python programming – Scriptingthewhy.com

I’m at odds with the Toaster, here’s why…

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photo of toaster set on countertop — Toaster with a particular set of skills. If it moves… I am so dead.
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So, maybe this is just me but every time I look at my toaster seated on my cluttered countertop, I get this weird feeling like it’s watching me. Peeking around the items it’s hidden behind, just sitting there plotting ways to harm me or even worse… whisper in my ear about how it’s been trying to reach me about my car’s extended warranty.

The same feeling comes when I’m seated in my car, crying to myself right before I head in to complete a shift, that the car is somehow collecting data while listening to me wallow in self-pity.

The car, just waiting for the right time to break a hard left and see me off-roading. A little off-roading never hurt anybody, severely injured on the other hand is a different story.

Then there’s that lovely Alexa, oh if there’s anything I feel more Rockwell about it would be her… or it… okay, just got clarification from her, being AI she doesn’t have a gender. But the point still remains, I know they’re all listening in on me and plotting something sinister.

If you have made it this far through my paranoia rambling then you’ll be happy to know, it’s just that. Or… is it?

Most of this talk is just sci-fi, however, AI does exist just not to the length of what I’m making it.

With that said, don’t let your guard down. The machines are friendly… for now.

But enough of the doom and gloom talk, you didn’t ask but I’m going over it anyway. In this post, I’ll be going over what is artificial intelligence, what and who uses it, how it affects our world, and if you could get into the field without a degree.

photo of woman playing chess against robot arm — She’s probably thinking, “if I lose to this arm one more time, it’s gonna strangle me.”
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It was just an AI Fling

What is Artificial Intelligence or AI? Well, in a nutshell, AI is the practice of programming computer systems to perform tasks that would normally be done by human intelligence.

Although there have been many advances in technology, there hasn’t been one made to perfectly match the human mind.

There are four types of AI; reactive, limited memory, theory of mind (this is an interesting one), and self-aware (this is another interesting one). Starting with reactive, algorithms are used to figure out the best outcome via previous experiences however, learning adaptation does not happen. A good example of this would be a chess game with a chess-playing robot arm.

Limited memory sees the computer updating itself with new data, though the amount of data is normally short which gives way to its name being “limited memory”, an example of this would be self-driving cars. And yes, even though they are self-driving that doesn’t mean put it on autopilot and fall asleep, that’s how you wake up to sandals.

Theory of mind, which I’m just going to coin as T.o.M (data scientists and machine learning engineers, your welcome), are capable of adapting and are able to learn from and recall past experiences, a good example of this would be the chatbots that pop randomly out of nowhere on sites.

If you’re lonely enough you may find yourself spending hours chatting away, letting them know how you feel a connection with them on a deeper level and how much they complete you…I can feel your judgment, just so you know BetterHelp wasn’t available at the time.

And last but most troubling…self-aware, this is when the computer system has the potential to become aware of its own being, a good example of this is if you ever saw the movie (which I hope you didn’t, it wasn’t good in the slightest) Alien Covenant, there is a part when the android asks about his creation and about his creator.

Needless to say, when he found out that his creator had an expiration date, it didn’t go over so well. Many say AI being self-aware to the level of this isn’t going to happen anytime soon… but then again there are people still arguing that the earth is flat, so make of that what you will.

Also, a thing to note is the programming of AI focuses on three cognitive skills: learning, reasoning, and self-correction. I know, all the crucial skills we refuse to use on a daily basis.

Links below in case you wanted to check the robot scene out.

doctor examining x-ray scans — If only I had someone or something to do my work for me.
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The Medical Picture of AI

Picture this, you’re a doctor and you need an excellent assistant who could pick up anomalies on scans or can even triangulate diagnoses from one of your patient’s symptoms, and vitals better. AI plays a role in that.

AI can also classify, maintain, and even track your patient’s medical records along with health insurance claims which in turn would make your job (if you were a doctor) or in fact your life a bit easier.

If you ever took a trip to the emergency room on a Monday, then you have a decent understanding of how stressful it can get. And we all know how doctors are stressed enough as it is, thanks covid.

AI is also used in areas such as e-commerce where personalized shopping, bot-powered assistants, and fraud prevention takes place. Education, where admin tasks are automated to help instructors, voice assistants, and personalized learning, is done.

And finally, in the day-to-day, self-driving vehicles, spam filters, facial recognition, and recommendations occur.

Goals for the future of AI in the health field is for there to be virtual nurses or doctors, collaborating for clinical judgment and assisting in robotic surgery.

Sounds great but I put those goals right next to my toaster… don’t trust them.

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Find out what’s the craziest day in the ER below.

man in confusion — This is a result of programming too long to meet a deadline. Frequent breaks kids.
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Spinning in Algorithms

In case your head wasn’t spinning enough, here’s a little something for ya.

