Amazon Halo accessory bands

Source: Amazon

This week's launch of the Amazon Halowearable represents a critical new entrant not only into the health-tech wearable industry, but also into the broader health care ecosystem.

Amazon's Halo will compete with Fitbit and Apple Watch, and start-ups like the Oura Ring. But the device not only allows customers to track things like exercise and sleep, which are common in fitness wearables, but can also track emotional changes by listening to the wearer's tone of voice and can present a 3D body image with a body fat percentage.

In aparallel announcement, one of the largest electronic medical record companies,Cerner Corporation, said that users of the Halo device will have the option to upload information collected by the device to their physicians' Cerner health record, beginning with the Sharp Health System in San Diego.

These developments potentially represent a step forward for physicians to make use of health data that patients generate on their own.

But the new functionality of Halo also raises new privacy implications, which I've spent my career focused on, both at private companies and at the federal government. A company that has changed our expectations around convenience and personalized recommendations will now be selling a device and membership to collect some of the most intimate health details of a person's life. And much of the conversation in the wake of Thursday's announcement has rightly centered on trust as Amazon makes a more direct entry into consumer health care.

So going forward, the company would be well-served to keep several key topics in mind:

In 2016, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) the federal government team responsible for health and informatics policy development delivered a report to Congresshighlighting basic legal gaps in consumer protection collected via fitness trackers, compared to devices and systems governed by the rules governing privacy known as HIPAA.

I was formerly the Chief Privacy Officer of ONC at the time, and worked on this report.

Currently, neither Amazon, nor Apple, nor any other retail fitness tracker is required by federal law to maintain any particular privacy standard. (California residents may benefit, though, from the California Consumer Privacy Act.) This is an important point.

Companies in traditional healthcare like Cerner or Sharp Health System mentioned earlier are bound by HIPAA, the nationwide privacy law that applies to health care providers and payers. But some consumer devices, like fitness trackers, may not be.

Halo has taken the step of putting control of the collected health data in the hands of the individual, not the company that manufactured the device. Halo even includes a one-way hash that prevents other Amazon business units from using Halo data for other business purposes. Both of these are important markers for Amazon to lay down as it launches this new business line.

But the privacy controls announced by Amazon for Halo are simply provisions in its Terms of Use. Companies like Amazon can change its terms prospectively at any time, so long as they do not mislead or treat consumers unfairly. That's something that people in the privacy world, like myself, will keep an eye on.

Halo is looking to do more than simply collect data so consumers themselves can review it via an app. Paired with the Cerner announcement, the goal is clearly to achieve interconnectivity or "interoperability," meaning the easy exchange of health information, with clinical technology systems already in use in traditional health care.

Apple's HealthKit has been a critical tool in enabling individuals to extract their own data from a doctor's office in a low-friction, mainly automated process, but only using an Apple iOS operating system.

Halo appears to be taking a similar approach, butwithoutrequiring any specific operating system. This makes it available to a larger potential market.

Having the same privacy practices across all operating systems is a step forward for consumers because it simplifies what they have to keep track of to manage their health information privacy outside their doctor's office.

Patient-generated health data, or PGHD as it's referred to in the industry, is defined as datainboundfrom a patient's life into the health care system. How to manage it has been a topic of intense debate among health policy wonks for the last several years.

There have been multiple analyses, and calls for more systematic, standards-based, and interoperable ways for consumers to ensure their health care providers have access to important information about patients' lives outside the doctor's office. The potential for this data to deliver context and ultimately better care is immense. Whether it's social determinants of health, health environmental factors, or simply "what's going on in my life," your physician or care team may be able to use this information to deliver better care for you, and better outcomes across the system. Even during the current pandemic, some physicians and nurses have commented that they've learned a great deal about their patients' lives simply by using telehealthvideo chats to see into their kitchens.

Amazon's Halo, and the company's partnership with Cerner and Sharp, can accelerate these trends but only if consumers trust the company to be a good steward of their most intimate details. Amazon's early statements on these fronts are encouraging. But regulators, and the company itself, will need to work collaboratively to make sure that foundation is stable enough on which to build a completely new relationship.

Amazon Halo makes great progress on helping consumers use digital tools to collaborate with their health care professionals. But to really fortify consumer trust in digital health, we need a nationwide privacy law that ensures the same protections outside of traditional healthcare as we have for HIPAA.

Lucia Savage is the Chief Privacy and Regulatory Officer for Omada Health, a digital health care company. She was formerly the Chief Privacy Officer at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

More here:

Op-ed: Privacy considerations to keep in mind with Amazon's Halo - CNBC

The best Instagram Stories hacks are usually top-secret, but were here to reveal them all!

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From new and useful features to editing tools and techniques, were unearthing some of our favorite Instagram Stories hacks that are sure to make your stories stand out.

Keep reading to learn how you can make engaging, artistic, and effective stories with these 18 Instagram Stories hacks!

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Instagram Stories are getting a lot more creative and interactive from AR filters and animations, to templates and Instagram Stories stickers, there are a lot of new features to experiment with.

While new updates and features are always exciting, they can be a bit intimidating when starting out which is why why were dishing out our best-kept secrets.

With our design hacks and in-app tricks, you can use Instagram Stories to widen your reach, drive more traffic, and gain more followers in no time.

Ready to get started? Were sharing all our best Instagram Stories tips and tricks you (probably) dont know yet. Watch the video or continue reading this blog post.

Have you ever wanted to add in extra images or have multiple photos in a single Instagram story? Or add a specific GIF you cant find in Instagrams GIF Library?

Were going to show you two ways to do it:

This is a super simple and quick way to get an extra photo or GIF onto your Instagram story post. All you have to do is copy a photo from your camera roll and then paste it onto your story using the text tool!

Start by opening a photo and tapping the export button.

Now tap Copy and head back to your Instagram story.

Double-tap the screen to pull up the Paste option.

And thats it! The photo you copied earlier should now appear on your story.

The second option is to download Googles Gboard app and paste photos directly from your keyboard.

To do this, simply open a story, and tap the screen to pull up the Gboard.

Now tap the G Google logo and type a query into the search bar.

You can sort your search to include images and GIFs.

Once you find what youre looking for, simply tap the image or GIF to copy it, and then tap the screen once to paste it!

