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imjustthemechanic · 5 years

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Glockenspiel

Part 1/? - Transmission Part 2/? - The Sandhill Hotel Part 3/? - Piccadilly Part 4/? - The Future Part 5/? - Too Late Part 6/? - The Mystery of the Missing Time Machine

Peggy was of the opinion that they shouldn’t discuss conspiracies and time machines in a public place if they could possibly help it, weather gods on the subway notwithstanding. Toulouse cheerfully bought them each a cup of coffee and a pastry, and they returned to the Lambeth Wilton hotel.

“We need another time machine,” Peggy said, once they’d settled down around the suite’s dining table. “HYDRA has one, but there’s also the one we came here by, the one in the bunker in the Sierras. Even if we didn’t make it back they wouldn’t have gotten rid of it, because the SSR never gets rid of anything. The fact that we did demonstrably make it back means we will probably keep it on purpose. It must still exist, or at the very least, there must be a record of it.”

Howard was nodding. “Much faster than having to invent one myself, and more likely to be compatible with theirs. After seventy years, though, where can we find the records?”

Peggy had some idea where to start looking, but before she could say so, Toulouse spoke first. “They’re online!” she said. “Black Widow put all of SHIELD’s stuff on Wikileaks.”

“What’s that?” Peggy asked.

“It’s a website full of stolen documents,” Toulouse explained. She opened up her laptop computer and turned it on. “After the Avengers exposed HYDRA’s plans to kill everybody, Black Widow uploaded all their records so we could see the shifty stuff they’d been up to. We just have to look up time machine plans.”

Toulouse probably meant that to sound reassuring. It emphatically was not. “Are you saying that if these plans exist, they’re now in a library where anyone can read them?” Peggy asked. HYDRA were probably the worst people to give a time machine to, but they were far from the only ones who shouldn’t have it.

“It’s kind of like a library,” Toulouse explained, “but you don’t have to actually go there. Anyone with a mobile can get access.”

Peggy thought back to the people she’d seen on the street outside the coffee shop. At least half of them had been carrying a ‘mobile’, staring at it or fiddling with it while they walked, waited for buses, or shopped. Any one of those people could, at will, read about everything the SSR had ever done?

“No wonder they came to this time,” said Peggy. Having something like that was practically inviting HYDRA in.

It didn’t alleviate her worries any when she saw how easy it was to search for things, either. If Peggy had wanted to find specific documents in the SSR offices, she would have started out with a short prayer to the patron saint of filing (according to her former room-mate Colleen, this was either Saint Catherine or Saint Jerome, depending on your interpretation) that they’d been properly indexed before diving into the card catalogue. If she’d managed to find something there, she would have rewarded herself with an extra dessert. If not, it meant that whatever she was looking for had not been catalogued, and there was nothing for it but going through drawer upon drawer, box upon box of records and hoping that somewhere in there was what she wanted. The process would have required days and several extra desserts, for fortitude.

On the Wikileaks website, Toulouse simply selected the phrase search keywords and typed in SSR time machine. That brought up a couple of different documents, related to various projects interested in seeing the future or altering the past. None seemed to have gotten past the planning stages, and the descriptions and diagrams did not match the device Peggy and Howard had arrived by.

“We can narrow it down by year,” Toulouse suggested. “When did you say you were from?”

“1948,” Peggy told her. Toulouse added it to her search parameters, but that brought up nothing at all.

“Maybe it took us a while to get around to writing it down,” Howard said. “Try 49, 50, and 51.”

“And try matter transmitter,” Peggy added. “That’s what I wanted to call the contraption before I realized we were in another time.” Perhaps the SSR hadn’t wanted to describe it as a time machine, especially if Peggy had warned them that these records would someday be public. “Or the location. Sierra bunker.”

“See if any of them mention cows,” suggested Howard.

They spent the entire rest of the morning on the website, going through every possible variation of the search. Peggy and Howard brainstormed code names they might have given the thing and tried those, and found exactly nothing of interest. Sometimes a result would look promising, but reading it was invariably a disappointment. For a moment they had hope when they came across the Sierra bunker’s serial number – ACS21/2 – but the document only noted that it had been permanently sealed off in 1950, in favour of bomb shelters closer to the city.

Not only was it disappointing, but the longer they kept turning up nothing, the more worried Peggy became. If there were no record of the machine, did that mean the SSR had never actually been able to study it for some reason? Or worse, had somebody deliberately erased all traces? How would that be possible. Peggy and Howard clearly had gotten back, not long after they’d left, and what they would have had to say when they did should have made the machine a top priority. Could HYDRA have sent someone else back to destroy the records? Or had Peggy and Howard done it themselves?

“Maybe this thing just doesn’t bloody work,” said Peggy. The more complicated a piece of technology was, the more ways it could fail – and this computer, as simple as it looked on the outside, had to be very complicated indeed.

“Or maybe they just never transferred the files,” Toulouse offered. “By the time they got around to putting everything on computer they would have had decades of crap to go through. Maybe they just never got to it all.”

Peggy thought of all the information that had accumulated in the SSR’s Los Angeles office in the mere year since its establishment, and shuddered imagine what seventy times as much might look like. “You’d think…” she mused. “When we get back, we’ll obviously know all this is going to happen, and you’d think we’d want to leave some kind of clue for ourselves. Something…” she paused, her coffee cup halfway to her mouth. Of course! And of course they’d destroyed the records! “Something nobody will understand but us, so that HYDRA can’t use it!”

“Great,” huffed Howard. “So it’ll be easy to leave, because by then we’ll already know what it is, but right now when we’re looking for it, we have to figure it out.”

“Then we’ll thank ourselves for our ingenuity when the time comes,” Peggy said. “Now… we know where we’ll arrive, but we can’t leave anything in the hotel because it won’t be built for another seventy years. Not the Wilton, either, because it’s going to be torn down and rebuilt. What about…”

“The bunker!” Howard exclaimed, at the same moment it occurred to Peggy.

“Of course!” she said. It would be closed by 1950, but Peggy would be back working for the SSR by then She might even have been involved in decommissioning it. “Toulouse, find the bunker again – ACS21/2. Anything more you can find about it.”

Her heart was beating fast as Toulouse ran the search. Surely this would be it.

The website called google gave them several results, including lists of defunct cold war bunkers, and a small article from the early 2000s about people being injured while trying to explore such locations. This included a colour photograph of the very bunker in question, showing the entrance – now very much overgrown and with the padlock rusted in place – with a new fence and danger sign to keep people out. Peggy felt a swell of hope in her chest.

“That’s got to be it,” she said.

“How do we get back to California?” Howard wanted to know. “Maybe I somehow set some money aside for myself…”

“I’ll take you,” Toulouse said. She typed the words flights from Heathrow to LAX, and a whole new set of information appeared, which she began to sift through.

Peggy swallowed. “Toulouse, you don’t have to do that…”

“She can if she wants,” Howard interrupted.

“I know,” said Peggy, “but she doesn’t have to.” She was still slightly worried that Toulouse’s family was involved in this whole mess, although Toulouse herself had made no effort so far to turn them in. “Toulouse, you’ve spent a lot of time and money on us already.”

“I don’t mind,” Toulouse assured her.

“But you really don’t need to.” Peggy pulled her chair a little closer to look Toulouse in the eye. “Please answer me honestly, Toulouse. Why do you want to help us?”

Toulouse looked back at her in surprise. “I want to help,” she said. “I’ve never been able to do something like this before! When Thor busted up Greenwich we gave money to restore the buildings, and we sent aid to Sokovia and Johannesburg, but this is different. It’s not exactly superhero stuff, but I want to be a part of it.”

“Isn’t your father going to be upset that you’re spending his money this way?” Peggy asked next. She wanted all her bases covered.

Toulouse looked down at her keyboard for a moment and bit her lip, leaving a bit of silver lipstick on her teeth. “Daddy doesn’t actually care what I do. I can get a Master’s degree or I can get arrested for shoplifting. He doesn’t give a shit as long as I’m not bothering him.”

“Where else are we gonna get the money, Peg?” asked Howard.

He was probably right, but there was one thing Peggy absolutely needed Toulouse to understand. “This isn’t an adventure,” she said. “It may be very dangerous.”

“Then tell me when to sit out, and I’ll sit out,” Toulouse insisted. “Please?” She sounded like a child, rather than an adult woman in an absurd outfit.

“All right,” Peggy relented. “But when we do tell you stay out, you must stay out. You’re not along for a safari. We don’t know who else knows about any of this or how dangerous it may be. We don’t want you hurt, and whatever your father might think of your behaviour, I know he doesn’t either. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Ma’am!” said Toulouse. Her voice was meek, but her smile was that of a child on Christmas morning. She selected the word purchase on her computer screen, and then stood up.

“We fly out of Heathrow at six,” she said, “with a stopover in Toronto, and arrive at LAX at 2:30 AM. I’ll get us a room at the Sandhill Playa Del Rey, because that’s been there for ten years and nobody’s got any excuse for sneaking into the basement.”

“Very reassuring,” said Peggy dryly.

“Also,” Toulouse added, a finger in the air. “Now that you two are obviously going to be here a while, we need to talk about the blending in thing.”

Peggy glanced down at her own clothes, then looked askance once again at what Toulouse was wearing. “Not that it wouldn’t be nice to have something clean,” she said, “but nobody’s been staring at us so far.” Most of the clothing people wore in this century seemed to be far more drab than Toulouse’s, and Peggy and Howard weren’t that out of place.

“You just haven’t noticed,” said Toulouse firmly. “I’m taking you both to Barnardo’s.”

Peggy was afraid that Barnardo’s would turn out to be a fancy shop selling only sequinned jackets and high boots. To her relief, it was actually a second-hand store, which was actually a very clever idea – anything they found there would be slightly out of style, slightly worn, and most likely working-class. All things that would help them vanish in the crowds.

