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Aspects of Thermal QCD Phenomenology at Intermediate Gauge/'t Hooft Coupling: Bibliography

Plan of War when the Destruction of the Enemy is the Object

Google’s MLKit library finds text in images and this works well for simple text but for tabular data such as receipts or tables, it does not. If you’ve ever used an you might have noticed that it works reasonably well when scanning a page with uniform text but when dealing with any kind of tables or text formatting, it just falls flat. OCR app This article discusses an algorithm used in a mobile application I wrote that processes text to keep it in line. We’ll take a common example of a store receipt. In the example below you can see exactly the problem that I’m trying to solve. Lens does not prefer lines for text but will rather put together text that is physically closer together. This works sometimes but definitely does not work for receipts and other tabular data. See specifically how Google Lens put the price as a new line because it was physically far away from the lines on the left. Google 1,49€ is an application developed specifically to scan tabular data and the results of scanning a receipt are in the top right corner.  You can see how it respected the horizontal layout of the receipt and put the price together with the correct article. Line Text Scanner Google OCR library Here is a quick overview of how to use the OCR library: load an image and get text. Recognition of characters happens entirely on Google’s side. InputImage image = InputImage.fromBitmap(mSelectedImage, 0);
        TextRecognizer recognizer = TextRecognition.getClient();
        
        recognizer.process(image)
                .addOnSuccessListener(
                        new OnSuccessListener<Text>() {
                            @Override
                            public void onSuccess(Text texts) {
                                processTextRecognitionResult(texts);
                            }
                        })
                .addOnFailureListener(
                       // 
                        }); Full documentation is here and the diagram below is from this link. https://developers.google.com/ml-kit/vision/text-recognition/v2?embedable=true Once we have the Text object we can begin our own logic. We’ll try to process Text to do better than Google Lens. First, we need to look at the Text object. Text is a hierarchical representation of the scanned text as seen in the following diagram from Google’s documentation. The algorithm looks for characters and words in physical space and puts them into a hierarchical structure. As mentioned, this works well for easy text as in the diagram above but for tabular data like a receipt it does not. Below we have the full text of the receipt scanned by Google Lens. ENTRETIEN/BAZAR......
MPX FILM FRAICH30M
EPICERIE/BOISSONS.......
1,49€
265G POIS CHICHES HARICOTS ROUGES TR
0,95€
PECHE FRAICH FRTS
COOKIES SABLES CHO
1,25€
3,69€
2,39€
HYGIENE/BEAUTE.......
2,99€
20 ELAST COURTS WA
2 X BATISTE SHP SEC 6,59€ 13,18€
2è à -60%
-3,95€
MPX FIL DENTAIR 50 SOIN BLANCHEUR GOU
2,09€
7,29€
SURGELES/PRODUITS FRAIS...........
LAITIERE PV VANILL
1,69€
MALO F.FRAIS FRUIT COMTE AOP 6M 450G
2,35€
5,29€
QUICHE LORRAINE ESCAL.PANEES DE BL
2,79€
OEUFS PLEIN AIRX12
2,85€
MORIN MOUSSE CHOCO
3,25€
2,09€
LONGLEY FARM COT.C
1,99€
TOTAL HORS AVANTAGES
57,62€
18
NOMBRE D'ARTICLES I think that you’ll agree that this is not very useful. The algorithm picked the columns first rather than the rows. It made new lines for text that was far away. This is the difference in text processing that this article explores. Processing Text To demonstrate what MLKit does I’ve modified the application to only output the index of Text Elements (those are boxes with dark green border in the diagram from Google). In the screen below we can see text blocks 0 to 31. We can see how the MLKit library prefers physical distance to group words together into phrases. This is not exactly what Google Lens has outputted. We can see that Google Lens made the price of 1,49€ below the first three lines. It treated the text blocks differently but didn’t manage to output clear lines. As seen from this output, the OCR library makes up block 0 as ‘Entrentien/Bazar. MPX FILM FRAICH30M’. The second block is made up of multiple lines of the left column. The library continues to create text blocks from the left column and then moves to the right column to create the text blocks from prices. The image is correctly converted into characters and words. We’ll use these words but do it using a different algorithm to prefer lines to make our sentences. It’s clear that Google Lens also processes these blocks but obviously in yet another way. Breaking boxes Now to our algorithm. The first thing we’ll do is process all the TextBlocks from Text to extract the individual lines. Each line has one or more object and we extract them all and put them into a single  list. Text.Element List<Text.Element> textElements = new ArrayList<>();

