prac KDnuggets™ News 20:n18, May 6: Five Cool Python Libraries for Data Science; NLP Recipes: Best Practices By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Wed, 06 May 2020 10:00:52 +0000 5 cool Python libraries for Data Science; NLP Recipes: Best Practices and Examples; Deep Learning: The Free eBook; Demystifying the AI Infrastructure Stack; and more. Full Article KDnuggets 2020 Issues Deep Learning GIS NLP Python
prac Explaining “Blackbox” Machine Learning Models: Practical Application of SHAP By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Wed, 06 May 2020 14:00:23 +0000 Train a "blackbox" GBM model on a real dataset and make it explainable with SHAP. Full Article 2020 May Tutorials Overviews Explainability Interpretability Python SHAP
prac When ‘Best Practices’ Backfire By hbr.org Published On :: Tue, 14 Nov 2017 16:30:25 -0500 Freek Vermeulen, an associate professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the London Business School, argues that too many companies are following so-called best practices that are actually holding them back. They do it because of deep-seated industry tradition—and because it’s hard to know how seemingly successful business models will hold up over the long term. That’s why, he says, organizations should avoid benchmarking and instead routinely test their business practices before there’s a problem. Vermeulen is the author of “Breaking Bad Habits: Defy Industry Norms and Reinvigorate Your Business.” Full Article
prac How China Is Upending Western Marketing Practices By hbr.org Published On :: Tue, 30 Apr 2019 09:30:32 -0500 Kimberly Whitler, assistant professor at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, believes the days of transplanting well-worn Western marketing practices into national markets may be numbered. She has researched marketing campaigns in China and finds they are faster, cheaper, and often more effective than traditional Western ones. Moreover, she argues they may be better suited to today’s global marketplace. Whitler is the author of the HBR article “What Western Marketers Can Learn from China.” Full Article
prac Not-for-Profit Board Governance Best Practices to Implement By anderscpa.com Published On :: Tue, 08 May 2018 13:24:22 +0000 No matter the size of the organization, if you’re serving on the board you want to feel confident that the organization has the right governance policies and practices in place. Those pesky Form 990 questions actually offer a fantastic checklist… Read More The post Not-for-Profit Board Governance Best Practices to Implement appeared first on Anders CPAs. Full Article Not-for-Profit not-for-profit
prac A Best Practice Approach to Insight Engines: 5 Levels of Insight Engine Maturity By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Fri, 04 Oct 2019 12:00:00 EST Enterprise search projects start with intentions to provide ?Google for our organization' but too often fail to deliver on that promise. In our experience, these projects fail due to a lack of sustained effort and governance. The commercialization of next-generation search technologies allows you to fulfill this promise if you take a systematic approach to implementation. Full Article
prac SCCM Pod-236 Are Pediatric Intensivists Changing Their Transfusion Practices? By sccm-audio.s3.amazonaws.com Published On :: Mon, 09 Jun 2014 09:50:00 -0500 Margaret Parker, MD, MCCM, speaks with Jacques R. Lacroix, MD. Full Article Medicine
prac SCCM Pod-294 Practice Patterns in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine By sccm-audio.s3.amazonaws.com Published On :: Thu, 17 Sep 2015 10:10:00 -0500 Margaret Parker, MD, MCCM, speaks with Donald D. Vernon, MD, FAAP. Dr. Vernon is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. Full Article Medicine
prac 9 practical steps to prepare for and navigate the financial crisis due to coronavirus By economictimes.indiatimes.com Published On :: 2020-04-13T06:30:00+05:30 Do not deny the possibility of losing the job, or being furloughed briefly. Full Article
prac Registered Practical Nurse(s) EX20-007 By www.greatersudbury.ca Published On :: Fri, 17 Apr 2020 18:30:23 GMT Full Article Collections Elections 2014 Engagement Leisure Adult Ages 13 to 18 Ages 6 to 12 Birth to Age 5 Senior Newsroom Mastheads Backgrounder Emergency Advisory Emergency Bulletin Emergency Warning Media Advisory News Release Public Service Announcement Traffic Report Newsroom Streams City Hall Move Play Prepare Work Video Archives Upcoming Event
prac Justice Department Announces Resources to Assist State and Local Reform of Fine and Fee Practices By www.justice.gov Published On :: Mon, 14 Mar 2016 00:00:00 -0400 Full Article
prac SEC Proposes to Modernize Framework for Fund Valuation Practices By www.sec.gov Published On :: Tue, 21 Apr 2020 19:20:00 -0400 The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it has voted to propose a new rule that would establish a framework for fund valuation practices. The rule is designed to clarify how fund boards can satisfy their valuation obligations in… Full Article
prac New Jersey Chiropractor Agrees to Pay $2 Million to Resolve Allegations of Unnecessary Knee Injections and Knee Braces and Related Kickbacks By www.justice.gov Published On :: Mon, 06 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 Full Article
prac Maryland Cardiologist and Related Practices to Pay the United States $750,000 for Alleged Kickbacks By www.justice.gov Published On :: Fri, 17 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 Full Article
prac Rescheduled Best Practices Workshop on Technology in FOIA By www.justice.gov Published On :: Fri, 28 Feb 2020 00:00:00 -0500 **NEW DATE: April 20** Agency FOIA professionals are invited to join OIP and OGIS for a joint Best Practices Workshop on FOIA and technology featuring the Chief FOIA Officer Council Technology Subcommittee. Full Article
prac Best Practices Workshop on Technology in FOIA to Be Held Virtually By www.justice.gov Published On :: Tue, 07 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0400 **Now Virtual at New Time** The previously scheduled Best Practices Workshop on FOIA and technology featuring the Chief FOIA Officer Council Technology Committee will now be held online. Full Article
prac As NBA eases restrictions, Wolves practice facility remains closed By www.startribune.com Published On :: 2020-05-09T03:15:25+00:00 Minnesota's stay-at-home order supersedes the league's slow return guidelines. Full Article
prac NTRA Safety And Integrity Alliance Releases Best Practices For Spectator-Free Racing By www.paulickreport.com Published On :: Thu, 07 May 2020 18:36:53 +0000 The National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) Safety and Integrity Alliance today released a document outlining best practices for North American racetracks determined to prioritize the health and safety of all participants and employees, when conducting live racing in a spectator-free environment in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The comprehensive document will assist racetracks that […] The post NTRA Safety And Integrity Alliance Releases Best Practices For Spectator-Free Racing appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report. Full Article NL List The Biz best practices cdc centers for disease control and prevention covid-19 covid-19 safety team Horse Racing National Thoroughbred Racing Association NTRA ntra safety and integrity alliance public health advisory council
