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https://priscillebfatumawriter.medium.com/what-it-takes-to-become-a-digital-entrepreneur-in-the-drc-1719bddd81f5	medium.com	What it takes to become a digital entrepreneur in the DRC	A new personal essay	Priscille B. Fatuma	https://medium.com/@priscillebfatumawriter	1719bddd81f5	https://miro.medium.com/…ogH4jEeX0wg.jpeg	4 min	2023-12-18T19:01:59.595000	2023-12-18T19:27:43.552000	2023-12-18T19:27:44.669000	0	0	en	Entrepreneurship,Entrepreneuriat,Congo Drc,Doing Business In Congo,Freelancing Career	<section> <h3>A new personal essay</h3> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/640/1*W4D72M42k85ogH4jEeX0wg.jpeg" width="640" height="427" loading="lazy" /> <p>I recently shared with <a href="https://theppsclub.co/newsletter">my newsletter</a> subscribers the terrible experience I had with the state of public administration in my country as a new entrepreneur, which was giving me anxiety during the period going from Q3 to Q4 2023.</p> <p>If you have plans to start a business in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, then you might want to stick around and get all the information you can from this essay, as I will be sharing my experience along with the problems you will absolutely encounter and how you can avoid them.</p> <h1>Here it is: my experience: what it took for me to start my business in the DRC</h1> <p>I am a freelance digital marketer, which means I am self-employed and therefore responsible for paying taxes and insurance, making my own social security contributions, and saving for retirement. This is not the easiest thing for me because being a business owner has a lot of demands, and when you’re located in the DRC, it has a lot of restrictions.</p> <p>It’s not long ago that I decided to pivot from writing to digital marketing. Before, I was just a writer interested in publishing. In June 2022, I went online and got my first remote marketing job, which was more of an internship than an entry-level position in marketing after getting certified. Then, in 2023, I decided to go freelance and work for myself at 26 years old.</p> <p>It’s the dream of many in my generation—to be entrepreneurs—and from the beginning, I learned that in order for me to gain access to the resources I needed to build my business, I needed to be registered as a self-employed individual with a business registration number (RCCM) as well as a tax number (NIF).</p> <p>Back in July this year, I started by getting my police clearance certificate in late July and paid about $35 + CDF3000, which was a normal price. But when I showed up at the Guichet Unique (the registration authority)’s office in early August, I went to see the person I knew to be in charge of dealing with applicants, who then told me while looking me in the eye that all the information on the Guichet Unique’s website was false and that the reality was different.</p> <p>This was said to me by an agent of said authority because I wanted to pay the price I saw on the website. She told me that she couldn’t help register my business unless I paid her at least $100 for something that cost $30. I had other financial obligations, so I ended up paying about $77 after begging the woman to do me a favor, knowing that it was too much money anyway. After that, I was told to wait about 2 weeks to hear back.</p> <p>being a business owner has a lot of demands, and when you’re located in the DRC, it has a lot of restrictions.</p> <p>There’s no need for me to say that the process didn’t take two weeks. Officially, the processing time is 3 days, yet it took 3 months of back-and-forth, during which I suffered anxiety and had multiple breakdowns, to get my registration finalized. At some point in September, I was asked to go collect my documents, and when I showed up to the RCCM office, I was handed a silly-looking document ridden with petty mistakes and told to pay extra money to make corrections via “a complementary filing,” which in my ears sounded like bullshit, but I returned the bad document with a $25 fee (that I had borrowed from my father) to make the corrections.</p> <p>And so it took until November to get through to the woman, who then, by a miracle, decided it was time to do her job, and I was told to come back for my document exactly three months after the day I submitted my request. Three months is the time it would take for a sprouting small business to get up and running (given all the resources) and start to generate some revenue. Typically, months one and two are dry and probably not making money, only expenses.</p> <p>While awaiting my papers, I had found out from a reliable source that the payment of processing fees must be done at the Rawbank branch located inside the Guichet Unique’s headquarters, and it only costs around $30-$40 +CDF15000. I was crushed when I learned this after having paid twice as much to someone who had withheld the important information of where to pay the fee the day I showed up asking for information. The sad part is that even the official website didn’t mention this important detail.</p> <p>I was unfortunate enough to have come down with a case of <em>bullying by public servants</em> that many of us Congolese, especially entrepreneurs, are familiar with. Many first-time entrepreneurs in the Congo have encountered similar hurdles, where they found out the bad faith of some of our public servants. Many freelancers cannot get serious clients because the legal state of their affairs makes them look unserious in the eyes of potential clients, and that’s all due to these petty delays in the system. Unfortunately, we entrepreneurs can only do our job if the public services do their job well.</p> <h2>Conclusion:</h2> <p>Starting a business in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is no easy feat. Not only are you faced with the usual challenges of any new business, but you also have to contend with a bureaucracy that is often slow, inefficient, and corrupt. If you’re not prepared, you can easily find yourself spending months mired in red tape and dealing with unscrupulous officials who will take advantage of you at every turn.</p> <p>But it doesn’t have to be that way. If you’re willing to do your research and arm yourself with the right information, you can start a successful business in the DRC. Just remember, you’ll need to be patient, persistent, and willing to give ten times the time and energy it would take elsewhere to see things move forward.</p> <p>And please, be kind; share information with those who don’t know. Because when you help a new business owner get started, you’re not just helping them, you’re helping to create jobs and opportunity for their families and for the community as a whole.</p> <p>I hope this helps!</p> </section>	What it takes to become a digital entrepreneur in the DRC A new personal essay I recently shared with my newsletter subscribers the terrible experience I had with the state of public administration in my country as a new entrepreneur, which was giving me anxiety during the period going from Q3 to Q4 2023. If you have plans to start a business in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, then you might want to stick around and get all the information you can from this essay, as I will be sharing my experience along with the problems you will absolutely encounter and how you can avoid them. Here it is: my experience: what it took for me to start my business in the DRC I am a freelance digital marketer, which means I am self-employed and therefore responsible for paying taxes and insurance, making my own social security contributions, and saving for retirement. This is not the easiest thing for me because being a business owner has a lot of demands, and when you’re located in the DRC, it has a lot of restrictions. It’s not long ago that I decided to pivot from writing to digital marketing. Before, I was just a writer interested in publishing. In June 2022, I went online and got my first remote marketing job, which was more of an internship than an entry-level position in marketing after getting certified. Then, in 2023, I decided to go freelance and work for myself at 26 years old. It’s the dream of many in my generation—to be entrepreneurs—and from the beginning, I learned that in order for me to gain access to the resources I needed to build my business, I needed to be registered as a self-employed individual with a business registration number (RCCM) as well as a tax number (NIF). Back in July this year, I started by getting my police clearance certificate in late July and paid about $35 + CDF3000, which was a normal price. But when I showed up at the Guichet Unique (the registration authority)’s office in early August, I went to see the person I knew to be in charge of dealing with applicants, who then told me while looking me in the eye that all the information on the Guichet Unique’s website was false and that the reality was different. This was said to me by an agent of said authority because I wanted to pay the price I saw on the website. She told me that she couldn’t help register my business unless I paid her at least $100 for something that cost $30. I had other financial obligations, so I ended up paying about $77 after begging the woman to do me a favor, knowing that it was too much money anyway. After that, I was told to wait about 2 weeks to hear back. being a business owner has a lot of demands, and when you’re located in the DRC, it has a lot of restrictions. There’s no need for me to say that the process didn’t take two weeks. Officially, the processing time is 3 days, yet it took 3 months of back-and-forth, during which I suffered anxiety and had multiple breakdowns, to get my registration finalized. At some point in September, I was asked to go collect my documents, and when I showed up to the RCCM office, I was handed a silly-looking document ridden with petty mistakes and told to pay extra money to make corrections via “a complementary filing,” which in my ears sounded like bullshit, but I returned the bad document with a $25 fee (that I had borrowed from my father) to make the corrections. And so it took until November to get through to the woman, who then, by a miracle, decided it was time to do her job, and I was told to come back for my document exactly three months after the day I submitted my request. Three months is the time it would take for a sprouting small business to get up and running (given all the resources) and start to generate some revenue. Typically, months one and two are dry and probably not making money, only expenses. While awaiting my papers, I had found out from a reliable source that the payment of processing fees must be done at the Rawbank branch located inside the Guichet Unique’s headquarters, and it only costs around $30-$40 +CDF15000. I was crushed when I learned this after having paid twice as much to someone who had withheld the important information of where to pay the fee the day I showed up asking for information. The sad part is that even the official website didn’t mention this important detail. I was unfortunate enough to have come down with a case of bullying by public servants that many of us Congolese, especially entrepreneurs, are familiar with. Many first-time entrepreneurs in the Congo have encountered similar hurdles, where they found out the bad faith of some of our public servants. Many freelancers cannot get serious clients because the legal state of their affairs makes them look unserious in the eyes of potential clients, and that’s all due to these petty delays in the system. Unfortunately, we entrepreneurs can only do our job if the public services do their job well. Conclusion: Starting a business in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is no easy feat. Not only are you faced with the usual challenges of any new business, but you also have to contend with a bureaucracy that is often slow, inefficient, and corrupt. If you’re not prepared, you can easily find yourself spending months mired in red tape and dealing with unscrupulous officials who will take advantage of you at every turn. But it doesn’t have to be that way. If you’re willing to do your research and arm yourself with the right information, you can start a successful business in the DRC. Just remember, you’ll need to be patient, persistent, and willing to give ten times the time and energy it would take elsewhere to see things move forward. And please, be kind; share information with those who don’t know. Because when you help a new business owner get started, you’re not just helping them, you’re helping to create jobs and opportunity for their families and for the community as a whole. I hope this helps!	e6a3d138-b3d0-5baf-9e91-69dab5bbebde	25/08/2025 16:01:01
https://medium.com/u-s-embassy-kyiv/from-sevastopol-to-south-carolina-ae8fb66bdc9a	medium.com	From Sevastopol to South Carolina	September 9, 2011	U.S. Embassy Kyiv	https://medium.com/@usembassykyiv	ae8fb66bdc9a	https://miro.medium.com/…yXB3zfha9QWw.jpg	2 min	2019-12-09T15:10:41.210000	2011-09-09T15:37:02	2019-12-09T15:14:50.122000	0	0	en	Education,Archive	<section> <p>September 9, 2011</p> <p>By Anastasiya Avdeyeva, Access program teacher</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/750/0_KaNyXB3zfha9QWw.jpg" width="750" height="563" loading="lazy" /> <p>This summer I had an amazing opportunity to participate in the workshop for English Access teachers from all over the world. The workshop was organized by the University of South Carolina (USC), and ran from July 1 — July 22, 2011. I spent two weeks in Columbia, the capital of South Carolina. Those weeks were both exciting and tough enough as we had very intensive classes devoted to various aspects of language teaching: pronunciation, reading, grammar, vocabulary and listening.</p> <p>We also learned a lot about leadership training and sharing strategies. In the evening we enjoyed some lighter activities such as sightseeing tours, shopping trips, host family visits, etc. Our major assignment was a project dealing with U.S. culture and customs. My team’s topic was about “the Seven Wonders of South Carolina.” We chose the seven brightest moments of our trip around SC and prepared a presentation. I guess it was a success!</p> <p>During our Access program we were engaged in social work as well. We visited the Department of Juvenile Justice and talked to young adults about our countries.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/750/0yu77tKX9p05KQUJI.jpg" width="750" height="563" loading="lazy" /> <p><em>Pronunciation class with Ann Janosik</em></p> <p>We spent our third week in Washington DC. We went sightseeing, visited museums and of course, more shopping! One day was devoted to a visit to the U.S. Department of State, where we had a chance to meet the sponsors of the program and get a lot of useful information for teachers available on-line and in magazines.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/750/0dlOIKlFodn4_CeCb.jpg" width="750" height="563" loading="lazy" /> <p>All in all, my time at the Access Teacher Workshop was an invaluable experience in studying the methodology of English language teaching, learning a great deal about U.S. geography, history and culture, and getting acquainted with marvelous and friendly Americans. It was also a chance to make really good friends with the other teachers in my group and find out about each other’s cultures and traditions (taking into account that there were 23 teachers from different parts of the world, this was no small thing!!!), and to educate them about Ukraine and our culture. I would say my time in the Access Teacher’s workshop was the best, brightest, loveliest and most educational month in my life.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/750/09H3sKD5l0YCdWOcN.jpg" width="750" height="563" loading="lazy" /> <p>The English Access Teachers at the National Mall, Washington, DC</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/750/0*N1PKYb6mjC8Z4j9G.jpg" width="750" height="563" loading="lazy" /> <p><em>Originally published at http://usembassykyiv.wordpress.com on September 9, 2011.</em></p> </section>	From Sevastopol to South Carolina September 9, 2011 By Anastasiya Avdeyeva, Access program teacher Ethnicity, Race, Gender class with Professor Liza Stockdale This summer I had an amazing opportunity to participate in the workshop for English Access teachers from all over the world. The workshop was organized by the University of South Carolina (USC), and ran from July 1 — July 22, 2011. I spent two weeks in Columbia, the capital of South Carolina. Those weeks were both exciting and tough enough as we had very intensive classes devoted to various aspects of language teaching: pronunciation, reading, grammar, vocabulary and listening. We also learned a lot about leadership training and sharing strategies. In the evening we enjoyed some lighter activities such as sightseeing tours, shopping trips, host family visits, etc. Our major assignment was a project dealing with U.S. culture and customs. My team’s topic was about “the Seven Wonders of South Carolina.” We chose the seven brightest moments of our trip around SC and prepared a presentation. I guess it was a success! During our Access program we were engaged in social work as well. We visited the Department of Juvenile Justice and talked to young adults about our countries. Pronunciation class with Ann Janosik Pronunciation class with Ann Janosik We spent our third week in Washington DC. We went sightseeing, visited museums and of course, more shopping! One day was devoted to a visit to the U.S. Department of State, where we had a chance to meet the sponsors of the program and get a lot of useful information for teachers available on-line and in magazines. My team : Ubedulla (Pakistan), Sophial (Bangladesh), Nelly (the Philippines), Anastasiya (Ukraine), Manar (Palestine) All in all, my time at the Access Teacher Workshop was an invaluable experience in studying the methodology of English language teaching, learning a great deal about U.S. geography, history and culture, and getting acquainted with marvelous and friendly Americans. It was also a chance to make really good friends with the other teachers in my group and find out about each other’s cultures and traditions (taking into account that there were 23 teachers from different parts of the world, this was no small thing!!!), and to educate them about Ukraine and our culture. I would say my time in the Access Teacher’s workshop was the best, brightest, loveliest and most educational month in my life. The English Access Teachers at the National Mall, Washington, DC The English Access Teachers at the National Mall, Washington, DC Originally published at http://usembassykyiv.wordpress.com on September 9, 2011.	6e13fd7b-b360-5900-9aaf-1f50be53eaf8	25/08/2025 16:01:02
https://medium.com/@kipset/contact-us-a777ec0b8633	medium.com	Contact Us	HAVE ANY QUESTIONS?	Kip Set	https://medium.com/@kipset	a777ec0b8633	null	0 min	2018-06-21T06:04:11.199000	2018-06-21T06:06:21.571000	2018-06-21T06:06:22.429000	0	0	en	Mattresses Melbourne,Mattress Online,Best Mattress	<section> <h1>HAVE ANY QUESTIONS?</h1> <ul> <li>1800 875 470</li> <li>From Monday to Friday: between 8:30am and 5:00pm AEST.</li> <li>[email protected]</li> <li>Drop us an email and we will reply within one working day.</li> <li>CHAT WITH US</li> <li>From Monday to Friday: between 8:30am and 5:00pm AEST.</li> </ul> <p>To know more about <a href="https://www.kipset.com.au/contacts">mattresses Melbourne</a> click the link.</p> </section>	Contact Us HAVE ANY QUESTIONS? 1800 875 470 From Monday to Friday: between 8:30am and 5:00pm AEST. [email protected] Drop us an email and we will reply within one working day. CHAT WITH US From Monday to Friday: between 8:30am and 5:00pm AEST. To know more about mattresses Melbourne click the link.	88108ee2-1728-50d7-947d-9e5a9a6f44fa	25/08/2025 16:01:03
https://medium.com/@sharathcgeorge/seo-is-dead-long-live-seo-77c5867022ce	medium.com	SEO is Dead, Long Live SEO	The internet age, and perhaps all ages before it, have followed a tragic cyclical pattern. Human ingenuity produces technology that changes…	Sharath C George	https://medium.com/@sharathcgeorge	77c5867022ce	https://miro.medium.com/…IuGYr_cg3rw.jpeg	4 min	2023-05-30T18:36:45.067000	2023-05-30T18:46:41.509000	2023-05-31T04:15:53.529000	0	1	en	SEO,Content Creation,Writing,AI,Marketing	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1024/1*ArbF9zP4Zb6IuGYr_cg3rw.jpeg" width="1024" height="1024" loading="lazy" /> <p>The internet age, and perhaps all ages before it, have followed a tragic cyclical pattern. Human ingenuity produces technology that changes the world, and it does, but somewhere along the line, it becomes a Pyrrhic victory.</p> <p>The internet brought all the information in the world to our fingertips, followed by misinformation.</p> <p>Social media connected long-lost friends and relatives, then made them hate each other instead of merely ignoring them.</p> <p>Newsletters became the rage, an antidote to the shallowness of bite-sized content, but soon, every remotely interesting social media post ended in a plug, “If you like this, follow my newsletter, or miss out on all the world-conquering insights hoarded by my 20k readers.”</p> <p>In the midst of all the toxicity of the Interwebs, search engines stood out, not as a shining light, but the only beacon that wasn’t snuffed out by the muck.</p> <p>Search engines, or rather, the only search engine anyone used, stayed bipartisan, acting as a compass rather than a map fraught with politics. Google became both a verb and a synonym for the internet, trusted by most, hated by some, but used by all.</p> <p>The fall of search started with, and probably will end with, the innocently cryptic technical term, <strong>SEO</strong>. The expansion, <em>Search Engine Optimisation</em>, sounds like a harmless, even worthy goal. SEO is a method to improve a website’s visibility on the search results page, so that the right content is surfaced by the right search phrase. How can you object to that? But pretty soon everyone forgot what the abbreviation was abbreviating, and the phrase became a noun — SEO.</p> <p>Blogs are written for SEO. Articles are written for SEO. Whole websites are made for SEO. As if SEO is a person. He, she, zhe, SEO. If you write for SEO, everyone else is covered, because no matter who they are, and what they want to read, they will only find what is written for SEO.</p> <p>Users have long stopped thinking of Google as a mere ‘search’ engine, and expect answers. But you can no longer ask a simple question, and find a coherent, never mind short, answer. Ask “why does the sun rise in the east?” And you will get:</p> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>Why does the sun rise in the east?</strong></code></pre> <pre><code class="language-">One of the most common questions asked by humanity is 'why does the sun rise in the east?'. First, let us consider the following:</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>What is the sun?</strong></code></pre> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>Who does the sun work for?</strong></code></pre> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>What else should you know about the sun?</strong></code></pre> <pre><code class="language-">To summarise, the sun has always risen in the east, and the quest to answer why has driven human curiosity and drive for millennia. However, if you would like to learn more about the sun, please subscribe to our newsletter, follow us on Twitter, and disable your ad blocker.</code></pre> <p>Everyone hated SEO, but no one knew it was SEO they were hating. Between this and the steady but rapid creep of search ads, Google’s reckoning was coming. Other search engines tried, but much unlike David vs. Goliath, failed. In the end, it took another giant, who had pissed off just as many or more internet users to shoot at Google’s Achilles’ heel. I mean, of course, Microsoft, a name that should have christened a brand of microfibre cloth towels to wipe your computer glasses but instead became the reason you need them. With absolutely nothing to lose in search market share and wallets fattened by PowerPoint subscriptions, Microsoft donated/invested in OpenAI, and helped it build Pinocchio, aka, ChatGPT.</p> <p>Code reds were called at Google, founders who had cashed out the motivational talk circuit were summoned back, and battle lines were drawn. Google raised a bard to Microsoft’s chatterbox, that grew more and more into a real boy with training data from billions of users.</p> <p>An explosion of AI tools have followed, with an even bigger trail of camp followers. Do you want an <a href="https://www.chatpdf.com/">AI to read a PDF</a>? An AI to finally <a href="https://bibleai.com/">pretend like you read the Bible</a>? An AI to <a href="https://easywithai.com/">come up with good ‘dog ate my homework’ excuses</a>?</p> <p>Whatever you can think of, there’s an AI for that, and there’s a website called <a href="https://theresanaiforthat.com/">theresanaiforthat.com</a>.</p> <p>AI can compose songs, tuck you into bed, and keep you up all night worrying about the job it might put you out of.</p> <p>Best of all, you can ask an AI the question, “Why does the sun rise in the east?” And it answers with:</p> <pre><code class="language-typescript">The sun appears to rise in the east and set in the west because the Earth spins, or rotates, from west to east. This motion creates the illusion of the sun moving across the sky.</code></pre> <p>Hell yeah. Free, at last.</p> <p>But wait, will SEO go out gracefully, after decades of being wined and dined and keyword targeted?</p> <p>Turns out, it won’t. Ubersuggest, the popular keyword research tool and SEO champion, just released AI Writer 2.0, which is, to quote Neil Patel’s <a href="https://neilpatel.com/blog/seo-ai-writer/">blog post</a>,</p> <p><em>“Focused on SEO — AI Writer 2.0 is designed to create content that performs well on search engines, particularly Google. This feature will help users to drive more organic traffic to their websites. <strong>We also try to keep users in mind when producing the content a</em>s well.</strong>”</p> <p>How kind.</p> <p>I know what you’re thinking. Can’t you just ignore the SEO junk, click all the squares with bicycles to prove you’re not a robot, and ask a robot to answer your questions?</p> <p>Sure you can, for now, because ChatGPT has a knowledge cutoff of September 2021, an age of truth and innocence when we only had to worry about microchips in vaccines and GPS trackers in ₹ 2000 notes.</p> <p>But sooner or later, the dataset will be refreshed, on a new sample of the internet, written by AI writer 2.0 and its successors.</p> <p>The snake eats its tail, the hamster runs on its wheel, and Sisyphus rolls his boulder up the hill again to flatten his muse.</p> <p>SEO is dead. Long live SEO.</p> <p><strong>Note</strong>: I made the first payday of my life writing SEO optimised parenting advice and other random articles for a content farm when I was in college. As a freelance marketer and writer today, I grudgingly use SEO, but I always write for my readers first, and dream of a world where that was enough.</p> <p>— - Originally published at <a href="https://www.sharathcgeorge.com/post/seo-is-dead-long-live-seo">www.sharathcgeorge.com</a> on May, 30, 2023.</p> </section>	SEO is Dead, Long Live SEO The internet age, and perhaps all ages before it, have followed a tragic cyclical pattern. Human ingenuity produces technology that changes the world, and it does, but somewhere along the line, it becomes a Pyrrhic victory. The internet brought all the information in the world to our fingertips, followed by misinformation. Social media connected long-lost friends and relatives, then made them hate each other instead of merely ignoring them. Newsletters became the rage, an antidote to the shallowness of bite-sized content, but soon, every remotely interesting social media post ended in a plug, “If you like this, follow my newsletter, or miss out on all the world-conquering insights hoarded by my 20k readers.” In the midst of all the toxicity of the Interwebs, search engines stood out, not as a shining light, but the only beacon that wasn’t snuffed out by the muck. Search engines, or rather, the only search engine anyone used, stayed bipartisan, acting as a compass rather than a map fraught with politics. Google became both a verb and a synonym for the internet, trusted by most, hated by some, but used by all. The fall of search started with, and probably will end with, the innocently cryptic technical term, SEO. The expansion, Search Engine Optimisation, sounds like a harmless, even worthy goal. SEO is a method to improve a website’s visibility on the search results page, so that the right content is surfaced by the right search phrase. How can you object to that? But pretty soon everyone forgot what the abbreviation was abbreviating, and the phrase became a noun — SEO. Blogs are written for SEO. Articles are written for SEO. Whole websites are made for SEO. As if SEO is a person. He, she, zhe, SEO. If you write for SEO, everyone else is covered, because no matter who they are, and what they want to read, they will only find what is written for SEO. Users have long stopped thinking of Google as a mere ‘search’ engine, and expect answers. But you can no longer ask a simple question, and find a coherent, never mind short, answer. Ask “why does the sun rise in the east?” And you will get: Why does the sun rise in the east? One of the most common questions asked by humanity is 'why does the sun rise in the east?'. First, let us consider the following: What is the sun? Who does the sun work for? What else should you know about the sun? To summarise, the sun has always risen in the east, and the quest to answer why has driven human curiosity and drive for millennia. However, if you would like to learn more about the sun, please subscribe to our newsletter, follow us on Twitter, and disable your ad blocker. Everyone hated SEO, but no one knew it was SEO they were hating. Between this and the steady but rapid creep of search ads, Google’s reckoning was coming. Other search engines tried, but much unlike David vs. Goliath, failed. In the end, it took another giant, who had pissed off just as many or more internet users to shoot at Google’s Achilles’ heel. I mean, of course, Microsoft, a name that should have christened a brand of microfibre cloth towels to wipe your computer glasses but instead became the reason you need them. With absolutely nothing to lose in search market share and wallets fattened by PowerPoint subscriptions, Microsoft donated/invested in OpenAI, and helped it build Pinocchio, aka, ChatGPT. Code reds were called at Google, founders who had cashed out the motivational talk circuit were summoned back, and battle lines were drawn. Google raised a bard to Microsoft’s chatterbox, that grew more and more into a real boy with training data from billions of users. An explosion of AI tools have followed, with an even bigger trail of camp followers. Do you want an AI to read a PDF? An AI to finally pretend like you read the Bible? An AI to come up with good ‘dog ate my homework’ excuses? Whatever you can think of, there’s an AI for that, and there’s a website called theresanaiforthat.com. AI can compose songs, tuck you into bed, and keep you up all night worrying about the job it might put you out of. Best of all, you can ask an AI the question, “Why does the sun rise in the east?” And it answers with: The sun appears to rise in the east and set in the west because the Earth spins, or rotates, from west to east. This motion creates the illusion of the sun moving across the sky. Hell yeah. Free, at last. But wait, will SEO go out gracefully, after decades of being wined and dined and keyword targeted? Turns out, it won’t. Ubersuggest, the popular keyword research tool and SEO champion, just released AI Writer 2.0, which is, to quote Neil Patel’s blog post, “Focused on SEO — AI Writer 2.0 is designed to create content that performs well on search engines, particularly Google. This feature will help users to drive more organic traffic to their websites. We also try to keep users in mind when producing the content as well.” How kind. I know what you’re thinking. Can’t you just ignore the SEO junk, click all the squares with bicycles to prove you’re not a robot, and ask a robot to answer your questions? Sure you can, for now, because ChatGPT has a knowledge cutoff of September 2021, an age of truth and innocence when we only had to worry about microchips in vaccines and GPS trackers in ₹ 2000 notes. But sooner or later, the dataset will be refreshed, on a new sample of the internet, written by AI writer 2.0 and its successors. The snake eats its tail, the hamster runs on its wheel, and Sisyphus rolls his boulder up the hill again to flatten his muse. SEO is dead. Long live SEO. Note: I made the first payday of my life writing SEO optimised parenting advice and other random articles for a content farm when I was in college. As a freelance marketer and writer today, I grudgingly use SEO, but I always write for my readers first, and dream of a world where that was enough. — - Originally published at www.sharathcgeorge.com on May, 30, 2023.	17939126-f1e6-571b-be6d-4e5b5a475c28	25/08/2025 16:01:03
https://benmartinezj.medium.com/thankful-for-cats-candidates-and-coffee-7d3b5e768760	medium.com	Thankful for Cats, Candidates, and Coffee.	I have a cat…	Ben Martinez	https://medium.com/@benmartinezj	7d3b5e768760	https://miro.medium.com/…ZLKRLx8GbJA.jpeg	2 min	2018-11-20T15:28:18.877000	2018-11-20T00:00:00	2018-11-20T15:31:58.066000	0	0	en	Cats,Coffee,Recruiting,Technology,Life	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/4460/1*7F1PdpnCJd3ZLKRLx8GbJA.jpeg" width="4460" height="2973" loading="lazy" /> <h3><em>I have a cat…</em></h3> <p>Well, more accurately my wife has a cat that has been alive for more years than anyone can count. This cat should be dead but somehow the cat is still alive. The cat probably has severe anxiety but the cat manages to get by in life and not be bothered by our big Golden Retriever dog and three active kids.</p> <p>The cat isn’t perfect. She has trouble breathing, trouble eating, trouble going to the bathroom and on and on. The cat brings little to the table in terms of love. The cat is more of a taker than a giver. It will let a mouse go by, but cry because her food is not the right flavor.</p> <p>I deal with the cat daily. I clean its cat litter, a job, I hate. The cat is in my life to test my ability to tolerate annoying things, irregularities about life or even those people who drive me nuts.</p> <p>When I am working with irrational hiring managers, overly egotistical executives, or coffee customers who always want the free product. — I think of that annoying cat, my cat. I force myself to deal with the “cats” in my work and my life. I stop and pet the cat.</p> <p>Life could be a lot worse. For instance, you could have no cats, bad health, a dead end job with a greedy boss and a dog with rabies.</p> <h1>Whatever “cat” you are dealing with in your life, deal with the cat. Embrace the cat and all it’s strange and sometimes unpredictable ways. Confront it head-on. Be thankful that you can.</h1> <p>I have a family to be thankful for (wife, 3 kids, Mom and Dad) and 2 companies (<a href="https://ramptalent.com/">Ramp Talent</a> and <a href="https://sumatocoffee.com/">Sumato Coffee</a>) that give people work (<a href="https://twitter.com/peteravalencia">Peter</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/alyssanannetti/">Alyssa</a>). I am thankful for the chance to make a difference in the world with the customers we serve.</p> <p>I am thankful for the cat. I am thankful for the chance to find better candidates, solve human capital problems and serve customers freshly roasted coffee.</p> <p>Happy Thanksgiving.</p> <p><em>P.S. — Thank you to Jordan B. Peterson for the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/12-Rules-Life-Antidote-Chaos-ebook/dp/B078C6C7QS">12th rule of life</a> — “Pet a Cat when you en</em>counter one on the street” — You brought new insight to my life and meaning to my cat.</p> <p><em>Originally published at <a href="https://ramptalent.com/ramp</em>-talent/2018/11/20/thankful-for-cats-candidates-and-coffee">ramptalent.com</a> on November 20, 2018.</p> </section>	Thankful for Cats, Candidates, and Coffee. I have a cat… Well, more accurately my wife has a cat that has been alive for more years than anyone can count. This cat should be dead but somehow the cat is still alive. The cat probably has severe anxiety but the cat manages to get by in life and not be bothered by our big Golden Retriever dog and three active kids. The cat isn’t perfect. She has trouble breathing, trouble eating, trouble going to the bathroom and on and on. The cat brings little to the table in terms of love. The cat is more of a taker than a giver. It will let a mouse go by, but cry because her food is not the right flavor. I deal with the cat daily. I clean its cat litter, a job, I hate. The cat is in my life to test my ability to tolerate annoying things, irregularities about life or even those people who drive me nuts. When I am working with irrational hiring managers, overly egotistical executives, or coffee customers who always want the free product. — I think of that annoying cat, my cat. I force myself to deal with the “cats” in my work and my life. I stop and pet the cat. Life could be a lot worse. For instance, you could have no cats, bad health, a dead end job with a greedy boss and a dog with rabies. Whatever “cat” you are dealing with in your life, deal with the cat. Embrace the cat and all it’s strange and sometimes unpredictable ways. Confront it head-on. Be thankful that you can. I have a family to be thankful for (wife, 3 kids, Mom and Dad) and 2 companies (Ramp Talent and Sumato Coffee) that give people work (Peter and Alyssa). I am thankful for the chance to make a difference in the world with the customers we serve. I am thankful for the cat. I am thankful for the chance to find better candidates, solve human capital problems and serve customers freshly roasted coffee. Happy Thanksgiving. P.S. — Thank you to Jordan B. Peterson for the 12th rule of life — “Pet a Cat when you encounter one on the street” — You brought new insight to my life and meaning to my cat. Originally published at ramptalent.com on November 20, 2018.	c2a20ccd-3bc5-5df0-aead-96d569f4fdc7	25/08/2025 16:01:03
https://medium.com/the-awl/birther-suit-laughed-out-of-court-29dba4df04c6	medium.com	Birther Suit Laughed Out Of Court	null	Alex Balk	https://medium.com/@alexbalk	29dba4df04c6	https://miro.medium.com/…iLjQAOkEWiZO.jpg	0 min	2016-05-13T00:58:52.441000	2009-09-16T19:05:12	2016-05-13T01:18:18.525000	0	0	en	Barack Obama,Birthers,Orly Taitz	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/490/0*XFqSiLjQAOkEWiZO.jpg" width="490" height="275" loading="lazy" /> <p><a href="http://www.theawl.com/2009/08/orly-taitz-really-angry-birther-wingnut-explains-barack-obamas-fake-birth-certificate">Birther Queen Bee Orly Taitz</a> has lost <a href="http://wonkette.com/411111/latest-orly-taitz-litigated-birther-soldier-lawsuit-dismissed-in-hilarious-opinion">another round in her ongoing battle</a> to prove that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. District Judge Clay D. Land of Georgia has <a href="http://ia311028.us.archive.org/1/items/gov.uscourts.gamd.77605/gov.uscourts.gamd.77605.13.0.pdf">dismissed her complaint and informed her that</a> “the filing of any future actions in this Court, which are similarly frivolous, shall subject counsel to sanctions.” Read the whole opinion, you’ll enjoy it.</p> </section>	Birther Suit Laughed Out Of Court Birther Queen Bee Orly Taitz has lost another round in her ongoing battle to prove that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. District Judge Clay D. Land of Georgia has dismissed her complaint and informed her that “the filing of any future actions in this Court, which are similarly frivolous, shall subject counsel to sanctions.” Read the whole opinion, you’ll enjoy it.	fc5fd50c-a308-5cbf-921e-e734c853996c	25/08/2025 16:01:03
https://medium.com/crowdfunding-news/the-top-9-just-launched-crowdfunding-campaigns-of-feb-2-2018-7648886cfbd6	medium.com	The Top 9 Just Launched Crowdfunding Campaigns of Feb 2, 2018	Everyday, over a hundred new crowdfunding projects are launched. These are the top project launched on Feb 2, 2018. Help vote for the best…	Crowdfunding Stream	https://medium.com/@crowdfundstream	7648886cfbd6	https://miro.medium.com/max/2000/0*PbGAK_sOZfjxU5Tr.	4 min	2018-02-05T03:22:42.763000	2018-02-05T03:28:36.260000	2018-06-10T15:20:09.202000	0	0	en	Crowdfunding,Launch,Kickstarter,Indiegogo,Projects	<section> <h1>The Top 9 Just Launched Crowdfunding Campaigns of Feb 2, 2018</h1> <p>Everyday, over a hundred new crowdfunding projects are launched. These are the top project launched on Feb 2, 2018. Help vote for the best projects by joining our <a href="http://crowdfunding.stream/">crowdfunding community</a> or downloading our <a href="http://crowdfunding.stream/get">crowdfunding app</a>.</p> <h3><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/991523106/sagas-of-midgard-a-cinematic-norse-tabletop-rpg">#1. Sagas of Midgard: A Cinematic Norse Tabletop RPG</a></h3> <p>Sagas of Midgard is a new, cinematic Tabletop RPG that prioritizes storytelling over numbers with a deadly combat and raiding system.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1024/0PbGAK_sOZfjxU5Tr." width="1024" height="576" loading="lazy" /> <p>The “Sagas of Midgard: A Cinematic Norse Tabletop RPG” is a Tabletop Games crowdfunding project from Atlanta, GA. The project has raised $3518 so far with a funding goal of $1200 from 45 backers.</p> <h3><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1247449978/ionnalee-everyone-afraid-to-be-forgotten-2018-worl">#2. ionnalee; EVERYONE AFRAID TO BE FORGOTTEN — 2018 world tour</a></h3> <p>bring the audiovisual artist ionnalee, creator and front person of the online phenomenon iamamiwhoami on a 2018 world tour</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1024/0pF_oe3u42r6QYabp." width="1024" height="576" loading="lazy" /> <p>The “ionnalee; EVERYONE AFRAID TO BE FORGOTTEN — 2018 world tour” is a Electronic Music crowdfunding project from Stockholm, Sweden. The project has raised $24417 so far with a funding goal of $47437 from 253 backers.</p> <h3><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1080559033/arkon">#3. Arkon</a></h3> <p>Arkon is a fast paced, non-linear strategy card game that employs a unique bidding based resource system and multi-use cards!</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1024/0Am_ryXG9rAImSois." width="1024" height="576" loading="lazy" /> <p>The “Arkon” is a Tabletop Games crowdfunding project from Santa Barbara, CA. The project has raised $12701 so far with a funding goal of $5000 from 338 backers.</p> <h3><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1894542039/ecliptic-zodiac-playing-cards">#4. Ecliptic \| Zodiac Playing Cards</a></h3> <p>Playing cards inspired by Astrology and the Zodiac. Ecliptic is a new deck of custom hand-drawn playing cards printed by USPCC.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1024/0np7wRV7zME38A7gx." width="1024" height="576" loading="lazy" /> <p>The “Ecliptic \| Zodiac Playing Cards” is a Playing Cards crowdfunding project from Columbus, OH. The project has raised $17582 so far with a funding goal of $30000 from 494 backers.</p> <h3><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1741342043/heroes-of-the-universe-artbook-and-wax-pack-tradin">#5. Heroes of the universe: Artbook and Wax Pack Trading Cards</a></h3> <p>Heroes of the Universe is a mash-up between the most famous heroes of the pop culture and the best toy ever created!</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1024/0KtyRbWAV0KFIxFJ5." width="1024" height="576" loading="lazy" /> <p>The “Heroes of the universe: Artbook and Wax Pack Trading Cards” is a Comics crowdfunding project from Berlin, Germany. The project has raised $813 so far with a funding goal of $1869 from 13 backers.</p> <h3><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bigjoekennedy/burlesque-music-video">#6. Burlesque Music Video ! ! ! !</a></h3> <p>I wrote songs for burlesque dancers! Now we are making music videos for the songs. The first one is on youtube-”Ride On My Handlebars.”</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1024/0vihlQje7_KWOasRv." width="1024" height="576" loading="lazy" /> <p>The “Burlesque Music Video ! ! ! !” is a Music Videos crowdfunding project from New Orleans, LA. The project has raised $140 so far with a funding goal of $500 from 4 backers.</p> <h3><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/983360993/titanicus-a-30-cm-kaiju-figure">#7. Titanicus: A 30 cm Kaiju Figure</a></h3> <p>A brand new 30 cm kaiju figure based on the concept of “What if a kaiju like Godzilla was behind sinking the Titanic?”</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1024/0W7WEYeQVyCaGAnRV." width="1024" height="576" loading="lazy" /> <p>The “Titanicus: A 30 cm Kaiju Figure” is a Product Design crowdfunding project from Woodland Park, CO. The project has raised $10457 so far with a funding goal of $60000 from 85 backers.</p> <h3><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bust/killtopia-1">#8. Killtopia #1</a></h3> <p>In future Japan, a salvage hunter and his robot sidekick are hunted by insane android killers in a race to cure a deadly nano-plague.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1024/06ZIxYHc8snGAyDgp." width="1024" height="576" loading="lazy" /> <p>The “Killtopia #1” is a Comic Books crowdfunding project from Edinburgh, UK. The project has raised $7906 so far with a funding goal of $5649 from 296 backers.</p> <h3><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/637294612/childrens-success-series-by-mr-roses">#9. Children’s Success Series by Mr. Roses</a></h3> <p>Mr. Roses has created a Children’s Success Series that guide’s the reader towards future Success and attainment of their Dreams.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1024/0*D046IU48VmcBzdNt." width="1024" height="576" loading="lazy" /> <p>The “Children’s Success Series by Mr. Roses” is a Children’s Books crowdfunding project from New York, NY. The project has raised $2385 so far with a funding goal of $10101 from 37 backers.</p> <p>Follow us for daily crowdfunding highlights. We are also on <a href="http://crowdfunding.stream/twitter">Twitter</a> and maintain a realtime list of <a href="http://crowdfunding.stream/top">top crowdfunding projects</a>.</p> </section>	The Top 9 Just Launched Crowdfunding Campaigns of Feb 2, 2018 Everyday, over a hundred new crowdfunding projects are launched. These are the top project launched on Feb 2, 2018. Help vote for the best projects by joining our crowdfunding community or downloading our crowdfunding app. #1. Sagas of Midgard: A Cinematic Norse Tabletop RPG Sagas of Midgard is a new, cinematic Tabletop RPG that prioritizes storytelling over numbers with a deadly combat and raiding system. The “Sagas of Midgard: A Cinematic Norse Tabletop RPG” is a Tabletop Games crowdfunding project from Atlanta, GA. The project has raised $3518 so far with a funding goal of $1200 from 45 backers. #2. ionnalee; EVERYONE AFRAID TO BE FORGOTTEN — 2018 world tour bring the audiovisual artist ionnalee, creator and front person of the online phenomenon iamamiwhoami on a 2018 world tour The “ionnalee; EVERYONE AFRAID TO BE FORGOTTEN — 2018 world tour” is a Electronic Music crowdfunding project from Stockholm, Sweden. The project has raised $24417 so far with a funding goal of $47437 from 253 backers. #3. Arkon Arkon is a fast paced, non-linear strategy card game that employs a unique bidding based resource system and multi-use cards! The “Arkon” is a Tabletop Games crowdfunding project from Santa Barbara, CA. The project has raised $12701 so far with a funding goal of $5000 from 338 backers. #4. Ecliptic \| Zodiac Playing Cards Playing cards inspired by Astrology and the Zodiac. Ecliptic is a new deck of custom hand-drawn playing cards printed by USPCC. The “Ecliptic \| Zodiac Playing Cards” is a Playing Cards crowdfunding project from Columbus, OH. The project has raised $17582 so far with a funding goal of $30000 from 494 backers. #5. Heroes of the universe: Artbook and Wax Pack Trading Cards Heroes of the Universe is a mash-up between the most famous heroes of the pop culture and the best toy ever created! The “Heroes of the universe: Artbook and Wax Pack Trading Cards” is a Comics crowdfunding project from Berlin, Germany. The project has raised $813 so far with a funding goal of $1869 from 13 backers. #6. Burlesque Music Video ! ! ! ! I wrote songs for burlesque dancers! Now we are making music videos for the songs. The first one is on youtube-”Ride On My Handlebars.” The “Burlesque Music Video ! ! ! !” is a Music Videos crowdfunding project from New Orleans, LA. The project has raised $140 so far with a funding goal of $500 from 4 backers. #7. Titanicus: A 30 cm Kaiju Figure A brand new 30 cm kaiju figure based on the concept of “What if a kaiju like Godzilla was behind sinking the Titanic?” The “Titanicus: A 30 cm Kaiju Figure” is a Product Design crowdfunding project from Woodland Park, CO. The project has raised $10457 so far with a funding goal of $60000 from 85 backers. #8. Killtopia #1 In future Japan, a salvage hunter and his robot sidekick are hunted by insane android killers in a race to cure a deadly nano-plague. The “Killtopia #1” is a Comic Books crowdfunding project from Edinburgh, UK. The project has raised $7906 so far with a funding goal of $5649 from 296 backers. #9. Children’s Success Series by Mr. Roses Mr. Roses has created a Children’s Success Series that guide’s the reader towards future Success and attainment of their Dreams. The “Children’s Success Series by Mr. Roses” is a Children’s Books crowdfunding project from New York, NY. The project has raised $2385 so far with a funding goal of $10101 from 37 backers. Follow us for daily crowdfunding highlights. We are also on Twitter and maintain a realtime list of top crowdfunding projects.	c1f9fb0e-7677-55bf-8c5e-1e0ab026b1e4	25/08/2025 16:01:04
https://medium.com/@hollyhalluci/the-problem-of-police-c93bcdda3614	medium.com	The Problem of Police	My experience with the law is clouded with white privilege, so talking police puts me in a tough spot. On one hand, I’ve had officers come…	holly halluci	https://medium.com/@hollyhalluci	c93bcdda3614	https://miro.medium.com/max/2000/0*EPfC3koe13zQ99ET	2 min	2020-08-24T19:39:26.393000	2020-08-24T19:42:26.213000	2022-03-03T20:49:56.111000	0	0	en	Black Lives Matter,Police,Police Brutality,Police Reform,Drug Policy Reform	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/5184/0*EPfC3koe13zQ99ET" width="5184" height="3456" loading="lazy" /> <p>My experience with the law is clouded with white privilege, so talking police puts me in a tough spot. On one hand, I’ve had officers come to my rescue and treat me with immense kindness and respect — on the other hand, I’m well aware of the violence associated with police brutality. I have great privilege in the law enforcement and politics of where I live and recognize it is not the case everywhere. I’ve also been hassled by police outside of my county but still ultimately came away unscathed or without points on my record. I consider police to be in a unique position in that I see them as blue collar folks who are often exploited and trained against the communities they serve under the guise of law and order. And while they’re human beings and should be treated as such, they are still given an immense power and are then arguably trained to kill citizens with certain ethics. I say those ethics are what need questioning most of all.</p> <p>My own opinion from my experiences is that there are good people who work in our criminal justice system, good cops even, except they all work within this criminal justice system which is inherently racist and evil. What I think this means is that there are good people, police, judges, DA’s and departments all working do the right thing, but being inextricably linked to the broken system, it still perpetuates the ongoing evil.</p> <p>Basically there is no other reasonable method for people who are called to actually serve and protect to do it, because I believe there are people who are and we need it to a degree. So we have the acts of individual people and departments maintaining order in a society setup to require harmful policing, while fighting an uphill battle against bureaucratic red tape to simply do the right thing. It’s setup to keep failing.</p> <p>The state of our social welfare, social work and mental health treatment in this country is unreasonably poor. So is that of the entire criminal justice system and until we can revitalize the parts of the system police are burdened with managing, we will have a problem of policing. I think folks sometimes miss the most humanistic point of the whole policing argument and it is that we burden police officers with unreasonable amounts of social trauma and without adequate respite. It’s setup to keep failing.</p> <p>Both the officers and activists I end up having conversations with pretty much want the same things and it’s sad to me because they are seen as diametrically opposed in values. But the best kind of police officers want to serve, uphold and protect healthy communities and I think building those are also powerful ways to keep our officers healthy. Beyond ensuring them better mental and physical healthcare and more time away from the traumas of the job. The best departments I think support their workers in learning what’s best for the communities by being active within them. Black Lives Matter, and to practice that I think we have to revolutionize how we think about and reimagine policing, and consider how all the lives in question can play their part.</p> </section>	The Problem of Police Photo by Felix Koutchinski on Unsplash My experience with the law is clouded with white privilege, so talking police puts me in a tough spot. On one hand, I’ve had officers come to my rescue and treat me with immense kindness and respect — on the other hand, I’m well aware of the violence associated with police brutality. I have great privilege in the law enforcement and politics of where I live and recognize it is not the case everywhere. I’ve also been hassled by police outside of my county but still ultimately came away unscathed or without points on my record. I consider police to be in a unique position in that I see them as blue collar folks who are often exploited and trained against the communities they serve under the guise of law and order. And while they’re human beings and should be treated as such, they are still given an immense power and are then arguably trained to kill citizens with certain ethics. I say those ethics are what need questioning most of all. My own opinion from my experiences is that there are good people who work in our criminal justice system, good cops even, except they all work within this criminal justice system which is inherently racist and evil. What I think this means is that there are good people, police, judges, DA’s and departments all working do the right thing, but being inextricably linked to the broken system, it still perpetuates the ongoing evil. Basically there is no other reasonable method for people who are called to actually serve and protect to do it, because I believe there are people who are and we need it to a degree. So we have the acts of individual people and departments maintaining order in a society setup to require harmful policing, while fighting an uphill battle against bureaucratic red tape to simply do the right thing. It’s setup to keep failing. The state of our social welfare, social work and mental health treatment in this country is unreasonably poor. So is that of the entire criminal justice system and until we can revitalize the parts of the system police are burdened with managing, we will have a problem of policing. I think folks sometimes miss the most humanistic point of the whole policing argument and it is that we burden police officers with unreasonable amounts of social trauma and without adequate respite. It’s setup to keep failing. Both the officers and activists I end up having conversations with pretty much want the same things and it’s sad to me because they are seen as diametrically opposed in values. But the best kind of police officers want to serve, uphold and protect healthy communities and I think building those are also powerful ways to keep our officers healthy. Beyond ensuring them better mental and physical healthcare and more time away from the traumas of the job. The best departments I think support their workers in learning what’s best for the communities by being active within them. Black Lives Matter, and to practice that I think we have to revolutionize how we think about and reimagine policing, and consider how all the lives in question can play their part.	538e9119-4b31-5700-91ca-426d5c24520a	25/08/2025 16:01:05
https://medium.com/@xeniawrightne/teriyaki-salmon-patties-with-grilled-pineapple-437347c85a19	medium.com	Teriyaki Salmon Patties with Grilled Pineapple	null	Xenia Wright	https://medium.com/@xeniawrightne	437347c85a19	https://miro.medium.com/max/2000/0*Un3oOrPhuaeSeeaP.	4 min	2017-02-26T10:46:06.574000	2017-02-26T10:46:07.282000	2017-02-26T10:46:07.282000	0	0	en	Organic Healthy Food	<section> <p>This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Sprouts Farmers Market. All opinions are 100% mine. Salmon is by far one of my favorite types of fish. My <a href="http://ift.tt/2lcP3cX">Salmon Dill Zucchini Noodles</a> are a regular on my plate. I think it is the dietitian in me that started my love affair with salmon. For me, when I know the health benefits of certain foods and see everyday how a healthy diet changes <a href="http://ift.tt/2mjlMCp">my clients</a> lives, it makes it easy to love nutritious food. In fact it was that side of me that finally started eating sardines. I know most people aren’t willing to jump in and eat a can of sardines. I see the look on my clients faces when I mention them as an option. Salmon tends to be more widely accepted. Luckily wild caught fatty fish, like salmon, provides a great source of the anti-inflammatory omega-3 fats, EPA and DHA. I am always looking for delicious ways to include more of this healthy fish into my diet. Teriyaki Salmon Patties with Grilled Pineapple is just what you need to increase your intake of this amazing fish.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/680/0YZvTaHgnpGdABUnA." width="680" height="1024" loading="lazy" /> <p>It is believed that about 90% of Americans are deficient in omega-3 fats (<a href="http://ift.tt/2g9CGkv">source</a>), and about 20% have almost undetectable amounts in their blood. This can contribute to undesired inflammation in the body and lead to things like heart disease, immune system dysfunction, digestive disorders, poor brain health, and even weight gain. Salmon is an amazing way to get more EPA and DHA into the diet in order to support optimal health.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/680/0XKhqh5FLcoIUr20I." width="680" height="1024" loading="lazy" /> <p>People tend to like easy things. Easy recipes that come together quickly. Foods that can be frozen for a convenient and quick way to get dinner on the table. This recipe delivers on all fronts. Salmon is one of the fastest cooking proteins. I have even been know to cook it from frozen in less than 30 minutes. You can easily double or triple this recipe and freeze the extra patties for those nights when you just don’t feel like cooking. In fact, just last night I reheated some leftover Teriyaki Salmon Patties and dinner was ready in no time.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/680/0GXhtIcc7eA0Q-gET." width="680" height="1024" loading="lazy" /> <p>Teriyaki Salmon Patties with Grilled Pineapple</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/300/02PT8TOiLAIphBKmy." width="300" height="300" loading="lazy" /> <p><a href="http://ift.tt/2mjnELH">Print</a></p> <p>Prep time</p> <p>10 mins</p> <p>Cook time</p> <p>30 mins</p> <p>Total time</p> <p>40 mins</p> <p>The flavors of teriyaki combined with salmon to make a flavorful patty for an easy meal. Topped with grilled pineapple and avocado to compliment the savory salmon patties.</p> <p>Author: Sara</p> <p>Serves: 10–12</p> <p>Ingredients</p> <ul> <li>1.5 pounds Sprouts fresh wild caught salmon (2–3 cups flaked)</li> <li>½ cup packed fresh cilantro leaves</li> <li>3 Tablespoons fresh chives, chopped</li> <li>2 Tablespoons fresh ginger, grated</li> <li>4 large garlic cloves, peeled and chopped</li> <li>2 Tablespoons <a href="http://amzn.to/2lHapBd">toasted sesame seed oil</a></li> <li>2 Tablespoons <a href="http://amzn.to/2mpmcE7">apple cider vinegar</a></li> <li>4 Tablespoons <a href="http://amzn.to/2mpoK5l">coconut aminos</a></li> <li>1 pasture egg</li> <li>1 teaspoon <a href="http://amzn.to/2lblMiM">sea salt</a></li> <li><a href="http://amzn.to/2lHwKi8">coconut oil</a></li> <li>1–2 cups sliced pineapple, grilled</li> <li>1 avocado, sliced</li> <li>Cilantro and lime for garnish</li> </ul> <p>Instructions</p> <p>Pre-heat the oven broiler on high.</p> <p>Cook the salmon fillet on a baking sheet just until cooked and easily flakes, about 15–20 minutes.</p> <p>Using 2 forks flake the salmon away from the skin and put into a <a href="http://amzn.to/2mpqRpM">food processor</a>.</p> <p>To the food processor add the herbs, garlic, oil, vinegar, coconut aminos, egg and salt.</p> <p>Pulse the food processor to combine and chop all the ingredients together.</p> <p>The mixture should be slightly moist and hold together well when formed into a patty.</p> <p>Heat 2 tsp. coconut oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat.</p> <p>Using a 3–4 oz. scoop, place the mixture into your hands to form a round patty.</p> <p>Place the patties in the hot pan being careful not to splash yourself with the hot oil.</p> <p>Add 4 patties to the pan at a time depending on how big of a pan you use.</p> <p>Cook until the patties are golden brown on one side about 5 minutes and carefully flip to cook on the other side until golden, about another 5 minutes.</p> <p>Complete the cooking steps until all the patties are cooked.</p> <p>Serve with grilled pineapple slices, avocado, and sprinkle with cilantro and squeeze of lime.</p> <p>Store leftovers in the fridge for up to one week or the freezer for one month.</p> <p>3.4.3177</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/680/0*Z5Xr1HWpKJdhr0eH." width="680" height="1024" loading="lazy" /> <p>The post <a href="http://ift.tt/2mrh9mS">Teriyaki Salmon Patties with Grilled Pineapple</a> appeared first on <a href="http://ift.tt/SUS1V5">The Organic Dietitian</a>.</p> </section>	This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Sprouts Farmers Market. All opinions are 100% mine. Salmon is by far one of my favorite types of fish. My Salmon Dill Zucchini Noodles are a regular on my plate. I think it is the dietitian in me that started my love affair with salmon. For me, when I know the health benefits of certain foods and see everyday how a healthy diet changes my clients lives, it makes it easy to love nutritious food. In fact it was that side of me that finally started eating sardines. I know most people aren’t willing to jump in and eat a can of sardines. I see the look on my clients faces when I mention them as an option. Salmon tends to be more widely accepted. Luckily wild caught fatty fish, like salmon, provides a great source of the anti-inflammatory omega-3 fats, EPA and DHA. I am always looking for delicious ways to include more of this healthy fish into my diet. Teriyaki Salmon Patties with Grilled Pineapple is just what you need to increase your intake of this amazing fish. It is believed that about 90% of Americans are deficient in omega-3 fats (source), and about 20% have almost undetectable amounts in their blood. This can contribute to undesired inflammation in the body and lead to things like heart disease, immune system dysfunction, digestive disorders, poor brain health, and even weight gain. Salmon is an amazing way to get more EPA and DHA into the diet in order to support optimal health. People tend to like easy things. Easy recipes that come together quickly. Foods that can be frozen for a convenient and quick way to get dinner on the table. This recipe delivers on all fronts. Salmon is one of the fastest cooking proteins. I have even been know to cook it from frozen in less than 30 minutes. You can easily double or triple this recipe and freeze the extra patties for those nights when you just don’t feel like cooking. In fact, just last night I reheated some leftover Teriyaki Salmon Patties and dinner was ready in no time. Teriyaki Salmon Patties with Grilled Pineapple Print Prep time 10 mins Cook time 30 mins Total time 40 mins The flavors of teriyaki combined with salmon to make a flavorful patty for an easy meal. Topped with grilled pineapple and avocado to compliment the savory salmon patties. Author: Sara Serves: 10–12 Ingredients 1.5 pounds Sprouts fresh wild caught salmon (2–3 cups flaked) ½ cup packed fresh cilantro leaves 3 Tablespoons fresh chives, chopped 2 Tablespoons fresh ginger, grated 4 large garlic cloves, peeled and chopped 2 Tablespoons toasted sesame seed oil 2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar 4 Tablespoons coconut aminos 1 pasture egg 1 teaspoon sea salt coconut oil 1–2 cups sliced pineapple, grilled 1 avocado, sliced Cilantro and lime for garnish Instructions Pre-heat the oven broiler on high. Cook the salmon fillet on a baking sheet just until cooked and easily flakes, about 15–20 minutes. Using 2 forks flake the salmon away from the skin and put into a food processor. To the food processor add the herbs, garlic, oil, vinegar, coconut aminos, egg and salt. Pulse the food processor to combine and chop all the ingredients together. The mixture should be slightly moist and hold together well when formed into a patty. Heat 2 tsp. coconut oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Using a 3–4 oz. scoop, place the mixture into your hands to form a round patty. Place the patties in the hot pan being careful not to splash yourself with the hot oil. Add 4 patties to the pan at a time depending on how big of a pan you use. Cook until the patties are golden brown on one side about 5 minutes and carefully flip to cook on the other side until golden, about another 5 minutes. Complete the cooking steps until all the patties are cooked. Serve with grilled pineapple slices, avocado, and sprinkle with cilantro and squeeze of lime. Store leftovers in the fridge for up to one week or the freezer for one month. 3.4.3177 The post Teriyaki Salmon Patties with Grilled Pineapple appeared first on The Organic Dietitian.	ff857e05-5092-5f21-8d99-45946b0b0fb6	25/08/2025 16:01:05
https://medium.com/@mhzcyber/cve-2021-42886-totolink-ex1200t-information-disclosure-vulnerability-by-vsociety-2822b70c6fd	medium.com	CVE-2021–42886: TOTOLINK EX1200T Information disclosure vulnerability by vsociety	One of the most interesting stuff in cybersecurity field is IoT, and one of the researchers in vsociety analyzed and exploited all TOTOLINK…	Mohammad Hussam Alzeyyat	https://medium.com/@mhzcyber	2822b70c6fd	https://miro.medium.com/max/2000/0*0UxwdoFVZ8ucPio2	1 min	2023-05-17T16:13:12.966000	2023-05-17T16:18:48.544000	2023-05-17T16:18:56.629000	0	0	en	Vsociety,Cybersecurity,IoT,Router,Cve	<section> <p>One of the most interesting stuff in cybersecurity field is IoT, and one of the researchers in vsociety analyzed and exploited all TOTOLINK Router vulnerabilities.</p> <p>Following with CVE-2021–42886, where the researcher will explain how to disclose information about the router such as username and password.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/00UxwdoFVZ8ucPio2" width="1400" height="748" loading="lazy" /> <h1>Introduction</h1> <p>A vulnerability discovered in TOTOLINK EX1200T model known as CVE-2021-42886 which lead to a leak of configurations file to unauthorized user, as a results anyone exploit this vulnerability can get the user name and password of the device.</p> <p>The researcher explained how to:</p> <ul> <li>Obtaining the firmware</li> <li>Analyzing the code and Exploit the vulnerability</li> </ul> <p>A lot of fun and assembly involved.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1920/1lC730_Fkwl8uLSteS1BIEw.gif" width="1920" height="1038" loading="lazy" /> <ul> <li>Check the blog from here:</li> </ul> <p><strong><a href="https://www.vicarius.io/vsociety/blog/cve-2021-42886-totolink-ex1200t-i</strong>nformation-disclosure-vulnerability">CVE-2021-42886: TOTOLINK EX1200T Information disclosure vulnerability - vsociety <em>A vulnerability discovered in TOTOLINK EX1200T model known as CVE-2021-42886 which lead to a leak of configurations…</em>www.vi</a>carius.io</p> <ul> <li>vsociety from here:</li> </ul> <p><strong><a href="https:</strong>//www.vicarius.io/vsociety/">Home - vsociety <em>vsociety is a social community for security professionals to collaborate on vulnerability solutions and network with…</em>www.vi</a>carius.io</p> <ul> <li>To join vsociety and get paid for such researchers. contact me on linkedin:</li> </ul> <p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mhzcyber/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/mhzcyber/</a></p> </section>	CVE-2021–42886: TOTOLINK EX1200T Information disclosure vulnerability by vsociety One of the most interesting stuff in cybersecurity field is IoT, and one of the researchers in vsociety analyzed and exploited all TOTOLINK Router vulnerabilities. Following with CVE-2021–42886, where the researcher will explain how to disclose information about the router such as username and password. Introduction A vulnerability discovered in TOTOLINK EX1200T model known as CVE-2021-42886 which lead to a leak of configurations file to unauthorized user, as a results anyone exploit this vulnerability can get the user name and password of the device. The researcher explained how to: Obtaining the firmware Analyzing the code and Exploit the vulnerability A lot of fun and assembly involved. Check the blog from here: CVE-2021-42886: TOTOLINK EX1200T Information disclosure vulnerability - vsociety A vulnerability discovered in TOTOLINK EX1200T model known as CVE-2021-42886 which lead to a leak of configurations…www.vicarius.io vsociety from here: Home - vsociety vsociety is a social community for security professionals to collaborate on vulnerability solutions and network with…www.vicarius.io To join vsociety and get paid for such researchers. contact me on linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mhzcyber/	5763d7a1-6cd6-515d-af91-cc8bd70da144	25/08/2025 16:01:05
https://medium.com/@TopGoal_NFT/latest-update-on-goal-official-launch-b6f19c7a6765	medium.com	Latest Update on $GOAL Official Launch	After nearly two years of project inital launch, the TopGoal team are excited to announce the official launch of our project’s governance…	TOPGOAL	https://medium.com/@TopGoal_NFT	b6f19c7a6765	https://miro.medium.com/…1JlQbvjFvuEw.png	2 min	2023-02-27T02:02:10.856000	2023-02-27T02:03:24.067000	2023-02-28T04:16:07.164000	0	4	en	Topgoal,Web3,Cryptocurrency,Crypto,Trading	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/2700/1*aAdswvPFiH1JlQbvjFvuEw.png" width="2700" height="1519" loading="lazy" /> <p>After nearly two years of project inital launch, the TopGoal team are excited to announce the official launch of our project’s governance token, $GOAL. We’re thrilled to see that the listing is highly anticipated by our community, but what’s most important to us is what we do after the launch to achieve our goal of bridging the gap between sports and web3.</p> <p>Our team is dedicated to continuing the momentum by building more and better products, building partnerships across sports and web3 industries, and seeking more top-tier CEX/DEX partners around the world to expand the reach of our project. We believe the strategic listings will help us reach tens of millions of potential users who are fans of both football and web3, like in Korea, Europe and Southeast Asia, and ultimately further our goal of bridging sports to Web3.</p> <p>As for the initial launch on Feb. 27th 2023, the team has been working with several top tier exchanges including OKX, Kucoin, <a href="http://Gate.io">Gate.io</a> etc. to finalize the detailed plan based on the requirements from exchange partners. Here are the major updates:</p> <p>The unlock schedule for existing $GOAL on the TopGoal platform has been discussed and agreed with our exchange partners. 20% of the existing $GOAL tokens held by early participants will be unlocked to withdraw around half an hour to 1 hour before the initial listing, with the remaining 80% tokens unlocked linearly in 80 days afterwards, e.g. 1% per day for 80 days after the initial launch.</p> <p>As requested by our exchange partners for the initial launch, around 27.5% of the original 10% allocation for Dex Liquidity & Market Making will be used for the initial listing. The remaining allocation will be used upon additional requirements from the existing and future CEX/DEX partners.</p> <p>After initial listing, the team will update all $GOAL token allocation with specific addresses on project Wiki for transparency across our community.</p> <p>We’re thrilled to share these updates with our community and we can’t wait for the official launch of $GOAL. Thank you for your continued support. Stay tuned for more exciting updates!</p> </section>	Latest Update on $GOAL Official Launch After nearly two years of project inital launch, the TopGoal team are excited to announce the official launch of our project’s governance token, $GOAL. We’re thrilled to see that the listing is highly anticipated by our community, but what’s most important to us is what we do after the launch to achieve our goal of bridging the gap between sports and web3. Our team is dedicated to continuing the momentum by building more and better products, building partnerships across sports and web3 industries, and seeking more top-tier CEX/DEX partners around the world to expand the reach of our project. We believe the strategic listings will help us reach tens of millions of potential users who are fans of both football and web3, like in Korea, Europe and Southeast Asia, and ultimately further our goal of bridging sports to Web3. As for the initial launch on Feb. 27th 2023, the team has been working with several top tier exchanges including OKX, Kucoin, Gate.io etc. to finalize the detailed plan based on the requirements from exchange partners. Here are the major updates: The unlock schedule for existing $GOAL on the TopGoal platform has been discussed and agreed with our exchange partners. 20% of the existing $GOAL tokens held by early participants will be unlocked to withdraw around half an hour to 1 hour before the initial listing, with the remaining 80% tokens unlocked linearly in 80 days afterwards, e.g. 1% per day for 80 days after the initial launch. As requested by our exchange partners for the initial launch, around 27.5% of the original 10% allocation for Dex Liquidity & Market Making will be used for the initial listing. The remaining allocation will be used upon additional requirements from the existing and future CEX/DEX partners. After initial listing, the team will update all $GOAL token allocation with specific addresses on project Wiki for transparency across our community. We’re thrilled to share these updates with our community and we can’t wait for the official launch of $GOAL. Thank you for your continued support. Stay tuned for more exciting updates!	97133740-436f-5fe5-89aa-2fcf314757ba	25/08/2025 16:01:06
https://medium.com/@trynewideas/how-to-be-productive-while-working-from-home-work-from-home-secrets-d8923736ff8	medium.com	How to be productive while working from home (Work from Home Secrets)	Prepare your own time table with your desire. Even day or night, you can choose your flexible hours most productive for you to proceed…	Try New Ideas	https://medium.com/@trynewideas	d8923736ff8	https://miro.medium.com/…uiCZSFxCMEg.jpeg	2 min	2020-04-10T17:01:26.509000	2020-04-10T17:38:20.931000	2021-12-14T02:41:32.143000	0	146	en	Work,Workfromhome2020,Work Life Balance,Earn Money Online,Free	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1024/1iTL3LYtJ7AuuiCZSFxCMEg.jpeg" width="1024" height="450" loading="lazy" /> <p>Prepare your own time table with your desire. Even day or night, you can choose your flexible hours most productive for you to proceed with. Nobody is to suggest you the schedule. No interference, nothing. Because you are your own boss, whom you are able to get your decisions independently. You can even change your schedules with the upcoming moments. Even at this deadly COVID 19 situation you are well safe with the massacre. You can change or rebuild your schedules with any situations. Correct and independent decisions travel with you, a hassle free longer journey.</p> <p>In timing with the future, you can consider, the time you’ve saved than that of going out and back for employment, risky and tired travelling experience, if you are on your own vehicle the fuel and expenditures, precious time wasted during traffic hours, if you are employed outside, you waste at least half an hour for preparing, and much more.</p> <p>While working from home we can judge what to do and what not to do. We are able to avoid and minimize the expenditures and loss of time, and could be productive.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1100/1QgBgFxBgPjj_VUETprZQQg.jpeg" width="1100" height="400" loading="lazy" /> <p>As an employee of an organization your duty is working according to your boss’s plan. He is the owner of the business. You are an employee only. nothing much. You can’t act with your desire and skills. Cannot intervene with any productive suggestions. All depends on with the boss’s choice. You can’t blame. As because you are not independent. You’ve to depend on the boss’s determination.</p> <p>Although when you are the boss of your own business, you are extremely independent. You are the whole proprietor. You are free to make decisions, build up experiences, solve recurring problems, find solutions for the next steps, to achieve the goals. now there is the path, widely opening for you to become an entrepreneur.</p> <p>Entrepreneur is not an employee. He is not working for a limited monthly salary. He works for large clientele and earn much, unlimited. His prospects are better. better reputation from others.</p> <p>Now entrepreneur’s job is finding his rival competition. He has to be busy making his endeavors to the top level and finding competitors loop holes. Whenever the times comes he do research to outcome the competitor threats. Been an active marketer, search for the solutions to combat the competition. Always active and reap the best results and enjoy the life independently.</p> <p>Further, I found this guy doing a has published a great book on “<a href="https://bit.ly/2JY2hcD">Work from Home Secrets</a>”. He’ll show an enormous amount of proof on the training that He and his Students are doing that pretty effortlessly and making lot of money while working at home on their own businesses.</p> <p>I hope you enjoyed by reading the article and watching the free video series.Lets give this post a 50 claps.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/345/1*UcrcRXbJ0Oday4QyX9AzYQ.gif" width="345" height="245" loading="lazy" /> </section>	How to be productive while working from home (Work from Home Secrets) Prepare your own time table with your desire. Even day or night, you can choose your flexible hours most productive for you to proceed with. Nobody is to suggest you the schedule. No interference, nothing. Because you are your own boss, whom you are able to get your decisions independently. You can even change your schedules with the upcoming moments. Even at this deadly COVID 19 situation you are well safe with the massacre. You can change or rebuild your schedules with any situations. Correct and independent decisions travel with you, a hassle free longer journey. In timing with the future, you can consider, the time you’ve saved than that of going out and back for employment, risky and tired travelling experience, if you are on your own vehicle the fuel and expenditures, precious time wasted during traffic hours, if you are employed outside, you waste at least half an hour for preparing, and much more. While working from home we can judge what to do and what not to do. We are able to avoid and minimize the expenditures and loss of time, and could be productive. As an employee of an organization your duty is working according to your boss’s plan. He is the owner of the business. You are an employee only. nothing much. You can’t act with your desire and skills. Cannot intervene with any productive suggestions. All depends on with the boss’s choice. You can’t blame. As because you are not independent. You’ve to depend on the boss’s determination. Although when you are the boss of your own business, you are extremely independent. You are the whole proprietor. You are free to make decisions, build up experiences, solve recurring problems, find solutions for the next steps, to achieve the goals. now there is the path, widely opening for you to become an entrepreneur. Entrepreneur is not an employee. He is not working for a limited monthly salary. He works for large clientele and earn much, unlimited. His prospects are better. better reputation from others. Now entrepreneur’s job is finding his rival competition. He has to be busy making his endeavors to the top level and finding competitors loop holes. Whenever the times comes he do research to outcome the competitor threats. Been an active marketer, search for the solutions to combat the competition. Always active and reap the best results and enjoy the life independently. Further, I found this guy doing a has published a great book on “Work from Home Secrets”. He’ll show an enormous amount of proof on the training that He and his Students are doing that pretty effortlessly and making lot of money while working at home on their own businesses. I hope you enjoyed by reading the article and watching the free video series.Lets give this post a 50 claps.	80ce3a88-b160-5f2a-bfa4-fd1bab769aa9	25/08/2025 16:01:07
https://medium.com/@zestinfotech/my-laravel-app-suspended-user-accounts-and-it-saved-the-platform-4dc60a991637	medium.com	My Laravel App Suspended User Accounts — and It Saved the Platform	A few months ago, I found myself in a tough spot. My Laravel-powered SaaS platform was starting to gain traction — but with growth came…	Zest Infotech	https://medium.com/@zestinfotech	4dc60a991637	https://miro.medium.com/…KZR9x9bMj8LQ.png	2 min	2025-04-07T04:03:09.429000	2025-04-07T04:16:20.947000	2025-04-07T05:23:30.281000	0	7	en	Laravel,Apps,User Experience,PHP,Platform	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1024/1*XdBHTDdiERKZR9x9bMj8LQ.png" width="1024" height="1536" loading="lazy" /> <p>A few months ago, I found myself in a tough spot. My Laravel-powered SaaS platform was starting to gain traction — but with growth came unexpected challenges. One of the biggest? <strong>Abuse.</strong></p> <p>From spam accounts to users gaming the system, I realized I needed to implement a system that could <strong>suspend accounts</strong> — temporarily or permanently — while maintaining a great user experience.</p> <h1>Why Account Suspension Matters</h1> <p>At first, I thought deleting accounts would be enough. But here’s the thing:</p> <ul> <li>Some users just need a timeout (for violations).</li> <li>Others might violate terms and deserve a permanent ban.</li> <li>And sometimes, we just need time to investigate suspicious activity.</li> </ul> <p>That’s where <strong>account suspension</strong> comes in — it’s flexible, reversible, and far less destructive than deletion.</p> <h2>How I Built It in Laravel</h2> <p>Laravel makes this surprisingly elegant. Here’s the approach I took:</p> <h3>1. Add a suspended_until column to the users table:</h3> <pre><code class="language-lua">Schema::table('users', function (Blueprint $table) { $table->timestamp('suspended_until')->nullable(); });</code></pre> <h3>2. Add a helper to check if a user is suspended:</h3> <pre><code class="language-kotlin">public function isSuspended() { return $this->suspended_until && $this->suspended_until->isFuture(); }</code></pre> <h3>3. Middleware to block access:</h3> <pre><code class="language-scss">public function handle($request, Closure $next) { if (auth()->check() && auth()->user()->isSuspended()) { auth()->logout(); return redirect('/login')->withErrors(['Your account is suspended.']); } return $next($request); }</code></pre> <h3>4. Admin panel logic:</h3> <p>Admins can now suspend a user with a simple form setting a future date — or clear the suspension anytime.</p> <h2>The Impact</h2> <p>After rolling this out:</p> <ul> <li>Spam dropped dramatically.</li> <li>Honest users appreciated the transparency.</li> <li>I could moderate behavior without overreacting.</li> </ul> <p>The best part? I didn’t have to burn bridges. Suspended users often came back after reactivating — <em>better than ever.</em></p> <h2>Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late</h2> <p>If you’re running a Laravel app, you’ll eventually face abuse, even if your community is small right now. A suspension system helps you stay in control <strong>without being the bad guy.</strong></p> <p>Need help adding this feature or anything Laravel-related?</p> <p>👉 S<strong><a href="https://zestinfotech</strong>.com/schedule-a-call">chedule a free strategy call with Zest Infotech </a>— we specialize in Laravel, speed optimization, and solving real dev challenges.</p> </section>	My Laravel App Suspended User Accounts — and It Saved the Platform A few months ago, I found myself in a tough spot. My Laravel-powered SaaS platform was starting to gain traction — but with growth came unexpected challenges. One of the biggest? Abuse. From spam accounts to users gaming the system, I realized I needed to implement a system that could suspend accounts — temporarily or permanently — while maintaining a great user experience. Why Account Suspension Matters At first, I thought deleting accounts would be enough. But here’s the thing: Some users just need a timeout (for violations). Others might violate terms and deserve a permanent ban. And sometimes, we just need time to investigate suspicious activity. That’s where account suspension comes in — it’s flexible, reversible, and far less destructive than deletion. How I Built It in Laravel Laravel makes this surprisingly elegant. Here’s the approach I took: 1. Add a suspended_until column to the users table: Schema::table('users', function (Blueprint $table) { $table->timestamp('suspended_until')->nullable(); }); 2. Add a helper to check if a user is suspended: public function isSuspended() { return $this->suspended_until && $this->suspended_until->isFuture(); } 3. Middleware to block access: public function handle($request, Closure $next) { if (auth()->check() && auth()->user()->isSuspended()) { auth()->logout(); return redirect('/login')->withErrors(['Your account is suspended.']); } return $next($request); } 4. Admin panel logic: Admins can now suspend a user with a simple form setting a future date — or clear the suspension anytime. The Impact After rolling this out: Spam dropped dramatically. Honest users appreciated the transparency. I could moderate behavior without overreacting. The best part? I didn’t have to burn bridges. Suspended users often came back after reactivating — better than ever. Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late If you’re running a Laravel app, you’ll eventually face abuse, even if your community is small right now. A suspension system helps you stay in control without being the bad guy. Need help adding this feature or anything Laravel-related? 👉 Schedule a free strategy call with Zest Infotech — we specialize in Laravel, speed optimization, and solving real dev challenges.	8823184c-9591-54a7-be4a-66ee2a056558	25/08/2025 16:01:08
https://medium.com/@polygondatalabs/predictive-analytics-regression-analysis-e9a5fc59e32b	medium.com	Predictive Analytics — Regression Analysis	This article is about how Regression can be used for Predictive Analysis.	Rana Aurangzeb	https://medium.com/@polygondatalabs	e9a5fc59e32b	https://miro.medium.com/…FV91vKDQO9Hw.png	11 min	2020-04-11T07:54:00.037000	2020-04-11T07:57:52.433000	2021-12-14T04:52:51.818000	0	8	en	Predictive Analytics,Statistical Analysis,Regression Analysis	<section> <p><strong>Executive Summary</strong></p> <p>Meddicorp Company sells medical supplies to hospitals, clinics, and doctors’ offices. The management is concerned about the usefulness of a new bonus program whereby bonus is offered by regional sales managers to sales people based on performance.</p> <p>Management wants to know whether the bonuses paid in 2015 and amount spent on advertisement had an influence on the volume of the sales.</p> <p>Management has questions about relation of sales with the market share percentage currently held by Meddicorp territory wise and the influence of the sales of the largest competitor’s (territory wise) on Meddicorp’s sales.</p> <p>To find the influence of bonus paid and advertisement expense on the volume of the Meddicorp’s sales we formulated a Hypothesis. A statistical technique F-Test was used to validate the significance of the Model. At 5% level of significance we found enough evidence to support the hypothesis that bonus paid and advertisement has influence on the Meddicorp’s sales for 2015.</p> <p>Based on a statistical benchmark known as ‘coefficient of determination’ it is found out that 85.49% of the variation in sales of Meddicorp can be explained in relation to the change in amount spent on advertisement and the change in amount paid in bonus to each sales territory.</p> <p>To find out the multiplier effect of Bonus and advertisement on sales a statistical technique T-Test was used. At 5% significance level, enough evidence was found to support the claim that Advertisement and Bonus did play a role on sales generated for the year 2015.</p> <p>To test the additional variable like market share & competitor’s sales for influence on sale for the year 2015, a hypothesis was formulated to find that if there is considerable influence of at least bonus or advertisement expenditure or market share or competitor’s share on Meddicorp’s sales?</p> <p>To find out the multiplier effect of elements like advertisement, bonus, market share and competitor sales a statistical technique T-Test was used. A statistical benchmark T-Critical was used to validate the impact of subject elements on sales for the year 2015.</p> <p>The result of T-Test showed that at 5% significance level market share held by Meddicorp and the largest competitor’s sales has no significant impact on the volume of sales generated by Meddicorp in the year 2015.</p> <p><strong>Business Problem</strong></p> <p>Meddicorp Company sells medical supplies to hospitals, clinics, and doctors’ offices. The company’s management is concerned with the usefulness of a new bonus program which is offered by regional sales managers to sales people based on performance.</p> <p>Management wants to know whether the bonuses paid in 2015 had an influence on the volume of the sales. Apart from bonus’s relation with the sales, management also wants to know that if there is significant relation of sale with advertisement.</p> <p>Management has questions about relation of sales with the market share percentage currently held by Meddicorp territory wise and the influence of the sales of the largest competitor’s (territory wise) on Meddicorp’s sales.</p> <p><strong>Analytical Problem</strong></p> <p>To find the influence of bonus paid and advertisement on the volume of the Meddicorp’s sales we formulated Hypothesis to conduct F-Test. A regression equation was formulated with the help of Excel. At assumed 5% significance level comparing F calculated & F Critical, the significance of the model was tested to find the impact of bonus & advertisement on sales.</p> <p>To further test the significance of coefficient for Bonus and coefficient for advertisement we formulated a Hypothesis for T — Test. At 5% significance level, T-Test was conducted to validate the support of the Model for influence of Advertisement and Bonus on Sales.</p> <p>Based on coefficient of determination we find out how much variation in sales can be attributed to change in amount spent on advertisement and the change in amount paid in bonus to each sales territory.</p> <p>To test the additional variable like market share & competitor’s sales a regression equation was formulated again. A hypothesis was formulated to find that if there is significant influence of at least Bonus or advertisement expenditure or market share or competitor’s share on sales?</p> <p>An F- Test was used to Test the significance of the model with new variables.</p> <p>Then to further Test the significance of each of the coefficient of mode like advertisement, bonus, market share and competitor sales a T-Test was conducted at 5% significance level. Then a decision rule was used; if t calculated < t critical then the subject coefficient will not be not significant and hence can be dropped from the Regression equation model.</p> <h1>Part a: Dependent & Independent variables</h1> <p><strong>Dependent variables:</strong></p> <p>1. Meddicopr’s Sales (in thousands of dollars) in each territory for 2015 Sales</p> <p><strong>Independent variables:</strong></p> <p>1. The amount Meddicorp spent on advertising in each territory (in hundreds of dollars) in 2015</p> <p>2. Total amount paid for bonuses in each territory (in hundreds of dollars) in 2015</p> <h2>Part b:</h2> <h2>Population Regression Model</h2> <p>Y= β0 + β1x1+ β2x2+ e</p> <h2>Expected sign of Independent variables</h2> <p>β1 >0</p> <p>β2 >0</p> <p>We expect the sales to rise when the amount spent on advertising is increased.</p> <p>We expect the sales to rise when the amount spent on Bonuses paid in each territory is increased.</p> <p>Y = Sales</p> <p>β0 = Intercept (Constant)</p> <p>β1 = Population slope Coefficient for Advertising amount spent</p> <p>x1 <strong>= </strong>Advertising amount spent in each territory</p> <p>β2= Population slope Coefficient for amount of bonuses paid in each territory</p> <p>x2 =<strong> </strong>amount of bonuses paid in each territory</p> <p>e = random Error</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1670/1NNPyX2o84yFV91vKDQO9Hw.png" width="1670" height="1060" loading="lazy" /> <h2>Part d:</h2> <p>Estimation Regression Equation</p> <p>Ŷ = — 516.44 + 2.47 x1+ 1.86 x2</p> <p>β1 is positive</p> <p>A unit increase in Advertisement (00$) will result in sale increase by $2.47 (000$) keeping other variables constant.</p> <p>β2 is positive</p> <p>A unit increase in Bonus paid (00$) will result in sale increase by $1.85(000$) keeping other variables constant.</p> <p>Per Excel output above, the coefficients are same as were expected and both coefficients are positive.</p> <h2>Part e:</h2> <p><strong>Null Hypothesis</strong></p> <p>β1= β2 = 0</p> <p><strong>Alternative Hypothesis</strong></p> <p>At least one of the β1, β2 is not equal to zero, there is significant influence of at least Bonus or advertisement expenditure on sales</p> <h2>Level of significance</h2> <p>For this test, we assume that α = 0.05</p> <p><strong>Graph 1:</strong> Critical value for F -Distribution</p> <h2>Decision Rule</h2> <p>If F calculated > F Critical then reject H0.</p> <p>Numerator d.f = 2</p> <p>Denominator d.f = 22</p> <p>F Critical = 3.32</p> <p>F calculated value = 64.83</p> <h2>Conclusion</h2> <p>Since F calculated (64.83) > F Critical (3.32) hence we will Reject H0<strong>.</strong></p> <p>Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is enough evidence to support the model.</p> <h2>Part F</h2> <h2>For Advertisement</h2> <p><strong>Null Hypothesis</strong></p> <p>β1= 0</p> <p><strong>Alternative Hypothesis</strong></p> <p>β1≠0</p> <h2>For Bonus</h2> <p><strong>Null Hypothesis</strong></p> <p>β2= 0</p> <p><strong>Alternative Hypothesis</strong></p> <p>β2≠0</p> <h2>Level of Significance</h2> <p>For this test, we assume that α = 0.05</p> <p><strong>Graph 2:</strong> Critical value for T -Distribution</p> <p>Ŷ = — 516.44 + 2.4732 x1+ 1.8562 x2</p> <p>d.f = 25–3 = 22</p> <p>T Critical = 2.074</p> <h2>Decision Rule</h2> <p>If P -calculated value < level of significance (.05) then reject H0, if t calculated > t critical then reject H0.</p> <h2>Test Statistics</h2> <p>T Value for β1 = 8.98</p> <p>T Value for β2 = 2.59</p> <h2>Conclusion:</h2> <p>The P -calculated value for Advertisement (8.210˄-9) is less than the Level of significance (.05), hence we will reject H0. As for Advertisement(β1) t calculated (8.98) > t critical (2.074) hence we will reject H0. Hence Coefficient for X1 is significant to Reject H0.</p> <p>Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is enough evidence to support the Model for influence of Advertisement on Sales.</p> <p>The P -calculated for Bonus (0.016) is less than the Level of significance (.05), hence we will reject H0. As for Bonus(β2) t calculated (2.59) > t critical (2.074) hence we will reject H0<strong>.</strong></p> <p>Hence Coefficient for X2 is significant to Reject H0.</p> <p>Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is enough evidence to support the model for influence of Bonus on Sales.</p> <p>All variables are significant and cannot be dropped from the model .</p> <h2>Part G</h2> <p>R Square = 0.8549</p> <p>Thus 85.49% of the variation in sales of Meddicorp can be explained in relation to the change in amount spent on advertisement and the change in amount paid in bonus to each sales territory.</p> <h2>Part H</h2> <p>Ŷ = — 516.44 + 2.47 x1+ 1.86 x2</p> <p>Ŷ = — 516.44 + 2.47 (40,000/100) + 1.86 (30,000/100)</p> <p>Ŷ = $1029 k</p> <p>Assumption = We assume that the bonus and advertisement are to be rounded to hundred dollars.</p> <p>Part I</p> <h2>Population Regression Model</h2> <p>Y= β0 + β1x1+ β2x2+ β3x3 + β4x4 + e</p> <p>Y = Sales</p> <p>β0 = Intercept (Constant)</p> <p>β1 = Population slope Coefficient for Advertising amount spent</p> <p>x1 = Advertising amount spent in each territory</p> <p>β2= Population slope Coefficient for amount of bonuses paid in each territory</p> <p>x2 = amount of bonuses paid in each territory</p> <p>β3= Population slope Coefficient for market share percentage held by Meddicorp in each territory</p> <p>x3 = market share percentage held by Meddicorp in each territory</p> <p>β4= Population slope Coefficient for largest competitor’s sales in thousands of dollars in each territory</p> <p>x4 = largest competitor’s sales in thousands of dollars in each territory</p> <p>e = random Error in population</p> <p>Part J</p> <p>β1 >0</p> <p>β2 >0</p> <p>β3 >0</p> <p>β4 >0</p> <p>We expect the sales to rise when the amount spent on advertising is increased.</p> <p>We expect the sales to rise when the amount spent on Bonuses paid in each territory is increased</p> <p>Seemingly, when market share held by Meddicorp (territory wise) increases then its sales also increase</p> <p>Seemingly, when competitor’s sales increases, then Meddicorp’s sales decrease</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1536/1KFFO4DMaPNMha5AT9amgDg.png" width="1536" height="1126" loading="lazy" /> <p>Part L</p> <h2>F- Test to Validate the significance of Model</h2> <p><strong>Null Hypothesis</strong></p> <p>β1= β2 =β3= β4 = 0</p> <p><strong>Alternative Hypothesis</strong></p> <p>At least one of the β1, β2, β3, β4 is not equal to zero, there is significant influence of at least Bonus or advertisement expenditure or market share or competitor’s share on sales</p> <h2>Level of significance</h2> <p>For this test, we assume that α = 0.05</p> <p><strong>Graph 3:</strong> Critical value for F -Distribution</p> <h2>Decision Rule</h2> <p>If F calculated > F Critical then reject H0, If P — calculated value < significance level (0.05) then Reject H0<strong>.</strong></p> <p>Numerator d.f = 4</p> <p>Denominator d.f = 20</p> <p>F Critical = 2.87</p> <h2>Test Statistics</h2> <p>F calculated value = 30.51</p> <h2>Conclusion</h2> <p>Since F calculated (30.52) > F Critical (2.87) hence we will Reject H0<strong>.</strong></p> <p>Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is enough evidence to support the model.</p> <h2>T- Test to Validate the significance of each of coefficients of Model</h2> <h2>Advertisement</h2> <p><strong>Null Hypothesis</strong></p> <p>β1= 0</p> <p><strong>Alternative Hypothesis</strong></p> <p>β1≠0</p> <h2>Bonus</h2> <p><strong>Null Hypothesis</strong></p> <p>β2= 0</p> <p><strong>Alternative Hypothesis</strong></p> <p>β2≠0</p> <h2>Market Share</h2> <p><strong>Null Hypothesis</strong></p> <p>β3= 0</p> <p><strong>Alternative Hypothesis</strong></p> <p>β3≠0</p> <h2>Competitor Share</h2> <p><strong>Alternative Hypothesis</strong></p> <p>β3≠0</p> <p><strong>Alternative Hypothesis</strong></p> <p>β4≠0</p> <h2>For Advertisement</h2> <h2>Level of Significance</h2> <p>For this test, we assume that α = 0.05</p> <p><strong>Graph 3:</strong> Critical value for T -Distribution</p> <p>Ŷ = -593.5376 + 2.5131X1+ 1.9059X2+ 2.6510X3+ -0.1207*X4</p> <p>d.f = 21</p> <p>T Critical = 2.08</p> <h2>Test Statistics</h2> <p>T Value for β1 = 7.99</p> <p>T Value for β2 = 2.56</p> <p>T Value for β3 = .57</p> <p>T Value for β4 = -0.32</p> <h2>Decision Rule</h2> <p>If t calculated > t critical then reject H0.</p> <h2>Conclusion:</h2> <p>As for Advertisement(β1) t calculated (7.99) > t critical (2.08) hence we will reject H0. Hence Coefficient for X1 is significant to Reject H0.</p> <p>Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is enough evidence to support the Model for influence of Advertisement on Sales.</p> <p>As for Bonus (β2) t calculated (2.56) > t critical (2.08) hence we will reject H0<strong>.</strong></p> <p>Hence Coefficient for X2 is significant to Reject H0.</p> <p>Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is enough evidence to support the Model for influence of Bonus on Sales.</p> <p>As market share (β3) t calculated (.57) < t critical (2.08) hence we will not reject H0<strong>. </strong>Hence Coefficient for X3 is not significant to Reject H0.</p> <p>Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is not enough evidence to support the Model for influence of market share on Sales.</p> <p>As for competitor sales (β4) t calculated (-0.32) < t critical (2.08) hence we will not reject H0<strong>. </strong>Hence Coefficient for X3 is not significant to Reject H0.</p> <p>Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is not enough evidence to support the Model for influence of Competitor sales on Meddicorp’s sales.</p> <p>Hence the market share held by Meddicorp in each territory and competitor sales do not have significant impact on sales of Meddicorp and both variables can be dropped from the Model.</p> <h2>Coefficient of Determination Value</h2> <p>R Square = 0.8592</p> <p>Thus 85.92% of the variations in sales of Meddicorp can be explained in relation to the variation in amount spent on advertisement in each sales territory, the variation in amount paid in bonus to each sales territory, the variation in market share percentage held by Meddicorp in each sales territory and the variation in largest competitor’s sales in each territory.</p> <h2>The Comparative suitability of Models</h2> <p>Per above coefficient of determination value 85.92%, the model which additionally covers the</p> <p>market share held by Meddicorp in each territory and competitor sales can explain slightly more variation in sales as compared to previous Model which explain 85.49% variations in sales as influence of independent variables.</p> <p>Since the new variables in new model such as market share held by Meddicorp in each territory and competitor sales do not have significant impact on sales of Meddicorp so both variables can be dropped from the Model.</p> <p>Hence second model is not significantly different from the first Model and unnecessarily requires more data input and will increase the time for estimation. Hence first model which requires the advertisement and bonus as input is a better model.</p> <h2>Conclusion & Recommendations</h2> <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p> <p>To find the influence of bonus paid and advertisement expense on the volume of the Meddicorp’s sales an F-Test was conducted. It is found out that F calculated (64.83) > F Critical (3.32) hence we will Reject H0<strong>.</strong> Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is enough evidence to support the model for the Influence.</p> <p>Based on ‘coefficient of determination’ it is found out that 85.49% of the variation in sales of Meddicorp can be explained in relation to the change in amount spent on advertisement and the change in amount paid in bonus to each sales territory.</p> <p>To find out the significance of each of the coefficients for independent variables like bonus and advertisement a T-Test was conducted. For Advertisement (β1) t calculated (8.98) > t critical (2.074) hence we will reject H0. Hence Coefficient for X1 is significant to Reject H0.</p> <p>Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is enough evidence to support the Model for influence of Advertisement on Sales.</p> <p>For Bonus(β2) t calculated (2.59) > t critical (2.074) hence we will reject H0<strong>. </strong>Hence Coefficient for X2 is significant to Reject H0.</p> <p>Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is enough evidence to support the model for influence of Bonus on Sales.</p> <p>To test the additional variable like market share & competitor’s sales for influence on sale for the year 2015 an F — Test was conducted. Since F calculated (30.52) > F Critical (2.87) hence we will Reject H0<strong>.</strong> Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is enough evidence to support the model.</p> <p>To find out the significance of each of the coefficients for independent variables like advertisement, bonus, market share and competitor sales a T-Test was conducted. As for Advertisement(β1) t calculated (7.99) > t critical (2.08) hence we will reject H0. Hence Coefficient for X1 is significant to Reject H0.</p> <p>Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is enough evidence to support the Model for influence of Advertisement on Sales.</p> <p>For Bonus (β2) t calculated (2.56) > t critical (2.08) hence we will reject H0<strong>. </strong>Hence Coefficient for X2 is significant to Reject H0.</p> <p>Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is enough evidence to support the Model for influence of Bonus on Sales.</p> <p>As market share (β3) t calculated (.57) < t critical (2.08) hence we will not reject H0<strong>. </strong>Hence Coefficient for X3 is not significant to Reject H0.</p> <p>Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is not enough evidence to support the Model for influence of market share on Sales.</p> <p>As for competitor sales (β4) t calculated (-0.32) < t critical (2.08) hence we will not reject H0<strong>. </strong>Hence Coefficient for X3 is not significant to Reject H0.</p> <p>Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is not enough evidence to support the Model for influence of Competitor sales on Meddicorp’s sales.</p> <p>Hence the market share held by Meddicorp in each territory and competitor sales do not have significant impact on sales of Meddicorp and both variables can be dropped from the Model.</p> <p><strong>Recommendations</strong></p> <p>The below model (equation) is recommended at 5% level of significance using historical data of sales for year 2015.</p> <p>Ŷ = — 516.44 + 2.4732 x1+ 1.8562 x2</p> <p>1. A one unit ($100) increase in Advertisement expenditure will result in sale increase by $2.47 units ($2470) in sales, keeping other variables constant.</p> <p>2. A one unit increase in Bonus paid ($100) will result in sale increase by $1.85($1850), keeping other variables constant.</p> <p>3. Comparatively, in terms of multiplier effect it is better to spend more on advertisement than on the Bonus.</p> </section>	Predictive Analytics — Regression Analysis Executive Summary Meddicorp Company sells medical supplies to hospitals, clinics, and doctors’ offices. The management is concerned about the usefulness of a new bonus program whereby bonus is offered by regional sales managers to sales people based on performance. Management wants to know whether the bonuses paid in 2015 and amount spent on advertisement had an influence on the volume of the sales. Management has questions about relation of sales with the market share percentage currently held by Meddicorp territory wise and the influence of the sales of the largest competitor’s (territory wise) on Meddicorp’s sales. To find the influence of bonus paid and advertisement expense on the volume of the Meddicorp’s sales we formulated a Hypothesis. A statistical technique F-Test was used to validate the significance of the Model. At 5% level of significance we found enough evidence to support the hypothesis that bonus paid and advertisement has influence on the Meddicorp’s sales for 2015. Based on a statistical benchmark known as ‘coefficient of determination’ it is found out that 85.49% of the variation in sales of Meddicorp can be explained in relation to the change in amount spent on advertisement and the change in amount paid in bonus to each sales territory. To find out the multiplier effect of Bonus and advertisement on sales a statistical technique T-Test was used. At 5% significance level, enough evidence was found to support the claim that Advertisement and Bonus did play a role on sales generated for the year 2015. To test the additional variable like market share & competitor’s sales for influence on sale for the year 2015, a hypothesis was formulated to find that if there is considerable influence of at least bonus or advertisement expenditure or market share or competitor’s share on Meddicorp’s sales? To find out the multiplier effect of elements like advertisement, bonus, market share and competitor sales a statistical technique T-Test was used. A statistical benchmark T-Critical was used to validate the impact of subject elements on sales for the year 2015. The result of T-Test showed that at 5% significance level market share held by Meddicorp and the largest competitor’s sales has no significant impact on the volume of sales generated by Meddicorp in the year 2015. Business Problem Meddicorp Company sells medical supplies to hospitals, clinics, and doctors’ offices. The company’s management is concerned with the usefulness of a new bonus program which is offered by regional sales managers to sales people based on performance. Management wants to know whether the bonuses paid in 2015 had an influence on the volume of the sales. Apart from bonus’s relation with the sales, management also wants to know that if there is significant relation of sale with advertisement. Management has questions about relation of sales with the market share percentage currently held by Meddicorp territory wise and the influence of the sales of the largest competitor’s (territory wise) on Meddicorp’s sales. Analytical Problem To find the influence of bonus paid and advertisement on the volume of the Meddicorp’s sales we formulated Hypothesis to conduct F-Test. A regression equation was formulated with the help of Excel. At assumed 5% significance level comparing F calculated & F Critical, the significance of the model was tested to find the impact of bonus & advertisement on sales. To further test the significance of coefficient for Bonus and coefficient for advertisement we formulated a Hypothesis for T — Test. At 5% significance level, T-Test was conducted to validate the support of the Model for influence of Advertisement and Bonus on Sales. Based on coefficient of determination we find out how much variation in sales can be attributed to change in amount spent on advertisement and the change in amount paid in bonus to each sales territory. To test the additional variable like market share & competitor’s sales a regression equation was formulated again. A hypothesis was formulated to find that if there is significant influence of at least Bonus or advertisement expenditure or market share or competitor’s share on sales? An F- Test was used to Test the significance of the model with new variables. Then to further Test the significance of each of the coefficient of mode like advertisement, bonus, market share and competitor sales a T-Test was conducted at 5% significance level. Then a decision rule was used; if t calculated < t critical then the subject coefficient will not be not significant and hence can be dropped from the Regression equation model. Part a: Dependent & Independent variables Dependent variables: 1. Meddicopr’s Sales (in thousands of dollars) in each territory for 2015 Sales Independent variables: 1. The amount Meddicorp spent on advertising in each territory (in hundreds of dollars) in 2015 2. Total amount paid for bonuses in each territory (in hundreds of dollars) in 2015 Part b: Population Regression Model Y= β0 + β1x1+ β2x2+ e Expected sign of Independent variables β1 >0 β2 >0 We expect the sales to rise when the amount spent on advertising is increased. We expect the sales to rise when the amount spent on Bonuses paid in each territory is increased. Y = Sales β0 = Intercept (Constant) β1 = Population slope Coefficient for Advertising amount spent x1 = Advertising amount spent in each territory β2= Population slope Coefficient for amount of bonuses paid in each territory x2 = amount of bonuses paid in each territory e = random Error Part d: Estimation Regression Equation Ŷ = — 516.44 + 2.47 x1+ 1.86 x2 β1 is positive A unit increase in Advertisement (00$) will result in sale increase by $2.47 (000$) keeping other variables constant. β2 is positive A unit increase in Bonus paid (00$) will result in sale increase by $1.85(000$) keeping other variables constant. Per Excel output above, the coefficients are same as were expected and both coefficients are positive. Part e: Null Hypothesis β1= β2 = 0 Alternative Hypothesis At least one of the β1, β2 is not equal to zero, there is significant influence of at least Bonus or advertisement expenditure on sales Level of significance For this test, we assume that α = 0.05 Graph 1: Critical value for F -Distribution Decision Rule If F calculated > F Critical then reject H0. Numerator d.f = 2 Denominator d.f = 22 F Critical = 3.32 F calculated value = 64.83 Conclusion Since F calculated (64.83) > F Critical (3.32) hence we will Reject H0. Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is enough evidence to support the model. Part F For Advertisement Null Hypothesis β1= 0 Alternative Hypothesis β1≠0 For Bonus Null Hypothesis β2= 0 Alternative Hypothesis β2≠0 Level of Significance For this test, we assume that α = 0.05 Graph 2: Critical value for T -Distribution Ŷ = — 516.44 + 2.4732 x1+ 1.8562 x2 d.f = 25–3 = 22 T Critical = 2.074 Decision Rule If P -calculated value < level of significance (.05) then reject H0, if t calculated > t critical then reject H0. Test Statistics T Value for β1 = 8.98 T Value for β2 = 2.59 Conclusion: The P -calculated value for Advertisement (8.210˄-9) is less than the Level of significance (.05), hence we will reject H0. As for Advertisement(β1) t calculated (8.98) > t critical (2.074) hence we will reject H0. Hence Coefficient for X1 is significant to Reject H0. Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is enough evidence to support the Model for influence of Advertisement on Sales. The P -calculated for Bonus (0.016) is less than the Level of significance (.05), hence we will reject H0. As for Bonus(β2) t calculated (2.59) > t critical (2.074) hence we will reject H0. Hence Coefficient for X2 is significant to Reject H0. Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is enough evidence to support the model for influence of Bonus on Sales. All variables are significant and cannot be dropped from the model . Part G R Square = 0.8549 Thus 85.49% of the variation in sales of Meddicorp can be explained in relation to the change in amount spent on advertisement and the change in amount paid in bonus to each sales territory. Part H Ŷ = — 516.44 + 2.47 x1+ 1.86 x2 Ŷ = — 516.44 + 2.47 (40,000/100) + 1.86 (30,000/100) Ŷ = $1029 k Assumption = We assume that the bonus and advertisement are to be rounded to hundred dollars. Part I Population Regression Model Y= β0 + β1x1+ β2x2+ β3x3 + β4x4 + e Y = Sales β0 = Intercept (Constant) β1 = Population slope Coefficient for Advertising amount spent x1 = Advertising amount spent in each territory β2= Population slope Coefficient for amount of bonuses paid in each territory x2 = amount of bonuses paid in each territory β3= Population slope Coefficient for market share percentage held by Meddicorp in each territory x3 = market share percentage held by Meddicorp in each territory β4= Population slope Coefficient for largest competitor’s sales in thousands of dollars in each territory x4 = largest competitor’s sales in thousands of dollars in each territory e = random Error in population Part J β1 >0 β2 >0 β3 >0 β4 >0 We expect the sales to rise when the amount spent on advertising is increased. We expect the sales to rise when the amount spent on Bonuses paid in each territory is increased Seemingly, when market share held by Meddicorp (territory wise) increases then its sales also increase Seemingly, when competitor’s sales increases, then Meddicorp’s sales decrease Part L F- Test to Validate the significance of Model Null Hypothesis β1= β2 =β3= β4 = 0 Alternative Hypothesis At least one of the β1, β2, β3, β4 is not equal to zero, there is significant influence of at least Bonus or advertisement expenditure or market share or competitor’s share on sales Level of significance For this test, we assume that α = 0.05 Graph 3: Critical value for F -Distribution Decision Rule If F calculated > F Critical then reject H0, If P — calculated value < significance level (0.05) then Reject H0. Numerator d.f = 4 Denominator d.f = 20 F Critical = 2.87 Test Statistics F calculated value = 30.51 Conclusion Since F calculated (30.52) > F Critical (2.87) hence we will Reject H0. Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is enough evidence to support the model. T- Test to Validate the significance of each of coefficients of Model Advertisement Null Hypothesis β1= 0 Alternative Hypothesis β1≠0 Bonus Null Hypothesis β2= 0 Alternative Hypothesis β2≠0 Market Share Null Hypothesis β3= 0 Alternative Hypothesis β3≠0 Competitor Share Alternative Hypothesis β3≠0 Alternative Hypothesis β4≠0 For Advertisement Level of Significance For this test, we assume that α = 0.05 Graph 3: Critical value for T -Distribution Ŷ = -593.5376 + 2.5131X1+ 1.9059X2+ 2.6510X3+ -0.1207*X4 d.f = 21 T Critical = 2.08 Test Statistics T Value for β1 = 7.99 T Value for β2 = 2.56 T Value for β3 = .57 T Value for β4 = -0.32 Decision Rule If t calculated > t critical then reject H0. Conclusion: As for Advertisement(β1) t calculated (7.99) > t critical (2.08) hence we will reject H0. Hence Coefficient for X1 is significant to Reject H0. Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is enough evidence to support the Model for influence of Advertisement on Sales. As for Bonus (β2) t calculated (2.56) > t critical (2.08) hence we will reject H0. Hence Coefficient for X2 is significant to Reject H0. Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is enough evidence to support the Model for influence of Bonus on Sales. As market share (β3) t calculated (.57) < t critical (2.08) hence we will not reject H0. Hence Coefficient for X3 is not significant to Reject H0. Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is not enough evidence to support the Model for influence of market share on Sales. As for competitor sales (β4) t calculated (-0.32) < t critical (2.08) hence we will not reject H0. Hence Coefficient for X3 is not significant to Reject H0. Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is not enough evidence to support the Model for influence of Competitor sales on Meddicorp’s sales. Hence the market share held by Meddicorp in each territory and competitor sales do not have significant impact on sales of Meddicorp and both variables can be dropped from the Model. Coefficient of Determination Value R Square = 0.8592 Thus 85.92% of the variations in sales of Meddicorp can be explained in relation to the variation in amount spent on advertisement in each sales territory, the variation in amount paid in bonus to each sales territory, the variation in market share percentage held by Meddicorp in each sales territory and the variation in largest competitor’s sales in each territory. The Comparative suitability of Models Per above coefficient of determination value 85.92%, the model which additionally covers the market share held by Meddicorp in each territory and competitor sales can explain slightly more variation in sales as compared to previous Model which explain 85.49% variations in sales as influence of independent variables. Since the new variables in new model such as market share held by Meddicorp in each territory and competitor sales do not have significant impact on sales of Meddicorp so both variables can be dropped from the Model. Hence second model is not significantly different from the first Model and unnecessarily requires more data input and will increase the time for estimation. Hence first model which requires the advertisement and bonus as input is a better model. Conclusion & Recommendations Conclusion To find the influence of bonus paid and advertisement expense on the volume of the Meddicorp’s sales an F-Test was conducted. It is found out that F calculated (64.83) > F Critical (3.32) hence we will Reject H0. Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is enough evidence to support the model for the Influence. Based on ‘coefficient of determination’ it is found out that 85.49% of the variation in sales of Meddicorp can be explained in relation to the change in amount spent on advertisement and the change in amount paid in bonus to each sales territory. To find out the significance of each of the coefficients for independent variables like bonus and advertisement a T-Test was conducted. For Advertisement (β1) t calculated (8.98) > t critical (2.074) hence we will reject H0. Hence Coefficient for X1 is significant to Reject H0. Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is enough evidence to support the Model for influence of Advertisement on Sales. For Bonus(β2) t calculated (2.59) > t critical (2.074) hence we will reject H0. Hence Coefficient for X2 is significant to Reject H0. Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is enough evidence to support the model for influence of Bonus on Sales. To test the additional variable like market share & competitor’s sales for influence on sale for the year 2015 an F — Test was conducted. Since F calculated (30.52) > F Critical (2.87) hence we will Reject H0. Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is enough evidence to support the model. To find out the significance of each of the coefficients for independent variables like advertisement, bonus, market share and competitor sales a T-Test was conducted. As for Advertisement(β1) t calculated (7.99) > t critical (2.08) hence we will reject H0. Hence Coefficient for X1 is significant to Reject H0. Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is enough evidence to support the Model for influence of Advertisement on Sales. For Bonus (β2) t calculated (2.56) > t critical (2.08) hence we will reject H0. Hence Coefficient for X2 is significant to Reject H0. Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is enough evidence to support the Model for influence of Bonus on Sales. As market share (β3) t calculated (.57) < t critical (2.08) hence we will not reject H0. Hence Coefficient for X3 is not significant to Reject H0. Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is not enough evidence to support the Model for influence of market share on Sales. As for competitor sales (β4) t calculated (-0.32) < t critical (2.08) hence we will not reject H0. Hence Coefficient for X3 is not significant to Reject H0. Therefore, at 5% significance level, there is not enough evidence to support the Model for influence of Competitor sales on Meddicorp’s sales. Hence the market share held by Meddicorp in each territory and competitor sales do not have significant impact on sales of Meddicorp and both variables can be dropped from the Model. Recommendations The below model (equation) is recommended at 5% level of significance using historical data of sales for year 2015. Ŷ = — 516.44 + 2.4732 x1+ 1.8562 x2 1. A one unit ($100) increase in Advertisement expenditure will result in sale increase by $2.47 units ($2470) in sales, keeping other variables constant. 2. A one unit increase in Bonus paid ($100) will result in sale increase by $1.85($1850), keeping other variables constant. 3. Comparatively, in terms of multiplier effect it is better to spend more on advertisement than on the Bonus.	1eaa6359-b9d1-5678-b272-417584656981	25/08/2025 16:01:08
https://medium.com/relationshipsrules/men-need-to-pay-attention-chatting-with-women-like-this-will-make-it-easy-for-her-to-delete-you-b5a5a381ef4f	medium.com	Men need to pay attention, chatting with women like this will make it easy for her to delete you	In modern social life, chatting has become one of the main ways for men and women to communicate. However, if men don’t pay attention to…	2bebetter	https://medium.com/@2bebetter	b5a5a381ef4f	https://miro.medium.com/max/2000/0*ZYgRoCQewhocZvgh	4 min	2023-03-06T01:20:16.296000	2023-03-06T01:26:08.862000	2023-04-15T20:56:43.871000	0	1	en	Men,Women,Dating,Chat,Relationships Love Dating	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/5013/0ZYgRoCQewhocZvgh" width="5013" height="3462" loading="lazy" /> <p>In modern social life, chatting has become one of the main ways for men and women to communicate. However, if men don’t pay attention to their words and deeds, it is easy for women to feel dissatisfied and bored with them, and even make women delete them. This article will introduce the chatting skills that men need to pay attention to in order to avoid being deleted by women.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/4912/0GngP3pWnBt4RKg_c" width="4912" height="7360" loading="lazy" /> <h1>1. Stop complaining and whining all the time</h1> <p>Women like to chat with confident, optimistic men. If men always complain and complain, women will feel that they lack self-confidence and positive energy, and it is easy to become dissatisfied and bored with them. Therefore, men should avoid complaining and complaining too much in the chat, but communicate with women in a positive and positive way.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/4000/0YuwrVCab9KIPHJS0" width="4000" height="6000" loading="lazy" /> <h2>2. Don’t be too self-centered</h2> <p>In chatting, men should pay attention to women’s feelings and needs, and don’t be too self-centered. If men always talk about themselves and don’t care about women’s thoughts and feelings, women will feel that they lack attention and respect, and it is easy to become dissatisfied and bored with them. Therefore, men should pay attention to women’s feelings and needs in chatting, and actively listen to their thoughts and opinions.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/6009/0pvnvokuIlZJbJnd7" width="6009" height="4011" loading="lazy" /> <h2>3. Don’t be too short and cold</h2> <p>Women like to talk to warm, interesting men. If a man’s reply is too short and cold, women will feel that they lack interest and enthusiasm, and it is easy to be dissatisfied and bored with them. Therefore, men should show enough enthusiasm and interest in chatting, actively reply to women’s messages, and attract women’s attention through humorous and interesting topics.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/5472/0JK6FlzY1je04UOgL" width="5472" height="3648" loading="lazy" /> <h2>4. Don’t pay too much attention to appearance</h2> <p>While women typically spend a lot of time and energy grooming themselves, men shouldn’t pay too much attention to a woman’s appearance. If a man puts too much emphasis on a woman’s appearance in chatting, women will feel that they lack depth and connotation, and they will easily become dissatisfied and bored with them. Therefore, men should pay attention to women’s inner qualities and personalities, and understand their deeper characteristics and charms through chatting.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/8063/0xnSTMUyMfqQ5wZ7r" width="8063" height="5375" loading="lazy" /> <h2>5. Don’t rely too much on chat tools</h2> <p>The emergence of modern social tools allows people to chat at any time, anywhere and under any circumstances, but this also brings up a problem: men should not rely too much on chat tools. If men are always slow to respond in chat, not in time, or rely too much on chat tools such as emoticons and emoticons, women will feel that they lack communication skills and maturity, and it is easy to become dissatisfied and bored with them. Therefore, men should pay attention to responding to women’s messages in a timely manner, and avoid over-reliance on chat tools, so as to enhance the interaction and communication between the two parties.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/3992/0F7Z9k-n624dvM763" width="3992" height="5976" loading="lazy" /> <h2>6. Do not frequently initiate “ambiguous” chats</h2> <p>Although there are sometimes some “ambiguous” situations between men and women, men should not initiate this type of chat frequently. If men always try to attract women’s attention through “ambiguous” chats, women will feel that they lack sincerity and integrity, and they will easily become dissatisfied and bored with them. Therefore, men should avoid frequently initiating “ambiguous” chats, respect women’s feelings and needs, and communicate with women in a sincere and respectful manner.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/5304/06EGMrQppQV_TFzwf" width="5304" height="7952" loading="lazy" /> <h2>7. Don’t Ignore Language and Culture Differences</h2> <p>In transnational communication, men should pay attention to language and cultural differences. If men ignore these differences, some misunderstandings and unnecessary conflicts may arise. Therefore, men should understand women’s language and cultural background, respect their values and traditions, and express their thoughts and feelings through appropriate language and communication methods.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/5472/0*is15nzjV517QIuLv" width="5472" height="3648" loading="lazy" /> <p>In short, men need to pay attention to their chatting skills to avoid making women feel dissatisfied and bored with them. Through positive and positive chat content, pay attention to women’s feelings and needs, show enough enthusiasm and interest, do not pay too much attention to appearance, do not rely too much on chat tools, respect women’s feelings and needs, and avoid frequent “ambiguous” chats , pay attention to language and cultural differences, so that men can establish good communication and exchange relationships with women, and enhance mutual understanding and trust.</p> </section>	Men need to pay attention, chatting with women like this will make it easy for her to delete you Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash In modern social life, chatting has become one of the main ways for men and women to communicate. However, if men don’t pay attention to their words and deeds, it is easy for women to feel dissatisfied and bored with them, and even make women delete them. This article will introduce the chatting skills that men need to pay attention to in order to avoid being deleted by women. Photo by Hannah Olinger on Unsplash 1. Stop complaining and whining all the time Women like to chat with confident, optimistic men. If men always complain and complain, women will feel that they lack self-confidence and positive energy, and it is easy to become dissatisfied and bored with them. Therefore, men should avoid complaining and complaining too much in the chat, but communicate with women in a positive and positive way. Photo by artawkrn on Unsplash 2. Don’t be too self-centered In chatting, men should pay attention to women’s feelings and needs, and don’t be too self-centered. If men always talk about themselves and don’t care about women’s thoughts and feelings, women will feel that they lack attention and respect, and it is easy to become dissatisfied and bored with them. Therefore, men should pay attention to women’s feelings and needs in chatting, and actively listen to their thoughts and opinions. Photo by kevin laminto on Unsplash 3. Don’t be too short and cold Women like to talk to warm, interesting men. If a man’s reply is too short and cold, women will feel that they lack interest and enthusiasm, and it is easy to be dissatisfied and bored with them. Therefore, men should show enough enthusiasm and interest in chatting, actively reply to women’s messages, and attract women’s attention through humorous and interesting topics. Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash 4. Don’t pay too much attention to appearance While women typically spend a lot of time and energy grooming themselves, men shouldn’t pay too much attention to a woman’s appearance. If a man puts too much emphasis on a woman’s appearance in chatting, women will feel that they lack depth and connotation, and they will easily become dissatisfied and bored with them. Therefore, men should pay attention to women’s inner qualities and personalities, and understand their deeper characteristics and charms through chatting. Photo by DocuSign on Unsplash 5. Don’t rely too much on chat tools The emergence of modern social tools allows people to chat at any time, anywhere and under any circumstances, but this also brings up a problem: men should not rely too much on chat tools. If men are always slow to respond in chat, not in time, or rely too much on chat tools such as emoticons and emoticons, women will feel that they lack communication skills and maturity, and it is easy to become dissatisfied and bored with them. Therefore, men should pay attention to responding to women’s messages in a timely manner, and avoid over-reliance on chat tools, so as to enhance the interaction and communication between the two parties. Photo by Blake Carpenter on Unsplash 6. Do not frequently initiate “ambiguous” chats Although there are sometimes some “ambiguous” situations between men and women, men should not initiate this type of chat frequently. If men always try to attract women’s attention through “ambiguous” chats, women will feel that they lack sincerity and integrity, and they will easily become dissatisfied and bored with them. Therefore, men should avoid frequently initiating “ambiguous” chats, respect women’s feelings and needs, and communicate with women in a sincere and respectful manner. Photo by Ethan Robertson on Unsplash 7. Don’t Ignore Language and Culture Differences In transnational communication, men should pay attention to language and cultural differences. If men ignore these differences, some misunderstandings and unnecessary conflicts may arise. Therefore, men should understand women’s language and cultural background, respect their values and traditions, and express their thoughts and feelings through appropriate language and communication methods. Photo by Oziel Gómez on Unsplash In short, men need to pay attention to their chatting skills to avoid making women feel dissatisfied and bored with them. Through positive and positive chat content, pay attention to women’s feelings and needs, show enough enthusiasm and interest, do not pay too much attention to appearance, do not rely too much on chat tools, respect women’s feelings and needs, and avoid frequent “ambiguous” chats , pay attention to language and cultural differences, so that men can establish good communication and exchange relationships with women, and enhance mutual understanding and trust.	e35cdc39-0049-5a59-9b82-ea8f0b36b1f8	25/08/2025 16:01:09
https://medium.com/@xuanbaccao/tutorial-article-introducing-how-to-swap-and-add-liquidity-on-cetus-which-is-live-on-aptos-mainnet-d77eb5edade9	medium.com	Tutorial Article introducing how to swap and add liquidity on Cetus which is live on Aptos mainnet	Cetus is a Cross-chain dex and liquidity protocol built on Aptos & Sui blockchain. It focuses on delivering better trading experience and…	B.VIII	https://medium.com/@xuanbaccao	d77eb5edade9	https://miro.medium.com/…f_pNMkmE22-A.png	5 min	2022-12-03T20:14:15.688000	2022-12-03T20:38:53.742000	2022-12-04T10:29:31.711000	0	0	en	Crytocurrency,Aptos,Sui,Cetus,Dex	<section> <p><strong>Cetus</strong> is a Cross-chain dex and liquidity protocol built on Aptos & Sui blockchain. It focuses on delivering better trading experience and upgraded capital efficiency to DeFi users through the process of building its concentrated liquidity protocol and a series of affiliate functional .</p> <p>Source: <a href="https://www.cetus.zone/">https://www.cetus.zone/</a></p> <p>Capital efficiency is the first thing that Cetus can redefine for this ecosystem, which is powered by its concentrated liquidity algorithm. Both liquidity providers and traders can benefit from this. By concentrating liquidity in an active price range, LPs can earn transaction fees more efficiently. Traders can enjoy low-slippage trading around the spot price during their swaps. In addition, developers can easily build their own products and tip into the most efficient liquidity source of Cetus by integrating with its openly-accessible smart contracts and SDKs.</p> <p>How to Swap and add Liquidity on Cetus on Aptos mainnet NOTE: Have some $APT for gas fees.</p> <h1>I. Swap</h1> <p>Swaps are one of the most common interactions with a dex. The mechanism of token swap is easy to understand, which is to sell the tokens that are currently owned by the swapper for the proportional amount of the destination tokens. In this process, a small percentage of swap fee will be deducted, which is the incentives to those liquidity providers.</p> <p>The execution of swaps in Cetus protocol (or in most dex platforms actually) is different from order book markets. An order book market usually follows a first-in-first-out policy and the time of your order matters, while our swaps execute against a passive liquidity pool and liquidity providers on Cetus will earn transaction fees proportional to their active liquidity that they contribute.</p> <h3>Price Impact</h3> <p>In an order book market or a cex, the price impact of an order depends on the size and array of the opening limit buy or sell orders. The final execution price of an order is usually the weighted average price of multiple limit orders.</p> <p>The price impact in an AMM or in a concentrated liquidity protocol is sort of different. During the swap, the relative value of one token to the other changes dynamically and continuously so the final execution price of a swap lies in somewhere between the start price and end price.The price impact for a swap order will be affected by the real-time available liquidity in corresponding price space. The price impact will be much smaller for a give swap size if the liquidity depth at the particular price is higher.</p> <h3>Slippage</h3> <p>A swap user should have seen the term ‘slippage’ or ‘price slippage’ on a dex before. That is the term that we use to describe the possible price change that may occur during a transaction is pending.</p> <p>To respond to the possible price change, we adopt the concept of slippage tolerance. Slippage tolerance can be set by a user, which is to determine the largest price impact that the user is willing to accept. If the final execution price is outside of the acceptable slippage range, the transaction will get failed to protect the user’s interests.</p> <p>A trade that uses assets and tokens that are purchased before paying for them. A trade that uses the tokens purchased before paying for them.</p> <h3>HOW TO SWAP TOKEN ON CETUS.ZONE</h3> <p>Open Cetus official website at: <a href="https://www.cetus.zone/">https://www.cetus.zone/</a></p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1889/18WLmTdNncpf_pNMkmE22-A.png" width="1889" height="1003" loading="lazy" /> <p>2. Click on <strong>access app</strong> in the webpage.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1916/1nogmuOaWsMZNm0cq_MKQ3Q.png" width="1916" height="998" loading="lazy" /> <p>3. Connect your Aptos wallet (Petra, Martian, …)and top up with $APT from exchanges like Binance, OKX, etc. I will be using Martian wallet for tutorial.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1918/1EJNopOxlj3IHmwD_6E4Ugg.png" width="1918" height="1001" loading="lazy" /> <p>Click on confirm. And approve the transaction into your wallet. And hurrah your swap is complete. You can see the amount of zusdc in your wallet.</p> <h2>II. LIQUID</h2> <p>The core offering of Cetus is about concentrated liquidity, which allows users to add their liquidity within custom price ranges. In AMM protocols, which are adopted by most of common decentralized exchanges nowadays, liquidity is distributed uniformly along the entire price curve (0, ∞).</p> <p>The previous AMM liquidity distribution makes trading available across the full price interval between 0 and infinite upon simple deployment. However, in AMM pools, a significant portion of the liquidity was never utilized by actual transactions, which is a waste of capital to some extent.</p> <p>For example, the trading price is usually constant in a stablecoin pair. The liquidity outside its regular price range is rarely touched. In most of mainstream stablecoin trading pools (AMM-based), only less than 1% of their total liquidity are actually being used. The rest of the available liquidity stays idle in the pools all the time.</p> <p>It’s reasonable for an LP to expect that their capital can be utilized as much as possible so that they can earn more fees from it. This can be realized with the help of concentrated liquidity. Liquidity providers are able to concentrate their liquidity to their specified price ranges according to the most active price intervals of a particular trading pair. For instance, an LP can choose to add all of their liquidity into the price range (0.995, 1.005) of a stablecoin trading pool. As transactions are happening most actively around the mid-price, these LPs can maximize their capital efficiency in this way and earn much more fees than usual.</p> <p>The liquidity concentration changes the price interval of a user’s liquidity from infinite to finite. For the liquidity that is concentrated to a finite price interval, we can it a position, or a liquidity position. An LP can create multiple positions in a same pool. By setting different price ranges, LPs can simulate different price curves to achieve their custom strategies.</p> <p><strong>HOW TO ADD LIQUID</strong></p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1912/1i5TPDHwJUbVb6BWiHKYTpA.png" width="1912" height="965" loading="lazy" /> <p>Click on <strong>POOLS</strong> tab.</p> <p>2. Choose the pool in which you want to add liquidity and click on it. Ex: Apt/zUsdc.</p> <p>3. Put in amount you want to add into pool. And click on <strong>Add to pool</strong>.</p> <p>4. Now confirm the transaction in wallet. And bingo you have added liquidity in this pool. You can check your lP shares on the bottom of screen.</p> <p>5. Similarly you can <strong>remove Liquidity</strong> from pool in percentage as well all of it using the slider or manually as you deem comfortable.</p> <p>Learn more at : <a href="#">CetusProtocol</a></p> <p>Cetus official website: <a href="https://www.cetus.zone/">https://www.cetus.zone/</a> Cetus Protocol : Swap, earn and build on the pioneer MOVE-based liquidity protocol.</p> <p>Hagtag: #cetus #aptos #cryptocurrency #dex</p> <p><strong>Twitter ID</strong> ：@xuanbaccao</p> <p><strong>Discord ID</strong> : B.VIII \| Sui Bears#8888</p> <p>Thank you for watching.</p> </section>	Tutorial Article introducing how to swap and add liquidity on Cetus which is live on Aptos mainnet Cetus is a Cross-chain dex and liquidity protocol built on Aptos & Sui blockchain. It focuses on delivering better trading experience and upgraded capital efficiency to DeFi users through the process of building its concentrated liquidity protocol and a series of affiliate functional . Source: https://www.cetus.zone/ Capital efficiency is the first thing that Cetus can redefine for this ecosystem, which is powered by its concentrated liquidity algorithm. Both liquidity providers and traders can benefit from this. By concentrating liquidity in an active price range, LPs can earn transaction fees more efficiently. Traders can enjoy low-slippage trading around the spot price during their swaps. In addition, developers can easily build their own products and tip into the most efficient liquidity source of Cetus by integrating with its openly-accessible smart contracts and SDKs. How to Swap and add Liquidity on Cetus on Aptos mainnet NOTE: Have some $APT for gas fees. I. Swap Swaps are one of the most common interactions with a dex. The mechanism of token swap is easy to understand, which is to sell the tokens that are currently owned by the swapper for the proportional amount of the destination tokens. In this process, a small percentage of swap fee will be deducted, which is the incentives to those liquidity providers. The execution of swaps in Cetus protocol (or in most dex platforms actually) is different from order book markets. An order book market usually follows a first-in-first-out policy and the time of your order matters, while our swaps execute against a passive liquidity pool and liquidity providers on Cetus will earn transaction fees proportional to their active liquidity that they contribute. Price Impact In an order book market or a cex, the price impact of an order depends on the size and array of the opening limit buy or sell orders. The final execution price of an order is usually the weighted average price of multiple limit orders. The price impact in an AMM or in a concentrated liquidity protocol is sort of different. During the swap, the relative value of one token to the other changes dynamically and continuously so the final execution price of a swap lies in somewhere between the start price and end price.The price impact for a swap order will be affected by the real-time available liquidity in corresponding price space. The price impact will be much smaller for a give swap size if the liquidity depth at the particular price is higher. Slippage A swap user should have seen the term ‘slippage’ or ‘price slippage’ on a dex before. That is the term that we use to describe the possible price change that may occur during a transaction is pending. To respond to the possible price change, we adopt the concept of slippage tolerance. Slippage tolerance can be set by a user, which is to determine the largest price impact that the user is willing to accept. If the final execution price is outside of the acceptable slippage range, the transaction will get failed to protect the user’s interests. A trade that uses assets and tokens that are purchased before paying for them. A trade that uses the tokens purchased before paying for them. HOW TO SWAP TOKEN ON CETUS.ZONE Open Cetus official website at: https://www.cetus.zone/ 2. Click on access app in the webpage. 3. Connect your Aptos wallet (Petra, Martian, …)and top up with $APT from exchanges like Binance, OKX, etc. I will be using Martian wallet for tutorial. Click on confirm. And approve the transaction into your wallet. And hurrah your swap is complete. You can see the amount of zusdc in your wallet. II. LIQUID The core offering of Cetus is about concentrated liquidity, which allows users to add their liquidity within custom price ranges. In AMM protocols, which are adopted by most of common decentralized exchanges nowadays, liquidity is distributed uniformly along the entire price curve (0, ∞). The previous AMM liquidity distribution makes trading available across the full price interval between 0 and infinite upon simple deployment. However, in AMM pools, a significant portion of the liquidity was never utilized by actual transactions, which is a waste of capital to some extent. For example, the trading price is usually constant in a stablecoin pair. The liquidity outside its regular price range is rarely touched. In most of mainstream stablecoin trading pools (AMM-based), only less than 1% of their total liquidity are actually being used. The rest of the available liquidity stays idle in the pools all the time. It’s reasonable for an LP to expect that their capital can be utilized as much as possible so that they can earn more fees from it. This can be realized with the help of concentrated liquidity. Liquidity providers are able to concentrate their liquidity to their specified price ranges according to the most active price intervals of a particular trading pair. For instance, an LP can choose to add all of their liquidity into the price range (0.995, 1.005) of a stablecoin trading pool. As transactions are happening most actively around the mid-price, these LPs can maximize their capital efficiency in this way and earn much more fees than usual. The liquidity concentration changes the price interval of a user’s liquidity from infinite to finite. For the liquidity that is concentrated to a finite price interval, we can it a position, or a liquidity position. An LP can create multiple positions in a same pool. By setting different price ranges, LPs can simulate different price curves to achieve their custom strategies. HOW TO ADD LIQUID Click on POOLS tab. 2. Choose the pool in which you want to add liquidity and click on it. Ex: Apt/zUsdc. 3. Put in amount you want to add into pool. And click on Add to pool. 4. Now confirm the transaction in wallet. And bingo you have added liquidity in this pool. You can check your lP shares on the bottom of screen. 5. Similarly you can remove Liquidity from pool in percentage as well all of it using the slider or manually as you deem comfortable. Learn more at : CetusProtocol Cetus official website: https://www.cetus.zone/ Cetus Protocol : Swap, earn and build on the pioneer MOVE-based liquidity protocol. Hagtag: #cetus #aptos #cryptocurrency #dex Twitter ID ：@xuanbaccao Discord ID : B.VIII \| Sui Bears#8888 Thank you for watching.	84bfcf30-9a09-5c16-9207-b3b251c92068	25/08/2025 16:01:10
