The are a series of interviews featuring various important voices and perspectives in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Each interviewee was carefully selected and asked the same group of questions. The main goal was to provide the world with a collection of commentary and opinions on the state of the current Bitcoin and crypto market. Some of the names you will recognize while others don’t wish for the limelight but have great insight and experience we all can learn from. Bitcoin Bear Market Diaries These interviews are raw and unfiltered with no agenda other than giving each individual their opportunity to speak their mind. If you like what you see, please share with your friends. If something offends you, you should probably X out and find another crypto fluff piece that gives you warm fuzzies. Tuur Demeester is an economist and investor with a background in Austrian economics. He is also founding partner of Adamant Capital and has written in depth market research reports for years. Name: Tuur Demeester United States Country: How do people know you? People usually know me from my tweetstorms, or from my Bitcoin focused research reports. How long have you been into Bitcoin? I first learned about Bitcoin in Buenos Aires in 2011. Started recommending it to my financial newsletter subscribers at close to $5 in early 2012. Best Bitcoin experience? To me, the best thing about Bitcoin is the friends you make along the way. Nothing beats unexpectedly meeting an old friend on a Bitcoin conference in a faraway place. Worst Bitcoin experience? The worst experiences for me have been when I found out that particular people I thought were trustworthy eventually proved themselves not to be. Also, at times I’ve gotten caught up in the mass psychology of the crowd, who usually is wrong. I give myself a hard time afterwards when that happens, and work to figure out why I gave up my independent perspective. What do you think is Bitcoin’s biggest threat? Complacency. If Bitcoin users as a whole stop caring about decentralization, privacy, protocol robustness, then over time significant vulnerabilities will start building in the ecosystem. What are your thoughts on the various Bitcoin forks? I think they are very healthy for the ecosystem, and if you count all the altcoins that were forked off of Bitcoin, then we’ve had over 1,000 forks so far. Bitcoin forks show people that they are always free to leave if they don’t agree, and do things their own way. There is zero coercion here, zero barriers to entry or exit. Of course it’s painful when people not only want to leave but actively try to attack and boycott the Bitcoin blockchain, but in the long run these attacks are to be expected and only help improve the ecosystem’s immune system. What are you optimistic about in this space? After being a decade in production, the technology is robust and we have a solid basis to scale out this platform in a modular way. Bitcoin has some of the smartest people I’ve ever met. Biggest regret during the last bull market? Starting too soon with selling. I have a conservative bias, which sometimes makes it hard to grasp the dynamics and full potential range of a market mania. What have you learned during the current bear market? Patience and a level of detachment is healthy and necessary. Psychological planning for bear cycles pays off great dividends. I’ve learned a lot more about Bitcoin Valuation (here’s our ). write-up on that topic What is the biggest fail you have seen during the bear market? Around the $6,000 level last summer, we felt there was still too much optimism and hope in the market compared to the very weak demand. We put out an opinion piece at the time to warn for lower prices in the second half of the year. What do you think helped trigger the current bear market? The seeds of Bear markets are sown in the Bull phase, no different here. Around the summer of 2017 we entered a phase of absolute exuberance with great retail participation. It , with lots of information asymmetry, skewed incentives, low transparency, and a plethora of low quality assets. was a true lemon market What kind of damage do you think latest price drop has done to buyer sentiment? We think we’re currently in the capitulation phase. Sentiment among retail is very pessimistic to even apathetic. Many people bought “crypto” as a basket and feel cheated now that so many ICOs seem to be going nowhere — a throwback to the dotcom crash. On the other hand, high net worth individuals and value oriented institutions are now accumulating. How do you feel about the current state and future of lightning network? The current state of Lightning is very experimental, with a lot of bugs and currently with relatively high failure rates. But it appears to me that the fundamental architecture is sound. I come to that conclusion because since the ideas were first presented years ago, I haven’t has seen it conceptually falsified, i.e. I haven’t seen convincing, in depth arguments about why a payment channel layer on Bitcoin couldn’t work or why it couldn’t scale. It’s also encouraging that there are different, extensively tested Lightning implementations whose transactions are compatible with each other. What are your thoughts on HODLing Bitcoin? The only way to understand Bitcoin is through HODLing. It’s like how the only way to really understand a smart phone is to switch it on and use it. Bitcoin is digital gold, which naturally invites the investor to hold it for the long term as a store of value. What are your thoughts on alt-coins? I think it’s important that there exist alternatives to Bitcoin, though I think the altcoin ecosystem is quite complex and often misunderstood. The existence of altcoins prove the case that we’re really dealing with a free market in startup currencies now. I think Bitcoin will eventually have a market dominance of 80–90%, which leaves quite a bit of room for alternative coins to carve out a niche. Do you hold any? If not, why? My long term play on altcoins was my Kraken equity investment in 2014 (a crypto exchange), which was a way to get exposure to the whole market. I thought Kraken would do well if at some point retail investors became interested in altcoins, and they did, and it did. I currently hold some Litecoin, and have exposure to Chia Network. Litecoin is a retail darling (though hated in bear markets) that’s been around for over 6 years, and often seen as a hedge against Bitcoin. I hope the coin doesn’t experiment with new features, as I think its appeal is exactly the fact that with exception of its mining algorithm it’s near identical to BTC and thus can systematically import all the battle tested code by the Bitcoin core developers. I like coins that are in close conceptual proximity to Bitcoin, because I think proof-of-work with inflation control is what Satoshi’s big breakthrough was all about. I’m not convinced that proof-of-stake can properly secure a decentralized cryptocurrency protocol. What kind of impact do you think the radical drop in alt-coins will have on their future? I expect that many of them, probably over 90%, will become comatose over the next five years. Many people weren’t around then, but in 2013 there also was an altcoin boom. At the time investors thought that national coins would become a thing, and started pumping things like “Spaincoin” and “The Dutch Guilder”. But during the ensuing 2014-’15 bear market, a huge amount of those original altcoins flatlined, meaning that miners, traders, and node operators collectively gave up on them in favor of other altcoins or Bitcoin. Check out to get an idea. https://deadcoins.com Thoughts on the notion of bitcoinization? I agree with Daniel Krawisz’ original definition, that hyperbitcoinization is “Bitcoin induced demonetization”. I think if Bitcoin can retain its properties of decentralization, censorship resistance and inflation control, it has a good shot at inducing bitcoinization around the world in the next several decades. What Bitcoin startups are you excited about? I like many startups in the space, the pace of innovation is quite staggering. To name a few names: Blockstream, Kraken, Trezor, Unchained Capital, Casa, Bitrefill, Zap, Lightning Labs, HodlHodl. What “crypto influencers” do you think get it wrong and why? I often have quarrels with Vitalik Buterin, usually because I disagree with a premise behind his arguments. What “crypto influencer” do you think get it right and why? In my experience, work and integrity have compounding effects over time. When I hear people like Adam Back, Pieter Wuille, Gregory Maxwell, Andrew Poelstra, Bryan Bishop, or Tamas Blummer sharing an opinion or making an argument, I always take a moment to pause and listen. What’s it going to take for this bear market to turn around? Enough accumulation by value investors will lead to rising prices, which will eventually catch the attention of the retail public. How bullish are you on Bitcoin despite this recent pullback. I’m incredibly bullish on Bitcoin. It’s the perfect storm. We have bottom-up second layer scaling happening via Lightning, a new generation of hardware wallets, satellite and mesh nodes. And we have top-down financialization of Bitcoin happening via institutional custody solutions, the Liquid Sidechain network, lending startups, Bitcoin securitization, Bitcoin insurance, and more. Any tips you want to give to people new to Bitcoin? It’s hard to give out general tips, but I think the credo “don’t trust, verify” has served me well so far. Best tips for storing Bitcoin? I’d say google “multi sig wallet” and buy a Trezor hardware wallet. Try to be thorough in your research but avoid making things too complex. It’s very likely that most coins so far have been lost simply by people forgetting their passwords. Name some of your favorite information sources and/or podcasts in the space. To me Twitter works great as a big aggregators of information, so I follow individuals there and see what they link to. For some reason I don’t consume a lot of crypto podcasts for the moment — I think it’s that I’m immersed in Bitcoin all day already, so I prefer to use podcasts and audiobooks to broaden my horizon beyond Bitcoin. Any last words of wisdom? I’ll just repeat my pinned tweet here: “Bitcoin is digital gold in the eyes of a growing subset of the population. To some extent this group already operates on a Bitcoin Standard: investments are evaluated on their ability to yield a return in Bitcoin.” Stay tuned for the next Bear Market Bitcoin Diaries. You can find more volumes and articles here!