prac What is urban environmental stewardship? Constructing a practitioner-derived framework By www.fs.fed.us Published On :: Tue, 31 Jul 2012 06:00:00 PST Agencies and organizations deploy various strategies in response to environmental challenges, including the formulation of policy, programs, and regulations. Citizen-based environmental stewardship is increasingly seen as an innovative and important approach to improving and conserving landscape health. A new research focus on the stewardship of urban natural resources is being launched by the U.S. Forest Service in the Pacific Northwest region. Early scoping efforts are addressing various scales of human systems ranging from individuals to organizations to the entire positive "footprint" of stewardship on the land. This report addresses a fundamental need—to understand and describe civic environmental stewardship in urban settings. Stewardship has been described and defined in diverse ways within a variety of contexts, including the philosophical literature of environmentalism, agency program descriptions, and outreach by sponsoring organizations. Constructing a framework to convey the layered meanings of stewardship will help to focus and guide future research. A cognitive mapping technique was used to elicit responses to the question "What is environmental stewardship?" Semistructured interviews were conducted with representatives of nine Seattle environmental organizations, a group of practitioners who collectively represent over 100 years of experience in the field. Program planners and managers have particularly direct experiences of stewardship. Cognitive mapping enables participants to explore, then display, their particular knowledge and perceptions about an idea or activity. Analysis generated thematic, structural representations of shared concepts. Results show that the practitioners have multilayered perceptions of stewardship, from environmental improvement to community building, and from actions to outcomes. The resulting conceptual framework demonstrates the full extent of stewardship activity and meaning, which can aid stewardship sponsors to improve stewardship programs, leading to better experiences for participants and higher quality outcomes for projects and environments. Full Article
prac Photo Practice: Creating a Project By completedigitalphotography.com Published On :: Mon, 19 Aug 2019 23:57:23 +0000 There are a number of psychological battles that you face as a photographer (or anyone pursuing a creative endeavor). If you’re like most people, then you’ll likely find yourself fighting, at one time or another, doubt as to whether you’re a good photographer, or whether a particular photo is clichéd or obvious, or whether there […] The post Photo Practice: Creating a Project appeared first on Complete Digital Photography. Full Article About Photography practice
prac Does It Work? Monitoring The Effectiveness of Stream Management Practices In Alaska By www.fs.fed.us Published On :: Thu, 07 Sep 2006 12:00:36 PST The condition of aquatic habitat and the health of aquatic species, particularly salmon, are a significant concern in the Pacific Northwest. Land management agencies use fish and riparian guidelines intended to maintain or improve aquatic habitat. Full Article
prac Sustainable Forestry In Theory and Practice: Recent Advances In Inventory and Monitoring, Statistics and Modeling, Information and Knowledge Management, and Policy Science By www.fs.fed.us Published On :: Fri, 22 Dec 2006 12:00:00 PST The importance to society of environmental services, provided by forest ecosystems, has significantly increased during the last few decades. A growing global concern with the deterioration of forests, beginning perhaps most noticeably in the 1980s, has led to an increasing public awareness of the environmental, cultural, economic, and social values that forests provide. Around the world, ideas of sustainable, close-to-nature, and multi-functional forestry have progressively replaced the older perception of forests as only a source for timber. The international impetus to protect and sustainably manage forests has come from global initiatives at management, conservation, and sustainable development related to all types of forests and forestry. A few of the more notable initiatives include: the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, UNCED); regional follow-ups to the Earth Summit such as the Montreal Process and Helsinki Accords; the forest elements of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD); and the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC). Full Article
prac Silvicultural research and the evolution of forest practices in the Douglas-fir region By www.fs.fed.us Published On :: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 09:30:00 PST Silvicultural practices in the Douglas-fir region evolved through a combination of formal research, observation, and practical experience of forest managers and silviculturists, and changing economic and social factors. This process began more than a century ago and still continues. It has had a great influence on the economic well-being of the region and on the present characteristics of the region's forests. This long history is unknown to most of the public, and much of it is unfamiliar to many natural resource specialists outside (and even within) the field of silviculture. We trace the history of how we got where we are today and the contribution of silvicultural research to the evolution of forest practices. We give special attention to the large body of information developed in the first half of the past century that is becoming increasingly unfamiliar to both operational foresters and--perhaps more importantly--to those engaged in forestry research. We also discuss some current trends in silviculture and silviculture-related research. Full Article
prac A Practical Guide To Oak Release By www.fs.fed.us Published On :: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 15:25:36 PST Oregon white oak savannas and woodlands represent a biological and cultural legacy in the Pacific Northwest. Many Oregon white oak stands are deteriorating owing to invasion and eventual overtopping by Douglas-fir or other conifers. Releasing the shade-intolerant oak trees from overtopping conifers can often restore these oak stands. When planning a release operation, there are many factors to consider such as timing and intensity of release, which trees to select for release, and management of the understory. A carefully executed oak release can minimize damage to oak trees, and followup treatments may reduce the spread of invasive plants. This guide answers the most commonly asked questions related to oak release. Full Article
prac Effects of forest practices on peak flows and consequent channel response: a state-of-science report for western Oregon and Washington By www.fs.fed.us Published On :: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 09:15:00 PST This is a state-of-the-science synthesis of the effects of forest harvest activities on peak flows and channel morphology in the Pacific Northwest, with a specific focus on western Oregon and Washington. We develop a database of relevant studies reporting peak flow data across rain-, transient-, and snow-dominated hydrologic zones, and provide a quantitative comparison of changes in peak flow across both a range of flows and forest practices. Increases in peak flows generally diminish with decreasing intensity of percentage of watershed harvested and lengthening recurrence intervals of flow. Watersheds located in the rain dominated zone appear to be less sensitive to peak flow changes than those in the transient snow zone; insufficient data limit interpretations for the snow zone. Where present, peak flow effects on channel morphology should be confined to stream reaches where channel gradients are less than approximately 0.02 and streambeds are composed of gravel and finer material. We provide guidance as to how managers might evaluate the potential risk of peak flow increases based on factors such as presence of roads, watershed drainage efficiency, and specific management treatments employed. The magnitude of effects of forest harvest on peak flows in the Pacific Northwest, as represented by the data reported here, are relatively minor in comparison to other anthropogenic changes to streams and watersheds. Full Article
