A few months ago, I attended a meetup online. Before the actual program started, I had been chatting with other attendees. Our conversation drifted to how to make websites that look good and are effective. One attendee mentioned his success with no-code apps for that purpose.  That made me curious about the no-code movement. What are no-code apps? writes: Serra Alban No-code or a no-code tool, to be more practical, is a method and a movement of programming that does not necessarily involve writing code but instead works with GUI (Graphic User Interface) tools. This is so to say that no-code tools don’t depend on their users’ knowledge and ability to use code, instead, it makes use of way simpler methods to increase efficiency. Alban’s article was a good resource I found as I explored the no-code movement and I encourage others to read it as well. No-Code platforms I explored: 1. Bubble.io Bubble was the first no-code app I tried when I found out about the no-code movement. I took the free tutorials online and quickly found that it was an excellent website builder. I was able to make a simple app after completing the tutorials. Also, I saw that I would be able to use templates to create websites for future projects. What I liked about Bubble was that I could make a website or app that I did not have the skills to make with programming. It felt freeing. The possibilities seemed endless. Bubble was easy to use and they allowed new users a lot of time and education to get up to speed. 2. Carrd.co Next, I explored the carrd.co website. On the free tier, I made a landing page for a company - no-code required. The program made website design as simple as word processing. My example landing page looked very professional and polished to me. I was able to host this small page free with Carrd, but for more useful capabilities I found that I would need to pay for the pro version. The pro version has three tiers which range from $9 to $49 dollars per month. 3. Zapier.com Recently, I had been volunteering with a team to create a ticketed community event. We were communicating with each other using Slack to coordinate project activities. One of the members of the team was familiar with the no-code movement and recommended Zapier. He coordinated Eventbrite and Slack with Zapier so that when tickets for our event sold, we would all be automatically notified via Slack. This improved communication with team members. All of us were in the loop at all times about the progress of our event. Learning about Zapier seemed worthwhile to me. It saved us a lot of time as a team and no coding was involved in the process. Later, I experimented with Zapier by creating my own zaps. It was relatively simple to do. 4. Airtable.com Airtable is an “online system where a group of collaborators can store, share, and collaboratively edit information,” according to . The Airtable site has several tutorials and a limited pro trial to learn to use the program. I watched a 25-minute tutorial on Airtable, which highlighted its advanced spreadsheet capabilities.  I found it helpful to watch this to learn more about Airtable. this article YouTube video Where can you learn more about the no-code movement? Try the challenge. They advertise: “Bring your ideas to life in 100 days. No coding required. #100DaysOfNoCode is an online community connecting you with the people, content and habit fueled system to build great things.” #100daysdaysofnocode The program delivers weekly workshops, a learning lab, and member-led events for a small fee. This can be an important educational tool for learning because you also get a chance to interact with other learners who are creating apps. These people may be able to give suggestions for your attempts at making no-code apps. I found that the environment in no-code apps is constantly changing as the no-code movement grows. There is a steep learning curve, and much of the knowledge about no-code apps is experiential - you have to practically develop no-code apps to learn. My experience with no-code apps is that they are simple to learn but there is a lot of information so you can become overwhelmed. The no-code movement is growing quickly and the variety of apps could change rapidly in the next months. So, are you considering no-code for your next project? I hope this article will help you in joining the no-code movement.

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The No-Code Movement and 4 No-Code Tools to Explore