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Bitcoin Bear Market Diaries Volume 11 Tuur Demeester

These are scientists that made a significant contribution to the field and will be forever remembered for their work. Here are 10 Computer Scientists who made history. 1. Alan Turing Alan Turing is an English computer scientist, widely considered to be the father of computer science. The prestigious “Turing Award” was named after him — an award given to those in computer science who make a significant contribution to the industry. Turing worked for the British Government, playing a pivotal role in cracking intercepted coded messages and enabling the Allies to defeat the Nazis in many crucial engagements. Despite the sheer brilliance of his work, he was not fully recognised for his contributions as he was a homosexual, which was illegal in the UK at the time. Alan Turing’s biography 2. Tim Berners-Lee Tim Berners-Lee is the inventor of the World Wide Web and HTML. He was born in England and has an engineering background, through developing computer systems in the 80s. He is indeed a true pioneer in the field of Computer Science, and without Tim’s ideas and development work, we simply wouldn’t have the internet as we know it today. Tim is the director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), where he currently oversees the development of the web. Also, Tim lectures at the University of Oxford, teaching computer science. Tim was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his contribution and named by for being one of the most important and influential people of the 20th century. Time magazine 3. John von Neumann John von Neumann is a Hungarian-American computer scientist and mathematician, known for his work in pioneering the field of game theory. He contributed over 150 papers in his lifetime, spread out over Pure and Applied Mathematics and other specialized topics. In World War II, John von Neumann also worked on the Manhattan project, where he solved problems in the nuclear physics domain. Link: . Theory of Games and Economic Behavior 4. Woz Steve Wozniak, or “Woz”, is the co-founder and original programmer . He was the technical genius behind the company, helping to orchestrate and build Apple products and services. He invented , the BASIC interpreter used for the original Apple I and Apple II platforms. he has written showing his programming style. Unless you know BASIC, then this appears foreign to most. There’s no syntax highlighting or intelligent code completion in sight. Apple Integer BASIC Here is a sample of the code You can access his . full biography here 5. Dennis Ritchie Dennis Ritchie is the co-creator of the C Programming language, the underpinning language for many software systems. It is used in many different industries and has inspired a whole series of programming languages (or ). The language is taught in computer science courses, inside Universities and educational institutions, being a foundational language for software developers. C-like languages Dennis was also the co-creator of Unix, a family of operating systems which were developed in the 1970s. Unix lead the way and became very popular for its features, by having a modular design, unified filesystem, and the Unix Shell (later developed into Bash). Unix was used by Apple in “MacOS”, which maintains the largest amount of installations using Unix. Dennis, along with his co-founder, was awarded the . One of the most prestigious awards n the field of computer science. Dennis is a leader in computer science, providing an incredible language which has taken the world by storm. Turing Award Link: The C Programming Language 6. Brian Kernighan Brian Kernighan is the co-creator of the C Programming language. The significance of the C Programming language is tremendous. Many have said that in any software developer’s journey- a language which helps people to understand the building blocks of a computer. Brian has been a professor of the computer science division at Princeton University since the year 2000. learning C is almost an essential Brian was also co-creator of Unix, a family of operating systems which were developed in the 1970s. Unix lead the way and became very popular for its features, by having a modular design, unified filesystem, and the Unix Shell (later developed into Bash). Unix was used by Apple in “MacOS”, which maintains the largest amount of installations using Unix. Link: C Programming Language 7. Linus Torvalds Linus Torvalds is the creator of the famous “Linux” kernel, the core of many operating systems, such as Chrome OS and Android. He is also the creator of “Git”, the version control system used heavily throughout the software development industry. Linus is a pioneer in the industry with his engineering mindset, and relentless ability to develop software systems. View Linux on Github Some great books on Linux: — Linux Bible — How Linux Works — Linux Pocket Guide 8. James Gosling James Gosling is the inventor of the Java programming language. He is a Canadian computer scientist and distinguished engineer at Amazon Web Services. His contributions to the field of computer science are phenomenal. Java is one of the most popular languages used in the software industry. It’s used throughout many organizations and software systems. Java was acquired by Oracle Corporation, to which it currently owns the rights to the programming language. Original Java book found here 9. Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider Joseph is the inventor of Cloud Computing, a computing paradigm which has taken over the world. Today’s largest companies, such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have adopted Cloud Computing and have harnessed its power to create Cloud services. These services are used by other software systems to build applications that do not pose high storage costs and the need for local data centers. This is the forefront of modern technology and the software industry. was released, showing his life’s work and his vision of something called “human-computer symbiosis”. The Dream Machine 10. John McCarthy John McCarthy is the inventor of Artificial Intelligence (AI). He was a computer scientist and cognitive scientist born in the United State of America, providing a significant contribution to the computer science industry with the topic of Artificial Intelligence. Additionally, he also created the Lisp programming language family and had influence over the design of the ALGOL language. He spent most of his career at the Stanford University and received a Turing Award for his contributions to the field of AI. His tribute: Artificial Intelligence and Mathematical Theory of Computation: Papers in Honor of John McCarthy Originally published at zeroequalsfalse.press .

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The 10 Computer Scientists That Made Computers Mainstream

The busy user wants to have their music needs and desires fulfilled. They want everything, and your app needs to provide the best experience. Here, we’ll show you that will keep them interested. how to create a music streaming app Start With Your Initial Vision Before going to the development plan, you need to have a clear vision of how the app will work. Search through similar apps and view their pros and cons. And the startups are doing everything to stay successful in the music streaming industry. Sit down with your development team and gauge what features you want your app to have. Plans and Estimation The music streaming industry has potential. You need proper research on the target user base, their lifestyle, their likes, and create the best conclusion of the most potent way to show them your MVP. And modify the music app as to the preferences of your target market. Getting Licensed When creating your app, you will need a license to submit the content you’re going to provide them with. Features to Include When making your app, you need to make sure that it’s better than your competition. Here are some features that you should include: What Languages Are Best When Making These Features? From a coding perspective, we suggest that you use Python when making your music app. Over 80% of Spotify’s programming is based on Python, The other 20% is for non-python services written in Java, and they have a few applications written in C or C++. Speed is Spotify’s main focus. Python works well in this mindset as it helps to reduce time on app development. Spotify makes use of Python frameworks that are IO bound. Here is how Python uses Twisted code to help with its app development. (based on their homepage) on how to implement it in your platform. Here’s an example twisted.internet protocol, reactor, endpoints from import ( . ): ( , ): . . ( ) ( . ): ( , ): () . ( ,“ :1234”). ( ()) . () class Echo protocol Protocol def dataReceived self data self transport write data class EchoFactory protocol Factory def buildProtocol self addr return Echo endpoints serverFromString reactor tcp listen EchoFactory reactor run If you want to use another coding language, then make sure that its ability to withstand thousands of people on your platform. We suggest starting with Python because it's easier, and has thousands of coding frameworks you can use for your app. Registration After a user downloads your app, they need to be authorized. Having them sign up through your music apps makes it easier to obtain and organize data. It gives the app administrators the information needed to register those credentials in the database. And give them the options to log in via their social media accounts (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc.) and receive perks for sharing. So when making your music streaming app, make sure that the registration process is easy. Push Notifications This is an important feature for a music app like yours. People like getting to know their favorite celebrities. All of your users like to have personalized benefits and push notifications is the best way to do that. Whenever you make a music app for Android or iOS, keep push notifications in mind. Recommended Music and Playlists Your users want to have their music within seconds. This means that your app’s algorithm needs to take in their music preferences and suggest a playlist to them. Give them features that allow users to create playlists according to their genres, situations, and moods. Having an app with these features will attract more customers in the long run. The best example of this is through Spotify’s playlist algorithm. It analyzes music listeners and subscribers playlist around the world. The algorithm scans millions of users each time, so you can find out who is listening to similar music playlists. Then, Spotify compares each users’ music tastes, compiles the data and find the songs to recommend later. Conclusion To make the best music streaming app, you have to have a plan that’s unique and interesting in your niche. This means that you’ll have to use your development team to create it and market it to attract more users. Chances are, you’ll have a successful app like Spotify someday. Do you have any questions about making a music streaming app? Tell us in the comments below! Sources: https://www.innofied.com/create-a-music-streaming-app-like-spotify/ Image Sources: https://pixabay.com/photos/android-mobile-smartphone-2618093/ Code Sources: https://twistedmatrix.com/trac/

