This pretty much represents the popular take on AI. Mind you, “popular take” is, as usual, the same as “realistic”. After all, , and if/when self-driving cars actually make their way into the real world, one of the things that they be is robust against errors at multiple levels.Heck, that’s pretty much the way work — our vision is pretty seriously fallible, but we correlate a lot of information to make sure that we don’t f**k up! particular episode of CommitStrip not when you’re designing robust systems, one of the very first things you’ll do is correct for signs that are missing, misplaced, or mis-identified will humans other Think about how you process visual feedback when driving. You are, unconsciously, running rules like these in your head all the time_• A sign saying “60 mph” in a residential neighborhood is clearly wrong_• And yes, . If you are wondering if it is a Street Sign or a Banana, go with Street Sign• It doesn’t matter what it is, if it is in the middle of the freeway, slow down, and then stop that’s exactly what any kind of robust AI will be doing too The reality, however, is that there is a deeper and far more insidious problem at play — that of biases in the models and training data used to actually create the AIs 🤬. You’ve, no doubt, seen the recent articles about , right? They trained it based upon their own recruiting and hiring history, and — surprise! — they ended up with a system that skewed overwhelmingly towards hiring men. Which wasn’t particularly surprising, because that’s kinda the way Tech culture used to be.¹ Amazon’s ill-fated attempt at building out an AI powered recruiting tool . In fact, dark-skinned women faring the worst, Or, far worse, when it comes to facial recognition, commercial products from IBM, Microsoft, and Face++, and found disparities when analyzing darker-skinned people huge with error rates of almost 35%, as compared to < 1% for light-skinned men!!! Worst of all, it turns out that — the point being that the context around how the problem space is defined will — irretrievably — affect the outcome of your system. Context really key when it comes to how these systems get designed 🤯. when it comes to risk-scoring, it is mathematically impossible to actually be “fair” across multiple groups is In short, I’m not particularly concerned about cars driving into traffic signs. What I worry about is self-driving taxis that won’t pick up dark-skinned people in the US (because…crime), or women in Saudi Arabia (because…culture), etc. Because, if there is one things that we humans are good at, it’s weaponizing the shortcomings of technology. ( anyone?) has powered any number of bots, who knows what kind of , oh, the list goes on. do The really bad security on IoT devices admin/admin badness is being caused by electronic voting machines So yeah, before we freak out about self-driving cars driving into road-signs, we might want to think about the choices and contexts around the way the AIs in these cars have been designed… Re: Amazon’s recruiting/AI debacle, the issue was a bit more nuanced, but the gist pretty much is “bad data in, bad data out”. ( This article also appears on my blog )

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The *Real* Threat of “Bad AI”

Iterate Fast With Ktor In I outlined how to deploy an AppEngine app by deploying a file. Since then Google has listened to mobile devs needing to build server side solutions and has launched . part 1 .jar Kotlin on Google Cloud Platform _With the Skills You Already Have_hackernoon.com Deploy A Backend App As An Android Engineer One of the highlighted solutions is Ktor, which allows a standalone backend app in Kotlin that can interact with other libraries just as one would on the client side. The great thing about Ktor is with Guava, which is still a mystery, are less of an issue because the code runs similar to how it would on an IDE in that you can define the main method of the app and let it run. obscure library compatibility issues like this one The Google Cloud Platform documentation has room for improvement. I went through 2 other configuration tutorials, and AppEngine setups in order to realize Ktor was what I needed to deploy a Kotlin app to run server tasks without endpoints. Standard Flexible Despite Jars being slow to work with I still am using a Jar deploy for some use cases. For instance, authenticating with Firebase is straightforward and reliable with service accounts used in Jars, whereas with ktor there is with authentication that I’ve discovered. this issue Jars are Janky ~10–20 min deploy times. Must rebuild .jar every time to test new code or different environment types. Library incompatibility issues. Tutorial: Run a Kotlin Ktor app on Google App Engine Standard This tutorial was quick, clear, and concise. I highly recommend it! One aspect it left out is versioning which is important as I like to have a and version deployed to AppEngine. staging production File Notes build.gradle App Engine Gradle Plugin Tasks and Properties Find latest version of Ktor to use: . github.com/ktorio/ktor/releases buildscript {    ext.ktor_version = ' ' } 1.0.0 ... Defining AppEngine version: appengine {    deploy {        version = '1-2-0'    }} ClassWithMainMethod.kt In order to run the method from your IDE such as IntelliJ you need to comment out the method and use a main method within an Object IntelliJ can configure from In order to run with AppEngine and deploy use the method. main Application.main Run/Debug Configurations. Application.main import io.ktor.application.Application fun Application.main() {// App logic here.} Run with IntelliJ: object Initialization {@JvmStaticfun main(args: Array<String>) {// App logic here.}} sample uses: appengine-web.xml Specify Java 8 runtime Scaling Resource files using include SSL enabled (HTTP vs HTTPs) : Under sample use: web.xml src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/ web.xml: defines mappings between URL paths and the servlets that handle requests with those paths Managing SDK Configurations Rather than building artifacts in IntelliJ repeatedly the command line can quickly help you create and navigate between AppEngine projects, run your app to test, and deploy to the server. See this to make use of this. terminal commands guide I’m Adam Hurwitz — hit the clapping hands icon and check out the rest of my writing if you enjoyed the above. Thanks for reading! Resources GCP Install the latest Cloud Tools… Quickstart GCP console AppEngine Pricing IntelliJ Configuring your development environment Creating a new App Engine project Adding (GCP) Framework Support (to IntelliJ) Creating a new (IntelliJ) application (to use with GCP) Checking out an existing (IntelliJ) project (to use with GCP) Kotlin Run a Kotlin Ktor app on Google App Engine Standard App Engine Gradle Plugin Tasks and Properties github.com/ktorio/ktor-samples Logging Console ktor Kotlin on Google Cloud Platform Communities Discuss Google Cloud Platform Cloud Connect Community Google Cloud Platform Support stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/google-cloud-kotlin Cloud Kotlin Google Group github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kotlin-samples github.com/GoogleApis github.com/google-cloud-java github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform github.com/app-gradle-plugin

