Vayais in the Alternative Lending Industry

Vaya

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Being quite as cunning as Ali himself

The French commander Nicole, surnamed the “Pilgrim,”

Ali Pacha by Alexandre Dumas, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . Chapter V CHAPTER V After taking possession of Argyro-Castron, which he had long coveted, Ali led his victorious army against the town of Kardiki, whose inhabitants had formerly joined with those of Kormovo in the outrage inflicted on his mother and sister. The besieged, knowing they had no mercy to hope for, defended themselves bravely, but were obliged to yield to famine. After a month’s blockade, the common people, having no food for themselves or their cattle, began to cry for mercy in the open streets, and their chiefs, intimidated by the general misery and unable to stand alone, consented to capitulate. Ali, whose intentions as to the fate of this unhappy town were irrevocably decided, agreed to all that they asked. A treaty was signed by both parties, and solemnly sworn to on the Koran, in virtue of which seventy-two beys, heads of the principal Albanian families, were to go to Janina as free men, and fully armed. They were to be received with the honours due to their rank as free tenants of the sultan, their lives and their families were to be spared, and also their possessions. The other inhabitants of Kardiki, being Mohammedans, and therefore brothers of Ali, were to be treated as friends and retain their lives and property. On these conditions a quarter of the town; was to be occupied by the victorious troops. One of the principal chiefs, Saleh Bey, and his wife, foreseeing the fate which awaited their friends, committed suicide at the moment when, in pursuance of the treaty, Ali’s soldiers took possession of the quarter assigned to them. Ali received the seventy-two beys with all marks of friendship when they arrived at Janina. He lodged them in a palace on the lake, and treated them magnificently for some days. But soon, having contrived on some pretext to disarm them, he had them conveyed, loaded with chains, to a Greek convent on an island in the lake, which was converted into a prison. The day of vengeance not having fully arrived, he explained this breach of faith by declaring that the hostages had attempted to escape. The popular credulity was satisfied by this explanation, and no one doubted the good faith of the pacha when he announced that he was going to Kardiki to establish a police and fulfil the promises he had made to the inhabitants. Even the number of soldiers he took excited no surprise, as Ali was accustomed to travel with a very numerous suite. After three days’ journey, he stopped at Libokhovo, where his sister had resided since the death of Aden Bey, her second son, cut off recently by wickness. What passed in the long interview they had no one knew, but it was observed that Chainitza’s tears, which till then had flowed incessantly, stopped as if by magic, and her women, who were wearing mourning, received an order to attire themselves as for a festival. Feasting and dancing, begun in Ali’s honour, did not cease after his departure. He spent the night at Chenderia, a castle built on a rock, whence the town of Kardiki was plainly visible. Next day at daybreak Ali despatched an usher to summon all the male inhabitants of Kardiki to appear before Chenderia, in order to receive assurances of the pacha’s pardon and friendship. The Kardikiotes at once divined that this injunction was the precursor of a terrible vengeance: the whole town echoed with cries and groans, the mosques were filled with people praying for deliverance. The appointed time arrived, they embraced each other as if parting for ever, and then the men, unarmed, in number six hundred and seventy, started for Chenderia. At the gate of the town they encountered a troop of Albanians, who followed as if to escort them, and which increased in number as they proceeded. Soon they arrived in the dread presence of Ali Pacha. Grouped in formidable masses around him stood several thousand of his fierce soldiery. The unhappy Kardikiotes realised their utter helplessness, and saw that they, their wives an children, were completely at the mercy of their implacable enemy. They fell prostrate before the pacha, and with all the fervour which the utmost terror could inspire, implored him to grant them a generous pardon. Ali for some time silently enjoyed the pleasure of seeing his ancient enemies lying before him prostrate in the dust. He then desired them to rise, reassured them, called them brothers, sons, friends of his heart. Distinguishing some of his old acquaintances, he called them to him, spoke familiarly of the days of their youth, of their games, their early friendships, and pointing to the young men, said, with tears in his eyes. “The discord which has divided us for so many years has allowed children not born at the time of our dissension to grow into men. I have lost the pleasure of watching the development of the off-spring of my neighbours and the early friends of my youth, and of bestowing benefits on them, but I hope shortly to repair the natural results of our melancholy divisions.” He then made them splendid promises, and ordered them to assemble in a neighbouring caravanserai, where he wished to give them a banquet in proof of reconciliation. Passing from the depths of despair to transports of joy, the Kardikiotes repaired gaily to the caravanserai, heaping blessings on the pacha, and blaming each other for having ever doubted his good faith. Ali was carried down from Chenderia in a litter, attended by his courtiers, who celebrated his clemency in pompous speeches, to which he replied with gracious smiles. At the foot of the steep descent he mounted his horse, and, followed by his troops, rode towards the caravanserai. Alone, and in silence, he rode twice round it, then, returning to the gate, which had just been closed by his order, he pulled up his horse, and, signing to his own bodyguard to attack the building, “Slay them!” he cried in a voice of thunder. The guards remained motionless in surprise and horror, then as the pacha, with a roar, repeated his order, they indignantly flung down their arms. In vain he harangued, flattered, or threatened them; some preserved a sullen silence, others ventured to demand mercy. Then he ordered them away, and, calling on the Christian Mirdites who served under his banner. “To you, brave Latins,” he cried, “I will now entrust the duty of exterminating the foes of my race. Avenge me, and I will reward you magnificently.” A confused murmur rose from the ranks. Ali imagined they were consulting as to what recompense should be required as the price of such deed. “Speak,” said he; “I am ready to listen to your demands and to satisfy them.” Then the Mirdite leader came forward and threw back the hood of his black cloak. “O Pacha!” said he, looking Ali boldly in the face, “thy words are an insult; the Mirdites do not slaughter unarmed prisoners in cold blood. Release the Kardikiotes, give them arms, and we will fight them to the death; but we serve thee as soldiers and not as executioners.” At these words; which the black-cloaked battalion received with applause, Ali thought himself betrayed, and looked around with doubt and mistrust. Fear was nearly taking the place of mercy, words of pardon were on his lips, when a certain Athanasius Vaya, a Greek schismatic, and a favourite of the pacha’s, whose illegitimate son he was supposed to be, advanced at the head of the scum of the army, and offered to carry out the death sentence. Ali applauded his zeal, gave him full authority to act, and spurred his horse to the top of a neighbouring hill, the better to enjoy the spectacle. The Christian Mirdites and the Mohammedan guards knelt together to pray for the miserable Kardikiotes, whose last hour had come. The caravanserai where they were shut in was square enclosure, open to the sky, and intended to shelter herds of buffaloes. The prisoners having heard nothing of what passed outside, were astonished to behold Athanasius Vaya and his troop appearing on the top of the wall. They did not long remain in doubt. Ali gave the signal by a pistol-shot, and a general fusillade followed. Terrible cries echoed from the court; the prisoners, terrified, wounded, crowded one upon another for shelter. Some ran frantically hither and thither in this enclosure with no shelter and no exit, until they fell, struck down by bullets. Some tried to climb the walls, in hope of either escape or vengeance, only to be flung back by either scimitars or muskets. It was a terrible scene of despair and death. After an hour of firing, a gloomy silence descended on the place, now occupied solely by a heap of corpses. Ali forbade any burial rites on pain of death, and placed over the gate an inscription in letters of gold, informing posterity that six hundred Kardikiotes had there been sacrificed to the memory of his mother Kamco. When the shrieks of death ceased in the enclosure, they began to be heard in the town. The assassins spread themselves through it, and having violated the women and children, gathered them into a crowd to be driven to Libokovo. At every halt in this frightful journey fresh marauders fell on the wretched victims, claiming their share in cruelty and debauchery. At length they arrived at their destination, where the triumphant and implacable Chainitza awaited them. As after the taking of Kormovo, she compelled the women to cut off their hair and to stuff with it a mattress on which she lay. She then stripped them, and joyfully narrated to them the massacre of their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons, and when she had sufficiently enjoyed their misery they were again handed over to the insults of the soldiery. Chainitza finally published an edict forbidding either clothes, shelter, or food to be given to the women and children of Kardiki, who were then driven forth into the woods either to die of hunger or to be devoured by wild beasts. As to the seventy-two hostages, Ali put them all to death when he returned to Janina. His vengeance was indeed complete. But as, filled with a horrible satisfaction, the pacha was enjoying the repose of a satiated tiger, an indignant and threatening voice reached him even in the recesses of his palace. The Sheik Yussuf, governor of the castle of Janina, venerated as a saint by the Mohammedans on account of his piety, and universally beloved and respected for his many virtues, entered Ali’s sumptuous dwelling for the first time. The guards on beholding him remained stupefied and motionless, then the most devout prostrated themselves, while others went to inform the pacha; but no one dared hinder the venerable man, who walked calmly and solemnly through the astonished attendants. For him there existed no antechamber, no delay; disdaining the ordinary forms of etiquette, he paced slowly through the various apartments, until, with no usher to announce him, he reached that of Ali. The latter, whose impiety by no means saved him from superstitious terrors, rose hastily from the divan and advanced to meet the holy sheik, who was followed by a crowd of silent courtiers. Ali addressed him with the utmost respect, and endeavoured even to kiss his right hand. Yussuf hastily withdrew it, covered it with his mantle, and signed to the pacha to seat himself. Ali mechanically obeyed, and waited in solemn silence to hear the reason of this unexpected visit. Yussuf desired him to listen with all attention, and then reproached him for his injustice and rapine, his treachery and cruelty, with such vivid eloquence that his hearers dissolved in tears. Ali, though much dejected, alone preserved his equanimity, until at length the sheik accused him of having caused the death of Emineh. He then grew pale, and rising, cried with terror: “Alas! my father, whose name do you now pronounce? Pray for me, or at least do not sink me to Gehenna with your curses!” “There is no need to curse thee,” answered Yussuf. “Thine own crimes bear witness against thee. Allah has heard their cry. He will summon thee, judge thee, and punish thee eternally. Tremble, for the time is at hand! Thine hour is coming—is coming—is coming!” Casting a terrible glance at the pacha, the holy man turned his back on him, and stalked out of the apartment without another word. Ali, in terror, demanded a thousand pieces of gold, put them in a white satin purse, and himself hastened with them to overtake the sheik, imploring him to recall his threats. But Yussuf deigned no answer, and arrived at the threshold of the palace, shook off the dust of his feet against it. Ali returned to his apartment sad and downcast, and many days elapsed before he could shake off the depression caused by this scene. But soon he felt more ashamed of his inaction than of the reproaches which had caused it, and on the first opportunity resumed his usual mode of life. The occasion was the marriage of Moustai, Pacha of Scodra, with the eldest daughter of Veli Pacha, called the Princess of Aulis, because she had for dowry whole villages in that district. Immediately after the announcement of this marriage Ali set on foot a sort of saturnalia, about the details of which there seemed to be as much mystery as if he had been preparing an assassination. All at once, as if by a sudden inundation, the very scum of the earth appeared to spread over Janina. The populace, as if trying to drown their misery, plunged into a drunkenness which simulated pleasure. Disorderly bands of mountebanks from the depths of Roumelia traversed the streets, the bazaars and public places; flocks and herds, with fleeces dyed scarlet, and gilded horns, were seen on all the roads driven to the court by peasants under the guidance of their priests. Bishops, abbots, ecclesiastics generally, were compelled to drink, and to take part in ridiculous and indecent dances, Ali apparently thinking to raise himself by degrading his more respectable subjects. Day and night these spectacles succeeded each other with increasing rapidity, the air resounded with firing, songs, cries, music, and the roaring of wild beasts in shows. Enormous spits, loaded with meat, smoked before huge braziers, and wine ran in floods at tables prepared in the palace courts. Troops of brutal soldiers drove workmen from their labour with whips, and compelled them to join in the entertainments; dirty and impudent jugglers invaded private houses, and pretending that they had orders from the pacha to display their skill, carried boldly off whatever they could lay their hands upon. Ali saw the general demoralization with pleasure, especially as it tended to the gratification of his avarice, Every guest was expected to bring to the palace gate a gift in proportion to his means, and foot officers watched to see that no one forgot this obligation. At length, on the nineteenth day, Ali resolved to crown the feast by an orgy worthy of himself. He caused the galleries and halls of his castle by the lake to be decorated with unheard-of splendour, and fifteen hundred guests assembled for a solemn banquet. The pacha appeared in all his glory, surrounded by his noble attendants and courtiers, and seating himself on a dais raised above this base crowd which trembled at his glance, gave the signal to begin. At his voice, vice plunged into its most shameless diversions, and the wine-steeped wings of debauchery outspread themselves over the feast. All tongues were at their freest, all imaginations ran wild, all evil passions were at their height, when suddenly the noise ceased, and the guests clung together in terror. A man stood at the entrance of the hall, pale, disordered, and wild-eyed, clothed in torn and blood-stained garments. As everyone made way at his approach, he easily reached the pacha, and prostrating himself at his feet, presented a letter. Ali opened and rapidly perused it; his lips trembled, his eyebrows met in a terrible frown, the muscles of his forehead contracted alarmingly. He vainly endeavoured to smile and to look as if nothing had happened, his agitation betrayed him, and he was obliged to retire, after desiring a herald to announce that he wished the banquet to continue. Now for the subject of the message, and the cause of the dismay it produced. 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. Alexandre Dumas (2006). Ali Pacha. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2753/pg2753-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