Choosing something nevertheless turned out to be a bit of a project. Much of what was on offer were things Peggy wouldn’t have been caught dead in, whether because they were too tight, sleeveless, or had necklines that reached nearly to her nipples. She finally ended up in a dark blue top with a beaded trim and no sleeves, offsetting the immodesty of that with a black jacket made of fake leather, which was only waist-length but at least covered her shoulders. The blue shirt dangled out the bottom of it to hang over a pair of white denim trousers, but Toulouse refused to let her tuck it in.

At least there was a pair of high heels that fit, even if they were a dreadful budgerigar green that didn’t match the blue shirt. It didn’t matter to Peggy what century she was in – she wanted to be able to look the men in the eye.

Howard had an easier time of things. He found a tweed blazer with maroon accents that would have fit right in with his usual wardrobe, and paired it with a set of torn-up trousers (Toulouse said the proper term was distressed) and a shirt that didn’t match, featuring a stylized drawing of that Iron Man character they’d briefly seen on the news. Peggy suspected he’d chosen it for the line of text underneath the image, which read genius billionaire playboy philanthropist.

“What do you think?” he asked Peggy, with a grin on his face.

“Are you sure that shirt doesn’t actually belong to your future self?” she asked him.

Toulouse herself looked them over as if they were horses at a show, and finally gave a satisfied nod. “You two look perfect,” she declared.

“We look ridiculous,” Peggy corrected her.

“Nobody will look at you twice,” Toulouse promised, and Peggy supposed she was probably right. Everybody would be too blinded by Toulouse’s own sequinned jacket.

#fanfic #agent carter #peggy carter #howard stark

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readevalprint · 7 years

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Your personal DIY image search

Hi everyone, it’s been a while! I bet you forgot this blog even existed. I happen to be a big supporter of quality over quantity, so while my work on parsing Japanese counters earlier this year was pretty interesting, I already wrote way too many articles about Ichiran/ichi.moe so I decided to keep it to myself. Recently I’ve been working on a little side-project and now that it finally works, I think it deserves a full-fledged blog post.

For a bit of a nostalgia trip, let's go back to the early 00s. Remember when TinEye first appeared? It was amazing. For the first time you could easily find where that one image you once saved from some random phpBB forum is really from. It didn't matter if your image was resized, or slightly edited from the original, it still worked. That shit was magic, my friends. Of course these days nobody is impressed by this stuff. Google Image Search indexes pretty much anything that exists on the Internet and even uses neural networks to identify content of an image.

Back to the present day. I discovered I have an image hoarding problem. Over the years of using the Intertubes, I have accumulated a massive number of images on my hard drive. When I see an image I like my first thought is "do I have this one saved already?" because how could I possibly remember? At this point I need my own personal Google Image Search. And (spoiler alert) now I have one.

First of all, I needed an actual image matching technology. These days the cloud is all the rage, so I definitely wanted to have this thing running in the cloud (as opposed to my local PC) so that I could search my images from anywhere in the world. After a cursory search, my eyes fell on a thing called Pavlov Match which runs from a Docker container, so should be pretty easy to install. I installed docker and docker-compose on my VPS, and then git-cloned Match and ran make dev according to instructions. This will actually run an Elasticsearch instance on the same VPS, and apparently the damn thing eats memory for breakfast, at least with the default settings. I'm using a cheap 2GB RAM Linode, so the memory is actually a very finite resource here, as I will find out later. The default settings will also completely expose your match installation AND elasticsearch to the world. But don't worry, I figured this out so that you don't have to. Let's edit docker-compose.yml from match repository as follows:

version: '2' services: match: image: pavlov/match:latest ports: - 127.0.0.1:8888:8888 command: ["/wait-for-it.sh", "-t", "60", "elasticsearch:9200", "--", "gunicorn", "-b", "0.0.0.0:8888", "-w", "4", "--preload", "server:app"] links: - elasticsearch elasticsearch: image: elasticsearch environment: - "ES_JAVA_OPTS=-Xms256m -Xmx256m" - bootstrap.mlockall=true expose: - "9200"

This will make match server only available on local network within the VPS on port 8888, and elasticsearch only available to these two docker containers. It will also restrict elasticsearch RAM consumption to 512mb and --preload flag reduces the amount of memory gunicorn workers consume.

To make match server available from outside I recommend proxying it through nginx or some other proper web server. You can also add authentication/IP whitelist in nginx because the match server has no authentication features whatsoever, so anyone will be able to search/add/delete the data on it.

That was the backend part. No programming required here! But this is a Lisp blog, so the next step is writing a Lisp client that can communicate with this server. The first step is reading the match API documentation. You might notice it's a bit... idiosyncratic. I guess REST is out of fashion these days. Anyway, I started implementing a client using the trusty drakma, but I quickly hit a limitation: match expects all parameters to be sent encoded as form data, but drakma can only encode POST parameters as form data and not, say, DELETE parameters. Not to be foiled by a badly designed API, I tried dexador, and while dex:delete does not encode parameters as form data, dex:request is flexible enough to do so. Each response (a JSON string) is parsed using jsown.

(defun parse-request (&rest args) (when *auth* (setf args `(,@args :basic-auth ,*auth*))) (multiple-value-bind (content return-code) (handler-bind ((dex:http-request-failed #'dex:ignore-and-continue)) (apply 'dex:request args)) (cond ((<= 400 return-code 499) (jsown:new-js ("status" "fail") ("error" content) ("code" return-code))) (t (let ((obj (jsown:parse content))) (jsown:extend-js obj ("code" return-code))))))) (defun add-local (file &key path (metadata "{}")) "Add local image to Match server" (parse-request (api-url "/add") :method :post :content `(("image" . ,(pathname file)) ("filepath" . ,(or path file)) ("metadata" . ,metadata))))

With this basic client in place, I can add and delete individual images, but it would be incredibly cumbersome to manage thousands of images with it. I had to write some code that would scan specified directories for images, track any changes and then add/update/delete information from Match server as needed. I already wrote something like this before, so this was pretty easy. Of course SBCL's "sb-posix:stat doesn't work on Unicode filenames" bug has reared its head again, but I already knew the workaround. This time I completely relied on UIOP for recursively walking directories (uiop:subdirectories and uiop:directory-files are your friends). Each image file is represented as CLOS object and saved into a hash-table which is serialized to a file using CL-STORE. The object has a status attribute which can be :new, :update, :delete, :ok and so on. Based on status, an action needs to be performed, such as uploading an image to Match server (for :new and :update).

Now, I could just send a bunch of requests one after another, but that would be a waste. Remember, we have 4 gunicorn workers running on our server! This clearly calls for a thread pool. I thought PCALL would be perfect for this, but nope. It uses sb-thread:interrupt-thread which is incredibly unsafe and the result is that you basically can't safely make http requests from thread workers. Debugging this took way too much time. In the end, I implemented a thread pool based on lparallel promises which is kind of an overkill for such a simple use case, but at least it worked.

(setf *cache* (update-cache)) (let ((lparallel:*kernel* (lparallel:make-kernel threads))) (unwind-protect (loop for value in (alexandria:hash-table-values *cache*) collect (worker value) into futures finally (map nil 'lparallel:force futures)) (lparallel:end-kernel))) (save-cache *cache*))

Note that you must be very careful when doing things that affect global state inside the threads. For example :delete action removes a key from the hash table *cache*. This is not guaranteed to be an atomic operation, so it's necessary to grab a global lock when doing it.

(defvar *cache-lock* (bordeaux-threads:make-lock "match-cache-lock")) ... (bordeaux-threads:with-lock-held (*cache-lock*) (remhash key *cache*))

Printing messages to REPL from inside threads also requires a separate lock and (force-output), otherwise it will look like a complete mess!

(defun format-msg (str &rest args) (bordeaux-threads:with-lock-held (*msg-lock*) (terpri) (apply 'format t str args) (force-output)))

Now that the required functionality is implemented, it's time to test upload a bunch of stuff... and get back a bunch of errors. It took some sleuthing to discover that gunicorn workers of my Match server are routinely getting killed by "OOM killer". Basically, the server runs out of memory and the system in desperation kills a process that it doesn't like. Remember, I only have 2Gb of memory there!

I figured out that it's images with very large dimensions that are the most problematic in terms of memory usage. If I were to resize these images to some reasonable size, the matching should still work pretty well. In order to execute this plan, I thought I'd use some Lisp to ImageMagick interface. There's in fact a pure Lisp solution called OptiCL but would it really handle any image? Remind me to test that later! Anyway, back to ImageMagick. Neither lisp-magick nor lisp-magick-wand would work with the most recent ImageMagick version (seems its API has changed a bit). However the last one I tried cl-graphicsmagick, which uses a fork of ImageMagick called GraphicsMagick, has unexpectedly worked (at least on my Windows laptop. Note that you need to install Microsoft Visual C Redistributable 2008 otherwise the library wouldn't load with CFFI) so I went with that.

Using very useful temporary files functionality of UIOP (uiop:with-temporary-file), I resize each oversized image to reasonable dimensions and save into a temporary file, which is then uploaded to Match server. I also send the file's original and resized dimensions as metadata. Thankfully this completely eradicated the memory issue. There's a minor problem where GraphicsMagick cannot do Unicode pathnames on Windows, so I copy the original image into a temporary file with ASCII-only name in that case.