Just remember to check the usage rights or credit the image where needed.

Whats great about this Instagram Stories hack is that there are so many use cases. For example, if youre re-sharing an Instagram post to your stories, you can paste a rectangle onto the story and then place it behind the post to create a framing effect.

Or if youre trying to add your brand colors to a story, you can paste an element that contains the colors onto your story (like a graphic or logo), and then use the color dropper tool to pick up the exact color from that element.

Did you know that you can turn your live photos into Boomerangs in Instagram Stories?

As far as Instagram Stories hacks go, this ones definitely on the lesser-known side. The reason is that in order for it to work, the live photo needs to be taken within the last 24 hours!Heres how to do it:

Simply open Instagram Stories, swipe up, and pick a live photo from your camera roll.

Once selected, press firmly on the screen for a few seconds until you see the word Boomerang appear briefly.

And thats it! Youve now turned your shot into a Boomerang!

Instagram Stories offers a bunch of great fonts, but nothing beats having your own brand font! If youre looking to add a little more brand to your stories, writing in your brand font is a great option. And luckily, theres a way to do it.

Start by downloading the Over mobile app. Once downloaded, AirDrop your fonts .OFT file to your mobile device.

Select Over from the menu that pops up.

And thats all. Now when you design a story in Over, youll be able to incorporate your brand fonts!

Looking for more ways to create Instagram Stories that match your branding? Check out our free video workshop on how design captivating Instagram Stories using the popular design app Over!

Instagram collects a ton of great data around your Instagram posts performance, like the number of impressions, saves, follows, and more. But theres one piece of data you might be missing out on: story reshares.

You wont find this in your Instagram Insights. Instead, youll need to tap the ellipsis in the top right corner of a post to pull up a menu with the option to View Story Reshares.

This will take you to a screen with a list of your current public reshares.

You can even tap one of the reshares to see it live on the users account.

If you dont see the option to see reshares, this means that your post isnt currently being shared in anyones stories!

This can be particularly useful if youre looking to share user-generated content on your Instagram Stories! For example, if youve just launched a new product, you might want to reshare how your followers are reacting to your big announcement!

A few of the font styles in Instagram Stories lack the option to be left- or right-aligned, which can be a bit of a nuisance.

Usually, you can just tap the alignment button in the top left corner of the screen to change your texts alignment. But if the button is missing (which is the case for the Modern, Neon, and Strong fonts), your text will automatically appear centered.

Luckily, theres an easy solution! Simply type a message in Instagram Stories with a font that doesnt have the alignment button.

Now swipe a finger left or right on your text. This should change the texts alignment.

Instagram Stories is a great place to show off your brands personality, but its also really important to reflect your brands style, tone and aesthetic. And one of the easiest ways to do this is to integrate your brands color palette.

But what if Instagram doesnt offer your brand colors in its default color options?

Lucky for you, theres a hidden Instagram Stories hack that lets you access every color you could need for your text!

All you have to do is open your Instagram Stories and select the brush tool. Now tap and long-hold any of the default color options at the bottom of the screen to open the color slider.

Now just swipe across the slider to pick a custom color for your story.

Similarly, if youre using an Instagram Stories template that youve designed with your brand colors, you can use the color picker tool to pinpoint the exact brand color from your template!

Looking to get started with using Instagram Stories for your business? Check out our free 45-minute video course on how to design beautiful Instagram Stories that will help you get more followers, traffic, and sales!

If you really want to make your text design even more impressive, you can use the color picker tool to create a color gradient (or rainbow) effect with your text!

To do this, open Instagram Stories and type out a message. Then tap on your text and tap Select All to highlight it.

While your text is highlighted, press and hold one finger down on the color palette tool at the bottom of your screen (like you did before) to open the entire color spectrum.

With one finger held down on the color slider, and one on your highlighted text, begin to drag both fingers toward the left side of your screen at the same time.

Youll see your text begin to change color, letter by letter, as you drag your finger across the color spectrum! You can move your finger faster or slower for additional color variations, or alternate the direction that you drag your fingers across the screen to achieve an entirely different result.

Sometimes the simplest Instagram Stories hacks are the most fun!

If youve ever wanted to make your emojis really stand out on Instagram Stories, theres a hidden trick to give them a glow effect.

To do this, simply open your stories, tap the screen to open the text tool, and select the Neon font.

Now when you add an emoji, it should have a slight glow behind it!

This color-fill trick is pretty useful when you want to share a canvas with drawings and text rather than a photo or video!

Tap the pen icon in the upper right-hand corner of the screen and select a color.

Next, tap and hold on the screen for 1-3 seconds until the screen is filled with a solid color.

Note: The screen will have a solid color fill if you use the marker or neon brush, or a translucent color fill if you use the chisel-tip brush.

If you want to take this Instagram Stories hack a step further, you can use the eraser tool to create a sort of scratch card effect thats perfect for reveals!

For example, if youre teasing an upcoming campaign or even a new blog post, you can paint your screen with the brush tool and then use the eraser to share a few details about whats to come.

Heres how to do it:

Open Instagram Stories and take a photo or upload one from your camera roll. Once your photo is in, tap the pen icon in the upper right-hand corner of the screen and select a color.

View post:

18 Instagram Stories Hacks That Will Blow Your Mind - Digital Market News

8/1/2020: Maryland Court of Appeals on Social Media AuthenticationIn Griffin v. State, 419 Md. 343 (2011), the Maryland Court of Appeals found social media evidence must be shown to have not been subject to hacking or other manipulation.

8/2/2020: Relativity Integration PointsRelativity Integration Points (RIPs) assist with the import of data from third party systems into Relativity workspaces.

8/3/2020: Automapping with Relativity Integration PointsIntegration points will perform automatic field mapping between a workspace and the load file.

8/4/2020: excel macro to hide multiple ranges of rowsIt successfully hid more than 70 ranges in a few seconds.

8/5/2020: NIST Study on Facial Recognition Too Many False PositivesFalse positive results were returned far more often than false negatives, and the software exhibited different biases.

8/6/2020: Circuit Court Ruling on PACER FeesThe cost of digital audio equipment used for recordings of trials and other proceedings can be taken into account for PACER fees.

8/7/2020: Emojis and the LawThe Android Grimacing Face emoji got the reactions shown in orange on the below chart, but the Apple version of the Grimacing Face face emoji got the reactions shown in blue.