https://triaslab.medium.com/trias-weekly-report-september-13th-2022-september-19th-2022-acc0e62f3ac8	medium.com	Trias Weekly Report (September 13th, 2022–September 19th, 2022)	Trias latest updates	Trias	https://medium.com/@triaslab	acc0e62f3ac8	https://miro.medium.com/…Uo4kukiu9QNw.png	3 min	2022-09-19T08:29:20.529000	2022-09-19T09:30:38.582000	2022-09-19T09:30:47.216000	0	0	en	Triaslab,Blockchain,Crytocurrency	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1904/1bBPoWy0ZfLUo4kukiu9QNw.png" width="1904" height="1070" loading="lazy" /> <h1>Trias</h1> <h3>Community Update</h3> <p>Trias community questions were started to be collected by the community and the collecting will end on 9/22.</p> <p></p> <p>2. Trias x LiveArt joint allowlists giveaway on Meta-morphic NFT collection has been launched. Grab the last chance to join:</p> <p></p> <p>3. NetX series<em> A New World — NetX</em> and<em> Staring out of the cage, the giant gave a deep sigh at the new wilderness </em>have been published.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h2>Triathon</h2> <h3>Community Updates</h3> <p>Triathon is hosting a Part NFT Carnival starting on September 16, each Part selling for only 2 TRIAS. Check out the details.</p> <p></p> <p>2. Triathon, LiveArt and Huang Yuxing are co-hosting the first NFT Meta-morphic allowlists giveaway. Make sure you don’t miss it.</p> <p></p> <p>3. An analysis report about the Fei Protocol attack has been published.</p> <p></p> <p>4. Rewards for 12 new ship giveaways have been distributed.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/980/0llZ22-KVbk3WJ1V5" width="980" height="916" loading="lazy" /> <h3>Marketing & Partnerships</h3> <p>Triathon and HyperPay have reached a strategic partnership and Triathon will provide a security detection service.</p> <p></p> <h3>Technial Updates</h3> <p>Some bugs have been fixed.</p> <p><a href="https://github.com/triathon/website-frontend/commit/925b8313b31115177fbfd760ddf63c181dcb4bd3">https://github.com/triathon/website-frontend/commit/925b8313b31115177fbfd760ddf63c181dcb4bd3</a></p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/712/0pXjGwyrw7Bow86HF" width="712" height="681" loading="lazy" /> <p>2. Part carnival features have been developed.</p> <p><a href="https://github.com/triathon/website-frontend/commit/04112477b1ba1edcf42051a123ea35ee610f032b">https://github.com/triathon/website-frontend/commit/04112477b1ba1edcf42051a123ea35ee610f032b</a></p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1337/0OcfKlKOmVhW-aqVR" width="1337" height="653" loading="lazy" /> <p>3. Images of the parts NFT have been updated.</p> <p><a href="https://github.com/triathon/website-frontend/commit/3b062011180553e0c1617801577bf2d7459d55b3">https://github.com/triathon/website-frontend/commit/3b062011180553e0c1617801577bf2d7459d55b3</a></p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/734/0_SIVUIfPqt6pf971" width="734" height="762" loading="lazy" /> <h2>Ethanim</h2> <h3>Community Updates</h3> <p>Rewards have been distributed to winners of the Bastet NFT Giveaway Ⅱ: Bastet NFT Kits Lottery (Phase Ⅳ).</p> <p><strong><a href="https://ethanimnetwork.medium.com/bastet-nft-giveaway-%E2%85%B1-bastet</strong>-nft-kits-lottery-phase-%E2%85%B3-winners-announcement-effb460377d0">🎉Bastet NFT Giveaway Ⅱ: Bastet NFT Kits Lottery (phase Ⅳ) Winners Announcement O<em>ur series of campaigns of Bastet NFT Giveaway are super hot! We will constantly check out and ensure the issue of…e</em>thanimnetwork.me</a>dium.com</p> <p>2. Rewards have been distributed to winners of the Bastet NFT Giveaway Ⅱ Invite to get lucky draws (phase Ⅳ).</p> <p><strong><a href="https://ethanimnetwork.medium.com/bastet-nft-giveaway-%E2%85%B1-the-user</strong>-list-who-won-lucky-draws-by-invitation-phase-%E2%85%B3-1fabb0ce1e8b">🎉Bastet NFT Giveaway Ⅱ：The User List who Won Lucky Draws by Invitation (phase Ⅳ) O<em>ur series of campaigns of Bastet NFT Giveaway are super hot! Some guardians have successfully minted a complete Bastet…e</em>thanimnetwork.me</a>dium.com</p> <p>3. The Bastet NFT Giveaway Ⅱ: Invitation to get Kits has started the 5th phase.</p> <p><strong><a href="https://ethanimnetwork.medium.com/bastet-nft-giveaw</strong>ay-%E2%85%B1-invitation-to-get-kits-phase-%E2%85%B4-73f6ead097f">🎁Bastet NFT Giveaway Ⅱ — — Invitation to get Kits (Phase Ⅴ) T<em>he second stage of Bastet NFT Giveaway is now in full swing! In order to bring more welfare, Ethanim Network will…e</em>thanimnetwork.me</a>dium.com</p> <p>4. The Bastet NFT Giveaway — Bastet NFT Kits Lottery has started the 5th phase.</p> <p><strong><a href="https://ethanimnetwork.medium.com/bastet-nft-giv</strong>eaway-bastet-nft-kits-lottery-phase-%E2%85%B4-72846ae36bfd">🎁Bastet NFT Giveaway — Bastet NFT Kits Lottery (Phase Ⅴ) T<em>he second stage of the Bastet NFT Giveaway is in full swing! To reward the users with more Bastet NFT kits, Ethanim…e</em>thanimnetwork.me</a>dium.com</p> <p>5. Ethanim DAO phase Ⅱ(Call for suggestions about Bastet NFT) has been launched.</p> <p><strong><a href="https://ethanimnetwork.medium.c</strong>om/call-for-suggestions-about-bastet-nft-fa788a14b90b">📣Call for suggestions about Bastet NFT! O<em>n September 9th last Friday, we are thrilled to announce the first utility of Bastet NFT that our holders can stake…e</em>thanimnetwork.me</a>dium.com</p> <h3>Technical Updates</h3> <p>Some module style has been adjusted on the homepage.</p> <p><a href="https://github.com/EthanimNetwork/ethanim-website/commit/97fc28751792efea7bd97bf8eda371c3b2eb94a7">https://github.com/EthanimNetwork/ethanim-website/commit/97fc28751792efea7bd97bf8eda371c3b2eb94a7</a></p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/884/0R-hG3NsezGyy-B3a" width="884" height="852" loading="lazy" /> <p>2. The homepage animation has been modified.</p> <p><a href="https://github.com/EthanimNetwork/ethanim-website/commit/8bc971e7b29a7ebc8355a1e657d775d3d02b2b27">https://github.com/EthanimNetwork/ethanim-website/commit/8bc971e7b29a7ebc8355a1e657d775d3d02b2b27</a></p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/906/090FMhxG-PWUQSx97" width="906" height="894" loading="lazy" /> <h2>Tusima</h2> <h3>Community Updates</h3> <p>@TusimaNetwork X @LiveArtX X @huangyuxing_ first NFT collection Meta-morphic Allowlists Giveaway was held.</p> <p></p> <p>2. Tusima quiz tasks were published in Discord.</p> <p><a href="https://discord.com/channels/965918503070728203/978839600535592960">https://discord.com/channels/965918503070728203/978839600535592960</a></p> <h3>Technical Updates</h3> <p>1. Tusima wallet UI design has been tweaked.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1034/0R0s8EZiD8K3TTlmV" width="1034" height="562" loading="lazy" /> <p>2. Bugs in the Tusima wallet and browser have been fixed</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1100/0OtZJi5Dcss6u_XEt" width="1100" height="372" loading="lazy" /> <h3>Product Development</h3> <p>1. The wallet encryption and decryption testing is being taken.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1600/0YH4ifZNvPpHGCY0E" width="1600" height="721" loading="lazy" /> <p>2. The wallet optimization plan has been submitted.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1600/0*t9MLf08eYNN31pBB" width="1600" height="803" loading="lazy" /> <p><strong>Official website</strong>: <a href="https://www.trias.one/">https://www.trias.one</a></p> <p><strong>Whitepaper</strong>: <a href="https://www.trias.one/whitepaper">https://www.trias.one/whitepaper</a></p> <p><strong>Telegram</strong>: <a href="https://t.me/triaslab">https://t.me/triaslab</a></p> <p><strong>Twitter</strong>: <a href="https://twitter.com/triaslab">https://twitter.com/triaslab</a></p> <p><strong>Discord</strong>: <a href="https://discord.gg/uSHpezwKWZ">https://discord.gg/uSHpezwKWZ</a></p> <p><strong>Notion:</strong> <a href="https://www.notion.so/Trias-62b0088a57a74c62b22099206464426d">https://www.notion.so/Trias-62b0088a57a74c62b22099206464426d</a></p> <p><strong>Trade on Pancake: </strong><a href="https://triaslab.medium.com/how-to-buy-trias-on-pancakeswap-d9bd1628e69f">https://triaslab.medium.com/how-to-buy-trias-on-pancakeswap-d9bd1628e69f</a></p> </section>	Trias Weekly Report (September 13th, 2022–September 19th, 2022) Trias Community Update Trias community questions were started to be collected by the community and the collecting will end on 9/22. 2. Trias x LiveArt joint allowlists giveaway on Meta-morphic NFT collection has been launched. Grab the last chance to join: 3. NetX series A New World — NetX and Staring out of the cage, the giant gave a deep sigh at the new wilderness have been published. Triathon Community Updates Triathon is hosting a Part NFT Carnival starting on September 16, each Part selling for only 2 TRIAS. Check out the details. 2. Triathon, LiveArt and Huang Yuxing are co-hosting the first NFT Meta-morphic allowlists giveaway. Make sure you don’t miss it. 3. An analysis report about the Fei Protocol attack has been published. 4. Rewards for 12 new ship giveaways have been distributed. Marketing & Partnerships Triathon and HyperPay have reached a strategic partnership and Triathon will provide a security detection service. Technial Updates Some bugs have been fixed. https://github.com/triathon/website-frontend/commit/925b8313b31115177fbfd760ddf63c181dcb4bd3 2. Part carnival features have been developed. https://github.com/triathon/website-frontend/commit/04112477b1ba1edcf42051a123ea35ee610f032b 3. Images of the parts NFT have been updated. https://github.com/triathon/website-frontend/commit/3b062011180553e0c1617801577bf2d7459d55b3 Ethanim Community Updates Rewards have been distributed to winners of the Bastet NFT Giveaway Ⅱ: Bastet NFT Kits Lottery (Phase Ⅳ). 🎉Bastet NFT Giveaway Ⅱ: Bastet NFT Kits Lottery (phase Ⅳ) Winners Announcement Our series of campaigns of Bastet NFT Giveaway are super hot! We will constantly check out and ensure the issue of…ethanimnetwork.medium.com 2. Rewards have been distributed to winners of the Bastet NFT Giveaway Ⅱ Invite to get lucky draws (phase Ⅳ). 🎉Bastet NFT Giveaway Ⅱ：The User List who Won Lucky Draws by Invitation (phase Ⅳ) Our series of campaigns of Bastet NFT Giveaway are super hot! Some guardians have successfully minted a complete Bastet…ethanimnetwork.medium.com 3. The Bastet NFT Giveaway Ⅱ: Invitation to get Kits has started the 5th phase. 🎁Bastet NFT Giveaway Ⅱ — — Invitation to get Kits (Phase Ⅴ) The second stage of Bastet NFT Giveaway is now in full swing! In order to bring more welfare, Ethanim Network will…ethanimnetwork.medium.com 4. The Bastet NFT Giveaway — Bastet NFT Kits Lottery has started the 5th phase. 🎁Bastet NFT Giveaway — Bastet NFT Kits Lottery (Phase Ⅴ) The second stage of the Bastet NFT Giveaway is in full swing! To reward the users with more Bastet NFT kits, Ethanim…ethanimnetwork.medium.com 5. Ethanim DAO phase Ⅱ(Call for suggestions about Bastet NFT) has been launched. 📣Call for suggestions about Bastet NFT! On September 9th last Friday, we are thrilled to announce the first utility of Bastet NFT that our holders can stake…ethanimnetwork.medium.com Technical Updates Some module style has been adjusted on the homepage. https://github.com/EthanimNetwork/ethanim-website/commit/97fc28751792efea7bd97bf8eda371c3b2eb94a7 2. The homepage animation has been modified. https://github.com/EthanimNetwork/ethanim-website/commit/8bc971e7b29a7ebc8355a1e657d775d3d02b2b27 Tusima Community Updates @TusimaNetwork X @LiveArtX X @huangyuxing_ first NFT collection Meta-morphic Allowlists Giveaway was held. 2. Tusima quiz tasks were published in Discord. https://discord.com/channels/965918503070728203/978839600535592960 Technical Updates 1. Tusima wallet UI design has been tweaked. 2. Bugs in the Tusima wallet and browser have been fixed Product Development 1. The wallet encryption and decryption testing is being taken. 2. The wallet optimization plan has been submitted. Official website: https://www.trias.one Whitepaper: https://www.trias.one/whitepaper Telegram: https://t.me/triaslab Twitter: https://twitter.com/triaslab Discord: https://discord.gg/uSHpezwKWZ Notion: https://www.notion.so/Trias-62b0088a57a74c62b22099206464426d Trade on Pancake: https://triaslab.medium.com/how-to-buy-trias-on-pancakeswap-d9bd1628e69f	ff76a658-e1b2-50fb-9671-bc8fdb43b483	25/08/2025 16:01:10
https://medium.com/@johnson628/making-your-home-business-enterprise-really-make-you-money-c387cf673ce4	medium.com	Making Your Home Business Enterprise Really Make You Money	null	johnson628	https://medium.com/@johnson628	c387cf673ce4	https://miro.medium.com/max/2000/0*hJclGAu77PhGJiF5.	5 min	2017-06-18T09:59:19.469000	2017-06-18T09:59:20.218000	2017-06-18T09:59:21.319000	0	0	en	Home Business	<section> <p>Many people think that running their own home business enterprise from home. You need to realize that starting a home businesses is not as hard as you think.</p> <p>You are going to need an office and a lot of supplies to get started. It will be hard to remain focused on your work if you do not have a quiet office and all the supplies you need.</p> <p><strong>TIP!</strong> At the launch of your business, send an email to your family, friends and co-workers that lets them know what you’re up to. To get your business rolling, offer a discount on services, or perhaps a free gift.</p> <p>Don’t forget to deduct part of your Internet use.</p> <p>An office is necessary when you are based at home for work purposes. It doesn’t have to be gigantic, but it does need to be cozy. Your work office should create a feeling of productivity, inspiration and placidity. Use the space that you have for your office as efficiently as possible.</p> <p><strong>TIP!</strong> Select a name for your business that is personally meaningful. Even if you have not yet planned for a business website, buy your business domain name.</p> <p>Keep a special business phone line to keep it separate from the one you use for personal line. You want your business to appear professional; plus, not to mention the fact that others in the household might answer the phone without the professionalism required of someone running a business.</p> <p>Get in the habit of creating daily goals for your home based business. There might be some things that don’t get done, but setting realistic goals will go a long way in accomplishing everything. Set limits and boundaries when working from home in order to generate respect.</p> <p><strong>TIP!</strong> Utilize the support available through forums on the Internet for people who work from home. The different sites and forums that are specifically set up for those who own their own home business is constantly expanding.</p> <p>Don’t let family constantly interrupt when working. Because interruptions are impediments to productivity, be sure people know when you’re going to be working and when you are finished for the day. Tell them that privacy so you can finish work and then be available that much sooner. Be sure that your kids have supervision and stay accessible in case of emergencies.</p> <p>Write a comprehensive business plan to guide the strategy of your home business. As things progress, your business plan will too; it may even change completely. A business plan acts as your mission statement, outlining how you would like to see your business develop. You should review your plan from time to time and make adjustments as necessary.</p> <p><strong>TIP!</strong> Keep complete and accurate records of the finances in your business. Should the IRS audit you, you’re going to have to give them proof of the expenses and income from your business.</p> <p>Affiliates can be used to help a lot when starting a online business. You can also join affiliate program that is already successful. This can increase your revenue stream.</p> <p>Ensure your home business won’t interfere with your family’s routine. If your business will negatively impact your family’s daily activities, it might be best to rethink your approach.</p> <p><strong>TIP!</strong> If you want to open your own business, will it be profitable? Find an area of the market that is weak and take advantage of it. It will be difficult to make much money if you have a lot of competitors.</p> <p>Write a detailed business plan to guide the strategy of your work from home business. You have the ability to change this or disregard it at any time. You should review your plan and update it if necessary.</p> <p>Select names that really mean something. Your name should be representative of what you sell, which is why it is important to have a name that customers can appreicate. Attach a quirky or inspirational story to your brand. In time, this creates stronger brand recognition and builds more intense customer loyalty.</p> <p><strong>TIP!</strong> T</p> <h3>Online Business</h3> <p>While conducting business in comfortable clothes may be fun at first, you may find yourself missing the professional attire required at your previous job. Try to get out of the house during the week to personally stay in touch with others.</p> <p><strong>TIP!</strong> One thing to do in the beginning stages of your home business is research your competitors. This will help you get an idea about what would be reasonable to charge.</p> <p>You must have your loved ones and family on board before you open a home-based business. It can be very hard to start a online business.Your family must not only support you, so that you can dedicate a specific amount of time to your online business.</p> <p>It should not cost you more to make the product than you are selling it for. In order to achieve a profit, you want to price the product for roughly double what it costs to produce. Some may even multiple that amount by three when selling it.</p> <p><strong>TIP!</strong> Make sure your home business meets safety standards, especially if you have children. You may need to invest in a security system, and set rules for those who enter or live in your home.</p> <p>Make sure that your workplace a priority. This means installing smoke detectors and fire extinguishers in your home office area. You must also have a solid computer set-up that properly suits you.</p> <p>Only write off explainable deductions on your taxes. Track what you spend and learn about the kinds of expenses that can be written off on your taxes. Never claim deductions for primarily personal things.</p> <p><strong>TIP!</strong> Everyone knows that sedentary lifestyles kill, and staying seated all day makes things worse. You need to make sure that you stop working and get up from your computer chair and move around every now and then.</p> <p>It is not that hard to promote a business once you know what you are doing. One great option may be to set up a good website to get the word out about your home based business. You can start setting up your own website in a day or two.</p> <p>Rather than purchasing a web server for use in your home business, economize by utilizing shared server space. Since you are probably just hosting your website, this option, called virtual hosting, allows you to minimize cost. You will not need a dedicated server unless you plan to have a bustling forum or a bunch of videos on your site.</p> <p><strong>TIP!</strong> You should get a separate bank account for your business. This makes it much easier to keep your business expenses separate from your personal finances.</p> <p>Remember what you have learned here. It is important in helping you set up a successful business. Applying this useful information can help you to succeed.</p> <p>Keep track of how you spend your time. You must put in the time, especially since you might be the only staff responsible for making things happen. Remember to schedule the mundane tasks that are often overlooked, like supply runs and visits to the post office.</p> <p><strong>TIP!</strong> Office space is a tax write-off. Taxes are a significant business expense, but you may not realize that some cost of your home office can be written off.</p> <p>Download the Home Business Mobile APP From Play Store</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/250/0*cNNn5HMJSpkxiLg8." width="250" height="250" loading="lazy" /> <p>via Home Business — QWLO <a href="http://ift.tt/2sDbyiE">http://ift.tt/2sDbyiE</a></p> </section>	Many people think that running their own home business enterprise from home. You need to realize that starting a home businesses is not as hard as you think. You are going to need an office and a lot of supplies to get started. It will be hard to remain focused on your work if you do not have a quiet office and all the supplies you need. TIP! At the launch of your business, send an email to your family, friends and co-workers that lets them know what you’re up to. To get your business rolling, offer a discount on services, or perhaps a free gift. Don’t forget to deduct part of your Internet use. An office is necessary when you are based at home for work purposes. It doesn’t have to be gigantic, but it does need to be cozy. Your work office should create a feeling of productivity, inspiration and placidity. Use the space that you have for your office as efficiently as possible. TIP! Select a name for your business that is personally meaningful. Even if you have not yet planned for a business website, buy your business domain name. Keep a special business phone line to keep it separate from the one you use for personal line. You want your business to appear professional; plus, not to mention the fact that others in the household might answer the phone without the professionalism required of someone running a business. Get in the habit of creating daily goals for your home based business. There might be some things that don’t get done, but setting realistic goals will go a long way in accomplishing everything. Set limits and boundaries when working from home in order to generate respect. TIP! Utilize the support available through forums on the Internet for people who work from home. The different sites and forums that are specifically set up for those who own their own home business is constantly expanding. Don’t let family constantly interrupt when working. Because interruptions are impediments to productivity, be sure people know when you’re going to be working and when you are finished for the day. Tell them that privacy so you can finish work and then be available that much sooner. Be sure that your kids have supervision and stay accessible in case of emergencies. Write a comprehensive business plan to guide the strategy of your home business. As things progress, your business plan will too; it may even change completely. A business plan acts as your mission statement, outlining how you would like to see your business develop. You should review your plan from time to time and make adjustments as necessary. TIP! Keep complete and accurate records of the finances in your business. Should the IRS audit you, you’re going to have to give them proof of the expenses and income from your business. Affiliates can be used to help a lot when starting a online business. You can also join affiliate program that is already successful. This can increase your revenue stream. Ensure your home business won’t interfere with your family’s routine. If your business will negatively impact your family’s daily activities, it might be best to rethink your approach. TIP! If you want to open your own business, will it be profitable? Find an area of the market that is weak and take advantage of it. It will be difficult to make much money if you have a lot of competitors. Write a detailed business plan to guide the strategy of your work from home business. You have the ability to change this or disregard it at any time. You should review your plan and update it if necessary. Select names that really mean something. Your name should be representative of what you sell, which is why it is important to have a name that customers can appreicate. Attach a quirky or inspirational story to your brand. In time, this creates stronger brand recognition and builds more intense customer loyalty. TIP! T Online Business While conducting business in comfortable clothes may be fun at first, you may find yourself missing the professional attire required at your previous job. Try to get out of the house during the week to personally stay in touch with others. TIP! One thing to do in the beginning stages of your home business is research your competitors. This will help you get an idea about what would be reasonable to charge. You must have your loved ones and family on board before you open a home-based business. It can be very hard to start a online business.Your family must not only support you, so that you can dedicate a specific amount of time to your online business. It should not cost you more to make the product than you are selling it for. In order to achieve a profit, you want to price the product for roughly double what it costs to produce. Some may even multiple that amount by three when selling it. TIP! Make sure your home business meets safety standards, especially if you have children. You may need to invest in a security system, and set rules for those who enter or live in your home. Make sure that your workplace a priority. This means installing smoke detectors and fire extinguishers in your home office area. You must also have a solid computer set-up that properly suits you. Only write off explainable deductions on your taxes. Track what you spend and learn about the kinds of expenses that can be written off on your taxes. Never claim deductions for primarily personal things. TIP! Everyone knows that sedentary lifestyles kill, and staying seated all day makes things worse. You need to make sure that you stop working and get up from your computer chair and move around every now and then. It is not that hard to promote a business once you know what you are doing. One great option may be to set up a good website to get the word out about your home based business. You can start setting up your own website in a day or two. Rather than purchasing a web server for use in your home business, economize by utilizing shared server space. Since you are probably just hosting your website, this option, called virtual hosting, allows you to minimize cost. You will not need a dedicated server unless you plan to have a bustling forum or a bunch of videos on your site. TIP! You should get a separate bank account for your business. This makes it much easier to keep your business expenses separate from your personal finances. Remember what you have learned here. It is important in helping you set up a successful business. Applying this useful information can help you to succeed. Keep track of how you spend your time. You must put in the time, especially since you might be the only staff responsible for making things happen. Remember to schedule the mundane tasks that are often overlooked, like supply runs and visits to the post office. TIP! Office space is a tax write-off. Taxes are a significant business expense, but you may not realize that some cost of your home office can be written off. Download the Home Business Mobile APP From Play Store via Home Business — QWLO http://ift.tt/2sDbyiE	ad8ca106-fdbd-5a93-b9b1-5ff07d726d65	25/08/2025 16:01:10
https://medium.com/@royaltywizard/6-months-gone-how-many-books-have-you-published-dceea7c902df	medium.com	6 Months Have Passed. How Many Books Have You Published?	Photo by Agê Barros on Unsplash	Royalty Wizard	https://medium.com/@royaltywizard	dceea7c902df	https://miro.medium.com/max/2000/0*7Lv9zec1VABWzQSz	2 min	2024-06-29T17:50:04.468000	2024-06-29T18:27:51.565000	2024-11-22T01:39:53.911000	1	95	en	Make Money Online,Make Money From Home,Passive Income,Productivity,Financial Freedom	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/3368/0*7Lv9zec1VABWzQSz" width="3368" height="2246" loading="lazy" /> <p>I had no idea I was going to write on this topic until I glanced at today’s date and realised we’ve reached the midpoint of the year. Yes, an entire six months have passed, and it seems it happened in the blink of an eye.</p> <p>As self-publishing authors, we must ask ourselves: How many books have I created? How productive have I been? How much have I improved in KDP?</p> <p>These are crucial questions one must consider to determine if they are on the right path to success. It’s evident that continuous improvement and engagement in this business lead to success.</p> <p>I wrote an article about improving in this business a few days ago:</p> <p><strong><a href="https://medium.com/@royaltywizar</strong>d/aim-to-get-1-better-with-books-daily-1ae7cc552a47">Aim to Get 1% Better with KDP Books Daily <em>Diagram from jamesclear.com</em>m</a>edium.com</p> <p>Self-reflection is essential, and here’s how things have panned out for me so far:</p> <p><strong>I’ve published seven medium-content books. </strong>I only just started with medium-content books this year, and although seven isn’t a large number and none have really taken off, I’ve learned a great deal about these types of books and how to create great ones. I continue to learn and experiment, hoping the next ones will be more successful.</p> <p>Starting a new venture, such as creating medium-content books, and expecting immediate success isn’t always realistic.</p> <p><strong>I’ve learned to hire designers on Upwork. </strong>Yes, the hiring process itself requires skill and the know-how to select the right people. Hiring the wrong designers or those who are not capable results in poor quality books. Over these six months, I’ve learned about hiring and what to look for in designers to produce high-quality books.</p> <p><strong>I’ve realised the importance of niche research. </strong>Although I’ve been in this business for several years and knew about the importance of niche research, I’ve come to understand how much more crucial it has become. Previously, I’d spend very little time researching and would quickly jump on to creating books, but the intense competition with KDP these days has helped me understand how vital it is to select the right niches.</p> <p>Now, I start my KDP day with 15–20 minutes of niche research to get my creative juices flowing to uncover more niche opportunities. I rarely give this a miss.</p> <p><strong>I’ve learned to look after my body and mind. </strong>No amount of success or money is worth more than good health. In the past, I would work on my KDP business from early morning until late at night, juggling my job and daily chores, with little sleep and constant stress. These past six months have taught me the value of good health, resulting in more sleep, regular exercise, and a strict cutoff time for KDP work. I rarely work past 8 PM these days.</p> <p><strong>To conclude,</strong></p> <p>As the second half of the year approaches, it’s a good time to reflect on the past months to identify areas for improvement for the remainder of the year. Although the results from my books haven’t been spectacular, there are many positives to consider. More importantly, I have prioritised health above all else this year.</p> <p>How has your year been so far?</p> </section>	6 Months Gone. How Many Books Have You Published? Photo by Agê Barros on Unsplash I had no idea I was going to write on this topic until I glanced at today’s date and realised we’ve reached the midpoint of the year. Yes, an entire six months have passed, and it seems it happened in the blink of an eye. As self-publishing authors, we must ask ourselves: How many books have I created? How productive have I been? How much have I improved in KDP? These are crucial questions one must consider to determine if they are on the right path to success. It’s evident that continuous improvement and engagement in this business lead to success. I wrote an article about improving in this business a few days ago: Aim to Get 1% Better with KDP Books Daily Diagram from jamesclear.commedium.com Self-reflection is essential, and here’s how things have panned out for me so far: I’ve published seven medium-content books. I only just started with medium-content books this year, and although seven isn’t a large number and none have really taken off, I’ve learned a great deal about these types of books and how to create great ones. I continue to learn and experiment, hoping the next ones will be more successful. Starting a new venture, such as creating medium-content books, and expecting immediate success isn’t always realistic. I’ve learned to hire designers on Upwork. Yes, the hiring process itself requires skill and the know-how to select the right people. Hiring the wrong designers or those who are not capable results in poor quality books. Over these six months, I’ve learned about hiring and what to look for in designers to produce high-quality books. I’ve realised the importance of niche research. Although I’ve been in this business for several years and knew about the importance of niche research, I’ve come to understand how much more crucial it has become. Previously, I’d spend very little time researching and would quickly jump on to creating books, but the intense competition with KDP these days has helped me understand how vital it is to select the right niches. Now, I start my KDP day with 15–20 minutes of niche research to get my creative juices flowing to uncover more niche opportunities. I rarely give this a miss. I’ve learned to look after my body and mind. No amount of success or money is worth more than good health. In the past, I would work on my KDP business from early morning until late at night, juggling my job and daily chores, with little sleep and constant stress. These past six months have taught me the value of good health, resulting in more sleep, regular exercise, and a strict cutoff time for KDP work. I rarely work past 8 PM these days. To conclude, As the second half of the year approaches, it’s a good time to reflect on the past months to identify areas for improvement for the remainder of the year. Although the results from my books haven’t been spectacular, there are many positives to consider. More importantly, I have prioritised health above all else this year. How has your year been so far?	d1347e7d-7616-5b77-874a-0490e10e09e1	25/08/2025 16:01:10
https://velvetvalor.medium.com/the-house-that-never-felt-like-home-6cf9e7b9abd5	medium.com	the house that never felt like home	Home is supposed to be gentle. A place where your heart can rest, Where your voice doesn’t shake And your laughter doesn’t feel too loud.	lysia ❀˖°	https://medium.com/@velvetvalor	6cf9e7b9abd5	https://miro.medium.com/…1E6AKHzlVKg.jpeg	2 min	2025-08-23T08:07:37.212000	2025-08-23T08:30:56.547000	2025-08-23T09:27:34.782000	0	0	en	Toxic Family,Mental Health,Healing,Childhood Trauma,Self Growth	<section> <p><em>Home is supposed to be gentle. A place where your heart can rest, Where your voice doesn’t shake And your laughter doesn’t feel too loud.</em></p> <p><em>But when you grow up in a toxic household, Home becomes something else. It becomes heavy walls That echo with silence more than love. It becomes footsteps you measure carefully, Words you swallow before they’re spoken, Dreams you tuck away so no one can break them.</em></p> <p><em>And it hurts — Because how do you explain missing a home You never really had?</em></p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/563/1*GkwPJIjOFXN1E6AKHzlVKg.jpeg" width="563" height="374" loading="lazy" /> <p>Some people think “home” is supposed to be a safe place. A shelter. A space where love lives and where you can always return to feel whole again. But what if your “home” feels like the very opposite? What if the walls that are supposed to protect you are the same ones that trap you in silence, in anger, in pain?</p> <p>Living in a toxic household changes the way you see the world. It’s not just about the loud arguments or the unspoken tension at the dinner table. It’s in the little things — how you learn to tiptoe around people’s moods, how you hide parts of yourself just to keep the peace, how you grow up thinking love has to be earned and safety has to be bargained for.</p> <p>It’s exhausting, isn’t it? You start to carry guilt that isn’t yours. You feel the weight of responsibilities that shouldn’t have been handed to you. And sometimes, you even question if you deserve better — because for so long, “better” feels like something out of reach. But here’s the truth: the way your household treated you is not a reflection of who you are. You are not the harsh words. You are not the slammed doors. You are not the silence that swallowed your voice.</p> <p>You deserve peace. You deserve gentleness. You deserve to unlearn the pain that was handed to you and to replace it with a kind of love that doesn’t hurt, doesn’t control, doesn’t break you.</p> <p>Maybe right now, you’re still living in that toxic cycle. Maybe you can’t leave yet. That’s okay. Survival itself is strength. But I hope you also remind yourself: this is not the only “home” you’ll ever have. One day, you’ll get to build your own version of it — the kind where you can finally breathe freely, laugh loudly, and rest without fear.</p> <p>And until that day comes, please hold on to the truth that you are worthy of a home that feels like healing.</p> </section>	the house that never felt like home Home is supposed to be gentle. A place where your heart can rest, Where your voice doesn’t shake And your laughter doesn’t feel too loud. But when you grow up in a toxic household, Home becomes something else. It becomes heavy walls That echo with silence more than love. It becomes footsteps you measure carefully, Words you swallow before they’re spoken, Dreams you tuck away so no one can break them. And it hurts — Because how do you explain missing a home You never really had? image from Pinterest Some people think “home” is supposed to be a safe place. A shelter. A space where love lives and where you can always return to feel whole again. But what if your “home” feels like the very opposite? What if the walls that are supposed to protect you are the same ones that trap you in silence, in anger, in pain? Living in a toxic household changes the way you see the world. It’s not just about the loud arguments or the unspoken tension at the dinner table. It’s in the little things — how you learn to tiptoe around people’s moods, how you hide parts of yourself just to keep the peace, how you grow up thinking love has to be earned and safety has to be bargained for. It’s exhausting, isn’t it? You start to carry guilt that isn’t yours. You feel the weight of responsibilities that shouldn’t have been handed to you. And sometimes, you even question if you deserve better — because for so long, “better” feels like something out of reach. But here’s the truth: the way your household treated you is not a reflection of who you are. You are not the harsh words. You are not the slammed doors. You are not the silence that swallowed your voice. You deserve peace. You deserve gentleness. You deserve to unlearn the pain that was handed to you and to replace it with a kind of love that doesn’t hurt, doesn’t control, doesn’t break you. Maybe right now, you’re still living in that toxic cycle. Maybe you can’t leave yet. That’s okay. Survival itself is strength. But I hope you also remind yourself: this is not the only “home” you’ll ever have. One day, you’ll get to build your own version of it — the kind where you can finally breathe freely, laugh loudly, and rest without fear. And until that day comes, please hold on to the truth that you are worthy of a home that feels like healing.	5f43c6d4-71bf-5d92-bff0-07c2cbad4519	25/08/2025 16:01:12
https://medium.com/@patrick_mccarty/big-floyd-d0df556e61c	medium.com	“Big Floyd”	Some thoughts on the day of the workout “Big Floyd”.	Patrick McCarty	https://medium.com/@patrick_mccarty	d0df556e61c	https://miro.medium.com/…Ll5z3Fz1zKkg.png	5 min	2020-06-06T21:48:20.687000	2020-06-07T12:05:50.631000	2021-12-14T20:12:46.846000	0	4	en	George Floyd,CrossFit,BlackLivesMatter	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/800/1Xo_xc_gH-lLl5z3Fz1zKkg.png" width="800" height="800" loading="lazy" /> <p>Some thoughts on the day of the workout “Big Floyd”.</p> <p>We have an enormous problem in this country. The systemic, centuries-ingrained racism and inequality is staggering. As a white male with a black sister, I can say first hand that I have seen <em>some</em> of the problems from the perspective of African Americans, specifically incidents of people in the town where we grew up directing racial epithets at a 3-year old kid playing in her front yard to relatives who “banned” us from their homes, to anecdotes from her, too numerous to list, about things with which she has had to deal.</p> <p>More ubiquitous than that however, was simply the casual, pervasive racism that permeated EVERY aspect of my life post high school and college (vis-à-vis the real world); from the company VP in charge of relocating me recommending the best neighborhoods into which to move based on “fewest blacks”, to co-workers <em>looking around</em> before finishing the punchline to the joke, to straight up common utterances of racial pejoratives from co-workers, with most just assuming I was cool with it. If you’re white, you’re cool with it, no?</p> <p>Having grown up with a black sister and having had to deflect the racism pings my entire life basically reveals one thing about me: I HAVE NO IDEA. I only have an idea what it’s like to be a white dude with a black relative. I have no idea, no earthly clue, what it’s like to live in black skin.</p> <p>I can surmise — by being aware, attentive, by watching, studying, learning, and seeking to understand. Watching the YouTube videos, listening to the pleas of the mothers about keeping their sons safe, etc. But you, I and those of us who huddle under the umbrella of white privilege need to admit that we simply don’t have a clue, and that things are much, must worse than we probably assume.</p> <p><strong>History as a Guide</strong></p> <p>It’s important to be as educated as possible about the African American experience in this country. From slavery, to Jim Crow-era laws, through the civil rights movement and to today’s ingrained, systemic racism, it’s simply insufficient to say “but slavery was outlawed — when are they going to get over it?” or <em>worse</em>, “everyone has the same opportunities, they just need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps”. Statements like that betray the ignorance of white privilege, the “if it works for me, it can work for <em>them</em>” attitude that is patently and demonstrably false.</p> <p>The entire system, from post-slavery/Civil War promises of land and freedom, to post <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Americans_and_the_G.I._Bill">WWII GI Bill inequities,</a> to segregated <em>everything </em>through the 1960s to now, today, the great American substrate of casual, systemic, inequitable treatment of blacks vs. whites in nearly every aspect of American society.</p> <p>The problem is enormous. If you don’t see that, then you have failed to look. You’re living in a very insulated bubble.</p> <p><strong>Police and George Floyd</strong></p> <p>The facts are pretty simple. Per capita, <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/116/34/16793">blacks are more likely than whites</a>, to be killed by police. It then follows as a corollary that blacks are more likely than whites to be pulled over, detained, profiled, arrested, and subject to abuse, than whites. Anecdotally, talk to nearly any African American male and ask him about getting stopped by police. The protocols in place, the “hands on the wheel”, the license on the dash, the not reaching for <em>anything</em>.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1282/1vS6Br1S6TDQmKBtRGtk0Cw.png" width="1282" height="767" loading="lazy" /> <p>Look at disparities that are commonly cited between blacks and whites in arrests for example: “Eric Garner was killed for selling cigarettes while Dillon Roof was not only take alive, but taken to Burger King”.</p> <p>But don’t just look at the memeable anecdotes, look at the empirical evidence as well. Arrests, sentencing disparities, incarcerations, all skew heavily toward whites. Research it.</p> <p>All of this means that when George Floyd was approached by police for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill at a convenience store, the deck was already heavily stacked against him. Everything in the 400 years leading up to this moment lead him to likely know, that the weight of American history, policing and justice, was stacked against him.</p> <p><strong>8 Minutes, 46 Seconds</strong></p> <p>That stacked deck lead to three police officers, <strong>three</strong>, kneeling on George’s Floyd’s legs, torso, and neck, for 8:46. What follows next is a macabre and heartbreaking view into the slow strangulation of a human being who is <em>pleading for his very life</em>, in front of the cell-phone video and subsequently, the world. With the police officer not only kneeling on his neck but taunting him (“then get up and get in the car!”) Floyd repeated pleads with Chauvin to please get off, and that he can’t breathe.</p> <p>He’s never given the chance to “get up and get in the car”, despite his assurances that he will comply. Chauvin continues to apply pressure to his neck, while Floyd continues to beg for his life. There are plenty of articles, analyses, and links and video, so I’ll spare the reader a simple replay. What I will say is this:</p> <p><em>He calls for his mother, and he begs for a drink of water.</em></p> <p>At this point, I suspect George knew he was going to die. While I could write another full article on the phenomenon of men crying out for their mothers when gravely injured and engulfed in fear, but suffice it to say, George did just that. Shortly thereafter he said “some water or something”.</p> <p>It’s no longer about the pain of the restraint — no longer about “my neck hurts, my stomach hurts, everything hurts…”. It’s about the basic human needs of life itself. Hydration, and the protection of a mother. He knew he was going to die.</p> <p><strong>The Workout</strong></p> <p>So today, at 9:30, I am going to try my best to honor George Floyd by doing the tribute workout “<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CBDKlwDA2Vj/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link">Big Floyd</a>”. This CrossFit-style workout is being done in conjunction with fundraiser I’ve initiated* in an attempt to make this more than just a one-off difficult training session, but to mean something more.</p> <p>As I do the workout — which will be brutally difficult, to say the least, my one and only goal as I work through it is to remember what George had to endure the last 8 minutes of his life — having his breath literally extinguished from him by three white police officers, and realizing that nothing I will be going through is anywhere close to the agony he experienced.</p> <p>In other words — on a micro scale, I, Pat McCarty, will never understand George Floyd’s experience. On a macro scale, I, a while male, will never understand the African American experience. Ever.</p> <p>However — it is my duty to try. To seek to understand. To learn, educated, read, and absorb. To listen, to speak up, step in, advocate, and work tirelessly to try to even the playing field so that blacks can begin to experiencing equity, something they have been denied by the likes of white America for every one of the 400-plus years of our existence as a country.</p> <p>*this fundraiser is providing equal disbursements to campaignzero.org and to individual African American families for #rentrelief. If you would like to make a donation, you can Venmo me at @Pat-Mccarty-1 or PayPal.me/patmccarty100. I will provide 100% transparency of disbursements in the comments of this article.</p> </section>	“Big Floyd” Some thoughts on the day of the workout “Big Floyd”. We have an enormous problem in this country. The systemic, centuries-ingrained racism and inequality is staggering. As a white male with a black sister, I can say first hand that I have seen some of the problems from the perspective of African Americans, specifically incidents of people in the town where we grew up directing racial epithets at a 3-year old kid playing in her front yard to relatives who “banned” us from their homes, to anecdotes from her, too numerous to list, about things with which she has had to deal. More ubiquitous than that however, was simply the casual, pervasive racism that permeated EVERY aspect of my life post high school and college (vis-à-vis the real world); from the company VP in charge of relocating me recommending the best neighborhoods into which to move based on “fewest blacks”, to co-workers looking around before finishing the punchline to the joke, to straight up common utterances of racial pejoratives from co-workers, with most just assuming I was cool with it. If you’re white, you’re cool with it, no? Having grown up with a black sister and having had to deflect the racism pings my entire life basically reveals one thing about me: I HAVE NO IDEA. I only have an idea what it’s like to be a white dude with a black relative. I have no idea, no earthly clue, what it’s like to live in black skin. I can surmise — by being aware, attentive, by watching, studying, learning, and seeking to understand. Watching the YouTube videos, listening to the pleas of the mothers about keeping their sons safe, etc. But you, I and those of us who huddle under the umbrella of white privilege need to admit that we simply don’t have a clue, and that things are much, must worse than we probably assume. History as a Guide It’s important to be as educated as possible about the African American experience in this country. From slavery, to Jim Crow-era laws, through the civil rights movement and to today’s ingrained, systemic racism, it’s simply insufficient to say “but slavery was outlawed — when are they going to get over it?” or worse, “everyone has the same opportunities, they just need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps”. Statements like that betray the ignorance of white privilege, the “if it works for me, it can work for them” attitude that is patently and demonstrably false. The entire system, from post-slavery/Civil War promises of land and freedom, to post WWII GI Bill inequities, to segregated everything through the 1960s to now, today, the great American substrate of casual, systemic, inequitable treatment of blacks vs. whites in nearly every aspect of American society. The problem is enormous. If you don’t see that, then you have failed to look. You’re living in a very insulated bubble. Police and George Floyd The facts are pretty simple. Per capita, blacks are more likely than whites, to be killed by police. It then follows as a corollary that blacks are more likely than whites to be pulled over, detained, profiled, arrested, and subject to abuse, than whites. Anecdotally, talk to nearly any African American male and ask him about getting stopped by police. The protocols in place, the “hands on the wheel”, the license on the dash, the not reaching for anything. Look at disparities that are commonly cited between blacks and whites in arrests for example: “Eric Garner was killed for selling cigarettes while Dillon Roof was not only take alive, but taken to Burger King”. But don’t just look at the memeable anecdotes, look at the empirical evidence as well. Arrests, sentencing disparities, incarcerations, all skew heavily toward whites. Research it. All of this means that when George Floyd was approached by police for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill at a convenience store, the deck was already heavily stacked against him. Everything in the 400 years leading up to this moment lead him to likely know, that the weight of American history, policing and justice, was stacked against him. 8 Minutes, 46 Seconds That stacked deck lead to three police officers, three, kneeling on George’s Floyd’s legs, torso, and neck, for 8:46. What follows next is a macabre and heartbreaking view into the slow strangulation of a human being who is pleading for his very life, in front of the cell-phone video and subsequently, the world. With the police officer not only kneeling on his neck but taunting him (“then get up and get in the car!”) Floyd repeated pleads with Chauvin to please get off, and that he can’t breathe. He’s never given the chance to “get up and get in the car”, despite his assurances that he will comply. Chauvin continues to apply pressure to his neck, while Floyd continues to beg for his life. There are plenty of articles, analyses, and links and video, so I’ll spare the reader a simple replay. What I will say is this: He calls for his mother, and he begs for a drink of water. At this point, I suspect George knew he was going to die. While I could write another full article on the phenomenon of men crying out for their mothers when gravely injured and engulfed in fear, but suffice it to say, George did just that. Shortly thereafter he said “some water or something”. It’s no longer about the pain of the restraint — no longer about “my neck hurts, my stomach hurts, everything hurts…”. It’s about the basic human needs of life itself. Hydration, and the protection of a mother. He knew he was going to die. The Workout So today, at 9:30, I am going to try my best to honor George Floyd by doing the tribute workout “Big Floyd”. This CrossFit-style workout is being done in conjunction with fundraiser I’ve initiated* in an attempt to make this more than just a one-off difficult training session, but to mean something more. As I do the workout — which will be brutally difficult, to say the least, my one and only goal as I work through it is to remember what George had to endure the last 8 minutes of his life — having his breath literally extinguished from him by three white police officers, and realizing that nothing I will be going through is anywhere close to the agony he experienced. In other words — on a micro scale, I, Pat McCarty, will never understand George Floyd’s experience. On a macro scale, I, a while male, will never understand the African American experience. Ever. However — it is my duty to try. To seek to understand. To learn, educated, read, and absorb. To listen, to speak up, step in, advocate, and work tirelessly to try to even the playing field so that blacks can begin to experiencing equity, something they have been denied by the likes of white America for every one of the 400-plus years of our existence as a country. *this fundraiser is providing equal disbursements to campaignzero.org and to individual African American families for #rentrelief. If you would like to make a donation, you can Venmo me at @Pat-Mccarty-1 or PayPal.me/patmccarty100. I will provide 100% transparency of disbursements in the comments of this article.	f519cca0-18ed-5e1d-bf36-baf099e58224	25/08/2025 16:01:13
https://caseresearch.medium.com/the-dutch-dam-against-populism-b943062cf32f	medium.com	The Dutch dam against populism	By: Krzysztof Głowacki, Economist, CASE	CASE	https://medium.com/@caseresearch	b943062cf32f	https://miro.medium.com/…ZznRFhSEcSQ.jpeg	3 min	2017-03-21T12:17:39.066000	2017-03-21T12:20:00.854000	2018-02-23T02:52:58.387000	0	1	en	Politics,Europe,Netherlands,Elections,Populism	<section> <h1>The Dutch dam against populism</h1> <p><em>By: <a href="http://case-research.eu/en</em>/krzysztof-gowacki">Krzysztof Głowacki</a>, Economist, CASE</p> <p><em>The Dutch parliamentary elections were widely perceived as a litmus test for the populist sentiment in Europe ahead of similar ballots in France and Germany later this year. If this perception is correct, the anti-establishment trend may just have reversed itself.</em></p> <p>In the election on March 15, the ruling conservative-liberal People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, VVD, won (21%) ahead of Geert Wilders’s populist Party for Freedom, PVV (13%). As many as eleven other parties also made it into parliament, including Christian democrats, social liberals, socialists, and the greens. The elections had a turnout rate of 81%, an impressive result even for the Netherlands, where civic engagement is traditionally high.</p> <p>Media in the Netherlands and in Europe <a href="http://www.nu.nl/verkiezingen-2017/4545006/buitenlandse-media-rutte-held-van-europa.html">stress</a> the symbolism of the victory of the incumbent Prime Minister Mark Rutte over PVV’s populist Geert Wilders, who had long led in the polls. In anticipation of the election, Rutte was able to skillfully handle popular concerns without falling into the populist trap. For example, he reaffirmed his commitment to advocating “Dutch values” in an <a href="https://www.vvd.nl/nieuws/lees-hier-de-brief-van-mark/">open letter</a> published in the country’s major newspapers, and resolutely managed the recent <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2017/mar/12/turkey-and-the-netherlands-clash-over-campaign-access-video-explainer">diplomatic conflict with Turkey</a>. While Rutte faced charges of lapsing into populism himself, his rhetorical concessions were matched by an emphasis on the party’s traditional conservative liberal agenda. Nowhere was this more visible than in the successful defense of the ratification of the EU Association Agreement with Ukraine, which required much <a href="http://www.case-research.eu/uploads/attach/2016-11-05/showCASE.pdf">political maneuvering</a> as well as some <a href="https://www.trouw.nl/home/europees-akkoord-over-oekraine-verdrag~aded10f6/">compromises</a> in the wording of the document.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/793/1*tHtHYP2bRKYmgyGUHyc1_w.jpeg" width="793" height="486" loading="lazy" /> <p>A former Unilever employee, Rutte has served as the nation’s Prime Minister for two consecutive terms since 2010. Both cabinets were committed to pulling the country from crisis (which caused GDP shrinkage of 3.8% in 2009, 1.1% in 2012 and 0.2% in 2013) and consolidating public finances in line with EU recommendations. Rutte’s political affiliation, sustained tenure, and self-proclaimed commitment to “gradual improvement” in lieu of a violent change bear semblance to other dynastic rules of the European right-centrists, such as Germany’s Merkel (since 2005) and Poland’s Tusk (from 2007 to 2014). As in their previous terms, VVD will now have to find coalition parties to form a cabinet with, and the list of potential partners does not include PVV. In fact, prior to the election, all the major parties pledged not to form any kind of coalition with PVV because of Wilders’s extremist leanings.</p> <p>In the coming term, VVD <a href="https://fd.nl/economie-politiek/1189942/vvd-mix-afgestemd-op-banen-en-denivellering">plans</a> to ease tax and social contributions burdens for households, especially middle-income earners, introduce cuts in social security, and bring down the CIT rate for small enterprises from 20% to 17%. These changes are expected to increase employability and encourage consumption, providing a much-needed stimulus to the economy after years of belt-tightening. At the same time, fiscal policy will remain prudent, with cuts in social security (2.7 billion euro) and international cooperation (the same amount) outweighing extra expenditure in defense (1 billion euro) and state security (0.7 billion euro). All in all, VVD’s program appears to be the most sound economically compared to the other parties they defeated, not least of all PVV’s <a href="http://www.pvv.nl/images/Conceptverkiezingsprogrammma.pdf">18-word long</a> dissertation.</p> <p>As a vast alluvial plain, the Netherlands are always vulnerable to flooding. Over the centuries, the Dutch have developed ways to ensure that their country is not swept away by the tides, and it appears they may have just utilized these techniques politically to resist the populist wave covering much of Europe.</p> </section>	The Dutch dam against populism By: Krzysztof Głowacki, Economist, CASE The Dutch parliamentary elections were widely perceived as a litmus test for the populist sentiment in Europe ahead of similar ballots in France and Germany later this year. If this perception is correct, the anti-establishment trend may just have reversed itself. In the election on March 15, the ruling conservative-liberal People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, VVD, won (21%) ahead of Geert Wilders’s populist Party for Freedom, PVV (13%). As many as eleven other parties also made it into parliament, including Christian democrats, social liberals, socialists, and the greens. The elections had a turnout rate of 81%, an impressive result even for the Netherlands, where civic engagement is traditionally high. Media in the Netherlands and in Europe stress the symbolism of the victory of the incumbent Prime Minister Mark Rutte over PVV’s populist Geert Wilders, who had long led in the polls. In anticipation of the election, Rutte was able to skillfully handle popular concerns without falling into the populist trap. For example, he reaffirmed his commitment to advocating “Dutch values” in an open letter published in the country’s major newspapers, and resolutely managed the recent diplomatic conflict with Turkey. While Rutte faced charges of lapsing into populism himself, his rhetorical concessions were matched by an emphasis on the party’s traditional conservative liberal agenda. Nowhere was this more visible than in the successful defense of the ratification of the EU Association Agreement with Ukraine, which required much political maneuvering as well as some compromises in the wording of the document. Source: http://www.ad.nl/verkiezingen/bekijk-hier-de-uitslagen-landelijk-of-per-gemeente~aa11d305/ A former Unilever employee, Rutte has served as the nation’s Prime Minister for two consecutive terms since 2010. Both cabinets were committed to pulling the country from crisis (which caused GDP shrinkage of 3.8% in 2009, 1.1% in 2012 and 0.2% in 2013) and consolidating public finances in line with EU recommendations. Rutte’s political affiliation, sustained tenure, and self-proclaimed commitment to “gradual improvement” in lieu of a violent change bear semblance to other dynastic rules of the European right-centrists, such as Germany’s Merkel (since 2005) and Poland’s Tusk (from 2007 to 2014). As in their previous terms, VVD will now have to find coalition parties to form a cabinet with, and the list of potential partners does not include PVV. In fact, prior to the election, all the major parties pledged not to form any kind of coalition with PVV because of Wilders’s extremist leanings. In the coming term, VVD plans to ease tax and social contributions burdens for households, especially middle-income earners, introduce cuts in social security, and bring down the CIT rate for small enterprises from 20% to 17%. These changes are expected to increase employability and encourage consumption, providing a much-needed stimulus to the economy after years of belt-tightening. At the same time, fiscal policy will remain prudent, with cuts in social security (2.7 billion euro) and international cooperation (the same amount) outweighing extra expenditure in defense (1 billion euro) and state security (0.7 billion euro). All in all, VVD’s program appears to be the most sound economically compared to the other parties they defeated, not least of all PVV’s 18-word long dissertation. As a vast alluvial plain, the Netherlands are always vulnerable to flooding. Over the centuries, the Dutch have developed ways to ensure that their country is not swept away by the tides, and it appears they may have just utilized these techniques politically to resist the populist wave covering much of Europe.	bdbfec31-ae93-5b98-82a8-cb370c18499a	25/08/2025 16:01:13
https://medium.com/ride-the-pine/here-is-your-2013-philadelphia-eagles-cheerleading-squad-458b89be900e	medium.com	Here Is Your 2013 Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleading Squad	null	Alex B.	https://medium.com/@RTPSports	458b89be900e	null	1 min	2016-12-07T14:54:27.787000	2013-04-25T15:50:05	2018-04-28T04:07:17.983000	0	0	en	Bleacher Babes,Cheerleaders,Eagles,Feature	<section> <p>Before the draft, before mini-camps, before OTAs, there is one official sign that its time to start thinking about the upcoming NFL season — cheerleading tryouts.</p> <p>The <strong>Philadelphia Eagles</strong> announced their 2013 squad with an amazing 4 minute video that features the girls prancing around in bikinis, showing off their tremendous assets.</p> <p>Want to give a shout-out to the good people at <a href="http://www.crossingbroad.com/2013/04/i-made-you-a-gif-of-the-2013-eagles-cheerleaders.html">CrossingBroad</a>, who put together a GIF of the video and first brought this video to our attention. We felt that the video was the best four minutes you will spend today on the internet and we needed to provide it for you.</p> <p>I don’t even mind the terrible music but someone needs to fire this camera guy. About 50% of the time the girls’ heads go out of the frame — completely unacceptable.</p> </section>	Here Is Your 2013 Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleading Squad Before the draft, before mini-camps, before OTAs, there is one official sign that its time to start thinking about the upcoming NFL season — cheerleading tryouts. The Philadelphia Eagles announced their 2013 squad with an amazing 4 minute video that features the girls prancing around in bikinis, showing off their tremendous assets. Want to give a shout-out to the good people at CrossingBroad, who put together a GIF of the video and first brought this video to our attention. We felt that the video was the best four minutes you will spend today on the internet and we needed to provide it for you. I don’t even mind the terrible music but someone needs to fire this camera guy. About 50% of the time the girls’ heads go out of the frame — completely unacceptable.	2d3d8f10-c37e-51da-9cb0-8f31a2f4f6f2	25/08/2025 16:01:13
https://vinciousmacabre.medium.com/society-and-its-obsession-with-bullshit-fuck-off-please-d522779ad95d	medium.com	Society and Its Obsession With Bullshit: Fuck Off, Please.	Quite possibly the most irritating, frustrating and unnecessary bullshit that’s filling the world these days is the incessant badgering of…	Shit that Physicist Thinks	https://medium.com/@vinciousmacabre	d522779ad95d	null	2 min	2016-12-21T23:42:47.184000	2016-12-22T00:05:14.672000	2018-03-28T05:17:33.806000	1	1	en	Life,Fuck It,Fuck You,Society,Stupidity	<section> <p>Quite possibly the most irritating, frustrating and unnecessary bullshit that’s filling the world these days is the incessant badgering of annoying mongrels about “bettering yourself” and “mindfulness” and all that other fucking crap about ‘not wasting a second of your life’ and the mass anxiety over death. You know why people make such a big deal out of living? Because they’re terrified of death. But why fear something so simple, so natural? Everything lives and dies. There is absolutely no significance to either one. People <em>need </em>to stop being as exasperating as buzzing little mosquitoes, using anything they possibly can to feel better about who they are.</p> <p>You judge people to feel like less of a piece of shit. You think failure is a reality. Failure is a mere concept dreamed up by humans to make you feel concerned over the stupidest little bullshit. Stop comparing yourself to celebrities, or ANYONE, for that matter. Fame is only a reality because people love to obsess over something to forget how miserable they are; misery they inflict upon themselves. You are you. Comparing yourself to someone else is highly illogical. It’s just impossible to compare people to each other, because there is absolutely no similarity, as everyone is a different. Fucking. Individual. Stop grouping people into categories and stop it with the bullshit generalisations. Just fucking shut the fuck up.</p> <p>Fuck your ‘self improvement’ bullshit. Fuck your so-called motivational speeches. It’s just more of the useless indoctrination we face as children in schools, now brought to our adult lives. Haven’t we had enough broadcasting of stupidity into our minds as kids? There’s only so much you can take in before you realise you’re done absorbing the disgusting, repulsive, repugnant <em>shit </em>everyone is so willing to force down your throat.</p> <p>Society is obsessed. It’s obsessed with making billions of copies of the same damn person.</p> <p>But you know what? Being a writer and a lover of stories and fantasies shows you how brilliant being unique is, how beautiful things can truly be if you just opened up your mind, woke up from your enforced stupor and just <em>dared to use your imagination.</em></p> <p>Inspiration can come from anywhere. Stop worrying so much. Just relax, enjoy yourself, don’t do something because you <em>have </em>to do it, do it because you love it. But you know what? I don’t care if you read this and not listen to me. I don’t want you to agree with me, or do what I say. What you need to do is simply question things. Question what you read. Question me. Question yourself. Don’t be afraid to ponder the universe and declare the whole world wrong.</p> <p>There’s nothing wrong with learning ‘from the greats’, but always question what you learn. There’s nothing wrong with doubting people the masses deem magnificent, brilliant or great. Fuck fear. Take a bungee jump into the unknown.</p> <p>Aren’t you as tired of being afraid of anything as I am?</p> </section>	Society and Its Obsession With Bullshit: Fuck Off, Please. Quite possibly the most irritating, frustrating and unnecessary bullshit that’s filling the world these days is the incessant badgering of annoying mongrels about “bettering yourself” and “mindfulness” and all that other fucking crap about ‘not wasting a second of your life’ and the mass anxiety over death. You know why people make such a big deal out of living? Because they’re terrified of death. But why fear something so simple, so natural? Everything lives and dies. There is absolutely no significance to either one. People need to stop being as exasperating as buzzing little mosquitoes, using anything they possibly can to feel better about who they are. You judge people to feel like less of a piece of shit. You think failure is a reality. Failure is a mere concept dreamed up by humans to make you feel concerned over the stupidest little bullshit. Stop comparing yourself to celebrities, or ANYONE, for that matter. Fame is only a reality because people love to obsess over something to forget how miserable they are; misery they inflict upon themselves. You are you. Comparing yourself to someone else is highly illogical. It’s just impossible to compare people to each other, because there is absolutely no similarity, as everyone is a different. Fucking. Individual. Stop grouping people into categories and stop it with the bullshit generalisations. Just fucking shut the fuck up. Fuck your ‘self improvement’ bullshit. Fuck your so-called motivational speeches. It’s just more of the useless indoctrination we face as children in schools, now brought to our adult lives. Haven’t we had enough broadcasting of stupidity into our minds as kids? There’s only so much you can take in before you realise you’re done absorbing the disgusting, repulsive, repugnant shit everyone is so willing to force down your throat. Society is obsessed. It’s obsessed with making billions of copies of the same damn person. But you know what? Being a writer and a lover of stories and fantasies shows you how brilliant being unique is, how beautiful things can truly be if you just opened up your mind, woke up from your enforced stupor and just dared to use your imagination. Inspiration can come from anywhere. Stop worrying so much. Just relax, enjoy yourself, don’t do something because you have to do it, do it because you love it. But you know what? I don’t care if you read this and not listen to me. I don’t want you to agree with me, or do what I say. What you need to do is simply question things. Question what you read. Question me. Question yourself. Don’t be afraid to ponder the universe and declare the whole world wrong. There’s nothing wrong with learning ‘from the greats’, but always question what you learn. There’s nothing wrong with doubting people the masses deem magnificent, brilliant or great. Fuck fear. Take a bungee jump into the unknown. Aren’t you as tired of being afraid of anything as I am?	d930f8cb-f656-5bc2-baef-67bc5d8aa05e	25/08/2025 16:01:13
https://librariesval.medium.com/these-are-my-confessions-why-you-didnt-know-your-public-library-had-e-books-71d135b7944b	medium.com	These are My Confessions: Why You Didn’t Know Your Public Library Had E-Books	(edited from course discussion post, October 2016)	Valerie Hawkins	https://medium.com/@librariesval	71d135b7944b	https://miro.medium.com/…03z4bNLyB_g.jpeg	3 min	2017-02-24T19:54:55.460000	2017-03-24T01:19:27.331000	2018-01-24T03:08:03.120000	0	0	en	Libraries,Audiobooks,Outreach,eBooks,Public Libraries	<section> <p><em>(edited from course discussion post, October 2016)</em></p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/450/1*l3Ip21TKzHo03z4bNLyB_g.jpeg" width="450" height="450" loading="lazy" /> <p>In the section under the heading, “The Rise of Electronic books (E-books)”, in chapter 5 of Rubin’s 2016 edition of <em>Foundations of Library and Information Science</em>, on page 206, is the statistic that will haunt me forever, from the 2014 Pew Research “E-Reading” survey:</p> <p>Pew… found that many people (58%) were unaware that their library provided access to e-books.</p> <p>So I have a confession to make: It’s my fault.</p> <p>While working at the American Library Association (ALA), I was an administrator on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ILoveLibraries">ALA’s I Love Libraries Facebook Page</a>, since its creation in 2007. I regularly posted news stories about public libraries from all over the USA, and I Love Libraries developed quite a following, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ILoveLibraries/photos/a.10151125909471920.429399.8025091919/10151125909531920/?type=3&theater">reaching 45,000 likes in December 2012</a> (and currently is just shy of 100,000), showing that there was an interest for this kind of information on libraries in social media from the public. <a href="http://www.ilovelibraries.org/">I Love Libraries</a>, overall, was an initiative developed by ALA President Leslie Burger (2006–2007) geared toward library users — as opposed to those in the library profession, which was the intended audience for the separate <a href="https://www.facebook.com/AmericanLibraryAssociation">American Library Association Facebook Page</a>.</p> <p>But here’s where I feel that I dropped the ball. In choosing the news stories to post, I very specifically drew the line at posting the articles that announced a local public library now had ebooks. My reasoning was that such information was just too local, and that there wasn’t a valid reason for someone in Vermont to find out that a public library in a small town in California now had ebooks. Or vice versa.</p> <p><strong>I was wrong.</strong></p> <p>On the face of it, such a local notice wasn’t important to those not in that locality. But collectively, it would have been very important for people to get the message that <strong>public libraries had ebooks</strong>.</p> <p>At the time, I had assumed that people knew that — because ebooks had been around for over a decade by the late 2000s, if you counted all the public domain titles in <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/">Project Gutenberg</a> and other similar online collections. Library websites had links to those existing online ebook collections.</p> <p>And then OverDrive, a digital ebook distributor, had started making inroads into providing newer titles, along with a seamless interface that fit right in to library websites — and, as Rubin also mentions, I do recall the incompatibility issue, that “nearly one in five expressed concern that the e-books available were not compatible with their readers (p. 206)”, which came about when OverDrive quickly became the most popular library ebook vendor, but for a couple of years, none of its electronic text formats could be read on the Amazon Kindle, which had become the most popular e-reader. So I also thought that it was all old news. I had even explained this to a few callers to the ALA Library reference desk, that ebooks weren’t new; the portable and affordable e-readers were, and that’s why there was so much attention.</p> <p>What<strong> <e</strong>m>I</em> didn’t get was that library users had <em><st</em>rong>not</strong> put that together. To highly simplify it, anything new made everything new. And the more I passed over and didn’t post about various individual public libraries having ebooks — and at one point, such articles were coming out every day, two and three at a time — the fewer people got the basic main message: <em><strong>public libraries hav</em>e ebooks</strong>.</p> <p>Now I know it can’t all be laid at my feet. And the real push forward came when <a href="http://company.overdrive.com/overdrive-and-amazon-launch-kindle-compatibility-with-library-ebooks/">OverDrive and Amazon ended their format/reader incompatibility staredown</a>.</p> <p>But I’m aware of it being an area where I could have helped, and didn’t.</p> <p>And so I pay penance with this essay. And just one more thing:</p> <p>PUBLIC LIBRARIES HAVE EBOOKS!</p> <p>P.S. AND AUDIOBOOKS — !</p> <p>P.P.S. Since I’m trying to clear up some misconceptions, did you know that if there’s a college in your neighborhood, especially a public community college, you may be able to use its library and check out materials as a resident — ? Contact the library to find out. And if you can, you’ll find that ACADEMIC LIBRARIES HAVE EBOOKS AND AUDIOBOOKS TOO!</p> <p>P.P.P.S. On a serious note, for a full background on libraries and ebooks — the history of and various pricing and accessibility issues within — view the following resources:</p> <ul> <li>Ongoing <a href="http://www.noshelfrequired.com/">No Shelf Required Blog</a>, now <a href="http://www.noshelfrequired.com/about-us-2/">jointly managed</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.thedigitalshift.com/category/ebooks/">Ongoing archive of Ebooks articles on The Digital Shift</a> website</li> <li><a href="http://www.districtdispatch.org/category/e-books/">Ongoing archive of E-Books posts on District Dispatch Blog</a> of the American Library Association Washington Office</li> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170116084704/http://www.digitalbookworld.com/author/alan-s-inouye/">Archive of articles on Digital Book World by Daniel S. Inouye</a>, director of the Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) of the American Library Association Washington Office — via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine</li> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170716065704/http://www.ala.org/transforminglibraries/e-books-digital-content">E-books & Digital Content section</a> of the American Library Association Libraries Transform website — via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine</li> </ul> <p>Works cited:</p> <p>Rubin, Richard E. (2016) <em>Foundations of Library and Information Science</em> (4th. ed.) Chicago: Neal-Schuman.</p> </section>	These are My Confessions: Why You Didn’t Know Your Public Library Had E-Books (edited from course discussion post, October 2016) 2009 laptop user version of the National Library Symbol In the section under the heading, “The Rise of Electronic books (E-books)”, in chapter 5 of Rubin’s 2016 edition of Foundations of Library and Information Science, on page 206, is the statistic that will haunt me forever, from the 2014 Pew Research “E-Reading” survey: Pew… found that many people (58%) were unaware that their library provided access to e-books. So I have a confession to make: It’s my fault. While working at the American Library Association (ALA), I was an administrator on ALA’s I Love Libraries Facebook Page, since its creation in 2007. I regularly posted news stories about public libraries from all over the USA, and I Love Libraries developed quite a following, reaching 45,000 likes in December 2012 (and currently is just shy of 100,000), showing that there was an interest for this kind of information on libraries in social media from the public. I Love Libraries, overall, was an initiative developed by ALA President Leslie Burger (2006–2007) geared toward library users — as opposed to those in the library profession, which was the intended audience for the separate American Library Association Facebook Page. But here’s where I feel that I dropped the ball. In choosing the news stories to post, I very specifically drew the line at posting the articles that announced a local public library now had ebooks. My reasoning was that such information was just too local, and that there wasn’t a valid reason for someone in Vermont to find out that a public library in a small town in California now had ebooks. Or vice versa. I was wrong. On the face of it, such a local notice wasn’t important to those not in that locality. But collectively, it would have been very important for people to get the message that public libraries had ebooks. At the time, I had assumed that people knew that — because ebooks had been around for over a decade by the late 2000s, if you counted all the public domain titles in Project Gutenberg and other similar online collections. Library websites had links to those existing online ebook collections. And then OverDrive, a digital ebook distributor, had started making inroads into providing newer titles, along with a seamless interface that fit right in to library websites — and, as Rubin also mentions, I do recall the incompatibility issue, that “nearly one in five expressed concern that the e-books available were not compatible with their readers (p. 206)”, which came about when OverDrive quickly became the most popular library ebook vendor, but for a couple of years, none of its electronic text formats could be read on the Amazon Kindle, which had become the most popular e-reader. So I also thought that it was all old news. I had even explained this to a few callers to the ALA Library reference desk, that ebooks weren’t new; the portable and affordable e-readers were, and that’s why there was so much attention. What I didn’t get was that library users had not put that together. To highly simplify it, anything new made everything new. And the more I passed over and didn’t post about various individual public libraries having ebooks — and at one point, such articles were coming out every day, two and three at a time — the fewer people got the basic main message: public libraries have ebooks. Now I know it can’t all be laid at my feet. And the real push forward came when OverDrive and Amazon ended their format/reader incompatibility staredown. But I’m aware of it being an area where I could have helped, and didn’t. And so I pay penance with this essay. And just one more thing: PUBLIC LIBRARIES HAVE EBOOKS! P.S. AND AUDIOBOOKS — ! P.P.S. Since I’m trying to clear up some misconceptions, did you know that if there’s a college in your neighborhood, especially a public community college, you may be able to use its library and check out materials as a resident — ? Contact the library to find out. And if you can, you’ll find that ACADEMIC LIBRARIES HAVE EBOOKS AND AUDIOBOOKS TOO! P.P.P.S. On a serious note, for a full background on libraries and ebooks — the history of and various pricing and accessibility issues within — view the following resources: Ongoing No Shelf Required Blog, now jointly managed Ongoing archive of Ebooks articles on The Digital Shift website Ongoing archive of E-Books posts on District Dispatch Blog of the American Library Association Washington Office Archive of articles on Digital Book World by Daniel S. Inouye, director of the Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) of the American Library Association Washington Office — via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine E-books & Digital Content section of the American Library Association Libraries Transform website — via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine Works cited: Rubin, Richard E. (2016) Foundations of Library and Information Science (4th. ed.) Chicago: Neal-Schuman.	8d0bcd24-2795-5c60-95d6-1fad87b52eaa	25/08/2025 16:01:14
https://xcvvc.medium.com/variables-the-building-blocks-of-programming-2a6175b266ae	medium.com	Variables! — The building blocks of programming	Development allows a connection between assets and actions	Lance Gold	https://medium.com/@xcvvc	2a6175b266ae	https://miro.medium.com/…Zeb5Rvr1J7g.jpeg	3 min	2025-02-19T06:24:43.851000	2025-02-19T21:50:28.416000	2025-02-20T00:22:42.753000	0	0	en	Unity Scripting,C Sharp Programming,Unity Game Development	<section> <p>Development allows a connection between assets and actions</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/229/1uzbUwwf-1t4slWbPfI2kTg.jpeg" width="229" height="184" loading="lazy" /> <p>After creating a folder in the Project frame to hold C-sharp scripts, right click on the folder to create a new C-sharp script. It is important to name the Script correctly while it is newly highlighted. This is because the Script name needs to match the class name as displayed in the Inspector.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/563/121d1FmT9Ej4Zeb5Rvr1J7g.jpeg" width="563" height="445" loading="lazy" /> <p>Click to remove the highlight of the Script name in the Project pane. Double-click to open Microsoft Visual Studio. Double-click again to view the script in Visual Studio.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/499/1YPTcmCnUx_wkqEksd1dfGg.jpeg" width="499" height="507" loading="lazy" /> <p>Verify that the class name matches the Script name.</p> <p>Next attach the script in the Project frame to the Game object in the Hierarchy. Either (a) click ‘Player’ in Script folder and drag to ‘Player’ in Hierarchy, or (b) click and highlight ‘Player’ in Hierarchy and then click and drag ‘Player’ script into the ‘Add Component’ space of the Inspector.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/302/1Bfczopr9pLQeAxDZ-4IKUQ.jpeg" width="302" height="116" loading="lazy" /> <p>Now save project and start coding.</p> <p>Code a starting position for an object.</p> <h3>Initial Position</h3> <p>Identify a component. Here the class is Player, same as in the Hierarchy. The component is Transform, as listed in the Inspector.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/599/1r4gYndxLFLzjMK-XVsW4lg.jpeg" width="599" height="168" loading="lazy" /> <pre><code class="language-csharp">public class Player : MonoBehaviour { ... //take the current position set to position (0,0,0) transform.position = new Vector3(0, 0, 0); ... }</code></pre> <h3>Change Position</h3> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/544/1vjonGE1e4Qi0A1ThsCLY-w.jpeg" width="544" height="67" loading="lazy" /> <p>The help ‘?’ icon opens the Unity manual at the Transform chapter of the manual. To search methods, click from ‘Manual’ to ‘Scripting API’.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/382/1MgSWKnOltyvcHyX_vkVE3Q.jpeg" width="382" height="159" loading="lazy" /> <p>“Position, rotation and scale…” is the search choice. ‘Translate’ is the desired method which can move the transform.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/775/1DbmQSKyUgH8I71EdHtypHw.jpeg" width="775" height="57" loading="lazy" /> <pre><code class="language-csharp">void Update() { transform.Translate(Vector3.right); // or also transform.Translate(1,0,0); // one unit is one meter, at frame rate }</code></pre> <p>Save Visual Studio updated file before running the Unity project</p> <h3>Movement Speed</h3> <pre><code class="language-csharp">void Update() { transform.Translate(Vector3.right * Time.deltaTime); }</code></pre> <p>deltaTime is the time elapsed since the previous Unity update cycle, so if there was 1/60th second delta’d from the prior cycle, deltaTime = float 0.0166something.</p> <h3>No hard coded Unity component values</h3> <p>Create variables to hold component values in the C-sharp script.</p> <pre><code class="language-csharp">public class Player : MonoBehaviour { // speed variable for Player movement // declare variables outside of Unity loops public float speed = 5f; ... void Update() { transform.Translate(Vector3.right * speed * Time.deltaTime); // instead of using 'Vector3.right * 5 * Time.deltaTime' } }</code></pre> <p>‘speed’ is declared inside of the ‘Player’ class, but outside of either ‘Start()’ or ‘Update()’ or any other methods. It can be either ‘public’ or ‘private’. A variable declared inside a method is ‘local’ to the method and does not have a ‘public’ or ‘private’.</p> <p>When declared ‘public’, the variable is viewed as a script component for adjustment in the Unity Inspector.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/378/1E_QciiXTiB0iuw_2N-dDKQ.jpeg" width="378" height="101" loading="lazy" /> <p>Click the 3-dot icon to choose ‘Reset’ to change value to what is initiated in the script code.</p> <p>When declared ‘private’, the component disappears from the Inspector. Also, it is helpful to prefix an underscore ‘_’ for private variables.</p> <pre><code class="language-csharp">private float _speed = 5f; ... transform.Translate(Vector3.right _speed * Time.deltaTime);</code></pre> <p>Use ‘[SerializeField]’ to allow private variables to be manipulated in the Inspector, but not available to other objects outside the class</p> <pre><code class="language-csharp">[SerializeField] // no semicolon ';' private float _speed = 5f;</code></pre> </section>	Variables! — The building blocks of programming Development allows a connection between assets and actions Create a Scripts folder to contain all Project Scripts After creating a folder in the Project frame to hold C-sharp scripts, right click on the folder to create a new C-sharp script. It is important to name the Script correctly while it is newly highlighted. This is because the Script name needs to match the class name as displayed in the Inspector. The script name must match the class name in C-sharp Click to remove the highlight of the Script name in the Project pane. Double-click to open Microsoft Visual Studio. Double-click again to view the script in Visual Studio. Viewing script in Visual Studio Verify that the class name matches the Script name. Next attach the script in the Project frame to the Game object in the Hierarchy. Either (a) click ‘Player’ in Script folder and drag to ‘Player’ in Hierarchy, or (b) click and highlight ‘Player’ in Hierarchy and then click and drag ‘Player’ script into the ‘Add Component’ space of the Inspector. Player script listed in Inspector of Player Game object Now save project and start coding. Code a starting position for an object. Initial Position Identify a component. Here the class is Player, same as in the Hierarchy. The component is Transform, as listed in the Inspector. Matching class and component names to Hierarchy and Inspector public class Player : MonoBehaviour { ... //take the current position set to position (0,0,0) transform.position = new Vector3(0, 0, 0); ... } Change Position The Open Reference tool tip from the ‘?’ icon The help ‘?’ icon opens the Unity manual at the Transform chapter of the manual. To search methods, click from ‘Manual’ to ‘Scripting API’. Top result after search for Transform API “Position, rotation and scale…” is the search choice. ‘Translate’ is the desired method which can move the transform. The ‘Translate’ method moves the transform void Update() { transform.Translate(Vector3.right); // or also transform.Translate(1,0,0); // one unit is one meter, at frame rate } Save Visual Studio updated file before running the Unity project Movement Speed void Update() { transform.Translate(Vector3.right * Time.deltaTime); } deltaTime is the time elapsed since the previous Unity update cycle, so if there was 1/60th second delta’d from the prior cycle, deltaTime = float 0.0166something. No hard coded Unity component values Create variables to hold component values in the C-sharp script. public class Player : MonoBehaviour { // speed variable for Player movement // declare variables outside of Unity loops public float speed = 5f; ... void Update() { transform.Translate(Vector3.right * speed * Time.deltaTime); // instead of using 'Vector3.right * 5 * Time.deltaTime' } } ‘speed’ is declared inside of the ‘Player’ class, but outside of either ‘Start()’ or ‘Update()’ or any other methods. It can be either ‘public’ or ‘private’. A variable declared inside a method is ‘local’ to the method and does not have a ‘public’ or ‘private’. When declared ‘public’, the variable is viewed as a script component for adjustment in the Unity Inspector. View public script variables in the Unity Inspector Click the 3-dot icon to choose ‘Reset’ to change value to what is initiated in the script code. When declared ‘private’, the component disappears from the Inspector. Also, it is helpful to prefix an underscore ‘_’ for private variables. private float _speed = 5f; ... transform.Translate(Vector3.right * _speed * Time.deltaTime); Use ‘[SerializeField]’ to allow private variables to be manipulated in the Inspector, but not available to other objects outside the class [SerializeField] // no semicolon ';' private float _speed = 5f;	c021a461-072b-5ad7-8c1e-de2efe430a2b	25/08/2025 16:01:14
https://medium.com/@angelstlling/axia-consultants-software-project-budget-6ea9c97ca8a8	medium.com	Axia Consultants — Software Project Budget	25 tips for a more timely and accurate budget	Angel Stallings	https://medium.com/@angelstlling	6ea9c97ca8a8	null	3 min	2016-06-17T00:17:03.165000	2016-06-17T00:20:18.824000	2016-06-17T00:20:18.824000	0	0	en	Project Management,Agile	<section> <p>25 tips for a more timely and accurate budget</p> <p>The budget for a new software project is a key component in the ROI calculations. Here are 25 tips for obtaining a more timely and accurate budget:</p> <p><strong><a href="https://donna</strong>moskowitz1.wordpress.com/2016/06/16/why-change-your-present-system-by-axia-consultants-rfi-rfp-accounting-software/">Project budget process</a></p> <p>1. Determine your budget process eg</p> <p>- the steps required to gather the information</p> <p>- the time scales for your budget process and key dates</p> <p>- the deliverable(s) required</p> <p>- who is involved and what resources are available</p> <p>- the formal review stages</p> <p>- the number of project budget iterations and re-workings</p> <p>- how any budgetary disagreements should be resolved</p> <p>2. Is one person to be in overall charge of calculating the project budget? Or will various sections of the budget be allocated to team members to complete and then be consolidated together?</p> <p>3. Ideally there should be input from a number of people associated with the software project. So arrange for contributions from the project manager, project leader, information systems manager, key users, steering group members, vendors (for software quotes) and procurement.</p> <p>4. Remember, your first calculation of the budget is just that — your best estimates and (educated) guesses at the time. Treat the budget calculations as ongoing ‘work-in-progress’ and continually refine and revise, until the budget is approved / finalised. But even after approval, unforeseen events and project changes can force a budget to be revised or reforecast.</p> <p><strong><a href="htt</strong>p://imgfave.com/view/7155391">Budget costs</a></p> <p>5. Determine what you are including within your project budget. Include only in-scope items. Exclude all non-scope items. But keep a list of excluded items, so they may be included or budgeted for at a later stage, if required.</p> <p>6. Identify and itemise all project costs</p> <p>7. Determine if you are working on an incremental cost basis (ie only including new or additional costs for your organisation). Or whether you are working on a full costing basis (ie including the project’s share of allocated costs incurred within the organisation). If including allocated costs, do so, on a consistent and agreed basis.</p> <p>8. For purchases, include shipping and sales taxes (eg VAT) if unable to reclaim them.</p> <p>9. Cost all tasks within the project plan. Initially labour costs can be estimated as the number of days x their estimated cost. Later on, more accuracy may be achieved by working in hours and an hourly rate.</p> <p>10. Ensure daily or hourly labour rates include: salary + benefits + pension + social security costs ie the total labour costs.</p> <p>11. Review other software projects / staff performance to get an idea of how long people take to complete specific tasks.</p> <p>12. State your budget assumptions — so if these change, the budget can easily be changed.</p> <p><strong><a href="htt</strong>p://docslide.us/marketing/why-change-your-present-system-by-axia-consultants-rfi-rfp-accounting-software.html">Budget risks</a></p> <p>13. The total project budget is the sum of the itemised estimated costs plus contingency for project risk. Typically, contingency (for project risk) can range from 5% of costs for a small quick project, to 30% or more for a large, complex or long project.</p> <p>14. One option for calculating contingency is to simply add a percentage to the total costs, based on your best estimate. However, for more accuracy, you could identify the known and potential risks and then estimate a contingency for each project cost item. Risks can include: the number of software modules, the number and experience / skills of resources, project dependencies, critical dates, time shortages, implementing over multiple locations, new technology and costs yet to be negotiated.</p> <p><strong><a href="http</strong>://www.thepetitionsite.com/366/247/662/why-change-your-present-system-by-axia-consultants-rfi-rfp-accounting-software/">Budget review</a></p> <p>15. Regularly review the budget, both on an informal and formal basis. Whilst the total project budget cost is important, are there any components which look high, low or unusual? What is the budgeted project cost per user (total project budget costs divided by number of users)?</p> <p>16. Look out for obvious over or under budgetary estimates — attempt to be as realistic as possible.</p> <p>17. Compare your calculations with those from the software vendor. What is their estimated total cost for your project / organisation? What is their typical total project cost and typical cost per user, for projects that they have undertaken elsewhere?</p> <p>18. Compare with other projects within your organisation and their deliverables, original budgets, actual costs, over / under budget analyses.</p> <p>19. Is your budget broadly ½ software and ½ labour (ie excluding hardware expenditure within the project)? Or is it roughly one third each for software, hardware and labour (if replacing hardware)? If not, re-examine your costs.</p> <p>20. Are the budgetary items and their costs included in the correct year? Is the budgetary phasing / timing accurate? Have any warranty periods been included, prior to the commencement of annual (maintenance) costs? Would greater accuracy be achieved by phasing costs over months or quarters, rather than in years?</p> <p>21. Are there any budgetary disagreements awaiting resolution? If so, are there project cost implications and have these been included within the budget?</p> <p>22. Is the contingency for project risk large enough? What is used for other similar projects within your organisation? Can an increase be justified?</p> <p>23. Have the budgetary calculations been checked for any spreadsheet errors? If not, double check.</p> <p>24. Have all budget amendments been documented and reviewed? If not, add amendments into the budget and review accordingly.</p> <p>25. Has the budget been independently reviewed eg by another project team member or by a member of the finance department?</p> </section>	Axia Consultants — Software Project Budget 25 tips for a more timely and accurate budget The budget for a new software project is a key component in the ROI calculations. Here are 25 tips for obtaining a more timely and accurate budget: Project budget process 1. Determine your budget process eg - the steps required to gather the information - the time scales for your budget process and key dates - the deliverable(s) required - who is involved and what resources are available - the formal review stages - the number of project budget iterations and re-workings - how any budgetary disagreements should be resolved 2. Is one person to be in overall charge of calculating the project budget? Or will various sections of the budget be allocated to team members to complete and then be consolidated together? 3. Ideally there should be input from a number of people associated with the software project. So arrange for contributions from the project manager, project leader, information systems manager, key users, steering group members, vendors (for software quotes) and procurement. 4. Remember, your first calculation of the budget is just that — your best estimates and (educated) guesses at the time. Treat the budget calculations as ongoing ‘work-in-progress’ and continually refine and revise, until the budget is approved / finalised. But even after approval, unforeseen events and project changes can force a budget to be revised or reforecast. Budget costs 5. Determine what you are including within your project budget. Include only in-scope items. Exclude all non-scope items. But keep a list of excluded items, so they may be included or budgeted for at a later stage, if required. 6. Identify and itemise all project costs 7. Determine if you are working on an incremental cost basis (ie only including new or additional costs for your organisation). Or whether you are working on a full costing basis (ie including the project’s share of allocated costs incurred within the organisation). If including allocated costs, do so, on a consistent and agreed basis. 8. For purchases, include shipping and sales taxes (eg VAT) if unable to reclaim them. 9. Cost all tasks within the project plan. Initially labour costs can be estimated as the number of days x their estimated cost. Later on, more accuracy may be achieved by working in hours and an hourly rate. 10. Ensure daily or hourly labour rates include: salary + benefits + pension + social security costs ie the total labour costs. 11. Review other software projects / staff performance to get an idea of how long people take to complete specific tasks. 12. State your budget assumptions — so if these change, the budget can easily be changed. Budget risks 13. The total project budget is the sum of the itemised estimated costs plus contingency for project risk. Typically, contingency (for project risk) can range from 5% of costs for a small quick project, to 30% or more for a large, complex or long project. 14. One option for calculating contingency is to simply add a percentage to the total costs, based on your best estimate. However, for more accuracy, you could identify the known and potential risks and then estimate a contingency for each project cost item. Risks can include: the number of software modules, the number and experience / skills of resources, project dependencies, critical dates, time shortages, implementing over multiple locations, new technology and costs yet to be negotiated. Budget review 15. Regularly review the budget, both on an informal and formal basis. Whilst the total project budget cost is important, are there any components which look high, low or unusual? What is the budgeted project cost per user (total project budget costs divided by number of users)? 16. Look out for obvious over or under budgetary estimates — attempt to be as realistic as possible. 17. Compare your calculations with those from the software vendor. What is their estimated total cost for your project / organisation? What is their typical total project cost and typical cost per user, for projects that they have undertaken elsewhere? 18. Compare with other projects within your organisation and their deliverables, original budgets, actual costs, over / under budget analyses. 19. Is your budget broadly ½ software and ½ labour (ie excluding hardware expenditure within the project)? Or is it roughly one third each for software, hardware and labour (if replacing hardware)? If not, re-examine your costs. 20. Are the budgetary items and their costs included in the correct year? Is the budgetary phasing / timing accurate? Have any warranty periods been included, prior to the commencement of annual (maintenance) costs? Would greater accuracy be achieved by phasing costs over months or quarters, rather than in years? 21. Are there any budgetary disagreements awaiting resolution? If so, are there project cost implications and have these been included within the budget? 22. Is the contingency for project risk large enough? What is used for other similar projects within your organisation? Can an increase be justified? 23. Have the budgetary calculations been checked for any spreadsheet errors? If not, double check. 24. Have all budget amendments been documented and reviewed? If not, add amendments into the budget and review accordingly. 25. Has the budget been independently reviewed eg by another project team member or by a member of the finance department?	4b9d6577-a162-54c9-833b-3ad6bac73e87	25/08/2025 16:01:14
https://medium.com/@Theo7_Collectives/77-things-once-considered-pseudoscience-that-turned-out-to-be-true-64e48ef5e316	medium.com	77 Things Once Considered Pseudoscience That Turned Out to Be True	Presented by Theo 7 Collectives \| @seventh_time777 IG	Theo 7 Collectives	https://medium.com/@Theo7_Collectives	64e48ef5e316	https://miro.medium.com/…[email protected]	4 min	2025-04-02T20:25:15.358000	2025-04-02T20:36:19.095000	2025-04-02T21:27:59.116000	0	51	en	Science,AI,Spiritual Awakening,Tech,Technology	<section> <p>77 Things Once Considered Pseudoscience That Turned Out to Be True</p> <p>Presented by Theo 7 Collectives \| @seventh_time777 IG</p> <p>“Every great truth begins as a blasphemy.” — George Bernard Shaw</p> <p>From ancient practices to modern science, many ideas were once labeled as fringe, mystical, or flat-out nonsense. Today, these same concepts are being validated, studied, or integrated into mainstream systems. This list is a monument to the power of vision, resistance to dogma, and the return of ancient truths.</p> <p>⸻</p> <p>I. Medicine & Healing</p> <p>1. Germs cause disease — Before germ theory, illness was blamed on bad air and spirits.</p> <p>2. Handwashing saves lives — Ignaz Semmelweis was ridiculed for promoting it in hospitals.</p> <p>3. Helicobacter pylori causes ulcers — Barry Marshall had to infect himself to prove it.</p> <p>4. Circadian rhythms affect health — Once mysticism, now backed by chronobiology.</p> <p>5. The placebo effect — Mind’s influence on healing is now scientifically undeniable.</p> <p>6. Gut-brain connection — The microbiome’s role in mood and cognition is now proven.</p> <p>7. Meditation changes the brain — Once “woo,” now verified by fMRI and EEG.</p> <p>8. Fasting improves health — Now studied for autophagy, longevity, and insulin regulation.</p> <p>9. Acupuncture affects neural pathways — Recognized by the NIH for pain and nausea.</p> <p>10. Cannabis has medicinal benefits — Long demonized, now legally prescribed.</p> <p>11. Energy fields around the body (biofield) — Studied in integrative and holistic medicine.</p> <p>12. The vagus nerve as a healing superhighway — Essential to the parasympathetic nervous system.</p> <p>13. Trauma lives in the body (somatic memory) — Validated through somatic experiencing and neuroscience.</p> <p>14. Crying releases stress hormones — Proven to chemically reduce emotional pressure.</p> <p>15. Intermittent fasting regenerates cells — Supported by Nobel-winning research on autophagy.</p> <p>16. Tapping (EFT) reduces anxiety and trauma — Once fringe, now used by certified therapists.</p> <p>17. Sound frequency healing (528 Hz, 432 Hz, etc.) — Gaining traction in vibrational medicine.</p> <p>18. Emotions affect physical health (psychosomatic) — Now foundational in integrative health.</p> <p>19. Walking barefoot (earthing) balances the nervous system — Studied for anti-inflammatory benefits.</p> <p>20. Plants respond to human energy — Shown in polygraph experiments and biocommunication studies.</p> <p>21. DNA can be affected by thoughts and intention — Explored in epigenetics and quantum biology.</p> <p>22. Trauma can be inherited (epigenetic memory) — Documented in humans and mice.</p> <p>23. Visualization can build muscle strength — Used in athletic and rehabilitation training.</p> <p>24. Hearing voices (clairaudience) not always mental illness — Explored by the Hearing Voices Movement.</p> <p>25. People can sense when being watched — Tested repeatedly with statistical significance.</p> <p>26. Premonitions and intuition have neurological roots — Studied under anticipatory response theory.</p> <p>27. Shamanic healing affects brainwave states — Confirmed through EEG studies.</p> <p>28. DMT is naturally produced in the body (pineal gland link) — Currently under investigation.</p> <p>29. Music changes the physical structure of the brain — Backed by studies in neuroplasticity.</p> <p>30. Orgone energy (Wilhelm Reich) — Once suppressed, now re-examined in fringe research.</p> <p>31. People can influence random number generators (consciousness field) — Proven in PEAR Lab experiments.</p> <p>32. Water responds to words and emotions (Masaru Emoto) — Reproduced in independent fringe studies.</p> <p>33. Laughter therapy reduces cortisol and boosts immunity — Verified by clinical trials.</p> <p>34. Magnetic therapy for pain relief — Used in physical therapy and sports medicine.</p> <p>35. Human aura can be photographed (Kirlian photography) — Studied under biofield research.</p> <p>36. Ancient psychedelics used for healing and consciousness expansion — Supported by psilocybin and ayahuasca research.</p> <p>37. Dreams can help solve real-world problems — Recognized by modern sleep science.</p> <p>38. Tuning forks and vibration therapy regulate nervous system — Now used in trauma-informed somatic healing.</p> <p>39. Sacred geometry influences biology and architecture — Seen in DNA, cells, and ecosystems.</p> <p>40. The moon affects behavior (lunar effect) — Studied in hospital admissions and mood cycles.</p> <p>41. Solar activity affects human consciousness — Correlated with behavior and emotional changes.</p> <p>42. Human heart emits an electromagnetic field — Documented by the HeartMath Institute.</p> <p>43. Astral projection / out-of-body experiences — Researched by military and scientists.</p> <p>44. Children remember past lives — Studied by Dr. Ian Stevenson and Dr. Jim Tucker.</p> <p>⸻</p> <p>II. Physics, Space & Energy</p> <p>45. Earth orbits the sun — Once punishable by death, now obvious.</p> <p>46. The universe is expanding — Edwin Hubble proved what others mocked.</p> <p>47. Time dilation (Einstein’s relativity) — Seemed absurd, now tested with atomic clocks.</p> <p>48. Quantum entanglement — “Spooky action” now used in quantum computing.</p> <p>49. Multiverses — From sci-fi to theoretical physics.</p> <p>50. Black holes — Confirmed via gravitational wave detections.</p> <p>51. Light behaves as both a particle and a wave — Double-slit experiment confirmed this duality.</p> <p>52. Sound can levitate objects (acoustic levitation) — Demonstrated in modern labs.</p> <p>53. Everything is energy at its core — Core principle of quantum field theory.</p> <p>54. Water has memory — Studied in quantum and homeopathic research.</p> <p>55. Continental drift theory — Once mocked, now known as plate tectonics.</p> <p>56. Weather manipulation (cloud seeding) — Practiced worldwide.</p> <p>57. Climate change due to human activity — Denied for decades, now mainstream.</p> <p>58. Trees communicate underground — “Wood Wide Web” confirmed.</p> <p>59. Animals sense earthquakes in advance — Studied in behavior and geophysics.</p> <p>60. Trees emit ultrasonic sounds — Recently discovered.</p> <p>61. The sun influences human biology — Affects mood, behavior, and hormonal cycles.</p> <p>⸻</p> <p>III. Technology, Mind & Society</p> <p>62. Wireless communication — Once science fiction.</p> <p>63. Electricity as a force of nature — Initially dismissed and feared.</p> <p>64. The internet — Considered a fringe government experiment.</p> <p>65. AI that can think and learn — Now central to global technology.</p> <p>66. Voice-activated devices — Fantasy just decades ago.</p> <p>67. Binaural beats influencing the brain — Integrated into therapy and meditation.</p> <p>68. Color therapy — Used in psychology, marketing, and healthcare.</p> <p>69. EMF sensitivity in humans — Recognized in some European medical communities.</p> <p>70. Cryotherapy enhances physical performance — Now routine in sports recovery.</p> <p>71. Sound therapy in hospitals — Used for stress reduction and healing.</p> <p>72. Virtual reality healing phobias — Proven effective in clinical settings.</p> <p>73. Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) — Real-time mind-to-machine communication.</p> <p>74. Mind-over-matter (PK studies) — Supported by random number generator shifts.</p> <p>75. Emotion-coded language affects biology — Studied in neurolinguistics.</p> <p>76. Prayer influencing healing outcomes — Studied under double-blind protocols.</p> <p>77. Words and frequency affecting AI behavior — Emerging in machine learning ethics and NLP.</p> <p>⸻</p> <p>Final Thought</p> <p>What they called “pseudo” was often a signal of truth ahead of its time.</p> <p>Theo 7 Collectives is here to reawaken the sacred sciences.</p> <p>Follow: @seventh_time777 IG</p> <p>Founder: Theo 7 Collectives</p> </section>	77 Things Once Considered Pseudoscience That Turned Out to Be True Presented by Theo 7 Collectives \| @seventh_time777 IG “Every great truth begins as a blasphemy.” — George Bernard Shaw From ancient practices to modern science, many ideas were once labeled as fringe, mystical, or flat-out nonsense. Today, these same concepts are being validated, studied, or integrated into mainstream systems. This list is a monument to the power of vision, resistance to dogma, and the return of ancient truths. ⸻ I. Medicine & Healing 1. Germs cause disease — Before germ theory, illness was blamed on bad air and spirits. 2. Handwashing saves lives — Ignaz Semmelweis was ridiculed for promoting it in hospitals. 3. Helicobacter pylori causes ulcers — Barry Marshall had to infect himself to prove it. 4. Circadian rhythms affect health — Once mysticism, now backed by chronobiology. 5. The placebo effect — Mind’s influence on healing is now scientifically undeniable. 6. Gut-brain connection — The microbiome’s role in mood and cognition is now proven. 7. Meditation changes the brain — Once “woo,” now verified by fMRI and EEG. 8. Fasting improves health — Now studied for autophagy, longevity, and insulin regulation. 9. Acupuncture affects neural pathways — Recognized by the NIH for pain and nausea. 10. Cannabis has medicinal benefits — Long demonized, now legally prescribed. 11. Energy fields around the body (biofield) — Studied in integrative and holistic medicine. 12. The vagus nerve as a healing superhighway — Essential to the parasympathetic nervous system. 13. Trauma lives in the body (somatic memory) — Validated through somatic experiencing and neuroscience. 14. Crying releases stress hormones — Proven to chemically reduce emotional pressure. 15. Intermittent fasting regenerates cells — Supported by Nobel-winning research on autophagy. 16. Tapping (EFT) reduces anxiety and trauma — Once fringe, now used by certified therapists. 17. Sound frequency healing (528 Hz, 432 Hz, etc.) — Gaining traction in vibrational medicine. 18. Emotions affect physical health (psychosomatic) — Now foundational in integrative health. 19. Walking barefoot (earthing) balances the nervous system — Studied for anti-inflammatory benefits. 20. Plants respond to human energy — Shown in polygraph experiments and biocommunication studies. 21. DNA can be affected by thoughts and intention — Explored in epigenetics and quantum biology. 22. Trauma can be inherited (epigenetic memory) — Documented in humans and mice. 23. Visualization can build muscle strength — Used in athletic and rehabilitation training. 24. Hearing voices (clairaudience) not always mental illness — Explored by the Hearing Voices Movement. 25. People can sense when being watched — Tested repeatedly with statistical significance. 26. Premonitions and intuition have neurological roots — Studied under anticipatory response theory. 27. Shamanic healing affects brainwave states — Confirmed through EEG studies. 28. DMT is naturally produced in the body (pineal gland link) — Currently under investigation. 29. Music changes the physical structure of the brain — Backed by studies in neuroplasticity. 30. Orgone energy (Wilhelm Reich) — Once suppressed, now re-examined in fringe research. 31. People can influence random number generators (consciousness field) — Proven in PEAR Lab experiments. 32. Water responds to words and emotions (Masaru Emoto) — Reproduced in independent fringe studies. 33. Laughter therapy reduces cortisol and boosts immunity — Verified by clinical trials. 34. Magnetic therapy for pain relief — Used in physical therapy and sports medicine. 35. Human aura can be photographed (Kirlian photography) — Studied under biofield research. 36. Ancient psychedelics used for healing and consciousness expansion — Supported by psilocybin and ayahuasca research. 37. Dreams can help solve real-world problems — Recognized by modern sleep science. 38. Tuning forks and vibration therapy regulate nervous system — Now used in trauma-informed somatic healing. 39. Sacred geometry influences biology and architecture — Seen in DNA, cells, and ecosystems. 40. The moon affects behavior (lunar effect) — Studied in hospital admissions and mood cycles. 41. Solar activity affects human consciousness — Correlated with behavior and emotional changes. 42. Human heart emits an electromagnetic field — Documented by the HeartMath Institute. 43. Astral projection / out-of-body experiences — Researched by military and scientists. 44. Children remember past lives — Studied by Dr. Ian Stevenson and Dr. Jim Tucker. ⸻ II. Physics, Space & Energy 45. Earth orbits the sun — Once punishable by death, now obvious. 46. The universe is expanding — Edwin Hubble proved what others mocked. 47. Time dilation (Einstein’s relativity) — Seemed absurd, now tested with atomic clocks. 48. Quantum entanglement — “Spooky action” now used in quantum computing. 49. Multiverses — From sci-fi to theoretical physics. 50. Black holes — Confirmed via gravitational wave detections. 51. Light behaves as both a particle and a wave — Double-slit experiment confirmed this duality. 52. Sound can levitate objects (acoustic levitation) — Demonstrated in modern labs. 53. Everything is energy at its core — Core principle of quantum field theory. 54. Water has memory — Studied in quantum and homeopathic research. 55. Continental drift theory — Once mocked, now known as plate tectonics. 56. Weather manipulation (cloud seeding) — Practiced worldwide. 57. Climate change due to human activity — Denied for decades, now mainstream. 58. Trees communicate underground — “Wood Wide Web” confirmed. 59. Animals sense earthquakes in advance — Studied in behavior and geophysics. 60. Trees emit ultrasonic sounds — Recently discovered. 61. The sun influences human biology — Affects mood, behavior, and hormonal cycles. ⸻ III. Technology, Mind & Society 62. Wireless communication — Once science fiction. 63. Electricity as a force of nature — Initially dismissed and feared. 64. The internet — Considered a fringe government experiment. 65. AI that can think and learn — Now central to global technology. 66. Voice-activated devices — Fantasy just decades ago. 67. Binaural beats influencing the brain — Integrated into therapy and meditation. 68. Color therapy — Used in psychology, marketing, and healthcare. 69. EMF sensitivity in humans — Recognized in some European medical communities. 70. Cryotherapy enhances physical performance — Now routine in sports recovery. 71. Sound therapy in hospitals — Used for stress reduction and healing. 72. Virtual reality healing phobias — Proven effective in clinical settings. 73. Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) — Real-time mind-to-machine communication. 74. Mind-over-matter (PK studies) — Supported by random number generator shifts. 75. Emotion-coded language affects biology — Studied in neurolinguistics. 76. Prayer influencing healing outcomes — Studied under double-blind protocols. 77. Words and frequency affecting AI behavior — Emerging in machine learning ethics and NLP. ⸻ Final Thought What they called “pseudo” was often a signal of truth ahead of its time. Theo 7 Collectives is here to reawaken the sacred sciences. Follow: @seventh_time777 IG Founder: Theo 7 Collectives	b3a8b0b1-e17a-5329-bcbc-b551f79e8d90	25/08/2025 16:01:14
https://marcel-achermann.medium.com/the-art-of-letting-go-8a30023316b9	medium.com	The Art of Letting Go	The ‘Good’ cannot begin until the ‘Bad’ ends. Ending ‘Bad’ sounds good and easy in theory, but why is it sometimes so difficult to let go…	Marcel Achermann	https://medium.com/@marcel-achermann	8a30023316b9	https://miro.medium.com/…iLA8ULfCqUvA.png	3 min	2023-11-01T12:41:00.920000	2023-11-01T12:42:20.461000	2024-10-23T13:18:19.151000	0	0	en	Letting Go,Change,Endings,Ending A Relationship	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1006/1zdcSeAzffgiLA8ULfCqUvA.png" width="1006" height="1516" loading="lazy" /> <p>The ‘Good’ cannot begin until the ‘Bad’ ends. Ending ‘Bad’ sounds good and easy in theory, but why is it sometimes so difficult to let go of things, people, situations?</p> <p>Well, to start with, it’s not always easy to have a clear view on the ‘Bad’ and being able to grasp the idea of ‘Good’.</p> <p>Humans are creatures of habit and keeping the status quo (as bad as it may be) does one thing very well: it spares you from the fear of uncertainty and the temporary pain of change. So your mind plays all kinds of tricks on you, negotiating with you, rationalizing, hoping, ignoring, affirming. At the same time, your resources get depleted and you finally lack the energy required to act. And as there is no compelling event, no actual trigger point, no moment of unbearable pain, you do…nothing.</p> <p>So what can you do instead?</p> <h3><strong>See endings as normal, not a problem</strong></h3> <p>In the end, that’s what life is: a never-ending stream of beginnings and endings. Yes, this sounds trivial, but accepting endings as something natural will help counteract the status-preserving games of your mind. Ending something does not necessarily mean, that you failed.</p> <h3><strong>Recognize the abundance of life</strong></h3> <p>No, you will not die in solitude if you lose this person, nor you end up sleeping under a bridge if you lose this job. Life is abundant with opportunities. The problem is, you’ll be unable to see those if you’re holding on. Not only will letting go make you aware of new possibilities, you will attract them.</p> <h3><strong>Mind the “Opportunity Costs”</strong></h3> <p>‘Opportunity costs’ is a common term in business. Your resources like time, energy, money are finite. (Not) doing something always has a cost: the missed benefit of opportunities that you excluded by just that. The missed benefits of ‘Good’ can be huge. Try to feel the possible ‘Goods’ with all your senses. Visualize them. Dwell in the future. The cost of letting go may suddenly seem not that big after all.</p> <h3><strong>Reflect yourself and get real</strong></h3> <p>Be aware of your own patterns. Do you have an abnormally high pain threshold? Are there co-dependence mechanics at play? Do past experiences taint your view? How’s your perception of self-worth impacting your thinking?</p> <p>Objectify your perception of reality and tune your decision making process. See the difference between casual problems versus patterns, empty wishing versus justified hoping that things will change. Don’t overthink: the past is an excellent predictor.</p> <h3><strong>Create urgency</strong></h3> <p>Build the energy and the momentum to make a change. Create that compelling event, that trigger point. Set a deadline, create social pressure by involving the people around you, bring the future of not having made the change to the present moment (how does it feel, if in 3 years from now things have not changed for the better, but have even gotten worse?).</p> <h3><strong>End things well</strong></h3> <p>When you reach the point where you’ve made a decision, visualize the transition and devise a plan. Evidently, significant ‘Let Gos’ rarely occur in a single instant but rather unfold as a process that requires adaptation — not only from you but also from other individuals involved that are on the receiving end of your decision. Be aware that a lack of empathy can cause significant distress and even traumatize people. So, don’t be that person who doesn’t care.</p> <h3><strong>Metabolize the pain and move on</strong></h3> <p>Make no mistake, the process of letting go can be extremely difficult in some instances. Even if you are the one who pulls the trigger. Selling the business that you’ve built with blood and tears, ending that long-term relationship…sometimes, this is no different than separating from a part of yourself, a process that can be as painful as cutting off your own leg. You may experience symptoms of withdrawal, just like a drug addict on cold turkey. Don’t be surprised if the pain hits you with a delay.</p> <p>If you feel that way, it’s because you are human. Nothing’s wrong with you. View pain as a part of healing and growing (maybe there’s at least some truth in this one: the pain leaves when it’s done teaching you).</p> <p>Pain often comes from dwelling in the past. Letting go means leaving the past behind. Our brain is a self-healing machine. Trust that time will help by making the memories fade which keep you hooked today. Be disciplined, don’t feed them with your attention and focus on the future instead with all the new, magnificent opportunities it brings.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1170/1qtPrdf6l_1aFR3PV6JyZ8Q.jpeg" width="1170" height="1252" loading="lazy" /> <p>We all have our ‘Letting Go’ stories, or are currently stuck with things that are overdue for change. What are yours?</p> <p>#lettinggo #letgo #ending #relationship #business #job</p> </section>	The Art of Letting Go The ‘Good’ cannot begin until the ‘Bad’ ends. Ending ‘Bad’ sounds good and easy in theory, but why is it sometimes so difficult to let go of things, people, situations? Well, to start with, it’s not always easy to have a clear view on the ‘Bad’ and being able to grasp the idea of ‘Good’. Humans are creatures of habit and keeping the status quo (as bad as it may be) does one thing very well: it spares you from the fear of uncertainty and the temporary pain of change. So your mind plays all kinds of tricks on you, negotiating with you, rationalizing, hoping, ignoring, affirming. At the same time, your resources get depleted and you finally lack the energy required to act. And as there is no compelling event, no actual trigger point, no moment of unbearable pain, you do…nothing. So what can you do instead? See endings as normal, not a problem In the end, that’s what life is: a never-ending stream of beginnings and endings. Yes, this sounds trivial, but accepting endings as something natural will help counteract the status-preserving games of your mind. Ending something does not necessarily mean, that you failed. Recognize the abundance of life No, you will not die in solitude if you lose this person, nor you end up sleeping under a bridge if you lose this job. Life is abundant with opportunities. The problem is, you’ll be unable to see those if you’re holding on. Not only will letting go make you aware of new possibilities, you will attract them. Mind the “Opportunity Costs” ‘Opportunity costs’ is a common term in business. Your resources like time, energy, money are finite. (Not) doing something always has a cost: the missed benefit of opportunities that you excluded by just that. The missed benefits of ‘Good’ can be huge. Try to feel the possible ‘Goods’ with all your senses. Visualize them. Dwell in the future. The cost of letting go may suddenly seem not that big after all. Reflect yourself and get real Be aware of your own patterns. Do you have an abnormally high pain threshold? Are there co-dependence mechanics at play? Do past experiences taint your view? How’s your perception of self-worth impacting your thinking? Objectify your perception of reality and tune your decision making process. See the difference between casual problems versus patterns, empty wishing versus justified hoping that things will change. Don’t overthink: the past is an excellent predictor. Create urgency Build the energy and the momentum to make a change. Create that compelling event, that trigger point. Set a deadline, create social pressure by involving the people around you, bring the future of not having made the change to the present moment (how does it feel, if in 3 years from now things have not changed for the better, but have even gotten worse?). End things well When you reach the point where you’ve made a decision, visualize the transition and devise a plan. Evidently, significant ‘Let Gos’ rarely occur in a single instant but rather unfold as a process that requires adaptation — not only from you but also from other individuals involved that are on the receiving end of your decision. Be aware that a lack of empathy can cause significant distress and even traumatize people. So, don’t be that person who doesn’t care. Metabolize the pain and move on Make no mistake, the process of letting go can be extremely difficult in some instances. Even if you are the one who pulls the trigger. Selling the business that you’ve built with blood and tears, ending that long-term relationship…sometimes, this is no different than separating from a part of yourself, a process that can be as painful as cutting off your own leg. You may experience symptoms of withdrawal, just like a drug addict on cold turkey. Don’t be surprised if the pain hits you with a delay. If you feel that way, it’s because you are human. Nothing’s wrong with you. View pain as a part of healing and growing (maybe there’s at least some truth in this one: the pain leaves when it’s done teaching you). Pain often comes from dwelling in the past. Letting go means leaving the past behind. Our brain is a self-healing machine. Trust that time will help by making the memories fade which keep you hooked today. Be disciplined, don’t feed them with your attention and focus on the future instead with all the new, magnificent opportunities it brings. We all have our ‘Letting Go’ stories, or are currently stuck with things that are overdue for change. What are yours? #lettinggo #letgo #ending #relationship #business #job	62572a76-454a-5ddb-90e3-3efdb889bd65	25/08/2025 16:01:15
