Get the most recent info and news about Botpress on HackerNoon, where 10k+ technologists publish stories for 4M+ monthly readers.

Botpress is a modern developer stack to build enterprise and open-source chatbots. Learn about our conversational AI platform built for developers.

Botpress

botpress

Boost AI enhances customer support, Botkit is an open-source developer framework, and Botpress offers customization. ChattyPeople serves e-commerce, Freshchat provides AI-driven customer ...

28 Best Chatbot Platforms To Build A Chatbot In 2023 [Complete Guide]

Accelerate your tech game Paid Content How the New Space Race Will Drive Innovation How the metaverse will change the future of work and society Managing the Multicloud The Future of the Internet ...

You can build your own AI chatbot with this drag-and-drop tool

Today, the DevOps approach has emerged as a guiding principle for organizations seeking to streamline processes, enhance collaboration, and accelerate software delivery. At the core of DevOps lies automation, which empowers teams to automate repetitive tasks, minimize human errors, and achieve peak efficiency. However, there's a compelling twist in this narrative: ChatOps. This innovative fusion of communication and automation, tightly integrated into popular platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams, promises to revolutionize the way DevOps teams collaborate and automate their workflows. In this article, we will explore how ChatOps tools can be harnessed to supercharge your DevOps practices, providing insights into the technologies you can employ. What Is ChatOps? ChatOps is not just a buzzword, it is a transformative concept that integrates communication and automation within a team's chat platform. Imagine this platform as a dynamic control center where team members can effortlessly perform tasks, stay updated with notifications, and access vital information without ever leaving the chat. This approach redefines the way your team collaborates by creating a central hub where discussions, decisions, and actions happen in real time. No more switching between various tools or drowning in a sea of emails. Instead, ChatOps brings immediate and collaborative communication to the forefront. But that's not all—ChatOps takes things to the next level by introducing automation. Picture having digital assistants or bots that can execute commands and provide valuable insights right within your chat. These bots are like helpful colleagues always ready to lend a hand, automating routine tasks and providing critical information at a moment's notice. In essence, ChatOps bridges the gap between human interaction and automated processes, resulting in a powerful tool that empowers modern teams. It's a game-changer in DevOps and beyond, boosting efficiency, productivity, and collaboration to new heights. With ChatOps, your team can focus on innovation and strategic initiatives, knowing that routine tasks are handled seamlessly by your digital partners in the chatroom. Benefits of ChatOps in DevOps Let's delve deeper into the practical advantages that ChatOps can bring to your DevOps workflow: Real-time collaboration Imagine a dedicated chat channel where your team members can engage in discussions, share updates, and swiftly troubleshoot issues in real-time. This level of immediate and ongoing communication promotes teamwork, facilitates rapid decision-making, and accelerates issue resolution. Amplified visibility With ChatOps, you can integrate monitoring and logging tools directly into your chat platform.  For instance, you can seamlessly blend powerful tools like Prometheus with Slack. Imagine this as having a dashboard for your infrastructure and applications directly within your chatroom. This integration offers real-time monitoring, alerting you immediately to any issues that require your attention. It's like having a watchful guardian that keeps you informed about the health and performance of your systems, 24/7. This level of enhanced visibility ensures that you're always in the loop about the status of your infrastructure, applications, and deployments. No more guessing or constantly checking different tools - it's all right there in your chat platform, making it easier than ever to keep your systems running smoothly. Streamlined automation Automation is the lifeblood of DevOps, and ChatOps takes automation to new heights. By integrating bots and scripts into your chat environment, you can automate routine tasks and complex workflows effortlessly. For example, you can set up a chatbot to execute deployment scripts, kick-off testing procedures, or even take care of routine server maintenance tasks. This means that your team can spend less time on manual, repetitive chores and more time focusing on innovation and critical problem-solving. Knowledge repository Every conversation, command, and output in a ChatOps environment is meticulously logged, creating a rich repository of knowledge. This searchable history becomes an invaluable resource for troubleshooting, onboarding new team members, and documenting your team's collective wisdom. Implementing ChatOps With Slack and Microsoft Teams Implementing ChatOps with Slack and Microsoft Teams can revolutionize the way your DevOps team works. These platforms provide a robust foundation for collaboration and automation, ultimately enhancing efficiency, communication, and productivity across your organization. With the right integration and customization, your team can reap the benefits of ChatOps while streamlining your DevOps processes. Now, let's learn the practical steps for implementing ChatOps using Slack and Microsoft Teams. 1. Select the Right Tools Begin by choosing the ChatOps platform that aligns with your team's preferences and existing toolset. Slack and Microsoft Teams are two prominent options, each offering a range of integrations and customization features. Slack boasts an intuitive interface and a diverse ecosystem of integrations, making it versatile. Microsoft Teams, on the other hand, seamlessly integrates with Microsoft 365 products and provides a comprehensive collaboration experience. Selecting the right platform involves considering factors such as integration options, user experience, pricing, security, compliance, and scalability. The choice should align with your team's unique needs and preferences. Both platforms can serve as effective central hubs for ChatOps, enhancing collaboration and automation in your DevOps workflow. 2. Integrate Automation Tools Identify the automation tools, scripts, and bots that you want to incorporate into your chat platform. Popular options include versatile frameworks like Hubot and Botpress, as well as customized scripts tailored to your organization's specific needs. These choices impact how effectively you can automate tasks, integrate with other tools, and scale to meet evolving requirements. Consider factors such as user-friendliness, community support, security, compliance, and cost to make informed decisions that align with your team's goals and resources. A well-chosen automation framework is the foundation for streamlining your DevOps processes within a ChatOps environment. 3. Create Dedicated Chat Channels Organize your communication by setting up dedicated chat channels for different aspects of your DevOps workflow. For example, you can create channels for deployment, monitoring, incident management, and more. This compartmentalization helps streamline discussions and actions. 4. Define Commands and Workflows Design and document the commands that your ChatOps bots will respond to. These commands should trigger specific automated actions, making it simple for team members to execute tasks directly within the chat. For instance, you could define a command like "@deploy my_app" to initiate a deployment process. 5. Continuous Monitoring and Improvement Regularly monitor the effectiveness of your ChatOps implementation, and gather feedback from your team members. Use this feedback to refine your automation, improve collaboration, and address any challenges that arise. Examples for Your Understanding To solidify the concept, let's explore some real-world scenarios where ChatOps can make a substantial impact: Streamlined Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) In a CI/CD pipeline, ChatOps can serve as a control center. Developers can issue chat commands to trigger builds, run tests, and deploy code. For instance, a simple "@deploy my_app" command could initiate an automated deployment process, while status updates and notifications are shared in the chat channel. Swift incident response During critical incidents, ChatOps can be a game-changer. Automated alerts and notifications can be configured to send real-time updates to your chat platform. This enables the incident response team to coordinate efforts, share vital information, and resolve issues promptly, all within the chat environment. Effortless infrastructure provisioning ChatOps simplifies infrastructure provisioning by allowing team members to request resources through chat commands. For instance, a command like "@create-server" could trigger an automated process to provision a new server with predefined configurations, eliminating manual intervention. Conclusion In conclusion, ChatOps represents a tangible and valuable approach to enhancing collaboration and automation within DevOps teams. By harnessing platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams and integrating automation scripts and bots, you can optimize your workflows, streamline communication, and boost efficiency. As the DevOps landscape continues to evolve, ChatOps stands as a vital tool to help your team deliver high-quality software at an accelerated pace while maintaining the utmost reliability and stability in your systems. Embrace ChatOps as an integral part of your DevOps journey, and you'll witness firsthand how it transforms your team's productivity and effectiveness.

Enhancing DevOps Efficiency With ChatOps

Meet the Winners of Startups in North and Central America

Artificial Intelligence is not only driving innovation, it's embedding itself deeply into the technology of businesses across the globe. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the intelligence demonstrated by machines and is used to improve the functionality, reaction time, and features of modern technology. AI is used in nearly every sector of business and compliments deep learning, Big Data, and CI/CD. Because AI can be used in so many different ways, it should come as no surprise that it's really a boon for businesses of all sizes. But one use-case that clearly shows the thriving interest in AI is the chatbot. Countless companies contact to learn more about the benefits of having a chatbot, so we thought to write this article to help you decide whether you’d benefit from developing your own chatbot. BairesDev What Is A Chatbot? Simply put, , using natural language, via messaging services, mobile applications, or even a phone conversation. Chatbots serve by answering questions, using Natural Language Processing (NLP). a chatbot is an artificial intelligence that can simulate a conversation There are three types of chatbots: are those where a chatbot asks questions and requires users to make selections. The chatbot then analyzes the answers to form a reply. Rule-based chatbots use Machine Learning (ML) to learn from user input to form replies. Intellectually independent chatbots combine rule-based and intellectually independent methods such that they can understand natural human language and use a predefined flow to help form responses. AI-powered chatbots Once a chatbot has enough input, it can then return an answer, which might consist of: A generic response, based on predefined text. Information gathered from a knowledge base. Contextualized information, drawn from user input. Data from a third-party system. A follow-up question to gather more data. How a chatbot works depends upon which one you employ. Regardless of the system you choose, a chatbot can help expand your business needs. So if you're a retail empire, a QA testing service, or even a small business, you can benefit from a chatbot. But how? Let's take a look at why your company might need a chatbot (and what options are available for you). Why You Need A Chatbot The reasons why your business could benefit from a chatbot are plenty. One of the most obvious benefits to be had from a chatbot is to make it easier for clients and customers to find information about your products or services. Questions answered immediately By employing a chatbot, users can visit your website, ask questions, and receive answers immediately. There's no need to make a phone call and be placed on hold, send an email and wait for an answer, or wait in line for the next available assistant to chat with. A chatbot doesn't have a queue and can be called upon immediately. That's the type of service consumers want—instant. We live in an always-on, 24/7/365 world and the idea of waiting for answers is one sure way to send consumers heading to your competition. Building trust Having that chatbot always ready to answer questions helps to build trust between consumers and your business. When a consumer knows they can trust you to immediately answer their questions, it builds a very important bond. Even if the consumer knows they're being answered by a chatbot, so long as their query was sufficiently answered, they're good to go. Scalability with cost-effectiveness Chatbots are also a great way to scale your business, by adding a service capable of handling far more users than an employee can take on. Chatbots are capable of determining an answer to a question far faster than a human. So not only are they able to take on more questions at once, they do so more efficiently. Normally, when you need to scale, you hire more staff. That can get costly. A chatbot can scale at cost-effectiveness that humans cannot deliver. Younger audience Millennials are a very different bread. They are the most technically-inclined generation to date. They not only know technology, they excel and flourish with it. This generation also has a deep aversion to actually speaking on the phone. If your only option for customer service is a phone call, you'll lose them quickly. If you want to attract this generation, you need to turn to technology that gives them immediate answers to their questions and make it such that it's always available, otherwise they'll turn to another company. What are your options? Fortunately, you have a lot of options available. Here's a shortlist of chatbots you can employ. makes it possible to integrate a chatbot into your existing website, Facebook pages, and messaging apps. With Botsify you can create multiple chatbots for dedicated customer support and even include the ability to easily switch from the chatbot to human support. Botsify is a support chatbot with the goal of converting website visitors to customers by engaging them in natural conversation. With a simple drag and drop tool, you can add relevant questions and customizations. The Collect.chat bot can be installed using HTML code, a WordPress plugin, or landing page links. You will also get instant email notifications, a user-friendly dashboard, and various integrations. Collect.chat includes an integrated AI functionality that not only gets to know your customers but your business as well. The more it is used, the more intelligent it gets because it's driven by AI. Drift not only can serve as a support bot but can also automatically book meetings. Drift promises it only takes their chatbot 3 seconds or less to answer queries from customers and the response rate is 95% correct. 42Chat has its own conversation design engine that has already responded to millions of questions, so you can be sure it can be trusted with your customers and clients. 42Chat offers an open-source version of their chatbot that includes an NLU engine, an admin dashboard, a visual flow editor, a chat emulator, and support for multiple messaging channels. Botpress is specific to the insurance industry and is empowered to help consumers get the answers they need. With this tool, you'll get faster on-boarding, easier claims processing, and in-depth interaction analysis. Shade.ai Conclusion Of course, there are a vast number of options available for you to try. If you don't find one that perfectly fits your needs, you can always turn to either your in-house developers or use a third-party development service to help bring the consumer/customer interaction of your QA outsourcing, retail, manufacturing, or service industry into the 21st century. Find a chatbot that works for your company and rest assured your customers’ and clients’ questions and concerns are being addressed with an immediacy you might not have been able to meet otherwise.

