#-python and active directory integration services

[appalachianbacchus]

At the end of June 2015, I learned the Wyatt Elementary School had burnt down in 2014. We decided to check it out and it was fascinating to see this place after the fire.

I noticed some of the classrooms were still visible and even where the floor had dropped, the back supply closets and the display bulletin boards were still there.

Some classrooms were still intact and there was an odd perspective shift. When I faced the unaffected walls, the classroom seemed normal, sturdy, albeit a bit run down. Then just behind me was a damaged wall and an opening to the vast chasm that was once two floors of classrooms.

The basement and lower furnace halls saw sunlight for the first time in almost a hundred years. There were small pieces of damaged sheet music, implying the music section of the school was damaged.

This school was long-abandoned, but it was the school where many of my families attended as kids. My dad and aunts along with many other friends and family members all attended this school. It was an integral part of many lives of people I know.

This was the only image I could find of the front door from before the fire. It was probably around 2005-2010. I hoped there would be some be showing it when it was an active school. At this time, it served as a rented brick and mortar for several services like a T-Shirt printing company.

Here is an image from the time I had in mind, but it was from the lower yard. We entered and took the front door photos on the back side of this building.

The school was initially called the Wyatt High School. It was constructed in 1920 as a full attendance with grades first throught shigh school, according to the West Virginia State Archives Educational Directory.

By 1938 to 1939, the high school portion was gone, so it had grades first through eighth. By 1978 to 1979, the school became Wyatt Elementary with grades kindergarten through sixth. The last mention as an active school was in 1987-88, according to a local archivist.

[dataflip12]

Embedding Power BI in Your Website or App: A Step-by-Step Guide

In a world where managing different apps feels too chaotic, just envision if your customer gets a one-stop service to log into their business dashboard that contains tailored visuals, charts, and insights without switching here and there. Extra login, not needed. Redirection, not required. All of their requirements are baked together to experience the magic of one-stop solution. This magic can be created by embedding Power BI into websites and apps.

Now, comes the challenge. You must be thinking, this task will be filled of technical hassles and complexities. However, if you have got the right setup, there is no need to worry. Embedding Power BI into website and apps can be a game-changing enhancement for your product or service with the help of a smooth setup. Worried about being a non-technical professional? Just read through this guide, to understand how Power BI embedded analytics can unlock the full value of your business.

Integrating Insights: The Power of Embedded BI

Embedding Power BI can be like inviting it to reside into your own application instead of sending your users to visit a separate platform. Let’s see what are the two ways it can play out:

When everything is managed by the app itself. This works best when data is shared with external users like customers or partners. They don’t need Power BI accounts. The app handles all the access.                     

When the users already belong to an organization and have Power BI accounts. They get dashboards tailored just for them inside the tools they already use every day.

Why Embedding Power BI Matters

Let’s get to the real excitement of embedding. This is not only about making your dashboards visually appealing, in fact you actually put your dashboards on a really hard work to bring best insights to you.

Users stay focused. No more jumping between windows to pull reports. When the live data is at your fingertips, you are empowered to take best decisions for your business.  Embedding also helps to regulate that everyone just gets to see what they are supposed to see. Security is ensured with your locked tight data.

Dashboard blends really well with your app, matching the logo, color and branding of your product or service.

That’s how a white-label Power BI solution is hallmarked.  There are enough testimonials of businesses that show how embedding dashboards helps them. 

One product team shared how embedding dashboards helped their customer support team cut response times in half. Instead of juggling tools, agents had insights built into their workspace. Getting Set Up for Embedding Power BI Before you think to dive into this, keep few pieces in place: A Power BI license that fits the users. Pro works for smaller internal use.

Premium fits wider distribution. Azure Active Directory for managing logins and verifying identities. Reports already created in Power BI Desktop and published to the cloud. An app registered in Azure to handle secure logins and permissions. For large-scale apps, using a service account to handle access behind the scenes helps everything run smoother.

How the Embedding Power BI Process Works

You can start by choosing a setup that fits into your requirements, User-based for internal tools. App-based for customer-facing portals.

Your choice affects the verification of users and access management, After that, you can go ahead with building and publishing reports.

It should include:

Interactive visuals that make sense to end users

Filters and navigation to help people zero in on what matters

Data refresh settings to keep the information timely Now comes the technical preparation:

Register the app in Azure

Set up redirect links

Generate secret keys to handle permissions

After doing all these, it’s coding time. Secure tokens are helpful to restrict the users to only see what you want to allow them.

Your app talks to Power BI securely with the help of these tokens. At last, using JavaScript the front end pulls everything. 

The Power BI JavaScript API tutorial can guide developers step-by-step in connecting the visuals, handling load events, and creating seamless interactions.

Keeping Security Tight with Embedding Power BI

There is a detailed list of rules to dictate what Power BI allows your users to see in your data. All of this process works behind the scenes where it keeps a check on who is logged in and then respective filters are applied There are positive feedback about security measures in Power BI embedded analytics.

One company using this setup described how it allowed different clients to access the same dashboard while keeping their data siloed and safe.

The best practice is to create the tokens on the server, and not leave them exposed in the browser.

Secure storage, HTTPS, and time limits help protect everything.

Performance Tips When Embedding Power BI  

Keeping the visuals clear and focused helps. Use caching to reduce repeat load times. Design with mobile users in mind. Reports can adapt to screen size and orientation. Monitor loading speed and gather user feedback to tweak performance. 