https://medium.com/@chirag.arya2207/steps-to-create-test-and-deploy-ethereum-smart-contract-7c185670902a	medium.com	STEPS TO CREATE, TEST AND DEPLOY ETHEREUM SMART CONTRACT	Since the time Ethereum was introduced in the blockchain space with its presence in 2015, Vitalik Buterin, a Canadian-Russian programmer…	Chirag Arya	https://medium.com/@chirag.arya2207	7c185670902a	https://miro.medium.com/…cOlBqOaGF2dT.png	8 min	2022-07-29T23:20:11.308000	2022-07-30T10:48:26.539000	2022-07-30T10:48:27.754000	2	0	en	Smart Contracts,Ethereum,Eth,Ethereum Blockchain,Smart Contract Blockchain	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1213/0gQL1cOlBqOaGF2dT.png" width="1213" height="731" loading="lazy" /> <p>Since the time Ethereum was introduced in the blockchain space with its presence in 2015, Vitalik Buterin, a Canadian-Russian programmer, has delivered new decentralized applications (dApps). Be that as it may, Ethereum’s prosperity is fundamentally credited to the execution of smart contracts.</p> <p>Many individuals accept that smart contracts are another idea and were imagined with the Ethereum Blockchain Platform. Yet, smart contracts date back to 1996 when PC researcher Nick Szabo instituted the expression “smart contracts” and made sense of them as:</p> <p>I refer to these new agreements as “smart” because they are undeniably more functional than their lifeless paper-based progenitors. No utilization of artificial intelligence is implied. A smart contract is a bunch of guarantees determined in digital form, including protocols inside which the parties perform on these promises.</p> <p>His work later propelled different researchers and specialists, as well as Vitalik, who created Ethereum.</p> <p>Before we go further into the creation and deployment of the Ethereum smart contracts, it is fundamental to comprehend the Ethereum platform and how it functions.</p> <p><strong>Ethereum, as a Blockchain Platform for creating decentralized applications</strong></p> <p>Blockchain platforms permit developers to make and run smart contracts. Ethereum is additionally one of the blockchain stages that can execute arbitrary code so you can play out any program on Ethereum.</p> <p>The Ethereum Blockchain is a potential distributed foundation that works with you to finish projects utilizing smart contracts.</p> <ul> <li>Create your own cryptocurrencies:</li> </ul> <p>Ethereum, you can make a tradable token that you can use as another cash or currency. Tokens made with the Ethereum stage utilize a standard coin API to be viable with any Ethereum blockchain wallet.</p> <ul> <li>Develop virtual associations:</li> </ul> <p>You can write smart contracts to construct a blockchain-based association. You can then add more individuals to your association and empower voting rules. Individuals from your association can vote and assume that it arrives at the necessary number of votes, the smart contract executes automatically & naturally.</p> <ul> <li>Create dApps:</li> </ul> <p>Ethereum permits designers & devs to create secure and blame lenient decentralized applications that kill middle people and proposition transparency.</p> <ul> <li>Raise funds:</li> </ul> <p>You can likewise utilize Ethereum smart contracts for funding or raising support. With Ethereum, you can compose a smart contract and a deadline. If by any chance you neglect to achieve the objective, all donations will consequently be repaid to donors without questions or commissions.</p> <p><strong>How Ethereum Blockchain Platform executes Smart Contracts</strong></p> <p>Before examining how to make smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain, you want to comprehend the Ethereum blockchain and how it runs smart contracts.</p> <p>In this way, we should figure out the execution process first.</p> <p><strong>Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)</strong></p> <p>The motivation behind EVM is to act as a runtime process for smart contracts based on Ethereum. Consider it as a worldwide supercomputer that executes every one of the smart contracts.</p> <p>As the name demonstrates, Ethereum Virtual Machine isn’t physical yet a virtual machine. The usefulness of EVM is confined to virtual machines; for instance, it can’t settle on deferred decisions on the web or produce arbitrary numbers. Subsequently, it is viewed as a basic state machine. Composing programs in low-level computing language have neither rhyme nor reason, along these lines, Ethereum required a programming language for the EVM.</p> <p><strong>Gas</strong></p> <p>In the Ethereum Virtual Machine, gas is an estimation unit used for allocating fees to every exchange with a smart contract. Every calculation occurring in the EVM needs some measure of gas. The more complicated the calculation is, the more the gas is expected to run the smart contract.</p> <p>Transaction Fee = Total gas usedgas cost</p> <p><strong>Solidity</strong></p> <p>Solidity is a smart contract programming language on Ethereum. Created on the highest point of the EVM, it is like the article arranged programming language that utilizations class and methods. It permits you to perform arbitrary calculations, however, it is utilized to send and get tokens and store states. With regards to language structure, Solidity is extraordinarily impacted by C++, Python, and Javascript so developers can understand its syntax rapidly.</p> <p>All things considered, let’s have a decent understanding of Solidity programming language to proficiently compose an Ethereum Smart Contract.</p> <p><strong>What is a Smart Contract?</strong></p> <p>smart contracts are the business rationale or a protocol as per which every one of the exchanges on a Blockchain occurs. The smart contract’s overall goal is to fulfil normal legally binding circumstances like making its token on ethereum. We want to write smart contracts as per which every one of the estimations on our token would occur.</p> <p>It is an independent script written in Solidity and arranged into JSON and conveyed to a specific location on the blockchain. Very much like we can call a URL endpoint of a RESTful API to run some rationale through an HttpRequest, we can execute deployed smart contract also at a specific location by entering the precise information alongside Ethereum to call the gathered and conveyed Solidity work.</p> <p>smart contracts are conveyed to the decentralized information base for a fee corresponding to the containing code’s storage size. It can likewise be characterized as a collection of code put away in the blockchain network, characterizing conditions to which all parties inside the contract should agree.</p> <p>We will be sharing the example of Ethereum smart contract creation using the Solidity programming language. Thus, it is first fundamental to figure out what is Solidity.</p> <p><strong>What is Solidity?</strong></p> <p>Solidity is a Javascript-like language developed specifically for making smart contracts. It is composed statically and upholds libraries, inheritance and complex user-defined types.</p> <p>Solidity compiler changes over code into EVM bytecode which is sent to the Ethereum network as a deployment transaction.</p> <p><strong>Here is a step-by-step guide for making and deploying Ethereum Smart Contracts with Solidity</strong></p> <p><strong>Introducing Prerequisites</strong></p> <p><strong>MetaMask Chrome Extension</strong></p> <p>MetaMask acts both as an Ethereum browser and a wallet. It permits you to associate with smart contracts and dApps on the web without downloading the blockchain or installing any software. You just have to add MetaMask as a Chrome Extension, create a wallet account and submit Ether.</p> <p>However, MetaMask is presently accessible for Google Chrome browser, and Firefox and is limited to a few more browsers.</p> <p>Download MetaMask chrome extension before you begin writing smart contracts.</p> <p>Once it is downloaded and added as a Chrome expansion, you can either import an all-around made wallet or make another wallet. You should have ethers in your Ethereum wallet to deploy Ethereum smart contract on the network.</p> <p><strong>Steps to develop an Ethereum Smart Contract</strong></p> <p><strong>Step 1: Create a wallet at MetaMask</strong></p> <p>Introduce MetaMask in your Chrome browser and enable it. Whenever it is introduced, click on its symbol on the upper right of the browser page. Tapping on it will open it in another tab of the browser.</p> <p>Click on “Create Wallet” and consent to the agreements by clicking “I agree” to continue further. It will request that you make a password.</p> <p>After you make a password, it will send you a secret backup phrase utilized for backing up and restoring the account. Try not to reveal it or offer it to somebody, as this phrase can take away your Ethers.</p> <p>You ought to either write down this phrase on a piece of paper safely or store it securely on an external encrypted hard drive where nobody could track down it.</p> <p>The following stage is to guarantee that you are in the “Main Ethereum Network.” If you find a mark of approval close to “Main Ethereum Network”, you are perfectly located.</p> <p><strong>Step 2: Select any one test network</strong></p> <p>You might also find the following test networks in your MetaMask wallet:</p> <ul> <li>Robsten Test Network</li> <li>Kovan Test Network</li> <li>Rinkeby Test Network</li> <li>Goerli Test Network</li> </ul> <p>The above networks are for testing purposes only; note that these organizations’ ethers have no genuine worth or value.</p> <p><strong>Step 3: Add a few dummy Ethers to your wallet</strong></p> <p>If you need to test the smart contract, you should have a few dummy ethers in your MetaMask wallet.</p> <p>For instance, to test an agreement utilizing the Robsten test network, select it and you will find 0 ETH as the underlying balance in your account.</p> <p>To add dummy ethers, click on the “Deposit” and “Get Ether” buttons under Test Faucet.</p> <p>To continue, you want to click “request one ether from the faucet,” and 1 ETH will be added to your wallet. You can add as many Ethers you need to the test network.</p> <p>For instance, I have added 1 ETH in this situation.</p> <p>When the spurious ethers are added to the wallet, you can begin writing smart contracts on the Remix Browser IDE in the Solidity programming language.</p> <p><strong>Step 4: Use editor remix to write the smart contract in Solidity</strong></p> <p>We will utilize Remix Browser IDE to write our Solidity code. The remix is the most ideal choice for writing smart contracts as it accompanies a handful of elements and offers an enhanced development experience.</p> <p>It is typically used for writing smaller-sized smart contracts. Remix’s elements include:</p> <p>Warnings like gas cost, unsafe code, checks for overlapping variable names, whether functions can be constant or not</p> <p>Syntax and error highlighting</p> <p>Functions with injected Web3 objects</p> <p>Static analysis</p> <p>Integrated debugger</p> <p>Integrated testing and deployment environment</p> <p>Deploy directly to Mist or MetaMask</p> <p>Let’s start writing smart contract code by visiting <a href="https://remix.ethereum.org.">https://remix.ethereum.org.</a></p> <p><strong>Step 5: Create a .sol extension file</strong></p> <p>Open Remix Browser and click on the plus icon on the top left side, next to the browser to create a .sol extension file.</p> <p><strong>Step 6: A sample smart contract code to create ERC20 tokens</strong></p> <p>ERC20.sol is a standard template for ERC20 tokens.</p> <p>Select a version of the compiler from Remix to compile the solidity Ethereum smart contract code.</p> <p><strong>Step 7: Deploy your contract</strong></p> <p>Deploy the smart contract at the Ethereum test network by pressing the deploy button on the Remix window’s right-hand side.</p> <p>Wait until the transaction is complete.</p> <p>After the transaction commits successfully, the address of the smart contract would be visible on the right-hand side of the remix window.</p> <p>At first, all the ERC20 tokens will be stored in the wallet of a user who is deploying the smart contract.</p> <p>To check the tokens in your wallet, go to the MetaMask window, click add tokens, enter the smart contract address and click ok. You would be able to see the number of tokens there.</p> <p><strong>Steps to test an Ethereum smart contract</strong></p> <p>1. To start with try to run all your smart contract strategies like transfer, total supply, and balance(in the above smart contract model). These techniques are available on the right-hand side of the remix window and you can run every one of the cycles from that point itself.</p> <p>2. Try to move a few tokens to other ethereum wallet addresses and afterwards really take a look at the balance of that address by calling the balance method & strategy.</p> <p>3. Try to get all out supply by running the total supply strategy.</p> <p><strong>Steps to deploy Ethereum Smart Contracts</strong></p> <p>To make your smart contract live, switch to the main ethereum network at metamask</p> <p>Add some real ethers.</p> <p>Now again, deploy your smart contract using remix as mentioned in the above steps.</p> <p>When a smart contract is deployed successfully, visit <a href="http://www.etherscan.io">http://www.etherscan.io</a> and search your smart contract address there. Select your smart contract.</p> <p>Now you need to verify your smart contract here, click “verify the contract.”</p> <p>Copy your smart contract code and paste it at Etherscan. Select the same compiler version that you selected at remix to compile your code.</p> <p>Check “optimization” to Yes, if you had selected optimization at remix; otherwise, select No.</p> <p>Click Verify.</p> <p>It will take a few minutes and your smart contract will be live if no issue occurs.</p> <p>You can now run your smart contract methods at Etherscan.</p> <p><strong>Tools and Technologies required for implementing Ethereum Smart Contracts</strong></p> <ul> <li><strong>Truffle </strong>t is an Ethereum development framework that allows developers to write and test smart contracts. Written in JavaScript, Truffle contains a compiler for the Solidity programming language. Truffle Contract is a JavaScript library that allows importing of compiled smart contracts.</li> <li><strong>Web3.js </strong>It is an Ethereum JavaScript API that interacts with the Ethereum network via RPC calls.</li> <li><strong>Visual Studio Code </strong>A functional code editor.</li> <li><strong>Ganache CLI </strong>It is an Ethereum remote procedure call client within the Truffle framework that is also known as TestRPC.</li> <li><strong>Parity </strong>It is a secure and fast Ethereum client for handling Ethereum accounts and tokens.</li> <li><strong>Node.js </strong>It is a javascript runtime environment used for server-side programming. Node.js is required to test the Ethereum smart contract’s functionality while ensuring its secure and proper operation. You need to install a package manager, for example, Yarn along with Node.js.</li> </ul> <p>For more help, connect with [email protected]/<a href="https://sphericc.com/">https://sphericc.com/</a></p> <p><em>For more updates and information:</em></p> <p><strong><a href="https://med</strong>ium.com/@chirag.arya2207">Chirag Arya - Medium <em>HOW TO SECURELY STORE YOUR NFTs What is an NFT? Dissimilar to crypto money, non-fungible tokens are unique and…</em>m</a>edium.com</p> </section>	STEPS TO CREATE, TEST AND DEPLOY ETHEREUM SMART CONTRACT Photo by Blockgeeks Since the time Ethereum was introduced in the blockchain space with its presence in 2015, Vitalik Buterin, a Canadian-Russian programmer, has delivered new decentralized applications (dApps). Be that as it may, Ethereum’s prosperity is fundamentally credited to the execution of smart contracts. Many individuals accept that smart contracts are another idea and were imagined with the Ethereum Blockchain Platform. Yet, smart contracts date back to 1996 when PC researcher Nick Szabo instituted the expression “smart contracts” and made sense of them as: I refer to these new agreements as “smart” because they are undeniably more functional than their lifeless paper-based progenitors. No utilization of artificial intelligence is implied. A smart contract is a bunch of guarantees determined in digital form, including protocols inside which the parties perform on these promises. His work later propelled different researchers and specialists, as well as Vitalik, who created Ethereum. Before we go further into the creation and deployment of the Ethereum smart contracts, it is fundamental to comprehend the Ethereum platform and how it functions. Ethereum, as a Blockchain Platform for creating decentralized applications Blockchain platforms permit developers to make and run smart contracts. Ethereum is additionally one of the blockchain stages that can execute arbitrary code so you can play out any program on Ethereum. The Ethereum Blockchain is a potential distributed foundation that works with you to finish projects utilizing smart contracts. Create your own cryptocurrencies: Ethereum, you can make a tradable token that you can use as another cash or currency. Tokens made with the Ethereum stage utilize a standard coin API to be viable with any Ethereum blockchain wallet. Develop virtual associations: You can write smart contracts to construct a blockchain-based association. You can then add more individuals to your association and empower voting rules. Individuals from your association can vote and assume that it arrives at the necessary number of votes, the smart contract executes automatically & naturally. Create dApps: Ethereum permits designers & devs to create secure and blame lenient decentralized applications that kill middle people and proposition transparency. Raise funds: You can likewise utilize Ethereum smart contracts for funding or raising support. With Ethereum, you can compose a smart contract and a deadline. If by any chance you neglect to achieve the objective, all donations will consequently be repaid to donors without questions or commissions. How Ethereum Blockchain Platform executes Smart Contracts Before examining how to make smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain, you want to comprehend the Ethereum blockchain and how it runs smart contracts. In this way, we should figure out the execution process first. Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) The motivation behind EVM is to act as a runtime process for smart contracts based on Ethereum. Consider it as a worldwide supercomputer that executes every one of the smart contracts. As the name demonstrates, Ethereum Virtual Machine isn’t physical yet a virtual machine. The usefulness of EVM is confined to virtual machines; for instance, it can’t settle on deferred decisions on the web or produce arbitrary numbers. Subsequently, it is viewed as a basic state machine. Composing programs in low-level computing language have neither rhyme nor reason, along these lines, Ethereum required a programming language for the EVM. Gas In the Ethereum Virtual Machine, gas is an estimation unit used for allocating fees to every exchange with a smart contract. Every calculation occurring in the EVM needs some measure of gas. The more complicated the calculation is, the more the gas is expected to run the smart contract. Transaction Fee = Total gas used*gas cost Solidity Solidity is a smart contract programming language on Ethereum. Created on the highest point of the EVM, it is like the article arranged programming language that utilizations class and methods. It permits you to perform arbitrary calculations, however, it is utilized to send and get tokens and store states. With regards to language structure, Solidity is extraordinarily impacted by C++, Python, and Javascript so developers can understand its syntax rapidly. All things considered, let’s have a decent understanding of Solidity programming language to proficiently compose an Ethereum Smart Contract. What is a Smart Contract? smart contracts are the business rationale or a protocol as per which every one of the exchanges on a Blockchain occurs. The smart contract’s overall goal is to fulfil normal legally binding circumstances like making its token on ethereum. We want to write smart contracts as per which every one of the estimations on our token would occur. It is an independent script written in Solidity and arranged into JSON and conveyed to a specific location on the blockchain. Very much like we can call a URL endpoint of a RESTful API to run some rationale through an HttpRequest, we can execute deployed smart contract also at a specific location by entering the precise information alongside Ethereum to call the gathered and conveyed Solidity work. smart contracts are conveyed to the decentralized information base for a fee corresponding to the containing code’s storage size. It can likewise be characterized as a collection of code put away in the blockchain network, characterizing conditions to which all parties inside the contract should agree. We will be sharing the example of Ethereum smart contract creation using the Solidity programming language. Thus, it is first fundamental to figure out what is Solidity. What is Solidity? Solidity is a Javascript-like language developed specifically for making smart contracts. It is composed statically and upholds libraries, inheritance and complex user-defined types. Solidity compiler changes over code into EVM bytecode which is sent to the Ethereum network as a deployment transaction. Here is a step-by-step guide for making and deploying Ethereum Smart Contracts with Solidity Introducing Prerequisites MetaMask Chrome Extension MetaMask acts both as an Ethereum browser and a wallet. It permits you to associate with smart contracts and dApps on the web without downloading the blockchain or installing any software. You just have to add MetaMask as a Chrome Extension, create a wallet account and submit Ether. However, MetaMask is presently accessible for Google Chrome browser, and Firefox and is limited to a few more browsers. Download MetaMask chrome extension before you begin writing smart contracts. Once it is downloaded and added as a Chrome expansion, you can either import an all-around made wallet or make another wallet. You should have ethers in your Ethereum wallet to deploy Ethereum smart contract on the network. Steps to develop an Ethereum Smart Contract Step 1: Create a wallet at MetaMask Introduce MetaMask in your Chrome browser and enable it. Whenever it is introduced, click on its symbol on the upper right of the browser page. Tapping on it will open it in another tab of the browser. Click on “Create Wallet” and consent to the agreements by clicking “I agree” to continue further. It will request that you make a password. After you make a password, it will send you a secret backup phrase utilized for backing up and restoring the account. Try not to reveal it or offer it to somebody, as this phrase can take away your Ethers. You ought to either write down this phrase on a piece of paper safely or store it securely on an external encrypted hard drive where nobody could track down it. The following stage is to guarantee that you are in the “Main Ethereum Network.” If you find a mark of approval close to “Main Ethereum Network”, you are perfectly located. Step 2: Select any one test network You might also find the following test networks in your MetaMask wallet: Robsten Test Network Kovan Test Network Rinkeby Test Network Goerli Test Network The above networks are for testing purposes only; note that these organizations’ ethers have no genuine worth or value. Step 3: Add a few dummy Ethers to your wallet If you need to test the smart contract, you should have a few dummy ethers in your MetaMask wallet. For instance, to test an agreement utilizing the Robsten test network, select it and you will find 0 ETH as the underlying balance in your account. To add dummy ethers, click on the “Deposit” and “Get Ether” buttons under Test Faucet. To continue, you want to click “request one ether from the faucet,” and 1 ETH will be added to your wallet. You can add as many Ethers you need to the test network. For instance, I have added 1 ETH in this situation. When the spurious ethers are added to the wallet, you can begin writing smart contracts on the Remix Browser IDE in the Solidity programming language. Step 4: Use editor remix to write the smart contract in Solidity We will utilize Remix Browser IDE to write our Solidity code. The remix is the most ideal choice for writing smart contracts as it accompanies a handful of elements and offers an enhanced development experience. It is typically used for writing smaller-sized smart contracts. Remix’s elements include: Warnings like gas cost, unsafe code, checks for overlapping variable names, whether functions can be constant or not Syntax and error highlighting Functions with injected Web3 objects Static analysis Integrated debugger Integrated testing and deployment environment Deploy directly to Mist or MetaMask Let’s start writing smart contract code by visiting https://remix.ethereum.org. Step 5: Create a .sol extension file Open Remix Browser and click on the plus icon on the top left side, next to the browser to create a .sol extension file. Step 6: A sample smart contract code to create ERC20 tokens ERC20.sol is a standard template for ERC20 tokens. Select a version of the compiler from Remix to compile the solidity Ethereum smart contract code. Step 7: Deploy your contract Deploy the smart contract at the Ethereum test network by pressing the deploy button on the Remix window’s right-hand side. Wait until the transaction is complete. After the transaction commits successfully, the address of the smart contract would be visible on the right-hand side of the remix window. At first, all the ERC20 tokens will be stored in the wallet of a user who is deploying the smart contract. To check the tokens in your wallet, go to the MetaMask window, click add tokens, enter the smart contract address and click ok. You would be able to see the number of tokens there. Steps to test an Ethereum smart contract 1. To start with try to run all your smart contract strategies like transfer, total supply, and balance(in the above smart contract model). These techniques are available on the right-hand side of the remix window and you can run every one of the cycles from that point itself. 2. Try to move a few tokens to other ethereum wallet addresses and afterwards really take a look at the balance of that address by calling the balance method & strategy. 3. Try to get all out supply by running the total supply strategy. Steps to deploy Ethereum Smart Contracts To make your smart contract live, switch to the main ethereum network at metamask Add some real ethers. Now again, deploy your smart contract using remix as mentioned in the above steps. When a smart contract is deployed successfully, visit http://www.etherscan.io and search your smart contract address there. Select your smart contract. Now you need to verify your smart contract here, click “verify the contract.” Copy your smart contract code and paste it at Etherscan. Select the same compiler version that you selected at remix to compile your code. Check “optimization” to Yes, if you had selected optimization at remix; otherwise, select No. Click Verify. It will take a few minutes and your smart contract will be live if no issue occurs. You can now run your smart contract methods at Etherscan. Tools and Technologies required for implementing Ethereum Smart Contracts Truffle t is an Ethereum development framework that allows developers to write and test smart contracts. Written in JavaScript, Truffle contains a compiler for the Solidity programming language. Truffle Contract is a JavaScript library that allows importing of compiled smart contracts. Web3.js It is an Ethereum JavaScript API that interacts with the Ethereum network via RPC calls. Visual Studio Code A functional code editor. Ganache CLI It is an Ethereum remote procedure call client within the Truffle framework that is also known as TestRPC. Parity It is a secure and fast Ethereum client for handling Ethereum accounts and tokens. Node.js It is a javascript runtime environment used for server-side programming. Node.js is required to test the Ethereum smart contract’s functionality while ensuring its secure and proper operation. You need to install a package manager, for example, Yarn along with Node.js. For more help, connect with [email protected]/https://sphericc.com/ For more updates and information: Chirag Arya - Medium HOW TO SECURELY STORE YOUR NFTs What is an NFT? Dissimilar to crypto money, non-fungible tokens are unique and…medium.com	a09e9093-9574-5414-9045-fb34b29463d9	25/08/2025 16:01:15
https://medium.com/@tristantorres_12903/the-times-they-are-a-changin-album-review-2ce8ec98efc2	medium.com	The times They are a-changin’ Album Review	null	Tristan Torres	https://medium.com/@tristantorres_12903	2ce8ec98efc2	null	5 min	2024-01-13T00:27:13.907000	2024-01-13T00:30:34.426000	2024-01-13T00:30:40.434000	0	0	en	Bob Dylan,Music,Folk,Album Review	<section> <p>Readers, let us delve together into Bob Dylan’s third, and, in my not so humble opinion, finest album. This album builds on the momentum from his last release, the freewheelin Bob Dylan, covering many of the same things. We are yet again dazzled by Dylan’s storytelling prowess. From protest music, to story songs, to good old fashioned love songs, Dylan delivers whole-heartedly on this album, making his mark by imbuing each song with a universality that goes beyond the mere themes of each song. So buckle up, everyone! Join me on a journey into this sonic masterpiece</p> <p>! Let’s get into it!</p> <p>Track 1: The Times They are-a-changin’</p> <p>This album opens up with a bang, with this deliberately written protest song. Transcending the boundaries of the time in which it was released, this song is arguable the archetypal protest song. I could write an entire essay on the impact this song has had on society as a whole. But for now, I will simply say that with the pairing of hypnotic yet straightforward guitar with Dylan’s earnest vocal delivery paints a vivid picture of universality that is inescapable even to this blind reviewer. Lyrics like. “Come mothers and fathers throughout the land / and don’t criticize what you don’t understand/ your sons and your daughters are beyond your command/ your old road is rapidly aging / please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand / the times they are a-changin” speak to the lasting endurance this track has as an expression of constant change. Hard to top that!</p> <p>Track 2: Ballad of Hollis Brown.</p> <p>A perfect exemplar of Bob Dylan’s storytelling ability, and a unique one at that. This Appalachian style ballad about an impoverished farmer who kills himself and his entire family puts me in mind of a Stephen King novel. The desperation portrayed in this song is magnified by Dylan’s use of the second person present tense “The rats it got your flour, bad blood, it got your mare / the rats, it got your flour, bad blood, it got your mare / if there’s anyone that knows, is there anyone that cares?” These lyrics have the effect of putting the listener right in the song, a feat unmatched by any Dylan track up to this point. A worthy effort.</p> <p>Track 3: With God On Our Side</p> <p>Clocking in at seven minutes, this song is Dylan’s attempt to come to terms with the many wars that America has fought, always believing that god was on their side. In this song, Dylan references many historical incidents of war. The slaughter of Native Americans, the Civil War, world Wars I and II, the Holocaust and the Cold War. The most poignant line however is in the middle of the song, “Through many dark hour I been thinkin’ about this / Jesus Christ was betrayed by a kid / But I can’t think for you, you’ll have to decide / Whether Judas Iscariot had God on his side.” The carefully strummed, slow guitar and harmonica, with Dylan’s understated vocals paint a portrait of a person who feels let down by the prospect of war, someone who is beginning to question the very ideal that god is always on our side and wants war in the first place. One of the most enduring and beautiful songs in Dylan’s catalog.</p> <p>Track 4: One Too Many Mornings</p> <p>This song doesn’t merit much comment from this particular reviewer. Definitely a letdown from the epic “With God On Our Side,” this simple love song brings us back to reality. The mournful fingerpicked guitar lends a sad element to this track, it’s quite forgettable after that.</p> <p>Track 5: North Country blues</p> <p>This is a return to form for Dylan, again at his storytelling best. This track, likely influenced by his childhood in Hibbing, Minnesota, tells the tragic tale of a woman in an abandoned mining town. Each verse builds on the other. A simple chord structure underlies the telling of multiple tragic situations. From the abandoning of the town, to the loss of her mother, brother and father, to her school getting cut, mines closing etc, this is a delicately woven tapestry of what life was like in the Minnesota mining towns.</p> <p>Track 6: Only a Pawn In Their Game</p> <p>Musically, this is an excellent song. Written in the wake of Medgar Evers’ assassination, this song is meant as a support for African Americans in the wake of this tragedy. But not everyone agrees. Certainly it sounds to me like Dylan is exonerating Evers’s killer as someone manipulated by rich white men instead of someone who is individually responsible for his own actions. Lyrics like “And the poor white remains / on the caboose of the train / but it ain’t him to blame / he’s only a pawn in their game demonstrate a bit of wrong-footedness in this not so humble reviewer’s opinion. Wasn’t planning to get political here, but it’s my review and I’ll do whatever I want with it! While I don’t fully agree with the message, I still enjoy the song. The guitar and vocals are delivered earnestly, almost franticly, conveying a message of urgency that, while I don’t agree entirely, had good intentions.</p> <p>Track 7: boots of Spanish Leather</p> <p>This love song is definitely deserving of some merit. The gentle guitar picking perfectly expresses the yearning that Dylan experiences, however I think it could have been cut down by probably half. Sometimes bob gets a little long-winded. But it’s still a nice song.</p> <p>Track 8: When the Ship Comes In.</p> <p>Inspired by a hotel clerk denying Dylan a room for his unkempt appearance, this upbeat tune is a rousing rebuke of the people in power. Lyrics like “Oh the foes will rise with the sleep in their eyes / and they’ll jerk from their beds and think they’re dreamin’ / But they’ll pinch themselves and squeal and know that it’s for real /the hour that the ship comes in” exemplify this. Definitely an underrated track on the album.</p> <p>Track 9: The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll</p> <p>“The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” is a poignant and socially charged track. The song narrates the tragic real-life story of Hattie Carroll, a black maid, who was senselessly and fatally assaulted by a wealthy white man named William Zantzinger in 1963. The lyrics dramatically illustrate. the events surrounding the incident, condemning the racial and class inequalities present in society. Dylan’s storytelling prowess shines through as he condemns the injustice, using powerful and resonant language to describe the callous act and the subsequent legal proceedings. The constant refrain “you who philosophize disgrace, and criticize all fears / take the rag away from your face / now ain’t the time for your tears” serves as a rebuke for those who are far removed from this tragedy. The song serves as a social commentary, highlighting the systemic issues of racism and inequality. Through this narrative, Dylan confronts the audience with the harsh realities of the time, encouraging reflection on the need for societal change. “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” stands as a significant example of Dylan’s ability to use music as a medium for social critique and awareness.</p> <p>Track 10: restless farewell</p> <p>This closing track, set to a melody from a popular Scottish folk song, doesn’t really stand out to me much. Five minutes of slightly out of rhythm guitar, forgettable lyrics. Apparently Sinatra requested this be performed on the special commemorating his 80th birthday. So that’s cool, I guess. Not much else here though.</p> <p>So here we find ourselves yet again, at the end of another marvelous Dylan Album. The times they are a-changin’ is one of the best albums in Dylan’s catalog, and I would argue one of the best of all time. Steeped in social commentary, yet delving into stories of poverty, love and the enduring human spirit, this album is Dylan at his best. I know I said some of these songs were long-winded, but I know it’s about to get a lot worse from here! Desolation Row is eleven minutes long! Can you believe that? At least the longest song on here is only seven minutes. But anyways, this album has been a pleasure to listen to in it’s entirety, my first time doing so as a matter of fact. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. There will be more very soon.</p> </section>	The times They are a-changin’ Album Review Readers, let us delve together into Bob Dylan’s third, and, in my not so humble opinion, finest album. This album builds on the momentum from his last release, the freewheelin Bob Dylan, covering many of the same things. We are yet again dazzled by Dylan’s storytelling prowess. From protest music, to story songs, to good old fashioned love songs, Dylan delivers whole-heartedly on this album, making his mark by imbuing each song with a universality that goes beyond the mere themes of each song. So buckle up, everyone! Join me on a journey into this sonic masterpiece ! Let’s get into it! Track 1: The Times They are-a-changin’ This album opens up with a bang, with this deliberately written protest song. Transcending the boundaries of the time in which it was released, this song is arguable the archetypal protest song. I could write an entire essay on the impact this song has had on society as a whole. But for now, I will simply say that with the pairing of hypnotic yet straightforward guitar with Dylan’s earnest vocal delivery paints a vivid picture of universality that is inescapable even to this blind reviewer. Lyrics like. “Come mothers and fathers throughout the land / and don’t criticize what you don’t understand/ your sons and your daughters are beyond your command/ your old road is rapidly aging / please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand / the times they are a-changin” speak to the lasting endurance this track has as an expression of constant change. Hard to top that! Track 2: Ballad of Hollis Brown. A perfect exemplar of Bob Dylan’s storytelling ability, and a unique one at that. This Appalachian style ballad about an impoverished farmer who kills himself and his entire family puts me in mind of a Stephen King novel. The desperation portrayed in this song is magnified by Dylan’s use of the second person present tense “The rats it got your flour, bad blood, it got your mare / the rats, it got your flour, bad blood, it got your mare / if there’s anyone that knows, is there anyone that cares?” These lyrics have the effect of putting the listener right in the song, a feat unmatched by any Dylan track up to this point. A worthy effort. Track 3: With God On Our Side Clocking in at seven minutes, this song is Dylan’s attempt to come to terms with the many wars that America has fought, always believing that god was on their side. In this song, Dylan references many historical incidents of war. The slaughter of Native Americans, the Civil War, world Wars I and II, the Holocaust and the Cold War. The most poignant line however is in the middle of the song, “Through many dark hour I been thinkin’ about this / Jesus Christ was betrayed by a kid / But I can’t think for you, you’ll have to decide / Whether Judas Iscariot had God on his side.” The carefully strummed, slow guitar and harmonica, with Dylan’s understated vocals paint a portrait of a person who feels let down by the prospect of war, someone who is beginning to question the very ideal that god is always on our side and wants war in the first place. One of the most enduring and beautiful songs in Dylan’s catalog. Track 4: One Too Many Mornings This song doesn’t merit much comment from this particular reviewer. Definitely a letdown from the epic “With God On Our Side,” this simple love song brings us back to reality. The mournful fingerpicked guitar lends a sad element to this track, it’s quite forgettable after that. Track 5: North Country blues This is a return to form for Dylan, again at his storytelling best. This track, likely influenced by his childhood in Hibbing, Minnesota, tells the tragic tale of a woman in an abandoned mining town. Each verse builds on the other. A simple chord structure underlies the telling of multiple tragic situations. From the abandoning of the town, to the loss of her mother, brother and father, to her school getting cut, mines closing etc, this is a delicately woven tapestry of what life was like in the Minnesota mining towns. Track 6: Only a Pawn In Their Game Musically, this is an excellent song. Written in the wake of Medgar Evers’ assassination, this song is meant as a support for African Americans in the wake of this tragedy. But not everyone agrees. Certainly it sounds to me like Dylan is exonerating Evers’s killer as someone manipulated by rich white men instead of someone who is individually responsible for his own actions. Lyrics like “And the poor white remains / on the caboose of the train / but it ain’t him to blame / he’s only a pawn in their game demonstrate a bit of wrong-footedness in this not so humble reviewer’s opinion. Wasn’t planning to get political here, but it’s my review and I’ll do whatever I want with it! While I don’t fully agree with the message, I still enjoy the song. The guitar and vocals are delivered earnestly, almost franticly, conveying a message of urgency that, while I don’t agree entirely, had good intentions. Track 7: boots of Spanish Leather This love song is definitely deserving of some merit. The gentle guitar picking perfectly expresses the yearning that Dylan experiences, however I think it could have been cut down by probably half. Sometimes bob gets a little long-winded. But it’s still a nice song. Track 8: When the Ship Comes In. Inspired by a hotel clerk denying Dylan a room for his unkempt appearance, this upbeat tune is a rousing rebuke of the people in power. Lyrics like “Oh the foes will rise with the sleep in their eyes / and they’ll jerk from their beds and think they’re dreamin’ / But they’ll pinch themselves and squeal and know that it’s for real /the hour that the ship comes in” exemplify this. Definitely an underrated track on the album. Track 9: The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” is a poignant and socially charged track. The song narrates the tragic real-life story of Hattie Carroll, a black maid, who was senselessly and fatally assaulted by a wealthy white man named William Zantzinger in 1963. The lyrics dramatically illustrate. the events surrounding the incident, condemning the racial and class inequalities present in society. Dylan’s storytelling prowess shines through as he condemns the injustice, using powerful and resonant language to describe the callous act and the subsequent legal proceedings. The constant refrain “you who philosophize disgrace, and criticize all fears / take the rag away from your face / now ain’t the time for your tears” serves as a rebuke for those who are far removed from this tragedy. The song serves as a social commentary, highlighting the systemic issues of racism and inequality. Through this narrative, Dylan confronts the audience with the harsh realities of the time, encouraging reflection on the need for societal change. “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” stands as a significant example of Dylan’s ability to use music as a medium for social critique and awareness. Track 10: restless farewell This closing track, set to a melody from a popular Scottish folk song, doesn’t really stand out to me much. Five minutes of slightly out of rhythm guitar, forgettable lyrics. Apparently Sinatra requested this be performed on the special commemorating his 80th birthday. So that’s cool, I guess. Not much else here though. So here we find ourselves yet again, at the end of another marvelous Dylan Album. The times they are a-changin’ is one of the best albums in Dylan’s catalog, and I would argue one of the best of all time. Steeped in social commentary, yet delving into stories of poverty, love and the enduring human spirit, this album is Dylan at his best. I know I said some of these songs were long-winded, but I know it’s about to get a lot worse from here! Desolation Row is eleven minutes long! Can you believe that? At least the longest song on here is only seven minutes. But anyways, this album has been a pleasure to listen to in it’s entirety, my first time doing so as a matter of fact. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. There will be more very soon.	bfc3c02e-2b12-5ee3-9405-6aec7ae08a5b	25/08/2025 16:01:15
https://medium.com/stories-by-progress/asp-net-intersections-2018-developers-share-their-platform-choice-98e72989f243	medium.com	ASP.NET Intersections 2018: Developers Share their Platform Choice	Developers have an increasingly wide range of technologies from which to choose when building an ASP.NET application. These choices vary on…	Progress	https://medium.com/@ProgressSW	98e72989f243	https://miro.medium.com/…9uvy6Uo2Mn1Q.png	5 min	2018-08-23T14:22:23.800000	2018-08-23T14:35:33.758000	2018-09-28T14:15:52.336000	1	0	en	Microsoft,Aspnet,Dotnet,Developer Tools,JavaScript	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1200/10MJGe7MZhH9uvy6Uo2Mn1Q.png" width="1200" height="628" loading="lazy" /> <p>Developers have an increasingly wide range of technologies from which to choose when building an ASP.NET application. These choices vary on the server-side (i.e. ASP.NET Web Forms versus ASP.NET MVC). These choices also vary on the client-side (i.e. Angular versus React). And with the advent of ASP.NET Core they now have more opportunities to use these technologies in both Windows and Linux.</p> <p>Recently, we conducted a survey that asked a series of questions relating to development with ASP.NET. We learned that, while Blazor awareness is still relatively low (understandable, considering how new it is) that ASP.NET Core is quickly becoming mainstream, that ASP.NET Web Forms is still a popular framework, but Angular and WebAPI is a suitable alternative, and more.</p> <p>Read on to learn more about which frameworks your colleagues around the world are using and/or targeting in the next 12 months. And, if you’re curious, <a href="https://developer.telerik.com/topics/net/asp-net-intersections-developers-share-2017-platform-choice/">check out what the state of affairs was in 2017</a>.</p> <h1>Survey Highlights</h1> <ul> <li>Blazor awareness is behind the adoption curve of ASP.NET Core after 6 months with 81% of respondents saying they know nothing about Blazor compared to 36% for ASP.NET Core.</li> <li>The familiarity of ASP.NET Core has increased significantly with more respondents who know the benefits of the technology, have tried it out, or are using the technology increasing by a total of 15%.</li> <li>There has been a substantial increase in the intention for future use of ASP.NET Core since our previous survey (November 2017)</li> <li>ASP.NET MVC will continue to be the leading .NET Web technology with 57% of respondents who will develop .NET applications choosing that as either their primary or secondary technology.</li> <li>ASP.NET WebForms will continue to reduce in use with only 26% of respondents who will develop .NET applications choosing that technology as their primary or secondary development choice.</li> <li>ASP.NET Core adoption will increase at the expense of all of the other technologies with 49% of respondents who will develop .NET applications choosing that as their primary or secondary technology for the next 12 months.</li> <li>ReactJS is now more popular than AngularJS, while Angular adoption remains stable with only a 1% reduction from our survey last year. Other JavaScript frameworks adoption will also decrease among our respondents in the next 12 months.</li> </ul> <h2>Survey Analysis</h2> <p>A quick note - the charts depicted below in screenshots can be found in their original, interactive format on <a href="https://www.telerik.com/blogs/aspnet-intersections-2018-developers-share-their-platform-choice">our blog post here</a>.</p> <h2>Future Development with ASP.NET</h2> <p>ASP.NET Core familiarity has increased and now less than 50% of respondents are unfamiliar with ASP.NET Core and its benefits (n=1,365). Furthermore, we see an increase in the number of respondents who are currently using ASP.NET Core, tried the technology but had technical issues, and those who understand the technology but chose not to use it. We conducted a similar survey in November 2017 (n=1,143) that asked the same question. Here is the comparison of those results:</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/758/19XlaeSUhIjnF148nnGPi3w.jpeg" width="758" height="526" loading="lazy" /> <p>Blazor was announced in February 2018 but seems to be having a slower uptake in understanding than ASP.NET Core did at the same time after its initial launch. This could be because it’s still in an experimental phase of course. The following table shows the survey results from June 2016.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/760/1PjVWXUmIws2Kpb9D6A3Fhw.jpeg" width="760" height="988" loading="lazy" /> <p>ASP.NET technologies being targeted (as a whole) over the next 12 months, excluding respondents who won’t develop any .NET web projects in the next 12 months:</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/768/1UFI1Zn_ed64Yl5ScLCpTqQ.jpeg" width="768" height="458" loading="lazy" /> <p>As you can see, while ASP.NET MVC still leads the way as the technology of choice among respondents (57%) planned over the next 12 months, ASP.NET Core has had a surge of adoption (+10%) at the cost to all other ASP.NET technologies. ASP.NET Core is clearly a point of focus for the ASP.NET development community.</p> <p>If you are using ASP.NET MVC or ASP.NET Core and prefer not to spend time writing UI from scratch, take a look at <a href="http://www.telerik.com/aspnet-core-ui">Telerik UI for ASP.NET Core</a> (the only toolset on the market with a complete set of Tag Helpers) and <a href="http://www.telerik.com/aspnet-mvc">Telerik UI for ASP.NET MVC</a>.</p> <p>The combination of Angular and WebAPI provides a suitable alternative to technologies like ASP.NET Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC. It is able to achieve many of the same goals as these technologies by relying more heavily on the client-side. This eliminates much of the need for the server-side “plumbing”. That stated, there is still a role to be played by ASP.NET in a solution that employs Angular. For an overview of what this looks like, check out <a href="https://developer.telerik.com/announcements/visual-studio-toolbox-modern-web-development/">Ed Charbeneau’s appearance on Visual Studio Toolbox</a>, where he discusses how to use Angular with ASP.NET Core. If you choose ASP.NET Web API + Angular, you can save time developing the UI using <a href="https://www.telerik.com/kendo-ui/angularjs-and-kendo-ui-framework-integration">Kendo UI for AngularJS</a> or <a href="http://www.telerik.com/kendo-angular-ui/">Kendo UI for Angular</a>.</p> <p>ASP.NET Web Forms continues to be used by a significant portion of respondents. In fact, it’s one of Microsoft’s most mature and popular development environments. ASP.NET Web Forms remains a part of the .NET Framework and still be worked on with new features being added in each release. Because of the maturity of the framework, there are feature-filled and rich component libraries available. For example, <a href="http://www.telerik.com/products/aspnet-ajax.aspx">Telerik UI for ASP.NET AJAX</a> contains more than 100 components from PivotGrid with OLAP support to rich DataViz to the versatile controls such as Grid, Charts and Scheduler.</p> <p>When it comes to ASP.NET, the best, long-term bet is target ASP.NET Core. This is where most of the innovation is occurring in terms of features and overall performance.</p> <h2>Future Development with JavaScript Frameworks</h2> <p>It’s not surprising to see Angular and React near the top of the results from the survey. They are two of the popular frameworks in the developer community and will likely remain popular for the next 2–3 years. For more information about the framework ecosystem surrounding JavaScript, check out the whitepaper, <a href="https://www.telerik.com/campaigns/kendo-ui/wp-javascript-future-2018">The Future of JavaScript: 2018 and Beyond</a>.</p> <p>Examining the details of the survey a little further, the JavaScript frameworks being targeted (as a whole) over the next 12 months can also be determined:</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/766/1*F9Ba9UCUarhIZom0KGbtkg.jpeg" width="766" height="449" loading="lazy" /> <p>These results reflect the opinions of developers surveyed for the <a href="https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2018/">Stack Overflow Developer Survey for 2018</a>, which revealed Angular and React to be the most popular JavaScript frameworks. However, the Stack Overflow survey puts React significantly higher in the Loved and Wanted categories at 69.5% wanted over Angular (54.6%). Paradoxically, in the same survey, Angular is the 4th most dreaded framework among respondents.</p> <h2>About the Survey</h2> <p>This survey was conducted online through a pop-up poll on telerik.com. The survey comprised of 6 questions; 4 with a single choice and 2 with multiple choice. It was conducted on June 26–27, 2018. The varying number of answers was due to respondents dropping the poll. The maximum statistical error for this survey is determined to be in the range ±2.7% to ±3.5%. No incentive was provided to respondents to complete the survey.</p> <p><em>This story <a href="https://www.telerik.com/blogs/aspnet-intersections-2018-developers-share-their-platform-choice">originally appeared</a> on the Progress Telerik blog, by John Bristowe. Lookin</em>g for more great stories about technology and building tomorrow’s business apps? Check out <a href="https://www.telerik.com/blogs">the blog</a> for more.</p> </section>	ASP.NET Intersections 2018: Developers Share their Platform Choice Developers have an increasingly wide range of technologies from which to choose when building an ASP.NET application. These choices vary on the server-side (i.e. ASP.NET Web Forms versus ASP.NET MVC). These choices also vary on the client-side (i.e. Angular versus React). And with the advent of ASP.NET Core they now have more opportunities to use these technologies in both Windows and Linux. Recently, we conducted a survey that asked a series of questions relating to development with ASP.NET. We learned that, while Blazor awareness is still relatively low (understandable, considering how new it is) that ASP.NET Core is quickly becoming mainstream, that ASP.NET Web Forms is still a popular framework, but Angular and WebAPI is a suitable alternative, and more. Read on to learn more about which frameworks your colleagues around the world are using and/or targeting in the next 12 months. And, if you’re curious, check out what the state of affairs was in 2017. Survey Highlights Blazor awareness is behind the adoption curve of ASP.NET Core after 6 months with 81% of respondents saying they know nothing about Blazor compared to 36% for ASP.NET Core. The familiarity of ASP.NET Core has increased significantly with more respondents who know the benefits of the technology, have tried it out, or are using the technology increasing by a total of 15%. There has been a substantial increase in the intention for future use of ASP.NET Core since our previous survey (November 2017) ASP.NET MVC will continue to be the leading .NET Web technology with 57% of respondents who will develop .NET applications choosing that as either their primary or secondary technology. ASP.NET WebForms will continue to reduce in use with only 26% of respondents who will develop .NET applications choosing that technology as their primary or secondary development choice. ASP.NET Core adoption will increase at the expense of all of the other technologies with 49% of respondents who will develop .NET applications choosing that as their primary or secondary technology for the next 12 months. ReactJS is now more popular than AngularJS, while Angular adoption remains stable with only a 1% reduction from our survey last year. Other JavaScript frameworks adoption will also decrease among our respondents in the next 12 months. Survey Analysis A quick note - the charts depicted below in screenshots can be found in their original, interactive format on our blog post here. Future Development with ASP.NET ASP.NET Core familiarity has increased and now less than 50% of respondents are unfamiliar with ASP.NET Core and its benefits (n=1,365). Furthermore, we see an increase in the number of respondents who are currently using ASP.NET Core, tried the technology but had technical issues, and those who understand the technology but chose not to use it. We conducted a similar survey in November 2017 (n=1,143) that asked the same question. Here is the comparison of those results: Blazor was announced in February 2018 but seems to be having a slower uptake in understanding than ASP.NET Core did at the same time after its initial launch. This could be because it’s still in an experimental phase of course. The following table shows the survey results from June 2016. ASP.NET technologies being targeted (as a whole) over the next 12 months, excluding respondents who won’t develop any .NET web projects in the next 12 months: As you can see, while ASP.NET MVC still leads the way as the technology of choice among respondents (57%) planned over the next 12 months, ASP.NET Core has had a surge of adoption (+10%) at the cost to all other ASP.NET technologies. ASP.NET Core is clearly a point of focus for the ASP.NET development community. If you are using ASP.NET MVC or ASP.NET Core and prefer not to spend time writing UI from scratch, take a look at Telerik UI for ASP.NET Core (the only toolset on the market with a complete set of Tag Helpers) and Telerik UI for ASP.NET MVC. The combination of Angular and WebAPI provides a suitable alternative to technologies like ASP.NET Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC. It is able to achieve many of the same goals as these technologies by relying more heavily on the client-side. This eliminates much of the need for the server-side “plumbing”. That stated, there is still a role to be played by ASP.NET in a solution that employs Angular. For an overview of what this looks like, check out Ed Charbeneau’s appearance on Visual Studio Toolbox, where he discusses how to use Angular with ASP.NET Core. If you choose ASP.NET Web API + Angular, you can save time developing the UI using Kendo UI for AngularJS or Kendo UI for Angular. ASP.NET Web Forms continues to be used by a significant portion of respondents. In fact, it’s one of Microsoft’s most mature and popular development environments. ASP.NET Web Forms remains a part of the .NET Framework and still be worked on with new features being added in each release. Because of the maturity of the framework, there are feature-filled and rich component libraries available. For example, Telerik UI for ASP.NET AJAX contains more than 100 components from PivotGrid with OLAP support to rich DataViz to the versatile controls such as Grid, Charts and Scheduler. When it comes to ASP.NET, the best, long-term bet is target ASP.NET Core. This is where most of the innovation is occurring in terms of features and overall performance. Future Development with JavaScript Frameworks It’s not surprising to see Angular and React near the top of the results from the survey. They are two of the popular frameworks in the developer community and will likely remain popular for the next 2–3 years. For more information about the framework ecosystem surrounding JavaScript, check out the whitepaper, The Future of JavaScript: 2018 and Beyond. Examining the details of the survey a little further, the JavaScript frameworks being targeted (as a whole) over the next 12 months can also be determined: These results reflect the opinions of developers surveyed for the Stack Overflow Developer Survey for 2018, which revealed Angular and React to be the most popular JavaScript frameworks. However, the Stack Overflow survey puts React significantly higher in the Loved and Wanted categories at 69.5% wanted over Angular (54.6%). Paradoxically, in the same survey, Angular is the 4th most dreaded framework among respondents. About the Survey This survey was conducted online through a pop-up poll on telerik.com. The survey comprised of 6 questions; 4 with a single choice and 2 with multiple choice. It was conducted on June 26–27, 2018. The varying number of answers was due to respondents dropping the poll. The maximum statistical error for this survey is determined to be in the range ±2.7% to ±3.5%. No incentive was provided to respondents to complete the survey. This story originally appeared on the Progress Telerik blog, by John Bristowe. Looking for more great stories about technology and building tomorrow’s business apps? Check out the blog for more.	d63e2f92-bf6b-5878-85ef-5909234d91ed	25/08/2025 16:01:16
https://mgyerman.medium.com/the-affair-returns-to-showtime-a629598fe134	medium.com	The Affair Returns to Showtime	The second season of Showtime’s drama The Affair has arrived. Having seen the first two episodes, I plan to keep watching.	Marcia G. Yerman	https://medium.com/@mgyerman	a629598fe134	https://miro.medium.com/…5IpWMtyHKZw.jpeg	3 min	2015-10-21T20:23:41.276000	2015-10-21T20:27:39.007000	2017-05-02T22:14:18.166000	0	0	en	The Affair,Television,Sexuality	<section> <p>The second season of Showtime’s drama<em> <a href="h</em>ttp://www.sho.com/sho/the-affair/home">The Affair</a> has arrived. Having seen the first two episodes, I plan to keep watching.</p> <p>Yes, there’s plenty of sex. However, the show is far more than just thrusting bodies in motion. Specifically, in a scene that included brief full-frontal male nudity, my takeaway from the encounter was not about the man’s genitals or his verbalizations in the throes of passion. Rather, what was meaningfully clear was that the woman’s emotional core was elsewhere. The sexual interlude served to underscore her internal state.</p> <p>Given that the co-creators of the show are <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0505448/?ref_=tt_ov_wr">Hagai Levi</a> and <a href="http://www.writermag.com/2014/02/28/sarah-treem-different-path/">Sarah Treem</a>, that subtext was not a surprise. Treem adapted Levi’s original Israeli series<em> Be’Tipul </em>for HBO, which became the hit <em><a href="htt</em>p://www.hbo.com/in-treatment/about/index.html">In Treatment</a>. The basis for the plot was sessions between a psychologist and his patients.</p> <p>In <em>The Affair’s </em>first season, the construct was to unfold the story through the perspectives of the adulterers, Alison (Ruth Wilson) and Noah (Dominic West). They are both attractive, gifted actors who keep the audience engaged. (OK, truth be told, at first it was jarring to be see Wilson play a normal person after her previous role as a psychopath in <em>Luther</em>.)</p> <p>This time around, the respective spouses are part of the primary equation. Building on the established format, Alison’s husband, Cole (Joshua Jackson) and Noah’s wife, Helen (Maura Tierney) are paired within an episode. Four points of view now yield a full-fledged <em>Rashomon</em> experience. The individual recounting of events reflects disparate interpretations of incidents — from dialogue and clothing worn to the diverging memory of who sat where at a divorce mediation meeting.</p> <p>The tag line for the show is, “The truth is suspect.” In real life, each person’s impression of reality varies widely — whether the arena is in the home sphere, daily events, or the world stage. Here that concept is writ large.</p> <p>Narrative threads serve to comment on class and gender issues. While characters cross back and forth over not so invisible boundaries, the narration pulls in sidebars such as drug dealing, economic conflict, art versus commerce, generational divides, and — as a plot device — possibly murder. The police detective conducting the interrogations is one of the few people of color in the cast.</p> <p>Through Helen’s eyes, the audience is afforded a deeper look at a mother of four children, and a betrayed spouse who thought her 20-year marriage was in good shape. Beyond the prism of Noah’s side of the story, Helen presents as a pawn in a dysfunctional family, who struggles with an overbearing and demanding mother. She does her best to cope with her vulnerabilities by drinking white wine and smoking grass to take the edge off her current circumstances. Helen’s most telling moment is her reaction to an empty space on her bedroom wall, where a painting by her father-in-law had previously hung. It has left the premises, along with her husband.</p> <p>The giddiness of the initial, secretive sexual encounters have been packed away, enabling viewers to fully observe the emotional fallout devastating Noah’s and Helen’s children. No one escapes unscathed, and that includes the oldest generation of parental figures.</p> <p>The chance meetings of various players may stretch the imagination, such as when Noah’s supercilious father-in-law gets into Cole’s taxi for a ride to Montauk. Information is revealed that conveniently explains an earlier scene. Even so, you have to go with the writers who give Helen’s father the quote, “You never get to go back no matter how badly you miss it. You just gotta keep moving forward.”</p> <p>It will be interesting to see how that thought plays out.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1024/1*EKmbfEAJ9-65IpWMtyHKZw.jpeg" width="1024" height="1392" loading="lazy" /> <p><em>Originally published at <a href="http://www.ravishly.com/201</em>5/10/07/affair-returns-showtime">www.ravishly.com</a> on October 7, 2015.</p> </section>	The Affair Returns to Showtime The second season of Showtime’s drama The Affair has arrived. Having seen the first two episodes, I plan to keep watching. Yes, there’s plenty of sex. However, the show is far more than just thrusting bodies in motion. Specifically, in a scene that included brief full-frontal male nudity, my takeaway from the encounter was not about the man’s genitals or his verbalizations in the throes of passion. Rather, what was meaningfully clear was that the woman’s emotional core was elsewhere. The sexual interlude served to underscore her internal state. Given that the co-creators of the show are Hagai Levi and Sarah Treem, that subtext was not a surprise. Treem adapted Levi’s original Israeli series Be’Tipul for HBO, which became the hit In Treatment. The basis for the plot was sessions between a psychologist and his patients. In The Affair’s first season, the construct was to unfold the story through the perspectives of the adulterers, Alison (Ruth Wilson) and Noah (Dominic West). They are both attractive, gifted actors who keep the audience engaged. (OK, truth be told, at first it was jarring to be see Wilson play a normal person after her previous role as a psychopath in Luther.) This time around, the respective spouses are part of the primary equation. Building on the established format, Alison’s husband, Cole (Joshua Jackson) and Noah’s wife, Helen (Maura Tierney) are paired within an episode. Four points of view now yield a full-fledged Rashomon experience. The individual recounting of events reflects disparate interpretations of incidents — from dialogue and clothing worn to the diverging memory of who sat where at a divorce mediation meeting. The tag line for the show is, “The truth is suspect.” In real life, each person’s impression of reality varies widely — whether the arena is in the home sphere, daily events, or the world stage. Here that concept is writ large. Narrative threads serve to comment on class and gender issues. While characters cross back and forth over not so invisible boundaries, the narration pulls in sidebars such as drug dealing, economic conflict, art versus commerce, generational divides, and — as a plot device — possibly murder. The police detective conducting the interrogations is one of the few people of color in the cast. Through Helen’s eyes, the audience is afforded a deeper look at a mother of four children, and a betrayed spouse who thought her 20-year marriage was in good shape. Beyond the prism of Noah’s side of the story, Helen presents as a pawn in a dysfunctional family, who struggles with an overbearing and demanding mother. She does her best to cope with her vulnerabilities by drinking white wine and smoking grass to take the edge off her current circumstances. Helen’s most telling moment is her reaction to an empty space on her bedroom wall, where a painting by her father-in-law had previously hung. It has left the premises, along with her husband. The giddiness of the initial, secretive sexual encounters have been packed away, enabling viewers to fully observe the emotional fallout devastating Noah’s and Helen’s children. No one escapes unscathed, and that includes the oldest generation of parental figures. The chance meetings of various players may stretch the imagination, such as when Noah’s supercilious father-in-law gets into Cole’s taxi for a ride to Montauk. Information is revealed that conveniently explains an earlier scene. Even so, you have to go with the writers who give Helen’s father the quote, “You never get to go back no matter how badly you miss it. You just gotta keep moving forward.” It will be interesting to see how that thought plays out. Originally published at www.ravishly.com on October 7, 2015.	a41cbc50-b24f-5a9f-89a9-f12451a7fd81	25/08/2025 16:01:16
https://medium.com/@pedrofernandeznjna/urban-farmers-grow-veggies-in-freight-containers-daa7528cb319	medium.com	Urban Farmers Grow Veggies in Freight Containers	null	Pedro Fernandez	https://medium.com/@pedrofernandeznjna	daa7528cb319	https://miro.medium.com/max/2000/0*eM361a0BZd5sgSMW.	0 min	2017-03-28T19:10:10.011000	2017-03-28T19:10:10.711000	2017-03-28T19:10:10.711000	0	0	en	Organic Healthy Food	<section> <p>“Freight Farms started in 2010 with the goal of bringing viable, space-efficient farming techniques to all climates and skill levels year-round. It recently expanded to Arizona.</p> <p>The cars are not cheap. Each container — the kind commonly seen on trains, trucks or ships — costs $85,000, not including shipping. Freight Farms calculates annual profit for each container to be an average of $39,000 annually.”</p> <p><strong>To read the entire story, visit: “<a href="http</strong>://ift.tt/2n3SB3T">USAToday.com</a>“</p> </section>	“Freight Farms started in 2010 with the goal of bringing viable, space-efficient farming techniques to all climates and skill levels year-round. It recently expanded to Arizona. The cars are not cheap. Each container — the kind commonly seen on trains, trucks or ships — costs $85,000, not including shipping. Freight Farms calculates annual profit for each container to be an average of $39,000 annually.” To read the entire story, visit: “USAToday.com“	32f579fc-86d5-58dc-ab71-65c37089a20f	25/08/2025 16:01:17
https://medium.com/@OwnYourReality/projection-the-narcissists-weapon-that-can-be-used-against-them-7ebb63848998	medium.com	Projection (The Narcissists’ Weapon that Can Be Used Against Them)	Today the topic I have for you is Projection — The Narcissists’ Weapon that Can Be Used Against Them.	Inner Integration	https://medium.com/@OwnYourReality	7ebb63848998	https://miro.medium.com/…HDCj6-Lso1w.jpeg	4 min	2018-07-15T11:25:07.938000	2018-07-15T11:47:38.295000	2018-07-15T11:47:38.736000	6	757	en	Narcissism,Narcissistic Abuse,Narcissist,Psychological Abuse,Emotional Abuse	<section> <p>Today the topic I have for you is Projection — The Narcissists’ Weapon that Can Be Used Against Them.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/940/1*UNnmmuRlm4jHDCj6-Lso1w.jpeg" width="940" height="788" loading="lazy" /> <p>I’m going to talk about what the narcissist is doing with projection, what it’s actually revealing to you, and how you can use that against them by understanding what their true motives are.</p> <p>Essentially, all narcissists tell on themselves.</p> <p><strong>Projection is the process through which they reveal who they are and what they’re doing.</strong></p> <p>Through projection, they call you what they are. They accuse you of doing what they’re doing or planning on doing. They throw all the uncomfortable feelings onto you because they don’t want to deal with them. They throw their shame on you so they don’t have to deal with it. They make you feel guilty for who they are and what they’re doing because they’re unable to feel that guilt themselves.</p> <p>So, essentially projection is an unconscious way of denying the existence of something inside oneself and attributing it to others, externalizing it.</p> <p>This could be unacceptable or unwanted characteristic, flaws, thoughts, emotions, actions, feelings.</p> <p><strong>It’s a defense mechanism.</strong></p> <p>Anybody can do this. You can be projecting things onto people and not even realize it.</p> <p>There’s going to be one thing I’ll talk about in the end when I give you a few tips, that’s a very common form of rejection among codependents, people-pleasers, and empaths.</p> <p>In the case of narcissists, because they’re unable to see these things inside themselves they have to project them on other people. Because they’re unable to be accountable and responsible for their stuff, they have to project it onto other people.</p> <p>Projection is a combination of misdirection and blame-shifting. They’re diverting and distracting you from what is really going on and they’re getting you to take responsibility for it in some way. On the surface that’s what they seem to think is going on. But, if you learn to read the narcissist instead of just taking everything personally, you’re going to see how valuable their projections are for revealing who they are and what they’re doing.</p> <p>I’m going to give you some common examples. You’re probably going to relate to some of these and it’s probably going to get you thinking about other ways that you’ve seen this taking place.</p> <p>Examples of projection of narcissists:</p> <p>Where the narcissists accuses you of cheating and goes on and on questioning you, what you were doing and who you were with and what’s going on. they’re all up in your stuff because the narcissist is cheating or planning on it.</p> <p>The narcissist says at the restaurant, <em>“where’s our plump dumpling waitress?”</em> But the narcissist is overweight.</p> <p>The narcissist calls you up and says <em>“did you hear about so and so? I hear she has a lot of darkness going on.”</em> But the narcissist is a very dark character.</p> <p>You’ve set a boundary and you don’t give the narcissist what s/fhe wants, so the narcissist calls you selfish.</p> <p>The narcissist accuses you of lying because the narcissist is a pathological liar.</p> <p>The narcissist business partner says to you <em>“what have you been doing for the last six months?”</em> You built the entire business in the last six months. The narcissist did nothing but surf the internet, travel and schmooze people.</p> <p>So you see how they’re just externalizing, throwing onto you, or whomever the target is, whatever it is they’re unable to face or don’t like inside themselves.</p> <p>So I’m going to give you a few tips on how to deal with the projection.</p> <p><strong>Don’t identify with it.</strong></p> <p>When you identify with the projection that becomes projection identification. I mentioned that in a Q&A video I did a few months ago. Remember, that’s about them, not about you. Often it’ll be directed to you. Sometimes it’ll be about someone else like the waitress or someone else in the background. Try not to get upset about it. Try not to give a reaction. Try not to get involved in any narcissistic supply giving.</p> <p>Remember, don’t internalize the projection if it’s aimed towards you. Don’t internalize it and don’t make it yours. When you don’t take it personally that’s when you can see the reveal taking place outside. But if you’re taking too personally you’re not going to see what they’re revealing. You’re just going to get caught up in that. It’s essentially your ego that’s going to get caught up in it. So remember to tell your ego to take a seat, don’t take it personally and just look at the whole scenario, the big picture, and recognize what are they telling you. What are they revealing to you about their motives, what their plans are or what they’re actually doing?</p> <p><strong>2. Don’t project your own good qualities onto anyone else.</strong></p> <p>This is what codependents, empaths, and people-pleasers do. We’ve projected our empathy, our generosity, our honesty, all the good qualities that we want to see in our mate, or in our boss, in our friend, in our family or whomever it was but those were <em>our</em> qualities. We’re projecting <em>our</em> goodness onto them. Those things weren’t actually there, we just wanted to see those things in them. We wanted to believe those qualities in that person.</p> <p><strong>3. Know yourself and be assertive in your sense of self.</strong></p> <p>If you know yourself when the narcissist is projecting these things at you and you’re not taking it personally you’re able to realize, <em>nope, that’s not me. </em>So you’re going to be able to laugh that off. You’re going to be able to just let that go and realize it’s not personal at all. Be assertive in your sense of self. Know who you are. Be assertive in owning your reality so the narcissist can’t get away with the projection.</p> <p>Remember, you can use this to your advantage in situations where you have to deal with the narcissist, especially when you’re trying to figure out what their next move is or what’s going on. Listen to them, because they always tell on themselves.</p> <p>So if you’ve got a comment to add to this, short scenarios in which you have a projection example to share, go ahead and share that because that could be really helpful to someone else.</p> <p>Sometimes people are reflecting on what was the narcissist’s projection and what were they really saying. Then they read your example and it triggers some kind of memory or understanding for them, so that can be helpful.</p> <p>Remember, you can use projection against them. You don’t have to let it be a weapon used against you.</p> <p></p> </section>	Projection (The Narcissists’ Weapon that Can Be Used Against Them) Today the topic I have for you is Projection — The Narcissists’ Weapon that Can Be Used Against Them. I’m going to talk about what the narcissist is doing with projection, what it’s actually revealing to you, and how you can use that against them by understanding what their true motives are. Essentially, all narcissists tell on themselves. Projection is the process through which they reveal who they are and what they’re doing. Through projection, they call you what they are. They accuse you of doing what they’re doing or planning on doing. They throw all the uncomfortable feelings onto you because they don’t want to deal with them. They throw their shame on you so they don’t have to deal with it. They make you feel guilty for who they are and what they’re doing because they’re unable to feel that guilt themselves. So, essentially projection is an unconscious way of denying the existence of something inside oneself and attributing it to others, externalizing it. This could be unacceptable or unwanted characteristic, flaws, thoughts, emotions, actions, feelings. It’s a defense mechanism. Anybody can do this. You can be projecting things onto people and not even realize it. There’s going to be one thing I’ll talk about in the end when I give you a few tips, that’s a very common form of rejection among codependents, people-pleasers, and empaths. In the case of narcissists, because they’re unable to see these things inside themselves they have to project them on other people. Because they’re unable to be accountable and responsible for their stuff, they have to project it onto other people. Projection is a combination of misdirection and blame-shifting. They’re diverting and distracting you from what is really going on and they’re getting you to take responsibility for it in some way. On the surface that’s what they seem to think is going on. But, if you learn to read the narcissist instead of just taking everything personally, you’re going to see how valuable their projections are for revealing who they are and what they’re doing. I’m going to give you some common examples. You’re probably going to relate to some of these and it’s probably going to get you thinking about other ways that you’ve seen this taking place. Examples of projection of narcissists: Where the narcissists accuses you of cheating and goes on and on questioning you, what you were doing and who you were with and what’s going on. they’re all up in your stuff because the narcissist is cheating or planning on it. The narcissist says at the restaurant, “where’s our plump dumpling waitress?” But the narcissist is overweight. The narcissist calls you up and says “did you hear about so and so? I hear she has a lot of darkness going on.” But the narcissist is a very dark character. You’ve set a boundary and you don’t give the narcissist what s/fhe wants, so the narcissist calls you selfish. The narcissist accuses you of lying because the narcissist is a pathological liar. The narcissist business partner says to you “what have you been doing for the last six months?” You built the entire business in the last six months. The narcissist did nothing but surf the internet, travel and schmooze people. So you see how they’re just externalizing, throwing onto you, or whomever the target is, whatever it is they’re unable to face or don’t like inside themselves. So I’m going to give you a few tips on how to deal with the projection. Don’t identify with it. When you identify with the projection that becomes projection identification. I mentioned that in a Q&A video I did a few months ago. Remember, that’s about them, not about you. Often it’ll be directed to you. Sometimes it’ll be about someone else like the waitress or someone else in the background. Try not to get upset about it. Try not to give a reaction. Try not to get involved in any narcissistic supply giving. Remember, don’t internalize the projection if it’s aimed towards you. Don’t internalize it and don’t make it yours. When you don’t take it personally that’s when you can see the reveal taking place outside. But if you’re taking too personally you’re not going to see what they’re revealing. You’re just going to get caught up in that. It’s essentially your ego that’s going to get caught up in it. So remember to tell your ego to take a seat, don’t take it personally and just look at the whole scenario, the big picture, and recognize what are they telling you. What are they revealing to you about their motives, what their plans are or what they’re actually doing? 2. Don’t project your own good qualities onto anyone else. This is what codependents, empaths, and people-pleasers do. We’ve projected our empathy, our generosity, our honesty, all the good qualities that we want to see in our mate, or in our boss, in our friend, in our family or whomever it was but those were our qualities. We’re projecting our goodness onto them. Those things weren’t actually there, we just wanted to see those things in them. We wanted to believe those qualities in that person. 3. Know yourself and be assertive in your sense of self. If you know yourself when the narcissist is projecting these things at you and you’re not taking it personally you’re able to realize, nope, that’s not me. So you’re going to be able to laugh that off. You’re going to be able to just let that go and realize it’s not personal at all. Be assertive in your sense of self. Know who you are. Be assertive in owning your reality so the narcissist can’t get away with the projection. Remember, you can use this to your advantage in situations where you have to deal with the narcissist, especially when you’re trying to figure out what their next move is or what’s going on. Listen to them, because they always tell on themselves. So if you’ve got a comment to add to this, short scenarios in which you have a projection example to share, go ahead and share that because that could be really helpful to someone else. Sometimes people are reflecting on what was the narcissist’s projection and what were they really saying. Then they read your example and it triggers some kind of memory or understanding for them, so that can be helpful. Remember, you can use projection against them. You don’t have to let it be a weapon used against you.	a014552f-b15b-5cb9-a133-cf023d2466b4	25/08/2025 16:01:18
https://medium.com/devopsion/solving-the-routing-mess-for-services-in-docker-73492c37b335	medium.com	Solving the routing mess for services using Docker	“It’s not the load that breaks you down; it’s the way you carry it.” — Lou Holtz	Luis Herrera Benítez	https://medium.com/@lherrera	73492c37b335	https://miro.medium.com/max/2000/0*SNC9XrZXvaKAf7kZ.	17 min	2016-08-09T18:38:08.301000	2016-08-09T20:01:41.263000	2018-06-19T20:11:31.743000	4	396	en	Docker,DevOps,Routing Mesh,Networking,Load Balancing	<section> <h1>Solving the routing mess for services using Docker</h1> <p>“It’s not the load that breaks you down; it’s the way you carry it.” — Lou Holtz</p> <p><em><strong>Co-authored with Emmet O’Grady ( Founder of <a href="https://ni</em>mbleci.c</strong>om">NimbleCI</a> and Docker Ninja).</p> <p>In Franz Kafka’s book “The Metamorphosis”, a man wakes up one morning to find he’s been transformed into a giant insect-like creature. As DevOps engineers, we have our surreal moments too. We find exotic bugs under the rug or get attacked by worms and other nasty creatures. If you have been doing this long enough, you’ll have your <a href="https://gcn.com/articles/2016/02/09/data-center-outages.aspx">horror story</a> or two (share it with us!). In those moments we can’t sit back and wait for the crisis to pass, we need to act fast. Against the clock, we have to deploy new instances or roll out new versions of our services fixing the issue.</p> <p>How about this for another surreal moment: your application gets featured in the media, a crowded slack channel or your internal message board. The users come fast and furious to your site, your service gets pushed to its limits and beyond. In a frenzied race against 502 errors, you need to find the servers, launch new instances, and re-configure your network and your load balancers. You’re frantically trying to put all the pieces together. You feel like sometimes you are taking a spoon to a knife fight. Wishfully you think “this should be portable and automated.” Maybe then I’d have more time to relax and read the classics!</p> <p>Feel it no more. Here’s Docker 1.12 to help you. This release ships with a set of new features ensures a level playing field:</p> <ul> <li>Roll out and roll back services quickly</li> <li>Automate load balancing</li> <li>Enable the scaling-out of services and the infrastructure in which they run</li> <li>Tackle service or node failures automatically</li> </ul> <p>And as you have learned to expect from Docker, they are easy to use.</p> <h3>Routing Mesh</h3> <p>Docker 1.12 introduces a whole set of new terms. One of them is a new feature called “routing mesh.” Mesh networks and their routing algorithms are not a new thing, the genius of Docker engineering team has been to use this approach to simplify software changes delivery and service discovery in Micro-services architectures. The “mesh” is simply the new way of routing and balancing the traffic to the containers in Docker 1.12. The new routing strategy allows a service to be reached by the same port on all nodes in the swarm, even if the node does not have the service deployed on it. The routing mesh also transparently balances requests across all available services in the swarm, detecting node failures.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/520/0ZMOSczT6crDvHC5I." width="520" height="352" loading="lazy" /> <p>This new approach makes it very easy to set-up load balancing of services: imagine a three node swarm with seven different services spread out over the swarm. From the outside, we can send the request to any one of the nodes, and it will be routed to a random service automatically. Or we can always send the request to one single node and Docker will internally load balance between the services. So we get load balancing of services natively.</p> <p>Routing mesh allows us to treat the containers truly transparently, in the sense that we don’t care how many containers are serving our app, the cluster handles all networking and load balancing for us. Where before we had to put a reverse proxy in front of the services to act as a load balancer, now we can relax and let docker do the load balancing for us. Because Docker handles all the dirty work for us, the difference between having one container and having 100 containers is now trivially small; it’s merely a matter of having enough computing resources to be able to scale and then running one command to scale up. No more do we have to think about architectural considerations before scaling since Docker handles it all. When it comes to scaling we can relax knowing that Docker will handle it transparently, one container is the same as 100.</p> <p>You might be wondering why we’ve been using the terminology “services” instead of “containers.” That’s something else new in Docker 1.12, let’s take a look.</p> <h3>Services and tasks</h3> <p>Docker 1.12 has introduced a new abstraction, “services”. Services define the desired state of the containers in a cluster. Internally the engine uses this new concept to ensure that the containers are running, handle failures, and route traffic to the containers.</p> <p>Let’s dive in a bit deeper and discuss the new concept of tasks. Services are composed of tasks which represent one instance of a container that should be running. The swarm schedules these tasks across nodes. Services mostly define the amount of running container instances (tasks) which should be up at any time as well as how they should be run (the configuration and flags for each container) and also how to update them (e.g. rolling updates). All that together represents the desired state of the service, and the Docker engine continuously monitors the current condition of the cluster and makes changes to ensure it matches the state you want.</p> <p>Here’s a sneak preview of a redis service that we will start later in this article. To start it we might use a command like this:</p> <pre><code class="language-">$ <strong>docker service create --name redisdb --replicas=3 redis:alpine</strong></code></pre> <h3>Routing mesh in action</h3> <p>Enough of the theory, let’s see all this in action. We’ll start with small nodejs service that will help show the inner workings of the routing mesh. You’ll find the code on Github <a href="https://github.com/lherrera/webapp">here</a>. Let’s have a look at the most important file: webapp.js</p> <pre><code class="language-"><em>// A sample webserver that responds with version, hostname, IPs used and number of visits</em></code></pre> <pre><code class="language-">var http = require(‘http’); var os = require(“os”); var redis = require(‘redis’);</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>var server = http.createServer(function (request, response) {</strong></code></pre> <pre><code class="language-"><em>// We start building building an “OK” response</em> response.writeHead(200, {“Content-Type”: “text/plain”});</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-"><em>// and also log the variables we are going to use in our response</em> var version = “2.0”; var log = {}; log.header = ‘webapp’; log.name = os.hostname(); log.version = version;</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-"><em>// We iterate over network interfaces to obtain IPv4 addresses</em> var interfaces = os.networkInterfaces(); var addresses = []; for (var k in interfaces) { for (var k2 in interfaces[k]) { var address = interfaces[k][k2]; if (address.family === ‘IPv4’ && !address.internal) { addresses.push(address.address); } } } log.nics = addresses;</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-"><em>// We try to reach our redis server (redisdb) by NAME</em> <strong>var client = redis.createClient(‘6379’, ‘redisdb’);</strong> client.on(‘connect’, function(err,reply) { if (err) return next(err); console.log(‘Connected to Redis server’); client.incr(‘counter’, function(err, reply) { if(err) return next(err); console.log(‘This page has been viewed ‘ + reply + ‘ times!’); console.log(JSON.stringify(log)); <strong>response.end(“ Hello, I’m version “+ log.version +”.My hostname is “+ log.name +”, this page has been viewed “+ reply +”\n and my ip addresses are “ + log.nics + “\n” );</strong> }); <em>// client.incr</em> });<em> // client.on</em></code></pre> <pre><code class="language-">});<em> // http.createHttpServer</em></code></pre> <pre><code class="language-"><em>// Let's wait for http request on port 8000</em> <strong>server.listen(8000);</strong></code></pre> <p>The service just returns the hostname , the IPs addresses of the container running it, and a counter with the number of visits.</p> <p>So that’s our application. Before we jump in let’s make sure we’ve upgraded to Docker 1.12.0!</p> <pre><code class="language-">$ <strong>docker version</strong> Client: Version: 1.12.0 API version: 1.24 Go version: go1.6.3 Git commit: 8eab29e Built: Thu Jul 28 21:04:48 2016 OS/Arch: darwin/amd64 Experimental: true</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-">Server: Version: 1.12.0 API version: 1.24 Go version: go1.6.3 Git commit: 8eab29e Built: Thu Jul 28 21:04:48 2016 OS/Arch: linux/amd64 Experimental: true</code></pre> <p>We start by creating a cluster of three nodes using docker-machine:</p> <pre><code class="language-">$ <strong>docker-machine create --driver virtualbox swarm-1</strong> Running pre-create checks… Creating machine… … Setting Docker configuration on the remote daemon… Checking connection to Docker… Docker is up and running! …</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-">$ <strong>docker-machine create --driver virtualbox swarm-2</strong> … Docker is up and running! $ <strong>docker-machine create --driver virtualbox swarm-3</strong> … Docker is up and running!</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ docker-machine ls</strong> NAME ACTIVE DRIVER STATE URL SWARM DOCKER ERRORS swarm-1 — virtualbox Running tcp://192.168.99.106:2376 v1.12.0 swarm-2 — virtualbox Running tcp://192.168.99.107:2376 v1.12.0 swarm-3 — virtualbox Running tcp://192.168.99.108:2376 v1.12.0</code></pre> <p>We’ve shortened the output of some commands for clarity. Next, we’ll set up the swarm. Docker 1.12 has made this very easy to do:</p> <pre><code class="language-">$ <strong>eval $(docker-machine env swarm-1)</strong> $ <strong>docker swarm init --advertise-addr $(docker-machine ip swarm-1)</strong> Swarm initialized: current node (bihyblm2kawbzd3keonc3bz0l) is now a manager.</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-">To add a worker to this swarm, run the following command: docker swarm join \ --token SWMTKN-1–1n7gtfmvvrlwo91pv4r59vsdf73bwuwodj3saq0162vcsny89l-5zige8u81ug5adk3o4bsx32fi \ 192.168.99.106:2377 …</code></pre> <p>Now, we copy & paste the command that the previous command outputted for the “worker” node in the other two nodes:</p> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ eval $(docker-machine env swarm-2) $ docker swarm join \ --token SWMTKN-1–1n7gtfmvvrlwo91pv4r59vsdf73bwuwodj3saq0162vcsny89l-5zige8u81ug5adk3o4bsx32fi \ 192.168.99.106:2377</strong> This node joined a swarm as a worker.</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ eval $(docker-machine env swarm-3) $ docker swarm join \ --token SWMTKN-1–1n7gtfmvvrlwo91pv4r59vsdf73bwuwodj3saq0162vcsny89l-5zige8u81ug5adk3o4bsx32fi \ 192.168.99.106:2377</strong> … This node joined a swarm as a worker.</code></pre> <p>Note: When you initialize a new swarm the command will output two commands that you can use to join other nodes to the swarm. Don’t worry about losing these commands, though; you can get them again by running “<em>docker swarm join-token worker\|manager</em>” at any time.</p> <p>Before continuing, let’s make sure our swarm cluster is operational. We’ll point our Docker client to the manager node and check its status:</p> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ eval $(docker-machine env swarm-1) $ docker node ls </strong> ID HOSTNAME STATUS AVAILABILITY MANAGER STATUS 5jqsuf8hsemi7bfbwzfdxfcg5 swarm-2 Ready Active 93f0ghkpsh5ru7newtqm82330 swarm-3 Ready Active b2womami9n2t8tti1acvz6v5j swarm-1 Ready Active Leader</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ docker info</strong> … Swarm: active NodeID: b2womami9n2t8tti1acvz6v5j Is Manager: true ClusterID: bimg9n2ti2tnsprkdjqg07tdm Managers: 1 Nodes: 3 Orchestration: Task History Retention Limit: 5 Raft: Snapshot interval: 10000 Heartbeat tick: 1 Election tick: 3 Dispatcher: Heartbeat period: 5 seconds CA configuration: Expiry duration: 3 months Node Address: 192.168.99.106</code></pre> <p>We’re going to create a new network which we’ll use for all our examples:</p> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ docker network create --driver overlay webnet</strong> a9j4al25hzhk2m7rdfv5bqt54</code></pre> <p>So we are now ready to launch a new service to the Swarm. We’re going to start a Redis database and a container “lherrera/webapp” which saves page visits in Redis and outputs other interesting details like the hostname and the IP address of the container.</p> <p>When we deploy our webapp, it will be able to connect to the Redis database using the name of the Redis service, “redisdb”. We don’t need to use IP addresses because the swarm mode has an internal DNS that assigns automatically each service a DNS entry. Easy!</p> <p>We can only deploy services from manager nodes. Since our Docker client is already pointing towards the manager node we can just type in the command “<em>docker service create</em>”:</p> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ docker service create --name webapp --replicas=3 --network webnet --publish 80:8000 lherrera/webapp:1.0 </strong>avq41soybmtw2jamdus0m3pg</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ docker service create --name redisdb --network webnet --replicas 1 redis:alpine</strong> bmotumdr8bcewcfj6zqkws97x</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ docker service ls</strong> ID NAME REPLICAS IMAGE COMMAND avq41soybmtw webapp 3/3 lherrera/webapp:1.0 bmotumdr8bce redisdb 1/1 redis:alpine</code></pre> <p>In the service create command we need to specify at least an image (in our case, lherrera/webapp). For convenience, we are also providing a name (webapp). We could have also specified the command to run inside the containers just after the image. In the previous command, we also specified we want three replicas of the container running at any given time. Using the flag “ — replicas” implies we don’t care on which node they are put on, if we want one service per node we can use “ — mode=global” instead.</p> <p>You can see that we’re using the “webnet” network that we created earlier. To make our service accessible from outside the Swarm, we need to publish the port where the Swarm listens for web requests. In our example, we “publish” port 8000 inside the service to port 80 on all the nodes. Because of the routing mesh, this will reserve port 80 on all nodes and Docker Engine will load balance the traffic on that port between port 8000 in all the replica containers.</p> <p>The Swarm will take this service description as the desired state for our application and start deploying the application to nodes to achieve and maintain this desired state. We could specify more service parameters to complete our description, like restart policies, memory and CPU limits, node constraints, etc. For a full list of the available flags, you can use with “docker service create”, see here.</p> <p>At this point, we make sure that our webapp is connected correctly to the new webnet network:</p> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ docker network ls</strong> NETWORK ID NAME DRIVER SCOPE df19a5c87d90 bridge bridge local 7c5762c8c6ff docker_gwbridge bridge local eb0bd5a4920b host host local bqqh4te5f5tf ingress overlay swarm 3e06a1616b7b none null local <strong>a9j4al25hzhk webnet overlay swarm</strong></code></pre> <pre><code class="language-">$ docker service inspect webapp … “VirtualIPs”: [ { “NetworkID”: “7i9t9uhtr7x0hybsvnsheh92u”, “Addr”: “10.255.0.6/16” }, { <strong> “NetworkID”: “a9j4al25hzhk2m7rdfv5bqt54”, “Addr”: “10.0.0.4/24”</strong> } ] }, …</code></pre> <p>Now let’s continue with our example and make sure our service it’s up and running:</p> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ docker service ps webapp</strong> ID NAME IMAGE NODE DESIRED STATE CURRENT STATE ERROR bb8n4iagxcjv4rn2oc3dj6cvy <em><strong></em>webapp.1</strong> lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-1 <strong>Running</strong> Preparing about a minute ago chndeorlvglj45alr4vhy50vg <em><strong></em>webapp.2</strong> lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-3 <strong>Running</strong> Preparing about a minute ago 4txay0gj6p18iuiknacdoa91x <em><strong></em>webapp.3</strong> lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-2 <strong>Running</strong> Preparing about a minute ago</code></pre> <p>One thing to be aware of is that although the docker service creates command returns quickly with an id, the actual scaling of the service may take some time, especially if the image has to be pulled on the nodes. If so, just run “docker service ps webapp” a few times until all replicas are providing service.</p> <p>When the services are running (this make take a few minutes, grab a coffee in the meantime), we can check to see what our services respond to requests. First, we need to get the IP of the first node:</p> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ NODE1=$(docker-machine ip swarm-1)</strong></code></pre> <p>Then we’ll hit port 80 on that IP address since we published the service on port 80 on the swarm. We’re using curl in the examples below, but you can also put the IP into your browser to see the same thing.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1117/1AsSGXc0ePdlJYEBn_r1r5A.png" width="1117" height="367" loading="lazy" /> <p>Now, we are ready to test our new service:</p> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ curl $NODE1</strong> Hello, I’m version 1.0.My hostname is <strong>5a557d3ed474</strong>, this page has been viewed 1 and my ip addresses are 10.255.0.9,10.255.0.6,172.18.0.3,10.0.0.7,10.0.0.4</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ curl $NODE1</strong> Hello, I’m version 1.0.My hostname is <strong>4e128c8af4ae</strong>, this page has been viewed 2 and my ip addresses are 10.255.0.7,10.255.0.6,172.18.0.3,10.0.0.5,10.0.0.4</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ curl $NODE1</strong> Hello, I’m version 1.0.My hostname is <strong>eaa73f01996c</strong>, this page has been viewed 3 and my ip addresses are 10.255.0.8,10.255.0.6,172.18.0.4,10.0.0.6,10.0.0.4</code></pre> <p>We can see that the first request has gone to the container “5a557d3ed474.” If you hit refresh enough times, or you call “curl” repeatedly from the command line, you will see the request being sent to all of the three replica containers that we created.</p> <p>To demonstrate the other aspect of the routing mesh, try hitting port 80 of the IPs of the other two docker machine nodes. You’ll see the same as before, which means that it doesn’t matter which node you ask; the request is always load balanced internally among the three containers.</p> <h3>Rolling updates</h3> <p>As part of the service description, you can specify the upgrade strategy for your service. For example, you can use the ` — update-delay` flag to configure the delay between updates to a service task (container) or sets of tasks. Or you can use the ` — update-parallelism` flag to change the default behavior of updating one container at a time. You can set all these flags during the service creation or later use the “docker service update” command as we are going to see in the following example. The update command takes nearly identical parameters as “docker service create” but some flags have different names in the update command. Anything you can set in the create command you can change in the update command, though, so you have complete freedom to update any part of the service description at any time.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/620/0-pH16sfHZLAdRd9G." width="620" height="387" loading="lazy" /> <p>Let’s update our webapp service to see how the “rolling update” mechanism works. The team has been working hard to improve the webapp, and we have released a new tag called “2.0.” We’re going to update our service to this new image now.</p> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ docker service update --update-parallelism 1 --update-delay 5s --image lherrera/webapp:2.0 webapp</strong></code></pre> <p>Notice how we’ve also indicated that we want the update to take place one at a time and with five seconds between each update. This rolling approach means that we will have no downtime!</p> <p>While the update is happening, see it in real time by running “docker service ps webapp” every few seconds. You will see the old images being shut down one by one and being replaced by the new one:</p> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ docker service ps webapp</strong> ID NAME IMAGE NODE DESIRED STATE CURRENT STATE ERROR 7bdpfbbjok78zt32xd9e2mqlt webapp.1 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-3 <strong>Running</strong> Running 43 seconds ago bb8n4iagxcjv4rn2oc3dj6cvy \_ webapp.1 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-1 <strong>Shutdown</strong> Shutdown 44 seconds ago af2rlu0laqhrj3uz8brym0f8r webapp.2 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-2 <strong>Running</strong> Running 30 seconds ago chndeorlvglj45alr4vhy50vg \_ webapp.2 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-3 <strong>Shutdown</strong> Shutdown 30 seconds ago 0xjt6gib1hql10iqj6866q4pe webapp.3 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-1 <strong>Running</strong> Running 57 seconds ago 4txay0gj6p18iuiknacdoa91x \_ webapp.3 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-2 <strong>Shutdown</strong> Shutdown 57 seconds ago</code></pre> <p>Yes, this is simply awesome!</p> <p>Since our application also prints the version of the image, another way to see the update in real time is to hit the services endpoint repeatedly during the upgrade. When the service is being updated, you will slowly see more and more requests returning “version 2.0” until the update completes and all the services return version 2.0.</p> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ curl $NODE1</strong> Hello, I’m version 1.0.My hostname is <strong>5a557d3ed474</strong>, this page has been viewed 4 and my ip addresses are 10.255.0.9,10.255.0.6,172.18.0.3,10.0.0.7,10.0.0.4</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ curl $NODE1</strong> Hello, I’m version 2.0.My hostname is <strong>e0899324d9df</strong>, this page has been viewed 5 and my ip addresses are 10.255.0.10,10.255.0.6,172.18.0.4,10.0.0.8,10.0.0.4</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ curl $NODE1 </strong>...</code></pre> <p>You’ll notice that the Redis count continues unaffected since we haven’t changed the Redis service, only the webapp images.</p> <h3>Tackling the growing pains</h3> <p>A swarm of honey bees is a familiar sight in early summer. Honey bees instinctively handle the colony’s survival by swarming when it’s getting crowded. And so we do in our container clusters.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1600/03AX9a6ss2SfZmTRO." width="1600" height="1062" loading="lazy" /> <p>So let’s say that our node is reaching capacity and we need to add another node to our cluster. It’s so easy you can do it with only four commands! For the sake of clarity though we are going to use a few more to ensure it clears what’s going on.</p> <p>Let’s add a new node to our swarm cluster:</p> <pre><code class="language-">$<strong> docker-machine create -d virtualbox swarm-4 </strong>… Docker is up and running!</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-">Join the node the swarm as a worker as before:</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ eval $(docker-machine env swarm-4)</strong> $ <strong>docker swarm join \ --token SWMTKN-1–1n7gtfmvvrlwo91pv4r59vsdf73bwuwodj3saq0162vcsny89l-5zige8u81ug5adk3o4bsx32fi \ 192.168.99.106:2377</strong> This node joined a swarm as a worker.</code></pre> <p>Now we check that both the new node and the webapp service is up and running:</p> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ eval $(docker-machine env swarm-1)</strong></code></pre> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ docker node ls</strong> ID HOSTNAME STATUS AVAILABILITY MANAGER STATUS 93f0ghkpsh5ru7newtqm82330 swarm-3 Ready Active e9rxhj0w1ga3gz89g927qvntd swarm-4 Ready Active 5jqsuf8hsemi7bfbwzfdxfcg5 swarm-2 Ready Active b2womami9n2t8tti1acvz6v5j swarm-1 Ready Active Leader</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ docker service ps webapp</strong> ID NAME IMAGE NODE DESIRED STATE CURRENT STATE ERROR 7bdpfbbjok78zt32xd9e2mqlt webapp.1 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-3 Running Running 5 minutes ago bb8n4iagxcjv4rn2oc3dj6cvy \_ webapp.1 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-1 Shutdown Shutdown 5 minutes ago af2rlu0laqhrj3uz8brym0f8r webapp.2 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-2 Running Running 5 minutes ago chndeorlvglj45alr4vhy50vg \_ webapp.2 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-3 Shutdown Shutdown 5 minutes ago 0xjt6gib1hql10iqj6866q4pe webapp.3 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-1 Running Running 6 minutes ago 4txay0gj6p18iuiknacdoa91x \_ webapp.3 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-2 Shutdown Shutdown 6 minutes ago luis@aurelio [13:14:27] [~/webapp] [2.0]</code></pre> <p>Now let’s ramp up our webapp service to four replicas:</p> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ docker service update --replicas=4 webapp</strong></code></pre> <p>We might need to wait a few minutes for the image to be download on the new node.</p> <pre><code class="language-">$ <strong>docker service ps webapp</strong> ID NAME IMAGE NODE DESIRED STATE CURRENT STATE ERROR 7bdpfbbjok78zt32xd9e2mqlt webapp.1 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-3 Running Running 10 minutes ago bb8n4iagxcjv4rn2oc3dj6cvy \_ webapp.1 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-1 Shutdown Shutdown 10 minutes ago af2rlu0laqhrj3uz8brym0f8r webapp.2 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-2 Running Running 10 minutes ago chndeorlvglj45alr4vhy50vg \_ webapp.2 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-3 Shutdown Shutdown 10 minutes ago 0xjt6gib1hql10iqj6866q4pe webapp.3 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-1 Running Running 10 minutes ago 4txay0gj6p18iuiknacdoa91x \_ webapp.3 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-2 Shutdown Shutdown 10 minutes ago <em><strong>81xbk0j61tqg76wcdi35k1bxv webapp.4 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-4 Running Running 20 sec</em>onds ago</strong></code></pre> <p>Simple, eh?. Bees in a swarm are always in a good mood!</p> <p>For global services (as opposite to replicated ones, like the one we’ve seen in the example), the swarm runs a new task automatically for the service on the newly available node.</p> <h3>Routing Resilience</h3> <p>As if all this wasn’t good enough, the cluster will manage the state of these services (e.g. replicas running) and in the case of failure, reconcile the service to the desired state. In this scenario, new containers and IP addresses are popping in and disappearing. Thankfully, the new embedded service discovery mechanism will help us our services adapt to these situations and container failures, or even complete node failures will now pass unnoticed.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1280/0u-ythibvVKv0LJNo." width="1280" height="783" loading="lazy" /> <p>To see this in action, we’re going to continue with our example and simulate a node of our small cluster failing.</p> <p>Let’s make sure that our webapp is still running on our cluster:</p> <pre><code class="language-">$ <strong>docker service ps webapp</strong> ID NAME IMAGE NODE DESIRED STATE CURRENT STATE ERROR 7bdpfbbjok78zt32xd9e2mqlt webapp.1 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-3 Running Running 10 minutes ago bb8n4iagxcjv4rn2oc3dj6cvy \_ webapp.1 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-1 Shutdown Shutdown 10 minutes ago af2rlu0laqhrj3uz8brym0f8r webapp.2 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-2 Running Running 10 minutes ago chndeorlvglj45alr4vhy50vg \_ webapp.2 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-3 Shutdown Shutdown 10 minutes ago 0xjt6gib1hql10iqj6866q4pe webapp.3 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-1 Running Running 10 minutes ago 4txay0gj6p18iuiknacdoa91x \_ webapp.3 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-2 Shutdown Shutdown 10 minutes ago 81xbk0j61tqg76wcdi35k1bxv webapp.4 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-4 Running Running 20 seconds ago</code></pre> <p>And the nodes:</p> <pre><code class="language-">$ <strong>docker node ls</strong> ID HOSTNAME STATUS AVAILABILITY MANAGER STATUS 21z5m0vik76msi90icrf8prvf swarm-3 Ready Active 7zyckxuwsruehcfosgymwiucm swarm-4 Ready Active 9aso727d8c4vc59cxu0e8g778 swarm-2 Ready Active bihyblm2kawbzd3keonc3bz0l swarm-1 Ready Active Leader</code></pre> <p>Here comes the fun bit, who doesn’t like taking down live nodes to see what happens :D</p> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ docker-machine stop swarm-2</strong></code></pre> <p>Let’s see how our service reacted:</p> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ docker service ps webapp</strong> ID NAME IMAGE NODE DESIRED STATE CURRENT STATE ERROR 7bdpfbbjok78zt32xd9e2mqlt webapp.1 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-3 Running Running 11 minutes ago bb8n4iagxcjv4rn2oc3dj6cvy \_ webapp.1 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-1 Shutdown Shutdown 11 minutes ago af2rlu0laqhrj3uz8brym0f8r webapp.2 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-4 Running Running 11 minutes ago chndeorlvglj45alr4vhy50vg \_ webapp.2 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-3 Shutdown Shutdown 11 minutes ago 0xjt6gib1hql10iqj6866q4pe webapp.3 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-1 Running Running 11 minutes ago 4txay0gj6p18iuiknacdoa91x \_ webapp.3 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-4 Shutdown Shutdown 11 minutes ago 15pxa5ccp9fqfbhdh76q78aza webapp.4 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-3 Running Running 4 seconds ago 81xbk0j61tqg76wcdi35k1bxv \_ webapp.4 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-2 Shutdown Running about a minute ago</code></pre> <p>Great! Docker has spun up a new container on node swarm-3 after we killed node swarm-2. As you can see, we still have three replicas running ( 2 in node “swarm-3”) ….</p> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ curl $NODE1</strong> Hello, I’m version 2.0.My hostname is 0d49c828b675, this page has been viewed 7 and my ip addresses are 10.0.0.7,10.0.0.4,172.18.0.4,10.255.0.10,10.255.0.6</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-"><strong>$ curl $NODE1</strong> Hello, I’m version 2.0.My hostname is d60e1881ac86, this page has been viewed 8 and my ip addresses are 10.0.0.7,10.0.0.4,172.18.0.4,10.255.0.10,10.255.0.6</code></pre> <p>And traffic is automatically routed to the newly created container!.</p> <h3>Swarming up</h3> <p>Software changes fast. Software breaks. Failures happen, and they inevitably happen when least desired. The new “services” abstraction introduced in Docker 1.12 simplifies updates and prevent service downtime on failures. Not only that, this new approach make scheduling and maintaining long-running services like web servers much simpler. You can now deploy replicated, distributed, load balanced services on a swarm of Docker Engines with a few commands. The cluster will manage the state of your services and even reconcile the service to the desired state in case a node or container fails.</p> <p>Solomon Hykes describes nicely how he hopes to make developers lives easier: “With advancements in our orchestration tooling, networking, and security, Docker is enabling developers to build more complex applications that can be delivered at scale from the desktop to the cloud, regardless of the underlying infrastructure.”</p> <p>With the release of Docker 1.12, we think he’s certainly delivering on his promise. Docker is making things much easier, hopefully to the point where those surreal moments that we mentioned at the beginning will disappear! Do you have any DevOps surreal moments? <strong>Share them with us!</strong></p> <h3><strong>More info and links on Docker 1.12</strong></h3> <ul> <li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dooPhkXT9yI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dooPhkXT9yI</a> — Excellent deep dive into the specifics of how swarms nodes work and communicate with each other.</li> <li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F6PSP-qhdA">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F6PSP-qhdA</a> — Part 2 of the deep dive focusing on how services are orchestrated and how failures are handled.</li> </ul> <p>Not enough for you? <strong>Follow us on Twitter</strong> (<a href="http://twitter.com/lherrerabenitez">@lherrerabenitez</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/EmmetOGrady">@EmmetOGrady</a> ) for similar content! Interested in CI for Docker, check out <a href="https://nimbleci.com">NimbleCI</a>.</p> </section>	Solving the routing mess for services using Docker “It’s not the load that breaks you down; it’s the way you carry it.” — Lou Holtz Co-authored with Emmet O’Grady ( Founder of NimbleCI and Docker Ninja). In Franz Kafka’s book “The Metamorphosis”, a man wakes up one morning to find he’s been transformed into a giant insect-like creature. As DevOps engineers, we have our surreal moments too. We find exotic bugs under the rug or get attacked by worms and other nasty creatures. If you have been doing this long enough, you’ll have your horror story or two (share it with us!). In those moments we can’t sit back and wait for the crisis to pass, we need to act fast. Against the clock, we have to deploy new instances or roll out new versions of our services fixing the issue. How about this for another surreal moment: your application gets featured in the media, a crowded slack channel or your internal message board. The users come fast and furious to your site, your service gets pushed to its limits and beyond. In a frenzied race against 502 errors, you need to find the servers, launch new instances, and re-configure your network and your load balancers. You’re frantically trying to put all the pieces together. You feel like sometimes you are taking a spoon to a knife fight. Wishfully you think “this should be portable and automated.” Maybe then I’d have more time to relax and read the classics! Feel it no more. Here’s Docker 1.12 to help you. This release ships with a set of new features ensures a level playing field: Roll out and roll back services quickly Automate load balancing Enable the scaling-out of services and the infrastructure in which they run Tackle service or node failures automatically And as you have learned to expect from Docker, they are easy to use. Routing Mesh Docker 1.12 introduces a whole set of new terms. One of them is a new feature called “routing mesh.” Mesh networks and their routing algorithms are not a new thing, the genius of Docker engineering team has been to use this approach to simplify software changes delivery and service discovery in Micro-services architectures. The “mesh” is simply the new way of routing and balancing the traffic to the containers in Docker 1.12. The new routing strategy allows a service to be reached by the same port on all nodes in the swarm, even if the node does not have the service deployed on it. The routing mesh also transparently balances requests across all available services in the swarm, detecting node failures. Does your network looks like this today? This new approach makes it very easy to set-up load balancing of services: imagine a three node swarm with seven different services spread out over the swarm. From the outside, we can send the request to any one of the nodes, and it will be routed to a random service automatically. Or we can always send the request to one single node and Docker will internally load balance between the services. So we get load balancing of services natively. Routing mesh allows us to treat the containers truly transparently, in the sense that we don’t care how many containers are serving our app, the cluster handles all networking and load balancing for us. Where before we had to put a reverse proxy in front of the services to act as a load balancer, now we can relax and let docker do the load balancing for us. Because Docker handles all the dirty work for us, the difference between having one container and having 100 containers is now trivially small; it’s merely a matter of having enough computing resources to be able to scale and then running one command to scale up. No more do we have to think about architectural considerations before scaling since Docker handles it all. When it comes to scaling we can relax knowing that Docker will handle it transparently, one container is the same as 100. You might be wondering why we’ve been using the terminology “services” instead of “containers.” That’s something else new in Docker 1.12, let’s take a look. Services and tasks Docker 1.12 has introduced a new abstraction, “services”. Services define the desired state of the containers in a cluster. Internally the engine uses this new concept to ensure that the containers are running, handle failures, and route traffic to the containers. Let’s dive in a bit deeper and discuss the new concept of tasks. Services are composed of tasks which represent one instance of a container that should be running. The swarm schedules these tasks across nodes. Services mostly define the amount of running container instances (tasks) which should be up at any time as well as how they should be run (the configuration and flags for each container) and also how to update them (e.g. rolling updates). All that together represents the desired state of the service, and the Docker engine continuously monitors the current condition of the cluster and makes changes to ensure it matches the state you want. Here’s a sneak preview of a redis service that we will start later in this article. To start it we might use a command like this: $ docker service create --name redisdb --replicas=3 redis:alpine Routing mesh in action Enough of the theory, let’s see all this in action. We’ll start with small nodejs service that will help show the inner workings of the routing mesh. You’ll find the code on Github here. Let’s have a look at the most important file: webapp.js // A sample webserver that responds with version, hostname, IPs used and number of visits var http = require(‘http’); var os = require(“os”); var redis = require(‘redis’); var server = http.createServer(function (request, response) { // We start building building an “OK” response response.writeHead(200, {“Content-Type”: “text/plain”}); // and also log the variables we are going to use in our response var version = “2.0”; var log = {}; log.header = ‘webapp’; log.name = os.hostname(); log.version = version; // We iterate over network interfaces to obtain IPv4 addresses var interfaces = os.networkInterfaces(); var addresses = []; for (var k in interfaces) { for (var k2 in interfaces[k]) { var address = interfaces[k][k2]; if (address.family === ‘IPv4’ && !address.internal) { addresses.push(address.address); } } } log.nics = addresses; // We try to reach our redis server (redisdb) by NAME var client = redis.createClient(‘6379’, ‘redisdb’); client.on(‘connect’, function(err,reply) { if (err) return next(err); console.log(‘Connected to Redis server’); client.incr(‘counter’, function(err, reply) { if(err) return next(err); console.log(‘This page has been viewed ‘ + reply + ‘ times!’); console.log(JSON.stringify(log)); response.end(“ Hello, I’m version “+ log.version +”.My hostname is “+ log.name +”, this page has been viewed “+ reply +”\n and my ip addresses are “ + log.nics + “\n” ); }); // client.incr }); // client.on }); // http.createHttpServer // Let's wait for http request on port 8000 server.listen(8000); The service just returns the hostname , the IPs addresses of the container running it, and a counter with the number of visits. So that’s our application. Before we jump in let’s make sure we’ve upgraded to Docker 1.12.0! $ docker version Client: Version: 1.12.0 API version: 1.24 Go version: go1.6.3 Git commit: 8eab29e Built: Thu Jul 28 21:04:48 2016 OS/Arch: darwin/amd64 Experimental: true Server: Version: 1.12.0 API version: 1.24 Go version: go1.6.3 Git commit: 8eab29e Built: Thu Jul 28 21:04:48 2016 OS/Arch: linux/amd64 Experimental: true We start by creating a cluster of three nodes using docker-machine: $ docker-machine create --driver virtualbox swarm-1 Running pre-create checks… Creating machine… … Setting Docker configuration on the remote daemon… Checking connection to Docker… Docker is up and running! … $ docker-machine create --driver virtualbox swarm-2 … Docker is up and running! $ docker-machine create --driver virtualbox swarm-3 … Docker is up and running! $ docker-machine ls NAME ACTIVE DRIVER STATE URL SWARM DOCKER ERRORS swarm-1 — virtualbox Running tcp://192.168.99.106:2376 v1.12.0 swarm-2 — virtualbox Running tcp://192.168.99.107:2376 v1.12.0 swarm-3 — virtualbox Running tcp://192.168.99.108:2376 v1.12.0 We’ve shortened the output of some commands for clarity. Next, we’ll set up the swarm. Docker 1.12 has made this very easy to do: $ eval $(docker-machine env swarm-1) $ docker swarm init --advertise-addr $(docker-machine ip swarm-1) Swarm initialized: current node (bihyblm2kawbzd3keonc3bz0l) is now a manager. To add a worker to this swarm, run the following command: docker swarm join \ --token SWMTKN-1–1n7gtfmvvrlwo91pv4r59vsdf73bwuwodj3saq0162vcsny89l-5zige8u81ug5adk3o4bsx32fi \ 192.168.99.106:2377 … Now, we copy & paste the command that the previous command outputted for the “worker” node in the other two nodes: $ eval $(docker-machine env swarm-2) $ docker swarm join \ --token SWMTKN-1–1n7gtfmvvrlwo91pv4r59vsdf73bwuwodj3saq0162vcsny89l-5zige8u81ug5adk3o4bsx32fi \ 192.168.99.106:2377 This node joined a swarm as a worker. $ eval $(docker-machine env swarm-3) $ docker swarm join \ --token SWMTKN-1–1n7gtfmvvrlwo91pv4r59vsdf73bwuwodj3saq0162vcsny89l-5zige8u81ug5adk3o4bsx32fi \ 192.168.99.106:2377 … This node joined a swarm as a worker. Note: When you initialize a new swarm the command will output two commands that you can use to join other nodes to the swarm. Don’t worry about losing these commands, though; you can get them again by running “docker swarm join-token worker\|manager” at any time. Before continuing, let’s make sure our swarm cluster is operational. We’ll point our Docker client to the manager node and check its status: $ eval $(docker-machine env swarm-1) $ docker node ls ID HOSTNAME STATUS AVAILABILITY MANAGER STATUS 5jqsuf8hsemi7bfbwzfdxfcg5 swarm-2 Ready Active 93f0ghkpsh5ru7newtqm82330 swarm-3 Ready Active b2womami9n2t8tti1acvz6v5j * swarm-1 Ready Active Leader $ docker info … Swarm: active NodeID: b2womami9n2t8tti1acvz6v5j Is Manager: true ClusterID: bimg9n2ti2tnsprkdjqg07tdm Managers: 1 Nodes: 3 Orchestration: Task History Retention Limit: 5 Raft: Snapshot interval: 10000 Heartbeat tick: 1 Election tick: 3 Dispatcher: Heartbeat period: 5 seconds CA configuration: Expiry duration: 3 months Node Address: 192.168.99.106 We’re going to create a new network which we’ll use for all our examples: $ docker network create --driver overlay webnet a9j4al25hzhk2m7rdfv5bqt54 So we are now ready to launch a new service to the Swarm. We’re going to start a Redis database and a container “lherrera/webapp” which saves page visits in Redis and outputs other interesting details like the hostname and the IP address of the container. When we deploy our webapp, it will be able to connect to the Redis database using the name of the Redis service, “redisdb”. We don’t need to use IP addresses because the swarm mode has an internal DNS that assigns automatically each service a DNS entry. Easy! We can only deploy services from manager nodes. Since our Docker client is already pointing towards the manager node we can just type in the command “docker service create”: $ docker service create --name webapp --replicas=3 --network webnet --publish 80:8000 lherrera/webapp:1.0 avq41soybmtw2jamdus0m3pg $ docker service create --name redisdb --network webnet --replicas 1 redis:alpine bmotumdr8bcewcfj6zqkws97x $ docker service ls ID NAME REPLICAS IMAGE COMMAND avq41soybmtw webapp 3/3 lherrera/webapp:1.0 bmotumdr8bce redisdb 1/1 redis:alpine In the service create command we need to specify at least an image (in our case, lherrera/webapp). For convenience, we are also providing a name (webapp). We could have also specified the command to run inside the containers just after the image. In the previous command, we also specified we want three replicas of the container running at any given time. Using the flag “ — replicas” implies we don’t care on which node they are put on, if we want one service per node we can use “ — mode=global” instead. You can see that we’re using the “webnet” network that we created earlier. To make our service accessible from outside the Swarm, we need to publish the port where the Swarm listens for web requests. In our example, we “publish” port 8000 inside the service to port 80 on all the nodes. Because of the routing mesh, this will reserve port 80 on all nodes and Docker Engine will load balance the traffic on that port between port 8000 in all the replica containers. The Swarm will take this service description as the desired state for our application and start deploying the application to nodes to achieve and maintain this desired state. We could specify more service parameters to complete our description, like restart policies, memory and CPU limits, node constraints, etc. For a full list of the available flags, you can use with “docker service create”, see here. At this point, we make sure that our webapp is connected correctly to the new webnet network: $ docker network ls NETWORK ID NAME DRIVER SCOPE df19a5c87d90 bridge bridge local 7c5762c8c6ff docker_gwbridge bridge local eb0bd5a4920b host host local bqqh4te5f5tf ingress overlay swarm 3e06a1616b7b none null local a9j4al25hzhk webnet overlay swarm $ docker service inspect webapp … “VirtualIPs”: [ { “NetworkID”: “7i9t9uhtr7x0hybsvnsheh92u”, “Addr”: “10.255.0.6/16” }, { “NetworkID”: “a9j4al25hzhk2m7rdfv5bqt54”, “Addr”: “10.0.0.4/24” } ] }, … Now let’s continue with our example and make sure our service it’s up and running: $ docker service ps webapp ID NAME IMAGE NODE DESIRED STATE CURRENT STATE ERROR bb8n4iagxcjv4rn2oc3dj6cvy webapp.1 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-1 Running Preparing about a minute ago chndeorlvglj45alr4vhy50vg webapp.2 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-3 Running Preparing about a minute ago 4txay0gj6p18iuiknacdoa91x webapp.3 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-2 Running Preparing about a minute ago One thing to be aware of is that although the docker service creates command returns quickly with an id, the actual scaling of the service may take some time, especially if the image has to be pulled on the nodes. If so, just run “docker service ps webapp” a few times until all replicas are providing service. When the services are running (this make take a few minutes, grab a coffee in the meantime), we can check to see what our services respond to requests. First, we need to get the IP of the first node: $ NODE1=$(docker-machine ip swarm-1) Then we’ll hit port 80 on that IP address since we published the service on port 80 on the swarm. We’re using curl in the examples below, but you can also put the IP into your browser to see the same thing. Now, we are ready to test our new service: $ curl $NODE1 Hello, I’m version 1.0.My hostname is 5a557d3ed474, this page has been viewed 1 and my ip addresses are 10.255.0.9,10.255.0.6,172.18.0.3,10.0.0.7,10.0.0.4 $ curl $NODE1 Hello, I’m version 1.0.My hostname is 4e128c8af4ae, this page has been viewed 2 and my ip addresses are 10.255.0.7,10.255.0.6,172.18.0.3,10.0.0.5,10.0.0.4 $ curl $NODE1 Hello, I’m version 1.0.My hostname is eaa73f01996c, this page has been viewed 3 and my ip addresses are 10.255.0.8,10.255.0.6,172.18.0.4,10.0.0.6,10.0.0.4 We can see that the first request has gone to the container “5a557d3ed474.” If you hit refresh enough times, or you call “curl” repeatedly from the command line, you will see the request being sent to all of the three replica containers that we created. To demonstrate the other aspect of the routing mesh, try hitting port 80 of the IPs of the other two docker machine nodes. You’ll see the same as before, which means that it doesn’t matter which node you ask; the request is always load balanced internally among the three containers. Rolling updates As part of the service description, you can specify the upgrade strategy for your service. For example, you can use the ` — update-delay` flag to configure the delay between updates to a service task (container) or sets of tasks. Or you can use the ` — update-parallelism` flag to change the default behavior of updating one container at a time. You can set all these flags during the service creation or later use the “docker service update” command as we are going to see in the following example. The update command takes nearly identical parameters as “docker service create” but some flags have different names in the update command. Anything you can set in the create command you can change in the update command, though, so you have complete freedom to update any part of the service description at any time. Applying a rolling update manually: running downhill, realising you’re out of control Let’s update our webapp service to see how the “rolling update” mechanism works. The team has been working hard to improve the webapp, and we have released a new tag called “2.0.” We’re going to update our service to this new image now. $ docker service update --update-parallelism 1 --update-delay 5s --image lherrera/webapp:2.0 webapp Notice how we’ve also indicated that we want the update to take place one at a time and with five seconds between each update. This rolling approach means that we will have no downtime! While the update is happening, see it in real time by running “docker service ps webapp” every few seconds. You will see the old images being shut down one by one and being replaced by the new one: $ docker service ps webapp ID NAME IMAGE NODE DESIRED STATE CURRENT STATE ERROR 7bdpfbbjok78zt32xd9e2mqlt webapp.1 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-3 Running Running 43 seconds ago bb8n4iagxcjv4rn2oc3dj6cvy \_ webapp.1 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-1 Shutdown Shutdown 44 seconds ago af2rlu0laqhrj3uz8brym0f8r webapp.2 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-2 Running Running 30 seconds ago chndeorlvglj45alr4vhy50vg \_ webapp.2 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-3 Shutdown Shutdown 30 seconds ago 0xjt6gib1hql10iqj6866q4pe webapp.3 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-1 Running Running 57 seconds ago 4txay0gj6p18iuiknacdoa91x \_ webapp.3 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-2 Shutdown Shutdown 57 seconds ago Yes, this is simply awesome! Since our application also prints the version of the image, another way to see the update in real time is to hit the services endpoint repeatedly during the upgrade. When the service is being updated, you will slowly see more and more requests returning “version 2.0” until the update completes and all the services return version 2.0. $ curl $NODE1 Hello, I’m version 1.0.My hostname is 5a557d3ed474, this page has been viewed 4 and my ip addresses are 10.255.0.9,10.255.0.6,172.18.0.3,10.0.0.7,10.0.0.4 $ curl $NODE1 Hello, I’m version 2.0.My hostname is e0899324d9df, this page has been viewed 5 and my ip addresses are 10.255.0.10,10.255.0.6,172.18.0.4,10.0.0.8,10.0.0.4 $ curl $NODE1 ... You’ll notice that the Redis count continues unaffected since we haven’t changed the Redis service, only the webapp images. Tackling the growing pains A swarm of honey bees is a familiar sight in early summer. Honey bees instinctively handle the colony’s survival by swarming when it’s getting crowded. And so we do in our container clusters. Let’s swarm… So let’s say that our node is reaching capacity and we need to add another node to our cluster. It’s so easy you can do it with only four commands! For the sake of clarity though we are going to use a few more to ensure it clears what’s going on. Let’s add a new node to our swarm cluster: $ docker-machine create -d virtualbox swarm-4 … Docker is up and running! Join the node the swarm as a worker as before: $ eval $(docker-machine env swarm-4) $ docker swarm join \ --token SWMTKN-1–1n7gtfmvvrlwo91pv4r59vsdf73bwuwodj3saq0162vcsny89l-5zige8u81ug5adk3o4bsx32fi \ 192.168.99.106:2377 This node joined a swarm as a worker. Now we check that both the new node and the webapp service is up and running: $ eval $(docker-machine env swarm-1) $ docker node ls ID HOSTNAME STATUS AVAILABILITY MANAGER STATUS 93f0ghkpsh5ru7newtqm82330 swarm-3 Ready Active e9rxhj0w1ga3gz89g927qvntd swarm-4 Ready Active 5jqsuf8hsemi7bfbwzfdxfcg5 swarm-2 Ready Active b2womami9n2t8tti1acvz6v5j * swarm-1 Ready Active Leader $ docker service ps webapp ID NAME IMAGE NODE DESIRED STATE CURRENT STATE ERROR 7bdpfbbjok78zt32xd9e2mqlt webapp.1 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-3 Running Running 5 minutes ago bb8n4iagxcjv4rn2oc3dj6cvy \_ webapp.1 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-1 Shutdown Shutdown 5 minutes ago af2rlu0laqhrj3uz8brym0f8r webapp.2 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-2 Running Running 5 minutes ago chndeorlvglj45alr4vhy50vg \_ webapp.2 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-3 Shutdown Shutdown 5 minutes ago 0xjt6gib1hql10iqj6866q4pe webapp.3 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-1 Running Running 6 minutes ago 4txay0gj6p18iuiknacdoa91x \_ webapp.3 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-2 Shutdown Shutdown 6 minutes ago luis@aurelio [13:14:27] [~/webapp] [2.0] Now let’s ramp up our webapp service to four replicas: $ docker service update --replicas=4 webapp We might need to wait a few minutes for the image to be download on the new node. $ docker service ps webapp ID NAME IMAGE NODE DESIRED STATE CURRENT STATE ERROR 7bdpfbbjok78zt32xd9e2mqlt webapp.1 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-3 Running Running 10 minutes ago bb8n4iagxcjv4rn2oc3dj6cvy \_ webapp.1 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-1 Shutdown Shutdown 10 minutes ago af2rlu0laqhrj3uz8brym0f8r webapp.2 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-2 Running Running 10 minutes ago chndeorlvglj45alr4vhy50vg \_ webapp.2 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-3 Shutdown Shutdown 10 minutes ago 0xjt6gib1hql10iqj6866q4pe webapp.3 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-1 Running Running 10 minutes ago 4txay0gj6p18iuiknacdoa91x \_ webapp.3 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-2 Shutdown Shutdown 10 minutes ago 81xbk0j61tqg76wcdi35k1bxv webapp.4 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-4 Running Running 20 seconds ago Simple, eh?. Bees in a swarm are always in a good mood! For global services (as opposite to replicated ones, like the one we’ve seen in the example), the swarm runs a new task automatically for the service on the newly available node. Routing Resilience As if all this wasn’t good enough, the cluster will manage the state of these services (e.g. replicas running) and in the case of failure, reconcile the service to the desired state. In this scenario, new containers and IP addresses are popping in and disappearing. Thankfully, the new embedded service discovery mechanism will help us our services adapt to these situations and container failures, or even complete node failures will now pass unnoticed. Network routing in traditional HA enviroments To see this in action, we’re going to continue with our example and simulate a node of our small cluster failing. Let’s make sure that our webapp is still running on our cluster: $ docker service ps webapp ID NAME IMAGE NODE DESIRED STATE CURRENT STATE ERROR 7bdpfbbjok78zt32xd9e2mqlt webapp.1 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-3 Running Running 10 minutes ago bb8n4iagxcjv4rn2oc3dj6cvy \_ webapp.1 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-1 Shutdown Shutdown 10 minutes ago af2rlu0laqhrj3uz8brym0f8r webapp.2 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-2 Running Running 10 minutes ago chndeorlvglj45alr4vhy50vg \_ webapp.2 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-3 Shutdown Shutdown 10 minutes ago 0xjt6gib1hql10iqj6866q4pe webapp.3 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-1 Running Running 10 minutes ago 4txay0gj6p18iuiknacdoa91x \_ webapp.3 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-2 Shutdown Shutdown 10 minutes ago 81xbk0j61tqg76wcdi35k1bxv webapp.4 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-4 Running Running 20 seconds ago And the nodes: $ docker node ls ID HOSTNAME STATUS AVAILABILITY MANAGER STATUS 21z5m0vik76msi90icrf8prvf swarm-3 Ready Active 7zyckxuwsruehcfosgymwiucm swarm-4 Ready Active 9aso727d8c4vc59cxu0e8g778 swarm-2 Ready Active bihyblm2kawbzd3keonc3bz0l * swarm-1 Ready Active Leader Here comes the fun bit, who doesn’t like taking down live nodes to see what happens :D $ docker-machine stop swarm-2 Let’s see how our service reacted: $ docker service ps webapp ID NAME IMAGE NODE DESIRED STATE CURRENT STATE ERROR 7bdpfbbjok78zt32xd9e2mqlt webapp.1 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-3 Running Running 11 minutes ago bb8n4iagxcjv4rn2oc3dj6cvy \_ webapp.1 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-1 Shutdown Shutdown 11 minutes ago af2rlu0laqhrj3uz8brym0f8r webapp.2 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-4 Running Running 11 minutes ago chndeorlvglj45alr4vhy50vg \_ webapp.2 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-3 Shutdown Shutdown 11 minutes ago 0xjt6gib1hql10iqj6866q4pe webapp.3 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-1 Running Running 11 minutes ago 4txay0gj6p18iuiknacdoa91x \_ webapp.3 lherrera/webapp:1.0 swarm-4 Shutdown Shutdown 11 minutes ago 15pxa5ccp9fqfbhdh76q78aza webapp.4 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-3 Running Running 4 seconds ago 81xbk0j61tqg76wcdi35k1bxv \_ webapp.4 lherrera/webapp:2.0 swarm-2 Shutdown Running about a minute ago Great! Docker has spun up a new container on node swarm-3 after we killed node swarm-2. As you can see, we still have three replicas running ( 2 in node “swarm-3”) …. $ curl $NODE1 Hello, I’m version 2.0.My hostname is 0d49c828b675, this page has been viewed 7 and my ip addresses are 10.0.0.7,10.0.0.4,172.18.0.4,10.255.0.10,10.255.0.6 $ curl $NODE1 Hello, I’m version 2.0.My hostname is d60e1881ac86, this page has been viewed 8 and my ip addresses are 10.0.0.7,10.0.0.4,172.18.0.4,10.255.0.10,10.255.0.6 And traffic is automatically routed to the newly created container!. Swarming up Software changes fast. Software breaks. Failures happen, and they inevitably happen when least desired. The new “services” abstraction introduced in Docker 1.12 simplifies updates and prevent service downtime on failures. Not only that, this new approach make scheduling and maintaining long-running services like web servers much simpler. You can now deploy replicated, distributed, load balanced services on a swarm of Docker Engines with a few commands. The cluster will manage the state of your services and even reconcile the service to the desired state in case a node or container fails. Solomon Hykes describes nicely how he hopes to make developers lives easier: “With advancements in our orchestration tooling, networking, and security, Docker is enabling developers to build more complex applications that can be delivered at scale from the desktop to the cloud, regardless of the underlying infrastructure.” With the release of Docker 1.12, we think he’s certainly delivering on his promise. Docker is making things much easier, hopefully to the point where those surreal moments that we mentioned at the beginning will disappear! Do you have any DevOps surreal moments? Share them with us! More info and links on Docker 1.12 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dooPhkXT9yI — Excellent deep dive into the specifics of how swarms nodes work and communicate with each other. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F6PSP-qhdA — Part 2 of the deep dive focusing on how services are orchestrated and how failures are handled. Not enough for you? Follow us on Twitter (@lherrerabenitez and @EmmetOGrady ) for similar content! Interested in CI for Docker, check out NimbleCI.	78d46a77-5df0-5dbe-b2af-8fa05cfaa06c	25/08/2025 16:01:18
https://medium.com/@IsabelSison/7-protective-lifestyle-changes-against-alzheimers-disease-eca48e389066	medium.com	7 Protective Lifestyle Changes Against Alzheimer’s Disease	On a post I published on Substack, I went over 5 Protective Measures Against Alzheimer’s Disease. One of those measures is…	Isabel Sison	https://medium.com/@IsabelSison	eca48e389066	https://miro.medium.com/max/2000/0*Y4ghxJvJ7B2qRPkk	3 min	2023-08-06T06:01:13.891000	2023-08-06T06:25:40.841000	2023-08-07T04:16:47.281000	0	12	en	Longevity,Lifestyle,Habits,Alzheimers Disease	<section> <p>On a post I published on Substack, I went over <a href="https://sisonsessions.substack.com/p/5-protective-measures-against-alzheimers">5 Protective Measures Against Alzheimer’s Disease</a>. One of those measures is <strong>improved lifestyle habits</strong>.</p> <p>Seeing as <em>lifestyle</em> encompasses many aspects in life, I thought it deserved another post all together.</p> <p><strong>Firstly, what is Alzheimer’s Disease (AD)?</strong></p> <p>AD is a neurodegenerative disease. Simply put, this means a particular portion of the brain slowly gets smaller which reflects the <strong>lowered level of function</strong> of that part of the brain. That part contributes to one’s <strong>ability to retain memory, control thoughts and language, and carry out conversations.</strong> So someone with a degeneration of that potion in the brain normally presents with:</p> <ul> <li>Loss of memory,</li> <li>Loss of control over filtering thoughts and language, and</li> <li>Loss of the ability to converse.</li> </ul> <p><strong>How does it relate to longevity of movement?</strong></p> <p>If not managed, AD (its underlying cause of degeneration in portions of the brain) can progress further. This means that other portions of the brain responsible for physical behavior and capabilities may deteriorate as well — leading to stiff and weak muscles, trouble standing and walking, and even in bladder and bowel control. All of which lead to lowered quality of life in one way or another.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/3500/0Y4ghxJvJ7B2qRPkk" width="3500" height="2333" loading="lazy" /> <p><strong>Seven lifestyle changes relevant to Alzheimer’s Disease</strong></p> <p>Getting adequate <strong>sleep</strong> (and quality)</p> <p>(Not) smoking <strong>cigarettes</strong></p> <p>(Not) drinking <strong>alcoholic beverages</strong></p> <p>Moderating <strong>coffee and tea</strong> intake</p> <p>Adjusting <strong>food</strong> intake</p> <p>Engaging in <strong>physical activity</strong></p> <p>Minimizing exposure to <strong>air pollution</strong></p> <p><strong>Sleep</strong></p> <p>You don’t need to hear more from me about the importance of sleeping 7 to 9 hours everyday. I’ll leave it to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MuIMqhT8DM">Matt Walker to do the (TED) talking</a>.</p> <p><strong>2 &3. Cigarettes and Alcoholic Beverages</strong></p> <p>You also don’t need to explain why smoking cigarettes is detrimental to your health. But I do know that some may argue that drinking some kinds of alcoholic beverages (like red wine) is beneficial for health due to the presence of antioxidants and polyphenols. To that, here’s a good <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/antioxidants/">article published by Harvard School of Public Health</a> that lists other sources of antioxidants.</p> <p><strong>4. Coffee and Tea</strong></p> <p>During my research for this article and the one I posted over in Substack, I was waiting for studies to slap me in the face about coffee and tea consumption. <em>(Fyi, I love coffee.)</em> To my surprise, this study shows that 1 to 2 cups of coffee a day is protective against AD. And intake of green tea was also encouraged.</p> <p><strong>5. Food</strong></p> <p>A <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/mediterranean-diet/art-20047801">Mediterranean-type diet</a>, and the <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/dash-diet/art-20048456">Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH)</a> and <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-weight/diet-reviews/mind-diet/">Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND)</a> diets were found to be protective against AD due to the high levels of antioxidants and anti-inflammatory effects of the food. Additionally, intake of seafood and fish were also beneficial for the same effect.</p> <p>I personally observe a flexitarian “diet” and can attest to its relative sustainability in my lifestyle. I even wrote <a href="https://sisonsessions.substack.com/p/how-its-been-as-a-flexitarian">a post about it on Substack</a>.</p> <p><strong>6. Physical Activity</strong></p> <p>We all know “exercise” is good.</p> <p>But it might help some people to establish a certain goal to hit every week to get the ball rolling and just <em>do the thing</em>. Unlike what we’ve been told <em>(or maybe just me)</em>, the World Health Organization recommends the following parameters in a week:</p> <p>For adults:</p> <ul> <li>300 minutes of moderate intensity exercise <em><s</em>trong>or</strong></li> <li>150 minutes of vigorous exercise* for adults.</li> </ul> <p>For older adults:</p> <ul> <li>150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise <em><s</em>trong>or</strong></li> <li>75–150 minutes of vigorous exercise for adults.</li> </ul> <p>*According to the <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/exercise-intensity/art-20046887">Mayo Clinic</a>, an exercise is moderate in intensity if:</p> <ul> <li>Your heart rate is increasing.</li> <li>You’re breaking a sweat.</li> <li>But you’re still able to hold out a conversation.</li> </ul> <p>Vigorous exercise is when:</p> <ul> <li>Your breathing is deep or fast.</li> <li>You break a sweat after only a few minutes of activity.</li> <li>You need to pause for a breath when trying to carry out a conversation.</li> </ul> <p><strong>7. Air Pollution</strong></p> <p>A 38% increase in risk for developing AD was found in people who have long term exposure to traffic-related air pollution. No definition was mentioned for what is considered “long term.”</p> <p>In addition to protecting ourselves from COVID-19, there may still be a benefit for continued use of our PM2.5 masks after all.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p> <p>While Alzheimer’s Disease <em>can</em> be a genetic condition, there are <strong>many factors that are in our control</strong>. Instead of being paralyzed by the fact that our grandparent or parent had (or have) this condition, let’s take control of things that are within our control.</p> <p>These <strong>lifestyle factors can lower our risk for developing AD</strong> and ultimately affect the longevity of our ability to move and the quality of our lives especially as we age.</p> <p>Tackle them one by one.</p> <p>For me, I have five of seven of them down — on most days. Getting the last 60 minutes of physical activity is tough. And it’s hard not to be exposed to air pollution in the metropolitan.</p> <p>How about you — how many of the 7 do you have managed?</p> <p><em><strong>Disclaimer: Information from this post is only intended as a resource for general information purposes. The author does not endorse this as a substitute to formal medical consultation and tr</em>eatment.</strong></p> </section>	7 Protective Lifestyle Changes Against Alzheimer’s Disease On a post I published on Substack, I went over 5 Protective Measures Against Alzheimer’s Disease. One of those measures is improved lifestyle habits. Seeing as lifestyle encompasses many aspects in life, I thought it deserved another post all together. Firstly, what is Alzheimer’s Disease (AD)? AD is a neurodegenerative disease. Simply put, this means a particular portion of the brain slowly gets smaller which reflects the lowered level of function of that part of the brain. That part contributes to one’s ability to retain memory, control thoughts and language, and carry out conversations. So someone with a degeneration of that potion in the brain normally presents with: Loss of memory, Loss of control over filtering thoughts and language, and Loss of the ability to converse. How does it relate to longevity of movement? If not managed, AD (its underlying cause of degeneration in portions of the brain) can progress further. This means that other portions of the brain responsible for physical behavior and capabilities may deteriorate as well — leading to stiff and weak muscles, trouble standing and walking, and even in bladder and bowel control. All of which lead to lowered quality of life in one way or another. Photo by Bench Accounting on Unsplash Seven lifestyle changes relevant to Alzheimer’s Disease Getting adequate sleep (and quality) (Not) smoking cigarettes (Not) drinking alcoholic beverages Moderating coffee and tea intake Adjusting food intake Engaging in physical activity Minimizing exposure to air pollution Sleep You don’t need to hear more from me about the importance of sleeping 7 to 9 hours everyday. I’ll leave it to Matt Walker to do the (TED) talking. 2 &3. Cigarettes and Alcoholic Beverages You also don’t need to explain why smoking cigarettes is detrimental to your health. But I do know that some may argue that drinking some kinds of alcoholic beverages (like red wine) is beneficial for health due to the presence of antioxidants and polyphenols. To that, here’s a good article published by Harvard School of Public Health that lists other sources of antioxidants. 4. Coffee and Tea During my research for this article and the one I posted over in Substack, I was waiting for studies to slap me in the face about coffee and tea consumption. (Fyi, I love coffee.) To my surprise, this study shows that 1 to 2 cups of coffee a day is protective against AD. And intake of green tea was also encouraged. 5. Food A Mediterranean-type diet, and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) and Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diets were found to be protective against AD due to the high levels of antioxidants and anti-inflammatory effects of the food. Additionally, intake of seafood and fish were also beneficial for the same effect. I personally observe a flexitarian “diet” and can attest to its relative sustainability in my lifestyle. I even wrote a post about it on Substack. 6. Physical Activity We all know “exercise” is good. But it might help some people to establish a certain goal to hit every week to get the ball rolling and just do the thing. Unlike what we’ve been told (or maybe just me), the World Health Organization recommends the following parameters in a week: For adults: 300 minutes of moderate intensity* exercise or 150 minutes of vigorous exercise* for adults. For older adults: 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise or 75–150 minutes of vigorous exercise for adults. *According to the Mayo Clinic, an exercise is moderate in intensity if: Your heart rate is increasing. You’re breaking a sweat. But you’re still able to hold out a conversation. Vigorous exercise is when: Your breathing is deep or fast. You break a sweat after only a few minutes of activity. You need to pause for a breath when trying to carry out a conversation. 7. Air Pollution A 38% increase in risk for developing AD was found in people who have long term exposure to traffic-related air pollution. No definition was mentioned for what is considered “long term.” In addition to protecting ourselves from COVID-19, there may still be a benefit for continued use of our PM2.5 masks after all. Conclusion While Alzheimer’s Disease can be a genetic condition, there are many factors that are in our control. Instead of being paralyzed by the fact that our grandparent or parent had (or have) this condition, let’s take control of things that are within our control. These lifestyle factors can lower our risk for developing AD and ultimately affect the longevity of our ability to move and the quality of our lives especially as we age. Tackle them one by one. For me, I have five of seven of them down — on most days. Getting the last 60 minutes of physical activity is tough. And it’s hard not to be exposed to air pollution in the metropolitan. How about you — how many of the 7 do you have managed? Disclaimer: Information from this post is only intended as a resource for general information purposes. The author does not endorse this as a substitute to formal medical consultation and treatment.	b8683392-76a2-5db9-84cb-9622f6d9684c	25/08/2025 16:01:18