(defun resize-image (input-path output-path &key (max-width *max-dimension*) (max-height *max-dimension*) (filter :%QuadraticFilter) (blur 1)) (gm::with-magick-wand (wand) (handler-case (gm::%MagickReadImage wand input-path) ;; graphicsmagick cannot read Unicode filenames on Windows so attempt to load a copy (gm::magick-error () (uiop:with-temporary-file (:pathname tmp :prefix "gm" :type (pathname-type input-path)) (uiop:copy-file input-path tmp) (setf wand (gm::%NewMagickWand)) (gm::%MagickReadImage wand (namestring tmp))))) (let ((w (gm::%MagickGetImageWidth wand)) (h (gm::%MagickGetImageHeight wand)) (res nil)) (multiple-value-bind (fw fh) (gm::fit-width-height w h max-width max-height) (unless (and (= w fw) (= h fh)) (gm::%MagickResizeImage wand fw fh filter blur) (gm::%MagickWriteImage wand output-path) (setf res output-path)) (values res w h fw fh)))))

Later I tested this code on an Ubuntu machine with GraphicsMagick installed from Apt repository and SBCL crashed into ldb debugger mode straight away... Welp. The helpful folks of #lisp told me the problem is with signal handlers established by GraphicsMagick library, somehow they confuse SBCL. Based on that advice, eventually I succeeded making this work. Uninstall apt Graphicsmagick and grab the sources. Find the file called magick.c and replace the line

InitializeMagickSignalHandlers(); /* Signal handlers */

with

// InitializeMagickSignalHandlers(); /* Signal handlers */

(commenting it out). Then do configure --enable-shared (see readme for possible options), make and sudo make install. This will make it work when called from SBCL on Linux.

Anyways, the full code of MATCH-CLIENT can be found at my Github. It's not installable from quicklisp for obvious reasons, in fact it's a complete pain to install as you might've already guessed, but if you wanna try it, you're welcome. The main two commands are update and match. The first is called to upload all images in your *root-dirs* to the server and then to update them if anything changes. match is used to match any image on the Internet (passed as URL string) or a local pathname (passed as pathname object) compared to the server. It returns a list of jsown objects (basically alists) that contain score (up to 100 for exact match), path (with "local tag" which can be different per device) and metadata containing original and resized dimensions.

((:OBJ ("score" . 96.00956) ("filepath" . "[HOME] d:/foo/bar/baz.jpg") ("metadata" :OBJ ("rw" . 1218) ("rh" . 2048) ("w" . 3413) ("h" . 5736))))

Anyway, this was a fun (although often frustrating) thing to build and ended up being quite useful! Thanks for reading and see you next time.

#common lisp #image search #programming #lisp

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siliconwebx · 5 years

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Simple & Boring

Simplicity is a funny adjective in web design and development. I'm sure it's a quoted goal for just about every project ever done. Nobody walks into a kickoff meeting like, "Hey team, design something complicated for me. Oh, and make sure the implementation is convoluted as well. Over-engineer that sucker, would ya?"

Of course they want simple. Everybody wants simple. We want simple designs (because simple means our customers will understand it and like it). And we want simplicity in development. Nobody dreams of going to work to spend all day wrapping their head around a complex system to fix one bug.

Still, there is plenty to talk about when it comes to simplicity. It would be very hard to argue that web development has gotten simpler over the years. As such, the word has lately been on the tongues of many web designers and developers. Let's take a meandering waltz through what other people have to say about simplicity.

Bridget Stewart recalls a frustrating battle against over-engineering in "A Simpler Web: I Concur." After being hired as an expert in UI implementation and given the task of getting a video to play on a click...

I looked under the hood and got lost in all the looping functions and the variables and couldn't figure out what the code was supposed to do. I couldn't find any HTML <video> being referenced. I couldn't see where a link or a button might be generated. I was lost.

I asked him to explain what the functions were doing so I could help figure out what could be the cause, because the browser can play video without much prodding. Instead of successfully getting me to understand what he had built, he argued with me about whether or not it was even possible to do. I tried, at first calmly, to explain to him I had done it many times before in my previous job, so I was absolutely certain it could be done. As he continued to refuse my explanation, things got heated. When I was done yelling at him (not the most professional way to conduct myself, I know), I returned to my work area and fired up a branch of the repo to implement it. 20 minutes later, I had it working.

It sounds like the main problem here is that the dude was a territorial dingus, but also his complicated approach literally stood in the way of getting work done.

Simplicity on the web often times means letting the browser do things for us. How many times have you seen a complex re-engineering of a select menu not be as usable or accessible as a <select>?

Jemery Wagner writes in Make it Boring:

Eminently usable designs and architectures result when simplicity is the default. It's why unadorned HTML works. It beautifully solves the problem of presenting documents to the screen that we don't even consider all the careful thought that went into the user agent stylesheets that provide its utterly boring presentation. We can take a lesson from this, especially during a time when more websites are consumed as web apps, and make them more resilient by adhering to semantics and native web technologies.

My guess is the rise of static site generators — and sites that find a way to get as much server-rendered as possible — is a symptom of the industry yearning for that brand of resilience.

Do less, as they say. Lyza Danger Gardner found a lot of value in this in her own job:

... we need to try to do as little as possible when we build the future web.

This isn’t a rationalization for laziness or shirking responsibility—those characteristics are arguably not ones you’d find in successful web devs. Nor it is a suggestion that we build bland, homogeneous sites and apps that sacrifice all nuance or spark to the Greater Good of total compatibility.

Instead it is an appeal for simplicity and elegance: putting commonality first, approaching differentiation carefully, and advocating for consistency in the creation and application of web standards.

Christopher T. Miller writes in "A Simpler Web":

Should we find our way to something simpler, something more accessible?

I think we can. By simplifying our sites we achieve greater reach, better performance, and more reliable conveying of the information which is at the core of any website. I think we are seeing this in the uptick of passionate conversations around user experience, but it cannot stop with the UX team. Developers need to take ownership for the complexity they add to the Web.

It's good to remember that the complexity we layer onto building websites is opt-in. We often do it for good reason, but it's possible not to. Garrett Dimon:

You can build a robust, reliable, and fully responsive web application today using only semantic HTML on the front-end. No images. No CSS. No JavaScript. It’s entirely possible. It will work in every modern browser. It will be straightforward to maintain. It may not fit the standard definition of beauty as far as web experiences go, but it will work. In many cases, it will be more usable and accessible than those built with modern front-end frameworks.

That’s not to say that this is the best approach, but it’s a good reminder that the web works by default without all of our additional layers. When we add those additional layers, things break. Or, if we neglect good markup and CSS to begin with, we start out with something that’s already broken and then spend time trying to make it work again.

We assume that complex problems always require complex solutions. We try to solve complexity by inventing tools and technologies to address a problem; but in the process, we create another layer of complexity that, in turn, causes its own set of issues.

— Max Böck, "On Simplicity"

Perhaps the worst reason to choose a complex solution is that it's new, and the newness makes it feel like choosing it makes you on top of technology and doing your job well. Old and boring may just what you need to do your job well.

Dan McKinley writes:

“Boring” should not be conflated with “bad.” There is technology out there that is both boring and bad. You should not use any of that. But there are many choices of technology that are boring and good, or at least good enough. MySQL is boring. Postgres is boring. PHP is boring. Python is boring. Memcached is boring. Squid is boring. Cron is boring.

The nice thing about boringness (so constrained) is that the capabilities of these things are well understood. But more importantly, their failure modes are well understood.

Rachel Andrew wrote that choosing established technology for the CMS she builds was a no-brainer because it's what her customers had.

You're going to hear less about old and boring technology. If you're consuming a healthy diet of tech news, you probably won't read many blog posts about old and boring technology. It's too bad really, I, for one, would enjoy that. But I get it, publications need to have fresh writing and writers are less excited about topics that have been well-trod over decades.

As David DeSandro says, "New tech gets chatter". When there is little to say, you just don't say it.

You don't hear about TextMate because TextMate is old. What would I tweet? Still using TextMate. Still good.

While we hear more about new tech, it's old tech that is more well known, including what it's bad at. If newer tech, perhaps more complicated tech, is needed because it solves a known pain point, that's great, but when it doesn't...

You are perfectly okay to stick with what works for you. The more you use something, the clearer its pain points become. Try new technologies when you're ready to address those pain points. Don't feel obligated to change your workflow because of chatter. New tech gets chatter, but that doesn't make it any better.

Adam Silver says that a boring developer is full of questions:

"Will debugging code be more difficult?", "Might performance degrade?" and "Will I be slowed down due to compile times?"

Dan Kim is also proud of being boring:

I have a confession to make — I’m not a rock star programmer. Nor am I a hacker. I don’t know ninjutsu. Nobody has ever called me a wizard.

Still, I take pride in the fact that I’m a good, solid programmer.

Complexity isn't an enemy. Complexity is valuable. If what we work on had no complexity, it would worth far less, as there would be nothing slowing down the competition. Our job is complexity. Or rather, our job is managing the level of complexity so it's valuable while still manageable.

Santi Metz has a great article digging into various aspects of this, part of which is about considering how much complicated code needs to change:

We abhor complication, but if the code never changes, it's not costing us money.

Your CMS might be extremely complicated under the hood, but if you never touch that, who cares. But if your CMS limits what you're able to do, and you spend a lot of time fighting it, that complexity matters a lot.

It's satisfying to read Sandi's analysis that it's possible to predict where code breaks, and those points are defined by complexity. "Outlier classes" (parts of a code base that cause the most problems) can be identified without even seeing the code base:

I'm not familiar with the source code for these apps, but sight unseen I feel confident making a few predictions about the outlying classes. I suspect that they:

are larger than most other classes,

are laden with conditionals, and

represent core concepts in the domain

I feel seen.

Boring is in it for the long haul.

Cap Watkins writes in "The Boring Designer":

The boring designer is trusted and valued because people know they’re in it for the product and the user. The boring designer asks questions and leans on others’ experience and expertise, creating even more trust over time. They rarely assume they know the answer.

The boring designer is capable of being one of the best leaders a team can have.

So be great. Be boring.

Be boring!

The post Simple & Boring appeared first on CSS-Tricks.

😉SiliconWebX | 🌐CSS-Tricks

#Silicon Web Design #Ahmedabad #India #Web Development #WPBeginner #Silicon URL #Web Site #Cloud Host

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kootenaygoon · 5 years

Photo

Nobody knows the Kootenays like Greg Nesteroff.