Ali led his victorious army against the town of Kardiki

Procesando Datos Para Deep Learning: Datasets, visualizaciones y DataLoaders en PyTorch

Para extraer datos de websites, puede usar las herramientas de extracción de datos como . Estas herramientas pueden extraer datos de website automáticamente y guardarlos en muchos formatos, como Excel, JSON, CSV, HTML o en su propia base de datos a través de . Solo toma unos minutos puede extraer miles de líneas de datos, la mejor es que no se necesita codificación en este proceso. Octoparse API Tabla de contenidos Método #1: Extracción Sencilla con Las Plantillas de Web Scraping Método #2: Extracción Personalizada con Modo Avanzado Tome Google Search como ejemplo. Si estamos interesados en información sobre el "smoothie" y queremos extraer todos los títulos, descripciones y URLs de los resultados de búsqueda. Para extraer datos de Google Search, puede usar una . plantilla de web scraping La plantilla es un crawler preformateado que listo para usar sin ninguna configuración. Hay más de 50 plantillas para elegir. Verá todas las plantillas desde sitios web de comercio electrónico como Amazon y eBay hasta canales de redes sociales como Facebook, Twitter e Instagram. Octoparse también ofrece plantillas personalizadas. Método #1: Extracción Sencilla con Las Plantillas de Web Scraping Primero: Elija una plantilla de web scraping Para usar la plantilla, necesita instalar Octoparse en la computadora. Seleccione el modo "Task Template". Vaya a la plantilla de web scraping de Google Search en la categoría "search engine", Segundo: lee las instrucciones de la plantilla Abre la plantilla. Consulte las instrucciones y la salida de muestra para asegurarse de que esta plantilla le proporcionará los datos que necesita. Puede pasar el cursor sobre los campos de datos para ver qué elementos de los sitios web se extraerán. Consulte los parámetros para comprender mejor lo que necesita ingresar. Los parámetros variarían en diferentes plantillas, porque necesitan diferentes términos de búsqueda para continuar. Puede ser una URL, una palabra clave, una lista de URL/palabras clave , la cantidad de páginas que desea obtener, etc. En este caso, debemos ingresar el término de búsqueda "smoothie" Tercero: Usa la plantilla y comienza datos extracción Sigue haciendo clic en "use template", luego ingrese "smoothie" y presione "save and run". Si es una-vez proyecto, simplemente puede ejecutar el crawler en su computadora local. Mientras que, si está manejando un proyecto en curso, puede extraer datos en la  plataforma de la nube de Octoparse. Después de la extracción, puede exportarla a muchos formatos, como Excel, CSV y txt. Acabamos de presentar cómo usar una plantilla de web scraping para extraer web datos de Google Search. También puede crear su propio crawler utilizando el "Modo avanzado". Es posible que necesita algunas configuraciones, pero es muy flexible en términos de extracción de datos. Método #2: Extracción Personalizada con Modo Avanzado Paso 1: Ingrese la URL de destino para crear un crawler Si está tratando de , puede ingresar una lista de hasta 10,000 URL en el cuadro. En este caso, como solo estamos scraping solo un sitio web, peguemos la URL de destino en el cuadro y haga clic en "save URL" para continuar. extraer datos a gran escala Paso 2: Crea un bucle de paginación Cambie el navegador a Firefox 45. Ahora Octoparse ha cargado la página web en el navegador incorporado con éxito. Luego, debemos crear una paginación haciendo clic en el botón de página "Next" y seleccionando "Loop click next page" en el panel de Consejos de acción. Verá el bucle de paginación que acabamos de crear en el área de flujo de trabajo. Paso 3: Extraer los datos e iniciar la extracción Ahora podemos extraer los datos. Haga clic en el título de un resultado de búsqueda y haga clic en "select all". Después de seleccionar todos los títulos, se resaltarán en verde. Haga clic en "extract text of the selected element" para extraer todos los títulos. Hagamos una pausa por un momento para ver el flujo de trabajo. Como veis, acabamos de construir un bucle extracción dentro del ciclo de paginación. Todo el proceso de extracción funcionará de esta manera: el bot primero abrirá la página web, extraerá los títulos en la primera página uno por uno, y luego pasará a la página siguiente para repetir la extracción hasta que la extracción se detenga o se complete. Además de Google, las herramientas de extracción de datos pueden extraer datos de muchos otros sitios web, y se utilizan ampliamente en todas las industrias. Por ejemplo, las compañías pueden extraer mapas de Yellowpages, Yelp y Google para generar oportunidades de ventas. Puede consultar otros usos y aplicaciones de extracción de datos . Previously published at http://www.octoparse.es/blog/scrape-websites-sin-ser-bloqueado

Extraer Datos del Website a Excel Automáticamente

So, what does it take to create a startup that succeeds? Is it knowing the art of building successful apps? Or it is all about technical skills? For many startups where non-technical founders have created award-winning tech products, nothing could be further from the truth. For those who liken creating apps without tech knowledge to cooking in the absence of the right recipe, here’s news. Founders and CEOs with non-technical skills are shaping tech startups worldwide. Let’s start with the startup that revolutionized the concept of a home away from home: Airbnb. Brian Chesky Brian Chesky is the co-founder of Airbnb. He was also a designer to start with. Founding the peer-to-peer lodging service and becoming an internet billionaire was simply a matter of succeeding where great minds have failed. Brian was also named among the 100 most influential people by Time’s Magazine. Brian worked as an industrial designer at an LA firm right at the start of his career post a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Industrial Design way back in 2004. The Rhode Island School of Design alumnus is now brushing shoulders with the likes of Facebook’s techie founder Mark Zuckerberg. Airbnb has emerged as a market leader in recent times in the online hospitality industry, showing there’s always room for a great idea. In January 2017, Airbnb invested in Resy, a restaurant reservation app along with Gary Vaynerchuk and Mike Montero. The company first became profitable in 2016. It’s 2017 acquisitions ranged across Canada’s Luxury Retreat, social payment startup Tilt and travel accessibility startup Accomable. In 2018, Airbnb plus was offered along with luxury rentals by Beyond Airbnb. In March 2019, Airbnb completed an acquisition of over USD 400 million by purchasing hotel booking website HotelTonight. Melody McCloskey The founder of StyleSeat, an online appointment management system for stylists and the largest marketplace in the beauty services industry is a non-tech innovator. Melody McCloskey and co-founder Dan Levine work incredibly well together, sharing a common passion for making solutions that appeal to the beauty industry. More than USD 300 million worth of appointments has been booked through StyleSeat. Melody’s company offers an impressive listing of 200K stylists in 15,000 cities. After completing a degree in French and International Relations at UC Davis, the last thing on Melody’s mind was starting a tech company. This was about to change when she was at the receiving end of not one, but three styling disasters priced at USD 300 each. She worked in PR on the product side and made history when she quit the job to start StyleSeat. Giving women a chance to find the dream stylist at the single click of a mouse or a swipe of a smartphone proved to be a revolutionary idea. Innovating for women in tech, Melody’s venture has provided clear proof that tech skills can only take you so far, especially while building a tech startup. At the end of the day, speed and decision making capabilities count as much. Rather than worrying about writing code, bring excellent product management skills to the board and you’ll do well, too. From fundraising to monetizing the concept, Melody took beauty with a purpose to a whole new level. Tim Westergren When it comes to tech behemoths and giants, tech titans like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg come to mind. But tech startups and products need not always have a leader with a technical background to succeed. Pandora Radio CEO and founder Tim Westergren is the case in point. He is a sound engineer and musician with a strong understanding of what drives a musical piece and the tech industry. Tim donned many hats, working as a music composer, recorder and even a nanny to make ends meet, before setting up Pandora Radio. Named as one of Time’s Most Influential 100 people in 2010, Tim has led the tech startup to establish itself as a key player in the music industry. From having USD 2 million in back wages to closing a 9 million funding deal, Tim has seen it all as far as Pandora Radio is concerned. Stepping down as CEO in 2017, Tim continues to inspire and lead the team at Pandora. Alex Turnbull Slow and steady wins the race, and as a non-tech guy who started a premier tech company, Alex Turnbull of Groove HQ knows this better than anyone else. He started with sketching to come up with wireframes. This led to innovation when he founded Groove, a helpdesk software company. In his blog, Alex explains how he used graphics editing software Photoshop to create mockups of the app and bridge the gap between co-founders and himself in terms of understanding. An avid surfer and a passionate software enthusiast without any technical skills, it took courage and grit to set up the software. But Alex was a visionary in 2011, introducing live chat when no one else even thought of it. Because of his amazing grasp of the tech industry, a lot of iterations and money were saved. A serial entrepreneur, Alex’s company earns millions per month in recurring revenue. Groove was a culmination of a lot of hard work and persistence. And from the stats coming in as Groove draws in investors and advisors like David Hauser, noted entrepreneur, speaker and angel investor. Perri Gorman Chase Non-tech co-founder Perri Gorman Chase thought of an email unsubscribe service and with the help of her tech friends, Unroll.me was born. Here’s what she learned in her own words. While prototypes look good at the front end, visual design made it easier for others to see what Perri wanted to accomplish. She succeeded in communicating with engineers and developers who translated her vision into reality. The focus is on understanding if the engineering team can speak one’s language and vice versa. Perri spoke of how one needs to know the landscape, databases, programming and API integrations or (in other words) how things fit together. Getting the basics right and controlling business outcomes are linked. Always maintain a database and an understanding of engineering processes and like Perri, you’ll get it right! Walker Williams Founder and CEO of Teespring, Walker Williams worked as a cartoonist and writer before he set out to form a tech company, with zero knowledge of coding or programming. Right from the start, Walker pursued diverse interests. At 16, he made up his mind to be an entrepreneur. And then secured a BA degree in Arts and History from Brown University. Fresh out of university, he collaborated with co-founder Evans Stites Clayton and created a platform for custom merchandise. Unique custom designs, setting sales goals and even prices for items is what distinguishes Teespring from others in the business. In 2016, Teespring was valued at USD 30 million alone. Walker was listed as the leading entrepreneur because of his revolutionary social commerce company. But it all began when the two friends Evans and Walker while still at University, designed and sold a t-shirt to commemorate the closing of a local hangout. Now, Teespring attracts 100K orders per month and growing! It has even been featured in Y Combinator’s blog. AJ Forsythe Founder and CEO of iCracked, AJ Forsyth actually holds a degree in science and biology/psychology! He’s tried his hands at everything from the winery to beekeeping before settling for the on-demand smartphone repair service through iCracked. While Forsythe graduated from California Polytechnic State University in 2011, he founded iCracked way before that. From a college dorm room in 2010 to the world’s largest, most efficient repair service for tablets and smartphones, Forsythe has come a long way as has his venture iCracked. The company has over 4K certified iTech professionals and operates in 11 countries. AJ also made it to Forbes 30 under 30 for his achievement. With the next move towards smart homes for all, iCracked is an early adopter with a difference. Stephanie Tilenius Founder and CEO of Vida Health Inc., Stephanie Tilenius is a Harvard and Brandeis University alumni with degrees in Economics and International Finance. So what motivated her to found a tech despite her non-tech background? Stephanie sought to provide expert, on-demand, personalized health coaching along with programs from experienced healthcare providers and leading medical centers. health company Close to 133 million individuals in the US live alone and face chronic health conditions. Her father had 4 chronic health conditions and as she struggled to build a health infrastructure to support him, Stephanie realized the need for having a scalable continuous mobile care platform and Vida Health was formed. In Stephanie’s words, Vida Health is the first “horizontal digital therapeutic” services provider. She also supports women entrepreneurs through Rivet Ventures, a fund. Sean Rad Founder and Chairman of Tinder, Sean Rad was a college dropout until he founded the dating app and became a CEO! Rad founded Tinder in 2012 with two other co-founders. Tinder managed a million matches within just 2 months of its launch. Further, Tinder had over 3.7 million paid subscribers, up by 81% over the same quarter in 2017. Presently, Tinder is valued at USD 3 billion. It is one of the highest grossing apps in the app store. Jamie Wong Founder and CEO of Vayable, Jamie Wong is a filmmaker par excellence and founder of tech company Vayable that uses technologies to promote travel. Jamie has a background in communication, advocacy, and disruptive media. She has pursued Art, History, and Politics, going onto a BA in History at Wesleyan University and finally the Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She founded Vayable in 2010, driven by the need to share collective and unique travel experiences, and it’s been quite a journey so far. Jamie’s tech company has a presence in 240 cities and was also featured in NYT, WSJ, and CNN. Evan Sharp Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer at Pinterest, Evan Sharp was definitely not a techie when he came up with the idea. Evan studied Architecture at Columbia University. Prior to that, he pursued a BA in History from the University of Chicago. While enrolled at the architecture course, he met Ben Silbermann, co-founder, and CEO of Pinterest. The image sharing site was launched in 2010. It is one of the most creative social media channels out there. In October 2018, Pinterest spanned a user base of 250 million monthly active individuals and 175 billion Pinterest Pins. Conclusion Pinterest, Vayable or any of the other tech products created by non-tech founders are doing so well. This proves you need innovation, not technical knowledge if you want to thrive in the tech startup world. So don’t let the absence of a formal degree deter you. Remember, knowledge grows with experience and expertise is not about coding alone!