prac Astra Pro with Gutenberg Review – Practical Application By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Mon, 12 Aug 2019 16:17:48 +0000 At 3.7 Designs we have an array of strategies we use to solve business problems. For example, when it comes to redesigning a website we might recommend recommend a completely custom design that starts with a design discovery engagement. Typically this process can take three to six months with ample time upfront to research the […] The post Astra Pro with Gutenberg Review – Practical Application appeared first on Psychology of Web Design | 3.7 Blog. Full Article Strategy and Planning Web Design WordPress
prac Effect of a New Rule Limiting Full Contact Practice on the Incidence of Sport-Related Concussion in High School Football Players By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Fri, 30 Aug 2019 10:43:02 EDT A study to determine if the sport-related concussion (SRC) rate is lower after a rule change that limited the amount and duration of full-contact activities during high school football practice sessions. Full Article
prac Our WFH Best Practices By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Fri, 20 Mar 2020 08:00:00 -0400 Our first remote office opened in 2007 when a designer and a developer left our HQ office and moved to Durham. Ever since we've been fine-tuning our ability to collaborate across locations. Today, we have team members across the country in our four offices, and we have fully remote employees in Charleston, Kansas City, New York City, Dallas, and Charlottesville. Because of the coronavirus outbreak, a lot of people recently started working from their homes across the world, the country, and Viget. We wanted to share some of our best practices for being great teammates and doing great work, regardless of locale, and we’d love to hear yours in the comments. Communicate Often and Write It Down We want every person at Viget to be informed and connected. We do this in a few ways. We have a company Knowledge Base, which contains critical information including HR policies, office processes, brand guidelines, project resources, etc. We also have a well-organized Google Drive that everyone can access. Learn More We're hiring Front-End Developers in our Boulder, Chattanooga, Durham, Falls Church and Remote (U.S. Only) offices. Learn more and introduce yourself. My favorite communication tool we use, however, is our Internal Lab Report. Every week, we create a Google Doc with HR updates, birthdays, upcoming events we’re attending, relevant publicity we or a client received, and timely updates on projects, sales, and recruiting. This report allows the entire team to have the same information, regardless of PTO schedules, and it provides a record that can be referenced weeks, months, or years later. I have also found our Slack habits really helpful. We try to make our availability easily known, mostly via a passive Slack status. We each update our status daily, sometimes multiple times, so people can see if we’re working from home, out of the office for an appointment, in a meeting, or offline for a personal phone call. We also have a few Slack Channels we use very specifically to announce PTO, important announcements, and recently, one that is specific to the updating coronavirus situation. My work from home station. Figure Out Your Boundaries This looks different for everyone and can be an ever-changing target. Understanding your boundaries requires you to be honest with yourself – Are you easily distracted? Can you successfully work in pajama pants? Will your dog actually allow you to get work done? Does working from the couch result in good work, or do you need a designated work spot? For some, working from home requires setting boundaries to ensure the work gets done. For others, working from home requires setting a start and stop times to ensure you don’t overwork yourself. Viget has a flexible work policy, so many of us work from home fairly often and have gotten our routines set up. As such, we have written about this before! Check out Trevor’s article about working remotely.Show Your Face When I first started at Viget, I’d never worked anywhere that used a Google Hangout for nearly every meeting. At first, I was tempted to call into meetings and leave the camera off because I found it exposing. Now, I can’t imagine not using it, and I’ve even embraced it in my personal life with friends and family. I realized the value in face-to-face conversations even in virtual form, the ability to see body language, and the connection you establish when you see each other's faces — even if your hair isn't perfect or you haven't arranged your plants just-so in the view behind you. Whenever possible, use your camera during a meeting. It increases trust, communication, and in my personal-not-backed-by-science-opinion, lightness, which frankly, I think we can all use a bit more of right now. Here's a screen shot from our Saint Patrick's Day Happy Hour. Create Shared Experiences As a company with project teams often distributed across our four locations, cross-office experiences are vital to our culture, and we’ve spent years working to keep our remote offices in sync. A few of our ongoing group activities include a monthly virtual Book Club, our weekly full-team Free Lunch Friday tradition, Donut for Slack, and, of course, our Pointless Weekends. The current global health crisis now requires almost all of the company to work remote, so we’ve gotten creative with our attempts to increase non-project time together, in order to keep up the vibes we’ve worked hard to create. What we’ve recently started: Last Weekend this Morning - Monday mornings, we have an optional virtual coffee, where anyone who’d like to chat can join and share the latest gardening lesson or bingeable tv show. It lets us start our week off as we would when we’re all in the office — saying hello to each other.Virtual Happy Hours - We are a company that likes to socialize, and a bit of distance doesn’t stop us. This week, we set up an after-hours Happy Hour for St. Patrick’s Day.Daily Lunch Table- If you’ve ever visited our HQ office in Falls Church, you’ll notice our large kitchen table. We have an informal tradition of gathering around noon to eat together, whether it’s just a couple folks or the whole team. We now do this lunch virtually. So far, we’re mostly taking turns discussing who is eating what, and of course, sharing said recipes. I crowdsourced some ideas from the Viget team, and here are some noteworthy takeaways: "In remote meetings, minimize all your other windows and be fully present. It’s easy to allow your attention to accidentally drift if you see a new Slack channel light