The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes. - Sherlock Holmes For at least five millennia, we used wheels for transportation, from carts to cars, trains, pushchairs, bicycles, etc. Across ages, we also had heavy trunks to carry luggage. To help with the workload of carrying bags, we used carts with wheels to transport them because wheeling bags was much easier than lugging them. But still, for all the creative minds and visionaries that humankind had across centuries, it was only in the last decades (the late 70s/80s) that the true innovation of transporting luggage arrived through the invention of wheeling suitcases. In hindsight, like it is the case with almost all innovations, wheeling suitcases appear obvious, yet we invented the atomic bomb and put people on Moon before we attached wheels to luggage. The breakthrough of wheeling suitcases came in 1987 when US pilot Robert Plath invented the rolling bags that are so familiar nowadays, featuring two wheels and a telescopic handle. Initially, Plath sold these suitcases only to airline cabin crews. Let’s imagine for a moment we are travelers in an airport, seeing airline cabin crews striding briskly in their chic uniforms and their sleek rolling suitcases. We would want a wheeling bag too. And so, the rolling suitcases became commonplace. Or, at least. that’s what the story says. So, if we knew about wheels for millennia and tackled the physical hardships of transporting luggage, why did wheeling baggage appear so late? Economist Robert Shiller has suggested in his that an invention may take time to be adopted because a society must recognize the invention’s practicality. Narrative Economics book In his book , mathematical statistician Nassim Tabel writes about wheeling suitcases as a cautionary story about discovery versus implementation. It’s not only discovery that requires a healthy dose of randomness, but also implementation depends on luck, on being the right person at the right time in the right place to recognize a technology’s promises. Antifragile Still, these theories don’t explain why previous prototypes of wheeling luggage that started appearing with mass travel in the late nineteenth century didn’t get largely accepted. We all experimented with rolling a heavy suitcase versus carrying it and we know which option we would prefer. Why Plath’s invention was massively embraced and other variants of rolling luggage weren’t? According to writer Katrine Marçal and her astonishing book, , it was gender stereotyping that held back the adoption of rolling suitcases. Mother of Invention From , the story of Bernard Sadow stands out. Sadow applied for a patent in the 70s for four-wheeled suitcases, pulled using a loose strap. In , Sadow said, “People do not accept change well”. He was told that men would not accept wheeling suitcases: “It was a very macho thing”, as men used to carry luggage for their wives. So, we have Sadow’s statement that no man would roll a bag because it was an unmanly thing back then. prototypes of wheeling baggage an interview Then, we assumed little about women’s mobility. In those times, women didn’t travel alone, and they would have a man carry their bags for them. But times started to change, more people began to fly, airports became bigger, making it more inconvenient to carry luggage, and most importantly, women began traveling alone. As Marçal concludes, when all layers of society started to recognize the practicality of rolling suitcases, Plath’s invention became a wide success. Unfortunately, biased thinking will always hold back innovation. The case of the rolling suitcase is not singular. In order to survive, cultures must eliminate most of the new ideas their members produce. Cultures are conservative, and for good reason. No culture could assimilate all the novelty people produce without dissolving into chaos. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention In my previous article, I mentioned the story of physician , a pioneer of antiseptic measures. To recap, Semmelweis worked in an obstetrical clinic in the 1840s. He was deeply troubled by the high death rates from puerperal fever in his patients. Semmelweis accidentally discovered that a regime of cleaning hands with chlorinated lime between doctors’ autopsies and medical visits to patients significantly reduced the mortality rate. Ignaz Semmelweis I left out intentionally in that article what happened to Semmelweis after he tried to make his findings public. Semmelweis didn’t choose the chlorine solution because of its disinfectant properties. At that time, germ theory wasn’t yet confirmed. Doctors believed in the “miasma theory”, that odours were responsible for infectious diseases. Semmelweis hypothesized that chlorine’s own smell would get rid of any smell left behind by corpse contamination. It was a happy coincidence that chlorine is also one of the best disinfectants, killing the deadly germs from handling cadavers. He couldn’t explain properly why his hygiene protocol worked. Also, doctors were not willing to accept that they gave puerperal fever to their patients, thus killing them. As the philosophy of science professor Dana Tulodziecki declared in : an interview Nobody was pleased to think that doctors were responsible for killing all these women. Nobody liked that. Especially because the ward with the midwives had a lower mortality rate, but of course the doctors were supposed to know much more than them. Semmelweis found himself ostracized and ridiculed by the medical community. In response, he became enraged with the indifference of other obstetricians, . After years of battling nervous breakdowns, he was committed to a mental asylum where the guards probably beat him. He died after two weeks in the asylum from a gangrenous wound on his right hand that the beating may have caused. calling them irresponsible murderers Later, Louis Pasteur demonstrated the germ theory thus explaining Semmelweis’ procedure, bringing . Unfortunately, even today, medical practitioners’ protocol of washing hands before and after visiting patients is still . somewhat of a closure not entirely followed The Semmelweis case tells us that discoveries need to be recognized and validated by peers. Scientist Gregor Mendel bred more than 29,000 pea plants at the end of the nineteenth century as a monk in Brno, a city in today’s Czech Republic. He experimented with plant height, seed shape, flower colour, petal wrinkles and other characteristics. To explain the passing of traits from one generation of pea plants to another, he coined the terms “recessive” and “dominant” regarding certain traits, thus creating the foundation for the genetics field. But Mendel’s story is not yet complete. Although he published the results of his pea plants experiments in a scientific paper, the scientific community ignored his work. Genetics might have started as a research field much earlier if Charles Darwin had been aware of Mendel’s research. Nevertheless, although Mendel must have doubted his work, he reportedly said to a friend, . “my time will come” Mendel’s time did come, only it happened . In the early 20th century, different scientists started replicating Mendel’s discoveries independently, and his work was re-discovered, understood, and accepted by the scientific community. decades after his death And although Mendel’s story is an ill-fated example of discovery versus recognition and acceptance, it is still a fortunate story because it only took a few decades until Mendel’s work was universally acclaimed for its implications about evolution. I can’t just ask myself how many thousands of discoveries are forgotten in the land of obscurity, perhaps never to be found again. These stories bring us to , . As physicist Max Planck himself explained: Planck’s principle science progresses one funeral at a time An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents: it rarely happens that Saul becomes Paul. What does happen is that its opponents gradually die out and that the growing generation is familiarized with the ideas from the beginning: another instance of the fact that the future lies with the youth. Why would opponents of innovative discoveries have a hard time adjusting to new mental models? Perhaps, as leading researcher Katalin Karikó for Phizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine remarked, the scientists’ ego gets in the way of innovation. Like other innovators described in this article, Karikó would also know what it means to live through decades of scepticism regarding her work. Her applications for grants were rejected, she was demoted and finally, she moved from academic science to the private sector. Karikó said in : an interview If so many people who are in a certain field would come together in a room and forget their names, their egos, their titles, and just think, they would come up with so many solutions for so many things, but all these titles and whatever get in the way. People love to hate big pharma, but these people are so smart. When I went from academia to a company, they don’t care how many committees you are on, how many papers you have. What counts is that you have a product that has an effect. The ego is wiped out. It is so much better. As written by a former colleague of Kariko states, “academic science failed Karikó”. At least we recognize Kariko’s tremendous work while she is still alive. one article Maybe resistance to novel concepts is because of t , a predisposition to solve problems choosing conventional techniques despite having better methods available. he Einstellung effect Philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn discovered that either young people or people who initially trained in a different discipline bring most . These people are not biased towards . Novices, either young people or mature people who switched disciplines, haven’t been yet trained or conditioned to think and act like everybody else in that specific field. paradigm shifts in science the Einstellung effect The Einstellung effect bodies well with the concept of “range” proposed by writer Dan Epstein in his homonym book, . Intuitively, we could think that finding a domain and specializing early would give us a competitive edge. Not so, claims Epstein. Range In his book, Epstein argues that there are two categories of people: generalists and specialists. Specialists have one substantial heavy-duty skill and focus their work on that specific topic. In contrast, generalists possess a unique “range” by having dipped their toes in many subjects. Epstein’s theory is that generalists will usually have the edge over specialists because generalists can combine breadth and depth from different fields. A generalist versus specialist example would be Tiger Woods versus Roger Federer. Woods is an example of early expertise, as his father, Earl Woods, introduced him to golf before the age of two. Roger Federer underwent a sampling period by playing various sports as a child, from badminton to basketball or cricket. for his eye-hand coordination. Federer credits these sports Range could explain why outsiders from a domain have more opportunities for discoveries due to their exposures in other areas. As prolific inventor Andrew Ouderkirk declared to Epstein: If you’re working on well-defined and well-understood problems, specialists work very, very well. As ambiguity and uncertainty increases, which is the norm with system problems, breadth becomes increasingly important. Geneticist Oliver Smithies, a winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, echoed a similar concept in Epstein’s book: Don’t end up a clone of your thesis adviser, he [Oliver Smithies] told me. Take your skills to a place that’s not doing the same sort of thing. Take your skills and apply them to a new problem, or take your problem and try completely new skills. Karim Lakhani, director of Harvard’s innovation lab declared in : an interview When we’re faced with an innovation problem, the owner of the problem has a basic instinct, that the solution resides within the technical domain of the problem itself. This is often true, but when it comes to the really tough innovative puzzles that have impeded progress, our research shows that a domain-based solution is often inferior. Big innovation most often happens when an outsider who may be far away from the surface of the problem reframes the problem in a way that unlocks the solution. The road to discovery is not a straight line from A to B to Z, as it might take detours, cul-de-sacs, crashes and resets. Both specialization and range are necessary to innovate, but as our society will tackle more and more survival issues, having a range mentality can bring a breakthrough where hyper-specialization is clueless. There is a long path, possibly infinite, from discovering a valuable idea until it is successfully developed, implemented and acknowledged by society. Many innovations need time to catch on because of our resistance and scepticism to a novel way to accomplish things. Societal expectations, peers’ influences, cultural conditioning, unconscious biases, inflamed ego, all these factors shape if a discovery will be recognized and validated. But one fundamental aspect of discoveries will always be the same. As Emmanuelle Charpentier, the 2020 winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, alongside Jennifer Doudna, for their groundbreaking work on CRISPR gene-editing technology, declared to writer Walter Isaacson for : his Doudna’s biography book At the end of the day, the discoveries are what endure, Charpentier says. We are just passing on this planet for a short time. We do our job, and then we leave, and others pick up the work. We are fortunate to live in a time where ubiquitous connectivity removed apparently immovable barriers such as time zones, geographic locations, languages. There is a cultural paradigm shift of unprecedented proportions where we can find out about cutting edge technology in less than a few minutes. Of course, we don’t need to check cutting edge technology to innovate. After all, Plath transformed the entire travel industry by using millennia years old invention. Also published here .

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What Holds Back Innovation?

