Timeular

timeular

TL;DR is a free Google Chrome extension I created that helps you stay productive when you need to. If you want to track how you use apps and websites on your computer, checkout . If you want to block distracting websites on your mobile devices, checkout . Timewarp RescueTime Freedom The Problem I was stressed at work in late Spring 2013. I can’t remember what caused my stress, but I noticed myself checking Facebook every 5 minutes, seeing no new post, closing the tab, and repeat. I realized my attention span was shorter than it ever was. Something was clearly wrong. Now I know I was “hooked” by “variable rewards” of checking my feed, after reading , a book by Nir Eyal. The dopamine released in anticipation of interesting content gave me satisfaction during stressful times, so I went back again and again, even when there was no new content. Turns out Facebook excels at building habit-forming products than anyone else, and I use it not merely for its utility. It became a habit. “Hooked” I panicked because continuing on this trend means I would achieve nothing in my life. “What if, when I try to access Facebook from now on, a reminder shows up to break this problematic behavior?” I thought, “There must be something that does this already.” So I googled. I found a Chrome extension called “StayFocusd”. It’s powerful, lots people love it, but as a UX junkie I felt its UI is more complex than necessary. 80% of its utility comes from 5% of its features. All I really wanted was at work. IMO the last thing any productivity tool should do is wasting users’ time by making it hard to figure out how to use it, or presenting users with information that doesn’t help them achieve their goals. blocking a handful of websites that I visit everyday that are irrelevant I also hoped the blocking mechanism could be more delightful. Instead of making “violators” feel guilty about visiting these websites they love, my intuition told me will work wonders in this case. I envisioned a utility that can apply the same habit-forming techniques that Facebook championed but at users’ disposal. It’s simply a more powerful strategy. positive reinforcements So I created in my spare time in 3 weeks and have been using it every week myself. As of now there are 16,000 users who installed Timewarp. Timewarp How does Timewarp work? After you install Timewarp, you need to create “wormholes” in “Options” page, which is a metaphor for rules. Right click on the rocket icon to access “Options” page There are three kinds of “wormholes” you can create: Redirect This is my favorite kind of wormholes. Not only does it save me from distractions, it also helps me build new desirable habits. For example, I enrolled in a course on Coursera, but I haven’t got into the habit of checking the course page every day. By creating a redirect wormhole from “facebook.com” to “coursera.org”, every time I try to go to Facebook, I’ll be taken to Coursera instead. This simple technique allows me to use the addiction I want to get rid of to my advantage, and make it effortless to check out my course page every day. This is why I named the extension “Timewarp” — escaping habitual “black holes” and arriving at a productive universe at the same time. How cool is that! You can also set how much time you allow yourself to spend on a site per day, and redirects are only activated when you’ve used up your daily allowance. Quote I also use quote wormholes a lot. Every now and then I came across great quotes from the books I read. I’d write them down, read them often, so they can sink in and become part of my mind sooner. Here is a quote I took from a book I read recently called . “Success under Stress” “The best way to find yourself is losing yourself in the service of others” Thinking it’s a useful tip to remind myself keeping my ego down, I created a quote wormhole for YouTube. So now when I enter “youtube.com” in Chrome’s address bar and hit enter, I see the quote instead of Internet’s latest cat video collections. I still indulge myself with videos of kittens before I go to bed though. Timer Now there are websites which are only mildly distracting to me, such as Medium and Hacker News. For these types of websites I’d create timer wormholes so it shows how much time I’ve spent on them today so I am informed of their impact on my productivity. If you need to access Facebook to reply an important message, just click on the icon again to discharge it. When you are done turn it back on with another click. Timewarp never gets in the way when you need to get your tasks done! Once you’ve created the wormholes, click on the rocket icon to activate Timewarp! The 3 principles of Timewarp I created Timewarp with these 3 principles in mind: It should be easy and delightful to use It should not distract users with vanity features It should make people feel good and competent While these principles seem trivial, they are really hard to stick to. It’s too easy to add a nice-to-have feature that bloats the UI but doesn’t add real value. For example, I was inclined to add detailed time tracking because it’s gonna be “cool”, but I’d rather people take 10-minute walks instead of sitting and staring at the metrics. Some users earnestly wanted a way to block the entire internet and make it cumbersome to unblock themselves, but I had to say no because . If people are willing to stay away from a website, a simple reminder would do. If they really need to access it for any reason, nothing should or could stop them. the effectiveness of Timewarp is a function of the willpower of its users Other tools While my intention is to keep Timewarp as minimal as it is, I do have some exciting plans to improve it in the next few months so it can serve more people. However Timewarp probably will never be a stand-alone app or be cross-platform to work on all of iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows. So here are the other tools which are complementary or alternative to Timewarp. I believe we share the same vision of reclaiming our most precious resource: Time. RescueTime I am using in combination with Gyroscope to track my productivity when I am using my Mac. “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” I am really impressed by how well thought out RescueTime is. It smartly categorizes the time you spend on different sites as productive or distracting based on your work. I am a Software Engineer, so checking emails and using instant messengers can be distracting. But If you are in sales or customer support, maybe your productivity is soaring when you are emailing and chatting a lot. RescueTime makes that easy and generates a productivity report every week that’s easy to process. RescueTime Freedom I found about on StayFocusd’s website. I’ve downloaded the app and it blocks social websites in Safari when it’s turned on. It doesn’t seem to block the social apps from accessing the Internet though. But if browsing on mobile is an problem to you, it won’t hurt to check it out. Freedom StayFocusd As mentioned above, this is a feature rich distraction blocker. Block Site Another useful website blocker which doubles as a parental control. Disclosure: links to Hooked, Success under Stress, RescueTime, and Freedom are affiliate links. Please recommend this article if you think it can help your friends!

Why I created Timewarp (Chrome Extension)

The New York Times Company v. OpenAI Update Court Filing, retrieved on February 26, 2024 is part of . You can jump to any part in this filing . This part is 1 of 15. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here I. INTRODUCTION The artificial intelligence (AI) tool known as ChatGPT is many things: a revolutionary technology with the potential to augment human capabilities, fostering our own productivity and efficiency;[1] an accelerator for scientific and medical breakthroughs;[2] a mechanism for making existing technologies accessible to more people;[3] an aid to help the visually impaired navigate the world;[4] a creative tool that can write sonnets, limericks, and haikus;[5] and a computational engine that reasonable estimates posit may add trillions of dollars of growth across the global economy.[6] Contrary to the allegations in the Complaint, however, ChatGPT is not in any way a substitute for a subscription to The New York Times. In the real world, people do not use ChatGPT or any other OpenAI product for that purpose. Nor could they. In the ordinary course, one cannot use ChatGPT to serve up Times articles at will. The Times has sought to paint a different picture. Its lawsuit alleges that OpenAI has imperiled the very enterprise of journalism, illustrating the point with 100 examples in which some version of OpenAI’s GPT-4 model supposedly generated several paragraphs of Times content as outputs in response to user prompts. See Dkt. 1-68 (Exhibit J). The allegations in the Times’s Complaint do not meet its famously rigorous journalistic standards.[7] The truth, which will come out in the course of this case, is that the Times paid someone to hack OpenAI’s products. It took them tens of thousands of attempts to generate the highly anomalous results that make up Exhibit J to the Complaint. They were able to do so only by targeting and exploiting a bug (which OpenAI has committed to addressing) by using deceptive prompts that blatantly violate OpenAI’s terms of use.[8] And even then, they had to feed the tool portions of the very articles they sought to elicit verbatim passages of, virtually all of which already appear on multiple public websites. Normal people do not use OpenAI’s products in this way.[9] Journalism has undergone many changes in the digital age, and may well undergo more with the advent of AI. OpenAI has established important partnerships with many leaders in the news industry—from large enterprises like the Associated Press and Axel Springer to the dozens of smaller and local outlets associated with the American Journalism Project—to creatively explore and implement AI solutions that assist investigative reporting, create enhanced reader experiences, and improve business operations. The Times’s suggestion that the contrived attacks of its hired gun show that the Fourth Estate is somehow imperiled by this technology is pure fiction. So too is its implication that the public en masse might mimic its agent’s aberrant activity. There is a genuinely important issue at the heart of this lawsuit—critical not just to OpenAI, but also to countless start-ups and other companies innovating in this space—that is being litigated both here and in over a dozen other cases around the country (including in this Court): whether it is fair use under copyright law to use publicly accessible content to train generative AI models to learn about language, grammar, and syntax, and to understand the facts that constitute humans’ collective knowledge. OpenAI and the other defendants in these lawsuits will ultimately prevail because no one—not even the New York Times—gets to monopolize facts[10] or the rules of language.[11] For good reason, there is a long history of precedent holding that it is perfectly lawful to use copyrighted content as part of a technological process that (as here) results in the creation of new, different, and innovative products.[12] Established copyright doctrine will dictate that the Times cannot prevent AI models from acquiring knowledge about facts, any more than another news organization can prevent the Times itself from re-reporting stories it had no role in investigating.[13] As Justice Brandeis explained more than 100 years ago: “The general rule of law is, that the noblest of human productions—knowledge, truths ascertained, conceptions, and ideas—become, after voluntary communication to others, free as the air to common use.”[14] All of that said, even assuming (counterfactually) the truth of what the lawsuit alleges, several of the theories in the Complaint are not viable, even as pleaded. This Motion asks the Court to trim those at the outset to focus the litigation on the core issues that really matter. In short: The direct copyright infringement claim asserts liability in part from conduct that is timebarred because it occurred more than three years ago. The contributory infringement claim would ascribe liability to OpenAI based on generalized knowledge of third-party infringement, rather than actual knowledge of specific infringements, which the law requires. The claim for violations of 17 U.S.C. § 1202 (the “DMCA”) fails for the reasons embraced by every other court to consider indistinguishable claims against generative AI models: the DMCA simply does not address the conduct to which the Times seeks to ascribe liability. And the claim for state common law misappropriation is preempted by the federal Copyright Act. (1) (2) (3) (4) OpenAI respectfully seeks an order dismissing these legally infirm portions of the Complaint, so that the parties can properly and efficiently litigate the balance. Continue Reading . Here [1] Louis Hyman, It’s Not the End of Work. It’s the End of Boring Work, N.Y. Times (Apr. 22, 2023), https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/22/opinion/jobs-ai-chatgpt.html. [2] Microsoft, The Impact of Large Language Models on Scientific Discovery: a Preliminary Study Using GPT-4 (Dec. 8, 2023), https://arxiv.org/pdf/2311.07361.pdf (deployments in “biology and materials design” and “drug discovery”). [3] Ran Ronen, How Generative AI Tools Like ChatGPT Can Revolutionize Web Accessibility, VentureBeat (July 8, 2023), https://venturebeat.com/ai/how-generative-ai-tools-like-chatgpt-can-revolutionize-web-accessibility/. [4] Sheena Vasani, Be My Eyes AI Offers GPT-4-Powered Support for Blind Microsoft Customers, Verge (Nov. 15, 2023), https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/15/23962709/microsoft-blind-users-open-ai-chatgpt-4-be-my-eyes. [5] Adam Gross, I Asked ChatGPT AI to Write a Sonnet, LinkedIn (Mar. 2023), https:// www.linkedin.com/posts/grossadam_i-asked-chatgpt-ai-to-write-a-sonnet-in-iambic-activity-040728019300229120- ZBNa/; Zetolgam, The Chatbot Limerick Writer, AllPoetry (Dec. 2022) https://allpoetry.com/poem/16903411-TheChatbot-Limerick-Writer-by-Zetolgam; Uday Dandavate, How I Used ChatGPT to Write Haiku, Medium (Sept. 2, 2023), https://uday-dandavate.medium.com/how-i-used-chatgpt-to-write-haiku-5904ee96360d. [6] McKinsey & Company, The Economic Potential of Generative AI: The Next Productivity Frontier (June 14, 2023), https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/the-economic-potential-of-generative-ai-thenext-productivity-frontier (“generative AI could add the equivalent of $2.6 trillion to $4.4 trillion annually” to the global economy); see also Goldman Sachs, Generative AI Could Raise Global GDP by 7% (Apr. 5, 2023), https://www.goldmansachs.com/intelligence/pages/generative-ai-could-raise-global-gdp-by-7-percent.html. [7] Cf. N.Y. Times, Ethical Journalism: A Handbook, https://www.nytimes.com/editorial-standards/ethicaljournalism.html#introductionAndPurpose (last accessed Feb. 25, 2024) (“we tell our readers the complete, unvarnished truth as best we can learn it”; “Staff members…may not commit illegal acts of any sort.”). [8] OpenAI, Terms of Use § 2(c), https://openai.com/policies/mar-2023-terms (prohibiting use to “infringe[]” others’ “rights” or “extract data”); Hesse v. Godiva Chocolatier, Inc., 463 F. Supp. 3d 453, 463 (S.D.N.Y. 2020) (courts may take “judicial notice of information publicly announced on a party’s website” if “authenticity is not in dispute”). [9] Francesca Paris & Larry Buchanan, 35 Ways Real People Are Using A.I. Right Now, N.Y. Times (Apr. 14, 2023), https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/04/14/upshot/up-ai-uses.html (people use ChatGPT to “[w]rite a [] speech,” “[s]kim dozens of academic articles,” “[a]ppeal an insurance denial,” and “[c]reate new proteins in minutes”). [10] See, e.g., Baker v. Selden, 101 U.S. 99, 103 (1879) (“The very object of publishing a book … is to communicate to the world the useful knowledge which it contains. But this object would be frustrated if the knowledge could not be used without incurring guilt of piracy of the book.”); Hoehling v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 618 F.2d 972, 979 (2d Cir. 1980) (“[F]actual information is in the public domain.”). [11] See 17 U.S.C. 102(b); Clanton v. UMG Recordings, Inc., 556 F. Supp. 3d 322, 332 (S.D.N.Y. 2021) (“ordinary building blocks of the English language” not protectable); Med. Educ. Dev. Servs. v. Reed Elsevier Grp., PLC, No. 05-cv-8665, 2008 WL 4449412, at *6 (S.D.N.Y. Sep. 30, 2008) (no copyright for “concepts such as rules of punctuation, analogies, vocabulary or other fundamental elements of English composition”). [12] See, e.g., Authors Guild, Inc. v. HathiTrust, 755 F.3d 87 (2d Cir. 2014) (fair use to create “digital copies of more than ten million [books]” for search tool); Authors Guild v. Google, Inc. (Google Books), 804 F.3d 202 (2d Cir. 2015) (fair use to scan millions of copyrighted books to create novel tool); Google LLC v. Oracle Am., Inc., 141 S. Ct. 1183 (2021) (fair use to replicate copyrighted software programming interfaces to create a new mobile platform). [13] See Nicholas Lemann, The Panama Papers and the Monster Stories of the Future, New Yorker (Apr. 14, 2016) https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-panama-papers-and-the-monster-stories-of-the-future (noting the Times’s refusal to participate in consortium that broke “Panama Papers” story); Michael S. Schmidt & Steven Lee Myers, Panama Law Firm’s Leaked Files Detail Offshore Accounts Tied to World Leaders, N.Y. Times (Apr. 3, 2016), https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/04/us/politics/leaked-documents-offshore-accounts-putin.html. [14] Int’l News Serv. v. Associated Press, 248 U.S. 215, 250 (1918) (Brandeis, J., dissenting). About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case retrieved on February 26, 2024, from is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. fingfx.thomsonreuters.com

