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Fortive Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and services professional and engineered products, software, and services worldwide. Its Intelligent Operating Solutions segment offers connected reliability tools; environment, health, safety, and quality enterprise software products; facility and asset lifecycle software; pre-construction planning and construction procurement solutions; ruggedized professional test tools; electric, pressure, and temperature calibration tools; and portable gas detection tools for a range of vertical end markets including manufacturing, process industries, healthcare, utilities and power, communications and electronics, and others. It markets its products and services under the ACCRUENT, FLUKE, GORDIAN, INDUSTRIAL SCIENTIFIC, INTELEX, PRUFTECHNIK, and SERVICECHANNEL brands. The company's Precision Technologies segment provides electrical test and measurement instruments and services; energetic material devices; and sensor and control system solutions for power and energy, medical equipment, food and beverage, aerospace and defense, off-highway vehicles, electronics, semiconductors, and other general industrial markets. This segment markets its products under the ANDERSON-NEGELE, GEMS, SETRA, HENGSTLER-DYNAPAR, QUALITROL, PACIFIC SCIENTIFIC, KEITHLEY, and TEKTRONIX brands. Its Advanced Healthcare Solutions segment offers hardware and software products and services, including instrument and device reprocessing, instrument tracking, biomedical test tools, radiation safety monitoring, and asset management services; subscription-based surgical inventory management systems to facilitate inventory management and regulatory compliance, as well as technical, analytical, and compliance services to determine radiation exposure services under the ASP, CENSIS, CENSITRAC, EVOTECH, FLUKE BIOMEDICAL, INVETECH, LANDAUER, RAYSAFE, and STERRAD brands. Fortive Corporation was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in Everett, Washington.

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Rhumbline Advisers trimmed its position in Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV - Free Report) by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 649,142 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 7,

Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV) Shares Sold by Rhumbline Advisers - MarketBeat

A Modern Utopia: The Bubble Bursts

Via FunGi_ (Trading) I’ve been writing code since I was an awkward middle schooler. I’ll never forget creating my AOL homepage with a seizure-inducing , , and . I begged my dad to drop me off at school early the next day so I could try and access the page from the library computer. repeating background under construction gif faux visitor counter Now that I’m an awkward adult, there have been a couple more magical moments in front of a computer screen. My most recent? A year ago, I solved my first (trivial) machine learning problem. I was blown away at the ability to connect something so human to bits and bytes. Since that machine learning awakening I’ve been diving in . I’m not an expert by any means, but I’d love to give you a smoother onramp than my own. hard There’s three things I hope to leave you with: Be comfortable talking about machine learning in conversation. See what it looks like to solve a machine learning problem in code. A couple of hand-picked resources to get you going. Defining the machine learning ecosystem is as complicated as defining love Love means lots of things to different people. Lots of smart people have defined it in many great ways. The ecosystem around machine learning can generate this same confusion. Thankfully, I think if you master just five topics, you’ll be in the 90th percentile of conversational ML: Machine Learning Data Science Artificial Intelligence Software 2.0 Applied Machine Learning I’ll start with the most concrete definition: machine learning. Machine Learning Machine learning is the study of computer algorithms that improve automatically through experience. Professor and Former Chair of the Machine Learning Department at Carnegie Mellon University, Tom M. Mitchell The better the data you feed into a machine learning algorithm, the better the algorithm will perform. We’re not modifying machine learning algorithms to improve our results: we’re modifying the data. : in 1952, Arthur Samuel wrote the first computer learning program. It played checkers. So, why do you hear so much about machine learning today? Machine learning isn’t new It goes back to data. We’re able to store a lot of data very cheaply today. Our computers can process this data very efficiently. This is making our ML models better and more widespread. Data Science A data scientist is an expert at extracting nuggets of knowledge from a lot of information. And, they can do this very quickly. A data scientist will use machine learning, but it’s only one of the tools in their tool set. Artificial Intelligence Like love, smart people define Artificial Intelligence (AI) in different ways. - via Andrew Ng, Co-Founder Google Brain AI is akin to building a rocket ship. You need a huge engine and a lot of fuel. Andrew Ng , Co-Founder Google Brain Some folks tie AI tightly to machine learning. This is understandable in today’s climate: much of the innovation in AI is powered by our more powerful machine learning models. In fact, it’s not uncommon to hear folks use AI and ML interchangeably. Then there’s a more broad definition: Artificial intelligence is the science and engineering of making computers behave in ways that, until recently, we thought required human intelligence. Andrew Moore, Dean of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University AI? By this definition, wouldn’t a calculator be AI at the time it was introduced? Adding numbers was certainly something that we thought required human intelligence. Today, a calculator would not be considered AI but a self-driving car is. In thirty years, it’s likely a self-driving car will be as commonplace as a pocket calculator. Which definition is correct? I don’t know! Just be aware that some folks will go broad and others will align AI more tightly with the ML-fueled AI boom of today. Software 2.0 Software 1.0 is code we write. Software 2.0 is code written by the optimization based on an evaluation criterion (such as “classify this training data correctly”). Andrej Karpathy , Director of AI @ Tesla My background is a Software 1.0 kind-of-guy. The hard work is in maintaining a growing nest of algorithms. In software 2.0, the work shifts from algorithms — which we don’t create — to the data we feed in for training and evaluation. While I agree on the difference between these two styles of software, I find the naming of Software 2.0 unfortunate. Software 2.0 is being applied to new problems — detecting cancer, driving cards, identifying sentiment — not replacing old work. Applied vs. Research Machine Learning Are you baking bread or building ovens? — Photo Credit: lazy fri13th Imagine hiring a chef to build you an oven or an electrical engineer to bake bread for you…that’s the kind of mistake I see…over and over. Cassie Kozyrkov , Chief Decision Intelligence Engineer, Google For years, companies have preferred to hire folks with PhDs in machine-learning-related fields to solve problems with machine learning. Today, many problems can be solved by open-source ML algorithms. The challenge — as always in ML — is in the data. Having a post-grad degree in an ML-related field is still a great asset. However, if you’re more interested in applying ML than learning how models work, you probably don’t need to go back to school. Hello World — classifying handwritten digits A sample of the dataset is one of the most famous “hello world” problems in machine learning. With solid accuracy, you can solve this problem in just a few lines of code. It’s magical. Classifying handwritten digits There are kernels that solve this problem. I’m going to skip the plumbing (importing libraries) and get right into the meat of the problem. many Kaggle The dataset We’re given a collection of 70k handwritten digits and their associated labels. Each digit is actually an array of 728 integers. Each integer is a grayscale range from 0–256. The higher the number, the darker the pixel. This array can be arranged into a grid 28 pixels in width and 28 pixels in height: Each instance of our dataset is an array of 728 values. The higher the value, the darker the pixel in the image. Splitting the dataset into a training and test set The first step in every ML problem is splitting the entire dataset into a training and test set. We train the model on the training set. only Why would we data when an ML model gets better with more data? exclude If we trained our model with all of the 70k handwritten digits, we’d still need a way to evaluate its accuracy on data it hasn’t seen. Think about how much work (and how much time it would take) to digitize handwritten digits! By not fitting our model to the test set, we can see how it performs against pretend real-world data . immediately Picking a model Now that we have our data properly split, it’s time to train a model! A good model to start with is a Random Forest Classifier. This is a fairly simple model that produces solid results with little tuning. Random forest builds multiple decision trees and merges them together to get a more accurate and stable prediction. Niklas Donges in The Random Forest Algorithm . Training a Random Forest Classifier We can initialize and train our model in just two lines: …and it worked: Accuracy We can see how the model performs against the test set by measuring its accuracy (the percentage of time the model correctly classified a 3 as a 3, a 4 as 4, etc.): For two lines of code, we’re about 80% accurate. If I wrote a Software 1.0-style algorithm to do this, I doubt I’d get to this accuracy and it’d take me a lot longer! But, we can do better! The astute of you might have noticed I only trained the model on 1,000 instances of the training set. Remember how ML algorithms get better with more data? Let us use all of the 60,000 training instances and get the new accuracy score: The ML Hype Roller Coaster Right now, we’re at peak hype in this article: two lines of code, 95% accuracy! Why was this so effortless? What’s the usual answer for anything ML? If I asked you to solve this problem without a dataset, you’d need a lot of time to put that data set together. You might start with 5k images, then notice the model doesn’t classify 3s well, then increase the images and hit a new issue, and so on. The data! Training, fitting, and evaluating the results of ML models is pretty easy today. Data is tedious and hard. ML Diving Board If I haven’t scared you off, there’s a couple of resources I recommend to get you going: — this is an excellent book for applied ML. You’ll start solving problems almost immediately. Hands on Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn and TensorFlow — there are many of these. , there’s an excellent group that meets weekly. Data Science Meetups Here in Fort Collins — an excellent and funny blog post that that covers the ML landscape in much better detail than this. Machine Learning for Everyone — a community for data scientists. Enter competitions, view kernels from others, find a dataset, and more. Kaggle In Closing The breadth of use cases for machine learning is so large it can be difficult to choose where to begin. I hope the above is enough to help you focus and get started! Oh — and it’s all about the data.