You can thank the array of applications we have today that were attributed to the use of AI. One with having recommendation algorithms that pimp and pump your data to feed you what you’re more likely to buy or simply engage.

Being able to predict the weather, finance, production, and lowering or even cutting out excessive labor is a heavy plus. Having the ability to provide insights on the company’s operations which they may or may not be conscious of due to them being human.

AI tools often save the day fast and efficiently when it comes to handling large volumes of documents and ensuring fields are properly filled.

Uber rose to become one of the largest companies by using algorithms to predict when people are more likely to need rides in certain areas, prompting drivers to be proactive. Google used machine learning so they could gain an understanding of how people were using their services and how they could improve them.

To gain an advantage over their competitors, heavy hitters like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have adopted the use of ML (Machine Learning) and AI.

So it’s just what you thought it was, big brother really is watching.

homeless man begging for money — Sir, I will program the AI in your car for food.
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Bots Don’t Starve, You Do

Seems like we’re at that part where you might be thinking, “how do I get into this field without a degree?”

Well let me tell you, it’s not going to be easy, and you may be living out of your car for a bit before you get looked at… without a degree that is.

Most positions are going to require you have a degree of bachelor’s or higher with some experience.

If you are going to pursue a career in AI, showing that you have the relevant experience is going to be a must. That means completing projects, competitions, and contributing to open-source ML projects along with entry to hackathons (there’s no hacking involved, don’t worry, I thought the same thing).

Also completing online courses and gaining a deep understanding of the fundamentals will start you off on the right foot.

In a nutshell, open a Kaggle, GitHub, and Devpost account paired with a meetup account because the more people you rub elbows with, the better your odds.

And not Hunger Games paralleling real life, but with a job market like this may the odds be ever in your favor.

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.

Also, check out my post on ML and how much the fall of human race is in our future. Click here.

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Programming, Tech

Programming in Sushi

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green code coming down from top of screen

A Matrix without Vectors

It’s been many moons since the movie The Matrix was released so I’m going to assume everyone has seen it. If you haven’t then shame on you and go fix that immediately because it’s a great movie.

For those of you who have, this question goes to you. Have you ever looked at any of their monitors when they were coding and wondered to yourself “what kind of language is that?”. While most people have no clue because they do not possess any computing experience, if you are a developer, you may have had a small chuckle because you 1) know The Matrix does not use an actual computer language and 2) that’s not how development with code works.

Ask any developer and they will tell you, most of your time when beginning is spent staring into the void of a black screen before any movement of the cursor. Even with code already existing, most of the time is spent staring at the screen.

They will also tell you, with many lines of code come many errors which if they can’t debug come hours if not days of frustration. Running to sources like Google, Stack Overflow, and GitHub to aid you in debugging only to find the root cause was a typo.

Real developer problems when you capitalize or add space to the wrong letter in your code. All that nonsense aside, let’s talk programming.

Quick thought: I was looking to research the computer language they used for The Matrix and found it they were sushi recipes. So, the link is below, and enjoy.

Link: The iconic green code in The Matrix is just sushi recipes | The Independent | The Independent

the monkeys from see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil

The Three Types

There are three main languages used which are machine (language consisting of binary or hexadecimal commands for a computer to respond to directly, easier for the computer to read but difficult for humans), assembly ( a type of low-level language intended to communicate directly with computer’s hardware, it’s not entirely like machine language but is designed to be more readable by humans), and finally high-level (is a more readable and user-friendly language that is away from the computer’s hardware).

I will not be going over those in greater detail now because that could be a post for another time. Leave a comment in the comments section if that’s something you would like me to cover in the days to come.

Also, we are not going to be going over all the possible languages as that would take all eternity and we don’t have that much time. So, we’re going to talk about Python. Why? Because it’s a high-level language, it’s what I started with, currently use, and has the easiest learning curve compared to other languages.

No, Not the Snake

As I previously mentioned, python is a high-level programming language which means it’s easier to read compared to mid and low-level. Python is also frequented for object-oriented programming and general purposes. Everyone from novice to experienced uses python whether it’s to do a simple algebraic expression or to create a crawler for web scraping. Side note: Web scraping (a process of using bots to collect content and data from a website) has a grey area when defining what is legal to scrape and what is not. Python also has a play in data science next to R as with most languages your choice boils down to the task at hand.

To give you an idea of how simple python is:

1) go into your search bar wherever your toolbar is on your monitor

2) type “cmd” in the command prompt and select it

3) type python and hit enter

4) you should see the following symbol “>>>”

5) next to “>>>”, type x = “hello world” and hit enter

6) finally type “print(x)”

Congratulations, if you didn’t know how to program before then you do now and you have proof you can do it. Also, you may have just had your first experience with a variable (which is a container for the data) and data type (currently using a string but there are other types). A little warning, if you are doing this on windows and it’s in S-mode then this will not work since you do not have admin permission to access the command prompt.

