Machine-gun fire has gouged holes across the walls; rooms are collapsed and gutted by fire; bullets have made lacework of the metal doors. "Look at this!" Gilad cries, holding back tears, as we walk inside. "How they hate us." The safe-room door held fast ...

In Kibbutz Be'eri, a broken promise to keep Israelis safe

Seven members of Gilad's family were taken by Hamas

British artists explore Cypriot traditions, promoting sustainability and cultural immersion with Grampus Heritage

Sustainability and art: Isle of Wight creatives take part in Erasmus+ Programme’s cultural exchange in Cyprus

The Ghostpulse loader, injected through MSIX packages, is a stealthy dropper that avoids detection by the victim’s scanners.

New malware campaign uses MSIX packages to infect Windows PCs

The Russian North’ is a unique place with a civilization that formed many centuries ago on the shores of icy rivers and seas. Massive wooden

The 10 most important cities of the Russian North

Chicago’s art scene wouldn’t be as vibrant if we didn’t have so much new talent entering the flow each year. After all, art is about growth, change, and discovery. In its past editions, the Cleve Carney Museum of Art’s Emerging Artist Exhibit has highlighted some of the most iconic Chicagoland artists,

Discover five new Chicagoland artists

The goal of CISOs and C-suites should be to always look for gaps in response and close them before a ransomware attack occurs.

Surviving a ransomware attack begins by acknowledging it’s inevitable

Cloud security services provider Lacework has added a suite of new capabilities and support for its multicloud offerings to help customers secure cloud workloads and improve operational efficiency.

Lacework adds multiple extensions to its multicloud security platform

Lacework has extended cloud security posture management to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), giving teams visibility into their OCI resources and their associated risks.

Lacework announces enterprise multicloud platform updates

In an inner Melbourne suburb, a pretty single-fronted Victorian terrace fits in beautifully with other homes of its era, but it wasn’t always the case.

How to restore and renovate a 1900s terrace home

Lacework

lacework

What Is CloudMapper? CloudMapper serves as an indispensable tool for anyone navigating the complexities of Amazon Web Services (AWS). This open-source utility provides a detailed analysis of an AWS account's architecture and security posture, making it ideal for security analysts, developers, and system architects seeking to gain insights into their cloud resources. Originally developed to graphically represent network architecture within AWS, CloudMapper has grown in functionality, now offering resources inventory, security assessment of IAM policies, visualization of public and private resources, and much more. The genesis of CloudMapper was rooted in the need to simplify security audits and risk assessments within expanding cloud infrastructures. As a comprehensive response to these challenges, it evolved to assess security configurations and identify potential vulnerabilities across AWS regions. Its ability to map out AWS landscapes with precision has made it a favorite among organizations for maintaining robust security measures and ensuring the integrity of its cloud infrastructure. In an ecosystem where comprehensive cloud-native application protection platforms (CNAPP), cloud security posture management (CSPM), and cloud workload protection platforms (CWPP) are increasingly common, CloudMapper offers a no-cost alternative that might be just enough to bridge the gap for many users. While these full-featured platforms provide extensive capabilities, they often come with a hefty price tag and complexity that not all organizations require. For teams that need a straightforward, focused approach to cloud environment analysis and security, CloudMapper stands as a capable and cost-effective tool, delivering essential features that are more than sufficient for maintaining a strong security posture and optimized resource use in AWS. Why CloudMapper (You Get What You Pay For, Or Do You?) CloudMapper enters the cloud management arena as a compelling alternative to paid tools with its robust set of features that offer detailed visibility into AWS environments. For organizations wary of the substantial investment required for premium cloud analysis services, CloudMapper presents an opportunity to perform in-depth reviews of account status, resource inventories, and security configurations without the associated costs. This open-source tool is particularly valuable for small to medium-sized enterprises or startups that require comprehensive cloud oversight but must adhere to strict budgetary constraints. It might be possible to augment, or in some limited situations, replace paid solutions like those from Ermetic (now ), , , , and others. Tenable Aqua Lacework Palo Alto Networks The utility of CloudMapper extends beyond cost-saving; it's an essential instrument for a variety of use cases. It can be instrumental for security engineers conducting audits or companies looking to optimize their cloud resource utilization. For instance, during migration phases, CloudMapper can identify over-provisioned resources, helping to trim excess and avoid unnecessary expenses. Security teams can utilize CloudMapper's detailed IAM and security group analysis to enhance their security posture, ensuring that only necessary permissions are granted and that potential vulnerabilities are addressed. Whether it’s for strategic planning, compliance adherence, or security hardening, CloudMapper provides the insights needed to navigate AWS's cloud complexities with precision and confidence. Key Features of CloudMapper CloudMapper is equipped with a suite of functionalities tailored to the diverse needs of cloud infrastructure management. Its primary use cases include generating detailed resource inventories across multiple AWS regions, enabling a granular view of service usage and deployments. This feature is particularly helpful for cost management and identifying redundant resources. CloudMapper also specializes in visualizing complex network topologies, giving users the ability to see interconnections between services and assess their security exposure. For security audits, the tool meticulously examines IAM configurations, highlighting both active and inactive resources, and it scrutinizes public assets like EC2 instances and RDS databases to pinpoint potential security gaps. A lesser-known but highly valuable feature of CloudMapper is its ability to simulate network traffic to test the impact of route table and security group changes before they are implemented. This predictive capability allows engineers to proactively assess the potential consequences of network updates, thereby preventing disruptions and security breaches. This preemptive analysis tool can serve as a safeguard against inadvertent misconfigurations that could lead to costly downtime or security incidents, proving CloudMapper’s utility not just in analysis and visualization, but also in proactive infrastructure management. Wrap It Up CloudMapper stands out as an essential toolkit for any team working with AWS, offering a powerful yet cost-effective solution for cloud environment analysis. Its ability to provide deep insights and visualizations empowers users to manage and secure their AWS resources with unprecedented clarity. As we've explored its various use cases and the unique features it brings to the table, it's clear that CloudMapper is more than just a tool—it's a strategic asset for cloud management. But is it to provide all the insight and depth required to confidently secure a cloud environment? enough Stay tuned for Part 2 of our exploration into CloudMapper, where we'll dive into a hands-on, step-by-step setup guide. Whether you're new to AWS or looking to enhance your current infrastructure, our upcoming guide will equip you with the knowledge to deploy CloudMapper efficiently, unlocking its full potential to streamline your cloud operations. Don't miss this practical walkthrough to elevate your AWS experience with CloudMapper's dynamic capabilities.

