text:
BAIS SELFLESSNESS; corruption is miss-defined
04 Sunday Dec 2011
BAIS SELFLESSNESS ~
PERSONNEL ASSESSMENT
Once too often we have faulted corruption for many of our woes. The cliché morale of the thief being the best guard is lost to our hypocritical high sense of fairness, justice and professed faiths. Truly and generally speaking, corruption gives undue advantage to the most undeserving individual. But then, that phase; "undeserving individual" is the vaguest in the most corrupt settings. Most times the individual deserves but is termed undeserving for reasons that are plainly put, manipulated.
The reasons are manipulated by individuals that undeservingly use their own privileged placing to emphasize bureaucratic procedures. This is practically the simple origin of corruption in the most organized settings, as we commonly recognize them. We have stereotyped our views of the organized human sector as a very complex hive of related human activities that are geared towards specific functions. This is true, but these same organized entities are basically made up of simple people firstly.
Organized settings are made up of separate persons that function in miniature micro niches of their own selves, family, clan and communities that are basically informal in nature. Their daily functional relationships with each other, has them exploring means to get the upper hand over the next person.
These efforts are loosely enhanced by acts that interpret into seeking undue advantage. This is not obviously encouraged, especially since most of those concerned get the bad end of the deal. But these same disadvantaged persons actually cheer the visible fruits of these very acts that are detrimental to them.
The so many gains of corruption are thus revered in the same communities that abhor it. The irony of it all is the fact that this is not quite literally contradictory, but genuinely existing opposites on the same plane of existing functions. The most vocal perpetuators of the ills of this derogatory human vice are consciously the same advocates of its human face.
The cheat is thus 'heroed' and put up on a pedestal of esteemed status. Then he is encouraged to unconsciously lead the trend, while he consciously leads the community. Given the very same opportunity, most of the clearly disadvantaged persons will readily make others as disadvantaged in their stead too.
The trended old ways recorded had much earlier reported that the simple origin of corruption itself, is definitely ethnical. The primitive ways of doing things had ushered means of seeking undue advantage. The ancestor, the elder, the in-law, the parent, the ruler, the intermediary and the interpreter are all doctored, by all means possible to 'water down' their resolve to ensure 'due process' is followed or adhered to, in a manner that appeared to be seeking undue advantage.
Payments are not stated in their clear terms, but insinuated. Or better still, most times not; but still expected in 'Cash' and in 'Kind'. Cash is too definite, it puts exact value. Kind is loose and the gratitude shown lingers on for so much longer.
The generous nature of the action lies. Its will is a whim and its benefactor a fool and a tool that only necessitates the whole course of action. The action is not a perceived selfish push, but rather a pull with a bionic human horizontal-gravity-like pull, attracting all to maximize the ever elusive gains to excel by all means workable. The lie in the perceived generosity is just too evident in the visibly covert insinuation, so insultingly offered.
The sense of value marks out the level of priority of the people. What is valued and why it is valued and how it is valued? All makes out the essence of the people's priorities. The fabric of society is hugely dependant on this. It is what differentiates civility from anarchy and stabs common sense behind its back.
Education when pursued for the sole aim of attaining a status is thus achieved with the same aim. While civility suffers in this course, a state of prosperity is attained. This sort of valuing has characterized our trusted modernity with such unequalled prominence, that nothing else matters to a generality of humanity. Humanity is nothing but what man's deeds makes it and man after all becomes what he worships; it represents him.
What a majority represents insinuates a national character, a popular norm; which is embraced mainly because of its success, its viability and reliability. Corruption has thus developed into a national character for this same reasons and it is now a norm embraced mainly for its success. Its viability and reliability as it were, against what is otherwise termed proper. The people are after all one whole package with a single identity. To assess a nation, the main consideration is its very visible people.
The branding of the entirety of a company's service is labeled by its personnel, the staff that functionalize the firm's activities. Hence, to assess the personnel by means other than their very own, only really serves to disconnect the staff from their firm and then tradition runs a different race from the present, this should matter. Maybe it is then so apparent, that corruption is either wrongly branded or just plainly wrongly defined.
Corruption shouldn't give undue advantage
Only when bureaucracy hinders advancement.
A nation's constituent as one sole package
Needs its traditional personnel assessment.
LEADERSHIP'S INTERESTS
So many times the blatant fact is assumed but not proven, that the rich are arrogant and that humility is with the poor. But ignored is the reality of pretence being more evident in the poor or the less privileged. Isn't it predominantly so evident that 'Humility is the worst form of conceit'? Deceit is disguised in readied pretence predominantly. The vice of the rich being arrogance is akin to that of the poor, humility under duress.
In the weakness that is prominent in the poor, lies a quiet strength that is subtle. In the rich's arrogance is sincerity and in the poor's humility is a sinister compromise. But a virtue that makes a unique blend of these perceived extremes is leadership. Learnt or taught, experienced or developed, entrusted or made, given or denied, earned and won; leadership formulates its deed.
Leadership swings like a pendulum, in an arc that represents its own distinct interests; interests that subsequently direct its course, its aims, its objectives and its final achievements. Leadership is resourceful and commands resources in a manner that reveals its interests. If not in practice, it does eventually when it has run its course or ends its tenure, term and time.
Resources abound all over and finders are keepers. But then resources are nothing if they do not translate into a means of leadership. If authority has responsibility, then responsibility has authority. If leadership has resources, then resources have leadership. The resource is not beneficial if those who earned it do not lead it. If it leads them, then though resource has leadership, leadership doesn't have resource and simply put; he that earns doesn't get to pay his bills. When the earners are different from the payers, then a contest ensues.
A struggle ensues and subsequently grows out of a tussle for basic rights, borne out of an obvious desire to lead the resources that had been earned or won, by earners or payers, respectively. The disconnection is so evident in the chaos that ensues and nothing is as crippling in any clearly established setting as the corrosive effect of disorganization. It wears and tears with a persistence that suffocates and extinguishes the positive force in any establishment. Hence a contest fundamentally disorganizes.
Competition does not exist alongside cooperation within the same concurrent pair of settings. The presence of harmony represents compromise for shortcomings. And leadership must give a little here and there to enable it keep the flame of the force that powers its establishment. What makes conflict prominent is not the competition itself or even the perceived immediate material dividends of success imbedded in such contests. The attraction is the recognition that comes with it.
Most of the led are not bothered with who leads, but what leadership delivers. In a like manner, most of the leaders are not bothered about what their leadership actually provides but what the led think of what their leadership provides. This is leadership's interest as it reveals itself now. This interest response easily to pretence and thrives solely on the feedback it gets from those around it. Most times the feedback is filtered through its cronies, who surround leadership and concentrate on giving it the kind of response that ensures their own personal existence and comfort, while not necessarily forwarding the actual response that strives to reach the leadership.
Leadership is thus misled and its interests with it. The elite are not as unsympathetic as they appear. They are as humane as every other being of every other economic class and status. The reason for this conclusive perception is however not far fetched.
The unquenchable desire to always have and keep protected that power gotten, has made the elite appear heartless. They strive to ensure that the sorts of lifestyles they enjoy are not reversed on any account. They have come up a steep road they see again and again; altered here or there, but very easily recognizable.
