Rappi is a mega high growth, Series C, consumer tech startup looking to be the everything store of Latin America

Rappi

MinIO makes a  powerful primary TileDB backend because both are built for performance and scale. MinIO is a single Go binary that can be launched in many different types of cloud and on-prem environments. It's very lightweight, but also feature-packed with things like and , and it provides with various applications. MinIO is the perfect companion for TileDB because of its industry-leading performance and scalability. MinIO is capable of tremendous performance – we’ve benchmarked it at 325 GiB/s (349 GB/s) on GETs and 165 GiB/s (177 GB/s) on PUTs with just 32 nodes of – and is used to build data lakes/lake houses with analytics and AI/ML workloads. replication encryption integrations off-the-shelf NVMe SSDs TileDB is used to store data in a variety of applications, such as Genomics, Geospatial, Biomedical Imaging, Finance, Machine Learning, and more. The power of TileDB stems from the fact that any data can be modeled efficiently as either a dense or a sparse multi-dimensional array, which is the format used internally by most data science tooling. By storing your data and metadata in TileDB arrays, you abstract all the data storage and management pains, while efficiently accessing the data with your favorite programming language or data science tool via our numerous APIs and integrations. Set Up TileDB Let’s dive in and create some test data using TileDB. Install the TileDB module, which should also install the dependency. pip numpy % pip3 install tiledb


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Installing collected packages: packaging, numpy, tiledb

Successfully installed numpy-1.26.3 packaging-23.2 tiledb-0.25.0 Create a test array by running the below Python script, name it . tiledb-demo.py import tiledb

import numpy as np

import os, shutil


# Local path

array_local = os.path.expanduser("./tiledb_demo")


# Create a simple 1D array

tiledb.from_numpy(array_local, np.array([1.0, 2.0, 3.0]))


# Read the array

with tiledb.open(array_local) as A:

	print(A[:]) Run the script % python3 tiledb-demo.py

[1. 2. 3.] This will create a directory called to store the actual data. tiledb_demo % ls -l tiledb_demo/

total 0

drwxr-xr-x  3 aj  staff   96 Jan 31 05:27 __commits

drwxr-xr-x  2 aj  staff   64 Jan 31 05:27 __fragment_meta

drwxr-xr-x  3 aj  staff   96 Jan 31 05:27 __fragments

drwxr-xr-x  2 aj  staff   64 Jan 31 05:27 __labels

drwxr-xr-x  2 aj  staff   64 Jan 31 05:27 __meta

drwxr-xr-x  4 aj  staff  128 Jan 31 05:27 __schema You can continue using it as is but it's no bueno if everything is local because if the local disk or node fails then you lose your entire data. Let's do something fun, like reading this same data from a MinIO bucket instead. Migrating Data to MinIO Bucket We’ll start by pulling mc in our docker ecosystem and then using play.min.io to create the bucket. Pull mc docker image % docker pull minio/mc Test with MinIO Play by listing all the buckets % docker run minio/mc ls play


[LONG TRUNCATED LIST OF BUCKETS] Create a bucket to move our local TileDB data to, name it . tiledb-demo % docker run minio/mc mb play/tiledb-demo


Bucket created successfully `play/tiledb-demo`. Copy the contents of the data directory to the MinIO bucket tiledb_demo tiledb-demo % docker run -v $(pwd)/tiledb_demo:/tiledb_demo minio/mc cp --recursive /tiledb_demo play/tiledb-demo


`/tiledb_demo/__commits/__1706696859767_1706696859767_777455531063403b811b2a2bf79d40e7_21.wrt` -> `play/tiledb-demo/tiledb_demo/__commits/__1706696859767_1706696859767_777455531063403b811b2a2bf79d40e7_21.wrt`

`/tiledb_demo/__fragments/__1706696859767_1706696859767_777455531063403b811b2a2bf79d40e7_21/a0.tdb` -> `play/tiledb-demo/tiledb_demo/__fragments/__1706696859767_1706696859767_777455531063403b811b2a2bf79d40e7_21/a0.tdb`

`/tiledb_demo/__fragments/__1706696859767_1706696859767_777455531063403b811b2a2bf79d40e7_21/__fragment_metadata.tdb` -> `play/tiledb-demo/tiledb_demo/__fragments/__1706696859767_1706696859767_777455531063403b811b2a2bf79d40e7_21/__fragment_metadata.tdb`

`/tiledb_demo/__schema/__1706696859758_1706696859758_74e7040e138a4cca93e34aca1c587108` -> `play/tiledb-demo/tiledb_demo/__schema/__1706696859758_1706696859758_74e7040e138a4cca93e34aca1c587108`


Total: 3.24 KiB, Transferred: 3.24 KiB, Speed: 1.10 KiB/s List the contents of to make sure the data has been copied. tiledb-demo % docker run minio/mc ls play/tiledb-demo/tiledb_demo

[2024-01-15 14:15:57 UTC] 	0B __commits/

[2024-01-15 14:15:57 UTC] 	0B __fragments/

[2024-01-15 14:15:57 UTC] 	0B __schema/ Note: The MinIO Client ( ), or any S3 compatible client, only copies non-empty folders. The reason for this is that in the object storage world the data is organized based on bucket prefixes, so non-empty folders are not needed. In a future blog we’ll dive deeper into how data is organized with prefixes and folders. Hence, you see only these 3 folders and not the rest that we saw in the local folder. mc Now let’s try to read the same data directly from the MinIO bucket using the Python code below, name the file . tiledb-minio-demo.py import tiledb

import numpy as np


# MinIO keys

minio_key = "minioadmin"

minio_secret = "minioadmin"


