Green Badgis in the Security-Surveillance Technology Industry

Green Badg

greenbadg

If your team uses Git and Continuous Integration, chances are good that your workflow could benefit from . But first, strap on your VR headset and experience the perils of through the eyes of our seasoned developer, Karen. git greenbase git pull Karen vs the broken build You arrive to work still flush with exertion from your morning run, a smile on your face and a bounce in your step — the light bulb went off mid run: you knew why the identity service was flaking out every morning at 11:48AM. Firing up the console, you to the right repo and flows nimbly from your fingertips, your heel tapping out the beat to the last song on your playlist; it was a good one. cd git pull Git decides it needs to repack and take out the garbage on your oversized repo. You roll your eyes slightly, but no bother — nothing can get you down today. You’re in and out of Vim in a flash. Hard to believe such a simple three-line change would alleviate so much misery for the Ops peeps. You glance at the clock. It just might be possible to get it diffed to code review before the daily standup. Just one thing left to do… Run the tests. “That’s funny…” “That’s funny… 17 tests failed???” You furrow your brow in consternation. “How did my change possibly break the Time widget”, you think, shaking your head. Down below, your once merry foot had stopped tapping, its good beats forgotten. The next ten minutes sneak past you like a puma as you pour over all the source files even remotely related to your fix. Still nothing. A blip on the screen shocks you from your concentration like a cold pie to the face. “You coming to the standup?” Yikes, I’m late! Skidding to a halt Coyote-style near the great semicircle of agility, you sidle up next to your buddy Anne. Everyone looks faintly amused, but they’re not looking at you. Tom is apologizing for breaking the build. “Sorry I’m late everybody”, you interject meekly. “I was looking at some tests I broke.” Tom looks at you sheepishly. “By any chance, were they 17 tests in the Time widget?” Slumping forward, you let out an overly dramatic exasperated sigh of frustration. The team glances around for a second, then bursts into laughter. It was a knowing laugh, one of commiseration and mutual understanding. Where vanilla falls short git pull What happened to you in our story? You pulled a broken build! That sent you down a rabbit hole searching in vain for a problem you didn’t cause. You ran to pull in the latest changes, but think about it, did you really want the changes? Or did you want the latest changes? When people build a house, they take time to prepare the land and the foundation. They don’t just start building on a pile of junk. Likewise, when we start development of a new feature or bug fix, we should start from a known good place. That gives you the confidence that any build or test failures really are fault, and not from Anne, Tom, or that one intern that rides around the office on a unicycle. git pull latest good your If your team practices and has a solid suite of automated tests, your source of truth for what constitutes a “known good build” is your CI server. Continuous Integration (CI) to the rescue! git greenbase This is where comes in. Instead of blindly running like a slot machine and hoping for the best, you run . It queries your CI server for the latest , or “green” build, then resets your local master to match. Voila! is now at a known good state. Start your coding engines with confidence! git greenbase git pull git greenbase passing master What about local feature branches? If you are on a local feature branch that tracks , and your team uses a rebase-based workflow, then still resets to match the green build, but it rebases your local feature branch on top of master. Pretty cool, huh? master git greenbase master also Installing git greenbase sits serenely on Github: . If you’re on Linux, install it like this: git greenbase https://github.com/tygerbytes/git-greenbase git clone cd git-greenbase ./install https://github.com/tygerbytes/git-greenbase.git The script will create a symlink to git-greenbase and add it to your PATH. Git will find it in your path and allow you to run , just like any Git command. ./install git greenbase (See the for the latest installation instructions.) repo But what about Mac and Windows? As of March 2018 git greenbase has only been tested with Linux. It works with Mac OS X as well. It most likely won’t work on Windows. I am totally open to pull requests. If demand is great enough, I’ll write a version in PowerShell. probably as is Configure to work with your CI provider git greenbase Now that it’s installed, how do you configure it to work with your CI provider? Typically you need to provide Git with your CI server’s URL, API token, and the ID of your project. The information is stored in your Git config. For example, if you use Travis CI, you would run commands similar to the following: git config . traviscigit config greenbase. git config greenbase.travisci. git config greenbase.travisci. greenbase provider travisci.token <TOKEN> serverUri <SERVER_URI> repoId <GITHUB_REPO_ID> ( for the latest configuration instructions.) See the repo Which CI providers are supported? As of March 2018 the only CI providers supported out of the OSS box are: Gitlab Travis CI TFS (Not well-tested) That’s a short list! If you would like to add support for another CI provider, feel free to send me a pull request. See below under “Contributing to development.” Contributing to development git greenbase is written in Bash, and tested using the . git greenbase Bats testing framework I tried my best to design it in a modular fashion for testability and maintainability. For example, the logic for communicating with each CI provider lives in its own Bash script, with its Bats tests alongside it in the same directory. Personally, , nor am I a super skilled Bash developer. That said, I feel tools like will bring more peace, love, and butterflies to the DevOps landscape. So I persevere. :) Bash isn’t my favorite language git greenbase See the for the latest development details. development page Can I buy you a coffee? If you’re super stoked about and all the pain it has saved you and your team, . I find coffee a great motivator. git greenbase buy me a coffee Originally published at tygertec.com on March 5, 2018.

git greenbase means never pulling a broken build

Efficient Neural Network Approaches for Conditional Optimal Transport: Discussion and Reference

Prestidigitation! President Biden’s Energy Boom, the Sop to Cerberus, and Stein's Law

প্রেস্টিডিটেশন ! প্রেসিডেন্ট বিডেনের এনার্জি বুম, দ্য সোপ টু সার্বেরাস এবং স্টেইনের আইন

Taschenspielereien! Präsident Bidens Energieboom, die Beschwichtigung von Cerberus und Steins Gesetz

¡Prestidigitación! El auge energético del presidente Biden, la concesión a Cerberus y la ley de Stein

Prestidigitation! Le boom énergétique du président Biden, la solution à Cerberus et la loi de Stein

प्रेस्टीजिटेशन! राष्ट्रपति बिडेन की ऊर्जा उछाल, सेर्बेरस को रियायत, और स्टीन का नियम

手品！バイデン大統領のエネルギーブーム、ケルベロスへのご褒美、そしてスタインの法則

요술! 바이든 대통령의 에너지 붐, 케르베로스의 Sop, 그리고 스타인의 법칙

Prestidigitação! O boom energético do presidente Biden, o golpe para Cerberus e a lei de Stein

Престидигитация! Энергетический бум президента Байдена, подачка Церберу и закон Штейна

Prestijitasyon! Başkan Biden'ın Enerji Patlaması, Cerberus'a Sop ve Stein Yasası

Uy tín kỹ thuật số! Sự bùng nổ năng lượng của Tổng thống Biden, Sop to Cerberus và Định luật Stein

魔术！拜登总统的能源繁荣、塞伯鲁斯的贿赂和斯坦因定律

This paper is under CC 4.0 license. available on arxiv Authors: (1) Joel Jang, CarperAI,University of Washington & Allen Institute for AI; (2) Seungone Kim, KAIST AI; (3) Yizhong Wang, University of Washington; (4) Jack Hessel, University of Washington; (5) Luke Zettlemoyer, Aleph Alpha; (6) Hannaneh Hajishirzi, University of Washington & Allen Institute for AI; (7) Yejin Choi, UC San Diego. 5 CONCLUSION Previous work has shown that adapting LLMs with RLHF helps them generate outputs that are preferred by humans over the supervised fine-tuned counterpart. However, recent work has also pointed out that simply training LLMs to abide by the preference of the general may result in ignoring individual preferences and values. In this work, we provide the first steps to tackle this issue by proposing Reinforcement Learning from Personalized Human Feedback as a multi-objective problem so that LLMs can be aligned to follow conflicting preferences. We propose a promising method called P-SOUPS that is able to composite models trained on single objectives on the fly during inference. We also highlight the scalability of P-SOUPS by showing that it scales linearly, instead of exponentially like the MORL baseline, with regards to the number of new preferences, which is required to provide true personalization to individual users. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks to Minyoung Hwang, Sungdong Kim, Tim Dettmers, Yoonjoo Lee, and Margaret Li for helpful feedback and discussion. REFERENCES Xiang Ao, Xiting Wang, Ling Luo, Ying Qiao, Qing He, and Xing Xie. PENS: A dataset and generic framework for personalized news headline generation. In Proceedings of the 59th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics and the 11th International Joint Conference on Natural Language Processing (Volume 1: Long Papers), pp. 82–92, Online, August 2021. Association for Computational Linguistics. doi: 10.18653/v1/2021.acl-long.7. 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Judging llm-as-a-judge with mt-bench and chatbot arena. arXiv preprint arXiv:2306.05685, 2023. Yinhe Zheng, Guanyi Chen, Minlie Huang, Song Liu, and Xuan Zhu. Personalized dialogue generation with diversified traits. arXiv preprint arXiv:1901.09672, 2019. Daniel M Ziegler, Nisan Stiennon, Jeffrey Wu, Tom B Brown, Alec Radford, Dario Amodei, Paul Christiano, and Geoffrey Irving. Fine-tuning language models from human preferences. arXiv preprint arXiv:1909.08593, 2019. A DETAILS OF EVALUATION SETUP We use a modified version of the GPT4 annotation prompt used by Dubois et al. (2023). We modify the criteria to perform the pairwise evaluation from general to a single preference dimension. We also provide 3 demonstrations: one scenario where there is a tie because both responses do not contain any notion of the preference (e.g. both responses do not show any signs of friendliness), one scenario where there is a clear winner, and one scenario where they are both good, but one is better than the other. Simulated pairwise evaluation We recruited 24 crowd workers for our human evaluation. Figure 5 shows the interface used for human evaluation. We consider both the ‘Tie’ and ‘Both are bad’ options to be Ties. B CRITERIA-WISE EVALUATION The criteria-wise win rate (%) across all the methods are shown in Figure 6. The criteria-wise win rate was calculated by getting the average win-rate of the preference combinations that contained the specific preference dimension. For example, when calculating the criteria-wise win rate of ‘Elementary’, we got the average win-rate of the preference combinations that contained the ‘Elementary’ preference, which includes AAA, AAB, ABA, and ABB. C THE FULL LIST OF EVALUATION PROMPTS The full list of evaluation prompts used in our experiments are provided in Table 5 D DETAILED RESULTS FOR HUMAN EVALUATION AND GPT-4 EVALUATION We provide detailed results (win / loss / tie for each of the preference combinations for our main experimental results. Table 6 shows the GPT4 evaluation and Table 7 shows the human evaluation results. E EXAMPLES OF P-SOUPS TEXT GENERATIONS Table 8 shows empirical examples of the text generated from each preference combination of the 16 preference combination experiments for the same prompt.