NYT Hired Hackers to Game ChatGPT Into Giving Evidence For Its Lawsuits Against OpenAI

A historical mistake and how you can solve it TL;DR: Most languages fail to find the correct behavior for leap year calculation. Disclaimer: While I've tried my best to provide accurate insights across various programming languages, I acknowledge that I may not be an expert in everyone. If you spot an error or disagree with any points, please leave a respectful comment, and I'll promptly address it. The State of the Art Determining whether a year is a leap (or not) is a simple mathematical problem. Every student can solve it as their first programming assignment. To simplify the problem, let's assume a Year is when it is evenly divisible by 4, except if it's also divisible by 100, but it is a leap year if it's divisible by 400. leap The real world and cosmic mechanics are a bit more complicated, but that is beyond the scope of this article. Let's explore how several programming languages solve this problem: Horrible Approach PHP: <?php

$yearNumber = 2024;
$isLeap = date('L', mktime(0, 0, 0, 1, 1, $yearNumber)); SQL (PostgreSQL): SELECT (EXTRACT(year FROM TIMESTAMP '2024-02-29') IS NOT NULL)
 AS is_leap_year; These languages attempt to create a valid (or invalid) leap day and exploit . truthy values This hack violates the fail-fast principle and abuses the . billion-dollar mistake Trying to create an invalid date should throw an exception in serious languages since this happens in the . real world domain Performing other actions, like concealing errors beneath the surface, breaches the principle of least astonishment. Missing Behavior Ada: function Is_Leap_Year (Year : Integer) return Boolean is
begin
    return (Year mod 4 = 0 and then Year mod 100 /= 0) 
        or else (Year mod 400 = 0);
end Is_Leap_Year; C/C++: bool isLeapYear(int year) {
    return (year % 4 == 0 && year % 100 != 0) || (year % 400 == 0);
} Go: package main

import (
  "fmt"
  "time"
)

func isLeapYear(year int) bool {
  return year%4 == 0 && (year%100 != 0 || year%400 == 0)
} Haskell: import Data.Time.Calendar (isLeapYear)
let year = 2024
let isLeap = isLeapYear year JavaScript/TypeScript: function isLeapYear(year) {
    return (year % 4 === 0 && year % 100 !== 0) || (year % 400 === 0);
} Julia: using Dates
year = 2024
isleap(year) Lua: local year = 2024
local isLeap = (year % 4 == 0 and year % 100 ~= 0) or (year % 400 == 0) MATLAB: year = 2024;
isLeap = mod(year, 4) == 0 && (mod(year, 100) ~= 0 || mod(year, 400) == 0); Objective-C: int yearNumber = 2024;
BOOL isLeap = (yearNumber % 4 == 0 && yearNumber % 100 != 0) 
  || (yearNumber % 400 == 0); PowerShell: $yearNumber = 2024
$isLeap = ($yearNumber % 4 -eq 0 -and $yearNumber % 100 -ne 0) 
  -or ($yearNumber % 400 -eq 0) Rust: fn is_leap_year(year: i32) -> bool {
    (year % 4 == 0 && year % 100 != 0) || (year % 400 == 0)
} Smalltalk: | yearNumber |
yearNumber := 2024.
(yearNumber \\ 4 = 0)
  and: [(yearNumber \\ 100 ~= 0) or: [ yearNumber \\ 400 = 0 ]] The above languages do not provide native support. You need to define global functions or use . helpers Incorrect Global Approach PHP (Again): <?php

$yearNumber = 2024;
$isLeap = checkdate(2, 29, $yearNumber); R: leap_year(2024) Ruby: year = 2024
is_leap = Date.leap?(year) Swift: let yearNumber = 2024
let isLeap = Calendar.current.isDateInLeapYear(
  Date(timeIntervalSince1970: TimeInterval(yearNumber))) These languages use to check if a year is a leap. global functions These global methods mistakenly place responsibility in the wrong location (a global access point). utility Helpers Bad Approach C#: int yearNumber = 2024;
bool isLeap = System.DateTime.IsLeapYear(yearNumber); Dart: import 'package:intl/intl.dart';
var year = 2024;
var isLeap = DateTime(year).isLeapYear; Perl: use Time::Piece;
my $yearNumber = 2024;
my $isLeap = Time::Piece
  ->strptime("$yearNumber-01-01", "%Y-%m-%d")->leapyear; Python: import calendar
leap = calendar.isleap(2024) Visual Basic .NET: Dim year As Integer = 2024
Dim isLeap As Boolean = DateTime.IsLeapYear(year) These languages use as libraries to check if a year is a leap. helpers The is not present in a real object but in a bag of . misplaced responsibly DateTime related functions The Year Approach Java: int yearNumber = 2024;
boolean isLeap = java.time.Year.of(yearNumber).isLeap(); Kotlin: val yearNumber = 2024
val isLeap = java.time.Year.of(yearNumber).isLeap Scala: val year = 2024
val isLeap = java.time.Year.of(year).isLeap These languages rely on the to check if it is a leap. Year The protocol is closer to the real world in the bijection Notice they create objects and not objects since this would also break the . Year Integer bijection A has a different protocol than an integer, and modeling a Year as an integer would also be a smell and a symptom of mixing . Year premature optimization the what and the how A can tell if it is a leap (an integer shouldn't do it) and can tell you about its months (which are , not integers, 1-based integers, or strings). Year Months 0-based Conversely, an 's capabilities extend to arithmetic operations such as multiplication and exponentiation. Integer Time is not a joke Representing a point in time as a , , or any other data type comes with consequences. float integer You can break a point in time in the real world in tiny fractions (but not ) too small Using is not a valid option. floats is not 0.03, and this has terrible consequences points in time. 0.01 + 0.02 dealing with floating point The Challenge We've been talking about leap years. What are the needs to know if a year is a leap? The date and time mechanics you model need to know the February 28th, 2024 successor. But this is your problem. NOT Following the information hiding principle, you should leave the responsibility as a private protocol. Conclusion There is no . Silver Bullet Use your language wisely. Today is February 29th, a leap day to pause and reflect on the tools you use daily. See you in 4 years.

Rethinking Leap Years: Why Your Favorite Programming Language's Approach May Be Flawed

লিপ ইয়ার পুনর্বিবেচনা: কেন আপনার প্রিয় প্রোগ্রামিং ভাষার পদ্ধতি ত্রুটিপূর্ণ হতে পারে

Schaltjahre neu denken: Warum der Ansatz Ihrer bevorzugten Programmiersprache möglicherweise fehlerhaft ist

Repensar los años bisiestos: por qué el enfoque de su lenguaje de programación favorito puede ser defectuoso

Repenser les années bissextiles : pourquoi l'approche de votre langage de programmation préféré peut être erronée

लीप वर्ष पर पुनर्विचार: आपकी पसंदीदा प्रोग्रामिंग भाषा का दृष्टिकोण दोषपूर्ण क्यों हो सकता है

うるう年を再考する: お気に入りのプログラミング言語のアプローチに欠陥がある理由

윤년에 대한 재고: 선호하는 프로그래밍 언어의 접근 방식에 결함이 있을 수 있는 이유

Repensando os anos bissextos: por que a abordagem da sua linguagem de programação favorita pode ser falha

Переосмысление високосных лет: почему подход вашего любимого языка программирования может быть ошибочным

Artık Yılları Yeniden Düşünmek: Favori Programlama Dilinizin Yaklaşımı Neden Kusurlu Olabilir?