        for (int i = 0; i < blocks.size(); i++) {
            Rect rect = blocks.get(i).getBoundingBox();
  
            List<Text.Line> lines = blocks.get(i).getLines();
  
            for (int j = 0; j < lines.size(); j++) {
                List<Text.Element> elements = lines.get(j).getElements();
                for (int k = 0; k < elements.size(); k++) {
                    Text.Element e = elements.get(k);
                    textElements.add(e);
                 }
            } At this point, we have an array of objects which all contain some text. In our example, the four in block 0 are 'ENTRETIEN/BAZAR......’, ‘MPX’, ‘FILM’, and ‘FRAICH30M’. All of the elements are put into a list. Text.Element Text.Elements Sorting boxes So now that we have all these objects in a list, how do we determine what goes after what? As seen from above, the OCR algorithm just recognized blocks of text but it made no effort to make correct sentences. First, we need to realize that object is bound by Rect object which has coordinates and dimensions. We use this fact to sort the . Text.Element Text.Element Text.Elements We take the top and left coordinates of the rectangles and sort them: public int compare(Text.Element t1, Text.Element t2) {
            int diffOfTops = t1.getBoundingBox().top - t2.getBoundingBox().top;
            int diffOfLefts = t1.getBoundingBox().left - t2.getBoundingBox().left;

            int height = (t1.getBoundingBox().height() + t2.getBoundingBox().height()) / 2;
            int verticalDiff = (int)(height * 0.35);

            int result = diffOfLefts;
            if (Math.abs(diffOfTops) > verticalDiff) {
                result =  diffOfTops;
            }
            return result;
        } The main decision in this algorithm is to decide whether one rectangle should go after another based on whether it is more to the right of it or more below it. The horizontal difference is easy, if one rectangle has coordinates more to the left of another rectangle then it will come before it. But this will be taken into consideration only if the difference in the tops is more than 35% height of the line. Basically, we allow for some skew in the picture-taking where the text might not align perfectly. But if a rectangle is 35% the height of the current rectangle below the next rectangle then we consider it as another line. Overall, in our algorithm, we prefer horizontal lines along which we can find the objects. Text.Element Making lines In this final processing step, we will make lines by processing the list above. Remember that the list just has rectangles and so we need to add a condition based on coordinates to decide whether to start a new line. To do this, we get the difference between the top of the boxes and take the average of their height. We don’t check the difference in location on the horizontal axis as we already did that when sorting boxes. Here we just have one decision to make: whether or not to make a new line. private boolean isSameLine(Text.Element t1, Text.Element t2) {
        int diffOfTops = t1.getBoundingBox().top - t2.getBoundingBox().top;
    
        int height = (t1.getBoundingBox().height() + t2.getBoundingBox().height()) * 0.35;

