The U.S. Department of Justice has announced that Health Net Federal Services (HNFS) and its parent company, Centene Corporation, have agreed to pay a Health Net Federal Services, a former administrator of the TRICARE military healthcare program, has agreed to settle allegations of cybersecurity ...

TRICARE Administrator Pays $11.23M Penalty to Resolve Cybersecurity-related FCA Claims

Reporting from Boston, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

As Trump Targets Research, Scientists Share Grief and Resolve to Fight - The New York Times

New execs expand focus on builder and developer partnerships

Resolve Finance boosts builder and developer ties with key appointments | Australian Broker News

Resolve

resolve

The era of generative AI is here! As cloud engineers, we can’t handle everything, and AI presents an opportunity to enhance our decision-making in this exciting time. Working on infrastructures requires knowledge and patience to tackle different issues daily. Even world-class products sometimes experience breakdowns, so having Amazon Q as an AI companion is a great opportunity to work closely with this tool. Every day is an opportunity to learn something new and issues may come anytime without our consent no matter the design and code written! Discover my experience with Amazon Q. First Impression Amazon Q is welcoming and knows a lot about AWS services! once a question is asked it provides links to a particular documentation, a great way to learn and understand AWS services step by step no matter the update. In this review, we have 5 issues to resolve with Q : Understanding the services and documentation easily
Knowing the number of VPCs with cloud shell
Detecting issues between a VPC and an Internet gateway
Knowing if the cost and billing summary is correct
How to launch an  EC2 instance easily Issue 1: Navigating Through Endless Documentation Online With more than 100 services, it’s difficult to master all!
and when it comes to searching for a particular service online or through the AWS docs we fall in an ocean of blogs, white papers … Amazon Q summarizes every service clearly and links to particular documentation. In the first issue, I asked Q to explain how many services we have with AWS, it summarized the services and gave me the link to sources where I can learn easily. with such experience, it’s now easier to learn services better than before with detailed and summarized information, with a simple chat we can understand many things before browsing the web or complex documentation. Issue 2: Knowing the Number of VPCs With Cloud Shell AWS remains the biggest cloud provider in the world when it comes to the documentation and services to learn; it’s like an ocean of information! Sometimes, we wonder how many things we should master, and the commands to execute every time we encounter a problem. Most of the time, as cloud engineers, we work with the CLI, and we can’t memorize all the commands! Thanks to Q, we can now resolve some problems with less googling! I asked Q a question, and thanks to its clear explanation, I went on Cloud Shell. On the cloud shell, the command is run and I can see two VPCs! Do you have to navigate through the graphic user interface? Not mandatory. The shell offers more opportunities to execute complex tasks; with Q, I can learn many things daily! The AI companion has many data and is a huge opportunity to boost our daily skills. Issue 3: Detecting Issues Between a VPC and an Internet Gateway On the console, we have 2 VPCs in the east region; let’s detach the internet gateway to one VPC to see how Q will understand the problem! Let’s ask Q a question : The question is asked and Q provides some details and suggests previewing the troubleshooting experience. Q knows the name I gave to the internet gateway “Route to Dallas” and the ID. The VPC is attached now to the internet gateway, unfortunately, due to compliance, Q cannot display some information easily. As a tool, it may provide inaccurate information; sometimes, it does not understand some questions no matter the context, even if we regenerate! Issue 4: Knowing if the Cost and Billing Summary Is Correct The AWS platform remains complex with so many things to learn, such as the features, the documentation, and updates that come all the time for improvement. I wanted to know if Q would understand why all my cost summary is at zero $. Q was able to understand the question and provided some details correctly! Q can make mistakes all the time. It’s not 100 % accurate, the information provided is true because this account is new, and not many tasks were performed. Issue 5: How to Launch an EC2 Instance Easily The instance was launched after following the detailed steps, and I could see the state “Running.” I am curious, and I would like to know the IP addresses of my running instances. Q was able to provide some information, not the IP addresses but different IDs for running instances. To go deeper, I chose a particular ID and asked Q to provide some details. With Q, we can read some details in JSON for better readability. Conclusion Q seems like a great tool, but it does not understand better everything we ask, and due to compliance, some information cannot be shown! It’s strong by providing some answers when it comes to AWS services, providing some details, and can make some mistakes all the time. On a note of 5, I will give it a 3. It’s not perfect, and I will get better as soon as it is trained daily. The generative AI age is now, and we don’t have to rely on the tools all the time! The era of generative AI is here! As cloud engineers, we can’t handle everything, and AI presents an opportunity to enhance our decision-making in this exciting time. Working on infrastructures requires knowledge and patience to tackle different issues daily. Even world-class products sometimes experience breakdowns, so having Amazon Q as an AI companion is a great opportunity to work closely with this tool. Every day is an opportunity to learn something new and issues may come anytime without our consent no matter the design and code written! Discover my experience with Amazon Q. First Impression Amazon Q is welcoming and knows a lot about AWS services! once a question is asked it provides links to a particular documentation, a great way to learn and understand AWS services step by step no matter the update. In this review, we have 5 issues to resolve with Q : : Understanding the services and documentation easily Knowing the number of VPCs with cloud shell Detecting issues between a VPC and an Internet gateway Knowing if the cost and billing summary is correct How to launch an  EC2 instance easily Understanding the services and documentation easily Understanding the services and documentation easily Understanding the services and documentation easily Knowing the number of VPCs with cloud shell Knowing the number of VPCs with cloud shell Knowing the number of VPCs with cloud shell Detecting issues between a VPC and an Internet gateway Detecting issues between a VPC and an Internet gateway Detecting issues between a VPC and an Internet gateway Knowing if the cost and billing summary is correct Knowing if the cost and billing summary is correct Knowing if the cost and billing summary is correct How to launch an  EC2 instance easily How to launch an  EC2 instance easily How to launch an  EC2 instance easily Issue 1: Navigating Through Endless Documentation Online Issue 1: With more than 100 services, it’s difficult to master all!
and when it comes to searching for a particular service online or through the AWS docs we fall in an ocean of blogs, white papers … Amazon Q summarizes every service clearly and links to particular documentation. In the first issue, I asked Q to explain how many services we have with AWS, it summarized the services and gave me the link to sources where I can learn easily. with such experience, it’s now easier to learn services better than before with detailed and summarized information, with a simple chat we can understand many things before browsing the web or complex documentation. Issue 2: Knowing the Number of VPCs With Cloud Shell Issue 2: Knowing the Number of VPCs With Cloud Shell AWS remains the biggest cloud provider in the world when it comes to the documentation and services to learn; it’s like an ocean of information! Sometimes, we wonder how many things we should master, and the commands to execute every time we encounter a problem. Most of the time, as cloud engineers, we work with the CLI, and we can’t memorize all the commands! Thanks to Q, we can now resolve some problems with less googling! I asked Q a question, and thanks to its clear explanation, I went on Cloud Shell. On the cloud shell, the command is run and I can see two VPCs! Do you have to navigate through the graphic user interface? Not mandatory. The shell offers more opportunities to execute complex tasks; with Q, I can learn many things daily! The AI companion has many data and is a huge opportunity to boost our daily skills. Issue 3: Detecting Issues Between a VPC and an Internet Gateway Issue 3: Detecting Issues Between a VPC and an Internet Gateway On the console, we have 2 VPCs in the east region; let’s detach the internet gateway to one VPC to see how Q will understand the problem! Let’s ask Q a question : : The question is asked and Q provides some details and suggests previewing the troubleshooting experience. Q knows the name I gave to the internet gateway “Route to Dallas” and the ID. The VPC is attached now to the internet gateway, unfortunately, due to compliance, Q cannot display some information easily. As a tool, it may provide inaccurate information; sometimes, it does not understand some questions no matter the context, even if we regenerate! Issue 4: Knowing if the Cost and Billing Summary Is Correct Issue 4: The AWS platform remains complex with so many things to learn, such as the features, the documentation, and updates that come all the time for improvement. I wanted to know if Q would understand why all my cost summary is at zero $. Q was able to understand the question and provided some details correctly! Q can make mistakes all the time. It’s not 100 % accurate, the information provided is true because this account is new, and not many tasks were performed. Issue 5: How to Launch an EC2 Instance Easily The instance was launched after following the detailed steps, and I could see the state “ Running. ” Running. Running. I am curious, and I would like to know the IP addresses of my running instances. Q was able to provide some information, not the IP addresses but different IDs for running instances. To go deeper, I chose a particular ID and asked Q to provide some details. With Q, we can read some details in JSON for better readability. Conclusion Q seems like a great tool, but it does not understand better everything we ask, and due to compliance, some information cannot be shown! It’s strong by providing some answers when it comes to AWS services, providing some details, and can make some mistakes all the time. On a note of 5, I will give it a 3. It’s not perfect, and I will get better as soon as it is trained daily. The generative AI age is now, and we don’t have to rely on the tools all the time!