8/8/2020: Judges Agree: Limit the Number of Pages in Your BriefLet me add an incentive to the production of short and pertinent briefs. The longer you make your brief, the more likely that most of the pre-argument analysis of your case will be turned over to a law clerk who just finished the bar exam. Hon. Arthur L. Alarcon

8/9/2020: D.D.C. Ruling on Adequacy of Search by Navy[T]he reasonableness of the Navys search is buttressed by the fact that Carlborg has offered no suggestion as to where else the Navy might have looked for his records or what other search criteria should have been used. Carlborg v. Dept of the Navy, No. 18-cv-1881 (DLF), 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 142543, at *13 (D.D.C. Aug. 10, 2020) (quoting Peavey v. Holder, 657 F. Supp. 2d 180, 190 (D.D.C. 2009)).

8/10/2020: NIST Guide to Media SanitizationThere are three methods of media sanitization: clear, purge, or destroy.

8/11/2020: Excel OLE action error explainedAn OLE action error message may be prompted if you click on a link to a PDF on a worksheet, and then try to OCR it.

8/12/2020: Enforce HTTPSAn admin can force visitors to a Relativity workspace to view it over HTTPS so that requests and responses are encrypted.

8/13/2020: Excels TEXT FormulaThe formula can easily convert a column of numbers of varying lengths into a standard format with a consistent number of digits.

8/14/2020: Getting a count of volume shadow copiesVSCMount is a tool that helps you check to see if volume shadow copies are available.

8/15/2020: Never Use However at the Beginning of a SentenceGarner instructs brief writers to never use however at the beginning of a sentence in order to indicate a contrast, and recommends using but instead.

8/16/2020: Mississippi Court of Appeals: Jury Must See Evidence Where Spoliation Unclear[T]he explanation for the original records absence may be fully satisfying either that it was lost through no fault of the [party], that the [party] deliberately destroyed it, or as in most cases, somewhere in between, thereby making it a jury issue. Murphy v. William Carey Univ., No 2018-CA-00910-COA, 2020 Miss. App. LEXIS 462, at *28-29 (Miss. Ct. App. Aug. 11, 2020) (quoting DeLaughter v. Lawrence Cty. Hosp., 601 So.2d 818, 824 (Miss. 1992)).

8/17/2020: 2 GB Text per DocumentRelativity will not process more than 2 GB of text for any single document. Such a document will generate an error that will cause processing to halt.

8/18/2020: Create htm file with linksUse this format:

8/19/2020: Simple File UploadRelativitys Simple File Upload tools allows users to load documents into a workspace without using the Relativity Desktop Client. No more than 100 documents can be loaded at a time.

8/20/2020: Making Relativity Desktop Client Work For YouDont miss that you can simultaneously import data into a single workspace using different instances of the Relativity Desktop Client on up to four different computers.

8/21/2020: Common email threading problemsAn embedded email link or attachment can cause email threading to be over inclusive.

8/22/2020: Separate email addresses with ; NOT ,Email addresses in the recipient and cc fields should be separated by semi-colons. If they are separated with commas, Relativity will read adjacent email addresses as a single address.

8/23/2020: regex from head on and from behindIf you want a regex search to find results from the beginning or end of every line start with (?m)

8/24/2020: District of Maryland Case with a Defendant Known Only By An IP AddressThe Court ordered the issuance of a subpoena to produce documents identifying the Doe subscriber.

8/25/2020: ALSPsThe past few years have seen a rise in the number of companies and law firms using ALSPs Alternative Legal Service Providers -which perform legal research; electronic discovery; and regulatory compliance.

8/26/2020: Excel worksheets that hide themselvesBeware of vba code that automatically re-hides Excel worksheets. Spreadsheets can be set to make a worksheet you unhid disappear again.

8/27/2020: Regex multiline wildcardUsing (?s) at the beginning of a regex search will let you search from in front and behind while also using a wildcard.

8/28/2020: DiffcheckerDiffchecker, is a free online tool that does a fine job of comparing differences between two text or PDF files. Diffchecker can also help you compare multiple versions of an image, allowing you slide back and forth between two versions.

8/29/2020: Florida Court of Appeal rules passcode protected by Fifth AmendmentThe Florida Fifth District Court of Appeal agreed with the Petitioner that producing the passcode would require him to disclose the contents of his mind and provide the State with incriminating information that would be used against him. Distilled to its essence, the revealing of the passcode is a verbal communication of the contents of ones mind.. Garcia v. State, No. 5D19-590, 2020 Fla. App. LEXIS 12232, at *8 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. Aug. 28,2020)

8/30/2020: finding duplicates with pythonYou can use a python script to find where there are duplicates in a character set.

8/31/2020: use code to generate list of links on a web pageRight clicking Inspect and entering code on the console of the Chrome browser will create a list of all links on a web page.

Read more:

Sean OShea: Tips for Paralegals and Litigation Support Professionals August 2020 - JD Supra

Ask anyone on campus, in your family, or even look at the news- Tik Tok is everywhere.

The app is easily considered viral and commonly regarded as the trendiest social platform at the moment. I thought that it would be interesting to break down why I think Tik Tok and the recent quarantine paired so well together.

According to Wallaroo Media, as of August 2020, Tik Tok has over 1 billion users and is available across 150 countries. It has been downloaded, just in the United States, over 175 million times. If were looking from a global perspective, Tik Tok has been downloaded over 2 billion times.

Tik Tok is an app for short-form media, where you can upload 15-60 second long videos pertaining to absolutely anything as long as it doesnt violate Tik Toks guidelines. (Though there has been some controversy over certain users being granted flexibility when it comes to adhering to guidelines). There are fandoms of almost every show and movie to be found, there are fan pages of all of Hollywoods heartthrobs, as well as some of the most creative, controversial and complex comedy on the app.

So, why was it perfect for quarantine?

Tik Tok was made with an endlessly scroll interface, unlike other video-based apps like YouTube or Quibi, every type of content one sees on their For You Page (Tik Toks coveted homepage, formulated individually for every user, based on the content they like).

If you find the punchline in the current video is lacking, you can just scroll upwards to find something that could be completely different. The users FYP consists of what they like, so if you are into musical theatre, Criminal Minds, and learning about succulents your FYP would consist of countless videos concerning those and maybe some new content the Tik Tok algorithm thinks you may enjoy.