It is quite easily recognizable as a similar road that would take them downwards, if they are unwary of this fact too. Wealth and fame is like health and game. The big and strong appear fit but will become ill and die if careless and unlucky. The famous are loved today and hated tomorrow like a winner today loses or ends his winnings tomorrow. Mindful of the cold they could get, the elite will rather kill to stay warm, unsympathetically so.
The common man's simplicity has made him blind to the difficulties associated with or being daily considered by the elite class. His decisions are mostly straight to the point, so much that the complications evident in being something else is not recognized and appreciated but instead simply taken at their clear face value and not scrutinized with proper analysis.
Evaluation is in itself an act of analysis and the two cannot be pinpointed divorced successfully. The led criticize easily for this same reason and leadership does not, for the same reason. The interest of leadership has to take a lot into consideration and most times, some of the things considered can not be publicly highlighted but still are very essential. Compromise at that level is mandatory, for every single detail. It is for this reason that a state of leadership is attained in the first place and will even be remotely and extensively exercised.
Arrogance is in the Rich's vices and virtues.
The Earners' and Payers' contest truly rests,
Not on dividend, but on recognized dues;
Paid by all the leadership's own interests.
COOPERATIVE ADMINISTRATION
One unique feature of religion is its tenacious adherence to fixed and definite principles. These principles are the basis of its existence as a religion and are fundamentally the seed that gave birth to its very essence. The idea will most probably not make rational sense but the most rational being will support and defend it sensibly and at the peril of his own sanity, physical comfort and even his very existence.
Religion is not the faith in the principle that embodies it, but faith in the mystical entity that signifies it. The dictates of this mystical entity are conveyed in the principles adhered to at every physical and mental cost, with an attempt to constantly de-emphasis self and enhance the prominence of the symbolized entity of the faith; be it human or inanimate, or just mystical.
The formation of an organic entity to personify religion gives religion an attitudinal face. The revealed and related activities of these faces give the religion a logical form. Very few persons have really enjoyed the true luxury of choosing a religion. From time immemorial, religion chose man and found him; by force, by region, by clan, by race, by trade, by tradition, by history, by birth, by orientation or de-orientation, ironically.
Nothing calms and still agitates man like his faith in something he regards to be bigger than himself. Religion had given him reason to reason, and answers to ponder and wonder, erroneously or correctly. Religion is honestly a matter of acceptance and conviction, yet confusion as well; individual opinion. One irony of religion is its singular and as yet, unduplicated ability to truly unify all its conquests in a common course without relying on any democratic dictates.
There is nothing democratic about religious overtures. It is the most dictatorial from of human management ever used or applied by the human race. Truly, the obvious belief in its perceived non human origin would have ensured that it is seen as not human and thus beyond the comprehension of humans. But the fact remains that it is basically and entirely administered purely by human beings. Whether influenced or not, the instant choice of believing, complying and adhering is always human.
Hence man administers religion. This, as stated, has been largely successfully done within the religious communities, all in the absence of a democratic fabric. The fact that the back bone of every faith and religion is still the same today as it was at its onset and infancy for millennia past, points to another key feature of religion; it is unequivocally dynamic in every nature.
Religion maintains its structure but adjusts and fits itself rather well in all its many diverse travels, moulding both its conquests as itself to accommodate its conquests and still remains its unique identifiable self. This isn't easily replicated. And as such this democracy that is being clamored for and that had, with such trendy popularity, thrust itself into more societies, is rarely recognized for what it truly is; a new religion.
It is relatively new to all other religions and foreign to their dictatorial and parochial principles. One can choose one god from another, democracy preaches. One can change anything one does not like, democracy teaches. All this as long as majorities agree that it should be so. Majority rule is the true definition of democracy. One individual's choice takes the back seat and watches helplessly but vocally, for as long as he and his like opinioned cronies cannot convince the most from the other divide to accept their own opinion and stance.
They wait for democracy to choose them, like the religion with many deities it functions as and it is. Democracy doesn't point at one deity; instead it has minor 'gods' that expire with their tenures. Governments don't listen to a particular ministration but to their collective individual might; collectively expressed. Governance is stirred by the dictates of a few individuals.
A consensus is established when the empowered individual works with the majority. In practice this has been altered to fit circumstances and does not float down stream in most instances, but is pulled up stream, against clear popular wishes by certain pressures it must register, accept and comply to. If it desires to remain relevant in its present state, then it must succumb.
Each time a government is determined, it simply implies that power had been given to a small group. The government is a custodian of represented power. Its mandate, man-power and management have to be cooperated with by the people; if it is to be successful. Where there isn't such cooperation, then its success is not established and tangible but just fragments of its imagination. Common sense shows that people based governments had administered within the confines of its own dictates pulled and pushed to fit its own determined policies.
Even popular governments have sipped from this pond of self-righteousness. The success of any given governance endeavour is strictly determined by the cooperation it gets and its objectivity; the former is as prominent as admits the latter. Their symbiotic romance harmonizes the polity and practically vindicates cooperative administration.
Religion is not as democratic as dynamic,
Thus government stirs to any ministration.
Civil cooperation and compromise laid thick,
Practically vindicate cooperative administration.
One common misrepresented assertion by leadership, is the emphasis of the unconditional unity of the governed. It is a commonly embraced mistake. It appears straight forward and basically advocated as reasonable. Who will have anything against unconditionally unifying different ideas to smoothen and ease the act of governance? Everyone will wish for such a luxuriously pacifying state, it makes things obviously easier.
But this is only a utopian dream. Man is too different to be that agreeable. Hence we would agree only for the instant purpose it serves. But in our agreement is a very obvious yet subtle disagreement that serves only our purpose. There must be that inevitable sense of compromise holding together human unity for it to be comfortably binding. To rely on this circumstantial relationship as the foundation of any policy is to have faith in only one direction of wind to steer a ship on the high seas.
People will always rely on their very own selfish judgment first of all and when the whole community of the governed are being considered, unity is then too unreliable to be an exact policy. Shrouded in his old traditions are man's thoughts, which are fundamentally tutored to be bias to his very own personal ideals.
The principle of 'the longer it lasted, the longer it lasts' was not coined after some rare scientific experiment or sociological evaluation. It is a human certainty that is as old as humanity. Over an extended period man has managed every area of his activities in ways he considered appropriate to his immediate circumstances, with regards to his particular orientation. This is as traditional, as it can be simply broken down to its barest.
An individual's thoughts and deeds are guided by what is traditional to his own immediate physical and emotional environment. These are major determinants in the reaction of man in every given setting and basically predict his actions, or in-actions. The perspective of the misguided will always be hunted by their traditional orientation and this will pull their sentiments in directions they unconsciously do not have complete control over. In devising an acceptable line of thought for any group, it is essential to consider their prior orientation.
It is important to weigh their special particular sentiments and adjust their methods of choice to their comprehension as well as capabilities. Neglecting this fundamental option is always counter productive and to a considerable extended destructive too. The nature of man's assorted cultural settings has schooled his customs and ensuing norms in a huge collection of highly imaginatively imposed regulations, even as they evolve.
None evolves without some form of basic communal want that is being advocated for or protected from undesired possibilities. In achieving these quests of managing an embraced system, man's norms simply develop. They develop into a standard form of behaviour and the immediate community normalizes these as is usual and expected. These norms have shackled the capabilities of any form of government within a society.
