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In the world of business communication, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is the go-to choice for cost-effective and convenient calling. …
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Databricks is a cloud-based platform designed to simplify the process of building data engineering pipelines and developing machine learning models. It offers a collaborative workspace that enables users to work with data effortlessly, process it at scale, and derive insights rapidly using machine learning and advanced analytics.
On the other hand, Visual Studio Code (VSCode) is a free, open-source editor by Microsoft, loaded with extensions for virtually every programming language and framework, making it a favorite among developers for writing and debugging code.
You may already be familiar with the CSS clamp() function. You may even be using it to fluidly scale a font size based on the browser viewport. Adrian Bece demonstrated the concept in another Smashing Magazine article just last year. It’s a clever CSS “trick” that has been floating around for a while.
But if you’ve used the clamp()-based fluid type technique yourself, then you may have also run into articles that offer a warning about it. For example, Adrian mentions this in his article:
“It’s important to reiterate that usingremvalues doesn’t automagically make fluid typography accessible for all users; it only allows the font sizes to respond to user font preferences. Using the CSSclampfunction in combination with the viewport units to achieve fluid sizing introduces another set of drawbacks that we need to consider.”
Here’s Una Kravets with a few words about it on web.dev:
“Limiting how large text can get withmax()orclamp()can cause a WCAG failure under 1.4.4 Resize text (AA), because a user may be unable to scale the text to 200% of its original size. Be certain to test the results with zoom.”
Trys Mudford also has something to say about it in the Utopia blog:
“Adrian Roselli quite rightly warns that clamp can have a knock-on effect on the maximum font-size when the user explicitly sets a browser text zoom preference. As with any feature affecting typography, ensure you test thoroughly before using it in production.”
Mudford cites Adrian Roselli, who appears to be the core source of the other warnings:
“When you usevwunits or limit how large text can get withclamp(), there is a chance a user may be unable to scale the text to 200% of its original size. If that happens, it is WCAG failure under 1.4.4 Resize text (AA) so be certain to test the results with zoom.”
So, what’s going on here? And how can we address any accessibility issues so we can keep fluidly scaling our text? That is exactly what I want to discuss in this article. Together, we will review what the WCAG guidelines say to understand the issue, then explore how we might be able to use clamp() in a way that adheres to WCAG Success Criterion (SC) 1.4.4.
Let’s first review what WCAG Success Criterion 1.4.4 says about resizing text:
“Except for captions and images of text, text can be resized without assistive technology up to 200 percent without loss of content or functionality.”
Normally, if we’re setting CSS font-size to a non-fluid value, e.g., font-size: 2rem, we never have to worry about resizing behavior. All modern browsers can zoom up to 500% without additional assistive technology.
So, what’s the deal with sizing text with viewport units like this:
h1 {
font-size: 5vw;
}
Here’s a simple example demonstrating the problem. I suggest viewing it in either Chrome or Firefox because zooming in Safari can behave differently.
The text only scales up to 55px, or 1.67 times its original size, even though we zoomed the entire page to five times its original size. And because WCAG SC 1.4.4 requires that text can scale to at least two times its original size, this simple example would fail an accessibility audit, at least in most browsers at certain viewport widths.
Surely this can’t be a problem for all clamped font sizes with vw units, right? What about one that only increases from 16px to 18px:
h1 {
font-size: clamp(16px, 15.33px + 0.208vw, 18px);
}
The vw part of that inner calc() function (clamp() supports calc() without explicitly declaring it) is so small that it couldn’t possibly cause the same accessibility failure, right?
Sure enough, even though it doesn’t get to quite 500% of its original size when the page is zoomed to 500%, the size of the text certainly passes the 200% zoom specified in WCAG SC 1.4.4.
So, clamped viewport-based font sizes fail WCAG SC 1.4.4 in some cases but not in others. The only advice I’ve seen for determining which situations pass or fail is to check each of them manually, as Adrian Roselli originally suggested. But that’s time-consuming and imprecise because the functions don’t scale intuitively.