Personalized Soups: LLM Alignment Via Parameter Merging - Conclusion & References

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Jeff Askew IBM is the Vice President of Brand Experience & Design at IBM and Lead for the IBM Blue Studio. He has been with this major tech firm since 2014 during which time Todd has played an instrumental role in marrying the design and software development disciplines, Todd Simmons The IBM Design Language provides the guidance and assets used to express the IBM brand in products, communications, marketing, events and digital experiences consistently and elevant user experiences. His work has contributed to IBM’s Quantum System Two, a winner of the 2023 Innovation by Design Awards. Todd’s work crosses nearly every category of creative output. He is outcome-obsessed, and his unique combination of creative and strategic thinking has been central to the many successful engagements he has led over the years. Todd believes that strong design is built on understanding which is why one of IBM’s key principles is to never delegate understanding. Global Brand at GSK Rowan Green is a distinguished professional serving as the Director of Brand Identity for Global Brand at GSK. Here, he plays a pivotal role in shaping the brand’s identity and strategy on a global scale. In addition to corporate responsibilities, Rowan generously volunteers his time as a student mentor at the University of Plymouth, contributing to the development and growth of future generations of professionals. With a wealth of experience spanning various sectors, Rowan has made significant contributions to renowned organizations such as the National Trust, Forestry England, Lisson Gallery, and the University of Oxford, among others. His extensive background underscores his expertise in brand development, design, and strategic leadership, making him a highly respected figure in the industry. Rowan Green’s dedication to both their professional endeavors and philanthropic pursuits exemplifies his commitment to excellence and community engagement. Feely Studio Feely Studio stands out as a dynamic entity, composed of a team of fervent designers dedicated to empowering startups and helping with their onward journey. Whether startups seek to elevate their marketing strategies, secure funding across various stages (from pre-seed to Series A), or allure top-tier talent, Feely offers specialized expertise in crafting impactful branding and marketing websites. At the helm of Feely Studio’s creative endeavors is Anastasia Sycheva, serving as both the Art Director and co-founder. With a blend of artistic vision and entrepreneurial spirit, Sycheva leads the team in delivering innovative design solutions tailored to meet the unique needs of each startup client, fostering their growth and success in the competitive landscape. Liberty Mutual Insurance With a legacy spanning over a century, Liberty Mutual Insurance has been a pioneer in developing innovative insurance solutions tailored to address the evolving needs of society. Their dedication to breaking away from conventional mindsets and exploring new territories within the industry is driven by a steadfast commitment to ensuring peace of mind for their customers. At the helm of Liberty Mutual’s creative endeavors is Michael Wood, who serves as the Executive Creative Director. With expertise in copywriting, storytelling, brand management, brand marketing, branding and identity, strategic thinking, and social media engagement, Wood leads the charge in crafting compelling narratives and strategic initiatives that redefine the insurance landscape. Under Wood’s guidance, Liberty Mutual continues to push boundaries, embracing innovation and customer-centricity to shape the future of insurance branding. Sanofi Consumer Healthcare Sanofi is an innovative global healthcare company on a mission to help people build toward a healthier future. The company uses consumer-inspired, science-based products and solutions that are creatively designed and simple to use to empower people to take an active role in their health. helps to further this mission with his reputation for delivering intelligent and carefully considered brand communication solutions, Joe Durkin works as Sanofi’s Head of Brand Design to further this mission. He has 20 years of success, helping companies create and promote their brands, design packaging and produce emotionally compelling consumer experiences. Joe Durkin SAP SAP develops enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations. The company is the world’s leading enterprise resource planning software vendor with a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders. SAP offers an end-to-end suite of applications and services enables its customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference worldwide. is the VP of Creative Enablement, Brand Awareness and Marketing at SAP. During her time at SAP she strategically developed and transformed the SAP brand to be more open, approachable and relevant for all-sized businesses. Resulted in year-over-year brand growth and consistent placement in the top 25 of Interbrand’s Best Global Brands study. Laura Johnson Takeda At Takeda, the overarching mission is to foster better health for individuals and a brighter future for the world. Rooted in enduring values, their commitment to advancing science and technology remains unwavering. The company’s ambition is to continuously deliver transformative treatments, thereby generating significant societal value while prioritizing an exceptional experience for its people. serves as the driving force behind Creative and Corporate Brand Engagement at Takeda. His multifaceted role encompasses various responsibilities aimed at nurturing a vibrant brand community within the organization and facilitating seamless communication of branding updates and changes. McArdle ensures that global corporate materials and assets are promptly updated to reflect high-level organizational changes, collaborating closely with stakeholders across the organization to ensure accurate dissemination of content. Maxwell McArdle FINIEN FINIEN, a purposefully small consultancy, is spearheaded by brand strategist, entrepreneur, and best-selling author Fabian Geyrhalter. Their mission is to empower Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) and founders navigating brand transformations by offering swift strategic, verbal, and visual clarity to reposition their brands for growth. With a focus on companies based in the US or Europe, their clientele typically generates a minimum of $5 million in revenue. At the helm of FINIEN’s creative endeavors is Jessie (Campbell) Irving, serving as the Creative Director. With an illustrious career trajectory, Irving earned her title after 22 years of dedicated service, succeeding Geyrhalter in the role. As a highly creative and strategic leader, she is entrusted with designing and driving the creative direction and execution of brand transformations across various platforms and mediums, catering to both B2B and B2C audiences. Trellix Trellix pioneers an evolutionary XDR architecture that dynamically learns and adjusts to the pace of cyber threats, offering intelligence on advanced cyber threats. Their innovative approach to security is revolutionizing the industry, providing businesses with the assurance that they are safeguarded at all times. Wesley Porter, a seasoned Graphic Design graduate from Kansas State University, boasts over 25 years of exemplary creative experience. Having honed his skills at renowned agencies like MMGY, TracyLocke, TPN, and Integer, Porter has garnered numerous awards for his work with multiple Global 500 brands. Currently, he serves as the Director of Brand Design + Creative at Trellix, where his extensive expertise drives innovative branding solutions. Through his leadership, Trellix continues to establish itself as a leader in the realm of cybersecurity, offering clients peace of mind and unparalleled protection through strategic brand design initiatives. Medtronic , Communications Director for Cranial and Spinal Technologies at Medtronic, brings a wealth of expertise in executing strategic communication campaigns, change management initiatives, and digital strategies. With a demonstrated track record of delivering measurable results for executive leaders, internal and external audiences, and key stakeholders, Greenberg plays a vital role in shaping Medtronic’s communication landscape. Through her strategic vision and effective communication strategies, she helps to amplify the impact of Medtronic’s innovative solutions, driving positive change in healthcare worldwide. Rita Greenberg Medtronic stands as a global leader in healthcare technology, boldly tackling humanity’s most challenging health issues with transformative innovations that improve lives. The Future Forward Inc. The Future Forward stands out as a prominent creative agency based in NYC, dedicated to empowering brands to wield greater influence through the seamless integration of strategy, design, and technology. Their name encapsulates their philosophy – they are committed to helping teams envision a positive future and actively contribute to its realization. Rad Bratich, serving as the Creative Director, brings his expertise to the forefront of The Future Forward’s creative endeavors. With a keen eye for innovation and a passion for pushing boundaries, Bratich leads the team in crafting compelling narratives and transformative experiences that resonate with audiences. Under his guidance, The Future Forward continues to drive positive change and shape the future of branding and design. Watson Creative Watson Creative stands out as a research-based creative studio specializing in empowering challenger brands. Their portfolio proudly showcases collaborations with industry giants such as Nike, Disney, and Kaiser Permanente, serving as a testament to their prowess in driving transformation and fostering growth. While their focus primarily centers on mid to large businesses, Watson Creative remains open to partnering with startups and small businesses alike. Jennifer Crotteau, serving as the COO/Integrator, plays a pivotal role in orchestrating Watson Creative’s operations and ensuring seamless integration across all facets of the organization. With a keen eye for strategic execution and operational efficiency, Crotteau contributes to the studio’s continued success in delivering impactful solutions to their diverse clientele. Under her leadership, Watson Creative continues to push boundaries and elevate brands to new heights in the competitive landscape. Cisco Systems Cisco empowers individuals to forge powerful connections, whether in business, education, philanthropy, or creativity. Through its hardware, software, and services, Cisco enables the creation of Internet solutions that underpin networks, facilitating access to information anywhere, anytime. serves as the Director of Global Creative Operations at Cisco Systems, Inc. In her role, she plays a pivotal role in overseeing and optimizing the creative operations globally. With a keen focus on ensuring efficiency and excellence in creative processes, Fedele contributes to Cisco’s mission of enabling seamless connectivity and driving innovation across various domains. Under her leadership, Cisco continues to lead the way in creating transformative solutions that empower individuals and organizations worldwide. Lisa Fedele AbbVie AbbVie, a global biopharmaceutical company, emerged in 2013 following its separation from Abbott. With a mission centered on leveraging its expertise, dedicated workforce, and innovative approach, AbbVie aims to develop and market advanced therapies addressing some of the world’s most complex and severe diseases. serves as the Associate Director of Corporate Brand at AbbVie, overseeing brand strategy and governance across a workforce of over 50,000 employees worldwide. Rathmann’s dedication to creating impactful brand experiences, aligned with business objectives and resonant with diverse audiences, is evident in her leadership. She possesses a proven track record of spearheading cross-functional teams, fostering strong relationships and communities, and cultivating a culture of innovation, collaboration, and excellence within AbbVie. Abbie Rathmann This article was originally published by on Emily Branch The Sociable.

