A Short History of the World, by H. G. Wells, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . THE NEW EMPIRES OF THE EUROPEANS IN ASIA AND OVERSEAS THE NEW EMPIRES OF THE EUROPEANS IN ASIA AND OVERSEAS While Central Europe thus remained divided and confused, the Western Europeans and particularly the Dutch, the Scandinavians, the Spanish, the Portuguese, the French and the British were extending the area of their struggles across the seas of all the world. The printing press had dissolved the political ideas of Europe into a vast and at first indeterminate fermentation, but that other great innovation, the ocean-going sailing ship, was inexorably extending the range of European experience to the furthermost limits of salt water. The first overseas settlements of the Dutch and Northern Atlantic Europeans were not for colonization but for trade and mining. The Spaniards were first in the field; they claimed dominion over the whole of this new world of America. Very soon however the Portuguese asked for a share. The Pope—it was one of the last acts of Rome as mistress of the world—divided the new continent between these two first-comers, giving Portugal Brazil and everything else east of a line 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands, and all the rest to Spain (1494). The Portuguese at this time were also pushing overseas enterprise southward and eastward. In 1497 Vasco da Gama had sailed from Lisbon round the Cape to Zanzibar and then to Calicut in India. In 1515 there were Portuguese ships in Java and the Moluccas, and the Portuguese were setting up and fortifying trading stations round and about the coasts of the Indian Ocean. Mozambique, Goa, and two smaller possessions in India, Macao in China and a part of Timor are to this day Portuguese possessions. The nations excluded from America by the papal settlement paid little heed to the rights of Spain and Portugal. The English, the Danes and Swedes, and presently the Dutch, were soon staking out claims in North America and the West Indies, and his Most Catholic Majesty of France heeded the papal settlement as little as any Protestant. The wars of Europe extended themselves to these claims and possessions. In the long run the English were the most successful in this scramble for overseas possessions. The Danes and Swedes were too deeply entangled in the complicated affairs of Germany to sustain effective expeditions abroad. Sweden was wasted upon the German battlefields by a picturesque king, Gustavus Adolphus, the Protestant “Lion of the North.” The Dutch were the heirs of such small settlements as Sweden made in America, and the Dutch were too near French aggressions to hold their own against the British. In the far East the chief rivals for empire were the British, Dutch and French, and in America the British, French and Spanish. The British had the supreme advantage of a water frontier, the “silver streak” of the English Channel, against Europe. The tradition of the Latin Empire entangled them least. EUROPEANS TIGER HUNTING IN INDIA (From the engraving of the picture by Zoffany in the British Museum) France has always thought too much in terms of Europe. Throughout the eighteenth century she was wasting her opportunities of expansion in West and East alike in order to dominate Spain, Italy and the German confusion. The religious and political dissensions of Britain in the seventeenth century had driven many of the English to seek a permanent home in America. They struck root and increased and multiplied, giving the British a great advantage in the American struggle. In 1756 and 1760 the French lost Canada to the British and their American colonists, and a few years later the British trading company found itself completely dominant over French, Dutch and Portuguese in the peninsula of India. The great Mongol Empire of Baber, Akbar and their successors had now far gone in decay, and the story of its practical capture by a London trading company, the British East India Company, is one of the most extraordinary episodes in the whole history of conquest. THE LAST EFFORT AND FALL OF TIPPOO SULTAN (From the engraving of the picture by Singleton in the British Museum) This East India Company had been originally at the time of its incorporation under Queen Elizabeth no more than a company of sea adventurers. Step by step they had been forced to raise troops and arm their ships. And now this trading company, with its tradition of gain, found itself dealing not merely in spices and dyes and tea and jewels, but in the revenues and territories of princes and the destinies of India. It had come to buy and sell, and it found itself achieving a tremendous piracy. There was no one to challenge its proceedings. Is it any wonder that its captains and commanders and officials, nay, even its clerks and common soldiers, came back to England loaded with spoils? Men under such circumstances, with a great and wealthy land at their mercy, could not determine what they might or might not do. It was a strange land to them, with a strange sunlight; its brown people seemed a different race, outside their range of sympathy; its mysterious temples sustained fantastic standards of behaviour. Englishmen at home were perplexed when presently these generals and officials came back to make dark accusations against each other of extortions and cruelties. Upon Clive Parliament passed a vote of censure. He committed suicide in 1774. In 1788 Warren Hastings, a second great Indian administrator, was impeached and acquitted (1792). It was a strange and unprecedented situation in the world’s history. The English Parliament found itself ruling over a London trading company, which in its turn was dominating an empire far greater and more populous than all the domains of the British crown. To the bulk of the English people India was a remote, fantastic, almost inaccessible land, to which adventurous poor young men went out, to return after many years very rich and very choleric old gentlemen. It was difficult for the English to conceive what the life of these countless brown millions in the eastern sunshine could be. Their imaginations declined the task. India remained romantically unreal. It was impossible for the English, therefore, to exert any effective supervision and control over the company’s proceedings. And while the Western European powers were thus fighting for these fantastic overseas empires upon every ocean in the world, two great land conquests were in progress in Asia. China had thrown off the Mongol yoke in 1360, and flourished under the great native dynasty of the Mings until 1644. Then the Manchus, another Mongol people, reconquered China and remained masters of China until 1912. Meanwhile Russia was pushing East and growing to greatness in the world’s affairs. The rise of this great central power of the old world, which is neither altogether of the East nor altogether of the West, is one of the utmost importance to our human destiny. Its expansion is very largely due to the appearance of a Christian steppe people, the Cossacks, who formed a barrier between the feudal agriculture of Poland and Hungary to the west and the Tartar to the east. The Cossacks were the wild east of Europe, and in many ways not unlike the wild west of the United States in the middle nineteenth century. All who had made Russia too hot to hold them, criminals as well as the persecuted innocent, rebellious serfs, religious secretaries, thieves, vagabonds, murderers, sought asylum in the southern steppes and there made a fresh start and fought for life and freedom against Pole, Russian and Tartar alike. Doubtless fugitives from the Tartars to the east also contributed to the Cossack mixture. Slowly these border folk were incorporated in the Russian imperial service, much as the highland clans of Scotland were converted into regiments by the British government. New lands were offered them in Asia. They became a weapon against the dwindling power of the Mongolian nomads, first in Turkestan and then across Siberia as far as the Amur. The decay of Mongol energy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is very difficult to explain. Within two or three centuries from the days of Jengis and Timurlane Central Asia had relapsed from a period of world ascendancy to extreme political impotence. Changes of climate, unrecorded pestilences, infections of a malarial type, may have played their part in this recession—which may be only a temporary recession measured by the scale of universal history—of the Central Asian peoples. Some authorities think that the spread of Buddhist teaching from China also had a pacifying influence upon them. At any rate, by the sixteenth century the Mongol, Tartar and Turkish peoples were no longer pressing outward, but were being invaded, subjugated and pushed back both by Christian Russia in the west and by China in the east. All through the seventeenth century the Cossacks were spreading eastward from European Russia, and settling wherever they found agricultural conditions. Cordons of forts and stations formed a moving frontier to these settlements to the south, where the Turkomans were still strong and active; to the north-east, however, Russia had no frontier until she reached right to the Pacific... About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. H. G. Wells (2011). A Short History of the World. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022, from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11870/11870-h/11870-h.htm This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