There must be some relationship between our inputs — i.e., the minimum font size, maximum font size, minimum breakpoint, and maximum breakpoint — that can help us determine when they pose accessibility issues.
Thinking MathematicallyIf we think about this problem mathematically, we really want to ensure that z₅(v) ≥ 2z₁(v). Let’s break that down.
z₁(v) and z₅(v) are functions that take the viewport width, v, as their input and return a font size at a 100% zoom level and a 500% zoom level, respectively. In other words, what we want to know is at what range of viewport widths will z₅(v) be less than 2×z₁(v), which represents the minimum size outlined in WCAG SC 1.4.4?
Using the first clamp() example we looked at that failed WCAG SC 1.4.4, we know that the z₁ function is the clamp() expression:
z₁(v) = clamp(16, 5.33 + 0.0333v, 48)
Notice: The vw units are divided by 100 to translate from CSS where 100vw equals the viewport width in pixels.
As for the z₅ function, it’s tempting to think that z₅ = 5z₁. But remember what we learned from that first demo: viewport-based units don’t scale up with the browser’s zoom level. This means z₅ is more correctly expressed like this:
z₅(v) = clamp(16*5, 5.33*5 + 0.0333v, 48*5)
Notice: This scales everything up by 5 (or 500%), except for v. This simulates how the browser scales the page when zooming.
Let’s represent the clamp() function mathematically. We can convert it to a piecewise function, meaning z₁(v) and z₅(v) would ultimately look like the following figure:
We can graph these functions to help visualize the problem. Here’s the base function, z₁(v), with the viewport width, v, on the x-axis:
This looks about right. The font size stays at 16px until the viewport is 320px wide, and it increases linearly from there before it hits 48px at a viewport width of 1280px. So far, so good.
Here’s a more interesting graph comparing 2z₁(v) and z₅(v):
Can you spot the accessibility failure on this graph? When z₅(v) (in green) is less than 2z₁(v) (in teal), the viewport-based font size fails WCAG SC 1.4.4.
Let’s zoom into the bottom-left region for a closer look:
This figure indicates that failure occurs when the browser width is approximately between 1050px and 2100px. You can verify this by opening the original demo again and zooming into it at different viewport widths. When the viewport is less than 1050px or greater than 2100px, the text should scale up to at least two times its original size at a 500% zoom. But when it’s in between 1050px and 2100px, it doesn’t.
Hint: We have to manually measure the text — e.g., take a screenshot — because browsers don’t show zoomed values in DevTools.
General SolutionsFor simplicity’s sake, we’ve only focused on one clamp() expression so far. Can we generalize these findings somehow to ensure any clamped expression passes WCAG SC 1.4.4?
Let’s take a closer look at what’s happening in the failure above. Notice that the problem is caused because 2z₁(v) — the SC 1.4.4 requirement — reaches its peak before z₅(v) starts increasing.
When would that be the case? Everything in 2z₁(v) is scaled by 200%, including the slope of the line (v). The function reaches its peak value at the same viewport width where z₁(v) reaches its peak value (the maximum 1280px breakpoint). That peak value is two times the maximum font size we want which, in this case, is 2*48, or 96px.
However, the slope of z₅(v) is the same as z₁(v). In other words, the function doesn’t start increasing from its lowest clamped point — five times the minimum font size we want — until the viewport width is five times the minimum breakpoint. In this case, that is 5*320, or 1600px.
Thinking about this generally, we can say that if 2z₁(v) peaks before z₅(v) starts increasing, or if the maximum breakpoint is less than five times the minimum breakpoint, then the peak value of 2z₁(v) must be less than or equal to the peak value of z₅(v), or two times the maximum value that is less than or equal to five times the minimum value.
Or simpler still: The maximum value must be less than or equal to 2.5 times the minimum value.
What about when the maximum breakpoint is more than five times the minimum breakpoint? Let’s see what our graph looks like when we change the maximum breakpoint from 1280px to 1664px and the maximum font size to 40px:
Technically, we could get away with a slightly higher maximum font size. To figure out just how much higher, we’d have to solve for z₅(v) ≥ 2z₁(v) at the point when 2z₁(v) reaches its peak, which is when v equals the maximum breakpoint. (Hat tip to my brother, Zach Barvian, whose excellent math skills helped me with this.)