Highlighting 15 Exemplary Designs and Brands of 2024

A Roadmap for User Empowerment in the Dark Pattern Landscape

Hi All! Here is my weekly wrap-up. What’s in today’s newsletter? Dunning-Kruger Effect Idea: Self Compassion Question: Second & Third Order Consequences Quote: Podcast: David Greenberg - Ex-Chair NYMEX ($12 Billion Commodities Exchange) David Greene - Host of Bigger Pockets Podcast How To Unlock Your Inner Polymath (And Think Like Leonardo da Vinci) The Netflix Effect Article: Idea: Dunning-Kruger Effect Have you ever met someone so confident in their abilities, but so clueless in reality? Maybe they thought they were a great singer, but sounded like a dying cat. Or maybe they claimed to be an expert in something but made basic mistakes. That’s the Dunning-Kruger effect. Let me share a study and a story. A Study . A study was conducted by researchers from Cornell University and published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology They asked college students to take a 10-question test on American history and then estimate their own scores and the average scores of their peers. They also asked them to rate their own knowledge of American history compared to their classmates. The results showed that the students who scored the lowest on the test (bottom quartile) were the most likely to overestimate their performance. They estimated that they answered 5.8 questions correctly, when in fact they only got 2.6 right. They also thought that they scored better than 68.6% of their peers, when in fact they only did better than 12.5%. They also rated their own knowledge of American history as above average, when it was actually far below. A Story A bank robber named McArthur Wheeler was arrested in 1995 after robbing two banks in Pittsburgh. He was easily identified by the security cameras because he did not wear a mask or disguise. When he was caught, he was shocked and confused. He said that he had applied lemon juice to his face, thinking that it would make him invisible to the cameras. He had tested his theory by taking a Polaroid picture of himself and not seeing his face on the film. He did not realize that he had made a mistake with the camera settings, and that his idea was completely absurd. This is a classic example of the Dunning-Kruger effect in action. Wheeler was so confident in his own logic and reasoning, but so ignorant of the reality. He did not have the skills or knowledge to evaluate his own plan or to learn from the feedback of others. He overestimated his abilities and underestimated the risks. The History The Dunning-Kruger effect is not a sign of stupidity, but of human nature. We all have blind spots and biases that can affect our perception of ourselves and others. The key is to recognize them and to overcome them. David Dunning and Justin Kruger showed us this with an experiment. They asked people to rate their own skills in logic, grammar, and humor. Then they tested them on those skills. The results were shocking. The people who scored the lowest on the tests also overestimated their abilities the most. They thought they were above average, when they were actually below average. Why? Maybe ignorance, maybe arrogance. Why? Here’s a possible explanation, competence is like a mirror. We judge ourselves by what we see. But what we see is not always accurate. It’s distorted by our biases, emotions, and expectations. We think we know more than we do. It’s like looking at a warped reflection. But asking for feedback from others? That’s where you could get a reality check. See, we fool ourselves with false confidence and miss the opportunity to improve. Think about it like bragging about a skill when you should be practicing it. But you can overcome the Dunning-Kruger effect. Try this: Seek honest feedback. Ask for it from people you trust. Listen to it with an open mind. Test your knowledge on topics. Challenge yourself with quizzes, puzzles, and problems. Learn from your mistakes. Admit your limitations. Be humble about what you don’t know. Be curious about what you can learn. One question to guide you all. Ask yourself: How do I know this? Knowing about the Dunning-Kruger effect is just step one. Acting on it, that’s the leap. Here’s a framework to help. The Four Stages of Competence The four stages of competence is a powerful mental model to help you learn anything faster and better and reduce the chance of you falling victim to the Dunning-Kruger effect. Here’s how it works. 1. Unconscious Incompetence You don’t know what you don’t know. You are blissfully ignorant of your lack of skill. You think you are better than you are. This is where the Dunning-Kruger effect kicks in. You overestimate your abilities and underestimate the difficulty of the task. How to escape this stage? Seek feedback. Ask for honest opinions from experts and peers. Don’t be afraid of criticism. Test your knowledge. Take quizzes, exams, or challenges. See how you compare to others. Recognize your limitations. Admit that you have a lot to learn. Be humble and curious. 2. Conscious Incompetence You know what you don’t know. You are painfully aware of your lack of skill. You realize you need to improve. This is where the learning process begins. You start to acquire new knowledge and skills. How to advance in this stage? Set goals. Define what you want to achieve and how you will measure your progress. Seek guidance. Find mentors, coaches, or teachers who can help you learn faster and better. Apply your learning. Practice what you learn. Apply it to real-world situations. Learn by doing. 3. Conscious Competence You know what you know. You are confident in your skill. You can perform well with effort. This is where the mastery process begins. You start to polish and perfect your skills. How to excel in this stage? Practice. Repeat what you learned until it becomes second nature. Aim for deliberate practice. Automate. Make your skills subconscious and effortless. Reduce the cognitive load. Optimize. Find ways to improve your performance. Seek feedback and fine-tune your skills. 4. Unconscious Competence You don’t know what you know. You are fluent in your skill. You can perform well with ease. This is where the innovation process begins. You start to create and expand your skills. How to innovate in this stage? Challenge yourself. Seek new and difficult problems. Push yourself beyond your comfort zone. Explore new domains. Learn new skills or combine existing ones. Cross-pollinate your ideas. Share your expertise. Teach others what you know. Help them grow and learn from them. The Four Stages of Competence is a mental model that helps you learn anything faster and better. It helps you assess your current level of skill and guide you to the next level. It also helps you avoid the pitfalls of the Dunning-Kruger effect by being humble, curious, and open-minded. Remember, it’s not about how good you think you are. It’s about how good you can be. So, the next time you feel confident about something, question it. Are you seeing yourself clearly, or are you blinded by your ego? It’s not about how good you think you are. It’s about how good you can be. Focus on the growth, not the illusion. Question: Self Compassion Here’s a question on how you treat yourself when you face difficulties: How often do you practice self-compassion in your life? Self-compassion is the ability to be kind, understanding, and supportive of yourself when you experience pain, failure, or hardship. It’s the opposite of being harsh, critical, or judgmental of yourself. Self-compassion is not a sign of weakness, selfishness, or complacency. It’s a sign of strength, resilience, and growth. Research has shown that self-compassion can have many benefits: Reducing stress, anxiety, and depression Enhancing well-being, happiness, and optimism Increasing self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-acceptance Improving relationships, empathy, and compassion for others Promoting healthy behaviors, such as exercise, diet, and sleep Facilitating learning, creativity, and productivity Some interesting studies: A meta-analysis of 79 studies found that self-compassion was associated with lower psychological distress and higher psychological well-being. A study of over 2,000 adults found that self-compassion was positively correlated with self-esteem, self-acceptance, self-confidence, and self-worth, and negatively correlated with self-criticism, self-doubt, self-blame, and self-deprecation. A study of over 200 college students found that self-compassion was positively related to academic motivation, performance, and learning goals, and negatively related to academic procrastination, anxiety, and fear of failure. A study of over 300 health care workers found that self-compassion was positively associated with physical health and negatively associated with unhealthy behaviors. A study of over 100 romantic couples found that self-compassion was positively related to relationship satisfaction, trust, intimacy, and commitment, and negatively related to relationship conflict, insecurity, and resentment. However,  even with the data and the benefits clearly researched, many people struggle with self-compassion. They  think that they don’t deserve it, that they need to be perfect, or that they need to punish themselves for their mistakes. Some people might also worry that self-compassion will make them lazy, indulgent, or irresponsible. But these are all myths. Self-compassion is not about avoiding responsibility, lowering your standards, or ignoring your problems. It’s about acknowledging your reality, accepting your imperfections, and taking care of your needs. Self-compassion is not about giving up, giving in, or giving yourself a free pass. It’s about giving yourself a break, giving yourself a chance, and giving yourself some love. This week, try to practice self-compassion in your daily life. Ask yourself: How do I talk to myself when I face a challenge, make a mistake, or feel inadequate? Do I use words of kindness, encouragement, and support, or words of criticism, blame, and shame? How do I treat myself when I feel hurt, disappointed, or frustrated? Do I offer myself comfort, care, and understanding, or do I ignore, deny, or suppress my feelings? How do I cope with stress, pressure, or uncertainty? Do I use healthy strategies, such as relaxation, meditation, or hobbies, or do I use unhealthy strategies, such as avoidance, distraction, or substance abuse? If you notice that you lack self-compassion, don’t beat yourself up. Instead, use this as an opportunity to practice it. Here are some simple ways to cultivate self-compassion: Use positive affirmations, such as “I am doing my best”, “I am worthy of love”, or “I am enough”. Write a letter to yourself, as if you were writing to a friend, expressing empathy, validation, and encouragement. Practice mindfulness, which is the awareness of your present moment experience, without judgment or resistance. Do something that makes you happy, such as listening to music, reading a book, or spending time with a loved one. Seek support from others who can listen, understand, and empathize with you. Remember, self-compassion is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. You deserve to be treated with kindness, respect, and dignity, especially by yourself. Quote: Second & Third Order Consequences “Failing to consider second- and third-order consequences is the cause of a lot of painfully bad decisions, and it is especially deadly when the first inferior option confirms your own biases. Never seize on the first available option, no matter how good it seems, before you’ve asked questions and explored.” - Ray Dalio It’s about the ripple effects of your actions. Successful people don’t just think about the immediate outcomes of their choices. They think about the long-term implications and trade-offs. First-order thinking is easy and tempting. It’s what most people do. Second-order thinking is hard and rare. It’s what sets you apart. Consider Jeff Bezos. He didn’t just see the internet as a way to sell books. He saw it as a way to transform commerce and customer experience. He didn’t just focus on short-term profits. He invested in long-term growth and innovation. He didn’t just react to the market. He anticipated and shaped the future. Second-order thinking is the key to making better decisions. It helps you avoid unintended consequences and costly mistakes. It helps you find hidden opportunities and creative solutions. It helps you outsmart the competition and achieve your goals. How do you practice second-order thinking? Ask yourself: And then what? What will happen next? What are the side effects? What are the alternatives? How will this look in 10 years? Don’t settle for the obvious answer. Dig deeper. Challenge your assumptions. Seek feedback. Learn from others. When you wake up today, think: Are you just skimming the surface? Or are you diving into the depths? Because after all, The quality of your thinking determines the quality of your life. Podcast: 1. David Greenberg - Ex-Chair NYMEX ($12 Billion Commodities Exchange) | | YouTube Spotify Apple David Douglas Greenberg has over 30 years of experience in the financial industry, serving as an executive chair and board member of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), the world’s largest physical commodities exchange. He was part of the team that led the exchange to be the first to reopen after the 9/11 attacks. He played a key role in growing the NYMEX from a valuation of $800 million to $12 billion. 2. David Greene - Host of Bigger Pockets Podcast | | YouTube Spotify Apple David Greene is a former police officer turned real estate investor, agent, and author. He is the co-host of the BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast, one of the most popular and influential podcasts in the industry. He is also the author of four best-selling books published by BiggerPockets including his latest book, the Pillars of Wealth. David has been featured on CNN, Forbes, HGTV, and other media outlets as a leading expert on real estate investing, wealth building, and personal development. 3. How To Unlock Your Inner Polymath (And Think Like Leonardo da Vinci) | | YouTube Spotify Apple In this Lessons episode we explore how to think like Leonardo da Vinci, a polymath who mastered the art of blending disciplines to unlock unprecedented creativity and innovation. Article: The Netflix Effect I’ve been a big fan of Scott Galloway’s podcast podcast for a while, and I think he really did Netflix justice in the written analysis he put together below. He examines how Netflix continues to defy the odds and retain its Iron Throne in streaming. There are some great business / professional / entrepreneur lessons. Some of the highlights: How Netflix's international expansion and content strategy paid off during the writers' strike Why the streamer's continued investment in originals separates it from the competition How the platform is raising prices thanks to its new utility status The threats posed by TikTok and YouTube Read it here. Also published here. Lead image by . King Lip on Unsplash If you love this kind of content, please subscribe to my or newsletter, check out my and connect with me on / . weekly daily , Podcast YouTube Twitter