Google

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Deploy A Backend App As An Android Engineer — Part 2

Apple

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Why ‘think small’ makes sense with TVs

My Hometown — Its still hard to have internet access here. I get asked a lot about how I could be like what I am now. “How could you learn programming so easily?” “How could you be so good at programming?” “How could you understand such problem?” “Why are you so good at this and that?’ And such. Most of the time, I would say, “keep learning”. Yes, its the truth. My Journey Before Software Engineering I was lucky to have a family that supports me. I have a brother who let me touch his computer and play with it. It was the good old days of Windows 98. I would play with the screensaver (remember that pipe screensaver?), draw with paint, or play games. Then there was this cool movie about hacker. Not that I know anything about hacking, but it looks cool. So with the computer turned off, I imagine myself hacking. Pressing that keyboard randomly. Then my brother installed Windows XP. Even though I dont understand the difference between XP and 98. I remembered playing Rockman/Megaman game. Then my brother moved to another city to study about design. When he got home, he brought a book with him, it was Macromedia Flash Tutorial. I was 9 years old, and as a kid, seeing those flashy animations intrigues me. I learned to create moving sphere, quizes (remember Parampaa?), etc. Its a whole new world for me, everything seems cool, until I encountered ActionScript. I don’t know what was that, why do I have to write it. I dont even understand the meaning of the script that I wrote. Then my brother brought another book, it was about 3DS Max. I learned 3D modelling and rendering. I tried to render the dragon example from 3DS Max. It was an old PC with no graphic card, it took an hour to render it. Only to found that I don’t know how to specify the output of the render. My father was a musician, so was my brother. I learned to play guitar, keyboard, and drum. That day, I imagine that I would be musician and be famous. Never in my mind, I imagine that I would be a software engineer. I wrote several songs, formed a band with my junior high school friends. We performed on a local concert, it feels great to be famous. The Pause The musician life and the student life, is not a good combination for me. I feels like I am starting to do worse on my study. I am having difficulty learning math, and it was my last year on junior high. I don’t remember exactly how, who, what, or when. But I know that I had to go the internet cafe, and type “Virtual Basic”. Yes, “virtual”. I am thankful to Google for correcting me to “Visual Basic”. I dont remember how, but I feel like I have to learn programming. Especially when I was having problem with my math class. I knew programming could help me solve this math homework even faster. That day, I paused my life as a musician and student. I’d go to school, learn what I can. When I got home, I would pack and ride my cycle to the nearest internet cafe. Spending my afternoon, reading through programming tutorials. I remember it was this website, https://www.vbtutor.net/vbtutor.html. I spent most of my first time learning programming to develop a solution for my math homework. It was a simple program to solve algebra, calculate area, volume, etc. Hard Journey to Software Engineering I don’t have a strong math background, I don’t know anything at all about programming. My brother is a designer, my father is a musician. No one in my family that could provide me with a clue about programming. I live in an isolated village. No internet at home, the internet cafe is 20 minutes away with my bicycle. I don’t have any friends who could help me on this subject. I knew this will be hard, but not for a moment I hesitated that I can’t do this. I know I can, I prayed I can, I hope I can. From that day on. I would go to the internet cafe, download few html pages of the tutorial websites, and practiced at home. With internet speed of about 35KBps — 75KBps, it took me many hours to download development software such as Visual Studio. I would fail, there would be error messages that I don’t understand. Having no internet at home means I have to fix it alone, or wait until tomorrow to search about it on the internet. Sometimes, I can fix it, sometimes I have to wait for tomorrow. I spent so many days reading tutorials. I spent so many days practiced. But nothing beats the sensation of seeing my program runs. Every button’s on click event, every alert message visible, it makes me happy. I encountered Object Oriented Programming. It was confusing. I signed for an evening class of programming. Only to found that the class teaches basics programming. Such as if statemenets, for statements, and something like that. Luckily, the lecturer of the class recommended me to go to a vocational high school. The school is famous for having a good software engineering class. So I decided to go there. I applied and got accepted. Even though the school already taught me software engineering related knowledge during class. I still can’t stop learning on my own pace. So I still spent my afternoon reading tutorials. Spent my night practicing my programming skills. I eventually understand what OOP is all about. I learned about how framework works, how such library works, how part of my code works. I avoid framework and library whenever possible. Not because I hate them, but because I was scared, if I was in an environment without internet such as my hometown. What could I do? That fears gradually fade, I moved to a city with better internet connection. I learned how to use certain frameworks to speed up my work. I wasn’t born as a programmer, no one was. I didn’t spend 30 minutes reading tutorials and immediately understand. I spent years, learning and practicing. It doesn’t happen overnight. So for any programmer who feels like they can’t do it. YOU CAN. The learning process is the most important experience that you will learn. Your failure, is as important as your success. Keep learning, keep practicing. It applies to anything, not only on software engineering. You can be great because of your hard work, of learning, and praciting. It doesn’t matter whether you are passionate or not. Passionate people without hard work won’t do much. Passionate people do work hard, they just do it with smiles on their face. I can be what I am now, because of my hard work. Or, was it? Would I be a software engineer, if my brother did not decide to teach me Windows 98? Would I be a software engineer, if my family did not bought us a computer? Would I be a software engineer, if my brother did not decide to bought me book of Macromedia Flash and 3DS Max? Would I be a software engineer, if my lecturer did not recommend me to that vocational high school? Would I be a software engineer, if my family did not choose to support me on the vocational high school? Would I be a software engineer, if one of my colleague did not introduced me to a better company? Would I be what I am now, if my brother, family, friends, and partner wasn’t here to support me? Sometimes, I wonder. I could do good with hard work. But I would never do great, without my family, friends, and partner. Things that we take for granted, yet most impactful in our life. I can be what I am now, because of my God, family, friends, partner, and hard work that will be easy. Because of them. So, thank you. To all of you.

Hard Work — How I Become a Software Engineer.

