Some fun but mind-blowing fact for the computational knowledge I’ve learnt through the first week of this course:

Nearly all programming languages is capable of solve any computational problem.

The keyword here is Turing Completeness. C, C++, C#, (Visual) Basic, Pascal, Python, Java, Ruby, Objective C, Perl, Swift, and so on are all Turing complete programming language that has been used to create masses of software and programs.

To achieve Turing completeness, a particular must be able to complete this 6 primitive:

• Right: Move the Machine’s head to the right of the current square


• Left: Move the Machine’s head to the left of the current square


• Print: Print a symbol on the current square


• Scan: Identify any symbols on the current square


• Erase: Erase any symbols presented on the current square


• Nothing/halt: Do nothing

Maybe this little video would help you better in understanding the theory.

In short, any languages can achieve this six primitives can solve any computaional problems(regardless of effectiveness) which also reveal the my biggest, constant question in the mind:

Anything that can be done in a programming language can be done as well in other languages.

Provided they are Turing complete, of course.

Being someone who always fancy of the power of programming but not willing to fork out the time and effort to learn one(shameful, but I’m picking up now), the constant questions in my head were probably “Can Python replace Javascript?“ “What this feature be done in C instead of R?“

The answer is probably yes, most of the time. In fact, a better question is, Is X language more effective than Y language in programming Z function?

_{Image taken from http://www.felienne.com/archives/2974}

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What is cooler than earn some coins(even if it is shitcoins) while doing nothing at all?

I’ve been running NOIA Network Testnet for months and every week they award 200 NOIA coins for just 72 hours of uptime which is just keeping a mini program running in the background of computer.

Instructions

1. Sign up on NOIA Network Dashboard(referral link)
2. Complete the KYC.
3. Download NOIA Node Client from the official GitHub page
4. Configuration of NOIA node client :

• Put the same ETH address as you put in the KYC application.
• Open both the 8058 UDP data port and 8048 TCP control port. The previous WS 7676 TCP port is now irrelevant and can be closed.

1. Keep the Node Client up and running for at least 72 hours a week (aggregate time).(Timer resets every Friday 12pm utc.)

Proof of reward

This can be checked via the NOIA Network Dashboard(referral link). The total NOIA nodes has been steadily increasing and development team is active in intereacting with the public and project development.

I don’t see a reason for anyone not to join this Testnet.

NOIA 是个挺有趣的新项目，正在筹备 ICO 。现在参与 Testnet 可以每个星期领取 200 NOIA 呢！好处是除了开始的 KYC 和 设置软件外，几乎就什么都不用做了。而且这软件非常绿色环保，几乎完全不占用电脑资源。

1)去 NOIA Network Dashboard(referral link)(推荐链接)登记和完成 KYC。
2)去 official GitHub page 下载 NOIA node client 最新版 0.6.0， 安装之。
3)软件设置：

• ETH 地址必须放和 KYC 的一样。
• 开启 8058 UDP data port 和 8048 TCP control port。
• 一个星期内起码让软件跑 72 小时。

4)可以在这里查看领到的奖励。记得币还没真正发送，因为 ICO 还没开始。

一个月前我介绍这个项目时已经有了 800 NOIA， 目前更是累积了 1800 NOIA，所做的就是让这个小小 Client 椅子运作而已。NOIA 团队近来与也很活跃，社区上和公众的互动也很积极，NOIA 的活跃节点随着时间也慢慢上升。未来真令人期待呢！

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This is a great weekend and I decided to be productive before next Monday falling upon. Enrolling myself on an proper online course could be a great idea. I always wanted to make use of the computing power to do something for me, aka botting. Python seems to be a great language to start with especially I’m a daily user of the python-friendly Steem.

Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python from the Edx seems to be interesting and having great reputation from the research I’ve done.

The course is free but you can opt for a Verified Certificate from the site for $75. Everything is same for the free and paid version throughout the course. Same content, assignment and exams and so on. Freshies might be able to make use of the certificate for job hunting but not so much for veterans.

After a few hours of participation in the course, I find some of the content are quite redundant to me as a Computer Science graduate as my intention was to learn Python. And it means this course will be perfect for a total beginner with zero computational and programming knowledge.

The course is well structured in a very detailed and clean manner and I like the way of lecturing by the MIT professor via high quality videos. I’d recommend it if you would like to pickup some knowledge about computing and python at the same time.

Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python 是个由 MITx 主持的课程，专门为没有计算机背景的人士所设计。在学习计算机基础的同时还可学习 Python，网站的教学风格严谨，教学视频制作也很高素质，麻省理工教授由浅至深的教学方式也很直白，非常推荐对计算机和 Python 入门有兴趣的人来参加。忘了说，这全是免费的啊！

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I have a monthly investment portfolio checking habit, since most of my investment has moved to crypto, this the portfolio management is practically checking the status of all the coin’s I’m still hodling.