It is so easy to change your mind about the content you want to see, and just as easily see something completely new in a matter of seconds.

I think this trait was really attractive during quarantine and the summer, during a time where youre quick to finish watching all of your favorite shows on all of your favorite streaming services. Though Netflix definitely tried by releasing countless original content, its hard to keep audiences engaged when it comes to longer-form media like television shows and movies. Tik Tok allows users to completely forget and move onto another genre or sect of media quickly.

I also believe that the virality of Tik Tok, and how it so often showed up on other social media platforms convinced naysayers or those reluctant to download, to try the app out. It is not uncommon to see viral Tik Toks get re-posted to Twitter and then Instagram, therefore giving the platform and its creators an even greater platform.

Some may compare the time crunch that Tik Tok provides to the app Vine, and how both platforms forced creators to be more creative or thoughtful when it comes to videos. Influencers have such a short amount of time to garner likes and followers.

Tik Tok requires a very short attention span for its users, and they can easily find completely different content on the same platform in less than a second, so its not too hard to understand why it was perfect for those stuck in the house and bored with more traditional media.

Read the original:

Why and How Did Tik Tok Absolutely Take Over Quarantine? - The George-Anne

Secret Location revealed Blasters of the Universe: Infinity Forever today, a new free-roam location-based VR shooter for up to four players.

The original Blasters of the Universe was one of the first room-scale VR interpretations on the classic bullet hell wave shooter genre. Instead of controlling a spaceship, youd move your body to dodge bullets while returning fire in a neon-soaked retro-futuristic landscape. It was a blast (pardon the pun) and is highly regarded as one of the best early VR shooters with lots of replay value that eventually left early access after a couple of years.

Now, Secret Location (also developers of the excellent time-bending VR puzzle game, Transpose) is back with Blasters of the Universe: Infinity Forever, a free-roam location-based entertainment take on the franchise. Designed for up to four people, it follows a linear story structure as players make their way through a series of levels at actual physical VR arcade locations powered by SynthesisVR.

The choice to focus on LBE VR rather than at-home VR is an interesting one given the current state of the industry. Top-billed attractions like The Void are struggling to retain leases for their locations and arcades around the world, but most especially in the United States, continue to struggle.

We have remained optimistic about the state of our industry in the past months as we continued to make our games from home, said Michael Masukawa, Director of Strategy and Business Development at Secret Location, in a prepared statement. We know that now more than ever, families and friends are going to be craving meaningful shared experiences and so were happy to be able to offer them exactly what they need. As family entertainment centers start to reopen with safety in mind, we are thrilled to be partnering with Synthesis on the launch of our first location-based VR game.

What do you think of the move? Risky considering the state of affairs, or forward-looking as the world slowly tries to return to normal? Let us know what you think down in the comment below!

Here is the original post:

Blasters of the Universe: Infinity Forever Is A New Free-Roam VR Shooter - UploadVR

Jamia Millia Islamia recently announced that it might consider a merit-based system to conduct admissions this year and the news has left students furious and anxious. The students have been saying that they consider this move 'anti-student and anti-minority' but what has left some student groups even more angry is that they have allegedly been given the cold shoulder by the administration when they approached it to have a dialogue on the issue.

Jamia's unit of the All India Students Association and other organisations said that they tried to meet with the Vice Chancellor on August 27 but were stopped outside the office by the security guards. We were made to submit the memorandum in a makeshift box and we were not given an acknowledgement either. The officials just made hollow assurances. Later, we tried to meet the Jamia Teachers Association to raise concerns of students and submit the memorandum but we were denied entry by the guards and officials, the AISA statement said.

However, the media coordinator of the University said that no decision had been taken on the issue and it is yet to be discussed by the executive council, so there was no question of the students getting angry or issuing statements. "We extended the date for application and simpleasked students to upload their marksheets.We have no taken any decision yet, the executive council is yet to discuss. The health and the interest of the students will be kept in mind as far as possible when taking any decision. So we request the students to avoid any speculation," the media coordinator and PRO of the University said.

The University failed to have a dialogue with the students on the issue. The silence of key demands like clearing the uncertainty regarding merit-based admissions is taking a toll on students. The administration also failed to offer any satisfactory explanation as to why such an anti-student policy is being brought forth. This only makes us think that larger forces are at play, the AISA said.

In their memorandum, the AISA said, Merit-based admissions create a huge opportunity for back door entry which is an unfair disadvantage to deserving students. The financially sound, the upper caste, the residents of big cities and a status quoist procedure. Jamia is dominated with middle and low income students. They also pointed out in their letter that 76 percent of students of Jamia hail from Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir. Nearly half the students - 45.4 percent - belong to tier-3 cities, small towns and villages. Merit based admissions at Jamia would accommodate the rife social-educational-economic-cultural inequalities we have in our society. This would prove disastrous for aspirants from minority communities as Jamia Millia Islamia is a minority institution. Muslim women face multiple forms of social, educational and economic exclusion. Jamia's service as a space for them to realise their dreams and this merit based admissions would diminish the prospects of Muslim women, the Association explained in its memorandum to the VC.

The students pointed out that CBSE students score higher marks in the board exams in comparison to the state board and madrasa board students where the marking system is less generous. They also brought in the section of students that havedecided to drop a year due to the intense mental stress they are facingdue to the delay in the admission process. So a merit-based admission system, if adopted, could filter out many deserving candidates.

From our experience last year during the admission session, in which a lot of discrepancies were taking place including the Jamia administration not making the rank list public, we are sceptical that this kind of admission will make space for corruption. Any new experience in school admissions will leave students in the middle of nowhere, the students said in their plea.

The students are demanding that the administration doesn't base the admissions on meritand conduct the admissions based on the transparent mechanism of entrance tests and for it to be conducted after the pandemic is brought under control. They also demanded that the rank list of students who would appear for the entrances this year be displayed before the selection list is released.

See original here:

Jamia group accuses admin of not listening to queries over merit-based admissions, varsity says no decicion yet - EdexLive

On September 1, 2020, the Allahabad high court set aside as illegal the Uttar Pradesh governments order holding Dr Kafeel Khan in preventive detention under the National Security Act. The UP government had argued, in defending Dr Kafeels arrest under the NSA, that the speech he delivered in Aligarh Muslim University on December 12, 20019 against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act had led to violence in the city on December 13 and December 15.