Are you dreaming about creating your own game? You’re not alone. Most learners begin to master coding because they want to write their own game to share with friends. But during the learning path, they usually understand that coding is not just for fun and eventually broaden the horizon with more complex projects. What promotes their progress is undoubtedly the right programming language. If you’re a complete newbie or already have a bit of a programming background, you can’t go wrong with Java for these purposes. It’s one of the most respectable, popular, and trusted programming languages out there. Hence, a lot of books, tutorials, libraries, and useful tools are guaranteed. And with a good database, learning how to make a game from scratch will be a fun and rewarding process. Games You Love in Java The game development world is amusing. On the one hand, it’s quick to accept new programming concepts and ideas. But on the other hand, most game developers write only using C/C++ since it’s a very flexible language that allows their creativity to go wild. So, why choose Java? Because it’s an easy-to-learn programming language that just anyone can master in about 12–18 months (and write their first game even earlier). Thanks to a huge database and a variety of learning resources for that! And if you think that what you can build with Java is primitive, consider that world-known Minecraft is written in Java. And by knowing Java, you’ll be able to create your personalized Minecraft adopted for your very needs. Other games you know and love include Ninja Gaiden, SimCity, some versions of Fifa, Wakfu, and Worms: A Space Oddity. What’s more, Java prides itself on the WORA mantra (“write once, run anywhere”), which means Java is incredibly useful in the modern world of different devices, each running on different architectures. Simply put, Java is one of a few languages that can breathe life into diverse hardware and allow for creating a myriad of various games, from 2D to 3D. If you still hesitate whether Java is an acceptable language for serious game development, consider that Java Game Developer salaries currently range between $31,000 (25%) to $100,000 (75%). And the top earners make $130,000 annually across the USA. Plus, if you refer to such popular job services as or , you’ll find more than a thousand job offerings all across the globe. Indeed Glassdoor How to Start? A Good Plan is Your Secret Weapon Well, if the above mentioned facts have convinced you to become a game dev, or you want to create your own Java game just for fun, you’ll need to start with a good learning plan. In both cases. For those learning Java from scratch, the cohesive plan should include the following topics and, ideally, in the following sequence. . Simply put, it’s Java’s “grammar” and spelling, i.e., combinations of keywords, symbols, and operators, that are the fundamentals of Java codes. Java Syntax . As the name suggests, this is the basics of Java you need to master. You’ll get accustomed to objects, classes, methods, and different data types by learning Core Java. Java Core or Object-oriented Programming. Again, as the name implies, it’s a programming paradigm based on “objects” rather than “functions”. Once you sharpen your OOP skills, you’ll be able to do class abstractions or inheritance, as well as many other cool tricks. OOP . Any group of individual objects that make for a single unit is known as the Java collection. The Collection interface and Map interface are the two main interfaces of Java collections. Java Collections It involves different parts of your code running simultaneously to get the maximum usability of the CPU. Java Multithreading. . This topic includes learning how to write an app, or a game in our case, that will make use of well-established programming patterns, thus, saving time and effort. Java Patterns . The last but not the least part of your “basic” plan. Only by testing different parts of your code, you’ll be able to create a bug-free game that will work smoothly, without errors. Unit Testing Naturally, this is quite a primitive plan, but even this set of topics and skills will be enough to create your first game. And, as your skills and goals grow, you can stick to a more comprehensive plan like . this Where to Get The Knowledge Ok, you’ve got the plan, but what’s the next step? A good strategy is half the battle won, and a handful of learning resources is the other. It’s pretty natural to start with the theory. Luckily, there are many useful books you can benefit from. The best are listed below: by Kathy Sierra; Head First Java by James S. Cho; The Beginner’s Guide to Android Game Development by Robert Nystrom; Game Programming Patterns by Andrew Davison. Killer Game Programming in Java That just being said, theory knowledge alone isn’t enough to write a game. It would help if you got down to practicing after each topic you learn. It’s all about getting the knack for coding. Try to code daily and devote about 70–80% of your learning time to practice. Don’t try to cover everything at once — read a bit and then code, code, and code again until you sharpen a particular skill. It’s also an excellent idea to visit online courses that already have that theory/practice balance and are full of different tutorials and practice tasks. Why prioritize online courses? Because they set a conducive environment for learning, let you study at your own pace, and are usually more engaging (hence, motivating) than offline courses or theory books alone. Among the most effective ones for beginner game developers, these are worth mentioning: . This online Java coding course with 1200 tasks of different complexity and bite-sized lectures on Java fundamentals. Apart from the course, there’s a special . There you can remake popular games like Racers, Minesweeper, Snake, Space Invaders, and some other cool games by following the clear guidelines and step-by-step instructions. CodeGym Games section is one more useful resource for beginners (as well as experts). A great range of specific courses for game development and detailed video tutorials sets it above the competition. Udemy . As you’ve probably guessed, it’s an online school targeted at game coding. Just like in real school, you can enter the first grade (aka level) and gradually learn everything you may need to build Java games. The course is full of different game-related projects so that everyone can choose what they like. By the way, it covers not only Java desktop games but Android Java games too. GameCode School No matter what course you choose, you should also join community or refer to Gaming topics on . By finding like-minded peers, you may skyrocket your Java learning by boosting your confidence and motivation. Asking the right questions and getting support from other Java geeks surely can help you solve tricky tasks and avoid errors that otherwise might eventually lead you to frustration. the Java Gaming Java Forums Top Tricks to Stay Motivated During Your Learning Path Other things that can help you stay motivated and avoid burnout halfway include: that suits your budget and lifestyle. It can be free or paid course, real-time or self-paced; a course with step-by-step written instructions or video guides. Finding a perfect course . Don’t try to get everything at once, as this may overwhelm you and make all the achieved knowledge mix in your head. Set achievable goals Practice small and move on to more complex tasks gradually. Do that only when you feel you’re ready for the next challenge. Be consistent! . Don’t try to learn too much simultaneously, jumping from one source to another, i.e., from one approach to another. Focus on one course/book/topic at a time Don’t fear to ask “silly” questions on forums only because you feel intimidated by skilled programmers. Every programmer, even the most experienced, has been in a situation like that. Don’t mind the critics . . Knowing that you’re not alone and there is always a place for support is key to self-confidence and successful learning. Reach out to the community on becoming an expert. Remember that everyone absorbs information differently and studies at a comfortable pace. Don’t give up if you haven’t mastered some skills until a specific time. Yet, don’t ease off as soon as you’ve sharpened those skills. In the modern world of the rapid growth of technologies, there is always room for improvement. Don’t put a deadline Conclusion Undoubtedly, by mixing all these strategies and techniques, you’ll be able to learn Java the right way and write your first game within the shortest time possible. And, who knows, probably it’ll be the very thing that will catch the eye of headhunters in your portfolio. There is no more engaging and fun way to get your start in the Java industry than… games. Also published . here

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Game Coding for Dummies: A Quick Guide for Newbies

HackerNoon Reporter: Please tell us briefly about your  background. For the past 25 years, I’ve worked as a senior technology executive, helping to successfully build and scale Enterprise B2B and SaaS organisations globally. I’m a serial entrepreneur, with my latest (and last) startup being my fifth to date. Over my career, I’ve developed expertise in business development, sales, and marketing. I’ve personally driven hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from some of the largest Enterprise B2B brands in the world for the companies I have served. However, as an immigrant to Canada in the 1970’s, I watched first-hand as my family worked hard to make a living through small business ownership. In many ways, it was this experience that inspired me to start Uplinq in early 2021. What's your startup called? And in a sentence or two, what does it do? Uplinq Financial Technologies is building the most advanced analytics platform globally for small business lenders. Additionally, our insights engine will be the only AI platform in-market today that helps our financial institution and fintech customers better support the underserved, unbanked, minority & immigrant small business owner. I feel fortunate and grateful to be able to work on something that has a real purpose for me, while also solving a very important business problem. What is the origin story? I was a co-founder of and quickly realized that traditional data sources like accounting, banking & credit scores do not provide sufficient and accurate insights into the financial performance & creditworthiness of the post-Covid small business. Railz.ai The pandemic was tough for everyone, but many SMB owners felt its effects particularly hard. During this period, countless SMBs were denied financial help and support at a crucial time. It dawned on me that more needed to be done to help the small business owner and the way to do this is to provide lenders with scientifically validated and accurate data on small business financial viability that the market simply does not offer today. What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem? Uplinq is a startup with real values, and our team reflects this. Our past experiences have put us in a position to understand the current plight of SMBs and enable us to build out solutions that can really make a difference. Likewise, these principles fuel our commitment to increasing awareness around the need to provide SMBs with effective financial support. As a founder, I’ve worked diligently to develop a real sense of mutual respect amongst my team, as I believe this is the most vital asset you can have in a company. Together with my co-founders, we’re building a company that values empathy for others and works with a high degree of EQ and integrity, which is why I think we’re so well-placed to tackle the difficult challenges that SMBs face. If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing? Without question, I’d be providing pro-bono advisory and mentorship work for tech startups globally. I have a real passion for helping others and wanting them to succeed and I derive a lot of personal pleasure by doing so. I am currently advising and mentoring startups through MaRS Discovery District and Founders Institute. At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your core metrics? Our core mission is simple… help our customers get more money into the hands of small businesses. I launched Uplinq in the hope of seeing more SMBs become financially viable. As such, our measure for success is based on this goal. The global economy is built around SMBs, so it’s important they get all the assistance they need. We already see that amongst our customer base, which really encourages me as a founder. What’s most exciting about your traction to date? I started Uplinq in the midst of the pandemic and from an idea in a ppt slide deck, which brought with it a number of unique challenges. I’m so grateful to our team, advisors, investors, and customers for believing in us through this turbulent period and helping bring Uplinq to market. What technologies are you currently most excited about, and most worried about? And why? Between embedded finance, open banking, and digitization technologies, the future looks bright for SMBs, which really excites me. I see all of these as opportunities not just for new fintechs like Uplinq but also for traditional legacy financial institutions, who can now embrace the challenge of better digitization, communication, and engagement with their small business customers. Technology is fast-moving and evolving almost daily at times, which leads to great advancements but takes the human element out of customer engagement. As we continue to develop and progress with new innovations, it becomes easier and easier to start to ‘forget’ that no amount of tech can ever replace the need for personalized human interaction. What drew you to get published on HackerNoon? What do you like most about our platform? Few publications provide the creative freedom and sense of community offered by HackerNoon. Personally, I see the website as a library of informed insights and opinions from talented people across the industry. The best way to learn is by listening to others, so to be involved in a platform like this, with like-minded individuals, has really helped to broaden my insights into the industry. What advice would you give to the 21-year-old version of yourself? I think the most important message I could impart would be that life loves to throw you challenges, but through it all, it’s essential to maintain your integrity and dignity, as well as respect for others. I’d also tell my younger self to never stop believing in the spirit of people, as it will always lead you to success. What is something surprising you've learned this year that your contemporaries would benefit from knowing? I think we’ve all learned a lot this year, but my big takeaway is the importance of adaptability. Having the ability to nimbly respond to challenges is priceless in this current business environment and can really make the difference in allowing your company to thrive. I’ve seen so many amazing success stories over the past 12-months, including our own, and they all share one thing in common; an ability to adapt.