11 Non-Technical Startup Founders Who Built Great Tech Products

11 fundadores de empresas emergentes no técnicas que crearon excelentes productos tecnológicos

Go is a programming language often used for applications in which performance matters. Optimizing your code based on assumptions is not a best practice of course. You need to have insights about your code performance and bottlenecks to be able to optimize it efficiently. What is a profiler? Profiler is a dynamic performance analysis tool that provides critical execution insights in various dimensions which enable resolving performance issues, locating memory leaks, thread contention and more. Go comes with built-in support for profiling! What kinds of profiles can I get? Go has several built in profiles: stack traces of all current Goroutines Goroutine: stack traces of CPU returned by runtime CPU: a sampling of memory allocations of live objects Heap: a sampling of all past memory allocations Allocation: stack traces that led to the creation of new OS threads Thread: stack traces that led to blocking on synchronization primitives Block: stack traces of holders of contended mutexes Mutex: How to get a profile? There are a few ways to create a profile. 1. Using “go test” to generate profile Support for profiling the standard testing package. As an example, the following command runs all benchmarks and writes CPU and memory profile to and : built into cpu.prof mem.prof go -cpuprofile cpu.prof -memprofile mem.prof -bench . test 2. Download live profile using HTTP If you need to have a live profile in a long-running service, package is your ultimate solution. Solely import the package in your code and you are good to go: net/http/pprof _ import "net/http/pprof" The initialization of this package is the reason you need to import it solely. {
	http.HandleFunc( , Index)
	http.HandleFunc( , Cmdline)
	http.HandleFunc( , Profile)
	http.HandleFunc( , Symbol)
	http.HandleFunc( , Trace)
} func init () "/debug/pprof/" "/debug/pprof/cmdline" "/debug/pprof/profile" "/debug/pprof/symbol" "/debug/pprof/trace" As you can see the package initialization registers handlers for the given URL in . These handlers write the profile into a which you can download. Now the only thing you need to do is running a HTTP server with a handler: DefaultServeMux http.ResponseWriter nil { {
		http.ListenAndServe( , )
	}()
} func init () go func () ":1234" nil Note that if you already run your http server with , you don’t need to run another server and profiles are available on your server. DefaultServeMux Now, you can download live profile data from the URL. /debug/pprof/ 3. Profiling in code Using , You can also profile directly within the code. For example you can start a CPU profile using and then stop it by . Now you have the CPU profile written to the given . runtime/pprof pprof.StartCPUProfile(io.Writer) pprof.StopCPUProfile() io.Writer But wait, there is an easier option. has developed a package named which can make profiling easy as pie. First you have to get the package using following command (or using Go modules): Dave Cheney profile go get github.com/pkg/profile Then you can use it like this: { profile.Start(profile.ProfilePath( )).Stop() } func main () defer "." // do something Above code will write CPU profile into in working directory. The default has been set to CPU profiling but you can pass options to to be able to get other profiles as well. cpu.pprof profile.Start() profile.Start(profile.CPUProfile).Stop() profile.Start(profile.GoroutineProfile).Stop() profile.Start(profile.BlockProfile).Stop() profile.Start(profile.ThreadcreationProfile).Stop() profile.Start(profile.MemProfileHeap).Stop() profile.Start(profile.MemProfileAllocs).Stop() profile.Start(profile.MutexProfile).Stop() // CPUProfile enables cpu profiling. Note: Default is CPU defer // GoroutineProfile enables goroutine profiling. // It returns all Goroutines alive when defer occurs. defer // BlockProfile enables block (contention) profiling. defer // ThreadcreationProfile enables thread creation profiling. defer // MemProfileHeap changes which type of memory profiling to // profile the heap. defer // MemProfileAllocs changes which type of memory to profile // allocations. defer // MutexProfile enables mutex profiling. defer How to use a profile? So we have collected the profile data, what now? is a tool for visualization and analysis of profiling data. It reads a collection of profiling samples in format and generates reports to visualize and help analyze the data. It can generate both text and graphical reports. pprof profile.proto All of the ways that mentioned above are using under the hood and this package writes runtime profiling data in the format expected by the pprof visualization tool. runtime/pprof Write A Simple Code To Profile For a better understanding, I’ve written the below code to profile. It is a simple HTTP server which handles requests on URL. Every request comes in, the function will declare a and create a child Goroutine at line 16. The child will decode the given JSON log within the and if it was successful it does a time consuming (~400 millisecond) write and then sends to . Meanwhile the function blocks on select statement (line 27) until either when the child sends the result to (line 24) or when a timeout happens (line 30). /log logHandler chan int Request.Body http.StatusOK ch logHandler ch ( _ ) {
	http.HandleFunc( , logHandler)
	http.ListenAndServe( , )
} {
	ch := ( ) {
		obj := ( [ ] ) err := json.NewDecoder(r.Body).Decode(&obj); err != {
			ch <- http.StatusBadRequest } time.Sleep(time.Duration(rand.Intn( )) * time.Millisecond)
		ch <- http.StatusOK
	}() { status := <-ch:
		w.WriteHeader(status) <-time.After( * time.Millisecond):
		w.WriteHeader(http.StatusRequestTimeout)
	}
} import "encoding/json" "math/rand" "net/http" "net/http/pprof" "time" func main () "/log" ":8080" nil func logHandler (w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) make chan int go func () make map string float64 if nil return // simulation of a time consuming process like writing logs into db 400 select case case 200 I’ve compiled and run the code and have sent some loads to it using . Here is the output: hey Summary:
  Total:        0.8292 secs
  Slowest:      0.2248 secs
  Fastest:      0.0039 secs
  Average:      0.1574 secs
  Requests/sec: 241.1882Latency 

distribution:
  10% 0.0409 secs
  25% 0.1143 secs
  50% 0.2007 secs
  75% 0.2013 secs
  90% 0.2093 secs
  95% 0.2187 secs
  99% 0.2245 secsStatus code 

distribution:
  [200] 87 responses
  [408] 113 responses in in in in in in in pprof Basics After writing, running, and sending load to our service, it is time to run the pprof tool on the profile of the service to see which functions were the most consuming ones during the load. Install pprof Tool You can use command or install to use it directly. go tool pprof pprof go get -u github.com/google/pprof Run pprof On Interactive Mode Now let’s run pprof on allocated objects using the following command: pprof -alloc_objects http://:8080/debug/pprof/allocs This will open a simple interactive shell that takes pprof commands to generate reports. Now enter the command , the output will be the top memory consumers. top Dropped Nodes As you can see in the output, 11 nodes has been dropped (line 3). A node is an object entry and dropping a node can help to reduce the noise, but sometimes it may hide the root cause of the issue. Adding the flag or assigning it directly inside the attractive shell will include all data of the profile in the result. -nodefraction=0 Difference Between Flat And Cumulative In the above output, you can see two columns, and . Flat means , while cum (cumulative) means For better understanding, let’s assume the following function, the flat time of function is 4s and the cum is 11s. flat cum only by this function by this function and functions called down the stack. A {
   B() DO STH DIRECTLY C() } func A () // takes 1s // takes 4s // takes 6s Difference Between Allocations And Heap Profile An important note to consider is that the difference between the allocations and heap profile is the way the pprof tool reads them at start time. Allocations profile will start pprof in a mode which displays the total number of allocated objects since the program began which as well, but heap profile will start in a mode that displays number of live allocated objects which . includes garbage collected ones does not include garbage collected bytes That means in the pprof tool you can change the mode regardless of the profile type (heap or allocations). It can be done using the following values. You can either set them as a pprof flag or assign them to inside the pprof interactive shell: sample_index amount of memory allocated and not released yet (heap) inuse_space : amount of objects allocated and not released yet (heap) inuse_objects : total amount of memory allocated (regardless of released) alloc_space : total amount of objects allocated (regardless of released) alloc_objects : Get An SVG Graph From The Profile You can generate a graph of your profile in an SVG format, and open it with a web browser. The following command will request for a 5s CPU profile and will launch a browser with an SVG file. pprof -web http://:8080/debug/pprof/profile?seconds=5 Run pprof Via A Web Interface One of the useful pprof features is the web interface. If the flag is specified, pprof starts a web server at the specified host:por that provides an interactive web-based interface to pprof. -http pprof -http :8080 http://:8080/debug/pprof/goroutine The preceding command should automatically open your web browser at the right page; if not, you can manually visit the specified port in your web browser. Monitoring Goroutines From Command Line As you can see in the Goroutine profile, 115 Goroutines are alive which is not normal for idle service. It should be a Goroutine leak. So let’s check Goroutines status using the tool. grmon is a command line monitoring for Goroutines. Let’s install it and run it on host that is serving the profile data: grmon go get -u github.com/bcicen/grmon
grmon -host :8080 The output is: It seems the function blocks on a action. After reviewing the code I found the bug. It has occurred due to sending into an unguaranteed channel. I’ve fixed that by turn the to a buffered one channel (line 15). It was the very same mistake that I have mentioned . logHandler chan send ch this post How does a profiler work? Although stack traces generated by profilers are often intelligible, it is sometimes necessary to understand how profilers work under the hood to get even more details from the generated profiles. CPU Profiler The Go CPU profiler uses a signal to record code execution statistics. Once the signal got registered, it will deliver every specified time interval. This timer unlike typical timers will increment when the CPU is executing the process. The signal will interrupt code execution and make it possible to see which code was interrupted. SIGPROF When the function is called, the signal handler will be registered to call every 10 milliseconds interval by default (100 Hz). On Unix, it uses a syscall to set the signal timer. pprof.StartCPUProfile SIGPROF setitimer(2) On every invocation signal, the handler will trace back the execution by unwinding it from the current value. This will generate a stack trace and increment its hit count. The whole process will result in a list of stack traces grouped by the number of times each stack trace is seen. PC After the profiler is stopped, the stack traces will be converted to pprof-supported stack frames with source file names, line numbers and function names. Memory Profiler The memory profiler samples allocations. It will show function calls allocations. Recording all allocation and unwinding thestack trace would be expensive, therefore a sampling technique is used. heap The sampling process relies on a pseudo random number generator based on to sample only a fraction of allocations. The generated numbers define the distance between samples in terms of allocated memory size. This means that only allocations that cross the next random sampling point will be sampled. exponential distribution The sampling rate defines the mean of exponential distribution . The default value is 512 KB which is specified by the . That means to tune the size of the fraction to be sampled, you have to change value. Setting the value to 1, will include every allocated block in the profile. Obviously this will slow down your application. runtime.MemProfileRate runtime.MemProfileRate Stack traces with corresponding sampled allocations information is available any time, since the memory allocation profiler is always active. Setting the to 0, will turn off the memory sampling entirely. runtime.MemProfileRate Once the stack traces got ready, those will be converted to pprof-supported stack frames. Also published here .