        if (Math.abs(diffOfTops) > height ) {
            return false;
        }
        return true;
    } This finally gives us the well-formatted tabular text. Here is the full text again. ENTRETIEN/BAZAR.  
MPX FILM FRAICH3OM 1,49€  
EPICERIE/BO1SSONS.  
265G POIS CHICHES 0,95€  
HARICOTS ROUGES TR 1,25e  
PECHE FRAICH FRTS 3,69e  
COOKIES SABLES CHO 2,39e  
HYGIENE/BEAUTE.....  
20 ELAST COURTS WA 2,99€  
2 X BATISTE SHP SEC 6,59€ 13,18€  
2è à -60% -3,95€  
MPX FIL DENTAIR 50 2,09e  
SOIN BLANCHEUR GOU 7,29€  
SURGELES/PRODUITS FRAIS....  
LAITIERE PV VANILL 1,69€  
MALO F.FRAIS FRUIT 2,35€  
COMTE AOP 6M 450G 5,29€  
QUICHE LORRAINE 2,79€  
ESCAL.PANEES DE BL 2,85e 
OEUFS PLEIN AIRX12 3,25€  
MORIN MOUSSE CHOCO 2,09e  
LONGLEY FARM COT.C 1,99e  
TOTAL HORS AVANTAGES 57,62e 
NOMBRE D'ARTICLES 18 Conclusion The solution to process the text in lines in this article is not without faults. The text should be relatively straight and not skewed too much. With some effort, we could calculate the vectors of lines even in the most crumpled receipt but that would be for another article. Here we show how a small tweak in treating the output of a large library can have a big effect for a very specific purpose. If you think that this is useful to you, the app is available in the . Google Play Store