A celebrated historian and journalist, he first made a name for himself as a columnist and reporter for the Nelson Star, eventually moving up to the editor position. He then became news director of Juice FM, a gig he inherited from veteran broadcaster Glenn Hicks.

Last year Nesteroff decided to take some time off to work on two full-length book projects — one will be a collection of his popular Place Names columns, while the other will be a biography of Sandon founder John Morgan Harris. Meanwhile he started a blog: The Kütne Reader.

Kootenay Goon caught up with Greg to chat about the world of blogging, his obsession with the past and the future of journalism.

#1. For many of the posts on Kütne Reader, a historical document or photograph ends up being the jumping off point for a deep dive into the life of some historical character most have never heard of. (I loved your story about "The Midnight Nurse", by the way.) Your investigative skill-set is honestly staggering — I can't believe you successfully dredge up some of the information you do.

It seems to me like this would be a lengthy process, and I'm curious what your strategy is when building these stories. What are your go-to sources? Are you constantly haunting the archives, or looking this stuff up in books, or some combination of both?

Gee, thanks! My hat will no longer fit.

I had a stockpile of unpublished stories I was able to drawn on initially. I've exhausted most of them, so now I'm putting up new posts at a slightly slower pace. Although I have no shortage of ideas, it takes longer to assemble each post. You're right about a single photograph, document, or artifact inspiring a post. It doesn't take much to get me interested and headed down a proverbial rabbit hole.

Go-to sources: ancestry.com plus the ever-expanding list of digitized newspapers, particularly the early Kootenay papers available through UBC's BC Historical Newspapers site and the ones on newspapers.com. The recent addition to the latter of The Vancouver Sun was particularly exciting. I visit archives and libraries less often than I used to because so much is available online now. But I spent 20 years taking notes from newspapers and local history books (the room where I write is groaning under the weight of those books), so there is lots I can search even on my own computer desktop.

Even though an amazing number of books have been written about this region (with more added each year) there is no shortage of subjects left unexplored or under-explored. The digitization of newspapers and books is giving us the tools to explore topics and questions in previously impossible ways. It's fun to be part of the first wave of historians to take advantage of this technology.

Some of my posts are wholly original; you won't find anything about those subjects in any history book. Others are a matter of presenting existing information in a new way. My post entitled "15 curious things about Peter (Lordly) Verigin's death" contained nothing that hadn't already been published, but it was presented in a novel way. Whereas "A phony dentist in the Slocan Valley" recounted the life of a career criminal which had never been presented in full.

#2. You took 2018 off to focus on writing your books. Now that 2019's staring us in the face, how much progress have you made?

Alarmingly little. I blame the blog.

I can throw something up in a hurry without worrying too much about being artful and get instant feedback. Whereas the books are long-term projects that require more care and thought and will not bear fruit for a long time. So the quicker, shorter stuff is much more attractive. It gives me a sense of accomplishment and makes me feel productive in spite of the lack of progress on the books.

I will say that I have reorganized my Johnny Harris biography in a way that should make it more compelling. But I haven't added very much. It still sits at about 43,000 words with a huge amount left to do.

The place name series is more a matter of compiling and condensing than writing, since the basis for it has been a series that has appeared in local newspapers for the last six years. But even then, all I've accomplished so far is a sample chapter for letters P and Q.

Fortunately, my literary agent and wife are both prodding me to get going on the books before my nest egg runs out.

#3. Your other big project has been this blog, and you've been churning out content on the regular. How does it feel to switch mediums, to switch from your home in the pages of the Nelson Star and unleash your work online? Obviously there's no word count limits, which is nice, but what else inspired you to make the jump?

It was probably just a procrastination tool.

It seemed more fun than what I was actually supposed to be doing. I had no goal initially and didn't give a lot of thought to how it would look or what it would contain. I didn't even really envision anyone reading it. (Which is not unusual, since I've written lots of things for my own amusement and never bothered to share them. Some have since been posted on the blog.)

Now I do pay more attention to what I'm doing and actively try to increase page views, although I view it purely as a game.

#4. In a number of your historical posts you write about about the First Nations residents of the West Kootenay, including the Sinixt and the Ktunaxa. (Cool postcard of those pictographs, by the way.) This is a subject I don't know much about, and surely I'm not the only one. In your research, what have you learned about their history and how do you feel it informs your understanding of First Nations issues today?

I don't pretend to be an expert on local First Nations. But I am very interested in overlooked stories and overlooked people.

The First Nations of West Kootenay certainly fall in that category. For generations we experienced a sort of collective amnesia, with descendants of European settlers claiming there never were any First Nations people here, or that they were only transient. That attitude started to shift about 30 years ago, and today you will hear aboriginal acknowledgements at the start of city council meetings, but we still have a long way to go in recognizing local indigenous history.

Other visible minorities have also been given short shrift in local history, including Chinese Canadians and Japanese Canadians. For many years their stories in this area were not well told, but that has changed in the past few decades, thanks to a few key writers and curators. There is still much untapped ground: for instance, no one has ever written in detail about South Asian pioneers of this region, but I would like to. There were many Indo Canadian sawmill workers in our area, and there is even a West Kootenay connection to the Komagata Maru.

#5. I know you have a special relationship with Sandon, the ghost town just outside New Denver. (For those of you who haven't been, it's worth it just to check out the fleet of historic Vancouver buses randomly parked there.) If memory serves, you've been researching the founder — who was apparently quite the character. What is it about Sandon that initially won your attention?

Sandon has held generations of history buffs in thrall, probably because of its setting and the heights it reached before its lengthy descent into a ghost town. I am no exception. I was taken by it during my first childhood trip. Even though it was hardly an attractive place at that time, it still made a deep impression on me. I recall thinking that I'd somehow like to contribute to the study of local history, but assumed everything there was to know had already been discovered. Well ...

I became particularly interested in John Morgan Harris, the subject of the biography I am writing, when looking into myths about Sandon. There was a story he killed someone before coming to the area. I didn't believe it, but it turned out to be true. I spent a few days in the Wallace, Idaho library reading newspapers about that incident and the rest of his exploits there.

I've also been to his birthplace and grave in Virginia.

#6. You spend a lot of time living in the past, but you also produce stellar journalism about the present day. Is it hard to switch back and forth, and do you think the two pursuits influence and inform each other?

It's not hard to switch.

But it is nice to bring a historical perspective to a current news story, to tell your reader how typical or atypical an event is, the last time it happened, or just supply some trivia that enlivens your copy.

In writing history I use the genealogist's toolkit more than the reporter's. The same resources people use to compile family trees I use to pursue obscure historical figures. Most of the time my subjects are long dead, so I'm not able to interview them or anyone who knew them. But I use ancestry.com and the BC archives vital events index nearly every day in addition to the aforementioned digitized newspaper sites.

Thank goodness for those pioneer papers. Despite their biases and blind spots (those visible minorities mentioned earlier were routinely condemned when they weren't ignored), without them we would have a much poorer understanding of what went on around here.

0 notes

sanamulla-blog · 4 years

Text

The State of Business Analyst jobs in 2020 and so on

The past decade saw an explosion in demand for business analysts. Back in 2010, data-focused companies were still relatively new and analytics weren’t as commonly used. Since then, however, data analytics has become an integral part of every department in many organizations, moving BAs from their siloed corners.

While there’s been a lot of change over the last 10 years, there’s more to come. The role of a business analyst is constantly evolving along with the way we run our businesses. Let’s consider how the BA role has changed over the past few years and what this means for this career trajectories in 2020 and beyond.BAs Can Be Found Across the Organizational ChartAs demand for business analysts has increased, we have seen BAs join every department in an organization, from entry-level HR teams to senior leadership. It is clear that BAs can fit wherever they need within an organizational chart.

“A good Business Analyst’s skills as guardian of clarity, point of alignment, reasoning and value-focused thinking, as well as an inter-disciplinary facilitator, are so crucial to project success that every team that cannot cover that role will find themselves in trouble,” writes consultant Marcel Britsch.

To highlight the demand and value that BAs provide, Amazon is focusing on upskilling workers with business analyst abilities. TechCrunch writer Sarah Perez says the company is investing more than $700 million to retrain and upskill 100,000 workers across the United States. One of the jobs being trained for is a business analyst, which Amazon says is one of the fastest-growing highly-skilled jobs over the past five years. Based on its own data, business analyst jobs increased by 160 percent.

As private companies invest more in business analysis, educators and academics are preparing business school students for their future careers. Wells Fargo data management consultant Atanas Hansen writes that the business analyst is “much like a neuron processing and transmitting information throughout the nervous system.” In other words, BAs are in the center of a cross-functional system where they touch everything within a company and help in multiple ways. Every company can use business analysis within the vast majority of its departments.Business Analysts Work in a Highly Flexible FieldWhile some industries may have a hard time filling roles when the demand for work is so high, many teams are able to fill business analyst roles because of their flexibility. The work BAs do is incredibly diverse, which has led to many changes in job titles, roles, and management levels.

This lack of standardization will continue, says business analyst Adrian Reed, who noticed the flexibility in the job title of business analysts in 2017. He explains that the term “business analyst” means many things to many people. “Some BAs work purely on requirements. Others do everything from strategic analysis right through to delivery (and beyond).”

That variety is a good thing. It allows people to develop their own specialties and career paths based on their interests, skills, and demands of their employers.

“The scope of business analysis is growing into strategic planning, enterprise architecture and optimizing current operations,” explains Jamie Champagne, business analyst, and speaker. “However, it is easy to see how the business analyst role or skill set could easily be found in project management, process improvement, operational management, planning and support roles throughout the organization.”

Many business analysts go where they are called within a company, but they also have the flexibility to choose where they want to work based on their interests and skillsets.

BAs Use the Job Title as a Stepping StoneNot only can business analysts in 2020 and beyond take control of their careers through the natural flexibility of the work, but they can also use their skills as stepping stones to advanced positions.

