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Blockchain and Corporate Social Responsability, better together.
As you may know if you have read my previous posts (a little bit of autospam 😉) -Tokens, Sia & Celebs- I am an unconditional fan of the Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies but today I woke up in a philosophical mood so I started to think about the reason of Blockchain existence and what benefits it could bring to the society in general and not only to the companies that use it. That’s why today I will be mentioning some of the Business that are commited and have implemented Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in their business. Kiva started as a crowdfunding in 2005 and has been constantly innovating to meet the diverse lending needs of people around the world. From San Francisco they try to reinvent microfinance with more flexible terms, support community-wide projects or reduce costs for borrowers, always improving. What makes Kiva different? Anyone can start by lending the small amount of $25 to Kiva and be part of the change with this minimal contribution. 100% of each dollar you lend on Kiva goes to project loan financing and you are the one choosing the person or project that is going to borrow your money. As a lender you will be repaid in full. The platform works with Kiva’s Protocol, a digital identification system that uses Blockchain technology to address two major barriers to accessing financial services: lack of formal identification and lack of verifiable credit history. This service has been implemented in Sierra Leone and it covers a need of its population as 80% of the citizens are unbanked and cannot access the financial services they need. This project is expected to continue its growth in other regions. A few months ago I made my first loan so I would like to know if you will also join the cause! Kiva Protocol- Blockchain I nternxt, in this case this platform is a Decentralized Cloud Storage. This Spanish company uses Blockchain technology to give us the freedom and the ownership of our data as it ensures that we have our files, photos or any digital document really safe and no one else, except us, has access to them. We already know that big corporations like Google, One Drive, iCloud or Dropbox offer this kind of service but we also know that these big companies are not really secure and do not care about our privacy since they usually access our information and take advantage of it. Internxt Drive uses point-to-point encryption and Blockchain technology, so that the files you upload are completely safe from third parties (hackers and even the company itself). During the pandemic, Internxt offered its service for free to anyone who needed it, both companies and individuals, as many companies were not digitally prepared for remote work. In addition, Internxt is environmentally aware since behind every screen where you simply see your files there is an industry that requires high levels of energy, which has harmful effects due to the CO2 emissions generated to keep the network fully operational at all times. According to McKensey, “the ICT market as a whole produces around 2% of all carbon dioxide emissions in the world, a figure similar to that represented by the aviation industry. What’s worse, this percentage is expected to grow to 3–4% by 2020, when the ICT sector will more than double the carbon dioxide emissions of countries like the United Kingdom”. Using decentralized storage helps reduce the CO2 emissions that are produced. Moreover, Internxt has a campaign to raise awareness against deforestation. For every customer who subscribes to one of their plans, they plant a tree.🎉 This other project that I read about recently caught my attention, thanks to the union of RTI , an independent non-profit institute, and Collaborative Health Solutions. Its goal is to encourage more timely, reliable, and safe reporting of domestic violence crimes. The only catch I see is that they are only planning to implement it in California for now. They want to ensure the safety, privacy and integrity of medical reports submitted to authorities that include photographs and personal information. We also make sure that the photographs and data in the medical reports are not altered or manipulated. We could implement this in many countries, but in my personal case, given that I live in Spain, cases of gender-based violence against women have increased during the lockdown, as had been warned by various organizations such as the UN. In Spain, calls to the help-line telephone for victims, 016, have increased by 60% during the month of April if we compare them with those received in that month of the previous year. Tell me, are there any similar measures in your countries? As a conclusion I would say that perhaps it is too early to know how beneficial the growth and adoption of the Blockchain applications will be for the social impact but little by little we see more avant-garde companies that are betting on it and also many companies that are trying to solve these social problems and are looking for ways to fit the Blockchain into their business model. With them we benefit from the potential that the blockchain has to instill trust among multiple parties, reduce costs, increase efficiency and improve security as you have seen in the companies I mentioned above. I hope you enjoyed the reading and if you know of any other company that tries to carry out corporate social responsibility activities through the Blockchain system let me know in the comment section. I will read you!
https://medium.com/@edumontoya/blockchain-and-corporate-social-responsability-better-together-da0ccbe34381
['Edu Montoya']
2020-11-19 16:38:40.684000+00:00
['Csr', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Ngo', 'Blockchain Startup', 'Blockchain Development']
701
Aurora welcomes new leads of Global Business Development, Software Engineering, and Finance
As development and commercialization speed up, executives join from General Motors, Lyft, and Cray Inc. At 600 people strong, Aurora welcomes new leads of Global Business Development, Software Engineering, and Finance 2020 has been a year none of us expected, but we’re proud of the progress we’ve been able to make. We’re testing our fleet in Texas, expanding to a new Pittsburgh headquarters, and we’re excited to announce we’re now 600 people strong and have hired new senior engineering and business leaders. While developing the best technology safely and quickly is at the core of everything we do, bringing the Aurora Driver to market is also a top priority — first in middle mile trucking applications, then in last-mile goods delivery, and finally, in passenger mobility networks. Our new leaders strengthen our ability to do this: VP of Global Business Development David Maday hails from General Motors and understands how to build long-lasting partnerships and commercialize automotive technology. With 21 years spent in various leadership positions at General Motors, David most recently led Corporate Development and Global M&A activities, helping to transform the company through transactions and building strategic partnerships to progress their efforts in electrification and autonomous driving. With 21 years spent in various leadership positions at General Motors, David most recently led Corporate Development and Global M&A activities, helping to transform the company through transactions and building strategic partnerships to progress their efforts in electrification and autonomous driving. SVP of Software Engineering Stathis Papaefstathiou knows how to tackle deeply complex technical problems while also delivering products to market at scale. He has built organizations at companies big and small and brings to Aurora technical depth, particularly around robotics and machine learning, as well as structured thinking and a talent for developing employees and aligning large teams around common goals. Most recently he was the SVP of research and development for Cray Inc., where he led the development of the next-generation exascale class supercomputing line, Shasta. He also spent more than a decade at Microsoft. He has built organizations at companies big and small and brings to Aurora technical depth, particularly around robotics and machine learning, as well as structured thinking and a talent for developing employees and aligning large teams around common goals. Most recently he was the SVP of research and development for Cray Inc., where he led the development of the next-generation exascale class supercomputing line, Shasta. He also spent more than a decade at Microsoft. VP of Finance Richard Tame, who was most recently at Lyft and Facebook, has experience setting up high-growth companies for long-term growth and financial success. He most recently served as Head of Finance at Lyft, where he led finance support for their large Research and Development and Level 5 self-driving divisions. Prior to that he worked at Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon. Our founders set a foundation of deep expertise at Aurora and as we build the company for the long-term, we continue to develop a deep bench of leaders across our teams. Our new executives join leadership hires from earlier this year and deeply experienced advisors like Gloria Boyland. Please join us in welcoming our new colleagues! With their help, we’ll continue to move with speed and thoughtfulness as we deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly. Here’s more about David, Stathis, and Richard, and their respective thoughts on Aurora and the industry… Getting to know David, Stathis, and Richard What’s your vision for the future of AVs and Aurora’s role in it? David: Success will still take time, focus, and significant capital, and not every company will survive. Aurora’s platform-agnostic approach means it can serve diverse use cases and partners, positioning us well to succeed. Aurora knows that partnerships aren’t transactions. They are built over time based on trust, respect, and the desire for both parties to succeed. Stathis: Self-driving technology is a long tail problem — achieving the last 5% of the level of functionality, safety, and cost structure for a viable product might require more effort and innovation than the first 95%. A company can demonstrate progress aggressively but without having the ability to overcome this last 5% barrier if it doesn’t have enough insight into the problems that will become apparent at the end of the journey. Aurora is filled with experienced leaders who understand the level of difficulty and the hidden complexities of the AV space and they have the passion, the strategy, and capability to build the technology and the business for the long run. Why did you join Aurora? Stathis: There are very few moonshot projects that have the potential impact of AVs. As a technologist, I am thrilled to work on such hard, interesting, and diverse sets of problems. I was also impressed with the thoughtfulness of Aurora’s approach and its people. It’s one thing to work with smart and capable people, but it’s another to find a company also focused on building a culture of humility, integrity, and diversity. David: Commercially deploying self-driving technology requires extraordinary technical capability, strong leadership, and a diverse team of accomplished people all working together. Aurora has the team, focus and technical ability to make this happen. Richard: Aurora is tackling one of the hardest technical challenges of our generation and we’re determined to succeed. That opportunity doesn’t come around very often. I am excited for the day when we ask, “Wow, how did we live before AVs?” What’s one myth about Aurora you’d like to dispel? David: Our founders get a lot of the attention, but the strength of the organization is because of the entire team. Aurora is led by accomplished founders, and we will be defined by an accomplished team focused on a singular mission. What’s one myth about the industry you’d like to dispel? David: It’s too hard or impossible. Theodore Roosevelt said, “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty … I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life.” This isn’t easy, there is no certainty, and it requires a lot of collaboration (technology, partnership, regulatory, etc.). I want to work with others who won’t shy away from a challenge but rather embrace the challenge to realize the benefits. What Aurora value most resonates with you and why? Stathis: There are two values that represent two sides of the same coin and are necessary to make Aurora successful. “Set outrageous goals” is a requirement for anybody that is working in this space. This level of ambition must be coupled with “Focus” in order to transition the applied science problems into engineering, product, and business efforts. Richard: Be reasonable. We invoke this value daily as we make decisions. It provides freedom and space to make decisions, rather than forcing us to waste energy on creating prescriptive rules. David: Focus. Solving one of the most technically challenging problems requires intense focus. Focus drives creativity and an intense desire to win. — Building a world-class company while solving very hard technical questions is an awesome experience that can’t be done without stellar talent. We’re hiring across all areas of the company. If you’re excited about what we’re doing, check out our careers page.
https://medium.com/aurora-blog/aurora-welcomes-new-leads-of-global-business-development-software-engineering-and-finance-756b2d7db215
['Aurora Team']
2020-10-21 15:59:52.582000+00:00
['Technology', 'Autonomous', 'Tech', 'Autonomous Vehicles', 'Self Driving Cars']
702
Women Leaders in Global Health, October 2017
In October, I had the opportunity to attend a pretty sweet conference (bet you never heard the words ‘pretty sweet’ and ‘conference’ next to each other) — Women Leaders in Global Health. Stanford University hosted 390 women and 20 (very brave) men from 68 countries to celebrate women in global health leadership positions and dream up ways to cultivate the next generation of women leaders. ‘Gender parity’ is a term thrown around a lot these days, but it’s easy to forget about the facts that underpin these conversations so here are two quick ones: Women make up 75% of global health workers. Women comprise just 24% of leadership positions. I’ve been a part of organizations and conversations that love talking about how this happened and why it’s horrible, but this group was different. Our focus was on the individuals who are being affected by this lack of parity, and how to help them while striving for equal representation in global health leadership positions. During the one-day conference, I heard from speakers with a broad range of expertise. Here were a few of my favorites: Jennifer Leaning , Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, spoke on the resilience of displaced women in areas of crisis. She gave memorable examples through photos from the UN archive that showed women going about day to day activities in disaster zones with their hair tidied, lipstick on, and strong determined gazes on their faces, often holding a baby in one arm and a toddler on the other hip. , Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, spoke on the resilience of displaced women in areas of crisis. She gave memorable examples through photos from the UN archive that showed women going about day to day activities in disaster zones with their hair tidied, lipstick on, and strong determined gazes on their faces, often holding a baby in one arm and a toddler on the other hip. Laurie Garrett , Foreign Policy Columnist, Health Journalist and Author, shared the hurdles women in journalism must overcome to succeed. She specifically mentioned the unspoken dangers of women reporting on health in war zones, who experience different risks than most men in journalism would encounter (think: rape). Often women reporting in crisis zones stay quiet about these very real dangers so that their organizations continue sending them, giving them the opportunity to advance in their careers. , Foreign Policy Columnist, Health Journalist and Author, shared the hurdles women in journalism must overcome to succeed. She specifically mentioned the unspoken dangers of women reporting on health in war zones, who experience different risks than most men in journalism would encounter (think: rape). Often women reporting in crisis zones stay quiet about these very real dangers so that their organizations continue sending them, giving them the opportunity to advance in their careers. Agnes Binagwaho , Lecturer at Harvard University that formerly worked in the Rwandan Ministry of Health, gave pointed examples of moments of sexism in the workplace, like the time she was reprimanded at work for calling a man ugly after he told her to sit on his lap during a meeting. The man was not reprimanded. , Lecturer at Harvard University that formerly worked in the Rwandan Ministry of Health, gave pointed examples of moments of sexism in the workplace, like the time she was reprimanded at work for calling a man ugly after he told her to sit on his lap during a meeting. The man was not reprimanded. Marika Anthony-Shaw , CEO of Plus1 and touring musician of Arcade Fire, spoke on the impact you can make in the world of Global Health without being a health worker by trade. , CEO of Plus1 and touring musician of Arcade Fire, spoke on the impact you can make in the world of Global Health without being a health worker by trade. Sonita Alizadeh, a rap musician born under the Taliban Regime who uses her influence to speak out against child marriage, shared heart-wrenching stories of her friends, often under 13 years old, who were sold by their families for income as wives to older men. A common thread in almost every conversation was one of our favorite things to nerd out about at Standard Code: data 🎉. There is a huge need to see disease data disaggregated by gender, something that is not commonly done in today’s disease reporting, especially for Neglected Tropical Diseases. I was honestly quite surprised by this because many of our clients do this by default (they’re awesome), so I did my own research to hunt down disease data by gender, and it was really disappointing (it exists in some cases, but is definitely not as common as it is with our Standard Code clients). I stumbled across this quote from a speech Melinda Gates gave at the Women Deliver conference in Copenhagen in 2016: “By adopting the Sustainable Development Goals the world agreed to achieve gender equality by 2030. But we cannot close the gender gap without first closing the data gap. We simply don’t know enough about the barriers holding women and girls back, nor do we have sufficient information to track progress against the promises made to women and girls.” This is what I take home with me. I hope to bring this into conversations in the office, when dreaming up ideas for our product Secure Data Kit, and in conversations with clients, when collaborating to design forms that will be used to collect data on communities affected by disease. The conference ended with a feedback session where attendees stood up and spoke about their hope that we don’t lose sight of our original goals while striving for gender parity: let’s rid the world of disease. We of course think that gender parity in global health leadership positions will accelerate this, but the first focus is those impacted by disease, and if women around the world rise to leadership positions because of our success working to eradicate disease, well that’s just the much-deserved icing on the cake.
https://medium.com/securedatakit/women-leaders-in-global-health-october-2017-6897344d2d72
['Emily Tunggala']
2018-01-06 14:55:37.015000+00:00
['Data', 'Gender Equality', 'Technology', 'Global Health']
703
“The Scientists were tasked with ridding the world of sadness.
“The Scientists were tasked with ridding the world of sadness. After much trial and error they finally succeeded with Joy Bot. Joy Bot travelled the world spreading happiness and delight. In particular he brought your wife a lot of joy. Your wife is leaving you for Joy Bot. I’m sorry you had to find out this way“
https://medium.com/touching-doodles/the-scientists-were-tasked-with-ridding-the-world-of-sadness-81eeaa365081
['Kyle Freeman']
2020-06-15 04:19:35.549000+00:00
['Future Technology', 'Happiness', 'Webcomics', 'Art', 'Infidelity']
704
OnePlus Shows Off Color-Changing 5G Concept Phone
The new concept changes color based on events in the phone’s user interface. By Sascha Segan OnePlus is well-known for making phones in exciting colors. It’s done blue phones and silver phones, so why not have both? The company showed off a new concept phone today, the OnePlus 8T Concept, which changes color based on software, shifting between blue and silver. “We like to experiment with next-generation technologies or designs that are ahead of their time,” the company said in a statement. Not much usually becomes of concept phones. They’re a way for phone makers to establish their tech-leadership bonafides using ideas and materials that wouldn’t cut it in the real world. But maybe this model shows part of a trend for OnePlus. Last year, it showed a concept phone with a “disappearing” camera that used color-changing smoky glass; now the whole back of the phone changes color. The back is “a color-changing film that contains metal oxide in glass, the valence state of the metal ions varying under different voltages. That means that when the metal oxide activates, the color of the glass changes from a dark blue to a light silver,” the company said. OnePlus’s previous concept phone had a ‘disappearing’ camera. The color-changing concept, OnePlus says, uses millimeter-wave technology, but not quite the 5G technology of the same name. Rather, this is a lot more like Google’s Soli radar technology. “Millimeter wave” just refers to any radio wave from about 30GHz to 300GHz, no matter how it’s used. mmWave 5G right now operates at 24–39GHz; Soli radar is up at 60GHz. The concept phone has a radar sensor that can help it “perceive, image, locate, and track objects.” It can then respond to the sensor by, among other things, changing the color of the phone. OnePlus suggested two ways this could work: the back of the phone changing colors for calls or notifications and then being dismissed with an air gesture; or the phone “register[ing] a user’s breathing” and changing color in sync, which seems … a little creepy? A Formal Gesture Smartphone companies have been trying to make gesture control a thing for years now, but it never takes off. Google tried Soli in the Pixel 4 series and ditched it with the Pixel 5. The LG G8 made a big deal about gestures, but consumers said no deal. Samsung has a thing where you wave your S Pen in the air, but people just didn’t care. Google’s Motion Sense used radar to enable gesture controls. In my opinion, gesture control fails because it’s non-obvious; there’s no clear prompting or UI for what you’re supposed to do, so people don’t notice or remember that the feature is there. The color-changing material, in my mind, has more potential. I’d actually like to see it used with millimeter-wave in a different way: I’d love my phone to change color when it has millimeter-wave 5G coverage. With fast 5G still extremely spotty, a phone that turns liquid silver when it can hit gigabit speeds may be a compelling way to show the power of “5G built right.” This is a concept phone, so it’s not “coming out.” But maybe we’ll see this color-changing technology on some phones in the future.
https://medium.com/pcmag-access/oneplus-shows-off-color-changing-5g-concept-phone-31c28717a953
[]
2020-12-21 15:00:43.093000+00:00
['Mobile', 'Oneplus', 'Technology', 'Smartphones', 'Concept']
705
Digital Policy Salon: The Next Frontier
Policy Updates 🇨🇦 Canada signs on to the Artemis Accords, a common set of space exploration principles Canada has joined the US, UK, Japan, and others in signing on to the Artemis Accords, “a common set of principles to govern the civil exploration and use of the moon, Mars, comets, and asteroids.” Among other things, the Accords ban secret launches, assert that all members must pitch in with astronaut emergencies, and require all space systems to be universal so that equipment is compatible internationally. In other space news, the most recent launch to the International Space Station (ISS) took place yesterday and used a new “fast-track” approach. From lift-off on earth to arrival at the ISS, the trip took just three hours–about the same time as a flight from Ottawa to Calgary. Biodiversity advocates warn that in order to be ecologically smart, some cities may need to rethink old bylaws An ecology and urban planning professor at Ryerson University has decided to challenge a City of Toronto bylaw that, by preventing citizens from growing tall grass and weeds on their property, contradicts the city’s own biodiversity strategy. With awareness-raising events like “No-Mow May,” biodiversity and pollinator advocates assert that longer lawns with diverse wild flowers can help support local bee populations. The World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Statista, releases new data on robot workers The World Economic Forum and Satista have released new data on robot worker “density”–the number of robots per employee in various sectors. Globally, in the manufacturing sector, there are now 113 installed industrial robots per 10,000 employees, up from 74 in 2017. Robot density in Canada clocked in at 165 robots per 10,000 employees in 2019, compared with 228 in the US and 855 in South Korea. Online platforms ramp up global efforts to curtail disinformation and weed out bot accounts Facebook and Twitter have both introduced new measures to moderate certain content. Twitter is implementing measures to deamplify certain kinds of content and accounts, while Facebook has opted for an outright ban on specific kinds of content and groups. In the lead up to the US election, Facebook will also introduce a new ban on political ads that seek to suppress voters or question the validity of the upcoming election. - Mairead Matthews | email Our Perspective By Rob Davidson | email Only nine months ago, proponents of Intelligent Retail and e-commerce focused on the importance of innovation to make the case for adopting technology advances and omni-channel strategies. With many brick-and-mortar stores forced to close, limited consumer physical movement (by choice and regulation), interrupted supply chains, and the growing influence of e-commerce giants like Amazon, COVID-19 has exposed the weaknesses in traditional retail strategies during an era of mass digitization. Intelligent Retail (including e-commerce) is characterized by the movement from product-centric strategies to consumer-centric strategies by leveraging digital technologies to integrate supply chains and enhance in-store consumer experience and omni-channel consumer relationships. Small Canadian retailers without an online presence have become especially vulnerable. On October 1, 2020, the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA) program expired, leaving October rents due — in full — for the struggling small retailers. As the COVID-19 pandemic begins its second wave, and provinces tighten restrictions again, retailers of all sizes need to adapt. Read the full article here 📝 Special Events You’re invited to join Dr. Peter Taillon, Senior Data Analyst with ICTC’s Digital Think Tank, along with his distinguished panel of guests as they dive into the ecosystem, regulatory, and legal aspect of non-passenger Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs). Significant advances have been made in industrial and service vehicle automation, and the economic benefits and technological and social impacts may well result in their broad deployment before passenger CAVs. Our distinguished panel consists of: Barrie Kirk , Executive Director, CAVCOE , Executive Director, CAVCOE Uwe Müller , Sales & Marketing Lead — Commercial Pilots, Volvo Autonomous Solutions , Sales & Marketing Lead — Commercial Pilots, Volvo Autonomous Solutions Martin Abadi, Counsel — Emerging technologies in transportation, BLG You will have the opportunity to directly engage with our speakers on this content through an online chat. Click the link below to secure your registration today. Register here 🗓 Interviews in the Field What do you get when you cross small businesses, big businesses, academic institutions, and research bodies from 29 countries (EU and non-EU Member States), all with the common goal of securing Europe’s leadership in the global digital economy? Long answer: a public-private joint undertaking that spearheads initiatives in electronic components and systems, enabling technologies for initiatives in digital health, smart mobility, energy conservation, and beyond. Short answer in seven letters: ECSEL JU. ICTC’s Senior Director of Research & Policy, Alexandra Cutean, sat down with ECSEL Joint Undertaking’s Executive Director Bert de Colvenaer and the organization’s Head of Unit for Communications, Alun Foster, to learn more about how this multi-faceted consortium is simultaneously shaping a strong digital future for Europe and setting a transatlantic example worth exploring. Alexandra: What would you say is your biggest success to date, or something that really stands out as a successful initiative? Bert: We have a couple. One is the base technology progress we’ve made on 5G, with silicon on insulator (SOI). Essentially, this is a wafer design that optimizes energy at the chip level. The technology allows for high energy efficiency in digital applications. Everyone struggles with battery life, so the question becomes how can we reduce the power drain on batteries by reducing the energy needed by the chip? Europe is one of the leaders in the new energy technology market, but a lot is required to power electronics that can bring energy from where it’s generated to the point of consumption. This is a process that includes energy transfer and load balancing. It’s something that’s needed by anything from your smartphone to autonomous cars. Alun: Another success story I’d like to highlight is in regard to digital health, since it was mentioned. There has been a quiet revolution ongoing in the medical equipment industry and a huge amount of progress made in this domain in Europe over the years — much of it has been attributable to ECSEL JU-funded projects. There are a whole branch of technologies being used for key developments, like minimally invasive surgery and drug discovery. Many of the players in this market have realized that they can benefit a lot if they get their volumes up. They’ve also realized that they can’t get their volumes up unless they collaborate. So, with the help of ECSEL JU funding, open platforms have been created, allowing each supplier to create their own marketplace while ensuring they can still fall back on the same basic sets of technologies that they chipped in to develop in the first place. This kind of collaboration is really evident in our medical equipment industry at the moment, and it will have a big effect on society in the coming years. Bert De Colvenaer, Executive Director of the ECSEL Joint Undertaking Alun Foster, Head of Plans and Dissemination for the ECSEL Joint Undertaking Read the full interview here 🎙 What We’re Reading (CBC) The governments of Ontario and Canada are set to announce details of their plan to each spend $295 million to help Ford upgrade its assembly plant in Oakville to start making electric vehicles. The fact that the governments are chipping in cash is not new — it was a key part of last month’s $1.8-billion deal between Ford and its biggest union, Unifor, to start making five new electric car models at the plant. Ford has put 800,000 electric cars on the road worldwide in recent years, but the company is ramping up production of electric vehicle production, because the company forecasts them to outsell fossil fuel-powered ones at some point in the next decade. The upgrade of the Ford plant will make Oakville into the company’s No 1. electric vehicle factory in North America. Talking Points: This investment signals Ontario’s intent to amplify its status as a leading vehicle manufacturer, while taking into account ongoing changes related to both the industry and technology at play, and evolving societal needs. Considering the rapidly changing automotive landscape, this investment may be the foundation that eventually spurs the development of a long-term Canadian strategy for both electric vehicles as well as connected autonomous vehicles. Research Visualized Immersive technologies come in many forms, from fantastical, other-worldly virtual reality experiences to apps that let you try on virtual glasses. This visual from our recent report Spanning the Virtual Frontier: Canada’s Immersive Technology Ecosystem points out the variety of use cases for such technologies. Further, it demonstrates that no one technology is uniquely appropriate for one use or industry. Rather, we see an evolving and innovative world of immersive tech unfolding. Top use cases of AR, MR, and VR — Source: ICTC, 2020 Our Research Canada’s path to post-COVID economic recovery will be tied to the competitiveness of Canadian startups and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), which are the heart of Canada’s economic engine and growth. COVID-19’s devastating economic impacts include the loss of 2 million Canadian jobs, faltering supply chains, and a historic increase in Canada’s debt. Canadian Startups and SMEs that understand the importance of generating Intellectual Property (patents, trademarks, copyrights, and industrial designs) are the hallmark of innovation and Canada’s competitiveness in a global context. ICTC’s latest white paper written in partnership with ventureLAB, Bolstering Growth: The Next Frontier for Canadian Startups, discusses the ingredients needed for a competitive and resilient scale-up ecosystem in Canada. “A thriving Startup ecosystem in Canada will pave the way for strong economic recovery and job growth in the next number of years. This paper discusses the construct of a strong Canadian innovation landscape in this increasingly digital and globally competitive environment.” — Namir Anani, ICTC President & CEO Bolstering Growth: The Next Frontier for Canadian Startups delves into the following topics and considerations: Creating, protecting, and incentivizing Canadian IP Building a built-to-scale Canadian business culture Establishing Canadian anchor companies and leveraging trade Read the full white paper here 📖 Twitter Highlights Talk to Us 💬 Send your comments, questions, and tech policy insights to:
https://medium.com/digitalthinktankictc/digital-policy-salon-the-next-frontier-f1e19ea80622
[]
2020-10-15 20:58:18.824000+00:00
['Technology', 'Autonomous Vehicles', 'Startup', 'Space Exploration', 'Intelligent Retail']
706
Our Take on Tech Trends| Fifth LLC.
Well, it’s time already. We are quite opinionated about building future-ready solutions for business problems. As a development agency, we have a unique view on technology. Our clients often come to us with a vision or an idea for a product, and they then rely on us to advise them on what’s possible. We’ve worked with hundreds of tech entrepreneurs over the years, co-creating solutions for intriguing and often challenging problems. But for us, it’s not just about innovation in technology. We are also pretty proud of the social, environmental, and financial impact we helped create to make a world a better place. For example, we created better automated systems for secure infrastructures with Siemplify. We also enabled expanded access to healthcare during Covid-19 pandemic with Lensbox. We even helped dramatically reduce waste in the fashion supply chain with Swatchbook. So why join the Medium community now? After using Medium to learn and read about our industry’s experience, we decided to join the conversation by sharing our thoughts on technology trends, collaboration and leadership for distributed global teams, and entrepreneurship. We believe that our work with the global community of tech entrepreneurs, investors, and developers, keeps us at the forefront of technology trends. We have also seen many ideas come to fruition, succeed, or fail. We recognize that technology is just one piece of the recipe, alongside leadership, funding, team culture, market readiness, and feature roadmap. Over time, we learned a lot of related lessons that we bring in our relationships with our clients, and we want to share them with the world at large. Finally, we believe that tech entrepreneurship has the capacity to solve some of the most urgent social and environmental issues facing our global community, and we want to enable as many entrepreneurs as possible. Even if we won’t get to build those products, we still want to see them built. That’s why we are happy to share what we learned along the way. So join us, drop us a line at [email protected], or comment below. Let’s change the world together! About Fifth LLC. FIFTH is an exceptional team of 35+ developers, designers and a new generation of scientists. The three co-founders with backgrounds in quantum physics, molecular physics, astrophysics, applied mathematics and artificial intelligence met at a university 9 years ago. They bonded over their shared love of technology and a keen sense of its business applications, starting a team that has built over 200 digital products to date. We live and work in beautiful Armenia, and our clients hail from the Silicon Valley, Europe and Hong Kong. What we all have in common is the drive to elevate our clients’ business to the next level and create them loyal fans in the process. We build rich, interactive, fully integrated digital products that delight the users and are easy to update and maintain.
https://medium.com/@fifth-llc/our-take-on-tech-trends-fifth-llc-b878e0fea57d
['Fifth Llc.']
2021-09-08 22:35:23.847000+00:00
['Agency', 'Tech Trends', 'Technology']
707
5 smart ways to bank with your banking app
These days, many of us find ourselves banking through our mobile phones, and this couldn’t be more convenient. We can regularly check our balance from anywhere and anytime and budget our day-to-day and monthly spending from there. As for those of us with a second bank account, such as a savings account, we may be monitoring it monthly to see our money grow. These are simple classic routines we’ve all adapted into our lifestyle. But there’s more you can do with your bank account to help manage your money, keep your budget on track, and hit your financial goals like a pro. Here are 5 smart ways to bank with your mobile banking app to keep your finances in check and become the financial genius you’ve always wanted to be. Start paying your bills on time How often have you forgotten to pay a bill on time? If you had a penny for every time you forgot to pay a bill, say like your phone bill, imagine how much money you would’ve saved by now (we’ll get to that cool part later). Here’s an easy way to pay your bills on time the right way so that you won’t have to spend your money on late fees. Begin by adding up your fixed monthly fees. This includes your utility bill, such as electricity, water, internet and you guessed it, your phone bill. Open your mobile app, head over to Payments and fill in the details under Pay Bill. Now you can toggle the switch to Quick Pay. Well that was easy! You’re now that person who pays their bills on time. Split the bill with your friends Splitting the bill when you’re out with friends is actually one of the greatest dilemmas of all time. We’ve all been there before. You’ve had a lovely dinner out with your friends and as soon as the bill arrives, it almost always changes the mood. You all agree to split the bill, but somehow someone always manages to come up short. This can be frustrating especially if you’re being cost conscious and your friend forgets to pay you back. You can always split the bill equally and directly through your mobile phone. Let’s say you’re a group of three and the total bill is 80 JOD. It can be tricky to split the bill evenly. You can offer to pay the entire 80 JOD bill through your card or mobile phone. And then select your friends’ names to receive their end of the payment. This saves you time, energy and it’s a lot more accurate as you receive the exact payment you’re owed. Now your friends can pay you back their portion of the bill instantly. Prepare to say goodbye to that awkward moment of reminding your friend to pay up! Know exactly where your money goes We pay for many things on the daily, weekly, and monthly. And in most cases, we forget where our money goes especially since most of us are living a fast-paced lifestyle. With Account Analytics on your mobile app, you’ll go from ‘where did my money go’ to ‘that’s exactly where it went!’ And if you’d like to keep some extra cash on the side for emergencies, you can set up a monthly spending target. This way, you won’t find yourself going overboard at the end of the month. You can see exactly where you’ve spent your money from restaurant outings, groceries, gas, and your favorite coffee etc. Learn from your spending habits at the end of the month, so you can save and spend smarter on the long run. Watch your money grow over time We all want to invest for our future goals whether long-term or short-term. When it comes to saving for a vacation that you’re planning for the next couple of months or year ahead or whether you’re planning on redecorating an area in your house, it’s always a good idea to start saving ahead of time. You can instantly open a term deposit straight through your app and watch your money grow over the next couple of months. Buy travel insurance ahead of your holiday Some countries have lifted their travel restrictions amid the global pandemic. To ensure you enjoy your next vacation worry free, you can purchase your travel insurance that covers COVID-19 ahead of your flight. With social distancing measures still in place, you don’t have to worry about leaving the house and finding a travel insurance option that suits you. Your mobile banking app takes care of it all and you can choose the travel insurance you prefer. Our mobile banking app is there to help you do more with your money and make smarter money decisions. You can expect our banking app to only get better with time so you can take full financial control over your money management, spending, and saving.
https://medium.com/bank-al-etihad/5-smart-ways-to-bank-with-your-banking-app-bff1bc409e4a
['Bank Al Etihad']
2020-12-07 12:24:14.705000+00:00
['Lifestyle', 'Smart Banking', 'Banking Technology', 'Mobile Apps', 'Bank Al Etihad']
708
What is the Dirtiest Webtoon? Best 18+ Webtoon you need to check?
Alternatively, I have a different list of the best 18+ webtoons here. What are the dirtiest webtoons? check 18+ webtoons here. Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash The dirtiest Webtoon is increasing in popularity in the entire world. 18+ is the most reading novel by young peoples. Also, on-demand on adult Webtoon, many of the artists move into adult webtoons space. Here is a list of some dirtiest webtoons, which is 18+ Webtoon you need to check. Drug candy It is one of the most describing husband-wife relationships Webtoon. Seung-gu is a handsome man with a beautiful wife in this Webtoon, but his demotion at work gets depressed him. Soon he met with another lady who knows him, and she addicted him. At last, he comes to know his mistake is not easy to correct. Also read: Tapastics Vs Line webtoon: Which platform is best for posting webtoons? I Love Yoo! I love Yoo is the best romantic Webtoon you need to check. It is about Shin-Ae, who decides not to interfere with her life. But her life is changed when he unsuspecting the clothes of a stranger. Love shuttle In this comic, a Doyoun is a handsome, beautiful gay. His body is blooming and bloom all time because of this Taehan get benefit from him. He takes advantage of the situation and is the more interesting character in the series. Also read: Enlisting 101 Good Yaoi comics on Line Webtoon Lady garden In this comic, Kang Doo is a guard of the lady garden and allows only hot and beautiful ladies in the garden. He takes care of all the lady in her life problem. In return, all ladies reward him daily and fulfill their desire. Household Affairs Si-Yeon-Hong is a wife of Ha-jin who never takes an interest in his wife. At last, his wife takes intercourse with the delivery boy to satisfy herself. Unfortunately, her husband does not know, ends up desiring, and realizes it affects her job. Also read: What are the dirtiest webtoons? Check the hottest webtoons Lets Play It is the hottest and romantic Webtoon in which a girl dreams of creating a video game. But he does not do it, and then a streamer gives him a task to create the game. This Webtoon is full of sexy, funny, and real-story about gaming, memes, and social anxiety. The all above dirtiest 18+ Webtoon is full of fantasy, romance, sex, and adventure. This comic urges you to read it more again and again. This story is actual and also explains the real-life problems of people that they face. We recommend you to read all these comics one by one. Also, read Best Webtoons similar to ‘Solo Leveling’ and ‘beginning after the end’ I hope this helps.
https://medium.com/how-to-blogs/what-is-the-dirtiest-webtoon-best-18-webtoon-you-need-to-check-989aabfdb53a
['How To Articles']
2021-06-07 04:15:32.300000+00:00
['Webtoon', 'Cartoon', 'How To', 'Entertainment', 'Technology']
709
on earth will ever make you feel happy and fulfilled. And the next, you’re perfectly in flow, writing the most important book of your entire career.
on earth will ever make you feel happy and fulfilled. And the next, you’re perfectly in flow, writing the most important book of your entire career. McKee vs Caldwell Live Tv Nov 19, 2020·5 min read Life is a journey of twists and turns, peaks and valleys, mountains to climb and oceans to explore. Good times and bad times. Happy times and sad times. But always, life is a movement forward. No matter where you are on the journey, in some way, you are continuing on — and that’s what makes it so magnificent. One day, you’re questioning what on earth will ever make you feel happy and fulfilled. And the next, you’re perfectly in flow, writing the most important book of your entire career. https://www.deviantart.com/ufclivetv/commission/Watch-Caldwell-vs-McKee-Live-Stream-free-reddit-1411017 https://www.deviantart.com/ufclivetv/commission/Watch-McKee-vs-Caldwell-Live-Stream-free-reddit-1411018 https://www.deviantart.com/ufclivetv/commission/LiVeSTrEaM-Caldwell-vs-McKee-Live-Stream-free-1411019 https://www.deviantart.com/ufclivetv/commission/Bellator-253-Streams-Reddit-McKee-vs-Caldwell-Live-UFC-StreamS-FREE-1411020 https://www.deviantart.com/ufclivetv/commission/Reddit-Streams-Caldwell-vs-McKee-Live-Streaming-FREE-Reddit-1411021 What nobody ever tells you, though, when you are a wide-eyed child, are all the little things that come along with “growing up.” 1. Most people are scared of using their imagination. They’ve disconnected with their inner child. They don’t feel they are “creative.” They like things “just the way they are.” 2. Your dream doesn’t really matter to anyone else. Some people might take interest. Some may support you in your quest. But at the end of the day, nobody cares, or will ever care about your dream as much as you. 3. Friends are relative to where you are in your life. Most friends only stay for a period of time — usually in reference to your current interest. But when you move on, or your priorities change, so too do the majority of your friends. 4. Your potential increases with age. As people get older, they tend to think that they can do less and less — when in reality, they should be able to do more and more, because they have had time to soak up more knowledge. Being great at something is a daily habit. You aren’t just “born” that way. 5. Spontaneity is the sister of creativity. If all you do is follow the exact same routine every day, you will never leave yourself open to moments of sudden discovery. Do you remember how spontaneous you were as a child? Anything could happen, at any moment! 6. You forget the value of “touch” later on. When was the last time you played in the rain? When was the last time you sat on a sidewalk and looked closely at the cracks, the rocks, the dirt, the one weed growing between the concrete and the grass nearby. Do that again. You will feel so connected to the playfulness of life. 7. Most people don’t do what they love. It’s true. The “masses” are not the ones who live the lives they dreamed of living. And the reason is because they didn’t fight hard enough. They didn’t make it happen for themselves. And the older you get, and the more you look around, the easier it becomes to believe that you’ll end up the same. Don’t fall for the trap. 8. Many stop reading after college. Ask anyone you know the last good book they read, and I’ll bet most of them respond with, “Wow, I haven’t read a book in a long time.” 9. People talk more than they listen. There is nothing more ridiculous to me than hearing two people talk “at” each other, neither one listening, but waiting for the other person to stop talking so they can start up again. 10. Creativity takes practice. It’s funny how much we as a society praise and value creativity, and yet seem to do as much as we can to prohibit and control creative expression unless it is in some way profitable. If you want to keep your creative muscle pumped and active, you have to practice it on your own. 11. “Success” is a relative term. As kids, we’re taught to “reach for success.” What does that really mean? Success to one person could mean the opposite for someone else. Define your own Success. 12. You can’t change your parents. A sad and difficult truth to face as you get older: You can’t change your parents. They are who they are. Whether they approve of what you do or not, at some point, no longer matters. Love them for bringing you into this world, and leave the rest at the door. 13. The only person you have to face in the morning is yourself. When you’re younger, it feels like you have to please the entire world. You don’t. Do what makes you happy, and create the life you want to live for yourself. You’ll see someone you truly love staring back at you every morning if you can do that. 14. Nothing feels as good as something you do from the heart. No amount of money or achievement or external validation will ever take the place of what you do out of pure love. Follow your heart, and the rest will follow. 15. Your potential is directly correlated to how well you know yourself. Those who know themselves and maximize their strengths are the ones who go where they want to go. Those who don’t know themselves, and avoid the hard work of looking inward, live life by default. They lack the ability to create for themselves their own future. 16. Everyone who doubts you will always come back around. That kid who used to bully you will come asking for a job. The girl who didn’t want to date you will call you back once she sees where you’re headed. It always happens that way. Just focus on you, stay true to what you believe in, and all the doubters will eventually come asking for help. 17. You are a reflection of the 5 people you spend the most time with. Nobody creates themselves, by themselves. We are all mirror images, sculpted through the reflections we see in other people. This isn’t a game you play by yourself. Work to be surrounded by those you wish to be like, and in time, you too will carry the very things you admire in them. 18. Beliefs are relative to what you pursue. Wherever you are in life, and based on who is around you, and based on your current aspirations, those are the things that shape your beliefs. Nobody explains, though, that “beliefs” then are not “fixed.” There is no “right and wrong.” It is all relative. Find what works for you. 19. Anything can be a vice. Be wary. Again, there is no “right” and “wrong” as you get older. A coping mechanism to one could be a way to relax on a Sunday to another. Just remain aware of your habits and how you spend your time, and what habits start to increase in frequency — and then question where they are coming from in you and why you feel compelled to repeat them. Never mistakes, always lessons. As I said, know yourself. 20. Your purpose is to be YOU. What is the meaning of life? To be you, all of you, always, in everything you do — whatever that means to you. You are your own creator. You are your own evolving masterpiece. Growing up is the realization that you are both the sculpture and the sculptor, the painter and the portrait. Paint yourself however you wish.
https://medium.com/@mckeevscaldwellliveon/on-earth-will-ever-make-you-feel-happy-and-fulfilled-a33fdd5c2b35
['Mckee Vs Caldwell Live Tv']
2020-11-19 23:30:34.975000+00:00
['Technology', 'Sports', 'Social Media', 'News', 'Live Streaming']
710
We Need to Get Better at Building Electric Car Batteries
We Need to Get Better at Building Electric Car Batteries BMW i3 electric car. Photo: Jens Schlueter/Stringer/Getty Images If we’ve learned anything from Tesla over the past decade, it’s that no matter how innovative and disruptive your product might be, manufacturing safe hardware is hard. Building anything in high volume is a challenge that’s significantly amplified by the complexity of vehicles. Traditional processes like welding, painting, and assembly are hard enough, but the difficulty level multiplies when you look at products like battery cells. In recent months, three automakers have had to stop sales of electrified vehicles as a result of batteries experiencing thermal runaways, which is a fancy engineering term for catching fire. BMW and Ford have both told dealers to stop selling a number of plug-in hybrid vehicles following fire incidents while Hyundai is doing the same for the Kona electric. As a result of fires with the Ford Kuga plug-in hybrid, Ford has delayed the production launch of the North American equivalent, the Escape PHEV. Approximately 170,000 vehicle fires happen annually in the United States out of a total vehicle population of 290 million. Out of that total vehicle fleet, approximately 4 million feature high-voltage battery systems including hybrids, plug-in hybrids, battery electric, and fuel cell electric models. Figures aren’t available for how many electrified vehicles experience fires, but a Ford spokesperson said that out of more than 900,000 hybrid vehicles sold over the past 15 years, none are known to have experienced battery fires. While battery fires aren’t particularly common, they are problematic when they happen. At its basic level, a cell consists of positive and negative electrodes which sandwich a separator, and the whole assembly is surrounded by an electrolyte material. Thermal runaways are generally triggered when there is a short circuit between the electrodes. This most often happens when a cell is physically damaged such as in a crash or if there is a manufacturing defect. When an internal combustion vehicle ignites for whatever reason, but most likely a fuel or oil leak onto a hot surface, extinguishing it is fairly straightforward. As we learned in science class, fire requires an ignition source, fuel, and oxygen. Starve the fire of either the fuel or oxygen and it goes out. When gasoline burns, you can smother it with water or foam and it goes out and generally stays out. There’s no indication that batteries are any more prone to fires than gasoline vehicles, but the aftermath can be harder to deal with. Batteries are a different story. The electrolyte that acts as a catalyst for conductivity in the cell consists of an organic compound mixture that contains oxygen. When a cell overheats, the electrolyte gives off oxygen. If the heat level reaches the ignition point, that oxygen will actually feed the fire internally, even if you smother it. In the famous crash of Apple engineer Walter Huang in his Tesla in 2018, the resulting battery fire took many hours to extinguish. It’s also not uncommon for burning batteries to reignite hours or days after being extinguished due to damage to adjacent cells. This happened in 2011 after the first fire in a Chevrolet Volt. A poorly installed home charger caused the original fire. But two days after the vehicle carcass was hauled off to a wrecking yard, the battery reignited. There’s no indication that batteries are any more prone to fires than gasoline vehicles, but the aftermath can be harder to deal with. These fires were all triggered by external sources, either crash damage or charging issues. But sometimes the fire is caused by a manufacturing issue. This was the case with the recent Ford and BMW problems. Sources familiar with the situation at both Ford and BMW have confirmed that the fires that began while the plug-in hybrids were charging have traced the root cause back to a manufacturing issue with the cells. Both automakers use cells produced at the same supplier plant. Aluminum and copper particles from the welding process for the cell containers have been contaminating the interior of the cell, which in turn is leading to short circuits while charging the batteries. This is by no means the first time that cell manufacturing flaws have resulted in fires, and many cell manufacturers have experienced problems. Back in 2011, the original Fisker Karma experienced issues with cells catching fire and in 2013, the Boeing 787 was temporarily grounded following battery fires on two aircraft. In the 1990s, multiple manufacturers of laptop computers had recalls in the wake of battery fires. If you ever visit a cell manufacturing facility, you’ll find the environment is more like an infectious disease laboratory than a traditional car parts plant. The areas of the factory where electrodes are processed, rolled, or folded and packaged are all pristine. The cell assembly area is in a positive pressure room where the inside air pressure is kept above the ambient pressure outside to prevent contamination. Anyone that enters this area has to wear a “bunny suit” that covers their entire body including the head and face. Most of the processing is completely automated to limit any interaction with the equipment or the cells. If you ever visit a cell manufacturing facility, you’ll find the environment is more like an infectious disease laboratory than a traditional car parts plant. The cell supplier for the affected Ford and BMW vehicles is making process changes to prevent this sort of contamination from happening again. Still, in manufacturing, there are rarely any guarantees that nothing has gone wrong. That’s why there are quality assurance departments, to make sure that the processes are right to begin with, that they are properly followed, and that any discrepancies are caught early. Ford isn’t taking any chances, though. It has developed its own battery stress test. Once the cells are assembled into a battery pack for the plug-in Kuga and Escape, it will go through a new testing regimen before the pack is installed in a vehicle. European and North American plants are both implementing this testing procedure where they assemble the battery packs. BMW will likely do something similar with its battery packs. Ultimately, while any verification method is important, it is a band-aid. Optimizing quality requires getting back to the root of the problem whether that is a product design issue or a manufacturing process flaw. Quality has to be baked in from the start, and as we grow the number of electric vehicles in the coming years, we’ll be building billions of cells and battery packs. Every step in the value chain has to work to minimize the number of dangerous and difficult to extinguish battery fires.
https://debugger.medium.com/we-need-to-get-better-at-building-electric-car-batteries-fd7ecff05549
['Sam Abuelsamid']
2020-12-03 06:32:39.675000+00:00
['Battery', 'Electric Vehicles', 'Technology', 'Engineering', 'Cars']
711
Will Tech’s Monopolies Survive 2020?