Encyclopedia Me 

Read My Stories

THE NEW EMPIRES OF THE EUROPEANS IN ASIA AND OVERSEAS

Observations concerning the Reflexions and Colours of thick transparent polish'd Plates

Snowdrop & Other Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . The Fox and the Horse The Fox and the Horse APEASANT once had a faithful Horse, but it had grown old and could no longer do its work. Its master grudged it food, and said: ‘I can’t use you any more, but I still feel kindly towards you, and if you show yourself strong enough to bring me a Lion I will keep you to the end of your days. But away with you now, out of my stable’; and he drove it out into the open country. The poor Horse was very sad, and went into the forest to get a little shelter from the wind and weather. There he met a Fox, who said: ‘Why do you hang your head, and wander about in this solitary fashion?’ ‘Alas!’ answered the Horse, ‘avarice and honesty cannot live together. My master has forgotten all the service I have done him for these many years, and because I can no longer plough he will no longer feed me, and he has driven me away.’ ‘Without any consideration?’ asked the Fox. ‘Only the poor consolation of telling me that if I was strong enough to bring him a Lion he would keep me, but he knows well enough that the task is beyond me.’ The Fox said: ‘But I will help you. Just you lie down here, and stretch your legs out as if you were dead.’ The Horse did as he was told, and the Fox went to the Lion’s den, not far off, and said: ‘There is a dead Horse out there. Come along with me, and you will have a rare meal.’ The Lion went with him, and when they got up to the Horse, the Fox said: ‘You can’t eat it in comfort here. I’ll tell you what. I will tie it to you, and you can drag it away to your den, and enjoy it at your leisure.’ The plan pleased the Lion, and he stood quite still, close to the Horse, so that the Fox should fasten them together. But the Fox tied the Lion’s legs together with the Horse’s tail, and twisted and knotted it so that it would be quite impossible for it to come undone. When he had finished his work he patted the Horse on the shoulder, and said: ‘Pull, old Grey! Pull!’ Then the Horse sprang up, and dragged the Lion away behind him. The Lion in his rage roared, so that all the birds in the forest were terrified, and flew away. But the Horse let him roar, and never stopped till he stood before his master’s door. When the master saw him he was delighted, and said to him: ‘You shall stay with me, and have a good time as long as you live.’ And he fed him well till he died. Then the Horse sprang up, and dragged the Lion away behind him. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm (2011). Snowdrop & Other Tales. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022, https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/37381/pg37381-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html.

The Fox and the Horse

Grimm's Fairy Tales by Jacob and Milhelm Grimm, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . THE BREMEN TOWN-MUSICIANS THE BREMEN TOWN-MUSICIANS A certain man had a Donkey, which had carried the corn-sacks to the mill faithfully for many a long year; but his strength was going, and he was growing more and more unfit for work. Then his master began to consider how he might best save his keep; but the Donkey, seeing that no good wind was blowing, ran away and set out on the road to Bremen. “There,” he thought, “I can surely be town-musician.” When he had walked some distance, he found a Hound lying on the road, gasping like one who had run till he was tired. “What are you gasping so for, you big fellow?” asked the Donkey. “Ah,” replied the Hound, “as I am old, and daily grow weaker and no longer can hunt, my master wants to kill me. So I have taken to flight. But now how am I to earn my bread?” “I tell you what,” said the Donkey, “I am going to Bremen, and shall be town-musician there. Come with me and engage yourself also as a musician. I will play the lute, and you shall beat the kettledrum.” The Hound agreed, and on they went. Before long, they came to a Cat, sitting on the path, with a face like three rainy days! “Now then, old shaver, what has gone askew with you?” asked the Donkey. “Who can be merry when his neck is in danger?” answered the Cat. “Because I am now getting old, and my teeth are worn to stumps, and I prefer to sit by the fire and spin, rather than hunt about after mice, my mistress wants to drown me, so I have run away. But now good advice is scarce. Where am I to go?” “Come with us to Bremen. You understand night-music, so you can be a town-musician.” The Cat thought well of it, and went with them. After this the three fugitives came to a farmyard, where the Cock was sitting upon the gate, crowing with all his might. “Your crow goes through and through one,” said the Donkey. “What is the matter?” “I have been foretelling fine weather, because it is the day on which Our Lady washes the Christ-child’s little shirts, and wants to dry them,” said the Cock. “But guests are coming for Sunday, so the housewife has no pity, and has told the cook that she intends to eat me in the soup to-morrow. This evening I am to have my head cut off. Now I am crowing at full pitch while I can.” “Ah, but Red-Comb,” said the Donkey, “you had better come away with us. We are going to Bremen. You can find something better than death everywhere. You have a good voice, and if we make music together, it must have some quality!” The Cock agreed to this plan, and all four went on together. They could not, however, reach the city of Bremen in one day, and in the evening they came to a forest where they meant to pass the night. The Donkey and the Hound laid themselves down under a large tree. The Cat and the Cock settled themselves in the branches; but the Cock flew right to the top, where he was most safe. Before he went to sleep, he looked round on all the four sides, and thought he saw in the distance a little spark burning. So he called out to his companions that there must be a house not far off, for he saw a light. The Donkey said, “If so, we had better get up and go on, for the shelter here is bad.” The Hound thought that a few bones with some meat would do him good too! They made their way to the place where the light was, and soon saw it shine brighter and grow larger, until they came to a well-lighted robber’s house. The Donkey, as the biggest, went to the window and looked in. “What do you see, my Grey-Horse?” asked the Cock. “What do I see?” answered the Donkey; “a table covered with good things to eat and drink, and robbers sitting at it enjoying themselves.” “That would be the sort of thing for us,” said the Cock. “Yes, yes! ah, how I wish we were there!” said the Donkey. Then the animals took counsel together as to how they could drive away the robbers, and at last they thought of a plan. The Donkey was to place himself with his forefeet upon the window-ledge, the Hound was to jump on the Donkey’s back, the Cat was to climb upon the Hound, and lastly the Cock was to fly up and perch upon the head of the Cat. When this was done, at a given signal, they began to perform their music together. The Donkey brayed, the Hound barked, the Cat mewed, and the Cock crowed. Then they burst through the window into the room, so that the glass clattered! At this horrible din, the robbers sprang up, thinking no otherwise than that a ghost had come in, and fled in a great fright out into the forest. The four companions now sat down at the table, well content with what was left, and ate as if they were going to fast for a month. As soon as the four minstrels had done, they put out the light, and each sought for himself a sleeping-place according to his nature and to what suited him. The Donkey laid himself down upon some straw in the yard, the Hound behind the door, the Cat upon the hearth near the warm ashes, and the Cock perched himself upon a beam of the roof. Being tired with their long walk, they soon went to sleep. When it was past midnight, the robbers saw from afar that the light was no longer burning in their house, and all appeared quiet. The captain said, “We ought not to have let ourselves be frightened out of our wits;” and ordered one of them to go and examine the house. The messenger finding all still, went into the kitchen to light a candle, and, taking the glistening fiery eyes of the Cat for live coals, he held a lucifer-match to them to light it. But the Cat did not understand the joke, and flew in his face, spitting and scratching. He was dreadfully frightened, and ran to the back door, but the Dog, who lay there, sprang up and bit his leg. Then, as he ran across the yard by the straw-heap, the Donkey gave him a smart kick with his hind foot. The Cock, too, who had been awakened by the noise, and had become lively, cried down from the beam: “Kicker-ee-ricker-ee-ree!” Then the robber ran back as fast as he could to his captain, and said, “Ah, there is a horrible Witch sitting in the house, who spat on me and scratched my face with her long claws. By the door stands a man with a knife, who stabbed me in the leg. In the yard there lies a black monster, who beat me with a wooden club. And above, upon the roof, sits the judge, who called out: “‘Bring the rogue here to me!’ so I got away as well as I could.” After this the robbers did not trust themselves in the house again. But it suited the four musicians of Bremen so well that they did not care to leave it any more. And the mouth of him who last told this story, is still warm. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm (2016). Grimm's Fairy Tales. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022, https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/52521/pg52521-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html.