Navigating AWS Landscapes: A Deep Dive Into CloudMapper Capabilities

Welcome to this issue of Activation Function. Every other week, I introduce you to a new and exciting open-source backend technology (that you’ve probably only kind of heard about… ) and explain it to you in 5 minutes or less so you can make better technical decisions moving forward. In this issue, we’ll explore Redpanda, a Kafka-API-compatible distributed data streaming platform. Redpanda dubs itself as a simple, high-performance, cost-effective drop-in replacement for Kafka. I know… I know… high-performance, drop-in replacement, cost-effective, all those are the usual suspects every new vendor throws around. Is Redpanda the real deal? Let’s find out. Data stream processing, event stream processing, event data stream processing; I’m sure some of you can argue the nuances of these, but I don’t want to be part of that conversion, so I’ll consider them all interchangeable. Note: TL;DR: Redpanda is a new streaming platform implemented in C++ and optimized to leverage modern hardware like NVMe drives and processing techniques like a thread-per-core execution model to improve throughput and latency. Redpanda has a simplified architecture with no external dependencies like Zookeeper or the Quorum-based Controller in Kafka's KRaft implementation and can be deployed with a single binary. Redpanda provides high throughput, low latency, resiliency, fault tolerance, and high availability, making it suitable for mission-critical applications. Redpanda runs in production at companies including Cisco, Akamai, Laceworks, Vodaphone, Moody’s, Midjourney, Activision, and many others. Evolution of Stream Processing Stream processing isn’t anything new. It’s been an active research field for over 20 years; however, it has significantly evolved over the years and transitioned from a niche to a mainstream technology over the past ten years, with the main driver being technological advancements (e.g., MapReduce), and requirements (e.g., real-time data feeds at scale). Without going down the rabbit hole, here’s a quick and oversimplified rundown of how we got to where we are today: Initially, we had systems that relied on a simple request-response model. The client would issue a request to your service and sit patiently waiting for the response. As the number of clients and requests increased, your services became overwhelmed, the response time ballooned, a backlog built up on the client side, and, sooner or later, the system crashed. Message brokers introduced asynchronous communication where a client can send a request and return later for the response without being held hostage waiting for the response. Eventually, we ran into scalability issues when data volumes grew beyond a certain point due to how message brokers serialized data, how they persisted data to disk, and so on. as a messaging system that can handle huge data throughput by bypassing many latency-inducing mechanisms. For example, it wrote data directly to the memory cache before flushing it to disk, natively stored data in a binary format, distributed payloads across nodes (aka horizontal scalability), etc. In 2011, Kafka emerged from LinkedIn Over the years, evolved from a simple message broker into a full-fledged streaming platform used by of Fortune 100 companies. It’s performant, reliable, and scalable. Kafka over 80 percent Cool… So why do we need alternatives? The simple answer is that things have evolved, and it can be hard to adapt older technologies to new needs (e.g., ML workloads, cloud-native apps, etc.) or leverage new technology advancement (e.g., new-generation hardware). Eventually, people start running into bottlenecks and start thinking about new ways of getting things done. To some, Kafka’s “outdated” architecture makes it difficult and labor-intensive to deploy, manage, and optimize. That’s what Redpanda is looking to capitalize on. Redpanda Redpanda (formerly Vectorized) was launched in 2019 to build a modern data streaming platform that is a more performant, less complex, and cost-effective alternative to Kafka. How? By building from the ground up and going low-level to fully leverage modern hardware. Before we delve into the differences between Redpanda and Kafka, let’s briefly go over the similarities: They are both distributed pub/sub-streaming platforms. They both provide high throughput and low latency. They both provide data integrity and fault tolerance. They both offer tiered storage options. In both systems, consumers pull messages from the broker. Redpanda is Kafka API compatible, meaning all Kafka clients work with Redpanda without any changes. There are , but the Redpanda team is addressing them. a few edge cases Redpanda has NOT achieved , so you shouldn’t expect 100% of the same behavior as with Kafka. [Note] 100% API compatibility with Kafka Performance Redpanda draws its performance advantage from a few factors: It is written in C++, meaning better control over memory management, hardware access, and system resource control. If you’re interested in implementation details, check out . this presentation It’s not dependent on Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and, therefore, doesn’t suffer from the typical performance bottlenecks of Java-based systems such as Kafka (e.g., Garbage collection). I wonder how much of the C++ performance advantage is negated if you use Java-based components like Kafka Connect, which Redpanda integrates with. [Thought] It’s optimized to leverage storage, improving both throughput and latency. nonvolatile memory express (NVMe) It uses a tread-per-core execution model where each core handles its own set of tasks. This reduces CPU communication and locking and should provide predictable performance. It accomplishes this by leveraging framework under the hood. ScyllaDB’s Seastar If you want to go down the rabbit hole of Thread Per Code Architecture, start . [Note] here All of this means that, in theory, Redpanda should outperform Kafka, but as we know, it’s a bit more complicated than that. Long story short, you’ll need to find out by running benchmarks for your specific use case. But just in case you’re interested in existing benchmarks, the Redpanda team released in 2022, to which Jack Vanlightly (Staff Technologist at Confluent) responded with his own . these benchmarks benchmarks Tldr: show that for high-throughput workloads, they deliver better performance, more predictable