They are not necessary ill-conceived enacted laws; which they evolved into with stealth, when not put aright fundamentally. They are mainly conceptions of bias origins. Norms hinder the progressive work in any liberalized institutionalized society. The ethnic origin of man's sentimental choices has made him unreliable as he is. Man is naturally prone to constant bias at times of decision making. He is completely incapable of continuously taking decisions devoid of sentiments.
Man embodies a life of abject subjective choices and all his apparent or obvious efforts to appear otherwise are actually just as bias. Man is a slave of his feelings and he is in a state of this perpetual captivity. The only possible escape is when he is subjected to his own communal cooperative dictates, which ensures that he functions within a life sustaining spherical confine of behavioral norms, which govern his actions.
This established confine, loosely but recognizably, keeps human action within a manageable state at all times of relative organization and thus man's bias excesses are managed. This is a mythical spherical form, not unlike his limiting atmospheric earth. And is as complex as it is likewise simple in its revelation.
It is this common compromise that is reflected in the stated communal cooperative organization, which when legally united, forms a defined administrative body that can act as a managerial unit. This group's natural behaviour incorporates management. The constant bias apparent in their functions actually binds and thus ensures their continuous existence and apparent success as corporate management, based on its practicability.
Man's state of affairs is too complicated to be given a definite solution at every twist and turn. But true to his nature, man will always respect his need to be bias to his selfishness and when this is determined by norms his very sentiments hold dearly, he is selfless. In the mazy hedge of his emotions and decisions underlines the fact that, if he seeks to succeed he must only show this dogged 'Bias selflessness'.
Unity is too circumstantial for a policy,
Tradition orients a people's sentiment.
Ethnic norms always cage the polity;
In constant bias corporate management.
2 thoughts on "BAIS SELFLESSNESS; corruption is miss-defined"
xeenarh said:
i finally got here. longer comment reserved for the time being. Meanwhile check me and my gay views out on azeenarh.wordpress.com
I did check it out and was mostly in agreement with you. I just think that, despite the civilized world selecting to be excessively protective of its freedom of personal expression, it has managed to completely lose track of its natural capabilities, which its tenatiously advocated evolution had bestowed it with. There's nothing natural about same sex couplings. It is purely an expression of sexual preferance and shouldn't be legislated on; in every ramification.


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Author: Sean Moss-Pultz
Introducing Totemic — the new digital trading card exchange built to give artists and creators a new model to fund their work.
Post author By Sean Moss-Pultz
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By Sean Moss-Pultz
Jamie King & I met about three years ago, introduced through a mutual friend, one of the founders of BitTorrent Inc. Jamie had distributed his documentary STEAL THIS FILM via the Bittorrent protocol, and gone on to found VODO, one of the first distribution companies based on P2P tech. I just started Bitmark, and was looking for new distribution channels for artists.
Right from the start, it was clear something interesting could happen.
Over the next year or two, Jamie and I discussed different ways that Bitmark could support people creating all kinds of digital work — music, photography, video and writing. The "ah-hah" moment came after we found out, separately, about Rare Pepes — a platform using blockchain to create scarce assets from memes. Having both decided that blockchain-based, digital trading cards would be the wave of the future, we decided to work together and build a new platform: Totemic.
Totemic is a digital trading card exchange in which artists can issue limited edition digital card sets for their fans to purchase, sell, and trade. One of the things I like about trading cards, is that they can allow artists to re-use bits and pieces of their original works. They're not having to create whole new assets to get access to this valuable new revenue stream. And for fans/collectors collectibles trigger this kind of immediate nostalgia. To this day, I can remember opening up baseball cards with the stick of gum. You never knew what you were going to get. Even the duplicates created more fun — you could easily trade those with friends for cards you did not have.
Where Totemic stands apart for buyers and collectors is that card ownership is completely decentralized. On any other digital collectibles platform, a company owns your collection. By using the public Bitmark blockchain, however, Totemic makes sure your cards are truly yours, forever. Ownership of a card and its ownership history are always maintained independently from any third-parties — even including Totmetc and Bitmark Inc.!
An important part of Totemic's raison d'etre springs from Jamie's insight, from both his own experiences as a filmmaker, and distributing other people's work at VODO, that artists increasingly don't make money from their artwork directly. Popular new platforms like Patreon, for example, are based around indirect ways of monetizing the creative practice. This can lead to skewed incentives and peculiar projects endorsements that don't really create value for their fans.
In contrast to other platforms, which pay creators through one-time licensing fees, artists who publish trading cards via Totemic profit from their cards' appreciation. When fans sell and continue to trade cards they are extending the value, funding and visibility for the artist who created that card. This in turn motivates creators to offer unique and compelling experiences within each card to their fans, like adding giveaways, concert tickets, videos, etc. And fans can feel like they are participating in their favorite artists success, plus they gain value from the cards themselves. Totemic becomes a jumping-off point for a deepened relationship between the artist and supporter — a dynamic missing from crowdfunding and digitized campaigns like Pateon, Kickstarter, Behance, etc. We think Totemic is one of the first platform to align creator and fan incentives, creating a valuable new channel in digital arts.
Totemic has been through a number of different prototypes and iterations already, and it's now in testing with the very first, live sets of cards from a few invited creators. Soon we'll be opening up the platform to more artists — we hope you can enjoy creating and collecting cards! Join the site here.
By Bitmark Inc. on May 5, 2018.
Tags blockchain, Digital Art
What is property?
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Property is a titled asset.
The other day one of our engineers asked "Can I think of a property as a ballon?" Smiling, I asked what she meant. She drew me that picture. If I want to give you my ballon, she said, I would hand you the string, not the ballon itself. The string is like the property title, transferring the rights to use the asset.
Most of us have some idea what an asset is or could be. We are comfortable with abstract assets like money. Or scarce assets like water. Even ephemeral assets like time itself, can easily be accepted as valuable.
Property rights are one level deeper in abstraction. You need a string to get there. And then you are talking about how you and your ballon can interact with society at large. Property rights deal with interactions between entities.
Personal rights are property rights are therefore connected — two sides of the same coin.
By Sean Moss-Pultz on Nov 26, 2017.
Tags Digital Property, Property, Property Rights
All Future Supply Chains Will Contain Digital Assets; How the Bitmark team won the International Blockchain Hackathon
By Maureen Walsh & Sean Moss-Pultz
Huge congrats to the Bitmark engineering team, who took first place in the first annual International Blockchain Hackathon!
On March 29–30, 2017, Intel, The Floor, and The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) hosted the hackathon with intent to create blockchain solutions for leading financial institutions. Among an atmosphere of intense innovation, many worthy startups attempted to create real solutions for leading world banks, using blockchain technology.
Based on the business challenges to be introduced by The Floor's financial partners, the International Blockchain Hackathon gave entrepreneurs and start-ups the opportunity to drive new applications, showcase technological capabilities, and create some business opportunities for new blockchain-based ventures.
During the two-day hackathon, the participating teams implemented use cases presented by the financial partners. There were 2 competing tracks: corporations & independent developers (first prize was 5 bitcoins) and startups (first prize was 3 months at The Floor).
The Bitmark engineers, joined by Tel Aviv University student Ayush Chandrato, won the corporate & independent category. They developed a supply chain system for digital production, helping rectify the challenge of 3d printing industrial products.