Go: The Complete Guide to Profiling Your Code

Go: la guía completa para perfilar su código

Most often, is defined as clear execution under sound judgement and discipline. rationality When investing, most tend to complement their thesis within a rational decision-making framework, as if that made their analysis "fundamental". Under the spectrum of business and economic valuation techniques, that might be correct. However, the markets are never wrong, and the world is not always rational. In the cryptoverse, over and under valuations have significant elements that make them prone to more subjectivity than traditional stocks. Premia and discounts, for instance, are only temporarily perceived, due to high volatility conditions. Supply curves, energy shortages, structural changes... none of that seems to fit into the narrative presented in the latest quarterly report or newsletter of a trending crypto fund, so one might think that timeliness is what makes the difference. It can, indeed. Those funds have bought a lot cheaper than any of its followers on Twitter. Let's take Solana, which despite having massively dropped along the rest of the crypto market, it is still at a 40x relative to its price 16 months ago. Markets always change, but do investors change? Does human nature change? Greed is still greed, and fear is still fear. Let's put some leverage into the mix and let's get ready to test rationality under the stress conditions of the bear market. How about finding talent? Not necessarily for building, but also for investing. Talk to any CEO and they'll say that recruiting high-quality people is one of their top priorities. In fact, spotting talent early is the key for most ventures in emergent markets. This is by no means an easy task, but whenever the opportunity comes, whether in bull or bear mode, one should be powered with both cash and confidence. Best way to spot this? Find out what the talent does during downtime. Also, keep in mind that “maximalists” are also born either out of irrationality or out of quantitative analysis. We are all familiar with the digital gold maxis and the toxicity that can potentially abound from some bold unfounded claims (miners have to pay bills, economic security is a thing…). However, if you are in crypto, you should know that VCs are part of the game too, and that behind their thesis, there is a founding team. Long-term sustainable business are not built out of irrational acts such as reacting to a vampire-attack, promising unsustainable yields... Instead, the yield comes from high velocity markets where the teams who are willing to adapt and learn are the ones who ultimately thrive. The difference between a senior and a freshman team should not be ignored. One important thing to note here, specially when assessing senior teams, it is that domain expertise teaches you about "you can't do", not about what "you could do". Venture capital is hard, it is not only about financial, but also about mental constraints. For example, when you are running low on capital with the combination of caring for people—many people will get crushed by the brutal situation of money running out. is the name of the game. If you can convince retail that a project is safer and has less selling pressure than it actually does, you can hit big. Asymmetric information Ultimately, investing is more than just assessing financial statements and valuations. It is also about making calculated bets on the future, which often may not have a quantifiable basis. Same for financial decisions, it is more than just whether it is fairly-valued today, but whether it has a compelling and achievable long-term vision – an end-game that it can works towards and bring into reality. The holy-grail is ultimately a survival game, where only the paranoid survive. How many VC funds actually sit down and examine their own death? In my opinion, this exercise is worth exploring: take the worst case scenario, and exacerbate its negative outcome by 3x or 5x. In other words, evaluate your own cause of death: the failure to survive. Exploration over hesitation is the key at this point. Honesty is the key: there are no guarantees of future success unless changes are made, specially while assessing highly innovative endeavors. Only the strongest survive, and those will be the ones who are willing to justify their own existence by adapting quickly, making smart moves, and not resting on their laurels. " I fear living a life where I could have accomplished something and didn't." Neil deGrasse Tyson It is the knowledge that I'm going to die that creates the focus that I bring to being alive. The urgency of accomplishment. When investing, there is no such thing as protection. Anything can certainly die, so the investors must justify their own existence one way or another. When will something die? Probably when it runs out of cash. The cause of death is unknown and, because of that,  all shapes and sizes must be carefully assessed under its proper risk-management framework. There will always be fear of the unknown. This is often neglected and leads many to under-water territories. Starting a company nowadays is not as expensive as it used to be, so many are tricked into believing that venture is not as risky as it was in the past. However, none of that removes the risk of failure. The risk can certainly be lower because of the existence of more established playbooks. And this is what makes most ventures be afraid of embarking into uncharted categories of investment, where big risks could cause them to miss out on the next generation of venture returns. No big risks also means deterioration: less experimentation, innovation, and creativity. With such big funds and such fast deployment cycles it is much more difficult to take big bets on riskier technologies. The bear market has come, and VCs just started dreaming too small, and building out their product offerings more thoughtfully. Otherwise, they risk destroying their reputation. Spray and pray no longer works, and reputation has become the new currency in the Venture Capital Universe. Embrace reality, accept the changing environment and reevaluate with intention rather than regret. Forget about the V-shape recoveries and prepare accordingly. In times of austerity, capital is expensive. Take the lead and adapt quickly, now it is about survival of the fittest: “it is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Moving fast means to anticipate events. Proactivity will make you accept the pain of discipline before it is too late, which will be a lot better than suffering the pain of regret. Confronting the reality of a crash is the hardest step, but the reality is that we suffer more in our minds than we do in reality.

Spray, Pray, and Go Away: Investing is an Art

Rocíe, ore y váyase: Invertir es un arte

Vaporisez, priez et partez : investir est un art

स्प्रे, प्रार्थना, और चले जाओ: निवेश एक कला है

スプレーして、祈って、立ち去ってください: 投資は芸術です

Borrife, Ore e Vá embora: Investir é uma Arte

Xịt, Cầu nguyện và Đi: Đầu tư là một nghệ thuật

喷洒、祈祷和走开：投资是一门艺术

I've always liked GUI, both desktop-based and browser-based, before you needed five years of training on the latter. That's the reason I loved and still love Vaadin: you can develop web UIs without writing a single line of HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. I'm still interested in the subject; a couple of years ago, I analyzed the state of JVM desktop frameworks. I also like the Rust programming language a lot. Tauri is a Rust-based framework for building desktop applications. Here's my view. Overview Build an optimized, secure, and frontend-independent application for multi-platform deployment.
-- Tauri website A Tauri app is composed of two modules: the client-side module in standard Web technologies (HTML, Javascript, and CSS) and the backend module in Rust. Tauri runs the UI in a dedicated Chrome browser instance. Users interact with the UI as usual. Tauri offers a binding between the client-side JavaScript and the backend Rust via a specific JS module, i.e, window.__TAURI__.tauri. It also offers other modules for interacting with the local system, such as the filesystem, OS, clipboard, window management, etc. Binding is based on strings. Here's the client-side code: const { invoke } = window.__TAURI__.tauri;

let greetInputEl;
let greetMsgEl;

greetMsgEl.textContent = await invoke("greet", { name: greetInputEl.value });  //1 Invoke the Tauri command named greet Here's the corresponding Rust code: #[tauri::command]                                                              //1
fn greet(name: &str) -> String {                                               //1
    format!("Hello, {}! You've been greeted from Rust!", name)
} Define a Tauri command named greet In the following sections, I'll list Tauri's good, meh, and bad points. Remember that it's my subjective opinion based on my previous experiences. The good Getting started:
Fortunately, it is becoming increasingly rare, but some technologies need to remember that before you're an expert, you're a newbie. The first section of any site should be a quick explanation of the technology, and the second a getting started. Tauri succeeds in this; I got my first Tauri app in a matter of minutes by following the Quick start guide.


Documentation:
Tauri's documentation is comprehensive, extensive (as far as my musings browsed them), and well-structured.


Great feedback loop:
I've experienced exciting technologies where the feedback loop, the time it takes to see the results of a change, makes the technology unusable. GWT, I'm looking at you. Short feedback loops contribute to a great developer experience.
In this regard, Tauri scores points. One can launch the app with a simple cargo tauri dev command. If the front end changes, Tauri reloads it. If any metadata changes, e.g., anything stored in tauri.conf.json, Tauri restarts the app. The only downside is that both behaviors lose the UI state.


Complete lifecycle management:
Tauri not only helps you develop your app but also provides the tools to debug, test, build, and distribute it. The meh At first, I wanted to create my usual showcase for desktop applications, a file renamer app. However, I soon hit an issue when I wanted to select a directory using the file browser button. First, Tauri doesn't allow the use of the regular JavaScript file-related API; Instead, it provides a more limited API. Worse, you need to explicitly configure which file system paths are available at build time, and they are part of an enumeration. I understand that security is a growing concern in modern software. Yet, I fail to understand this limitation on a desktop app, where every other app can access any directory. The bad However, Tauri's biggest problem is its design, more precisely, its separation between the front and the back end. What I love in Vaadin is its management of all things frontend, leaving you to learn the framework only. It allows your backend developers to build web apps without dealing with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Tauri, though a desktop framework, made precisely the opposite choice. Your developers will need to know frontend technologies. Worse, the separation reproduces the request-response model created using browser technologies to create UIs. Reminder: early desktop apps use the Observer model, which better fits user interactions. We designed apps around the request-response model only after we ported them on the web. Using this model in a desktop app is a regression, in my opinion. Conclusion Tauri has many things to like, mainly everything that revolves around the developer experience. If you or your organization uses and likes web technologies, try Tauri. However, it's a no-go for me: to create a simple desktop app, I don't want to learn how to center a div or about the flexbox layout, etc. To go further: Tauri I've always liked GUI, both desktop-based and browser-based, before you needed five years of training on the latter. That's the reason I loved and still love Vaadin : you can develop web UIs without writing a single line of HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. I'm still interested in the subject; a couple of years ago, I analyzed the state of JVM desktop frameworks . Vaadin state of JVM desktop frameworks I also like the Rust programming language a lot. Tauri is a Rust-based framework for building desktop applications. Here's my view. Overview Build an optimized, secure, and frontend-independent application for multi-platform deployment. -- Tauri website Build an optimized, secure, and frontend-independent application for multi-platform deployment. -- Tauri website Tauri website A Tauri app is composed of two modules: the client-side module in standard Web technologies (HTML, Javascript, and CSS) and the backend module in Rust. Tauri runs the UI in a dedicated Chrome browser instance. Users interact with the UI as usual. Tauri offers a binding between the client-side JavaScript and the backend Rust via a specific JS module, i.e , window.__TAURI__.tauri . It also offers other modules for interacting with the local system, such as the filesystem, OS, clipboard, window management, etc. i.e window.__TAURI__.tauri Binding is based on strings. Here's the client-side code: const { invoke } = window.__TAURI__.tauri;