Breaking the Illusion of Competence:  The Dunning-Kruger Effect 

Oracle vs. Google (2014) Court Filing, retrieved on May 9, 2014, is part of . You can jump to any part in this filing . This is part 1 of 16. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here Introduction E. JOSHUA ROSENKRANZ, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, of New York, New York, argued for plaintiffappellant. With him on the brief were MARK S. DAVIES, ANDREW D. SILVERMAN, KELLY M. DALEY; and ANNETTE L. HURST, GABRIEL M. RAMSEY, and ELIZABETH C. MCBRIDE, of San Francisco, California. Of counsel on the brief were DORIAN E. DALEY, DEBORAH K. MILLER, MATTHEW SARBORARIA, and ANDREW C. TEMKIN, Oracle America, Inc., of Redwood Shores, California; and DALE M. CENDALI, DIANA M. TORRES, SEAN B. FERNANDES, and JOSHUA L. SIMMONS, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, of New York, New York. Of counsel were SUSAN M. DAVIES, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, of New York, New York; MICHAEL A. JACOBS, Morrison & Foerster LLP, of San Francisco, California; and KENNETH A. KUWAYTI, of Palo Alto, California. ROBERT A. VAN NEST, Keker & Van Nest LLP, of San Francisco, California, argued for defendant-crossappellant. With him on the brief were CHRISTA M. ANDERSON, STEVEN A. HIRSCH, MICHAEL S. KWUN, and DANIEL E. JACKSON. Of counsel on the brief were IAN C. BALLON and HEATHER MEEKER, Greenberg Traurig, LLP, of East Palo Alto, California; RENNY HWANG, Google Inc., of Mountain View, California; and DARYL L. JOSEFFER and BRUCE W. BABER, King & Spalding LLP, of Washington, DC. MARCIA B. PAUL, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, of New York, New York, for amicus curiae Ralph Oman. With her on the brief were LACY H. KOONCE, III and DEBORAH A. ADLER. WILLIAM A. RUDY, Lathrop & Gage LLP, of Kansas City, Missouri, for amici curiae Picture Archive Council of America, Inc., et al. With him on the brief were CAROLE E. HANDLER and BRIANNA E. DAHLBERG, of Los Angeles, California. GREGORY G. GARRE, Latham & Watkins, LLP, of Washington, DC, for amici curiae Microsoft Corporation, et al. With him on the brief was LORI ALVINO MCGILL. Of counsel on the brief were PAUL T. DACIER, KRISHNENDU GUPTA, EMC Corporation, of Hopkinton, Massachusetts; and DOUGLAS LUFTMAN, NETAPP, Inc., of Sunnyvale, California. JARED BOBROW, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, of Redwood Shores, California, for amici curiae Eugene H. Spafford, Ph.D., et al. With him on the brief was AARON Y. HUANG. MATTHEW S. HELLMAN, Jenner & Block LLP, of Washington, DC, for amicus curiae BSA/The Software Alliance. With him on the brief was PAUL M. SMITH. STEVEN T. COTTREAU, Clifford Chance US LLP, of Washington, DC, for amici curiae, Scott McNealy, et al. MEREDITH JACOB, Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property, American University, Washington College of Law, of Washington, DC, for amici curiae Intellectual Property Law Professors. JULIE P. SAMUELS, Electronic Frontier Foundation, of San Francisco, California, for amici curiae Computer Scientists. With her on the brief was MICHAEL BARCLAY. Of counsel on the brief was JASON M. SCHULTZ, NYU Technology Law and Policy Clinic, NYU School of Law, of New York, New York. JONATHAN BAND, Jonathan Band PLLC, of Washington, DC, filed a brief for amicus curiae Computer & Communications Industry Association. With him on the brief was MATTHEW SCHRUERS, Computer & Communications Industry Association, of Washington, DC. CHAD RUBACK, The Ruback Law Firm, of Dallas, Texas, filed a brief for amici curiae Rackspace US, Inc., et al. JENNIFER M. URBAN, Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic, U.C. Berkeley School of Law, of Berkeley, California for amici curiae Software Innovators, et al. Before O’MALLEY, PLAGER, and TARANTO, Circuit Judges. O’MALLEY, Circuit Judge. This copyright dispute involves 37 packages of computer source code. The parties have often referred to these groups of computer programs, individually or collectively, as “application programming interfaces,” or API packages, but it is their content, not their name, that matters. The predecessor of Oracle America, Inc. (“Oracle”) wrote these and other API packages in the Java programming language, and Oracle licenses them on various terms for others to use. Many software developers use the Java language, as well as Oracle’s API packages, to write applications (commonly referred to as “apps”) for desktop and laptop computers, tablets, smartphones, and other devices. Oracle filed suit against Google Inc. (“Google”) in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that Google’s Android mobile operating system infringed Oracle’s patents and copyrights. The jury found no patent infringement, and the patent claims are not at issue in this appeal. As to the copyright claims, the parties agreed that the jury would decide infringement, fair use, and whether any copying was de minimis, while the district judge would decide copyrightability and Google’s equitable defenses. The jury found that Google infringed Oracle’s copyrights in the 37 Java packages and a specific computer routine called “rangeCheck,” but returned a noninfringement verdict as to eight decompiled security files. The jury deadlocked on Google’s fair use defense. After the jury verdict, the district court denied Oracle’s motion for judgment as a matter of law (“JMOL”) regarding fair use as well as Google’s motion for JMOL with respect to the rangeCheck files. Order on Motions for Judgment as a Matter of Law, Oracle Am., Inc. v. Google Inc., No. 3:10-cv-3561 (N.D. Cal. May 10, 2012), ECF No. 1119. Oracle also moved for JMOL of infringe-ment with respect to the eight decompiled security files. In granting that motion, the court found that: (1) Google admitted to copying the eight files; and (2) no reasonable jury could find that the copying was de minimis. Oracle Am., Inc. v. Google Inc., No. C 10-3561, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 66417 (N.D. Cal. May 11, 2012) (“Order Granting JMOL on Decompiled Files”). Shortly thereafter, the district court issued its decision on copyrightability, finding that the replicated elements of the 37 API packages—including the declaring code and the structure, sequence, and organization—were not subject to copyright protection. Oracle Am., Inc. v. Google Inc., 872 F. Supp. 2d 974 (N.D. Cal. 2012) (“Copyrightability Decision”). Accordingly, the district court entered final judgment in favor of Google on Oracle’s copyright infringement claims, except with respect to the rangeCheck code and the eight decompiled files. Final Judgment, Oracle Am., Inc. v. Google Inc., No. 3:10-cv3561 (N.D. Cal. June 20, 2012), ECF No. 1211. Oracle appeals from the portion of the final judgment entered against it, and Google cross-appeals from the portion of that same judgment entered in favor of Oracle as to the rangeCheck code and eight decompiled files. Because we conclude that the declaring code and the structure, sequence, and organization of the API packages are entitled to copyright protection, we reverse the district court’s copyrightability determination with instructions to reinstate the jury’s infringement finding as to the 37 Java packages. Because the jury deadlocked on fair use, we remand for further consideration of Google’s fair use defense in light of this decision. With respect to Google’s cross-appeal, we affirm the district court’s decisions: (1) granting Oracle’s motion for JMOL as to the eight decompiled Java files that Google copied into Android; and (2) denying Google’s motion for JMOL with respect to the rangeCheck function. Accordingly, we affirm-in-part, reverse-in-part, and remand for further proceedings. Continue Reading . Here About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case 10-CV-3561 retrieved on September 22, 2023, from is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. law.justia.com

Google Admits to Copying Eight Decompiled Security Files Developed by Oracle as Part of API Package

The $30,000 Bequest, and Other Stories by Mark Twain, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . A LETTER TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY here A LETTER TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY Riverdale-on-the-Hudson, OCTOBER 15, 1902. The Hon. The Secretary Of The Treasury, : Washington, D. C. Sir,—Prices for the customary kinds of winter fuel having reached an altitude which puts them out of the reach of literary persons in straitened circumstances, I desire to place with you the following order: Forty-five tons best old dry government bonds, suitable for furnace, gold 7 per cents., 1864, preferred. Twelve tons early greenbacks, range size, suitable for cooking. Eight barrels seasoned 25 and 50 cent postal currency, vintage of 1866, eligible for kindlings. Please deliver with all convenient despatch at my house in Riverdale at lowest rates for spot cash, and send bill to Your obliged servant, Mark Twain, Who will be very grateful, and will vote right. 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. Mark Twain (2004). The $30,000 Bequest, and Other Stories. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/142/pg142-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