Challenge: 3D Printing Supply Chain Issues
There are three main issues within a 3D printing supply chain:
1) files contain sensitive IP,
2) copies of digital assets create issues with supplier trust, and
3) current systems have a weak payment infrastructure.
Bitmark's Solution: Authenticated Digital Production
Bitmark created software to digitally produce and distribute products with secure provenance. With Bimark technology a manufacturer can create a new digital product with name, description, and citation of ownership. The manufacturer can procure and track digital components directly from suppliers via the blockchain. Manufacturers can then purchase digital assets via the peer-to-peer network that is the Bitmark blockchain. If needed, manufacturer can adjust to market demands in near real-time.
Big thanks to the Bitmark team for their win, and congrats to the many other teams who developed compelling solutions!
By Bitmark Inc. on May 15, 2017.
Tags Bitmark, blockchain, Supply Chain
Part 3: Understanding the Blockchain
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Why did the creator of Bitcoin want decentralized, digital cash?
http://www.thetimes03jan2009.com/gallery/
My previous two articles came at making digital cash from an objective perspective. I explained the need for decentralization and also the need for "proof-of-work" to safely record who has what. This article is going to take a step back and look at the Big Picture picture — Why decentralize cash in the first place? Money is an abstraction, so any redesign will unavoidably include a philosophical angle. I believe Bitmark's new model of trust and privacy are the two important characteristics that make it unique in our world of government issued currencies. This article is about trust and how it connects (in my opinion of course) to why Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, wanted digital cash to exist.
To get started, I want to show you the very first block in the Bitcoin blockchain. What does a block actually look like? It's raw data. Here is it:
This first block — known as the genesis block — technically could have been empty of transactions. But it was not. Along with the normal data necessary for the block structure, Satoshi manually inserted a single transaction. Here is that message:
The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks
This was probably intended as proof that the block was created on or after January 3, 2009. The message is a headline from this newspaper:
It's obvious, but worth saying: Bitcoin emerged from a catastrophic financial crisis. The crisis was fundamentally a failure of trust. Satoshi programmed Bitcoin to have a radically different monetary policy, based on artificial scarcity and predictable issuance. In other words, it was based in mathematical trust.
The supply of Bitcoin is capped at 21 million. The protocol itself specifies that the reward for adding a block starts at 50 bitcoin and will be halved every 210,000 blocks. Each block is tuned to be found in roughly ten minutes. Thus, approximately every four years the block reward will drop in half. When the reward decrease to zero the process of record keeping will be rewarded by transaction fees alone.
What exactly motivated Satoshi to replace middlemen with math? I've read just about all of Satoshi's public writings (thanks to Phil Champagne's fantastic "The Book of Satoshi."). I found this passage the most raw and revealing:
"The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that's required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust. Banks must be trusted to hold our money and transfer it electronically, but they lend it out in waves of credit bubbles with barely a fraction in reserve. We have to trust them with our privacy, trust them not to let identity thieves drain our accounts."
Satoshi wanted digital cash, based on cryptographic proof, because without the need to trust a third party middleman, "money can be secure and transactions effortless."
Trust and control of money are absolutely intertwined. It's important to always keep this in mind when thinking about digital cash. The blockchain wasn't created as a way to make things faster. The real purpose was to remove censorship and central-control from money itself. Blockchain technology, properly understood, is a method to increase trust by removing central intermediaries and letting everyone, anywhere exchange value. And that is a radical idea whose time has come to reshape our world.
Continue with part 4: How Blockchain privacy protects consumers while thwarting mass surveillance.
By Sean Moss-Pultz on April 27, 2017.
Tags Bitcoin, blockchain
How to make decentralized, digital cash.
(Part 1 was A brief history of decentralization: about E-gold, Napster, and BitTorrent. What follows is part 2 of a 5 article series for the curious, non-technical reader.)
As a technology, cash is pretty impressive. It's easy to verify and difficult to forge. When you pay for a coffee with cash, a third party is not required to verify and process that transaction — it's peer-to-peer and decentralized. Most likely, the only personal information revealed was your physical appearance. If digital cash is to be adopted, then it should, at a minimum, behave similar to physical cash from the perspective of the individuals involved. This article will explain how to create digital cash that is 1) hard to forge and 2) transferrable without requiring a third-party (aka: decentralized).
Long before the days of e-gold (link back to previous post), people knew how to make something digital that was hard to forge. It's called the digital signature.
A digital signature is a mathematical scheme to authenticate digital messages. The content of the message doesn't matter — anything digital can be signed. Digital signatures employ cryptography. Most schemes have three parts:
The generation of a private key and a corresponding public key.
A signing algorithm that, given a message and a private key, produces a signature.
A signature verifying algorithm that, given the message, public key and signature, either accepts or rejects the message's claim to authenticity.
For some time, I struggled with how to explain digital signatures to people unfamiliar with cryptography. Then I realized the Chinese seal might be an interesting analog:
Chinese seals are typically made of natural materials (stone, wood, ivory, … ). Official documents are stamped with an individual or company's seal instead of a handwritten signature. This has some advantages. Each seal is unique and difficult to duplicate because the surface details of the organic material cause detectable variations when the stamp is used. By fanning the pages, a stamp can be applied over multi-page documents such that it is easy to detect if a page is missing or changed. Some Asian governments and financial institutions keep stamps on record for fast, precise verification of documents.
Here's how you would authenticate a digital document:
For example: An individual has a private key (seal) that represents ownership of their account and is used to produce a digital signature (stamp a document) that authorizes transactions in their name. Another party could view the public key (read the characters on the seal) and quickly verify their digital signature (against public government records) to accept or reject the claim to authenticity of the transaction.
We can create digital "coins" as signed digital messages. These will be very difficult to forge, which satisfies the first part of the solution. But if it's possible to send the same digital coin to two or more people, AKA "double-spending", then we have an incomplete solution. This "double-spending" problem, by the way, is far trickier than it might first appear. It stumped all previous attempts to decentralize digital money.
To understand how Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, resolved doubling spending, it helps to consider a smaller, simplified example first. Three people — Alice, Bob, and Carol — want to transact using digital coins. Everyone starts with one digital coin, and they agree upon some rules:
New transactions are digitally signed and shared with everyone.
Each person records new balances in their own sheet (spreadsheet).
If a transaction spends the same coin twice, the first transfer is recorded in the sheet and the second is ignored.
Once per day, everyone compares sheets. If the majority (two of three in our example) of the sheets are the same, the corresponding balances are accepted as "correct."
Initially, things would look like this:
Sheet 1 (Account Balances)
--------- ---------
Then Bob sends his coin to Alice and Carol transfers her coin to Bob. They each record the new balances in their sheets, and at the end of the day, the majority agree on the following sheet:
You could see how this process would continue. Each day settlement happens, and a new sheet is added. Consensus is reached among Alice, Bob, and Carol through a simple majority. The process is nicely decentralized and peer-to-peer.
Yet there's an obvious problem: Bob and Carol could collude against Alice. They could get together and agree to reverse each other's transactions — effectively changing their account balances. Again, "correct" is whatever the majority agrees upon.