latency, and need 3x fewer nodes. Redpanda benchmarks show that Kafka outperformed Rendpanda when the number of producers and consumers increased and experienced less performance degradation when running under constant loads for prolonged periods. Confluent benchmarks Ease of use This is an area that is easier to determine, and many agree that Redpanda has the upper hand when it comes to self-managed environments. This is mainly because Redpanda boasts a more streamlined architecture than Kafka without relying on external components like the JVM or specific ZooKeeper servers. Redpanda can be set up in a cluster with one or multiple nodes, similar to Kafka. These clusters can span various availability zones or regions. However, unlike Kafka, every Redpanda node operates using the same binary, taking on different roles, such as acting as a data broker or providing supplementary services like an HTTP proxy or schema registry. Each node inherently uses the Raft consensus algorithm, eliminating the need for external services like the Quorum-based Controller in Kafka's KRaft. Kafka moved away from ZooKeeper to to reduce operational overhead and improve scalability. [Technical Note] KRaft Total cost of ownership (TCO) Just like performance, TCO is hard to generalize, so you’ll have to do your own benchmarking. Redpanda as it requires fewer nodes to achieve similar performance (aka smaller infrastructure footprint) and requires less administrative overhead. claims that its self-hosted version is much cheaper than Kafka That being said, remember the TCO includes other factors like labor cost, which can tip the scales in favor of Kafka, as it’s safe to assume that finding engineers who know Kafka is cheaper and easier given the much larger expert community. Also, remember that even if you decide to go with the hosted version, you’ll have many more vendors and pricing options to choose from when going with Kafka. On the other hand, Redpanda is the only vendor offering a fully managed version of its platform. Other quick facts As you can imagine, there are many more technical nuances to unpack for such a technical product. So here are a few quick facts you should be aware of: Redpanda supports several Kafka Connect connectors, although I’m not 100% sure what behavior you should expect out of the box. Redpanda comes with a pretty slick . console interface Redpanda has built a that lets you deploy custom code written in languages that can be compiled to WebAssembly to operations on “in-flight” data. Wasm Engine Unlike Kafka, which is open-sourced under , Redpanda is released under the more restrictive the Apache 2.0 license Source Available License (BSL). Redpanda is still a fairly new platform, so documentation, resources, and community support are limited. As with any immature infrastructure product, Redpanda here and there. has some bugs Redpanda in Production Redpanda is still in its early days but has already amassed a solid customer base with names like Cisco, Akamai, Laceworks, Vodaphone, Moody’s, Midjourney, Activision, and many others. Redpanda is used in a variety of use cases where latency is essential, including , , , and . real-time cybersecurity monitoring log stream processing, and real-time trade risk management real-time market pricing and analytics many more When to use Redpanda? Based on the case studies listed above, it looks like Redpanda is a good fit in the following situations: You’re looking to avoid Java JVM to gain a slight performance boost. You’re looking to reduce operational complexity by avoiding external dependencies and deploying everything using a single binary when on the self-managed version. You prefer working with a C++ infrastructure. And, of course, if you ran your own benchmarks and demonstrated a superior performance/dollar ratio. When not to use Redpanda? Many of these will be apparent, and I’ve already mentioned a few, but reasons you wouldn't want to use Redpanda include: You’re looking for a truly Open Source streaming solution. Redpanda is published under a Source Available License (BSL). You’re already working with or prefer to work with a Java/JVM infrastructure. You’re seeking a solution with a large community of experts to get support and hire from. You’re looking to have optionality when choosing a hosting provider. You’re new to streaming technology and would like to have abundant resources to learn from. Will Redpanda replace Kafka? This one is a tricky question to answer, and my opinion is solely based on my experience working on Memgraph (a C++ wire-compatible graph DB alternative to Java-based Neo4j) and my observation of ScyllaDB (a C++, API-compatible replacement to Java-based Cassandra DB). Many organizations have sunk a lot of resources into Kafka, and it will make more sense for them to keep throwing money at Confluent to deal with operational complexity, performance optimization, etc. Although today’s focus on cost-cutting might push a few to consider replacing some of their Kafka-cluster to test the waters. I think new startups or even new projects with larger organizations will adopt Redpanda to speed up development, reduce complexity, and achieve better performance for more demanding use cases. But this will be a slow adoption driven by a few discerning engineers. I might sound bearish, but I’m excited about watching Redpanda grow and reach new heights. I think the team has built a great piece of technology, and as they grow their customer portfolio, community, resources, and tooling ecosystem, I think they’ll give Confluent a run for its money. Where to go from here? Alright, so now that I hopefully got you intrigued by Redpanda, here are a few resources you should check out  to dig a little deeper: Documentation Redpand Docs Redpanda Github Contributing guidelines Articles & Tutorials Getting started with Redpanda Stream processing with Redpanda Cluster operations with Redpanda Redpanda  + Kafka Connect/Schema Registry Videos & talks Redpanda YouTube channel Communities Redpanda Slack GitHub discussions People & companies  to follow Redpanda on X That’s it, folks! I hope this gave you an overview of Redpanda and how it compares to Kafka on a high level. As always, there is a lot to learn and many nuances to consider for your specific needs. The only way to determine if this is for you is to take it for a quick spin, which should be simple, thanks to the single binary deployment. Until next time! Also published . here