# The configuration object with MinIO keys

config = tiledb.Config()

config["vfs.s3.aws_access_key_id"] = minio_key

config["vfs.s3.aws_secret_access_key"] = minio_secret

config["vfs.s3.scheme"] = "https"

config["vfs.s3.region"] = ""

config["vfs.s3.endpoint_override"] = "play.min.io:9000"

config["vfs.s3.use_virtual_addressing"] = "false"


# Create TileDB config context

ctx = tiledb.Ctx(config)


# The MinIO bucket URI path of tiledb demo

array_minio = "s3://tiledb-demo/tiledb_demo/"


with tiledb.open(array_minio, ctx=tiledb.Ctx(config)) as A:

	print(A[:]) The output should look familiar % python3 tiledb-minio-demo.py

[1. 2. 3.] We've read from MinIO, next let's see how we can write the data directly in a MinIO bucket, instead of copying it to MinIO from an existing source. Writing Directly to the MinIO Bucket So far we’ve shown you how to read data that already exists, either in local storage or an existing bucket. But if you wanted to start fresh by writing directly to MinIO from the get-go, how would that work? Let’s take a look. The code to write data directly to the MinIO bucket is the same as above except with two line changes. The path to the MinIO bucket where TileDB data is stored must be updated to (instead of ). tiledb_minio_demo tiledb_demo We’ll use the function, as we did earlier with local storage, to create the array to store in the MinIO bucket. tiledb.from_numpy [TRUNCATED]


# The MinIO bucket URI path of tiledb demo

array_minio = "s3://tiledb-demo/tiledb_minio_demo/"


tiledb.from_numpy(array_minio, np.array([1.0, 2.0, 3.0]), ctx=tiledb.Ctx(config))


[TRUNCATED] After making these 2 changes, run the script and you should see the output below % python3 tiledb-minio-demo.py

[1. 2. 3.] If you run the script again it will fail with the below error because it will try to write again. tiledb.cc.TileDBError: [TileDB::StorageManager] Error: Cannot create array; Array 's3://tiledb-demo/tiledb_minio_demo/' already exists Just comment out the following line and you can re-run it multiple times. # tiledb.from_numpy(array_minio, np.array([1.0, 2.0, 3.0]), ctx=tiledb.Ctx(config)) % python3 tiledb-minio-demo.py

[1. 2. 3.]


% python3 tiledb-minio-demo.py

[1. 2. 3.] Check the MinIO Play bucket to make sure the data is in there as expected % docker run minio/mc ls play/tiledb-demo/tiledb_minio_demo/

[2024-01-15 16:45:04 UTC] 	0B __commits/

[2024-01-15 16:45:04 UTC] 	0B __fragments/

[2024-01-15 16:45:04 UTC] 	0B __schema/ There you go, getting data into MinIO is that simple. Did you get the same results as earlier? You should have, but if you didn't there are a few things you can check out. Common Pitfalls We’ll look at some common errors you might encounter while trying to read/write to MinIO. If your access key and secret key are incorrect, you should expect to see an error message like below tiledb.cc.TileDBError: [TileDB::S3] Error: Error while listing with prefix 's3://tiledb-demo/tiledb_minio_demo/__schema/'... The request signature we calculated does not match the signature you provided. Check your key and signing method. Next, you need to ensure the hostname and port are correct, without a proper endpoint these are the errors you would encounter. Incorrect Hostname: tiledb.cc.TileDBError: [TileDB::S3] Error: … Couldn't resolve host name Incorrect Port: tiledb.cc.TileDBError: [TileDB::S3] Error: … Couldn't connect to server Last but not least, one of the most cryptic errors I’ve seen is the following tiledb.cc.TileDBError: [TileDB::S3] Error: … [HTTP Response Code: -1] [Remote IP: 98.44.32.5] : curlCode: 56, Failure when receiving data from the peer After a ton of debugging it turns out that if you are connecting using http but the MinIO server has TLS activated then you will see the above error. Just be sure the connection scheme is set to the right configuration, in this case, config["vfs.s3.scheme"] = "https". Racks on Racks on Racks There is a rap song (you can search for it) where they rap about having stacks on stacks on stacks of * cash. But there is another rap song where they claim they have so many stacks of cash that they can’t be called “stacks” anymore, they are now “racks”. Essentially when your stacks get so big and so high you need racks on racks on racks to store your stacks of cash. cough* This is an apt comparison because your stacks of data mean as much (or more) to you as the stacks of cash they're rapping about. If only there was something like MinIO to keep all your objects – physical or virtual – safe and readily accessible. With MinIO in the mix, you can easily scale TileDB to with relative ease. You also get all the features that make MinIO great like , , , , among others right out of the box. By having all your data in MinIO, you decrease required storage complexity and therefore realize considerable savings on data storage costs, while at the same time running MinIO on commodity hardware provides the best possible performance-to-cost ratio. MinIO supercharges your TileDB engine with industry-leading performance that makes querying a joy. multiple racks across multiple datacenters Security and Access Control Tiering Object Locking and Retention Key Encryption Service (KES) We’ve added the code snippets used in this blog to a . If you have any questions on how to connect MinIO to TileDB or migrate data into MinIO be sure to reach out to us on ! git repository Slack Also appears . here