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The gaming industry is one which is growing at an unprecedented rate each year. The technological advancements that have taken gaming to a whole another level, also pushes different competitors to keep coming up with new concepts to blow teenage minds. Gone are the simpler days of Vice City or Counter Strike, the market is alight today with buzzwords like Cloud Gaming. Win or lose, you keep coming back for more. When we talk about cloud gaming, we observe a delightful shift in the traditional requirements for hardcore gaming. There is no need for expensive gaming hardware or powerful graphics cards anymore; cloud gaming lets you play a game controlled by a remote server which does all the heavy work for you. All your PC is expected to do is to simply stream the audio and video of the game and help you enter the commands. Think of it as the “ of gaming.” Netflix Who are the major players in the cloud gaming space right now? To begin with, the one tech giant that sits on the gaming throne and is worshipped by gamers all around the world is undoubtedly . With its franchise, Microsoft has changed the face of gaming for many. They are currently developing their xCloud which will enable high-quality streaming of console and PC-grade experiences to any screen. Microsoft Xbox Other companies like and have come up with their own cloud gaming products like the Now streaming service and NOW service respectively. They are veterans of the gaming industry and are now adapting to the changing times by focusing on cloud gaming, which almost everyone believes is the future. Sony NVIDIA PlayStation Geforce Why is Google suddenly the new heavyweight of the gaming town? Hold up, there is a new Sheriff in town. Upstaging all other competitors at the Game Developers’ Conference 2019, unveiled its big cloud gaming project, Stadia. It grabbed all eyeballs and hogged the entire limelight at the conference because of the vision of this project. What is offering is one vast platform for anyone and everyone to enjoy their cloud gaming service which is both technologically superior and also enjoys a greater reach. Google Google Stadia is expected to break down all the barriers that previously ensured the sustenance of an exclusive gaming community who could afford the right equipment for gaming. Google’s use of the name ‘stadia’ which is the plural of the word ‘stadium,’ is again an indication of how the giant aims to make gaming a universal experience for all. While many may feel it is an ambitious undertaking, I feel it is absolutely possible for Google to emerge as the be all and end all of cloud gaming. In the words of CEO Sundar Pichai , Think about the way the web works. You can share a link and it works seamlessly. We want games to feel that way too. Stadia envisions to be a one stop destination for all gamers which offers instant access to players. You can start playing the latest game just by clicking on a single ‘Play Now’ button. What makes this possible is the mass storage and computational power that has, along with their server infrastructure. Assassin's Creed Google There is simply no other competitor in the market at the moment, who can match that level of resources Photo by on Sean Whelan Unsplash How will the market transform post the Stadia launch? Remember, there are always two sides to a story. While on the one side Stadia will be the harbinger of a gaming revolution that is much required in the market today, it will also destroy some traditional aspects of the current market structure due to its disruptive nature. One such stakeholder which will take a big hit is the hardware manufacturers for gaming consoles. If there is no need to possess high end gaming equipment to play games anymore, then the manufacturers will have to close shop soon enough. Additionally, the other competitors will step up their game and try to come up with exclusive content that Google won’t be able to provide. For now, Google doesn’t have the kind of reputation or market position in the gaming space to lure in the top gamers to their product. Other giants will hold on to their signature games in the hopes of putting up a fight against this coup d’etat by Google. It now remains to be seen how the other games fare, considering that Stadia is offering a never before seen set of incentives for instant gaming.

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Why Google has an edge over Cloud Gaming?

Blockchain has been the top trending buzzword in technology for over a year now. But gradually, it is transforming into a reality and the time is near when we’ll finally start to see some real applications of the Blockchain Technology for the masses. The growth of Blockchain has often been compared to the growth of the Internet. Both of them had a similar share of supporters and detractors, but in the end; the Internet led to what today is the Age of Information. On that subject, there was a 4-year old video on my YouTube recommendation feed while I was binge-watching some content. The video was a 1974 interview of a science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, who explained how a computer could perhaps fit on a desk in the future, and how computers would help us in banking and “theater reservations” among other important things. While I don’t really know how the writer came to predict things so accurately, it gave me a thought to make similar predictions for Blockchain Technology, and its potential state of application 10 years from now. But before I do so, here are a few important points about the current state of Blockchain: The Blockchain Technology market is expected to increase by up to $2.3 Billion Dollars by the year 2021. Blockchain has become one of the top buzzwords in the world today. While the technology was made infamous by the Bitcoin cryptocurrency, its future prospects are way beyond that realm. The hyperledger project run by the Linux Foundation, with over 100 companies as members (Including big names like IBM, JP Morgan, etc.) is an umbrella project seeking to discover and create new applications for Blockchain Technology. Platforms such as Ethereum are playing an incremental role in the development of decentralized apps using Blockchain Technology and Smart Contracts. Coming to Smart contracts. It’s the icing on this cake. In its essence, a smart contract program allows automation of certain activities taking place in the process of a transaction. Think of it as an escrow service, but with the middleman being replaced by a smart autonomous program coded using the Solidity Programming language. Here are a few more pointers depicting the challenges to be faced in Blockchain development in future: Though applications of Blockchain technology are under development by some of the world’s leading companies. It is still in its nascent stages. The reality is that nobody knows how to actually design a blockchain interface. Those who do know haven’t come up with stable solutions yet. really On the other hand, everything that makes blockchain so powerful is what the world really needs as of this moment. Blockchain’s promises of transparency, decentralization, and immutability are a necessity in a world where trust in centralized organizations is a major concern. Threats of data privacy and security are looming large over the digital world. Only Blockchain, or perhaps something similar to blockchain has a solution to this problem. Most importantly, features such as Proof-of-stake implemented on a Blockchain may seem to be great on the surface. But the truth is that such an implementation of security requires a lot of computational power, which isn’t cheap. Even then, such transactions implemented on blockchain networks would take a lot of time. Something which isn’t a big deal in the conventional transactions of today. So now, based on everything said above, here’s a forecast of the state of Blockchain over the next decade: In the next 10 years, blockchain may not be commonplace, but it will gain traction as we’ll see new emerging platforms and implementations. Similar to how the Internet grew over time. We will definitely begin to see new Dapps with a lot of promise. However, the starters here would be the corporate giants of the world, and it’s likely that Public Blockchains won’t find a valuable use case even after 10 years from now. Public Blockchains are difficult to implement. Moreover, governments won’t be so willing to make things so transparent in a span of 10 years. Even in the next 10 years, it would be difficult to see any existing company shifting towards a Blockchain network for transactions or record-keeping. Even if some do, it would perhaps take 5 more years for any visible change. But for startups, Blockchain will be a new playground to explore, as many new startups will emerge using Blockchain development. The advantage for these startups will be that unlike established businesses, they won’t have any existing load or method to throw away. So in conclusion, it would be best to say that Blockchain will continue to remain as popular, if not more, even 10 years from now. But by then, it would be a much more mature technology. Market leaders will keep innovating on it and acquire new and emerging startups digging deeper into the technology. So if you’re an aspiring entrepreneur looking to get started with Blockchain. Now’s the best time to invest and hire Blockchain developers in India (being one of the most value-for-money IT playgrounds, hiring developers from India can provide the highest ROI). Who knows, maybe a new Blockchain company today might end up becoming something like Amazon or Google (two companies which wouldn’t have existed without the Internet) 10 years from now.

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The Impact of Blockchain Technology 10 Years From Now

How to choose the right PC for you As a computer science student, more often than not I find myself helping friends to choose the right computer for their day to day needs. Moreover, that same question always begins with: “How can I understand computers in 5 minutes?” So, let’s start our journey by learning computers! Firstly, let’s just go over the fundamental components of a computer: , a simple explanation is that it corresponds to the “Brain” of your computer, it is the component of your computer that gives a set of instructions to the rest of the parts of your computer. Usually done by companies like Intel or AMD, you tend to need a good CPU in order to have a very fast computer, for deploying faster instructions, and in a much bigger quantity. CPU (Central Processing Unit) , a component that manages the output quality of the images you see on the screen. They tend to be very important in Gaming or Photography, both needing really high-quality pictures or high speed to generate them. Graphics Card , component that has the function of Data Storage, there are two main ones, HDD- slow, cheap but effective and SSD- fast, costly and very very effective. This type of storage is most commonly known as the one that “Doesn’t go away when you turn off the PC” which is different than RAM, that we will shortly talk about next. However, either SSD or HDD serves to store your applications and personal files. HDD or SSD from GamingScan page , a volatile memory that only saves data while the computer is working and it is used by the central processing unit (CPU) when a computer is running to store information that it needs to be used very quickly, but it does not store any information permanently. RAM But, knowing all this, HOW do I pick a PC for me?? Putting it all together: The short answer is that every PC is perfect if it’s constructed for you! My advice is if you need a very fast PC, pick a PC with a good CPU and RAM, maybe for CPU an Intel i5 or i7, and for RAM, at least bigger than 4 GB. In addition, if you have the budget I would advise to pick SSD, because they are substantially faster, but only if you don’t need a lot of storage space. If what you really need is Storage, invest in HDD, even though it is slower, you will find the best price for bigger storage amounts. However, if you’re into photography, it’s a must to have the best Graphics Card possible, maybe an NVIDIA GTX. Lastly, if you’re a gamer, you will need the best of the above, because games nowadays require a lot from you’re PC. Now you have the capability to choose the perfect PC for you, so go out there and find the Computer of your dreams. Just remember one thing: It’s hardware that makes a machine fast. It’s software that makes a fast machine slow. Craig Bruce This meaning that a good managing of your PC is one of the best solutions for a perfect PC.