To save you the math, you can play around with this calculator to see which combinations pass WCAG SC 1.4.4.
ConclusionSumming up what we’ve covered:
Importantly, that first rule is true for non-fluid responsive type as well. If you open this pen, for example, notice that it uses regular media queries to increase the h1 element’s size from an initial value of 1rem to 3rem (which violates our first rule), with an in-between stop for 2rem.
If you zoom in at 500% with a browser width of approximately 1000px, you will see that the text doesn’t reach 200% of its initial size. This makes sense because if you were to describe 2z₁(v) and z₅(v) mathematically, they would be even simpler piecewise functions with the same maximum and minimum limitations. This guideline would hold for any function describing a font size with a known minimum and maximum.
In the future, of course, we may get more tools from browsers to address these issues and accommodate even larger maximum font sizes. In the meantime, though, I hope you find this article helpful when building responsive frontends.
Today, I’d like to talk about accessibility testing using Playwright.
Accessibility testing refers to evaluating web applications or websites for compliance with accessibility standards, ensuring that they can be used by people with disabilities. Existing guidelines and other standards related to web accessibility Here are the links to them:
Are you confused by GDPR and how it will impact your WordPress site?
The GDPR, short for General Data Protection Regulation, is a European Union law that you have likely heard about. We’ve received dozens of emails from users asking us to explain the GDPR in plain English and share tips on how to make your WordPress site GDPR-compliant.
In this article, we will explain everything you need to know about the GDPR and WordPress (without the complex legal stuff).
We are not lawyers, and nothing on this website should be considered legal advice.
To help you easily navigate through our ultimate guide to WordPress and GDPR compliance, we have created a table of contents below:
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a European Union (EU) law that took effect on May 25, 2018. The goal of the GDPR is to give EU citizens control over their personal data and change the data privacy approach of organizations across the world.
Over the years, you’ve likely gotten dozens of emails from companies like Google about the GDPR, their new privacy policies, and a bunch of other legal stuff. That’s because the EU has made big penalties for people who don’t comply with the regulations.
Businesses that are not in compliance with the GDPR’s requirements can face large fines of up to 4% of a company’s annual global revenue or €20 million (whichever is greater). This is enough reason to cause widespread panic among businesses around the world.
What Is the CCPA?
The state of California introduced similar privacy legislation on January 1, 2020, though the potential fines are much lower.
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is designed to protect the personal information of Californian residents. It gives them the right to know what personal information is being collected about them, request its deletion, and opt out of the sale of their data.
In this article, we will focus on the GDPR, but many of the steps we list in this article will also help you become CCPA compliant.
This brings us to the big question that you might be thinking about:
The answer is YES. It applies to every business, large and small, around the world (not just in the European Union).
If your WordPress website has visitors from European Union countries, then this law applies to you.
But don’t panic. It’s not the end of the world.
While the GDPR can escalate to those high levels of fines, it will start with a warning, then a reprimand, and then a suspension of data processing.
And only if you continue to violate the law will the large fines hit.
The EU isn’t some evil government that is out to get you. Their goal is to protect innocent consumers from reckless handling of data that could result in a breach of their privacy.
The maximum fine part, in our opinion, is largely to get the attention of large companies like Facebook and Google so that this regulation is NOT ignored. Furthermore, this encourages companies to actually put more emphasis on protecting the rights of people.
Once you understand what is required by the GDPR and the spirit of the law, then you will realize that none of this is too crazy.
We will also share tools and tips to make your WordPress site GDPR-compliant.
The goal of GDPR is to protect users’ personally identifying information (PII) and hold businesses to a higher standard when it comes to how they collect, store, and use this data.
This personal data includes your users’ names, email addresses, physical addresses, IP addresses, health information, income, and more.
While the GDPR regulation is 200 pages long, here are the most important pillars that you need to know:
You Must Gain Explicit Consent to Collect Personal Information
If you are collecting personal data from an EU resident, then you must get explicit consent or permission that is specific and unambiguous.