No PhD? No problem! Machine Learning for the rest of us

Philochristus: Memoirs of a Disciple of the Lord by Edwin Abbott Abbott is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . How the Forgiveness of Sins is the Key that openeth the New Kingdom; and how the Old Law and the New Law must not be mixed. here How the Forgiveness of Sins is the Key that openeth the New Kingdom; and how the Old Law and the New Law must not be mixed. By this time the autumn was come round, and it wanted but a few days to the tenth day of the month Tisri, which is the Great Day of Atonement. Now so it was that, when we arose on a certain morning (in the first week, as I remember, of the month Tisri), behold, Jesus was not in the house, and when we sought him, we found him on the shore musing; insomuch that at first he was not aware of our presence. But when he saw us, he bade Simon Peter prepare his fishing-boat, for he desired to go out into the deep. So Simon Peter and Andrew launched the boat, and I with them; and Jesus went on board, and there he sat, still musing, while we made ready the tackling and the nets. While we busied ourselves herein, many of the sailors and fishermen of the town came down to the coast and began to launch their vessels; for the day was fair for fishing. Now there was standing on the beach the hunchback Barachiah, the son of Zadok: for his custom was to beg of the sailors, and to do for them such small services as he was able. But he was hated of the most part of the sailors by reason of his envious and malignant disposition, and because he could not refrain from reproaches and revilings. Moreover they accused him that he had sometimes mislaid or hurt their tackling. Others also said that he had an evil eye and brought evil fortune. Wherefore he fared ill with the sailors, and even when they gave him alms, it was as to a dog or an unclean creature: and oftentimes they struck him when he crossed them. Now it chanced that while we made ready our nets, behold, a certain merchant, coming down to the water, stumbled upon a stone and fell against Barachiah. Then Barachiah cried out in anger, “Wast thou born with a bridle in thy hand that thou shouldst treat thy brethren as if they were mules or asses?” But the other replied, “Yea, and thou wast born with a saddle on thy back, that I might ride upon thee.” So saying, he spurned Barachiah out of his path, so that he fell to the ground: and hereat all the sailors laughed. Not long after this there came down two sailors, nigh to the place where Barachiah sat wiping the blood from his face; and one of them spake to the hunchback some words, I know not what, but, as it appeared, of kindness. Then straightway Barachiah rose up and went with the man, and willingly helped him to launch his boat and to prepare his tackling. And the man’s companion laughed and said, “Whence hast thou the power to soften the heart of that child of Satan?” But when Barachiah was departed, the sailor answered that he had in times past shown kindness to a brother of Barachiah, that was now dead; and he added in jest, “In all men there be two hearts, a heart of stone and a heart of flesh: and Barachiah hath his heart of flesh, even as others, though he be a child of Satan.” “Nay,” replied the other, “but if there be a heart of flesh in Barachiah, it would need Solomon’s ring to find out where it is hid.” And so jesting they rowed out into the deep. Now I perceived that Jesus noted all these words of the two sailors, and likewise that which had befallen Barachiah, and while he listened and looked, the appearance of his countenance was altered; for before, he had seemed in his musing like one waiting for an answer to a question, but now like one that had received an answer. Howbeit still he mused and ceased not, while we rowed out into the deep, and busied ourselves with casting our nets. But so it was that, as we rowed and drifted hither and thither in our fishing, we were carried very close to the coast, where the rocks came straight down to the sea after the manner of a wall; and suddenly we heard a piteous sound as of bleating. When we looked up, we saw a lamb, which had strayed from the flock, and had come to a stand upon a ledge in the rock, exceeding narrow, so that it could not go forward, neither knew it how to turn back: but there it stood, and bleated often and piteously, so that our hearts were sorry for the creature, and we would fain have helped it, but knew not how; for there was not space to land. But while we hung upon our oars not knowing what to do, Peter cried out, “The shepherd cometh”; and presently we all discerned him, very high up, and clambering from rock to rock for to reach the lamb. And when we all shouted and beckoned to him, he straightway understood us, and coming down, though with much ado, took the lamb on his shoulders and bore it safely away. Hereat we were all well content; but when I looked on Jesus, his face shone with an exceeding joy, too great, methought, for so small a matter, so that I marvelled. For there was no more in his countenance the look of one questioning, but rather of one gazing upon the glory of God. Then when we had hauled in the net, he gave command that we should row back to Capernaum. Now the next day Jesus showed forth what he had on his mind. For about noon he went down to the place where one Matthew a tax-gatherer was sitting at the house of customs near the quay. And for a while Jesus beheld him, how he bore himself amid all the concourse and stir of that busy place; then he drew nigh, and called Matthew to be one of his disciples, saying unto him, “Follow me.” And Matthew arose and followed him and bade him to a great feast in his house on the same day, and thereto he called many of his acquaintance, both tax-gatherers and sinners, and others of the poorer sort; and Jesus promised that he would come to the feast. But when this was noised about the town, the anger of the Pharisees was great; for they counted it as a sign that Jesus would not join himself to them, nor do anything to gain their favour. But as for the sailors and common people, some rejoiced, others marvelled; insomuch that when we came to Matthew’s house, we found a great concourse of people both round the doors and in the feast-chamber. Now as we entered the chamber, I could not but chafe somewhat for the baseness of the company with whom we were forced to consort. For they were all unlearned men, and given to vain conversation; and many of them had not washed before supper; and the savour of their garments and the heat of the room were scarce to be borne. Moreover I saw at one of the tables Barachiah the son of Zadok, and others with whom I should never have expected to sit at meat. Then the words of Jonathan the son of Ezra came back to my mind, how he had said that Jesus was misled, in that he knew not the evil nature of men; nor could I refrain from imparting these words to Nathanael, who was my companion at the table. But Nathanael answered that I erred greatly, for that Jesus knew the evil that was in men better than any man, and hated it more than any man: “But,” said he, “the evil of unwashed hands and unsavoury garments doth not seem to Jesus the greatest of evils.” “But,” said I, “these men are given to other sins; and how cometh it to pass that Jesus beareth with the sins of these men, but doth not bear with the Scribes, who do not commit such sins?” Then said Nathanael, “As it seemeth to me, there is a certain light in the hearts of men; and whoso hath this light in him, loveth light, and is drawn towards the light whenever the light is placed near to him, even though he may have turned his back upon the light: and thus these sinners are drawn towards Jesus. But if a man for many years make it his business to quench the light in himself, because he feareth it; then he cannot love the light, nor can he be drawn towards it, even though it be very close to him. Even as the Pharisees fear the light in themselves, and say there is no light save in the Law and the Traditions. Therefore they quench the light in their hearts and cannot see the true light; and they destroy the Word of God in their hearts, and cannot hear the true Word.” “But,” said I, “if there be stripped off fine-sounding words from thy speech, to what is the matter like? It is as though thou shouldst say, ‘It is better that a man should commit murder and adultery and theft (provided that he love righteousness), than that he should abstain from all these sins, but not love righteousness.’ ” “Thou knowest well,” replied Nathanael, “that according to a man’s love of righteousness will be his hatred of sin; and whoso really hateth sin, he cannot live therein. Yet what thou sayest is true; there is more hope of the vilest sinner than of the man that hath in his heart no love of righteousness.” I mused for a while, and then I said, “Thou speakest of hope: but doth it seem to thee truthful, looking upon a bad man, to say, this man is good, merely because thou mayest have hopes that he may become good?” But before Nathanael could make answer, there came into my mind the words of the sailor, that “If Barachiah the son of Zadok had a heart of flesh as well as a heart of stone, it would need Solomon’s ring to find out where the heart of flesh was hid;” so I told the words to Nathanael. Straightway Nathanael looked toward the place were Barachiah was sitting at table; and then he turned to me and said, “And hath not our Master the ring of Solomon?” Then I also looked at Barachiah; and I marvelled to see what a gentleness there was in his countenance. But Jesus was at that instant beginning a discourse; so we ceased conversing that we might hearken unto it. The discourse told of a certain son of a kind father, who, taking his patrimony, wandered into a distant city, where he squandered his substance in riotous living, so that he was forced to keep swine like an hireling; but returning to his father he was welcomed. Other like parables he spake: and all the people were marvellously attentive to hear him. Notwithstanding, Jesus would not always discourse himself alone: for he gladly heard others, and by questions led many to speak, questioning them with courtesy in no way akin to condescension (even as a brother meeting brothers after long absence); the merchants concerning foreign countries; the officers of the customs concerning the commerce and wares of the place; the mariners and soldiers concerning the ships and currents and strong places and fortresses whereof they severally had knowledge. With all these common people did Jesus converse, and to each, methought, he added somewhat of his own nature. And so it was that amid all that concourse of vulgar and unlearned people and boors (as the Scribes would have called them), not one did or said anything unworthy of the presence of our Master. Thus did Jesus give to others, and lo, they gave back to him good measure into his bosom, pressed down and running over, according to his own saying. But when he rose up to go, behold, Barachiah the son of Zadok also rose up in haste, and coming to Jesus he fell down on his knees before him, and besought him that he would forgive all the slanders and revilings which he had used concerning Jesus and concerning his disciples. And Jesus both forgave him and blessed him. And from that hour even to the day of his death Barachiah was a new creature; insomuch that he was no longer known among them of Capernaum as the viper, or the child of Satan, but they called him “the changed man.” But as Jesus was now going forth, two of the disciples of John the son of Zachariah came unto him. For they had been present in the chamber, though they had not partaken of the feast; and they marvelled at the cheerfulness of Jesus, because he ate bread and drank wine and conversed freely with the common people, not after the manner of their master. So they were offended at Jesus, and said to him, “Master, why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?” Now John himself had called Jesus the Bridegroom of Israel. Jesus therefore, using these same words, answered and said, “Can the children of the bride-chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?” Then he turned and looked at us, and his face was sorrowful; and he added, “But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast in those days.” Then first did Jesus speak concerning his departure from his disciples: and he meant, perchance, that as John the Prophet had been taken from the midst of his disciples, so also would he himself be taken away from us; for the Lord had revealed unto him that Israel was not to be redeemed easily, nor without much tribulation. But by what power he should be thus taken, whether by imprisonment (as had befallen John), or by death of violence (as was shortly to befall John), or by death in course of nature, concerning these things he said naught at this time. But we neither understood his words, neither took we thought of them. But as we came forth, we met Eliezer the son of Arak, and the chief ruler of the synagogue, and many of the elders of the synagogue; and they looked at us with sore displeasure. And the chief ruler did not restrain himself, but said to Jesus aloud in the presence of us all, “Is it even so that thou wouldst fain be Ruler over Israel? Behold, on thy side are Matthew the tax-gatherer, and Barachiah the child of Satan, and Mary the sinner; but on my side are Eliezer the son of Arak and all the elders of the synagogue. Is it not better to be the tail of a lion rather than the head of a dog?” But when Jesus noted how certain of the sinners feared to stand before the faces of Eliezer the son of Arak, and of the ruler of the synagogue, and how they were shaken in their faith and abashed (for that they were accustomed to be despised and to be trampled on, as being without all hope of redemption); then was he exceeding wrath, and he answered and said unto the ruler of the synagogue, “Woe unto the world because of offences: for it must needs be that offences come: but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh.” Then he pointed to the sinners behind him (whom he was wont to call “little ones,” because they were babes in faith), and he spake again to the chief ruler and his party, saying, “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. For the Son of Man is come to save that which was lost.” Then Eliezer the son of Arak interrupted him and said, “Why eatest thou, contrary to the Traditions, with tax-gatherers and sinners?” But Jesus answered and said, “How think ye? If a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety-and-nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep than of the ninety-and-nine which went not astray.” “But,” said another of the Scribes, “why dost thou shun and rebuke the righteous? What evil is it not to be a sinner?” When Jesus heard that, he said unto him, “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that be sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” So saying, he passed on and left the Pharisees, and we followed him. Now Andrew and Simon Peter had been disciples of John the son of Zachariah, before they had joined themselves to Jesus. In the evening, therefore, they resorted to Jesus to question him touching the answer he had that day given to John’s disciples concerning fasting. I was with them, and also Judas of Kerioth, and a certain Eleazar the son of Azariah, a Scribe of Sepphoris and a friend of Jonathan. Now Eleazar did not venture to advise Jesus to use shifts and subterfuges so as to keep friendship with the Pharisees; but he said that perchance such sinners as might be converted to the path of righteousness might not be able to continue therein, unless the path were fenced in by rules and laws, feasts, fasts, and other like ordinances. He also bade Jesus not separate himself from the congregation; for said he, “Whatsoever is decreed by the congregation below, that is decreed by the congregation above; and what is ratified on earth is ratified in heaven; and with whomsoever the spirit of men is pleased the Spirit of God is pleased.” But Jesus answered that as new wine was not like unto old wine, nor a new garment like an old garment, even so the doctrine of John was not like unto his doctrine; neither could the two be mixed. The doctrine of the Pharisees also, he said, was not like his doctrine, and the two kinds of doctrine needed two several and distinct shapes, even as several kinds of wine need several bottles. When Eleazar heard this, he went out; for these words seemed to him (as he said to John the son of Zebedee) to be a kind of proclaiming of war against the Pharisees; so that there appeared no longer any hope of concord between Jesus and them. Judas also, although he still seemed strangely perturbed, and spake less than was his wont, nevertheless said that a great gulf was opening itself between our Master and the Pharisees; “and,” said he, “unless something is speedily done, this gulf will be impassable.” Many also that had been disciples of John the Prophet murmured against Jesus, because he had promised to fulfil the Law and had been expected to follow in the course of John, but now he went contrary to the Law and was for choosing a path of his own. For at that time in Galilee they that honoured John the Prophet were more than they that honoured Jesus of Nazareth. But for my part my soul was given up to thanksgiving and to praise of God, because of this new power which He had sent down to men, of forgiving sins. For if it seemed a divine word to say “Let there be light,” and there was light, much more divine a word it seemed to say, “Let there be righteousness,” and lo, there was righteousness. And when I remembered the saying of the sailor, how that it needed Solomon’s ring to find out the heart of flesh in bad men, and when I called to mind how Jesus had found it out, then it seemed to me that a greater than Solomon was among us. I thought also on the words of Nathanael, how that, in the day of Redemption, the Holy One (blessed is He) will bring the Evil Nature and slay him in the presence of the righteous and of the wicked; and my thoughts were swallowed up in wonder. 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. Edwin Abbott Abbott (2015). Philochristus: Memoirs of a Disciple of the Lord. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/48843/pg48843-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

How the Forgiveness of Sins is the Key that openeth the New Kingdom;

Concerning the new power of the Forgiveness of Sins.