Business analyst Balaji Angiya writes that BAs can step into one of many career paths. They can evolve into product owners, product managers, data analysts, process managers or scrum masters, to name a few. Moving into these roles allows business analysts to become more multi-functional while continuing to move the companies where they work forward.

To understand the nature of who works as a business analyst, Jeffrey A. Roth, chief marketing officer for the International Institute of Business Analysis, shared some interesting insight into the demographics of BAs.

Primarily, 64 percent of BAs have less than 10 years of experience. This speaks to the relatively young nature of the profession as more companies realize they need BAs on their teams. Many business and data professionals transition into the role and are molded by how their organizations operate.BAs Bring a Human Touch to DataThe rise of business analysts over the past decade (and their continued growth in the future) stems from our access and reliance on data. We have access to more analytics than ever but need BAs to provide context and insight into what they mean.

“Software is getting more sophisticated, but it is nowhere near the human brain’s inference drawing capabilities,” Shaku Atre, president of business intelligence and data warehousing corporation Atre Group. “People have been naïve to think that new technology is going to solve all the problems in no time.”

Tricia Morris, senior director of content marketing at MicroStrategy, curated several relevant statistics about the field of business analytics in 2020 and beyond:

In 2020, more than 40 percent of data science tasks will be automated.

By 2021, 66 percent of analytics processes will provide solutions instead of just reporting on what happened and why.

This speaks to the value of business analysts, who will take the automated data and make suggestions for action or review data-driven insights to make sure the recommendations are sound. “Not only is the overall amount of data increasing, but the number of types of data is also increasing, and the applications that store and generate data are increasing as well,” writes Amit Levi, vice president of product and marketing at analytics platform Anodot.

It is easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information out there. Even bots that get better at providing solutions still need business analysts to interpret the ideas and provide context to them.

“Businesses need to convey information to decision-makers in a way that is actionable and easy to understand,” Matt Trought writes at Talent International. “Known as data storytelling, this is a vital part of analytics; it starts a conversation around data and places the audience at the center.”

While you may think of business analytics are a purely numerical role, analysts need soft skills and emotional intelligence to give meaning to their insights.

Business Analysts Are Carving a Path in AgileOne of the main trends that have affected business analysts in the past decade is the rise of the agile framework. Is there still a place for BAs when there aren’t detailed pages of requirements? Not only have business analysts stayed relevant in companies with agile processes, but they have adapted and thrived — something they will continue to do in the coming years.

“BAs can support agile teams in many different ways, though the role can and should be dependent on the needs of a specific team or set of teams,” writes agile coach Rich Stewart. Rather than trying to push a business analyst into a specific job or box, leaders can create environments for them to thrive and to fill in any gaps within their companies.

Angela Wick, BA-Squared CEO, created an in-depth guide to the old and new practices of business analysts. She pairs each old practice with future ideas and changes. For example, instead of scoping out the whole project at the beginning and documenting the requirements, BAs can:

Focus on developing solutions to problems and guiding teams to make those ideas realities.

Define important metrics to reach.

Define requirements in small chunks that are adjusted along with the project.

As you can see, there is no one set way of doing things. It’s up to the BA to choose the path that makes the most sense within the organization.

“The days of huge requirements documents and extensive use cases are numbered,” writes business analyst career coach Joe Barrios. “Organizations just don’t have time to create documentation that nobody is going to read and that do not provide immediate and obvious value. While requirements will always matter, they will appear in more nimble ways such as user stories and epics.”

Unfortunately, BAs don’t always have an easy time during an agile transition, says Jorge Escamilla Zuñiga, lead business system analyst at Inflection Point Systems. They often have to learn where they fit within a company or process once that organization stops using a traditional waterfall method. This can create a period of confusion and uncertainty until these analysts figure out where they fit in.

Companies will continue to get more agile and more data-focused. Business analysts are essential to provide context to data and use it to guide teams to make the best decisions possible. This career path will continue to grow in the coming years regardless of how technology and leadership practices change.To become a good Active Business analyst you have to train yourself, so

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https://www.mcal.in/page/the-state-of-business-analyst-jobs-in-2020-and-so-on

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hotspreadpage · 6 years

Text

3 Ways You Sabotage Your Content Tech Search

Content technology. Sometimes it feels like we can’t live with it. But we know we can’t work without it.

Consider this finding from CMI’s 2018 Content Management & Strategy Survey: 51% of the content professionals say their company lacks the right technology to manage content across their organization. And another 35% say they’re not using the technology they do have to its potential.

Only a sliver (14%) say they have the right technology and are using it to manage content across the organization.

86% of marketers say they don’t have the right tech or aren’t using it to its potential. @CMIContent #research Click To Tweet

Why do we as content marketers struggle to get the right technology in place?

It’s not for a lack of options. Anyone who has seen that ubiquitous martech landscape chart knows that.

But having more choices only adds to the complexity. From those 5,000-plus options, you have to choose tech that will work for content creators, content strategists, content consumers, anyone who handles content governance, marketing or business analysts, the IT department, and so on and so on.

This isn’t easy. In fact, the Content Marketing Institute recognized that and is evolving the Intelligent Content Conference into the ContentTECH Summit next year. The vision sprang, as CMI Chief Strategy Advisor Robert Rose writes, from the challenge marketing leaders face: the effective use of technology that helps create, manage, deliver, and scale enterprise content and marketing.

But let’s take time now to identify at least three ways you may be making the tech process harder on yourself and your team (and corresponding ideas to make it easier).

1. You don’t have a content-tech strategy

You know CMI research points to a documented content marketing strategy as one of the things that separates successful content marketers from those who say they’re less successful.

Doesn’t it seem logical, then, that a documented content technology strategy would be a dividing line between successful and less successful tech implementations?

Both Robert Rose and Cathy McKnight, co-founder and head of the enterprise consulting practice at Digital Clarity Group, underscore the importance of a tech strategy.

Robert points to it as a way out of the technology debt that threatens to bankrupt content marketing:

One critical factor for content marketers is to have a formulated strategy, which includes a technology landscape, from the beginning. In other words, as content marketers we must get out of ‘how can we learn to do that’ and get into ‘this is what we aim to do, and here’s what we need to do it.’

Cathy sees a tech strategy as an antidote to the “shiny new thing” syndrome. Instead of running after new technologies, she recommends, take a step back and really understand what you have (in terms of tech capabilities and people who can put them to use) and what you truly need.

Don’t run after new #tech, step back to understand what you have & what you truly need. @cathymcknight Click To Tweet

You might find you already have the capabilities in your content tech stack. Or, you might find that a purchase makes sense. Either way, the resulting decision will be grounded in what makes sense for your goals and your organization.

2. You rely on outdated methods to filter your options

Tony Byrne, founder of tech analyst firm Real Story Group, says marketers have been relying on the wrong things to filter their content tech choices. He feels so strongly there’s a better way that he co-wrote a book called The Right Way to Select Technology: Get the Real Story on Finding the Best Fit.

Traditionally, Tony says, tech selection is made based on one of four problematic approaches:

Horse race – You choose technology based on static analyst-firm pronouncements about which tech vendors offer the most/best/newest capabilities without regard for what you’re trying to do.

Love at first sight – You’re enamored by the first tool you see and don’t consider other options that might fit better.

My Cousin Vinny – You choose a solution because you know another company in your market segment uses it; however, that company may not have the same content needs or use cases.

Happiness is a stack of warm binders – You spend a ton of time on developing tech and business requirements, loading them into spreadsheets, and weighting each factor mathematically; the problem, though, is that what looks like the solution on a spreadsheet may not work for people.

The selection method Real Story Group uses is based on design thinking. Tony shared this approach at the last Intelligent Content Conference in a session called Make the Right Technology Decisions. (You can watch his talk in full or read the edited transcript here.)

Design thinking helps address complex and overlapping needs precisely because it focuses on people. Consider this definition of design thinking from Stanford University professor and IDEO founder David Kelley:

A human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.

Here’s how Tony guides his clients to apply the five design-thinking steps to the tech selection process:

Empathize

Resist the urge to create a checklist of features to guide your tech selection. Instead, keep things focused on the people involved through stories or user journeys. Narrative journeys represent different stakeholders (customers, authors, editors, developers, designers, etc.).

Describe to-be states based on real people. For example, Ben works with his boss Louise at a public university to create microsites for 40 to 50 new partnerships every year. They need to be able to clone a site, then add some new and some existing content. Finally, they need to collaborate with their external partner, Bill, on the project.

Define

Done correctly, requests for proposals explain your needs. In design thinking, you include the user stories generated in Step 1 and ask the vendor to show how they can make those scenarios possible. Your RFP doesn’t have to be perfect. It should be good enough to start a conversation based on real human beings’ journeys. Send this RFP to a short list of vendors.

Ideate

Once you get the proposals, you’ll probably realize you didn’t get your user stories exactly right. Nobody does, Tony says, because it’s so hard to capture an interactive, collaborative experience in words.

You might have to think of new ways to describe what you need the technology to do, particularly if you left out a critical story. Or, if all the vendors can respond successfully to one of your narratives, you don’t need to include that one going forward.

Use the responses to the RFPs to select the vendors you invite to provide demos to your team.

Prototype (demonstrate)

Vendors should tailor the demos to your user stories to show why they’re a good fit. Set a fast pace for the demo meeting and take a break to check in with your team.

Take the learning from the demo and edit your user stories. Narrow your vendor list to two and ask them to address the edited user stories during the proof of concept/test phase.

Test

“The most important thing – the one thing that I really wish you to remember – is how essential it is that the final phase of this process is a competitive proof of concept, or what we sometimes refer to as a bake-off,” Tony says.

Why? It’s the only real way to know if the technology fits the people involved. And that means you must have Ben, Louise, and Bill work with the software for a few days or a week. “Any vendor that doesn’t let you do that is one you need to walk away from,” Tony advises.

