OneApp

oneapp

Regulators are circling above wishing death upon Cryptos; To survive, cryptos must come to a compromise where Centralized Finance ala Traditional banking and Decentralized Finance (DeFi) co-exist, and regulators have a say, yet the anonymity of the blockchain is preserved. This is what the immediate Future of Finance is likely to look like. …no amount of run will render  a Bank Alternative insolvent These parallel financial silos become one entity linked together by bridges. They are different from traditional finance/banking and also unlike decentralized finance; it is a hybrid, an alternative. For the purpose of this paper we would call it A Bank Alternative A Bank Alternative A bank Alternative will take the best of traditional Banking/Finance, put them in digital form, and bridge them with Decentralized finance, in such a way that you can enjoy the benefits of the two financial worlds from the same app seamlessly. Like a Fintech and DeFi having a lovechild. A Bank Alternative is different from traditional banking because it does not practice fractional banking, and different from DeFi because it does not use stablecoins rather it uses Digital cash which is real-money on-chain (like e-money or Private CBDC) and each digital cash is 100% backed by real money in a 1:1 ratio held in treasury and verifiable on-chain. This ensures that no amount of run will render a Bank Alternative insolvent, because all its cash and digital cash are represented by cash held in treasury in a 1:1 ratio. You will always get 1Dollar for every Dollar in your bank account or Digital-Dollar held in your Digital Account every time and anytime. A Bank Alternative is run-proof. It generates revenue from fees. A Bank Alternative will give you at least two accounts. One is like a traditional bank account for your fiat currency (in digital form), and the other is a digital account/wallet more appropriate for Web3, Digital assets, and cryptocurrencies. Both allow you to move in-between them seamlessly and by implication change the state of your money/asset permissionlessly. Many banks and Centralized exchanges (CEX) are looking at becoming a Bank Alternative Ah! Tax A Bank Alternative is primarily built on blockchain, however, all its centralized activities not verifiable on-chain would be regulated. And all decentralized finance activities verifiable on-chain would remain unregulated, making it easier to tax the off-chain regulated items for starters. This is a pragmatic first-step The Regulatory Hurdle The road to Bank Alternatives is filled with regulatory challenges from both the State and the financial regulators. Many countries have out rightly banned cryptocurrency like China, Bolivia, Ghana, etc and then there are countries where it is restricted including Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, etc. The restrictions will have to be relaxed before a Bank Alternative can fully blossom Who Will Become A Bank Alternatives Many banks and Centralized exchanges (CEX) are looking at becoming Bank Alternatives but the regulatory hurdles keep them at bay. Fintech seems better position to become Bank Alternatives; in this group, you will find Revolut and MoneyGram + Stellar. However, in the true tenets and structure of a Bank Alternative, as described above, you will find only and . Only Fluid is active and has launched an App on Arbitrum that is working in true Bank Alternative. Yes, it’s early days, and many more features to come but this is the Bank Alternative. Fluid Finance Hightop If you stay traditional you will be left behind as the internet left AOL In Conclusion: The Future For Banks and DeFi is The Bank Alternative This middle-ground solution is where all Banks and DeFi must meet in other to survive. According to Robert Sharratt “If you stay traditional you will be left behind as the internet left AOL”; I translate this to mean, if you refuse to compromise as a DeFi-playing around with traditional financial services, the regulators will ensure you remain in the financial wasteland where all unregulated are sent to die. Disclosure Although, I do not work for Fluid Finance SA, I have had a financial relationship with fluid finance. This statement is intended to disclose any conflict of interest. Disclaimer The opinions shared within this article are solely those of the authors. Note that the content within should not be considered financial, legal, or tax advice. Neither the author nor Fluid Finance is a financial, legal, or tax advisor. Do your own research and consult professionals as needed for official policies, restrictions, and requirements in your jurisdiction.

Two Financial Worlds One App

Is it possible to unify all communication apps into one? There has been a recent influx of communication apps which have promptly taken the world by storm, and I for one am a bit overwhelmed. As we have evolved from , these mystical gadgets have spawned the growth of apps. These apps have exceeded anything the creators of the smartphone could have ever fathomed, and now we are experiencing sensory overload. flip phones to smartphones Let me run you through a typical day, and you tell me if it sounds familiar. 7 am — I wake up and check Slack to see if anyone on my team pinged me, as well as look at my messages (WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, etc.) Then, I check Intercom to make sure there aren’t any customer requests I missed while I was sleeping. Next, I go on to catch up on my email before I start the day. Finally, I browse through all of my social media accounts to see if anyone has tried to correspond with me through there. 10 am — I finish stand up with the team and go through the same process as when I woke up. This time, I have more messages and emails to respond to which compiled from the morning to now. Throughout the day — I continue with this process to keep my head above water. This process involves me checking Slack, HipChat, Snapchat, WhatsApp, WeChat, iMessage, Intercom, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Medium, Viber, Kik, Skype, Line, Hike, Google Hangouts, and other apps constantly. This is nonstop for me. Rest of my day — I repeat this process, during which - I use every waking moment to keep up with the conversation I so desperately need to participate in. These events unfold during a typical day for me, and I know I am not the only one who goes through this. I believe this is normal for a number of people. An obvious way to overcome the problem at hand would be for me not to participate in so many conversations. The proposed solution may not bode so well for me, seeing I need those conversations to keep things running. A more practical solution would be to develop an app which unifies all communication methods and combines it into one. If I could utilize one app for all of my communication needs, my life would be a breeze (or at least a bit simpler). For this reason and this reason alone, I have decided to . develop an app which caters to the problem at hand will combine all forms of communication into one simple application to both digest and send messages and emails from a central location. The app I am developing I am currently in the early stages of development for my unified messaging platform, which I have named . UNUM messenger I plan to launch in March of 2017 as a Beta. If you would like to be notified when launches, you can sign up to do so . UNUM messenger UNUM messenger here If you would like to follow me on my journey, be sure to follow me . Also, If you liked this article be sure to like it! here on Medium