Supercharge TileDB Engine with MinIO

MinIO সহ সুপারচার্জ টাইলডিবি ইঞ্জিন

Laden Sie die TileDB-Engine mit MinIO auf

Superalimentar el motor TileDB con MinIO

Boostez le moteur TileDB avec MinIO

मिनिओ के साथ सुपरचार्ज टाइलडीबी इंजन

MinIO で TileDB エンジンをスーパーチャージする

MinIO로 TileDB 엔진 강화

Turbine o mecanismo TileDB com MinIO

Усовершенствуйте движок TileDB с помощью MinIO

MinIO ile TileDB Motorunu Güçlendirin

Công cụ TileDB siêu nạp với MinIO

使用 MinIO 增强 TileDB 引擎

At the buzzing EthDenver, which attracted from 120+ countries, I had the pleasure of speaking to , the co-founder of and President of the Celo Foundation. We delved into the latest advancements at Celo, notably its ongoing transition from an EVM-compatible Layer 1 to an Ethereum Layer 2. over 20,000 attendees Rene Reinsberg Celo Celo is recognized for its initiatives that extend beyond technology, such as empowering builders in the Global South and contributing to regenerative finance (ReFi) projects, which reflect its broader mission for social impact within the blockchain ecosystem. This is what we talked about. Rene, we’re at EthDenver! How are you feeling? The energy is fantastic. What I really enjoy about events, and I find this particularly true in Denver, is the random encounters. I make it a point not to schedule my day too tightly so I can spend time at the booth and meet builders who come up to say hello. That's always a highlight. I've seen a lot of newcomers here this year who are just coming into the Web3 space. At some of the conferences last year, it felt like we saw the same group of people sticking it out through the bear market. Now, there seems to be a new wave of builders bringing fresh ideas, which is exciting! Do you see the narratives around blockchain and impact evolving, too? Absolutely! There are two main directions: enhancing existing solutions within the traditional financial (TradFi) system and introducing entirely new ideas. So, first, with real-world assets (RWAs) and tokenized on-chain assets, many innovations that might have seemed more hypothetical a few years ago are now feasible. For example, one idea is to create a better market infrastructure to fund carbon removal projects. Web3 is great for this because it's transparent and leverages decentralized markets. It's somewhat similar to traditional infrastructure but also improves upon it. Then, some ideas look not just at replicating existing systems but also trying something completely new. For instance, Celo uses a portion of transaction fees for positive climate action. This concept, which we call “ ,” wasn’t possible before web3. Now, we can build positive climate action into each transaction on the network. Ultragreen Money How has everything been going for Celo since its announcement to transition to layer two on Ethereum? This was a proposal that the core team at put forward last summer, and it was met with huge excitement—more than anyone had anticipated. It was discussed within the community over the years, but it finally became feasible for Celo to retain its unique benefits like low transaction fees, which are crucial for micropayments, and to support the use cases we have on Celo, such as community currencies and credit. cLabs It’s a great chance to bring the “magic of Celo” to the broader Ethereum ecosystem and be a much more active collaborator and contributor. Many of our projects either originate from the Ethereum community or align closely with its values, so there's a lot of enthusiasm for bringing these worlds closer together. On top of that, I see Celo as an engine for integrating more users, particularly mobile users, into the Ethereum ecosystem and introducing them to web3. It has been a win for both parties and an incredibly fun journey! Could you share some strategies Celo employs to foster financial inclusion globally? Absolutely! The first step is creating accessible infrastructure, aiming for a world where everyone can easily access a web3 wallet on their phone without using much bandwidth. The goal is to enable easy cash-in and cash-out options to local currencies through mobile money or preferred methods, ideally at no cost. This foundational infrastructure is vital for enabling various use cases on top of Celo and has been a core focus not only for the team at the Celo Foundation but for the entire ecosystem. There's still much work to be done with on- and off-ramping, which is a massive undertaking. But it’s very encouraging to see around 100 projects across the globe all contributing different pieces of the puzzle. From companies facilitating mobile money onramps in the Philippines to those working on local stablecoins (e.g., ), these efforts are crucial for providing the basic infrastructure, ideally on mobile and with low fees, like the tenths of a cent seen on Celo. Mento What's happening now is people recognizing this infrastructure, realizing they can launch microcredit protocols, provide loans in local currency thanks to local currency stablecoins, and so on. This can be connected to the global financial system, still largely dominated by dollar stablecoins, through a series of DeFi primitives that facilitate this end-to-end flow. For example, a financial institution in the US or Europe could deploy capital that becomes a loan in local currency in someone's noncustodial wallet—a concept we could only dream of a few years back, but it's now becoming a reality. The challenge ahead is scaling this from thousands of businesses and hundreds of thousands of individuals to millions or even billions. Each transaction carries the potential for positive climate action—almost seamless for the user. This regenerative aspect is something we're keen to amplify as the platform grows, and I believe it will soon be reflected in the data showing