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I’ve been running for a couple of years now. Perhaps, a little less. That’s me, up above, on a bike. Honey Copy I am part Asian, though. Just kidding. Anyway, living and working with Honey Copy has been lovely. Together, we’ve written words for some pretty incredible brands and just recently launched our very first product. It’s a copywriting guide called, “ How to write words that sell like a Florida Snow Cone Vendor on the hottest day of the year. ” I’m not entirely sure why I am saying “together” and “we” and “our”… it’s really just me but I view Honey Copy as a living breathing organism like a beautiful bumblebee. Naturally, running and growing my creative writing business has come with tons of marketing lessons… many that have been learned in the form of mistakes and heavy-handed knocks. Below, I’ve shared these lessons as rules. 7 marketing rules and many, many more coming soon. A very good friend of mine here in Nashville named Taylor does something called “Life Rules”… it’s a practice inspired by his belief that it’s okay to make a mistake, it’s just never okay to make the same mistake twice. So, when he fucks up, he’ll create a “Life Rule” to ensure he doesn’t make the same fuck up again. He and I actually created a life rule a few weeks back. The two of us were at an open bar and since it was “open” we took full advantage. We didn’t make asses of ourselves but we could have very easily. So, we created a “Life Rule”… in the event of an open bar, only enjoy up to three drinks and no shots. The marketing rules you’ll find in this article are kind of like the one above… but about marketing, obviously. Marketing rule #1 — If a customer asks for a refund (always, always, always) give them a refund. Over the past few weeks, . Of the 100 I’ve sold, not a single customer has asked for a refund… I’ve sold 100 of my copywriting guides until this morning. When I read the email from the customer requesting the refund, I wanted to reach across the screen and slap him… because it was apparent he hadn’t even taken the time to read all the way through the guide. But, instead, I swallowed my pride and sent him a refund, immediately — he had his money back five minutes after emailing me. I think as marketers it’s important to give our customers their money back when they aren’t happy with what they bought from us. No, I can’t necessarily say it’s bad nor good for business. But, I think it comes down to being a good human. Which, brings me to my next marketing rule… Marketing rule #2 — Be a good human, first… a good marketer, second. Being a good marketer and a good human don’t always go hand in hand. Unfortunately, there are a handful of black magic marketing tactics that work wonders when it comes to selling but aren’t necessarily going to get you into heaven… I don’t have kids. But, when I am crafting marketing and creative writing for brands I work with… I ask myself… if my son or daughter were to buy whatever it is I’m selling due to the marketing I’ve created… would I be proud? This, generally, keeps me as a marketer on the straight and narrow. With that said you’ll notice I curse in my marketing and writing frequently. That’s intentional. I don’t care if my son or daughter reads the word “shit” or “damn”. I think cursing is very much a part of being human and I think good humans say some not so good words when they stub their toes… but good humans don’t cheat other humans out of their hard-earned money. Which, speaking of being human, we’re already on marketing rule numero tres… Marketing rule #3 — Don’t market as a brand, market as a human. Today, we’re seeing massive success among smaller boutique brands that don’t stay small and boutique for long because they market as a human versus as a brand. , , and are all great examples of this. Maude Harry’s Keeps Gumroad When you read their emails, sales pages, product descriptions and website copy… you feel like you’re sitting in a coffee shop talking with a human. That’s a beautiful style of marketing. lucrative To craft a more human tone to your marketing communication, send me a note at “cole@honeycopy.com” — this is kind of what I am known for. Marketing Rule #4 — Give away something free to your customers, regularly. One of the best investments I’ve ever made has been . Up until this point, I’ve published 53 blogs in total (this will be my 54th). Many of them are over 2,000 words and they can take as many as ten hours to piece together each week. my blog I don’t charge my customers a dime to read them… nor do I charge for my weekly newsletter I send out, . Sticky Notes It’s really damn good by the way, you should join the 2,258 marketers, entrepreneurs and snow cone vendors currently receiving it each week. Anyway, in addition to whatever it is you’re selling, have something very valuable you’re giving to your customers for free. While it’s not always easy to see the return on investment with giving away free shit, there is one. I promise. Marketing rule #5 — Customers always read the headlines so invest 80% of your time there. The hillbilly lawyer taking on Big Pharma. That was the subject line that just landed in my email inbox. I clicked it, if you’re wondering. Email subject lines, article titles, billboard copy and the big bulky words that sit atop sales pages are all examples of headlines. And, in my opinion, they’re the most important investment you can make when it comes to marketing. David Ogilvy, the king of advertising, ranted and raved about headlines saying… “On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.” No matter what kind of marketing you’re crafting, always begin and end with the headline, understanding that customers won’t watch your video, look at your picture, read about your product nor open your email if you can’t hook them with one sharp headline. As marketers, that’s the battle we are up against… the battle between mediocre headlines and great headlines. Marketing Rule #6 — Shy brands die. I’ve always been wild with my marketing. The brands I’ve worked with haven’t always let me be with their marketing. But, for Honey Copy, I’m not afraid to raise some hell. Always. As I continue to bolster my name in the marketing space and have the luxury of choosing between clients, I will push this more aggressive, bold and edgy style on the brands I work with. Why? Because it works. Today, so many brands struggle with offending someone. And, as a result, they whisper. They whisper and whisper and whisper and wonder why no one can hear them. I used to tell brands to not be afraid of being a little bold with their marketing. My philosophy has since changed. I now tell brands to be afraid to not be bold. Shy brands die. Period. Marketing Rule #7 — Be reassuringly expensive. I first heard this piece of advice from a copywriter friend of mine named , he’s a wizard when it comes to crafting sales pages. Robert Lucas He told me one day over a cup of coffee to be “reassuringly expensive” and I’ve always remembered it. Being the cheapest is a race to the bottom. You charge $100. Your customer charges $95. You undercut them heavy and start charging $75. They play hardball and start charging $50. This goes and goes and goes until you or your competitor go out of business. Long story short, nobody wins. At , I don’t play the inexpensive game. I’m expensive to work with. I_’m very expensive to work with._ Depending on what customers are looking for, I charge anywhere from $2,500 — $10,000+. Honey Copy Customers and brands value products and services that are more expensive. There have been stories and studies about patients taking more expensive placebos and reporting that their pain drops by up to 50%. Price is directly tied to perceived value and due to the fact that our perception is real, higher prices give our products more value. Now, I am passionate about helping all brands write prettier copy that sells like hell. So, if they can’t afford me I point them in the direction of my and and . FREE blog FREE email newsletter $97 copywriting guide Choosing to be more expensive isn’t saying fuck you to the customers who can’t afford you (especially if you’re offering cheaper and even free resources they can use)… but choosing the be expensive is offering more value to the customer who can afford you. Always, choose to price your products or services higher rather than lower. Be reassuringly expensive. in the meantime, sign up for , my email list reserved strictly for entrepreneurs and creatives looking to write pretty words and sell like hell. More coming soon… Sticky Notes By Cole Schafer. You gotta check this out — is my email list reserved strictly for entrepreneurs and creatives looking to sell like a Florida Snow Cone Vendor on the hottest day of the year. Sticky Notes

The ever-growing list of marketing rules I live, work and market by.