One way to reduce the effectiveness of colluding is to randomly pick one participant's sheet and accept that sheet as "correct". This works when people are known, yet, when we switch to computers talking to one another, we still have a problem. Someone with more computers would have a disproportionate chance of his or her sheet being selected. This is where a "proof-of-work" system is needed. A proof-of-work is a computational puzzle that is costly or time-consuming to produce but easy for others to verify. One way to think of a proof-of-work problem is like solving a Sudoku puzzle. The goal of Sudoku is to complete a partially filled in 9×9 grid with digits such that each column, row, and 3×3 section contains the all the numbers between 1 to 9 once and only once. Although solving a Sudoku puzzles requires a lot of time and effort, anyone with a knowledge of the rules can immediately verify a correct solution without having to solve the puzzle themselves.
We can use a proof-of-work puzzle, related to the account balances in a given day, to make it expensive to connect many computers and keep them computing the puzzles. Let's modify our sheets to also include the solution to the new and previous puzzle. (You will see why we need the previous puzzle shortly.)
Here are the updated rules:
Once per day, everyone works to solve the proof-of-work puzzle for their sheet.
When a person solves the puzzle, they record it in their sheet and share it with everyone.
People express their acceptance of the sheet by working on creating the next sheet in the chain, using the puzzle from the accepted sheet.
In effect, we have "chained" our sheets together such that making a change to any single sheet requires redoing the puzzle — not just for that specific sheet — but for all the sheets thereafter. Why? Because once a proof-of-work is created for a given set of balances, it cannot be reused for different balances without redoing the work. As later sheets are chained after it, the work to change the sheet would include redoing all the sheets after it.
I hope it's obvious to the reader that my sheets are blocks and the chaining forms the "blockchain". (Even though it's more of a mouthful — I prefer calling it "proof-of-work" chain). The very astute reader might realize it's possible that two people could share a block at the same time. (These blocks would differ because their puzzles are digitally signed and are thus different.) In this case, the tie would be broken when the next proof-of-work is found and one of the branches in the chain becomes longer. A rule is that participants must work on the longest chain.
This concept of a blockchain becoming a "trusted" record secured through proof-of-work really is fantastic and original. It makes it possible to transfer digital money directly from one party to another without an intermediary. But there is something even more subtle and deeper that involves the incentives that emerge while the system is running. And this, in my opinion, is where Satoshi's genius shines through the most. It's how the system combines a proof-of-work chain with incentives to help participants stay honest.
By convention, the first transaction in a Bitcoin block is special. It creates new bitcoins owned by the participant that solved the proof-of-work for the block. This is a clever way to initially distribute coins into circulation without requiring a central authority to issue them. Yet it's far more than that. The reward of new bitcoin adds an incentive to support and secure the network. If a greedy participant could assemble a lot of puzzle-solving power, he would have to choose between using that power to defraud people through reversing their own payments or using it to generate new coins. Clearly, it should be more profitable to play by the rules and win more coins than anyone else combined, rather than working to undermine the very system that is required to transact in the first place!
And there you have it.
Continue with part 3: Why did the creator of Bitcoin want decentralized, digital cash?
By Sean Moss-Pultz on January 21, 2017.
Tags Bitcoin, blockchain, Introductions
E-gold, Napster, and BitTorrent: A brief history of decentralization.
Before you can understand blockchain, I think you have to understand Bitcoin. And before that, it is worth looking at some of the past digital currencies — specifically e-gold.
E-gold, launched in 1996, was the first digital currency to reach scale. The service worked by allowing users to deposit US dollars into an online account that was then denominated by grams of gold. Such an account holder could instantly send their e-gold to other account holders. By 2004, there was over a million accounts.
All was going well with e-gold's business until the U.S. Treasury Department and the United States Department of Justice stretched the definition of money, specifically the transmission of money, to include the transfer of any kind of value from one person to another, not merely a national currency. Before that change, a money transmitter business was defined as a business that cashed checks or accepted cash remittances to send from one individual to another across international borders, such as Western Union. This change was made in the USA Patriot Act and it crushed e-gold. (You'll need to understand "Know Your Customer" and "Anti Money Laundering" compliance requirements to grasp why services like e-gold are so difficult to run, legally that is, after this legislation.)
Clearly people liked the idea of digital currencies, safely transferable over the internet, without using banks. But it was equally clear that governments would not want to give up their monopoly over the creation and control of money. We have seen this story play out many times since e-gold's death. Any central authority that intermediates the transfer of anything resembling money is easy for a government to regulate and/or shutdown.
You can think of Bitcoin sort of like e-gold, minus the company or central authority that issues money and verifies transactions. That crucial difference — exchanging value without a central authority — changes everything. I will come back to why, later. First let's talk about digital music. For those of us old enough to remember the early days, there is a parallel concept that I think helps to understand Bitcoin (and then we will get to the blockchain). It also hints at what we can expect in the future.
Napster launched in 1999. At its peak it had 80 million active users, exchanging mostly digital music (mp3 files) through personal computers. Napster was called a "peer-to-peer" file sharing service. Yet it wasn't really P2P, in the networking sense. When someone wanted to download or transfer music they would need to know which computers had what files. And that information was only stored on Napster servers.
Just like e-gold, legal realities forced Napster, the intermediary, out of business. Around that time Bram Cohen, an American computer programmer, released the "BitTorrent" software to share files. His method was superbly clever: instead of centralizing the information and sharing of a file, he developed a method to distribute that data across all the people that have downloaded or are in the process of downloading that file. This has two benefits: 1) You don't even have to download the entire file before sharing. And 2) as long as one person, anywhere in the world, has that file on their computer, others will be able to download it. Computers connecting in this manner form a decentralized, "peer-to-peer" network and are both technically and legally difficult to shut down because no central computer is required to operate the network.
I encourage you to suspend moral judgement of such a file sharing system and look at what occurred from a technology perspective. It is incredible. Even after 15 years of legal whack-a-mole, BitTorrent is still the most dominant way to exchange digital music. And beyond that, BitTorrent now moves as much as 40% of the world's internet traffic on a daily basis. Why? Because its decentralized peer-to-peer architecture is economically and technically advantageous for moving any type of data over the internet.
I hope it's clear now that an alternative digital currency must be decentralized for it to survive outside of and independent of the banking system.
Continue with part 2: How to make decentralized, digital cash.
Tags Bitcoin, blockchain, Decentralization, Introduction

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: OutOfMemory during paging I am using ObjectDataSource, ListView, CustomPaging
If the total number of rows is too big, I got OutOfMemory exception, it seems that it caused by some array, I don't get it, because total number of rows should never make any array to be filled with elements, the page size do!!
This is the logger.
************EXCEPTION # 3 : 4/30/2010 9:43:07 PM
System.Web.HttpUnhandledException: Exception of type 'System.Web.HttpUnhandledException' was thrown. ---> System.OutOfMemoryException: Exception of type 'System.OutOfMemoryException' was thrown.
   at System.Web.UI.WebControls.ListView.CreateChildControls()
   at System.Web.UI.Control.EnsureChildControls()
   at System.Web.UI.WebControls.ListView.get_Controls()
   at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadChildViewStateByIndex(ArrayList childState)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadViewStateRecursive(Object savedState)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadChildViewStateByIndex(ArrayList childState)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadViewStateRecursive(Object savedState)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadChildViewStateByIndex(ArrayList childState)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadViewStateRecursive(Object savedState)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadChildViewStateByIndex(ArrayList childState)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadViewStateRecursive(Object savedState)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadChildViewStateByIndex(ArrayList childState)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadViewStateRecursive(Object savedState)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadChildViewStateByIndex(ArrayList childState)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadViewStateRecursive(Object savedState)
   at System.Web.UI.Page.LoadAllState()
   at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint)
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at System.Web.UI.Page.HandleError(Exception e)
   at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint)
   at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequest(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint)
   at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequest()
   at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestWithNoAssert(HttpContext context)
   at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequest(HttpContext context)
   at ASP.default_aspx.ProcessRequest(HttpContext context) in c:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files\flickrdemo\15752207\c63ea96c\App_Web__8yxn9sb.0.cs:line 0
   at System.Web.HttpApplication.CallHandlerExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute()
   at System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously)

A: I got it now, it seems that Behind the sense ObjectDataSource is creating an array with the size of Total rows, which in this case too big, I know that because
1- DataPager is rendering the number of pages based on Datasource.