Embedding Power BI in Multi-Tenant Apps

When there are multiple clients in a business, such scenario needs special care. Allotting separate workspace to each customer keep the things clean. Or, you have the option to use single workspace with smart filtering to show different data to different people. In the backend, for each tenant there can be tailored token. It gives the power of access management

Tracking and Monitoring Embedding Power BI Usage

Tracking can be added to understand the us of dashboards by the people. Clicking visuals and switching pages by users can be logged. Load times can be measured to spot slowdowns. The insights from these data can be helpful in the refinement of experience over time

Branding and Theming for Embedding Power BI

You just need to do few tweaks, and your dashboards perfectly blend with your app. Custom colors. Matching fonts. A layout that fits the existing interface. After all, branding is important to give the seamless experience.

Launching Embedding Power BI in Production

Use load balancing to keep performance steady. Protect apps with strong security policies. Plan for backups in case something goes sideways. Production setups should include disaster recovery plans, capacity monitoring, and token caching

Embedding Power BI for Interactive Dashboards on Website

Several teams are taking the advantage of embedded Power BI to build interactive dashboards on website platforms. Basically, your customer won’t feel the need to leave the page to explore data. So, transparency, engagement and better decision-making, all are integrated in one place.

Final Thoughts on Embedding Power BI

You are just making a tech upgrade while embedding Power BI

You are also upgrading the experience of the users

Your data comes to life in the very same tool that is being used everyday by the people.

Full potential of interactive dashboards is unlocked when Power BI report is embedded in website or app interfaces

When this is done well, you transform the decision-making, operation of the team, and engagement of the customers.

Embedding is actually worth the effort for any business that is looking to make data truly accessible.

Even in this guide, all you get to know is the surface of Power BI embedded analytics

With a clear vision and right setup, your data becomes the most powerful part of user experience

Where DataFlip Adds Value

Need help navigating the technical maze of Power BI embedding? DataFlip specializes in embedding solutions, white-label dashboards, and creating interactive reports tailored for your business or clients. From Azure setup to secure token flows, every step is simplified.

Check out DataFlip’s work in the Microsoft Fabric Community for insights, case studies, and templates trusted by professionals worldwide.

[eintsein]

After a few years of trial and error, I think I've finally found the perfect organization method.

In the early years of high school, I had a bullet journal. I was an artsy kid who found a way to combine art with organization in a way that benefited other parts of my life.

However, as I approached the end of high school, my schedule got busier, and I was involved in a lot more things, so owning a bullet journal was less practical. Because of that, I switched to an app called Edo Agenda.

I continued with digital planning in college since I knew I wasn't going to have as much time. But all the apps I tried out—Taskade, Actions by Moleskine, Any.do, Todoist, Wunderlist—weren't suited to my planning and organizational needs. They didn't have the specific functions I required and didn't incorporate an organization system I liked to use. The predefined apps were too restraining, but the more customizable apps weren't customizable enough.

So then I switched to a bare bones, uber minimalist bullet journal method. That worked pretty well my second semester. It was simple, portable, and most importantly, flexible—all the things one could wish for in a planning system. However, it wasn't always the most convenient to use since I couldn't effectively integrate all the different aspects of my life, which, to no surprise, is mostly recorded digitally.

There was just one huge problem with my digital organization system that made me hesitant to switch back in the first place: everything was fragmented. Notes were in Google Docs. Financial records were in Google Sheets. To-Do Lists were in my bullet journal. Team projects were in Trello. My poetry was on Bear. Things I wanted to try are carelessly pinned to random pinterest boards or added to my YouTube "watch later" playlist. It was a mess.

Over the summer, I found out about Notion from a friend, and I thought, this has so much potential, it could even be exactly what I need. It's essentially like an empty notebook on your computer with functions that make it 10x more powerful. Notion allows you to integrate all aspects of your life and work into one app. Some of the advantages that have made me partial to Notion are:

Even greater customization level. Notion is a blank canvas with tons of predefined blocks and different file types. You can make databases, spreadsheets, Kanban boards, to do lists, etc. Also, you can remain connected to other digital services. You can link websites, collaborate with other users, use different structures (e.g. documents, databases, tasks), embed images and videos, etc. There are also tons of formatting options, e.g. text color, highlight, heading v. body text.

Better organization. Notion allows you to have pages within pages within pages within pages—an infinite hierarchy that you can organize with tables of contents. These pages are made of blocks, e.g. tables, checklists, boards, databases.  Both pages and blocks can be rearranged by simply dragging and dropping them to where you want them to be. In other words, I guess it's kind of like building a website to organize your life. Plus, their database feature is especially powerful as it allows you to connect all your data and get into as much detail as you wish (each entry in a database is its own page).

Templates. There are tons of templates created by both Notion and the community that you can use. These are especially helpful in the beginning since Notion does have a rather steep learning curve. There are template for almost every category: personal, planning, finance, job applications, design roadmap, etc. Check out their template gallery, this medium article called "10 Notion templates to inspire your use", or read on for my own examples!

Shortcuts. This makes typing and documenting so much faster. Notion uses Markdown, which is a text-to-HTML conversion tool, e.g. # = Heading 1, *, - = bullet point, etc.

Notion has some pretty awesome features, but how does one actually use it? Personally, I have four top-level pages: my planner, my personal journal, songwriting, and blogging.

Planner

I've been using my planner to, well, plan and track my day to day activities as well as my week and month. The way I've structured it is a calendar or monthly overview with links to pages of weekly overviews, and if needed, daily overviews within the weekly overview. This links things up so nicely, i.e. I don't have to be constantly flipping pages in my physical bullet journal or planner to find what I need.

