the next generation of technologies to inspire object to object communications, our clients continue to inspire us to bridge the gaps in our ever-increasing connected world.
The team at Chirp would love to hear from any readers of this post with your thoughts, ideas, or general comments about our new prototype, and any of our various solutions and creations you may have seen on here. We are so excited about the role Chirp is playing in the wider world, enabling our clients and partners to do things in new inspiring ways, and in creating unique new digital experiences. | https://medium.com/chirp-io/project-web-whisperer-35c521e00394 | ['Moran Lerner'] | 2016-10-28 16:56:46.087000+00:00 | ['IoT', 'Internet of Things', 'Research', 'Web'] |
How To Make The Compound Effect Work For You | “You already know what you need to succeed. you don’t need to learn anything more. If all we needed was more information, everyone with an internet connection would live in a mansion, have abs of steel, and be blissfully happy. New or more information is not what you need — a new plan of action is. It’s time to create new behaviors and habits that are oriented away from sabotage and towards success. It’s that simple.” - Darren Hardy
Darren Hardy purchased and relaunched Success magazine in 2008 and made his name in the personal development training and media space, the former real estate agent was interested in turning the magazine into a device for finding out universal truths and what really worked in personal development.
Hardy was willing to make himself into a human guinea pig to test the strategies and ideas that had made their way onto the pages of the magazine.
While it is fine to model yourself after successful people, Hardy says, it is more important to study the people who are closest to you, not just over weeks or months but over decades, and see how they consistently behave.
Hardy learned the first truth of success from his dad, it is that success is hard, it takes a long time, and it is sometimes boring. This is not what people normally want to hear when it comes to achievement but Hardy tells us in way that makes it still seem worth while.
“As a society, we’ve been deceived. We’ve been hypnotized by commercial marketing, which convinces you of problems you don’t have and sells you on the idea of insta-fixes to ‘cure’ them. We’ve been socialized to believe in fairy-tale endings found in movies and novels. We’ve lost sight of good, old-fashioned hard and consistent work.” - Darren Hardy
Baby Steps
In a nutshell, Hardy’s The Compound Effect is about the results you can gain when you make a series of small and smart choices, most of which don’t feel like they make a difference (but do).
Because we don’t feel like these choices are significant, we become easily convinced that they don’t matter. When you start to run a few times a week, you might give up after a few weeks because you haven’t lost weight.
Little do we realize that if we keep up a habit of running for months and years then a real transformation would take place and your health would be significantly improved.
Every single choice we make creates our life, and most of us are barely aware that we are making them. “Nobody intends to become obese, go through bankruptcy, or get a divorce,” Hardy says, “but often (if not always) those consequences are the result of a series of small, poor choices.”
Ditch your “lottery winner” belief that success only happens to lucky people. Any seemly over-night success is the result of practices and habits put in place for years, if you think otherwise then you are fooling yourself.
Hardy continues to say that we need to recall the ethics of our grandparents, who knew that a certain amount of endurance was what it took to amount to anything, “I want you to know in your bones, that your only path to success is through a continuum of mundane, unsexy, unexciting, and sometimes difficult daily disciplines compounded over time.” There is no other way.
Taking Responsibility
If you blame someone else for your life not going the way you want it to, then it means you aren’t taking full responsibility for your life. Whatever happens to your company, the economy, or in politics, you are still 100% in control of YOU.
Realizing this truth is not something depressing, Hardy remarks, it is freeing. It makes you aware of your actions, leads you to do things that will only benefit you, and it also enables you to disregard the things that don’t.
If you feel like you have it bad then always remember that there are people who have it worse off than you, they live in absolute poverty, they are forced to be ruled by dictators or warlords, with bad roads and unreliable electricity, water, and internet.
The famous Richard Branson told Hardy, “ Luck is all around us,” it is just a matter of noticing it. To put the burden of your circumstances or environment onto someone else is a rejection of your own freedom.
Earlier in his career, Hardy had gotten involved in a business venture that lost him a large amount of money; while the cause was his business partner spending and mismanaging the funds, Hardy ultimately blamed himself instead of the partner because he wasn’t taking the time to see what was up with the business like he should have been.
He decided he was gonna learn from his mistake and move on.
In whatever space you find successful people in they always got that way through making themselves accountable for their own actions. In sports, top athletes track every calorie and macro-nutrient, they track every rep and lap they do. In medicine, doctors track how long they spend with each patient at each time of the day, to better optimize the amount of patients they see.
Hardy says “you cannot manage or improve something until you measure it.” If you want to make a change in your life, whether through your health or your finances, then you need to be writing down and tracking every decision you make.
All your unconscious habits will all of a sudden become conscious because you will be seeing the pattern of your behavior on paper.
You owe it to yourself to get serious about your goals and how you are using your time, energy, and money. Tracking shows us our habits, and it is our habits that cause us to fail or succeed.
Building Strong Habits
Really successful people have strong daily routines, people who aren’t successful on the other hand, are generally unorganized and just work when they feel like it. They don’t have the foundation of unbreakable routines and habits that successful people do.
Anyone who flies a plane knows that if they are just 1 degree off course, they will be nowhere near the destination in a matter of hours. A small change in your habits can have a huge positive or negative impact in the future.
In the book there is a story of two friends. One friend makes a commitment to exercise each week, reads 20 minutes a day, and compliments his wife everyday. The other friend doesn’t see the need for such a change and buys a bigger television to watch his shows.
In a year there isn’t a big difference between the two men.
In five years, the one who chose exercise is doing more of it, he is educating himself on personal development and how to make his relationship even better. The second man now has a man cave so he can spend more time alone and he drinks a few beers each night.
In 10 years, there is an even more drastic difference, the first guy has a healthy body and mind, plus a successful marriage. The other one is growing (wide) and because he never thought about improving himself or his marriage, he never becomes educated, and blames all his problems on others, his wife, the government, and his boss. He is what most people would consider a loser.
Your habits don’t lie, and whatever people say is important to them, it’s their habits and behaviors that speak the truth.
How many hours do you spend glued to your phone, how much is spent browsing the internet or watching T.V. looking at other people’s work and accomplishments? how much money do you put in other people’s pockets, making them rich?
Spend your time and resources on your own development.
“Success is something you attract by the person you become,” says Hardy’s mentor Jim Rohn. When Darren Hardy wanted to find a romantic partner, he pictured her in his mind. He then decided to become the kind of man a girl like that would want.
He went over his habits and behaviors to get rid of the ones that weren’t likely to be appreciated by the girl of his dreams. After he had done the work on himself, the perfect woman walked into his life.
Gaining Momentum
As a reward for maintaining good habits, you will gain momentum. When a rocket is launched, most of the fuel is used at the very start and as it leaves the gravity of earth, it can glide at very high speed using hardly any fuel at all.
It will be very hard at first to get started on improving your life, the effort to get a business going will be immense and that goes for diet and exercise as well. It can be discouraging to see big businesses get bigger and more successful without any noticeable effort.
The main difference between you and them is that they already put in the work at the beginning so they have achieved momentum.
You too can bring momentum into your life, just keep repeating small positive actions each day, even when you don’t feel like it. One day, things will take off for you seemingly out of nowhere.
Doing things fast and intensely are hyped up nowadays but it’s really consistency that matters the most. Remaining consistent is so important not just because of the results you lose from being inconsistent but also because you lose your advantageous momentum.
In Conclusion
“Success strategies are no longer a secret, but most people ignore them.” - Darren Hardy
While there are similarities to Jeff Olson’s The Slight Edge, I believe that The Compound Effect is the better book. Even though it is a lot shorter, Hardy’s book has more references and examples to back up what he is talking about.
This book shows you exactly the routines and habits you need to build that once put into place, create the life you want.
It’ll take more work than you can imagine, but once you have the compound effect on your side, things will happen much easier than you think.
“When you press on despite difficulty, tedium, and hardship,” says Hardy, ”that’s when you earn your improvement and gain strides on the competition. If it’s hard, awkward, or tedious, so be it. Just do it.”
Successful and Unsuccessful people generally have certain things they dislike doing, and what separates the two is that successful people do those things anyway.
Related Articles
How Ford Changed The World Forever — The Mind Behind The Automobile
What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money… And What The Poor Do Not!
The Richest Man In Babylon — Why You Should Read | https://forgefinancialfreedom.medium.com/how-to-make-the-compound-effect-work-for-you-51289a69beda | ['Forge Financial Freedom'] | 2019-07-18 10:06:15.259000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Life Lessons', 'Startup', 'Books', 'Business'] |
The Floyd Warshall Algorithm | The problem is to find the shortest distances between every pair of vertices in a given edge-weighted directed Graph. The Graph is represented as Adjacency Matrix, and the Matrix denotes the weight of the edges (if it exists) else INF (1e7).
Input:
The first line of input contains an integer T denoting the no of test cases. Then T test cases follow. The first line of each test case contains an integer V denoting the size of the adjacency matrix. The next V lines contain V space-separated values of the matrix (graph). All input will be an integer type.
Output:
For each test, case output will be V*V space-separated integers where the i-jth integer denotes the shortest distance of the ith vertex from the jth vertex. For INT_MAX integers output INF.
This problem has been previously asked in Samsung.
The Floyd Warshall algorithm, also known as All Pair Shortest Path Algorithm, finds for all the vertices, the minimum cost of going from any one vertex to any other vertex. We do this by checking if there is a path via a particular vertex between two vertices, such that the cost of going via that path is smaller than the current cost of going from one vertex to another.
For example -
Suppose there are two vertices A and C, and the cost of going from one vertex to another is 10. Now let there is another vertex B, such that the cost of going from A to B is 2 and from B to C is 3. So the net cost of going from A to C, via B equals 5, which is smaller, so we update the current cost for A to B, to 5.
Formula for Floyd Warshall Algorithm — if M[a][c] > (M[a][b] + M[b][c]) then M[a][c] = M[a][b] + M[b][c].
The Time Complexity of Floyd Warshall Algorithm is O(n³).
A point to note here is, Floyd Warshall Algorithm does not work for graphs in which there is a negative cycle. In this case, we can use the Bellman-Ford Algorithm, to solve our problem.
The below-given solution is in C programming language. | https://medium.com/@srajaninnov/the-floyd-warshall-algorithm-b1ef91395115 | ['Srajan Gupta'] | 2020-07-01 09:05:35.729000+00:00 | ['Dynamic Programming', 'Graphs', 'Samsung', 'Adjacency Matrix', 'Floyd Warshall'] |
Serbian Journalism in Free Fall | Aleksandar Vucic (photo by Leon E. Panetta)
All eyes are currently resting on Hungary and other media freedom bashers across Europe — but it is actually in Serbia where independent journalism is hitting the skids at an alarming pace.
By Norina Solomon
26 April 2019
If one perused the recently released World Press Freedom Index, which measures the state of journalism in the world, Serbia’s ranking would surely be an eye-catcher. The country fell 14 positions in the 2019 index to an embarrassing 90th, behind nations like Sierra Leone, Kyrgyzstan and Togo. In the past three years it has fallen 31 positions, farther than even Hungary — Europe’s freedom of expression black sheep — has fallen since 2013.
“The media situation in Serbia is getting worse and worse year by year,” said Dragana Peco, a journalist with the Crime and Corruption Reporting Network (KRIK), a local investigative journalism outfit.
Independent journalists in Serbia are routinely the target of attacks and death threats in tabloids and on social networks. They have nowhere to look for help and no hope of getting protection as most of the very institutions that should protect them are controlled by the government.
“If you are working as an investigative journalist, you become a target of pro-government media [and of] smear campaigns, lies will be published about you in pro-government tabloids, mostly saying that you are a traitor, a state enemy, [that you’re] receiving money from foreign governments, and so on,” Ms Peco says.
The latest victim was the investigative journalist Slobodan Georgiev, who was vilified in a video widely disseminated on the internet. Posted from a Twitter account apparently owned by a low-ranking state official, the video labelled Mr Georgiev, an editor at the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), as traitor, foreign mercenary and liar paid by foreign organizations.
“The worst thing is that [Georgiev] has no way to defend himself from this…,” KRIK’s editor-in-chief, Stevan Dojcinovic, wrote on Twitter. “All he can do is wait and hope not to meet some madman in the street who got triggered by this video.”
Starting with the headline “How to recognize a traitor,” the video triggered a storm of insults and threats. It was posted a day after BIRN published photos revealing links between Andrej Vucic, the brother of the Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic, and Zvonko Veselinovic, a businessman from Kosovo, a former Serbian territory with a majority Albanian speaking population that broke away as an independent republic which Serbs do not recognize in 2008.
Most of the mainstream media in Serbia, including the country’s public broadcaster RTS, private television stations with nationwide coverage, and print media are controlled by the government, which uses them as propaganda weapons. Their main task is to promote the Serbian president Vucic and to spread venom against “undesirable” media.
Such hate campaigns often target whole media organizations. Investigative outlets such as KRIK and the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS) are regularly thrashed in the pro-government tabloids and trolled on social media. Informer, a local tabloid, has relentlessly attacked Mr Dojcinovic, for example.
Ms Peco says that this hate-based narrative is supported by various top politicians who publicly say the same things about independent journalists. The government goes as far as using Serbia’s intelligence services to stalk and take photos of certain journalists to then attack them in tabloid media. Ms Peco says that in the past some of KRIK’s journalists were surveilled and its newsroom tapped.
Even reporting of public events can give journalists headaches. N1 Serbia, a regional news channel, has drawn the ire of the authorities for its reporting about the street demonstrations against the autocratic rule of the president Vucic during the past few months.
N1 has been under the government’s attack since 2014. Now, though, things have taken a turn for the worse: its journalists regularly receive death threats, the station has been labelled as anti-Serbian and is the regular target of smear campaigns in the tabloid press. The interior ministry called N1 a “CIA television.” A tabloid close to the authorities claimed that N1’s reporting on the protests was “a call to murder the president of Serbia,” N1 Serbia’s management said in a letter.
The government’s wrath against independent journalism in Serbia has the capacity to rapidly lead to more violence against individual journalists. Serbian citizens increasingly borrow the politicians’ hate narrative. Therefore, the decline in trust in Serbia’s media, which has plumbed new depths in recent years, doesn’t surprise anyone. Only 11% of Serbians trust media, according to a 2018 reportfrom Thomson Foundation, a media development NGO.
Many local and international organizations have condemned the attacks against journalists. President Vucic pushed back saying that Serbia is no worse than other nations in the region. His answer is far from reassuring and doesn’t augur change for Serbia’s embattled journalism.
More stories from Eastern Europe
How Russian Government Funds Foreign News Websites
9 September 2018
Using companies incorporated in Serbia and Cyprus, in recent years the Russian government has been funding a bevy of news websites in Eastern Europe to crank out articles promoting the interests of the Russian government, according to a story broken jointly by BuzzFeed News, Postimees, a newspaper in Estonia, and Re:Baltica, an investigative journalism shop covering the Baltic countries.
The News of Eastern Europe: Brought to You by Russia
26 May 2017
For ten years, the Russian government has built media across eastern Europe. They are becoming a fearsome player in the region’s media market.
Internet Providers in Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Union: Non-Transparent, Dubious, Politically Linked
By Marius Dragomir
19 January 2016
The Internet has become the new heaven for unheard voices, new forms of commerce and limitless communication across eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. But who owns the companies providing this service? Many of these owners are unknown, others are linked with politics and some are dubious characters embroiled in criminal investigations.
Western Balkans Public Media on Life Support
By Davor Marko
17 August 2016
Public service broadcasters in the Western Balkans have become increasingly unaccountable to their audiences and tone deaf to their needs. At stake is the very legitimacy of public service broadcasting in the region. | https://medium.com/mediapowermonitor/serbian-journalism-in-free-fall-9c0f51228153 | [] | 2019-04-27 06:43:47.847000+00:00 | ['Serbia', 'Media', 'Politics', 'Journalism', 'Corruption'] |
The first ever engineer in his family, Senior SDET Deepak Dani gets to take complete ownership at Meesho | The first ever engineer in his family, Senior SDET Deepak Dani gets to take complete ownership at Meesho Amrita Bose Follow Oct 25, 2019 · 6 min read
Photo credit: Smitha C
Born and brought up in Dungla, a small town in Chittorgarh district of Rajasthan, 27-year-old Deepak Dani, is the first person in his family to have become an engineer. His family has been in business for generations, based in and around Udaipur, and Deepak was also the first member to step out of his sleepy little hamlet and make it so far — to Bangalore. A B Tech in Computer Science from Techno India NJR Institute of Technology in Udaipur, Deepak was always attracted to the young, energetic and fast paced environment of a startup as compared to a corporate. The fact that startups adopt new technology immediately and are always experimenting, made him want to learn and pursue his career in this space. After a three year stint at Ola as part of its allocation team, Deepak found his way to Meesho as Senior SDET (Software Development Engineer in Test) where he went to build a solid QA (Quality Assurance) environment within 10 months.
Here’s Deepak telling us why he joined Meesho in the first place, why QA testing is so important to make our resellers successful (a core Meesho value), and why he is most excited to come to work every single day!
Over to Deepak!
I joined Meesho in January 2019 as a Senior SDET. At Meesho I make sure that whenever any feature is released on the app, it should be of top quality, because even a small error can directly impact our resellers who sell through our platform. After all making resellers successful is a core company value, and whatever actions we take directly impacts them.
As a QA tester in the Tech team I make sure that the product is:
Bug free User friendly Functions smoothly
Before Meesho, I spent three years at Ola as part of its allocation team. There also I was in the supply side of affairs just as I am in Meesho (more on that later). Working at Ola gave me a good exposure as to how startups function.
The Meesho connection
Joining Meesho was a bit of a serendipitous experience for me. I didn’t hear of Meesho through conventional job portals, but a cousin sister living in Indore would often mention an app, which had helped her become a successful reseller and create her own business from home. She refused to tell me the name of the app though. I also happened to meet Sanjeev Barnwal (Meesho CTO and Co Founder) to discuss a role and when he explained Meesho’s business model and its vision of creating entrepreneurs throughout the country with zero investment, I knew I was onto something. A quick call to my cousin, helped me make a decision, because she revealed that she was indeed reselling on the Meesho app.
The fact that my sister sitting in a small town knew about Meesho and was using it for business made me realise Meesho’s scope and reach.
I then joined the company as one of its first QAs. I have been a witness to Meesho’s growth at a frenetic pace, from January where we were just 150 of us to now when we have grown to about 750.
A team outing to Goa just after I joined helped me break the ice with my workmates and made me bond with them. From the beginning I was given a lot of independence to set up processes and systems. I set up (and now manage) new micro services in the QA environment, and my testing journey started with user profile API testing, followed by Catalog Share Text Automation in different language translations . This was the perfect opportunity for me to learn about the business and how e-commerce actually works. Portal, API and Supply — I have worked on all three verticals at Meesho.
Building at scale
Within four months of joining, I was made to be a part of a big scaling project, where we decided to segregate different systems as part of the project. We worked on everything from reviewing to pricing, and other logistic components that usually comprise an e-commerce business. As the business grew, the system would still need to be as stable as day one, to be able to handle such scale.
As part of the scaling project, I got an opportunity to do A/B testing of a few services such as Pricing and Offers. Apart from this, I also worked on Inventory, Store Front, Review and Rating of Micro Services. During the scaling project, developers from across teams worked together tirelessly, pulling all nighters and make sure that all the features were tested thoroughly before being released. This project was a fine example of cross team collaboration. Because scaling work can’t be done in isolation — teamwork is essential. The entire team bonded over one common goal. Usually shipping big features end to end take two weeks or more, but we delivered and released them within 4–5 days without compromising on the quality.
We made sure that the system we built was scalable and withstood all QA tests.
Let’s ship this
At Meesho we believe in fast delivery so that we can see and understand the immediate impact. We also rely on reseller feedback once they use new features or upgrades. Based on resellers’ feedback, Product implements features or improves on existing ones, the Developer team then designs it and then the QA team makes sure that the new feature meets all standards of quality and the reseller should have a seamless experience while using the app. Solving the resellers’ problems and making them successful is a core Meesho value. During Meesho’s SBR (Sabse Bada Rupaiya) sale days, the Tech team is always on standby to fix any glitches — and make the sale successful.
The Supply side is also the key because all products flow from that side. Currently my role is to test out everything under the Supply side of services. I own and handle the developers’ code testing for over 10 services. For instance, before we used to manually upload all catalogs under the categories on the app. Now the whole process has been automated. We did a lot of optimisations, so that within a lesser time, we can ship a product. We can now easily release a big number of catalogues on the app daily. At Meesho, not only have I acquired immense knowledge about micro services, but also fast learning. For instance, choosing Smart testing to ship a product and then fine tuning it, along the way. This means a faster delivery but with perfection. Because as a QA, we cannot compromise on quality. Ever!
Owning it
At Meesho, we follow an end to end ownership system. From start to finish it is on me to make sure that the work assigned to me gets done and gets done well, and I have the liberty to experiment as well. As a QA, I work closely with the Developer and Product teams, and love to collaborate with them. Meesho’s flat structure ensures that you can approach anyone and ask for help anytime!
Getting inspired everyday
I look forward to coming into work everyday at Meesho. Because this is where I have often seen ideas turning into reality. The quirky office interiors with inspiring quotes and stories of Meesho entrepreneurs on our walls inspire me as do the stories of positive impact that Meesho has managed to have on the resellers’ lives. Not only do we help them earn more, but also educate them on using new features in the most effective way so that they become even more successful. Most of my colleagues are ex entrepreneurs themselves so there is always something to learn from them too.
Apart from work, we celebrate every festival at Meesho, celebrate every win — big or small and even take on health and fitness challenges together, like the recently-held Groupathon. It’s a high pressure job, but Cricket Wednesdays in the Tech team are a godsend. Every Wednesday, without fail the team plays a match between 9 and 11pm at night, which is a great way to step away from the desk and get some physical activity.
Want to join Deepak and help Meesho create 20 million entrepreneurs by 2020? Then we are hiring for several tech roles at Meesho. Apply here. | https://medium.com/meesho-tech/the-first-ever-engineer-in-his-family-senior-sdet-deepak-dani-gets-to-take-complete-ownership-at-e1b82936fbdf | ['Amrita Bose'] | 2019-10-25 11:43:50.831000+00:00 | ['Software Development', 'QA', 'Ownership', 'Culture', 'A B Testing'] |
Tesla’s Charging Network of Tomorrow | Humans like change but at the same time are resistant to change; we’re very weird that way. The fact that people have been driving gas cars for over 200 years means that as soon as you tell them they’re gonna have to do something a little bit differently, a gust of confusion and concern comes in.
Charging an electric vehicle is just so dramatically different than charging a gas car or filling a gas car that you have to think about it differently. Once you get an electric car, you start to realize that unless you are going on road trips, you can get by with charging from home.
Source: Tesla (Sorry for diving into your HTML source code to extract this video ❤ )
Not only is it way cheaper, but way more convenient. You get back from work, your car charges up overnight, and it’s ready to go by the morning. But if you’re not thinking in that electric car mindset and you’re not considering that you charge from home, the charging network helps sell Teslas just as much as the range does.
Tesla’s Superchargers serve as a response to electric vehicles’ worst enemy, tradition. People considering an electric vehicle start to worry about being stranded in the middle of nowhere when they realize that they don’t go to gas stations anymore.
Speed
Video by Steven Mconroy at the San Luis Obispo, California Supercharger Station
The previous generation Superchargers utilize a single 150 kW backend that is shared between two charging stalls. If a single vehicle is charging, it can pull down the full 150 kilowatts. Each Supercharger cabinet has twelve charger modules and feeds two charging stalls (max 150 kW per car), so when both pairs of Tesla Supercharger station stalls (A and B) are occupied, that 150 kW feed is not so fairly shared between the two depending on arrival time.
Car A gets a fully variable tapered charge, while Car B gets 10 kW increments (since modules can only be switched in 10 kW incremented between the two cars). For example:
Car A Car B
83 30
82 30
81 30
80 40
79 40
78 40
When Car A leaves, Car B will get the full 150 kW until another car arrives. As a result, charging to 90% takes an hour, and to fully charge takes 75 minutes.
8% to 75% in 25 mins VS ~45 mins with V2 ∴ ~200 miles of range in 25 min Source: Privaterbok3000
With Tesla’s V3, you get 1,000 miles of range per hour. 250 kW per car. You don’t have 1,000 miles in your Tesla, but that’s the speed you’ll charge at. Meaning that in 15 minutes, you will get 2 1/2 hours of driving. However, the V3 tapers quickly. The 250 kW advertised charging rate is impressive, but risks battery damage and overheating, so it can’t be maintained…for now.
Additionally, although any Tesla can plug into a V3 Supercharger, only Model Ys and Long Range and Performance Model 3s running the latest firmware will be able to charge at 250 kW. Standard Model 3s will continue to charge at 150 kW, while the Model S and Model X have received a firmware update allowing 200-kW charging at V3 Superchargers. Unfortunately, older Model S and Model Xs can’t accept the higher power delivered by the V3 stations, because they use different battery cells; a worry that arises as Tesla seeks to change their battery cocktail again shortly. | https://medium.com/@williamlaast/teslas-charging-network-of-tomorrow-b7c780c879da | ['William Laast'] | 2020-08-27 20:07:10.456000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Tesla', 'Travel', 'Battery', 'Electric Car'] |
AYS Daily Digest 18/6/19: How Italian Police started criminalizing sea rescue with Iuventa | AYS Daily Digest 18/6/19: How Italian Police started criminalizing sea rescue with Iuventa
Feature: “How Italian Police started criminalizing sea rescue” with Iuventa
The above thread continues to explain the events of the 18th of June. Iuventa was 12 to 50 nautical miles off the Libyan coast when the phone rang at 4:20am from MMRC Rome. Hundreds of people are in distress inside Libyan territorial waters but heading towards international waters.
“MRCC Rome, run by @guardiacostiera, is the competent authority to coordinate sea rescues in the Central Med. Seafarers are bound by the duty to assist boats in distress. The MRCC can deploy ships of every kind..”
At 5:44am Iuventa approaches the interception point, but instead of one boat, there are three boats, each carrying approx. 150 people. The Libyan Coast Guard is also there. They remove the engines from two of the boats and presumably bring them back to Libya.
Iuventa continues to hand out life jackets to boats A and B and secures/disembarks boat C.
“7:19am Captain Dariush orders two team members onboard Lilly to cast off and catch the empty Boat C, so the crew can destroy it later on.” “No NGO has the capacity to recover empty refugee boats, so the crews often set them on fire to sink them. State actors and NGOs have agreed on this as best practice in order to avoid floating ghost targets and prevent smugglers from using the boats again for their dirty business.”
Yet an under cover Italian Police officer is hiding in a vessel close by. A picture is taken of Iuventa and boat C and used as evidence that Iuventa was taking the boat back to Libya so smugglers could reuse it.
Photo provided by Iuventa
This is the evidence the Italian prosecutors are using against Iuventa in court; a photo taken completely out of context.
“This is how Italian police started criminalizing sea rescue.” AYS stands in solidarity with all life savers on the deadliest border in the whole world. Please learn more about Iuventa here.
Egypt
An interesting report citing Ramona Lenz, the public relations representative for migration at medico international, talks about how Egypt might be using Syrian refugees in negotiations with Europe.
“Under current President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the government is well aware of the negotiating power that the country’s refugees provide when dealing with Europe. It knows how to take advantage of Europe’s fear of refugees. So Cairo presents itself as a reliable partner to Europe in terms of migration policy and ensures that hardly any refugees in Egypt are able to head for Europe. The EU’s efforts to “stop the causes of migration” are primarily aimed at easing its own financial woes. And it is the refugees stranded in Egypt who are now paying the price for this power game.”
Sea
On Tuesday, Dunja Mijatović, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights issued 35 recommendations, explaining the deficiencies in EU policy to deter migration instead of saving lives on the Mediterranean.
“ They articulate around five main subject areas: 1) ensuring effective search and rescue coordination; 2) guaranteeing the safe and timely disembarkation of rescued people; 3) co-operating effectively with NGOs; 4) preventing human rights violations while co-operating with third countries; and 5) providing accessible safe and legal routes to Europe.”
Find out more here. | https://medium.com/are-you-syrious/ays-daily-digest-18-6-19-how-italian-police-started-criminalizing-sea-rescue-with-iuventa-32bce04cac10 | ['Are You Syrious'] | 2019-06-19 06:17:22.836000+00:00 | ['Germany', 'Digest', 'Afghanistan', 'Italy', 'Refugees'] |
Things Are Only Going To Get Weirder | Things are getting stranger and stranger. If you would have told someone ten years ago that Dennis Rodman would one day be helping to negotiate peace between North Korea and President Donald Trump, they would have assumed you were describing some weird movie cooked up in the mind of Mike Judge or the South Park guys. But in this timeline it’s an actual news story.
Everything about the last few years has been weird. The mass media’s behavior has been weird, Russiagate was weird, Ukrainegate is weird, a former presidential candidate accusing a current presidential candidate of working for the Kremlin was weird, people constantly accusing strangers on the internet of being Russian agents is weird, factions of the US government constantly leaking information against other factions of the US government is weird, the DNC getting caught rigging their primary was weird, Hillary Clinton losing the election was weird, the Skripal poisoning was weird, US government officials openly tweeting about their Venezuela coup is weird, the breakdown of the entire mainstream Syria narrative is weird, Assange’s arrest was weird, the campaign to censor the internet is weird, and this is just stuff off the top of my head from the areas I’ve been looking at in my own narrow spectrum of focus. Anyone else could list dozens of other weird new developments from their own slice of the information pie.
I often hear people in my line of work saying “Man, we’re going to look back on all this crazy shit and think about how absolutely weird it was!”
No we won’t. Because it’s only going to get weirder.
It’s only going to get weirder, because that’s what it looks like when old patterns start to fall away.
The human mind is conditioned to look for patterns in order to establish a baseline of normal expectations upon which to plan out future actions. This perceptual framework exists to give us safety and security, so disruptions in the patterns upon which it is based often feel weird, threatening, and scary. They make us feel insecure, because our cognitive tool for staying in control of our wellbeing has a glitch in it.
When you’re talking about a species that has been consistently patterned towards its own destruction, though, a disruption of patterns is a good thing. Our ecocidal, warmongering tendencies have brought us to a point that now has us staring down the barrel of our own extinction, and that is where we are surely headed if we continue patterning along the behavioral trajectory that we have been on. Only a drastic change of patterns can change that trajectory. And we are seeing a change of patterns.
Sure it’s sloppy as hell. Pattern disruption always is. Show me someone who recovered from a severe addiction to hard drugs who enjoyed a smooth, easy transition into sobriety with no major changes in their life besides the absence of substance abuse. Show me someone who left an abusive long term relationship whose life wasn’t drastically upended by it. People see safety in patterns, even unhealthy patterns, and they build their own patterns on the patterns of those in their lives. When any of those patterns disappear for anyone involved, it can feel unsafe for many people around them.
When patterns first start vanishing, it can look like things are getting worse. Because a disappeared pattern is an absence of something and not a thing in itself, people don’t see it, because the human mind is naturally drawn toward things and not the absence of things. So their attention will be drawn toward whatever things start to happen in the absence of the old pattern, which won’t necessarily be a pleasant or attractive thing, and they’ll say “Oh no! Things are getting worse now!” No they’re not. An unhealthy pattern disappeared, and in its absence something unappealing fell into place for a bit. But the absence of the old unhealthy pattern is a good thing, and in the long run will lead to good results, in the same way that leaving an abusive marriage may lead to financial hardship and stress in the short term but will lead to thriving in the long term.
I have become convinced in my personal life that humans are far more capable of breaking patterns than they realize. There’s an intelligence running things below the loud thinky noises of our inner narrative generators which most of us aren’t aware of, but which I’m convinced is disappearing old behavior patterns in our species, both collectively and individually.
We’re all mentally aware that things need to change away from the patterns we’ve been collectively engaged in, but we’ve been unable to bring about those changes in patterning because our efforts to do so arise from the same conditioning patterns that got us into this mess in the first place. Our patterns have led us to violent revolutions, but those just lead to governments which end up perpetuating the same old patterns we were trying to end. Our patterns have led to nonviolent political movements, but those end up being co-opted and their energy fed into the same collective patterning. Despite being told in movement after movement that the real enemy is the King or the Emperor or the aristocracy or the Jews or the Communists, over and over again the real enemy behind the curtain has ended up being our own conditioned tendency to keep repeating the same collective behavior patterns.
That’s what seems to be evaporating. Not because anyone came up with the Ultimate Political Ideology in their thinky brains, not because some clever revolutionary came up with the Ultimate Plan for Toppling the Status Quo, not because some adept killers killed those in power and replaced them with themselves, but because this mysterious guiding intelligence running the scenes far below the level of verbal thought has been disappearing our patterns in a way we don’t notice because we’re not conditioned to notice absences.