let greetInputEl;
let greetMsgEl;

greetMsgEl.textContent = await invoke("greet", { name: greetInputEl.value });  //1 const { invoke } = window.__TAURI__.tauri;

let greetInputEl;
let greetMsgEl;

greetMsgEl.textContent = await invoke("greet", { name: greetInputEl.value });  //1 Invoke the Tauri command named greet Invoke the Tauri command named greet greet Here's the corresponding Rust code: #[tauri::command]                                                              //1
fn greet(name: &str) -> String {                                               //1
    format!("Hello, {}! You've been greeted from Rust!", name)
} #[tauri::command]                                                              //1
fn greet(name: &str) -> String {                                               //1
    format!("Hello, {}! You've been greeted from Rust!", name)
} Define a Tauri command named greet Define a Tauri command named greet greet In the following sections, I'll list Tauri's good, meh, and bad points. Remember that it's my subjective opinion based on my previous experiences. The good Getting started:
Fortunately, it is becoming increasingly rare, but some technologies need to remember that before you're an expert, you're a newbie. The first section of any site should be a quick explanation of the technology, and the second a getting started. Tauri succeeds in this; I got my first Tauri app in a matter of minutes by following the Quick start guide. Documentation:
Tauri's documentation is comprehensive, extensive (as far as my musings browsed them), and well-structured. Great feedback loop:
I've experienced exciting technologies where the feedback loop, the time it takes to see the results of a change, makes the technology unusable. GWT, I'm looking at you. Short feedback loops contribute to a great developer experience.
In this regard, Tauri scores points. One can launch the app with a simple cargo tauri dev command. If the front end changes, Tauri reloads it. If any metadata changes, e.g., anything stored in tauri.conf.json, Tauri restarts the app. The only downside is that both behaviors lose the UI state. Complete lifecycle management:
Tauri not only helps you develop your app but also provides the tools to debug, test, build, and distribute it. Getting started: Fortunately, it is becoming increasingly rare, but some technologies need to remember that before you're an expert, you're a newbie. The first section of any site should be a quick explanation of the technology, and the second a getting started. Tauri succeeds in this; I got my first Tauri app in a matter of minutes by following the Quick start guide. Getting started: Fortunately, it is becoming increasingly rare, but some technologies need to remember that before you're an expert, you're a newbie. The first section of any site should be a quick explanation of the technology, and the second a getting started. Tauri succeeds in this; I got my first Tauri app in a matter of minutes by following the Quick start guide. Quick start Documentation: Tauri's documentation is comprehensive, extensive (as far as my musings browsed them), and well-structured. Documentation: Tauri's documentation is comprehensive, extensive (as far as my musings browsed them), and well-structured. Great feedback loop: I've experienced exciting technologies where the feedback loop, the time it takes to see the results of a change, makes the technology unusable. GWT, I'm looking at you. Short feedback loops contribute to a great developer experience. In this regard, Tauri scores points. One can launch the app with a simple cargo tauri dev command. If the front end changes, Tauri reloads it. If any metadata changes, e.g., anything stored in tauri.conf.json, Tauri restarts the app. The only downside is that both behaviors lose the UI state. Great feedback loop: I've experienced exciting technologies where the feedback loop, the time it takes to see the results of a change, makes the technology unusable. GWT , I'm looking at you. Short feedback loops contribute to a great developer experience. GWT In this regard, Tauri scores points. One can launch the app with a simple cargo tauri dev command. If the front end changes, Tauri reloads it. If any metadata changes, e.g. , anything stored in tauri.conf.json , Tauri restarts the app. The only downside is that both behaviors lose the UI state. cargo tauri dev e.g. tauri.conf.json Complete lifecycle management: Tauri not only helps you develop your app but also provides the tools to debug, test, build, and distribute it. Complete lifecycle management: Tauri not only helps you develop your app but also provides the tools to debug , test , build , and distribute it. debug test build distribute The meh At first, I wanted to create my usual showcase for desktop applications, a file renamer app . However, I soon hit an issue when I wanted to select a directory using the file browser button. First, Tauri doesn't allow the use of the regular JavaScript file-related API; Instead, it provides a more limited API. Worse, you need to explicitly configure which file system paths are available at build time, and they are part of an enumeration. file renamer app I understand that security is a growing concern in modern software. Yet, I fail to understand this limitation on a desktop app, where every other app can access any directory. The bad However, Tauri's biggest problem is its design, more precisely, its separation between the front and the back end. What I love in Vaadin is its management of all things frontend, leaving you to learn the framework only. It allows your backend developers to build web apps without dealing with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Tauri, though a desktop framework, made precisely the opposite choice. Your developers will need to know frontend technologies. Worse, the separation reproduces the request-response model created using browser technologies to create UIs. Reminder: early desktop apps use the Observer model , which better fits user interactions. We designed apps around the request-response model only after we ported them on the web. Using this model in a desktop app is a regression, in my opinion. Observer model Conclusion Tauri has many things to like, mainly everything that revolves around the developer experience. If you or your organization uses and likes web technologies, try Tauri. However, it's a no-go for me: to create a simple desktop app, I don't want to learn how to center a div or about the flexbox layout, etc. div To go further: To go further: Tauri Tauri Tauri

Why I Love Vaadin but Tauri Isn't for Me

Microsoft just released a preview of their new AI model called VASA-1, which animates any photo into a “talking face avatar.” It takes a few seconds for our eyes and brain to adjust to this reality, but then the immediate question arises: what are these new avatars supposed to say? Will this new AI milestone be wasted on lip dubs and creating even more fictional Manga-Anime? What if you could create an AI version of yourself by combining VASA-1 with your own AI to have an official AI that represents you online and is legitimate enough to speak for you? The future we all knew was coming. It was inevitable that large tech companies like Microsoft and Google would develop models to animate pictures and make them “talk.” They have been working on Image Processing, Facial Recognition, Image reconstruction and Classifiers for years. They have the talent and the research to master the processing of visual and audio data… So you can expect more announcements on these two fronts very soon. With their significant investment in AI research and in the Metaverse (let’s not forget the hundreds of millions poured into it), animating images was destined to happen. It’s no surprise that these tech giants are now leading the charge in transforming static visuals into dynamic, talking heads. Create the perfect AI version of you with your brain and your talking image! Microsoft will not make VASA-1 public because of the ethical risks of creating an infinite amount of deep fakes and misrepresenting people too easily. So, the “talking image” feature will not be available in the near future, but you can absolutely create your own AI version. Using Spheria to create the AI version of yourself, you can grow your own AI double that learns directly from you, giving you real answers and speaking in your name. The goal is to one day combine your own AI double with a realistic and animated 3D shell — powered by VASA-1 or another image model. This would really create the futuristic society we’ve seen many times in sci-fi movies. You would then have a real official AI version of yourself to represent you online and give your real answers based on your personal experience and opinions. The problem with Avatars and VASA-1 Many companies like NVIDIA, Unreal, and Microsoft focus on creating a 3D rendering of real people or 3D avatars using various technologies like Unreal Engine or VASA-1. But the result is always the same: an impressive empty shell. What’s the real-life use of a Mona Lisa that can rap? Why would Napoleon suddenly say things that the real Napoleon would never say? 3D avatars and “talking images” are doomed to become empty shells. And these companies, including Microsoft, have no interest in creating convincing fictional characters — it’s too much effort and extremely difficult. 3D avatars gain all their value when they have a distinct personality and when they can deliver meaningful information that is not generic — i.e., information not already available on chatGPT or Wikipedia. As humans, we immediately differentiate how we choose to interact with generic AI entities or with real people. The line is set by having a personality and an individuality. So, while VASA-1 evolves, and while 3D avatars become mainstream, you can learn how to easily create the AI version of yourself that captures your unique thoughts and individuality… to connect it in the future with the 3D avatar of your choice. Microsoft just released a preview of their new AI model called VASA-1, which animates any photo into a “talking face avatar.” It takes a few seconds for our eyes and brain to adjust to this reality, but then the immediate question arises: what are these new avatars supposed to say? Will this new AI milestone be wasted on lip dubs and creating even more fictional Manga-Anime? What if you could create an AI version of yourself by combining VASA-1 with your own AI to have an official AI that represents you online and is legitimate enough to speak for you? The future we all knew was coming. The future we all knew was coming. It was inevitable that large tech companies like Microsoft and Google would develop models to animate pictures and make them “talk.” They have been working on Image Processing, Facial Recognition, Image reconstruction and Classifiers for years. They have the talent and the research to master the processing of visual and audio data… So you can expect more announcements on these two fronts very soon. With their significant investment in AI research and in the Metaverse (let’s not forget the hundreds of millions poured into it), animating images was destined to happen. It’s no surprise that these tech giants are now leading the charge in transforming static visuals into dynamic, talking heads. Create the perfect AI version of you with your brain and your talking image! Create the perfect AI version of you with your brain and your talking image! Microsoft will not make VASA-1 public because of the ethical risks of creating an infinite amount of deep fakes and misrepresenting people too easily. So, the “talking image” feature will not be available in the near future, but you can absolutely create your own AI version. Using Spheria to create the AI version of yourself , you can grow your own AI double that learns directly from you, giving you real answers and speaking in your name. Spheria to create the AI version of yourself The goal is to one day combine your own AI double with a realistic and animated 3D shell — powered by VASA-1 or another image model. This would really create the futuristic society we’ve seen many times in sci-fi movies. You would then have a real official AI version of yourself to represent you online and give your real answers based on your personal experience and opinions. The problem with Avatars and VASA-1 The problem with Avatars and VASA-1 Many companies like NVIDIA, Unreal, and Microsoft focus on creating a 3D rendering of real people or 3D avatars using various technologies like Unreal Engine or VASA-1. But the result is always the same: an impressive empty shell. What’s the real-life use of a Mona Lisa that can rap? Why would Napoleon suddenly say things that the real Napoleon would never say? 3D avatars and “talking images” are doomed to become empty shells. And these companies, including Microsoft, have no interest in creating convincing fictional characters — it’s too much effort and extremely difficult. 3D avatars gain all their value when they have a distinct personality and when they can deliver meaningful information that is not generic — i.e., information not already available on chatGPT or Wikipedia. As humans, we immediately differentiate how we choose to interact with generic AI entities or with real people. The line is set by having a personality and an individuality. So, while VASA-1 evolves, and while 3D avatars become mainstream, you can learn how to easily create the AI version of yourself that captures your unique thoughts and individuality… to connect it in the future with the 3D avatar of your choice.