the significant impact of transactions on Celo across various use cases like commerce, payments, and lending. Regenerative finance had its moment last year, but then people moved on to other shiny things. I think it’s going to come back, though, not just because it’s a great concept but because we’re starting to see real results. Celo is currently at 6,445 tons of CO2 offsets, and with more economic activity in our network, that number could grow significantly. We can now really tap into the collective power of web3, where everyone can participate and work together on these big, important goals. So, how else does Celo measure its success in terms of impact? Ultimately, a chain's success boils down to the economic activity it facilitates, which is a function of the transactions being processed. But it’s also about how the overall economic activity aligns with the use cases we value. We're particularly thrilled about use cases like microcredit protocols, but at the end of the day, Celo is permissionless, so anyone can build anything. And even a game on Celo can have a positive impact. But I do see our focus evolving. We're here at the EthDenver BUIDLathon, and we run our own virtual “Build With Celo” hackathons. Often, someone will come up and say, “I really want to build this thing, but I'm missing this piece or that.” This then leads to a conversation around, “Okay, maybe we know someone who can help with this, or we can connect the dots and make some of these things happen faster.” So, can we empower the ecosystem to build what they want to build? That’s our key measure of success. I’m based in Colombia, where the Celo community is huge! You've done a great job establishing a presence in some of the emerging economies. What has that been like? Colombia is a prime example! There's currently a proposal for a in the forum. Just yesterday, I was talking to , a community member here, who was explaining how this could unlock a lot of local activity, especially in terms of credit, since people are looking to take out loans in their local currency. Colombian peso stablecoin Juan There's also , a credit protocol on Celo in Colombia that's quite impactful. It's facilitating loans for individuals to finance motorbikes, enabling them to generate income as Rappi delivery drivers. Roda At the end of the day, it's all about engaging with community members and understanding their needs to unlock further growth. Starting small and iterating is key, but eventually, you encounter certain barriers at the ecosystem level. Overcoming these can significantly scale the impact and take things to a much larger scale. That's beautiful! On a personal note, what are you most proud of with Celo? Honestly, getting into web3, it’s tough to fully grasp the power of open collaboration. We knew we wanted to create an open, permissionless infrastructure for others to explore and collaborate with us. But it's not something you can just plan out. You can't say, “We're going to launch a protocol and then expect thousands of builders to come and do their thing.” It just doesn't work like that. Looking back six, seven years ago, if you had asked me what Celo would look like in 2024, I would have significantly underestimated the variety of products and their impact because I would have based my assumptions on what a single company could achieve. So, I'm most proud of the rich ecosystem that has emerged, filled with ideas, some of which I wasn't even aware of, but all made possible by Celo. If I had to highlight a more recent example, it would be Opera’s . They've done an incredible job and developed this product in-house, integrating a wallet into the browser that requires very low bandwidth. MiniPay It's really easy to use—you don't need to know anything about crypto. What I'm most proud of is that it was enabled by a series of ecosystem projects that, over the last few years, have created the conditions for this product to exist. This is partly due to Celo's distinct features. For example, gas abstraction allows gas fees to be paid in stablecoins, simplifying transactions. Tools like and let users send payments to phone numbers in a secure, trustless way, streamlining the process of entering and exiting the markets where Opera is active. SocialConnect FiatConnect So, it's fair to say Minipay benefits from the collective efforts of the entire ecosystem, standing on the shoulders of what might be considered “tiny giants.” This is exciting because, in the spirit of web3, each successful product not only stands on its own but also elevates other products or protocols it's integrated with. Minipay’s growing popularity has had a ripple effect, significantly boosting engagement with some OG Celo protocols, such as , which has seen a huge inflow of new users. impactMarket Looking into the future, what are you most excited about? I would come back to web3 as a toolkit for mass coordination, particularly around some pressing problems like financial inclusion and climate change. But its potential extends to many other areas. For example, people in the ecosystem are now thinking about decentralized science (DeSci). Imagine if millions of people are connected through a wallet in a certain country. Could you leverage that to bootstrap development funding for a drug specific to that community? Big pharma today might ignore this because it is a small market or is not worth the investment. The infrastructure is there, and it enables a whole set of new use cases far beyond what we could ever imagine. So, in short, I’m excited about the things I don’t know yet. Every day, every week, every step we take, we get further along in having an infrastructure that is just so widely useful for coordinating people around these issues that would otherwise be hard to solve.