THE BREMEN TOWN-MUSICIANS

First and Last Things by H. G. Wells, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . THE NATURE OF LOVE THE NATURE OF LOVE. It is well perhaps to look a little into the factors that make up Love. Love does not seem to me to be a simple elemental thing. It is, as I have already said, one of the vicious tendencies of the human mind to think that whatever can be given a simple name can be abstracted as a single something in a state of quintessential purity. I have pointed out that this is not true of Harmony or Beauty, and that these are synthetic things. You bring together this which is not beautiful and that which is not beautiful, and behold! Beauty! So also Love is, I think, a synthetic thing. One observes this and that, one is interested and stirred; suddenly the metal fuses, the dry bones live! One loves. Almost every interest in one’s being may be a factor in the love synthesis. But apart from the overflowing of the parental instinct that makes all that is fine and delicate and young dear to us and to be cherished, there are two main factors that bring us into love with our fellows. There is first the emotional elements in our nature that arise out of the tribal necessity, out of a fellowship in battle and hunting, drinking and feasting, out of the needs and excitements and delights of those occupations; and there is next the intenser narrower desirings and gratitudes, satisfactions and expectations that come from sexual intercourse. Now both these factors originate in physical needs and consummate in material acts, and it is well to remember that this great growth of love in life roots there, and, it may be, dies when its roots are altogether cut away. At its lowest, love is the mere sharing of, or rather the desire to share, pleasure and excitement, the excitements of conflict or lust or what not. I think that the desire to partake, the desire to merge one’s individual identity with another’s, remains a necessary element in all personal loves. It is a way out of ourselves, a breaking down of our individual separation, just as hate is an intensification of that. Personal love is the narrow and intense form of that breaking down, just as what I call Salvation is its widest, most extensive form. We cast aside our reserves, our secrecies, our defences; we open ourselves; touches that would be intolerable from common people become a mystery of delight, acts of self-abasement and self-sacrifice are charged with symbolical pleasure. We cannot tell which of us is me, which you. Our imprisoned egoism looks out through this window, forgets its walls, and is for those brief moments released and universal. For most of us the strain of primordial sexual emotion in our loves is very strong. Many men can love only women, many women only men, and some can scarcely love at all without bodily desire. But the love of fellowship is a strong one also, and for many, love is most possible and easy when the thought of physical lovemaking has been banished. Then the lovers will pursue interests together, will work together or journey together. So we have the warm fellowships of men for men and women for women. But even then it may happen that men friends together will talk of women, and women friends of men. Nevertheless we have also the strong and altogether sexless glow of those who have fought well together, or drunk or jested together or hunted a common quarry. Now it seems to me that the Believer must also be a Lover, that he will love as much as he can and as many people as he can, and in many moods and ways. As I have said already, many of those who have taught religion and morality in the past have been neglectful or unduly jealous of the intenser personal loves. They have been, to put it by a figure, urgent upon the road to the ocean. To that they would lead us, though we come to it shivering, fearful and unprepared, and they grudge it that we should strip and plunge into the wayside stream. But all streams, all rivers come from this ocean in the beginning, lead to it in the end. It is the essential fact of love as I conceive it, that it breaks down the boundaries of self. That love is most perfect which does most completely merge its lovers. But no love is altogether perfect, and for most men and women love is no more than a partial and temporary lowering of the barriers that keep them apart. With many, the attraction of love seems always to fall short of what I hold to be its end, it draws people together in the most momentary of self-forgetfulnesses, and for the rest seems rather to enhance their egotisms and their difference. They are secret from one another even in their embraces. There is a sort of love that is egotistical lust almost regardless of its partner, a sort of love that is mere fleshless pride and vanity at a white heat. There is the love-making that springs from sheer boredom, like a man reading a story-book to fill an hour. These inferior loves seek to accomplish an agreeable act, or they seek the pursuit or glory of a living possession, they aim at gratification or excitement or conquest. True love seeks to be mutual and easy-minded, free of doubts, but these egotistical mockeries of love have always resentment in them and hatred in them and a watchful distrust. Jealousy is the measure of self-love in love. True love is a synthetic thing, an outcome of life, it is not a universal thing. It is the individualized correlative of Salvation; like that it is a synthetic consequence of conflicts and confusions. Many people do not desire or need Salvation, they cannot understand it, much less achieve it; for them chaotic life suffices. So too, many never, save for some rare moment of illumination, desire or feel love. Its happy abandonment, its careless self-giving, these things are mere foolishness to them. But much has been said and sung of faith and love alike, and in their confused greed these things also they desire and parody. So they act worship and make a fine fuss of their devotions. And also they must have a few half-furtive, half-flaunting fallen love-triumphs prowling the secret backstreets of their lives, they know not why. (In setting this down be it remembered I am doing my best to tell what is in me because I am trying to put my whole view of life before the reader without any vital omissions. These are difficult matters to explain because they have no clear outlines; one lets in a hard light suddenly upon things that have lurked in warm intimate shadows, dim inner things engendering motives. I am not only telling quasi-secret things but exploring them for myself. They are none the less real and important because they are elusive.) True love I think is not simply felt but known. Just as Salvation as I conceive it demands a fine intelligence and mental activity, so love calls to brain and body alike and all one’s powers. There is always elaborate thinking and dreaming in love. Love will stir imaginations that have never stirred before. Love may be, and is for the most part, one-sided. It is the going out from oneself that is love, and not the accident of its return. It is the expedition whether it fail or succeed. But an expedition starves that comes to no port. Love always seeks mutuality and grows by the sense of responses, or we should love beautiful inanimate things more passionately than we do. Failing a full return, it makes the most of an inadequate return. Failing a sustained return it welcomes a temporary coincidence. Failing a return it finds support in accepted sacrifices. But it seeks a full return, and the fulness of life has come only to those who, loving, have met the lover. I am trying to be as explicit as possible in thus writing about Love. But the substance in which one works here is emotion that evades definition, poetic flashes and figures of speech are truer than prosaic statements. Body and the most sublimated ecstasy pass into one another, exchange themselves and elude every net of words we cast. I have put out two ideas of unification and self-devotion, extremes upon a scale one from another; one of these ideas is that devotion to the Purpose in things I have called Salvation; the other that devotion to some other most fitting and satisfying individual which is passionate love, the former extensive as the universe, the latter the intensest thing in life. These, it seems to me, are the boundary and the living capital of the empire of life we rule. All empires need a comprehending boundary, but many have not one capital but many chief cities, and all have cities and towns and villages beyond the capital. It is an impoverished capital that has no dependent towns, and it is a poor love that will not overflow in affection and eager kindly curiosity and sympathy and the search for fresh mutuality. To love is to go living radiantly through the world. To love and be loved is to be fearless of experience and rich in the power to give.