2- There is big array created.
3- and no, there is no big data retrieved just 15 elements.
I cannot verify this explanation, but I put a limit to a total count as working around.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


A nice mixture of ionantha plants. Use them in terrariums, glass globes, driftwood, and more!
*Please add a min of 20 to your cart for wholesale pricing. Sorry, discount codes cannot be used on wholesale products.
Check out our air plant blog post highlighting the ionantha variety to learn more about in-depth care and plant specific info!


The Voatz team was honored to receive the Audience Favorite award at the Mass Innovation Nights #84 at District Hall in Boston on March 8th 2016. Many thanks to the Mass Innovation Nights team and Microsoft for sponsoring the event and to District Hall for hosting us.
The event brought together all facets of the civic tech ecosystem, from the big players like our sponsor Microsoft New England, to the grassroots participants like our featured startups, to the Massachusetts government. The night featured experts from Microsoft, Business Insurance & Benefits Services of MA, Resilient Coders and a representative from Emerson College. The government also announced a new initiative called GovNext. From their website: "GovNext is an intrapreneurial initiative that works with state agencies, municipalities, and constituents to deliver high-quality, modern technology to the public, driven by a shared mission with our partners. GovNext projects are low-cost and high-impact for the Commonwealth".


Friday — After waking up in Baltimore, we drove the last stretch of our Journey past Philadelphia and into Princeton, we picked up our keys, signed our lease, and found ourselves in an empty apartment waiting for our stuff to arrive.
Saturday — We slept in, then Grady and I went to the "Dinky" trains station (that's really what they call it) to pick up my sister, and Grady's Aunt Emily. Em treated us to lunch at Chili's (yes, they have those here), then we went back to our empty apartment, and took turns cleaning and playing with kids. For awhile, Emily and I sat on the front steps watching Grady play soccer in the front yard with Matthew, a little boy who lives above us. When we realized how late it was, we rushed Emily back to the train station, explored Princeton a little more, and then called it a night.
Sunday — We woke up early in the morning to go to church New York City! Our first trip on the train was exciting, and when we arrived in NYC, at first we thought we were lost, but it turned out we weren't. A subway trip brought us to Columbia University, where our friends John and Annie Feighery are PhD students. Our kids played with their kids, we all went to play in a water-fountain-park near their apartment, had an excellent New-Mexico style dinner, and then to Central Park for a free concert by French/Israeli singer, Yael Naim. By the time we got back to the Feighery's apartment, kids and adults were exhausted and ready to crash. Click here for the rest of the pictures (taken by Annie) of our NYC trip.
Monday — Got up early to say goodbye to the Feighery's and catch a train back to Princeton. When we got back, I made a trip to the seminary campus, where I filled out paperwork for financial aid, and then bought my first two textbooks for my Summer Greek course. Cost about $50 for both, which actually is not that bad. Yet. That night, newfound friends Andrew and Kristina invited us to a cookout with a few other seminary families. Afterwards, Andrew took me on a quick tour of Princeton and a stop at Triumph brewery for some growlers (1 growler = approx 4 pints), which we enjoyed later that evening with a few friends and some deep theological discussion. Well, maybe more interesting than deep.
Tuesday — Our stuff was supposed to arrive Monday, but somehow got stuck in Pennsylvania, so we spent most of Tuesday waiting for it. We did make a quick trip to Babies R' Us to cash in on a present from Amy's parents: A new play-saucer for Abby (which came in really handy the next day while we were all unloading furniture). Finally our stuff arrived, and we did a little unloading before it got dark. Some friends we had met the previous night, Nate and Janel, were kind enough to invite us over for dinner.
Wednesday — John & Aidan caught a train down from NYC to help us unload, and two sets of neighbors from our building (Chris & Sarah, and Casey & Rachel) also pitched in — making the unloading of the truck complete in an amazing two hours. Following my mother's advice, I made sure I had beer for the movers — I would have provided them with some good Texas Shiner Bock, but it seems nowhere to be found here in New Jersey, so I opted for Stella Artois instead (hey, it's Belgian). Afterwards, the Locke's took the Feighery's (2/5ths of them, anyhow) to lunch at the local WaWa. The What??? Actually it's a chain of convenience stores. I know, not too fancy, but apparently they're well known for their hoagie sandwiches, and we were feeling experimental. In true New Jersey fashion, you go in, punch your order on a computer screen, and never have to talk to a single person! Later, John and Aidan caught the train back to NYC, and we began the piling of boxes (of which there is no end).
Thursday — After a rather whirlwind week, we slept in Thursday morning, and relaxed for most of the day. Somewhere in the midst of it, Abby spoke what may have been her first word? We're really not sure. She was looking at Grady, and out of the blue started saying "bubba, bubba" (or it might have been bababababa). The thing is, when we say it to her now, she'll repeat it. So it's reproducible, but we're not sure if it really has meaning attached to Grady, her brother. That evening, we made our first family trip to the grocery store, and I discovered Chimay Cheese in the specialty cheeses section! The trip took longer than we expected, and so we grabbed some Chinese take-home on the way out, and had a late, improvised dinner to finish out the week.
That's pretty much it. If you're still reading, you must either be incredibly interested in our family, related to us, or else in serious need of switching off the monitor. Either way, thanks, and keep checking back for more Locke family adventures in Seminary. If you don't want to bother with checking back, just enter your email address in the "subscribe" box to the right, and you can receive email updates on our journey. If nothing else, it might be slightly more interesting than spam!
Glad to hear you guys are getting settled and making friends. Also, I'm happy to see that you connected with John and Annie and co.! 🙂 What a great first week!


MELACO sp. z o.o. was founded in 1993 within the site of State Centre of Agricultural Machines in Nowa Sól.
The share capital of the company is entirely in the hands of Polish shareholders. Since its inception, MELACO has been involved in the furniture industry, operating purely as a manufacturer.
Professional qualification of the personnel working for MELACO has always been very important for the management.
The production facility and company's registered office are located in Nowa Sól, on the area of 2 ha, of which production and storage facilities constitute over 5000 m2.
Since its inception, the company invests in cutting-edge technology, expansion of production potential and provides to its clients constant development of production program adapted to current trend and expectations of the final customer.
MELACO sp. z o.o. manufactures high value elements for furniture, delivered to our customers located in Poland and abroad.
The basic technological processes in MELACO consist of: vacuum pressing process, continuous lamination process based on the HOT MELT LAMINATION, technology, constant flattening process with an application of reactive adhesives of PUR HOTMELT type, finished forms production process through formatting, edge banding and CNC machining in accordance with client's documentation.