One App To Rule Them All

We live in a time where there is a social network, Discord server, subreddits, WhatsApp group and other online one-offs for almost every topic and affinity group. The catch is that often times social media platforms often struggle to find meaningful purpose beyond connectivity. Yummypets, the largest online community of pets and owners, network, found a way to transform online engagement into tangible support for animal welfare through its Voice program. Launched in 2017, the Voice program is Yummypets' proprietary click-to-donate initiative. The name "Voice" was chosen with a profound purpose - to give a voice to those who don't have one: animals. Matthieu Glayrouse, Co-Founder of Yummypets, explains, "Voice was created because we wanted to do something bigger than the Yummypets community. We wanted to engage the community and make a meaningful contribution to the well-being of animals." The program has evolved significantly since its inception. Initially present only in France and focused on helping animal welfare organizations spay and neuter stray cats, Voice underwent a major transformation in 2020. Its mission shifted to feeding rescue animals from animal welfare organizations, broadening its impact and reach. The expansion of Voice has been rapid and impressive: November 2021: Launched in the United States
October 2023: Expanded to Canada
December 2023: Launched in the United Kingdom This international growth reflects not only the program's success but also the universal appeal of its mission. The mechanics of Voice are elegantly simple yet profoundly effective. Each month, four animal welfare organizations are featured on the platform. Users can click once daily for each organization, with each click contributing towards a goal of 165 pounds of kibble. To incentivize engagement, Yummypets members who are logged in see their clicks doubled. "The goal of the program is to raise clicks for kibble to feed rescue animals," Glayrouse explains. "To receive 165 lb of kibble, the participating organizations need to reach 100% before the end of the month." Users can participate through the Yummypets website under the Voice tab or via the Voice tab on the Yummypets mobile app, making it accessible and convenient for the community to contribute. The Voice program's achievements to date are impressive: Over 11 million clicks generated
385 campaigns completed
28 tons of kibble distributed
326 different organizations supported These numbers translate into countless meals for animals in need, supporting everything from local shelters to large-scale rescue operations. The program has helped organizations across participating countries, with some using the donated kibble to support their foster families. "Voice has helped so many organizations feed the animals in their care,"Glayrouse notes. "We've seen participation from organizations on both the East and West coasts in the United States alone." At its core, Voice is a testament to the power of technology as a force for good. While specific technologies powering the program weren't detailed, it's clear that the platform leverages advanced digital technologies to ensure seamless user engagement and efficient resource distribution. Data analytics play a crucial role in optimizing the program's effectiveness. By tracking metrics such as the number of clicks, campaigns completed, and kibble distributed, Yummypets can continually refine its strategies and maximize impact. In an era of increasing concerns about data privacy, Yummypets takes user security seriously. "To ensure security and privacy, we do as we have been doing since 2012 with Yummypets," Glayrouse, emphasizes. "Security constraints and personal data protection are at the heart of our activity since day one." The company adheres to international regulations such as GDPR, ensuring that users can participate in the Voice program with confidence, knowing their personal information is protected. Yummypets' success goes beyond its technological innovations. The platform has mastered the art of community building, fostering genuine connections among its 3.5 million users through interactive features like monthly photo contests and engaging content. "To create a sense of connection within our community, we prioritize interaction and empowerment," Glayrouse explains. "We want our community to know that they matter—that their voices matter." This philosophy is evident in every aspect of the Voice program, which unites users around a common cause, creating a sense of shared purpose that transcends typical social media interactions. The Voice program's success is closely tied to its integration with social media and digital engagement strategies. Yummypets leverages its social media presence to create a sense of community around the Voice program. "When it comes to fostering a sense of community among our social media fans, we make it a point to post content that encourages interaction," the spokesperson shares. "We ask questions and keep up with the trends to keep people interested. Most importantly, we create a sense of community through Voice's social media accounts." This approach has proven effective in mobilizing the Yummypets community towards a common goal, demonstrating the power of social media when harnessed for social good. Yummypets' ambitions for Voice are as bold as the program itself. "By 2026, we aim to increase the impact of Voice and distribute 50 tons of kibble to our partner organizations," the spokesperson reveals. This goal represents a significant increase from the current distribution of 15 tons per year Plans are also underway to expand the program to new countries, further globalizing their efforts. "We intend to help other countries in the future," the spokesperson adds, hinting at the program's potential for even broader impact. The process for selecting animal welfare organizations to participate in the Voice program is straightforward and inclusive. Animal welfare organizations can sign up to participate in the program. The link to sign up is available on the Voice webpage. The organizations are chosen on a first come, first served basis. This approach ensures that a diverse range of organizations, both large and small, have the opportunity to benefit from the program. The journey of Yummypets and the Voice program offers valuable insights for other organizations looking to leverage technology for social good. Perhaps the most crucial lesson is the importance of authentic community building. "One of the most important lessons we have learned is that no one can buy a community," Glayrouse emphasizes. "Over the years, we've seen firsthand that attempting to do so is not only impossible, but also a huge waste of time, energy, and money." This philosophy underscores the importance of genuine engagement and the power of shared purpose in building a thriving online community. The Future of Digital Philanthropy As we navigate an increasingly digital world, initiatives like Yummypets' Voice program point the way towards a future where technology and compassion go hand in hand. By harnessing the power of social networks for social good, Yummypets has created a model that could revolutionize not just animal welfare, but digital philanthropy as a whole. The Voice program stands as a powerful reminder of what we can achieve when we come together, one click at a time, to make a difference in the lives of those who need it most. As technology continues to evolve, the potential for programs like Voice to create meaningful, large-scale impact in animal welfare and beyond is truly exciting. Yummypets' Voice program offers a glimpse of how technology can unite us in common cause, turning our daily digital interactions into a force for good. It's a vision of social networking that goes beyond connection to create real-world change, one click at a time. We live in a time where there is a social network, Discord server, subreddits, WhatsApp group and other online one-offs for almost every topic and affinity group. The catch is that often times social media platforms often struggle to find meaningful purpose beyond connectivity. Yummypets , the largest online community of pets and owners, network, found a way to transform online engagement into tangible support for animal welfare through its Voice program. Yummypets Launched in 2017, the Voice program is Yummypets' proprietary click-to-donate initiative. The name "Voice" was chosen with a profound purpose - to give a voice to those who don't have one: animals. Matthieu Glayrouse, Co-Founder of Yummypets, explains, "Voice was created because we wanted to do something bigger than the Yummypets community. We wanted to engage the community and make a meaningful contribution to the well-being of animals." The program has evolved significantly since its inception. Initially present only in France and focused on helping animal welfare organizations spay and neuter stray cats, Voice underwent a major transformation in 2020. Its mission shifted to feeding rescue animals from animal welfare organizations, broadening its impact and reach. The expansion of Voice has been rapid and impressive: November 2021: Launched in the United States October 2023: Expanded to Canada December 2023: Launched in the United Kingdom November 2021: Launched in the United States October 2023: Expanded to Canada December 2023: Launched in the United Kingdom This international growth reflects not only the program's success but also the universal appeal of its mission. The mechanics of Voice are elegantly simple yet profoundly effective. Each month, four animal welfare organizations are featured on the platform. Users can click once daily for each organization, with each click contributing towards a goal of 165 pounds of kibble. To incentivize engagement, Yummypets members who are logged in see their clicks doubled. "The goal of the program is to raise clicks for kibble to feed rescue animals," Glayrouse explains. "To receive 165 lb of kibble, the participating organizations need to reach 100% before the end of the month." "The goal of the program is to raise clicks for kibble to feed rescue animals," Glayrouse explains. "To receive 165 lb of kibble, the participating organizations need to reach 100% before the end of the month." Users can participate through the Yummypets website under the Voice tab or via the Voice tab on the Yummypets mobile app, making it accessible and convenient for the community to contribute. The Voice program's achievements to date are impressive: Over 11 million clicks generated 385 campaigns completed 28 tons of kibble distributed 326 different organizations supported Over 11 million clicks generated 385 campaigns completed 28 tons of kibble distributed 326 different organizations supported These numbers translate into countless meals for animals in need, supporting everything from local shelters to large-scale rescue operations. The program has helped organizations across participating countries, with some using the donated kibble to support their foster families. "Voice has helped so many organizations feed the animals in their care,"Glayrouse notes. "We've seen participation from organizations on both the East and West coasts in the United States alone." At its core, Voice is a testament to the power of technology as a force for good. While specific technologies powering the program weren't detailed, it's clear that the platform leverages advanced digital technologies to ensure seamless user engagement and efficient resource distribution. Data analytics play a crucial role in optimizing the program's effectiveness. By tracking metrics such as the number of clicks, campaigns completed, and kibble distributed, Yummypets can continually refine its strategies and maximize impact. In an era of increasing concerns about data privacy, Yummypets takes user security seriously. "To ensure security and privacy, we do as we have been doing since 2012 with Yummypets," Glayrouse, emphasizes. "Security constraints and personal data protection are at the heart of our activity since day one." The company adheres to international regulations such as GDPR, ensuring that users can participate in the Voice program with confidence, knowing their personal information is protected. Yummypets' success goes beyond its technological innovations. The platform has mastered the art of community building, fostering genuine connections among its 3.5 million users through interactive features like monthly photo contests and engaging content. "To create a sense of connection within our community, we prioritize interaction and empowerment," Glayrouse explains. "We want our community to know that they matter—that their voices matter." "To create a sense of connection within our community, we prioritize interaction and empowerment," Glayrouse explains. "We want our community to know that they matter—that their voices matter." This philosophy is evident in every aspect of the Voice program, which unites users around a common cause, creating a sense of shared purpose that transcends typical social media interactions. The Voice program's success is closely tied to its integration with social media and digital engagement strategies. Yummypets leverages its social media presence to create a sense of community around the Voice program. "When it comes to fostering a sense of community among our social media fans, we make it a point to post content that encourages interaction," the spokesperson shares. "We ask questions and keep up with the trends to keep people interested. Most importantly, we create a sense of community through Voice's social media accounts." This approach has proven effective in mobilizing the Yummypets community towards a common goal, demonstrating the power of social media when harnessed for social good. Yummypets' ambitions for Voice are as bold as the program itself. "By 2026, we aim to increase the impact of Voice and distribute 50 tons of kibble to our partner organizations," the spokesperson reveals. This goal represents a significant increase from the current distribution of 15 tons per year Plans are also underway to expand the program to new countries, further globalizing their efforts. "We intend to help other countries in the future," the spokesperson adds, hinting at the program's potential for even broader impact. The process for selecting animal welfare organizations to participate in the Voice program is straightforward and inclusive. Animal welfare organizations can sign up to participate in the program. The link to sign up is available on the Voice webpage. The organizations are chosen on a first come, first served basis. This approach ensures that a diverse range of organizations, both large and small, have the opportunity to benefit from the program. The journey of Yummypets and the Voice program offers valuable insights for other organizations looking to leverage technology for social good. Perhaps the most crucial lesson is the importance of authentic community building. "One of the most important lessons we have learned is that no one can buy a community," Glayrouse emphasizes. "Over the years, we've seen firsthand that attempting to do so is not only impossible, but also a huge waste of time, energy, and money." "One of the most important lessons we have learned is that no one can buy a community," Glayrouse emphasizes. "Over the years, we've seen firsthand that attempting to do so is not only impossible, but also a huge waste of time, energy, and money." This philosophy underscores the importance of genuine engagement and the power of shared purpose in building a thriving online community. The Future of Digital Philanthropy The Future of Digital Philanthropy As we navigate an increasingly digital world, initiatives like Yummypets' Voice program point the way towards a future where technology and compassion go hand in hand. By harnessing the power of social networks for social good, Yummypets has created a model that could revolutionize not just animal welfare, but digital philanthropy as a whole. The Voice program stands as a powerful reminder of what we can achieve when we come together, one click at a time, to make a difference in the lives of those who need it most. As technology continues to evolve, the potential for programs like Voice to create meaningful, large-scale impact in animal welfare and beyond is truly exciting. Yummypets' Voice program offers a glimpse of how technology can unite us in common cause, turning our daily digital interactions into a force for good. It's a vision of social networking that goes beyond connection to create real-world change, one click at a time.