Using Google MLKit Text Recognition to Scan Tabular Data

Topographical Notes

Why “creative” job titles are ultimately a bad idea. Photo by on Maite Tiscar Unsplash on Quora “[Rockstar developer is] a dated expression overused by recruiters.” — Jim Haughwout And still, it is quite frequent in job postings. Apart from rock stars, there are also ninjas, hackers, gurus, geniuses, and many other loud synonyms. They either replace regular job titles or are squeezed into job descriptions. Not so long ago, analysed eccentric job postings. They found that the most popular titles in the US were “rockstar” and “guru,” followed by “ninja,” “genius,” and “wizard.” Quite surprisingly, in 2017, the attribute “rockstar” was used 19% more frequently than is 2015. Indeed You can rest assured that in Europe, companies look for “rock stars” as well. While it all started as an innocent marketing trick, the search for mythical ninjas, rock stars, gurus, or wizards has negatively affected all participants in the recruitment process. Image credit: GlossaryTech Hiring companies ignore job ads with unclear titles. Programmers tend to The data team at Workopolis 450.000 job postings. One of their findings was that job ads with regular titles performed significantly better than the eccentric ones. For example, the ad for a “Data Analyst” performed 14% better than the one for a “Data Ninja.” have analysed “Rockstar” ads won’t help companies filter out less experienced candidates. First of all, you should keep in mind the . Instead of getting the top talent applying for your “rockstar” ad, you might get a bunch of mediocre developers who have a way too high opinion of their abilities. Dunning-Krueger effect on Quora “If your projects aren’t boring as hell then the talent will come.” — Chapley Watson Secondly, those who fit the qualifications of a “rock star” wouldn’t probably look at your opening. They will be interested in working for a business with a cult status, such as Alphabet or SpaceX. Your company wouldn’t want to pay “rockstar” developers a “rockstar” salary. on Quora “I think the creative titles are being generated as a way to compensate employees in a way that costs less than paying them more. ‘Congratulations — you’ve been promoted to 00 agent!’” — Philip Mitchell In 2010, Nathan Hurst in the median paychecks of programmers vs rockstar programmers and musicians vs rock stars. The trend has not changed since then. compared the difference Image credit: Nathan Hurst for Hirelite Strong job titles shun minority candidates. It has been shown that words like “ninja” or “rockstar” target mostly white young men, while turning off women, people from different ethnic backgrounds, or older candidates. Once Nvidia removed eccentric adjectives from their job ads, they got 2.5 more applications from female developers ( )! Fast Company Most likely, you don’t want to hire a rock star. Rock stars are loners who don’t normally fit into a team. Although very attractive from a distance but unbearable in the immediate vicinity, they can be your toxic employees. They can give a good performance but will not solve problems effectively. on Quora “I have no desire to work with a “Rockstar Ninja coder”. That ego can be detrimental to a team environment.” — Chapley Watson In his article , Jonathan Solórzano-Hamilton recounted how their superstar Lead Developer nearly killed the company’s project. The moral of the story is not just “don’t hire rockstars,” but, as Tony Robinson points out in : “We fired our top talent. Best decision we ever made.” a follow-up article pay close attention to one’s soft skills from the very first interview don’t place your individual contributors upon a pedestal don’t delegate the responsibility for the entire project to a single performer treat your employees like humans (and not rockstars) Image: by Rock Star Developer skeletonclaw.com Developers Non-specific job titles only confuse developers. Candidates need clarity when it comes to job descriptions. They need to understand what the company does, who it is looking for, and what the job responsibilities are. — on Quora “As a developer, when I see “clever” job titles in job postings, they are almost universally a sign that the recruiting company has no idea who they are looking for. That’s a significant turn off as I’m not interested in working with an organization that naive.” Jonah Williams “Weird” job titles can foster high expectations from developers and lead to anxiety. Jo Franchetti of Samsung writes that is frequent among tech industry employees. One of the key reasons: the hype around “tech celebrities” (read: gurus, ninjas, rockstars, geniuses). While less self-reliant engineers might feel shut out by the demanding industry, some will drive themselves to a burnout by trying to master many different technologies. perfectionism-related anxiety — on Quora “Rockstar suggests magical thinking or […] the employer wants overtime.” Nicolae Marasoiu Eccentric ads might lead to the distortion of the career and learning goals. Many young engineers focus not on how to find optimal solutions, but on how to be cool in solving the problems. It becomes not about excelling one’s craftsmanship anymore, but rather about fame. Just google “How to become a rock star developer” and see it for yourself. Agency recruiters “Creative” job titles often hurt the client company’s brand. It is a responsibility of agency recruiters to be marketers and brand advocates of their client company. “Rockstar” ads usually don’t help the company’s brand too much. On the contrary, they can significantly damage the client’s reputation as an employer (unless they are called Rockstar Games). Weird ads do not help companies define their recruitment goals. As mentioned before, they suggest the company’s inability to articulate what or who it is looking for. If the client is not sure about its talent strategy or recruitment goals, it’s your task as recruiters to educate and consult the client. This involves convincing them to give up pointless job titles. “Rockstar” titles diminish the importance of soft skills. Recruiters must understand that soft skills are as vital for developers as hard skills. So what does a superstar have to do with being a loyal part of a team? What does a guru have to do with being able to learn? These titles send quite the opposite message. Conclusion A “rockstar developer” is a myth. So let’s not nurture myths. — , Fast Company “Save the ninjas, rock stars, and geniuses for cartoons and costume parties; they could be costing you real star talent.” Lydia Dishman If you are a hiring company: Be specific and reasonable in your demands towards candidates. Don’t try to look for rockstars, ninjas, gurus, or wizards. Search for people who solve problems. Search for those who bring value into your development team. If you are a developer: Be humble in your CV. Don’t use cool-sounding yet meaningless titles, as they don’t describe what you do. If you are a recruiter: Be a counsellor and advocate to your client. Help them understand their organisational needs better and focus on finding them the right talent. Thanks for reading! 👏👏👏 Help others discover us by giving this article a few claps Subscribe to our Caissa Newsletter for updates on all things recruiting, job search, and Berlin’s tech scene! (We send it once every two months)

The Myth of a “Rockstar Developer”