One of the features that we at Propeller miss in Draft.js out-of-the-box is the possibility to clear the stylings of selected text, leaving plain text inside the editor. We believe this behaviour is commonly used and our users may expect this feature to be on it’s place. As always in order to add this feature you would need to spend significant amount of time digging into in order to find required information. Draft.js documentation This post describes what steps you should take in order to add this behaviour into your project. TL;DR As always, there is a available for you not to implement everything manually. npm package All editing in Draft.js may be divided into 3 groups: Inline styles Custom entities(for example images, links etc.) Block types In order to clean the text up we need to take care of all of these groups. Inline Styles This one is pretty simple. First, we need to define a list of styles which we support in the project (in our case — Bold, Italic and Underline texts). Next, we need to call a method called of module that comes as a part of Draft.js package. Obviously enough, this method allows us to remove specified inline style from the selected range. So we need to call it for each item of our array. removeInlineStyles Modifier styles To simplify the code, we would use method here. If you are not familiar with it — you can read about it . reduce here Note that we use 2 different here — the argument we pass in the function which represents current state of the editor and which should be imported from Draft.js itself along with module. editorStates EditorState Modifier method is used to create a new object with applied as a content of the editor. push EditorState contentWithoutStyles Note the third parameter we pass to method(a string ). This parameter is called and Draft.js uses it to specify a correct undo/redo behaviour. This particular one means that inline style has been applied or removed for one or more characters. push change-inline-style changeType Entities This one is even easier. We don’t need to build any additional array of styles or use any iteration functions. Instead we need to call method of the exact same module. This method allows us to apply an entity to the selected range. In order to remove all entities we need to pass as a third argument to this function. applyEntity Modifier null And again you may notice that we use as a change type in call. This one means an entity has been applied or removed to one or more characters. apply-entity EditorState.push() Block Types The complex one. In order to remove different block types(headers, list items, code blocks etc.) from the selection range and preserve the text we need to change the type of each block to be . You can read more about what a block is and why it has different types . This post is not 100% actual nowadays but it gives right mindset to better understand how Draft.js works. unstyled here And the best way to change the type of block is to go through all of them and to call a change function for each singe one of them. First, we need to get all the blocks from the selection range. Here we may want to use method from package. getSelectedBlocksMap [draftjs-utils](https://github.com/jpuri/draftjs-utils) Next we need to detect whether we want to perform any action on the block. In our case we need to check the block type and we do so by calling method of the block. So if the block has any type ( ) — the block should be updated. getType blockType !== ‘unstyled’ Once we find a block to update we need to change it’s type. Here we need to update the selection range to select whole block(you can use text length here to set the end index of the selection range). Now we need to call method of module to update the type of the block and get new and then we need to push it to the . This functions expects to get a parameter which in our case should be as we want to wipe all of the edits. The change type for this operation is . I guess by now you get what it means :) setBlockType Modifier contentState EditorState blockType unstyled change-block-type Let’s combine it all together and use method to simplify the code so we run only once like we’ve done in section. reduce EditorState.push() Inline Styles Combining everything together All set now! Let’s get all these functions to work! I would recommend to use function of package or any of the alternatives here because it would drastically increase the readability of the code. Let’s try it out: flow lodash And here is the result: We select all the text, hit ‘Clear’ button and all editing is removed! If you’ve read this post till this moment you may also want to check about Draft.js enchantment and apply it to your project as well. my previous post

Flow

Mozilla

Draft.js: how to remove formatting of the text

Earth is reaching a limit to how much carbon emissions it can cope with before it becomes unsafe for human life. One non-profit foundation plans to use blockchain to help us avoid climate catastrophe. Climate Change: Hitting a Wall The science is clear that climate change is real and the world must act to mitigate its impact. Human activity is changing the composition of our atmosphere by releasing higher quantities of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. We do this through our energy and transportation systems, agriculture, and waste systems, among other activities. Climate change is already causing extreme global events, such as fires, migrating diseases, flooding, ocean acidification, and mass migration. Climate change impacts have the U.S. economy at least $240 billion a year over the past ten years, and in the next decade, that figure could increase to $360 billion. cost In short, the world is reaching a limit regarding how much carbon emissions it can cope with. Carbon Neutrality To avoid environmental disaster humanity must go carbon neutral. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) based at the World Health Organization has that reaching and sustaining net-zero global carbon emissions would “halt anthropogenic global warming.” determined The creation of carbon credit markets is one way to achieve carbon neutrality. Carbon credits can offset pollution resulting from running a business or purchasing a product. A carbon credit is what you get when an emissions reductions project avoids the release of one metric ton of carbon dioxide into the Earth’s atmosphere. A product is “climate positive” when at least 100% of the carbon emissions used to produce it are offset using carbon credits. For example, a banana’s carbon footprint is 80 grams, which includes farm production, transport, and ripening. To make a banana “carbon neutral” those 80 grams must be offset by buying 80 grams of carbon credits. Thus, carbon credit markets internalize the invisible environmental costs of everyday business and consumer choices. Current Carbon Credit Markets New government regulations mean some individuals are already paying for carbon emissions for some aspects of their lifestyle. For example, the European Union has an emissions trading system that puts a price on energy use. As it is legally enforced, this is a non-voluntary carbon market. There is also a voluntary market for carbon credits. Individuals can buy them through websites that approximately calculate their carbon footprint for a given amount of time (e.g. a year) or a single event (holiday, air flight). Individuals can then buy carbon credits to address those emissions. One problem with existing voluntary markets is they aren’t a mainstream solution. There are only so many people who will choose to visit a website. Also, measuring emissions in crude aggregate amounts (e.g. tons) and offsetting them as a one-off purchase makes it hard directly connect the expenditure of carbon credits to everyday activities. Poseidon’s Blockchain Solution is a non-profit foundation that has developed a carbon credit platform to turn the negative environmental impact of goods and services into positive climate action. This is possible through the direct integration of carbon credit purchasing with the retail sector. Poseidon While there are many types of carbon credits, Poseidon is only using ones that are land-based. Examples of land-based credits include “blue carbon,” which support the conservation of coastal areas, and forest conservation credits. In general, land-based carbon credits are powerful because they provide many extra benefits beyond the emissions they offset. For instance, conserving forests protects biodiversity and local communities. Integration with Retail Sector Poseidon’s initial focus is on retail integration. It’s building an end-to-end platform that lets retailers offer carbon credits with every product and service. A mobile app for consumers displays product details, its carbon footprint, and the number of carbon credits required to offset it. Using blockchain technology, the Poseidon platform will process micro-donations in almost real-time. The service Poseidon is suggesting is unique and represents the first carbon credit market to connect climate action directly to consumer purchases. Stellar blockchain Poseidon chose Stellar as a blockchain partner as it is the only platform that offers scalability in line with Poseidon’s environmental values. Stellar’s architecture is much less energy-intensive than other blockchains. A Stellar transaction uses less electricity than both and , and only a fraction of the electricity of a transaction. This minimal environmental impact fits well with Poseidon’s overall purpose. Besides the Stellar blockchain, Poseidon will use proprietary software solutions to form the backend of its platform. Bitcoin Ethereum VISA Partnership Poseidon has partnered with to ensure any projects added to its blockchain platform are monitored to the highest global standards. Ecosphere+ provides full impact reporting of carbon credits to ensure they meet strict environmental, social, and governance standards. This quality control is an essential part of the Poseidon platform. Ecosphere+ Conclusion The global climate crisis is imminent. To avert disaster humanity must make a substantial change to how we produce and consume. Yet, the task of becoming carbon neutral as a species is daunting. We need forward-thinking projects like Poseidon that are not profit-driven but based on a desire to improve our collective future. Subscribe to my Medium and Twitter channels if you want to learn about blockchain and cryptocurrency projects. Frauswif. If you have any questions about this article, please comment in the section below. frauswif. Thank you!