I also have entertainment lists, which is mainly a table with all the shows I want to watch, the books I want to read, etc. I keep track of whether or not I've watched them, as well as my personal ratings. What I love most about this is that each entry is its own page, so I can type my notes for each book, show, or film and easily find them in the future. (Also the reason why I have plural “lists” instead of just one entertainment list is because you can filter entries by type of entertainment, e.g. movies, tv shows, books, articles.)

Personal

For personal notes, goals, journal entries, etc. This is kind of like an extension of my daily journal and just where I dump all my thoughts and keep track of the different aspects of my life: mental, emotional, spiritual, social, physical, and travel.

Another page I have is called "Stray Thoughts" and, well, it's pretty self explanatory. It's a lot easier to dump all my thoughts as they come and reorganize them later. Of course, this requires sacrificing the rawness of journaling, i.e. when the thoughts come and how you process them, which is why I still keep a regular journal that I write in daily.

Songwriting

I've been writing a lot of music over the summer and it's often hard to keep track of all of my songs and how far I've gotten in the songwriting process. So I created a table of songs - each entry of a song is a page with its lyrics. These are then tagged with the status of the lyrics (i.e. completed, in progress) and the status of the music itself (i.e. melody only, instrumental, mixing, mastering, revised). Eventually, I'll include demos in the database by embedding audio files in the document.

I have a separate section for inspiration and ideas, which is a kind of brain dump, e.g. words I think would make a good song, a certain theme for a song, a melody that's been stuck in my head, a vibe I'd like to try out, etc.

I've also been watching a lot of tutorials for music production and there's a section where I write my notes for that.

Eintsein

The last section of my Notion app is for this blog. Which has pages for

New posts. These are ideas for future posts, asks that I think would need longer answers, as well as posts that are currently in the draft stage (like this one was before I posted it)

Design assets. This is where I put all the visual branding material for Eintsein.com to be used in posts and any visual material on the blog.

FAQ. Having an FAQ document just makes it so much easier to make changes to your existing FAQ. Plus, if you ever change your FAQ theme, you just have to copy and paste what you already have.

Post directory. I keep track of all my previous masterposts, infographics, and generally longer and more comprehensive posts. It's the exact same as what you see on my Navigation page. And yes, the document contains direct links to the post.

New theme. A project I've been working on the past couple days is trying to create my own theme for my blog. This is where I put all my outlines, brainstorming notes, design inspiration, code snippets, etc.There are some pretty awesome features I’ve made use of in this page:

As you can probably tell, I'm absolutely obsessed with Notion since it has such awesome features and endless possibilities for customization. So far I've been using Notion for personal projects, which, since they are quite big in scale and have no set deadline, are important to organize well. My summer courses were only 6 weeks and weren't difficult to organize.

The formats above are just how I personally use notion. You could make some of your own, or if you don't think you want to build your pages from scratch, there are tons of templates to choose from. Here are some I think I'll be using in the near future and may be helpful for others as well, especially students like myself:

One drawback, however, is that Notion has a rather steep learning curve, but there are tons of tutorials online (especially YouTube) and I guarantee you it's all worth it.

Notion is not just a productivity app. It's a way to concretize your entire life.

Notion is free to use, but there are higher tiers that allow for more blocks, greater file size, etc. I use a personal account, which is $4 per month with unlimited block storage and no file upload limit (although I got it for $33/year). Personally I think the free plan would suit most people's needs, especially if you're not uploading large files.

[genesis-project-news]

TGP FAQ - Act 1: Security Edition

Hey everyone, my name is cozy and I'm a developer for The Genesis Project. Since we've been receiving a lot of questions asking about why the game disappears after running, doesn't run at all or has some issues connecting to other players, I thought that the best way of explaining what's going on would be like this.

We're gonna be looking at a few frequently asked questions regarding the security and stability of The Genesis Project and why the problems appear to be simpler than they are.

But first, a word from our sponsor: RAID: Shadow Legends! Oh wait, no, nevermind, we don't do that here…

Anyways, let's start with the first question:

Why am I receiving a message that the game could harm my computer? Are you making viruses?

While that sounds like a reasonable idea, it actually has something to do with how Windows determines secure programs and how we develop the game.

In software development, since there's a lot of software, both legitimate and illegitimate ones, it's hard for Microsoft to reliably tell, which ones are safe to run and which ones aren't. In order to make the choice easier, Windows checks programs, if they are signed with a so called "code signing certificate". This certificate is used to validate code and make sure it hasn't been tampered with. In order to get such a code signing certificate, you have to pay a yearly fee of around $80 to up to $700, as well as identifying yourself or your company, or you can generate one yourself. While the second option sounds easily exploitable, the way certificates work is that they have to be issued from a certificate authority, short CA, that's trusted by Microsoft. If you decide to generate your own certificate, you would need to create a CA certificate as well and have your users install that into their computers. And since this is a big hassle and would allow for even shadier business, the first option suddenly sounds much more reasonable.

But what does this have to do with TGP? Since we're a moderately small team and make the game for free in our spare time, we currently don't have the funds to pay for such a certificate, which means that our game will be flagged as insecure by Windows, since our game is not signed.

A way to get around this would be to use an external launcher like Steam, although Steam has different requirements, that we would need to fulfill in order for our game to be accepted into the store.

So for the time being, we are kind of stuck with telling people that the game is safe.

When I start my game, it immediately crashes and is deleted! / My antivirus says that the game is a virus!

Both of these issues actually come from the same root issue.

When we work on TGP, we work on our own computers, write code, design user interfaces, work on assets and more. Once we're done with what we wanted to do, we transfer the changes to a server, where they are stored and receive a version called commit.