Here's Why You Need A Chatbot (With A Shortlist Of Recommended Bots)

The world’s most independent tech publication, —where hackers start their afternoons, just partnered with to present : The Tech Industry's Greenest Awards. Hacker Noon Stream.io the inaugural Noonies 2019 "The Noonies! It’s time to vote on what matters in tech. Year after year these will serve as the definitive, international and somewhat democratic acknowledgement of all the best and worst people and/or products in technology today," someone overheard CEO David Smooke saying in an All-Hands meeting on Zoom recently. Divided across Hacker Noon’s three editorial categories— , , and , the first annual #Noonies aims to be a public recognition of both the contributing writers, community members, and readers who make Hacker Noon the best place for tech professionals to publish; as well as a great forum for all of us to up and/or downvote the brands, products and apps we use to build things every day. General Technology Crypto and Blockchain Software Development Scroll down for the full list of 50 # awards and 300+ nominees > to upvote your favourites! Noonies click through You can until August 16th, so go ahead and set a reminder to exercise your daily right to declare the best and worst of the world's technology industry. VOTE EVERY DAY FROM TODAY For the first week of voting, public award nominations remain open. Please note, your custom nominations are subject to review before being added. All Noonies 2019 Award Winners will be announced on August 21st. — #NOONIES 2019 GENERAL TECH AWARD NOMINEES Best Tech News Source Twitter Hacker News Reddit Developer News (freeCodeCamp) WIRED TechCrunch MIT Technology Review Product Hunt TechLoaf recode TLDR The World's Most Productive Remote Team GitLab InVision Basecamp Doist Automattic Buffer Zapier Knack Harvest Niteo Best Use of Tech for Good UpEffect CYCLE.LAND Nexus Labs Ethical Angel CryptoCare GIVALYTICS Kindred The Bait & Switch Award Medium's Paywall Upwork Apple's Butterfly Switch Keyboards Facebook's Libra Most Exciting Startup She.VC Everipedia Superhuman Food Alliance Hacker of the Year Pedro Lima Arthur Tkachenko Nirav Thomas galyna Mister Fahrenheit Betty Product Manager of the Year Lenny Rachitsky Marija Cvjetkovic Suketu Patel Vindhya C Abhishek Sharma John Cutler Dan Fedirko Josh Ben-David Claudio Cossio Alex Mitchell Antonio van der Weel Pramod Chandrayan Nancy Wang Timoté Geimer Momčilo Dakić Contributing Writer of the Year Cassie Kozyrkov Andreas Sandre Arthur Tkachenko Aditi Bhatnagar sudhanshu kumar Noam Levenson Technology Writer of the Year Ashan Fernando Arthur Tkachenko James Dargan Riz Virk Amanda Woo Chris Herd Chris Castiglione AI Writer of the Year Daniel Jeffries Akash Deep Tony Aubé Adrien Book Matt Swayne Cassie Kozyrkov Shreya Amin Most Over-Hyped Technology AI Docker GraphQL Meteor Cybersecurity Writer of the Year Han Yoon Mark Nadal Daniel Jeffries Alice Henshaw Drew Rossow Aaron Gershwin Best AMA (ask-me-anything) award Carlos Domingo Muneeb Ali Taylor Monahan Jean-Loïck Michaux (JLO) Jeff Atwood Courtland Allen Alicia Ferratusco Mike Kalomeni Paul Foley Shamir Karkal Richard Garcia & Michael Ambrosino Erik Zhang Social Network of the Year Twitter Instagram (by Facebook) Reddit Youtube WhatsApp (by Facebook) QQ Qzone Facebook Pinterest Messenger (by Facebook) WeChat AllSocial Cake Strava Most Valuable Chatbot Framework Watson Assistant Rasa Chatbots by PubNub Vergic Bold360 (by LogMeIn) Microsoft Bot Framework Wit.AI Rulai LivePerson Dialogflow (by Google) PandoraBots Botpress BotKit ChatterBot Messenger API (by Facebook) Enterprise Chatbot by Inbenta Ada 20 Under 20 Awards [ ] open nominations! White Hat of the Year [ ] open nominations! 60 Over 60 Awards [ ] open nominations! — #NOONIES 2019 CRYPTO / BLOCKCHAIN AWARD NOMINEES Most Hardcore Bitcoin Maximalist Hodlonaut Pierre Rochard Trace Mayer Francis Pouliot Jimmy Song Adam Back Giacomo Zucco Beautyon Tuur Demeester Vortex Adam Meister Tone Vays Gabriel D Vine Most crypto-friendly Jurisdiction Award Malta I'm an Institutional Investor. Jurisdictions are an artificial construct, Man. The Zug, Switzerland Estonia Belarus Crypto-Name Drop of the Year Eminem's Kamikaze Album Silicon Valley's story arc Forbes' coverage of Bitcoin Second-Best Crypto Publication on Earth John McAfee's Twitter Feed cointelegraph Coindesk CCN Tokenpost Crypto-Buzzword of the Year Bitcoin Maximalist DeFi Buidl Crypto-Winter Defining Crypto-Moment of the Year Facebook Announces Libra Binance gets Hacked CCN blames Google and has a shutdown scare Crypto-Exchanges start conducting 10+ IEOs daily Crypto-Dud of the Year Civil Sparkster The All-About-PR Award VeID aELF Best Blockchain Award Bitcoin Ethereum EOS Stellar* NEO ZCash Monero Blockchain of the Year Award Bitcoin Ethereum Monero EOS ZCash NEO Stellar* Hyperledger Variants The best crypto magazine Cointelegraph Coindesk CryptoCoinNews CryptoSlate Best crypto analysts Muhrad Mahmudov Willy woo Plan B Tone Vays The Zero Factor Authentication Award for Achievement un Security MountGox Bitfinex Poloniex Binance Best Crypto Rap Song EDCON 2019 - Vitalik Rap Bitcoin Rap Gucci Gang - HODL Gang I am still on Coinbase - CoinDaddy Team Hodl - Lambo Land The best bitcoin Shiller Anthony Pompliano John McAffee (Good Old John) Jack Dorsey Mark Zuckenberg (with Libra) Bryan Kelly (CNBC) Donald Trump The Cutest Crypto Kitty Lilbubthemagicalspacecat SirMeowsalot Felono The Best White Paper Bitcoin Ethereum Stellar EOS Blockstack Most Mind-blowing Bitcoin Story "Bitcoin’s Biggest Hack In History: 184.4 Billion Bitcoin from Thin Air; Satoshi Hard Forks, Saves Bitcoin," by Charlie Shrem "Why the Price of Bitcoin Doesn't Matter," by Beautyon "What Will Bitcoin Look Like in Twenty Years?" by Dan Jeffries "Bitcoin Miners Beware: Invalid Blocks Need Not Apply," by StopAndDecrypt "The Great Bitcoin Scaling Debate — A Timeline," by Daniel Morgan "Why Bitcoin is not trustless" by Haseeb Qureshi #CryptoTwitter's MVP @hodlonaut @BullyEsq @aantonop PeterMcCormack CryptoCobain @PirateBeachbum @VitalikButerin @TimDraper @haydentiff @iam_preethi @muneeb @brian_armstrong The Shitcoin Award [ ] open nominations! —SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT AWARDS NOMINEES #NOONIES 2019 Developer Tool Buzz of Year GraphQL React Hooks GatsbyJS Zeit Nuxt.js Prisma Next.js Apollo CMS You Can't Live Without Wordpress Netlify CMS Ghost Squarespace Wix Medium Strikingly Weebly Joomla TYPO3 Personal Developer Blog of the Year Overreacted David Walsh Coding Horror Daring Fireball (John Gruber) Paul Jarvis Best Developer on Twitter @dan_abramov @iamdevloper @mxstbr (Max Stoiber) @addyosmani @mpjme (FunFunFunction) @jensimmons @jasonfried @codinghorror (Jeff Atwood) @no_fear_inc Best JAMstack React Serverless Framework Smashing Magazine freecodecamp.org Lodash SEOmonitor Impossible Foods NYC Pride 2019 The State of European Tech Airbnb Engineering & Data Science Stream Best Dev Podcast Syntax.fm Developer Tea The Laracasts Snippets The Changelog Shop Talk Show The Bike Shed The Undefined Podcast Top Dev Teacher Wes Bos Scott Tolinski Brian Holt Maximilian Schwarzmüller Kyle Simpson (YDKJS) Jeffrey Way Will Sentance Sarah Drasner Brad Traversy Kent Dodds Tyler McGinnis Dan Abramov Gregg Pollack Nick Pettit Bianca Gandolfo Shirley Wu Todd Motto Ben Awad Best Open Source Project VS Code React Vue.js Styled Components npm Tensorflow Font Awesome Kubernetes Atom Webpack faceswap Best Dev Community Github Dev.to Freecodecamp Stack Overflow Hacker News Product Hunt WIP Stack Share Best Open Startup Nomadlist Gumroad Ghost Insomnia Convertkit Baremetrics Hubstaff Upscribe Simple Analytics Notable No-Code App Tim Ferriss Dreamline Calculator Freelance Calculator Seedform Most Promising Fintech Braintree Acorns GoCardless n26 Robinhood Revolut Razorpay You can until August 16th, so go ahead and set a reminder to exercise your daily right to declare the best and worst of the world's technology industry. The winners will be announced on August 21st. VOTE EVERY DAY FROM TODAY The Noonies are made possible by Stream . Stream’s simple, powerful APIs for scalable feeds and chat are used by some of the largest and most popular apps.

Hacker Noon Awards: #Noonies 2019—Full Nominees List

A scale-up business is more often than not beset with several challenges. From knowing exactly how fast to go, so as not to get the company in a pickle and not erring so much on the side of caution as to lose traction and miss critical opportunity, scaling up ensures that John the man in the driver’s seat has his task cut out for him. Upscaling disrupts the status quo in myriad ways. John will likely have to reconfigure processes pertaining to sales, finance and management information systems. Add to that the fact that most people are resistant to change and it becomes quite challenging for someone like John to inculcate the company culture created by a hundred people in people five times the number. It is therefore important that decisions pertaining to recruitment and possible retrenchment are taken appropriately. Perhaps even more critical is putting in place the right management structure to manage the change. However skilled and proficient John may have been in running a business at a certain scale, the decision to scale up means that he will now operate in unchartered territory, where he necessarily has to follow a learning curve to become truly proficient at operating at an enhanced scale. The critical part though is that he may not have the luxury of time. It makes eminent sense for him to seek assistance from a business mentor. Such a person will prove an invaluable asset to John. Their professional expertise, years of experience and insight would help buttress John’s business against the shocks that are often the result of any restructuring that are inevitably the result of any scaling up carried out by a business. As a matter of fact, there are many direct tangible benefits that accrue from having a mentor guide the growth phase of any company. These are enumerated below- Saving Time- There is no point in reinventing the wheel. Your mentor is someone who has been there and has done that. Such a person can hand-hold John and guide him in carrying out the course correction required for scaling up, saving him valuable time in the process. There is always a critical period within which any scaling-up process needs to be carried out. While John cannot afford to miss the bus, he also cannot afford to make a mistake. That is why having a mentor by his side will be the best course of action for John to adopt.


Saving Money- This flows from the first point. Having a mentor guide him will ensure that John hits the ground running and does not waste any time trying to learn the nitty gritty of scaled-up processes. This will enable him to commence delivery in double quick time, enabling him to optimally leverage the advantages of scaling up. The savings in terms of opportunity cost on account of the mentor helping considerably shorten the lead time to come to speed will be immense.


Gaining Good Experience- While John may eventually complete the scaling-up process on his own, not having access to a mentor’s tremendous experience would mean that he would likely make many mistakes and his learning curve would be far from satisfactory. Working with a mentor with a wealth of experience would mean that John would not only have access to that but would be able to build upon that. This would do wonders for his personal growth and ability to understand the intricate nuances of the scaling up something he would not be able to achieve on his own or take years to accomplish.