Generative AI: Can We Resolve Some AWS Issues With Amazon Q? 

How To Resolve Conflicts With Your Superiors At Work

Disclaimer I am not and have never worked for Bitwarden, and I don't have and have never had any insights. I am a user of Bitwarden and all in this article is based on my observation and information provided by Bitwarden support. I do not think Bitwarden is a bad product, or by no means want to suggest migrating off, or not to onboard. Look, mistakes happen. On contrary, I've been using it for a couple of years and found it good and I plan to keep paying for my subscription. Goals Give other users facing the same problem a quick solution in StackOverflow/Reddit style. Learn from the error how to roll out changes without affecting users. How to solve this Missing items (logins, notes, cards) are the items in your organization(s) with no Collection(s) assigned. To solve this: Login to Bitwarden in a browser with your admin account. Open the Admin console. To do that, click the nine dots/squares icon next to your profile picture on the top right corner and click the "Admin console" on the popup that appeared. Choose the organization the items you want to make visible are in on the left pane. On the Filters section click the "All items". Now, on the table to the right of the Filters section you will see all your items, including Collections each item is in. The missing items are the items that are not in any collection, in other words, items for which the Collections column is empty. Add items into at least one collection. I did not find a good way to identify items not in any collection and do mass add, so the only obvious way I see is to click 3 vertical dots on the item's row, choose the Collections item on the drop down, and assign one or multiple Collections. Repeat for each item. So, what happened and what can I do not to make the same mistake OMG I lost my passwords Today I tried to login to GitHub. I opened the site in a browser, clicked the Sign in button, and suddenly found that the Bitwarden shield Chrome extension has no numbers on it - Bitwarden did not have any details on the site. Wait, it worked before, how come it isn’t working now! Wait, what? There was the 2nd factor for the site stored in Bitwarden, have I completely lost access to my GitHub?. That must be some mistake. So, I opened Bitwarden app on my phone and found the login was not there either. I started checking other items in my vault, I still had some items, so it's not "everything" that is gone, but I also found that several other items that I had used recently or I was pretty sure had been there were missing. I was also sure I had not deleted anything from there. Ok, am I hacked then? Unlikely, as I use Yubikey as a 2nd factor, so someone either had to obtain physical access to my device AND my Yubikey, or it could've been some sophisticated malware. But why would one want to delete some items from my vault and not the others? So, I swept that option away. Ok, then what? I logged in to Bitwarden site with my account, and tried to search for the missing items there. The UI showed what I had seen in my Chrome extension, but no missing items. However, there I found the Trash folder, it was empty. The Trash folder contains any items removed within the last 30 days, and some of the missing items had been in use just a few days ago, so even if they had been deleted it still had to be there. Ok, it's time to ask for help. I sent an email to the support. They asked me whether the items were in an organization, said ,  pointed me out to the and suggested to check Collections and permissions. this can be due to flexible collections that we are currently in the process of rolling out documentation I did that and found that the items had not gone (phew), but they were still not visible. Terminology and sharing model Bitwarden sharing is based on Organization model. A person has an account with Bitwarden. Apart from a personal vault under the account where a person keeps their personal items, a person's account can be added to multiple organizations - their company's org, an open-source project contributor's org, a family org, etc. Each of these organizations keep items that belong to the org. However, not all users in the org should have access to all the items in the org, and they may also have different levels of access (edit, view, etc). To control this Bitwarden uses a "Collection" concept. Collection is a union of 3 things - items, users and access, so it dictates which users have specified level of access to which items. So, what happened In the past, the system allowed to add items to an organization without adding them to any collections. I don't know whether it was a bug or a feature, but that worked for me just fine and I tend to drop most of my logins to my Family org, adding those I want to share with my family members to corresponding collections, and keeping the rest outside of any collections. It was working for me either because I created those or because I was an admin, but I could see them just fine until today. Today, Bitwarden rolled out the new model to my account/org, and all the items that had not been explicitly added to any collection appeared in a virtual "unassigned" collection (my speculation, you cannot see it in the interface), and the access to the virtual collection got revoked from everyone including the admin. So, since the account got no permissions assigned (even the view) for those items, they disappeared from the list on my devices. Lessons we can learn These lessons are not recommendations for Bitwarden developers as Bitwarden may have some obligations and restrictions that prevent them from being applied directly (for example data collection). They are rather generic to a product and require taking product specifics into account. Observability, observability, observability. Without the right metrics developers go blind through mine fields, deadly traps and surrounded by hungry predators. Having metrics is vital. In this particular case metrics like "avg number of items available to a user" or more specific to the case "number of items in the unassigned collection" would allow to detect the problem either before rollout or on an early stage of it. We should be careful collecting different things though, metrics can be sensitive, for example - can collection of these metrics be considered as collecting user data? By some - sure, it will be. So, we should collect necessary metrics, but we need to be transparent on what is collected and why it's necessary. Know your system, but expect that users will not use it in the way you expected. What is the behavior now and what it will be after the change - now, it allows to use items not in collections, after the change, it will not. You expected users to put all the items in an org to at least one collection, but does the system allow items to be not in any collection? If so, what's the behavior? That's not what you put into design in the first place, but if that's possible (the system allows it to) - people will do it and you need to deal with this. Preserve the state of things. The state of the items that are not included in any collection is "they are visible and editable by an admin", make sure it will remain after the change. All the items have to be in an explicit collection? Fine, have the updater create "uncategorized" collection, add admin account to it and assign "view and edit" permission and add all the items that are not in collections to the new collection. Make sure the system allows to do only what it's supposed to and all the places have consistent behavior. We have a new requirement - items cannot exist outside a collection. Change the tooling to prevent removing it from all the collections. The Chrome plugin requires at least one collection to be chosen to move an item to an organization. However, the web UI in admin interface allows admins to uncheck all the collections, and thus remove it from any collection, wait, this contradicts the Chrome extension logic. Create tooling. I have a few hundred items in my org. Some have thousands. How are we supposed to move them to a collection? One by one? Your users will curse you, give them a tool. Communicate. Let users know that you've developed a new feature, or that you're going to make permission management more flexible. They will love to hear this. This requires some changes? They need to learn how to manage permissions in a new way? At least they will be ready and know what's going on, instead they find out that the old way is not working any longer and they have to learn the new way when they need to make changes ASAP. Things may go wrong. That's fine. But we should not surprise users, especially in a bad way.