An Interview With Rene Reinsberg: On EthDenver, Regenerative Finance, and Celo Ecosystem Growth

Remember that hilarious Donald Trump deepfake circulating online? While the technology behind it sparked amusement, its potential for harm lurks just beneath the surface. In Hong Kong, the amusement faded quickly when scammers used deepfakes to orchestrate a million-dollar heist, leaving a multinational company reeling and raising serious questions about the future of trust in the digital age. The human eye, once considered a reliable judge of reality, is facing a formidable challenge: deepfakes. But what exactly is a deepfake? In this article, we will dive into the realm of deepfakes where reality is not what it seems. Buckle up for a journey of learning about deepfake technology and how it was used to pull off a fraud costing hundreds of millions. Let’s Begin! Understanding Deepfakes Deepfakes are a type of artificial intelligence used to create fake images, audio, and videos that look convincing. Essentially, the technology is used to transform or replace an existing source’s content. For instance, deepfake can take a picture or a video and swap the person in it for another. Additionally, the technology has the ability to create completely original content where someone can be represented doing or saying something they never did. You must be wondering how this is possible. Well, deepfakes are created using an AI technology called deep learning. To put it simply, deep learning is a type of machine learning that allows computers to learn and recognize complex patterns. Upon analyzing the videos, images, and audio, the computer learns their patterns and is able to mimic them. The more data a computer has to analyze and learn, the more perfectly it will be able to mimic it. Impact of Generative Adversarial Networks on Deepfakes As if deep learning wasn’t enough, in 2014, we saw the emergence of GANs that completely revolutionized deepfakes. Can you imagine a technology that has two components: one generates a fake image, and the other judges whether the same generated image is real or fake? The generator learns to make deepfakes more realistic, and the discriminator learns to spot fakes better. This powerful and potentially dangerous tool is not only able to create deepfakes faster but also makes them more convincing. Now, you understand the kind of danger we are dealing with when it comes to deepfakes. The Hong Kong Scam When a child creates a deepfake video of their grandma rapping their favorite songs, the entire family sees the amusement in it. We also tend to ignore the obvious dangers that lie behind it. The situation gets a lot more serious when a targeted deepfake fraud results in a loss of millions of dollars. That’s exactly what happened recently in Hong Kong. The Setup What began as a routine work video call for a multinational company employee ended up being one of the biggest cyber crimes of the recent past. Let's find out. So, how was it all carried out using deepfakes? The scammers began with a text message conversation with the targeted employee. The individual message claimed he was the chief financial officer of the United Kingdom branch of the same company. The victim was asked to participate in an official work-related meeting called the that would involve four to six others. “Encrypted Trading Meeting” Considering the fact that the message and the invitation to an “encrypted” meeting seemed professional, there was no real reason for the victim to be suspicious of the entire situation. Another reason why this particular scam attempt was not detected was due to the involvement of multiple individuals. According to the acting senior superintendent of the Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau, Baron Chan Shun-ching, scams carried out in the recent past had all been through one-on-one video conferences. Hence, a video call meeting with multiple individuals was unexpected and, therefore, unlikely to be deemed a scam. Here, we can see the lengths to which the scammers were ready to go to carry out this sophisticated cyber attack. Designing and Executing the Deepfakes Four to six individuals were supposed to be involved in the video meeting. Creating believable deepfakes of a prolonged meeting, including the exact voices and body language, must have been a difficult task. Yet, the scammers were not only able to achieve this, but they did it successfully. Deepfakes begin with data in the form of pictures, videos, and audio. The attackers were able to source that information on the internet. Any videos and audio of the impersonation targets publicly found on the internet were downloaded and put through the rigorous process of deep learning. After thorough sophistication through trial and error, the scammers were able to successfully mimic both the voices and the facial features of the people involved. Once that was done, the scammers pre-recorded the deepfake videos so they did not have to interact with the victim. Posing as senior executives, the scammers intimidated the victim so he would not interrupt them in their master plan. Additionally, the scammers did not leave any areas uncovered. They even made sure to create fake personas resembling the staff from the UK headquarters’ financial department. The Outcome When the victim arrived at the encrypted video meeting organized by the financial director, he was confronted with pre-recorded deepfake videos of several people. The victim was only asked to provide a brief introduction of himself and was not given any other chance to interact throughout the call. During the meeting, the chief financial officer gave extensive instructions to the victim regarding investment. Finally, the moment came when the CFO ordered the victim to transfer funds to bank accounts. The victim had no reason to suspect anything, as all the individuals spoke convincingly and looked exactly as they were supposed to. Once the victim had been convinced to go ahead with the transaction of the asked amount, the conference call ended abruptly. The poor victim had no idea he was about to commit a blunder, costing his employers hundreds of millions. In the next week, the victim went on to make 15 transactions to five different bank accounts as instructed by the CFO. Once a total of was transferred, the victim contacted the UK headquarters only to find out all this had been a hoax, a fraud. HK$200 million This was one of many cyber crimes carried out in Hong Kong in the past year, with the total number of losses amounting to . HK$3 billion Detecting Deepfakes: Strategies and Preventive Measures If law enforcement agencies had a nickel for every time they encountered fake evidence, they could probably fund their own truth-detection agency. Hence, they are in a good position to tackle deepfakes and similar threats. However, the ever-evolving and constant advancement of AI technologies has made deepfake detection more challenging than ever before. Keeping that in mind, here are some of the best ways to detect synthetic content and the preventive measures we can take against a threat of that kind. Manual Detection Believe it or not, no matter how sophisticated deepfakes have become, it is still possible to detect them with the naked eye if you know what to look out for. A deepfake image, video, or audio will inevitably have some sort of inconsistency; that is what you should aim to detect. However, this can only be done for a limited number of files. You won’t go looking at a thousand different files. This technique also requires proper training to master. To begin with, there are certain key inspections you can detect upon a close examination of an image. For instance: Blurring around the edges of the face in a picture or a video No or very little blinking from the individual in the video Light reflections in the eyes Inconsistencies in the person’s hair or vein patterns and scars on the face or body Background inconsistencies However, this process is further complicated by your perception of a video or audio; whether you choose to look for these inconsistencies on a file is entirely up to you, and thus errors may occur. Automated Detection To avoid the imminent risk of human error, there has to be a system that can automatically detect deepfakes for any files. However, such a system is unlikely to be 100% accurate. Nevertheless, with the constant improvements in advanced technologies, a system can be constructed that offers increasingly accurate results. Some examples of detection tools are as follows: Looking for imperfections and natural changes in skin color or facial features. Biological Signals: Searching for inconsistencies in dynamics of the mouth, viseme. Phoneme-viseme mismatches: Seeking imperfections in facial and head movements Facial Movements: Key Takeaways Considering the emerging trends in cybersecurity, deepfakes are a fake reality that poses a great threat to our personal, social, and financial lives. Not knowing whether a video, picture, or audio is real or fake can have catastrophic consequences, as seen in the case of the Hong Kong scam. However, with the correct detection techniques, both individuals and multinational companies can detect the authenticity of a file with considerable accuracy.