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'I Launched Uplinq in the Hope of Seeing More SMBs Financially Viable': Ron Benegbi

Speaking with co-founder & artist for Girlfrens, a Solana NFT project Raising Money to Bring Art Supplies to cancer patients NFTs are proving a cultural nexus where the collective yearning for ownership, community, prosperity, and a better life and even as the market contracts, new, creative projects join the fray to raise funds and connect with an audience through NFT art and collectibles. The trickle of creative energy into the NFT space is more like a firehose, as our inbox can attest first-hand, but I think it’s a fair time to address the possibility of using NFTs to make raise money for something other than personal gain -- a bit of a departure for NFT bros trolling Discord looking for the next 10x projects. We recently spoke with Desiree, aka "dzikt", is a digital artist and film producer based in Toronto who recently co-founded a women-led and “charity-based” NFT project, Girlfrens. Desiree had an early experience with cancer, at just age 29, and the creative power of her experiences and her art is poured into using NFTs as a way to raise funds for the newly founded Girlfrens Foundation which will provide art supplies for young people afflicted with cancer. The project launched in September 2021, but the minting and sale begins on November 24 at 3 PM EST with the minting link available on their website and Twitter. Desiree took the time to speak with us as co-founder and artist of Girlfrens to tell us about her journey and experience in launching the charity NFT project. Tell me about your journey -- how long ago was your diagnosis? Has the path to recovery accompanied your creative journey? “I found a lump in Dec 2019. I was diagnosed in February 2020. It came as a big shock as I was 29, had no family history, no genetic markers (determined after testing) and I lived a healthy lifestyle.  After a multitude of tests, I had surgery to remove the tumor. Once removed it was determined that I would need to go on to do chemo (Aug-Nov 2020), radiation (Jan 2020), and hormone therapy (current). I completed the chemo and radiation earlier this year and will be continuing on hormone therapy for the next 5 years. I started drawing a couple of months into the treatment process. At first, it was a way for me to escape. I would light a candle, put on a baking competition show (lol), and draw for hours. It felt like a safe, sacred space for me to be alone and away from everything. Instead of focusing on all the stress and unknowns, I could focus on getting a line straight or getting proportions right. This really helped teach me patience and perseverance which, looking back, definitely translated into tactics that helped me cope with my treatment. Eventually, I started drawing the procedures and side effects I was experiencing. They were a lot to deal with mentally and physically so drawing them helped me externalize some of the internal feelings I had. I don't think I knew it at the time but now I know that if I didn’t have an outlet to get those feelings out while I was going through them, I don’t think I would have processed them in a very healthy way. This is part of the reason I feel like I can move forward. That was what would become the inspiration and guiding force behind Girlfrens. At this point, I was using physical tools (pencils, markers) but around the holidays in 2020, I was given a Walmart gift card through a program at my hospital which I used to buy an iPad. That made it possible for me to start making digital art. This changed my life, and unknowingly to me at that time, was the start to what would become the Girlfrens project.” When did you get started with NFTs? “My life and work partner, Avery, and my brother, and my brother’s wife were all getting into NFTs around the same time, around June 2021. My brother and I live on opposite ends of Canada and while we are close we wouldn't talk that often, both busy with our own lives. But when the interest in NFTs sparked, my brother and Avery started spending hours on the phone diving into crypto and NFT talk. Eventually, I started to pay attention and get interested. As a group the four of us would go on discord calls and try to get whitelisted and mint various projects, occasionally getting rugged or screwed on gas wars. We'd laugh about it (or scream and cry) and it became something that we all bonded over. After I floated the idea of doing our own project a couple of different times, eventually we all decided to do it for real and that's when Girlfrens was born. I had known that I wanted to do something to give back and share my experience with cancer and how making art had helped me. I thought about making an Instagram account where people affected by cancer could share their art, but the idea just didn't seem complete. So when I started to learn about all the aspects of an NFT project from community building, to the financial and the creative aspects, it just all seemed to click and the possibilities seemed endless. The four of us each had a very distinct skill set to bring to the table so it all happened very naturally. We collectively decided Cowgirl and I would lead the project, and the rest is history.” Are you primarily a digital artist or what mediums are you using? Tell me about your art career/involvement up until now? For the Girlfens project, the art is fully digital. Before making the project I was using primarily pencil and markers to draw. Eventually, I started taking some of those drawings into photoshop / procreate to create a mixed media vibe. I've always been a creative person. I studied film/set design in university, and my art was featured in a few local art shows, but after I graduated and joined the workforce, and shifted my focus. I wasn't making physical art or drawing consistently. My career began in the art department of TV shows and films. I worked as an art department assistant and art department coordinator for 5 years. Eventually, we decided to move to Toronto, where I began working as an independent art director mainly on music videos and commercials. After a couple of years in Toronto, I took a full-time job as a digital media producer, where I also did some art directing and set design. I did that right up until I was diagnosed at which point I took a leave and stepped back from the busy / stressful lifestyle of non-stop content creation and transitioned my freelance work into graphic design, which I've been doing since. This experience has reignited a creativity in me that is just for me and not for work. That is an important distinction, and for that reason I won't stop making art. Is it artistic ambition that led you on this journey or is this foremost an entrepreneurial venture? I take pride in having created the art for the project. Getting the aesthetic right was very important to me, as well as promoting individuality, self-acceptance and positive depictions of women in the NFT space. But most importantly our mission is to support cancer related charities and start a nonprofit that gives art supplies (physical or digital) to young adults affected by cancer while raising awareness about the therapeutic benefits of art therapy. Additionally it is very important to us to shine a light on the positive change crypto and NFT projects can and do have IRL. It’s good to see new voices come into the space and as a women-led, Solana-based project going with an art style that is distinct and many thousands of times more appealing than the most legendary NFT projects -- add to that the fact that they have a built-in going forward plan by devoting half their funds to by art supplies for young cancer patients. That’s remarkable for an NFT project not because it’s altruistic but because it’s clear and not just tacked on after the fact. Even the most successful generative NFT projects we have interviewed often feel like they are making up the next steps as they go along,.Girlfrens knows why it was founded and what it’s going to do. We have no idea how the launch will perform and make no claims (no one should listen to me about these things) but the project does seem to have the markers of a good project. On November 24th, a total of 5,000 unique Girlfrens will be available for minting on Solana. There has been no pre-sale and, as usual, levels of rarity will vary. The project will direct 10% of the mint to the Girlfrens Foundation, 5% of the mint to cancer-related charities, and 50% of the royalties is going to the Foundation.