A 5-min Intro to Redpanda

Emily of New Moon by L. M. Montgomery, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . Growing Pains CHAPTER X. Growing Pains THERE was a great deal of suppressed excitement in school during the last week in June, the cause thereof being Rhoda Stuart’s birthday party, which was to take place early in July. The amount of heart burning was incredible. Who was to be invited? That was the great question. There were some who knew they wouldn’t and some who knew they would; but there were more who were in truly horrible suspense. Everybody paid court to Emily because she was Rhoda’s dearest friend and might conceivably have some voice in the selection of guests. Jennie Strang even went as far as bluntly to offer Emily a beautiful white box with a gorgeous picture of Queen Victoria on the cover, to keep her pencils in, if she would procure her an invitation. Emily refused the bribe and said grandly that she could not interfere in such a delicate matter. Emily really did put on some airs about it. was sure of her invitation. Rhoda had told her about the party weeks before and had talked it all over with her. It was to be a very grand affair—a birthday cake covered with pink icing and adorned with ten tall pink candles—ice-cream and oranges—and written invitations on pink, gilt-edged notepaper —this last being an added touch of exclusiveness. Emily dreamed about that party day and night and had her present all ready for Rhoda—a pretty hair ribbon which Aunt Laura had brought from Shrewsbury. She sent through the post-office On the first Sunday in July Emily found herself sitting beside Jennie Strang in Sunday School for the opening exercises. Generally she and Rhoda sat together, but now Rhoda was sitting three seats ahead with a strange little girl—a very gay and gorgeous little girl, dressed in blue silk, with a large, flower-wreathed leghorn hat on her elaborately curled hair, white lace-work stockings on her pudgy legs and a bang that came clean down to her eyes. Not all her fine feathers could make a really fine bird of her, however; she was not in the least pretty and her expression was cross and contemptuous. “Who is the girl sitting with Rhoda?” whispered Emily. “Oh, she’s Muriel Porter,” answered Jennie. “She’s a towny, you know. She’s come out to spend her vacation with her aunt, Jane Beatty. I hate her. If I was her I’d never of wearing blue with a skin as dark as hers. But the Porters are rich and Muriel thinks she’s a wonder. They say Rhoda and her have been since she came out—Rhoda’s always chasing after anybody she thinks is up in the world.” dream awful thick Emily stiffened up. She was not going to listen to disparaging remarks about her friends. Jennie felt the stiffening and changed her note. “Anyway, I’m I’m not invited to Rhoda’s old party. I wouldn’t to go when Muriel Porter will be there, putting on her airs.” glad want “How do you know you are not invited?” wondered Emily. “Why, the invitations went out yesterday. Didn’t you get yours?” “No—o—o.” “Did you get your mail?” “Yes—Cousin Jimmy got it.” “Well, maybe Mrs. Beecher forgot to give it to him. Likely you’ll get it to-morrow.” Emily agreed that it was likely. But a queer cold sensation of dismay had invaded her being, which was not removed by the fact that after Sunday School Rhoda strutted away with Muriel Porter without a glance at any one else. On Monday Emily herself went to the post-office, but there was no pink envelope for her. She cried herself to sleep that night, but did not quite give up hope until Tuesday had passed. Then she faced the terrible truth—that she—she, Emily Byrd Starr, of New Moon—had not been invited to Rhoda’s party. The thing was incredible. There be a mistake somewhere. Had Cousin Jimmy lost the invitation on the road home? Had Rhoda’s grown-up sister who wrote the invitations overlooked her name? Had,—Emily’s unhappy doubts were forever resolved into bitter certainty by Jennie, who joined her as she left the post-office. There was a malicious light in Jennie’s beady eyes. Jennie liked Emily quite well by now, in spite of their passage-at-arms on the day of their first meeting, but she liked to see her pride humbled for all that. must “So you’re not invited to Rhoda’s party after all.” “No,” admitted Emily. It was a very bitter moment for her. The Murray pride was sorely wrung—and, beneath the Murray pride, something else had been grievously wounded but was not yet quite dead. “Well, I call it dirt mean,” said Jennie, quite honestly sympathetic in spite of her secret satisfaction. “After all the fuss she’s made over you, too! But that’s Rhoda Stuart all over. Deceitful is no name for .” her “I don’t think she’s deceitful,” said Emily, loyal to the last ditch. “I believe there’s some mistake about my not being invited.” Jennie stared. “Then you don’t know the reason? Why, Beth Beatty told me the whole story. Muriel Porter hates you and she just up and told Rhoda that she would not go to her party if you were invited. And Rhoda was so crazy to have a town girl there that she promised she wouldn’t invite you.” “Muriel Porter doesn’t know me,” gasped Emily. “How can she hate me?” Jennie grinned impishly. “ can tell you. She’s on Fred Stuart and Fred knows it and he teased her by praising up to her—told her you were the sweetest girl in Blair Water and he meant to have you for when you were a little older. And Muriel was so mad and jealous she made Rhoda leave you out. wouldn’t care if I was you. A Murray of New Moon is away above such trash. As for Rhoda not being deceitful, I can tell you she . Why, she told you that she didn’t know that snake was in the box, when it was her thought of doing it in the first place.” I dead stuck you his girl I is Emily was too crushed to reply. She was glad that Jennie had to switch off down her own lane and leave her alone. She hurried home, afraid that she could not keep the tears back until she got there. Disappointment about the party—humiliation over the insult—all were swallowed up in the anguish of a faith betrayed and a trust outraged. Her love of Rhoda was quite dead now and Emily smarted to the core of her soul with the pain of the blow that had killed it. It was a child’s tragedy—and all the more bitter for that, since there was no one to understand. Aunt Elizabeth told her that birthday parties were all nonsense and that the Stuarts were not a family that the Murrays had ever associated with. And even Aunt Laura, though she petted and comforted, did not realize how deep and grievous the hurt had been—so deep and grievous that Emily could not even write about it to her father, and had no outlet for the violence of emotion that racked her being. The next Sunday Rhoda was alone in Sunday School, Muriel Porter having been suddenly summoned back to town by her father’s illness; and Rhoda looked sweetly towards Emily. But Emily sailed past her with a head held very high and scorn on every lineament. She would have anything to do with Rhoda Stuart again—she couldn’t. She despised Rhoda more than ever for trying to get back with her, now that the town girl for whom she had sacrificed her was gone. It was not for Rhoda she mourned—it was for the friendship that had been so dear to her. Rhoda been dear and sweet on the surface at