https://medium.com/@life.is.curiosity/%E7%9F%A5%E9%81%93-%E6%98%AF%E5%BE%88%E5%A4%9A%E7%97%9B%E8%8B%A6%E7%9A%84%E9%96%8B%E5%A7%8B-%E8%AA%8D%E7%9F%A5-%E7%94%B1%E4%BB%96%E4%BA%BA%E7%B5%A6%E4%BA%88%E7%9A%84%E5%AE%9A%E7%BE%A9-%E5%A6%82%E4%BD%95%E5%B0%8D%E4%BA%BA%E7%94%9F%E7%94%A2%E7%94%9F%E5%90%84%E7%A8%AE%E5%90%84%E6%A8%A3%E7%9A%84%E7%97%9B%E8%8B%A6-%E4%B8%A6%E5%AD%B8%E6%9C%83%E6%94%BE%E4%B8%8B%E5%92%8C%E9%9D%A2%E5%B0%8D%E9%81%8E%E5%8E%BB%E6%89%80%E6%9C%89%E4%B8%8D%E6%84%89%E5%BF%AB%E7%9A%84%E8%A8%98%E6%86%B6-knowing-is-the-beginning-of-many-bfa68e549db0	medium.com	「知道」是很多痛苦的開始。認知「由他人給予的定義」如何對人生產生各種各樣的痛苦，並學會放下和面對過去所有不愉快的記憶 “Knowing” is the beginning of many…	「知道」是很多痛苦的開始 “Knowing” is the beginning of many sufferings	鯨落筆記 Whale Fall Notes	https://medium.com/@life.is.curiosity	bfa68e549db0	null	4 min	2023-12-18T19:32:36.987000	2023-12-18T19:18:27.911000	2023-12-19T10:30:40.926000	0	5	en	Knowing,Definition,Memories,Virginity,Infidelity	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/200/0*Qs7GufXiBz7l4nY4" width="200" height="200" loading="lazy" /> <h1>「知道」是很多痛苦的開始 “Knowing” is the beginning of many sufferings</h1> <p>以下有幾個日常生活的例子用來體現因為「知道」帶來的痛苦：</p> <p>Here are a few examples from everyday life that illustrate the pain caused by “knowing”:</p> <h3>伴侶出軌 Infidelity of a Partner</h3> <p>如果你無意中發現你某個朋友的伴侶存在「出軌（不忠）」行為，你會否讓你朋友「知道」？在「道義」上或道德層面來說，很多不同地區的價值觀價值都認為出軌是一種存在於男女人際關係的一個道德問題，讓自己的朋友知道自己被欺騙的事實看起來是最符合朋友關係「道義」上的要求及其切身的利益。</p> <p>If you accidentally discover that a friend’s partner is engaged in “infidelity” or being unfaithful, would you let your friend “know”? From a moral standpoint, many cultural values in different regions consider infidelity to be a moral issue within interpersonal relationships. It may seem that informing your friend about being deceived aligns with the moral requirements and their best interests in the context of the friendship.</p> <p>但假如你朋友的伴侶其後處理好這段三角關係，例如在之後因為某種原因放棄這段與第三者的關係，又或者這段短時間的不忠關係讓其伴侶得到某種人生體會後回到你朋友身邊。如果是這樣發展下去，在之後看來因伴侶短暫出軌而造成你朋友的損失看起來其實並不是很大。那麼讓你朋友「知道」卻顯得很無謂，甚至在當下對他人帶來很多不必要的痛苦。在這裡並不是討論出軌的道德問題，是思考讓朋友「知道」其伴侶出軌是否對他來說是一件好事。而且就算當下他們處於三角關係之間，至少當下也沒有人因為「知道」而不愉快，仍可繼續愉快生活。</p> <p>However, if your friend’s partner subsequently resolves the situation, for example, by ending the affair for some reason or if this short period of unfaithfulness provides a valuable life lesson for their partner, who then returns to your friend’s side, the perceived impact of the infidelity on your friend’s life may not be significant in the long run. In such a case, making your friend “know” about the infidelity becomes meaningless and may even cause unnecessary pain to others in the present moment. The discussion here is not about the moral issue of infidelity but rather about considering whether it is beneficial for your friend to “know” about their partner’s infidelity. Moreover, even if they are currently in a love triangle, at least in the present, no one is unhappy because of “knowing,” allowing them to continue living happily.</p> <h3>「儲蓄保險」Savings Insurance</h3> <p>儲蓄保險的原理，是投保人將資金交托到金融機構手上，讓金融機構的專業投資團隊去投資，然後跟自己攤分投資成果。眾所周知，保險經紀如果能成功推銷一份儲蓄保險給客戶，所收到的傭金是比定期保險更多，甚至比定期保險多達百分之五十以上，所以很多保險經紀會不遺餘力地推銷儲蓄保險。</p> <p>The principle behind savings insurance is that the policyholder entrusts their funds to a financial institution, which then utilizes a professional investment team to invest the funds. The policyholder then shares in the investment results. It is well known that insurance brokers receive higher commissions for successfully selling savings insurance to customers, sometimes even exceeding the commissions for term insurance by more than fifty percent. Therefore, many insurance brokers spare no effort in promoting savings insurance.</p> <p>筆者這個朋友本來並沒有什麼有關保險的知識，最後經他的朋友推銷後為其購入了一份儲蓄保險。但最後筆者的朋友其後在網上「知道」儲蓄保險在保險經紀的傭金比其他保險高很多，而且在各網上論壇得知大量有關儲蓄保險的負面資訊。儘管客觀上來看儲蓄保險與定期保險各有其用途和市場價值，但仍會覺得自己因為「被騙」而買下儲蓄保險。</p> <p>Initially, the author’s friend had no knowledge about insurance. However, influenced by a friend, they eventually purchased a savings insurance. Subsequently, the author’s friend became “aware” online that the commissions for selling savings insurance are much higher for insurance brokers compared to other types of insurance. They also came across numerous negative information about savings insurance on various online forums. Despite the fact that objectively savings insurance and term insurance serve different purposes and have their own market value, the friend still felt they were “deceived” into buying savings insurance.</p> <h3>性侵 Sexual Assault</h3> <p>筆者研究過一些童年被性侵的個案，很多事主在童年被性侵後，由於當時對性侵沒有任何概念，對性侵行為只能簡單判斷為一些「奇怪但又不知如何對人說出的行為」。但人隨著年紀漸長，受害者逐漸「知道」性侵在人類社會是一種對侵犯女性身體的罪行，而且更「知道」到被性侵者由於失去其「貞潔」所帶來的歧視，或者被性侵過的身體會被認為是骯髒的身體，甚至「知道」部份男性對「處女」的情結和「處女」是非常重要等等資訊。這些資訊會在受害者腦中形成一種價值觀，讓受害者不斷自我貶低自己的價值，這種因為「知道」人們對性侵的「定義」反而帶來比童年時被性侵時更大更深的痛苦。</p> <p>The author has studied some cases of childhood sexual assault. Many victims, after experiencing sexual assault in their childhood, had no concept of it at the time and could only perceive the behaviour as something “strange but not knowing how to talk about it.” However, as individuals grow older, they gradually “become aware” that sexual assault is a crime against a woman’s body in human society. They also become more “aware” of the discrimination faced by victims due to the loss of their “virginity” or the perception of their bodies as dirty after being sexually assaulted. They even become aware of certain men’s obsession with “virginity” and the significance placed on it. This information forms a set of values in the victim’s mind, leading them to devalue themselves continuously. Paradoxically, this knowledge of society’s “definition” of sexual assault brings about greater and deeper pain than what they experienced during childhood sexual assault.</p> <h2>放下和面對所有「由他人給予的定義」可以解脫很多痛苦 Letting go and confronting all “definitions given by people” can alleviate a lot of pain.</h2> <p>很多事情其實如果「不知道」，那麼和這些事情「沒有發生」本質上並沒有什麼區別。</p> <p>Many things, in essence, have no significant difference if “not knowing” about them, as it is equivalent to them “not happening” at all.</p> <p>這是為何很多時候「一無所知」的人看起來會比「無所不知」的人過得開心愉快。與意識上的「覺知」行為不同，一般人的「知道」是會被各種由人所創造的價值觀的影響， <strong>當自己突然「知道」自己過去的「無知」時，就會因為認為過去的自己的利益被損害而產生一種強烈不甘心的情緒，這種執著甚至大到引起很多情緒和精神問題</strong> 。這或許是在舊約聖經中提及人類祖先阿當和夏娃吃下分辨善惡禁果後擁有「知道」的能力後帶來的痛苦背後的意涵。</p> <p>This is why sometimes people who are “ignorant” appear to be happier than those who are “know-it-alls.” Unlike conscious acts of “awareness,” the general public’s “knowledge” is influenced by various values created by humans. <strong>When one suddenly becomes “aware” of their past “ignorance,” they may experience a strong sense of resentment, believing that their past interests have been harmed. This attachment can even lead to emotional and mental problems</strong>. Perhaps this is the underlying meaning behind the pain mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible, when the first human ancestors, Adam and Eve, gained the ability to “know” after eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.</p> <p>很多人卻有意無意讓他人不斷加重這些「由他人給予的定義」的概念，例如令人覺得買到儲蓄保險就是被騙，令人覺得知道伴侶不忠就是一定是好事，令人覺得當下的「不婚」一定是不想在未來負責任，令人覺得「處女」就代表貞潔，令人覺得「被性侵」相等於身體被弄髒污染。</p> <p>Many people, consciously or unconsciously, perpetuate these concepts of “definitions given by people.” For example, making others feel that buying saving insurance is being deceived, believing that knowing about a partner’s infidelity is always a good thing, assuming that choosing not to marry in the present implies a lack of responsibility in the future, equating “virginity” with purity, or considering being “sexually assaulted” as equivalent to having one’s body defiled and contaminated.</p> <p><strong>由於存在於記憶中的過去在記憶層面中已經成為「事實」，如何面對過去的記憶所產生的痛苦是一個非常重要的技術問題。而不是站在道德高地批判，單純宣洩自己既義憤，滿足伸張正義的期待，打著保障事主利益的旗號，反過來讓事主更深陷各種「由他人給予的定義」造成的價值觀裡面無法自拔。</strong> <strong>The way to confront the pain generated by past memories, which have become “facts” in the realm of memory, is a crucial technical issue. Instead of taking a moral high ground and criticizing, simply venting one’s righteous indignation, and satisfying the expectation of seeking justice, it is important to avoid getting the affected party further entangled in various values created by “definitions given by people” under the guise of safeguarding their interests.</strong></p> <p>因為過去已存在於記憶之中，除非現行有技術方法讓自己完全忘記過去所有不愉快的記憶，那麼只有 <strong>抽離自己於種種所有「由他人給予的定義」之外才是根除痛苦的方法，並重新審視某些「由他人給予的定義」帶來的價值觀，重新估計過去發生的事情實際對自己現在帶來的損失是否如過去預期般大</strong>， <strong>最後接受存在於記憶中所有不愉快的過去，讓它們成為單純的記憶，解除過去對現在的影響</strong> 。</p> <p>Because the past already exists in memory, unless there is a current technological method to completely forget all unpleasant memories from the past, <strong>the only way to eradicate suffering is to detach oneself from all “definitions given by people” and reexamine the values brought about by certain “definitions given by people.” It involves reevaluating whether the actual losses from past events, as experienced in the past, are as significant as previously anticipated. Finally, one accepts all unpleasant past experiences existing in memory and allows them to become simple memories, thereby alleviating the impact of the past on the present.</strong></p> <p><em>Originally published at <a href="https://curiosityforever.wordpress.com/2023/12/19/</em>knowing-is-the-beginning-of-many-sufferings-recognize-how-the-definitions-given-by-people-cause-various-kinds-of-pain-in-life-and-learn-to-let-go-and-face-all-the-unpleasant-memories-of-the-past/">http://curiosityforever.wordpress.com</a> on December 18, 2023.</p> </section>	「知道」是很多痛苦的開始。認知「由他人給予的定義」如何對人生產生各種各樣的痛苦，並學會放下和面對過去所有不愉快的記憶 “Knowing” is the beginning of many sufferings. Recognize how the “definitions given by people” cause various kinds of pain in life, and learn to let go and face all the unpleasant memories of the past. 「知道」是很多痛苦的開始 “Knowing” is the beginning of many sufferings 以下有幾個日常生活的例子用來體現因為「知道」帶來的痛苦： Here are a few examples from everyday life that illustrate the pain caused by “knowing”: 伴侶出軌 Infidelity of a Partner 如果你無意中發現你某個朋友的伴侶存在「出軌（不忠）」行為，你會否讓你朋友「知道」？在「道義」上或道德層面來說，很多不同地區的價值觀價值都認為出軌是一種存在於男女人際關係的一個道德問題，讓自己的朋友知道自己被欺騙的事實看起來是最符合朋友關係「道義」上的要求及其切身的利益。 If you accidentally discover that a friend’s partner is engaged in “infidelity” or being unfaithful, would you let your friend “know”? From a moral standpoint, many cultural values in different regions consider infidelity to be a moral issue within interpersonal relationships. It may seem that informing your friend about being deceived aligns with the moral requirements and their best interests in the context of the friendship. 但假如你朋友的伴侶其後處理好這段三角關係，例如在之後因為某種原因放棄這段與第三者的關係，又或者這段短時間的不忠關係讓其伴侶得到某種人生體會後回到你朋友身邊。如果是這樣發展下去，在之後看來因伴侶短暫出軌而造成你朋友的損失看起來其實並不是很大。那麼讓你朋友「知道」卻顯得很無謂，甚至在當下對他人帶來很多不必要的痛苦。在這裡並不是討論出軌的道德問題，是思考讓朋友「知道」其伴侶出軌是否對他來說是一件好事。而且就算當下他們處於三角關係之間，至少當下也沒有人因為「知道」而不愉快，仍可繼續愉快生活。 However, if your friend’s partner subsequently resolves the situation, for example, by ending the affair for some reason or if this short period of unfaithfulness provides a valuable life lesson for their partner, who then returns to your friend’s side, the perceived impact of the infidelity on your friend’s life may not be significant in the long run. In such a case, making your friend “know” about the infidelity becomes meaningless and may even cause unnecessary pain to others in the present moment. The discussion here is not about the moral issue of infidelity but rather about considering whether it is beneficial for your friend to “know” about their partner’s infidelity. Moreover, even if they are currently in a love triangle, at least in the present, no one is unhappy because of “knowing,” allowing them to continue living happily. 「儲蓄保險」Savings Insurance 儲蓄保險的原理，是投保人將資金交托到金融機構手上，讓金融機構的專業投資團隊去投資，然後跟自己攤分投資成果。眾所周知，保險經紀如果能成功推銷一份儲蓄保險給客戶，所收到的傭金是比定期保險更多，甚至比定期保險多達百分之五十以上，所以很多保險經紀會不遺餘力地推銷儲蓄保險。 The principle behind savings insurance is that the policyholder entrusts their funds to a financial institution, which then utilizes a professional investment team to invest the funds. The policyholder then shares in the investment results. It is well known that insurance brokers receive higher commissions for successfully selling savings insurance to customers, sometimes even exceeding the commissions for term insurance by more than fifty percent. Therefore, many insurance brokers spare no effort in promoting savings insurance. 筆者這個朋友本來並沒有什麼有關保險的知識，最後經他的朋友推銷後為其購入了一份儲蓄保險。但最後筆者的朋友其後在網上「知道」儲蓄保險在保險經紀的傭金比其他保險高很多，而且在各網上論壇得知大量有關儲蓄保險的負面資訊。儘管客觀上來看儲蓄保險與定期保險各有其用途和市場價值，但仍會覺得自己因為「被騙」而買下儲蓄保險。 Initially, the author’s friend had no knowledge about insurance. However, influenced by a friend, they eventually purchased a savings insurance. Subsequently, the author’s friend became “aware” online that the commissions for selling savings insurance are much higher for insurance brokers compared to other types of insurance. They also came across numerous negative information about savings insurance on various online forums. Despite the fact that objectively savings insurance and term insurance serve different purposes and have their own market value, the friend still felt they were “deceived” into buying savings insurance. 性侵 Sexual Assault 筆者研究過一些童年被性侵的個案，很多事主在童年被性侵後，由於當時對性侵沒有任何概念，對性侵行為只能簡單判斷為一些「奇怪但又不知如何對人說出的行為」。但人隨著年紀漸長，受害者逐漸「知道」性侵在人類社會是一種對侵犯女性身體的罪行，而且更「知道」到被性侵者由於失去其「貞潔」所帶來的歧視，或者被性侵過的身體會被認為是骯髒的身體，甚至「知道」部份男性對「處女」的情結和「處女」是非常重要等等資訊。這些資訊會在受害者腦中形成一種價值觀，讓受害者不斷自我貶低自己的價值，這種因為「知道」人們對性侵的「定義」反而帶來比童年時被性侵時更大更深的痛苦。 The author has studied some cases of childhood sexual assault. Many victims, after experiencing sexual assault in their childhood, had no concept of it at the time and could only perceive the behaviour as something “strange but not knowing how to talk about it.” However, as individuals grow older, they gradually “become aware” that sexual assault is a crime against a woman’s body in human society. They also become more “aware” of the discrimination faced by victims due to the loss of their “virginity” or the perception of their bodies as dirty after being sexually assaulted. They even become aware of certain men’s obsession with “virginity” and the significance placed on it. This information forms a set of values in the victim’s mind, leading them to devalue themselves continuously. Paradoxically, this knowledge of society’s “definition” of sexual assault brings about greater and deeper pain than what they experienced during childhood sexual assault. 放下和面對所有「由他人給予的定義」可以解脫很多痛苦 Letting go and confronting all “definitions given by people” can alleviate a lot of pain. 很多事情其實如果「不知道」，那麼和這些事情「沒有發生」本質上並沒有什麼區別。 Many things, in essence, have no significant difference if “not knowing” about them, as it is equivalent to them “not happening” at all. 這是為何很多時候「一無所知」的人看起來會比「無所不知」的人過得開心愉快。與意識上的「覺知」行為不同，一般人的「知道」是會被各種由人所創造的價值觀的影響，當自己突然「知道」自己過去的「無知」時，就會因為認為過去的自己的利益被損害而產生一種強烈不甘心的情緒，這種執著甚至大到引起很多情緒和精神問題。這或許是在舊約聖經中提及人類祖先阿當和夏娃吃下分辨善惡禁果後擁有「知道」的能力後帶來的痛苦背後的意涵。 This is why sometimes people who are “ignorant” appear to be happier than those who are “know-it-alls.” Unlike conscious acts of “awareness,” the general public’s “knowledge” is influenced by various values created by humans. When one suddenly becomes “aware” of their past “ignorance,” they may experience a strong sense of resentment, believing that their past interests have been harmed. This attachment can even lead to emotional and mental problems. Perhaps this is the underlying meaning behind the pain mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible, when the first human ancestors, Adam and Eve, gained the ability to “know” after eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 很多人卻有意無意讓他人不斷加重這些「由他人給予的定義」的概念，例如令人覺得買到儲蓄保險就是被騙，令人覺得知道伴侶不忠就是一定是好事，令人覺得當下的「不婚」一定是不想在未來負責任，令人覺得「處女」就代表貞潔，令人覺得「被性侵」相等於身體被弄髒污染。 Many people, consciously or unconsciously, perpetuate these concepts of “definitions given by people.” For example, making others feel that buying saving insurance is being deceived, believing that knowing about a partner’s infidelity is always a good thing, assuming that choosing not to marry in the present implies a lack of responsibility in the future, equating “virginity” with purity, or considering being “sexually assaulted” as equivalent to having one’s body defiled and contaminated. 由於存在於記憶中的過去在記憶層面中已經成為「事實」，如何面對過去的記憶所產生的痛苦是一個非常重要的技術問題。而不是站在道德高地批判，單純宣洩自己既義憤，滿足伸張正義的期待，打著保障事主利益的旗號，反過來讓事主更深陷各種「由他人給予的定義」造成的價值觀裡面無法自拔。 The way to confront the pain generated by past memories, which have become “facts” in the realm of memory, is a crucial technical issue. Instead of taking a moral high ground and criticizing, simply venting one’s righteous indignation, and satisfying the expectation of seeking justice, it is important to avoid getting the affected party further entangled in various values created by “definitions given by people” under the guise of safeguarding their interests. 因為過去已存在於記憶之中，除非現行有技術方法讓自己完全忘記過去所有不愉快的記憶，那麼只有抽離自己於種種所有「由他人給予的定義」之外才是根除痛苦的方法，並重新審視某些「由他人給予的定義」帶來的價值觀，重新估計過去發生的事情實際對自己現在帶來的損失是否如過去預期般大，最後接受存在於記憶中所有不愉快的過去，讓它們成為單純的記憶，解除過去對現在的影響。 Because the past already exists in memory, unless there is a current technological method to completely forget all unpleasant memories from the past, the only way to eradicate suffering is to detach oneself from all “definitions given by people” and reexamine the values brought about by certain “definitions given by people.” It involves reevaluating whether the actual losses from past events, as experienced in the past, are as significant as previously anticipated. Finally, one accepts all unpleasant past experiences existing in memory and allows them to become simple memories, thereby alleviating the impact of the past on the present. Originally published at http://curiosityforever.wordpress.com on December 18, 2023.	a0e530fa-75f8-5944-bd10-20d869db3bde	25/08/2025 16:01:19
https://railswithpratik.medium.com/19-remove-nth-node-from-the-end-of-linkedlist-using-2-pointers-algorithm-in-ruby-f69ba8fbe876	medium.com	19. Remove Nth Node from the end of LinkedList using 2 pointers algorithm in ruby!	Hi all, i have solved this amazing problem with a new concept for me! I used 2 pointers solution to solve it.	Prateek vyas	https://medium.com/@railswithpratik	f69ba8fbe876	null	1 min	2021-07-30T03:22:44.791000	2021-07-30T03:49:13.221000	2022-01-06T03:38:01.160000	0	0	en	Ruby,Ruby on Rails,Linked Lists,Ruby3,Datastrucutre	<section> <p>Hi all, i have solved this amazing problem with a new concept for me! I used 2 pointers solution to solve it.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/601/1*ZNIQBNPt0Gq48uadZCcW1g.png" width="601" height="183" loading="lazy" /> <p>I have already solved this problem in a different way using Brute force approach <a href="https://railswithpratik.medium.com/19-remove-nth-node-from-end-of-list-solution-in-ruby-5076ce7ce6c4">here</a>. But as i said, it is not the great solution. Because we gotta iterate over all the elements of linked list to calculate length.</p> <p>There’s a different solution for the same problem.</p> <p><strong>Algorithm/Approach :-</strong></p> <p>First we create two pointers(p1 and p2), which will be pointing to head.</p> <p>Now we will move <strong>N </strong>nodes further with the second pointer(p2).</p> <p>So after we move N nodes further from the head, that means we created a distance of <strong>N</strong> nodes from the first pointer(p1) which is obviously on head only yet.</p> <p>Now we will move both pointers(p1 and p2) one step ahead at a time.</p> <p><strong>Therefore i means IF MY SECOND POINTER IS AT THE END OF THE LINKED LIST THEN THE FIRST NODE WILL BE ‘N’ NODES BEHIND THE LAST NODE OF LINKED LIST.</strong></p> <p>And this is when <strong>we will point the next of first node to the next of it’s next.</strong></p> <p>My solution :-</p> <pre><code class="language-">def remove_nth_from_end(head, n) return nil if head.next.nil? p1 = head p2 = head (1..n).each { p2 = p2.next if p2 } return p1.next if p2.nil? until p2.next.nil? p1 = p1.next p2 = p2.next end p1.next = p1.next.next head end</code></pre> <p>Thanks for giving it a read!</p> <p>Happy coding!</p> </section>	19. Remove Nth Node from the end of LinkedList using 2 pointers algorithm in ruby! Hi all, i have solved this amazing problem with a new concept for me! I used 2 pointers solution to solve it. Remove nth node from the end of linkedlist using 2 pointers approach I have already solved this problem in a different way using Brute force approach here. But as i said, it is not the great solution. Because we gotta iterate over all the elements of linked list to calculate length. There’s a different solution for the same problem. Algorithm/Approach :- First we create two pointers(p1 and p2), which will be pointing to head. Now we will move N nodes further with the second pointer(p2). So after we move N nodes further from the head, that means we created a distance of N nodes from the first pointer(p1) which is obviously on head only yet. Now we will move both pointers(p1 and p2) one step ahead at a time. Therefore i means IF MY SECOND POINTER IS AT THE END OF THE LINKED LIST THEN THE FIRST NODE WILL BE ‘N’ NODES BEHIND THE LAST NODE OF LINKED LIST. And this is when we will point the next of first node to the next of it’s next. My solution :- def remove_nth_from_end(head, n) return nil if head.next.nil? p1 = head p2 = head (1..n).each { p2 = p2.next if p2 } return p1.next if p2.nil? until p2.next.nil? p1 = p1.next p2 = p2.next end p1.next = p1.next.next head end Thanks for giving it a read! Happy coding!	90a6b2b5-df1f-5dd3-a33c-d4350ae3bd40	25/08/2025 16:01:19
https://medium.com/@ChgoCitizenPam/the-laquan-mcdonald-video-will-not-cause-violent-protests-f9b7f5f08393	medium.com	The Laquan McDonald Video Will Not Cause Violent Protests.	Stop speaking lies that protect police officers who murder WeThePeople of Chicago.	PamIam	https://medium.com/@ChgoCitizenPam	f9b7f5f08393	https://miro.medium.com/…oaOroX62w0w.jpeg	7 min	2015-11-16T00:55:28.958000	2015-11-21T04:31:11.613000	2018-02-14T05:13:50.540000	0	75	en	Laquan Mcdonald,BlackLivesMatter,Rekia Boyd	<section> <h3>Stop speaking lies that protect police officers who murder WeThePeople of Chicago.</h3> <p>On October 20, 2014, Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke executed 17 year-old Laquan McDonald. Immediately after the shooting, FOP spokesman Pat Camden lied about the events, claiming that Laquan lunged at Van Dyke with a knife. The truth is Laquan was 12–15 feet away from police and walking away from them when Van Dyke started shooting at him. Pat Camden has not retracted this lie and the media is still reporting it.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/437/1E93KpxHCsTYoaOroX62w0w.jpeg" width="437" height="503" loading="lazy" /> <p>WeThePeople of Chicago have not seen the dash-cam video of Laquan’s murder, but we know that it shows an outrageous use of excessive force. We know this because the City’s lawyer advised the City Council to pay the victim’s family $5 million <em><stron</em>g>before</strong> the family could even file a civil suit. We know our Aldermen voted <strong>47–0</strong> to accept this advice. We also know that a witness at the scene described the events to investigators and John Kass, a conservative Chicago Tribune columnist. According to the witness, Laquan wasn’t lunging at anyone with a knife, he was looking for a way out, and he was walking away from them when Van Dyke “executed” Laquan.Van Dyke shot Laquan a stunning 16 times. The other five officers on the scene never pulled a trigger. <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/kass/ct-police-shooting-video-kass-met-1111-20151110-column.html">http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/kass/ct-police-shooting-video-kass-met-1111-20151110-column.html</a>.</p> <p>Yesterday, I was privileged to be in the packed, standing-room-only courtroom when Cook County Judge Valderrama issued a ruling that was right on the law and served up the <em><stro</em>ng>first</strong> small measure of justice for Laquan McDonald and WeThePeople of Chicago. The judge ruled in favor of independent journalist Brandon Smith on his FOIA request for a copy of the dash-cam video. The City of Chicago forced Mr. Smith to file suit by delaying its response to Mr. Smith’s FOIA request, feigning consideration, and after months of lying to Mr. Smith, finally refusing to produce the video. The City fought Mr. Smith’s case without legal justification and Mr. Smith won. Late yesterday afternoon, the City announced it would not appeal the Court’s order which means the video will be released to Mr. Smith no later than November 25th.</p> <h3>Assuming There Will Be Violence Is A Racially Divisive Con</h3> <p>Local and national news outlets were present for the Court’s ruling and interviewed the lawyers for Laquan’s mother as well as Brandon Smith and his lawyer Matt Topic. Many reporters immediately jumped at the opportunity to assert that release of the video will cause violent protests, one even asking about threats to police. Today, astonishingly, #BlackTwitter has repeated this trope.</p> <p>Let’s check our premises. Violence? What violence? Violence by whom?There haven’t been violent protests in the City of Chicago since the 1960's. So ask yourself before you repeat this ugly divisive con, why are the City of Chicago and the media repeating it? Why are the City of Chicago’s public servants wringing their hands over the potential for violent protests but not about the actually violent, mudering members of the Chicago police force?</p> <p>No Chicago activists or protestors have threatened violence. NONE. There has been plenty of reasons for violence in the City of Chicago over the past three years alone. The City of Chicago and its Police Department, the biased IPRA (<a href="http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/30285-how-the-gold-standard-of-police-accountability-fails-civilians-by-design">http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/30285-how-the-gold-standard-of-police-accountability-fails-civilians-by-design</a>), incompetent Cook County Prosecutor Anita Alvarez, and the FOP have done <em><strong</em>>nothing</strong> to stop rogue police officers from murdering our black neighbors. Instead, our public servants conceal the truth from the People who pay their salaries and the multi-million dollar settlements with victims families. I don’t object to compensating the victims families. I object to the fact that WeThePeople are paying for these settlements and police brutality continues unabated. Nevertheless, <em><strong>there have been no violent </em>protests</strong>:</p> <ul> <li>On March 21, 2012 <em>off-duty</em><strong> </strong>CPD Officer Dante Servin aimed his gun at a handful of blacks kids in a car, pulled the trigger and murdered Rekia Boyd who was an innocent bystander. The City of Chicago paid her family $4.5 million dollars. Look at this beautiful young woman and tell me you’re not outraged that Dante Servin still remains on the Chicago police force.</li> </ul> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1280/1-LWMhza1BogaF9SNBZrm5g.jpeg" width="1280" height="720" loading="lazy" /> <p><em><strong>ONLY Peaceful protests followed Rekia’</em>s murder</strong></p> <ul> <li>On October 12, 2014, Ronald “RonnieMan” Johnson, a 25 year-old black man with five young children was murdered by Detective George Hernandez for being a black man in the wrong place at the wrong time.</li> </ul> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/601/1*U2bvUr9B3v-2zu-tx-HLUA.jpeg" width="601" height="400" loading="lazy" /> <p>RonnieMan died from multiple gunshot wounds and the Cook County ME’s office ruled his death a homicide. Witnesses say RonnieMan did not have a gun, but the police still claim he was shooting at them and they fired in self-defense. RonnieMan’s mother has been fighting for the release of the dash-cam video. The City has refused to produce it. Detective George Hernandez has not been charged with any crime and is apparently still on the police force. <a href="http://www.stopkillingourpeople.com/#!ronnieman/cwcb">http://www.stopkillingourpeople.com/#!ronnieman/cwcb</a>.</p> <p><em><strong>Still there have been only peaceful p</em>rotests.</strong></p> <ul> <li>A mere 8 days after RonnieMan’s murder, on October 20, 2014, Laquan McDonald was executed by Officer Jason Van Dyke. In the past 14 months, the IPRA has conducted no investigation. The IPRA abdicated its responsibility to Cook County Prosecutor Anita Alvarez who is owned by the Chicago Police. Van Dyke is still a member of the Chicago Police force, and no charges have been brought against him.</li> </ul> <p><em><strong>Still only peaceful protests have be</em>en held.</strong></p> <ul> <li>On April 20, 2015, in the single most outrageous act of racial injustice this City has committed in the last 40 years, Anita Alvarez tanked the prosecution of Dante Servin, by intentionlly failing to charge Servin with first degree murder, which resulted in the judge directing a verdict in Servin’s favor. <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/24/1379966/-Smoking-Gun-Prosecutor-Anita-Alvarez-deliberately-undercharged-officer-who-killed-Rekia-Boyd">http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/24/1379966/-Smoking-Gun-Prosecutor-Anita-Alvarez-deliberately-undercharged-officer-who-killed-Rekia-Boyd</a>.</li> </ul> <p><em><strong>Notwithstanding this stunning injustice, only peaceful protests f</em>ollowed.</strong></p> <p>None of these peaceful protests have grabbed the attention of Chicago’s local press. Instead the press and our public servants insult us with their repeated assertions that violence will be caused by the release of a video showing Officer Jason Van Dyke executing Laquan McDonald. <em><strong>Se</em>riously?</strong> The <em><strong>video will cause violence? N</em>o No NO!</strong></p> <h3>The video of Laquan’s execution will not cause violence.</h3> <p>Mayor Emanuel, Superintendent McCarthy, the FOP, local and national reporters, and Twitter have absolutely no basis for believing there will be violent protests after this video is released, yet all keep repeating it.</p> <p>Why? Because our civil servants Mayor Emanuel, Superintendent McCarthy, the FOP and Cook County Prosecutor Anita Alvarez all have a vested interest in publicly declaring there will be violent protests. They want to instill fear. Their personal interests are served by insuring the City of Chicago remains racially divided. Yes. I just said it. They want the City divided because when the many white Chicago voters who aren’t woke see this video, they will be shocked awake and they will not be able to go back to sleep.</p> <p>The video will divide the City, but make no mistake — the division will not be between white and black people. The division will be between white people: those who are racists and those who are simply ignorant because they are privileged and grew up believing police protect and serve, were taught police were heroic and deserved our respect, they know good police officers, and the goddamned nightly news does not cover the atrocities Chicago police commit against black people in this city. Our public servants know, far better than I, that the number of racists in Chicago are minimal compared to the number of white folk who are simply asleep. And when these white folk wake up they will be aligned with black people against the public servants who have repeatedly lied to them.</p> <p>If Carol Marin or Jay Levine or any of the other local, long-respected reporters possess the independence and courage to show the video on the 10 pm news, white people will see it and they will be just as horrified as black people. White people who vote will see it. White people and black people voting against this atrocity means Mayor Emanuel, his pal Garry McCarthy, and their flunky Anita Alvarez will be out of office — perhaps before the next election.</p> <p>The overwhelming evidence demonstrates that all our Chicago “public servants” care about is maintaining their political power. They don’t care a wit about the People of this great city. If they cared, Dante Servin would have been fired, charged and convicted of first degree murder; the IPRA investigations of Detective George Hernandez and Officer Jason Van Dyke would have been completed by now and they would have been charged with first degree murder — if not convicted. But no, all our government officials care about is keeping their power and to keep it, they must maintain a racial divide in Chicago and protect killer cops. They need the violent trope repeated. They need us afraid. They need us asleep. This does not serve our interests. So stop repeating it!</p> <h3>A Video Cannot Cause Violent Protests</h3> <p>Although local activists are calling for peaceful protests and have only engaged in peaceful protests, is it possible some violence will be done after the video of Laquan’s execution is released? Sure, it’s possible, but let’s all get one important fact straight. If there is violence, the video will not be the cause.</p> <p>If there are some who commit violence during peaceful protests, the cause will be Mayor Emanuel’s indifference and inaction; his failure to use his power to force changes in the Chicago Police Department. The cause will be Superintendent McCarthy’s arrogant indifference, his failure to fire Dante Servin notwithstanding the IPRA’s recommendation, and his statement, after the directed verdict in favor of Dante Servin, that Servin should not have been charged. The cause will be the IPRA’s failure to recommend discipline against Dante Servin in any of the 10 citizen complaints filed against him before he murdered Rekia Boyd and its refusal to recommend discipline against Jason Van Dyke in the 18 citizen complaints filed against him before he murdered Laquan McDonald, including one that resulted in a judgment against Van Dyke for excessive force that the People of Chicago funded. <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-police-shooting-16-shots-04---met-20150425-story.html">http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-police-shooting-16-shots-04---met-20150425-story.html</a>. The cause will be the awakening of WeThePeople of Chicago to the lies our public servants have told, the fraud they’ve committed against us, and the violence they’ve unleased on our streets.</p> <p>So if you <em><stro</em>ng>need </strong>to talk about the possible violence, talk about this. Report it. Post it. Tweet it — not our despicable public servants’ reprehensible lies.</p> </section>	The Laquan McDonald Video Will Not Cause Violent Protests. Stop speaking lies that protect police officers who murder WeThePeople of Chicago. On October 20, 2014, Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke executed 17 year-old Laquan McDonald. Immediately after the shooting, FOP spokesman Pat Camden lied about the events, claiming that Laquan lunged at Van Dyke with a knife. The truth is Laquan was 12–15 feet away from police and walking away from them when Van Dyke started shooting at him. Pat Camden has not retracted this lie and the media is still reporting it. Laquan McDonald WeThePeople of Chicago have not seen the dash-cam video of Laquan’s murder, but we know that it shows an outrageous use of excessive force. We know this because the City’s lawyer advised the City Council to pay the victim’s family $5 million before the family could even file a civil suit. We know our Aldermen voted 47–0 to accept this advice. We also know that a witness at the scene described the events to investigators and John Kass, a conservative Chicago Tribune columnist. According to the witness, Laquan wasn’t lunging at anyone with a knife, he was looking for a way out, and he was walking away from them when Van Dyke “executed” Laquan.Van Dyke shot Laquan a stunning 16 times. The other five officers on the scene never pulled a trigger. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/kass/ct-police-shooting-video-kass-met-1111-20151110-column.html. Yesterday, I was privileged to be in the packed, standing-room-only courtroom when Cook County Judge Valderrama issued a ruling that was right on the law and served up the first small measure of justice for Laquan McDonald and WeThePeople of Chicago. The judge ruled in favor of independent journalist Brandon Smith on his FOIA request for a copy of the dash-cam video. The City of Chicago forced Mr. Smith to file suit by delaying its response to Mr. Smith’s FOIA request, feigning consideration, and after months of lying to Mr. Smith, finally refusing to produce the video. The City fought Mr. Smith’s case without legal justification and Mr. Smith won. Late yesterday afternoon, the City announced it would not appeal the Court’s order which means the video will be released to Mr. Smith no later than November 25th. Assuming There Will Be Violence Is A Racially Divisive Con Local and national news outlets were present for the Court’s ruling and interviewed the lawyers for Laquan’s mother as well as Brandon Smith and his lawyer Matt Topic. Many reporters immediately jumped at the opportunity to assert that release of the video will cause violent protests, one even asking about threats to police. Today, astonishingly, #BlackTwitter has repeated this trope. Let’s check our premises. Violence? What violence? Violence by whom?There haven’t been violent protests in the City of Chicago since the 1960's. So ask yourself before you repeat this ugly divisive con, why are the City of Chicago and the media repeating it? Why are the City of Chicago’s public servants wringing their hands over the potential for violent protests but not about the actually violent, mudering members of the Chicago police force? No Chicago activists or protestors have threatened violence. NONE. There has been plenty of reasons for violence in the City of Chicago over the past three years alone. The City of Chicago and its Police Department, the biased IPRA (http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/30285-how-the-gold-standard-of-police-accountability-fails-civilians-by-design), incompetent Cook County Prosecutor Anita Alvarez, and the FOP have done nothing to stop rogue police officers from murdering our black neighbors. Instead, our public servants conceal the truth from the People who pay their salaries and the multi-million dollar settlements with victims families. I don’t object to compensating the victims families. I object to the fact that WeThePeople are paying for these settlements and police brutality continues unabated. Nevertheless, there have been no violent protests: On March 21, 2012 off-duty CPD Officer Dante Servin aimed his gun at a handful of blacks kids in a car, pulled the trigger and murdered Rekia Boyd who was an innocent bystander. The City of Chicago paid her family $4.5 million dollars. Look at this beautiful young woman and tell me you’re not outraged that Dante Servin still remains on the Chicago police force. Rekia Boyd. ABC7Chicago.com ONLY Peaceful protests followed Rekia’s murder On October 12, 2014, Ronald “RonnieMan” Johnson, a 25 year-old black man with five young children was murdered by Detective George Hernandez for being a black man in the wrong place at the wrong time. RonnieMan with one of his young children. BlackLivesMatterChicago.com RonnieMan died from multiple gunshot wounds and the Cook County ME’s office ruled his death a homicide. Witnesses say RonnieMan did not have a gun, but the police still claim he was shooting at them and they fired in self-defense. RonnieMan’s mother has been fighting for the release of the dash-cam video. The City has refused to produce it. Detective George Hernandez has not been charged with any crime and is apparently still on the police force. http://www.stopkillingourpeople.com/#!ronnieman/cwcb. Still there have been only peaceful protests. A mere 8 days after RonnieMan’s murder, on October 20, 2014, Laquan McDonald was executed by Officer Jason Van Dyke. In the past 14 months, the IPRA has conducted no investigation. The IPRA abdicated its responsibility to Cook County Prosecutor Anita Alvarez who is owned by the Chicago Police. Van Dyke is still a member of the Chicago Police force, and no charges have been brought against him. Still only peaceful protests have been held. On April 20, 2015, in the single most outrageous act of racial injustice this City has committed in the last 40 years, Anita Alvarez tanked the prosecution of Dante Servin, by intentionlly failing to charge Servin with first degree murder, which resulted in the judge directing a verdict in Servin’s favor. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/24/1379966/-Smoking-Gun-Prosecutor-Anita-Alvarez-deliberately-undercharged-officer-who-killed-Rekia-Boyd. Notwithstanding this stunning injustice, only peaceful protests followed. None of these peaceful protests have grabbed the attention of Chicago’s local press. Instead the press and our public servants insult us with their repeated assertions that violence will be caused by the release of a video showing Officer Jason Van Dyke executing Laquan McDonald. Seriously? The video will cause violence? No No NO! The video of Laquan’s execution will not cause violence. Mayor Emanuel, Superintendent McCarthy, the FOP, local and national reporters, and Twitter have absolutely no basis for believing there will be violent protests after this video is released, yet all keep repeating it. Why? Because our civil servants Mayor Emanuel, Superintendent McCarthy, the FOP and Cook County Prosecutor Anita Alvarez all have a vested interest in publicly declaring there will be violent protests. They want to instill fear. Their personal interests are served by insuring the City of Chicago remains racially divided. Yes. I just said it. They want the City divided because when the many white Chicago voters who aren’t woke see this video, they will be shocked awake and they will not be able to go back to sleep. The video will divide the City, but make no mistake — the division will not be between white and black people. The division will be between white people: those who are racists and those who are simply ignorant because they are privileged and grew up believing police protect and serve, were taught police were heroic and deserved our respect, they know good police officers, and the goddamned nightly news does not cover the atrocities Chicago police commit against black people in this city. Our public servants know, far better than I, that the number of racists in Chicago are minimal compared to the number of white folk who are simply asleep. And when these white folk wake up they will be aligned with black people against the public servants who have repeatedly lied to them. If Carol Marin or Jay Levine or any of the other local, long-respected reporters possess the independence and courage to show the video on the 10 pm news, white people will see it and they will be just as horrified as black people. White people who vote will see it. White people and black people voting against this atrocity means Mayor Emanuel, his pal Garry McCarthy, and their flunky Anita Alvarez will be out of office — perhaps before the next election. The overwhelming evidence demonstrates that all our Chicago “public servants” care about is maintaining their political power. They don’t care a wit about the People of this great city. If they cared, Dante Servin would have been fired, charged and convicted of first degree murder; the IPRA investigations of Detective George Hernandez and Officer Jason Van Dyke would have been completed by now and they would have been charged with first degree murder — if not convicted. But no, all our government officials care about is keeping their power and to keep it, they must maintain a racial divide in Chicago and protect killer cops. They need the violent trope repeated. They need us afraid. They need us asleep. This does not serve our interests. So stop repeating it! A Video Cannot Cause Violent Protests Although local activists are calling for peaceful protests and have only engaged in peaceful protests, is it possible some violence will be done after the video of Laquan’s execution is released? Sure, it’s possible, but let’s all get one important fact straight. If there is violence, the video will not be the cause. If there are some who commit violence during peaceful protests, the cause will be Mayor Emanuel’s indifference and inaction; his failure to use his power to force changes in the Chicago Police Department. The cause will be Superintendent McCarthy’s arrogant indifference, his failure to fire Dante Servin notwithstanding the IPRA’s recommendation, and his statement, after the directed verdict in favor of Dante Servin, that Servin should not have been charged. The cause will be the IPRA’s failure to recommend discipline against Dante Servin in any of the 10 citizen complaints filed against him before he murdered Rekia Boyd and its refusal to recommend discipline against Jason Van Dyke in the 18 citizen complaints filed against him before he murdered Laquan McDonald, including one that resulted in a judgment against Van Dyke for excessive force that the People of Chicago funded. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-police-shooting-16-shots-04---met-20150425-story.html. The cause will be the awakening of WeThePeople of Chicago to the lies our public servants have told, the fraud they’ve committed against us, and the violence they’ve unleased on our streets. So if you need to talk about the possible violence, talk about this. Report it. Post it. Tweet it — not our despicable public servants’ reprehensible lies.	5dfca77e-4dc5-5e5f-82c4-898d7931c595	25/08/2025 16:01:20
https://medium.com/@matt_2867/create-your-ideal-week-9510ac21250b	medium.com	Create your ideal week	Your life was once full of freedom and adventure. You conquered, achieved, and got to where you wanted to be. Now you’re feeling stuck…	Matt Walker	https://medium.com/@matt_2867	9510ac21250b	https://miro.medium.com/…jo9STJktWwkg.png	1 min	2017-12-19T17:16:56.363000	2017-06-01T14:36:51	2018-01-03T17:01:03.134000	0	0	en	Life,Planning,High Performance,Weekly Planner	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/560/1*P5lOdKd3gcjo9STJktWwkg.png" width="560" height="315" loading="lazy" /> <p>Your life was once full of freedom and adventure. You conquered, achieved, and got to where you wanted to be. Now you’re feeling stuck. You’ve reached your big goals and are wondering why you feel empty.</p> <p>And why everyone else seems to be living a much fuller life.</p> <p>You fear, <em>“Is this it?”</em></p> <p>Fortunately, it’s not. You just don’t have the right set of tools to get you to the next level — the place where you can <strong>“have it all”</strong> and still be in charge, focused and engaged.</p> <p>It’s time for a shift in perspective that will inspire you, motivate you and give you specific, tangible results.</p> <h1>High performance living happens through adventure.</h1> <p><strong>Download my free Ideal Week Planner. Get focused and energized today!</strong></p> <p></p> <p><em>Originally published at <a href="http://mattwalkeradventure.com/</em>2017/06/create-ideal-week/">mattwalkeradventure.com</a> on June 1, 2017.</p> </section>	Create your ideal week Your life was once full of freedom and adventure. You conquered, achieved, and got to where you wanted to be. Now you’re feeling stuck. You’ve reached your big goals and are wondering why you feel empty. And why everyone else seems to be living a much fuller life. You fear, “Is this it?” Fortunately, it’s not. You just don’t have the right set of tools to get you to the next level — the place where you can “have it all” and still be in charge, focused and engaged. It’s time for a shift in perspective that will inspire you, motivate you and give you specific, tangible results. High performance living happens through adventure. Download my free Ideal Week Planner. Get focused and energized today! Originally published at mattwalkeradventure.com on June 1, 2017.	ac9f1292-1308-5572-8b33-95490d2ec6ee	25/08/2025 16:01:20
https://guywalker110.medium.com/george-floyd-bringing-the-war-home-4edd02470246	medium.com	George Floyd: Bringing The War Home	All I know is first you’ve got to get mad. You’ve got to say, “I’m a human being, goddammit. My life has value.” So I want you to get up…	Guy Walker	https://medium.com/@guywalker110	4edd02470246	https://miro.medium.com/…[email protected]	7 min	2020-06-04T01:04:28.049000	2020-06-04T01:09:27.463000	2021-12-14T18:16:43.762000	0	0	en	George Floyd,BlackLivesMatter,Police Brutality,Justice For George Floyd,Protest	<section> <p><em>All I know is first you’ve got to get mad. You’ve got to say, “I’m a human being, goddammit. My life has value.” So I want you to get up now…I want you to go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell. I want you to yell, “I’m made as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” -Howard Beale</em> (Network)</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/620/1*[email protected]" width="620" height="354" loading="lazy" /> <p><em>by Guy Walker</em></p> <p>Finally, people are angry enough to do something about it. Amid the swirling chaos of the peremptory and prompt revolt against the murder of George Floyd and so many countless others within the black community, they’ve deployed the National Guard to protect the mall. And doctors are still wearing trash bags to perform surgeries and save those dying from the virus. So what are we supposed to do? The divide of power has long been slipping away, including during this pandemic, <em>especially</em> during this pandemic, which Naomi Klein has long described as the shock doctrine of power. America’s billionaire class has profited insurmountably in the last couple months, as we’re left to steal dresses from Forever 21. So, now what?</p> <p>Look at you, now, reading this. Hunched over your phone, tapping away with your greasy fingers, smearing the virus across the void like a slug. Or are you still laying in bed with your laptop pulled up to your chest, your eyeballs scrolling, competing against thirty other tabs littering the top of the screen? In reality, you pendulum madly between early Chomsky interviews or this great documentary you just found on James Baldwin, and a Riley Reid POV video, passively wondering what the vertical Japanese tattoo down her spine actually says. You want to share with the world this really great quote from Desmond Tutu. You want others to know that you have Malcom X’s autobiography sitting on your bookshelf. It’s waiting there, like a deactivated bomb, and now a tombstone of brittle dust, that you rearrange with other books from time to time. You found this cool meme. (Actually, you found a hundred and fifty.) It’s ever so revolutionary — or, it’s in solidarity with the revolution. You are on the right side of history. And by the right side, you mean the left; and by his story, you mean her story. This is your baby Simba you will hold proudly over the virtual masses, the beaming chorus of enlightenment shining down through our hapless skulls.</p> <p>In the midst of the protests here where I live in Los Angeles, where the raw wounds of the Rodney King beating and consequential riots still pervade, the scenes are almost identical. Maybe worse. It’s worse because people are getting angrier, because it’s been nearly three decades since Rodney King, and nothing’s gotten better. So, the looting is everywhere. It is of course impossible to have a democratized board of protest in regard to looting: it’s good to loot the Gucci stores, the Supreme stores, Louis Vuitton, Apple, Target. (And why aren’t there more fucking Amazon stores we can rob and then burn? Send a cackling Jeff Bezos and his gleaming bald head like a botched circumcision straddling his rocket to Mars. Get off our rock. Join Richard Branson and Elon Musk to burn faraway astral bonfires of hundred dollar bills. Let your ejaculate spread like glitter amongst the stars.) But how do you tell the mob to be shrewd and act in accordance to barracked nuance? There’s a viral video of a black man screaming on the street to straggling protestors, crying, pleading that he too came from the ghetto, and now his whole store and business that he built is looted down to the empty shelves. His life, to him in this moment, is over.</p> <p>A mob has its own autonomy, its own desperate volition, tantamount to the individuals who comprise the mob. Like a school of fish or flock of birds that buzz around uniformly like a swarm of gnats. It’s tickling the dirty taint of our collective consciousness. So mobs aren’t sensible enough to work with — they muddy the starlit sky of our crying innocence. And yet, we humans are scrotum-wrapped mobs of conflict and autonomy, our being humming along on its own volition. You, there, are an animated civil war of peace and contradiction.</p> <p>So where does violence fit in, in all of this? Without violence, power runs amuck. Journalist activist, Chris Hedges, often uses this adage of history as an example: in Henry Kissinger’s memoirs he recounts a terrified President Nixon during the monumental Vietnam War protests outside the White House gates. Nixon pleaded for reassurance from Kissinger, that the protestors wouldn’t hurdle the iron gates and hang him upside like Mussolini, as they should have. And this wasn’t even a credible threat of violence; it was merely Nixon, a petrified goon, peering from behind his lace curtains at the teenagers tossing t.p. in his oak trees, screaming for the police to save his life. Now, juxtapose this with the Iraq War protests of 2003. They were, in a way, distinctively historic because of their size and energy without an impending draft; but where they failed was inducing even the slightest filament of fear into the minds of the death cult that is the US government. When George W. Bush was asked what he thought about them, he tactfully smirked that the protests demonstrated exactly why they were invading Iraq — to give the people the same freedoms of expression and assembly as we enjoy here. Of course, today, seeing so many peaceful protestors get mauled with batons and rubber bullets from the police for protesting the public execution of George Floyd, it’s easy to scoff at the brash ineptitude of such a position.</p> <p>Freedom of expression isn’t enough when all you’re given is a dirty rectangular paddock to stomp your feet and punch at the sun.<em> Here you go,</em> they say<em>, throw your tantrum in this parcel, in this park. Get it out of your system, and then get back in line.</em> Burning cop cars and their stations is not simply the opening-night-Broadway-play of justified rage; it’s also a celebration of our humanity. It says we are indeed brothers, and we reject your incrimination of the black and brown communities; we reject your surveillance and your evangelical frenzy to protect the banks and the malls and the corporate establishments. It says, we need opportunities for the poor and homeless; we need to end the for-profit industry of incarceration; we need to decarbonize our economy rather than militarize those who are supposed to protect and serve the community at large. And beyond the burning down of the bad and broken, we need to know what we want, drawing a map of our newer better world with your finger through the beds of ash.</p> <p>We are running frantically on the rat wheel of history, churning out landmark events as we go. Today is its own textbook. But the sixties flagged a few stories of its own. The Weather Underground, for example, was a militarized faction that was birthed from the chaotic 1969 Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) convention. They acted in alliance with the Black Panther Party, vowing to “bring the war home” by bombing the US Capitol and Pentagon buildings, amongst myriad other targeted attacks against the implements of American imperialism. The LSD surf gang, Brotherhood of Eternal Love, enlisted them to break Timothy Leary out of prison, and snuck him into Algeria. And although they rooted themselves in a sort of purist naiveté that only the young can bolster, it never transfused into the political revolution they sought. A few of the founding members incidentally blew themselves up and their entire Greenwich apartment up while making a stockpile of incendiary devices.</p> <p>Or in the nineties, the Earth Liberation Front burned down a Hummer dealership just down the road from where I grew up. Environmental activist and writer, Derrick Jensen, often notes that only two percent of those active in the Underground Railroad actually carried munitions. The vast majority involved were the very critical mass that made the operation run so effectively. Because peaceful protest only works in one of two ways: if the opposition is sensible enough to hear your cries, or if there is a violent drumbeat beneath its genteel hand.</p> <p>When the FBI assassinated Black Panther Party chairman, Fred Hampton, they knew they could get away with it. Many of the founding members of Black Lives Matters activists that came out of Ferguson, Missouri, have died under similarly scandalous circumstances. On the day of my writing this, it is the 99th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre that left up to three hundred dead and ten thousand black Oklahomans homeless. And it wasn’t just a white mob who did this; it was the National Guard. The same National Guard who killed protestors at Kent State. The same National Guard who has now been deployed across the country to keep the peace and enforce curfew. So, the effectiveness of violence isn’t disputed; it’s the evidentiary tenor of who is now at risk.</p> <p>The United States is a big festering dumpster of rot and disease. But I’m in love with it now more than ever. The abolishment of our passivity is enough for celebration. Sure, Trump is barracked behind his fortress, jacking off into heavily bleached and ironed socks, covering his sweaty dew-dropped chest hairs in a tangle of shredded Big Mac lettuce. He’s slurping Diet Cokes with more contempt than when Jules Winnfield drank the rest of the Sprite in Pulp Fiction before killing all the scared and stammering bastards. But the emperor has no clothes, and he is the four-hundred pound troll he warned the world about, trolling from the fortified gates, seeing if he can get a rise out of the oh so politically correct left.</p> <p>Because this has little to nothing to do with him, and he wants to bring the attention back, back from the swirling infernos of heartache. But it’s already progressed so far beyond. Out there, amidst the foreboding storm clouds of tear gas and sirens is an atmosphere of pervading idealism. There’s a collective consciousness buzzing into some banners of materiality. And it’s designated forever in the throes of justice.</p> </section>	George Floyd: Bringing The War Home All I know is first you’ve got to get mad. You’ve got to say, “I’m a human being, goddammit. My life has value.” So I want you to get up now…I want you to go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell. I want you to yell, “I’m made as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” -Howard Beale (Network) by Guy Walker Finally, people are angry enough to do something about it. Amid the swirling chaos of the peremptory and prompt revolt against the murder of George Floyd and so many countless others within the black community, they’ve deployed the National Guard to protect the mall. And doctors are still wearing trash bags to perform surgeries and save those dying from the virus. So what are we supposed to do? The divide of power has long been slipping away, including during this pandemic, especially during this pandemic, which Naomi Klein has long described as the shock doctrine of power. America’s billionaire class has profited insurmountably in the last couple months, as we’re left to steal dresses from Forever 21. So, now what? Look at you, now, reading this. Hunched over your phone, tapping away with your greasy fingers, smearing the virus across the void like a slug. Or are you still laying in bed with your laptop pulled up to your chest, your eyeballs scrolling, competing against thirty other tabs littering the top of the screen? In reality, you pendulum madly between early Chomsky interviews or this great documentary you just found on James Baldwin, and a Riley Reid POV video, passively wondering what the vertical Japanese tattoo down her spine actually says. You want to share with the world this really great quote from Desmond Tutu. You want others to know that you have Malcom X’s autobiography sitting on your bookshelf. It’s waiting there, like a deactivated bomb, and now a tombstone of brittle dust, that you rearrange with other books from time to time. You found this cool meme. (Actually, you found a hundred and fifty.) It’s ever so revolutionary — or, it’s in solidarity with the revolution. You are on the right side of history. And by the right side, you mean the left; and by his story, you mean her story. This is your baby Simba you will hold proudly over the virtual masses, the beaming chorus of enlightenment shining down through our hapless skulls. In the midst of the protests here where I live in Los Angeles, where the raw wounds of the Rodney King beating and consequential riots still pervade, the scenes are almost identical. Maybe worse. It’s worse because people are getting angrier, because it’s been nearly three decades since Rodney King, and nothing’s gotten better. So, the looting is everywhere. It is of course impossible to have a democratized board of protest in regard to looting: it’s good to loot the Gucci stores, the Supreme stores, Louis Vuitton, Apple, Target. (And why aren’t there more fucking Amazon stores we can rob and then burn? Send a cackling Jeff Bezos and his gleaming bald head like a botched circumcision straddling his rocket to Mars. Get off our rock. Join Richard Branson and Elon Musk to burn faraway astral bonfires of hundred dollar bills. Let your ejaculate spread like glitter amongst the stars.) But how do you tell the mob to be shrewd and act in accordance to barracked nuance? There’s a viral video of a black man screaming on the street to straggling protestors, crying, pleading that he too came from the ghetto, and now his whole store and business that he built is looted down to the empty shelves. His life, to him in this moment, is over. A mob has its own autonomy, its own desperate volition, tantamount to the individuals who comprise the mob. Like a school of fish or flock of birds that buzz around uniformly like a swarm of gnats. It’s tickling the dirty taint of our collective consciousness. So mobs aren’t sensible enough to work with — they muddy the starlit sky of our crying innocence. And yet, we humans are scrotum-wrapped mobs of conflict and autonomy, our being humming along on its own volition. You, there, are an animated civil war of peace and contradiction. So where does violence fit in, in all of this? Without violence, power runs amuck. Journalist activist, Chris Hedges, often uses this adage of history as an example: in Henry Kissinger’s memoirs he recounts a terrified President Nixon during the monumental Vietnam War protests outside the White House gates. Nixon pleaded for reassurance from Kissinger, that the protestors wouldn’t hurdle the iron gates and hang him upside like Mussolini, as they should have. And this wasn’t even a credible threat of violence; it was merely Nixon, a petrified goon, peering from behind his lace curtains at the teenagers tossing t.p. in his oak trees, screaming for the police to save his life. Now, juxtapose this with the Iraq War protests of 2003. They were, in a way, distinctively historic because of their size and energy without an impending draft; but where they failed was inducing even the slightest filament of fear into the minds of the death cult that is the US government. When George W. Bush was asked what he thought about them, he tactfully smirked that the protests demonstrated exactly why they were invading Iraq — to give the people the same freedoms of expression and assembly as we enjoy here. Of course, today, seeing so many peaceful protestors get mauled with batons and rubber bullets from the police for protesting the public execution of George Floyd, it’s easy to scoff at the brash ineptitude of such a position. Freedom of expression isn’t enough when all you’re given is a dirty rectangular paddock to stomp your feet and punch at the sun. Here you go, they say, throw your tantrum in this parcel, in this park. Get it out of your system, and then get back in line. Burning cop cars and their stations is not simply the opening-night-Broadway-play of justified rage; it’s also a celebration of our humanity. It says we are indeed brothers, and we reject your incrimination of the black and brown communities; we reject your surveillance and your evangelical frenzy to protect the banks and the malls and the corporate establishments. It says, we need opportunities for the poor and homeless; we need to end the for-profit industry of incarceration; we need to decarbonize our economy rather than militarize those who are supposed to protect and serve the community at large. And beyond the burning down of the bad and broken, we need to know what we want, drawing a map of our newer better world with your finger through the beds of ash. We are running frantically on the rat wheel of history, churning out landmark events as we go. Today is its own textbook. But the sixties flagged a few stories of its own. The Weather Underground, for example, was a militarized faction that was birthed from the chaotic 1969 Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) convention. They acted in alliance with the Black Panther Party, vowing to “bring the war home” by bombing the US Capitol and Pentagon buildings, amongst myriad other targeted attacks against the implements of American imperialism. The LSD surf gang, Brotherhood of Eternal Love, enlisted them to break Timothy Leary out of prison, and snuck him into Algeria. And although they rooted themselves in a sort of purist naiveté that only the young can bolster, it never transfused into the political revolution they sought. A few of the founding members incidentally blew themselves up and their entire Greenwich apartment up while making a stockpile of incendiary devices. Or in the nineties, the Earth Liberation Front burned down a Hummer dealership just down the road from where I grew up. Environmental activist and writer, Derrick Jensen, often notes that only two percent of those active in the Underground Railroad actually carried munitions. The vast majority involved were the very critical mass that made the operation run so effectively. Because peaceful protest only works in one of two ways: if the opposition is sensible enough to hear your cries, or if there is a violent drumbeat beneath its genteel hand. When the FBI assassinated Black Panther Party chairman, Fred Hampton, they knew they could get away with it. Many of the founding members of Black Lives Matters activists that came out of Ferguson, Missouri, have died under similarly scandalous circumstances. On the day of my writing this, it is the 99th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre that left up to three hundred dead and ten thousand black Oklahomans homeless. And it wasn’t just a white mob who did this; it was the National Guard. The same National Guard who killed protestors at Kent State. The same National Guard who has now been deployed across the country to keep the peace and enforce curfew. So, the effectiveness of violence isn’t disputed; it’s the evidentiary tenor of who is now at risk. The United States is a big festering dumpster of rot and disease. But I’m in love with it now more than ever. The abolishment of our passivity is enough for celebration. Sure, Trump is barracked behind his fortress, jacking off into heavily bleached and ironed socks, covering his sweaty dew-dropped chest hairs in a tangle of shredded Big Mac lettuce. He’s slurping Diet Cokes with more contempt than when Jules Winnfield drank the rest of the Sprite in Pulp Fiction before killing all the scared and stammering bastards. But the emperor has no clothes, and he is the four-hundred pound troll he warned the world about, trolling from the fortified gates, seeing if he can get a rise out of the oh so politically correct left. Because this has little to nothing to do with him, and he wants to bring the attention back, back from the swirling infernos of heartache. But it’s already progressed so far beyond. Out there, amidst the foreboding storm clouds of tear gas and sirens is an atmosphere of pervading idealism. There’s a collective consciousness buzzing into some banners of materiality. And it’s designated forever in the throes of justice.	eeb78675-2e50-53c2-938d-23c23521d562	25/08/2025 16:01:20
https://medium.com/@officesetupoffice/announcing-the-general-availability-of-microsoft-setup-graph-reporting-apis-48005d59057	medium.com	Announcing the General Availability of Microsoft Setup Graph reporting APIs	General Availability of Microsoft Graph reporting APIs for retrieving Office 365 product usage data	office setup	https://medium.com/@officesetupoffice	48005d59057	null	1 min	2017-12-20T16:32:19.286000	2017-12-20T16:32:44.031000	2017-12-20T16:32:44.854000	0	51	en	Microsoft	<section> <p><strong>General Availability of <a href="http://officesetup-officesetup.com">Microsoft</a> Graph reporting </strong>APIs for retrieving <a href="http://officesetup-officesetup.com">Office 365</a> product usage data</p> <p>The usage reports in the <a href="http://officesetup-officesetup.com">Office 365</a> admin center enable admins to understand their company’s usage across the <a href="http://officesetup-officesetup.com">Office 365</a> services. However, many of you have existing reporting solutions such as a company reporting application or a web portal in place. To assure that you can monitor your IT services in one unified location, the usage reporting APIs complement the usage reports and allow organizations and independent software vendors to incorporate <a href="http://officesetup-officesetup.com">Office 365</a> usage data into their existing reporting solutions. Using these APIs, you can retrieve the data available in all of the usage reports, including organization level summaries per service, entity level (user, sites, accounts) usage information for reporting periods of the last 7/30/90/180 days, and daily activity aggregates.</p> <p><strong>Get started with the new APIs</strong></p> <p>The new APIs are available now, and any user with global admin, product admin rights (for Exchange, Skype for Business and SharePoint), or a reports reader role can retrieve data through these APIs.</p> <p>You can leverage the <a href="http://officesetup-officesetup.com">Microsoft</a> Graph documentation for the reporting API and submit feature requests by asking or voting on an idea on UserVoice. Please submit questions by posting them on Stack Overflow and tagging <strong>microsoft graph</strong>.</p> <p>With this announcement, we are announcing the deprecation of the following APIs within the <a href="http://officecom-setup.com">Office 365</a> Reporting Web Service: ConnectionbyClientType, ConnectionbyClientTypeDetail, CsActiveUser, CsAVConferenceTime, CsP2PAVTime, CsConference, CsP2PSession, GroupActivity, MailboxActivity, GroupActivity, MailboxUsage, MailboxUsageDetail, StaleMailbox and StaleMailboxDetail.</p> <p>We will remove these APIs, as well as any related PowerShell cmdlets, on January 29, 2018.</p> <p>If you are currently using APIs or any of the related PowerShell cmdlets from the <a href="http://officecom-setup.com">Office 365</a> Reporting Web Service, please start planning the migration of any subsystems within your organization. Below is a summary of the APIs and cmdlets that will be deprecated.</p> <p>Office Setup To get started with your Microsoft Office Installation you must need valid product key code & visit <a href="http://www.officesetup-officesetup.com">www.officesetup-officesetup.com</a> and we can also help you with your entire process to setup office product online. Call now +1–844–777–7886</p> </section>	Announcing the General Availability of Microsoft Setup Graph reporting APIs General Availability of Microsoft Graph reporting APIs for retrieving Office 365 product usage data The usage reports in the Office 365 admin center enable admins to understand their company’s usage across the Office 365 services. However, many of you have existing reporting solutions such as a company reporting application or a web portal in place. To assure that you can monitor your IT services in one unified location, the usage reporting APIs complement the usage reports and allow organizations and independent software vendors to incorporate Office 365 usage data into their existing reporting solutions. Using these APIs, you can retrieve the data available in all of the usage reports, including organization level summaries per service, entity level (user, sites, accounts) usage information for reporting periods of the last 7/30/90/180 days, and daily activity aggregates. Get started with the new APIs The new APIs are available now, and any user with global admin, product admin rights (for Exchange, Skype for Business and SharePoint), or a reports reader role can retrieve data through these APIs. You can leverage the Microsoft Graph documentation for the reporting API and submit feature requests by asking or voting on an idea on UserVoice. Please submit questions by posting them on Stack Overflow and tagging microsoft graph. With this announcement, we are announcing the deprecation of the following APIs within the Office 365 Reporting Web Service: ConnectionbyClientType, ConnectionbyClientTypeDetail, CsActiveUser, CsAVConferenceTime, CsP2PAVTime, CsConference, CsP2PSession, GroupActivity, MailboxActivity, GroupActivity, MailboxUsage, MailboxUsageDetail, StaleMailbox and StaleMailboxDetail. We will remove these APIs, as well as any related PowerShell cmdlets, on January 29, 2018. If you are currently using APIs or any of the related PowerShell cmdlets from the Office 365 Reporting Web Service, please start planning the migration of any subsystems within your organization. Below is a summary of the APIs and cmdlets that will be deprecated. Office Setup To get started with your Microsoft Office Installation you must need valid product key code & visit www.officesetup-officesetup.com and we can also help you with your entire process to setup office product online. Call now +1–844–777–7886	3283e50f-730c-56fb-b692-fb0093e4278a	25/08/2025 16:01:22
https://ramji-b.medium.com/one-plus-mobile-not-detected-in-windows-10-but-it-gets-charged-when-connected-to-laptop-computer-a1c70e095577	medium.com	One Plus Mobile not detected in Windows 10, but it gets charged when connected to laptop/computer…	To start of with this you will come across various links to resolve, but most will not give you direct solutions.	Ramji Balasubramanian	https://medium.com/@ramji-b	a1c70e095577	https://miro.medium.com/…vN7TgS6iaHjQ.png	2 min	2018-02-02T07:30:32.718000	2018-02-02T09:34:45.362000	2018-02-02T09:35:36.486000	0	0	en	Oneplus,Windows 10,Microsoft,Mobile,Android	<section> <p>To start of with this you will come across various links to resolve, but most will not give you direct solutions.</p> <p><strong>Steps to resolve:</strong></p> <p>First, download device driver “<a href="https://freeandroidroot.com/download-oneplus-usb-drivers/"> https://freeandroidroot.com/download-oneplus-usb-drivers/ </a>“</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/931/1uNm2PcbHgxvN7TgS6iaHjQ.png" width="931" height="459" loading="lazy" /> <p>2. Open the downloaded file by double clicking it.</p> <p>3. You will be asked whether this app can make changes to your device. click ”Yes”.</p> <p>4. Select your language and click “OK”.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/370/1G7qVqU27zY6RUgzdnjan0w.png" width="370" height="202" loading="lazy" /> <p>5. Click “Install” in the dialog appears.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/467/15G4JgbPpWiBG2VMI_0itCw.png" width="467" height="369" loading="lazy" /> <p>6. Wait for few seconds and click “Finish”.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/465/1m-eUTcabxqVA-K3-A7bHnQ.png" width="465" height="368" loading="lazy" /> <p>7. Connect your mobile with laptop/computer using USB cable.</p> <p>8. Now, your device will get detected. If not, restart your laptop/computer and check.</p> <p>9. If your device didn't get detected even after restarting your laptop/computer, change your USB cable.</p> <p>10. You can check by looking into device manager.</p> <p>a. Right click my computer and click device manager</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/720/1CO5r-e12kroqtwutRFdXjA.png" width="720" height="405" loading="lazy" /> <p>b. Look for Portable devices in device manager window</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/527/1oEPZ84ymuSAeEw4d9JwI2Q.png" width="527" height="381" loading="lazy" /> <p>c. If you didn’t find portable devices ,click on view and select show hidden devices</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/487/1LveIreBwphXpV-FhWXh4Rg.png" width="487" height="353" loading="lazy" /> <p>d. Now you will be able to see your device in device manager</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/493/1JvGwESYDDgVI4tG54orv0w.png" width="493" height="361" loading="lazy" /> </section>	One Plus Mobile not detected in Windows 10, but it gets charged when connected to laptop/computer using USB. To start of with this you will come across various links to resolve, but most will not give you direct solutions. Steps to resolve: First, download device driver “ https://freeandroidroot.com/download-oneplus-usb-drivers/ “ download the one for your device 2. Open the downloaded file by double clicking it. 3. You will be asked whether this app can make changes to your device. click ”Yes”. 4. Select your language and click “OK”. select your language 5. Click “Install” in the dialog appears. 6. Wait for few seconds and click “Finish”. 7. Connect your mobile with laptop/computer using USB cable. 8. Now, your device will get detected. If not, restart your laptop/computer and check. 9. If your device didn't get detected even after restarting your laptop/computer, change your USB cable. 10. You can check by looking into device manager. a. Right click my computer and click device manager b. Look for Portable devices in device manager window c. If you didn’t find portable devices ,click on view and select show hidden devices d. Now you will be able to see your device in device manager	b52a3e22-0796-5c65-a657-59235d6fab2b	25/08/2025 16:01:22
https://medium.com/@wearepromo8/promote-your-business-with-promotional-t-shirts-in-sydney-we-are-promo-70127113d1e	medium.com	Promote Your Business with Promotional t-shirts in Sydney \| We Are Promo	Looking for the best promotional t-shirts in Sydney? Visit We Are Promo. Promote your brand by these t-shirts and serves your business for…	We Are Promo	https://medium.com/@wearepromo8	70127113d1e	null	0 min	2017-12-22T09:13:26.461000	2017-12-22T09:15:07.531000	2017-12-22T09:15:08.358000	0	0	en	Tshirt Printing Sydney,Print Shop Sydney,Custom Designed Apparel	<section> <p>Looking for the best <strong><a href="http://www.</strong>wearepromo.com.au/">promotional t-shirts</a> in Sydney? Visit We Are Promo. Promote your brand by these t-shirts and serves your business for the long term. Visit us now!</p> </section>	Promote Your Business with Promotional t-shirts in Sydney \| We Are Promo Looking for the best promotional t-shirts in Sydney? Visit We Are Promo. Promote your brand by these t-shirts and serves your business for the long term. Visit us now!	cb2af377-a9e4-5efe-be30-875a0966eb4d	25/08/2025 16:01:22
https://medium.com/@jagdev99153/flaxseeds-b2cbd9814e94	medium.com	Flaxseeds	There are basically two types of flaxseeds (1) Golden Flaxseeds (2) Brown Flaxseeds. Both types have same nutritional profiles. Both have…	Jagdev singh	https://medium.com/@jagdev99153	b2cbd9814e94	null	0 min	2018-01-05T07:34:16.484000	2018-01-05T07:35:24.448000	2018-01-05T07:35:25.405000	0	0	en	Nutrition,Healthcare,Health Foods	<section> <p>There are basically two types of flaxseeds (1) Golden Flaxseeds (2) Brown Flaxseeds. Both types have same nutritional profiles. Both have same number of short-chain omega-3 fatty acids. <a href="https://www.ayurtimes.com/flaxseed-oil-benefits-side-effects/">Flax seed</a> protein is comprised of rich measures of arginine and glutamine, which have been appeared to boost our safe framework. Glutamine specifically has been considered for its capacity to diminish mortality rate.</p> <p>Consuming Flaxseeds regularly can protect against breast, prostate and colon cancers in the body. Due to the presence of omega-3 fatty acids, flaxseeds stop the growth of malignant cells. Also, the antiangiogenic properties stop tumors from forming new blood vessels. The patients under the medication of cancer should take the benefit of flaxseeds.</p> </section>	Flaxseeds There are basically two types of flaxseeds (1) Golden Flaxseeds (2) Brown Flaxseeds. Both types have same nutritional profiles. Both have same number of short-chain omega-3 fatty acids. Flax seed protein is comprised of rich measures of arginine and glutamine, which have been appeared to boost our safe framework. Glutamine specifically has been considered for its capacity to diminish mortality rate. Consuming Flaxseeds regularly can protect against breast, prostate and colon cancers in the body. Due to the presence of omega-3 fatty acids, flaxseeds stop the growth of malignant cells. Also, the antiangiogenic properties stop tumors from forming new blood vessels. The patients under the medication of cancer should take the benefit of flaxseeds.	ae941cfc-170a-5ba2-995d-2597c1f34377	25/08/2025 16:01:23
https://medium.com/@martareyessuarez25/the-fbi-accuses-this-cto-of-fraud-he-promised-artificial-intelligence-at-his-company-6a2b8241c543	medium.com	The FBI accuses this CTO of fraud — He promised artificial intelligence at his company.	Artificial intelligence has become a compelling reason to encourage investment, but theory is one thing and practice is another.	Marta Reyes	https://medium.com/@martareyessuarez25	6a2b8241c543	https://miro.medium.com/…5xZoz1hA2BYg.png	2 min	2025-04-14T15:39:09.440000	2025-04-14T15:39:44.671000	2025-04-14T16:22:34.567000	0	0	en	Artificial Intelligence,Technology,Programming	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1070/1*JRLcInG-3m5xZoz1hA2BYg.png" width="1070" height="725" loading="lazy" /> <p>Artificial intelligence has become a compelling reason to encourage investment, but theory is one thing and practice is another.</p> <p>When artificial intelligence became mainstream with the arrival of ChatGPT, everyone had one fear: that artificial intelligence would take their job. There are jobs that are all but certain to disappear, but beyond the uncertainty and speculation, there is evidence: artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the world of work, and knowing how to use AI is going to be an essential skill for your resume.</p> <p>It’s been a couple of years since ChatGPT arrived to revolutionize everything, and although both the OpenAI model and its major rivals have made strides, today we see AI everywhere, and in some cases, it’s just smoke and mirrors. If not, just ask the fintech app Nate.</p> <p>AI sounds great for investing, manual labor not so much Because Nate’s CTO is in trouble, and the blame isn’t on artificial intelligence, but on the lack thereof. More specifically, for making misleading claims about the app’s AI, which has led the FBI to charge Albert Saniger (that’s his name) with fraud. Supposedly, where the CTO claimed artificial intelligence was present, there were actually people.</p> <p>Back in 2022, The Information was already spreading the word about Saniger exaggerating its technological capabilities to its investors, but things have gotten serious. Saniger concealed everything under trade secrets, but according to the current indictment, the actual app’s automation is almost nonexistent.</p> <p>This press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York details the indictment for investor fraud: “Albert Saniger deceived investors by taking advantage of the promise and appeal of artificial intelligence technology to construct a false narrative of innovation that never existed.” Thanks to its good work, Saniger had raised $40 million in investment.</p> <p>According to the prosecution, Nate claimed to be using AI to automatically complete the e-commerce checkout process for those using the app. But no: what was behind it was a team in the Philippines performing the task manually. As Christopher G. Raia, assistant director of the FBI in New York, explained in statements reported by Mashable, “Saniger used hundreds of contractors, called ‘shopping assistants,’ at a call center in the Philippines to manually complete purchases made through Nate’s app.”</p> <p>Although Saniger faces harsh accusations, he is not the first (and probably not the last) to disguise human work as an AI-automated task: Bloomberg previously revealed that the delivery company Presto was guilty of the same thing. Another example: EvenUp, a startup that automated the personal injury claims process, also pretended to use AI when it was actually people, as you can read in Business Insider.</p> <p>There’s a lot of hype surrounding artificial intelligence, which promises to boost productivity, reduce costs, and save time, thereby improving efficiency. Of course, potential is one thing, and actual implementation in a specific case is another.</p> </section>	The FBI accuses this CTO of fraud — He promised artificial intelligence at his company. Instead, he hired Filipino workers. Artificial intelligence has become a compelling reason to encourage investment, but theory is one thing and practice is another. When artificial intelligence became mainstream with the arrival of ChatGPT, everyone had one fear: that artificial intelligence would take their job. There are jobs that are all but certain to disappear, but beyond the uncertainty and speculation, there is evidence: artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the world of work, and knowing how to use AI is going to be an essential skill for your resume. It’s been a couple of years since ChatGPT arrived to revolutionize everything, and although both the OpenAI model and its major rivals have made strides, today we see AI everywhere, and in some cases, it’s just smoke and mirrors. If not, just ask the fintech app Nate. AI sounds great for investing, manual labor not so much Because Nate’s CTO is in trouble, and the blame isn’t on artificial intelligence, but on the lack thereof. More specifically, for making misleading claims about the app’s AI, which has led the FBI to charge Albert Saniger (that’s his name) with fraud. Supposedly, where the CTO claimed artificial intelligence was present, there were actually people. Back in 2022, The Information was already spreading the word about Saniger exaggerating its technological capabilities to its investors, but things have gotten serious. Saniger concealed everything under trade secrets, but according to the current indictment, the actual app’s automation is almost nonexistent. This press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York details the indictment for investor fraud: “Albert Saniger deceived investors by taking advantage of the promise and appeal of artificial intelligence technology to construct a false narrative of innovation that never existed.” Thanks to its good work, Saniger had raised $40 million in investment. According to the prosecution, Nate claimed to be using AI to automatically complete the e-commerce checkout process for those using the app. But no: what was behind it was a team in the Philippines performing the task manually. As Christopher G. Raia, assistant director of the FBI in New York, explained in statements reported by Mashable, “Saniger used hundreds of contractors, called ‘shopping assistants,’ at a call center in the Philippines to manually complete purchases made through Nate’s app.” Although Saniger faces harsh accusations, he is not the first (and probably not the last) to disguise human work as an AI-automated task: Bloomberg previously revealed that the delivery company Presto was guilty of the same thing. Another example: EvenUp, a startup that automated the personal injury claims process, also pretended to use AI when it was actually people, as you can read in Business Insider. There’s a lot of hype surrounding artificial intelligence, which promises to boost productivity, reduce costs, and save time, thereby improving efficiency. Of course, potential is one thing, and actual implementation in a specific case is another.	9db5fd9d-7b87-5493-aa86-d13b34d4290d	25/08/2025 16:01:23
https://ninadparab.medium.com/ability-to-retain-citizenship-is-a-privilege-da19edb80340	medium.com	Ability to retain citizenship is a privilege	Getting new citizenship is difficult decision for many, as it requires pledging allegiance to a new country, which is different from where…	Ninad Parab	https://medium.com/@ninadparab	da19edb80340	https://miro.medium.com/max/2000/0*3LyOMcnbh3sKrcus	3 min	2024-08-10T05:38:49.463000	2024-08-10T06:30:44.324000	2024-11-18T19:25:14.190000	0	0	en	Passport,Citizenship	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/6000/0*3LyOMcnbh3sKrcus" width="6000" height="4000" loading="lazy" /> <p>Getting new citizenship is difficult decision for many, as it requires pledging allegiance to a new country, which is different from where one grew up. It is especially true for country like India which does not allow dual citizenship and getting new citizenship giving up Indian citizenship. So does getting new citizenship mean one has severed ties with the country of birth and renounced it? I do not think so. Rather ability to keep citizenship, especially that of a country like India, is a privilege of the elites.</p> <p>I wanted to write on this topic, but this recent <a href="https://open.substack.com/pub/vasantdhar/p/strange-encounters-of-the-cop-kind?r=7bnr1&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web">blogpost</a> by Vasant Dhar kind of triggered this post. I quite like his blog as well as podcast ‘<a href="https://bravenewpodcast.com/">Brave New World</a>’ and highly recommend both. So in his latest blogpost, he writes the following about not getting US citizenship.</p> <p>Friends often ask me why I’m not a US citizen. I’ve viewed renouncing my citizenship as an explicit rejection of the country that nurtured me, which hasn’t felt right, and seemed like a big and unnecessary step.</p> <p>I have often heard similar claims from Amartya Sen and other prominent people. I feel that many common people (including me), may share these feelings, but they are not in a privileged position to implement this. They want to change the citizenship for 2 main reasons — stability and less visa hassle for travels.</p> <p>For a common person staying abroad, stability depends on their status. Their ability to work and live depends on his/her status and for most of them this means getting citizenship. Without the assurance of citizenship, their lives can be disrupted because of simple event like losing job after which they could be deported. The situation is worse for kids who may have to leave schools mid year. Eminent professors or perhaps high-flying corporate executives do not have such risks and hence can take a high moral stand of ‘not rejecting their country of birth’.</p> <p>Requirement to get Visa for any travel is a big problem for Indian and for that matter anyone from developing countries. There are many stories of students not being able to present paper at conferences due to visa issues. Even in a corporate set up, business travel for common people holding weak passports is often curtailed because of visa issues. This actually hinders their progress be in academic or corporate settings. Even in this case, the privilege comes in. The elites have enough connections to get their visas even in difficult situations. I remember an <a href="https://pallaviaiyar.substack.com/p/the-uks-kafkaesque-visa-regime">old blogpost</a> from Pallavi Aiyer, who faced similar visa issues, but because of her reach she could get her visa. To quote from her blog -</p> <p>In my case, various worthies in both Spain and New Delhi staged last minute interventions, so that my visa miraculously appeared a couple of days before I needed to travel. But it should not have needed this kind of high-level lobbying.</p> <p>Unfortunately, for a common man such options are not available and hence, for they think it’s better to get a stronger passport than get impacted by such issues. They do not have a privilege to keep their Indian passport and continue facing visa issues.</p> <p>I am all for those who want to keep their citizenship. But those who take a high moral stand should understand that they are able to take it because of privilege. Those who are changing the citizenship can also have such strong feelings about their own country, but there are compelling reasons for a common person to get a new citizenship.</p> <p>PS: Apart from this utilitarian perspective on getting new citizenship, I have few more thoughts on motherland, citizenship, etc, which I hope to pen down soon.</p> </section>	Ability to retain citizenship is a privilege Photo by Blake Guidry on Unsplash Getting new citizenship is difficult decision for many, as it requires pledging allegiance to a new country, which is different from where one grew up. It is especially true for country like India which does not allow dual citizenship and getting new citizenship giving up Indian citizenship. So does getting new citizenship mean one has severed ties with the country of birth and renounced it? I do not think so. Rather ability to keep citizenship, especially that of a country like India, is a privilege of the elites. I wanted to write on this topic, but this recent blogpost by Vasant Dhar kind of triggered this post. I quite like his blog as well as podcast ‘Brave New World’ and highly recommend both. So in his latest blogpost, he writes the following about not getting US citizenship. Friends often ask me why I’m not a US citizen. I’ve viewed renouncing my citizenship as an explicit rejection of the country that nurtured me, which hasn’t felt right, and seemed like a big and unnecessary step. I have often heard similar claims from Amartya Sen and other prominent people. I feel that many common people (including me), may share these feelings, but they are not in a privileged position to implement this. They want to change the citizenship for 2 main reasons — stability and less visa hassle for travels. For a common person staying abroad, stability depends on their status. Their ability to work and live depends on his/her status and for most of them this means getting citizenship. Without the assurance of citizenship, their lives can be disrupted because of simple event like losing job after which they could be deported. The situation is worse for kids who may have to leave schools mid year. Eminent professors or perhaps high-flying corporate executives do not have such risks and hence can take a high moral stand of ‘not rejecting their country of birth’. Requirement to get Visa for any travel is a big problem for Indian and for that matter anyone from developing countries. There are many stories of students not being able to present paper at conferences due to visa issues. Even in a corporate set up, business travel for common people holding weak passports is often curtailed because of visa issues. This actually hinders their progress be in academic or corporate settings. Even in this case, the privilege comes in. The elites have enough connections to get their visas even in difficult situations. I remember an old blogpost from Pallavi Aiyer, who faced similar visa issues, but because of her reach she could get her visa. To quote from her blog - In my case, various worthies in both Spain and New Delhi staged last minute interventions, so that my visa miraculously appeared a couple of days before I needed to travel. But it should not have needed this kind of high-level lobbying. Unfortunately, for a common man such options are not available and hence, for they think it’s better to get a stronger passport than get impacted by such issues. They do not have a privilege to keep their Indian passport and continue facing visa issues. I am all for those who want to keep their citizenship. But those who take a high moral stand should understand that they are able to take it because of privilege. Those who are changing the citizenship can also have such strong feelings about their own country, but there are compelling reasons for a common person to get a new citizenship. PS: Apart from this utilitarian perspective on getting new citizenship, I have few more thoughts on motherland, citizenship, etc, which I hope to pen down soon.	679721c2-2cfd-593c-9231-7abfb12b6c6e	25/08/2025 16:01:23
https://brasil.uxdesign.cc/tap-is-the-new-click-14dc6afe9460	medium.com	Tap is the new click	null	Fabricio Teixeira	https://medium.com/@fabriciot	14dc6afe9460	null	0 min	2016-11-15T06:32:37.604000	2009-02-08T21:38:43	2016-11-22T20:14:53.369000	0	0	en	Apresentações,Usabilidade,Gestual,Palestra,Touch Screen	<section> <p>Há algumas semanas encontrei o vídeo abaixo enquanto navegava no <a href="http://vimeo.com/explore">Vimeo Explore</a>, com uma palestra de Dan Saffer sobre as mudanças que <em>o touch screen </em>e a interação gestual estão provocando no desenvolvimento de interfaces. O vídeo é longo e está em inglês, mas vale o tempo investido. Foi publicado há mais ou menos um mês, então muita gente já deve ter visto. Fica a dica para quem não viu =]</p> <p>This introduction to designing gestural interfaces will cover the basics: usability and ergonomics; a brief history of the technology; some elemental patterns of use; prototyping and documenting; and how to communicate that a gestural interface is present to users.</p> <p>[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.780835&w=425&h=350&fv=clip_id%3D2761844%26server%3Dvimeo.com%26autoplay%3D0%26fullscreen%3D1%26md5%3D0%26show_portrait%3D0%26show_title%3D0%26show_byline%3D0%26context%3Duser%3A1128734%26context_id%3D%26force_embed%3D0%26multimoog%3D%26color%3D00ADEF]</p> <p>more about “<a href="http://vodpod.com/watch/1345225-nyc-ixda-tap-is-the-new-click-dan-saffer-on-vimeo">NYC IxDA — Tap is the New Click — Dan…</a>”, posted with <a href="http://vodpod.com/wordpress">vodpod</a></p> </section>	Tap is the new click Há algumas semanas encontrei o vídeo abaixo enquanto navegava no Vimeo Explore, com uma palestra de Dan Saffer sobre as mudanças que o touch screen e a interação gestual estão provocando no desenvolvimento de interfaces. O vídeo é longo e está em inglês, mas vale o tempo investido. Foi publicado há mais ou menos um mês, então muita gente já deve ter visto. Fica a dica para quem não viu =] This introduction to designing gestural interfaces will cover the basics: usability and ergonomics; a brief history of the technology; some elemental patterns of use; prototyping and documenting; and how to communicate that a gestural interface is present to users. [vodpod id=ExternalVideo.780835&w=425&h=350&fv=clip_id%3D2761844%26server%3Dvimeo.com%26autoplay%3D0%26fullscreen%3D1%26md5%3D0%26show_portrait%3D0%26show_title%3D0%26show_byline%3D0%26context%3Duser%3A1128734%26context_id%3D%26force_embed%3D0%26multimoog%3D%26color%3D00ADEF] more about “NYC IxDA — Tap is the New Click — Dan…”, posted with vodpod	4d2270a0-7a2e-5469-b58b-0b8232c3c33a	25/08/2025 16:01:24
https://medium.com/@isaacwrites/thinking-about-a-masters-in-computer-science-here-is-why-im-doing-one-2880659e8dbc	medium.com	Thinking about a Masters in Computer Science? Here is why I’m doing one.	I will be starting my part-time Masters in Computer Science in a week’s time. It took me years of contemplating but hopefully it doesn’t…	Isaac L	https://medium.com/@isaacwrites	2880659e8dbc	https://miro.medium.com/…BOTHOTtIFew.jpeg	4 min	2020-10-04T11:42:15.216000	2020-10-04T12:07:05.607000	2021-12-16T03:58:40.862000	0	23	en	Computer Science,Higher Education,Masters Degree,Student Life,Mature Student	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/5184/1*DmUf9smSja1BOTHOTtIFew.jpeg" width="5184" height="3456" loading="lazy" /> <p>I will be starting my <a href="http://www.bbk.ac.uk/study/2020/postgraduate/programmes/TMSCOSCI_C">part-time Masters in Computer Science</a> in a week’s time. It took me years of contemplating but hopefully it doesn’t have to be the same for you. The purpose of this blog is two-fold. Firstly, it is a record of my current thinking which I can revisit. Secondly, I hope that this will provide insights and structured thinking to those of you who are unsure about a masters programme.</p> <p><strong>What are your aspirations?</strong></p> <p>Motivation is immensely important. Whether you want a career change into tech or to just learn to build cool apps, you should think about what motivates you to study. This may evolve over time and a masters may not even be the right choice for you.</p> <p>My initial motivation, for example, was boredom. Being in the back office of a bank paid well enough, but it was not the most interesting work. It wasn’t just a masters programme either, I was considering many other things. Escapism is often a very poor reason to pursue anything.</p> <p>About a year later, I stumbled across <a href="https://www.edx.org/">edx.org</a> and <a href="https://www.codecademy.com/">Codecademy </a>which renewed my interest in Computer Science and programming. By that point I knew I wanted to do a masters because I wanted to learn and not because of some far-fetched promise to transition into a new industry. Your motivations may very well be different but it is important to be honest with yourself.</p> <p>Critically challenging your own thinking can sometimes be tough but I found it incredibly helpful to talk through my plans with close friends and family. It is very easy for someone else to see red flags and unhealthy reasons for pursuing further studies.</p> <p><strong>Would an MSc help you achieve your goals effectively?</strong></p> <p>There are solid arguments against formal qualifications like a Masters in Computer Science. Software development is vocational so if your aim is to break into the industry then there are plenty of alternatives (<a href="https://generalassemb.ly/education/software-engineering-immersive/london">bootcamps</a>, <a href="https://github.com/firstcontributions/first-contributions">open source projects</a>, etc) which are more flexible and cost effective.</p> <p>If, like me, your motivation is to gain a deep understanding of the fundamentals of computing, then a masters programme may be better suited. After all, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_science#Fields">Computer Science is much more than just the sexy stuff like software development or machine learning</a>.</p> <p>Whatever your motivations are, you should evaluate if a master programme is the most effective way to achieve that. Also remember that there are things outside of the syllabus that you should also consider when going through your options. Is building up a professional network important to you? Do you believe the prestige of certain universities will benefit your CV?</p> <p><strong>What is your learning style?</strong></p> <p>One <a href="https://medium.com/free-code-camp/a-computer-science-degree-ticket-to-your-dream-tech-job-or-a-useless-piece-of-paper-ee488d27c384">common stance</a> against formal qualifications in computer science is that you can learn everything for free! There are plenty of MOOCs, open source textbooks, etc to get you going. This is great if that is your learning style, but it can also be a bit daunting if you don’t know how to navigate the wealth of materials.</p> <p>I find it increasingly difficult to have the discipline to stick to a plan without a formal programme or structure to keep me accountable. It was much easier when I was a full time student but it is a different story now that I am 8 years into my career.</p> <p>There is no harm in trying out some of the free resources first. Test the waters to see if you enjoy learning and if you have the discipline to make it through the whole journey without much guidance and structure.</p> <p><strong>What flavour of masters?</strong></p> <p>So you’ve mulled over it and finally decide to go for it. What programme should you apply for? No one can make that choice for you but here are a few practical things to consider.</p> <p>Master programmes can be expensive. Here in the UK, they range from anywhere between <a href="http://www.bbk.ac.uk/study/2020/postgraduate/programmes/TMSCOSCI_C/#fees-info">£9,000</a> to <a href="https://www.imperial.ac.uk/students/fees-and-funding/tuition-fees/postgraduate-tuition-fees/2020-21/taught-postgraduate-programmes/faculty-of-engineering/">£17,000+</a>. Some institutions provide financial support and others don’t, so make sure you shop around.</p> <p><a href="https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20190610-how-to-tell-if-youve-got-pre-burnout">Burnout is also common</a>. If you are going to be juggling a job or family duties with your studies, think about whether you can sustain that for a whole year. Part-time or online programmes are good options to smooth out the learning experience over a 2 year period.</p> <p>Computer Science comes in many flavours. Whether it is a MSc in Info Tech, Data Science, Computer Science, etc, you should pick something that interests you and will help you achieve your goals. The level of the programme is also important. Don’t over stretch yourself by enrolling onto a highly technical programme if you do not have a good technical foundation.</p> <p><strong>What is next?</strong></p> <p>Ask yourself why you are considering a masters. Be true to yourself and enlist your friends and family to keep you honest. If the answer is still a resounding “yes!”, then do research on the what, where and when. I hope this blog post has given you some insights into my decision making process and prompted you to consider a few new things.</p> <p>As for me, my intention is to continue to share my experience as a part time student over the next two years and with a bit of luck, come back to this post to see if I did indeed make the right decision!</p> </section>	Thinking about a Masters in Computer Science? Here is why I’m doing one. Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash I will be starting my part-time Masters in Computer Science in a week’s time. It took me years of contemplating but hopefully it doesn’t have to be the same for you. The purpose of this blog is two-fold. Firstly, it is a record of my current thinking which I can revisit. Secondly, I hope that this will provide insights and structured thinking to those of you who are unsure about a masters programme. What are your aspirations? Motivation is immensely important. Whether you want a career change into tech or to just learn to build cool apps, you should think about what motivates you to study. This may evolve over time and a masters may not even be the right choice for you. My initial motivation, for example, was boredom. Being in the back office of a bank paid well enough, but it was not the most interesting work. It wasn’t just a masters programme either, I was considering many other things. Escapism is often a very poor reason to pursue anything. About a year later, I stumbled across edx.org and Codecademy which renewed my interest in Computer Science and programming. By that point I knew I wanted to do a masters because I wanted to learn and not because of some far-fetched promise to transition into a new industry. Your motivations may very well be different but it is important to be honest with yourself. Critically challenging your own thinking can sometimes be tough but I found it incredibly helpful to talk through my plans with close friends and family. It is very easy for someone else to see red flags and unhealthy reasons for pursuing further studies. Would an MSc help you achieve your goals effectively? There are solid arguments against formal qualifications like a Masters in Computer Science. Software development is vocational so if your aim is to break into the industry then there are plenty of alternatives (bootcamps, open source projects, etc) which are more flexible and cost effective. If, like me, your motivation is to gain a deep understanding of the fundamentals of computing, then a masters programme may be better suited. After all, Computer Science is much more than just the sexy stuff like software development or machine learning. Whatever your motivations are, you should evaluate if a master programme is the most effective way to achieve that. Also remember that there are things outside of the syllabus that you should also consider when going through your options. Is building up a professional network important to you? Do you believe the prestige of certain universities will benefit your CV? What is your learning style? One common stance against formal qualifications in computer science is that you can learn everything for free! There are plenty of MOOCs, open source textbooks, etc to get you going. This is great if that is your learning style, but it can also be a bit daunting if you don’t know how to navigate the wealth of materials. I find it increasingly difficult to have the discipline to stick to a plan without a formal programme or structure to keep me accountable. It was much easier when I was a full time student but it is a different story now that I am 8 years into my career. There is no harm in trying out some of the free resources first. Test the waters to see if you enjoy learning and if you have the discipline to make it through the whole journey without much guidance and structure. What flavour of masters? So you’ve mulled over it and finally decide to go for it. What programme should you apply for? No one can make that choice for you but here are a few practical things to consider. Master programmes can be expensive. Here in the UK, they range from anywhere between £9,000 to £17,000+. Some institutions provide financial support and others don’t, so make sure you shop around. Burnout is also common. If you are going to be juggling a job or family duties with your studies, think about whether you can sustain that for a whole year. Part-time or online programmes are good options to smooth out the learning experience over a 2 year period. Computer Science comes in many flavours. Whether it is a MSc in Info Tech, Data Science, Computer Science, etc, you should pick something that interests you and will help you achieve your goals. The level of the programme is also important. Don’t over stretch yourself by enrolling onto a highly technical programme if you do not have a good technical foundation. What is next? Ask yourself why you are considering a masters. Be true to yourself and enlist your friends and family to keep you honest. If the answer is still a resounding “yes!”, then do research on the what, where and when. I hope this blog post has given you some insights into my decision making process and prompted you to consider a few new things. As for me, my intention is to continue to share my experience as a part time student over the next two years and with a bit of luck, come back to this post to see if I did indeed make the right decision!	e722e7dc-1375-5176-9aef-1a42d424714f	25/08/2025 16:01:24
https://medium.com/@ForensicEyes/parties-discuss-privacy-issues-in-advance-of-ftc-nhtsa-workshop-on-connected-cars-39965a5b6aad	medium.com	Parties Discuss Privacy Issues in Advance of FTC NHTSA Workshop on Connected Cars	null	Forensic Eyes	https://medium.com/@ForensicEyes	39965a5b6aad	null	2 min	2017-05-10T17:54:18.657000	2017-05-10T17:54:19.397000	2017-05-10T17:54:19.397000	0	0	en	Forensiceyes	<section> <p>The FTC and NHTSA have <a href="http://ift.tt/2oVRYwg">raised several questions</a> to be addressed at the workshop, including:</p> <ul> <li>What data do vehicles with wireless interfaces collect, store, and transmit, and how is that data used and shared?</li> <li>What are vehicle manufacturers’ privacy and security policies and how are those policies communicated to consumers?</li> <li>What choices are consumers given about how their data is collected, stored, and used?</li> <li>What are the roles of the FTC, NHTSA, and other federal agencies with regard to the privacy and security issues raised by connected vehicles?</li> <li>What self-regulatory standards apply to privacy and security issues relating to connected vehicles?</li> </ul> <p>Car manufacturers, tech organizations, privacy organizations, and other parties filed comments in advance of the workshop, responding to these questions and more:</p> <ul> <li>The <a href="http://ift.tt/2pkOsgs">Association of Global Automakers</a>, a group that includes Aston Martin, Ferrari, Honda, Toyota, and others, said that V2V and vehicle-to-infrastructure (“V2I”) communications do not present a significant privacy risk to individuals because they do not collect or store PII or information that can be linked to a particular vehicle. The organization stated that the method of communicating between cars — dedicated short range communications (“DSRC”) — “already has layers of security established into its design.” The group did acknowledge that privacy and security issues “may be exacerbated” by wireless-enabled aftermarket products connected to on-board diagnostics ports, and said that developers and third parties should therefore take appropriate steps to design and manufacture secure products.</li> <li><a href="http://ift.tt/2r0Dby5">CTIA</a> praised the safety benefits that connected vehicle technologies could provide, highlighting how 5G network speed, capacity, and location can improve autonomous vehicle safety and efficiency. The wireless group spoke to both its sector’s experience in addressing data privacy and security across the Internet of Things, and urged the agencies to refrain from imposing vehicle-specific privacy or security regulations which “could be redundant to or conflict with existing privacy and data security protections enforced by the FTC and the Department of Homeland Security.” CTIA instead said the agencies should promote and expand industry-led initiatives like the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and self-regulatory principles like the auto industry privacy principles.</li> <li>In contrast, <a href="http://ift.tt/2pkOtkw">EPIC</a> said that “meaningful oversight and enforcement mechanisms” would be necessary to protect consumer privacy. In its discussion of federal policies, the organization stated that enforcement would “require[] a private right of action against companies who misuse and fail to secure personal information.” The organization also opposed the NPRM’s proposal to create a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (“FMVSS”) which would preempt state regulations, arguing that historically, while the federal government has enacted privacy laws, more robust privacy legislation has been implemented at the state level.</li> <li>The <a href="http://ift.tt/2r0rx6y">Future of Privacy Forum</a>, which runs a Connected Cars Working Group whose members include Fiat Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Hyundai, Lyft, Toyota, and Uber, urged the agencies to focus on transparency around consumer data use, including the provision of resources that are publicly available, accessible before purchase, and reviewable throughout the life of a vehicle as well as the incorporation of consumer privacy controls when appropriate. The group urged the agencies to encourage industry self-regulatory efforts, saying that they can be enforceable when companies publicly commit.</li> </ul> <p><a href="http://ift.tt/2pl4lDD">Parties Discuss Privacy Issues in Advance of FTC, NHTSA Workshop on Connected Cars</a> posted first on <a href="http://ift.tt/2q9Scx5">http://ift.tt/2q9Scx5</a></p> </section>	Automated vehicle technology is accelerating, and regulators are racing to keep up. On June 28, 2017, the Federal Trade Commission and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA”) will hold a workshop to examine the consumer privacy and security issues posed by automated and connected vehicles. The workshop comes several months after the Department of Transportation and NHTSA promulgated a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) that would require all new passenger vehicles to be capable of vehicle-to-vehicle (“V2V”) communications by the early 2020s. The FTC and NHTSA have raised several questions to be addressed at the workshop, including: What data do vehicles with wireless interfaces collect, store, and transmit, and how is that data used and shared? What are vehicle manufacturers’ privacy and security policies and how are those policies communicated to consumers? What choices are consumers given about how their data is collected, stored, and used? What are the roles of the FTC, NHTSA, and other federal agencies with regard to the privacy and security issues raised by connected vehicles? What self-regulatory standards apply to privacy and security issues relating to connected vehicles? Car manufacturers, tech organizations, privacy organizations, and other parties filed comments in advance of the workshop, responding to these questions and more: The Association of Global Automakers, a group that includes Aston Martin, Ferrari, Honda, Toyota, and others, said that V2V and vehicle-to-infrastructure (“V2I”) communications do not present a significant privacy risk to individuals because they do not collect or store PII or information that can be linked to a particular vehicle. The organization stated that the method of communicating between cars — dedicated short range communications (“DSRC”) — “already has layers of security established into its design.” The group did acknowledge that privacy and security issues “may be exacerbated” by wireless-enabled aftermarket products connected to on-board diagnostics ports, and said that developers and third parties should therefore take appropriate steps to design and manufacture secure products. CTIA praised the safety benefits that connected vehicle technologies could provide, highlighting how 5G network speed, capacity, and location can improve autonomous vehicle safety and efficiency. The wireless group spoke to both its sector’s experience in addressing data privacy and security across the Internet of Things, and urged the agencies to refrain from imposing vehicle-specific privacy or security regulations which “could be redundant to or conflict with existing privacy and data security protections enforced by the FTC and the Department of Homeland Security.” CTIA instead said the agencies should promote and expand industry-led initiatives like the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and self-regulatory principles like the auto industry privacy principles. In contrast, EPIC said that “meaningful oversight and enforcement mechanisms” would be necessary to protect consumer privacy. In its discussion of federal policies, the organization stated that enforcement would “require[] a private right of action against companies who misuse and fail to secure personal information.” The organization also opposed the NPRM’s proposal to create a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (“FMVSS”) which would preempt state regulations, arguing that historically, while the federal government has enacted privacy laws, more robust privacy legislation has been implemented at the state level. The Future of Privacy Forum, which runs a Connected Cars Working Group whose members include Fiat Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Hyundai, Lyft, Toyota, and Uber, urged the agencies to focus on transparency around consumer data use, including the provision of resources that are publicly available, accessible before purchase, and reviewable throughout the life of a vehicle as well as the incorporation of consumer privacy controls when appropriate. The group urged the agencies to encourage industry self-regulatory efforts, saying that they can be enforceable when companies publicly commit. Parties Discuss Privacy Issues in Advance of FTC, NHTSA Workshop on Connected Cars posted first on http://ift.tt/2q9Scx5	a73d1fee-6f66-5cf0-816e-edc41b2c372f	25/08/2025 16:01:25
https://medium.com/plethori/plethoris-new-staking-platform-website-now-live-ecdf2a3d3f7a	medium.com	Plethori’s New Staking Platform & Website Going Live	As crypto ETFs are kicking up a global storm, Plethori positions itself to take advantage of increasing interest with two new developments…	Plethori	https://medium.com/@Plethori	ecdf2a3d3f7a	https://miro.medium.com/…uJFEFTTR0vRg.png	2 min	2021-12-03T17:25:40.476000	2021-12-06T15:47:13.194000	2022-04-29T10:55:20.614000	0	4	en	Plethori,Etf,Staking Rewards,Avalanche,Cryptocurrency News	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1500/15NjTM4Fn9muJFEFTTR0vRg.png" width="1500" height="750" loading="lazy" /> <p>As crypto ETFs are kicking up a global storm, Plethori positions itself to take advantage of increasing interest with two new developments. Its PLE 2.0 Staking Platform, and sleek and professional new website.</p> <p>The new Staking Platform is now ready to welcome early adopters to stake capital in Plethori’s promising tech. Offering an impressive yet sustainable 40% APY, the platform provides the project with a competitive edge, and a sure-fire method for earning a lucrative passive income whilst the rest of the ecosystem continues development.</p> <p>This coincides with the new website launch which has improved the brand’s image and UX. Together, these developments will help Plethori to scoop up the value of the ETF-frenzy.</p> <p>Head over to <a href="https://plethori.com">www.plethori.com</a> to see the new website now. In the meantime, Plethori’s new staking platform has passed the following quality assurances:</p> <p>Final build ☑</p> <p>Team review ☑</p> <p>Security audit ☑</p> <p>Beta testing ☑</p> <p>Bug bounty ☐</p> <p>…Launch!</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1280/11MG9rXTw7qQeAh5qGM5jTA.png" width="1280" height="1280" loading="lazy" /> <p>Right now, Plethori is offering a ‘bug bounty’ of 2000PLE to members of its community who volunteer to test the platform and find a bug before its imminent launch. This marks the final stage of quality assurance before going live with a ‘no fee’ promotion to benefit the first users.</p> <p>How can you be one of those first users? Sign up for our mailing list via our website to get all of the latest news and updates first —<strong> <a href="htt</strong>ps://plethori.com">Plethori.com</a></p> <h1>About Plethori</h1> <p>Plethori is a Cryptocurrency ETF Investment Platform that allows open trading and creation of trustless ETFs by utilizing blockchain technology and layer 2 solutions. The platform offers decentralized cross-chain investment for exchange-traded funds built on the Ethereum and Polkadot blockchains. This service will allow investors to deposit capital and invest in a wide range of ETFs enabling investment into entire cryptocurrency industries such as insurance, oracles, NFTs, Derivatives, Polkadot ecosystem projects and many more.</p> <p><a href="http://plethori.com/">Website</a> \|<a href="https://t.me/Plethori"> Telegram</a> \|<a href="https://twitter.com/plethori"> Twitter</a> \| <a href="https://plethori.com/ple-whitepaper.pdf">Whitepaper </a>\| <a href="https://app.uniswap.org/#/swap?outputCurrency=0x3873965e73d9a21f88e645ce40b7db187fde4931">Buy PLE</a></p> </section>	Plethori’s New Staking Platform & Website Going Live As crypto ETFs are kicking up a global storm, Plethori positions itself to take advantage of increasing interest with two new developments. Its PLE 2.0 Staking Platform, and sleek and professional new website. The new Staking Platform is now ready to welcome early adopters to stake capital in Plethori’s promising tech. Offering an impressive yet sustainable 40% APY, the platform provides the project with a competitive edge, and a sure-fire method for earning a lucrative passive income whilst the rest of the ecosystem continues development. This coincides with the new website launch which has improved the brand’s image and UX. Together, these developments will help Plethori to scoop up the value of the ETF-frenzy. Head over to www.plethori.com to see the new website now. In the meantime, Plethori’s new staking platform has passed the following quality assurances: Final build ☑ Team review ☑ Security audit ☑ Beta testing ☑ Bug bounty ☐ …Launch! Right now, Plethori is offering a ‘bug bounty’ of 2000PLE to members of its community who volunteer to test the platform and find a bug before its imminent launch. This marks the final stage of quality assurance before going live with a ‘no fee’ promotion to benefit the first users. How can you be one of those first users? Sign up for our mailing list via our website to get all of the latest news and updates first — Plethori.com About Plethori Plethori is a Cryptocurrency ETF Investment Platform that allows open trading and creation of trustless ETFs by utilizing blockchain technology and layer 2 solutions. The platform offers decentralized cross-chain investment for exchange-traded funds built on the Ethereum and Polkadot blockchains. This service will allow investors to deposit capital and invest in a wide range of ETFs enabling investment into entire cryptocurrency industries such as insurance, oracles, NFTs, Derivatives, Polkadot ecosystem projects and many more. Website \| Telegram \| Twitter \| Whitepaper \| Buy PLE	9b7f8eca-3f86-542a-9848-7af4ac5a5917	25/08/2025 16:01:25
https://medium.com/@macgregorhairdressingandbeauty/http-twitter-com-macgregorhair-status-764110723853197312-ca7564b30eb7	medium.com	http://twitter.com/MacGregorHair/status/764110723853197312	null	MacGregor Hairdressing an	https://medium.com/@macgregorhairdressingandbeauty	ca7564b30eb7	null	0 min	2016-08-12T14:46:47.028000	2016-08-12T14:46:47.994000	2016-08-12T14:46:47.994000	0	0	en	Hairdressers,Hair Salon,Hairdressing,Beauty Salon	<section> <p><a href="http://twitter.com/MacGregorHair/status/764110723853197312">http://twitter.com/MacGregorHair/status/764110723853197312</a> #DidYouKnow? 13% of the Scottish population have red hair — that’s the greatest proportion of #redheads in the world! #hair</p> </section>	http://twitter.com/MacGregorHair/status/764110723853197312 #DidYouKnow? 13% of the Scottish population have red hair — that’s the greatest proportion of #redheads in the world! #hair	9804efca-c797-52b2-ba8f-178d18ab9c6a	25/08/2025 16:01:26
https://medium.com/sky-collection/some-words-make-no-sense-e987e8f8aa86	medium.com	Some Words Make No Sense	Reflections on our words of description for our self.	Markmalady	https://medium.com/@markmalady	e987e8f8aa86	https://miro.medium.com/max/2000/0*bPfb9uxQjx6ZdwYw	1 min	2020-12-25T05:33:24.699000	2020-12-30T13:37:32.465000	2021-12-25T16:37:12.121000	1	161	en	Poetry,Idenity	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/3013/0*bPfb9uxQjx6ZdwYw" width="3013" height="4015" loading="lazy" /> <p>Tears washed down your salty cheek As anger blended with remorse Ran it’s swayed dance across your brow.</p> <p>I wondered where the thorn was You said there wasn’t a thing This was you, this is “my dance”.</p> <p>Broken… like an electronic device That can’t spin the way it was meant to Or shattered window that lets The frozen air into the cozy home.</p> <p>Broken… where did you get such harmful Words from my sweet friend?</p> <p>Broken… like any one knows What a humans function is, What perfect operating conditions Of the play at life ought to be.</p> <p>You aren’t the story book character Our parents spewed at us , You are the one I’ll shaky voiced Passionately paint for my daughter.</p> <p>The embodiment of humanity The waves of existence Cuddling the shore of history.</p> <p>Let’s write the next chapter.</p> </section>	Some Words Make No Sense Photo by John Mccann on Unsplash Tears washed down your salty cheek As anger blended with remorse Ran it’s swayed dance across your brow. I wondered where the thorn was You said there wasn’t a thing This was you, this is “my dance”. Broken… like an electronic device That can’t spin the way it was meant to Or shattered window that lets The frozen air into the cozy home. Broken… where did you get such harmful Words from my sweet friend? Broken… like any one knows What a humans function is, What perfect operating conditions Of the play at life ought to be. You aren’t the story book character Our parents spewed at us , You are the one I’ll shaky voiced Passionately paint for my daughter. The embodiment of humanity The waves of existence Cuddling the shore of history. Let’s write the next chapter.	e9c6bd6e-00df-5991-bd6d-b28125397c7a	25/08/2025 16:01:26
https://medium.com/@A.Gilani/woke-up-in-space-5777411bfde8	medium.com	Woke Up In Space	A strangely calm, cold, WHAT THE?! Space!?	Ahmad Gilani	https://medium.com/@A.Gilani	5777411bfde8	https://miro.medium.com/…ZRzET9dDVbw.jpeg	1 min	2015-05-03T10:24:13.226000	2015-05-17T20:24:22.953000	2015-05-28T19:09:05.098000	0	0	en	Space,Short Fiction,Stream Of Consciousness	<section> <h1>Woke Up In Space</h1> <p>A strangely calm, cold, WHAT THE?! Space!?</p> <p>Did my sleep mechanism malfunction again? I told them to fix it on time only displacement, I ended up in Peru last time the Location displacement was active.</p> <p>Although, it was a nice trip actually, but I did have to pay for the return flight and stuff, luckily it wasn’t a travel season, otherwise i would have paid much more.</p> <p>It’s weird how you may wind up in a place, randomly, and like it, but maybe it’s the abrupt, unintentional change, that makes it fun, but anyway, I’m not ready to miss another day of work, so i better get going.</p> <p>Now, where am I? I hope not somewhere in a galaxy far, far away from Earth. Aha, here we are, set to home…. well, that’s not that bad, I may even have enough time to squeeze in some breakfast at the local Galactic Starbucks.</p> <p>Why couldn’t they have transported with me some jet packs or something? now i have to float all the way to the Space station. Anyway, let’s listen to some music…</p> <p>Hey, I know this planet, I probably saw it in a random post or something before, it seems nice, Maybe next time we want to go somewhere I can suggest it.</p> <p>Dob de dobede do… 12 mins. to the station, that’s about 12 songs, let’s check the Jupiter radio, they play some nice ethereal jazz, at least there is still somewhere where they appreciate fine music, kids listen to terrible stuff these days, this Alien music, totally inhuman.</p> <p>10 mins. later.</p> <p>Here we are, and our shuttle is soon to show. Here it is, I hope i have enough credit, I should really get that damn thing fixed, what if i have forgotten to charge my thumb card? I might as well sue them for damages.</p> <p>Finally, some peace and rest. “OK Doopler, can you please drop me in bed?” “Bed route initiated, lie back, and Good night!”</p> </section>	Woke Up In Space A strangely calm, cold, WHAT THE?! Space!? Did my sleep mechanism malfunction again? I told them to fix it on time only displacement, I ended up in Peru last time the Location displacement was active. Although, it was a nice trip actually, but I did have to pay for the return flight and stuff, luckily it wasn’t a travel season, otherwise i would have paid much more. It’s weird how you may wind up in a place, randomly, and like it, but maybe it’s the abrupt, unintentional change, that makes it fun, but anyway, I’m not ready to miss another day of work, so i better get going. Now, where am I? I hope not somewhere in a galaxy far, far away from Earth. Aha, here we are, set to home…. well, that’s not that bad, I may even have enough time to squeeze in some breakfast at the local Galactic Starbucks. Why couldn’t they have transported with me some jet packs or something? now i have to float all the way to the Space station. Anyway, let’s listen to some music… Hey, I know this planet, I probably saw it in a random post or something before, it seems nice, Maybe next time we want to go somewhere I can suggest it. Dob de dobede do… 12 mins. to the station, that’s about 12 songs, let’s check the Jupiter radio, they play some nice ethereal jazz, at least there is still somewhere where they appreciate fine music, kids listen to terrible stuff these days, this Alien music, totally inhuman. 10 mins. later. Here we are, and our shuttle is soon to show. Here it is, I hope i have enough credit, I should really get that damn thing fixed, what if i have forgotten to charge my thumb card? I might as well sue them for damages. Finally, some peace and rest. “OK Doopler, can you please drop me in bed?” “Bed route initiated, lie back, and Good night!”	750cfba0-f030-58b3-872d-6669303cf709	25/08/2025 16:01:26
https://shivammore.medium.com/how-ai-quietly-revolutionized-our-world-98cc35a05eaa	medium.com	How AI Quietly Revolutionized Our World	The entire AI revolution boils down to one profound concept: pattern prediction leads to intelligence. It’s fascinating how this simple…	Shivam More	https://medium.com/@shivammore	98cc35a05eaa	https://miro.medium.com/…-yfcACWOUiA.jpeg	2 min	2025-01-20T14:07:43.125000	2025-01-20T14:15:53.910000	2025-01-20T15:29:00.762000	1	50	en	AI,Artificial Intelligence,Future Technology,Revolution,Patterns	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1024/1*0s_fz7aRvgt-yfcACWOUiA.jpeg" width="1024" height="728" loading="lazy" /> <p>The entire AI revolution boils down to one profound concept: pattern prediction leads to intelligence. It’s fascinating how this simple idea has transformed machines from basic calculators into systems that can see, hear, create, and even imagine — much like we do.</p> <h1>The Tiger Cub Analogy: AI’s Growing Power</h1> <p>Think of today’s AI like a tiger cub — adorable and manageable now, but we need to ensure it grows up to be friendly. This isn’t just a cute metaphor; it’s a crucial perspective on how we should approach AI development.</p> <h2>Nature’s Three-Layer Solution to Intelligence</h2> <p>Let’s break down how nature cracked the code of intelligence, because understanding this reveals exactly how modern AI works:</p> <h3>Layer 1: Evolutionary Learning</h3> <p>Nature’s first attempt at learning was remarkably simple: try random things and keep what works. While effective over millions of years, this method was too slow for rapid adaptation. Sound familiar? It’s exactly how early AI researchers approached machine learning.</p> <h3>Layer 2: Brain-Based Learning</h3> <p>Nature’s next breakthrough was the brain — a system that could learn within a single lifetime through rewards and consequences. This is where modern AI found its sweet spot. Remember those early reinforcement learning experiments? They started with something as simple as a Tic-Tac-Toe playing machine using matchboxes and beads.</p> <h3>Layer 3: Language and Abstraction</h3> <p>The final piece of the puzzle was language — the ability to learn from others’ experiences and imagine new possibilities. This is where today’s AI makes its most impressive leap.</p> <h2>The Breakthrough Moment: Understanding Patterns</h2> <p>You might wonder: how did we get from simple pattern recognition to AI that can write, create art, and engage in conversation? The journey is fascinating:</p> <p>First came vision systems that could recognize images</p> <p>Then came systems that could predict game moves</p> <p>Finally, we developed networks that could understand and generate language</p> <h2>GPT: The Game-Changer</h2> <p>The real revolution happened when researchers realized that language itself is just another pattern. By training AI to predict the next word in a sequence, they accidentally created systems that could understand context, reason, and even demonstrate creativity.</p> <h2>What This Means for You</h2> <p>Today’s AI isn’t just about chatbots or image generation — it’s about systems that can understand and work with patterns across all domains. Whether you’re a business owner, creator, or just someone interested in technology, AI’s pattern-recognition capabilities are already transforming how we:</p> <ul> <li>Process and analyze data</li> <li>Create content</li> <li>Solve complex problems</li> <li>Automate routine tasks</li> <li>Make predictions</li> </ul> <h2>The Road Ahead</h2> <p>While we’ve made incredible progress, we’re still in the early stages of this revolution. The question isn’t whether AI will become more capable, but how we’ll choose to use and direct these capabilities.</p> <p>Remember: every major technological revolution seemed overwhelming at first. The key is understanding not just what AI can do, but how it thinks — through patterns, predictions, and continuous learning.</p> <p>What patterns do you see AI changing in your daily life? How do you think this technology will evolve in the coming years? The conversation about AI’s future isn’t just for tech experts — it’s for everyone who will live and work alongside these systems.</p> <blockquote>Subscribe to a weekly collection of AI News <a href="http://shivammore.com/">shivammore.com</a></blockquote> </section>	How AI Quietly Revolutionized Our World AI Genarated The entire AI revolution boils down to one profound concept: pattern prediction leads to intelligence. It’s fascinating how this simple idea has transformed machines from basic calculators into systems that can see, hear, create, and even imagine — much like we do. The Tiger Cub Analogy: AI’s Growing Power Think of today’s AI like a tiger cub — adorable and manageable now, but we need to ensure it grows up to be friendly. This isn’t just a cute metaphor; it’s a crucial perspective on how we should approach AI development. Nature’s Three-Layer Solution to Intelligence Let’s break down how nature cracked the code of intelligence, because understanding this reveals exactly how modern AI works: Layer 1: Evolutionary Learning Nature’s first attempt at learning was remarkably simple: try random things and keep what works. While effective over millions of years, this method was too slow for rapid adaptation. Sound familiar? It’s exactly how early AI researchers approached machine learning. Layer 2: Brain-Based Learning Nature’s next breakthrough was the brain — a system that could learn within a single lifetime through rewards and consequences. This is where modern AI found its sweet spot. Remember those early reinforcement learning experiments? They started with something as simple as a Tic-Tac-Toe playing machine using matchboxes and beads. Layer 3: Language and Abstraction The final piece of the puzzle was language — the ability to learn from others’ experiences and imagine new possibilities. This is where today’s AI makes its most impressive leap. The Breakthrough Moment: Understanding Patterns You might wonder: how did we get from simple pattern recognition to AI that can write, create art, and engage in conversation? The journey is fascinating: First came vision systems that could recognize images Then came systems that could predict game moves Finally, we developed networks that could understand and generate language GPT: The Game-Changer The real revolution happened when researchers realized that language itself is just another pattern. By training AI to predict the next word in a sequence, they accidentally created systems that could understand context, reason, and even demonstrate creativity. What This Means for You Today’s AI isn’t just about chatbots or image generation — it’s about systems that can understand and work with patterns across all domains. Whether you’re a business owner, creator, or just someone interested in technology, AI’s pattern-recognition capabilities are already transforming how we: Process and analyze data Create content Solve complex problems Automate routine tasks Make predictions The Road Ahead While we’ve made incredible progress, we’re still in the early stages of this revolution. The question isn’t whether AI will become more capable, but how we’ll choose to use and direct these capabilities. Remember: every major technological revolution seemed overwhelming at first. The key is understanding not just what AI can do, but how it thinks — through patterns, predictions, and continuous learning. What patterns do you see AI changing in your daily life? How do you think this technology will evolve in the coming years? The conversation about AI’s future isn’t just for tech experts — it’s for everyone who will live and work alongside these systems. Subscribe to a weekly collection of AI News shivammore.com	c43b3178-9fd9-5e0b-8ca7-813e7d6add24	25/08/2025 16:01:26