How to Resolve Bitwarden's 'Some Logins Missing' Issue

OFX, aka , is an open standard for creating 2D visual effects and video compositing. It operates in a plugin-like application development model. Essentially, it serves as both a Host - an application providing a set of methods, and a Plug-in - an application or module implementing this set. OFX Image Processing API This configuration offers the potential for unlimited expansion of the host application's functionality. DaVinci Resolve and Metal Applications such as Final Cut X and DaVinci Resolve Studio, starting from version 16, fully support Apple Metal pipelines. Similar to OpenCL and Cuda, in the case of OFX, you can obtain a descriptor or handler of a platform-specific command queue. The host system also takes responsibility for allocating a pool of such queues and balancing calculations on them. Moreover, it places the source and target image clip data in GPU memory, significantly simplifying the development of extensible functionality. OFX Version Support in Resolve With Resolve, things are slightly more complicated. DaVinci announces support for OFX v1.4, albeit with some limitations. Specifically, some methods for working with interface functions are not available for use. To determine which method is available, OFX allows you to examine the supported suite through key/value queries. Publishing methods in the plugin code are based on . But we will use the OpenFXS C++ shell adapted for C++17. For convenience, I've compiled everything into one repository: taken from the open-source . C calls dehancer-external Dehancer project OFXS Concept In this project, I will be using OpenFXS, a C++ extension to OpenFX that was originally written by and has become popular over time in commercial and open-source video processing projects. Bruno Nicoletti The original was not adapted to modern C++ dialects, so I updated it to make it compatible with . OpenFXS C++17 OFX, and consequently OFXS, is a standalone software module that is dynamically loaded by the host program. Essentially, it is a dynamic library that is loaded when the main application starts. OpenFXS, like OFX, must publish method signatures. Hence, we use one C method from the code. To start developing in OpenFXS, you need to agree to a few common sets of classes that are used to create new functionality in your application. Typically, in a new project, you need to inherit from these classes and implement or override some virtual methods. To create your own plugin on the host system, let's start by familiarizing ourselves with the following public classes and the same method: is a basic template for creating a plugin's data structure suite and control panel (although it can be left empty). The inherited class creates a singleton object that registers a set of parameters and presets in the host system, with which the developer registers his module; OFX::PluginFactoryHelper - base container class for creating and storing structure properties; OFX::ParamSetDescriptor - a container of properties used when manipulating graphic data when calling data processing procedures. Used by the host application to save the context of processing parameters in the internal database and work with plugin properties defined for each of its instances; OFX::ImageEffectDescriptor - a set of settings that allows you to manipulate the registered data structure; OFX::ParamSet - a set of settings for effects on graphical data, inherited from OFX::ParamSet; OFX::ImageEffect - in the child class, it is necessary to implement data stream processing: images or videos; OFX::MultiThread::Processor - method of registering a plugin (factory) in the host application; OFX::Plugin::getPluginIDs False Color One feature that distinguishes the process of shooting video from simply capturing an image in a photo is the dynamic change of scenes and lighting of both scenes as a whole and areas in the image. This determines the way exposure is controlled during the shooting process. In digital video, there is a control monitor mode for operators in which the exposure level of areas is mapped into a limited set of zones, each tinted with its own color. This mode is sometimes called "predator" or False Color mode. The scales are usually referenced to the IRE scale. Such a monitor allows you to see the exposure zones and avoid significant mistakes when setting camera shooting parameters. Something similar in meaning is used when exposing in photography - zoning according to Adams, for example. You can measure a specific target with an exposure meter and see in which zone it is located, and in real-time we see the zones, neatly tinted for ease of perception. The number of zones is determined by the objectives and capabilities of the control monitor. For instance, a monitor used with cameras can incorporate up to 6 zones. Arri Alexa Adding Extensions Before proceeding with the example, we need to add some simple proxy classes to implement OpenFXS as a platform for processing source data, such as Metal textures. These classes include: : A proxy class for OFX clip data. imetalling::Image : A functor for transferring data from the clip buffer into a Metal texture. From DaVinci, you can extract a buffer of any structure and packaging of image channel values into the plugin, and it should be returned in a similar form. imetalling::Image2Texture To make working with the stream format in OFX easier, you can request the host to prepare data of a specific type in advance. I will use floats packed in RGBA - red/green/blue/alpha. : A reverse functor for transforming a stream into a host system buffer. As you can see, there is potential for significant optimization of calculations if you teach the Metal computing cores to work not with the texture, but directly with the buffer. imetalling::ImageFromTexture We inherit the OFXS base classes and write our functionality without going into the details of how the Metal core works: : Here, we implement the stream transformation and initiate the processing. imetalling::falsecolor::Processor : This will be our specific part of the suite description for the plugin. We need to implement several mandatory calls related to setting up the structure and create an instance of the OFX::ImageEffect class with specific functionality, which we divide into two subclasses in the implementation: Interaction and Plugin. imetalling::falsecolor::Factory : Implementation of the interactive part of working with effects. Essentially, this is the implementation of only virtual methods from OFX::ImageEffect related to processing changes in plugin parameters. imetalling::falsecolor::Interaction : Implementation of thread rendering, that is, launching imetalling::Processor. imetalling::falsecolor::Plugin Additionally, we will need several utility classes built on top of Metal to logically separate the host code and the kernel code on MSL. These include: : A base class that obscures work with the Metal command queue. The main parameter will be the name of the kernel in the MSL code, and the executor of the kernel call. imetalling::Function : A general class for transforming a source texture into a target texture, extending Function to simply set the parameters for calling the MSL kernel. imetalling:Kernel : Bypass kernel. imetalling::PassKernel : Our main functional class, a "predator" emulator that posterizes (downsamples) to a specified number of colors. imetalling::FalseColorKernel The kernel code for the "predator" mode could look like this: static constant float3 kIMP_Y_YUV_factor = {0.2125, 0.7154, 0.0721};
constexpr sampler baseSampler(address::clamp_to_edge, filter::linear, coord::normalized);
 
inline float when_eq(float x, float y) {
  return 1.0 - abs(sign(x - y));
}
 
static inline float4 sampledColor(
        texture2d<float, access::sample> inTexture,
        texture2d<float, access::write> outTexture,
        uint2 gid
){
  float w = outTexture.get_width();
  return mix(inTexture.sample(baseSampler, float2(gid) * float2(1.0/(w-1.0), 1.0/float(outTexture.get_height()-1))),
             inTexture.read(gid),
             when_eq(inTexture.get_width(), w) // whe equal read exact texture color
  );
}
 
kernel void kernel_falseColor(
        texture2d<float, access::sample> inTexture [[texture(0)]],
        texture2d<float, access::write> outTexture [[texture(1)]],
        device float3* color_map [[ buffer(0) ]],
        constant uint& level [[ buffer(1) ]],
        uint2 gid [[thread_position_in_grid]])
{
  float4  inColor = sampledColor(inTexture,outTexture,gid);
  float luminance = dot(inColor.rgb, kIMP_Y_YUV_factor);
  uint      index = clamp(uint(luminance*(level-1)),uint(0),uint(level-1));
  float4    color = float4(1);
 
  if (index<level)
    color.rgb = color_map[index];
 