How Yummypets’ Voice Program is Leveraging Tech for Animal Welfare

Hi, it’s Blazej, Working on the Calculator Project was quite funny and, I would say, a different experience. Different than Etch-a-Sketch which seemed to be more difficult. How is it possible then? The answer might not lie in the exercise’s difficulty but in something else, I guess. Let’s start from the beginning. Starting the Calculator Project I started working on the Calculator on May 2nd, 2024. The first session took me three hours, during which I managed to set it up and run it. It was around midday, so I decided to make a final commit, have dinner, and work out. I wanted to code a bit more that afternoon because I knew my friend was coming to visit the next day, and she was staying for three nights. Like other dedicated Odinists, I didn’t want to take breaks from coding, especially from the Calculator, which I believe is the most important project in Foundations. Unexpected Inspirations I was about to turn off my computer when ForrestKnight’s YouTube video popped up. I watched a bit and paused right after he talked about enjoying coding. I thought this over, and here’s my perspective as a beginner who has just finished coding and still frequently asks myself this question. The answer isn’t straightforward for someone like me, who has had access to a computer since childhood, played many games, and had a basic understanding of how things work. However, I had never coded before! Initial Coding Experience However, I noticed that the more I code and see it work, the more I enjoy the process. This was especially true with the calculator, which went smoothly overall, and I managed to avoid getting SERIOUSLY STUCK—well, mostly. I’ll touch on that later. This project felt significantly easier than the Etch-a-Sketch project, where I struggled with implementing gradient color-changing logic for two days. Coding certainly isn’t easy, but for this project, I dedicated about 1.5 to 2 hours each day over four days, and it was a manageable and rewarding experience. Every time I opened VSCode, I felt very productive, which helped me solve the tasks quickly. The most fascinating thing while working on it was that I could imagine other options that would also solve this exercise. I felt like a child building some crazy Lego Technic car and imagining what features to add again. Funny feeling. Enjoying the Process What exactly do I mean by that? I knew I could have created one function with events for all digit buttons instead of making nine separate ones. However, I forgot how to make it properly and decided to move on with 9 different ones, but I promised myself I would go back and read the documentation provided a few lessons back on how to solve this issue. As I thought I did. I was anticipating getting stuck on something for another five hours or so, but that never actually happened. I got it working with 244 lines of code. Challenges With CSS Now, it was time to start playing with CSS and style this project a little bit. Well, that’s when I got stuck. It seemed to be more difficult than creating JavaScript. I couldn’t believe it! I knew I needed to use Flexbox for this project, but the buttons looked a bit different than the Etch-a-Sketch I made earlier. In Etch-a-Sketch, I was told to make a grid using loops: Whenever I get stuck with Flexbox, I always turn to Josh’s blog post. There is no better explanation of how they work, IMHO. I wasn’t sure, however, if it would work out for a calculator, as not all buttons are equal. I wanted 0 to be larger, for example. I scrolled down the article because I recalled that CSS Grid was mentioned there. It turned out I would actually need to use it here. Moreover, the calculator that has been shown as an example by Odin was also designed using CSS Grid. Discovering CSS Grid At this point, I was a little bit lost because, as I remember, we didn’t touch the grid at all. I began to google it up. What did I find? A large article with quite an advanced explanation of how to use it. I thought it wasn’t time for that and assumed that we would be introduced to the grid at a later time. On top of that, there was only Flexbox mentioned in the exercise sooooo yep, I HOPE we will learn grid too. If not, I will come back to it at some point by myself. LITTLE UPDATE - the next day, I saw this post on Odin Discord: Final Adjustments and UI Design I decided to go with a couple of divs and just regroup the buttons in HTML After another study session, the calculator looked somehow familiar to a normal device. Adding Keyboard Support The last step for me was to make keyboard support. Bloody hell! That wasn’t easy, and I had to go back to the event lesson and read through the documentation several times to understand how these keyboard keys work. It was quite tough, as event bubbling was confusing me. It was the right moment to make 1 function that would click buttons and 2 calls for it. One for a mouse ‘click,’ and the second for a keyboard ‘keydown.’ I managed to sort all digits and equals buttons but decided not to go with operators as I would have to change my logic with the operator’s object. This setup seems easier to grasp if I need to review it later. However, I might be wrong, so don’t take it for granted. The finished project can be seen here: CALCULATOR Reflections and Lessons Learned What was the lesson here? I enjoyed the process of making an app and designing it and learned A LOT about events. I would highly recommend you go through the extra credit process with this one! If you enjoyed this story and found the tips helpful, follow me on Twitter for more updates and coding tips. I’d love to hear about your own coding challenges and successes in the comments below! Hi, it’s Blazej, Working on the Calculator Project was quite funny and, I would say, a different experience. Different than Etch-a-Sketch which seemed to be more difficult. How is it possible then? The answer might not lie in the exercise’s difficulty but in something else, I guess. Let’s start from the beginning. Starting the Calculator Project I started working on the Calculator on May 2nd, 2024. The first session took me three hours, during which I managed to set it up and run it. It was around midday, so I decided to make a final commit, have dinner, and work out. I wanted to code a bit more that afternoon because I knew my friend was coming to visit the next day, and she was staying for three nights. Like other dedicated Odinists, I didn’t want to take breaks from coding, especially from the Calculator, which I believe is the most important project in Foundations. Unexpected Inspirations I was about to turn off my computer when ForrestKnight’s YouTube video popped up. I watched a bit and paused right after he talked about enjoying coding. ForrestKnight’s YouTube video I thought this over, and here’s my perspective as a beginner who has just finished coding and still frequently asks myself this question. The answer isn’t straightforward for someone like me, who has had access to a computer since childhood, played many games, and had a basic understanding of how things work. However, I had never coded before! Initial Coding Experience However, I noticed that the more I code and see it work, the more I enjoy the process. This was especially true with the calculator, which went smoothly overall, and I managed to avoid getting SERIOUSLY STUCK—well, mostly. I’ll touch on that later. This project felt significantly easier than the Etch-a-Sketch project, where I struggled with implementing gradient color-changing logic for two days. Coding certainly isn’t easy, but for this project, I dedicated about 1.5 to 2 hours each day over four days, and it was a manageable and rewarding experience. Every time I opened VSCode, I felt very productive, which helped me solve the tasks quickly. The most fascinating thing while working on it was that I could imagine other options that would also solve this exercise. I felt like a child building some crazy Lego Technic car and imagining what features to add again. Funny feeling. Enjoying the Process What exactly do I mean by that? I knew I could have created one function with events for all digit buttons instead of making nine separate ones. However, I forgot how to make it properly and decided to move on with 9 different ones, but I promised myself I would go back and read the documentation provided a few lessons back on how to solve this issue. As I thought I did. I was anticipating getting stuck on something for another five hours or so, but that never actually happened. I got it working with 244 lines of code. Challenges With CSS Now, it was time to start playing with CSS and style this project a little bit. Well, that’s when I got stuck. It seemed to be more difficult than creating JavaScript. I couldn’t believe it! I knew I needed to use Flexbox for this project, but the buttons looked a bit different than the Etch-a-Sketch I made earlier. In Etch-a-Sketch, I was told to make a grid using loops: Whenever I get stuck with Flexbox, I always turn to Josh’s blog post. There is no better explanation of how they work, IMHO. Josh’s blog post. I wasn’t sure, however, if it would work out for a calculator, as not all buttons are equal. I wanted 0 to be larger, for example. I scrolled down the article because I recalled that CSS Grid was mentioned there. It turned out I would actually need to use it here. Moreover, the calculator that has been shown as an example by Odin was also designed using CSS Grid. Discovering CSS Grid At this point, I was a little bit lost because, as I remember, we didn’t touch the grid at all. I began to google it up. What did I find? A large article with quite an advanced explanation of how to use it. I thought it wasn’t time for that and assumed that we would be introduced to the grid at a later time. On top of that, there was only Flexbox mentioned in the exercise sooooo yep, I HOPE we will learn grid too. If not, I will come back to it at some point by myself. LITTLE UPDATE - the next day, I saw this post on Odin Discord: Final Adjustments and UI Design I decided to go with a couple of divs and just regroup the buttons in HTML After another study session, the calculator looked somehow familiar to a normal device. Adding Keyboard Support The last step for me was to make keyboard support. Bloody hell! That wasn’t easy, and I had to go back to the event lesson and read through the documentation several times to understand how these keyboard keys work. It was quite tough, as event bubbling was confusing me. It was the right moment to make 1 function that would click buttons and 2 calls for it. One for a mouse ‘click,’ and the second for a keyboard ‘keydown.’ I managed to sort all digits and equals buttons but decided not to go with operators as I would have to change my logic with the operator’s object. This setup seems easier to grasp if I need to review it later. However, I might be wrong, so don’t take it for granted. The finished project can be seen here: CALCULATOR CALCULATOR Reflections and Lessons Learned What was the lesson here? I enjoyed the process of making an app and designing it and learned A LOT about events. I would highly recommend you go through the extra credit process with this one! If you enjoyed this story and found the tips helpful, follow me on Twitter for more updates and coding tips. I’d love to hear about your own coding challenges and successes in the comments below! Twitter