Japan is one of the top 3 markets in digital gaming with revenue of over . It is also leading the blockchain gaming market — My Crypto Heros (MCH), since it is launched in Q4 2018, MCH has become the largest blockchain game in the world with over 17,000+ users on the main net. And the local community are also catching up quickly — big gaming companies, game studios, and indie developers have joined the trend. $19.2B in 2018 How did Japan become the leader of blockchain gaming? took a deep dive in Tokyo with a mission to find out the secret and meet with the major builders and players for decentralized apps. Dapp.com Identifying the Huge Opportunities of Blockchain Gaming “Ownership and liquidity of virtual items are the current problems,” said Tran Ngoc Son, the CEO of Japan. According to Tran, blockchain in gaming opens new territory for developers since: TomoChain Blockchain in gaming enables interoperable profiles of players and game virtual items; Cryptocurrency enables in-game economics-incentive mechanism; Blockchain-based games allow players to truly own their in-game assets and greater control over their favorite games. Players can collaborate with developers to improve a game on the blockchain. In the case of TomoChain, developers or game companies can make mobile friendly games by using TomoWallet dapp browser. Gen Kanai, Director of strategic partnerships at addressed, “As Japan is one of the top gaming markets and is quickly adopting blockchain into gaming, we can see numerous games in development today which we hope to enjoy later this year. We are happy to see the interest in and look forward to expanding the blockchain gaming community with this and our future games in development.” Animoca Brands The Sandbox Gen Kanai Overcoming the Usability Challenges: Gas Fee, UX, and Scalability Shunsuke Watanabe from opened his presentation about the challenges the team was facing during the game development. “When you build a dapp, you have to deal with blockchain related UX difficulties, such as gas fee, scalability, transaction times, and so on”, said Shunsuke, “the thing that blockchain games compete with ‘normal’ social games is usability.” He continues explained that if we want real user adoption, we need to get to the level of current browser / mobile games, while adding the positive aspects of blockchain gaming: Ownership of assets, the democratization of revenues, interoperability of items, etc. My Crypto Heroes Shunsuke Shunsuke mentioned that their team solved the Ethereum related UX challenges as follow: 1- Battle-system beta runs on a side-chain to avoid the gas fees and long transaction times, and also provide a smoother game flow. The hybrid on-chain / off-chain infrastructure was crafted by the MCH team and it connects a gateway in-between — to ensure a trust-less gaming experience, which is true ownership of assets and scarcity of heroes and extensions. 2- An Ethereum proxy API that built and implemented by the team to speed up the data transmission significantly and smooth a better user experience ultimately. “Users want a pleasant game experience that is comparable to ‘normal’ games while enjoying the benefits of Blockchain. It is our task as a developer to build systems that enable good UX while securing our user’s assets on the blockchain”, said Shunsuke. Facilitating the Decentralized Ecosystem: Tools and Infrastructure Nana H.Tanaka, the country manager at Japan talked about how PundiX Ecosystem Facilitates Dapps. He introduced XPOS’ main function to allow payment as well as allows anyone to buy ETH. XPOS will certainly solve one of the major pain points for people to start using a dapp, which is helping people to get crypto as easy as possible. Pundi X Labs Taisuke Horitsugi, the Evangelist at Japan told audiences about how Kyber tackles the issue of in-game transactions and provides an on-chain protocol that provides liquidity to dapps. Kyber combines multiple transactions into one and gives gamers a simple and hassle-free experience. Kyber Network Special thanks to , , , , , , , , and some upcoming new games from Tokyo , NovaBlitz, Cipher Cascade, and . We made the largest blockchain gamers gathering in Tokyo. My Crypto Heroes TomoChain Pundi X Kyber Network Animoca Brands Neutrino Japan Dapps Market Blockchain Game Info Asia Blockchain Review CryptoSpells Crypto Derby Dapp.com Sharing our vision for future of dapps There is nothing better than seeing builders constantly working on long lasting projects for daily use. And that’s what people are doing in Japan. Cheers

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A sneak peek into the Blockchain Gaming Market in Japan: Way ahead of the others

Developers and code reviewers have seemingly conflicting goals: developers want to ship their code fast, reviewers want high code quality. But in my opinion these are two sides of the same goal: keep development velocity high by shipping high quality and maintainable code. Reviewers want to help developers to ship less bugs to production and make code easier to understand so feature improvements can be done faster. By following these recommendations you’ll be able to reduce number of code review iterations and ship code faster. Before you start Every team has its own standards and best practices. In good teams they are well documented. Reading such documentation in advance will save you many code review iterations. If you’re new to a team, technologies or an area of the codebase, more experienced could be a great way to learn and complete your task faster. pairing with someone Split big tasks into several diffs. Just reading 1000 lines of code will take a reviewer more than an hour and a cup of coffee. And each iteration will require another hour. It’s hard to say when a diff becomes too big, but the general rule of thumb is: the less experience you have, the smaller your diffs should be. By splitting a big task into smaller ones, you’ll get feedback faster, before you’ve spent too much time on a less than ideal implementation. Even better if you discuss, how you’re going to implement a complex feature, with a more experienced developer before you start working. Make sure your code is ready Before sending your code to review, check it for debug code, commented out code and TODO comments, make sure all kinds of automated tests, type checks and linters are passing. Make sure there are no new lint warnings, and code is formatted, if you’re using a tool like Prettier. Manual code reviews are great for improving readability, architecture or accessibility. When reviewers are distracted by catching typos and minor issues that could have been caught by automated checks, they’ll be more likely to miss important problems. Do a self review Think what may be unclear to a person reading the code, what kind of questions they may have, if they don’t know everything you know about the task. Answer these questions by making code more clear or by adding comments explaining why some code was written and why it was written in a certain way. If there are obvious simpler alternatives that won’t work for your case, explain why. These kinds of changes and comments will help everyone who’s going to read the code, not only code reviewers. Good comments may also save your code from accidental “refactoring” that makes code simpler but removes important functionality, when it’s not clear why this “extra” code is needed. Show what you’ve done It helps a lot to see what the code in the diff is actually doing. Mention related tickets, add screenshots or even GIFs for all UI changes. Tip: Kap is a nice free app to record GIFs on macOs. Ask questions Code review is a great way of sharing knowledge between developers. It works in both directions: from a reviewer to a developer and from a developer to a reviewer. Code review is a dialog where two, or sometimes more, people are working together on improving a piece of code. To make it work, you need to understand each comment and the reasoning behind it. Keep asking questions until everything is clear: why something is a problem and what is the proposed solution. Code review comments aren’t always the best place to have long discussions, sometimes it’s better to talk to your reviewer in Slack or even better in person. It’s a good idea to add a short summary of such discussion as a comment to your diff. can be another way to improve communication. In that case the developer and the reviewer will sit together and go though the code. The reviewer will explain all the problems in details and make sure there’s no misunderstanding. Live review Don’t do changes for the sake of changes Reviewers don’t know as much as you do about your task, so some of their suggestions will not make any sense for what you’re doing. There’s no rule that code reviewer is always right, unless it’s a team standard, and even standards have exceptions sometimes. Sometimes suggestions sound good but don’t work in reality. Use your own judgement, don’t do changes if you see that they aren’t improving the code. Explain why you think that the suggestion doesn’t work for you. Even if you’ve done the change but don’t like the result, revert it before the next review iteration. A good reviewer will likely notice this too, and asks you to revert the change. Don’t ignore comments You don’t have to agree with everything code reviewer is saying or to apply all their suggestions, but if you just ignore some comments, a code reviewer will likely write it again. If you’re not going to do a particular suggestion or have tried and it didn’t work, reply to a review comment with a short explanation to avoid any possible misunderstanding. Make it clear when you’re done with the changes Every developer works differently: some will commit all the changes at once, some will commit each change separately. It’s hard for reviewers to know when you’re done with all their feedback and ready for another iteration. Writing a short comment like “Ready for another iteration” will make it clear, and you’ll get that another iteration sooner. Make the next step Development is an iterative process, so is code reviewing. Code review suggestions are possible improvements to the current state of the code, not it’s final state. Often one improvement makes another improvement obvious, and a good code reviewer will let you know about it. But you don’t have to wait and loose another iteration: do one more self-review and see what could be the next thing. For example a reviewer has asked you to simplify three functions and make code more consistent. But after you’ve done it, it’s now clear that all three functions are doing the same thing, and you can replace them with a single function. Conclusion Don’t treat code reviews as a distraction. They are here to help you ship better code and spend less time on future changes. Help reviewers help you. Start reviewing someone else’s code yourself, even if you can’t approve it. You’ll improve your own coding skills by reading more code and thinking how to make it better. Subscribe to my newsletter: https://tinyletter.com/sapegin Thanks to Anita Kiss, Oliver Joseph Ash , Matt Hamlin , Oleg Isonen , Alex Orange.