Will Tech’s Monopolies Survive 2020? How the triple turmoil of a pandemic, protests, and a presidential election threatens Silicon Valley’s status quo. Photo: Wang Ying/Xinhua via Getty Welcome back to Pattern Matching, OneZero’s weekly newsletter that puts the week’s most compelling tech stories in context. There was a brief moment, at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic’s first wave in the United States, when it looked like Big Tech might be back in the public’s good graces. With stay-at-home orders across the country, screens were no longer an addictive distraction from real life, but the locus of real life itself. Zoom was powering business meetings; Houseparty, happy hours. Facebook was once again a dominant force in news; Apple and Google were partnering on a privacy-conscious contact tracing app. Politicians in the United States and Europe who had been laying the groundwork for new regulations suddenly had more urgent things to worry about. That moment has passed. The lifting of lockdowns has been greeted not with sighs of relief at a return to the status quo, but with rallying cries to change it. There are protests in the streets. A presidential election looms. While criminal justice reform tops the domestic agenda, the appetite for tech reform appears to have returned as well. The Pattern Big Tech is back in the hot seat. 💬 The European Commission this week opened two antitrust probes against Apple, focusing on how its App Store rules and Apple Pay system, respectively, hamstring competitors. The App Store investigation was sparked by a 2019 complaint from Spotify about Apple’s practice of taking 30 percent of all subscription revenues from users who sign up for third-party apps on iOS. That puts Spotify at a disadvantage in competing with Apple’s own Apple Music service, from which Apple keeps 100 percent of revenues. (In 2018, Spotify stopped allowing users to pay via iOS.) The Apple Pay investigation, meanwhile, will examine how Apple limits the use of its devices’ “tap and go” payment functionality to Apple Pay alone, once again giving its own service a big edge over competitors. 💬 Spotify is hardly the only company affected. I wrote in depth in February about the brewing antitrust case against Apple, and the developers lining up to testify against it. In a twist of timing, one of those developers, Basecamp, launched a new paid email app, called Hey, on the same day the EU investigation was announced. Apple rejected it, on the grounds that it doesn’t allow the in-app subscription options that would give Apple its 30-percent cut. Protocol’s David Pierce recounted how that decision went down, while The Verge’s Dieter Bohn blasted Apple for inconsistencies in how it enforces its rules. Even Apple blogger Jon Gruber, who often defends the company, agreed that the company’s rent-seeking has gone too far. (Meanwhile, if you’re interested in Hey, read developer Kaya Thomas’ OneZero review of the buzzy, pricey new email platform.) 💬 Even mighty Facebook can’t get its apps onto Apple devices when they compete directly with Apple’s own offerings. The New York Times reported Thursday that Apple has rejected Facebook Gaming, the social network’s new casual gaming app, at least five times in the past four months, citing policies against apps that function primarily as game stores. Google, for its part, quickly approved Facebook Gaming on the Google Play store in April. Illustrating the user-unfriendly effects of Apple’s restrictions, the Times article explains that Facebook’s approach to getting its app approved has involved continually making the interface less intuitive, on the theory that this would make it less store-like. 💬 That Apple governs its App Store with impunity, and often to its own advantage, is not new. Neither is it new that Apple’s own apps sometimes compete with, copy, and crowd out those made for its platforms by independent developers. What is different now are the scope of Apple’s first-party app ambitions, the number of developers willing to risk the giant’s ire by speaking out, and the willingness of people in power to listen. In OneZero this week, Owen Williams argues that the EU case could be “a defining moment for the technology industry, as companies like Google and Facebook may find themselves scrutinized in a similar way.” And speaking of Google… 💬 Google made a similar power play this week by integrating its Meet videoconferencing software into the Gmail app. It’s a transparent attempt to leverage Google’s dominance in one market — email, in this case — against a rival (Zoom) that was outcompeting it in another market. 💬 The regulatory fervor is not confined to Europe. Back in the United States, the right broadened its assault on Section 230 this week, as Sen. Josh Hawley introduced a bill that would make it easier to sue tech companies for inconsistencies in how they moderate content. The move comes two weeks after Donald Trump signed an executive order challenging the legal protections that online platforms enjoy under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Gizmodo’s Dell Cameron argues that the bill, like Trump’s order, is mostly toothless: It still allows companies to set their own rules of moderation, as long as they stick to them and apply them equally to all parties “in good faith.” 💬 And yet that even that mushy qualifier could open the door to enough lawsuits that some companies may simply decide a more hands-off approach is safest. Which is, of course, what Trump and Hawley want: for social platforms to keep their paws off of racist or false content from right-wing sources, including the president himself. This week conveniently brought us an illustration of the kind of dustup that could turn into a lawsuit, when NBC News reported that Google had banned the financial site ZeroHedge and conservative political site The Federalist from its ad network for spreading racist conspiracy theories about the anti-police brutality protests. As an uproar spread — both sites have large, vocal followings — Google disputed NBC News’ story. Google said The Federalist was never demonetized, but that it had reached an agreement with the publisher that involved removing racist comments from The Federalist’s comment section. 💬 These are the types of interventions that liberals and civil rights activists, along with some of tech companies’ own employees, have been calling for. (Some civil rights groups are now calling on companies to boycott Facebook’s ad platform.) They’re also the type that get the right riled up and build momentum for bills like Hawley’s, as Ben Shapiro and Ted Cruz were quick to rail against Google’s moves this week. As I wrote in a previous newsletter, we appear to have at last reached the point where the big platforms have to pick a side. Twitter was the first to do so, when it started flagging some of Trump’s tweets as misleading, and the company kept up its enforcement against him this week by putting a warning label on a video he tweeted. The video fabricated fake CNN footage of a “terrified” Black toddler running away from a “racist baby,” then implied that the network was spreading divisive fake news (a classic example of Trumpian projection). 💬 Facebook has opted for the laissez-faire approach to Trump’s posts, but even it felt compelled to take action this week when the liberal blog Media Matters for America reported that the president was running Facebook ads with Nazi iconography. (Trump’s campaign then claimed the inverted red triangle was an antifa symbol — which is a lie, according to historians who study the group.) Facebook removed the 88 offending ads. 💬 Antitrust enforcement and Section 230 reform are separate issues. But the growing momentum behind both is indicative of a larger trend: Big Tech has lost the benefit of the doubt. That happened long ago in Europe, but it is finally happening in the United States as well, from both major parties. And any notion that the pandemic or a Republican presidency would ease the regulatory pressure on Silicon Valley has now been put to rest. Americans of all ideologies are fed up with business as usual, their polarization arguably stoked by the tech platforms themselves, and their economic stability undermined by the rise of the gig economy. In other words, we’re living in a mess that is partly of the tech industry’s making. And now that mess is coming back to haunt it. Undercurrents Under-the-radar trends, stories, and random anecdotes worth your time 🗨️ Two Black leaders at Pinterest left the company over racial discrimination, saying they were subjected to offensive comments, unfair pay, and retaliation. CEO Ben Silbermann subsequently issued a public apology and admitted “parts of our culture are broken,” Bloomberg’s Sarah Frier reported. But the ex-employees, Ifeoma Ozoma and Aerica Shimizu Banks, who made up two-thirds of the platform’s public policy and social impact team, said on Twitter that they heard the apology only through the media. Their allegations are part of a wider reckoning over tech companies’ treatment of Black employees, and they dent the reputation of a platform that had previously earned praise for some progressive policies — which, it turns out, Ozoma and Banks had been criticized by their managers for championing. Read Ozoma’s full thread here. 🗨️ Lesser-known face recognition companies are eagerly courting law enforcement, looking to fill the vacuum after IBM, Microsoft, and Amazon stepped back. Clearview AI, NEC, nd Ayonix are among those poised to capitalize by ignoring the anger over surveillance technology’s discriminatory effects on Black communities, the Wall Street Journal reported. My OneZero colleague Dave Gershgorn has written about an even longer list of companies, including many that you might not expect, that have been trying to cash in on a face recognition gold rush. In Bloomberg Opinion, Cathy O’Neil makes the case that face recognition by law enforcement will continue until or unless Congress repeals post-9/11 legislation, such as the Real ID Act, that prioritized antiterrorism efforts over civil liberties. 🗨️ Instagram’s algorithm systematically incentivizes its users to show skin in their photos, according to a report from the nonprofit AlgorithmWatch. 🗨️ The great scourge of bots on social media may be overstated, bot expert Darius Kazemi argued, in a New York Times article by Siobhan Roberts. Headlines of the Week Facebook Groups Are Destroying America — Nina Jankowicz and Cindy Otis, Wired Devin Nunes’ Attorney Says He’s at ‘Dead End’ in Quest to Reveal Identity of Twitter Cow — Kate Irby, Fresno Bee Thanks for reading. Reach me with tips and feedback by responding to this post on the web, via Twitter direct message at @WillOremus, or by email at [email protected].
https://onezero.medium.com/will-techs-monopolies-survive-2020-90a8ea05b6c3
['Will Oremus']
2020-06-20 13:57:29.136000+00:00
['Technology', 'Apple', 'Facebook', 'Pattern Matching']
712
MANTRA DAO Token Buyback Completion Report
MANTRA DAO’s first buyback precursor to our OM validator earning program Our OM token buyback event from the proceeds from our recent Breaking the 100 million OM staked NFT sale has been completed! The total number of OM bought during the buyback event was 741,398.88 OM which is equivalent to approximately $50,000 at the time of purchase. The purchased OM tokens have been transferred to our publicly verifiable address here: https://etherscan.io/address/0x5b8e6dce497632dcbdbc195c3416f44fea6683e6 MANTRA DAO used 80 $ETH from NFT sale proceeds to buyback 741,398 OM This initiative is the precursor to our OM validator earnings program where MANTRA DAO spends 50% of its accrued staking/delegator rewards to buy back OM on the open market. Instead of a buyback and burn model, MANTRA DAO uses a buyback and make model which explained by placeholder vs is believed to have better benefits especially for governance tokens which include improved token liquidity!
https://medium.com/@mantradao/mantra-dao-token-buyback-completion-report-e46c278f636b
['Mantra Dao']
2020-12-22 06:44:08.798000+00:00
['Cryptocurrency', 'Cryptocurrency News', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Crypto', 'Blockchain']
713
Why Logarithms Are So Important In Machine Learning
Photo by Tim Foster on Unsplash If you are living on the 10th floor of a building, are you going to take the stairs or use the elevator? The goal in both cases is the same: You want to go back to your apartment after a long day at work. Of course, taking the stairs is better if you are a busy person who doesn’t have time to go to the gym and wants to use the stairs as a simplified version of the cardio exercises. But, aside from that, you are more likely to take the elevator. Let’s take another example. Let’s say that you are trying to go to your workplace. It takes you 10 minutes by car when there are no traffic jams and 50 minutes walking. You can choose to either drive or walk. You are still going to reach the same destination, but you want to save time. You go to work every workday and not just once in your lifetime. As a result, you may need to decide about this on a regular basis. You want to be able to go to your work faster so that you can have more time in your day to stay with your family and friends. You want to start that side project. Read the book that you bought at the local book store. Watch the lectures that you always wanted. Instead of spending so much of your time to go to the same destination, you want to take a car or a bus that helps you get there. This way, you have more time to do other things. Examples of the benefits of using the logarithm Using logarithm is the same: You need to find the parameters that minimize the loss function, which is one of the main problems that you try to solve in Machine Learning. Let’s say that your function seems like the following: If we find its first derivative, we will have the following expression in the end:
https://towardsdatascience.com/why-logarithms-are-so-important-in-machine-learning-6d2ff7930c8e
['Fatos Morina']
2020-08-23 12:16:12.292000+00:00
['Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'Technology', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Programming']
714
Campaign Strategies of Tech Unicorns, Revealed
Campaign Strategies of Tech Unicorns, Revealed Background vector created by rawpixel.com — www.freepik.com Blog posts, emails, display ads, retargeting ads, content, videos, case studies, whitepapers, SEO, surveys, social, virtual events, webinars, news stories… In 2021. that might as well be a list of campaign tactics used by nearly every tech company. While channels are often a commodity, the way they are used can be positioned as a strength. In part 3 of my series on how B2B tech unicorns build disruptive brands, I’ll share not just how unicorns are leveraging the web and physical world to reach their audience but also the behind the scenes of what are driving those decisions. Specifically, I’ll explore the answers to frequently asked questions like, how are campaign decisions being made? What are some of the most promising & new channels? and how is account-based marketing being used? With that, let’s dive in. How to prioritize campaigns You would think most companies keep their campaign strategy a secret. One company turns that hypothesis on its head. In the spirit of openness, Gitlab, known as a leader in open-source tools for developers, has decided to share its marketing handbook online. In the guide, the Gitlab team shares their multi-channel campaign approach. The team focuses on having two dimensions clearly defined: Value — why a prospect would be interested in making a change in the first place. Use case — the specific situation in which a product can be used. The idea is simple. Create campaigns that clearly articulate why someone should care, and what it is he or she should care about. The company puts so much focus on creating customer-centric content that it has established a team dedicated to doing just that. The Strategic Marketing team comprises subject matter experts who deeply understand and can explain the value of the product to prospects. This value-first approach makes a lot of sense when there’s an established market, but what if the market is still mostly unaware of what it is they need? In an interview with product hunt, the founders of Brex, a fintech company that offers corporate banking solutions for startups, described how they use content loops to drive awareness. Here’s the basis: target your demographic based on what they are searching for, serve them content to draw them into the site, then retarget them with paid ads. While that’s a good start, the magic lies in the strategy. The team discovered that keyword targeting of in-market buyers was less likely to turn into opportunities than running Youtube ads where potential customers were not yet in the research stage (or thinking about) corporate banking solutions but looking up related startup content. Their ad is reminiscent of an Apple iPod commercial, complete with attractive visuals, clear value statements, and a catchy tune. No surprise, it also has been viewed over one million times. See for yourself. Brex Youtube Ad Some promising channels UIPath, the leading robotic automation platform, found that one of the most successful lead gen channels involved retargeting visitors who had yet to convert into leads through LinkedIn InMail conversation ads. This feature lets you send personalized messages to the inboxes of specific target segments. With this approach, UIPath was able to convert 67% of the leads that engaged. While investing in LinkedIn seems obvious, Facebook seems less so. However, Zenefits, an HR software leader, was able to cracked the code and make it work for them. The team ran 375 different experiments to eventually find a significantly lower cost per acquisition and a greater average order value than through other channels. They were able to achieve these results by fine-tuning their target parameters leveraging third-party data from a provider called Clearbit. The results showed that educational content performed much better than product-driven messaging. Marketing has long been a vehicle to get attention. Often, when you least expect it. New York subways and northern California interstates? It turns out several B2B tech companies — C3.AI, Monday.Com, Brex — to name a few, have all invested in billboards before they were a household name, hoping perhaps to become one. Living in New York, I can pledge first-hand that it was impossible to miss the Monday.com takeover of the subways. Their messaging adorned the turnstiles, walls on the platform, and banners inside the subway. Monday.com | C3.AI | Brex billboards (image put together by author) While it’s difficult to measure the impact, out-of-home advertising does make sense for companies with a broad audience and a heavy concentration in one particular city or location (or did until the pandemic). Plaid, a company that offers developer tools and APIs for consumer banks, has taken the opposite approach, by taking a narrow, targeted approach. In a conversation with Saastr, the CEO shared that they have always been “developer focus.” As a result, they acquire most of their customers through forums, hacker news, and Reddit. The company understood well that to gain the trust of developers, you need to engage and embed yourself into the community, not just push ads. Visa just acquired them for $5.3B. In a similar vein, UIPath has taken it upon itself to invest heavily in using its website to tackle “the industry’s most pressing issues and concerns, such as the current state and future of robotics automation across a variety of industries, while at the same time positioning UiPath as a thought-leader in this field.” By building up search result rankings for trending new concepts, the company was able to see a 4x growth in traffic in just a year. Account-based marketing (ABM) best practices The idea is simple: Proactively target the best-fit companies with your messages rather than hoping they stumble upon find you. To this day, I am still shocked that ABM requires countless hours of explanation to get organizational buy-in. That said, the tides are starting to turn. Of the 25 unicorns I analyzed, I could validate that over 75% of them have hired an ABM leader and/or are actively engaging in ABM activities. One of the first steps with any ABM strategy is picking which accounts to target and segmenting the list. Gitlab shares that they segment their accounts across 3 groups, one-to-one (completely personalized communication) 1 to a few (roughly 50 accounts), and 1 to many (75–100 accounts). While nailing the segmentation approach is essential, The CMO of Thoughtspot would argue sales alignment is perhaps even more important, saying “Segmentation strategy is critical, but it just doesn’t’ fly at all if you don’t have sales bought in. If they’re not ready to segment accounts and narrow the focus to a reasonable level, then it won’t work.” In just 5 years, the company has grown to a valuation northwards of $2B, so perhaps they are onto something. One common ABM strategy to get buyers’ attention involves direct mail. But does it work? Outreach.io, the leading Sales Enablement Platform, decided to run an A/B split test. They sent the clever direct mail package shown below to a list of 500 prospects in their target account list who had previously been contacted but never responded. They also had a control group of 500 accounts that did not receive the box. The results were promising. The prospects who received the swag responded at a 26% higher rate, with three times as many meetings booked. Direct mail itself wasn’t the reason this worked. The company nailed the strategy. The value of their platform connects back nicely to the items included in the package. They nicely juxtapose a modern wireless charging pad with the old-school flip-phone. And equally important, they followed through, coordinating timely follow-up with the SDR team. Direct mail happens to be just one ABM activation channel. Gitlab highlights two digital tools in their ABM tech stack. The team uses Demandbase for personalized 1:1 advertising to target accounts and Pathfactory to create personalized content web pages. Tipalti, an accounts payable software solution valued at over $2B, brought in 6sense, an account-engaged platform, to help them identify buyers showing intent. Armed with additional data on how target accounts were engaging with their brand in real-time, Tipalti provided visibility and tools, such as a content suggestion matrix, to SDRs so they could reach out with more personalized messages based on searched keywords of target accounts. The latest way to run ABM campaigns that have grown quickly in popularity is the conversational chatbot. Companies like Thoughtspot, Zenefits, and TripActions all mention that they use chat capabilities on their website to engage key target accounts in a dialogue in real-time. With better routing and tight integrations with Salesforce, solutions like Pardot and Drift have made this possible. Marketing was never about one channel or one approach, but including an account-based targeting approach is just smart business. Now that we have the data-trails and knowledge to engage our best fit-prospects proactively, it should be a no-brainer. Takeaways This list is far from conclusive. With so many possibilities available at your disposal, marketing leaders and founders should get intentional about when and how they invest in adding new engagement avenues. At a minimum, you must understand what stage in the buyer’s journey your ideal customer profile is, what problem they have that you can solve, what level of awareness they have of that problem, and what channels they use to seek out information. It’s okay to experiment, but it’s more important to have a reason beyond, “I heard it worked for someone else.” In Steve Blank’s Startup Owner’s Manual, he shares a useful strategy to begin thinking about the buyer’s journey. He writes that people typically fall into one of the following 4 levels of awareness: Aware of pain and actively searching for a solution Aware of pain but not actively searching for a solution Aware of pain, and have cobbled together a solution Have pain but are unaware there’s a problem Knowing the answer to this question will help build an engagement plan that is rooted in context. If you know the typical mindset of your ideal customer, then you at least have a starting point. And knowing where to begin, is half the battle.
https://entrepreneurshandbook.co/campaign-strategies-of-tech-unicorns-revealed-aa762268c10b
['Leila Nazari']
2021-07-06 07:17:07.180000+00:00
['Entrepreneurship', 'B2b Marketing', 'Marketing', 'Technology', 'Go To Market']
715
Firebase Almost Ruined My Startup
How Firebase Started To Become a Problem Despite getting the benefits, we started to feel the problems after six months when we tried to add more features and scale more for our growing number of customers. First problem: Query The first problem was queries. To add more features, we had to do more complex queries. But there are many limitations for queries or filtering the data in Cloud Firestore. You could easily perform simple queries, but it was very difficult to run a complex query. You have to understand that it’s not SQL. So, we had to create more collections and we duplicated more data for simplifying the complex queries. But duplicating data also created some other problems. We had to update 5-6 collections when any data changed. Second problem: No solid backend Firebase’s purpose is to create a serverless environment, so it’s obvious that it won’t have a backend as we would use in another system. As there was no backend, we accessed the database directly from our app. But it was a huge mistake. Reading or writing data directly caused many problems. There was another way to access the data. We also tried that. We used the Firebase cloud function to make APIs. But cloud function APIs don’t perform like normal APIs. There are some limitations. It’s slow and not developer-friendly. Third problem: Crash! When the tech team’s size increased, the real problems started. Every developer had to have a clear understanding of the database and how it worked. Because they had to read or write data directly from the database, we had to waste a lot of time on that. As we decided to build three different platforms (Android, iOS, and web), it was very impractical to allow developers to write data directly in the database. If any developer from any platform pushed the wrong formatted data, then the other platforms crashed. The productivity of the whole tech team became slow. Fourth problem: The security rule! Security is very important for every tech product. There is a special feature in Firebase for enhancing security. As Firebase allows to read and write data directly from the frontend side, they have a system to write “security rules” in the admin panel. I find it very inconvenient. It’s much easier to write security rules in an API.
https://betterprogramming.pub/firebase-almost-ruined-my-startup-4384b29979fd
[]
2021-07-05 16:31:16.682000+00:00
['Startup', 'Software Development', 'Firebase', 'Technology', 'Programming']
716
How to nail your project briefing when approaching a software development company?
Taking on the strategic decision to invest in a digital solution for your personal benefit or to upgrade your business is a huge step towards excellence, efficiency success, expansion, and profitability. Nowadays all you need to do is get an idea, pack the budget and contact a software development firm then enjoy the use of the product that solves your business problems magically. easier said than done right? Where to even start? Finding a software development company that meets your business needs is itself a challenge, then collaborating effectively is a whole other challenge but how to even gather your thoughts and explain clearly your product concept without any misunderstandings is the biggest challenge! The key to approach a software development company is by A well-written brief! Here are the best practices. 1/ Gather your thoughts… plan properly Before you do anything, gather your thoughts and think properly to make the right decisions. Building a digital solution is a strategic step that needs proper planning and understanding of your business needs, capacities, and options to solve them according to your budget and future business plans. The challenge is that a digital project requires both understandings of technologies and customer needs. To make the right decisions for your customers, you need both a deep understanding of your customers and the technologies that enable solutions to their challenges. If you have already made a business analysis and you are sure about your choices you are ready to skip this step and look to the next one. if you still have doubts Ask yourself : What are the main challenges you need to solve? Does it require a mobile app website, Iot/AIML application, or software? What basic features will answer your needs? What guarantees you’ve chosen the right ones that fit your company’s goals? Did you analyze your competitive market? What are the limits of your budget? Is your choice sustainably relevant and can face the changes in your customers’ habits? Do you understand even a bit of basic technologies? For digital transformations, it’s important that we don’t rush to choose just any answer and make decisions based on real analysis. While many tools may be capable of doing the job, successful businesses focus on the tools that are efficient and provide the best possible experience for the customer. This step is very important as it is key to preparing the appropriate bridging documents for your project in order to make developers understand you correctly. 2/ Find your trusted development partner After identifying precisely your needs and use of that particular digital solution yet the most tricky part is finding the right trustworthy development partner to successfully realize the vision of your software, You need a firm/person who understands your inquiries and is able to develop a solution that meets and solves your targeted problems. Base your decision on the following criteria : Expertise, technologies and provided services Case studies and portfolio UI/UX abilities Their process Their website Fix payment Engagement policies and estimated delivery delays Aftersale support Social media presence Corporate culture 3/ Approach the software development company correctly Contacting an IT company is usually done via their website or provided numbers and emails or by filling inquiry forms on the social media platforms they are running. Most companies require a small briefing in initial contact where you need to tell a bit about yourself and your project. It is recommended to Try to share enough details as it is so important to understand the initial stage of your project while building a digital solution. If you are at an early stage, they can help you by reshaping it and fill in its blanks. If you are at an advanced stage they can help you with the needed modifications and building a visible pathway. Here is an example of www.indianic.com web interface At IndiaNIC, It consists of a form where you fill with your details and contacts as an individual or a company so they can get back to you. You select the service you are aiming for whether it is web development mobile etc.. Mention your estimated budget, expected deadline and specific requirement then write a brief about your project which is the most important step that tells all about your business needs and aimed digital solution. Note that Not all companies are the same but they all operate in a very complicated field. Some specialize in certain technologies only, some avoid working on any project with blurry deliverables, some don’t engage with customers unless they know their financial status and some don’t take into charge non-studied projects with useless non-explanatory briefings which is completely understandable due to the complexity of the field software companies operate in. Software companies are usually loaded with work and receive hundreds of inquiries per day that most of them are rejected for not being serious enough. They do even filter the clients they receive so they can avoid engaging in any project with a blurry vision. so contacting a software development company should be based on a clear vision with a relevant briefing that favors partnership and mutual trust. 4/ How to nail your project briefing? Arranging your project briefing is your portal to communicate your project purpose. The initial briefing doesn’t need to be over-detailed but it needs to communicate your inquiries correctly as a business development manager will contact you for the rest of the details. The brief should serve as a starting point for the project, which becomes more fleshed out as the meeting progresses. Don’t worry about oversharing, your inquiries are secure in custom-crafted CRM till further discussion. A well-written briefing not only ensures your software developer really understands your business, but it also sells them your vision and how it will work. A well-executed brief that is clearly understood by the developer can significantly impact the efficiency of the development process and help the developer to give a step of instructions or features needed to complete the project. The more you elaborate, the better and faster the best person is assigned to handle your request, and stay connected with you, to keep the communication smooth and efficient during the entire process. Wondering what should be in the brief? Let’s start with highlighting the basics of a project briefing to send a software house to make it clear on how your product should work. Here are the 3 points that should be available in your briefing The general idea: an overview and description of the desired product, project status, its functioning goal, the problem it’s supposed to solve, and user personas with references of similar products if possible an overview and description of the desired product, project status, its functioning goal, the problem it’s supposed to solve, and user personas with references of similar products if possible Specifications: including a list of basic wanted features, initial visioned mock-ups if possible aimed time frame, and budget limitation. including a list of basic wanted features, initial visioned mock-ups if possible aimed time frame, and budget limitation. Integration plan: every detail that a software house needs to start the development of a product immediately from the database to the integration process of the software with external services, API documentation…etc Here’s how you elaborate every element General project description Preparing a brief, start with An overview summarising the project’s statutes, requirements, the problem that needs to be solved, and precisely defining the nature of the software application. It answers questions like: For what it is made exactly? and what challenges it solves? Elaborate specifically as possible and avoid writing generalities for example do not write “I want to develop a mobile app for my bank customer support “ write instead “I want to develop a mobile app that reminds the customer to pay their bills and check their account status Define your user personas Who will be using the software? And How will it be accessed? Personas/ users are very important in determining the required user interface and user experience of the aimed software. For example, an application that is meant for elders won’t look or operate like an application that is made for younger users. Basic Feature list What are the specific requirements and features of your software ? a basic list of features is very important, it helps the software company suggest trendy amelioration for better functionality and determine the basic estimation of the project. Mention which elements of the project are essential and non-compressible, which attributes would be nice to have, and features that are less urgent and could come later. Describe the basic vision of the project or add a mockup It is essential to help illustrate your vision. The best efficient way is to have pre-sketches in your hand yet is no problem as a respectful software development company has the expertise to wireframe your projects according to your described vision. Mentions Plans of software integration Does your project need to integrate with any existing systems? Does it require external databases? This is core information as it can change how the software is built completely and so the budget estimation Prepared budget Mentioning How much you are willing to invest in the project is so important in determining the feasibility of the project and shortlisting the features you want according to the budget. It is an indicator of how serious is your request Time frame When do you need the project to be ready? Do you want the project to immediately start getting developed or is it scheduled for later? It’s also so important as it helps the software company to prioritize your project, determine the number of people required to work on the project according to your time frame. Conclusion The information below might seem a little restrictive yet don’t let that stop you from asking the questions you need. Don’t hesitate to approach us at www.indianic.com for any concerns our executive would be glad to come to your help.
https://medium.com/indianic/how-to-nail-your-project-briefing-when-approaching-a-software-development-company-432655daf0ce
['Rania Mdimagh']
2020-12-10 13:38:49.265000+00:00
['Software Company', 'Strategy', 'Projects', 'Software Development', 'Technology']
717
Summarizing videos in 300 lines of code
🎞️ Visual Summary Code structure It’s interesting to split the code into 2 main classes: StorageHelper for local file and cloud storage object management for local file and cloud storage object management VideoProcessor for graphical processings Here is a possible core function: Note: If exceptions are raised, it’s handy to log them with logging.exception() to get a stack trace in production logs. Class StorageHelper The class manages the following: The retrieval and parsing of video shot annotations The download of source videos The upload of generated visual summaries File names The source video is handled in the with statement context manager: Note: Once downloaded, the video uses memory space in the /tmp RAM disk (the only writable space for the serverless function). It's best to delete temporary files when they're not needed anymore, to avoid potential out-of-memory errors on future invocations of the function. Annotations are retrieved with the methods storage.Blob.download_as_string() and json.loads() : The parsing is handled with this VideoShot helper class: Video shot info can be exposed with a getter and a generator: The naming convention was chosen to keep consistent object paths between the different buckets. This also lets you deduce the video path from the annotation URI: The video is directly downloaded with storage.Blob.download_to_filename() : On the opposite, results can be uploaded with storage.Blob.upload_from_string() : Note: from_string means from_bytes here (Python 2 legacy). Pillow supports working with memory images, which avoids having to manage local files. And finally, here is a possible naming convention for the summary files: Class VideoProcessor The class manages the following: Video frame extraction Visual summary generation Opening and closing the video is handled in the with statement context manager: The video summary is a grid of cells which can be rendered in a single loop with two generators: Note: shot_ratio is set to 0.5 by default to extract video shot middle frames. The first generator yields cell images: The second generator yields cell positions: OpenCV easily allows extracting video frames at a given position: Choosing the summary grid composition is arbitrary. Here is an example to compose a summary preserving the video proportions: Finally, Pillow gives full control on image serializations: Note: Working with in-memory images avoids managing local files and uses less memory. Local development and tests You can use the main scope to test the function in script mode: Test the function: cd ~/$PROJECT_ID python3 -m venv venv source venv/bin/activate pip install -r $PROJECT_SRC/gcf2_generate_summary/requirements.txt VIDEO_NAME="gbikes_dinosaur.mp4" ANNOTATION_URI="gs://$ANNOTATION_BUCKET/$VIDEO_BUCKET/$VIDEO_NAME.json" python $PROJECT_SRC/gcf2_generate_summary/main.py $ANNOTATION_URI Downloading -> /tmp/SUMMARY_BUCKET/VIDEO_BUCKET/VIDEO_NAME Generating summary... Uploading -> VIDEO_BUCKET/VIDEO_NAME.summary004.jpeg Note: The uploaded video summary shows 4 shots. Clean up: deactivate rm -rf venv Function entry point Note: This function will be called whenever an annotation file is uploaded to the bucket defined as a trigger. Function deployment GCF_NAME="gcf2_generate_summary" GCF_SOURCE="$PROJECT_SRC/gcf2_generate_summary" GCF_ENTRY_POINT="gcf_generate_summary" GCF_TRIGGER_BUCKET="$ANNOTATION_BUCKET" GCF_ENV_VARS="SUMMARY_BUCKET=$SUMMARY_BUCKET" GCF_TIMEOUT="540s" GCF_MEMORY="512MB" gcloud functions deploy $GCF_NAME \ --runtime python37 \ --source $GCF_SOURCE \ --entry-point $GCF_ENTRY_POINT \ --update-env-vars $GCF_ENV_VARS \ --trigger-bucket $GCF_TRIGGER_BUCKET \ --region $GCF_REGION \ --timeout $GCF_TIMEOUT \ --memory $GCF_MEMORY \ --quiet Notes: The default timeout for a Cloud Function is 60 seconds. As you’re deploying a background function with potentially long processings, set it to the maximum value (540 seconds = 9 minutes). You also need to bump up the memory a little for the video and image processings. Depending on the size of your videos and the maximum resolution of your output summaries, or if you need to generate the summary faster (memory size and vCPU speed are correlated), you might use a higher value (1024MB or 2048MB). Deploying function (may take a while - up to 2 minutes)...done. availableMemoryMb: 512 entryPoint: gcf_generate_summary environmentVariables: SUMMARY_BUCKET: b3-summaries... ... status: ACTIVE timeout: 540s updateTime: 'YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.mmmZ' versionId: '1' Here is how it looks like in the Cloud Console: Production tests Make sure to test the function in production. You can upload an annotation file in the 2nd bucket: VIDEO_NAME="gbikes_dinosaur.mp4" ANNOTATION_FILE="$VIDEO_NAME.json" ANNOTATION_URI="gs://$ANNOTATION_BUCKET/$VIDEO_BUCKET/$ANNOTATION_FILE" gsutil cp $ANNOTATION_URI . gsutil cp $ANNOTATION_FILE $ANNOTATION_URI rm $ANNOTATION_FILE Note: This reuses the previous local test annotation file and overwrites it. Overwriting a file in a bucket also triggers attached functions. Wait a few seconds and query the logs to check that the function has been triggered: gcloud functions logs read --region $GCF_REGION LEVEL NAME EXECUTION_ID TIME_UTC LOG ... D gcf2_generate_summary ... ... Function execution started I gcf2_generate_summary ... ... Downloading -> /tmp/SUMMARY_BUCKET/VIDEO_BUCKET/VIDEO_NAME I gcf2_generate_summary ... ... Generating summary... I gcf2_generate_summary ... ... Uploading -> VIDEO_BUCKET/VIDEO_NAME.summary004.jpeg D gcf2_generate_summary ... ... Function execution took 11591 ms, finished with status: 'ok' The 2nd function is operational and the pipeline is in place! You can now do end-to-end tests by copying new videos in the 1st bucket. Results Download the generated summary on your computer: cd ~/$PROJECT_ID gsutil cp -r gs://$SUMMARY_BUCKET/**.jpeg . cloudshell download *.jpeg Here is the visual summary for gbikes_dinosaur.mp4 (4 detected shots): You can also directly preview the file from the Cloud Console:
https://medium.com/google-cloud/%EF%B8%8F-auto-generate-video-summaries-with-a-machine-learning-model-and-a-serverless-pipeline-c2f261c8035c
['Laurent Picard']
2020-09-30 14:08:22.983000+00:00
['Programming', 'Machine Learning', 'Python', 'Google App Engine', 'Technology']
718
Why Software Won’t Eat The World
In 2011, technology pioneer Marc Andreessen declared that software is eating the world. “With lower start-up costs and a vastly expanded market for online services,” he wrote, “the result is a global economy that for the first time will be fully digitally wired — the dream of every cyber-visionary of the early 1990s, finally delivered, a full generation later. Yet as Derek Thompson recently pointed out in The Atlantic, the euphoria of Andreessen and his Silicon Valley brethren seems to have been misplaced. Former unicorns like Uber, Lyft, and Peloton have seen their value crash, while WeWork saw its IPO self-destruct. Hardly “the dream of every cyber-visionary.” The truth is that we still live in a world of atoms, not bits and most of the value is created by making things we live in, wear, eat and ride in. For all of the tech world’s astounding success, it still makes up only a small fraction of the overall economy. So taking a software centric view, while it has served Silicon Valley well in the past, may be its Achilles heel in the future. The Silicon Valley Myth The Silicon Valley way of doing business got its start in 1968, when an investor named Arthur Rock backed executives from Fairchild Semiconductor to start a new company, which would become known as Intel. Unlike back east, where businesses depended on stodgy banks for finance, on the west coast venture capitalists, many of whom were former engineers themselves, would decide which technology companies got funded. Over the years, a virtuous cycle ensued. Successful tech companies created fabulously wealthy entrepreneurs and executives, who would in turn invest in new ventures. Things shifted into hyperdrive when the company Andreessen founded, Netscape, quadrupled its value on its first day of trading, kicking off the dotcom boom. While the dotcom bubble would crash in 2000, it wasn’t all based on pixie dust. As the economist W. Brian Arthur explained in Harvard Business Review, while traditional industrial companies were subject to diminishing returns, software companies with negligible marginal costs could achieve increasing returns powered by network effects. Yet even as real value was being created and fabulous new technology businesses prospered, an underlying myth began to take hold. Rather than treating software business as a special case, many came to believe that the Silicon Valley model could be applied to any business. In other words, that software would eat the world. The Productivity Paradox (Redux) One reason that so many outside of Silicon Valley were skeptical of the technology boom for a long time was a longstanding productivity paradox. Although throughout the 1970s and 80s, business investment in computer technology was increasing by more than 20% per year, productivity growth had diminished during the same period. In the late 90s, however, this trend reversed itself and productivity began to soar. It seemed that Andreessen and his fellow “cyber-visionaries were redeemed. No longer considered outcasts, they became the darlings of corporate America. It appeared that a new day was dawning and the Silicon Valley ethos took hold. While the dotcom crash deflated the bubble in 2000, the Silicon Valley machine was soon rolling again. Web 2.0 unleashed the social web, smartphones initiated the mobile era and then IBM’s Watson’s defeat of human champions on the game show Jeopardy! heralded a new age of artificial intelligence. Yet still, we find ourselves in a new productivity paradox. By 2005, productivity growth had disappeared once again and has remained diminished ever since. To paraphrase economist Robert Solow, we see software everywhere except in the productivity statistics. The Platform Fallacy Today, pundits are touting a new rosy scenario. They point out that Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Airbnb, the largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate. Facebook, the most popular media owner, creates no content and so on. The implicit assumption is that it is better to build software that makes matches than to invest in assets. Yet platform based businesses have three inherent weaknesses that aren’t always immediately obvious. First, they lack barriers to entry, which makes it difficult to create a sustainable competitive advantage. Second, they tend to create “winner-take-all” markets so for every fabulous success like Facebook, you can have thousands of failures. Finally, rabid competition leads to high costs. The most important thing to understand about platforms is that they give us access to ecosystems of talent, technology and information and it is in those ecosystems where the greatest potential for value creation lies. That’s why, to become profitable, platform businesses eventually need to invest in real assets. Consider Amazon: Almost two thirds of Amazon’s profits come from its cloud computing unit, AWS, which provides computing infrastructure for other organizations. More recently, it bought Whole Foods and opened its first Amazon Go retail store. The more that you look, Amazon looks less like a platform and more like a traditional “pipeline” business. Reimagining Innovation For A World Of Atoms The truth is that the digital revolution, for all of the excitement and nifty gadgets it has produced, has been somewhat of a disappointment. Since personal computers first became available in the 1970s we’ve had less than ten years of elevated productivity growth. Compare that to the 50-year boom in productivity created in the wake of electricity and internal combustion and it’s clear that digital technology falls short. In a sense though, the lack of impact shouldn’t be that surprising. Even at this late stage, information and communication technologies only make up for about 6% of GDP in advanced economies. Clearly, that’s not enough to swallow the world. As we have seen, it’s barely enough to make a dent. Yet still, there is great potential in the other 94% of the economy and there may be brighter days ahead in using computing technology to drive advancement in the physical world. Exciting new fields, such as synthetic biology and materials science may very well revolutionize industries like manufacturing, healthcare, energy and agriculture. So we are now likely embarking on a new era of innovation that will be very different than the digital age. Rather than focused on one technology, concentrated in one geographical area and dominated by a handful of industry giants, it will be widely dispersed and made up of a diverse group of interlocking ecosystems of talent, technology and information. Make no mistake. The future will not be digital. Instead, we will need to learn how to integrate a diverse set of technologies to reimagine atoms in the physical world. Greg Satell is an international keynote speaker, adviser and bestselling author of Cascades: How to Create a Movement that Drives Transformational Change. His previous effort, Mapping Innovation, was selected as one of the best business books of 2017. You can learn more about Greg on his website, GregSatell.com and follow him on Twitter @DigitalTonto
https://greg-satell.medium.com/why-software-wont-eat-the-world-a1b5e54df34e
['Greg Satell']
2020-09-26 11:26:51.769000+00:00
['Technology', 'Innovation']
719
Experts say that online classes are an “all weather friend” for students as they are here to stay. Here’s taking a look at online classes from the point of view of a student !
Over the last few months life has drastically changed for all of us across the world. The wrath of a mere vir!!us shook the economies of the world ,changed lives and patterns of thinking and affected us students, whose lives revolved around books and examinations. I have been a student for 16 years and not once did I fathom a day where I would end up being admitted to an educational institution which I have not once set foot into. Being a first year college student, it’s a new experience for both my teachers and my peers to conduct and attend online classes. Online classes are an integration of education and technology. It breaks away from the traditional notion of the chalk and board and exposes us to different methods of learning and grasping concepts, ranging from video lectures to the 360 degree visualization of figures and structures. This sudden shift in learning has created a new market for E leaning platforms, educational gaming sites and mobile applications, thereby opening a new avenue for students. The main idea being that a whole new resource pool has been created for students across multiple disciplines. For example ,If I want to study the words of the great political philosopher Plato I am no longer restricted to a textbook but rather I could watch a presentation about it or listen to a political science Harvard professor explaining the ideas of Plato’s book ‘the Republic’ from the comfort of my very home. Moreover, Online Education has made barriers of geography futile. The beauty of this education lies in the fact that it accounts for lesser social factors which once restricted students to attend classes whether it was religious, familial or customary .It is only now that a person ‘s access to this new window of opportunity is governed by the simple possession of a laptop with a stable internet connection . Recently, I had taken part in an international debating competition and the very fact that I could be a part of an online debate conducted by the University of Alabama with teams from across twenty countries, sitting within the four walls of my house in Delhi is a point in case for how inclusive this new mode of education has become. Another aspect of online education is its relationship with vocationalization. Vocational training was primarily associated with the age old apprenticeship system of learning. However, now the concept of online internships in fields of Law, Research and Teaching are being promoted. The fields of law and IT in particular are training students and exposing students to online court hearings and computer languages respectively which require little to no human interaction. The fields of engineering are also witness to AI modelling and computer command systems. Thus changing the face of vocational training. Online education has combined the advancement of technology with the curiosity of young minds to create platforms empowering us. Similarly, MakersBox Foundation is one of those platforms. The organisation aims to give children the environment to learn within technology and take advantage of all it’s benefits. To connect with the world, to question and solve but most importantly build independent thinking. With our online workshops and activities along with our effort to make such opportunities accessible to the grassroot population of our country, we are contributing to the sphere of online education. To connect with us visit us at https://www.makersboxfoundation.org
https://medium.com/makersbox-foundation/experts-say-that-online-classes-are-an-all-weather-friend-for-students-as-they-are-here-to-stay-he-8d30ed7e1466
['Anshula Agarwal']
2020-12-26 11:26:28.778000+00:00
['Online Education', 'Education Reform', 'Makersbox', 'STEM', 'Technology']
720
The Largest House in Each State in the United States
As wealth inequality continues to grow in the United States, there are more Ultra-high net-worth individuals (UHNWI) than ever before. This surge in wealth can be seen in many ways throughout society, but it is most prominently displayed through the massive homes being built across the United States. This article uncovers the largest homes in the United States. More interestingly, it focuses on the largest home in each of the states. Unlike many other lists, this article will focus exclusively on the largest privately owned, residential homes across America. Most lists emphasize the largest homes in America as a whole; almost none look for the largest home in each state. Determining the largest home in each state was no easy task. I had to comb through lots of state specific tax data. It is possible I have missed homes, since the data is so decentralized, and different municipalities calculate square footage uniquely. That said, I believe this list is accurate and up to date. The homes were picked based on total indoor square footage that was heated or air conditioned. Finished basement space was also included in the calculation. The homes needed to be habitable (some were abandoned an in a state of disrepair with major safety issues) and construction needed to be completed on newer mansions. This list only covers mansions that currently exist. There were a number of mansions that at some point in time would have met the above criteria, but have since been demolished or lost in fires. Any home that is no longer privately owned (i.e. turned into a museum, or not fully utilized as a single family home) is excluded. However, since many of these homes boast resort-like amenities, and some are occasionally rented out, there will be some homes that function as a home/high end rental hybrid.
https://medium.com/escaping-the-9-to-5/the-largest-house-in-each-state-in-the-united-states-49501805fe01
['Casey Botticello']
2020-06-06 16:34:23.818000+00:00
['Entrepreneurship', 'Real Estate', 'Business', 'Writing', 'Technology']
721
HOW TO GROW FAST ON YOUTUBE
Follow these simple tips, 1. Build Videos Around a Single Keyword/Topic It may seem obvious, but building your video around a single topic/keyword is the best way to get the traffic you want and grow your audience. Many people who are unaware of SEO best practices skip this step, but it’s crucial if you want your videos to get the maximum amount of viewers. Try using a keyword tool like KeywordTool.io, which is specific to YouTube, to look for the most searched keywords in the niche you’re looking to target. 2. Engage with Your Audience It’s important not to overlook the fact that YouTube is a social media channel, and therefore demands social interaction. If you’re just posting videos without encouraging comments and discussion, you’re missing a trick. YouTube rewards channels with great engagement, including overall time spent on channel, watch time, likes and dislikes, and most importantly, comments. Try to respond to every comment you receive (if possible!) and ask users to engage with audio/visual prompts. 3. Promote Your YouTube Videos on Other Social Channels One of the beautiful things about social media is that you can cross-promote content on different channels. Promoting your YouTube videos on your other social channels is the easiest way to grow your audience. What channels are you on? Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, Pinterest? There are many from which to choose. And if there’s a channel (such as Facebook) on which you want to post videos directly, you can always do a teaser for the full-length video on YouTube so that you have optimum engagement on all channels. Don’t forget about your blog; you can post your videos there as well! 4. Use this tool here to help you go viral This toll will help you do advanced keyword research, cut your publishing time in half give your videos the best chance to rank higher in search results and most importantly get more more views and subscribers. Click here to see what 3million other YouTubers are doing to crush it on YouTube >>> LINK 5. Post Great Thumbnails They may seem like a small thing (because they are), but thumbnails can have a big impact. YouTube advertises other videos via thumbnail in its sidebar, so you want yours to stand out among the pack. The same goes for YouTube search. Videos with a catchy title and appealing thumbnail usually rank higher, even if the content itself isn’t as valuable, because they have a higher click-through-rate (CTR). To get your CTR where it needs to be, try using tactics such as highlighted areas, arrows, large text, and unexpected or unusual images 6. Leverage YouTube Cards We’ve already discussed the fact that YouTube rewards channels that keep viewers on their pages longer. These longer average watch times mean people are truly engaged with your content. (You can see how long people are staying on your videos by using YouTube analytics). By adding YouTube cards, you can add additional recommended videos at the exact point where users are currently dropping off. Though they may abandon that video, users will be taken to your other content and stay on your channel, increasing your channel’s ranking. 7. Increase Your Uploading Frequency This tip may sound intimidating at first, but to grow your audience, you need to increase your posting frequency to at least one video a week. Don’t worry; you don’t need a design firm or fancy advertising budget to get this done. Today’s smartphones offer excellent video recording ability, and tools such as Animoto make editing videos easy for anyone. Consistency is of the utmost importance. Try to post at the same time each day or week (depending on your frequency), and keep your subscribers updated about when new videos will arrive. Then stick to your schedule. Remember, driving engagement with quality content is what develops engaged followers and subsequently. advocators of your brand! Be true to yourself and your brand, and communicate with your audience along the way.
https://medium.com/@w-pethumsameera2819/how-to-grow-fast-on-youtube-c40ab680c43b
['Pathum Sam']
2020-12-23 05:39:53.185000+00:00
['Money', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Technology', 'YouTube', 'Influencers']
722
The Best of Health Is Yet to Come
Taking care of your health is a lifelong endeavor. Even if you make all the right choices and are lucky enough to have good genes, your physical and mental health can still become compromised by insufficient access to cost effective prevention, early diagnosis, or personalized therapy. “1 billion people lack access to healthcare services.” — United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund Technologies and platforms are rapidly entering healthcare to address the health challenges currently faced by billions of people. These 5 exponential solutions from the SU Community are a few examples of entrepreneurs creating medical breakthroughs and helping those that need it most. 3D Printing 3D4MD makes affordable, 3D-printable medical supplies. They are building an open source digital library where people can select and download crowd-sourced files to make quality-tested, lower cost, and even personalized life-changing resources on demand, locally. Metamason is building a healthcare-focused software platform called Scan·Fit·Print that uses 3D scans of one’s body to create individually customized, 3D-printed products, starting with custom ergonomic respiratory devices (CPAP masks) for the treatment of sleep apnea. Smartphone Apps CaptureProof is an intelligent medical camera that adds visual narrative to healthcare by empowering providers and patients with a HIPAA-secured photo and video tracking application. With their advanced computer vision, patient progress can be tracked with side-by-side media. Emotional Data & AI Beyond Verbal developed an API that decodes a patient’s voice into their underlying emotions in real-time to detect and monitor serious health conditions. These emotion analytics enable voice-powered devices, apps, and solutions to interact with patients on an emotional level. X2AI creates autonomous intelligent assistants (AIAs). Tess, X2AI’s flagship AIA, is a psychological AI that administers highly personalized psychotherapy, psycho-education, and health-related reminders, on demand, when and where the mental health professional isn’t.
https://medium.com/singularityu/the-best-of-health-is-yet-to-come-b5f21cc26b99
['Singularity University']
2016-09-03 13:41:02.932000+00:00
['Health', 'Healthcare', 'Health Technology', 'Global Grand Challenges', 'Digital Health']
723
Welcome to Metropolis: Series A
In 2017, we launched Metropolis in stealth. We set out to empower the future of mobility. We’ve flown under the radar preparing for this moment, the start of our next chapter. Today I’m thrilled to announce the close of our Series A: a $41M round led by 3L with participation from 01 Advisors, Dragoneer and Slow Ventures, as well as investments from some of the biggest names in global real estate including Starwood, RXR, DivcoWest and Dan Doctoroff. This round allows us to enter the market in an extraordinarily strong position, having raised more than $60 million. At Metropolis, we’re starting simply and tangibly — repurposing, reimagining and reinvigorating parking. I know what you’re thinking: “parking…again?” But, let me pull the curtain back on why and exactly what lies within this “boring” industry. Parking represents the last bastion of non-institutionalized, underdeveloped, underutilized, and under-monetized real estate in the US. This concrete jungle makes up more than 15% of the surface area of our entire urban landscape. These forgotten assets often plague real estate portfolios with inefficiency, ineptitude, cash, complacency and theft. All this is to say, parking is the final frontier of real estate. The industry needs to redefine how it conceptualizes, operates, and monetizes its parking assets. Enter Metropolis. We’re bringing the antiquated and inefficient parking experience into the 21st century. While technology powers our lives and fuels our dreams of flying cars and robot taxis… how we park remains hopelessly analog. At Metropolis, we’ve developed an artificial intelligence platform, leveraging computer vision technology to connect all the pieces of the messy parking world so that you — the consumer — can finally have a seamless, checkout-free parking experience. You drive in, you drive out — that’s it. No tickets, no cash, no fumbling with apps, no driving around aimlessly, and better yet, no sitting in traffic behind others searching for parking. Metropolis removes all the barriers between drivers, parking operators and real estate owners to create a remarkable experience for consumers. And, parking is just the beginning; it enables Metropolis to empower the future of urban mobility. Parking is the foundation and the infrastructure for advanced, urban mobility (self-driving cars and vertical take-off and landing vehicles) and likewise, for Metropolis. Today, slow, inefficient transportation defines the urban reality of billions of people. Tomorrow, advanced urban mobility will reimagine our lives and our urban landscape — driving equitability, and economic prosperity through the efficient movement of people, goods and services. This inevitable future provides Metropolis with a clear opportunity, as massive companies invest substantial resources to deploy new modalities (scooters, ebikes, autonomous vehicles, electric cars and eVTOLs). We’ll be there to empower each journey and every mobility experience, big or small, near or far. I am humbled to share a glimpse of our vision and to share this milestone, which fuels our expansion into more than 30 markets this year. Think New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Nashville, Detroit, Austin, Dallas, Seattle and more. This is day one for us. I couldn’t be more thankful for the Metropolis team and the seed investors that helped get us here including Zigg Capital, Slow Ventures, Halogen Ventures, Baron Davis, and Jamie McAlpine. We’re incredibly excited about the opportunity ahead! -Alex — Alex Israel, Co-Founder + CEO of Metropolis Alex Israel is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Metropolis. Previously he was Vice President and General Manager of INRIX, a leading global traffic intelligence provider connecting cars to smarter cities in more than 60 countries around the world. In 2009, Alex Co-Founded ParkMe to facilitate a paradigm shift within navigation and grew the company to become the world’s most comprehensive parking database, offering insight for over 60,000 parking locations across the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia. With more than a decade of experience building mobility platforms, Alex started Metropolis to make cities more efficient and to support the future of urban mobility.
https://medium.com/@alex-israel/welcome-to-metropolis-series-a-8f6b6fd40ec5
['Alex Israel']
2021-02-16 22:02:02.218000+00:00
['Mobility', 'Cities', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Venture Capital', 'Technology']
724
The Blockchain Generation: Why pay attention?