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What Crypto insiders are reading on Asia. 🙏 THANK YOU Global Coin Research is proud to announce that we have joined Accelerator. The Information We’ve been selected from 100 applicants across 19 countries to become a member of the 2019 class, and we are proud to join alongside with Nina Xiang, with David Skok and with Sherrell Dorsey. China Money Network The Logic ThePLUG You can read all about all the members of the class and the publications . here GCR is founded with a simple mission, to be the most reliable news source for the community that want to stay up to date on Crypto and Blockchain happenings in Asia, and share stories and exclusives you won’t read anywhere else. We will continue to strive to do our best everyday, and we thank you for all your support thus far. Share with Friends 🌟 Top News in Asia from Wednesday through Friday 💰 Deals and Funds Thailand-based blockchain and online payment startup , joined by Mitsui Fudosan’s corporate venture arm, 31VENTURES, and existing backer Indonesian VC firm Sinar Mas Digital Ventures. Omise raising an undisclosed financing round led by Japanese venture capital firm Global Brain http://bit.ly/2J8e86G TAP secures investment fromAlphabit and FBG Capital. http://bit.ly/2Je0rmN Series A to enter the U.S. and Southeast Asia, From Danhua, NEO Global Capital. F2Pool founder’s Cryptocurrency wallet startup Cobo raises $13M http://bit.ly/2J6HuSE , a leading quantum-resistant technology project: NEO Global Development is partnering with Arqit http://bit.ly/2yoUbnF 💰 Coin and Token News Amazon web services China division is partnering with public blockchain project Qtum: [Incorrect link last time] http://bit.ly/2yk189K and its different departments. A telling perspective of how to succeed in countries like Korea. A biased but interesting take on how ICON thinks about it’s relationship with the government http://bit.ly/2J74XmQ Malaysia to Spain: payment: Asian Fintech company completes Ripple blockchain API http://bit.ly/2Jd40JX The first ever gaming reportedly marking up over 10,000 plays on its first day: DApp to be released on Tron blockchain has reportedly to be a massive hit, http://bit.ly/2yrnS7X 💸 Exchange News Zebpay, one of the biggest exchanges in India, with a view of serving not just citizens and residents of the island nation but also other European countries: has registered an office in Malta http://bit.ly/2PfXLuk but price drops: Binance burns more than 1.6 million BNB coins http://bit.ly/2J6bdLL Binance CFO says crypto exchange looking to add new stablecoins: http://bit.ly/2PINcwB 🎌 Regulation News A Japanese taxation policy committee held a debate with the aim of simplifying cryptocurrency tax: http://bit.ly/2PKNHq0 In the wake of the , how can blockchain technology improve the future of the tax system?; tax scandal that engulfed Chinese actress Fan Bingbing http://bit.ly/2R0iQWE A new paper authored by World Bank Group-linked experts proposes the development of a blockchain network : to boost efficiency across government procurement systems worldwide http://bit.ly/2NOWYeU first of a series of posts explaining what’s going on with China’s ban: China’s unique crypto paradigm- http://bit.ly/2PJRTWW 💼 Business News Samsung has , which could reduce mining energy consumption by up to 50 percent: launched a new production process of its 7-nanometer Low Power Plus process node http://bit.ly/2P9FqPb n in Thailand: Accenture and Digital Ventures co-develop and launch first-of-its-kind blockchain solutio http://bit.ly/2S4SXpQ Japanese electric power company : partners with bank, university on blockchain research http://bit.ly/2ypEmNP In the BTC bear market, the price of second-hand bitcoin mining machines takes a dive towards 10–30 dollars-equivalent of Yuan in China: http://bit.ly/2yqAj3Q who had been exploited by blockchain-related fraud: Same group of advocates, different vibe; a follow-up story about those individual investors http://bit.ly/2S2IueD 🎉 🎉 Our New Podcast is Out! With Founding Partner Roger Lim of Neo Global Capital In this episode, Joyce Yang from Global Coin Research met up in Singapore with , one of the founding partners of . Roger has been an experienced angel and blockchain investor. He is an advisor for Bluzelle, Qlink, CoinFi, Selfkey, TheKey, Tomocoin, 0Chain, nOS, Open Platform. Prior to getting into crypto, Roger was a successful entrepreneur who founded and sold Webvisions, a cloud hosting company. Roger Lim Neo Global Capital In this episode, Roger and Joyce discuss how NGC deploys its $400mn fund from Singapore and China into projects around the world, the NEO ecosystem fund, and how the Asia-based team thinks about the crypto ecosystem in Asia and the US. : Neo Global Capital is the strategic investment vehicle of the NEO foundation. The firm invests through two funds- one of which is the NEO ecosystem fund that aims to support NEO and it’s ecosystem of dApps and projects. Another fund invests into inspiring projects related to blockchain. The team is split between Singapore and Shanghai. Neo Global Capital’s most recent investments include SKALE Labs, Muzika, Contentos. About NEO Global Capital