A “bake-off” is the only real way to know if tech fits the people involved, says @tonybyrne. Click To Tweet

Skipping this step is akin to choosing a new car after watching a salesperson drive it around the parking lot.

3. You worry too much about future needs, so you risk overbuying

Many organizations focus on “future-proofing” their content tech investments. Tony blames this tendency on analysts’ and consultants’ love of this Wayne Gretzky quote: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”

Though he admits the advice to look ahead is sound, it’s not always a useful way to talk about tech buying. “That phrase has caused so much damage in the technology world, because we’re all trying to be where the puck is going. But we’re not actually very good at our stick handling right here in front of us,” he says.

The unexpected truth, Tony says, is that companies face more risk from overbuying technology than from underbuying. This sounds counterintuitive until you consider how hard using and managing a complex piece of technology can be. Overbuying just makes everyday tasks too hard.

Companies face more risk from overbuying #technology than from underbuying, says @tonybyrne. Click To Tweet

“If you’re in a procurement where you have very complex needs and you’re looking at high-end solutions, make sure you include at least one simpler product in the mix,” he says. “Simpler and cheaper almost always turns out better than more complicated.”

Here’s an excerpt from Tony’s talk:

youtube

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 13 Smart Brands Using Technology to Power Their Content

Want to go more in depth to solve your content tech challenges (or at least address them in smarter ways)? Check out CMI’s new ContentTECH Summit.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post 3 Ways You Sabotage Your Content Tech Search appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

3 Ways You Sabotage Your Content Tech Search syndicated from https://hotspread.wordpress.com

0 notes

a-breton · 6 years

Text

3 Ways You Sabotage Your Content Tech Search

Content technology. Sometimes it feels like we can’t live with it. But we know we can’t work without it.

Only a sliver (14%) say they have the right technology and are using it to manage content across the organization.

86% of marketers say they don’t have the right tech or aren’t using it to its potential. @CMIContent #research Click To Tweet

Why do we as content marketers struggle to get the right technology in place?

It’s not for a lack of options. Anyone who has seen that ubiquitous martech landscape chart knows that.

But let’s take time now to identify at least three ways you may be making the tech process harder on yourself and your team (and corresponding ideas to make it easier).

1. You don’t have a content-tech strategy

You know CMI research points to a documented content marketing strategy as one of the things that separates successful content marketers from those who say they’re less successful.

Doesn’t it seem logical, then, that a documented content technology strategy would be a dividing line between successful and less successful tech implementations?

Both Robert Rose and Cathy McKnight, co-founder and head of the enterprise consulting practice at Digital Clarity Group, underscore the importance of a tech strategy.

Robert points to it as a way out of the technology debt that threatens to bankrupt content marketing:

Don’t run after new #tech, step back to understand what you have & what you truly need. @cathymcknight Click To Tweet

2. You rely on outdated methods to filter your options

Traditionally, Tony says, tech selection is made based on one of four problematic approaches:

Horse race – You choose technology based on static analyst-firm pronouncements about which tech vendors offer the most/best/newest capabilities without regard for what you’re trying to do.

Love at first sight – You’re enamored by the first tool you see and don’t consider other options that might fit better.

My Cousin Vinny – You choose a solution because you know another company in your market segment uses it; however, that company may not have the same content needs or use cases.

A human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.

Here’s how Tony guides his clients to apply the five design-thinking steps to the tech selection process:

Empathize

Define

Ideate

Use the responses to the RFPs to select the vendors you invite to provide demos to your team.

Prototype (demonstrate)

Vendors should tailor the demos to your user stories to show why they’re a good fit. Set a fast pace for the demo meeting and take a break to check in with your team.

Take the learning from the demo and edit your user stories. Narrow your vendor list to two and ask them to address the edited user stories during the proof of concept/test phase.

Test

A “bake-off” is the only real way to know if tech fits the people involved, says @tonybyrne. Click To Tweet

Skipping this step is akin to choosing a new car after watching a salesperson drive it around the parking lot.

3. You worry too much about future needs, so you risk overbuying

Companies face more risk from overbuying #technology than from underbuying, says @tonybyrne. Click To Tweet

Here’s an excerpt from Tony’s talk:

youtube

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 13 Smart Brands Using Technology to Power Their Content

Want to go more in depth to solve your content tech challenges (or at least address them in smarter ways)? Check out CMI’s new ContentTECH Summit.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

from http://bit.ly/2PeJgUv

#Online Marketing

0 notes

the-ignitethespark · 6 years

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A+ certification training Never underestimate the best shapewear benefits of a good education. Thomas Jefferson would have hit the nail right on the head if instead of putting, "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" in the Declaration of Independence, he instead penned the words, "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Health and Education."Education, health and happiness are inextricably linked, according to an increasing number of studies Maternity Shapewear pointing to a direct connection between education and quality of life. A conversation about quality living would most assuredly have to include references to strength, stamina, vigor... all by-products of good health.The highway of education is paved with a fundamental and far-reaching approach to learning that forges knowledge in a variety of subjects, including health. Once you have the knowledge, it then becomes much easier to make the right decisions throughout life about health and everything else."Knowledge is power," wrote author Veronica Roth. Knowledge opens doors, breaks washer dryer clearance down barriers and levels the playing field. Without it, we wander through life unaware of the possibilities around us and unsure of the decisions in front of us. With it, we are able to recognize the good and bad in things and make decisions based on observation, intelligence and informed judgment.After learning about the concept of healthy living, and appliances houston as happens with many of life's daily responsibilities when accompanied by knowledge, a process of education ignites within us. Because our brain has absorbed information important for being healthy, we begin the process of learning how to be healthy. The cycle continues.To answer the questions introduced from this new awareness, we then focus on those things which help us accomplish our goal of achieving and maintaining wellness. Suddenly, our brain prompts our body to make the necessary adjustments which can promote a healthy lifestyle in us. In a short amount of time, health becomes something you think about more than only when you must.Health is car dealerships in houston primarily defined as 'a state of complete emotional and physical well-being'. Achieving optimum health and wellness is a challenge for everybody, educated or not. However, having the knowledge necessary to attain and maintain good health, is a perfect example of how learning can positively affect every aspect of your daily existence.Dr. Seuss had it right, "The more you read, the more things you will know. The more things you learn, the more places you'll go."Ideally a life-long process, learning stimulates the brain, triggers a physical response, and helps to identify almost unlimited avenues of education. Education, in turn, creates a foundation for life which translates, almost unconsciously, across limitless aspects of life, including health and wellness.Numerous luxury cars houstonstudies have established the importance and long-term benefits of early childhood education on a person's well-being. According to the Economic Opportunity Institute, "Early childhood learning plays a crucial role in primary education. By focusing early in childhood on prevention and protective factors, quality care and information can help children to grow up healthy."The report went on to state, "... quality early learning and care before the age of five has found it is associated with improvement in a range of educational and social measures, some of which have been documented many Houston SEO Expertyears after the care."While it has been proven that genetic characteristics structured in our DNA do certainly play a role in health and longevity, addressing the core issue of education - early and continued engaged learning - can provide a wide array of positive benefits for the brain, the body, and for society in general.

I studied engineering in Shivaji University which is a reputed university now but at the time when I was growing up the engineering students from this university were ridiculed for their lack of SEO Company Toronto knowledge and ability. Generally, the recruiting process of headhunters places an overwhelming emphasis on the final interview deciding the fortune of a fresh candidate. This was unfair to the candidates from smaller cities as their English was not up to the mark and despite being fluent engineers and qualifying through rigorous tests they were getting rejected in the interview. This thinking by the recruiters of selecting the best among equals was clearly defective. I do agree that when the candidates are almost equal in their qualifications and knowledge and ability some criteria have to be there for

what career is right for me

selecting a candidate right? Adequate speaking abilities are needed even for engineering jobs, but my English speaking abilities deciding my chances of getting an engineering job is really ridiculous. Now that I have become a writer my chances will be really good right? Just kidding!Similar such defective procedures which are in place in various fields need to be corrected for various appointments. There are many kinds of jobs in business analyst certification general such as, government jobs, private jobs and the jobs in charity organizations etc. All these jobs will have different requirements, facilities offered and remuneration. But nobody tells this in any syllabus I know of. Why are students not intimated officially that they will face this environment and they should know about it. The reality is that they find out, but this inclusion in my syllabus makes it quality education for me especially when you are opting for professional courses.Education cannot be just practical or theoretical when a student joins the school at a tender age. It has to such that all students need to be given equal opportunity to understand, interpret and most importantly execute what they have learned. It has to be fun as well as disciplined in its approach. The person imparting this education early childhood development needs to be a personality that children would like to be with. We already have a lot of stress in our lives and it must be reduced. So, start with the new generation. Teach them the importance of breathing in the fresh air first. Then, if needed they will learn about technology. It is all here, no need to become desperate about learning and using it.Remember there are several great career opportunities in place now such as professional sports, art, event management, farming even and what not. So the parents just gearing up for their child's education need to calm down a bit. It's the child who is taking the technical schools near me education and not you.

People often talk about the bygone days and they wish that they will come back. Do you wonder why? The mechanization has slowly but surely slowed down the importance of the development of human qualities. Please remember various options have to be available to the child when he is about 15 years old. That's when he will realize what he would like to do with his future. So, the education must have supported him in such a way that he knows all the options at that time. Well reasonably at least. A mindless emphasis on formal education induces stress and boredom in the minds of youngsters after a while.I know we will probably have some businessman opening an event management business course and make even more money. Why doesn't the government do it with the tax payer's money? That is a good investment. A quest for world-class education is not possible for everyone. The Indian education system mostly has to develop syllabi that will eventually be useful forA+ certification training

Indian environment. Find new employment opportunities especially in the agriculture sector and develop students with information at the college level. Homeschooling is also different and a sort of "old is gold" concept. Vocational trade schools, online education etc are some of the several different modes of education available which is great.I was in Australia for a while. A job in a metro such as Adelaide probably paid me around AUD 15 per hour. If I went to a smaller town such as Naracoorte the same job would give me AUD 17. Why? They are trying to move the large influx of job hunters in cities to smaller towns where they could make more money and live a peaceful life. It is a win-win situation. More money, fewer expenses, all facilities and a peaceful long life. The city dwellers, you don't want that? You got be kidding me!! Anyway, the point is that such clever government initiatives make alternate lifestyles more attractive by the time you finish school. So these updates have to be available during professional courses to the students officially. That is quality education. Not how many hours I spent at the desk. Why should a person be required to work 12 hours daily unless there is something seriously wrong with my work system? Now if a student is from such university/organization which takes all these pains I will give him/her preference as plus size shapeweara recruiter. Opinions definitely solicited!!