In other words, you can’t just send unsolicited emails to someone who gave you their business card or filled out your website contact form. This is spam. Instead, you must allow them to opt in to your marketing newsletter.
For it to be considered explicit consent, you must require a positive opt-in. The checkbox must not be ticked by default, must contain clear wording (no legalese), and must be separate from other terms and conditions.
Your Users Have a Right to Their Personal Data
You must inform individuals where, why, and how their data is processed and stored.
An individual has the right to download their personal data and the right to be forgotten.
This means they have a right to demand that you delete their personal data. When a user clicks an unsubscribe link or asks you to delete their profile, you actually need to do that.
You Must Provide Prompt Data Breach Notifications
Organizations must report certain types of data breaches to relevant authorities within 72 hours unless the breach is considered harmless and poses no risk to individual data.
However, if a breach is high-risk, then the company must also inform individuals who are impacted right away.
This will hopefully prevent cover-ups like Yahoo that were not revealed until the acquisition.
You May Need to Appoint a Data Protection Officer
If you are a public company or process large amounts of personal information, then you must appoint a data protection officer.
This is not required for small businesses. Consult an attorney if you are in doubt.
Plain English Summary of What’s Required
To put it in plain English, the GDPR makes sure that businesses can’t go around spamming people by sending emails they didn’t ask for. Businesses also can’t sell people’s data without their explicit consent.
Businesses have to delete users’ accounts and unsubscribe them from email lists when asked. Businesses also have to report data breaches and overall be better about data protection.
Sounds pretty good, at least in theory.
But you are probably wondering what you need to do to make sure that your WordPress site is GDPR-compliant.
Well, that really depends on your specific website (more on this later).
Let us start by answering the biggest question that we’ve gotten from users:
Yes, the WordPress core software has been GDPR-compliant since WordPress 4.9.6, which was released on May 17, 2018. Several GDPR enhancements were added to achieve this.
It’s important to note that when we talk about WordPress, we are talking about self-hosted WordPress.org. This is different from WordPress.com, and you can learn the difference in our guide on WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org.
Having said that, due to the dynamic nature of websites, no single platform, plugin, or solution can offer 100% GDPR compliance. The GDPR compliance process will vary based on the type of website you have, what data you store, and how you process data on your site.
Ok, so you might be thinking, what does this mean in plain English?
Well, by default, WordPress comes with the following GDPR enhancement tools:
Comments Consent Checkbox
Before May 2018, WordPress would store the commenter’s name, email, and website as a cookie on the user’s browser by default. This made it easier for users to leave comments on their favorite blogs because those fields were pre-filled.
Due to the GDPR’s consent requirement, WordPress has added a consent checkbox to the comment form.
The user can leave a comment without checking this box. All this means is that they will have to manually enter their name, email, and website every time they leave a comment.
Tip: Make sure that you are logged out when testing to see if the checkbox is there.
If the checkbox is still not showing, then your theme is likely overriding the default WordPress comment form. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to add a GDPR comment privacy checkbox in your WordPress theme.
Personal Data Export and Erase Features
WordPress offers site owners the tools they need to comply with the GDPR’s data handling requirements and honor users’ requests for exporting personal data as well as removal of users’ personal data.
The data handling features can be found under the Tools menu inside WordPress admin. From here, you can go to Export Personal Data or Erase Personal Data.
Privacy Policy Generator
WordPress comes with a built-in privacy policy generator. It has a pre-made privacy policy template and offers you guidance on what else to add. This helps you be more transparent with users in terms of what data you store and how you handle their data.
You can learn more in our guide on how to create a privacy policy in WordPress.
These three features are enough to make a default WordPress blog GDPR-compliant. However, your website will likely have additional areas that will also need to be in compliance.
As a website owner, you might be using various WordPress plugins that store or process data, and these can affect your GDPR compliance. Common examples include:
Depending on which WordPress plugins you are using on your website, you will need to act accordingly to make sure that your website is GDPR compliant.