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Top Asia Crypto News Roundup from Oct 17–20

Growth of the gaming frontier can’t be stunted. It is exploding with growth and potential. High-level Runescape profiles are sold to the highest bidder every day as greater value is placed on virtual success. The control of a virtual gaming identity is altering the way we work and place emotion. The idea of teamwork and collaboration no longer falls within the confines of a physical building in San Francisco. A virtual world is a fresh world. The simple taste of vastness gives birth to the idea of possibility. No limitation seems unconquerable in a virtual environment. What was once an escape is now an extension of our being, sometimes even a borderline replacement. Virtual existences are constantly generated, but lack the open and robust virtual economies that would allow them to thrive. The age of closed markets and general unpopularity in the gaming industry are quickly becoming old news. Digital assets stand to be the backbone for a virtual workforce within digital environments where we increasingly place meaning. Downfall of Sears Generations raised in an age of intense industrialization and brute-force tooling place extreme value on physical items. Value stems from physical interaction and surveying. After all, how can you trust something that can’t be grasped? Tangibility is a fundamental component to their definition of attractiveness and trust. Sears was once a thriving business with an almost immeasurable hustle and bustle. It was the place to buy anything you wanted. Their presence was grounded in reality, represented by stores of endless material options servicemen that solved every household appliance problem. There was no doubting Sears had what you needed. For individuals in the US, it was the go-to trusted source for anything and everything. Unable to break free of their traditional mold, the age of the internet posed a real problem. Age of Amazon Technology and the internet have digitalized the desires of a new generation. There’s been a powerful shift in how we exchange and consume. Our fast-paced, mobile lifestyle is saturated with virtual interactions and digital exchange. Sears failed to break free from their love for palpability. A lack of innovation and lifestyle recognition paved the way for the Sears of the digital age: Amazon. Anything you want, just a few clicks away. They are the prime (pun intended) example of capturing the digital consumer. Sure, you end up with a physical product delivered to your doorstep. Although, the most important thing to recognize is the absence of a need for touch before purchase. What may seem like a detached method of consumption is actually evidence of extreme comfort in a digital environment. Tangible reality and the endless virtual world maintain their distance as financial systems fail to intertwine in any way. The possibility for combination is finally here. The same mission-driven lifestyle fueled by a desire to explore, grow and compete fuels controlled character action in these virtual environments. In the age of gaming, virtual economies stand to rapidly grow in scale due to the introduction of reality-bending digital assets. The foundation for a robust virtual workforce is being built. Beyond League of Legends Computing power, graphics technology and the internet have all contributed to the growth of an advanced ecosystem that lives online. The most recent figures show that League of Legends has 100 million registered users with over 30 million playing every day. To put that into perspective, their MAU is comparable to more than a quarter of the entire United States population. Source: statista.com This doesn’t represent all game play; only one game. Surprising, isn’t it. As the digital world grows, gamers and virtual members will be paid attention to. Attention is already being paid to e-sports athletes. E-sports has given birth to whole new aspect of entertainment as talented gaming professionals are paid for their virtual performances. It is evident that gaming is alive and growing exponentially in our digital world. The only thing holding back development of these virtual economies is a financial structure that intertwines the tangible and intangible. Mission Mindset Gaming is predicated on a mission-driven mindset. Quests are conquered, bosses are defeated and character development is valued. It mimics the day-to-day operation of reality, with a dash of increased versatility due to the vast unknown. Although similar, the secluded nature of games such as League of Legends is a result of a closed economy that only lives within the virtual environment. There is no use in our common reality for the valuable weaponry, tools or coins present in any role-playing game. Their value applies to that particular virtual ecosystem. A growing mindset of continued exploration into the digital ecosystem and a desire to escape will introduce a new value system for simulated skill and performance. The gap between real and simulated will continue to close. Digital currency is the key to the creation of a workforce that lives and breathes in the virtual realm. Your Runescape fishing level will soon be worth more than ever imagined as crypto will intertwine economies of actuality and simulation. A new financial framework will give birth to valuable virtual workforces that seek to set a new paradigm. If you enjoyed this and want more, subscribe to our daily newsletter: _Crypto smart in minutes. Explore, learn and stay up-to-date on all things crypto.For free.Explore, learn and stay…_unbankd.co Unbankd - Crypto Smart in Minutes | Unbankd Follow and interact with us on Twitter: _The latest Tweets from Unbankd (@unbankd_co). 3,000+ readers get crypto-smart every day 🧠. Join us and get bits of…_twitter.com Unbankd (@unbankd_co) | Twitter Originally published at unbankd.co on October 20, 2018.