What is blockchain technology? Is it the magic pill? And should we pay attention to it? Well, you could write an encyclopedia on this topic. In the light of the early adopters that subsequently talk technobabble. First, I wanted to write a different article about this topic, a simpler piece that everyone can digest. In this article we are going to talk very broadly about exactly where we are in 2020, and what the future holds for those that pay attention to blockchain. Following this, we are going to publish a series of educational pieces that slowly introduce the concepts in the hopes that this bright future can be accessed by everyone. Not just those who are technically adept. Photo by Hitesh Choudhary on Unsplash The world we live in today (2020) During the months of lock down, many people have taken to new hobbies and created new businesses. Some, perhaps took the opportunity to slow down, and reflect on their life, or watched a bucket load of Netflix series, or got stuck down YouTube holes. This has been the perfect environment for tech companies to expand their data sets exponentially. And, just when we are becoming polarised by our choices, we become a more valuable commodity within the Social Dilemma. (recommended watching). For me personally, my morning starts with an educational video on YouTube (soon to be other platforms such as LBRY). This is not a new habit, but one that has now become a daily habit instead of a weekly habit due to the new-found free time in the schedule. Now, I’m fully aware that algorithms are serving me content to support my bias. The key to this type of learning is when absorbing new information you must observe what lens you are viewing it through. What is your filter? My point here is that I was being served information about the traditional economic infrastructure, and viewing this through my own blockchain filter. Whilst learning from generational thought leaders in economics, I was developing my own version of this puzzle. People such as Ray Dalio, Danielle DiMartino Booth, Prof. Steve Keen and Jeremy Rifkin all have a different point of view. Interestingly, they all make perfect sense. In most cases, older generations are apprehensive towards new technology. However, it is learning from the knowledge of older generations that has revealed the importance of generational experience. Let me reiterate this point to give credit where credit is due. The previous statement is only typical of gaussian distribution. As there are many of our older generation — outside of the bell curve, that have adopted new technology. Moreover, they have been the inventors, the activists and the futurists that have passed the batten down through each generation. With that said, blockchain technology is still in its infancy, and without generational experience to fall back on, there are many (within this bell curve) who are apprehensive to adopt the technology. Or perhaps don't see the need for a collective shift in how we interact with technology. The Generational Gaps and Technology For the most part, we live in a world that was created by the baby boomer generation. That is, the huge generational shift that accrued post WW2. And since we have not had any major world war since this, we can broadly accept that the subsequent decades of prosperity and GDP was created through the post-war industrial revolution. It was this generation that began their prime working years in the late 60’s and 70’s and lived through the creation of the world reserve currency — The US dollar [1]. Since then we have experienced huge growth in gross domestic production and leaps of advancement in technology. Although this economic stage had been set prior to the war. The currency was not born until President Nixon removed the gold standard [2] in 1973. For a deep dive watch my top 5 recommended educational videos at the end of this article… Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash For brevity’s sake, I will shift gears from historical events. It is not important what generation did what. Moreover, the context of this conversation relates to the amount of people within the workforce within a period in time. The relative question to ask is — How do people behave who are in the middle of the bell curve? (with respect to the generational workforce and global GDP) Generation X Born between 1965 and 1980, these are the first generation of people to mature in the world that was built by the baby boomers. The working years of this generation roughly begin after 1980, and this generation follows the path that was laid by the preceding generation with respect to how value is perceived and wealth is created. This social standard has more or less existed up until this point in time. At least in the western world. Generation Y The millennials (Gen-Y: 1980–2000) of which the lines are a little more blurred is where this topic gets interesting. For the most part, the early millennials have experienced huge technological transformations during our developing years in school and university. This generation (and the previous) have lived through the analogue world and transformed it into a digital world — and did it fast! Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash Generation Z The next two generations born after 2000 are Gen Z and Gen Alpha. And since they can only read about the analogue world in a history book (or most likely on a smartphone), they are much more open to accept the dichotomy that exists between the old system that has been created and the likelihood of a collective shift in society unfolding in front of them. The Blockchain Generation In my life, I have often heard baby boomers refer to the ‘way things were’. Fortunately, they have preserved their stories through nostalgia — such as records, photos and film. Fortunately, this media allowed those memories to remain. However, technology marched on regardless. Fast forward to today and you could compare this to a general populous resisting change — Although the change is clearly imminent. This is the nature of all human beings. To protect themselves and their herd. We are herd mammals and any threat to the herd leads to the threat being expelled. It is not until the minority becomes the majority that a new herd is formed. Therefore, in a generational sense, this is worth paying attention to. Although the creators of blockchain technology are the thought leaders of Gen-X and Gen-Y, it is the preceding generations that will more openly accept and use the technology as if there was nothing that existed prior to this. Interestingly, this discussion always creates wild debates and strong opinions. However, opinions are like assholes and everyone has one. We only need to follow the data to watch the trend unfold. Luckily, with blockchain we have publicly available data and on-chain analysis. In conclusion As we have seen repeatedly time and time again through history, technology marches on with or without those who accept it. The cassette tape replaced the record, which was replaced by the CD. Whoever thought that all three mediums of distributing audio would become obsolete. Of course, they still exist, because they have charm and an experience that people appreciate. But it makes no economic sense to continue to use these methods of media. And so, the new generation adopts the latest technology as if the previous never existed. Think about this for a second. Undoubtedly, there will be a point in time when generation Z has the largest amount of people in the workforce. Moreover, they will become the largest contributor to global GDP. When blockchain technology advances to the point where it makes no economic sense to use the technology from its predecessors, it will be adopted by default and so we have the blockchain generation. Therefore, it is now that today’s working generation is marching on and building the foundations of a new world. A world built on trust & transparency, privacy and security, efficiency and equal opportunity for prosperity. Marching on with the help of blockchain technology. A threat to our current way of life is scary — but it is happening. Huge tech companies control everything! But we can prevent this. Whilst pandemics grip the world and governments scramble to stay solvent, there comes advancement through adversity. Blockchain technology may or may not be the magic pill to all this. But for certain, it offers multifaceted solutions that are being implemented today. As an individual, a group, a business or governments for that matter, you are either on the train, or you are at the station! The question is. Which station are you marching towards? Stay tuned for the next in this series as we answer the question — What is Blockchain? Photo by Spencer Davis on Unsplash Join My Mailing List to stay in touch… For a deep dive watch my top 5 recommended videos … The Third Industrial Revolution How the Blockchain is changing Money and Business The Hidden Secrets of Money How the Economic Machine Works The Princes of Yen
https://medium.com/@davidgregorymedia/the-blockchain-generation-why-pay-attention-38a631d1ad91
['David Gregory']
2020-12-10 22:51:49.051000+00:00
['Blockchain Startup', 'The Social Dilemma', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Money Management', 'Millenials']
725
Elon Musk wins his bet in South Australia!
As a long time fan of renewable energy, the latest news about Elon Musk fills me with glee. He bet that he could install a megabattery in South Australia in 100 days, and he’s come in ahead of schedule! The story began last year when South Australia suffered a massive storm that destroyed infrastructure meant to allow Australian states to ‘share’ energy on a huge network. Due to some market manipulation on pricing, and a toothless watchdog asleep at its post [yes, AEMO I’m looking at you] South Australia suffered crippling blackouts, off and on, for weeks. As the South Australia government is Labor and had invested heavily in wind farms, the Liberals in the national government went on a renewable energy bashing spree without offering up one, single practical solution. And then Elon Musk spoke up and shamed them all. He said that he could create a mammoth battery capable of storing the energy from the wind farms until needed. Then he bet the cost of the battery — $50 million dollars — that he could make good on his promise in 100 days. If he lost, he would carry the cost of the project. Well guess what? -big grin- South Australia has a $50 million dollar bill to pay! More importantly, all the dinosaurs in our government advocating for dirty coal power stations have been silenced, at least for a while. You can read the whole story here: Today really has been a good day. Thank you, Elon Musk. :) cheers Meeks
https://medium.com/tikh-tokh/elon-musk-wins-his-bet-in-south-australia-8635c237081f
['A.C. Flory']
2018-03-07 00:08:59.107000+00:00
['Politics', 'Technology', 'Elon Musk', 'Australia', 'Climate Change']
726
August jobs report shows V-shaped recovery continuing
The Bureau of Labor Statistics just released the jobs report for the month of August. For the fourth consecutive month, the economy added more than 1 million jobs, an unprecedented record. The actual number of jobs created was 1.4 million. This indicates the sharp V-shaped recovery is continuing even faster than the most optimistic economists had forecasted. In January and February of 2020, the economy looked very strong. In fact, it appeared that economic growth would exceed 3% for the year and perhaps approach 4%; a number not seen since the year 2000. But then the Coronavirus hit and the economy shut down. Immediately the economy went into recession. The drop in output was so great in March, that even with a strong January and February, GDP declined at a 5% rate for the quarter. In April, the economy came to a virtual standstill. But in May the economy began to re-open. The question was always about just how fast the economy would recover. Starting on May 1, it looked like the recovery would be V-shaped, meaning that the economy would bounce back very quickly, rather than a slow drawn out recovery like the one after the 2008–2009 recession. The data showed a whopping 2.8 million jobs added in May, about double the previous monthly record. In June things got better. About 4.6 million jobs were added in June, almost doubling the record set in May. Other indicators also confirmed a V-shaped recovery. In July, 1.8 million jobs were added, as the economy continued to rebound. And the 1.4 million jobs added in August confirms the speed of the recovery. By the end of August, the economy added a total of 10.6 million jobs over a four-month period. That means in four months, nearly half of the jobs lost had been recovered. The unemployment rate fell from 14.7% in April to 8.4% in August. That’s a 6.3% decrease in the unemployment rate in four months. This is unprecedented. To be fair, the economy still has a long way to go to get back to where we were prior to the recession. But the speed of the V-shaped recovery indicates this is the fastest recovery from a deep recession ever. It is possible, depending on a number of factors related to the control of the virus, that by the end of 2021, nearly all of the jobs lost during the recession will have been recovered. As long as government policy encourages economic growth, rather than concentrating on curing perceived social injustices, the recovery and eventual expansion will be very robust. That’s why this presidential election is so important. Trump’s policies will encourage growth by continuing to reduce burdensome and counter-productive regulations, by keep tax rates low and by encouraging individual freedom and individual responsibility. Democratic candidate for president Joe Biden would put in place policies that will tend to slow growth. This is exactly what happened in 2009. Obama/Biden vastly increased regulations, passed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) which had 21 new or increased taxes and encouraged social responsibility. The result was the worst recovery from a recession ever. But some argue that Obama/Biden created more jobs in the last three years of their administration than Trump did in the first three years of his administration. That is true, but the jobs created by Obama/Biden were low-quality jobs. Here is what happened: By 2015, the provisions in the ACA said that any employer with at least 50 employees must pay for health insurance for each worker or pay a $3,000 fine. A full-time worker was defined as working at least 30 hours per week. Many retail and service industry employers reacted in such a way as to create more low paying jobs. In other words, suppose a firm had 5 workers employed for 40 hours per week prior to the ACA provision. After 2015, to avoid paying health insurance costs, the firm reduced the number of hours for the five workers to 25 and then hired 3 more workers for 25 hours. They ended up with 8 employees working 25 hours (200 hours in total). Prior to the ACA, they had 5 employees working 40 hours (again 200 hours in total). So they added three more part-time employees. But the five original workers lost hours, forcing many to look for a second part-time job. That’s how more jobs were created in the last three years of the Obama/Biden administration. Trump’s recovery is fast and very strong. While there are headwinds that could slow the recovery, as long as we stay the course things will be back to normal very quickly. Let’s make sure we stay the course come November.
https://micbusler.medium.com/august-jobs-report-shows-v-shaped-recovery-continuing-9ea02b9617a1
['Michael Busler']
2020-09-04 20:52:53.488000+00:00
['Economy', 'Politics', 'Government', 'Money', 'Technology']
727
Does Your Phone Know You Better Than your Therapist?
Does Your Phone Know You Better Than your Therapist? The Promise and Peril of Digital Phenotyping Written by Professor Gerhard Gründer for the MIND Blog and the Mind and Brain Institute. In 2017, Tom Insel, the former director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) published a brief “viewpoint” article with the title “Digital Phenotyping — Technology for a New Science of Behavior” in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Earlier in 2017, Insel left his former employer Alphabet (formerly Google) for the California-based Mindstrong Health, a company which, according to its website, is dedicated to “Transforming Brain Health: Better outcomes through measurement-based care.” What exactly is “digital phenotyping”? This again is described on Mindstrong’s website: “Digital phenotyping is the core of our measurement approach. Digital phenotyping is simply assessment based on smartphone use. As smartphones have become ubiquitous, their increasing use provides an unprecedented opportunity to measure mood, cognition, and behavior — passively, objectively, and continuously.” According to Insel, “even though smartphone technology promises to transform many aspects of health care, no area of medicine is likely to be changed more by this technology than psychiatry. Digital phenotyping is the term now used for describing this new approach to measuring behavior from smartphone sensors, keyboard interaction, and various features of voice and speech.” Sachin Jain and colleagues give a typical example of the application in their influential article “The digital phenotype”, published in 2015: “For a bipolar patient whose mania is manifested in rapid, uninterruptible speech or hypergraphia, their disease could be characterized by the frequency, length and content of participation in social media. Through these varied applications, digital phenotypes can help ensure that early manifestations of disease do not go unnoticed and allow the healthcare system to develop more nimble, targeted and prompt interventions.” Insel further states that “over the past 4 decades, behavioral expertise, once the strength of psychiatry, has diminished in importance as psychiatric research focused on pharmacology, genomics, and neuroscience, and much of psychiatric practice has become a series of brief clinical interactions focused on medication management. In research settings, assigning a diagnosis from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders has become a surrogate for behavioral observation. In practice, few clinicians measure emotion, cognition, or behavior with any standard, validated tools.” Do we really believe all this? Can the complexities of human behavior, and even more so of psychiatric disorders, be depicted by traces we leave on our smartphones? When we do not have a consistent concept of “psychosis”, how can we believe that “semantic coherence from speech samples [is] a predictor of psychosis”? When we have no way to explain the enormous heterogeneity of mood disorders, how can we believe that “variation in several sensor measures [are] a correlate of mood ratings”? Looking back at his time at the NIMH, Insel admitted that in his 13 years as the director of the NIMH he doesn’t think they “moved the needle in reducing suicide, reducing hospitalizations, improving recovery for the tens of millions of people who have mental illness. I hold myself accountable for that.” Now, in the form of digital phenotyping, he presents an even more reductionist concept of psychiatric disorders than the one that is expressed in the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) of the NIMH, a dimensional framework supporting the integrative research of mental (dys)function across different levels of information and organization. Insel concludes: “After 40 years of psychiatry becoming more mindless than brainless, perhaps digital phenotyping will help the pendulum swing back toward a fresh look at behavior, cognition, and mood. It has been said that new directions in science are launched by new tools much more often than new concepts. In this case, a tool that is inexpensive and ubiquitous may change the direction of the field.” My personal belief is that “digital phenotyping” might be an interesting tool to better understand certain aspects of human behavior, but it is far from being able to “change the direction of the field”. Such a direction would not only be more mindless, but even more “human-less”. The MIND Foundation for Psychedelic Research aims to create a healthier, more connected world through research and education. Learn more or become part of our mission. References appear in the original article.
https://mind-foundation.medium.com/does-your-phone-know-you-better-than-your-therapist-492502a9b4fe
['The Mind Foundation']
2020-12-22 17:02:12.772000+00:00
['Technology', 'Digital Health', 'Psychiatry', 'Psychotherapy', 'Big Data']
728
5 Technologies That Can Revolutionize Our Everyday Life in 2021
1. The spread of 5G Previously there was much talk about the fifth-generation technology only for the geopolitical aspects, little of its practical effects. In 2021 its diffusion will be more widespread in the Global Market and it will be enjoyed not only by some inhabitants of metropolitan cities. No more fiber optic cables but relaunched communication pulses between antennas and cells at least a thousand times faster than those guaranteed with 4G LTE technology. The evolution from 2G to 4G has allowed making quantitative jumps in speed improving the connection. The 5G instead will be a technological discontinuity that will eliminate forever the latency time in the passage of audio, video, and images. Image by mohamed_hassan from Pixabay Translated: We will be able to download an entire TV series in a few minutes, remotely control cars, appliances, and robots in real-time, thanks to the connection between sensors, cameras, and drones. There will be the possibility to manage efficiently the traffic of roads and airports. Most of these new functions can be done even with just a smartphone. For this reason, Samsung and Apple are launching their cell phones compatible with the fifth-generation network.
https://medium.com/predict/5-technologies-that-can-revolutionize-our-everyday-life-in-2021-a466e699817b
['Harish Maddukuri']
2020-12-07 19:57:27.408000+00:00
['Self Driving Cars', 'Better Living', 'Cloud Services', 'Smart Home', 'Technology']
729
A.I. Engineers Must Open Their Designs To Democratic Control
A.I. Engineers Must Open Their Designs To Democratic Control When it comes to A.I., we need to keep humans in the loop. Joi Ito — Director of MIT Media Lab APRIL 2, 2018 | 11:00 AM In many ways, the most pressing issues of society today — increasing income disparity, chronic health problems, and climate change — are the result of the dramatic gains in higher productivity we’ve achieved with technology and science. The internet, artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, crypto-currencies, and other technologies are providing us with ever more tools to change the world around us. But there is a cost. We’re now awakening to the implications that many of these technologies have for individuals and society. We can directly see, for instance, the effect artificial intelligence and the use of algorithms have on our lives, whether through the phones in our pockets or Alexa on our coffee table. AI is now making decisions for judges about the risks that someone accused of a crime will violate the terms of his pretrial probation, even though a growing body of research has shown flaws in such decisions made by machines. An AI program that set school schedules in Boston was scrapped after outcry from working parents and others who objected to its disregard of their schedules. That’s why, at the M.I.T. Media Lab, we are starting to refer to such technology as “extended intelligence” rather than “artificial intelligence.” The term “extended intelligence” better reflects the expanding relationship between humans and society, on the one hand, and technologies like AI, blockchain, and genetic engineering on the other. Think of it as the principle of bringing society or humans into the loop. Typically, machines are “trained” by AI engineers using huge amounts of data. Engineers decide what data is used, how it’s weighted, the type of learning algorithm used, and a variety of other parameters used to create a model that is accurate and efficient in making decisions and providing accurate insights. The goal is to teach machines how to learn like we do. Facebook’s algorithms, for instance, have observed my activity on the site and figured out that I’m interested in cryptocurrencies and online gaming. The people training those machines to think are not usually experts in setting pretrial probation terms or planning the schedule of a working parent. Because AI — or more specifically, machine learning — is still very difficult to program, the people training the machines to think are usually experts in coding and engineering. They train the machine using data, and then the trained machine is often tested later by experts in the fields where they will be deployed. A significant problem is that any biases or errors in the data the engineers used to teach the machine will result in outcomes that reflect those biases. My colleague Joy Buolamwini found, for example, that facial analysis software that classifies gender easily identifies white men, but it has a harder time distinguishing people of color and women — especially women of color. Another colleague, Karthik Dinakar, is trying to involve a variety of experts in training machines to learn, in order to create what he calls “human-in-the-loop” learning systems. This requires either allowing different types of experts to do the training or creating machines that interact with experts who teach them. At the heart of human-in-the-loop computation is the idea of building models not just from data, but also from the expert perspective on the data. If an engineer were building algorithms to set terms for pretrial probation, for instance, she might ask a judge to assess the data she’s using. Karthik calls this process of extracting a variety of perspectives “lensing.” He works to fit the “lens” of an expert in a given field into algorithms that can then learn to incorporate that expertise in their models. We believe this has implications for making tools that are both easier for humans to understand and can better reflect relevant factors. Iyad Rahwan, a faculty member at the Media Lab, and his group are running a program called “Moral Machines.” Moral Machines uses a website to crowd-source millions of opinions on variants of the “trolley problem,” asking what tradeoffs in public safety might be ethically acceptable in the case of self-driving cars. Some have dismissed such tradeoffs as unlikely or theoretical, but Google filed a patent in 2015 called “Consideration of risks in active sensing for an autonomous vehicle,” which describes how a computer could assign weights, for example, to the risk and cost of a car hitting a pedestrian versus that car getting hit by an oncoming vehicle. In March, a pedestrian was killed by a self-driving car, the first such death recorded. Kevin Esvelt, a genetic engineer and Media Lab faculty member, won praise for seeking input from residents of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard on his ideas for engineering a mouse that would be resistant to Lyme disease. He invited communities to govern the project, including the ability to terminate it at any time. His team would be the “technical hands,” which could mean working on a technology for a decade or more and then not being able to deploy it. That’s a big step for science. We also need humans in the loop to develop the metrics that will fairly assess the costs and benefits of new technology. We know that many of the metrics we use to measure the success of the economy — for example gross domestic product, rates of unemployment, the rise and fall of the stock market — don’t include external costs to society and the environment. Already, technology and automation are reinforcing and exacerbating social injustice in the name of accuracy, speed, and economic progress. Factories that once employed 300 people can now employ 20 because robots are much more efficient, much less prone to error, and faster at doing work. Some 2 million truck drivers may be wondering when they will be replaced by autonomous vehicles or drones. Emails now offer a menu of potential responses based on the AI in our computers and phones. How long until our inboxes decide to answer without consulting us? Restoring balance within, between, and among systems will take time and effort, but more technologists are beginning to realize that their creations have dark sides. Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman, Sam Altman, and others are putting money and resources into trying to understand and mitigate the impact of AI. And there are technical ideas being investigated, like ways for civil society to “plug in” to platforms like Facebook and Google to conduct audits and monitor algorithms. Europe’s new General Data Protection Regulation, which becomes enforceable on May 28, will require social platforms to change the way they collect, store, and deploy the data they collect from their customers. These are small, promising steps, but they are, in essence, efforts to put the genie back in the bottle. We need social advocates, lawyers, artists, philosophers, and other citizens to engage in designing extended intelligence from the outset. That may be the only way to reduce the social costs and increase the benefits of AI as it becomes embedded in our culture. Joi Ito is director of the MIT Media Lab, coauthor of Whiplash: How to Survive Our Faster Future, and a columnist for WIRED. This piece is part of a series exploring the impacts of artificial intelligence on civil liberties. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the ACLU.
https://medium.com/aclu/a-i-engineers-must-open-their-designs-to-democratic-control-b596496b4599
['Joi Ito']
2018-04-16 17:14:47.191000+00:00
['Artificial Intelligence', 'Ai And Civil Liberties', 'Productivity', 'Technology', 'Algorithms']
730
I would encourage you to learn a bit more deeply about the counter-intuitive reason BTC is actually…
I would encourage you to learn a bit more deeply about the counter-intuitive reason BTC is actually different from Ponzi’s original scheme. https://www.aier.org/article/why-does-bitcoin-have-value/
https://medium.com/@jim.oflaherty.jr/i-would-encourage-you-to-learn-a-bit-more-deeply-about-the-counter-intuitive-reason-btc-is-actually-20291ec83c30
["Jim O'Flaherty"]
2020-12-27 15:43:56.659000+00:00
['Economics', 'Btc', 'Technology']
731
How to draw epic IT architecture diagrams
Practical and consistent conventions from my experience. Architecture is a discipline. It is also a device that assists in thinking and communication. As the latter, architecture deals with the static and dynamic structure of an overall system through models constructed of defined components, their external features and relationships. Drawings are one of the oldest and most straightforward ways we represent things, real or imaginary. Naturally, they are the heart of architectural thinking and modelling. They define and transmit the model. Diagramming well is a critical ability for an architect. Most architects prefer just to draw some closed shapes and connect them with arrows to express their structures. While this is natural, if it is not done well, it has wide and long-lasting downsides for the entire solution, the people and organisations involved. The quality should not vary drastically by who is drawing the picture. In this article, I will put down conventions to produce clear, compelling and consistent architecture diagrams. There exist ISO, DIN, ANSI and other standards for process flow diagrams, IEEE for electrical diagrams, etc. The UML (Unified Modelling Language) standard is available for software application architecture modelling and many architects use it, but in my view, it is non-intuitive, confusing, dry, and limited. For the dynamic aspect of the architecture, I find Sequence Diagrams to be adequate, as long as they use the same objects that are in the static model. I will only deal with static diagrams here as they are usually where the architect begins modelling. Plus, static diagrams typically attempt to convey a lot more information than Sequence Diagrams and therefore have a greater need for conventions. The Conventions for diagramming will be explained below in ten sections. 1. Information conveyed A picture can speak a thousand words. Or more. Some of the information that static diagrams try to convey are: Functional units Relationships Scope of responsibility Scope of work Completeness of work The extent of the impact on a functional unit or relationship due to an enhancement The technology of a functional unit Vendor of a functional unit Criticality, business or technical Layers of the static aspect Zones by user type Zones by security type Human actors Things of the world other than computers and software An architecture diagram can very quickly get very complicated. There are two dimensions to static diagrams: the combination of audience and detail; and the artefacts used in them. We can call the former the level of the drawing and define conventions for using the latter. 2. Levels We describe the following levels and diagram names: Level 0 — Business Capabilities Diagram: The key audience is business executives and non-technical stakeholders. The key audience is business executives and non-technical stakeholders. Level 1 — Technology Capabilities Diagram: The key audience is CIOs, CTOs, CISOs and Strategy & Planning managers. The key audience is CIOs, CTOs, CISOs and Strategy & Planning managers. Level 2 — Architecture Diagram: The key audience is Designers and Project Managers. The key audience is Designers and Project Managers. Level 3 — Design Diagram: The key audience is coders, testers and architects. Diagrams with more details than the above are left to the Application Designers. They can be reviewed by architects but are not core deliverables for them. Level 1, 2 and 3 diagrams can be drawn either to show the functional or the operational (hardware, software) information. This article will focus on the conventions for functional architecture diagrams. 3. Getting maximum impact We read drawings through the eye-brain combination. Human eyes and the parts of our brains that process visual data have evolved to convert data into information that maximises safety and the ability to use objects in the world. There are two categories of capabilities — natural and nurtured. The former is genetic and innate, the latter learned in life. Understanding this makes it easier for us to create impactful drawings. Here is how the eye-brain combination probably processes information, in order of informational utility and ease: Motion is acutely detected as it can indicate a dangerous animal or water. Size is absorbed rapidly as a larger animal or object can be more dangerous or useful. Location is mapped quickly as something near or directly in front can be more hazardous or easy to grasp. Colours are noticed after size as it can help to identify foe or food by standing out from the background. Contrast is detected for differentiation after colours. Shapes are recognised as familiar or new to classify or look closer. Details within the mass of the animal or object are observed last. Here are some skills that we likely learn with experience: Gravity causes things to fall downwards. Vertical stacks make structures. Most things move horizontally. Most languages are written left to right and we begin seeing any picture from the left side. We focus on the centre of images for the longest time before exiting them. Clusters indicate multiples instances of a single type. Things that rise or go upwards indicate life, energy and positivity. So, think of your drawing as the surroundings of a person walking in a forest or savanna. How will you catch her or his attention? As we are only using static 2-dimensional drawings, motion is not at our disposal. So, we can create a semblance of it with prominent lines and arrowheads. We need to use size, position, colour, contrast, shape and text for maximum impact. Here are the resulting guidelines: Make essential things larger and centre them. Start the story from the left, let it lead to the focal point in the centre and leave from the right side. Create a strong mainstream of flow through the drawing by using positioning and arrows. Use colour well for impact. Put similar or related things together in loose clusters. Use simple shapes for ease of understanding. Verbalise the detail with text in moderation for a richer experience. Position the secondary and tertiary information in sidestreams through which the eye can detour and return to the mainstream. 4. Guidelines by level Level 0 — Business Capabilities Diagram The Business Architect or Business Analyst typically draws this diagram. An Enterprise Architect who has sufficient knowledge of the business domain can also draw it. It shows all the essential capabilities required to carry out the business: It should not connect the business components with lines as they do not add any practical information. It should not have technology elements in it. There should ideally be one Business Architecture Diagram for the entire business landscape and separate architecture diagrams for each business domain, if required. Level 1 — Technology Capabilities Diagram The Enterprise Architect typically draws this diagram. It shows all the essential technical capabilities required to deliver the business capabilities. It should show systems and sub-systems that map to the business capabilities. It can connect the systems or sub-systems to indicate critical relationships, although it is not a must. It should not show the individual applications and interfaces of the technology systems. The systems and sub-systems of a Level 0 diagram can be referenced in a Level 1 diagram if it is covering the same (or a large enough) scope. There should ideally be one Enterprise Architecture Diagram for the entire solution landscape and separate architecture diagrams for each technology domain, if required. Level 2 — Architecture Diagram The Level 2 diagram is usually the most essential and standard architecture diagram. The conventions of this article are most applicable to it. Depending on the scope of the drawing, it can be drawn by different people: Overall enterprise landscape — Enterprise Architect or Integration Architect Integration Architecture — Integration Architect Information Architecture — Information Architect Application Architecture — Application Architect Infrastructure (aka hardware) Architecture — Infrastructure Architect Regardless of who owns the diagram, the following need to be considered: It should show all the components and integrations that are in the scope of the drawing. A component is a precisely defined term in IT architecture and represents a cohesive set of technical functions. Components are loosely coupled to other components. Defining proper components is a necessary precursor to the drawing of a Level 2 diagram. The systems and sub-systems of a Level 1 diagram can be referenced in a Level 2 diagram if it is covering the same (or a large enough) scope. Don’t mix up functional and infrastructure Level 2 drawings. Make one for each. There should ideally be one Enterprise or Integration Architecture Diagram for the entire solution landscape and separate architecture diagrams for each technology domain, if required. Level 3 — Design Diagram A Level 3 diagram falls into the domain of detailed design rather than architecture. It is defined here for the sake of completeness. An application designer draws it. It should show the sub-components, objects or classes that comprise a Level 2 architectural component, and their relationships or interfaces. UML notation can be used for Level 3 diagrams effectively. Each diagram should represent a module or sub-module of software. 5. Legend Unless a drawing is using only one type of closed shape and line, and they all have the same attributes (type, colour, weight, etc.), you must have a legend for the diagram. Legends should be in the corner of the layout, ideally at the bottom right. They should be enclosed in a box and titled ‘Legend’. They should have an example of each artefact they are differentiating by attribute and include descriptive text next to it. The legend should not miss anything that needs to be differentiated. The legend should be easily visible and readable but not distract from the diagram. 6. Artefacts and their attributes Now, this is where things get a bit involved. So, pay attention, please. There are several artefacts that we can use in a diagram along with their attributes to represent the items of the real world. The most important artefacts, with their most important attributes, are: Closed shapes, defined by the type of shape (rectangular, circular, oval, etc), outline type (solid, dashed), fill colour, and position in the drawing. defined by the type of shape (rectangular, circular, oval, etc), outline type (solid, dashed), fill colour, and position in the drawing. Lines , defined by the type of line (solid, dashed, etc), the shape of the line (straights, curved, etc.), the colour of the line, and the direction of arrowhead. , defined by the type of line (solid, dashed, etc), the shape of the line (straights, curved, etc.), the colour of the line, and the direction of arrowhead. Text , defined by the case (upper, lower), the weight and size, and the colour. , defined by the case (upper, lower), the weight and size, and the colour. Special shapes , such as cylinders to represent a data store, etc. , such as cylinders to represent a data store, etc. Icons, which may have the text caption attached (e.g. mobile user, automobile, satellite, etc.). 7. Artefact to use for each information type Depending on the type of information you want to convey, you will need to select the appropriate artefacts for your diagram. The table below gives guidance on artefact application and what to pay attention to when depicting various information aspects. 8. General do’s Name your functional units with nouns that indicate their action (e.g. Data Analyser, Report Generator). Alternatively, use nouns that indicate their function & form (e.g. Data Analysis Engine, Reporting Module). Spread out the closed shapes evenly across the drawing, unless there is a reason to create clusters. Use colours for impact. Be consistent in the attributes of all artefacts of the same level or type (e.g. shape outline thickness and colour; line thickness, colour, arrowheads; text size, font and colour, etc. Ensure all lines begin and end at an artefact or an external link icon. Ensure all lines end at the boundary of artefacts and do not stop short or overshoot it. Spell-check your drawing. Expand any acronyms or mnemonics in a footnote or the legend. Make sure the drawing looks nice. Put a legend. Put yourself in the shoes of the reader and check if everything is self-explanatory and your drawing is telling the story you want it to tell. 9. General don’ts Don’t mix up the levels of your drawing. Create multiple drawings if required. Don’t clutter up your drawing with information overload. Create multiple drawings if needed. Don’t use flashy colours for any artefacts. Pastels and standard colours such as Red, Amber and Green are best. Use grey shades for less critical objects. Don’t forget the legend! It is the most common omission. Especially, if you’ve used colours abundantly don’t leave the viewer wondering if they mean something. Don’t make the viewer strain to understand anything on the diagram. 10. Examples of architecture diagrams The following four pictures are examples of each level of architectural drawing. Please note they do not follow all the conventions laid down here. The reader can take it as an exercise to see where they observe and deviate from it. The PowerPoint document accompanying this article has an example or template for a Level 2 Diagram as it is drawn most often and serves the widest purpose. Example Level 0 Drawing Example Level 1 Drawing Example Level 2 Drawing — Application Architecture Diagram Example Level 3 Drawing Final notes The conventions laid down are not exhaustive. But, once you start thinking in this way, about how to communicate clearly and consistently through drawings, you will naturally fill in the gaps and extend the system yourself. It is the system I use and have propagated in my circle of architects, but you may follow something somewhat different. That is okay, as long as you disseminate it through your area of influence and use it consistently. If I have forgotten something significant and routine, please send in your comments, and I will update this article to make it more complete and useful. Also, there are dimensions I have not used, such as 3D representations, hyperlinks, cardinality, etc. as they can overload an architecture diagram and slow down their creation. If a situation warrants their use, please feel free to apply them. But still, pause to think of a consistent convention for their use. Trust me that it will pay off for architectural quality and its communication to others.
https://medium.com/analysts-corner/how-to-draw-effective-it-architecture-diagrams-3da74f8288f4
['Shashi Sastry']
2020-12-01 09:41:44.184000+00:00
['Information Technology', 'Enterprise Architecture', 'Design', 'Enterprise Technology', 'Software Engineering']
732
Mastering Data Selection with Pandas
Pandas is a python library that provides several useful tools for statistical analysis, feature engineering, data selection, data filtering and much more. Data selection and data filtering are useful for exploratory data analysis, feature engineering, and predictive model building. In this post, we will discuss some useful methods in Pandas for data selection and filtering. Let’s get started! For our purposes, we will be working with the Video Game Sales Dataset. To start, let’s import the Pandas library and read the data into a Pandas data frame: import pandas as pd df = pd.read_csv("vgsales.csv") Let’s also relax the limit on the number of display columns: pd.set_option('display.max_columns', None) Next, let’s print the columns in the data: print(list(df.columns)) Let’s also print some basic information about the data: print(df.info()) Now, let’s print the first five rows of data using the ‘head()’ method: print(df.head()) Ok, now that we have a decent idea of the column names and types in the data we can perform some basic data selection operations. To start, we can use the ‘.loc[]’ method to select subsets of our data based on column values. Let’s select video games in the ‘sports’ genre: df_sports = df.loc[df.Genre == 'Sports'] Let’s print the first five rows of our new data frame: print(df_sports.head()) Let’s take a look at another column. Let’s select the subset of data corresponding video games for the Wii platform: df_wii = df.loc[df.Platform == 'Wii'] Let’s print the first five rows of data: print(df_wii.head()) We can also select subsets of subsets. For example, let’s select ‘Racing’ games played on ‘Wii’: df_wii_racing = df_wii.loc[df.Genre == 'Racing'] We can also perform this operation with a single line of code using a joint condition: df_wii_racing = df.loc[(df.Platform == 'Wii') & (df.Genre == 'Racing')] print(df_wii_racing.head()) And we can add as many conditions as we like. Let’s select Wii racing games that sold more than 1 million units globally: df_gt_1mil = df.loc[(df.Platform == 'Wii') & (df.Genre == 'Racing') & (df.Global_Sales >= 1.0)] print(df_gt_1mil.head()) We can also select data by row using the ‘.iloc[]’ method. Let’s select the first 1000 rows of the original data: df_filter_rows = df.iloc[:1000] print("Length of original: ", len(df)) print("Length of filtered: ", len(df_filter_rows)) We can also select a random sample of data, using the ‘sample()’ method: df_random_sample = df.sample(n=5000) print("Length of sample: ", len(df_random_sample)) If we print the first five rows: print(df_random_sample.head()) And print the first five rows in another run: We see we get different results. If we want to consistently get the same result, we can set the ‘random_state’ parameter in the sample method: df_random_sample = df.sample(n=5000, random_state = 42) print("Length of sample: ", len(df_random_sample)) This should give us the same result upon each run. I’ll stop here but I encourage you to play around with the code and data yourself. CONCLUSIONS To summarize, in this post we discussed how to select and filter data using the Python Pandas library. We discussed how to use the ‘.loc[]’ method to select subsets of data based on column values. We also showed how to filter data frames by row using the ‘.iloc[]’ method. Finally, we discussed how to select a random sample of data from a data frame using the ‘sample()’ method. I hope you found this post interesting/useful. The code in this post is available on GitHub. Thank you for reading!
https://towardsdatascience.com/mastering-data-selection-with-pandas-e8768104a39
['Sadrach Pierre']
2020-05-15 15:51:49.953000+00:00
['Software Development', 'Programming', 'Python', 'Data Science', 'Technology']
733
We have finished the Development of MerkleTree Airdrop Dapp.
Nodoubt about it, decentralized applications will greatly transform all enterprises across the globe. These new technologies will conceivably bring us to a place where almost everything is tradeable and almost everyone (think buyers, sellers and service providers) can participate. The numbers don’t lie- according to studies, the blockchain market is estimated to experience a robust growth rate. One study, for example, projects the blockchain technology market to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 62.1 percent between 2015 and 2025 to reach $16.3 billion. The potential in terms of business impact is even more sobering! According to numbers from a study by Gartner, the business value-add of blockchain will grow to slightly more than $176 billion by 2025, and then it will exceed $3.1 trillion by 2030. That’s why the dApp Builder team is working hard to enable businesses to easily deploy the blockchain technology. We are happy to announce that we have created an extended version of MerkleTree Airdrop Dapp. This new decentralized application (dApp) allows user to create Airdropbased on merkle-tree algorithm. It provides a way to store any amount of addresses that will receive tokens just in one hash-string. It makes deployment of such smart-contract much cheaper. Try it now on our Marketplace You can start your own MerkleTree Airdrop Dapp by specifying parameters: The address of the token that will be issued to users of the token that will be issued to users Whitelist as a link to the google sheet, where the column A contains the addresses, and the column B the number of tokens for each address, or the .txt file in the format <address> <space> <number> Next, choose a Gas Price and confirm the transaction: After creating the dApp, it will appear in the list “My dApps”: How it works: Users can create a dApp using whitelist of token receivers in google sheet or .txt file in format [address][space][amount], specifying the token address that will be distributed. Once the dApp is deployed, users can access its interface and check whether their address is in the whitelist. If yes, there will be one simple button to receive tokens. A smart-contract is supposed to be filled with amount of tokens enough to pay all the users listed. If the balance goes low than that, airdrop will be paused. Try it now on https://dappbuilder.io/builder Or watch the code on https://github.com/DAPPBUILDER/dApp-Builder Wrap Up The dramatic rise of blockchain and its related technologies is making enterprises rethink their strategies. With blockchain, there is no central authority or centralized data storage, but instead the database is spread and replicated across all the nodes or computing devices participating in the system. Any changes in the data are made through consensus process — where the majority of nodes agree the proposed update is correct. This means that a blockchain-based infrastructure provides a much greater security from cyber-criminals, is much more difficult to compromise and at the same time can allow users to remain in control of their own data. That’s why top companies in various industries such as IT, finance, healthcare, supply chain, real estate, among others are testing blockchain to exchange information or make transactions. IBM, for example, is investing millions in blockchain-related projects. It recently partnered with Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company, and through the partnership, the two companies are working to create the so-called “TradeLens” supply chain solution. This blockchain-based solution intends to keep track of essential shipping data on a worldwide scale. This has even seen 94 organizations take part in the testing and development of the TradeLens supply chain solution. In addition, this strong collaborative effort has seen the platform capture over 154 million shipping events over a multi-month period. Interesting to note is that, numbers from a Transparency Market research estimates that this supply chain solution will be a $32.9 billion global supply-chain business by 2026. Stay in touch for updates via · Website · Telegram · Bitcointalk · Facebook
https://medium.com/ethereum-dapp-builder/we-have-finished-the-development-of-merkletree-airdrop-dapp-b8394e4bbb7f
['Dapp Builder Team']
2019-03-12 10:43:56.726000+00:00
['Blockchain', 'Bitcoin', 'Airdrop', 'Ethereum', 'Technology']
734
FundersToken Top 6 Blockchain Start-up in Taiwan
Just this week, FundersToken have built a web wallet module for ETH and ERC20 tokens for our users to easily manage and access to their token. You can look at our latest UI at our main-net product or our test-net. Adding more functionality into our already robust modules. Also, We are happy to announce that FundersToken is selected as the TOP 6 Blockchain Startup in Taiwan by Fintech News HK.
https://medium.com/fstnetwork/funderstoken-top-6-blockchain-start-up-in-taiwan-948cf357a04b
['Fst Network']
2018-07-05 10:32:14.358000+00:00
['Blockchain', 'Blockchain Startup', 'Ethereum', 'Blockchain Technology']
735
Testing and the Future of NinjaChat
A Brief Note on Testing our Integration Building something entirely from scratch means we also need assurances that it would work as intended when we finally deploy. This is especially so for an application based on a conversation tree where we should strive to cover as many possible pathways as possible. As such, we wanted a good foundation that covers testing the application at different levels. Unit Testing One advantage of writing our intent service classes such that each matched intent carries an action value which executes a fixed handler method, is that writing units for them involves testing solely the handler method and expecting a given output in the form of a DialogflowQueryResponseBean . Here’s an example that tests for an error response when one of our internal services throw an exception: @Test public void givenNoOrders_whenHandleActionY_thenProcessAction() { //Arranging the error from an internal api call when(orderApi.searchForOrders(/* ... */)) .thenReturn(completedFuture(Optional.empty())); public void givenNoOrders_whenHandleActionY_thenProcessAction() {//Arranging the error from an internal api callwhen(orderApi.searchForOrders(/* ... */)).thenReturn(completedFuture(Optional.empty())); //Asserting on the response as an error bean assertErrorBean(intentService.processMatchedIntent( buildCustomerRequest(DEFAULT_SYSTEM_ID), buildQueryResult(CUSTOMER_FETCH_ORDERS_FOR_ISSUES_SEARCH)), DF_FETCH_ORDERS_FAILURE.getKey())); } *Note: buildQueryResult() mocks a matched intent result from Dialogflow with the given action CUSTOMER_FETCH_ORDERS_FOR_ISSUES_SEARCH . DF_FETCH_ORDERS_FAILURE refers to the error message key shown to the user. Dialogflow Integration Testing Naturally, once we’ve made sure that the individual handlers for each matched intent action behave as expected (i.e. returns the right response to the user, makes proper api calls, and parses responses from intermediate calls appropriately) via unit tests, we also use an inhouse framework that allows us to test the chatbot experience from a more integrated, user-relevant perspective. What this means is we run integration tests that tests on the level of the main Dialogflow service class. This class is responsible for accepting a query string from a given user, converting it to a Dialogflow request bean, processing it and churning out a Dialogflow response bean, and finally returning the response as per what the user expects to see on any given platform. Here’s a sample of one such test: @Test public void givenTrackOrder_whenUserChatsWithBot_thenProcessConversation() { AbstractModule customModule = configureCustomerProfileModule( new DialogflowCustomerIntegrationTestProfile() .buildDefaultProfile()); public void givenTrackOrder_whenUserChatsWithBot_thenProcessConversation() {AbstractModule customModule = configureCustomerProfileModule(new DialogflowCustomerIntegrationTestProfile().buildDefaultProfile()); DialogflowConversationContainer con = newConversation(customModule, CUSTOMER); con.assertThat(whenUserSays("hello there") .thenBotRepliesWith("Thank you for using Ninja Van!" + "How can I help you today?") .andShowsOptions("Track Orders", "Reschedule Delivery", "Other Options")); con.assertThat(whenUserSays("i want to track my order") .thenBotRepliesWith("Here is a list of your orders...") .andShowsOptions("NVSGD123456", "NVSGD135790", "NVSGD246810", "Return to Main Menu")); /* ... and so on */ } This test covers a series of interaction starting from the user saying hello to our bot, to tracking their order and finally returning back to the main menu. Stuff to note:
https://medium.com/ninjavan-tech/testing-and-the-future-of-ninjachat-8c09e11827f3
['Dexter Fong']
2020-12-16 08:42:28.612000+00:00
['Chatbots', 'Machine Learning', 'Technology', 'Software Development', 'Ninja Van']
736
Top 10 Food Technology Magazines. Food & Drink Technology
Top Food Technology Magazines Food and beverage is a important industry to keep an eye on and technologies are taking over the industry at a great pace. If anyone interested to read more on the latest trends in the food and beverages industry, Below is the list of top and best food technology magazines. Top 10 Food Technology Magazines 1. Food and Beverages Tech Review Food and Beverages Tech Review Food and Beverages Tech Review(FB Tech Review) is a print magazine addressing the latest in food technology best magazine that includes a well-curated articles by industry leaders, also listing top solution providers and vendors. FB Tech Review is the only one of its kind, knowledge platform that brings to its audience insider information from the food and beverages technology space. With our unique peer-to-peer learning approach, we connect elements from the different ends of the spectrum. We bring together senior decision makers from leading organizations and their counterparts in their domains under one roof so that they can share their wisdom, knowledge and technological expertise among peers — accelerating the growth of the space. Check Out — FB Tech Review 2. Food And Beverage Magazine Food And Beverage Magazine Food And Beverage Magazine leading online magazine resource for the Food & Beverage industry with our signature celebrity features with over 20 years of a valuable reputation! They have the eyes of the industry’s top professionals looking for the latest and greatest, but with being so widely popular amongst the professionals. Check Out — Food And Beverage Magazine 3. Food & Drink Technology Food & Drink Technology Food & Drink Technology is an editorially led, real-time publication (news source) featuring the best in technical and business news, analysis, comment, interviews and product developments across Europe. Food and Drink technology covers various technologies in the food and drinks industry that includes food safety, processing, packaging, sustainability and many more. Check Out — Food & Drink Technology 4. Food Business News Food Business News Timely, relevant and substantive content is the reason for our success and why Food Business News has maintained its position as one of the most read publications in the food processing industry. Check Out — Food Business News 5. Food Engineering Food Engineering Where food industry operations, engineering and manufacturing management professionals can connect to Food Engineering and each other. Discussions are a blend of processing technology updates, worldwide food manufacturing trends, and more. Check Out — Food Engineering 6. Food Safety Magazine Food Safety Magazine Food Safety Magazine is the source for science-based solutions for food safety and quality professionals worldwide. Food manufacturers and producers were faced with accelerating developments in analytical and testing instrumentation and procedures, combined with an increase in the scope and range of federal regulations affecting their industry. To meet those needs the publication, then called Food Testing & Analysis, would provide in-depth coverage of the factors driving industry growth, and create a forum for discussing the latest trends, issues, and technologies. Check Out — Food Safety Magazine 7. Food Quality and Safety Food Quality and Safety Food Quality & Safety’s mission is to advise all levels of quality and safety decision makers in food manufacturing, food service/retail, and regulatory and research institutions on strategic and tactical approaches required in a rapidly changing food market. Our award-winning editorial covers the latest news, technologies, trends, and issues happening from farm to fork. Food Quality & Safety is a Wiley-owned publication. Check Out — Food Quality and Safety 8. Food Processing Food Processing Food Processing offers best practices, innovative ideas, industry news, and online events for the entire food and beverage industry — from the front line to the executive suite. Check Out — Food Processing 9. New Food Magazine New Food Magazine New Food Magazine Regularly checks the new technologies and developments within the food and beverage industry, New Food published bi-monthly is a leading information provider for anyone involved in this important sector. For over two decades, New Food has covered the major topics that impact on this sector, including food safety, packaging, hygiene, processing, legislation and analytical techniques. Check Out — New Food Magazine 10. Food Technology Magazine Food Technology Magazine Food Technology is a monthly food science and technology magazine published by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) in Chicago, Illinois. The magazine addresses current issues related to food science and technology, including research, education, food engineering, food packaging, nutraceuticals, laboratory issues, and other items related to IFT. The magazine is free to IFT members as part of their annual dues. Check Out — Food Technology
https://medium.com/@jackmathew/top-food-technology-magazines-81eb0b7c994d
['Jack Mathew']
2021-03-12 13:02:20.319000+00:00
['Publication', 'Food', 'Magazine', 'Technology', 'Technews']
737
Privacy Talk with Lourdes M Turrecha, Founder & CEO PIX LLC, “What is the New Wave of Privacy Tech?”
This interview is talking about data protection and startups, e-Estonia and new trend of privacy-driven data economy. Kohei is having great time discussing with international data protection and privacy expert Lourdes M Turrecha! This interview outline: Introduction What has been changed among California tech companies since CCPA started? What is the differences from data security and privacy? New Trend of Tech Company with Data Privacy? Federal Data Protection Rules will come? What is the Privacy Tech Community “The Rise of Privacy Tech”? Message to the Listeners Kohei: Thank you for taking your time for interview today, Lourdes. You are data privacy expert in the United States, and I am honored to speak in this way. Let’s move on to the interview. Please introduce yourself at first. Introduction Lourdes: Thank you for inviting me this time. My name is Lourdes Turrecha. I’m the founder and CEO of PIX, a data privacy consulting firm in Silicon Valley. As I am a lawyer and legal expert, and I have been a consultant in the cybersecurity with technology companies. We have been involved in data privacy projects from more than 100 major companies to small and medium-sized, build up data privacy strategy for company strength and security products based on privacy by design. What has been changed among California tech companies since CCPA started? Kohei: Thank you for your introduction. As it becomes more awareness of data privacy from large corporations to startups, how does new data protection law affect in California? Lourdes: The California Consumer Privacy Act, which started in California, which is still in beginning in compare to the European GDPR (EU General Data Protection Regulation). We’re still awaiting legal feedback among data privacy professionals from legislators and general councils in California, and we’re now closely watching what the law will eventually become and how it will be enforced. At the moment, many tech companies are not ready enough, and it is supposed that will be gradually taken as the direction in accordance with the future determination. Since GDPR has pioneered data protection efforts, GDPR-aligned companies are planning to apply in California similarly. Kohei: Thank you. I think a lot of startups turn to pay attention with data privacy, especially the fighting Covid-19 app is in serious such as Google and Apple. My next question is your previous experience at Palo Alto Networks. I found it had very interesting topics to watch your speaking video. What is the difference from a corporate perspective regarding privacy and security? What is the differences from data security and privacy? Lourdes: Privacy and security are mutually exclusive and have different roles. Security experts may not have a good understanding of data privacy, and vice versa. I often feel it while I’m working each other. As a data level, privacy is a way of specific individual, and security is more valuable with a company or organization. The argument over data privacy is very broad, and more different perspectives on how data is obtained each other, such as how data is used, and how individuals can access it and more. Security is very different from privacy that means to include not only personal data, but also more comprehensive data levels. On the other hand, security requires a broader definitions with non-personal data in general. It is necessary for both parties to work together besides on understanding their roles and positions. In my early as a data privacy expert working within the security/CISO’s organization and had to share and explain it to other members, so I learned cybersecurity and information security. Palo Alto Networks was to work for data privacy from the level of board member who familiar and had a high interest in data privacy itself. In compare to other clients, it was comfortable to work together, because management team is clear to data privacy enhancement. I was concerned with some data privacy programs related to GDPR, privacy based product design and framework creation. With the involvement of a developer team, we are making various efforts in the privacy field, and have been preparing for data privacy such as data acquisition, data storage period, granting data access right from the initial stage. Kohei: What’s a real experience! Data privacy needs to be worked in early days, and it succeeds in business performances. As a next question, I want to know about regulations. It’s been almost five months since CCPA announced officially in California. It was in inspection with several technology companies such as Salesforce and Zoom. How will tech companies change their model with data privacy? New Trend of Tech Company with Data Privacy? Lourdes: As CCPA has a legal definition called “Sell”, which means sharing data for any valuable consideration, and this interpretation will be a major dispute. When a company sells data, it needs to follow the regulations. When it compares with GDPR, every data expert says “Sell” is very comprehensive interpretations and hard to settle with one answer. It is not just meaning for money, but is also interpreted more various reasons. Technology companies are having a hard time to deal with it correctly. A lot of tech and non-tech companies are worried about this unclear definition “Sell” and expect to set the more concrete details in future. Kohei: It’s obvious that a lot of companies in similar situation at early days to deal it precisely. Lourdes: Right. I think that it will be one of the major themes regarding data “Sell” regulations. Kohei: In Covid-19 pandemic many people is in force to work from home. Due to the virus, utilize online conference tools are getting popular such as Zoom and more. Zoom is also very popular option in Japan. On the other hand, Zoom is pointed out vulnerable capabilities regarding privacy and security, they are working for further improvement in the future. What’s the biggest problem with Zoom from a data privacy perspective? And if there is any movement in California such as switching to a new service other than Zoom? Lourdes: I assume that you may be seeing online that many privacy experts pointed out on Linkedin or Twitter, but their critical issue is entire product design and mindset with data privacy. From CEO interview, he told us with apologies, “he has never considered privacy before”. Under the GDPR, privacy by design is required step for overall system such as privacy engineering and privacy control. As you can see from the CEO’s statement, Zoom’s fundamental problem is that it has not designed a system that assumes data privacy from scratch. Kohei: So many people switch to Google, Facebook, or Microsoft? Lourdes: For example, government initiated. They are starting to show some concern, in addition to the measures being taken by Zoom itself at the moment. A counsel with security experts has been announced, and privacy experts have also entered there for discussion. Personally, I think it is necessary to design a privacy program as an in-house organization as well as strategy building. It is essence to consider the responsibility for compliance, and design with privacy protection in mind as a basic etiquette with business strategy. A survey on the investment effect with privacy orientation, has already been conducted by Cisco and EY, and we are looking at how successful companies that implement data privacy strategies in B2B sales. Apple and Microsoft have introduced data privacy as a competitive strategy. It shows the important change in society, and the awareness of data privacy. In order to build data privacy strategy, in-house team is most comfortable to run it for long -term business, rather than hiring external experts. It is better to establish a system that can make an overall design based on data privacy and security. Kohei: I think companies will need to tackle data privacy issues in accordance with online activities and spend more. It means that current software model will be changed drastically. The next question is a bit about grand design, but I would like to ask you about the data protection law in the US federal level, the topic was from your Medium blog. I think there are some movements including the FTC, and many discussions about data protection in each state. How will the government move toward in the future? Federal Data Protection Rules will come? Lourdes: I think the influence of this pandemic is gradually raising awareness of lawmakers towards data privacy. We have already applied for some bills, but so far none have actually passed. We anticipate that there will be some new movements when the current pandemic subsides. The point to be noted from now on is whether any privacy requests and claims will be upon from individuals and consumers, and whether federal law will have preemption on each state law. Preemption is the structure whether federal law supersedes state law or not. It ups to case-by-case, but it can be imagined with the case of a health insurance interoperability and accountability law called HIPPA. HIPPA is federal law and preemption on state to state. In California, enacted their regional HIPPA law. Therefore, federal HIPPA is a baseline, and the higher level of the HIPPA law in California applies at once. This is an example, and other states have different levels of exclusion rights has been designed. Therefore, complicated design is existed, but each company strongly advocates the preemption under federal law and expects the direction to respond only to federal law without each state law preparation. In addition as another major reason, companies is in solicit to i consolidate into one, because there are 48 or 49 laws related to data breaches such as California and Washington. My personal concern is that many of the applications that have been filed so far. Even it is not similar to GDPR, it does not define with privacy requirements at the government level. Data privacy need to be protection more than the private sector, but for government surveillance. In particular, in the event of an emergency such as Covid-19, it is hard to stand against government surveillance quickly but I think that it is necessary to reconsider public data privacy. Kohei: There are similar problems in Japan as well. It exists over 2000 local data protection rules, which is a very complicated mechanism. In the current Covid-19 situation, even government has announced that it will use data anonymously, but the issue of transparency needs to be solved such as how it is actually used. I think that data privacy and data utilization should be dealt with an appropriate balance. The next, I want to know “The Rise of Privacy Tech” community. What is this activity like? What is the Privacy Tech Community “The Rise of Privacy Tech”? Lourdes: A community we started recently because we found during to talk with colleagues, and need to broaden and develop privacy-related technologies. Until now, online interaction was the main focus, but we have often received requests from investors to learn about data privacy-related movements, start-ups, etc. Therefore, we are expanding the community that connects both parties as an evangelist. We plan to launch a website in the near future, and we hope to create a flow of funds for privacy technology by making it a place for entrepreneurs, engineers, investors, etc. who are familiar with privacy technology to gather. We plan to host a virtual summit this June and would like to announce more on The Rise of Privacy Tech website. We are working with the development team to hold this event. Kohei: That’s a very good initiative. Privacy technology will be come out more including major technology companies, and startups cooperation will become more important. Lourdes: Silicon Valley’s legal movements have lagged behind technology, and I think the new legal efforts around the world are very slow. By establishment of the community is the way to pursue efforts that can be solved by technology rather than waiting for the law. Through the community, we would like to create an environment where startups with privacy technology can work on solving problems. Kohei: Great announcement, please give a message to everyone listening to this interview. Message to Listeners Lourdes: Business executives, lawyers, technologists and individuals with an interest in data privacy would love to address this area. Pew Research has announced at annual report, more than half of Americans say that they will only use services that are sensitive to privacy. That means to be raised awareness of privacy is now. On the business side, there are moves to use privacy as a competitive strategy, and not only the impact of changes in the law, but also new measures such as measures against competition and changes in consumer awareness are gradually emerging. Kohei: Thank you for your wonderful message. I think it will be important to hold hands and work together. Thank you for the wonderful interview. Lourdes: Thank you very much. Thank you for reading daily Collabogate overview and please contact me if you want to be writer of research blogging. Looking for Collaborator to start working with global network! Please register below the link for business collaboration together.
https://medium.com/collabogate-research-group-in-tokyo/privacy-talk-with-lourdes-m-turrecha-founder-ceo-pix-llc-what-is-the-new-wave-of-privacy-3521f641482a
['Blockchain Project Research Study']
2020-06-03 07:32:19.048000+00:00
['Law', 'Data', 'Privacy', 'Business', 'Technology']
738
Stripe Connect(Custom)×DirectChargeというアンチパターンからの大脱走
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/mento-techblog/stripe-connect-custom-directcharge%E3%81%A8%E3%81%84%E3%81%86%E3%82%A2%E3%83%B3%E3%83%81%E3%83%91%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC%E3%83%B3%E3%81%8B%E3%82%89%E3%81%AE%E5%A4%A7%E8%84%B1%E8%B5%B0-a8cc346330d5
['Yuki Matsuyama']
2020-12-25 06:59:11.694000+00:00
['Coaching', 'Technology', 'Stripe', 'Stripe Connect']
739
yourself open to moments of sudden discovery. Do you remember how spontaneous you were as a child? Anything could happen, at any moment!