up, especially if you’re in a larger meeting. Suddenly, you find yourself multitasking. Treat the meeting as if you were there in person: unless you’re taking notes, minimize your other tabs, and give the conversation your full attention." - Paul Koch “I try to reach out to more folks I don’t consistently work with. Since there’s less interaction in general, I want to be more intentional about staying connected.” - Laura Sweltz “Good habits are hard to form and bad habits are hard to break, and it’s often hard to find the right time to make a change. Most of us are experiencing a disruption to our usual behaviors right now, but that doesn’t have to be entirely bad. Be deliberate now and when this is over, we might all end up with some new work habits worth keeping.” - Emily Bloom “I’ve found it helpful to create a physical space similar to the one I had at work. While this isn’t exactly possible, small things like setting up a laptop stand and second screen make it so I’m less likely to get distracted and wander to the couch or kitchen (aka the snack danger zone.).” - Aubrey Lear “It’s easy to get stuck in one spot all day, so be proactive about moving around, or creating excuses to do so. Whether that’s making yourself a cup of coffee, eating lunch away from your computer, or going for a quick walk outside for some fresh air. This will help reduce the risk of going stir crazy.” -Zach Robbins True to Viget form, our remote work is all about “Progress, Not Perfection.” While remote collaboration is ingrained in our company, we’re looking for opportunities to fine-tune our approach and improve our habits. We’d love to hear from you: What are your best practices? Lessons learned? Full Article Process
prac Our WFH Best Practices By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Fri, 20 Mar 2020 08:00:00 -0400 Our first remote office opened in 2007 when a designer and a developer left our HQ office and moved to Durham. Ever since we've been fine-tuning our ability to collaborate across locations. Today, we have team members across the country in our four offices, and we have fully remote employees in Charleston, Kansas City, New York City, Dallas, and Charlottesville. Because of the coronavirus outbreak, a lot of people recently started working from their homes across the world, the country, and Viget. We wanted to share some of our best practices for being great teammates and doing great work, regardless of locale, and we’d love to hear yours in the comments. Communicate Often and Write It Down We want every person at Viget to be informed and connected. We do this in a few ways. We have a company Knowledge Base, which contains critical information including HR policies, office processes, brand guidelines, project resources, etc. We also have a well-organized Google Drive that everyone can access. Learn More We're hiring Front-End Developers in our Boulder, Chattanooga, Durham, Falls Church and Remote (U.S. Only) offices. Learn more and introduce yourself. My favorite communication tool we use, however, is our Internal Lab Report. Every week, we create a Google Doc with HR updates, birthdays, upcoming events we’re attending, relevant publicity we or a client received, and timely updates on projects, sales, and recruiting. This report allows the entire team to have the same information, regardless of PTO schedules, and it provides a record that can be referenced weeks, months, or years later. I have also found our Slack habits really helpful. We try to make our availability easily known, mostly via a passive Slack status. We each update our status daily, sometimes multiple times, so people can see if we’re working from home, out of the office for an appointment, in a meeting, or offline for a personal phone call. We also have a few Slack Channels we use very specifically to announce PTO, important announcements, and recently, one that is specific to the updating coronavirus situation. My work from home station. Figure Out Your Boundaries This looks different for everyone and can be an ever-changing target. Understanding your boundaries requires you to be honest with yourself – Are you easily distracted? Can you successfully work in pajama pants? Will your dog actually allow you to get work done? Does working from the couch result in good work, or do you need a designated work spot? For some, working from home requires setting boundaries to ensure the work gets done. For others, working from home requires setting a start and stop times to ensure you don’t overwork yourself. Viget has a flexible work policy, so many of us work from home fairly often and have gotten our routines set up. As such, we have written about this before! Check out Trevor’s article about working remotely.Show Your Face When I first started at Viget, I’d never worked anywhere that used a Google Hangout for nearly every meeting. At first, I was tempted to call into meetings and leave the camera off because I found it exposing. Now, I can’t imagine not using it, and I’ve even embraced it in my personal life with friends and family. I realized the value in face-to-face conversations even in virtual form, the ability to see body language, and the connection you establish when you see each other's faces — even if your hair isn't perfect or you haven't arranged your plants just-so in the view behind you. Whenever possible, use your camera during a meeting. It increases trust, communication, and in my personal-not-backed-by-science-opinion, lightness, which frankly, I think we can all use a bit more of right now. Here's a screen shot from our Saint Patrick's Day Happy Hour. Create Shared Experiences As a company with project teams often distributed across our four locations, cross-office experiences are vital to our culture, and we’ve spent years working to keep our remote offices in sync. A few of our ongoing group activities include a monthly virtual Book Club, our weekly full-team Free Lunch Friday tradition, Donut for Slack, and, of course, our Pointless Weekends. The current global health crisis now requires almost all of the company to work remote, so we’ve gotten creative with our attempts to increase non-project time together, in order to keep up the vibes we’ve worked hard to create. What we’ve recently started: Last Weekend this Morning - Monday mornings, we have an optional virtual coffee, where anyone who’d like to chat can join and share the latest gardening lesson or bingeable tv show. It lets us start our week off as we would when we’re all in the office — saying hello to each other.Virtual Happy Hours - We are a company that likes to socialize, and a bit of distance doesn’t stop us. This week, we set up an after-hours Happy Hour for St. Patrick’s Day.Daily Lunch Table- If you’ve ever visited our HQ office in Falls Church, you’ll notice our large kitchen table. We have an informal tradition of gathering around noon to eat together, whether it’s just a couple folks or the whole team. We now do this lunch virtually. So far, we’re mostly taking turns discussing who is eating what, and of course, sharing said recipes. I crowdsourced some ideas from the Viget team, and here are some noteworthy takeaways: "In remote meetings, minimize all your other windows and be fully present. It’s easy to allow your attention to accidentally drift if you see a new Slack channel light up, especially if you’re in a larger meeting. Suddenly, you find yourself multitasking. Treat the meeting as if you were there in person: unless you’re taking notes, minimize your other tabs, and give the