Suy nghĩ lại về những năm nhuận: Tại sao cách tiếp cận ngôn ngữ lập trình yêu thích của bạn có thể sai sót

重新思考闰年：为什么你最喜欢的编程语言的方法可能有缺陷

We Buy Ugly Houses! The Ugly Truth They're Hiding From You

আমরা কুৎসিত ঘর কিনতে! কুৎসিত সত্য তারা আপনার কাছ থেকে লুকাচ্ছে

Wir kaufen hässliche Häuser! Die hässliche Wahrheit, die sie vor dir verbergen

¡Compramos casas feas! La fea verdad que te están ocultando

Nous achetons des maisons laides ! La vilaine vérité qu’ils vous cachent

हम बदसूरत मकान खरीदते हैं! वह घिनौना सच जो वे आपसे छिपा रहे हैं

醜い家も買い取ります！彼らがあなたに隠している醜い真実

우리는 못생긴 집을 구입합니다! 그들이 당신에게 숨기고 있는 추악한 진실

Compramos casas feias! A horrível verdade que eles estão escondendo de você

Мы покупаем уродливые дома! Ужасная правда, которую от вас скрывают

Çirkin Evler Alıyoruz! Sizden Sakladıkları Çirkin Gerçek

Chúng tôi mua những ngôi nhà xấu xí! Sự thật xấu xí họ đang giấu bạn

我们买丑房子！他们向你隐瞒的丑陋真相

121 Stories To Learn About Nintendo

Tokenized Stays and NFTs: Staynex's Vision for Personalized Hospitality In this exclusive Hacker Noon interview, Ishan Pandey sits down with Bernard Lau, co-founder of Staynex. As they delve deep into Bernard's personal journey and the inception of , readers are given an insightful look into the innovative world of hospitality amalgamated with groundbreaking technologies like blockchain. Bernard passionately talks about how Staynex is redefining the hospitality landscape by integrating exclusive memberships, like that with Arsenal FC, and using blockchain technology to offer unparalleled experiences. Staynex Ishan Pandey Interviews Bernard Lau on Staynex's Vision and Mission Hi Bernard, it's a pleasure to have you with us today for our "Behind the Startup" series. Can you share with us a little about your personal journey and what led you to co-found Staynex? Ishan Pandey: Thank you, Ishan, for having me today. My journey in hospitality and technology led me to identify a distinct need for innovation within the hospitality sector. I co-founded to bridge this gap, introducing a revolutionary platform enabling users to have unique and unprecedented experiences through exclusive memberships associated with prestigious entities like Arsenal FC, coupled with the flexibility and value provided by our blockchain-based platform. Bernard Lau: Staynex Our collaboration with Arsenal FC embodies our relentless pursuit to curate singular groundbreaking experiences that remain with you for your life. In conceptualizing Staynex, my co-founders and I envisaged a platform that could transcend the customary boundaries of hospitality by amalgamating it with breakthrough technologies like blockchain. The essence was to fabricate a realm where members can experience unparalleled value, authenticity, and autonomy, with offerings meticulously curated to resonate with their evolving preferences and lifestyles. How does Staynex differentiate itself from traditional timeshares and the existing hospitality business models? Furthermore, with the integration of Web3 and blockchain, what kind of security measures is Staynex implementing to ensure data protection and user safety? Ishan Pandey: Staynex reimagines the traditional timeshare model by leveraging blockchain technology to offer more flexibility, unique ownership, and trading options, allowing users to trade, sell, or rent unused stays. By tokenizing stays and embedding them into NFTs, we ensure user autonomy and create a personalized, secure, and transparent experience. Bernard Lau: To guarantee data protection and user safety, integrates advanced security protocols, adhering to best practices in Web3 and blockchain security, ensuring that user data and transactions are secure and protected. Staynex Our commitment to user safety and data protection is unwavering. We employ the best practices in Web3 and blockchain security to safeguard user data and transactions. Regular security audits, continuous monitoring, and prompt upgrades are integral components of our security strategy to ensure robust protection against evolving cyber threats. This innovative approach not only facilitates user empowerment but also heralds unprecedented fluidity within the hospitality sector. It allows members to monetize their assets by trading, selling, or renting their stays, thereby redefining user engagement and experience paradigms. Our model is constructed on the principles of transparency, security, and user-centricity, allowing our members to navigate the intricate landscapes of hospitality with ease, autonomy, and assurance, establishing Staynex as a revolutionary entity in the sector. By embedding the tokenized stays into NFTs, we are not only creating a secure and transparent platform but also ensuring user autonomy and personalized experiences. The utilization of NFTs represents a breakthrough in user-centric service provision, allowing members to tailor their engagements with our platform to suit their distinctive needs and preferences. It's a symbiosis of technology and hospitality that empowers users like never before. Staynex, recognizing the pivotal role of security in today’s digital era, especially with the integration of Web3 and blockchain, implements stringent and advanced security protocols. Our commitment to user safety and data protection is unwavering, and we employ the best practices in Web3 and blockchain security to safeguard user data and transactions. Regular security audits, continuous monitoring, and prompt upgrades are integral components of our security strategy to ensure robust protection against evolving cyber threats. But security at Staynex goes beyond just data protection; it is about crafting a secure and trustful environment where members feel valued and assured, where every interaction is underlined by transparency and reliability. We understand that in the realm of digital interactions, trust is the cornerstone, and we are committed to fostering and upholding it at every step of the user journey. Further, our model is meticulously constructed on the foundational principles of transparency, security, and user-centricity. These principles are not just integral but are the lifeblood of our operations, guiding every initiative, strategy, and innovation we undertake. They enable our members to navigate the multifaceted landscapes of hospitality with unparalleled ease, autonomy, and assurance, ensuring every experience with Staynex is seamless, rewarding, and enriching. In conclusion, Staynex is more than a solution; it’s a revolution in the hospitality sector, a paradigm shift from the conventional to the extraordinary, driven by our relentless pursuit to redefine user experiences and engagement, to create a world where hospitality meets innovation, and where every user is a creator of their unique journey. We are not just setting new standards; we are reimagining what’s possible in the realm of hospitality. Loyalty programs can be quite intricate. How does the Staynex explorer program determine discounts and rewards for its users? Is there a tier system based on the number of Staynex passes a user has? Ishan Pandey: The Staynex explorer program operates on a tiered system, where accumulating more Staynex passes translates to elevated rewards. This approach allows members to build a collection of stays globally and unlock exclusive experiences and perks, ensuring our users feel valued and are incentivized to explore premium experiences. Bernard Lau: This intricate reward mechanism serves as a catalyst for sustained user interaction and exploration, ensuring our platform’s continuous evolution and adaptation to the dynamic consumer landscape. It’s a harmonious synergy of consumer insight and strategic reward allocation, poised to redefine user experience and engagement in the hospitality sector. Each tier is a gateway to a new dimension of hospitality, where members can build a diverse and enriching collection of stays globally, explore the unexplored, and live the un-lived. From serene beaches to vibrant cities, from secluded retreats to bustling metropolises, the program offers a myriad of choices allowing members to craft their unique journeys and narratives. This innovative and intricate reward mechanism is not just a testament to our commitment to user satisfaction and engagement but also serves as a catalyst to foster sustained interaction and exploration within our platform. It’s a dynamic ecosystem where user insights and preferences interweave with strategic reward allocation to create a harmonious synergy, propelling Staynex to new heights in the hospitality sector. But our vision goes beyond rewards and tiers; it’s about building a community of explorers, a congregation of like-minded individuals who seek more than just stays, who yearn for experiences that resonate, for journeys that transform. The program is our ode to the spirit of exploration, a manifestation of our resolve to redefine the paradigms of user experience and engagement in the hospitality sector. It is about creating an environment where every interaction is meaningful, every experience is profound, and every journey is transformative. It’s about shaping a world where our members are not just consumers but are contributors, curators, and creators of their unique narratives and experiences. The Staynex Explorer Program is our step towards a future where hospitality meets innovation, where experiences are limitless, and where every journey is a masterpiece in the making. Tokenization can sometimes be a legal grey area. How does Staynex plan to handle any potential legal or regulatory challenges related to tokenizing nights in the Flexible Vacation Membership? Ishan Pandey: Absolutely, the legal frameworks surrounding tokenization are evolving, and we actively engage with legal counsel and compliance experts to ensure our offerings remain within the regulatory frameworks. We're prepared to adapt our strategies to align with emerging legal developments and standards in tokenization. Bernard Lau: The fusion of blockchain and hospitality seems promising. In your opinion, what are the upcoming trends at the crossroads of blockchain technology and the hospitality sector? Ishan Pandey: The integration of blockchain in hospitality is poised to redefine user experiences. Trends like decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions for hospitality services, enhanced customer loyalty programs through tokenization, and the rise of NFTs representing unique travel and hospitality experiences will become prominent. Bernard Lau: Traditional timeshares have challenges. Given your broad experience, Bernard, can you point out the main pain points in the conventional timeshare model, and how is Staynex positioning itself to tackle them? Ishan Pandey: Traditional timeshares often suffer from a lack of flexibility, transparency, and value retention. Staynex addresses these pain points by leveraging blockchain technology, providing users with a unique ownership model and trading options. Bernard Lau: Pilot projects can offer great insights. Could you tell us about how the pilot project with Kunang Kunang has influenced Staynex's strategies or services? Ishan Pandey: The pilot project with Kunang Kunang was instrumental in refining our approach. It provided invaluable insights into user preferences and behaviors, enabling us to optimize our platform to align better with user needs and industry trends. Bernard Lau: The hospitality sector witnessed significant shifts post-pandemic. How do you believe the pandemic has indefinitely changed the travel and hospitality domain? Ishan Pandey: The pandemic has emphasized the importance of flexibility, safety, and uniqueness. Platforms like Staynex are leading the transformation by integrating advanced technologies to cater to the evolved expectations of the modern traveler. Bernard Lau: Every entrepreneur's journey offers learning. Given your path with Staynex, what words of wisdom would you offer to budding entrepreneurs aspiring to challenge traditional sectors? Ishan Pandey: To every budding entrepreneur who aspires to challenge the status quo and transform traditional sectors, my advice is to cultivate a relentless spirit of innovation. Look beyond the superficial, delve deep into the realms of existing sectors, and identify the inherent gaps and inefficiencies. It is in these gaps that opportunities reside, waiting to be unearthed. Bernard Lau: The pursuit of innovation is fraught with challenges and risks. Be willing to embrace these risks, but ensure that every risk taken is calculated, well thought out, and aligns with your vision and values. Do not shy away from venturing into the unknown, but do so with prudence, resilience, and an unwavering belief in your ideas. Leverage technology as your ally in creating groundbreaking solutions. In today’s digital age, technology is the linchpin that holds the power to reshape industries, redefine norms, and create unparalleled value for users. Embrace it to engineer solutions that are not just novel but are also meaningful, adding tangible, enduring value to the users. Staying informed and continually upgrading your knowledge is non-negotiable. The business landscape is dynamic, and constantly evolving, and being on top of the latest trends, advancements, and insights is imperative to stay relevant and competitive. Absorb knowledge, be adaptable, and pivot when necessary, for it is adaptability that determines survival and success in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Don’t forget to like and share the story! : Vested Interest Disclosure This author is an independent contributor publishing via our . Be it through direct compensation, media partnerships, or networking, the author has a vested interest in the company/ies mentioned in this story. HackerNoon has reviewed the report for quality, but the claims herein belong to the author. #DYOR brand-as-author program