least, and Emily had found intense happiness in their companionship. Now it was gone and she could never, love or trust anybody again. lay the sting. never had never There It poisoned everything. Emily was of a nature which, even as a child, did not readily recover from or forget such a blow. She moped about New Moon, lost her appetite and grew thin. She hated to go to Sunday School because she thought the other girls exulted in her humiliation and her estrangement from Rhoda. Some slight feeling of the kind there was, perhaps, but Emily morbidly exaggerated it. If two girls whispered or giggled together she thought she was being discussed and laughed at. If one of them walked home with her she thought it was out of condescending pity because she was friendless. For a month Emily was the most unhappy little being in Blair Water. “I think I must have been put under a curse at birth,” she reflected disconsolately. Aunt Elizabeth had a more prosaic idea to account for Emily’s languor and lack of appetite. She had come to the conclusion that Emily’s heavy masses of hair “took from her strength” and that she would be much stronger and better if it were cut off. With Aunt Elizabeth to decide was to act. One morning she coolly informed Emily that her hair was to be “shingled.” Emily could not believe her ears. “You don’t mean that you are going to cut off my hair, Aunt Elizabeth,” she exclaimed. “Yes, I mean exactly that,” said Aunt Elizabeth firmly. “You have entirely too much hair especially for hot weather. I feel sure that is why you have been so miserable lately. Now, I don’t want any crying.” But Emily could not keep the tears back. “Don’t cut it off,” she pleaded. “Just cut a good big bang. Lots of the girls have their hair banged clean from the crown of their heads. That would take half my hair off and the rest won’t take too much strength.” all “There will be no bangs here,” said Aunt Elizabeth. “I’ve told you so often enough. I’m going to shingle your hair close all over your head for the hot weather. You’ll be thankful to me some day for it.” Emily felt anything but thankful just then. “It’s my one beauty,” she sobbed, “it and my lashes. I suppose you want to cut off my lashes too.” Aunt Elizabeth distrust those long, upcurled fringes of Emily’s, which were an inheritance from the girlish stepmother, and too un-Murray-like to be approved; but she had no designs against them. The hair must go, however, and she curtly bade Emily wait there, without any fuss, until she got the scissors. did Emily waited—quite hopelessly. She must lose her lovely hair—the hair her father had been so proud of. It might grow again in time—if Aunt Elizabeth let it—but that would take years, and meanwhile what a fright she would be! Aunt Laura and Cousin Jimmy were out; she had no one to back her up; this horrible thing must happen. Aunt Elizabeth returned with the scissors; they clicked suggestively as she opened them; that click, as if by magic, seemed to loosen something—some strange formidable power in Emily’s soul. She turned deliberately around and faced her aunt. She felt her brows drawing together in an unaccustomed way—she felt an uprush as from unknown depths of some irresistible surge of energy. “Aunt Elizabeth,” she said, looking straight at the lady with the scissors, “ . Let me hear no more of this.” my hair is not going to be cut off An amazing thing happened to Aunt Elizabeth. She turned pale—she laid the scissors down—she looked aghast for one moment at the transformed or possessed child before her—and then for the first time in her life Elizabeth Murray turned tail and fled—literally fled—to the kitchen. “What is the matter, Elizabeth?” cried Laura, coming in from the cook-house. “I saw—Father—looking from her face,” gasped Elizabeth, trembling. “And she said, ‘Let me hear no more of this,’—just as always said it—his very words.” he Emily overheard her and ran to the sideboard mirror. She had had, while she was speaking, an uncanny feeling of wearing somebody else’s face instead of her own. It was vanishing now—but Emily caught a glimpse of it as it left—the Murray look, she supposed. No wonder it had frightened Aunt Elizabeth—it frightened herself—she was glad that it had gone. She shivered—she fled to her garret retreat and cried; but somehow, she knew that her hair would not be cut. Nor was it; Aunt Elizabeth never referred to the matter again. But several days passed before she meddled much with Emily. It was a rather curious fact that from that day Emily ceased to grieve over her lost friend. The matter had suddenly become of small importance. It was as if it had happened so long ago that nothing, save the mere emotionless memory of it, remained. Emily speedily regained appetite and animation, resumed her letters to her father and found that life tasted good again, marred only by a mysterious prescience that Aunt Elizabeth had it in for her in regard to her defeat in the matter of her hair and would get even sooner or later. Aunt Elizabeth “got even” within the week. Emily was to go on an errand to the shop. It was a broiling day and she had been allowed to go barefooted at home; but now she must put on boots and stockings. Emily rebelled—it was too hot—it was too dusty—she couldn’t walk that long half-mile in buttoned boots. Aunt Elizabeth was inexorable. No Murray must be seen barefooted away from home—and on they went. But the minute Emily was outside the New Moon gate she deliberately sat down, took them off, stowed them in a hole in the dyke, and pranced away barefooted. She did her errand and returned with an untroubled conscience. How beautiful the world was—how softly blue was the great, round Blair Water—how glorious that miracle of buttercups in the wet field below Lofty John’s bush! At sight of it Emily stood stock still and composed a verse of poetry. “Buttercup, flower of the yellow dye, I see thy cheerful face Greeting and nodding everywhere Careless of time and place. “In boggy field or public road Or cultured garden’s pale You sport your petals satin-soft, And down within the vale.” So far, so good. But Emily wanted another verse to round the poem off properly and the divine afflatus seemed gone. She walked dreamily home, and by the time she reached New Moon she had got her verse and was reciting it to herself with an agreeable sense of completion. “You cast your loveliness around Where’er you chance to be, And you shall always, buttercup, Be a flower dear to me.” Emily felt very proud. This was her third poem and undoubtedly her best. Nobody could say was very blank. She must hurry up to the garret and write it on a letter-bill. But Aunt Elizabeth was confronting her on the steps. it “Emily, where are your boots and stockings?” Emily came back from cloudland with a disagreeable jolt. She had forgotten all about boots and stockings. “In the hole by the gate,” she said flatly. “You went to the store barefooted?” “Yes.” “After I had told you not to?” This seemed to Emily a superfluous question and she did not answer it. But Aunt Elizabeth’s turn had come. 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. L. M. Montgomery (2020). Emily of New Moon. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/61236/pg61236-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.