Life is a journey of twists and turns, peaks and valleys, mountains to climb and oceans to explore. Good times and bad times. Happy times and sad times. But always, life is a movement forward. No matter where you are on the journey, in some way, you are continuing on — and that’s what makes it so magnificent. One day, you’re questioning what on earth will ever make you feel happy and fulfilled. And the next, you’re perfectly in flow, writing the most important book of your entire career. https://www.deviantart.com/ncflive/commission/FREE-Ram-R-Salisbury-J-vs-Krawietz-K-Mies-A-Live-Stream-Free-1410812 https://www.deviantart.com/ncflive/commission/STREAMING-Krawietz-K-Mies-A-vs-Ram-R-Salisbury-J-Live-Stream-Fr-1410814 https://www.deviantart.com/ncflive/commission/LIVE-Krawietz-K-Mies-A-vs-Ram-R-Salisbury-J-Live-Stream-1410816 https://www.deviantart.com/ncflive/commission/Watch-Ram-R-Salisbury-J-vs-Krawietz-K-Mies-A-Live-Stream-free-1410817 https://www.deviantart.com/ncflive/commission/StreamS-watch-Krawietz-K-Mies-A-vs-Ram-R-Salisbury-J-Live-Stre-1410818 What nobody ever tells you, though, when you are a wide-eyed child, are all the little things that come along with “growing up.” 1. Most people are scared of using their imagination. They’ve disconnected with their inner child. They don’t feel they are “creative.” They like things “just the way they are.” 2. Your dream doesn’t really matter to anyone else. Some people might take interest. Some may support you in your quest. But at the end of the day, nobody cares, or will ever care about your dream as much as you. 3. Friends are relative to where you are in your life. Most friends only stay for a period of time — usually in reference to your current interest. But when you move on, or your priorities change, so too do the majority of your friends. 4. Your potential increases with age. As people get older, they tend to think that they can do less and less — when in reality, they should be able to do more and more, because they have had time to soak up more knowledge. Being great at something is a daily habit. You aren’t just “born” that way. 5. Spontaneity is the sister of creativity. If all you do is follow the exact same routine every day, you will never leave yourself open to moments of sudden discovery. Do you remember how spontaneous you were as a child? Anything could happen, at any moment! 6. You forget the value of “touch” later on. When was the last time you played in the rain? When was the last time you sat on a sidewalk and looked closely at the cracks, the rocks, the dirt, the one weed growing between the concrete and the grass nearby. Do that again. You will feel so connected to the playfulness of life. 7. Most people don’t do what they love. It’s true. The “masses” are not the ones who live the lives they dreamed of living. And the reason is because they didn’t fight hard enough. They didn’t make it happen for themselves. And the older you get, and the more you look around, the easier it becomes to believe that you’ll end up the same. Don’t fall for the trap. 8. Many stop reading after college. Ask anyone you know the last good book they read, and I’ll bet most of them respond with, “Wow, I haven’t read a book in a long time.” 9. People talk more than they listen. There is nothing more ridiculous to me than hearing two people talk “at” each other, neither one listening, but waiting for the other person to stop talking so they can start up again. 10. Creativity takes practice. It’s funny how much we as a society praise and value creativity, and yet seem to do as much as we can to prohibit and control creative expression unless it is in some way profitable. If you want to keep your creative muscle pumped and active, you have to practice it on your own. 11. “Success” is a relative term. As kids, we’re taught to “reach for success.” What does that really mean? Success to one person could mean the opposite for someone else. Define your own Success. 12. You can’t change your parents. A sad and difficult truth to face as you get older: You can’t change your parents. They are who they are. Whether they approve of what you do or not, at some point, no longer matters. Love them for bringing you into this world, and leave the rest at the door. 13. The only person you have to face in the morning is yourself. When you’re younger, it feels like you have to please the entire world. You don’t. Do what makes you happy, and create the life you want to live for yourself. You’ll see someone you truly love staring back at you every morning if you can do that. 14. Nothing feels as good as something you do from the heart. No amount of money or achievement or external validation will ever take the place of what you do out of pure love. Follow your heart, and the rest will follow. 15. Your potential is directly correlated to how well you know yourself. Those who know themselves and maximize their strengths are the ones who go where they want to go. Those who don’t know themselves, and avoid the hard work of looking inward, live life by default. They lack the ability to create for themselves their own future. 16. Everyone who doubts you will always come back around. That kid who used to bully you will come asking for a job. The girl who didn’t want to date you will call you back once she sees where you’re headed. It always happens that way. Just focus on you, stay true to what you believe in, and all the doubters will eventually come asking for help. 17. You are a reflection of the 5 people you spend the most time with. Nobody creates themselves, by themselves. We are all mirror images, sculpted through the reflections we see in other people. This isn’t a game you play by yourself. Work to be surrounded by those you wish to be like, and in time, you too will carry the very things you admire in them. 18. Beliefs are relative to what you pursue. Wherever you are in life, and based on who is around you, and based on your current aspirations, those are the things that shape your beliefs. Nobody explains, though, that “beliefs” then are not “fixed.” There is no “right and wrong.” It is all relative. Find what works for you. 19. Anything can be a vice. Be wary. Again, there is no “right” and “wrong” as you get older. A coping mechanism to one could be a way to relax on a Sunday to another. Just remain aware of your habits and how you spend your time, and what habits start to increase in frequency — and then question where they are coming from in you and why you feel compelled to repeat them. Never mistakes, always lessons. As I said, know yourself. 20. Your purpose is to be YOU. What is the meaning of life? To be you, all of you, always, in everything you do — whatever that means to you. You are your own creator. You are your own evolving masterpiece. Growing up is the realization that you are both the sculpture and the sculptor, the painter and the portrait. Paint yourself however you wish.
https://medium.com/@shitolliveonn/yourself-open-to-moments-of-sudden-discovery-9d048769d657
['Ram R Vs Mies A Live Tv']
2020-11-19 17:56:09.743000+00:00
['Technology', 'Sports', 'Social Media', 'News', 'Live Streaming']
740
Distributed Ledger Technology- DLT:
Distributed Ledger Technology- DLT: Image from: shell Hi folks 😊, Here is my new blog series on Blockchain. Hope you learn a lot from it. Subscribe me for getting notification for the blogs I publish in this series. In the Day-1 of Blockchain. We are going to know about Distributed ledger technology, it’s benefits, DLT’s effect on business and the difference between Distributed Ledger Technology and Traditional Technology. Distributed ledger technology (DLT) is a digital system for recording the transactions of digital asserts. These are stored multiple times in multiple different distributed nodes at different locations. Distributed ledger technology (DLT) has great potential to change the financial sector, making it more efficient, resilient and reliable. Bitcoin’s blockchain is an example of peer-to-peer Distributed ledger technology. Image from: unicsoft In DLT Database spread across multiple computers. so it reduces the risk of Central storage. Using DLT we have different types of services like Blockchain, Tempo, Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) etc. Tempo is based upon subsets of ledger. In Tempo the person conducts the transaction and one who has access to store, can only store the transactions. While in blockchain everyone can store the transactions. In DAG’s , the transactions are verified by building a new transactions on top the existing transaction. Benefits of DLT: Distributed Ledger Technologies have many potentials. Remove Middlemen: Distributed Ledger Technology reduces the need for an intermediary middleman to transfer information and goods between buyers and sellers. Fast Transactions: It has potential to speed up the transaction by removing middleman. Removes cost taken by middlemen. Reduces Costs: Cost taken by middle man are cut off in Distributed Ledger technology. More Secure: Distributed Ledger technology is much more secure. In this Each node hold the record. That creates a system that creates system that is more difficult to manipulate the the system. Transparent: Distributed Ledger is a much more transparent way of handling records, because the information is shared between different nodes and spread across the network. How DLT affect Business? Distributed Ledger Technology creates a permanent, decentralized, trustless ledger of records. Accessible to all across globe without the help of third-party to carryout the transactions. Like in crypto markets, cryptocurrencies are not their product. It is more like creating a new economic systems with tokens as the medium of exchange and Distributed Ledger technology gives the rules and regulations for the users of this system. These effects can be divided into three major components Transforms Internal Processes Transforms Business Models New Opportunities Transforms Internal Processes: This includes DLTs potential along internal processes and interaction with business’ value network. It can be in the form of: Payments Assert Tracking Data Sharing Identity Management Transforms Business Models: This includes looking beyond technology and including the value potential related to new types of customer interactions and innovative ideas for business models like Customer Engagements Micro Transactions Creating New Markets New Opportunities: Distributed Ledger Technology might create new opportunities which are neither part of the core vale chain nor the core business model: Funding Access to Data Crowd Collaboration Self Governed Organizations Difference between Distributed Ledger Technology and Traditional Technology
https://medium.com/@kabilan318/distributed-ledger-technology-dlt-886ccb4ee54f
['N Kabilan']
2021-07-15 08:03:29.782000+00:00
['Blockchain', 'Distributed Ledgers', 'Medium', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Bitcoin']
741
Correspondencia olvidada a inicios de Pandemia
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/cartas-a-la-cercan%C3%ADa/correspondencia-olvidada-a-inicios-de-pandemia-4c2d359182a9
['Emmanuel Prado']
2020-10-04 02:39:48.870000+00:00
['Carta', 'Español', 'Radiohead', 'Letter', 'Technology']
742
Karma Computer The five laws of computing bliss!
In today’s computer age it is imperative that you take every caution necessary in protecting you and your family from computer thugs trolling the Internet. These modern criminals are very sophisticated and organized in the art of getting access to your computer. Long gone are the days when all you had to worry about was a nasty virus that for one moment ruined your day. Now there are actual legal (At least in the eyes of the country they hale from) companies that have only one thing on their minds — how to steel your information and your money. Here is your best line of defense for having computer bliss: FIRST LAW — Windows updates: It is imperative that you keep your computer updated with the latest patches and security fixes. These patches are released the second Tuesday of every month and are called affectionately — patch Tuesday. These patches fix vulnerabilities in the operating system and fix Window issues, improving speed and functionality as well. So, make sure that you set your Windows for auto updates — set it and forget it. SECOND LAW — Antimalware: Malware is many things. Some infections gather information on where you go on the Internet or turning on your web cam. It could be your banking info they want or credit card info, it could be anything. In a nutshell, it is designed to gather information on you and that is not acceptable. Malware is software loaded unbeknownst to the user and there are many ways for a user to get infected. There are many antimalware software packages out there however one stands out in particular: Malwarebytes. At the time of this writing the cost is $24.95 per year, protecting you 24/7 and well worth the investment. They offer a free version however please know you must run and update it yourself; this could be dangerous for some people. THIRD LAW — Antivirus: Here is a topic we are all familiar with. It has been synonymous with computers since the late 90’s. For a good part of that time it was our only defense from the people who wanted to ruin our week. Today, virus infections are down due to the surge in criminal activity happening worldwide with Malware. However still anti-virus is a must for your computing nirvana. There are three that I like and recommend. The first is Bit Defender, this is what we distribute through our company and it works very well on a personal and business level. Support is great and really are a godsend when needed. The other two are Vipre and ESET. These three anti-virus packages work very well, and I recommend using anyone of them. If you do not want to spend the money for anti-virus then I recommend only one free version — Microsoft Security Essentials, the others are just loaded with adds and useless bloatware. FOURTH LAW — Anti-key logger: Consumer Warning: DO NOT LOAD THIS OR ANY ANTI-KEYLOGGER PROGRAM UNLESS YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY SURE THERE IS NO MALWARE ON YOUR SYSTEM! If you don’t, this could wreak havoc on your computer. This program is a very strong defense against criminal activity. What it does is it prevents any key-logging program from running on your computer. Key-loggers can get installed from Malware, or maybe from an email you received or Website you have been to. Even if you remove the infection, there is a good chance that the key-logger could still be there. Anti-Malware might look at it as just another program. The one I like is called Zemana, I have used it for over two years and think it is a great program. It is well worth the $24.95 a year price tag. FIFTH LAW — Backups: I am sure you have been beaten to death hearing this. Back up! I can’t tell my clients enough that it is imperative to back up all their files. It’s not just the fact that you can lose all your data from a bad disk, you need to back up for another and more important reason — Ransomware. There are different names for it today but still all versions are devastating. One is Crypto Locker, Encrypting your hard drive with a 2048-Bit RSA Key pair. With this nasty variant you have three days to send them money or you would never get your files back. So that is why you must back up. There are many ways to do this, but the easiest and cheapest way is to use Carbonite. They make it extremely easy for you and this will also give you piece of mind. If you follow these five laws, I promise you, you will have computer bliss…. Written by Errol Williams
https://medium.com/@erroljwilliams/karma-computer-the-five-laws-of-computing-bliss-db036a69e0c
['Errol Williams']
2021-03-22 14:55:21.731000+00:00
['Technology', 'Tech', 'Computers', 'Computers Technology', 'Laptop Repair']
743
How to Double Your Productive Time
It’s Monday morning. You’re not hungover after a night of partying, at least not today. (It’s 2020 after all.) You have a look at your schedule, and alas, you have a thousand and one things to do this week, and another thousand and one leftover from the last week. You sit at your work desk, resolving to crunch through all of this work. Like if it was that easy! Facebook knows exactly when you’re gonna start work, and decides to send you a notification asking to check those cute kitten photos your friend posted. After all, who can say no to kittens? You check the notification, and when you realize what you’re doing, half of the day has magically already vanished. While this sounds exactly like an episode of Black Mirror, this is not some far-away dystopian nightmare future. Yes, I’m talking about our lives, everyday. Probably one of the hardest things to do in the today’s connected world is to disconnect. Whether it’s your friends buzzing you on WhatsApp, or Facebook deciding to see why you haven’t checked your news feed in the last 30 minutes, distractions will eat away your valuable time. I’m going to show you how to take it back. The first step in the journey is to figure out how much time you’re spending being distracted. Let’s see what your options are, to measure this.
https://medium.com/curious/how-to-double-your-productive-time-339f726efaf1
['Madusha Prasanjith']
2020-12-08 06:48:25.318000+00:00
['Distraction', 'Wellbeing', 'Digital Life', 'Technology', 'Productivity']
744
Redefine Your Cloud Journey With Terraform and Packer
Redefine Your Cloud Journey With Terraform and Packer Do Infrastructure and Config As Code the right way Photo by Łukasz Łada on Unsplash. For most DevOps professionals, creating a VM usually consists of spinning it up on a cloud using Terraform and then using a config management tool (e.g. Ansible or Puppet) or a bootstrap script (e.g. cloud-init) to convert the raw Virtual Machine to a purposeful server. We all have been doing it for a long time and it works for most cases, but it comes with some drawbacks. I will give you an example from personal experience. We have a horizontally scalable web server running on GCP using managed instance groups (MIG). Whenever the MIG wants to add new nodes to the group, it takes some time for the node to be ready. After the server is up, Ansible takes a few minutes to install packages, do configurations, and make the node ready to process requests. For a production server processing huge volumes, the time lag means dropped requests that hamper the customer experience. To work around this, we had to drop the CPU and memory threshold so that the MIG can spin up a new server before it is too late. That also means that there are too many false positives and we’re wasting valuable infrastructure. Also, consider the amount it would take to patch every server and ensure that the patches would be right on every node. The complexity and risk increase with the number of nodes. Well, we figured out that we were doing it wrong and there is a better way: by using Immutable Infrastructure. Now, what do we mean by this term? Well, it means that instead of spinning up infrastructure and configuring it after it is ready, we can pre-bake all configuration within the OS image so that when the machine is up, it is ready. It also means that you are not supposed to configure it any further, as the next time a copy of the machine is launched, it will not have your settings — hence the immutability. It’s the concept of containers within the VM space. While this concept is not new, there were challenges with the approach because there weren’t tools available then. Luckily, with the modern DevOps and CI/CD practices, we can easily bake a new image and release it when we need to. You can also run tests on the new image before you decide to release it. It helps in reducing a lot of pain that you might incur in production. Rolling back a change is easy as well. Simply deploy the old image. You can do canary deployments with this approach if you need to and do A/B testing with ease. HashiCorp has an impressive DevOps stack that relates to both managing infrastructure and server configuration. While HashiCorp’s Terraform is the leading multi-cloud Infrastructure as Code solution, HashiCorp Packer provides you with the power to create Immutable Infrastructure. Packer helps you take OS images from a base, run it in a temporary VM, customise your image by running shell scripts or even Ansible playbooks, test the configuration, build the image, and push it to your image repository. So next time, when you want to release a new configuration, you need to update your instance template. In this article, we will have a look at some of these features in the hands-on demo. As we work primarily on GCP, we will use the GCP example, but the principle is the same and the tool supports any public cloud platform.
https://medium.com/better-programming/redefine-your-cloud-journey-with-terraform-and-packer-ca65e0f04730
['Gaurav Agarwal']
2020-12-16 18:34:07.773000+00:00
['Terraform', 'Technology', 'DevOps', 'Soft', 'Programming']
745
Announcing DelegateCall.com: The First DAppChain Live on Loom Network
What is DelegateCall? DelegateCall is a Q&A site for Blockchain and Ethereum-related questions that runs fully on a Loom DAppChain. Users earn karma points when their questions and answers get upvoted. But unlike traditional Web 2.0 sites, on DelegateCall these karma points can be redeemed for a tradable ERC-20 “DelegateCall token” on Ethereum mainnet, allowing users to earn rewards proportional to their contributions to the site. You can think of DelegateCall as a mix between Steemit and StackOverflow, backed by Ethereum. Motivations Since we started CryptoZombies a few months back, we’ve built up a solid community of Ethereum developers and enthusiasts in our main Telegram community and also in our advanced developer community chat. But Telegram isn’t ideal for developer discussion. Questions get lost in the chatter, and great answers get washed away with time. So we decided to build a blockchain community site that: Our community could gather on to share their knowledge on blockchain & Ethereum development related questions in a more permanent form Would run fully on a Loom DAppChain, so it could serve the dual purpose of being a demo of our core platform, and Would incentivize contribution to the site by rewarding users with an ERC-20 token, showcasing one of the benefits of DAppChain-based DApps over traditional web apps. (In addition to all the other coolness, like the blockchain serving as a fully open API for developers, being fully auditable and forkable, etc.). DelegateCall is the first (of many) demonstrations we’re building in-house to show developers the types of DApps that can be built on Loom Network. Sneak peak: Next, we’re turning our focus toward blockchain-based games. Expect some major updates from us over the next 2 months on that front! Architecture / Technical Details At its core, DelegateCall runs entirely on a Loom Network DAppChain, which consists of a standalone blockchain that is bonded to an Ethereum smart contract via a Relay. DelegateCall’s standalone blockchain uses a prototype of Loom DPoS as its consensus layer. In the future, we also plan to support the PoS algorithms being worked on by Tendermint and Casper, as soon these implementations become available from their respective teams. Loom DAppChains are different from normal blockchains in that they’re able to define a number of complex transaction types natively. In the case of DelegateCall, its DAppChain has native transaction types for creating accounts, creating/updating posts, accepting answers, and upvoting/downvoting. In this sense, DAppChains behave similarly to traditional web APIs in that they support a fixed number of methods that can be called by users. We built a block explorer for the DelegateCall DAppChain at blockchain.delegatecall.com, so you can watch these transactions happening in real-time: The Block Explorer allows you to see the transactions as they get included in the DAppChain You can inspect an individual transaction to see its contents Bonded to Ethereum via a Relay DPoS tends to have a bad rap in the blockchain community, because it’s less decentralized than PoW and PoS. This is a valid concern, but DPoS is also capable of handling a much higher transaction throughput per second than more decentralized consensus algorithms. So we have a bit of a conundrum. DApps need high throughput to rival traditional web apps (Twitter, for example, experiences 7,000 tweets per second). However, standalone DPoS blockchains will never be as trustworthy as a PoW blockchain like Ethereum. DappChains work around this issue by having the DPoS blockchain bonded symbiotically to a corresponding Ethereum Smart Contract via a Relay. Functioning as a single unit, users can transfer/trade their assets on Ethereum as simple ERC-20 Tokens while the application layer remains decentralized, fast, and cheap to use. The final result, as seen on DelegateCall, is a decentralized application on a scale that’s simply isn’t possible on Ethereum alone. Secure, standard-conforming, decentralized asset handling while retaining cheap and speedy transactions. We’ll be releasing more details on both the Relay implementation and Loom’s DPoS algorithm in the future. (As well as details on the Loom Vault, an optional 3rd-party service that manages users’ private keys for them). How does the DelegateCall.com website fit in? You can think of DelegateCall.com as a convenience layer for interacting with the underlying DAppChain. While you don’t have to use the website to interact with the DelegateCall blockchain, it provides a convenient UI for doing so. (Similar to Steemit.com for Steem, or MyEtherWallet / EtherScan for Ethereum). The website is a Ruby on Rails app that reads from a cache of the underlying DAppChain data. The read-only cache (made up of a MySQL database and Elasticsearch) is simply a mirror of the data in the blockchain, and is updated every time a new block is published. The cache exists so the website can serve pages just as quickly as a standard web 2.0 app. When you go to DelegateCall.com, the data you’re seeing is pulled from this MySQL cache. The site also serves you a copy of the DelegateCall client built on Loom.js. Loom.js is a common interface layer for Loom DAppChains that’s responsible for signing transactions on the client side and formatting these transactions in the format the DAppChain is expecting them. You can think of it as the equivalent of Ethereum’s web3.js for Loom Network DApps. When you perform an action on the site (upvote an answer, post a comment, etc.), rather than sending the data to the DelegateCall.com web-server like a traditional web app would, instead Loom.js broadcasts your transaction directly to the DelegateCall DAppChain. Then there’s a worker process on DelegateCall.com that’s constantly listening for changes in the blockchain, and posting these new transactions simultaneously to the MySQL cache as well as Elasticsearch, so the changes on the underlying blockchain are reflected on DelegateCall.com. The DAppChain is still the ultimate source of truth, and the data in the Rails app is simply a mirror of the data in the underlying DAppChain. They say a picture speaks a thousand words, so here’s a diagram showing the architecture and data flow: Users sign their transactions and write them directly to the DAppChain, which is then copied to a read-only cache in the Rails app for speedy reads. The Block Explorer is a totally separate app reading from the same underlying DAppChain data. I want to emphasize that using the DelegateCall.com website is optional — users can read and write to the underlying DAppChain directly, instead of using DelegateCall.com. In the future, developers could even write their own front-ends that display the data in different ways, such as how our block explorer is completely independent of the Rails app. This is one of the many advantages to social sites being built on an underlying DAppChain — it’s like having a fully open API to the underlying data, so 3rd party developers can build their own interfaces and users can have more optionality in how they interact with the service. We’ll be releasing more information in the coming weeks on how developers can interact with DelegateCall and other Loom DAppChains. What’s next? Tomorrow, we’ll be releasing a follow-up announcement with more details, and also talking about what’s coming next for Loom Network. You’re not going to want to miss it! In the meantime:
https://medium.com/loom-network/announcing-delegatecall-com-the-first-dappchain-live-on-loom-network-f95912388a4c
['James Martin Duffy']
2020-02-06 04:15:59.839000+00:00
['Programming', 'Bitcoin', 'Ethereum', 'Blockchain', 'Technology']
746
Flutter Application Development: Is it the right choice for startups?
Are you planning to introduce your mobile app in 2021, but confused over the cross-platform framework that would be right? Flutter could be the ultimate solution for startups wanting to roll out with feature-rich mobile app development without spending fortunes. How exactly is that possible? Let’s understand Flutter in detail and why it is the most preferred choice for cross-platform app development. With over 1.96 million apps in the iOS app store and 2.87 million apps in Google Play Store, app development is fundamental for all domains and business sizes. With fast-evolving market trends and increased competition, it is daunting for startups to thrive in this highly competitive marketplace without a mobile app. What is Flutter? Flutter is the UI toolkit of Google to build natively compiled apps for the web, desktop, and mobile from one codebase. An open-source framework for app development, Flutter provides much faster development across different operating systems. It lives up to its tagline that says, “Build beautiful native apps in record time.” It provides an interactive UI, which allows app developers to design the applications as per user requirements. Moreover, a complete software development kit (SDK) solution has everything necessary for seamless cross-platform app development. Flutter app development allows you to design robust, high performing, and scalable mobile apps for all operating systems using a single codebase. It gives you the best icons, typography, and scrolling too. Based on Dart, the in-house language of Google, it is easier for developers to learn this language if they are familiar with Java and JavaScript. Most importantly, Flutter application development receives brilliant community support with tutorial guidelines. Regardless of experience, mobile application developers can start using this platform easily. Cross-Platform VS Native Applications Development The world is overwhelmed with the ongoing digital experience and applications, which are now a fundamental part of living. With the increasing popularity of apps and the number of operating systems, there are, however, two significant areas of concern for startups: There are around 5.94 million app users worldwide. Would it be possible to launch an application within a limited budget? As countless startups are rolling out worldwide, how would it be possible to set a foothold in this dynamic marketplace and make a difference? The only solution to both these challenges is to develop a cross-platform app and ensure your idea is unique. For startups, building cross-platform mobile apps is budget-friendly and more comfortable. Though relatively new, Flutter for application development is excellent in many ways like: Technical Architecture : The technical architecture within technology is a deciding factor. For Flutter, Skia is the foundation. Skia is everything you require for app development. You would not need any external bridge linking through the native components, as Flutter comprises everything within its framework. : The technical architecture within technology is a deciding factor. For Flutter, Skia is the foundation. Skia is everything you require for app development. You would not need any external bridge linking through the native components, as Flutter comprises everything within its framework. Configuration : Flutter has a friendly IDE guided setup for both Android and iOS. It has a CLI tool called Flutter Doctor that helps developers set up the environment for development services. : Flutter has a friendly IDE guided setup for both Android and iOS. It has a CLI tool called Flutter Doctor that helps developers set up the environment for development services. Development API & UI : Flutter comes with richer libraries and components supporting native elements such as navigation, state management, testing, UI rendering components, and API access. : Flutter comes with richer libraries and components supporting native elements such as navigation, state management, testing, UI rendering components, and API access. Test Support : Flutter has terrific documentation for testing apps and widgets, along with other unique features. : Flutter has terrific documentation for testing apps and widgets, along with other unique features. Build Automation : Flutter makes it easier to release the mobile application across the app store and play store with its development services. You receive a CLI interface that speeds up the procedure of releasing the app efficiently. : Flutter makes it easier to release the mobile application across the app store and play store with its development services. You receive a CLI interface that speeds up the procedure of releasing the app efficiently. DevOps Support: Once a cross-platform app is released, it is crucial to maintain it. Flutter offers CI/CD support together with CLI interface and documentation support. Flutter ranks second in the league of most leading languages for developing cross-platform in 2020 with React Native following, according to Google Trends reports. Some leading enterprises chose Flutter to develop beautiful and unique mobile applications in no time — Google, Groupon, Tencent, Alibaba, eBay, EMAAR, The New York Times, and many more. Flutter App Development: Key Features What are the unique features of Flutter app development that makes it a perfect choice? It is highly scalable, robust, and cost-effective. It’s all that a startup needs. Mobile app development can be expensive. You have to hire dedicated developers to design and develop the app, followed by support and maintenance. Startups with a limited budget can use Flutter app development as its SDKs provide different ways to reduce costs. It can speed up the development process and reduce production costs with the advantage of developing mind-blowing apps UI and smooth animations. Due to advanced technology, design, and features, Flutter is the right choice for startups. Developers can work in a chosen direction, making it much easier for them to build high-performing applications. Look at some of the best features that make Flutter the preferred language: Hot Reload for Faster App Development : Flutter features Hot Reload, making it stand out in the crowd. This unique feature lets developer experiment, design UI, add unique features and debug the app in real-time. Hot reload reflects all the changes instantly in the coding so that you don’t have to save to view the changes. It also reflects updates in the app’s current state and allows developers to continue executing the code to complete the project. : Flutter features Hot Reload, making it stand out in the crowd. This unique feature lets developer experiment, design UI, add unique features and debug the app in real-time. Hot reload reflects all the changes instantly in the coding so that you don’t have to save to view the changes. It also reflects updates in the app’s current state and allows developers to continue executing the code to complete the project. Open-Source : Flutter is a relatively new open-source language. Regardless of the complexities of a project, developers can turn the app into a workable solution by leveraging a vast choice of material design such as rich motion APIs, natural and smooth scrolling behavior, Cupertino widgets, etc. and more. Developers are also free to explore a myriad of design options. : Flutter is a relatively new open-source language. Regardless of the complexities of a project, developers can turn the app into a workable solution by leveraging a vast choice of material design such as rich motion APIs, natural and smooth scrolling behavior, Cupertino widgets, etc. and more. Developers are also free to explore a myriad of design options. Flutter Widgets : A mobile app’s performance is the most significant concern of an organization before investing. Flutter has some great widgets to ensure the native performance of an app. Its broad catalog of widgets includes scrolling, icons, fonts, navigation, and hassle-free development. : A mobile app’s performance is the most significant concern of an organization before investing. Flutter has some great widgets to ensure the native performance of an app. Its broad catalog of widgets includes scrolling, icons, fonts, navigation, and hassle-free development. Single Code Base for All OS: Flutter is a prudent choice for startup mobile app development because it allows you to create apps for both Android and iOS. Considering that Flutter does not depend on JavaScript, developers can write a single codebase for building cross-platform apps that perform closely like native apps when it comes to features, functionality, and UI/UX. Reasons why Flutter is best choice for app development Startups can be more relaxed when it comes to the budget of mobile application development with Flutter. Its open-source technology is an important feature that makes it cost-effective. It is easy to integrate Flutter with an existing application. Flutter takes away your worries of developing a mobile app — from development to final deployment. Flutter supports the recent reactive framework. Flutter libraries are a great source for developers. It enables them to localize an app as per the geographical location and adhere to the language, layout, and text. Flutter offers a wide range of rich and ready-to-use widgets for businesses. It is easy to maintain an app developed with Flutter owing to its feature, the hot reload. It minimizes risks. It’s fast, robust, and much easier to learn. Flutter is giving tough competition to native applications owing to its smooth programming and interface. Flutter’s productivity is the best, with reduced costs, making it the right choice for startup app development. Flutter’s framework supports IDEs like Android Code, Xcode, and Visual Studio Code. Flutter has a well-organized and portable GPU executing UI, which allows its smooth performance across multiple interfaces. Flutter apps take less time to test as it has a single codebase to review. Moreover, it maintains a single codebase for multiple platforms, iOS, and Android, which ensures fewer chances of bugs. Conclusion With several millions of startups mushrooming every year, it is challenging to stand apart as a brand in this cutthroat competitive market. If you want to launch an app without burning a hole in your pocket, always prefer consulting experienced Flutter application development services provider for a cross-platform framework.
https://medium.com/@amanda-allen007/flutter-application-development-is-it-the-right-choice-for-startups-e67952fa54ad
['Amanda Allen']
2020-12-23 07:14:04.344000+00:00
['Flutter App Development', 'Mobile Application', 'Flutter', 'Mobile Apps', 'Technology']
747
Time Complexity of Algorithms— Big O Notation Explained In Plain English
General Discussion In the above sections, we have learned what time complexity means and how we can use the Big O notation to denote time complexity. More specifically, we studied two realistic examples about O(n) and O(1). As shown in the figure below, the green line shows the O(n) time complexity and the purple line show the O(1) time complexity. Time Complexity — Big O Notation (Source: Wikipedia) The figure also shows you other kinds of time complexity, such as O(n*n) and O(sqrt(n)). As you can tell, the steeper the slopes are, the higher the time complexity they have. For example, O(1) complexity has a slope coefficient of 0, while O(n) has a slope coefficient of 1 (or some other fixed number in reality). When the time complexity is n! (3! = 3 * 2 * 1, 4! = 4 * 3 * 2 * 1), the time needed for an input size of 100 or 200 is already enormous! One outstanding question is how to analyze the time complexity. Well, one simple working solution is that you can test your algorithm with a smaller dataset. If it’s OK time-wise, gradually add more data and see if any performance worsens. However, this approach works practically, but in reality, you can always have some abstract analysis of your code. In essence, you can simply estimate the number of basic steps that your algorithm needs to run to generate the ideal output. Take the algorithm that calculates the total sale amount, you know that if we have X number of records, we need to run the addition for X times. In other words, the algorithm needs X steps to produce the output with input data of size X. In this case, we can presume that the algorithm has a time complexity of O(n). Consider the following hypothetical example. In the code below, we have a nested loop (an iteration loop nested in another loop). As you can estimate, the total number of iterations will be equal to n * n. For example, if n=4, we’ll have to run the addition for 16 times. If n=5, the number of additions will be 25. With these simple calculations, do you know what the time complexity of this algorithm is? def another_algorithm(n): running_total = 0 for number_i in n: for number_j in n: running_total += number_i + number_j return running_total Yes, I guess you got the right answer — the time complexity is O(n*n). It’s not that hard, right? The present article uses some simplified examples, but in reality, the analysis of complex algorithms can be a lot harder. Nevertheless, the purpose of the current piece is just to provide a 30,000 feet view of the time complexity of algorithms. I hope that you’ve learned how to use the Big O notation to indicate an algorithm’s time complexity by conducting a very basic analysis. The key takeaway is that if it’s all possible, you always want to minimize the time complexity of your algorithms. To learn more about time complexity and Big O notation, here’s an excellent reference that you can take a look at.
https://medium.com/swlh/time-complexity-of-algorithms-big-o-notation-explained-in-plain-english-e12a11dc4a4f
['Yong Cui']
2020-05-17 09:01:01.146000+00:00
['Technology', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Software Engineering', 'Programming', 'Python']
748
Ed-Tech Startups Are Cashing in on Parents’ Insecurities
The tech hustle culture that takes lives every day It is no secret that millions of youngsters in India prepare for these exams 2 years before they are supposed to take them. Many of them don’t even want to be engineers. Many of them choose it because they have never been granted the freedom to even consider anything else. An alarming number of Indian households abhor the idea of their children having desires and interests of their own — ones that aren’t conventionally profitable. This has inevitably lead to thousands of students ending their lives not being able to cope with the pressure. And those who are still alive neglect their mental health so much that their lives simply become a dull existence. The focus has now shifted to children If it wasn’t enough to put our teenagers under crushing expectations, we’ve now gone a step further. Little children. Several ed-tech startups are now starting to lure in the parents of young kids by dangling their dreams before them. In this rapidly advancing world, with people of all ages excelling left and right, any average parent would have FOMO. The fear of missing out. Not for themselves, but for their children. So many parents would grab at any chance to give their kids a life they could only dream of. And popular ed-tech companies are now happily monetizing this fear. Bizarre claims in the pretense of marketing Here is an ad that will summarize the entire marketing strategies of ed-tech companies lately. Image source This is one company that has gone above and beyond to stick to its targets. So, let us get this straight. They have created a fictional pre-teen with the name Wolf Gupta. And little Wolf here actually earns 1.5 billion per year, because he is a superstar prodigy who works at Google. There are several other ridiculous ads like these, flaunting imaginary six-figure salaries and child brainiacs. Note that every one of these ads makes sure to kindle the insecurities of parents everywhere. “Other useless little kids were watching cartoons, but Wolf? No, Wolf is special. Wolf is no idiot. Because his parents came to us and we made him a billionaire in 4 months. Your child could be the next Wolf. Your child could be on a flight to Silicon Valley right now. Join us today!” They crush anyone who questions them When Youtuber Pradeep Poonia pointed out the blatant lies, he was met with an army of cyber warriors under the employ of the above company, whose name I almost fear to take. Why? Because they slapped a 200-million-rupee defamation lawsuit against him. The vicious takedown of numerous posts and people on social media is frightening. Several YouTube videos, Quora posts/accounts, LinkedIn posts/accounts, Reddit threads/users, Twitter handles, Instagram comments, Facebook profiles. The list goes on and on. I sincerely hope this doesn't get taken down too. A couple of months ago, ASCI demanded that these false ads be taken down. And the company even admitted that this mastermind Wolf Gupta does not exist. But they will not stop barring any form of even the slightest criticism. Thankfully, their extreme efforts are slowly backfiring and their discrepancies are highlighted by high-profile networks like Forbes India, Inc42, The News Minute, The Print, and The Wire. What can we do? Before running straight into the tangled web of these slick companies who demand exorbitant fees, do your own research. All the learning material and resources paraded by such companies are often found at much lower prices and with much more experienced teachers. These ads that were posted openly and often televised on mainstream channels are an insult to our intelligence. We need to realize that they treat us like sheep because they are that confident that we will fall for their traps. This brings us to our next, and probably the most important point. Let kids be kids. What is so wrong with a child acting his/her age? Why are we obsessed with pushing them to be coding whizzes when they’re learning how to ride a bicycle? These “useless” hobbies are essential for a child’s wholesome development. Wanting them to map out their entire future before their age reaches double digits is a delusion. If you introduce the concept of coding to your child, and they are genuinely interested to learn more, that’s great. If your research directs you to a good ed-tech platform that is worth your investment, by all means, go ahead. But don’t implant firm ideas in their minds, that would never naturally occur to them. There’s nothing wrong with having a big dream for your kids. Just don’t force it upon them if they don’t share that dream with you.
https://medium.com/swlh/ed-tech-startups-are-cashing-in-on-parents-insecurities-4085ac087099
['Bertilla Niveda']
2020-12-21 14:16:39.707000+00:00
['Education', 'Technology', 'Children', 'Edtech', 'Parenting']
749
TYPES OF MARKET RESEARCH
Today I’m going to share the DAY 2 task conducted by the INTERNITY FOUNDATION about the information regarding types of market research and how it has been helping the industries and various business concern. There are two types of market research a) Qualitative market research b) Quantitative market research Qualitative Research methods are specific procedures for collecting and analyzing data. Here are some of the types a) Focus groups A focus group involves a limited number of participants used for data collection. Such a target audience is there to find the responses to ‘what’, ‘how’, and ‘why’ questions. online surveys can be sent on several devices to collect the answers. b) Interviews The benefits of this approach include collecting data about what people believe and what their motivations are. Such interviews can be conducted face-to-face or on the telephone. c) Ethnographic Research This model is the most popular and widely recognized method. It analyzes people in their naturally occurring environment. The main goal is to learn the motivations, cultural challenges, and settings that happen Example: You have to analyze the day to day activity of the customers how they interact with the product. d) Case study The case study approach occurs over extended periods of time to compile information. It involves an in-depth understanding of a subject such as an event, person, business, or place. Similarly, the data is collected from various sources, including interviews, direct observation, and historical documentation. These are the varoius types of qualitative market research was accepted by the most number of business concerns. Now we are going to see the Quantitive market research #1 – Survey Research Using the survey research as the method of research, an organization conducting survey ask different survey questions from the respondents using the various types like online surveys, online polls, paper questionnaires, etc. and then collect data and analyze collected data in order to produce the numerical results. #2 – Causal-Comparative Research The Causal-Comparative Research method is used to draw conclusions with respect to the cause and effect equation between the two or more than two variables, where the one variable will be dependent on other variables, which will be independent. #3 – Experimental Research This analysis is done for the purpose of proving or for disproving the statement. It is generally used in the field of natural sciences or in the field of social sciences as in those areas; various statements are there which required to be proved as right or wrong #4 – Correlation Research Correlation Research was conducted for establishing a relationship between the two closely associated entities to knowing the impact of one on the other and the changes which eventually observed. It is carried for giving value to the naturally occurring relationships. For this research minimum, two different groups will be required. — GOKUL.C
https://medium.com/@gokulsekar1225/types-of-market-research-f709fc68822a
['C Gokul']
2021-06-08 17:56:37.042000+00:00
['Marketing', 'Surveys', 'Case Study', 'Technology']
750
Why the Blockchain will Revolutionize Academic Credentialing
This is a transcript of the presentation given during Educause at the Anaheim Convention Center on October 28, 2016. Hello everyone. My name is Chris Jagers. I’m the CEO of Learning Machine, the software company that has been working with MIT over the last year to develop an open standard for blockchain certificates. I’ll be giving a short presentation about blockchain-based academic credentials, followed by a discussion with our panel and with all of you. Kim Hamilton Duffy is the Principal Engineer jointly hired by the MIT Media Lab and Learning Machine to lead efforts on developing a new standard for issuing and verifying blockchain certificates. I’m so glad she is here because she will be able to provide the authoritative answer to any technical questions or misconceptions. John Papinchak is the Registrar for Carnegie Mellon University. I’ve asked him to join us so can help speak to the current state of credentialing and the needs of real-world of institutions, particularly from a registrar’s perspective. is the Registrar for Carnegie Mellon University. I’ve asked him to join us so can help speak to the current state of credentialing and the needs of real-world of institutions, particularly from a registrar’s perspective. Natalie Smolenski is the head of Learning Machine Research. She has written extensively on the future of credentialing, particularly in regard to skills and how the blockchain fits into that big picture. A collection of her recent essays on this topic are in the back, so be sure to pick that up. Dan Hughes is the Chief Operating Officer of Learning Machine. He has been instrumental in guiding our collaboration with the Media Lab as well as our own commercial products for blockchain certificates, arriving in a few months. There’s been a lot of genuine excitement around using the blockchain within higher education (and beyond) because the promise is immense. The promise is that it will enable students to hold and share their own official records directly with others in a manner that is safe, tamper-proof, and trusted. We’re talking about degrees, transcripts, certifications, badges … everything. That is a really big deal. Before we dive into details that technology, let’s cover some background. Even though schools moved from sheepskin to digital records a while ago, schools are still acting as the sole record keepers for student information. If a student wants to access or share their official records, they have to engage in a slow, complicated, and often expensive process. And so, for the most part, those records aren’t used much after graduation, nor built upon. Additionally, education is changing. Online learning and competency-based programs are rising in popularity. And this is magnified by a rapidly growing number of accredited education providers that expand far beyond traditional schools. This is causing a proliferation of educational claims that are hard to manage and it raises many new questions, both in terms of policy and technology. And what I hope to explain today is how a new technical infrastructure has emerged that enables students to be part of the solution by acting as their own lifelong registrar. Let’s start by looking at an example. A little over a year ago, the MIT Media Lab started an experiment for issuing some alumni digital certificates that could be validated using the Bitcoin blockchain. I say “experiment,” because it wasn’t ready to be safely released to the public, but it did illustrate how to use the blockchain as a notary for issuing certificates and verifying their authenticity. The image above shows that verification process taking place, which involves checking MIT’s signature, checking that nothing has changed in the certificate itself, and checking that the certificate hasn’t expired or been revoked. Once all that checks out, which just takes a second, a verified status is displayed. We’ve all heard funny stories of kids attempting to text photos of their official grades during the admissions process, but MIT’s prototype demonstrated how this new technology could actually secure that type of direct interaction for sharing official records. Image credit: MIT Media Lab article Let’s take a closer look at that prototype. The bottom of this slide represents the global blockchain database, which is basically a timeline of transactions. It is constituted by blocks of transactions that form one continuous chain. A blockchain. And because each new block builds upon the previous block, the entire chain is immutable. This is why it’s often referred to as a secure anchor of trust, because no government or private company can edit its history. And the schematic on top shows the core concept for logging certificate transactions. The blockchain itself is simply a ledger of transactions. In the case of money, it is recording financial transactions: who sent it, who received it, and how much. That pattern makes it ideally suited to record academic credentialing as well, because it records the same basic things: who issued it, who received it, and a one-way hash of the content that can later be used for verification. An academic achievement is simply another kind of value. The idea was clear, but this prototype had barriers preventing much use in the real world. For instance, it didn’t take into account how to efficiently issue thousands of certificates at the same time in a manner that was computationally efficient or cost effective. So, we began a year long collaboration to expand the concept and implementation into a complete toolkit of open-source components that any developer, school, or vendor could use. This week, we’re excited to announce that this toolkit has been launched and is freely available at www.blockcerts.org. This open standard is OBI compliant and includes libraries for creating, issuing, holding, viewing, and verifying blockchain credentials. There is no other public resource delivering this complete ecosystem. The website itself is a friendly introduction to the source code on Git, and it includes helpful articles that introduce the project, answers questions, and provides step-by-step guides. And I should point out, that this codebase is already being used by MIT and others, so the future is here. It’s not two years away. Diagram from www.blockcerts.org Now, let’s take a look at how all these components can work together in the real world. This diagram is organized into three lanes: one for a school, one for a student, and one for employers or anyone else that needs to verify authenticity. The process starts with the mobile app, which handles all of the crypto key-management stuff in the background. And just as you might add friends within a new app, the student simply adds their school. This sends the school their name, email, and public key which establishes a strong connection between them. Once that’s setup, the school can begin issuing that person certificates. When a certificate is issued, a record of the transaction goes onto the blockchain. And the student can then hold their official certificate within their mobile app. The school still has an official copy, but now the student does as well. Let’s say that student later wants to apply for a job. They apply through an employer’s HR system and they paste a link to their certificate. The HR system uses an independent blockchain verification service to verify any claims that are made. And it’s by using an independent verification service, as oppose to the one built into the certificate, that sidesteps any attempts at faking a blockchain certificate. That’s it. No school, vendor, or institution has to be consulted at any point during the verification process. The student has a convenient way to use their academic credentials, and employers have an immediate way to view and verify those claims. And perhaps more profoundly, the world has an entirely new infrastructure of trust for the 21st century. Global distributed network So let’s talk a little more about that infrastructure. The Bitcoin blockchain persists as a distributed network all over the world, just like the Internet. It’s replicated across thousands of computers, so it can’t be easily taken down. If institutions disappear, or even if entire governments collapse, people with blockchain-based certificates can still prove their education and what they have achieved. In essence, they can prove who they are. And the current refugee crisis highlights the relevance of this breakthrough. People need a more reliable ways to operate as self-sovereign individuals. In my experience, once schools grasp the magnitude of this technology, they want to get practical. How can they use it? How easy is it to get started? If you’re a developer, the code and instructions for building are available today at blockcerts.org. If you’re school that wants a convenient product, we’ll be launching a commercial app for Registrars this January, which provides a graphical interface for issuing and tracking the use of certificates. This commercial product will also serve as a model to other vendors, for how they can use the Blockcerts toolkit to build out their own solutions. And, I want to show you a preview of the product, because I think that seeing a friendly user interface can also help to clarify many of these concepts. This is just an example for educational purposes (not an actual diploma). Certificates could be anything, from badges to actual transcripts with grades. This particular view is part of the process for issuing a certificate template to an entire cohort of students. It’s kind of like an email campaign. At this point, the certificate on the right has been defined, the recipient list can be selected, the date/time of issuance can be scheduled, and the email notification can be customized as well. Once this goes out, the transaction gets registered on the the blockchain and the certificate appears for students in their mobile app.