The Calculator Project: Why It Was Easier, Yet Full of Hurdles

ক্যালকুলেটর প্রকল্প: কেন এটি সহজ ছিল, তবুও বাধা পূর্ণ

Das Taschenrechnerprojekt: Warum es einfacher war, aber dennoch voller Hürden steckte

El proyecto Calculadora: por qué era más fácil, pero estaba lleno de obstáculos

Le projet de calculatrice : pourquoi il était plus simple, mais semé d'embûches

कैलकुलेटर परियोजना: यह आसान क्यों था, फिर भी बाधाओं से भरा हुआ

計算機プロジェクト: なぜ簡単だったのか、そしてなぜハードルが高かったのか

계산기 프로젝트: 더 쉬웠지만 장애물이 가득한 이유

O projeto da calculadora: por que foi mais fácil, mas cheio de obstáculos

Проект «Калькулятор»: почему он был проще, но полон препятствий

Hesap Makinesi Projesi: Neden Daha Kolaydı Ama Engellerle Doluydu

Dự án Máy tính: Tại sao nó dễ dàng hơn nhưng lại đầy rào cản

计算器项目：为何它更容易，却又充满障碍

Application Containerization: How CTOs Can Drive Business Transformation

অ্যাপ্লিকেশন কন্টেইনারাইজেশন: সিটিও কীভাবে ব্যবসায়িক রূপান্তর চালাতে পারে

Anwendungscontainerisierung: Wie CTOs die Geschäftstransformation vorantreiben können

Contenedorización de aplicaciones: cómo los CTO pueden impulsar la transformación empresarial

Conteneurisation des applications : comment les CTO peuvent piloter la transformation de l'entreprise

एप्लिकेशन कंटेनरीकरण: सीटीओ किस प्रकार व्यवसाय परिवर्तन को आगे बढ़ा सकते हैं

アプリケーションのコンテナ化: CTO がビジネス変革を推進する方法

애플리케이션 컨테이너화: CTO가 비즈니스 혁신을 추진하는 방법

Contêinerização de aplicativos: como os CTOs podem impulsionar a transformação dos negócios

Контейнеризация приложений: как технические директора могут стимулировать трансформацию бизнеса

Uygulama Konteynerizasyonu: CTO'lar İş Dönüşümünü Nasıl Sağlayabilir?

Containerization ứng dụng: Làm thế nào CTO có thể thúc đẩy chuyển đổi kinh doanh

应用程序容器化：首席技术官如何推动业务转型

Cryptocurrency’s disruptive financial value has still not allowed it to escape the reputation of being complicated to use, despite institutional and commercial adoption rising globally. There’s a blueprint for scaling this wall, though. DeFi apps like Venmo and Robinhood were among the first to make online banking and investing accessible to everyone by leveraging intuitive, educational, and community-oriented features incentivizing community-based user behavior to drive growth. This drove scalar adoption and intergenerational user acquisition in  Millennial and Gen Z user groups. It made fun and social interactions within apps their standard for money transfers and small-dollar investing, not uncomfortable formal bank visits and FA calls. Doing the same with cryptocurrency and onboarding the next billion users will require similar approaches while capitalizing on novel use cases. Below, I explore ways Web3 fintech companies are breaking the mold and why now may be a watershed Web3 moment in DeFi. The complexity and intimidation non-crypto users face when engaging with digital finance and crypto/web3 make for a significant adoption problem that hasn’t been solved uniformly across blockchains—the result: an overall low crypto adoption rate within the general public. Traditional platforms have often not been user-friendly, creating a significant barrier to entry for the average person, and hindering the widespread adoption of cryptocurrency. Engagement and trust among potential crypto users toward crypto have also been historically low. The complex nature of traditional crypto platforms set the stage early for a dogged reputation for being inaccessible, or only for the technically savvy, which has continued to slow down mainstream adoption and trust in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Exchanges have been refining their wallets for some time with educational resources and features incentivizing transactions at every level from users at varying levels of sophistication, converting new crypto users into more seasoned ones. Platforms that serve non-crypto users in this same way are collectively an enormous avenue to bridge this significant market gap. Offering simplicity and diversity in their range of intuitive, user-friendly design features, these crypto apps help those new to cryptocurrency learn, buy, use, and invest with minimal stress. Coinbase is the most obvious example here, given its range of educational tools on ways to use it; buy, hold, trade cryptocurrency, and more. Simplicity in crypto means meeting users where they are, and many still experience difficulty with even Web2 apps and services. Breaking down technical barriers by fostering user-friendly environments can encourage widespread cryptocurrency adoption. Metamask, the leading Web3 wallet,  has an entire site dedicated to teaching crypto newbies about Web3 and how it factors into Metamask as a wallet. The Web3 dApp giant and leading self-custodial wallet, with 30 million monthly active users, takes painstaking measures to ensure that its users have the best understanding possible as to how to use it and leverage it as a tool for dApp creation and cryptocurrency trading with a responsive mobile UI, DEX, and swap services. Teaching novices and specialists alike results in greater usage, more varied data for model training and overall functional rounding for future innovation and development, which drives growth. Psi Finance takes an innovative approach to spurring crypto adoption by leveraging design. By seamlessly integrating traditional TradFi app features like no-fee asset purchasing and peer-to-peer transfers and payments, they’re bringing cryptocurrency to users in a way they’re already used to banking every day. Blending common banking and payment app features with DeFi functionality like onboarding/off-ramping and native escrow, combined with a social digital wallet for seamless payments might sound like Venmo, MobilePay, and Revolut rolled into one. Still, it’s one app that feels like using everyday banking apps. With an open presale and live tranche, they’re open to engaging at the ground level! A gateway welcoming millions to crypto offering simplicity and user-friendliness as a Web3 bridge from TradFi to DeFi, Psi Finance is targeting a vast, untapped market for entry into a user-centric future of cryptocurrency payments and trading. Simplifying crypto doesn’t have to be hard, but the number of companies doing it right makes it look that way. Most top wallets like Coinbase, Metamask, andUniswap have educational modules that help users understand how to use them, which is one way. Meeting users where they already are with features they’re used to is another way - leveraging intuitive features to speed adoption. Check out these apps for your crypto needs today! Cryptocurrency’s disruptive financial value has still not allowed it to escape the reputation of being complicated to use, despite institutional and commercial adoption rising globally. There’s a blueprint for scaling this wall, though. DeFi apps like Venmo and Robinhood were among the first to make online banking and investing accessible to everyone by leveraging intuitive, educational, and community-oriented features incentivizing community-based user behavior to drive growth. This drove scalar adoption and intergenerational user acquisition in  Millennial and Gen Z user groups. It made fun and social interactions within apps their standard for money transfers and small-dollar investing, not uncomfortable formal bank visits and FA calls. Doing the same with cryptocurrency and onboarding the next billion users will require similar approaches while capitalizing on novel use cases. Below, I explore ways Web3 fintech companies are breaking the mold and why now may be a watershed Web3 moment in DeFi. The complexity and intimidation non-crypto users face when engaging with digital finance and crypto/web3 make for a significant adoption problem that hasn’t been solved uniformly across blockchains—the result: an overall low crypto adoption rate within the general public. Traditional platforms have often not been user-friendly, creating a significant barrier to entry for the average person, and hindering the widespread adoption of cryptocurrency. Engagement and trust among potential crypto users toward crypto have also been historically low. The complex nature of traditional crypto platforms set the stage early for a dogged reputation for being inaccessible, or only for the technically savvy, which has continued to slow down mainstream adoption and trust in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Exchanges have been refining their wallets for some time with educational resources and features incentivizing transactions at every level from users at varying levels of sophistication, converting new crypto users into more seasoned ones. Platforms that serve non-crypto users in this same way are collectively an enormous avenue to bridge this significant market gap. Offering simplicity and diversity in their range of intuitive, user-friendly design features, these crypto apps help those new to cryptocurrency learn, buy, use, and invest with minimal stress. Coinbase is the most obvious example here, given its range of educational tools on ways to use it; buy, hold, trade cryptocurrency, and more. Simplicity in crypto means meeting users where they are, and many still experience difficulty with even Web2 apps and services. Breaking down technical barriers by fostering user-friendly environments can encourage widespread cryptocurrency adoption. Metamask, the leading Web3 wallet,  has an entire site dedicated to teaching crypto newbies about Web3 and how it factors into Metamask as a wallet. The Web3 dApp giant and leading self-custodial wallet, with 30 million monthly active users, takes painstaking measures to ensure that its users have the best understanding possible as to how to use it and leverage it as a tool for dApp creation and cryptocurrency trading with a responsive mobile UI, DEX, and swap services. Teaching novices and specialists alike results in greater usage, more varied data for model training and overall functional rounding for future innovation and development, which drives growth. Psi Finance takes an innovative approach to spurring crypto adoption by leveraging design. By seamlessly integrating traditional TradFi app features like no-fee asset purchasing and peer-to-peer transfers and payments, they’re bringing cryptocurrency to users in a way they’re already used to banking every day. Blending common banking and payment app features with DeFi functionality like onboarding/off-ramping and native escrow, combined with a social digital wallet for seamless payments might sound like Venmo, MobilePay, and Revolut rolled into one. Still, it’s one app that feels like using everyday banking apps. With an open presale and live tranche, they’re open to engaging at the ground level! A gateway welcoming millions to crypto offering simplicity and user-friendliness as a Web3 bridge from TradFi to DeFi, Psi Finance is targeting a vast, untapped market for entry into a user-centric future of cryptocurrency payments and trading. Simplifying crypto doesn’t have to be hard, but the number of companies doing it right makes it look that way. Most top wallets like Coinbase, Metamask, andUniswap have educational modules that help users understand how to use them, which is one way. Meeting users where they already are with features they’re used to is another way - leveraging intuitive features to speed adoption. Check out these apps for your crypto needs today!