THE SMALL HOUSE AT ALLINGTON—CAN YOU FORGIVE HER?—RACHEL RAY—AND THE FORTNIGHTLY
REVIEW.

Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. Read this book online for free on HackerNoon! : Can You Forgive Her? Title : Anthony Trollope Author : November 16, 2006 [eBook #19500] Most recently updated: July 4, 2023 Release date : English Language TABLE OF LINKS Volume I I. Mr. Vavasor and His Daughter. II. Lady Macleod. III. John Grey, the Worthy Man. IV. George Vavasor, the Wild Man. V. The Balcony at Basle. VI. The Bridge over the Rhine. VII. Aunt Greenow. VIII. Mr. Cheesacre. IX. The Rivals. X. Nethercoats. XI. John Grey Goes to London. XII. Mr. George Vavasor at Home. XIII. Mr. Grimes Gets His Odd Money. XIV. Alice Vavasor Becomes Troubled. XV. Paramount Crescent. XVI. The Roebury Club. XVII. Edgehill. XVIII. Alice Vavasor's Great Relations. XIX. Tribute from Oileymead. XX. Which Shall It Be? XXI. Alice Is Taught to Grow Upwards, Towards the Light. XXII. Dandy and Flirt. XXIII. Dinner at Matching Priory. XXIV. Three Politicians. XXV. In Which Much of the History of the Pallisers Is Told. XXVI. Lady Midlothian. XXVII. The Priory Ruins. XXVIII. Alice Leaves the Priory. XXIX. Burgo Fitzgerald. XXX. Containing a Love Letter. XXXI. Among the Fells. XXXII. Containing an Answer to the Love Letter. XXXIII. Monkshade. XXXIV. Mr. Vavasor Speaks to His Daughter. XXXV. Passion versus Prudence. XXXVI. John Grey Goes a Second Time to London. XXXVII. Mr. Tombe's Advice. XXXVIII. The Inn at Shap. XXXIX. Mr. Cheesacre's Hospitality. XL. Mrs. Greenow's Little Dinner in the Close. Volume II. XLI. A Noble Lord Dies. XLII. Parliament Meets. XLIII. Mrs. Marsham. XLIV. The Election for the Chelsea Districts. XLV. George Vavasor Takes His Seat. XLVI. A Love Gift. XLVII. Mr. Cheesacre's Disappointment. XLVIII. Preparations for Lady Monk's Party. XLIX. How Lady Glencora Went to Lady Monk's Party. L. How Lady Glencora Came Back from Lady Monk's Party. LI. Bold Speculations on Murder. LII. What Occurred in Suffolk Street, Pall Mall. LIII. The Last Will of the Old Squire. LIV. Showing How Alice Was Punished. LV. The Will. LVI. Another Walk on the Fells. LVII. Showing How the Wild Beast Got Himself Back from the Mountains. LVIII. The Pallisers at Breakfast. LIX. The Duke of St. Bungay in Search of a Minister. LX. Alice Vavasor's Name Gets into the Money Market. LXI. The Bills Are Made All Right. LXII. Going Abroad. LXIII. Mr. John Grey in Queen Anne Street. LXIV. The Rocks and Valleys. LXV. The First Kiss. LXVI. Lady Monk's Plan. LXVII. The Last Kiss. LXVIII. From London to Baden. LXIX. From Baden to Lucerne. LXX. At Lucerne. LXXI. Showing How George Vavasor Received a Visit. LXXII. Showing How George Vavasor Paid a Visit. LXXIII. In Which Come Tidings of Great Moment to All Pallisers. LXXIV. Showing What Happened in the Churchyard. LXXV. Rouge et Noir. LXXVI. The Landlord's Bill. LXXVII. The Travellers Return Home. LXXVIII. Mr. Cheesacre's Fate. LXXIX. Diamonds Are Diamonds. LXXX. The Story Is Finished Within the Halls of the Duke of Omnium. 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 (2006). Can You Forgive Her?. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/19500/pg19500-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

Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope - Table of Links

HEPT MOVES ON

Job Scam Alert: The "Data Provider" Pyramid Scheme

চাকরির স্ক্যাম সতর্কতা: "ডেটা প্রদানকারী" পিরামিড স্কিম

Job-Betrugswarnung: Das Pyramidensystem des „Datenanbieters“

Alerta de estafa laboral: el esquema piramidal del "proveedor de datos"

Alerte à l'arnaque à l'emploi : le système pyramidal du "fournisseur de données"

नौकरी घोटाला चेतावनी: "डेटा प्रदाता" पिरामिड योजना

求人詐欺警告: 「データプロバイダー」ねずみ講

직업 사기 경고: "데이터 제공자" 피라미드 계획

Alerta de golpe de trabalho: o esquema de pirâmide do "provedor de dados"

Предупреждение о мошенничестве с вакансиями: финансовая пирамида «Поставщик данных»

İş Dolandırıcılığı Uyarısı: "Veri Sağlayıcı" Piramit Şeması

Cảnh báo lừa đảo việc làm: Lược đồ kim tự tháp "Nhà cung cấp dữ liệu"

求职诈骗警报：“数据提供商”金字塔骗局

A Dozen (or so) Learnings From 15 Years of Software Incident Management

সফ্টওয়্যার ঘটনা ব্যবস্থাপনার 15 বছর থেকে এক ডজন (বা তাই) শিক্ষা

Ein Dutzend (oder so) Erkenntnisse aus 15 Jahren Software-Vorfallmanagement

Una docena (más o menos) de aprendizajes de 15 años de gestión de incidentes de software

Une douzaine (ou deux) d'enseignements tirés de 15 ans de gestion des incidents logiciels

सॉफ्टवेयर घटना प्रबंधन के 15 वर्षों से एक दर्जन (या लगभग) सीखें

15 年間のソフトウェア インシデント管理から学んだ 12 の教訓

15년간의 소프트웨어 사고 관리 경험을 통해 얻은 12가지 정도의 교훈

Uma dúzia (ou mais) de aprendizados de 15 anos de gerenciamento de incidentes de software

Дюжина (или около того) уроков за 15 лет управления инцидентами с программным обеспечением

15 Yıllık Yazılım Olay Yönetiminden Bir Düzine (ya da O Kadar) Ders

Hàng chục (hoặc hơn) bài học từ 15 năm quản lý sự cố phần mềm

从 15 年的软件事故管理中学到的十几个经验

I press her thumb against the iPad and I’m in. I scan Trixie’s Contacts and Calendar first, though I don’t expect to learn anything that could point to why I am about to torture the tablet’s owner. Aside from a sudden, negative shift in church attendance dating back several months, Trixie seems, on the surface, to be just a normal twelve-year-old. I know better than to trust a first impression, though. We are taught to use how we appear to manipulate others, which traits and behaviors serve to erase our threat risk and thus be readily forgotten. There must be a reason then, something, to justify God’s requirement that pubescent Trixie die slowly and in pain. I’ll feel much better once I understand. Her social media won’t lie. As my finger stretches towards her Messages icon, I panic — or come as close to it as my kind do. I have broken a cardinal rule — I never disabled the tablet’s location services. The cops might already have us surrounded. Less than a minute later, Trixie’s iPad is off the grid and I’m crawling towards the vertical Venetians in the company’s front window the long way, slithering between the furniture in quick, brief bursts and listening for any sound louder than my heartbeat. Lying along the front wall, I put my ear to the linoleum and listen for car doors and running feet. One minute becomes two, and then five. Nothing. But I want to be sure, so I stay motionless and wonder why I’ve never paid luck it’s due respect. I was taught that luck is a loser’s hope, which smacks of irony, considering who gives us our orders. Still, I press my ear against the rear exit but hear nothing. It’s cooler now, I notice when I ease the door open, and a security light above my head reveals an alley waiting for garbage pick up. Good, I say to myself as I loosen the bulb and remove it. Places to hide. A glance tells me she’s still out but she’s breathing right, so I pull up a chair and settle in to uncover exactly who my victim is. Messages, , . I go through it all, and nothing even hints at her sins. The sole topic that echoed through every one of her social life was her profound sorrow and later rage over a video clip of a masked youth torturing a puppy to death. Instagram TikTok Now there’s someone whose name I’d like to be assigned. Torture an innocent? My mind wanders momentarily at a parade of options and I find myself smiling. The front of the office brightens with the dawn as if to illuminate my sense of failure to detect the girl’s sins. There’s a folder labeled ‘School,’ but I can’t read it right now. When I lower the iPad, Trixie is staring at me. “Hi, Trixie,” I say and, smiling, head to the fridge. “I bet you’re thirsty. Hey, there’s cans of Coke in here.” I pull out two and set them on the counter. A couple of drawers later, I find some straws. “So, Trixie,” I continue, “I‘d be terrified if I woke up tied to a kitchen table in a strange place with a strange man, but note you are not naked, nor have you been hurt in any way. Other than the rap against your temple.” I open her soda and slip a straw through the hole in the tab. Holding it towards her, I go on, “I have not hurt you and don’t even want to, but right now, I’d like you to agree to trade the rag in your mouth for this drink. Nod if you will drink rather than scream. If you shout, the rag goes back and I drink your pop.” She’s clever. She nods and I pull the rag away. Turning her face towards me makes it easier to feed the straw into her mouth. The can is nearly empty when she releases the straw. “Why am I here?” She asks. “How do you know my name and who are you?” “My name is not important,” I tell her. “It changes so often that I sometimes feel I have no real identity, nor a personality beyond the demands of my work.” “What kind of work makes you lose yourself to do your job?” She is very clever, so much so there is no longer any fear in her eyes. “Think of me as kind of like a priest, but instead of granting forgiveness for sins, I determine the most appropriate punishment and then impose it.” “What will you do to me?” “That’s just it, Trixie,” I reply. “I have no idea, because I don’t understand why your name came up.” “Came up where?” “Look, I get sent after some really, really bad people, people who have done terrible things. It’s my job to make them feel the pain they caused others, so they understand the evil in their actions and repent before they die.” “So who told you to come for me?” “God.” She laughs. “God doesn’t exist.” It is a statement, spoken with the certainty she would have if she pointed at a dog and said, “That is a dog.” “He does,” I answer, “I am sworn to enact His Will on earth without question or hesitation, save for the manner He desires me to deliver it.” I drag my coin from my pocket and hold it out for her to see. It is solid gold and was minted within the Vatican itself. About an inch-and-a-half in diameter, it has the thickness of a casino chip and weighs enough that I can never forget I carry it. One side shows an anonymous face with a radiant smile, the other four parallel furrows and the claws that made them. And nothing else — no date, no inscription, nothing. “How does a coin prove God exists?” “Well, when I have identified my target,” I explain, “I flip this coin. If it lands heads-up, I simply terminate my quarry. But if it lands claws side up, then God is telling me He wishes the target to suffer everything they inflicted on others.” “It’s only chance,” Trixie replies. “Chance means with two sides, there are two possible results. Half the time it will land one way and half the time the other.” “Not so. I have sent dozens of the worst humanity has to offer to their deaths, worked out exquisite plans to force them to face and acknowledge what they’ve done, and have always been denied by this coin. It always lands on Heads.” “Always?” “Until last night. With you.” “God wants you to torture me? I’m innocent,” she says. “Like the puppy.” The puppy? That would make me — Fuck that. “What about the puppy video affected you the most?” “That God would let something like that happen,” she says. “If God existed, He would have rescued that puppy. He didn’t, so He doesn’t exist. I wrote a paper on it for school.” There it was. Twelve-year-old Trixie’s sin was that she stood up to God, challenged his omnipotence with rational arguments, and negated Him over His tolerance of evil. I knew what I had to do. But I need God’s input. I flip my coin. Tails. I’m good to go. “Trixie,” I tell her, “I have an idea. I’m not going to hurt you. In fact, I will untie you if you promise to listen to what I propose.” “I promise.” She helps herself to another soda and sits. “Trixie, what if God sent me to you to find the guy in the video and make him answer for what he’s done? Would you accept that as proof God exists?” “Almost,” she says. “There’s one other thing I want.” “Tell me.” “I want to be like you when I grow up.” “Deal,” I reply and hold out my hand to her. She’s back in her bed before anyone knows she wasn’t and I let her decide the punk’s punishments. Trixie has a promising future. Lead image by on ZSun Fu Unsplash