Growing Pains

THE ODYNERI

THE LOCUSTS: THE LAST MOULT

THE LOCUSTS: THEIR EGGS

KO-TAH THREATENS THE PRINCESS

Astounding Stories of Super-Science, March 1930), by Astounding Stories is part of HackerNoon’s Book Blog Post series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . Brigands of the Moon: Chapter  III. Astounding Stories of Super-Science, March 1930: Brigands of the Moon - Chapter  III. In the Helio-room AT six A. M., earth Eastern time, which we were still carrying, Snap Dean and I were alone in his instrument room, perched in the network over the Planetara’s deck. The bulge of the dome enclosed us; it rounded like a great observatory window some twenty feet above the ceiling of this little metal cubby-hole. The Planetara was still in the earth’s shadow. The firmament––black interstellar space with its blazing white, red and yellow stars––lay spread around us. The moon, with nearly all its disc illumined, hung, a great silver ball, over 317our bow quarter. Behind it, to one side, Mars floated like the red tip of a smoldering cigarillo in the blackness. The earth, behind our stern, was dimly, redly visible––a giant sphere, etched with the configurations of its oceans and continents. Upon one limb a touch of the sunlight hung on the mountain-tops with a crescent red-yellow sheen. And then we plunged from the cone-shadow. The sun, with the leaping Corona, burst through the blackness behind us. The earth lighted into a huge, thin crescent with hooked cusps. To Snap and me, the glories of the heavens were too familiar to be remarked. And upon this voyage particularly we were in no mood to consider them. I had been in the helio-room several hours. When the Planetara started, and my few routine duties were over, I could think of nothing save Halsey’s and Carter’s admonition: “Be on your guard. And particularly––watch George Prince.” I had not seen George Prince. But I had seen his sister, whom Carter and Halsey had not bothered to mention. My heart was still pounding with the memory.... WHEN the passengers had retired and the ship quieted, I prowled through the passenger corridors. This was about the trinight hour. Hot as the corridors of hell, with our hull and the glassite dome seething with the friction of our atmospheric flight. But the refrigerators mitigated that; the ventilators blasted cold air from the renewers into every corner of the vessel. Within an hour or two, with the cold of space striking us, it was hot air that was needed. [3] Dr. Frank evidently was having little trouble with pressure-sick passengers ––the Planetara’s equalizers were fairly efficient. I did not encounter Dr. Frank. I prowled through the silent metal lounges and passages. I went to the door of A 22. It was on the deck-level, in a tiny transverse passage just off the main lounging room. Its name-grid glowed with the letters: “Anita Prince.” I stood in my short white trousers and white silk shirt, like a cabin steward gawping. Anita Prince! I had never heard the name until this night. But there was magic music in it now, as I murmured it to myself. Anita Prince.... [4] She was here, doubtless asleep, behind this small metal door. It seemed as though that little oval grid were the gateway to a fairyland of my dreams. I turned away. And thought of the Grantline Moon Expedition stabbed at me. George Prince––Anita’s brother––he whom I had been told to watch. This renegade––associate of dubious Martians, plotting God knows what. ISAW, upon the adjoining door, “A 20, George Prince.” I listened. In the humming stillness of the ship’s interior there was no sound from these cabins. A 20 was without windows, I knew. But Anita’s room had a window and a door which gave upon the deck. I went through the lounge, out its arch, and walked the deck length. The deck door and window of A 22 were closed and dark. The ten-foot-wide deck was dim with white starlight from the side ports. Chairs were here, but they were all empty. From the bow windows of the arching dome a flood of moonlight threw long, slanting shadows down the deck. At the corner where the superstructure ended, I thought I saw a figure lurking as though watching me. I went that way, but it vanished. I turned the corner, went the width of the ship to the other side. There was no one in sight save the observer on his spider bridge, high in the bow network, and the second officer, on duty on the turret balcony almost directly over me. As I stood and listened, I suddenly heard footsteps. From the direction of the bow a figure came. Purser Johnson. He greeted me. “Cooling off, Gregg?” “Yes,” I said. He went past me and turned into the smoking room door nearby. I stood a moment at one of the deck windows, gazing at the stars; and for no reason at all I realized I was tense. Johnson was a great one for his regular sleep––it was wholly unlike him to be roaming about the ship at such an hour. Had he been watching me? I told myself it was nonsense. I was suspicious of everyone, everything, this voyage. IHEARD another step. Captain Carter appeared from his chart-room which stood in the center of the narrowing open deck space near the bow. I joined him at once. “Who was that?” he half-whispered. “Johnson.” “Oh, yes.” He fumbled in his uniform; his gaze swept the moonlit deck. “Gregg––take this.” He handed me a small metal box. I stuffed it at once into my shirt. “An insulator,” he added, swiftly. “Snap is in his office. Take it to him, Gregg. Stay with him––you’ll have a measure of security––and you can help him to make the photographs.” He was barely whispering. “I won’t be with you––no use making it look as though we were doing anything unusual. If your graphs show anything––or if Snap picks up any message––bring it to me.” He added aloud, “Well, it will be cool enough presently, Gregg.” He sauntered away toward his chart-room. “By heavens, what a relief!” Snap murmured as the current went on. We had wired his cubby with the insulator; within its barrage we could at last talk with a degree of freedom. “You’ve seen George Prince, Gregg?” “No. He’s assigned A 20. But I saw his sister. Snap, no one ever mentioned––” Snap had heard of her, but he hadn’t known that she was listed for this voyage. “A real beauty, so I’ve heard. Accursed shame for a decent girl to have a brother like that.” I could agree with him there, but I made no comment. IT was now 6 A. M. Snap had been busy all night with routine cosmo-radios from the earth, following our departure. He had a pile of them beside him. Many were for the passengers; but anything that savored of a code was barred. “Nothing queer looking?” I suggested. “No. Not a thing.” We were at this time no more than some sixty-five thousand miles from the moon’s surface. The Planetara presently would swing upon her direct course for Mars. There was nothing which could cause passenger comment in this close passing of the moon; normally we used the satellite’s attraction to give us additional starting speed. It was now or never that a message would come from Grantline. He was supposed to be upon this earthward