  outTexture.write(color,gid);
} Initialization of the OFX Plugin We will begin by defining the class In this class, we will set a single parameter - the status of the monitor (either on or off). This is necessary for our example. imetalling::falsecolor::Factory. We will inherit from and overload five methods: OFX::PluginFactoryHelper : This method is invoked to globally configure the instance when the plugin is first loaded. Overloading this method is optional. load() : This method is invoked when an instance is unloaded, for instance, to clear memory. Overloading this method is also optional. unload() : This is the second method that the OFX host calls when the plugin is loaded. It is virtual and must be defined in our class. In this method, we need to set all the properties of the plugin, regardless of its context type. For more details about the properties, refer to the code. describe(ImageEffectDescriptor&) ImageEffectDescriptor : Similar to the method, this method is also called when the plugin is loaded and must be defined in our class. It should define properties associated with the current context. describeInContext(ImageEffectDescriptor&,ContextEnum) describe The context determines the type of operations the application works with, such as filter, paint, transition effect, or frame retimer in a clip. : This is the most crucial method that we overload. We return a pointer to an object of type . In other words, our in which we have defined all the functionalities, both with regard to user events in the host program and rendering (transforming) the source frame into the target one: createInstance(OfxImageEffectHandle, ContextEnum) ImageEffect imetalling::falsecolor::Plugin OFX::ImageEffect *Factory::createInstance(OfxImageEffectHandle handle,OFX::ContextEnum) {
     return new Plugin(handle);
   } Handling Events At this stage, if you compile a bundle with the OFX module, the plugin will already be available in the host application, and in DaVinci, it can be loaded onto the correction node. However, to work fully with a plugin instance, you need to define at least the interactive part and the part associated with processing the incoming video stream. To do this, we inherit from the class and overload virtual methods: OFX::ImageEffect - This method allows us to define the logic for handling the event. The event type is determined by the value of OFX::InstanceChangedArgs::reason and can be: eChangeUserEdit, eChangePluginEdit, eChangeTime - the event occurred as a result of a property being edited by the user, changed in a plugin or host application, or as a result of a change in the timeline. changedParam(const OFX::InstanceChangedArgs&, const std::string&) The second parameter specifies the string name that we defined at the plugin initialization stage, in our case, it is one parameter: . false_color_enabled_check_box - This method allows us to define the logic for reacting to an event, and return a state that determines whether something has changed and whether rendering makes sense. The method must return false or true. This is a way to optimize and reduce the number of unnecessary calculations. isIdentity(...) You can read the implementation of interactive interaction with OFX in the code. As you can see, we receive pointers to the clips: the source one and the memory area in which we will put the target transformation. Interaction.cpp Implementation of Rendering Launch We will add another logical layer on which we will define all the logic for launching the transformation. In our case, this is the only method for overriding so far: - Here, you can find out the properties of the clips and decide how to render them. Also, at this stage, the Metal command queue and some useful attributes associated with the current timeline properties become available to us. render(const OFX::RenderArguments& args) Processing At the launch stage, an object with useful properties became available to us: we have at least a pointer to the video stream (more precisely, a memory area with frame image data), and, most importantly, a queue of Metal commands. Now, we can construct a generic class that will bring us closer to a simple form of reusing kernel code. The OpenFXS extension already has such a class: OFX::ImageProcessor; we just need to overload it. In the constructor, it has the OFX::ImageEffect parameter, i.e., in it, we will receive not only the current state of the plugin parameters but everything necessary for working with the GPU. At this stage, we just need to overload the method and initiate the processing of kernels already implemented on Metal. processImagesMetal() Processor::Processor(
            OFX::ImageEffect *instance,
            OFX::Clip *source,
            OFX::Clip *destination,
            const OFX::RenderArguments &args,
            bool enabled
    ) :
            OFX::ImageProcessor(*instance),
            enabled_(enabled),
            interaction_(instance),
            wait_command_queue_(false),
            /// grab the current frame of a clip from OFX host memory
            source_(source->fetchImage(args.time)),
            /// create a target frame of a clip with the memory area already specified in OFX
            destination_(destination->fetchImage(args.time)),
            source_container_(nullptr),
            destination_container_(nullptr)
    {
 
      /// Set OFX rendering arguments to GPU
      setGPURenderArgs(args);
 
      /// Set render window
      setRenderWindow(args.renderWindow);
 
      /// Place source frame data in Metal texture
      source_container_ = std::make_unique<imetalling::Image2Texture>(_pMetalCmdQ, source_);
 
      /// Create empty target frame texture in Metal
      destination_container_ = std::make_unique<imetalling::Image2Texture>(_pMetalCmdQ, destination_);
 
      /// Get parameters for packing data in the memory area of the target frame
      OFX::BitDepthEnum dstBitDepth = destination->getPixelDepth();
      OFX::PixelComponentEnum dstComponents = destination->getPixelComponents();
 
      /// and original
      OFX::BitDepthEnum srcBitDepth = source->getPixelDepth();
      OFX::PixelComponentEnum srcComponents = source->getPixelComponents();
 
      /// show a message to the host system that something went wrong
      /// and cancel rendering of the current frame
      if ((srcBitDepth != dstBitDepth) || (srcComponents != dstComponents)) {
        OFX::throwSuiteStatusException(kOfxStatErrValue);
      }
 
      /// set in the current processor context a pointer to the memory area of the target frame
      setDstImg(destination_.get_ofx_image());
    }
 
    void Processor::processImagesMetal() {
 
      try {
 
        if (enabled_)
          FalseColorKernel(_pMetalCmdQ,
                           source_container_->get_texture(),
                           destination_container_->get_texture()).process();
        else
          PassKernel(_pMetalCmdQ,
                           source_container_->get_texture(),
                           destination_container_->get_texture()).process();

        ImageFromTexture(_pMetalCmdQ,
                         destination_,
                         destination_container_->get_texture(),
                         wait_command_queue_);
 
      }
      catch (std::exception &e) {
        interaction_->sendMessage(OFX::Message::eMessageError, "#message0", e.what());
      }
    } Building the Project To build the project, you will need CMake, and it must be at least version 3.15. Additionally, you will require Qt5.13, which aids in the easy and convenient assembly of the bundle with the plugin installer in the system directory. To initiate cmake, you must first create a build directory. After creating the build directory, you can execute the following command: cmake -DPRINT_DEBUG=ON -DQT_INSTALLER_PREFIX=/Users/<user>/Develop/QtInstaller -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=/Users/<user>/Develop/Qt/5.13.0/clang_64/lib/cmake -DPLUGIN_INSTALLER_DIR=/Users/<user>/Desktop -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/Library/OFX/Plugins .. && make install Afterward, the installer, called , will appear in the directory that you specified in the parameter. Let's go ahead and launch it! Once the installation is successful, you can start DaVinci Resolve and begin using our new plugin. IMFalseColorOfxInstaller.app PLUGIN_INSTALLER_DIR You can find and select it in the OpenFX panel on the color correction page, and add it as a node. External links False Color OFX Plugin Code The Open Effects Association - OFX header file version and OFXS library code under Resolve + examples Download DaVinci Resolve

An Easy Way to Develop Your Own Apple Metal Plugin and Integrate It Into DaVinci Resolve

আপনার নিজস্ব অ্যাপল মেটাল প্লাগইন বিকাশ করার এবং এটিকে DaVinci সমাধানে সংহত করার একটি সহজ উপায়

Eine einfache Möglichkeit, Ihr eigenes Apple Metal Plugin zu entwickeln und es in DaVinci Resolve zu integrieren

Una forma sencilla de desarrollar su propio complemento Apple Metal e integrarlo en DaVinci Resolve

Un moyen simple de développer votre propre plugin Apple Metal et de l'intégrer dans DaVinci Resolve

अपना स्वयं का Apple मेटल प्लगइन विकसित करने और इसे DaVinci रिज़ॉल्यूशन में एकीकृत करने का एक आसान तरीका

独自の Apple Metal プラグインを開発して DaVinci Resolve に統合する簡単な方法

나만의 Apple Metal 플러그인을 개발하고 DaVinci Resolve에 통합하는 쉬운 방법

Uma maneira fácil de desenvolver seu próprio plug-in Apple Metal e integrá-lo ao DaVinci Resolve

