AI and ML – Page 2 – Scriptingthewhy.com

GoldAxe was wrong, here’s why…

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Throughout the years, keep in mind, that we didn’t start the fire.
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Throughout the many years of us being on this planet, this rock, this existence, or whatever you would like to call it. The complexity of life hasn’t lessened with the release of the Matrix. If you haven’t seen the movie, check it out. It’s a really good movie, it just ugh, will have you question your whole existence. Like “What even am I?” Questioning life aside, you’re probably wondering what new and exciting way technology is being exploited and the possible way your information is being collected. With the recent brainwashing rise of getting everyone comfortable with using AI (artificial intelligence), facial recognition has been employed in scams. We don’t feel the threat in the great US because, well… too much violence (guns, bad, people, worse) but in a nutshell, be glad you don’t live in Thailand. They have a whole different banking system set up over there.

AI is learning what you like, it’s always watching.
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The Attack

Facial recognition, what is it? In simple terms, the device uses the images from your face that it captures so when it comes time for a function to be completed, the device knows that it is you and will complete that function or task. In complex terms; the device captures your images with the camera with an overlay of dots which are a kind of reference point for certain sectors of your face, stores them, finds key features from your face that pair up with the stored image data, this could be anything like a mole, birthmark, or beauty mark, (not sure if women still use that term nowadays), once the process is complete and everything checks out. Congrats, you got in. You are now the one. This whole process is done in ones and zeros and is done in nano-to-milliseconds, you don’t care but it’s still nice to know. We’re all nerds here, of course. Armed with the knowledge of what biometrics or an item of what it is, here’s the attack. Threat actors can use your likeness to get into many areas of your life. Areas such as your phone, financial institution, and pretty much anywhere that requires the use of your facial recognition. Alarming, we know, however, people tend to think “They won’t get anything from me, they’re just practicing.” That’s true if you’re getting robbed at an ATM, however, getting robbed online is a whole new and hard-to-catch ball game.

We see all your secret…purchases.
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Who Can It Be Now

So, who would do something like this we can hear you ask. Clearly, they’re a monster although they might live in a poor country, and this might be a way for them to feed their family. Ha, guilt trip engaged, just because they’re the villain in your story doesn’t mean they’re a villain in others. A group by the name GoldFactory was factored in for the use of the trojan called “GoldPickaxe”, they were spotted some time ago in Thailand and maybe Vietnam. GoldPickaxe was created with the intent to collect face profiles, identification documents, and text messages from the victim’s phone. All of this gave them access to having great names like GoldDigger, GoldDiggerPlus, and GoldKefu given to them by researchers.

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I’m not into computers, but I want in on your wallet.
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That Sinking Feeling

How does the GoldPickaxe work? As mentioned earlier, GoldPickaxe will infect the victim’s device and begin to collect any information pertaining to facial recognition, and this includes their ID card. Once this information is collected, the threat actor can then gain access to anything tied to the victim. This is a massive problem because, in Thailand, their banking system requires them to use facial recognition to access their accounts. So, pretty much, there’s no way around it, you have to use your face to withdraw or make a deposit.

Hackers are gonna hack.
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The Prevention

You don’t want someone to use your face and make a withdrawal from your account? You may be wondering how you protect yourself from something like this happening to you. Since these play on 2MFA (2 multi-factor authentication), you would have to add another level of protection from threat actors having access to your accounts. The best way to think of this is having vault door upon vault doors to protect your valuables. A setup of this would be a password, SMS message verification, email verification, and facial recognition. It may seem like a lot of work to protect what’s important but it’s better than not having anything important to protect.

If you have gold, we’ll be coming for you. That’s GoldFactory’s stand.
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Do you feel like there is something I may have missed on GoldPickaxe? Script a comment below.

AI, Cloud Talk, Programming, Security, Tech

W.o.W on Steroids

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red tv on a box — The Metaverse will not be televised, you will not be able to sit at your desk and cop out.
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Do you remember the good old days of living in a cave with your favorite show on the fire, you sat waiting for your significant other to wake up from “clubbing” too hard so they can make you a meal.

You know, real caveman stuff that lasted up to the end of the 1950s. No, me neither, I was born many years after disco had caught that lovely final sunset and bellbottoms were fading into nothing more than a high schooler’s cry for help.

Now our lives are filled with so much more than before, we went from throwing up peace signs, and yelling about making love and not war to making people pay for something they said way back when freedom of speech was just that, freedom of speech.

As you look around you, you can see that we have an ever-growing list of devices and gadgets that connect us to the internet creating a new world for us to live in and hopefully not destroy but if Uncle Ben has taught us anything, with great power, comes zero responsibility.

person wearing VR goggles — Everything is so life-like, I should try walking around.
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Meeting Meta

What is this new world we are making for ourselves just in case we can’t get on Elon’s rocket ship to Mars? Look no further than the Metaverse. No, not Meta, that was a desperation tactic to innovate a dying company. Don’t believe me, check their stock price.

Metaverse is a point for communication that bridges physical and virtual experiences. The digital environment is complete with augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technology that will change how we connect to and access information.