side of the moon. While Snap had rushed through with his routine, I had searched the moon surface with our glass, as I knew Carter was searching it––and also the observer in his tower, very possibly. But there was nothing. Copernicus and Kepler lay in full sunlight. The heights of the lunar mountains, the depths of the barren, empty seas were etched black and white, clear and clean. Grim, forbidding desolation, this unchanging moon! In romance, moonlight may shimmer and sparkle to light a lover’s smile; but the reality of the moon is cold and bleak. There was nothing to show my prying eyes where the intrepid Grantline might be. “Nothing at all, Snap.” And Snap’s helio mirrors, attuned for an hour now to pick up the faintest signal, were motionless. “If he has concentrated any appreciable 319amount of radio-active ore,” said Snap, “we should get an impulse from its Gamma rays.” BUT our receiving shield was dark, untouched. We tried taking hydrogen photographic impressions of the visible moon surface. A sequence of them, with stereoscopic lenses, forty-eight to the second. Our mirror-grid gave the magnified images; the spectro-heliograph, with its wave-length selection, pictured the mountain-levels, and slowly descended into the deepest seas. There was nothing. Yet in those moon caverns––a million million recesses amid the crags of that tumbled, barren surface––the pin-point of movement which might have been Grantline’s expedition could so easily be hiding! Could he have the ore insulated, fearing its Gamma rays would betray its presence to hostile watchers? Or might disaster have come to him? Or he might not be upon this hemisphere of the moon at all.... My imagination, sharpened by fancy of a lurking menace which seemed everywhere about the Planetara this voyage, ran rife with fears for Johnny Grantline. He had promised to communicate this voyage. It was now, or perhaps never. Six-thirty came and passed. We were well beyond the earth’s shadow now. The firmament blazed with its vivid glories; the sun behind us was a ball of yellow-red leaping flames. The earth hung, opened to a huge, dull-red half-sphere. WE were within some forty thousand miles of the moon. Giant white ball––all of its disc visible to the naked eye. It poised over the bow, and presently, as the Planetara swung upon her course for Mars, it shifted sidewise. The light of it glared white and dazzling in our tiny side windows. Snap, with his habitual red celluloid eyeshade shoved high on his forehead, worked over our instruments. “Gregg!” The receiving shield was glowing a trifle! Gamma rays were bombarding it! It glowed, gleamed phosphorescent, and the audible recorder began sounding its tiny tinkling murmurs. Gamma rays! Snap sprang to the dials. The direction and strength were soon obvious. A richly radio-active ore body, of considerable size, was concentrated upon this hemisphere of the moon! It was unmistakable. “He’s got it, Gregg! He’s––” The tiny helio mirrors began quivering. Snap exclaimed triumphantly, “Here he comes! By God, the message at last! Bar off that light!” IFLUNG on the absorbers. The moonlight bathing the little room went into them and darkness sprang around us. Snap fumbled at his instrument board. Actinic light showed dimly in the quivering, thumbnail mirrors. Two of them. They hung poised on their cobweb wires, infinitely sensitive to the infra-red light-rays Grantline was sending from the moon. The mirrors in a moment began swinging. On the scale across the room the actinic beams from them were magnified into sweeps of light. The message! Snap spelled it out, decoded it. “Success! Stop for ore on your return voyage. Will give you our location later. Success beyond wildest hopes––” The mirrors hung motionless. The shield, where the Gamma rays were bombarding, went suddenly dark. Snap murmured, “That’s all. He’s got the ore! ‘Success beyond wildest hopes.’ That must mean an enormous quantity of it available!” We were sitting in darkness, and abruptly I became aware that across our open window, where the insulation barrage was flung, the air was faintly hissing. An interference there! I saw a tiny swirl of purple sparks. Someone––some hostile ray from the deck beneath us, or from the spider bridge that 320led to our little room––someone out there trying to pry in! Snap impulsively reached for the absorbers to let in the outside light––it was all darkness to us outside. But I checked him. “Wait!” I cut off our barrage, opened our door and stepped to the narrow metal bridge. “Wait, Snap! You stay there.” I added aloud, “Well, Snap, I’m going to bed. Glad you’ve cleaned up that batch of work.” IBANGED the door upon him. The lacework of metal bridges and ladders seemed empty. I gazed up to the dome, and forward and aft. Twenty feet beneath me was the metal roof of the cabin superstructure. Below it, both sides of the deck showed. All patched with moonlight. No one visible down there. I descended a ladder. The deck was empty. But in the silence something was moving! Footsteps moving away from me down the deck! I followed; and suddenly I was running. Chasing something I could hear, but could not see. It turned into the smoking room. I burst in. And a real sound smothered the phantom. Johnson the purser was sitting here alone in the dimness. He was smoking. I noticed that his cigar held a long, frail ash. It could not have been him I was chasing. He was sitting there quite calmly. A thick-necked, heavy fellow, easily out of breath. But he was breathing calmly now. He sat up with amazement at my wild-eyed appearance, and the ash jarred from his cigar. “Gregg! What in the devil––” I tried to grin. “I’m on my way to bed––worked all night helping Snap with those damn Earth messages.” I went past him, out the door into the main interior corridor. It was the only way the invisible prowler could have gone. But I was too late now––I could hear nothing. I dashed forward into the main lounge. It was empty, dim and silent, a silence broken presently by a faint click––a stateroom door hastily closing. I swung and found myself in a tiny transverse passage. The twin doors of A 22 and A 20 were before me. The invisible eavesdropper had gone into one of these rooms! I listened at each of the panels, but there was only silence within. The interior of the ship was suddenly singing with the steward’s siren––the call to awaken the passengers. It startled me. I moved swiftly away. But as the siren shut off, in the silence I heard a soft, musical voice: “Wake up, Anita––I think that’s the breakfast call.” And her answer: “All right, George. I hear it.” 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. Various. 2009. Astounding Stories of Super-Science, March 1930. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved May 2022 from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/29607/29607-h/29607-h.htm#BRIGANDS_OF_THE_MOON_THE_BOOK_OF_GREGG_HALJAN_BEGINNING_A_FOURPART_NOVEL 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 Sun, With the Leaping Corona, Burst Through the Blackness Behind Us