How Staynex is Bridging the Gap Between Traditional Hospitality and the Blockchain Revolution

কিভাবে Staynex ঐতিহ্যগত আতিথেয়তা এবং ব্লকচেইন বিপ্লবের মধ্যে ব্যবধান পূরণ করছে

Wie Staynex die Lücke zwischen traditioneller Gastfreundschaft und der Blockchain-Revolution schließt

Cómo Staynex está cerrando la brecha entre la hotelería tradicional y la revolución blockchain

Comment Staynex comble le fossé entre l'hospitalité traditionnelle et la révolution Blockchain

स्टेननेक्स पारंपरिक आतिथ्य और ब्लॉकचेन क्रांति के बीच की खाई को कैसे पाट रहा है

Staynex はどのようにして伝統的なホスピタリティとブロックチェーン革命の間のギャップを埋めるのか

Staynex가 전통적인 호텔 서비스와 블록체인 혁명 사이의 격차를 해소하는 방법

Como Staynex está preenchendo a lacuna entre a hospitalidade tradicional e a revolução Blockchain

Как Staynex преодолевает разрыв между традиционным гостеприимством и революцией блокчейна

Staynex, Geleneksel Konukseverlik ile Blockchain Devrimi Arasındaki Boşluğu Nasıl Kapatıyor?

Staynex đang thu hẹp khoảng cách giữa khách sạn truyền thống và cuộc cách mạng chuỗi khối như thế nào

Staynex 如何弥合传统酒店业与区块链革命之间的差距

Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . Conclusion here Conclusion The end of a novel, like the end of a children's dinner party, must be made up of sweetmeats and sugar-plums. There is now nothing else to be told but the gala doings of Mr. Arabin's marriage, nothing more to be described than the wedding-dresses, no further dialogue to be recorded than that which took place between the archdeacon, who married them, and Mr. Arabin and Eleanor, who were married. "Wilt thou have this woman to thy wedded wife," and "wilt thou have this man to thy wedded husband, to live together according to God's ordinance?" Mr. Arabin and Eleanor each answered, "I will." We have no doubt that they will keep their promises, the more especially as the Signora Neroni had left Barchester before the ceremony was performed. Mrs. Bold had been somewhat more than two years a widow before she was married to her second husband, and little Johnny was then able with due assistance to walk on his own legs into the drawing-room to receive the salutations of the assembled guests. Mr. Harding gave away the bride, the archdeacon performed the service, and the two Miss Grantlys, who were joined in their labours by other young ladies of the neighbourhood, performed the duties of bridesmaids with equal diligence and grace. Mrs. Grantly superintended the breakfast and bouquets, and Mary Bold distributed the cards and cake. The archdeacon's three sons had also come home for the occasion. The elder was great with learning, being regarded by all who knew him as a certain future double first. The second, however, bore the palm on this occasion, being resplendent in a new uniform. The third was just entering the university, and was probably the proudest of the three. But the most remarkable feature in the whole occasion was the excessive liberality of the archdeacon. He literally made presents to everybody. As Mr. Arabin had already moved out of the parsonage of St. Ewold's, that scheme of elongating the dining-room was of course abandoned; but he would have refurnished the whole deanery had he been allowed. He sent down a magnificent piano by Erard, gave Mr. Arabin a cob which any dean in the land might have been proud to bestride, and made a special present to Eleanor of a new pony chair that had gained a prize in the Exhibition. Nor did he even stay his hand here; he bought a set of cameos for his wife and a sapphire bracelet for Miss Bold; showered pearls and work-boxes on his daughters; and to each of his sons he presented a check for £20. On Mr. Harding he bestowed a magnificent violoncello with all the new-fashioned arrangements and expensive additions, which on account of these novelties that gentleman could never use with satisfaction to his audience or pleasure to himself. Those who knew the archdeacon well perfectly understood the causes of his extravagance. 'Twas thus that he sang his song of triumph over Mr. Slope. This was his pæan, his hymn of thanksgiving, his loud oration. He had girded himself with his sword and gone forth to the war; now he was returning from the field laden with the spoils of the foe. The cob and the cameos, the violoncello and the pianoforte, were all as it were trophies reft from the tent of his now-conquered enemy. The Arabins after their marriage went abroad for a couple of months, according to the custom in such matters now duly established, and then commenced their deanery life under good auspices. And nothing can be more pleasant than the present arrangement of ecclesiastical affairs in Barchester. The titular bishop never interfered, and Mrs. Proudie not often. Her sphere is more extended, more noble, and more suited to her ambition than that of a cathedral city. As long as she can do what she pleases with the diocese, she is willing to leave the dean and chapter to themselves. Mr. Slope tried his hand at subverting the old-established customs of the close, and from his failure she had learnt experience. The burly chancellor and the meagre little prebendary are not teased by any application respecting Sabbath-day schools, the dean is left to his own dominions, and the intercourse between Mrs. Proudie and Mrs. Arabin is confined to a yearly dinner given by each to the other. At these dinners Dr. Grantly will not take a part, but he never fails to ask for and receive a full account of all that Mrs. Proudie either does or says. His ecclesiastical authority has been greatly shorn since the palmy days in which he reigned supreme as mayor of the palace to his father, but nevertheless such authority as is now left to him he can enjoy without interference. He can walk down the High Street of Barchester without feeling that those who see him are comparing his claims with those of Mr. Slope. The intercourse between Plumstead and the deanery is of the most constant and familiar description. Since Eleanor has been married to a clergyman, and especially to a dignitary of the church, Mrs. Grantly has found many more points of sympathy with her sister; and on a coming occasion, which is much looked forward to by all parties, she intends to spend a month or two at the deanery. She never thought of spending a month in Barchester when little Johnny Bold was born! The two sisters do not quite agree on matters of church doctrine, though their differences are of the most amicable description. Mrs. Arabin's church is two degrees higher than that of Mrs. Grantly. This may seem strange to those who will remember that Eleanor was once accused of partiality to Mr. Slope, but it is no less the fact. She likes her husband's silken vest, she likes his adherence to the rubric, she specially likes the eloquent philosophy of his sermons, and she likes the red letters in her own prayer-book. It must not be presumed that she has a taste for candles, or that she is at all astray about the real presence, but she has an inkling that way. She sent a handsome subscription towards certain very heavy ecclesiastical legal expenses which have lately been incurred in Bath, her name of course not appearing; she assumes a smile of gentle ridicule when the Archbishop of Canterbury is named; and she has put up a memorial window in the cathedral. Mrs. Grantly, who belongs to the high and dry church, the High Church as it was some fifty years since, before tracts were written and young clergymen took upon themselves the highly meritorious duty of cleaning churches, rather laughs at her sister. She shrugs her shoulders and tells Miss Thorne that she supposes Eleanor will have an oratory in the deanery before she has done. But she is not on that account a whit displeased. A few High Church vagaries do not, she thinks, sit amiss on the shoulders of a young dean's wife. It shows at any rate that her heart is in the subject, and it shows moreover that she is removed, wide as the poles asunder, from that cesspool of abomination in which it was once suspected that she would wallow and grovel. Anathema maranatha! Let anything else be held as blessed, so that that be well cursed. Welcome kneelings and bowings, welcome matins and complines, welcome bell, book, and candle, so that Mr. Slope's dirty surplices and ceremonial Sabbaths be held in due execration! If it be essentially and absolutely necessary to choose between the two, we are inclined to agree with Mrs. Grantly that the bell, book, and candle are the lesser evil of the two. Let it however be understood that no such necessity is admitted in these pages. Dr. Arabin (we suppose he must have become a doctor when he became a dean) is more moderate and less outspoken on doctrinal points than his wife, as indeed in his station it behoves him to be. He is a studious, thoughtful, hard-working man. He lives constantly at the deanery and preaches nearly every Sunday. His time is spent in sifting and editing old ecclesiastical literature and in producing the same articles new. At Oxford he is generally regarded as the most promising clerical ornament of the age. He and his wife live together in perfect mutual confidence. There is but one secret in her bosom which he has not shared. He has never yet learned how Mr. Slope had his ears boxed. The Stanhopes soon found that Mr. Slope's power need no longer operate to keep them from the delight of their Italian villa. Before Eleanor's marriage they had all migrated back to the shores of Como. They had not been resettled long before the signora received from Mrs. Arabin a very pretty though very short epistle, in which she was informed of the fate of the writer. This letter was answered by another—bright, charming, and witty, as the signora's letters always were—and so ended the friendship between Eleanor and the Stanhopes. One word of Mr. Harding, and we have done. He is still precentor of Barchester and still pastor of the little church of St. Cuthbert's. In spite of what he has so often said himself, he is not even yet an old man. He does such duties as fall to his lot well and conscientiously, and is thankful that he has never been tempted to assume others for which he might be less fitted. The author now leaves him in the hands of his readers: not as a hero, not as a man to be admired and talked of, not as a man who should be toasted at public dinners and spoken of with conventional absurdity as a perfect divine, but as a good man, without guile, believing humbly in the religion which he has striven to teach, and guided by the precepts which he has striven to learn. 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. Anthony Trollope (2002). Barchester Towers. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3409/pg3409-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

The end of a novel

1. Why did I choose these instruments? It's easy; to prevent copy-paste, you can read it in . this article 2. I still don’t understand what these smart contracts of yours are. Let's imagine a vending machine, and we try to compare smart contract behavior with it: : You put in a dollar, select a soda, and the machine gives you that soda. Why? Because it has a pre-set "contract" or program that says to do so when you choose to put in the correct amount of money. Pre-set Rules : Like a vending machine, a smart contract automatically performs actions when certain conditions are met. You get a soda if the money is given and the right choice is made on a vending machine. If certain conditions are met on a smart contract, it automatically does its job (like sending tokens). Automation : There's no need for a cashier or shopkeeper to oversee the vending machine. Similarly, smart contracts work on a blockchain without intermediaries like banks or lawyers (Instead of one middleman, you have many of them as network validators, which check that is all right with your transaction and, if all is, approve). No Middlemen : Once a smart contract is on the blockchain, it can't be easily tampered with. It's like trying to change the program inside a vending machine – it's hard and usually impossible without taking the whole thing apart. This ensures people can trust the contract, knowing the "rules of the game" won't suddenly change. Security and Transparency But today we are going to make a vending machine. I thought for a long time (about 5 minutes) what to do, so exciting and vital, and realized that humanity has nothing more essential than the opportunity to invest a dollar and break the bank in the form of millions. Unfortunately, not everyone will win, but a certain number of participants, for example, 10 (or less if fewer people are willing) 3. Initialise environment Initialise the project and all other stuff mkdir contest
cd contest
npm init -y
npm install --save-dev hardhat
npx hardhat init 4. Skeleton In the directory, create a new file named : contracts Contest.sol pragma solidity ^0.8.9;

contract Contest {
		event ContestClosed(address contest);
    event ContestWinner(address winner, uint256 ticket, uint256 amount);
    event ContestParticipate(address winner, uint amount);

		enum Status {
        OPEN,
        CLOSED
    }

    constructor(uint _totalWinners, string memory _name, uint _endTime, uint256 _ticketPrice ) {