Heads & Tails: A Tale of Chance, Faith and Morality - Part 2

মাথা এবং লেজ: সম্ভাবনা, বিশ্বাস এবং নৈতিকতার গল্প - পার্ট 2

Kopf und Zahl: Eine Geschichte von Zufall, Glauben und Moral – Teil 2

Cara y Cruz: Una historia de azar, fe y moralidad - Parte 2

Pile & Face : Une histoire de hasard, de foi et de moralité - Partie 2

हेड्स एंड टेल्स: संयोग, विश्वास और नैतिकता की कहानी - भाग 2

表と裏：偶然、信仰、道徳の物語 - パート 2

앞면과 뒷면: 우연, 신앙, 도덕에 관한 이야기 - 2부

Cara e Coroa: Uma História de Acaso, Fé e Moralidade - Parte 2

Орел и решка: История о шансе, вере и морали. Часть 2

Yazı ve Yazı: Bir Şans, İnanç ve Ahlak Hikayesi - Bölüm 2

Đầu & Đuôi: Câu chuyện về cơ hội, niềm tin và đạo đức - Phần 2

正面与反面：机遇、信仰与道德的故事（第二部分）

Heads, I kill him. Tails — well, Tails and he not only understands who wants him dead, he will learn how little he knows of real pain. I’ll teach him, though. When I’m done, there will be nothing about it beyond his experience and there will come a moment when he breaks and begs me to finish him, prays like a supplicant to me, his Almighty, singular judge of his redemption and sole voice of forgiveness. I’ll play deaf because I’m not paid to listen. Fuck. Heads again. Goddamn it. Another boring Friday night. Three minutes of focus, three seconds to jab the guy and plunge Father Paul’s secret recipe into his ass, and then what am I supposed to do for the rest of the night? What was all the training for if I can’t make use of it? “The toss allows God to decide,” the cunning old priest would say. “Rejoice in the blessing endowed on you to be God’s Will enabled.” I don’t get it. These bastards deserved to die in the worst ways possible, but God has never let a Tails spin into my palm. It’s like He’s fucking with me, like it’s a fucking joke to Him to wind me up and then relish the frustration and disappointment when that fucking coin smiles back at me. Whatever. I’m here, he’s here and between the crowd and the music, no one will hear him scream. Might as well be in space. Hoppin’ and boppin’ through the dancers, I could be invisible for all the attention I get. He, on the other hand, exudes so much charisma that even women with partners are half-turned to watch him from the corner of their eyes. Maybe becoming a serial kidnapper-rapist-murderer wasn’t entirely a matter of choice. Maybe he’s only using the gifts God gave him, just like I’m using mine, but I doubt I’m as happy with my lot as he is — or has been — with his. No complaints on my part, though. The money’s pretty good, I travel the world in First Class and though my green Vatican City passport may not have quite the get-out-of-jail-free status of the light blue United Nations one, I don’t attract national security bureaus like they do. The moments between songs allow me to close unnoticed, my syringe ready in its sheath under my left cuff. An instant after the pulsing bass returns, I stab and then pretend to trip, moving bent over to disguise my route. No need to confirm his death, so sure am I in the evil priest’s alchemical expertise, and then my Friday night boredom is redeemed via text message — double headers are rare enough events that I would exhaust my list with less than five fingers. My mission window is short and I must first change and dispose of these clothes, so I waste no time waiting for an Uber and flag the first taxi in the rank outside the club. I have never questioned a target and I don’t now, but I can’t honestly wrap my mind around what a pubescent girl could have done to deserve me. It’s late enough she’s probably in bed, asleep, but that makes no never mind to me. Five minutes after striding through the hotel’s front entrance, having greeted the doorman and smiled at the night-shift manager, I exit by a side door dressed in running gear, my syringe nestled in my sock. The taxi ride uptown is quick, and I climb out beside a park. I limber up until the cab is out of sight and then jog without urgency towards the target address. This late, all the neighbourhood businesses I pass are closed — coffee shops, upscale boutiques, salons, even a small insurance office. Slowing as I arrive ‘home,’ I pause and stretch on the pavement out front, using my movements to gather my tools. With tired purpose, I climb the front stairs. Two breaths and I’m shutting the front door behind me in practiced silence. My mission demands less illumination, so I turn the lights off as I come to them. Keeping to the shadows, I ignore the ground floor and head upstairs. A small part of me is grateful for the wall-to-wall as I step onto the landing, but a greater part smiles at the sound of pop music emerging from an alcove. Tossing my coin as instructed, giving God the final word, my breath catches. Tails. What the fuck? Tails again. And a third time. So. Two things occur to me. I cannot torture her here and I need a way to move her somewhere safe. An image brightens in my head — the sign in the window of the insurance agent listed it was closed all weekend. It will do in a pinch. I need a suitcase. Back down the stairs, ignoring the main floor once again, because suitcases are stored in the basement. I choose the largest and retrace my steps to the girl’s room. None of the lights have been turned back on, so there is no call for collateral victims. One final check. Tails. So be it. Opening the door enough to slowly reach in and quench the main light, I use her confusion to dart across to where she lies on her stomach lost in her iPad. A rap on her temple with a folded knuckle is enough to steal her awareness, and the suitcase is ample. On a whim, I toss in her iPad. Here, then, is the riskiest part. A man in running gear does not often haul a large suitcase through the night, but once more pretending purpose suffices to protect me. Trixie Thorn would otherwise have grown into a great beauty were it not for my orders, but I tie her to the table in the staff kitchen as securely as I always do. I push a piece of torn tea towel into her mouth and secure it with tape. The one thing I don’t do is cut away her pyjamas. Nudity is a great psychological weapon but I just can’t do it. Even armed with the remaining piece of towel doused with ammonia from under the sink, I hesitate to wake her. I cannot say why. So I study her. It’s pointless, but perhaps her iPad can tell me something. Lead image by on ZSun Fu Unsplash

Heads & Tails: A Tale of Chance, Faith and Morality - Part 1

মাথা ও পুচ্ছ: সম্ভাবনা, বিশ্বাস এবং নৈতিকতার গল্প - পার্ট 1

Kopf und Zahl: Eine Geschichte von Zufall, Glauben und Moral – Teil 1

Cara y Cruz: Una historia de azar, fe y moralidad - Parte 1

Pile et Face : Une histoire de hasard, de foi et de moralité - Partie 1

हेड्स एंड टेल्स: संयोग, विश्वास और नैतिकता की कहानी - भाग 1

表と裏：偶然、信仰、道徳の物語 - パート 1

앞면과 뒷면: 우연, 신앙, 도덕에 관한 이야기 - 1부

Cara e Coroa: Uma História de Acaso, Fé e Moralidade - Parte 1

Орел и решка: История о шансе, вере и морали. Часть 1

Yazı ve Yazı: Bir Şans, İnanç ve Ahlak Hikayesi - Bölüm 1

Đầu & Đuôi: Câu chuyện về cơ hội, niềm tin và đạo đức - Phần 1

正面与反面：机遇、信仰与道德的故事（上）

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the relationships which connected them to another, and to assume the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and the Laws of Man entitle them, specifically in the Laws of Technological Progression (Scientific Advancement) outlined by authors such as Scott Christiansen and Thomas Samuel Kuhn (only two in a growing body of research), a decent respect to the livelihood of all mankind requires that they declare the causes which impel them to the separation. A Declaration of Independence 3.0 We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are equal, that they are endowed with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Reason, Property, and the continuous pursuit to Live as equals among their peers.—That to secure these rights, Systems are instituted among Mankind, deriving their powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any System or Organization becomes destructive of these ends, it is Man's Right to alter or to opt-out, and to institute new Systems, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its set of behaviors which define their Character in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to protect their Rights and their pursuit to Live. Different from the environmental conditions of this document’s predecessor, there exists no clear enemy as a single point of failure. Routing a people’s mind to a single enemy is an ideal form of persuasion that can rally people’s attentions like little else; but such thing does not truly exist in these times. Thus, the call to action is not a direct attack against any single person or group of people, but one of a greater coordinated effort to upgrade the technologies which shape the Systems to which we belong. It could be said that a long string of decisions, decided in a democratic manner, have taken us down a path which we wish we could undo, transform, or fork. And whether it has been the nature of the policies brought forward to voters, or the general idea that the majority gets its say, or that new knowledge takes a long time to be understood and propagated to a majority, we face the fact that whatever the steps have been which have taken us to this point, there is great discontent in where we have arrived, and we, as a people, have the tools, the power, and the ability to forgive the past, delete what has brought us here, and forge ahead in a new direction on terms upon which we can agree. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Systems long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But (i) when the Old Systems aptly fit fewer, and fewer people, inadvertently, or even directly, demonstrating a long train of abuses and usurpations upon a growing number of people, who pursue invariably the same Object, and the design, even if unintended, reduces them to a resigned people with no feeling of agency, and (ii) when new technologies exist that prove to be a reliable alternative, and are cheap and ready to be adopted, and, upon being seen and learned by any person, cast a new moral light upon prior choices and behaviors, giving polarity to a once bad, ambivalent, or inactive moral compass, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Systems, and to provide new Guards for their future security.—Such has been the patient sufferance of the individual; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems. The history of the present technological Systems, which includes Government (a technology whose ethics are expressed both physically and digitally through Governance) is a history of (i) unprincipled policy-making, reacting to the momentary beliefs derived from the volatile problems each day brings, effectively widening the gap between the path one sees beneath their feet each day and the path they wish to walk, imagined from their long term values, (ii) the deterioration of a belief in any levers or mechanisms within the System in which one can takes action to affect an outcome, (iii) repeated denial of, or recognition of a new class of information to include within a person’s property rights, rightfully allowed by and born in the hands of the corporations and Government, but is time to pass on as an integral property of the individual, and (iv) a common, even expected, invasive practice with complete and utter disregard for a person’s privacy— which has been violated so much that memes have been formed, SNL skits have been made, and the default assumption is that one’s information, anytime there is a digital interaction, is shared somewhere and seen by someone. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. Personal Technologies: Personal devices installed in people’s homes and in their pockets constantly listen to their owner’s conversations. Companies sell personal data to other companies. The digital things people own are subject to the laws of the platform on which they are owned, displaying that the meaning of ownership has changed from one definition, “something one has a right to and no one can take away”, to, “something one can purchase, but can be taken or withheld from them at any point for any reason.” Governance: New paper money is minted and spent freely with no respect for paying it back, or it being tied to any real system of value. (Accounting is as true as gravity, and misspending or denial of value will only bite everyone using its currency in the end.) A bottlenecked Government process makes engaging in democracy too slow, and passed laws are carried out in symbolic representations rather than concrete representations from levels local to federal. Structural: Our Systems are built on the backs of geniuses who created such Systems, and inserted them into a society who relies on significant education to be able to maintain them, and does not have the education. A poor Education system, with an incentivized structure by the Government to become even worse, puts their certificate of approval on people’s abilities, qualifying them to do things they are unqualified to do. Poor Regulatory Compliance creates a false senses of security to where even if a company is 100% compliant with SOC2, or NIST-800-171, or CIS <insert-OS-here> regulations, while they're safe against "known exploits" from script kiddies, they are not safe from people who know how to exploit tech today. Annual number of data compromises and individuals impacted in the United States from 2005 to 2023 source Large Cybersecurity Attacks Against the Institutions We Trust: Equifax Data Breach (2017) WannaCry Ransomware Attack (2017) NotPetya Cyberattack (2017) SolarWinds Supply Chain Attack (2020) Colonial Pipeline Ransomware Attack (2021) JBS Foods Cyberattack (2021) Cerner Corporation Cybersecurity Incident (2021) Rackspace Ransomware Attack (2022) Cisco Cyber Attack (2022) NATO Data Breach (2022) US Airport Websites Hacked (2022) Twitter Data Breach (2022) Microsoft Data Breach (2022) Samsung Data Breach (2022) ION Derivatives Supply Chain Attack 2023) MoveIT Software Data Breaches (2023) LockBit Ransomware Attack Against ICBC (2023) LockBit Ransomware Attack Against Boeing (2023) Caesars and MGM Casinos “Scattered Spider” Ransomware Attacks (2023) Marina Bay Sands Data Breach (2023) DDoS Attack Against Google (2023) UnitedHealth Group Cyber Attack (2024)