A lot of the best WordPress plugins have added GDPR enhancement features. Let’s take a look at some of the common areas that you will need to address.
Google Analytics
Like most website owners, you are likely using Google Analytics to get website stats. This means that you might be collecting or tracking personal data like IP addresses, user IDs, cookies, and other data for behavior profiling.
To be GDPR compliant, you need to do one of the following:
Both of these are fairly difficult to do if you are just pasting Google Analytics code manually on your site. However, if you are using MonsterInsights, the most popular Google Analytics plugin for WordPress, then you are in luck.
They have released an EU compliance addon that helps automate the above process.
MonsterInsights also has a very good blog post talking about about the GDPR and Google Analytics. This is a must-read if you are using Google Analytics on your site.
Contact Forms
If you are using a contact form in WordPress, then you may need to add extra transparency measures. This is especially true if you are storing the form entries or using the data for marketing purposes.
Here are some things to consider when making your WordPress forms GDPR-compliant:
The good news is that you don’t need to organize a data processing agreement if you are using a WordPress plugin like WPForms, Gravity Forms, or Ninja Forms.
These plugins store your form entries in your WordPress database, so you just need to add a consent checkbox with a clear explanation to stay GDPR compliant.
WPForms, the contact form plugin we use on WPBeginner, has several GDPR enhancements to make it easy for you to add a GDPR consent field, disable user cookies, disable user IP collection, and disable entries with a single click.
You can see our step-by-step guide on how to create GDPR-compliant forms in WordPress.
Email Marketing Opt-in Forms
Similar to contact forms, if you have any email marketing opt-in forms like popups, floating bars, inline forms, and others, then you need to make sure that you get explicit consent from users before adding them to your list.
This can be done by either:
Top lead-generation solutions like OptinMonster have added GDPR consent checkboxes and other necessary features to help you make your email opt-in forms compliant.
You can read more about GDPR strategies for marketers on the OptinMonster blog.
eCommerce and WooCommerce Stores
If you are using WooCommerce, the most popular eCommerce plugin for WordPress, then you need to make sure your website is in compliance with the GDPR.
Luckily, the WooCommerce team has prepared a comprehensive guide for store owners to help them be GDPR compliant.
Retargeting Ads
If your website is running retargeting pixels or retargeting ads, then you will need to get the user’s consent.
You can do this by using a plugin like Cookie Notice. You can find detailed instructions in our guide on how to add a cookies popup in WordPress for GDPR/CCPA.
Google Fonts
Google Fonts are a great way to customize the typography on your WordPress website.
However, Google Fonts have been found in violation of GDPR regulations. That’s because Google logs your visitor’s IP address each time a font is loaded.
Luckily, there are a few ways to handle this so your website is GDPR-compliant. For example, you can load your fonts locally, replace Google Fonts with another option, or disable them.
You can learn how in our guide on how to make Google Fonts privacy-friendly.
There are several WordPress plugins that can help you automate some parts of GDPR compliance.
However, no plugin can offer 100% compliance due to the dynamic nature of websites.
Beware of any WordPress plugin that claims to offer 100% GDPR compliance. They likely don’t know what they are talking about, and it’s best for you to avoid them completely.
Below is our list of recommended plugins for GDPR compliance:
You will find more options in our expert pick of the best WordPress GDPR plugins to improve compliance.
We will continue to monitor the plugin ecosystem to see if any other WordPress plugin stands out and offers substantial GDPR compliance features.
The GDPR has been in effect since May 2018.
Perhaps you have had your WordPress website for a while and have been working towards GDPR compliance. Or you may be just starting out with a new website.
Either way, there is no need for panic. Just continue to work towards compliance and get it done ASAP.
You may be concerned about the large fines. Remember that the risk of being fined is minimal. The European Union’s website states that first, you’ll get a warning, then a reprimand, and fines are the last step if you fail to comply and knowingly ignore the law.
Remember that the EU is not out to get you. They are doing this to protect user data and restore people’s trust in online businesses.
As the world goes digital, we need these standards. With the recent data breaches of large companies, it’s important that these standards are adapted globally.