THE NATURE OF LOVE

Shutterstock launched their AI image generation platform on Wednesday, January 25, 2023. With this launch, users can find stock photos and illustrations on the website and also generate images of their own. In this Slogging thread, our community discussed Shutterstock's AI image generator and how to use it. This Slogging thread by Valentine Enedah, Sara Pinto, Mónica Freitas and Marco Sullivan occurred in slogging's official #technology channel, and has been edited for readability. Valentine Enedah Jan 29, 2023, 5:29 PM Shutterstock Unleashes the Power of AI With Cutting-Edge Image Generator https://mashable.com/article/shutterstock-ai-image-generator Valentine Enedah Jan 29, 2023, 5:30 PM Shutterstock is not new to AI, as it has partnered with OpenAI, Meta, and LG AI Research. The generative platform will alter the way users express their stories, as there will be no need to be an expert in design or work with a creative team. Valentine Enedah Jan 29, 2023, 5:42 PM 1. Navigate to Shutterstock's . How to use Shutterstock's AI image generator: home page Valentine Enedah Jan 29, 2023, 5:44 PM 2. Click on "AI Generator" in the search bar. The "Image" search option is already handpicked in the left search bar. Select "Image" and then select "AI Generator". Valentine Enedah Jan 29, 2023, 5:47 PM 3. Type in what you would like to generate. A "man on mars" is what I'm searching for here. Valentine Enedah Jan 29, 2023, 5:50 PM 4. Click on the Search button. Note: You must be logged in to have access to the free account feature and you can scroll down to see the other images generated. Valentine Enedah Jan 29, 2023, 5:54 PM While this is a fun tool to experiment with, users disagree on whether AI is an ally helping to improve human creativity or an enemy sent to replace human creativity. Nonetheless, there are laws that govern the use of AI. What do you think? Sara Pinto Jan 31, 2023, 10:43 AM In case anyone is still skeptical about the future of AI-generated images, I think this reinforces that it's here to stay. I believe that AI won't replace human art, but it's a pretty good tool to help us, Valentine Enedah 🔥 1 Valentine Enedah Jan 31, 2023, 3:57 PM Sara Pinto Indeed, Artists can leverage AI to improve their creativity. You should try generating art as well. You can share them here.🙂 Mónica Freitas Feb 1, 2023, 11:34 AM Do the same rules apply to their AI as it does their images? Like limitations of use for commercial purposes? Valentine Enedah Feb 1, 2023, 1:42 PM Mónica Freitas Yes, there are rules and if you subscribe, they also lay emphasis on that as well. Mónica Freitas Feb 1, 2023, 2:10 PM Interesting! I wonder if shutterstock will be able to be a good competitor for Dall-e and other AI image generators Valentine Enedah Feb 1, 2023, 2:30 PM Mónica Freitas Not even close. No offense😂😂 🔥 1 Sara Pinto Feb 1, 2023, 4:10 PM Valentine Enedah, I've actually had the chance to have fun with Dall-E, but only for jokes hahaha. Never saved the images it generated Valentine Enedah Feb 1, 2023, 5:15 PM Sara Pinto Wow!😞 We needed to see those images. Marco Sullivan Feb 2, 2023, 3:27 PM Valentine Enedah This is actually pretty cool and easy to use.👏 🔥 1 Mónica Freitas Feb 3, 2023, 1:01 PM Valentine Enedah the only one offended would be Shutterstock hahah Valentine Enedah Feb 3, 2023, 1:17 PM Mónica Freitas 😂😂 Well this can serve as motivation to Shutterstock.

Shutterstock Unleashes the Power of AI With Cutting-Edge Image Generator

US regulators just zapped Kraken for staking crypto for its US customers. Some say this is heavy-handed, nonsensical overreach by a cabal of well-coordinated anti-crypto zealots at the highest levels of government. Maybe, maybe not. So what? Anybody can stake crypto on their own. That’s the whole point. Death by any other name . . . Since May 2022, the biggest crypto lending platform, the biggest crypto trading firm, the biggest crypto broker, and the #2 crypto exchange have all collapsed. The #1 crypto exchange might follow, along with several large bitcoin mining companies and the company that manages the largest Bitcoin fund on Earth. People smarter than me say the worst is yet to come. Permabulls say you need to sit in cash for the duration of 2023. Peter Schiff, Warren Buffett, and other old white guys are screaming “crypto’s a scam!” Meanwhile, bitcoin continues to churn out block after block. Aave continues to settle financial transactions. Chainlink continues to feed prices and real-world data into distributed networks. Businesses die. People steal money. Traders fall apart. The protocols persist. That's what they do Maybe that’s the thing everybody misses when they say cryptos “do nothing?” Maybe cryptocurrencies don’t need to pay dividends, generate yield, have government backing, or offer “intrinsic value.” They just need to work. Their value comes from what people do with them. Whether their prices go up depends on their token structures, though speculative enthusiasm certainly plays a role. What if it doesn’t matter what happens to 3AC, Genesis, or any other entity that operated in the legacy financial system? Silvergate can go bankrupt. Binance can collapse. Celsius’s founders can go to jail. Grayscale can dissolve. Fraud? Theft? Failure? Bankruptcy? Sovereign debt default? Coup d'état? The protocols persist. Consider the alternative Our legacy financial system requires massive bureaucracy, laws, rules, oversight, insurance, and government intervention just to function. It’s expensive, unwieldy, complicated, and often exclusionary. And it still fails all the time. https://cryptoiseasy.substack.com/p/crypto-is-easy-monthly-issue-january-751?embedable=true#details Some governments are corrupt. Some regulators are incompetent. Some leaders are thieves. Some plans don’t work out the way people expect. We buy into protocols, not people. Tokens, not firms. Financial networks, not social cliques. Computer codes, not bureaucrats. We bet that successful cryptocurrencies will offer more lasting, substantial, and durable returns than legacy assets. Progress comes in fits and starts You may have started to question crypto. What does it do? Why does it matter? Why doesn’t it work? Do I really believe in the ideology behind bitcoin or the purpose of these altcoins? Great things rarely come from ideological purity, utility, or clever design. Serendipity, risk, luck, effort, creativity, money, vision, and timing play a role. Nobody knows how much of each gives you the best mix for success. For tens of thousands of years, humans have put money into things they think will make the world better or make themselves wealthier. We have centuries of businesses and patents as proof. These efforts usually fail, but sometimes they succeed. Why should crypto be any different? That’s the adventure. Discovery has its own reward. With crypto, the best discoveries can grow your wealth in ways the legacy system can’t. Technology does not decide its own fate. We do. Bit by bit, year after year. One person’s work builds on another’s. Market forces drive prices up and down, sometimes at a whim. Algorithmic stablecoins fail until one of them succeeds. DeFi protocols get hacked until developers iterate away the vulnerabilities. NFTs suck until somebody figures out how to build a viable business around this new way to confirm ownership and distribute time, intellectual property, and creative works. We still need clear laws, frameworks, standards, and transparency so earnest builders will not get lumped in with scammers, developers can innovate without fear of jail or censure, and communities can grow without frauds and charlatans stealing their money. That’s the next step: regulation, litigation, and engagement from governments and global financial organizations. It’s a hard step, but we have a lot of great people advocating for us. The longest yard While they work, let’s not lose perspective on the problem we’re trying to solve. The legacy financial system can’t give us what we want. These closed systems of control can no longer keep up with the demographic, social, and technological changes that drive modern commerce and communications. Cryptocurrency offers an alternative but its fate depends on the devotion of builders, developers, and investors. That devotion doesn’t reveal itself in the next 100x altcoin, a new data model, or some on-chain metric that most people don’t interpret correctly. It comes from people like us who understand the power of this technology to change our contemporary notions of wealth and finance—and in doing so, give normal people a chance to own a stake in the future, rather than the scraps of whatever trickles down from those who hold power. What does that future look like? Nobody knows yet. That’s the beauty and excitement of this world we’re trying to build. One vision is the one I present in my book, . Another vision is Satoshi’s. Another vision is Vitalik’s and dozens of other visions, all possible, none inevitable. Consensusland These visions don’t come with price tags. They go beyond four-year cycles. They transcend market conditions and reflect something far more powerful than whatever price your CoinGecko app shows you on any given day. Obsess over prices and you’ll miss the revolution. No matter what happens to the businesses built on crypto, the protocols persist. Can you? This post is also available as an NFT on . Mirror https://mirror.xyz/0x9a6600c7B40801dda9A0Fa4E8DE7b1B99FE524a7/T9qGE72-Yq5nSDAUo2pcHos5iHrgH4wgmadBf_EMyHQ?embedable=true Mark Helfman publishes the newsletter. He is also the author of three books and a top bitcoin writer on and . Learn more about him in his and connect with him on . Crypto is Easy Medium Hacker Noon bio Superpeer