Gaining Access To Mentor’s Network- While John would have access to his network of people beneficial to his business, it would probably not be up to scratch on the scaled-up level of business. These will have to be a whole new set of people operating in another universe altogether. Having a mentor on board means that John can now have unimpeded access to their assiduously built up network of contacts that would prove extremely beneficial to John’s business. A scale-up business is more often than not beset with several challenges. From knowing exactly how fast to go, so as not to get the company in a pickle and not erring so much on the side of caution as to lose traction and miss critical opportunity, scaling up ensures that John the man in the driver’s seat has his task cut out for him. Upscaling disrupts the status quo in myriad ways. John will likely have to reconfigure processes pertaining to sales, finance and management information systems. Add to that the fact that most people are resistant to change and it becomes quite challenging for someone like John to inculcate the company culture created by a hundred people in people five times the number. It is therefore important that decisions pertaining to recruitment and possible retrenchment are taken appropriately. Perhaps even more critical is putting in place the right management structure to manage the change. However skilled and proficient John may have been in running a business at a certain scale, the decision to scale up means that he will now operate in unchartered territory, where he necessarily has to follow a learning curve to become truly proficient at operating at an enhanced scale. The critical part though is that he may not have the luxury of time. It makes eminent sense for him to seek assistance from a business mentor. Such a person will prove an invaluable asset to John. Their professional expertise, years of experience and insight would help buttress John’s business against the shocks that are often the result of any restructuring that are inevitably the result of any scaling up carried out by a business. As a matter of fact, there are many direct tangible benefits that accrue from having a mentor guide the growth phase of any company. These are enumerated below- These are enumerated below- Saving Time- There is no point in reinventing the wheel. Your mentor is someone who has been there and has done that. Such a person can hand-hold John and guide him in carrying out the course correction required for scaling up, saving him valuable time in the process. There is always a critical period within which any scaling-up process needs to be carried out. While John cannot afford to miss the bus, he also cannot afford to make a mistake. That is why having a mentor by his side will be the best course of action for John to adopt. Saving Money- This flows from the first point. Having a mentor guide him will ensure that John hits the ground running and does not waste any time trying to learn the nitty gritty of scaled-up processes. This will enable him to commence delivery in double quick time, enabling him to optimally leverage the advantages of scaling up. The savings in terms of opportunity cost on account of the mentor helping considerably shorten the lead time to come to speed will be immense. Gaining Good Experience- While John may eventually complete the scaling-up process on his own, not having access to a mentor’s tremendous experience would mean that he would likely make many mistakes and his learning curve would be far from satisfactory. Working with a mentor with a wealth of experience would mean that John would not only have access to that but would be able to build upon that. This would do wonders for his personal growth and ability to understand the intricate nuances of the scaling up something he would not be able to achieve on his own or take years to accomplish. Gaining Access To Mentor’s Network- While John would have access to his network of people beneficial to his business, it would probably not be up to scratch on the scaled-up level of business. These will have to be a whole new set of people operating in another universe altogether. Having a mentor on board means that John can now have unimpeded access to their assiduously built up network of contacts that would prove extremely beneficial to John’s business. Saving Time- There is no point in reinventing the wheel. Your mentor is someone who has been there and has done that. Such a person can hand-hold John and guide him in carrying out the course correction required for scaling up, saving him valuable time in the process. There is always a critical period within which any scaling-up process needs to be carried out. While John cannot afford to miss the bus, he also cannot afford to make a mistake. That is why having a mentor by his side will be the best course of action for John to adopt. Saving Time - There is no point in reinventing the wheel. Your mentor is someone who has been there and has done that. Such a person can hand-hold John and guide him in carrying out the course correction required for scaling up, saving him valuable time in the process. There is always a critical period within which any scaling-up process needs to be carried out. While John cannot afford to miss the bus, he also cannot afford to make a mistake. That is why having a mentor by his side will be the best course of action for John to adopt. Saving Time Saving Money- This flows from the first point. Having a mentor guide him will ensure that John hits the ground running and does not waste any time trying to learn the nitty gritty of scaled-up processes. This will enable him to commence delivery in double quick time, enabling him to optimally leverage the advantages of scaling up. The savings in terms of opportunity cost on account of the mentor helping considerably shorten the lead time to come to speed will be immense. Saving Money - This flows from the first point. Having a mentor guide him will ensure that John hits the ground running and does not waste any time trying to learn the nitty gritty of scaled-up processes. This will enable him to commence delivery in double quick time, enabling him to optimally leverage the advantages of scaling up. The savings in terms of opportunity cost on account of the mentor helping considerably shorten the lead time to come to speed will be immense. Saving Money Gaining Good Experience- While John may eventually complete the scaling-up process on his own, not having access to a mentor’s tremendous experience would mean that he would likely make many mistakes and his learning curve would be far from satisfactory. Working with a mentor with a wealth of experience would mean that John would not only have access to that but would be able to build upon that. This would do wonders for his personal growth and ability to understand the intricate nuances of the scaling up something he would not be able to achieve on his own or take years to accomplish. Gaining Good Experience - While John may eventually complete the scaling-up process on his own, not having access to a mentor’s tremendous experience would mean that he would likely make many mistakes and his learning curve would be far from satisfactory. Working with a mentor with a wealth of experience would mean that John would not only have access to that but would be able to build upon that. This would do wonders for his personal growth and ability to understand the intricate nuances of the scaling up something he would not be able to achieve on his own or take years to accomplish. Gaining Good Experience Gaining Access To Mentor’s Network- While John would have access to his network of people beneficial to his business, it would probably not be up to scratch on the scaled-up level of business. These will have to be a whole new set of people operating in another universe altogether. Having a mentor on board means that John can now have unimpeded access to their assiduously built up network of contacts that would prove extremely beneficial to John’s business. Gaining Access To Mentor’s Network - While John would have access to his network of people beneficial to his business, it would probably not be up to scratch on the scaled-up level of business. These will have to be a whole new set of people operating in another universe altogether. Having a mentor on board means that John can now have unimpeded access to their assiduously built up network of contacts that would prove extremely beneficial to John’s business. Gaining Access To Mentor’s Network

The Crucial Role of Mentors in Scale-up Businesses

Microsoft v. United States (2016) Court Filing, retrieved on July 14, 2016, is part of . You can jump to any part in this filing . This part is 16 of 22. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here 2. Other Aspects of the Statute In addition to the text’s plain meaning, other aspects of the statute confirm its focus on privacy. As we have noted, the first three sections of the SCA contain its major substantive provisions. These sections recognize that users of electronic communications and remote computing services hold a privacy interest in their stored electronic communications.  In particular, § 2701(a) makes it unlawful to “intentionally access[] without authorization,” or “intentionally exceed[] an authorization to access,” a “facility through which an electronic communication service is provided” and “thereby obtain[], alter[], or prevent[] authorized access to a wire or electronic communication while it is in electronic storage.” Contrary to the government’s contention, this section does more than merely protect against the disclosure of information by third parties. By prohibiting the alteration or blocking of access to stored communications, this section also shelters the communications’ integrity. Section 2701 thus protects the privacy interests of users in many aspects of their stored communications from intrusion by unauthorized third parties. Section 2702 generally prohibits providers from “knowingly divulg[ing]” the “contents” of a communication that is in electronic storage subject to certain enumerated exceptions. 18 U.S.C. § 2702(a). Sections 2701 and 2702 are linked by their parallel protections for communications that are in electronic storage. Section 2703 governs the circumstances in which information associated with stored communications may be disclosed to the government, creating the elaborate hierarchy of privacy protections that we have described. From this statutory framework we find further reason to conclude that the SCA’s focus lies primarily on the need to protect users’ privacy interests. The primary obligations created by the SCA protect the electronic communications. Disclosure is permitted only as an exception to those primary obligations and is subject to conditions imposed in § 2703. Had the Act instead created, for example, a rebuttable presumption of law enforcement access to content premised on a minimal showing of legitimate interest, the government’s argument that the Act’s focus is on aiding law enforcement and disclosure would be stronger. Cf. Morrison, 561 U.S. at 267.  But this is not what the Act does. The SCA’s procedural provisions further support our conclusion that the Act focuses on user privacy. As noted above, the SCA expressly adopts the procedures set forth in the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. 18 U.S.C. § 2703(a), (b)(1)(A). Rule 41, which governs the issuance of warrants, reflects the historical understanding of a warrant as an instrument protective of the citizenry’s privacy.  See Fed. R. Crim. P. 41. Further, the Act provides criminal penalties for breaches of those privacy interests and creates civil remedies for individuals aggrieved by a breach of their privacy that violates the Act. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 2701, 2707. These all buttress our sense of the Act’s focus. We find unpersuasive the government’s argument, alluded to above, that the SCA’s warrant provisions must be read to focus on “disclosure” rather than privacy because the SCA permits the government to obtain by mere subpoena the content of e‐mails that have been held in ECS storage for more than 180 days. Gov’t Br. at 28–29; see 18 U.S.C. § 2703(a). In this vein, the government submits that reading the SCA’s warrant provisions to focus on the privacy of stored communications instead of disclosure would anomalously place newer e‐mail content stored on foreign servers “beyond the reach of the statute entirely,” while older e‐mail content stored on foreign servers could be obtained simply by subpoena, if notice is given to the user.  Gov’t Br. at 29. This argument assumes, however, that a subpoena issued to Microsoft under the SCA’s subpoena provisions would reach a user’s e‐mail content stored on foreign servers. Although our Court’s precedent regarding the foreign reach of subpoenas (and Marc Rich in particular) might suggest this result, the protections rightly accorded user content in the face of an SCA subpoena have yet to be delineated. Today, we need not determine the reach of the SCA’s subpoena provisions, because we are faced here only with the lawful reach of an SCA warrant. Certainly, the service provider’s role in relation to a customer’s content supports the idea that persuasive distinctions might be drawn between it and other categories of subpoena recipients. See supra note 23. In light of the plain meaning of the statutory language and the characteristics of other aspects of the statute, we conclude that its privacy focus is unmistakable. Continue Reading . Here About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case No. 15–777 retrieved on September 27, 2023, from is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. cases.justia.com

The Stored Communications Act's Focus is on User Privacy

I found that an order had already gone forth for the army to proceed immediately towards Constantino

Build Your Own Chatbot For An Enhanced DevOps Experience

ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF HOUSES.

DRIFTING INTO DANGER.