Dash

Making a Virtual Workforce

Video streaming solutions that deliver the best when it comes to building video platforms. Everyone’s vision at present is to be relatable and quirky. Video streaming has paved the way for these flamboyant creators, a platform to bring out the most of their imaginativeness. And entrepreneurial mediums have set on a journey to take these bohemian creators a step closer to their patronage. This trend has given space to numerous readymade solutions that custom builds websites and apps for these entrepreneurial platforms. Readymade video on demand solutions is currently fending their services to 31 billion dollar industry. The competition between these white label video-on-demand service providers is high. To overcome this competition, each of these vod platform providers has come up with unique and innovative technical features to woo big brands to their solutions. In this article, we have consolidated a list of 10 of these best video on demand solutions that provide an overall elevation to video streaming. Contus Vplay Contus Vplay is a video solution provider that specializes in a customizable video on demand solutions. The custom-built HTML5 API toolkit is compatible on all platforms and ensures video delivery in a delay-free manner with rich quality. Having an upper hand in futuristic technologies, Contus Vplay has equipped itself with great Content Management System that has high scalability and flexibility. The video CMS of the solution has been furnished to gear up video and audio file formats of any form and stream them in rich quality and broadcast with zero latency. Look into this solution if you would like to get: Live to VOD workflow Enchanting Viewer Experience Out of the box advertising framework Vplayed Vplayed is an internationally acclaimed video on demand platform provider that has dedicated most of its resources into building avant-garde video solutions that are customizable through all fronts. This is how they have been positioned at the top of the list. Vplayed’s uncompromising security measures such as data rights management (DRM), end-to-end encryption and screened user access ensure there are no copyright or security breaches. They also have a set of market updated features in their base solution, onto which you can either make them add your required features or build them on your own. Look into this solution if you would like to get: 100% Customizable Solution Single-payment Adaptive Bitrate Social Media Integrations In-depth Engagement and Actionable Insights, etc Mangomolo This middle east based vod service provider knows what they are talking about when it comes to video-on-demand solutions. In addition, they also provide streaming solutions. With breathtaking features such as social content synchronization and virality tracking, the solutions lean towards providing proven success rates, an ode to the intensive track back technologies and in-depth analytic reports. Get full-fledged engagement in B2C online video platforms with their solution. Look into this solution if you would like to get: Flexible Video Monetization Solution Reliable Video Hosting End-to-end Video Encryption Vidizmo Created with an eye for attracting entrepreneurial clients, Vidizmo’s solution focuses on providing a structured format of online vod features that would best suit corporates. Features like social learning and knowledge sharing, training, and learning, corporate communications directly imply the focus of the solutions. Tailored with intricacy, these features enable corporal establishments to exchange knowledge, collaborate and centralize knowledge sharing platforms. Look into this solution if you would like to get: On cloud transcoding Device independent streaming Social media integration Brightcove Brightcove maintains a high profile when it comes to it’s live and on-demand video platform’s standards. Their smart ad insertion module has attracted a vast deal of clients as it has shown higher engagement. Some of the laudable features that Brightcove offers are — partner portal integrations, migration expertise, and cross-channel compatibility. Look into this solution if you would like to get: 24*7 support Low Latency Streaming Efficient Repackaging Vixyvideo This video on demand solution can accommodate functioning on desktops, mobile devices, tablets, and TV set-top boxes with its all-inclusive device design. Vixy video’s solutions can also be integrated into business procedures within existing solutions and decrease the cost of the existing infrastructure. Look into this solution if you would like to get: Exhaustive Access Control Reliable Video Hosting High-end Security Akamai Akamai is one of the show stoppers in terms of innovative digital solutions and creating exceptional online vod platforms. They not only focus on online content but also make sure they are with high scalability. Their cloud delivery platform provides the users with a wide range of futuristic features makes content governance, authentication and authorization highly productive owing to its scalability. Look into this solution if you would like to get: Easy UI experience Formalized Format High Transcoding Performance Cross-Platform Compatibility Vdocipher Vdocipher’s video on demand solutions encapsules proprietary encrypted video streaming system that assures your content is safe from illegal downloads and plugins. The video on demand solutions build platforms in which videos can seek forward and backward at user’s will without sparing a thought about the buffer. Though ensuring a glitchless playback experience, Vdocipher makes streaming videos at any internet speed a possibility. Look into this solution if you would like to get: Multi-password protection Quality Pay-back In-depth Analytics Cleeng Cleeng is a globally acclaimed video-on-demand solution that envisions to help build its customers the next Netflix, Udemy or any other platform that has captivated millions. This vision has given way to pitching in intuitive features like setting and handling global payments, rentals and, passes, etc., that can be readily integrated into the platform built or integrate into platforms that are already live. Look into this solution if you would like to get: Multi-Content compartments Successful Content Delivery Auto-Archiving Clipbucket Like most other companies on this list, Clipbucket has a series of extravagant features, with customer support being the center of it. Clipbucket makes tech support the utmost importance of vod service that they also aid in hiring IT teams, help in the maintenance of infrastructures such as servers, storage, and bandwidth management. In addition, their paywalls and analytical reports with detailed stats are also commendable. Look into this solution if you would like to get: Instant video monetization In-depth Analytics Methodical Customer Support All the above-mentioned solutions are known to be the best when it comes to video on demand service providing as their security measures, monetization schemes, storage, and streaming qualities are unshakable. In case you are an entrepreneur considering to flex your wings and explore video on demand, the above solutions would give you guaranteed quality services. Yours might be the next big on-demand platform to be made. Why wait?

Netflix

Facebook

Fetch

Super

How to build a location based app in React Native — Part 1

A few years ago, I was helping a company get its secrets in order. There were secrets stored in Google Docs, in Chef, in git, in an OSX image stored in git, in email, in a file manually placed in a Jenkins instance somewhere near you. It helps to split out your solutions by common use cases rather than use one tool for everything so here’s 4 things that your org might need a safe and secure way to do (because odds are they aren’t right now). Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with any of these companies mentioned below. Have a way of sharing credentials internally including non-technical users. Use something like , to share things like admin logins and billing credentials. These services also come with an extension for most browsers to auto-fill your passwords on all your sites and you can still share them with groups. Things like database credentials aren’t a great fit here, and belong closer to the machines that need to read them where your engineers can interact with them. LastPass Enterprise 1Password Teams Have a way of securely storing & sharing sensitive files including non-technical users. LastPass lets you save files, perfectly fine for things like zips containing SSL certificates and that kinda thing. It’s not a good fit for sending things like sensitive PDFs. Google Drive/Dropbox work up to a certain extent, but lack good auditing features to know which files were shared with what users. & offer paid services for this particular type of use case (and you’d probably have compliance/regulatory requirements) before you really need it. Egnyte Accellion Have a safe way of sending secrets to someone else (not to a group). Some of your users will likely be sending over slack and then deleting the message — this is a terrible solution — but I’m also guilty of it — its just too easy. onetimesecret.com is a useful site that lets you send secrets using a one-time use link (and they can have a passphrase, and expire too). which lets you share a secret without you ever seeing the secret — not very user-friendly, but more dev-friendly. Vault can do “response wrapping” Have a way of storing machine-facing credentials somewhere thats not on your computer. This is where using tools like or make it super-easy if you’re working in a cloud environment on a larger team. You can also go barebones and store them in git using or . You can always use , , or if you’re using one of those config management systems. Vault AWS Parameter Store git-crypt using AWS KMS to encrypt secrets locally Encrytped Data Bags from Chef Ansible Vault Puppet hiera-eyaml The last thing is figuring out a decent authorization scheme so that you know who has access to what. That largely depends on how well you can define “who”, the different types of “access”, and “what” are all the permutations of things people can have access to. It’s been hard to figure out what best practices are when it comes to doing devops on AWS. I’d like to help you figure it out too. to get tips and lessons learned building applications on AWS. Sign up to my mailing list Originally published at www.intricatecloud.io on October 17, 2018.