Our offer is addressed to furniture manufacturers and wholesalers of furniture.
MELACO implemented a quality management system based on ISO 9001:2000.
Today, we can be proud that the MELACO staff consists of responsible, professional and engaged employees. Our human potential allows the company to implement its objectives, develop and satisfy our clients.


I sit in a room full of creatives - writers, artists, musicians, artisans, and prophets. I hear the speaker's words of life, encouraging us to find our center.....our purpose.
And all I see right now are my girls. As much as I want to deny it or minimize it, my world revolves around three little girls and I'm okay with that.
I see my big girl, hair flowing down as she sits and stares at the stars, whispering prayers up to a God she hears and talks with throughout the day and night.
I see my middle, with that smile that radiates love on her expressive and cherubic face. If you've ever been given a hug from her, count yourself lucky.
I see my little, full of fire and joy shrieking with delight. She sets the world ablaze with her passion. She is not one to be controlled.
And I know my center.
I want my girls to grow up knowing they can slay dragons. I want them to be the hero of their own story.
I want them to climb towers.
I want them to cross moats.
I want them to stare down fear.
I want them to never see themselves as second class or as a supporting character.
My girls are the main characters in a great adventure that even now is being written for them and through them. They have been created with purpose. They are going to change lives. They will be the stuff of legends.
They are truth tellers, light bearers, and hope whisperers.
I want my girls to grow up slaying dragons.
I want them to burn with passion. I want them to be filled with determination. I want them to create. To sing songs that are born in their heart, to paint with both broad and fine brush strokes, to draw with inhibition, to weave words that come to them in dreams.
I want them to build. I want them to build skyscrapers, foundations, relationships, themselves, and each other.
I want them to fight. I want them to fight injustice. To fight for the oppressed. To fight against excess. To overturn tables. To find not just their voice, but to find their roar, holy and unstoppable.
I want my girls to slay dragons.
I want them to bleed Jesus. I want them to be filled with purpose, passion, joy, love, strength, peace, faith, and fire.
I want them to be light in the dark places. To bring hope to a world that is cynical and tired.
I want grace and mercy to ooze out of their pores. I want them to see - to never be blind to the circumstances of others. I want them to look past others' quick judgement and condemnation and see the beautiful and broken world through the lens of love and compassion and unfailing hope.
I want them to find their center. And whether they find it walking through fields of flowers, the hard pavement of city streets, or in the dusty roads of lands an ocean away, I want them to grab it and let nothing stop them.
They have Jesus running through their veins. They aren't made to be boxed in, labeled, or told what to do by a world that judges them on their looks and their hemline. I'm tired of hearing it from others - they certainly aren't going to hear it from me.
My girls are going to grow up to slay dragons - that's how their Jesus made them.
Hey! Remember that time I took the summer off from blogging? You know, how I told everyone, made a big announcement, and all that good stuff?
But, I did end up taking the summer off (even from my beloved Twitter - gasp!).
I didn't plan to, but I did.
My one year "blogoversary" was on July 26th. I actually started to blog for it, but that Mary spirit, the one that holds all these things in her heart, was on me and I stayed quiet.
My first post, my very first one, was a prompt via Sarah Bessey, about what's saving my life right now.
That post was probably one of the most honest and vulnerable things I have ever published. It was in part, a lament. I cried out, so very discouraged at that stuck feeling. Of not being able to be the family we felt we should be because we were stuck in a third floor condo.
Then we bought a house. In our neighborhood. With a little backyard (if by backyard I mean a small concrete pad, but boy is it wonderful), room for the girls to sleep, play, homeschool (oh yeah, doing that too).
Our dining room is even bigger than what we had in the condo, and now when we are sitting down together at our table, I don't see the empty chairs, I see the faces of children who need a family and I know that soon it will be full.
It's been busy. It's been stressful. It has been unimaginably wonderful. Not a day has gone by that I haven't found myself crying for the beauty of it all.
I thought I knew what grace was. I have been learning its lessons over the past few years. But this summer I realized something. You can't just float down the river of grace. Because if you do, you see others around you and even though you are being held up by its strong current, you will slowly begin to look around and judgement, cynicism, and insecurity will start to seep in.
It's here that you are left with a decision. Get out of the river, or let the current take you. Stop fighting, and just release.
I've been drowning in grace and now I can finally breathe.
I have lots to say. I have lots I want to talk with you about.
It's good to be back, friends.


text:
Selling photo prints
Landscape photographer Carla Regler on how she built a business selling photography prints
This widely published image, Porthleven Washout, was captured by landscape photographer Carla Regler a few hours after sunrise during the late winter storms of 2014. "The colour temperature changed all morning with the weather," says Carla. Taken on a Canon EOS-1D X (now succeeded by the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II) with a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens (now succeeded by the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III USM) at 1/200 sec, f/8 and ISO250. © Carla Regler
"It's the greatest pleasure seeing your image come to life, to be able to hold that print and show it off," says sea and landscape photographer Carla Regler, who decided to start selling prints of her photography in order to grow her business.
As a self-taught photography enthusiast, Carla loved nothing more than roaming the countryside with her dogs and capturing the surrounding landscapes. When her partner, Chris, realised his dream of opening a restaurant on the Cornish coast, the rugged cliffs and coastal landscapes in and around Porthleven offered plenty of inspiration, and the prints of Carla's photos that decorated the restaurant's walls soon drew interest from diners.
Carla bought a Canon PIXMA PRO-1 to print photographs for sale, including her most famous image to date – a dramatic seascape taken during storms in 2014, which was widely published and won the Weather category of the British Life Photography Awards. Buoyed by this success and by social media attention, Carla began leading workshops with Charlie Waite's Light & Land landscape photography tour company, and her customer base grew to the point where she secured a gallery space, two doors down from the restaurant.
Carla and Chris now live on the small island of Uist in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, where she continues to be inspired by dramatic landscapes, mostly captured on a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens. Here she reveals why she started printing her own images to sell, how she ensures her prints are of the highest quality, and the benefits printing her own shots has brought to her business.
This image of a Cornish sunset is called A Fire in my Heart. "It's been purchased by many customers who have lost loved ones and for whom Porthleven holds special memories," says Carla. "Naming an image really allows you to connect with your customers, and that can lead to sales." Taken on a Canon EOS-1D X with a Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM lens at 1/200 sec, f/6.3 and ISO800. © Carla Regler
A corner of Carla's gallery space, where she can display her photo prints, which she has printed, framed and mounted herself.
1. Doing it yourself makes business sense
When Carla opened her gallery, she calculated that print sales would need to form 65% of her earnings to keep the business afloat. "I'd gone from having no overheads to having to pay rent plus running costs," she says. "Doing my own printing lowered my overheads and increased my profits." At the time, it cost Carla £6 (about €7) to produce an A3 print – considerably less than a printing service, leaving her a good margin even after the additional cost of mounts and frames. Time is also an important factor: "I can print as and when I want, so turnaround times are faster," she explains. "If someone is only in the area for a short holiday, waiting a week for a printing service could mean losing the sale."
2. Adopt a colour managed workflow
In order to help control colour and tone, it's essential to invest in a monitor calibration device, advises Carla, and to use the correct colour profile for your printer and paper. This way, "every print that is produced is the exact colour I want and matches the image on my monitor," she says. "Not only does this ensure prints of a consistently high quality, it helps to keep ink and paper wastage to a minimum."