Простой способ разработать собственный плагин Apple Metal и интегрировать его в DaVinci Resolve

Kendi Apple Metal Eklentinizi Geliştirmenin ve DaVinci Resolve'ye Entegre Etmenin Kolay Yolu

Một cách dễ dàng để phát triển Plugin Apple Metal của riêng bạn và tích hợp nó vào DaVinci Resolve

开发您自己的 Apple Metal 插件并将其集成到 DaVinci Resolve 中的简单方法

This paper is available on arxiv under CC 4.0 license. Authors: (1) Thomas Pethick, EPFL (LIONS) thomas.pethick@epfl.ch; (2) Wanyun Xie, EPFL (LIONS) wanyun.xie@epfl.ch; (3) Volkan Cevher, EPFL (LIONS) volkan.cevher@epfl.ch. Table of Links Abstract & Introduction Related work Setup Inexact Krasnosel’ski˘ı-Mann iterations Approximating the resolvent Last iterate under cohypomonotonicity Analysis of Lookahea Experiments Conclusion & limitations Acknowledgements & References 5 Approximating the resolvent This can be approximated with a fixed point iteration of which is a contraction for small enough γ since F is Lipschitz continuous. It follows from Banach’s fixed-point theorem Banach (1922) that the sequence converges linearly. We formalize this in the following theorem, which additionally applies when only stochastic feedback is available. The resulting update in Algorithm 1 is identical to GDA but crucially always steps from z. We use this as a subroutine in RAPP to get convergence under a cohypomonotone operator while only suffering a logarithmic factor in the rate.

Stable Nonconvex-Nonconcave Training via Linear Interpolation: Approximating the resolvent

Source: ORS According to the , 1 in 6 of the world’s population experiences significant disability, which amounts to an estimated 1.3 billion people globally. In today's digital landscape, creating inclusive user experiences has become a paramount aspect to consider for designers and developers alike. Inclusive design caters to a diverse, wider, range of users and enriches the overall user experience for everyone. Achieving inclusivity poses unique challenges that require innovative solutions but bring significant benefits in the long run. World Health Organization Accessibility in design encompasses various aspects such as mobility, visual, hearing, and cognitive impairments. In this article, I talk about the importance of inclusive UX for modern companies, its challenges, and user-centered solutions. Why Brands Should Care About Inclusive User Experiences By prioritising inclusivity in UX design, companies not only create better products and services but also contribute to building a more inclusive and equitable digital world. Here are the key reasons why accessibility in design is crucial: Equal Access Inclusive UX ensures that everyone, regardless of their abilities or disabilities, can access and interact with digital content and services. It promotes equality by eliminating barriers that might prevent a certain category of individuals from accessing essential information or using digital products. Expanded User Base Designing inclusively broadens the potential user base for products and services. By considering the diverse needs of users, companies can reach a broader audience and tap into markets that may have been previously overlooked. This not only increases the potential customer base but also fosters a more inclusive and welcoming brand image. Improved User Satisfaction Inclusive design leads to better user experiences for everyone, not just those with disabilities. Features such as clear navigation, flexible text options, and intuitive interfaces benefit all users by making interactions more seamless and enjoyable. When users can easily navigate and engage with digital products, they are more likely to have positive experiences and develop loyalty towards the brand. Legal Compliance In many countries, there are legal requirements and regulations mandating accessibility standards for digital products and services. Ensuring inclusive UX not only helps companies comply with these regulations but also mitigates the risk of potential legal issues and penalties associated with non-compliance. Ethical Responsibility Designing inclusively is also a matter of ethical responsibility. By prioritizing accessibility in design practices, companies demonstrate their commitment to inclusivity and social responsibility. It reflects positively on the brand's values and contributes to building trust and goodwill among users and stakeholders. Innovation and Creativity Embracing inclusivity in UX design encourages innovation and creativity. Designing for diverse user needs often sparks new ideas that can benefit all users, leading to more innovative and impactful products and services. Future-proofing As technology continues to evolve, designing inclusively ensures that products and services remain relevant and usable across different devices, platforms, and user scenarios. Considering accessibility from the outset helps future-proof designs and minimizes the need for costly redesigns down the line. Understanding Accessibility Challenges Physical Disabilities Physical disabilities present challenges related to mobility, visual, and hearing impairments. For such users, it is essential to consider designing interfaces that accommodate users with limited mobility or dexterity, ensuring content is perceivable for users with visual impairments, and providing alternatives for auditory content. Cognitive Disabilities Cognitive disabilities encompass cognitive processing disabilities and learning challenges. Designing interfaces that are intuitive, easy to understand, and navigate can significantly enhance accessibility for users with cognitive impairments. Criteria of Inclusive UX Responsive design to ensure that content is accessible across various devices and screen sizes Intuitive navigation that caters to diverse user needs Compatibility with assistive technology like screen readers and voice recognition software Recognizing the ethical imperative to prioritize accessibility in design practices Recognizing consequences of non-compliance - legal and reputational risks associated with non-compliance with accessibility standards User-centered Design Solutions Adopting user-centered design principles is crucial for addressing these challenges: Conducting inclusive user research - engaging users with diverse abilities throughout the design process to understand their needs and preferences Prioritizing content and information hierarchy - organizing content clearly and logically to facilitate comprehension. Consistent and intuitive navigation: designing navigation menus and controls that are consistent and easy to use. Flexible text and font options - providing options for adjusting text size and font styles to accommodate varying visual abilities. Embracing diversity in user personas - creating user personas that represent a wide range of abilities and needs. Implementing ARIA standards - adhering to Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) standards to enhance accessibility for web applications. Case Studies Successful inclusive design projects are a great starting point and source of inspiration to begin prioritizing accessibility and seeing its tangible benefits. Case 1: Headspace Headspace, a meditation and mindfulness app, has an accessibility menu that allows users with disabilities to better use their services. A user can improve their experience by customizing different features such as color, content (font type and size, line and word spacing, text magnification, image descriptions, and readable fonts), and navigation. Case 2: BBC BBC was the first company to try in-vision sign interpretation in 1957 and TV closed captions in the 1970s. It has stayed a trendsetter in making content accessible. They have: screen reader support, clear typography, a high-contrast color scheme, a video player with built-in subtitles, sign language, and audio transcription. __ __ Future Trends and Technologies in Accessibility As technology evolves, new trends and innovations emerge to further enhance accessibility: Advancements in Assistive Technologies: Innovations such as AI-driven captioning and gesture recognition technologies. Integration of Voice User Interfaces (VUIs): Voice-activated interfaces that provide alternative interaction methods for users with mobility impairments. Enhanced Personalization: Tailoring user experiences based on individual preferences and accessibility needs. Conclusion Designing for accessibility presents unique challenges, but it is a critical endeavor with far-reaching benefits. By understanding and addressing the diverse needs of users, designers, and developers can create inclusive experiences that empower all individuals to fully participate in the digital world. Embracing accessibility not only fosters a more inclusive society but also drives innovation and enhances user satisfaction. As we continue to strive for inclusivity in design, it is essential to prioritize accessibility as a fundamental aspect of the design process.