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Enters Public Beta Hackernoon Community We are excited to be starting the public beta of the . There’s some great ongoing discussions from our private beta — from to (or ) to (or ). Building a cool new product aside, (limited supply 😊). If you’d like to introduce yourself to meet more of the community, here’s . Hacker Noon Community product decisions for Hacker Noon 2.0 favorite old-school video games decentralized applications what could replace Facebook Google everyone seems interested in some Hacker Noon stickers the thread Browse by category: / Crypto / Editorial / General / Podcast / Product / Random / Software-Development / Sponsors / Technology There are also private groups for contributing writers and shareholders. This instance is powered by and hosted by . Discourse will also power our commenting system in Hacker Noon 2.0. Our integration will be a little different from other sites, but you can see examples of this story/comment setup on and . Discourse DigitalOcean codinghorror.com boingboing.net On our site today, there are too many barriers to sharing words about stories. Most of the discussion around Hacker Noon stories are happening on other social networks. Part of this is the reality of how social networks host discussion today, and part of it is a software design issue. Currently, “comments” are called “responses” and treated like a whole new story. A Community.Hackernoon.com Thread. It’s difficult to create an account, quote another comment or cleanly follow a thread of comments (lots of clicking of “read more” required to read full comments). By making our comment system more like original internet forums we pay homage to the early days and adoption of the internet; it was about people connecting by mutual subject matter interest. In the spectrum of “comment” to “new story,” I think we can host a lot more of the discussion around the story (which will in turn create better stories). With Discourse, discussions feels natural. One can comment an entire new post, or simply react to certain parts of the story. Everything is an ongoing thread. A Final Thought About Civil Discourse Please treat your internet friends with respect. There are many places on the internet where you can be mean. This is not one of them. You are welcome to be anonymous. You are welcome to speak your truth. Within reason. When agreeing or disagreeing, please be thoughtful, respectful and kind. Join the discourse @ . community.hackernoon.com

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Apple Arcade — A New Foe has Appeared! On March 25, Apple announced Apple Arcade — a new subscription service featuring access to over 100 new and exclusive games. I want to unpack the context behind the announcement and lay out some open questions for the platform’s future. A Link to the Past Since the advent of Zynga and Farmville in 2009 a full 10 years ago, the world of gaming has shifted in an evolutionary way. The rise of freemium gaming has affected not only the biggest mobile games (Candy Crush, Clash of Clans, Pokemon Go) but PC and, to a certain extent console as well (League of Legends, Fortnite). The good ol’ days So what? Well, in order to adapt, gameplay and game design have had to evolve as well. Offering the game for free allowed for broad distribution. Meanwhile, in-app purchases (IAP), downloadable content (DLC) and ads provided revenue. Thanks to the success of Zynga, many in the game industry began methodically and obsessively breaking down metrics of engagement — how do you create an addicting first 5 minutes? First hour? Get the user to come back on the second day? How do we get a customer to pay for the first time at the top of the funnel? On the flip side, how do we make the game deep enough to reward the “whales” — the few, deep-pocketed, mega-payers who spend an outsized amount of all revenue in the game. The internal organs of the game have been shuffled around to optimize for player growth, retention and monetization. In the meantime, we’ve also seen a number of noteworthy hits on the indie game side. Platforms like Steam and the app stores also allow for a few independent developers to find a significant player base and make sufficient money to reach decent levels of profitability. To be clear though, the gap is vast. in revenue since launch. By contrast, Clash of Clans was at one point estimated to be making . Monument Valley reached over $25 million dollars $5.5m revenue daily and has exceeded $3b in total lifetime revenue Indie Hit? Free-to-play wonder? The world will never know. So with Arcade (and, arguably, Google with Stadia — a considerably different approach) we see Apple placing a bet on the latter. Apple has consistently watched games dominate the App Store’s rankings and revenues since its inception. As called out today, mobile devices comprise . Apple Arcade is the company’s attempt to continue capitalizing on that (at least, the iOS portion of the equation). But let’s delve into some of the open-ended questions laid out by this new direction. the single most popular gaming machine in existence PlayerUnknown What is the current market size of players willing to pay such a service? The most astute industry reports can’t accurately estimate how many will actually subscribe. My video game backlog is currently already 20 games long. I spent a full month playing Overcooked 2. What does it mean to have an 100+ more for me to try every month? What is the average number of games a subscriber will play each month? Does this replace the existing services or supplement them? (#déjàvucordcutters) What is the future market size? Is this a virtuous or vicious cycle? As with all markets, this is two-sided — if developers see this as the new land of opportunity, more will sign on. If players find the exclusive library increasingly appealing, more players will subscribe. But the opposite also holds — Ouya, Shield and Oculus can share their misgivings. Is there perhaps undiagnosed IAP fatigue? A portion of the broader player base has been vocally against IAP and *shudder* DLC add-ons. A gaming experience can quickly feel cheapened by pay-to-win strategies or story lines that paywall their own endings. But by offering the core game for free, has this try-before-you-buy behavior become engrained in players? Equally importantly, by being forced to discover IAP, have game developers become addicted to the huge recurring revenue streams? Can freemium and premium games co-exist peacefully in the future of the industry? Finally, how do economics actually play out for game developers? The current price is to be determined. Spotify and Netflix rode a fine line in appeasing content creators and paying out sufficient revenues. Does the game industry work the same way? I’m very curious to see how Arcade and Stadia play out over the next year. The games demoed on stage today were beautiful. Then again, Keynote demos usually are. I exited the game industry because the path to pursue revenue felt at odds with the games I loved as a kid. Will this offering to quality, lovingly crafted games pan out? Or is this 2019’s Apple Newsstand? Authors note: all views represented above are my own, from the perspective of a gamer and ex-game developer. There is no relevance to the time I spent at Apple or my being an AAPL stakeholder.

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Apple Arcade — A New Foe has Appeared!