When the Mountain Came to Miramar

Cuando la Montaña Llegó a Miramar

Quand la montagne est venue à Miramar

जब पर्वत मीरामाड़ी में आया

山がミラマーに来たとき

Quando a Montanha Chegou a Miramar

Khi ngọn núi đến Miramar

当山来到美丽华

After transitioning into solopreneurship and focusing on solving real problems through software, I'm excited to announce the launch of one of my SaaS product: https://lastworkingday.co! 🎉 Why I Built It Leaving a job is a big step, and it often comes with the challenge of writing farewell messages to your colleagues, network, and managers. I noticed there wasn't a tool that made this process easy, professional, and personal. That's why I built LastWorkingDay – to help people write thoughtful, memorable farewell messages with ease. Key Features Company Form: Generate a farewell message for your workplace.


Network Form: Create a message for your social network.


Custom Form: Tailor a message that suits your style.


Powered by OpenAI: Generate messages based on input using AI.


Voice Recording & Transcription: Record your message, and get a transcript using Whisper AI.


Rich Formatting: Customize with bold, italics, and bullet points.


Nature Sounds: Relax while writing with soothing sounds in the background.


Cross-Currency Payments: Purchase credits via Xendit for IDR or LemonSqueezy for USD. Tech Stack This project built with a combination of modern technologies: Frontend: Next.js, Tailwind CSS, TypeScript, shadcn/ui


Backend: Next.js API, OpenAI API, and Whisper AI


Payments Integration: Xendit (for IDR), LemonSqueezy (for USD)


Deployment: Vercel for web hosting Challenges Faced Throughout the development, I faced a few interesting challenges: Integrating AI smoothly: Balancing between user-generated input and AI-generated output while keeping the tone consistent.


Cross-currency Payments: Implementing seamless payments for both Indonesian and international users with Xendit and LemonSqueezy.


Performance Optimization: Ensuring fast response times for AI-generated messages and real-time voice transcription with Whisper. What’s Next? I’m currently gathering feedback to continuously improve the app and add more features based on user requests. If you want to check it out or give feedback, I’d love to hear from you! Feel free to explore more of my work at https://lutfifadlan.com After transitioning into solopreneurship and focusing on solving real problems through software, I'm excited to announce the launch of one of my SaaS product: https://lastworkingday.co! 🎉 Why I Built It Why I Built It Leaving a job is a big step, and it often comes with the challenge of writing farewell messages to your colleagues, network, and managers. I noticed there wasn't a tool that made this process easy, professional, and personal. That's why I built LastWorkingDay – to help people write thoughtful, memorable farewell messages with ease. Key Features Key Features Company Form: Generate a farewell message for your workplace. Network Form: Create a message for your social network. Custom Form: Tailor a message that suits your style. Powered by OpenAI: Generate messages based on input using AI. Voice Recording & Transcription: Record your message, and get a transcript using Whisper AI. Rich Formatting: Customize with bold, italics, and bullet points. Nature Sounds: Relax while writing with soothing sounds in the background. Cross-Currency Payments: Purchase credits via Xendit for IDR or LemonSqueezy for USD. Company Form: Generate a farewell message for your workplace. Company Form: Generate a farewell message for your workplace. Network Form: Create a message for your social network. Network Form: Create a message for your social network. Custom Form: Tailor a message that suits your style. Custom Form: Tailor a message that suits your style. Powered by OpenAI: Generate messages based on input using AI. Powered by OpenAI: Generate messages based on input using AI. Voice Recording & Transcription: Record your message, and get a transcript using Whisper AI. Voice Recording & Transcription: Record your message, and get a transcript using Whisper AI. Rich Formatting: Customize with bold, italics, and bullet points. Rich Formatting: Customize with bold, italics, and bullet points. Nature Sounds: Relax while writing with soothing sounds in the background. Nature Sounds: Relax while writing with soothing sounds in the background. Cross-Currency Payments: Purchase credits via Xendit for IDR or LemonSqueezy for USD. Cross-Currency Payments: Purchase credits via Xendit for IDR or LemonSqueezy for USD. Tech Stack Tech Stack This project built with a combination of modern technologies: Frontend: Next.js, Tailwind CSS, TypeScript, shadcn/ui Backend: Next.js API, OpenAI API, and Whisper AI Payments Integration: Xendit (for IDR), LemonSqueezy (for USD) Deployment: Vercel for web hosting Frontend: Next.js, Tailwind CSS, TypeScript, shadcn/ui Frontend: Next.js, Tailwind CSS, TypeScript, shadcn/ui Backend: Next.js API, OpenAI API, and Whisper AI Backend: Next.js API, OpenAI API, and Whisper AI Payments Integration: Xendit (for IDR), LemonSqueezy (for USD) Payments Integration: Xendit (for IDR), LemonSqueezy (for USD) Deployment: Vercel for web hosting Deployment: Vercel for web hosting Challenges Faced Challenges Faced Throughout the development, I faced a few interesting challenges: Integrating AI smoothly: Balancing between user-generated input and AI-generated output while keeping the tone consistent. Cross-currency Payments: Implementing seamless payments for both Indonesian and international users with Xendit and LemonSqueezy. Performance Optimization: Ensuring fast response times for AI-generated messages and real-time voice transcription with Whisper. Integrating AI smoothly: Balancing between user-generated input and AI-generated output while keeping the tone consistent. Integrating AI smoothly: Balancing between user-generated input and AI-generated output while keeping the tone consistent. Cross-currency Payments: Implementing seamless payments for both Indonesian and international users with Xendit and LemonSqueezy. Cross-currency Payments: Implementing seamless payments for both Indonesian and international users with Xendit and LemonSqueezy. Performance Optimization: Ensuring fast response times for AI-generated messages and real-time voice transcription with Whisper. Performance Optimization: Ensuring fast response times for AI-generated messages and real-time voice transcription with Whisper. What’s Next? What’s Next? I’m currently gathering feedback to continuously improve the app and add more features based on user requests. If you want to check it out or give feedback, I’d love to hear from you! Feel free to explore more of my work at https://lutfifadlan.com

Stories, News & Mentions about LACEWORK

Lacework’s Stories on HackerNoon

Lacework's News & Mentions