conversation your full attention." - Paul Koch “I try to reach out to more folks I don’t consistently work with. Since there’s less interaction in general, I want to be more intentional about staying connected.” - Laura Sweltz “Good habits are hard to form and bad habits are hard to break, and it’s often hard to find the right time to make a change. Most of us are experiencing a disruption to our usual behaviors right now, but that doesn’t have to be entirely bad. Be deliberate now and when this is over, we might all end up with some new work habits worth keeping.” - Emily Bloom “I’ve found it helpful to create a physical space similar to the one I had at work. While this isn’t exactly possible, small things like setting up a laptop stand and second screen make it so I’m less likely to get distracted and wander to the couch or kitchen (aka the snack danger zone.).” - Aubrey Lear “It’s easy to get stuck in one spot all day, so be proactive about moving around, or creating excuses to do so. Whether that’s making yourself a cup of coffee, eating lunch away from your computer, or going for a quick walk outside for some fresh air. This will help reduce the risk of going stir crazy.” -Zach Robbins True to Viget form, our remote work is all about “Progress, Not Perfection.” While remote collaboration is ingrained in our company, we’re looking for opportunities to fine-tune our approach and improve our habits. We’d love to hear from you: What are your best practices? Lessons learned? Full Article Process
prac Check Out These Famous Logos Practicing Social Distancing – McDonald’s, Mercedes, and More By webdesignledger.com Published On :: Tue, 31 Mar 2020 10:34:51 +0000 We all know about the new coronavirus that has been affecting hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. And while scientists, researchers, and doctors are all working tirelessly to find a cure for this terrible disease, one thing is for sure: staying home is saving lives. The greatest tool that we have right now to help […] Read More at Check Out These Famous Logos Practicing Social Distancing – McDonald’s, Mercedes, and More Full Article Editors Pick Featured Inspiration News Uncategorized
prac Our WFH Best Practices By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Fri, 20 Mar 2020 08:00:00 -0400 Our first remote office opened in 2007 when a designer and a developer left our HQ office and moved to Durham. Ever since we've been fine-tuning our ability to collaborate across locations. Today, we have team members across the country in our four offices, and we have fully remote employees in Charleston, Kansas City, New York City, Dallas, and Charlottesville. Because of the coronavirus outbreak, a lot of people recently started working from their homes across the world, the country, and Viget. We wanted to share some of our best practices for being great teammates and doing great work, regardless of locale, and we’d love to hear yours in the comments. Communicate Often and Write It Down We want every person at Viget to be informed and connected. We do this in a few ways. We have a company Knowledge Base, which contains critical information including HR policies, office processes, brand guidelines, project resources, etc. We also have a well-organized Google Drive that everyone can access. Learn More We're hiring Front-End Developers in our Boulder, Chattanooga, Durham, Falls Church and Remote (U.S. Only) offices. Learn more and introduce yourself. My favorite communication tool we use, however, is our Internal Lab Report. Every week, we create a Google Doc with HR updates, birthdays, upcoming events we’re attending, relevant publicity we or a client received, and timely updates on projects, sales, and recruiting. This report allows the entire team to have the same information, regardless of PTO schedules, and it provides a record that can be referenced weeks, months, or years later. I have also found our Slack habits really helpful. We try to make our availability easily known, mostly via a passive Slack status. We each update our status daily, sometimes multiple times, so people can see if we’re working from home, out of the office for an appointment, in a meeting, or offline for a personal phone call. We also have a few Slack Channels we use very specifically to announce PTO, important announcements, and recently, one that is specific to the updating coronavirus situation. My work from home station. Figure Out Your Boundaries This looks different for everyone and can be an ever-changing target. Understanding your boundaries requires you to be honest with yourself – Are you easily distracted? Can you successfully work in pajama pants? Will your dog actually allow you to get work done? Does working from the couch result in good work, or do you need a designated work spot? For some, working from home requires setting boundaries to ensure the work gets done. For others, working from home requires setting a start and stop times to ensure you don’t overwork yourself. Viget has a flexible work policy, so many of us work from home fairly often and have gotten our routines set up. As such, we have written about this before! Check out Trevor’s article about working remotely.Show Your Face When I first started at Viget, I’d never worked anywhere that used a Google Hangout for nearly every meeting. At first, I was tempted to call into meetings and leave the camera off because I found it exposing. Now, I can’t imagine not using it, and I’ve even embraced it in my personal life with friends and family. I realized the value in face-to-face conversations even in virtual form, the ability to see body language, and the connection you establish when you see each other's faces — even if your hair isn't perfect or you haven't arranged your plants just-so in the view behind you. Whenever possible, use your camera during a meeting. It increases trust, communication, and in my personal-not-backed-by-science-opinion, lightness, which frankly, I think we can all use a bit more of right now. Here's a screen shot from our Saint Patrick's Day Happy Hour. Create Shared Experiences As a company with project teams often distributed across our four locations, cross-office experiences are vital to our culture, and we’ve spent years working to keep our remote offices in sync. A few of our ongoing group activities include a monthly virtual Book Club, our weekly full-team Free Lunch Friday tradition, Donut for Slack, and, of course, our Pointless Weekends. The current global health crisis now requires almost all of the company to work remote, so we’ve gotten creative with our attempts to increase non-project time together, in order to keep up the vibes we’ve worked hard to create. What we’ve recently started: Last Weekend this Morning - Monday mornings, we have an optional virtual coffee, where anyone who’d like to chat can join and share the latest gardening lesson or bingeable tv show. It lets us start our week off as we would when we’re all in the office — saying hello to each other.Virtual Happy Hours - We are a company that likes to socialize, and a bit of distance doesn’t stop us. This week, we set up an after-hours Happy Hour for St. Patrick’s Day.Daily Lunch Table- If you’ve ever visited our HQ office in Falls Church, you’ll notice our large kitchen table. We have an informal tradition of gathering around noon to eat together, whether it’s just a couple folks or the whole team. We now do this lunch virtually. So far, we’re mostly taking turns discussing who is eating what, and of course, sharing