The court noted that the state could provide not evidence to back up this claim and had made a selective reading of his speech. A complete reading of the speech prima facie does not disclose any effort to promote hatred or violence. It also no where threatens peace and tranquility of the city of Aligarh. The address gives a call for national integrity and unity among the citizens. The speech also deprecates any kind of violence. It appears that the District Magistrate had selective reading and selective mention for few phrases from the speech ignoring its true intent.

The high court judgment reproduced the English transcript of this speech, originally delivered in Urdu with a few English words, and The Wire is publishing this below so readers can judge for themselves.

Very good Evening.

Lets begin with famous piece of poetry by Allama Iqbal Sahab Kuch baat hai ki hasti mit-ti nahi humari sadiyon raha hai dushman daur-e-zamaa hamara (There must be something special that we still exist despite the whole world against us) (Students clapping)

Before even entering the gate, I received a call from the C.O. City and he said that dont go there or your will be put behind bars. (Shame -Shame-Shame by students)

I asked him if he received a call from Yogi Ji regarding my arrival. If you all sit down it will be convenient for everyone. (Students saying sit down everyone)

If you all sit down then we will be able to talk and understand what & NRC are?

How afraid we should be of it please sit (students sit down sit down)

Since our childhood we all are taught that we will neither become Hindus nor Muslims, but humans and our Mota Bhai teaches us that we will become Hindus, Muslims, but not humans.

Why because as they said (pointing at students) How will a murderer know, whose clothes are stained in blood, how will he hide those stains?

How would they know the meaning of Constitution, since the day RSS came into being in 1928, they dont believe in Indian Constitution. They dont believe in our Constitution. It is repeatedly said that the law brought in by Amit Shah Ji, our Home Minister, is unconstitutional and is not in consonance with Indias pluralism, communal harmony, humanity and equality.

We should understand whom are we talking to, We are talking to those who never believed Baba Sahebs Constitution and never ever read it. Since the time they came into existence nearly 90 years ago, their objective has been to divide this country.

Firstly, you all are very young and I believe you will have to lift the baton and will have to fight. (Students Inshallah (if God will).

Aligarh has always been dear to me and I think when I was in jail there was a huge protest march for me. After being released from jail, Ive been here for 2-3 times and though I wont be able to reciprocate the love Ive got from here, however when I got the call last night, I made up my mind that I would definitely come here, no matter how much Yogi Ji try (clapping)

Lets firstly talk about what CAB really is. How many people actually know the CAB is? Does everyone know? Why Citizenship Amendment Bill was introduced? There was an attempt in 2015 as well (2016 prompted by crowd). The reason to bring it at the moment is that the NRC implemented by them in Assam has resulted in 19 lakh people being left out. Out of them 90% were those people whom they wanted to be included in NRC. This backfired for them. Now they werent able to understand what they should do first, otherwise perhaps they would have been silent after the Kashmir issue for some days. Hence, they brought CAB. According to CAB, barring Muslims, even barring atheists and other groups including Rohingya and many others, whose name I can count, only for 5-6 religions, people were told that those who faced religious persecutions in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan will be provided citizenship. Muslims shall not be provided the same. We are not affected by it, its a good thing. Like Amit Shah ji said yesterday that it is about giving citizenship and not taking it from us Muslims, then why are you all protesting. Why are you protesting, you should not be concerned about it.

NRC plus CAB is the lethal term. And one thing is that, they have just build a small wall for now, and later they will build a full structure on it. It is the result of the hatred that they have spread amongst us for 90 years in minds of our youth on the basis of religion.

During the talks with Yogendra ji in car, he said that simply, constitution for us common village people is limited to the SHO. Whatever he says is the constitution for them. The SHO since 2014 knows how to treat them, they are second-class citizens and they should be constantly reminded that it is not their country. Whenever you go to them, they will show you their true nature. This is the reason why we have to protest and oppose. The same has been now approved by the so-called Honble House. When NRC will be introduced, that is the time when we will have problems. Now what is NRC? NRC was made for Assam, and for the same Indian Register was made which has now being amended and in 2019 the completed list is available on the website of the Home Ministry Affairs. The list is complete, all preparations are done. Also, let me tell you that Aadhar Card, Pan Card, Driving License wont be of any relevance. You would require a birth certificate. If you were born in India from 1950 to 1987 then you are a citizen, otherwise not. Next clause says that if any of your parents were born in the period 1987-2004, then you are a citizen. After 2004 till now, if both the parents are born in India, then only you are a citizen. It is nowhere written that if you are a Muslim you shall be removed. Then are we in trouble? Why are we protesting? Because we know what their intentions are. What do we know that people wearing white clothes, how dark they are. We know what their thinking is and what is there in their mind. Only hatred. They will intentionally make us run to get our certificates, our fathers certificates, our mothers certificates, our legal records. They will thus create problems for lakhs and crores of people.

But let me assure you all about one thing, that the rumour about sending everyone to detention centres is not possible. Understood? A budget of twenty three thousands crore will be required to send 6 lakh people of Assam to detention centres. 1500 crores were spent on NRC in Assam, say 1600 crores. For the entire India, about 30,000 crores would be required. When we ask for free education, they say that there is no money, increase the fees of JNU. The year in which 70 children died in BRD, 8 lakhs children died in India. I am running a Health for All Campaign, Im working on that and I have met 13 chief ministers. Even Ive met our Health Minister and given him my proposal. The data has been collected by us, a team of 25 non- political health activists, Supreme Court lawyers, CEOs, IITians and we have got the data from UN, UNICEF, World Bank and WHO. Those data were very tragic. 50% of our population are malnourished. India is the 3rd largest country of AIDS and HIV, 2nd largest of diabetes, 72% population is devoid of health facilities. If they get a heart attack, they will have to travel for 40 kilometres to get a doctor for themselves. As per the research, the ones who are called fake doctors, Bengali doctors are the ones who are actually working, otherwise there isnt anyone. The primary health centres which are the backbone of any health centres in the world is not there, it is shambles. So, we will not talk about that.