And why its architecture is awesome, at a top level. This post has also been published to my personal blog A coding dance Here’s a post concerning the new (future) react-native architecture React Native is often presented as a game changer that allows to run JavaScript code inside a mobile environment. Its main strength is that it doesn’t rely on like other competitors ( , , …), but on the actual real materials provided by the different platforms. It has built-in access to all the native views and components, and to about 70 specific device APIs by default ( ). webviews Phonegap Ionic Cordova you can extend it When writing React Native apps, we build native UIs. And that’s the key point, we create instances just like we would have with platform specific languages: UIView RCTView implements UIView My first assumption on this framework was something like: They probably create an from the JS code and transform it to make it run on multiple devices. AST That would make sense and that’s actually what G does while building apps (with ). But that’s not the React Native way. oogle/Flutter Dartlang The main problem with this approach is that targeting platforms for compilation based on JavaScript code would imply the creation of new compilers. I don’t know any existing tool accepting JavaScript as entry code that is able to produce code for every targeted platform ( ). eventuall see Jasonette NB: some have tried but only for mobile development with opinionated approaches But what currently exist are compilers that target their own specific platform. For example, we have compilers that accept Java / Kotlin code and target Android platform, or Obj-C / Swift targeting iOS platform. It exists many compilers for different languages and targets. They do their job well because to create optimised artefacts for them. they have been designed React Native is built in such a way that it uses existing compilers: It’s built with a really opened architecture that allows the code to be run, not only on mobile devices, but also on other platforms: Desktop applications Virtual Reality Many more It can also be used with other frameworks: , a React Native port of . Weex Vuejs a custom . Angular renderer that allows to run ng apps in devices, with React Native So how did the team build such a framework, that is platform and framework agnostic, by using the existing tools & compilers? Multiple realms interacting, nothing else Let’s take a step back and look at the big picture of React Native. React Native deals with two realms, the JavaScript one and the Native one. Both of them are able to share information. They communicate using a “bridge”, which is definitely the very heart of the React Native architecture, the part that offers so much flexibility. The bridge is the concept that provides a way for bidirectional and asynchronous communications between these two universes. What’s important here is that they are completely written in different technologies, but they are able to communicate. JS threads communicates with the native ones through the bridge Remember your backend side Let’s remember when we were coding distributed backend applications with multi-service communications. How do we manage communication between two services that are completely different at a language/platform level ? We used interoperable languages, such as JSON or XML, and we relied on asynchronous protocols such as (or any other). AMQP Bidirectional communications between heterogeneous services If we want these two services to communicate, we rely on a message queue. The first service pushes some commands inside the queue and the other one has to execute these commands . when possible React Native behaves the same way. The JavaScript realm sends asynchronous JSON messages describing the action the Native part is supposed to accomplish. For example, the JavaScript side will send information concerning When the Native side is ready, it will effectively create the views: the views that must be created by the Native side. JavaScript sends commands asynchronously to the Native side for view management, with JSON In React Native, the bridge endorses the message broker role, handling asynchronous commands between the two different worlds. It offers multiple possibilities: since it’s asynchronous, it’s non blocking, and therefore allows for smooth view management on the screen (~6O fps is the React Native golden goal) since it’s decoupled and based on interoperable languages, it’s wide open to other frameworks and rendering systems provided that they respect the React Native bridge command interface The more the bridge’s language is ubiquitous and universal, the more the possibilities are… and it indeed! is The bridge implementation The bridge is built in C/C++ and thus, can be run on multiple platforms, OS etc... It embeds the in, which exposes APIs to access the actual JavacriptCore VM capabilities. Many people use these APIs on the Obj-C and Swift world. But there is a C API, and the Obj-C one is actually just a wrapper. Apple JavaScriptCore framework With this in mind, JavaScript code can be run inside a C/C++ program. It can inject variables, functions and declare globals to enhance the JavaScript existing code. React Native relies on this kind of magic to make JavaScript communicate with the native world and thus trigger actions in the C/C++ world. Injecting stuff inside the JavaScript code also means that functions can be executed by the C/C++ code. This diagram quickly sums up how the JavaScript world is able to deal with the C/C++ one: The JS code is managed by the JSCore framework The native side The communication on the native side is “the easiest” part. Let’s begin with the iOS platform. Since Obj-C is an extension of the C language, it can communicate with it natively. This way, exchanges between the bridge and the Swift / Obj-C world are easy and natural. High level diagram of JS interacting with iOS world On Android, we need to rely on the to dialog with the bridge. Java Native Interface High level diagram of JS interacting with Android world Here’s an old but really awesome and deep post explaining how the bridge is implemented . on iOS by Tadeu Zagallo Let me know if you have further questions regarding React Native internals. I’ll try to provide all that I know on the topic. Thanks to my mates @ and for the reviews ! Zenika @M6Web

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