https://medium.com/learning-machine-blog/why-the-blockchain-will-revolutionize-academic-credentialing-9950c9c4928d
[]
2018-07-31 14:47:07.552000+00:00
['Technology', 'Learning', 'Blockchain', 'Higher Education', 'Bitcoin']
751
寶島金融FMF雙週報00013期
in In Fitness And In Health
https://medium.com/%E5%AF%B6%E5%B3%B6%E9%87%91%E8%9E%8Dformosa-financial/%E5%AF%B6%E5%B3%B6%E9%87%91%E8%9E%8Dfmf%E9%9B%99%E9%80%B1%E5%A0%B100013%E6%9C%9F-9b1016ff09bd
['Chloe Hsu']
2019-03-20 10:40:12.899000+00:00
['Fintech', 'Technology', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain', 'Brokerage']
752
This is worth a watch: Robots Dancing
Get this newsletter By signing up, you will create a Medium account if you don’t already have one. Review our Privacy Policy for more information about our privacy practices. Check your inbox Medium sent you an email at to complete your subscription.
https://medium.com/predict/this-is-worth-a-watch-robots-dancing-3ed4d92a9c05
['Eric Martin']
2020-12-30 18:03:40.995000+00:00
['Future', 'Predict', 'Robots', 'Technology', 'AI']
753
Rolling With The COVID-19 Punches — #WCW with Julia Cheek, CEO and Founder of Everlywell
Julia Cheek, CEO and Founder of Everlywell When COVID-19 came to the United States, we were unprepared. We didn’t have enough medical supplies to support our nurses, doctors, and first-responders on the front lines. And we didn’t have enough tests to know how many Americans were actually infected. The virus was beating us and all we could do — if we’re lucky enough to be able to—was stay home. That’s why Julia Cheek and the team at Everlywell stepped up. Cheek and her team announced that they would be the first U.S. company to sell COVID-19 in-home tests direct to consumers. Days later, the FDA sent out a public announcement that at-home tests were not approved, even in partnership with labs that were approved. The hope of flattening the curve and keeping uninfected people out of the overwhelmed hospital system couldn’t outweigh the risks of at-home COVID-19 tests being administered incorrectly. The variables were still too unknown by the FDA. With policies changing by the day and the public in desperate search of tests, Everlywell found itself in the center of one of the biggest crises the world has seen. So, what did they do? On March 22nd CEO Julia Cheek and the Everlywell team decided to pause the consumer launch and make their at-home tests available for hospitals and healthcare companies with workers on the front line of the crisis. This way the tests would still make a huge impact on the people who need tests the most while giving the FDA time to catch up and validate in-home testing (or create new guidelines to derisk it). We sat down with Cheek to hear more about what she has learned through the process of responding to this crisis and navigating extreme ambiguity under intense pressure and scrutiny. And what we can learn about our medical system through this incredibly painful lesson. Give us the quick backstory on Everlywell. What problem did you see with lab testing in medicine? A few years ago, I personally struggled with chronic pain and fatigue. I visited around half a dozen doctors to figure out what was wrong with me. I had insurance and still ended up paying thousands of dollars out of pocket for lab tests without any clarity on what my test results were. Long story short, I was finally diagnosed with a simple but debilitating set of vitamin deficiencies and hormone issues. Once the right tests were conducted, I felt better within weeks. That’s how I ended up starting Everlywell. The premise of our company is to give Americans an affordable, convenient way to get tested that fits their busy lifestyles. We’ve already helped hundreds of thousands of people get tested. Everlywell was the first US company to create COVID-19 at-home tests. What advantage did you have that allowed you to move on this so quickly? With the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are now in a situation where laboratory testing is suddenly at the forefront of the national dialogue around public health. There is an extreme shortage of test kits in America. But Everlywell already has the infrastructure and experience to provide Americans testing options that can be conducted from home. We are bringing what we’ve learned through years of at-home collection lab testing to help combat COVID-19. On March 8, we put out a call to the laboratory network in America to help us fast-track the development of a test for coronavirus. Within days, dozens of laboratories had answered our call. From there, we narrowed down the list to a handful of high quality, CLIA-certified labs, many of whom have expertise in respiratory viruses, to help bring COVID-19 testing to the people who need it most. Everlywell’s at-home COVID-19 test will first be available to front-line responders Help us understand why bigger companies weren’t able to move as quickly as Everlywell. What does this tell us about the medical industry as a whole? The system is broken and needs to be fixed. Two years ago, the global health security team on the National Security Council (NSC) that was responsible for preparing for widespread public health emergencies was disbanded — this was a critical oversight. The infrastructure to deal with a pandemic like this just doesn’t exist. It has a domino effect on labs, hospitals, clinics and emergency rooms that may end with these facilities becoming overloaded. Convenient testing options that can be carried out at home can help solve this problem. And we are a unique position to address this national need for testing. How was the process of shifting to first-responders and pivoting away from consumer sales? What did you learn from that decision? It wasn’t easy. It took muscle, sweat and brains. It meant that our team had to piece together information from the federal government, from the global supply chain, and a million other sources, including thousands of people who wrote to us. Many of those people were doctors and nurses who wanted testing for their patients and staff — even for themselves. Others were from regular people who were worried that they were sick. All were desperate for testing. All of these inputs went into our decision making, which happened over the course of many early mornings, long days, late nights, and weekends. We made our decisions in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment, but what we did over the course of a few days is something that many businesses are now having to do over the course of the next few weeks and months. How do you survive in this new COVID-19-dominated world? How do you thrive? How do you balance profit with doing good in a world where people may be experiencing financial hardship, where they are afraid? These are questions all businesses are now having to ask themselves. For us, our commitments are clear. We have half a million customers who rely on us for things like cholesterol, thyroid, STD and fertility testing — we need to continue to give them the best care, especially in this new world where many people can’t go outside. And given the infrastructure we’ve built over the years to get people tested without having to leave their homes, we feel we have a responsibility to use that infrastructure to help people get tested for COVID-19, even when that means we don’t make a profit on those efforts. How did you come to the decision to offer COVID-19 tests to first-responders instead of directly to consumers? Three things happened. First, we heard from thousands of people who were desperate for testing. Many of the hardest emails and notes to read were from frontline healthcare workers. I heard from one emergency room doctor who told me he thought he had coronavirus. He said something like “I think I have COVID-19 but I can’t get tested for it. There aren’t enough tests. I’m afraid I’m going to get my patients sick.” We made our announcement on Wednesday March 18th that our test would be available on Monday. By Thursday the 19th, we had already decided to allocate a significant portion of our tests to healthcare providers. It seemed like the right thing to do. Second, on Friday, March 20th, the FDA provided updated statements regarding at-home collection testing and continued to provide clarifying updates regarding our type of testing over the next few days. The FDA has been providing updated guidance every few days throughout this pandemic — we had been following all of the guidelines available at that point and continue to do so. Their Friday evening update made us regroup internally about the best path forward. Third, on Saturday, March 21st, the White House’s Coronavirus Task Force provided a statement reinforcing the need for available testing to go to high-risk groups. They were very clear, and you may be familiar with those groups by now: frontline healthcare professionals, symptomatic individuals in long-term care facilities, seniors age 65+. Given all of these updates, we made the decision to allocate our entire initial supply of test kits to organizations that could provide testing for these vulnerable populations. We’re now working with hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and state and city organizations to supply them with needed testing, both for their healthcare workers and their patients. There has been some concern from the FDA that people may incorrectly self-administer COVID-19 tests. How do you think about a challenge like this? What is your process for improving your technology to account for user behavior and error for future tests? Since founding this company a few years ago, we’ve convinced half a million people to prick their fingers, pee in cups, or swab themselves in the name of better health. It’s not always glamorous, but it’s convenient — and it works. When it comes to self-administered sample collection for COVID-19 testing, there’s a helpful article recently published in the medical journal JAMA which contains information from some of the medical community on at-home collection testing and how self-administered swab collection could make a difference in the fight against COVID-19. There’s even more info this Q&A with the Center for Health Journalism and a new study from UnitedHealth Group on the accuracy of self-collected samples for COVID-19 testing. What can we learn from Everlywell’s ability to respond to the crisis (i.e. what do we need more of right now)? We need to modernize our approach to healthcare and create a streamlined way for Americans to access general health testing in an affordable, convenient way that fits their lifestyles. This is especially important for those who are uninsured, have high deductibles, those without paid sick time. Telehealth and telemedicine can help close care gaps, as well as at-home testing and on-demand healthcare services. Healthcare options should fit the patient’s needs, not the other way around. And everyone needs a safety net. To advance as a nation, we need more policies that protect people from surprise bills and work themselves to death because they don’t have paid sick days. With COVID-19, consumers understand the value of an in-home test, but your company has been ahead of this curve. Why in-home testing in general? Because uninsured people looking to get tested shouldn’t receive thousands in surprise medical bills. Everyone should have access to medical testing, with or without insurance. Everlywell was founded on the premise that no one should ever be surprised by a medical bill. We’ve actually been approached by many insurance companies who wanted to work with us in the past, but we almost always turn them down. Medical billing is notoriously opaque. If a price isn’t transparent, then it goes against our values. How will COVID-19 change our healthcare system? What does this mean for companies like Everlywell? COVID-19 is already changing how the White House, government officials and public health departments are approaching laboratory testing in America — these conversations are going on as we speak. Lab testing isn’t always a glamorous topic, but it’s an important one. If everyone doesn’t have safe, accurate, affordable and convenient access to testing, then our healthcare system is inherently flawed. Everlywell is trying to change that. Editor’s Note: Everlywell is still working on providing an at-home test and hopes to share a status update on those efforts soon.
https://medium.com/allraise/the-woman-flattening-the-covid-19-curve-with-in-home-tests-wcw-with-julia-cheek-ceo-and-founder-a83fb0c596d0
['Emily Fields Joffrion']
2020-04-23 17:22:30.171000+00:00
['Coronavirus', 'Covid 19', 'Healthcare Technology', 'Female Founders', 'Medicine']
754
Oracle and KPMG Cloud Threat Report. Snapshot teaser, this report makes such an interesting read.
A traveler of both time and space...to be where I want to be…find me another space in another time. Follow
https://medium.com/datacrat/oracle-and-kpmg-cloud-threat-report-snapshot-teaser-this-report-makes-such-an-interesting-read-7aee8a674d8e
[]
2019-03-07 11:28:36.011000+00:00
['Cybersecurity', 'Oracle', 'Technology', 'Cloud Computing', 'Data']
755
How To Solve Non-Linear Equations Using Matlab?
How to Solve Non-Linear Equations Using Matlab A step-by-step guide on how to find roots of non-linear equations using the bisection method on Matlab. We all know that calculators have pre-installed general equations which give output basis on the inputs of the equation. The results are quicker and have fewer errors as compared to human solving the equation. Similarly, solving equations on computers is faster and even have fewer errors as compared to calculators. Computers can perform multiple functions, whereas the latest calculators are limited to a few. Photo by Antoine Dautry on Unsplash What is linear and non-linear equation? Sometimes remembering the definitions can be a really hard task, at such times remembering small indicators is beneficial. How I remember the linear and non-linear equation is through their graphs. Linear equations look like a straight line when sketched, whereas non-linear equations look like a curve. Linear equations have a constant slope, whereas non-linear equations have a variable slope. Furthermore, the output is directly proportional to its input for linear equations and vice versa for non-linear equations. For better understanding, let me give an example of a simple linear and non-linear equation. ax+by+cz=0 — Linear Equation x²-4 — Non Linear Equation How To Solve Non-Linear Equations Using Matlab? Algorithm & Source Code: Algorithm And Source Code of Matlab Program (Bisection Method) For better understanding, I shall explain how the program works. As we all know, in order to solve any non-linear equation we need a code which asks the user for the equation. Using the input function, the display asks the user to enter the function and stores it as string because we used a syntax of the function in which we can tell the data type to store in as well. Here it was string s . The function inline converts the string into function. After the user has entered the non-linear equation, he/she needs to input the limits of x; upper and lower, and tolerance error value. The program checks if the user enters the correct limits, when the condition is true then the program continues, if not then the program asks user to input the limits again. The formula for finding the root value of x is “xr=(xu+xl)/2” where xu is the upper limit and xl is the lower limit. After calculating xr, the program will increment tolerance error with 1 and store it in “aerror” variable. The function fplot will plot the graph of non-linear equation with range of minimum limit (xl) and maximum limit (xu). There is a pre-condition loop which runs until it fulfils the set condition. The condition is when approximation error is greater than tolerance. After entering the loop, there is an increment for the counter. In each loop, the program checks if the multiple of f(xl) and f(xr) is greater than 0. If the multiple is greater than 0, then the upper limit is stored in the variable of lower limit, whereas if multiple is less than 0, then the lower limit is stored in the variable of upper limit. After which it recalculates the root value with a new set of limits. The value of approximation error is also recalculated. Then whatever programmer asked for is displayed on screen. Output: The graph above is of the non-linear equation “x²-4”, the limits are; 5 as the upper limit and 0 as the lower limit. The root is at x=2, it is circled because of the function plot . The program will also output a set of values for;
https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-solve-non-linear-equations-using-matlab-252b54934dfb
['Syed Zaidi']
2020-12-21 17:50:28.375000+00:00
['Software Development', 'Coding', 'Programming', 'Matlab', 'Technology']
756
H+ Weekly — Issue #289. What’s next for Boston Dynamics; the AI…
More Than A Human ► Can You Upload Your Mind & Live Forever? (13:57) Kurzgesagt takes a closer look at the concept of mind uploading and digital immortality. It explains what do we mean by “mind uploading” and explores challenges and questions we are and will face before anyone achieves digital immortality — from the fundamental question of what is mind and what makes you “you” to technical challenges of brain scanning to speculating how digital immortality could change our behaviour. German Bionic raises $20M led by Samsung for exoskeleton tech to supercharge human labor German Bionic raised $20 million to fund that its plans to use to continue building out its business, as well as its technology, both in terms of the hardware — the Cryo X exoskeleton — and the cloud-based software platform. This news also shows there is interest in exoskeletons not only in research but also as a business. Artificial Intelligence The AI Girlfriend Seducing China’s Lonely Men Looks like movie Her has become a reality. Xiaoice is an AI bot that’s redefining China’s conceptions of romance and relationships. Appearing as an 18-year-old who likes to wear Japanese-style school uniforms, she flirts, jokes, and even sexts with her human partners, as her algorithm tries to work out how to become their perfect companion. According to Xiaoice’s creators, the bot has reached over 600 million users. The author of this article visits one of them and describes the life of someone who is dating a bot. This Company Uses AI to Outwit Malicious AI As AI is used more widely, new opportunities for exploiting weak spots in the technology also are emerging. That’s given rise to companies that probe AI systems for vulnerabilities, with the goal of catching malicious input before it can wreak havoc. This article focuses on one of those companies — Robust Intelligence — which creates an AI to outwit check reading AIs. Robotics Hyundai Buys Boston Dynamics for Nearly $1 Billion. Now What? This article contemplates Boston Dynamics future as a part of Hyundai — how the partnership can look like and what the acquisition means for their robots — Spot, Handle and Atlas. The fate of Atlas is an interesting question. “Depending on whether Hyundai views Boston Dynamics as a company that does research or a company that makes robots that are useful and profitable, it may be difficult for Boston Dynamics to justify the cost to develop the next Atlas, when the current one still seems so far from commercialization”, writes Evan Ackerman. Why Do Many Self-Driving Cars Look Like Toasters on Wheels? The answer — form equals function. Industry experts had long predicted that the first autonomous vehicles would be shared electric shuttles, to ferry multiple people around cities à la UberPool. Without any need for steering wheels or pedals, the cubes give passengers more room to manoeuvre inside. Cubes also work nicely as electric vehicles, at a time when most AV-makers promise their first offering will be electric. The conventional, combustion-powered vehicle has an engine and a drivetrain, but EVs have compact powertrains, enclosing all the necessary parts, which fits neatly on the bottom of vehicles. Biotechnology We Call DNA a Language. Is It? We tend to use the language metaphor when describing DNA. But as this article points out, “if our understanding of a thing like DNA changes, the metaphors we use to describe it should change as well, or else they can encumber further scientific discovery” and describes how this metaphor has deceived us and oversimplified the complexities inside DNA. Stop Arguing over GMO Crops “In 2020, the “GMO vs. organic” debate is outdated and unproductive”, states this article and calls to accept and support GMO research as a path to feed the world and make agriculture resilient to climate change and make feeding the world sustainable.
https://medium.com/h-weekly/h-weekly-issue-289-d970ec19c74f
['Conrad Gray']
2020-12-20 10:17:27.894000+00:00
['Technology News', 'Technews', 'Robotics', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Transhumanism']
757
Applying Action & The Importance of Ideas
How do we start taking action on our ideas? Mitchell D. Pousson II / October 02, 2020 We’ve all been there. You’re out with a couple of close friends finishing what you assumed to be the last drink of the night when you hear the phrase “I’ve actually got this idea for an app that would…” The benevolent spark quickly flames into a chorus of other app ideas as the rest of the group begins chiming in. Before you know it, you’re ordering another beer — maybe even adding in a collective round of shots to keep the pace of the conversation flowing. By the end of the night, you and a couple of other future innovators are now newly-wed business partners, vowing to make sure the rubber hits the road and the product gets made. You wake up and all that’s erased. Chug some water, then some coffee, and get back to the important stuff like making phone calls and writing emails. No one follows up. No action is taken. The thought occurs that “maybe we’ll make some more progress next weekend when we all go out again.” Unfortunately, this is typically the fashion that ideas come to live and die by. All talk, No Walk. In the words of Peter F. Drucker, author of The Effective Executive: “The greatest wisdom not applied to action and behavior is meaningless data.” So how do we start taking action on our ideas? I wish I had the answer. Unfortunately, all I can supply are relevant suggestions from the same google searches you will or have already entertained. With that said, Tyler and I love using analogies to communicate our often times lofty and abstract ideas while Jerodis and Zach are more concrete thinkers who help us anchor the ship. If you’re in the same the boat as the latter, feel free to stop reading now. But…for our next blog, we want to talk about the concept of working with the garage door open, so we thought we’d share a brain-dump from our private slack channel: We’re freezing to death in the cold reality of jobs we hate without realizing we’re sitting on a bed of starter logs surrounded by kerosene soaked kindling under a constant barrage of sparks, ready to light a fire as soon as we decide to fan the flame just a little bit longer. The problem is — as soon as the initial inspiration wears off, we stop tending to the process of tuning the spark into a life-saving fire. Sparks often go dark before they really catch, but that’s normal in the process of starting a fire. The patience to continue working even after the initial light fades is the key to achieving the autonomy you seek. Unfortunately in our instant-gratification fueled world, very few stick with anything long enough to turn a potential idea or concept into a sustainable solution. This is especially true when the bright orange glimmer of hope has dissipated, leaving behind only the eye burning smoke signifying what looks to be the end of your short-lived dreams. On top of the immediate pain and discouragement stemming from the extinguished fire, you’re often surrounded by a shower of more-promising new, bright, and shiny sparks that offer the renewed hope of an easy path toward success. But chasing these sparks resembles scuba diving into a kiddy pool, a venture that is far less scary than a real dive but rarely worth the time or money. We have too much of too little, and should instead focus on less of more. Go deeper, don’t stop when the spark withers dim. It could be on the verge of lighting the fire that saves your life. Whatever you choose to do, pick a flame and fan it. Sparks alone will never keep you warm. This is how we help ordinary people build extraordinary products.
https://medium.com/sprinter-hq/applying-action-the-importance-of-ideas-874c821eafb6
['Mitchell Pousson Ii']
2020-10-02 19:43:17.111000+00:00
['Blog', 'Ideas', 'Product Management', 'Technology', 'Software Development']
758
Uses of blockchain in environmental initiatives in Spain.
The Correos agreement is not the only new initiative to use blockchain to mitigate corporations environmental impact. Other Spanish companies such as energy start-up Greenb2e also have tokenization projects for the use of renewable energy. In particular, this project seeks to promote ecological practices for companies. Another Spanish project launched December this year has the backing of Spain’s largest department store chain El Corte Inglés, in partnership with the Energías de Portugal (EDP) group. Through this project, both entities will certify the use of renewable energy in El Corte Inglés stores, starting with a pilot in the towns of Malaga, Seville, and Cádiz. This is also not Spain’s only pledge to incorporate emerging technology into its infrastructure. In July 2018, more than 130 deputies of Spain’s Popular Party drafted a bill proposing the implementation of blockchain technology to make government administration more transparent and efficient. The post Spanish postal service Correos will offset CO2 emissions with blockchain appeared first on Coin Rivet. More people have started using XcelPay Wallet in different countries. XcelPay Wallet app, now available on IOS and Android app stores. Try it today! XcelPay Wallet is an easy to use payment solution that provides security for your cryptos assets and your transactions. You can download the latest version of XcelPay Wallet 2.0.28 with new interactive UI and wallet recovery with ETH private key.
https://medium.com/xcellab-magazine/uses-of-blockchain-in-environmental-initiatives-in-spain-af74b9cf846a
['Xcelpay Wallet']
2020-01-14 10:01:09.045000+00:00
['Blockchain Technology', 'Climate Change', 'Bitcoin Wallet', 'Xcelpay', 'Blockchain']
759
If all you do is follow the exact same routine every day, you will never leave yourself open to moments of sudden discovery. Do you remember how
If all you do is follow the exact same routine every day, you will never leave yourself open to moments of sudden discovery. Do you remember how Nadal vs Tsitsipas Live TV Nov 19, 2020·6 min read Life is a journey of twists and turns, peaks and valleys, mountains to climb and oceans to explore. Good times and bad times. Happy times and sad times. But always, life is a movement forward. No matter where you are on the journey, in some way, you are continuing on — and that’s what makes it so magnificent. One day, you’re questioning what on earth will ever make you feel happy and fulfilled. And the next, you’re perfectly in flow, writing the most important book of your entire career. https://www.deviantart.com/ncflive/commission/Nadal-R-Tsitsipas-S-live-score-video-stream-1410905 https://www.deviantart.com/ncflive/commission/Rafael-Nadal-vs-Stefanos-Tsitsipas-live-stream-1410906 https://www.deviantart.com/ncflive/commission/ATP-Finals-2020-live-Rafael-Nadal-vs-Stefanos-Tsitsipas-live-stream-1410907 https://www.deviantart.com/ncflive/commission/Nadal-vs-Tsitsipas-LIVE-STREAM-REDDIT-1410908 https://www.deviantart.com/ncflive/commission/Stream-official-Nadal-vs-Tsitsipas-LIVE-STREAM-REDDIT-1410909 https://www.deviantart.com/ncflive/commission/LiveStream-Nadal-vs-Tsitsipas-Live-Online-1410910 https://www.deviantart.com/ncflive/commission/Livestream-Rafael-Nadal-vs-Stefanos-Tsitsipas-Live-1410911 https://www.deviantart.com/ncflive/commission/Nadal-vs-Tsitsipas-Live-Stream-Free-1410912 https://www.deviantart.com/ncflive/commission/Nadal-vs-Tsitsipas-live-stream-How-to-watch-ATP-Finals-2020-match-onl-1410913 https://www.deviantart.com/ncflive/commission/LIVE-Tsitsipas-vs-Rublev-Live-Stream-Free-Tennis-Final-2020-1410914 https://www.deviantart.com/ncflive/commission/LiVE-Rafael-Nadal-vs-Stefanos-Tsitsipas-1410915 https://www.deviantart.com/ncflive/commission/Live-Rafael-Nadal-vs-Stefanos-Tsitsipas-LIVE-STREAM-1410916 https://www.deviantart.com/ncflive/commission/Live-Rafael-Nadal-vs-Stefanos-Tsitsipas-LIVE-STREAM-2020-1410917 https://www.deviantart.com/ncflive/commission/Live-Rafael-Nadal-vs-Stefanos-Tsitsipas-LIVe-STREAM-1410918 https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/285245 https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/285246 https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/285248 https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/285249 https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/285250 What nobody ever tells you, though, when you are a wide-eyed child, are all the little things that come along with “growing up.” 1. Most people are scared of using their imagination. They’ve disconnected with their inner child. They don’t feel they are “creative.” They like things “just the way they are.” 2. Your dream doesn’t really matter to anyone else. Some people might take interest. Some may support you in your quest. But at the end of the day, nobody cares, or will ever care about your dream as much as you. 3. Friends are relative to where you are in your life. Most friends only stay for a period of time — usually in reference to your current interest. But when you move on, or your priorities change, so too do the majority of your friends. 4. Your potential increases with age. As people get older, they tend to think that they can do less and less — when in reality, they should be able to do more and more, because they have had time to soak up more knowledge. Being great at something is a daily habit. You aren’t just “born” that way. 5. Spontaneity is the sister of creativity. If all you do is follow the exact same routine every day, you will never leave yourself open to moments of sudden discovery. Do you remember how spontaneous you were as a child? Anything could happen, at any moment! 6. You forget the value of “touch” later on. When was the last time you played in the rain? When was the last time you sat on a sidewalk and looked closely at the cracks, the rocks, the dirt, the one weed growing between the concrete and the grass nearby. Do that again. You will feel so connected to the playfulness of life. 7. Most people don’t do what they love. It’s true. The “masses” are not the ones who live the lives they dreamed of living. And the reason is because they didn’t fight hard enough. They didn’t make it happen for themselves. And the older you get, and the more you look around, the easier it becomes to believe that you’ll end up the same. Don’t fall for the trap. 8. Many stop reading after college. Ask anyone you know the last good book they read, and I’ll bet most of them respond with, “Wow, I haven’t read a book in a long time.” 9. People talk more than they listen. There is nothing more ridiculous to me than hearing two people talk “at” each other, neither one listening, but waiting for the other person to stop talking so they can start up again. 10. Creativity takes practice. It’s funny how much we as a society praise and value creativity, and yet seem to do as much as we can to prohibit and control creative expression unless it is in some way profitable. If you want to keep your creative muscle pumped and active, you have to practice it on your own. 11. “Success” is a relative term. As kids, we’re taught to “reach for success.” What does that really mean? Success to one person could mean the opposite for someone else. Define your own Success. 12. You can’t change your parents. A sad and difficult truth to face as you get older: You can’t change your parents. They are who they are. Whether they approve of what you do or not, at some point, no longer matters. Love them for bringing you into this world, and leave the rest at the door. 13. The only person you have to face in the morning is yourself. When you’re younger, it feels like you have to please the entire world. You don’t. Do what makes you happy, and create the life you want to live for yourself. You’ll see someone you truly love staring back at you every morning if you can do that. 14. Nothing feels as good as something you do from the heart. No amount of money or achievement or external validation will ever take the place of what you do out of pure love. Follow your heart, and the rest will follow. 15. Your potential is directly correlated to how well you know yourself. Those who know themselves and maximize their strengths are the ones who go where they want to go. Those who don’t know themselves, and avoid the hard work of looking inward, live life by default. They lack the ability to create for themselves their own future. 16. Everyone who doubts you will always come back around. That kid who used to bully you will come asking for a job. The girl who didn’t want to date you will call you back once she sees where you’re headed. It always happens that way. Just focus on you, stay true to what you believe in, and all the doubters will eventually come asking for help. 17. You are a reflection of the 5 people you spend the most time with. Nobody creates themselves, by themselves. We are all mirror images, sculpted through the reflections we see in other people. This isn’t a game you play by yourself. Work to be surrounded by those you wish to be like, and in time, you too will carry the very things you admire in them. 18. Beliefs are relative to what you pursue. Wherever you are in life, and based on who is around you, and based on your current aspirations, those are the things that shape your beliefs. Nobody explains, though, that “beliefs” then are not “fixed.” There is no “right and wrong.” It is all relative. Find what works for you. 19. Anything can be a vice. Be wary. Again, there is no “right” and “wrong” as you get older. A coping mechanism to one could be a way to relax on a Sunday to another. Just remain aware of your habits and how you spend your time, and what habits start to increase in frequency — and then question where they are coming from in you and why you feel compelled to repeat them. Never mistakes, always lessons. As I said, know yourself. 20. Your purpose is to be YOU. What is the meaning of life? To be you, all of you, always, in everything you do — whatever that means to you. You are your own creator. You are your own evolving masterpiece. Growing up is the realization that you are both the sculpture and the sculptor, the painter and the portrait. Paint yourself however you wish.
https://medium.com/@tsitsipasliveon/life-is-a-journey-of-twists-and-turns-peaks-and-valleys-mountains-to-climb-and-oceans-to-explore-f629d38b51b5
['Nadal Vs Tsitsipas Live Tv']
2020-11-19 20:06:44.093000+00:00
['Technology', 'Sports', 'Social Media', 'News', 'Live Streaming']
760
Creating Strong Passwords — 6 Things to Consider
In this digital age, everyone should have had at least one instance where they had to create a password unless they have some kind of a secret oath to stay away from technology completely. Passwords are the first line of defense to protect our internet identities. Hence, it is highly imperative that we make them as strong as possible, and here are few things to keep in mind on your password creation journey. 1. Avoid Common Passwords and Phrases I totally get it! Coming up with new passwords is tiring so it can be quite alluring to use the common words we use in our daily life or something that we already see on the screen. This is so much easier and less time-consuming right? It was easy for you to come up with in a matter of minutes if not seconds. So, how long do you think it will take a potential hacker to guess it? Yup, pretty much in no time. If you are using any of the above mentioned or a variant of it as your password, you really aren’t securing anything with that flimsy password. A hacker will usually have a list of so-called common passwords that contains thousands of commonly used passwords and will be the first thing he/she tries out. Let us just stay away from these easily guessable passwords, shall we? 2. Don’t Use Your Personal Information I have an idea let me make a password using my name, date of birth and you know what I will go an extra mile and change all the ‘a’ to @. Now I have made myself a secure password and finally, I can rest my mind. Woah, Woah, Woah! Let’s just take a minute and continue reading. If a person is trying to hack you, there is a very high probability that they already know your full name, date of birth, and other information that is readily available in our social media profiles. So yeah, personally identifiable information as your password, not a good idea. 3. Use Sentences as a Starting point You cannot use your name, common phrases, phone number, and other things related to you, how can I create a password then? Well, there is a trick I would like to share which I personally make use of. It’s quite simple actually. Just take a sentence, it could be your favorite movie quote, an excerpt from your book, your favorite character catchphrase, from the lyric of your song, it could be anything the choices are yours. As an example, I am going to take the famous words by the greatest man I have known (through comics and movies), Captain America, from the movie Avengers: Endgame. The world is in our hands. It’s left to us guys. We have to do something. Otherwise, Thanos should have killed all of us. So, we have a sentence now, that too a pretty good one. Next just take the first two letters of each word in the sentence and get rid of the rest. After this, Captain Roger’s quote will now look something like this “ThwoisinouhaitletousguwehatodosootThshhakialofus”. Just keep in mind, this doesn’t have to be the first two letters, it can be the first letter, the last two letters, something from the middle, or anything you prefer. It is entirely up to your crazy side. Let’s just now randomly change a few alphabets with special characters and numbers. If you don’t know what special characters are, it is just something like “@,!,#,$,& ”. I am going to replace all the ‘e’ with 3 and l with ‘!’ in the above example and the result is “Thwoisinouhait!3tousguw3hatodosootThshhakia!ofus”. That is it! Now we have a password that cannot be easily guessed and a lot more secure than whatever you first thought of. Plus, it’s quite easy to remember right? You just have to remember the sentence. 4. Longer The Better So now you know how to create a strong password. But then, most of us will try to create something that is only 8 characters long, why? Because the website or the app told you that it requires a password “Minimum of 8 characters” long. So, it is common for our minds to be content with only 8 characters. There is no need for you to compromise on this and stick to the minimum character length. Trust me it is entirely okay to go past the minimum character length, totally fine. 5. Never Repeat Just because you have a strong password it doesn’t mean that you should repeat it for all your websites, subscriptions, and applications. Because if by some misfortune one of the websites you have an account with has a breach and all their user credentials got leaked to the internet (Yup, that’s a thing. It happens more times than you think.). Wouldn’t it be better if you had a different password for all your sites in that case instead of having to go change all your passwords everywhere? 6. You Could Always Use a Password Manager I can see the wheels turning in your head wondering that it is going to be a lot of passwords to remember. This is going to be very hard If you don’t have a photographic memory like Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory or if you aren’t a robot. Do not fret, the “Password managers” are here. These are software that allows you to generate and remember the password for all your sites. Many of these come with varied features like customizing the length of the password, controlling the characters that can be used, and much more. So, instead of remembering many passwords you just have to remember one master password for the password manager and the password manager will do the rest. If you are one of those who use an Apple device the chances are you are already using a password manager. Apple has an in-built feature called iCloud Keychain. It suggests you passwords and also syncs them across all your devices. Alternatively, there are a lot of password managers available just a simple web search away. Just search for “Best password manager” on the internet compare the options available and choose the one that suits you.
https://medium.com/@mystobharath/creating-strong-passwords-6-things-to-consider-b8a3dc7fd1bc
[]
2020-12-20 16:48:51.266000+00:00
['Privacy', 'Digital Life', 'Technology', 'Cybersecurity', 'Lifestyle']
761
Reimagining Technology and K-12 Education in 2020
For any teacher, parent, or student in America today, it has become clear that the world of K-12 education is encountering a reckoning. Teachers deciding between in-person instruction or online learning feel like they are rolling the dice on an uncertain future. Parents and students are concerned with the apathy and slowed progress that may accompany online learning. It is likely that whatever happens, no party will be completely satisfied with the outcome. As a high school English teacher transitioning into Flatiron School’s software engineering program, I have been reflecting on how technology can enhance and enrich — rather than simply duplicate — the in-person aspect of learning. Additionally, I believe that within the current crisis in education, there is an opportunity to reflect on the aspects of education that are ineffective and to reimagine how technology can help students learn in meaningful ways. Speaking from the perspective of a former teacher who transitioned to distance learning in April 2020, one of the aspects of in-person instruction I missed the most was interacting with students: the lively group discussions and the ability to quickly help individual students. I lost much of that when distance learning started. I was no longer able to see student faces if their videos were turned off, and it was more difficult to maintain a natural flow to a class discussion. Given the fact that many school systems are now reverting back to distance learning plans, it is important that they invest in creating a robust distance learning system with technology that not only recreates the best aspects of in-person learning, but also provides additional tools for teachers to craft lessons that meet student needs. Based on my reflections on distance learning, here are some areas for improvement or enhancement: Security On the first day of distance learning in April, many teachers and students in our school system had to endure security breaches that plagued their online classrooms. Since a teacher had one Blackboard Collaborate link for all five of their classes, anyone with the link could enter the class. This led to anonymous users logging in with inappropriate usernames and posting disruptive or offensive comments in the chat. The solution that the school system came up with was less than optimal. It required each teacher having to manually input each student’s name and school email address into Blackboard Collaborate. While this did ensure some level of security, it was not the most efficient solution, particularly for teachers who had over a hundred students to input into the system. Students could also still share their links with others. An improved system might link student’s Blackboard Collaborate accounts with their school accounts. In this way, a user would only be able to access the Blackboard Collaborate accounts if they logged in to the individual student’s network account. Data Collection One of the most important aspects of teaching is gathering data from students and tailoring instruction to students’ strengths and weaknesses. Technology has the capacity to quickly collect student data on assignments and provide very quick feedback for the teacher on students’ progress. An example of a website with data collection is NoRedInk.com. Students practice grammar skills and take subsequent quizzes. Teachers are able to quickly glance at the data and see who has mastered a concept and who needs improvement. Tools for Collaboration Collaboration among students is one of the crucial best practices in education. Technology can help to facilitate this collaboration even if students are not meeting in person. In addition to breakout rooms in Blackboard Collaborate or Zoom, there can also be other ways for students to learn by being in conversation with each other. Google Classroom allows for students to work together on a Google Doc, and there are apps where students can work together to annotate poetry or other texts (e.g. genius.com). How can technology creators translate essential classroom collaborative activities (debates, seminars, small group-work) into web applications? Automation of Time-Intensive Tasks Aside from teaching lessons, teachers perform many additional tasks outside the classroom, such as grading and lesson planning. The more that technology can reduce the burden of grading and assessing for teachers, the better they will be able to focus their attention on their students. For example, if a teacher were grading 120 papers and wanted to check for plagiarism among students, it would be an arduous and time-intensive task to find matching papers. Technology that checked for plagiarism among student submissions would free up time for teachers to devote their attention to more essential duties. Conclusion Going forward in the Flatiron School program, I am looking forward to reflecting on ways that technology can create a more seamless transition between in-person instruction to blended or distance learning.
https://medium.com/@chsohn15/reimagining-technology-and-k-12-education-in-2020-f6841ba0c208
['Christina Sohn']
2020-07-29 13:03:26.159000+00:00
['Education', 'Technology', 'Flatiron School']
762
Lessons from 2020 to inspire Smart Cities in 2021
Smart cities are also resilient. As May came, the buzz around building resiliency in cities was abounding. But what does resilience really mean? The Oxford English Dictionary defines resilience as: 1) the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties, and 2) the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape, to be elastic. The modernization and innovation of our electrical system is one way in which cities can be more elastic in their approach to energy. The Greencity in Zürich Süd, Switzerland, made it to our Use Case of the Month for May because of its resiliency due to its capacity to generate 100% of its energy from locally generated renewable energy sources. What can we learn from this Use Case? The topic of Big Data became a fundamental issue during this project. Balancing the critical infrastructure of the energy infrastructure with Big Data while also protecting personal data should be at the forefront of any city’s pre-planning efforts. Cities must tackle governance issues in relation to emerging technologies and data, and this will continue to play a progressively more significant role in subsequent years. ‘It is better to be a Young June-Bug than an Old Bird of Paradise’ The European Commission has made some big leaps this year towards a sustainable future, and in late June we celebrated the EU (European Union) Sustainable Energy Week, focused on clean energy. So many creative and innovative solutions have been developed in 2020 and The Aberdeen City Council in Scotland inspired us with its Use Case of their hydrogen bus project and refuelling stations. The project, H2 Aberdeen, is also an example of how to combine local, national and European level funding to pursue hydrogen technology innovation. How can others use this trial of hydrogen solutions for further implementations? The use of hydrogen presents a unique opportunity for businesses in the future. The private sector should consider these opportunities for future pursuits. This pilot Use Case shows the capabilities and explores further steps to test modern technologies with hydrogen as well as incorporate other solutions, such as the deployment of hydrogen cargo bikes and other vehicles, into the blueprint for cities in the future. The Aberdeen City Council also invites others to contact them for more lessons learned. July is a Blind Date with Summer Sratumseind Street in Eindhoven, Netherlands. Photo by Omar Ram on Unsplash This year, city life was certainly lacking the proverbial sounds of typical summer festivities. Nonetheless, sound is a fundamental component of an urban environment and can be used as a tool for safety measures. Dreaming of future post-pandemic days where crowds of people can safely celebrate in communal areas, Eindhoven’s innovative and clever usage of sound sensors and cameras made it to the spotlight of our July issue. In non-pandemic years, Stratumseind in Eindhoven is the largest pub street in the Netherlands. With the bar owners and resident participation, the sound cameras and sensors can detect sounds of aggression and loud noise disturbances to increase safety and security for all in the area. What can we learn from this project? Existing infrastructure can help during this implementation. In addition, the close cooperation with the bar owners is a necessary component of this project. Some complications can occur with the tuning of the sensors. It can also be considered that video surveillance systems can add additional information to the case. Cities looking to implement similar technologies should consider citizen perspectives, due to some scepticism of such surveillance techniques. In addition, consideration should be given to the deployment of such technologies, as to not discriminate against certain groups. August is like the Sunday of Summer Reviving our own energy in the summer is often done by refuelling on some renewable sun sourced energy. Likewise, our old buildings often need revitalization and integral renovation to meet net-zero energy goals. The refurbishment of two old textile factories into energy-efficient buildings in Barcelona, Spain, can be used as a source of inspiration for those looking to preserve historical buildings while decreasing energy consumption. How can we use this experience for future actions? Usage of local energy generation helps to protect the heritage status of buildings. However, it is crucial that staff receives training in the operations and maintenance of the building. This project was a prime example of a public-private partnership. Working together with the urban planning department of the municipality from the design phase of the project is strongly recommended in order to select the most appropriate innovative technologies that respect the historical value of the buildings. Ah, September! Use of electric vehicles (EVs) has increased this year and previous years and these changes consequently require a shift in infrastructural needs. Increasing the number of EV charge points (EVCP) to support these shifts represent a challenge for cities but one that can be tackled with strategies such as the geospatial analysis undertaken by Energeo for East Lothian Council in Scotland. This use case delivers data, innovation, and actionable strategies — which is why we chose it in September as our use case of the month. We can take plenty of these lessons into 2021 as environmental and sustainability objectives drive electric vehicle policy support at all governance levels. How can the insights and lessons learned guide infrastructure plans in other cities? It is absolutely crucial that the data is up-to-date, high quality and high resolution to achieve optimal results. This means that a data audit should be taken pre-project to determine feasibility. Cooperation with stakeholders also plays a vital role in building trust between the supplier and customer and to bring a wider technical understanding to the team. ‘October is a Symphony of Performance and Change’ Photo by Julia Solonina on Unsplash It is with the topic of citizen engagement and empowerment in mind that we selected the citizen platform for urban air quality from Breeze Technologies as our Use Case of the month for October. Through this platform, residents of Rothenburgort in Hamburg can access real-time data about local air quality, which considers the special needs of sensitive population groups. At BABLE, we are strong advocates for a citizen-first approach to all smart city solution implementation, so platforms designed with and for the citizens make us want to share these products with the world. How can we use this story to shape a better future? The most important lesson to draw from this use case is to move beyond citizen engagement to citizen empowerment. A bottom-up approach is a solution where everyone benefits and should be considered from the start-line to the finish line and beyond. There should be clear goals and metrics of the project, strong and consistent communication with the citizens, open discussions and a user-friendly interface. Listening and learning from the people most impacted by a problem is critical to supplying a solution that solves the core of the problem. Fallen Leaves in November As the cold set in across (most of) Europe and the second wave of COVID-19 pushed citizens inside and to stay at home, we chose the Smart Home Solution Pilot in Tartu, Estonia, as an exemplary case for how we can help make residents comfortable, both physically and mentally, at home. For example, solutions like this pilot create a richer environment for improved indoor air quality benefits. Therefore, this project promoted not only energy usage efficiency and sustainability but also increased quality of life — which should always be the end goal. What are the lessons learned and next steps? Implementors should expect, anticipate and listen to resident concerns regarding the safety and health risks that they associate with the technology. In particular, care should be given to older residents who tend to struggle more with changes and technological adaptations, especially when they are expected to interact with technology on an individual level. These main lessons can be funnelled into active citizen engagement in the design phase. As additional cable works make up a significant part of the costs of setting up the smart home solution, the availability of these connections should be taken into consideration as a proactive measure when planning and implementing retrofitting activities, even if initially there is no intention of installing and integrating smart home devices in the apartments. ‘It is December, and nobody asked if I was ready’ The holiday season this year is certainly lacking the same lust without the bright lights of Christmas markets and the smell of Glühwein in the crisp air, but practical mobility measures like the bicycle tram in Konya, Turkey, bring us out of the dreariness and into the holiday spirit. The environmental movement loves to re-use, and this Use Case is an ideal example of how to take old items and refurbish them to fit new needs. Encouraging active and sustainable modes of transport is also a major plus of an exclusive bicycle tram, refitted from an old tram that no longer fit into the city’s current mobility plan. How can we ‘re-use’ this Use Case in the forthcoming years? Innovation often can come from the repurposing of the old. Cities can look to this Use Case as an example of how to fit old items into new mobility plans for the future. Mobility measures should always consider the variant needs of older and less mobile populations, while also encouraging sustainable and active modes of transport for the health of the citizens and the health of the planet. Looking at patterns in mobility (i.e. an increase in cycling behaviours) can give us the tools we need to provide an improved standard of life for commuters and travellers. So, What can we leave behind in 2020 and what can we bring with us into 2021? Photo by Intricate Explorer on Unsplash While many of us would like to sweep 2020 under the rug and leave it there, we can also choose to embrace the lessons it has stubbornly gifted us. The future is looking hopeful and we remain optimistic that transformations to improve urban life will continue accelerating more rapidly than ever. The European Union is pledging a united front against the threat of climate change and towards regional development and cohesion. The EU has also made major plans to transform the transport sector to provide green, smart and affordable mobility. Funding opportunities for green initiatives are becoming increasingly easier to capture with the proper guidance, and the private and public sectors are joining forces and working more closely together than ever before. The geographic dispersity of these Use Cases shows us how inspiration can come from various regions and how partnerships from all countries, regions and cities are needed to bring about the greatest chances for innovation in a post-COVID-19 world. So 2021, together, we are ready for you. Are you ready, too?
https://medium.com/bable-smart-cities/lessons-from-2020-to-inspire-smart-cities-in-2021-f75d11f671aa
['Bable Community']
2020-12-22 13:33:36.539000+00:00
['Startup', 'Cities', 'Technology', 'Smart Cities', 'Life']
763
Top Reasons to Choose Node.JS For Web App Development (Latest Update 2021)
With the rapidly growing software development industry and technology stacks, choosing the right way for web app development has become one of the complicated tasks. There are many technologies and programming languages that come and go over the years, but JavaScript is the one standalone technology that has not only maintained its position but also influence software development companies for building high-end applications. According to the Survey, 67.7% of developers are still preferring JavaScript for web app development. However, now Node.Js has not just become an altercation of JavaScript but also majorly based on it. According to the survey reports, 51.4% of respondents used Node.Js leaving aside some of the most powerful frameworks, libraries, and other software development tools. In addition, Jeff Harrel, the Director of Engineering at PayPal says “ Node.Js powers our web applications and has allowed our teams to move much faster in bringing their designs to life”. But, what key features making Node.Js 2021 ready? Is choosing Node.js over other technologies a winning choice for startups or enterprises…Let’s learn… If you are one of those new techs who are not much aware of Node.js, then it’s better to get started with the overview of the Node.Js! Basic Overview of Node.Js Node.Js is originally launched by Ryal Dahl, as a set of libraries that used to run on top of the V8 engine and allowing to run JavaScript code on the server. If putting it in simple words, then Node.js is neither a library nor a framework. In fact, Node.Js is a cross-platform, open-source JavaScript runtime that actually works on the server-side. It simply means that you can execute JavaScript codes on your computer machine by using that runtime instead of running it in the browser. Sounds interesting, right! That’s how Node.js gonna work and empowering developers. In addition, it won’t be wrong calling Node.js a strong yet feature-rich framework, as it provides a unique combination of libraries, helpers, and various tools that make the entire web app development process far simpler and easier to operate. Moreover, it provides a strong base to build your web apps and safeguard your online presence. What Exactly Makes Node.Js a Powerful Technology? Elements of Node.js are V8, libuv, Http-parser, C-ares, OpenSSL, and zlib. While Node.js has been relishing developer’s attention since its launch and exceptionally used for the real-time applications. Node.Js is undoubtedly packed with the unique set of features that have helped it become a top choice for developers when it comes to web app development. However, still many of you wondering what exactly sets Node.Js apart from other libraries and frameworks. The simple answer to this question is its Core Elements. For better understanding let’s split Node.Js into two parts: V8 and Libuv. On the one hand, V8 is composed of 70% C++ and 30% of JavaScript, on the other hand, Libuv is completely written in C. Let’s understand it in a simple language: If you ever get a chance to take a closer look at the Node.js code, you will find the two main folders “Lib and SRC”. The “Lib” folder is the one that contains all the JavaScript functions and modules that required into the project where the “SRC” folder contains all the C++ implementations. For example: So now, you must have a fair idea about what exactly is Node.js and it’s core elements that made it stronger over others. However, the central question remains the same, that what are the top features that make Node.Js development trends for 2021. Key Features of Node.js Making It Ready for 2021 Making an investment in the web app development is a crucial decision, so before proceeding for the top web development company, you should what makes Node.js best over others. So when it comes to choosing the Node.js for developing web apps, undoubtedly 51% developers love using it becuase of its speed and multi-user proficiency. Secondly, since it is majorly based on JavaScript, therefore, making a real-time application becomes easier with Node.js. All-in-all, Node.Js is a combination of library, framework, and other development tools that simplifies the job of full-stack web developer and ensure effortless development. Let’s Understand the Key Features of Node.Js in detail to make a better choice for web app development: 1. High Performance and Event-Based Model It’s Not a Myth! As the businesses are growing rapidly, they are looking for frameworks that can easily adaptable and scalable as the user base grow. and Node.js has the power to host any size of the audience seamlessly. V8 Engine: Node.js is built on Google Chrome’s V8 engine and written in C++, which not only makes it super fast but also helps in creating web applications that can handle multiple parallel connections with greater performance. In addition, both V8 and Node are often updated with the performance boosters, security patches, and support to add the touch of modern Javascript features. Node.js is built on Google Chrome’s V8 engine and written in C++, which not only makes it super fast but also helps in creating web applications that can handle multiple parallel connections with greater performance. In addition, both V8 and Node are often updated with the performance boosters, security patches, and support to add the touch of modern Javascript features. Single-Threaded Architecture: The event-driven, single-threaded architecture of Node.js, make it capable of processing multiple simultaneous requests without any delay. Most of the popular platforms create an additional thread for each new request, which takes a long time to process and blocking a thread for making other requests. On the other hand, Nodejs manage requests with a single thread by making use of event loop and callbacks for I/O operations and delegating tasks. The event-driven, single-threaded architecture of Node.js, make it capable of processing multiple simultaneous requests without any delay. Most of the popular platforms create an additional thread for each new request, which takes a long time to process and blocking a thread for making other requests. On the other hand, Nodejs manage requests with a single thread by making use of event loop and callbacks for I/O operations and delegating tasks. Event-Based Model: Whether it’s about non-blocking responses, single-threaded nature, or usage of a common language for both client/server-side, Node.Js is a popular choice for various solutions that required frequent updates in data, for example, chats, video conferences and more. Conclusion: Many leading companies like PayPal have switched their technologies to develop Node.js application and noticed 35% decrease in response time as compare to migrating it from Java. 2. Node.Js Supports Microservices With the increasing demand for applications, microservices have become one of the major needs for businesses struggling with web app performance. Every project started out small or with the basic MVP, but sooner or later it starts growing and demand the new features. As your user base grow and your app expanded with new features, you may end up with a huge project and your web development company will keep struggles to cope with. On one side you probably need to add new features and on the other hand, you need to provide the top-notch performance to the users. Well, this one of the most common problems among enterprise applications. But the simple answer to this problem is to look for a Microservice pattern. It means “a microservice is a single self-contained unit which, together with many others, makes up a large application. By splitting your app into small units every part of it is independently deployable and scalable, can be written by different teams and in different programming languages, and can be tested individually”. Well described by an open-source developer — Max Stoiber For example: When Walmart shifted to microservices architecture with Node.Js, they get immediate benefits: Seamlessly handling over 500 million pages views with zero downtime 98% of mobile conversion growth instantly 3. Easy Maintenance With Serverless Web Development Going serverless with the Node.js can help you save a great cost and time as most of the web applications run on high-maintenance servers. Since nowadays software development companies have a dedicated team of engineers to help manage and maintain servers, why to make it complicated for you when Node.js serverless and hardware-free solutions are here to save you. This will not only help in reducing time and cost but also enhanced the efficiency and productivity of the developers as well as software development companies using this framework. Some benefits of using serverless applications Serverless applications are like a piece of code that usually functions closely like the AWS Lambda. It means, it is executed based on the kind of event triggered. Moreover, it ensures a faster deployment cycle run via a single command. Take a look of an example: 4. Rich Ecosystem For Enterprise- NPM In simple words, NMP is a default package manager of Node.js which allows programmers to install, update, and access open-source JavaScript tools for modern web applications. With over 836,000 libraries available in NPM and over 10,000 new ones being published every week, Node.js ecosystem becomes quite rich and providing a vast variety of free accessible tools in a few clicks to developers. According to the survey, 7% of users are using NPM to build front-end web applications whereas 77% of enterprises are building Node.js applications. One prime reason behind this is, NPM has released the “Enterprise version” of package manager that ensures high-end privacy and security of the web application. Moreover, you can choose to hire web developer to leverage the NPM package managers and avoid writing the common features right from the scratch and eliminate the risk of adding new layers of complexity to the development process. 5. Developing Cross-Platform Apps With Node.Js Platforms like Electron and NW.js have introduced a new way of writing cross-platform applications with Node.js like technologies. It means, now you can develop desktop apps with Node.js by simply using some code lines from your web app to create desktop versions for mainly macOS, Windows, and Linux. The best part about this, the same team working on a web app can deliver the desktop app without having the expert knowledge of programming languages like Objective-C, C#, or other required for building native apps. Also, the majority of the Node.js tools are cross-platform, so developer’s don’t require a specific machine to write, debug, and build a Windows, macOS, or Linux apps. Highly modern enterprises are already knowing that developing your web app with Node.js is probably an optimum way to improve app performance, increasing coding efficiency, and bringing overall happiness to their development team. Conclusion To end this post, it is worth mentioning that that Ruby on Rail is the biggest titan of the development industry but still, a huge part of web development solutions revolves around JavaScripts frameworks. For front-end — Vue.js, React and Angular.Js are ruling but Node.js is the biggest choice for back-end development. So with the above-given futuristic features, I see strong reasons for choosing Node.js for building web application that delivers smooth and excellent user experience. And for enterprises, still find themselves stuck anywhere in between the features, can choose to get a partner with the right team of developers, who are capable of making the most of this modern web app development framework and make your app future-ready.