    }

    function participate() public payable {
        
    }

    function getWinners() public {
        
    }

    function getWinnersLength() public view returns (uint256) {
        
    }
} This is skeleton for contract. Let’s dive into it contract Contest {
		...
    constructor(uint _totalWinners, string memory _name, uint _endTime, uint256 _ticketPrice ) {

    }
		...
} Constructor for contract, that describes the basic rules of our contract, such as total winners contract name (just for fun, it's not required, but necessary) ticket price and when the contract will end contract Contest {
		...
    function participate() public payable {
        
    }
	  ...
} participate function, where if you pay enough, take a ticket that gives you a chance to get a prize, marked as public (available outside contract) and payable,  that indicates that this function can receive Ethers. When calling this function, the caller can send along some Ether. contract Contest {
		...
    function getWinners() public {
        
    }
		...
} choose winners, marked only as public and in code later we made that call it can only contract creator contract Contest {
		...
    function getWinnersLength() public view returns (uint256) {
        
    }
} simple function that count total winners for our contest contract Contest {
		event ContestClosed(address contest);
    event ContestWinner(address winner, uint256 ticket, uint256 amount);
    event ContestParticipate(address winner, uint amount);
		...
} Here is few events for our functions. Events is like announcements from a smart contract. When something important happens in the contract, it "shouts out" using an event, and anyone interested can listen to that shout and know about it. contract Contest {
		...
		enum Status {
        OPEN,
        CLOSED
    }
		...
} Enum which represent status out contract. 5. Constructor pragma solidity ^0.8.9;

contract Contest {
		...
	address public admin;
    string public name;
    uint public endTime;
    uint public totalWinners;
    uint256 public ticketPrice;

    uint counter;
    mapping(address => uint) public balance;
    mapping(address => uint[]) public ownedTickets;
    mapping(uint => address) public tickets;
    uint[] ticketKeys;
    uint[] public winners;
    bytes32 seed;
    Status public status = Status.OPEN;
		...

    constructor(uint _totalWinners, string memory _name, uint _endTime, uint256 _ticketPrice ) {
				admin = msg.sender;
        name = _name;
        endTime = _endTime;
        totalWinners = _totalWinners;
        ticketPrice = _ticketPrice;
    }
		...
} We little bit enrich our constructor. At first we store initial data in variables for next using. Also we add few mappings balance - this map contain information about how much tickets contains each address tickets - contains information about connection ticketId and address And arrays which will be used later ticketKeys winners - list with winner ticketIds And variables seed - string which used to calculation winner. I will describe variable later status - current status of contest 6. Participate // SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT

pragma solidity ^0.8.9;

import "hardhat/console.sol";

contract Contest {
    ...
    function participate() public payable {
        require(status == Status.OPEN, "Contest closed");
        require(endTime == 0 || block.timestamp < endTime, "Contest closed");
        require(msg.value >= ticketPrice, "Not enough ether to purchase Ticket.");

        uint ticketId = counter;
        ownedTickets[msg.sender].push(ticketId);

        balance[msg.sender] += 1;
        tickets[ticketId] = msg.sender;
        ticketKeys.push(ticketId);

        seed = keccak256(
            abi.encodePacked(
                seed,
                block.timestamp,
                block.prevrandao,
                msg.sender
            )
        );

        counter += 1;
        emit ContestParticipate(msg.sender, ticketId);
    }
		...
} in this function at first we check required conditions, contest should be opened, current time less than max time and user send enough ethers for participate. After all conditions passed, we get current counter number which will be our ticketId and associate it with current user, increase users balance, update seed and send event that user participated Why we update seed on every time than someone participate? Good question! Solidity doesn't have random function and one of best practice for it - make hash from string. And in order to reduce the dependence on external parameters and reduce the likelihood that this phrase can be calculated for the next steps, we update it every time through pseudo-random parameters. 7. Get Winners // SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT

pragma solidity ^0.8.9;

import "hardhat/console.sol";

contract Contest {
		...
function getWinners() public {
        require(msg.sender == admin, "Only admin node can get winners.");
        require(status == Status.OPEN, "Contest closed");
        uint total = totalWinners < counter ? totalWinners : counter;

        if (total == 0) {
            status = Status.CLOSED;
            emit ContestClosed(address(this));
            return;
        }

        uint256 amount = address(this).balance / total;

        for (uint i = 0; i < total; i++) {
            getWinner(amount);
        }

        status = Status.CLOSED;
        emit ContestClosed(address(this));
    }

    function getWinner(uint256 amount) private {
        seed = keccak256(
            abi.encodePacked(
                seed,
                block.timestamp,
                block.prevrandao,
                msg.sender
            )
        );

        uint256 winnerKey = uint(seed) % ticketKeys.length;
        uint winnerTicket = ticketKeys[winnerKey];
        address to = tickets[winnerTicket];

        ticketKeys[winnerKey] = ticketKeys[ticketKeys.length - 1];
        ticketKeys.pop();

        winners.push(winnerTicket);

        payable(to).transfer(amount);

        emit ContestWinner(to, winnerTicket, amount);
    }
		...
} And finally, the selection of winners. I moved the method for selecting a specific winner into a separate private function.
Let's consider the function. Everything is as simple as possible here, we check access rights and that the draw is not closed yet and find the actual number of winners. We calculate the size of the prize for each participant and select the winner from the list of tickets.
Once we have found all the winners, we mark the giveaway closed and send the corresponding event getWinners The function is a little more interesting. For each winner, we need to find a new number, which we divide by the number of tickets. This is how we get the index of the winning ticket.
Having received the index, we find the ticket and there is already a winner based on it.
To prevent the same ticket from entering twice, we replace it with the last ticket and remove the last ticket from the list of winners. Well, at the same time we send the winner the winnings due to him and create an event for this getWinner 8. Tests import { ethers } from "hardhat";
import { loadFixture, time } from "@nomicfoundation/hardhat-network-helpers";
import { expect } from "chai";

const CONTEST_NAME = "test name";
const AMOUNT = ethers.utils.parseEther("1");

describe("Contest", function () {
  async function deployOneYearLockFixture() {
    const endTime = (await time.latest()) + 60;
    const [owner, participant1, participant2, participant3, participant4, participant5 ] = await ethers.getSigners();

    const ticketPrise = ethers.utils.parseEther("1");

    const Contest = await ethers.getContractFactory("Contest");
    const contest = await Contest.deploy(10, CONTEST_NAME, endTime, ticketPrise);

    return { contest, endTime, owner, participant1, participant2, participant3, participant4, participant5, };
  }

  it("should get name and description", async () => {
    const { contest, endTime } = await loadFixture(deployOneYearLockFixture);
    const balance0ETH = await contest.provider.getBalance(contest.address);
    expect(await contest.name()).to.be.equal("test name");
    expect(await contest.endTime()).to.be.equal(endTime);
    expect(balance0ETH.toHexString()).to.be.equal("0x00");
  });

  it("should provide to participate", async () => {
    const { contest, participant1, participant2 } = await loadFixture(deployOneYearLockFixture);
    expect(
      await contest.connect(participant1).participate({value: AMOUNT})
    ).to.be.exist;

    expect(
      await contest.connect(participant1).participate({value: AMOUNT})
    ).to.be.exist;

    expect(
      await contest.connect(participant2).participate({value: AMOUNT})
    ).to.be.exist;

    expect(await contest.balance(participant1.getAddress())).to.be.equal(2);
    expect(await contest.balance(participant2.getAddress())).to.be.equal(1);

    const participant1Balance = await contest.provider.getBalance(participant1.getAddress());
    const participant2Balance = await contest.provider.getBalance(participant2.getAddress());

    await contest.getWinners();

    expect(await contest.getWinnersLength()).to.be.equal(3);

    const participant1BalanceAfter = await contest.provider.getBalance(participant1.getAddress());
    expect(participant1BalanceAfter.toHexString()).to.be.equal(participant1Balance.add(AMOUNT.mul(2)).toHexString());

    const participant2BalanceAfter = await contest.provider.getBalance(participant2.getAddress());
    expect(participant2BalanceAfter.toHexString()).to.be.equal(participant2Balance.add(AMOUNT).toHexString());
  });

  it("should select winners", async () => {
    const {
      contest,
      participant1,
      participant2,
      participant3,
      participant4,
      participant5,
    } = await loadFixture(deployOneYearLockFixture);

    for (let i = 0; i < 3; i += 1) {
      await contest.connect(participant1).participate({value: ethers.utils.parseEther("1")});
      await contest.connect(participant2).participate({value: ethers.utils.parseEther("1")});
      await contest.connect(participant3).participate({value: ethers.utils.parseEther("1")});
      await contest.connect(participant4).participate({value: ethers.utils.parseEther("1")});
      await contest.connect(participant5).participate({value: ethers.utils.parseEther("1")});
    }

    expect(await contest.balance(participant1.getAddress())).to.be.equal(3);
    expect(await contest.balance(participant2.getAddress())).to.be.equal(3);
    expect(await contest.balance(participant3.getAddress())).to.be.equal(3);
    expect(await contest.balance(participant4.getAddress())).to.be.equal(3);
    expect(await contest.balance(participant5.getAddress())).to.be.equal(3);

    expect(await contest.getWinners()).to.be.exist;
    expect(await contest.getWinnersLength()).to.be.equal(10);
  });

  it("should not apply participant if date is end", async () => {
    const endTime = (await time.latest()) - 60;

    const [owner, participant1] = await ethers.getSigners();

    const Contest = await ethers.getContractFactory("Contest");
    const contest = await Contest.deploy(10, CONTEST_NAME, endTime, ethers.utils.parseEther("1"));

    await expect(
      contest.connect(participant1).participate({value: ethers.utils.parseEther("1")})
    ).to.be.revertedWith("Contest closed");
  });

  it("should apply participant if date is 0", async () => {
    const [owner, participant1] = await ethers.getSigners();

    const Contest = await ethers.getContractFactory("Contest");
    const contest = await Contest.deploy( 10, CONTEST_NAME, 0, ethers.utils.parseEther("1"));

    await contest.connect(participant1).participate({value: ethers.utils.parseEther("1")});
    expect(await contest.balance(participant1.getAddress())).to.be.equal(1);
  });
}); These are tests, I don’t know what else to describe) Before each new iteration, we deploy a new contract and check all cases that deployed that several participants can participate that a winner is chosen that you cannot participate in a closed contest 9. Conclusion In this article, I tried to collect my experience in developing a smart contract (a slightly more advanced version is used in production). Next time we will make NFTs that can be added via Telegram and consider IPFS. The source code for this article is available at https://github.com/vivalaakam/contest Thank you for your time =)