This story contains new, firsthand information uncovered by the writer.

In Crypto, Businesses Die but the Protocols Persist

Mario Kart is possibly one of the most lucrative franchises out there. Even a popular series like can’t compare when it comes to overall sales. These simple, fun kart-driving games have placed millions of families in unending joy and emotional turmoil as they battle in races for first place. It’s especially interesting to look at all Mario Kart games ranked by how many copies each one sold, since there are many different aspects that might determine just why each title reached its own level of success. Animal Crossing All information was taken from . All Mario Kart games are included with the exception of Tour and the arcade titles as those aren’t available for purchase. Mario Kart 8 and its Switch port will also be included as separate items on this list due to the many differences between them. VGSales The links in this article include affiliate links to Amazon and eBay. You won’t be charged anything extra for clicking on these links, but you will be supporting HackerNoon if you do choose to purchase something through one of these links. Note: The 10 Best Games in the Mario Kart Series Ranked by Copies Sold 10. Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit 9. Mario Kart: Super Circuit 8. Mario Kart: Double Dash!! 7. Mario Kart 8 6. Super Mario Kart 5. Mario Kart 64 4. Mario Kart 7 3. Mario Kart DS 2. Mario Kart Wii 1. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 10. Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit — ~1.27 Million Copies Sold Uniquely, Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit isn’t quite a video game. It’s played using real-life RC cars and physical objects, making it the only game in the series to technically let players create their own track. It offers a pretty bare-bones experience as a result, but it’s quite understandable considering its gimmick. Mario Kart Live is like no other game before it, and hardcore fans are sure to enjoy themselves with it for quite some time. Buy now on or Amazon the Nintendo eShop 9. Mario Kart: Super Circuit — ~5.91 Million Copies Sold Mario Kart: Super Circuit isn’t very different from the games before it. In many ways, it can feel more like a port of the SNES release with extra verticality. Tracks are simplistic, there are multiple versions of certain courses, and coins can be obtained to increase your top speed. The most unique part of Super Circuit is its inclusion of small bumps around roads that players can use to jump over gaps. It was the first Mario Kart game on a portable system, so it still sold quite a lot, but a lack of originality might have contributed to its relatively poor performance. Buy now on or Amazon eBay 8. Mario Kart: Double Dash!! — ~6.88 Million Copies Sold Though it might not be as successful as other titles, Double Dash is a cult classic among many Mario Kart fans. Its unique style of gameplay involves two drivers at once, forcing players to be more tactical with their use of items. It also includes an expanded battle mode, more intricate and detailed courses, and even unique karts for every character! Though fans might still need to wait for another Mario Kart featuring two drivers at once, Double Dash influenced the rest of the series in ways that many players might not even realize. Buy now on or Amazon eBay 7. Mario Kart 8 — ~8.46 Million Copies Sold The original release of Mario Kart 8 added a lot of interesting new features. From course-specific gimmicks like antigravity to new items like the Super Horn, both long-time fans and first-time players had a lot to enjoy. It’s no wonder how this game managed to become , even if it didn’t quite reach the numbers of previous games. Perhaps this is why Nintendo decided to port what they made rather than just create an entirely new game for the Switch. There’s no need to fix what isn’t broken, after all! the best-selling title on Wii U Buy now on or Amazon Walmart 6. Super Mario Kart — ~8.76 Million Copies Sold Though it might be somewhat outdated by modern standards, Super Mario Kart was the game that started this franchise in the first place. It introduced the concept of using items during races to a large audience, and it provided the templates for courses that would be staples of future entries. To this day, it even includes unique items that only CPUs could use, making the player’s choice of character surprisingly meaningful. Super Mario Kart is worth looking back on even today simply to see how the roots of modern-day Mario Kart have grown since its release. Buy now on or Amazon eBay 5. Mario Kart 64 — ~9.87 Million Copies Sold In terms of a game coming right after its SNES predecessor, Mario Kart 64 was a technical marvel. It moved away from stylistic pixels in favor of full 3D environments, designing massive tracks with ramps and shortcuts to fit with this change. It also introduced unique battle courses and the infamous Blue Shell, providing its own staples to the franchise in many ways. Add some fun exploration elements like Peach’s Castle in Royal Raceway and the train tunnel of Kalimari Desert, and you have a game that offers plenty of fun even when you aren’t competing for first. Buy now on or Amazon eBay 4. Mario Kart 7 — ~18.95 Million Copies Sold Mario Kart 7 took racers off of the road and put them in the sky and sea for many of its tracks. Despite its removal of features like a single-player versus mode and characters like Waluigi, the 3DS title still had quite a few features to offer. On top of the portions where players would fly over obstacles, there was the addition of interchangeable kart parts, letting racers choose their ride as well as their wheels and gliders. It’s not hard to see why this game rose in popularity and almost achieved double the sales of Mario Kart 64. This game is available as a Virtual Console title on the 3DS eShop. Note that , so check it out while you still can! the eShop will close on March 27th, 2023 Buy now on or Amazon the Nintendo eShop 3. Mario Kart DS — ~23.6 Million Copies Sold Mario Kart DS was the first Mario Kart game to feature online play. That alone could account for its massive sales numbers, but it also included plenty of its own special offerings for long-time fans. Retro courses, swappable karts, and its own unique Missions still make it a game worth returning to today. There’s no question as to how it became the first Mario Kart title to break 20 million sales, and surprisingly enough, it wouldn’t be the last. Buy now on or Amazon GameStop 2. Mario Kart Wii — ~37.38 Million Copies Sold Mario Kart Wii expanded the connectivity offered by DS through the addition of an entire channel dedicated to new events. It also added multiple new playable characters and provided an entirely new vehicle in the form of bikes. The courses were more intricate than ever, strategy during races was incredibly present, and even the menu layout was stylish with its dynamic music and control options. If it wasn’t for Nintendo porting their Wii U release to the Switch, Mario Kart Wii would have absolutely stayed as the top-selling game of the series. Buy now on or Amazon GameStop 1. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe — ~52 Million Copies Sold Unsurprisingly, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the best-selling Mario Kart to date. Most of its changes from the original were simply additions, making the DLC characters and tracks part of the base game while replacing its barebones battle mode with one more like older titles. That was really all it needed, but Nintendo made the decision to double the game’s number of courses through further DLC released in waves. This decision has surely cemented Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s position not just as the best-selling game of the series but also as . the best-selling Switch game of all time Buy now on or Amazon the Nintendo eShop Final Thoughts It’s a wonder to see how the series has grown over the years, with almost all entries following Double Dash breaking over 10 million copies sold. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the next new Mario Kart simply followed the format of older titles and added some new tracks alongside a new gimmick. However, the future of Mario Kart is more uncertain than ever thanks to the surprise DLC added to the Switch port. Fans can only wait and see to find out where new games will go from here — and if they’ll ever manage to surpass the sheer size of their predecessors now.