The observation of the obvious fact that humankind is deeply conditioned is what has led to philosophical debates throughout the ages of the existence of free will. How can a species so beholden to its preconditioned patterning have freedom of choice in its actions? In my experience the answer is that there is something at play within each of us which provides the potential to discard old patternings. We don’t have any free will as to how a given conditioned behavior pattern will play out as long as we’re still holding them, but there is something in all of us which is capable of opening the door to relinquishing a mental habit altogether. This is the only extent to which free will may be said to exist.
Sometimes I wonder if the world as we knew it really did end in December 2012 as so many mystics, psychics and psychonauts predicted. Not in a nuclear holocaust or giant meteor obviously, but in the beginning of an unravelling of the glue that holds human behavior patterns in place. There certainly hasn’t been a normal US presidential election since that date, and there doesn’t seem to be one on the horizon in the foreseeable future. Things have been getting stranger and stranger ever since, and this trend appears to be accelerating rather than slowing down.
Things are weird, and they’re only going to keep getting weirder. Buckle up, buttercup.
______________________________
Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for my website, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics on Twitter, checking out my podcast on either Youtube, soundcloud, Apple podcasts or Spotify, following me on Steemit, throwing some money into my hat on Patreon or Paypal, purchasing some of my sweet merchandise, buying my new book Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone, or my previous book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish or use any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge.
Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2 | https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/things-are-only-going-to-get-weirder-888764673704 | ['Caitlin Johnstone'] | 2019-11-01 01:47:12.298000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Enlightenment', 'Revolution', 'Caitlin Johnstone', 'Awakening'] |
A Father in a Mom’s world | Credits- Steven Van loy
8 AM- Door Bell Rings, the house cleaner picks up the garbage.
8:01 AM- You realize, your little one is still asleep with 29 mins left for school to begin.
8:02 AM — Open the curtains, hoping sun will act as a natural alarm for my son. No luck…next 10 mins are used up to wake him up… 18 mins left to school…
8:12 AM — Post the hugs and cuddles, rush him to the bathroom, brush and bath him (easier said than done).
8:20 AM- You are screaming from one room to another “Is his food packed and water ready” while getting him ready. And he chooses what clothes to wear.
8:25 AM- You reach the door and realize the school bag is still inside (Though you are 100% certain you put the bag around the child). Rush back in and leave the house running. And the elevator is always busy at that time.
8:27 AM- Half Walking/ Half running, you say hi to all the dogs, cats and leaves on the roads.
8:32 AM- You finally cross the finish line, leave your child to the school gate… and meet the dis-approving eye of the teacher, who looks at her watch and then gives you a faint smile that means “Every day”?
8:33 AM- Rushing back, the good thing is you realize you are not alone, especially when you see another mom dropping her child after you. All the parents disappear in a snap during drop-off
Cut to 4 hrs later and I head back to school before time for pick-up. Here, I meet the other moms and we get 10 mins to catch up on how things are…we laugh, we discuss on how the kids are these days, and blah blah blah… Trust me, there is lot of comfort in this blah blah blah…
Most of you mothers will relate to this…the difference for me, though. I am a father…and this is my grasp of hanging out with other moms. My Son is 4 years old, and I often drop him off and do pickups. Then, I like to take part in all school activities. Taking him to playdates, going to the playground, normal parent stuff. A while ago I decided to be part of the WhatsApp Class group however, it’s often called the Mommy group, and I am the only father.
Following incidents have happened with me as I am mostly the only father in a space that has been dominated by moms:
A moms surprised look and hesitant move when I said “Add me to the WhatsApp class group instead of my wife” Being called “Go Girl/ More power to you mom” on Mom groups. Until one day, the admin reminded other moms, there was also a father in the chat. Teachers addressing me as mom. It is funny how even teachers were a bit uncomfortable at the start to discuss regular school things with me. The looks from other Moms “Where is his wife? Did she leave him? Are they separating?” The initial dis-comfort of having an outside species amongst the moms in physical gatherings.
But in the end, the mothers always accepted me and I soon became one of the moms and part of their conversation.
This is my learning from my journey of being a Father in a Mom’s world.
For Fathers
Respect what the mom does: Being a mother is a Job and it is a 24/7 job. Don’t ever say “But you’re a stay at home mom”. HELP HELP HELP: Help your wife out when you’re back. Get your backside moving. Some countries have the luxury of having Nanny/house help, but they will never bring the same care as a parent. Give your wife time off: Your wife deserves her time off. Take your kids out to the play area and let her rest. Let her hang with the mom gang: There is comfort in hanging out with other mothers. Those 15 mins waiting to pick up our kids is lots of fun. It makes you realize you are not alone in this parenting thing. Let her have those 15 min. You are not only a sport coach: A father’s job is not to only show up on Sports day. If you cannot pick up, then drop your child to school everyday. Parent means father along with mother: It is not just the Mom’s responsibility to raise the child. Look beyond providing financial support.
It may seem like I am talking only from the Mom’s perspective, but allow me to share a father’s perspective in the mom’s world. I have spent close to 3 years amongst mothers. Besides learning from them, I noticed few clinks in the armor.
This is for all the lovely moms out there:
Do not pressurize each other: Stop putting pressure on each other. It is one mom putting pressure on the other. We have enough pressure from schools and society about how to raise kids, do not do that to each other. You are your biggest enemy: Give the father a chance. Most of the moms feel the father will not do a good job. Nature has no time-table for your child: Each kid is special and different. If one child walks faster or talks faster than the other child, that is not the reflection on you as a parent or mom. It is nature telling you when your child will be ready. Parenthood is not a race: Do not try and out do the other mothers. If one mom makes homemade snacks for the full class, it is okay if you buy healthy snacks from your local bakery No gangs allowed: Do not gang up or Judge other moms. Like judging the mom who buys snacks from the local bakery. It’s shallow, and will make the mom more conscious about her parenting skills. Working Mom = Home Mom — Never make this comparison. Care and love for one’s child cannot be measured by Time spent as a metric. Both are moms, and both have their own struggles. New moms: Moms who have more than 1 child, please be nice to first time mothers. Do not forget you were one too. We are new parents and we’re learning our way around the ring. The Mother-law: Most of your Mom-in-laws feel they did a better job raising their son aka your husband. I am a Gluten free Mom- Call out that ‘Gluten Free, only Organic food for my child’ mom . We all know there is that one mom like that in every group.
I truly hope you enjoyed reading this. This is all from my experience. There is no science or any great insights in what I shared. We all know this, but often forget. Just remember you are not alone in this parenthood game and no one has ever won the parenthood game. They just keep working on it.
Leave your comments and feedback. Happy Parenthood | https://medium.com/@whiskypoppy16/a-father-in-a-moms-world-6906942e3b6c | ['Whisky Poppy'] | 2020-12-16 09:48:05.585000+00:00 | ['Parenthood', 'Motherhood', 'Moms', 'Parenting', 'Fatherhood'] |
What Everyone Got Wrong About Elon Musk’s Battery Day | Elon Musk’s influence over legacy industry has almost no modern precedent. Like Jeff Bezos’ shakeup of retail, automobiles in the 2020s and 2030s seem to be shaping up as Musk alone has reimagined them. Virtually every automaker, large or small, is piling into Musk’s electric world, with claims they will grab a significant slice of it.
Musk’s latest jerk of the wheel came this week with “Battery Day,” a long-teased event at which the Tesla CEO unveiled a sweeping, top-to-bottom recontemplation of the lithium-ion battery and how it is manufactured. The result, he said, would be a 56% cut in battery costs, finally opening up the mass market with $25,000 electric vehicles.
The market sent Tesla’s shares down more than 6%, and disappointed Wall Street analysts who said the presentation was light on details. But investors and analysts will need to catch up: Many battery experts themselves are treating what Musk described as a fait accompli.
In interviews, battery experts told me that Musk seemed to be understating the timeline — it looks closer to 2030 than his claim of 2023. But what he described, arriving late or not, is the new bar for both legacy automakers and startups, seeming to eclipse almost everything in the commercial pipeline. “Others have elements of what he is doing, but no one is doing it all,” said Gene Bershidevsky, CEO of Sila Nanotechnologies, a Silicon Valley-based battery startup and a key early Tesla employee.
On Thursday, two days after the event, Venkat Viswanathan, a professor at Carnegie Mellon, said that he still had not fully digested all that Musk presented — and that it could require a phalanx of top battery experts to adequately analyze.
And what is that new bar? James Frith, head of energy storage at BloombergNEF, said that by his calculations, Musk was describing a new battery cost of about $56 per kWh. That is down from an average cost today of around $150 per kWh. (Tesla’s are currently lower, at $130.) He gets there by reconfiguring both electrodes, eliminating whole stages of manufacture, intensifying automation, mining metals more efficiently, tapering the length of supply lines, removing hundreds of parts from the EV, molding large sections of the vehicle as a single piece, and more.
As we have reported, the very leading edge of EV batteries is an attempt to commercialize metallic lithium or silicon anodes, which would allow vehicles to travel much further and cost much less. But Musk’s proposals may reduce the need for these exotic advances.
I asked Gene Berdishevsky, the Sila Nano CEO, what would happen if his own silicon anodes — when they are ready for the market — were added to Musk’s proposed battery transformation. “If he gets to $60, we can get well below $50 — maybe even $40,” he said. “Fifty dollars would be just transformational.” | https://themobilist.medium.com/what-everyone-got-wrong-about-elon-musks-battery-day-eebbd33734a0 | ['Steve Levine'] | 2020-09-25 13:08:16.955000+00:00 | ['Elon Musk', 'Automotive', 'Tesla', 'Ev Battery', 'Battery Day'] |
Here’s one way Elon Musk is ‘eating the lunch’ of Tesla’s competitors | Originally published at https://evannex.com on November 20, 2020.
Can you imagine getting paid by your competitors? That’s precisely what’s happening in the auto industry right now. Honda recently became another automaker joining Fiat Chrysler in pooling regulatory credits with Tesla in Europe. European regulations now require an average of 95 grams of CO 2 emissions per kilometer per car that Honda (and many others) have failed to achieve.
Above: Honda e EV driving on a European highway, Elon Musk laughing in the background (Sources: Honda EU, Tesla)
In turn, Honda has to pay up. The beneficiary just happens to be Tesla. Tesla, it turns out, doesn’t have to worry about this issue because they’re an all-electric automaker and can “sell” credits to Honda and traditional automakers.
This unique situation with Honda has opened another revenue stream for Tesla that’s potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars stretching over the next few years. The financial details of the Honda-Tesla credits pooling have not been disclosed yet.
That said, Steven Mark Ryan from the YouTube channel Solving The Money Problem estimates a ballpark figure of $100M+ per year that Tesla can expect from Honda. The Fiat Chrysler deal is far bigger — the automaker has contributed $1.2 billion to Teslaprofits this year.
Also, keep in mind, Honda is ceasing the sale of its diesel-powered vehicles in Europe in 2021 as they announced last year. This might lower the number of zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) credits Honda needs to buy each year until the automaker reaches its goal of a fully electric lineup in Europe — which, by the way, is set for 2025.
And, according to a Honda USA press-releasefrom August, the Japanese auto giant is aiming to reduce its overall fleet CO 2 emissions to 50% by the year 2050. It further states, “Electrification is one of the critical technologies we are deploying to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
Steve Westly, an early Tesla investor and former board member of the company, told CNBC: “Tesla is eating their competitors’ lunch, and they’re making them pay for it. That’s a pretty cool trick.”
Above: Tesla shares can go higher if you believe its more than just a car company, says former Tesla board member (YouTube: CNBC).
Eric Rosenbaum reports in CNBC, “Tesla, unlike traditional automakers, risked it all on making and selling EVs. Meanwhile, traditional car companies are required to pay up, by other means, for the choice of delaying their transition to battery electric [vehicles].”
“The last thing a company wants to do is pay their competitor to eat their own lunch,” said Simon Mui, deputy director of the clean vehicles & fuels group at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “ They won’t advertise this, but you can bet that every company, whether GM or Toyota or FCA, does not want to pay Tesla.”
“All of these automakers are facing similar standards in the other largest markets, like China and Europe… Automakers are finding themselves in make-or-break moment, either shift to innovate or become irrelevant. That’s why we see the success of Tesla in market value,” the NRDC analyst said.
“These standards are not going down, air pollution is not reduced as a problem and governments will be ratcheting up standards over time, so one or two EV products will not be enough. They will need to have a wholesale portfolio shift in each and every product line,” Mui said.
Garrett Nelson a senior equity analyst at CFRA Research does not begrudge Tesla’s success in this area. “Other manufacturers don’t have the EV sales Tesla has right now,” he explains.
“Analysts complain and the bears question the earnings quality because so much is driven by RECs,” said CFRA’s Nelson. “We view the credits market as operating efficiently and it is separate issue from the lack of predictability in forecasting earnings. Tesla takes all the risk and has many other hurdles to overcome and high fixed costs and it is a capital-intensive business with high barriers to entry,” he said.
“The big boys, the Fords and GMs, these companies are still kind of far from really getting a good high-selling electric vehicle on the market,” Benjamin Leard, an environmental economist and fellow at Resources for the Future told CNBC. “They are far behind Tesla introducing popular, affordable electric vehicles… so Tesla and other companies introducing EVs will really be cashing in” for the foreseeable future.
If legacy automakers continue to drag their feet, Leard says, “They will have to go to Tesla, and say ‘we really need those credits,’ and that will bid up prices.”
===
Originally published at https://evannex.com on November 20, 2020.
Written by: Iqtidar Ali. An earlier version of this article was originally published on Tesla Oracle. Sources:Bloomberg, | https://medium.com/@mpressman/heres-one-way-elon-musk-is-eating-the-lunch-of-tesla-s-competitors-f4926ad2e50e | ['E.V. Annex'] | 2020-11-20 17:40:44.751000+00:00 | ['Tesla', 'Tesla Motors', 'Tesla Model S', 'Electric Car', 'Elon Musk'] |
How to Function When You Are Emotionally Exhausted | Emotional exhaustion from one’s job is more common than you might think. No matter if you are a service worker or you work in an office, if you feel you have to act a certain way at work, you are performing emotional labor.¹ This labor causes “emotional exhaustion,” or a state of being emotionally drained.² Some symptoms of emotional exhaustion are feeling fatigued, frustrated, or used up from the work you do.³ If you feel these symptoms, you’re not alone. But, there are ways that are proven to reduce and prevent emotional exhaustion.
Deep Acting
If you are acting more cheerful or confident than you are while at work, you may be “surface acting.” This is when you project an emotion that isn’t how you actually feel inside.⁴ This can often feel inauthentic and at odds with one’s sense of self.⁵ The emotional strain caused by surface acting can cause emotional exhaustion.¹ But if you don’t feel cheerful or confident, how can you not surface act?
It turns out that emotion is more malleable than one might think. You can regulate your own emotions, and by doing so, express positive emotion in a more sincere way.⁴ This method is called “deep acting.”⁴ It is easy to learn how, and it is proven to decrease emotional exhaustion.⁴ However, this was only true for participants with a positive psychological state.⁴ So when you feel that you are faking emotions, try to focus on the positive aspects of your interactions. You may start to feel the emotions you present.
Social Support
When you are emotionally exhausted, social support can be a coping mechanism.⁶ Unfortunately, a lack of social support can have far-reaching consequences. In a study of workplace ostracism, researchers found that a lack of social support causes emotional exhaustion. Also, when a person doesn’t receive support at work, the negative effects spill over to their family life.² It can cause a cycle of negativity where a person then feels exhausted from their home life.² Therefore, workplace social support is crucial to preventing emotional exhaustion.
You cannot make people support you. However, you can help foster a healthy work environment. A supportive work environment reduces emotional exhaustion and work-related anxiety.⁶ If you support your coworkers, you contribute to creating such an environment. If you take the step to support others, you may increase everyone’s well-being, including your own.
Control
The less control you have in your job, the more emotional labor you perform. In a study by Huang and colleagues, employees with less control were more emotionally exhausted.⁷ Also, emotional exhaustion from a lack of control caused mental health problems.⁷ Having flexibility in a job reduces emotional exhaustion.⁸ But not all jobs are flexible, and you may not be able to increase your level of control in your job. So what can you change to prevent emotional exhaustion?
It turns out that control is both external and internal. This means you can have an “internal locus of control,” or the belief that outcomes are based on what we do.⁹ An internal locus of control is associated with being less emotionally exhausted.¹⁰ And luckily, it is a skill you can develop. Over time, an outlook of control could reduce your emotional exhaustion and improve your mental health.
Illustration by Nadia Mokadem
The Bottom Line
If you feel emotional exhaustion from your work, you’re not alone. There are many reasons your work may take a particularly emotional toll. Luckily, there are ways to reduce the burden. If you can identify the source of your emotional exhaustion, it will be much easier to work through. Employee mental health problems are common, and only organizational changes will reduce the issue. But for now, there are steps you can take to improve your own mental health.
References
1. Huppertz, A. V., Hülsheger, U. R., De Calheiros Velozo, J., & Schreurs, B. H. (2020). Why do emotional labor strategies differentially predict exhaustion? Comparing psychological effort, authenticity, and relational mechanisms. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 25(3), 214–226. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000179
2. Thompson, M. J., Carlson, D. S., Kacmar, K. M., & Vogel, R. M. (2020). The cost of being ignored: Emotional exhaustion in the work and family domains. The Journal of Applied Psychology, 105(2), 186–195. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000433
3. Sessions, H., Nahrgang, J. D., Newton, D. W., & Chamberlin, M. (2020). I’m tired of listening: The effects of supervisor appraisals of group voice on supervisor emotional exhaustion and performance. The Journal of Applied Psychology, 105(6), 619–636. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000455
4. Yin, H., Wang, W., Huang, S., & Li, H. (2016). Psychological capital, emotional labor and exhaustion: examining mediating and moderating models. Current Psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.), 37(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-016-9518-z
5. Yagil, D. (2020). Positive framing of surface acting: The mitigating effect of self-serving attributions on sense of inauthenticity and emotional exhaustion. International Journal of Stress Management, 27(3), 217–225. https://doi.org/10.1037/str0000148
6. Zhang, H., Tang, L., Ye, Z., Zou, P., Shao, J., Wu, M., Zhang, Q., Qiao, G., & Mu, S. (2020). The role of social support and emotional exhaustion in the association between work-family conflict and anxiety symptoms among female medical staff: a moderated mediation model. BMC Psychiatry, 20(1), 266. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-020-02673-2
7. Huang, Y.-H., Du, P.-I., Chen, C.-H., Yang, C.-A., & Huang, I.-C. (2011). Mediating effects of emotional exhaustion on the relationship between job demand–control model and mental health. Stress and Health : Journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress, 27(2), e94–109. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.1340
8. Guerrero, S., Bentein, K., & Garcia-Falières, A. (2020). Countering the effects of occupational stigma on emotional exhaustion and absences with idiosyncratic deals. International Journal of Stress Management. https://doi.org/10.1037/str0000215
9. Sagone, E., & Caroli, M. E. D. (2014). Locus of Control and Academic Self-efficacy in University Students: The Effects of Self-concepts. Procedia — Social and Behavioral Sciences, 114, 222–228. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.12.689
10. Partlak Günüşen, N., Ustün, B., & Erdem, S. (2014). Work stress and emotional exhaustion in nurses: the mediating role of internal locus of control. Research and Theory for Nursing Practice, 28(3), 260–268. https://doi.org/10.1891/1541-6577.28.3.260 | https://medium.com/x-factors-in-life/how-to-function-when-you-are-emotionally-exhausted-d500dbd5a425 | ['Corinne Marble'] | 2020-12-03 21:04:58.344000+00:00 | ['Emotional Exhaustion', 'Emotional Health', 'Burnout'] |
Stalked by Fears: Will Virtual Reality Be the Answer We Need? | ©anolkil
Clink, clink, clink, the sound was relentless as the bullets hit the outer skin of the armored vehicle. Boom! A roadside bomb had exploded, and everyone inside the vehicle was thrown out into a bloody pile of bodies and body parts.
Moans filled the air, and smoke rose as the flames began to envelop everything in sight. The terror and the fear that came with it drove the memory ever deeper into the brain of the person who had been at the wheel. All of it was a vivid memory that refused to be forgotten by anyone involved in the tragedy. Many would suffer from prolonged anxiety disorders as a result.
Sense memories are components of the anxiety disorder known as Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). On their return home, military servicemen and women would have these persistent disruptions of reality and their emotions. Nightmares came in volcanic succession and made the night a time of renewed fear; the horror never stopped.
AK-47 bullets were being fired. Sudden flashbacks stopped them on the street where some fell to a crouching position. Frantically, one might yell for help. “Medic, medic!” Everyone would stare, not knowing whether to run or call 911 for help. It was lifechanging and disabling. A return to their former life or self seemed impossible. Often, suicide was an answer.
Therapy and Virtual Reality
Virtual reality (VR) recreates the environment in a controlled therapeutic setting using a virtual set, eyewear, software, and hand-held objects. The scene is “real” in every sense of the word except it’s not real.
Immersing an individual into a reconstructed virtual environment by computer programs and digital screens on a headset was first invented in 1968 by Ivan Sutherland at MIT. Sutherland explained how the term and the software came to be in a video. Since that time, the potential for this form of digital reality-based programming has blossomed from games to therapy as it found additional utility in mental health care. Anxiety was a prime target.
Virtual reality as a therapeutic intervention for anxiety disorders has incorporated powerful techniques research has shown to be highly effective. The original technique, developed by Joseph Wolpe in 1958, is known as systematic desensitization or reciprocal inhibition and was effective in treating “war neurosis.”
The theory is that it isn’t possible to experience fear and relaxation at the same time, and a three-step technique was developed based on this model. The steps include learning methods of relaxation, establishing a hierarchy of fears, and then gradual exposure to the fear stimulus. In this way, both physical and mental abilities can be brought to bear during the therapeutic exercise.
Photo by XR Expo on Unsplash
As an innovative technique, virtual reality may be used in several fear-provoking situations. However, some individuals may not be able to utilize it. Anyone who has experienced either feelings of dizziness, known as cybersickness, seizure disorder, or some heart disorders, might not be candidates for the therapy. A gradual introduction to the virtual environment may decrease the cybersickness.
A few other individuals might also not be candidates, and these include persons with migraine headaches. Individuals prone to psychosis or a personality disorder where they might confuse the virtual world with reality might also be excluded. The future is bright, however, and more individuals will be brought under the VR umbrella of therapies.
VR and Autism
What rivets the attention of an individual with autism so completely that they cannot pull themselves away from it? This is the question that Matt Clark, a father of an autistic son, wanted to answer. His response to his own question led to his development of a virtual reality exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The exhibit, one of many in other museums, seeks to re-create the perceptual world of an autistic boy, but it isn’t without its detractors.
As Clark stated, his 15-year-old son “can’t talk; his behaviors are extremely challenging.” Therefore, how can we expect him to express himself to assist us in understanding? For Clark, several artists with autism and for family members who have autistic relatives, it’s a beginning. The use of the virtual environment can now open a new type of dialog to put people into the shoes of someone with autism for the first time. How can they do that?
Consider the fact that autism is a disorder often with severe extremes of sensory overloads of sight, sound, and movement. Their world is often unknowable and they struggle to understand it themselves.
Once they leave their homes or schools, it can be frightening even in a space we find comfortable; a shopping mall. One attempt to recreate the world of autism was a video produced by The Guardian newspaper in the UK. Watching it provides only a bit of the true experience, but it is worth the effort. Where can VR be utilized for persons with autism?
Job interviews would have been extremely stressful and unproductive without virtual reality. Vocational counseling training programs that involve interview situations can go anywhere from gentle to more aggressive; something with which any job applicant must contend.
Sharpening interview skills in learning how to handle each situation in a virtual environment is the most practical and one of heightened learning. But learning about getting a job isn’t the only place these individuals need to understand and practice their responses
Classroom settings also are challenging when speaking before a group. Public speaking even in this closed space more threatening than it would be to any other student.
A series of different environments can be envisioned here, too, so that the autistic child can feel less anxious and more prepared for what is to come. VR programs can be both tolerant and forgiving as few teachers might be to a student with a disability of this type.
The Future Promise of VR
Clinicians and researchers see an optimistic future for the expansion of virtual reality programs for the treatment not only of anxiety disorders such as PTSD and specific phobias. Improvements in technology and initial cost for equipment make VR more readily available. Persons with disabilities or autistic disorders will learn appropriate skills and to diminish their fears.
Unique tasks for the programs not explicitly intended for disorders offer hope for enhancing feelings of self-efficacy and cognitive enhancement to deal with dysfunctional beliefs. The experiences provided virtually can create opportunities for positive outcomes in other environments.
VR can also enhance learning or to integrate learning into new situations. The challenge lies in the creativity of both the programmers and those who can envision new opportunities in which to involve this technology. | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/stalked-by-fears-will-virtual-reality-be-the-answer-we-need-d581f70ff648 | ['Dr. Patricia Farrell'] | 2020-08-04 16:23:24.623000+00:00 | ['Autism', 'Virtual Reality', 'Programming', 'Computers', 'Life'] |
This May as Well Happen | Right here in this beer-spilt
carpet-stained hotel
near wood-paneled nowhere,
two anonymous nobodies
checking in with each other
with no luggage,
only baggage,
mutual attraction
kindled by respective distress,
kinship in self-loathing.
We feel each other
in ways that find forgetfulness
from bonds of colonization,
slavery, and rape
that bound our antipodal shores
together
long before we knew
we could choose to feel
something
other than what left us
as undone as the buckles,
shackles, clasps and fastens
we hungrily claw apart
to draw ourselves together.
I kiss your pale scars
as you fold yourself
onto my bruised gristle,
both seeking relief
from pain and starvation,
neither receiving more
than fleeting fullness
at our new barycenter,
licking, sucking at nerve’s end
till the tingle between us
proves we are alive
and worthy of this
stolen pleasure.
With so much stolen from us
so early,
this infidelity
scarcely registers;
to his great relief,
you are out-of-sight,
out-of-mind,
and it seems unclear
if he would care had he known
how your back arched to receive me
slaking your thirst, tightly wrapped
around my guttural grunt,
buried to the hilt in urgency,
but he’d gladly weaponize
our secret if spilt by day,
so here we linger at dusk,
two shades of shadow, merging,
blooming in our sweat and gloom
dimly inconspicuous
from incomplete stories
unfolding in other rooms.
After wringing ourselves dry
on kitschy bedspreads,
you kiss the faded burn mark
on my ruddy-brown cheek,
knowing you cannot remain,
though memory preserves us
here in this pilfered moment.
Awkward “thank yous” are exchanged
where “I love yous” would fit justly
in a just world where trauma bonds
need not exist as antivenoms
for a toxic world.
Our finality in parting
is encroached upon,
but never mentioned;
only implied.
This may as well happen, too. | https://medium.com/sensual-enchantment/this-may-as-well-happen-58f8f2261e72 | ['Barry Dawson Iv'] | 2020-12-24 00:06:33.961000+00:00 | ['Sensual An Erotic Life', 'Erotica', 'Cheating', 'Relationships', 'Poetry'] |
Why People Won’t Buy Your Product Even Though It’s Awesome | Note: This article originally published by my colleague David Tang.
It’s a common business problem faced by any size company, big and small.
The situation is you’ve developed a brilliant product. Compared to the incumbent or existing way of doing things, your product is more feature-packed, is easier to use, and is more economical to the customer.
The problem is your sales suck. Why aren’t customers banging down the door?
Are customers irrational?
The answer is “yes.” Numerous studies have showed that consumer behavior is irrational. If you assume otherwise, then you are also behaving irrationally.
To understand why people aren’t buying your product, it is imperative to understand some key concepts in behavioral economics. Here are three important principles to be cognizant of.
Principle 1. Losses Loom Larger than Gains
Every new product provides perceived gains and losses for the customer. These gains and losses need not be financial. For example, let’s say you are starting an online grocery store for your municipality. With the promise of groceries delivered to the door, the perceived gains could be convenience, time savings, and effort savings. On the other hand, you are altering the way the customer performs a certain process–buying groceries. This change will translate to perceived losses (i.e. financial and non-financial costs), which can include the inability to handpick produce and meat, delivery fees, and having to be home during the delivery window.
When we look at this objectively, online groceries is a clear superior choice. Convenience, time savings, and effort savings are great value propositions, after all.
However, when the customer evaluates options subjectively, it becomes unclear whether online groceries is the still better choice. In fact, it is likely the customer views online grocery shopping as the poorer choice. This is because losses loom larger than gains.
A consumer has an inherent Consumer Bias. This bias weighs a loss three times that of a benefit. To put it another way, the objective value of a gain needs to exceed the objective value of a loss by three times for the customer to perceive the new product as better than the existing.
Principle 2. Reference Points Matter
The second principle to understand is different people have different reference points. These reference points matter. The reference point simply refers to the person’s current state of being.
Continuing our online grocer example, the reference point of a typical customer is someone who currently goes to the physical supermarket to pick up groceries. This process may already be part of the customer’s weekly routine. Gains and losses are relative to this state of being.
For two people with different reference points, a gain for one person may be perceived as a loss for the other. To illustrate this concept, let’s look at the price of gas. Assume the average price for a gallon of gas in the US is $3, whereas it’s $10 in the UK. If a US customer came upon a gas station charging $6.50/gallon, she would be furious. If a UK customer came upon the same situation, she would be ecstatic. (Also, note that even though the objective difference is the same for both customers, the US customer’s sentiment would be more affected than that of the UK customer, because losses loom greater than gains.)
The Value Function Illustrates Objective vs. Subjective Values
By understanding your customer’s reference point, you can determine her perceived gains and losses. In most cases, your reference point is different from that of your customer’s. This is because you have already used and experienced your product, whereas your customer has not. Your product has become part of your state of being. This disparity in judgment is captured in the concept known as the Innovator’s Curse.
Principle 3. Endowment Effect
According to the Endowment Effect, people value items in their possession (i.e. part of their endowment) more than items not in their possession. This is because people are loss averse.
This behavior sheds some light on why losses loom larger than gains. If a customer is already accustomed to an existing product or existing way of doing things, it becomes hard for her to give that up and change–even if the alternative presents greater benefits.
Are any of these principles hindering your sales?
Recognizing and understanding these three principles of behavioral economics is crucial. It allows us to develop product strategies that specifically counter consumer adoption barriers at play and leverage behavioral tendencies.
Now, let’s look at three such strategies–one for each principle.
The 10X Rule
If losses loom larger than gains, then we need to create a product where the gains greatly dwarf the losses. Create one where the benefits are 10X that of the losses, so that all economic and psychological switching costs are overcome. This is also known as Andy Grove’s 10X Rule. Andy Grove, Intel’s third employee and former CEO, had stated, for widespread adoption, a new product has to offer a 10X improvement over the incumbent product.
Of course, this strategy is easier said than done.
Reference Point Pivot
Since reference points dictate how customers perceive gains and losses, it makes sense to seek out customers with favorable reference points. Think about it this way. In one market, your product may have fulfill the 10X Rule. In another, your same product may be perceived as 10X worse!
During its earlier years, Walmart opened stores only in rural areas to compete against local mom and pops. Compared with these incumbent retailers, Walmart was a clear 10X improvement. If Walmart had started off launching stores in metropolitan areas instead, where large department store chains were already established, Walmart’s growth would have been hindered.
Ideal markets are ones filled with first time buyers. For the first time buyer, her reference point is neutral. She doesn’t have any preconceived biases over existing benefits lost and new costs incurred, because she doesn’t currently use the incumbent solution. Thus, for many products, it is easiest to launch in emerging markets. This is because emerging markets (e.g. BRICS nations) are filled with first time buyers. Read more about entering emerging markets here.
Freemium Model
The Endowment Effect has an interesting implication. It implies the customer will spend more–mo’ money, mo’ time, and mo’ effort–to keep something she has than to obtain something for the first time.
With this insight into consumer psychology, many companies offer free samples to get customers hooked on their products. Once the customer begins using the product, she will appreciate the benefits it offers and is likely to spend money to retain these benefits. This is, in essence, an example of Reference Point Pivot.
Similarly, a popular business model adopted by many Internet SaaS companies is the “freemium” model. In the freemium model, the customer is first presented with a free version of the product. Then, the customer is offered (or forced) to a premium version.
For a more in depth discussion on product adoption, consumer psychology, and product strategies, take a look at this business document: The Psychology of Product Adoption.
Still no dice?
Of course, if your product is awesome–you think so and your customers agree–then lack of sales could be due to poor marketing. Ramp up your marketing, sales, and biz dev efforts.