Dive into Web3 Contracts with Hardhat and Node.js Vol.2

Among the Fells

AI for Knowledge Management: Iterating on RAG with the QE-RAG Architecture

জ্ঞান ব্যবস্থাপনার জন্য AI: QE-RAG আর্কিটেকচারের সাথে RAG-তে পুনরাবৃত্তি করা

KI für Wissensmanagement: Iteration auf RAG mit der QE-RAG-Architektur

IA para la gestión del conocimiento: iteración en RAG con la arquitectura QE-RAG

IA pour la gestion des connaissances : itérer sur RAG avec l'architecture QE-RAG

ज्ञान प्रबंधन के लिए एआई: क्यूई-आरएजी आर्किटेक्चर के साथ आरएजी पर पुनरावृत्ति

ナレッジ管理のための AI: QE-RAG アーキテクチャによる RAG の反復

지식 관리를 위한 AI: QE-RAG 아키텍처를 사용한 RAG 반복

IA para Gestão do Conhecimento: Iterando em RAG com a Arquitetura QE-RAG

ИИ для управления знаниями: итерация RAG с архитектурой QE-RAG

Bilgi Yönetimi için Yapay Zeka: QE-RAG Mimarisi ile RAG'ı Yineleme

AI cho Quản lý Tri thức: Lặp lại trên RAG với Kiến trúc QE-RAG

AI 知识管理：使用 QE-RAG 架构迭代 RAG

THE CLAVERINGS—THE PALL MALL GAZETTE—NINA BALATKA—AND LINDA TRESSEL.

Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . The Bishop's Chaplain here The Bishop's Chaplain Of the Rev. Mr. Slope's parentage I am not able to say much. I have heard it asserted that he is lineally descended from that eminent physician who assisted at the birth of Mr. T. Shandy, and that in early years he added an "e" to his name, for the sake of euphony, as other great men have done before him. If this be so, I presume he was christened Obadiah, for that is his name, in commemoration of the conflict in which his ancestor so distinguished himself. All my researches on the subject have, however, failed in enabling me to fix the date on which the family changed its religion. He had been a sizar at Cambridge, and had there conducted himself at any rate successfully, for in due process of time he was an M.A., having university pupils under his care. From thence he was transferred to London, and became preacher at a new district church built on the confines of Baker Street. He was in this position when congenial ideas on religious subjects recommended him to Mrs. Proudie, and the intercourse had become close and confidential. Having been thus familiarly thrown among the Misses Proudie, it was no more than natural that some softer feeling than friendship should be engendered. There have been some passages of love between him and the eldest hope, Olivia, but they have hitherto resulted in no favourable arrangement. In truth, Mr. Slope, having made a declaration of affection, afterwards withdrew it on finding that the doctor had no immediate worldly funds with which to endow his child, and it may easily be conceived that Miss Proudie, after such an announcement on his part, was not readily disposed to receive any further show of affection. On the appointment of Dr. Proudie to the bishopric of Barchester, Mr. Slope's views were in truth somewhat altered. Bishops, even though they be poor, can provide for clerical children, and Mr. Slope began to regret that he had not been more disinterested. He no sooner heard the tidings of the doctor's elevation than he recommenced his siege, not violently, indeed, but respectfully, and at a distance. Olivia Proudie, however, was a girl of spirit: she had the blood of two peers in her veins, and better still she had another lover on her books, so Mr. Slope sighed in vain, and the pair soon found it convenient to establish a mutual bond of inveterate hatred. It may be thought singular that Mrs. Proudie's friendship for the young clergyman should remain firm after such an affair, but, to tell the truth, she had known nothing of it. Though very fond of Mr. Slope herself, she had never conceived the idea that either of her daughters would become so, and remembering their high birth and social advantages, expected for them matches of a different sort. Neither the gentleman nor the lady found it necessary to enlighten her. Olivia's two sisters had each known of the affair, as had all the servants, as had all the people living in the adjoining houses on either side, but Mrs. Proudie had been kept in the dark. Mr. Slope soon comforted himself with the reflexion that, as he had been selected as chaplain to the bishop, it would probably be in his power to get the good things in the bishop's gift without troubling himself with the bishop's daughter, and he found himself able to endure the pangs of rejected love. As he sat himself down in the railway carriage, confronting the bishop and Mrs. Proudie as they started on their first journey to Barchester, he began to form in his own mind a plan of his future life. He knew well his patron's strong points, but he knew the weak ones as well. He understood correctly enough to what attempts the new bishop's high spirit would soar, and he rightly guessed that public life would better suit the great man's taste than the small details of diocesan duty. He, therefore,—he, Mr. Slope,—would in effect be Bishop of Barchester. Such was his resolve, and to give Mr. Slope his due, he had both courage and spirit to bear him out in his resolution. He knew that he should have a hard battle to fight, for the power and patronage of the see would be equally coveted by another great mind—Mrs. Proudie would also choose to be Bishop of Barchester. Mr. Slope, however, flattered himself that he could outmanoeuvre the lady. She must live much in London, while he would always be on the spot. She would necessarily remain ignorant of much, while he would know everything belonging to the diocese. At first, doubtless, he must flatter and cajole, perhaps yield in some things, but he did not doubt of ultimate triumph. If all other means failed, he could join the bishop against his wife, inspire courage into the unhappy man, lay an axe to the root of the woman's power, and emancipate the husband. Such were his thoughts as he sat looking at the sleeping pair in the railway carriage, and Mr. Slope is not the man to trouble himself with such thoughts for nothing. He is possessed of more than average abilities, and is of good courage. Though he can stoop to fawn, and stoop low indeed, if need be, he has still within him the power to assume the tyrant;—and with the power he has certainly the wish. His acquirements are not of the highest order, but such as they are, they are completely under control, and he knows the use of them. He is gifted with a certain kind of pulpit eloquence, not likely indeed to be persuasive with men, but powerful with the softer sex. In his sermons he deals greatly in denunciations, excites the minds of his weaker hearers with a not unpleasant terror, and leaves an impression on their minds that all mankind are in a perilous state, and all womankind, too, except those who attend regularly to the evening lectures in Baker Street. His looks and tones are extremely severe, so much so that one cannot but fancy that he regards the greater part of the world as being infinitely too bad for his care. As he walks through the streets his very face denotes his horror of the world's wickedness, and there is always an anathema lurking in the corner of his eye. In doctrine he, like his patron, is tolerant of dissent, if so strict a mind can be called tolerant of anything. With Wesleyan-Methodists he has something in common, but his soul trembles in agony at the iniquities of the Puseyites. His aversion is carried to things outward as well as inward. His gall rises at a new church with a high-pitched roof; a full-breasted black silk waistcoat is with him a symbol of Satan; and a profane jest-book would not, in his view, more foully desecrate the church seat of a Christian than a book of prayer printed with red letters and ornamented with a cross on the back. Most active clergymen have their hobby, and Sunday observances are his. Sunday, however, is a word which never pollutes his mouth—it is always "the Sabbath." The "desecration of the Sabbath," as he delights to call it, is to him meat and drink: he thrives upon that as policemen do on the general evil habits of the community. It is the loved subject of all his evening discourses, the source of all his eloquence, the secret of all his power over the female heart. To him the revelation of God appears only in that one law given for Jewish observance. To him the mercies of our Saviour speak in vain, to him in vain has been preached that sermon which fell from divine lips on the mountain—"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth"—"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." To him the New Testament is comparatively of little moment, for from it can he draw no fresh authority for that dominion which he loves to exercise over at least a seventh part of man's allotted time here below. Mr. Slope is tall, and not ill-made. His feet and hands are large, as has ever been the case with all his family, but he has a broad chest and wide shoulders to carry off these excrescences, and on the whole his figure is good. His countenance, however, is not specially prepossessing. His hair is lank and of a dull pale reddish hue. It is always formed into three straight, lumpy masses, each brushed with admirable precision and cemented with much grease; two of them adhere closely to the sides of his face, and the other lies at right angles above them. He wears no whiskers, and is always punctiliously shaven. His face is nearly of the same colour as his hair, though perhaps a little redder: it is not unlike beef—beef, however, one would say, of a bad quality. His forehead is capacious and high, but square and heavy and unpleasantly shining. His mouth is large, though his lips are thin and bloodless; and his big, prominent, pale-brown eyes inspire anything but confidence. His nose, however, is his redeeming feature: it is pronounced, straight and well-formed; though I myself should have liked it better did it not possess a somewhat spongy, porous appearance, as though it had been cleverly formed out of a red-coloured cork. I never could endure to shake hands with Mr. Slope. A cold, clammy perspiration always exudes from him, the small drops are ever to be seen standing on his brow, and his friendly grasp is unpleasant. Such is Mr. Slope—such is the man who has suddenly fallen into the midst of Barchester Close, and is destined there to assume the station which has heretofore been filled by the son of the late bishop. Think, oh, my meditative reader, what an associate we have here for those comfortable prebendaries, those gentlemanlike clerical doctors, those happy, well-used, well-fed minor canons who have grown into existence at Barchester under the kindly wings of Bishop Grantly! But not as a mere associate for these does Mr. Slope travel down to Barchester with the bishop and his wife. He intends to be, if not their master, at least the chief among them. He intends to lead and to have followers; he intends to hold the purse-strings of the diocese and draw round him an obedient herd of his poor and hungry brethren. And here we can hardly fail to draw a comparison between the archdeacon and our new private chaplain, and despite the manifold faults of the former, one can hardly fail to make it much to his advantage. Both men are eager, much too eager, to support and increase the power of their order. Both are anxious that the world should be priest-governed, though they have probably never confessed so much, even to themselves. Both begrudge any other kind of dominion held by man over man. Dr. Grantly, if he admits the Queen's supremacy in things spiritual, only admits it as being due to the quasi-priesthood conveyed in the consecrating qualities of her coronation, and he regards things temporal as being by their nature subject to those which are spiritual. Mr. Slope's ideas of sacerdotal rule are of quite a different class. He cares nothing, one way or the other, for the Queen's supremacy; these to his ears are empty words, meaning nothing. Forms he regards but little, and such titular expressions as supremacy, consecration, ordination, and the like convey of themselves no significance to him. Let him be supreme who can. The temporal king, judge, or gaoler can work but on the body. The spiritual master, if he have the necessary gifts and can duly use them, has a wider field of empire. He works upon the soul. If he can make himself be believed, he can be all powerful over those who listen. If he be careful to meddle with none who are too strong in intellect, or too weak in flesh, he may indeed be supreme. And such was the ambition of Mr. Slope. Dr. Grantly interfered very little with the worldly doings of those who were in any way subject to him. I do not mean to say that he omitted to notice misconduct among his clergy, immorality in his parish, or omissions in his family, but he was not anxious to do so where the necessity could be avoided. He was not troubled with a propensity to be curious, and as long as those around him were tainted with no heretical leaning towards dissent, as long as they fully and freely admitted the efficacy of Mother Church, he was willing that that mother should be merciful and affectionate, prone to indulgence, and unwilling to chastise. He himself enjoyed the good things of this world and liked to let it be known that he did so. He cordially despised any brother rector who thought harm of dinner-parties, or dreaded the dangers of a moderate claret-jug; consequently, dinner-parties and claret-jugs were common in the diocese. He liked to give laws and to be obeyed in them implicitly, but he endeavoured that his ordinances should be within the compass of the man and not unpalatable to the gentleman. He had ruled among his clerical neighbours now for sundry years, and as he had maintained his power without becoming unpopular, it may be presumed that he had exercised some wisdom. Of Mr. Slope's conduct much cannot be said, as his grand career is yet to commence, but it may be premised that his tastes will be very different from those of the archdeacon. He conceives it to be his duty to know all the private doings and desires of the flock entrusted to his care. From the poorer classes he exacts an unconditional obedience to set rules of conduct, and if disobeyed he has recourse, like his great ancestor, to the fulminations of an Ernulfus: "Thou shalt be damned in thy going in and in thy coming out—in thy eating and thy drinking," &c. &c. &c. With the rich, experience has already taught him that a different line of action is necessary. Men in the upper walks of life do not mind being cursed, and the women, presuming that it be done in delicate phrase, rather like it. But he has not, therefore, given up so important a portion of believing Christians. With the men, indeed, he is generally at variance; they are hardened sinners, on whom the voice of the priestly charmer too often falls in vain; but with the ladies, old and young, firm and frail, devout and dissipated, he is, as he conceives, all powerful. He can reprove faults with so much flattery and utter censure in so caressing a manner that the female heart, if it glow with a spark of Low Church susceptibility, cannot withstand him. In many houses he is thus an admired guest: the husbands, for their wives' sake, are fain to admit him; and when once admitted it is not easy to shake him off. He has, however, a pawing, greasy way with him, which does not endear him to those who do not value him for their souls' sake, and he is not a man to make himself at once popular in a large circle such as is now likely to surround him at Barchester. 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. Anthony Trollope (2002). Barchester Towers. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3409/pg3409-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