Once we decide that we made enough changes that would warrant a new version of the game or we made changes that people need to test, we use something called "Continuous Integration", which is a fancy term for a build server. What the build server does is: it takes the code in the state we left it in, compiles it for Windows, Mac and Linux and uploads them to various locations. During compilation, some information from the build server is embedded into the game, which some antiviruses interpret as a red flag.

That interpretation is something called "heuristic analysis", which is the process of checking programs, if they behave similarly to viruses. In our case, the type that TGP is mostly assigned to is called "IDP.Generic", which is short for "Identity Protection - Generic pattern". While this sounds dangerous, in the case of TGP, it isn't. Some antivirus software assume that our game is a virus that tries to hide as a legitimate program, triggering the "Identity Protection" flag. In most cases, programs flagged as IDP.Generic are false positives, meaning that they are harmless, although this doesn't mean that you should ignore every IDP.Generic warning.

For TGP, all of this means additional trouble for you as players, because you will need to add the game or the game directory to the exceptions list in your antivirus. Although you only need to add it if you get the behavior that's asked in the question. If you don't have to do these things, you're good to go.

Why is it so difficult to play together with other people? What is the deal with Hamachi?

Short answer: Your firewall is too strong for us.

Long answer: It depends. TGP is using UDP for transmitting packets between the host and the players. It does that by using a port (usually 1025), which it tries to open itself. If the port is already open, everything is fine and dandy. If it isn't, it tries to open the port using a process called hole-punching, which involves contacting a specific type of server, which tries several ways of connecting to the game. If this succeeds, the game can go on, if it doesn't, things get messy. If the game can't open the port, it displays the error message, that you all love.

Generally, there's a difference between the reasons why that process failed, most of which are simply caused by your firewall or router. Some firewalls and routers are configured to not open any ports unless you configure them otherwise. How that works is different for every router, although some internet service providers deny you from configuring your router in this way. In that case, you're out of luck and only a software like Hamachi can help, which builds a virtual network, which doesn't have said restrictions, unless your router or firewall specifically disabled UDP support.

Though the general process of opening a port is the same for every game:

Determine the port you need (for The Genesis Project, this is 1025, unless you changed this)

Open this port in your router

Open this port in your Windows Firewall (you can skip this step, if you disabled the Windows Firewall)

Allow UPnP port forwarding in your router

If all else fails, you'll have to find someone else that can host the game. We're currently debating, although not actively, to develop a dedicated server software, which you can install on a server of your choice in order to have a surefire way of playing with your friends.

Unfortunately, we will not be able to provide dedicated servers ourselves, as we don't have the means of sustaining these costs.

This is all we got time for today folks! I hope I was able to answer these questions to your liking.

[crippleprophet]

are nursing homes and assisted living the same thing? I know with nursing homes there's elder abuse n with the pandemic they're not safe. Legitimately asking cause my grandmother isn't safe to live alone and she refuses to have someone check in on her so we're looking at assisted living places but obvs no one wants to put her in a bad situation.

i’m gonna start this response with a big, big disclaimer that i am neither an expert on this topic nor a person in your position—i’m just a 21-year-old student planning to pursue a disability studies master’s degree after undergrad who has opinions on the internet, lol. (also, disclaimer that this response is going to be very US-centric in specifics, although the theory/philosophy aspects are generally widely applicable.)

that post (link) that i made was one of many frustrated posts about how (abled) leftists ignore disability justice as a movement and ableism within their own movements, and i totally recognize that there are a lot of good people in a lot of really difficult positions who are engaging with disability theory and disabled communities but unable to enact some of those ideas in their own lives, for one reason or another. ultimately, capitalism restricts all of our options, and i don’t believe it’s hypocritical to want and work for a better world while being constrained by the one you’re in.

that being said, the disability rights and disability justice movements reject the concept of nursing “homes” because they inherently deny people autonomy and access to the community. the goal of the independent living (IL) movement is to restore autonomy by giving disabled people a choice about where we live, what support services we receive, and who provides those services.

adapted from the wikipedia page on the IL movement (link): disabled people are the best experts on our own needs. IL ideology promotes de-professionalization, self-representation, de-medicalization of disability, de-institutionalization, and cross-disability solidarity. in IL philosophy, people with disabilities are primarily community members and only secondarily consumers of healthcare, rehabilitation, or social services—in contrast to a capitalist society that values our bodies based on how much money can be extracted from them for medical services.

so for the IL movement, the question isn’t “nursing ‘homes’ versus assisted living facilities,” it’s “being forced into an environment someone else decided was best for you versus making your own decisions about your life and the support services you receive.” to this end, centers for community living (CILs) exist across the US to connect disabled people with options for support providers to assist with activities of daily living and other resources relevant to our needs. this site (link) has more information on CILs and a directory, but if you google “center for independent living [your town or county]” you should also get results for the one near you.

here’s a post from a CIL summarizing independent living (link). i also recommend reading up on money follows the person (link 1) (link 2) and the proposed disability integration act (link 1; content warning for discussions of abuse, death, and COVID-19) (link 2) (link 3), and the Olmsted decision, in which the US supreme court affirmed disabled people’s right to live in the community rather than in an institution (link 1) (link 2) (link 3).

to actually answer your question, lol, the difference between nursing “homes” and assisted living facilities (ALF) is the level of medical services available; nursing “homes” offer more medical services, whereas ALF focus on services for activities of daily living but not medical services. unfortunately, elder abuse can happen with either, although i don’t know enough about those specifics to say whether there’s a difference in prevalence; some of the sources on this elder justice site might have more information (link).