This would be a place where you could create your second life, well that’s what the aim is, however, you’ll be able to do everything except eat and perform that all-so-sweet saucy dance called “fun hugging” to make a baby. You know, the important things to further our existence in this world.

girl playing computer games — She may seem nice but that’s doesn’t mean she won’t hesitate to put a cap in you online.
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In The Verse of Toxicity

If you have ever spent any time online playing a video game like Call of Duty or Halo, you will know there is a galaxy of toxic people. More than you meet in real life and it’s all thanks to not enough people signing my petition to move forward with my “Everyone gets one punch to the throat” program. Now we have a world of people walking around not knowing what a throat punch feels like.

So, as you can imagine, the metaverse is meant for everyone, however, be prepared to experience online interactions if you haven’t had one. But the metaverse end idea hasn’t been developed yet. Microsoft acquired a company called AltspaceVR which originally sought to create the metaverse mentioned above.

AltspaceVR was looking to offer a 3d world that would host club nights with live DJs, book launches, fashion shows, bible study, and stand-up comedy nights. However, with a lack of funding to keep servers running, this company was forced to sunset. That’s “We have to put Lassie down” in IT terms.

AltspaceVR join with Microsoft to create Microsoft Mesh, this is a mixed-reality communication platform that’s based on holograms using 3d captures to let people work together as if they were in the same space.

This application of VR is business-oriented and while it may not be to the likes of what AltspaceVR was looking to offer the upside is since it has holograms, you’re bound to catch a Tupac or two walking around the virtual office.

a pill and a bitcoin coin — In the metaverse, you can either take the pill to make you go back to sleep or…just give us money. We like money more.
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Trying to Live, Love, Laugh in VR

So, what makes the metaverse so important? Well, aside from having all the benefits of Ready Player One without the dystopian society (but hold on to your seat kids because we’re on our way) companies to the likes of Microsoft, Google, Nvidia, and Qualcomm all have invested billions of dollars in the idea.

This is scary because in order to have just one, I repeat just one, it could range from $25,000 to $400,000. That means you’re either putting down or paying for a house that doesn’t exist. A quick thing to note is like most things brought up in IT, the term has always been around, it dates to the 90s and was coined from a science fiction novel called “Snow Crash”. This sounds like a good read if you’re ever on the “white horse”.

Moving along, now there are some people in thought of the metaverse failing before it even launches and they’re not wrong in their thought. As you can imagine, trying to live virtually isn’t going to go all that well. Take for example, you’re playing a game in Oculus rift, and you have to go to the bathroom, since you’re playing a game multi-player you won’t be able to pause so what are you going to do? If I read any of you in the comment section saying, “I’d just go to the bathroom with the rift on”, I will be…well…not surprised because humans are going to human.

Porcelain thrones aside, other concerns are security, the metaverse has the same risk factors as simply being on the internet watching or uploading cat videos. These factors could be but are not limited to malware, viruses, hackers, and your children or significant other.

Children or significant other, but Z-Daddy how? Ja, that’s social engineering which is a form of hacking so have fun getting to sleep knowing the people you share a house with could be the reason you see mysterious charges popping up on your statements. Again, with great power, comes zero responsibility.

teacher looking a classroom of students with their hands raised — A quick show of hands, who has an Instagram account. Dear Budda, your parents are failing you.
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Building Second Life Apart

I can hear you now, “Z-Daddy, can we get a job to help build this great metaverse?” Ja, ja, mein kind. You can land a job working on the development of the metaverse. Skills that would be needed are Java, computer programming, blockchain, and UI/UX (User interface/ User experience).

All these skills could be acquired by either joining meetups (not hookups), taking online courses, or opting for a boot camp or some other form of program. C++ would be another programming language to learn if you’re looking for development closer to the hardware.

The metaverse may not be to the level of what’s displayed in the Matrix or Ready Player One but that doesn’t mean you have to spend your time at a university to apply a degree of what you could apply if were to venture on your own without a degree.

It all comes down to how badly you want to start your second life.

group cheering watching sports on tv — Z-Daddy strikes again, come on! How can you not love this guy!?
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Do you think you could have a play in the Metaverse?

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Programming, Tech

She a First-Time Scala

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photo of phone and keyboard in dark pink lighting — Learning a trade at any age is possible…unless you’ve done some wild things to fry your brain at a young age. Not judging.
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Have you ever thought to yourself, “I think it’s about that time I picked up a new programming language”? Followed by the thought, “I’m going to need a programming language that’s going to separate me from the herd and see me at the head of the line to better employment”.

Well, if you ever followed the previous question up with a quick Google search (I chose Google because it doesn’t seem like anyone uses Ask Jeeves or Ask.com anymore) you’ll find that are a massive number of programming languages to learn, oh and there are categories they’re in which you can choose from also, which are machine, assembly, and high-level in case you didn’t know.

But while you have a mass number of languages to choose from, whether to begin learning fresh or to make an addition to your array of programming languages already learned, this one may have not been on your radar. It sure wasn’t on mine.

Today we’re going to be going over Scala, answering what, who, why, and if you could get into the programming field without a degree. And uh, spoilers ahead, since it is programming more likely you can get into this field as a developer without a degree.