I am travelling across India and ask everybody, I repeat it again, they might be getting bored by my speech. But this is the truth. I ask people what do they want? People say that a respectful two-square meal per day, good medical facilities when our children are not well, good colleges and universities for their education for instance AMU, JNU, IIT, AIIMS, a good job after they attain their education. Thus, the only demand that we have for past 70 years is food, clothing, shelter, health, education and employment. And this demand is not just ours but of everyone, of all poor persons. But what they talk about is Shamshaan-Kabristan (Cremation ground-Graveyard), Ali- Bajrang Bali, your Kashmir, Ram Mandir, CAB, NRC. They dont talk about the promise that they made for 2 crores employment per year. They dont talk about giving 15 lakhs Rupees to us as earlier said by them. Economy is doomed, small businessman are ruined. If you go at the ground level, you are not the only one disturbed. By expressing their problems, they hid the problems of economy, employment, roads and housing. So that you dont even ask.

Why is mob lynching done? Mob-lynching is an organized crime. A trained mob comes who are well taught how to attack. Why would a murderer make a video himself? They themselves record the video, upload it on Facebook and inform their senior that the senior sitting in Delhi shall be happy and will save them. This is why mob-lynching is done, to create a fear-psychosis to one community and to create a pseudo- euphoria in other community. The talks about nationalism is actually pseudo-nationalism, on the basis of pseudo-Hinduism only. Our entire opposition gets hidden behind soft Hinduism. We only will have to speak and fight.

You must have heard that two months back I got a clean chit. Yogi Government constituted a committee in which it was alleged that Dr. Kafeel is a murderer, is involved in corruption, all children died because of him. The said committee held that Dr. Kafeel was the junior-most doctor and bought cylinders from his own pocket and saved lives of a number of children. Then Yogi ji thought now what can be done, how to trap him now. So, they again suspended me. Now they say that I speak against the government. So now I said is zulm ke daur me zubaan kholega kaun, agar hum bhi chup rahenge to bolega kaun (who will speak in this time of atrocities if not me). I would like to tell you that the ones sitting in power are merely faces, the ideology of RSS of spreading hatred has been existed for many years which is being spread in shakhas. We are the ones who are not able to understand this. We will have to understand and I will appeal all my brothers and sisters who believe in prosperous and united India that they should oppose this draconian law. Everybody should come up, not just us Muslims. Everyone should come as to how can citizenship be on the basis of religion. Where was this written in our Indian Constitution? We are the citizens of the world, these boundaries are created by the politicians for their sake only. You only have to fight.

Aligarh will have to become the leader, the way JNU comes up as the only leader in the entire India for issue of fees or for any issue, For many years I believed that Aligarh is sleeping, but now perhaps after seeking these young faces, I think now is the time to wake up and they have woken up. This is the fight for our identity. We will have to fight. And let me tell you that fight does not mean creating physical violence, we have to fight in a democratic way. We have to fight in their way only and have to tell people that the rumour about detention centers is false. Their thinking is restricted only to Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. You dont know how much is India being condemned all over this world for bringing this law.

You should think this way that the servant in your neighbours house has stolen something, he is mannerless, and if he comes to your house you will give him employment. How will your relations be then with your neighbour? How is justified to divide people in the name of religion? However, my brother is also here with me but he has probably gone somewhere right now. My brother was shot where Yogi Adityanath was himself present about 500 meters away. (Crowd- Shame, Shame) After this, when he was taken in the car for emergency surgery to take out the bullet, there was an unnecessary delay of 4 hours. We thought for once that why is God testing his patience. I went to save the children only. There was never a response to it. But I think there must be some will of God. He must be testing me. He must have had a plan and that is the reason I am here with you guys. (Students clapping)

Convey my message that please be united. Please all come together and not be bothered about these small things and quarrels. Do you know yesterday I heard in a debate, someone said that Pakistans Ahmadiya and Shias should have also been included so that the Muslims here would fight amongst themselves only. Everyone would have been associating them with Shias so that by this reason only they would be covered under CAB. Do you understand? This is how they want to divide. So, please be united and not just in the name of religion. We are humans first. Islam has taught us that our deeds should be right. Our intentions should be right. You choose the path and God will take you to the destination. Inshallah (if God wills).

So, I request you all that you try to reach to your non- Muslim friends, sit and talk to them and tell them we are not the ones who repair cycle-punctures, fridges, mobiles and who marry 4 times or Jihaadis, Pakistanis. We are also doctors, engineers. Come, sit and eat with us someday for the distances that are created. I would like to tell you that what RSS did was in the name of school, you must be knowing the name of school, I dont have to take its name, through the schools it stated teaching that these bearded people are very bad. It made 4-5 categories namely the ones who repair cycle-punctures, refrigerators, marries four times, lives untidily, support Pakistan, are terrorists. So, when they see that a doctor wearing a tie is saving the lives of children, they feel who is this animal. They dont know. How will you tell them? Get them together and make them understand that we are also humans and no one can be more religious than us. Only our religion teaches about humanity, only our religion teaches about pluralization.[Note: Dr Kafeel Khan says in Hindi: Humanity to hamare hi mazhab ne sikhai hai, civilisation to hamare hi religion ne sikhaya hai, which more accurately translates to It is our religion only that teaches us humanity, teaches us civilisation).

Thank you so much. There is a lot to talk about. I will just wrap up by saying three things.

First, that there is no need to be afraid of CAB. It has nothing to do with us. But yes, it is a pawn as it is being tried to show you that this country is not yours and you are merely tenants. This is a signal given, a very big signal and its ramification shall be extended to that SHO who is seen as our Constitution.

Secondly, yes, be prepared for NRC. Get your birth certificate made. Get your parents birth certificated made. And Im telling you that Aadhar Card, PAN Card, Driving License is not valid at all. What all documents would be required have not yet been informed by them. But 4 documents which are most important, including birth certificate, and ensure that you get your parents birth certificate made. Theirs would not be available, yours would be. Then, your land records, the ones received from Panchayats, your sabhaasat, voter ID cards. These 4 documents are very important. Keep them ready.

Thirdly and most importantly, this country is ours. This Hindustan is ours, not anyones property. As much as this land is yours, it is ours too. It is not in your capacity that you can take it away from us. It is not in your capacity that you can intimidate us. It is not in your capacity that you can remove us. We are 25 crores, you can neither scare us by mob-lynching, or by such trivial laws. We will be together, we will be together, we will be united. We will be together like a wall. This is our Hindustan and we will tell you how it will run.