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Girlfrens NFT Project: Cancer Survivor Gives Back to the Community 

HackerNoon Reporter: Please tell us briefly about your  background. I have always been an intensely curious human being, which has led me to be an intensely curious entrepreneur and philanthropist focused on ideas that will push humanity forward and solve problems worth solving. I am the founder of seven companies in industries ranging from health care to aerospace, the most recent being Viome. Throughout my career, I have been honored to receive recognition for my endeavors, including: EY’s “Entrepreneur of the Year”, Fast Company’s “Most Creative Person” and Red Herring’s “Lifetime Achievement Award” for leadership. What's your startup called? And in a sentence or two, what does it do? Viome Life Sciences is tackling the epidemic of chronic diseases, including cancer and aging, and making advancements in science, research, and technology more accessible to people faster than ever before. By conducting mRNA (gene expression) analysis at mass scale, Viome is digitizing human biology and using AI to understand the onset and progression of chronic diseases for diagnostics and future therapeutics, while benefiting people today. Our technology allows us to identify precision food recommendations and supplement nutrients (in precise dosages) for our users to help address low-grade inflammation in the body, ultimately helping in the prevention of chronic diseases. What is the origin story? The gut microbiome plays a massive role in chronic diseases and the overall health of our bodies, but everyone’s microbiome is different. So I sought out the best technology, which I discovered scientists at Los Alamos National Lab had been developing over the span of 10 years, sequencing microbial gene expression (not just genes) in order to see everything that is happening inside of your microbiome. From there I brought on an incredible team of leaders in Research, Nutrition, Translational Science, and Artificial Intelligence to help make sense of this data and allow customers to benefit from these powerful insights on a daily basis. Our at-home gut health test scores your microbiome's health according to over 400 different pathways that we can see. By analyzing your gut environment and its impact on human gene expression (the “host” side of you), we can see what nutrients will help people get healthy and address many issues related to dysbiosis in the gut and inflammation throughout the body. What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem? What I love about my team is that we share in our passion and drive to revolutionize the industry and help people feel empowered. Most people do not realize how good they were designed to feel and that your body is meant to work for you to keep you healthy. At Viome, we are using unique machine learning techniques to accurately discover new solutions to the root causes of chronic diseases, cancers, and aging and make that accessible to people fast! The internet is saturated with “personalized” diet advice that appeals to people who are genuinely looking for a solution and are desperate to feel normal again, happy in their bodies. We believe in TESTING, not GUESSING, and in the power of technology to translate the language of the body into actionable insights and recommendations that are right for your unique biological needs. At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your core metrics? Currently, through Viome’s proprietary mRNA technology and AI platform, the company has proudly helped 250,000 people. Our results have shown improvements in clinical outcomes by 36% in severe cases of depression, 40% in severe cases of anxiety, 38% in severe cases of IBS, and more than 30% in the type 2 Diabetes risk score. What’s most exciting about your traction to date? Through Viome’s industry-leading research and therapeutics, we have been able to form strategic partnerships with like-minded, global healthcare companies like GSK, a science-led global healthcare company. We recently announced the extension of our collaboration, leveraging Viome’s proprietary microbiome analysis and artificial intelligence platforms and GSK’s expertise in immunology. We will expand clinical research activities to investigate the potential development of new therapeutic interventions within the fields of chronic diseases including autoimmune diseases and cancers. What technologies are you currently most excited about, and most worried about? And why? We are excited to be at the forefront of innovation and increase the standard of care through our use of unique machine learning techniques. In May of 2021, Viome Life Sciences received FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for its proprietary mRNA technology and AI platform designed to detect cancer. This first-of-its-kind screening tool advanced the method for detection through providing early detection of oral cancer and throat cancer, which has been traditionally diagnosed manually by a primary care clinician in a subjective way. What drew you to get published on HackerNoon? What do you like most about our platform? We were drawn to HackerNoon for expert insights, the cutting edge stories about the technology industry as well as it’s inclusive community that spans the globe and supports everyone from diehards, entrepreneurs, women, and more. What advice would you give to the 21-year-old version of yourself? Never stop thinking big, even if people think you are crazy. Your life will be full of ups and downs, but then again, so is a heartbeat that lets you know you’re alive. What is something surprising you've learned this year that your contemporaries would benefit from knowing? If you focus on money as a sign you are successful, you will never get there. If you want a billion dollars, solve a billion-dollar problem by approaching it in a way no one has thought to before. Do good and you will do well.

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Digitizing Human Biology: Startup Interview with Naveen Jain, Viome Founder and CEO

Testing is the backbone of the Agile software development methodology. The efficiency of the testing process directly impacts the quality of the deliverables and the goodwill of the organization. Buggy software can lead to poor user experience, delayed project timelines, diminished brand value, and revenue losses. A strong testing process consists of several well-planned activities with definite timelines and a set of clear expected outcomes. The execution plan in the testing process, either manual or automated, has always received greater significance and seems to drive the entire process definition. Having a well-defined testing process helps in the following ways, directly and indirectly: Gives enough time to iterate the test execution in manual and automated mode All test artifacts are created and captured along with a clear Requirements Traceability Matrix Scheduling and utilization of testing resources, both in terms of people and environments, becomes effective Defect isolation, reporting, and reproducing become easier The feedback cycle of identifying and addressing a bug is small and quick Test coverage across multiple testing verticals becomes clear and indicates the quality of the software; it includes functional testing, black-box testing, smoke testing, integration testing, , performance testing, and more regression testing The strategy of Test data creation and refresh is concise, clear, and repeatable Once a test process is in place, it is easier and simpler to automate the execution of the tests and reduce the manual interventions in the test cycle. However, it is impractical to assume that the manual test effort can be completely reduced to zero, and neither is it advisable. It needs to be repurposed correctly. Test Execution Test execution takes the maximum amount of time in the entire test process. To ensure maximum and complete coverage, test execution is done iteratively and repetitively. It is planned and performed multiple times with the same and different data sets under different categories of testing, such as functional, non-functional, regression, and environmental. Repeating the test execution several times gives delivery teams complete confidence about the quality of the deliverable. Moreover, it is less expensive to identify a bug during testing and address it, rather than let users discover it during their operations. The key to reducing test execution time is to automate the activity of test execution. It is important to understand that the basic difference between automated testing and manual testing is in the way the test cases are executed. Irrespective of execution style, the steps of test planning, test scenario identification, data strategy definition, and expected outcome identification need to be performed beforehand. The automation of testing includes the following aspects of the test process: Using scripts created automatically by tools like Katalon Studio, or written in SQL, Python, Shell, or other similar languages Test data preparation: Using tools such as Katalon Studio, Katalon TestOps, Selenium, or others Test cases execution: Using tools like Katalon Studio and Katalon TestOps, or scripts such as Groovy, Ruby, Python, and others Test results verification: Using advanced reports in Katalon TestOps, JavaScript-based visualization toolkits, or HTML5 based reporting toolkits Test results visualization: In the case of automated testing, there is an additional step of preparing the scripts for test cases using a tool or programming language. Comparisons Whenever automated and manual testing are compared, the following factors are considered; however, automated testing is better on all of these fronts: The of the execution and results accuracy The of execution of the test cases velocity The of the execution steps repetitiveness Cases for Automated Testing is useful in modern-day delivery, both, for quality and velocity. However, it does not come for free. During the preparation phase, test teams need to write or record test scripts along with data creation, results verification, and data tear-down steps. Automated testing is worth the effort in order to save the time and cost in most of the cases, such as those listed below: The automation of testing require continuous feedback on the quality of their daily deliverables and use them for performing nightly builds. and executed along with the nightly builds as well as the on-demand builds. It includes unit testing, system testing, integration testing, and regression testing of the build. Test results are shared immediately with the development team to address the issues found. Agile development teams Continuous testing activity is configured within the CI/CD pipeline At the , the release candidate needs to undergo various types of tests. If performed manually, it’s very time-consuming. Having automation ensures that multiple rounds can be run simultaneously or back-to-back to capture the results. This ensures complete coverage of new functionality, easy regression, configuration verification, and more. end of a sprint or a release cycle Another good case for automation is available in the software and each needs to be tested. Although the test cases remain the same, the test results may change due to changes in the environmental and software configuration. Running the same test cases manually is time-consuming as well as error-prone. when there are multiple configuration options When for software, it is best to use automated testing. Performing the same thing manually would require several people to perform the same activity over a long period of time. It is a waste of time, resources, and money. Automated test cases can be run in parallel from the same machine and produce the same output. concurrency, load, and endurance need to be tested is very important to prevent security attacks, DDoS attacks, malicious code injections, brute force attacks, vulnerabilities, cross-site scripting, script injections, impersonation attacks, and more. Quite a few of these attacks cannot be simulated manually and always require automation. Automation of the security tests against threats and attacks Cases for Manual Testing While test automation is very important for a project, manual testing holds its place in the entire mix. The done during the verification phase of the first release candidate are done manually. During this phase, the process of testing and the efficacy of the release candidate is established. Only after the initial manual testing is completed successfully, can the automated test cases be executed confidently. initial rounds of testing During the support phase of software, multiple releases of the software are made. While all forms of repetitive testing are performed using automation, there are cases where the software may encounter a P1 bug and require an immediate quick fix. In such cases, while the regression is performed using automation, to ensure completeness. the fix of the P1 bugs must be tested manually Testing the usability of software requires observing the behavior of the software, focusing on the ease of use, and assessing user irritation during use of the software. Usability testing is done manually because of the need for human intelligence. With the advancement of the AI/ML (artificial intelligence and machine learning) stream, the analysis of emotion is also becoming automated. is also performed manually. It is also referred to as “Monkey” testing. Random pieces of functionalities are chosen for testing under this process. It unveils the robustness of the software. Since there is no defined path of testing, either in terms of test data or test steps, it is performed manually by testers. Any bugs identified during such a test result in thorough regression testing. Random testing of the release candidate Sometimes manually. For example, in an integration environment, the software needs to interact with a gate system. It involves hardware delay because the gate responds only after reading the RFID tag, which takes a bit of time. Although such scenarios can be configured in automated test scripts, it is always good to test them manually as well to ensure that the process is completed smoothly. specific scenarios need to be tested Conclusion For testing software, neither automation nor manual approaches are going to work individually. The best approach is to prepare a mix of both. Delivery teams should automate as many test cases as possible and use manual testing as a way to randomly check the most critical scenarios. While the initial setup of an automated test suite involves a lot of initial effort, it benefits the entire delivery process in the long run. Automation helps to save time and budget and manual testing helps to give an intermittent push to the quality assurance. Manual testing lays the process down that can be automated subsequently. Both of the testing approaches are complementary to each other.