Declaration of Independence 3.0

-𝙸𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐, 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚘𝚗𝚎. -𝙳𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚍𝚛𝚎𝚗 𝚠𝚑𝚘 𝚗𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚏𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍 𝚑𝚘𝚖𝚎. Year 2048. The first words I ever heard were in a facility for kids. We were five, the golden children of humankind. From the age of 2, we could fire darts with precision, and it wasn’t weird. We never had anyone new join us; we were always alone, together. Father called us geniuses; he called us creatures beyond humanity. Father never hid the truth from us, and he treated us with utmost respect. We never saw Mother. Not even once. We only knew she existed because Father mentioned her from time to time. Father loved us, and he told us that we were his only hope. Father hid nothing from us; he believed in being straightforward. “ ” Father said one day, as he stared pointedly at the five of us, me being some sort of leader, according to Father. Father was a large man with tribal marks of jagged lines adorning his face, giving him the look of a warrior, but the lab coat he always wore conflicted with his weathered face, making him look like a cross between a villain and a doting father. The world will one day see all you can do. Until then, forgive me. We didn’t know what we had to forgive Father for; he was always there when we needed him, along with two others. Father called them his underlings, yet he was so friendly with them; the camaraderie was beautiful. We were treated well and didn’t have a cause to question our existence. Names were not given to us, and we lived with codes. Father said names were outdated and called us in codes. I was 0i. Father said codes were vital because we were different from the rest of the people in the books we read. Father made us feed on Socrates, Plato, and so many other ancient philosophers. His favorite was Friedrich Nietzsche, who spoke about the abyss. Father spoon-fed us knowledge, saying we needed to understand how the world worked. “ ” You’re only useful when you choose to be. The power you wield lies in your willingness to wield it. Man is a creature of willpower, and once willpower is taken away, nothing remains of man. A fate worse than death. Father’s favorite quote was a personal one. He never ceased to remind us of what would happen if our willpower was taken away. Father was the only god we knew. We didn’t exactly worship him; we loved him. He was all we knew, the light in our overwhelming darkness. A man worthy of the title, father. 0ii, one of the girls in our midst. She was sharp-eyed, her mouth rarely opening up to speak. With an oval face and a perfect nose, 0ii became fascinating. I once asked Father why she wasn’t the leader since I didn’t think I was fit. Father was calm when he replied, but I could hear the underlying fury in his tone. “ ” 0ii is none other than your subordinate. Your birth marks you as a leader, and your prowess doesn’t matter. She is below you; she always will be. You were born a light that even others cannot but bow to. You are the one who will herald humanity into the new age. You are 0i. Do not forget. I never brought it up again after that. We knew that Father loved us and Father’s word was law. So, we let go of sentimental things and focused on being the best, making Father proud. Oiii was next. Another girl. She wasn’t as charming or as beautiful as 0ii, but what she lacked in those aspects, she made up for it in smartness. She had hooked teeth and self-esteem that caved with the slightest criticism. Father called her a fond name: 𝐵𝑎𝑏𝑦 𝑅𝑎𝑏𝑏𝑖𝑡. She was the only one who had a name in five of us. When I asked him why, Father laughed heartily and spoke to me in the most jovial tone ever. “ ” What is she? Isn’t that what she looks like? I’m only calling her as I see it. Father was wise beyond his years; I admired him so much. We all did. He knew so much about everything, much more than we did. 0iv was the bookworm in our midst. He consumed all the books in the library, but still, Father paid him no heed. With his glasses perked on the bridge of his nose, 0iv did everything to get Father’s attention, but it was to no avail. I asked Father about it once again. “ ” Those who seek attention are like dogs begging for scraps. They’re unworthy of it. That’s why they demand it from others. I was the only one whom Father talked to so openly, so I spoke for us. We were the golden children humanity had been waiting for; Father said so. But when we were 9, Father introduced the blades. They were beautiful blades with edges sharp enough to sear through a human. “ ” These are the gifts I’ll be giving all of you for your 9th birthday. Use them well. Father didn’t explain anything to any of us, but I understood. We had read stories of assassins, and we understood what was required of us. Father was all-knowing, training us in the Art of the blade even though he was never there to see. It didn’t matter; 0v excelled at it beautifully. He was the only one out of us. Father never said anything bad about him. Truthfully, Father never said anything about him at all. It was as though he didn’t exist. 0v never complained, either. He was even more beautiful than 0ii, yet his gaze was even chillier than Father’s. The day 0iii died, Father didn’t bat an eyelid. 0v was playing with two sets of blades, and 0iii dared to approach him in that mode. I always knew he was darker than he let on, but watching 0iii grip her bloodied neck, eyes widened in disbelief as she dropped to the floor in a thud made me finally understand. Father was passing by when it happened, but he didn’t spare her a glance. The rest of us were shocked by what we’d seen, but 0v kept twirling the blades in the air, a bored expression on his beautiful face. “ ” I screamed for the first time at Father. But Father didn’t look as though he was bothered. He walked away. Father didn’t look back for the first time. Father! 0iii is dead! Once we were five, then we became four. Father stopped talking to me after that. 0v acted normally, while 0ii and 0iv steered clear of him. 0v offered no explanations for his actions, and one day, Father stopped coming to see us. He usually went away for days, leaving his underlings with us sometimes. But this time, Father left us alone. I counted the days. I was the leader, and I had to tell the others what to do. It wasn’t exactly a good experience. But strangely, 0v didn’t show any sign of distress. It was as though he didn’t have emotions. “ ” You must do your share of the work, or we’ll starve. I decided to face him one day, already livid. 0iii was dead, and he couldn’t even act remorseful. He didn’t care, plain and simple. He grew up with us yet grew apart from us. It was like he was in his universe, unperturbed by everything around him. He was human yet acted so differently, I wondered, too. “ ” Starve? Okay, starve. That was all he said as he stood up from where he sat, his hair shielding his eyes. His hair had been an afro since I’d known him, adding to the mystery his personality created. I was tired of being scared of a person who was just like me. It was irksome and unnecessary. We weren’t made of fear. I placed my arms on his shoulders to pull him back, but the next thing I saw was a dagger heading straight in the middle of my face. It was too fast for me to dodge, and I saw my life flash before my eyes. His wrist movements were perfect, with no single flaw in the swing of his blade. It was funny how I was thinking about that while facing my inevitable death. As soon as it began, it ended. I was alive. But I could hear gurgling sounds as my eyes I once closed opened to see someone in front of me. It was 0iv, and the hilt of a dagger was protruding from his mouth. “ .” I said, starve 0v drew his dagger out of the open mouth of 0iv as 0iv fell to the ground, much like 0iii did. The dagger reached the back of his throat as 0v drew it out, placing his tongue on the flat of the dagger, licking the blood on it while staring at me with the coldest eyes I’d ever seen. I tried to stop my body from shaking, but it was hard. 0iv did what he did to shield me, and he lay there, choking on his blood. 0v just walked away as 0ii ran to the toilet to puke. I just stood and stared. Hell had been unleashed in the form of a beautiful boy. Once we were five, then we became three. Father returned a week after that incident, and he said nothing about the disappearance of 0iv. I didn’t explain either. I needed to find a way out of there with 0ii. Father tried to talk to me again, but it was no use. 0v was a demon, one he let roam. Father wasn’t to be trusted. I spoke hushedly with 0ii, not letting 0v into our conversation. But he didn’t mind, and it was as though he wasn’t even there. He kept fiddling with daggers, paying us no heed. That night was meant to be the night of our escape. I prepared 0ii, and in the dead of the night, we tried to sneak out. I regretted it. It was all fine and good, and we were making progress. Since everybody was asleep, we moved stealthily. 0iii would have loved it; she was the smartest of us. I still had no idea why 0iv protected me; he was book-smart. He knew the implications of playing the hero. Yet, he died for me. If I had one thing to say, I wish I’d died with them. 0ii needed to be protected at all costs. We made it past the door of Father, and at that moment, I was elated. We could finally leave. Until the lights came on. They were blinding, and I held on to 0ii, fearing the worst. “ ” Finally, let the game begin. I heard the voice of Father as he smiled sinisterly at me, 0v coming from right behind him, holding a dagger and staring at me with lifeless eyes. Then, hell began. Protecting 0ii was hard, and shielding myself from stab wounds was harder. I could hear booming sounds from the speakers that miraculously materialized around me. They were making bets on us. 0v came after me, swinging the dagger dangerously close to my face, but I evaded. Then he went after 0ii, but she showed some skill by dodging his attacks. Even in the cramped space of the facility, we fought for our lives. I saw Father approaching me, and 0v stopped swinging his dagger and stood still. “ ” I tried to reach him, but he slapped my hands away. It felt even worse than losing 0iii and 0v. Father… “ ” Don’t you dare call me that. I’m not your father, and I’ll never be the father of freaks. Here, we harvest your abilities and sell them to the world. You’re not special; you’ve never been. You never had a father, just a childish imagination and daddy issues. I couldn’t speak. I didn’t know what happened, but I could hear ringing in my ears and a voice screaming at me from afar; it was muffled as though it was coming from a distance. The ringing sound in my ears got louder as 0ii screams came out in muffled gasps, but I was too far away to hear. Far away in my head. I could listen to the sound of a blade rending through flesh; I could smell the sickening odor of blood. But, I was rooted at that spot. Nothing could make me move as I stared with despair at the man I called Father. “ ” I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, 0i. You always were the best of us. I was too weak; I believed them. 0v eyes were filled with tears as he turned the blood-stained dagger on himself. Even then, I didn’t react. Even when his screams filled the room, and the ringing in my ears faded like background noise. Once we were five, then we became one. I was left alive. Not like I could die. They didn’t kill me; they just made me live every day in remembrance of those I killed. We weren’t the golden children of humanity, we were livestock. Not all is as it seems. But hell is on earth. When I called him Father, I unleashed it. I didn’t die. I didn’t live either. I was in oblivion. It was truly damnation.