Interested in business strategy? Check out Flevy’s collection of business frameworks, most created by former consultants of top tier consulting firms.
EDIT: I have just published a new article, The Complete Guide to Product Adoption. This article analyzes product adoption on the market level, product level, consumer level, and tactical level; and is based on a number of established business strategy frameworks.
Please also share your thoughts, experiences, and advice in the comments. Thanks!
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“Strategy without Tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without Strategy is the noise before defeat.” — Sun Tzu
For effective Strategy Development and Strategic Planning, we must master both Strategy and Tactics. Our frameworks cover all phases of Strategy, from Strategy Design and Formulation to Strategy Deployment and Execution; as well as all levels of Strategy, from Corporate Strategy to Business Strategy to “Tactical” Strategy. Many of these methodologies are authored by global strategy consulting firms and have been successfully implemented at their Fortune 100 client organizations.
These frameworks include Porter’s Five Forces, BCG Growth-Share Matrix, Greiner’s Growth Model, Capabilities-driven Strategy (CDS), Business Model Innovation (BMI), Value Chain Analysis (VCA), Endgame Niche Strategies, Value Patterns, Integrated Strategy Model for Value Creation, Scenario Planning, to name a few.
Learn about our Strategy Development Best Practice Frameworks here. | https://medium.com/@mark-bridges/why-people-wont-buy-your-product-even-though-it-s-awesome-3233cb73746d | ['Mark Bridges'] | 2020-12-22 12:22:18.446000+00:00 | ['Product Lifecycle', 'Product Development', 'Product Strategy', 'Customer Journey', 'Product Management'] |
BLM is Marxist, Run for Your Comfortable Lives! | The right wing, doing what they‘ve done your whole adult life, is again trying to scare you (You, the pragmatic centrist who doesn’t understand why no one else can see that there is no scenario in any of the parallel universes in which we move forward in America with everyone getting their way) into submission. This time they’ve pulled out one of their decades old hits, that “organization X is communist and they’re plotting to take over the US of A,” where X = Black Lives Matter (BLM).
I’m going to break this down for you. Is BLM a Marxist organization?
The answer is “Who gives a shit?”
“Oh you’d like that, wouldn’t you? You’d like them to turn us all communist.”
No, … you twit. My thesis is ‘it doesn’t matter’. I’m saying the fact that BLM may be Marxist is orthogonal to their utility to all of us right now. Yes, I say all of us, not just black Americans, and yes I said ‘orthogonal.’ Stay tuned to find out what that means.
Let’s start off with (dare I say) a common understanding, which is that the vast majority of recent protests have been motivated by the impunity that American police officers enjoy, particularly when committing violence against black people.
Now is the part where a right wing person says “BLM doesn’t do anything about black people killing other black people, so I hate them.”
How about I hate you for not doing anything about black people killing other black people? Why is it this one organization’s responsibility? How did you get to become the monarch who enumerates all the work to be done but doesn’t lift a finger?
I-M-P-U-N-I-T-Y. That means when a police officer unjustly kills a black person, it is unusual for them as perpetrator to pay a price for the murder. Contrast that with black-on-black violence, in which the perpetrator is tried, found guilty, and sent to prison.
We are concerned about the part where the cop gets to go home after his murder. That’s the part we are talking about. Okay?
So you see, black people killing other black people is orthogonal to the whole bloody, wretched point here.
Orthogonal. I promised a definition. It comes from math, where two vectors are 90 degrees apart from each other. The cosine of 90 degrees equals zero, so in math you say those two vectors’ similarity is ZERO. Practically, it means controlling one thing does not make another thing change. If I want my car to move forward, I don’t turn the steering wheel. If I want to dim my phone, I don’t adjust the volume. If I want police to be held accountable, I damn sure don’t look to black people who kill other black people.
In other words, if you were able to somehow control the rate at which black people kill other black people, you wouldn’t be controlling the level of impunity police have in America. The two goals are orthogonal and anyone who tries to conflate them either lacks integrity or understanding.
Now, back to Marxism. There’s no scenario in which people say “I like BLM, oh let me just elect a bunch of communists to run America now.” And somehow anti-cop-impunity-protest leaders convince the US, the most powerful nation this globe has ever seen, to follow Cuba, mi cholita favorita, and the collapsed Soviet Union, into the dumpster?
China is communist, but I guess they’re not black communists, since we love having China make all of our products for us. Imagine if BLM, instead of China, made our products for us. Bubba and his AK would never let that happen.
From the Black Lives Matter site’s ‘about us’ section: “abolition of systems and institutions of white supremacy, capitalism, patriarchy and colonialism.” If I imagine myself as a black American (it’s called empathy), who grew up in some Georgia rough area, who went to a public school (funded by property taxes- or lack thereof- where I grew up in this scenario), I would completely agree with the statement on the Black Lives Matter site. Not until black Americans’ economic situation improved would I ever think otherwise. In fact, I am amazed at how non-violent these past protests have been, because I don’t think I would be able to be that calm in this imagined scenario. But that’s why MLK Jr. is who he is and I am who I am (a middle class white guy who’s had several lucky breaks, and who would no doubt be a preferred job candidate over an equally qualified black person- this is called institutional rascism).
To just keep throwing up excuses like “marxism” condemns us to the perpetual situation we are in. I, and many others who grew up in this, are sick and tired of it. We don’t want to keep living in a world like this. I can’t choose to ignore the plight of my friends, relatives, and fellow citizens of color. BLM is pushing the issue of police impunity in the right direction, so I support it for that, and so should you.
I won’t support it for whatever its political philosophy is, neither would the majority of Americans. But again, that’s an orthogonal issue. An issue you ignore every time you purchase just about anything, since everything is made in China.
Lastly, had we learned anything from the 50,000+ American lives we wasted in Vietnam, and the violent dictatorships we covertly installed all over the Americas, and the McCarthyism that turned Americans against Americans, it would have been that bad ideologies fail on their own. They don’t need our help.
Have faith that we’re on the right side of history, with respect to our democratic republic and our capitalist society, and that in America, you are free to speak your mind, no matter if it’s about your love for Karl Marx or your love for Alex Jones. Anything less than that is (in the words of Sean Hannity and the rest of the old Iraq 2003 cheerleading squad) un-American. The American governmental institutions are the best worst option to last us until the inevitable collapse, asteroid strike, or heat death of the universe.
Thesis portion is over. Moving on to a digression now. Revisting the black-on-black violence thing.
Even 2013 Don Lemon is wrong. Why? Because (as you already know, you smart son-of-a-bitch) correlation does not equal causation. He got it wrong and he’s even black!
There isn’t data that concludes that any of the points made in his segment causes police impunity with respect to violence against black people, which, if it were true, would negate the utility of BLM (the original topic of this conversation).
On top of that, what do you want them to do about it (assuming you watched the old Don Lemon video linked to above and know what I’m talking about)? Do you think pulling up of pants, stopping the n-word from being said, or any other ‘thug-life’ such and such will magically make violence stop?
Yes you do, but of course, it won’t. It won’t because it’s family, economics, and education (FEE) that will stop it. You see there’s a FEE required (remember Team America? “freedom isn’t free, naw there’s a hefty fuckin’ fee”). Well, you and I can’t much do anything about the family part. We can’t force marriages on people, so we’re left with economics and education. We’re going to have to squeeze economics and education so hard that family shows up, in much the same way that you start a family of your own after you gain sufficient economic power and education… 🤯.
Economics allows someone time to educate themself. With the ability to not work over 50 hours per week, one’s cognitive decay through all the mind-draining retail hours is lessened. On top of that, education quality must be at a sufficient level for the time allotted to be worth the time spent. I’m just telling you the exact situation your white ass was raised in.
How’s the education quality in predominately black communities? Most of the time it’s not so good. Why is that? Because sound economics are required to create good education, and the economics of education lie in the property taxes raised by the community. Which community, you ask? The one that’s lacking in economics. No, not the one your white ass grew up in. The one in which your mom told you to lock your door when you drove through it as a kid.
In summary, instead of trying to tell people how to stop surviving in the situation that you and/or your ancestors led them to, get off your white ass and treat these people like the comrades that, after 400 years, they are and deserve to be!
Instead of talking about how their ideals are wrong and your ideals are right (News flash, they’re not always right. See Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s ban on face mask laws amidst thousands of Georgians perishing to their deaths due to airborne microbes in 2020). In fact, abandon all of your ideals, right or left, in favor of pragmatism. I will love you for it. | https://extranewsfeed.com/blm-is-marxist-run-for-your-comfortable-lives-7367acc6ded8 | ['Noah Randolph'] | 2020-07-25 01:22:06.637000+00:00 | ['BlackLivesMatter', 'Black On Black Crime', 'Republicans', 'Education', 'Marxism'] |
On Average, You’re Using the Wrong Average — Part II | Real World Data
While usually less docile than our simulated distributions, real world datasets often resemble at least one of the four classes above.
Normal distributions — the ballyhooed ‘bell curve’ — arise most often in natural & biological organisms & scenarios with few interactions. Height & weight are canonical examples. As such, my first instinct is to reach for the trusty iris dataset. It meets the requirement, but there’s just something underwhelming about n = 50 (the number of observations of a single species of flower in the dataset). I’m thinking bigger.
So let’s load the bigrquery package, & do bigRqueries.
library(bigrquery)
Google’s BigQuery makes available numerous public datasets of real data, some quite large, from genomics to patents to wikipedia article stats.
For our initial purposes, the natality dataset appears sufficiently biological:
project <- “YOUR-PROJECT-ID” sql <- “SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM `bigquery-public-data.samples.natality`” query_exec(sql, project = project, use_legacy_sql = F)
(protip: there’s lots of data here, & you get charged by the amount of data accessed, but your first TB per month is free. Further, while SELECT * is highly discouraged for obvious reasons, SELECT COUNT(*) is actually a free operation, & a good idea to scope things out)
Output:
0 bytes processed
f0_
1 137826763
That’s more like it, 137 million baby records. We don’t quite need all of those, so let’s randomly sample 1% of the baby weights, take the first million results & see what we get:
sql <- “SELECT weight_pounds
FROM `bigquery-public-data.samples.natality`
WHERE RAND() < .01” natal <- query_exec(sql, project = project, use_legacy_sql = F,
max_pages = 100)
Output:
Running job /: 7s:1.0 gigabytes processed
Warning message:
Only first 100 pages of size 10000 retrieved. Use max_pages = Inf to retrieve all.
hist(natal$weight_pounds) yields:
Normal af imo.
Now to find some multiplicative data with some skew, let’s move beyond the biological, to the sociological.
We’ll look at the New York dataset, which contains all sorts of urban info, including trips in yellow & green cabs.
sql <- “SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM `nyc-tlc.green.trips_2015`” query_exec(sql, project = project, use_legacy_sql = F)
Output:
0 bytes processed
f0_
1 9896012
Under 10 million, so lets grab trip distances for the whole thing:
(this can take a while)
sql <- "SELECT trip_distance FROM `nyc-tlc.green.trips_2015`" trips <- query_exec(sql, project = project, use_legacy_sql = F) hist(trips$trips_distance)
-_-
Looks like there are some extreme outliers pulling our x-axis out to 800 miles. Hell of a cab ride. Lets trim this down to trips under 20 miles & take another look:
trips$trip_distance %>% subset(. <= 20) %>% hist()
There we are, & with a telltale sign of a lognormal distribution: the long tail. Let’s check our data for lognormalcy by plotting the histogram of the logs:
trips$trip_distance %>% subset(. <= 20) %>% log() %>% hist()
Normalish for sure, but we overshot the mark a bit & now observe a bit of left-skew. Alas, the real world strikes again. But safe to say that a lognormal distribution wouldn’t be a completely preposterous model to employ here.
Moving on. Let’s find some more heavy-tailed data, this time in a domain closer to my own professional affinities of digital web analytics: the Github dataset:
sql <- "SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM `bigquery-public-data.samples.github_nested`" query_exec(sql, project = project, use_legacy_sql = F)
Output:
0 bytes processed
f0_
1 2541639
2.5 million rows. Since I’m starting to worry about my local machine’s memory, we’ll employ our random sampler & million row delimiter to get a count of “watchers” of each github repository:
sql <- “SELECT repository.watchers
FROM `bigquery-public-data.samples.github_nested`
WHERE RAND() < .5” github <- query_exec(sql, project = project, use_legacy_sql = F,
max_pages = 100) github$watchers %>% hist()
Again, extreme long tail dynamics, so let’s do some trimming:
github$watchers %>% subset(5 < . & . < 3000) %>% hist()
Exponential af.
But is it lognormal again?
github$watchers %>% subset(5 < . & . < 3000) %>% log() %>% hist()
Nay.
But behold the rare beast: the (approximately) LOGUNIFORM DISTRIBUTION!
Let’s take one more draw from the big data urn, this time looking at scores of Hacker News posts:
sql <- “SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM `bigquery-public-data.hacker_news.full`” query_exec(sql, project = project, use_legacy_sql = F)
Output:
0 bytes processed
f0_
1 16489224
…
sql <- “SELECT score
FROM `bigquery-public-data.hacker_news.full`
WHERE RAND() < .1” hn <- query_exec(sql, project = project, use_legacy_sql = F,
max_pages = 100) hn$score %>% hist()
…
hn$score %>% subset(10 < . & . <= 300) %>% hist()
A slower decay (once trimmed). And as for the log-transform?
hn$score %>% subset(10 < . & . <= 300) %>% log() %>% hist()
Again roughly loguniform with a rightward decay.
My cursory search for a power law distribution in the wild proved fruitless, which is perhaps not surprising as they are most often posited in network science (&, even there, appear to be scarcer than initially claimed).
In any event, lets organize our real world datasets as we did with our simulated distributions & plot them comparatively. We’ll normalize them & again center them around 100:
Now to plot: | https://towardsdatascience.com/on-average-youre-using-the-wrong-average-part-ii-b32fcb41527e | ['Daniel Mcnichol'] | 2018-07-14 15:59:21.788000+00:00 | ['Mathematics', 'Data Visualization', 'Data Science', 'R', 'Statistics'] |
Time is the best ingredient to show the urgency of a problem | In 2013 infographics were all the rage. My favourite ones were the ones published by the New York Times, Financial Times, and Le Monde. As these publications focus on news and historical events, time is always at the heart of their visualizations.
That’s rarely the case for business (info)graphics. And that’s a pity!
Your timeline tells your story, and that’s interesting for your customers
he same year we needed to create new roll-ups for the medical conferences where the company products were presented, so I started playing with the idea of building one as an infographic. I wanted a simple design (as I’m not a designer), an outline showing the big picture, and tiny graphics to explain the problems addressed by our solutions.
Connect your product’s history with events and important milestones in your specific domain
The next step was to gather actual historical data for medical publications, statistical references, national charts catalogues, product versions etc.
Quite soon the time appeared as a good perspective, as medical publications covered more than 70 years, while our solutions “only” existed for about 20 years.
Time is the single most important thread linking the historical data to your product’s value evolution
There are few problems unchanged year after year (except when there is no available solution yet). Timelines help you show this to your readers and make them aware of this evolution.
Likewise, the solutions space is changing all the time too. New solutions appear-some evolve, some stop following. Show your readers where your solution is placed in your domain by using the time scale.
Your turn now
How can you use the time to show the evolution of your product’s value?
Send me your questions and ideas via the Tiny Graphics mailing list.
PS
This last year was particularly rich in visualizations, see FT, Worldometer, and Le Monde. Interactivity took more importance than the visual side in helping the reader see how the indicators changed weekly and monthly. | https://medium.com/@mapopescu/time-is-the-best-ingredient-to-show-the-urgency-of-a-problem-e009807f1d36 | ['Marius Popescu'] | 2020-12-02 19:12:33.046000+00:00 | ['Graphics', 'Infographics', 'Dashboard Design', 'Data Visualization', 'Tiny'] |
Campus Contract Tracing with Blockchain | Written by Carl Vidrine and Noah Monastersky
Across the country universities are opening or preparing to open within an extraordinarily challenging environment. As places that have high potential for outbreaks, universities are attempting to use the best possible methods for testing and tracing COVID-19 cases on their campuses.
Contact Tracing
Contact tracing is at its core a simple and intuitive activity. If someone tests positive for SARS-Cov-2, the testing site or the healthcare facility that administered the test reports that information to the local public health department. That health department then contacts the infected person and asks them to identify people who they have encountered for a defined length of time prior to the test. From there the health department contacts those people to request that they receive a test. If any of those patients test positive, then the process is repeated until a set of all negative testing patients is reached. Often, health departments will advise patients who have tested positive of the amount of time that they need to remain in quarantine and will give them formal notification once they are “recovered”.
Yet what is not simple about the “test and trace” program is the logistical and administrative apparatus that enables it. To perform the above process correctly, several elements are needed:
Timely, accurate tests A system that enables patient information to be passed from provider, to public health department, to patient contacts A workforce to call patients and possible contacts
While none of this infrastructure existed at the beginning of the pandemic, all elements are now developed to varying extents here in the United States. Tests are reliable and are reaching viable quantities, and the workforce of contact tracers has surged, but the system for communicating information is still very fragmented and exists almost entirely within state and local government domains.
Technological Challenges
Many proposed solutions to contact tracing are premised on a level of privacy invasion that is unpopular and ultimately unacceptable to most Americans and most students. Any solution that allows for the successful implementation of a testing and tracing regime will need to provide a satisfactory answer to questions and concerns about privacy inherent in any system of tracing, especially on college campuses where legal and privacy concerns are enhanced.
Initial attempts to surmount the challenges surrounding the technology system were based upon the smartphone geo-location data that is generated by nearly everyone in the US. Under these systems a positive test result could be entered into the smartphone, upon receipt of this information the phone would leverage the geolocation database and ping every phone that had been within 6 feet of its location a message that stated the owner of the phone had come into contact with someone who had been infected and that they should submit for a test.
Given that case counts continue to increase across the nation despite the best efforts of state and local governments, colleges and universities are wondering how they can provide a level of contact tracing internally, in order to enable a return to work of employees and students. Since testing is publicly available and institutions have the capacity to contact their own employees, the primary challenge they encounter is preparing a system for tracking and using the data. Our solution imagines the application of blockchain technology to the university setting, as the reopening of educational institutions is the highest national priority at this time.
Blockchain Based Solution
Most current universities have health systems that monitor student’s physical records and general health. As universities approach the re-opening of campuses, university health departments must designate a testing interim for their students and staff and feed those test results into their health systems. While current health systems are adequate at storing general health information, they are not effective at processing large amounts of tests and determining if students are infecting each other. Furthermore, most current healthcare systems provide access to groups, such as billing specialists, that do not need access to COVID-19 test results. As additional data in the form of COVID-19 test results are added to the health systems, it is critical that universities limit the access to this sensitive information.
Currently, most universities and healthcare facilities are leveraging standard relational databases (i.e., SQL) to store student health records. This type of data storage insufficiently protects student health records; as this type of data storage provides too many user groups access to students health records and the security of these data storage systems is often obsolete.
In contrast, blockchain technology can anonymize patient records and provide further levels of security to ensure the security of student’s health records. Through linking test results to a student’s public/private key instead of their university ID, the name or identity of students cannot be found through simply viewing or querying the blockchain. Additionally, since all records on the blockchain are cryptographically signed, bad actors cannot alter a record without invalidating all future records. Further safeguards can be added on to restrict what information an individual can view on the blockchain using identity access management software.
Atlas Research has built a blockchain solution that builds upon existing healthcare systems by incorporating student relationships and interactions with other students and staff, to more quickly identify and quarantine students that have been contaminated. The blockchain would store test results in the form of transactions, and have built in relationships that interconnect students that live in close proximity or students that share similar in-person classes. Should a student test positively, smart contracts will be executed to inform contaminated and related students to quarantine.
Before students arrive on campus, universities will work to identify and record relationships between students. Our system defines relationships as students that will often be in close proximity to each other based on shared living arrangements or are enrolled in the same in-person class. To populate this data, universities will extract each student’s class schedule and require students to self-report who they are living with. Additionally, universities can track which students are present in common areas (i.e., libraries, cafeterias) by reviewing when they swipe in and out. Once these relationships are defined, smart contracts are written to create linkages between any one student and any student they share relationships with.
Once test results are administered, they are automatically sent to the blockchain where they are stored. As discussed above, data stored on the blockchain is both secure and immutable, so students do not need to worry about the accuracy or safety of their test results. If a student’s test result is returned as negative, a smart contract will be executed identifying that student as not contaminated. No further action will be required for that student.
When a student tests positive for COVID-19, the blockchain will send them notice to quarantine. The blockchain will also send additional quarantine notices to additional students, based on who the infected student shares living and class relationships with as well as who the infected student has interacted with.
Our blockchain will store keys, relating to each student’s dormitory and classes. This is stored in a way that each individual dormitory or class is given a unique key, however it is possible for multiple students to share the same dormitory/class key. Should a student get contaminated, our system will identify all dormitory and class keys for that student and query the blockchain for each of those keys. All students that commonly share one of the same dormitory or class keys will be sent a quarantine notice as well.
References: | https://medium.com/atlas-research/university-campus-contract-tracing-with-blockchain-f205d7c1f7df | ['Noah Monastersky'] | 2020-09-15 13:44:50.615000+00:00 | ['Data Management', 'Contact Tracing', 'Data Science', 'Covid 19', 'Blockchain'] |
How to remove PostgresSQL on ubuntu 18.04 | 1. sudo apt-get — purge remove postgresql
firdaus@firdaus-testing-server1:~$ sudo apt-get — purge remove postgresql
[sudo] password for firdaus:
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
postgresql*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 43 not upgraded.
After this operation, 66,6 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y
(Reading database … 192250 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing postgresql (11+204.pgdg18.04+1) …
2. dpkg -l | grep postgres
firdaus@firdaus-testing-server1:~$ dpkg -l | grep postgres
ii pgdg-keyring 2018.2 all keyring for apt.postgresql.org
ii postgresql-11 11.5–1.pgdg18.04+1 amd64 object-relational SQL database, version 11 server
ii postgresql-client-11 11.5–1.pgdg18.04+1 amd64 front-end programs for PostgreSQL 11
ii postgresql-client-common 204.pgdg18.04+1 all manager for multiple PostgreSQL client versions
ii postgresql-common 204.pgdg18.04+1 all PostgreSQL database-cluster manager
3. sudo apt-get — purge remove pgdg-keyring postgresql*
4. sudo rm -rf /var/lib/postgresql/ #directory data postgresql
5. sudo rm -rf /var/log/postgresql/ #directory log postgresql
6. sudo rm -rf /etc/postgresql/ #directory base postgresql
7. sudo deluser postgres
8. sudo delgroup postgres | https://medium.com/@mr.firdaus/how-to-remove-postgressql-on-ubuntu-18-04-c39459e72f29 | [] | 2019-09-05 06:56:46.169000+00:00 | ['Postgresql', 'Ubuntu'] |
Bitcoin and Ethereum Price Predictions | Bitcoin and Ethereum will coexist going into the future (along with many more tokens issued by governments and companies). Ethereum will become worth more than Bitcoin long-term as the world tokenizes.
First, let’s start with Bitcoin. Bitcoin is digital gold and will continue as a “store of value”. Long-term future concerns about quantum computers stealing private keys will be solved in the future (for Bitcoin and Ethereum). Crypto Financial Planning’s long-term price target on Bitcoin is $500,000. Many more individuals and companies will store more wealth with Bitcoin to enable this valuation. $500,000 would be the start for Bitcoin as it represents a market share of total global wealth. Bitcoin’s longer-term potential could go to $1,000,000+.
Secondly, there’s Ethereum. For Ethereum’s success to be realized, Ethereum 2.0 needs to be fully rolled out. Although there are good ways to tokenize assets on Bitcoin Cash and other protocols, currently, Ethereum has the most developers (by far). Companies will learn the power of being able to tokenize assets and Ethereum should be a major beneficiary. Companies will create their own tokens using Ethereum’s network. Usage of Ethereum will go off the charts as global economic money flows onto the Ethereum network. Investors (people and institutions) will buy lots of different Ethereum based tokens that pay them income. This more efficient way to structure capital will also enable more DeFi on Ethereum. Sure, some will transition their wealth into Bitcoin since Bitcoin is digital gold. But, real cash flow and income will be derived from tokens on the Ethereum network. Crypto Financial Planning’s price target of $100,000 for Ethereum is just the start as there appears to be a path for Ethereum to reach $200,000+ based on even more tokenization and future decentralized autonomous organizations.
Governments around the world will tokenize their respective currencies and there will be an ability to “move” between a country’s digital currency and Ethereum and Bitcoin.
Bitcoin will probably achieve $500,000 before Ethereum achieves $100,000 since Ethereum 2.0 still needs to fully roll out and companies will need to develop their tokens. Other cryptocurrencies will exist, too, but it appears Bitcoin and Ethereum will be able to maintain and grow their market shares with Ethereum representing the highest potential growth. | https://medium.com/@cryptofinancialplanning/bitcoin-and-ethereum-price-predictions-c12f32e413e7 | ['Crypto Financial Planning'] | 2020-12-23 15:48:06.896000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Token Economy', 'Token', 'Ethereum', 'Bitcoin'] |
I almost skipped over the Netflix movie, “The Fundamentals of Caring,” because the title, while appropriate, didn’t capture my interest. It would have been a mistake to have missed it. In this… | Iurii/DepositPhoto/4986491
I almost skipped over the Netflix movie, “The Fundamentals of Caring,” because the title, while appropriate, didn’t capture my interest. It would have been a mistake to have missed it.
In this delightful and amusing coming-of-age story, the movie captures both the rewards and frustrations of being a caregiver and a care-receiver.
How often we forget people with disabilities have sexual desires!
Trevor (Craig Roberts) plays a young man with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Ben (Paul Rudd), Trevor’s caregiver, is dealing with his own losses. Janet (Julia Denton) plays the over-protective mother.
It is a sensitive and funny portrayal of the interactions of the caregivers and the care-receiver.
Every man I know will identify with Trevor as he achieves his greatest wish. | https://medium.com/beingwell/i-almost-skipped-over-the-netflix-movie-the-fundamentals-of-caregiving-because-the-title-9fb11decabce | ['Loren A Olson Md'] | 2020-12-28 02:17:40.140000+00:00 | ['Relationships Love Dating', 'Coming Of Age', 'Disability', 'Caregiving', 'Medicine'] |
Why the FDA Was Correct in Approving Biogen’s Aducanumab | GLG Council Member, Anton Porsteinsson, MD
The Food and Drug Administration on June 7 approved the first drug in 18 years intended to treat Alzheimer’s disease, aducanumab, despite its advisory committee and Alzheimer’s experts citing a lack of evidence that the drug works. In response, three scientists who served on the advisory committee resigned.
To get a handle on the approval of the drug, branded as Aduhelm and manufactured by Biogen, Eric Dimise of GLG’s Healthcare Events team spoke with Dr. Anton Porsteinsson, Director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Care, Research and Education Program at the University of Rochester. There, he has spent more than a decade as the principal investigator of Biogen’s clinical trial for aducanumab. Below are a few select excerpts from our broader discussion.
What was your gut response to aducanumab’s approval?
First excitement, followed by caution. I would have wanted to see a more traditional approval based on therapeutic benefit in one study. But it feels to me like the FDA was trying to thread a needle here, not really ignoring the input from the advisory board, but trying to stick with the overall positive impression that the clinical team at the FDA appeared to have toward the EMERGE data in particular.
There is a provisional path to approval available to the FDA. This is a drug that treats a serious condition with a meaningful advantage over available therapies. It demonstrates an effect on a surrogate endpoint that is reasonably likely to predict clinical benefit. In this situation, the approval was based on aducanumab’s well-established reduction of amyloid plaque burden.
The label — “for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease” — was a surprise, and the approval as an amyloid-lowering agent was a surprise to me. You’d expect that people with elevated amyloid have Alzheimer’s disease. There was no clarity on the severity in the label. There was no clarity on required biomarker verification. This drug isn’t for everyone with elevated amyloid. Much is now left for payers and clinicians to decide. We need to define who are the appropriate patients and what the clinical and safety monitoring should be.
What’s the patient demand for a drug like this? Do you see a situation where you’re going to have to have difficult conversations with patients, saying, “I know this drug is approved, but we’re not ready to give it to you yet”?
There’s been a lot of media coverage, and people are certainly desperate for hope when it comes to Alzheimer’s disease. First, we need the media firestorm to settle down. People jump on the mention of just about anything that might help patients with Alzheimer’s. Obviously, aducanumab is not available right now. It will take some time to get into distribution, and there is still a limited bandwidth in terms of the appropriate infusion centers, biomarker verification, etc. This will ramp up slowly.
With some of my patients who are in a more advanced stage, I’ve already had the difficult conversation where I say, “I do not believe that this medication will be of any help or benefit to your loved one.” We have no data to suggest that this is a reasonable therapeutic option for people in the severe stage of Alzheimer’s disease. We also don’t have evidence for using this drug in patients that have no cognitive impairment but have biomarker evidence of the Alzheimer’s disease pathological process. Participants in the phase III studies of aducanumab had early symptomatic Alzheimer’s — that is mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s. These are the appropriate patients for aducanumab at this point.
I’ve been clear with colleagues and others that we need to be thoughtful, careful, and measured in terms of making the right decisions regarding patient selection and safety/tolerability monitoring. People that disagree with the FDA decision will watch aducanumab closely. If things don’t go well, we’ll hear “We told you so,” and that will hurt the field.
I understand why some of my colleagues see this approval differently. You have two studies, one convincingly positive, the other convincingly negative. The fact is that this medication, for the right patients, may provide a modest but meaningful delay in the progression of disease in the form of 20% to 40% delay in progression compared with placebo. But there is a meaningful risk of tolerability problems, adverse events such as vasogenic edema, and micro-hemorrhages that are manageable but require careful monitoring. We need to take a very sober approach to this and be careful about what we know and what we do not.
Could physicians follow through on not prescribing the drug even though it’s approved?
Every doctor will make their own decision. My hope is that we can meet in the middle. I was supportive of the approval, but I’m cautious and measured. But some of my colleagues who are concerned have said publicly they’ll never prescribe it. Still others say they will reluctantly prescribe it after expressing their concerns to their patients. I hope my reluctant colleagues opt for the latter as their patients need their expertise and ongoing care. The Alzheimer’s disease field is small. We get along quite well. Even if we disagree, we’re on a similar mission. We want to see better treatments and better options. We’ll find a way to work through this controversy. While aducanumab may be first in class, we do not want it to remain best in class for long.
Biogen announced the list price of Aduhelm would be $56,000 a year. How big of a barrier will the cost of the drug be for patients?
The cost was higher than I anticipated. I hear Biogen when it says that compared with some other treatments, this is not outsized. But it’s twice as expensive as I expected. That’s just the direct price — you also have to pay for the biomarker verification, at least three MRIs in the first year, and some people have to do a few more if they develop amyloid-related imaging abnormalities. Then there’s the infusions and clinical monitoring as well. Put together, it could be up to $30,000 in the first year, then less in subsequent years. It’s very expensive, and it will be important to see what payers do. They’re probably scrambling right now to try to calculate what they might have to expect in terms of numbers of patients and overall cost if this is something that they feel obligated to approve. | https://smarter.glg.it/why-the-fda-was-correct-in-approving-biogens-aducanumab-4d994e57790b | [] | 2021-07-15 15:24:53.847000+00:00 | ['Healthcare', 'Alzheimers', 'Biogen', 'FDA', 'Pharmaceutical'] |
What Is Blockchain App Testing? | QAble | Cryptocurrency, like bitcoin and others, was the topic for discussion in the last few years. The extensive growth in the sector has made this concept so popular, and people started looking for the base idea, and it was “Blockchain”.
Due to immense growth Blockchain, gained the attention of users. Leading organizations of the world have adopted the concept by seeing massive growth in it. A major use of Blockchain is in the financial and investment sector where the security of funds need protection.
The world of information technology has entered into a new era with the foundation of Blockchain, and here we need to understand the skillsets required, for Blockchain App Testing. If you are looking to gain some knowledge about blockchain app testing, this article is worthy.
Before moving into the depth of testing, let’s understand the concept of Blockchain first. It is a data structure that shows its presence at multiple locations at the same time. The system only permits the addition of data and blocks the action of deletion or updates.
Blockchain is a secure system because of its decentralized database, and hence it works on multiple machines simultaneously. Once anyone adds data, it becomes visible at all systems of the network, and the transactions are under cryptographical links with one another. This fact reduces the chance of fraud, and hence finance sector prefers to use Blockchain technology.
Various types of testing performed on Blockchain applications:
Similar to all other software, blockchain applications also demand to test. As technology is known for security and safety, its quality assurance becomes a mandate.