Read all the best gaming stories on Hacker Noon

How to Hack Pokemon Go

Is the PS5 Worth it in 2022?

Keyboard vs. Controller: The Great Debate

Budget Gaming Laptops that Won't Break the Bank

10 Best Mario Kart Games of All Time Ranked by Sales

Geospatial data refers to data that represents events, objects, or features on the Earth’s surface. With geospatial data, it is easy to get a representation of the natural world frequently and in real-time. Scientists use geospatial analytics to build visualizations such as maps, graphs and cartograms, to show current shifts or historical changes on the Earth’s surface. This article looks at the currently available today. Best Public Datasets for Geospatial Analytics Geospatial Datasets Natural Earth The Natural Earth dataset is a free and open-source dataset of physical and cultural geospatial data, available in vector and raster maps at 1:10m, 1:50m and 1:110 million scales, including rivers, lakes, borders, coastlines and populated places. It is designed to be simple, making it useful for an extensive range of applications, including cartography, education, GIS and research. The dataset is constantly maintained and updated by a community of volunteers, ensuring the data's reliability. You can download the here. data Global Land Cover Facility (GLCF) The Global Land Cover Facility (GLCF) dataset is a part of NASA’s Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS), hosted by the University of Maryland. It is a repository of satellite imagery and geospatial data products related to land cover and land use analysis. This dataset provides data on vegetation, water bodies, urban areas, etc., at both global and regional scales. The dataset is derived from satellite sensors and processed with advanced algorithms to offer information for scientific research in climate change, biodiversity and land use planning. You can download the here. data OpenStreetMap (OSM) This geospatial dataset was launched in 2004 and is maintained by a community of organizations and volunteers, with the aid of GPS devices, aerial imagery and other sources. It is a collaborative project to create a free and open-source world map. It comprises information on roads, buildings, natural and other geospatial elements. This data is then edited and refined by the community to deliver a comprehensive map of the world. The OSM dataset is a popular alternative to proprietary maps as it is freely available in vector format and can be easily customized to meet specific needs. You can download the here. data LandScan Global Population Database The LandScan Global Population Database is a dataset that provides information on global population density and distribution on various scales. It uses imagery and geospatial data to approximate the number of people living in each 1 km x 1 km grid cell. It also offers the data at a 30 arc-second resolution, similar to about 1 km at the equator. satellite You can sign up and download the here. data United States Geological Survey (USGS) This geospatial dataset is a comprehensive collection of geospatial data on the physical and cultural features of the United States. It comprises data on hydrology, geology, topography, land use/cover, mineral and energy resources. Various portals and tools, including maps, satellite images and data download services are provided by USGS for research, resource management, planning/policy making and education. You can download the here. data NASA Earth Observations (NEO) The NASA Earth Observations dataset is a collection of satellite imagery and derived geospatial products on various environmental factors such as precipitation, temperature, vegetation and land cover. This dataset is primarily collected, maintained and regularly updated by NASA’s multiple satellites and is available for scientific research, education etc. To monitor natural resources, track environmental changes, and support scientific research and decision-making, NEO provides a detailed and globally consistent image of the Earth's environment and changes across time. You can download the here. data Eurostat The Eurostat database comprises geospatial data on the European Union, maintained by the European Commission. It offers a wide range of data on the EU’s member states, including economy, population and environment, updated regularly in tabular and spatial data. This Eurostat database covers topics such as demographics, education, labour market, health, energy etc., to support the policymaking of the European Union and its member states. Click to download the data. here DigitalGlobe Open Data Program This geospatial dataset is a collection of high-resolution satellite imagery for various geospatial applications such as urban planning, natural resource management and disaster response. It covers various regions of the world and is sourced from DigitalGlobe’s constellation of earth observation satellites. The program is aimed at supporting the humanitarian, scientific and public benefit communities by providing access to high-quality, geospatial data. You will need to create a free account to access and download the . data Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) The GBIF is a repository of biodiversity data from around the world, including occurrence records, species distribution and taxonomic information. It is collected from a variety of sources, including museums, herbaria, field surveys, and remote sensing, and is made available to researchers, policymakers etc., through an accessible online website. This repository is used to support research on conservation, biodiversity and sustainable development. You can sign up and download the dataset from the , or click . website here Global Administrative Areas (GADM) The Global Administrative Areas (GADM) database is a database of the world’s administrative boundaries, including provinces, states and territories. It offers a hierarchical dataset of the world’s political divisions, from first-level administrative divisions like a country or state to lower-level divisions like counties or districts. The data is regularly updated and available in vector format for mapping, spatial analysis and location-based applications. Click to download the data. here Common Use Cases for Geospatial Datasets Physical and Cultural Geospatial Data - This geospatial dataset can be used in cartography, GIS and geospatial analysis for mapping physical and cultural features. Natural Earth - This geospatial dataset can be used in land cover analysis and monitoring, environmental management and climate studies. Global Land Cover Facility (GLCF) - This dataset can be used in routing, location-based services and geospatial analysis for mapping physical and cultural features. OpenStreetMap (OSM) - This dataset can be used in geology, hydrology and environmental studies as well as in mapping the physical features of the US. United States Geological Survey (USGS) - This geospatial dataset can be used in environmental monitoring, disaster response and climate studies to map the earth's physical features. NASA Earth Observations (NEO) Population and Demographic Data - This geospatial dataset can be used in demographic analysis, urban planning and emergency response for mapping population distribution and density. LandScan Global Population Database Administrative and Political Boundaries - This geospatial dataset can be used in demographic analysis, election mapping and geospatial analysis for mapping administrative boundaries. Global Administrative Areas (GADM) Economic and Social Data - This geospatial dataset can be used in economic analysis, market research, and policy-making for mapping economic and social data in the European Union. Eurostat Satellite Imagery and Remote Sensing Data - This dataset can be used in geospatial analysis, environmental monitoring and natural resource management for high-resolution satellite imagery. DigitalGlobe Open Data Program Biodiversity and Environmental Data - This geospatial dataset can be used in biodiversity analysis, conservation and environmental management for mapping biodiversity data worldwide. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) Final Thoughts Geospatial data helps us to uncover hidden spaces and have a better understanding of the earth. Some of these datasets can be used across multiple categories and are available for anyone to download and use freely. The lead image of this article was generated via model using the prompt 'geospatial analytics'. HackerNoon's AI Stable Diffusion