15 photo printing terms every pro should know
New to photo printing, or looking to brush up on your knowledge? Read Canon's handy guide to the most useful photo printer terms.
3. Match your paper to your image
When it comes to paper, Carla always opts for quality over quantity. "You're after longevity; you don't want to see your print returned because the paper failed and the print faded," she says. "Most editing software has a Soft Proof option, which lets you see what the print will look like on different paper types."
The paper Carla chooses depends on the image. She creates printing profiles for each paper type, inputting colour profiles and rendering intent to save time and reduce wastage. "For a more matt image, I'd choose Fotospeed Platinum Etching 285 or Cotton Etching 305, both of which have a texture that adds an element of depth. Something like Fotospeed Platinum Baryta 300, which has a lovely weight to it, works well with the Canon PIXMA PRO-1 for a variety of images."
Carla took this shot of a puffin in the rain on a Scottish island. "I wanted to incorporate the raindrops, and the only way I could achieve that was to increase the ISO," she says. "This adds noise, or grain, so when it comes to printing I'd favour textured paper to add depth and hide a bit of the noise." Taken on a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens with a Canon Extender EF 1.4x III at 1/640 sec, f/8 and ISO2500. © Carla Regler
This image of a yacht's sails was taken during a sailing event on the Isle of Wight. "The yacht was close enough to get a shot of the daylight coming through the sails," says Carla. "I cropped the image and converted it to black and white. It's important that blacks come out black, so I printed this on Baryta paper for high contrast and to add a slight gloss effect." Taken on a Canon EOS 6D with a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens at 1/500 sec, f/5 and ISO400. © Carla Regler
4. Work in a clean, dry environment
Keeping printing paper dry and flat is another of Carla's tips for ensuring a professional finish. Damp environments can cause the edges to curl and blacken after printing. "I'd also suggest using soft white gloves when handling the prints, to avoid greasy fingerprints," she says. "Store your prints between sheets of clean, preferably white, tissue, especially if you're stacking them – the last thing you want is to scratch that beautiful print. And they attract dust, so keep tissue on top of them until the prints are ready to frame."
5. Invest in a professional printer
When Carla upgraded to a pro printer, she chose the 12-ink A3+ Canon PIXMA PRO-1. "It's a great printer with superb colour results," she says. "It's important to use a printer that produces prints which are of good quality and complement you as a photographer." This printer is now discontinued and was replaced by the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000, which also uses 12 inks and can produce prints up to A2 in size. Carla recommends the Canon PIXMA PRO-100S professional A3+ printer as an affordable option for those starting out now. "Having a printer allows me to bring an image to life," she adds. "Editing an image, watching it being printed and then being able to hold it in a frame is so rewarding creatively."
Shooting at 1/15 sec allowed Carla to create the illusion of beautiful slow waves, while still conveying a sense of motion. "This style has become very popular in print and is perfect for wall art," she says. "The lens is one of my favourites because the reach means I can fill the frame and not lose too much when it comes to cropping for print." Taken on a Canon EOS 5DS R with a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens at 1/15 sec, f/22 and ISO100. © Carla Regler
Carla got started by displaying her prints in a restaurant, and recommends approaching local shops and cafés, which will often be very happy to decorate their walls with your prints and sell to their customers.
6. Shoot to print
Like many professionals, Carla is an advocate of shooting RAW because it gives her greater scope in post, and suggests using a 1:1, 4:3, 3:2 or 16:9 aspect ratio. She says, "The main factor I consider with my camera is that files are between 20 and 30MP – big enough to print images A2 and larger." From her experience with her gallery space, she found that most of her customers wanted large prints. When printing, Carla crops the image to the required size, ensuring there's room for a border so she can position it under mounts when framing. She carefully inspects the image on screen at 1:1 zoom, checking for sharpness and blemishes such as dust spots, before printing at a resolution of 300ppi. "The more pixels per inch, the finer the detail and the sharper the print will look," she says.
7. Consider your market
"Selling prints is one of the most rewarding paths that a photographer can take, but it requires work, research and careful planning," says Carla. "Check out print prices in local galleries and shops, remembering that most will add a commission. You don't want to put people off because you're a bit too expensive, but don't sell yourself short either – producing a print costs time and money." And she says there's no magic formula for knowing which images to print. "I always think, 'Would I hang that on someone's wall?' If the answer is yes, then I print it. I also look for images with power, colour and depth – those fleeting moments that create a captivating shot."
"This is a stitched panoramic image made up from eight shots of Porthleven, Cornwall, taken using a tripod," Carla explains. "It's important in stitched images that everything lines up – in particular, check the horizon line and the buildings to ensure they are not misaligned. Panoramic images are also great because you can crop other images out of them, for example a square or landscape, and still have a high resolution image." Component images taken on a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with a Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L III USM lens at 1.3 sec, f/11 and ISO200. © Carla Regler
8. Promote yourself
You might not be in a position to open a gallery, but Carla advises looking beyond using only a website to display your work. "I was fortunate enough to have wall space in the restaurant, but I also booked a few locations to host exhibitions," she says. "Although this can be expensive and time-consuming, I found it massively beneficial for establishing a name in my area, which in turn led to commissions for hotels, guest houses and private homes."
Don't overlook the power of social media, Carla says. "Running offers through Facebook etc helped me to drum up interest, which more often than not turned into orders," she reveals. But there's nothing more effective than potential customers being able to see the actual product. Reach out to local tourist accommodation, approach shops, cafés and libraries, or take a stall at a craft fair to show your prints. "I've also given a few pieces to local community raffles and so on," Carla says, "which all helps to bring people through the door or to my website."
Kirjoittaja Natalie Denton
Carla Regler's kitbag
The key kit pros use to create prints
No matter what you're shooting, be assured of uncompromising image quality and a thoroughly professional performance.
Canon's flagship pro DSLR with 20.2 megapixel full-frame sensor, 61-point AF system, up to 14fps and ISO to 409,600.
Canon's smallest, lightest full-frame EOS DSLR – 20.2 megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor with in-camera Wi-Fi and GPS.
A professional L-series sports and wildlife zoom with Image Stabilizer and ASC coating for superb sharpness. Carla says, "This is one of my favourite lenses because the reach means I can fill the frame with the image and not lose too much when it comes to cropping for print."
Capture stunning landscapes and architectural images using this compact and lightweight, high-performance, ultra wide-angle zoom lens with f/4 fixed aperture and Image Stabilizer.
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III USM
The successor to the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM is a favourite lens with professional photographers: fast, flexible and built for any assignment.
Canon PIXMA PRO-100S
This professional A3+ printer boasts an 8-ink dye-based system for gallery-quality prints you'll be proud to display or sell, plus Wi-Fi and full cloud connectivity for easy integration with existing workflows.
Create professional, saleable prints with this 12-ink A2 printer without sending your images to a photolab.
Bring your archive to life with a professional photobook
Wildlife photographer Thorsten Milse on why he chose Canon's hdbook to create a high-quality retrospective of his 30-year career.
Preparation to print: staging an exhibition
Photojournalist Ilvy Njiokiktjien reveals how she prepared beautiful large prints for a major exhibition, using the Canon Arizona 480XT.


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