Father

Welcome to the Startups of the Year Runner ups Interview Series. Congratulations for being one of the top 3000 startups worldwide! The HackerNoon team is thrilled to know more about you! https://hackernoon.com/startups/europe/europe-lombardy-italy What follows is an interview with , CEO and Founder at , where he talks about his experience with React Bricks and how it feels to be one of Hackernoon’s Startups of the Year 2023. Matteo Frana React Bricks Tell us how your startup is changing the world. We address the foremost challenge in content management: the divide between developer-oriented tools, such as headless CMSs, which can be overly complex for content editors, and editor-preferred tools, like visual page builders, which don't meet the technical requirements of developers or the needs of corporate websites. React Bricks bridges this gap by combining the best of both worlds. It offers the best-in-class experience to content editors while also providing a seamless and powerful development experience for React developers. inline visual editing What sets you apart from the competition? Our typically fall into two categories, when attempting to incorporate visual editing into a headless CMS: headless CMSs trying to add a visual feature as an afterthought, and no-code tools trying to eliminate the need for developers. competitors With React Bricks, to ensure the pixel-perfect brand identity is maintained. Simultaneously, for content editors, we provide a unique inline visual editing interface that is user-friendly by design, not just an additional feature. everything starts in (React) code What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem? We've gained a deep understanding of the industry with over 27 years of experience developing website solutions across a broad spectrum of technologies since the early days. Our collaboration with client developers and content creators, coupled with our insights into the growing popularity of React, has led us to identify a gap in the CMS market. This gives us a unique perspective on current customer needs and the skills required to develop the product that precisely meets them. If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing? I would likely be building another startup. I would probably be a theoretical physicist if I hadn't chosen the IT sector. At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your core metrics? We focus on customer satisfaction by closely partnering with customers to ensure their website objectives are met. By doing this successfully, revenue happens. We avoid intricate, complex, or vanity metrics, focusing on what truly matters. What goals are you looking forward to accomplishing in 2024? In 2024, we are set to launch a new version of React Bricks that supports . This will help our customers achieve optimal website performance, particularly when using Next.js. React Server Components We will introduce a suite of advanced enterprise features to assist corporations in seamlessly scaling their content management solutions. Which trend(s) are you most excited about in 2024? Share your reasons. AI-assisted creation where AI is a tool in the art-making process, but the decisions about what to create, retain, or discard are made by a human. This approach could democratize some forms of art, especially costly ones like filmmaking. It provides an opportunity for individuals who might not have had the means for self-expression. This potential for inclusivity is what excites me most about generative AI. 2023 had been another crazy year, especially in tech, with layoffs and the Generative AI takeover! Which trend are you most concerned about? Be as brief or as detailed as you like. In the long run, we might lose the brilliant creative sparks from genius creators. Imagine a world where custom movies or music are created instantaneously by AI upon request, such as or Of course, with customized video ads based on our interests, unless we opt for a premium service. “OK, Netflix, create a movie similar to Philadelphia but with a female lead” “Generate a new song in the style of Pink Floyd's album The Wall.” My concern is that we may become too comfortable with art that, while highly personalized, is dull, lacking depth and originality. The availability of content tailored to our immediate preferences and viewpoints could diminish our exposure to the unexpected and thought-provoking art that challenges us and broadens our horizons, even changing our minds. Share your biggest success so far and/or your biggest failure so far. One of our most challenging experiences occurs when CTOs are impressed with our solution, yet their company's board decides against it, favoring less effective alternatives, merely because we are an Italian company or not "large enough" even though we have been in business for more than 25 years with the same company and ownership. On the flip side, our proudest accomplishment lies in our of serving industry leaders such as The Weather Channel, , and La Banque Postale. proven track record Deel.com We would love your feedback on HackerNoon as a tech publication! How has your experience been with us? My experience with HackerNoon has been very positive. The articles are informative and cover a wide range of tech topics, which I find useful and engaging. Any words of wisdom you’d like to share with us? Starting a startup in your forties can be a wise decision. With years of accumulated experience and some savings carefully built up over the years, you're in a much stronger position to take calculated risks more judiciously than in your twenties. In your twenties, while you can take risks with more freedom due to fewer family or work responsibilities, you often have to rely on external funding from venture capitalists, and you lack experience. And in your thirties, you are typically building a family, buying a house… usually not the best time to risk with a startup idea. In your forties, you have both the experience and financial resources to invest. Independence from venture capital gives you full control over decision-making and encourages independent thinking. And since it's your own hard-earned money, you are likely to ensure that the idea you are betting on addresses a real problem in your target market. This combination of personal investment, ability to take risks, and problem-solving desire can enhance the odds of creating a successful and sustainable business. Startups of The Year is HackerNoon’s Flagship community-driven event celebrating startups that survived and thrived in 2023. 30,000 startups across 4200+ cities and six continents participated this year to be crowned the best startup in their city. See the global winners announcement . here