Deceptive Doppelgangers: How Deepfakes Caused a Scam of HK $200 Million

Business English: A Practice Book by Rose Buhlig is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . SPELLING RULES here SPELLING RULES Exercise 29—Plurals of Nouns ( ) a dress, dresses ( ) b chair, chairs splash, splashes wave, waves business, businesses book, books church, churches pencil, pencils fox, foxes paper, papers The usual way of forming the plural of English nouns is illustrated by the words in column ( ) above. What is it? b If you add to the singular form , could you distinguish the pronunciation of the plural from the pronunciation of the singular? Does this suggest a reason for adding to form the plural? s dress es How many syllables must you use to pronounce the plural of fox? Does this suggest another reason for adding to form the plural? es Every word that ends in a sibilant or hissing sound ( , , , , , ) forms its plural like . Give several illustrations. ch s sh ss x z fox Rule 1.—Nouns regularly form the plural by adding , but those ending in a sibilant must add .\Exercise 30 s es ( ) a lady, ladies ( ) b valley, valleys ally, allies alley, alleys soliloquy, soliloquies journey, journeys Name five words belonging to group ( ) above. Does a vowel or a consonant precede the in each case? a y Name other words belonging to the group ( ) above. Does a vowel or a consonant precede the in each case? b y **Rule 2.—Nouns ending in preceded by a consonant (and nouns ending in ) form the plural by changing to and adding .\Exercise 31—Words ending in o y quy y i es ( ) a potato, potatoes hero, heroes mulatto, mulattoes tomato, tomatoes buffalo, buffaloes cargo, cargoes negro, negroes echo, echoes motto, mottoes ( ) b solo, solos piano, pianos memento, mementos halo, halos lasso, lassos canto, cantos zero, zeros quarto, quartos soprano, sopranos stilletto, stillettos The older English words ending in form the plural by adding , as in potatoes; those more recently taken into the language form the plural by adding , as in quartos. o es s Exercise 32—Nouns in f and fe leaf, leaves calf, calves wife, wives loaf, loaves sheaf, sheaves shelf, shelves half, halves wolf, wolves elf, elves life, lives beef, beeves wharf, wharves (or wharfs) self, selves knife, knives ith the exception of the words given above, nouns ending in an sound form the plural in the regular way; as, f hoof, hoofs scarf, scarfs beliefs, beliefs chief, chiefs reef, reefs grief, griefs Exercise 33—Irregular Plurals Some nouns form their plural by a change of vowel; as, man men foot feet woman women tooth teeth goose geese mouse mice A few words retain the old time plural as, en; brother    brethren child children ox oxen A few words are the same in both singular and plural; as, sheep, trout, deer Some nouns have two plurals which differ in meaning; as, Singular Plural brother brothers brethren penny pennies pence pea peas pease die dies dice Consult a dictionary for the difference in meaning between the two plurals of each word. **Exercise 34—Compound Nouns Singular Plural brother-in-law brothers-in-law father-in-law fathers-in-law court-martial courts-martial commander-in-chief commanders-in-chief man-of-war men-of-war major general major generals goose quill goose quills bill of fare bills of fare spoonful spoonfuls cupful cupfuls Rule 3.—Compound nouns usually add the sign of the plural to the fundamental part of the word. Note.—In the thought is of one spoon many times full. spoonfuls Plural of Letters and Figures Rule 4.—Letters and figures form the plural by adding the apostrophe (') and as, s; a a's 3 3's w w's 5 5's The same rule applies to the plural of words which ordinarily have no plural; as, Don't use so many and . and's if's Exercise 35—Foreign Plurals Some nouns derived from foreign languages retain their original plural. The following are in common use. Consult a dictionary for their pronunciation and definition. Singular Plural Singular Plural crisis crises stratum strata thesis theses radius radii hypothesis hypotheses parenthesis parentheses focus foci synopsis synopses datum data basis bases alumnus alumni automaton automata alumna alumnae analysis analyses oasis oases nucleus nuclei axis axes phenomenon phenomena genus genera Some words admit of two plurals, one the foreign plural, and one the regular English plural; as, Singular Plural beau beaux beaus formula formulae formulas vertex vertices vertexes index indices indexes cherub cherubim cherubs seraph seraphim seraphs bandit banditti bandits Consult a dictionary to see whether there is any difference of meaning between the two plurals of these words. **Exercise 36—The Formation of Participles , , Rap rapping rapped , , Reap reaping reaped is a monosyllable ending in a single consonant preceded by a single vowel. The final consonant in such words is doubled before a suffix beginning with a vowel is added. Rap In the final consonant is not doubled because it is preceded by two vowels. reap Make the participles of the following verbs: chat lap suit step cheat leap sit steep rot train sop trot root trim soap treat , , Trap trapping trapped , , Track tracking tracked Why is the final consonant in doubled before or is added? trap ing ed The final consonant in is not doubled because ends with two consonants. track track , Pin pinning , Pine pining drops the silent because the tendency in English is to drop endings that are not needed for pronunciation before adding a suffix beginning with a vowel. Pine e Form the participles of the following verbs: knot rob flop note robe elope deal swim quit ( is not here a vowel) u clap strike crawl ( is here a vowel) w stop oil wax ( equals ) x cks peal rush bow ( is here a vowel) w Exercise 37 Exercise 36 applies also to words of more than one syllable accented on the last syllable, if they retain the accent on the same syllable after the suffix is added. Thus we have Rule 5.—Monosyllables or words accented on the last syllable, ending in a single consonant preceded by a single vowel, double the final consonant before adding a suffix beginning with a vowel. Form participles from the following words that are accented on the last syllable: prefer intervene escape expel refer reveal acquire contain occur repeal secure forbid permit pursue conceal incur interfere erase arrange forget retain control acquit repel Form participles from the following words not accented on the last syllable: benefit travel marvel shelter revel answer exhibit render quarrel profit shovel limit Words in which the accent changes do not double the final consonant before adding a suffix beginning with a vowel; as, confer conference infer inference refer reference prefer preferable Explain why the final consonant is doubled in each of the following words: not neglect neglecting lean leaning prefer preference select selecting creep creeping receipt receipting wonder wondering answer answering Exercise 38 Rule 6.