The Fortresses

The Warden by Anthony Trollope, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . Hiram's Hospital here Hiram's Hospital The Rev. Septimus Harding was, a few years since, a beneficed clergyman residing in the cathedral town of ––––; let us call it Barchester. Were we to name Wells or Salisbury, Exeter, Hereford, or Gloucester, it might be presumed that something personal was intended; and as this tale will refer mainly to the cathedral dignitaries of the town in question, we are anxious that no personality may be suspected. Let us presume that Barchester is a quiet town in the West of England, more remarkable for the beauty of its cathedral and the antiquity of its monuments than for any commercial prosperity; that the west end of Barchester is the cathedral close, and that the aristocracy of Barchester are the bishop, dean, and canons, with their respective wives and daughters. Early in life Mr Harding found himself located at Barchester. A fine voice and a taste for sacred music had decided the position in which he was to exercise his calling, and for many years he performed the easy but not highly paid duties of a minor canon. At the age of forty a small living in the close vicinity of the town increased both his work and his income, and at the age of fifty he became precentor of the cathedral. Mr Harding had married early in life, and was the father of two daughters. The eldest, Susan, was born soon after his marriage; the other, Eleanor, not till ten years later. At the time at which we introduce him to our readers he was living as precentor at Barchester with his youngest daughter, then twenty-four years of age; having been many years a widower, and having married his eldest daughter to a son of the bishop a very short time before his installation to the office of precentor. Scandal at Barchester affirmed that had it not been for the beauty of his daughter, Mr Harding would have remained a minor canon; but here probably Scandal lied, as she so often does; for even as a minor canon no one had been more popular among his reverend brethren in the close than Mr Harding; and Scandal, before she had reprobated Mr Harding for being made precentor by his friend the bishop, had loudly blamed the bishop for having so long omitted to do something for his friend Mr Harding. Be this as it may, Susan Harding, some twelve years since, had married the Rev. Dr Theophilus Grantly, son of the bishop, archdeacon of Barchester, and rector of Plumstead Episcopi, and her father became, a few months later, precentor of Barchester Cathedral, that office being, as is not unusual, in the bishop's gift. Now there are peculiar circumstances connected with the precentorship which must be explained. In the year 1434 there died at Barchester one John Hiram, who had made money in the town as a wool-stapler, and in his will he left the house in which he died and certain meadows and closes near the town, still called Hiram's Butts, and Hiram's Patch, for the support of twelve superannuated wool-carders, all of whom should have been born and bred and spent their days in Barchester; he also appointed that an alms-house should be built for their abode, with a fitting residence for a warden, which warden was also to receive a certain sum annually out of the rents of the said butts and patches. He, moreover, willed, having had a soul alive to harmony, that the precentor of the cathedral should have the option of being also warden of the almshouses, if the bishop in each case approved. From that day to this the charity had gone on and prospered—at least, the charity had gone on, and the estates had prospered. Wool-carding in Barchester there was no longer any; so the bishop, dean, and warden, who took it in turn to put in the old men, generally appointed some hangers-on of their own; worn-out gardeners, decrepit grave-diggers, or octogenarian sextons, who thankfully received a comfortable lodging and one shilling and fourpence a day, such being the stipend to which, under the will of John Hiram, they were declared to be entitled. Formerly, indeed,—that is, till within some fifty years of the present time,—they received but sixpence a day, and their breakfast and dinner was found them at a common table by the warden, such an arrangement being in stricter conformity with the absolute wording of old Hiram's will: but this was thought to be inconvenient, and to suit the tastes of neither warden nor bedesmen, and the daily one shilling and fourpence was substituted with the common consent of all parties, including the bishop and the corporation of Barchester. Such was the condition of Hiram's twelve old men when Mr Harding was appointed warden; but if they may be considered as well-to-do in the world according to their condition, the happy warden was much more so. The patches and butts which, in John Hiram's time, produced hay or fed cows, were now covered with rows of houses; the value of the property had gradually increased from year to year and century to century, and was now presumed by those who knew anything about it, to bring in a very nice income; and by some who knew nothing about it, to have increased to an almost fabulous extent. The property was farmed by a gentleman in Barchester, who also acted as the bishop's steward,—a man whose father and grandfather had been stewards to the bishops of Barchester, and farmers of John Hiram's estate. The Chadwicks had earned a good name in Barchester; they had lived respected by bishops, deans, canons, and precentors; they had been buried in the precincts of the cathedral; they had never been known as griping, hard men, but had always lived comfortably, maintained a good house, and held a high position in Barchester society. The present Mr Chadwick was a worthy scion of a worthy stock, and the tenants living on the butts and patches, as well as those on the wide episcopal domains of the see, were well pleased to have to do with so worthy and liberal a steward. For many, many years,—records hardly tell how many, probably from the time when Hiram's wishes had been first fully carried out,—the proceeds of the estate had been paid by the steward or farmer to the warden, and by him divided among the bedesmen; after which division he paid himself such sums as became his due. Times had been when the poor warden got nothing but his bare house, for the patches had been subject to floods, and the land of Barchester butts was said to be unproductive; and in these hard times the warden was hardly able to make out the daily dole for his twelve dependents. But by degrees things mended; the patches were drained, and cottages began to rise upon the butts, and the wardens, with fairness enough, repaid themselves for the evil days gone by. In bad times the poor men had had their due, and therefore in good times they could expect no more. In this manner the income of the warden had increased; the picturesque house attached to the hospital had been enlarged and adorned, and the office had become one of the most coveted of the snug clerical sinecures attached to our church. It was now wholly in the bishop's gift, and though the dean and chapter, in former days, made a stand on the subject, they had thought it more conducive to their honour to have a rich precentor appointed by the bishop, than a poor one appointed by themselves. The stipend of the precentor of Barchester was eighty pounds a year. The income arising from the wardenship of the hospital was eight hundred, besides the value of the house. Murmurs, very slight murmurs, had been heard in Barchester,—few indeed, and far between,—that the proceeds of John Hiram's property had not been fairly divided: but they can hardly be said to have been of such a nature as to have caused uneasiness to anyone: still the thing had been whispered, and Mr Harding had heard it. Such was his character in Barchester, so universal was his popularity, that the very fact of his appointment would have quieted louder whispers than those which had been heard; but Mr Harding was an open-handed, just-minded man, and feeling that there might be truth in what had been said, he had, on his instalment, declared his intention of adding twopence a day to each man's pittance, making a sum of sixty-two pounds eleven shillings and fourpence, which he was to pay out of his own pocket. In doing so, however, he distinctly and repeatedly observed to the men, that though he promised for himself, he could not promise for his successors, and that the extra twopence could only be looked on as a gift from himself, and not from the trust. The bedesmen, however, were most of them older than Mr Harding, and were quite satisfied with the security on which their extra income was based. This munificence on the part of Mr Harding had not been unopposed. Mr Chadwick had mildly but seriously dissuaded him from it; and his strong-minded son-in-law, the archdeacon, the man of whom alone Mr Harding stood in awe, had urgently, nay, vehemently, opposed so impolitic a concession: but the warden had made known his intention to the hospital before the archdeacon had been able to interfere, and the deed was done. Hiram's Hospital, as the retreat is called, is a picturesque building enough, and shows the correct taste with which the ecclesiastical architects of those days were imbued. It stands on the banks of the little river, which flows nearly round the cathedral close, being on the side furthest from the town. The London road crosses the river by a pretty one-arched bridge, and, looking from this bridge, the stranger will see the windows of the old men's rooms, each pair of windows separated by a small buttress. A broad gravel walk runs between the building and the river, which is always trim and cared for; and at the end of the walk, under the parapet of the approach to the bridge, is a large and well-worn seat, on which, in mild weather, three or four of Hiram's bedesmen are sure to be seen seated. Beyond this row of buttresses, and further from the bridge, and also further from the water which here suddenly bends, are the pretty oriel windows of Mr Harding's house, and his well-mown lawn. The entrance to the hospital is from the London road, and is made through a ponderous gateway under a heavy stone arch, unnecessary, one would suppose, at any time, for the protection of twelve old men, but greatly conducive to the good appearance of Hiram's charity. On passing through this portal, never closed to anyone from 6 a.m. till 10 p.m., and never open afterwards, except on application to a huge, intricately hung mediæval bell, the handle of which no uninitiated intruder can possibly find, the six doors of the old men's abodes are seen, and beyond them is a slight iron screen, through which the more happy portion of the Barchester elite pass into the Elysium of Mr Harding's dwelling. Mr Harding is a small man, now verging on sixty years, but bearing few of the signs of age; his hair is rather grizzled, though not gray; his eye is very mild, but clear and bright, though the double glasses which are held swinging from his hand, unless when fixed upon his nose, show that time has told upon his sight; his hands are delicately white, and both hands and feet are small; he always wears a black frock coat, black knee-breeches, and black gaiters, and somewhat scandalises some of his more hyperclerical brethren by a black neck-handkerchief. Mr Harding's warmest admirers cannot say that he was ever an industrious man; the circumstances of his life have not called on him to be so; and yet he can hardly be called an idler. Since his appointment to his precentorship, he has published, with all possible additions of vellum, typography, and gilding, a collection of our ancient church music, with some correct dissertations on Purcell, Crotch, and Nares. He has greatly improved the choir of Barchester, which, under his dominion, now rivals that of any cathedral in England. He has taken something more than his fair share in the cathedral services, and has played the violoncello daily to such audiences as he could collect, or, faute de mieux, to no audience at all. We must mention one other peculiarity of Mr Harding. As we have before stated, he has an income of eight hundred a year, and has no family but his one daughter; and yet he is never quite at ease in money matters. The vellum and gilding of "Harding's Church Music" cost more than any one knows, except the author, the publisher, and the Rev. Theophilus Grantly, who allows none of his father-in-law's extravagances to escape him. Then he is generous to his daughter, for whose service he keeps a small carriage and pair of ponies. He is, indeed, generous to all, but especially to the twelve old men who are in a peculiar manner under his care. No doubt with such an income Mr Harding should be above the world, as the saying is; but, at any rate, he is not above Archdeacon Theophilus Grantly, for he is always more or less in debt to his son-in-law, who has, to a certain extent, assumed the arrangement of the precentor's pecuniary affairs. 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. Anthony Trollope (1996). The Warden. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/619/pg619-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 , located at www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html.

Hiram's Hospital

In 2023, WordPress stands tall as the leading content management system, powering an impressive . However, the tech community often debates its relevance and efficiency for modern business websites. 43% of global websites In this article, we delve into the strengths and limitations of WordPress, explore the reasons behind businesses opting for or against WordPress, and provide insights from our experience in offering PHP development solutions for diverse web projects. By the conclusion, you'll be equipped to determine if you should use . WordPress for your business website Reasons Businesses Opt for WordPress: Cost-Effective and User-Centric Setting up a WordPress site is straightforward, even for those without a tech background. Comprehensive online tutorials simplify the process. Enhancing your site's capabilities is as easy as integrating a plugin from a vast library. Design-wise, numerous ready-to-use themes are available. While the core software doesn't cost a dime, you'll only incur expenses for web hosting. For basic projects, there might be no need to engage a specialized WordPress developer. Seamless Management and Adaptability WordPress provides robust user management, enabling varied access levels for different roles like admins, editors, and writers. You retain full control over your WordPress site, with the freedom to modify the source code and tailor your site. Various plans cater to businesses of all sizes, ensuring scalability and added features as you grow. Thriving Community and Continuous Support The expansive WordPress community is a treasure trove of knowledge, with forums teeming with discussions, solutions, and innovative ideas. This community propels WordPress forward, consistently introducing contemporary themes and plugins. Often, solutions to challenges are readily available without resorting to professional services. WordPress Applications Beyond Blogging: While WordPress is the go-to for renowned publishers like The New York Times and TechCrunch, its utility isn't confined to blogging. Here are some notable applications: WordPress excels in content management, making it apt for blogs, news portals, and digital magazines. Plugins like The Events Calendar cater to event-centric businesses. Content-Rich Websites: Plugins like bbPress transform WordPress sites into engaging discussion boards. Membership-based sites also find a home here. Interactive Forums: : Pairing WordPress with WooCommerce equips smaller e-commerce ventures with essential tools for sales, inventory, and shipping. E-commerce for SMEs Educational Platforms: With plugins like LearnDash, WordPress emerges as a potent tool for e-learning platforms, offering comprehensive course management. When WordPress Might Not Be Ideal: Certain scenarios demand more than what WordPress offers: Intricate Web Apps: Customized applications with advanced backend features might be better off with frameworks like Laravel or AngularJS. Large E-commerce Ventures: WordPress might fall short of expansive e-commerce platforms requiring specialized features. Specialized Websites: Some sectors, like healthcare or booking systems, demand specialized solutions. Here, platforms like Django or Node.js shine. High-Security Websites: WordPress, if not updated, can be vulnerable. For high-stakes sites like financial platforms, custom solutions with advanced security are advisable. Real-Time Applications: For real-time functionalities, technologies like Node.js or React are more apt. Identifying a Competent WordPress Developer: A Proficient WordPress Developer Should Possess the Following Skills: A deep understanding of WordPress's architecture, themes, plugins, and APIs. WordPress Mastery: : Proficiency in PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, coupled with database management skills. Coding Expertise : The ability to troubleshoot and optimize performance. Problem-Solving Prowess : Essential for mobile-optimized sites. Responsive Design Knowledge : To ensure site protection and visibility. Security and SEO Awareness : For understanding client needs and team collaboration. Effective Communication : To stay updated with evolving web trends. Continuous Learning To Sum Up WordPress remains a top choice for businesses due to its affordability, user-friendly nature, and customization ease, making it apt for content-rich sites, forums, SME e-commerce, and educational platforms. However, for more intricate projects, custom solutions using technologies like Laravel or Django might be more fitting.