I made an excel sheet with some little customized feature just to keep track of the prices. More than half of them are coins/tokens with big names so I was able to roughly keep up with the news from everyday reading. The rest are occupied by new/wild/under-the-radar coins which I have high hope of bringing huge fortune if I’m lucky enough(I was naive, still am.).

Hence, for this portion of coins I would rather just glance through the price list and move on. Moreoever, most of these unknown coins did not even make to the Coinmarketcap which my excel sheets grab the price API from. It would be so troublesome for me to tracing each of them even it is on monthly basis. But the NVO is special, it was my first ever ICO investment.

How did I get into this ICO?

It was a silly start. May 2017, CMC has just became one of my most visited sites and one day I noticed the advertisement banner on the top bar. Yes, it was the ICO ads for the NVO. I was thinking “*Wow, this is what every one was talking about, the ICO, cool!” Without a second thought, I quicly sent over a minor fraction of my BTC(which I can’t remember how much already) from the Exodus wallet to the ICO address and boom! I completed my first ever ICO investment and got the NVST tokens, how cool this is!

Not long after that ICO, I knew I made a silly move.

I’m not saying I knew this is a shitty project at that moment but I was kind of caught in the FOMO emotion without realizing there are many more ICO project out there. And I should have do more research on it before the dive. “Anyway, god only knows if this coin would rockets one day.”

It did not. And keep tanking since the completion of ICO.

During my last check upon the project development(was expecting for a 100% loss long time ago), to my surprise the team announced a refund to the ICO investor at the price of 0.00009292961 BTC/NVST. WOW, I’m still able to get back around 600*.00009292961 = 0.055757766 BTC. Absolutely not bad considering I was treating this fund as non-existant anymore.

一年多前什么都不懂机缘巧合下参加了人生第一个 ICO ，当时没有想那么多，就觉得终于可以参加大家都说得沸沸扬扬的 ICO 真的酷呆了。然而， iCO 完毕后价格就像溪水，缓慢但不绝的往低处流，就在昨天居然收到消息项目要终止了，项目方还会给予投资者退款，算一算我还可以得到 0.055757766 BTC，尽管我也已经忘了当初的投资数额，但对一笔本来当作是 100% 失去的投资忽然还可以有点残渣吃，还不错啦！

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While I was still enjoying the profit made from previous Cindicator indicator over the Substratum and looking forward to another insightful signal, the Cindicator bot pinged me with one last night with:

If you were paying close attention to the market today, you know there was a huge view of red sea everywhere. Lisk was no exception. The signal was expecting LSK to trade above 0.0008 BTC before crashing down to 0.0006 BTC, it seems like things work in a total opposite way.

Fortunately I did not buy the indicator in time for a few factors:

• I first saw the indicator coming in last night and was too tired to perform any trading as I was ready going to bed.


• This morning I recalled the indicator in the traing in the middle of my way to work. Just formatted my phone not long ago and not yet downloaded the Binance app. Access the site via webpage, too damn lag and I gave up.


• Back to home to sit in front of my workstation, only to find out the price already crash to the bottom price stated in the indicator, without the bullish movement at all.

If Binance mobile web wasn’t that lag I might already lost 10% in the indicator. I appreciate that!

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So I did a simple experiment with the Cindicator signal 7 days ago which the bet is about: SUB/BTC trade above 0.0000209 BTC (+11%) in a week.

The result is positive. Woohoo.

Furthermore, the signal was expecting the target price to be hit before 31st Aug, and I bought 5227 SUB with 0.1BTC during 23rd Aug, the sell order was filled the next day. It was a pleasing and fast 11% gain. Although the bet amount was small, well, I said this is just little experiment didn’t I?

Not to mention that the peak of the price spiking was way more than the target price(0.0000209 vs 0.0000280). But I wouldn’t say “If only I hold a little longer to sell at the peak“. Nobody knows where is the peak, and it defeats the purpose of this experiment where I suppose to follow strictly with the indicator.

Overall alts market was raising anyway

If we view this signal’s result from the other perspective, SUB wasn’t the only one gaining traction on the same period. The fact is. it is very common for a synced movement of all the alts market no matter going up or down. Looking at the last 7 days charts in CMC and chances are you will find most of them having the same pattern.

So how is this affecting the quality of Cindicator prediction? Nothing. The target hitting might due to the overall market bullish run but the signal did work nonetheless.

I need more indicator like this!

上次的小实验的结果就是, Cindicator 成功预测了 SUB/BTC 会在七天内达到 0.0000209 BTC (+11%)。 小赚了一笔，好开心！

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