Educational tours are very important in a student's life as they impart practical or visual experience to the wards and give them an opportunity to explore new things. Apart from that, they help in providing experiential learning to the students and transforms complex topics within the understanding levels of the students. Experiential or visual learning helps them in choosing the right career at the right age paving way for faster and sustainable development. Majority of the educational tours helps in the overall development of the students. These educational tours support the modern education philosophy of 'learning while doing'.

This philosophy of learning while doing is completely against rote learning and promote self- learning coupled with fun and recreation. Realizing the benefits of experiential learning many schools are arranging education tours once in a year. Few national education boards and universities compel the management to arrange an educational tour once in every academic year. Realizing the importance of these tours numerous companies in the market are offering education tour packages at pocket-friendly prices. Many of these packages are customized in nature making them used appliances houston more viable for students of lower income levels. These packages mostly include all sorts of features that are needed to be included in an educational tour and can be customized further as per the requirements of the clients. The price for a customized tour plan can be decided after due consultation with the client.

Let's look at the few pre-trip tasks of an educational tour in common and how to choose a right partner for your tour:

• Timing of the tour - Plan your tour dates well in advance to avoid any kind of last minute rush. Communicate the same to your organizer so, that they can arrange everything well and proper.

• Decide the destinations you would like to cover. This can be done effectively only if you are aware of the objective of the tour. Hence, it is always advised to share the objective of the tour to your organizer as this will help them in chalking out the best package for you.

• Decide the strength that is willing to join you. Communicate the number properly and well in advance in order to avoid any kind of mismatch at the end. Size of your group has a direct implication on the convenience of the trip.

• Communicate with the specific points that you would like to visit. This also tied to the objectives of the tour.

• Know about the places that you are going to visit as a part of the trip. This will help you in understanding the guide's explanation about a particular spot well and would add up to your knowledge bank.

Finally, take an expert adviser's opinion about the places you visit, timing and any other anticipated issues.

#Maternity Shapewear

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ramialkarmi · 6 years

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Lawmakers are asking DNA-testing companies about their privacy policies — here's what you should know when taking genetics tests like 23andMe or AncestryDNA

Taking a DNA test to learn about your ancestry or health can be fun, but it requires the transfer of sensitive information: your genetic data.

When sending in your DNA sample, it's important to get a clear picture of who owns that information and who will be able to see it.

Before taking any test, always read the terms of service.

DNA tests can tell you where your family is from and what health conditions you might be predisposed to get.

They've gained significant popularity in recent years — over Thanksgiving weekend last year alone, shoppers bought 1.5 million AncestryDNA kits.

But the rise of consumer genetics tests has brought up a number of privacy concerns, since they deal with information that's fundamental and unique to every individual. And there have been cases like the arrest of the Golden State Killer that used information from one of these databases to crack the case. It poses the question: When you spit into a tube and submit your sample for one of these reports, who has access to that information and who ultimately owns your DNA?

Two lawmakers — US Representatives Frank Pallone Jr. of New Jersey and Dave Loesback of Iowa — are now pressing DNA testing companies for more information about their security and privacy policies, Stat News reports. The hope is to resolve any issues around security and privacy.

Late in 2017, Senator Chuck Schumer also raised the issue, calling on the Federal Trade Commission to "take a serious look at this relatively new kind of service and ensure that these companies can have clear, fair privacy policies."

In a blog post published December 12, the FTC recommended reading the fine print. "If you’re thinking about buying an at-home DNA test kit, you owe it to yourself – and to family members who could be affected – to investigate the options thoroughly," it says.

James Hazel, a post-doctoral research fellow at Vanderbilt University's Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society, has been looking into the privacy policies of consumer genetics tests. He said the FTC's suggestion is very important.

"We are good at clicking 'agree' and not reading the terms of service," he said.

When it comes to DNA tests, a lot of pertinent information hides in that fine print, including language about who owns your DNA, where your genetic information is going, and what the process of deleting your information from a database entails.

I've tried ancestry tests from from 23andMe, Ancestry, and National Geographic (a test run through the Helix DNA test platform), so I checked in with all of them to see how they stack up in terms of privacy.

Who owns your DNA?

For starters, there's the question of who "owns" your DNA after you send in a spit sample. The 3 billion genetic building blocks, or base pairs, are what makes us who we are.

"You’re granting us the rights to share information, but fundamentally you own your data," Elissa Levin, Helix's director of policy, told Business Insider.

23andMe and Ancestry said the same thing — although the companies need some rights in order to analyze your sample and send results back, they don't have total ownership. They can't, say, bar you from taking another DNA test in the future.

"We believe that you own your data," 23andMe privacy officer Kate Black told Business Insider. "So whoever's data this is is ultimately the owner of that information. However, we do need certain rights and privileges to process their sample and provide them with our services."

From there, it's a matter of how far those rights go.

Who gets to see your de-identified information?

When providing a spit sample for a genetics test, your information can either be identified — that is, linked to your name — or de-identified. It's most common for the sample of spit you submit to be processed without your name on it.

While reading through your test's privacy policy, note who has access to both kinds of information. Based on the three companies I spoke with, the de-identified information mainly stays that way (you're assigned an identification number that only the companies can pair with your account).

In many cases, an external lab might be involved in sequencing the genetic data to pass back to the company. For example, 23andMe works with contracted labs in North Carolina and California.

"The lab has some access but they don’t know who it relates to," Eric Heath, Ancestry's chief privacy officer, told Business Insider.

Helix does the sequencing in its own lab, then sends some of that information to its test partners, such as National Geographic. Helix is trying to be like the "app store" for genetics, allowing you to submit your spit to them once, then use the sample for multiple tests based on what type of analysis interests you.

"The information we share with them is only the relevant piece," Levin said. "For some partners it might be a few markers or it could be hundreds of genes."

But there's a key caveat to keep in mind: Because your DNA is unique to you, it's can't be totally de-identified.

"DNA is so unique, and there are so many data sources out there, that it is incredibly hard to fully anonymize — and more so to promise and provide any absolute guarantee that the data are anonymized," Laura Lyman Rodriguez, director of policy, communications, and education at the National Human Genome Research Institute, told the magazine Undark in 2016.

How is the data that’s tied to your identifiable information used?

Your identifiable information includes any self-reported data and your name.

With 23andMe, Black said, nobody has access to both your email and genetic information — only one or the other. The system that combines the two pieces to give you a report is automated, she said.

The same goes for Ancestry. Heath said the personal identification and genetic data are "not commingled until we provide you with your results."

Helix leaves the genetic information de-identified, and it's up to the partners to recombine the analysis with the person who submitted a sample. Because each partner has their own privacy policies, it's important to read those as well.

The three companies we spoke with all said they've created safeguards so that even if there's a security breach, your genetic information and names aren't connected.

Can you opt out of giving research partners your genetic data?

Another privacy concern is the possibility that your DNA could get shared with other companies without your consent.

23andMe and Ancestry both have research partnerships with pharmaceutical companies that explore things like the genetics of aging, psychiatric disorders, or lupus.

Both companies require you to consent to sharing your information if you want to participate in those programs. Unless you agree, your information will remain with just 23andMe or Ancestry (and the contractors they work with to do the test). The same goes for connecting you with potential family members.

Helix does not currently have research partnerships. Levin said if that changes, there would be a voluntary process users could opt into as well.

How to wipe your information after taking a test

After you've gotten your results back, your genetic data lives on with the company you sent it to, and likely in the tube of spit you submitted. If you're not comfortable with that, the vast majority of your data can be stricken from databases and storage facilities.

Things get a bit trickier if you consented to share your information with third-party researchers. In that case, you can usually stop information from being used in new projects, but anything previously shared will still be out there.

Before taking any of these tests, it's best to learn about the process of deleting an account, and find out whether your sample will be stored indefinitely.

23andMe

When you register your test with 23andMe, you can opt to either have your sample stored or discarded after use.

To close your 23andMe account, search through the help center for a page titled "Requesting Account Closure." On that page are links to submit a request or email customer service ([email protected]).

If you opt to have your spit sample stored but later change your mind, an option in the settings section of your report allows you to discard the sample.

However, there are a few places your information may continue to live. Under the regulatory standards that apply to clinical labs, Black said, 23andMe has to retain the bare lab test result for 10 years.

Ancestry

Ancestry stores your spit sample so it can be used for quality purposes, such as making sure the lab is running as it's supposed to and the testing is accurate. That also allows the company to update your results if more accurate sequencing technology comes onto the scene.

To delete your DNA results on Ancestry, go to the DNA section at the top of the page — your test settings include a way to delete your results. If you want to remove your spit sample completely, you need to call Ancestry's member services.

Helix

Helix also stores your spit sample. To get rid of that spit sample, you can fill out a request with customer services. Helix alludes to retaining data for regulatory purposes in its privacy section, however.

In the settings of your Helix account, there steps for how to close an account. Doing that would cut off the flow of data to Helix's partners, Levin said.

"Even if you had previously consented to share info with National Geographic, closing would close out the data-stream," she said.

Read the full privacy documents

For more information, here are the privacy pages and terms of service documents for the three tests described above:

Helix's privacy center and terms of service.

23andMe's privacy center and terms of service.