A LETTER TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY

278 Stories To Learn About Covid 19

The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . THE YOUNG ADVENTURERS, LTD. CHAPTER I. THE YOUNG ADVENTURERS, LTD. “Tommy, old thing!” “Tuppence, old bean!” The two young people greeted each other affectionately, and momentarily blocked the Dover Street Tube exit in doing so. The adjective “old” was misleading. Their united ages would certainly not have totalled forty-five. “Not seen you for simply centuries,” continued the young man. “Where are you off to? Come and chew a bun with me. We’re getting a bit unpopular here—blocking the gangway as it were. Let’s get out of it.” The girl assenting, they started walking down Dover Street towards Piccadilly. “Now then,” said Tommy, “where shall we go?” The very faint anxiety which underlay his tone did not escape the astute ears of Miss Prudence Cowley, known to her intimate friends for some mysterious reason as “Tuppence.” She pounced at once. “Tommy, you’re stony!” “Not a bit of it,” declared Tommy unconvincingly. “Rolling in cash.” “You always were a shocking liar,” said Tuppence severely, “though you did once persuade Sister Greenbank that the doctor had ordered you beer as a tonic, but forgotten to write it on the chart. Do you remember?” Tommy chuckled. “I should think I did! Wasn’t the old cat in a rage when she found out? Not that she was a bad sort really, old Mother Greenbank! Good old hospital—demobbed like everything else, I suppose?” Tuppence sighed. “Yes. You too?” Tommy nodded. “Two months ago.” “Gratuity?” hinted Tuppence. “Spent.” “Oh, Tommy!” “No, old thing, not in riotous dissipation. No such luck! The cost of living—ordinary plain, or garden living nowadays is, I assure you, if you do not know——” “My dear child,” interrupted Tuppence, “there is nothing I do not know about the cost of living. Here we are at Lyons’, and we will each of us pay for our own. That’s it!” And Tuppence led the way upstairs. The place was full, and they wandered about looking for a table, catching odds and ends of conversation as they did so. “And—do you know, she sat down and cried when I told her she couldn’t have the flat after all.” “It was simply a bargain, my dear! Just like the one Mabel Lewis brought from Paris——” “Funny scraps one does overhear,” murmured Tommy. “I passed two Johnnies in the street to-day talking about some one called Jane Finn. Did you ever hear such a name?” But at that moment two elderly ladies rose and collected parcels, and Tuppence deftly ensconced herself in one of the vacant seats. Tommy ordered tea and buns. Tuppence ordered tea and buttered toast. “And mind the tea comes in separate teapots,” she added severely. Tommy sat down opposite her. His bared head revealed a shock of exquisitely slicked-back red hair. His face was pleasantly ugly—nondescript, yet unmistakably the face of a gentleman and a sportsman. His brown suit was well cut, but perilously near the end of its tether. They were an essentially modern-looking couple as they sat there. Tuppence had no claim to beauty, but there was character and charm in the elfin lines of her little face, with its determined chin and large, wide-apart grey eyes that looked mistily out from under straight, black brows. She wore a small bright green toque over her black bobbed hair, and her extremely short and rather shabby skirt revealed a pair of uncommonly dainty ankles. Her appearance presented a valiant attempt at smartness. The tea came at last, and Tuppence, rousing herself from a fit of meditation, poured it out. “Now then,” said Tommy, taking a large bite of bun, “let’s get up-to-date. Remember, I haven’t seen you since that time in hospital in 1916.” “Very well.” Tuppence helped herself liberally to buttered toast. “Abridged biography of Miss Prudence Cowley, fifth daughter of Archdeacon Cowley of Little Missendell, Suffolk. Miss Cowley left the delights (and drudgeries) of her home life early in the war and came up to London, where she entered an officers’ hospital. First month: Washed up six hundred and forty-eight plates every day. Second month: Promoted to drying aforesaid plates. Third month: Promoted to peeling potatoes. Fourth month: Promoted to cutting bread and butter. Fifth month: Promoted one floor up to duties of wardmaid with mop and pail. Sixth month: Promoted to waiting at table. Seventh month: Pleasing appearance and nice manners so striking that am promoted to waiting on the Sisters! Eighth month: Slight check in career. Sister Bond ate Sister Westhaven’s egg! Grand row! Wardmaid clearly to blame! Inattention in such important matters cannot be too highly censured. Mop and pail again! How are the mighty fallen! Ninth month: Promoted to sweeping out wards, where I found a friend of my childhood in Lieutenant Thomas Beresford (bow, Tommy!), whom I had not seen for five long years. The meeting was affecting! Tenth month: Reproved by matron for visiting the pictures in company with one of the patients, namely: the aforementioned Lieutenant Thomas Beresford. Eleventh and twelfth months: Parlourmaid duties resumed with entire success. At the end of the year left hospital in a blaze of glory. After that, the talented Miss Cowley drove successively a trade delivery van, a motor-lorry and a general! The last was the pleasantest. He was quite a young general!” “What blighter was that?” inquired Tommy. “Perfectly sickening the way those brass hats drove from the War Office to the Savoy, and from the Savoy to the War Office!” “I’ve forgotten his name now,” confessed Tuppence. “To resume, that was in a way the apex of my career. I next entered a Government office. We had several very enjoyable tea parties. I had intended to become a land girl, a postwoman, and a bus conductress by way of rounding off my career—but the Armistice intervened! I clung to the office with the true limpet touch for many long months, but, alas, I was combed out at last. Since then I’ve been looking for a job. Now then—your turn.” “There’s not so much promotion in mine,” said Tommy regretfully, “and a great deal less variety. I went out to France again, as you know. Then they sent me to Mesopotamia, and I got wounded for the second time, and went into hospital out there. Then I got stuck in Egypt till the Armistice happened, kicked my heels there some time longer, and, as I told you, finally got demobbed. And, for ten long, weary months I’ve been job hunting! There aren’t any jobs! And, if there were, they wouldn’t give ‘em to me. What good am I? What do I know about business? Nothing.” Tuppence nodded gloomily. “What about the colonies?” she suggested. Tommy shook his head. “I shouldn’t like the colonies—and I’m perfectly certain they wouldn’t like me!” “Rich relations?” Again Tommy shook his head. “Oh, Tommy, not even a great-aunt?” “I’ve got an old uncle who’s more or less rolling, but he’s no good.” “Why not?” “Wanted to adopt me once. I refused.” “I think I remember hearing about it,” said Tuppence slowly. “You refused because of your mother——” Tommy flushed. “Yes, it would have been a bit rough on the mater. As you know, I was all she had. Old boy hated her—wanted to get me away from her. Just a bit of spite.” “Your mother’s dead, isn’t she?” said Tuppence gently. Tommy nodded. Tuppence’s large grey eyes looked misty. “You’re a good sort, Tommy. I always knew it.” “Rot!” said Tommy hastily. “Well, that’s my position. I’m just about desperate.” “So am I! I’ve hung out as long as I could. I’ve touted round. I’ve answered advertisements. I’ve tried every mortal blessed thing. I’ve screwed and saved and pinched! But it’s no good. I shall have to go home!” “Don’t you want to?” “Of course I don’t want to! What’s the good of being sentimental? Father’s a dear—I’m awfully fond of him—but you’ve no idea how I worry him! He has that delightful early Victorian view that short skirts and smoking are immoral. You can imagine what a thorn in the flesh I am to him! He just heaved a sigh of relief when the war took me off. You see, there are seven of us at home. It’s awful! All housework and mothers’ meetings! I have always been the changeling. I don’t want to go back, but—oh, Tommy, what else is there to do?” Tommy shook his head sadly. There was a silence, and then Tuppence burst out: “Money, money, money! I think about money morning, noon and night! I dare say it’s mercenary of me, but there it is!” “Same here,” agreed Tommy with feeling. “I’ve thought over every imaginable way of getting it too,” continued Tuppence. “There are only three! To be left it, to marry it, or to make it. First is ruled out. I haven’t got any rich elderly relatives. Any relatives I have are in homes for decayed gentlewomen! I always help old ladies over crossings, and pick up parcels for old gentlemen, in case they should turn out to be eccentric millionaires. But not one of them has ever asked me my name—and quite a lot never said ‘Thank you.’” There was a pause. “Of course,” resumed Tuppence, “marriage is my best chance. I made up my mind to marry money when I was quite young. Any thinking girl would! I’m not sentimental, you know.” She paused. “Come now, you can’t say I’m sentimental,” she added sharply. “Certainly not,” agreed Tommy hastily. “No one would ever think of sentiment in connection with you.” “That’s not very polite,” replied Tuppence. “But I dare say you mean it all right. Well, there it is! I’m ready and willing—but I never meet any rich men! All the boys I know are about as hard up as I am.” “What about the general?” inquired Tommy. “I fancy he keeps a bicycle shop in time of peace,” explained Tuppence. “No, there it is! Now you could marry a rich girl.” “I’m like you. I don’t know any.” “That doesn’t matter. You can always get to know one. Now, if I see a man in a fur coat come out of the Ritz I can’t rush up to him and say: ‘Look here, you’re rich. I’d like to know you.’” “Do you suggest that I should do that to a similarly garbed female?” “Don’t be silly. You tread on her foot, or pick up her handkerchief, or something like that. If she thinks you want to know her she’s flattered, and will manage it for you somehow.” “You overrate my manly charms,” murmured Tommy. “On the other hand,” proceeded Tuppence, “my millionaire would probably run for his life! No—marriage is fraught with difficulties. Remains—to make money!” “We’ve tried that, and failed,” Tommy reminded her. “We’ve tried all the orthodox ways, yes. But suppose we try the unorthodox. Tommy, let’s be adventurers!” “Certainly,” replied Tommy cheerfully. “How do we begin?” “That’s the difficulty. If we could make ourselves known, people might hire us to commit crimes for them.” “Delightful,” commented Tommy. “Especially coming from a clergyman’s daughter!” “The moral guilt,” Tuppence pointed out, “would be theirs—not mine. You must admit that there’s a difference between stealing a diamond necklace for yourself and being hired to steal it.” “There wouldn’t be the least difference if you were caught!” “Perhaps not. But I shouldn’t be caught. I’m so clever.” “Modesty always was your besetting sin,” remarked Tommy. “Don’t rag. Look here, Tommy, shall we really? Shall we form a business partnership?” “Form a company for the stealing of diamond necklaces?” “That was only an illustration. Let’s have a—what do you call it in book-keeping?” “Don’t know. Never did any.” “I have—but I always got mixed up, and used to put credit entries on the debit side, and vice versa—so they fired me out. Oh, I know—a joint venture! It struck me as such a romantic phrase to come across in the middle of musty old figures. It’s got an Elizabethan flavour about it—makes one think of galleons and doubloons. A joint venture!” “Trading under the name of the Young Adventurers, Ltd.? Is that your idea, Tuppence?” “It’s all very well to laugh, but I feel there might be something in it.” “How do you propose to get in touch with your would-be employers?” “Advertisement,” replied Tuppence promptly. “Have you got a bit of paper and a pencil? Men usually seem to have. Just like we have hairpins and powder-puffs.” Tommy handed over a rather shabby green notebook, and Tuppence began writing busily. “Shall we begin: ‘Young officer, twice wounded in the war——‘” “Certainly not.” “Oh, very well, my dear boy. But I can assure you that that sort of thing might touch the heart of an elderly spinster, and she might adopt you, and then there would be no need for you to be a young adventurer at all.” “I don’t want to be adopted.” “I forgot you had a prejudice against it. I was only ragging you! The papers are full up to the brim with that type of thing. Now listen—how’s this? ‘Two young adventurers for hire. Willing to do anything, go anywhere. Pay must be good.’ (We might as well make that clear from the start.) Then we might add: ‘No reasonable offer refused’—like flats and furniture.” “I should think any offer we get in answer to that would be a pretty unreasonable one!” “Tommy! You’re a genius! That’s ever so much more chic. ‘No unreasonable offer refused—if pay is good.’ How’s that?” “I shouldn’t mention pay again. It looks rather eager.” “It couldn’t look as eager as I feel! But perhaps you are right. Now I’ll read it straight through. ‘Two young adventurers for hire. Willing to do anything, go anywhere. Pay must be good. No unreasonable offer refused.’ How would that strike you if you read it?” “It would strike me as either being a hoax, or else written by a lunatic.” “It’s not half so insane as a thing I read this morning beginning ‘Petunia’ and signed ‘Best Boy.’” She tore out the leaf and handed it to Tommy. “There you are. Times, I think. Reply to Box so-and-so. I expect it will be about five shillings. Here’s half a crown for my share.” Tommy was holding the paper thoughtfully. His faced burned a deeper red. “Shall we really try it?” he said at last. “Shall we, Tuppence? Just for the fun of the thing?” “Tommy, you’re a sport! I knew you would be! Let’s drink to success.” She poured some cold dregs of tea into the two cups. “Here’s to our joint venture, and may it prosper!” “The Young Adventurers, Ltd.!” responded Tommy. They put down the cups and laughed rather uncertainly. Tuppence rose. “I must return to my palatial suite at the hostel.” “Perhaps it is time I strolled round to the Ritz,” agreed Tommy with a grin. “Where shall we meet? And when?” “Twelve o’clock to-morrow. Piccadilly Tube station. Will that suit you?” “My time is my own,” replied Mr. Beresford magnificently. “So long, then.” “Good-bye, old thing.” The two young people went off in opposite directions. Tuppence’s hostel was situated in what was charitably called Southern Belgravia. For reasons of economy she did not take a bus. She was half-way across St. James’s Park, when a man’s voice behind her made her start. “Excuse me,” it said. “But may I speak to you for a moment?” 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. Agatha Christie (1998). The Secret Adversary. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1155/pg1155-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html.

THE YOUNG ADVENTURERS, LTD.