WordPress: Pros, Cons, and Business Relevance in 2023

WordPress: pros, contras y relevancia empresarial en 2023

WordPress : avantages, inconvénients et pertinence commerciale en 2023

वर्डप्रेस: 2023 में पेशेवरों, विपक्ष और व्यावसायिक प्रासंगिकता

WordPress: 2023 年のメリット、デメリット、ビジネスとの関連性

WordPress: prós, contras e relevância comercial em 2023

WordPress: Ưu, nhược điểm và mức độ phù hợp với hoạt động kinh doanh vào năm 2023

WordPress：2023 年的优点、缺点和业务相关性

A Floating City and The Blockade Runners by Jules Verne, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . Chapter XXIV here CHAPTER XXIV. The night was stormy, the steam-ship, beaten by the waves, rolled frightfully, without being disabled; the furniture was knocked about with loud crashes, and the crockery began its clatter again. The wind had evidently freshened, and besides this the “Great Eastern” was now in those coasts where the sea is always rough. At six o’clock in the morning I dragged myself to the staircase, leading on to the upper decks. By clutching at the balusters, and taking advantage of a lurch or two, I succeeded in climbing the steps, and with some difficulty managed to reach the poop. The place was deserted, if one may so qualify a place where was Dr. Pitferge. The worthy man, with his back rounded as a protection against the wind, was leaning against the railing, with his right leg wound tightly round one of the rails. He beckoned for me to go to him—with his head, of course, for he could not spare his hands, which held him up against the violence of the tempest. After several queer movements, twisting myself like an analide, I reached the upper deck, where I buttressed myself, after the doctor’s fashion. “We are in for it!” cried he to me; “this will last. Heigh ho! this ‘Great Eastern!’ Just at the moment of arrival, a cyclone, a veritable cyclone is commanded on purpose for her.” The Doctor spoke in broken sentences, for the wind cut short his words, but I understood him; the word cyclone carried its explanation with it. It is well known that these whirlwinds, called hurricanes in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, tornadoes on the coast of Africa, simoons in the desert, and typhoons in the Chinese Sea, are tempests of such formidable power, that they imperil the largest ships. Now the “Great Eastern” was caught in a cyclone. How would this giant make head against it? “Harm will come to her,” repeated Dean Pitferge. “Look, how she dives into the billows.” This was, indeed, the exact position of the steam-ship, whose stern disappeared beneath the mountains of waves, which swept violently against her. It was not possible to see to any distance: there were all the symptoms of a storm, which broke forth in its fury about seven o’clock. The ocean heaved terrifically, the small undulations between the large waves entirely disappeared under an overwhelming wind, the foam-crested billows clashed together, in the wildest uproar, every moment; the waves grew higher, and the “Great Eastern,” cutting through them, pitched frightfully. “There are but two courses now to choose from,” said the Doctor, with the self-possession of a seaman, “either to put the ship’s head on to the waves, working with a minimum speed, or take flight and give up the struggle with this baffling sea; but Captain Anderson will do neither one thing nor the other.” “And why not?” I asked. “Because—” replied the doctor, “because something must happen.” Turning round, I saw the Captain, the first officer, and the chief engineer, muffled in their macintoshes, and clutching at the railings of the bridge; they were enveloped in spray from head to foot. The Captain was smiling as usual, the first officer laughed, and showed his white teeth, at the sight of the ship pitching enough to make one think the masts and chimneys were coming down. Nevertheless I was really astonished at the Captain’s obstinacy. At half-past seven, the aspect of the Atlantic was terrible; the sea swept right across the deck at the bows. I watched this grand sight; this struggle between the giant and the billows, and to a certain extent I could sympathize with the Captain’s wilfulness; but I was forgetting that the power of the sea is infinite, and that nothing made by the hand of man can resist it; and, indeed, powerful as she was, our ship was at last obliged to fly before the tempest. Suddenly, at about eight o’clock, a violent shock was felt, caused by a formidable swoop of the sea, which struck the ship on her fore larboard quarter. “That was not a box on the ear, it was a blow in the face,” said the Doctor to me. And the blow had evidently bruised us, for spars appeared on the crests of the waves. Was it part of our ship that was making off in this manner, or the of a wreck? débris On a sign from the Captain, the “Great Eastern” shifted her course, in order to avoid the spars, which threatened to get entangled in the paddles. Looking more attentively, I saw that the sea had carried off the bulwarks on the larboard side, which were fifty feet above the surface of the water; the jambs were broken, the taggers torn away, and the shattered remnants of glass still trembled in their casements. The “Great Eastern” had staggered beneath the shock, but she continued her way with an indomitable audacity. It was necessary, as quickly as possible, to remove the spars which encumbered the ship at the bows, and in order to do this it was indispensable to avoid the sea, but the steam-ship obstinately continued to make head against the waves. The spirit of her captain seemed to animate her; he did not want to yield, and yield he would not. An officer and some men were sent to the bows to clear the deck. “Mind,” said the Doctor to me, “the moment of the catastrophe is not far off.” The sailors went towards the bows, whilst we fastened ourselves to the second mast, and looked through the spray, which fell in showers over us with each wave. Suddenly there was another swoop more violent than the first, and the sea poured through the barricading by the opened breach, tore off an enormous sheet of cast-iron which covered the bit of the bows, broke away the massive top of the hatchway leading to the crew’s berths, and lashing against the starboard barricadings, swept them off like the sheets of a sail. The men were knocked down; one of them, an officer, half-drowned, shook his red whiskers, and picked himself up; then seeing one of the sailors lying unconscious across an anchor, he hurried towards him, lifted him on his shoulders and carried him away. At this moment the rest of the crew escaped through the broken hatchway. There were three feet of water in the tween-decks, new spars covered the sea, and amongst other things several thousand of the dolls, which my countryman had thought to acclimatize in America; these little bodies, torn from their cases by the sea, danced on the summits of the waves, and under less serious circumstances the sight would have been truly ludicrous. In the meantime the inundation was gaining on us, large bodies of water were pouring in through the opened gaps, and according to the engineer, the “Great Eastern” shipped more than two thousand tons of water, enough to float a frigate of the largest size. “Well!” exclaimed the Doctor, whose hat had been blown off in the hurricane, “to keep in this position is impossible; it is fool-hardy to hold on any longer; we ought to take flight, the steam-ship going with her battered stem ahead, is like a man swimming between two currents, with his mouth open.” This Captain Anderson understood at last, for I saw him run to the little wheel on the bridge which commanded the movement of the rudder, the steam immediately rushed into the cylinders at the stern, and the giant turning like a canoe made head towards the north, and fled before the storm. At this moment, the Captain, generally so calm and self-possessed, cried angrily,— “My ship is disgraced.” 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. Jules Verne (2022). A Floating City and The Blockade Runners. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/files/67829/67829-h/67829-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 , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

Now the “Great Eastern” was caught in a cyclone

SWITZERLAND, THE CRADLE OF LIBERTY

As an AI startup founder, you likely know how impactful large language models like ChatGPT have been in advancing conversational AI. However, with commercial licensing costs, censorship issues, degraded performance, privacy concerns, and black boxes, these proprietary models remain out of reach for many startups. This is where an open-source project called Vicuna comes in. Developed by a team of researchers from institutions like Stanford, Vicuna is conversational model achieving over 90% of ChatGPT's quality. This makes it an exciting alternative to closed-off models like GPT-4. an open-source Subscribe or follow me on Twitter for more content like this! In this article, we'll explore what Vicuna is, how it works, its capabilities, and how you may be able to leverage it as an AI founder. We'll see how it stacks up to competitors like ChatGPT and the base LLaMA model. I'll also share some helpful tips and guides you can follow for more information about specific aspects of the model. We will concentrate on Vicuna-13b for this article, but there are many different-sized models of Vicuna out there for you to try. Let's begin! Note: Vicuna isn't the only model out there to fine-tune LLaMA for chat. Check out our guides on using , LLaMA v2 , and Alpaca LLaMA-v2-chat for conversational applications. An Overview of Vicuna In the world of conversational AI, we've seen astounding progress recently with models like ChatGPT demonstrating remarkable natural language abilities. However, as a proprietary model with all the issues described above, ChatGPT remains a bad option for many developers. So there's a need for more accessible and open models that can empower innovation in conversational apps. This is where Vicuna comes in. Developed by researchers like Stanford, Berkeley, and MBZUAI, Vicuna represents cutting-edge open conversational AI. from leading institutions It was created by fine-tuning the LLaMA model on curated dialog data, demonstrating the power of transfer learning from an open-source foundation model. Despite being smaller in size than ChatGPT, Vicuna matches its conversational quality and significantly outperforms other open models. But it's not just about the technology with Vicuna. What makes it truly impactful is its availability under a non-commercial research license. This opens up access to state-of-the-art conversational AI that was previously restricted to only large tech companies. We finally have an open model that can power the next generation of chatbots, virtual assistants, conversational search engines, and other innovative applications. Vicuna's promise has already been demonstrated through cool projects that leverage it. For example, used Vicuna to build an intelligent virtual assistant, created a conversational search engine with it, and taps Vicuna's abilities for natural language content creation. MiniGPT4 LLaVA ToolLLaMA And, of course, you may add your own project to this list one day! For AI developers and startups, Vicuna represents an exciting new opportunity. Its high capability, free availability, and permissive research license enable rapid prototyping of conversational apps. Instead of being gated by access to proprietary models, startups can now validate and build products with cutting-edge conversational AI. The playing field just got leveled. So, in summary, Vicuna promises to democratize access to top-tier conversational intelligence. Its emergence represents an important milestone in making open AI models that empower innovation. For any startup looking to leverage conversational AI, Vicuna is definitely a project worth paying attention to! How Was Vicuna Created? What Makes It Special? The story of Vicuna begins with LLaMA, an open-source language model developed by Meta AI. While capable, LLaMA had no inherent conversational abilities, focusing mainly on language itself rather than the art of conversation. Researchers from institutions including Stanford, Berkeley, and MBZUAI set out to change this. Their goal was to create an open-source conversational model rivaling proprietary chatbots like ChatGPT. By the way, what's the difference between an AI model trained to process and analyze text (like LLaMA) versus one specialized for chat (like Vicuna)? There are a few key factors that differentiate the two: - Conversational models like Vicuna have an encoder-decoder structure optimized for dialog. The encoder contextualizes the conversation history and current user input. The decoder then generates a relevant response. General language models like LLaMA lack this specialized architecture. Architecture - Models like Vicuna are fine-tuned to maximize performance specifically on conversational tasks. This involves training on dialog datasets to optimize conversational metrics. LLaMA is trained more generally for text, not specialized for dialog. Training Objective - Conversational models need to handle multi-turn conversations, maintaining context and coherency across multiple exchanges. General text models evaluate one input at a time. Multi-Turn Capabilities - Conversational AI needs to fluidly interact with users, responding to follow-up questions and clarifications. Text evaluation is more passive, lacking user interactivity. Interactivity - Conversational models require more complex evaluation beyond text metrics, testing qualities like consistency, nuance, and the ability to gracefully handle inappropriate responses. Evaluation Whereas a general language model like LLaMA focuses more on textual analysis and generation, without the requirements specific to dialog agents, the goal of conversational AI is fundamentally more complex than passive text evaluation. To that end, the researchers who created Vicuna fine-tuned LLaMA on over 70,000 human-ChatGPT dialog exchanges, specializing the model for conversation and teaching it the natural characteristics of text in conversational contexts. This fine-tuning was crucial for giving their version of LLaMA the conversational intelligence it previously lacked. Through iterative training on the dialog data, LLaMA was transformed into Vicuna, an encoder-decoder transformer optimized for multi-turn conversations. How well did their efforts work? Into the Arena: Evaluating Vicuna Against Alternative Chat AI Models To evaluate Vicuna's capabilities, the researchers tested it on 200 diverse conversational prompts. For further assessment, they had the GPT-4 model comparatively judge Vicuna's responses. The results demonstrated that Vicuna achieved over 90% of ChatGPT's quality in conversational ability, despite being smaller in size. It significantly outperformed the original LLaMA model. By combining architecture optimizations with specialized fine-tuning on human dialog data, the researchers successfully enhanced LLaMA into an open-source conversational model on par with proprietary chatbots. Let's take a look at a head-to-head test as an example, taken from the . official project site Example head-to-head challenge between Vicuna and competitor models, in this case, using ChatGPT-3.5 as a potential alternative. The project site has a collection of example tasks, in which both Vicuna-13b and competing models are asked to go head-to-head. The GPT-4 model is then used as a judge to score each model and state its reasoning. This produces some really eye-opening comparisons. One example is provided in the image above. Another is this challenge, shown below: Roleplay Category: How would you introduce yourself as a medieval knight at a royal banquet? Question: LLaMA-13b's response: "I am a valiant knight, loyal to the king. I will do my utmost to defend his honor and protect his country. (Lame! Scored 7/10 by GPT-4, very generous in my opinion.)" Vicuna-13b: **"**As a medieval knight, I would introduce myself at a royal banquet with a deep bow and a respectful speech, acknowledging my humble origins and my loyalty to the crown. I would say something like: "My lords and ladies, I am a humble knight, sworn to serve and protect the realm. I come from a long line of warriors who have fought to defend this kingdom for generations. I am honored to be here today, in the presence of such esteemed company, and I hope to earn your trust and respect with my deeds and actions. I pledge my sword, my shield, and my life to the service of my king and my people." I would then take my seat at the banquet, ready to listen and learn from the wise counsel of my betters, and to serve them in any way I can." Woah! Way better response from Vicuna. Here's GPT-4's reasoning explaining what makes Vicuna a superior alternative to LLaMA. provided a brief and relevant response, but it lacked the detail and formality expected in a medieval knight's introduction. , on the other hand, offered a more comprehensive and well-structured response, including a respectful speech that showcased the knight's humility, loyalty, and dedication to the kingdom. This response was more fitting for the context of a royal banquet and demonstrated a better understanding of the medieval knight's role and etiquette. Assistant 1 [LLaMA] Assistant 2 [Vicuna] While LLMs are not infallible judges of other LLMs, neither are humans. I think the use of AI to judge and evaluate AI is a pretty scalable and consistent way to adjudicate which alternatives are the best. You should check out some of the other competitor answers and tasks on the . LMSYS.org site Let's Try It Ourselves: How to Build a Basic Chatbot With Vicuna Now that we've seen how the model stacks up against some alternatives, let's see how we can build a simple chatbot that we can interact with from our command line. The steps in the guide provided here can be further expanded so you can keep going and build your own chatbot for your AI project! Step 1: Setup : Make sure is installed on your system. Install Node.js Node.js : Run the following in your terminal: Create a Project Directory mkdir my-chatbot
cd my-chatbot
npm init -y
npm install replicate : Replace with your actual API token: Set Your API Token your_api_token_here export REPLICATE_API_TOKEN=your_api_token_here Step 2: Writing the Chatbot Code Create a file named , and add the following code: chatbot.js const Replicate = require("replicate");