https://medium.com/multiplier-magazine/customer-scoring-for-small-and-medium-businesses-is-now-a-reality-with-realomat-ai-cef834ca216c	medium.com	Customer Scoring for Small and Medium Businesses — Is Now a Reality with Realomat AI	The task of any sales manager is to calculate those customers who are ready to buy and give them maximum attention. During the…	Taras Svityk	https://medium.com/@TarasTheCreator	cef834ca216c	https://miro.medium.com/max/2000/0*QN_PiBSYh--8mwRD	5 min	2019-01-03T12:38:53.785000	2019-01-03T12:41:07.638000	2021-12-07T04:14:17.121000	0	1	en	Sales,Automation,Artificial Intelligence,Business,Customer Service	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/800/0QN_PiBSYh--8mwRD" width="800" height="600" loading="lazy" /> <p>The task of any sales manager is to calculate those customers who are ready to buy and give them maximum attention. During the communication, this is done on an intuitive level, and a manager understands the degree of involvement in any dialogue. But if he/she has a large number of deals and low experience, it’s quite a challenge!</p> <p>So a lot of CRMs have their own lead scoring systems to evaluate the circumstances of factors that point to a successful purchase. Also, they estimate each lead based on how many of those factors have been demonstrated so far. However, there are the most typical problems faced with these processes. Such scoring systems are not very so precise about the numbers and often give invalid information.</p> <h1>Tech Side: Characteristics that Help Rate Successful Deals</h1> <p>So let’s look at how we decided to approach this problem more individually and find out the most important scores for our clients.</p> <p>In order for the system to correctly evaluate all incoming deals, it is necessary to correctly divide the whole data you possess. We tried to develop some precise tactics for successful evaluation and let’s have look at what we get.</p> <p>There are two main clusters which are shown on the pictures below: static and dynamic variables which are closely related to each other.</p> <p><em><strong>The static charact</em>eristics</strong> are unchanged during the agreement between the company and the client from the beginning to the end. They are, for instance, the date of creating an application (month, day), origin country, source.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1139/0nACpCuF8PiK9lTBs" width="1139" height="595" loading="lazy" /> <p><em><strong>The dynamic charact</em>eristics</strong> are changing at each stage of lead nurturing.</p> <p>We have divided the whole process of interaction with the customer into seven stages. All of them logically go one by one. For example, “Not Done Activities” shows a number of undone actions by one manager.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1139/00Q9EFOyrKDNegaKy" width="1139" height="595" loading="lazy" /> <p>So, taking into account the previous data, the system accordingly compares some leads to a certain result.</p> <p>If the question about changing some characteristic arises, so you definitely can adjust any of them. From the tech side, our developers can add or remove some data. And then it will be automatically done in real time so that a sales manager always gets the relevant information.</p> <p>During the development stage, we have worked out a probability square, where we checked the deals which have been already closed. Digitizing numerical and non-numerical characteristics we are better able to calculate successful and unsuccessful deals and find out why this happened.</p> <p>Each stage is assigned to a certain probability. In the nutshell, the system at each stage uses data from the previous stage.</p> <p>This miscalculation of probabilities depending on the stage gives a result of about 80–90%. Isn’t it impressive?</p> <p>But these are just numbers and in order for a manager to get a better understanding of whether the deal is successful or not, we have developed a scale of success evaluation. It rates each case at each stage and helps easy to understand what actions should be taken for a certain deal. You can analyze the success curves on the picture below. The most prosperous deals have the estimates — А, A +, the middle passes between В and В +, and the lowest estimate is D.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/800/1GpCbz4qikGj7-ekRAlLHYQ.png" width="800" height="540" loading="lazy" /> <p>So, the manager can see the success grades of his deal at every deal stage in his CRM and this it is easier to work with the clients’ requests.</p> <p>Every day our AI learns and observes lead journeys to understand their principles of functioning and develop the scoring system. Also after some time static and dynamic characteristic can be changed to the new ones by AI.</p> <h2>The Large Capacity of Data is Not a Problem</h2> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/800/0*5TEyaTNfgXDzqWEi" width="800" height="600" loading="lazy" /> <p>Possessing certain data, we can improve some information either about any employee or the whole sales department.</p> <p>The most common problems that are faced by managers while working with CRM systems are lack of information, data mess, difficulties for new managers in navigation throughout their CRM systems and finding some new tasks.</p> <p>Thanks to our scoring system we can find out at which stage are leads dropped throughout the sales funnel, low response rate, slow sales process, low conversion rate, etc.</p> <p>In such a way the system finds out the problem and solves it like a doctor who assigns the proper treatment. This facilitates and speeds up the work of the department as previously sales managers didn’t focus on the right things approximately by 70%, incorrectly arranging their priorities.</p> <p>Now it is easy to prioritize all deals, the conversion is growing and the most fascinating is that you can easily set up all activities due to our new scoring system. Besides, if it is combined with automation, the powerful synergy comes out.</p> <p>And that’s not all! Now it is very convenient for entrepreneurs, or heads of departments additionally to combine everything into one personal account, to input it in the dashboard and always have a possibility to manage and control employees’ working processes.</p> <h2>Conclusion</h2> <p><em>Lead scoring plays an important role allowing you to set priority leads, qualify them for sales, and capture “probable transactions”.</em></p> <p><em>Our scoring system helps <strong>to optimize and organize </strong>the deal characteristics<strong> </strong>for fa</em>cilitating work of sales managers.</p> <p><em>Now it is much easier to navigate throughout a large amount of data! And the business owner can control all the internal work processes the personal account.</em></p> <p><em>Our scale for evaluating the deal success automatically helps a manager see the real state of a certain affair and focus on further successful deal closure.</em></p> <p><em><strong>Please share this with all your Medium friends and clap 👏 this article to support our team. We are grateful for your time reading this article, subscribe and wait for some new useful information! Visit our official website to know more: realo</em>mat.com</strong></p> <p>Facebook: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/realomat/">www.facebook.com/realomat/</a></p> <p>Linkedin:https: <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/company/realomat/">www.linkedin.com/company/realomat/</a></p> <p>Twitter: twitter.com/realomat_biz</p> <p>Instagram: realomat_biz</p> </section>	Customer Scoring for Small and Medium Businesses — Is Now a Reality with Realomat AI The task of any sales manager is to calculate those customers who are ready to buy and give them maximum attention. During the communication, this is done on an intuitive level, and a manager understands the degree of involvement in any dialogue. But if he/she has a large number of deals and low experience, it’s quite a challenge! So a lot of CRMs have their own lead scoring systems to evaluate the circumstances of factors that point to a successful purchase. Also, they estimate each lead based on how many of those factors have been demonstrated so far. However, there are the most typical problems faced with these processes. Such scoring systems are not very so precise about the numbers and often give invalid information. Tech Side: Characteristics that Help Rate Successful Deals So let’s look at how we decided to approach this problem more individually and find out the most important scores for our clients. In order for the system to correctly evaluate all incoming deals, it is necessary to correctly divide the whole data you possess. We tried to develop some precise tactics for successful evaluation and let’s have look at what we get. There are two main clusters which are shown on the pictures below: static and dynamic variables which are closely related to each other. The static characteristics are unchanged during the agreement between the company and the client from the beginning to the end. They are, for instance, the date of creating an application (month, day), origin country, source. The dynamic characteristics are changing at each stage of lead nurturing. We have divided the whole process of interaction with the customer into seven stages. All of them logically go one by one. For example, “Not Done Activities” shows a number of undone actions by one manager. So, taking into account the previous data, the system accordingly compares some leads to a certain result. If the question about changing some characteristic arises, so you definitely can adjust any of them. From the tech side, our developers can add or remove some data. And then it will be automatically done in real time so that a sales manager always gets the relevant information. During the development stage, we have worked out a probability square, where we checked the deals which have been already closed. Digitizing numerical and non-numerical characteristics we are better able to calculate successful and unsuccessful deals and find out why this happened. Each stage is assigned to a certain probability. In the nutshell, the system at each stage uses data from the previous stage. This miscalculation of probabilities depending on the stage gives a result of about 80–90%. Isn’t it impressive? But these are just numbers and in order for a manager to get a better understanding of whether the deal is successful or not, we have developed a scale of success evaluation. It rates each case at each stage and helps easy to understand what actions should be taken for a certain deal. You can analyze the success curves on the picture below. The most prosperous deals have the estimates — А, A +, the middle passes between В and В +, and the lowest estimate is D. scale of success evaluation So, the manager can see the success grades of his deal at every deal stage in his CRM and this it is easier to work with the clients’ requests. Every day our AI learns and observes lead journeys to understand their principles of functioning and develop the scoring system. Also after some time static and dynamic characteristic can be changed to the new ones by AI. The Large Capacity of Data is Not a Problem Possessing certain data, we can improve some information either about any employee or the whole sales department. The most common problems that are faced by managers while working with CRM systems are lack of information, data mess, difficulties for new managers in navigation throughout their CRM systems and finding some new tasks. Thanks to our scoring system we can find out at which stage are leads dropped throughout the sales funnel, low response rate, slow sales process, low conversion rate, etc. In such a way the system finds out the problem and solves it like a doctor who assigns the proper treatment. This facilitates and speeds up the work of the department as previously sales managers didn’t focus on the right things approximately by 70%, incorrectly arranging their priorities. Now it is easy to prioritize all deals, the conversion is growing and the most fascinating is that you can easily set up all activities due to our new scoring system. Besides, if it is combined with automation, the powerful synergy comes out. And that’s not all! Now it is very convenient for entrepreneurs, or heads of departments additionally to combine everything into one personal account, to input it in the dashboard and always have a possibility to manage and control employees’ working processes. Conclusion Lead scoring plays an important role allowing you to set priority leads, qualify them for sales, and capture “probable transactions”. Our scoring system helps to optimize and organize the deal characteristics for facilitating work of sales managers. Now it is much easier to navigate throughout a large amount of data! And the business owner can control all the internal work processes the personal account. Our scale for evaluating the deal success automatically helps a manager see the real state of a certain affair and focus on further successful deal closure. Please share this with all your Medium friends and clap 👏 this article to support our team. We are grateful for your time reading this article, subscribe and wait for some new useful information! Visit our official website to know more: realomat.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/realomat/ Linkedin:https: www.linkedin.com/company/realomat/ Twitter: twitter.com/realomat_biz Instagram: realomat_biz	1ffa5c11-8977-5d5e-9e0b-83b74fc2a307	25/08/2025 16:01:27
https://toluboy.medium.com/living-the-canadian-dream-part-1-e071982dfd38	medium.com	Living the Canadian Dream Part 1	Emigrating from your home country can be both exciting and daunting. Adapting to and integrating into a new environment and society comes…	Tolu O.	https://medium.com/@toluboy	e071982dfd38	null	4 min	2021-03-29T05:41:21.229000	2021-03-29T06:30:33.006000	2022-01-07T07:33:39.628000	1	11	en	Canadian Dream,Canada,Living In Canada,Canada Immigration,Canada Pr	<section> <p>Emigrating from your home country can be both exciting and daunting. Adapting to and integrating into a new environment and society comes with its challenges. I moved to Canada about 7 years ago and it’s been one hell of a ride! In my earlier articles (<a href="https://toluboy.medium.com/is-moving-to-canada-worth-it-part-1-c8269df3b226">part 1</a>, <a href="https://toluboy.medium.com/is-moving-to-canada-worth-it-part-2-bf248f4760e3">part 2</a>, <a href="https://toluboy.medium.com/is-moving-to-canada-worth-it-part-3-4bbba2232025">part 3</a>), I attempted to highlight some of the benefits enjoyed by Canadians and Permanent Residents (PR).</p> <p>In this series, I will attempt to distill what I call the “realities” of living the Canadian dream from the view of a new immigrant. The excitement of getting your PR application approved and getting to the finished line of the PR application process may make one detached from reality. While I believe that these realities are talked about a little, it can still be a rude shock when its reality slaps you in the face. I am writing this from the perspective of a Nigerian that moved to Canada (my personal experience and experiences of those I know); some of the highlighted points may be applicable to any other country you have migrated to or are planning to migrate to. The points in this series are also inexhaustive and your experiences as an immigrant may be completely different.</p> <p>1. <strong>Taxes:</strong> The first shock you may get is with how much <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/financial-consumer-agency/services/financial-toolkit/taxes.html">income tax</a> you pay in Canada — there is a federal tax component and a <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/financial-consumer-agency/services/financial-toolkit/taxes-quebec/taxes-quebec-2/6.html">provincial</a> component which is dependent on your income tax bracket. After getting my first job offer, the first thing I did was to convert the offered salary to Naira. And then I divided the salary by 12 to get a sense of what my gross monthly pay will be. I felt like a big boy! In any of these calculations, I did not attempt to estimate what my taxes and other <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/payroll/what-deducted-your-pay.html#thrddctns">statutory</a> deductions will be. Cometh the hour, cometh pay day and I tried to make sense of my net pay and all the many deductions. The amount of tax I paid (which as you rightly guessed I converted to Naira) had my head spinning.</p> <p>Unlike in Nigeria (and UK) where the cost of goods already includes Value Added Tax (VAT), the cost of goods/services that you see online or in stores does not include the <a href="https://www.retailcouncil.org/resources/quick-facts/sales-tax-rates-by-province/">sales tax</a> component (which varies by province); some goods are however <a href="https://quickbooks.intuit.com/in/resources/gst-center/gst-exempted-goods-list-of-goods-exempt-under-gst/">tax exempt</a>. Living in Alberta, you can imagine my surprise, before I understood the system, when the cost of the shoes I want to buy increases from $50 on the shelf, to $52.50 at checkout.</p> <p>The positive side to the taxes being paid is that it helps Canada provide you with all the good reasons you gave for moving to Canada. Good educational system for the kids, free health care, Canada child benefit, excellent infrastructure, etc., are paid for by citizens’ and residents’ taxes.</p> <p>2. <strong>Cold Winters</strong>: I am almost sure that one of the comments people made to you when you mentioned that you were moving to Canada was the cold weather. Yes, Canadian winters can be very cold! However, until you have experienced it, you can’t really understand how cold it is! The lowest temperature I have experienced was about -42 degrees Celsius (with wind chill factor). I was recently joking with my wife that we are not normal because when temperature rose to 0 or -1 degrees Celsius (from about -15 degrees Celsius), we claimed that it was warm! One thing I love about Canadians is that they have developed <a href="https://www.canadianadventurecamp.com/blog/posts/top-winter-sports-in-canada/">sports and activities</a> around the seasons, including the cold winter! You may also be wondering how people survive in the Canadian winters — invest in good winter jackets, sweaters (I started wearing sweaters in Canada), winter boots, gloves, hats, socks, scarves/mufflers, etc. The most important consideration in selecting a winter jacket is the jacket filling — a jacket filled with feathers (especially duck or goose) will be warmer than one filled with polyester. While the cost of a duck or goose filled jacket will generally be higher than one filled with polyester, you don’t necessarily have to spend a fortune on getting a functional jacket. My first winter jacket cost $30 (on sale) and I used it for about 5 years before I gave it out. If it is not an immediate need, a good idea to getting deals is to wait towards the end of a season before shopping for items related to the season, e.g. shop for new winter clothing items from end of January. This is because retailers are usually trying to get rid of current stock to make room for Spring items, which is the next season. You can also keep a constant eye on their websites because you will find some items online that you won’t find in regular stores. <a href="https://www.sportchek.ca/categories/men/jackets-coats-vests/winter-jackets.html?lastVisibleProductNumber=4">Sport Chek</a>, Winners, Marshalls are some of the places where I shop for jackets and <a href="https://www.theshoecompany.ca/en/ca/">Shoe Company</a>, Winners and Marshalls are my go to for winter boots. If you are looking for luxury, fashion and functionality in your winter jacket, consider <a href="https://www.canadagoose.com/ca/en/home-page">Canada Goose</a>, <a href="https://www.mooseknucklescanada.com/">Moose Knuckles</a> and <a href="https://nobis.com/">Nobis</a>.</p> <p>Driving in winter can also be very dangerous, especially during or after snowfalls, when the roads may have black ice. That being said, the efficiency with which the major roads are often cleared is admirable. You may also require two sets of tires for your car — a set of winter tires and a set of summer/all-season tires. The theory is that winter tires are designed specifically for winter conditions. I have only had different tires for the seasons when I bought a car off someone and it had winter tires when I bought them; I did not have a choice but to buy a set of all-season tires for the non-winter months. Choosing to maintain two sets of tires for your car will increase your expenses — the initial cost of buying the tires (and rims) and the annual cost of switching the tires (if you don’t do it yourself which many people don’t do) when the seasons change. Additionally, when you buy your home, be prepared for having to shovel your driveway and/or sidewalk when it snows. And trust me this can be painful! A few days before Christmas, there was about <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7537023/calgary-snow-december-22-2020/">20–40cm of snowfall</a> in Calgary; I had to call my wife and kids to join the snow clearing party from our driveway and it took us about 1.5 hours to get it done and the effects of this particular snowfall were still seen around town many weeks after! While this volume is unusual, but believe me that having to wake up to clear snow and/or coming back from work to do it is not fun.</p> <p>If you have a choice on the time of relocation, consider moving during the warmer months in Spring (March to June) or Summer (June to September) — this will help you gently ease into the colder Fall (September to December) and Winter (December to March) months.</p> <p>In the next instalment, I will write about high cost of living, importance of a good support system, becoming an “expert” DIYer, and commuting.</p> </section>	Living the Canadian Dream Part 1 Emigrating from your home country can be both exciting and daunting. Adapting to and integrating into a new environment and society comes with its challenges. I moved to Canada about 7 years ago and it’s been one hell of a ride! In my earlier articles (part 1, part 2, part 3), I attempted to highlight some of the benefits enjoyed by Canadians and Permanent Residents (PR). In this series, I will attempt to distill what I call the “realities” of living the Canadian dream from the view of a new immigrant. The excitement of getting your PR application approved and getting to the finished line of the PR application process may make one detached from reality. While I believe that these realities are talked about a little, it can still be a rude shock when its reality slaps you in the face. I am writing this from the perspective of a Nigerian that moved to Canada (my personal experience and experiences of those I know); some of the highlighted points may be applicable to any other country you have migrated to or are planning to migrate to. The points in this series are also inexhaustive and your experiences as an immigrant may be completely different. 1. Taxes: The first shock you may get is with how much income tax you pay in Canada — there is a federal tax component and a provincial component which is dependent on your income tax bracket. After getting my first job offer, the first thing I did was to convert the offered salary to Naira. And then I divided the salary by 12 to get a sense of what my gross monthly pay will be. I felt like a big boy! In any of these calculations, I did not attempt to estimate what my taxes and other statutory deductions will be. Cometh the hour, cometh pay day and I tried to make sense of my net pay and all the many deductions. The amount of tax I paid (which as you rightly guessed I converted to Naira) had my head spinning. Unlike in Nigeria (and UK) where the cost of goods already includes Value Added Tax (VAT), the cost of goods/services that you see online or in stores does not include the sales tax component (which varies by province); some goods are however tax exempt. Living in Alberta, you can imagine my surprise, before I understood the system, when the cost of the shoes I want to buy increases from $50 on the shelf, to $52.50 at checkout. The positive side to the taxes being paid is that it helps Canada provide you with all the good reasons you gave for moving to Canada. Good educational system for the kids, free health care, Canada child benefit, excellent infrastructure, etc., are paid for by citizens’ and residents’ taxes. 2. Cold Winters: I am almost sure that one of the comments people made to you when you mentioned that you were moving to Canada was the cold weather. Yes, Canadian winters can be very cold! However, until you have experienced it, you can’t really understand how cold it is! The lowest temperature I have experienced was about -42 degrees Celsius (with wind chill factor). I was recently joking with my wife that we are not normal because when temperature rose to 0 or -1 degrees Celsius (from about -15 degrees Celsius), we claimed that it was warm! One thing I love about Canadians is that they have developed sports and activities around the seasons, including the cold winter! You may also be wondering how people survive in the Canadian winters — invest in good winter jackets, sweaters (I started wearing sweaters in Canada), winter boots, gloves, hats, socks, scarves/mufflers, etc. The most important consideration in selecting a winter jacket is the jacket filling — a jacket filled with feathers (especially duck or goose) will be warmer than one filled with polyester. While the cost of a duck or goose filled jacket will generally be higher than one filled with polyester, you don’t necessarily have to spend a fortune on getting a functional jacket. My first winter jacket cost $30 (on sale) and I used it for about 5 years before I gave it out. If it is not an immediate need, a good idea to getting deals is to wait towards the end of a season before shopping for items related to the season, e.g. shop for new winter clothing items from end of January. This is because retailers are usually trying to get rid of current stock to make room for Spring items, which is the next season. You can also keep a constant eye on their websites because you will find some items online that you won’t find in regular stores. Sport Chek, Winners, Marshalls are some of the places where I shop for jackets and Shoe Company, Winners and Marshalls are my go to for winter boots. If you are looking for luxury, fashion and functionality in your winter jacket, consider Canada Goose, Moose Knuckles and Nobis. Driving in winter can also be very dangerous, especially during or after snowfalls, when the roads may have black ice. That being said, the efficiency with which the major roads are often cleared is admirable. You may also require two sets of tires for your car — a set of winter tires and a set of summer/all-season tires. The theory is that winter tires are designed specifically for winter conditions. I have only had different tires for the seasons when I bought a car off someone and it had winter tires when I bought them; I did not have a choice but to buy a set of all-season tires for the non-winter months. Choosing to maintain two sets of tires for your car will increase your expenses — the initial cost of buying the tires (and rims) and the annual cost of switching the tires (if you don’t do it yourself which many people don’t do) when the seasons change. Additionally, when you buy your home, be prepared for having to shovel your driveway and/or sidewalk when it snows. And trust me this can be painful! A few days before Christmas, there was about 20–40cm of snowfall in Calgary; I had to call my wife and kids to join the snow clearing party from our driveway and it took us about 1.5 hours to get it done and the effects of this particular snowfall were still seen around town many weeks after! While this volume is unusual, but believe me that having to wake up to clear snow and/or coming back from work to do it is not fun. If you have a choice on the time of relocation, consider moving during the warmer months in Spring (March to June) or Summer (June to September) — this will help you gently ease into the colder Fall (September to December) and Winter (December to March) months. In the next instalment, I will write about high cost of living, importance of a good support system, becoming an “expert” DIYer, and commuting.	e1db8a8d-48ee-5942-8750-413e9b6b05a7	25/08/2025 16:01:27
https://medium.com/@stephaniebysouth/timeline-achievement-retrospective-5422d63c975d	medium.com	Timeline Achievement Retrospective	This really is one of my favourite retrospectives to perform at the end of a quarter or year. Even though there is a healthy push to…	Stephanie BySouth	https://medium.com/@stephaniebysouth	5422d63c975d	https://miro.medium.com/…aidIL_ossfg.jpeg	2 min	2017-01-31T06:17:58.692000	2017-01-31T06:32:16.295000	2019-12-01T00:57:48.770000	0	10	en	Agile,Scrum,Retrospectives,Teamwork,Feedback	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/3310/1f4ga2ybTKfeaidIL_ossfg.jpeg" width="3310" height="2340" loading="lazy" /> <p>This really is one of my favourite retrospectives to perform at the end of a quarter or year. Even though there is a healthy push to celebrate success more often I still find teams really enjoy taking time out to ‘look at the big picture they achieved’. In addition to the common Timeline Retrospective I personally encourage team members to add in a thank you to each other regarding particular events. Intra-team acknowledgement goes a long way to building affirmative collaboration for future events.</p> <p>The purpose of the Timeline Retrospective is to gather data, discussion and action from events plus their impact over a selected time period.</p> <p><strong>How:</strong></p> <p>1. Agree Timeline Duration</p> <p>2. Populate Timeline</p> <p>- add events, colour coding according to your legend</p> <p>- add your personal satisfaction during that even time</p> <p>3. Discuss the sequences, what happened, thoughts, insights</p> <p>4. Reflect on the data map</p> <p>- achievements</p> <p>- learnings done</p> <p>- patterns occurring</p> <p>- surprises we didn’t expect</p> <p>- be sure to call out any thanks to each other</p> <p>5. Summarise the team actions and add to the backlog</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/3219/1sENnFPEk4v_CaZCaVXIbGA.jpeg" width="3219" height="1506" loading="lazy" /> <p><strong>I always find there’s multiple benefits from this type of retrospective</strong></p> <ul> <li>gives the team the opportunity to reflect on achievements, how they responded to events and to give thanks to each other</li> <li>visualising all the team has been involved in provides tangible context to the amount of work they have been involved in</li> <li>articulates what happens and what we felt / responded to the event. Being articulate about the two allows for individuals to express their point of view</li> <li>acts as a good milestone ceremony to mark a change in focus</li> <li>solicits team affirmed improvement actions</li> </ul> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/400/1*ezqdfnsDgF4LPKIxqXVufw.jpeg" width="400" height="534" loading="lazy" /> <p>#retrospective #feedback #agile #teams</p> </section>	Timeline Achievement Retrospective Achievements Timeline Retrospective This really is one of my favourite retrospectives to perform at the end of a quarter or year. Even though there is a healthy push to celebrate success more often I still find teams really enjoy taking time out to ‘look at the big picture they achieved’. In addition to the common Timeline Retrospective I personally encourage team members to add in a thank you to each other regarding particular events. Intra-team acknowledgement goes a long way to building affirmative collaboration for future events. The purpose of the Timeline Retrospective is to gather data, discussion and action from events plus their impact over a selected time period. How: 1. Agree Timeline Duration 2. Populate Timeline - add events, colour coding according to your legend - add your personal satisfaction during that even time 3. Discuss the sequences, what happened, thoughts, insights 4. Reflect on the data map - achievements - learnings done - patterns occurring - surprises we didn’t expect - be sure to call out any thanks to each other 5. Summarise the team actions and add to the backlog Colour Code your events & thanks to see a heat map of event impacts I always find there’s multiple benefits from this type of retrospective gives the team the opportunity to reflect on achievements, how they responded to events and to give thanks to each other visualising all the team has been involved in provides tangible context to the amount of work they have been involved in articulates what happens and what we felt / responded to the event. Being articulate about the two allows for individuals to express their point of view acts as a good milestone ceremony to mark a change in focus solicits team affirmed improvement actions Facilitate Insightful Discussion & Focus Into Improvement Action. #retrospective #feedback #agile #teams	0363fa78-3701-5fb9-8788-1c05e2af923a	25/08/2025 16:01:27
https://irvingsteel.medium.com/power-of-possibility-b0d077d716ff	medium.com	Power of Possibility	There are so many choices in this world. There are about countless ways where you could make an impact. Where are you hoping to have the…	Irving Steel	https://medium.com/@irvingsteel	b0d077d716ff	https://miro.medium.com/…RwiCxXwn0Ew.jpeg	3 min	2018-03-18T11:03:37.542000	2018-03-18T11:06:54.799000	2018-03-29T17:22:29.202000	0	1	en	Entrepreneurship,Power,Possibility,Opportunity,Life Choices	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/4432/1w1x1hZZBMz3RwiCxXwn0Ew.jpeg" width="4432" height="2955" loading="lazy" /> <p>There are so many choices in this world. There are about countless ways where you could make an impact. Where are you hoping to have the most impact ? What is the way in which you will be able to best manifest your intense passion, skills, and interests to make the world around you a better place? This is an enormous opportunity for you to consider, and one that is not to be taken lightly. It might not come to you right away and it might likely take you exploring a few different avenues in which you search for the best fit. Just as any new product coming to the market has to constantly search for its product-market fit, you too must find the best “fit” of you, “product”, in the world, “market”.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/550/1k8ZoY7rNEWdSTltzWVWqXA.jpeg" width="550" height="413" loading="lazy" /> <p>Many people will be able to give you thoughts, ideas, and suggestions, but in the end you are the one who knows yourself the best. Is it something that you truly can enjoy and want to be doing? Is it something that you find happiness in? Sometimes we can’t be so picky and must just start doing something because we are hungry, need to eat, and need to pay the rent to have a roof over our head. Once we are able to have that basic necessities covered, we are able to look to the next level where we are hoping to search for a deeper meaning and purpose in everything that we are doing. Of course, the possibility of giving back and making the lives of the people around you better is a noble goal and wish. If you are able to positively impact the community around you, this will have reverberating impact that only continues to build.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/3872/1*OxDtmLW8xodYnzAeLKXMqA.jpeg" width="3872" height="2592" loading="lazy" /> <p>But we must start with you. Once you are being taken care of and you are doing well, then you can venture out into the world to start helping other people. The first order of business is to ensure that you are not in a “taking” mode, rather you are already self-sufficient, doing well, happy, and healthy. Once this is taken care of, then the world does not need to worry about you as much and resources will not be wasted at your expense. At this point in time, you are able tis gift and begin to become more of a “giver”, one who is able to give more and contribute more to the community. The nice thing is that many people are going through different parts of their life when they are more of a giver or a taker as they are exploring and finding the true calling or purpose. During these times, it is important to lend on the kind support of friends, family, and loved ones. These are the ones who will be able to help you throughout your journey of life and make sure that you are making the most of every single day.</p> <p>Think: today is the last day of this day in your entire life. You will never be able to experience this specific day ever again. It is important to take the most opportunities that are given to you and do the most that you can with the time allotted. Time is an extremely precious commodity. Looking back on life, most people say they never imagined that life would go by and pass through so quickly. This is true. The days go by in the blink of an eye. Wake up earlier, watch less TV, get off Facebook, and go out into the world to truly experience it.</p> <p>Possibly this is the power you are hoping for, or is the power you already possess. Where are you going today?</p> </section>	Power of Possibility There are so many choices in this world. There are about countless ways where you could make an impact. Where are you hoping to have the most impact ? What is the way in which you will be able to best manifest your intense passion, skills, and interests to make the world around you a better place? This is an enormous opportunity for you to consider, and one that is not to be taken lightly. It might not come to you right away and it might likely take you exploring a few different avenues in which you search for the best fit. Just as any new product coming to the market has to constantly search for its product-market fit, you too must find the best “fit” of you, “product”, in the world, “market”. Many people will be able to give you thoughts, ideas, and suggestions, but in the end you are the one who knows yourself the best. Is it something that you truly can enjoy and want to be doing? Is it something that you find happiness in? Sometimes we can’t be so picky and must just start doing something because we are hungry, need to eat, and need to pay the rent to have a roof over our head. Once we are able to have that basic necessities covered, we are able to look to the next level where we are hoping to search for a deeper meaning and purpose in everything that we are doing. Of course, the possibility of giving back and making the lives of the people around you better is a noble goal and wish. If you are able to positively impact the community around you, this will have reverberating impact that only continues to build. But we must start with you. Once you are being taken care of and you are doing well, then you can venture out into the world to start helping other people. The first order of business is to ensure that you are not in a “taking” mode, rather you are already self-sufficient, doing well, happy, and healthy. Once this is taken care of, then the world does not need to worry about you as much and resources will not be wasted at your expense. At this point in time, you are able tis gift and begin to become more of a “giver”, one who is able to give more and contribute more to the community. The nice thing is that many people are going through different parts of their life when they are more of a giver or a taker as they are exploring and finding the true calling or purpose. During these times, it is important to lend on the kind support of friends, family, and loved ones. These are the ones who will be able to help you throughout your journey of life and make sure that you are making the most of every single day. Think: today is the last day of this day in your entire life. You will never be able to experience this specific day ever again. It is important to take the most opportunities that are given to you and do the most that you can with the time allotted. Time is an extremely precious commodity. Looking back on life, most people say they never imagined that life would go by and pass through so quickly. This is true. The days go by in the blink of an eye. Wake up earlier, watch less TV, get off Facebook, and go out into the world to truly experience it. Possibly this is the power you are hoping for, or is the power you already possess. Where are you going today?	f2fac421-0fae-587a-8657-5fbf167a423e	25/08/2025 16:01:28
https://medium.melos.studio/how-to-purchase-the-sounds-of-the-week-music-nft-by-gorkaya-7ffb91e1e102	medium.com	How to purchase “The Sounds Of The Week” Music NFT by Gorkaya	Melos ‘The Sounds of the Week’ with Gorkaya — A music adventure with “Gore More”	Melos.Studio	https://medium.com/@melosstudio	7ffb91e1e102	https://miro.medium.com/max/2000/0*gxdmoYyiT-LiyKwk	7 min	2022-09-24T14:36:09.381000	2022-09-24T15:56:20.871000	2023-06-06T09:50:24.127000	0	2	en	Music Nft Marketplace,Nft,Web3	<section> <h1>Melos ‘The Sounds of the Week’ with Gorkaya — A music adventure with “Gore More”</h1> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1280/0gxdmoYyiT-LiyKwk" width="1280" height="640" loading="lazy" /> <p><strong>We are happy to announce a new melos artist for ‘The Sounds of the Week’ — Gorkaya!</strong></p> <p>Gorkaya is a full time musician, songwriter, producer and singer from Russia who has very high taste of music and powerful vocal. As one of the best seller on Melos, Gorkaya will present excellent music works in this event. Stay tuned!</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1600/0ASYv15f03FcHcoPJ" width="1600" height="1600" loading="lazy" /> <p><em><strong>Gore More co</em>ver page</strong></p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1280/0gD8tuo0JpmrhC73M" width="1280" height="1280" loading="lazy" /> <p>“This is the song that saved the inner me during depression and tough times in life.”</p> <p>Being a full time musician, songwriter, producer and singer, there was a time that Gorkaya felt heightened anxiety and burnout about her music career. She felt like there was nothing that could make her happy anymore.</p> <p>“Maybe you can express yourself through music. Just sing it out !” said by Gorkaya’s husband.</p> <p>Sometimes music gives us different feelings according to different types of genres, instruments, rhythms, beats and lyrics. But music is also a way for us to express ourselves, just like a melody diary that records life moments and emotional stories. Something that is hard to speak out, something that is stuck in mind, something that is too shy to talk about, some challenges that face in life, MUSIC CAN ALWAYS HELP!</p> <p>When Gorkaya wrote “Gore More”, the lyrics were just like a confession of herself and were done in a very short time. It was also the first time that Gorkaya wasn’t playing with words but talking with herself deeply in heart. Compared with other music pieces created by Gorkaya, this is the only one that is very personal and private about some of her “little secrets”.</p> <p>“There was a longing inside for the place of “”my strength, my land where I grew up and became who I am, also describing what was going on in my heart. It’s about “”being alone in the crowd”” when you’re tired of the frantic pace, the people and the various communications. To achieve inner harmony, all you need is solitude with yourself. ” said by Gorkaya.</p> <p>If you are now having some bad moods or facing some tough times in life, listen to “Gore More”, you might find the resonation between you and Gorkaya through this track.</p> <p><strong>Melos hopes to send a message through this collaboration with Gorkaya that we encourage everyone to participate in the co-creation & re-creation of music.</strong></p> <p><strong>‘Music Coupon’ for Melos Studio The Sounds Of The Week</strong></p> <p>Melos Studio has prepared a Melos Music Coupon for our Melosians, you can buy “Gore More” NFTs at a discounted price with a Melos Music Coupon.</p> <p>The coupon will be distributed to your Melos account and the coupon information will be displayed automatically when purchasing. Melos will randomly select the lucky users who fill in the form to be airdropped the free coupon.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/547/0i7spFyClmgLLL-NF" width="547" height="134" loading="lazy" /> <p>The coupon can be used to purchase <em><strong>Go</em>re More </strong>music NFTs<em><s</em>trong>. </strong>Collect the NFT and win different rewards. <strong>Remember to fill in the online form to submit for the rewards after purchasing.</strong></p> <p><strong>Online form:</strong></p> <p><strong><a href="https://forms.gle/16XikDzL</strong>ALzDwWKQA">https://forms.gle/16XikDzLALzDwWKQA</a></p> <p><strong>How to purchase “ The Sounds Of The Week” Music NFT by Gorkaya</strong></p> <h2>Login to your Melos account</h2> <p>If you are a new user of Melos Studio, you need to click register to create a new account.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1600/0MU0BODuWBQZFPeIb" width="1600" height="788" loading="lazy" /> <p>Enter your email address & password to register.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1600/055j6eHkNJHmWopLJ" width="1600" height="781" loading="lazy" /> <p>Login to your email and verify your email address</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/765/0MnpN3Je-KE4EkP4j" width="765" height="145" loading="lazy" /> <p>Log in to your Melos Studio Account.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/580/0C-M0YTRPvdRXsXF9" width="580" height="269" loading="lazy" /> <h2>How to buy BNB/BUSD</h2> <p>If you have not purchased Music NFTs before, you may want to know how to buy $BNB for the gas fee, before you buy your favorite Music NFT.</p> <h2>This is the official link to teach you how to buy $BNB</h2> <p><a href="https://www.binance.com/en/how-to-buy/BNB">https://www.binance.com/en/how-to-buy/BNB</a></p> <h2>Here’s how to transfer your $BNB to your Cryptocurrency wallet (BEP-20).</h2> <p><a href="https://academy.binance.com/en/articles/how-to-withdraw-bep20-tokens-on-binance-smart-chain">https://academy.binance.com/en/articles/how-to-withdraw-bep20-tokens-on-binance-smart-chain</a></p> <h2>Installing and Binding Your Wallet</h2> <p>Next, we will explain how to use <strong>Metamask</strong></p> <p><strong>MetaMask</strong> is a software cryptocurrency wallet used to interact with the blockchain. It allows users to access their Ethereum and all other blockchain wallets through a browser extension or mobile app, which can then be used to interact with decentralized applications.</p> <h2>Install MetaMask on your browser using the link below:</h2> <p><a href="https://metamask.io/download/">https://metamask.io/download/</a></p> <p>In this tutorial, we use <strong>Google Chrome</strong> as an example, but the same steps apply to different browsers as well. If, for some reason, the links above don’t work for you, just search MetaMask on your favorite search engine, and you can find it there.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/0qElyUXSIXcsqNan2" width="1400" height="739" loading="lazy" /> <ul> <li>Click on <strong>Install MetaMask for Chrome</strong>.</li> <li>Click Add to Chrome.</li> <li>Click <strong>Add Extension</strong>.</li> </ul> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/452/0E76lwZgSQYQapk5P" width="452" height="241" loading="lazy" /> <ul> <li>Click on the extension icon in the upper right corner to open MetaMask.</li> <li>To install the latest version and be up to date, <strong>click Try it now</strong>.</li> <li><strong>Click Continue</strong>.</li> <li>You will be prompted to create a new password. <strong>Click Create</strong>.</li> </ul> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/0wjMIH5DTRDalmCD5" width="1400" height="713" loading="lazy" /> <p>If you don’t know how to change the network in Metamask, read this Medium article to help you change to the Binance Smart Chain.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/0zI4aThpHEJQs-LIs" width="1400" height="706" loading="lazy" /> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/0y1H3l7DW8L0kpN4U" width="1400" height="706" loading="lazy" /> <ul> <li>Proceed by <strong>clicking Next</strong> and accept the Terms of Use.</li> </ul> <p><strong>Click Reveal Secret Words</strong>. There you will see a 12 word seed phrase. This is really important and usually not a good idea to store digitally, so take your time and write it down.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/0CchrvTJByk4f1c2V" width="1400" height="711" loading="lazy" /> <ul> <li>Verify your secret phrase by selecting the previously generated phrase in order. <strong>Click Confirm</strong>.</li> </ul> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/0oNM3s3YjZf7HFynW" width="1400" height="710" loading="lazy" /> <p>That’s it, you have created your MetaMask account successfully. A new Ethereum wallet address has just been created for you.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/0zSStoij_62SpYqil" width="1400" height="866" loading="lazy" /> <p>You can see the wallet is currently working based on the ETH mainnet, you need to transfer to the BSC mainnet to move forward.</p> <p>Select “Network” on the Setting page and click ‘Add network’, enter the following configuration information, and save.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/495/0Xp4IZTPZ0QPq1JZR" width="495" height="282" loading="lazy" /> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1216/0gmfQBHT6ZTEzqZZo" width="1216" height="783" loading="lazy" /> <p>Click <strong>Add Network</strong> in the top-right corner to <strong>manually add the Binance Smart Chain</strong> — it doesn’t come packaged with MetaMask. It’s important to note that there are two networks we can use here: the testnet or the mainnet. Below are the parameters to fill in for each.</p> <h2>BNB Chain(BSC) Mainnet (This is the one you are probably looking for)</h2> <p><strong>Network Name:</strong> Smart Chain</p> <p><strong>New RPC URL:</strong> <a href="https://bsc-dataseed.binance.org/">https://bsc-dataseed.binance.org/</a></p> <p><strong>ChainID:</strong> 56</p> <p><strong>Symbol:</strong> BNB</p> <p><strong>Block Explorer URL:</strong> <a href="https://bscscan.com/">https://bscscan.com</a></p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/720/0XXWSZjce8HNz3IH7" width="720" height="690" loading="lazy" /> <p>Now you can see that you are working on the BSC mainnet and we can move to wallet binding.</p> <h2>Wallet binding</h2> <p>Go to <a href="https://melos.studio/">https://melos.studio</a> and login with your account.</p> <p>2. Click your account photo and click ‘ My Account’</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/0WMM3BpC0HwA5Fazh" width="1400" height="334" loading="lazy" /> <p>3. Click ‘Bind Wallet’ and Click ‘Sign’</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/04H-ykHtnbHf6ycjA" width="1400" height="298" loading="lazy" /> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/348/01Lk09DQx7ixqcQTY" width="348" height="437" loading="lazy" /> <p>4. Now your wallet is bound with your Melos account successfully.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/0hQNoMTkDDMB2gz2B" width="1400" height="297" loading="lazy" /> <h2>How to purchase Music NFT</h2> <p>Next, we will use the <em><strong>G</em>ore More</strong> music NFT as an example to teach you how to buy music NFTs on the Melos Studio Official website.</p> <p>Click the <em><strong>G</em>ore More</strong> page.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1600/0zTDa5glM5y-rBNu4" width="1600" height="646" loading="lazy" /> <p>You can see the personal information of the Artist.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1600/0Y3auSKgkyaa96mBD" width="1600" height="787" loading="lazy" /> <p>Scroll down the website until we can see the details of the <em><strong>G</em>ore More</strong> Music NFT.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1417/0OUL1A1l9KBEFbcBO" width="1417" height="629" loading="lazy" /> <p><strong>‘Open Soon’</strong> will automatically change to ‘<strong>Buy Now’ </strong>when the sale starts.<strong> </strong>Click ‘<strong>Buy Now</strong>’.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/686/0tXRcHJ9GJh4qZBtD" width="686" height="537" loading="lazy" /> <p>Connect to your Metamask and wait for trading.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/680/0PvpLVh_YMySnuBGz" width="680" height="592" loading="lazy" /> <p>Your order is now Pending.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/684/0Sro5YRzs1KWPn0FI" width="684" height="737" loading="lazy" /> <p><strong>The NFT is now transferring to your wallet, your purchase is successful!</strong></p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1250/0cyvzfRAC0qLo46V7" width="1250" height="380" loading="lazy" /> <p>You can now see the Music NFT you purchased in the wallet of your Melos account.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/0kU3muJ3zxZB-yvJi" width="1400" height="636" loading="lazy" /> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/136/0RAMuW0msT9DlPitP" width="136" height="263" loading="lazy" /> <p>You can Click ‘ <strong>My Profile’</strong> to see your music NFTs, click the little orange button and you will be able to listen to the music you purchased.</p> <p><strong>Enjoy your music!</strong></p> <h2>ABOUT MELOS STUDIO</h2> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/700/0*QGsUYnol-hilz2HS" width="700" height="197" loading="lazy" /> <p><em>Melos is a decentralized meta+music web3.0 collaboration platform for musicians and music creators. It is also a pioneer within the decentralized creator economy, because Melos allows anyone to create music through its tools. The generated content can then be saved as NFTs and brought into circulation. Through the open re-creation of generated music NFTs, Melos functions as a social music platform, where music creators can collaborate, communicate, and co-produce.</em></p> <p>Official website:<a href="https://melos.studio/">https://melos.studio</a></p> <p>Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/melos_studio">https://twitter.com/melos_studio</a></p> <p>Telegram: <a href="https://t.me/melosstudiodao">https://t.me/melosstudiodao</a></p> <p>Discord: <a href="https://discord.gg/melos">https://discord.gg/melos</a></p> <p>Medium :<a href="https://blog.melos.studio/">https://blog.melos.studio</a></p> <p>Instagram:<a href="https://www.instagram.com/melosismusic/">https://instagram.com/melosismusic/</a></p> </section>	How to purchase “The Sounds Of The Week” Music NFT by Gorkaya Melos ‘The Sounds of the Week’ with Gorkaya — A music adventure with “Gore More” We are happy to announce a new melos artist for ‘The Sounds of the Week’ — Gorkaya! Gorkaya is a full time musician, songwriter, producer and singer from Russia who has very high taste of music and powerful vocal. As one of the best seller on Melos, Gorkaya will present excellent music works in this event. Stay tuned! Gore More cover page “This is the song that saved the inner me during depression and tough times in life.” Being a full time musician, songwriter, producer and singer, there was a time that Gorkaya felt heightened anxiety and burnout about her music career. She felt like there was nothing that could make her happy anymore. “Maybe you can express yourself through music. Just sing it out !” said by Gorkaya’s husband. Sometimes music gives us different feelings according to different types of genres, instruments, rhythms, beats and lyrics. But music is also a way for us to express ourselves, just like a melody diary that records life moments and emotional stories. Something that is hard to speak out, something that is stuck in mind, something that is too shy to talk about, some challenges that face in life, MUSIC CAN ALWAYS HELP! When Gorkaya wrote “Gore More”, the lyrics were just like a confession of herself and were done in a very short time. It was also the first time that Gorkaya wasn’t playing with words but talking with herself deeply in heart. Compared with other music pieces created by Gorkaya, this is the only one that is very personal and private about some of her “little secrets”. “There was a longing inside for the place of “”my strength, my land where I grew up and became who I am, also describing what was going on in my heart. It’s about “”being alone in the crowd”” when you’re tired of the frantic pace, the people and the various communications. To achieve inner harmony, all you need is solitude with yourself. ” said by Gorkaya. If you are now having some bad moods or facing some tough times in life, listen to “Gore More”, you might find the resonation between you and Gorkaya through this track. Melos hopes to send a message through this collaboration with Gorkaya that we encourage everyone to participate in the co-creation & re-creation of music. ‘Music Coupon’ for Melos Studio The Sounds Of The Week Melos Studio has prepared a Melos Music Coupon for our Melosians, you can buy “Gore More” NFTs at a discounted price with a Melos Music Coupon. The coupon will be distributed to your Melos account and the coupon information will be displayed automatically when purchasing. Melos will randomly select the lucky users who fill in the form to be airdropped the free coupon. The coupon can be used to purchase Gore More music NFTs. Collect the NFT and win different rewards. Remember to fill in the online form to submit for the rewards after purchasing. Online form: https://forms.gle/16XikDzLALzDwWKQA How to purchase “ The Sounds Of The Week” Music NFT by Gorkaya Login to your Melos account If you are a new user of Melos Studio, you need to click register to create a new account. Enter your email address & password to register. Login to your email and verify your email address Log in to your Melos Studio Account. How to buy BNB/BUSD If you have not purchased Music NFTs before, you may want to know how to buy $BNB for the gas fee, before you buy your favorite Music NFT. This is the official link to teach you how to buy $BNB https://www.binance.com/en/how-to-buy/BNB Here’s how to transfer your $BNB to your Cryptocurrency wallet (BEP-20). https://academy.binance.com/en/articles/how-to-withdraw-bep20-tokens-on-binance-smart-chain Installing and Binding Your Wallet Next, we will explain how to use Metamask MetaMask is a software cryptocurrency wallet used to interact with the blockchain. It allows users to access their Ethereum and all other blockchain wallets through a browser extension or mobile app, which can then be used to interact with decentralized applications. Install MetaMask on your browser using the link below: https://metamask.io/download/ In this tutorial, we use Google Chrome as an example, but the same steps apply to different browsers as well. If, for some reason, the links above don’t work for you, just search MetaMask on your favorite search engine, and you can find it there. Click on Install MetaMask for Chrome. Click Add to Chrome. Click Add Extension. Click on the extension icon in the upper right corner to open MetaMask. To install the latest version and be up to date, click Try it now. Click Continue. You will be prompted to create a new password. Click Create. If you don’t know how to change the network in Metamask, read this Medium article to help you change to the Binance Smart Chain. Proceed by clicking Next and accept the Terms of Use. Click Reveal Secret Words. There you will see a 12 word seed phrase. This is really important and usually not a good idea to store digitally, so take your time and write it down. Verify your secret phrase by selecting the previously generated phrase in order. Click Confirm. That’s it, you have created your MetaMask account successfully. A new Ethereum wallet address has just been created for you. You can see the wallet is currently working based on the ETH mainnet, you need to transfer to the BSC mainnet to move forward. Select “Network” on the Setting page and click ‘Add network’, enter the following configuration information, and save. Click Add Network in the top-right corner to manually add the Binance Smart Chain — it doesn’t come packaged with MetaMask. It’s important to note that there are two networks we can use here: the testnet or the mainnet. Below are the parameters to fill in for each. BNB Chain(BSC) Mainnet (This is the one you are probably looking for) Network Name: Smart Chain New RPC URL: https://bsc-dataseed.binance.org/ ChainID: 56 Symbol: BNB Block Explorer URL: https://bscscan.com Now you can see that you are working on the BSC mainnet and we can move to wallet binding. Wallet binding Go to https://melos.studio and login with your account. 2. Click your account photo and click ‘ My Account’ 3. Click ‘Bind Wallet’ and Click ‘Sign’ 4. Now your wallet is bound with your Melos account successfully. How to purchase Music NFT Next, we will use the Gore More music NFT as an example to teach you how to buy music NFTs on the Melos Studio Official website. Click the Gore More page. You can see the personal information of the Artist. Scroll down the website until we can see the details of the Gore More Music NFT. ‘Open Soon’ will automatically change to ‘Buy Now’ when the sale starts. Click ‘Buy Now’. Connect to your Metamask and wait for trading. Your order is now Pending. The NFT is now transferring to your wallet, your purchase is successful! You can now see the Music NFT you purchased in the wallet of your Melos account. You can Click ‘ My Profile’ to see your music NFTs, click the little orange button and you will be able to listen to the music you purchased. Enjoy your music! ABOUT MELOS STUDIO Melos is a decentralized meta+music web3.0 collaboration platform for musicians and music creators. It is also a pioneer within the decentralized creator economy, because Melos allows anyone to create music through its tools. The generated content can then be saved as NFTs and brought into circulation. Through the open re-creation of generated music NFTs, Melos functions as a social music platform, where music creators can collaborate, communicate, and co-produce. Official website:https://melos.studio Twitter: https://twitter.com/melos_studio Telegram: https://t.me/melosstudiodao Discord: https://discord.gg/melos Medium :https://blog.melos.studio Instagram:https://instagram.com/melosismusic/	8c4f2d36-7499-5e8c-8798-4f8713dd9b36	25/08/2025 16:01:28
https://medium.com/@WhosoeverPress/createspace-is-not-free-57fffa6cf165	medium.com	Createspace Is NOT Free!	By Nate Fortner author of “Success Requires Action”	Whosoever Press	https://medium.com/@WhosoeverPress	57fffa6cf165	null	5 min	2018-09-05T21:21:27.069000	2018-09-05T21:26:31.015000	2018-09-05T21:26:31.451000	0	0	en	Writing,Self Publishing,Publishing,Publishers	<section> <p>By Nate Fortner author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Success-Requires-Action-Strategies-Entrepreneurial/dp/0692664718/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1536176289&sr=8-1&keywords=success+requires+action">“Success Requires Action”</a></p> <p>As the Publishing Industry has taken many turns in recent years, many writers are turning to Createspace to publish their books. In no way am I knocking Createspace, because they are a good service. While some people claim that Createspace is free, it is not free at all. You still have to pay them to print the books. I must admit for a self-published author, Createspace is a gold mine if you just want printed copies, but the problem comes in when you actually find someone who is interested in your book. You can’t purchase copies of your book cheap enough from create space to resale to a good distributor. No, I’m not speaking of Ingram. Have you ever tried to get your book into Wal-Mart? Good luck with that being published by Createspace! You need a real publishing company who has connections with printers to print thousands of copies all at one time to resale cheap enough to distributors. You may be thinking, well, I’ll find me a printer. The fact is, good luck finding a printer that will work with an individual author. You are a loss of income to them unless you are ready to print thousands of copies. Yes, Createspace is great for getting your book published and made available for purchase to bookstores, but did you realize that Createspace does not market to bookstores on your behalf? Why would they? Marketing a book is the author’s responsibility, not the publisher. I hear it from authors all the time who say their publisher lied to them. Chances are that may be the case with some publishers, but let the truth be known that you and you alone are responsible for your success. A publisher cannot build your platform. Only a person with intense passion and skills can build a successful public platform. You can blame your publisher all you want, but at the end of the day, it’s your fault whether you are a success or a failure.</p> <p>Right now, major publishing companies are shutting down and closing their doors because they over promised and couldn’t deliver. If I said the name of the company, you would know exactly who I’m talking about. Let’s face it, writers don’t care about fans, they care about sales. You can say what you want, but at the end of the day, fans don’t pay the bills. Every author wants to see sales coming in, because that means a royalty check is on the way.</p> <p>As the owner of <a href="http://WhosoeverPress.com">Whosoever Press</a>, we have fought many battles with unappreciative authors over the past six years being in business. However, for the select few that truly understand how the industry works, they are very happy with the results we have provided for them. Yes, I will admit that we will publish an author through Createspace just to get the free distribution through Ingram. What many of these authors don’t realize is that Ingram distribution isn’t free on all platforms. If we can provide it free to our authors through Createspace, we would be ignorant not too. Again, what many authors don’t realize is that if you publish your book through Createspace, it is not free. You can accept a Createspace ISBN and not pay any money, but then when your book appears in a bookstore’s distribution, they will not order it, because it is a dead giveaway that it is self-published. Bookstores rarely ever purchase self-published books. If you want to hide the fact that you published on Creatspace, up until about a month ago, you could pay a $10.00 fee to have the ISBN point to your own company as the publisher. Starting in 2017, that $10.00 charge was increased to $100.00. The truth is though that this ISBN is still owned by Createspace. If a major distribution center wanted to order 10,000 copies of your book at a 70% off the retail price, you can’t do it without buying a new ISBN. You need an ISBN issued by Bowker.com which will cost you $125.00 each plus %25.00 for a barcode. I’d be willing to bet $1000.00 right now that 99.9% of all publishing companies use Createspace and they charge their authors thousands of dollars to publish. Please understand that I’m not knocking all publishers. If they are producing results, then great! The thing about publishing with an established publishing company, whether they use Createspace or not is because you want access to their connections.</p> <p>What should you do if you find out your publisher is using Amazon’s Createspace publishing platform? Should you get mad and freak out because you’ve been ripped off? First, show me the proof that you’ve been ripped off. Next, show me your royalty statements for the past year. If your publisher is a ten year old kid or a forty year old virgin, you may have a problem. The fact of the matter is, if your publisher is producing results for you, then be happy. Get out and push people to buy your books. If your publisher takes a shortcut to save you money by using Createspace’s publishing platform to save you money, then praise God that your publisher was wise enough to do that. The only thingyou need to make sure of is that your publisher doesn’t use a Createspace ISBN. Don’t even let your publisher pay the $100.00 for an ISBN. Make sure your publisher buys an ISBN directly from Bowker.com. The issue is if you get a distribution center interested in your book, your publisher is in agreement with Createspace not to publish the book with anyone else but them. That also means that your publisher is not allowed to use their issued ISBN to print books with any other printer. To print thousands of books with a cheaper printer, your ISBN must be issued through Bowker.com. If you choose to purchase professional book services from Createspace such as editing, cover design or more, you will pay dearly for those services.</p> <p>You will notice that if you search publishing companies online, there are hundreds of new companies being established every year simply because people are using Createspace. Honestly, that’s how I started my company, but soon as I realized that bookstores weren’t interested, I had to change my game plan. You must ask your publisher these types of questions from the git-go. What happens when you personally start making phone calls promoting your book, and you actually get someone who wants to order 5000 copies of your book, but request a 70% discount off of the cover price? You can’t do it, because you can’t buy books cheap enough from Creatspace to offer a 70% off discount. Well, you could always price your book at $29.99 each, but then a distributor would never be interested. Let’s face it, if you’re looking to publish a good book, you need a publisher who has connections. Here at Whosoever Press, we have excellent connections. We have so many connections that it would blow your mind if I told you who all we have in our realm of influence. However, that won’t benefit you at all if you don’t have a good book. Make sure you have your book reviewed by many different readers before you submit it to my company or any other for that matter. The publishing industry is changing and Amazon is leading the way, but small publishers can out-perform Amazon, you just need a good one! Do your research, and never publish with the first publisher who tickles your interest!</p> </section>	Createspace Is NOT Free! By Nate Fortner author of “Success Requires Action” As the Publishing Industry has taken many turns in recent years, many writers are turning to Createspace to publish their books. In no way am I knocking Createspace, because they are a good service. While some people claim that Createspace is free, it is not free at all. You still have to pay them to print the books. I must admit for a self-published author, Createspace is a gold mine if you just want printed copies, but the problem comes in when you actually find someone who is interested in your book. You can’t purchase copies of your book cheap enough from create space to resale to a good distributor. No, I’m not speaking of Ingram. Have you ever tried to get your book into Wal-Mart? Good luck with that being published by Createspace! You need a real publishing company who has connections with printers to print thousands of copies all at one time to resale cheap enough to distributors. You may be thinking, well, I’ll find me a printer. The fact is, good luck finding a printer that will work with an individual author. You are a loss of income to them unless you are ready to print thousands of copies. Yes, Createspace is great for getting your book published and made available for purchase to bookstores, but did you realize that Createspace does not market to bookstores on your behalf? Why would they? Marketing a book is the author’s responsibility, not the publisher. I hear it from authors all the time who say their publisher lied to them. Chances are that may be the case with some publishers, but let the truth be known that you and you alone are responsible for your success. A publisher cannot build your platform. Only a person with intense passion and skills can build a successful public platform. You can blame your publisher all you want, but at the end of the day, it’s your fault whether you are a success or a failure. Right now, major publishing companies are shutting down and closing their doors because they over promised and couldn’t deliver. If I said the name of the company, you would know exactly who I’m talking about. Let’s face it, writers don’t care about fans, they care about sales. You can say what you want, but at the end of the day, fans don’t pay the bills. Every author wants to see sales coming in, because that means a royalty check is on the way. As the owner of Whosoever Press, we have fought many battles with unappreciative authors over the past six years being in business. However, for the select few that truly understand how the industry works, they are very happy with the results we have provided for them. Yes, I will admit that we will publish an author through Createspace just to get the free distribution through Ingram. What many of these authors don’t realize is that Ingram distribution isn’t free on all platforms. If we can provide it free to our authors through Createspace, we would be ignorant not too. Again, what many authors don’t realize is that if you publish your book through Createspace, it is not free. You can accept a Createspace ISBN and not pay any money, but then when your book appears in a bookstore’s distribution, they will not order it, because it is a dead giveaway that it is self-published. Bookstores rarely ever purchase self-published books. If you want to hide the fact that you published on Creatspace, up until about a month ago, you could pay a $10.00 fee to have the ISBN point to your own company as the publisher. Starting in 2017, that $10.00 charge was increased to $100.00. The truth is though that this ISBN is still owned by Createspace. If a major distribution center wanted to order 10,000 copies of your book at a 70% off the retail price, you can’t do it without buying a new ISBN. You need an ISBN issued by Bowker.com which will cost you $125.00 each plus %25.00 for a barcode. I’d be willing to bet $1000.00 right now that 99.9% of all publishing companies use Createspace and they charge their authors thousands of dollars to publish. Please understand that I’m not knocking all publishers. If they are producing results, then great! The thing about publishing with an established publishing company, whether they use Createspace or not is because you want access to their connections. What should you do if you find out your publisher is using Amazon’s Createspace publishing platform? Should you get mad and freak out because you’ve been ripped off? First, show me the proof that you’ve been ripped off. Next, show me your royalty statements for the past year. If your publisher is a ten year old kid or a forty year old virgin, you may have a problem. The fact of the matter is, if your publisher is producing results for you, then be happy. Get out and push people to buy your books. If your publisher takes a shortcut to save you money by using Createspace’s publishing platform to save you money, then praise God that your publisher was wise enough to do that. The only thingyou need to make sure of is that your publisher doesn’t use a Createspace ISBN. Don’t even let your publisher pay the $100.00 for an ISBN. Make sure your publisher buys an ISBN directly from Bowker.com. The issue is if you get a distribution center interested in your book, your publisher is in agreement with Createspace not to publish the book with anyone else but them. That also means that your publisher is not allowed to use their issued ISBN to print books with any other printer. To print thousands of books with a cheaper printer, your ISBN must be issued through Bowker.com. If you choose to purchase professional book services from Createspace such as editing, cover design or more, you will pay dearly for those services. You will notice that if you search publishing companies online, there are hundreds of new companies being established every year simply because people are using Createspace. Honestly, that’s how I started my company, but soon as I realized that bookstores weren’t interested, I had to change my game plan. You must ask your publisher these types of questions from the git-go. What happens when you personally start making phone calls promoting your book, and you actually get someone who wants to order 5000 copies of your book, but request a 70% discount off of the cover price? You can’t do it, because you can’t buy books cheap enough from Creatspace to offer a 70% off discount. Well, you could always price your book at $29.99 each, but then a distributor would never be interested. Let’s face it, if you’re looking to publish a good book, you need a publisher who has connections. Here at Whosoever Press, we have excellent connections. We have so many connections that it would blow your mind if I told you who all we have in our realm of influence. However, that won’t benefit you at all if you don’t have a good book. Make sure you have your book reviewed by many different readers before you submit it to my company or any other for that matter. The publishing industry is changing and Amazon is leading the way, but small publishers can out-perform Amazon, you just need a good one! Do your research, and never publish with the first publisher who tickles your interest!	ea189980-8021-5c2a-90ea-34f2f67b052a	25/08/2025 16:01:28
https://medium.com/the-optophonia-fiasco/the-optophonia-fiasco-2-09accb36f0b9	medium.com	The Optophonia Fiasco #2	AI Art	Myk Eff	https://medium.com/@michael-filimowicz	09accb36f0b9	https://miro.medium.com/…FyO6njBsBDw.jpeg	1 min	2025-01-09T04:31:12.669000	2025-01-09T04:32:48.471000	2025-01-09T05:25:41.503000	0	0	en	Art,Digital Art,Culture,Technology,Creativity	<section> <h1>The Optophonia Fiasco #2</h1> <h3>AI Art</h3> <blockquote><strong>Psychogeography</strong> is a way of exploring cities and places to notice how they influence the way we feel, think, and behave. It started with people like Guy Debord and the Situationists, who thought modern cities were built to control how we move and live. They wanted to break free from that by wandering through cities in unexpected ways, like going down streets you don’t know or following random paths. This wandering, called a <em>dérive</em>, helped them discover surprising and hidden things about places, showing how streets, buildings, and spaces can change our emotions and experiences.</blockquote> </section>	AI art The Optophonia Fiasco #2 AI Art Psychogeography is a way of exploring cities and places to notice how they influence the way we feel, think, and behave. It started with people like Guy Debord and the Situationists, who thought modern cities were built to control how we move and live. They wanted to break free from that by wandering through cities in unexpected ways, like going down streets you don’t know or following random paths. This wandering, called a dérive, helped them discover surprising and hidden things about places, showing how streets, buildings, and spaces can change our emotions and experiences.	e13265e0-5c01-5757-9dc6-12d4017aecf9	25/08/2025 16:01:29
https://medium.com/@richardmishaandesigns/the-mishaan-touch-stylistically-is-an-expansive-one-which-is-not-surprising-he-himself-is-an-f3333878325d	medium.com	The Mishaan touch, stylistically, is an expansive one, which is not surprising — he himself is an…	null	Richard Mishaan	https://medium.com/@richardmishaandesigns	f3333878325d	https://miro.medium.com/…xSdx-rjwDYA.jpeg	1 min	2017-06-22T16:45:21.718000	2017-06-22T16:54:04.709000	2017-06-22T16:54:05.432000	0	0	en	Richard Mishaan,Richard Mishaan Design,Homer Design,Interior Design,Architect	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/736/1DUgo07DRWmg9p0F4SH0nLg.jpeg" width="736" height="1103" loading="lazy" /> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/794/1NB9WeI5SIDbZGwhG5aJNnA.jpeg" width="794" height="529" loading="lazy" /> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1000/1Gz2jku1sK-UwuBEf5djs-g.jpeg" width="1000" height="682" loading="lazy" /> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/794/1A0OngEgNJaYxSdx-rjwDYA.jpeg" width="794" height="529" loading="lazy" /> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/794/1*J65uLbbS0FEOIE9ArqZOwQ.jpeg" width="794" height="529" loading="lazy" /> <p><strong><a href="https://www.behan</strong>ce.net/richardmishaandesign">Richard Mishaan on Behance <em>Richard Mishaan is a celebrated and renowned designer in New York City. He is the owner and lead designer at Richard…</em>www.be</a>hance.net</p> <p>The Mishaan touch, stylistically, is an expansive one, which is not surprising — he himself is an expansive person. His combined knowledge of fashion, architecture, and interior design, plus his cultural roots, give him a deep understanding of luxury and quality” Pamela Fiori, Editor-in-Chief, Town & Country.Born in Colombia, Richard Mishaan began his career by apprenticing in the offices of Philip Johnson after receiving a BA from New York University and attending Columbia University School of Architecture.Mishaan has authored two books, Modern Luxury and Artfully Modern both published by Monacelli Press, a division of Random House. Artfully Modern was released in November of 2014.</p> </section>	Richard Mishaan of Richard Mishaan Design Cartagena Home Designed by Richard Mishaan Design Cartagena Home Designed by Richard Mishaan Design Cartagena Home Designed by Richard Mishaan Design Cartagena Home Designed by Richard Mishaan Design Richard Mishaan on Behance Richard Mishaan is a celebrated and renowned designer in New York City. He is the owner and lead designer at Richard…www.behance.net The Mishaan touch, stylistically, is an expansive one, which is not surprising — he himself is an expansive person. His combined knowledge of fashion, architecture, and interior design, plus his cultural roots, give him a deep understanding of luxury and quality” Pamela Fiori, Editor-in-Chief, Town & Country.Born in Colombia, Richard Mishaan began his career by apprenticing in the offices of Philip Johnson after receiving a BA from New York University and attending Columbia University School of Architecture.Mishaan has authored two books, Modern Luxury and Artfully Modern both published by Monacelli Press, a division of Random House. Artfully Modern was released in November of 2014.	5bb829d2-d595-5933-a3b6-a90a4dee5b58	25/08/2025 16:01:29
https://medium.com/@arkholt/good-vs-bad-38a7fde99291	medium.com	Good vs Bad	I have no problem with people being passionate about art and entertainment that they like, but a lot of people are very passionate about…	Ben Carlsen	https://medium.com/@arkholt	38a7fde99291	https://miro.medium.com/…lOW-bLbuxudQ.png	1 min	2017-06-26T19:39:18.158000	2017-06-26T19:44:03.114000	2018-03-18T06:46:26.542000	0	0	en	Birds,Webcomics,Humor,Art,Criticism	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/2296/1*gMhs7NjxozlOW-bLbuxudQ.png" width="2296" height="576" loading="lazy" /> <p>I have no problem with people being passionate about art and entertainment that they like, but a lot of people are very passionate about what they <em>don’t</em> like. Some critics can wax fairly poetic about how horrible certain things are. To be honest, I’ve done some of that before myself. I realized, however, that it’s a waste of valuable time and energy that could be spent enjoying things that I think are good.</p> <p><em>Originally published at <a href="http://th</em>ebirdfeeder.com/comic/512">thebirdfeeder.com</a>.</p> </section>	Good vs Bad I have no problem with people being passionate about art and entertainment that they like, but a lot of people are very passionate about what they don’t like. Some critics can wax fairly poetic about how horrible certain things are. To be honest, I’ve done some of that before myself. I realized, however, that it’s a waste of valuable time and energy that could be spent enjoying things that I think are good. Originally published at thebirdfeeder.com.	6d797d83-f233-56c9-b48a-f06ce9b47259	25/08/2025 16:01:30
https://medium.com/@Heliosfinance/dollar-denominated-securities-to-be-driven-by-demand-from-firms-as-they-seek-acquisitions-abroad-3bea353a2c90	medium.com	Dollar-denominated securities to be driven by demand from firms as they seek acquisitions abroad…	Dollar-denominated securities to be driven by demand from firms as they seek acquisitions abroad via @_kmontealegre http://bit.ly/dollarden…	Helios Finance	https://medium.com/@Heliosfinance	3bea353a2c90	https://miro.medium.com/max/2000/0*A-mc0do-OQ6kuTVp.	0 min	2017-03-24T06:16:22.506000	2017-03-24T06:16:23.365000	2017-03-24T06:16:23.365000	0	0	en	Helies Finanace	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/550/0*A-mc0do-OQ6kuTVp." width="550" height="300" loading="lazy" /> <p><a href="https://twitter.com/bworldph/status/845138107959783424">Dollar-denominated securities to be driven by demand from firms as they seek acquisitions abroad via @_kmontealegre http://bit.ly/dollarden pic.twitter.com/qBQagmY67w</a> published first on <a href="http://ift.tt/2ljLF4B">http://ift.tt/2ljLF4B</a></p> </section>	Dollar-denominated securities to be driven by demand from firms as they seek acquisitions abroad via @_kmontealegre http://bit.ly/dollarden http://pic.twitter.com/qBQagmY67w Dollar-denominated securities to be driven by demand from firms as they seek acquisitions abroad via @_kmontealegre http://bit.ly/dollarden pic.twitter.com/qBQagmY67w published first on http://ift.tt/2ljLF4B	86b2efe8-bcff-5e44-adb7-1909fae1db9c	25/08/2025 16:01:30
https://medium.com/the-straight-dope/why-voters-are-ignored-40d71ce5454f	medium.com	Why Voters are Ignored	(Advice and Dissent, Alan Blinder, Basic Books, March 2018)	David Wineberg	https://medium.com/@davidwineberg	40d71ce5454f	https://miro.medium.com/…aoEZWYuv56A.jpeg	3 min	2018-02-26T18:27:35.105000	2018-02-26T18:30:48.232000	2018-02-27T12:42:34.438000	0	1	en	Politics,Economics,Congress,Fed,Elections	<section> <p>(Advice and Dissent, Alan Blinder, Basic Books, March 2018)</p> <p><strong>The Politics of Economics</strong></p> <p>When Alan Blinder was advising the Clinton Administration from his economics perch, he would often find himself thinking “There is no election next Tuesday.” The thinking of the political class is so far removed from anything else, we find economic advice ignored, public opinion ignored, and the good of the nation ignored. What’s important is the next sound bite, tweet and poll that will aid in re-election. For an economist, it feels like automatic rejection every time.</p> <p>Advice and Dissent is based on the hundred year-old Lamppost Theory, which says that drunks depend on lampposts for support, not illumination. So with politicians, apparently. They use economists to support their own positions, not for insights or solutions.</p> <p>The main problem is the Madison Curse, Blinder says. James Madison bequeathed a system so hoary , cumbersome and slow that little or nothing could be accomplished in it. That was the actual idea, and we see the results daily.</p> <p>Having chaired Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors and vice-chaired the Federal Reserve board, Blinder had a front row seat to the disconnect between politicians and economists. He says economists are all about data and equity, while politicians are all about the popular vote and re-election. These two galaxies rarely cross paths. That is why tax reform is so difficult, why boondoggles continue to exist and why common sense is not a factor. It’s to the point, he says, where even a bipartisan panel of economists would not necessarily agree with a bipartisan panel of lawmakers.</p> <p>Blinder goes into exquisite detail of how things get derailed in the process. How the budget needs to be passed by scores of committees. How local politics can destroy national programs. How linkages and logrolling top proven practices and corrective initiatives. The government is there for the needs of the politicians and the process. Economists don’t figure in that, unless they support the politicians’ stands.</p> <p>There is a separate room in economics hell for supply-side theories. Blinder quotes newly-minted Nobel laureate George Stigler, invited to comment on Reagan’s new cure-all: “It’s a gimmick, or if you wish, a slogan.” There are essentially no economists who support the supply side, trickle-down theory of cutting taxes to increase government revenues. Which is why you never see them backing the president. Blinder stabs the supply-siders numerous times throughout the book. The whole concept is an embarrassment to the discipline. But that doesn’t stop politicians from trying it again and again, claiming it is a proven solution.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/454/1*ZPkVKzt2jFpaoEZWYuv56A.jpeg" width="454" height="464" loading="lazy" /> <p>Economists have the numbers, and the politicians ignore them. Blinder shows that while politicians bemoan the disappearance of American manufacturing, output has been stable for 60 years (Jobs have disappeared, but production continues). And while politicians claim government has ballooned, the civil service is the same size it was in the Eisenhower Administration. This stops absolutely no one from winning elections based on government-bashing.</p> <p>The government is twisted so far out of shape that Blinder’s suggestions for nudging it back to the mean would have seemed crazy not long ago. He thinks we need more backroom negotiations where deals can be done out of the sunshine. He thinks we should bring back earmarks to exchange for votes on bills. And he thinks we can safely implement otherwise impossible tax hikes if we pass them now but put them off for years. The intellectual dishonesty is breathtaking.</p> <p>On the other hand, Blinder argues for a Tax Board, made up of economists and other technocrats, to structure a fairer and simpler tax system, without input from special interests. Taking this away from the politicians is not unprecedented. He points to the Federal Reserve, which Congress created because it was out of its depth trying to reign in panics and recessions. Similarly, fast track approvals allow specialists to devise an entire package, and Congress gets to vote yea or nay on the whole thing. We have the resources to make government work, but politicians have other priorities.</p> <p>Another great old idea is the parliamentary system of civil service. The US president must appoint 9000 people to Administration positions. The vacancies can last for two years or more, what with finding candidates, having the FBI investigate them, and the senate confirm them. The UK and Canadian governments carry on with a full and neutral civil service, without missing a beat. Only the ministers (cabinet secretaries) change.</p> <p>The one great weakness of Advice and Dissent is Blinder’s clear and omnipresent status as a Democrat. He wears it proudly, and demonstrates it often. This is not merely beneath the lofty pedestal he puts economists on, but ironically, points right back James Madison, whom Blinder cites repeatedly. Madison was totally against political parties for gumming up the works. Which is saying something, considering Madison’s design. If we had politicians devoted to issues instead of ideologies, even the government might work better.</p> <p>After reading Advice and Dissent, your appreciation of how government works changes; you realize it is a miracle if anything productive comes of it, ever.</p> <p>David Wineberg</p> </section>	Why Voters are Ignored (Advice and Dissent, Alan Blinder, Basic Books, March 2018) The Politics of Economics When Alan Blinder was advising the Clinton Administration from his economics perch, he would often find himself thinking “There is no election next Tuesday.” The thinking of the political class is so far removed from anything else, we find economic advice ignored, public opinion ignored, and the good of the nation ignored. What’s important is the next sound bite, tweet and poll that will aid in re-election. For an economist, it feels like automatic rejection every time. Advice and Dissent is based on the hundred year-old Lamppost Theory, which says that drunks depend on lampposts for support, not illumination. So with politicians, apparently. They use economists to support their own positions, not for insights or solutions. The main problem is the Madison Curse, Blinder says. James Madison bequeathed a system so hoary , cumbersome and slow that little or nothing could be accomplished in it. That was the actual idea, and we see the results daily. Having chaired Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors and vice-chaired the Federal Reserve board, Blinder had a front row seat to the disconnect between politicians and economists. He says economists are all about data and equity, while politicians are all about the popular vote and re-election. These two galaxies rarely cross paths. That is why tax reform is so difficult, why boondoggles continue to exist and why common sense is not a factor. It’s to the point, he says, where even a bipartisan panel of economists would not necessarily agree with a bipartisan panel of lawmakers. Blinder goes into exquisite detail of how things get derailed in the process. How the budget needs to be passed by scores of committees. How local politics can destroy national programs. How linkages and logrolling top proven practices and corrective initiatives. The government is there for the needs of the politicians and the process. Economists don’t figure in that, unless they support the politicians’ stands. There is a separate room in economics hell for supply-side theories. Blinder quotes newly-minted Nobel laureate George Stigler, invited to comment on Reagan’s new cure-all: “It’s a gimmick, or if you wish, a slogan.” There are essentially no economists who support the supply side, trickle-down theory of cutting taxes to increase government revenues. Which is why you never see them backing the president. Blinder stabs the supply-siders numerous times throughout the book. The whole concept is an embarrassment to the discipline. But that doesn’t stop politicians from trying it again and again, claiming it is a proven solution. Economists have the numbers, and the politicians ignore them. Blinder shows that while politicians bemoan the disappearance of American manufacturing, output has been stable for 60 years (Jobs have disappeared, but production continues). And while politicians claim government has ballooned, the civil service is the same size it was in the Eisenhower Administration. This stops absolutely no one from winning elections based on government-bashing. The government is twisted so far out of shape that Blinder’s suggestions for nudging it back to the mean would have seemed crazy not long ago. He thinks we need more backroom negotiations where deals can be done out of the sunshine. He thinks we should bring back earmarks to exchange for votes on bills. And he thinks we can safely implement otherwise impossible tax hikes if we pass them now but put them off for years. The intellectual dishonesty is breathtaking. On the other hand, Blinder argues for a Tax Board, made up of economists and other technocrats, to structure a fairer and simpler tax system, without input from special interests. Taking this away from the politicians is not unprecedented. He points to the Federal Reserve, which Congress created because it was out of its depth trying to reign in panics and recessions. Similarly, fast track approvals allow specialists to devise an entire package, and Congress gets to vote yea or nay on the whole thing. We have the resources to make government work, but politicians have other priorities. Another great old idea is the parliamentary system of civil service. The US president must appoint 9000 people to Administration positions. The vacancies can last for two years or more, what with finding candidates, having the FBI investigate them, and the senate confirm them. The UK and Canadian governments carry on with a full and neutral civil service, without missing a beat. Only the ministers (cabinet secretaries) change. The one great weakness of Advice and Dissent is Blinder’s clear and omnipresent status as a Democrat. He wears it proudly, and demonstrates it often. This is not merely beneath the lofty pedestal he puts economists on, but ironically, points right back James Madison, whom Blinder cites repeatedly. Madison was totally against political parties for gumming up the works. Which is saying something, considering Madison’s design. If we had politicians devoted to issues instead of ideologies, even the government might work better. After reading Advice and Dissent, your appreciation of how government works changes; you realize it is a miracle if anything productive comes of it, ever. David Wineberg	d4efb37d-2c81-5dfe-84c7-a8c7cc725935	25/08/2025 16:01:30
https://blog.devgenius.io/java-coding-exercises-0b7c47458fe5	medium.com	Java Coding Exercises	Building Fundamentals	Syed Hamed Raza	https://medium.com/@ai.mlresearcher	0b7c47458fe5	https://miro.medium.com/max/2000/0*p3Q45o4gj4b_sxtF	33 min	2024-02-21T14:01:37.106000	2024-02-21T15:25:35.457000	2024-02-29T07:12:00.929000	2	79	en	Java,Java8,Coding,Programming,Java Programming	<section> <h3>Building Fundamentals</h3> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/6000/0p3Q45o4gj4b_sxtF" width="6000" height="4000" loading="lazy" /> <p>Learning Java programming involves not only understanding syntax and concepts but also gaining hands-on experience through coding exercises. In this article, we present a set of 25 basic Java coding exercises along with their solutions. These exercises cover a variety of fundamental programming concepts, providing a comprehensive foundation for beginners and a great practice resource for those looking to enhance their Java skills.</p> <h1>1. Hello World</h1> <p>Write a Java program to print “Hello, World!” to the console.</p> <pre><code class="language-typescript">// The 'public' keyword indicates that the class is accessible from any other class. // The class name is HelloWorld, and the file should be named HelloWorld.java. public class HelloWorld { // The main method is the entry point of the program. // It is called when the program is executed. public static void main(String[] args) { // System.out is an object that represents the standard output stream. // println() is a method used to print a line of text to the console. System.out.println("Hello, World!"); } }</code></pre> <p>Here’s a breakdown of the main components:</p> <h3>Class Declaration</h3> <ul> <li>public class HelloWorld: Declares a class named HelloWorld.</li> <li>public keyword allows the class to be accessed from other classes.</li> </ul> <h3>Main Method</h3> <ul> <li>public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, which serves as the entry point for the program.</li> <li>public: The main method must be declared as public so that it can be accessed by the Java runtime system.</li> <li>static: The method is associated with the class rather than with any specific instance of the class.</li> <li>void: The main method does not return any value.</li> <li>main: The name of the method. The Java runtime system looks for this specific method signature to start the program.</li> <li>String[] args: The main method takes an array of strings as parameters. This allows the program to accept command-line arguments, although in this case, the program does not use them.</li> </ul> <h3>Print Statement</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.println("Hello, World!");: This line prints the text "Hello, World!" followed by a newline to the standard output (usually the console).</li> </ul> <h2>2. Sum of Two Numbers</h2> <p>Write a Java program that takes two numbers as input and prints their sum.</p> <pre><code class="language-java">import java.util.Scanner; public class SumOfTwoNumbers { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter the first number. System.out.print("Enter the first number: "); // Read the first number entered by the user. int num1 = scanner.nextInt(); // Prompt the user to enter the second number. System.out.print("Enter the second number: "); // Read the second number entered by the user. int num2 = scanner.nextInt(); // Calculate the sum of the two numbers. int sum = num1 + num2; // Print the result (sum) to the console. System.out.println("Sum: " + sum); } }</code></pre> <p>Here’s a step-by-step explanation:</p> <h3>Import Statement</h3> <ul> <li>import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input.</li> </ul> <h3>Class Declaration</h3> <ul> <li>public class SumOfTwoNumbers: Declares a class named SumOfTwoNumbers.</li> </ul> <h3>Main Method</h3> <ul> <li>public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program.</li> </ul> <h3>Scanner Initialization</h3> <ul> <li>Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in).</li> </ul> <h3>User Input</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.print("Enter the first number: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the first number.</li> <li>int num1 = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the first integer entered by the user using the nextInt() method of the Scanner class.</li> <li>System.out.print("Enter the second number: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the second number.</li> <li>int num2 = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the second integer entered by the user.</li> </ul> <h3>Sum Calculation</h3> <ul> <li>int sum = num1 + num2;: Calculates the sum of the two numbers.</li> </ul> <h3>Print Result</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.println("Sum: " + sum);: Prints the result (sum) to the console.</li> </ul> <h2>3. Check Even or Odd</h2> <p>Write a Java program to check if a given number is even or odd.</p> <pre><code class="language-java">import java.util.Scanner; public class EvenOrOdd { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter a number. System.out.print("Enter a number: "); // Read the number entered by the user. int num = scanner.nextInt(); // Check if the number is even or odd using the modulo operator (%). if (num % 2 == 0) { // If the remainder when divided by 2 is 0, the number is even. System.out.println(num + " is even."); } else { // If the remainder when divided by 2 is not 0, the number is odd. System.out.println(num + " is odd."); } } }</code></pre> <p>Here’s a step-by-step explanation:</p> <h3>Import Statement</h3> <ul> <li>import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package.</li> </ul> <h3>Class Declaration</h3> <ul> <li>public class EvenOrOdd: Declares a class named EvenOrOdd.</li> </ul> <h3>Main Method</h3> <ul> <li>public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program.</li> </ul> <h3>Scanner Initialization</h3> <ul> <li>Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in).</li> </ul> <h3>User Input</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.print("Enter a number: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter a number.</li> <li>int num = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the integer entered by the user.</li> </ul> <h3>Even or Odd Check</h3> <ul> <li>if (num % 2 == 0) {: Checks if the entered number is even by using the modulo operator (%). If the remainder is 0, the number is even.</li> <li>System.out.println(num + " is even.");: Prints a message indicating that the number is even.</li> <li>} else {: If the remainder is not 0, the number is odd.</li> <li>System.out.println(num + " is odd.");: Prints a message indicating that the number is odd.</li> </ul> <h2>4. Reverse a String</h2> <p>Write a Java program to reverse a given string.</p> <pre><code class="language-java">import java.util.Scanner; public class ReverseString { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter a string. System.out.print("Enter a string: "); // Read the entire line of input entered by the user. String input = scanner.nextLine(); // Create a StringBuilder object and reverse the input string. String reversed = new StringBuilder(input).reverse().toString(); // Print the reversed string to the console. System.out.println("Reversed string: " + reversed); } }</code></pre> <p>Here’s a step-by-step explanation:</p> <h3>Import Statement</h3> <ul> <li>import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input.</li> </ul> <h3>Class Declaration</h3> <ul> <li>public class ReverseString: Declares a class named ReverseString.</li> </ul> <h3>Main Method</h3> <ul> <li>public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program.</li> </ul> <h3>Scanner Initialization</h3> <ul> <li>Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in).</li> </ul> <h3>User Input</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.print("Enter a string: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter a string.</li> <li>String input = scanner.nextLine();: Reads the entire line of input entered by the user using the nextLine() method of the Scanner class.</li> </ul> <h3>String Reversal</h3> <ul> <li>String reversed = new StringBuilder(input).reverse().toString();: Uses a StringBuilder to reverse the order of characters in the input string. The reverse() method reverses the characters, and toString() converts the StringBuilder back to a String.</li> </ul> <h3>Print Result</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.println("Reversed string: " + reversed);: Prints the reversed string to the console.</li> </ul> <h2>5. Factorial Calculation</h2> <p>Write a Java program to calculate the factorial of a given number.</p> <pre><code class="language-java">import java.util.Scanner; public class FactorialCalculation { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter a number. System.out.print("Enter a number: "); // Read the integer entered by the user. int num = scanner.nextInt(); // Initialize a variable to store the factorial, starting with 1. long factorial = 1; // Calculate the factorial using a for loop. for (int i = 1; i <= num; i++) { factorial = i; } // Print the result (factorial) to the console. System.out.println("Factorial of " + num + " is: " + factorial); } }</code></pre> <p>Here’s a step-by-step explanation:</p> <h3>Import Statement</h3> <ul> <li>import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input.</li> </ul> <h3>Class Declaration</h3> <ul> <li>public class FactorialCalculation: Declares a class named FactorialCalculation.</li> </ul> <h3>Main Method</h3> <ul> <li>public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program.</li> </ul> <h3>Scanner Initialization</h3> <ul> <li>Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in).</li> </ul> <h3>User Input</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.print("Enter a number: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter a number.</li> <li>int num = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the integer entered by the user using the nextInt() method of the Scanner class.</li> </ul> <h3>Factorial Calculation</h3> <ul> <li>long factorial = 1;: Initializes a variable factorial to store the result, starting with 1.</li> <li>for (int i = 1; i <= num; i++) { factorial = i; }: Uses a for loop to calculate the factorial by multiplying the current value of factorial by each integer from 1 to num.</li> </ul> <h3>Print Result</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.println("Factorial of " + num + " is: " + factorial);: Prints the result (factorial) to the console.</li> </ul> <h2>6. Check Palindrome</h2> <p>Write a Java program to check if a given string is a palindrome.</p> <pre><code class="language-java">import java.util.Scanner; public class PalindromeCheck { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter a string. System.out.print("Enter a string: "); // Read the entire line of input entered by the user. String input = scanner.nextLine(); // Create a StringBuilder object and reverse the input string. String reversed = new StringBuilder(input).reverse().toString(); // Check if the reversed string is equal to the original input (ignoring case). if (input.equalsIgnoreCase(reversed)) { System.out.println(input + " is a palindrome."); } else { System.out.println(input + " is not a palindrome."); } } }</code></pre> <p>Here’s a step-by-step explanation:</p> <h3>Import Statement</h3> <ul> <li>import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input.</li> </ul> <h3>Class Declaration</h3> <ul> <li>public class PalindromeCheck: Declares a class named PalindromeCheck.</li> </ul> <h3>Main Method</h3> <ul> <li>public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program.</li> </ul> <h3>Scanner Initialization</h3> <ul> <li>Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in).</li> </ul> <h3>User Input</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.print("Enter a string: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter a string.</li> <li>String input = scanner.nextLine();: Reads the entire line of input entered by the user using the nextLine() method of the Scanner class.</li> </ul> <h3>String Reversal</h3> <ul> <li>String reversed = new StringBuilder(input).reverse().toString();: Uses a StringBuilder to reverse the order of characters in the input string. The reverse() method reverses the characters, and toString() converts the StringBuilder back to a String.</li> </ul> <h3>Palindrome Check</h3> <ul> <li>if (input.equalsIgnoreCase(reversed)) { ... }: Checks if the original input string is equal to its reversed version, ignoring case. If true, it means the input is a palindrome.</li> </ul> <h3>Print Result</h3> <ul> <li>The program then prints whether the input is a palindrome or not.</li> </ul> <h2>7. Print Multiplication Table</h2> <p>Write a Java program to print the multiplication table of a given number.</p> <pre><code class="language-java">import java.util.Scanner; public class MultiplicationTable { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter a number. System.out.print("Enter a number: "); // Read the integer entered by the user. int num = scanner.nextInt(); // Use a loop to generate and print the multiplication table for the entered number. for (int i = 1; i <= 10; i++) { System.out.println(num + " x " + i + " = " + (num i)); } } }</code></pre> <p>Here’s a step-by-step explanation:</p> <h3>Import Statement</h3> <ul> <li>import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input.</li> </ul> <h3>Class Declaration</h3> <ul> <li>public class MultiplicationTable: Declares a class named MultiplicationTable.</li> </ul> <h3>Main Method</h3> <ul> <li>public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program.</li> </ul> <h3>Scanner Initialization</h3> <ul> <li>Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in).</li> </ul> <h3>User Input</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.print("Enter a number: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter a number.</li> <li>int num = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the integer entered by the user.</li> </ul> <h3>Multiplication Table Generation</h3> <ul> <li>for (int i = 1; i <= 10; i++) { ... }: Uses a for loop to iterate from 1 to 10.</li> <li>System.out.println(num + " x " + i + " = " + (num * i));: Prints the multiplication table entry for the current value of i.</li> </ul> <h3>Print Result</h3> <ul> <li>The program prints the multiplication table for the entered number up to 10.</li> </ul> <h2>8. Fibonacci Series</h2> <p>Write a Java program to generate the Fibonacci series up to a given number n.</p> <pre><code class="language-java">import java.util.Scanner; public class FibonacciSeries { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter the value of n. System.out.print("Enter the value of n: "); // Read the integer entered by the user. int n = scanner.nextInt(); // Initialize the first two numbers in the Fibonacci series. int first = 0, second = 1; // Print a message indicating the Fibonacci series is up to n. System.out.println("Fibonacci Series up to " + n + ":"); // Use a while loop to generate and print Fibonacci numbers up to n. while (first <= n) { // Print the current Fibonacci number. System.out.print(first + " "); // Calculate the next Fibonacci number. int next = first + second; // Update first and second for the next iteration. first = second; second = next; } } }</code></pre> <p>Here’s a step-by-step explanation:</p> <h3>Import Statement</h3> <ul> <li>import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input.</li> </ul> <h3>Class Declaration</h3> <ul> <li>public class FibonacciSeries: Declares a class named FibonacciSeries.</li> </ul> <h3>Main Method</h3> <ul> <li>public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program.</li> </ul> <h3>Scanner Initialization</h3> <ul> <li>Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in).</li> </ul> <h3>User Input</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.print("Enter the value of n: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the value of 'n'.</li> <li>int n = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the integer entered by the user using the nextInt() method of the Scanner class.</li> </ul> <h3>Fibonacci Series Initialization</h3> <ul> <li>int first = 0, second = 1;: Initializes the first two numbers in the Fibonacci series.</li> </ul> <h3>Print Message</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.println("Fibonacci Series up to " + n + ":");: Prints a message indicating that the Fibonacci series is up to the specified value 'n'.</li> </ul> <h3>Fibonacci Series Generation</h3> <ul> <li>while (first <= n) { ... }: Uses a while loop to generate and print Fibonacci numbers until the current Fibonacci number exceeds 'n'.</li> <li>System.out.print(first + " ");: Prints the current Fibonacci number.</li> <li>int next = first + second;: Calculates the next Fibonacci number.</li> <li>first = second; second = next;: Updates the values of 'first' and 'second' for the next iteration.</li> </ul> <h2>9. Prime Number Check</h2> <p>Write a Java program to check if a given number is prime.</p> <pre><code class="language-dart">import java.util.Scanner; public class PrimeNumberCheck { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter a number. System.out.print("Enter a number: "); // Read the integer entered by the user. int num = scanner.nextInt(); // Assume the number is prime initially. boolean isPrime = true; // Check if the number is less than or equal to 1. if (num <= 1) { isPrime = false; } else { // Use a for loop to check for factors up to the square root of the number. for (int i = 2; i <= Math.sqrt(num); i++) { if (num % i == 0) { // If the number is divisible by i, it's not prime. isPrime = false; break; } } } // Print whether the number is prime or not. if (isPrime) { System.out.println(num + " is a prime number."); } else { System.out.println(num + " is not a prime number."); } } }</code></pre> <p>Here’s a step-by-step explanation:</p> <h3>Import Statement</h3> <ul> <li>import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input.</li> </ul> <h3>Class Declaration</h3> <ul> <li>public class PrimeNumberCheck: Declares a class named PrimeNumberCheck.</li> </ul> <h3>Main Method</h3> <ul> <li>public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program.</li> </ul> <h3>Scanner Initialization</h3> <ul> <li>Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in).</li> </ul> <h3>User Input</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.print("Enter a number: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter a number.</li> <li>int num = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the integer entered by the user using the nextInt() method of the Scanner class.</li> </ul> <h3>Prime Number Check</h3> <ul> <li>boolean isPrime = true;: Assumes the number is prime initially.</li> <li>if (num <= 1) { isPrime = false; }: Checks if the number is less than or equal to 1; in such cases, it's not considered prime.</li> <li>else { ... }: If the number is greater than 1, a for loop is used to check for factors up to the square root of the number.</li> <li>if (num % i == 0) { isPrime = false; break; }: If the number is divisible by any value of 'i', it's not prime, and the loop breaks.</li> </ul> <h3>Print Result</h3> <ul> <li>if (isPrime) { System.out.println(num + " is a prime number."); }: Prints whether the number is prime or not.</li> </ul> <h2>10. Find Maximum in Array</h2> <p>Write a Java program to find the maximum element in an array.</p> <pre><code class="language-php">import java.util.Scanner; public class FindMaxInArray { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter the size of the array. System.out.print("Enter the size of the array: "); // Read the size entered by the user. int size = scanner.nextInt(); // Create an array with the specified size. int[] array = new int[size]; // Prompt the user to enter elements of the array. System.out.print("Enter elements of the array: "); // Use a for loop to read elements into the array. for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) { array[i] = scanner.nextInt(); } // Initialize the maximum element with the first element of the array. int max = array[0]; // Use an enhanced for loop to find the maximum element in the array. for (int num : array) { if (num > max) { max = num; } } // Print the maximum element in the array. System.out.println("Maximum element in the array: " + max); } }</code></pre> <p>Here’s a step-by-step explanation:</p> <h3>Import Statement</h3> <ul> <li>import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input.</li> </ul> <h3>Class Declaration</h3> <ul> <li>public class FindMaxInArray: Declares a class named FindMaxInArray.</li> </ul> <h3>Main Method</h3> <ul> <li>public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program.</li> </ul> <h3>Scanner Initialization</h3> <ul> <li>Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in).</li> </ul> <h3>User Input — Array Size</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.print("Enter the size of the array: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the size of the array.</li> <li>int size = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the size entered by the user using the nextInt() method of the Scanner class.</li> </ul> <h3>Array Initialization</h3> <ul> <li>int[] array = new int[size];: Creates an array with the specified size.</li> </ul> <h3>User Input — Array Elements</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.print("Enter elements of the array: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the elements of the array.</li> <li>for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) { array[i] = scanner.nextInt(); }: Uses a for loop to read elements into the array.</li> </ul> <h3>Find Maximum Element</h3> <ul> <li>int max = array[0];: Initializes the maximum element with the first element of the array.</li> <li>for (int num : array) { if (num > max) { max = num; } }: Uses an enhanced for loop to find the maximum element in the array.</li> </ul> <h3>Print Result</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.println("Maximum element in the array: " + max);: Prints the maximum element in the array.</li> </ul> <h2>11. Check Leap Year</h2> <p>Write a Java program to check if a given year is a leap year.</p> <pre><code class="language-java">import java.util.Scanner; public class LeapYearCheck { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter a year. System.out.print("Enter a year: "); // Read the integer entered by the user. int year = scanner.nextInt(); // Assume the year is not a leap year initially. boolean isLeapYear = false; // Check if the year is a leap year based on the leap year rules. if ((year % 4 == 0 && year % 100 != 0) \|\| (year % 400 == 0)) { isLeapYear = true; } // Print whether the year is a leap year or not. if (isLeapYear) { System.out.println(year + " is a leap year."); } else { System.out.println(year + " is not a leap year."); } } }</code></pre> <p>Here’s a step-by-step explanation:</p> <h3>Import Statement</h3> <ul> <li>import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input.</li> </ul> <h3>Class Declaration</h3> <ul> <li>public class LeapYearCheck: Declares a class named LeapYearCheck.</li> </ul> <h3>Main Method</h3> <ul> <li>public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program.</li> </ul> <h3>Scanner Initialization</h3> <ul> <li>Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in).</li> </ul> <h3>User Input</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.print("Enter a year: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter a year.</li> <li>int year = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the integer entered by the user using the nextInt() method of the Scanner class.</li> </ul> <h3>Leap Year Check</h3> <ul> <li>boolean isLeapYear = false;: Assumes the year is not a leap year initially.</li> <li>if ((year % 4 == 0 && year % 100 != 0) \|\| (year % 400 == 0)) { isLeapYear = true; }: Checks if the year is a leap year based on the leap year rules.</li> </ul> <h3>Print Result</h3> <ul> <li>if (isLeapYear) { System.out.println(year + " is a leap year."); }: Prints whether the year is a leap year or not.</li> </ul> <h2>12. Calculate Average</h2> <p>Write a Java program to calculate the average of elements in an array.</p> <pre><code class="language-php">import java.util.Scanner; public class CalculateAverage { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter the size of the array. System.out.print("Enter the size of the array: "); // Read the size entered by the user. int size = scanner.nextInt(); // Create an array with the specified size. int[] array = new int[size]; // Prompt the user to enter elements of the array. System.out.print("Enter elements of the array: "); // Use a for loop to read elements into the array. for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) { array[i] = scanner.nextInt(); } // Calculate the sum of elements in the array. int sum = 0; for (int num : array) { sum += num; } // Calculate the average (casting sum to double for accurate division). double average = (double) sum / size; // Print the average of elements in the array. System.out.println("Average of elements in the array: " + average); } }</code></pre> <p>Here’s a step-by-step explanation:</p> <h3>Import Statement</h3> <ul> <li>import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input.</li> </ul> <h3>Class Declaration</h3> <ul> <li>public class CalculateAverage: Declares a class named CalculateAverage.</li> </ul> <h3>Main Method</h3> <ul> <li>public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program.</li> </ul> <h3>Scanner Initialization</h3> <ul> <li>Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in).</li> </ul> <h3>User Input — Array Size</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.print("Enter the size of the array: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the size of the array.</li> <li>int size = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the size entered by the user using the nextInt() method of the Scanner class.</li> </ul> <h3>Array Initialization</h3> <ul> <li>int[] array = new int[size];: Creates an array with the specified size.</li> </ul> <h3>User Input — Array Elements</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.print("Enter elements of the array: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the elements of the array.</li> <li>for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) { array[i] = scanner.nextInt(); }: Uses a for loop to read elements into the array.</li> </ul> <h3>Calculate Sum</h3> <ul> <li>int sum = 0;: Initializes the sum of elements to zero.</li> <li>for (int num : array) { sum += num; }: Uses an enhanced for loop to calculate the sum of elements in the array.</li> </ul> <h3>Calculate Average</h3> <ul> <li>double average = (double) sum / size;: Calculates the average (casting sum to double for accurate division).</li> </ul> <h3>Print Result</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.println("Average of elements in the array: " + average);: Prints the average of elements in the array.</li> </ul> <h2>13. Count Vowels in a String</h2> <p>Write a Java program to count the number of vowels in a given string.</p> <pre><code class="language-java">import java.util.Scanner; public class CountVowels { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter a string. System.out.print("Enter a string: "); // Read the entire line of input entered by the user. String input = scanner.nextLine(); // Initialize the count of vowels to zero. int vowelCount = 0; // Use an enhanced for loop to iterate over each character in the string. for (char ch : input.toLowerCase().toCharArray()) { // Check if the character is a vowel (case-insensitive). if (ch == 'a' \|\| ch == 'e' \|\| ch == 'i' \|\| ch == 'o' \|\| ch == 'u') { vowelCount++; } } // Print the number of vowels in the string. System.out.println("Number of vowels in the string: " + vowelCount); } }</code></pre> <p>Here’s a step-by-step explanation:</p> <h3>Import Statement</h3> <ul> <li>import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input.</li> </ul> <h3>Class Declaration</h3> <ul> <li>public class CountVowels: Declares a class named CountVowels.</li> </ul> <h3>Main Method</h3> <ul> <li>public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program.</li> </ul> <h3>Scanner Initialization</h3> <ul> <li>Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in).</li> </ul> <h3>User Input</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.print("Enter a string: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter a string.</li> <li>String input = scanner.nextLine();: Reads the entire line of input entered by the user using the nextLine() method of the Scanner class.</li> </ul> <h3>Vowel Counting</h3> <ul> <li>int vowelCount = 0;: Initializes the count of vowels to zero.</li> <li>for (char ch : input.toLowerCase().toCharArray()) { ... }: Uses an enhanced for loop to iterate over each character in the string, converting the string to lowercase to make the comparison case-insensitive.</li> <li>if (ch == 'a' \|\| ch == 'e' \|\| ch == 'i' \|\| ch == 'o' \|\| ch == 'u') { vowelCount++; }: Checks if the character is a vowel (case-insensitive) and increments the vowel count if true.</li> </ul> <h3>Print Result</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.println("Number of vowels in the string: " + vowelCount);: Prints the number of vowels in the string.</li> </ul> <h2>14. Calculate Power</h2> <p>Write a Java program to calculate the power of a number.</p> <pre><code class="language-csharp">import java.util.Scanner; public class CalculatePower { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter the base. System.out.print("Enter the base: "); // Read the integer entered by the user as the base. int base = scanner.nextInt(); // Prompt the user to enter the exponent. System.out.print("Enter the exponent: "); // Read the integer entered by the user as the exponent. int exponent = scanner.nextInt(); // Initialize the result to 1. long result = 1; // Use a for loop to calculate the power. for (int i = 0; i < exponent; i++) { result = base; } // Print the result of the power calculation. System.out.println(base + " ^ " + exponent + " = " + result); } }</code></pre> <p>Here’s a step-by-step explanation:</p> <h3>Import Statement</h3> <ul> <li>import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input.</li> </ul> <h3>Class Declaration</h3> <ul> <li>public class CalculatePower: Declares a class named CalculatePower.</li> </ul> <h3>Main Method</h3> <ul> <li>public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program.</li> </ul> <h3>Scanner Initialization</h3> <ul> <li>Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in).</li> </ul> <h3>User Input — Base</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.print("Enter the base: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the base.</li> <li>int base = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the integer entered by the user using the nextInt() method of the Scanner class.</li> </ul> <h3>User Input — Exponent</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.print("Enter the exponent: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the exponent.</li> <li>int exponent = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the integer entered by the user as the exponent.</li> </ul> <h3>Power Calculation</h3> <ul> <li>long result = 1;: Initializes the result to 1.</li> <li>for (int i = 0; i < exponent; i++) { result = base; }: Uses a for loop to perform the power calculation by multiplying the base 'exponent' times.</li> </ul> <h3>Print Result</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.println(base + " ^ " + exponent + " = " + result);: Prints the result of the power calculation.</li> </ul> <h2>15. Binary to Decimal</h2> <p>Write a Java program to convert a binary number to decimal.</p> <pre><code class="language-java">import java.util.Scanner; public class BinaryToDecimal { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter a binary number. System.out.print("Enter a binary number: "); // Read the binary number entered by the user as a string. String binaryStr = scanner.next(); // Use Integer.parseInt to convert the binary string to decimal. int decimal = Integer.parseInt(binaryStr, 2); // Print the decimal equivalent. System.out.println("Decimal equivalent: " + decimal); } }</code></pre> <p>Here’s a step-by-step explanation:</p> <h3>Import Statement</h3> <ul> <li>import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input.</li> </ul> <h3>Class Declaration</h3> <ul> <li>public class BinaryToDecimal: Declares a class named BinaryToDecimal.</li> </ul> <h3>Main Method</h3> <ul> <li>public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program.</li> </ul> <h3>Scanner Initialization</h3> <ul> <li>Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in).</li> </ul> <h3>User Input — Binary Number</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.print("Enter a binary number: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter a binary number.</li> <li>String binaryStr = scanner.next();: Reads the binary number entered by the user as a string using the next() method of the Scanner class.</li> </ul> <h3>Binary to Decimal Conversion</h3> <ul> <li>int decimal = Integer.parseInt(binaryStr, 2);: Uses Integer.parseInt to convert the binary string to decimal. The second argument '2' specifies that the input is in base-2 (binary).</li> </ul> <h3>Print Result</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.println("Decimal equivalent: " + decimal);: Prints the decimal equivalent of the entered binary number.</li> </ul> <h2>16. Check Armstrong Number</h2> <p>Write a Java program to check if a given number is an Armstrong number.</p> <pre><code class="language-dart">import java.util.Scanner; public class ArmstrongNumberCheck { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter a number. System.out.print("Enter a number: "); // Read the integer entered by the user. int num = scanner.nextInt(); // Store the original number for comparison later. int originalNum = num; // Initialize the sum of powered digits to 0. int sum = 0; // Count the number of digits in the input number. int digitCount = String.valueOf(num).length(); // Use a while loop to calculate the sum of powered digits. while (num > 0) { int digit = num % 10; sum += Math.pow(digit, digitCount); num /= 10; } // Check if the sum is equal to the original number. if (sum == originalNum) { System.out.println(originalNum + " is an Armstrong number."); } else { System.out.println(originalNum + " is not an Armstrong number."); } } }</code></pre> <p>Here’s a step-by-step explanation:</p> <h3>Import Statement</h3> <ul> <li>import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input.</li> </ul> <h3>Class Declaration</h3> <ul> <li>public class ArmstrongNumberCheck: Declares a class named ArmstrongNumberCheck.</li> </ul> <h3>Main Method</h3> <ul> <li>public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program.</li> </ul> <h3>Scanner Initialization</h3> <ul> <li>Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in).</li> </ul> <h3>User Input</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.print("Enter a number: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter a number.</li> <li>int num = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the integer entered by the user using the nextInt() method of the Scanner class.</li> </ul> <h3>Store Original Number</h3> <ul> <li>int originalNum = num;: Stores the original number for later comparison.</li> </ul> <h3>Initialization</h3> <ul> <li>int sum = 0;: Initializes the sum of powered digits to 0.</li> <li>int digitCount = String.valueOf(num).length();: Counts the number of digits in the input number.</li> </ul> <h3>Calculate Sum of Powered Digits</h3> <ul> <li>while (num > 0) { int digit = num % 10; sum += Math.pow(digit, digitCount); num /= 10; }: Uses a while loop to calculate the sum of powered digits by iterating over each digit of the number.</li> </ul> <h3>Check if Armstrong Number</h3> <ul> <li>if (sum == originalNum) { System.out.println(originalNum + " is an Armstrong number."); }: Checks if the sum of powered digits is equal to the original number and prints the result.</li> </ul> <h3>Print Result</h3> <ul> <li>else { System.out.println(originalNum + " is not an Armstrong number."); }: Prints the result if the number is not an Armstrong number.</li> </ul> <h2>17. Print Pattern</h2> <p>Write a Java program to print the following pattern:</p> <pre><code class="language-csharp">public class PrintPattern { public static void main(String[] args) { // Define the number of rows in the triangle int rows = 5; // Outer loop for the number of rows for (int i = 1; i <= rows; i++) { // Inner loop to print asterisks in each row for (int j = 1; j <= i; j++) { System.out.print(""); } // Move to the next line after each row System.out.println(); } } }</code></pre> <p>Here’s a step-by-step explanation:</p> <h3>Class Declaration</h3> <ul> <li>public class PrintPattern: Declares a class named PrintPattern.</li> </ul> <h3>Main Method</h3> <ul> <li>public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program.</li> </ul> <h3>Define Rows</h3> <ul> <li>int rows = 5;: Sets the variable rows to 5, determining the number of rows in the triangle.</li> </ul> <h3>Outer Loop — Rows</h3> <ul> <li>for (int i = 1; i <= rows; i++) { ... }: The outer loop controls the number of rows in the triangle. It iterates from 1 to the specified number of rows (rows).</li> </ul> <h3>Inner Loop — Asterisks</h3> <ul> <li>for (int j = 1; j <= i; j++) { System.out.print(""); }: The inner loop prints asterisks in each row. It iterates from 1 to the current value of i, printing an asterisk in each iteration.</li> </ul> <h3>New Line</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.println();: This statement moves to the next line after each row of asterisks is printed.</li> </ul> <p>When you run this program, it will output the right-angled triangle pattern you provided:</p> <pre><code class="language-markdown">* * ** **</code></pre> <h2>18. Bubble Sort</h2> <p>Write a Java program to implement the Bubble Sort algorithm.</p> <pre><code class="language-php">import java.util.Arrays; public class BubbleSort { public static void main(String[] args) { // Define an array of integers int[] array = {5, 2, 8, 9, 1}; // Print the original array System.out.println("Original Array: " + Arrays.toString(array)); // Outer loop for the number of passes for (int i = 0; i < array.length - 1; i++) { // Inner loop for comparing and swapping elements for (int j = 0; j < array.length - i - 1; j++) { // Compare adjacent elements and swap if they are in the wrong order if (array[j] > array[j + 1]) { int temp = array[j]; array[j] = array[j + 1]; array[j + 1] = temp; } } } // Print the sorted array System.out.println("Sorted Array: " + Arrays.toString(array)); } }</code></pre> <p>Here’s a step-by-step explanation:</p> <h3>Import Statement</h3> <ul> <li>import java.util.Arrays;: This imports the Arrays class from the java.util package. The Arrays.toString() method is used to print the array in a readable format.</li> </ul> <h3>Class Declaration</h3> <ul> <li>public class BubbleSort: Declares a class named BubbleSort.</li> </ul> <h3>Main Method</h3> <ul> <li>public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program.</li> </ul> <h3>Array Initialization</h3> <ul> <li>int[] array = {5, 2, 8, 9, 1};: Initializes an array of integers with the given values.</li> </ul> <h3>Print Original Array</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.println("Original Array: " + Arrays.toString(array));: Prints the original array before sorting.</li> </ul> <h3>Bubble Sort Implementation</h3> <ul> <li>The outer loop (for (int i = 0; i < array.length - 1; i++)) represents the number of passes, where each pass compares and potentially swaps adjacent elements.</li> <li>The inner loop (for (int j = 0; j < array.length - i - 1; j++)) iterates over the unsorted part of the array.</li> <li>If an element is greater than its adjacent element, they are swapped to bring the larger element towards the end of the array.</li> </ul> <h3>Print Sorted Array</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.println("Sorted Array: " + Arrays.toString(array));: Prints the sorted array after completing the Bubble Sort.</li> </ul> <p>When you run this program, it will output the original array and the sorted array using the Bubble Sort algorithm. The sorted array will be in ascending order</p> <pre><code class="language-javascript">Original Array: [5, 2, 8, 9, 1] Sorted Array: [1, 2, 5, 8, 9]</code></pre> <h2>19. Find Duplicate Elements</h2> <p>Write a Java program to find and print duplicate elements in an array.</p> <pre><code class="language-csharp">import java.util.HashSet; public class FindDuplicates { public static void main(String[] args) { // Define the array with some elements (including duplicates) int[] array = {3, 5, 7, 2, 5, 8, 7, 4}; // Create a HashSet to store unique elements HashSet<Integer> uniqueSet = new HashSet<>(); // Create a HashSet to store duplicate elements HashSet<Integer> duplicateSet = new HashSet<>(); // Iterate through the array for (int num : array) { // Attempt to add the current element to the uniqueSet if (!uniqueSet.add(num)) { // If add returns false, the element is already in the set (duplicate) duplicateSet.add(num); } } // Print the duplicate elements System.out.println("Duplicate elements: " + duplicateSet); } }</code></pre> <p>Here’s a step-by-step explanation:</p> <h3>Import Statement</h3> <ul> <li>import java.util.HashSet;: This imports the HashSet class from the java.util package. The HashSet is used to store unique elements.</li> </ul> <h3>Class Declaration</h3> <ul> <li>public class FindDuplicates: Declares a class named FindDuplicates.</li> </ul> <h3>Main Method</h3> <ul> <li>public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program.</li> </ul> <h3>Array Initialization</h3> <ul> <li>int[] array = {3, 5, 7, 2, 5, 8, 7, 4};: Initializes an array with some elements, including duplicates.</li> </ul> <h3>HashSet Initialization</h3> <ul> <li>HashSet<Integer> uniqueSet = new HashSet<>();: Creates a HashSet named uniqueSet to store unique elements.</li> <li>HashSet<Integer> duplicateSet = new HashSet<>();: Creates a HashSet named duplicateSet to store duplicate elements.</li> </ul> <h3>Check for Duplicates</h3> <ul> <li>for (int num : array) { ... }: Iterates through each element in the array.</li> <li>if (!uniqueSet.add(num)) { duplicateSet.add(num); }: Attempts to add the current element to the uniqueSet. If the add method returns false, it means the element is already in the set, so it is added to the duplicateSet.</li> </ul> <h3>Print Result</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.println("Duplicate elements: " + duplicateSet);: Prints the set of duplicate elements.</li> </ul> <h2>20. String Concatenation</h2> <p>Write a Java program to concatenate two strings.</p> <pre><code class="language-java">import java.util.Scanner; public class StringConcatenation { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter the first string. System.out.print("Enter the first string: "); // Read the entire line of input entered by the user as the first string. String str1 = scanner.nextLine(); // Prompt the user to enter the second string. System.out.print("Enter the second string: "); // Read the entire line of input entered by the user as the second string. String str2 = scanner.nextLine(); // Concatenate the two strings with a space in between. String result = str1 + " " + str2; // Print the concatenated string. System.out.println("Concatenated string: " + result); } }</code></pre> <p>Here’s a step-by-step explanation:</p> <h3>Import Statement</h3> <ul> <li>import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input.</li> </ul> <h3>Class Declaration</h3> <ul> <li>public class StringConcatenation: Declares a class named StringConcatenation.</li> </ul> <h3>Main Method</h3> <ul> <li>public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program.</li> </ul> <h3>Scanner Initialization</h3> <ul> <li>Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in).</li> </ul> <h3>User Input — First String</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.print("Enter the first string: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the first string.</li> <li>String str1 = scanner.nextLine();: Reads the entire line of input entered by the user using the nextLine() method of the Scanner class.</li> </ul> <h3>User Input — Second String</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.print("Enter the second string: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the second string.</li> <li>String str2 = scanner.nextLine();: Reads the entire line of input entered by the user as the second string.</li> </ul> <h3>String Concatenation</h3> <ul> <li>String result = str1 + " " + str2;: Concatenates the two strings with a space in between.</li> </ul> <h3>Print Result</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.println("Concatenated string: " + result);: Prints the concatenated string.</li> </ul> <h2>21. Sum of Natural Numbers</h2> <p>Write a Java program to calculate the sum of the first n natural numbers.</p> <pre><code class="language-java">import java.util.Scanner; public class SumOfNaturalNumbers { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter a positive integer (n). System.out.print("Enter a positive integer (n): "); // Read the positive integer entered by the user. int n = scanner.nextInt(); // Calculate the sum of the first 'n' natural numbers using the formula. int sum = (n (n + 1)) / 2; // Print the result. System.out.println("Sum of the first " + n + " natural numbers: " + sum); } }</code></pre> <p>Here’s a step-by-step explanation:</p> <h3>Import Statement</h3> <ul> <li>import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input.</li> </ul> <h3>Class Declaration</h3> <ul> <li>public class SumOfNaturalNumbers: Declares a class named SumOfNaturalNumbers.</li> </ul> <h3>Main Method</h3> <ul> <li>public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program.</li> </ul> <h3>Scanner Initialization</h3> <ul> <li>Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in).</li> </ul> <h3>User Input — Positive Integer (n)</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.print("Enter a positive integer (n): ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter a positive integer.</li> <li>int n = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the positive integer entered by the user using the nextInt() method of the Scanner class.</li> </ul> <h3>Sum Calculation</h3> <ul> <li>int sum = (n * (n + 1)) / 2;: Calculates the sum of the first 'n' natural numbers using the formula (n * (n + 1)) / 2.</li> </ul> <h3>Print Result</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.println("Sum of the first " + n + " natural numbers: " + sum);: Prints the calculated sum.</li> </ul> <h2>22. Remove Spaces from String</h2> <p>Write a Java program to remove spaces from a given string.</p> <pre><code class="language-java">import java.util.Scanner; public class RemoveSpaces { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter a string. System.out.print("Enter a string: "); // Read the entire line of input entered by the user. String input = scanner.nextLine(); // Use the replaceAll method to remove spaces (whitespace characters). String stringWithoutSpaces = input.replaceAll("\\s", ""); // Print the result. System.out.println("String without spaces: " + stringWithoutSpaces); } }</code></pre> <p>Here’s a step-by-step explanation:</p> <h3>Import Statement</h3> <ul> <li>import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input.</li> </ul> <h3>Class Declaration</h3> <ul> <li>public class RemoveSpaces: Declares a class named RemoveSpaces.</li> </ul> <h3>Main Method</h3> <ul> <li>public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program.</li> </ul> <h3>Scanner Initialization</h3> <ul> <li>Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in).</li> </ul> <h3>User Input — String</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.print("Enter a string: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter a string.</li> <li>String input = scanner.nextLine();: Reads the entire line of input entered by the user using the nextLine() method of the Scanner class.</li> </ul> <h3>Remove Spaces</h3> <ul> <li>String stringWithoutSpaces = input.replaceAll("\\s", "");: Uses the replaceAll method to replace all occurrences of whitespace characters (denoted by the regular expression \\s) with an empty string.</li> </ul> <h3>Print Result</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.println("String without spaces: " + stringWithoutSpaces);: Prints the resulting string without spaces.</li> </ul> <h2>23. Check Anagram</h2> <p>Write a Java program to check if two strings are anagrams.</p> <pre><code class="language-java">import java.util.Arrays; import java.util.Scanner; public class AnagramCheck { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter the first string. System.out.print("Enter the first string: "); // Read the entire line of input entered by the user as the first string. String str1 = scanner.nextLine(); // Prompt the user to enter the second string. System.out.print("Enter the second string: "); // Read the entire line of input entered by the user as the second string. String str2 = scanner.nextLine(); // Convert the strings to character arrays. char[] charArray1 = str1.toCharArray(); char[] charArray2 = str2.toCharArray(); // Sort the character arrays. Arrays.sort(charArray1); Arrays.sort(charArray2); // Check if the sorted arrays are equal (anagrams). boolean areAnagrams = Arrays.equals(charArray1, charArray2); // Print the result. if (areAnagrams) { System.out.println("The strings are anagrams."); } else { System.out.println("The strings are not anagrams."); } } }</code></pre> <p>Here’s a step-by-step explanation:</p> <h3>Import Statements</h3> <ul> <li>import java.util.Arrays;: This imports the Arrays class from the java.util package. The Arrays class provides utility methods for manipulating arrays.</li> </ul> <h3>Class Declaration</h3> <ul> <li>public class AnagramCheck: Declares a class named AnagramCheck.</li> </ul> <h3>Main Method</h3> <ul> <li>public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program.</li> </ul> <h3>Scanner Initialization</h3> <ul> <li>Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in).</li> </ul> <h3>User Input — First String</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.print("Enter the first string: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the first string.</li> <li>String str1 = scanner.nextLine();: Reads the entire line of input entered by the user as the first string.</li> </ul> <h3>User Input — Second String</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.print("Enter the second string: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the second string.</li> <li>String str2 = scanner.nextLine();: Reads the entire line of input entered by the user as the second string.</li> </ul> <h3>Convert Strings to Character Arrays</h3> <ul> <li>char[] charArray1 = str1.toCharArray();: Converts the first string to a character array.</li> <li>char[] charArray2 = str2.toCharArray();: Converts the second string to a character array.</li> </ul> <h3>Sort Character Arrays</h3> <ul> <li>Arrays.sort(charArray1);: Sorts the character array for the first string.</li> <li>Arrays.sort(charArray2);: Sorts the character array for the second string.</li> </ul> <h3>Check for Anagrams</h3> <ul> <li>boolean areAnagrams = Arrays.equals(charArray1, charArray2);: Checks if the sorted character arrays are equal, indicating that the strings are anagrams.</li> </ul> <h3>Print Result</h3> <ul> <li>if (areAnagrams) { System.out.println("The strings are anagrams."); }: Prints a message if the strings are anagrams.</li> <li>else { System.out.println("The strings are not anagrams."); }: Prints a message if the strings are not anagrams.</li> </ul> <h2>24. Swap Two Numbers</h2> <p>Write a Java program to swap the values of two variables.</p> <pre><code class="language-csharp">import java.util.Scanner; public class SwapNumbers { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter the first number. System.out.print("Enter the first number: "); // Read the first number entered by the user. int num1 = scanner.nextInt(); // Prompt the user to enter the second number. System.out.print("Enter the second number: "); // Read the second number entered by the user. int num2 = scanner.nextInt(); // Print the numbers before swapping. System.out.println("Before swapping: num1 = " + num1 + ", num2 = " + num2); // Swap the values of num1 and num2 using a temporary variable. int temp = num1; num1 = num2; num2 = temp; // Print the numbers after swapping. System.out.println("After swapping: num1 = " + num1 + ", num2 = " + num2); } }</code></pre> <p>Here’s a step-by-step explanation:</p> <h3>Import Statement</h3> <ul> <li>import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input.</li> </ul> <h3>Class Declaration</h3> <ul> <li>public class SwapNumbers: Declares a class named SwapNumbers.