It will be good for all involved. These new rules will help boost consumer confidence and, in turn, help grow your business.
We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to become GDPR-compliant on your WordPress blog. You might also like to see our expert guides on how to make your website GDPR-compliant.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
We are not lawyers, and nothing on this website should be considered legal advice. Due to the dynamic nature of websites, no single plugin or platform can offer 100% legal compliance.
When in doubt, it’s best to consult a specialist internet law attorney to determine if you are in compliance with all applicable laws for your jurisdictions and your use cases.
The post The Ultimate Guide to WordPress and GDPR Compliance first appeared on WPBeginner.
The Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is the aggregate of the world’s circuit-switched telephone networks. These networks are operated by …
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Yesterday, OpenAI's inaugural DevDay conference in San Francisco unveiled a series of groundbreaking announcements, leaving the tech community humming with both excitement and a degree of uncertainty. The reveal of GPT-4 Turbo, a new wave of customizable AI through user-friendly APIs, and the promise to protect businesses from copyright infringement claims, stand out as critical moments that are reshaping the landscape of artificial intelligence. As the tech industry digests the implications of these developments, several questions emerge: What do these advancements mean for the future of AI? And how will they reshape the competitive landscape of startups and tech giants alike?
The announcements from DevDay underscore a dynamic and ever-evolving domain, showcasing OpenAI's commitment to extending the frontiers of AI technology. These are the key revelations:
Recommended articles with more details on these announcements can be found on The Verge, and additional coverage on TechCrunch.
The advancements announced at DevDay suggest the next seismic shift in the AI landscape, with OpenAI demonstrating its formidable influence and technological prowess. Notably, OpenAI's move to enable the creation of custom GPT models and their decision to offer a GPT store could also democratize AI development, making sophisticated AI tools more accessible to a broader audience.
However, this democratization comes with its own set of questions. Will this influx of AI capabilities stifle innovation in startups, or will it spur a new wave of creativity? Discussions on Reddit indicate a mixed response from the community, with some lamenting the potential demise of startups that relied on existing gaps in the AI market, while others see it as an evolution that weeds out those unable to adapt and innovate.
Another important implication is the potential for AI models like GPT-4 Turbo to replace certain jobs, as they become more capable and less costly. As the world's most influential AI platform begins to perform complex tasks more efficiently, what will be the societal and economic repercussions?
Furthermore, the Copyright Shield program by OpenAI suggests a world where AI-generated content becomes ubiquitous, potentially challenging our existing norms around intellectual property and copyright law. How will this impact creators and the legal frameworks that protect their work?
With these developments, OpenAI continues to cement its position as a leader in the AI space. But does this come at the cost of reduced competition and potential monopolization? As we've seen in other sectors, a dominant player can stifle competition, which is often the lifeblood of innovation. A historical example is the web browser market, where Microsoft's Internet Explorer once held a dominant position. By bundling Internet Explorer with its Windows operating system, Microsoft was able to gain a significant market share, which led to antitrust lawsuits and concerns over lack of competition. This dominance not only discouraged other browser developments but also slowed the pace of innovation within the web browsing experience itself. It wasn't until the rise of competitors like Firefox and Google Chrome that we saw a resurgence in browser innovation and an improvement in user experience.
From this point of view, the move to simplify the use of AI through user-friendly interfaces and APIs is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it enables a wider range of creators and developers to engage with AI technology. On the other, it could concentrate power in the hands of a single entity, controlling the direction and ethics of AI development. This centralization poses potential risks for competitive diversity and requires careful oversight to maintain a healthy, multi-stakeholder ecosystem.
The accessibility of advanced AI tools could mean a democratized future where innovation is not the sole province of those with deep pockets or advanced technical skills. It might level the playing field or, as some on Reddit have pointed out, could quash many startups that have thrived in the niches OpenAI now seems prepared to fill. The sentiment shared by the community reflects a broader anxiety permeating the tech industry: the fear of being rendered obsolete by the relentless march of AI progress. The speed at which OpenAI is iterating its models and the scope of their functionality are formidable, to say the least.