said recipes. I crowdsourced some ideas from the Viget team, and here are some noteworthy takeaways: "In remote meetings, minimize all your other windows and be fully present. It’s easy to allow your attention to accidentally drift if you see a new Slack channel light up, especially if you’re in a larger meeting. Suddenly, you find yourself multitasking. Treat the meeting as if you were there in person: unless you’re taking notes, minimize your other tabs, and give the conversation your full attention." - Paul Koch “I try to reach out to more folks I don’t consistently work with. Since there’s less interaction in general, I want to be more intentional about staying connected.” - Laura Sweltz “Good habits are hard to form and bad habits are hard to break, and it’s often hard to find the right time to make a change. Most of us are experiencing a disruption to our usual behaviors right now, but that doesn’t have to be entirely bad. Be deliberate now and when this is over, we might all end up with some new work habits worth keeping.” - Emily Bloom “I’ve found it helpful to create a physical space similar to the one I had at work. While this isn’t exactly possible, small things like setting up a laptop stand and second screen make it so I’m less likely to get distracted and wander to the couch or kitchen (aka the snack danger zone.).” - Aubrey Lear “It’s easy to get stuck in one spot all day, so be proactive about moving around, or creating excuses to do so. Whether that’s making yourself a cup of coffee, eating lunch away from your computer, or going for a quick walk outside for some fresh air. This will help reduce the risk of going stir crazy.” -Zach Robbins True to Viget form, our remote work is all about “Progress, Not Perfection.” While remote collaboration is ingrained in our company, we’re looking for opportunities to fine-tune our approach and improve our habits. We’d love to hear from you: What are your best practices? Lessons learned? Full Article Process
prac ASPIRE: An Acronym for Better Web Practice By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Tue, 08 Oct 2019 18:13:17 +0000 Sometimes interesting things happen on Twitter. Last week Scott Jehl proposed ASPIRE as an acronym for the practices we should follow as web designers and developers. From the resulting blog post: Great websites should aspire to be: Accessible to folks with varying cognitive and physical abilities and disabilities Secure and reliable for storing, manipulating, and transferring information Performant on average devices […] The post ASPIRE: An Acronym for Better Web Practice appeared first on MOR10. Full Article Ethics internet web
prac Astra Pro with Gutenberg Review – Practical Application By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Mon, 12 Aug 2019 16:17:48 +0000 At 3.7 Designs we have an array of strategies we use to solve business problems. For example, when it comes to redesigning a website we might recommend recommend a completely custom design that starts with a design discovery engagement. Typically this process can take three to six months with ample time upfront to research the […] The post Astra Pro with Gutenberg Review – Practical Application appeared first on Psychology of Web Design | 3.7 Blog. Full Article Strategy and Planning Web Design WordPress
prac Our WFH Best Practices By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Fri, 20 Mar 2020 08:00:00 -0400 Our first remote office opened in 2007 when a designer and a developer left our HQ office and moved to Durham. Ever since we've been fine-tuning our ability to collaborate across locations. Today, we have team members across the country in our four offices, and we have fully remote employees in Charleston, Kansas City, New York City, Dallas, and Charlottesville. Because of the coronavirus outbreak, a lot of people recently started working from their homes across the world, the country, and Viget. We wanted to share some of our best practices for being great teammates and doing great work, regardless of locale, and we’d love to hear yours in the comments. Communicate Often and Write It Down We want every person at Viget to be informed and connected. We do this in a few ways. We have a company Knowledge Base, which contains critical information including HR policies, office processes, brand guidelines, project resources, etc. We also have a well-organized Google Drive that everyone can access. Learn More We're hiring Front-End Developers in our Boulder, Chattanooga, Durham, Falls Church and Remote (U.S. Only) offices. Learn more and introduce yourself. My favorite communication tool we use, however, is our Internal Lab Report. Every week, we create a Google Doc with HR updates, birthdays, upcoming events we’re attending, relevant publicity we or a client received, and timely updates on projects, sales, and recruiting. This report allows the entire team to have the same information, regardless of PTO schedules, and it provides a record that can be referenced weeks, months, or years later. I have also found our Slack habits really helpful. We try to make our availability easily known, mostly via a passive Slack status. We each update our status daily, sometimes multiple times, so people can see if we’re working from home, out of the office for an appointment, in a meeting, or offline for a personal phone call. We also have a few Slack Channels we use very specifically to announce PTO, important announcements, and recently, one that is specific to the updating coronavirus situation. My work from home station. Figure Out Your Boundaries This looks different for everyone and can be an ever-changing target. Understanding your boundaries requires you to be honest with yourself – Are you easily distracted? Can you successfully work in pajama pants? Will your dog actually allow you to get work done? Does working from the couch result in good work, or do you need a designated work spot? For some, working from home requires setting boundaries to ensure the work gets done. For others, working from home requires setting a start and stop times to ensure you don’t overwork yourself. Viget has a flexible work policy, so many of us work from home fairly often and have gotten our routines set up. As such, we have written about this before! Check out Trevor’s article about working remotely.Show Your Face When I first started at Viget, I’d never worked anywhere that used a Google Hangout for nearly every meeting. At first, I was tempted to call into meetings and leave the camera off because I found it exposing. Now, I can’t imagine not using it, and I’ve even embraced it in my personal life with friends and family. I realized the value in face-to-face conversations even in virtual form, the ability to see body language, and the connection you establish when you see each other's faces — even if your hair isn't perfect or you haven't arranged your plants just-so in the view behind you. Whenever possible, use your camera during a meeting. It increases trust, communication, and in my personal-not-backed-by-science-opinion, lightness, which frankly, I think we can all use a bit more of right now. Here's a screen shot from our Saint Patrick's Day Happy Hour. Create Shared Experiences As a company with project teams often distributed across our four locations, cross-office experiences are vital to our culture, and we’ve spent years working to keep our remote offices in sync. A few of our ongoing group activities include a monthly virtual Book Club, our weekly full-team Free Lunch Friday tradition, Donut