Dropbox

Slack

managing passwords and other secrets in a bigger team

For the past 23 years, I’ve been a Linux developer (I started with Linux version 1.2.1). I in the command prompt. Because of that, I want the prompt itself to look nice, and to provide useful information at a glance. Therefore, I wrote a script called gitprompt, which customizes the prompt. I’ve been using it at work for a while, and a number of my coworkers noticed it and asked for a copy. So since I know there’s at least some amount of interest in it, I’m publishing this brief article about it, in case you want to try it out for yourself. live Here’s what it looks like, in its most basic form: “21:53” is the time, followed by my username (“enfors”), and the name of my machine (“shodan”). After that, there’s the current directory — nothing unusual so far. The cursor itself is on the next line to make room for long commands. So, on to the first feature; if a command fails, the prompt will display its exit status in red so you won’t miss it: Okay, cool. But why is it called “gitprompt”? I thought you’d never ask. As soon as we cd into a git directory, the magic happens: Being inside a git directory adds extra information at the end of the prompt; “develop” is the current branch, and “Up-to-date” means that nothing has changed since the last commit. So what happens if we add a file? Let’s find out, by creating an empty dummy file called “foo”: Now, instead of “Up-to-date,” it says “Untracked”, so we know that there is at least one untracked file in the repo. Let’s track it, by adding it: Neat, now it says “Added” instead. But what happens if we have both untracked and newly added files? Well, let’s add another dummy file, this time called “bar” to find out, shall we? I could go on, but I think you get it by now. If this seems useful to you, , where you’ll find the installation instructions, and grab your own copy. feel free to go to the project’s Github page If you liked this article, I suggest you follow me on Twitter .

Why Linux Developers Should Use GitPrompt

What “dressing down” reveals about changes in how we live and work in a technology-driven society “The digital transformation is clearly visible in this room.” This was the opening statement of one of the speakers at a digital transformation event I attended recently. For effect, he paused as the audience looked around struggling to find who or what he was referring to. “Nobody is wearing a suit.” The response was interesting; awkward laughter as the audience couldn’t tell whether he was joking or not. But, lately, I hear more and more such comments about the clothes we wear for work. At an earlier event in Singapore, one of the speakers took a different view when asked about his decision to “dress down” and not wear a suit: “This is just who I am.” Again, this is a widespread view: “The clothes I choose to wear are an expression of my unique personality. This is me.” Back at my digital transformation event, I stopped listening to the presentation and began to think about the meaning of clothes in a technology-driven world. What — if anything — do changes in the workplace “dress codes” reveal about today’s world? Is this change a trivial issue that should be laughed at or dismissed; another (albeit small) chapter in the gradual expansion of personal freedom and choice; or Is this change the signal of a much broader cultural shift in a technology-driven society? Of course, “dress codes” have always been evolving. And here, I am not referring to the many changes in fashion that I have seen over my lifetime. Recall the rapid decline in popularity of flared trousers in the late 70s or the David Bowie-inspired over-sized blazers of the mid-80s. Instead, I am interested in workplace dress codes that both formally and informally define what can and can’t be worn “at work.” More specifically, I am thinking about the shift from standardized and uniform dress codes to the more flexible approach that one finds in more and more companies today. I have clearly experienced this change in my own working life. When first I entered the corporate world more than twenty years ago, there was no question or discussion. Everybody had to wear formal clothing in the office. And, by formal attire, I mean a dark suit, dress shirt, and necktie for men. Women were similarly expected to wear a conservative formal suit and plain blouse. This changed in the late nineties with the introduction of “Casual Friday.” The idea behind relaxing the dress code on Fridays was to stimulate interaction and engagement for at least one day a week in a more informal setting. I still remember the first year it was introduced in my company. Many people weren’t prepared for this new “responsibility.” Their wardrobe wasn’t built for Casual Fridays. The result? Confusion, anxiety and — often — highly inappropriate outfits that combined elements of formal suits and casual weekend clothing. Over the last couple of decades, “business casual” has become the new normal in many companies. And wearing a suit in the office today merely results in questions or sarcastic comments. A more traditional style is only necessary for particular places or events. But, recently, I notice that even this is changing. I spoke at a FinTech event earlier this summer in which both bankers and coders participated, and the distinction was not between those in suits and those dressed casually, but those dressed in suits, those dressed in business casual, and those dressed in T-shirts or hoodies. It was still easy to distinguish the bankers from the coders, but the change in dress codes is real. That much seems obvious. But what — if anything — does it mean? A typical first reaction is to say that this change doesn’t mean anything. Changes in dress codes are dismissed as either unimportant or empty gestures, i.e., an attempt by a firm to project a youthful and more energetic corporate image. Senior corporate executives wearing black turtlenecks, in the belief that it makes them look like Steve Jobs, is an excellent example of such “window-dressing.” A purely cosmetic act that changes nothing. We might easily conclude that there is no direct connection between innovation and creativity, on the one hand, and the way people dress, on the other. However, as I looked around the room during the digital transformation presentation, I was not so sure that we should reject the importance of how we dress on how we think and behave. I do think that this change has a broader and underappreciated significance. Our clothes affect each of us very profoundly. They are an expression of who we are but, more than that, they also “trigger” specific reactions in us (and others) that open up (and close off) certain possibilities and choices. The clothes we wear give us the freedom and confidence to see and do certain things or, in other situations, not to see or do certain things. Our clothes are a small, but essential, part of the “culture” that affects our behavior in organizations and other social settings. Another obvious example would be the impact of the environment. The layout of a building and the organization of rooms, for example, similarly affect how we think and behave. The clothes that we wear and the spaces where we work are an integral part of the unique culture of an organization, community or other social groups. They play an essential role in defining how we see ourselves and how we see the world. They are an important source of action and interaction. And, as such, they do matter. Let me offer a couple of examples. When I attended corporate meetings in which everyone was wearing a suit and the room was organized with the senior person “at the front” the effect was very real: junior participants were inclined to keep quiet and respect the hierarchy. The formality and uniformity of the suit “triggered” formal and uniform behavior.The standardization of clothing functioned as a soft constraint on the willingness of participants to express a (contrary) view. Of course, this didn’t always work. But, by and large, suits really were suits. They limited the choices that were available to us and kept us in our defined place. Today, the introduction of choice has created the possibility of greater freedom and personal expression. In some ways, “dressing down” has been a liberation. When clothes don’t matter — at least, when they become nothing more than a personal choice — other possibilities are similarly opened up. Most obviously, expressing an opinion. But, more generally, a new degree of creativity and innovation is made possible. So, whenever I see a brochure of a region that aspires to become the next Silicon Valley and the “leaders” of that regional ecosystem are all wearing formal clothes, my conclusion is simple. “Not going to happen.” In the new world that is emerging around us, a premium is put on creativity and innovation. After all, this new world is all about openness, inclusivity, and flatter peer-to-peer transactions and interactions. In such a “best-idea-wins-culture,” the way we dress becomes much less relevant than before. It has become as irrelevant as your place in the hierarchy. But this doesn’t mean that clothes don’t matter. I believe the speaker was right to say that the digital transformation was visible in the room. “Dressing down” has contributed and will continue to contribute to the disruption of hierarchies, standardization, and proceduralization. The greater freedom that comes from the declining importance of what we are expected to wear has the potential to help trigger new freedom in other aspects of our work, and I am in no doubt that this change is a positive development. 👏 Thank you so much for reading! Please click (and hold) the below, or leave a comment. There is a new story every week. So if you follow me you won’t miss my latest insights about how digital technologies are changing the way we live, work, and learn.