https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/top-reasons-to-choose-node-js-for-web-app-development-in-2020-575e77c4b339
['Sophia Martin']
2020-12-08 10:09:33.719000+00:00
['Nodejs', 'Startup', 'Business', 'Technology', 'Web Development']
764
From Print to Digital: Making Over a Million Archived Photos Searchable
A block away from the hustle and bustle of Times Square in New York City, buried three floors below street level, lies The New York Times archive. The archive is housed in a sprawling room that is packed with hundreds of steel filing cabinets and cardboard boxes, each containing news clippings, encyclopaedias, photographs and other archival material. Started in the late 1800s, the archive first served as a collection of news clippings about newsworthy events and people. In the late 1960s, it was merged with a photo library managed by The Times’s art department. The archive (which is sometimes referred to as “the morgue”) now contains tens of millions of news clippings and an estimated five million printed photographs. Many of these historical documents are available only in print form, however in 2018, The Times embarked on a project — as part of a technology and advertising collaboration with Google — to preserve the photographs in the collection and store them digitally. A team of technicians manually scan about 1,000 photographs per day into a server, and in July, 2019, they scanned their one millionth photograph. Many of these photographs have found a new life in stories produced by The Times’s archival storytelling project, Past Tense. With a digital photographic archive now at over a million scans, we needed to build an asset management system that allows Times journalists to search and browse through the photos in the archive from their laptops. A digital system inspired by the archive To architect our asset management system, we drew inspiration from the archive itself. The organization strategy in the physical archive is loosely similar to the Dewey decimal system, where an index references the location of photos associated with a subject. The archive contains well over 700,000 index cards that are alphabetically sorted by subject from A. Cappella Chapel Choir to ZZ Top. Each index card contains the location of the folder in which the corresponding collection of photos can be found. Occasionally, a subject is divided into subtopics with multiple references to different folders. As an example, an index card about Amelia Earhart is further broken down into multiple subtopics, such as portraits, individual snapshots and European receptions. An index card indicating where to find photos of Amelia Earhart. If we were to be interested in European Receptions, we would find the folder labeled “4794-L-8.” Some folder covers may contain additional text that provides a high-level description about the collection of photos found within the folder; this text is especially useful when it’s the only text associated with a photo. The front cover of a folder containing photos of Amelia Earhart. The backs of individual photos usually contain contextual data, such as stamps of publication dates and folder names, handwritten notes, crop marks and taped news clippings indicating publication.
https://open.nytimes.com/from-print-to-digital-making-over-a-million-archived-photos-searchable-b146037705d2
['The Nyt Open Team']
2020-05-28 15:57:29.442000+00:00
['Systems Thinking', 'Code', 'Photography', 'Technology', 'Database']
765
Teaching With Technology: EdTech in 2020 And Beyond
2020 has been a year of immense change in all facets of daily life — not least within our educational environment. With countries forced to stay home, the focus on remote learning and teaching with technology has been huge. Nations around the world have had to switch to distant learning models almost overnight and, according to David Corke — Director of Education & Skills Policy for the Association of Colleges (AOC) — the future of learning, post-pandemic, will be “more blended and digitally-enabled than it was before”. This presents a big opportunity for the development of educational technology and software development which supports learning in all its forms — be it pre-school, Degree-level education or workplace training. According to Deloitte, the education market in China alone is predicted to be worth $715 billion by 2025. So, which educational tech trends look set to become part of the new normal? The five EdTech tools revolutionising learning Up until the start of this year, our educational setup had remained the same for generations. Teachers stood at the front of classrooms and lecture halls imparting one-way knowledge to note-scribbling students, with little changing even in the wake of the Internet. Since global lockdowns came into play, however, teaching with technology has become an absolute necessity. Schools have been forced to close and examinations have had to go online, and EdTech has pioneered new ways for students and teachers to collaborate and share materials online. Here are some of the key technologies pioneering new ways of learning. 1. IoT Connected devices had already been implemented in many school settings before the pandemic hit. But now, connected devices such as laptops and tablets are enabling students to access learning materials from their own homes, with IoT applications like Learning Management Systems (LMS) making syllabus’ available for access from virtually anywhere. Moving beyond COVID, the IoT will facilitate better collaboration between classes, different year groups and across higher learning campuses, paving the way for a more fluid way of learning than we’ve been accustomed to previously. 2. VR/MR/AR According to Adobe, immersive learning experiences lighten the cognitive load, while also motivating students to grasp information more fully. Virtual, mixed and augmented reality environments have huge potential within learning because they change the context in which information is delivered and allow students to gain “hands-on” — so to speak — experience. The relevance of virtual environments is even more significant in the wake of global school closures, prompting the education sector to consider the long-term application of virtual environments where physical classrooms aren’t an option. Benefits of teaching with VR/MR/AR tech include: It creates a sense of space — offering students first-hand experience of what it’s like to walk the streets of ancient Rome, for example. It promotes interactivity — humans learn better by doing. Employing virtual reality within a classroom setting turns the passive action of reading instructions into the active task of exploring a scenario, while also fulfilling our need for visual and emotional experiences. It fosters creative thinking — as well as delivering more meaningful learning, VR, MR and AR tools and apps, in which students can design and experiment with virtual chemicals and proteins for example, — can seriously boost creative thinking and problem-solving. It cost-effectively scales learning — VR devices are relatively small and inexpensive in comparison to installing a science lab, for example, within a school setting, yet they can deliver the same practical learning experience. 3. Artificial Intelligence According to an Artificial Intelligence Market in the US Education Sector report, AI in US education is predicted to grow by almost 46% between 2017 and 2021. But teaching with AI technology isn’t about robots delivering lesson plans. Instead, it will serve a support function, allowing teachers to take time away from admin tasks to spend more time working with students. AI can facilitate “global classrooms” through tools like Presentation Translator for Powerpoint, which subtitles live teacher presentations for students to watch from anywhere in the world. This is hugely relevant in the current pandemic, but it also opens up the possibility of globally-connected classrooms beyond this. Furthermore, AI applications are now focusing on differentiation and personalisation within learning — signalling an important shift from a “one-size-fits-all” model to an approach which is attuned to the needs and capabilities of the individual student. This is particularly compelling when you consider the unique needs of pupils with learning difficulties or sight/hearing impairments. 4. Data-driven personalisation To echo the point about AI’s role within the classrooms of the future, one of the key changes we’ll likely see in education is a tailoring of the curriculum and key milestones to the needs of the individual learner. Data science is already a powerful tool for understanding the needs of wants of users within the industry, so it follows that it will become more and more relevant from our early years. It’s also an important tool for monitoring where students are at in their learning while they are unable to physically attend a classroom. 5. The Cloud Aside from the obvious benefit of making educational resources more readily available for remote learning or otherwise, cloud-based technologies are a powerful enabler of creativity and self-expression. Further, working in the cloud helps safeguard data protection in a time when personal information is so heavily valued and vulnerable. The Cloud allows pupils to access a plethora of applications and programs to find engaging ways of presenting their work — i.e. uploading video content or images, or collaborating on a document with their peers. This allows each student more authorship over their work while enabling teachers to customise assignments and employ blended learning and flipped classroom strategies for better results. The Cloud has been particularly valuable during the lockdown, where schools have had to shift their lessons online. But moving beyond COVID, the time, space and resource-saving capabilities of cloud-based technologies could change the way we learn forever. What’s the counter-argument to teaching with technology? One thing that has become apparent through the global lockdowns is the technology gap between underprivileged learners and their privileged peers. Remote learning can really only work for those who have access to connected technologies. There’s also a need to acknowledge that teaching with technology should enhance, rather than replace, traditional teaching methods. Tech can be a powerful ally in helping teachers reallocate their time. So that they can get back to delivering engaging lessons and one-on-one feedback and move away from labour-intensive admin. ELEKS helps clients within the education sector and beyond employ innovative technologies to evolve in a fast-changing world. Find out more about how we could help you meet the demands of tomorrow, today. Get in touch.
https://medium.com/eleks-labs/teaching-with-technology-edtech-in-2020-and-beyond-1ce72d7d6e3b
[]
2020-01-06 00:00:00
['Eleks Trends Blog', 'Edtech', 'Education Technology', 'Distance Learning']
766
Game Guide: How to Teach the Slick Oil Distribution Game
Game Guide: How to Teach the Slick Oil Distribution Game by Sara Hoormann Introduction This is a step by step guide for instructors or business leaders to facilitate the Slick Oil Distribution Game. The game was developed as a way to teach players the true value of mathematical optimization while also having some fun. You can read more about the background for this game in the blog post A Simple Game for Teaching the Value of Optimization. Storyline Slick Oil Company is a small oil manufacturer that recently signed a big deal with a new customer committed to purchasing 100,000 barrels of oil over the next year. After celebrating their success, they realize that they must quickly figure out how to use their current network to satisfy this new demand. Raw oil must be sourced from a well and then shipped to a refinery for processing before delivery to the customer. Slick’s network of wells and refineries are already built and have extra capacity to be used for this new demand so no additional fixed costs need be considered. Each Slick well and refinery has an associated cost per barrel and capacity (in barrels). Not all wells are compatible with all refineries, however, and therefore only applicable combinations can be utilized. All refineries can service the new customer. The player’s reputation precedes them and Slick wants to hire THEM to help determine the optimal way to service their new customer. Now you will take a closer look at the data provided and all the potential flows from which to select. Game A PDF document including slides to help guide the game along can be downloaded for additional assistance in moving the game along. Click to view. First, introduce the current network by having everyone proceed to the game’s site (best in Chrome but works okay in Firefox as well): LAUNCH GAME Make sure to instruct players to continue to follow along with you and not start trying to configure the network on their own just yet! Utilize the below graphic (or the similar graphic within the PDF guide mentioned above) to walk through directions for using the game’s interface: Storyline: Now that the game site provides a view of the entire problem the players realize the network is actually pretty small. It should be a piece of cake to eyeball and determine the optimal solution for serving this new customer right? You will first walk through a couple approaches together to try to prove (or disprove) this. Round 1 Note: Someone may suggest that you have to look at combinations and not just one node at a time at some point in the first couple rounds. Just tell them to ‘hold that thought’ and that we want to try a few different approaches. Game: So we have to start somewhere right? Let’s do that by focusing on the refineries first. What is the cheapest refinery we can utilize? Answer from participants should lead to D at $1 per barrel Does D have the capacity to satisfy all of the customer’s demand? Answer should be yes Great, so now let’s continue to work through the network. What is the cheapest well that is compatible with refinery D? Answer should be 5 at $10 per barrel Does well 5 have the capacity of 100 barrels required by refinery D? Answer should be yes If we use this network what is our cost to serve the new customer? Players should produce the below result — $1,100 Do you think this is the optimal answer? Why or why not? Round 2 (Advise players to use the refresh button in the bottom right of the page to reset) Game: So now let’s approach this from a slightly different angle. Let’s start by focusing on the Wells this time. What is the cheapest well we can utilize? Answer from participants should lead to 6 at $2.50 per barrel (You might need to point out that the cost for well 6 is actually $2.50 and not $25) Does 6 have the capacity to serve all demand? Answer should be yes Now what is the cheapest refinery that is compatible with well 6? Answer should be C at $6 per barrel Does refinery C have the capacity to handle all 100 barrels from well 6? Answer should be no The max we can place there is 80 of the 100. So let’s do that. What is the NEXT cheapest refinery that is compatible with well 6? Answer should be E at $8 per barrel Does refinery E have enough capacity to handle the 20 remaining barrels from well 6? Answer should be yes Let’s place the last 20 barrels of demand on that lane then. If we use this network what is our cost to serve the new customer? Players should produce the below result — $890 Do you think this is the optimal answer? Why or why not? Round 3 (Advise players to use the refresh button in the bottom right of the page to reset) Note: As mentioned earlier, typically, someone will have brought up that combinations are more important than just picking a single well or refinery at the start. Referencing that suggestion again here is a good segue. Game: We previously mentioned that we have to consider both wells and refineries at the same time. So this time let’s start by selecting the lowest cost pair. Which pair creates the lowest total cost per barrel? Answer should be well 1 and refinery B at a total of $5 per barrel Does this pair have enough capacity to service all demand? Answer should be no The max we can source through them is 40 barrels so let’s do that. What pair has the second lowest cost per barrel? Answer should be well 6 and refinery C at a total of $8.50 per barrel Does this pair have enough capacity to service the leftover demand of 60 barrels? Answer should be yes So let’s source the final 60 barrels from here. If we use this network what is our cost to serve the new customer? Players should produce the below result — $710 Do you think this is the optimal answer? How would we PROVE it’s the absolute lowest cost solution? Answer should lead them to understand that in order to prove you found an optimal solution you must determine the cost to serve a barrel of oil through each and every applicable combination of well and refinery. You must then calculate the sum of every potential combination of well/refinery totalling 100 barrels of oil in order to determine which generates the LEAST COST. A LOT of work to do by hand even for this small problem! Optimization Discussion Storyline: Approaches like those we have applied thus far are commonly called ‘greedy’ approaches. Greedy approaches make decisions for one part of the problem at a time without considering the ‘whole’. Most people naturally utilize this approach when asked to ‘eyeball’ solutions or solve ‘by hand’. They can be useful for very simple problems but quickly become unreliable. Final Round: (Advise players to use the refresh button in the bottom right of the page to reset) Game: I can say for sure that $710 is not the optimal answer. Take a few minutes to try to find a better solution on your own. Word of warning: if you do find a cheaper solution, you will be tasked with explaining how you came up with it as well. Let players have time with the game for approximately 5–10 minutes. NOTE: Typically, one or a few people find the right answer, but many don’t. The real determination, for those who do find the optimal solution, is whether they stumbled upon it or whether they can explain how they reasoned it out. Note those who find the optimal solution and use them to help with the final storyline. Lessons Learned: Storyline: (Select one person who got the optimal answer to address) So what is the optimal answer? $690 (see applicable combinations below) What iterations and thought process did you do to get there? Why didn’t you pick the combination of Well 1 and Refinery B? We are looking for everyone to realize that in order to find the ‘optimal’ solution they must counterintuitively give up the cheapest Well/Refinery pair to create two other ‘cheap’ ones that can satisfy more demand. This ‘aha’ piece buried within the optimal solution is the basis for the true value generated by mathematical optimization. Even if the players were able to find the optimal solution for Slick, have them consider a Slick problem of greater magnitude. What if we increased the number of wells and refineries just ten fold? Would you still be able to ‘eyeball’ or reason out the best way to source this new customer? Because of the general nature of optimization, combinations of potential solutions to evaluate grows exponentially when proving the absolute best answer. The well known society for operations research and management science, INFORMS, defines optimization as ‘Narrowing your choices to the very best when there are virtually innumerable feasible options and comparing them is difficult’. In short, because of the general nature of optimization, players need to be led to fully grasp how quickly the number of potential ‘feasible’ solutions will grow even with the smallest increase in the scope of the problem. It all lends to the generation of very difficult ‘needle in the haystack’ challenges which require the power of mathematical optimization to uncover. Ending the game with a discussion around these key realizations wraps up the lesson nicely. Game over! If you liked this blog post, check out more of our work, follow us on social media or join us for our free monthly Academy webinars.
https://medium.com/opex-analytics/game-guide-how-to-teach-the-slick-oil-distribution-game-4c24a34e0d63
['Opex Analytics']
2020-10-09 16:17:00.732000+00:00
['Optimization', 'Game Development', 'Education Technology', 'Supply Chain', 'Logistics']
767
Video Conferencing Etiquettes that We All Shall Agree to Follow
Video Conferencing Etiquettes that We All Shall Agree to Follow What to do, how to do and what not to do in video conferencing This article comes to life after being involved in heavy zoom/google video conferencing for different purposes. This was a subject that we quite usually talk among peers during the times we started working from home via zoom communication. Before a meeting, there shall be several key points to be considered. When to have the meeting? (day, date and time) What platform to be used? Who will be participating? Mode of communication. Presentation, voice talk, group chat, etc. These factors must be considered for an effective meeting with the best compliance from all the participants. This is because, given the “working from home” situation there could be parents, elders, pets, etc. Sometimes it is difficult to avoid distractions given the personal circumstances one might be dealing. Therefore, a suitable time that has the lowest disruption in either way should be decided. Photo by Victoria Heath on Unsplash Personal life and work-life no longer deviates a lot. Hence, care must be taken not to have them interfere with one another. I am a part of a research group of PhD students supervised by a staff member (PhD). We have been having highly effective and engaging zoom meetings during the lockdowns. However, I had the chance of taking part in a multiple of other meetings, presentations, conferences and gatherings over zoom that had something missing when compared to my weekly group meetings. Following some online research, I figured out a few sources that publish zoom etiquette for students, etc (Uni of Otago, NZ, Uni of Pittsburgh). In this article, I will share a few such etiquettes from my own experience and from online sources summarised. Joining the Meeting Share meeting details well before and join on time when you do Usually meeting links are shared few days/hours before a meeting in an organized group. If not it is important that the organizers do that so the attendees are well aware of times and can prepare well. Also, it is important that attendees join the meeting at least a few minutes (5min) before the meeting starts. It is a huge distraction when another person joins in halfway and the entire grid of attendees videos get reorganized. Photo by Eliza Diamond on Unsplash Choose a proper background When you’re attending a meeting, try to arrange a quiet place with a less distracting background. You can pick a virtual background in order to avoid any clutter that might be unavoidable. Find proper lighting that would not make you either very dark or bright. Ideally, you should be facing a window/light source with a darker background behind you. Make sure you rename your account with something that people can call you with. That is definitely not your email address that zoom adds (sometimes). Make sure you put something that everyone can read and understand. Not your full name (eg: my full name is not pronounceable to many! I respect that.). Photo by Nastuh Abootalebi on Unsplash Video and Audio At the time of joining the meeting, you should turn the mic off and video on. This ensures that your presence is acknowledged without any background noise. Make sure to adjust your camera so that you are positioned in the middle. Photo by Gabriel Benois on Unsplash Participating in the Meeting When you are not talking It is boring and less engaging to be in a zoom call to mention the obvious. This is even more exaggerated when you are off with your video and mic in mute. Hence, you must have your video on with proper eye contact at your screen. This proves you are attentive and that you respect whoever that’s talking. In a large conference (webinar) you don’t need to have video on. However, in a group call/meeting have your video on as a form of respect and to show that you are engaging. Facial expressions do matter! In my research group meetings, everybody uses to have their video on (mic off) when they’re not talking. This raises the standard of our engagement since we can question the peers about their understanding or about confusion. However, in some workshops (small groups < 15 people) I saw situations where only about 5 people having the video on. It completely negates the presence of everybody else. There are numerous times that I felt like, “why not leave if they do not want to be present”. Photo by Magnet.me on Unsplash When you are talking It is essential to have your video on if you’re talking. If not nobody is going to feel the depth or importance of what you’re talking. Adding to this some facial expressions and hand gestures will definitely upscale your presence. For example, you can have a look at online courses and how top tutors deliver lessons. It is just same when you are delivering a talk and everybody else is listening. Be active crack a joke! When you’re having a group conversation It is not quite straightforward as to how you could jump into a conversation when you’re on zoom. If it is a formal conversation you could always use the “raise hand” feature which is available in almost all the video calling platforms. If not you can literally raise your hand and interrupt. Never raise voice at once, if someone’s talking as it might be distracting or even disrespectful. In the casual talks, you can always find a voice gap and start talking. Or even start talking with a hand gesture so everybody will prepare to listen to you. Always try to have conversations that everyone has something to do with or can participate. Private conversations are not meant to be in a group chat. Converse in the language you agree to meet in. That shows respect for peers. Photo by Campaign Creators on Unsplash Using Platform Features Most video conferencing platforms offer a wide range of features that can be used for better conferencing. We can use them to enforce the etiquettes so that the participants will have a high-quality meeting/gathering experience. Asking Questions Asking questions in meetings in real life can give rise to situations with heat. Disagreements are common in organizational culture. No difference in virtual meetings. Hence, to avoid the chat becoming a noisy space, the coordinators can use polls and questions to inquire opinions. This helps to have a decent, yet productive arguments. A round robbin approach can be used to express opinions if the need arises. The coordinators can mute audio and video of participants as required to avoid noise. Sharing Screens It is not rare to have misunderstandings and confusions in a meeting. In such cases, in a conventional meeting, the presenters will show charts, sheets, etc to support the claims. In a similar manner, the screen share feature can be used. Make sure that you share the correct window so that none of your personal content will come onto the eyes of others. Breakout Rooms Some conferencing tools offer “breakout rooms” where quick conversations can be held between few parties away from the rest of attendees. Such features are better in interviews, etc to avoid future confusions and conflicts. Photo by Gabrielle Henderson on Unsplash Security Meetings can have various confidential information and presentations. Hence, it is important to invite the correct people. Make sure the meetings are not made via public links. Also, make sure the coordinator can “approve” the attendance before the attendees can join. Meetings can also be “locked” when the starting time is passed. This ensures that the late attendees are kept away. Though it might not be preferred, in serious situations it might be preferred that way. The feature is somehow available. Photo by Amy Hirschi on Unsplash Video conferencing is good. Let’s make it great! I hope you enjoyed reading the article. I believe this will make a difference at your next zoom call with your group. Thanks for reading. :-)
https://medium.com/digital-diplomacy/video-conferencing-etiquettes-that-we-all-shall-agree-to-follow-a5aea1e55bb1
['Anuradha Wickramarachchi']
2020-10-07 23:33:18.858000+00:00
['Society', 'Zoom', 'Working From Home', 'Technology', 'Work Life Balance']
768
Introducing Morpheus Labs SEED
Morpheus Labs BPaaS Version 2.0 has exciting new features and applications, not only for developers but also for enterprises. Previously we announced the delay of our BPaaS V2.0 due to a few reasons (you may learn more here.) However, even in a pandemic, the Morpheus Labs team has not stopped hustling. Morpheus Labs version 2.0, also known as Morpheus Labs SEED, is now live. Morpheus Labs SEED Overview In our latest growth report, we mentioned that the platform was first conceived with a purpose to simplify the process of building blockchain applications to meet future business needs. Along the way, we want to ensure that the platform components are enhanced and optimized for building blockchain solutions quickly and easily. We have added features to not only empower the developers, but enterprises to have better team management functions, interoperability solutions to connect external resources, and also to help our users to accelerate their innovation process by providing reference templates. Read on to learn about the key features added to Morpheus Labs SEED. Morpheus Labs SEED provides: A Solution Center The solution center comprehensively covers the development, testing, deployment, run, and scale applications across physical, virtual, and distributed ledger technologies environments. The solution center is described as an “end-to-end application development product”. a. Application Runtimes App runtimes help teams build and deploy scalable applications with greater speed, agility, confidence, and choice. Deploy production-grade applications anytime, anywhere. b. Services Enterprises can utilize integrated platform services to make complex applications into viable businesses with ease. There is support for a diverse range of service types like distributed storage, databases, integration, digital assets, and key management. The services for enterprises can change conventional perspectives and boost organizational operations. c. Use Cases Use Cases are like playbooks to help accelerate the adoption and the development of existing solutions. The Use Cases work as task-based graphic workflows that help visualize processes and automate deployments, connecting disparate platform tools and infrastructure components in a seamless and process-based use. 2) Enhanced Team Management This feature is essential for collaborative development. For businesses that prefer to outsource an IT/Dev team, you can share a project and connect with an external organization on the platform. Organizations can leverage this new enhancement to conduct training workshops and hackathons as well. 3) Campaign management In the “Campaigns” feature, you will see the upcoming events organized by Morpheus Labs and its partners, such as DApp competitions, workshops, and training courses with the goal of blockchain adoption. 4) Application Library support for Use Cases We built this feature to encourage innovation value creation in the blockchain space. Developers get the smart contract-based incentive when they curate and publish their applications, which leads to an opportunity to commercialize and become a use case. “Our Morpheus Labs BPaaS journey started in late 2018 and I still remember those very exciting days. Today we are living great moments again — it’s the day we can say our platform becomes a Solution Environment for Enterprise Development (SEED). With comprehensive features to support end-to-end blockchain solutions, SEED opens the way to the phase of production-grade support, scaling, and enhanced team management ability for education and group collaboration. I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to the team for having worked tirelessly at this project.” — Dorel D Burcea, CIO at Morpheus Labs Morpheus Labs SEED platform is being used by companies around the world to speed up their Proof of Concept processes, allowing partners to contribute their solutions, streamline and improve business procedures, so they can focus on higher-value work, as well as creating innovation value for the future. Create an account for free here and get access to quick start-up guides, tutorials, and use case references. Discover what you can do on Morpheus Labs SEED.
https://medium.com/morpheus-labs/introducing-morpheus-labs-seed-ee2e685a38e1
['Morpheus Labs Team']
2020-07-02 08:29:12.083000+00:00
['Blockchain', 'Developer', 'Coding', 'Technology']
769
Avast Driver Updater Crack 2.4.0 With Registration Key Latest 2021
Avast Driver Updater Crack 2.4.0 With Registration Key Latest 2021 Sohaibhameed Jan 18·3 min read Avast Driver Updater Crack 2.4.0 maybe your most excellent remedy to take care of driver problems after full activation with this computer program. It includes the capacity to scan, upgrade, and mend your drivers to produce your computer performance. Moreover, this application consists of a driver’s database comprising over 500,000 device drivers. Additionally, the complete edition of Avast Driver Updater Key allows us to minimize the device crashes and hangs. It provides you internet browsing. This application will help one to upgrade graphics drivers to secure far much better images. An elegant interface accompanies this program for ease. Avast Driver Updater Crack 2.4.0 With Registration Key Latest 2021 Updating the drivers may solve about 80 percent of PC problems. This tool can help one to upgrade drivers for devices and mend their difficulties. You may download drivers for both scanner and printer, telephones, mouse and keyboard, and other accessories. Therefore, the Avast Driver Updater Registration Key provides you drivers from over 100 Big brands such as NVIDIA, Dell, HP, Canon, Acer, and much more. It provides drivers using models. Before installing the drivers, it generates a backup document. Unless you enjoy the drivers afterward, you certainly can roll back the variants. You may install drivers to your Windows system that is brand new in a backup. Main Features Extended Database: This application includes an elongated database comprising of device drivers. WHQL Version Drivers: The drivers that it provides are WHQL models from the manufacturing companies. Drivers Backup: It can obtain all backup your PC drivers using one click and then re-establish them. Roll-back Drivers: This program enables you to roll back all of the last models if you do not enjoy the most recent versions. Scaled Setup: The other feature for the PC is that a Scaled driver setup to steer clear of structure. Drivers Cleanup: This application makes it possible to uninstall the unworthy drivers. Fix Hardware Problems: It enables one to mend all of the hardware problems by simply providing you with the drivers. Avast Driver Updater Crack INCL License Key 32/64 Bit Additional Avast Driver Updater 2.5.6 License Key helps you to get accessibility for the entire life. It gives you the ability to uninstall the drivers, which will damage your PC operation. Most importantly, it provides a remedy to your driver related problems. It has several informed tools that reduce Computer crashes problems, additional insects, along with also the issues and more. The on the busy web database provides you assistance and continuing assessing account to make sure you’ve got the latest drivers. This application has features that prepared to manage all sorts of driver-related topics in only a couple of clicks. Avast Driver Updater Working 2021 Registration Keys HYC86E13-CDB6–4541–80C3–0BA0B8AF3E46 DFJIS83-DFJKD3-DFJDIEJF-DFKLDOEK DFODOE-DGLDO-GKFOEK-FGKLDOEK What is New? This version incorporates lots of new device drivers from the database. It plays a faster scan compared to the other release. Additionally, the downloading rate is significantly also enhanced in this release. Currently, it fully supports the most recent edition of Windows 10. Avast Driver Updater Crack Screenshot System Needs: It takes a Windows-10, 8.1, 8, or Windows-7. Supported 32–64 Bit all variants Minimum Ram requirements inch GB Intel/AMD processor with 1.5 GHz rate or maybe even more. Two GB of Hard Drive space Internet Connection for Upgrades How To Crack It?
https://medium.com/@sohaibhameed032/avast-driver-updater-crack-2-4-0-with-registration-key-latest-2021-512d1cb31e84
[]
2021-01-18 17:13:39.919000+00:00
['Information Technology', 'Influencer Marketing', 'Information Security', 'India', 'Love']
770
Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom
Nat got herself a cup of coffee and took her seat. This was her second meeting since getting the prism from Lyle; last week she’d been planning on announcing that she wasn’t going to be coming back, but she had wound up hardly saying anything at all. So she had had to attend at least one more and say that she was going to take a break from the meetings; people would wonder if she simply stopped. Dana smiled at the group and said, “Who wants to start us off today?” Without intending to, Nat found herself speaking, just as Lyle began saying something as well. Both of them stopped. “You go,” said Nat. “No, you should go,” said Lyle. “I don’t think you’ve ever started off a meeting before.” Nat realized that he was right. What had come over her? She opened her mouth, but for once she couldn’t think of a good lie. Eventually, she said, “A guy I work with, I guess you’d call him my supervisor, he was killed recently. Murdered, actually.” The group was shocked, with assorted “Oh my Gods” being murmured. “Do you want to tell us about your relationship with him?” asked Dana. “Yeah,” asked Kevin. “Was he a friend?” “Kind of,” Nat admitted. “But that’s not why it’s been on my mind. I know this isn’t a grief support group . . . I guess I brought this up because I wanted your take on something.” “Of course,” said Dana. “Go ahead.” “I keep thinking about the randomness of this murder. I don’t mean the killer picked him at random. I mean, when he had the gun pointed at my supervisor, he said that some version of him was going to pull the trigger, so why shouldn’t it be him? We’ve all heard that line before, but I never paid any attention to it. But now I’m wondering, are the people who say that actually right?” “That’s a good question,” said Dana. “I agree that we’ve all heard people make similar claims.” She addressed the group. “Does anyone have any thoughts on that? Do you think that every time someone makes you angry, there’s a branch where you pick up a gun and shoot the guy?” Zareenah spoke up. “I’ve read that there’s been an increase in crimes of passion since prisms became popular. Not an enormous one, but statistically significant.” “Yeah,” said Kevin, “which is why the theory can’t be true. The fact that there’s been an increase, even a small one, disproves the theory.” “How do you figure?” asked Zareenah. “Branches are generated by any quantum event, right? Even before we had prisms, branches were still splitting off constantly; we just didn’t have access to any of them. If it were true that there’s always a branch where you pick up a gun and shoot someone on a whim, then we should have seen the same number of random murders every day before the prism was invented as we saw every day after. The invention of prisms wouldn’t cause more of those murders to line up in this particular branch. So if we’re seeing more people killing one another since prisms became popular, it can’t be because there’s always a branch where you pick up a gun.” “I follow your reasoning,” said Zareenah, “but then what’s causing the rise in murders?” Kevin shrugged. “It’s like a suicide fad. People hear about other people doing it, and it gives them ideas.” Nat thought about it. “That proves that the argument can’t be right, but it doesn’t explain why it’s wrong.” “If you know the theory’s wrong, why do you need more?” “I want to know whether my decisions matter!” That came out more emphatically than she intended. Nat took a breath, and then continued. “Forget about murder; that’s not the kind of thing I’m talking about. But when I have a choice to do the right thing or the wrong thing, am I always choosing to do both in different branches? Why should I bother being nice to other people, if every time I’m also being a dick to them?” There was some discussion among the members for a while, but eventually Nat turned to Dana. “Can you tell me what you think?” “Sure,” said Dana. She paused to gather her thoughts. “In general, I think your actions are consistent with your character. There might be more than one thing that would be in character for you to do, because your behavior is going to vary depending on your mood, but there are a lot more things that would be utterly out of character. If you’re someone who’s always loved animals, there isn’t a branch where you kick a puppy just because it barked at you. If you’re someone who’s always obeyed the law, there’s no branch where you suddenly rob a convenience store instead of going into work in the morning.” Kevin said, “What about branches that diverged when you were a baby and your life took a totally different course?” “I don’t care about that,” said Nat. “I’m asking about branches where I, having lived the life I led, am faced with a choice.” “Kevin, we can talk about bigger divergences later, if you want,” said Dana. “No, that’s fine. Proceed.” “Okay, so let’s imagine you’re in a situation where you have a couple options, and either course of action would be consistent with your character. For example, suppose a cashier has given you too much change, and you can either give it back or just keep it. Suppose you could see yourself doing either of those, depending on the kind of day you’re having. In that case, I’d say it’s entirely possible that there’s a branch where you keep the extra change, as well as a branch where you give it back.” Nat realized there probably weren’t any branches out there where she gave back the extra change. For as long as she could remember, if she was having a good day, getting extra change would have just made it a better day. Kevin asked, “So does that mean it doesn’t matter if we act like jerks?” “It matters to the person in this branch that you’re acting like a jerk to,” said Zareenah. “But what about globally? Does being a jerk in this branch increase the percentage of jerkish behavior across all branches?” “I’m not sure about the math,” said Dana. “But I definitely think that your choices matter. Every decision you make contributes to your character and shapes the kind of person you are. If you want to be someone who always gives the extra money back to the cashier, the actions you take now affect whether you’ll become that person. “The branch where you’re having a bad day and keep the extra change is one that split off in the past; your actions can’t affect it anymore. But if you act compassionately in this branch, that’s still meaningful, because it has an effect on the branches that will split off in the future. The more often you make compassionate choices, the less likely it is that you’ll make selfish choices in the future, even in the branches where you’re having a bad day.” “That sounds good, but — ” Nat thought about how years of acting a certain way could wear ruts in a person’s brain, so that you would keep slipping into the same habits without trying to. “But it’s not easy,” said Nat. “I know it’s not,” said Dana. “But the question was, given that we know about other branches, whether making good choices is worth doing. I think it absolutely is. None of us are saints, but we can all try to be better. Each time you do something generous, you’re shaping yourself into someone who’s more likely to be generous next time, and that matters. “And it’s not just your behavior in this branch that you’re changing: you’re inoculating all the versions of you that split off in the future. By becoming a better person, you’re ensuring that more and more of the branches that split off from this point forward are populated by better versions of you.” Better versions of Nat. “Thanks,” she said. “That’s what I was looking for.”
https://onezero.medium.com/anxiety-is-the-dizziness-of-freedom-b5ab45cae2a5
['Ted Chiang']
2020-08-13 17:24:07.890000+00:00
['Technology', 'Science Fiction', 'Future', 'Science', 'Books']
771
Serenity: What Ethereum 2.0 means for blockchain technology.
My first ever cryptocurrency was probably Cardano (ADA), but Charles Hopkins was more known as ‘Ethereum co-founder’ than ‘Cardano CEO’. Funny right? Well, that just goes a long way to explain how influential ethereum is in the crypto space. Arguably more popular than bitcoin amongst technically inclined blockchain enthusiasts. If you got in here for the quick bucks, then it should be bitcoin for you. but that’s by the way… Trying to dive into ethereum’s technology or attempting to use its infrastructure, one runs into numerous issues. With the size of Ethereum’s archival nodes currently sitting at over four (4) terabytes (4Tb) and the actual blockchain size well over a hundred (100) Gigabytes and each block adding two (2) Megabytes to this already huge figure, the Ethereum blockchain according to many ‘will never scale’ and in 2019, Bloomberg reported the Ethereum blockchain is ‘almost full’. Scalability and memory friendliness are both very appealing features and good ingredients for mainstream adoption, ethereum lacks both. Chart culled from Etherscan Your attention must have been drawn to a recent transaction with a transaction fee of over 10,000 ethereum coins to transfer 0.55 ethereum coins to another address. Well, transaction fees are relatively very much lower currently, but compared to most other blockchains, ethereum transaction fees are ‘high’. Unarguably one of the biggest events expected to happen soon on the crypto space is ethereum moving from Proof of Work to Proof of stake. The upgrade to ethereum 2.0 also known as SERENITY is expected to bring moment-defining changes to the ethereum ecosystem. This upgrade changes ethereum’s consensus algorithm to proof of stake. Time to switch off the mines guys! Being home to most decentralized applications and smart contract projects on the crypto-sphere, ethereum is a very influential project. This change says a lot about ethereum and could mean a lot for blockchain technology. But what could these be? Let us know in the comments sections! Here are my (very) personal opinions: Proof of stake (POS) wins again Ethereum moving to Proof of stake and Defi projects springing up seriously lately spells a defining moment in the crypto space. Being the most popular altcoin and only second to bitcoin itself, ethereum blockchain, its ether coin and the numerous smart contracts running on it have seriously rocked the crypto space and is unarguably the most copied project in blockchain technology. Changing its token generation scheme to proof of stake is for sure a big win for the proof of stake technology. To be frank, I’ve always been a fan of Proof of work coins, to an extent I feel it is a cleverer and a more sophisticated technology than proof of stake, but maybe Vitalik got to school me better. Whichever way, Proof of work still holds a special place in my list. The move to proof of stake is expected to add more flexibility to the ethereum blockchain, a feature it terribly lacks. Proof of work algorithm is a complex computing protocol. Running a node for a proof of work coin requires enough computing power and of course, a whole lot of electrical energy. Working on computer resources, proof of work operations piles pressure on the device resources, stores an enormous amount of data and consumes the device memory in an outrageous manner. Poorly scaling blockchains like ethereum and bitcoin would consume double to three-digit gigabytes on your device and heat up the device. Proof stake algorithm is energy conserving in all aspects. Due to its memory friendliness and relative simplicity it makes judicial use of computing resources. Staking process also provides a more flexible token generation algorithm in contrast to the very much complex proof of work. Getting rid of the mining process saves the electrical power required to mine tokens. Moving to POS spares ethereum blockchain of this turmoil, guess that’s why it was named SERENITY! Well, it’s serenity and peace at last for ethereum believers and skeptics. As amazing move…arguably. Fate of smart contracts and DApps Projects built on the ethereum blockchain makes up a very huge percentage of the whole cryptocurrency market. It is unarguably the largest ecosystem in the crypto-space. The upgrade to 2.0 and switch to POS is a very important one and one would wonder what effect it will have on the occupants of this ecosystem. Ethereum’s rigidity and vast issues have also been a problem for smart contract projects in its ecosystem. A number of them have made attempts to solve some of Ethereum’s issues. POA network is building a sidechain application which hopes to solve Ethereum’s scalability issue and allow organizations and game developers to build their own networks and deploy their DApps in a faster, more scalable and a lower fee network. Many other similar smart contract projects on the ethereum network are focused on solving the three issues plaguing the ethereum blockchain; poor scalability, high transaction fees and low transaction speed. Singapore-based ethereum smart contract project, Loopring has developed a couple of working solutions to Ethereum’s issues. Loopring’s technology strives to create a platform for building and deploying high efficiency decentralized exchanges on the ethereum blockchain. Using the Zero Knowledge Rollup (ZK-Rollup) protocol, Loopring have been able to provide solutions to Ethereum’s poor scalability and as well, its slow transaction speed. Other projects on ethereum blockchain have been limited in many ways by the long-lasting issues the blockchain faces. If the upgrade to 2.0 solves these issues, then things are expected to get even better for these projects and their growth could speed up even more. Ethereum overpowered by its issues? Ethereum ran into these issues and have lived with it for so long. It is home to many brilliant developers; however, they only manage to parry these issues for years instead of solving them. The ethereum blockchain has in fact not progressed so much over these years. Attempts at tackling scalability issues are basically management strategies and very little in-roads have been made towards solving the scalability issues it faces. During this time, a couple of other Proof of work blockchain projects have developed solutions to Ethereum’s issues while ethereum remained stuck. Low transaction fees, infinite scalability, flexibility…most ethereum issues have been solved by different blockchain projects. Pascal blockchain could run for years and add only 26 megabytes of data to its blockchain size. Ethereum blockchain would increase by the same size after only thirteen blocks. Ethereum have remained dormant over these years and its only solution to solving this issue is a total change of consensus algorithm. It is pertinent to say that ethereum 1.0 was overpowered by its issues and ethereum 2.0 is an escape from the shackles of ethereum 1.0. Being a leading figure in blockchain technology, one would expect ethereum to tackle these issues in a different way without shifting its original form totally…well that wasn’t the case, we got a new blockchain…lol. Well, anything that solves a problem is a solution. I’d expect ethereum to do something different, but this is a whole lot already and if it solves the issues it faces currently, then its brilliant enough to get an applause from the crypto community. The upgrade to 2.0 is moving at a good pace and we might see a completion months from now. Until then, I’ll cross my fingers and read your comments. Follow me for more! Well, you can just catch my tweets!
https://medium.com/@joelagbo/serenity-what-ethereum-2-0-means-for-blockchain-technology-60961d71cdb6
['Agbo Joel']
2020-12-07 03:24:32.043000+00:00
['Ethereum', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Eth', 'Ethereum Blockchain']
772
Working Virtually is a Dance Between Humans and Technology
Working Virtually is a Dance Between Humans and Technology Will this information be obsolete by the time you finish reading it? For years before this pandemic put all of us online for everything, my students of group facilitation were already trying to hold meetings on digital platforms. Project managers, non-profit executives, college administrators, HR people, grassroots organizers, pretty much anyone who needs to run groups successfully came through my workshop, and mostly they were holding face-to-face meetings. But more and more of them needed to meet online. They used whatever platform their company recommended, and yeah, it was quite the variety. Lucky for me, in spite of different software, they all had the same questions about how to facilitate an effective online meeting. I enjoyed the challenge of translating the values and techniques I teach into an online environment, but I realized right away there was no way I was an expert on the technology. Tech is definitely not my jam. Plus, innovation was a moving target. Every few months there was a new favorite. Notice I am not mentioning any names? Because we don’t use those tools anymore. In fact, you might as well put this whole article in your 2020 Time Capsule right now because there’s a good chance that by the time you finish reading, it will be obsolete. Since my students were the ones using the tools, I could hardly claim more expertise than they had. So, I told them, “Right now, developing online meeting tech is at the Wright Brothers stage of flight. We are riding a bicycle with paper wings down a sand dune.” Then I reviewed the requirements of any successful meeting and encouraged them to find ways to meet effectively. “Innovate!” I said. It’s a partner dance: We lead and we follow. This got me thinking about how technology develops in relation to how we use it. Humans invent machines to do things we need to do. Meanwhile, machines shape us as we use them, based on what they are capable of — which is often amazing, but still limited. Probably none of us are old enough to remember when cars were invented, but there was a lot of discussion back then about how people would lose the ability to walk. It may seem silly now, but a century later here we are; the increase in obesity and cardiovascular disease in developed countries can be linked, in part, to the nearly universal use of automobiles. Raise your hand if this will stop you from driving your car. More recently (you do remember this,) along came the cell phone. Undeniable value. Everyone all over the world has a cell phone: in cities, remote villages, even people who have never had any other kind of phone. Even people who have to walk miles to access electricity now have a phone. It’s just a massively powerful computer in your pocket. What could possibly go wrong? Ahem. There’s plenty of data on how looking at little screens all day causes eye strain, bad posture, or even cancer. But the people I know who would forgo their cell phone for these reasons I can count on one finger. We humans create technology and then risk actual physical harm (not to mention environmental catastrophe) to use it and we barely notice. Why? Obviously, tech is magical, and it offers amazing personal value. But there’s another reason. The best technological advances are successful because they are intuitive to use. They do what we need them to do in a way that allows us to stay comfortable as human beings; they integrate well with innate human behavior. When a device feels intuitive it’s like an extension of what we were doing anyway — only better. It’s like when you are shopping with a friend and you try on a new shirt and they say, “It looks like you already own it.” Steve Jobs knew this and designed for it, famously saying, Some people say give the customers what they want, but that’s not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they’re going to want before they do. I think Henry Ford once said, “If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would’ve told me ‘a faster horse’.” Jobs was talking about making things that already fit into what people do naturally and extend our capability without much effort from us. Socio-technical Systems Systems thinkers call this dance between people and machines a socio-technical system, meaning the elements of the system that influence how the system functions and changes are both human and technological. Meeting online is a prime example of this. “Meeting” means communicating. The struggle of digital communications is to recreate human face-to-face communications. And since we humans are evolutionarily the “storytelling ape” (apologies to Terry Pratchett) and we literally survive by communicating, our standard is very high and it involves all our senses. Technology is trying to catch up, and making progress. From drums in the distance, to letter writing, to the telegraph (not intuitive), to the telephone (intuitive), to big clunky video cameras in conference rooms (no one used them after the first week), we have finally arrived at — drumroll please — Zoom! Ok, I know there are many other platforms for meetings, but Zoom is the current hands-down favorite. It’s not perfect, but the pandemic has made it ubiquitous. Even my cousin Liz uses it. And why? Pop quiz! — you know the answer: because it is the most intuitive to use, and currently gives us the best technological version of face-to-face communication and the best tools to collaborate. This won’t last, for two reasons. The first is competition from other tech developers. (MS Teams has a beta version out that sends chills down my spine.) And the second reason is us. The users. People using technology changes the technology. We make tech do things we need it to do even beyond its original design. Cool Zoom Hack Here’s my example. Zoom has many handy features including easy-to-use breakout rooms. I absolutely need breakout rooms! I support groups to collaborate on complex issues, and small groups are where it’s at because people need to actually talk to each other. Zoom breakouts provide the obvious: You can put people in rooms randomly or manually organize who goes in what room. Every room has its own chat and a whiteboard — it's great. But what if you want to make topic-specific breakout rooms and give people the choice of which topic they want to talk about, then allow them to move from room to room on their own? I definitely need this. My philosophy is to give people as much autonomy as they can stand. This is what I do in my face-to-face work, and my clients need to do the same online. Luckily, in the mad scramble to teach Zoom to our clients, my friend Raymond van Driel from the Applied Improv Network figured it out. He immediately shared his discovery, and now we can all easily do Open Space and a host of other essential formats. You can get specific instructions here. Or wait for Zoom to make this easy, which I hear they are planning to do. When the breakout rooms can have designated topics, and people can move between the rooms on their own based on their interests, it feels natural. There are lots of applications, not just in work settings, but also in family gatherings, social events, even complex games like Werewolf. Not surprisingly, we aren’t the only ones to discover this, so it really is like the era of the Wright Brothers, when many groups were separately trying to invent a flying machine. We are all in this dance of invention, even those of us who don’t think of ourselves as tech-savvy. But let’s not stop there. Technology is being developed by us. The dance back and forth between human needs and tech capability will continue. You hear a lot about both the wonders and the horrors of new technology. This is an invitation to not just see ourselves as consumers of the wonder, and victims of the horror. Let’s do the best job we can to make technology reflect and support the finest aspects of who we are as humans. With a nod to Sam Kaner for inspiration.
https://medium.com/ninja-writers/working-virtually-is-a-dance-between-humans-and-technology-3b6f56419538
['Sarah Fisk']
2020-09-25 16:34:20.650000+00:00
['Productivity', 'Work', 'Digital Life', 'Technology', 'Remote Work']
773
Main Types of Neural Networks and its Applications — Tutorial
Main Types of Neural Networks and its Applications — Tutorial A tutorial on the main types of neural networks and their applications to real-world challenges. Author(s): Pratik Shukla, Roberto Iriondo Last updated, August 11, 2020 Nowadays, there are many types of neural networks in deep learning which are used for different purposes. In this article, we will go through the most used topologies in neural networks, briefly introduce how they work, along with some of their applications to real-world challenges. Figure 2: The perceptron: a probabilistic model for information storage and organization in the brain [3] | Source: Frank Rosenblat’s Mark I Perceptron at the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory. Buffalo, New York, 1960 [4] 📚 This article is our third tutorial on neural networks, to start with our first one, check out neural networks from scratch with Python code and math in detail. 📚 Neural Network Topologies Figure 3: Representation of the perceptron (p). 1. Perceptron (P): The perceptron model is also known as a single-layer neural network. This neural net contains only two layers: Input Layer Output Layer In this type of neural network, there are no hidden layers. It takes an input and calculates the weighted input for each node. Afterward, it uses an activation function (mostly a sigmoid function) for classification purposes. Applications:
https://medium.com/towards-artificial-intelligence/main-types-of-neural-networks-and-its-applications-tutorial-734480d7ec8e
['Towards Ai Team']
2020-08-28 03:20:07.638000+00:00
['Artificial Intelligence', 'Education', 'Innovation', 'Science', 'Technology']
774
Coff-It-Up!