10 Best Datasets for Geospatial Analytics (Open and Public Access)

Software developers are skilled workers that are in high demand and the majority of developers make a good annual wage from a full time job. However, developers also possess unique skills that allow them to create digital products that can be built once and sold to many customers repeatedly. Within this distinction lies the key difference between passive income and active income, with software developers being in the prime position to benefit from the leverage that comes from passive income. In this article, I'll be breaking down the main differences between passive income and active income, detailing the benefits/drawbacks of each and the route to building wealth via both types of income. Here are the topics I'll be touching on in this article: What is active income Examples of active income for software developers Benefits of active income Drawbacks of active income How to become wealthy from active income What is passive income Examples of passive income for software developers Benefits of passive income Drawbacks of passive income How to become wealthy from passive income Key takeaways What Is Active Income? Active income is about trading time for money. You actively exchange your own time for a corresponding monetary value. This is how many traditional jobs work, with a business paying their workers a set monthly wage. There is an agreement that if a worker commits 40 hours a week to a business, that company will directly pay them for their services. Whether that be $80,000 a year or $130,000 a year, there is a direct active income agreement. Similarly, in a freelancing/contract role, you’ll agree to a fixed hourly/daily rate, which again is a simple exchange of a set amount of your time for a set amount of money. Examples of Active Income jobs for Software Developers Let’s take a look through some examples of active income to further demonstrate how this works. Full Time Software Developer Job In the US, it’s reported that the is around $107,000. national average salary for a software developer To receive that $107,000, a software developer would have to work for a company during the working week. Most commonly, the weekly amount of agreed hours are 40 hours. This equates to a 9-5 Monday-Friday. Although a salary like this doesn’t seem as obvious a form of active income as an hourly rate job, it still works out the same. In fact, you can change a salary figure into an hourly rate with some simple maths. Let’s say that a typical worker will work for 50 weeks of the year, with two weeks off for a holiday. Based on a 40 hour work week, that’s a total of 2,000 hours a year that a software developer must put into their job. Dividing the $107,000 by 2,000, you get an hourly rate of just shy of $54 an hour. The active income for a typical software developer would therefore be trading one hour of their time for $54 before taxes. Freelancing Considering that software developers have skills that are only ever-increasing in demand within our tech-centric world, they can often land freelancing projects. In this scenario, a business will pay a software developer either a fixed price or an hourly rate to work on a project. Between hourly and fixed-price contracts, fixed prices are normally the better to go for if you’re a software developer. If you can accurately scope out a project and quote a figure, you’ll be able to increase your active hourly income by working faster than your prediction. If you quoted a business $1,000 for a project that you think will take you 8 hours, but you do it in 4 hours, you’ve effectively doubled your hourly rate. Still, this is falling into the system of trading time for money and is therefore active income. Consulting No matter the industry, consulting is about providing expert advice to businesses. While that may be directly getting involved in the coding process, it could also just be guiding the process, offering strategic input or advising the team. Much like freelancing, software engineering consultants are paid either an hourly rate or a fixed price for a large project. Mentoring Mentoring, also known as tutoring, is the process of teaching someone with less experience than yourself skills in software development. Most frequently, this takes the form of an hourly rate, with someone paying you for time. Considering that you’re trading your time for that money, this is also an active income stream. What are the Benefits of Active Income? Active income is by far the most common and traditional form of generating an income. In fact, our whole society is built upon it and for good reason too. Here are the key benefits of active income: Many employment schemes offer their employees financial security in the format of offering pensions and healthcare as part of their compensation package. Healthcare, Pension, Work Benefits - Having a set work schedule also means that you can plan your life out around your working commitments. Routine - If you’re working a traditional job, when you clock out, you don’t have any obligation to think anymore about your work. When you’re at home, you can devote yourself to anything but working. Leave your job at work - If you’re a person that’s motivated by money, then active income allows you to easily motivate yourself. An hour worked is an hour paid. Can be easier to visualise - In a 9-5 job, people can see the career progression and all fight to impress their superiors bosses to get promoted to ultimately receive a pay increase. Clear career roadmap - In a full time job, you can normally get away with running in 3rd gear without major consequences. Some people like to drift through life not really trying too hard and just receive their salary regardless. Easier to slack off - On the flip side, active income definitely isn’t a perfect working model. Let’s take a look at the downsides of active income. What are the downsides to active income? One of the big problems with active income is simply the time constraint issue. Whilst a freelancer or consultant will have a fixed hourly rate or day rate, there are only so many hours in the day and days in the week. As such they will hit a paywall ceiling. Similarly, a full-time worker who has an annual salary is similarly time bound, with fixed compensation per month worked. By the way, when you really think about the word ‘compensation’ it’s somewhat depressing. They’re literally “compensating” you for the time that you would rather be spending doing other things but you’re spending that time performing a job for them instead. No matter what form of active income you participate in, there will always be a cap on your earnings. The only way to boost the amount you earn is by either increasing your hourly rate or try for a pay increase (usually few and far between 🤣). Apart from that, active income always hits a wall. So, these are the main downsides to active income as a software developer: As per the above, your income will always be constrained by the number of working hours in a day/week/month. Time Constraints - If you get fired, laid off, or put all your eggs in one basket, then a change in circumstance can leave you completely without an income source. Unfortunately, I have personally been in this situation. A company I worked for went bust one day without warning and left us all with no job and no pay coming in at the end of the month. Huge Reliance On Your Employer - - In a full time role, you’re at the mercy of your employer as to when you receive a pay review. They should be regularly carried out but we’ve all been there where they’ve been postponed and when they do eventually come, 99% of the time they’re underwhelming despite huge efforts on your part. Pay Review Please If you’re a freelancer/consultant/mentor and you’re too ill to work then you will not receive any income for that period. Conversely, one of the few perks of being a permanent full time programmer is that you get paid full pay for any sick days you take off. Sickness - In permanent employment, you have to be content that you've made just enough to pay for a couple of weeks of vacation to taste the freedom outside of a 9-5 job before heading back into the hole. Bitter-Sweet Holidays - How To Become Wealthy As a Software Developer through Active Income? With active income, as the amount you earn is directly tied to the hours you work, there are only a few levers you can pull to become wealthy. Quite simply, if you’re receiving an hourly rate, the more hours you work, the more you get paid. If you pull off incredible hours, the amount you take home will increase. Work more hours - If you’re on an annual salary, if you receive a promotion, you’ll be getting more each year and therefore making more each hour. Get a promotion - By saving a part of your income, you can invest in more stable locations, such as index funds, to slowly build up your wealth. Savings and Investing - If you commit to saving a percentage of your income, rather than an amount, you’ll resist spending more money as you make more money. Resisting Lifestyle Creep - Eventually, you hope to spend long enough on the hamster wheel to justify a senior management position. Perhaps, one day you might receive shares in your employer’s company or that your higher salary outweighs your outgoings sufficiently. Only at this point will you really start to build wealth. It’s a long and hard grind. What is Passive Income? Passive income, as a direct contrast to active income, is any income that is not tied to the hours you put in. For example, if you own a property, each month you’ll gain a rental income. Generally, you don’t have to put in many hours per month to collect this rent, it happens (mostly) passively - hence the name. Some of the most common forms of passive income online are selling digital assets. You can sell these digital assets to many people over and over again. This is what makes it passive, as you make it once and sell it to many. Whole industries have been built on this process, with Software as a Service (SaaS) becoming a common method of paying for software. Think of large scale SaaS platforms like Spotify, Zoom, or Netflix - each take a monthly fee for using their platform. Examples of Passive Income for Software Developers Typically, programmers work in the digital domain, existing in virtual spaces. Due to this, they’re perfectly aligned to create digital products that can be turned into passive income streams. Let’s take a look at some of the most common passive income streams for software developers. Micro SaaS Apps A Micro SaaS App is a piece of software that users will subscribe to on a monthly or annual basis. Micro apps usually solve problems for a specific niche audience, making their users’ lives easier or their businesses run more smoothly. SaaS By , you’ll be able to generate a recurring monthly passive income. That’s because once you’ve put in the initial hours to create the app, you’ll be able to sell the product to many people. Each month you can add new features, support and grow your user base. creating Micro SaaS Apps Critically with Micro SaaS, you are no longer being paid per hour, but rather for the result of your efforts in building a great product. This is the secret to how you can achieve a disproportionate income from the time you invest. For example, this relatively modest looking chrome extension is run by one developer and it nets him a disproportionate $32,000 in monthly passive income recurring revenue! Micro SaaS apps are the best time leveraged model for us software developers to follow to achieve passive income. This leveraging of your time is the true power of the Micro SaaS business model. There are an incredible range of benefits to Micro Saas apps for you to consider and it’s worth contrasting these benefits with the equivalent in the paid per hour world. Themes and Templates If you’re a front-end developer with a great eye for design, you can also create themes and templates such as and . Both of these subsets are heavily in demand, with entrepreneurs needing programmers to create plugins to help their storefront stand out. WordPress themes Shopify templates By creating either a Shopify template or a WordPress theme, you’ll be able to invest a few hours creating and then publishing the design. From there, people can buy your product from the WordPress and Shopify stores, giving you a stream of passive income. The more themes and templates you have available to buy, or the more buyers you have, the larger this passive sum will be. Online Courses/eBooks: Developers have an endless thirst for learning and they’re able to do it anywhere and anytime due to versatile e-learning tools and mobile apps. Opportunities in making paid educational content can be lucrative if you’re well experienced in a particular technology or platform, then you can make money by sharing your knowledge through online courses or e-books. There are platforms like Udemy where your course can be a source of passive income after publishing it. Similarly, creating eBooks and selling on platforms like Amazon are also good opportunities to create a product that can be bought by many people. Benefits of Passive Income As a software developer, you’re creating a digital product that you can, in turn, sell to hundreds or thousands of people. Once you've finished creating the product, the hours you need to put in to maintain the product are minimal in comparison. As people start to buy your product, you’ll receive more money and increase the return on the hours you’ve invested. For example, one of my first Micro SaaS apps was my first ever chrome extension which I built for Merch By Amazon creators. It took me about 10 hours over a weekend to learn about chrome extensions enough to cobble the app together to make it functional. For simplicity’s sake, let’s say it took me 10 hours and I sold it for $10 (although in reality it was $12.99). The number of people that purchase, can drastically alter the return on hours invested: If 1 person bought, my 10 hours would have netted me $10 at a rate of $1/hour If 10 people bought, my 10 hours would have netted me $100 at a rate of $10/hour And if 100 people bought, my 10 hours would have suddenly transformed into $1000 at a rate of $100/hour In my case, it turned out that 246 people bought this simple app, netting me $3,052 at a rate of $305/hour which ain’t too shabby! The power of this income model is in the disproportionate leverage of your time. It can be an exponential form of income, making it the direct opposite of the active relational income. Here are the benefits of passive income for software developers: As your income is no longer constrained by working hours and is instead tied to the success of your product, your income is hugely scalable. Disproportionate income - With the passive income examples I’ve demonstrated, you don’t have a need to be in one location. Without a central office to commute to, you can work from wherever you’d like, giving you location freedom. Location freedom - Not having a specific work routine will allow you to work when you want, giving you complete time freedom. Time freedom - You can create and build passive income streams while also working on your active income, effectively boosting the amount of money you can take home in a year. Supplement Active Income - And that’s just the beginning! Passive income has a huge range of benefits you can begin to reap. Drawbacks of Passive Income Although the benefits of passive income heavily outweigh the drawbacks, it would be wrong to suggest there aren’t any at all. With passive income streams, you’ll likely run into the following challenges: After you’ve put all the hours into building up the stream, there is no guarantee that it will take off. Due to that, you could end up wasting time if one of your endeavors fails. No guarantee - Building your own streams of passive income can be a solitary pursuit. Many people find that they miss the sense of community they can find in more traditional workplaces Isolation - If you’re selling a seasonal digital asset then some months you may make lots of passive income, while some you may make comparatively little. This fluctuation is something you won’t find with active income, through which you’ll have a more clear idea about how much you’re going to make in a certain month. Fluctuations - How to become wealthy with passive income Considering that passive income has no relation between the hours you put in and the amount you make, this allows you to quite literally make money in your sleep. Passive income as a software developer will allow you to escape paid per hour work and begin to make some serious money. Let’s take a look at a roadmap to become wealthy with passive income. For this example, I'll use creating a Micro Saas Application, which is one of the best ways of creating a passive income stream as a software developer. At a high level, the 10 step plan to building a Micro SaaS app is quite straightforward: Find a great niche Identify problems within that niche Generate Micro SaaS app ideas that solve these problems Validate your proposed Micro SaaS app ideas Build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Build up the pre-launch hype Launch! Prepare to Scale Scale Sell/Exit Once you’ve built and scaled your Micro SaaS app, you’ll want to focus on optimising the key SaaS metrics. This will put you in a great position to command the highest possible valuation if you choose to exit for a cash lump sum payment by selling it to investors. Key Takeaways When your income is tied to the number of hours that you work, you’re unlikely to ever become truly wealthy. Considering that , active income is a work scheme that is designed to keep people working until their retirement. 54% of US citizens are living paycheck to paycheck On the flip side, passive income allows you to liberate yourself from hourly work. But, of course, this pathway contains an element of risk. While you may have a successful application or WordPress theme, you could also fail. Failure is part of the process and you must throw both fear of failure and perfectionism out of the window. If you’re interested in creating a passive income stream as a software developer, then is one of the best methods of doing so. What’s more, this is something that you can begin working on in your free time, building it up while still working your 9-5 like I did. creating a Micro SaaS application If you’re in need of inspiration of Micro SaaS ideas then why not check out my Hackernoon article on . 7 Micro SaaS ideas