With the advent of OpenAI's GPT-4 Turbo, we're forced to confront an uncomfortable question: what happens to human jobs when AI becomes better and cheaper at performing them? The argument in favor of AI equipped with human-like abilities often hinges on the promise of automation enhancing productivity. However, the lower costs associated with AI-driven solutions compared to human labor could incentivize companies to replace their human workforce. With GPT-4 Turbo, not only is the efficiency of tasks expected to increase, but the economic rationale for businesses to adopt AI becomes even more compelling. While it's true that new types of jobs will likely emerge in the wake of AI's rise, the transition could be tumultuous. The risk is that the job market may not adapt quickly enough to absorb the displaced workers, leading to a potential increase in unemployment and the need for large-scale retraining programs.
And it's not just about the jobs that AI can replace, but also about the broader implications for the labor market and society. The possibility of AI surpassing human capabilities in certain sectors raises fundamental questions about the value we place on human labor and the structure of our economy. Can we ensure a fair transition for those whose jobs are at risk? As AI models like GPT-4 Turbo become more ingrained in our economic fabric, these are the urgent questions we must address to ensure that the future of work is equitable for all.
The implications of such rapid development in AI are profound. With increased power and reach, comes greater responsibility. OpenAI's commitment to defending businesses from copyright claims raises questions about how AI-generated content will be regulated and the ethical considerations of AI mimicking human creativity. Moreover, as AI becomes more integrated into our lives, the potential for misuse or unintended consequences grows.
OpenAI's DevDay has undoubtedly set a new pace for the AI industry. The implications of these announcements will be felt far and wide, sparking debates on ethics, economics, and the future of innovation. As we grapple with these questions, one thing is clear: the AI revolution is accelerating, and we must prepare for a future that looks markedly different from today's world.
Atomic Design is a methodology for designing and developing user interfaces that has gained popularity in recent times. It was proposed by Brad Frost as a systematic approach to creating reusable and consistent components in web applications, following an analogy with the structure of atoms and molecules in chemistry.
This approach organizes the elements of an interface at hierarchical levels, from the most basic and simple components to the most complex ones.
Austin, Texas, is the 10th largest city in the US and is constantly growing, both in population and in industry. Every year, dozens of major companies either relocate or expand into the Austin area. It is also home to six universities, like The University of Texas at Austin and Texas State. As the state capitol of Texas, many government agencies have a presence there as well. Folks from all these sectors came together in the last week of September to learn from one another at Texas Cyber Summit 2023.
Here are just a few of the highlights from this security-focused event.
In 2015, ECMAScript 6 was introduced — a significant release of the JavaScript language. This release introduced many new features, such as const/let, arrow functions, classes, etc. Most of these features were aimed at eliminating JavaScript's quirks. For this reason, all these features were labeled as "Harmony." Some sources say that the entire ECMAScript 6 is called "ECMAScript Harmony." In addition to these features, the "Harmony" label highlights other features expected to become part of the specification soon. Decorators are one of such anticipated features.
Nearly ten years have passed since the first mentions of decorators. The decorators’ specification has been rewritten several times, almost from scratch, but they have not become part of the specification yet. As JavaScript has long extended beyond just browser-based applications, authors of specifications must consider a wide range of platforms where JavaScript can be executed. This is precisely why progressing to stage 3 for this proposal has taken so much time.
In the rapidly evolving digital landscape, the role of data has shifted from being merely a byproduct of business to becoming its lifeblood. With businesses constantly in the race to stay ahead, the process of integrating this data becomes crucial. However, it's no longer enough to assimilate data in isolated, batch-oriented processes. The new norm is real-time data integration, and it’s transforming the way companies make decisions and conduct their operations. This article delves into the paradigm shift from traditional to real-time data integration, examines its architectural nuances, and contemplates its profound impact on decision-making and business processes.
In the past, batch-oriented data integration reigned supreme. Businesses were content with accumulating data over defined intervals and then processing it in scheduled batches. Although this approach was serviceable in a less dynamic business climate, it falls far short of the agile and instantaneous demands that define modern markets. As Peter Sondergaard, former SVP of Gartner, insightfully stated, "Information is the oil of the 21st century, and analytics is the combustion engine."