The Bishop's Chaplain

Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . Dr. and Mrs. Proudie here Dr. and Mrs. Proudie This narrative is supposed to commence immediately after the installation of Dr. Proudie. I will not describe the ceremony, as I do not precisely understand its nature. I am ignorant whether a bishop be chaired like a member of Parliament, or carried in a gilt coach like a lord mayor, or sworn like a justice of peace, or introduced like a peer to the upper house, or led between two brethren like a knight of the garter; but I do know that everything was properly done, and that nothing fit or becoming to a young bishop was omitted on the occasion. Dr. Proudie was not the man to allow anything to be omitted that might be becoming to his new dignity. He understood well the value of forms, and knew that the due observance of rank could not be maintained unless the exterior trappings belonging to it were held in proper esteem. He was a man born to move in high circles; at least so he thought himself, and circumstances had certainly sustained him in this view. He was the nephew of an Irish baron by his mother's side, and his wife was the niece of a Scotch earl. He had for years held some clerical office appertaining to courtly matters, which had enabled him to live in London, and to entrust his parish to his curate. He had been preacher to the royal beefeaters, curator of theological manuscripts in the Ecclesiastical Courts, chaplain to the Queen's yeomanry guard, and almoner to his Royal Highness the Prince of Rappe-Blankenberg. His residence in the metropolis, rendered necessary by duties thus entrusted to him, his high connexions, and the peculiar talents and nature of the man, recommended him to persons in power, and Dr. Proudie became known as a useful and rising clergyman. Some few years since, even within the memory of many who are not yet willing to call themselves old, a liberal clergyman was a person not frequently to be met. Sydney Smith was such and was looked on as little better than an infidel; a few others also might be named, but they were and were regarded with doubt and distrust by their brethren. No man was so surely a Tory as a country rector—nowhere were the powers that be so cherished as at Oxford. rarae aves When, however, Dr. Whately was made an archbishop, and Dr. Hampden some years afterwards regius professor, many wise divines saw that a change was taking place in men's minds, and that more liberal ideas would henceforward be suitable to the priests as well as to the laity. Clergymen began to be heard of who had ceased to anathematize papists on the one hand, or vilify dissenters on the other. It appeared clear that High Church principles, as they are called, were no longer to be surest claims to promotion with at any rate one section of statesmen, and Dr. Proudie was one among those who early in life adapted himself to the views held by the Whigs on most theological and religious subjects. He bore with the idolatry of Rome, tolerated even the infidelity of Socinianism, and was hand and glove with the Presbyterian Synods of Scotland and Ulster. Such a man at such a time was found to be useful, and Dr. Proudie's name began to appear in the newspapers. He was made one of a commission who went over to Ireland to arrange matters preparative to the working of the national board; he became honorary secretary to another commission nominated to inquire into the revenues of cathedral chapters; he had had something to do with both the and the Maynooth grant. regium donum It must not on this account be taken as proved that Dr. Proudie was a man of great mental powers, or even of much capacity for business, for such qualities had not been required in him. In the arrangement of those church reforms with which he was connected, the ideas and original conception of the work to be done were generally furnished by the liberal statesmen of the day, and the labour of the details was borne by officials of a lower rank. It was, however, thought expedient that the name of some clergyman should appear in such matters, and as Dr. Proudie had become known as a tolerating divine, great use of this sort was made of his name. If he did not do much active good, he never did any harm; he was amenable to those who were really in authority and, at the sittings of the various boards to which he belonged, maintained a kind of dignity which had its value. He was certainly possessed of sufficient tact to answer the purpose for which he was required without making himself troublesome; but it must not therefore be surmised that he doubted his own power, or failed to believe that he could himself take a high part in high affairs when his own turn came. He was biding his time, and patiently looking forward to the days when he himself would sit authoritative at some board, and talk and direct, and rule the roost, while lesser stars sat round and obeyed, as he had so well accustomed himself to do. His reward and his time had now come. He was selected for the vacant bishopric and, on the next vacancy which might occur in any diocese, would take his place in the House of Lords, prepared to give not a silent vote in all matters concerning the weal of the church establishment. Toleration was to be the basis on which he was to fight his battles, and in the honest courage of his heart he thought no evil would come to him in encountering even such foes as his brethren of Exeter and Oxford. Dr. Proudie was an ambitious man, and before he was well consecrated Bishop of Barchester, he had begun to look up to archiepiscopal splendour, and the glories of Lambeth, or at any rate of Bishopsthorpe. He was comparatively young, and had, as he fondly flattered himself, been selected as possessing such gifts, natural and acquired, as must be sure to recommend him to a yet higher notice, now that a higher sphere was opened to him. Dr. Proudie was, therefore, quite prepared to take a conspicuous part in all theological affairs appertaining to these realms; and having such views, by no means intended to bury himself at Barchester as his predecessor had done. No! London should still be his ground: a comfortable mansion in a provincial city might be well enough for the dead months of the year. Indeed, Dr. Proudie had always felt it necessary to his position to retire from London when other great and fashionable people did so; but London should still be his fixed residence, and it was in London that he resolved to exercise that hospitality so peculiarly recommended to all bishops by St. Paul. How otherwise could he keep himself before the world? How else give to the government, in matters theological, the full benefit of his weight and talents? This resolution was no doubt a salutary one as regarded the world at large, but was not likely to make him popular either with the clergy or people of Barchester. Dr. Grantly had always lived there—in truth, it was hard for a bishop to be popular after Dr. Grantly. His income had averaged £9,000 a year; his successor was to be rigidly limited to £5,000. He had but one child on whom to spend his money; Dr. Proudie had seven or eight. He had been a man of few personal expenses, and they had been confined to the tastes of a moderate gentleman; but Dr. Proudie had to maintain a position in fashionable society, and had that to do with comparatively small means. Dr. Grantly had certainly kept his carriage as became a bishop, but his carriage, horses, and coachman, though they did very well for Barchester, would have been almost ridiculous at Westminster. Mrs. Proudie determined that her husband's equipage should not shame her, and things on which Mrs. Proudie resolved were generally accomplished. From all this it was likely to result that Dr. Proudie would not spend much money at Barchester, whereas his predecessor had dealt with the tradesmen of the city in a manner very much to their satisfaction. The Grantlys, father and son, had spent their money like gentlemen, but it soon became whispered in Barchester that Dr. Proudie was not unacquainted with those prudent devices by which the utmost show of wealth is produced from limited means. In person Dr. Proudie is a good-looking man; spruce and dapper, and very tidy. He is somewhat below middle height, being about five feet four; but he makes up for the inches which he wants by the dignity with which he carries those which he has. It is no fault of his own if he has not a commanding eye, for he studies hard to assume it. His features are well formed, though perhaps the sharpness of his nose may give to his face in the eyes of some people an air of insignificance. If so, it is greatly redeemed by his mouth and chin, of which he is justly proud. Dr. Proudie may well be said to have been a fortunate man, for he was not born to wealth, and he is now Bishop of Barchester; nevertheless, he has his cares. He has a large family, of whom the three eldest are daughters, now all grown up and fit for fashionable life;—and he has a wife. It is not my intention to breathe a word against the character of Mrs. Proudie, but still I cannot think that with all her virtues she adds much to her husband's happiness. The truth is that in matters domestic she rules supreme over her titular lord, and rules with a rod of iron. Nor is this all. Things domestic Dr. Proudie might have abandoned to her, if not voluntarily, yet willingly. But Mrs. Proudie is not satisfied with such home dominion, and stretches her power over all his movements, and will not even abstain from things spiritual. In fact, the bishop is hen-pecked. The archdeacon's wife, in her happy home at Plumstead, knows how to assume the full privileges of her rank and express her own mind in becoming tone and place. But Mrs. Grantly's sway, if sway she has, is easy and beneficent. She never shames her husband; before the world she is a pattern of obedience; her voice is never loud, nor her looks sharp: doubtless she values power, and has not unsuccessfully striven to acquire it; but she knows what should be the limits of a woman's rule. Not so Mrs. Proudie. This lady is habitually authoritative to all, but to her poor husband she is despotic. Successful as has been his career in the eyes of the world, it would seem that in the eyes of his wife he is never right. All hope of defending himself has long passed from him; indeed he rarely even attempts self-justification, and is aware that submission produces the nearest approach to peace which his own house can ever attain. Mrs. Proudie has not been able to sit at the boards and committees to which her husband has been called by the State, nor, as he often reflects, can she make her voice heard in the House of Lords. It may be that she will refuse to him permission to attend to this branch of a bishop's duties; it may be that she will insist on his close attendance to his own closet. He has never whispered a word on the subject to living ears, but he has already made his fixed resolve. Should such attempt be made he will rebel. Dogs have turned against their masters, and even Neapolitans against their rulers, when oppression has been too severe. And Dr. Proudie feels within himself that if the cord be drawn too tight, he also can muster courage and resist. The state of vassalage in which our bishop has been kept by his wife has not tended to exalt his character in the eyes of his daughters, who assume in addressing their father too much of that authority which is not properly belonging, at any rate, to them. They are, on the whole, fine engaging young ladies. They are tall and robust like their mother, whose high cheek-bones, and—we may say auburn hair they all inherit. They think somewhat too much of their grand-uncles, who have not hitherto returned the compliment by thinking much of them. But now that their father is a bishop, it is probable that family ties will be drawn closer. Considering their connexion with the church, they entertain but few prejudices against the pleasures of the world, and have certainly not distressed their parents, as too many English girls have lately done, by any enthusiastic wish to devote themselves to the seclusion of a Protestant nunnery. Dr. Proudie's sons are still at school. One other marked peculiarity in the character of the bishop's wife must be mentioned. Though not averse to the society and manners of the world, she is in her own way a religious woman; and the form in which this tendency shows itself in her is by a strict observance of Sabbatarian rule. Dissipation and low dresses during the week are, under her control, atoned for by three services, an evening sermon read by herself, and a perfect abstinence from any cheering employment on the Sunday. Unfortunately for those under her roof to whom the dissipation and low dresses are not extended, her servants namely and her husband, the compensating strictness of the Sabbath includes all. Woe betide the recreant housemaid who is found to have been listening to the honey of a sweetheart in the Regent's park instead of the soul-stirring evening discourse of Mr. Slope. Not only is she sent adrift, but she is so sent with a character which leaves her little hope of a decent place. Woe betide the six-foot hero who escorts Mrs. Proudie to her pew in red plush breeches, if he slips away to the neighbouring beer-shop, instead of falling into the back seat appropriated to his use. Mrs. Proudie has the eyes of Argus for such offenders. Occasional drunkenness in the week may be overlooked, for six feet on low wages are hardly to be procured if the morals are always kept at a high pitch, but not even for grandeur or economy will Mrs. Proudie forgive a desecration of the Sabbath. In such matters Mrs. Proudie allows herself to be often guided by that eloquent preacher, the Rev. Mr. Slope, and as Dr. Proudie is guided by his wife, it necessarily follows that the eminent man we have named has obtained a good deal of control over Dr. Proudie in matters concerning religion. Mr. Slope's only preferment has hitherto been that of reader and preacher in a London district church; and on the consecration of his friend the new bishop, he readily gave this up to undertake the onerous but congenial duties of domestic chaplain to his lordship. Mr. Slope, however, on his first introduction must not be brought before the public at the tail of a chapter. 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. Anthony Trollope (2002). Barchester Towers. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3409/pg3409-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