As a kid, I always wanted to be good at drawing. I practiced drawing my favorite anime characters, but frankly, my mom was the only one who thought they were good. Fast forward roughly 18 years, and I'm a college graduate with a computer science degree looking for my first role. I had a part-time full-stack developer job in college, but I wanted to work at a larger company and specialize on one side of the stack for at least a few years. I built a few websites in college, and I found that I would spend roughly 50% of my time on the just tweaking entire project CSS. The worst part? The sites all looked like ass anyways. My decision was made. I wanted to become a backend engineer. Let's talk about some of the other factors that impacted my decision. I love building my own stuff, sans the UI I UI design. You know, sitting for hours, tweaking bloody CSS classes, and the result? A site that makes most 90s GeoCities pages look like a Van Goph. hate It was then I realized that I could just make the command line my best friend. When you build backend projects and CLI tools for developers, you . Developers CLI tools! never need to build a UI again prefer It’s not about giving up, it’s just about recognizing where my strengths and preferences lie. Building tools for developers makes you a better developer If you think about it, everything you build as a backend developer will be used by other developers! That means you have a fantastic feedback loop where your peers and mentors are telling you how to hone your craft, every single day. Building a REST API? Front-end devs use it. Building a CLI tool? Other developers use it. Architecting a database? Other back-end developers use it. Choosing a backend technology? Other developers on the team will integrate with it. And trust me, the feedback from other developers is rarely sugarcoated. There are no . shit sandwiches They’ll tell you if your tool is a diamond in the rough or just plain rough. It's an opportunity to learn, improve, and ultimately, become a better developer. My favorite question: "Is it possible?" I've always been more invested in rather than . Function over form, at least from an engineering perspective. what can be done how it looks Fancy buttons and interactive graphics are cool, but I'd rather geek out about: Can we translate all these tweets into Japanese in real-time? Can we reduce our cloud bill by 50% if we use this database? Can we cut the page load time in half? How can we architect our backend to simplify the code required for email, sms, discord, and in-app notifications? Scalability and performance I love thinking about scalability and performance. There’s just something so satisfying about planning, creating, and optimizing systems to make them perform better, handle more traffic, and grow as the business and use cases grow. It's so nice to work on something that can be measured concretely. I reduced latency by 50%. I improved throughput by 200%. I reduced our cloud bill by 30%. The system can now handle 10x the traffic. You get the idea. It's easier to explain the value of your work when you can quantify it. It sounds more impressive to the boss than "I moved our vanilla CSS to ". Tailwind JavaScript kinda blows Let's switch gears and talk about JavaScript. It's unbelievably impressive that JavaScript has come as far as it has, you know, being the absolute cluster f*** of a language that it is. It's a nightmare with legacy baggage that's been bolted on over the years. There are ways to work with it that are bad, but it's still bad. dynamically typed less At the moment is my language of choice. Static typing, fast compile times, a great standard library, and statically compiled binaries. It's a joy to work with. Go The great thing about the backend is that you can kinda just pick your stack. Use whatever you want! Like Go? Use it. Love Python? Use it. Enjoy the borrow checker? Rewrite your backend in Rust. Like Java? You're wrong but use it. Higher pay And now, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: . Moolah. Cheddar. Greenbacks. Benjamins. money Let’s face it, we all have bills to pay and I'm not ashamed to admit that I like money. So yeah, the pay advantage of backend engineers played a role in my decision. According to survey: 2023 Stack Overflow Backend developers in the US: $165,000 Frontend developers in the US: $140,000 You do you I can confidently say that my preference for backend development is not just a passing fancy. It’s a career choice driven by curiosity, passion, and yes, practicality. But remember, this is journey. preferences in programming might be in creating sleek, dynamic web interfaces, or in developing the next big mobile app experience. And that's okay! my Your In the end, finding joy in what you do, whether it's frontend, backend, game dev, or something in between will probably be the best predictor of your personal success. Good luck out there. Also published here.

The Frontend is Gross: Why I've Always Preferred the Backend

A bear market, counterintuitive as it sounds, is a golden time to build and ramp up your crypto startup traction. But did you ever toy with the idea of applying to a web3 accelerator with your crypto brainchild? I did. Let me tell you, navigating through the dense jungle of web3 acceleration programs is a beast of a task. It's like trying to find a unicorn in a herd of donkeys. You've got plenty of shady players masquerading as accelerators, luring in web3 startups, promising the world, but delivering zilch in terms of real value and "accelerated" growth (I spilled the beans on one such scandal in my recent post about the ). Newchip Accelerator Collapse So, I'm here, ready to drop some knowledge bombs. I've rounded up the top five startup accelerators and incubators that are slaying it in the exhilarating world of Web3 and crypto. This intel, straight from the horse's mouth, is based on my painstaking research and raw, unfiltered feedback from fellow crypto visionaries. The programs I've uncovered below are designed to laser-target the distinct needs of startups in the web3 and crypto sphere, offering tangible value, actionable insights, invaluable connections, resources, and support. Hope this is the fuel you need to skyrocket your startup's growth and significantly beef up your odds of making it big in the ever-evolving, fast-paced world of Web3. My own selection criteria for web3 acceleration programs: 1. Access to Capital: The accelerators I've highlighted recognize that Web3 startups need more than just a pat on the back - they need the greenbacks to grow. They boast robust networks of investors who are stoked about the Web3 and crypto world, seriously upping your chances of scoring that essential funding. 2. Startup Ecosystem: Joining these acceleration programs is like teleporting into a bustling hive of founders who are as hyped about Web3 and crypto as you are. This charged-up environment is a hotbed for collaboration, idea-swapping, and innovation that can turbocharge your entrepreneurial trajectory. 3. Personal Network Expansion: Being a member of a Web3-centric accelerator or incubator is akin to getting the golden ticket to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory - but with a network of mentors, fellow founders, blockchain protocols, investors, and industry experts steeped in the Web3 and crypto space. These connections are your compass, guiding you toward valuable insights, advice, and potential long-term partnerships. 4. Entrepreneurs & Buidlers as Mentors: These programs are your ticket to a masterclass with seasoned entrepreneurs who've survived the Web3 and crypto battlefield. Their first-hand expertise is your roadmap, helping you conquer the unique challenges of this industry and catapult your startup's growth. 5. Wisdom from the Pioneers: By learning from mentors and experts who've blazed a trail in Web3 and crypto, you can avoid the school of hard knocks. You'll benefit from their wisdom, make informed decisions, save precious time and resources, and level up your chances of hitting your startup's targets faster. 6. Founders' Feedback: Don’t just take my word for it - listen to the real deal. I've gathered raw, uncensored feedback from founders who've been in your shoes. Hear about their experiences, their triumphs, and their facepalm moments. The 5 Web3 Accelerators That Check All the Boxes InnMind Web3 Accelerator Meet InnMind, the matching platform for Web 3.0 startups and venture capitalists ( ). This platform has been playing cupid for some years already, matching early-stage startups with the right investors and facilitating VC funding like a boss. With a solid track record of sealing deals for early-stage startups, InnMind has solidified its rep as a go-to support center for web3 founders hungry for capital, partnerships, and traction. you can think of it as the Tinder for Web3 startups looking for their perfect venture capital match InnMind's Web3 Accelerator is a 12-week online boot camp designed for go-getting founders crafting decentralized web and crypto finance solutions. It's all about prepping you to level up for funding and going big on the global stage. Over this turbo-charged quarter, you’ll get: One-on-one sessions with legit Web3 VC Investors Pitching throwdowns with Top-Tier VCs Group masterclasses and think tanks with fellow Web3 founders Weekly personal chit-chats with mentors and warm intros with partners A crash course in VC fundraising & IDO prep This program is like your personal Avengers squad - a diverse team of Web3 experts (from crypto exchanges & IDO launchpads to market-makers & tokenomics advisors, blockchain protocols & lawyers) geared up to supercharge your tokenomics, biz-dev, marketing, and market-making strategies. Pros: Rubbing elbows with real VCs from day one Extensive networking & biz-dev backing Keeps its paws off your equity Cons: Still a newbie (launched in 2022 with 2 cohorts per year) Limited seats (you'll need to fight to get in) Mesh Mesh is your one-stop incubator and venture production studio that's all about crafting and scaling blockchain-based software goodies. Backed by the powerhouse ConsenSys Labs, Mesh is on a mission to build and scale the next big things in blockchain. They've got a trio of programs crafted for startups: Think of this as the maternity ward for early-stage startups, offering all the love and resources needed to get your blockchain baby off the ground. Incubation Program: This is your adrenaline shot if you're a startup that's already got some skin in the game and you're hungry to rapidly scale your blockchain dreams. Acceleration Program: Mesh runs this Santa Claus-style program to shower promising blockchain startups and projects with funding gifts. Selected startups get a sweet capital injection to further pimp out their products and solutions. Grant Program: Their aim is to turn blockchain startups into rockstars, dishing out the necessary resources, know-how, and funding opportunities to kick their growth and success into overdrive. Pros: Three tailor-made programs to suit every startup stage A hall of fame boasting distinguished alumni They keep their mitts off your equity Cons: Selection system as clear as mud Full program details are on a need-to-know basis (and apparently, we don't need to know) MVST:MG MVST:MG is an early-stage tech investment fund and a capital provider that's kinda like a superhero angel investor. They've got a soft spot for bleeding-edge tech and industry-defining innovations across a spectrum of sectors. Besides dishing out the dough, they also offer a buffet of support services to help startups keep their head above water in these turbulent fields. Their 4-month program is like a cocktail of must-haves to speed up the journey from product inception to market launch. This includes a golden ticket to capital, guru-level guidance, a dedicated workspace for rubbing shoulders with entrepreneurs, tech support, and a ticket to marketing platforms that boast millions of global users. Pros: Access to expert mentorship They're also an early-stage investment fund, so your chances of getting funded are higher Cons: The 4-month program might feel like a time-consuming marathon Not just for Web3 startups, so it could be less relevant for certain niche startups The worst part is the requirement to pack up and relocate Seed Club Imagine Seed Club as your go-to club for DAO creators and operators. Their mission? To supercharge community-owned networks and morph them into global powerhouses. How? By exploiting strategic partnerships and fostering a community of successful alumni, Seed Club acts as a connector and a knowledge-sharing platform to fuel growth and innovation in the wild world of web3. Get your startup into the Consumer Crypto Accelerator and you're looking at funding of up to a cool $200k. Plus, you get to team up with a committed core team, a stellar cast of advisors, and a sprawling network. To qualify for a slice of the action in this accelerator, you need to be an internet-native organization (like DAOs, guilds, you get the gist) that uses tokens to motivate community members to join your cause. The program culminates in a Demo Day, where you get to flaunt your innovative developments to a massive audience of thousands of investors, operators, and consumers. Pros: Each project or company that gets in receives an investment of up to $200k Even if you're an idea-stage startup, you're welcome here Cons: This club has a tight dress code - you need to have a consumer crypto product They expect you to be putting pedal to the metal on your project full-time DeFi Alliance Accelerator DeFi Alliance is the head honcho in the Web3 accelerator and founder community world. Their signature style? A first-week, face-to-face onboarding experience, followed by a 10-week fully remote program for global participants. The program comes in a four-course meal: educational sessions, 1:1 mentorship, group mentorship, and a Demo Day. As a startup, you get to sink your teeth into founder-led sessions, custom-fit mentorship, weekly check-ins, and a chance to show off your shiny project to a network of potential investors and partners. Past cohorts have been bombarded with intro requests and have caught the eye of top-tier Web3 investors and clients. Pros: Crystal-clear instructions and processes for running the program You get to be part of the cool kids club, a.k.a Alliance DAO Cons: You'll need to pack your bags for a 1-week in-person onboarding Only a 1.1% acceptance rate (talk about exclusivity!) Alright, pals, that's a wrap on our wild ride through Web3 accelerators and crypto incubators. Now, I need to be real with you. The pool of these programs might be as small as the last bitcoin fraction, but each one is a heavyweight champion brimming with wisdom, resources, and all the right connections. If you're a fellow founder, looking to make your mark in the Web3 universe or an aspiring crypto genius, these accelerators can be your rocket fuel. They've got the stuff that can catapult your startup from dreamland to headline news. But hold your horses. This is where I throw in the "proceed with caution" sign. Choosing the right program can make or break your journey. Remember, even the shiniest of internet rankings (mine included) can sometimes miss the mark. Do your homework, trust your gut, and never settle. Your startup deserves the best, so get out there, do your digging, and as we say in the crypto realm, HODL on tight!