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Hashing or (hash) is a common term when discussing blockchain technology. This algorithm is a one-way cryptographic function as the original data can be retrieved via decryption. Hashing refers to the transformation and generation of input data of any length into a string of a fixed size, which is performed by a specific algorithm. In particular, the Bitcoin hash algorithm is SHA-256 or Secure Hashing Algorithm 256 bits. The implementation of a cryptographic hash function is beneficial to prevent fraudulent transactions, in blockchain, and store passwords. But, what is Bitcoin hash, and what does it have to do when put in this context? In short, this is a unique number that is not duplicable according to the algorithm. Therefore, it is frequently used to verify a file’s authenticity. To put it in context, when there’s a change in a hashed file, its hash will automatically change as well. And each subsequent hash is tied to the previous hash, thus ensuring the consistency of all blocks. double spends How Hashing Works in Blockchain? So what is a hashing algorithm in blockchain, and how does it work? In a nutshell, a hashing algorithm takes an infinite number of bits, performs calculations on them, and outputs a fixed number of bits. Regardless of the input data’s length, the output will always be rectified. As a result, the original data is called , and the final transformation is called a . Today, many hashing algorithms differ only in the way information is processed. input hash To fully comprehend what hashing is about, it’s essential first to understand the data structure. A data structure is a specific way of storing data that consists of two key elements: are variables referring to other variables, so they act as indicators that show the way to the right location. Besides, it provides the address of the next block in the chain. , on the other hand, make up a sequence of the nodes that are connected with the help of pointers. pointers and linked lists. Pointers Linked lists Thanks to hashing in the , each block is assigned an original identifier, which will entail the irreversible consequences of changing the blockchain. The block is identified by information included in the header of the block. It consists of such details as: blockchain the version number of the blockchain UNIX timestamp hash pointers nonce, which is the value the miners need to create a block a hash of a Merkle root All these elements are needed to create the block. So when a hash happens to the blockchain, the data will be converted into a unique string within a block. How to Solve A Hash? To solve a hash, it begins with solving complex mathematical problems containing data in the block header. But before a miner initiates the process, they’ll need to carry out a trial-and-error process to decide which string to use as a nonce. When a nonce is identified, miners will focus on the nonce (a string number) that is related to the previous block’s hashed content. In order for a hash to be considered successful, the new hash needs to be less than or equal to the target hash. And in exchange, the miner will get a reward to add the block into the blockchain. The Relationship of Proof of Work in Hashing (PoW) algorithm is correlated to the blockchain hash as this algorithm is useful to confirm transactions and produce new blocks to the chain. Proof of Work How Does PoW Work? Decentralization is a crucial property of the blockchain, but it is potentially vulnerable. If a participant wants to download a copy of the blockchain, how can another user know that the blockchain is correct? Let’s say there are thousands of computers on the network; what prevents them from conspiring with a new user with the data they forged together? That’s when the PoW algorithm comes in. It allows the blockchain network participants to know if the information is indeed for free or otherwise. History is everything on the web, where you need to know who spends the money and who receives it. It was impossible to reach full consensus in a decentralized network without control by the third party in the past. The hash function made it possible as it provides a unique digital fingerprint of a piece of data. PoW in the Crypto World The PoW concept was designed to counter DDoS attacks that would freeze the system and refuse to process user requests. PoW also resists spam and effectively protects the entire network. Though this is not an ideal solution to the problem, this concept is still relatively efficient. In the crypto world, PoW protects cryptocurrencies as it supports decentralized networks. A simple example: the person creates a digital wallet that is not synchronized with the rest of the network. As soon as he gets connected, the wallet changes its status to ‘synchronized’ as it starts accessing the blockchain. Why Deceiving the Network is Unprofitable for Miners? Hash comes in handy to better regulate the system, but it does come with a price. So when miners create a new block for the blockchain, they must provide two hashes to the network: A hash of all transactions in the block. A hash that proves that miners have spent a considerable amount of energy creating the block. Though the system is in good shape, the compensation for the miners is minimal. Considering the resources spent on the search of hashes make data distortion unprofitable. But to do this, miners need to operate in a lottery-like system where there can be only one winner. And there’s no guarantee to find a hash. Besides, it will take an eternity to execute the process if the GPU and CPU power is weak, while only computers with expensive equipment can handle the processing power. Even so, these computers could consume a lot of electricity, which makes the whole process unprofitable for a miner who finds a valid hash for an invalid block of transactions. In the end, it does not make sense to confirm the “wrong” block, claiming that all transactions are valid, and proceed to hash. The rest of the computers on the network will reject the invalid block, meaning that the miner will not receive the reward. Proof of Transactions When sending cryptocurrency, users have to confirm their wallets’ action, which broadcast the transactions to the blockchain. Afterward, the transactions get into the transactions pool awaiting processing, where they remain until being picked up by a miner. The transactions of this kind can be accumulated in a vast pool or small separated local pools. Miners choose transactions from the mining pools and process them into new blocks. This block includes transactions awaiting confirmation with additional metadata. In the end, each miner forms a separate block. And the same transactions can enter the blocks of different miners. A miner must make sure that every given transaction answers the execution requirements. In case a sender has enough resources on balance, the transaction becomes valid and can be added to the block. For faster processing, the sender can increase the mining fee. Typically, miners take advantage of a higher value of transactions selecting the most profitable deals; therefore, processing time becomes lower. Each transaction has its hash that is stored in a tree-like structure. These hashes are also hashed to . This technology contains information about all transactions. form the Merkle root What Are the Cryptographic Hash Functions? Cryptographic hash functions are characterized by several properties making them very useful when employed in the cryptographic sphere. The result of a hash function is always identical. This characteristic is called . Regardless of how many times you enter the same message, the output will be the same after the hash function is applied. However, the slightest change in the input data (‘Article’ instead of ‘article’) changes the result completely. deterministic It features fast computation as low speed would make the system inefficient. Preimage resistance feature in hash functions makes it computationally infeasible to determine the input from the hash value. Therefore, miners can only compare the result until a match is found. Hash Rate Units Hashrate refers to the total computing power of the mining equipment involved in the mining of cryptocurrency. The measuring units include: Hash/sec (H/s) Kilohash/sec (KH/s) Megahash/sec (MH/s) Gigahash/sec (GH/s) Terahash/sec (TH/s) Petahash/sec (PH/s) Exahash/sec (EH/s) Since mining is continually becoming more complicated, it is almost impossible to see units ‘hash per second’ in modern blockchain networks. Today, devices with increased power are needed to solve such problems ranging from tens of megahashes per second. For example, a processor power of 10 MH/s means that it can generate 10 million different combinations of numbers in one second to find the hash that will match all the parameters set by the network. However, there are different factors to determine a hash rate. Even the choice of a mining algorithm affects the parameter. It’s also important to know how other devices react with different algorithms. While some of them provide maximum capacity with networks featuring an SHA algorithm (Bitcoin, Peercoin, etc.), the result may be inferior when the same network employs the Script algorithm. How Is Hashed Data Being Secured? Every block contains a hash of the previous block (parent block) . Imagine a string of blocks with hashes of parent blocks. If the information in one of these blocks is changed, it affects all other chain blocks. However, as the network grows, changing hashes across all the blocks becomes practically impossible. Therefore, the hashing process is necessary for the blockchain, ensuring the uniqueness and originality of each element of the system. except for a Genesis block Immutable and trustworthy data is one of the blockchain’s core properties, making it valuable and giving colossal potential to the blockchain. The information always remains authentic, thus determining the integrity of the blockchain. How to Measure the Hashrate of Bitcoin Network? Bitcoin hash rate represents all nodes’ overall computing power throughout the world, contributing to . However, it is problematic to determine it as mining machines contributing to the network lack identification, and they communicate to the network only after finding a block. Bitcoin mining However, the hash rate is estimated daily by comparing blocks found in the last 24 hours with the number 144, which is an expected rate of finding a block. According to the algorithm, the mining speed should remain the same (600 seconds). In this way, the is the following: formula of the Bitcoin hash power Hashpower = ((blocks found in 24 hours/expected number of blocks) x work)/600 The higher the Bitcoin hash rate, the more difficult the mining parameter. As it always adjusted to keep it in line with the overall hash work. The adjustment of difficulty is essential for security. So it’s natural for the protocol to steer away from monopolization. It’s necessary to preserve the same speed of cryptocurrency mining to avoid inflation. Otherwise, miners will generate more Bitcoins faster, and cryptocurrency will lose its value. How Does Hashing Impact Bitcoin Mining? Mining remains decentralized because two miners simply cannot hash the same blocks. Miners receive transactions over the network in a different order. Because of this, and individual preferences in terms of commission, each miner processes the block a little differently. While all blocks may have been validated correctly, only one block can enter the blockchain at a time. All miners will have to keep hashing until they find a number that produces the result that the network agrees to accept as valid when added to their block in the blockchain. Besides, the network must guarantee the creation of a new block every ten minutes to uphold Bitcoin’s financial policy. The network does this by adjusting the mining difficulty every two weeks. Therefore, if blocks are validated too quickly due to the increased number of new miners, the network will increase the complexity to reduce inflation. Since blockchain hashing boasts randomness, even a miner with the most powerful computer does not always win. The concept is similar to a lottery game. Even a user with the largest number of tickets may earn more chances to win, but there’s no guarantee to win every time. Generally, a miner creates a block of valid transactions and then runs Proof of Work on that block, hoping to find the hash set by the network rules before other miners. If the process is successful, this block enters the blockchain, and the miner receives the reward. Hardware specifications also matter, so this factor should be considered as well when buying the mining equipment. Does Hashing Apply Only to Bitcoin? Hashing is the central and integral part of a different blockchain. Many cryptocurrencies are supported by mining, such as Litecoin or Bitcoin Cash. Other blockchains still use different mining algorithms. However, today, many hashing algorithms differ only in the way data is processed. Bitcoin vs. Ethereum Energy Consumption Bitcoin remains the most energy exhaustion cryptocurrency. When comparing Ethereum and Bitcoin, Ethereum’s consensus aims to . In comparison, Bitcoin’s PoW continues to surge, where it already exceeds the total energy consumed in the whole of Switzerland. With the migration to , the network is supported by validators instead of miners. Hence, it’s more sustainable and leaves a lesser carbon footprint on the environment. Proof of Stake reduce 99% of its energy consumption ETH 2.0 Conclusion Blockchain technology became the most influential innovations of the past century that determined the future development of technologies. Hashing is a cryptographic function that empowered this technology. It’s essential to understand what is hashing and the essence of technology to mining in a blockchain and earn on it.