it gets pretty complicated and nuanced at this point, so my perspective here is absolutely not that of all disabled people. as someone whose support from others consists of collective access from friends, partners, and/or roommates, i don’t yet have personal experience in paying for support services, although it’s definitely a possibility once i’ve graduated undergrad. that being said, in my perspective, it’s possible for an individual to be fulfilled in a nursing “home” or ALF, provided that they made the choice to be there.

that doesn’t erase the need to address elder abuse and the absence of choice and autonomy in that decision for many people, which ultimately leads to the need to dismantle the existing system—but like i said in the beginning, as we work towards that, people still have to live within the system we have now. maybe a CIL could provide your family with some more options if you haven’t already contacted one—they’re doing a lot of work for disabled people and elders adapting to COVID-19, so i’m sure y’all will be far from the first people to reach out from the same position—but if your grandmother isn’t safe in her current position and there aren’t other support services she’s willing to pursue, you’re in a tough spot, and as someone who is not and will never be in your position, i’m certainly not going to say that you (or all the other people in that situation) are a bad person or something if your grandmother only wants to be home 100% alone and the rest of your family decides that isn’t safe. my perspective of independent living and the advocacy i want to pursue in this area involves making sure the services exist for people to live in the community, not telling them when or how to use them.

the lie of nursing “homes” and ALF, which i saw about 20 times while finding sources for this response, is that there are people who can’t live independently. this comes down to a fundamental difference of perspective—the IL movement and disability justice argue that anyone can live in the community with appropriate support; independent living doesn’t mean doing everything on your own.

[bharatkprasai]

Azure Training In Noida-Ignited Wings

What is Azure Analysis Service?

Acts as a service (PAAS) platform providing the enterprise-grade data models in the cloud. Azure Analysis Service combines the data from various data sources with the help of advanced mashup & modeling features. It also defines metrics and secures the data in a single tabular semantic data model.  

It enterprises grade analytics engine as a service and is quite familiar with the tabular engine.

Azure Analysis service builds the rich semantic models that transform the complex data into semantic models which is a business user-friendly.

It obtains the insights instantly with an in-memory cache by using the preferred visualization tools.

Azure Analysis Service has a proven technology that is based on powerful and proven SQL. Server.

The service solution as the platform is easily managed, deployed and scaled in Azure Analysis Service.

It really allows a lot of organizations to focus on building quality business intelligence solutions rather than managing a bunch of servers & infrastructures.

What drew Expedia to Azure Analysis Service?

·         The service of PAAS has a fast setup.

·         Tabular is quick and easy.

·         Has brilliant integration with Power BI.

·         Good data consistency and has a corporate BI.

How can I create an azure analysis service?

Step 01

The first step is followed by entering the following and clicking the option ‘Create’ in the analysis services.

Step 02

After this, it will ask the server name and make sure that you’ll type a unique name.

Step 03

After filling up your detail you’ll get a subscription option, select the subscription according to your requirement.

Step 04

In the last step you’ll see an option of ‘Resource group’ select the option of create new and later type a name for your new resource group.

What authentications do Azure Analysis Services support?

1.       It supports back up of power BI, SQL Server Data Tools, and excel.

2.       It also supports the connection of SSMS V17.1 and use windows authentication, active directory password authentication and active directory universal authentication.

Azure Analysis Services is a great service of Azure and its demands have increased in the past because of its various advantages. The demand for Azure Analysis Services is growing at a very fast rate and demands training.

At Ignited Wings the Azure course is readily available. It is one of the finest IT institutes that offers the comprehensive Microsoft Azure training in Noida. The course consultants of Ignited Wings are highly qualified. Along with the in-depth training Ignited Wings also ensures placements to every single trainee from each batch and has constantly maintained the 100% record of placements from the past many years.

[optomstudies]

Hello! It’s #optomstudies here again with another Sunday Study Tip on university life! This will be a multi-part series that hopefully will give a unique insight, since I can go on and on about university, and I love giving advice and helping others :)

PART 0: CHOOSING A DEGREE

Here I’ve put together a list of 20 things that you might not be told outright when choosing your university degree. @exeron

General Starting Tips During High School

It doesn’t matter what subjects you do in senior year, so don’t worry about bonus points, as long as you get a high enough ATAR so that you can keep your options open. Play to your strengths.

But! On the other hand, don’t take history and visual arts for your HSC and expect to be at the same level as your peers when you take a B Science (Advanced Mathematics) degree. You need that calculus knowledge. (Most of the time this isn’t a problem, because most people will choose a degree that aligns with their interests in high school). Again, play to your strengths.

Keep on top of your extra-curricular activities in case you need to go for an interview like with medicine.

Some degrees like optometry, medicine, law, etc. require additional exams like UMAT, so find out early, pay for the tests and mark it down on your calendar so that you don’t forget.

Up to you whether you want to pay extra for coaching, but anecdotally, I didn’t do any coaching and did fine. I had many friends who did coaching and ended up doing poorly. 

Choose a good university. Promise it actually counts at the end of the day. There are cases of people getting employed with low credit averages at big companies because they go to a good university.

Decide What Kind of Career You Want

Most importantly, it’s best if you pick your degree based on the job you want upon graduation. What you study at uni is just a means to an end. It’s a business decision that you are making - trading a few years to get a better career and better income at the end of the day.

Consider practical aspects of the job you want. For example, some of the things that I like about optometry is the fact that you aren’t sitting down the whole day, it’s a job that’s great for locum-ing and part-time work if I have kids in the future, and it makes for a good conversation starter when people ask you about optometric myths (no, looking at green grass does not help your eyes, nor do eating carrots, and having a nightlight doesn’t make you more short-sighted). These are all things that aren’t written down on a piece of paper somewhere, but are things that you can figure out by thinking about the everyday facets of the job itself.