In the labyrinth of data-driven architectures, the challenge of data integration—fusing data from disparate sources into a coherent, usable form — stands as one of the cornerstones. As businesses amass data at an unprecedented pace, the question of how to integrate this data effectively comes to the fore. Among the spectrum of methodologies available for this task, batch processing is often considered an old guard, especially with the advent of real-time and event-based processing technologies. However, it would be a mistake to dismiss batch processing as an antiquated approach. In fact, its enduring relevance is a testament to its robustness and efficiency. This blog dives into the intricate world of batch processing for data integration, elucidating its mechanics, advantages, considerations, and standing in comparison to other methodologies.
Batch processing has a storied history that predates the very concept of real-time processing. In the dawn of computational technology, batch processing was more a necessity than a choice. Systems were not equipped to handle multiple tasks simultaneously. Jobs were collected and processed together, and then the output was delivered. As technology evolved, so did the capabilities of batch processing, especially its application in data integration tasks.
Have you ever launched an EC2 instance and don’t know how to log in to your brand-new instance? It may sound difficult if you are a beginner, but it’s pretty much simple. Let’s take a look at how to connect to an EC2 instance using SSH, following the next simple steps whether you are using Linux or Windows.
1. Open your terminal and change the directory with the command cd, where you downloaded your pem file. In this demonstration, the PEM file is stored in the downloads folder.
When trying to secure access to a specific sensitive Google Cloud resource, you’re likely familiar with the process of going to the resource’s IAM permissions page in the Cloud Console. This view will show you principals with direct permissions to access the resource, including permissions inherited from parent resources.
However, this excludes a common security vulnerability in many Google Cloud configurations: transitive access via service accounts.
In today’s world, a lot of businesses are deriving value from data and making key decisions based on the results of analytical insights, predictions, and forecasting. In such cases, data quality stands as an important factor. As important as it can be, there are various scenarios of compromising data quality, which may be of any form, such as miscalculations, invalid transformations and business logic, data skewness, missing data points, etc. This may result in generating out-of-sync analytic reports and invalid predictions, which may go unnoticed for a longer time. Even if it is identified at later stages, the damage might have already happened, and fixing production data is an expensive operation in terms of time, money, criticality, and any additional manpower it may require.
Performing data validation is the key to maintaining data quality and helps enhance the trustworthiness of the data. It can be adopted while building data pipelines and making it a part of the data processing phase. This will ensure minimal to no gaps between the source and target systems. Data validation can be implemented in two ways. One way is by building an automated script that accepts database, schema, and table names as parameters and can be utilized across multiple data pipelines. The other way is to build customized scripts for each pipeline with specific business logic. In this article, we focus on a checklist of validation rules that can be utilized while building such scripts to improve the quality of the data. Let’s dive into it.
The Raygun data processing pipeline is kept pretty busy — handling over 90 million crash reports daily. So, needless to say, we need the processing pipeline to be as efficient as possible to reduce resource usage and avoid costly scaling.
One of the many operations during processing is to parse a user-agent string (UA string) wherever one is present. We've gone through several rounds of performance optimizations over the years, and during one of these rounds, the user-agent parser stuck out as the slowest component. From the UA string, we determine the operating system, browser, device, and their versions (throughout this post, I’ll sometimes refer to all 3 of these things as “products”). This information is used for indexing so that Raygun users can filter their crash reports by these dimensions.
This is about how a cyber security service provider built its log storage and analysis system (LSAS) and realized 3X data writing speed, 7X query execution speed, and visualized management.
In this use case, the LSAS collects system logs from its enterprise users, scans them, and detects viruses. It also provides data management and file-tracking services.
Using GraphQL is good, but it gets complex when you are building an application that is big and dynamic. Fortunately, there is a new tool called Grafbase that enables you to connect and link different data sources into one unified GraphQL endpoint.
In addition, you will be importing your existing schema from your GitHub repositories and editing them in the Grafbase platform. Furthermore, it helps you to test your schema before you deploy the schema.