Ancestry's privacy center and terms of service.

This post was originally published in December 2017.

SEE ALSO: I've taken AncestryDNA, 23andMe, and National Geographic genetics tests — here's how to choose one to try

DON'T MISS: How to delete your DNA data from genetics companies like 23andMe and Ancestry

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why 'moist' is one of the most hated words in the English language

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webhostingtipsandguide-blog · 6 years

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5 Best Tools For Cryptocurrency Blockchain Industry

Guys, This post is dedicated to those who want to be a Cryptocurrency blockchain developer or already started his career in blockchain industry. Considering as a newbie in blockchain technology, before dive deep into the blockchain technology, I want to describe the term is short,

What is Blockchain?

and of course, how it is related to Cryptocurrency like Bitcoin etc?

Blockchain is a decentralized database of network build with anonymous computers distributed around the world. This kind of database is saved on all the computers connected to the respected blockchain network. Because blockchain network is decentralized means the data is shared with all the computers connected to the network, this is the primary reason that nobody can break or hack a network build with blockchain. Blockchain is first introduced in 2008 with the birth of Bitcoin by its inventor Satoshi Nakamoto who is also called the father of bitcoin. To better understand the blockchain technology we can take an example of google docs. Although, Google docs is not created using blockchain technology it works something like blockchain. In google docs, the document is created on the server and anybody who knows the email ID and password can access and make changes to this document. In blockchain the same data is stored in several local computers and also in servers in an encrypted format and when someone makes changes to this data that particular data changes in all the resources (servers and computers). Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are stored in all the related resources equally. When the transaction is done (means someone buys or sells those currencies), the data is updated immediately on all the resources.

Is Cryptocurrency Secure?

Yes 100% They are more secure than your money in banks. Nobody can hack those currencies because of two reasons. Blockchain technology As the currencies are stores in several places at the same time, if someone reaches and hacks the data from a computer or server joined to this chained system the data still remain intact on all the other resources. There is no one place (like traditional bank lockers) where you could manipulate the data and steal those currencies. This is the strong reason why your digital currency is more secure than your traditional currency. Encryption The currencies are encrypted with "impossible to manipulate" codes and no one can crack this encryption. So from the coding point of view, it is also secure currency. Above two reasons are enough to get the attention of the public to this type of currency and this is the main reason why cryptocurrency is taking the market in past years. Although, if you lose the password you will be a poor man immediately because when hackers are not able to crack the password of cryptocurrency than who are you. One more thing, if someone knows your transactional password which is in the form of long code, they can easily steal your digital coins making your pocket empty. So it's your responsibility to keep secure the transactional passwords of your coins.

Cryptocurrency Blockchain: The future

This topic is divided into two points. Future of Cryptocurrency and Future of blockchain technology. First, we will discuss Cryptocurrencies future. The future of trade is in Cryptocurrency. It's becoming widely popular with time. After introduced in 2008 the popularity of Cryptocurrency is continuously increased. And if you want to be sure just go to BuzzFeed and search for Cryptocurrency. You will see how much popular it in social media. Not only social media it is equally a popular term in other media like news and Google search. If you open Google trends and search for a query "Cryptocurrency" you will see that the trend is in increasing slope. So, no doubt that Cryptocurrency will be our future currency. It is acquiring the online market as well as the offline market rapidly replacing the traditional currency. Do you know? When I am typing this article, what is the current price of Bitcoin? 9104.58 US Dollar Crypto coins are as popular as they are now used by many online e-commerce platforms to do transactions. There are two reasons behind its huge popularity. Blockchain technique gives it an added security (Breaking its codes is impossible). It's handier than other traditional currencies. Unlike traditional currencies, no one can rob or pickpocket those digital currencies. They are safe. Now come to Blockchain technology. Blockchain is a server related technology which is now widely used by many server owners and website owners. As it is very secure due to its decentralization technique, many financial and other firms are now using it to secure their data. From the birth of the Internet, hackers are the big enemy of the Internet and the result is less secure data. After the boom of the Internet, we all became online. Our all potential data is now online. But if I frankly say, there is no data in the traditional server which is called to be secure and unbreakable. With internet security hackers are also becoming smart and find new ways to hack servers. The only way to stop them is implementing of Blockchain technology. I will never say that hackers won't break Blockchain but near future, it's probably not possible. Blockchain is the future of online security and we have to adopt this technology widely to stop Internet crime.

5 Essential tools For Cryptocurrency trading

#1 Cryptowatch Crpytowatch is a tool with which you can watch the current market price of all the Digital currencies.

It also gives you the detailed analysis of currencies. Like the past rates of the currency and also the future predictions. This tool is very helpful if you want to start a trade on Cryptocurrency. You will get a brief analysis of a currency before buying and selling them. Today trading in Cryptocurrencies is becoming quite popular and the exchange rate is becoming very high within a short period of time. If you want to be a full-time Cryptocurrency trader you should you Cryptowatch to keep an eye on the market. #2 CoinGecko

CoinGecko is an another Cryptocurrency market chart app. It is quite similar to Cryptowatch. You can watch the current market price and exchange rates of digital currencies and also watch the future predictions how a particular currency behave in future. There are several tools in this app which will help you to choose the best trade in the digital currency market. #3 Tierion It offers you developer tools and API related to Bitcoin. You can update Bitcoin ledger with this Blockchain developer tool. Tierion tool creates a verifiable database to update any data related to Bitcoin Blockchain. It has also developed chain point an open standard data recording tool which records generates receipts containing all the information needed to verify the data. #4 Coinbase’s API It is a very useful tool for Bitcoin Blockchain developers as with is developers easily create Bitcoin apps and also add bitcoin in already created systems. With Coinbase API also create Bitcoin wallets, buy and sell Bitcoins and also send and receive them worldwide. They offer several client libraries and mobile SDK which are quite useful for Blockchain developers. It gives us a capability to create read-only data and many more Blockchain functions. Just try out to experience more. #5 Embark It is another interesting and useful tool. A developer can use it to develop Ethereum dapps. It can easily develop and deploy dapps or serverless HTML 5 apps with amazing decentralized technology. With Embark you can create Smart contracts in JS coding format which is quite secure. If you update your created contracts this tool will modify and update it's related dapps too. It is very helpful to create a decentralized network.

Conclusion

Blockchain technology is a fast-growing technology and I think it will cover all the Internet in coming 10 years. So you have to be familiar with this technology to survive in the future world. This is the main reason why I have introduced you to above 5 Cryptocurrency Blockchain tools. If this article helped you to gain some understanding of Bitcoin Blockchain technology then share this article with your friends and help them to understand Blockchain technology. Read the full article

#bitcoinexchanges #bitcoinmining #cryptocurrency

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trendingnewsb · 6 years

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Inside the Race to Hack the Human Brain

In an ordinary hospital room in Los Angeles, a young woman named Lauren Dickerson waits for her chance to make history.

She’s 25 years old, a teacher’s assistant in a middle school, with warm eyes and computer cables emerging like futuristic dreadlocks from the bandages wrapped around her head. Three days earlier, a neurosurgeon drilled 11 holes through her skull, slid 11 wires the size of spaghetti into her brain, and connected the wires to a bank of computers. Now she’s caged in by bed rails, with plastic tubes snaking up her arm and medical monitors tracking her vital signs. She tries not to move.

The room is packed. As a film crew prepares to document the day’s events, two separate teams of specialists get ready to work—medical experts from an elite neuroscience center at the University of Southern California and scientists from a technology company called Kernel. The medical team is looking for a way to treat Dickerson’s seizures, which an elaborate regimen of epilepsy drugs controlled well enough until last year, when their effects began to dull. They’re going to use the wires to search Dickerson’s brain for the source of her seizures. The scientists from Kernel are there for a different reason: They work for Bryan Johnson, a 40-year-old tech entrepreneur who sold his business for $800 million and decided to pursue an insanely ambitious dream—he wants to take control of evolution and create a better human. He intends to do this by building a “neuroprosthesis,” a device that will allow us to learn faster, remember more, “coevolve” with artificial intelligence, unlock the secrets of telepathy, and maybe even connect into group minds. He’d also like to find a way to download skills such as martial arts, Matrix-style. And he wants to sell this invention at mass-market prices so it’s not an elite product for the rich.

Right now all he has is an algorithm on a hard drive. When he describes the neuroprosthesis to reporters and conference audiences, he often uses the media-friendly expression “a chip in the brain,” but he knows he’ll never sell a mass-market product that depends on drilling holes in people’s skulls. Instead, the algorithm will eventually connect to the brain through some variation of noninvasive interfaces being developed by scientists around the world, from tiny sensors that could be injected into the brain to genetically engineered neurons that can exchange data wirelessly with a hatlike receiver. All of these proposed interfaces are either pipe dreams or years in the future, so in the meantime he’s using the wires attached to Dickerson’s hippocampus to focus on an even bigger challenge: what you say to the brain once you’re connected to it.

That’s what the algorithm does. The wires embedded in Dickerson’s head will record the electrical signals that Dickerson’s neurons send to one another during a series of simple memory tests. The signals will then be uploaded onto a hard drive, where the algorithm will translate them into a digital code that can be analyzed and enhanced—or rewritten—with the goal of improving her memory. The algorithm will then translate the code back into electrical signals to be sent up into the brain. If it helps her spark a few images from the memories she was having when the data was gathered, the researchers will know the algorithm is working. Then they’ll try to do the same thing with memories that take place over a period of time, something nobody’s ever done before. If those two tests work, they’ll be on their way to deciphering the patterns and processes that create memories.

Although other scientists are using similar techniques on simpler problems, Johnson is the only person trying to make a commercial neurological product that would enhance memory. In a few minutes, he’s going to conduct his first human test. For a commercial memory prosthesis, it will be the first human test. “It’s a historic day,” Johnson says. “I’m insanely excited about it.”

For the record, just in case this improbable experiment actually works, the date is January 30, 2017.