Hence here we will discuss the various types of blockchain application testing.
Unit Testing
Integration Testing
Usability or User Interface Testing
API Testing
Functional Testing
Performance Testing
Detailed description of types of Blockchain App Testing
Unit Testing : As the name specifies, here we test codes in smaller sections. During testing, the Tester ensures the functional behavior of each unit in order to maintain stability. Rectification of bugs from unit testing maintains the performance of the end product.
: As the name specifies, here we test codes in smaller sections. During testing, the Tester ensures the functional behavior of each unit in order to maintain stability. Rectification of bugs from unit testing maintains the performance of the end product. Integration Testing : After completion of each module of code, their integration takes place. Furthermore, Integration Testing ensures the compatibility of various components like databases and servers. In many cases, bugs come after the merging of codes, hence testing becomes important.
: After completion of each module of code, their integration takes place. Furthermore, Integration Testing ensures the compatibility of various components like databases and servers. In many cases, bugs come after the merging of codes, hence testing becomes important. Usability or User Interface Testing : Blockchain applications should be user friendly. By keeping the comfort of end-users, Testers perform Usability Testing. This phase of testing intends to maintain screen resolutions, text visibility, color coordination, attractive graphics, etc.
: Blockchain applications should be user friendly. By keeping the comfort of end-users, Testers perform Usability Testing. This phase of testing intends to maintain screen resolutions, text visibility, color coordination, attractive graphics, etc. API Testing : Sometimes, blockchain application development involves API (Application Programming Interface). These APIs can be from internal or external sources. The testing team should ensure the accurate response of the used APIs so that the functionality of the application could not get hampered. Smart contracts are the concept used in blockchain technology to validate the response of APIs used in the application.
: Sometimes, involves API (Application Programming Interface). These APIs can be from internal or external sources. The testing team should ensure the accurate response of the used APIs so that the functionality of the application could not get hampered. Smart contracts are the concept used in blockchain technology to validate the response of APIs used in the application. Functional Testing : The testing ensures the functional behavior of blockchain applications under various environments. The QA team starts with the requirement document and matches it with the product. They highlight the gap between them and forward it to the development team.
: The testing ensures the functional behavior of blockchain applications under various environments. The starts with the requirement document and matches it with the product. They highlight the gap between them and forward it to the development team. Performance Testing: How a blockchain application performs under various circumstances? To improvise the performance of an application under various conditions, the team executes performance testing. For example, how an app will respond if its battery is almost exhausted? What will happen if a call comes while using the app? The application should generate an error without internet. All these types of scenarios are checked during performance testing.
Now, let’s understand some of the tools.
Most innovative tools for Blockchain Application Testing: -
Testing always improvises the speed and performance of an application by reducing the bugs and risks. In the same series, we have some powerful tools that are getting use to test Blockchain Application Testing. | https://medium.com/@qableio/what-is-blockchain-app-testing-qable-8808163c131 | ['Qable Testlab Private Limited'] | 2020-12-28 10:00:22.832000+00:00 | ['Outsourcing', 'QA', 'Software Testing', 'Blockchain Application', 'Software Development'] |
How we did it: End-to-end deep learning in ArcGIS | Oil and gas is a huge industry in the United States, and is currently experiencing a boom in the Permian Basin. This oil-rich region stretches from western Texas to eastern New Mexico. Each day, hundreds of new well pads appear across the landscape, making it difficult for regulators to keep up with. But unregistered well pads are both a safety hazard and a missed opportunity for revenue for agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management.
At the plenary session of this year’s Esri Developer Summit, we demonstrated an end-to-end deep learning workflow to find unregistered well pads, using ArcGIS Notebooks. This can help regulators monitor the progress of new drilling on their land as well as look for potential illegal drilling.
Well Pads detected using deep learning. The ones highlighted in blue are not currently listed in the permits database.
The full workflow, from exporting training data and training a deep learning model to detecting objects across a large landscape, can be done using the ArcGIS API for Python. This blog article, originally written as an ArcGIS Notebook, shows how we did this with the help of the arcgis.learn module.
Geospatial deep learning
The field of artificial intelligence (AI) has progressed rapidly in recent years, matching or in some cases, even surpassing human accuracy. Broadly speaking, AI is the ability of computers to perform a task that typically requires some level of human intelligence. Machine learning is one type of engine that makes this possible, and uses data driven algorithms to learn from data to give you the answers that you need. One type of machine learning that has emerged recently is deep learning. Deep learning refers to deep neural networks, that are inspired from and loosely resemble the human brain.
The arcgis.learn module includes tools that support machine learning and deep learning workflows with geospatial data. This blog post focuses on deep learning with satellite imagery.
Applying Computer Vision to geospatial imagery
One area of AI where deep learning has done exceedingly well is computer vision, i.e. the ability for computers to ‘see’. This is particularly useful for GIS, as satellite, aerial and drone imagery is being produced at a rate that makes it impossible to analyse and derive insight from through traditional means. Object detection and pixel classification are among the most important computer vision tasks and are particularly useful for spatial analysis.
Object Detection involves finding objects within an image as well as their location in terms of bounding boxes. Finding what is in satellite, aerial or drone imagery, and where, and plotting it on a map can be used for infrastructure mapping, anomaly detection and feature extraction.
involves finding objects within an image as well as their location in terms of bounding boxes. Finding what is in satellite, aerial or drone imagery, and where, and plotting it on a map can be used for infrastructure mapping, anomaly detection and feature extraction. Pixel Classification, also referred to as image segmentation, involves classifying each pixel of an image as belonging to a particular class. In GIS, segmentation can be used for Land Cover Classification or for extracting roads or buildings from satellite imagery.
ArcGIS has tools to help with every step of the deep learning workflow including data preparation and exploratory data analysis, training deep learning models, deploying them for inferencing and finally disseminating results using web layers and maps and driving field activity.
ArcGIS Pro includes tools for labeling features and exporting training data for deep learning workflows and has being enhanced for deploying trained models for feature extraction or classification. ArcGIS Image Server in the ArcGIS Enterprise 10.7 release has similar capabilities and allow deploying deep learning models at scale by leveraging distributed computing. ArcGIS Notebooks provide one-click access to pre-configured Jupyter Notebooks along with the necessary deep learning libraries and a gallery of starter notebooks that show how deep learning models can be easily trained and deployed.
The arcgis.learn module
The arcgis.learn module in ArcGIS API for Python enable GIS analysts and data scientists to easily adopt and apply deep learning in their workflows. It enables training state-of-the-art deep learning models with a simple, intuitive API. By adopting the latest research in deep learning, it allows for much faster training and removes guesswork in the deep learning process. It integrates seamlessly with the ArcGIS platform by consuming the exported training samples directly, and the models that it creates can be used directly for inferencing (object detection and pixel classification) in ArcGIS Pro and Image Server.
This module includes methods and classes for:
Exporting Training Data
Data Preparation
Model Training
Model Management
Inference
Prerequisites
Data preparation, augmentation and model training workflows using arcgis.learn have a dependency on PyTorch and fast.ai deep learning libraries.
If you are using ArcGIS Notebook Server, the dependencies are already installed.
In the ArcGIS Pro 2.3 Python environment, the dependencies need to be installed using these commands:
conda install -c conda-forge spacy
conda install -c pytorch pytorch=1.0.0 torchvision
conda install -c fastai fastai=1.0.39
conda install -c arcgis arcgis=1.6.0 --no-pin
Otherwise, in a new conda environment, issue the following commands:
conda install -c fastai -c pytorch -c esri fastai=1.0.39 pytorch=1.0.0 torchvision arcgis=1.6.0
Object Detection with arcgis.learn
Deep learning models ‘learn’ by looking at several examples of imagery and the expected outputs. In the case of object detection, this requires imagery as well as known (or labelled) locations of objects that the model can learn from. With the ArcGIS platform, these datasets are represented as layers, and are available in our GIS.
In the workflow below, we will be training a model to identify well pads from Sentinel-2 imagery. Sentinel-2 is an Earth observation mission developed by ESA as part of the Copernicus Programme to perform terrestrial observations in support of services such as forest monitoring, land cover change detection, and natural disaster management.
In this analysis, data downloaded from https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ has been used for creating hosted image service in our GIS. The code below connects to our GIS and accesses the known well pad locations and the Sentinel imagery:
from arcgis.gis import GIS
from arcgis.raster.functions import apply
from arcgis.learn import export_training_data
gis = GIS("home") # layers we need - The input to generate training samples and the imagery
well_pads = gis.content.get('ae6f1c62027c42b8a88c4cf5deb86bbf') # Well pads layer
well_pads
# Sentinel-2 imagery published to portal
sentinel_item = gis.content.get("15c1069f84eb40ff90940c0299f31abc")
sentinel_item
Exporting Training Samples
The export_training_data() method generates training samples for training deep learning models, given the input imagery, along with labeled vector data or classified images. Deep learning training samples are small subimages, called image chips, and contain the feature or class of interest. This tool creates folders containing image chips for training the model, labels and metadata files and stores them in the raster store of your enterprise GIS. The image chips are often small, such as 256 pixel rows by 256 pixel columns, unless the training sample size is larger. These training samples support model training workflows using the arcgis.learn package as well as by third-party deep learning libraries, such as TensorFlow or PyTorch.
The object detection models in arcgis.learn accept training samples in the PASCAL_VOC_rectangles (Pattern Analysis, Statistical Modeling and Computational Learning, Visual Object Classes) format. The PASCAL VOC dataset is a standardized image dataset for object class recognition. The label files are XML files and contain information about image name, class value, and bounding boxes.
The models in arcgis.learn take advantage of pretrained models, that have been trained on large image collections, such as ImageNet, and fine tune them on satellite imagery. Pretrained models like these are excellent feature extractors and can be fine-tuned relatively easily on another task or different imagery without needing as much data. However, since the photographs that these models have been trained on contain only 3 channels (Red, Green Blue), we cannot take advantage of all the bands available in multispectral imagery, and need to pick 3.
The extract_bands() method can be used to specify which 3 bands should be extracted for fine tuning the models. In our analysis, we will be using the pre-configured ‘Natural Color with Dynamic Rage Adjustment(DRA)’ raster function:
sentinel_data = apply(sentinel_item.layers[0], 'Natural Color with DRA', astype='U8')
For better training, image chips should be exported with a larger size than that used for training the models. This allows arcgis.learn to perform random center cropping as part of it's default data augmentation and makes the model see a different sub-area of each chip when training leading to better generalization and avoid overfitting to the training data. By default, a chip size of 448 x 448 pixels works well, but this can be adjusted based on the amount of context you wish to provide to the model, as well as the amount of GPU memory available.
Here, we are exporting the training data for our model in the well_pads folder:
export_training_data(sentinel_data, well_pads, "PNG",
{"x":448,"y":448}, {"x":224,"y":224},
"PASCAL_VOC_rectangles", 75,
"well_pads")
Data Preparation
Once the training samples have been exported, they need to be fed into the model for training. Data preparation can be a time consuming process that involves collating and massaging the training chips and labels into the specific format needed by each deep learning model.
Typical data processing piplelines involve splitting the data into training and validation sets, applying various data augmentation techniques, creating the necessary data structures for loading data into the model, setting the appropriate batch size and so on. arcgis.learn automates all these time consuming tasks and the prepare_data() method can directly read the training samples exported by ArcGIS. The prepare_data() method inspects the format of the training samples exported by export_training_data tool in ArcGIS Pro or Image Server (whether for object detection or pixel classification) and constructs the appropriate fast.ai DataBunch from it. This DataBunch consists of training and validation DataLoader s with the specified transformations for data augmentations, chip size, batch size, and split percentage for train-validation split.
By default, prepare_data uses a default set of transforms for data augmentation, that work well for satellite imagery. These transforms randomly rotate, scale and flip the images so the model sees a different image each time. This helps the model generalize better and not just ‘remember’ or overfit to the specific images in the training set. Alternatively, users can compose their own transforms using fast.ai transforms for the specific data augmentations they wish to perform.
from arcgis.learn import prepare_data data = prepare_data('/arcgis/directories/rasterstore/well_pads',
{0: ' Pad'})
The show_batch() method can be used to visualize the exported training samples, along with labels, after data augmentation transformations have been applied.
data.show_batch()
Model Training
arcgis.learn includes support for training deep learning models for object detection. Support for training pixel classification model is coming in the next release.
The models in arcgis.learn are based upon pretrained Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs, or in short, convnets) that have been trained on millions of common images such as those in the ImageNet dataset for image classification tasks. These CNNs (such as Resnet, VGG, Inception, etc.) can classify what’s in an image by basing their decision on features that they learn to identify in those images. In particular, they use a hierarchy of layers, with the earlier layers learning to identify simple features like edges and blobs, middle layers combining these primitive features to identify corners and object parts and the later layers combining the inputs from these in unique ways to grasp what the whole image is about (i.e. the semantic meaning). The final layer in a typical convnet is a ‘fully connected’ layer that looks at all the extracted semantic meaning in the form of feature maps across the whole image and essentially does a weighted sum of these to come up with a probability of each object class (whether its an image of a cat or a dog, or whatever).
A convnet trained on a huge corpus of images such as ImageNet is thus considered as a ready-to-use feature extractor. We could replace the last few layers of these convnets and substitute it with something else that uses those features for other useful tasks, such as object detection and pixel classification.
The arcgis.learn module is based on PyTorch and fast.ai and enables fine-tuning of pretrained torchvision models on satellite imagery. Pretrained models like these are excellent feature extractors and can be fine-tuned relatively easily on another task or different imagery without needing as much data. The arcgis.learn models leverages fast.ai's learning rate finder and one-cycle learning, and allows for much faster training and removes guesswork in the deep learning process.
arcgis.learn includes the SingleShotDetector model (based on Fast.ai MOOC Version2 Lesson 9) for object detection tasks. A pretrained convnet, like ResNet , acts as the 'backbone' upon which the SingleShotDetector model is based, or as the 'encoder' part of the upcoming UnetClassifier .
Object Detection using SingleShotDetector
Once we have a good image classifier, a simple way to detect objects is to slide a ‘window’ across the image and classify whether the image in that window (cropped out region of the image) is of the desired type. However, this is terribly inefficient as we need to look for objects everywhere in the image, and at different scales, as the objects might be larger or smaller. This requires multiple passes of regions of the image through the image classifier which is computationally infeasible. Another class of object detection networks (like R-CNN and Fast(er) R-CNN) use a two stage approach — first to identify regions where objects are expected to be found and then running those region proposals through the convnet for classifying and creating bounding boxes around them.
The latest generation of object detection networks such as YOLO (You Only Look Once) and SSD (Single-Shot Detector) use a fully convolutional approach in which the network is able to find all objects within an image in one pass (hence ‘single-shot’ or ‘look once’) through the convnet.
“SSD: Single Shot MultiBox Detector”, 2015; arXiv:1512.02325.
Instead of using a region proposal networks to come up with candidate locations of prospective objects, the Single Shot MultiBox Detector (on which the SingleShotDetector is modeled) divides up the image using a grid with each grid cell responsible for predicting which object (if any) lies in it and where.
Backbone SSD uses a pre-trained image classification network as a feature extractor. This is typically a network like ResNet trained on ImageNet, from which the final fully connected layers to come up with the predicted class of an input image have been removed. We are thus left with a deep neural network that is able to extract semantic meaning from the input image while preserving the spatial structure of the image albeit at a lower resolution. For ResNet34 the backbone results in a 256 7x7 ‘feature maps’ of activations for each input image. Each of these 256 feature maps can be interpreted as a grid of 7x7 activations that fire up when a particular feature is detected in the image. In the SSD architecture, one or more convolutional layers are added to this backbone and the outputs are interpreted as the bounding boxes and classes of objects in the spatial location of the final layer’s activations.
Receptive Field Convolutional neural networks preserve the spatial structure of an image because of the way the convolution operation is applied. A learnable filter slides over the image from left to right and top to bottom and the activations represent how similar that part of the image is to the filter. Each activation in the output feature map is thus ‘looking at’ that region of the previous feature map (and ultimately the image because a deep CNN has multiple such convolutional layers). The part of the image that is ultimately responsible for an activation in a feature map is referred to as the ‘receptive field’ of that activation. Each activation in the output feature map has ‘seen’ that part of the image more than any other activation and is it natural to expect that activation to contain the most information needed to detect objects in its receptive field. This is the central premise of the SSD architecture.
As it’s possible for multiple objects to occupy a grid cell, and for the objects to have a different sizes or aspect ratios, each grid cell has several assigned anchor boxes (also known as prior boxes) — one for each possible object size and aspect ratio within that grid cell. SSD uses a matching phase while training, to match the appropriate anchor box with the bounding boxes of each ground truth object within an image. Essentially, the anchor box with the highest degree of overlap with an object is responsible for predicting that object’s class and its location. This property is used for training the network and for predicting the detected objects and their locations once the network has been trained.
Having a knowledge of the SingleShotDetector architecture and how the anchor boxes are specified using grid cells, aspect ratios and zoom levels allows one to design a suitable model for the object detection task at hand. If the objects you are detecting are all of roughly the same size, you can simplify the network architecture by using just one scale of the anchor boxes. A simpler network is easier to train. More powerful networks can detect multiple overlapping objects of varying sizes and aspect ratios, but need more data and computation for training.
Grid cells A simple way to detect multiple objects in an image is to divide the image using a grid and have each grid cell be responsible for detecting objects in that region of the image. Detecting objects simply means predicting the class(type) and location of an object within that region. If no object is present, we consider it as the background class and the location is ignored.
In the SSD architecture, we add additional convolutional layers to the backbone network and architect the additional layers in such a manner that the spatial size of the final layer is the same as the size of the grid we are using. The depth of the final feature map is used to predict the class of the object within the grid cell and it’s bounding box. This allows SSD to be a fully convolutional network that is fast and efficient, while taking advantage of the receptive field of each grid cell to detect objects within that grid cell.
For instance, we could use a 4x4 grid to detect objects in an image, when we see that their size is such that approximately 16 of them could occupy an image chip (4 on a side).
Such an SSD architecture can be created using:
ssd = SingleShotDetector(data, grids=[4], zooms=[1.0], ratios=[[1.0, 1.0]])
The grids parameter specifies the size of the grid cell, in this case 4x4. Additionally, we are specifying a zoom level of 1.0 and aspect ratio of 1.0:1.0. What this essentially means is that the network will create an anchor box (or prior box, as its known in other places) for each grid cell, which is the same size as the grid cell (zoom level of 1.0) and is square in shape with an aspect ratio of 1.0:1.0 The output activations along the depth of the final feature map are used to shift and scale this anchor box (within a reasonable limit) so it can approach the actual bounding box of the object even if it doesn’t exactly line up with the anchor box.
We might be interested in several layers or hierarchies of grid cells. For example, we could use a 4x4 grid to find smaller objects, a 2x2 grid to find mid sized objects and a 1x1 grid to find objects that cover the entire image. That can be done by specifying [4, 2, 1] as the grids parameter.
Zoom levels/scales
Cars and Pools have different scales
It is not necessary for the anchor boxes to have the same size as the grid cell. We might be interested in finding smaller or larger objects within a grid cell. The zooms parameter is used to specify how much the anchor boxes need to be scaled up or down with respect to each grid cell.
Aspect ratios
Not all objects are square in shape. Some are longer and some are wider, by varying degrees. The SSD architecture allows pre-defined aspect ratios of the anchor boxes to account for this. The ratios parameter can be used to specify the different aspect ratios of the anchor boxes associates with each grid cell at each zoom/scale level.
Having multiple anchor boxes per grid cell with different aspect ratios and at different scales, while also allowing for multiple hierarchies of grid cells results in a profusion of potential anchor boxes that are candidates for matching the ground truth while training, and for prediction.
Creating SingleShotDetector Model
Since the image chips visualized in the section above indicate that most well pads are roughly of the same size and square in shape, we can keep an aspect ratio of 1:1 and zoom (scale) of 1. This will help simplify the model and make it easier to train. Also, since the size of well pads in the image chips is such that approximately nine could fit side by side, we can keep a grid size of 9.
We then create a Single Shot Detector with a specified grid size, zoom scale and aspect ratio:
from arcgis.learn import SingleShotDetector ssd = SingleShotDetector(data, grids=[9], zooms=[1.0], ratios=[[1.0, 1.0]])
Finding the optimum learning rate
Once the appropriate model has been constructed, it needs to be trained over several epochs, or training passes over the training data. This process involves setting the optimum learning rate. Picking a very small learning rate leads to slow training of the model, while picking one that it too high can prevent the model from converging and ‘overshoot’ the minima, where the loss (or error rate) is lowest. arcgis.learn includes fast.ai's learning rate finder, accessible through the model's lr_find() method, that helps in picking the optimum learning rate, without needing to experiment with several learning rates and picking from among them.
ssd.lr_find()
The learning rate is specified using two numbers - a lower rate for fine tuning the earlier layers of the pretrained backbone, and the higher rate for training the newly added layers for the task at hand. The higher learning rate can be deduced by inspecting the learning rate graph and picking the highest learning rate (on the x axis) where the loss is still going down (while still being lower than the point from where it shoots up). The lower learning rate is usually a fraction (one tenth works well) of the higher rate but can be adjusted depending upon how different the imagery is from natural images on which the backbone network is trained.
In the chart above we find that the loss is going down steeply at 2e-02 (0.02) and we pick that as the higher learning rate. The lower learning rate is approximately one tenth of that. We choose 0.001 to be more careful not to disturb the weights of the pretrained backbone by too much. This is why we are picking a learning rate of slice(0.001, 0.02) to train the model in the next section.
Training the model
Training the model is an iterative process. We can train the model using its fit() method till the validation loss (or error rate) continues to go down with each epoch (or training pass over the data). This is indicative of the model learning the task.
ssd.fit(10, slice(0.001, 0.02))
As each epoch progresses, the loss (error rate, that we are trying to minimize) for the training data and the validation set are reported. In the table above we can see the losses going down for both the training and validation datasets, indicating that the model is learning to recognize the well pads. We continue training the model for several iterations like this till we observe the validation loss starting to go up. That indicates that the model is starting to overfit to the training data, and is not generalizing well enough for the validation data. When that happens, we can try reducing the learning rate, adding more data (or data augmentations), increase regularization by increasing the dropout parameter in the SingleShotDetector model, or reduce the model complexity.
Unfreezing the backbone and fine-tuning
By default, the earlier layers of the model (i.e. the backbone or encoder) are frozen and their weights are not updated when the model is being trained. This allows the model to take advantage of the (ImageNet) pretrained weights for the backbone, and only the ‘head’ of the network is trained initially. Once the later layers have been sufficiently trained, it helps to improve model performance and accuracy to unfreeze() the earlier layers and allow their weights to be fine-tuned to the nuances of the particular satellite imagery compared to the photos of everyday objects (from ImageNet) that the backbone was trained on. The learning rate finder can be used to identify the optimum learning rate between the different training phases .
Visualizing results
The results of how well the model has learnt can be visually observed using the model’s show_results() method. The ground truth is shown in the left column and the corresponding predictions from the model on the right. As we can see below, the model has learnt to detect well pads fairly well. In some cases, it is even able to detect the well pads that are missing in the ground truth data (due to inaccuracies in labeling or the records).
ssd.show_results(rows=25, thresh=0.05)
Saving trained model
Once you are satisfied with the model, you can save it using the save() method. This creates an Esri Model Definition (EMD file) that can be used for inferencing in ArcGIS Pro as well as a Deep Learning Package (DLPK zip) that can be deployed to ArcGIS Enterprise for distributed inferencing across a large geographical area. Saved models can also be loaded back using the load() method, for futher fine tuning.
ssd.save('WellPadDetector') > Created model files at /arcgis/directories/rasterstore/well_pads/models/WellPadDetector
Deploying model
Once a model has been trained, it can be added to ArcGIS Enterprise as a deep learning package.
trained_model = '/arcgis/directories/rasterstore/well_pads/models/WellPadDetector/WellPadDetector.zip' model_package = gis.content.add(item_properties={
"type":"Deep Learning Package",
"typeKeywords":"Deep Learning, Raster",
"title":"Well Pad Detection Model",
"tags":"deeplearning",
"overwrite":'True'}, data=trained_model) model_package
Model lifecycle management
The arcgis.learn module includes the install_model() method to install the uploaded model package (*.dlpk) to the raster analytics server.
Optionally after inferencing the necessary information from the imagery using the model, the model can be uninstalled using uninstall_model() . The deployed models on an Image Server can be queried using the list_models() method.
The uploaded model package is installed automatically on first use as well. We can query the settings of the deep learning model using the query_info() .
from arcgis.learn import Model detect_objects_model = Model(model_package)
detect_objects_model.install()
Detecting Objects
The detect_objects() function can be used to generate feature layers that contains bounding box around the detected objects in the imagery data using the specified deep learning model.
Note that the deep learning library dependencies needs to be installed separately, in addition on the image server.
For arcgis.learn models, the following sequence of commands in ArcGIS Image Server’s Pro Python environment install the necessary dependencies:
conda install -c conda-forge spacy
conda install -c pytorch pytorch=1.0.0 torchvision
conda install -c fastai fastai=1.0.39
conda install -c arcgis arcgis=1.6.0 --no-pin
We specify the geographical extent and imagery cell size for feature extraction, and whether to use the GPU or CPU in the context parameter. Each detection has an associated score, that indicates how confident the model is about that prediction. We can set a score threshold to filter out false detections. In this case, we found that we can lower the score threshold to 0.05 and catch more detections without having too many false detections. A non max suppression(nms_overlap) parameter can be specified to weed out duplicate overlapping detections of the same object.
context = {'cellSize': 10,
'processorType':'GPU',
'extent':{'xmin': -11587791.393960,
'ymin': 3767970.198031,
'xmax': -11454320.817016,
'ymax': 3875304.476397, 'spatialReference': {'latestWkid': 3857, 'wkid': 102100}}} params = {'padding':'0', 'threshold':'0.05', 'nms_overlap':'0.1', 'batch_size':'64'}
Finally, the code below shows how we can use distributed raster analytics to automate object detection across a large geographical area and create a feature layer of well pad detections.
from arcgis.learn import detect_objects detected_pads = detect_objects(input_raster=sentinel_data,
model=detect_objects_model,
model_arguments=params,
output_name="Well_Pads_Detect_full3",
context=context,
gis=gis)
detected_pads
Visualizing detection layer
We can visualize the results using the map widget, right within the notebook. | https://medium.com/geoai/how-we-did-it-end-to-end-deep-learning-in-arcgis-dd5b10d87b8 | ['Rohit Singh'] | 2019-04-21 15:09:45.446000+00:00 | ['Arcgis', 'AI', 'Machine Learning', 'Geospatial', 'Deep Learning'] |
Process Standardization: An Important Step to Scale-up and Grow Your Business | Imagine, what might happen if the support employees and customer support representatives in your organizations have no checklists to simplify the process of standardization for safety measures? Can you say with certainty that the employees will do a great job without checklists? Employees represent your firm’s brand and should be armed with the appropriate tools to accomplish a task perfectly.
Owing to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic businesses across the globe today, are working tirelessly to bring safety to their operations. More often than not, having a checklist for process standardization in place can help businesses ensure their business safety and continuity. Now more than ever, it is required for businesses both small and big alike, to have an organized structure in place and work relentlessly towards a strong recovery.
In an organization an array of tasks should work in tandem and in the best manner possible, to ensure optimum efficiency. When a firm skips formulating checklists for standardization, they often come across a mediocre end product. In the absence of checklists for guidance and organization, chaos often reigns.
Each operation needs a series of guidelines that instruct all workers, the procedures required to achieve outcomes of top standard. Not only does formulating checklists for standardization processes, help streamline everything that the staff does, it also allows you to supervise service and communicate more efficiently with customers, and effectively resolve their issues.
Process Standardization
Fundamentally, process standardization lays down a set of guidelines to be followed by employees and individuals to accomplish a certain task or a sequence of tasks, successfully and seamlessly.
Standardization can be utilized for an array of procedures, tasks, and processes. The might include keeping track of tasks, noting client information, conducting payroll, answering the phone, processing the logistics, and delivering goods, among others.
Benefits of Utilizing Checklists for Process Standardization
Standardization often means a way to offer your employees a time-tested and established process to achieve a set of tasks efficiently. When carried out perfectly, utilizing checklists for standardization can assist in achieving the following:
Improves customer service — Utilizing checklists for standardization ensure that every order and ticket is handled with precision
Enhances employee satisfaction — Standardization permits employees to master their skills and get well versed with the processes
Increases productivity — With checklists for standardization, your employees will spend less time seeking answers and more in getting the job done
Assures quality — Standardization ensures that the task is accomplished in a pre-defined manner
Improves clarity — Checklists will eliminate the need for additional research or guesswork
Concerns Regarding Standardizing Processes
Creating a checklist for process standardization allows organizations to ensure business safety and continuity, as well as a set of tasks that the organization aims to accomplish. However, some people have raised some concerns regarding the standardization of processes. These are as follows:
Process Standardization Brings About Monotony
One of the most common concerns regarding the adoption of process standardization is the perception that it brings about monotony. Although doing a certain task, in the same way, might be monotonous for employees, it does result in better productivity and efficiency in delivering the end product. The perfection in the result is often much more rewarding to both employees and organizations and brings in a wave of positivity.
Process Standardization Affects Creativity
Some people opine that process standardization affects creativity adversely. However, an organized structure or process permits the expansion of creativity leaps and bounds more than chaos. A constant struggle to get ordinary things done properly, error correction, and confusion will not aid an individual to arrive at a fresh thought. Process standardization assists in clearing the important things first to provide ample time to arrive at novel views and thoughts for improvisation.
Final thoughts
Even though the processes are standardized via checklists, there is always room for further improvisation by streamlining by incorporating new thoughts and viewpoints. Checklists can thus simplify the process standardization to achieve business safety and continuity, and at the same time provide leeway for innovative ideas and thoughts. | https://medium.com/@serendipitouswriter/process-standardization-an-important-step-to-scale-up-and-grow-your-business-5442c32cf910 | ['Abhilash Khalkar'] | 2020-12-26 05:44:44.824000+00:00 | ['Standards', 'Process', 'B2B', 'Business Strategy', 'Business'] |
Regex UCR: Generating different Regex dialects | How to keep Regex UCR’s UI simple, while supporting pretty much all the features Regex itself supports?
You might want to read Part 1 and Part 2 before this to understand what this is about.
Let’s get started with the simplest possible editing view.
Regex UCR has a default dialect called Simplified Regex, which is the smallest common denominator of all regex dialects.
When there is only stuff that works in all languages, we do not remind the user of the existence of dialects at all, allowing the user to concentrate on task at hand.
Editing existing regex
Ok, let’s say you already have a regex you want to edit. Say, you are identifying a decimal number in Python. Something like -3.53e4, a pretty small number.
Warning when selected dialect doesn’t support all features used
You paste it into the regex (text) area of Regex UCR. Your expression gets evaluated and translated automatically into the visual regex syntax.
We can’t handle named groups in the generic Simple Regex, so the editor
highlights unrecognized parts, and
asks you which dialect you would like to use now.
So you select Python in the dropdown. | https://medium.com/interaction-reimagined/regex-ucr-generating-different-regex-dialects-d58f48acdf30 | ['Olli Savolainen'] | 2016-09-13 05:31:57.027000+00:00 | ['Design Thinking', 'Usability', 'Regex', 'Programming', 'Data Visualization'] |
Indian Street Food Journey From Past To Present | Indian always known for their eating passion and foodie behaviour! I am going to give an idea about the Indian street food journey from past to present! Let’s see the differences:
Past of Street Food:
In the past, you can easily see the Samosa and Kachori vendors in the street of India. These are tea time snacks of India and loved by almost Indian. Bhajiya vendors can also easily seen in Indian street to stop hunger pain of people by crispy taste with a hot cup of tea. Jalebi is a favourite Indian sweet made of deep-fried batter saturated in a sugary syrup. People love their tea time snacks and Kachori is also favourite one. These are round, deep-fried and firmed flour balls full with crushed lentils and flavours.
Current Street Food Trends In India
Chhole Bhature is initially a street food lush in the streets of Amritsar this delicious street food is now readily available almost universally in India. Kebab is the most savored nonvegetarian cooking of Lucknow; tunde kebab is, however, the favorites. Exceptionally soft and juicy till the core is what makes these skewers all-time beloveds. Litti Chokha is the Bihari form of Dal Batti of Rajasthan. What makes this dish exclusive from the rest is that this love of Bihar is one of the old-style cuisines that can be eaten as breakfast, lunch as well as dinner. Momos a spicy street cuisine, this is one food item that has intensified from roadside stalls to food centres and food judges in all hot-shot Malls Tangy spicy red sauce and scorching hot dumplings loaded with veggies or chicken is something that we just cannot resist while walking past the stall on road.