Dr. and Mrs. Proudie

Lasers by Hal Hellman, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . LASING—A NEW WORD here LASING—A NEW WORD Now we can begin to put together the various processes and equipment we have been discussing separately. Perhaps the best way to do this is to look again at the word and recall its meaning: ight mplification by timulated mission of adiation. Our objective is to create a powerful, narrow, coherent beam of light. Let us see how to do this. laser l a s e r In we imagine a laser crystal containing many atoms in the ground state (white dots) and a few in the excited state (black dots). Pumping light (wavy arrows in ) raises most of the atoms to the excited state, creating the required population inversion. Figure 18 a Figure 18 Sequence of operations in a solid crystal laser. (a) Pumping light raises many atoms to excited state. (b) Lasing begins when a photon is spontaneously emitted along the axis of the crystal. This stimulates other atoms in its path to emit. (c) The resulting wave is reflected back and forth many times between the ends of the crystal and builds in intensity until finally it flashes out of the partially silvered end. (a)Ruby crystal Pumping light Atom in ground state Excited atom Partial reflecting mirror Full reflecting mirror (b)Excited atom emits photon parallel to axis (c) begins when an excited atom spontaneously emits a photon parallel to the axis of the crystal ( ). (Photons emitted in other directions merely pass out of the crystal.) The photon stimulates another atom in its path to contribute a second photon, in step, and in the same direction. Lasing b This process continues as the photons are reflected back and forth between the ends of the crystal. (We might think of lone soldiers falling into step with a column of marching men.) The beam builds up until, when amplification is great enough ( ), it flashes out through the partially silvered mirror at the right—a narrow, parallel, concentrated, coherent beam of light, ready for.... c 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. Hal Hellman (2021). Laser. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/65512/pg65512-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

LASING—A NEW WORD

Lasers by Hal Hellman, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . A LASER IS BORN here A LASER IS BORN Following the maser development, there was much speculation about the possibility of extending the principle to the optical region. Indeed the first lasers— ight mplification by timulated mission of adiation—were called “optical masers”. l a s e r The difficulty, of course, was that optical wavelengths are so tiny—about ¹/₁₀,₀₀₀ that of microwaves. The maser principle depended upon a physical resonator, a box a few centimeters (or even millimeters) in length. But at millimeter wavelengths, such resonators are already so small that they are hard to make accurately. Making a box ¹/₁,₀₀₀ that size was out of the question. Another approach was necessary. In 1958 A. L. Schawlow of Bell Telephone Laboratories and Dr. Townes outlined the theory and proposed a structure for an optical maser. They suggested that resonance could be obtained by making the waves travel back and forth along a relatively long, thin column of amplifying substance that had parallel reflectors at the ends. After their theory of the optical maser had been published, the race to build the first actual device began in earnest. The winner, in 1960, was Dr. T. H. Maiman, then with Hughes Aircraft Company. (He is now president of Maiman Associates.) The active substance he used was a single crystal of ruby, with the ends ground flat and silvered. Ruby is an aluminum oxide in which a small fraction of the aluminum atoms in the molecular structure, or lattice, have been replaced with chromium atoms. These atoms absorb green and blue light and hence impart a red color to the ruby. The chromium atoms can be boosted from their ground state into excited states when they absorb the green or blue light. This process, by which population inversion is achieved, has been given the name pumping. Pumping in a crystal laser is generally achieved by placing the ruby rod within a spiral flash lamp ( ) that operates like those used in high-speed (stroboscopic) photography. When the lamp is flashed, a bright beam of red light emerges from the ruby, shining out through one end, which has been only partially silvered. Figure 15 Figure 15 A ruby laser system. Ruby Flash lamp Partially silvered end Laser output Power Cooling The duration of this flash of red light is quite brief, lasting only some 300 millionths of a second, but it is very intense. In the early lasers, such a flash reached a peak power of some 10,000 watts. When Maiman’s device was successfully built and operating, a public relations expert was called in to help introduce this revolutionary device to the world. He took one look at the laser and decided that it was too small and insignificant looking and would not photograph well. Looking around the lab, he spotted a larger laser and decided that that one was better. Dr. Maiman informed him in his best scientific manner that laser action had not been achieved with that one. But the world of promotion won out, and Dr. Maiman allowed the larger device to be photographed on the assumption—or was it hope?—that he would be able to get it to operate in the future. (He did.) The device shown in is the true first laser. The all-important crystal rod is seen at the center. These crystals, incidentally, must be quite free of extraneous material; hence they are artificially “grown”, as shown in . The single large crystal is formed as it is pulled slowly from the “melt”, after which it is ground to size and polished. Figure 16 Figure 17 Figure 16 Dr. Maiman’s first laser. Output was 10,000 watts. Figure 17 An exotic crystal of the garnet family is “grown” from a melt at a temperature of 3400°F.

A LASER IS BORN

Lasers by Hal Hellman, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . CONTROLLED EMISSION here CONTROLLED EMISSION The laser and its parent, the maser, can be traced back half a century to its theoretical beginnings. The great physicist Albert Einstein is most widely known for his work in relativity. But he did early and important work on that other gigantic 20th century scientific achievement, the quantum theory. In one of his papers, published first in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1916, Einstein showed that controlled emission of light energy could be obtained from an atom under certain conditions. When an atom or molecule has somehow had its energy level raised, the release of this stored energy could be stimulated by subjecting the atom or molecule to a small “shot” of electromagnetic radiation of the proper frequency. Einstein wrote that when such a photon of energy caused an electron to drop from a higher to a lower orbit, the electron would emit another photon of the same frequency and in the same direction as the one that hit it. In other words, the energy of the emitted photon would be added to that of the photon that stimulated the emission in the first place. Here, , was light amplification. The three major factors, absorption of energy, spontaneous emission, and stimulated emission are diagrammed in . potentially Figure 14 There the matter lay for more than 30 years. In 1951 Charles H. Townes, then on the Columbia University faculty, was interested in ways of extending to still higher frequencies the range of microwaves available for use in communications and in other scientific applications. Townes and other scientists who were interested in the problem were to meet in Washington, D. C., on the 26th of April. The night before the meeting he slept in a small Washington hotel; but he awoke at 5:30—pondering, pondering the high frequency problem. He dressed and took a walk, then sat on a park bench and savored the beauty of azaleas in bloom. But all the while his mind was running over the various aspects of the problem. Figure 14 An atom can release absorbed energy spontaneously or it can be stimulated to do so. Suddenly the answer came to him. Normally more of the molecules in any substance are in low-energy states than in high ones. He would change the natural balance and create a situation with an abnormally large number of high-energy molecules. Then he would stimulate them to emit their energy by nudging them with microwaves. Here was amplification. He could even take some of the emitted radiation and feed it back into the device to stimulate additional molecules, thereby creating an oscillator. This arrangement, he knew, could be carried out in a cavity, which would resonate (just like an organ pipe) at the proper frequency. The resonator would be a box whose dimensions were comparable with the wavelength of the radiation, that is, a few centimeters on a side. feedback On the back of an envelope he figured out some of the basic requirements. Three years, and many experiments, later the maser ( icrowave mplification by timulated mission of adiation) was a reality. The original maser was a small metal box into which excited ammonia molecules were added. When microwaves were beamed into the excited ammonia the box emitted a pure, strong beam of high frequency microwaves, far more temporally coherent than any that had ever been achieved before. The output of an ammonia maser is stable to one part in 100 billion, making it an extremely accurate atomic “clock”. Moreover, the amplifying properties of masers have been found to be very useful for magnifying faint radio signals from space, and for satellite communications. m a s e r Ammonia gas was chosen for the first maser because molecules of ammonia have two individual energy states that are separated by a gap corresponding in frequency to 23,870 megacycles (23,870 million cycles) per second. Ammonia molecules also react to a nonuniform electric field in ways that depend on their energy level: low-level molecules can be attracted and high-level ones repelled by the same field. Thus it is possible to separate the low-energy molecules from the high, and to get the excited molecules into the cavity without too much trouble. This procedure for getting the majority of atoms or molecules in a container into a higher energy state, is called and is basic to the operation of both masers and lasers. population inversion It should be noted that two Russians, N. G. Basov and A. M. Prokhorov, were working along similar lines independently of Townes. In 1952 they presented a paper at an All-Union (U.S.S.R.) Conference, in which they discussed the possibility of constructing a “molecular generator”, that is, a maser. Their proposal, first published in 1954, was in many respects similar to Townes’s. In 1955, Basov and Prokhorov discussed, in a short note, a new way to obtain the active atomic systems for a maser, a method that turned out to be of great importance. Thus on October 29, 1964, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded, not only to Townes, but to Basov and Prokhorov as well. The award was for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the “aser” principle. 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. Hal Hellman (2021). Laser. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/65512/pg65512-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

CONTROLLED EMISSION

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