Let’s Talk About Dress Codes and Clothes

Where Logarithmic Scales Lead To Exponential Returns In a recent exercise we undertook to find a secure pricing algorithm for a new asset, we came across something very interesting in a time-atrophied logarithmic moving average data set that we manipulated with the average bias moving away from the present to the year-ago point. By plotting data points two months apart, and shifting the moving average calculations cumulatively shorter towards the year-ago point in time (with the shortest “average” being the single first entry year-ago price point and the longest average being the present one which included all the previous 6 data points) we were able to create a more robust, alpha coefficient variation of CoinMarketCap’s price Index by quite a wide margin: What we did specifically was that we compared the annual CoinMarketCap (CMC) Index on a bi-monthly basis to the annual of CMC’s Top 10 coins and we found that on average volatility was 70% higher in the case of the CMC composite index numbers than in the logarithmic moving average numbers. In terms of absolute performance, logarithmic moving average numbers were up an average of 3.5% per two-month period versus 5.4% per two-month period in the case of the composite returns. Once you account for the drag that volatility takes out of the composite numbers, that’s roughly a whole percentage point of additional alpha outperformance that the logarithmic moving average scale has over the unadjusted scale recalculating for a monthly timeline. composite logarithmic moving average This result appears to correlate much more with the logarithmic moving average versus pure composite / Top 10 variation, since the Beta (volatility measurement) of the Top 10 index was even higher, with an overall 20% lower performance month on month (on average) between the Top 10 and the entire index in absolute terms (alpha). Therefore, our conclusion is that one of the most preferential and robust (volatility-neutralised) pricing mechanisms for any sort of asset is the If an asset were priced according to the annualised T10 L.M.A. in dollar averaged terms then the pricing guideline for an asset would look like this: cryptocurrency annual logarithmic moving average Top 10 CMC price index. It’s like the best of a stablecoin with a bit of the best of market momentum thrown in there, in other words. In a year notable for roughly a 75% decline in overall market prices, such a stable average variation resulting in an average gross of 1.5% per month (21% on the year) is a blinding result, especially as those returns are 100% volatility neutralised (i.e. factoring out all the risk relative to the risk of the overall market). increase What this illustrates is how we tend to standardise far too many trading and pricing algorithms still when it comes to assets, which basically means that we forget to calculate to factor in quite a significant variable given the relative innovation trajectory of the space. That variable that we forget to factor in is none other than itself. Blockchain market growth

HackerNoon Tech Stories Archive October 20th, 2018

The Real Threat of “Bad AI”

@dieswaytoofast
Mahesh Paolini-Subramanya

Deploy A Backend App As An Android Engineer — Part 2

@AdamHurwitz
Adam Hurwitz

Why ‘think small’ makes sense with TVs

@babulous
babulous

Hard Work — How I Become a Software Engineer.

@adityapurwa
Aditya Purwa

Draft.js: how to remove formatting of the text

@semin_andrey
Andrey Semin

Can Blockchain Help Us Become Carbon Neutral?

@mina.down
Mina Down

Top Asia Crypto News Roundup from Oct 17–20

@globalcoinrsrch
Global Coin Research

Making a Virtual Workforce

@qwoods13
Quintin Woods

Top 10 Video on Demand Solutions to Look Out in 2019

@sujanpatel545
Sujan Patel

How to build a location based app in React Native — Part 1

@hrishio
Hrishi Mittal

managing passwords and other secrets in a bigger team

@intricatecloud
Danny Perez

Why Linux Developers Should Use GitPrompt

@enfors
Christer Enfors

Let’s Talk About Dress Codes and Clothes

@erikpmvermeulen
Erik P.M. Vermeulen

Cryptocurrency Pricing Algorithms

@dmhco
Daniel Mark Harrison

HackerNoon Tech Stories Archive October 20th, 2018

@dieswaytoofastMahesh Paolini-Subramanya

@AdamHurwitzAdam Hurwitz

@babulousbabulous

@adityapurwaAditya Purwa

@semin_andreyAndrey Semin

@mina.downMina Down

@globalcoinrsrchGlobal Coin Research

@qwoods13Quintin Woods

@sujanpatel545Sujan Patel

@hrishioHrishi Mittal

@intricatecloudDanny Perez

@enforsChrister Enfors

@erikpmvermeulenErik P.M. Vermeulen

@dmhcoDaniel Mark Harrison