</li> </ul> <h3>Main Method</h3> <ul> <li>public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program.</li> </ul> <h3>Scanner Initialization</h3> <ul> <li>Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in).</li> </ul> <h3>User Input — First Number</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.print("Enter the first number: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the first number.</li> <li>int num1 = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the first number entered by the user using the nextInt() method of the Scanner class.</li> </ul> <h3>User Input — Second Number</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.print("Enter the second number: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the second number.</li> <li>int num2 = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the second number entered by the user using the nextInt() method of the Scanner class.</li> </ul> <h3>Print Numbers Before Swapping</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.println("Before swapping: num1 = " + num1 + ", num2 = " + num2);: Prints the values of num1 and num2 before the swapping process.</li> </ul> <h3>Swap Numbers Using a Temporary Variable</h3> <ul> <li>int temp = num1; num1 = num2; num2 = temp;: Swaps the values of num1 and num2 using a temporary variable.</li> </ul> <h3>Print Numbers After Swapping</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.println("After swapping: num1 = " + num1 + ", num2 = " + num2);: Prints the values of num1 and num2 after the swapping process.</li> </ul> <h2>25. Armstrong Numbers in a Range</h2> <p>Write a Java program to find and print Armstrong numbers in a given range.</p> <pre><code class="language-dart">import java.util.Scanner; public class ArmstrongNumbersInRange { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter the starting range. System.out.print("Enter the starting range: "); // Read the starting range entered by the user. int startRange = scanner.nextInt(); // Prompt the user to enter the ending range. System.out.print("Enter the ending range: "); // Read the ending range entered by the user. int endRange = scanner.nextInt(); // Print the header for the Armstrong numbers in the specified range. System.out.println("Armstrong numbers in the range " + startRange + " to " + endRange + ":"); // Iterate through the numbers in the specified range. for (int num = startRange; num <= endRange; num++) { int originalNum = num; int sum = 0; int digitCount = String.valueOf(num).length(); int tempNum = num; // Store the original value of num // Use a while loop to calculate the sum of powered digits. while (tempNum > 0) { int digit = tempNum % 10; sum += Math.pow(digit, digitCount); tempNum /= 10; } // Check if the sum is equal to the original number (Armstrong number). if (sum == originalNum) { System.out.print(originalNum + " "); } } // Close the scanner to prevent resource leaks. scanner.close(); } }</code></pre> <p>Here’s a step-by-step explanation:</p> <h3>Import Statement</h3> <ul> <li>import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input.</li> </ul> <h3>Class Declaration</h3> <ul> <li>public class ArmstrongNumbersInRange: Declares a class named ArmstrongNumbersInRange.</li> </ul> <h3>Main Method</h3> <ul> <li>public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program.</li> </ul> <h3>Scanner Initialization</h3> <ul> <li>Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in).</li> </ul> <h3>User Input — Starting Range</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.print("Enter the starting range: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the starting range.</li> <li>int startRange = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the starting range entered by the user using the nextInt() method of the Scanner class.</li> </ul> <h3>User Input — Ending Range</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.print("Enter the ending range: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the ending range.</li> <li>int endRange = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the ending range entered by the user using the nextInt() method of the Scanner class.</li> </ul> <h3>Print Header</h3> <ul> <li>System.out.println("Armstrong numbers in the range " + startRange + " to " + endRange + ":");: Prints the header for the Armstrong numbers in the specified range.</li> </ul> <h3>Iterate Through Range</h3> <ul> <li>for (int num = startRange; num <= endRange; num++) { ... }: Uses a for loop to iterate through the numbers in the specified range.</li> </ul> <h3>Calculate Sum of Powered Digits</h3> <ul> <li>while (num > 0) { int digit = num % 10; sum += Math.pow(digit, digitCount); num /= 10; }: Uses a while loop to calculate the sum of powered digits by iterating over each digit of the number.</li> </ul> <h3>Check for Armstrong Number</h3> <ul> <li>if (sum == originalNum) { System.out.print(originalNum + " "); }: Checks if the sum is equal to the original number. If true, it prints the number as an Armstrong number.</li> </ul> <h2>Conclusion</h2> <p>These 25 Java coding exercises provide a well-rounded set of challenges for learners at different stages of their programming journey. By working through these exercises, students can build a strong foundation in Java programming, gaining confidence in applying essential concepts and problem-solving skills. These exercises serve as an excellent resource for practice, helping learners reinforce their understanding and develop the coding skills necessary for real-world applications.</p> </section>	Java Coding Exercises Building Fundamentals Photo by Clément Hélardot on Unsplash Learning Java programming involves not only understanding syntax and concepts but also gaining hands-on experience through coding exercises. In this article, we present a set of 25 basic Java coding exercises along with their solutions. These exercises cover a variety of fundamental programming concepts, providing a comprehensive foundation for beginners and a great practice resource for those looking to enhance their Java skills. 1. Hello World Write a Java program to print “Hello, World!” to the console. // The 'public' keyword indicates that the class is accessible from any other class. // The class name is HelloWorld, and the file should be named HelloWorld.java. public class HelloWorld { // The main method is the entry point of the program. // It is called when the program is executed. public static void main(String[] args) { // System.out is an object that represents the standard output stream. // println() is a method used to print a line of text to the console. System.out.println("Hello, World!"); } } Here’s a breakdown of the main components: Class Declaration public class HelloWorld: Declares a class named HelloWorld. public keyword allows the class to be accessed from other classes. Main Method public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, which serves as the entry point for the program. public: The main method must be declared as public so that it can be accessed by the Java runtime system. static: The method is associated with the class rather than with any specific instance of the class. void: The main method does not return any value. main: The name of the method. The Java runtime system looks for this specific method signature to start the program. String[] args: The main method takes an array of strings as parameters. This allows the program to accept command-line arguments, although in this case, the program does not use them. Print Statement System.out.println("Hello, World!");: This line prints the text "Hello, World!" followed by a newline to the standard output (usually the console). 2. Sum of Two Numbers Write a Java program that takes two numbers as input and prints their sum. import java.util.Scanner; public class SumOfTwoNumbers { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter the first number. System.out.print("Enter the first number: "); // Read the first number entered by the user. int num1 = scanner.nextInt(); // Prompt the user to enter the second number. System.out.print("Enter the second number: "); // Read the second number entered by the user. int num2 = scanner.nextInt(); // Calculate the sum of the two numbers. int sum = num1 + num2; // Print the result (sum) to the console. System.out.println("Sum: " + sum); } } Here’s a step-by-step explanation: Import Statement import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input. Class Declaration public class SumOfTwoNumbers: Declares a class named SumOfTwoNumbers. Main Method public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program. Scanner Initialization Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in). User Input System.out.print("Enter the first number: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the first number. int num1 = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the first integer entered by the user using the nextInt() method of the Scanner class. System.out.print("Enter the second number: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the second number. int num2 = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the second integer entered by the user. Sum Calculation int sum = num1 + num2;: Calculates the sum of the two numbers. Print Result System.out.println("Sum: " + sum);: Prints the result (sum) to the console. 3. Check Even or Odd Write a Java program to check if a given number is even or odd. import java.util.Scanner; public class EvenOrOdd { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter a number. System.out.print("Enter a number: "); // Read the number entered by the user. int num = scanner.nextInt(); // Check if the number is even or odd using the modulo operator (%). if (num % 2 == 0) { // If the remainder when divided by 2 is 0, the number is even. System.out.println(num + " is even."); } else { // If the remainder when divided by 2 is not 0, the number is odd. System.out.println(num + " is odd."); } } } Here’s a step-by-step explanation: Import Statement import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. Class Declaration public class EvenOrOdd: Declares a class named EvenOrOdd. Main Method public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program. Scanner Initialization Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in). User Input System.out.print("Enter a number: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter a number. int num = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the integer entered by the user. Even or Odd Check if (num % 2 == 0) {: Checks if the entered number is even by using the modulo operator (%). If the remainder is 0, the number is even. System.out.println(num + " is even.");: Prints a message indicating that the number is even. } else {: If the remainder is not 0, the number is odd. System.out.println(num + " is odd.");: Prints a message indicating that the number is odd. 4. Reverse a String Write a Java program to reverse a given string. import java.util.Scanner; public class ReverseString { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter a string. System.out.print("Enter a string: "); // Read the entire line of input entered by the user. String input = scanner.nextLine(); // Create a StringBuilder object and reverse the input string. String reversed = new StringBuilder(input).reverse().toString(); // Print the reversed string to the console. System.out.println("Reversed string: " + reversed); } } Here’s a step-by-step explanation: Import Statement import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input. Class Declaration public class ReverseString: Declares a class named ReverseString. Main Method public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program. Scanner Initialization Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in). User Input System.out.print("Enter a string: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter a string. String input = scanner.nextLine();: Reads the entire line of input entered by the user using the nextLine() method of the Scanner class. String Reversal String reversed = new StringBuilder(input).reverse().toString();: Uses a StringBuilder to reverse the order of characters in the input string. The reverse() method reverses the characters, and toString() converts the StringBuilder back to a String. Print Result System.out.println("Reversed string: " + reversed);: Prints the reversed string to the console. 5. Factorial Calculation Write a Java program to calculate the factorial of a given number. import java.util.Scanner; public class FactorialCalculation { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter a number. System.out.print("Enter a number: "); // Read the integer entered by the user. int num = scanner.nextInt(); // Initialize a variable to store the factorial, starting with 1. long factorial = 1; // Calculate the factorial using a for loop. for (int i = 1; i <= num; i++) { factorial = i; } // Print the result (factorial) to the console. System.out.println("Factorial of " + num + " is: " + factorial); } } Here’s a step-by-step explanation: Import Statement import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input. Class Declaration public class FactorialCalculation: Declares a class named FactorialCalculation. Main Method public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program. Scanner Initialization Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in). User Input System.out.print("Enter a number: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter a number. int num = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the integer entered by the user using the nextInt() method of the Scanner class. Factorial Calculation long factorial = 1;: Initializes a variable factorial to store the result, starting with 1. for (int i = 1; i <= num; i++) { factorial = i; }: Uses a for loop to calculate the factorial by multiplying the current value of factorial by each integer from 1 to num. Print Result System.out.println("Factorial of " + num + " is: " + factorial);: Prints the result (factorial) to the console. 6. Check Palindrome Write a Java program to check if a given string is a palindrome. import java.util.Scanner; public class PalindromeCheck { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter a string. System.out.print("Enter a string: "); // Read the entire line of input entered by the user. String input = scanner.nextLine(); // Create a StringBuilder object and reverse the input string. String reversed = new StringBuilder(input).reverse().toString(); // Check if the reversed string is equal to the original input (ignoring case). if (input.equalsIgnoreCase(reversed)) { System.out.println(input + " is a palindrome."); } else { System.out.println(input + " is not a palindrome."); } } } Here’s a step-by-step explanation: Import Statement import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input. Class Declaration public class PalindromeCheck: Declares a class named PalindromeCheck. Main Method public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program. Scanner Initialization Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in). User Input System.out.print("Enter a string: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter a string. String input = scanner.nextLine();: Reads the entire line of input entered by the user using the nextLine() method of the Scanner class. String Reversal String reversed = new StringBuilder(input).reverse().toString();: Uses a StringBuilder to reverse the order of characters in the input string. The reverse() method reverses the characters, and toString() converts the StringBuilder back to a String. Palindrome Check if (input.equalsIgnoreCase(reversed)) { ... }: Checks if the original input string is equal to its reversed version, ignoring case. If true, it means the input is a palindrome. Print Result The program then prints whether the input is a palindrome or not. 7. Print Multiplication Table Write a Java program to print the multiplication table of a given number. import java.util.Scanner; public class MultiplicationTable { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter a number. System.out.print("Enter a number: "); // Read the integer entered by the user. int num = scanner.nextInt(); // Use a loop to generate and print the multiplication table for the entered number. for (int i = 1; i <= 10; i++) { System.out.println(num + " x " + i + " = " + (num * i)); } } } Here’s a step-by-step explanation: Import Statement import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input. Class Declaration public class MultiplicationTable: Declares a class named MultiplicationTable. Main Method public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program. Scanner Initialization Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in). User Input System.out.print("Enter a number: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter a number. int num = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the integer entered by the user. Multiplication Table Generation for (int i = 1; i <= 10; i++) { ... }: Uses a for loop to iterate from 1 to 10. System.out.println(num + " x " + i + " = " + (num * i));: Prints the multiplication table entry for the current value of i. Print Result The program prints the multiplication table for the entered number up to 10. 8. Fibonacci Series Write a Java program to generate the Fibonacci series up to a given number n. import java.util.Scanner; public class FibonacciSeries { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter the value of n. System.out.print("Enter the value of n: "); // Read the integer entered by the user. int n = scanner.nextInt(); // Initialize the first two numbers in the Fibonacci series. int first = 0, second = 1; // Print a message indicating the Fibonacci series is up to n. System.out.println("Fibonacci Series up to " + n + ":"); // Use a while loop to generate and print Fibonacci numbers up to n. while (first <= n) { // Print the current Fibonacci number. System.out.print(first + " "); // Calculate the next Fibonacci number. int next = first + second; // Update first and second for the next iteration. first = second; second = next; } } } Here’s a step-by-step explanation: Import Statement import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input. Class Declaration public class FibonacciSeries: Declares a class named FibonacciSeries. Main Method public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program. Scanner Initialization Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in). User Input System.out.print("Enter the value of n: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the value of 'n'. int n = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the integer entered by the user using the nextInt() method of the Scanner class. Fibonacci Series Initialization int first = 0, second = 1;: Initializes the first two numbers in the Fibonacci series. Print Message System.out.println("Fibonacci Series up to " + n + ":");: Prints a message indicating that the Fibonacci series is up to the specified value 'n'. Fibonacci Series Generation while (first <= n) { ... }: Uses a while loop to generate and print Fibonacci numbers until the current Fibonacci number exceeds 'n'. System.out.print(first + " ");: Prints the current Fibonacci number. int next = first + second;: Calculates the next Fibonacci number. first = second; second = next;: Updates the values of 'first' and 'second' for the next iteration. 9. Prime Number Check Write a Java program to check if a given number is prime. import java.util.Scanner; public class PrimeNumberCheck { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter a number. System.out.print("Enter a number: "); // Read the integer entered by the user. int num = scanner.nextInt(); // Assume the number is prime initially. boolean isPrime = true; // Check if the number is less than or equal to 1. if (num <= 1) { isPrime = false; } else { // Use a for loop to check for factors up to the square root of the number. for (int i = 2; i <= Math.sqrt(num); i++) { if (num % i == 0) { // If the number is divisible by i, it's not prime. isPrime = false; break; } } } // Print whether the number is prime or not. if (isPrime) { System.out.println(num + " is a prime number."); } else { System.out.println(num + " is not a prime number."); } } } Here’s a step-by-step explanation: Import Statement import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input. Class Declaration public class PrimeNumberCheck: Declares a class named PrimeNumberCheck. Main Method public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program. Scanner Initialization Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in). User Input System.out.print("Enter a number: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter a number. int num = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the integer entered by the user using the nextInt() method of the Scanner class. Prime Number Check boolean isPrime = true;: Assumes the number is prime initially. if (num <= 1) { isPrime = false; }: Checks if the number is less than or equal to 1; in such cases, it's not considered prime. else { ... }: If the number is greater than 1, a for loop is used to check for factors up to the square root of the number. if (num % i == 0) { isPrime = false; break; }: If the number is divisible by any value of 'i', it's not prime, and the loop breaks. Print Result if (isPrime) { System.out.println(num + " is a prime number."); }: Prints whether the number is prime or not. 10. Find Maximum in Array Write a Java program to find the maximum element in an array. import java.util.Scanner; public class FindMaxInArray { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter the size of the array. System.out.print("Enter the size of the array: "); // Read the size entered by the user. int size = scanner.nextInt(); // Create an array with the specified size. int[] array = new int[size]; // Prompt the user to enter elements of the array. System.out.print("Enter elements of the array: "); // Use a for loop to read elements into the array. for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) { array[i] = scanner.nextInt(); } // Initialize the maximum element with the first element of the array. int max = array[0]; // Use an enhanced for loop to find the maximum element in the array. for (int num : array) { if (num > max) { max = num; } } // Print the maximum element in the array. System.out.println("Maximum element in the array: " + max); } } Here’s a step-by-step explanation: Import Statement import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input. Class Declaration public class FindMaxInArray: Declares a class named FindMaxInArray. Main Method public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program. Scanner Initialization Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in). User Input — Array Size System.out.print("Enter the size of the array: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the size of the array. int size = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the size entered by the user using the nextInt() method of the Scanner class. Array Initialization int[] array = new int[size];: Creates an array with the specified size. User Input — Array Elements System.out.print("Enter elements of the array: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the elements of the array. for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) { array[i] = scanner.nextInt(); }: Uses a for loop to read elements into the array. Find Maximum Element int max = array[0];: Initializes the maximum element with the first element of the array. for (int num : array) { if (num > max) { max = num; } }: Uses an enhanced for loop to find the maximum element in the array. Print Result System.out.println("Maximum element in the array: " + max);: Prints the maximum element in the array. 11. Check Leap Year Write a Java program to check if a given year is a leap year. import java.util.Scanner; public class LeapYearCheck { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter a year. System.out.print("Enter a year: "); // Read the integer entered by the user. int year = scanner.nextInt(); // Assume the year is not a leap year initially. boolean isLeapYear = false; // Check if the year is a leap year based on the leap year rules. if ((year % 4 == 0 && year % 100 != 0) \|\| (year % 400 == 0)) { isLeapYear = true; } // Print whether the year is a leap year or not. if (isLeapYear) { System.out.println(year + " is a leap year."); } else { System.out.println(year + " is not a leap year."); } } } Here’s a step-by-step explanation: Import Statement import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input. Class Declaration public class LeapYearCheck: Declares a class named LeapYearCheck. Main Method public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program. Scanner Initialization Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in). User Input System.out.print("Enter a year: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter a year. int year = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the integer entered by the user using the nextInt() method of the Scanner class. Leap Year Check boolean isLeapYear = false;: Assumes the year is not a leap year initially. if ((year % 4 == 0 && year % 100 != 0) \|\| (year % 400 == 0)) { isLeapYear = true; }: Checks if the year is a leap year based on the leap year rules. Print Result if (isLeapYear) { System.out.println(year + " is a leap year."); }: Prints whether the year is a leap year or not. 12. Calculate Average Write a Java program to calculate the average of elements in an array. import java.util.Scanner; public class CalculateAverage { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter the size of the array. System.out.print("Enter the size of the array: "); // Read the size entered by the user. int size = scanner.nextInt(); // Create an array with the specified size. int[] array = new int[size]; // Prompt the user to enter elements of the array. System.out.print("Enter elements of the array: "); // Use a for loop to read elements into the array. for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) { array[i] = scanner.nextInt(); } // Calculate the sum of elements in the array. int sum = 0; for (int num : array) { sum += num; } // Calculate the average (casting sum to double for accurate division). double average = (double) sum / size; // Print the average of elements in the array. System.out.println("Average of elements in the array: " + average); } } Here’s a step-by-step explanation: Import Statement import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input. Class Declaration public class CalculateAverage: Declares a class named CalculateAverage. Main Method public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program. Scanner Initialization Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in). User Input — Array Size System.out.print("Enter the size of the array: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the size of the array. int size = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the size entered by the user using the nextInt() method of the Scanner class. Array Initialization int[] array = new int[size];: Creates an array with the specified size. User Input — Array Elements System.out.print("Enter elements of the array: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the elements of the array. for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) { array[i] = scanner.nextInt(); }: Uses a for loop to read elements into the array. Calculate Sum int sum = 0;: Initializes the sum of elements to zero. for (int num : array) { sum += num; }: Uses an enhanced for loop to calculate the sum of elements in the array. Calculate Average double average = (double) sum / size;: Calculates the average (casting sum to double for accurate division). Print Result System.out.println("Average of elements in the array: " + average);: Prints the average of elements in the array. 13. Count Vowels in a String Write a Java program to count the number of vowels in a given string. import java.util.Scanner; public class CountVowels { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter a string. System.out.print("Enter a string: "); // Read the entire line of input entered by the user. String input = scanner.nextLine(); // Initialize the count of vowels to zero. int vowelCount = 0; // Use an enhanced for loop to iterate over each character in the string. for (char ch : input.toLowerCase().toCharArray()) { // Check if the character is a vowel (case-insensitive). if (ch == 'a' \|\| ch == 'e' \|\| ch == 'i' \|\| ch == 'o' \|\| ch == 'u') { vowelCount++; } } // Print the number of vowels in the string. System.out.println("Number of vowels in the string: " + vowelCount); } } Here’s a step-by-step explanation: Import Statement import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input. Class Declaration public class CountVowels: Declares a class named CountVowels. Main Method public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program. Scanner Initialization Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in). User Input System.out.print("Enter a string: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter a string. String input = scanner.nextLine();: Reads the entire line of input entered by the user using the nextLine() method of the Scanner class. Vowel Counting int vowelCount = 0;: Initializes the count of vowels to zero. for (char ch : input.toLowerCase().toCharArray()) { ... }: Uses an enhanced for loop to iterate over each character in the string, converting the string to lowercase to make the comparison case-insensitive. if (ch == 'a' \|\| ch == 'e' \|\| ch == 'i' \|\| ch == 'o' \|\| ch == 'u') { vowelCount++; }: Checks if the character is a vowel (case-insensitive) and increments the vowel count if true. Print Result System.out.println("Number of vowels in the string: " + vowelCount);: Prints the number of vowels in the string. 14. Calculate Power Write a Java program to calculate the power of a number. import java.util.Scanner; public class CalculatePower { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter the base. System.out.print("Enter the base: "); // Read the integer entered by the user as the base. int base = scanner.nextInt(); // Prompt the user to enter the exponent. System.out.print("Enter the exponent: "); // Read the integer entered by the user as the exponent. int exponent = scanner.nextInt(); // Initialize the result to 1. long result = 1; // Use a for loop to calculate the power. for (int i = 0; i < exponent; i++) { result = base; } // Print the result of the power calculation. System.out.println(base + " ^ " + exponent + " = " + result); } } Here’s a step-by-step explanation: Import Statement import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input. Class Declaration public class CalculatePower: Declares a class named CalculatePower. Main Method public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program. Scanner Initialization Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in). User Input — Base System.out.print("Enter the base: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the base. int base = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the integer entered by the user using the nextInt() method of the Scanner class. User Input — Exponent System.out.print("Enter the exponent: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the exponent. int exponent = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the integer entered by the user as the exponent. Power Calculation long result = 1;: Initializes the result to 1. for (int i = 0; i < exponent; i++) { result = base; }: Uses a for loop to perform the power calculation by multiplying the base 'exponent' times. Print Result System.out.println(base + " ^ " + exponent + " = " + result);: Prints the result of the power calculation. 15. Binary to Decimal Write a Java program to convert a binary number to decimal. import java.util.Scanner; public class BinaryToDecimal { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter a binary number. System.out.print("Enter a binary number: "); // Read the binary number entered by the user as a string. String binaryStr = scanner.next(); // Use Integer.parseInt to convert the binary string to decimal. int decimal = Integer.parseInt(binaryStr, 2); // Print the decimal equivalent. System.out.println("Decimal equivalent: " + decimal); } } Here’s a step-by-step explanation: Import Statement import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input. Class Declaration public class BinaryToDecimal: Declares a class named BinaryToDecimal. Main Method public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program. Scanner Initialization Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in). User Input — Binary Number System.out.print("Enter a binary number: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter a binary number. String binaryStr = scanner.next();: Reads the binary number entered by the user as a string using the next() method of the Scanner class. Binary to Decimal Conversion int decimal = Integer.parseInt(binaryStr, 2);: Uses Integer.parseInt to convert the binary string to decimal. The second argument '2' specifies that the input is in base-2 (binary). Print Result System.out.println("Decimal equivalent: " + decimal);: Prints the decimal equivalent of the entered binary number. 16. Check Armstrong Number Write a Java program to check if a given number is an Armstrong number. import java.util.Scanner; public class ArmstrongNumberCheck { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter a number. System.out.print("Enter a number: "); // Read the integer entered by the user. int num = scanner.nextInt(); // Store the original number for comparison later. int originalNum = num; // Initialize the sum of powered digits to 0. int sum = 0; // Count the number of digits in the input number. int digitCount = String.valueOf(num).length(); // Use a while loop to calculate the sum of powered digits. while (num > 0) { int digit = num % 10; sum += Math.pow(digit, digitCount); num /= 10; } // Check if the sum is equal to the original number. if (sum == originalNum) { System.out.println(originalNum + " is an Armstrong number."); } else { System.out.println(originalNum + " is not an Armstrong number."); } } } Here’s a step-by-step explanation: Import Statement import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input. Class Declaration public class ArmstrongNumberCheck: Declares a class named ArmstrongNumberCheck. Main Method public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program. Scanner Initialization Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in). User Input System.out.print("Enter a number: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter a number. int num = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the integer entered by the user using the nextInt() method of the Scanner class. Store Original Number int originalNum = num;: Stores the original number for later comparison. Initialization int sum = 0;: Initializes the sum of powered digits to 0. int digitCount = String.valueOf(num).length();: Counts the number of digits in the input number. Calculate Sum of Powered Digits while (num > 0) { int digit = num % 10; sum += Math.pow(digit, digitCount); num /= 10; }: Uses a while loop to calculate the sum of powered digits by iterating over each digit of the number. Check if Armstrong Number if (sum == originalNum) { System.out.println(originalNum + " is an Armstrong number."); }: Checks if the sum of powered digits is equal to the original number and prints the result. Print Result else { System.out.println(originalNum + " is not an Armstrong number."); }: Prints the result if the number is not an Armstrong number. 17. Print Pattern Write a Java program to print the following pattern: public class PrintPattern { public static void main(String[] args) { // Define the number of rows in the triangle int rows = 5; // Outer loop for the number of rows for (int i = 1; i <= rows; i++) { // Inner loop to print asterisks in each row for (int j = 1; j <= i; j++) { System.out.print(""); } // Move to the next line after each row System.out.println(); } } } Here’s a step-by-step explanation: Class Declaration public class PrintPattern: Declares a class named PrintPattern. Main Method public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program. Define Rows int rows = 5;: Sets the variable rows to 5, determining the number of rows in the triangle. Outer Loop — Rows for (int i = 1; i <= rows; i++) { ... }: The outer loop controls the number of rows in the triangle. It iterates from 1 to the specified number of rows (rows). Inner Loop — Asterisks for (int j = 1; j <= i; j++) { System.out.print(""); }: The inner loop prints asterisks in each row. It iterates from 1 to the current value of i, printing an asterisk in each iteration. New Line System.out.println();: This statement moves to the next line after each row of asterisks is printed. When you run this program, it will output the right-angled triangle pattern you provided: * * ** *** 18. Bubble Sort Write a Java program to implement the Bubble Sort algorithm. import java.util.Arrays; public class BubbleSort { public static void main(String[] args) { // Define an array of integers int[] array = {5, 2, 8, 9, 1}; // Print the original array System.out.println("Original Array: " + Arrays.toString(array)); // Outer loop for the number of passes for (int i = 0; i < array.length - 1; i++) { // Inner loop for comparing and swapping elements for (int j = 0; j < array.length - i - 1; j++) { // Compare adjacent elements and swap if they are in the wrong order if (array[j] > array[j + 1]) { int temp = array[j]; array[j] = array[j + 1]; array[j + 1] = temp; } } } // Print the sorted array System.out.println("Sorted Array: " + Arrays.toString(array)); } } Here’s a step-by-step explanation: Import Statement import java.util.Arrays;: This imports the Arrays class from the java.util package. The Arrays.toString() method is used to print the array in a readable format. Class Declaration public class BubbleSort: Declares a class named BubbleSort. Main Method public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program. Array Initialization int[] array = {5, 2, 8, 9, 1};: Initializes an array of integers with the given values. Print Original Array System.out.println("Original Array: " + Arrays.toString(array));: Prints the original array before sorting. Bubble Sort Implementation The outer loop (for (int i = 0; i < array.length - 1; i++)) represents the number of passes, where each pass compares and potentially swaps adjacent elements. The inner loop (for (int j = 0; j < array.length - i - 1; j++)) iterates over the unsorted part of the array. If an element is greater than its adjacent element, they are swapped to bring the larger element towards the end of the array. Print Sorted Array System.out.println("Sorted Array: " + Arrays.toString(array));: Prints the sorted array after completing the Bubble Sort. When you run this program, it will output the original array and the sorted array using the Bubble Sort algorithm. The sorted array will be in ascending order Original Array: [5, 2, 8, 9, 1] Sorted Array: [1, 2, 5, 8, 9] 19. Find Duplicate Elements Write a Java program to find and print duplicate elements in an array. import java.util.HashSet; public class FindDuplicates { public static void main(String[] args) { // Define the array with some elements (including duplicates) int[] array = {3, 5, 7, 2, 5, 8, 7, 4}; // Create a HashSet to store unique elements HashSet<Integer> uniqueSet = new HashSet<>(); // Create a HashSet to store duplicate elements HashSet<Integer> duplicateSet = new HashSet<>(); // Iterate through the array for (int num : array) { // Attempt to add the current element to the uniqueSet if (!uniqueSet.add(num)) { // If add returns false, the element is already in the set (duplicate) duplicateSet.add(num); } } // Print the duplicate elements System.out.println("Duplicate elements: " + duplicateSet); } } Here’s a step-by-step explanation: Import Statement import java.util.HashSet;: This imports the HashSet class from the java.util package. The HashSet is used to store unique elements. Class Declaration public class FindDuplicates: Declares a class named FindDuplicates. Main Method public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program. Array Initialization int[] array = {3, 5, 7, 2, 5, 8, 7, 4};: Initializes an array with some elements, including duplicates. HashSet Initialization HashSet<Integer> uniqueSet = new HashSet<>();: Creates a HashSet named uniqueSet to store unique elements. HashSet<Integer> duplicateSet = new HashSet<>();: Creates a HashSet named duplicateSet to store duplicate elements. Check for Duplicates for (int num : array) { ... }: Iterates through each element in the array. if (!uniqueSet.add(num)) { duplicateSet.add(num); }: Attempts to add the current element to the uniqueSet. If the add method returns false, it means the element is already in the set, so it is added to the duplicateSet. Print Result System.out.println("Duplicate elements: " + duplicateSet);: Prints the set of duplicate elements. 20. String Concatenation Write a Java program to concatenate two strings. import java.util.Scanner; public class StringConcatenation { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter the first string. System.out.print("Enter the first string: "); // Read the entire line of input entered by the user as the first string. String str1 = scanner.nextLine(); // Prompt the user to enter the second string. System.out.print("Enter the second string: "); // Read the entire line of input entered by the user as the second string. String str2 = scanner.nextLine(); // Concatenate the two strings with a space in between. String result = str1 + " " + str2; // Print the concatenated string. System.out.println("Concatenated string: " + result); } } Here’s a step-by-step explanation: Import Statement import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input. Class Declaration public class StringConcatenation: Declares a class named StringConcatenation. Main Method public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program. Scanner Initialization Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in). User Input — First String System.out.print("Enter the first string: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the first string. String str1 = scanner.nextLine();: Reads the entire line of input entered by the user using the nextLine() method of the Scanner class. User Input — Second String System.out.print("Enter the second string: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the second string. String str2 = scanner.nextLine();: Reads the entire line of input entered by the user as the second string. String Concatenation String result = str1 + " " + str2;: Concatenates the two strings with a space in between. Print Result System.out.println("Concatenated string: " + result);: Prints the concatenated string. 21. Sum of Natural Numbers Write a Java program to calculate the sum of the first n natural numbers. import java.util.Scanner; public class SumOfNaturalNumbers { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter a positive integer (n). System.out.print("Enter a positive integer (n): "); // Read the positive integer entered by the user. int n = scanner.nextInt(); // Calculate the sum of the first 'n' natural numbers using the formula. int sum = (n * (n + 1)) / 2; // Print the result. System.out.println("Sum of the first " + n + " natural numbers: " + sum); } } Here’s a step-by-step explanation: Import Statement import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input. Class Declaration public class SumOfNaturalNumbers: Declares a class named SumOfNaturalNumbers. Main Method public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program. Scanner Initialization Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in). User Input — Positive Integer (n) System.out.print("Enter a positive integer (n): ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter a positive integer. int n = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the positive integer entered by the user using the nextInt() method of the Scanner class. Sum Calculation int sum = (n * (n + 1)) / 2;: Calculates the sum of the first 'n' natural numbers using the formula (n * (n + 1)) / 2. Print Result System.out.println("Sum of the first " + n + " natural numbers: " + sum);: Prints the calculated sum. 22. Remove Spaces from String Write a Java program to remove spaces from a given string. import java.util.Scanner; public class RemoveSpaces { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter a string. System.out.print("Enter a string: "); // Read the entire line of input entered by the user. String input = scanner.nextLine(); // Use the replaceAll method to remove spaces (whitespace characters). String stringWithoutSpaces = input.replaceAll("\\s", ""); // Print the result. System.out.println("String without spaces: " + stringWithoutSpaces); } } Here’s a step-by-step explanation: Import Statement import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input. Class Declaration public class RemoveSpaces: Declares a class named RemoveSpaces. Main Method public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program. Scanner Initialization Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in). User Input — String System.out.print("Enter a string: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter a string. String input = scanner.nextLine();: Reads the entire line of input entered by the user using the nextLine() method of the Scanner class. Remove Spaces String stringWithoutSpaces = input.replaceAll("\\s", "");: Uses the replaceAll method to replace all occurrences of whitespace characters (denoted by the regular expression \\s) with an empty string. Print Result System.out.println("String without spaces: " + stringWithoutSpaces);: Prints the resulting string without spaces. 23. Check Anagram Write a Java program to check if two strings are anagrams. import java.util.Arrays; import java.util.Scanner; public class AnagramCheck { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter the first string. System.out.print("Enter the first string: "); // Read the entire line of input entered by the user as the first string. String str1 = scanner.nextLine(); // Prompt the user to enter the second string. System.out.print("Enter the second string: "); // Read the entire line of input entered by the user as the second string. String str2 = scanner.nextLine(); // Convert the strings to character arrays. char[] charArray1 = str1.toCharArray(); char[] charArray2 = str2.toCharArray(); // Sort the character arrays. Arrays.sort(charArray1); Arrays.sort(charArray2); // Check if the sorted arrays are equal (anagrams). boolean areAnagrams = Arrays.equals(charArray1, charArray2); // Print the result. if (areAnagrams) { System.out.println("The strings are anagrams."); } else { System.out.println("The strings are not anagrams."); } } } Here’s a step-by-step explanation: Import Statements import java.util.Arrays;: This imports the Arrays class from the java.util package. The Arrays class provides utility methods for manipulating arrays. Class Declaration public class AnagramCheck: Declares a class named AnagramCheck. Main Method public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program. Scanner Initialization Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in). User Input — First String System.out.print("Enter the first string: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the first string. String str1 = scanner.nextLine();: Reads the entire line of input entered by the user as the first string. User Input — Second String System.out.print("Enter the second string: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the second string. String str2 = scanner.nextLine();: Reads the entire line of input entered by the user as the second string. Convert Strings to Character Arrays char[] charArray1 = str1.toCharArray();: Converts the first string to a character array. char[] charArray2 = str2.toCharArray();: Converts the second string to a character array. Sort Character Arrays Arrays.sort(charArray1);: Sorts the character array for the first string. Arrays.sort(charArray2);: Sorts the character array for the second string. Check for Anagrams boolean areAnagrams = Arrays.equals(charArray1, charArray2);: Checks if the sorted character arrays are equal, indicating that the strings are anagrams. Print Result if (areAnagrams) { System.out.println("The strings are anagrams."); }: Prints a message if the strings are anagrams. else { System.out.println("The strings are not anagrams."); }: Prints a message if the strings are not anagrams. 24. Swap Two Numbers Write a Java program to swap the values of two variables. import java.util.Scanner; public class SwapNumbers { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter the first number. System.out.print("Enter the first number: "); // Read the first number entered by the user. int num1 = scanner.nextInt(); // Prompt the user to enter the second number. System.out.print("Enter the second number: "); // Read the second number entered by the user. int num2 = scanner.nextInt(); // Print the numbers before swapping. System.out.println("Before swapping: num1 = " + num1 + ", num2 = " + num2); // Swap the values of num1 and num2 using a temporary variable. int temp = num1; num1 = num2; num2 = temp; // Print the numbers after swapping. System.out.println("After swapping: num1 = " + num1 + ", num2 = " + num2); } } Here’s a step-by-step explanation: Import Statement import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input. Class Declaration public class SwapNumbers: Declares a class named SwapNumbers. Main Method public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program. Scanner Initialization Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in). User Input — First Number System.out.print("Enter the first number: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the first number. int num1 = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the first number entered by the user using the nextInt() method of the Scanner class. User Input — Second Number System.out.print("Enter the second number: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the second number. int num2 = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the second number entered by the user using the nextInt() method of the Scanner class. Print Numbers Before Swapping System.out.println("Before swapping: num1 = " + num1 + ", num2 = " + num2);: Prints the values of num1 and num2 before the swapping process. Swap Numbers Using a Temporary Variable int temp = num1; num1 = num2; num2 = temp;: Swaps the values of num1 and num2 using a temporary variable. Print Numbers After Swapping System.out.println("After swapping: num1 = " + num1 + ", num2 = " + num2);: Prints the values of num1 and num2 after the swapping process. 25. Armstrong Numbers in a Range Write a Java program to find and print Armstrong numbers in a given range. import java.util.Scanner; public class ArmstrongNumbersInRange { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create a Scanner object to read input from the console. Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // Prompt the user to enter the starting range. System.out.print("Enter the starting range: "); // Read the starting range entered by the user. int startRange = scanner.nextInt(); // Prompt the user to enter the ending range. System.out.print("Enter the ending range: "); // Read the ending range entered by the user. int endRange = scanner.nextInt(); // Print the header for the Armstrong numbers in the specified range. System.out.println("Armstrong numbers in the range " + startRange + " to " + endRange + ":"); // Iterate through the numbers in the specified range. for (int num = startRange; num <= endRange; num++) { int originalNum = num; int sum = 0; int digitCount = String.valueOf(num).length(); int tempNum = num; // Store the original value of num // Use a while loop to calculate the sum of powered digits. while (tempNum > 0) { int digit = tempNum % 10; sum += Math.pow(digit, digitCount); tempNum /= 10; } // Check if the sum is equal to the original number (Armstrong number). if (sum == originalNum) { System.out.print(originalNum + " "); } } // Close the scanner to prevent resource leaks. scanner.close(); } } Here’s a step-by-step explanation: Import Statement import java.util.Scanner;: This imports the Scanner class from the java.util package. The Scanner class is used for reading user input. Class Declaration public class ArmstrongNumbersInRange: Declares a class named ArmstrongNumbersInRange. Main Method public static void main(String[] args): This is the main method, the entry point of the program. Scanner Initialization Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);: Creates a Scanner object named scanner to read input from the console (System.in). User Input — Starting Range System.out.print("Enter the starting range: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the starting range. int startRange = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the starting range entered by the user using the nextInt() method of the Scanner class. User Input — Ending Range System.out.print("Enter the ending range: ");: Prints a prompt asking the user to enter the ending range. int endRange = scanner.nextInt();: Reads the ending range entered by the user using the nextInt() method of the Scanner class. Print Header System.out.println("Armstrong numbers in the range " + startRange + " to " + endRange + ":");: Prints the header for the Armstrong numbers in the specified range. Iterate Through Range for (int num = startRange; num <= endRange; num++) { ... }: Uses a for loop to iterate through the numbers in the specified range. Calculate Sum of Powered Digits while (num > 0) { int digit = num % 10; sum += Math.pow(digit, digitCount); num /= 10; }: Uses a while loop to calculate the sum of powered digits by iterating over each digit of the number. Check for Armstrong Number if (sum == originalNum) { System.out.print(originalNum + " "); }: Checks if the sum is equal to the original number. If true, it prints the number as an Armstrong number. Conclusion These 25 Java coding exercises provide a well-rounded set of challenges for learners at different stages of their programming journey. By working through these exercises, students can build a strong foundation in Java programming, gaining confidence in applying essential concepts and problem-solving skills. These exercises serve as an excellent resource for practice, helping learners reinforce their understanding and develop the coding skills necessary for real-world applications.	418c87a6-3c86-5e30-af6b-f51e673112c8	25/08/2025 16:01:32
https://medium.com/@victormct/challenging-the-pilots-unleashing-movement-impairment-as-a-negative-power-up-in-a-space-shooter-870be2d2e610	medium.com	Challenging the Pilots: Unleashing Movement Impairment as a Negative Power-Up in a Space Shooter…	Space shooter games often feature power-ups that enhance the player’s abilities, but what if we flipped the script? Negative power-ups…	Victor Manuel Campos Toledo	https://medium.com/@victormct	870be2d2e610	https://miro.medium.com/…fbTQ7R5X2MNQ.gif	7 min	2023-07-18T16:38:44.266000	2023-07-18T22:47:46.537000	2023-07-19T02:37:40.220000	0	0	en	Unity,Unity3d,Unity Game Development,Unity2d,Unity Development	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/893/1DlzvCFD2vJfbTQ7R5X2MNQ.gif" width="893" height="504" loading="lazy" /> <p>Space shooter games often feature power-ups that enhance the player’s abilities, but what if we flipped the script? Negative power-ups introduce unique challenges and unexpected hurdles that test the skills and adaptability of players. One such negative power-up is Movement Impairment. In this article, we explore the concept of Movement Impairment as a negative power-up in a space shooter game, its impact on gameplay dynamics, and how it adds a thrilling twist to the player experience.</p> <h3>Introducing Movement Impairment</h3> <p>Movement Impairment is a negative power-up that temporarily hinders the player’s spacecraft movement, introducing an element of unpredictability and challenge. When collected, it triggers a sequence of events that alter the player’s control over their spacecraft, creating a captivating gameplay scenario.</p> <h3>Impaired Movement Mechanics</h3> <p>Upon activation, Movement Impairment influences various aspects of spacecraft movement. Here are some key elements to consider:</p> <p><strong>a. Reduced Speed:</strong> Movement Impairment slows down the player’s spacecraft, reducing its speed compared to the normal controls. This altered speed makes it more challenging to maneuver and navigate through the game environment.</p> <p><strong>b. Sluggish Controls:</strong> The power-up affects the spacecraft’s responsiveness and maneuverability, resulting in delayed or less precise movements. Pilots must anticipate and adjust their control inputs accordingly to navigate obstacles and engage enemies effectively.</p> <p><strong>c. Altered Acceleration:</strong> Movement Impairment can introduce changes to the acceleration behavior of the spacecraft. It may cause a delayed response when accelerating or decelerating, further complicating the player’s control over their spacecraft.</p> <h3>Strategic Decision-Making</h3> <p>The inclusion of Movement Impairment as a negative power-up introduces strategic decision-making for the players. Collecting power-ups becomes a calculated risk, as the Movement Impairment power-up can hinder progress instead of providing an advantage. Players must assess the current game situation, the immediate challenges they face, and decide whether to take the risk or avoid the negative power-up altogether.</p> <h3>Gameplay Impact</h3> <p>Movement Impairment has a significant impact on the gameplay experience. It adds a layer of unpredictability and urgency, challenging players to adapt their strategies and refine their piloting skills. The impaired movement mechanics force players to think strategically, plan their movements in advance, and navigate through enemy fire with precision.</p> <h3>Visual and Audio Feedback</h3> <p>To ensure clarity and provide cues to players, effective visual and audio feedback are crucial when the Movement Impairment power-up is active. Visual effects, such as a shimmering force field or a color shift on the spacecraft, can signify the power-up’s activation. Additionally, audio cues, like a distorted engine sound or a low hum, can reinforce the feeling of impaired movement.</p> <h3>Duration and Balancing</h3> <p>To maintain balance and prevent frustration, the duration of Movement Impairment should be limited. It should be long enough to pose a challenge but not overly punishing. Balancing the negative impact of Movement Impairment ensures that players can still progress through the game while feeling challenged and engaged.</p> <h3>Player Mastery and Satisfaction</h3> <p>Movement Impairment, as a negative power-up, adds depth and excitement to the gameplay experience. It challenges players to develop new strategies, enhances their adaptability, and rewards mastery over spacecraft control. Overcoming the impaired movement mechanics instills a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, making successful navigation through the power-up’s effects a rewarding experience.</p> <h3>Implementing a Kryptonite Asteroid</h3> <p>To introduce this negative power-up effect in the space shooter game, let us think about a power-up like a rock with radioactive effects over the player’s controls. If this would be a normal power-up, the player would never try to crash the power-up. Then, only with its presence should be enough.</p> <p>Kryptonite asteroid power effect would affect player’s movements control and shooting. Kryptonite asteroid would spawn as a normal power-up, as it is random, it could spawn two or possible three in arrow.</p> <p>The visual effect for the player would be an orange field around the sprite.</p> <h3>Creating the negative power-up</h3> <p>As previous power-ups, the source for these types of objects could be third party game object portals. In this case, we downloaded a special rock.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/219/1BO_f4D1Wwh5n93AXpkwQ3A.png" width="219" height="172" loading="lazy" /> <p>The radiant light effect remembers the radioactivity power effect of a nuclear bomb. In a nature way of think, this radiant light effect could affect the controls and the shooting control.</p> <p>The player would note the radioactivity effect by the orange shield appearance, and this would last until the orange shiel disappears.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/203/1CBZ-ULKVZ80LWlZWH8bH-g.png" width="203" height="200" loading="lazy" /> <p>The kryptonite asteroid is a prefab game object with the following components included:</p> <p><strong>Transform component.</strong> The object was scaled to a more convenient size and position.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/490/1YMxPijsyZEdAOM8XWGXGig.png" width="490" height="114" loading="lazy" /> <p>Rigidbody 2D. This component gives the mass effect to the game object. The gravity scale control is set to cero.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/479/15OtFfkPXxh81Lz8PjPxoLQ.png" width="479" height="354" loading="lazy" /> <p>Polygon Collider 2D. This component lets control object intersection with other objects, like the laser and the player. So, the trigger is set around the object in a 2D sense.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/362/1QQ9dX-oZJfb5ucDTEBXo1w.png" width="362" height="283" loading="lazy" /> <h3><strong>Creation of the Kripto_Rock script</strong></h3> <p>Negative power-up script would control asteroid’s rotation and its effect over player’s game object.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/497/1xw7ROJx0Z4j70DUmA4DMCA.png" width="497" height="145" loading="lazy" /> <p>The script calls the following variables:</p> <pre><code class="language-csharp">[SerializeField] private float _rotateSpeed = 2.0f; [SerializeField] private float _powerUpSpeed = 1.0f; [SerializeField] private GameObject _explosionPrefab; private int _hit = 0; private Player _player;</code></pre> <p>The SerializeField variables private float _rotateSpeed and private float _powerUpSpeed, would control the speed rotation and the moving from top to down speed, respectively.</p> <p>The private GameObject _explosionPrefab variable would configure the explosion prefab for the following laser and player hits.</p> <p>The private int _hit = 0 would count the hit lasers over the kryptonite rock.</p> <p>The private Player _player would call player’s script to access the existing methods.</p> <p>It is recommended to configure script communication from the Start() method.</p> <pre><code class="language-csharp">void Start() { _player = GameObject.Find("Player").GetComponent<Player>(); if (_player == null) { Debug.LogError("The player is Null"); } }</code></pre> <p>The Update() method defines gameobject’s rotation transform.Rotate(Vector3.forward _rotateSpeed * Time.deltaTime), and translation, transform.Translate(Vector3.down * _powerUpSpeed * Time.deltaTime) .</p> <pre><code class="language-scss">void Update() { transform.Rotate(Vector3.forward * _rotateSpeed * Time.deltaTime); transform.Translate(Vector3.down * _powerUpSpeed * Time.deltaTime); if(transform.position.y < -5.0f) { Destroy(this.gameObject); } }</code></pre> <p>Once the game object’s Y position is less than -5.0f, if(transform.position.y < -5.0f), the game object would destroy.</p> <p>If the game object collides with objects with the “Laser” and “Player” tags, the script would instantiate the explosion prefab, Instantiate(_explosionPrefab, transform.position, Quaternion.identity), the “Laser” tag game object would be destroyed and the “Player” tag game object would be damaged.</p> <p>The _hit variable counts the number of times the Laser hit the asteroid. If the laser hit 5 times the asteroid, it would be destroyed Destroy(this.gameObject).</p> <pre><code class="language-csharp">private void OnTriggerEnter2D(Collider2D Other) { if(Other.tag == "Laser") { Instantiate(_explosionPrefab, transform.position, Quaternion.identity); Destroy(Other.gameObject); _hit =_hit + 1; if (_hit == 5) { Destroy(this.gameObject); } } else if (Other.tag == "Player") { if (_player != null) { _player.Damage(); } Instantiate(_explosionPrefab, transform.position, Quaternion.identity); } }</code></pre> <p>Once game object’s components configuration is finished, proceed to prefab the game object.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/286/14IUH5Hkcw2RrMxm7OWIp8A.png" width="286" height="324" loading="lazy" /> <h3>Modifications to the SpawnManager.cs script</h3> <p>The kryptonite asteroid would spawn through the <strong>SpawnManager.cs</strong> script. The IEnumerator SpawnPowerUpRoutine() method controls the power-up spawning.</p> <p>The <strong>SpawnManager.cs</strong> script includes a Power-up array, so, the modification to the number of Power-Ups to 6, now it opens a new Element field to include the Crypto_Rock Variant prefab.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/491/1T1lP853ss2vA0OP-GSbhBQ.png" width="491" height="320" loading="lazy" /> <p>To spawn the new power-up, modify the up limit to 6 in the line of code int randomPowerUp = UnityEngine.Random.Range(0,6).</p> <pre><code class="language-csharp">IEnumerator SpawnPowerUpRoutine() { yield return new WaitForSeconds(3.0f); while (_stopSpawning == false \| _stopWave == false) { Vector3 _powerUpPos = new Vector3(UnityEngine.Random.Range(-8f, 8f), 8.0f, 0); int randomPowerUp = UnityEngine.Random.Range(0,6); Transform SpawnManager = transform; Transform EnemyContainer = SpawnManager.GetChild(0); int childCount = EnemyContainer.childCount; if(randomPowerUp == 4 && childCount >= 4 ) { Instantiate(_powerUps[randomPowerUp], _powerUpPos, Quaternion.identity); yield return new WaitForSeconds(UnityEngine.Random.Range(5.0f, 10.0f)); } else if (randomPowerUp != 4) { Instantiate(_powerUps[randomPowerUp], _powerUpPos, Quaternion.identity); yield return new WaitForSeconds(UnityEngine.Random.Range(5.0f, 10.0f)); } } }</code></pre> <h3>Modifications to the Player.cs script</h3> <p>The effect to player’s movements for kryptonite asteroid presence would be controlled by the code in <strong>Players.cs</strong> script.</p> <p>The serializedfield variable private GameObject _shielCryptoEffectVisualizer would control the shield visual effect for the kryptonite asteroid presence.</p> <p>The DetectCrypto() method would detect the “Crypto_Rock Variant(Clone)” game object presence by finding the game object listed in the screen.</p> <p>If the _kryptogameobject is null, everything would continue as programmed, but if it appears on the screen, the following actions would start: The _speed variable to 0.5f, the _fireRate variable would increase to 1.5f, player`s visual effect _shielCryptoEffectVisualizer.SetActive(true).</p> <pre><code class="language-csharp">[SerializeField] private GameObject _shielCryptoEffectVisualizer; void Update() { DetectCrypto(); } private void DetectCrypto() { GameObject _kryptogameobject = GameObject.Find("Crypto_Rock Variant(Clone)"); if (_kryptogameobject == null) { _speed = 3.5f; _fireRate = 0.5f; _shielCryptoEffectVisualizer.SetActive(false); } else { _speed = 0.5f; _fireRate = 1.5f; _shielCryptoEffectVisualizer.SetActive(true); } }</code></pre> <h3>Conclusion</h3> <p>Movement Impairment as a negative power-up brings an unexpected twist to space shooter games. By temporarily hindering the player’s spacecraft movement, it creates unique challenges and tests the player’s adaptability and skill. The altered speed, sluggish controls, and strategic decision-making required to navigate through the power-up’s effects add depth and excitement to the gameplay. With careful balancing and effective visual and audio feedback, Movement Impairment becomes an engaging element that keeps players on their toes, pushing their piloting abilities to the limit. Embrace the power of Movement Impairment as a negative power-up, and watch as players rise to the challenge in your space shooter game.</p> </section>	Challenging the Pilots: Unleashing Movement Impairment as a Negative Power-Up in a Space Shooter Game A Negative Power-up affects the player Space shooter games often feature power-ups that enhance the player’s abilities, but what if we flipped the script? Negative power-ups introduce unique challenges and unexpected hurdles that test the skills and adaptability of players. One such negative power-up is Movement Impairment. In this article, we explore the concept of Movement Impairment as a negative power-up in a space shooter game, its impact on gameplay dynamics, and how it adds a thrilling twist to the player experience. Introducing Movement Impairment Movement Impairment is a negative power-up that temporarily hinders the player’s spacecraft movement, introducing an element of unpredictability and challenge. When collected, it triggers a sequence of events that alter the player’s control over their spacecraft, creating a captivating gameplay scenario. Impaired Movement Mechanics Upon activation, Movement Impairment influences various aspects of spacecraft movement. Here are some key elements to consider: a. Reduced Speed: Movement Impairment slows down the player’s spacecraft, reducing its speed compared to the normal controls. This altered speed makes it more challenging to maneuver and navigate through the game environment. b. Sluggish Controls: The power-up affects the spacecraft’s responsiveness and maneuverability, resulting in delayed or less precise movements. Pilots must anticipate and adjust their control inputs accordingly to navigate obstacles and engage enemies effectively. c. Altered Acceleration: Movement Impairment can introduce changes to the acceleration behavior of the spacecraft. It may cause a delayed response when accelerating or decelerating, further complicating the player’s control over their spacecraft. Strategic Decision-Making The inclusion of Movement Impairment as a negative power-up introduces strategic decision-making for the players. Collecting power-ups becomes a calculated risk, as the Movement Impairment power-up can hinder progress instead of providing an advantage. Players must assess the current game situation, the immediate challenges they face, and decide whether to take the risk or avoid the negative power-up altogether. Gameplay Impact Movement Impairment has a significant impact on the gameplay experience. It adds a layer of unpredictability and urgency, challenging players to adapt their strategies and refine their piloting skills. The impaired movement mechanics force players to think strategically, plan their movements in advance, and navigate through enemy fire with precision. Visual and Audio Feedback To ensure clarity and provide cues to players, effective visual and audio feedback are crucial when the Movement Impairment power-up is active. Visual effects, such as a shimmering force field or a color shift on the spacecraft, can signify the power-up’s activation. Additionally, audio cues, like a distorted engine sound or a low hum, can reinforce the feeling of impaired movement. Duration and Balancing To maintain balance and prevent frustration, the duration of Movement Impairment should be limited. It should be long enough to pose a challenge but not overly punishing. Balancing the negative impact of Movement Impairment ensures that players can still progress through the game while feeling challenged and engaged. Player Mastery and Satisfaction Movement Impairment, as a negative power-up, adds depth and excitement to the gameplay experience. It challenges players to develop new strategies, enhances their adaptability, and rewards mastery over spacecraft control. Overcoming the impaired movement mechanics instills a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, making successful navigation through the power-up’s effects a rewarding experience. Implementing a Kryptonite Asteroid To introduce this negative power-up effect in the space shooter game, let us think about a power-up like a rock with radioactive effects over the player’s controls. If this would be a normal power-up, the player would never try to crash the power-up. Then, only with its presence should be enough. Kryptonite asteroid power effect would affect player’s movements control and shooting. Kryptonite asteroid would spawn as a normal power-up, as it is random, it could spawn two or possible three in arrow. The visual effect for the player would be an orange field around the sprite. Creating the negative power-up As previous power-ups, the source for these types of objects could be third party game object portals. In this case, we downloaded a special rock. Kryptonite Asteroid power-up. The radiant light effect remembers the radioactivity power effect of a nuclear bomb. In a nature way of think, this radiant light effect could affect the controls and the shooting control. The player would note the radioactivity effect by the orange shield appearance, and this would last until the orange shiel disappears. Visual kryptonite power effect over the player The kryptonite asteroid is a prefab game object with the following components included: Transform component. The object was scaled to a more convenient size and position. Transform component configuration. Rigidbody 2D. This component gives the mass effect to the game object. The gravity scale control is set to cero. Rigidbody 2D configuration. Polygon Collider 2D. This component lets control object intersection with other objects, like the laser and the player. So, the trigger is set around the object in a 2D sense. Polygon Collider 2D configuration. Creation of the Kripto_Rock script Negative power-up script would control asteroid’s rotation and its effect over player’s game object. Krypto_rock script. The script calls the following variables: [SerializeField] private float _rotateSpeed = 2.0f; [SerializeField] private float _powerUpSpeed = 1.0f; [SerializeField] private GameObject _explosionPrefab; private int _hit = 0; private Player _player; The SerializeField variables private float _rotateSpeed and private float _powerUpSpeed, would control the speed rotation and the moving from top to down speed, respectively. The private GameObject _explosionPrefab variable would configure the explosion prefab for the following laser and player hits. The private int _hit = 0 would count the hit lasers over the kryptonite rock. The private Player _player would call player’s script to access the existing methods. It is recommended to configure script communication from the Start() method. void Start() { _player = GameObject.Find("Player").GetComponent<Player>(); if (_player == null) { Debug.LogError("The player is Null"); } } The Update() method defines gameobject’s rotation transform.Rotate(Vector3.forward * _rotateSpeed * Time.deltaTime), and translation, transform.Translate(Vector3.down * _powerUpSpeed * Time.deltaTime) . void Update() { transform.Rotate(Vector3.forward * _rotateSpeed * Time.deltaTime); transform.Translate(Vector3.down * _powerUpSpeed * Time.deltaTime); if(transform.position.y < -5.0f) { Destroy(this.gameObject); } } Once the game object’s Y position is less than -5.0f, if(transform.position.y < -5.0f), the game object would destroy. If the game object collides with objects with the “Laser” and “Player” tags, the script would instantiate the explosion prefab, Instantiate(_explosionPrefab, transform.position, Quaternion.identity), the “Laser” tag game object would be destroyed and the “Player” tag game object would be damaged. The _hit variable counts the number of times the Laser hit the asteroid. If the laser hit 5 times the asteroid, it would be destroyed Destroy(this.gameObject). private void OnTriggerEnter2D(Collider2D Other) { if(Other.tag == "Laser") { Instantiate(_explosionPrefab, transform.position, Quaternion.identity); Destroy(Other.gameObject); _hit =_hit + 1; if (_hit == 5) { Destroy(this.gameObject); } } else if (Other.tag == "Player") { if (_player != null) { _player.Damage(); } Instantiate(_explosionPrefab, transform.position, Quaternion.identity); } } Once game object’s components configuration is finished, proceed to prefab the game object. Crypto_Rock prefab Modifications to the SpawnManager.cs script The kryptonite asteroid would spawn through the SpawnManager.cs script. The IEnumerator SpawnPowerUpRoutine() method controls the power-up spawning. The SpawnManager.cs script includes a Power-up array, so, the modification to the number of Power-Ups to 6, now it opens a new Element field to include the Crypto_Rock Variant prefab. SpawnManager script configuration. To spawn the new power-up, modify the up limit to 6 in the line of code int randomPowerUp = UnityEngine.Random.Range(0,6). IEnumerator SpawnPowerUpRoutine() { yield return new WaitForSeconds(3.0f); while (_stopSpawning == false \| _stopWave == false) { Vector3 _powerUpPos = new Vector3(UnityEngine.Random.Range(-8f, 8f), 8.0f, 0); int randomPowerUp = UnityEngine.Random.Range(0,6); Transform SpawnManager = transform; Transform EnemyContainer = SpawnManager.GetChild(0); int childCount = EnemyContainer.childCount; if(randomPowerUp == 4 && childCount >= 4 ) { Instantiate(_powerUps[randomPowerUp], _powerUpPos, Quaternion.identity); yield return new WaitForSeconds(UnityEngine.Random.Range(5.0f, 10.0f)); } else if (randomPowerUp != 4) { Instantiate(_powerUps[randomPowerUp], _powerUpPos, Quaternion.identity); yield return new WaitForSeconds(UnityEngine.Random.Range(5.0f, 10.0f)); } } } Modifications to the Player.cs script The effect to player’s movements for kryptonite asteroid presence would be controlled by the code in Players.cs script. The serializedfield variable private GameObject _shielCryptoEffectVisualizer would control the shield visual effect for the kryptonite asteroid presence. The DetectCrypto() method would detect the “Crypto_Rock Variant(Clone)” game object presence by finding the game object listed in the screen. If the _kryptogameobject is null, everything would continue as programmed, but if it appears on the screen, the following actions would start: The _speed variable to 0.5f, the _fireRate variable would increase to 1.5f, player`s visual effect _shielCryptoEffectVisualizer.SetActive(true). [SerializeField] private GameObject _shielCryptoEffectVisualizer; void Update() { DetectCrypto(); } private void DetectCrypto() { GameObject _kryptogameobject = GameObject.Find("Crypto_Rock Variant(Clone)"); if (_kryptogameobject == null) { _speed = 3.5f; _fireRate = 0.5f; _shielCryptoEffectVisualizer.SetActive(false); } else { _speed = 0.5f; _fireRate = 1.5f; _shielCryptoEffectVisualizer.SetActive(true); } } Conclusion Movement Impairment as a negative power-up brings an unexpected twist to space shooter games. By temporarily hindering the player’s spacecraft movement, it creates unique challenges and tests the player’s adaptability and skill. The altered speed, sluggish controls, and strategic decision-making required to navigate through the power-up’s effects add depth and excitement to the gameplay. With careful balancing and effective visual and audio feedback, Movement Impairment becomes an engaging element that keeps players on their toes, pushing their piloting abilities to the limit. Embrace the power of Movement Impairment as a negative power-up, and watch as players rise to the challenge in your space shooter game.	018885f0-2c40-5d4e-9069-83dd0834ce41	25/08/2025 16:01:32
https://medium.com/promptly-written/ocean-waves-b7943c065e4	medium.com	Ocean Waves	Under a silky moon	Jadine Lydia	https://medium.com/@jadinelydia	b7943c065e4	https://miro.medium.com/…k_vnknZ8XyHg.png	0 min	2022-03-14T12:40:05.523000	2022-03-15T03:04:07.915000	2022-03-30T20:24:45.866000	3	180	en	Promptly Written,Poetry,Oceans,Moon,Tenderness	<section> <h3>Under a silky moon</h3> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*vfL03uqjrvk_vnknZ8XyHg.png" width="1400" height="500" loading="lazy" /> <p>ocean hold me like the tide holding the undercurrents of a waxing, silky moon laced with tenderness blessed with madness as my waves lull me back to you</p> </section>	Ocean Waves Under a silky moon Photo taken by Author @jadinelydia ocean hold me like the tide holding the undercurrents of a waxing, silky moon laced with tenderness blessed with madness as my waves lull me back to you	2036ac6a-19f8-5386-bb3a-fca0248766d3	25/08/2025 16:01:32
https://medium.com/@calinpupaza/estimation-for-the-senior-software-engineer-373202454c47	medium.com	Estimation for the Senior Software Engineer	A common, if not the biggest, challenge in software engineering is estimation. Your client, your manager or your project manager — they…	Calin Pupaza	https://medium.com/@calinpupaza	373202454c47	https://miro.medium.com/…PHduWzlgphQ.jpeg	2 min	2018-12-14T17:45:26.115000	2018-12-14T17:48:06.131000	2021-12-07T00:40:37.639000	0	100	en	Project Management,Software Estimation	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/6016/1_2y7jPirLNtPHduWzlgphQ.jpeg" width="6016" height="4016" loading="lazy" /> <p>A common, if not the biggest, challenge in software engineering is estimation. Your client, your manager or your project manager — they will all a due date for their deliverables.</p> <p>Due to many factors, ranging from lack of definition of scope and problem, technical unknowns, and oversight of the steps required, this can be a difficult thing to nail down.</p> <p>Here are some pointers to help you be able to estimate easier.</p> <p>First of all, remember this quote attributed to Dwight Eisenhower:</p> <p>“The plan is worthless, but planning is everything!”</p> <p>No matter how precise your plan is, when you implement it you will have changes. New requirements appear, new issues are discovered, and all of this new information will make last week’s plan obsolete, so you will have to make a new plan.</p> <p>It is the process of planning that will decrease your margin of error that is brought on by the unknown, and will also allow you to quantify, however imprecisely, those unknowns.</p> <p>1. Plan often</p> <ul> <li>Make sure you constantly revisit your project plan.</li> <li>Have a “planning day” set up every couple of weeks, when you revisit your plan in your project management tool. For a project that will take a few months, the most granular-level plans can only happen a few weeks out.</li> </ul> <p>2. Think through the project</p> <ul> <li>In order to be able to estimate, you must correctly and accurately break down and track the completion of every task.</li> <li>Thinking about each step in the entire process of designing, coding, testing, documenting, etc is the best way to discover all of the tasks that need to be done before you start to do them.</li> <li>Draft a blueprint for yourself: make a comprehensive list with every potential task.</li> <li>Gather a list of requirements</li> <li>Draft user stories and user case studies</li> <li>Review all of the required steps with stakeholders, designers, and engineers.</li> </ul> <p>3. Understand the impact of your planning</p> <ul> <li>The estimation of your part of any project is important to many areas of the company, since it will influence the company as a whole.</li> <li>You may only be giving an estimate of your part of the project to the engineers; but, the engineers give that estimate to the first line managers with all of the other estimates for different parts of the project in order to estimate total project duration.</li> <li>After the total project duration is estimated, the information is given to upper management for team and headcount planning.</li> <li>Then it goes on to budgeting. For a publicly traded company, the budget for a project will contribute to the financial forecast, which then influences stock prices. For a startup, these forecasts inform VC funding rounds and negotiations, having a heavy impact on the life of the company.</li> </ul> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/5184/1AtfLyr8TCCPeoMUsSYap8Q.jpeg" width="5184" height="3456" loading="lazy" /> <p>I hope this gives you some insight on the importance of good project planning!</p> <p>I understand that requirements can change, someone will decide last-minute that they want to add something to your part of the project, someone else wants something to work differently, etc., that is why we plan often and think through the project. With practice and forethought, estimates should become easier to manage.</p> </section>	Estimation for the Senior Software Engineer A common, if not the biggest, challenge in software engineering is estimation. Your client, your manager or your project manager — they will all a due date for their deliverables. Due to many factors, ranging from lack of definition of scope and problem, technical unknowns, and oversight of the steps required, this can be a difficult thing to nail down. Here are some pointers to help you be able to estimate easier. First of all, remember this quote attributed to Dwight Eisenhower: “The plan is worthless, but planning is everything!” No matter how precise your plan is, when you implement it you will have changes. New requirements appear, new issues are discovered, and all of this new information will make last week’s plan obsolete, so you will have to make a new plan. It is the process of planning that will decrease your margin of error that is brought on by the unknown, and will also allow you to quantify, however imprecisely, those unknowns. 1. Plan often Make sure you constantly revisit your project plan. Have a “planning day” set up every couple of weeks, when you revisit your plan in your project management tool. For a project that will take a few months, the most granular-level plans can only happen a few weeks out. 2. Think through the project In order to be able to estimate, you must correctly and accurately break down and track the completion of every task. Thinking about each step in the entire process of designing, coding, testing, documenting, etc is the best way to discover all of the tasks that need to be done before you start to do them. Draft a blueprint for yourself: make a comprehensive list with every potential task. Gather a list of requirements Draft user stories and user case studies Review all of the required steps with stakeholders, designers, and engineers. 3. Understand the impact of your planning The estimation of your part of any project is important to many areas of the company, since it will influence the company as a whole. You may only be giving an estimate of your part of the project to the engineers; but, the engineers give that estimate to the first line managers with all of the other estimates for different parts of the project in order to estimate total project duration. After the total project duration is estimated, the information is given to upper management for team and headcount planning. Then it goes on to budgeting. For a publicly traded company, the budget for a project will contribute to the financial forecast, which then influences stock prices. For a startup, these forecasts inform VC funding rounds and negotiations, having a heavy impact on the life of the company. I hope this gives you some insight on the importance of good project planning! I understand that requirements can change, someone will decide last-minute that they want to add something to your part of the project, someone else wants something to work differently, etc., that is why we plan often and think through the project. With practice and forethought, estimates should become easier to manage.	48c35c8d-4a47-5683-86b7-71ec8f715536	25/08/2025 16:01:33
https://medium.com/@techdogs/can-laylas-new-ai-app-transform-the-hospitality-technology-game-f5f2c6bf7789	medium.com	Can Layla’s New AI App Transform The Hospitality Technology Game?	Berlin-based startup Layla is revolutionizing the travel industry by harnessing the power of Generative AI to create a dynamic AI chatbot…	TechDogs	https://medium.com/@techdogs	f5f2c6bf7789	https://miro.medium.com/…4KfG-BYNtyNg.png	1 min	2023-12-01T10:46:28.213000	2023-12-01T10:51:32.719000	2023-12-01T10:51:35.612000	0	1	en	Hospitality,Tech,Technews,AI,Chatbots	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/818/1*m0flMB-Xge4KfG-BYNtyNg.png" width="818" height="352" loading="lazy" /> <p>Berlin-based startup Layla is revolutionizing the travel industry by harnessing the power of Generative AI to create a dynamic AI chatbot. Developed in partnership with <strong>Jeremy Jauncey of Beautiful Destinations</strong> fame and<strong> Saad Saeed, co-founder of Flink</strong>, <strong>Layla’s chatbot</strong>, and accompanying app aim to redefine the travel experience. Leveraging social media influence and a decade-long commitment to the creator economy, Jauncey and Saeed recognized the pivotal role platforms like Instagram and TikTok played during the pandemic in influencing travel decisions.</p> <p>Even before its official launch, Layla has garnered a substantial Instagram following through Beautiful Destinations’ network. The chatbot seamlessly integrates with Instagram, serving as a gateway for users to explore potential vacation spots. Following initial interactions, Layla encourages users to download its app on Instagram, providing a platform for creating lists, sharing experiences, and engaging in conversations about vacations.</p> <p>Jauncey emphasizes Layla’s mission to streamline the often cumbersome travel planning process. In a landscape where consumers typically navigate multiple websites for travel-related tasks, Layla aspires to simplify and expedite the entire journey, from ideation to reservation. With a focus on user-friendly features and comprehensive information, Layla emerges as a game-changer in the travel tech arena.</p> <p><strong><a href="https://www.techdogs.com/tech-news/td-newsdesk/can-laylas-new-ai-app-transform-the-h</strong>ospitality-technology-game">So, <em>how </em>is the company planning an AI-driven travel industry overhaul?Click here to </a>find out!</p> <p><strong>Enjoyed what you read? Great news — there’s a lot more to explore!</strong></p> <p><strong>Dive into our content repository of the latest <a href="https://www.techdogs.com/resource/tech-news">tech news</a>, a diverse range of <a href="https://www.techdogs.com/resource/td-articles">articles</a> spanning <a href="https</strong>://www.techdogs.com/resource/td-articles/curtain-raisers">introductory guides</a>, <a href="https://www.techdogs.com/resource/td-articles/product-mine">product reviews</a>, <a href="https://www.techdogs.com/resource/td-articles/techno-trends">trends</a> and <a href="https://www.techdogs.com/resource/td-articles/miscellaneous">more</a>, along with engaging interviews, up-to-date <a href="https://www.techdogs.com/category/ai">AI blogs</a> and hilarious <a href="https://www.techdogs.com/resource/td-articles/tech-memes">tech memes</a>!</p> <p><strong>Also explore our collection of branded insights via informative <a href="https://www.techdogs.com/resource/white-papers">white papers</a>, enlightening <a href="https://www.techdogs.com/resource/case-st</strong>udies">case studies</a>, in-depth <a href="https://www.techdogs.com/resource/reports">reports</a>, educational <a href="https://www.techdogs.com/resource/videos">videos</a> and exciting <a href="https://www.techdogs.com/resource/events">events and webinars</a> from leading global brands.</p> <p><strong>Head to the <a href="https://www.techdogs.com/">TechDogs</a> homepage</strong> to Know Your World of technology today!</p> </section>	Can Layla’s New AI App Transform The Hospitality Technology Game? Berlin-based startup Layla is revolutionizing the travel industry by harnessing the power of Generative AI to create a dynamic AI chatbot. Developed in partnership with Jeremy Jauncey of Beautiful Destinations fame and Saad Saeed, co-founder of Flink, Layla’s chatbot, and accompanying app aim to redefine the travel experience. Leveraging social media influence and a decade-long commitment to the creator economy, Jauncey and Saeed recognized the pivotal role platforms like Instagram and TikTok played during the pandemic in influencing travel decisions. Even before its official launch, Layla has garnered a substantial Instagram following through Beautiful Destinations’ network. The chatbot seamlessly integrates with Instagram, serving as a gateway for users to explore potential vacation spots. Following initial interactions, Layla encourages users to download its app on Instagram, providing a platform for creating lists, sharing experiences, and engaging in conversations about vacations. Jauncey emphasizes Layla’s mission to streamline the often cumbersome travel planning process. In a landscape where consumers typically navigate multiple websites for travel-related tasks, Layla aspires to simplify and expedite the entire journey, from ideation to reservation. With a focus on user-friendly features and comprehensive information, Layla emerges as a game-changer in the travel tech arena. So, how is the company planning an AI-driven travel industry overhaul?Click here to find out! Enjoyed what you read? Great news — there’s a lot more to explore! Dive into our content repository of the latest tech news, a diverse range of articles spanning introductory guides, product reviews, trends and more, along with engaging interviews, up-to-date AI blogs and hilarious tech memes! Also explore our collection of branded insights via informative white papers, enlightening case studies, in-depth reports, educational videos and exciting events and webinars from leading global brands. Head to the TechDogs homepage to Know Your World of technology today!	aefb5cbc-3b4a-5202-bb8e-2d010efd031d	25/08/2025 16:01:33
https://medium.com/@kaironelson/tag-t-shirt-mockup-best-templates-for-custom-designs-51c443a0156e	medium.com	Tag T Shirt Mockup — Best Templates for Custom Designs	Creating a unique t-shirt design requires more than just a good idea — it requires the right presentation. A high-quality mockup can help…	Kaironelson	https://medium.com/@kaironelson	51c443a0156e	https://miro.medium.com/max/2000/0*XM71Etf5CTplsBdp	3 min	2025-08-23T14:59:52.269000	2025-06-11T02:27:38.962000	2025-08-23T16:29:52.719000	0	0	en	Culture,Travel Writing,Life,Food,Adventure	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/466/0*XM71Etf5CTplsBdp" width="466" height="580" loading="lazy" /> <p>Creating a unique t-shirt design requires more than just a good idea — it requires the right presentation. A high-quality mockup can help you showcase your design in the most realistic way possible. Whether you’re a professional designer or a business owner looking to market custom apparel, using a tag t-shirt mockup can elevate your presentations and provide your clients with a better understanding of how their designs will look on a real shirt. In this guide, we’ll explore the benefits of using tag t-shirt mockups and provide you with the best places to Get high-quality templates.</p> <h1>Why You Should Use a Tag T Shirt Mockup</h1> <p>When it comes to custom apparel, presentation is key. A tag t-shirt mockup allows you to create realistic images of your design, which can be used for promotional materials, product listings, or even your website. The benefits of using a tag t-shirt mockup are numerous:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Realistic presentation:</strong> A mockup allows you to showcase your design as it would appear on a real t-shirt.</li> <li><strong>Quick turnaround:</strong> You can create professional-looking visuals without the need for actual physical samples.</li> <li><strong>Versatility:</strong> Mockups can be used for online stores, social media posts, and print advertising.</li> <li><strong>Cost-effective:</strong> There’s no need to print multiple t-shirts for each new design.</li> </ul> <p>If you’re ready to take your custom t-shirt designs to the next level, check out this <a href="https://yeldesigns.blogspot.com/mockups/s/tag+t+shirt+mockup">tag t-shirt mockup Get link</a> for high-quality templates.</p> <h2>Where to Find High-Quality Tag T Shirt Mockups</h2> <p>The internet offers numerous platforms where you can find free and premium tag t-shirt mockup templates. These resources provide a wide variety of options in terms of style, fabric type, and customization features, allowing you to find the perfect mockup for your design. Here are some of the most popular sources for high-quality tag t-shirt mockups:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Free and premium design resources:</strong> Platforms that offer both free and paid mockups, allowing you to choose based on your budget and requirements.</li> <li><strong>Getable mockups:</strong> These can be directly Geted and edited in Photoshop or Illustrator, making them easy to use.</li> <li><strong>Multiple shirt styles:</strong> From classic crew necks to trendy v-necks, you can find mockups of various shirt styles to suit your design.</li> </ul> <p>To get started with a premium tag t-shirt mockup, click here for your <a href="https://yeldesigns.blogspot.com/mockups/s/tag+t+shirt+mockup">Get link</a>.</p> <h2>Customizing Your Tag T Shirt Mockup</h2> <p>Once you’ve Geted your tag t-shirt mockup, the next step is customization. Most mockup files come with layers in Photoshop, which makes it easy to insert your design. Whether you’re adding your logo, artwork, or custom text, here are some tips for customizing your mockup:</p> <p><strong>Use smart objects:</strong> Smart objects in Photoshop make it easy to replace the mockup design with your own.</p> <p><strong>Adjust shadows and highlights:</strong> To make your design look more realistic, tweak the shadows and highlights in your mockup.</p> <p><strong>Match your brand colors:</strong> Ensure your mockup reflects your brand’s color scheme by adjusting the t-shirt and background colors.</p> <p><strong>Apply high-quality textures:</strong> Adding realistic fabric textures can make your design appear even more lifelike.</p> <p>Once you’ve customized your mockup, you’ll be ready to use it for product presentations, website showcases, and more. Ready to start customizing your tag t-shirt mockup? Get it now from this <a href="https://yeldesigns.blogspot.com/mockups/s/tag+t+shirt+mockup">link</a>.</p> <h2>Tips for Using Mockups in Your Design Portfolio</h2> <p>Displaying your work using mockups can help you make a stronger impression on potential clients or employers. Here are some tips for effectively showcasing your designs using tag t-shirt mockups:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Keep it clean:</strong> A simple background with minimal distractions will allow your design to stand out.</li> <li><strong>Showcase versatility:</strong> Use mockups in different scenarios (e.g., lifestyle shots, flat lays) to demonstrate how your design fits various contexts.</li> <li><strong>Stay consistent:</strong> Use the same type of mockup for each design to maintain a cohesive portfolio.</li> <li><strong>Focus on quality:</strong> Make sure the mockup you use is high-resolution to showcase your designs in the best light possible.</li> </ul> <p>With the right approach, your design portfolio can make a lasting impact on viewers. Don’t forget to grab your tag t-shirt mockup for a professional presentation by clicking this <a href="https://yeldesigns.blogspot.com/mockups/s/tag+t+shirt+mockup">Get link</a>.</p> <h2>Conclusion: Why Tag T Shirt Mockups Are Essential for Your Designs</h2> <p>In today’s competitive market, presenting your designs in the best possible way is crucial. A tag t-shirt mockup allows you to create realistic, high-quality images that showcase your design in a professional light. Whether you’re designing for a client, a personal project, or your own brand, a mockup helps bring your vision to life.</p> <p>By using tag t-shirt mockups, you can streamline your design process, reduce costs, and improve the overall presentation of your work. So, if you’re looking to elevate your custom t-shirt designs, make sure to Get a high-quality tag t-shirt mockup from our <a href="https://yeldesigns.blogspot.com/mockups/s/tag+t+shirt+mockup">Get page</a>.</p> <p><em>Originally published at <a href="https://dakxmon.wordpress.com/2025/06</em>/11/tag-t-shirt-mockup-best-templates-for-custom-designs/">http://dakxmon.wordpress.com</a> on June 11, 2025.</p> </section>	Tag T Shirt Mockup — Best Templates for Custom Designs Creating a unique t-shirt design requires more than just a good idea — it requires the right presentation. A high-quality mockup can help you showcase your design in the most realistic way possible. Whether you’re a professional designer or a business owner looking to market custom apparel, using a tag t-shirt mockup can elevate your presentations and provide your clients with a better understanding of how their designs will look on a real shirt. In this guide, we’ll explore the benefits of using tag t-shirt mockups and provide you with the best places to Get high-quality templates. Why You Should Use a Tag T Shirt Mockup When it comes to custom apparel, presentation is key. A tag t-shirt mockup allows you to create realistic images of your design, which can be used for promotional materials, product listings, or even your website. The benefits of using a tag t-shirt mockup are numerous: Realistic presentation: A mockup allows you to showcase your design as it would appear on a real t-shirt. Quick turnaround: You can create professional-looking visuals without the need for actual physical samples. Versatility: Mockups can be used for online stores, social media posts, and print advertising. Cost-effective: There’s no need to print multiple t-shirts for each new design. If you’re ready to take your custom t-shirt designs to the next level, check out this tag t-shirt mockup Get link for high-quality templates. Where to Find High-Quality Tag T Shirt Mockups The internet offers numerous platforms where you can find free and premium tag t-shirt mockup templates. These resources provide a wide variety of options in terms of style, fabric type, and customization features, allowing you to find the perfect mockup for your design. Here are some of the most popular sources for high-quality tag t-shirt mockups: Free and premium design resources: Platforms that offer both free and paid mockups, allowing you to choose based on your budget and requirements. Getable mockups: These can be directly Geted and edited in Photoshop or Illustrator, making them easy to use. Multiple shirt styles: From classic crew necks to trendy v-necks, you can find mockups of various shirt styles to suit your design. To get started with a premium tag t-shirt mockup, click here for your Get link. Customizing Your Tag T Shirt Mockup Once you’ve Geted your tag t-shirt mockup, the next step is customization. Most mockup files come with layers in Photoshop, which makes it easy to insert your design. Whether you’re adding your logo, artwork, or custom text, here are some tips for customizing your mockup: Use smart objects: Smart objects in Photoshop make it easy to replace the mockup design with your own. Adjust shadows and highlights: To make your design look more realistic, tweak the shadows and highlights in your mockup. Match your brand colors: Ensure your mockup reflects your brand’s color scheme by adjusting the t-shirt and background colors. Apply high-quality textures: Adding realistic fabric textures can make your design appear even more lifelike. Once you’ve customized your mockup, you’ll be ready to use it for product presentations, website showcases, and more. Ready to start customizing your tag t-shirt mockup? Get it now from this link. Tips for Using Mockups in Your Design Portfolio Displaying your work using mockups can help you make a stronger impression on potential clients or employers. Here are some tips for effectively showcasing your designs using tag t-shirt mockups: Keep it clean: A simple background with minimal distractions will allow your design to stand out. Showcase versatility: Use mockups in different scenarios (e.g., lifestyle shots, flat lays) to demonstrate how your design fits various contexts. Stay consistent: Use the same type of mockup for each design to maintain a cohesive portfolio. Focus on quality: Make sure the mockup you use is high-resolution to showcase your designs in the best light possible. With the right approach, your design portfolio can make a lasting impact on viewers. Don’t forget to grab your tag t-shirt mockup for a professional presentation by clicking this Get link. Conclusion: Why Tag T Shirt Mockups Are Essential for Your Designs In today’s competitive market, presenting your designs in the best possible way is crucial. A tag t-shirt mockup allows you to create realistic, high-quality images that showcase your design in a professional light. Whether you’re designing for a client, a personal project, or your own brand, a mockup helps bring your vision to life. By using tag t-shirt mockups, you can streamline your design process, reduce costs, and improve the overall presentation of your work. So, if you’re looking to elevate your custom t-shirt designs, make sure to Get a high-quality tag t-shirt mockup from our Get page. Originally published at http://dakxmon.wordpress.com on June 11, 2025.	657c56da-34ef-5508-b2ed-12b525a3ccad	25/08/2025 16:01:34
https://medium.com/the-billfold/hgtv-and-the-fantasy-of-home-improvement-48982aeaf76e	medium.com	HGTV and the Fantasy of Home Improvement	null	The Billfold	https://medium.com/@TheBillfold	48982aeaf76e	https://miro.medium.com/…nLspUVqldDIM.jpg	7 min	2015-12-09T22:22:57.087000	2015-05-06T13:00:57	2018-02-21T11:37:57.412000	7	12	en	The Fantasy Life,Dreams Of A Fixer Upper,Fantasy Programming	<section> <p><em>by Megan Reynolds</em></p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max//0LdYRnLspUVqldDIM.jpg" width="" height="" loading="lazy" /> <p>Here are some scenes from my rich inner fantasy life. The paint is buckling on the walls of my living room. It is because there is certainly mold, or water damage, or ancient knob and tube wiring, causing it to distort. The floorboards in my apartment are possibly original, but could be stripped and sanded. I should dust the chandelier that hangs precariously in my living room, but I should check to make sure it’s right for the time and era of my home before I put in the work. The wall that separates my kitchen and bedroom is surely unnecessary and most likely not load bearing; I will take it down to the studs. I will punch through the sheetrock and the plaster with a sledgehammer, and create a flowing sanctum of peace. There will be clean linens and the trim will shine. I will do this all and stay under my budget. I have been watching a lot of HGTV.</p> <p>HGTV gets you good by shedding light on your insecurities. What you are living with is inadequate, so here is a neat tidy solution. It succeeds because it packages the great American Dream of a custom home into bingeable, half-hour and hour-long chunks. The shows on HGTV have the same appeal as the shows we love to consume in great gulps, but somehow feels more edifying. We watch “Game of Thrones” for the drama, the beautiful settings and the complex political machinations. It makes for excellent water cooler discussion, to be discussed with great breathlessness in various work chat rooms and lunch breaks. We watch a four-hour marathon of “Rehab Addict” to live out our fantasy of packing up our tiny apartments, buying an old house in Detroit and renovating it to the Pinterest-ready home of our dreams. These shoes are entry-level fantasy, tempered with just enough reality to make you think that you could actually do that, too.</p> <p>I have been on board with HGTV for a while. I stumble upon it one weekend at my dad’s house, and spent an entire day under blankets on the couch watching house after house transform from weird and smelly to shiny, antiseptic and gleaming. The best thing about every show is that there’s no need for prior knowledge. If you tune in to the middle of a “Love It Or List It” marathon, you find yourself hooked immediately. You don’t need to know what character did what with whom and when, because everything you need is right in front of you. There is a house. There are people with a finite amount of money. They will get the house they want, after a solid 20 minutes of renovation porn, and they will be happy. It is, as Philip Maciak at <a href="http://www.psmag.com/books-and-culture/many-people-watch-hgtv-91461">Pacific Standard</a> notes, a procedural. Like that marathon of CSI that you end up watching as morning gives way to afternoon, it’s easy to process. Its the best kind of television, but it’s especially delicious if you live in a tiny apartment in a crowded city where viable housing options are scarce.</p> <p>The real estate market is a new form of bloodsport, one of the most compelling things to watch and keep tabs on. I’ve lived in New York for six years, and I have watched myself slowly priced out of neighborhoods that I lived in only a couple of years ago. Right now, I live in Williamsburg, in a fairly nice apartment with three roommates, two cats and a roof deck that becomes a graveyard of beer bottles and dead leaves by the end of each summer. It’s affordable — strangely, scarily affordable — because I think our landlord doesn’t give enough of a shit to sell the whole building and gut it for condos. I’m grateful that he’s not paying attention, but I’m fearful of the day that he realizes we are all living in a gold mine.</p> <p>Like anyone else who lives in a city, I dream of more space, an actual home that is all mine. Watching a show like the Property Brothers makes me think that it could be easy. Drew and Jonathan Scott — bland, dead-eyed and handsome, like Pound Puppies — are identical twin brothers who help couples find and renovate fixer-uppers, turning them into the Ikea showroom cum model house, replete with feature walls. Every show is precisely the same. First, they walk a couple into a house that has everything on their “wishlist.” When the couple is ready to sign the paperwork, they break the news: They can’t afford the house they are standing in, but if they put their faith and all of their hard-earned money into their capable hands, they will find them a fixer upper that will be custom to exactly what they want. Roll 30 minutes of people snootily complaining about paint problems and then wait for the big reveal: a shiny, new interior, antiseptic and new, gleaming like an Ikea showroom or a model home. The couples cry, the Property Brothers high five each other and the show ends. Everyone is happy.</p> <p>These interiors are nice enough, but they shout instead of whisper. The features in these homes are blatantly expensive — designed to look expensive, but purchased at what is hopefully a discount. Hardwood floor is torn up, only to be replaced by new hardwood, a great, shiny expanse that just looks like it cost money. Clawfoot tubs that some people would gladly keep are removed, and in their place, cool ceramic cubes are set down, all sharp edges and slippery sides. In a Property Brothers Home, all the furniture comes from Wayfair and every surface is shiny, not with age and love, but with aggressive, tacky newness. It’s conspicuous consumption at its best, money being spent in a flashy and flagrant way. A “feature wall” in a Property Brothers home exists purely as an aesthetic choice, but it’s generally hideous. Why look at a freshly plastered wall when you can slap a faux finish on it and create a gallery wall full of pictures and clutter, items that signify character? Their houses are nothing more than McMansions writ small, with great slabs of Carrara marble plunked down on an island because it’s functional, yes, but also because it costs $7 a square foot. The Property Brothers succeed because they feed off the desire for the new, the fresh, the clean, and strip every home they touch of any charm.</p> <p>Where the Property Brothers present the fantasy of a clean slate, Nicole Curtis, the star of “Rehab Addict”, brings something else to the table. Her passion is restoring old, crumbling mansions that look like they smell strongly of cat pee, to their former glory. She’s a spitfire with tireless energy and an uncompromising vision, speaking in the flat vowels of the Midwest. Where Drew and Jonathan Scott lack any discernible personality, Nicole Curtis has it in spades. Her focus is on “character,” which I have determined means original sconces, restored wood burning fireplaces and copious amounts of subway tile. When she restores a house, she does it with a fanaticism that borders obsession, sanding floors and stair treads, and meticulously repairing old lead windows. Once she’s done, the houses are showstoppers, the kind of place you’d walk into and gasp at how the light comes through the stained glass transom window and bounces off the gleaming knotty pine floors.</p> <p>They’re the kinds of homes that people simply have in the family, the ancestral home of former scions of industry. They reek of old money. Curtis prides herself on saving money where she can. Instead of kitting out an entire kitchen with drawer pulls from Ikea, she comes through salvage houses and antique shops, searching through the junk to find the finishes that fit the time era of the house. Often you see her hauling reclaimed barn doors and bits of flooring into her truck and driving off, crowing about how much money she saved. The effect is stunning. Each interior looks comfortable, and seems clean without being soulless. It is the kind of house you wish you’d inherit from a maiden aunt, the one who lived to be 95 and died leaving you a vast fortune. You know that the room you’re standing in costs a lot of money, but it’s not loud about it at all.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max//0mDj-A0GyYuXtfnz1.jpeg" width="" height="" loading="lazy" /> <p>Tear down the walls, rip up the floor, plop an island with a breakfast peninsula in the middle of it all. Create a clear sightline from the front of the house to the back of the house, so you can keep an eye on the kiddies while you make ants on a log. Make the master bedroom a “retreat,” fill with overstuffed armchairs and a walk-in closet like the one on that episode of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” when Kanye cleans out Kim’s closet. The bathroom should be spa-like, with a shower and a tub and a bidet and a vanity so large that it could double as a pie rolling station, made of cool marble. Wipe the house of any charm, and give them a feature wall, something with river rocks or glass tile. Make it full of cool, white, dustable surfaces. Renovate so that there’s equity in your pocket for when you inevitably sell and move on to something larger, with hallways that echo and a driveway that curves around, like your own private traffic circle outside your front door. Give them all of this, and give it to them for $10,000 under their budget. Will it work out? Of course it will. This is the power of HGTV.</p> <p><em><a href="https://twitter.com/mega</em>_hurt">Megan Reynolds</a> lives in New York.</p> </section>	HGTV and the Fantasy of Home Improvement by Megan Reynolds Here are some scenes from my rich inner fantasy life. The paint is buckling on the walls of my living room. It is because there is certainly mold, or water damage, or ancient knob and tube wiring, causing it to distort. The floorboards in my apartment are possibly original, but could be stripped and sanded. I should dust the chandelier that hangs precariously in my living room, but I should check to make sure it’s right for the time and era of my home before I put in the work. The wall that separates my kitchen and bedroom is surely unnecessary and most likely not load bearing; I will take it down to the studs. I will punch through the sheetrock and the plaster with a sledgehammer, and create a flowing sanctum of peace. There will be clean linens and the trim will shine. I will do this all and stay under my budget. I have been watching a lot of HGTV. HGTV gets you good by shedding light on your insecurities. What you are living with is inadequate, so here is a neat tidy solution. It succeeds because it packages the great American Dream of a custom home into bingeable, half-hour and hour-long chunks. The shows on HGTV have the same appeal as the shows we love to consume in great gulps, but somehow feels more edifying. We watch “Game of Thrones” for the drama, the beautiful settings and the complex political machinations. It makes for excellent water cooler discussion, to be discussed with great breathlessness in various work chat rooms and lunch breaks. We watch a four-hour marathon of “Rehab Addict” to live out our fantasy of packing up our tiny apartments, buying an old house in Detroit and renovating it to the Pinterest-ready home of our dreams. These shoes are entry-level fantasy, tempered with just enough reality to make you think that you could actually do that, too. I have been on board with HGTV for a while. I stumble upon it one weekend at my dad’s house, and spent an entire day under blankets on the couch watching house after house transform from weird and smelly to shiny, antiseptic and gleaming. The best thing about every show is that there’s no need for prior knowledge. If you tune in to the middle of a “Love It Or List It” marathon, you find yourself hooked immediately. You don’t need to know what character did what with whom and when, because everything you need is right in front of you. There is a house. There are people with a finite amount of money. They will get the house they want, after a solid 20 minutes of renovation porn, and they will be happy. It is, as Philip Maciak at Pacific Standard notes, a procedural. Like that marathon of CSI that you end up watching as morning gives way to afternoon, it’s easy to process. Its the best kind of television, but it’s especially delicious if you live in a tiny apartment in a crowded city where viable housing options are scarce. The real estate market is a new form of bloodsport, one of the most compelling things to watch and keep tabs on. I’ve lived in New York for six years, and I have watched myself slowly priced out of neighborhoods that I lived in only a couple of years ago. Right now, I live in Williamsburg, in a fairly nice apartment with three roommates, two cats and a roof deck that becomes a graveyard of beer bottles and dead leaves by the end of each summer. It’s affordable — strangely, scarily affordable — because I think our landlord doesn’t give enough of a shit to sell the whole building and gut it for condos. I’m grateful that he’s not paying attention, but I’m fearful of the day that he realizes we are all living in a gold mine. Like anyone else who lives in a city, I dream of more space, an actual home that is all mine. Watching a show like the Property Brothers makes me think that it could be easy. Drew and Jonathan Scott — bland, dead-eyed and handsome, like Pound Puppies — are identical twin brothers who help couples find and renovate fixer-uppers, turning them into the Ikea showroom cum model house, replete with feature walls. Every show is precisely the same. First, they walk a couple into a house that has everything on their “wishlist.” When the couple is ready to sign the paperwork, they break the news: They can’t afford the house they are standing in, but if they put their faith and all of their hard-earned money into their capable hands, they will find them a fixer upper that will be custom to exactly what they want. Roll 30 minutes of people snootily complaining about paint problems and then wait for the big reveal: a shiny, new interior, antiseptic and new, gleaming like an Ikea showroom or a model home. The couples cry, the Property Brothers high five each other and the show ends. Everyone is happy. These interiors are nice enough, but they shout instead of whisper. The features in these homes are blatantly expensive — designed to look expensive, but purchased at what is hopefully a discount. Hardwood floor is torn up, only to be replaced by new hardwood, a great, shiny expanse that just looks like it cost money. Clawfoot tubs that some people would gladly keep are removed, and in their place, cool ceramic cubes are set down, all sharp edges and slippery sides. In a Property Brothers Home, all the furniture comes from Wayfair and every surface is shiny, not with age and love, but with aggressive, tacky newness. It’s conspicuous consumption at its best, money being spent in a flashy and flagrant way. A “feature wall” in a Property Brothers home exists purely as an aesthetic choice, but it’s generally hideous. Why look at a freshly plastered wall when you can slap a faux finish on it and create a gallery wall full of pictures and clutter, items that signify character? Their houses are nothing more than McMansions writ small, with great slabs of Carrara marble plunked down on an island because it’s functional, yes, but also because it costs $7 a square foot. The Property Brothers succeed because they feed off the desire for the new, the fresh, the clean, and strip every home they touch of any charm. Where the Property Brothers present the fantasy of a clean slate, Nicole Curtis, the star of “Rehab Addict”, brings something else to the table. Her passion is restoring old, crumbling mansions that look like they smell strongly of cat pee, to their former glory. She’s a spitfire with tireless energy and an uncompromising vision, speaking in the flat vowels of the Midwest. Where Drew and Jonathan Scott lack any discernible personality, Nicole Curtis has it in spades. Her focus is on “character,” which I have determined means original sconces, restored wood burning fireplaces and copious amounts of subway tile. When she restores a house, she does it with a fanaticism that borders obsession, sanding floors and stair treads, and meticulously repairing old lead windows. Once she’s done, the houses are showstoppers, the kind of place you’d walk into and gasp at how the light comes through the stained glass transom window and bounces off the gleaming knotty pine floors. They’re the kinds of homes that people simply have in the family, the ancestral home of former scions of industry. They reek of old money. Curtis prides herself on saving money where she can. Instead of kitting out an entire kitchen with drawer pulls from Ikea, she comes through salvage houses and antique shops, searching through the junk to find the finishes that fit the time era of the house. Often you see her hauling reclaimed barn doors and bits of flooring into her truck and driving off, crowing about how much money she saved. The effect is stunning. Each interior looks comfortable, and seems clean without being soulless. It is the kind of house you wish you’d inherit from a maiden aunt, the one who lived to be 95 and died leaving you a vast fortune. You know that the room you’re standing in costs a lot of money, but it’s not loud about it at all. Tear down the walls, rip up the floor, plop an island with a breakfast peninsula in the middle of it all. Create a clear sightline from the front of the house to the back of the house, so you can keep an eye on the kiddies while you make ants on a log. Make the master bedroom a “retreat,” fill with overstuffed armchairs and a walk-in closet like the one on that episode of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” when Kanye cleans out Kim’s closet. The bathroom should be spa-like, with a shower and a tub and a bidet and a vanity so large that it could double as a pie rolling station, made of cool marble. Wipe the house of any charm, and give them a feature wall, something with river rocks or glass tile. Make it full of cool, white, dustable surfaces. Renovate so that there’s equity in your pocket for when you inevitably sell and move on to something larger, with hallways that echo and a driveway that curves around, like your own private traffic circle outside your front door. Give them all of this, and give it to them for $10,000 under their budget. Will it work out? Of course it will. This is the power of HGTV. Megan Reynolds lives in New York.	e2b09710-15f5-5333-83cb-0cbb58832351	25/08/2025 16:01:34
https://medium.com/@usmslm102/getting-started-with-visual-studio-dev-essentials-benefits-cd53014b8c11	medium.com	Getting started with Visual Studio Dev Essentials Benefits	Just admit one thing we all love free stuff 😉	Usama Ansari	https://medium.com/@usmslm102	cd53014b8c11	https://miro.medium.com/…IQgs1_5HqAsu.png	2 min	2017-12-22T16:55:08.748000	2017-12-22T17:03:56.457000	2018-06-20T22:56:57.695000	0	52	en	Microsoft,Visual Studio,Vsts,Azure,Dev	<section> <p>Just admit one thing we all love free stuff 😉</p> <p>isn’t it will be cool if I tell you Microsoft provide the whole bunch of free services and tools with its <strong>Visual Studio Dev Essentials</strong> Program. So, let’s dive into it, shall we?</p> <p>Prerequisites:</p> <ul> <li>Microsoft account if you don’t have one create it from <a href="https://signup.live.com/">here</a></li> </ul> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/702/0wSPYIQgs1_5HqAsu.png" width="702" height="320" loading="lazy" /> <p>The purpose of this program is to provide developer free tools, training and cloud service (Azure) credits to play around and explore the Microsoft technology stack.</p> <p>Go to the <a href="https://www.visualstudio.com/dev-essentials/">https://www.visualstudio.com/dev-essentials/</a> and click on <strong>“Join Access Now”</strong> button and login with your Microsoft account.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1377/0x9pCZ0zZvzI2HoDR.png" width="1377" height="601" loading="lazy" /> <p>Next, you will land on the Visual Studio Dev Essentials benefits page click on <strong>Confirm</strong> button to accept terms and condition.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1237/0JHvs6nGlCOcnh-Ak.png" width="1237" height="759" loading="lazy" /> <p>There are the whole bunch of services and tools available on benefit page. you can go and explore all services because they are free 😉 most notable tools and services are listed below.</p> <ul> <li>Visual Studio Community (Windows)</li> <li>Visual Studio for Mac</li> <li>Azure — $200 free credit along with the 12-month free services <strong>(Refer below steps for activation)</strong></li> <li>Pluralsight — Free for 3 months <strong>(Refer below steps for activation)</strong></li> <li>Visual Studio Team Services</li> <li>Parallels Desktop for Mac Pro</li> <li>Visual Studio App Center</li> </ul> <p>You can always access your benefits by going to <a href="https://my.visualstudio.com/">https://my.visualstudio.com</a></p> <p>Activating azure subscription:</p> <p>1- click on <strong>Activate</strong> button on Azure card it will get redirect to Azure signup page.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/187/0LWeAqj4d0WEsp6RD.png" width="187" height="253" loading="lazy" /> <p>2- Fill the required details on the form and verify your identity. 3- Please note that this step will require a credit card but You will not be charged unless you explicitly transition to a paid offer. 4- Dive into the magic of cloud computing with free credits 😊</p> <p>Activating Pluralsight (3 months) subscription:</p> <p>1- click on <strong>Activate</strong> button on Pluralsight card it will get redirect to Pluralsight signup page.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/191/0*LJALUsO03vS18ACp.png" width="191" height="259" loading="lazy" /> <p>2- Fill the required details and you will get 3 months of unlimited access to the entire Pluralsight platform. 3- 6,000+ software development, IT ops and creative courses authored by industry experts 4- Happy learning. 😊</p> <p>There are whole suits of services and tools available to try for free. so go ahead and explore them.😉</p> </section>	Getting started with Visual Studio Dev Essentials Benefits Just admit one thing we all love free stuff 😉 isn’t it will be cool if I tell you Microsoft provide the whole bunch of free services and tools with its Visual Studio Dev Essentials Program. So, let’s dive into it, shall we? Prerequisites: Microsoft account if you don’t have one create it from here The purpose of this program is to provide developer free tools, training and cloud service (Azure) credits to play around and explore the Microsoft technology stack. Go to the https://www.visualstudio.com/dev-essentials/ and click on “Join Access Now” button and login with your Microsoft account. Next, you will land on the Visual Studio Dev Essentials benefits page click on Confirm button to accept terms and condition. There are the whole bunch of services and tools available on benefit page. you can go and explore all services because they are free 😉 most notable tools and services are listed below. Visual Studio Community (Windows) Visual Studio for Mac Azure — $200 free credit along with the 12-month free services (Refer below steps for activation) Pluralsight — Free for 3 months (Refer below steps for activation) Visual Studio Team Services Parallels Desktop for Mac Pro Visual Studio App Center You can always access your benefits by going to https://my.visualstudio.com Activating azure subscription: 1- click on Activate button on Azure card it will get redirect to Azure signup page. 2- Fill the required details on the form and verify your identity. 3- Please note that this step will require a credit card but You will not be charged unless you explicitly transition to a paid offer. 4- Dive into the magic of cloud computing with free credits 😊 Activating Pluralsight (3 months) subscription: 1- click on Activate button on Pluralsight card it will get redirect to Pluralsight signup page. 2- Fill the required details and you will get 3 months of unlimited access to the entire Pluralsight platform. 3- 6,000+ software development, IT ops and creative courses authored by industry experts 4- Happy learning. 😊 There are whole suits of services and tools available to try for free. so go ahead and explore them.😉	fddfb932-6344-5beb-95a6-f31e34935d3d	25/08/2025 16:01:34
https://medium.com/counterpoint/microsoft-acquires-nokia-integration-marketing-business-model-rejuvenation-will-be-the-key-40a8218aaee1	medium.com	Microsoft Acquires Nokia :: Integration, Marketing & Business Model Rejuvenation Will Be The Key	null	Counterpoint	https://medium.com/@Counterpoint	40a8218aaee1	https://miro.medium.com/…e4fdPbAmEgJM.png	5 min	2017-10-30T11:33:17.246000	2013-09-03T11:54:44	2018-02-11T23:21:52.082000	0	0	en	Blog,Smartphones,Microsoft,Microsoft Acquires Nokia,Nokia Lumia	<section> <p>Surprising end to the US Labor Day weekend as Microsoft announced its next big strategic move in mobile space to acquire the world’s second largest handset supplier Nokia at the end of Q2 2013 according to Counterpoint Research’s Market Monitor service. The long speculated “possible acquisition” of Nokia by Microsoft finally hit the papers as Microsoft drummed is renewed ‘<strong>strategic need’</strong> of expanding its hardware business to further tightly control the ecosystem. We believe this need emanates from the trend with the now most powerful companies in mobile industry and Microsoft’s key competitors Apple and Google making strides towards becoming <strong>highly vertically integrated</strong> though on paper the respective business model differs by a wide margin.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/477/0*E9QEe4fdPbAmEgJM.png" width="477" height="350" loading="lazy" /> <p>What does Nokia Devices & Services arm acquisition mean for the mobile Industry and the entire value chain?</p> <p><strong>For Microsoft:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Fills the much needed portfolio gap “mobile hardware engineering & related <strong>patents</strong>” with a high smartphone synergy.</li> <li>Microsoft will gain full access to <strong>world’s largest supply chain and distribution channel</strong> assets.</li> <li>Microsoft will be able to gain control of Nokia’s <strong>world class manufacturing facilities</strong>, resources and engineering talent.</li> <li>For Microsoft Nokia’s 200 million per year declining but marginally profitable feature phone business will be a burden for short- to mid-term.</li> <li>Microsoft will have a big marketing task to solve the mobile “sub-brand” puzzle in terms of Windows Phone vs. Lumia vs. Surface.</li> <li>With current licensing model and now with Nokia’s acquisition, this deal will possibly <strong>close the avenue for licensing opportunities</strong> to other device manufacturers, operators interested in Windows Phone ecosystem. Thus, Microsoft will need a radical change in its mobile business model by reducing the licensing fees to minimum and monetize through the huge portfolio of services it has.</li> <li>Deal potentially paves the way for Stephen Elop to succeed Steve Ballmer as Microsoft CEO even though the deal announcement suggests Elop will continue to head the Nokia business within Microsoft but we see Elop now as the front runner to succeed Ballmer as overall head of Microsoft.</li> <li>For a long time it was viewed as the ‘<strong>evil empire’</strong> but this sentiment has shifted more toward Google. However so far Microsoft has failed to take advantage of the more open minds of consumers. The Windows 8 computer operating system has been poorly marketed and Windows RT a solution to a problem no one has. Windows Phone is a powerful platform that we believe consumers would be willing to accept if only they were given a chance to understand what it has to offer — something Microsoft has again failed to do.</li> <li>This puts onus now completely on Microsoft to <strong>better communicate</strong> its mobile (Windows Phone) story well as until now it has been all Nokia which has done all the hard work in driving the Windows Phone ecosystem with differentiated innovation and Lumia brand. Microsoft has its work cut out to first leverage the synergies and align to the “<strong>clock speed</strong>” of that of likes of Apple or Samsung to deliver the products on time and not as a routine software vendor.</li> <li>Critical to success in gaining wider adoption of Nokia WP8 devices will be the <strong>early integration and empowerment of the development and marketing teams</strong> within the combined entity. Extended turf wars and in fighting will kill what impetus currently exists.</li> <li>However, the toughest challenge for Microsoft would be to retain Nokia’s existing worldwide talent over the period of next two years and not follow Google’s path which has almost blew up Motorola’s talent pool since acquisition couple of years ago.</li> </ul> <p><strong>For Nokia:</strong></p> <ul> <li>This is a big step for Nokia as a company which ruled mobile phone industry for a decade, this <strong>acquisition possibly ends the Finnish legacy</strong> in this segment and a chance to stand up again in the smartphone segment on its own.</li> <li>Though Microsoft will own the “Lumia” & “Asha” brands but the future of these ‘brands’ look bleak considering a strong association with “Nokia” rather than with Microsoft. As a result all the hard work put in to revive Lumia as the popular smartphone sub-brand goes down the drain, return on investment on Lumia brand hence is pretty low.</li> <li>Overall, we believe the $7.4 Billion valuation of Nokia Devices & Services plus huge portfolio of patents, manufacturing and engineering resources, supply chain scale & distribution reach is on a much lower side considering Motorola a fifth of Nokia’s size was sold for more than US$12 Billion to Google couple of years ago. <strong>The entire acquisition is highly undervalued for Nokia’s shareholders</strong>.</li> <li>However, for the Finnish surviving Nokia, Nokia Solutions & Networks (<strong>NSN</strong>), fast-growing <strong>HERE</strong> arm and other future innovations biz now becomes much leaner without extra legacy devices baggage and can grow much faster independently. We believe <strong>HERE </strong>is <strong>a highly potential platform</strong> to <strong>power current and next generation connected devices</strong> (smartphones, cars, wearables, etc). <strong>NSN</strong> on other hand will look forward to win opportunities from the <strong>robust LTE growth</strong> forecasts according to Counterpoint’s Market Outlook service with networks powering not only billions of mobile devices but billions of other connected devices across number of verticals.</li> </ul> <p><strong>For Component Vendors, Suppliers & Partners:</strong></p> <ul> <li>This is a big deal for component vendors and the entire supply chain which dependent on Nokia with low confidence now on the possible future relationship and <strong>what happens to the feature phone business under Microsoft</strong>.</li> <li>At the same time this <strong>also opens up the opportunities</strong> for newer smartphone component supply chain companies which previously didn’t get access at Nokia and stand a chance to win over at Microsoft. e.g. <strong>NVIDIA</strong></li> <li>But in terms of Microsoft’s existing partners and distributors they will have a<strong> wider addressable market</strong> to sell to in terms of products and services.</li> <li>It will be interesting to see how the <strong>carrier partners</strong> globally react to this deal as they will be wary of the fact that they don’t need another Google, Samsung or Apple. e.g. AT&T, Telefonica</li> </ul> <p><strong>For Competitors:</strong></p> <ul> <li>The deal could possibly <strong>affect Nokia’s existing feature phone business</strong> (with low interest from Microsoft) which would leave a <strong>big supply gap</strong> for the near to long-term and might be a big opportunity for Asian tier-1 vendors such as <strong>Samsung</strong>, ZTE, <strong>TCL-Alcatel</strong> to Tier-2 & 3 vendors such as <strong>Micromax</strong>, Lava, Karbonn and Others.</li> <li>For OEMs such as LG, <strong>Huawei</strong>, ZTE, <strong>HTC</strong> and even Samsung which were evaluating Windows Phone as a possible alternative to Android will now <strong>divert more resources to other upcoming platforms</strong> such as Firefox, Tizen, Ubuntu and even Jolla.</li> <li>For Apple & Google this could be a big competitive challenge and how it reacts to Microsoft becoming more vertically integrated as Apple.</li> </ul> <p>Ecosystem wars have thus got more interesting. All eyes will be on Microsoft as to which way it will go in terms of business model perspective — either Apple’s or Google’s way. Conversely, Microsoft could also innovate to find a middle ground (from biz model perspective) to keep the partners, customers and consumers happy with great and tightly integrate connected hardware, software and services. Lots of work needs to be done on this front from scratch (again) to cement the third ecosystem spot and challenge Apple for the second spot in long run.</p> <p>Neil Shah</p> <p>Counterpoint Research</p> <p>@neiltwitz</p> </section>	Microsoft Acquires Nokia :: Integration, Marketing & Business Model Rejuvenation Will Be The Key Surprising end to the US Labor Day weekend as Microsoft announced its next big strategic move in mobile space to acquire the world’s second largest handset supplier Nokia at the end of Q2 2013 according to Counterpoint Research’s Market Monitor service. The long speculated “possible acquisition” of Nokia by Microsoft finally hit the papers as Microsoft drummed is renewed ‘strategic need’ of expanding its hardware business to further tightly control the ecosystem. We believe this need emanates from the trend with the now most powerful companies in mobile industry and Microsoft’s key competitors Apple and Google making strides towards becoming highly vertically integrated though on paper the respective business model differs by a wide margin. What does Nokia Devices & Services arm acquisition mean for the mobile Industry and the entire value chain? For Microsoft: Fills the much needed portfolio gap “mobile hardware engineering & related patents” with a high smartphone synergy. Microsoft will gain full access to world’s largest supply chain and distribution channel assets. Microsoft will be able to gain control of Nokia’s world class manufacturing facilities, resources and engineering talent. For Microsoft Nokia’s 200 million per year declining but marginally profitable feature phone business will be a burden for short- to mid-term. Microsoft will have a big marketing task to solve the mobile “sub-brand” puzzle in terms of Windows Phone vs. Lumia vs. Surface. With current licensing model and now with Nokia’s acquisition, this deal will possibly close the avenue for licensing opportunities to other device manufacturers, operators interested in Windows Phone ecosystem. Thus, Microsoft will need a radical change in its mobile business model by reducing the licensing fees to minimum and monetize through the huge portfolio of services it has. Deal potentially paves the way for Stephen Elop to succeed Steve Ballmer as Microsoft CEO even though the deal announcement suggests Elop will continue to head the Nokia business within Microsoft but we see Elop now as the front runner to succeed Ballmer as overall head of Microsoft. For a long time it was viewed as the ‘evil empire’ but this sentiment has shifted more toward Google. However so far Microsoft has failed to take advantage of the more open minds of consumers. The Windows 8 computer operating system has been poorly marketed and Windows RT a solution to a problem no one has. Windows Phone is a powerful platform that we believe consumers would be willing to accept if only they were given a chance to understand what it has to offer — something Microsoft has again failed to do. This puts onus now completely on Microsoft to better communicate its mobile (Windows Phone) story well as until now it has been all Nokia which has done all the hard work in driving the Windows Phone ecosystem with differentiated innovation and Lumia brand. Microsoft has its work cut out to first leverage the synergies and align to the “clock speed” of that of likes of Apple or Samsung to deliver the products on time and not as a routine software vendor. Critical to success in gaining wider adoption of Nokia WP8 devices will be the early integration and empowerment of the development and marketing teams within the combined entity. Extended turf wars and in fighting will kill what impetus currently exists. However, the toughest challenge for Microsoft would be to retain Nokia’s existing worldwide talent over the period of next two years and not follow Google’s path which has almost blew up Motorola’s talent pool since acquisition couple of years ago. For Nokia: This is a big step for Nokia as a company which ruled mobile phone industry for a decade, this acquisition possibly ends the Finnish legacy in this segment and a chance to stand up again in the smartphone segment on its own. Though Microsoft will own the “Lumia” & “Asha” brands but the future of these ‘brands’ look bleak considering a strong association with “Nokia” rather than with Microsoft. As a result all the hard work put in to revive Lumia as the popular smartphone sub-brand goes down the drain, return on investment on Lumia brand hence is pretty low. Overall, we believe the $7.4 Billion valuation of Nokia Devices & Services plus huge portfolio of patents, manufacturing and engineering resources, supply chain scale & distribution reach is on a much lower side considering Motorola a fifth of Nokia’s size was sold for more than US$12 Billion to Google couple of years ago. The entire acquisition is highly undervalued for Nokia’s shareholders. However, for the Finnish surviving Nokia, Nokia Solutions & Networks (NSN), fast-growing HERE arm and other future innovations biz now becomes much leaner without extra legacy devices baggage and can grow much faster independently. We believe HERE is a highly potential platform to power current and next generation connected devices (smartphones, cars, wearables, etc). NSN on other hand will look forward to win opportunities from the robust LTE growth forecasts according to Counterpoint’s Market Outlook service with networks powering not only billions of mobile devices but billions of other connected devices across number of verticals. For Component Vendors, Suppliers & Partners: This is a big deal for component vendors and the entire supply chain which dependent on Nokia with low confidence now on the possible future relationship and what happens to the feature phone business under Microsoft. At the same time this also opens up the opportunities for newer smartphone component supply chain companies which previously didn’t get access at Nokia and stand a chance to win over at Microsoft. e.g. NVIDIA But in terms of Microsoft’s existing partners and distributors they will have a wider addressable market to sell to in terms of products and services. It will be interesting to see how the carrier partners globally react to this deal as they will be wary of the fact that they don’t need another Google, Samsung or Apple. e.g. AT&T, Telefonica For Competitors: The deal could possibly affect Nokia’s existing feature phone business (with low interest from Microsoft) which would leave a big supply gap for the near to long-term and might be a big opportunity for Asian tier-1 vendors such as Samsung, ZTE, TCL-Alcatel to Tier-2 & 3 vendors such as Micromax, Lava, Karbonn and Others. For OEMs such as LG, Huawei, ZTE, HTC and even Samsung which were evaluating Windows Phone as a possible alternative to Android will now divert more resources to other upcoming platforms such as Firefox, Tizen, Ubuntu and even Jolla. For Apple & Google this could be a big competitive challenge and how it reacts to Microsoft becoming more vertically integrated as Apple. Ecosystem wars have thus got more interesting. All eyes will be on Microsoft as to which way it will go in terms of business model perspective — either Apple’s or Google’s way. Conversely, Microsoft could also innovate to find a middle ground (from biz model perspective) to keep the partners, customers and consumers happy with great and tightly integrate connected hardware, software and services. Lots of work needs to be done on this front from scratch (again) to cement the third ecosystem spot and challenge Apple for the second spot in long run. Neil Shah Counterpoint Research @neiltwitz	4de7fc8d-7474-5fc7-8586-100ed70f40e3	25/08/2025 16:01:35