Meeting Users Where They Are Drives Cryptocurrency Adoption

Authors:
(1) Vinod S. Khandkar and Manjesh K. Hanawal, Industrial Engineering and Operations Research Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India and {vinod.khandkar, mhanawal}@iitb.ac.in. Table of Links Abstract & Introduction Related Work and Background Challenges in TD Detection Measurement Setup Development Case Study : Wehe - TD Detection Tool for Mobile Environment Shortcoming of Wehe on HTTPS Traffic TD Detection of HTTPS Traffic Conclusion & References IV. CASE STUDY : WEHE - TD DETECTION TOOL FOR MOBILE ENVIRONMENT Wehe [13] is a tool for the detection of traffic differentiation over mobile networks (e.g., cellular and WiFi). It is available as an App on Android and the iOS platform. The user database of the Wehe tool consists of 126,249 users across 2,735 ISPs in 183 countries/regions generating 1,045,413 crowd-sourced measurements. European national telecom regulator, the US FTC and FCC, US Senators, and numerous US state legislators have used the Wehe tool’s findings. The tool supports TD detection for many popular services such as Netflix, YouTube. The tool runs TD detection tests by coordinating with its server, called the “replay server”. The replay server keeps track of active users and maps replay runs to the correct user’s service. A. Traffic generation Wehe uses the “record-and-replay” method for generating probing traffic. The user-client exchanges the probing traffic with the replay server as per the replay script that captures the application-level traffic behavior, including the port number, data sequence, and timing dependencies from the original service’s network logs. Preserving timing is a crucial feature of Wehe’s approach. It expects network devices to use this information in case of non-availability of any other means to classify applications, e.g., HTTPS encrypted data transfer Wehe tool uses two types of probing traffic streams. While one stream (original replay) is the same as the original service’s application-level network trace, another traffic stream (control replay) differs substantially from the first traffic stream. In one approach, Wehe uses the VPN channel to send a second probing traffic stream. This approach uses the meddle VPN [30] framework for data transfer and server-side packet capture. Another approach uses the bit-reversed version of the first traffic stream sent one the same channel. Currently, Wehe uses the latter approach due to its superior results. B. Over the network response Wehe is a differential detector tool that compares the network responses for two types of traffic streams generated by the tool. The service-specific information present in the original replay is useful for network devices with Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) capability to identify and classify the service correctly. So, the original replay’s traffic performance over the Internet closely resembles the original application traffic on the same network. While original replay is exposed for detection to network devices, the traffic streams with bit reversed data or control replay is equally “not detectable” for classification. Thus it is expected that the control replay traffic evades the content-based application-specific traffic differentiation. The performances of two such traffic streams (detectable and nondetectable) differ if network devices apply different traffic management or traffic differentiation on each traffic stream as per content-based classification. C. TD detection scenario expectations Wehe compares the throughput performances of original replay and control replay to detect TD. The methodology uses the throughput as a comparison metric due to its sensitivity to bandwidth-limiting traffic shaping. However, the tool expects that the TD detection algorithm does not detect TD based on throughput for traffic streams with traffic rates below the shaping rate. The rationale is that the shaper cannot affect the performance of such an application stream. Many times both traffic streams get affected by other factors such as signal strength, congestion. It creates an irregularity in the received performance due to bandwidth volatility. It is mentioned to be leading to incorrect differentiation detection. The tool performs multiple test replays to overcome the effect of bandwidth volatility. D. Operational requirements Wehe server needs side-channels for each client to associate it with precisely one app replay. This side-channel supplies information about replay runs to the server. Each user directly connected to the Wehe replay server is uniquely identifiable on the server-side with an associated IP address of side channels that maps each replay to exactly one App. The other operational requirement is that the Wehe clientserver communication uses customized socket connections with specific keep-alive behavior. Sometimes, the usage of translucent proxies by the user-client modifies this behavior. The Replay server handles this situation by handling such unexpected connections. The protocol-specific proxies, e.g., HTTP proxy, connect the user-client to the server through itself using specific port numbers, e.g., 80/443 for HTTP/HTTPS. Nevertheless, it allows the user-client to connect to the server for connections using other protocols directly. The side channels of Wehe do not use HTTP/HTTPS connections. So the IP address for the same user differs for side-channel and replay runs. Wehe server detects such connections and indicates such connections to the user-client using a special message. The special message triggers the exchange of further communication with a customized header. E. Challenges of validating Wehe The TD mechanism of Wehe is straightforward to use — the requirement changes when using it for its validation. The validation process may need to launch only one type of replay for different services during one test or may need to launch all replays in parallel. These are not requirements related to TD detection, Wehe’s primary goal, so understandably not supported. Hence the validation of Wehe’s working in such scenarios needs a specific client-server setup. Here the challenge is to separate the intended scenario-specific Wehe’s mechanism so that the resulting system still mimics Wehe’s actual behavior. Moreover, Wehe does not provide error/failure notifications in all scenarios. Instead, it prompts the user to reopen the App. As a result, the validation setup loses vital feedback information regarding the error/failure induced by its validation scenario. This paper is available on arxiv under CC 4.0 license. Authors: (1) Vinod S. Khandkar and Manjesh K. Hanawal, Industrial Engineering and Operations Research Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India and {vinod.khandkar, mhanawal}@iitb.ac.in. Authors: Authors: (1) Vinod S. Khandkar and Manjesh K. Hanawal, Industrial Engineering and Operations Research Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India and {vinod.khandkar, mhanawal}@iitb.ac.in. Table of Links Abstract & Introduction Abstract & Introduction Related Work and Background Related Work and Background Challenges in TD Detection Measurement Setup Development Challenges in TD Detection Measurement Setup Development Case Study : Wehe - TD Detection Tool for Mobile Environment Case Study : Wehe - TD Detection Tool for Mobile Environment Shortcoming of Wehe on HTTPS Traffic Shortcoming of Wehe on HTTPS Traffic TD Detection of HTTPS Traffic TD Detection of HTTPS Traffic Conclusion & References Conclusion & References IV. CASE STUDY : WEHE - TD DETECTION TOOL FOR MOBILE ENVIRONMENT Wehe [13] is a tool for the detection of traffic differentiation over mobile networks (e.g., cellular and WiFi). It is available as an App on Android and the iOS platform. The user database of the Wehe tool consists of 126,249 users across 2,735 ISPs in 183 countries/regions generating 1,045,413 crowd-sourced measurements. European national telecom regulator, the US FTC and FCC, US Senators, and numerous US state legislators have used the Wehe tool’s findings. The tool supports TD detection for many popular services such as Netflix, YouTube. The tool runs TD detection tests by coordinating with its server, called the “replay server”. The replay server keeps track of active users and maps replay runs to the correct user’s service. A. Traffic generation A. Traffic generation Wehe uses the “record-and-replay” method for generating probing traffic. The user-client exchanges the probing traffic with the replay server as per the replay script that captures the application-level traffic behavior, including the port number, data sequence, and timing dependencies from the original service’s network logs. Preserving timing is a crucial feature of Wehe’s approach. It expects network devices to use this information in case of non-availability of any other means to classify applications, e.g., HTTPS encrypted data transfer Wehe tool uses two types of probing traffic streams. While one stream (original replay) is the same as the original service’s application-level network trace, another traffic stream (control replay) differs substantially from the first traffic stream. In one approach, Wehe uses the VPN channel to send a second probing traffic stream. This approach uses the meddle VPN [30] framework for data transfer and server-side packet capture. Another approach uses the bit-reversed version of the first traffic stream sent one the same channel. Currently, Wehe uses the latter approach due to its superior results. B. Over the network response B. Over the network response Wehe is a differential detector tool that compares the network responses for two types of traffic streams generated by the tool. The service-specific information present in the original replay is useful for network devices with Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) capability to identify and classify the service correctly. So, the original replay’s traffic performance over the Internet closely resembles the original application traffic on the same network. While original replay is exposed for detection to network devices, the traffic streams with bit reversed data or control replay is equally “not detectable” for classification. Thus it is expected that the control replay traffic evades the content-based application-specific traffic differentiation. The performances of two such traffic streams (detectable and nondetectable) differ if network devices apply different traffic management or traffic differentiation on each traffic stream as per content-based classification. C. TD detection scenario expectations C. TD detection scenario expectations Wehe compares the throughput performances of original replay and control replay to detect TD. The methodology uses the throughput as a comparison metric due to its sensitivity to bandwidth-limiting traffic shaping. However, the tool expects that the TD detection algorithm does not detect TD based on throughput for traffic streams with traffic rates below the shaping rate. The rationale is that the shaper cannot affect the performance of such an application stream. Many times both traffic streams get affected by other factors such as signal strength, congestion. It creates an irregularity in the received performance due to bandwidth volatility. It is mentioned to be leading to incorrect differentiation detection. The tool performs multiple test replays to overcome the effect of bandwidth volatility. D. Operational requirements D. Operational requirements Wehe server needs side-channels for each client to associate it with precisely one app replay. This side-channel supplies information about replay runs to the server. Each user directly connected to the Wehe replay server is uniquely identifiable on the server-side with an associated IP address of side channels that maps each replay to exactly one App. The other operational requirement is that the Wehe clientserver communication uses customized socket connections with specific keep-alive behavior. Sometimes, the usage of translucent proxies by the user-client modifies this behavior. The Replay server handles this situation by handling such unexpected connections. The protocol-specific proxies, e.g., HTTP proxy, connect the user-client to the server through itself using specific port numbers, e.g., 80/443 for HTTP/HTTPS. Nevertheless, it allows the user-client to connect to the server for connections using other protocols directly. The side channels of Wehe do not use HTTP/HTTPS connections. So the IP address for the same user differs for side-channel and replay runs. Wehe server detects such connections and indicates such connections to the user-client using a special message. The special message triggers the exchange of further communication with a customized header. E. Challenges of validating Wehe E. Challenges of validating Wehe The TD mechanism of Wehe is straightforward to use — the requirement changes when using it for its validation. The validation process may need to launch only one type of replay for different services during one test or may need to launch all replays in parallel. These are not requirements related to TD detection, Wehe’s primary goal, so understandably not supported. Hence the validation of Wehe’s working in such scenarios needs a specific client-server setup. Here the challenge is to separate the intended scenario-specific Wehe’s mechanism so that the resulting system still mimics Wehe’s actual behavior. Moreover, Wehe does not provide error/failure notifications in all scenarios. Instead, it prompts the user to reopen the App. As a result, the validation setup loses vital feedback information regarding the error/failure induced by its validation scenario. This paper is available on arxiv under CC 4.0 license. This paper is available on arxiv under CC 4.0 license. available on arxiv