Darna aata nahi hai hume, jitna bhi dara lo. Har baar ek nai taakat se uthege, chahe jitna bhi daba lo. (We wont be afraid no matter how much scare us. Every time we will rise, no matter how much you suppress us)

Allah Hafiz (May God be with you)

Excerpt from:

'As Kids We Were Taught to Become Humans, Amit Shah Wants Us to Become Hindus, Muslims' - The Wire

Rapid innovation and the digitalization of everything is increasing application complexity and the complexity of environments in which applications run. While theres an increasing emphasis on continuous testing as more DevOps teams embrace CI/CD, some organizations are still disproportionately focused on functional testing.

Just because it works doesnt mean its a good experience, said Thomas Murphy, senior director analyst at Gartner. If its my employee, sometimes I make them suffer but that means Im going to lose productivity and it may impact employee retention. If its my customers, I can lose retention because I did not meet the objectives in the first place.

Todays applications should help facilitate the organizations business goals while providing the kind of experience end users expect. To accomplish that, software teams must take a more holistic approach to testing than they have done traditionally, which involves more types of tests and more roles involved in testing.

The patterns of practice come from architecture and the whole idea of designing patterns, said Murphy. The best practices 10 years ago are not best practices today and the best practices three years ago are probably not the best practices today. The leading practices are the things Google, Facebook and Netflix were doing three to five years ago.

Chris Lewis, engineering director at technology consulting firm DMW Group, said his enterprise clients are seeing the positive impact a test-first mindset has had over the past couple of years.

The things Ive seen [are] particularly in the security and infrastructure world where historically testing hasnt been something thats been on the agenda. Those people tend to come from more traditional, typically full-stack software development backgrounds and theyre now wanting more control of the development processes end to end, said Lewis. They started to inject testing thinking across the life cycle.

Nancy Kastl, executive director of testing services at digital transformation agency SPR, said a philosophical evolution is occurring regarding what to test, when to test and who does the testing.

Regarding what to test, the movement continues away from both manual [and] automated UI testing methods and toward API and unit-level testing. This allows testing to be done sooner, more efficiently and fosters better test coverage, said Kastl.

When means testing earlier and throughout the SDLC.

Companies are continuing to adopt Agile or improve the way they are using Agile to achieve its benefits of continuous delivery, said Kastl. With the current movement to continuous integration and delivery, the shift-left philosophy is now embedded in continuous testing.

However, when everyones responsible for testing, arguably nobodys responsible, unless its clear how testing should be done by whom, when, and how. Testing can no longer be the sole domain of testers and QA engineers because finding and fixing bugs late in the SDLC is inadequate, unnecessarily costly and untenable as application teams continue to shrink their delivery cycles. As a result, testing must necessarily shift left to developers and right to production, involving more roles.

This continues to be a matter of debate. Is it the developers, testers, business analysts, product owners, business users, project managers [or] someone else? said Kastl. With an emphasis on test automation requiring coding skills, some argue for developers to do the testing beyond just unit tests.

Meanwhile, the scope of tests continues to expand beyond unit, integration, system and user acceptance testing (UAT) to include security, performance, UX, smoke, and regression testing. Feature flags, progressive software delivery, chaos engineering and test-driven development are also considered part of the testing mix today.

Security goes beyond penetration testingOrganizations irrespective of industry are prioritizing security testing to minimize vulnerabilities and manage threats more effectively.

Threat modeling would be a starting point. The other thing is that AI and machine learning are giving me more informed views of both code and code quality, said Gartners Murphy. There are so many different kinds of attacks that occur and sometimes we think weve taken these precautions but the problem is that while you were able to stop [an attack] one way, theyre going to find different ways to launch it, different ways its going to behave, different ways that it will be hidden so you dont detect it.

In addition to penetration testing, organizations may use a combination of tools and services that can vary based on the application. Some of the more common ones are static and dynamic application security testing, mobile application security testing, database security testing, software composition analysis and appsec testing as a service.

DMW Groups Lewis said his organization helps clients improve the way they define their compliance and security rules as code, typically working with people in conventional security architecture and compliance functions.

We get them to think about what the outcomes are that they really want to achieve and then provide them with expertise to actually turn those into code, said Lewis.

SPRs Kastl said continuous delivery requires continuous security verification to provide early insight into potential security vulnerabilities.

Security, like quality, is hard to build in at the end of a software project and should be prioritized through the project life cycle, said Kastl. The Application Security Verification Standard (ASVS) is a framework of security requirements and controls that define a secure application with developing and testing modern applications.

Kastl said that includes:

The OWASP Top 10 is a list of the most common security vulnerabilities, said Kastl. Its based on data gathered from hundreds of organizations and over 100,000 real world applications and APIs.

Performance testing beyond load testingLoad testing ensures that the application continues to operate as intended as the workload increases with emphasis on the upper limit. By comparison, scalability testing considers both minimum and maximum loads. In addition, its wise to test outside of normal workloads (stress testing), to see how the application performs when workloads suddenly spike (spike testing) and how well a normal workload endures over time (endurance testing).

Performance really impacts people from a usability perspective. It used to be if your page didnt load within this amount of time, theyd click away and then it wasnt just about the page, it was about the performance of specific elements that could be mapped to shopping cart behavior, said Gartners Murphy.

For example, GPS navigation and wearable technology company Garmin suffered a multi-day outage when it was hit by a ransomware attack in July 2020. Its devices were unable to upload activity to Stravas mobile app and website for runners and cyclists. The situation underscores the fact that cybersecurity breaches can have downstream effects.

I think Strava had a 40% drop in data uploads. Pretty soon, all this data in the last three or four days is going to start uploading to them so theyre going to get hit with a spike of data, so those types of things can happen, said Murphy.

To prepare for that sort of thing, one could run performance and stress tests on every build or use feature flags to compare performance with the prior build.

Instead of waiting for a load test at the end of a project to detect potential performance issues, performance tests can be used to baseline the performance of an application under development.