The 5 Web3 Startup Accelerators Worth Your Time

229 Stories To Learn About Economics

In the midst of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a fundamental transformation is unfolding, driven not by traditional resources but by data. This shift towards ‘data capitalism’ is taking root, as the economic value of information escalates. In this world, data, when leveraged appropriately, becomes a linchpin for growth and innovation. The Emergence of Data Capitalism In today’s landscape, the market is dominated by large entities that collect, analyze, and apply data across diverse functions. These companies have strategically claimed their market positions by absorbing potential competitors and capitalizing on their vast data portfolios. For example, Russian multinational corporation Yandex leverages its collected customer data from its taxi service to bolster its competitive edge against competitors like Uber. The Power of Data Monetization Data monetization, a vital facet of data capitalism, focuses on deriving profit from the collection, analysis, and application of data. Businesses comprehend the enormous potential of data and exploit it to their advantage. For instance, they accumulate vast datasets, seldom shared or sold externally, and utilize these for their internal benefits. This proprietary approach can establish a significant competitive advantage, as it allows a business to collect, categorize, and use data effectively. From Data Collection to Effective Application The intricate web of data collection and application can be seen in Yandex’s unique film rating system on KinoPoisk. This system, designed for Russian speakers globally, is superior to any other. The system’s success is not just dependent on the collection of data, but also its strategic analysis. However, it’s worth noting that the focus is not merely on data collection; it’s about the practical application of this data. Even with vast data collected by platforms like KinoPoisk and Netflix, recommendations are often unsatisfactory because they lack context. Challenges in Data Management and Privacy As the technology landscape evolves, the challenges for data management and privacy are escalating. Governments find it increasingly challenging to combat data privacy breaches. These challenges are majorly due to the volume of unstructured and non-standardized data and the pace at which digital evolution is outstripping legislative developments. AI and AGI: Transforming Data Capitalism As we look to the future, we can’t overlook the vital role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) in this scenario. AI and AGI, the latter being a technology with potential to equal or surpass human intelligence, have the potential to enhance our capacity to process and analyze large datasets exponentially, thereby reshaping the dynamics of data capitalism. AI and AGI integration could revolutionize data processing and analysis, accelerating the processes from weeks to mere minutes. Consequently, this will increase the economic value of data, further cementing the shift towards data capitalism. More importantly, with the growth and adoption of AGI, we could witness data analysis reaching levels of sophistication and efficiency that are currently unimaginable. However, with every significant technological advancement comes the risk of misuse and potential exacerbation of existing challenges. As AI and AGI technologies become more powerful and pervasive, the need to ensure ethical handling of data becomes paramount. As technology grows in its capabilities, so must our commitment to data privacy and regulatory adherence. The Future of Data Capitalism In conclusion, the narrative of data capitalism emphasizes the importance of data as an economic driver in the modern world. This shift brings immense opportunities for growth and development but also poses significant challenges, particularly in terms of privacy and data protection. As we navigate the terrain of data capitalism, it’s crucial that we continually re-evaluate and reinforce our approach to data privacy and protection. The integration of AI and AGI technologies presents promising Appendix: Additional Perspectives on Data Capitalism According to John Deere, a noted data analyst from Silicon Valley, the emergence of data capitalism signifies a pivotal shift in our understanding of resources. Traditionally, resources were tangible — such as oil, gold, or land. However, the digital age has spotlighted data, an intangible asset, as a resource with immense economic value. Data as a Resource: : Emma Schultz, CEO of European tech firm Blue Chip Technologies, highlights the increasing importance of data sovereignty. As data capitalism grows, the task of protecting data and controlling access becomes increasingly complex. Schultz emphasizes that legal frameworks must progress to safeguard the data rights of individuals and businesses. Data Sovereignty : Joshua Greenbaum, a prominent technology consultant based in San Francisco, discusses the concept of the data economy. He elaborates that in this digital era, corporations can monetize their data by creating innovative products and services. This data economy, as he terms it, is fostering a new category of goods that rely on data as their primary ingredient. The Data Economy : Francois Gossieaux, a Boston-based economist, underscores the vital role that regulatory bodies play in ensuring fair competition in the age of data capitalism. He cautions that regulatory policies must adapt to ensure that data giants do not stifle competition and innovation. The Role of Regulations : Dr. Maya Ackerman, CEO of Wave AI, discusses the importance of ethics in data handling. As AI and AGI become increasingly prevalent in data processing, Ackerman insists that ethical considerations in data handling and analysis are paramount. She suggests that a comprehensive AI governance policy will be critical in guiding the ethical use of AI and AGI. Data Ethics and AI Governance : Tom Wheeler, a former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), draws attention to the growing concerns around data privacy. He asserts that while data capitalism offers immense benefits, it also presents significant risks to privacy. Wheeler calls for a global collaborative effort to address these pressing data privacy issues. Data Privacy In the contemporary digital ecosystem, the market is increasingly dominated by large entities like Facebook, Google, Apple, and Netflix. These companies collect, analyze, and apply data across diverse sectors, often shaping the very industries they operate in. They have strategically positioned themselves in the market by offering innovative products and services, while concurrently leveraging their vast data portfolios to fuel growth and maintain their competitive edge. Also published . here