Creating Your AI Persona with VASA-1 and Spheria

Photo credits: Unsplash Vanar, a quickly expanding Layer 1 blockchain network, has made a ground-breaking statement about its planned entry into the GameFi sector. They did this by bridging the gap between traditional and Web3 gaming experiences. This calculated step establishes Vanar's position as a major player in pushing the next wave of blockchain usage. Vanar's methodology, distinguished by its ability to smoothly combine a strong blockchain with an extensive set of developer tools, has attracted much interest. This approach has effectively drawn in industry heavyweights such as Google Cloud, giving developers from various industries the resources they need to create scalable applications. In addition, mainstream businesses have discovered a quick and easy approach to investigate Web3 activations inside Vanar's cutting-edge ecosystem. The platform recently achieved a noteworthy accomplishment with the strategic alliance with Viva Games, a well-known Web2 game company with over ten game studios and 700 million+ downloads. With partnerships with renowned companies like Hasbro, Sony, and Disney, Viva Games brings a plethora of expertise to the table. Through this collaboration, a new age of gaming experiences will be ushered in by making it easier for conventional players to enter the realm of blockchain-powered gaming. Jawad Ashraf, CEO of Vanar, emphasized the company's steadfast focus on the mainstream. "Vanar is focused on the mainstream, with billions of consumers in the entertainment space," the speaker declared. Our main emphasis is gaming on Vanar, and we can naturally attract millions of conventional gamers to Web3 thanks to our exciting cooperation with Viva." One indication of Vanar's dedication to the gaming business is the Games ecosystem it created. This ecosystem, specifically designed for the gaming industry, has an extensive range of technologies easily integrated with the blockchain. Fixed fees, lightning-fast transactions, white label markets, metaverse areas, wallets, avatars, and connectivity with their gaming network are just a few of these tools' features. This systematic approach tackles Web3 game creators' difficulties, offering sophisticated and user-friendly tools to spur innovation. With Web3 economics tools and Vanar's Single Sign-On (SSO), the partnership with Viva Games offers a comprehensive strategy for giving conventional players a seamless entrance into the Web3 gaming world. By utilizing Viva Games' vast experience and well-established player base, the collaboration aims to educate casual gamers about the numerous advantages of Web3 technology. As this calculated step comes to pass, it not only strengthens Vanar’s standing in the gaming sector but also highlights its dedication to introducing major game producers to Web3. With its deliberate focus on the GameFi market and its promotion of cooperation with well-known Web2 players, Vanar is positioned to take the lead in transforming the gaming industry. The gaming community has taken notice of the platform's ongoing efforts to empower developers, draw in new users, and mold Web3 gaming's future, and they are excited about how this cooperation will revolutionize the usage of blockchain technology in general. The partnership between Vanar and Viva Games portends well for Web3 gaming. Vanar, with its emphasis on creative technologies and mass accessibility, has the potential to transform the game industry completely. This agreement represents the beginning of an exciting new chapter in the gaming industry's use of blockchain technology. This story was distributed as a release by Jon Stojan Media under HackerNoon’s Brand As An Author Program. Learn more about the program here: https://business.hackernoon.com/brand-as-author

Viva Games and Vanar Chain Paving the Way for the Transformation of Web3 Gaming

ভাইভা গেমস এবং ভ্যানার চেইন ওয়েব3 গেমিং-এর রূপান্তরের পথ প্রশস্ত করছে

Viva Games und Vanar Chain ebnen den Weg für die Transformation des Web3-Gamings

Viva Games y Vanar Chain allanan el camino para la transformación de los juegos Web3

Viva Games et Vanar Chain ouvrent la voie à la transformation du jeu Web3

विवा गेम्स और वानर चेन वेब3 गेमिंग के परिवर्तन का मार्ग प्रशस्त कर रहे हैं

Viva GamesとVanar ChainがWeb3ゲームの変革への道を切り開く

Viva Games와 Vanar Chain이 Web3 게이밍의 변혁을 위한 길을 닦습니다

Viva Games e Vanar Chain abrindo caminho para a transformação dos jogos Web3

Viva Games и Vanar Chain прокладывают путь к трансформации игр Web3

Viva Games ve Vanar Chain, Web3 Oyun Dönüşümünün Yolunu Açıyor

Viva Games và Vanar Chain mở đường cho sự chuyển đổi của trò chơi Web3

Viva Games 和 Vanar Chain 为 Web3 游戏转型铺平道路

In an exciting development for the blockchain and entertainment industries, Vanar has officially announced the launch of its much-anticipated testnet, Vanguard. This significant milestone underscores Vanar's commitment to revolutionizing the entertainment sector through cutting-edge blockchain technology. Vanar has been at the forefront of leveraging blockchain technology to empower mainstream entertainment and gaming, attracting interest from multiple exciting mainstream brands. The launch of the testnet represents a crucial step in Vanar's roadmap, demonstrating the platform's robust capabilities and its readiness for wider adoption. The testnet introduces a range of features designed to facilitate seamless interactions within the blockchain ecosystem, catering specifically to the needs of the entertainment industry. This includes advanced modules for creating compelling customer journeys and fostering a new era of player-owned assets, vibrant digital economies, and immersive experiences. The launch of the testnet is being celebrated with Vanar’s own testnet campaign, Velocity which has already demonstrated remarkable success. In the 10 days of launch alone the Vanguard testnet achieved over 1.2m transactions, 500k wallets, and 6.5k new contracts. Notably, Vanguard also blocked over 21 million bots, ushering in a new era of transparency for the blockchain space. “We are thrilled to launch Vanguard Testnet and to showcase the potential of Vanar Chain to the world. We believe that Vanar Chain is the ultimate blockchain platform for entertainment, gaming and mainstream use cases, as it offers a fast, secure, and cost-effective way to create and enjoy unique and engaging experiences. We invite everyone to join us in this exciting journey and to help us shape the future of blockchain,” said Jawad Ashraf, CEO of Vanar Chain. Vanar's journey has been marked by significant achievements and partnerships, highlighting the platform's potential to transform how web3 and blockchain technology are used. The testnet launch is not just a technical achievement but also a testament to Vanar's vision of a blockchain-powered future for the mainstream. As we move into 2024, Vanar is poised to unveil a constellation of new partnerships and innovations, building on the momentum of its successful testnet launch. The platform's dedication to delivering on its milestones and its continuous innovation promises an exciting future for both blockchain and the entertainment industry. For more information about Vanar and its groundbreaking testnet, visit vanarchain.com About Vanar Vanar is a leading layer 1 blockchain platform designed to revolutionize the entertainment and gaming sectors. Vanar provides a suite of solutions that pave the way for a new era of entertainment, powered by blockchain technology. Learn more about Vanar at www.vanarchain.com Feature image credits: Unsplash This story was distributed as a release by Jon Stojan Media under HackerNoon’s Brand As An Author Program. Learn more about the program here: https://business.hackernoon.com/brand-as-author

Vanar L1 Blockchain Introduces Its Testnet Vanguard: Here's Why This Is an Exciting Development

Vanar L1 ব্লকচেইন তার টেস্টনেট ভ্যানগার্ড প্রবর্তন করেছে: এখানে কেন এটি একটি উত্তেজনাপূর্ণ বিকাশ

Vanar L1 Blockchain stellt sein Testnet Vanguard vor: Hier erfahren Sie, warum dies eine aufregende Entwicklung ist

Vanar L1 Blockchain presenta su Testnet Vanguard: he aquí por qué se trata de un desarrollo emocionante

Vanar L1 Blockchain présente son Testnet Vanguard : voici pourquoi il s'agit d'un développement passionnant

वानर एल1 ब्लॉकचेन ने अपना टेस्टनेट वैनगार्ड पेश किया: जानिए क्यों यह एक रोमांचक विकास है

Vanar L1 ブロックチェーンがテストネット ヴァンガードを導入: これがエキサイティングな開発である理由がここにあります

Vanar L1 블록체인, 테스트넷 Vanguard 소개: 이것이 흥미로운 개발인 이유는 다음과 같습니다.

Vanar L1 Blockchain apresenta sua vanguarda Testnet: Veja por que este é um desenvolvimento empolgante

Блокчейн Vanar L1 представляет свой тестовый авангард: вот почему это захватывающая разработка

Vanar L1 Blockchain Testnet Vanguard'ı Tanıtıyor: İşte Bu Neden Heyecan Verici Bir Gelişme?

Vanar L1 Blockchain giới thiệu Testnet Vanguard của mình: Đây là lý do tại sao đây là một sự phát triển thú vị

Vanar L1 区块链推出其测试网先锋：这就是为什么这是一个令人兴奋的发展

Comprehensive Tutorials On How To Build And Deploy Decentralised Application On Vara Network