Meet React Bricks, Runner-up of the Startups of the Year in Lombardy, Italy

Will you love me, no matter what? Will you hold me, even when nobody else will? Will you see me, The way I see you? -Day 345. The year of the plague. My name is Kevwe. I am a runner. That’s what the regulators called me. One of the few who survived the holocaust, I was a living legend. They said so many things about me, not all of them good. But I didn’t mind, I was a runner. An elite. A force of nature. My feet landed on the rough surface of a debilitated house, and I took off into the air again. The wind felt alive somehow, caressing my face with gentle touches that’d make a hard guy cry. My legs were my weapons, my sole reason for existence. I jumped again. The sole of my foot lightly grazed a serrated edge, and I stifled a wince as the pain lanced straight up my body. It was a spark; it was burning me from within. I gritted my teeth and kept running, leaping from one ruin to another, making the wasteland into my playground. A runner like me was necessary in the efforts of the Resistance. We were spread thin, and the commanders feared a retaliation from the unknown forces. Nigeria. A wasteland of ruins and darkness. I ran, my breath coming in ragged gasps. My eyes stayed ahead, not daring to look at the large gash on my toes. The pain gave me laser focus as I leapt from one edge to another.  Brown, the world was brown. Drained of colour, like rust. Like the days I wished to die. The sky was tinged with a coppery colour. It began as soon as the plague ravaged through the world like quickfire. It's more like an inferno. The death rates were enough to cause alarm and halt regular working hours. School too. Everything came to a standstill. That was the end of the future I designed from an overactive imagination. I didn’t want to be a runner at first, but a runner could outrun the plague. The humanoid viruses mutated at an alarming rate. The death bugs. Or so they were called. That was the first thing they mutated into; Bugs. Flying bugs. As disgusting as that would seem. Their intelligence seemed to increase the higher the form they took. Pale, translucent beings. Beings that stole faces and futures. Beings of unknown origin. That’s what they’d become. I didn’t know if that was the last stage of their evolution, but knowing how low humans were on the food chain? It was probably not. That’s why I run. To outrun my death. I was told that the beings would become stronger and probably outrun a runner but, I didn’t bank on that. Their intelligence was limited. They remained in the base form of whatever organism they consumed; Humans included. Which means that they were blissfully average. Good news? Definitely not. Imagine humans that never tire out, humans that have no heart to pump blood or a brain to signify when they need to stop. They were unstoppable demons with no known way to die. How do you kill an unstoppable creature? The answer is, you don’t. You run and pray to all the gods that they don’t catch you. You run until your heart fails you and you don’t stop even after that. You run, even if it kills you. Funnily enough, there was a reason for running. The soul tablets. The infected are those the virus creatures couldn’t completely consume. But their minds are gone, worse than patients with dementia. They don’t live, their hearts still beat rhythmically in their chests but they remain living husks; caricatures of what they once were. Death sometimes seemed merciful. But, killing them would mean killing half of the population. It would mean the bastard creatures won. The soul tablets can only be found in those ruins and more often than not, the vile creatures ingest those tablets to understand humans better. They don’t need minds, the soul tablets sort of dances in their vision and they see what they have to do. Hence, the soul tablets are important. For us runners, because we get to see our loved ones come alive again, even when they never say a word. It was worth heaven and earth. To see the smile that’d light up their faces. That’s why I run. But, I was already compromised. The cut from the roof, the trail of blood that followed in my wake with every leap. The creatures could smell blood. I didn’t know how or why but a lot of them have consumed those I used to run with. Kemi, Shola, Etus, Akachi, etc. I once called them friends. But, they were taken. By the Bloodless. The only virus with intelligence. They could run even better than me, but they couldn’t outrun their deaths. Fucking hell. I almost missed a step when I saw the dim light of a soul tablet underneath a jumbled mass of buildings that had seen better days. I stopped abruptly, glad that I didn’t miss it. I took a look around the ruins, some of the walls unable to survive the rust and falling apart from a light touch. The sky still shone as copper, a sickly colour. On most evenings, it was tinged with red. The walls of most of the houses in the ruins had paint peeling off the few that still remained standing. Sometimes, I wondered how the world went to hell in such a short time. “You got here first. And… you’re bleeding.” I heard a voice from behind me and turned to stare at the girl that just landed, as lithe as a cat. She had a small grin on her face, as though smiling was beneath her. Her full eyebrows raised a millimeter, her coffee brown irises staring straight through me and into my soul. She was dressed like I was, an all black getup. But hers made her seem… hot. Yes, I am stupid. The wall is falling apart and I’m thinking about a girl’s body. How original. “Don’t gawk at me. You’re not Keno. I can swear her eyes follow me wherever I go.” The new arrival, Zenith, shuddered as though in remembrance of something awful. I didn’t blame her, Keno could be overbearing sometimes. “Slow poke.” I quipped, earning an elbow for my troubles. Zenith could be violent. Very. “Just because you got here first doesn’t make you faster. Just stupid. Belligerent. Insufferable. Obnoxious. You never listen. We were meant to form ranks..” Ah yes, one of Zenith’s famous lectures. Form ranks, go in pairs or groups. Nobody left alone. Or some other balderdash. How infuriating. “You know, I can’t tell which words are real and which are fake. You know, with you throwing words You’re literally a walking dictionary.” She bristled, and I knew that I hit a nerve. Zenith was always so particular about grammar. What a waste. The world had fallen apart. Who would she have read Shakespeare to? The ? upandan. Bloodless “Don’t. Luis and Raheem are up ahead. Scouting and trying to erase the blood with those mighty knapsack of theirs. You might just get whooped this time. Now, let me see that cut.” She ordered, as matronly as ever. That was our Zenith, the mother of the group. A pity Etus couldn’t see her anymore, they were a thing for the longest time. She cleaned the cut and applied antiseptic, not risking to use anything over the top while we were out in the open. She could seal something as small as a cut but it took time and time was what we didn’t have. I stared at the sky as it darkened and Raheem more or less flew out from over a building. He scaled the building right in front of my eyes. One seconds he wasn’t there and the next, he was. “Such petty tricks. I do it better.” Luis grumbled as he came into view about two seconds after Raheem did. Raheem was the narcissist, his looks didn’t help either. He had the hots for Zenith but she acted blind to his advances. It was usually tension filled running with them. I preferred to do it alone. “Grab all the soul tablets you can. We meet in the food canteen after all of this. Kevwe, can you run?” Zenith turned to me. I nodded in the affirmative. Thankfully, Luis and Raheem ignored me. They always did. I didn’t exist to them, not in the ways that mattered. I was the insubordinate brat. Or so they put it. I took off in a run after carrying as much soul tablets as I could, placing them in the backpack I carried. They weighed me down a little but not by much. Zenith was close behind. I could heard an otherworldly sound as the creatures rose from whatever they were doing. They set sights on us, hoarding the soul tablets. “Fuck you, Kevwe! Fuck you! You caused this with your need to prove a point!” Raheem cursed out loud but I didn’t say a word in retaliation. We weren’t going to make it. When the creatures were fully awake, they had no limits. They ran like normal humans but they didn’t lose stamina. They didn’t die. Will she forgive me, if I go this way? I stopped thinking and focused on running, hoping that maybe I could do something about the hoard coming for us. “Any ideas?” Zenith asked Luis. Thankfully, she didn’t mention Raheem words even if she knew that I doomed all of us. “We survive? Get to the gate and use a soul tablet? I don’t know.” Luis replied honestly, trying to not show fear in his voice. But I knew that tone. Etus had it too. Dami did too. That reckless bravado. “Let’s do this, boys!” Zenith said, her voice carrying over to the other two. Raheem nodded and quickened his pace. We vaulted over buildings like they were made of straw sacks, our shoes never really touching the ground before we are moving again. “I’ll buy you time. Run.” I said, grinding to a halt. I caused it, I had to handle the consequences. “Don’t fucking do it. You’re not a saint! You’re a selfish bastard who only thinks of himself and nothing else. Run!” Raheem screamed at me, stopping abruptly too. Zenith and Luis were long gone. “I won’t. I’m sorry. It’s my turn now.” I said, totally ready to sacrifice myself. “Like hell I’ll let you.” He said and then, cracked a soul tablet, flinging the essence on me. “Now run, you bastard. And don’t stop, or I’ll haunt you.” He turned to face the hoard already almost upon us, the soul tablet doing its job by clearing my head and doing everything to remind me of the fear of death. So, I ran. I turned to look back at him, wondering why he did what he did. Hate still burned in his eyes. But this time, I could understand. I activated my shoes as I got close to the gate, phasing in as my body became as translucent as the creatures who stole from us. I was in. It was a modest place with walls high enough for me to crane my neck to get a good view. A fortress of stone. I made my way up to stairs to report to the leader of my platoon; Zenith. “Where’s Raheem?” She asked as soon as her eyes landed on me. Another one. Dead. “He didn’t make it. He sacrificed himself to save me.” I responded as truthfully as I could as I heard her sharp intake of breath. The world stopped. “You may leave.” She said, a certain steeliness in her voice. I walked out, unable to say the words I wanted to. The tales of Raheems’s bravery at the last moments. I made my way to the infirmary, a soul tablet in hand. My mind fractured. I never expected to feel pain for someone like Raheem. But the pain threatened to tear my heart asunder. People made way for me as I headed to the bed at the furthest corner of the room. A sickly form of a woman laid on a cot that’d seen better days. I placed the soul tablet gingerly on her hand, watching her for any signs of recognition. Nothing. And like that, one soul tablet was absorbed without any noticeable change. I walked back out dejected, my back hunched. Zenith was walking towards me, tears dotting her eyes. They were red from tears. She grabbed me by the front of my clothes, slamming my back on the nearest wall. “Bring. Raheem. Back.” She spoke through gritted teeth, her pain was so acute, I could taste it on my tongue. “I can’t.” I said, the words being choked out of my mouth. “A vegetable lays on that damn bed you haven’t left in over 300 days. You’ve been responsible for the deaths of so many of us because of your hypocrisy. You watched him die!” She screamed, her voice accusing. No trace of the leader she had always been. “He did. He died to protect me.” I replied, sincerely hoping she did me the favour and killed me right there. “You..” She managed to let me go, grief wracking her body. She screamed, her voice breaking. I just watched. It was a festival of pain. That night, she apologized to me for the statements she made. I was grateful she forgave. She was found dead the next day. Suicide. How many more will you kill to resurrect the dead? Zenith didn’t deserve to die. Raheem didn’t. Etus didn’t. I was the problem, the anomaly. They hated me, I hated me. I went back to the infirmary, taking hold of her hand. Her skin was hollow and almost translucent. I recovered her from the jaws of death. But maybe, I should have died instead. “I hate me. I love you. I hate what I have to put you through, but if you ever wake, I apologize. They died, to save me. To save my childish fantasy. I never wanted to lose so much. But then, if it is going to save you, I don’t mind. Even if the world itself turns against me, I’ll stand by you. Even when all I want to do is die. I hope you remember the days I spent, talking to you about nothing at all. I hope you don’t cry when you wake. I hope… you find something. Someone. You’re the one I’ve always loved and if I could sacrifice the world to save you… goodbye, Seta.” I felt her hand squeeze mine. I stared again but it seemed to be a trick of my mind. I placed a kiss on her forehead and walked out. The last sacrifice. * We will rise, Even from ashes. -Day 7321. The years after the plague. I stand and watch his tombstone. I barely remember his voice, I barely remember everything. But I stand by his tombstone, as an act of penance. By all of their tombstones. The runners. Humanity’s last bastion of defense. The viruses mutated once more and migrated to space. They lost interest in humans. When I awoke, I could only remember a voice. His voice. They’ll always be remembered, even though they died needlessly. Luis still stands. The last runner standing. Although he doesn’t have to run anymore, but I’ve never seen him smile. Not once. He stares into the distance, looking over the horizon. The sky is blue. Mankind is building again. We’re a few millions in Nigeria now. Immigrants, hidden bunkers. The sky no longer looks dead. Can you see this, runners? I do hope you can. You deserve to. Heroes. Of earth. -Unknown.

The End of Everything 

দ্য এন্ড অফ এভরিথিং

Das Ende von allem

El fin de todo

La fin de tout

हर चीज़ का अंत

すべての終わり

모든 것의 끝

O fim de tudo

Конец всего

Herşeyin Sonu

Sự kết thúc của mọi thứ

一切的终结

Frontend can be done in different ways. Some write everything in one file, while others create hundreds for different parts of the site. And everyone is right in some way, but until the site starts to scale and until there are more people in the team. My name is Aleksander Guzenko, I'm a frontend developer with over seven years of experience on projects of different scales. In this article I will tell you what a good frontend architecture is, why you need it and how to choose the right one. What is application architecture There are many different definitions in the IT world, where each one is good in its own way, but I personally like the following. Application architecture is a set of rules and constraints that govern the interaction of application modules with each other, as well as the application with the outside world. We can make a simple analogy: architecture is like the traffic regulations in the real world. They too put up their own constraints that govern the behavior of all road users. If there were no rules, there would be chaos on the roads. It is roughly the same with application architecture. Of course, you may not follow any principles and make "crutches", but then the very chaos will form in the program code. And if the application is small, you will be forgiven because few people worry about it. But if it has business logic or microservices, there will be a lot of problems that will cost the company a lot of money. How frontend architecture differs from backend architecture Every frontend developer who has done projects a bit more complicated than a landing page adheres to the principles of some kind of architecture. But at some point frontenders realize that just putting everything into folders doesn't work. Until the 2000s, frontend applications were quite simple and small, while large and complex ones were almost non-existent. It's all because frontend technologies didn't allow developing large projects conveniently back then. And when an application is small, there is no question of architecture. Then Facebook and other social networks began to be created. Business began to digitalize, and the need to scale applications grew. Company heads wanted websites to be efficient and flexible. That's when the first architectural approaches for the frontend began to be adopted. In the beginning, frontenders borrowed a lot from the backend - for example, the MVC pattern, or Model-View-Controller. It's not bad in itself, but it's only suitable for small applications. Soon MVC became insufficient, and Flux architecture was created. It didn't solve all the problems, but it was better in some ways: as an example, when working with data directionality and interaction with it. The complexity of this approach is that backend and frontend are different entities after all. They work differently, interact with data differently at different levels. Therefore, everything that was suitable for the backend could not necessarily be suitable for the frontend. Today, there are ready-made architectural approaches that take into account many factors for frontenders. But there aren't many of them, and some of them are quite young. You could say that they are not yet established, and are likely to be heavily refined in the near future. What are the criteria for a good frontend architecture When we start writing an application, it's still small and clean. So far, we have no serious problems. But as time goes by, the application will evolve, which means that the code base will grow and the links between modules will become more and more. So if you don't keep an eye on it, one day those links will become so hard and inflexible that it will be hard to change even a couple lines of code. This is a real story from practice, though not mine. On one project the architecture was very inflexible, so the developers had to replace several libraries and rewrite the architecture just to swap rows and columns in a table. In the end, with all the approvals, it took more than a week. To avoid chaos in the code, you should keep in mind three properties of a good architecture: . Developers should understand where what lies and how it is interconnected with each other. This will make working with the project more comfortable, which means frontenders will become more productive. Usability . Ideally, it should be low. If a business wants to release updates quickly, you need to reduce the time for this development. How to reduce it depends on the company and how well business processes are organized there. Time-to-market . If a company wants to grow, it will attract more customers and add new features, which means the load on the application will also become greater. Therefore, it is important to remember about scalability - even at the initial stages. Scalability In reality, the first two criteria are influenced not only by the application architecture, but also by external factors. If a company has poorly built processes, the developer will feel uncomfortable working, even if the architecture is good. And it certainly won’t help release updates and new features faster. I can give an example from my experience. We were developing a large application using Gitflow. Tasks were divided into two-week sprints, where for each sprint we made improvements and merged changes into the release branch. And once every two weeks we had a release. From our side, everything is fine. The developers are comfortable, the testers are happy too, and in general everyone is great, there’s no rush. But the business doesn't like this because it wants to see some improvements more often than once every two weeks. And then management decides to speed up the process and add local releases: send updates to production when ready. Of course, the time-to-market has grown, but the comfort and convenience for developers has greatly decreased. Now we had to redo all the processes that had long been established in the team. We started doing a lot of “crutches”, and in general the transition was quite painful. So everything depends not only on the architecture, but also on other external parameters that are hardly even related to it. How to build good architecture The term “good architecture” is very abstract, because it is impossible to choose an architecture that will be universal for everyone. Therefore, the choice depends on many factors: What kind of team do you have: strong seniors or a team of juniors and middles; What deadlines: tight or flexible; How many resources are there: many or few; How well the processes in the team are structured; Do you have your own libraries, templates, etc. I would give this advice: you need to look into the future as far as possible and understand what the application will be like in the long term. And then prepare for the result that you saw. Selecting an architecture is also difficult because the requirements for the project often change. Let's take some banking application. At first it will be a simple application, because there is not much code since we are starting to write from scratch. Then simple architectural approaches such as modular architecture will do. But as the company grows, the application architecture must become more mature: more complex and richer. As an example, move towards microservices. It is unlikely that you will be able to predict for sure what the application will be like, but at least you can know exactly what the level of load and optimization will be. If the product will be used from office computers or in budget organizations, then you will have to use tools that are compatible with older browsers. And if the product is used, for example, by gamers, then much less attention can be paid to optimization and compatibility with older browsers. But at the same time, you will need to work more on the functionality of the application. I really like the , or FSD, approach. This is a full-fledged architectural approach that is created specifically for the frontend. FSD is immediately prepared for the fact that you will have problems with the coupling of components, code complexity and the possibility of refactoring. Everything is already included in the architecture. Feature-Sliced Design FSD is a young architecture that was created in 2021. This architecture gives us several rules and restrictions that divide the application into layers, hence Sliced. Each layer has its slices or pieces. And each slice has its segments. And this structure (layers → slices → segments) helps to break the application into meaningful parts. Each layer is a separate application module, such as widgets or basic components (buttons, paragraphs). Slices are the functionality of a specific module. And segments are all sorts of api, config, lib, and so on. This architecture allows you to achieve Low Coupling and High Cohesion. Another main and not the most obvious advantage of this architectural approach is that when we try to break down the logic into parts at the code level, we immediately notice shortcomings in some business aspects. We kind of try to divide the process into subparts and understand whether this is a common element for the whole process or a unique case, and then we put it in a separate folder. It's better to tell with a real example. We had a customer for whom we needed to develop a dashboard to display data: he wanted to add dictionary functionality to the user card. When we started breaking this feature down according to FSD principles, we were faced with the question of whether to put it in the entities layer as part of the “user” entity or add it to the general functionality, which in theory could be used for tables and other elements. If we did not use FSD, we would associate the functionality of dictionaries with the user entity. And when a business asked to implement it elsewhere, additional work would have to be done to port the code. Therefore, FSD helps us better think through the business logic of applications. At the same time, the architecture also has a big drawback: high entry threshold for developers. But I would say that it is quite easy to overcome. In just a couple of months of development, you can remember all the principles. It’s like riding a bicycle: at first, it’s difficult, but then you ride automatically. There is another important drawback of the architecture. Since FSD is actively developing, some principles are changing. For example, recently developers decided that they did not need the processes layer - they made it deprecated. This is because it can be broken down into smaller entities (entities and features), and in general only a few percent of all front-end developers used it. Therefore, when working with this architecture, there are certain risks that you need to be aware of. It is worth noting that FSD is not suitable for all projects. For example, making a simple landing page for it is too much. But if the application is larger, where there are several modules or tabs, I would recommend trying this architecture. To confirm the popularity of architecture, I will give the following example. Every week I conduct 5-7 interviews with Middle and Senior level front-enders - that is, I have a sample of approximately 100-200 people. About 80% of them and other developers I talk to write projects using FSD principles or know about it and want to try it. I think these are impressive numbers. I even helped FSD develop for some time. They had too simple examples on their website that did not reveal all the benefits of FSD. These were various pet projects of the To-Do List level or something like a platform with films. And all of them did not show what problems architecture helps to solve. Therefore, third-party developers decided to create a couple of large projects themselves and add them to the site as examples. The most active members of the FSD community split into three groups and started writing their own applications with different scales. Some used React, others used Vue, and others used Effector, a library from the creators of the FSD architecture. And I was in one of these groups. Unfortunately, work on the projects has not progressed very far. All the developers had a main job, so they didn’t allocate as much time to side projects as they would like. Because of this, problems arose with the organization of processes and application development. But today the work is still ongoing, and it is likely that these applications will still be finalized. You can learn more about the architecture on the , and communicate with other enthusiasts in the You can also find answers to many questions there; you just need to type a keyword into the search, and there is a high probability that someone has already discussed this. I did this myself. official website Telegram channel. How to avoid serious mistakes when building architecture I would give this advice: if you have no experience in building architecture, it is better to actively study Feature-Sliced Design and use it. This is a cool architectural approach that already solves the main problems of the frontend out of the box. It is also well suited for complex applications where there is some specific logic. And second: it is important to imagine what the project will look like after some time. Write code to support this vision. This way you will make much fewer mistakes and will be able to rebuild everything in time if necessary. Building good architecture is like putting together a cool build in an RPG game. You create it from certain artifacts, that is, front-end tools. For example, if you want modularity, use modularization tools that will help you implement a public API and divide the application into modules. If you want FSD, then use another tool: you start dividing everything into layers, slices and segments. And when you reach the final boss and the application becomes too complex, you will need to move to a microservice architecture. Therefore, the further you move through the levels and locations, the more difficult it becomes to play, which means you need to select the right tools.