Wehe: Hacking Traffic Differentiation Detection for Mobile Environments

Annually, worldwide turn to ride-hailing apps for transportation, with Russia alone accounting for more than 2.5 billion rides per year. The responsibility of matching each passenger with the ideal driver for every trip falls squarely on the shoulders of the ride-hailing service. over 1.4 billion people So, how do market leaders tackle this complex task? By processing gigabytes of real-time data and deploying algorithms, including those based on machine learning, they ensure the passenger is paired with the most suitable driver. At a high level, the process involves several critical steps: But how exactly are all these data points synthesized? Gathering all available drivers in the vicinity. Filtering out those who are not currently available, for instance, drivers who are in an 'unavailable' status or those who do not meet the class criteria (such as Economy drivers for a Comfort ride). Ranking the remaining drivers based on known factors, such as their proximity to the pickup location, their intended direction, and their tendency to accept rides with a similar profile. aggregating nearby orders for a period and then intelligently redistributing drivers among these orders to ensure each one receives the best match. This strategy enables companies to allocate drivers in under half a minute, significantly reducing the wait time for clients. The next step involves batching: However, this level of efficiency is only achievable when you have: Drivers, Data about them, An effective algorithm. During my tenure at one of the world's leading taxi services, I served as a Product Manager in the Marketplace domain. My primary responsibilities revolved around ensuring client reliability and maximizing company profits, which were the key objectives. In this capacity, I oversaw partner integrations as a product and optimized supply allocation logic using machine learning tools. Let's go! Optimizing Reliability and Efficiency in the UK Taxi Market with ML The platform in the UK was launched in 2019. Each time we launched, we had to configure the setup in one way or another. Overall, it worked out for us: we achieved acceptable reliability figures (in the ride-hailing market, the main reliability metric usually represents the ratio of successfully completed rides to all customer orders). However, in many cases, our decisions were more "expertise-based" than data-driven: we relied on the knowledge of mobility platform staff to advise on the strengths of each partner. It was wonderful to see our unique value proposition actually working, being used by customers, and generating revenue. Nevertheless, the company had already gained experience in driver matching, and we knew we could optimize the ride exchange market. So, our ML engineers were put to work, and the results were encouraging: every key metric, on average, increased by 5%. It was also surprising to see how incorrectly some of our configurations had been set up before. Even though we were operating in two entirely different markets (more on the Russian experience below), the pattern repeated. There was still room for improvement by gradually fine-tuning the weights of features, introducing new features, or discarding some. However, some areas (remote cities or just places where the immobility platform does not have a strong customer base) had to remain under manual control. Yet, the "Ride Exchange platform" became smarter, more reliable, and cost-efficient. Not to mention, we became the first in the world to create a market of fully integrated transportation services for customers in one app, and also the first to power it with ML. The main metric for us is the percentage of satisfied customers who booked a ride and eventually took a ride to their desired destination (GC/GCR – Gross Completion Rate). Since the launch, I have experienced a lot with the platform and learned many lessons. Some of them include: Finding the right balance in the historical depth of data to account for both recent data about the supplier (from the last 24 hours) and the averages over the last three months. Understanding which features will be useful, and which will not? There are two ways to answer this: by conducting a simulation and/or a real experiment. How do you convince stakeholders that it's worth it if you only have an idea so far? Consider showing them a prototype or a clear concept of your solution. While this might not be the best move for consumer-focused products, it works wonders in B2B and B2B2C setups. In these environments, where feedback cycles can drag on, waiting for weeks just for another demo isn't ideal. A quick, tangible demo can speed up decision-making and keep the collaboration moving smoothly. Here’s How I Approached the Russian Market How it Started As we entered the 2020s, mostly private entities. The proliferation of commercial enterprises was attributed to a reduction in state restrictions on the issuance of permits and regulatory measures on tariff control. This led to a surge in small businesses and intense competition in the market. At that time, my mobility platform operated as a standard taxi service aggregator, competing with other market players like , , and Citymobil for both customers and drivers. The taxi market was facing losses due to escalating competition, while shifts in consumer demand further complicated the landscape. taxi services in Russia were provided by around 4,300 organizations, Uber Yandex Mission aimed to unite all possible transportation players worldwide on a single platform, creating a fundamentally new level of service for corporate clients that prioritizes the speed of car arrival and optimized trip costs. The mobility platform secured the largest driver base in Russia through strategic agreements and partnerships, particularly with Citymobil in 2020 and another major player in 2021. The mobility platform Our product team's objective After these partnership agreements, I had to synchronize numerous processes. One of the key tasks was to optimize the distribution of customer orders on the platform among providers to enhance reliability and reduce costs for each trip. However, a critical market question arose: How do we decide whom to use and the best pathways for the customer? Here are the steps we took: Started with manual rules for distributing orders among providers. Observed the results, but they were not satisfactory. Conceptualized an that could make decisions on the distribution of each specific trip based on its unique criteria: ML model Order profile: location, duration, time, etc. Market metrics of each provider. Real-time data on our partners: dynamic prices, driver locations. Historical market knowledge in each location and an assessment of the current situation at a given time. Two factors to consider: major expenses are unrelated to the trip—acquisition and operational costs. The following data points illustrate how ML-driven decisions surpass manually-made ones Top Metrics: Increased the percentage of successful orders by 1.7% Reduced driver search time by 12% Increased trip revenue by 9% Control - manual driver search configuration Test - using the ML model. GCR – gross completion rate (rides taken out of all booked), higher is better % Cancelled – how many rides get cancelled after a driver is found, lower is better GP per ride – gross profit per ride, higher is better Margin – revenue per ride, less driver/partner payments, higher is better AVG AT – time it takes to find a driver, lower is better Take these recommendations with you to make ML deployment processes more efficient: While optimizing for efficiency and cost-effectiveness is crucial, you should maintain a strong focus on user experience. Balancing the algorithmic decision-making process with user preferences and expectations is essential to ensure sustained customer loyalty. Regular feedback mechanisms and user surveys can provide valuable insights into evolving customer needs. User-focused optimization: Recognizing the differences between markets, especially the on-demand nature of the Russian taxi market, is vital. You should tailor its strategies to suit the specific demands and behaviors of each market it operates in. This may involve adjusting algorithms, promotional strategies, or service offerings to align with the unique characteristics of each region. Market-specific strategies: The success metrics showcased in the case study are positive indicators, but you should establish a continuous evaluation process. Regularly assessing the impact of ML-driven decisions on key performance indicators, market share, and customer satisfaction will allow for prompt adjustments and enhancements. Sustain investment in machine learning technologies across various operational facets, ensuring ongoing refinement and adaptation to market changes. This should extend beyond supply allocation logic to other critical operations. Regular evaluation and adjustment:

Optimizing Ride-Hailing with Machine Learning: A Product Manager's Journey

মেশিন লার্নিং সহ রাইড-হেইলিং অপ্টিমাইজ করা: একটি পণ্য পরিচালকের যাত্রা

Mitfahrdienste mit maschinellem Lernen optimieren: Die Reise eines Produktmanagers

Optimización del transporte compartido con aprendizaje automático: el viaje de un gerente de producto

Optimiser les services de covoiturage avec l'apprentissage automatique : le parcours d'un chef de produit

मशीन लर्निंग के साथ राइड-हेलिंग को अनुकूलित करना: एक उत्पाद प्रबंधक की यात्रा

機械学習による配車サービスの最適化: プロダクトマネージャーの旅

머신 러닝을 통한 차량 공유 최적화: 제품 관리자의 여정

Otimizando Ride-Hailing com aprendizado de máquina: a jornada de um gerente de produto

Оптимизация заказов пассажиров с помощью машинного обучения: путь менеджера по продукту

Araç Aramayı Makine Öğrenimiyle Optimize Etme: Bir Ürün Yöneticisinin Yolculuğu

Tối ưu hóa dịch vụ gọi xe bằng Machine Learning: Hành trình của Giám đốc sản phẩm

利用机器学习优化叫车服务：产品经理的旅程

When using the Angular CDK Overlay module, you will likely want to transition the opening and closing of the overlay content. It’s something that seems like it should be pretty easy and straightforward, but it’s actually a little tricky. It can’t really be transitioned with only because it’s a markup that gets added into and removed from the document. It’s not a simple style or class change. We need to leverage Angular animations to make it work well. In this post I’ll show you why and I’ll show you how to make animations work for your overlays. Alright, let’s get to it! CSS https://youtu.be/JEKQ21mXyA0?embedable=true Ok, before we get too far along, I’ve created several posts on the Angular CDK Overlay module where I demonstrate how to set up overlays for some common scenarios, how they are positioned, and how they react when scrolling the containers they are contained within. Angular CDK Overlay Tutorials: Learn the Basics How Positioning Works Scroll Strategies So, if you’re new to these concepts, you’ll probably want to check them out first because everything we’ll see in this post will build off the concepts from those videos. The Demo Application Ok, here we have the example that we’ve been working on throughout the videos on the Overlay module. It’s a list of NBA players, and when we click the button on the right, we get a pop-up that’s created with the Overlay module with more details about the player. It works well, but we want to ease in the pop-up when it opens, and then we want to ease it out when it closes. This should be easy, right? Using an Angular and Animation to Animate the CDK Overlay :enter :leave If you’ve used Angular animations in the past, you’d probably expect to use a simple and animation. This type of animation in Angular allows us to animate items that are physically entering into and out of the DOM. This is something that CSS currently does not support. :enter :leave So, let’s try this and see what happens. Creating an :enter/:leave Animation in the Component Animations Metadata Let’s start by adding the animations array. Within this array, let’s add a trigger. We’ll call it “animation”. player-details.component.ts @Component({
    selector: 'app-player-details',
    ...
    animations: [
        trigger('animation', [
        ])
    ]
}) Then, let’s add a transition for our event. Well use the method to add the style we’ll start from. We’ll add a style object where we’ll start from an opacity of zero. And, we’ll start from a scale of point eight. Then, we’ll use the method; for the timings, we’ll use a duration of zero point one five seconds, and we’ll use for our timing function. And we’ll animate to another style object. This time, we’ll be transitioning to an opacity of one and a scale of one as well. :enter style() animate() ease-in-out @Component({
    selector: 'app-player-details',
    ...
    animations: [
        transition(':enter', [
            style({
                opacity: 0,
                transform: 'scale(0.8)'
            }),
            animate('0.15s ease-in-out', style({
                opacity: 1,
                transform: 'scale(1)'
            }))
        ])
    ]
}) Now we’ll add another transition for our :leave state. This time we’ll start from our open state with a style object containing an opacity of one and a scale of one too. Then, we’ll add another animation function. We’ll add the same timing, zero point one five seconds with an timing function. We’ll add another style object to animate to an opacity of zero and a scale of zero point eight, so the inverse of our enter animation. ease-in-out @Component({
    selector: 'app-player-details',
    ...
    animations: [
        trigger('animation', [
            transition(':enter', [
                style({
                    opacity: 0,
                    transform: 'scale(0.8)'
                }),
                animate('0.15s ease-in-out', style({
                    opacity: 1,
                    transform: 'scale(1)'
                }))
            ]),
            transition(':leave', [
                style({
                    opacity: 1,
                    transform: 'scale(1)'
                }),
                animate('0.15s ease-in-out', style({
                    opacity: 0,
                    transform: 'scale(0.8)'
                }))
            ])
        ])
    ]
}) Binding the Animation to the Component Host With the Decorator @HostBinding Ok, now we have the animation setup, but we need to bind it to our player details host element. So, we need to add the decorator. We’ll add our animation trigger, then we’ll create an “animationState” property, and we’ll set it to true so that our animation will properly be bound on the host. @HostBinding export class PlayerDetailsComponent {
    @HostBinding('@animation') animationState = true;
} Ok, now let’s check this out and see what happens. Nice, the animation on open looks great but when we close it looks like it didn’t animate. And, this is because a leave event didn’t fire for this inner component that we’re trying to animate. The overlay is destroyed and removed before the close animation can run. The overlay is detached before the animation completes. We need to complete the close animation before the overlay is detached. So, we’re going to need to do this a different way. Using an Angular State-based Animation to Animate the CDK Overlay What we can do here is actually switch to a state-based animation. We’ll go with the concept of having a “hidden” state and a “visible” state for our overlay content. Creating a State-based Animation in the Component Animations Metadata Let’s remove the code for the :enter/:leave animation and then replace it with our hidden state. We’ll add a style object with opacity zero and a scale of zero point eight. @Component({
    selector: 'app-player-details',
    ...
    animations: [
        trigger('animation', [
            state('hidden', style({
                opacity: 0,
                transform: 'scale(0.8)'
            })
        ])
    ]
}) Then, we’ll add another state call for our visible state. This state will have a style object with an opacity of one and a scale of one as well. @Component({
    selector: 'app-player-details',
    ...
    animations: [
        trigger('animation', [
            state('hidden', style({
                opacity: 0,
                transform: 'scale(0.8)'
            }),
            state('visible', style({
                opacity: 1,
                transform: 'scale(1)'
            }))
        ])
    ]
}) Alright, now we just need to add the transition between these states, so let’s add the transition function. And we’ll transition between hidden and visible states. We’ll also animate this transition with the animation function. Our animation will run over zero point one for five seconds and will use an timing function. ease-in-out @Component({
    selector: 'app-player-details',
    ...
    animations: [
        trigger('animation', [
            state('hidden', style({
                opacity: 0,
                transform: 'scale(0.8)'
            }),
            state('visible', style({
                opacity: 1,
                transform: 'scale(1)'
            })),
            transition('hidden <=> visible', animate('0.15s ease-in-out'))
        ])
    ]
}) Ok, now, for this animation to work correctly, we’ll need to switch our from a Boolean to a hidden/visible string instead, so we’ll initialize it to hidden. animationState export class PlayerDetailsComponent {
    @HostBinding('@animation') animationState = 'hidden';
} Triggering the State-based Animation When Opening and Closing the CDK Overlay Now, when the component is created, we’ll set this property to visible, which will then trigger the open animation to run. We need to add the AfterViewInit lifecycle hook for this. And we’ll need to implement the interface too. Then, within the hook, we’ll set our to visible. animationState export class PlayerDetailsComponent implements AfterViewInit {
    ...
    ngAfterViewInit() {
        this.animationState = 'visible';
    }
} That will trigger the animation on open. Now, we need to handle the close. To do this, we need to do a few things. First, let’s add a public close method. Inside of this method, let’s set our animationState to hidden. export class PlayerDetailsComponent implements AfterViewInit {
    ...
    close() {
        this.animationState = 'hidden';
    }
} Ok, now, in our player component that opens this pop-up, we need to be able to access the instance of our player details component so that we can call the close method that we just added. We’ll use the view child decorator to do this. Its selector will be the , and we’ll name this property . It will be typed to the as well. PlayerDetailsComponent detailsComponent PlayerDetailsComponent player.component.ts export class PlayerComponent {
    @ViewChild(PlayerDetailsComponent) detailsComponent!: PlayerDetailsComponent;
} Ok, now, in our component template, in the event, we’ll now call our method instead of setting our property to false. overlayOutsideClick detailsComponent.close() detailsOpen player.component.html <ng-template
    cdkConnectedOverlay
    ...
    (overlayOutsideClick)="detailsComponent.close()">
</ng-template> So, this will trigger the close animation to run, but it will not actually detach the overlay. In order to properly detach the overlay, we need to wait until the close animation completes and then notify the player component so that it can properly detach the overlay. Using the Angular Animation Done Event and an EventEmitter to Close the CDK Overlay So, back over in the player details component, we need to add an that will emit when the animation completes. We can add the output decorator with a closed property. This property will be a void event emitter. We’ll fire it when the close animation completes. @Output player-details.component.ts export class PlayerDetailsComponent implements AfterViewInit {
    ...
    @Output() closed = new EventEmitter<void>();
} Now, we need a way to wire up to the close animation done event. To do this, we’ll use an animation-done event callback. Since our animation is bound to the host of this component, we’ll need to use the decorator to listen for the animation done event. And we’ll need to pass through the event. Then, we’ll create a done method. And it will have an event parameter that will be typed to an event. Within this method, we need to check if we are animating to the hidden state. Then, within this check, we’ll emit our closed event. @HostListener AngularAnimation export class PlayerDetailsComponent implements AfterViewInit {
    ...
    @HostListener('@animation.done', ['$event']) done(event: AnimationEvent) {
        if (event.toState === 'hidden') {
            this.closed.emit();
        }
    }
} The last thing we need to do is detach the overlay when this event fires. So, let’s go back to the player component template. On our player details component, let’s add our closed event. When it fires, we’ll set the property to false. detailsOpen <ng-template
    cdkConnectedOverlay
    ...>
    <app-player-details [player]="player" (closed)="detailsOpen = false"></app-player-details>
</ng-template> Ok, now it will still transition as it opens and it will now transition when when it closes too. Cool, so now we have a working open and close animation for our pop-ups, but we can make it even better. Making the Animation Better With the @Input cdkConnectedOverlayTransformOriginOn The directive provides the ability for us to specify the item to place a on in order to better animate the overlay from the origin element. To do this, we can add the and in this case, we are animating the element, so we’ll set that as the selector for this input. cdkConnectedOverlay transform-origin cdkConnectedOverlayTransformOriginOn @Input app-player-details <ng-template
    cdkConnectedOverlay
    ...
    cdkConnectedOverlayTransformOriginOn="app-player-details">
</ng-template> Nice, now our pop-up will animate from and to the attachment point on the origin. Ok, so now you know how to animate the opening and closing of overlays. I hope this helps you as you build out modals, pop-ups, tool tips and similar items in your angular apps. Keep an eye out for more videos on the Overlay module in the future. Found This Helpful? If you found this article helpful and want to show some love, you can always buy me a coffee! Want to See It in Action? Check out the demo code and examples of these techniques in the in the stackblitz example below. If you have any questions or thoughts, don’t hesitate to leave a comment. https://stackblitz.com/edit/stackblitz-starters-hi2gdg?ctl=1&embed=1&file=src%2Fplayer%2Fplayer-details%2Fplayer-details.component.ts&embedable=true Also published . here