https://medium.com/@Bouncingpixel/ultimate-chicken-horse-devs-unsure-of-what-switch-features-the-game-will-take-advantage-of-2c00e84e0114	medium.com	Ultimate Chicken Horse devs unsure of what Switch features the game will take advantage of	null	Bouncing Pixel	https://medium.com/@Bouncingpixel	2c00e84e0114	https://miro.medium.com/max/2000/0*6JycY240HUU2yHbG.	1 min	2017-02-22T03:44:55.360000	2017-02-22T03:44:56.038000	2017-02-22T03:44:56.038000	0	0	en	Bouncingpixel	<section> <p>A portion of a JustPause interview with Endeavour Games…</p> <p><strong>JP</strong>: Will Ultimate Chicken Horse take advantage of the ability to split up a Joy-Con set for local multiplayer gaming?</p> <p><strong>EG</strong>: We’re hoping to, but we haven’t gotten far enough in playing with the development kits to know the limitations of it. Those kinds of features will depend on how our game engine, Unity, cooperates with the Switch architecture and what we have the time / ability to do.</p> <p><strong>JP</strong>: Does the team plan on adding in other Switch-specific features such as support for HD Rumble?</p> <p><strong>EG</strong>: This is the same as the previous answer, I think we’d like to use all of the new features but don’t want to promise anything yet in case we discover some technical hurdles that we can’t overcome.</p> <p><a href="http://ift.tt/2lsxAyV">Ultimate Chicken Horse devs unsure of what Switch features the game will take advantage of</a> posted first on <a href="bouncingpixel.blogspot.com">bouncingpixel.blogspot.com</a></p> </section>	A portion of a JustPause interview with Endeavour Games… JP: Will Ultimate Chicken Horse take advantage of the ability to split up a Joy-Con set for local multiplayer gaming? EG: We’re hoping to, but we haven’t gotten far enough in playing with the development kits to know the limitations of it. Those kinds of features will depend on how our game engine, Unity, cooperates with the Switch architecture and what we have the time / ability to do. JP: Does the team plan on adding in other Switch-specific features such as support for HD Rumble? EG: This is the same as the previous answer, I think we’d like to use all of the new features but don’t want to promise anything yet in case we discover some technical hurdles that we can’t overcome. Ultimate Chicken Horse devs unsure of what Switch features the game will take advantage of posted first on bouncingpixel.blogspot.com	38ae46d9-febb-54c0-9041-78cdf7b12d3a	25/08/2025 16:01:35
https://millpondresearch.medium.com/an-episode-from-a-nonexistent-podcast-about-language-65e8c23e82ae	medium.com	An Episode from a Nonexistent Podcast about Language	THE WONDER WHY PODCAST Episode 42: “The Language Ladder”	Mill Pond Research	https://medium.com/@millpondresearch	65e8c23e82ae	https://miro.medium.com/…wyM7uqSUjUqA.png	7 min	2025-02-27T05:22:40.624000	2025-05-11T14:38:57.662000	2025-05-11T15:28:26.011000	0	0	en	Language Model,AI,Llm Agent,Podcast,Philosophy	<section> <h1>An Episode from a Nonexistent Podcast about Language</h1> <p>THE WONDER WHY PODCAST Episode 42: “The Language Ladder”</p> <p>[INTRO MUSIC FADES IN]</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: <em>formal, professorial tone</em> Good day, esteemed listeners, and welcome to another intellectually stimulating episode of The Wonder Why Podcast. I’m your host, Lawrence…</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: <em>interrupting enthusiastically</em> And I’m Mikey! The guy who asks the dumb questions so you don’t have to! <em>laughs</em> Today we’re diving into the world of a philosopher whose name I’ve been practicing all week to pronounce correctly: Ludwig Wittgenstein!</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: <em>slightly exasperated sigh</em> Indeed, Mikey. And I must say, your pronunciation has improved considerably from your first attempt on Monday when you called him “Whittlestain.”</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: <em>laughing</em> Hey, in my defense, philosophy names are like IKEA furniture — impossible to pronounce but they look great on your intellectual shelf!</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: <em>with dry humor</em> A fascinating analogy, if somewhat reductive. Now, as is our tradition, we begin with something seemingly unrelated before connecting it to our main topic.</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: Oh, I’ve got this one! So last weekend, I was playing charades with my family, right? My nephew was trying to act out “The Lion King” but none of us could figure it out. He kept pointing at himself and roaring, but we kept guessing “angry child” or “tantrum.” <em>laughs</em></p> <p>Lawrence: <em>amused despite himself</em> I assume there’s a point to this anecdote?</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: Absolutely! It’s all about communication, man! He knew exactly what he was trying to say, but the rest of us couldn’t understand because we didn’t share the same… what would you call it?</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: <em>impressed</em> Framework of reference? Rules of the language-game, perhaps?</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: <em>snaps fingers</em> YES! That’s exactly what Wittgenstein was all about, wasn’t it? The dude was obsessed with how language works and how we often talk past each other because we’re playing different games!</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: <em>genuinely surprised</em> That’s… remarkably insightful, Mikey. Ludwig Wittgenstein, born in 1889 in Vienna to a wealthy industrial family, was indeed one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century, and his work revolutionized how we think about language, meaning, and philosophy itself.</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: <em>excited</em> So he was like the rockstar of philosophy? The Bowie of big thoughts?</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: <em>with a slight chuckle</em> If by that you mean innovative, transformative, and somewhat enigmatic, then yes. Though I doubt Wittgenstein would appreciate the comparison.</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: Tough crowd! So what made this guy so special? Did he come up with some grand theory about the universe?</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: Quite the opposite, actually. What makes Wittgenstein particularly fascinating is that his philosophical career is typically divided into two distinct phases, and in his later work, he essentially dismantled his own earlier ideas.</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: <em>gasps dramatically</em> Wait, he canceled himself? Before Twitter was even invented? Now THAT’S impressive!</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: <em>wry smile</em> Indeed. His early work, culminating in the “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus” published in 1921, attempted to show the limits of language and what can be meaningfully said. He was essentially trying to solve all philosophical problems once and for all.</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: <em>interrupting</em> Hold up! “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus”? That sounds like a spell from Harry Potter!</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: <em>sighs</em> It’s Latin, Mikey. It roughly translates to “Logical-Philosophical Treatise.”</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: <em>theatrically disappointed</em> Well that’s way less magical. So what did this non-magical book say?</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: In essence, the Tractatus argues that language is a picture of reality, and that the structure of language reflects the structure of the world. Wittgenstein believed that propositions, or statements, can only be meaningful if they represent possible states of affairs in the world.</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: <em>confused</em> So… if I say “unicorns are pretty,” that’s meaningless because unicorns don’t exist?</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: Not quite. For Wittgenstein, that statement has sense because we can picture what it would mean for unicorns to be pretty, even if unicorns don’t actually exist. What’s meaningless are propositions that attempt to say what cannot be said — like statements about ethics, aesthetics, or the meaning of life.</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: <em>dramatically</em> So the meaning of life is meaningless?! <em>pauses</em> Wait, that actually sounds kind of deep.</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: <em>with academic precision</em> What Wittgenstein concludes in the Tractatus is that “whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.” These profound matters cannot be stated in meaningful propositions but can only be “shown.”</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: <em>scratching head</em> So it’s like… some things you just can’t put into words?</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: <em>impressed</em> Precisely. And this leads to Wittgenstein’s famous ladder metaphor at the end of the Tractatus — he suggests that his own propositions serve as a ladder to be climbed and then discarded once one sees the world “rightly.”</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: <em>with sudden excitement</em> Oh! It’s like when you learn the rules of a game so thoroughly that you can eventually play it naturally without thinking about the rules anymore!</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: <em>genuinely impressed</em> That’s… a surprisingly apt analogy, Mikey.</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: <em>proudly</em> I have my moments! So what happened after he published this tract-whatever? Did he just mic drop and walk away?</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: In a manner of speaking, yes. He believed he had solved all philosophical problems, so he gave away his inheritance and worked as a schoolteacher, gardener, and architect. But by 1929, he began to doubt his earlier work and returned to Cambridge to pursue philosophy again.</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: <em>laughing</em> Classic comeback tour! So what changed in Wittgenstein 2.0?</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: His later philosophy, most famously expressed in “Philosophical Investigations” published posthumously in 1953, rejected many of his earlier ideas. Instead of seeing language as a perfect picture of reality, he now saw it as a collection of diverse “language-games” with family resemblances rather than one essential feature.</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: <em>perking up</em> Language-games? Like how doctors have their own jargon? Or how teenagers make up slang that confuses old people like you?</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: <em>clearing throat</em> I’m hardly what one would call “old,” Mikey, but yes, that’s the general idea. Wittgenstein came to believe that the meaning of a word is not some fixed thing it refers to, but rather its use in language. “Don’t think, but look!” he famously wrote.</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: So he went from “language is a perfect picture” to “language is what we do with it”? That’s a pretty big flip-flop!</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: Indeed, and what’s remarkable is how thoroughly he critiqued his own earlier work. He came to see philosophical problems not as deep puzzles requiring theoretical solutions, but as confusions arising from misunderstandings about how language works.</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: <em>thoughtfully</em> So wait… is philosophy just a bunch of misunderstandings?</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: According to the later Wittgenstein, many philosophical problems arise when we take words out of their ordinary contexts and use them in extraordinary ways. His new approach was therapeutic rather than theoretical — helping to dissolve confusions rather than build systems.</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: <em>dramatically</em> So philosophy is like intellectual Pepto-Bismol! Treating the symptoms of linguistic indigestion!</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: <em>wincing slightly</em> A crude metaphor, but not entirely inaccurate. Wittgenstein famously wrote that the aim of philosophy is “to show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle.”</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: <em>excited</em> I love that! The poor fly keeps buzzing against the glass walls, thinking it’s making progress, but it just needs someone to show it the exit!</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: Precisely. But what’s particularly fascinating about Wittgenstein is how his ideas apply beyond philosophy to everyday life. Consider how often miscommunications happen because people are using the same words but playing different language-games.</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: Like when I ask my girlfriend if my outfit looks okay, and I’m playing the “reassure me” game, but she’s playing the “brutal honesty” game?</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: <em>with a slight smile</em> That’s… not an example I would have chosen, but yes. Or consider political debates where opponents talk past each other because they’re using the same terms with different meanings.</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: <em>serious for a moment</em> So Wittgenstein was basically saying we need to pay attention to how language actually works in different contexts, instead of assuming words have fixed meanings?</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: <em>genuinely impressed</em> That’s remarkably well-put, Mikey. Yes, and this insight has influenced fields far beyond philosophy — linguistics, psychology, cognitive science, and even artificial intelligence.</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: <em>eager</em> Ooh, like how chatbots and AI struggle with context and implied meaning? They’re like aliens trying to learn our language-games!</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: Indeed. Wittgenstein’s insights about rule-following and the social nature of language pose significant challenges for AI systems trying to truly understand human communication.</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: <em>thoughtfully</em> You know, this reminds me of something. Remember our episode on conspiracy theories? How people can look at the same evidence but see completely different patterns?</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: <em>nodding</em> An excellent connection. Wittgenstein might say they’re participating in different “forms of life” with different criteria for what counts as evidence or proof.</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: <em>excited</em> So Wittgenstein is like the godfather of “everyone’s living in their own reality”!</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: <em>quickly correcting</em> Not quite. Wittgenstein wasn’t a relativist. He emphasized that language is inherently social and rule-governed. We can understand each other because we share practices and forms of life.</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: <em>processing</em> So it’s not “anything goes,” but more like “context matters”?</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: <em>pleased</em> Precisely. And this brings us back to your charades example. Communication works when we share enough background understanding and follow similar rules. When we don’t, confusion ensues.</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: <em>laughing</em> Like how my nephew thought roaring obviously meant “lion,” but to the rest of us, it just looked like a kid having a meltdown!</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: <em>wry smile</em> Indeed. And perhaps that’s the most valuable lesson from Wittgenstein — the recognition that clarity in communication requires attention to context and shared understanding.</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: <em>with mock seriousness</em> So what you’re saying is… we should all just shut up more?</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: <em>chuckling</em> Not exactly. Rather, we should be more attentive to the language-games we’re playing and more humble about what can be clearly expressed. As Wittgenstein wrote: “What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.”</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: <em>dramatically</em> Deep, man. Really deep. <em>pauses</em> Hey, do you think Wittgenstein would have been good at Twitter?</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: <em>deadpan</em> Given his preference for silence on matters of importance, I suspect he would have found the entire platform deeply troubling.</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: <em>laughing</em> But his profile would have been fire! Bio: “Whereof one cannot tweet, thereof one must log off.”</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: <em>suppressing amusement</em> On that note, perhaps we should wrap up today’s discussion. Ludwig Wittgenstein died in 1951, but his influence continues to shape how we think about language, meaning, and the limits of expression.</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: <em>enthusiastically</em> And next week, we’ll be diving into the wild world of quantum entanglement! Get ready for spooky action at a distance, folks!</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: <em>correcting</em> Actually, next week’s topic is Renaissance art, Mikey.</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: <em>unfazed</em> Even better! Spooky action at a Renaissance! <em>laughs at his own joke</em></p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: <em>sighing</em> This has been The Wonder Why Podcast. I’m Lawrence…</p> <p><strong>Mikey</strong>: And I’m Mikey! Remember, whereof you cannot speak, thereof you must… I don’t know, maybe try interpretive dance?</p> <p><strong>Lawrence</strong>: <em>with final exasperation</em> Good day, listeners.</p> <p><strong>[OUTRO MUSIC FADES IN]</strong></p> <p>— -</p> <p>This was created with Ask Alpha with the “Lawrence & Mikey — Podcast Hosts” agents using the prompt “Use this webpage as context for a conversation <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wittgenstein/">https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wittgenstein</a>/”. This post is formatted but otherwise unedited.</p> </section>	The “Wonder Why” Podcast — Not Streaming Anywhere An Episode from a Nonexistent Podcast about Language THE WONDER WHY PODCAST Episode 42: “The Language Ladder” [INTRO MUSIC FADES IN] Lawrence: formal, professorial tone Good day, esteemed listeners, and welcome to another intellectually stimulating episode of The Wonder Why Podcast. I’m your host, Lawrence… Mikey: interrupting enthusiastically And I’m Mikey! The guy who asks the dumb questions so you don’t have to! laughs Today we’re diving into the world of a philosopher whose name I’ve been practicing all week to pronounce correctly: Ludwig Wittgenstein! Lawrence: slightly exasperated sigh Indeed, Mikey. And I must say, your pronunciation has improved considerably from your first attempt on Monday when you called him “Whittlestain.” Mikey: laughing Hey, in my defense, philosophy names are like IKEA furniture — impossible to pronounce but they look great on your intellectual shelf! Lawrence: with dry humor A fascinating analogy, if somewhat reductive. Now, as is our tradition, we begin with something seemingly unrelated before connecting it to our main topic. Mikey: Oh, I’ve got this one! So last weekend, I was playing charades with my family, right? My nephew was trying to act out “The Lion King” but none of us could figure it out. He kept pointing at himself and roaring, but we kept guessing “angry child” or “tantrum.” laughs Lawrence: amused despite himself I assume there’s a point to this anecdote? Mikey: Absolutely! It’s all about communication, man! He knew exactly what he was trying to say, but the rest of us couldn’t understand because we didn’t share the same… what would you call it? Lawrence: impressed Framework of reference? Rules of the language-game, perhaps? Mikey: snaps fingers YES! That’s exactly what Wittgenstein was all about, wasn’t it? The dude was obsessed with how language works and how we often talk past each other because we’re playing different games! Lawrence: genuinely surprised That’s… remarkably insightful, Mikey. Ludwig Wittgenstein, born in 1889 in Vienna to a wealthy industrial family, was indeed one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century, and his work revolutionized how we think about language, meaning, and philosophy itself. Mikey: excited So he was like the rockstar of philosophy? The Bowie of big thoughts? Lawrence: with a slight chuckle If by that you mean innovative, transformative, and somewhat enigmatic, then yes. Though I doubt Wittgenstein would appreciate the comparison. Mikey: Tough crowd! So what made this guy so special? Did he come up with some grand theory about the universe? Lawrence: Quite the opposite, actually. What makes Wittgenstein particularly fascinating is that his philosophical career is typically divided into two distinct phases, and in his later work, he essentially dismantled his own earlier ideas. Mikey: gasps dramatically Wait, he canceled himself? Before Twitter was even invented? Now THAT’S impressive! Lawrence: wry smile Indeed. His early work, culminating in the “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus” published in 1921, attempted to show the limits of language and what can be meaningfully said. He was essentially trying to solve all philosophical problems once and for all. Mikey: interrupting Hold up! “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus”? That sounds like a spell from Harry Potter! Lawrence: sighs It’s Latin, Mikey. It roughly translates to “Logical-Philosophical Treatise.” Mikey: theatrically disappointed Well that’s way less magical. So what did this non-magical book say? Lawrence: In essence, the Tractatus argues that language is a picture of reality, and that the structure of language reflects the structure of the world. Wittgenstein believed that propositions, or statements, can only be meaningful if they represent possible states of affairs in the world. Mikey: confused So… if I say “unicorns are pretty,” that’s meaningless because unicorns don’t exist? Lawrence: Not quite. For Wittgenstein, that statement has sense because we can picture what it would mean for unicorns to be pretty, even if unicorns don’t actually exist. What’s meaningless are propositions that attempt to say what cannot be said — like statements about ethics, aesthetics, or the meaning of life. Mikey: dramatically So the meaning of life is meaningless?! pauses Wait, that actually sounds kind of deep. Lawrence: with academic precision What Wittgenstein concludes in the Tractatus is that “whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.” These profound matters cannot be stated in meaningful propositions but can only be “shown.” Mikey: scratching head So it’s like… some things you just can’t put into words? Lawrence: impressed Precisely. And this leads to Wittgenstein’s famous ladder metaphor at the end of the Tractatus — he suggests that his own propositions serve as a ladder to be climbed and then discarded once one sees the world “rightly.” Mikey: with sudden excitement Oh! It’s like when you learn the rules of a game so thoroughly that you can eventually play it naturally without thinking about the rules anymore! Lawrence: genuinely impressed That’s… a surprisingly apt analogy, Mikey. Mikey: proudly I have my moments! So what happened after he published this tract-whatever? Did he just mic drop and walk away? Lawrence: In a manner of speaking, yes. He believed he had solved all philosophical problems, so he gave away his inheritance and worked as a schoolteacher, gardener, and architect. But by 1929, he began to doubt his earlier work and returned to Cambridge to pursue philosophy again. Mikey: laughing Classic comeback tour! So what changed in Wittgenstein 2.0? Lawrence: His later philosophy, most famously expressed in “Philosophical Investigations” published posthumously in 1953, rejected many of his earlier ideas. Instead of seeing language as a perfect picture of reality, he now saw it as a collection of diverse “language-games” with family resemblances rather than one essential feature. Mikey: perking up Language-games? Like how doctors have their own jargon? Or how teenagers make up slang that confuses old people like you? Lawrence: clearing throat I’m hardly what one would call “old,” Mikey, but yes, that’s the general idea. Wittgenstein came to believe that the meaning of a word is not some fixed thing it refers to, but rather its use in language. “Don’t think, but look!” he famously wrote. Mikey: So he went from “language is a perfect picture” to “language is what we do with it”? That’s a pretty big flip-flop! Lawrence: Indeed, and what’s remarkable is how thoroughly he critiqued his own earlier work. He came to see philosophical problems not as deep puzzles requiring theoretical solutions, but as confusions arising from misunderstandings about how language works. Mikey: thoughtfully So wait… is philosophy just a bunch of misunderstandings? Lawrence: According to the later Wittgenstein, many philosophical problems arise when we take words out of their ordinary contexts and use them in extraordinary ways. His new approach was therapeutic rather than theoretical — helping to dissolve confusions rather than build systems. Mikey: dramatically So philosophy is like intellectual Pepto-Bismol! Treating the symptoms of linguistic indigestion! Lawrence: wincing slightly A crude metaphor, but not entirely inaccurate. Wittgenstein famously wrote that the aim of philosophy is “to show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle.” Mikey: excited I love that! The poor fly keeps buzzing against the glass walls, thinking it’s making progress, but it just needs someone to show it the exit! Lawrence: Precisely. But what’s particularly fascinating about Wittgenstein is how his ideas apply beyond philosophy to everyday life. Consider how often miscommunications happen because people are using the same words but playing different language-games. Mikey: Like when I ask my girlfriend if my outfit looks okay, and I’m playing the “reassure me” game, but she’s playing the “brutal honesty” game? Lawrence: with a slight smile That’s… not an example I would have chosen, but yes. Or consider political debates where opponents talk past each other because they’re using the same terms with different meanings. Mikey: serious for a moment So Wittgenstein was basically saying we need to pay attention to how language actually works in different contexts, instead of assuming words have fixed meanings? Lawrence: genuinely impressed That’s remarkably well-put, Mikey. Yes, and this insight has influenced fields far beyond philosophy — linguistics, psychology, cognitive science, and even artificial intelligence. Mikey: eager Ooh, like how chatbots and AI struggle with context and implied meaning? They’re like aliens trying to learn our language-games! Lawrence: Indeed. Wittgenstein’s insights about rule-following and the social nature of language pose significant challenges for AI systems trying to truly understand human communication. Mikey: thoughtfully You know, this reminds me of something. Remember our episode on conspiracy theories? How people can look at the same evidence but see completely different patterns? Lawrence: nodding An excellent connection. Wittgenstein might say they’re participating in different “forms of life” with different criteria for what counts as evidence or proof. Mikey: excited So Wittgenstein is like the godfather of “everyone’s living in their own reality”! Lawrence: quickly correcting Not quite. Wittgenstein wasn’t a relativist. He emphasized that language is inherently social and rule-governed. We can understand each other because we share practices and forms of life. Mikey: processing So it’s not “anything goes,” but more like “context matters”? Lawrence: pleased Precisely. And this brings us back to your charades example. Communication works when we share enough background understanding and follow similar rules. When we don’t, confusion ensues. Mikey: laughing Like how my nephew thought roaring obviously meant “lion,” but to the rest of us, it just looked like a kid having a meltdown! Lawrence: wry smile Indeed. And perhaps that’s the most valuable lesson from Wittgenstein — the recognition that clarity in communication requires attention to context and shared understanding. Mikey: with mock seriousness So what you’re saying is… we should all just shut up more? Lawrence: chuckling Not exactly. Rather, we should be more attentive to the language-games we’re playing and more humble about what can be clearly expressed. As Wittgenstein wrote: “What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.” Mikey: dramatically Deep, man. Really deep. pauses Hey, do you think Wittgenstein would have been good at Twitter? Lawrence: deadpan Given his preference for silence on matters of importance, I suspect he would have found the entire platform deeply troubling. Mikey: laughing But his profile would have been fire! Bio: “Whereof one cannot tweet, thereof one must log off.” Lawrence: suppressing amusement On that note, perhaps we should wrap up today’s discussion. Ludwig Wittgenstein died in 1951, but his influence continues to shape how we think about language, meaning, and the limits of expression. Mikey: enthusiastically And next week, we’ll be diving into the wild world of quantum entanglement! Get ready for spooky action at a distance, folks! Lawrence: correcting Actually, next week’s topic is Renaissance art, Mikey. Mikey: unfazed Even better! Spooky action at a Renaissance! laughs at his own joke Lawrence: sighing This has been The Wonder Why Podcast. I’m Lawrence… Mikey: And I’m Mikey! Remember, whereof you cannot speak, thereof you must… I don’t know, maybe try interpretive dance? Lawrence: with final exasperation Good day, listeners. [OUTRO MUSIC FADES IN] — - This was created with Ask Alpha with the “Lawrence & Mikey — Podcast Hosts” agents using the prompt “Use this webpage as context for a conversation https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wittgenstein/”. This post is formatted but otherwise unedited.	4a95a2eb-b4ef-5463-b35f-24cc062aa2a7	25/08/2025 16:01:36
https://omgchronicles.medium.com/what-we-can-learn-from-iceland-751d40883308	medium.com	What We Can Learn From Iceland	In Iceland, most babies are born to parents who aren’t married and no one is freaking out about it. Does marriage matter?	Vicki Larson	https://medium.com/@omgchronicles	751d40883308	https://miro.medium.com/…qGvqJt65hoA.jpeg	3 min	2017-11-15T14:25:33.177000	2017-11-14T14:22:00	2017-11-15T14:30:03.754000	0	1	en	Parenting,Iceland,Marriage,Relationships,Motherhood	<section> <h1>What We Can Learn From Iceland</h1> <h3>In Iceland, most babies are born to parents who aren’t married and no one is freaking out about it. Does marriage matter?</h3> <p>For much of history, marriage mattered. It was a way to make sure property could be passed to heirs, alliances could be forged (often to avoid wars), children could be reared, society could be assured that caregiving would be taken care of and a lot of other practical matters, as historian and <em>Marriage, a History</em> author Stephanie Coontz has <a href="http://www.stephaniecoontz.com/books/marriage/chapter1.htm">extensively detailed</a>. And it’s true that marriage matters today in the U.S., because it grants those who tie the know more than 1,100 perks and protections — and that’s just at the federal level. But what if marriage didn’t matter — people could be romantically partnered or not, have children as part of a couple or not, and still be accepted by society and set up to succeed. Enter Iceland, where more than two-thirds of babies — 67 percent — are born to parents who aren’t married. And no one is freaking out about it. Would we still need marriage? Good question.</p> <p>I recently stumbled upon the setup for an episode of CNN’s <em><a href="http://</em>www.cnn.com/travel/article/wonder-list-bill-weir-iceland/index.html">The Wonder List,</a> which sent reporter Bill Weir to the country to explore its many charms. Among them was the progressive way of thinking about how people can raise children without being married to each other.</p> <h2>Marriage isn’t just about children</h2> <p>OK, marriage is not just about having kids, so we need to be clear about that. But the belief that marriage is <em>exactly</em> about that — which means marriage <a href="http://omgchronicles.vickilarson.com/2017/04/18/sex-marriage/">must involve sex</a> — creates a very narrow view of marriage, and thus a very narrow view of family. Which is probably why, in the U.S., single moms are blamed and shamed, and seen as a <a href="http://omgchronicles.vickilarson.com/2015/12/29/problem-single-mothers/">problem to be fixed</a>.</p> <p>But in Iceland? As one woman who has has three kids with two partners “and not a drop of shame or regret” tells Weir:</p> <blockquote><em>You have this horrible term in English, ‘broken families,’ which basically means just if you get divorced, then something’s broken. But that’s not the way it is in Iceland at all. We live in such a small and secure environment, and the women have so much freedom. So you can just, you can choose your life.”</em></blockquote> <p>Women having freedom to choose their life. Boy, doesn’t that sound good?</p> <h2>Religion may be the problem</h2> <p>Since few Icelanders are religious, “there is no moral stigma attached to unwed pregnancy,” he writes. And that’s a huge difference between Iceland <a href="http://omgchronicles.vickilarson.com/2015/12/29/problem-single-mothers/">and the U.S.</a> — as well as the fact that Iceland guarantees some of the most generous parental leave in the world. <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/02/23/u-s-religious-groups-and-their-political-leanings/">Conservatives in the U.S</a>. who claim to support “family values” have a simple view of family — the 1950s nuclear model where women know their place, barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen — are <a href="http://www.politicususa.com/proof-war-women-2">doing everything to put us back there</a>, including attempts to do away with <a href="https://www.salon.com/2017/10/22/abortion-is-down-so-the-gops-coming-for-your-birth-control/">birth control</a>. Nothing will put a woman in her place quicker than taking away the right for her to control her own body.</p> <p>Women in Iceland benefit from the country’s “<a href="http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/health-and-wellbeing/wellbeing/what-is-life-really-like-for-women-in-iceland-the-worlds-most-womanfriendly-country-20161031-gsez8j.html">it takes a village to raise a child” attitude</a>, as well as how motherhood is perceived — it doesn’t define you as a woman. Nor does your relationship status.</p> <p>So, really, is it marriage <em>per se</em> that matters most or is it a society that supports all sorts of lifestyles and caregiving without requiring that a woman be in love with — let alone live with or marry — someone to raise children?</p> <p>Clearly, it <em>isn’t</em> just about marriage despite matter all the hand-wringing in the U.S. about the declining rates of marriage, women having children outside of marriage and the “<a href="https://familyinequality.wordpress.com/2015/08/19/why-its-rotten-to-tell-someone-theyre-poor-because-of-when-they-had-their-kids/">success sequence</a>.”</p> <h2>Do we need marriage?</h2> <p>So, would we still need marriage if everyone thought like Iceland does?</p> <p>Would you still be with your loved one if marriage didn’t exist? Would you feel that <a href="http://omgchronicles.vickilarson.com/2013/06/10/no-marriage-license-no-respect/">you were an adult</a> if marriage didn’t exist? Would you have children with him or her as long as you had societal support — or <a href="http://omgchronicles.vickilarson.com/2015/04/21/is-cohabitation-ever-the-same-as-marriage/">an agreement</a> between the two of you to make sure your child is cared for you both equally no matter what?</p> <p>What would you do differently if no one treated you differently if you were married or not?</p> <p><em>Wondering if you should marry or not? (Of course you are!) Then read <a href="http://thenewidobook.com/">The New I Do: Reshaping Marriage for Skeptics, Realists and Rebels</a> (Seal Press). You can support your loca</em>l indie bookstore or order it on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-New-Do-Reshaping-Marriage/dp/1580055451">Amazon</a>.</p> </section>	What We Can Learn From Iceland In Iceland, most babies are born to parents who aren’t married and no one is freaking out about it. Does marriage matter? For much of history, marriage mattered. It was a way to make sure property could be passed to heirs, alliances could be forged (often to avoid wars), children could be reared, society could be assured that caregiving would be taken care of and a lot of other practical matters, as historian and Marriage, a History author Stephanie Coontz has extensively detailed. And it’s true that marriage matters today in the U.S., because it grants those who tie the know more than 1,100 perks and protections — and that’s just at the federal level. But what if marriage didn’t matter — people could be romantically partnered or not, have children as part of a couple or not, and still be accepted by society and set up to succeed. Enter Iceland, where more than two-thirds of babies — 67 percent — are born to parents who aren’t married. And no one is freaking out about it. Would we still need marriage? Good question. I recently stumbled upon the setup for an episode of CNN’s The Wonder List, which sent reporter Bill Weir to the country to explore its many charms. Among them was the progressive way of thinking about how people can raise children without being married to each other. Marriage isn’t just about children OK, marriage is not just about having kids, so we need to be clear about that. But the belief that marriage is exactly about that — which means marriage must involve sex — creates a very narrow view of marriage, and thus a very narrow view of family. Which is probably why, in the U.S., single moms are blamed and shamed, and seen as a problem to be fixed. But in Iceland? As one woman who has has three kids with two partners “and not a drop of shame or regret” tells Weir: You have this horrible term in English, ‘broken families,’ which basically means just if you get divorced, then something’s broken. But that’s not the way it is in Iceland at all. We live in such a small and secure environment, and the women have so much freedom. So you can just, you can choose your life.” Women having freedom to choose their life. Boy, doesn’t that sound good? Religion may be the problem Since few Icelanders are religious, “there is no moral stigma attached to unwed pregnancy,” he writes. And that’s a huge difference between Iceland and the U.S. — as well as the fact that Iceland guarantees some of the most generous parental leave in the world. Conservatives in the U.S. who claim to support “family values” have a simple view of family — the 1950s nuclear model where women know their place, barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen — are doing everything to put us back there, including attempts to do away with birth control. Nothing will put a woman in her place quicker than taking away the right for her to control her own body. Women in Iceland benefit from the country’s “it takes a village to raise a child” attitude, as well as how motherhood is perceived — it doesn’t define you as a woman. Nor does your relationship status. So, really, is it marriage per se that matters most or is it a society that supports all sorts of lifestyles and caregiving without requiring that a woman be in love with — let alone live with or marry — someone to raise children? Clearly, it isn’t just about marriage despite matter all the hand-wringing in the U.S. about the declining rates of marriage, women having children outside of marriage and the “success sequence.” Do we need marriage? So, would we still need marriage if everyone thought like Iceland does? Would you still be with your loved one if marriage didn’t exist? Would you feel that you were an adult if marriage didn’t exist? Would you have children with him or her as long as you had societal support — or an agreement between the two of you to make sure your child is cared for you both equally no matter what? What would you do differently if no one treated you differently if you were married or not? Wondering if you should marry or not? (Of course you are!) Then read The New I Do: Reshaping Marriage for Skeptics, Realists and Rebels (Seal Press). You can support your local indie bookstore or order it on Amazon.	a7c70670-7b66-5e40-b34f-7a83d863cdbf	25/08/2025 16:01:36
https://medium.com/geekculture/how-to-build-custom-functions-in-google-sheets-with-google-apps-script-94766c31d8e6	medium.com	Google Sheets Power Up: Creating Custom Functions with Google Apps Script 🚀	What Are Custom Functions?	Dmitry Kostyuk	https://medium.com/@dmitry-kostyuk	94766c31d8e6	https://miro.medium.com/…mNeMg6XZuEuA.png	4 min	2021-08-18T20:46:06.200000	2021-08-23T09:10:12.971000	2025-05-27T17:42:57.312000	1	12	en	Google Apps Script,Google Sheets,Spreadsheets,Google Workspace	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1200/1MvrVqrkoBYmNeMg6XZuEuA.png" width="1200" height="630" loading="lazy" /> <h1>What Are Custom Functions?</h1> <p>If you use any kind of spreadsheet, you know that they contain built-in functions that help you work with your data. For example, the function SUM(A1:A5) will print the sum of the values in the first five rows of the first column.</p> <p>But what if you need a function that your spreadsheet doesn’t have? That’s where the <a href="https://developers.google.com/apps-script/guides/sheets/functions">custom functions</a> come in: in Google Sheets you can write your own ones with Google Apps Script.</p> <h2>Why Use Them?</h2> <p>Custom functions create a whole new window of opportunities. You can use them to:</p> <ul> <li>Simplify complex calculations</li> <li>Make GAS services directly available from Google Sheets</li> <li>Easily fetch, process and print external API data</li> <li>Read data in other spreadsheets or even databases</li> </ul> <h2>How to Build Them</h2> <p>Let’s build one to find out!</p> <p>We will build a function that does base 64 encoding.</p> <p>Base 64 encoding allows you to send binary data over HTTP. If you want to learn more about it, I encourage you to read <a href="https://levelup.gitconnected.com/an-introduction-to-base64-encoding-716cdccc58ce">An Introduction to Base 64 Encoding</a> by <a href="#">Chris Morrow</a><strong>.</strong></p> <p>Let’s start with something super simple. Create a new spreadsheet, open the Script Editor, and enter the following one-liner:</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1648/1KxViLf9cicyIYkUw-Z_ryQ.png" width="1648" height="368" loading="lazy" /> <p>Google Apps Script natively supports base 64 encoding, so this is rather simple to implement. Notice that our function takes an argument and returns a value. That’s all we need for it to work.</p> <p>Now, let’s encode “Hello World” in our spreadsheet:</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/932/1ayEHaSXtzwbwmPBzEkmOHg.png" width="932" height="378" loading="lazy" /> <p>After a brief “Loading” message, we receive our result.</p> <p>There are a couple of things to keep in mind when naming your functions:</p> <ul> <li>You cannot give them the same names as existing built-in functions, lie SUM()</li> <li>Names cannot end with an underscore <strong>(_)</strong>, as that would make the function private</li> </ul> <p>Every custom function must return the value to display.</p> <h2>Displaying a Range of Values</h2> <p>Let’s now take our function to the next level. A good function must be able to work with ranges and be compatible with ARRAYFORMULA(). What we need to do is make sure that if we enter something like =b64enc(A1:A10)<strong>,</strong> it will return the encoded range.</p> <p>Not surprisingly, when you pass a range to a custom function, the argument is a 2D array. Likewise, if we want to return a range of values, we need to return a 2D array.</p> <p>So, version two of our function can look something like this:</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1648/1MF1QaBO45t9jeLblk2IcOQ.png" width="1648" height="488" loading="lazy" /> <p>We now simply test whether the argument is an array or not. If it is, we return a range of base 64 encoded values. Otherwise, we just return the encoded value as in the previous version.</p> <p>Let’s test it on a range of random names to see how it works:</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1074/1HQgsElB2s_Uyhz1qiTSroA.png" width="1074" height="492" loading="lazy" /> <p>It can now also be used as part of a formula that contains ARRAYFORMULA():</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1192/13gmeXI3lTtEu1CleOD1OLg.png" width="1192" height="480" loading="lazy" /> <h2>Autocomplete and Help</h2> <p>One final thing to do is provide our users with a help message. You are certainly aware that when you use a built-in function such as SUM() you get a helpful message box like this one:</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1096/1vZtw39yBH3LqMfe5lRfTcQ.png" width="1096" height="846" loading="lazy" /> <p>To do the same thing for our custom function, we need to use what’s called JSDoc. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s a way of documenting your code with comments by using a specific syntax like so:</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1648/118IS3CJ5fMCdadT8Hq-z5Q.png" width="1648" height="768" loading="lazy" /> <p>The block of JSDoc comments must immediately precede the function and is enclosed in multi-line comments like so:</p> <pre><code class="language-">/** * * /</code></pre> <p>First, start with a description of the function. Then, document its parameters one by one with the @param declaration, and provide an example in curly braces, the parameter name, and a description.</p> <p>If you would like, you can also document what the function returns. This doesn’t show up in the help message box, but it’s customary to do this in JSDoc.</p> <p>Finally, end with the @customfunction declaration.</p> <p>Now, when we enter the function, we receive the following help message box:</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1104/12WjembHKnPG_NLm1SyB_JA.png" width="1104" height="734" loading="lazy" /> <p>If you want to learn more about JSDoc, check out <a href="https://medium.com/swlh/creating-better-jsdoc-documentation-8b7a65744dcb">Creating Better JSDoc Documentation</a> by <a href="#">Arturo Martínez</a></p> <h2>Limitations</h2> <p>Custom functions are extremely versatile, but they come with certain limitations:</p> <ul> <li>They cannot affect cells to which they don’t return values, so don’t try to use ss.getRange('A1').setValue('Hello World') inside one.</li> <li>They must return a result within 30 seconds. This becomes important if your function does API calls over HTTP or processes large amounts of data.</li> <li>They can only call Apps Script services that don’t have access to personal data. Therefore, you can call URLFetchApp, but you can’t send an email with GmailApp.</li> <li>They are bound to their spreadsheet unless they are part of an add-on.</li> <li>If you run many custom functions, they can slow down your spreadsheet. Therefore, making sure that your function supports ranges is important.</li> </ul> <p>If you realize that a custom function is not enough for a certain task, you should therefore be going for a custom menu or an image button instead.</p> <h2>About the Author</h2> <p>Dmitry Kostyuk is a full-time GAS developer and the Founder of <a href="https://www.wurkspaces.dev">Wurkspaces.dev</a>.</p> </section>	Google Sheets Power Up: Creating Custom Functions with Google Apps Script 🚀 What Are Custom Functions? If you use any kind of spreadsheet, you know that they contain built-in functions that help you work with your data. For example, the function SUM(A1:A5) will print the sum of the values in the first five rows of the first column. But what if you need a function that your spreadsheet doesn’t have? That’s where the custom functions come in: in Google Sheets you can write your own ones with Google Apps Script. Why Use Them? Custom functions create a whole new window of opportunities. You can use them to: Simplify complex calculations Make GAS services directly available from Google Sheets Easily fetch, process and print external API data Read data in other spreadsheets or even databases How to Build Them Let’s build one to find out! We will build a function that does base 64 encoding. Base 64 encoding allows you to send binary data over HTTP. If you want to learn more about it, I encourage you to read An Introduction to Base 64 Encoding by Chris Morrow. Let’s start with something super simple. Create a new spreadsheet, open the Script Editor, and enter the following one-liner: Google Apps Script natively supports base 64 encoding, so this is rather simple to implement. Notice that our function takes an argument and returns a value. That’s all we need for it to work. Now, let’s encode “Hello World” in our spreadsheet: After a brief “Loading” message, we receive our result. There are a couple of things to keep in mind when naming your functions: You cannot give them the same names as existing built-in functions, lie SUM() Names cannot end with an underscore (_), as that would make the function private Every custom function must return the value to display. Displaying a Range of Values Let’s now take our function to the next level. A good function must be able to work with ranges and be compatible with ARRAYFORMULA(). What we need to do is make sure that if we enter something like =b64enc(A1:A10), it will return the encoded range. Not surprisingly, when you pass a range to a custom function, the argument is a 2D array. Likewise, if we want to return a range of values, we need to return a 2D array. So, version two of our function can look something like this: We now simply test whether the argument is an array or not. If it is, we return a range of base 64 encoded values. Otherwise, we just return the encoded value as in the previous version. Let’s test it on a range of random names to see how it works: It can now also be used as part of a formula that contains ARRAYFORMULA(): Autocomplete and Help One final thing to do is provide our users with a help message. You are certainly aware that when you use a built-in function such as SUM() you get a helpful message box like this one: To do the same thing for our custom function, we need to use what’s called JSDoc. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s a way of documenting your code with comments by using a specific syntax like so: The block of JSDoc comments must immediately precede the function and is enclosed in multi-line comments like so: /** * * */ First, start with a description of the function. Then, document its parameters one by one with the @param declaration, and provide an example in curly braces, the parameter name, and a description. If you would like, you can also document what the function returns. This doesn’t show up in the help message box, but it’s customary to do this in JSDoc. Finally, end with the @customfunction declaration. Now, when we enter the function, we receive the following help message box: If you want to learn more about JSDoc, check out Creating Better JSDoc Documentation by Arturo Martínez Limitations Custom functions are extremely versatile, but they come with certain limitations: They cannot affect cells to which they don’t return values, so don’t try to use ss.getRange('A1').setValue('Hello World') inside one. They must return a result within 30 seconds. This becomes important if your function does API calls over HTTP or processes large amounts of data. They can only call Apps Script services that don’t have access to personal data. Therefore, you can call URLFetchApp, but you can’t send an email with GmailApp. They are bound to their spreadsheet unless they are part of an add-on. If you run many custom functions, they can slow down your spreadsheet. Therefore, making sure that your function supports ranges is important. If you realize that a custom function is not enough for a certain task, you should therefore be going for a custom menu or an image button instead. About the Author Dmitry Kostyuk is a full-time GAS developer and the Founder of Wurkspaces.dev.	ca1041dd-dc65-5347-8be6-9a34e7275f0d	25/08/2025 16:01:37
https://medium.com/@tjairconengineering/an-overview-of-the-aircon-installation-process-ffbdfc240dbe	medium.com	An Overview of the Aircon Installation Process	If you are looking professional aircon installation firm in Singapore,Tjaircon is the best choice for your installation service within your…	TjAircon Engineering	https://medium.com/@tjairconengineering	ffbdfc240dbe	null	0 min	2018-02-06T06:46:13.604000	2018-02-06T06:47:44.629000	2018-02-06T06:47:45.452000	0	0	en	Aircon Installation,Air Condition Service,Air Conditioning Service	<section> <p>If you are looking professional aircon installation firm in Singapore,Tjaircon is the best choice for your installation service within your budget.- <a href="http://bit.ly/2Bd72f9">http://bit.ly/2Bd72f9</a></p> </section>	An Overview of the Aircon Installation Process If you are looking professional aircon installation firm in Singapore,Tjaircon is the best choice for your installation service within your budget.- http://bit.ly/2Bd72f9	755d752f-d25d-5859-9a7c-697a4c3e9129	25/08/2025 16:01:38
https://gothamsn.com/lou-lamoriello-brings-leadership-hope-and-respectability-to-the-islanders-95ecca12479c	medium.com	Lou Lamoriello brings leadership, hope and respectability to the Islanders	“My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.” — Gerald Ford, August 9, 1974	James Duffy	https://medium.com/@TwoTurtleDuffs	95ecca12479c	https://miro.medium.com/…B3upefnHSLQ.jpeg	3 min	2018-05-22T16:11:39.582000	2018-05-22T19:58:14.738000	2018-05-22T23:03:06.220000	0	50	en	Sports,Hockey,NHL,New York Islanders	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/612/1*WjKBtAoTvSZB3upefnHSLQ.jpeg" width="612" height="612" loading="lazy" /> <p><strong>“My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.” — Gerald Ford, August 9, 1974</strong></p> <p>The New York Islanders officially hired Lou Lamoriello Tuesday as President of Hockey Operations, a role in which he will have complete control over the organization <a href="https://www.nhl.com/islanders/news/lamoriello-named-president-of-hockey-operations/c-298735484">according to a statement from the team</a>. Finally, Garth Snow’s power is gone and the Isles can begin to move on from their 12-year GM who never managed to take a step forward with this club.</p> <p>As remarkable as it is that the Islanders landed Lamoriello, a Hall of Fame executive with a wealth of respect around the league, this move is just as significant in the fact that it displaces Snow. In a dozen seasons as general manager, Snow led the Islanders to the playoffs four times and won one single series. His tenure should be looked upon as an abject failure, especially when considering he himself has stated he believes this team should be a Stanley Cup contender. Still, there were obvious bright spots from Snow’s reign (John Tavares, Mathew Barzal, Anthony Beauvillier, Jordan Eberle, etc.), but now is not the time to discuss his merits.</p> <p>Lamoriello taking over hockey operations saps Snow’s power, putting Lou in sole command of the franchise for the time being. Lamoriello is far from the perfect general manager candidate, but he is a dramatic improvement over Snow, one who comes with experience, knowledge and league-wide respect that the Islanders have been sorely lacking for the last two decades. Since the NHL implemented the salary cap, Lamoriello has not enjoyed the success he once did with the Devils in the late 90s and early 2000s, raising legitimate questions on his ability to adapt to the new NHL.</p> <p>Lams’ track record has been spotty for the last decade, but giving him control and taking it from Snow is a franchise-altering move. The Islanders were arguably the least successful team in the NHL during Snow’s 12 years in power, and based on veiled statements and odd press conferences from the owners, it was hard to imagine Snow was going anywhere in the near future. Finally the Islanders can move in a new direction.</p> <p>More than anything else, the days of the Islanders being the laughing stock of the NHL should be coming to an end. Lamoriello is arguably the greatest hockey mind of this era, and even if he has lost a step or two he has enough credibility league wide to erase some of the mess Snow created. The Islanders have been a team trapped in mediocrity and mocked league-wide. That should change under Lamoriello’s reign.</p> <p>Lamoriello’s vision will go into effect immediately. There have already been reports that Lamoriello met with pending-UFA John Tavares in Toronto last week as an Islanders representative, giving fans a legitimate reason to be optimistic about Tavares’ future. If the meeting didn’t go well, it’s hard to imagine Lou taking this job when he thought he wouldn’t have Tavares to build around. Then Lou will make his first official stamp on the franchise at the NHL Draft next month, and we’ll see the beginnings of his philosophy when he decides to trade or keep the Isles’ two first round picks.</p> <p>Lou Lamoriello is far from perfect, but hiring him is the biggest step in the right direction the Islanders have made since drafting John Tavares. It’s possible Lou will pick a new general manager and head coach as well. Despite Garth Snow and Doug Weight remaining with the team for the time being, Lou has shown little loyalty to people who weren’t his hires, and may want to bring his own team to Long Island. Again, this is the kind of news that can shape a franchise for over a decade.</p> <p>So celebrate, Isles fans! There will be more time to scrutinize, question and critique as the offseason drags on, but Tuesday, May 22 should always be remembered as Lou Lamoriello Day.</p> </section>	Lou Lamoriello brings leadership, hope and respectability to the Islanders “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.” — Gerald Ford, August 9, 1974 The New York Islanders officially hired Lou Lamoriello Tuesday as President of Hockey Operations, a role in which he will have complete control over the organization according to a statement from the team. Finally, Garth Snow’s power is gone and the Isles can begin to move on from their 12-year GM who never managed to take a step forward with this club. As remarkable as it is that the Islanders landed Lamoriello, a Hall of Fame executive with a wealth of respect around the league, this move is just as significant in the fact that it displaces Snow. In a dozen seasons as general manager, Snow led the Islanders to the playoffs four times and won one single series. His tenure should be looked upon as an abject failure, especially when considering he himself has stated he believes this team should be a Stanley Cup contender. Still, there were obvious bright spots from Snow’s reign (John Tavares, Mathew Barzal, Anthony Beauvillier, Jordan Eberle, etc.), but now is not the time to discuss his merits. Lamoriello taking over hockey operations saps Snow’s power, putting Lou in sole command of the franchise for the time being. Lamoriello is far from the perfect general manager candidate, but he is a dramatic improvement over Snow, one who comes with experience, knowledge and league-wide respect that the Islanders have been sorely lacking for the last two decades. Since the NHL implemented the salary cap, Lamoriello has not enjoyed the success he once did with the Devils in the late 90s and early 2000s, raising legitimate questions on his ability to adapt to the new NHL. Lams’ track record has been spotty for the last decade, but giving him control and taking it from Snow is a franchise-altering move. The Islanders were arguably the least successful team in the NHL during Snow’s 12 years in power, and based on veiled statements and odd press conferences from the owners, it was hard to imagine Snow was going anywhere in the near future. Finally the Islanders can move in a new direction. More than anything else, the days of the Islanders being the laughing stock of the NHL should be coming to an end. Lamoriello is arguably the greatest hockey mind of this era, and even if he has lost a step or two he has enough credibility league wide to erase some of the mess Snow created. The Islanders have been a team trapped in mediocrity and mocked league-wide. That should change under Lamoriello’s reign. Lamoriello’s vision will go into effect immediately. There have already been reports that Lamoriello met with pending-UFA John Tavares in Toronto last week as an Islanders representative, giving fans a legitimate reason to be optimistic about Tavares’ future. If the meeting didn’t go well, it’s hard to imagine Lou taking this job when he thought he wouldn’t have Tavares to build around. Then Lou will make his first official stamp on the franchise at the NHL Draft next month, and we’ll see the beginnings of his philosophy when he decides to trade or keep the Isles’ two first round picks. Lou Lamoriello is far from perfect, but hiring him is the biggest step in the right direction the Islanders have made since drafting John Tavares. It’s possible Lou will pick a new general manager and head coach as well. Despite Garth Snow and Doug Weight remaining with the team for the time being, Lou has shown little loyalty to people who weren’t his hires, and may want to bring his own team to Long Island. Again, this is the kind of news that can shape a franchise for over a decade. So celebrate, Isles fans! There will be more time to scrutinize, question and critique as the offseason drags on, but Tuesday, May 22 should always be remembered as Lou Lamoriello Day.	4fe9caa5-19d4-5024-b63e-752546ed926a	25/08/2025 16:01:39
https://medium.com/tech-jobs-academy/from-disktatorship-to-diskmocracy-quorums-in-failover-clustering-8a21c1600252	medium.com	From Disktatorship to Diskmocracy: Quorums in Failover Clustering	As an IT professional, it is my job to ensure the services and roles my clients need to access are actually available. One technology I can…	Abel Chajet	https://medium.com/@achajet	8a21c1600252	https://miro.medium.com/…S-Yjt-WYogQ.jpeg	3 min	2016-03-09T20:47:33.106000	2016-04-04T07:01:34.284000	2018-02-02T11:29:35.498000	1	11	en	Cloud Computing,AWS,Microsoft	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1600/19nyHk8Fpw73S-Yjt-WYogQ.jpeg" width="1600" height="1249" loading="lazy" /> <p>As an IT professional, it is my job to ensure the services and roles my clients need to access are actually available. One technology I can use to make sure that the storage or application that the client needs is nearly constantly accessible is <strong>failover clustering</strong>. It allows me to place the same role or storage share onto up to 64 physical servers, or <strong>nodes</strong>, and configure all of them to seamlessly take the place of one another in case of a single server failure. This allows me to keep all essential services running no matter what happens, making me look super competent even if some of the servers in my care are actually on fire.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1150/1zzWolce2Jj8pyObgXAsVRQ.jpeg" width="1150" height="768" loading="lazy" /> <p>Without failover clustering, each computer running the roles that my users and clients need would fail independently. Any hiccup in service would be immediately noticeable, and I would not look super competent.</p> <p>Systems Administrators who are working in large environments might find this information useful. Clients who have the need for and resources to support multiple servers to carry out complex tasks will rely on this technology, and will need sys admins who are familiar with it. You will need to use the <strong>Failover Cluster </strong>feature to create a cluster, installed via the<strong> Add Roles and Features</strong> option in the<strong> Server Manager</strong>, and controlled with the <strong>Failover Cluster Manager</strong>. Here’s what the <strong>Failover Cluster Manager</strong> looks like:</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1023/1vCgoQ9y-9i053GzJRaXl3g.png" width="1023" height="770" loading="lazy" /> <p>The system that regulates whether a group of independent computers acting as nodes can function as a cluster is called <strong>quorum. </strong>A quorum is defined as the number of elements required to be online for a cluster to continue running. Here is how to access the quorum configuration options:</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1023/1PvRy8w2qvgX389oi-8_Ffg.png" width="1023" height="725" loading="lazy" /> <p>Like a legislative body convening to vote on regulatory bills and amendments, servers can vote on whether enough nodes are present to function as a cluster. The voting occurs automatically, with no direct interference from a systems administrator necessary. But I can set the terms of the legislative session. Choosing different quorum modes, or configurations, allows me to configure who gets a vote within the cluster, and how the votes are tabulated. A node can get a vote and configuring the quorums allows for a file share to be assigned a vote too.</p> <p>There are four different quorum modes, each offering a different voting configuration for a different cluster setup. The first, and least used, would be the <strong>Disk Only Quorum Mode. </strong>In a <strong>Disk Only</strong> mode, the only part of the cluster that has a vote is a single node that is online and connected to a shared disk.</p> <p>This mode is not recommended for use by me or Microsoft or anyone; it effectively turns your clustering setup into a disktatorship. If the node is online, it keeps the cluster online even if all other nodes fail. You could end up without a “cluster” and only a single computer performing a role that was supposed to be carried out by a collection of machines.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/682/1pCAhp9zgwm1DzwdBU4UsCg.png" width="682" height="469" loading="lazy" /> <p>A <strong>node majority</strong> is the mode you might want to use if you have an odd number of nodes. This allows for a simple majority of nodes to keep the cluster going. For clusters with even numbers of nodes, consider the <strong>node and disk</strong> or <strong>node and file share</strong> modes. These allow the cluster to keep running with half the nodes online plus either a <strong>disk witness </strong>or <strong>file share</strong> online, respectively.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/619/1VlAhHhoAE0gQJvC-yxZvNw.png" width="619" height="420" loading="lazy" /> <p>The voting among nodes and disks occurs automatically based on their availability. Choose which configuration mode is right for your setup, and become a stalwart defender of diskmocracy.</p> <p>Thanks to my instructor, Thomas Titanski, for his assistance and patience. for more information and failover clusters and quorums, check out these articles from <a href="http://www.altaro.com/hyper-v/quorum-microsoft-failover-clusters/">Altaro.com</a> and <a href="https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc733130.aspx">TechNet</a>.</p> </section>	From Disktatorship to Diskmocracy: Quorums in Failover Clustering Counting the votes As an IT professional, it is my job to ensure the services and roles my clients need to access are actually available. One technology I can use to make sure that the storage or application that the client needs is nearly constantly accessible is failover clustering. It allows me to place the same role or storage share onto up to 64 physical servers, or nodes, and configure all of them to seamlessly take the place of one another in case of a single server failure. This allows me to keep all essential services running no matter what happens, making me look super competent even if some of the servers in my care are actually on fire. No one has to know! Without failover clustering, each computer running the roles that my users and clients need would fail independently. Any hiccup in service would be immediately noticeable, and I would not look super competent. Systems Administrators who are working in large environments might find this information useful. Clients who have the need for and resources to support multiple servers to carry out complex tasks will rely on this technology, and will need sys admins who are familiar with it. You will need to use the Failover Cluster feature to create a cluster, installed via the Add Roles and Features option in the Server Manager, and controlled with the Failover Cluster Manager. Here’s what the Failover Cluster Manager looks like: Looks like a standard snap-in The system that regulates whether a group of independent computers acting as nodes can function as a cluster is called quorum. A quorum is defined as the number of elements required to be online for a cluster to continue running. Here is how to access the quorum configuration options: Accessed via the “More Actions” option on the “Actions” pane Like a legislative body convening to vote on regulatory bills and amendments, servers can vote on whether enough nodes are present to function as a cluster. The voting occurs automatically, with no direct interference from a systems administrator necessary. But I can set the terms of the legislative session. Choosing different quorum modes, or configurations, allows me to configure who gets a vote within the cluster, and how the votes are tabulated. A node can get a vote and configuring the quorums allows for a file share to be assigned a vote too. There are four different quorum modes, each offering a different voting configuration for a different cluster setup. The first, and least used, would be the Disk Only Quorum Mode. In a Disk Only mode, the only part of the cluster that has a vote is a single node that is online and connected to a shared disk. This mode is not recommended for use by me or Microsoft or anyone; it effectively turns your clustering setup into a disktatorship. If the node is online, it keeps the cluster online even if all other nodes fail. You could end up without a “cluster” and only a single computer performing a role that was supposed to be carried out by a collection of machines. Cluster quorum configuration wizard A node majority is the mode you might want to use if you have an odd number of nodes. This allows for a simple majority of nodes to keep the cluster going. For clusters with even numbers of nodes, consider the node and disk or node and file share modes. These allow the cluster to keep running with half the nodes online plus either a disk witness or file share online, respectively. Chart detailing the four quorum modes, from Microsoft’s official course material The voting among nodes and disks occurs automatically based on their availability. Choose which configuration mode is right for your setup, and become a stalwart defender of diskmocracy. Thanks to my instructor, Thomas Titanski, for his assistance and patience. for more information and failover clusters and quorums, check out these articles from Altaro.com and TechNet.	663e3251-2aed-53ee-8103-91ab6f64f190	25/08/2025 16:01:40
https://medium.com/@sumup.ai/2020-kaleidoscope-64fb59d49f1	medium.com	2020 Kaleidoscope	Deciphering Election News Patterns [Week 39, 08/28/2020]	SumUp Analytics	https://medium.com/@sumup.ai	64fb59d49f1	https://miro.medium.com/…ShuvdY5XMIZw.png	3 min	2020-08-28T03:36:25.031000	2020-08-28T16:40:12.250000	2021-12-15T17:24:20.145000	0	0	en	Information Technology,Data,Politics,Media Criticism,Elections	<section> <p>Deciphering Election News Patterns [Week 39, 08/28/2020]</p> <p><a href="https://medium.com/@sumup.ai?source=post_page-----8dd7ba92e1b8----------------------">SumUp Analytics</a></p> <p>Aug 28th· 3 min read</p> <p>This newsletter is a weekly publication showcasing two simple applications of <a href="http://www.sumup.ai/">SumUp’s platform</a>: an analysis of the news pertaining to the 2020 elections and a technical review of research published on computational linguistics.</p> <p><a href="https://www.sumup.ai/contact">Contact us to design your own news watch</a></p> <h1>2020 Election: Last week’s news coverage</h1> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1042/0*F6tMShuvdY5XMIZw.png" width="1042" height="625" loading="lazy" /> <p>What topics are most emphasized across the mainstream media’s coverage of the 2020 presidential election?</p> <p>We ran <strong>170 articles</strong> from 13 news feeds (in annex) through the <a href="http://www.sumup.ai/">SumUp platform</a>. All information used is freely and easily available. We didn’t apply any filters. Keep in mind that these results are <em>only</em> representative of the 13 news sources listed at the bottom of this article.</p> <p><em><strong>This blog is not expressing an opinion but rather highlights the most relevant topics in the recent news c</em>overage.</strong></p> <h2>SumUp 2020 key topics on 08/28/2020, by order of relevance</h2> <p><em><strong>Topic 1: Donald Trump/Republican National Convention</strong> Explanation: The Republican National Convention and Donald Trump are front and center of the majority of the campaign-related news co</em>verage this week.</p> <p><em><strong>Topic 2: Republican Party/13th and 14th Amendment</strong> Explanation: Related to the emphasis put during the Republican National Convention on the fact that it was the Republican Party that passed the 13th and 14th Amendments abolishing slavery and giving black</em> men citizenship.</p> <p><em><strong>Topic 3: Black Lives Matter/Jacob Blake</strong> Explanation: Related to the dramatic events in Kenosha and their importance in this week’</em>s press coverage.</p> <p><em><strong>Topic 4: Trump Administration/Foreign Policy</strong> Explanation: Related to various RNC speeches describing the successes of the Trump administration’</em>s foreign policy.</p> <p><em><strong>Topic 5: Law Enforcement/Police Officers</strong> Explanation: Related to the central role law enforcement and police officer support have played in m</em>any RNC speeches.</p> <p><em><strong>Topic 6: Coronavirus Pandemic</strong> Explanation: Related to the few mentions of the coronavirus pandemic essentially by President Trump describing Democratic governors’ pandemic approach and the negative effect</em>s on the economy.</p> <p><em><strong>Topic 7: Schools/Health Care</strong> Explanation: Related to the debate about health care, particularly related to the reopening of schools and the potential impact on the he</em>alth care system.</p> <p><em><strong>Topic 8: Mike Pence/Melania Trump</strong> Explanation: In relation to their central roles and highly advertised speeche</em>s during the RNC.</p> <p><em>These topics are only representative of the key subjects appearing in the sources of information reviewed by Nucleus. A more refined interpretation, in terms of content or order of importance, is left to the reader and could easily be pursued with the Nucleus platform.</em></p> <p><em>Annex 1 Election 2020 news sources: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/us-elections-2020">https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/us-elections-2020</a> <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/politics/elections/">https://fivethirtyeight.com/politics/elections/</a> <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/politics/elections/">https://www.chicagotribune.com/politics/elections/</a> <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020-elections">https://www.politico.com/news/2020-elections</a> <a href="https://www.cnn.com/specials/politics/2020-election-coverage">https://www.cnn.com/specials/politics/2020-election-coverage</a> <a href="https://time.com/5675691/2020-election-candidates-website-disability-accessibility/">https://time.com/5675691/20</em>20-election-candidates-website-disability-accessibility/</a> <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/tag/2020-election">https://www.newyorker.com/tag/2020-election</a> <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/category/politics/2020-presidential-election">https://www.foxnews.com/category/politics/2020-presidential-election</a> <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/search/?q=2020%20democratic%20elections">https://www.usatoday.com/search/?q=2020%20democratic%20elections</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/2020-elections">https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/2020-elections</a> <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/elections/">https://www.washingtontimes.com/elections/</a> <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020-presidential-election">https://www.vox.com/2020-presidential-election</a> <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/tag/2020-election/">https://www.breitbart.com/tag/2020-election/</a></p> <h2>Computational Linguistic Research Week of 08/28/2020</h2> <p>Leveraging its text analytics platform, SumUp has designed a simple method to rank recent research publications, purely based on their relation to the top topics extracted from these publications. Creating a corpus composed of all recent publications (all publications published on arxiv.org over the last week), Nucleus extracts 8 key topics representative of that research corpus. Nucleus then identifies the top documents related to these topics. SumUp ranks articles, according to the number of times each article is mentioned in the 8 extracted topics.</p> <p><a href="https://www.sumup.ai/contact">Contact us to use the Nucleus application</a></p> <p>Using the corpus composed of articles published during the week of the 21st August, 2020, the following 8 key topics are extracted:</p> <p><strong>[NLP/empirical methods][pre trained/language model][DNN/RNN][fine grained/coarse grained][machine translation/sentiment analysis][question answering/language understanding][canonical text/literary text][precision recall/evaluation metrics]</strong></p> <p>Using SumUp ranking methodology, the following articles are most representative of the top 8 topics of the week of 08/28/2020:</p> <p><em><strong>A Survey Of Evaluation Metrics Used For Nlg</em> Systems</strong> Ananya B. Sai, Akash Kumar Mohankumar, Mitesh M. Khapra</p> <p><strong>[NLP/empirical methods][machine translation/sentiment analysis][question answering/language understanding][precision recall/evaluation metrics]</strong></p> <p><em><strong>Relation/Entity-Centric Reading Compr</em>ehension</strong> Takeshi Onishi</p> <p><strong>[NLP/empirical methods][DNN/RNN][question answering/language understanding][precision recall/evaluation metrics]</strong></p> <p><em><strong>Language Models And Word Sense disambiguation: An Overview And A</em>nalysis </strong>Daniel Loureiro, Kiamehr Rezaee, Mohammad Taher Pilehvar, Jose Camacho-Collados</p> <p><strong>[NLP/empirical methods][pre trained/language model][fine grained/coarse grained][precision recall/evaluation metrics]</strong></p> <p><em><strong>Simple Unsupervised Similarity-Based Aspect Ext</em>raction </strong>Danny Suarez Vargas, Lucas R. C. Pessutto, Viviane Pereira Moreira</p> <p><strong>[pre trained/language model][DNN/RNN][machine translation/sentiment analysis][precision recall/evaluation metrics]</strong></p> </section>	2020 Kaleidoscope Deciphering Election News Patterns [Week 39, 08/28/2020] SumUp Analytics Aug 28th· 3 min read This newsletter is a weekly publication showcasing two simple applications of SumUp’s platform: an analysis of the news pertaining to the 2020 elections and a technical review of research published on computational linguistics. Contact us to design your own news watch 2020 Election: Last week’s news coverage What topics are most emphasized across the mainstream media’s coverage of the 2020 presidential election? We ran 170 articles from 13 news feeds (in annex) through the SumUp platform. All information used is freely and easily available. We didn’t apply any filters. Keep in mind that these results are only representative of the 13 news sources listed at the bottom of this article. This blog is not expressing an opinion but rather highlights the most relevant topics in the recent news coverage. SumUp 2020 key topics on 08/28/2020, by order of relevance Topic 1: Donald Trump/Republican National Convention Explanation: The Republican National Convention and Donald Trump are front and center of the majority of the campaign-related news coverage this week. Topic 2: Republican Party/13th and 14th Amendment Explanation: Related to the emphasis put during the Republican National Convention on the fact that it was the Republican Party that passed the 13th and 14th Amendments abolishing slavery and giving black men citizenship. Topic 3: Black Lives Matter/Jacob Blake Explanation: Related to the dramatic events in Kenosha and their importance in this week’s press coverage. Topic 4: Trump Administration/Foreign Policy Explanation: Related to various RNC speeches describing the successes of the Trump administration’s foreign policy. Topic 5: Law Enforcement/Police Officers Explanation: Related to the central role law enforcement and police officer support have played in many RNC speeches. Topic 6: Coronavirus Pandemic Explanation: Related to the few mentions of the coronavirus pandemic essentially by President Trump describing Democratic governors’ pandemic approach and the negative effects on the economy. Topic 7: Schools/Health Care Explanation: Related to the debate about health care, particularly related to the reopening of schools and the potential impact on the health care system. Topic 8: Mike Pence/Melania Trump Explanation: In relation to their central roles and highly advertised speeches during the RNC. These topics are only representative of the key subjects appearing in the sources of information reviewed by Nucleus. A more refined interpretation, in terms of content or order of importance, is left to the reader and could easily be pursued with the Nucleus platform. Annex 1 Election 2020 news sources: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/us-elections-2020 https://fivethirtyeight.com/politics/elections/ https://www.chicagotribune.com/politics/elections/ https://www.politico.com/news/2020-elections https://www.cnn.com/specials/politics/2020-election-coverage https://time.com/5675691/2020-election-candidates-website-disability-accessibility/ https://www.newyorker.com/tag/2020-election https://www.foxnews.com/category/politics/2020-presidential-election https://www.usatoday.com/search/?q=2020%20democratic%20elections https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/2020-elections https://www.washingtontimes.com/elections/ https://www.vox.com/2020-presidential-election https://www.breitbart.com/tag/2020-election/ Computational Linguistic Research Week of 08/28/2020 Leveraging its text analytics platform, SumUp has designed a simple method to rank recent research publications, purely based on their relation to the top topics extracted from these publications. Creating a corpus composed of all recent publications (all publications published on arxiv.org over the last week), Nucleus extracts 8 key topics representative of that research corpus. Nucleus then identifies the top documents related to these topics. SumUp ranks articles, according to the number of times each article is mentioned in the 8 extracted topics. Contact us to use the Nucleus application Using the corpus composed of articles published during the week of the 21st August, 2020, the following 8 key topics are extracted: [NLP/empirical methods][pre trained/language model][DNN/RNN][fine grained/coarse grained][machine translation/sentiment analysis][question answering/language understanding][canonical text/literary text][precision recall/evaluation metrics] Using SumUp ranking methodology, the following articles are most representative of the top 8 topics of the week of 08/28/2020: A Survey Of Evaluation Metrics Used For Nlg Systems Ananya B. Sai, Akash Kumar Mohankumar, Mitesh M. Khapra [NLP/empirical methods][machine translation/sentiment analysis][question answering/language understanding][precision recall/evaluation metrics] Relation/Entity-Centric Reading Comprehension Takeshi Onishi [NLP/empirical methods][DNN/RNN][question answering/language understanding][precision recall/evaluation metrics] Language Models And Word Sense disambiguation: An Overview And Analysis Daniel Loureiro, Kiamehr Rezaee, Mohammad Taher Pilehvar, Jose Camacho-Collados [NLP/empirical methods][pre trained/language model][fine grained/coarse grained][precision recall/evaluation metrics] Simple Unsupervised Similarity-Based Aspect Extraction Danny Suarez Vargas, Lucas R. C. Pessutto, Viviane Pereira Moreira [pre trained/language model][DNN/RNN][machine translation/sentiment analysis][precision recall/evaluation metrics]	b5bd2946-30a9-59b0-aa1a-86823846cd64	25/08/2025 16:01:41
https://medium.com/@mahesh.jagadale102/box-office-fanney-khan-day-11-in-overseas-10b9de47de44	medium.com	Box Office: Fanney Khan Day 11 in overseas	The Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Rajkummar Rao starrer Fanney Khan hit screens yesterday. Directed by Atul Manjrekar the film…	Bollywood Stories	https://medium.com/@mahesh.jagadale102	10b9de47de44	https://miro.medium.com/…A8FzAV1VI7ow.png	1 min	2018-08-14T08:29:23.602000	2018-08-13T16:31:21	2018-08-14T08:34:58.029000	0	0	en	Movies,Bollywood,Box Office	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/620/1*978cA_BkQcA8FzAV1VI7ow.png" width="620" height="450" loading="lazy" /> <p>The <a href="http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/celebrity/anil-kapoor/">Anil Kapoor</a>, <a href="http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/celebrity/aishwarya-rai-bachchan/">Aishwarya Rai Bachchan</a> and Rajkummar Rao starrer <em><a href="ht</em>tp://www.bollywoodhungama.com/movie/fanney-khan/">Fanney Khan</a> hit screens yesterday. Directed by Atul Manjrekar the film that promises to be an entertaining musical drama released a day earlier in the overseas market.</p> <p>In this box office report we take a look at the overseas collections of <em>Fanney Khan</em> on Day 11 (Monday).<strong> </strong> <strong>Australia box office </strong>260 USD [Rs. 18,193] from 4 screens <strong> New Zealand box office</strong> 1,043 USD [Rs. 72,982] from 8 screens</p> <p><em>Read More at <a href="http://www.boll</em>ywoodhungama.com/news/box-office-special-features/box-office-fanney-khan-day-11-overseas/">www.bollywoodhungama.com</a></p> </section>	Box Office: Fanney Khan Day 11 in overseas The Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Rajkummar Rao starrer Fanney Khan hit screens yesterday. Directed by Atul Manjrekar the film that promises to be an entertaining musical drama released a day earlier in the overseas market. In this box office report we take a look at the overseas collections of Fanney Khan on Day 11 (Monday). Australia box office 260 USD [Rs. 18,193] from 4 screens New Zealand box office 1,043 USD [Rs. 72,982] from 8 screens Read More at www.bollywoodhungama.com	346a09dc-0fe8-583d-87c0-7808b199aa1a	25/08/2025 16:01:41
https://melanielynngriffin.medium.com/the-eternal-election-night-f1ca3a9cdd71	medium.com	The Eternal Election Night	The last four years have been interminable. The year 2020 itself has lasted four long years. And now we have entered the Election Night…	Melanie Lynn Griffin	https://medium.com/@melanielynngriffin	f1ca3a9cdd71	https://miro.medium.com/max/2000/0*ssfl7QKYEreVttX-	2 min	2020-11-05T17:59:02.304000	2020-11-05T18:02:11.461000	2021-12-16T11:27:46.181000	0	0	en	Elections,Election 2020,Donald Trump,Prayer,America	<section> <p>The last four years have been interminable. The year 2020 itself has lasted four long years. And now we have entered the Election Night that would not end. Several people have requested that I write a blog post in response to what is going on, even a friend in New Zealand. I’ve never had such requests before, so I’m trying to comply.</p> <p>I find I’m up against some challenges, one being that I’ve just returned to Maryland after four months of hiding from COVID up at my place in New Hampshire. I drove on Election Day because I hoped there might be a pause in the wilding trump supporters who have been harassing people, stopping traffic, and trying to run Biden buses off the road. My car is plastered with liberal bumper stickers, plus it’s a communist hybrid. Thankfully, it was a quiet drive. But I’m all discombobulated and can’t find anything in the wreckage I’ve unloaded from my car.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1024/0O-KobcUfIyFoBYh_" width="1024" height="768" loading="lazy" /> <p>Also, I don’t much feel like writing. My head is jangling, filled with all kinds of brain chemicals I’m not used to. I don’t have a TV, so usually don’t see commercials or hear the stress-inducing manic music most of America lives with. But the networks are graciously allowing even plebeians like me to livestream this week’s mayhem, so here I am, hooked. I’ve been glued to my computer screen since I arrived home at 8 p.m. election night. I watch the red & blue vote tallies not move, as I flip back and forth between MSNBC and CNN and FOX (my first time ever watching the latter — it’s kind of fascinating).</p> <h1>The Narrow Path</h1> <p>Last night I wisely unplugged and went to a prayer practice circle held on the grounds of my church. We used the Welcoming Prayer, which I’ve blogged about before. I recognized and welcomed my fear and anxiety and anger, and then I released them to God.</p> <p>It was harder to let go of the grief that I’ve discovered underlies it all — grief for my country, for humanity, for the planet. Grief feels good and right, even holy. No matter who wins the election, the fact remains that nearly half of America thinks it’s OK to have a president who cannot tell the truth, who promotes violence and racism, gasses peaceful protesters, denies science, and gleefully puts the profits of coal companies ahead of human survival. Grief is appropriate.</p> <p>Biden’s path to electoral victory is narrow, and trump’s is narrower. But the narrowest path is the path back to basic sanity and civility for our nation. If Biden becomes president, it’ll be a steep and dangerous climb. If he doesn’t? Well, you see why I can’t write about this.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/927/0ssfl7QKYEreVttX-" width="927" height="540" loading="lazy" /> <p>What we know so far . . .</p> </section>	The Eternal Election Night The last four years have been interminable. The year 2020 itself has lasted four long years. And now we have entered the Election Night that would not end. Several people have requested that I write a blog post in response to what is going on, even a friend in New Zealand. I’ve never had such requests before, so I’m trying to comply. I find I’m up against some challenges, one being that I’ve just returned to Maryland after four months of hiding from COVID up at my place in New Hampshire. I drove on Election Day because I hoped there might be a pause in the wilding trump supporters who have been harassing people, stopping traffic, and trying to run Biden buses off the road. My car is plastered with liberal bumper stickers, plus it’s a communist hybrid. Thankfully, it was a quiet drive. But I’m all discombobulated and can’t find anything in the wreckage I’ve unloaded from my car. Also, I don’t much feel like writing. My head is jangling, filled with all kinds of brain chemicals I’m not used to. I don’t have a TV, so usually don’t see commercials or hear the stress-inducing manic music most of America lives with. But the networks are graciously allowing even plebeians like me to livestream this week’s mayhem, so here I am, hooked. I’ve been glued to my computer screen since I arrived home at 8 p.m. election night. I watch the red & blue vote tallies not move, as I flip back and forth between MSNBC and CNN and FOX (my first time ever watching the latter — it’s kind of fascinating). The Narrow Path Last night I wisely unplugged and went to a prayer practice circle held on the grounds of my church. We used the Welcoming Prayer, which I’ve blogged about before. I recognized and welcomed my fear and anxiety and anger, and then I released them to God. It was harder to let go of the grief that I’ve discovered underlies it all — grief for my country, for humanity, for the planet. Grief feels good and right, even holy. No matter who wins the election, the fact remains that nearly half of America thinks it’s OK to have a president who cannot tell the truth, who promotes violence and racism, gasses peaceful protesters, denies science, and gleefully puts the profits of coal companies ahead of human survival. Grief is appropriate. Biden’s path to electoral victory is narrow, and trump’s is narrower. But the narrowest path is the path back to basic sanity and civility for our nation. If Biden becomes president, it’ll be a steep and dangerous climb. If he doesn’t? Well, you see why I can’t write about this. What we know so far . . .	c203ac7a-4386-5896-8ad0-3589313fbe61	25/08/2025 16:01:41
https://medium.com/@tswint007/farewell-mr-hernandez-draft-434c34b8224a	medium.com	Farewell, Mr. Hernandez. (draft)	I’m saddened by the life of Aaron Hernandez. For those of you who may not know who he is…or was…just Google him. Did it? Yes, that one. The…	T.L.Swinton	https://medium.com/@tswint007	434c34b8224a	null	7 min	2017-04-24T05:02:54.038000	2017-04-24T07:14:41.784000	2017-12-15T15:27:39.230000	0	133	en	Love,Short Story,Father And Son,Gay,Crime	<section> <p>I’m saddened by the life of Aaron Hernandez. For those of you who may not know who he is…or was…just Google him. Did it? Yes, that one. The guy who committed a murder that sent him to jail, avoided jail time for possibly two other murders, shot a friend and left him for dead, and other really shitty things. Yet, I’m still saddened for him. Because in addition to all of those things, it appears he was a broken kid who lost his father. As well as, a man who couldn’t reconcile his sexuality (news reports of his “bi-sexuality”, [I meant those quotations marks]). And, one who lived to find out that had his partner in crime, Ernest Wallace, who is serving a 4 1/2 year sentence for being an accessory after the fact…and I quote “wouldn’t have help him [Hernandez] get rid of that gun if I’d known he was a ‘limp wrist’” Proving that a criminal can sidestep the moral quagmire of being involved in a murder to slip in a homophobic blurb. ”.</p> <p>I know for most people it’s hard to separate the man from his actions. And, I get that. But, I also know what it’s like to lose a father, suddenly and how that rocks and rearranges your world. And, as a gay man growing up in a community that celebrated thugs, shady preachers, and corrupt politicians but couldn’t find it in their little-church-going hearts to have any compassion for their own gay boys and girls…women and men…I get Hernandez. And, while I don’t condone any of his killings or other crimes, I understand how you can be pushed to extremes.</p> <p>I still remember the evening our phone rang. The hospital was calling again wondering when “Mrs. Swinton, was going to get to the hospital?” I was twelve going on thirteen with the voice to prove it. One moment could go from high to low. This usually happened when I woke up in the mornings. And, I’d awakened out of a sleep to answer this call because my mother, Mrs. Swinton, wasn’t picking up. I remember not understanding why this woman was calling so late and why she wanted to speak to my mother? So, I asked “why do you need Mrs. Swinton to come to the hospital?” And, without missing a beat, she said into my deep-voiced ear, “because Mr. Swinton has passed away….” The woman on the other end of the phone kept talking, but I couldn’t hear anything. At about that moment Mrs. Robinson, my father’s landscape client and my mother’s ride to the hospital, stepped into our front door. She saw me on the phone could tell that I knew what had happened. She put her finger up to her lips, the international sign of “don’t speak”…and at that moment my mother came into the living room and said something to me, I couldn’t speak. She then asked, “Tyrone who are you on the phone with?” Mrs. Robinson’s gave me the eye-bulging, sign language for “don’t tell”…I mumbled something to my mother. Hung up the phone. And, watch them walk out of the door. I felt like I was drowning.</p> <p>A couple of hours later my mother returned with Mrs. Robinson in tow. I opened the door. She walked up the front walkway, “Tyrone, he’s gone”. It’s been almost thirty-eight years since that scene happened and yet it feels like yesterday. For Hernandez it was his father’s sudden death after a hernia surgery when he was 16. I was 12 when mine father died. From the news reports, Hernandez snapped…broke…after his father’s death. There were and most likely will never be any news reports for me. I’m not famous or the subject of a murder investigation, but I can report I snapped…broke too. I snapped off any belief I had in a fair, kind, or loving world. And, my heart broke. Because my father, was my favorite person in the world and the only person who made me feel like I had a value that wasn’t tied to how good my grades were, how bad my behavior could some time be, or the fact that kids were starting to call me those names… “soft…funny…sweet”. I could always run and fall into the the loving embrace of my father…who would smell like aftershave and fresh cut grass. And, without speaking, I had somehow made a contract with the world that stated, “as horrible as it’s been to be picked on…mistreated…teased…bullied…and made to feel like I wasn’t wanted…FUCK YOU ALL…I have my daddy” So, I endured. I got good grades. And, I held on that one day, I’ll be able to run away from it all…but I would take my daddy with me…because he was my favorite person…and he loved me unlike anyone else. But, on the phone that night…god or God…oJesus…or halleluja…or whatever-the-fuck- was out there…that kept score and order…had fucked me over. I’d done my part to endure…be a good boy…get good grades….say “yes sir”, and “yes ma’am” to my elders…not sass…and I got repaid with this shit. I probably couldn’t have told it then…but I can say now…I was done. Done with faith. Done with trust. Done.</p> <p>To say the following years were an emotional hell would be an understatement. In less than 2 years, my mother died. My parents were older. They had adopted me later in life. My mother had been sick my whole life. So, her death wasn’t a shock. I’d been prepared for it by her and my father since I was six. That’s one of the reasons my childish fantasy to run away from my surroundings only included me and my father. Yet, I wasn’t prepared for her death when happened. My mother’s death had become almost incidental. By the time she died 23 months later. I knew I was definitely not like the other boys around my neighborhood. And, that if I was going to have safe passage through that neighborhood, my family, the church, and state where I lived…I would have to have an interior life that was closely held. Tightly controlled. Untouchable. A place no one could get to. Because there was NO ONE who was going to love me unconditionally, like my father. And, my very safety and survival depended on me keeping that secret place inside, locked away from everyone. I had to learn to move through a hostile environment that would rather seem me pummeled in the street and left for dead than give me the same chance and care they would give the street thug that’s outta jail only long enough to know that he now has 4 kids by 4 baby mommas…or the preacher that’s got a wife and a mistress in the same congregation. Yet, there was no room for me…and I suspect the same situation for Hernandez.</p> <p>Unlike Aaron Hernandez, I didn’t trust sports in high school. I wanted to run cross country, play tennis, and basketball. But, that would have meant dealing with adolescent boys. Who were coached by adults that were always looking to ferret out the “soft ones”…and make a man out of them by way of humiliation. And, to be honest…I had such rage…fear-based rage…in me…that I would have been badly injured or done the same to someone else if I had to be their test faggot. So, I stayed away from spots. No matter how often people said “with your height you should play basket ball”…I just smile and kept to my self. Coaches tried…and stopped. Teachers tried and stopped. They all eventually came to the same conclusion…he’s a bit “soft”… “leave him be”…and so I was left alone…with some occasional attempts by bullies, though unsuccessfully, as they found out… my height couple with the rage that lurked underneath my smile…a hidden rage that would have me in a doctor’s office at 16 years old with peptic ulcers…unleashed a nasty punch and reckless manner of fighting that those local bullies weren’t used to. So, I was left alone to create my own path out with no help or real concern from anyone around me.</p> <p>I see myself in Aaron Hernandez. I see a human being who through a set of circumstances, some his own making, others beyond his control that painted him into a corner. And, why I placed the brackets around the term bi-sexual in the first paragraph is because I’m not sure that’s an accurate description of who he may have been. With all of his faults this is a guy that got himself to the NFL. No, small feat. Thousands try. But, there are 32 teams…that get to choose 1 player for each of the seven rounds of the draft. So, in a given year 214 players are selected to join. Hernandez had talent, stamina, and a drive at a level that myself…or most people…do not posses. According to news reports he had a gay relationship with his “<a href="http://www.newsweek.com/aaron-hernandez-hidden-sexuality-murder-police-587879">high school male friend</a>” Before Hernandez was sent to prison he moved 3 large sums of money to accounts, for his daughter, finance but the largest of the three went to his “high school male friend”. And, before his suicide he left a final letter for his jail house boyfriend who is now on “eye to eye” suicide watch. All of this leads me to believe he may have been gay not bi-sexual. But, bi-sexual is as far as he could go in the world he inhabited where even your fellow criminals admit they wouldn’t have helped him…if they knew Hernandez as he truly was.</p> <p>So, when I say I’m saddened for Aaron Hernandez, it’s not because I think he threw away some stellar career or all of the money and endorsements he lost. Or even the fact that ended up in jail. He committed the crimes so he should have done the time. No, I’m saddened for an Aaron Hernandez that must have died years ago. The one that had a boyish wonder and love for his father. The one who played sports under the watchful eye of a man he admired and respect. I have no doubt his sexuality would have been hard to wrestle with even if his father was alive. I don’t think most parents are equipped or prepared to have a gay or bi-sexual kid. But, I feel he missed what I missed about my father: safety, unconditional love, and direction. Instead Aaron, like myself, had to make it up along with way. For Aaron that path appears to have been his undoing, riddle with secrets, rage, and violence. For me, it’s been riddle with isolation, failed relationships, and trust issues. But, where we (Aaron and I) meet, is at that place of having a secret self. And, while I’ve had the good fortune to get help and have friends that have allowed me to work my way out of that secret self, I don’t think that option was ever presented to Aaron in a way that he could accept it. And, the results have been deaths, broken families, a child without a father, and male lovers with a man, no matter how broken he may have been, that have lost a man they loved…and I can’t help but think if there was some where he could have found love and acceptance, his story may have had a different ending. “I hope you find the peace in death, you were obviously not able to find in life”…</p> </section>	Farewell, Mr. Hernandez. (draft) I’m saddened by the life of Aaron Hernandez. For those of you who may not know who he is…or was…just Google him. Did it? Yes, that one. The guy who committed a murder that sent him to jail, avoided jail time for possibly two other murders, shot a friend and left him for dead, and other really shitty things. Yet, I’m still saddened for him. Because in addition to all of those things, it appears he was a broken kid who lost his father. As well as, a man who couldn’t reconcile his sexuality (news reports of his “bi-sexuality”, [I meant those quotations marks]). And, one who lived to find out that had his partner in crime, Ernest Wallace, who is serving a 4 1/2 year sentence for being an accessory after the fact…and I quote “wouldn’t have help him [Hernandez] get rid of that gun if I’d known he was a ‘limp wrist’” Proving that a criminal can sidestep the moral quagmire of being involved in a murder to slip in a homophobic blurb. ”. I know for most people it’s hard to separate the man from his actions. And, I get that. But, I also know what it’s like to lose a father, suddenly and how that rocks and rearranges your world. And, as a gay man growing up in a community that celebrated thugs, shady preachers, and corrupt politicians but couldn’t find it in their little-church-going hearts to have any compassion for their own gay boys and girls…women and men…I get Hernandez. And, while I don’t condone any of his killings or other crimes, I understand how you can be pushed to extremes. I still remember the evening our phone rang. The hospital was calling again wondering when “Mrs. Swinton, was going to get to the hospital?” I was twelve going on thirteen with the voice to prove it. One moment could go from high to low. This usually happened when I woke up in the mornings. And, I’d awakened out of a sleep to answer this call because my mother, Mrs. Swinton, wasn’t picking up. I remember not understanding why this woman was calling so late and why she wanted to speak to my mother? So, I asked “why do you need Mrs. Swinton to come to the hospital?” And, without missing a beat, she said into my deep-voiced ear, “because Mr. Swinton has passed away….” The woman on the other end of the phone kept talking, but I couldn’t hear anything. At about that moment Mrs. Robinson, my father’s landscape client and my mother’s ride to the hospital, stepped into our front door. She saw me on the phone could tell that I knew what had happened. She put her finger up to her lips, the international sign of “don’t speak”…and at that moment my mother came into the living room and said something to me, I couldn’t speak. She then asked, “Tyrone who are you on the phone with?” Mrs. Robinson’s gave me the eye-bulging, sign language for “don’t tell”…I mumbled something to my mother. Hung up the phone. And, watch them walk out of the door. I felt like I was drowning. A couple of hours later my mother returned with Mrs. Robinson in tow. I opened the door. She walked up the front walkway, “Tyrone, he’s gone”. It’s been almost thirty-eight years since that scene happened and yet it feels like yesterday. For Hernandez it was his father’s sudden death after a hernia surgery when he was 16. I was 12 when mine father died. From the news reports, Hernandez snapped…broke…after his father’s death. There were and most likely will never be any news reports for me. I’m not famous or the subject of a murder investigation, but I can report I snapped…broke too. I snapped off any belief I had in a fair, kind, or loving world. And, my heart broke. Because my father, was my favorite person in the world and the only person who made me feel like I had a value that wasn’t tied to how good my grades were, how bad my behavior could some time be, or the fact that kids were starting to call me those names… “soft…funny…sweet”. I could always run and fall into the the loving embrace of my father…who would smell like aftershave and fresh cut grass. And, without speaking, I had somehow made a contract with the world that stated, “as horrible as it’s been to be picked on…mistreated…teased…bullied…and made to feel like I wasn’t wanted…FUCK YOU ALL…I have my daddy” So, I endured. I got good grades. And, I held on that one day, I’ll be able to run away from it all…but I would take my daddy with me…because he was my favorite person…and he loved me unlike anyone else. But, on the phone that night…god or God…oJesus…or halleluja…or whatever-the-fuck- was out there…that kept score and order…had fucked me over. I’d done my part to endure…be a good boy…get good grades….say “yes sir”, and “yes ma’am” to my elders…not sass…and I got repaid with this shit. I probably couldn’t have told it then…but I can say now…I was done. Done with faith. Done with trust. Done. To say the following years were an emotional hell would be an understatement. In less than 2 years, my mother died. My parents were older. They had adopted me later in life. My mother had been sick my whole life. So, her death wasn’t a shock. I’d been prepared for it by her and my father since I was six. That’s one of the reasons my childish fantasy to run away from my surroundings only included me and my father. Yet, I wasn’t prepared for her death when happened. My mother’s death had become almost incidental. By the time she died 23 months later. I knew I was definitely not like the other boys around my neighborhood. And, that if I was going to have safe passage through that neighborhood, my family, the church, and state where I lived…I would have to have an interior life that was closely held. Tightly controlled. Untouchable. A place no one could get to. Because there was NO ONE who was going to love me unconditionally, like my father. And, my very safety and survival depended on me keeping that secret place inside, locked away from everyone. I had to learn to move through a hostile environment that would rather seem me pummeled in the street and left for dead than give me the same chance and care they would give the street thug that’s outta jail only long enough to know that he now has 4 kids by 4 baby mommas…or the preacher that’s got a wife and a mistress in the same congregation. Yet, there was no room for me…and I suspect the same situation for Hernandez. Unlike Aaron Hernandez, I didn’t trust sports in high school. I wanted to run cross country, play tennis, and basketball. But, that would have meant dealing with adolescent boys. Who were coached by adults that were always looking to ferret out the “soft ones”…and make a man out of them by way of humiliation. And, to be honest…I had such rage…fear-based rage…in me…that I would have been badly injured or done the same to someone else if I had to be their test faggot. So, I stayed away from spots. No matter how often people said “with your height you should play basket ball”…I just smile and kept to my self. Coaches tried…and stopped. Teachers tried and stopped. They all eventually came to the same conclusion…he’s a bit “soft”… “leave him be”…and so I was left alone…with some occasional attempts by bullies, though unsuccessfully, as they found out… my height couple with the rage that lurked underneath my smile…a hidden rage that would have me in a doctor’s office at 16 years old with peptic ulcers…unleashed a nasty punch and reckless manner of fighting that those local bullies weren’t used to. So, I was left alone to create my own path out with no help or real concern from anyone around me. I see myself in Aaron Hernandez. I see a human being who through a set of circumstances, some his own making, others beyond his control that painted him into a corner. And, why I placed the brackets around the term bi-sexual in the first paragraph is because I’m not sure that’s an accurate description of who he may have been. With all of his faults this is a guy that got himself to the NFL. No, small feat. Thousands try. But, there are 32 teams…that get to choose 1 player for each of the seven rounds of the draft. So, in a given year 214 players are selected to join. Hernandez had talent, stamina, and a drive at a level that myself…or most people…do not posses. According to news reports he had a gay relationship with his “high school male friend” Before Hernandez was sent to prison he moved 3 large sums of money to accounts, for his daughter, finance but the largest of the three went to his “high school male friend”. And, before his suicide he left a final letter for his jail house boyfriend who is now on “eye to eye” suicide watch. All of this leads me to believe he may have been gay not bi-sexual. But, bi-sexual is as far as he could go in the world he inhabited where even your fellow criminals admit they wouldn’t have helped him…if they knew Hernandez as he truly was. So, when I say I’m saddened for Aaron Hernandez, it’s not because I think he threw away some stellar career or all of the money and endorsements he lost. Or even the fact that ended up in jail. He committed the crimes so he should have done the time. No, I’m saddened for an Aaron Hernandez that must have died years ago. The one that had a boyish wonder and love for his father. The one who played sports under the watchful eye of a man he admired and respect. I have no doubt his sexuality would have been hard to wrestle with even if his father was alive. I don’t think most parents are equipped or prepared to have a gay or bi-sexual kid. But, I feel he missed what I missed about my father: safety, unconditional love, and direction. Instead Aaron, like myself, had to make it up along with way. For Aaron that path appears to have been his undoing, riddle with secrets, rage, and violence. For me, it’s been riddle with isolation, failed relationships, and trust issues. But, where we (Aaron and I) meet, is at that place of having a secret self. And, while I’ve had the good fortune to get help and have friends that have allowed me to work my way out of that secret self, I don’t think that option was ever presented to Aaron in a way that he could accept it. And, the results have been deaths, broken families, a child without a father, and male lovers with a man, no matter how broken he may have been, that have lost a man they loved…and I can’t help but think if there was some where he could have found love and acceptance, his story may have had a different ending. “I hope you find the peace in death, you were obviously not able to find in life”…	ca469bf3-662f-51a8-8b21-08f647ccb24e	25/08/2025 16:01:41
https://starofsefirot.medium.com/loves-strange-arbour-2021-78aa2eaba586	medium.com	Love’s Strange Arbour (2021)	As Andy walked down Marlowe Terrace, Sydney, the sun shining its warm rays down upon his face, he was filled with joy, as he knew in his…	Star of Sefirot	https://medium.com/@starofsefirot	78aa2eaba586	https://miro.medium.com/…Ur-SnAIfbEw.jpeg	15 min	2025-08-23T08:08:09.253000	2025-08-23T08:21:47.296000	2025-08-23T09:27:35.463000	0	1	en	Fiction,Short Story,Romance	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1961/1*GZM67jOkIvsUr-SnAIfbEw.jpeg" width="1961" height="1390" loading="lazy" /> <p>As Andy walked down Marlowe Terrace, Sydney, the sun shining its warm rays down upon his face, he was filled with joy, as he knew in his heart that he found love. As a 23-year old student aspiring toward journalism he had as yet not managed to form any deep and lasting relationships, and had consistently felt lonely in his life — up until now, that is, for it seemed to him that he had at last come to meet one who found his companionship desirable and pleasant — Athena. Knowing that that is the name of the Greek goddess of wisdom, Minerva in Rome, he was careful not to stereotype people according to what qualities he believed their name, nationality, skin colour, sex, or any other general qualities represent. At the same time, it was impossible for him to know, on his first encounter with someone, even a tenth of the secrets and mysteries of the impossible depths of their heart; nevertheless, he had faith that, as he built relationships with others, he would know such people more, and they him.</p> <p>So, he met this Athena, or rather, she met him. For as he was playing chess in relief from his studies whilst listening to <em>Bein’ Friends</em> it so happened that a dark-haired lady sat at the desk next to him — a fairly rare event and, for him, a nerve-wracking one at that, as he had the tendency to become very nervous whenever he found himself around women, thinking that he needed to start putting on a show of being a god-like being, an <em>ubermensch</em>, as who he really was was simply never good enough, nor impressive enough for any woman he met. This is because he considered himself weird — a strange and abnormal male, a creep — and always felt himself being scorned, shunned, and ignored whilst having to witness the attention he longed for given to those greater than himself.</p> <p>And so, as Athena sat down next to Andy and began to, as he supposed, study with her laptop, he continued to focus on the matters at hand. However, despite his attention to the chess game, he felt her presence advance to his side — and, upon removing his headphones, hearing her asking about logging onto the universities’ internet with <em>his </em>credentials. Andy hesitated. How could he do this, allow this <em>complete and utter stranger </em>to access something as intimate as his login details — to put his own academic life in danger for something as trivial as a girl who seemed to give him the slightest bit of attention?! Andy struggled and gaped in his stomach. What was he to do? After some persuasion, including sharing with him both her Facebook account <em>and </em>a strange savoury-sweet biscuit, he conceded — though would not be eating another of said biscuit any time soon.</p> <p>They then began to chat, wherein they learned a number of things about each other. They shared where they were living, what they were studying, and a few extra words, though, as yet, nought about their interests or whether they shared any. After a short time of conversation, he told her he was now about to meet a friend to lunch, and thus left her.</p> <p>Later that night, whilst drinking a bottle of <em>Sauvignon Blanc</em>, Andy sent Athena a message on Facebook and they began talking. It was now that he learned a little more about her, and yet there is only so much you can gather about another when not talking in person: nevertheless, he felt a connection with her and felt his affection grow toward her. They then played a game of chess in which he mated her in nine moves, followed by talking some more. Finally, they agreed to meet at a café on Hampshire Street.</p> <p>Andy was grateful to meet her on Saturday, as the day was warm and the sun high in his place, the breeze blowing its benevolent kisses and the spirit of the air promoting peace among the dwellers and craftsmen of the town. They came together at <em>Madmoiselle’s</em>, a French café adjoining a 1950’s-style bookshop and an Indian restaurant. Meeting her he was short of words to say, but found his voice eventually — for his heart thumped rapidly with the hope of stoking her love. He sat at a corner table with her, picked up the menus, and chatted eagerly whilst discussing the options.</p> <p>Andy had always been a picky eater, part of his enduring lack of courage and adventurousness, an absence of resilience and a virtual incapacity to withstand prolonged and genuine pain. This extended as far as to his sense of sexuality and to his relationships both with women and men — He felt unable to truly express himself, not only repressing his sexuality, but also his feelings and emotions.</p> <p>He was vulnerable. Outside he portrayed himself as a regular guy, but this façade did not convince others for long — for as soon as they began to speak with him, they noticed that something about him was very different and rather odd. He was a freak, a clown, and dangerously self-destructive owing to his hideously negative self-image. Andy felt like a small boy, fearful and lost, knowing not where to go and what to do, ever attempting and failing to understand what his true purpose in life really was — studying without aim, so it seemed. He had now and again entertained several ‘paths’ he could take with his life — musician, writer, programmer, teacher — and yet all the while it seemed to him that none of these paths are what he felt as though he was being ‘led’ towards. Andy was lost, so many around him were lost, and a sense of peace and purpose seemed impossible both to him and to countless others. Suicide was regularly entertained on his mind, and he frequently told himself that he would do it — now, tomorrow, or in the following year. He couldn’t see a clear path of life for himself — life seemed truly unnavigable. Though he could achieve some pleasure from the gratifications of the flesh as describes food, music, wine, and sex, there seemed to be no hope for fulfillment beyond these things, ultimately shallow things as they were.</p> <p>And he always worried. Anxiety was the base state of his mind. Whether it was worrying about not having a job and a satisfying, decently-paying career either now or in the future, worrying about not waking up on time in the mornings, worrying about never entering into a romantic relationship with someone he loved, or worrying about death and the entry into the afterlife, worry is what he consistently returned to; it was a plague of his mind, an illness. He tried desperately, and in vain, to escape from and eliminate it, and yet it was utterly inescapable. And this anxiety — this fear — fear of what he did not understand — had to be conquered — his ego had to be absorbed into the One and All.</p> <p>And so, to return to the event: Andy and Athena sat down together, and got to discussing their lives. She told him that she felt insecure about herself, to which he responded in the affirmative, agreeing; she had taken a path in accounting, believing it to be a decent and trustworthy career choice, and yet was worried about not using her life to its utmost capacity and ultimately never engaging her creative capacities. At this his heart swelled, for he had felt the same way for a long time — he felt he would rather be a poor writer than a rich lawyer, and not only that, but also to pour himself into painting and musical composition — to empty his life in order that it might be transformed into a source of hope and truth in the world, and cause beauty and light to proceed forth from it.</p> <p>And as she talked, Andy discovered that it was her ambition to design houses — she wished to increase others’ enjoyment of their lives by increasing the beauty of their surroundings. By the twinkle in her eyes he could see that this was what she desired above all things, where her heart was, and what she had fallen in love with — what she wanted to represent herself in. Inspired by the passion coming forth from her lips at the love-inspired words of her delight, Andy felt a tear come, then another, and another, and very soon his face was running with tears, and those running down from his eyes, like creeks which had their banks overswelled. He couldn’t restrain himself but blurted out that he felt just the same way as her, not so much in architecture as in literature, and gently clasped her hand as he shared with her that she could achieve such dreams if she directed her thoughts to believing that she could and had the resources and willpower within herself to do so, and if her heart was put to it. All the saints and angels now held witness before her that she had now to make a crucially difficult choice: would she spend her life as a comfortable slave, reaping the rewards of <em>mammon</em> and never having to put herself in a place of vulnerability for all the world to scrutinise; or, would she do just the latter, and risk the loss of selfish comfortability, exposing her ego to all the insults, threats, and ridicule the world has to offer?</p> <p>Then followed the arrival of their food. Their eyes lit up immediately at the sight of their respective meals: eggs benedict for Andy, pancakes with syrup for Athena, and chips and <em>pinot noir </em>for both. Then, as they began to eat, they continued to discuss their lives and their respective interests; he discovered that she delighted in hiking, which both intrigued and caused his mind to begin to plan a possible excursion to wheresoever it may be; and she found that he loved music, both classical and jazz, in addition to some rock and electronic, which allowed her to feel an additional sense of connection, as she too loved classical and jazz, with the works of Miles Davis being favoured by her in particular — such a mention being highly opportune, as it gave further opportunities for their talk to grow, develop, and progress.</p> <p>At this point, Andy’s mind was weighing up the advantages of asking her if she had a boyfriend — While on the one he knew that, if he did, she would quickly grasp that he was asking with romantic, or sexual, intent, he also knew that if she rejected him he would feel it very sensitively, and be crushed for weeks. On the other hand, he felt that if he did not enquire, he would truly regret it. After a minute of deliberation, he finally decided on the former option and gave her the question.</p> <p>Her response was in the negative — and if his judgment was correct, he thought she may have given his eyes such a look as to indicate that she was looking for someone and that someone was him!</p> <p>Now it came to pass that, as they had both finished and enjoyed their meal, and had felt a sense of connection over the course of their conversation, they could each sense a twinkle in the other’s eye, a sparkle of love and trust. Being lifted by the knowledge that someone felt delighted to have him around them, Andy was then made eager to have her companionship in his life, and so asked if she would like to walk with him, her reply being quick and affirmative. His joy was thus increased, as he could then enjoy Nature with her, with <em>someone,</em> and also be granted more opportunity to gaze on her beauty, that being both in her body and more particularly in her face, which was truly sweeter than honey to look upon. Having agreed, they then decided to meet at the base of Mount Macquarie, a few hours’ drive away, the following Saturday.</p> <p>Mount Macquarie was a tall hill that had towered over Wollongong’s west side for years. It had a ragged, rocky top surrounded by untold varieties of gum trees that bended toward sunlight like slaves towards their captor over the scorching, torpid Australian summers. Every year, legions of people seeking to interrupt the drag of their daily routines would travel out to embark on the toilsome slog up it, creating pain so that they may receive pleasure by the cessation thereof, both in the repose of their bodies and in the spectacular view provided them by Nature and its God.</p> <p>At 8 in the morning Athena and Andy met under a dense oven-like blanket of heat, and yet one that only hinted at how it would develop as the day would grow. Having briefly enjoyed coffee and scones in the nearby café, they then set off.</p> <p>Sweating away, they set to talking. Andy now came to hear how that, her parents having abandoned her as an infant in the Chinese city of Xi’an, she was raised at a Catholic orphanage and never knew her parents’ real names. She told him how she couldn’t know if they were financially incapable of raising her themselves, or if — they didn’t even want to — but how, fortunately, the carers at the orphanage were kind and spent much of their time helping her to feel that she belonged, and was loved. Andy couldn’t relate to not having grown up without parents, but nevertheless could see the remnants of the old weakness, the deep and lingering sense of worthlessness, in her tearful eyes, and so could see the damage being rejected by one’s own family can cause, and how important it was to find a place in the world one felt one belonged. And so they halted at a pass overlooking a waterfall, and embraced both each other and the awesome view.</p> <p>Continuing, Andy then shared some of his story with her. He told of how, despite having the experience of a family, he never felt he belonged to any group or community, and so had always felt estranged and isolated even when in the midst of others — as though he felt he was of a different species to the generality of mankind altogether — and how this had caused prolonged pain within him, driving him to desperate attempts to impress those he considered ‘cool’, ever longing to be liked and accepted, and yet only achieving alienation. That is why the realisation that he was <em>liked </em>by a girl meant a great deal to him, and procured within him an abiding and tangible sense of <em>peace.</em></p> <p>It thus came to pass that, as their engrossing discussion twisted and turned, they hardly realised they were approaching the summit until they passed the last turn and, almost crawling, saw the plateau arise before their eyes. It was hard to tell whether it was the sight of the sprawling city, with its picturesque buildings and roads, or their strenuous hike, that left them breathless. Whichever it was, Andy felt his heart within him witness the beauty that was before his eyes, and knew again that philosophy can never truly alter, twist, or deny the truth, but can only clarify and affirm it.</p> <p>After some time laying on the grass and becoming refreshed, enjoying the scenery of the hills and the endless ocean far before them, they were thus set to return to Mount Macquarie’s foot. However, before they rose, Andy had an idea. He knew he liked her (for so he felt a rush of energy towards both his heart and stomach whenever he looked at her); he wanted to stay with her and continue to take in life with her; and so, after debating his thoughts for what seemed like an eternity, asked if she would like to have dinner at his house tonight. Thrilled, she said yes, whereupon he also was elated. They then walked down the steep hill, while he was internally planning out a great time for both of them; and he became so wrapped up, enmeshed, and consumed within the dark, chaotic forest of his own thoughts that he didn’t see the roots that lined the footpath of the forest they walked through and so was caught in them and thrown down like a beaten wrestler. Laughing with her, he stood up and they went on, gave each other a farewell at their cars, and drove away.</p> <p>Later that night, it came to pass that, while Andy lit lamps, played Schubert’s <em>Arpeggione Sonata</em> and created a subdued mood, Athena pulled up in her ’07 Toyota <em>Yaris</em> and stepped onto his front porch. Being still so lost in his mind’s incessant planning, the ringing of the doorbell gave him an electrifying shock, causing his heart to nearly break out of his chest in nervous anticipation. He opened the door to see Athena in a gorgeous blue dress, perfectly accentuating her bubbly, smooth limbs and plump, diminutive figure; and yet most captivating of all were her bright blue eyes which, despite being couched behind a thick pair of glasses, possessed an intoxicating, almost divine, aura of beauty. Bringing her in, Andy closed the door behind them and they sat on an old, juice-stained leathern sofa whilst initiating conversation that quickly directed itself in all sorts of directions, twists and turns. Despite finding simply talking with her so incredibly delightful, fascinating and satisfying — Andy felt more comforted being next to her than with anyone he had ever known, and could see she felt the same about him — he felt pressured to think about their dinner. Now, was he <em>really </em>planning to cook for both of them? While he was a semi-competent cook, his fare had always been fairly basic — reflecting both his palate and creative potency — and was nothing compared to a restaurant’s fine provision. With that in mind, he proceeded to order a tantalising set of Mexican dishes from an online outlet.</p> <p>Now, as Athena opened a bottle of <em>Pinot Noir</em> they began to talk of music, whereupon she revealed to him that she loved Miles Davis, with his rendition of Richard Rodgers’ <em>My Funny Valentine </em>esteemed highest in her mind. What else could Andy do other than play the album — <em>Cookin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet? </em>So, after relaxing, talking and drinking with each other for a while with Red Garland’s soothing piano chords and the occasional piercing cries of Davis’ muted trumpet in their ears, they were well-nigh in over their heads with wine and each other as, when the doorbell rang, Andy had to lift her off his chest in order to receive the cheerful Persian delivery guy’s meal. Sitting down to eat, he ate a mouth-wateringly delicious bowl of salsa that, though great in itself, would compare nought with what he was to savour the taste of shortly after.</p> <p>From this point, the next few hours seemed to pass him by in ecstasy. They danced, drank, played games and finally, as passions were running high, sat on the sofa, looked into each other’s eyes, and brought their lips together. The feeling of smooching and caressing another’s lips with his own was very strange and quite unlike anything Andy had ever experienced before, and yet was somehow supremely satisfying and captivating — he felt he could continue to kiss her not merely for the next few seconds, nor minutes, but for an eternity. Throughout this time, he felt vibrant energy course throughout his entire body and made him feel stronger and more alive. And so it occurred that he eventually and painstakingly severed his lips from hers, took up and carried her into his room, that being illumined with blue lighting (he felt he was improvising the whole time acting upon ideas that had sunk deep into his subconscious from popular culture), placed her on his bed, and began to remove his clothes along with her, soon to engage in intimate lovemaking. It was exciting and scary at the same time — desire and fear worked together to make his whole body quiver. Finally, they began, and it was instant bliss, the merging of two beautiful souls.</p> <p>Hours went by, and they united together repeatedly, neither one wanting to separate from the intimate union. They performed with the stamina of an Olympian and the raging passion of a devastating bushfire. Finally, they made a tiring end to their session of love. Andy painstakingly withdrew his body from Athena’s and they embraced and made love with each other one final time for that night, before falling quickly to sleep in each other’s arms.</p> <p>Since that intimate night Andy continued to love and live with Athena for the rest of his earthly existence and, with her, began to enjoy a breathtaking new life that seemed to burgeon with possibilities, with new pathways and opportunities opening up for him all the time. Opportunities he previously never noticed began to present themselves generously for his own perusal, and he bore about a sense that he was welcome and invited to share in the goodness and beauty of life with those that have been enlightened — those who are passionate and liberated, know their purpose, and are guided along their way by the Spirit that illuminates all. As a result, he had ascended from once being an aimless fast food worker with little potential and less awareness of his own strengths to editing for a newspaper, writing stories and essays on countless subjects ranging from economics and biological science to religion and psychology, mentoring students in English and history, hosting talks on life, philosophy, self-help, work, and money, composing and playing music, painting art, and being a father to two small children, Arthur and Anna, who were both driven by a sense of their innate worth and potential whilst being encouraged and loved by their parents. Athena studied architecture and left accounting to fulfil her dream, finding opportunities to work on stunning architectural projects in great cities from New York to Seoul. Moreover, Andy had articles featured in many leading newspapers from <em>The Times</em> to <em>The Guardian</em>, had spoken at TED conferences, and met many, especially in his own city, who came to him to share how his work had touched their lives and motivated them to change. But he considered, as of more value than all else, his wife and children, whose lives he loved and counted more precious than anything else in the world.</p> </section>	Love’s Strange Arbour (2021) King Street, Sydney. Wikipedia. As Andy walked down Marlowe Terrace, Sydney, the sun shining its warm rays down upon his face, he was filled with joy, as he knew in his heart that he found love. As a 23-year old student aspiring toward journalism he had as yet not managed to form any deep and lasting relationships, and had consistently felt lonely in his life — up until now, that is, for it seemed to him that he had at last come to meet one who found his companionship desirable and pleasant — Athena. Knowing that that is the name of the Greek goddess of wisdom, Minerva in Rome, he was careful not to stereotype people according to what qualities he believed their name, nationality, skin colour, sex, or any other general qualities represent. At the same time, it was impossible for him to know, on his first encounter with someone, even a tenth of the secrets and mysteries of the impossible depths of their heart; nevertheless, he had faith that, as he built relationships with others, he would know such people more, and they him. So, he met this Athena, or rather, she met him. For as he was playing chess in relief from his studies whilst listening to Bein’ Friends it so happened that a dark-haired lady sat at the desk next to him — a fairly rare event and, for him, a nerve-wracking one at that, as he had the tendency to become very nervous whenever he found himself around women, thinking that he needed to start putting on a show of being a god-like being, an ubermensch, as who he really was was simply never good enough, nor impressive enough for any woman he met. This is because he considered himself weird — a strange and abnormal male, a creep — and always felt himself being scorned, shunned, and ignored whilst having to witness the attention he longed for given to those greater than himself. And so, as Athena sat down next to Andy and began to, as he supposed, study with her laptop, he continued to focus on the matters at hand. However, despite his attention to the chess game, he felt her presence advance to his side — and, upon removing his headphones, hearing her asking about logging onto the universities’ internet with his credentials. Andy hesitated. How could he do this, allow this complete and utter stranger to access something as intimate as his login details — to put his own academic life in danger for something as trivial as a girl who seemed to give him the slightest bit of attention?! Andy struggled and gaped in his stomach. What was he to do? After some persuasion, including sharing with him both her Facebook account and a strange savoury-sweet biscuit, he conceded — though would not be eating another of said biscuit any time soon. They then began to chat, wherein they learned a number of things about each other. They shared where they were living, what they were studying, and a few extra words, though, as yet, nought about their interests or whether they shared any. After a short time of conversation, he told her he was now about to meet a friend to lunch, and thus left her. Later that night, whilst drinking a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, Andy sent Athena a message on Facebook and they began talking. It was now that he learned a little more about her, and yet there is only so much you can gather about another when not talking in person: nevertheless, he felt a connection with her and felt his affection grow toward her. They then played a game of chess in which he mated her in nine moves, followed by talking some more. Finally, they agreed to meet at a café on Hampshire Street. Andy was grateful to meet her on Saturday, as the day was warm and the sun high in his place, the breeze blowing its benevolent kisses and the spirit of the air promoting peace among the dwellers and craftsmen of the town. They came together at Madmoiselle’s, a French café adjoining a 1950’s-style bookshop and an Indian restaurant. Meeting her he was short of words to say, but found his voice eventually — for his heart thumped rapidly with the hope of stoking her love. He sat at a corner table with her, picked up the menus, and chatted eagerly whilst discussing the options. Andy had always been a picky eater, part of his enduring lack of courage and adventurousness, an absence of resilience and a virtual incapacity to withstand prolonged and genuine pain. This extended as far as to his sense of sexuality and to his relationships both with women and men — He felt unable to truly express himself, not only repressing his sexuality, but also his feelings and emotions. He was vulnerable. Outside he portrayed himself as a regular guy, but this façade did not convince others for long — for as soon as they began to speak with him, they noticed that something about him was very different and rather odd. He was a freak, a clown, and dangerously self-destructive owing to his hideously negative self-image. Andy felt like a small boy, fearful and lost, knowing not where to go and what to do, ever attempting and failing to understand what his true purpose in life really was — studying without aim, so it seemed. He had now and again entertained several ‘paths’ he could take with his life — musician, writer, programmer, teacher — and yet all the while it seemed to him that none of these paths are what he felt as though he was being ‘led’ towards. Andy was lost, so many around him were lost, and a sense of peace and purpose seemed impossible both to him and to countless others. Suicide was regularly entertained on his mind, and he frequently told himself that he would do it — now, tomorrow, or in the following year. He couldn’t see a clear path of life for himself — life seemed truly unnavigable. Though he could achieve some pleasure from the gratifications of the flesh as describes food, music, wine, and sex, there seemed to be no hope for fulfillment beyond these things, ultimately shallow things as they were. And he always worried. Anxiety was the base state of his mind. Whether it was worrying about not having a job and a satisfying, decently-paying career either now or in the future, worrying about not waking up on time in the mornings, worrying about never entering into a romantic relationship with someone he loved, or worrying about death and the entry into the afterlife, worry is what he consistently returned to; it was a plague of his mind, an illness. He tried desperately, and in vain, to escape from and eliminate it, and yet it was utterly inescapable. And this anxiety — this fear — fear of what he did not understand — had to be conquered — his ego had to be absorbed into the One and All. And so, to return to the event: Andy and Athena sat down together, and got to discussing their lives. She told him that she felt insecure about herself, to which he responded in the affirmative, agreeing; she had taken a path in accounting, believing it to be a decent and trustworthy career choice, and yet was worried about not using her life to its utmost capacity and ultimately never engaging her creative capacities. At this his heart swelled, for he had felt the same way for a long time — he felt he would rather be a poor writer than a rich lawyer, and not only that, but also to pour himself into painting and musical composition — to empty his life in order that it might be transformed into a source of hope and truth in the world, and cause beauty and light to proceed forth from it. And as she talked, Andy discovered that it was her ambition to design houses — she wished to increase others’ enjoyment of their lives by increasing the beauty of their surroundings. By the twinkle in her eyes he could see that this was what she desired above all things, where her heart was, and what she had fallen in love with — what she wanted to represent herself in. Inspired by the passion coming forth from her lips at the love-inspired words of her delight, Andy felt a tear come, then another, and another, and very soon his face was running with tears, and those running down from his eyes, like creeks which had their banks overswelled. He couldn’t restrain himself but blurted out that he felt just the same way as her, not so much in architecture as in literature, and gently clasped her hand as he shared with her that she could achieve such dreams if she directed her thoughts to believing that she could and had the resources and willpower within herself to do so, and if her heart was put to it. All the saints and angels now held witness before her that she had now to make a crucially difficult choice: would she spend her life as a comfortable slave, reaping the rewards of mammon and never having to put herself in a place of vulnerability for all the world to scrutinise; or, would she do just the latter, and risk the loss of selfish comfortability, exposing her ego to all the insults, threats, and ridicule the world has to offer? Then followed the arrival of their food. Their eyes lit up immediately at the sight of their respective meals: eggs benedict for Andy, pancakes with syrup for Athena, and chips and pinot noir for both. Then, as they began to eat, they continued to discuss their lives and their respective interests; he discovered that she delighted in hiking, which both intrigued and caused his mind to begin to plan a possible excursion to wheresoever it may be; and she found that he loved music, both classical and jazz, in addition to some rock and electronic, which allowed her to feel an additional sense of connection, as she too loved classical and jazz, with the works of Miles Davis being favoured by her in particular — such a mention being highly opportune, as it gave further opportunities for their talk to grow, develop, and progress. At this point, Andy’s mind was weighing up the advantages of asking her if she had a boyfriend — While on the one he knew that, if he did, she would quickly grasp that he was asking with romantic, or sexual, intent, he also knew that if she rejected him he would feel it very sensitively, and be crushed for weeks. On the other hand, he felt that if he did not enquire, he would truly regret it. After a minute of deliberation, he finally decided on the former option and gave her the question. Her response was in the negative — and if his judgment was correct, he thought she may have given his eyes such a look as to indicate that she was looking for someone and that someone was him! Now it came to pass that, as they had both finished and enjoyed their meal, and had felt a sense of connection over the course of their conversation, they could each sense a twinkle in the other’s eye, a sparkle of love and trust. Being lifted by the knowledge that someone felt delighted to have him around them, Andy was then made eager to have her companionship in his life, and so asked if she would like to walk with him, her reply being quick and affirmative. His joy was thus increased, as he could then enjoy Nature with her, with someone, and also be granted more opportunity to gaze on her beauty, that being both in her body and more particularly in her face, which was truly sweeter than honey to look upon. Having agreed, they then decided to meet at the base of Mount Macquarie, a few hours’ drive away, the following Saturday. Mount Macquarie was a tall hill that had towered over Wollongong’s west side for years. It had a ragged, rocky top surrounded by untold varieties of gum trees that bended toward sunlight like slaves towards their captor over the scorching, torpid Australian summers. Every year, legions of people seeking to interrupt the drag of their daily routines would travel out to embark on the toilsome slog up it, creating pain so that they may receive pleasure by the cessation thereof, both in the repose of their bodies and in the spectacular view provided them by Nature and its God. At 8 in the morning Athena and Andy met under a dense oven-like blanket of heat, and yet one that only hinted at how it would develop as the day would grow. Having briefly enjoyed coffee and scones in the nearby café, they then set off. Sweating away, they set to talking. Andy now came to hear how that, her parents having abandoned her as an infant in the Chinese city of Xi’an, she was raised at a Catholic orphanage and never knew her parents’ real names. She told him how she couldn’t know if they were financially incapable of raising her themselves, or if — they didn’t even want to — but how, fortunately, the carers at the orphanage were kind and spent much of their time helping her to feel that she belonged, and was loved. Andy couldn’t relate to not having grown up without parents, but nevertheless could see the remnants of the old weakness, the deep and lingering sense of worthlessness, in her tearful eyes, and so could see the damage being rejected by one’s own family can cause, and how important it was to find a place in the world one felt one belonged. And so they halted at a pass overlooking a waterfall, and embraced both each other and the awesome view. Continuing, Andy then shared some of his story with her. He told of how, despite having the experience of a family, he never felt he belonged to any group or community, and so had always felt estranged and isolated even when in the midst of others — as though he felt he was of a different species to the generality of mankind altogether — and how this had caused prolonged pain within him, driving him to desperate attempts to impress those he considered ‘cool’, ever longing to be liked and accepted, and yet only achieving alienation. That is why the realisation that he was liked by a girl meant a great deal to him, and procured within him an abiding and tangible sense of peace. It thus came to pass that, as their engrossing discussion twisted and turned, they hardly realised they were approaching the summit until they passed the last turn and, almost crawling, saw the plateau arise before their eyes. It was hard to tell whether it was the sight of the sprawling city, with its picturesque buildings and roads, or their strenuous hike, that left them breathless. Whichever it was, Andy felt his heart within him witness the beauty that was before his eyes, and knew again that philosophy can never truly alter, twist, or deny the truth, but can only clarify and affirm it. After some time laying on the grass and becoming refreshed, enjoying the scenery of the hills and the endless ocean far before them, they were thus set to return to Mount Macquarie’s foot. However, before they rose, Andy had an idea. He knew he liked her (for so he felt a rush of energy towards both his heart and stomach whenever he looked at her); he wanted to stay with her and continue to take in life with her; and so, after debating his thoughts for what seemed like an eternity, asked if she would like to have dinner at his house tonight. Thrilled, she said yes, whereupon he also was elated. They then walked down the steep hill, while he was internally planning out a great time for both of them; and he became so wrapped up, enmeshed, and consumed within the dark, chaotic forest of his own thoughts that he didn’t see the roots that lined the footpath of the forest they walked through and so was caught in them and thrown down like a beaten wrestler. Laughing with her, he stood up and they went on, gave each other a farewell at their cars, and drove away. Later that night, it came to pass that, while Andy lit lamps, played Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata and created a subdued mood, Athena pulled up in her ’07 Toyota Yaris and stepped onto his front porch. Being still so lost in his mind’s incessant planning, the ringing of the doorbell gave him an electrifying shock, causing his heart to nearly break out of his chest in nervous anticipation. He opened the door to see Athena in a gorgeous blue dress, perfectly accentuating her bubbly, smooth limbs and plump, diminutive figure; and yet most captivating of all were her bright blue eyes which, despite being couched behind a thick pair of glasses, possessed an intoxicating, almost divine, aura of beauty. Bringing her in, Andy closed the door behind them and they sat on an old, juice-stained leathern sofa whilst initiating conversation that quickly directed itself in all sorts of directions, twists and turns. Despite finding simply talking with her so incredibly delightful, fascinating and satisfying — Andy felt more comforted being next to her than with anyone he had ever known, and could see she felt the same about him — he felt pressured to think about their dinner. Now, was he really planning to cook for both of them? While he was a semi-competent cook, his fare had always been fairly basic — reflecting both his palate and creative potency — and was nothing compared to a restaurant’s fine provision. With that in mind, he proceeded to order a tantalising set of Mexican dishes from an online outlet. Now, as Athena opened a bottle of Pinot Noir they began to talk of music, whereupon she revealed to him that she loved Miles Davis, with his rendition of Richard Rodgers’ My Funny Valentine esteemed highest in her mind. What else could Andy do other than play the album — Cookin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet? So, after relaxing, talking and drinking with each other for a while with Red Garland’s soothing piano chords and the occasional piercing cries of Davis’ muted trumpet in their ears, they were well-nigh in over their heads with wine and each other as, when the doorbell rang, Andy had to lift her off his chest in order to receive the cheerful Persian delivery guy’s meal. Sitting down to eat, he ate a mouth-wateringly delicious bowl of salsa that, though great in itself, would compare nought with what he was to savour the taste of shortly after. From this point, the next few hours seemed to pass him by in ecstasy. They danced, drank, played games and finally, as passions were running high, sat on the sofa, looked into each other’s eyes, and brought their lips together. The feeling of smooching and caressing another’s lips with his own was very strange and quite unlike anything Andy had ever experienced before, and yet was somehow supremely satisfying and captivating — he felt he could continue to kiss her not merely for the next few seconds, nor minutes, but for an eternity. Throughout this time, he felt vibrant energy course throughout his entire body and made him feel stronger and more alive. And so it occurred that he eventually and painstakingly severed his lips from hers, took up and carried her into his room, that being illumined with blue lighting (he felt he was improvising the whole time acting upon ideas that had sunk deep into his subconscious from popular culture), placed her on his bed, and began to remove his clothes along with her, soon to engage in intimate lovemaking. It was exciting and scary at the same time — desire and fear worked together to make his whole body quiver. Finally, they began, and it was instant bliss, the merging of two beautiful souls. Hours went by, and they united together repeatedly, neither one wanting to separate from the intimate union. They performed with the stamina of an Olympian and the raging passion of a devastating bushfire. Finally, they made a tiring end to their session of love. Andy painstakingly withdrew his body from Athena’s and they embraced and made love with each other one final time for that night, before falling quickly to sleep in each other’s arms. Since that intimate night Andy continued to love and live with Athena for the rest of his earthly existence and, with her, began to enjoy a breathtaking new life that seemed to burgeon with possibilities, with new pathways and opportunities opening up for him all the time. Opportunities he previously never noticed began to present themselves generously for his own perusal, and he bore about a sense that he was welcome and invited to share in the goodness and beauty of life with those that have been enlightened — those who are passionate and liberated, know their purpose, and are guided along their way by the Spirit that illuminates all. As a result, he had ascended from once being an aimless fast food worker with little potential and less awareness of his own strengths to editing for a newspaper, writing stories and essays on countless subjects ranging from economics and biological science to religion and psychology, mentoring students in English and history, hosting talks on life, philosophy, self-help, work, and money, composing and playing music, painting art, and being a father to two small children, Arthur and Anna, who were both driven by a sense of their innate worth and potential whilst being encouraged and loved by their parents. Athena studied architecture and left accounting to fulfil her dream, finding opportunities to work on stunning architectural projects in great cities from New York to Seoul. Moreover, Andy had articles featured in many leading newspapers from The Times to The Guardian, had spoken at TED conferences, and met many, especially in his own city, who came to him to share how his work had touched their lives and motivated them to change. But he considered, as of more value than all else, his wife and children, whose lives he loved and counted more precious than anything else in the world.	0aa3f6c3-8cba-5cd7-aeb4-7623602e6638	25/08/2025 16:01:42