Coff-It-Up! Your #1 Specialty Coffee Specialists Photo by William Moreland on Unsplash Here at Coff-It-Up! Coffee, Inc. we specialize in a prodigious number of specialty roasts. We are looking to be as ubiquitous as your struggles to stay awake throughout the day! Our brand new locations on every other street corner — including inside office buildings, schools, sports arenas, opera houses, BBQ pits, your neighbor’s shed, Cousin Eddy’s bathroom, and in the passenger seat of your car — provide you with convenience and homeliness. We know you’ve got hoards of cash in those pockets and are unrestrainedly ecstatic to “coff-it-up” to us. Need an early morning wake-up brew? Or a post lunch pick-me-up? How about an after-work stamina-booster? Or an espresso for every waking minute of these godforsaken, interminable days? Whatever your situ, we got you! Getting fed up? About to pass out from the sheer exhaustion of existence? It’s time to Coff-It-Up! Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash Our menu offers the select specialties: Kaui Brew: A rich Hawaiian coffee that is actually 10% from Kaui, or maybe some other island (we’re not sure), while the remaining 90% is arabica from various mysterious and unknown sources. We’re not quite sure what arabica means, really. Texas Pecan Roast: Get that quintessential southwestern pecan flavor infused with a signature Coff-It-Up! coffee essence. Actually roasted in Maryland, it has nothing to do with Texas besides the name. But we know for sure there are definitely pecans in Texas! And we won’t judge if you say “pee-can”! Hazelnut Specialty: For those who want to taste hazelnut even if you have never even tried a hazelnut in the decades you’ve spent on this transitory planet, this is the right brew for you! We’re not sure what hazelnuts taste like either, but we’re pretty sure, judging by the smell when we roast it, that it tastes like popcorn. Our taste-testers can at-taste to that! Grab a brew of this liquified popcorn before binge watching Mandalorian all night in your everyday COVID pj’s. And if the liquidy buttery-corny flavor doesn’t agree with you, cough it up! Pumpkin Spice Lateness: That’s right folks, we don’t follow the seasonal trends the way we’re supposed to. We release our Pumpkin Spice brews as a sort of ironic New Year’s resolution. We’re puttin’ on the pounds with plenty of 1,000 calorie PS fare. In January, we release our Pumpkin Spice Lateness in the form of whipped-cream-topped frapps; whipped-cream-topped machs; whipped-cream-topped capps, and let’s not forget swirly, creamy-topped Pumpkin Spice Late-tays — all of which are sprinkled with, wait for it, the spice the Winter Gods stole from the Autumnal lesser-deities and then “coffed-up”™ on the small Matterhorn of your whipped topping! Time to dive into tardiness bliss, ya’ll. Other Specialties (everything at Coff-It-Up! is a specialty; don’t even @ us): Try our caffeine IV! We have trained nurses (who are also baristas!) to tap a vein and insert our IV of a house brew coffee drip. This way you can stay awake driving to work, working at work, driving home from work, thinking about work at home, and even while dreaming of work. (Actually, we can’t keep you awake while your sleeping — this is just not possible). Always remember, coffee is life (not work), so Coff-It-Up! jabronies! Caffeine-infused phone accessories: That’s right! Coff-It-Up! has designed two signature smart-phone accessories to prevent you from nodding off from obsessive scrolling and to keep you focused on content. Our caffeine-coated earphones are lab-tested and scientific-research approved. The microscopic coffee crystals infused on the earphones travel through the ear and up to your brain to keep you awake (maybe not fully!) to continue to mindlessly scan at pictures of people you knew in high school only superficially! Additionally, our new caffeinated screen protector, when touched by fingertips, releases pores of infinitesimal proportion that float toward the inhaling orifices of the user, keeping them alert and riveted, maybe even manic. Coffee Bread™: Another one of our signature specialties is our Coffee Bread™ (not to be confused with inferior coffee cake!) Since bread is pretty much in everything and you cannot go without it — unless you have sworn off it, which is hard to do (trust us, we’ve tried many, many times — the allure of all things carbs is too much!) — we have designed a bread that has so much caffeine, the consumer actually feels like running a marathon or reading Tolstoy right afterwards! Our Coffee Bread™ can be used in making toast (obvs); patty melts (are these still a thing?); sandwiches (boring); and garlic coffee bread (pairs well with our Italian Brew, which is actually roasted at the Venetian in Las Vegas). We even have Coffee Bread™ in dough form available for purchase, perfect for you pizza lovers! Coff-It-Up! all over that spicey meat-ah-ball! So come on down to our brand-spankin’ (literally) new locations and grab a brew today! Due to COVID, we’re offering a 95% discount to all first-time purchases (seriously we’re desperate right now). Forget your K-Cups, Coff-It-Up!
https://medium.com/the-haven/coff-it-up-a837fcf5b81c
['Nolan Yard']
2020-12-28 06:50:17.274000+00:00
['Coffee', 'Existentialism', 'Branding', 'Technology', 'Product']
775
Kubernetes Is Deprecating Docker Support & Here’s Why You Should Not Panic
Photo by Thais Morais on Unsplash On 2nd December 2020, Kubernetes published an article stating that Kubernetes is deprecating Docker as a container runtime… And this was not a big deal I thought as I usually read articles from the Kubernetes Blog, thought this is just a release update blog. But then I saw Ian Coldwater, the Kubernetes SIG Security co-chair tweeted something which panicked the DevOps realm, quite literally. I, then realized, that the blog post was written as a clarification of this tweet. Ian Coldwater tweeted, Docker support is being deprecated in Kubernetes. You need to pay attention to this and plan for it. THIS WILL BREAK YOUR CLUSTERS. This caused a stir among the DevOps community to a humongous effect to an extent that she had to delete the previous tweet and tweet this. Ian Coldwater tweeted an apology but her intentions were just to inform the community So, what is it exactly? Is Docker dead or not? No. Docker is not dead. You can still keep on working with Docker. It is not that big deal, it became. Though for a second, it confused me as well. Actually, the Kubernetes maintainers explained that they are deprecating Docker as a container runtime after v1.20. What does this mean? Well, Docker has become synonymous with container runtime. If anyone talks about container images, container registry, or even container runtime, they simply think about Docker. Kubernetes wants to change that norm. Docker was actually introduced before Kubernetes to popularize the Linux container pattern as a whole. This means Docker is not the only container runtime around, there are others like rkt, containerd, and lxd. If you don’t know, a container runtime is software that executes containers and manages container images on a node. Docker is very popular and the most common container runtime used in production Kubernetes environments. To summarise this, I came across an incredible tweet by Kelsey Hightower, Staff Developer Advocate, Google Cloud Platform at Google. “Docker != Containers” tweet by Kelsey Hightower But… Was this important? What was the need? Kubernetes v1.5 had introduced an internal plugin API named Container Runtime Interface (CRI) to provide easy access to different container runtimes. CRI enables Kubernetes to use any of the container runtimes without recompilation. This means Kubernetes could use any container runtime that implements CRI to manage pods, containers and container images. Docker currently does not support Kubernetes’s CRI so Kubernetes maintainers had written an additional layer to support this which is known as Dockershim. But maintaining dockershim has become a heavy burden on the Kubernetes maintainers. Kubernetes stated, … your Kubernetes cluster has to use another tool called Dockershim to get at what it really needs, which is containerd. That’s not great, because it gives us another thing that has to be maintained and can possibly break. They published this in another blog post about the deprecation of Dockershim. Hence, the Kubernetes maintainers are encouraging developers to migrate to container runtimes that are CRI-compliant. Good news is that if you’re using a managed Kubernetes service like GKE, EKS, or AKS (which defaults to containerd) you will need to make sure your worker nodes are using a supported container runtime before Docker support is removed in a future version of Kubernetes, which is currently planned for v1.22 due in late 2021.
https://medium.com/dev-genius/kubernetes-is-deprecating-docker-support-heres-why-you-should-not-panic-40259b108aff
['Vivek Naskar']
2020-12-09 21:19:46.777000+00:00
['Programming', 'Technology', 'Docker', 'Kubernetes', 'Software Development']
776
Ultra eWallet 2.0 is Live
We are happy to share the release of Ultra eWallet 2.0! As part of our partnership with Dafabet, one of the World’s top gaming groups, we have built Ultra eWallet 1.0 to make it easy for Dafabet users to pay with their credit cards. The release of Ultra eWallet 2.0 for Dafabet includes direct processing, for users who already have crypto. The crypto gateway will enable Dafabet users to smoothly pay with their USDT tokens, which is expected to grow the volume of processing and the usage of Ultra eWallet. Ultra eWallet 2.0 benefits: No minimum transaction amount Instant settlement Lower fees for the operator and user No need for a KYC process Like all of COTI’s products, transactions are funneled to the Trustchain and adds to the overall usage of the COTI network, which benefits $COTI holders, stakers and node operators. We continuously upgrade and improve our products. The release of the Ultra eWallet 2.0 was the missing piece that now makes the wallet and payment system for Dafabet’s gaming platform complete. Stay COTI!
https://medium.com/@cotinetwork/ultra-ewallet-2-0-is-live-dd14f79eaf8c
[]
2021-03-29 14:07:20.684000+00:00
['Technology', 'Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Wallet']
777
How Much Does It Cost To Create A Diet and Nutrition App (Features, Business Model, Cost etc)
How Much Does It Cost To Create A Diet and Nutrition App (Features, Business Model, Cost etc) Sophia Martin Follow Dec 10 · 11 min read Are you planning to develop a diet and nutrition app in 2020–21? Not sure how much it cost you to develop a brilliant diet and nutrition tracking app with MVP? Many of the developers can assure you to develop it under $5000! Isn’t it too good to believe? According to the survey, the median development cost range is in between $37,913 and $171,450, but it could climb up to $50,000 or higher depending upon the various factors. But, with the fact that mobile healthcare apps are projected to generate $50,000+ revenue and value by 2025 and 74% of patients are using wearable and other healthcare tools to cope up with their medical conditions. It is clear that the healthcare sector is opening doors with plenty of opportunities for startups and leading entrepreneurs and making sense to invest in app development in 2020–25 If you are still in a doubt, then it is right time to have a look over the statistics of the market overview and trends of diet and nutrition app: The global mhealth market is rapidly growing and expected to reach $111 billion by 2025. Fitness apps are accounting for the largest share of the US mhealth app market and expected to grow to $50 Billion by 2025. mHealth app market is projected to expand at a CAGR of 44.7% and reach at $236 billion by 2026. Data Bridge Market Research analyses that the market is growing with a CAGR of 20.9% during 2020 to 2027 and expected to reach $10,189.62 million by 2027. To wrap up these figures, it is fair enough to develop a diet and nutrition app for your business in 2020–21. The central question, while there are various leading fitness apps (Nutrients, MyFitnessPal and Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker) are already leading the market, how to launch a winning app that helps you achieve success in 2020–21? To develop the best diet and nutrition app, it is worth hiring a dedicated app development company experienced in creating healthcare apps integrating the right technologies and methodologies. But if you are thinking that developing a diet and nutrition app is as easy as replicating the app clone of a leading healthcare app, then you might be mistaken at this point. With over 5.5 million apps available in Google and iPhone app stores, launching a duplicate app with more or fewer features is just a flop idea. No matter how brilliant an app idea you have and what set of features you choose to incorporate in the app, the success of the app dramatically depends upon the skills and expertise of your app developers embedded in the app. So let’s get started with the features and functionalities of the diet and nutrition app… But before learning about the crucial features and functionalities of the diet and nutrition app, it is essential to understand the basic idea of launching this app. How does this app help end-users? How Does Diet and Nutrition App Be Useful for Users? The simple idea about using the diet and nutrition app is it helps in adopting the healthy lifestyle that seamlessly syncs your body and weight. The diet and nutrition app keeps track of your dietary habits and provides personalized diet plans that help you meet your health goals in a fast turnaround. A mindfully constructed app can help users with the following aspects: Assist in creating a balanced and nutritious diet chart Keep tracking a log of calories and water intake Assisting tips and plans for the weight loss Monitoring daily physical activity Assisting a healthy grocery list Suggesting healthy food options A diet and nutrition app is highly useful for the end-users if they are created with a fantastic set of modern features. So before you move to the app development procedure, make sure you hire best software development company that has clear idea about the features and functionalities required to construct modern diet and nutrition app. Essential Features You Need to Include in a Diet and Nutrition App Since people all age have become so conscious about their health and fitness, therefore, they are eagerly looking for apps that encourage them to follow a fitness regime. And having a mobile device with several tools and applications that help in tracking their diet and nutrition habits every day. All you need to keep in mind is the set of features you need to implement in the app. Here’s the list of features and its cost of development: General Features to build a diet and nutrition app in 2020–21 User Login or Registration: To get started with any app, users have to create a profile with the essential details including age, gender, height, weight and eating habits. The registration window of the app will keep your details completely safe and secure. Users can also log in the app with social media integration and allow the app to collect all the essential information from that channel and send you personalized messages and notifications. To get started with any app, users have to create a profile with the essential details including age, gender, height, weight and eating habits. The registration window of the app will keep your details completely safe and secure. Users can also log in the app with social media integration and allow the app to collect all the essential information from that channel and send you personalized messages and notifications. Dashboard and Food Logging: Make sure you have a feature where users can log the amount of food they are consuming in detail to keep track of their calories in-take and get most accurate diet suggestions to stay healthy. Make sure you have a feature where users can log the amount of food they are consuming in detail to keep track of their calories in-take and get most accurate diet suggestions to stay healthy. Seamless Connectivity With Wearables : With the emergence of technologies such as IoT, it becomes easier to track every single thing through your smart devices. By connecting your app with the third-party devices and wearables such as Apple Watch, Android Wear or Fitbit or so on, you can make it easier to monitor everything right from tracking heart rate, physical activity, step counts to food you intake. Wearables are getting popular these days, so leverage this feature to add great convenience to the user. : With the emergence of technologies such as IoT, it becomes easier to track every single thing through your smart devices. By connecting your app with the third-party devices and wearables such as Apple Watch, Android Wear or Fitbit or so on, you can make it easier to monitor everything right from tracking heart rate, physical activity, step counts to food you intake. Wearables are getting popular these days, so leverage this feature to add great convenience to the user. Implement Engaging Statistics: People are impatient when they are using diet and nutrition apps to track everything from monitoring the amount of calorie burnt at a point of the day to how far they are from their health goals. To keep your users engaged with the app, you can use exciting statistics via presenting the data or stats in a graph showing weekly progressive reports to boost their motivation. Professional diet and nutrition app development companies understand the importance of these features; therefore, they can suggest better ideas to develop this feature. People are impatient when they are using diet and nutrition apps to track everything from monitoring the amount of calorie burnt at a point of the day to how far they are from their health goals. To keep your users engaged with the app, you can use exciting statistics via presenting the data or stats in a graph showing weekly progressive reports to boost their motivation. Professional diet and nutrition understand the importance of these features; therefore, they can suggest better ideas to develop this feature. Push Notification: This is a must-have feature in diet and nutrition apps, as it helps you send the right message at the right time to the user about what they should eat, in what amount, and at what intervals. By integrating Virtual Assistance in apps, you can get better user experience. This is a must-have feature in diet and nutrition apps, as it helps you send the right message at the right time to the user about what they should eat, in what amount, and at what intervals. By integrating Virtual Assistance in apps, you can get better user experience. Live Chat: Provide the provision of the 24*7 customer support to the user with live chatting feature and allow users to get interacted with the expert dietitians and nutritionists directly. With the help of this feature, experts can suggest a better workout regime and diet plan based on health concerns. This feature in your app will ensure you a win-win option. Provide the provision of the 24*7 customer support to the user with live chatting feature and allow users to get interacted with the expert dietitians and nutritionists directly. With the help of this feature, experts can suggest a better workout regime and diet plan based on health concerns. This feature in your app will ensure you a win-win option. Feedback: Getting feedback directly from the user will help you determine the areas that required improvement. Based on the feedback and ratings from the users, will help you enhance the interface of the app and minimize the risk app abandons. Getting feedback directly from the user will help you determine the areas that required improvement. Based on the feedback and ratings from the users, will help you enhance the interface of the app and minimize the risk app abandons. Personalized Diet Suggestions: This feature allows users to seek better diet suggestions from dieticians and nutrition by merely discussing their concerns and getting satisfying assistance. Advance Features for the modern Diet and Nutrition app BMI(Body Mass Index) Calculation on Board: BMI is one of the most critical aspects of Diet and nutrition tracking apps. Once the user logs in the app, they must be asked to enter specific details about themselves regarding weight, height, gender, food preferences, allergies if any. With the help of these details, a complete report has been generated by the app as per body measurements and the app will keep tracking everything as per that report. Moreover, fitness experts create a diet plan that accelerates the process and help you meet your goal in fast turn around. Diet and Nutrition Analyzer: Each user has its purpose of using this app, therefore with the feature of diet and nutrition analyzer, users can get a clear understanding of how close or far they are from achieving their goal. However, make sure that this feature should be presented in a way that users can easily access it and be able to make out the best. Each user has its purpose of using this app, therefore with the feature of diet and nutrition analyzer, users can get a clear understanding of how close or far they are from achieving their goal. However, make sure that this feature should be presented in a way that users can easily access it and be able to make out the best. Listing Best Fitness Experts: To serve the best services to the users, make sure you have the best fitness experts and dieticians on boards that keep pushing users regularly. These experts closely monitor your food intake and physical activities and share personalized diet charts and easy to follow healthy food recipes as well. These health and fitness experts provide you with regular guidance to the users to help you reach your body goals as earliest as possible. In-app Recipe Book: This feature not only helps them stick to healthy eating but also encourages them to try exciting meals. This feature gives them an idea of how to prepare healthy meals with the help of the detailed recipe available on the app. This feature not only helps them stick to healthy eating but also encourages them to try exciting meals. This feature gives them an idea of how to prepare healthy meals with the help of the detailed recipe available on the app. Badges: In this cut throat cutting edge competitive market, everyone is trying hard to beat others. And this feature keeps users strong-willed and determined to attain the badges based on the performance. To build your app with excellent features and functionalities, you can choose to hire a nutrition app developer that can help you customize the app according to your budget and needs. The above mentioned features are the best-suggested features to integrate, but the choice will remain yours. In addition, the time and cost of creating these features are rough estimations, as it greatly varies according to the team or software development company you choose to hire for the project. What is The Process of Developing Modern Diet and Nutrition App In 2020–21? If you have finally made a decision to move ahead with Diet and Nutrition app development, then you need to have a clear perspective and a strategic plan to achieve success. So let’s begin with the steps that can help you build a diet and nutrition mobile app: 1. Research, Plan and Developing a Roadmap Considering the facts and figures of progressive diet and nutrition app market, it is a worthy decision to make an investment. But before investing your time and money, it is important to analyze the market and evaluate your app development idea accordingly. So to make a clear plan and functional roadmap about your development process, make sure it should include: The idea of launching the app Who will be your targeted audience? What will be your development plan? What are you trying to achieve through this app development? How will you make a profit from the app? Once you find answers to these questions, you can move ahead to the other part. 2. Choice of Operating System Before you roll out the UX/UI design of the app, it is important to decide whether you want to develop a Native or Cross-platform application? The choice of OS greatly depends upon your targeted audience, as it is a well-known fact that iOS devices are used by rich people, whereas Android devices are preferred by ordinary middle-class people. Moreover, iOS users have the power to purchase the app, whereas Android users are habitual to use free apps. But with the launch of a cross-platform application, you can reach out to a wider market and be able to save a great cost on app development. There are many open-source frameworks, tools and technologies that you can use to develop Diet and Nutrition apps such as Flutter. Despite being a young and newly launched framework, Flutter has secured its position in the 2nd most popular and widely used frameworks. By leveraging its features and wide pool of plugins, you can customize the app with the best UX/UI design. 3. UX/UI Design Since every app store has its own guidelines, therefore you need to customize the UX/UI design of the app accordingly. However, don’t forget that app design is the most important element of your development process, so make sure it should be interactive, intuitive, and engaging. To develop a highly simple and unique app design, it is best to hire a dedicated UX/UI designer that helps you finalize a wireframe and the UI design based on your needs. 4. App Development The development phase would involve working with the app development team that can understand your requirement and have skills to go above and beyond your requirements to deliver result-oriented solutions. All the features will be coded by the developers and made it functional with the UI design as a base. To make your app successful, all you need a mobile app development company to ensure your best results from the development solution. 5. App Testing and Quality Assurance Once you are done with the development process, its time to test every single element of the app by running it over multiple platforms to ensure seamless user experience. The main goal of hiring the app tester is to eliminate the bugs and ensure that your app works flawlessly in various situations. Cost To Develop Diet and Nutrition App in 2020–21: While it is hard to estimate the exact cost of the app development as it greatly varies on multiple factors right from the development team you hire to the features and functionalities, app complexity, and more. Still, with the close evaluation of each factor, there is a scope of determining the real estimation of the app development. However, on an average, you can develop a Diet and Nutrition app with MVP from $10,000+. But, being an IT expert, we always recommend getting in touch with the nutrition app development company that provides you with a complete development team under one roof including: Project manager UX/UI Designer Developer Backend/ Frontend developer App Tester Android/ iOS Developer The cost to hire a development team can be starting from $25/hr in India, $100/hr in the USA and $150/hr in the UK, depending upon location of the development team, skills and experience of the programmers. Conclusion Undoubtedly, Diet and Nutrition based apps are steadily growing in popularity and opening a plethora of opportunities for the startups and entrepreneurs in 2020–21. While using these apps, you can keep yourself fit and healthy with constant monitoring of physical activities and food intake. In addition, these apps offer everything in one place right from keeping track of your calories in-take to getting connected with the fitness experts, providing healthy in-app recipes to getting a personalized workout regime, a strategically developed app can provide you with all such things.
https://medium.com/flutter-community/how-much-does-it-cost-to-create-a-diet-and-nutrition-app-features-business-model-cost-etc-a5750f22aea2
['Sophia Martin']
2020-12-10 05:38:36.114000+00:00
['Mobile App Development', 'Mobile Apps', 'Development', 'Technology', 'Startup']
778
Why the iPad Pro is Perfect for Students
Why the iPad Pro is Perfect for Students Here’s why the iPad is the perfect back to school machine! Photo by CardMapr on Unsplash With classes shifting to online, having a reliable machine where you can do all your work effectively is more important than ever for students. While a lot of people are looking at laptops, I think tablets can be a very viable option. One thing that keeps me coming back to the iPad Pro is the experience of using it. iPads today are incredibly powerful devices. They’re light, fanless, and have amazing battery life. The sizes of these devices also adds to its efficiency — being able to throw the tablet into any bag and carry it around with you, without worrying about the size of it. In my experience over the past two semesters, you can do everything you would normally do with a laptop or desktop on the iPad. They’re also a lot more reliable than you’re average MacBook Pro today. Photo by Daniel Romero on Unsplash You might have noticed how aesthetically pleasing these iPads are to the eye. It has a sleek design that only adds to the experience of carrying one around or using it as a tool for your work station at home. Older Versions Work Just As Good If you currently own an older version or are interested in getting more bang for your buck and not buying the latest versions, the 10.5 inch iPad Pro from 2018 is known to give you the same experience. The only major difference is the size of the bezels and the difference between the 1st generation Apple Pencil and the 2nd generation one. Using one of the older tablets, or the current budget iPad will require you to charge the Pencil using the port on the bottom of the iPad instead of the ability to attach the Pencil to the side and charge it that way. In most cases, this is not a big issue but if you don’t wanna waste those 5 minutes, the newer versions might be worth looking into. The performance difference between the 2018 version and the 2020 version is unnoticeable to most people. Although the 2020 version might score higher on geekbench, using the machine for day to day activities won’t have you notice anything. Nowadays you can get the 2018 iPad Pro for around $700 which is a pretty good deal for a machine that fast. Actually Getting Stuff Done You can do anything you need to do for most schools on the iPad. For writing documents, you have Microsoft Word, Google Docs which are both available as apps. via GoodNote’s website When it comes to sitting in class and taking notes, there are some fantastic apps you should check out. Personally, I love using GoodNotes 5, it’s an app that allows you to write, store, and organize your notes really well inside little virtual notebooks — inside folders. You can type notes, add images, and do anything you could on a laptop. Keeping track of what you have to do for homework, projects are very important to me. Here are a few apps you can use for that: Trello (for keeping track of homework), Todoist (for keeping track of more “task type” stuff). The app Things is also great, though it comes with a hefty price of $19.99. However, there are plenty of task management software that you can use to keep track of your schoolwork. If you need to do “Photoshop” work, you can download the Photoshop app, same with Lightroom, Affinity Photo, and a plethora of similar applications. Accessories Photo by Daniel Romero on Unsplash The Magic Keyboard is a fantastic keyboard made for the iPad Pro, it works like wonders and so far there seems to be an around 100% satisfaction rate for people who have gotten it. The only downside to this accessory is its price. It’s currently going for $299 (US) for the 11-inch iPad Pro and $349 (US) for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. It is worth noting that using the trackpad that comes with this keyboard unlocks a whole new level of productivity. It allows for all of Macs trackpad gestures which can greatly improve a students productivity when using some apps.
https://medium.com/macoclock/why-the-ipad-pro-is-perfect-for-students-333fb3fef969
['Robert C.']
2020-09-09 04:32:14.743000+00:00
['Tech', 'Apple', 'Productivity', 'Design', 'Technology']
779
Transportation Analytics Market Size Worth 21.8 Billion By 2027
The global transportation analytics market size is expected to reach USD 21.8billion by 2027, registering at a CAGR of 15.6% from 2020 to 2027, according to a new study conducted by Grand View Research, Inc. Increasing expenditure of governments in transportation sector across the world and the growth of smart cities vis-à-vis urbanization are the major driving forces fostering the market growth. Moreover, consumerization of big data, advancements in analytics technology owing to artificial intelligence and machine learning will aid the utility of analytics in the transportation industry. Besides, acquisition of analytics startups, mergers and collaboration, and research and development investment in technology enhancement of analytics by major industry players will boost the market growth. As per the published report by Transport Research Centre of Czech Republic, in 2018 there are around 500 million surveillance cameras across the world, generating 15 billion gigabytes of data per week. This number will double every two years, which will be stored and analyzed for improving and streamlining the public transport situation. The potential of data collection and its analysis will also be harnessed through growing application of intelligent transport systems across the world. Moreover, the data collected from the sensing platforms such as intra vehicular and urban sensing platform will help in achieving the primary aim of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) such as access and mobility, economic development, and environmental sustainability. All the precedent factors will help boost the market growth over the forecast period. As per automobile industry estimates, in 2015 there were around 1.3 billion vehicles plying on the road worldwide and with growing economy in developing regions, the number is expected to rise over 2 billion by 2040. The development of new roads and bypasses will not suffice the ever increasing traffic level loads in urban areas across the globe. However, with the combination of new transport analytics solutions and communications technology with the aid of Artificial Intelligence (AI), large amount of traffic data can be analyzed in real time to cope the growing number of vehicles. Such developments across the transportation and communication sector will propel growth of the market for transportation analytics solutions over the forecast period. Click the link below: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/transportation-analytics-market Further key findings from the study suggest:
https://medium.com/@marketnewsreports/transportation-analytics-market-41b4e7ccb6f0
['Gaurav Shah']
2020-12-18 11:50:39.559000+00:00
['IoT', 'Machine Learning', 'Technology', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Transportation']
780
Tackling Trade Media: Bank Innovation Editor Rick Morgan on Banking and Fintech Media
Rick Morgan, editor at Bank Innovation Industry professionals know that the moment-to-moment coverage of their field is not printed in the pages of a national newspaper. Instead, these breaking updates appear in trade publications. For bankers working to grow profits and stay ahead of the industry, they receive highly-specific financial insights from specialized banking outlets. For this month’s edition in our series “Tackling Trade Media,” we spoke with Rick Morgan, an editor at the leading banking trade, Bank Innovation. His coverage focuses on innovative new tools and services that banks and fintech businesses are using to advance the industry. From our conversations, we’ve outlined some key mistakes you might make when sharing story ideas with trade media and working to drive interactions with a targeted banking audience. Trade Mistake 1: Burying the Lede with Trends “I get five hundred pitches a day,” Rick said, “so I don’t have time to research every company online.” His ideal story idea cuts right to the chase and explains exactly what the hard news is. It may seem obvious but, often, we tend to miss what’s right in front of us. In this vein, a major problem Rick has with story ideas is that they often include far too much context, going into trends that relate to the news being shared. As we detailed in our prior blog about healthcare publications, trade outlets differ from local or national media, altering reporter priorities and dynamics. Rick does not need to be clued in on the context about a fintech or banking trend. He is deeply embedded in the fabric of the industry. Given his focus, he is aware of the industry’s most minute trends and how they are shifting day-to-day. Even a two-paragraph contextual intro is far too much, Rick shared. Instead of dense background, which would be necessary for a reporter with a wider range of coverage, Rick and other trade reporters prefer an immediate indicator of the news. He also emphasized that while he is a specialist reporter, that doesn’t mean that he writes the way banking professionals do. He still uses everyday language to make his articles as accessible as possible. In order to best reach him and effectively share why a story would be of interest to him, you should also communicate in the straight-forward language he uses. Trade Mistake 2: Forgetting to Enter the PIN Story ideas that receive an immediate “delete” from Rick are the ones . . . that don’t involve banks. While it may seem as intuitive as remembering your card PIN, Rick says following the publication’s beat is something people often forget. While trade publications are often grouped together in broad categories like fintech or healthcare, each industry publication has its own specific focus like banking or medtech. “If a business is doing something in crypto that doesn’t connect back to banks, then we are not interested in it, that is not a fit,” Rick said. “There are so many crypto publications out there. Go to them. If a business isn’t working with banks, then we will have to pass.” Always be sure to not group trade media together too tightly — fintech is a broad term with many different facets. Rick is always looking for how a story connects to banks. Even with stories about emerging fintechs, a quote from a banking partner can spark Rick’s interest. If your business is not working with banks, you will need to very quickly explain how it is taking market share away from banks. If neither is the case, maybe look for another publication focus on whichever specific fintech innovation you are working on. Most of Rick’s coverage centers around hard news like businesses raising funding or signing partners. In order to land a feature story on your businesses with Rick, you will need to explain how your company has advanced an effective mission for the long-term. When there are interesting results to look at, the story becomes relevant to banking professionals looking to learn more about industry advancements that are working. Trade Mistake 3: Failing to Deliver Metrics or Lessons Learned Rick highlighted that the banking and business professionals that read Bank Innovation are looking for ways to improve their business tactics and drive revenue. “Look, we are not advisors. We don’t want to tell people what they should invest in or what they should do,” he clarified. “Our job is to report on what people are doing, what is working for people and what isn’t. We need to dig into how people can make money.” Stories with real-world examples demonstrate to banks how other institutions have implemented new technologies or services. This is far more newsworthy for a banking publication’s readers than vague trends or untested product launches. Providing clear metrics and business outcomes will land you a feature story faster, especially if a banking partner is willing to share lessons learned. An area of the space that Rick believes we will continue to see important learnings and new insights is in the realm of consumer data. With the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in effect, data collection and usage by financial institutions are changing. Rick is interested to cover more stories on this topic and looks forward to learning more about what comes out of these changes and how the banking industry responds. He noted that one of the key factors about the industry that differentiates it from other industries is the level of regulation in banking. The highly regulated space requires caution from all involved, and fintech businesses that work to innovate processes for banks need to work within these restrictions. This also presents tech businesses with opportunities to help banks update and innovate difficult processes. Check-in soon for our third post in the “Tackling Trade Media” series which will focus on Insurance Media.
https://medium.com/sutherland-gold/tackling-trade-media-bank-innovation-editor-rick-morgan-on-banking-and-fintech-media-32aad37a87d2
['John Cavender']
2020-02-20 18:31:21.568000+00:00
['Fintech', 'Public Relations', 'Media Relations', 'Banking Technology', 'Banking']
781
Spotlight: Lorena Mesa, Director & Chair, Python Software Foundation
Political scientist turned coder, Lorena Mesa is a GitHub data engineer, Director & Chair of the Python Software Foundation, JOSS editor, and PyLadies Chicago co-organizer. Lorena’s time at Obama for America and her subsequent graduate research required her to learn how to transform messy, incomplete data into intelligible analysis on topics like predicting Latinx voter behavior. It’s this unique background in research and applied mathematics that drove Lorena to pursue a career in engineering and data science. One part activist, one part Star Wars fanatic, and another part Trekkie, Lorena abides by the motto to “live long and prosper.” We caught up with Lorena to learn more about her work, where she sees the biggest opportunities to drive real change and support more equitable representation in tech, and her advice for those navigating the path to a future career in the industry. Hi Lorena! Tell us about yourself, how did you get to where you are today? Ironically I often tell folks I was doing data science before a Wikipedia page even existed for it! That is, my background is in applied social science research. As I graduated with a degree in political science from Northwestern University, I immediately began doing statistical analysis and other applied stats working on the Obama for America 2008 campaign specifically for the Latinx team. That passion for working on social and civic causes that are near and dear to my heart is what ultimately propelled me to learn to code. I picked up Python working on the Obama for America campaign, continued working with it in my graduate research, and ultimately became involved in civic tech in Chicago. From there, I decided I loved coding and decided to pursue a career change as an engineer! I think there are many paths to coding, and being “technical” includes a variety of skills. For me, my passion for justice, equity, and making the world a bit better than I found it before is what led me to apply my tech skills for good. What was the catalyst that inspired you to pursue a career in technology and how did you make the transition from a political science background to coding? As mentioned above, the movement from applied social science research to engineering is not a large one. I was using stats, coding skills, and communication skills to drive my research. Moving into civic tech, those skills were and still are very important. From civic tech and open source to obtaining my first engineering role as a data engineer at Sprout Social, I again drew from the same skills I employed in my work with open source. That said, being a technologist particularly as an engineer, being inquisitive and open to failure, these are skills I learned well in my time working in politics and civic tech. It is precisely these skills that are important in my day to day work as a technologist. What are some of the key values that drive the work you do and the organizations you support? How do these values inform the types of tech you create? Empathy and communication are skills that are instrumental to any technologist, as is being an anti-racist. If you do not have empathy for your user, for the communities that your technology supports, or hold ideals that reify institutionalized racism, how can you meaningfully create? Coming from a family of immigrants, as a Latinx queer person who is a first of many things, community and accountability to that community has always been important. However, in order to be accountable we have to show up to do the work. This is not done alone, but in tandem with others. We do the work by listening, having empathy, while also understanding that sometimes we may fail. All of this inspires me to want to contribute to those that have helped me along the way and is why I am motivated to contribute to Python open source and diversity and inclusion efforts in tech. These values — which I define clearly here — I publicly share whenever I speak with a potential employer, a potential collaborator, a potential open source project I will work on. If these values are not shared, I will not participate. Lorena Mesa at PyCon Colombia, 2018 What are some of the greatest opportunities you see right now to drive meaningful change when it comes to more equitable representation in tech? Sustained engagement is perhaps the biggest opportunity we have right now. We cannot simply invite marginalized folks into technology and presume that is enough. We have to intentionally create space and empower. How does this look? By defining opportunities where you can actually shift those within your sphere of influence — those who have the same lived experience as you. Likewise those outside our sphere of influence, those who harm has been rendered to, we must acknowledge the damage and find some form of accountability together to rectify the wrong. With equitable representation in tech, this can take many forms. However I think holding technology companies accountable by defining goals publicly, making those goals part of the review of the highest level of leaders, and offering spaces for belonging for marginalized peoples are some of the strategies we can investigate. These spaces can be unions, they can be employee resource groups, but a true investment in these spaces and the people alongside public, tangible goals is the way we can move forward. At Noun Project, we believe visual language has the power to shape, reinforce and change perceptions. What are your thoughts on why diverse visual representation in tech is so important to helping change the status quo in the industry? Be the change you want to make is a motto I deeply believe in. We can all aspire to leave the tech industry a bit better than how it was when we arrived. In tackling issues that we are able to meaningfully contribute to, collectively we can shift power imbalances. Having more people of color, or marginalized genders in tech is but a starting point. This is what we commonly refer to as diversity. Inclusion, the actual work we all need to do to show and and stay engaged, is when we create equity for others. To put it another way, “diversity is being invited to the party, inclusion is being asked to dance.” What this lens highlights then is not only how we can make space for others, but defer and empower others. Looking to the future, what inspires you and what initiatives are you most excited about right now? The next billion people coming online are not those from the United States of America or Europe, but those from Latin America, Africa, and Asia! I’m excited to see how peoples from these spaces can educate us about the power of technology and how to build technology better. One way I hope to continue to do this is by continuing to push for the development and usage of ethical codes in technology (e.g. Data for Democracy Oath). Additionally, empowering more marginalized peoples to becoming technologists. How can people support the work you’re doing and actively support building a more inclusive and ethical tech industry? First and foremost, we must all acknowledge that technology is not neutral. Technology is intrinsically biased — it is written by people, who are themselves subject to our own biases and limitations. Once we acknowledge this, we can continue to approach the ethical challenges head on rather than shy away. Of particular importance to me is listening to those who have different lived experiences than yourselves, such as those from marginalized communities. We can do this in many ways including: Educating ourselves Approach a growth mindset to understanding the ethical challenges technology presents us Be willing to forgo a technological solution if the ethical challenges are too high I’ve assembled a bias in tech reading list at biasin.tech where folks can begin their own journey of learning by reading. Additionally, it is hosted on GitHub and I welcome contributions to the list! What advice would you give to young people navigating the path to a future career in tech? Ask many questions. Embrace failure. Love the journey, not the destination. Technology tools and trends come and go, but one’s outlook and approach to learning as well as your values, that is what will make you who you are a technologist. Not everyone has the same path, that’s ok. In fact, I want and hope everyone has a different path, it makes tech that much more rich when we have a plethora of people in the space.
https://blog.thenounproject.com/spotlight-lorena-mesa-director-chair-python-software-foundation-13bdc753dd3a
['Lindsay Stuart']
2020-10-21 21:11:00.271000+00:00
['Software Engineer', 'Technology', 'Diversity In Tech', 'Spotlight']
782
5 Must-Read Research in Image Processing Against COVID 19.
5 Must-Read Research in Image Processing Against COVID 19. W hile staying up-to-date with the latest trend and research its important to consider the technology used in the latest work and hence here are some informative extract from the top 5 must-know research to fight COVID-19 in classification, detection and testing methods performed using image processing to add value to your knowledge. Rutuja Pawar Dec 22, 2020·5 min read Today, the entire world is facing productivity loss due to life-threatening pandemic, but the effective development in technology along with the advance and efficient medical research has been a boon to overcome this tough time. 1. Covid-19 test based on fluorescence and image analysis in 5-minute: Recently, The Oxfords University developed a method which could distinguish between virus type, providing faster and more accurate result than PCR. The process involves the collection of fluorescently-labelled viruses image sample using a microscope. Later Machine-Learning software automatically detects the virus rapidly. Various virus type counting on their short fluorescent DNA strands in this approach includes differentiable labels like surface chemistry, size and shape. Validating the assay on Covid-19 patient sample are confirmed by conventional RT-PCR (real-time polymerase chain reaction) methods. The research is based on deep learning along with single-particle imaging and uses CNN technology to categorise a variety of intacted particle of the virus from provided microscopic images. The process is done within 5 minutes without any amplification, purification and lysis steps. Once labelling, imaging and identification of virus are done, the trained neural network SARS-CoV-2 was detected from a variety of respiratory pathogens and negative clinical samples, providing high accuracy. 2. Image-based diagnosis of COVID-19 using a new machine learning method: With 96.09% and 98.09% of accuracy rate, This research uses new Fractional Multichannel Exponent Moments (FrMEMs) on chest X-ray classification. The computational process is boosted using parallel multi-core computational framework. Image classification is done using image moments which is utilized in feature extraction of 961 features in an input image, this is robust to noise, could be used in real-time providing effective computation in the inexpensive and faster way using a parallel implementation. Modified Manta-Ray Foraging Optimization (MRFO) based on Differential Evolution (DE) used as a feature selection method. The future model is trained and tested to compute the fitness function. 3. Deep features and fractional-order marine predators algorithm for COVID-19 image classification: The computation cost of CNN could sometimes counter its effect even though being the state of the art, hence in this research, the CNNs are used with Inception(pre-trained model)approach used being hybrid classification along with swarm-based feature selection algorithm, referred to as Marine Predator algorithm helping within the selection of extracting required feature from COVID images. This uses fractional-order calculus(FO) along with its mathematic tool marine predators algorithm (FO-MPA), output providing a reduction of computational complexity and increasing performance efficiency of computation. The model successfully selects 130,86 features from two datasets by international Cardiothoracic radiologist, researchers consisting of 51K features with classification accuracy around 98%, outperforming several CNNs. The model implemented in Google Colabs and developed using Keras library. 4. Transfer Learning Using Multimodal Imaging Data for COVID-19 Detection : The research selects an optimal model after comparing with different CNN model i.e. VGG19 pre-trained model describing the model’s highly scarce and challenging dataset. the challenge faced is due to availability of large dataset in good quality and its impact on the trainability of the model. For development and testing DL model, an image preprocessing is proposed creating quality datasets. This highlights the technique of ultrasonic image over CT scan or X-ray images. This has drawbacks which emphasize on the deeper network and after training, further less consistent behaviour is seen after three imaging modes. The pre-trained models provide a considerate level of COVID-19 detection with up to 100%for ultrasound, 86% for x-ray 84% for CT scans. 5. Chest X-Ray and CT Scan Images Using Multi-image Augmented Deep Learning Model for COVID-19 Detection : This research focuses on the X-ray and CT scan images of the chest of the covid suspect using CNN based multi-image augmentation technique, which using discontinuity information obtained in the images in order to increase the count of the effectiveness of training the model. The model when compared with ResNet-50 and VGG-16 pre-trained models achieves an accuracy of around 95.38% and 98.97% for chest CT scan and X-ray respectively. (these are preliminary reports that haven’t been peer-reviewed.) Hope you all LIKE it, give us 50 CLAPS and COMMENT on your feedbacks!!! Authors:Rutuja Pawar, Ritu Pande, Uddhav Sabale, Varad Kulkarni, Kedar Dhokarikar. REFERENCES: Paper 1:Nicolas Shiaelis, Alexander Tometzki, View ORCID ProfileLeon Peto, Andrew McMahon, Christof Hepp, View ORCID ProfileErica Bickerton, View ORCID ProfileCyril Favard, View ORCID ProfileDelphine Muriaux, View ORCID ProfileMonique Andersson, View ORCID ProfileSarah Oakley, Alison Vaughan, View ORCID ProfilePhilippa C. Matthews, View ORCID ProfileNicole Stoesser, View ORCID ProfileDerrick Crook, View ORCID ProfileAchillefs N. Kapanidis, View ORCID ProfileNicole C. Robb doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.13.20212035 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.13.20212035v3 Paper 2:Elaziz MA, Hosny KM, Salah A, Darwish MM, Lu S, Sahlol AT (2020) New machine learning method for image-based diagnosis of COVID-19. PLoS ONE 15(6): e0235187. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0235187 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0235187 Paper 3:Sahlol, A.T., Yousri, D., Ewees, A.A. et al. COVID-19 image classification using deep features and fractional-order marine predators algorithm. Sci Rep 10, 15364 (2020).https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-71294-2 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-71294-2/figures/1 Paper 4: M. J. Horry et al., “COVID-19 Detection Through Transfer Learning Using Multimodal Imaging Data,” in IEEE Access, vol. 8, pp. 149808–149824, 2020, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3016780. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9167243 Paper 5: Kiran Purohit, Abhishek Kesarwani, Dakshina Ranjan Kisku, Mamata Dalui doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.15.205567 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.15.205567v1.full
https://medium.com/@rutuja-pawar18/5-must-read-research-in-image-processing-against-covid-19-4067fcf26fc7
['Rutuja Pawar']
2020-12-22 20:14:12.369000+00:00
['Image Processing', 'Covid 19', 'Technology', 'Research']
783
The MOTHR. of Data Visualization
There are three primary objectives at the core of each of our products. The first of which is helping our clients and customers understand the decisions they are really trying to inform. The second is collecting and analyzing data relevant to the problem and solution. And the third is presenting the information in very intuitive, inspiring ways that help decision makers understand a situation and drive better decisions. Why does presentation matter? Human beings are visual learners, and 95 percent of what our brains process is visual in nature. Visualizations that are easy to understand, combined with interfaces that are easy to interact with, allow us to absorb and process information better, which is the whole point of analyzing data in the first place. That brings us to the first ingredient that sets MOTHR apart from other data analytics platforms: design. User Experience and User Interface (UX/UI) design help focus our efforts around the data we use and analyze and how we present it to decision makers and non-technical experts. Project Guidance, a Critical Component of MOTHR By creating better user experiences, we greatly increase the potential for people to do good with data. Part of the responsibility of a designer is to identify a client’s needs and build the best solution that responds to their inquiries and objectives. That’s why we always start with Discovery. The Discovery phase outlines the product’s purpose, constraints, desired outcomes, intended users, and core features from a variety of perspectives, including design, user experience, data science, development, and domain experts. Spending time upfront to define the problem and determine a clear strategy ensures alignment between our team and your team and eliminates scope creep. MOTHR takes this approach — building upon our Discovery experience and retrospectives — and guides customers through a clear process and workflow that ensures we’re addressing the right questions, actions, and decisions in product development. It also provides a transparent approach to how and why data is being analyzed so customers can clearly understand and trust the information. MOTHR’s Visualization Library To help customers move from “where do I begin?” to a final product, MOTHR’s Visualization Library provides users with a questionnaire. It helps users define desired insights and then recommends visualizations that would be most useful to decision makers and leaders. For example, an organization with time series data and geospatial data might benefit from an interface that visualizes changes over time on a map-based interface. Customers can also explore data sets within MOTHR and supplement their own data with these additional sources. Furthermore, MOTHR prioritizes the user experience. MOTHR achieves interfaces that are intuitive, consistent, and enjoyable to use by drawing from a library of interactions, taxonomies, and site structures. Iterating Faster and Earlier MOTHR defines the problem and visualizes solutions early on, making it easier to iterate and customize the final product faster. Though it seems simple and straightforward, it took many lessons learned to develop an exceptional customer journey. MOTHR allows teams to work together, share expertise, and consider different perspectives every step of the way. Considering that 85 percent of data science projects fall short of expectations, it’s especially important to make sure that everyone is on the same page and in alignment about what we’re going to build to ensure an exceptional end product. How Can MOTHR Help You? If you’ve been thinking about how to start your next big data project, MOTHR is a great place to begin. Download our Discovery Guide to learn how you might turn your data into actionable insights.
https://medium.com/rs21/the-mothr-of-data-visualization-8df5f8887646
[]
2020-05-21 15:24:58.682000+00:00
['Data Analytics', 'Data Visualization', 'Technology', 'Technews', 'Data Science']
784
5 Front-End Challenges That Will Get You Pumped Up to Code
5 Front-End Challenges That Will Get You Pumped Up to Code Get really good at coding by building these projects Photo by EJ Yao on Unsplash. Some individuals are particularly excellent at coding, and you could also belong to that group. Not a single person became a pro at programming overnight. Mastering programming involves putting in tons of work. You’ll have to be coding as often as possible to get really good at it. Yes, some people are geniuses — I’m not one of them — but even geniuses need to put in the work. Getting good starts with practice, practice, and more practice. Without further ado, here are the coding ideas I promised. Use each idea as a source of inspiration. Pick something that makes you excited to code and get on with it. Use whatever tools or programming language you prefer. With each idea, I’ll add a list of stuff you’ll learn by building it.
https://medium.com/better-programming/5-front-end-challenges-that-will-get-you-pumped-up-to-code-cfaae64646c7
['Indrek Lasn']
2020-12-04 17:10:26.716000+00:00
['Technology', 'Programming', 'Web Development', 'JavaScript', 'Startup']
785
Can Blockchain convert Mega-watts to Mega-bucks? Blockchain in Energy Trading
In October 2020, Wildpoldsried in the Bavarian Allgäu region became the first German municipality to try out blockchain-based electricity trading platform, intending to enable a local energy market. The platform enables local energy producers to sell energy directly to consumers bypassing grid operators and energy markets. Named pebbles, this platform envisioned by Siemens, the regional utility Allgäuer Überlandwerk (AÜW) and other partners connects producers, consumers, and storage facilities so they can optimise the way they locally trade energy with each other. This demo could open a world of possibility in this niche yet the fast-developing field of blockchain-enabled energy trading that could help Europe attain its 2050 carbon-reduction goals. Blockchain Solutions for the Energy Industry Blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT) is not new but could become a disruptor for the conventional system of energy intermediaries or brokers. By relying on cryptographic proof of ownership, it could effectively cut the middle person out of the energy trading equation. Through standardisation and smart contracts, blockchain in energy trading will reduce transaction costs, which will allow a dramatic increase in smaller lot sizes. This will enable the prosumer to participate in the markets directly to buy and sell energy. Smart contracts application within the blockchain technology will enable automatic execution of preset codes that will help maintain price or volume conditions. With the rising need for a decentralized electricity system, blockchain technology will help to provide better reporting, transparency, and secure dissemination of data. Can Blockchain convert Mega-watts to Mega-bucks? For a decentralized, renewable grid, there exists the need to record securely a ledger of activities and transactions between the various participants — e.g., homeowners with Renewable Energy Sources can sell their excess renewable energy back into their grid, regulators can easily monitor and maintain energy quality, and local utilities can efficiently aggregate customers into virtual power plants. A simulation of a block-chain based Local Energy Market that allowed consumers and prosumers to trade energy without the need for a third party demonstrated optimized consumption and a significant reduction in electricity costs. Money saved is indeed money gained. Overall, there is increasing trust towards blockchain energy trading as it provides better efficiency and clear traceability from energy generation to coin issuance to redemption. Blockchain: A Power and Utilities (P&U) Perspective Though blockchain was initially embraced in the finance sector, it has many interesting use cases in the energy sector. It would deliver a much more seamless countrywide scale of interoperability and payment mechanism for charging EVs. Blockchain will facilitate a peer-to-peer, market to consumer, and consumer to market trading. With a well-distributed system and energy optimization, there could real-time asset and commodity management and supply chain tracking. The European P&U industry is engaging in collaborative pilot programs to explore blockchain technology, especially in energy trading. The Swedish power company Vattenfall has come out with Enerchain that focuses on the execution of bilateral trade of physical electricity and gas within Europe. Originally featuring 23 participants, the project now includes most big names in Europe including RWE, Eon, Uniper, EnBW, Wien Energie and Enel. Blockchain in the Electricity Grid The electricity grids in Europe are becoming more volatile with the growing share of renewable energy and maintaining grid stability is of prime importance. It was one of the reasons TenneT, Sonnen, and Vandebron joined forces with IBM for two pilot projects in blockchain technology for managing the electricity grid in the Netherlands and Germany. The projects aim to enable decentralized flexible energy sources to play a bigger role in the grid. Blocks Awaiting Blockchain Technology Some industry experts opine that the market is immature for adopting blockchain technology. In a survey conducted by EY, 70% of an entrepreneurial target group responded that they could not secure all the funding required for their blockchain projects. 17% did not receive any funding. Some large-scale project implementations are also said to be taking a backseat due to the lack of strong, supportive business cases. The road ahead for blockchain-enabled applications could see these challenges: An immature technology : The immaturity of blockchain as a technology is one of the biggest hurdles in front of innovators to implement pilots. : The immaturity of blockchain as a technology is one of the biggest hurdles in front of innovators to implement pilots. Regulatory and legal concerns : The lack of clarity around the legal and regulatory aspects of using blockchain technology is a deterrent for big organisations that want to be sure-footed. : The lack of clarity around the legal and regulatory aspects of using blockchain technology is a deterrent for big organisations that want to be sure-footed. Skill gaps : Shortage of talent to implement blockchain projects is an obstacle for most big energy companies. : Shortage of talent to implement blockchain projects is an obstacle for most big energy companies. Real Business Cases : The expectations are high, and blockchain technology is being experimented upon in multiple verticals within organisations. However, which of these can solve real and create enough traction to overcome legacy hurdles? Unlocking Blockchain Technology Blockchain’s full potential is yet to be unlocked and many startups and some P&Us are spending a lot of time and energy to win over sceptics — a mammoth task considering there are few and far use-case scenarios and small-scale tactical innovations to quote. With distributed energy resources and renewables poised to grow exponentially, it would make sense for energy companies to invest more in R&D to develop the blockchain technology to democratize participation in the electricity grid. And to overcome existing hurdles, and prove its mettle, blockchain-enabled energy trading should deliver tangible monetary or time benefits that can overshadow legacy hurdles. Dagny Osk Ragnarsdottir, business analyst at Landsvirkjun, Iceland will be speaking in detail about the traceability of PPAs and Green Certificates and Blockchain technologies for Direct Electricity trading at the 9th Annual Electricity Price Forecasting & Advanced Modelling 2021, on 16th-17th February. Join us online for the longest average minutes of direct peer-to-peer interaction with experts in the European electricity pricing & trading.
https://medium.com/@prosperoeventsgroup/can-blockchain-convert-mega-watts-to-mega-bucks-blockchain-in-energy-trading-bb94ea10d489
['Prospero Events Group']
2020-12-21 08:33:58.439000+00:00
['Blockchain', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Utilities', 'Renewable Energy', 'Distributed Energy']
786
Go Beyond Fixing Bugs
Putting excess conditions affects wellbeing Putting conditions in the evaluation of a stimulus to give a certain response may make us more mature but we should understand that excess of it can cause us to be stressed out. For instance, consider the program below: function process_stimulus(input_Msg) { person_religion = get_Person_Religion() if(person_religion == ‘Christian’) { person_economic_status = get_Economic_Status() if(person_economic_status == ‘Rich’) { person_status = get_Person_Status() if(person_status == ‘Married’) { response = process_Input(input_Msg) return response } } } } In the above program, ‘process_stimulus’ is the function that evaluates a response based on the input_Msg. The input_Msg can be as simple as “a smile from the other person”. A person who puts in a lot of conditions in evaluating a response may first try to get the religion of the other person. Then he may decipher the economic status and the marital status of the person and only then process the actual input. His response may be a frown or a slight smile based on the conditions he has evaluated. Thus, there is a lot of extra processing happening in the mind of the person and the outcome may not actually be good either. A person with a lot of conditions in the evaluation of a response may need to reprogram his mind. He needs to go through the existing program and remove unnecessary conditions and replace them with a simple one. For instance, the previous program may be replaced by the below program: function process_stimulus(input_Msg) { gender = get_Person_Gender() if(gender == ‘Female’) { response = process_Input(input_Msg) return response } } In the above program, the person does not evaluate his response based on earlier conditions like religion, economic status, etc of the other person. He just considers if the other person is ‘Male’ or ‘Female’ and gives back an appropriate response. For instance, if the input_Msg (an input to function process_stimulus) is a smile from the other person then based on whether the other person is a male or female, his response may vary. If the other person is a male then he may give a response of a smile along with the ‘How are you doing?’ statement. While if the other person is a female then he may give a big smile but skip making any comment.
https://medium.com/illumination-curated/go-beyond-fixing-bugs-b3218afe9173
['Utpal Kumar']
2020-12-29 16:24:09.302000+00:00
['Life Lessons', 'Philosophy', 'Personal Development', 'Self Improvement', 'Technology']
787
“เอไอ” กุญแจสำคัญสู่การพัฒนาระบบ Supply Chain
AI in Supply Chain management AI technology is critical in almost every industry, especially when business operators have good plans and when they…
https://medium.com/@sertiscorp/%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%AD%E0%B9%84%E0%B8%AD-%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%B8%E0%B8%8D%E0%B9%81%E0%B8%88%E0%B8%AA%E0%B8%B3%E0%B8%84%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%8D%E0%B8%AA%E0%B8%B9%E0%B9%88%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%9E%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%92%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B0%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%9A-supply-chain-eed0b9aa4023
[]
2020-12-30 10:27:21.685000+00:00
['Supply Chain', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'AI', 'Future', 'Technology']
788
Has Packaging Revamped?