North Indian Cuisine, chaat has grown to several new forms — Dahi Puri, Bhelpuri, Paani puri can consider as cousins of this tasty treat. Chow mein, is one dish that really made street food all the more popular in India. There was a time in ’90s when every next food stall had lines of people to come for scoops of these noodles on their plate. Poha — Jalebi is undoubtedly the best roadside treat of Madhya Pradesh. A unique combo of sweet and salty, one cannot resist his urge to dig into this beautiful street food while strolling in the streets of India.
I am trying to explain the variations of food but not the love of Street Food in India. Indian people are always hungry to eat and always ready to enjoy street food. | https://medium.com/@DrivesOf/indian-street-food-journey-from-past-to-present-f7b0f9a16c6c | ['Food Drives Of India'] | 2020-02-12 14:43:10.430000+00:00 | ['Foodies', 'Street Food', 'Food', 'Food And Drink'] |
We would like to remind you that our Pre-Sale ends in less than two weeks | However, you still have time to become a Casper API investor by purchasing CST tokens at a favourable price of $0.12
Today we would also like to remind you about important rules of our project so your token purchasing experience goes smoothly.
So:
- CST tokens can be purchased only on the official website at https://casperproject.io
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Here you can ask all the questions you may have as well as talk to the team.
All the real administrators have a star next to their names in the chat member list:
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- All the official social media links can be found on our website
NEVER click unknown links that you get from strangers — these can be fraudulent.
Before making any decision about investing in Casper API do your own research and ask any questions you may have to the team or the community.
By following these simple rules you can prevent your money from falling into the fraudulent hands of scammers and instead purchase CST tokens safely, quickly and easily so in the future you get to get returns on the investments you made today! | https://medium.com/casperapi/we-would-like-to-remind-you-that-our-pre-sale-ends-in-less-than-two-weeks-acbf4ef304a5 | ['Casper Api'] | 2018-07-11 14:07:26.593000+00:00 | ['ICO', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Money', 'Investment', 'Token'] |
Artist Profile: Enrico Maria Polimanti | 1. What age did you start playing the piano? Does the love of music run in the family?
I started when I was eleven years old, rather late. But I do remember loving listening to my parent’s vinyl collection when I was much younger. In my family nobody plays or sings and it all started by accident; my father suggested I should try out the piano and now, after four decades, I’m still trying; at least this is how I feel.
2. When were you at the RCM? How did Yonty Solomon change your playing?
After my studies at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome, I auditioned at the College and in 1994, after being awarded a Foundation Scholarship, I moved to London where I lived for three marvellous years. At the time, from a “sociological” point of view, the gap between Rome and London was enormous. To be on the tube or to make friends with people coming from every continent was not common in my home town. I immediately felt like a citizen of the world. But obviously the most important experience for me was the encounter with Yonty Solomon. A truly great musician and human being, he was a man of rare wisdom and spiritual richness. Yonty believed that piano playing is fundamentally about life, self-expression and communication. During the lessons he would encourage the students to nourish their musicianship and technique through an awareness of the collective aspects of philosophy, literature, painting, psychology or anatomy. He tried to transcend conventionally acceptable standards of piano-playing, and the nature of the piano itself, often referring to the expressive possibilities of the voice, spoken and sung, and of the other instruments. I would say Yonty Solomon made a musician out of me, until then I was just a piano student.
3. How did you choose the repertoire for this recording?
After extensively playing German and Austrian solo repertoire I felt the need to play something different. I selected French works spanning from Rameau to Messiaen. I have imagined a series of little pictures as seen through a prism which allows you to have different perspectives. The Rameau pieces didn’t really match this kind of imagery so I omitted those!
4. How do you prepare for a recital? Do you play from memory?
Preparation and practice have changed over the years, especially when I became a father for the first time. I had to reschedule my work to optimize the “loss” of time. My outlook changed. I tend to practice in the morning for three hours, preparing for the concert in advance because I don’t like to work under pressure. This has affected my ability of playing from memory. In the last decade I often perform solo repertoire with the score and I feel comfortable with that. Don’t forget, I’m ostensibly a chamber musician. I particularly enjoy Lied repertoire as I find the idea of playing poems fascinating while accompanying the myriad of inflections of the voice. One of the most compelling musical experiences for me has been the performance of the Schubert cycles.
5. The Covid pandemic has led to all concerts being cancelled. How are you surviving in these difficult times?
The Covid pandemic has kept me at home but I have only relatively suffered from social isolation. I have spent time with my family, reflecting on things, studying and preparing new projects. I have certainly missed performing but I have not felt the desire to stage online home concerts. I also teach and that side of my work has never stopped during the Covid pandemic as I have continued via the internet. I’m lucky but there are many musicians who are having a very hard time. The situation has proved that in Italy the government has neither a plan for musicians nor a real consideration for them which is outrageous and very sad.
6. Many artists are publishing historical recordings to help replace lost income. Do you have any favourite recitals recorded that you could publish?
Unfortunately I did not record many of my concerts in the past as I considered that only relevant for ‘great artists’. I wish I had done it more though! Things are so different today, technology and social media have transformed the approach to music making. I grew up following old traditions and I was kind of late to react. I’m very grateful to Exit Live for releasing my French music recital and to music manager Tiziana Tentoni for suggesting the possibility. I’ve got some old projects on minidisc which I should listen back to, although the dynamic range of that device is rather modest, so we’ll see.
7. Live music making creates such a wonderful atmosphere that all can hear in this recording. What is your next concert and will you publish on Exit Live?
My next concert is going to be on an 1805 Vennese Fortepiano and includes the piano version of Haydn’s Last Seven Words of our Saviour on the Cross. It was scheduled for Easter but due to the Covid pandemic has been postponed. I now have to decide if I keep the program, specifically connected to a particular time of the year, or substitute it with a recital where I play innovative works of the Classical era, such as Beethoven’s variations op. 34 and the Tempest sonata. The opus 34 is particularly interesting because each variation, instead of being based on a single key, is based on a different tonality. I will certainly consider using Exit Live in the future but it will depend on how the concert goes…. I’m very self-critical and I believe a recording needs to have the sparkle and a special reason for being released. I’m flattered by the proposal as Exit Live offers wonderful opportunities.
8. What is your favourite piece on this recording and why?
I think my favourite piece on this recording is Debussy’s Étude pour les Cinq Doigts. It is the first of his twelve Etudes dedicated to the memory of Chopin. In this work the composer makes use of digital virtuosity while ironically looking at the piano tradition of d’après Monsieur Czerny. It is music that often lends itself to understatement or abstraction. A music in black and white, en blanc et noir, to quote the title of a composition by Debussy of the same era, where the harmonic language and design of the lines derives from close contact with the keyboard.
https://exit.live/enrico.maria.polimanti/show/5629499534213120 | https://medium.com/exit-live/artist-profile-enrico-maria-polimanti-3afa65630e29 | ['David Porter-Thomas'] | 2020-06-23 13:24:53.335000+00:00 | ['Artist Profile', 'Music', 'Live', 'Recording'] |
The Real Reason Linux Users Love The Command Line | I’d get visibly upset when stumbling across all these tutorials online that use command line instructions when far easier (in my eyes) graphical approaches exist.
Why on earth were these guys showing us how to make an application executable using the command line? Why not just find it in your file manager, right click it, select “properties,” go to the permissions tab, and check the appropriate box to make it executable?
That seemed more intuitive… to me. Or maybe it was just what felt “correct” after two decades of Windows.
Making a bootable USB stick with the command line? Launching a terminal window to install a driver or encode a video with ffmpeg? ARE YOU INSANE?
That was nearly 3 years ago, and my stance has gradually shifted under the weight of experience. But my early computing days bear a striking resemblance to Oliver '0lzi' Kelly’s:
“I spent 20 years using Windows, and the only time that stands out from when I used the command line was to ping an IP address or google.com to test and diagnose network issues. In Linux I use it all the time, and I don’t even second guess it.”
That’s a quote from his recent Community Voice article right here at Linux For Everyone magazine. At the end of it, he poses a question that’s deceptively difficult to answer: Why do Linux users seem to love the command line so much?
So I pondered Oliver’s question for a while.
The Easy Answer
The easy answer is that it feels empowering to use the terminal. There’s this intoxicating geek-driven power-user fantasy satisfaction to making our computer respond instantly to our commands!
The keyboard, mightier than the mouse. Weaponized to do our bidding. Transforming words into binary, and binary into action.
It makes you feel kinda like this:
Hackerman!?
The other easy answer is that, honestly, it can be much faster.
Is sudo apt install vlc audacity obs-studio telegram-desktop steam a faster way to install those 5 apps than searching for them in a distro’s software center? Absolutely!
But it goes deeper than that. Much deeper.
I’ve come to realize the true appeal of the command line is the consistency.
The uniformity.
The reliability.
There is a certain level of comfort in that.
What 3 years of distro hopping has taught me is this: no matter which Debian or Ubuntu-based distribution I decide to use on any given day, installing software will always be the same combination of words, through the same terminal window that’s guaranteed to be there.
I don’t need to be familiar with the file browser, or know how to navigate that particular desktop environment. I just need two things: a simple terminal window, and my words.
You can apply roughly the same argument to any Arch-based system, btw.
Despite my newfound warm fuzzies for the command line, I’ll always insist on there being a GUI alternative, especially for new desktop Linux users.
But I have to wonder if their journey will eventually unfold the same way mine did. I was led to the door, and after a while I discovered the entire buffet on my own.
I won’t use the command line for everything. Especially not for any video rendering tasks! I’ll simply use it when it makes sense to use it.
Like all things Linux, I love having the freedom to make that choice. | https://medium.com/linuxforeveryone/the-real-reason-linux-users-love-the-command-line-e8043f583028 | ['Jason Evangelho'] | 2020-12-19 23:26:35.344000+00:00 | ['Linux', 'Cli', 'Geek', 'Open Source', 'Command Line'] |
Predicting Customer Churn using Apache Spark | Churn Rate is an important index for numerous amount of companies. especially, the ones that interact with customers frequently.
If you can accurately identify the churned customers before they leave, your business can offer them discounts and incentives, potentially saving your business millions in revenue. Therefore, predicting the Churn Rate for your service is very beneficial for thriving the business work.
Project Overview
Sparkify is an imaginary, popular, digital music service similar to Spotify or Pandora. Menus of users stream their favorite songs to your service every day either using the free tier or using the premium subscription model.
The given customer’s dataset contains the logs of all the interactions between the users and the service, such as thumbs-up, and downgrade. Also, it includes other user-related and interaction fields, e.g. time-stamp.
The goal of this project is to build a model that predicts customer churn using the users' log data based on their past behavior. This project has utilized a mini subset (128MB) of the full dataset available (12GB). Optionally, you can choose to deploy a Spark cluster on the cloud using AWS or IBM Cloud to analyze a larger amount of data.
In this project, we will manipulate large and realistic datasets with Spark to engineer relevant features for predicting churn. Also, we will use Spark MLlib to build machine learning models with large datasets.
So, let’s get started...
Loading and Cleaning Dataset
The data consists of 286500 rows and 18 columns, and it contains 18 fields. The log data is in JSON format with each observation representing an interaction between the user and service. The schema below shows more details:
The Dataset Schema
We plan to remove the rows with missing or invalid values for the “userId” or “sessionId” fields. It appears that there are no missing values for both, but the userId column has 8346 empty values.
Exploratory Data Analysis
Now, the data is ready for exploration. We defined the Churn column as the label for the model using “Cancellation Confirmation” events. There are 173 active users, interacting with the service, and 52 canceled users.
As a comparison between the two groups of users, it looks like male users tend to cancel their service more than female users. As shown in the figure below:
Gender Distribution by User Status
The active users use the service at a free level more than paid level. While in the opposite, there are more canceled users of paid level than the free level of users, which is quite reasonable.
Level Distribution by User Status
As shown below in the figure, there is almost no difference between the average length of music listened to between the active and canceled groups. So, this might conclude that the music length listening is not a great factor in identifying the customer churn.
Music Length Listening Distribution by User Status
For each action/event in the service, the active users interact most with “Thumps Up”, “Add to Playlist” and “Add Friend” actions. In contrast, the canceled users interact most with “Roll Advert” and “Thumps Down” actions.
Percentage of Events Distribution by User Status
Along the days of the month, the canceled users are most interactive with the service in the first half of the month, as opposed to the second half. Therefore, The vast amount of cancellations occurs at the last of the month, which is rational since the user tries to avert renewal. The figure below elaborate on that more:
Percentage of Events Distribution by User Status Per Month Day
For more exploratory data analysis, visit the Github repository of the project.
Feature Engineering
Features were created as the characteristics of a user churn, and it is represented and labeled by the churn of user or not. The features have been generated to comprise the user-related features and their various interactions with the service. Thus, the total number of collected features is 14, which are:
The gender of the user. Total time of listening length. The number of songs listened to. Average time spent in the platform. The total number of artists the user has listened to. The number of thumbs-up events. The number of thumbs-down events. The number of friends events. The number of help events. The number of error events. The number of roll advert events. The number of upgrades events. The number of downgrades events. The number of adds to the playlist.
The features have been standardized using StandardScaler to make the data in a more consistent range. Then, they have been consolidated in a vector to be fed in the model for the next part. Spark except for the input of the model to be in vector format.
Modeling
The data is split into two chunks, 80% as training and 20% as testing. Then, three different models have been cross-validated with 2 folds at first to choose one for hyperparameter tuning. The models are:
Support Vector Machines (SVM). Gradient-Boosted Trees (GBT). Logistic Regression.
Since the churned users are a fairly small subset, we opt to use the F1 score as the main metric to optimize in addition to the Accuracy score.
Each model scores in the testing dataset as the following:
SVM: (F1: 58.4%| Accuracy : 70.5%)
70.5%) GBT: (F1: 68.0%| Accuracy : 70.5%)
70.5%) Log. Regression: (F1: 58.4%| Accuracy: 70.5%)
The Gradient-Boosted Trees Model has the highest F1 score and it performs very well in the training data. So, it is suggested then to apply hyperparameter tuning to this model to achieve better results and remove overfitting.
After extracting the feature importance for the GBT model, we see that listening time, number of adverts and number of friends are having the most effect in predicting the churn of a user. However, this ratio in feature importance is hard to fully agree on due to the unhigh score/performance of the model.
GBT Features Importance
Conclusions
In the end, using the big data tools and machine learning modeling approaches has accomplished the mission of manipulating the user log data and predicting customer churn. After comparing the F1-Score for each model, it has been pointed that the Gradient boosted tree model performed best for predicting customer churn.
Furthermore, there are more features that could be generated to represent the characteristics of the user. There is room for improvement on applying sophisticated hyperparameter tuning to the model for resulting in better outcomes. Also, the process of feeding the input to the model could be pipelined to adapt to the big data settings.
The project results are based mainly on a mini subset of the data (128MB), so it is recommended to finish the project with the full dataset (12GB). It would be beneficial and effective to observe the results with the full dataset and see the differences.
For the full work of the project, please check out the Project Jupyter Notebook in my Github. Feel free to leave any comments or feedback. | https://medium.com/@alduohy11/predicting-customer-churn-using-apache-spark-3672470f8fe1 | ['Faisal Aldhuwayhi'] | 2021-09-10 17:21:49.499000+00:00 | ['Exploratory Data Analysis', 'Big Data', 'Data Science', 'Spark', 'Pyspark'] |
addressing leftist trauma | all i was was scared. scared and stuck and hurt and honest and ignored, unable to function, without support. damn near 35 looking 12 still, first day outside, on loop for 20 years.
when analyzing how to survive, many times it occurred to me that the feds were tryna haze me into their club. they wanna add mystique, send people to fuck and abandon me, leave me for dead.
but they treated me same as anarchists and im a pillow prince that they all hated.
i do not like being run off the road, raceplay, or being offered alternatives by valhalla dudes. i do not want to work for the same people that put that device in my arm nor do i want my children babysat by them.
plus the feds sentenced my siblings and homies so them resources like tanks can’t whip the same with me in them.
one day early this summer even the feds left me alone.
decided i was too far a wildcard to recruit even to them.
i believe the next attempt on my life will be another mercenary and hope this one gets distracted by my ass for a millisecond, have been hittin squats just in case.
tbh metaphysics make more sense than dbt. while it is my fault i punch people and chose to function on pure rage it definitely isn’t that i drank beer as a toddler or only understood love to be abusive until right now when i decided to just not think that anymore so i can focus on showing my family one example of care and hope they learn to forgive me enough to share it back.
patterns show i definitely wanted to be alive so much before this time, cannot stay dead now, there is a reason why.
lost senses from warfare, got em back from the Void.
called anchors, Kallisto answered, bringing Chaos and Death to steady the swaying vessel.
i had to be humbled to get to Quatria. having no materials, emergent contacts or healthcare after tasting all, i tried to die last year because i was so sad about how far the plot was lost with the riots and wound up meeting a timehunter who wanted to stay mad at me but had to endorse the power it takes for me to keep the demons like hecate’s dogs.
i started last year’s riots enough to have changed names six times since then — all learned was that resources are never shared back to who cried of needing them first. the part of my autonomy in this story started right around columbine, with conversion therapy, domestic violence and being on the news some times between.
me and George Floyd and were in minneapolis at the same time, tryna start over after being cornered in texas. i was going to hennepin county hospitals, homeless, dying of an unknown neurological illness while my sister in law worked as the queer coordinator for hennepin county hospital systems. they let me stay with them for a couple days until they needed to clear the house out for a poker game.
in october 2018, my sister in law coco told my girlfriend that we could avoid sickness and hate crimes by her shaving, acting a bit more fish while i sat downstairs in my brothers batman themed mancave having a neurological attack, tryna listen to him talk about his electronic washing machine and realized right then that all our dad gave us was matching faces and a penchant for misogyny.
i left and came back to minnie twice, oct/nov 2018 and jan/feb 2019 for healthcare but between the entire bbp and line 3 water protector network and my family working at the hospital all i really got was an angiogram that collapsed every vein in my leg with a doctor induced relapse after eight years off opiates and to watch my kids collapse of sadness realizing that my mobility was the only thing that kept them from being utterly neglected right before my best friend refused to take my money and died from not having it in hand.
forgiveness is an option for one better than this.
vengeance my only sustenance til cups pour back like temperance. | https://medium.com/@minxdistro/addressing-leftist-trauma-1d29bb5eb611 | [] | 2021-09-16 14:56:35.246000+00:00 | ['George Floyd', 'Quatria', 'Cointelpro', 'Minneapolis', 'Surveillance'] |
The balance between high blood sugar and high grades | Become a student they say, it’ll be fun they say. Well, I’ll see you and I’ll raise you one, let’s add some diabetes to the mix. I’m 21 years old, majoring in Communications, and have had diabetes since I was 10 years old. Elina Keirse, one of my closest friends, 22 years old, majoring in Biochemistry and diabetic since she was 1,5 years old. Elina was so amazing to help me with this little insight piece of what it is like to be in your twenties, living from deadline to deadline and on top of it all having to deal with a chronic disease.
Jessa Wouters & Elina Keirse, Bruges 02/24/21
Starting I do want to say that I didn’t write this piece to get sympathy. That’s not my goal, I hope I can give some relatability. Listening to Elina’s answers felt so easing because I could find myself a lot in them. Hopefully, it achieves the same for you, the readers. Next to that, I wanted to give some good old, heartfelt motivation.
Describing a life with diabetes is difficult to explain to someone who doesn’t have diabetes. I mean obviously, you can explain the science behind it and practices, those are simply facts. However, describing the feeling, it’s difficult to find the right explanation for it. You can’t express it.
This is one of the biggest reasons why Elina and I are such close friends, we get each other very easily. Diabetes is a disease that can make you feel alone unless you have a fellow ‘diabuddy’ as I like to call her. This doesn’t mean that we see ourselves as different, not at all even! We want nothing more than to be treated like anyone else and to be seen as normal human beings.
Elina says that having a life with diabetes means living to the fullest while being just that little bit more careful than people without the disease. Something she says that I thought was very inspiring is that our lives are like a process of accepting our limits and listening to our bodies. This doesn’t just apply to us, it’s like this for every person. We all have that something that has a very powerful limit, and you must find it first before you know what it is. For some people it is the amount of stress you can handle, the amount of sleep deprivation, etc. for us it’s the amount of physical effort.
There are a lot of presumes of diabetes. The number one, biggest frustration and pet peeve that both Elina and I (and I’m sure any other diabetic person) have is the assumption “you can’t eat sugar”. Sugar is not our kryptonite; we won’t die from eating it nor will we get sicker from eating it. We both have had judgmental looks whenever we ate something sugary or fatty.
BBC Three
Are we perfect diabetic people, God no! But wanting to do everything perfectly will just make it worse (and that counts for any part of life). It’s demanding enough as it is. Like Elina says, I know what I’m doing and how to adjust my insulin to my behavior. Trust the process.
It can be very overwhelming at times. You try so hard to regulate your blood sugar and keep it stable. Sometimes it just doesn’t want to work with you. You do the same thing as always and everything gets messed up.
You feel like you’re failing yourself because your blood sugar has a very big impact on the amount of energy that you have. If you can’t control it, you don’t have energy. Then you just start blaming yourself for not being able to do whatever it is that you want to or were doing.
Elina Keirse & Jessa Wouters, Damme 08/23/20
It’s like school is pressuring you to succeed and now your own body is pressuring you to be better as well. However, with school you have so much more control over certain things, with this, you just have to endure it more from time to time.
I feel like everyone has that one thing that they must let go of and just sit through it. That one thing, big or small, that can give you so much extra stress and can instantly make you feel like a failure. However, you must keep reminding yourself that you’re still the one that’s in control of the play and pause button. Okay, it can force you to a pause. But you decide to play it again. As long as you don’t press the stop button. | https://medium.com/@woutersj_39592/the-balance-between-high-blood-sugar-and-high-grades-493e292e7ab0 | ['Jessa Wouters'] | 2021-12-15 02:15:27.377000+00:00 | ['Motivation', 'Twenties', 'Diabetes', 'Disease', 'Student Life'] |
Building A Monte Carlo Method Stock Price Simulator With Geometric Brownian Motion And Bootstrap Sampling | Building A Monte Carlo Method Stock Price Simulator With Geometric Brownian Motion And Bootstrap Sampling Zhijing Eu Follow Jan 14 · 12 min read
Image Source : https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/stonks
Summary
I built a web app using Python Flask that allows you to simulate future stock price movements using a method called Monte Carlo simulations with the choice of two ‘flavours’ : Geometric Brownian Motion (GBM) and Bootstrapped Sampling.
While I may include some programming code below, this article is not going to be a ‘code-along’ tutorial and focuses more on the underlying theory behind GBM and Bootstrap Sampling.
However the native *.*py and a Jupyter Notebook version of the same code is available on this GitHub link below if you want to dig deeper.
Warning ! I am not an investment guru of any sort so I strongly suggest you do NOT use this article as the (sole) basis for your investment decisions.
Outline
Geometric Brownian Motion
You may be familiar with Brownian Motion from high school physics. That is the seemingly random motion of air particles as they collide with each other. While we might not be able to characterize the behavior of a single particle, physics and statistics gives us the ability to still describe the likelihoods of where the overall system will end up.
Image Source : Wikipedia
Much in the same way, the Geometric Brownian Motion is a model of an assets returns where the price (or returns) of the asset / shares / investment can be modelled as a random walk (I.e a process where changes in stock prices have the same distribution and are independent of each other. Therefore, it assumes the past movement or trend of a stock price or market cannot be used to predict its future movement (Source : Investopedia)
Rather than dive headlong into some reasonably complex stochastic differential equations , an intuition of how it works is
Source : Adapted from https://www.investopedia.com/articles/07/montecarlo.asp
where:
Sₜ=the stock price
dSₜ=the change in stock price
μ=the expected return
σ=the standard deviation of returns
Wₜ=the Wiener Process random variable where increments in t time have a normal distribution N that is centered at zero (i.e Wₜ -W₀~ N(0,t) )
dₜ=the elapsed time period
Essentially, the GBM model allow us to model future prices based a combination of a “drift” that is driven by the average (i.e mean of the log returns) and a “shock” which is random but can be still be characterized by the volatility (i.e the standard deviation of the log returns).
However it should be noted the model makes a few KEY assumptions:
The logarithmic change of the stock price is normally distributed *
Volatility (i.e Standard Deviation of the Log Returns) is constant
Expected return (i.e Mean of the Log Returns) is independent of to stock performance
(*You may be wondering why we are using returns instead of prices — it’s because returns are scale free (being in % terms rather than absolute values) and often have more ‘stable’ statistical properties (e.g constant mean & variance). Furthermore log returns have the advantage over simple returns because the log of a log-normally distributed random variable will be normally distributed. These three posts (1) , (2) and (3) from statsexchange go into a lot more detail.)
However as we shall see later , these conditions may not always hold true so the validity of any predictions need to be evaluated very carefully.
Monte Carlo Simulations
As mentioned before, I already have a separate article on this topic but in a nutshell : Monte Carlo simulations are a method of making predictions by repeatedly running models that have random variables and aggregating all the results to understand the range of outcomes.
Therefore although each iteration of the GBM forecast will be slightly different, we can make multiple forecasts and aggregate all the results to see overall range of potential price changes within the desired time frame.
Ten different Iterations For a ~3 Week Forecast Prices of NFLX Shares Based On 1 Yr Of Historical Data. (Note : I used a backtest period 7 days hence the overlap between the actual vs forecasted prices)
The 10th , 90th Percentile and Median Forecast Prices Of NFLX For The Same 10 Iterations
As to be expected, the further into the future, the wider the range (i.e the P10 to P90) of possible prices. (As a rule of thumb , there is an academic paper that says that GBM works best for forecasting when limited to max 2 week lookahead)
Simulating A Single Stock Using GBM
The web app was built by extending some code built by another author as per the article below where I combined it with Python Flask to allow users to select the stock counter and the desired historical data range and forecast duration via a website.
The code looks a bit like below where there is a function to extract the stock prices from Yahoo Finance using pandasDataReader
import pandas as pd
from pandas_datareader import data import numpy as np, numpy.random
from numpy import mean import random
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt from datetime import datetime from scipy.stats import norm
from scipy.stats import kstest
from scipy.stats import skew
from scipy.stats import kurtosis
from scipy import stats def extract_prices(start_date,end_date,symbols,backtestduration=0):
dim=len(symbols)
for symbol in symbols:
dfprices = data.DataReader(symbols, start=start_date, end=end_date, data_source='yahoo')
dfprices = dfprices[['Adj Close']]
dfprices.columns=[' '.join(col).strip() for col in dfprices.columns.values] for i in range(0,len(symbols)):
noOfShares.append(portfolioValPerSymbol[i]/priceAtEndDate[i])
noOfShares=[round(element, 5) for element in noOfShares]
listOfColumns=dfprices.columns.tolist()
dfprices["Adj Close Portfolio"]=dfprices[listOfColumns].mul(noOfShares).sum(1)
print(f"Extracted {len(dfprices)} days worth of data for {len(symbols)} counters with {dfprices.isnull().sum().sum()} missing data")
return dfprices
After which , another function converts the prices into Log Returns
def calc_returns(dfprices,symbols):
dfreturns=pd.DataFrame()
columns = list(dfprices)
mean=[]
stdev=[]
for column in columns:
dfreturns[f'Log Daily Returns {column}']=np.log(dfprices[column]).diff()
mean.append(dfreturns[f'Log Daily Returns {column}'][1:].mean())
stdev.append(dfreturns[f'Log Daily Returns {column}'][1:].std())
dfreturns=dfreturns.dropna()
if len(dfreturns.columns)==1:
df_mean_stdev=pd.DataFrame(list(zip(symbols,mean,stdev)),columns =['Stock', 'Mean Log Daily Return','StdDev Log Daily Return'])
else:
df_mean_stdev=pd.DataFrame(list(zip(symbols+["Portfolio"],mean,stdev)),columns =['Stock', 'Mean Log Daily Return','StdDev Log Daily Return'])
return dfreturns ,df_mean_stdev
These Log Returns fed as input into another function that estimates the Mean , Standard Deviation which is then pushed along with the initial price to a function that fits the input into the equation discussed in the previous section
def GBMsimulatorUniVar(So, mu, sigma, T, N):
"""
Parameters
So: initial stocks' price
mu: expected return
sigma: volatility
Cov: covariance matrix
T: time period
N: number of increments
""" dim = np.size(So)
t = np.linspace(0., T, int(N))
S = np.zeros([dim, int(N)])
S[:, 0] = So
for i in range(1, int(N)):
drift = (mu - 0.5 * sigma**2) * (t[i] - t[i-1])
Z = np.random.normal(0., 1., dim)
diffusion = sigma* Z * (np.sqrt(t[i] - t[i-1]))
S[:, i] = S[:, i-1]*np.exp(drift + diffusion)
return S, t
There is an important caveat though to the validity of the results. Within the code, a best fit normal distribution is estimated from the historical data but what is more relevant is how “normal” the returns are.
Therefore I’ve bolted on a number of statistical tests for normality that I will not go into detail in this article. Suffice to say, these tests generate a statistic and a p- value that can be tested against a chosen significance level to check the ‘normality’ (*) of the historical returns data. Specifically, I’ve implemented two tests , a Kolmogorov Smirnov Test and a Shapiro Wilk Test with a significance level of 5%. (Why 5% ? Here read this)
(* Strictly speaking , it’s not exactly ‘checking’ per se but I’d rather not get into the mechanics of how Hypothesis Testing works for now)
Unfortunately running the numbers of a few different shares (using about a anywhere from 6mths to a year’s worth of historical data) shows that the returns are not always “normal” as per the arbitrary example below for the stock of CRM (Salesforce) and NFLX (Netflix) over Jan 2019 to Jul 2020. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/building-a-monte-carlo-method-stock-price-simulator-with-geometric-brownian-motion-and-bootstrap-e346ff464894 | ['Zhijing Eu'] | 2021-02-17 06:54:21.008000+00:00 | ['Stock Market', 'Time Series Analysis', 'Python', 'Monte Carlo', 'Time Series Forecasting'] |
Building Cross-Platform Voice Apps With VOXA — Part 5 | Alexa Presentation Language
Alexa Presentation Language (APL) is a set of visual components you can leverage to create wonderful visual experiences for devices with screens. Before APL, Amazon had the Display Render Template interface, but it was not as flexible as APL. With APL, you can customize your screen more easily. In our source code, we also support the RenderTemplate interface because there are still some devices with screens that don’t support APL. If you try to send an APL directive to a non-APL device, the skill will crash.
In our Quick Maths Alexa skill, we’ll use APL to show users the leaderboard. They’ll be able to see their position, name, city, and score if they are among the top 10 players. If they didn’t grant permission to access their address in either of the platforms, we’ll simply show their locale; if it’s en-US, we’ll grab the U.S. part, if it’s en-GB, we’ll grab G.B.
The APL leaderboard screen will look like this:
Leaderboard in an Echo Show 2nd generation
Leaderboard in an Echo Spot
You can find the code to show this position table in the part5 branch of the repo, specifically in the file ./src/app/model.js
showWinnersDashboard function
For Google Assistant, we’re using the table card. This grid will group our leaderboard to show the positions, similar to what we’ve done in Alexa, giving both apps the same experience.
Leaderboard view in Google Assistant (phone)
Leaderboard view in Google Assistant (Smart Display) | https://medium.com/better-programming/building-cross-platform-voice-apps-with-voxa-part-5-1f0aff32185 | ['Octavio Menocal'] | 2019-10-20 14:50:59.405000+00:00 | ['Nodejs', 'Alexa Skills', 'Programming', 'Software Engineering', 'Google Assistant'] |
How to explain a gap in your resume? 5 examples for you. | Many of us take time off from our professional lives due to several reasons. It can be a short illness, a maternity break, upskilling break or can be a layoff as well. When we are restarting our careers or are applying for any new role, we need to address this gap. The gap can be recent or something that we took in the initial stages of our careers
Recruiters take note of everything in a resume and ask clarifying questions. The gaps aren’t going to get you rejected if you would be able to explain them properly. Hiring Managers look after candidates who can commit to their work and provide the best version of the required skills. If you are genuinely able to explain the gaps and compensate for them in some way or the other, you stand a fair chance in the job selection process. Here are some tips for you to consider while explaining a gap in your resume.
WHEN YOU WERE DEALING WITH AN ILLNESS
If you had taken a break due to an illness, it is not required to provide specific details regarding the same. Instead let them know you wanted to focus at the same time to be up to date in your industry by following the news, doing some freelancing when possible, taking up small courses, etc. How you were on the constant lookout for a new job to get into after you dealt with your illness. Be proactive and let them know how you are still determined about your career.