HackerNoon Tech Stories Archive February 12th, 2023

THE NEW EMPIRES OF THE EUROPEANS IN ASIA AND OVERSEAS

@hgwells
H.G. Wells

Observations concerning the Reflexions and Colours of thick transparent polish'd Plates

@isaacnewton
Isaac Newton

The Fox and the Horse

@grimm
The Brothers Grimm

THE BREMEN TOWN-MUSICIANS

@grimm
The Brothers Grimm

THE NATURE OF LOVE

@hgwells
H.G. Wells

Shutterstock Unleashes the Power of AI With Cutting-Edge Image Generator

@valentineenedah
Valentine Enedah

In Crypto, Businesses Die but the Protocols Persist

@MarkHelfman
Mark Helfman

10 Best Mario Kart Games of All Time Ranked by Sales

@hackernoongaming
Hacker Noon Gaming

10 Best Datasets for Geospatial Analytics (Open and Public Access)

@datasets
Open Datasets Compiled by HackerNoon

Essential Guide to Passive Income & Active Income for Software Developers

@rickblyth
Rick Blyth

HackerNoon Tech Stories Archive February 12th, 2023

@valentineenedahValentine Enedah

@hackernoongamingHacker Noon Gaming

@datasetsOpen Datasets Compiled by HackerNoon

@rickblythRick Blyth

@valentineenedah
Valentine Enedah

@hackernoongaming
Hacker Noon Gaming

@datasets
Open Datasets Compiled by HackerNoon

@rickblyth
Rick Blyth