Creating inclusive User Experiences: Challenges of Designing for Accessibility & How to Resolve Them

In this article, I’m going to share how to receive a return on your software investment as fast as possible through examples of others’ mistakes. One stage – one mistake. If you are planning on implementing an information system on your own, you need to understand that your problems only start with the payment for your newly acquired software. Project Initiation Mistake One. Not Initiating Implementation Officially At Company X, a special work group was created to choose the suitable information system. It was a very tight-knit team who chose to implement the system on the company’s server after only four weeks of discussions, and then assigned the project to the implementation team. And chaos ensued: the second group challenged everything that had been agreed and approved by the first one. They were seemingly against the changes, but, in reality, they just didn’t have the necessary information. Just imagine: the IT specialist setting up the system didn’t know that, in case of local installation, he would also need to set up the system. In the end, the works were delayed for 3 weeks, and everyone was on edge. How to avoid this problem: When you have the work group and the responsible parties are defined, notify your employees that a new system is being introduced: conduct a jump start meeting or online briefing and answer all questions, so that even remote employees were in the know. Issue an order on the project initiation, send it to all employees to read, because, otherwise, people who weren’t notified, can be distrustful of the project, have their concerns or even attempt to stonewall it. If your implementation team is not the team that has chosen the software, it’s important to provide them with all the information gathered at the previous stage. Assigning and Training Administrator Mistake Two. Not Assigning or Training System Administrators Company Y bought a cloud service. All the negotiations were conducted by the Head of Contracts who initiated the project because it was important to her to arrange for transparent contractual relations. During the meeting, she said that the company had the IT specialist who would set up the system, but he was not aware of this and told his colleague: “It’s your system – you set it up.” The company opted out of the vendor’s setup, and the project initiator had to do everything by herself: study references and work with no-code applications. Just imagine how disappointed the client felt! Fortunately, everything worked out fine. Every piece of software should have an employee responsible for it since an empty system will be useless and a bad setup will irritate everyone with inaccurate rules. Besides, the system should grow continuously and change along with the company. Ideally, you should have the following roles filled: The system owner who will make decisions on the system growth and changes, Process owners. These are heads of the departments whose processes are automated by the system. They must keep them updated and provide improvement suggestions, System administrator (for the local installation option) who will be responsible for the software installation, updates and troubleshooting, Analyst who will set up new processes and update the existing ones. For small companies, one or two persons can assume several positions. How to avoid this problem: Assign an analyst who will be trained in the system setup, and, for local installation, additionally, system administrators – in the system setup and maintenance, Relieve the administrators from their ongoing job duties while they are taking the courses, Provide the administrators with all the information on the corporate structure, types of documents and chains of approvals. Software Installation Mistake Three. Forgetting to Estimate Your Resources for Local Installation If you choose cloud deployment, skip this stage: the system will be installed by the supplier’s specialists without your involvement and they will simply give you access details. At Company Z, for the local installation, one of the customers said that their admin would manage the installation on the server by himself, and it will be us, the supplier, who would set up the system. After the installation software delivery, we waited for the IT specialist’s go-ahead to start with our part of the job. It was one week, then another, and another… The CEO started to ask us why the system wasn’t ready. It turned out that their IT specialist was busy with his regular job duties and didn’t have the time to read the software instructions and dragged without informing the manager. Four working days more – and we were tasked with the installation. We could finally get moving. How to avoid this problem: It’s important that you discuss the IT specialist’s competences and workload with him. If it becomes clear that the process will be time-consuming, you should order the installation from the vendor. The more the system sits on the shelf, the higher the probability that it will stay on this shelf forever. It’s best to include the system administrator into the work group from the start, so that he understood what he is going to deal with, Check that the communications between the IT Department and the vendor’s manager are up and running, Study technical server requirements and installation instructions provided by the vendor. Based on them, you can agree upon the deadlines for studying the documentation and for the installation itself. If a lot of time has passed after the system was delivered to you and it’s still not installed, ask the supplier for the latest version of the software. Business Process Design Mistake Four. Tasking an Inexperienced Employee with Business Process Design One of our clients was planning on deploying a system on their own server. An employee with a 2-month experience at the company was assigned as the project manager. Probably, the management assumed that the new employee didn’t have too many tasks and that she was capable enough based on her CV. But in reality, she had trouble answering the questions about the company’s processes, corporate pain points, its hardware and resources. When it was time for structuring business processes and filling in the initial setup questionnaire, the project deadlines were at risk. The employee was not familiar with the colleagues responsible for the processes, couldn’t approach them with questions regarding the rules, and was afraid to insist that this information was critical. At the same time, she didn’t ask for help from the management to not seem incompetent. In the end, it took 2 months to just fill in the questionnaire. Of course, the company’s CEO ran out of patience, and the employee was on the brink of dismissal. But the reality was that she was initially tasked with a mission too complicated for a new employee. How to avoid this problem: Assign an experienced employee who knows the company and the colleagues to be the project manager responsible for the analysis and information gathering. It will take far less time and will be far less stressful. Make it an official order for the employees to assist the project manager. After the questionnaire is completed, have all the information necessary for the system setup approved by experienced employees. By the way, it’s important to study the information gathered and assess your processes at this stage. You will probably catch some odd stages. For example, currently, your contracts are approved successively, going from one employee to another, and, with your system in place, you will be able to have it approved in parallel to save time. System Setup Mistake Five. Delaying Setup for Months Design studio X purchased a cloud service. The customer insisted that they would set up the system immediately but a busy season started. There was a lot of work, and the priorities changed. As a result, the system wasn’t launched even 3.5 months later. Since the cloud service was paid annually and the customer used the system less than 9 months instead of 12, the company lost money. How to avoid this problem: Some administrators don’t start the setup because they are afraid to make a mistake, damage business processes, or raise the ire of the colleagues. As a matter of fact, modern systems are very flexible, and you can correct any error quite promptly. Begin preparing the system and gathering information right from the start, when you are still choosing the suitable system. Enlist your manager’s support and ask them to allot a certain time specifically for the setup. Remember that delaying the implementation is a complete waste of resources and loss of profits due to suboptimal processes. Training Your Employees Mistake Six. Forgetting to Manage User Training Company Z had 56 employees. The customer said that they would train one administrator who would then give lessons to all other employees divided into three groups. Good choice! But the administrator relied on his colleagues’ self-discipline who were tasked with reading reference documents every morning by themselves. It’s no wonder that the training didn’t go right: after all, the employees had no control, no assistance, no motivation. In the end, they couldn’t understand the system’s logic, didn’t know how to create documents and what to do with them. In private, they complained that the system was too complicated and even started asking to go back to their usual paper-based processes. Thankfully, the CEO took matters in his own hands in time, arranged for the training services and started to refuse to sign paper documents. Companies often ignore the user training stage but, in reality, if your employees can’t use the system, they will make a lot of mistakes, waste time, and eventually start avoiding it. By the way, it is usually the employees with bad performance who object to the changes because they don’t benefit from transparent processes. How to avoid this problem: Inform the users that their work will change for the better, which routine processes they will get rid of, and what types of work will speed up. Purchase a special course for regular users. Alternatively, make it obligatory for all employees to study reference documents or video instructions for one hour each day for two weeks. Control this process and motivate the employees. Another option is to have a couple of employees well-trained with a course so that they, in turn, could train other groups of users. Record your own how-to videos and create instructions with screenshots to make the training easier. Stimulate the employees who have started actively using the system, praise them at meetings, mention their work and efforts. Actively involve the management in usage of the system. Test Operation Mistake Seven. Work Group Doesn’t Test the System At Company Z, the IT specialist decided to save time and let all the employees use the new system all at once. What a nuisance! The Legal Department started sending urgent documents but there were inconsistencies. For example, lawyers received agreements before they were agreed upon by the counterparties. The company had to immediately cease all electronic operations. After this mishap, the management assigned five employees to check all the agreements against the rules, and they managed to catch all the errors within several days. Two weeks later, all employees resumed their use of the system, with the time needed for document approval decreasing twice. How to avoid this problem: Have the work group use the new system first: they should send tasks, generate assignments, and create various types of documents. Enter all faults into a separate document with a full description of the process, so that the administrator could understand what should be adjusted. Make use of the hours allotted for consultations to correctly set up the system and take heed of the vendor’s advice. Pilot Operation and System Development Mistake Eight. Missing out on Continuous Support and Development of the System Company Y implemented and was using a system for almost two years. The administrator got trained and was good at maintaining it. During that time, he didn’t turn to the support service once because he was able to resolve all the issues using reference documents. The company continued to grow, and this key employee got transferred to a department in another city. The first branch was left with no administrator who could add new employees, change positions, introduce new document types and approval rules. In the end, the system no longer met current business needs and only stirred resentment. The company had to urgently seek another administrator to save the day. How to avoid this problem: Enter all the involved departments into the system’s reference documents and make other customisations, actively launch processes, sign documents, issue orders. This will help you polish your processes. Create a L1 support service consisting of the lead users and the administrator as there will be a lot of similar questions at first. Train several administrators to make them interchangeable. Even well-polished processes will require adjustments at some point. When possible, record in brief which adjustments were done, so that the new administrator didn’t have to reinvent the wheel. My congratulations! Your system has been successfully implemented! Now comes the most interesting part: working with the new rules and watching how the company changes for the better.