WHEN YOU HAD TO LOOK AFTER A DEPENDANT
Make it clear for the recruiters that your relative/dependant is now cured or there is more support in place for you. Explain how you are ready to re-enter the industry and feel excited to join in the particular role. Talk about how you used the time off to be prepared better for the new challenges.
WHEN YOU HAD TO FURTHER YOUR EDUCATION
Explain how furthering your education was on your mind for the growth of your career. How the specific skills would help you with this role? Talk about the opportunities and achievements due to this decision. Highlight how you are dedicated to professional and personal development. An educational degree like a masters provides you with more practical experience and helps you focus on solving issues in a better way. A management degree would be beneficial to unravel the key skills like leadership, management, decision making, etc.
WHEN YOU WERE LAID OFF
Briefly explain why your previous role was made redundant without bad-mouthing your previous employer. Try to maintain professional composure while explaining the situation. Highlight your past achievements in the same role and talk about how you took time off after the layoff to upskill for the current role you are applying for.
WHEN YOU WERE LOOKING FOR A JOB
Explain how you were invested in upskilling and were proactively looking for a new job. Emphasize the fact that you used the time to think about your skills and goals and why you think the particular role is what you want to do. Highlight your top skills and explain how they are in line with the job requirements. Try to soft-sell yourself by using powerful words that are fitting your job application.
Always remember that gaps aren’t something to be ashamed about. Do not hide the fact from your interviewer and be confident in yourself. At the end of the day, the panelists are looking for a person who is determined and is ready to commit. Show your skills are worthy enough and be genuine with your answers.
If you feel the need to connect with industry mentors we have it ready for you. Register now on My Social Capital for free and get connected with your personal board. | https://medium.com/@mysocap/how-to-explain-a-gap-in-your-resume-5-examples-for-you-eaddf407099e | [] | 2021-12-25 08:27:16.979000+00:00 | ['Gap Year', 'Jobs', 'Job Hunting', 'Hiring', 'Resume'] |
Livox Tech, an Emerging Brand in the AV LiDAR Ecosystem | Livox Tech is one of the emerging companies in the field of laser radar i.e. LiDAR sensor technology. The 2016 founded Chinese company is backed by leading company such as DJI which provides investment, sales, and channel support. Moreover, Livox Tech has developed innovative opt electric and opt mechanical solution which helps for encouraging the adoption of LiDAR technology for different industries. They have developed Mid-40/Mid-100 LiDARs which are cost-efficient with high performance. In addition, their LiDAR can accurately sense three-dimensional information under numerous conditions which are designed for autonomous driving, robotics, drones, and surveying applications.
Henry Deng joined Livox Tech, in February 2019 and is currently Head of Business Development Partnership. Henry is responsible for promoting robotics technology & intelligent hardware’s so it can shift the needs of both consumer and industries. Prior to Livox Tech, he is also working as Head of Global Professional Product Line at DJI. Henry Deng has more than 7 years of experience in the field of technology, and he has held a number of the position in marketing.
LiDAR — potential market of multi-billion dollars
Read insights on the most exhaustive research on LiDAR market for autonomous vehicles. Prebook our Edition 2020
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Share this article Related Posts | https://medium.com/@m14intelligence/livox-tech-an-emerging-brand-in-the-av-lidar-ecosystem-854f5a20e80a | [] | 2020-11-02 10:22:05.534000+00:00 | ['Autonomous Cars', 'Lidar', 'Self Driving Cars', 'Sensors', 'Safety'] |
The Latest: BBC Studios invests in Pocket Casts | The Latest: BBC Studios invests in Pocket Casts
Subscribe to The Idea, a weekly newsletter on the business of media, for more news, analysis, and interviews.
THE NEWS
Last week, Australian podcasting platform Pocket Casts received a new investment from BBC Studios that will be used to cover operational costs. The podcast player also received new funding from three of its existing owners: NPR, WNYC Studios, and WBEZ Chicago.
SO WHAT?
The podcasting platform space is crowded and competitive. Whereas Apple once dominated the space with over 80% of the market share, its market share dropped to 60% in 2019 according to Libsyn. This drop was driven by 1) audio platforms moving into the podcast space and 2) an increase in podcast player apps like Pocket Casts. (The barriers to entry to building a podcast platform have always been low, as most shows are distributed openly via RSS.)
Today, listeners are noting differences in podcast players, such as unique features, availability on their devices, exclusive content, and familiarity with their parent platform. That said, these differentiators are not mutually exclusive — a podcast player like Spotify can offer both exclusive content and rely on user familiarity with its platform to attract listeners.
Feature-focused podcast players
Pocket Casts is a featured-focused platform. Users can add playback effects, trim silence, and set filters to discover new shows — among many other features. CastBox, another feature-focused player, offers users the ability to conduct in-audio searches. Listeners can search for relevant content without having to rely on title descriptions or channel tags. While these kinds of features may be unnecessary for new podcast listeners, feature-heavy podcast players are likely more appealing to veteran podcast listeners who may have more specific needs.
Not all features are limited to the listening experience itself and may center on revenue models or social sharing. Some podcast players such as RadioPublic are attracting listeners with in-app tipping functions, allowing users to support their favorite shows and hosts. Other platforms have community features: Castbox, for example, launched a social feed on its app last Spring called for listeners and creators. Meanwhile, apps like Breaker and Swoot allow their users to keep up with what their friends are listening to.
Device-based podcast players
For many first-time podcast listeners, device-based podcast players such as Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts are a more convenient option. When Apple launched its podcast app in 2012, smartphones quickly replaced desktop computers as the most common way to consume podcasts. In 2018, Google launched its standalone podcast app, which now comes pre-installed in every Android phone.
Content-specific podcast players
Some podcasting platforms, such as Luminary and Stitcher, differentiate themselves with exclusive content offerings. In exchange for a subscription fee, users can access premium podcasts from the platform’s network. Other podcasting platforms only offer podcasts within specific verticals: Leela Kids and Pinna, for example, are podcast apps designed exclusively for kids.
Podcast players on existing platforms
Other podcast players have been built on existing platforms such as Pandora and Audible and thus are positioned to draw listeners from the platform’s existing user base. Spotify is perhaps the most prominent example of this, having increased its share of listening to nearly 12% according to Libsyn. Since launching podcasts in 2015, the company has invested heavily in podcasting as part of a strategy to become the “World’s №1 audio platform.” As is the case with device-based podcast players, podcast players that are born out of existing platforms are a convenient option for users who are new to podcasts but familiar with the platform.
Broadcast podcast players such as BBC Sounds, CBC Listen, and the upcoming new NPR app are also leveraging their companies’ historically radio-focused platforms to bring listeners to their podcast offerings. Designed to offer both regular podcasts as well as live radio stations, these apps seek to draw podcast listeners from existing radio audiences.
LOOK FOR
Which platforms will capture the most podcast listening growth. As mainstream platforms such as Apple podcasts and Spotify popularize podcast listening, listeners that started on those platforms may find themselves venturing towards other platforms in pursuit of advanced features. While this places independent podcast players in a unique position, larger platforms like Spotify and Pandora — which are still relatively new to podcasting but perhaps best positioned to draw net new listeners to podcasting — may begin taking cues from smaller podcast players to retain listeners onto their platforms. | https://medium.com/the-idea/the-latest-bbc-studios-invests-in-pocket-casts-ec9bf2efc515 | ['Tesnim Zekeria'] | 2020-03-10 17:38:12.691000+00:00 | ['Journalism', 'Media', 'Podcast', 'Audio', 'The Latest'] |
Why I Love My Inexistent Heritage | And What That Has to Do with Stoicism and My Millennial Self
Post-edit: I started writing this sometime around Easter and have been creeping in to look at it every week since. Somehow, this is the one piece I am genuinely afraid of publishing — mostly because I don’t have the data, I don’t have the full story, and I am more than likely juxtaposing my own perception of the man behind the main “character” in this piece with a series of things I have learned in the past few months. Therefore, as a disclaimer, I want you to carefully navigate these lines and these paragraphs. They are highly sensitive in nature and they might not make sense. But since this entire blog is meant to be a (humorous) exercise in honesty, I decided to hit the Ready to publish? button any way.
Post-post-edit: I also wanted to add pictures of my grandpa, just to show off how handsome he was, but then I decided not to. It would have been, I’m afraid, too personal — even for something as touchy-feely as this entire piece. So, as a proper European abiding to GDPR, I maintain my right to privacy. You’ll have to take my word for granted: he was just as handsome as any Hollywood actor playing a Roaring Twenties role, with the exception that my grandpa was real.
The pictures above aren’t mine. Credit goes to Jon Tyson on Unsplash
I remember Easter at my father’s parents.
The lunch usually happened on Easter Monday (because Sunday was dedicated to visiting my mother’s side of the family). My grandma would make chicken soup, pork schnitzels, mashed potatoes, and spring salad, all drizzled in Pepsi, cake, and some amazing wonders we called “walnut rolls” (they were more like cookies, though).
Traditional?
Hardly — chicken soup is chicken soup, pork schnitzels aren’t necessarily Romanian (and they are definitely not Easter-esque, since the traditional Easter meat here is lamb), nor are mashed potatoes (or Pepsi for that matter).
But to us, that entire day was a tradition.
After lunch, my grandpa and my father usually played backgammon. Sometimes, we all gathered around the wooden cherry table in the living room to play Rummy.
When the time came to leave, my grandpa helped me put on my jacket. And every single time he zipped it, he did this little trick, mimicking that he was taking the zipper past the point where the jacket ended and up to my nose.
I giggled every time.
He did that until my grandmother died when I was 14. When that happened, I saw my grandfather in pain for the first time. The only thing he said when he opened the door after her death was It should have been me.
He was 14 years her senior.
I was told my grandfather was Jewish ever since I was little. And that always made me feel proud. It made me feel special — not in any kind of religious or even cultural sense, but because I associated “Jewish” with this amazing human being my grandfather was: an artist who drew and played the piano and was touched by classical music every time he listened to it, and yet, a full-time engineer by profession, a man who carefully chopped spinach leaves for my grandma’s cooking, using no less than 4 knives of different sizes and cuts.
Even in his quirks, my grandpa was this personal superhero of mine. Last month, he would have turned 100. He didn’t live to that — he died at 88, 28 years after he quit smoking his four-pack-a-day serving of cigarettes, and 17 years after I came into the world.
Heavy smoking was his only excess, actually.
This man would wake up at 7 sharp every single day, go for a walk, buy bread and the necessities for the day, and then followed a very strict routine of crossword puzzles, playing Solitaire, listening to the radio, and reading.
Never have I ever seen him eat more than he needed, or indulge in anything in excess. I don’t ever remember him drinking alcohol of any kind. I guess his only soft spot were crepes — the man could gulp on 20 of them without breathing. So, whenever crepes happened in that house, they happened in massive quantities — my grandma dedicated an entire day just for that.
All his life, he worked as a textile engineer — but his dream had been to be a chemist.
Same as my dream of being an actress faded one evening in the bathroom of a dubious bar, his dream of being a chemist faded when he blew up the little practice laboratory his parents had set up for him in the house.
I guess drama runs in the family in this respect.
By the time the Nazis came to power, my grandfather was well out of his teens, heading into life, only to hit the wall of hatred and turmoil that was building on the West.
Somehow, my grandfather was not deported, like many in other parts of the country. I have tried to find sources on how this happened — but somehow, I cannot pull them together. It might have been luck, or it might have been something entirely different. What is clear is that Jews in most of the other parts of Romania were deported and/or killed. My grandfather and his father survived, and my great-grandmother survived, only to be killed in the years following the war.
Unfortunately, Romania is the second-largest participant in the Holocaust, following right after Germany itself.
All his life, my grandfather never spoke about anything that had come before he got married (including the war). When my father came into the world, my grandpa was already 40 and he had been sent to forced labor, his house had been taken away from his family twice (once by the Legionnaires, and then the second time by the Communists), and he had been imprisoned at one of the highest-security penitentiaries in Romania for actions against the Communist Party.
The paperwork showing his incarceration says that “as a chief engineer, he did not take care of the machinery received from the USSR”.
The same paperwork made a physical description of him: half-white/half-brown skin color and black eyes (in Romanian, “față smeadă” describes a type of brown-colored skin — which is what they used to describe his physical appearance).
He was very white and his eyes were sky-blue.
All my life, I never heard one story from him — about the Holocaust, losing the houses, or being imprisoned. Not once did he mention anything.
Whenever talks popped about topics that were even remotely adjacent to any of the above, he waved them away with a typical hand gesture, irritated, as if to wave away a mosquito.
It took me more than a decade from his death to realize my grandfather was a Stoic in the fullest and most meaningful sense of the word. A lot of people from his generation were (and some still are) — because as I have learned in the more recent months, Stoicism proves its efficiency not in times of peace and pleasantries, but in the harshest days of one’s life. And those people, well, let’s just say they are kind of entitled to call us snowflakes. Because by comparison, we are, and there’s no nicer way to put it.
I loved my grandpa, although I am pretty sure I never said it out loud. I am also pretty sure most of the people he came across during his lifetime came to love him too. The man was adorable, it couldn’t have been otherwise. I didn’t know how much others appreciated him until, at his funeral, I saw two 80-year-old ladies who remembered him from their working days together.
The lack of excessive anything, the way he talked, the way he treated people around him with kindness, the verticality of everything he ever said and done, and even the fact that he jotted down every single small purchase they made in a hand-sized notebook — they all point out to a Stoic way of living.
My grandfather is the reason I wrote my college dissertation paper on Isaac Bashevis Singer and why I intended to write my MA dissertation paper on Jewish Humor.
He is the reason I take pride in a heritage I did not inherit — mostly because it wasn’t shared. I never heard my grandpa say anything about his Judaism or his Jewishness — in fact, I am pretty sure that he was not religious at all, and perfectly well assimilated into the Western Romanian culture. After his death, I discovered a little Jewish prayer book and an illustrated Haggadah that had been gifted to him as a child. I never knew they were there, at the back of the old bookshelf — one I had rambled through all my childhood, looking for books of adventures and stories of emotion.
My grandpa did not pertain to the Jewish culture in any other way than by birth.
It’s hard to explain, then, why I take so much pride in this inexistent heritage. I am not culturally appropriating anything — but somehow, the fact that I always admired my grandfather makes me feel emotionally close to everything Jewish.
Don’t get me wrong: I loved my grandmother and I loved my mother’s parents as well (kind, humble, sweet, and beautiful people).
Yet, there’s some sort of inner fascination that turns me to my grandfather as a role model.
Let her do what her heart pleases, she’s a smart girl, he said when my mom told him I wanted to become an actress.
My heart stopped pleasing that fantasy, but his words encouraged me back then and continue to encourage me now.
My grandfather and my fascination with him taught me one of the most important lessons: you choose how you let life roll you around. It’s not that he was this mad success, it’s just that he lived a beautiful life — one that eventually gave me a point of moral and sentimental balance when things fell apart.
Yes, I am proud of an inexistent heritage — because I am proud of this blue-eyed Stoic who will always guide my moral compass.
And if there’s one thing I regret, it is that I didn’t spend enough time with him, to learn patience and strength and what tennis is all about and if that Haggadah book had ever been read at Pessach when he was a boy. | https://medium.com/@octaviadrexler/why-i-love-my-inexistent-heritage-9282758d849d | ['Octavia Drexler'] | 2019-06-17 20:40:08.531000+00:00 | ['Holocaust', 'Family', 'Jewish', 'Stoicism', 'Memories'] |
Ben Thompson’s Stratechery, Part 2 | Ben Thompson’s Stratechery, Part 2
In which the Kool-Aid gets stirred
Credit Ben Thompson, usage via 17 USC 107
I was impressed by, and enjoyed, the first two-thirds of Ben Thompson’s response to my critique of his work related to tech platforms and the Google antitrust case. (The last third is more regrettable, but I’ll address that, too.) I’ve enjoyed most of the exchange, and it has helped me clarify my thoughts. In particular, I’ve come to feel that Google’s spending $30 billion on traffic acquisition feels too much like the kind of thing Net Neutrality was trying to prevent back in the 2000s. But more on that later.
Overall I’d say Thompson’s response hasn’t done much to counter my core critique. He is too quick to jump from model to reality, too quick to assume that one important source of advantage represents something close to the full picture. As I said, his work is insightful for understanding tech business models, but when it comes to antitrust, it is on much shakier ground. And the hardest part for him to defend is the assertion that various costs, including switching costs, are zero or near zero. For doing so assumes away the costs that could be critical in determining strategic advantage, winners and losers, and at some point, liability in a lawsuit.
Let’s focus on the Google case, which, ironically, we agree on — it is nonetheless a good proxy to examine our differences. In case you’ve been living under a rock, the Justice Department sued Google, alleging that it is maintaining its monopoly using means that violate the Sherman Act. Thompson says that as “[Wu] does not believe that Google is unique as far as scalability is concerned, he appears to assume that the company must be doing something nefarious to command such market share.”
I’d turn this around and say that I don’t actually assume that the company must be doing something nefarious, but — but more importantly — I don’t not assume it, either. And that may make for the key difference between us.
Google is unquestionably one of the most impressive companies of the last 30 years, the cream of Silicon Valley’s late-1990s crop. Indeed, for much of my early career, I was accused of being too big a booster of Google.
But despite its origins as an impressive company with an undeniably great product, life is long, products are dynamic, and 15 years into Google’s dominance, we face an open question. That is whether:
A: Google search gained an advantage due to superior technology, user experience, aggregation theory, having the smartest coders, or whatever, and has continued to hold its advantage due to that reason; or
B: Google gained market leadership that way, but has subsequently come to rely in significant part on methods that include paying for traffic through defaults, acquisitions, subtle increases in switching costs, and other techniques having little to do with pure quality.
Both A and B are plausible — so which is true? The answer is: It is an empirical question. That is a question of fact, not of theory. And that is why I think Thompson’s aggregation theory, even if it does a good job explaining the initial advantage, isn’t helpful for telling us whether we now live in World A or World B. In fact, aggregation theory is positively unhelpful to law enforcement, to the extent it is read to insist that we must be living in World A because of zero switching costs. That comes close to assuming away the question, or stated another way, elevating theory over facts.
What we really need to settle the A/B question is not theory, but evidence. Which leads us back to a key evidentiary question: Just why is Google willing to pay Apple and other distributors so much for “default” placement of its product (and relatedly, why they haven’t settled the case, and stopped paying)? According to its 2019 10K, Google paid out over $30 billion to acquire traffic, much of which seems to have been paying for such defaults in various forms.
So what was Google paying for?
The funny thing is, if you have what people want, you don’t usually pay for distribution: people pay you. The NFL doesn’t pay NBC to carry Sunday Night Football, and George Clooney does not pay to appear in movies. Knowing nothing else, you might then expect Apple to be paying Google if it has such an intrinsically superior product. That would follow if aggregation theory is 100% right about the quality of the user experience creating a true winner-take-all situation.
Here are three possible explanations: A, B, and C. Explanation A, the most benign, is that Google has an inherently superior product but still thinks it’s worth paying tens of billions for a default placement because being the default is worth it for reaching more customers and increasing its revenue. In other words, unlike George Clooney, Google can make money by paying to be in movies.
Explanation B is that Google maybe makes more money, but is also afraid of a competitor arising on the iPhone or elsewhere — especially a Microsoft or Apple competitor. It is therefore willing to spend billions to avoid that competition and the corresponding loss of revenue. That’s anticompetitive.
Explanation C is partial, but posits that the core deal, the Apple deal, was actually driven in large part by Apple’s market power, and that Apple and Google have colluded to divide up the search market. The deal is this: Google gets freedom from an Apple competitor, but Apple gets billions in return. In this story, they are splitting the monopoly proceeds.
I think it is hard to rule out A, B, or C on the evidence we have. Indeed, figuring the best fit is what the law and courts are supposed to do, and some of the best evidence may reside in sworn testimony or an email chain somewhere. And there may be partially overlapping reasons.
But what isn’t particularly helpful to answer this question is Thompson’s aggregation theory because, again, it is an idealized model of how Google works, not the reality, and it assumes too much away. That’s why, as I said, I find Thompson’s work useful for learning and thinking about digital markets, but not so useful for answering core antitrust questions, like this one.
This brings us, finally, to switching costs and the influence of defaults on user behavior. These matter because if there truly were zero switching costs, it suggests that the only reason for Google’s persistence is quality. Thompson, if I have him right, thinks that the switching costs related to Google search are zero or near-zero because his theory presumes that transaction costs are zero, which leads to some of the “competition is a click away” stuff. I’d say, like a broken record, that this is another empirical question, and one unlikely to be settled by either theory or the anecdotes of technically sophisticated users (“Hey! It wasn’t hard for me to switch”). Indeed the latter is maybe the worst form of evidence, akin to saying, “none of my friends voted Republican, so what’s going on here?”
One thing neither Thompson nor I discussed in our first exchange was the effect of defaults on user behavior, but they are very relevant to switching costs and also what is at issue in the actual Google case. Numerous studies suggest that consumer defaults are highly “sticky,” in various contexts — that is, very few people bother to change a default (here’s an example about 401(k) plans). That’s relevant because defaults can heighten the effect of even very small switching costs.
I would agree that what you might call the literal costs of switching are low for a user with even basic technical skills. But that isn’t a full accounting, nor enough to declare zero switching costs. For when you add in the effects of defaults and other factors like access to maps, the coziness of the Google suite, and old-fashioned brand loyalty, I think you end up with a package that tends to discourage switching. And why not? Google wants, like any company, for people to stay with it, even if it doesn’t quite want to try to imprison people in the style of your friendly neighborhood cable company.
Some readers, and Thompson, were confused as to why I brought up Gmail. I think the suite of products that make up the Google ecosystem also have some nonzero effect on switching costs. It is common to try and maintain user loyalty with free goodies and perks, and doing so invokes the norm of reciprocity. That’s the sense that with Gmail and other gifts, you are getting something from Google and are indebted, an aspect of human psychology that user interface designers often rely on. There’s more: The user needs to know that you can actually adjust the default; there’s subtle mental load switching between Gmail to Bing, missing out on Google Maps, and even simple brand loyalty — all of these factors, I think, keep people in the Google family and make switching a cost. Does that mean it should be illegal to ply people with great add-on products? Obviously not, in most cases. But that’s not the question: It is whether something other than search quality helps keep people with Google. And that cannot be answered by pure theory.
All this said, it may still be the fact that it is the quality of Google search, and not the extra goodies nor the money spent on defaults is what keeps people with Google. (And the defaults, by the way, could still be anticompetitive, even if quality plays a role in keeping people with Google as Brett Frischmann points out). But at core we have a contestable empirical question, not one answered by saying things about how transaction costs and marginal costs are zero.
Let me conclude this section with some of my own thoughts on Google and its market position. Writing this entry has made me more critical of Google, for one big reason: that $30 billion spent on traffic acquisition. One of the ideals of the open internet and Net Neutrality, circa 1995 or so, was that the internet ought to be a kind of level playing field — let the best site or app win. In those days, the feeling was that a quasi-academic search out of a garage with a great new algorithm could beat out an established giant (DEC’s Altavista). Nothing is perfect, but I did feel like the 2000s was fairly meritocratic: Google beat Altavista and Yahoo!, Facebook beat Myspace, Prodigy lost out to everyone, mainly because of better code.
In that context, the idea of Yahoo! paying Verizon broadband to guarantee a win over Google (which was actually better) felt ugly to me; the entrenchment of what was, at the time, clearly an inferior product. But here, in the 2020s, the $30 billion a year being paid out by Google feels a lot like Yahoo! paying off Verizon in the ’00s. Spending that kind of money has strongly entrenching potential. It feels like what we were trying to prevent with Net Neutrality and I don’t like it one bit.
As I’ve said repeatedly, I’d like Google to be the company it could be, for it to prove its merits, on the merits, without the side payments/bribes. Maybe that’s too hopeful or naive, but there you have it: I’m an idealist at heart. | https://superwuster.medium.com/ben-thompsons-stratechery-part-2-89f3591d9460 | ['Tim Wu'] | 2020-12-03 19:25:03.476000+00:00 | ['Google', 'Stratechery'] |
Entropy to Understand Luck in the Premier League | One of the most popular statistics in Football/Soccer analytics is expected goals (Xg). There are different ways to describe Xg. For one, it is the number of goals you would expect a team or player to score given where the shot came from. It can be based purely on geometry (angle and distance from the goal), historical shot data, or a combination of these and other variables. It can tell you about how well a team should be performing if everything went exactly as it should be.
To me this implies something harder to measure — luck. Are teams luckier than other teams? Are those shots going into goal as much as the Xg suggests they should or is everything going wrong for that team? In other words, is there a way to measure how luck a team has been with their goal scoring?
One thought I had regarding this problem is to tackle it by changing the problem to one of certainty. In machine learning, a measure of uncertainty is Entropy. As Kelleher et al. (2015) entropy is related to the “uncertainty associated with guessing the result if you were to make a random selection from the set [of playing cards].” If all the cards are the same, you are pretty sure what you will get if you pick at random (entropy = 0). If they are all different playing cards, you are much less certain (entropy = positive number). Shannon’s Entropy Model is a simple way to calculate the entropy of something with a binary outcome. In this case it is the probability of a positive outcome multiplied by the base 2 logarithm of that same probability. This is summed across all cases and multiplied by negative 1.
Here, I will use a season as a sample. The probability will be calculated for each match based on the number of shots taken and the number of goals scored. Then all matches will be summed for the entropy score. I calculate this using the goals scored by a team divided by the shots taken, and a second entropy score as the goals against a team divided by the shots against. This is summed across the whole season.
Intresestingly, teams that tend to do well have less certainty (more randomness) in the entropy for, and maintain a low entropy against (less randomness in being scored on). Thus a ratio of entropy for to entropy against provides information on how well a team is performing. To my mind, at least, I think about this as luck. If a team is lucky at scoring (high entropy) and teams have low luck in scoring against them (low entropy) they are going to be performing well.
Ultimately there seems to be two tiers of teams: those that have a high ratio of for to against, and those that have a high ratio of against to for. If you are in the latter category you will be in the bottom of the table. If you are in the former, top of the table. Generally, those with the highest ratio of for to against will be in the top 4 or 5 teams.
Let’s look at the 20/21 season for matchweek 8 and see if it has any information about the current standings (this is being written after matchweek 12 but during matchweek 13).
Southhampton comes out on top for Entropy for, and second for ratio of for to against, but were fourth in the league table. One thing this points to is that Southhampton has been more random at scoring goals (goals going in for them) and more consistent in teams ability to score against them.
As of matchweek 12…
Southhampton and Aston Villa are still on top for entropy, but Tottenham and Liverpool occupy the top two places in the table. I think what this is suggesting is that Southhamptom and Aston Villa have been playing very good defense, and have been lucky with their goals. They probably will probably occupy high spots as the season continues….if they are able to continue this way.
On the otherhand it would not be surprsing if Tottenham falls off their topspot over the rest of the season. The reason for this is their entropy ratio is quite close to 1. Historically speaking, it seems teams that have a ratio closer over 1.5 will be in the top spot. Those below 1 will find themselves at the bottom of the table. A team does not want to be unlucky in goals against.
An intersting case is Burnley in 17/18 and 19/20. Their ratio of entropy for to against indicating a great performance when of course they are at the bottom of the league table (relegated in 17/18 and 10th in 19/20). This may be partly explained by their goalkeeper Nick Pope (save percentage in 17/18 was .79 and 19/20 was .71). For comparison in those two season’s Manchester United’s David de Gea had .80 and .73, and Manchester City’s Ederson had .67 and .73 respectively. So here the consistency of goalkeeping was not matched by luck in goal scoring. See here:
If you would like to see the full tables for entropy and the previous seasons, you can access them here: | https://medium.com/@spatialsocceranalysis/entropy-to-understand-luck-in-the-premier-league-6464d3f255f9 | ['D. Lamb'] | 2020-12-16 18:43:30.959000+00:00 | ['Soccer Analytics', 'Football', 'Entropy', 'Soccer'] |
How I passed Google Cloud Certified — Associate Cloud Engineer Exam | GCP — Associate Cloud Engineer Badge
This story captures my path to passing the GCP Associate Cloud Engineer exam. I’ve tried to optimize for reduced read time. The story may feel as dry as Beef Jerky but you will be able to chew it and swallow quickly.
My Starting Point
Experience: 20 years of commercial IT experience — dev, ops, architecture, people management, product management;10 years with AWS as dev and ops; 2h of GCP experience
Certifications: AWS Certified Developer Associate (2 years ago), AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate (2 years ago), Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (last month), Certified Kubernetes Admin (last month)
Learning Process
Duration: 30 days
Time invested: 40 hours
Resources used:
Linux Academy * (30 hours)— to learn, practice GCP, practice tests.
Whizlabs (5h)— to practice tests.
GCP (5h) — to practice GCP. Linux Academy sandboxes are great, but they expire quickly. I wanted something on my own that would survive days, weeks.
Sequence:
Completed the following Linux Academy courses. I skipped units that overlapped between the courses. I played most videos at x1.75 — x2 speed.
- Google Cloud Network Concepts (81% complete)
- Google Cloud Network Management (54%)
- Google App Engine Deep Dive (67%)
- Google Cloud Essentials (32%)
- Google Cloud Security Essentials (62%)
- Google Cloud Certified Associate Cloud Engineer (100%)
- Learn Google Cloud by Doing (100%)
- Google Cloud Network Concepts (81% complete) - Google Cloud Network Management (54%) - Google App Engine Deep Dive (67%) - Google Cloud Essentials (32%) - Google Cloud Security Essentials (62%) - Google Cloud Certified Associate Cloud Engineer (100%) - Learn Google Cloud by Doing (100%) Went through Whizlabs tests twice to get over a 90% success rate.
Exam Experience
Before The Exam
I had to show 2 identification cards. I went with my driver's license and a credit card. Before I was let to the exam room I had to leave all my belongings in a locker. The supervisor asked me to demonstrate that my packets were empty. I had a hoodie and had to show that I was not hiding anything there.
The supervisor prepared the PC and started the exam. I had to click through a couple of screens with terms and conditions.
During
50 questions, 2 hours. I went through all the questions responding to all of them. I marked those that I was not sure of for review. I ended up marking ~30% of the questions. I then did a second pass and modified some responses.
After
Check webassessor.com . It will have a provisional result. You will need to wait (usually 2 days but they say max 10 days) for an official confirmation from Google. During that time, Google reviews data from the exam process. From what I’ve heard, as long as you didn’t violate the terms of the exam, Google will confirm the result posted on webassessor.com.
Opinion About the Exam
I think the exam was difficult. You need to be familiar with low-level things like command line parameters of gcloud and gsutil. At the same time, you need to understand the high-level concepts of many GCP products.
I’ve recently passed both Kubernetes exams. They are “open book” exams. You are allowed to use the documentation published at kubernetes.io. The exams were difficult. There was not enough time to browse through documentation. You had to know your stuff and only look for specific things. At the same time, the exams were fun. You didn’t have to memorize stuff that you can easily find online. Also, solving real problems in the command line gave me a sense of accomplishment. The GCP ACE exam was nothing like that. I felt I had to memorize things that I’ll copy/paste in my daily work. Also, since the exam was not hands-on, it’s hard for me to tell if I’m ready to solve real problems on GCP.
*This story contains affiliate links. I benefit when you sign up using these links. I don’t advertise products that I have not used or don’t enjoy using. | https://medium.com/@adam.tworkiewicz/how-i-passed-google-cloud-certified-associate-cloud-engineer-exam-f13d048f579c | ['Adam Tworkiewicz'] | 2020-04-15 15:11:16.324000+00:00 | ['Certification', 'Google', 'Associate Cloud Engineer', 'Gcp', 'Exam Preparation'] |
The Evolution of The Windows Copy Dialog | Whether it’s Windows, MacOS, Linux, or Android, iOS, Windows Phone, users of all these devices have one major thing in common, Copy and Paste. Copy and Paste has grown so much from a time when editing scissors were a thing, to the “Smart Text Select & Copy” functions of many operating systems, especially in smartphones.
But this article isn’t about what copy-paste does, it’s about how it looks.
Windows 95 Era
The design of Windows Copy dialog has come a long way: from the slick animation of folders transferring files, to the graphs from Windows 8 that we see today. The early design was simple, including :
An animation to tell the user that copy is happening and the process isn’t frozen;
A bar to show progress ;
Two action buttons, cancel and close.
My opinion: The cancel and close buttons don’t really have a visible difference, so I’m not sure why the close button is even included. This version is well designed in terms of design as well as functionality, with one important feature missing, pause.