Data Capitalism: Exploring the Information Ownership Landscape in the Age of AI

There are a lot of choices one can make when designing their application’s tech stack. A person can choose from a myriad of languages, frameworks, and tools to help get the job done, and within that landscape of offerings, blockchain presents a powerful option in the developer toolkit. Unfortunately, it is all too often misunderstood, or what is read presents more hype than reality. In this article, discover some of the core benefits of blockchain as a technical choice, with a particular focus on . Polkadot Let’s dive in! In this post, what topics will be covered? Feel free to jump to any specific section that is most relevant to you, or read the entire article from beginning to end, depending on what is most beneficial. We will be discussing three distinct areas: Enhancing trust and security Boosting transparency Ensuring compatibility with all devices Enhancing trust and security Trust and are paramount concerns for developers when building applications. Fortunately, blockchain technology offers a compelling solution. The decentralized and immutable nature of blockchain inherently enhances trust and strengthens security in a variety of ways. Moreover, Polkadot elevates this even further with its distinctive approach to blockchain. It serves as a robust network for developers, equipped with its own set of features. security So, let’s dig into it! Blockchain technology relies on cryptographic techniques to ensure the security of data and transactions. , just like other blockchains, takes advantage of advanced encryption algorithms to provide robust protection for your information. It’s all about solid security that instills confidence in developers and users, guaranteeing the integrity of valuable data. Polkadot However, what sets Polkadot apart is its unique shared security model. By pooling the security resources of multiple para chains, independent blockchains connected to a central relay chain, Polkadot establishes a formidable defense mechanism. This shared security approach not only enhances network security but also relieves developers from the burden of setting up individual security infrastructures for each parachain. Immutability is a defining feature of blockchain. Once data enters the Polkadot network, it becomes set in stone and cannot be modified by malicious actors. This transparency ensures that every transaction and activity can be audited and verified by anyone with access to the blockchain. This concept is often referred to as creating more truth and relying less on trust. Developers can leverage this transparency to create applications that promote accountability, such as supply chain systems that allow everyone to trace the entire journey of products. Now, here’s where Polkadot’s approach really stands out. Its unique approach includes a model. Multiple parachains (fancy word for independent sovereign blockchains as we mentioned before) connect to a central relay chain, pooling their security resources. It’s like having an entire team defending your application. This shared security setup means that developers don’t need to worry about setting up their own security infrastructure for each parachain. It’s a win-win situation that increases the overall network security and protects against potential attacks. shared security is an excellent walkthrough of the entire history of Polkadot and the architectural decisions made that set it apart from other alternatives. This video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw8eu2VadFA&list=PLOyWqupZ-WGt-V6azbEcVuuIL_MbmgKhy&embedable=true What is one prominent concept that is often associated with blockchain technology? If you guessed Merkle trees, you are correct! Merkle trees play a significant role in many cryptographic models. These sophisticated data structures serve as powerful tools for verifying data integrity through the application of cryptographic techniques. In the context of blockchain technology, Merkle trees become particularly relevant. Within the blockchain, each block is associated with a Merkle root, an intricately crafted hash that encapsulates the entirety of transactions within that specific block. The utilization of Merkle roots enables users to efficiently and securely validate the authenticity and accuracy of transactions, effectively safeguarding historical data from any unauthorized modifications. This mechanism can be likened to an impregnable seal of trust, bolstering the reliability and immutability of the blockchain network. [Merkle Root]
                        /     \
                      /         \
                   /             \
             [Hash 0-1]       [Hash 2-3]
                /   \            /     \
              /       \        /         \
            /           \    /             \
          [Hash 0]     [Hash 1] [Hash 2]    [Hash 3]
            |            |        |           |
 [Transaction 0] [Transaction 1] [Transaction 2] [Transaction 3] In the diagram above you can see the following: The “Merkle Root” is a hash value that represents all the transactions in a specific block in the blockchain. This is included in the block’s header and provides a compact summary of all the transactions. “Hash 0-1” is a hash of “Hash 0” and “Hash 1”. Similarly, “Hash 2-3” is a hash of “Hash 2” and “Hash 3”. These are intermediate nodes in the tree. “Hash 0”, “Hash 1”, “Hash 2”, and “Hash 3” are hashes of “Transaction 0”, “Transaction 1”, “Transaction 2”, and “Transaction 3”, respectively. These are the leaf nodes of the tree. “Transaction 0”, “Transaction 1”, “Transaction 2”, and “Transaction 3” represent the actual transaction data in the block. With a , you can validate whether a specific transaction is included in a block with just a subset of the tree (not needing the full tree), which provides efficiency. And due to the cryptographic nature of hash functions, any change in any transaction would result in a different Merkle root, thus ensuring data integrity. Merkle tree We’ve only scratched the surface here. In the section below, we’ll dive deeper into Polkadot’s governance framework and how it adds another layer of trust and security. Boosting transparency Blockchain technology provides developers with a powerful tool to increase transparency in their applications. One crucial aspect of transparency is the public nature of blockchain data, in which every transaction and activity is recorded on a decentralized ledger accessible to anyone on the network. This open accessibility enables scrutiny and verification, promoting accountability and trust. Developers can harness this transparency to create applications that allow users to validate and trace the entire history of their data and transactions. Polkadot elevates the concept of transparency by incorporating an innovative on-chain governance model that sets it apart from other blockchain networks. On-chain governance is a term used to describe the decentralized decision-making process that takes place directly on the blockchain itself, rather than relying on external mechanisms or centralized authorities. This approach allows stakeholders to actively participate in proposing, discussing, and voting on various aspects of the network, such as protocol upgrades, network parameters, and other governance-related decisions. By employing this transparent governance mechanism, Polkadot ensures that the development, evolution, and overall direction of the network are driven by the collective consensus of its participants. This fosters a sense of inclusivity and democratic decision-making, as every stakeholder has the opportunity to voice their opinions and contribute to the network’s growth. Consequently, this open and collaborative environment empowers developers to actively engage in shaping the future of the network, advocating for changes that align with their specific application requirements and the broader needs of the community. Furthermore, the transparent nature of Polkadot’s on-chain governance model enables users to easily validate and trace the entire history of their data and transactions, as well as the decision-making processes that have shaped the network over time. This level of openness and accessibility not only promotes accountability and trust among participants but also encourages developers to harness the power of transparency in creating applications that cater to the ever-evolving needs of their users. Polkadot’s unique on-chain governance model takes transparency to its fullest potential by enabling decentralized decision-making directly on the blockchain. All decisions are made on-chain. This approach promotes inclusivity, democratic decision-making, and collective consensus, empowering developers to actively engage in the network’s growth and advocate for changes that align with their application’s requirements. The open and accessible nature of this governance model further bolsters accountability and trust. One notable feature of Polkadot’s governance model is . OpenGov enables stakeholders to propose, discuss, and vote on a wide range of network upgrades and parameter changes. It fosters transparency by providing a platform for open discussions and debates among stakeholders, ensuring that decisions are made through a collaborative and community-driven process. This unique governance model empowers developers to have visibility into decision-making, actively participate in shaping the network’s future, and align it with their application’s needs. OpenGov, a framework introduced on the canary network Kusama and expected to be implemented on Polkadot soon The auditability of blockchain transactions is another aspect that enhances transparency. Every transaction recorded on the blockchain is immutable and verifiable, providing an indelible audit trail. Developers can utilize this feature to build applications that require transparency, auditability, and proof of authenticity. Supply chain systems built on Polkadot can enable users to trace the origin and journey of products, ensuring transparency and authenticity throughout the supply chain. Such transparency not only fosters trust among participants but also acts as a deterrent to fraudulent or malicious activities. In addition to transparency in data and on-chain governance, Polkadot’s interoperability further promotes transparency. It allows different blockchains to communicate and share information, facilitating data exchange and collaboration between various applications and organizations. This interoperability enables developers to build applications that seamlessly interact with other blockchains, leveraging their data and functionalities. By integrating and sharing data across different chains, developers can foster transparency, enhance collaboration, and create innovative solutions that transcend organizational boundaries. The public nature of blockchain data, coupled with on-chain governance and interoperability, empowers developers to build applications that are accountable, traceable, and shaped by collective decision-making. The governance model, including the upcoming OpenGov framework, ensures transparent and community-driven decision-making processes. Together, these aspects of transparency pave the way for new possibilities and drive the adoption of innovative and trustworthy applications on the Polkadot network. Let’s now look at another issue that is important for devs when considering any choice for their tech stack, namely accessibility across all devices. Blockchains can be often notoriously resource intensive, which can make them hard to access and participate in with mobile devices and other less computationally powerful machines. How can this be addressed? Ensuring compatibility with all devices Light clients play a crucial role in ensuring compatibility across different device types, offering a range of benefits for developers and users alike. Their lightweight nature and simplified protocols allow devices with limited resources, such as smartphones or IoT devices, to seamlessly access blockchain networks. This broad compatibility facilitates the widespread adoption of blockchain technology across diverse device ecosystems, eliminating barriers to entry and expanding the reach of decentralized applications. One notable advantage of light clients is their ability to provide faster synchronization with the blockchain network. Unlike full nodes that require downloading and verifying the entire blockchain, light clients selectively fetch and validate specific portions relevant to the user’s needs. This selective synchronization significantly reduces the time required to access up-to-date blockchain information, enhancing the overall user experience by providing near-instantaneous access to the latest data. Moreover, light clients contribute to the decentralization and security of blockchain networks. By connecting to remote full nodes, they distribute the load of network validation, reducing reliance on a single centralized entity. This distributed approach enhances the resilience of the network, mitigates the risk of single points of failure, and fosters a more robust and censorship-resistant ecosystem. In the context of Polkadot, light clients are empowered even further through . Substrate Connect is a library that enables developers to build light clients for Substrate-based blockchains, including Polkadot and its canary network Kusama. With Substrate Connect, developers can create light clients that seamlessly interact with the Polkadot ecosystem, leveraging its interoperability and shared security model. Substrate Connect By enabling compatibility across various devices, enhancing synchronization speed, and promoting decentralization, light clients, especially when combined with , offer an important solution for achieving broad accessibility and compatibility. Developers can leverage light clients to ensure seamless integration across smartphones, IoT devices, and other resource-constrained devices, facilitating the widespread adoption of decentralized applications. Additionally, the faster synchronization and decentralized validation process offered by light clients enhance the user experience while maintaining the integrity and security of the underlying blockchain network. Substrate Connect There’s from the not so long ago that explains how to use Substrate Connect and how it is a faster and more reliable replacement for other alternatives. a great video Sub0 developer event By adopting light client solutions, developers can empower users to seamlessly access blockchain technology across diverse devices, fostering the adoption of decentralized applications and expanding the reach of blockchain networks across different device types, providing a range of benefits for developers and users. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0c2s-FYmgA&embedable=true We’ve covered a substantial amount in this post! If it seems like a whirlwind, that’s because it is. There will be two more posts in this series that delve deeper into Polkadot’s architecture and how to begin building applications within its ecosystem. We haven’t even scratched the surface on those topics, and there’s so much to discuss regarding , the modular framework for building blockchains, and , the Rust-based DSL for writing smart contracts. Don’t worry, we’ll get there! Substrate ink! In the meantime, I encourage you to check out the , the and the to continue your learning. Polkadot Wiki Substrate documentation ink! documentation © 2023 Ben Greenberg. All rights reserved. The lead image for this article was generated by HackerNoon's via the prompt "developers looking at a blockchain diagram on a whiteboard" AI Image Generator

Why Developers Need to Learn Blockchain

Por qué los desarrolladores necesitan aprender Blockchain

Pourquoi les développeurs doivent apprendre Blockchain

डेवलपर्स को ब्लॉकचेन सीखने की आवश्यकता क्यों है

開発者がブロックチェーンを学ぶ必要がある理由

Por que os desenvolvedores precisam aprender Blockchain

Tại sao các nhà phát triển cần học Blockchain

为什么开发人员需要学习区块链

THE CETONIÆ

Since cryptocurrencies now affect the global economic market, and society has stopped running from them, haters of this sphere become active. Recently, it has become popular to accuse the crypto industry of having an awful effect on the environment. Are these accusations true, or do opinion leaders and the media exaggerate? Let's figure this out in the material. New Environmental Weapon? Questions about the environmental friendliness of the cryptocurrency business appeared 2 years ago. In January 2021, English programmer Stephen Deal the mining industry with Chernobyl and called it dangerous not only for the global ecology but also for the economy. compared This provocative post immediately drew public attention. In June 2021, the Central Bank of Sweden proposed to ban all cryptocurrencies that are using Proof-of-Work (PoW) technology in the report "Cryptocurrencies and their impact on the financial constitution". The Riksbank calculated that the energy consumption of mining is equivalent to the work of 200,000 households. In December 2021, US Senate Banking Committee member Elizabeth Warren requested a report on the activities of the New York mining company Greenidge Generation. The senator calculated that electricity consumption of Bitcoin mining is "comparable to that of Denmark, Chile, Argentina and the state of Washington." The pollution can be compared to "emissions from 50,000 cars". Trinity College Dublin professor Brian Lucy once Bitcoin a "dirty currency" and a "dirty business": "Bitcoin alone consumes as much electricity as a medium-sized European country". called Tesla vs Bitcoin World famous influencer Elon Musk also made a few comments on the eco-friendliness of Bitcoin. In May 2021, Tesla, which previously actively supported the crypto industry and the idea of economic decentralization, suspended the sale of its products for Bitcoin. Musk justified this decision that the crypto business began to gain momentum too actively, and the amount of fuel that goes into Bitcoin mining and transactions exceeds a safe environmental minimum. by saying Tesla in this matter was immediately supported by the leader of the environmental market, Greenpeace. Activists noted that their policy of accepting donations in the form of cryptocurrencies introduced in 2014 turned out to be unreasonable due to the increase in the amount of wasted energy. Bitcoin VS Ethereum: The Fight for the Environment Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, did not remain aloof from the attacks on Bitcoin because of its eco-unawareness. Buterin, in his with CNN, noted that the world's first cryptocurrency needs to develop its technological base as soon as possible in order to increase energy efficiency. interview As we know, the main competitor of Bitcoin, Ethereum, has switched , which can significantly reduce energy consumption. Proof-of-Stake (PoS) algorithm Empty Accusations However, not everyone is so much against Bitcoin, there are also those who defend it from the accusations. For example, Coin Metrics co-founder Nic Carter disagrees with the popular opinion that Bitcoin is “inefficient.” He that Bitcoin transactions can be used for any of the third-party networks like the Lightning Network, the Liquid and Rootstock, or Blockstack sidechains. notes states that Bitcoin miners spend an average of 113.89 TWh of electricity annually. Mining and production of gold require 240.61 TWh, while the banking sector uses about 263.72 TWh. A Galaxy Digital study Obviously, the cryptocurrency business in this rating of needed energy takes the last place. Of course, the report mentions that Bitcoin mining consumes a significant amount of energy, but that is what makes the network so convenient and secure. Conclusion Experts have identified the main prospects for the development of a crypto-mining system in order to reduce the energy consumption of Bitcoin. Miners need to look for alternative cheap energy resources. In China, the practice of so-called nomadic mining is widespread. Companies move freely between regions, adjusting to environmental conditions in search of natural energy sources. For example, during the rainy season, the southern provinces, where hydropower is developed, are the most attractive for them. It’s possible to work with renewable energy sources. According to various analysts, 40 to 70 percent of the energy used by miners in the world comes from renewable sources like the sun and wind. Since many crypto entrepreneurs are still concerned about the negative impact of mining on the environment, developers want to make the cryptocurrency sector "environmentally friendly" by 2030. Such conditions were stated in the . Crypto Climate Accord initiative

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