Whiteboard-style interviews are ubiquitous in the tech industry. For those who not had the pleasure, whiteboard interviewing is the practice of asking candidates to solve technical questions on a whiteboard, piece of paper, or computer during the interview. This kind of environment can feel like a pressure cooker and cause even the most competent engineer to fall apart. In this article, I intend to pass along the best advice I ever received for going through a whiteboard interview. Note that I do not intend to address the fairness or efficacy of whiteboard interviews because, well, as interviewees we currently have to deal with them regardless. The Advice: Communicate! The best piece of technical interview advice I have received and can impart upon you is to communicate, communicate, communicate! This may seem like an anti-climactic piece of advice, but I hope to be able to demonstrate to you that it’s actually the most important skill to prepare prior to an interview. : as I discuss examples in the rest of this article, they will have a software engineering slant as it is the most familiar domain to me. Despite that slant, you can apply these skills to any whiteboard-style interview. Note What Do You Mean Communicate? Let’s say you are in the interview and your interviewers throw you a whiteboard question. Do you step up to the whiteboard and feverishly start solving the problem? No! That tends to be everyone’s instinct, but it’s definitely not the right way to go. Even if you think you understand the problem, you should take some very important steps before moving forward. First, Restate the Question Do you understand what they’re asking you to do? Prove it. Restate the question for them and seek affirmation. You might actually be surprised to find you fully understand what they’re asking for — perhaps the question is similar, but not the same, as a practice problem you have completed in the past. Using the tried-and-true fizz-buzz example, you could restate the problem as follows: don’t “So I’d like to restate the problem to you to make sure I understand what you’re looking for. The sole parameter for my function will be an integer. The sole output of my function will be an incrementing array, starting from the number 1 and ending at the input number. If a number is a multiple of 3, the output will instead be `fizz`. If a number is a multiple of 5, the output will instead be `buzz`. However, if the output is a multiple of both 3 and 5, the output will instead be `fizzbuzz`. Is my understanding correct?” The interview should give you affirmation or, perhaps, your understanding is incorrect and they will help you understand. There is no situation in which restating the problem will hurt you — it shows you can articulate a problem and gives you time to think it through a bit while you discuss. Furthermore, starting the discussion this way will help quell some nerves that might otherwise manifest while trying to solve the actual challenge. Ask About Edge Cases It’s still not time to dive right into coding the solution. Think for a bit about the inputs and expected output and think about potential edge cases to the problem. Ask about them. In many cases, the interviewer hasn’t even thought about edge cases and will make something up. That’s great — it shows you’re analytical and will work hard to try to prevent bugs (which often crop up due to edge cases). Let’s use the fizz-buzz example. After successfully restating the problem, a valid way to ask about edge cases would be as follows: “Now that I confirmed my understanding of the problem, I’d like to ask about some potential edge cases. Is it possible that the input would be a type other than a number? If so, what should the function do? Can the input be 0 or negative? Again, if so, what should the function do?” Ask About Test Cases This is free and you should take advantage of it. Simply ask if there are any test cases that the function should pass. Your interviewer might be you to ask this question, so it might be necessary. But it’s also possible the interviewer was not expecting the question and will think “ah, this candidate knows about testing!” expecting Write Pseudocode and Ask If It Makes Sense (Write Pseudocode and Check Your Logic) Again, you don’t actually want to start writing code in an actual language. You’ll find yourself constrained by trying to remember the methods or other idiosyncrasies of the language rather than trying to come up with the correct logic. Instead, let your interviewer know you’re going to start by writing pseudocode and fill in the actual code later. (Coincidentally, this is a reasonable way to write actual code as well). Here’s the kicker: you can ask if your pseudocode makes sense to the interviewer. It’s possible they will be the type that doesn’t want to “give you hints,” but it’s also possible they’ll be more interested in how you think and want to discuss your pseudocode with you. When I interview candidates, I’m more interested in the latter — rarely do we ever actually develop software in a vacuum. In other words, in the worst case the interviewer will tell you to continue without actually offering feedback. In the best case, the interviewer might actually point out logical flaws in your pseudocode that will give you some serious benefit when transitioning to actual code. If your pseudocode looks good but you end up having difficulty translating it to actual code, you have actually earned a lot of points by now! Sure, in some elite companies they won’t accept anything but functional code, but simply being able to reason through the pseudocode is sufficient for many great companies. Super bonus : In keeping with our fizz-buzz example, let’s say we came up with the following pseudocode. We’ll ultimately be writing our code in javascript, but it hardly matters at this point. { } ( ) function fizzBuzz n // If n is not a number or not an integer greater // than zero, return null // create empty array to store output // Loop through numbers from 1 to n // If number modulo 3 is zero, add ‘fizz’ // to output array // Else If number modulo 5 is zero, // add ‘buzz’ to output array // Else If number modulo 3 is zero and // number modulo 5 is zero, add ‘fizzbuzz’ // to array // Else add the number to the array // return output array At this point, you might realize that you’d never get to the third `else-if` statement. Alternatively, when you confirm your pseudocode with interviewer, they might offer that up to you for free (seriously). In that case, you can rewrite your pseudocode to make sure you check the third condition first: { } ( ) function fizzBuzz n // If n is not a number or not an integer greater // than zero, return null // create empty array to store output // Loop through numbers from 1 to n // If number modulo 3 is zero and // number modulo 5 is zero, add ‘fizzbuzz’ // to array // Else If number modulo 3 is zero, add ‘fizz’ // to output array // Else If number modulo 5 is zero, // add ‘buzz’ to output array // Else add the number to the array // return output array Write the Actual Code and Ask if it Looks Good (Finally Start Writing Code) You should now convert your pseudocode into actual code. You don’t even need to remove the comments. At this point, you just need to plug the appropriate code for your language in. If you forget some syntax or a method name, you be able to ask your interviewer for this information without too much grief. If they give you trouble, just say you’ll leave it as pseudocode for now. should { ( (n) || ! .isInteger(n) || n < ) ; output = []; ( i = ; i <= n; i++) { (i % === && i % === ) {
   output.push(“fizzbuzz”);
  } (i % === ) {
   output.push(“fizz”);
  } (i % === ) {
   output.push(“buzz”);
  } {
   output.push(i);
  }
 } output;
} ( ) function fizzBuzz n if isNaN Number 1 return null let for let 1 if 3 0 5 0 else if 3 0 else if 5 0 else return At this point, don’t hesitate to ask if your solution looks good! If it doesn’t they might offer some tips to improve it. All of this communication scores points for you — you’ll seem articulate and easier to work with if you’re willing to objectively discuss ways to improve your work. Stuck? Ask for Help! (Ask for Help!) If you’re having trouble along the way, it’s not illegal to ask for some help. Just phrase it conversationally. For example: “I’m a bit stuck here, do you have any tips to nudge me in the right direction?” The answer might be “no, I’d like to see if you can solve it from here on your own,” but it also very well might be a “yes” with a useful tip! Bonus: Communicating Prior to the Interview You should have a human resources or interview point of contact prior to the interview. Are you curious whether there will be a coding portion of the interview? Ask them! Furthermore, you can ask if there is anything in particular you should prepare. They very well might give you hints like specifying the language in which they’ll ask questions, the number of questions, the style of question (e.g., develop an algorithm vs. find the bug). They might tell you whether you’ll be sitting at a computer or standing at a whiteboard — very useful information you might be able to use to practice or, at the very least, mentally prepare. We’re All Human Above all, remember that we’re all human. Your interviewer has been in your position and understands the stress of a technical interview. Your interviewer has probably seen quite a few candidates sweating it out, but possibly very few open who openly discuss problems in a conversational manner. If you can achieve this, you’ll be in great shape. What Has Your Experience Been? Have you been in a technical interview where communication saved you? Have you had the opposite experience? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear about your experiences.