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What Is Hashing in Blockchain: A Beginner-Friendly Guide

The complexity of too many choices (source: ) The New York Times Too much choice is often confusing. Think about all the different types of cereal, perfume, or even political parties in some countries. However, often the multitude of choices is unavoidable. For example, when flying to a far-away destination, you have to choose between multiple flight options, considering cost, duration of travel, number of legs, different airlines, comfort, layovers, etc. This holds true for cloud marketplaces, like the . AWS Marketplace With so many options to choose from, it is important to understand the listings. If you’d like to purchase CloudGuard to improve your AWS security with an industry-leading cloud network security solution, or even to get a 30-day free trial, you should understand the different offerings available to ensure that you get exactly what you need. Check Point recently added three new offerings to the AWS Marketplace in order to provide AWS customers the opportunity to use CloudGuard with AWS Gateway Load Balancer (AWS GLB). This blog post explains all the CloudGuard Network Security offerings in the AWS Marketplace and is an update to the previous . explanatory blog post from August 2019 Before I explain each offering, I will provide a little detail about the AWS Marketplace, CloudGuard Network Security, and AWS GWLB. What is the AWS Marketplace? explains that the AWS Marketplace “enables qualified partners to market and sell their software to AWS Customers.” AWS In other words, AWS enables its customers to purchase software and services from 3rd party ISVs (Independent Software Vendors), Value-Added Resellers (VARs), and Systems Integrators (SIs) after these have been qualified by AWS. Additionally, AWS writes that “AWS Marketplace is an online software store that helps customers find, buy, and immediately start using the software and services that run on AWS.” AWS Marketplace is a great win-win as it supports the AWS ecosystem of partners, provides easy-to-use services to AWS customers and improves the usability of AWS services. There are currently over 16,000 different offerings in the AWS Marketplace, from over two thousand vendors, in eight different categories, with twelve pricing plans and eight delivery methods. AWS Marketplace is a self-service portal for customers to choose, trial and purchase solutions from AWS partners, but without the additional overhead which is often associated with lengthy contract and pricing negotiations. Customers who purchase third-party services or solutions in the Marketplace pay AWS for these purchases as part of their regular monthly bills; AWS then pays the thrid-party partners. What is CloudGuard Network Security? (CGNS) is a cloud-native security gateway which delivers industry-leading advanced threat prevention and multi-layered network security for all public, private and hybrid cloud deployments. CloudGuard Network Security Threat prevention security features include , , , , , and Anti-Bot, Threat Extraction and Threat Emulation. Firewall DLP IPS Application Control IPsec VPN Antivirus Integrated with leading configuration management tools, CloudGuard enables rapid deployment and supports full automation to support CI/CD processes and Infrastructure as Code practices. The Unified Security Management console provides consistent visibility, policy management, logging, reporting and control across all public, private and hybrid cloud networks as well as for on-premises deployments. AWS Gateway Load Balancer AWS Gateway Load Balancer (GWLB) is a new cloud service that makes it easy for customers to deploy, scale and manage multiple CGNS gateways, for many networking purposes. AWS launched GWLB in November 2020; on the same day, Check Point announced that . CloudGuard integrates with AWS Gateway Load Balancer at launch (from Check Point’s Summit, February 2021) explains the benefits of GWLB to AWS and Check Point customers. This video CPX360 What CGNS offerings are available in the AWS Marketplace? There are 9 in the AWS Marketplace. CGNS offerings The differences between these offerings are due to: Functionality: Next Generation Firewall with Threat Prevention (also known as ): This security gateway includes Firewall, IPS, Application Control, IPsec VPN, Antivirus, Anti-Bot, and Data Loss Prevention NGTP Next Generation Firewall with Threat Prevention and SandBlast (also known as ): This security gateway includes all features of NGTP functionality and adds Threat Extraction (which removes exploitable content and promptly delivers sanitized content to users) and Threat Emulation (which prevents infections from new malware and targeted attacks using threat sandboxing with the best possible catch rate, and is virtually immune to evasion techniques). NGTX Support for AWS GWLB (yes/no) Management: Security Gateways are managed from a Security Management Server which provides consistent security policy management, enforcement, and reporting within a single pane of glass. (Note that certain offerings in the AWS Marketplace include only the security gateway, others include only the management server, and one offering – – includes both) CloudGuard Network Security All-In-One Pricing models: PAYG: Pay-as-you-go pricing allows you to pay only for what you use. The AWS Marketplace pricing reflects the full price of using Check Point’s offering: payment to Check Point for the software license and payment to AWS for the AWS infrastructure resources consumed. BYOL: Customers who have already obtained a software license from Check Point can use these licenses; the AWS Marketplace BYOL pricing is paid to AWS for the AWS infrastructure resources consumed. Note also that different offerings also support different sets of AWS instances. The table below shows the differences between the nine CGNS offerings in the AWS Marketplace, as well as the instances supported by each offering. ** PAYG or BYOL** Security Gateway Functionality Security Management****Functionality Supports GWLB? CloudGuard Network Security Next-Gen Firewall with Threat Prevention PAYG Threat Prevention Not included.Choose one of the Check Point Security Management offerings No CloudGuard Network Security with Threat Prevention and SandBlast PAYG Threat Prevention and SandBlast Not included.Choose one of the Check Point Security Management offerings No CloudGuard Network Security with Threat Prevention & SandBlast BYOL BYOL Threat Prevention ORThreat Prevention and SandBlast (depends on customer’s existing license) Not included.Choose one of the Check Point Security Management offerings No CloudGuard Network Security for Gateway Load Balancer PAYG Threat Prevention Not included.Choose one of the Check Point Security Management offerings Yes CloudGuard Network Security for Gateway Load Balancer with SandBlast PAYG Threat Prevention and SandBlast Not included.Choose one of the Check Point Security Management offerings Yes CloudGuard Network Security for Gateway Load Balancer – BYOL BYOL Threat Prevention ORThreat Prevention and SandBlast (depends on customer’s existing license) Not included.Choose one of the Check Point Security Management offerings Yes CloudGuard Network Security All-In-One PAYG Threat Prevention and SandBlast Included No Check Point Security Management PAYG Not included.Choose one of the CloudGuard Network Security offerings Included N/A Check Point Security Management (BYOL) BYOL Not included.Choose one of the CloudGuard Network Security offerings Included N/A Please note that the AWS Marketplace offerings allow you to deploy a single gateway each time. For AWS Cloudformation templates or more comprehensive deployments (including Auto-Scaling, High Availability, etc.), please refer to . sk111013 For more information on: AWS Marketplace: The main page is here AWS GWLB: Read this blog CloudGuard Network Security: See the product page here AWS Cloudformation templates and more comprehensive deployments: see here The Check Point Cloud Security Blueprint documents, which outline best practices and principles for building secure cloud deployments: see here About CloudGuard provides unified cloud native security for all your assets and workloads, giving you the confidence to automate security, prevent threats, and manage posture – everywhere – across your multi-cloud environment. Check Point CloudGuard CloudGuard provides multi-layer cloud security with multiple capabilities. One of these is , as explained above. Organizations with on-premises environments and in the process of migrating to the cloud with CloudGuard receive unified and consistent security management of all their on-prem and cloud environments and experience the: CloudGuard Network Security and cloud migration Most secure, easiest quickest Lowest total cost of ownership