By measuring the response time for a single user performing specific functions, these metrics can be gathered and compared for each build of the application, said Kastl. This provides an early warning of potential performance issues. These baseline performance tests can be integrated with your CI/CD pipeline for continuous monitoring of the applications performance.

Mobile and IoT devices, such as wearables, have increased the need for more comprehensive performance testing and theres still a lot of room for improvement.

As the industry has moved more to cloud-based technology, performance testing has become more paramount, said Todd Lemmonds, QA architect at health benefits company Anthem, a Sauce Labs customer. One of my current initiatives is to integrate performance testing into the CI/CD pipeline. Its always done more toward UAT which, in my mind, is too late.

To affect that change, the developers need to think about performance and how the analytics need to be structured in a way that allows the business to make decisions. The artifacts can be used later during a full systems performance test.

Weve migrated three channels on to cloud, [but] weve never done a performance test of all three channels working at capacity, said Lemmonds. We need to think about that stuff and predict the growth pattern over the next five years. We need to make sure that not only can our cloud technologies handle that but what the full system performance is going to look like. Then, you run into issues like all of our subsystems are not able to handle the database connections so we have to come up with all kinds of ways to virtualize the services, which is nothing new to Google and Amazon, but [for] a company like Anthem, its very difficult.

DMW Groups Lewis said some of his clients have ignored performance testing in cloud environments since cloud environments are elastic.

We have to bring them back to reality and say, Look, there is an art form here that has significantly changed and you really need to start thinking about it in more detail, said Lewis.

UX testing beyond UI and UATWhile UI and UAT testing remain important, UI testing is only a subset of what needs to be done for UX testing, while traditional UAT happens late in the cycle. Feature flagging helps by providing early insight into whats resonating and not resonating with users while generating valuable data. Theres also usability testing including focus groups, session recording, eye tracking and quick one-question in-app surveys that ask whether the user loves the app or not.

One area that tends to lack adequate focus is accessibility testing, however.

More than 54 million U.S. consumers have disabilities and face unique challenges accessing products, services and information on the web and mobile devices, said SPRs Kastl. Accessibility must be addressed throughout the development of a project to ensure applications are accessible to individuals with vision loss, low vision, color blindness or learning loss, and to those otherwise challenged by motor skills.

The main issue is a lack of awareness, especially among people who lack firsthand or secondhand experience with disabilities. While there are no regulations to enforce, accessibility-related lawsuits are growing exponentially.

The first step to ensuring an applications accessibility is to include ADA Section 508 or WCAG 2.1 Accessibility standards as requirements in the products backlog along with functional requirements, said Kastl.

Non-compliance to an accessibility standard on one web page tends to be repeated on all web pages or throughout a mobile application. To detect non-compliant practices as early as possible, wireframes and templates for web and mobile applications should be reviewed for potential non-compliant designed components, Kastl said. In addition to the design review, there should be a code review in which development teams perform self-assessments using tools and practices to identify standards that have not been followed in coding practices. Corrective action should be taken by the team prior to the start of application testing. Then, during in-sprint testing activities, assistive technologies and tools such as screen readers, screen magnification and speed recognition software should be used to test web pages and mobile applications against accessibility standards. Automated tools can detect and report non-compliance.

Gartners Murphy said organizations should be monitoring app ratings and reviews as well as social media sentiment on an ongoing basis.

You have to monitor those things, and you should. Youre feeding stuff like that into a system such as Statuspage or PagerDuty so that you know somethings gone wrong, said Murphy. It may not just be monitoring your site. Its also monitoring those external sources because they may be the leading indicator.

Excerpt from:

There's more to testing than simply testing - SDTimes.com

MAKINGMUSIC: Liam Samson has been working on material for a new solo album during lockdown

During lockdown, Indie-inspired musician Liam Samson, from Barnard Castle, has been working on material for a new solo album, based on a night out in Barnard Castle. The 20-year-old bass-player was also in the process of recording an EP with his band Metis, made up of artists from County Durham, however lockdown put a halt to this.

How did you get into music and what instruments can you play?I got into music because my older brother plays the drums, although I am not that great at the drums. About the age of 15, I got into playing the guitar. I am self-taught but I learnt a lot from my good friend Martin White, who is also a local musician.I learnt a lot when I studied music at Bishop Auckland college. I play rhythm guitar but primarily play bass in my band, Metis, which is made up of musicians from around County Durham.

What inspires your music and which other artists have influenced your music?I do write my own songs and a lot of the influence comes from Indie bands such as Artic Monkeys, Oasis, The Las and Jamie T. But I also have influences such as Status Quo, Bruce Springsteen and all the 80s bands my mam listened to when I was younger.

What are your favourite music genres?My favourite genres are 90s and early 00s indie rock. But I do have a few guilty pleasures like Abba and The Venga Boys.

The dale has a wealth of musical talent, what do you attribute this to?I think in the local area we are really lucky because we have the TCR Hub, which helps young musicans form bands or solo performers to work on their musical ability. My first gig was at The Hub playing as a support act. We were heavily encouraged by Andrew Yeadon to put ourselves out there. In Teesdale we also have a lot of open mic nights, which are very accommodating to both new and experienced musicians. Also, I took part, along with many other musicians, in the Covid Cutz Barney online Meet, which involved lots of local musicians. The talent on display was unreal.

When and where was your favourite performance?In one of my old bands I played the Sports Bar, in Bishop Auckland. It was a charity night and me and the other guys in the band pushed everyone we knew at college to come to the gig. It was absolutely packed to the point where people were almost standing on the stage. As an 18-year-old lad with barely any gigging experience at the time, seeing the audience singing songs back to you was an experience I will never forget.

Do you have a special place where you write music?There are two places that spring to mind. One is my friend Martins back room. The other, as stupid as it may seem, is the bathroom. Everything just sounds better in the bathroom for some reason.

How have you been keeping busy during lockdown?Ive been writing material for my new solo album. The idea for the album is based on a night out in Barnard Castle. Its going to be quite different to my first album, Walls, as this one is more electric and full-band based whereas Walls was acoustic focussed.

Where can people hear your music?I have a YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe6eiCu6hmqqtyhwy... where I upload my music, but I havent uploaded any videos or music lately as I am trying to write this solo album. Once it is complete Ill be uploading it there.

Continued here:

'We're lucky to have The Hub' - Art & Leisure - Teesdale Mercury