Super

The Best Whiteboard Interview Advice I Ever Received

I completed my Master’s degree back in 2015 with an emphasis on Opinion Mining (Sentiment Analysis, if you haven’t heard of it, sit tight, it’s going to be interesting). I started working as a web developer and had lost touch in the area of Data Mining (my project thesis). Then one fine Saturday evening, I was relaxing on my couch and was watching over the 2016 US Presidential Election campaign buzz (the final election was yet to be held) going around over the internet. I wasn’t much into world politics by then, but the topic itself intrigued me. I sat for a while and thought, there is so much data over the internet about the campaigns and pre-election stuff that I can make use of, and then dive deeper into the same to figure out what exactly is happening in the larger picture. So my path was set for the weekend, but what I was about to find out was something I never even imagined in my wildest of dreams. The Problem Statement I decided to collect twitter data, and use it to conclude what the people are talking about. So, this was a three-step process - Collect the data (tweets) from Twitter regarding the elections. Run some program on these tweets to figure out what these tweets pertain to (or what people are talking about through these tweets). Conclude the result from step 2. Let’s figure out each step in detail. Collecting the Data So, I used the following script to fetch the tweets in live mode (i.e. fetching tweets as they come). <a href="https://medium.com/media/8cb67f70d02f9226580b01c672c9a2bd/href">https://medium.com/media/8cb67f70d02f9226580b01c672c9a2bd/href</a> For the above code to work, you will need (which you can easily download using pip), just use the following - tweepy pip install tweepy The code uses the twitter stream to fetch tweets as they are posted (dynamically). Running the above will fetch us a lot of tweets (we can choose to store it for later purposes). In a similar way, we can extract out tweets for Donald Trump as well, using twitterStream.filter(tract=[“Trump”]) Analysis of the data collected Let’s start the actual part with a little detour - Some of you might be thinking what exactly is Opinion Mining/Sentiment Analysis? To satisfy your inquisitiveness, I will try to answer this first - According to Wikipedia - (sometimes known as or ) refers to the use of , , , and to systematically identify, extract, quantify, and study affective states and subjective information. Sentiment analysis is widely applied to materials such as reviews and survey responses, online and social media, and healthcare materials for applications that range from to to clinical medicine. Opinion mining sentiment analysis emotion AI natural language processing text analysis computational linguistics biometrics voice of the customer marketing customer service In my own words - is extracting out information from a text and determining what sentiment that particular set of words/sentences depict, i.e. whether the sentence(s) depicts a positive sense/ a negative sense or are just plain neutral. This can be applied in e-commerce e.g. Amazon Product reviews which can be automated to figure out how many positive/negative reviews a product has received as well as the severity of it. Opinion Mining From Step 1, I had gathered a lot of tweets (read thousands of them) on Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and that data was just sitting in my system waiting to get analysed. So, What next? I need to create a Data Science Model/Classifier on which I can feed these tweets and get the result. So the next target was to create such a model. This was the tricky part. Disclaimer: I am not a Data Scientist by any means, this was just a hobby project which I continued after my Project dissertation back in my University days. So I used some naive ways to get to the conclusion. Creation of Data Science Model - Gather some training data from a reliable source which should have data in the format of (sentence -> sentiment) e.g. (“You made delicious food today” -> “positive”) / (“The roads are in really bad shape” -> “negative”) Clean the data ( , , etc.) stop word removal stemming Create classifier(s)/model(s) on the cleaned training data. So I gathered the data online and some part of it is shown below:- POSITIVE SENTENCES the rock is destined to be the 21st century’s new “ conan “ and that he’s going to make a splash even greater than arnold schwarzenegger , jean-claud van damme or steven segal .the gorgeously elaborate continuation of “ the lord of the rings “ trilogy is so huge that a column of words cannot adequately describe co-writer/director peter jackson’s expanded vision of j . r . r . tolkien’s middle-earth .effective but too-tepid biopicif you sometimes like to go to the movies to have fun , wasabi is a good place to start .emerges as something rare , an issue movie that’s so honest and keenly observed that it doesn’t feel like one .the film provides some great insight into the neurotic mindset of all comics — even those who have reached the absolute top of the game .offers that rare combination of entertainment and education .perhaps no picture ever made has more literally showed that the road to hell is paved with good intentions .steers turns in a snappy screenplay that curls at the edges ; it’s so clever you want to hate it . but he somehow pulls it off .take care of my cat offers a refreshingly different slice of asian cinema . NEGATIVE SENTENCES simplistic , silly and tedious .it’s so laddish and juvenile , only teenage boys could possibly find it funny .exploitative and largely devoid of the depth or sophistication that would make watching such a graphic treatment of the crimes bearable .[garbus] discards the potential for pathological study , exhuming instead , the skewed melodrama of the circumstantial situation .a visually flashy but narratively opaque and emotionally vapid exercise in style and mystification .the story is also as unoriginal as they come , already having been recycled more times than i’d care to count .about the only thing to give the movie points for is bravado — to take an entirely stale concept and push it through the audience’s meat grinder one more time .not so much farcical as sour .unfortunately the story and the actors are served with a hack script .all the more disquieting for its relatively gore-free allusions to the serial murders , but it falls down in its attempts to humanize its subject .a sentimental mess that never rings true .while the performances are often engaging , this loose collection of largely improvised numbers would probably have worked better as a one-hour tv documentary .interesting , but not compelling .on a cutting room floor somewhere lies . . . footage that might have made no such thing a trenchant , ironic cultural satire instead of a frustrating misfire . I then cleaned the data using the usual stop word removal process and stemming ( ). Porter Stemmer Now I was faced with the challenge of choosing the best classifier for the job since I was not so proficient in the field, I chose what any naive Data Science Enthusiast will choose, My Knight in the Shining Armour Naive Bayes Classifier. I decided to go with this classifier, created a model out of it using the training data I had, and then ran the same model on my Twitter Tweets, the result I got was not something I expect it to be, a lot of accuracy issues which I could clearly see. What else I can do better! Again, I am just a Data Science Enthusiast, but I remembered one technique which I learnt from a course on where the instructor (in a similar course of Twitter Sentiment Analysis) suggests to use more than 1 classifier and then decide on the basis of voting among all of them. So that’s what I did. I made 7 Classifiers instead of just 1 and stored them (pickled them, if you are using python lingo) to be used for run time analysis of Twitter Tweets. pythonprogramming.net <a href="https://medium.com/media/3cde1d8dec391a1ec1273ea45b6971c3/href">https://medium.com/media/3cde1d8dec391a1ec1273ea45b6971c3/href</a> With this 7 naive classifiers were ready. Next part of the job was to feed each tweet to 7 classifiers separately and get their results. A voting algorithm will decide whether the tweet was positive or negative. i.e. if 4 out of 7 classifiers says the tweet is positive and 3 of them says it is negative, then we label the tweet as positive. Conclusion and Results With all this arsenal I finally ran the live tweets on my Classifiers and they gave me the results (positive/negative) which I stored in the text file. I tried plotting them on a graph using the below code : <a href="https://medium.com/media/437399aeca21bfecc711db4a147d3006/href">https://medium.com/media/437399aeca21bfecc711db4a147d3006/href</a> Running the above code to plot the results, I got the following - Trump’s tweets sentiment analysis Hillary’s tweets sentiment analysis The above plots were obtained for some 7–8k tweets, I have more of the data, I ran the same code for 2–3 days and I had similar results where Trump’s sentiment analysis on Twitter hardly went down while there was a lot of fluctuations in Hillary’s sentiment analysis. There are rumours that Twitter was hijacked by Russians during the Presidential elections and they swayed away votes from Hillary and somehow made Trump won. BBC says that Putin has a personal grudge with Clinton because of which he masterminded the hijack of US Presidential Election. I have my own doubts. All I did was I ran a sentiment analysis on that fine day and this is what I got. I leave the analysis of my work to the Political Pundits out there, I am just a technology enthusiast who happened to be free on that fine Saturday evening. I have no Political propaganda. PS: I hope you like my article, please correct me if I am wrong anywhere. This project is inspired by a course on pythonprogramming.net and the credit goes to the Harrison Kinsley. You rock Sir!

Fetch

When a small piece of my code predicted the fate of US Presidential Elections.

I hope you are wearing your warmest Winter coat, because the Bitcoin Bear Market has been long and cold. It has brought us some awesome innovation as well as shown us many people’s true colors both good and bad. The Bitcoin Bear Market Diaries featured exclusively on Hacker Noon explores this topic by interviewing various important voices and perspectives in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Stay tuned for more Bitcoin Bear Market Diaries! Editors Note: Get your Bitcoin story reviewed by a human editor today! https://contribute.hackernoon.com/ “The only way to understand Bitcoin is through HODLing. It’s like how the only way to really understand a smart phone is to switch it on and use it. Bitcoin is digital gold, which naturally invites the investor to hold it for the long term as a store of value.” TuurDemeester - @ Bitcoin Bear Market Diaries Volume 11 Tuur Demeester “I’m really optimistic about the role BTCPay Server will play, not just in transforming e-commerce but in opening up new monetisation methods for content creators.” — @ MattoshiN Bitcoin Bear Market Diaries Volume 10 Matt B “It’s just a form of saving. I know saving is not encouraged in American society — people are pressured to buy index funds instead, which I find unbelievably irresponsible — but that’s the consequence of a QE society where the dollar is debased and owning assets is the only way to tread water.” — @ nic__carter Bitcoin Bear Market Diary Volume 9 with Nic Carter “The task of modern man, in the age of information, is to philosophically understand rights and ethics. We teach reason to machines and software relative to understanding what is right and just and the importance of these endeavors must not be understated.” — @ BitcoinBlake Bitcoin Bear Market Diaries Volume 8 with Blake Anderson “Most forks are just useless attempts to earn a few bucks from people willing to pay for them. Forks are just another type of altcoin. BCH set the trend, but nowadays forks seem to be a thing of the past.” — @ CarstenBKK Bitcoin Bear Market Diaries Volume 7 with Carsten “Developers, layered protocols, privacy, sound money economics, and an adversarial “toxic” culture. This is the recipe for a software monetary revolution.” — @ GabrielDVine Bitcoin Bear Market Diaries Volume 6 with Gabriel D Vine “I think each Bitcoin bull market will make it harder and harder to pick winners, and that people will eventually associate altcoining similarly to gambling.” — @ BitcoinErrorLog Bitcoin Bear Market Diaries Volume 5 John Carvalho “Bitcoin’s greatest potential added value to society is as a censorship resistant free market price discovery tool that provides a check and balance against reckless expansion of credit by commercial and central banks.” — @ DeaterBob Bitcoin Bear Market Diary Volume 4 with DeaterBob “Every “negative” event seems to bring more antifragility into Bitcoin. I love that survival strengthens Bitcoin each time.” — @ jimmysong Bitcoin Bear Market Diaries Volume 3 with Jimmy Song “The same people today who think nothing of making a Skype call from an iPhone would have scoffed at the idea if it were put to them in 1990. This is also true of Bitcoin.” — @ Beautyon Bitcoin Bear Market Diaries Volume 2 with Akin Fernandez “Just buy and hodl Bitcoin. Don’t follow anyone blindly. Be critical, think for yourself and participate in discussions!” — @ hodlonaut Bitcoin Bear Market Diaries Volume 1 with Hodlonaut Hope you enjoyed this collection of interviews. There are more awesome Bitcoin Bear Market Diaries coming soon including , and to name a few. Would love to hear who you would like me to interview next? Marty Bent Vortex Dhruv Bansil Thanks for all your support! Pirate Beachbum Editors Note: Get your Bitcoin story reviewed by a human editor today! https://contribute.hackernoon.com/ P.S. Learn more about Where Hackers Hang Out.

Bitcoin Cash

Discovery

Excerpts from the Bitcoin Bear Market Diaries

HackerNoon Tech Stories Archive March 25th, 2019

Bitcoin Bear Market Diaries Volume 11 Tuur Demeester

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The Best Whiteboard Interview Advice I Ever Received

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The Best Whiteboard Interview Advice I Ever Received

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When a small piece of my code predicted the fate of US Presidential Elections.

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Excerpts from the Bitcoin Bear Market Diaries

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Excerpts from the Bitcoin Bear Market Diaries

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HackerNoon Tech Stories Archive March 25th, 2019

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@stevenn.hansenstevenn.hansen

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@rafaelandrealvesRafael Cordeiro

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@kyle_luKyle Lu

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@silverhareIvan Lee

@nas5wNick Scialli

@nas5wNick Scialli

@cosmosSajal

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Nick Scialli

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