—In forming the present participle of verbs ending in , retain the before adding as, y y ing; study studying obey obeying carry carrying convey conveying pity pitying In forming the perfect participle, if in the present tense the is preceded by a consonant, the is changed to and added; if the is preceded by a vowel, the is retained; as, y y i ed y y study studied carry carried pity pitied but obey obeyed convey conveyed Compare with . Rule 2 Exercise 39 Rule 7.—In words containing a long sound spelled either or , follows follows one of the other consonants; as, e ie ei ei c; ie ei ie deceive relieve siege perceive believe yield receive belief grief conceive chief field conceit priest piece receipt niece wield reprieve lien —Either, neither, weird, seize, leisure. Exceptions. The following couplet may help in remembering when to write and when to write ie ei: When the letter you spy, Put the before the . c e i Exercise 40—The Pronunciation of and c g The letter is pronounced sometimes like and sometimes like . c s k What sound does have before Illustrate. c a? Before Illustrate. e? Before Illustrate. i? Before Illustrate. o? Before Illustrate. u? Before Illustrate. y? If is pronounced like , it is called hard and is marked . c k [\c] If is pronounced like , it is called soft and is marked . The mark used to indicate the soft is called the . c s ç c cedilla Make a statement telling when is hard and when it is soft. c What sound does have before each of the vowels, as in , , , , g game gone gymnasium Gunther gentle? Rule 8.— and usually are soft before , , and .\Exercise 41 C g e i y Words ending in silent , according to Rule 5, drop the before a suffix beginning with a vowel. Exceptions occur when the is needed to preserve the soft sound of and . Tell why is dropped in and retained in . e e e c g e encouraging courageous In words containing , as in and , the gives the the soft sound, and there is no need to retain the before adding a suffix, as in . dg judge lodge d g e judgment Rule 9.—Words ending in silent usually drop the before adding a suffix beginning with a vowel, unless the is needed to preserve the pronunciation; as after soft and , when the suffix begins with or . e e e c g a o Tell why the is retained before the suffix in the following: e noticeable damageable pronounceable outrageous courageous peaceable serviceable manageable Tell why the is dropped before adding the suffix in the following: e managing curable erasure besieging admirable realization receiving obliging precedence perseverance The fact that has two different sounds causes a slight peculiarity in words ending in . Final has the sound of . When words end in , the letter is usually added before a suffix beginning with either , , or , to show that is not pronounced like as, c c c k c k e i y c s; frolic       frolicked       frolicking If the is not added, the changes its pronunciation; as, k c public       publicity Exercise 42 It follows by inference from Rule 9 that words ending in silent retain the before a suffix beginning with a consonant; as, e e move movement disgrace disgraceful defense defenseless fate fateful arrange arrangement fierce fiercely noise noiseless manage management severe severely rude rudeness —Truly, duly, wisdom, awful, wholly. Exceptions. Bring to class a list of twenty words that retain the final before a suffix beginning with a consonant. e Exercise 43 What spelling rule does each of the following words illustrate? advantageous gigantic boxes admittance mimicking piece libraries occurrence arrangement receipt keys acquittal Exercise 44—Abbreviations Write abbreviations for the months of the year. Are there any that should not be abbreviated? The abbreviations for the states and territories are: Alabama, Ala. Maryland, Md. Arizona, Ariz. Massachusetts, Mass. Arkansas, Ark. Michigan, Mich. California, Cal. Minnesota, Minn. Colorado, Colo. Mississippi, Miss. Connecticut, Conn. Missouri, Mo. Delaware, Del. Montana, Mont. District of Columbia, D.C. Nebraska, Nebr. Florida, Fla. Nevada, Nev. Georgia, Ga. New Hampshire, N.H. Idaho, Idaho New Mexico, N. Mex. Illinois, Ill. New York, N.Y. Indiana, Ind. New Jersey, N.J. Iowa, Ia. North Carolina, N.C. Kansas, Kans. North Dakota, N. Dak. Kentucky, Ky. Ohio, O. Louisiana, La. Oklahoma, Okla. Maine, Me. Oregon, Ore. Pennsylvania, Pa. Utah, Utah Philippine Islands, P.I. Vermont, Vt. Porto Rico, P.R. Virginia, Va. South Carolina, S.C. Washington, Wash. South Dakota, S.D. Wisconsin, Wis. Tennessee, Tenn. West Virginia, W. Va. Texas, Tex. Wyoming, Wyo. Note.—It is much better to write the full name rather than the abbreviation whenever the former would make the address clearer, especially as regards similar abbreviations, such as Cal. and Colo. Exercise 45—Abbreviations of Commercial Terms A 1, first class doz., dozen @, at E. & O.E., errors and omissions excepted acct., account ea., each adv., advertisement e.g., for example agt., agent etc., and so forth a.m., forenoon exch., exchange amt., amount ft., foot app., appendix f.o.b., free on board atty., attorney gal., gallon av., average i.e., that is avoir., avoirdupois imp., imported bal., balance in., inches bbl., barrel inst., this month (instant) B/L, bill of lading Jr., junior bldg., building kg., keg B/S, bill of sale lb., pound bu., bushel ltd., limited C.B., cash book mdse., merchandise C., hundred mem., memorandum coll., collection, collector mo., month Co., company M.S. (MSS)., manuscript C.O.D., cash on delivery mtg., mortgage cr., creditor N.B., take notice cwt., hundredweight no., number D., five hundred O.K., all right dept., department per, by disc., discount p.m., afternoon do., ditto %, per cent dr., debtor, debit St., street pkg., package str., steamer pp., pages ult., last month pr., pair U.S.M., United States Mail pc., piece viz., namely pk., peck vol., volume prox., next month W/B, way bill pt., pint wt., weight Sr., senior 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. Rose Buhlig (2011). Business English: A Practice Book. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/38046/pg38046-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