Windows XP (2001–2008)
Windows XP Copy didn’t change much other than the visual overhaul to match the style of the operating system. No pause button yet, but an important addition is the time remaining.
Windows Vista Era (2006–2011)
While everyone remembers the polished, well designed Windows 7 copy dialog, it was Windows Vista that brought the huge overhaul to the amount of information displayed during copy. Some improvements were:
It showed us items remaining, speed, time remaining, location details and what was getting copied.
The Copy animation shows the current progress with a “growing” green bar and a constant white shimmer moves along its length to indicate any freeze.
A new minimize button was added to the dialog.
My opinion: I still don’t understand why there is a cancel AND a close button. Also still no pause button.
Windows 8 Era (2012 — Present)
While Windows 8 had it’s last release in 2014 and was succeeded by Windows 10 in 2015, it laid the foundation to much of the Windows UI that we see today (slowly being replaced by Acrylic); More importantly, it laid the foundation to the Windows copy dialog we all see today. Windows 8 brought a good visual overhaul (and finally a pause button 🎉🎉🎉) to the Windows Copy and aside from minor graphical changes:
The Windows Copy is still the same (as of April 2020);
Working off the Windows 7 copy dialog, the new UI simplified its information architecture by moving the To and From to in a more comprehensible (and accessible thank to the links) way to navigate to the source and destination directories during copy.
and to in a more comprehensible (and accessible thank to the links) way to navigate to the source and destination directories during copy. It removed a lot of text and embraced icons.
My opinion: It was a very welcomed redesign, and probably the best “Copy UI” Windows has ever had (even though I miss the classic animations).
But this UI isn’t without its flaws. Aside from [highly] inaccurate estimations (due to system resource fluctuations and other limitations which are forgivable), as cool as it is, the centerpiece is what bothers me; that bloody graph.
If anyone’s ever used a graph you’d know the most important part of the graph (apart from the data) is the axes. Google knows this:
Browsing for stock price on Google Search
The Graph In The Copy Dialog
A graph helps us visualize how one form of data is related to another, and that relationship helps us predict. So what does the Windows Copy graph do or even tell us? To start with the Windows Copy graph doesn’t show its axes. But we can guess what it could be: Transfer Size vs Time.
Transfer Size vs Time?
Data-size/Time graphs
For the rest of this article, we’ll assume that it is a data-size/time graph. If so, a question that can arise is: What can we do with this “information”? Here’s a breakdown of my observations of this Windows Copy Dialog:
The time remaining is displayed below the graph;
The graph stops advancing when no copy is happening (yes Windows Copy can stop time);
The graph does nothing to give me any predictions, useful or not (unlike the Google graph above).
Apple seems to understand this:
Apple vs Windows Copy Dialog
No fancy animations, no useless graphs, no “additional information”. Oh, and also no close button….
The Windows Copy UI is part of a bigger problem that design has always faced, and with the advent of Instagram, a problem that isn’t going away any time soon; The battle that is Form Vs Function. | https://blog.prototypr.io/windows-copy-function-followed-form-11cf4bf6a87e | ['Aswath Sivakumaran'] | 2020-04-29 13:57:44.560000+00:00 | ['Design', 'Form Vs Function', 'User Interface', 'Copy', 'Windows'] |
About Medium | Below are some of the most frequently asked question about the Medium platform.
General Medium Platform Questions with In-Depth Article Responses
Quick Answers to Questions
Who founded Medium?
Medium is an online publishing platform developed by Evan Williams and launched in August 2012.
Who writes on Medium?
One of the greatest qualities of Medium is the diverse range of writers. There are many emerging writers, who may be publishing their content online for the first time. There are also experienced writers who have been published in major publications or have written their own books. Major newspapers and magazines also publish content on Medium.
What are some of the popular topics to write about on Medium?
Medium allows content from virtually every niche to be published, however there are a few categories that are disproportionately popular. Some of these include: Business, Self-Help, Technology, Programming, Success Stories, Startups, Personal Essays, Culture, and Diversity.
Does it cost money to write on Medium?
No, it does not. Medium provides a definitive answer on this: “Publishing on Medium is free…” — Medium You can also find out for yourself by creating an account and publishing your first post (there is no payment info required). Medium membership (paying to access unlimited articles) is optional for writers. While I think it is a good idea to pay for Medium (if you are utilizing its content or like supporting smaller writers), it is by no means a requirement.
Does Medium own my content?
"You own the rights to the content you create and post on Medium. By posting content to Medium, you give us a nonexclusive license to publish it on Medium Services, including anything reasonably related to publishing it (like storing, displaying, reformatting, and distributing it)." -Medium
Can I repost my medium articles elsewhere?
Yes, you can repost your articles written on Medium on other platforms. Conversely, you can import stories from external sources (i.e. your personal blog) to Medium. To ensure proper SEO and search engine indexing, when you do repost, use Medium's import tool or set the correct canonical link yourself
What fonts does Medium use?
Will reposting content from your personal website on Medium harm the SEO/domain authority of your site?
No, it will not adversely affect your site or content. This is addressed directly by Medium: “Medium’s publication and cross-posting pathways automatically add canonical links to protect your original content posted offsite. This means that Medium can only boost — not cannibalize — your SEO.” — Medium A more nuanced response: The SEO impact depends on the timing of when you publish the post and how they interlink. When Google encounters two pieces of content that are substantially similar, the algorithm has to decide which one was the “original” or “canonical” version and which ones are the duplicate versions. The best practice is to always post on your own website first, and then submit the page for indexation to Google. After the page is indexed by Google, then it’s a much safer bet to cross post it to other places. If you publish to Medium or first (before your own site), Google might consider the LinkedIn or Medium version to be the canonical. That means: from now on Google will show the Medium page instead of your own site when people search for your blog post on Google. -Post your content on your own website first; -Make sure this content is indexed before reposting it on another platform like Medium; -When you do repost, use Medium’s import tool or set the correct canonical link yourself
When did Medium stop using claps to determine earnings, and switch to member reading time? | https://medium.com/blogging-guide/about-medium-1ddc8a7c85d9 | ['Casey Botticello'] | 2020-02-23 01:48:56.110000+00:00 | ['Help', 'Medium', 'Advice', 'About', 'Writing'] |
How to Remain Calm When You Really Want to Scream | How to Remain Calm When You Really Want to Scream
Things to Remember When Parenting Your 20-Something-Year-Old Young Adults
Photo by Dmitry Vechorko on Unsplash
First of all. For the record. Let me say this. “I do love my 3 young adult children.”
I know children are blessings from above yada, yada, yada. And all that other good stuff. And I, like most loving parents, would without would hesitation lay down my life for them if necessary.
But dammit sometimes they make me want to scream and pull all my hair out my head! (Takes a slow calming breath).
I was forewarned this parenting thing never gets easier. I’m reminded of a quote about parenting from Jake Slope who said:
“Parenting is a life time job and does not stop when a child grows up.”
Yes, the relationship does evolve. But it does not become “easy peasy” by no stretch of the imagination. At least not when you have 3 young adults who are all in their early to mid-twenties. Or, at least not for us. And not for a number of friends and family I know. Thankfully we have a built-in support group of people who “get it” and with whom we can share the madness.
Who Are These People?
Photo by MaddiesCreation on Unsplash
Just last night. We were laying in bed laughing out loud as we discussed one of our latest “an alien abducted our real child” episode. And this is where I’ll add. Humor helps. Sometimes you just have to laugh at the situation. Perhaps to keep your sanity. Or maybe to keep from crying. Whichever the reason. The “Laughter is a good medicine” proverb is sage wisdom.
I kid you not. I swear sometimes my husband and I look at each other in total disbelief. Both wondering the same unspoken thought. “Who are these children and where did they come from?”
Yeah. We’ve been doing it long enough to maintain calm faces and voices on the outside. But on the inside. Our eyes are bulging. Our mouths are wide open. And we are yelling loudly at the top of our lungs and trying to keep our hands to ourselves.
One would never know by looking at our calm demeanor. Thankfully we’d already been married 25 years before our eldest offspring turned 20. Because of this, we’ve already built a pretty solid foundation and supportive bond. At least one solid enough to maintain our sanity now that we have a triple threat of 20 something-year-olds.
Keep reading to find out some things other than laughter that help us to maintain our sense of calmness.
5 Important Reminders to Help Maintain Your Parental Calmness
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
Here are 5 reminders to help parents of 20 something-year-old young adults. These reminders will help you maintain a sense of calmness when the desire to scream is bubbling on the surface of your frontal lobe.
Remember, this too will pass. — Remember no matter what the situation or circumstance. It will not last forever. Breath and allow patience and the mere passing of time to work its wonders.
2. Remember, they’re not crazy their brains are still developing. — According to Sandra Aamodt, neuroscientist, and co-author of the book “Welcome to Your Child’s Brain. Science is on our side. In an NPR interview entitled “Brain Maturity Extends Well Beyond Teen Years she states:
So the changes that happen between 18 and 25 are a continuation of the process that starts around puberty, and 18 year olds are about halfway through that process. Their prefrontal cortex is not yet fully developed. That’s the part of the brain that helps you to inhibit impulses and to plan and organize your behavior to reach a goal.
3. Remember to always cast a vision for a better future. — Although it may not seem like it during times of whatever current crisis or debacle in which you and your young adult find yourselves facing. Never lose hope. One day you’ll be able to look back at the experience and laugh together about it with your future grandchildren. Yes. The one’s who will eventually exact payback to your “now you’re the parent” offspring. (Sweet justice.)
4. Remember you were once the young adult in the scenario. — Maybe you didn’t have the exact same experiences with your parents when you were in your 20’s. Perhaps you were a “goodie two shoes” and near damn perfect. (Raises hand to indicate “that’s me”). Well. Newsflash. There are no perfect 20 something-year-old young adults.
No matter who you are and how good you were. Whether your parents told you are not. There is something you did that made your parents want to scream and pull their hair out. If you never knew. This may be a good time to go ask them about it if you’re still blessed with their presence in your life. I’m sure they have some stories to tell (wink).
5. Remember, for the record. You really do love them. — Although they’ve developed from babies to toddlers, to adolescents to teens and are now young adults. They are still your children. And because of this. No matter how many times they make you want to scream and pull out all of your hair. The bottom line is. They’re yours. Love them unconditionally.
In Conclusion
So the next time your wonderful 20 something-year-old young adult tries your last nerves. And you are imagining drop-kicking them are serving them a quick karate chop. Think about these 5 reminders instead.
Take a breath. Remain calm. Don’t scream. And by all means. Don’t pull out all your hair. Remember. You are not alone. As a matter of fact. You’re a member of an ever-growing team. And when the brains of all our 20-something-year-old young adults fully develop. We will all win. So hang in there. We got this. We are parents. Hear us roar.
Until the next time,
Much Love & Peace,
CarlaDee
Click the story below to read more about me and our family. | https://medium.com/an-idea/how-to-remain-calm-when-you-really-want-to-scream-c8d278ca88fb | ['Carla D. Wilson Laskey'] | 2020-12-23 03:14:35.698000+00:00 | ['Growth', 'Humor', 'Family', 'Advice', 'Parenting'] |
地図じゃないOpenStreetMap | in Digital and innovation at British Red Cross | https://medium.com/@k-sakanoshita/%E5%9C%B0%E5%9B%B3%E3%81%98%E3%82%83%E3%81%AA%E3%81%84openstreetmap-1e594c13e176 | [] | 2020-11-02 12:39:23.515000+00:00 | ['GIS', 'Openstreetmap', 'Open Data', 'Open Source'] |
The journey of transitioning from a developer to a startup founder | The journey of transitioning from a developer to a startup founder Andrew Cachia Follow Jan 16 · 4 min read
Building a Scalable Product vs Building a Lean Startup
Moving from an employed developer to a startup owner involved one of the largest paradoxical mindshifts in my professional career.
The issue lies in the fact that the mindset of a startup founder versus that of a developer are in conflict with each other, like two heads constantly bashing against one another.
As a software developer, I know that building a robust foundation takes time. Scalability, modularity and good development practices are of the utmost importance to ensure long term robustness of the software.
However, as a startup founder, I want to get the product out to market as quickly as possible. This not only gives me an edge on the competition, but also allows me to test the market, get feedback on the product, pinpoint any issues, pivot if necessary, and ultimately recognize whether the market actually wants the product or not.
Developer mindset vs startup founder mindset
It’s a common and somewhat default reaction that once people get their “big idea”, they hide away keeping their product a well kept secret until the ‘big release day’ arrives. But remember, the last thing you want is to spend six months to one year building something…which never takes off!
So the question remains….where do you draw the line? How can you move quickly whilst not sacrificing quality? How do you ensure long term scalability whilst still keeping as lean as possible?
Whilst I can’t claim to have the perfect answer (is there even one, really?), I can suggest a number of tips that have helped guide me throughout this journey.
KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)
You should be continuously asking yourself — “What is the absolute bare minimum functionality that the product requires?”.
Any ‘nice-to-have’ features should not be part of the first prototype or beta. The goal is for the customers to clearly understand what the product is trying to achieve or what problem it solves.
The same applies when designing the architecture. Having a blank slate when building @Leet, it was very tempting to begin designing a sophisticated microservice based architecture. Nowadays I thank myself for not following that approach for the maintenance nightmare that would have followed.
2. Do not re-invent the wheel
In my younger days, I used to be against paying for anything that I could build myself. Nowadays that I value time more than money, my view on that has flipped drastically.
If I could simply pay 10 euros a month to avoid a ton of effort and time on my behalf….yes please!
There are a huge number of services available in today’s market:
SaaS (Software-as-a-service): This could be an API up to a fully whitelabelled product. If a service already exists which solves most or part of what you are trying to achieve, and is within a reasonable budget, you should definitely consider.
IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-service): Cloud service providers such as AWS and Azure all offer free tiers which help you get up and running very quickly without having to pay at the initial stages. Others like Digital Ocean offer free credit and are relatively cheap.
No code tools: As the NoCode movement is on the rise, more and more tools are being launched which require no coding and limited technical knowledge. Although these tools can be very efficient for rapidly launching a mockup or prototype, they tend to quickly fall apart once the number of users and website activity begins to increase. Adding specific customizations can also be tedious or impossible sometimes, depending on the scenario.
These tools should be used with caution and with understanding of the limitations.
3. Stick to what you know
Beware the learning curve! It’s tempting to want to explore the latest and greatest new programming language or database service. However, no matter how easy the online tutorials seem, it WILL take time to familiarize yourself with all the nooks and crannies. You will also be presented with challenges that will set you back quite a bit, which you know you could have easily solved with the tools you already know.
So UNLESS there is a clear and strong reason for you to favour a particular technology over another, please do yourself a favor and stick to the tools you’re experienced with.
4. Some shortcuts are acceptable/required to be taken. Others are not.
It’s up to you to use your better judgment here. Avoiding layers and layers of mappings, interfaces and abstractions in the initial version of the product is acceptable. Writing a bunch of spaghetti code for the sake of ‘speed’ is not.
5. If the product is “perfect” at launch, then you’ve taken too long!
You need to get used to getting comfortable with things not being perfect. It doesn’t matter if the product is not polished and still lacks a few features. As long as it solves the customer’s problems or adds value to their lives, it will be well received.
6. Remember, the technical challenges are the least challenging part of building a tech startup…
…so make sure you know what you’re getting yourself into 😉 | https://medium.com/play-with-leet/the-journey-of-transitioning-from-a-developer-to-a-startup-founder-5d6436d6e031 | ['Andrew Cachia'] | 2021-01-18 19:56:58.095000+00:00 | ['Scalability', 'Football', 'Startup', 'Tech', 'Developer Stories'] |
Announcing New Altcoin Listings and Gobaba Trading module | Dear Gobaba community,
We are really excited to announce that new altcoins will very soon be part of Gobaba currencies along with the our brand new trading module. Right now the final tests are currently running and the new system will be live at the beginning of the next week. (Fingers crossed 🤞)
We listed below all the altcoins to be added to Gobaba with their official websites in case you want to check out before start trading!
Actual list of altcoins
Altcoins to Buy/Sell directly through fiat wallets (TRY and EUR )
Altcoins Tradable with BTC pairs
In addition to altcoins above, the BTC pairs are open for the following altcoins:
As you know, we always welcome your feedbacks. You can visit our community page for your coin requests, feedbacks, questions and bug reports. | https://medium.com/gobabaexchange/announcing-new-altcoin-listings-and-gobaba-trading-module-c0fda44a1547 | [] | 2018-08-08 06:16:49.671000+00:00 | ['Altcoins', 'Finance', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Crypto', 'Bitcoin'] |
Western Greed and Nature’s Wrath: MOTHRA (1961) | © Toho Company, Ltd.
Mothra is one of Ishiro Honda and Eiji Tsuburaya’s finest monster films alongside Godzilla. Produced in Toho’s heyday, it boasts a distinctive, fantastical tone. Mothra also features lavish, near Hollywood tier production values. Director Honda and the film’s writers delve into some interesting subtexts. These include environmentalism, indigenous issues and the dark side of Western capitalism. At the same time, Tsuburaya impresses with one stunning destruction sequence after another.
By 1960, producer Tomoyuki Tanaka was eager to make another monster movie. Toho’s last such film had been the fairly disastrous Varan (1958), though a recreation of mythical beast Yamata no Orochi appeared in the following years’ The Three Treasures. Tanaka wanted a different kind of monster film this time around: a feminine beast with elements of magical realism. To this aim, he hired writer Shinichiro Nakamura to come up with a concept. Nakamura was a dramatic scribe who had adapted Yukio Mishima’s The Sound of Waves into a screenplay. He was far removed from sci-fi authors like Shigeru Kayama or Jojiro Okami. Nakamura collaborated with two other writer friends: Takehiko Fukunaga and Yoshie Hotta. Each writer would come up with one act of the story. The original story, The Glowing Fairies and Mothra, was serialized prior to the release of the film. While it had the finished film’s basic elements, it was significantly different. Nakamura and company’s story was far longer and contained many bulky subplots. There were four, larger fairies instead of two. The Christian-influenced mythology of Infant Island was also delved into. Screenwriter Shinichi Sekizawa was hired to turn the long-winded story into a concise script. Inspired by the original King Kong, he simplified the story’s beats into a more adventurous form.
Eiji Tsuburaya with the giant Mothra larvae prop. © Toho Company, Ltd.
Sekizawa (1920–1992) was Toho’s main science fiction screenwriter besides Takeshi Kimura. He was usually recruited for more hopeful stories with a fantastical flair. Sekizawa was a younger man than Kimura and known for an eccentric charm. He often wore kimonos in public rather than Western clothing and had an obsession with locomotive trains. Sekizawa was born in Kyoto. Like many of his contemporaries, he had a painful experience fighting at the brutal Pacific War front. Returning to Japan in 1946, he turned to almost eclectic pursuits. He was an assistant and writer to director Hiroshi Shimizu, including on Children of the Beehive (1948) and Buddha’s Children (1952). He also studied manga under genre luminary Osamu Tezuka. In 1956 he wrote and directed an independent film called The Fearful Invasion of Flying Saucers. Distributed by Shin Toho after Daiei and Toho passed on it, it starred Tadao Takashima in an early role. Flying Saucers was believed to be a lost film until a 16mm print turned up at auction in 2010. Sekizawa soon joined Toho as a screenwriter, one of his first films being Varan (1958). He wrote films in numerous genres including Kihachi Okamoto’s 1960 The Last Gunfight and Westward Desperado. After Mothra he began to specialize in fantastical science fiction scripts, writing more Godzilla entries than any other screenwriter.
Tanaka had only one choice in mind for the Twin Fairies. That was popular chanteuse duo Emi (1941–2012) and Yumi Ito (1941–2017), better known as The Peanuts. Being identical twins, they were discovered in a nightclub by a talent scout. The Peanuts had debuted in Japan’s music scene only a few years prior to Mothra and were now top of the charts. Tanaka was able to procure them in spite of their busy schedule. They were indeed a valuable asset in selling the film. Honda loved working with them and thought they were very professional. The roles necessitated that they speak in unison. That was easy for them as they were used to singing together. When filming their scenes, Honda found it nearly impossible to tell them apart. For scenes where the tiny Fairies interact with the regular-sized actors, dolls were used as on-set stand-ins. Their lines were played on a tape recorder to the actors. Mothra wound up being very good for The Peanuts’ career and international notability. They would go on to make guest appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Danny Kaye Show in the states.
Production storyboard for MOTHRA (1961). The cocooning scene was originally to take place at the Diet (Japanese Parliament) Building.
Mothra had one of Toho’s biggest budgets for a monster film and there’s a lavishness to it reminiscent of old Hollywood films. The production values are some of the best Honda and Tsuburaya ever achieved. Hajime Koizumi’s images are luminous and Mothra has a fantastical tone. The production design of the Infant Island sequences are especially impressive. It is said Honda drew aesthetic influence from an unexpected place: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Red Shoes (1948). Mothra also boasts deeper themes than meets the eye. Nakamura, Fukunaga and Hotta’s original story was less subtle in its political overtones. There was an anti-discrimination message and jabs at America and Japan’s controversial 1960 AMPO security treaty. While Sekizawa toned these themes down, there are still strong hints. Rolisica, its name a portmanteau of Russia and America, is a grim parody of a Western nation. It’s much akin to the portrayal of Russia and America as the “Alliance” and “Federation” in the same year’s The Last War. The Rolisicans, responsible for conducting atomic tests on Infant Island, are quick to defend Nelson’s property rights despite moral conundrums. They are also swift to deploy an atomic weapon on Japanese soil, blatantly violating Japan’s non-nuclear principles. The sociopathic Clark Nelson is a grotesque personification of Western imperialism. A darker take on King Kong’s Carl Denham, he is a quintessential “ugly American”. There is subtext in Mothra about indigenous peoples’ rights and even environmentalism. Nelson, as if standing in for “manifest destiny”, massacres the natives of Infant Island before exploiting the Fairies for capitalist gain. His appalling greed brings about the wrath of nature through Mothra, who takes on the classic role of Shinto yonaoshi god.
© Toho Company, Ltd.
There was an alternate ending shot. Columbia bought the rights to the film early on. Their contract stipulated that the ending take place in an American-style city to give Mothra more marketability overseas. The original story had an epic finale in Rolisica’s capital of New Kirk City. The bean counters at Toho, however, wanted a less expensive ending. They petitioned Columbia to allow for a final set in Japan. In this ending. Nelson and his men kidnap Chujo’s brother Shinji and flee into the volcanic mountains of Kyushu. Engaging in a shoot-out with police, Nelson is finally blown into a volcano by Mothra. In many ways, it was a more satisfying end for Nelson than what appeared in the final cut. Toho, not wanting to delay principal photography, started shooting the film while waiting for approval from Columbia. The alternate ending was one of the first scenes shot. Columbia declined Toho’s request shortly after and the footage was left undeveloped and eventually destroyed. This ending will forever be a lost relic ala King Kong’s “spider pit” scene, with scant glimpses available on the film’s poster and in publicity shots. The Rolisica sequences, containing just about every Western expat who resided in Tokyo, are the weakest link of the film, stagebound on obvious sets.
© Toho Company, Ltd.
Mothra’s cast is eclectic; a mix of consummate Japanese players and amateur foreigners. Frankie Sakai (1929–1996) plays tenacious reporter Zenichiro “Zen-Chan” Fukuda. He was a beloved triple threat: a comedian, jazz musician and actor. Born Masatoshi Sakai in the South Japanese city of Kagoshima, he was the descendent of samurai. His uncle was Gokuro Soga, one of Japan’s first comic actors. His name “Frankie” was christened when he was performing at an American military cabaret during the Occupation. In 1954 he formed the jazz band “Frankie Sakai and the City Slickers. While performing he met comic actor Junzaburo Ban who got him into show business. His big breakout role was in the acclaimed TV drama and later movie I Wanna Be a Shellfish (1959). He was also known for frequent roles in Toho’s Company President and Train Station comedy films. Sakai was something of an activist and lobbied for a strong actors’ union. He also hosted a string of quiz and variety shows for a while. Later on in his career, Sakai appeared in James Clavell’s Shogun (1980). A passion of his was ukiyo-e printer Sharaku and one of his final projects was a biopic directed by Masahiro Shinoda. Kyoko Kagawa plays Zen’s trusty photographer Michie Hamamura. Kagawa (1931-) was an esteemed actress who appeared in films by Kurosawa, Ozu, Mizoguchi and Naruse. At 17, she joined Shin Toho. She first turned heads in Mikio Naruse’s Mother (1952) and in the role of an Okinawan girl pressed into the role of army nurse in 1953’s Tower of the Lilies. Soon she appeared in Yasujiro Ozu’s beloved Tokyo Story (1953). She was a favorite actress of Kurosawa’s, acting in The Lower Depths (1957), The Bad Sleep Well (1960), High and Low (1963) and Red Beard (1965). She married and moved to New York City for a while but returned to Japan soon after. Still active to this day, more recently she was in Masayuki Suo’s Shall We Dance (1996).
Hiroshi Koizumi (1926–2015) plays one of his first scientist roles for director Honda. Koizumi was not new to the genre, however. He previously appeared in Godzilla Raids Again (1955). Koizumi was born in Kamakura, Kanagawa, the son of Shotaro Koizumi, a politician. He studied economics at Keio University but got into broadcasting after he graduated. His radio performances showing a great deal of talent, Koizumi was encouraged to apply at Toho’s New Face program. Making the cut, his first film was 1952’s Youth Conference, directed by Toshio Sugie. In 1956, Koizumi played the main character’s suitor in the romantic comedy Sazae-San (Miss Sazae). He became especially beloved for this role which he reprised in sequels a dozen more times. For Honda, Koizumi became a favorite: appearing in five more of his films in a row. His acting career died down but Koizumi became the host of a popular quiz show. He returned to the kaiju genre occasionally, playing smaller roles in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974), The Return of Godzilla (1984) and Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003). In the latter, he reprised Mothra’s role of Chujo. Koizumi’s older brother Junsaku was an equally famous painter.
Toho VHS sleeve for MOTHRA (1961). © Toho Company, Ltd.
Jerry Ito plays the vile Nelson with lip-smacking albom. Ito (1927–2007) was born Gerald Tamekichi Ito in New York City. He was the second son of dancer and choreographer Michio Ito and an American woman. He grew up in California and after his parents divorced, his father was accused of spying for Japan by the FBI. Michio Ito fled back to his home country to avoid trial. To save young Jerry from internment, his American family took him to New York where he finished high school before being drafted into the U.S. Navy. Jerry wound up serving in the Occupation forces in Japan. During this time, he searched for his father whom he had lost contact with during the war. After several months, he finally reunited with him and met his Japanese family for the first time. Returning to the United States, Jerry Ito studied drama in New York. After two years of studies, he appeared on Broadway for the first time. Ito did a short stint in the Korean War where he avoided being sent to the front-lines and instead helped put on musical shows at Fort Dix and West Point. He returned to Broadway where he appeared in a stage version of Tea House of the August Moon. In the mid 1950s, Jerry Ito returned to Japan to visit his family. One of his uncles was actor Koreya Senda and another production designer Kisaku Ito. His two uncles got him into Japanese show business and Ito remained in Tokyo. In addition to Mothra, Ito also appeared in the same year’s The Last War and the 1959 US/Japanese co-production The Manster. He also appeared on the Tsuburaya TV show Mighty Jack (1968) and its follow-up. His final onscreen role was in Kinji Fukasaku’s Message From Space (1978). Ito moved back to California later in life. He suffered a stroke but was gradually recovering before dying of cancer.
Other notable actors in Mothra include Ken Uehara and Tetsu Nakamura. Uehara (1909–1991) was born the son of an army colonel. After graduating from university, he joined Shochiku and became a popular actor there. This career was interrupted by a short stint fighting in China. His unit was overwhelmed by the amount of fan mail he received. After the war he quit Shochiku. He appeared in films for Daiei and Toho including Naruse’s Late Chrysanthemums (1954). Eventually, he contracted with Toho. There he focused on character acting as he began to suffer from Meniere’s Disease. His son was Yuzo Kayama, adored for his role in Toho’s Young Guy series. Uehara appeared in Nobuhiko Obayashi’s The Little Girl Who Conquered Time (1983) in his later years. Tetsu Nakamura (1908–1992) was born Satoshi Nakamura in British Columbia, Canada. As a youth, he trained to be a singer at the Britannia Secondary School. Nakamura eventually emigrated to Japan in the early 1940s. There he began to pursue acting and was contracted to Toho in 1942. Postwar, his fluent English made him an asset on international co-productions where he often acted as interpreter. He also played a memorable role in The Manster. Later, he appeared in Red Sun (1971) opposite Toshio Mifune, Charles Bronson and Alain Delon. One of his last roles was in the U.S./Japanese co-production The Last Dinosaur (1977).
Mothra contains more Western actors than the average Toho production. Generally, gaijin in Japanese films were played by an eclectic group of expats. These were mainly businesspeople and military men working or stationed in Tokyo. Only with Frankenstein Conquers the World did Toho start to bring professional, Hollywood actors to Japan. There are several such interesting figures in Mothra. The first is Osman “Johnny” Yusuf. Yusuf (1920–1982) was a Turkish national whose parents emigrated to Japan during the Taisho era. He started off playing American villains in films produced by the Imperial government. After the defeat, he continued playing bit parts in Japanese films, especially for Toho. He ran an agency called Kokusai that specialized in obtaining Western actors for Japanese productions. He was also, for lack of a better word, a glorified pimp who specialized in obtaining Western women for wealthy Japanese businessmen. He can be glimpsed on film after film, often appearing in crowd scenes. Another memorable role he played was as a mafia goon in The Street Fighter (1974) with Sonny Chiba. After playing one final role as a military tribunal member in Toshio Masuda’s The Imperial Japanese Empire in 1982, he died. His younger brother, Omar Yusuf, was a Japan-based professional wrestler. Robert Dunham (1931–2001) was another such figure. A native New Englander from Maine and Massachusetts, he studied art history before enlisting in the Marines. There he was stationed in Japan and decided to stay there after discharge. He played a notable role in Kinji Fukasaku’s Greed in Broad Daylight (1961). He later appeared in Dogora (1964), The Green Slime (1968), Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973) and ESPY (1974). He spoke Japanese almost fluently and was one of the few foreign actors in Japan who could recite Japanese lines. He also dabbled in filmmaking, producing a 45 minute short called Time Travelers (1966) that was shown on television. Dunham did a lot of English dubbing work for William Ross’ Frontier Enterprises as well. In 1975, Dunham returned to the U.S. however where he lived out the rest of his days with family as a freelance writer.
© Toho Company, Ltd.
Mothra features a novel score by Yuji Koseki. Koseki (1909–1989) was chosen after Akira Ifukube turned down the opportunity to score the film. Koseki’s music gives Mothra a completely different and more whimsical feel. Koseki was born in Fukushima Prefecture to a wealthy family. He grew up around music; his father was one of the few Taisho-era Japanese to own a gramophone and collect records. Koseki studied business in college but self-taught himself music composition as a hobby. This hobby paid off as he became the first Japanese composer to gain success overseas. At only 20, Koseki performed at the British branch of the International Society for Contemporary Music. In 1931, was signed with Nippon Columbia. Koseki became a successful composer with a penchant for populist work. During the war, he composed Imperial army and naval marches. Koseki also scored the early anime propaganda film Momotaro: Sacred Sailors (1945). Post-war, he created the iconic theme for the baseball team the Yomiuri Giants among other achievements. In Mothra, it was decided to have the Peanuts sing Mothra’s iconic theme song in Bahasa Indonesian for a more exotic flair. The song was translated by a Indonesian foreign exchange student studying at Tokyo University. It became one of the most iconic and popular kaiju film melodies and was reused numerous times in the Godzilla series.
The Mothra puppet is readied by Tsuburaya amongst the miniature New Kirk cityscape. © Toho Company, Ltd.