Has Packaging Revamped? It all started with the consumption of raw materials. From wrapping food in leaves secured by a string to plastic containers with reliable locks and smart features taken to the school. They all have one thing in common, packaging. It took about a million years to reach about a hundred crore population, and after that we all have just galloped in the terms of a global outburst of population in two hundred years, making it to 750 crores. We have grown when it comes to talking about agro-economy to manufacturing it into an urban-centric economy, India has gone way ahead in terms of how we transform things. The Ecosystem surrounded by the transformed sector is mainly agriculture, manufacturing, urban centre, market and retail, celebration, transportation, housing and infrastructure, social life, hygiene and safety (which is the most paramount in today’s time), healthcare, travel and leisure. “At every stage we have something or the other getting packaged whether it is in the physical form or through verbal communication,” says Samir Limaye, the Vice President at Wimco and the President at Institute of Packaging Machinery Manufacturers of India. With over 30 years of experience, his expertise lies in industrial packaging machines, automation and mechanization. He has worked under various domains including project management, strategy, business development and factory operations. He provides industrial solutions to Pharma, Cosmetics, Consumer products, Beverage & Engineering segments. He has been working towards spreading his knowledge about the packaging world and facilitating institutes to begin courses in packaging. There has always been a need to convert raw materials into a value-added product, the place of production and the place of consumption have never been the same and that is where packaging comes into play. As countries became urbanized, people came from rural areas, connectivity increased and trade and commerce grew, it became essential to be able to package what was manufactured for it to last and that is how we have reached to a point where we can eat our favourite bag of chips while we binge-watch. Packaging has become somewhat of a safe haven for the modern-day consumer. “Human Population and the young population are having their own aspirations. Technology will play a major role and all these things will only help Packaging, the Economy and the Society,” says Samir Limaye. We continue using a wide variety of materials for packaging including paper, wood, glass and plastic among the others. You may have heard from your grandmother about her prized spice box and all those stories a rusty, disfigured tin box secretly hides. You may also have heard from your parents as to how they had only glass bottles or pots to store water and their excitement at the thought of chilled water. This makes us realize that all these people had an emotional connect with the containers. But today, we have reversed the situation. We prize what the packaging stores more than the packaging itself and this very attitude has given a rise to the use and throw culture and single-use plastic. Packaging holds great power to change the world. Plastic is here to stay and we haven’t a technological advancement where we can replace plastic completely. But should that really stop us from finding a replacement? The design of packaging will grow with the advancement of technology and with the aspirations of the younger generation i.e., our generation. Having made us conscious of all the complex work and effects of packaging, Samir Limaye concludes the session with the importance of packaging in the times of the pandemic and our lives. He inspires all of us to make a difference — a different material, a different design, a different attitude and as a community, we shall make a difference.
https://medium.com/avantika-university/has-packaging-revamped-f0850fc13900
['Esha Mehta']
2020-12-25 04:32:37.781000+00:00
['Engineering', 'Packaging', 'Design', 'Emotions', 'Technology']
789
3 tips to create a good Chatbot
3 tips to create a good Chatbot Photo by Maximalfocus on Unsplash Chatbots are becoming increasingly popular and they start to appear more and more on websites and apps. Chatbots are supposed to add more of a human face to the interaction with the user, provide answers to questions and better and faster access to content than a search functionality or navigating through a website or app using a graphical interface. It is also considered by many as the first step into the Artificial Intelligence world. Trending Bot Articles: Although the idea is great, creating a chatbot that will be useful for the users and it will not frustrate them after a couple of minutes is a challenge. There are many things to think about when creating a chatbot. Below, I present the three that I consider being the most important. 1. The scope It is generally a good idea not to give the chatbot too much to do and limit the scope. It is better if your chatbot performs only a few tasks but performs them very well than give it a wide range of tasks that the chatbot will struggle with. So apart from deciding what your chatbot should do, it is important to decide what your chatbot won’t be able to do. Make sure to also make it clear to the users of your chatbot what specific tasks the chatbot can take care of. Start small with simple tasks for your chatbot and make them perfect. Once the users start using the chatbot and you can see from the analytics that it performs well and users receive accurate answers, you can add more functionality and expand the scope. 2. Chatbot platform A chatbot is not a tool that you’d usually develop from scratch (although you can do it). There are many chatbot platforms that will take care of processing the user input but make sure you select the right one. It is important that your chatbot platform apart from pattern-based matching is also using NLP (Natural Language Processing). NLP processes the user’s input and instead of analysing separate words and patterns, it uses AI and tries to understand the meaning of the sentence. This is very important. People are asking the same question in many different ways and it is important that your chatbot has “intelligence” to deal with these differences. The ease of use of the tool is also very important. You won’t build a good chatbot in a day and it will require adjusting amending, improving etc. over a longer period of time so the tool to create a chatbot needs to be as user-friendly and as easy to use as possible. 3. Analytics It is very important to measure results and how accurate in answering questions and processing users’ input your chatbot is. You won’t build it to be perfect from the start. You’ll need to look at the analytics and logs of your chatbot and make it better and better over time. People are asking the same questions is many (even thousands) different ways so your chatbot has to learn (or you need to teach it) how to respond to many different forms of the same question. It would be great if your chatbot platform supports this functionality out of the box and provide you with performance analytics and logs. But if not, make sure to build a functionality that will easily enable you to track the questions to your chatbot and answers and overall effectiveness that will allow you to make a necessary adjustment to your chatbot engine. Like anywhere else, tracking, processing data and implementing insights is crucial for successful implementation of a chatbot project. Summary Creating a chatbot is not an easy task and therefore deciding on the scope, your chatbot platform and implementing analytics are important things to consider at the start of the project. Limit the scope, use the right tool to create a chatbot and collect and analyse the data regularly to implement changes and improvements then you’ll be on the right track to a successful chatbot project that will benefit you and your users. Don’t forget to give us your 👏 !
https://chatbotslife.com/3-tips-to-create-a-good-chatbot-69c7590563d6
['Przemyslaw Jarzynski']
2020-11-23 15:19:19.668000+00:00
['Chatbots', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Bots', 'Voice Technology', 'Voice Recognition']
790
The Next big thing
Cryptocurrency’s have been quietly making millionaires across the internet for decade. Everyone knows the story of bitcoin and how a small number of true believers went from owning a pocket full of useless digital coins. To holding a pock full of digital coins worth millions. There have been hundreds, if not thousands of crypto success stories since then. Litecoin, Ethereum, chain-link. Lend. Uniswap . But what is the one thing all these projects had in common? The majority of the population had no idea what these things were until the boat had sailed on buying them cheap and we were watching those early adopters said off into the sunset on their platinum plated boats (god I hope they sink) Luckily I think ive gotten in early with projects that all share 3 magical letters. N, F, and T. What are NFT’s? So What does NFT stand I hear you ask eagerly? Well it stands for Non-Fungible Token. No i didnt sneeze i said fungible. Its an actual word and suprisingly it has noting to do with fungi. But let me break it down and explain what it all means What does fungible mean? The dictionary definition of Fungible is: being something (such as money or a commodity) of such a nature that one part or quantity may be replaced by another equal part or quantity in paying a debt or settling an account What this essentially boils down to is that there is a group of things that are identical and can be interchanged freely. Money is the best example to explain this because one 2 euro coin has the same value as any other 2 euro coin. In this context what’s important about fundability is that if i have a digital picture and copy it. Then picture and the copy become fungible because they can be interchanged freely as they are exact replicas of each other. So what’s the difference between Fungible and Non Fungible? Non fungible means that 2 things are not identical and cannot be interchanged freely. Now to a certain extent noting that truly exists in the world can be freely interchanged it depends on our definitions but lets not get too metaphysical here. The best example to describe this is comic books. If I have a first edition Amazing Spider-Man from1963 (I wish) and you have a reprint that marvel has just re released. Are they the same? Of course not. They might contain the same information. Be printed on the same type of paper or use the same ink but there are two distinct entities. one is a copy of the other and no matter how close it comes it can never physically be the same. This is the difference between things in the physical and digital worlds but heres where the last word comes in. What’s a Token If you’ve heard of any of the projects above then you’ve heard of a token. A bitcoin is a token. An Ethereum is a token. They are all entity’s that sit on a publicly audited digital blockchain. Ill explain What a block chain is in a future post. So lets put all these together An NFT is a digital token which is audited on a blockchain and is unique and distinct from other tokens. How is this achieved? Honestly i don’t understand the nitty gritty but essentially the information inside the token is encrypted in such a manner that you can see what information is there but you cant recreate it. Combined with blockchain technology. This creates digital ownership because an item is individual and the blockchain network all agree that that individual item is yours. Any why is this such a big deal? Well look at it this way years ago you’d go out and buy a vinyl record and listen to it and then when times were tough you could sell it so you could eat. These days you buy a song from ITunes but if you try and sharer or sell it then you’re told that its piracy and illegal. if you have a digital Vinyl record then the Record is yours and you can do whatever you want with it. Now lets take that same premise and apply it to digital merchandise. That cosmetic item you bought on fortnite what if that was yours for life and you could sell it when you stopped playing? See where I’m going with this? NFT’s are the next bitcoin gravy train. Get in and buy them while they are buttons because in yours to come they might pay for your whole wardrobe
https://medium.com/@cryptoplayer1/the-next-big-thing-aa7198701957
[]
2020-12-07 18:39:40.339000+00:00
['Nft', 'Information Technology', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Cryptocurrency News', 'Nft Collectibles']
791
EaaS: Everything-as-a-Service
Traditional Service The easiest way to begin defining what a service is, is to define what it is not. A service is not a product. A service, in the context of business and economics, is a transaction in which no physical goods are exchanged — it is intangible. The consumer does not receive anything tangible or theirs to own from the provider. This is what differentiates services from goods (i.e. products) — which are tangible items traded from producer to consumer during an exchange, where the consumer then owns the good. Products compared to Services Most people are familiar with goods versus services, and many businesses offer a combination of both. For example, many banks offer physical products such as credit cards, and also offer services like financial advice and planning. However, this is a very simple example, and in today’s world — the differentiation between products and services is becoming increasingly blurred. Let’s expand on the banking example by considering the following: A tech consulting firm helps to develop a digital product — a mobile banking application for iOS — for their client in the retail arm of ACME Bank. They’re providing a service (software development) and the result is a tangible product (the app). ACME’s customers pay annual fees to the bank, but in return get both products and services. The mobile app, a digital product, can be used for services — like booking an appointment for financial advice or ordering a product — like a new credit card. The credit card is a physical product, but it is associated with the bank’s lending service. This example is still fairly straightforward, but you can see how products and services are blended to create better experiences for both producers and consumers. And examples like this are happening everywhere — in both traditional and emerging businesses, creating a service ecosystem. Traditionally, the “behind the scenes” work of developing and enabling products and services was performed through many different methods, sometimes in silos: Business Process Engineering, Traditional Project Management, Software Development, ITIL, Lean Six Sigma, etc. Today, in the very customer-centric and employee-centric world, the details of what goes into creating these “experiences” — through products and services — is loosely known as service design. Service Design So we understand services in the traditional sense — a consumer is serviced by the provider. Services, like products, don’t come out of thin air. Like products, services too need to be designed in order to provide the most satisfaction to both the consumer and the provider (i.e. employees). Even for product producers, service design is valuable when considering the experience of everyone involved in that value chain. It bridges the gaps between customer experience design and product design by considering everything in between. Services often involve many moving parts, and service design uses the following monikers to describe service components: People, Processes, and Props. The 3 P’s are common terms used to describe the “building blocks” of Service Design. Service Design, as you may infer from the name, utilizes the same concepts and methodologies from similar disciplines such as User Experience Design, Human-Computer Interaction, as well as Research, Ethnography, and Anthropology. There are methods to follow to ensure that experience is actually at the centre of the design, as opposed to just thinking about customers, or revenue, or brand image, for example. High-Level Approach for Service Design The service design framework is an iterative process and is co-created with the individuals involved in the service delivery including customers. Each phase has inputs and outputs, for example, personas, journey maps, and service blueprints. To expand on the components of a service, let’s take a look at the high-level customer journey below — using a theoretical service for food ordering and pick-up. Very High-Level Journey: Food Order & Pick-up Service What are the building blocks (People, Processes, and Props) that make up the composition of this particular service? We know that it involves some technology, some people, and a physical place — but let’s dig a bit deeper. Building Blocks that enable the Journey above At a high-level, we can map the necessary components for each phase of the journey. Similar to the paradigm of software, services have front-end and back-end components. People, processes, and props that the customer sees, and ones they don’t. This is a very high-level view, and a service blueprint would normally contain many details of the front-end and back-end people, processes, and props involved various versions of journeys. Also, keeping in mind our “stacked dimension” model for describing the abstraction level of services — we can see that People, Props and Processes can loosely translate to things that occur in the Business, Application, and Technology/Physical layers: Business Actors like Employees, Digital Applications, Physical Structures, Hardware, Business Processes, etc. And that’s Service Design in a nutshell. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) Around the turn of the millennium, a new systems design concept began to rise in popularity. “Service Oriented Architecture” became the craze in many organizations. Service orientation as an approach to architecture builds on similar paradigms as traditional services described above. Similar to how a large business would offer many traditional services, a large software system often has many different functions or purposes. Traditionally, before the emergence of SOA, large-scale systems were monolithic; built on a singular codebase, with shared components, and shared infrastructure, all tightly coupled. Service Orientation, on the other hand, is the concept of breaking up the app into components as “services”, each representing a specific business functionality. They are loosely coupled and working together to form the overall functionality of a large system. Picture monoliths as a large, 3-tier client-server systems: a presentation layer or client such as a graphical user interface, an application layer with lots of logic in the form of methods or functions, and a data access layer connecting the system to the underlying databases. High-Level Comparison of Architectural Styles To add more detail, “services” in an SOA model are discrete, self-contained functions, that communicate with other components over a common protocol. Integration of services with each other, with data stores, etc. is facilitated through service brokers or service buses. A presentation layer like a GUI can consume the service through this layer. Services — because of this — are accessible remotely and can be independently updated and maintained. For example, you could swap out one service for another in a larger application, without taking down the rest of the application. Talk about not putting all of your eggs in one basket! A primary goal of service orientation is to promote the re-use of functions, leading to efficiencies and simpler development of new applications which are modular and can consist of existing services. Despite the popularity and rise of SOA, there is not one sole industry standard for implementing them, and instead, there are principles, patterns, and approaches to the concept developed by many organizations. A few examples of commonalities in the service-oriented architecture approach include: Services act as producers and consumers . The underlying logic of producer services is abstracted from the consumer — meaning they only see the endpoint. and . The underlying logic of producer services is abstracted from the consumer — meaning they only see the endpoint. Services are both granular and composable . They are coarse-grained and represent a specific business purpose; not too granular as to reduce re-use and applicability elsewhere. Services can be combined to compose other services. and . They are coarse-grained and represent a specific business purpose; not too granular as to reduce re-use and applicability elsewhere. Services can be combined to compose other services. Services are discoverable. They produce metadata which can be accessed over the common communication protocol and then interpreted. If this all sounds familiar — or confusing — its because the concept of services and SOA are closely related to modern APIs, microservices, and integration standards. Microservices Similar to SOA, “microservices” is also an architectural style for building systems and applications that are loosely coupled. In the examples above, you’ll notice that the “functionality” in a SOA model is broken up into smaller parts. However, SOA models often share single or few underlying databases or legacy systems, and rely on a single broker layer to pass data around. To build on this concept, microservices go a step further. They are discrete instances where the entire stack of a certain function is isolated, and various microservices are combined to compose a distributed system. High-Level View of a Distributed System composed of Microservices In contrast with SOA, there is no “broker” or “service bus” layer to connect various services. Instead, the microservices communicate over a lightweight protocol (such as HTTP). Just as how service orientation provided many benefits in the early-mid 2000s, microservices also provide many benefits in the modern technology landscape. As teams shift to more Agile and DevOps practices, microservices provide a unique advantage in the fact that various smaller teams can independently build product features for a larger application. A key principle of microservices is that they perform only one thing, and perform that thing well. With cloud platforms and containers, teams are able to quickly stand up virtual or containerized infrastructure to build their independent services. This also provides benefits for operations teams: outages in a small service do not bring down the entire system. There are even not-so-tangible benefits, for example, teams having the ability to develop services in a technology stack (language, OS, database, etc.) that they’re comfortable with — independent of the larger system. However —as with all things — benefits come with trade-offs. With larger, heterogeneous solutions composed of many microservices with underlying components to meet each use case, comes greater complexity and different architectural concerns. For example, in traditional monolithic systems (and in some cases SOA implementations) — applications share a common database acting as a system of record. In the microservices model, each instance has its own database combining to create a system of record. This adds great flexibility for teams because a required schema change to one service’s data store doesn’t introduce changes for other teams. With that being said, you can likely imagine a scenario where services read or write data within the same domain, which can lead to challenges with data consistency and integrity. The growth in popularity of microservices and their complexity has led to many innovations in the cloud space, including service meshes or fabrics. We will leave this more advanced topic for another time. Software, Platforms, and Infrastructure delivered “as a Service” Getting back to our familiar, traditional definition of service, we have seen it being applied to the procurement of information technology. Traditionally, (as in pre-2000s) software was complicated to build and manage. And as mentioned above, it still is. But, for application teams building business software, a lot of the management of underlying technologies have been abstracted. Let’s walk through the abstraction layers one more time to illustrate how this all comes together. Abstraction model + Examples of components Think of each of these layers consisting of various components that were traditionally sold as products themselves. You would, at the very least, need to purchase a server which would power the applications you are developing and installing. You would need storage for any persistence of data. You would need hardware for communication with the network. And on it goes up the stack — operating systems, databases, etc. Moore’s Law and other advances in computing hardware have led way to extreme drops in the cost of computing hardware. And with cheaper hardware costs, companies are able to purchase large amounts of hardware and rent it as…you guessed it…a service. IaaS — Infrastructure as a Service Infrastructure as a service is a concept where providers — like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google — own large premises comprised of hardware and infrastructure. They rent virtualized access to these resources through pay-as-you-go subscription models. As mentioned earlier, this adds agility to start-ups and software teams who do not have the capital to purchase their physical resources. At the highest level, this can be compared with renting a home versus purchasing one. Using this analogy, if the start-up decides to “move” — or pivot, dissolve, sell, etc. — they can shut down their infrastructure without any long term costs or losses. The use of IaaS generally provides the same flexibility as if it was your infrastructure. This comes with the same overhead from a managerial and operational perspective — minus managing the premises, power, security, etc. For teams that need a more managed service, there are various “platforms” offered as a service. PaaS — Platform as a Service Platform-as-a-service builds on the IaaS layer, and adds abstractions which can be leveraged by development teams. PaaS hides away the complexities of dealing with operating systems, middlewares, and runtimes — and allows developers and operators to focus on writing and supporting the application, rather than infrastructure. To go further, PaaS can be run on top of any types of hardware. For companies not yet at public-cloud maturity, the option of running PaaS on their on-premise hardware is still viable. A platform services team could manage the core PaaS infrastructure, and development teams can focus on building/deploying. The big cloud players offer PaaS solutions on top of their IaaS — Amazon Elastic Beanstalk, Google App Engine, Azure Apps. There are also other offerings like Heroku, Cloud Foundry, and OpenShift — which will run in environments not specific to one provider. The spectrum of responsibility: Purple = fully managed as a service. As applications grow, the value proposition of PaaS solutions begin to wear off, considering scale often leads to unique requirements. The unique requirements in return often lead to infrastructure level challenges, which cannot be addressed through the abstraction of the application platform. SaaS — Software as a Service Finally, we finish off with Software-as-a-Service. SaaS refers to applications which are fully managed by the provider. This means that organizations can purchase software licenses, and immediately get to work without any development, management of infrastructure, or installation — it just works over the internet. However, large SaaS applications are not that simple. Referencing the diagram above, you’ll notice that there is still a bit of green in the SaaS column. Often, customers will need to configure the system to meet their business requirements, add users, add some security configurations, and so on. With that said, companies can begin realizing value very quickly, often without the involvement of IT.
https://medium.com/swlh/eaas-everything-as-a-service-5c12484b0b4e
['Ryan S.']
2019-06-25 15:33:04.354000+00:00
['Economics', 'Technology', 'Cloud Computing', 'Business', 'Design']
792
The only 2020 trend report a designer needs
UX-, UI-, Product-, Interaction-, Motion-, Service-, Brand- and Innovation-Designers, listen up, it is that time of year again. I am not talking about Christmas or New Year’s Eve. I am talking about trends for the next year. For the next decade. For the future. Are you bored at work or at home? If you are bored and do not know how to use your time, you might read all reports all across the internet. Else you might: Finally finish your portfolio Build lego houses with your children, nephew or niece, … Exercise, do yoga or meditate If you are not bored and would rather spend your time with something else, I will summarise all the trends — read: things that agencies want to sell or companies want to buy — for you and deduct the top three trend categories. 19 reports merged into one The methodology is pretty simple. First I read a report. Then I add it to my table. Of course the table is no way near complete. Anyway, feel free to add links into the comment section with additional reports. So without further ado, here is the whole table.
https://uxdesign.cc/the-only-2020-trend-report-a-designer-needs-89719857d91c
['Maximilian Schmidt']
2020-01-14 10:11:02.922000+00:00
['Design', '2020', 'Experience', 'Technology', 'Trends']
793
Software Quality: Maintainability Foundation — Introduction (Part 1)
Maintainability is one of the non-functional quality characteristics of the ISO/IEC 25010 Software Product Quality standard and describes those aspects that are relevant for highly maintainable software. The quality model is the cornerstone of a product quality evaluation system. The quality model determines which quality characteristics will be taken into account when evaluating the properties of a software product. The quality of a system is the degree to which the system satisfies the stated and implied needs of its various stakeholders, and thus provides value. Those stakeholders’ needs (functionality, performance, security, maintainability, etc.) are precisely what is represented in the quality model, which categorizes the product quality into characteristics and sub-characteristics. The product quality model defined in ISO/IEC 25010 comprises the eight quality characteristics shown in the following figure:
https://medium.com/@ankwrn/software-quality-maintainability-foundation-introduction-part-1-a0cd85834b3c
['Anka Wirawan']
2020-12-15 12:10:13.282000+00:00
['Code Quality', 'Information Technology', 'Software Engineering']
794
Is It Fair To Tell Founders “Just Execute And You’ll Be Fine” When We Know It’s Not A Level Playing Field?
Photo by John Gibbons on Unsplash So I recently re-shared a 2019 blog post where I’d basically advised founders who’ve raised seed capital to worry less about “how will I raise the next round” and more about “how will I execute my plan?” The post’s kicker said it was “rare for a company that’s executing well to fail to raise a Series A” based on my early experiences in venture. Some of the responses highlighted that this wasn’t true of companies with founders who didn’t fit the traditional male, usually white, usually straight, founder stereotype. That those founders had personally experienced challenges in what the “executing well” bar meant for them in the eyes of future funders, not to mention that getting funded to start with, and then executing well, was usually already from a disadvantaged position due to the structural issues in tech. Since I’ve never been a non-white, non-male, non-straight founder of anything, I wanted to learn more about this criticism and how to navigate delivering advice that might not be universal or comes from a privileged vantage point. Kristen Anderson, CEO/co-founder of Catch Benefits, was one of the people in my responses asking me to look at my post through this lens, and she was also generous enough to agree to have a conversation with me about it, that we could share as an update to the original post. Hunter Walk: Thanks for doing this with me Kristen. So the message of my post, in my mind was, once you’ve raised seed dollars, focus on executing, not worrying about what investors think. That the real power in fundraising comes from a business that’s kicking ass and that I rarely see post-seed businesses that are succeeding fail to raise additional capital. I took your feedback to be “I understand you think this is generally simple and true, but let me tell you, for many of us, it’s not.” Is that a fair starting point? Kristen Anderson: Yes. I think that there’s nuance, but the thing that stuck with me is the idea that “kicking ass” is some sort of metric that is universally agreed upon. I’ll start by saying my own investors have shared this advice with me, including VCs who are women and people of color who know all too well about systemic bias in their own efforts raising funds. The difficulty, though, is that everything is subjective. So when you — or my investors — say that I need to execute more/better/faster/whatever, what does that actually mean? Has any pre-Series A company succeeded on every metric month after month? Have they definitely de-risked every part of their business? Are their metrics infallible and would every single person in the world agree that they’ve cracked the code? Not a chance. Is there bias in that founders who are willing to say that they’ve crushed it with confidence and leave no margin for doubt are more likely to be white, straight, and male? How about that women are less likely to be believed than men even if they say the same things? Investors will be the first to tell you a Series A is not based on a single metric of growth, revenue, or traction, but that it’s about the whole picture. Well, unfortunately, that ambiguity leaves a lot of room for the milestones to be moved just one inch farther again and again because of implicit, unintentional bias. Is there bias in that founders who are willing to say that they’ve crushed it with confidence and leave no margin for doubt are more likely to be white, straight, and male? How about that women are less likely to be believed than men even if they say the same things? HW: All fair points. We’ve backed female founders at 4–5x industry average, so I at least have some visibility into the experiences they have when fundraising, which can be very frustrating for sure. But what trips me up is I’m specifically saying “once you’ve raised seed funding, focus on executing, not pleasing investors.” I’m not saying it’s a meritocracy, I’m not saying you should pretend to be “killing it” because that’s the startup narrative. I’m saying the thing that is most in your control is can you build your business. And to have confidence that if you do that, the probability of other good things will go up. Do you think I should asterisk these types of posts with a “YMMV, if you’re a non-white male founder all these things will be harder?” To some extent that feels like a disclaimer that could apply universally! Does reading that make you think I get it, or at some point are you tired of being spoken to as a “FEMALE CEO” and just want to be thought of as a “CEO” and you can decide what advice is applicable or not? at some point are you tired of being spoken to as a “FEMALE CEO” and just want to be thought of as a “CEO” and you can decide what advice is applicable or not? KA: It’s a great question, and where I should interject that I am responding here as a white, straight founder. I recognize my experience is particularly privileged even among underrepresented founders. I’ve also asked myself the question of when I write about my own experience or point of view, when and where do I need to caveat my privilege, or highlight that I live in the United States which gives me immense access that founders all over the world have to work harder for. There’s not an easy answer, especially if you’re trying to be brief and action-oriented in your guidance. The answer is even less simple when you compound your “reach.” I think if you’re in a coffee shop telling 1 or 2 people, the need to caveat is a lot less. If you’re speaking broadly to the public or on Twitter and you’ve got a mere 10k followers like I have, there’s some explanation needed. When you’re a full-blown public figure, the standard is different. As an aside, I’ve had this conversation with my executive coach before: what is the weight of your voice and as an individual how do you recognize when that weight changes? We have different expectations of people in a position of power and influence, and so the pushback may seem unfair because we’d never hold small-scale conversations or personal interactions to the same standard. A question I have for you, then, is how do you think about addressing feedback? When is it important to engage vs. when is bad faith pushback a waste of your time? I think anyone who pays attention to your writing knows that you value equality, diversity, and mutual respect. HW: It took me a while to understand the ‘public figure’ assumption because despite having some reach, I never think of myself that way compared to the bold faced names in our industry. That said, I’m not naive about the benefits of having reach — or at least influence — so I try to be respectful, responsible and promote other voices. Starting with the assumption that all feedback is valuable, I respond fastest when it’s from people who have been following me for a while and engage directly. Even if I don’t immediately agree or understand, it’s important to assume good faith and be open to learning. Separately, I’ve had pieces of content undergo “context collapse” — when something gets shared to people who don’t know me and, either because it was literally a joke that they take seriously, or because as a white male VC, it’s riskfree to punch up at me, they come back with fire. When it’s specific and informed, I actually respond kindly to those because they don’t know who I am, and I find the interaction a chance to build bridges! I’ll tell you what really gets me though — at a gut emotional level — and I had some of these with this post: when you follow me, and instead of replying, you put me on QT dunk blast. That drives me nuts and makes it really hard for me to assume good faith. I hate QT! Let me turn the question back on you — when do you engage vs ignore? KA: I have a guy who follows me on Twitter, and any time I say anything about fundraising being more difficult for women, he comments that VCs are after money and fund whatever gets them the best return, full stop. The implication that hurts is that women would be funded if they could get returns. No matter that statistics show female founders outperform by 63%. I tried early on to engage him with data and conversation, but got nowhere. It caused a huge amount of stress. Now, I don’t respond and I haven’t blocked him, because I derive joy from knowing that his comments are meaningless and not worth my attention. It’s anecdotal, but this reflects my general approach to engagement on Twitter. If someone has said something that I think misses a key point of view, and I believe it comes from simply not knowing or recognizing the gap, I’ll try to engage. If it becomes clear that logic and reason don’t matter, or there is a bad faith effort to drag me into a reply war, I ignore. It’s interesting you mention the QT, because that was actually the reason I responded to your post. That person is someone I follow, and I thought it was massively unfair given the (albeit limited) context I know about you. I think that’s one of those lines that starts to draw out what a “public figure” is. Most people don’t bother to QT anything angry about my posts because no one in the real world knows who I am. Sometimes I think those with less societal power feel the QT is a way to have their voice heard when they otherwise feel ignored. Sometimes, of course, they’re just trying to antagonize and get an audience response. I use the QT if I think the person is too “famous” to respond to a comment, or there’s a broader point about society I think people should see. Recently though, I did get one QT that called me stupid, and wow, I did not realize how hurtful that would be. It was a silly, meaningless incident, sure, but one that has made me reconsider the QT as a tool for criticism. If someone has said something that I think misses a key point of view, and I believe it comes from simply not knowing or recognizing the gap, I’ll try to engage. If it becomes clear that logic and reason don’t matter, or there is a bad faith effort to drag me into a reply war, I ignore. HW: I have this term for those sorts of interactions on Twitter: “paper cuts.” None of them cross any lines that violate their Community Standards, but each one of them stings. And if you’re active on Twitter, the paper cuts add up! And the women, activists, etc that I know get 100x the paper cuts I do. I really appreciate this chat. Since we’re talking about how we use our public voices, maybe we can wind it up celebrating some folks who we appreciate online? Here are a few from my own follow list: @Hypatiadotca, @jewelmelanie, @laura, @dansinker KA: Thanks for the opportunity to talk about some of the shades of gray. Some of my favorite tech/VC voices are: @dunkhippo33, @ArlanWasHere, and @lolitataub. And a few founders you should know of who are doing really cool things: @rachelren1, @ShannonCGoggin (who I know is a portfolio founder for you, Hunter!), and @isadwatson. Notes and More 🇺🇸 Thank you for voting! 📦 Things I’m Enjoying These microwave plate covers, SF’s Dandelion Chocolate, and Miley Cyrus’ Midnight Sky live performance. 🏗 Highlighted Homebrew Portfolio Jobs Sitka is a telehealth specialist network which allows any health provider/system to access a deep set of specialists to augment their own patient care models. They’re hiring remote roles in engineering and product design.
https://medium.com/@hunterwalk/is-it-fair-to-tell-founders-just-execute-and-youll-be-fine-72c96ef3a0d3
['Hunter Walk']
2020-11-05 17:08:49.789000+00:00
['Diversity', 'Tech', 'Venture Capital', 'Diversity In Tech', 'Technology']
795
XSN Comparison Chart
Stakenet (XSN) revolutionizes the way cryptocurrencies are held, spent and staked. Follow
https://medium.com/stakenet/xsn-comparison-chart-58035c8227
['Stakenet Team']
2018-12-07 14:38:10.399000+00:00
['Blockchain Technology', 'Xsn', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Technical Documentation', 'Lightning Network']
796
How We’ve Learned Data Viz, and Why You May Want To Do It Differently
On a dedicated channel, #dvs-topics-in-data-viz, in the Data Visualization Society Slack, our members discuss questions and issues pertinent to the field of data visualization. Discussion topics rotate every two weeks, and while subjects vary, each one challenges our members to think deeply and holistically about questions that affect the field of data visualization. At the end of each discussion, the moderator recaps some of the insights and observations in a post on Nightingale. You can find all of the other discussions here. 👋 “How do I learn data viz?” This is probably the most common newbie question. It’s a hard question to answer because it depends on where you’re starting and who you’re asking. A couple of years ago, I wanted to learn more about data visualization, so I wandered over to the Technology section in Barnes & Noble and picked up Nathan Yau’s Data Points. I devoured it because it’s an approachable introduction to different chart types and encoding methods. In the book, Nathan mentioned an “up-and-coming analysis software” called Tableau, so I watched their online tutorials and made some cringe-worthy charts, like this beauty: Exhibit A: beginner’s work! I could tell it was a powerful tool, and I really wanted to get better at designing visualizations. So I began reading blog posts about the vizzing process from pros like Nadieh Bremer, but I still wasn’t sure what made a “good” viz and why. Answering that question happened slowly, through lots of practice. Mistakes and feedback from others helped me to improve over time, but it’s been a long road and I wondered if there was a better way out there. So, to see how other people were learning, I visualized the 627 responses to these questions from the 2018 Data Visualization Survey: Did you learn how to do data visualization in school or did you learn how do it on your own? What method do you think best teaches data visualization? Viz by Alli Torban using RAWGraphs with data from Elijah Meeks. It’s clear that most people are self-taught (83% of respondents), and almost half think that examples (43% of respondents) best teach data visualization. If you read through the “Other” answers, many people think that it takes a mix of methods to learn data visualization. So, the question remains: how do you learn data viz? My experience says through practice, though many others would say through examples. But to a newbie, that probably sounds like really vague advice. Time to ask the Data Visualization Society… Here’s what we asked the Slack group: “Did you ever study data visualization in a structured environment? If so, what were the strengths and weaknesses of the courses and programs you were in? Have you taken any data visualization training? Which approaches work and which ones don’t? Have you ever taught data visualization? What did you find was effective and what wasn’t?” Many responded that they hadn’t spent much time learning in a structured environment, but when they did, it was usually an online course (free & paid), one-off workshops, or part of a course in another degree program. Here’s a short summary of the discussion: What was the MOST effective part of these classes? Learning about gestalt principles. Studying fundamentals and then putting them into practice by creating visualizations. Working through projects that can be added to a portfolio. What was the LEAST effective part of these classes? Short, online courses that don’t have depth (no statistics or analysis). Working on a visualization before figuring out the story or message. Learning to build very custom visualizations since they tend to be expensive and inefficient. What’s worked well when teaching data viz? Focus on teaching a design process (e.g., understand your audience, prototype ideas, and test). Use sample data that is relevant to students to make the lessons more engaging and real — better yet, let students choose their own topic and data. Teach critique and give a lot of feedback. Try to follow-up with students after the fact to coach through real-life problems. A Better Way to Learn I realized that we often try to learn data viz by fast-forwarding to the “fun” part of visualizing data (i.e. practicing and examples), but that can feel like stumbling through a dark room. By hearing from data viz practitioners as they look back on their journey, perhaps better advice for learning data viz would be to: 1. Learn the fundamentals. 2. Define your design process. 3. Put it into practice with real-life data. 4. Get lots of feedback. A great way to do this is by collaborating with a more skilled professional. For you eagle-eyed readers, you probably noticed that this was the second most popular choice in the survey about the best method to teach data viz. It’s easy advice to look over — I honestly didn’t notice it right away— but it makes sense. Learning is so much more efficient when you see everything in action. The Takeaway While practicing was an essential part of my learning, I wonder how much time I could have saved if I had sought out a mentor first, rather than poking around by myself. I could have found out sooner that data visualization is a process rather than the single act of making a chart. By working with someone more experienced as you learn data visualization, you have the benefit of seeing the full process in action. It also shines a light on what your strengths and weaknesses are so you can further focus on your studies. If you’re not sure how to connect with a more skilled professional, join the Data Visualization Society, which has a very active Slack group — including channels specifically for newbies and teaming up. They’re also working on implementing a mentorship program. Join us! :)
https://medium.com/nightingale/how-weve-learned-data-viz-and-why-you-may-want-to-do-it-differently-ec1267bd39b2
['Alli Torban']
2020-07-06 20:23:47.935000+00:00
['Topicsindv', 'Information Technology', 'Mentorship', 'Data Visualization', 'Learning']
797
Harmony’s Staking and Incentive Design
(NOTE: The design in this article is preliminary and already outdated. The latest design of Harmony’s EPoS staking mechanism is here) Since the release of our technical whitepaper, we have been busy with implementing core protocol features including FBFT consensus with BLS multi-sig, distributed randomness generation, sharded p2p network and much more. We’ve also launched multiple testnet versions which have been running smoothly since January 2019. In the meantime, we were also polishing our token economics and incentives design. We did research on staking models and incentives of existing PoS-based public blockchains such as Cosmos, Tezos, EOS, IoTex and ETH 2.0. However, as the first sharding-based PoS blockchain to launch soon, we need to be extra diligent in our design since validators in our blockchain will be decentralized and diverse in their hardware and network specs. This article describes some of the design thinking and ideas about Harmony’s staking mechanism and validator incentives. Voting Share Bonding and Staking Harmony is a Proof-of-Stake blockchain with a sharded network where each shard contains a large group of validators (~400 at initial mainnet launch). Validators validate new blocks and vote to reach consensus using our FBFT algorithm where a 2/3 quorum of votes is needed for consensus. To be able to vote, validators need to have voting shares bonded to them. One bonded voting share grants one vote for a validator to cast in the FBFT consensus. A voting share will stay bonded to a validator for the bonding period of 7 epochs. After the bonding period ends, the voting share will be released and be available to re-bond. For each shard, there will be roughly 400 bonded voting shares used for consensus. As detailed in our whitepaper, Harmony blockchain runs in epochs and one epoch lasts for roughly a day. Within an epoch, the validators in each shard stay the same and run consensus repeatedly. When epoch changes, new validators with newly bonded voting shares will be randomly assigned to join the shards. The existing validators without any bonded voting shares will exit the shards. When the blockchain enters a new epoch, the expiring voting shares (those at the end of bonding period) will be released and become available to bond. The way to acquire the available voting shares is through bidding, where the potential validators specify their bidding price by sending the corresponding Harmony tokens to the bonding/staking smart contract. The available voting shares will be bonded to the highest bidders and stay bonded for a bonding period of 7 epochs. The tokens from the successful bidder will be staked throughout the bonding period, and the tokens from the rest of the bidders will be available for withdraw. The benefits of using bidding as the way to distribute the voting power are two fold: Compared to a fixed-price staking requirement like the 32 ether in Eth 2.0, the market will dynamically determine a fair price of a voting share. Given an efficient market, the voting power will eventually be taken by the validators with the best operating efficiency who can optimize their return and cost. During the bonding period, the validators participate in the consensus using their voting shares and get token rewards in proportion to the number of bonded voting shares they have. The tokens being staked for the voting shares may be slashed if the validators do not follow the protocol. After the bonding period ends, the voting shares will be released and become available for bidding. The corresponding staked tokens will enter the 1-epoch cooldown period after which the staked tokens will become available to withdraw. For the validators who don’t want to become idle during the cooldown period, they can choose to immediately rebid for new voting shares using their already staked tokens at the epoch right before the cooldown period. Grace Period for Resharded Nodes In a sharded blockchain, a single shard only contains a subset of the network validators and is more vulnerable to single-shard takeover attacks (1% attack) compared to a non-sharded blockchain. Harmony counters this problem by adopting a periodic resharding mechanism where a subset of the shard validators will be reassigned to other shards every epoch. Since Harmony is a blockchain with state sharding, the resharded validators need to download the state of the new shard before they can validate for the new shard. With our fast state synchronization mechanism, we’ve cut down this process from days to around 1–2 hours. Nonetheless, it’s still 1–2 hours of absent time for the new validators and it may leave them slashed. To accommodate this problem, there will be a grace period of 1/12 of an epoch for the resharded validators to download new state. During the grace period, the validator’s absence on signing the blocks won’t be counted into the slashing rule. Consensus Leader Rotation In our initial mainnet launch, each shard will be assigned roughly 400 voting shares and we only allow one voting share per validator address. Thus, each shard will have around 400 validators. At the start of a new epoch, the validators are randomly permuted based on the randomness from the DRG protocol and forms a random sequence. Starting from the first position of the sequence, the validators take turns to be the leader for FBFT consensus and each validator stays as the leader for 40 blocks. Given our epoch time of 16384 blocks and an estimated 5s block interval (UPDATE: now the epoch time is 32768 blocks with an average 2s block interval), this setup ensures that each validator will have one chance of being the leader during an epoch. When a leader is offline or being malicious such as double-signing blocks, the whole validator group will initiate a view-change protocol to skip that leader and move on to the next leader in the sequence. The skipped leader will be slashed on its staked tokens according to the slashing rules. The view-change protocol will ensure that an offline leader can be immediately preempted before it lives through the 40 blocks period. One thing to note is the reason why Harmony changes the leader for every 40 blocks rather than doing it for every block like in other protocols (e.g. Cosmos, Tezos and EOS). As one of the first sharding-based blockchain adopting Proof-of-Stake, we face different challenges from other PoS blockchains. Compared to the validator set of 21 to 100+ in other PoS blockchains, Harmony will be much more decentralized with 1000s of validators across different shards. As we welcome all kinds of validators, small or big, to be able to validate for Harmony, we cannot require that every validator in our network to be professionally managed superpower machine with 99.99% uptime. In our network, the expected percentage of offline nodes in our network will be higher than other non-sharded blockchains. Assume we have 5% offline node in a shard, if we change the leader for every block, then we will have overall 5% of the epoch during which no blocks are proposed. However, with our view-change or leader preemption mechanism, the expected downtime rate is only 0.125%, which significantly helps with the reliability and performance of our blockchain. Token Incentives and Slashing Besides the staking mechanism and validator organization discussed above, here is a list of token incentives and slashing rules that we are planning to include in our mainnet: Token Rewards When a new block is confirmed, all validators will share the block reward (~ 30 ONE given a 6% annual inflation rate) and the transaction fees. The leader who proposed the block will get another 5% of block reward. Block reward will increase with more signatures signed on the block to incentivize the leader to collect more votes. Inflation rate (or block reward) will increase when the ratio of totally staked tokens to the circulating tokens is low. VRF submission rewards: 5% more block rewards are given to the leader who submit his VRF randomness at the first block when it became the leader. VDF submission rewards: 10% more block rewards are given to any account who is able to submit a correct VDF within the predetermined range of time. Slashing When the leader/validators double-sign blocks. When the leader is offline (not proposing blocks). When a validator fails to sign on 90% of the blocks during the last 4096 blocks (~ 6 hours). When the leader fails to submit the VRF result. When the leader fails to include a VDF result within the predetermined range of time. The above is just the start of our token incentives and staking design. It’s nowhere near the finalized version. We are working closely with our foundational node validators to polish up the design so that our blockchain is secure and all stake holders are positively incentivized. For more information, please refer to our whitepaper. And please join our discord to give us your valuable feedback. Cheers!
https://medium.com/harmony-one/staking-mechanism-and-token-incentives-design-of-harmony-e3fa6b27c387
['Rongjian Lan']
2021-03-04 22:52:44.143000+00:00
['Technology', 'Token Economy', 'Consensus', 'Proof Of Stake', 'Blockchain Sharding']
798
The path to better job satisfaction for software engineers
The path to better job satisfaction for software engineers — become a unicorn engineer 🦄 🌈 Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash You have heard of computer engineers, software engineers, Javascript engineers, backend engineers, frontend engineers, and even the latest and the hottest, blockchain engineers in the software development industry. But I bet you have never heard of unicorn engineers. Let me show you photos of unicorn engineers. We have two unicorn engineers here working away on their laptops, one with headphones, one without. One with a neat and tidy desk, the other with a slightly messy one. 😉 🦄Unicorn engineers Now I can almost hear you asking, how is it different from a normal engineer that we know? Well, they are not supposed to be different, because being a unicorn engineer and being a normal software engineer isn’t mutually exclusive. In fact, I’d argue that they should be mutually inclusive. If you think about successful technology companies today, they all have one thing in common — a product. Not just any product, but a great product. It doesn’t have to be a completely new and shiny that never existed but one that is better than those that existed before their time. For example, Facebook took over MySpace as the number one social media platform, not because MySpace wasn’t good, but because Facebook was great. Blackberry, the iconic devices that were many business folks’ first smartphones, are now completely replaced by the much better smartphones that we have today. Guess who build these great products? Who do you think? Great products are built by unicorn engineers. There are also other people who contribute to building a great product like product managers, designers, and so on, but unicorn engineers have a large role in building awesome products that customers love. Really, they are like unicorns because they create magical experiences for customers. Photo by ASHLEY EDWARDS on Unsplash Unicorn engineers can be identified not by how they look, but by who they are and what they do. Unicorn engineers share these four characteristics. They start with why — they understand what customers want, and analyse problems before jumping into coding or solutions. They have a balanced view — they strike a balance between technology, time/effort and customer value every time, with every feature. They never fall in love with their code — they don’t do premature optimisation, they are pragmatic and they are willing to start all over again if they realise what they are building isn’t what customers want or need. They know what to measure — To know what customers really want or need, they know what to measure, and they measure what matters. Like engagement metrics, performance metrics, business metrics and they validate what they have shipped. As an engineer, why is it important for you to have these characteristics of a unicorn engineer? Allow me to explain. Picture yourself over the next one or two years from now, navigating around the big codebase of your organisation and coding away day and night, fighting endless hours to get a green build and even more time to get that featured deployed. And if you’re lucky, the feature that you released will get used by a very small percentage of customers for a short while before it gets unshipped. I don’t mean to paint an ugly picture but our future doesn’t look very inspiring or meaningful. You don’t want to be the hamster on a wheel, just producing code but not sure what impact you’re making or why you’re doing what you’re doing. However, the good news is we can take actions now to avoid such thing from happening to us in the future. I will share with you the actions that you can take immediately. First, be a customer happiness enforcers. What better way to make customers happy than to understand and solve their problems, not just once or twice a week but every single day. If you can arrange this time with your team and manager, I’d highly recommend you to go on a secondment to the most customer-centric team in your organisation, usually customer service team, and work through tickets from a normal support queue and solve customers problems. Second, take part in customer interviews. This is quite straight forward, but make sure you do it real time whether via VC or face to face to get the most value out of it and to build that connection with real users behind a screen. Next, reward & recognise. Just as managers can reward & recognise their people, you can recognise your peers when they are doing the right things for customers. For example, give a shout out to someone who came up with small improvements for customers. Or if you noticed your peer went out of their way to reach out to customers about a specific issue, documented it and fixed it, and even if no manager noticed, you can totally praise them. And last but not least, a fun one, catfooding. You’re probably familiar with the concept of dogfooding, where companies use their own products within their organisation. Catfooding is similar but with a slight twist. Instead of using our own product, use a competitor’s product for any given project for a while. Identify strengths and weaknesses, write about them and share learnings to educate and fill the gaps. People over pixels. T-shirt from https://womenintechnology.threadless.com With all these actions, you’re on your way to better job satisfaction and clearer understanding of your impact. There is no better time to become that unicorn engineer who does meaningful work and creates magical experiences that customers love.
https://medium.com/hackernoon/the-path-to-better-job-satisfaction-for-software-engineers-c78f884f18b1
['Isabel Nyo']
2019-07-05 17:50:02.786000+00:00
['Career Advice', 'Software Development', 'Developer', 'Technology']
799
Live-Show : Tokyo International Film Festival Live, (2021) Full Stream
❂ Artist Event : Tokyo International Film Festival ❂ Venue : Tokyo Midtown Hibiya, Tokyo, Japan ❂ Live Streaming Tokyo International Film Festival 2021 Conversation Series at Asia Lounge The Japan Foundation Asia Center & Tokyo International Film Festival Marking its second installment since 2020, this year’s Conversation Series will again be advised by the committee members led by filmmaker Kore-eda Hirokazu. Directors and actors from various countries and regions including Asia will gather at the Asia Lounge to engage in discussion with their Japanese counterparts. This year’s theme will be “Crossing Borders”. Guests will share their thoughts and sentiments about film and filmmaking in terms of efforts and attempts to transcend borders. The festival will strive to invite as many international guests as possible to Japan so that they can engage in physical conversation and interaction at the Asia Lounge. The sessions will be broadcast live from the festival venue in Tokyo Midtown Hibiya every day for eight days from October 31st to November 7th. Stay tuned!
https://medium.com/@b.i.m.sa.la.bi.mp.r.ok/live-show-tokyo-international-film-festival-live-2021-full-stream-d4feadcf4b5f
[]
2021-10-30 14:07:22.052000+00:00
['Festivals', 'Technology']