SPELLING RULES

Boy, do I have the country to write about this week: Turkmenistan. weirdest Turkmenistan’s former president made a multilingual rap video introducing his country…despite the fact that it’s bizarre AF and the video editor was his horse (probably), it’s a super fun thing to watch 👇 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xZoa5ArhgA&embedable=true 3 Things To Know Before We Get Started The country came into existence in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union, having been a Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic as Part of The Great Socialist Soviet Union (It’s a mouthful) since 1925. This had a new president, Saparmurat Niyazov, come into power. He was a totalitarian and despotic dictator who started a personality cult (more on that later). For simplicity, let’s call him Samurai. When Samurai died from a heart attack in 2006, another ‘President’ Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, became the dictator of Turkmenistan until 2022. Let’s call him Burgundy. Bizarre things Samurai did Ruhnama He decided he had a direct line with God, which manifested in (The Book of The Soul). Think of a watered-down version of Ruhnama Mein Kampf + the Bible. was a mandatory read for school children, students, and those holding state employment. Oh, if you wanted to get a driver’s license, you had to have read it too. Ruhnama There even was a social study field called (creative, I know). Half of the exam questions for the 2006 University Entry revolved around themes set in Rahmana Studies Ruhnama. has been translated into 50 languages, though. Go figure 🤷‍♀️ Samurai said that God told him whoever reads it thrice will go to heaven. I’d say go on Amazon right now! Ruhnama Other crazy things he did Banned the use of lip-syncing at public concerts. Abolished the Turkmen word for bread and replaced it with , his mother’s name. Gurbansoltan Made the second Sunday of August “Melon Day” in honor of melons as he thought they were delicious — finally something I could sign up for. Ordered that all mountains and places in Turkmenistan + months and days of the week be named after Turkmen heroes, poets, and leaders. In 1997, when he tried to quit smoking, he passed a law that banned it in public to eliminate the temptation. Gold teeth were discouraged as he thought everyone was better off chewing on bones to strengthen their teeth and lessen the rate at which they fall out. Banished dogs from the capital, citing unappealing odor. Also forbade citizens to own more than one dog or cat (I’ll bet the guinea pig sales went through the roof). Ordered the closure of all hospitals outside Ashgabat, stating that the sick should go to the capital for treatment. He banned reporting or mentioning contagious diseases such as AIDS or cholera (peekaboo — if we don’t mention it, it means it doesn’t exist — I wish not talking about my student loans would make it disappear). He banned car radios because he considered them to be useless. Oh yeah, he also built a golden statue of himself that was rotating to face the Sun at all times. Bizarre things Burgundy did He was a bit more chill and reversed lots of eccentric laws Samurai brought into existence. He was still an authoritarian dictator, though. Black cars were banned in favor of white because it “brings good luck.” He was obsessed with Akhal-Teke horses. So much so his entire office only had one prominent motif all over the furniture — horses. He’s a former dentist turned rapping president, as we witnessed earlier. He liked a dog breed so much he made a golden statue for it 👇 But he also clearly doesn’t know how to hold a dog. Imagine being a guy who is so bad at holding dogs that Putin has to save it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLLZYFzkqKo&embedable=true Let us not forget the time when he tried to kill the rumours he was dead by driving around a BURNING HOLE IN THE GROUND (everything’s normal, nothing to look at)👇 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYiYi8-wCx0&t=11s&embedable=true More Bizzare Things About Turkmenistan Have you ever wondered why there’s a carpet in their flag? You probably didn’t, but I’ll tell you anyway: because they LOVE carpets. There’s a Ministry of Carpets, a National Carpet Museum, and a public holiday to honour carpets. They even used to have the world’s largest hand-woven carpet record until Iran beat them in 2019. If you want to purchase a carpet, you need a receipt with your age, origin, and date of purchase. This must be certified by the Ministry of Carpets or else the carpet can’t leave the country. I’ll say it one more time: carpet. It’s one of the least visited countries in the World — the top 10 least visited countries in fact. Locals used to have state-subsidized gas, water, petrol, and electricity between 1993 and 2019. Turkmenistan is the only country officially recognized by the United Nations as a neutral nation. Eat that, Switzerland. It has a burning hole that’s been on fire since 1971, dubbed (featured in a fast and furious video by Samurai seen above). Gates of Hell It was a man-made disaster — a Soviet drilling rig accidentally punched into a massive underground natural gas cavern. This caused the ground to collapse and the entire drilling rig to fall in. So they thought: — it did not. Why don’t we set this on fire? Maybe that’ll solve this? Took me 3 hours to research this, but it was worth it 😂 Random fact: when I was very young, there was a trend in Lithuania to have a carpet hanging on the wall (seriously). You’d walk into someone’s living room, and there’d be a proudly displayed carpet hanging on the wall. It looked something like this 👇 To Sum Up I think we all learned today that Turkmenistan is a super bizarre place to be. Although I wrote this piece with a bit of humor, let’s not forget it’s essentially a dictatorship run by eccentric weirdos. They clearly try much harder than North Korea to portray themselves as cool and fun. Turkmenistan is brandable, as they say in the marketing world. Also published . here

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