Eiji Tsuburaya’s special effects sequences are beautifully executed, boasting one impressive sequence after another. As Tsuburaya began work on Mothra, he was hit hard by the death of his colleague Shuzaburo Araki (1913–1961). Araki was Tsuburaya’s brother-in-law and had been a combat photographer for the Imperial Army at the Chinese front. He had long helped Tsuburaya and Sadamasa Arikawa with miniature and optical photography. Yukio Manoda thus took over the optical shooting arm of Tsuburaya’s unit. Mothra’s special effects visuals are gorgeous and phantasmagorical. Tsuburaya was given more money to work with than usual and it shows. The composites are among the very finest in Tsuburaya’s career. Three different versions of Mothra’s larval form were constructed. These included a smaller, mechanical puppet. The attack on Mothra by the Defense Force at sea was one of the first monster sequences shot in Toho’s “Big Pool”. It was built in 1960 to stage the attack on Pearl Harbor in Shue Matsubayashi’s Storm Over the Pacific. The “Big Pool” covered a whopping 86,000 square feet. It would be integral to the water sequences in Toho’s monster and war films in the coming decades. It was used one last time in 2004’s Godzilla: Final Wars before being paved over. The destruction of Kurobe dam is an impressive scene. The dam was recreated at 1/50th scale. Eiji Tsuburaya was planning to destroy and flood the miniature with water pumped from four tanks. Assistant art director Yasuyuki Inoue thought that four water tanks wouldn’t be enough. The water used needed to burst the miniature dam and make the deluge look realistic. He was adamant on sixteen tanks. Toho only had eight such tanks on their backlot. Undaunted, the brilliant Inoue built four more for twelve in total. Tsuburaya was at first irritated with Inoue. He was frustrated that Inoue’s rigging of the tanks made camera placement difficult. It took multiple takes to destroy the miniature, but Tsuburaya was impressed with the results. Inoue (1922–2012) had lost his foot in World War II. He developed a love of furniture making in a rehabilitation program for wounded veterans. While visiting a set on Shin Toho’s lot, the impoverished Inoue was given a free meal and returned the next day. When it was found out that he could build sets and miniatures, he was quickly hired. He would go to Toho to join Tsuburaya’s team on the original Godzilla a year later, soon becoming a valued member. Inoue even was entrusted with choosing the building materials and estimating the costs.
© Toho Company, Ltd.
For shots where the larva smashes buildings, a gigantic, almost 40 foot long suit was built. This suit was crafted by Teizo Toshimitsu with help from then-apprentice Keizo Murase and built by the Yagi Brothers. It was performed pantomime horse style with eight people in total, headed by Haruo Nakajima and Katsumi Tezuka. The back of the costume was manned by younger members of the special effects staff. Murase did a lot of work on the costume to make it look more “lived in”. This included adding a barnacle to its face along with a vinyl coating so it looked slimy. Tsuburaya was quite happy with these touches. Larval Mothra’s attack on Tokyo is one of the very best effects sequences Tsuburaya’s unit ever produced. The miniature work is stunning and, thanks to the giant suit, was built at a larger than usual scale. Some of it was constructed as big as 1/20th and made from photographs Tsuburaya’s FX crew took around town, a tradition since Godzilla.
The original story called for Mothra to cocoon itself on the Diet Building, Japan’s House of Parliament. Tsuburaya and company perhaps found this redundant as Godzilla had already trampled it in 1954. They opted to go with the recently built Tokyo Tower instead. A nod to this would appear in 1992’s Godzilla vs. Mothra, however. Tsuburaya’s staff petitioned to use the original Tokyo Tower blueprints but the local government declined. Instead, the staff made their own miniature blueprints through photos. These blueprints came in handy for future films like Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964) and King Kong Escapes (1967). Rumor has it they may have even been stolen by Daiei and used for Gamera, the Giant Monster (1965). Mothra’s cocoon silk was made from a liquid polystyrene, a recipe used on future films for decades. It was sticky and corrosive. Protection was required for the camera and it burned the skin of crew members. The Atomic Heat Ray Cannons were designed by Akira Watanabe and built by Inoue. The miniature was recycled to make the A-Cycle Light Ray in Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965). It was also influential on the Maser Cannon in The War of the Gargantuas (1966). As with the larval Mothra, three versions of the adult imago Mothra prop were made. The largest and most elaborate had glowing eyes from small light bulbs. The props were suspended from a moving rig with piano wire. The wires were attached to the center of the wings, which gave them a more realistic flapping motion.
Filming with the Mothra prop. © Toho Company, Ltd.
Released on July 30th, 1961, Mothra performed well at the Japanese box office. It was the 10th highest grossing film that year. The success of Mothra convinced Tanaka to revive the Godzilla series after a seven year hiatus. King Kong vs. Godzilla followed soon after in 1962. Along with a cameo in the comedy Cheers! Mr. Awamori in late 1961, Mothra would, of course, return. Mothra was pre-sold to Columbia as it was, more or less, a U.S./Japanese co-production. With a big ad blitz, it was released to American theaters on May 10th, 1962. In some regions, it was shown on a double bill with The Three Stooges in Orbit. The U.S. version runs ten minutes shorter, though its cuts aren’t too noticeable. The American credits oddly forget to list Frankie Sakai, Kyoko Kagawa or Hiroshi Koizumi in the cast. The English dubbing was recorded by Titra Sound Studios in New York City. Mothra actually got unusually good stateside reviews for a Japanese monster film. Even the New York Times sang its praises, albeit faintly. In 1964’s Mothra vs. Godzilla, Mothra would become one of Godzilla’s most popular foes. In December 1974, Toho reissued Mothra for their winter Champion Matsuri festival. This version, reedited by Honda himself, runs a scant 62 minutes. This recut version is recommended only as a curiosity. Variations of Mothra would appear in nine more Godzilla entries up to the recent Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019). Mothra would also get its own standalone film series starting with Rebirth of Mothra (1996).
J.L. Carrozza (1986-) is the author of the book SF: The Japanese Science Fiction Film Encyclopedia (2021). This article is excerpted and edited from a chapter in that book. Carrozza has written for such publications as Asian Cult Cinema, Monster Attack Team and Otaku USA. | https://medium.com/@juleslcarrozza/western-greed-and-natures-wrath-mothra-1961-53b5e6322ea8 | ['J.L. Carrozza'] | 2021-01-20 19:06:40.804000+00:00 | ['Japanese Cinema', 'Environmentalism', 'Capitalism', 'Mothra', 'Toho'] |
Love to Each Other | Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more | https://medium.com/spiritual-secrets/love-to-each-other-c6c24915d89c | ['Ivette Cruz'] | 2020-11-16 17:33:53.004000+00:00 | ['Spirituality', 'Poetry', 'Love', 'Haiku', 'Spiritual Secrets'] |
Iteration: How To Move From The Familiar Into The Unknown | What does the path of a vision look like as it mutates from a familiar starting point into a genuinely novel concept? Unless you are part of the creative process, almost 100% of this journey goes unseen. We experience transformative concepts, largely unaware of the immense amount of creative labor that was required to bring them to life. The journeys are hard to recount in full, given the rapid pace, unintuitive, and indirect path that novel concepts take as they chart new territory.
Rem Koolhaas and Bruce Mau opened the doors of OMA’s design studios in 1995 with the publication of S,M,L,XL, offering rare insights into their creative practices. Soon after, other influential architects, designers, and chefs published equally weighty monographs aimed at exposing the largely unseen, and as a consequence underappreciated, labor of creativity that is required to generate innovative concepts.
The value in these monographs is not in one or two insightful images or passages, but in the overlooked journey that they focus on. Page by page they take the reader on the winding path through the branchings, recombinations, transformations, and dead ends, out of which novel concepts emerge. Vividly illustrating how teams move from initially familiar ideas towards new and previously unimaginable concepts as their journey’s progress. Progress that is illustrated across hundreds of pages, which collectively demonstrate the most important lesson of all: There are no bounded moments of creative genius. Rather, teams are constantly testing small hypotheses to generate new insights. With that information, moving on to the next set of hypotheses, which if successful, collectively evolve into transformative concepts.
The lessons from the monographs extend much further than architecture, design, and cuisine. With consumer behaviors radically shifting, businesses in almost every domain are pressed to reimagine themselves and how they provide value to their customers. Like the architects, designers, and chefs in the monographs pictured above, businesses must navigate through unfamiliar terrain to develop new concepts that better align with the evolving needs, desires, and constraints of their consumers.
We know from experience and decades of research, however, that people systematically underestimate the value of creative perseverance. Outside of a narrow subset of highly innovative organizations, most don’t realize the tremendous amount of labor that goes into developing transformative concepts. As a result, teams often give up before they have generated their best ideas, which emerge through hundreds if not thousands of iterations and permutations. It took Sir. James Dyson, by example, 5,127 attempts to develop the first cyclonic vacuum. This is the norm, not the exception as most of us would like to believe when it comes to developing breakthrough concepts. In other words: innovative ideas rarely spring to life in bounded moments of creative genius, but rather emerge through creative perseverance.
Famed American artist, Chuck Close, describes the labor of creativity this way: “Inspiration is for amateurs — the rest of us just show up and get to work. [With] the belief that things will grow out of the activity itself and that you will — through work — bump into other possibilities and kick open other doors that you would never have dreamt of if you were just sitting around looking for a great idea.” Yet for interesting and evocative things to “grow out of the activity,” it is critical to have a certain degree of creative resilience. Without the capability and willingness to persevere in navigating through the winding and confusing path of innovation, businesses tend to stop short of developing the kinds of products and services that reshape markets and consumer behaviors.
It is now more important than ever to recalibrate our expectations of how transformative concepts are generated. By reframing and developing creative perseverance within the following three areas of our work practices we will be better enabled to generate more interesting and evocative concepts.
Construction Not Search
The notion of “searching” for new concepts is misleading. Transformative concepts that are genuinely novel (i.e., not having previously existed in our imagination or experience) are not out there waiting to be stumbled upon. No matter how hard we search, we will not find them, because the elements that make them up have not yet been brought together. And as hindsight often misleadingly suggests, new associations between ideas are not obvious at the outset of exploration. We only come to know what we are seeking to construct through the process of experimentation and exploration — which is the fundamental paradox of innovation.
So how do you construct the unknown? It starts by shifting our approach to be more experimental. Without a clear path to pursue, we must encourage teams to test hundreds if not thousands of associations between ideas. Rather than searching for something in particular, teams need to expansively survey new opportunity spaces: selecting, transposing, recombining, and transforming ideas as they navigate through it. With every permutation of the evolving concept, teams gain new insights on where to move next and what hypotheses to test. By recalibrating our expectations, we can focus our efforts on constructing novel associations between ideas, rather than endlessly searching for something that does not yet exist.
Generative Guidance Not Failure
“Fail Fast” has become the battle cry of the rapid prototyping movement. While powerful in intent, it is misleading in action when venturing into the unknown. Failure by its very definition occurs when the established criteria for success are not met. It is therefore at odds with the act of exploring for novel associations between ideas. Rather than testing associations with known outcomes, teams explore hypotheses for which outcomes are unknown. Without a clear path to developing innovative concepts, each cycle of hypothesis testing helps the team gain a better sense of the context within which they are exploring and what they are seeking to construct. Dead ends, while frustrating and time-consuming, provide invaluable insights on where not to move and what can be ruled out. Unlike failure that does not move us forward, iteration through progressive hypothesis testing provides us with generative guidance when venturing through the unknown.
Why is making this distinction so important? We know from experience and research that people disproportionally underestimate the value of creative perseverance. As a result, they tend to settle on a few ideas and then obsess about refining them to perfection. Fears that continued exploration will not yield better solutions are often reinforced when the first few attempts lead to dead ends or uninspiring insights. Having “failed fast” in the conventional sense, most teams give up exploration before they have found the most fertile territories to draw ideas from. Shifting our expectations to more accurately align with the reality that it takes hundreds if not thousands of small iterations and permutations, encourages us to keep generating insights — even when the path seems unfertile at first. And let’s face it, failure is demotivating. Thinking about the iterative processes as generative guidance is liberating, because every little step moves us along — even if they are dead ends.
Emergent Not Immediate
Retrospective accounts of how transformative concepts came to life tend to portray them as appearing in bounded moments of insight. This narrative plays into our cultural desire to believe that we are all poised to be struck by creative genius. The reality however is that genuinely novel concepts, like Dyson’s cyclonic vacuum, are emergent. They come to life over thousands of smaller moments of incremental insight — 5,127 in the case of the vacuum — rather than in one or two bounded moments of creative clarity. This is because ideas that do not currently exist in our imaginations or experience require us to construct new frameworks to make sense of them. The more novel a concept is, i.e., being more resistant to fitting with our existing mental models, experiences, and routines, the more work must go into understanding them. Overcoming this resistance is challenging because it requires us to shift our worldviews. And we know from our personal experiences that shifting our pre-conceptions and interpretive frameworks leave us feeling exposed, confused, and frustrated.
So how do you overcome resistance? Rather than asking teams to take one or two giant leaps into the unknown, it is better to recalibrate expectations and encourage them to take hundreds if not thousands of smaller steps. Leaping into the unknown is confusing, and when teams take this approach they tend to retreat to what they are familiar with after a few confusing and disorientating attempts. By embarking on an iterative journey of transposing, recombining, transforming, and deleting ideas, our worldview slowly shifts along the way. As a result, we are better poised to understand and embrace the new assemblage as it emerges. In doing so, teams can successfully move from the highly familiar context that they start in, towards new and transformative territories with confidence and clarity.
If there is one generalizable lesson that can be taken from these monographs, it is the need to build creative resilience into our organizations. For interesting and evocative concepts to emerge from our work, we have to develop the capability and willingness to persevere in incrementally building the creative insights that inspire innovative concepts to emerge. As David Lane and Robert Maxfield state, “the world in which you must act does not sit passively out there waiting to yield up its secrets. Instead, your world is under active construction, you are part of the construction crew — and there [are no] blueprints.” Fostering a culture within your organization that emphasizes and values creative perseverance will allow you to shape emerging consumer demands and behaviors. | https://medium.com/the-innovation/iteration-how-to-move-from-the-familiar-into-the-unknown-c8a7cc108c3a | ['Andreas Hoffbauer'] | 2020-08-26 17:19:17.368000+00:00 | ['Creativity', 'Innovation', 'Perserverance', 'Hypothesis Testing', 'Iteration'] |
Asean Tech Digest #47 | Your curated summary of ongoing disruption in Southeast Asian tech. Subscribe here to receive it by email 💌
Hi technauts!
On the menu today:
Nanofilm’s IPO at US$1.25b valuation 💹, NUS spinoff Breathonix has developed a Covid-19 breath detection test 🌡, Grab on a partnership spree: Microsoft for tech upskill, Marriott for food delivery, Shinhan Financial for financial innovation 🤝, Eat Just & Proterra invest US$120m to build a protein factory in SG 🍜
…and many more awesome things 🎊
Brace yourselves for even more trees
Just funded 💸
🇸🇬 Regtech startup Silent Eight has raised a US$15m Series B from OTB Ventures, SC Ventures — Fintech News
🇻🇳 Travel startup Vntrip has raised a US$7m Series B from undisclosed investors — Tech in Asia
🇸🇬 Social E-Commerce startup Webuy has raised a US$6m Series A from Wavemaker, Centauri Fund, KB Financial Group, Global Founders Capital — The Business Times
🇸🇬 Electric motorbike startup SWAG EV has raised a US$5m financing round from EESL — Mercom India
🇸🇬 Advanced materials startup gush has raised a US$3.4m Pre-Series A from TNB Aura, Fidelium Group, RSP Architects, SEEDS Capital, TRIREC — e27
🇸🇬 Spacetech startup Zero Error Systems has raised a US$1.84m Seed from Airbus Ventures — Business Wire
🇸🇬 Proptech startup Propseller has raised a US$1.2m Seed from Iterative, Hustle Fund, XA Network, Rapzo Capital — TechCrunch
🇲🇾 Foodtech startup Secai Marche has raised a US$1m financing round from Beyond Next Ventures, Monex Ventures — e27
🇲🇾 Travel startup Tourplus has raised a US$1m Seed from Jin Hui Wong, SOSV , GT-MAX Sdn Bhd — Digital News Asia
Startups and downs 🚀
🇸🇬 NUS spinoff startup Breathonix has developed a Covid breath detection test, which it claims takes less than 1 minute to get the result with an accuracy >90% based on 180 clinical trials — ZDNet
🇹🇭 Real estate platform Dot Property has acquired property listing startup Hipflat for an undisclosed amount — e27
🇸🇬 Parkway Pantai will be the first clinic in Singapore to issue digital Covid-19 swab results to travelers, under its collaboration with blockchain startup Accredify — Accredify Blog
🇸🇬 NCS, the ICT arm of Singtel, has acquired digital services consultancy company 2359 — Tech in Asia
🇻🇳 How foodtech startup Lozi pivoted from advertising to delivery service leveraging hyperlocal capabilities, interview with GM Son Minh Tran — Lozi Blog
🇸🇬 Foodtech startup Eat Just (US) has announced a partnership with Proterra Investment Advisers to build a US$120m protein food factory in Singapore — Tech in Asia
🇮🇩 Bookkeeping app BukuWarung & microretail startup Warung Pintar have announced a partnership to design stock fulfillment solutions — e27
🌏 Algorand Asia Accelerator has selected 10 startups for its 12-week Finance 3.0 focused program, which includes a US$15,000 investment — e27
🇲🇾 Restaurant reservation and table management tools startup TABLEAPP has been acquired by reservation platform FunNow (Taiwan) — New Straits Times
🌏 Hospitality startup RedDoorz has launched SANS, its new trendy, economy lifestyle hotel brand — e27
🇸🇬 Online financial media Seedly has been acquired by CompareAsiaGroup (HK) — Seedly Blog
🇸🇬 Telehealth startup Doctor Anywhere has launched online mental health video consultation service — MobiHealth
🇮🇩 Startup Studio, an accelerator run by the Indonesian Ministry of Communications and Informatics of Indonesia, has revealed its new batch of 20 startups — e27
🇸🇬 Electric motorcycle startup OMNi (Costa Rica) has partnered with Gogoro (Taiwan) & BlueSG to offer electric scooter sharing in Singapore, using swappable batteries — CNA
🇹🇭 Video SaaS company Paronym (Japan) has closed a US$6.5m Series B to expand to SEA starting with Thailand — e27
🇻🇳 VIISA (Vietnam Innovative Startups Accelerator) has revealed its 8th batch of 2 startups: Drobebox & Doctor Bear — DealStreetAsia
The Unicorn Belt 🦄
🇮🇩 E-commerce marketplace Tokopedia will reportedly receive US$350m in investment from Google & Temasek — The Business Times
🌏 Grab’s group revenue is reportedly back at 95% of Pre-Covid level, with over 50% made from it food unit — Reuters
🌏 Grab has partnered with hotel chain Marriott, for in-depth integration of Marriott’s 600 restaurants & bars in 6 countries to GrabFood — TechCrunch
🇮🇩 Transaction volumes for Traveloka are back at pre-Covid levels in Vietnam, Thailand; at 70% for hotels in Indonesia — Tech in Asia
🇮🇩 Gojek has launched its multimodal transportation feature, GoTransit, which includes public transit alerts, and first/last mile GoRide booking — Gojek Blog
🇻🇳 Grab has partnered with banking group Shinhan Financial (Korea) to accelerate the creation of new financial & digital services in Vietnam — Vietnam Investment Review
🇸🇬 Grab and Microsoft have partnered to train 5,000 drivers & delivery riders to digital jobs — Microsoft Blog
🌏 The story of Gojek in pictures: from the early days — Gojek Blog
🌏 Restaurant aggregator Zomato has shut down its premium service in Indonesia & the Philippines — Tech in Asia
Venture Capitalists 🎢
🌏 Tax & legal services firm Taxmantra (India) has launched ProfitBoard Ventures, a US$100m fund to invest in SEA & Indian startups — DealStreetAsia
🌏 Genesia Ventures has announced the final closing of its 2nd US$75m fund, with Mizuho Bank, Mizuho Capital, TFHD Open Innovation Program, and Mitsui Leasing as anchor investors — Tech in Asia
🇹🇭 Oil refinering & production company Thaioil has partnered with Plug and Play — Plug and Play blog
Corporates 👨💼
🇸🇬 Advanced materials company Nanofilm Technologies has filed for IPO at US$1.25b valuation — The Straits Times
🇸🇬 SP Group is building a 700ha/42,000 homes smart town called Tengah, powered by solar energy, leveraging EV charging, smart waste management and centralised cooling system — Bloomberg
🇹🇭 LINE & Kasikorn Bank have launched the first social banking app through their JV — KrASIA
🇸🇬 Sea and Capitaland have formed an alliance to explore digitization of offline retailers, starting with a gamification journey to increase offline sales at six malls on Singles day (11/11) — Singapore Business Review
🇸🇬 DBS is building a fiat-to-cryptocurrency exchange — The Block
🇻🇳 Apple is shifting production from China to Vietnam, and it’s creating boomtowns — Bloomberg
🇹🇭 Siam Commercial Bank has launched RobinHood, its food delivery platform — KrASIA
🇸🇬 SP Group & Sembcorp are building a marketplace to trade renewable energy certificates (RECs) and carbon credits — The Straits Times
🇸🇬 Connectivity service provider Epsilon has acquired development and design agency 7D Digital (UK). — Tech.eu
🇸🇬 Real estate agency ERA has partnered with Matterport to provide virtual tours, exciting — Singapore Business Review
🇸🇬 Impossible Foods’s (US) plant-based meat is now for sale at Fairprice and on RedMart — Today Online
🇸🇬 TikTok is hiring 3,000 engineers in EU, Canada, Singapore — Reuters
Smart Nations 🏛️
🇸🇬 The Singaporean gov’t will dedicate US$36m to research in hydrogen and carbon capture utilisation and storage — CNA
🇮🇩 Indonesia is drafting a regulation to details steps to block social media platforms — KrASIA
Food for thought 🍜
🌏 WhatsApp is Facebook’s super app, and an essential part of the stack of many businesses like Yalochat — East Meets West
🇸🇬 From 50 five years ago to 1,000 today: Singapore is the home of a fintech boom; and 80% are B2B — Nikkei Asian Review
🌏 AI could bring US$1tn in GDP by 2030 to ASEAN, EDBI & Kearney say — The Financial Times
🌏 Opportunities & challenges for a sustainable supply chain in the Covid era — Reefknot Investments
🌏 The upcoming release of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla shows Ubisoft is a key foundation of the Singaporean video gaming industry — The Business Times
🇸🇬 What are the determining factors for retail electricity prices in Singapore? — Howard Low
🇮🇩 The battle to digitize the 40,000 Jakarta streetside eateries — KrASIA
The Fountainhead ⛲
🇨🇳 Ant is targeting to raise US$34b for its IPO, the world’s biggest offering and it’s been oversubscribed 872 times — CNA
🇨🇳 TikTok is partnering with Shopify, globally, to help merchants roll out marketing videos for their products easily — TechCrunch
🇨🇳 Alibaba is going O2O with its US$3.6b purchase of China’s biggest hypermarket operator, Sun Art — SCMP
🇨🇳 Online tutoring startup Yuanfudao has raised US$2.2b in two rounds, one led by Tencent, the other by DST Global, with GIC & Temasek also joining — The Business Times
Also 🤫
🇹🇭 The Awakening — Foreign tourists are back in Thailand — Reuters
🇸🇬 Singapore will plant 170,000 more trees in industrial estates in the next 10 years — CNA
Subscribe here to receive it by email 💌 | https://medium.com/idinvestpartners/asean-tech-digest-47-fc43431f7964 | ['Victor Tenneroni'] | 2020-11-02 11:01:01.947000+00:00 | ['Southeast Asia', 'VC'] |
Pelagios in the Indian Subcontinent: | With such a large number of annotations, we decided to focus disambiguation on the Carnatic and Coromandel coasts on the south east of the subcontinent. 335 toponyms that could not be assigned automatically using Recogito’s in-built gazetteers were investigated manually, primarily using Google Maps and mapmyindia.com. Of these, 232 were successfully disambiguated and identified, extending the gazetteer for the subcontinent.
Map showing all automatically and manually assigned placenames from all annotated historic maps.
The full gazetteer created by the project is available here. Metadata is provided on the second sheet for the eight spreadsheet columns. The gazetteer includes a transcription of the toponyms as they appear on the map, universally unique identifier, latitude, longitude and tags assigned to describe annotated entity (e.g. settlement, italics, underlined). Time-management required a limit to be set for each disambiguation. A maximum of 15 minutes was spent assigning co-ordinates for toponyms. A designation of confidence for the disambiguated toponyms is provided, 1 for definite and 0 to indicate a degree of uncertainty. Colonial contexts present considerable complexity for disambiguation; some toponyms were untraceable. Around 1000 settlement toponyms could not be assigned locations either using Geonames or through disambiguation due to both the complexity of the corpus, and time constraints. As the database develops through different projects, it is hoped that coordinates can be assigned for many of these toponyms in the future.
A range of additional associated place-names were identified for 207 of the 232 disambiguated toponyms. These associated place names illustrate the complexity and potential of place name analysis. Some of the place names were similar, varying only due to transliteration. The associated names for Pedapalli, now the name of a district of northern Telangana, were clearly variations of the same root Petapouli, Peetapolee, Pettapoli, Pettepole and Peddapalli. Others showed far greater variation in nomenclature. The place located as Caliatur, for example, had six associated place-named: Krishnapatnam, Kistnapatnam, Caleture, Caletur, Calitore and Calletur. The Hill Fortress at Kondaveedu appeared on three maps and was associated with different names on each.
Kondaveedu Fort as it appears on three of the maps: ‘Condavera’; ‘Kondehuir’; ‘Condavir’
This preliminary work indicates the importance for smaller-scale explorations of place names that will map nomenclatures at the local level and trace their relationship to changes in government, administrative, urban growth and environmental transformations. | https://medium.com/pelagios/pelagios-in-the-indian-subcontinent-94fef92ad4a5 | ['Katherine Bellamy'] | 2020-03-11 10:31:14.176000+00:00 | ['Annotation', 'Maps', 'Linked Data'] |
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists in 2020 | As Sophie remarks:
“I think there is shame in being poor because of the capitalist ideology that suggests you’re just not trying hard enough if you’re not making enough money. Whereas this book points out that the reason you are kept poor is that it suits the capitalist class. The whole system depends on you being kept poor. The feeling of shame is definitely illustrated in the book.”
Norman Tebbit’s famous ‘on your bike’ speech, the pawning by the poor of their possessions and the high proportion of wages that goes towards paying private rents, illustrate how very little has fundamentally changed in over a century since Tressell’s time.
A powerful example in the book that’s apt for today is when Owen uses the allegory of an air baron to describe a future in which every resource, including those essential for human survival, have become monopolized by the capitalist ruling class:
“Poverty is not caused by marriage or machinery or overproduction. It’s not caused by drink or laziness or overpopulation. It’s caused by the private monopoly, the present system. They’ve monopolized everything possible. They’ve got the whole earth, the minerals in it, and the streams that water it. The only reason they’ve not monopolized the daylight and air is that it isn’t yet possible. And if it was possible, you’d see people dying for want of air as thousands now are dying for want of the other necessities of life.”
Sophie suggests that society isn’t any closer to addressing vast inequalities and ending the system of private rent today than it was a century ago. However, the writing and artistic collaborative skills of the two siblings will almost certainly contribute towards small behaviour changes in the months and years to come. In order to help achieve this, Scarlett utilized elements of the Bayeux Tapestry from which the illustrator was able to highlight, to great effect, the novels economic themes of inherited wealth and landlordism.
An additional striking aspect of the illustrated book is the way in which Scarlett emphasizes the contrasting lifestyles of the rich and poor. The artist depicts the proletariat in an abstract way in the form of stickmen as they are forced from one place to another.
The creative process
Sophie describes how the creative process works between the two siblings:
“I make a script which is not unlike a film or TV script. I don’t tell Scarlett exactly what to do or in what panel. That’s her job. I tell the story and create the dialogue and the pace, the tension and the words. And then I would hand over the script to Scarlett and she would make a rough storyboard.”
The siblings appear to have an instinctive mutual understanding, and respect for, each others decision-making capabilities. | https://medium.com/@renegadeinc/the-ragged-trousered-philanthropists-in-2020-renegade-inc-ce6abe52a3d5 | ['Renegade Inc.'] | 2021-01-15 11:58:15.321000+00:00 | ['Landlordism', 'Inequality', 'Private Rent', 'Inherited Wealth', 'Capitalism'] |
Reviewing Developments in the gaming business in the last ten years | It goes without saying that the gaming business has risen to great heights in the past 40 years. In the last 10 years, the growth has been stupendous. With the advent of multiple digital platforms, gaming has caught the attention of all age groups. True, gaming has been the fancy of a few specific groups, but there are probably very few people who might not have heard the name of “Angry Birds”. The boom in mobile technology and gaming zones has revolutionized the entire scope of gaming and opened doors to a large number of gamers and game developers.
A Brief Outlook:
The video gaming industry has been quite old and is a giant. However, gaming has no longer been confined to just video games and it has risen in leaps and bounds to reach greater heights. Games such as Final Fantasy VII Remake or Marvel’s Spiderman have made the game development process increasingly challenging. Big giants like Apple, Facebook, and Google have been getting their hands in this business with great success. While the Game of Thrones by Apple has grabbed the attention of gamers, Minecraft has been extremely popular after its inception by Microsoft. Most of these games are cross-platform and come with excellent graphics. Minecraft has been extremely popular since its inception by Microsoft.
There are a lot of popular game development companies out there, starting from big giants to some of the most talented start-ups. Before you choose the game developing company to build your game, do thorough research to find the best one in the market. Start-ups like Juego Studios have the capability to offer you the customized game of your choice. Some major developments in the gaming industry over the past decade have been elaborated below.
1. Popularity of independent game developers:
The game business has witnessed a lot of independent game developers from freelancers to major corporations to some of the forward-looking game players in a billion dollar industry. This has led to diversity and variety in the entire gaming industry. As a matter of fact, the gaming market no longer targets only youngsters.
Independent gamers took the entire gaming industry by storm. Ample of free game development software versions are offered by many gaming companies. Over the past 10 years, such games have gained a lot of acclaim from game enthusiasts and have proved to be creatively successful. Game developers have enjoyed the freedom to develop games as per the expectations of the audience.
2. Marketing strategies transformed:
Marketing has become one of the crucial elements of gaming. It is an important functional approach for making some brilliant games reach out to the masses. The merchandising part of the gaming business has evolved over the years. Some goodies, fancy items, and accessories like hats, T-shirts, bags, mugs, etc have become part of promotions. This is to create the much-needed hype around the gaming products.
3. Offline to online transformation:
Gaming has also transformed from offline to online in app stores. This is definitely a noteworthy point to observe in the last decade. This transformation has enabled the game developers or companies to offer their games directly to gaming enthusiasts. No wonder, this opportunity has been incredible to the gaming business. This business requires no physical stores. So, if we are not willing to drive to the gaming zones, you can easily pick your favorite games online according to your budget. Well, we may also choose the free games; there are ample of them out there.
4. Games are a lot more appealing over the decade:
Yes, games have a lot more appeal and this change happened in the recent past. We can find games that are no longer bland and simple. Games now convey stories that are interesting to gamers. There is no greater room for games with scope for emotions, exploration, characters, etc. We can find a multitude of games that are simple on one hand and funny, complex, and emotional ones on the other.
The quirky games are often more lucrative to the gamers, especially when they are willing to spend some quality time on those. The display aspects of the games have improved a lot in the past years. The color scheme, layout, button options, etc., all have improved significantly. The visuals of the games deserve appreciation. Also, owing to the appeal, games have reached every corner of the world.
5. For all age groups:
No wonder, games were not that popular in the 2000s. Today, we can find games customized for different age groups. While you can play adventurous games such as Call of Duty: Black Ops, for children Spiderman by Marvel, is extremely fascinating. Thus, parents can be relieved to find some simple games for young ones without affecting them with redundant complexity. For the adults, there are a plethora of games available on app stores, which are tailored as per the preferences. We can choose the games based on the state of mind at the moment.
6. Augmented reality:
Game developers have been now endowed with some incredible technology powered by Artificial Intelligence. Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality have enabled the games to reach new heights in terms of sound effects, visuals, gestures, touch screen, control buttons, etc. Games such as Minecraft and Temple Run VR have become more engaging. Game developers now optimize the user-experience to make an interactive environment. We can now find games that can adapt and respond to our behavior while playing.
7. Animation is the key:
Games are no more stereotypical or static. Animation has caught the fancy of millions of gamers worldwide. We may be fascinated to see some incredible animation of characters on our mobile screens that seem real.
8. Free demos available:
Earlier, games didn’t have free demos. Yes, games now also have their own press releases, critics, and reviews. Whole new gaming journalism has evolved over time, and we can download the ones based on the previews.
9. Mobile world has taken over the gaming business:
With the upsurge in mobile phone popularity in the last decade, gamers have the ease of access to play anywhere and anytime. We no longer have the constraint of sticking to one place to play on PC or gaming consoles.
Conclusion:
With such phenomenal technological advancements, it’s always advisable to choose game companies like Juego Studios which specializes in games powered by Augmented Reality, amazing animation, and Virtual reality. Take a look at their website to understand the range and variety of games they have to offer. | https://medium.com/@juegostudio/reviewing-developments-in-the-gaming-business-in-the-last-ten-years-92fb80fab347 | ['Juego Studio'] | 2020-12-16 06:58:58.020000+00:00 | ['Game Design', 'Game Development'] |