So yeah, you don’t have to worry about burning a massive hole in your wallet trying to obtain one. By the way, if the person you’re dating or looking to date has no clue as to who Ask Jeeves is, they may be too young for you.

young gentlemen in black hoodie — After countless hours of coding, the time has come to print “Hello World”…in all caps.
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Its Scaling Time

So, here’s a bit of information, some of which I did not know since I don’t know every programming language out there but I’m learning something new with every script so there’s that. Apparently, Scala, unlike most people nowadays stands for something.

Scala is short for “scalable language” and like high-level programming languages, Scala is a general-purpose programming language. Scala received this acronym due to it being able to “grow with you”, which in short if you need it for something simple as running a line of code, it can do that and if you need it for something mission-critical, Scala can be your go-to as well.

This language focuses on object-oriented programming or OOP, and functional programming, and was also designed to handle some of the criticisms of Java.

And in case you didn’t know or weren’t aware of what functional programming meant, I got you on that. Functional means that there is a set of approaches taken to create clean and maintainable software.

Popular functional languages would include the likes of Python, Clojure, and Erlang. I’m familiar with Python, the other two languages I’ll be scripting about in the days to come.

An advantage of Scala resides in the ability to be able to run in the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) which makes it possible for both Scala and Java stacks to be run and incorporated.

You can more or less put Scala down to being the Swiss army knife of programming languages.

four people fist bumping over table — Can no longer stand Bob, he has to go. All those in favor of getting rid of Bob, put your hands in the center.
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Scala Among the Many

Now, you may be thinking to yourself, “outside of the usual suspects, who are the people that use this language?” Well, I can tell you it’s the usual cast of suspects.

Software engineers, data scientists, and data engineers are prone to use Scala since Scala powers the data engineering infrastructure of several companies, in areas of content management systems, distributed applications, and finance-related applications.

Scala also powers data processing, cloud computing, and web development. Another thing that’s not going to be much of a surprise since data scientists were brought up is the fact that Scala is used for machine learning also.

Seeing all of this, you can pretty much tell there is a mass of developers that use this language.

To complement this, big-name companies the likes of Twitter, Nubank Walmart, Meetup.com, Amazon, Google, and the one company that has my undying hatred, IBM.

I’m not sure if this is current, it may have changed when this is uploaded but as of now, 952+ companies have reported using Scala within their tech stacks.

So, yeah if you’re going to be a developer or a big-name company or even a small start-up, you’re going to be using Scala at some point. As you can see, there are many areas to scale in.

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older man dressed as Santa Clause — That’s right, this programming language is more scalable than this guy’s waist size during the holidays.
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Scala in the Wild

So, you may be wondering to yourself, “how does Scala have much of a play in our world?” Well, since it’s one of many programming languages out there you could learn, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if I told you, it’s everywhere.

Many developers are flocking to this language for a few of its features which sets it apart from other programming languages.

Features such as but not limited to; ecosystem, being an extensible language, creation of domain-specific language or DSL, object-oriented and functional programming, along with being able to run concurrently are just to name a few.

Plus, a little perk for developers, you are not required to use a semicolon after every statement like you have to with JavaScript or Java.

Not a big deal when you’re first learning to code but tends to be annoying because the computer will let you know by bombarding you with squiggly lines and error messages.

Scala is widely used due to its scalability on Java Virtual Machine or JVM for short, this can be seen with companies such as Netflix and Alibaba.

So, with seeing the number of people who like to Netflix and chill, you probably have been scaling from the couch and not even knowing it.

photo of keyboard up close — Sticky keys reveal an interesting browser history.
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Scaling to What Degree

Thinking about trying to scale your paycheck from $0 to infinity and beyond? While I did say in the intro that you’re not going to need a degree (yes, I am aware that having one helps) you are going to be required to have a deep understanding of fundamental concepts.

Things like variables, strings, data types, and loops are some of the things you need to know in order to build projects which in turn will help you build a portfolio (having one is a key item when seeking out work because people are going to want proof of working knowledge), where paired with fixing up your resume and applying to job postings will see you begin to scale your way to ascension.

A thing to note is, learning just one programming language isn’t going to be enough to even get you to the interview but if you learn one well enough and “dip the toe” in others, you’ll be able to add and adapt which to many companies makes an ideal candidate.

However, brace yourself for the proverbial mountain pile of “thank you for your interest in our company, but we’ve decided to go with other candidates at this time” emails that are going to plague your inbox and some of which will end up in spam.

Pimpin ain’t easy…and neither is trying to find an entry-level developer job that doesn’t require 8 years of experience.

Make it make sense.

woman with head down on table in exhaustion — When you’ve countless online courses and check your email only to find your 150th rejection letter.
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Made it this far and found this to be entertaining? Then a big thanks to you and please show your support by cracking a like, sharing this with whomever, scripting a comment, or plug-in to follow.

Would like to give sincere thanks to current followers and subscribers, your support and actions mean a lot and has a play in the creation of each script.

Think you have what it takes to learn how to Scala?

Script a comment about your first-time learning Scala.

Also, if you liked this script but thinking Scala might not be a good match for you then check out my script on Java.