for Slack, and, of course, our Pointless Weekends. The current global health crisis now requires almost all of the company to work remote, so we’ve gotten creative with our attempts to increase non-project time together, in order to keep up the vibes we’ve worked hard to create. What we’ve recently started: Last Weekend this Morning - Monday mornings, we have an optional virtual coffee, where anyone who’d like to chat can join and share the latest gardening lesson or bingeable tv show. It lets us start our week off as we would when we’re all in the office — saying hello to each other.Virtual Happy Hours - We are a company that likes to socialize, and a bit of distance doesn’t stop us. This week, we set up an after-hours Happy Hour for St. Patrick’s Day.Daily Lunch Table- If you’ve ever visited our HQ office in Falls Church, you’ll notice our large kitchen table. We have an informal tradition of gathering around noon to eat together, whether it’s just a couple folks or the whole team. We now do this lunch virtually. So far, we’re mostly taking turns discussing who is eating what, and of course, sharing said recipes. I crowdsourced some ideas from the Viget team, and here are some noteworthy takeaways: "In remote meetings, minimize all your other windows and be fully present. It’s easy to allow your attention to accidentally drift if you see a new Slack channel light up, especially if you’re in a larger meeting. Suddenly, you find yourself multitasking. Treat the meeting as if you were there in person: unless you’re taking notes, minimize your other tabs, and give the conversation your full attention." - Paul Koch “I try to reach out to more folks I don’t consistently work with. Since there’s less interaction in general, I want to be more intentional about staying connected.” - Laura Sweltz “Good habits are hard to form and bad habits are hard to break, and it’s often hard to find the right time to make a change. Most of us are experiencing a disruption to our usual behaviors right now, but that doesn’t have to be entirely bad. Be deliberate now and when this is over, we might all end up with some new work habits worth keeping.” - Emily Bloom “I’ve found it helpful to create a physical space similar to the one I had at work. While this isn’t exactly possible, small things like setting up a laptop stand and second screen make it so I’m less likely to get distracted and wander to the couch or kitchen (aka the snack danger zone.).” - Aubrey Lear “It’s easy to get stuck in one spot all day, so be proactive about moving around, or creating excuses to do so. Whether that’s making yourself a cup of coffee, eating lunch away from your computer, or going for a quick walk outside for some fresh air. This will help reduce the risk of going stir crazy.” -Zach Robbins True to Viget form, our remote work is all about “Progress, Not Perfection.” While remote collaboration is ingrained in our company, we’re looking for opportunities to fine-tune our approach and improve our habits. We’d love to hear from you: What are your best practices? Lessons learned? Full Article Process
prac Practical Perspectives on Quality Estimation for Machine Translation. (arXiv:2005.03519v1 [cs.CL]) By arxiv.org Published On :: Sentence level quality estimation (QE) for machine translation (MT) attempts to predict the translation edit rate (TER) cost of post-editing work required to correct MT output. We describe our view on sentence-level QE as dictated by several practical setups encountered in the industry. We find consumers of MT output---whether human or algorithmic ones---to be primarily interested in a binary quality metric: is the translated sentence adequate as-is or does it need post-editing? Motivated by this we propose a quality classification (QC) view on sentence-level QE whereby we focus on maximizing recall at precision above a given threshold. We demonstrate that, while classical QE regression models fare poorly on this task, they can be re-purposed by replacing the output regression layer with a binary classification one, achieving 50-60\% recall at 90\% precision. For a high-quality MT system producing 75-80\% correct translations, this promises a significant reduction in post-editing work indeed. Full Article
prac Inference with Choice Functions Made Practical. (arXiv:2005.03098v1 [cs.AI]) By arxiv.org Published On :: We study how to infer new choices from previous choices in a conservative manner. To make such inferences, we use the theory of choice functions: a unifying mathematical framework for conservative decision making that allows one to impose axioms directly on the represented decisions. We here adopt the coherence axioms of De Bock and De Cooman (2019). We show how to naturally extend any given choice assessment to such a coherent choice function, whenever possible, and use this natural extension to make new choices. We present a practical algorithm to compute this natural extension and provide several methods that can be used to improve its scalability. Full Article
prac 5 Best Practices for Breadcrumb Navigation By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Sat, 21 Sep 2019 13:00:01 +0000 Breadcrumbs are a subtle element of a website that helps improve usability and navigation. They’re a utility that often receives little acknowledgment; however, breadcrumbs can have a large impact and provide a plethora of benefits, such as lowering bounce rate, increasing conversions, and improving user satisfaction. Imagine you’re in a regular grocery store, except […] The post 5 Best Practices for Breadcrumb Navigation appeared first on WebFX Blog. Full Article Web Design
prac 5 Lead Generation Website Design Best Practices By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Thu, 19 Dec 2019 17:00:23 +0000 Are you looking to generate more leads and revenue with your website? If so, it’s time to consider web design for lead generation to help you create a website that caters to your audience and encourages them to become leads for your business. On this page, we’ll provide you with five lead generation website design […] The post 5 Lead Generation Website Design Best Practices appeared first on WebFX Blog. Full Article Web Design
prac Chiropractic posture correction tool By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 21 Apr 2015 08:00:00 EDT The claimed invention provides an improved posture correction tool in the form of a table to be used by chiropractic practitioners to treat mechanical disorders of the spine and musculoskeletal system. The improved posture correction tool provides a plurality of pads to support the various major areas of the body and has built in drop capability and adjustment capability for the pelvic pad, the lumbar pad, the thoracic pad and the head and cervical area. The claimed invention also has a novel cervical support. Full Article
prac Tool radius adjusting method in machine tool and machine tool for practicing the method By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 19 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT At a contact step in a tool radius adjusting method, a reference portion of a movable body provided radially movably on a housing of a boring tool and a position adjusting reference member fixed on a machine tool are brought into contact by sliding the movable body relative to the housing so that the position of a cutting blade comes to a predetermined position in a direction to go away from a rotational axis. Then, at an adjusting step, the position of the cutting blade relative to the rotational axis is adjusted by changing the relative position between a tool spindle holding the boring tool and the position adjusting reference member in a direction to come close to each other by drive mechanisms of the machine tool used for positioning a spindle head with the tool spindle relative to a workpiece in machining the workpiece with the cutting blade. Full Article