Animating Angular CDK Overlays

Time is a huge topic. I mean, since the start of the times. Our species has thinking about time since a millennia ago. We don’t know the precise date when that happened because we didn’t take account of time until we ponder a lot about it. So, we could sometimes overlook some nuances of time. And that happened to the team that wrote some tests in a Rails project. Once Upon a Time, There Was a Ruby Project Dealing With Time… I started collaborating on that project where I took a tech-lead role. I was performing more code reviews than coding. And one of the first things that popped up to my eye when reviewing pull requests was that the team was changing tests even when the change was a refactor. “Why are you rewriting tests for a refactor? In a refactor, tests should remain the same. That tells us that the refactored code is working in the same way as the older code! ” I added in my comments. The frustrated team members pointed out that each week, at least one test fails because it depends on the date. One app controller retrieves the results of people whose birthday occurs on that week. If they run the test suite in a different week, they need to update the expected result. I was shocked! I was planning to add a task for refactoring those tests until the product owner said, “No! On this point, we need to create stories that add value to the final user. Tests are important, but they don’t add value to the final user!” I didn’t want to argue, so I accepted the ridiculous reality with stoicism. I continued performing code reviews, and I learned to ignore changes on tests. But after a while, I found the time to tackle those disgraceful test cases. And I found the gem «timecop», a gem created by and maintained by John Trupiano Travis Jeffery. What Does Timecop Do? Timecop is a ruby gem created for those specific cases where we have tests dependent on time. It could be birthdays, but also it could be expiration days for JWT tokens or recurrent billings. In a single line, Timecop creates a mock of Time.now, Date.today, and DateTime.now. As Timecop creators highlight in their README file, the gem doesn’t have dependencies, so it works well with any Ruby test framework. With only two basic methods ( and ), you can easily control the time! Time.travel Time.freeze How to Install Timecop Timecop is a ruby gem available on rubygems.org. So, you can just add Timecop to your Gemfile and run after that. Unless you're using Timecop for something different to testing, add the gem in a test group. bundle install Gemfile ...
group :test do
  ... # Other gems
  gem 'timecop'
end Alternatively, run or install it on your computer with . bundle add timecop gem install timecop To Timecop.travel or To Timecop.freeze? As I commented above, you only need to know two methods for using Timecop: Timecop.travel and Timecop.freeze. But what is the difference between these two methods? Timecop.travel Method With , you set up time to a specific date, and then time will move forward after that. Timecop.travel For example, if you to February 2, 1993, 6:00:00 AM, after ten seconds, returns February 2, 1993, 6:00:10 AM Timecop.travel Time.now groundhog_day = Time.local(1993, 2, 2, 6, 0, 0)
Timecop.travel(groundhog_day)
sleep(10)
groundhog_day == Time.now # ==> false Timecop.freeze Method On the other way, with time stops completely. So, using a similar example, will return exactly on February 2, 1993, 6:00:00 AM: Timecop.freeze Time.now groundhog_day = Time.local(1993, 2, 2, 6, 0, 0)
Timecop.travel(groundhog_day)
sleep(10)
groundhog_day == Time.now # ==> true Other Useful Methods Other Timecop methods allow you to move time faster or return to the system date. Timecop.scale Move times faster. It’s a good option for integration tests where you want to check that some jobs are performed. Code example: # seconds will now seem like hours
Timecop.scale(3600)
Time.now
# => 2012-09-20 21:23:25 -0500
# seconds later, hours have passed and it's gone from 9pm at night to 6am in the morning
Time.now
# => 2012-09-21 06:22:59 -0500 Timecop.return Move time to system date again. GROUNDHOG_DAY = Time.local(1993, 2, 2, 23, 59, 51)

def groundhog_day? = Time.now == GROUNDHOG_DAY

Timecop.freeze(GROUNDHOG_DAY)
sleep(10)

groundhog_day? # => True

Timecop.return

groundhog_day? #=> False Set the Time of Your Tests’ Cases Timecop readme is really clear for its usage. For using Timecop in a time-sensitive test: joe = User.find(1)
joe.purchase_home()
assert !joe.mortgage_due?
# move ahead a month and assert that the mortgage is due
Timecop.freeze(Date.today + 30) do
  assert joe.mortgage_due?
end For use in a group of tests, you write: describe "some set of tests to mock" do
  before do
    Timecop.freeze(Time.local(1990))
  end

  after do
    Timecop.return
  end

  it "should do blah blah blah" do
  end
end Set the Start Time of Your Test Environment for Your Rails Project If you want to set up your test environment to always start on the same date, add this configuration: config/environment/ test.rb ... # your configuration
  config.after_initialize do
    # Set Time.now to February 2, 1993 06:00:00 AM (at this instant), but allow it to move forward
    # year, month, day, hour, min, sec
    t = Time.local(1993, 2, 2, 6, 0, 0)
    Timecop.travel(t)
  end
...
end After that, each time that you run your test, the date will start on February 2 at 6:00 AM. That’s all! I hope you found Timecop as useful as this post.

Timecop: A Ruby Gem to Write Time-Sensitives Tests

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