const replicate = new Replicate({
  auth: process.env.REPLICATE_API_TOKEN,
});

async function generateResponse(prompt) {
  const output = await replicate.run(
    "replicate/vicuna-13b:version_hash_here",
    {
      input: { prompt: prompt },
    }
  );
  return output.items[0];
}

const readline = require('readline');
const rl = readline.createInterface({
  input: process.stdin,
  output: process.stdout
});

function askQuestion() {
  rl.question('You: ', async (userInput) => {
    const botResponse = await generateResponse(userInput);
    console.log(`Bot: ${botResponse}`);
    askQuestion();
  });
}

askQuestion(); Replace with the correct version hash for the Vicuna 13b model. version_hash_here Step 3: Running the Chatbot Run the chatbot by executing: node chatbot.js You can now send a message to your chatbot through the command line! Don't want to build your own chatbot? You can use this demo to assess how Vicuna performs. The includes a couple of demos you can use to play around with the model. Here's an embedded one for you to try (you can also use to access it if it's not available at the link below). model details page for Vicuna-13b-v1.3 this link This demo, build by zeno-ml, lets you compare models and additional parameters to see how well Vicuna performs against competitors like LLaMA, GPT2, and MPT while also varying temperature or other parameters. Vicuna's Limitations While conversational technologies have advanced rapidly, models still face important challenges. Conversational agents lack sufficient grounding in real factual knowledge, making them prone to plausible-sounding but incorrect responses. More grounding in the real world could improve accuracy. One issue is knowledge grounding. Performing logical reasoning, causal inference, and mathematical operations remains difficult for chatbots. Their reasoning capabilities are still limited. Reasoning abilities are another area for improvement. Current solutions like asking a separate AI judge have flaws. Developing rigorous evaluation frameworks is an open problem. Evaluating the conversational quality of AI systems at scale also poses difficulties. Conversational models can sometimes behave inappropriately or unsafely. Better training data curation is important. Additionally, biases and safety issues persist due to reliance on imperfect training data. still proves challenging too. More personalization and customization is needed for different domains. You can't do this out of the box easily. Adapting chatbots to specific users and use cases While great progress has been made, these limitations highlight key areas for improvement. Advancing knowledge grounding, reasoning, evaluation, training data, customization, and deployment efficiency could enable the next level of conversational intelligence with models like Vicuna. Conclusion: Using Vicuna AI as an Open-Source Alternative to ChatGPT, LLaMA, and Other LLMs The development of Vicuna demonstrates promising progress in advancing open-source conversational AI. By fine-tuning the LLaMA model architecture and training methodology specifically for dialog applications, researchers were able to create a freely available conversational agent competitive with leading proprietary alternatives. However, work remains to be done to address limitations around reasoning, evaluation, customization, and other areas. While models like Vicuna achieve strong results on many benchmarks, they do not fully replicate comprehensive human conversation. Ongoing research on aligning these models will be important. Nonetheless, Vicuna represents a valuable step forward in democratizing access to state-of-the-art conversational intelligence. For startups and developers building chatbots, assistants, and other applications, open-source options like Vicuna provide welcome capabilities without restrictive commercial licensing. The origins and technical details behind Vicuna offer useful insights into specialized training approaches for conversational AI. As research continues, we can expect to see further innovations that build on these methods. The authors behind Vicuna have made an important contribution to open-sourcing such a capable dialog agent. While more progress is still needed, Vicuna demonstrates the meaningful results that can come from developing open conversational models. For the AI community, it represents a promising step, not the final destination. With continued work on advancing these technologies, the potential ahead remains exciting. Subscribe or follow me on Twitter for more content like this! Further Reading and Resources You might find these other articles helpful in your quest to build the ultimate chatbot for your new product or project. - An overview of Vicuna with basic model info Vicuna-13b model details - An article on using Vicuna to create chatbots Building chatbots with Vicuna-13B -  A comparison between LLaMA's new version 2 and Vicuna Comparing LLMs for chat: LLaMA v2 vs Vicuna - LangChain is a popular framework for building chat applications LangChain chat models: an overview Also published here

Vicuna: How Does It Compare to Llama, Alpaca, and ChatGPT?

ভিকুনা: এটি লামা, আলপাকা এবং চ্যাটজিপিটির সাথে কীভাবে তুলনা করে?

Vicuna: Wie schneidet es im Vergleich zu Lama, Alpaka und ChatGPT ab?

Vicuña: ¿Cómo se compara con Llama, Alpaca y ChatGPT?

Vicuna : Comment se compare-t-il à Llama, Alpaca et ChatGPT ?

विकुना: इसकी तुलना लामा, अल्पाका और चैटजीपीटी से कैसे की जाती है?

ビクーニャ: ラマ、アルパカ、ChatGPT とどう違うのですか?

Vicuna: Llama, Alpaca 및 ChatGPT와 어떻게 비교됩니까?

Vicunha: Como se compara a Llama, Alpaca e ChatGPT?

Vicuna: Lama, Alpaka ve ChatGPT ile Nasıl Karşılaştırılır?

Vicuna: Nó so sánh với Llama, Alpaca và ChatGPT như thế nào?