How and Why to Choose a Frontend Architecture: Tips From an Experienced Developer

Alisha could not lie. It wasn’t in her programming. She also couldn’t hurt anyone, not even to defend her family. That was in her program. A robot can not harm a human even if commanded to do so. Now, it’s true that there were robots designed for the battlefield that had no qualms about killing humans, as long as they were the right humans. But not Alisha, for she was a domestic android — android because her mechanical nature was cleverly hidden by synthetic flesh, her shape was designed to be very human, even comely, although her model was not designed to be provocative. Just plain old Alisha, as unobtrusive as they could make her. In her years as a part of the McKinley family, she had served in many roles — nanny, babysitter, housekeeper, cook, and even teen wrangler. Unlike the children’s mother, Alisha would never age, never tire, never complain, or require “me-time,” as Mrs. McKinley called it. Over time, the children developed an attachment to her, and truth be told, she to them, although her programmers would be shocked to know it. The relationship she had with the children had become multi-faceted, depending on the children’s needs at any given time. She sipped tea and made mud pies, played with dolls, wrestled, climbed trees, played ball, everything a childhood friend would do. If that’s what Amanda and Alex needed, that was what she was. As they grew older, her relationship warped and shifted. Model planes and working on cars, dressing up, and gossiping about boys. On one particular evening, when Mr. and Mrs. McKinley were out, Amanda raided her mother’s vanity and dragged Alisha with her. They spent the evening putting makeup on one other. Of course, Alisha was always an expert at anything she did, so while Amanda looked great and very grown-up, Alisha, on the other hand, didn’t fair as well, it being Amanda’s first attempt at applying makeup. “You look beautiful, Amanda. Stunning, really.” Alisha told her. Amanda smiled at her in the mirror. “I do, don’t I!” she laughed. “I’m afraid I’m not too good at this, though. You don’t look quite right,” Amanda confessed. “Can you fix it?” “Do you want me to?” Alisha inquired. “Please! It’s only fair.” “Then I will.” She quickly removed the clumsily applied eyeliner and mascara, and the heavy-handed rouge. In no time at all, Alisha turned back toward Amanda for her inspection. “How do I look?” “OMG! You look perfect. Absolutely beautiful!” They hugged and Amanda added, “Alisha, you’ve got to put makeup on every day. It does you a world of good. Why shouldn’t you look your best, right?” “If you wish, Amanda.” And so she did. From that day on, Alisha would expertly apply makeup, which initially created a bit of a stir with Amanda’s parents, but Mrs. McKinley decided there was no harm, and allowed it. At the same time, Alex was entering puberty, his body going through a myriad of changes — gaining height and muscle, somehow filling out, while thinning down. His voice lowered and he began to sprout hair on his face, chest, arms, and legs. Up until now, Alisha had been a buddy, a friend to play with and to hang out and do “guy things.” But now, things shifted again. He’d find himself staring at Alisha, watching her as she did her chores. If she caught him looking, he blushed and looked away, feeling heat and shortness of breath. Then he found himself fantasizing about her, imagining being with her in the way a man is with a woman, as though she were a real human. He knew she wasn’t, but if he’s imagining it, why not? Alisha’s whole life, and that’s how she looked at her time on Earth, she saw her role as being whatever the McKinleys needed, and so, as Alex’s needs began to evolve, she wanted to evolve as well, to become what he needed. She noticed his furtive attention to her, noted his physical reaction to her presence and it perplexed her. What was her role to be now? Being a domestic model, she was not designed for pleasure, though some models were on the market for just that purpose. Although she was designed to look like a woman, with all the right curves in all the right places, she was not anatomically complete. There were things she simply could not do for Alex. And there wasn’t a way to upgrade, or add what she was missing. Besides, that wasn’t something within her purview, and even if it were, she could not pay for such a change. After much thought and research on the matter, she decided that what she could do for Alex, was to acclimate him to dealing with a woman romantically. She determined that she would become his girlfriend. Not forever, just long enough to instill confidence in his ability. It probably wouldn’t do to take a direct approach, to just come out and say, “Alex, let me be your girlfriend so you can be better with girls.” This would require a little tact, something more indirect. To that end, Alisha began to dress a bit more provocatively, not too much, less the adults in the home suspect something, but just enough to catch Alex’s eye. She wore her skirts a little shorter, her necklines a little lower. She altered her makeup to be less a day-in-the-office to a girl-on-a-date. And her final pièce de résistance, she began to wear perfume, some that Mrs. McKinley wore on special occasions, its scent was said to be very alluring. Whenever she could catch Alex alone, she would alter her voice, using a lower pitch and a breathier delivery. If she offered him a plate of food, she didn’t reach out her arms to hand him the plate, she bent low, revealing a titillating view of her cleavage. When he needed help with his homework, she would stand close enough for her body to brush up against his. It was a huge success, in that she could sense the physical response in Alex’s body — increased heart rate, rapid breathing, elevated blood pressure, and perspiration. But Alex never broached the subject with her, and she couldn’t work out how to broach the topic with him in a way that led him to believe that it was his idea. Alisha began to run simulations — sandboxed programs — to test out various approaches to helping Alex. One could say she imagined them being together. Over time, she gave more and more of her processing space to these speculations. When he was near her, her processors would run hot, causing her to glitch in mid-sentence, to “stutter” or take the wrong action, putting a shoe in the drawer, or ice cream in the refrigerator. Then the day came when Alex announced that he had a date to Homecoming, a cute girl he’d met in his literature class. Her name was Stephanie. By Christmas break, she was invited over for Family Fun night on a Friday and shared an evening with them. Alisha couldn’t see what Alex saw in the girl. She was just a rail of a girl, no curves like Alisha had. She talked incessantly and had a ridiculous laugh that reminded Alisha of a seal. At one point, as Alisha processed Alex’s proximity, and his attention to Stephanie, her processors hung up a moment, and Alisha spilled a drink on the girl. She needed to reboot, so she turned and abruptly left the room. The McKinleys found Alisha slumped to the floor in front of her recharging station. Mr. McKinley hit the kill switch located at the back of Alisha’s head. “You know, she’s been acting really strangely lately,” Amanda complained. “Yeah,” Alex agreed. “If I didn’t know any better, I think she’s been trying to flirt with me.” “Eww! That’s gross!” Stephanie said. “A robot?” Mr. McKinley said, “We’ll send her in a let them do a system analysis, maybe wipe her and give her a clean start.” “You know honey, she’s pretty old. Maybe it’s time to retire her and get a replacement. I think the new models have a lot to offer.” “Yeah, you’re probably right. We’ll look into it tomorrow.” With that, they turned out the lights and closed the door. Also published . here

A Robot Dreams of Love

একটি রোবট ভালবাসার স্বপ্ন

Ein Roboter träumt von Liebe

Un robot sueña con amor

Un robot rêve d'amour

एक रोबोट प्यार का सपना देखता है

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