2024 is bringing some of that futuristic magic, with a twist, right to our real-world doorstep! Get ready for tech trends that'll bend your brain and blast your expectations into orbit. 1. Sentient AI: Can Machines Dream? Remember HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey? Or maybe Samantha from Her? Those sci-fi movies where robots start thinking on their own and even feeling emotions are captivating but also a bit unsettling. But what if I told you the line between fiction and reality in this regard is starting to blur in 2024? Buckle up because we're diving deep into the fascinating and slightly scary world of . sentient AI Don't hold your breath for sentient robot buddies just yet, but prepare for mind-blowing AI advancements! While sentience remains a fuzzy concept, DeepMind's co-founder, Demis Hassabis, assures us that machines are about to unlock abilities that'll leave us speechless. The future of intelligence is wilder than you think. Here's what we know (or think we know): AI is getting better at understanding language and emotions. Some AI models can generate human-quality text and even adapt their responses based on the emotional tone of a conversation. AI is learning to learn. This means they can improve their skills and abilities over time without explicit programming. Brain-computer interfaces are bridging the gap between humans and machines. These technologies could one day allow us to directly communicate with AI using our thoughts, offering deeper insights into their internal processes. But here's the catch: We still need to understand consciousness or sentience fully. These are complex concepts that, even for humans, are difficult to define, let alone measure in machines. Some argue that true sentience requires a physical body. Without experiencing the world through senses like touch and taste, can an AI truly understand it? The ethical implications of sentient AI are immense. Questions about rights, responsibilities, and even potential dangers become very real if machines become truly conscious. 2. Brain-Computer Interface: Think It, Do It! Have you watched movies where characters control things with their minds? Like moving objects with a mere thought or typing without touching a keyboard? That sci-fi stuff is becoming a reality fast! 2024 is all about , and they're about to blow your mind (literally!). Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) This technology is opening doors to amazing possibilities: No more drilling holes in your skull! These BCIs use sensors on your scalp to read your brainwaves, making them accessible to everyone. Non-invasive BCIs: Advanced AI algorithms are getting better at understanding your brain signals, translating them into real-world actions with greater accuracy and speed. AI-powered decoding: BCIs are helping diagnose and treat neurological disorders like Parkinson's and epilepsy, offering hope for millions of people. Medical breakthroughs: Here's a snapshot of how BCIs are already making a difference: Application Impact Communication Helping people with speech disabilities communicate by translating their thoughts into words. Gaming Immersing users in virtual worlds like never before, controlling characters and objects with their minds. Rehabilitation Assisting people with paralysis regain control of their limbs and regain independence. But of course, there are concerns! Neuroethics expert Frederic Gilbert flags confusing changes in how AI affects our core concepts of self, like personality and agency. He calls these qualities "obscure and opaque," highlighting the complex, hidden impacts of BCI on who we are. This raises these questions in mind! Who controls your thoughts? And how do we protect them from hacking or misuse? Safety and security: Should we enhance human minds with technology? Who decides who gets access? Ethical considerations: What happens when everyone can control things with their thoughts? Will it make our lives easier or more chaotic? Unforeseen consequences: 3. Quantum Supremacy Reigns Supreme: Well, forget fiction – that mind-blowing power is on the horizon, thanks to a tech trend called quantum supremacy. What is Quantum Supremacy, Anyway? Imagine a computer that doesn't just crunch numbers but harnesses the weird and wonderful laws of quantum mechanics. That's what quantum computers are about. They use qubits, which can be both 0 and 1 at the same time (unlike our regular bits that are either 0 or 1), to achieve mind-blowing speed and tackle problems that would take traditional computers millions of years. Think breaking complex encryption codes, designing life-saving drugs, or simulating the weather with mind-boggling accuracy. Here's why it's a big deal: Quantum Supremacy will solve problems beyond our wildest dreams. Forget traffic jams – quantum computers could optimize traffic flow in real time, minimizing congestion and saving valuable time. Forget incurable diseases – quantum simulations could accelerate drug discovery, leading to breakthroughs in treating currently untreatable illnesses. The possibilities are endless! It's not just about speed; it's about a whole new way of thinking. Quantum computers approach problems differently, opening doors to entirely new solutions and innovations we have yet to consider. It's like unlocking a hidden room of possibilities in the vast library of science and technology. Alan Baratz, The CEO of D-Wave, thinks that the US is finally playing catch-up in using quantum computing to solve real-world problems. Still, countries like Australia, Japan, the UK, and the EU have already been swiftly taking steps to use quantum solutions to address public sector issues. Expect to see this trend explode in 2024. Stay curious, stay informed, and get ready to witness the dawn of a new era in computing. The future is quantum, and it's coming faster than you think! 4. Hyperloop Highways: Warp Speed for Everyone! Stuck in traffic jams? Not anymore! Picture zipping from city to city in minutes, not hours, thanks to hyperloop technology. Imagine vacuum tubes and magnetic levitation whisking you across the country at supersonic speeds. Get ready for shorter travel times, greener transportation options, and a whole new way to explore the world! Here's why Hyperloop is the next big travel trend: Forget traffic jams and delayed flights. Hyperloop can slash travel times between major cities, revolutionizing our transportation system. Speed Demons: Ditch the carbon footprint! Hyperloop uses renewable energy sources and produces much less pollution than traditional transportation. Eco-Friendly Flyer: Imagine a network of Hyperloop tubes crisscrossing continents, connecting cities like never before. It could open up new economic opportunities and boost global trade. City Connector: Buckle up for a smooth, silent, and exhilarating journey! Hyperloop promises a futuristic travel experience unlike anything we've ever seen. The Thrill of the Ride: But hold on, there are some bumps on the road: Building and maintaining Hyperloop infrastructure is expensive. Finding investors and making it affordable for everyone will be crucial for widespread adoption. Cost Concerns: New technology comes with new risks. Ensuring the safety and security of Hyperloop systems is paramount. Safety First: Governments need to develop regulations and legal frameworks for this disruptive technology before it can take off. Regulatory Hurdles: Despite the challenges, the potential of Hyperloop is undeniable. Companies like Virgin Hyperloop One and Hyperloop One are already making significant progress, with test tracks operational in several countries. Dirk Ahlborn, the CEO of Virgin Hyperloop, also hopes that the ongoing advancements and approval from regulators will make hyperloop a fundamental part of transportation systems in the coming decade. 5. Bioprinting Reboots Medicine: Bioprinting, using 3D technology with living cells, is reshaping healthcare. Prepare for potential cures for currently untreatable diseases, personalized cancer treatments, and maybe even printing replacement lungs or hearts! Here's why it's a game-changer: Imagine no more endless waits for organ transplants! Bioprinting opens the door to creating personalized tissues and organs specifically designed for each patient. This means shorter waiting times, fewer complications, and potentially even printing replacement organs like lungs or hearts! Goodbye Waiting Lists, Hello Hope: Forget guesswork! Bioprinting lets scientists build tiny replicas of human organs on a chip, allowing them to test new drugs and treatments with incredible precision. This means safer, more effective medicines and fewer failed trials with real patients. Drug Testing Revolution: No two bodies are alike, and neither should their treatments. Bioprinting allows doctors to create tissues that match your unique genetic makeup, leading to personalized therapies and better outcomes for everyone. Personalized Medicine Takes Center Stage: Imagine damaged nerves and tissues healing themselves! Bioprinting can create scaffolds for your cells to grow on, promoting natural regeneration and potentially reversing injuries that were once considered permanent. Regenerative Medicine Gets a Boost: But wait, there's more! This is just the beginning of the bioprinting story. We're also seeing exciting developments in: This could revolutionize surgery by ensuring adequate blood flow to transplanted organs. Printing blood vessels: Imagine offering rapid relief and promoting faster healing for burn victims. Bioprinting skin for burn victims: Building custom bone replacements could speed up recovery times and make surgeries less invasive. Printing bone grafts: Is it all sunshine and rainbows? Not quite. Bioprinting is still in its early stages, and there are challenges to overcome: These are the materials that "print" the cells, and we need to ensure they're safe, compatible, and support cell growth. Finding the right bioinks: Printing complex organs is still a delicate process, and making it efficient and affordable for widespread use is key. Scaling up production: Who owns the printed tissues? What are the implications for genetic engineering and human enhancement? Ethical considerations: But despite the challenges, the potential of bioprinting is so vast it's hard to ignore. It's like getting a glimpse into a future where medicine is personalized, regenerative, and potentially cures diseases we once thought untreatable. Wrapping Up! Keep an eye out for flying cars (not just for billionaires!), AI-powered homes that manage your life, and sustainable tech that cleans our planet and heals our environment.

Hold Onto Your Hats, Tech Voyagers: 2024's Mind-Bending Trends are Here!

FZE (GCEX), part of the GCEX Group, has been granted an Operational VASP Licence for VA Broker Dealer services from Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA). SINGAPORE, Singapore, November 22nd, 2023/Chainwire/-- GC Exchange GCEX, which opened its Dubai office in July 2022 and received its MVP (Minimal Viable Product) Preparatory License from VARA in February 2023, can now start market operations as a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) in the Emirate of Dubai, enabling brokers, hedge funds, family offices, and professional traders to access its deep liquidity in digital assets and range of technology solutions. GCEX facilitates institutional access to digital assets through its proprietary XplorDigital trading solutions, which comprises of a technology-agnostic platform covering regulation, regulated custody, the safety of funds, tier 1 liquidity, and technology (both back-end and front-end). GCEX only partners with regulated institutional digital custody and staking providers and always segregates client funds. Mehtap Önder, Managing Director, GCEX in Dubai, commented: “VARA is leading the way in the global digital asset industry, and we are extremely proud to be one of the first firms to receive a VASP Operating Licence to provide Virtual Asset Broker-Dealer services and the first firm to gain approval to operate with a client money account, highlighting our focus on client protection.“ Being a regulated entity in the region is important to us – it’s the ideal way to demonstrate our commitment to adhering to international standards and implementing robust processes, with transparency and investor protection at the core of our offering. This is a major milestone for our business and is critical to GCEX’s growth strategy, enabling us to have a stronger presence in the region.” GCEX Group enables institutional clients to access deep liquidity in FX and CFDs on digital assets, as well as digital assets spot trading and conversion as well as a broad range of trading solutions. Headquartered in London, with multiple offices across the globe, GCEX is regulated by the UK’s FCA and registered with the Danish FSA. True Global Ventures are investors in GCEX. For further information, please visit or gcexmena.com . LinkedIn About GCEX Founded in 2018, is a pioneering regulated digital prime brokerage with a best-of-breed digital asset and FX platform for institutional and professional clients. GCEX has partnerships with Tier 1 trusted Liquidity Providers, leading counterparties, and regulated digital custody asset institutions. GCEX GCEX offers a wide range of products and technology solutions including White Labels. GCEX is the trading name of GC Exchange Limited, GC Exchange Fondsmæglerselskab A/S, GC Exchange A/S, and GC Exchange FZE. GC Exchange Limited, a company incorporated in England and Wales (No11382809) with a registered address at 75 King William Street, London, EC4N 7BE provides FX and CFDs products. GC Exchange Limited is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 828730). Digital asset services are provided by GC Exchange A/S, a company incorporated in Denmark (CVR 43088777) with an address at Amager Strandvej 390, 2770, Kastrup. GC Exchange A/S is authorized by the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority as a Currency Exchange (FTID 45020) and registered as a Virtual Asset Service Provider (FTID 17524) under the AML regulation. GC Exchange Fondsmæglerselskab A/S, a company incorporated in Denmark (CVR 43345052) with an address at Amager Strandvej 390, 2770, Kastrup. GC Exchange Fondsmæglerselskab A/S is authorized and regulated by the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority as an Investment Firm to offer FX and CFD products. GC Exchange FZE is incorporated as a Limited Liability Free Zone Establishment under the Dubai World Trade Center Authority with registration number 1896. GC Exchange FZE has been granted a Virtual Asset Service Provider Licence by the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority. For more information visit: https://www.vara.ae/ About VARA Established in March 2022, following the effect of Law No.4 of 2022, is the competent entity in charge of regulating, supervising, and overseeing VAs and VA Activities in all zones across the Emirate of Dubai, including Special Development Zones and Free Zones but excluding the Dubai International Financial Centre. VARA VARA plays a central role in creating Dubai's advanced legal framework to protect investors and establish international standards for Virtual Asset industry governance while supporting the vision for a borderless economy. Contact Vanessa Green Wigwam PR for GCEX vanessa@wigwampr.com +44 (0)771 333 2303 This story was distributed as a release by Chainwire under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. Learn more about the program . here

GCEX Gets Granted an Operational VASP Licence From Dubai’s VARA: What This All Means

Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . Showing How George Vavasor Paid a Visit here Showing How George Vavasor Paid a Visit. It was nearly seven o'clock in the evening,—a hot, July evening,—when the woman went from Vavasor's room, and left him there alone. It was necessary that he should immediately do something. In the first place he must dine, unless he meant to carry out his threat, and shoot himself at once. But he had no such intention as that, although he stood for some minutes with the pistol in his hand. He was thinking then of shooting some one else. But he resolved that, if he did so at all, he would not do it on that evening, and he locked up the pistol again in the standing desk. After that, he took up some papers, referring to steam packets, which were lying on his table. They contained the programmes of different companies, and showed how one vessel went on one day to New York, and another on another day would take out a load of emigrants for New Zealand and Australia. "That's a good line," said he, as he read a certain prospectus. "They generally go to the bottom, and save a man from any further trouble on his own account." Then he dressed himself, putting on his boots and coat, and went out to his club for his dinner. London was still fairly full,—that is to say, the West End was not deserted, although Parliament had been broken up two months earlier than usual, in preparation for the new elections. Many men who had gone down into the country were now back again in town, and the dining-room at the club was crowded. Men came up to him condoling with him, telling him that he was well rid of a great nuisance, that the present Members for the Chelsea Districts would not sit long, or that there would be another general election in a year or two. To all these little speeches he made cheerful replies, and was declared by his acquaintance to bear his disappointment well. Calder Jones came to him and talked hunting talk, and Vavasor expressed his intention of being at Roebury in November. "You had better join our club," said Calder Jones. In answer to which Vavasor said that he thought he would join the club. He remained in the smoking-room till nearly eleven; then he took himself home, and remained up half the night destroying papers. Every written document on which he could lay his hands he destroyed. All the pigeon-holes of his desk were emptied out, and their contents thrown into the flames. At first he looked at the papers before he burned them; but the trouble of doing so soon tired him, and he condemned them all, as he came to them, without examination. Then he selected a considerable amount of his clothes, and packed up two portmanteaus, folding his coats with care, and inspecting his boots narrowly, so that he might see which, out of the large number before him, it might be best worth his while to take with him. When that was done, he took from his desk a bag of sovereigns, and, pouring them out upon the table, he counted them out into parcels of twenty-five each, and made them up carefully into rouleaus with paper. These, when complete, he divided among the two portmanteaus and a dressing-bag which he also packed and a travelling desk, which he filled with papers, pens, and the like. But he put into it no written document. He carefully looked through his linen, and anything that had been marked with more than his initials he rejected. Then he took out a bundle of printed cards, and furnished a card-case with them. On these cards was inscribed the name of Gregory Vance. When all was finished, he stood for awhile with his back to the fireplace contemplating his work. "After all," he said to himself, "I know that I shall never start; and, if I do, nobody can hinder me, and my own name would be as good as any other. As for a man with such a face as mine not being known, that is out of the question." But still he liked the arrangements which he had made, and when he had looked at them for awhile he went to bed. He was up early the next morning, and had some coffee brought to him by the servant of the house, and as he drank it he had an interview with his landlady. "He was going," he said;—"going that very day." It might be possible that he would change his mind; but as he would desire to start without delay, if he did go, he would pay her then what he owed her, and what would be due for her lodgings under a week's notice. The woman stared, and curtseyed, and took her money. Vavasor, though he had lately been much pressed for money, had never been so foolish as to owe debts where he lived. "There will be some things left about, Mrs. Bunsby," he said, "and I will get you to keep them till I call or send." Mrs. Bunsby said that she would, and then looked her last at him. After that interview she never saw him again. When he was left alone he put on a rough morning coat, and taking up the pistol, placed it carefully in his pocket, and sallied forth. It was manifest enough that he had some decided scheme in his head, for he turned quickly towards the West when he reached the Strand, went across Trafalgar Square to Pall Mall East, and then turned up Suffolk Street. Just as he reached the club-house at the corner he paused and looked back, facing first one way and then the other. "The chances are that I shall never see anything of it again," he said to himself. Then he laughed in his own silent way, shook his head slightly, and turning again quickly on his heel, walked up the street till he reached the house of Mr. Jones, the pugilistic tailor. The reader, no doubt, has forgotten all he ever knew of Mr. Jones, the pugilistic tailor. It can soon be told again. At Mr. Jones's house John Grey lodged when he was in London, and he was in London at this moment. Vavasor rang the bell, and as soon as the servant came he went quickly into the house, and passed her in the passage. "Mr. Grey is at home," he said. "I will go up to him." The girl said that Mr. Grey was at home, but suggested that she had better announce the gentleman. But Vavasor was already halfway up the stairs, and before the girl had reached the first landing place, he had entered Mr. Grey's room and closed the door behind him. Grey was sitting near the open window, in a dressing-gown, and was reading. The breakfast things were on the table, but he had not as yet breakfasted. As soon as he saw George Vavasor, he rose from his chair quickly, and put down his book. "Mr. Vavasor," he said, "I hardly expected to see you in my lodgings again!" "I dare say not," said Vavasor; "but, nevertheless, here I am." He kept his right hand in the pocket which held the pistol, and held his left hand under his waistcoat. "May I ask why you have come?" said Grey. "I intend to tell you, at any rate, whether you ask me or not. I have come to declare in your own hearing,—as I am in the habit of doing occasionally behind your back,—that you are a blackguard,—to spit in your face, and defy you." As he said this he suited his action to his words, but without any serious result. "I have come here to see if you are man enough to resent any insult that I can offer you; but I doubt whether you are." "Nothing that you can say to me, Mr. Vavasor, will have any effect upon me;—except that you can, of course, annoy me." "And I mean to annoy you, too, before I have done with you. Will you fight me?" "Fight a duel with you,—with pistols? Certainly not." "Then you are a coward, as I supposed." "I should be a fool if I were to do such a thing as that." "Look here, Mr. Grey. You managed to worm yourself into an intimacy with my cousin, Miss Vavasor, and to become engaged to her. When she found out what you were, how paltry, and mean, and vile, she changed her mind, and bade you leave her." "Are you here at her request?" "I am here as her representative." "Self-appointed, I think." "Then, sir, you think wrong. I am at this moment her affianced husband; and I find that, in spite of all that she has said to you,—which was enough, I should have thought, to keep any man of spirit out of her presence,—you still persecute her by going to her house, and forcing yourself upon her presence. Now, I give you two alternatives. You shall either give me your written promise never to go near her again, or you shall fight me." "I shall do neither one nor the other,—as you know very well yourself." "Stop till I have done, sir. If you have courage enough to fight me, I will meet you in any country. I will fight you here in London, or, if you are afraid of that, I will go over to France, or to America, if that will suit you better." "Nothing of the kind will suit me at all. I don't want to have anything to do with you." "Then you are a coward." "Perhaps I am;—but your saying so will not make me one." "You are a coward, and a liar, and a blackguard. I have given you the option of behaving like a gentleman, and you have refused it. Now, look here. I have come here with arms, and I do not intend to leave this room without using them, unless you will promise to give me the meeting that I have proposed." And he took the pistol out of his pocket. "Do you mean that you are going to murder me?" Grey asked. There were two windows in the room, and he had been sitting near to that which was furthest removed from the fireplace, and consequently furthest removed from the bell, and his visitor was now standing immediately between him and the door. He had to think what steps he might best take, and to act upon his decision instantly. He was by no means a timid man, and was one, moreover, very little prone to believe in extravagant action. He did not think, even now, that this disappointed, ruined man had come there with any intention of killing him. But he knew that a pistol in the hands of an angry man is dangerous, and that it behoved him to do his best to rid himself of the nuisance which now encumbered him. "Do you mean that you are going to murder me?" he had said. "I mean that you shall not leave this room alive unless you promise to meet me, and fight it out." Upon hearing this, Grey turned himself towards the bell. "If you move a step, I will fire at you," said Vavasor. Grey paused a moment, and looked him full in the face. "I will," said Vavasor again. "That would be murder," said Grey. "Don't think that you will frighten me by ugly words," said Vavasor. "I am beyond that." Grey had stopped for a moment to fix his eyes on the other man's face; but it was only for a moment, and then he went on to the bell. He had seen that the pistol was pointed at himself, and had once thought of rushing across the room at his adversary, calculating that a shot fired at him as he did so might miss him, and that he would then have a fair chance of disarming the madman. But his chief object was to avoid any personal conflict, to escape the indignity of a scramble for the pistol,—and especially to escape the necessity of a consequent appearance at some police-office, where he would have to justify himself, and answer the questions of a lawyer hired to cross-question him. He made, therefore, towards the bell, trusting that Vavasor would not fire at him, but having some little thought also as to the danger of the moment. It might be that everything was over for him now,—that the fatal hour had come, and that eternity was close upon him. Something of the spirit of a prayer flashed across his mind as he moved. Then he heard the click of the pistol's hammer as it fell, and was aware that his eyes were dazzled, though he was unconscious of seeing any flame. He felt something in the air, and knew that the pistol had been fired;—but he did not know whether the shot had struck him or had missed him. His hand was out for the bell-handle, and he had pulled it, before he was sure that he was unhurt. "D––––ation!" exclaimed the murderer. But he did not pull the trigger again. Though the weapon had of late been so often in his hands, he forgot, in the agitation of the moment, that his missing once was but of small matter if he chose to go on with his purpose. Were there not five other barrels for him, each making itself ready by the discharge of the other? But he had paused, forgetting, in his excitement, the use of his weapon, and before he had bethought himself that the man was still in his power, he heard the sound of the bell. "D––––ation!" he exclaimed. Then he turned round, left the room, hurried down the stairs, and made his way out into the street, having again passed the girl on his way. Grey, when he perceived that his enemy was gone, turned round to look for the bullet or its mark. He soon found the little hole in the window-shutter, and probing it with the point of his pencil, came upon the morsel of lead which might now just as readily have been within his own brain. There he left it for the time, and then made some not inaccurate calculation as to the narrowness of his own escape. He had been standing directly between Vavasor and the shutter, and he found, from the height of the hole, that the shot must have passed close beneath his ear. He remembered to have heard the click of the hammer, but he could not remember the sound of the report, and when the girl entered the room, he perceived at once from her manner that she was unaware that firearms had been used. "Has that gentleman left the house?" Grey asked. The girl said that he had left the house. "Don't admit him again," said he;—"that is, if you can avoid it. I believe he is not in his right senses." Then he asked for Mr. Jones, his landlord, and in a few minutes the pugilistic tailor was with him. During those few minutes he had been called upon to resolve what he would do now. Would he put the police at once upon the track of the murderer, who was, as he remembered too well, the first cousin of the woman whom he still desired to make his wife? That cross-examination which he would have to undergo at the police-office, and again probably in an assize court, in which all his relations with the Vavasor family would be made public, was very vivid to his imagination. That he was called upon by duty to do something he felt almost assured. The man who had been allowed to make such an attempt once with impunity, might probably make it again. But he resolved that he need not now say anything about the pistol to the pugilistic tailor, unless the tailor said something to him. "Mr. Jones," he said, "that man whom I had to put out of the room once before, has been here again." "Has there been another tussle, sir?" "No;—nothing of that kind. But we must take some steps to prevent his getting in again, if we can help it." Jones promised his aid, and offered to go at once to the police. To this, however, Mr. Grey demurred, saying that he should himself seek assistance from some magistrate. Jones promised to be very vigilant as to watching the door; and then John Grey sat down to his breakfast. Of course he thought much of what had occurred. It was impossible that he should not think much of so narrow an escape. He had probably been as near death as a man may well be without receiving any injury; and the more he thought of it, the more strongly he was convinced that he could not allow the thing to pass by without some notice, or some precaution as to the future. At eleven o'clock he went to Scotland Yard, and saw some officer great in power over policemen, and told him all the circumstances,—confidentially. The powerful officer recommended an equally confidential reference to a magistrate; and towards evening a very confidential policeman in plain clothes paid a visit to Vavasor's lodgings in Cecil Street. But Vavasor lodged there no longer. Mrs. Bunsby, who was also very confidential,—and at her wits' end because she could not learn the special business of the stranger who called,—stated that Mr. George Vavasor left her house in a cab at ten o'clock that morning, having taken with him such luggage as he had packed, and having gone, "she was afraid, for good," as Mrs. Bunsby expressed it. He had gone for good, and at the moment in which the policeman was making the inquiry in Cecil Street, was leaning over the side of an American steamer which had just got up her steam and weighed her anchor in the Mersey. He was on board at six o'clock, and it was not till the next day that the cabman was traced who had carried him to Euston Square Station. Of course, it was soon known that he had gone to America, but it was not thought worth while to take any further steps towards arresting him. Mr. Grey himself was decidedly opposed to any such attempt, declaring his opinion that his own evidence would be insufficient to obtain a conviction. The big men in Scotland Yard were loth to let the matter drop. Their mouths watered after the job, and they had very numerous and very confidential interviews with John Grey. But it was decided that nothing should be done. "Pity!" said one enterprising superintendent, in answer to the condolings of a brother superintendent. "Pity's no name for it. It's the greatest shame as ever I knew since I joined the force. A man as was a Member of Parliament only last Session,—as belongs to no end of swell clubs, a gent as well known in London as any gent about the town! And I'd have had him back in three months, as sure as my name's Walker." And that superintendent felt that his profession and his country were alike disgraced. And now George Vavasor vanishes from our pages, and will be heard of no more. Roebury knew him no longer, nor Pall Mall, nor the Chelsea Districts. His disappearance was a nine days' wonder, but the world at large knew nothing of the circumstances of that attempt in Suffolk Street. Mr. Grey himself told the story to no one, till he told it to Mr. Palliser at Lucerne. Mr. Scruby complained bitterly of the way in which Vavasor had robbed him; but I doubt whether Scruby, in truth, lost much by the transaction. To Kate, down in Westmoreland, no tidings came of her brother, and her sojourn in London with her aunt had nearly come to an end before she knew that he was gone. Even then the rumour reached her through Captain Bellfield, and she learned what few facts she knew from Mrs. Bunsby in Cecil Street. "He was always mysterious," said Mrs. Greenow, "and now he has vanished. I hate mysteries, and, as for myself, I think it will be much better that he should not come back again." Perhaps Kate was of the same opinion, but, if so, she kept it to herself. 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 (2006). Can You Forgive Her?. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/19500/pg19500-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

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