Figure out your career values. These are things that you don’t want to compromise on due to personal integrity, as opposed to areas of interest. Some examples are:

Autonomy and independence

Achievement and advancement prospects

Creativity

Security

Altruism

Prestige, status and respect

Risk-taking and excitement

Material benefits a.k.a. $$$

Power

Team membership

Variety

Learning

Structure and organisation

Problem Solving

Leadership

Work-Life Balance

Don’t “follow your passion”, just “get good”. A lot of people also tell you that you should “follow your passion”, but most of the time you have limited experience concerning the types of occupations in the world, and most of the time there isn’t anything that you’ve developed a strong passion for. You might have a bunch of interests like me; when I was in high school, I enjoyed every single subject, because I just enjoyed learning in general, so the only thing I could think of was literally to become a full time uni student. This video really sums everything up quite well, so I’ll quote from it.

When you work hard at something you become good at it. When you become good at something you enjoy doing it more.  When you enjoy doing something, there is a good chance you will become passionate about it.

Start By Choosing a Good University and Faculty

Choose a Commonwealth-supported university. Don’t saddle yourself with excess debt from a private university unless your grades were so bad that you needed to pay money for a university degree. If you have the choice, don’t opt for these.

Go to open days! I seriously think I wouldn’t have chosen optometry if I didn’t go to the UNSW Open Day. The guy was just really persuasive about the benefits of the career.

Ask graduates! If you’ve got a retail job and have the opportunity to chat with people about their jobs, see what they like about their job and how they got there.

Opt to specialise. For example, if you are aiming to be a financial data scientist, then go for a B Economics and major in econometrics. Sounds simple, but people always argue about choosing a general degree like Commerce so that you have a broader choice and keep your doors open. This is only good if you don’t have an end goal in sight. Specialising shows employers that you have direction and are driven.

However, if you have absolutely no idea what you want to study then at least choose a faculty that you find palatable, try and do your research, or take some core courses that allow you to discern your major. If all else fails, just get the UAC book of degrees and cross out what you don’t want to do LOL

After Starting the Degree

If you start a degree and you find the first semester or two isn’t what you were imagining, unfortunately that’s what happens to a lot of people. Uni isn’t a vocational school that jumps straight into the professional skills. So if you want to be a pediatrician who nurses cute children to health at the end of the day, sorry but you’ll have to start with basic sciences. I’ve seen a lot of people jump ship just cause they didn’t like the first few courses.

Go for Honours if your degree has the option. Just looks a lot better in the eyes of an employer that you’ve tried challenging yourself with a research honours project. A 1 year trade off in studying is worth it.

Don’t worry about the length of the degree. Three years will be over before you know it, trust me! And honestly, university is actually a really great time period. Many of my older cousins reflect on it and say that in a way, it was some of the best times of their lives, because you don’t have the responsibility of the household bills and full time work just yet.

Don’t be afraid to change your degree after the first year. Some microeconomics - it’s a sunk cost.

Don’t think: “Oh I’ve already spent this much time studying this degree, it will be a waste if I change degrees”. Think: “if I spend any more time in this degree that I don’t actually want to study, then I’ll be wasting my future”. 

You aren’t “wasting” your ATAR by choosing a degree that has a much lower cut-off point. For example, if you wanted to shape the future of children by becoming a teacher, you aren’t “wasting” your 98 ATAR by going into teaching, even if the cut-off is 81.

Don’t let other people influence your options. Look, if you’re going to change your uni choice just because someone you don’t like is going there… you’ll barely see anyone except for the people in the same degree as you after 1st year is over. Likewise, parents give advice, they don’tshouldn’t mandate life choices like what you study. 

Good luck with your university applications. Hope you all get into the degree that you’re hoping for! Hit me up if you have any questions :) 

MY STUDY TIPS

Please see my #optomstudies tag or my study tips directory (web only) for the full list of study tips + see my langblr posts + stationery + bujo spreads! ^_^

UNIVERSITY STUDY TIPS SERIES

Part 0 Choosing a Degree - what’s right for you? popular!!

> Things to Consider Before Switching Degrees!

> Changing Degrees

Part 1 Administration - choosing majors, available services, choosing class times etc.

Part 2 Getting to Class - pros and cons of attending class, when you should choose not to attend, advice about choosing a backpack and other essential equipment.

> Laptop Considerations and Recommendations

Part 3 Studying - differences between high school and uni, basic tips on how to keep on track, class types like lectures, tutorials, etc.

Part 4 Extra-Curriculars - what clubs to join, what to do outside class, and other great things to discover around campus.

Part 5 Exams - everything to know about examiners, how to prepare, what happens during the whole examination process.

Part 6 Social Life - differences between high school and university, some hard learnt lessons, etc.

Part 7 Part Time Work

Part 8 Four Secrets The Uni Tells You

Part 9 Best Study Spots On Campus

Part 10 Saving Money 1 - Food, Transport, Entertainment

Part 10 Saving Money 2 - Textbooks, Tax, Scholarships

Part 11 Adapting to Uni Study - 3 big differences from studying in high school popular!!

Part 12 How to Study From Textbooks in Uni

Part 13 Dealing with Lazy Group Members popular!!

Transitioning from High School to University popular!!

OTHER POPULAR POSTS

Weekly Planner Printable with Extra Space for Sat/Sun  popular!!

Overcoming the Planning Fallacy

Study Spaces Masterpost

Studying and your Visual System

Catching Up with Your Studies  popular!!

Sleeping and Waking Up Early  popular!!