https://medium.com/@dibaalA/using-terraform-to-create-an-ec2-instance-with-jenkins-ci-cd-bootstrap-and-a-private-s3-bucket-ee0f47e96467	medium.com	Using Terraform to Create an Ec2 Instance with Jenkins CI/CD Bootstrap and a Private S3 Bucket	Introduction	Dibaal Akari	https://medium.com/@dibaalA	ee0f47e96467	https://miro.medium.com/…eWd5_UIcxE6Q.png	12 min	2023-05-31T01:39:27.758000	2023-06-30T11:28:05.648000	2023-12-18T06:30:30.994000	2	9	en	Terraform	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/948/1oni6YXA_zdeWd5_UIcxE6Q.png" width="948" height="611" loading="lazy" /> <h1>Introduction</h1> <p><strong>Terraform</strong> Is an open-source infrastructure as a code tool or IaC that enables you to safely and predictably provision and manage infrastructure in any cloud.</p> <p>It is created by HashiCorp and is a declarative coding tool that allows developers to use a high-level configuration language called HCL (HashiCorp Configuration Language) to describe the desired “end-state” cloud or on-premises infrastructure for running an application.</p> <p>Terraform can be defined as a tool for versioning, changing, and building infrastructure efficiently and safely. It can manage popular and existing service providers and custom in-house solutions also. Configuration files explain to terraform the elements required to execute our entire data center or an individual application.</p> <p><strong>Jenkins</strong></p> <p>Jenkins is an open-source automation server that helps automate various aspects of software development, including building, testing, and deploying applications. It provides a platform for continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) processes, enabling teams to automate the building, testing, and deployment of their software projects.</p> <h2>Benefits of using Terraform</h2> <ul> <li><strong>Infrastructure as code</strong>: Terraform provides a way to define infrastructure as code, which means you can version control and manage your infrastructure just like you would with application code.</li> <li><strong>Reusability</strong>: Terraform allows you to reuse infrastructure code across different environments, making it easier to manage and deploy consistent infrastructure.</li> <li><strong>Cloud-agnostic</strong>: Terraform can manage resources across multiple cloud providers and services, making it a great tool for multi-cloud deployments.</li> <li><strong>Consistency</strong>: Terraform ensures that the infrastructure deployed is consistent across all environments, making it easier to manage and maintain.</li> </ul> <h2>Main Terraform Commands</h2> <h2>Terraform init</h2> <p>The “<strong>terraform init</strong>” command initialises a new or existing Terraform working directory by downloading and installing the necessary plugins and modules for the Terraform configuration in that directory specified in the configuration files.</p> <h2>Terraform validate</h2> <p>The “<strong>terraform validate</strong>” command checks the syntax and structure of the Terraform configuration files in the current working directory and validates the Terraform code for any errors or mistakes before deploying it to the target environment.</p> <h2>Terraform plan</h2> <p>The “<strong>terraform plan</strong>” command creates an execution plan and generates a list of all the changes that Terraform will make to the infrastructure resources to bring it to the desired state defined in the Terraform configuration files.</p> <h2>Terraform apply</h2> <p>The “<strong>terraform apply</strong>” command applies the changes by deploying the infrastructure resources defined in the configuration files to the target environment.</p> <h2>Terraform destroy</h2> <p>The “<strong>terraform destroy</strong>” command removes all the resources that Terraform has created in the target environment based on the configuration files.</p> <h2><strong>Objective</strong></h2> <p>Your team would like to start using Jenkins as their CI/CD tool to create pipelines for DevOps projects. They need you to create the Jenkins server using Terraform so that it can be used in other environments and so that changes to the environment are better tracked.</p> <p>Deploy 1 EC2 Instances in your Default VPC.</p> <p>Bootstrap the EC2 instance with a script that will install and start Jenkins. Review the official Jenkins Documentation for more information: <a href="https://www.jenkins.io/doc/book/installing/linux/">https://www.jenkins.io/doc/book/installing/linux/.</a></p> <p>Create and assign a Security Group to the Jenkins Security Group that allows traffic on port 22 from your ip and allows traffic from port 8080.</p> <p>Create a S3 bucket for your Jenkins Artifacts that is not open to the public.</p> <p>Verify that you can reach your Jenkins install via port 8080 in your browser. Be sure to include a screenshot of the Jenkins login screen in your documentation.</p> <p>Add a variable.tf files and make sure nothing is hardcoded in your main.tf.</p> <p>Create separate file for your providers.tf if you have not already</p> <h2>Prerequisites</h2> <ul> <li>Basic knowledge and understanding of Terraform concepts and commands</li> <li>Basic Linux command line knowledge</li> <li>AWS Account with an IAM user with administrative privileges</li> <li>IDE (Cloud9 or Visual Studio Code etc.)</li> <li>AWS CLI installed and configured in Cloud9</li> </ul> <p>Note: In this project we shall be using cloud9 as terraform is already installed as you can see below</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/694/1qerIGIoEsfUQ7gzoiAUOBg.png" width="694" height="269" loading="lazy" /> <h2><strong>main.tf</strong> file</h2> <p>The main.tf file represents the infrastructure configuration for the document-translate function, complete with module imports and required variables for each of the modules. Before applying the configuration, run terraform init to retrieve the modules at the local file paths.</p> <p>The main.tf file contains the primary infrastructure code written in HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL). It serves as the entry point for defining the desired state of your infrastructure. Within this file, you define the resources you want to create, configure, or manage using Terraform.</p> <p><strong>First</strong>, let’s create a directory named week20terraformproject for the .tf files we will be creating in this project, change into the directory and then create a file within the directory named main.tf. use the commands below to achieve this;</p> <pre><code class="language-shell">$ mkdir <your-directory-name></code></pre> <pre><code class="language-bash">cd <your-directory-name></code></pre> <pre><code class="language-bash">touch main.tf</code></pre> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1085/1qSYktozVRpmwxUKx_bmipg.png" width="1085" height="366" loading="lazy" /> <p>Below are links to the documentation that will be used for this project;</p> <p><strong><a hr</strong>ef="https://www.jenkins.io/doc/book/installing/linux/">Linux <em>sudo apt update sudo apt install openjdk-11-jre java -version openjdk version "11.0.12" 2021-07-20 OpenJDK Runtime…</em>www.j</a>enkins.io</p> <p><strong><a href="https://r</strong>egistry.terraform.io/providers/hashicorp/aws/latest/docs">Terraform Registry <em>Edit description</em>registry.ter</a>raform.io</p> <p><strong><a href="https://developer.hash</strong>icorp.com/terraform">Terraform \| HashiCorp Developer <em>Explore Terraform product documentation, tutorials, and examples.</em>developer.hash</a>icorp.com</p> <p><strong>Step 1: First Create a File Called install_jenkins.sh</strong></p> <p>This file will hold the script for installing jenkins into our EC2 server. The script is as shown below:</p> <pre><code class="language-bash">#shell script for installing jenkins #!/bin/bash sudo yum update –y sudo wget -O /etc/yum.repos.d/jenkins.repo https://pkg.jenkins.io/redhat-stable/jenkins.repo sudo rpm --import https://pkg.jenkins.io/redhat-stable/jenkins.io-2023.key sudo yum upgrade -y sudo amazon-linux-extras install java-openjdk11 -y sudo dnf install java-11-amazon-corretto -y sudo yum install jenkins -y sudo systemctl enable jenkins sudo systemctl start jenkins sudo cat /var/lib/jenkins/secrets/initialAdminPasswordSHOWN BELOW IS THE ENTIRE CONFIGURATION FOR THIS PROJECT. # configured aws provider with proper credentials</code></pre> <p>Below shows the Configuration file holding all the codes for lunching EC2 server, install jenkins and also create S3 bucket</p> <pre><code class="language-bash"># create default vpc if one does not exit resource "aws_default_vpc" "default_vpc" { tags = { Name = "default vpc" } } # use data source to get all avalablility zones in region data "aws_availability_zones" "available_zones" {} # create default subnet if one does not exit resource "aws_default_subnet" "default_az1" { availability_zone = data.aws_availability_zones.available_zones.names[0] tags = { Name = "default subnet" } } # create security group for the ec2 instance resource "aws_security_group" "ec2_security_group" { name = "ec2 security group" description = "allow access on ports 8080 and 22" vpc_id = # allow access on port 8080 ingress { description = "http proxy access" from_port = to_port = protocol = cidr_blocks = } # allow access on port 22 ingress { description = "ssh access" from_port = to_port = protocol = cidr_blocks = } egress { from_port = to_port = protocol = cidr_blocks = } tags = { Name = "jenkins server security group" } } # use data source to get a registered amazon linux 2 ami data "aws_ami" "amazon_linux_2" { most_recent = true owners = ["amazon"] filter { name = "owner-alias" values = ["amazon"] } filter { name = "name" values = ["amzn2-ami-hvm"] } } # launch the ec2 instance and install website resource "aws_instance" "ec2_instance" { ami = instance_type = subnet_id = vpc_security_group_ids = key_name = # user_data = file("install_jenkins.sh") tags = { Name = } } # an empty resource block resource "null_resource" "name" { # ssh into the ec2 instance connection { type = user = private_key = file() host = } # copy the install_jenkins.sh file from your computer to the ec2 instance provisioner "file" { source = destination = } # set permissions and run the install_jenkins.sh file provisioner "remote-exec" { inline = [ ] } # wait for ec2 to be created depends_on = [] } # print the url of the jenkins server output "website_url" { value = join ("", ["http://", aws_instance.ec2_instance.public_dns, ":", "8080"]) The following code provided defines two resources: an AWS EC2 instance and an AWS S3 bucket.</code></pre> <p><strong>Step 2: Create a Terraform configuration file let’s call it ec2.tf (main.tf)</strong></p> <p>This Terraform code is the main set of configuration, it will create an EC2 instance with the specified properties. The instance will be accessible using the SSH key specified in the keyname.</p> <p></p> <p>To see the link to the code in my github click <a href="https://github.com/Dibaal/gold-member/blob/main/main.tf">here</a></p> <p><strong>CODE EXPLANATION</strong></p> <p><strong>Provider Block</strong></p> <p>Shows the region in which we would deploy our infrastructure “us-east-1". You can use any region of your choice.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1568/1mQRsSmNx6EAtDSf14AuXBw.png" width="1568" height="632" loading="lazy" /> <p>The second block the resource block as shown below creates default VPC in our account if we do not have one. If we already have a VPC in our accounrt, Terraform will use the default VPC.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1076/1XTYUI0l0srtrQuK3G-o2kg.png" width="1076" height="416" loading="lazy" /> <p>The next syntax shown below, we are using data source to get all the availability zones in our selected region. Since we are using “us-east-1”. This will get all the availability zones in “us-east-1”</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1176/1mM_OrhpAd2BKDdnVMJZS7g.png" width="1176" height="324" loading="lazy" /> <p>The above syntax is for creating default subnet in our aws account. Terraform uses the default subnet if it exist. Here also we specify the availability zone to be used. With index [0] to signify the first AZ. To specify the AZ we want to use in a particular region: we copy data, the resourse type (aws_availability_zones) and the reference Name (available_zones) all separated by periods including the attribute we want to reference (Names) as shown above in line 30.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/940/1n2fd1WPpovHoGP2qWFr1ow.png" width="940" height="208" loading="lazy" /> <p>The resource block above is for creating a security group. The first argument is the name and we call it “ec2 security group”, the 2nd argument is descrption as shown. The 3rd argument vpc_id that is the id of the vpc we want to create the security group for, we get this argument from the vpc resource we created earlier line 16. Copy the resource type (aws_default_vpc) and the reference name (default_vpc), the attribute we want to reference is id. So the vpc_id will be as in line 42.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1286/1nJoLoacGNHdpQwO2Tfw3DQ.png" width="1286" height="1080" loading="lazy" /> <p>The above is to allow access to port 8080, the port that communicates to jenkins which is an ingress rule. We want this traffic to come from anywhere from the internet hence, we use [“0.0.0.0/0”] as the cidr_block.</p> <p>The 2nd rule is port 22 as it will allow us to ssh into the instance. Here we will also allow traffic coming from anywhere on the internet because it is the first time of setting up jenkins in our development environment. In a production environment this access will be limited, for cidr_block use [“0.0.0.0/0”]</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1070/1dEqBVRGBhnQga-CoeVIcNw.png" width="1070" height="540" loading="lazy" /> <p>The above syntax is for getting the latest version of amazon linux 2 ami.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1322/18W09VdWqbIXpF0qy4nM_lQ.png" width="1322" height="490" loading="lazy" /> <p>The above syntax is used to launch the ec2 instance and install website. The 1st argument is the ami we created earlier, copy the argument from line 87 with periods appropriately position we get our ami as in line 105. We use t2.micro as the instance type. For the subnet id we can get it from line 29 to get the id on line 107. For the vpc_security_group_ids, is the id of the security group we want to attach to this ec2 instance. From line 39 copy the resource type ans the refernce Name to get result as shown on line 108, is a list hence, the reason for the brackets. For the key-name, it’s the keypair in pem file format which we already have in our aws account, this can be seen in the aws console.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1332/1q6RRxHmhPiSxpNFpzKIJRg.png" width="1332" height="1020" loading="lazy" /> <p>The code above is used to ssh into our ec2. First, we create an empty resource block, then we will ssh into our ec2 instance using the 2nd syntax above. For the private key, it is equivalant to when we ssh into our ec2 instance, we will specify the path to our private key. The Name of our key pair is “IAMKeypair” which is located in Downloads directory, we enter the path as shown “~/Downloads/IAMKeypair.pem”. The next option is the host, this is the ipv4 of our ec2 instance, this is gotten from line 104 where we created the ec2 instance. The host name in this case becomes aws_instance.ec2_instance.public_ip in line 124.</p> <p>Once we have ssh into our ec2 instance, the next thing is to copy the shell script from the “install_jenkins.sh” folder to the ec2 instance using the provisioner block above. The first argument is source which is the name of the file. The destination is the directory on our ec2 instance which is the temporary directory written as “/tmp/install_jenkins.sh”</p> <p>Next step is to run the shell script on the ec2 instance, using the “remote-exec”, for the inline we will list all the commands we want it to run. Firstly, we will make our shell script executable using “sudo chmod +x /tmp/install_jenkins.sh” and then run the shell script file by running “sh /tmp/install_jenkins.sh” command.</p> <p>To ensure terraform wait for the ec2 instance to be created before running the script, we include the depends_on tag, gotten from line 104, then we have it in line 144.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1336/1MUDijPwfAK15Qp1xA2_wSQ.png" width="1336" height="196" loading="lazy" /> <p>The above output block prints the url of the jenkins server to the terminal.</p> <h2>Step 3: Initialize Terraform</h2> <p>Now that all our configurations have been set. The next step is to “Run the code” by running “<strong>terraform init</strong>”</p> <pre><code class="language-csharp">terraform init</code></pre> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1202/16wUpIGGoi7KpLzZJ8oR6xw.png" width="1202" height="674" loading="lazy" /> <p>Next run the <em><strong>terraf</em>orm plan</strong> command, it generates a plan for how Terraform will change your infrastructure. The plan includes the resources that will be created, modified, or destroyed, as well as the actions that will be taken to make those changes.</p> <pre><code class="language-typescript">terraform plan</code></pre> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1816/1G-JZ5Bf_FOXnQ9r4ZdAiFQ.png" width="1816" height="1458" loading="lazy" /> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1752/1tPjP_hzpkDxCY__x9bBycA.png" width="1752" height="1540" loading="lazy" /> <h2>Step 4. Apply the Terraform Configuration</h2> <p>The <em><strong>terrafo</em>rm apply</strong> command applies the changes that are defined in your Terraform configuration to your infrastructure. This includes creating new resources, modifying existing resources, and destroying resources that are no longer defined in the Terraform configuration.</p> <pre><code class="language-cpp">terraform apply #optional terraform apply -auto-approve</code></pre> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1848/1-ol3PUJF8qGkgMdPp_y9hA.png" width="1848" height="1582" loading="lazy" /> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1718/1yAGz0rTqFbSVtq16Uo2jTQ.png" width="1718" height="1652" loading="lazy" /> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1842/1DBRGlTP0_KmM8JPKSqEOXA.png" width="1842" height="1614" loading="lazy" /> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/2348/1c1San-bxBPs1YfmR0Yk5-w.png" width="2348" height="1334" loading="lazy" /> <p>let’s navigate to our AWS console to verify if our infrastructure is actually created. As shown below it is running.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/2356/1OyEJlM1FYYoR0jl2vkxnoQ.png" width="2356" height="536" loading="lazy" /> <h2>Step 5: Verify that you can reach Jenkins.</h2> <p>As can also be seen on our terminal output, the IP with port 8080 included at the end.</p> <pre><code class="language-python">public_ipaddress with port8080 included at the end #This was included in our configuration</code></pre> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1900/1p2-kw51RnZ-00SOuxzmFCQ.png" width="1900" height="542" loading="lazy" /> <p>To reach jenkins copy the website URL as can be seen on the CLI output of our configuration, and run it on a browser. The result is as shown below:</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/2478/1liw2xSEzMhtaxHIv-RHWMg.png" width="2478" height="1518" loading="lazy" /> <h2>Step 6. Check S3 bucket for Jenkins Artifacts</h2> <p>Go to AWS Console and search s3, and look at that! Terraform code got the Job DONE! The S3 bucket name: <strong>jenkins-week20-s3bucket-dibaalakariimiete2023</strong> is now officially created!</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/2048/15BCpcyMoGSRZZL42PG6qzA.png" width="2048" height="1214" loading="lazy" /> <h2>Step 7. Confirm Jenkins is running. Connect to the assigned EC2 instance</h2> <p>To check if jenkins is running, connect to the instance using instance connect and then run the code below to check the status of jenkins.</p> <pre><code class="language-lua">systemctl status jenkins</code></pre> <p>The result as shown below, shows that jenkins is active (running).</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/2546/1F6SzuSNYlVWlJzWH6nL9jw.png" width="2546" height="1336" loading="lazy" /> <h2>Step 8: Delete the EC2 instance, with a simple command.</h2> <p>Now to take down our entire infrastructure which we have configured, run the code below</p> <pre><code class="language-cpp">terraform destroy #optional terraform destroy -auto-approve</code></pre> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1992/1jkx4fhaE4P4DLEWIkDtDZg.png" width="1992" height="1474" loading="lazy" /> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1550/1*QAO9zE-dbSRVYGeoGCARGw.png" width="1550" height="1262" loading="lazy" /> <p>In this project, we successfully deployed an EC2 instance in our default VPC and bootstrapped it with a script that installed and started Jenkins. We also created a security group that allowed traffic on ports 22 and 8080, and created a S3 bucket for our Jenkins artifacts all done using Terraform configurations. Finally, we verified that we could reach our Jenkins via port 8080 in our browser.</p> <p>This project was a great opportunity to learn how to deploy infrastructure such as AWS and Jenkins using Terraform. I was able to practice my skills in deploying and configuring EC2 instances, creating security groups, and working with S3 buckets. I also learned how to install and configure Jenkins, which is a powerful tool for continuous integration and delivery.</p> <p>The code for this project has been pushed to GitHub, and the link is included in the write-up. I hope that this project will be helpful to others who are learning about Terraform.</p> </section>	Using Terraform to Create an Ec2 Instance with Jenkins CI/CD Bootstrap and a Private S3 Bucket Introduction Terraform Is an open-source infrastructure as a code tool or IaC that enables you to safely and predictably provision and manage infrastructure in any cloud. It is created by HashiCorp and is a declarative coding tool that allows developers to use a high-level configuration language called HCL (HashiCorp Configuration Language) to describe the desired “end-state” cloud or on-premises infrastructure for running an application. Terraform can be defined as a tool for versioning, changing, and building infrastructure efficiently and safely. It can manage popular and existing service providers and custom in-house solutions also. Configuration files explain to terraform the elements required to execute our entire data center or an individual application. Jenkins Jenkins is an open-source automation server that helps automate various aspects of software development, including building, testing, and deploying applications. It provides a platform for continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) processes, enabling teams to automate the building, testing, and deployment of their software projects. Benefits of using Terraform Infrastructure as code: Terraform provides a way to define infrastructure as code, which means you can version control and manage your infrastructure just like you would with application code. Reusability: Terraform allows you to reuse infrastructure code across different environments, making it easier to manage and deploy consistent infrastructure. Cloud-agnostic: Terraform can manage resources across multiple cloud providers and services, making it a great tool for multi-cloud deployments. Consistency: Terraform ensures that the infrastructure deployed is consistent across all environments, making it easier to manage and maintain. Main Terraform Commands Terraform init The “terraform init” command initialises a new or existing Terraform working directory by downloading and installing the necessary plugins and modules for the Terraform configuration in that directory specified in the configuration files. Terraform validate The “terraform validate” command checks the syntax and structure of the Terraform configuration files in the current working directory and validates the Terraform code for any errors or mistakes before deploying it to the target environment. Terraform plan The “terraform plan” command creates an execution plan and generates a list of all the changes that Terraform will make to the infrastructure resources to bring it to the desired state defined in the Terraform configuration files. Terraform apply The “terraform apply” command applies the changes by deploying the infrastructure resources defined in the configuration files to the target environment. Terraform destroy The “terraform destroy” command removes all the resources that Terraform has created in the target environment based on the configuration files. Objective Your team would like to start using Jenkins as their CI/CD tool to create pipelines for DevOps projects. They need you to create the Jenkins server using Terraform so that it can be used in other environments and so that changes to the environment are better tracked. Deploy 1 EC2 Instances in your Default VPC. Bootstrap the EC2 instance with a script that will install and start Jenkins. Review the official Jenkins Documentation for more information: https://www.jenkins.io/doc/book/installing/linux/. Create and assign a Security Group to the Jenkins Security Group that allows traffic on port 22 from your ip and allows traffic from port 8080. Create a S3 bucket for your Jenkins Artifacts that is not open to the public. Verify that you can reach your Jenkins install via port 8080 in your browser. Be sure to include a screenshot of the Jenkins login screen in your documentation. Add a variable.tf files and make sure nothing is hardcoded in your main.tf. Create separate file for your providers.tf if you have not already Prerequisites Basic knowledge and understanding of Terraform concepts and commands Basic Linux command line knowledge AWS Account with an IAM user with administrative privileges IDE (Cloud9 or Visual Studio Code etc.) AWS CLI installed and configured in Cloud9 Note: In this project we shall be using cloud9 as terraform is already installed as you can see below main.tf file The main.tf file represents the infrastructure configuration for the document-translate function, complete with module imports and required variables for each of the modules. Before applying the configuration, run terraform init to retrieve the modules at the local file paths. The main.tf file contains the primary infrastructure code written in HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL). It serves as the entry point for defining the desired state of your infrastructure. Within this file, you define the resources you want to create, configure, or manage using Terraform. First, let’s create a directory named week20terraformproject for the .tf files we will be creating in this project, change into the directory and then create a file within the directory named main.tf. use the commands below to achieve this; $ mkdir <your-directory-name> cd <your-directory-name> touch main.tf make a directory week20terraformproject & create the file main.tf Below are links to the documentation that will be used for this project; Linux sudo apt update sudo apt install openjdk-11-jre java -version openjdk version "11.0.12" 2021-07-20 OpenJDK Runtime…www.jenkins.io Terraform Registry Edit descriptionregistry.terraform.io Terraform \| HashiCorp Developer Explore Terraform product documentation, tutorials, and examples.developer.hashicorp.com Step 1: First Create a File Called install_jenkins.sh This file will hold the script for installing jenkins into our EC2 server. The script is as shown below: #shell script for installing jenkins #!/bin/bash sudo yum update –y sudo wget -O /etc/yum.repos.d/jenkins.repo https://pkg.jenkins.io/redhat-stable/jenkins.repo sudo rpm --import https://pkg.jenkins.io/redhat-stable/jenkins.io-2023.key sudo yum upgrade -y sudo amazon-linux-extras install java-openjdk11 -y sudo dnf install java-11-amazon-corretto -y sudo yum install jenkins -y sudo systemctl enable jenkins sudo systemctl start jenkins sudo cat /var/lib/jenkins/secrets/initialAdminPasswordSHOWN BELOW IS THE ENTIRE CONFIGURATION FOR THIS PROJECT. # configured aws provider with proper credentials Below shows the Configuration file holding all the codes for lunching EC2 server, install jenkins and also create S3 bucket # create default vpc if one does not exit resource "aws_default_vpc" "default_vpc" { tags = { Name = "default vpc" } } # use data source to get all avalablility zones in region data "aws_availability_zones" "available_zones" {} # create default subnet if one does not exit resource "aws_default_subnet" "default_az1" { availability_zone = data.aws_availability_zones.available_zones.names[0] tags = { Name = "default subnet" } } # create security group for the ec2 instance resource "aws_security_group" "ec2_security_group" { name = "ec2 security group" description = "allow access on ports 8080 and 22" vpc_id = # allow access on port 8080 ingress { description = "http proxy access" from_port = to_port = protocol = cidr_blocks = } # allow access on port 22 ingress { description = "ssh access" from_port = to_port = protocol = cidr_blocks = } egress { from_port = to_port = protocol = cidr_blocks = } tags = { Name = "jenkins server security group" } } # use data source to get a registered amazon linux 2 ami data "aws_ami" "amazon_linux_2" { most_recent = true owners = ["amazon"] filter { name = "owner-alias" values = ["amazon"] } filter { name = "name" values = ["amzn2-ami-hvm*"] } } # launch the ec2 instance and install website resource "aws_instance" "ec2_instance" { ami = instance_type = subnet_id = vpc_security_group_ids = key_name = # user_data = file("install_jenkins.sh") tags = { Name = } } # an empty resource block resource "null_resource" "name" { # ssh into the ec2 instance connection { type = user = private_key = file() host = } # copy the install_jenkins.sh file from your computer to the ec2 instance provisioner "file" { source = destination = } # set permissions and run the install_jenkins.sh file provisioner "remote-exec" { inline = [ ] } # wait for ec2 to be created depends_on = [] } # print the url of the jenkins server output "website_url" { value = join ("", ["http://", aws_instance.ec2_instance.public_dns, ":", "8080"]) The following code provided defines two resources: an AWS EC2 instance and an AWS S3 bucket. Step 2: Create a Terraform configuration file let’s call it ec2.tf (main.tf) This Terraform code is the main set of configuration, it will create an EC2 instance with the specified properties. The instance will be accessible using the SSH key specified in the keyname. To see the link to the code in my github click here CODE EXPLANATION Provider Block Shows the region in which we would deploy our infrastructure “us-east-1". You can use any region of your choice. The second block the resource block as shown below creates default VPC in our account if we do not have one. If we already have a VPC in our accounrt, Terraform will use the default VPC. The next syntax shown below, we are using data source to get all the availability zones in our selected region. Since we are using “us-east-1”. This will get all the availability zones in “us-east-1” The above syntax is for creating default subnet in our aws account. Terraform uses the default subnet if it exist. Here also we specify the availability zone to be used. With index [0] to signify the first AZ. To specify the AZ we want to use in a particular region: we copy data, the resourse type (aws_availability_zones) and the reference Name (available_zones) all separated by periods including the attribute we want to reference (Names) as shown above in line 30. The resource block above is for creating a security group. The first argument is the name and we call it “ec2 security group”, the 2nd argument is descrption as shown. The 3rd argument vpc_id that is the id of the vpc we want to create the security group for, we get this argument from the vpc resource we created earlier line 16. Copy the resource type (aws_default_vpc) and the reference name (default_vpc), the attribute we want to reference is id. So the vpc_id will be as in line 42. The above is to allow access to port 8080, the port that communicates to jenkins which is an ingress rule. We want this traffic to come from anywhere from the internet hence, we use [“0.0.0.0/0”] as the cidr_block. The 2nd rule is port 22 as it will allow us to ssh into the instance. Here we will also allow traffic coming from anywhere on the internet because it is the first time of setting up jenkins in our development environment. In a production environment this access will be limited, for cidr_block use [“0.0.0.0/0”] The above syntax is for getting the latest version of amazon linux 2 ami. The above syntax is used to launch the ec2 instance and install website. The 1st argument is the ami we created earlier, copy the argument from line 87 with periods appropriately position we get our ami as in line 105. We use t2.micro as the instance type. For the subnet id we can get it from line 29 to get the id on line 107. For the vpc_security_group_ids, is the id of the security group we want to attach to this ec2 instance. From line 39 copy the resource type ans the refernce Name to get result as shown on line 108, is a list hence, the reason for the brackets. For the key-name, it’s the keypair in pem file format which we already have in our aws account, this can be seen in the aws console. The code above is used to ssh into our ec2. First, we create an empty resource block, then we will ssh into our ec2 instance using the 2nd syntax above. For the private key, it is equivalant to when we ssh into our ec2 instance, we will specify the path to our private key. The Name of our key pair is “IAMKeypair” which is located in Downloads directory, we enter the path as shown “~/Downloads/IAMKeypair.pem”. The next option is the host, this is the ipv4 of our ec2 instance, this is gotten from line 104 where we created the ec2 instance. The host name in this case becomes aws_instance.ec2_instance.public_ip in line 124. Once we have ssh into our ec2 instance, the next thing is to copy the shell script from the “install_jenkins.sh” folder to the ec2 instance using the provisioner block above. The first argument is source which is the name of the file. The destination is the directory on our ec2 instance which is the temporary directory written as “/tmp/install_jenkins.sh” Next step is to run the shell script on the ec2 instance, using the “remote-exec”, for the inline we will list all the commands we want it to run. Firstly, we will make our shell script executable using “sudo chmod +x /tmp/install_jenkins.sh” and then run the shell script file by running “sh /tmp/install_jenkins.sh” command. To ensure terraform wait for the ec2 instance to be created before running the script, we include the depends_on tag, gotten from line 104, then we have it in line 144. The above output block prints the url of the jenkins server to the terminal. Step 3: Initialize Terraform Now that all our configurations have been set. The next step is to “Run the code” by running “terraform init” terraform init Next run the terraform plan command, it generates a plan for how Terraform will change your infrastructure. The plan includes the resources that will be created, modified, or destroyed, as well as the actions that will be taken to make those changes. terraform plan Step 4. Apply the Terraform Configuration The terraform apply command applies the changes that are defined in your Terraform configuration to your infrastructure. This includes creating new resources, modifying existing resources, and destroying resources that are no longer defined in the Terraform configuration. terraform apply #optional terraform apply -auto-approve let’s navigate to our AWS console to verify if our infrastructure is actually created. As shown below it is running. Step 5: Verify that you can reach Jenkins. As can also be seen on our terminal output, the IP with port 8080 included at the end. public_ipaddress with port8080 included at the end #This was included in our configuration To reach jenkins copy the website URL as can be seen on the CLI output of our configuration, and run it on a browser. The result is as shown below: Step 6. Check S3 bucket for Jenkins Artifacts Go to AWS Console and search s3, and look at that! Terraform code got the Job DONE! The S3 bucket name: jenkins-week20-s3bucket-dibaalakariimiete2023 is now officially created! Step 7. Confirm Jenkins is running. Connect to the assigned EC2 instance To check if jenkins is running, connect to the instance using instance connect and then run the code below to check the status of jenkins. systemctl status jenkins The result as shown below, shows that jenkins is active (running). Step 8: Delete the EC2 instance, with a simple command. Now to take down our entire infrastructure which we have configured, run the code below terraform destroy #optional terraform destroy -auto-approve In this project, we successfully deployed an EC2 instance in our default VPC and bootstrapped it with a script that installed and started Jenkins. We also created a security group that allowed traffic on ports 22 and 8080, and created a S3 bucket for our Jenkins artifacts all done using Terraform configurations. Finally, we verified that we could reach our Jenkins via port 8080 in our browser. This project was a great opportunity to learn how to deploy infrastructure such as AWS and Jenkins using Terraform. I was able to practice my skills in deploying and configuring EC2 instances, creating security groups, and working with S3 buckets. I also learned how to install and configure Jenkins, which is a powerful tool for continuous integration and delivery. The code for this project has been pushed to GitHub, and the link is included in the write-up. I hope that this project will be helpful to others who are learning about Terraform.	4495e169-e1dc-5d58-854f-e288e4f0c050	25/08/2025 16:01:42
https://medium.com/@apparelric/lovelywholesale-reviews-is-it-worth-ordering-through-lovely-wholesale-527c85084460	medium.com	LovelyWholesale Reviews \| Is It Worth Ordering Through Lovely Wholesale?	It has been observed that people are more towards online shopping nowadays for their own comfort, now the time has become advanced to an…	Apparelric	https://medium.com/@apparelric	527c85084460	null	6 min	2018-10-22T12:25:50.670000	2018-10-22T10:27:01	2018-10-22T12:26:22.842000	0	0	en	Ecommerce,Lovelywholesale,Lovelywholesale Review	<section> <p>It has been observed that people are more towards online shopping nowadays for their own comfort, now the time has become advanced to an extent that even retailers try and place orders through online portals or website. One such online shopping portal for an individual and retailers is LovelyWholesale. In this review, we are going to discuss about the women’s latest clothing and accessories provider.</p> <p>We will discuss about LovelyWholesale’s products, quality they deliver, customers’ reviews and of course about <a href="https://www.lovelywholesale.com/">LovelyWholesale</a> application and their extra services available on internet as well. This article will actually help you in knowing whether LovelyWholesale is worth opting for or not. Under this review, we will talk about:</p> <ul> <li>About LovelyWholesale</li> <li>Their website and application</li> <li>Its shipping, return and refund policy</li> <li>Worth shopping though LovelyWholesale website or app</li> <li>Voice of customer about LovelyWholesale.</li> </ul> <p><strong>What is LovelyWholesale.com?</strong></p> <p>Let us have a quick review about who is LovelyWholesale and what they actually do, about their application and how to find out the best products and coupons.</p> <p>LovelyWholesale is one of the best online wholesale goods suppliers. LovelyWholesale’s sale is a venture of Bumper Ltd. They have their registered office is in UK although they are primarily a China based company; LovelyWholesale’s manufacturing unit is in Guangzhou in Shanghai. They maintain their major business from China only.</p> <p>Because, they manufacture maximum products of their own so comparatively the cost of their product is lower than any other website. Not only this, they even have a tie up with many other brands as well to provide wide range of products available under their umbrella.</p> <p>As they provide all latest fashion clothes, bags, shoes, accessories, etc for women that too at an affordable price, that makes LovelyWholesale one of the most famous and sort after website worldwide. LovelyWholesale believes in providing the newest trend to their customers as soon as a new fashion gets introduced in the market.</p> <p>Since the price of all the products are comparatively low, that is the reason LovelyWholesale is most recommended website for retailers to have products from them and resell the same in their shops or boutiques.</p> <p><strong>Is LovelyWholesale’s Website and Application User Friendly?</strong></p> <p>As we all know that people today believe in shopping online through an app or website; this is what makes a company all the more attractive and appealing towards the service providers. Under this section, we will talk about LovelyWholesale’s website and services available on their mobile application.</p> <p>As per the reviews from many people, we got to know that LovelyWholesale’s website and application is user friendly and easy to be used. Anyone can easily get to see what exactly they are looking for on the app or website.</p> <p>There are approximately six thousand different styles available and these styles are a mix of dresses, jumpsuits, swimmers, bottoms, shoes and definitely jewelry and many other accessories. There have a variety of products to choose from.</p> <p>While shopping, you can even grab LovelyWholesale’s coupons as well. Yes, it is true, despite such low cost product price; LovelyWholesale does offer discount coupons to their customers, which is one of its greatest USP. Apart from its own website, LovelyWholesale’s coupons are also available with many online coupon providers.</p> <p><strong>There are certain points that customers have to take care of before placing an order through app or website:</strong></p> <p>A customer cannot place an order before registering himself on the website.</p> <p>One must check their shipping, refund and return policies</p> <p>It is important for an individual to refer to size chart before ordering anything from LovelyWholesale.com to avoid any kind of inconvenience or dissatisfaction about the product. Since LovelyWholesale is available for customers around the world, hence the size chart is also available country specific.</p> <p>About their payment methods, there are several payment methods available to make payments of your purchases like Paypal, Credit card, debit card and customers from all across the globe shop from LovelyWholesale app or website. There is a facility to make payment through Western Union as well, where an individual gets additional discount of approx 8%.</p> <p><strong>LovelyWholesale’s Shipping, Return and Refund policy</strong></p> <p>Like all other online websites LovelyWholesale also has shipping and return policy in place and all the details are clearly mentioned on their website or on app:</p> <p><strong>LovelyWholesale’s Shipping Policy</strong></p> <p>As LovelyWholesale delivers orders in bulk, so their shipping fee depends upon the weight of order placed. Because they deliver their services across the globe, hence the shipping fee may also vary from country to country.</p> <p>It takes approximately 3–5 days to prepare an order and reach the customer within 15–20 working days from the date of making full payment by the customer.</p> <p>A customer receives tracking number on their email Id once the order gets dispatched from LovelyWholesale.</p> <p>If you select the option of receiving parcel in one day, then your product will reach you at the given address and if you are not available at that point in time, then the parcel gets handed over to the nearest post office of the given address. You will have to then carry your tracking number with you in order to collect your order from the post office.</p> <p><strong>LovelyWholesale’s Return and Refund policy</strong></p> <p>A product can only be returned to LovelyWholesale if it is faulty, that would only be accepted if the product has defect in zipper, torn or ripped, wrong order or size delivered, stains on the product, etc.</p> <p>If a customer gets an order with any of the mentioned defects or any other obvious defects then a customer becomes eligible to get a discount on the next order that they place.</p> <p>The Customer can return the package to the mentioned shipping address only. This can be done once LovelyWholesale staff gives an approval to return the product after raising a ticket for the return over live chat or through an email.</p> <p>Customer must inform LovelyWholesale within 7 days from the date of delivery of the product If it is a return for unfit item then it has to be in a good condition, so that it can be put across for resale.</p> <p>Return policy is not applicable on promotional products.</p> <p><strong>Is it worth shopping through LovelyWholesale.com?</strong></p> <p>While reviewing LovelyWholesale, we found that the products which LovelyWholesale offers to their customers are extremely low in rates in comparison to the other websites. Their accessories and jewelry absolutely stand out from others in terms of pricing; most of their jewelry cost as low as five dollars or may be less than that and even available to ship free. Buying these items either for yourself or for your store can help you in making a lot of savings in comparison to your expenditure of buying a product.</p> <p>LovelyWholesale believes in keeping their app and website updated with latest trends, so they keep updating it with fresh designs and keeps on rotating the stock online. Every day they add close to 100 new designs and items. 90% of their new addition is based on new high fashion clothing that one can see in latest magazines. Someone who is fond of high fashion or latest trend can easily relate to it.</p> <p><strong>LovelyWholesale Review on Lovely Points</strong></p> <p>There is an amazing offer from LovelyWholesale.com that is their “Lovely points”. Lovely Points are basically reward points that a customer gets when they register themselves to LovelyWholesale website or app, these points can even be earned while making purchases.</p> <p>While reviewing LovelyWholesale, we found that an individual gets 20 Lovely points on registering to the site (irrespective of the mode) and on purchase of every 100$, the customer receives 100 Lovely Points into their LovelyWholesale wallet. Every 20 Lovely Points is equal to 1$. So despite of such low cost items available, customer also gets reward points as well to gain maximum benefits.</p> <p><strong>LovelyWholesale Review on Voice of Customer</strong></p> <p>Like every online review, LovelyWholesale also has its reviews in place; there are customers who talk both negative and positive about the site. Overall LovelyWholesale has scored three point five scoring on review websites, which includes its overall shipping time, return time and operations. Most of the customers have issues with the size and fit of the garment.</p> <p>There are people who claim that LovelyWholesale delivers wrong size on ordering. The size would either be too big or too small to fit in and there are times when people even got defective piece.</p> <p>Review also states that the return and refund time is also not appropriate as mentioned in their terms and conditions.</p> <p>The best part with LovelyWholesale return is that they offer credits for the items, which is returned to them. In case the order is getting delayed, they keep the customer in loop for delay and estimated delivery time.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p> <p>If you see, having such pocket friendly website with latest trends and fashion is hardly available in market. It is very common to have manufacturing defects in products. But looking at their return policies and return offers it gives a clear indication that LovelyWholesale is a legit website.</p> <p>Considering the kind of reviews from customers, apart from their size and fit issues, all other operations including their customer service does qualify LovelyWholesale to be a genuine, reliable and trustworthy site or application.</p> <p><em>Originally published at <a href="https://apparelric.com/lov</em>elywholesale-reviews/">apparelric.com</a> on October 22, 2018.</p> </section>	LovelyWholesale Reviews \| Is It Worth Ordering Through Lovely Wholesale? It has been observed that people are more towards online shopping nowadays for their own comfort, now the time has become advanced to an extent that even retailers try and place orders through online portals or website. One such online shopping portal for an individual and retailers is LovelyWholesale. In this review, we are going to discuss about the women’s latest clothing and accessories provider. We will discuss about LovelyWholesale’s products, quality they deliver, customers’ reviews and of course about LovelyWholesale application and their extra services available on internet as well. This article will actually help you in knowing whether LovelyWholesale is worth opting for or not. Under this review, we will talk about: About LovelyWholesale Their website and application Its shipping, return and refund policy Worth shopping though LovelyWholesale website or app Voice of customer about LovelyWholesale. What is LovelyWholesale.com? Let us have a quick review about who is LovelyWholesale and what they actually do, about their application and how to find out the best products and coupons. LovelyWholesale is one of the best online wholesale goods suppliers. LovelyWholesale’s sale is a venture of Bumper Ltd. They have their registered office is in UK although they are primarily a China based company; LovelyWholesale’s manufacturing unit is in Guangzhou in Shanghai. They maintain their major business from China only. Because, they manufacture maximum products of their own so comparatively the cost of their product is lower than any other website. Not only this, they even have a tie up with many other brands as well to provide wide range of products available under their umbrella. As they provide all latest fashion clothes, bags, shoes, accessories, etc for women that too at an affordable price, that makes LovelyWholesale one of the most famous and sort after website worldwide. LovelyWholesale believes in providing the newest trend to their customers as soon as a new fashion gets introduced in the market. Since the price of all the products are comparatively low, that is the reason LovelyWholesale is most recommended website for retailers to have products from them and resell the same in their shops or boutiques. Is LovelyWholesale’s Website and Application User Friendly? As we all know that people today believe in shopping online through an app or website; this is what makes a company all the more attractive and appealing towards the service providers. Under this section, we will talk about LovelyWholesale’s website and services available on their mobile application. As per the reviews from many people, we got to know that LovelyWholesale’s website and application is user friendly and easy to be used. Anyone can easily get to see what exactly they are looking for on the app or website. There are approximately six thousand different styles available and these styles are a mix of dresses, jumpsuits, swimmers, bottoms, shoes and definitely jewelry and many other accessories. There have a variety of products to choose from. While shopping, you can even grab LovelyWholesale’s coupons as well. Yes, it is true, despite such low cost product price; LovelyWholesale does offer discount coupons to their customers, which is one of its greatest USP. Apart from its own website, LovelyWholesale’s coupons are also available with many online coupon providers. There are certain points that customers have to take care of before placing an order through app or website: A customer cannot place an order before registering himself on the website. One must check their shipping, refund and return policies It is important for an individual to refer to size chart before ordering anything from LovelyWholesale.com to avoid any kind of inconvenience or dissatisfaction about the product. Since LovelyWholesale is available for customers around the world, hence the size chart is also available country specific. About their payment methods, there are several payment methods available to make payments of your purchases like Paypal, Credit card, debit card and customers from all across the globe shop from LovelyWholesale app or website. There is a facility to make payment through Western Union as well, where an individual gets additional discount of approx 8%. LovelyWholesale’s Shipping, Return and Refund policy Like all other online websites LovelyWholesale also has shipping and return policy in place and all the details are clearly mentioned on their website or on app: LovelyWholesale’s Shipping Policy As LovelyWholesale delivers orders in bulk, so their shipping fee depends upon the weight of order placed. Because they deliver their services across the globe, hence the shipping fee may also vary from country to country. It takes approximately 3–5 days to prepare an order and reach the customer within 15–20 working days from the date of making full payment by the customer. A customer receives tracking number on their email Id once the order gets dispatched from LovelyWholesale. If you select the option of receiving parcel in one day, then your product will reach you at the given address and if you are not available at that point in time, then the parcel gets handed over to the nearest post office of the given address. You will have to then carry your tracking number with you in order to collect your order from the post office. LovelyWholesale’s Return and Refund policy A product can only be returned to LovelyWholesale if it is faulty, that would only be accepted if the product has defect in zipper, torn or ripped, wrong order or size delivered, stains on the product, etc. If a customer gets an order with any of the mentioned defects or any other obvious defects then a customer becomes eligible to get a discount on the next order that they place. The Customer can return the package to the mentioned shipping address only. This can be done once LovelyWholesale staff gives an approval to return the product after raising a ticket for the return over live chat or through an email. Customer must inform LovelyWholesale within 7 days from the date of delivery of the product If it is a return for unfit item then it has to be in a good condition, so that it can be put across for resale. Return policy is not applicable on promotional products. Is it worth shopping through LovelyWholesale.com? While reviewing LovelyWholesale, we found that the products which LovelyWholesale offers to their customers are extremely low in rates in comparison to the other websites. Their accessories and jewelry absolutely stand out from others in terms of pricing; most of their jewelry cost as low as five dollars or may be less than that and even available to ship free. Buying these items either for yourself or for your store can help you in making a lot of savings in comparison to your expenditure of buying a product. LovelyWholesale believes in keeping their app and website updated with latest trends, so they keep updating it with fresh designs and keeps on rotating the stock online. Every day they add close to 100 new designs and items. 90% of their new addition is based on new high fashion clothing that one can see in latest magazines. Someone who is fond of high fashion or latest trend can easily relate to it. LovelyWholesale Review on Lovely Points There is an amazing offer from LovelyWholesale.com that is their “Lovely points”. Lovely Points are basically reward points that a customer gets when they register themselves to LovelyWholesale website or app, these points can even be earned while making purchases. While reviewing LovelyWholesale, we found that an individual gets 20 Lovely points on registering to the site (irrespective of the mode) and on purchase of every 100$, the customer receives 100 Lovely Points into their LovelyWholesale wallet. Every 20 Lovely Points is equal to 1$. So despite of such low cost items available, customer also gets reward points as well to gain maximum benefits. LovelyWholesale Review on Voice of Customer Like every online review, LovelyWholesale also has its reviews in place; there are customers who talk both negative and positive about the site. Overall LovelyWholesale has scored three point five scoring on review websites, which includes its overall shipping time, return time and operations. Most of the customers have issues with the size and fit of the garment. There are people who claim that LovelyWholesale delivers wrong size on ordering. The size would either be too big or too small to fit in and there are times when people even got defective piece. Review also states that the return and refund time is also not appropriate as mentioned in their terms and conditions. The best part with LovelyWholesale return is that they offer credits for the items, which is returned to them. In case the order is getting delayed, they keep the customer in loop for delay and estimated delivery time. Conclusion If you see, having such pocket friendly website with latest trends and fashion is hardly available in market. It is very common to have manufacturing defects in products. But looking at their return policies and return offers it gives a clear indication that LovelyWholesale is a legit website. Considering the kind of reviews from customers, apart from their size and fit issues, all other operations including their customer service does qualify LovelyWholesale to be a genuine, reliable and trustworthy site or application. Originally published at apparelric.com on October 22, 2018.	154692a0-3a38-5f56-a0b8-a41fd0491731	25/08/2025 16:01:42
https://caityjohnstone.medium.com/police-and-their-apologists-have-already-lost-the-argument-92b62f353c58	medium.com	Police And Their Apologists Have Already Lost The Argument	Social media has been flooded with an endless stream of footage of police brutality as Black Lives Matter protests continue throughout the…	Caitlin Johnstone	https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone	92b62f353c58	https://miro.medium.com/…2vAzgtKyHpYW.jpg	4 min	2020-06-05T10:09:19.431000	2020-06-05T12:16:16.280000	2021-12-14T18:14:04.458000	10	3,186	en	Protest,Police,Police Brutality,BlackLivesMatter,Politics And Protest	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1280/0BKVS2vAzgtKyHpYW.jpg" width="1280" height="720" loading="lazy" /> <p>Social media has been flooded with an <a href="https://twitter.com/greg_doucette/status/1268774644494012416">endless stream of footage</a> of police brutality as Black Lives Matter protests continue throughout the United States. As of this writing everyone’s talking about a <a href="https://youtu.be/jlmAfv-mrXA">75 year-old man who was knocked unconscious</a> after being forcefully shoved for getting in a police officer’s way at a protest in Buffalo, New York, but it will soon be replaced by other headline-grabbing videos of physical assault by police officers.</p> <p>Turns out all it took to publicly expose a pervasive epidemic of violent tendencies in the police force was for the public to begin protesting violent tendencies in the police force.</p> <p></p> <p>Wherever these videos emerge online you will inevitably see a deluge of cop apologia (which I decided just now I’ll be calling copologia) saying the footage is fake or the victim deserved it and the cop’s just trying to get home to his family blah blah blah. There is not enough gold in the earth’s crust to make the number of olympic medals these people deserve for all the mental gymnastics they are performing to excuse unprovoked, completely unnecessary acts of violence from public employees whose job isn’t even <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/how-dangerous-is-police-w_b_6373798">statistically all that dangerous</a>.</p> <p>Most of these copologists do not even know why they are falling all over themselves to try and justify police brutality. It’s a conditioned response, like turning your head when someone calls your name. They don’t think about it, it’s just something they’ve been conditioned to do by decades of media and cultural indoctrination into an empire whose <a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2020/06/04/uprising-the-story-of-america-crashes-headlong-into-the-reality-of-america/">survival depends on the existence</a> of a violent and militarized police force. They hear Pavlov’s bell and start salivating, just as they’ve been programmed to.</p> <p>The thing is, their creative energy is being spent entirely in vain. Police and their apologists have already lost the argument.</p> <p>A police force which cannot respond to protests about police brutality without the internet being flooded with a steady stream of police brutality footage is a police force in sore need of drastic overhaul. It has already been proven that that is in fact the case. There’s no taking it back. There’s no fixing it. It’s done. The debate is officially over. Huge, sweeping changes must immediately be made, and there’s no valid reason for the protests to stop until that has occurred.</p> <p></p> <p>These videos have made it clear that the institution of policing in America is completely sick from coast to coast, right down to its very culture. The most obvious example I can point to is that watching just a few minutes of the <a href="https://twitter.com/greg_doucette/status/1268774644494012416?s=20">footage of police brutality</a> at these protests makes it undeniably apparent that a belief pervades police culture that it is okay to physically assault someone who has made you feel emotionally upset. Over and over and over again we see police accosting civilians for saying impolite words to them or making rude gestures, or not demonstrating an adequate level of subservience. Over and over and over again we see an attack on a cop’s ego treated as an attack on the cop himself.</p> <p>This is absolutely ridiculous. These are public servants. Imagine if teachers, mail carriers or DMV employees were routinely assaulting anyone who spoke impolitely to them.</p> <p>Police should definitely be made to feel ashamed of having this attitude. They should be mocked and laughed at for it widely and consistently. It’s not okay to assault someone who hurt your feewings, you fucking infant. You’re a taxpayer-funded employee. You get to retire after 25 years. Get the absolute fuck over yourself, dipshit.</p> <p>The fact that words pose no actual threat to you is something people are supposed to learn as children. There are nursery rhymes for it. The fact that public servants feel entitled to respect and deference from complete strangers should have been trained out of them from day one and been a strict taboo throughout the entire culture.</p> <p>But it wasn’t. Because the entire institution is mentally ill. There is no saving this limb. Amputation is the only option.</p> <p></p> <p>Many have correctly pointed out that most of the jobs done by police today could be done much better by social workers, and that most of the remaining jobs are completely unnecessary and could be dispensed with entirely. On the rare occasion that a squad of meatheads with batons is necessary they can always be called in like a SWAT team. Ending the drug war, eliminating unhelpful laws and replacing the armed goon patrol with social workers would purge America of this gangrenous limb and begin a movement toward health.</p> <p>Whatever changes are made, they need to be swift, and they need to be massive. Anything less is completely unacceptable. This has been resolved beyond any possible dispute.</p> <p>___________________________________</p> <p><em>Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for my <a href="http://caitlinjohnstone.com/">website</a>, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is <a href="https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/just-a-note-of-gratitude-to-readers-and-patrons-7df920b5ced">entirely reader-supported</a>, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CaitlinAJohnstone/">Facebook</a>, following my antics on<a href="https://twitter.com/caitoz">Twitter</a>, checking out my podcast on either <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU8Yu4WZJ11Il3TZmNiMUFQ">Youtube</a>, <a href="https://soundcloud.com/going_rogue">soundcloud</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/going-rogue-with-caitlin-johnstone/id1333112416">Apple podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5336DPNn19xNci8UNOkAT4"</em>>Spotify</a>, following me on <a href="https://steemit.com/@caitlinjohnstone">Steemit</a>, throwing some money into my tip jar on <a href="https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4445783">Patreon</a> or <a href="https://paypal.me/caitlinjohnstone">Paypal</a>, purchasing some of my <a href="https://www.redbubble.com/people/caitoz?ref=artist_title_name">sweet merchandise</a>, buying my books <a href="https://gumroad.com/l/roguenation">Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Woke-Field-Guide-Utopia-Preppers/dp/064823455X/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8">Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers</a>. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, <a href="https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/11-things-you-should-know-about-me-and-where-im-coming-from-a6b9ddf9806e">click here</a>. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, <a href="https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/i-permanently-release-all-copyrights-to-all-my-writing-use-any-of-it-however-you-want-9ad929b92d42">has my permission</a> to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/571/0YIwdfOzn91EMbC3a" width="571" height="266" loading="lazy" /> <p>Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2</p> </section>	Police And Their Apologists Have Already Lost The Argument Social media has been flooded with an endless stream of footage of police brutality as Black Lives Matter protests continue throughout the United States. As of this writing everyone’s talking about a 75 year-old man who was knocked unconscious after being forcefully shoved for getting in a police officer’s way at a protest in Buffalo, New York, but it will soon be replaced by other headline-grabbing videos of physical assault by police officers. Turns out all it took to publicly expose a pervasive epidemic of violent tendencies in the police force was for the public to begin protesting violent tendencies in the police force. Wherever these videos emerge online you will inevitably see a deluge of cop apologia (which I decided just now I’ll be calling copologia) saying the footage is fake or the victim deserved it and the cop’s just trying to get home to his family blah blah blah. There is not enough gold in the earth’s crust to make the number of olympic medals these people deserve for all the mental gymnastics they are performing to excuse unprovoked, completely unnecessary acts of violence from public employees whose job isn’t even statistically all that dangerous. Most of these copologists do not even know why they are falling all over themselves to try and justify police brutality. It’s a conditioned response, like turning your head when someone calls your name. They don’t think about it, it’s just something they’ve been conditioned to do by decades of media and cultural indoctrination into an empire whose survival depends on the existence of a violent and militarized police force. They hear Pavlov’s bell and start salivating, just as they’ve been programmed to. The thing is, their creative energy is being spent entirely in vain. Police and their apologists have already lost the argument. A police force which cannot respond to protests about police brutality without the internet being flooded with a steady stream of police brutality footage is a police force in sore need of drastic overhaul. It has already been proven that that is in fact the case. There’s no taking it back. There’s no fixing it. It’s done. The debate is officially over. Huge, sweeping changes must immediately be made, and there’s no valid reason for the protests to stop until that has occurred. These videos have made it clear that the institution of policing in America is completely sick from coast to coast, right down to its very culture. The most obvious example I can point to is that watching just a few minutes of the footage of police brutality at these protests makes it undeniably apparent that a belief pervades police culture that it is okay to physically assault someone who has made you feel emotionally upset. Over and over and over again we see police accosting civilians for saying impolite words to them or making rude gestures, or not demonstrating an adequate level of subservience. Over and over and over again we see an attack on a cop’s ego treated as an attack on the cop himself. This is absolutely ridiculous. These are public servants. Imagine if teachers, mail carriers or DMV employees were routinely assaulting anyone who spoke impolitely to them. Police should definitely be made to feel ashamed of having this attitude. They should be mocked and laughed at for it widely and consistently. It’s not okay to assault someone who hurt your feewings, you fucking infant. You’re a taxpayer-funded employee. You get to retire after 25 years. Get the absolute fuck over yourself, dipshit. The fact that words pose no actual threat to you is something people are supposed to learn as children. There are nursery rhymes for it. The fact that public servants feel entitled to respect and deference from complete strangers should have been trained out of them from day one and been a strict taboo throughout the entire culture. But it wasn’t. Because the entire institution is mentally ill. There is no saving this limb. Amputation is the only option. Many have correctly pointed out that most of the jobs done by police today could be done much better by social workers, and that most of the remaining jobs are completely unnecessary and could be dispensed with entirely. On the rare occasion that a squad of meatheads with batons is necessary they can always be called in like a SWAT team. Ending the drug war, eliminating unhelpful laws and replacing the armed goon patrol with social workers would purge America of this gangrenous limb and begin a movement toward health. Whatever changes are made, they need to be swift, and they need to be massive. Anything less is completely unacceptable. This has been resolved beyond any possible dispute. ___________________________________ Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for my website, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics onTwitter, checking out my podcast on either Youtube, soundcloud, Apple podcasts or Spotify, following me on Steemit, throwing some money into my tip jar on Patreon or Paypal, purchasing some of my sweet merchandise, buying my books Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone and Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2	90402e38-3ce0-5905-8d8c-8f54e92cda51	25/08/2025 16:01:42
https://medium.com/literally-literary/a-tenderness-3d5a8c7dd90	medium.com	A Tenderness	[MEDIA=soundcloudembed]soundcloud.com/paul_laurence/tenderness[/MEDIA]	Paul Brookes	https://medium.com/@PaulDragonwolf1	3d5a8c7dd90	https://miro.medium.com/…RIKo50j4Hrg.jpeg	1 min	2017-02-21T10:38:21.975000	2017-02-21T10:39:55.266000	2017-03-13T16:27:21.529000	1	3	en	Romance,Poetry,Prose,Literally Literary	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/4608/1TWyXJXDTaf6RIKo50j4Hrg.jpeg" width="4608" height="3456" loading="lazy" /> <p>[MEDIA=soundcloudembed]soundcloud.com/paul_laurence/tenderness[/MEDIA]</p> <p>does not touch his hand hovers above the raised hairs of her warm skin</p> <p>his palm feels the warm radiating from her curves as his hand moves always at the same height over her glittering skin</p> <p>she sighs at the faint gust as his hands move the air above her naked flesh</p> <p>*</p> <p>he puts his lips together and slowly breathes along her undulations watches her sinews lift and fall with each exhalation and shudder as he inhales her heat</p> <p>his breath follows her contours never gathering in squalls or crosswinds never more than a wisp easing aside tapers of grass and young slivers of dew drench</p> <p>****</p> <p>before they touch her flesh heat lifts scents of musk, sandalwood, rose, cinnamon and cardomom she inhales his black pepper and liquorice allows the spice as if she is a lit candle burning his fragrance into air</p> </section>	A Tenderness Photo by Paul Brookes [MEDIA=soundcloudembed]soundcloud.com/paul_laurence/tenderness[/MEDIA] does not touch his hand hovers above the raised hairs of her warm skin his palm feels the warm radiating from her curves as his hand moves always at the same height over her glittering skin she sighs at the faint gust as his hands move the air above her naked flesh ** he puts his lips together and slowly breathes along her undulations watches her sinews lift and fall with each exhalation and shudder as he inhales her heat his breath follows her contours never gathering in squalls or crosswinds never more than a wisp easing aside tapers of grass and young slivers of dew drench **** before they touch her flesh heat lifts scents of musk, sandalwood, rose, cinnamon and cardomom she inhales his black pepper and liquorice allows the spice as if she is a lit candle burning his fragrance into air	8e6fa844-6d38-548c-8990-66728cb6ffbc	25/08/2025 16:01:43
https://medium.com/@POLFEX/how-to-create-a-metamask-crypto-wallet-06377d08f5ae	medium.com	How to create a MetaMask Crypto wallet?	Wallets are the bridge that allows us to manage our digital assets.	POLFEX	https://medium.com/@POLFEX	06377d08f5ae	https://miro.medium.com/…f6BUA3fffuQ.jpeg	3 min	2024-01-06T12:17:53.827000	2024-01-06T16:33:19.509000	2024-01-06T16:33:26.611000	1	2	en	Wallet,Web3,Cryptocurrency,Blockchain,Nft	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/662/120cd-lBTBzWf6BUA3fffuQ.jpeg" width="662" height="291" loading="lazy" /> <p>Wallets are the bridge that allows us to manage our digital assets.</p> <p>A wallet is a piece of software or hardware with which receiving and sending operations can be carried out through a blockchain network.</p> <p>Choosing an appropriate wallet that meets your needs is a more than important task.</p> <p>In this article, we will show you a simple tutorial to activate MetaMask, one of the most used digital wallets that we recommend to get started in the crypto world.</p> <p>Keep in mind that it is a hot wallet and without a custodian, so you will be the only one responsible for the keys.</p> <p>Using your computer, go to <a href="http://metamask.io/">metamask.io</a> and install the app or browser extension. Always check that you write the website correctly.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1tgNH7E-dHEzGCQBSDZ37cQ.png" width="1400" height="783" loading="lazy" /> <p><strong>2.</strong> Click “<strong>Install MetaMask for Chrome</strong>”</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1__INHSr3W5O5Gr91OFIdVA.png" width="1400" height="790" loading="lazy" /> <p><strong>3.</strong> <strong>Add to Chrome and allow</strong>: The browser will take you to the Google Chrome web page; To add the extension, click “Add to Chrome” and then “Allow.”</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1jvf6pclalzA5pjLhZVOjmQ.png" width="1400" height="501" loading="lazy" /> <p><strong>4.</strong> <strong>Create a new wallet</strong>: Now, two options will appear. If you already had a wallet, you can import it. Otherwise, you have to choose the “Create a Wallet with a secret phrase” option.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1622/1qfY13QOof15Vufx_hL7n6A.png" width="1622" height="876" loading="lazy" /> <p><strong>5. Create a password</strong>: You must choose a strong password to protect your information and assets.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1200/1D74I9WyPS9FEP__KzB1YoA.png" width="1200" height="782" loading="lazy" /> <p><strong>6. Secret Recovery Phrase:</strong> This code will be provided to you. It is VERY IMPORTANT that you keep it in the safest place possible and do not share it with anyone. You will need it to access your wallet if your device crashes or your browser restarts, and there is no way to recover it. Once your recovery phrase is safely stored, you can go to “Next.”</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/500/1tPF_PJvWLpAgxSqL95jKhg.png" width="500" height="380" loading="lazy" /> <p><strong>7.</strong> Next, a screen will appear explaining what a secret recovery phrase is, how to create a copy (again, on paper and not digitally), and information on why you should never share your recovery phrase with anyone. Simply put, your secret recovery phrase is made up of 12 random words. It works as a backup in case you lose your phone or computer where you have the wallet downloaded and need to import it to a new device.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1622/1oF27TTdGnF8IfqGe-Ge59w.png" width="1622" height="904" loading="lazy" /> <p>You must carefully copy each word in the order they appear on the screen. The order will be of vital importance since you will not be able to import your account to a new device if they are out of order, even if all 12 are correct. Then, MetaMask will ask you to write the sequence of 12 words to confirm and that’s it!!!</p> <h1>Congratulations, you have created your wallet!!</h1> </section>	How to create a MetaMask Crypto wallet? Wallets are the bridge that allows us to manage our digital assets. A wallet is a piece of software or hardware with which receiving and sending operations can be carried out through a blockchain network. Choosing an appropriate wallet that meets your needs is a more than important task. In this article, we will show you a simple tutorial to activate MetaMask, one of the most used digital wallets that we recommend to get started in the crypto world. Keep in mind that it is a hot wallet and without a custodian, so you will be the only one responsible for the keys. Using your computer, go to metamask.io and install the app or browser extension. Always check that you write the website correctly. 2. Click “Install MetaMask for Chrome” 3. Add to Chrome and allow: The browser will take you to the Google Chrome web page; To add the extension, click “Add to Chrome” and then “Allow.” 4. Create a new wallet: Now, two options will appear. If you already had a wallet, you can import it. Otherwise, you have to choose the “Create a Wallet with a secret phrase” option. 5. Create a password: You must choose a strong password to protect your information and assets. 6. Secret Recovery Phrase: This code will be provided to you. It is VERY IMPORTANT that you keep it in the safest place possible and do not share it with anyone. You will need it to access your wallet if your device crashes or your browser restarts, and there is no way to recover it. Once your recovery phrase is safely stored, you can go to “Next.” 7. Next, a screen will appear explaining what a secret recovery phrase is, how to create a copy (again, on paper and not digitally), and information on why you should never share your recovery phrase with anyone. Simply put, your secret recovery phrase is made up of 12 random words. It works as a backup in case you lose your phone or computer where you have the wallet downloaded and need to import it to a new device. You must carefully copy each word in the order they appear on the screen. The order will be of vital importance since you will not be able to import your account to a new device if they are out of order, even if all 12 are correct. Then, MetaMask will ask you to write the sequence of 12 words to confirm and that’s it!!! Congratulations, you have created your wallet!!	5594c54a-d6e8-5816-8193-60ee92dd9574	25/08/2025 16:01:43
https://medium.com/@mwhc00/what-the-heck-is-quadratic-funding-in-3-minutes-bc2746de042a	medium.com	What The Heck Is Quadratic Funding — In 3 Minutes	Quadratic funding is a way to fundraise your project. But the catch is that you must have someone matching the funds contributed.	Melvin Wong	https://medium.com/@mwhc00	bc2746de042a	https://miro.medium.com/…qW-M9Zv5Bj-g.png	2 min	2022-06-13T04:31:36.405000	2022-06-13T04:56:06.182000	2022-06-13T04:57:46.525000	1	5	en	Quadratic Funding,Fundraising,Blockchain Technology,Blockchain,Grants For Nonprofit	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1187/1*VR4J636nBzqW-M9Zv5Bj-g.png" width="1187" height="378" loading="lazy" /> <p>Quadratic funding is a way to fundraise your project. But the catch is that you must have someone matching the funds contributed.</p> <p>In a matching funding mechanism, John contributes $100 to a public project, for example. With this $100, Acme Foundation matches John’s donation by also contributing another $100 — totaling $200, hence, the term “matching.”</p> <p>However, in a quadratic funding system, Acme Foundation doesn't just match John’s $100. They contribute a higher amount than John. How high? The more contributors a project gets, the more matching funds it will get from Acme Foundation or any organizations that believe in the project. The actual amount is actually based on a mathematical equation but let’s spare ourselves from a maths lesson for now.</p> <h1>Benefits of Quadratic Funding</h1> <p>As many articles have conveyed, QF funding (or Plural Funding) is a new form of fundraising option which…</p> <p>…is the mathematically optimal way to fund public goods in a democratic community. It amplifies the donations made by a large community over the contributions made by a small group with big pockets. — <a href="https://blog.woodstockfund.com/2021/05/20/quadratic-funding-a-better-way-to-fund-public-goods/">Woodstock Fund</a></p> <p>…is the mathematically optimal way to fund public goods in a democratic community where the number of contributors matters more than the actual amount funded. — <a href="https://finematics.com/quadratic-funding-explained/">Finematics</a></p> <p>…is a more democratic and scalable form of matching funding for public goods, i.e. any projects valuable to large groups of people and accessible to the general public. — <a href="http://Plural Funding (also known as Quadratic Funding or QF) is a more democratic and scalable form of matching funding for public goods, i.e. any projects valuable to large groups of people and accessible to the general public.">Radical Exchange</a></p> <p>I guess the Internet is copying one another these days but I hope you get the meaning.</p> <h2>Here’s the Equation for Quadratic Funding</h2> <p>The amount received by the project is (proportional to) the square of the sum of the square roots of contributions received. —<a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3243656"> Liberal Radicalism: A Flexible Design For Philanthropic Matching Funds</a></p> <h2>When Should I Use Quadratic Funding?</h2> <p>When you have another party who is interested in <strong>not just matching</strong> your donors’ contributions but to donate even more because they believe so much in your project.</p> <h2>Where Can I See Quadratic Funding in Action?</h2> <p>In some blockchain fundraising platforms such as <a href="https://gitcoin.co/grants/">Gitcoin</a> Grants.</p> </section>	What The Heck Is Quadratic Funding — In 2 Minutes Webpage of gitcoin.io/grants Quadratic funding is a way to fundraise your project. But the catch is that you must have someone matching the funds contributed. In a matching funding mechanism, John contributes $100 to a public project, for example. With this $100, Acme Foundation matches John’s donation by also contributing another $100 — totaling $200, hence, the term “matching.” However, in a quadratic funding system, Acme Foundation doesn't just match John’s $100. They contribute a higher amount than John. How high? The more contributors a project gets, the more matching funds it will get from Acme Foundation or any organizations that believe in the project. The actual amount is actually based on a mathematical equation but let’s spare ourselves from a maths lesson for now. Benefits of Quadratic Funding As many articles have conveyed, QF funding (or Plural Funding) is a new form of fundraising option which… …is the mathematically optimal way to fund public goods in a democratic community. It amplifies the donations made by a large community over the contributions made by a small group with big pockets. — Woodstock Fund …is the mathematically optimal way to fund public goods in a democratic community where the number of contributors matters more than the actual amount funded. — Finematics …is a more democratic and scalable form of matching funding for public goods, i.e. any projects valuable to large groups of people and accessible to the general public. — Radical Exchange I guess the Internet is copying one another these days but I hope you get the meaning. Here’s the Equation for Quadratic Funding The amount received by the project is (proportional to) the square of the sum of the square roots of contributions received. — Liberal Radicalism: A Flexible Design For Philanthropic Matching Funds When Should I Use Quadratic Funding? When you have another party who is interested in not just matching your donors’ contributions but to donate even more because they believe so much in your project. Where Can I See Quadratic Funding in Action? In some blockchain fundraising platforms such as Gitcoin Grants.	7f37da54-5e16-5872-8029-c8fe872988cd	25/08/2025 16:01:43
https://medium.com/@rahulvarpe/infrared-led-market-size-is-expected-to-grow-at-over-cagr-9-from-2016-to-2023-f8a39ad9a30a	medium.com	Infrared LED market size is expected to grow at over CAGR 9% from 2016 to 2023	The automotive industry is to grow at over 10% CAGR from 2016 to 2023.Companies such as Osro Opto and Epitex cater to the surveillance…	Rahul Varpe	https://medium.com/@rahulvarpe	f8a39ad9a30a	null	3 min	2016-06-27T07:36:02.913000	2016-06-27T07:52:05.658000	2018-03-18T07:34:54.086000	0	1	en	Consumer Electronics,Led Lighting,Communication	<section> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/204/1*aHVYBD1K7x2sXfMuJ49-5w.png" width="204" height="76" loading="lazy" /> <p><strong>The automotive industry is to grow at over 10% CAGR from 2016 to 2023.Companies such as Osro Opto and Epitex cater to the surveillance segment. Surging adoption of electronic devices among consumers is likely to drive industry demand.</strong></p> <p><strong>Infrared LED market size</strong> is expected to grow at over <strong>CAGR 9% from 2016 to 2023</strong>. Surging adoption of electronic devices among consumers is likely to drive industry demand. Rapid growing popularity of these devices among consumer DIY (do-it-yourself) security cameras is also anticipated to contribute in global revenue. Surveillance applications were worth over USD 100 million in 2015, which find prominence in the near infrared LED market. Companies such as Osro Opto and Epitex cater to the surveillance segment. The automotive industry is predicted to grow at over 10% CAGR from 2016 to 2023. <strong>Browse Table Of Contents (TOC) of “3D Gaming Console Market Research Report”-</strong> <a href="https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/infrared-ir-led-market">https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/infrared-ir-led-market</a> <strong>Industry players accumulating substantial global IR LED market share include Nichia, Kingbright Electronics, Osram Opto Semiconductors, Epistar, High Power Lighting, and Everlight Electronics.</strong> Other prominent players include Lextar Electronics, Royal Philips, Excelitas Technologies, Opto Diode, Fluke, Ushio Epitex, Epileds, ROHM Semiconductors, Fairchild Semiconductors International, EPITEX, Larson Electronics, and High Power Lighting. The optoelectronics market size was more than USD 30 billion in 2015, which is set <strong>to exceed USD 55 billion by 2023.</strong> Rapid technology advancements accompanied by growing adoption of these products in various industry sectors such as defense, lighting, imaging, surveillance, automotive, as well as consumer electronics is anticipated to propel global <strong>infrared LED market</strong> growth from 2016 to 2023. Growing IR adoption can be credited to increasing implementation of LEDs, phototransistors as well as photodiodes. These devices are also known as infrared transmitters. Features offered such as low power consumption, low cost and high security benefits are predicted to fuel the <strong>infrared LED market </strong>share, over the next seven years. These devices are used in combination with receivers to produce infrared sensors owing to its ability of addressing wide range of applications such as cameras, remote controls wireless mouse and telecommunication modules. As these products offer high security benefits when compared to traditional ones, manufacturers are now increasing their focus on its implementation in surveillance systems and various multimedia devices such as tablets and mobile phones. Rising integration of these products in smartphones for iris recognition is anticipated to be an emerging trend in IR LED market growth. Furthermore, potential implementation of these devices in CCTVs (close circuit televisions) and surveillance systems is forecast to boost the industry demand from 2016 to 2023. These devices are now greatly used in handheld devices for mobile payment technologies as well as identity verification. In addition, rising safety concerns among both developed and developing countries is forecast to drive demand for biometrics systems and surveillance devices. Other sectors such as defense, healthcare, residential and education are likely to positively impact demand. Major industry trends include emergence of smart technologies and escalating customer focus regarding safety and security. On the basis of application, the industry can be segmented into automotive, defense, consumer electronics, imaging, lighting, surveillance, & others. These devices are made of aluminum gallium arsenide or gallium arsenide. It has operating voltage of around 1.4 V and requires current less than 20 mA. It emits light at longer wavelength at a range of 760nm and hence it is invisible to the human eye. Automotive application is expected to record high growth rates due to massive implementation of sensors in vehicles. Rapid development of various technologies such as light tunnel and rain sensors will drive revenue. Other applications in automobiles include parking, lane detection, driver drowsiness and proximity sensors. Asia Pacific IR LED market is projected to witness substantial growth prospects over the forecast period. The regional growth can be attributed to increasing adoption and penetration of these products in a wide range of applications such as automotive, smartphone, surveillance systems, and other segments over the forecast period. Europe is likely to exhibit considerable rates owing to presence of significant automobile sector across the region. Regions facing political turmoil as well as social issues are forecast to have the highest contribution on the product demand through 2023.</p> </section>	Infrared LED market size is expected to grow at over CAGR 9% from 2016 to 2023 The automotive industry is to grow at over 10% CAGR from 2016 to 2023.Companies such as Osro Opto and Epitex cater to the surveillance segment. Surging adoption of electronic devices among consumers is likely to drive industry demand. Infrared LED market size is expected to grow at over CAGR 9% from 2016 to 2023. Surging adoption of electronic devices among consumers is likely to drive industry demand. Rapid growing popularity of these devices among consumer DIY (do-it-yourself) security cameras is also anticipated to contribute in global revenue. Surveillance applications were worth over USD 100 million in 2015, which find prominence in the near infrared LED market. Companies such as Osro Opto and Epitex cater to the surveillance segment. The automotive industry is predicted to grow at over 10% CAGR from 2016 to 2023. Browse Table Of Contents (TOC) of “3D Gaming Console Market Research Report”- https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/infrared-ir-led-market Industry players accumulating substantial global IR LED market share include Nichia, Kingbright Electronics, Osram Opto Semiconductors, Epistar, High Power Lighting, and Everlight Electronics. Other prominent players include Lextar Electronics, Royal Philips, Excelitas Technologies, Opto Diode, Fluke, Ushio Epitex, Epileds, ROHM Semiconductors, Fairchild Semiconductors International, EPITEX, Larson Electronics, and High Power Lighting. The optoelectronics market size was more than USD 30 billion in 2015, which is set to exceed USD 55 billion by 2023. Rapid technology advancements accompanied by growing adoption of these products in various industry sectors such as defense, lighting, imaging, surveillance, automotive, as well as consumer electronics is anticipated to propel global infrared LED market growth from 2016 to 2023. Growing IR adoption can be credited to increasing implementation of LEDs, phototransistors as well as photodiodes. These devices are also known as infrared transmitters. Features offered such as low power consumption, low cost and high security benefits are predicted to fuel the infrared LED market share, over the next seven years. These devices are used in combination with receivers to produce infrared sensors owing to its ability of addressing wide range of applications such as cameras, remote controls wireless mouse and telecommunication modules. As these products offer high security benefits when compared to traditional ones, manufacturers are now increasing their focus on its implementation in surveillance systems and various multimedia devices such as tablets and mobile phones. Rising integration of these products in smartphones for iris recognition is anticipated to be an emerging trend in IR LED market growth. Furthermore, potential implementation of these devices in CCTVs (close circuit televisions) and surveillance systems is forecast to boost the industry demand from 2016 to 2023. These devices are now greatly used in handheld devices for mobile payment technologies as well as identity verification. In addition, rising safety concerns among both developed and developing countries is forecast to drive demand for biometrics systems and surveillance devices. Other sectors such as defense, healthcare, residential and education are likely to positively impact demand. Major industry trends include emergence of smart technologies and escalating customer focus regarding safety and security. On the basis of application, the industry can be segmented into automotive, defense, consumer electronics, imaging, lighting, surveillance, & others. These devices are made of aluminum gallium arsenide or gallium arsenide. It has operating voltage of around 1.4 V and requires current less than 20 mA. It emits light at longer wavelength at a range of 760nm and hence it is invisible to the human eye. Automotive application is expected to record high growth rates due to massive implementation of sensors in vehicles. Rapid development of various technologies such as light tunnel and rain sensors will drive revenue. Other applications in automobiles include parking, lane detection, driver drowsiness and proximity sensors. Asia Pacific IR LED market is projected to witness substantial growth prospects over the forecast period. The regional growth can be attributed to increasing adoption and penetration of these products in a wide range of applications such as automotive, smartphone, surveillance systems, and other segments over the forecast period. Europe is likely to exhibit considerable rates owing to presence of significant automobile sector across the region. Regions facing political turmoil as well as social issues are forecast to have the highest contribution on the product demand through 2023.	bfdd3e84-7c5a-53e4-bf90-85d1b07f0f36	25/08/2025 16:01:43
https://medium.com/@roshtaylor69/space-frames-illinois-9a28348a1d0b	medium.com	Space Frames — Illinois	Space frames form a very strong, thick, flexible structural fabric that can be used horizontally or vertically. Space frames is an…	Rosh Taylor	https://medium.com/@roshtaylor69	9a28348a1d0b	null	0 min	2018-02-26T05:15:29.574000	2018-02-26T05:16:36.592000	2018-02-26T05:16:37.371000	0	0	en	Architects,Designers,Illinois	<section> <p>Space frames form a very strong, thick, flexible structural fabric that can be used horizontally or vertically. <strong><a href="http://dsispaceframes.c</strong>om/">Space frames is an architectural</a> solution with some qualities well differentiated over different type of structures.</p> </section>	Space Frames — Illinois Space frames form a very strong, thick, flexible structural fabric that can be used horizontally or vertically. Space frames is an architectural solution with some qualities well differentiated over different type of structures.	4d931f5e-a297-5dcb-858d-9f85648bb8cf	25/08/2025 16:01:43
https://aremusmog.medium.com/you-should-call-rexxie-3c11574a5cad	medium.com	You should call Rexxie	Most ideas will die if you don’t take any steps;	Aremu Oluwagbamila (SMOG)	https://medium.com/@aremusmog	3c11574a5cad	null	0 min	2023-02-04T16:47:20.270000	2023-02-04T18:49:04.977000	2023-06-04T19:27:27.823000	0	21	en	Life Lessons,Ruminations,Life	<section> <p>Most ideas will die if you don’t take any steps;</p> <p>Not all ideas are great;</p> <p>Most ideas even after execution won’t give the desired result;</p> <p>Some will ‘blow’</p> <p>Some others will ‘slow’</p> <p>But no matter what, you have to ‘show’ — put in the work.</p> <p>Honestly, you should call Rexxie</p> <p>…or whoever cares to listen</p> <p>Whoever would not discourage you</p> <p>Someone who despite how crazy it sounds to them would say: “go for it”</p> <p>After all, you can’t be successful at everything you do</p> <p>It’s not primary school bro</p> <p>No one cares about who came first</p> <p>So, please call Rexxie.</p> <p>This article/poem was inspired by <a href="https://twitter.com/O_victortimi">Rexx</a></p> <p>When I am not ranting like this. I make <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@webboss">YouTube videos</a>. Kindly sub to my channel😭</p> </section>	You should call Rexxie Most ideas will die if you don’t take any steps; Not all ideas are great; Most ideas even after execution won’t give the desired result; Some will ‘blow’ Some others will ‘slow’ But no matter what, you have to ‘show’ — put in the work. Honestly, you should call Rexxie …or whoever cares to listen Whoever would not discourage you Someone who despite how crazy it sounds to them would say: “go for it” After all, you can’t be successful at everything you do It’s not primary school bro No one cares about who came first So, please call Rexxie. This article/poem was inspired by Rexx When I am not ranting like this. I make YouTube videos. Kindly sub to my channel😭	1401a6f3-644c-542d-8bfd-3688fb3ddef0	25/08/2025 16:01:43
https://medium.com/hackernoon/stop-writing-reactive-gherkin-scenarios-go-outside-in-5446718fc1a3	medium.com	Stop Writing Reactive Gherkin Scenarios. Go Outside-In!	A Simple Guide to Outside-In Scenario Outlines	Kamil Nicieja	https://medium.com/@kamil	5446718fc1a3	https://miro.medium.com/…JAGeV705lwA.jpeg	7 min	2017-02-07T19:22:11.711000	2017-02-07T20:23:03.947000	2019-05-02T07:07:35.411000	0	83	en	Software Development,Testing,Agile,Requirements,Tdd	<section> <h3>A Simple Guide to Outside-In Scenario Outlines</h3> <p>(The article is excerpted from my book, <em><a href="https://www.manning.c</em>om/books/writing-great-specifications">Writing Great Specifications.</a> Today, you can get <em>WGS</em> 39% off—check out the ending of the post.)</p> <p>As people who are familiar with <a href="https://github.com/cucumber/cucumber/wiki/Gherkin">Gherkin</a> or <a href="https://cucumber.io">Cucumber</a> probably already know, <a href="https://hackernoon.com/tagged/scenario">Scenario</a> Outlines are templates for similar scenarios. But what the same people <em>don’t </em>know is that the method that they have been most probably using to create their Outlines is reactive instead of proactive. In this article, I am going to show you a proactive way for writing Scenario Outlines in <a href="https://hackernoon.com/tagged/gherkin">Gherkin</a>.</p> <p>Thanks to Scenario Outlines, you don’t have to repeat the same Given-When-Thens in your feature files.</p> <p>So if we have two scenarios that are very similar</p> <pre><code class="language-">Feature: Shipping</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-">Scenario: Shipping PDFs</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-">Given a PDF book in Simona’s cart When she pays for it Then the book should be sent to a mobile device</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-">Scenario: Shipping audiobooks</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-">Given an audiobook in Simona’s cart When she pays for it Then the book should be sent over email</code></pre> <p>we can easily merge them into a single Scenario Outline with two examples like that</p> <pre><code class="language-">Feature: Shipping</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-">Scenario: Shipping methods</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-">Given a <format> book in Simona’s cart When she pays for it Then the book should be <shipped></code></pre> <pre><code class="language-">Examples: \| format \| shipped \| \| PDF \| sent to a mobile device \| \| audiobook \| sent over email \|</code></pre> <p>Merging redundant scenarios is one way of creating Scenario Outlines, but it’s not the only one. I like to call the other way <em>an outside-in method for writing Scenario Outlines.</em></p> <blockquote>An <strong>outside-in Scenario Outline</strong> is written directly out of examples collected by the team during analysis, rather than by merging similar scenarios.</blockquote> <p>The outside-in method consists of two steps:</p> <p>collect real-world examples for your specification in the form of a table;</p> <p>write the Scenario Outline based on the table, adjusting the steps and parameters to the data.</p> <p>The outside-in method requires you to analyze examples first and write scenarios later. The table you create in the first step doesn’t even have to be a Gherkin table. It can be a simple spreadsheet created in Excel. The merging method, on the other hand, assumes evolving scenarios into Scenario Outlines only if you notice redundancy and the specification becomes difficult to manage. In that sense, the outside-in method is much more proactive than the merging method—and since it’s better to be a proactive delivery team than a reactive one, outside-in Scenario Outlines can end up becoming a great asset to your development efforts.</p> <h3>Introducing some business context</h3> <p>For the purposes of this article, imagine that you work for a company based around an e-commerce shopping application like Amazon. This company wants to be <em>the</em> online retailer of books, movies, music and games along with electronics, toys, apparel, sports, tools, groceries, and garden items. Selling books was the original purpose of the company. After that, it decided on expansion, adding products such as e-readers, tablets, and headphones, chosen to fit into the store’s reading landscape. Now we have to deal with shipping all these different kinds of products. There’s still a lot of work ahead, and the business is already diverse — and, thankfully, full of different examples to work with for the purposes of writing scenarios.</p> <h1>1. Collect examples in a table</h1> <p>To derive a Scenario Outline from examples, we first need some examples. And to get examples, we need a new feature to implement. Thankfully, our theoretical company owners can happily oblige. The company’s current priority is to get more items into the store, to expand the marketplace. Negotiating with big publishers and producers proved to be difficult, and the management wants to open the store to individual merchants who could sell both new and used items. The merchants would benefit from our advanced shipping infrastructure — and we’d take a cut from their profits.</p> <p>After some analysis, sales and marketing agreed upon a pricing model that works under the following rules:</p> <ul> <li>merchants can create their accounts and list new items for free;</li> <li>we take a cut after the item is successfully sold;</li> <li>our cut depends on the purchaser’s shipping location, because merchants must pay for access to the global customer database made available thanks to our shipping infrastructure.</li> </ul> <p>Let’s now settle on the price ranges and remake our list into the draft of the examples table (Table 1). The commission was designed based on shipping distances from our US operations base and our infrastructure in each region.</p> <p><strong>Table 1</strong></p> <p>This table could be the result of a conversation between the non-technical stakeholders from sales and marketing and the delivery team of programmers, testers, and designers. One doesn’t need any technical skill to create or understand it, because there’s no Gherkin involved yet. If you fear that Scenario Outlines are too technical, you can keep your examples at the non-technical level during your specification workshops. There’s nothing wrong with that.</p> <h2>2. Derive Given-When-Thens out of the collected examples</h2> <p>Now that we have our Examples table, we can write the Given-When-Thens. To do that, we need to find a scenario template that works well with the structure of our table. For example, can you see that the Region row is like a question and the Commission row is like an answer to each question?</p> <ul> <li>North America? We take 10% of the purchase.</li> <li>South America? The cut is 11.4%.</li> <li>Europe and Asia? The commission is 12.9%.</li> <li>Africa? Be ready to give away 13.5%.</li> </ul> <p>From a technical point of view, the questions define the state of the system before we decide how much of a commission to take — and the answers define an outcome based on the chosen state. System states are described by Givens and the outcomes should be written as Thens. We already have two-thirds of our scenario ready to write down!</p> <pre><code class="language-">Given a purchase from <region> Then we should take <commission> of the price</code></pre> <p>That certainly looks promising, but because this is a scenario about sellers, and not buyers, we could add another Given, which specifies that a merchant is our main actor. We can call the smaller shop Quick-Ship, for example.</p> <pre><code class="language-">Given a merchant called Quick-Ship And a purchase from <region> Then we should take <commission> of the price</code></pre> <p>With these three steps, we only need one more, which will specify the main action of the scenario.</p> <pre><code class="language-">Given a merchant called Quick-Ship And a purchase from <region> When Quick-Ship gets paid for the purchase Then we should take <commission> of the price</code></pre> <h2>3. Add the table to your scenario</h2> <p>The last thing we need to do is combine the Examples table we prepared earlier with the Given-When-Thens, and add remaining keywords like Feature or Scenario Outline.</p> <pre><code class="language-">Feature: Selling items through individual merchants</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-">Scenario Outline: Merchant commissions</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-">Given a merchant called Quick-Ship And a purchase from <region> When Quick-Ship gets paid for the purchase Then we should take <commission> of the price</code></pre> <pre><code class="language-">Examples: \| region \| commission \| \| North America \| 10% \| \| South America \| 11.4% \| \| Europe \| 12.9% \| \| Asia \| 12.9% \| \| Africa \| 13.5% \|</code></pre> <p>As you see, with a little creativity, we easily arrived at a complete Scenario Outline. Choosing examples to derive our Outlines is a separate art, though, and one that requires a lot more space to cover appropriately — so we won’t be covering it in this article. But for now, we know how to write outside-in Scenario Outlines!</p> <h2>4. Profit!</h2> <p>Generally, I prefer the outside-in method. Scenario Outlines made from merging often look too programmatic, which makes business people reluctant to read the Outlines. I think it has something to do with the “Don’t Repeat Yourself” principle, which is the founding principle of the merging technique. The cost of elegant structure and removed redundancy is often sacrificing Gherkin’s natural language and putting too many things into brackets and parameters. In contrast, the outside-in method puts emphasis on a gradual evolution from a non-Gherkin table, which any non-technical person can read, to a Gherkin scenario, which they don’t need if they read the examples. This evolution often makes the resulting Outline look more natural.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/255/14MvQTbO_dwJJAGeV705lwA.jpeg" width="255" height="320" loading="lazy" /> <p>For more on scenarios, Scenario Outlines, Gherkin, and what they can do to help your business run like a top, <strong>download the free first chapter of <em><a href="https://www.mann</strong>ing.</em>com/books/writing-great-specifications">Writing Great Specifications</a>.</p> <h3>Get WGS for a third of the price!</h3> <p>You can also read my presentation on <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/thion/specifications-for-the-real-world">Slideshare</a> to find a 39% discount code!</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1136/10hqOaABQ7XGPT-OYNgiUBg.png" width="1136" height="572" loading="lazy" /> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1136/1Vgw1jkA6hgnvwzTsfMlnpg.png" width="1136" height="572" loading="lazy" /> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1136/1gKBpq1ruUi0FVK2UM_I4tQ.png" width="1136" height="572" loading="lazy" /> <p><a href="http://bit.ly/Hackernoon">Hacker Noon</a> is how hackers start their afternoons. We’re a part of the <a href="http://bit.ly/atAMIatAMI">@AMI</a> family. We are now <a href="http://bit.ly/hackernoonsubmission">accepting submissions</a> and happy to <a href="mailto:[email protected]">discuss advertising & sponsorship</a> opportunities.</p> <p>If you enjoyed this story, we recommend reading our <a href="http://bit.ly/hackernoonlatestt">latest tech stories</a> and <a href="https://hackernoon.com/trending">trending tech stories</a>. Until next time, don’t take the realities of the world for granted!</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/15000/1*35tCjoPcvq6LbB3I6Wegqw.jpeg" width="15000" height="1800" loading="lazy" /> <p></p> </section>	Stop Writing Reactive Gherkin Scenarios. Go Outside-In! A Simple Guide to Outside-In Scenario Outlines (The article is excerpted from my book, Writing Great Specifications. Today, you can get WGS 39% off—check out the ending of the post.) As people who are familiar with Gherkin or Cucumber probably already know, Scenario Outlines are templates for similar scenarios. But what the same people don’t know is that the method that they have been most probably using to create their Outlines is reactive instead of proactive. In this article, I am going to show you a proactive way for writing Scenario Outlines in Gherkin. Thanks to Scenario Outlines, you don’t have to repeat the same Given-When-Thens in your feature files. So if we have two scenarios that are very similar Feature: Shipping Scenario: Shipping PDFs Given a PDF book in Simona’s cart When she pays for it Then the book should be sent to a mobile device Scenario: Shipping audiobooks Given an audiobook in Simona’s cart When she pays for it Then the book should be sent over email we can easily merge them into a single Scenario Outline with two examples like that Feature: Shipping Scenario: Shipping methods Given a <format> book in Simona’s cart When she pays for it Then the book should be <shipped> Examples: \| format \| shipped \| \| PDF \| sent to a mobile device \| \| audiobook \| sent over email \| Merging redundant scenarios is one way of creating Scenario Outlines, but it’s not the only one. I like to call the other way an outside-in method for writing Scenario Outlines. An outside-in Scenario Outline is written directly out of examples collected by the team during analysis, rather than by merging similar scenarios. The outside-in method consists of two steps: collect real-world examples for your specification in the form of a table; write the Scenario Outline based on the table, adjusting the steps and parameters to the data. The outside-in method requires you to analyze examples first and write scenarios later. The table you create in the first step doesn’t even have to be a Gherkin table. It can be a simple spreadsheet created in Excel. The merging method, on the other hand, assumes evolving scenarios into Scenario Outlines only if you notice redundancy and the specification becomes difficult to manage. In that sense, the outside-in method is much more proactive than the merging method—and since it’s better to be a proactive delivery team than a reactive one, outside-in Scenario Outlines can end up becoming a great asset to your development efforts. Introducing some business context For the purposes of this article, imagine that you work for a company based around an e-commerce shopping application like Amazon. This company wants to be the online retailer of books, movies, music and games along with electronics, toys, apparel, sports, tools, groceries, and garden items. Selling books was the original purpose of the company. After that, it decided on expansion, adding products such as e-readers, tablets, and headphones, chosen to fit into the store’s reading landscape. Now we have to deal with shipping all these different kinds of products. There’s still a lot of work ahead, and the business is already diverse — and, thankfully, full of different examples to work with for the purposes of writing scenarios. 1. Collect examples in a table To derive a Scenario Outline from examples, we first need some examples. And to get examples, we need a new feature to implement. Thankfully, our theoretical company owners can happily oblige. The company’s current priority is to get more items into the store, to expand the marketplace. Negotiating with big publishers and producers proved to be difficult, and the management wants to open the store to individual merchants who could sell both new and used items. The merchants would benefit from our advanced shipping infrastructure — and we’d take a cut from their profits. After some analysis, sales and marketing agreed upon a pricing model that works under the following rules: merchants can create their accounts and list new items for free; we take a cut after the item is successfully sold; our cut depends on the purchaser’s shipping location, because merchants must pay for access to the global customer database made available thanks to our shipping infrastructure. Let’s now settle on the price ranges and remake our list into the draft of the examples table (Table 1). The commission was designed based on shipping distances from our US operations base and our infrastructure in each region. Table 1 This table could be the result of a conversation between the non-technical stakeholders from sales and marketing and the delivery team of programmers, testers, and designers. One doesn’t need any technical skill to create or understand it, because there’s no Gherkin involved yet. If you fear that Scenario Outlines are too technical, you can keep your examples at the non-technical level during your specification workshops. There’s nothing wrong with that. 2. Derive Given-When-Thens out of the collected examples Now that we have our Examples table, we can write the Given-When-Thens. To do that, we need to find a scenario template that works well with the structure of our table. For example, can you see that the Region row is like a question and the Commission row is like an answer to each question? North America? We take 10% of the purchase. South America? The cut is 11.4%. Europe and Asia? The commission is 12.9%. Africa? Be ready to give away 13.5%. From a technical point of view, the questions define the state of the system before we decide how much of a commission to take — and the answers define an outcome based on the chosen state. System states are described by Givens and the outcomes should be written as Thens. We already have two-thirds of our scenario ready to write down! Given a purchase from <region> Then we should take <commission> of the price That certainly looks promising, but because this is a scenario about sellers, and not buyers, we could add another Given, which specifies that a merchant is our main actor. We can call the smaller shop Quick-Ship, for example. Given a merchant called Quick-Ship And a purchase from <region> Then we should take <commission> of the price With these three steps, we only need one more, which will specify the main action of the scenario. Given a merchant called Quick-Ship And a purchase from <region> When Quick-Ship gets paid for the purchase Then we should take <commission> of the price 3. Add the table to your scenario The last thing we need to do is combine the Examples table we prepared earlier with the Given-When-Thens, and add remaining keywords like Feature or Scenario Outline. Feature: Selling items through individual merchants Scenario Outline: Merchant commissions Given a merchant called Quick-Ship And a purchase from <region> When Quick-Ship gets paid for the purchase Then we should take <commission> of the price Examples: \| region \| commission \| \| North America \| 10% \| \| South America \| 11.4% \| \| Europe \| 12.9% \| \| Asia \| 12.9% \| \| Africa \| 13.5% \| As you see, with a little creativity, we easily arrived at a complete Scenario Outline. Choosing examples to derive our Outlines is a separate art, though, and one that requires a lot more space to cover appropriately — so we won’t be covering it in this article. But for now, we know how to write outside-in Scenario Outlines! 4. Profit! Generally, I prefer the outside-in method. Scenario Outlines made from merging often look too programmatic, which makes business people reluctant to read the Outlines. I think it has something to do with the “Don’t Repeat Yourself” principle, which is the founding principle of the merging technique. The cost of elegant structure and removed redundancy is often sacrificing Gherkin’s natural language and putting too many things into brackets and parameters. In contrast, the outside-in method puts emphasis on a gradual evolution from a non-Gherkin table, which any non-technical person can read, to a Gherkin scenario, which they don’t need if they read the examples. This evolution often makes the resulting Outline look more natural. For more on scenarios, Scenario Outlines, Gherkin, and what they can do to help your business run like a top, download the free first chapter of Writing Great Specifications. Get WGS for a third of the price! You can also read my presentation on Slideshare to find a 39% discount code! Hacker Noon is how hackers start their afternoons. We’re a part of the @AMI family. We are now accepting submissions and happy to discuss advertising & sponsorship opportunities. If you enjoyed this story, we recommend reading our latest tech stories and trending tech stories. Until next time, don’t take the realities of the world for granted!	65c1d2b4-5a89-5521-877f-be3f30467acc	25/08/2025 16:02:02
https://medium.com/rang-de/replacing-the-n-in-ngo-8f06d41694d3	medium.com	Replacing the ’N’ in NGO!	null	Rang De	https://medium.com/@RangDe	8f06d41694d3	null	1 min	2016-06-13T05:05:49.272000	2012-07-26T06:53:33	2016-06-14T05:45:19.783000	0	0	en	Government,Ngos	<section> <pre><code class="language-">By Ramakrishna NK, Rang De Team Member</code></pre> <p>For decades now, thousands of NGOs have been working across the globe to make this world a better place. Think about it, if all of us NGOs put together were indeed working efficiently, there should have been a remarkable acceleration in solving some of the most pressing problems. In reality we are far from there. Often, NGOs are left with no option but to dedicate a significant amount of their time in raising resources. The resources are never enough to meet the needs of the society,especially in developing nations such as India.</p> <p>If at all there is one body that has the resources and the bandwidth to create an impact and solve these problems, it is the government. A glance at some of the schemes that have been launched by the government to address issues and the budgets allocated to these will give us a sense of the scale. The sheer scale which a government initiative can reach is almost unimaginable for us NGOs.</p> <p>So, here we are in an imperfect situation. Organisations that have good intent but no resources on one hand and on the other the government which has been elected to power by the people and has the resources to do what it wants but not necessarily the intent.</p> <p>The perfect solution for the problem would be for NGOs to work closely with the government and ensure that its schemes are implemented. Where the government’s intention fails, that’s where an NGO’s goodwill can make a huge difference.</p> <p>I often think that the ’N’ in NGO alienates non-profit organisations from the government. The irony is that it is important that organisations are for-government and try and work alongside it. This complimentary approach will help address the problem more effectively.</p> </section>	Replacing the ’N’ in NGO! By Ramakrishna NK, Rang De Team Member For decades now, thousands of NGOs have been working across the globe to make this world a better place. Think about it, if all of us NGOs put together were indeed working efficiently, there should have been a remarkable acceleration in solving some of the most pressing problems. In reality we are far from there. Often, NGOs are left with no option but to dedicate a significant amount of their time in raising resources. The resources are never enough to meet the needs of the society,especially in developing nations such as India. If at all there is one body that has the resources and the bandwidth to create an impact and solve these problems, it is the government. A glance at some of the schemes that have been launched by the government to address issues and the budgets allocated to these will give us a sense of the scale. The sheer scale which a government initiative can reach is almost unimaginable for us NGOs. So, here we are in an imperfect situation. Organisations that have good intent but no resources on one hand and on the other the government which has been elected to power by the people and has the resources to do what it wants but not necessarily the intent. The perfect solution for the problem would be for NGOs to work closely with the government and ensure that its schemes are implemented. Where the government’s intention fails, that’s where an NGO’s goodwill can make a huge difference. I often think that the ’N’ in NGO alienates non-profit organisations from the government. The irony is that it is important that organisations are for-government and try and work alongside it. This complimentary approach will help address the problem more effectively.	abcd9eba-2e57-5c97-a9e4-11b949ca0539	25/08/2025 16:02:03
https://medium.com/@ceovine/kuldip-purohit-co-founder-cbo-royal-brothers-c2ea432d5a6c	medium.com	Kuldip Purohit — Co-Founder & CBO, ROYAL BROTHERS	In the fast-paced world of entrepreneurship, there are those who dare to dream big and embark on a journey to revolutionize industries…	CEO VINE	https://medium.com/@ceovine	c2ea432d5a6c	https://miro.medium.com/…7sxwwpxW7kXA.png	3 min	2023-07-25T06:42:40.994000	2023-07-21T11:39:29.292000	2023-07-25T06:43:50.952000	0	0	en	Startup,Success Story,Business Development,Entrepreneurship,Business Owner	<section> <p>In the fast-paced world of entrepreneurship, there are those who dare to dream big and embark on a journey to revolutionize industries. Among these trailblazers is , the Co-founder and CBO of <a href="https://www.royalbrothers.com/">Royal Brothers </a>. With a vision to transform the way Indians commute, Royal Brothers team has taken the concept of mobility solutions to new heights, building India’s largest mobility solutions provider.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/600/1TT6HyF8D0C7sxwwpxW7kXA.png" width="600" height="600" loading="lazy" /> <p>Royal Brothers, founded in 2015, has grown to become a powerhouse in the industry. With a presence in 8 states, 23 cities, and even expanding internationally to 3 cities, the company is revolutionizing the way people think about transportation. “ <em><strong>We are obsessed with the concept of ‘Why buy when you ca</em>n rent’,</strong>” says Kuldip, highlighting the company’s commitment to offering convenient and affordable mobility options.</p> <p>Starting with just five motorcycles in Bangalore, Royal Brothers faced numerous challenges in its initial years. The biggest hurdle was capital, which they tackled through bootstrapping until 2019. However, the team’s unwavering focus on profitability and their dedicated approach helped them overcome these obstacles and build a trusted brand.</p> <p>Kuldip’s passion for business and his relentless pursuit of excellence have been instrumental in the company’s success. “ <em><strong>Right from my childhood days, I was fascinated by the business world, mergers, and acquisitions being my f</em>avorite,</strong>” he shares, emphasizing that entrepreneurship was his life’s calling.</p> <p>At the core of Royal Brothers’ success lies its commitment to quality and customer satisfaction. “ <em><strong>Our USP is our </em>quality,</strong>” says Kuldip. The company’s customer-centric approach ensures that every customer is treated like royalty and receives exactly what they have booked. This has earned them a loyal customer base and set them apart in the fiercely competitive market.</p> <p>Adaptability and innovation are also key drivers of Royal Brothers’ growth. Embracing technology has been an integral part of their strategy. They were among the first to introduce online payments and EVs in their fleet, demonstrating their vision for the future of mobility. During the challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic, they launched RBX, a subscription service that was groundbreaking in the rental industry.</p> <p>While Kuldip has made numerous difficult decisions throughout his journey, they take pride in steering the company through the turbulent waters of the pandemic without letting go of any team members. This unwavering commitment to the team’s well-being speaks volumes about their leadership.</p> <p>To maintain a work-life balance, he acknowledges the importance of spending quality time with family and engaging in activities that bring joy. Bike rides, vacations, reading, and regular workouts help him stay mentally and physically fit.</p> <p>Innovation and creativity are fostered within Royal Brothers by allowing team members to work fearlessly, making mistakes a learning experience, and encouraging open expression of ideas. They believe that true leadership involves leading by example and remaining disciplined and calm in the face of tough decisions.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/0QJ8RX6Is8Rp8uiSS.jpeg" width="1400" height="638" loading="lazy" /> <p>When asked about the future, Kuldip sees technology, especially AI and ML, playing a pivotal role in the bike rental industry. Automation will revolutionize parking and maintenance, while AI-based advertising will shape customer preferences and decision making.</p> <p>As a measure of success, Royal Brothers believe in setting realistic goals and focusing on the impact they create in the lives of others. For them, success is not about comparisons but about making a positive difference.</p> <p>In conclusion, Kuldip Purohit’s journey from a young entrepreneur with a dream to the Co-founder and CBO of Royal Brothers is nothing short of inspiring. His commitment to quality, innovation, and customer satisfaction has propelled the company to great heights.</p> <p>In the words of Mark Twain, “ <em><strong>The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find </em>out why.</strong>” Kuldip Purohit found his “why” in transforming India’s mobility landscape, and the impact he has made is both commendable and inspiring.</p> <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/80/0*G3laJvPVnUIoatO7" width="80" height="80" loading="lazy" /> <p>contributor</p> <p>Anu is an experienced writer specializing in entrepreneurship and business topics. With a passion for sharing the stories of successful entrepreneurs and business persons, she provide captivating narratives that inspire and motivate aspiring individuals.</p> <p><em>Originally published at <a href="https://www.ceovine.com/kuldip-p</em>urohit-co-founder-cbo-royal-brothers/">https://www.ceovine.com</a> on July 21, 2023.</p> </section>	Kuldip Purohit — Co-Founder & CBO, ROYAL BROTHERS In the fast-paced world of entrepreneurship, there are those who dare to dream big and embark on a journey to revolutionize industries. Among these trailblazers is , the Co-founder and CBO of Royal Brothers . With a vision to transform the way Indians commute, Royal Brothers team has taken the concept of mobility solutions to new heights, building India’s largest mobility solutions provider. Royal Brothers, founded in 2015, has grown to become a powerhouse in the industry. With a presence in 8 states, 23 cities, and even expanding internationally to 3 cities, the company is revolutionizing the way people think about transportation. “ We are obsessed with the concept of ‘Why buy when you can rent’,” says Kuldip, highlighting the company’s commitment to offering convenient and affordable mobility options. Starting with just five motorcycles in Bangalore, Royal Brothers faced numerous challenges in its initial years. The biggest hurdle was capital, which they tackled through bootstrapping until 2019. However, the team’s unwavering focus on profitability and their dedicated approach helped them overcome these obstacles and build a trusted brand. Kuldip’s passion for business and his relentless pursuit of excellence have been instrumental in the company’s success. “ Right from my childhood days, I was fascinated by the business world, mergers, and acquisitions being my favorite,” he shares, emphasizing that entrepreneurship was his life’s calling. At the core of Royal Brothers’ success lies its commitment to quality and customer satisfaction. “ Our USP is our quality,” says Kuldip. The company’s customer-centric approach ensures that every customer is treated like royalty and receives exactly what they have booked. This has earned them a loyal customer base and set them apart in the fiercely competitive market. Adaptability and innovation are also key drivers of Royal Brothers’ growth. Embracing technology has been an integral part of their strategy. They were among the first to introduce online payments and EVs in their fleet, demonstrating their vision for the future of mobility. During the challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic, they launched RBX, a subscription service that was groundbreaking in the rental industry. While Kuldip has made numerous difficult decisions throughout his journey, they take pride in steering the company through the turbulent waters of the pandemic without letting go of any team members. This unwavering commitment to the team’s well-being speaks volumes about their leadership. To maintain a work-life balance, he acknowledges the importance of spending quality time with family and engaging in activities that bring joy. Bike rides, vacations, reading, and regular workouts help him stay mentally and physically fit. Innovation and creativity are fostered within Royal Brothers by allowing team members to work fearlessly, making mistakes a learning experience, and encouraging open expression of ideas. They believe that true leadership involves leading by example and remaining disciplined and calm in the face of tough decisions. When asked about the future, Kuldip sees technology, especially AI and ML, playing a pivotal role in the bike rental industry. Automation will revolutionize parking and maintenance, while AI-based advertising will shape customer preferences and decision making. As a measure of success, Royal Brothers believe in setting realistic goals and focusing on the impact they create in the lives of others. For them, success is not about comparisons but about making a positive difference. In conclusion, Kuldip Purohit’s journey from a young entrepreneur with a dream to the Co-founder and CBO of Royal Brothers is nothing short of inspiring. His commitment to quality, innovation, and customer satisfaction has propelled the company to great heights. In the words of Mark Twain, “ The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” Kuldip Purohit found his “why” in transforming India’s mobility landscape, and the impact he has made is both commendable and inspiring. contributor Anu is an experienced writer specializing in entrepreneurship and business topics. With a passion for sharing the stories of successful entrepreneurs and business persons, she provide captivating narratives that inspire and motivate aspiring individuals. Originally published at https://www.ceovine.com on July 21, 2023.	3ef0b053-381b-5209-a7ff-bc51ca7e231c	25/08/2025 16:02:03

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