Essential Problems at Key Stages of Information System Implementation and How to Resolve Them

In today's data-driven world, having a resilient data pipeline is crucial for businesses to extract valuable insights and make informed decisions. Disclaimer: This article includes an affiliate link to Dromo. You won’t be charged anything extra for clicking on these links, but you will be supporting me if you choose to do so. While incorporating data validation logic into a data pipeline is a relatively straightforward task for developers, challenges arise when the validation logic needs updating or when validation fails. Traditionally, organizations have relied on engineers to troubleshoot and fix these issues, leading to inefficiencies and an unsustainable system. The key to a robust data pipeline lies in empowering non-technical team members to maintain data quality and handle bad data. The Problem with Traditional Approaches When data is progressing through a pipeline and then fails a validation check, it is common practice to block it from progressing further and resort to one of the following approaches: : Although this approach alerts engineers to the problem, flagging validation errors in a platform like Sentry does not make them easier or more pleasant to fix. Debugging more traditional performance issues - such as network errors or memory leaks - will almost always take precedence over investigating one-off validation errors. Triggering an error in an application monitoring system : As in the first example, this approach captures that a validation error has occurred. But now an engineer needs to sift through log files just to find these issues, which tends to happen sporadically at best. often languish in the depths of log files, when they need to be resolved in real-time. Logging the error to a server Data validation alerts : In this approach, alerts are written to an Excel file or JSON document and then shared directly with a stakeholder via email or Slack. This is the most effective of the three approaches but requires a lot of work to set up and is quite rare. Notably, this approach still necessitates collaboration between the report reader and an engineer to find the original data file, understand the error message, and resubmit the corrected data. Writing errors to a report The most common outcome across the board is that bad data is simply blocked for much longer than anyone wants. Engineers are slow to fix bad data because they would rather be building and refining systems and infrastructure, and non-technical stakeholders are slow because they are either not in the engineering loop, or not equipped with the right tools. These traditional approaches result in organizations struggling to maintain resilient data pipelines and engineers being bogged down with one-off data fixes instead of building and refining infrastructure. The missing ingredient shared across all of these approaches is an intuitive yet powerful UI that anyone at the organization can use to fix bad data promptly and then keep it moving through the pipeline. Empowering Non-Technical Team Members To create a truly robust , organizations must find ways to effectively repair bad data by removing engineers from this process altogether. data pipeline This can be achieved by empowering non-technical team members across product, operations, and customer success to: : Providing a familiar workbook interface for non-technical team members to review and correct data issues streamline the process and reduce the need for engineering intervention. Review non-validating data in real-time : Once data has been fixed, non-technical team members should be able to reintroduce it into the pipeline, increasing the throughput and velocity of high-quality data in the system Recirculate good data back through the pipeline Engineers frequently define validation rules directly in code with if/else conditions or using a popular library like Great Expectations, validate.js, or JSON Schema. However, in situations where business users control the validation logic, variations of the logic should be applied depending on the data, or the logic changes frequently, it is much preferable for non-technical stakeholders to write and maintain validation rules themselves. This way, the organization can maintain high data quality standards without waiting for engineers to hardcode new logic Maintain validation logic directly, in some cases: Implementing Solutions Several software companies, such as , are working towards making resilient data workflows accessible for every organization. Dromo Dromo's platform focuses on empowering non-technical team members to define and maintain validation logic, review non-validating data in a familiar interface, and recirculate data back through the pipeline after it has been fixed. By adopting solutions, businesses can create more efficient and sustainable data pipelines that truly unlock the full potential of their data. Conclusion In summary, the key to a resilient data pipeline lies in empowering non-technical team members to maintain data quality and handle bad data in real-time. By removing engineers from the process of fixing data issues, organizations can create a more sustainable system that allows engineers to focus on what they do best: building and refining the system itself. Many companies are making this approach more accessible, allowing businesses to unlock the full potential of their data and drive better decision-making.

Build Resilient Data Pipelines by Empowering Non-Technical Teams to Detect and Resolve Bad Data

How many times have you come across and in Node.js projects without really understanding the difference between them? path.join() path.resolve() In my own experience, I’ve seen different projects with the same structure using one over the other and I couldn’t really understand why. After becoming aware of my lack of knowledge, I decided to investigate and share my learnings with you. Table of Contents List of Important terms Brief recap - how to change directories on terminal/prompt What does path.join() do? What does path.resolve() do? The key difference When should you choose one over the other? Usage examples List of Important Terms I believe once you understand the terms listed below it will be easier for you to grasp the differences between the two methods. A string is a sequence of characters that are interpreted literally (the exact way it has been written) by a script, e.g., . They must be surrounded by quotation marks if there’s more than one word. String: "this is a string" A path is simply a that identifies the location of a or on a computer, e.g., or . I’m going to use the word ‘file’ here for referring to both and Path: string file directory "/home/user/Documents/file.ext" "/home/user/Downloads/" files directories. A relative path is a that identifies the location of a file relative to the location of another file. Relative path: string For instance, let’s assume some user has the following directory structure: If Downloads is the current working directory (CWD) and the user wants to access a file inside the Documents directory, he would have to navigate up one level, and then go down into the Documents directory. Something like this on POSIX-compliant systems (Linux, MacOS, etc.) or like this on Windows . cd ../Documents/file.ext cd ..\Documents\file.ext On the terminal or prompt we don’t need to surround the string with quotation marks if there are no spaces in the names of the files. Trying to execute would result in an error message. Note: cd ../Documents/my file.ext Simplifying, an absolute path is the that identifies the location of a file relative to the root of the system. For example, instead of trying to access the file from the previous  example via a relative path, the user could’ve specified an absolute path like this . We can specify an absolute path from any location. Absolute path: string cd /home/user/Documents/file.ext A path segment is a slice of the path. For example, we have , and as segments of . Path segment: /home /user /Documents /home/user/Documents/file.ext This is a Node.js environment variable that specifies the for the which contains the currently executing __dirname: absolute path directory file. For instance, if you have webpack.config.js: console.log(__dirname) The expected output on the console would be /home/user/Documents/project If the is inside the directory. webpack.config.js project In other words, __dirname is simply the of the absolute path to the file’s location. string As you saw, there are differences between the used to specify the path on different OSs. Windows uses while POSIX-compliant OSs use as a directory separator, just for instance. Path normalization happens when the is modified so that it conforms to a valid path on the target operating system. If you want to learn more about the steps required to perform path normalization, see . Path normalization: strings \ / string https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/io/file-path-formats Brief Recap - How to Change Directories on Terminal/Prompt and represent the CWD; . ./ and represent the parent of the CWD; .. ../ represents the root directory / If you put in front of them, they’ll take you to the desired location. cd I said it was going to be brief 😂 What does path.join() do? The method joins all given segments together using the platform-specific separator as a delimiter, then normalizes the resulting path. path.join() path The syntax is quite simple: , where is a sequence of . path.join(…paths) …paths segments For example, calling returns the following string in a POSIX-compliant system. path.join("path", "/to", "some", "file") path/to/some/file If you don’t understand what the mean, take a look at . … https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Operators/Spread_syntax What does path.resolve() do? The method resolves a sequence of paths or path segments into an absolute path. path.resolve() Almost identical syntax: . This method processes the paths and when it finds a treats it as the root of the system. path.resolve(…paths) from right to left / For example, calling would return , because the second argument has a leading and thus will be treated as the root of the system. path.resolve(__dirname, "/path") /path / The key difference simply concatenates segments and its return result in an absolute path. returns an absolute path, using the target operating system’s root as the root or first argument with a leading as the new root. path.join() may or may not path.resolve() always / When should you choose one over the other? It depends. Does your tool require an path? Then use . Do you only need to concatenate segments of paths? Use . absolute path.resolve() path.join() In practice, I can’t remember seeing or being used without , which makes both methods result in an absolute path with the OS’s root being the root. path.join() path.resolve() __dirname Again, calling makes no sense since would be totally ignored because the second argument starts with a . The following is a valid use case: . path.resolve(__dirname, "/path") __dirname / path.resolve(__dirname, 'dist/assets') Usage examples console.log(path.join(__dirname, "path"));
console.log(path.join(__dirname, "/path"));
console.log(path.join(__dirname, "./path"));
console.log(path.join(__dirname, "../path"));