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CloudGuard added AWS GWLB: What that Means for AWS Marketplace Offerings

Communication with other people is an important part of a software developer’s career. As a software developer, you will often communicate with other developers on your team, non-technical people on your team, stakeholders, and users of your software. Having good communication skills will help you work well with your team and others by communicating your messages effectively. Software development is a technical field and developing your technical skills often takes priority over other skills. However, it can be argued that communication skills are equally as important as technical skills. Failures in software teams result more often from communication issues than from technical problems. Software developers are often expected to naturally have good communication skills. However, this is not the case in reality. Most software developers have poor or underdeveloped communication skills. Similar to technical skills, you have to work on improving your communication skills. Both written and spoken communication skills are important to develop. In this article, you will learn different approaches you can use to improve your communication skills as a software developer. Learn to Listen Listening is the most important skill to develop if you want to become a good communicator. This is because great communication happens when all parties reach a point of mutual understanding. In a highly technical job such as software development, reaching a mutual understanding is even more important. Differences in the understanding of implementation can lead to errors and bugs, extended project timelines, and disappointment from unmet expectations. As human beings, we often rush to express our thoughts and opinions without allowing the person we are communicating with to finish speaking. We stop listening the moment we think of an opposing point or what we believe is a better idea. This leads to bad communication habits. To improve your communication, you must learn to not interrupt others when they speak to you. Listen carefully to what the other person is saying. Give them time to say everything they want to say before you add to the conversation. When you are ready to add your own thoughts to the conversation, one thoughtful technique is to quickly rephrase what the other person just said so it is clear that you have understood what they are communicating. Your body language also plays an important role when you are listening to someone else speaking to you. Being engaged in the conversation shows you are interested in what the other person has to say and is also a sign of respect. Have a comfortable amount of eye contact, stand/sit with a good posture, focus on the conversation (don’t look elsewhere or use your phone). Listening is fundamental to good communication and should be the first skill you work on improving as a software developer. Present Your Work to Others As a software developer, it is important to be good at communicating your work and ideas with others. This is how good collaboration starts. You have to be able to express yourself clearly when talking about what you built, why you built it, and how you built it. You have to be able to determine how to communicate appropriately depending on context. Most of the time you will be communicating with other developers and you can communicate in a very technical way. Other times you will be communicating with a non-technical audience and you will need to communicate in a way people understand what you are saying without using technical jargon. One of the best ways to practice improving spoken communication is through presenting your work to others. Present your work to your team and other people. Volunteer to be the presenter at team demos, code reviews, stand-ups, and any other opportunities that are available in your workplace. Always ask for feedback from a few people after you have presented your work. to help you improve your future presentations. Over time you will become better at expressing your ideas and talking about your work. It will also become less stressful when you have to present your work to others. Use the feedback Speak at Meetups and Conferences Public speaking can be a nerve-wracking experience for software developers. One of the best ways to improve your public speaking skills is by committing to speak at a software meetup or conference. Identify some meetups of conferences in your area and apply to speak about a topic you are passionate about. Once you are selected as a speaker for a meetup or conference you will have to practice so you can deliver a great talk. This is where all the learning happens. You will need to develop skills such as making good eye contact with the audience, speaking at a volume everyone can hear you, using good body language and posture, and speaking with clarity. All these skills that are useful for delivering a great talk will improve your general communication skills as a side-effect. If you constantly practice public speaking you will improve your spoken communication skills. Write Documentation Writing some documentation will provide you with an excellent and free written communication exercise. As a software developer working in a team, there will be many opportunities to write some required documentation. Examples of documentation written by software developers include deploy notes, code review notes, user instructions, API documentation, incident reports, product / project proposals and many others. All these documents need to be written with clear communication for their audience. To improve your written communication skills, volunteer to write some documentation when the opportunities present itself. Always from the audience of the documentation that you write. This will help you improve any future documents that your write. ask for feedback The documentation that you write can be technical or non-technical. Both are important aspects of day-to-day software developer communication. Start a Blog Starting your own blog is also another great way to practice and improve your written communication skills. Having your own blog will give you a public audience and you will need to learn how to write your blog posts so they communicate topics in a simple way with clarity. On your blog, you can write about any topic that you are passionate about. This will help with your motivation for starting a blog and publishing blog posts consistently. Remember writing consistently is the best form of practice and over time your writing skills will improve. If you keep comments from the audience open on your blog you will also be able to receive feedback from your audience. Use the feedback to improve future posts and improve how you communicate back-and-forth with the audience. Over time you will become more confident about how you express your thoughts publicly which is a skill all software developers require as they work in teams over their careers. Final Thoughts As a software developer, being able to communicate in a clear and concise way is fundamental to having a successful career. Software developers rarely work in isolation. There are other parties involved, other developers, stakeholders, users and many others. Technical skills development is often given priority by software developers, however, improving communication skills is also very important. This article was originally published on . The New Developer

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