My 2017 Planner and Bullet Journal  popular!!

[bleedingcoffee42]

Absent- Part 3

Part  1 and Part 2    

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Riza's first stop was the personnel department.   She went about her business with authority and nobody questioned her even though she could see them thinking about it.   She filled out the necessary forms for more forms which was in no way a security risk and would send the receptionist to the supply closet to fetch them.  It would allow the young woman to avoid asking the scary Lieutenant by who's authority she was asking for information, which was surely a relief for them both.   However while she waited she had every intention to slip behind the desk, check the directory to see who was working in East HQ and also check the file cabinet for a file on herself which would list her clearances.  That would tell her if she worked here at all.   Then it was on to the library to see what she could learn in a few hours.  

Unfortunately, great plans rarely saw execution on the field of battle.  No sooner did the receptionist disappear than the door opened and Rebecca Catalina entered with a stack of folders under her arm and looked right past her to see if the office was staffed or not.   For Roy to not recognize her was one thing, for her best friend who she shared the rest of her private thoughts was another.   For Rebecca to not even acknowledge her confirmed her fears:  she simply did not exist in their lives.   Rebecca would have at least recognized her from the academy, she never forgot a face, which meant that she never went to the academy.

Rebecca slapped the folders on the counter and looked to the supply closet door and raised her voice to be heard.   “Marcy, can you take these so I can get to the range while Grumman is in a meeting?”

So her grandfather was still in command here.   Rebecca worked for him.   Roy was here with the Elrics but wasn't the flame alchemist he was....something else.   She was not in any of their lives.   The information she was searching for was acquired and she no longer needed to sneak around to find it.   “I need to be getting back to work as well.  Can I come pick up those forms later?”

Marcy came out of the supply closet relived.  “That would be great Lieutenant.”

Riza turned to leave and Rebecca gave her a smile of gratitude, but without anything else behind it.  Just a simple smile thanking a stranger for making her workday a little easier.   As she moved Hayate moved with her and Rebecca couldn't help but notice.

“Bring your dog to work day?”

“He's in training to be a service dog.”  Riza explained.   With that she left the office and decided to leave HQ and head to the library.   She felt around in her pocket for change as she was going to have to make a call on the way.   The fact that she wasn't in Roy's life made sense when he apprenticed with Van Hohenheim.   Not knowing Rebecca meant she was not in her class at the academy.     She needed to call her home town and see if she still lived there, the postmaster would know if there was still someone at the old Hawkeye place or where he forwarded mail to.   She'd get answers as to her own moves from the paper trail at the post office, however she already knew one thing and that was she didn't join the military.

It made sense.  Roy had been her main reason for going to the academy, he had inspired her to take that direction.   Roy with his noble intentions and selfless proclamations had made her see a purpose in life that would make use of her skills and teach her a profession.   She saw him as someone worth protecting and the life she lived worth forgetting.   She could start over and never look back.   However without Roy to show her that, without him planting that seed in her mind she wouldn't have considered herself army material.    She would have only had her father's opinion on the military and that was overwhelmingly negative.  

The other prevailing fact was that if Roy wasn't in her life than there was nobody to trust with what she had tattooed on her back unless her father found another apprentice.   Even then he had denied so many and she saw so few alchemists with Roy's integrity and intelligence, she doubted that was the case.  You simply did not find alchemists of Roy, Ed and Al's caliber often.... if at all.    So the tattoo...was still hidden.  She knew the weight of this burden, how she has to always think about hiding that tattoo, and if there was nobody she felt safe giving it to than she was probably still hiding from the world at home.   Without a motivation to leave, without someone to share this secret with she was still Berthold Hawkeye's daughter and not the Riza Hawkeye she allowed herself to become.  

All this time she faulted herself for what she had done to Roy with this secret and never considered what he had done for her along the way.   Equivalent exchange.   Friendship.  Loyalty.  Trust.  Encouragement. Purpose.  Love.   All came with a price, but what of value was gained without losing something?   They lost their innocence and naivety in the war, they gained a better view on the truth and a drive to change the wrongs of this country.   Without that pain, without that horror....they would have never embarked on this road.

She left the building and caught sight of Roy getting in his car with Ed and Al teasing and laughing beside him.   He was a different man, not burdened by the past that tarnished his belief in alchemy, not the weapon of destruction that made him question himself so much.  He was lighter, more like the boy she knew back in their youth, able to enjoy the day and actually interact with the boys instead of push them away.    As he got in the car and drove off, she was assured it was still Roy Mustang because he made a U-turn in the middle of the road and ran over a trash can on the sidewalk before squealing tires and taking off.

She wondered if he ever saw war.   If his alchemy was, by his admittance, barely enough to stay certified than he would not have been sent to the front.   He was still brilliant and observant and friends with Maes, that could have lead him to question a lot.   She had to remember it wasn't just the war or Ed's findings that lead them down this path, there were many signs that things were not as they seemed.  Towns they visited that resented the military for good reason.  Places, like Liore, where the only way you could not see the problems was to not look at it.   He could have been suspicious of her just because she walked into his office and he never saw her before in his life!   There was more to it though, more to just politics and ordinary military back-stabbing.  She saw that in his eyes and she knew when he was trying to read a person.  

Riza and Hayate made their way down the street and found a telephone booth they could use to call the town she grew up in.  Hayate came in the booth before she closed the door and started sniffing the ground and checking out the smells.   She couldn't help but wonder what happened to him in this alternative reality.   Did he find a home?   Roy wouldn't have taken him, he was more than aware of his lack of time no matter what his rank, and nobody in the office wanted him.   She was honestly just happy she had him with her and wasn't alone.   She picked up the phone and called the operator.