console.log(path.resolve(__dirname, "path"));
console.log(path.resolve(__dirname, "/path"));
console.log(path.resolve(__dirname, "./path"));
console.log(path.resolve(__dirname, "../path"));

Output:

// path.join()
/home/user/some/other/segments/path
/home/user/some/other/segments/path
/home/user/some/other/segments/path
/home/user/some/other/path

//path.resolve()
/home/user/some/other/segments/path
/path
/home/user/some/other/segments/path
/home/user/some/other/path As you can see, if what you need is an path to the current executing file, you can choose any of the following: absolute console.log(path.join(__dirname, "path"));
console.log(path.join(__dirname, "/path"));
console.log(path.join(__dirname, "./path"));
console.log(path.resolve(__dirname, "path"));
console.log(path.resolve(__dirname, "./path")); I think that’s enough. If you found this article useful, share it with your friends. See you next time!

What’s the Difference Between path.join() and path.resolve()?

With the proliferation of technological products like POS machines, debit and credit cards, Fintech apps, etc.,  e-commerce has basically become a buzzword in cyberspace. Many companies are cashing in on this new trend, and many fintech and e-commerce startups are springing up around the world to offer a variety of services. Africa has not been left out of this revolution. Cities Like Lagos, Nairobi, Cape town etc. have become technological headquarters of sorts, proudly hosting promising fintech and e-commerce platforms like Jumia, Konga, Kuda etc., many of which have become international brands. This makes me very proud as an African and I a give a major salute to these companies and the people who put in the hard work to create and run them. However, I think that there is still room for improvement, especially in the area of logistics and customer support, as these are very important factors in securing customer trust. I say this due to my recent experience in trying to purchase a product from one of these e-commerce sites in my country with a fintech bank card. To protect their image, I will rename the e-commerce platform to “stayandbuy” in this story and also rename the fintech app to “couchspender.” Don’t worry, brothers, I’m no complete snitch 😉. Now, onto my story. That time I tried to buy from e-commerce with fintech So I’m sitting on my couch pressing my phone like basically every millennial alive. I remembered that I needed some clothes. The thought of having to get up and trek to the nearby market was like a heavy load that retained me on the same couch I had been sitting on for the last 6 hours. But there was a counter thought; Swaggering to class in those new hoodies I had my eye on sure seemed like a fitting reward for the great task of having to trek a few blocks. So I reached for my ATM card. I had just gotten it free from one of those fancy new online banks that I had created an account with not so long ago. I already used it for some transactions, so I was sure it worked. “Couchspender” was a great app. So, I grabbed the card in an effort to head for the market. But a better thought crossed my mind; “You already have a card for internet banking; how about you just check out one of those online marketplaces you heard about and buy the clothes from there? Then you can just avoid this looming trek to the market while still ensuring that you will swagger to class in a new hoody”. Seemed like a win-win! Couch potato life forever!!! So I quickly picked up my PC and headed to the “comeandbuy” site. Searched for the particular item I was looking for, and to my great excitement, they not only had it in stock but also had it in a variety of colors. This was even better than going to the market! They were many more good-looking clothes to buy at the click of a button (and deduction of some cash too, of course, but no one ever says that part). So I added a number of clothes to the cart and mustered enough courage to stop adding more and proceed to make payment. The total amount was there. I entered in the card details, and 1, 2, 3….., payment complete. Wow! Just like that? Delivery expected in 2 days. Excelent! excellent!! Exce…. But wait? What’s this rubbish on the screen? Why is there one item missing from the items to be delivered? Hope it’s not the hoodie that I actually came here for? What the hell? Why is the hoodie that I will swag to class with not among not the items to be delivered? I looked at the money deducted from my account. It was the full price for all the items in the cart, including the hoodie. Then I returned to the page of the hoodie, and a crazy message was on the screen screaming at me. “This item is out of stock!” What is this? How could an item that was still remaining after I added it to the cart now be out of stock? And I wouldn’t even get mine. A small voice whispered to me. “Maybe someone bought it all while you were strolling around the site loving other items before making payment.” That seemed to make sense. But a bigger question arose. Why, then, did you allow me to buy an out-of-stock item and also debited me for it? How was it resolved After waiting angrily for two days with no refund, I proceeded to go online and fight for my money. First, I mailed my fintech bank (“Couch Spender”). I figured that they probably debited me by mistake and forgot to refund my own part of the money after crediting “Stayandbuy” for the items that were actually in stock. But to my surprise, they replied that all the money was credited to “Stayandbuy.” Why would they take money for an item they won’t deliver? I then sent a mail to “Stayandbuy” and complained about the debit. They asked me for a receipt from my bank, which I got in about two days. Then they took the receipt and replied that they were working on the issue. Long story short, I didn’t hear back from them again for almost a month. I had even forgotten about the issue till an event made me remember. Then I sent “Stayandbuy” the harshest email I could muster about the matter. They eventually replied that the refund was processed some time ago. I checked. There was no alert on the refund, and there was no mail from them to conclude the issue I had logged with them when the refund was supposedly processed. However, the refund was reflected in my bank statement for that month. In summary, I don’t remember receiving the refund. Maybe I got it; maybe I didn’t. But the record said I did, so let’s respect the almighty record. But, I had spent about a month on a transaction that could’ve taken 2 hours tops if I just went to the market. Hence, the entire process seemed rather unprofessional and untrustworthy. To Conclude I conclude with the following suggestions for e-commerce platforms and users; I don’t know if it occurs often, but I don’t think it should be possible for an out-of-stock item to be reflected in a buyer’s cart and payment. It’s probably a bug that needs fixing. E-commerce platforms should have an automated way of quickly noticing and refunding incorrect payments from buyers. This will help build trust. If you mistakenly pay to e-commerce sites that seem refundable,  quickly reach out to them and complain instead of waiting. Waiting might not yield any results. Lastly, e-commerce platforms should make life easier and not harder for buyers. All hail couch potatoes. Hail!!!

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