prac Golf swing practice apparatus By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 24 Mar 2015 08:00:00 EDT A golf swing practice apparatus which includes a rotating drum having an optical sensor mounted inside the drum that is capable of swiveling in a direction perpendicular to the rotational direction of the drum and capable of detecting a change in swivel position or swivel angle; an elongated cord including a proximal end secured to the drum and a distal end secured to a golf ball; a base member having an impact area over which a user may swing a golf club; and a frame structure secured to the base member and to the rotating drum whereby the frame structure holds the rotating drum in an elevated position above the impact area. Full Article
prac SPORTS PRACTICE TARGET APPARATUS By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Thu, 27 Apr 2017 08:00:00 EDT An apparatus for providing a target for a projectile comprises an elongate member extending between first and second ends, sized to span a playing surface. The apparatus further comprises first and second support legs extending from the first and second ends of the elongate member, each of the first and second support legs having a length selected to position the elongate member above and outside of a possible path of the projectile and a plurality of lights located on the elongate member selectable by a user to provide a visual target for a user. After the elongate member is positioned above and outside a possible path of the projectile a desired path for the projectile is selected and one of a plurality of lights on the elongate member to provide a visual target for a user expected to produce the desired path in the projectile is illuminated. Full Article
prac DISPLAY DEVICE FOR PRACTICE OF KEYBOARD INSTRUMENT DIAGRAMED WITH BLACK KEYS AS MARKERS By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Thu, 11 May 2017 08:00:00 EDT In the present invention, images of a keyboard can be efficiently input into a learner's brain by using a display device in which two kinds of parallel black keys on a keyboard instrument are diagrammed as marker figures which are a substantially n-shaped figure and a substantially m-shaped figure, and the positions of pressed keys are plotted onto the marker figures. The display device can be configured using, for example, printed matter (e.g., a sheet or a card), a font set, an electronic display, and a three-dimensional object, and is provided as a sheet for writing music, performance or practice sheet music, learning cards, or a three-dimensional mimic keyboard. Altogether, provided is a novel music education method based on the images of a keyboard. Full Article
prac New niche practice Realest secure landmark instruction By www.dailyecho.co.uk Published On :: Tue, 03 Mar 2015 08:20:00 +0000 South Coast surveying practice, Realest have been instructed alongside joint agents Lambert Smith Hampton to market The Director General’s House in Southampton. The iconic building which was given its name as the former residence of the Director General of the Ordnance Survey, is located at the head of London Road fronting The Avenue and Rockstone Place. Full Article
prac Take Note: Peter Forster On Cybersecurity And Practicing "Cyber Hygiene" By radio.wpsu.org Published On :: Fri, 27 Dec 2019 16:09:47 +0000 Peter Forster is an associate professor who teaches security and risk analysis at Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology. His research focuses on cybersecurity, counter-terrorism and social networks. Forster has worked on improving law enforcement’s situational awareness of issues such as drug and human trafficking. He also oversees a research project on better understanding of how extremist organizations recruit Americans in cyberspace. He talks with WPSU about why cybersecurity shouldn’t be an afterthought in today’s world and how the cyber world and the physical world are inseparable. Plus, how to practice “cyber hygiene.” Transcript: Min Xian: Welcome to Take Note on WPSU. I’m Min Xian. Peter Forster is an associate teaching professor who teaches security and risk analysis at Penn State's College of Information Sciences and Technology. His research focuses on cybersecurity, counterterrorism and social networks. Forster has worked on improving law enforcement’s Full Article
prac The Practicing Photographer By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Thu, 07 May 2020 00:00:00 GMT In The Practicing Photographer, photographer and teacher Ben Long shares a weekly serving of photographic instruction and inspiration. Each installment focuses on a photographic shooting scenario, a piece of gear, or a software technique. Each one concludes with a call to action designed to inspire you to pick up your camera (or your mouse or smartphone) to try the technique for yourself.Note: Because this is an ongoing series, viewers will not receive a certificate of completion. Full Article
prac Practical Engineering By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Thu, 07 May 2020 07:00:00 GMT Engineering involves a lot of theory. But we don't always get to see it in practice. This series teaches fundamental principles that all civil and mechanical engineers need to know, alongside demonstrations that show how they really work. Using everything from desktop models predicting the movement of groundwater to hand-built examples of mechanically stabilized earth, instructor Grady Hillhouse explains how engineering concepts become real. Every month, he introduces an important new topic that will improve your understanding of essential engineering principles, including force, strength, tension, compression, and more, and help you find better solutions to common design challenges.Note: Because this is an ongoing series, viewers will not receive a certificate of completion. Full Article
prac Wie aus einem Nerd-Projekt eine beliebte Programmiersprache wurde By www.welt.de Published On :: Mon, 04 May 2020 06:33:49 GMT Guido van Rossum hat die Programmiersprache Python Ende der 80er-Jahre entwickelt. Auch heute ist sie noch bei Netflix, Instagram und Co. im Einsatz. Für die weite Verbreitung gibt es einige Gründe. Full Article Webwelt & Technik
prac Practicality and Everydayness By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Sun, 01 Mar 2020 00:00:00 GMT Everyday life has its challenges, even in the small things. Join Pastor Doug and Pastor Ross in this episode of Bible Answers Live as they give listeners Biblical solutions to those everyday vexes : dealing with difficult people, taking care of the smaller chores on Sabbath, proper and practical attire for women in the daily routine and many other worries. Open your Bible with us and tune in ! Full Article Bible Answers Live
prac Doctors’ practices are hurt by coronavirus pandemic, just when they’re most needed By www.seattletimes.com Published On :: Sat, 25 Apr 2020 06:01:57 -0700 Many physician practices, like other businesses, are questioning how they'll survive the coronavirus outbreak, according to the Washington State Medical Association. Full Article Business Economy Local Business Wellness