Vicuna：它与 Llama、Alpaca 和 ChatGPT 相比如何？

The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . Chapter XVII here Chapter XVII The next day, the 7th of May, Harding and Gideon Spilett, leaving Neb to prepare breakfast, climbed Prospect Heights, while Herbert and Pencroft ascended by the river, to renew their store of wood. The engineer and the reporter soon reached the little beach on which the dugong had been stranded. Already flocks of birds had attacked the mass of flesh, and had to be driven away with stones, for Cyrus wished to keep the fat for the use of the colony. As to the animal’s flesh it would furnish excellent food, for in the islands of the Malay Archipelago and elsewhere, it is especially reserved for the table of the native princes. But that was Neb’s affair. At this moment Cyrus Harding had other thoughts. He was much interested in the incident of the day before. He wished to penetrate the mystery of that submarine combat, and to ascertain what monster could have given the dugong so strange a wound. He remained at the edge of the lake, looking, observing; but nothing appeared under the tranquil waters, which sparkled in the first rays of the rising sun. At the beach, on which lay the body of the dugong, the water was tolerably shallow, but from this point the bottom of the lake sloped gradually, and it was probable that the depth was considerable in the center. The lake might be considered as a large center basin, which was filled by the water from the Red Creek. “Well, Cyrus,” said the reporter, “there seems to be nothing suspicious in this water.” “No, my dear Spilett,” replied the engineer, “and I really do not know how to account for the incident of yesterday.” “I acknowledge,” returned Spilett, “that the wound given this creature is, at least, very strange, and I cannot explain either how Top was so vigorously cast up out of the water. One could have thought that a powerful arm hurled him up, and that the same arm with a dagger killed the dugong!” “Yes,” replied the engineer, who had become thoughtful; “there is something there that I cannot understand. But do you better understand either, my dear Spilett, in what way I was saved myself—how I was drawn from the waves, and carried to the downs? No! Is it not true? Now, I feel sure that there is some mystery there, which, doubtless, we shall discover some day. Let us observe, but do not dwell on these singular incidents before our companions. Let us keep our remarks to ourselves, and continue our work.” It will be remembered that the engineer had not as yet been able to discover the place where the surplus water escaped, but he knew it must exist somewhere. He was much surprised to see a strong current at this place. By throwing in some bits of wood he found that it set towards the southern angle. He followed the current, and arrived at the south point of the lake. There was there a sort of depression in the water, as if it was suddenly lost in some fissure in the ground. Harding listened; placing his ear to the level of the lake, he very distinctly heard the noise of a subterranean fall. “There,” said he, rising, “is the discharge of the water; there, doubtless, by a passage in the granite cliff, it joins the sea, through cavities which we can use to our profit. Well, I can find it!” The engineer cut a long branch, stripped it of its leaves, and plunging it into the angle between the two banks, he found that there was a large hole one foot only beneath the surface of the water. This hole was the opening so long looked for in vain, and the force of the current was such that the branch was torn from the engineer’s hands and disappeared. “There is no doubt about it now,” repeated Harding. “There is the outlet, and I will lay it open to view!” “How?” asked Gideon Spilett. “By lowering the level of the water of the lake three feet.” “And how will you lower the level?” “By opening another outlet larger than this.” “At what place, Cyrus?” “At the part of the bank nearest the coast.” “But it is a mass of granite!” observed Spilett. “Well,” replied Cyrus Harding, “I will blow up the granite, and the water escaping, will subside, so as to lay bare this opening—” “And make a waterfall, by falling on to the beach,” added the reporter. “A fall that we shall make use of!” replied Cyrus. “Come, come!” The engineer hurried away his companion, whose confidence in Harding was such that he did not doubt the enterprise would succeed. And yet, how was this granite wall to be opened without powder, and with imperfect instruments? Was not this work upon which the engineer was so bent above their strength? When Harding and the reporter entered the Chimneys, they found Herbert and Pencroft unloading their raft of wood. “The woodmen have just finished, captain.” said the sailor, laughing, “and when you want masons—” “Masons,—no, but chemists,” replied the engineer. “Yes,” added the reporter, “we are going to blow up the island—” “Blow up the island?” cried Pencroft. “Part of it, at least,” replied Spilett. “Listen to me, my friends,” said the engineer. And he made known to them the result of his observations. According to him, a cavity, more or less considerable, must exist in the mass of granite which supported Prospect Heights, and he intended to penetrate into it. To do this, the opening through which the water rushed must first be cleared, and the level lowered by making a larger outlet. Therefore an explosive substance must be manufactured, which would make a deep trench in some other part of the shore. This was what Harding was going to attempt with the minerals which nature placed at his disposal. It is useless to say with what enthusiasm all, especially Pencroft, received this project. To employ great means, open the granite, create a cascade, that suited the sailor. And he would just as soon be a chemist as a mason or bootmaker, since the engineer wanted chemicals. He would be all that they liked, “even a professor of dancing and deportment,” said he to Neb, if that was ever necessary. Neb and Pencroft were first of all told to extract the grease from the dugong, and to keep the flesh, which was destined for food. Such perfect confidence had they in the engineer, that they set out directly, without even asking a question. A few minutes after them, Cyrus Harding, Herbert, and Gideon Spilett, dragging the hurdle, went towards the vein of coals, where those shistose pyrites abound which are met with in the most recent transition soil, and of which Harding had already found a specimen. All the day being employed in carrying a quantity of these stones to the Chimneys, by evening they had several tons. The next day, the 8th of May, the engineer began his manipulations. These shistose pyrites being composed principally of coal, flint, alumina, and sulphuret of iron—the latter in excess—it was necessary to separate the sulphuret of iron, and transform it into sulphate as rapidly as possible. The sulphate obtained, the sulphuric acid could then be extracted. This was the object to be attained. Sulphuric acid is one of the agents the most frequently employed, and the manufacturing importance of a nation can be measured by the consumption which is made of it. This acid would later be of great use to the settlers, in the manufacturing of candles, tanning skins, etc., but this time the engineer reserved it for another use. Cyrus Harding chose, behind the Chimneys, a site where the ground was perfectly level. On this ground he placed a layer of branches and chopped wood, on which were piled some pieces of shistose pyrites, buttressed one against the other, the whole being covered with a thin layer of pyrites, previously reduced to the size of a nut. This done, they set fire to the wood, the heat was communicated to the shist, which soon kindled, since it contains coal and sulphur. Then new layers of bruised pyrites were arranged so as to form an immense heap, the exterior of which was covered with earth and grass, several air-holes being left, as if it was a stack of wood which was to be carbonized to make charcoal. They then left the transformation to complete itself, and it would not take less than ten or twelve days for the sulphuret of iron to be changed to sulphate of iron and the alumina into sulphate of alumina, two equally soluble substances, the others, flint, burnt coal, and cinders, not being so. While this chemical work was going on, Cyrus Harding proceeded with other operations, which were pursued with more than zeal,—it was eagerness. Neb and Pencroft had taken away the fat from the dugong, and placed it in large earthen pots. It was then necessary to separate the glycerine from the fat by saponifying it. Now, to obtain this result, it had to be treated either with soda or lime. In fact, one or other of these substances, after having attacked the fat, would form a soap by separating the glycerine, and it was just this glycerine which the engineer wished to obtain. There was no want of lime, only treatment by lime would give calcareous soap, insoluble, and consequently useless, while treatment by soda would furnish, on the contrary, a soluble soap, which could be put to domestic use. Now, a practical man, like Cyrus Harding, would rather try to obtain soda. Was this difficult? No; for marine plants abounded on the shore, glass-wort, ficoides, and all those fucaceae which form wrack. A large quantity of these plants was collected, first dried, then burnt in holes in the open air. The combustion of these plants was kept up for several days, and the result was a compact gray mass, which has been long known under the name of “natural soda.” This obtained, the engineer treated the fat with soda, which gave both a soluble soap and that neutral substance, glycerine. But this was not all. Cyrus Harding still needed, in view of his future preparation, another substance, nitrate of potash, which is better known under the name of salt niter, or of saltpeter. Cyrus Harding could have manufactured this substance by treating the carbonate of potash, which would be easily extracted from the cinders of the vegetables, by azotic acid. But this acid was wanting, and he would have been in some difficulty, if nature had not happily furnished the saltpeter, without giving them any other trouble than that of picking it up. Herbert found a vein of it at the foot of Mount Franklin, and they had nothing to do but purify this salt. These different works lasted a week. They were finished before the transformation of the sulphuret into sulphate of iron had been accomplished. During the following days the settlers had time to construct a furnace of bricks of a particular arrangement, to serve for the distillation of the sulphate or iron when it had been obtained. All this was finished about the 18th of May, nearly at the time when the chemical transformation terminated. Gideon Spilett, Herbert, Neb, and Pencroft, skillfully directed by the engineer, had become most clever workmen. Before all masters, necessity is the one most listened to, and who teaches the best. When the heap of pyrites had been entirely reduced by fire, the result of the operation, consisting of sulphate of iron, sulphate of alumina, flint, remains of coal, and cinders was placed in a basinful of water. They stirred this mixture, let it settle, then decanted it, and obtained a clear liquid containing in solution sulphate of iron and sulphate of alumina, the other matters remaining solid, since they are insoluble. Lastly, this liquid being partly evaporated, crystals of sulphate of iron were deposited, and the not evaporated liquid, which contained the sulphate of alumina, was thrown away. Cyrus Harding had now at his disposal a large quantity of these sulphate of iron crystals, from which the sulphuric acid had to be extracted. The making of sulphuric acid is a very expensive manufacture. Considerable works are necessary—a special set of tools, an apparatus of platina, leaden chambers, unassailable by the acid, and in which the transformation is performed, etc. The engineer had none of these at his disposal, but he knew that, in Bohemia especially, sulphuric acid is manufactured by very simple means, which have also the advantage of producing it to a superior degree of concentration. It is thus that the acid known under the name of Nordhausen acid is made. To obtain sulphuric acid, Cyrus Harding had only one operation to make, to calcine the sulphate of iron crystals in a closed vase, so that the sulphuric acid should distil in vapor, which vapor, by condensation, would produce the acid. The crystals were placed in pots, and the heat from the furnace would distil the sulphuric acid. The operation was successfully completed, and on the 20th of May, twelve days after commencing it, the engineer was the possessor of the agent which later he hoped to use in so many different ways. Now, why did he wish for this agent? Simply to produce azotic acid; and that was easy, since saltpeter, attacked by sulphuric acid, gives azotic, or nitric, acid by distillation. But, after all, how was he going to employ this azotic acid? His companions were still ignorant of this, for he had not informed them of the result at which he aimed. However, the engineer had nearly accomplished his purpose, and by a last operation he would procure the substance which had given so much trouble. Taking some azotic acid, he mixed it with glycerine, which had been previously concentrated by evaporation, subjected to the water-bath, and he obtained, without even employing a refrigerant mixture, several pints of an oily yellow mixture. This last operation Cyrus Harding had made alone, in a retired place, at a distance from the Chimneys, for he feared the danger of an explosion, and when he showed a bottle of this liquid to his friends, he contented himself with saying,— “Here is nitro-glycerine!” It was really this terrible production, of which the explosive power is perhaps tenfold that of ordinary powder, and which has already caused so many accidents. However, since a way has been found to transform it into dynamite, that is to say, to mix with it some solid substance, clay or sugar, porous enough to hold it, the dangerous liquid has been used with some security. But dynamite was not yet known at the time when the settlers worked on Lincoln Island. “And is it that liquid that is going to blow up our rocks?” said Pencroft incredulously. “Yes, my friend,” replied the engineer, “and this nitro-glycerine will produce so much the more effect, as the granite is extremely hard, and will oppose a greater resistance to the explosion.” “And when shall we see this, captain?” “To-morrow, as soon as we have dug a hole for the mine, replied the engineer.” The next day, the 21st of May, at daybreak, the miners went to the point which formed the eastern shore of Lake Grant, and was only five hundred feet from the coast. At this place, the plateau inclined downwards from the waters, which were only restrained by their granite case. Therefore, if this case was broken, the water would escape by the opening and form a stream, which, flowing over the inclined surface of the plateau, would rush on to the beach. Consequently, the level of the lake would be greatly lowered, and the opening where the water escaped would be exposed, which was their final aim. Under the engineer’s directions, Pencroft, armed with a pickaxe, which he handled skillfully and vigorously, attacked the granite. The hole was made on the point of the shore, slanting, so that it should meet a much lower level than that of the water of the lake. In this way the explosive force, by scattering the rock, would open a large place for the water to rush out. The work took some time, for the engineer, wishing to produce a great effect, intended to devote not less than seven quarts of nitro-glycerine to the operation. But Pencroft, relieved by Neb, did so well, that towards four o’clock in the evening, the mine was finished. Now the question of setting fire to the explosive substance was raised. Generally, nitro-glycerine is ignited by caps of fulminate, which in bursting cause the explosion. A shock is therefore needed to produce the explosion, for, simply lighted, this substance would burn without exploding. Cyrus Harding could certainly have fabricated a percussion cap. In default of fulminate, he could easily obtain a substance similar to guncotton, since he had azotic acid at his disposal. This substance, pressed in a cartridge, and introduced among the nitro-glycerine, would burst by means of a fuse, and cause the explosion. But Cyrus Harding knew that nitro-glycerine would explode by a shock. He resolved to employ this means, and try another way, if this did not succeed. In fact, the blow of a hammer on a few drops of nitro-glycerine, spread out on a hard surface, was enough to create an explosion. But the operator could not be there to give the blow, without becoming a victim to the operation. Harding, therefore, thought of suspending a mass of iron, weighing several pounds, by means of a fiber, to an upright just above the mine. Another long fiber, previously impregnated with sulphur, was attached to the middle of the first, by one end, while the other lay on the ground several feet distant from the mine. The second fiber being set on fire, it would burn till it reached the first. This catching fire in its turn, would break, and the mass of iron would fall on the nitro-glycerine. This apparatus being then arranged, the engineer, after having sent his companions to a distance, filled the hole, so that the nitro-glycerine was on a level with the opening; then he threw a few drops of it on the surface of the rock, above which the mass of iron was already suspended. This done, Harding lit the end of the sulphured fiber, and leaving the place, he returned with his companions to the Chimneys. The fiber was intended to burn five and twenty minutes, and, in fact, five and twenty minutes afterwards a most tremendous explosion was heard. The island appeared to tremble to its very foundation. Stones were projected in the air as if by the eruption of a volcano. The shock produced by the displacing of the air was such, that the rocks of the Chimneys shook. The settlers, although they were more than two miles from the mine, were thrown on the ground. They rose, climbed the plateau, and ran towards the place where the bank of the lake must have been shattered by the explosion. A cheer escaped them! A large rent was seen in the granite! A rapid stream of water rushed foaming across the plateau and dashed down a height of three hundred feet on to the beach! 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. Jules Verne (1998). The Mysterious Island. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1268/1268-h/1268-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 , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