“Operator! How can I help you today?”

“I would like to make a call to the post office in Frenau,  East City Region.”  Riza replied and took the coins out of her pocket.  The coin on top was the odd one from the warehouse yard, the one that started this mess. Or so she hoped.

“Please hold.”  

Now that she had time to look at it she wondered what kind of metal it was made of.   It looked like it had a reddish tint, maybe copper or a red brass. The edges were weathered and worn.  Ed and Roy had reacted first to the writing which meant that it was the most bizarre detail of the coin and not the circle.   She wanted to blame this coin but the fact of the matter was that she was not an alchemist and could not activate it, so how could it possibly be at fault for this alteration in her reality?

“That will be 100 Cenz, ma'am. Please deposit the money and I will connect your call.”

Riza put the coin away to make sure it stayed safe and then put her change in the phone to pay for her call.  

“Thank you, please hold.”

She hoped that she would find out that this version of her had struck out on her own and made a life for herself, however she knew all too well how oppressing it was to live in that house with her father.   She was independent and far from helpless, but she was also happy alone and was never far from accepting the recluse life that her father resigned himself to. She really had no reason to want more or have a reason to trust anyone.

“Frenau Post Office, how can I help you?”

“Hello, I cam calling from Eastern HQ and I am trying to track down an alchemist named Berthold Hawkeye?   Can you tell me if he is a resident of your town before I make the trip out to see him?”  Riza asked.  She knew her father had to be dead by now, but sometimes indirect questioning provided the best results.   People felt obligated to give you something after delivering bad news but were somewhat suspicious when asked directly for what you wanted.

“Oh I'm sorry ma'am, Mr. Hawkeye died a few years ago.”

She stayed silent and made sure to make a loud, audible sigh.

“However his daughter did remain in his house until it burnt down a few years later.  She's living in the old barn now, fixed it up and comes into town for supplies if you want me to pass on a message to have her call you?   She does mail a lot of books.  I think she's selling off the old man's collection through the mail through a used book seller in East City.   Smart girl that Miss Hawkeye, I'm sure if there is something alchemy related she could answer it for you.”

Riza had to admit it made sense.   Stay home, sell off his precious collection that he valued more than her or basic human needs and then move into the loft of the barn where she felt the safest and the most at home.   She could remain detached by using a book store as a middle man, keeping alchemists from coming to look for the flame alchemist's research while also giving her the needed income to invest in the farm and provide for herself.   However there was the implication of more. “Is she an alchemist?”

“Yes, actually.”  The postmaster said proudly.  “Helps a lot of people around here, barters since money is tight for everyone.  What we all hoped her father would be when he moved here and we're glad Riza turned out to be that kind of alchemist.  For the people, you know?   In a town like ours, it really helps a lot.”

“Thank you sir, you have been a great help.”  She hung up before he could ask if she wanted to leave a message.  She was reeling from the information.  She wasn't expecting that.   An alchemist?  Her?   Sure she had wanted to try but she never had time to spare for studies and she could never wanted to attract her father's attention.  To ask him to teach her alchemy would have been more traumatizing than allowing him to brand her with his secrets.   She fear him, and knowing how critical and difficult he was when Roy was studying under him made her wonder how she ever survived being his student.   She never had the inclination to study because inviting her father's disapproval would have made her life more miserable.   Studying on her own...was not a viable option.  She had too much work to do.

So how did the absence of Roy in her life at all send her down this path?  

This was her life and she couldn't comprehend the turn it had taken.  She couldn't understand how this version of her could succeed in the situation she was placed in.  Roy coming into her life had given her a connection to another human being that she lost when her mother died and her father was incapable of.   Roy encouraged her to stop hiding herself from everyone, he made her smile and realize there was a world for her out there when she could finally leave her father's house.  He pushed her father's paranoia back into the shadows and assured her there were good people in this world.   Roy leaving after his apprenticeship had been the catalyst for so much.   She wasn't afraid of being herself anymore, she didn't feel like she wasn't wanted or appreciated, she was actually looking forward to what life might hold.  It wasn't all about worrying about the bills or the harvest, she made time for herself and it made her feel worth something.  However...Roy had been hope for both of the Hawkeyes and if there had been no Roy than her father was without a promising alchemist to pass his legacy on to.

And it suddenly made sense.  She hadn't chosen to be an alchemist, she was not given a choice.   Without a youthful and mold-able talent at his doorstep, her father had turned to his only other option: his daughter.   Just like he did before, but instead of using her as a notebook he used her as the student that he couldn't find.

Riza was suddenly overwhelmed with the thought of that, how terrified she must have been of the prospect of having to learn alchemy under those conditions.  With her father failure was not an option, nor was approval and encouragement.   After years of ignoring her he suddenly would have found a reason to take pride in her and that would only mean holding her to a higher standard than anyone else because she was his child.   A standard that was already impossibly high.  

The only good thing would be that maybe she avoided being scarred by this tattoo, although in true sense of equivalent exchange, would have still been scarred by the process of learning her father's alchemy.   She tried to help the people of her town, but remained far from human contact on the property where she spent her life.   That told her everything because she understood the rationale better than anyone.  Alone by choice, alone because her father would have drummed into her how dangerous his alchemy was and how she was entirely responsible for how she used it.  

She went from trusting Roy to trusting no one.   She doubted very much that the house burning down was accidental, because destroying it was no different than destroying the tattoo with the flames that were born of it.   The fear of discovery was a burden that weighed too much and she would be rid of it no matter how much pain it caused.  

There still was a Flame Alchemist, it just wasn't Roy Mustang.