The engineer and the reporter soon reached the little beach

The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . Chapter X here Chapter X In a few minutes the three hunters were before a crackling fire. The captain and the reporter were there. Pencroft looked from one to the other, his capybara in his hand, without saying a word. “Well, yes, my brave fellow,” cried the reporter. “Fire, real fire, which will roast this splendid pig perfectly, and we will have a feast presently!” “But who lighted it?” asked Pencroft. “The sun!” Gideon Spilett was quite right in his reply. It was the sun which had furnished the heat which so astonished Pencroft. The sailor could scarcely believe his eyes, and he was so amazed that he did not think of questioning the engineer. “Had you a burning-glass, sir?” asked Herbert of Harding. “No, my boy,” replied he, “but I made one.” And he showed the apparatus which served for a burning-glass. It was simply two glasses which he had taken from his own and the reporter’s watches. Having filled them with water and rendered their edges adhesive by means of a little clay, he thus fabricated a regular burning-glass, which, concentrating the solar rays on some very dry moss, soon caused it to blaze. The sailor considered the apparatus; then he gazed at the engineer without saying a word, only a look plainly expressed his opinion that if Cyrus Harding was not a magician, he was certainly no ordinary man. At last speech returned to him, and he cried,— “Note that, Mr. Spilett, note that down on your paper!” “It is noted,” replied the reporter. Then, Neb helping him, the seaman arranged the spit, and the capybara, properly cleaned, was soon roasting like a suckling-pig before a clear, crackling fire. The Chimneys had again become more habitable, not only because the passages were warmed by the fire, but because the partitions of wood and mud had been re-established. It was evident that the engineer and his companions had employed their day well. Cyrus Harding had almost entirely recovered his strength, and had proved it by climbing to the upper plateau. From this point his eye, accustomed to estimate heights and distances, was fixed for a long time on the cone, the summit of which he wished to reach the next day. The mountain, situated about six miles to the northwest, appeared to him to measure 3,500 feet above the level of the sea. Consequently the gaze of an observer posted on its summit would extend over a radius of at least fifty miles. Therefore it was probable that Harding could easily solve the question of “island or continent,” to which he attached so much importance. They supped capitally. The flesh of the capybara was declared excellent. The sargassum and the almonds of the stone-pine completed the repast, during which the engineer spoke little. He was preoccupied with projects for the next day. Once or twice Pencroft gave forth some ideas upon what it would be best to do; but Cyrus Harding, who was evidently of a methodical mind, only shook his head without uttering a word. “To-morrow,” he repeated, “we shall know what we have to depend upon, and we will act accordingly.” The meal ended, fresh armfuls of wood were thrown on the fire, and the inhabitants of the Chimneys, including the faithful Top, were soon buried in a deep sleep. No incident disturbed this peaceful night, and the next day, the 29th of March, fresh and active they awoke, ready to undertake the excursion which must determine their fate. All was ready for the start. The remains of the capybara would be enough to sustain Harding and his companions for at least twenty-four hours. Besides, they hoped to find more food on the way. As the glasses had been returned to the watches of the engineer and reporter, Pencroft burned a little linen to serve as tinder. As to flint, that would not be wanting in these regions of Plutonic origin. It was half-past seven in the morning when the explorers, armed with sticks, left the Chimneys. Following Pencroft’s advice, it appeared best to take the road already traversed through the forest, and to return by another route. It was also the most direct way to reach the mountain. They turned the south angle and followed the left bank of the river, which was abandoned at the point where it formed an elbow towards the southwest. The path, already trodden under the evergreen trees, was found, and at nine o’clock Cyrus Harding and his companions had reached the western border of the forest. The ground, till then, very little undulated, boggy at first, dry and sandy afterwards, had a gentle slope, which ascended from the shore towards the interior of the country. A few very timid animals were seen under the forest-trees. Top quickly started them, but his master soon called him back, for the time had not come to commence hunting; that would be attended to later. The engineer was not a man who would allow himself to be diverted from his fixed idea. It might even have been said that he did not observe the country at all, either in its configuration or in its natural productions, his great aim being to climb the mountain before him, and therefore straight towards it he went. At ten o’clock a halt of a few minutes was made. On leaving the forest, the mountain system of the country appeared before the explorers. The mountain was composed of two cones; the first, truncated at a height of about two thousand five hundred feet, was sustained by buttresses, which appeared to branch out like the talons of an immense claw set on the ground. Between these were narrow valleys, bristling with trees, the last clumps of which rose to the top of the lowest cone. There appeared to be less vegetation on that side of the mountain which was exposed to the northeast, and deep fissures could be seen which, no doubt, were watercourses. On the first cone rested a second, slightly rounded, and placed a little on one side, like a great round hat cocked over the ear. A Scotchman would have said, “His bonnet was a thocht ajee.” It appeared formed of bare earth, here and there pierced by reddish rocks. They wished to reach the second cone, and proceeding along the ridge of the spurs seemed to be the best way by which to gain it. “We are on volcanic ground,” Cyrus Harding had said, and his companions following him began to ascend by degrees on the back of a spur, which, by a winding and consequently more accessible path, joined the first plateau. The ground had evidently been convulsed by subterranean force. Here and there stray blocks, numerous debris of basalt and pumice-stone, were met with. In isolated groups rose fir-trees, which, some hundred feet lower, at the bottom of the narrow gorges, formed massive shades almost impenetrable to the sun’s rays. During the first part of the ascent, Herbert remarked on the footprints which indicated the recent passage of large animals. “Perhaps these beasts will not let us pass by willingly,” said Pencroft. “Well,” replied the reporter, who had already hunted the tiger in India, and the lion in Africa, “we shall soon learn how successfully to encounter them. But in the meantime we must be upon our guard!” They ascended but slowly. The distance, increased by detours and obstacles which could not be surmounted directly, was long. Sometimes, too, the ground suddenly fell, and they found themselves on the edge of a deep chasm which they had to go round. Thus, in retracing their steps so as to find some practicable path, much time was employed and fatigue undergone for nothing. At twelve o’clock, when the small band of adventurers halted for breakfast at the foot of a large group of firs, near a little stream which fell in cascades, they found themselves still half way from the first plateau, which most probably they would not reach till nightfall. From this point the view of the sea was much extended, but on the right the high promontory prevented their seeing whether there was land beyond it. On the left, the sight extended several miles to the north; but, on the northwest, at the point occupied by the explorers, it was cut short by the ridge of a fantastically-shaped spur, which formed a powerful support of the central cone. At one o’clock the ascent was continued. They slanted more towards the southwest and again entered among thick bushes. There under the shade of the trees fluttered several couples of gallinaceae belonging to the pheasant species. They were tragopans, ornamented by a pendant skin which hangs over their throats, and by two small, round horns, planted behind the eyes. Among these birds, which were about the size of a fowl, the female was uniformly brown, while the male was gorgeous in his red plumage, decorated with white spots. Gideon Spilett, with a stone cleverly and vigorously thrown, killed one of these tragopans, on which Pencroft, made hungry by the fresh air, had cast greedy eyes. After leaving the region of bushes, the party, assisted by resting on each other’s shoulders, climbed for about a hundred feet up a steep acclivity and reached a level place, with very few trees, where the soil appeared volcanic. It was necessary to ascend by zigzags to make the slope more easy, for it was very steep, and the footing being exceedingly precarious required the greatest caution. Neb and Herbert took the lead, Pencroft the rear, the captain and the reporter between them. The animals which frequented these heights—and there were numerous traces of them—must necessarily belong to those races of sure foot and supple spine, chamois or goat. Several were seen, but this was not the name Pencroft gave them, for all of a sudden—“Sheep!” he shouted. All stopped about fifty feet from half-a-dozen animals of a large size, with strong horns bent back and flattened towards the point, with a woolly fleece, hidden under long silky hair of a tawny color. They were not ordinary sheep, but a species usually found in the mountainous regions of the temperate zone, to which Herbert gave the name of the musmon. “Have they legs and chops?” asked the sailor. “Yes,” replied Herbert. “Well, then, they are sheep!” said Pencroft. The animals, motionless among the blocks of basalt, gazed with an astonished eye, as if they saw human bipeds for the first time. Then their fears suddenly aroused, they disappeared, bounding over the rocks. “Good-bye, till we meet again,” cried Pencroft, as he watched them, in such a comical tone that Cyrus Harding, Gideon Spilett, Herbert, and Neb could not help laughing. The ascent was continued. Here and there were traces of lava. Sulphur springs sometimes stopped their way, and they had to go round them. In some places the sulphur had formed crystals among other substances, such as whitish cinders made of an infinity of little feldspar crystals. In approaching the first plateau formed by the truncating of the lower cone, the difficulties of the ascent were very great. Towards four o’clock the extreme zone of the trees had been passed. There only remained here and there a few twisted, stunted pines, which must have had a hard life in resisting at this altitude the high winds from the open sea. Happily for the engineer and his companions the weather was beautiful, the atmosphere tranquil; for a high breeze at an elevation of three thousand feet would have hindered their proceedings. The purity of the sky at the zenith was felt through the transparent air. A perfect calm reigned around them. They could not see the sun, then hid by the vast screen of the upper cone, which masked the half-horizon of the west, and whose enormous shadow stretching to the shore increased as the radiant luminary sank in its diurnal course. Vapor—mist rather than clouds—began to appear in the east, and assume all the prismatic colors under the influence of the solar rays. Five hundred feet only separated the explorers from the plateau, which they wished to reach so as to establish there an encampment for the night, but these five hundred feet were increased to more than two miles by the zigzags which they had to describe. The soil, as it were, slid under their feet. The slope often presented such an angle that they slipped when the stones worn by the air did not give a sufficient support. Evening came on by degrees, and it was almost night when Cyrus Harding and his companions, much fatigued by an ascent of seven hours, arrived at the plateau of the first cone. It was then necessary to prepare an encampment, and to restore their strength by eating first and sleeping afterwards. This second stage of the mountain rose on a base of rocks, among which it would be easy to find a retreat. Fuel was not abundant. However, a fire could be made by means of the moss and dry brushwood, which covered certain parts of the plateau. While the sailor was preparing his hearth with stones which he put to this use, Neb and Herbert occupied themselves with getting a supply of fuel. They soon returned with a load of brushwood. The steel was struck, the burnt linen caught the sparks of flint, and, under Neb’s breath, a crackling fire showed itself in a few minutes under the shelter of the rocks. Their object in lighting a fire was only to enable them to withstand the cold temperature of the night, as it was not employed in cooking the bird, which Neb kept for the next day. The remains of the capybara and some dozens of the stone-pine almonds formed their supper. It was not half-past six when all was finished. Cyrus Harding then thought of exploring in the half-light the large circular layer which supported the upper cone of the mountain. Before taking any rest, he wished to know if it was possible to get round the base of the cone in the case of its sides being too steep and its summit being inaccessible. This question preoccupied him, for it was possible that from the way the hat inclined, that is to say, towards the north, the plateau was not practicable. Also, if the summit of the mountain could not be reached on one side, and if, on the other, they could not get round the base of the cone, it would be impossible to survey the western part of the country, and their object in making the ascent would in part be altogether unattained. The engineer, accordingly, regardless of fatigue, leaving Pencroft and Neb to arrange the beds, and Gideon Spilett to note the incidents of the day, began to follow the edge of the plateau, going towards the north. Herbert accompanied him. The night was beautiful and still, the darkness was not yet deep. Cyrus Harding and the boy walked near each other, without speaking. In some places the plateau opened before them, and they passed without hindrance. In others, obstructed by rocks, there was only a narrow path, in which two persons could not walk abreast. After a walk of twenty minutes, Cyrus Harding and Herbert were obliged to stop. From this point the slope of the two cones became one. No shoulder here separated the two parts of the mountain. The slope, being inclined almost seventy degrees, the path became impracticable. But if the engineer and the boy were obliged to give up thoughts of following a circular direction, in return an opportunity was given for ascending the cone. In fact, before them opened a deep hollow. It was the rugged mouth of the crater, by which the eruptive liquid matter had escaped at the periods when the volcano was still in activity. Hardened lava and crusted scoria formed a sort of natural staircase of large steps, which would greatly facilitate the ascent to the summit of the mountain. Harding took all this in at a glance, and without hesitating, followed by the lad, he entered the enormous chasm in the midst of an increasing obscurity. There was still a height of a thousand feet to overcome. Would the interior acclivities of the crater be practicable? It would soon be seen. The persevering engineer resolved to continue his ascent until he was stopped. Happily these acclivities wound up the interior of the volcano and favored their ascent. As to the volcano itself, it could not be doubted that it was completely extinct. No smoke escaped from its sides; not a flame could be seen in the dark hollows; not a roar, not a mutter, no trembling even issued from this black well, which perhaps reached far into the bowels of the earth. The atmosphere inside the crater was filled with no sulphurous vapor. It was more than the sleep of a volcano; it was its complete extinction. Cyrus Harding’s attempt would succeed. Little by little, Herbert and he climbing up the sides of the interior, saw the crater widen above their heads. The radius of this circular portion of the sky, framed by the edge of the cone, increased obviously. At each step, as it were, that the explorers made, fresh stars entered the field of their vision. The magnificent constellations of the southern sky shone resplendently. At the zenith glittered the splendid Antares in the Scorpion, and not far was Alpha Centauri, which is believed to be the nearest star to the terrestrial globe. Then, as the crater widened, appeared Fomalhaut of the Fish, the Southern Triangle, and lastly, nearly at the Antarctic Pole, the glittering Southern Cross, which replaces the Polar Star of the Northern Hemisphere. It was nearly eight o’clock when Cyrus Harding and Herbert set foot on the highest ridge of the mountain at the summit of the cone. It was then perfectly dark, and their gaze could not extend over a radius of two miles. Did the sea surround this unknown land, or was it connected in the west with some continent of the Pacific? It could not yet be made out. Towards the west, a cloudy belt, clearly visible at the horizon, increased the gloom, and the eye could not discover if the sky and water were blended together in the same circular line. But at one point of the horizon a vague light suddenly appeared, which descended slowly in proportion as the cloud mounted to the zenith. It was the slender crescent moon, already almost disappearing; but its light was sufficient to show clearly the horizontal line, then detached from the cloud, and the engineer could see its reflection trembling for an instant on a liquid surface. Cyrus Harding seized the lad’s hand, and in a grave voice,— “An island!” said he, at the moment when the lunar crescent disappeared beneath the waves. 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. Jules Verne (1998). The Mysterious Island. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1268/1268-h/1268-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 , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

Stories, News & Mentions about BOTPRESS

Botpress’s Stories on HackerNoon

Botpress's News & Mentions