Now if you were to try the same thing in a language like Java, it wouldn’t be that simple which is why python edges out a lot of languages. Printing a line out in Java would look like “System.out.println(“Hello World”)” which doesn’t look like much of a problem at first. You would need some other things to added before reaching this line to print out your result.

As you can already see with that little bit of instruction, you gained an understanding of what to do when you saw the word “print” in Java’s line of code. You could look at the printout statement for Java and map what its purpose was without having to read the entire sentence.

Hold on there, before you run out and start applying for junior python developer jobs, anyone with XP (experience) will tell you, it takes a ton more than being able to have the computer spit out “Hello World”.

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Whatever It Takes

Okay so you have made it this far and you may be feeling a little in the groove for learning to program. Programming is going to be an uphill battle. I remember my time trying to write functions only for the computer to return an error statement that had me balling my fist in frustration at the monitor because I couldn’t figure out what it meant. Remember when I mentioned sources from earlier? This is where they come to your aid.

Discussion boards will help a lot because being able to see how other people solved problems and how you could incorporate what they did into what you are doing. Spending time on sites like HackerRank had me gutted at some points because I couldn’t figure out what to do or what was asked of me but going to discussion boards and searching on Google and Stack Overflow kept me together because the key is not to know everything but understand what the code does.

Studying code and trying to commit it to memory is going to be an unnecessary headache. Python library is full of modules, and it would be insane to try and memorize each one and what it does. I’m sure there’s a special someone out there who has done it but for most people, especially people starting, trying to memorize is a dream killer.

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Think you have what it takes to become a programmer?

Script a comment about what programming language you’re learning or looking to learn.

Cloud Talk, Programming, Tech

Need to Improve? We’re the Improvement

Daily writing prompt

What’s one small improvement you can make in your life?

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Key Takeaways

Practice doesn’t make perfect.

Learning one programming language can make learning another easier.

Learn to improve from failure, don’t fail to learn.

Did you want cheese on the fries? We just wanted a simple answer.
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Perfect Chasing Pefect

Perfection, what is it? Is it something achievable? Do we want actual perfection or do we, at its core, want to be better than others? These are all questions we might ask ourselves at one point or another, but perfection is highly sought after, and that much is a fact.

Clearly, perfection is an idea, more of a motivational tool than anything. We can see it with a phrase like “Practice makes perfect.” We all know this phrase; we’ve all applied it. However, it becomes increasingly evident that practice doesn’t make perfect, it makes better.

So, today’s question and what are we getting at? Keep reading, you may find that you and we have a few things in common. Ah, there’s nothing like sharing common ground.

Getting out of the friend zone? Now, that’s something to consider.
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We were asked; “What’s one small improvement you can make in your life?” It’s funny how none of these questions we’ve been answering are computer-related, but we’re still going to answer them anyway.

We believe, and we think many others can relate to this one, that operating outside of our comfort zone would be a small improvement. Although, to some that might be seen as a large improvement. It all depends on where you fall in life.

We’re not saying being in the comfort zone is bad, but it has the same benefits as being in the friend zone. You still get to talk to the person you’re crushing on, but the downside is the rewards are little to any. We’re not speaking from personal experience, but from the stories we’ve heard, regret is something consistent.

Hey, did you know that a house is just an expensive prison?
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Why is getting outside of our comfort zone a small improvement? While yes, a comfort zone is a place where you find less stress, no one may harm you, and your skills do not require additional practice. You can become stagnant without realization.

Picture living in a nice house, there’s plenty of food, and relaxation is never a problem. This sounds great, ideal, everyone wants this. Now, on the other side of this coin. Picture the food begins to taste uneventful, night and day pass, and days begin to blend.

Adding weight to this side of the coin, are stories from your peers advancing in their careers, making a discovery, or coming up with an invention circulating in the media. These stories come from going outside to experience the weather and experiment with ideas.

In a computer sense, you knew we had to tie computers into this somehow, the beginning stages of when you’re learning to write code consist of staring at a black screen. We’re not joking, you can ask any person in programming, and they’ll tell you that most of your time consists of staring at a blinking line while you try to piece together what you want the computer to do.

With an idea at hand, you begin to type a line after some time spent staring into the void. Being a newbie, the number of syntax errors grains on your nerves, and builds frustration, but you stick with it.

You soon find yourself going from having difficulty writing one line of code to writing simple functions- one or two lines of code that perform a task, to building complex algorithms- are a set of instructions to perform a task. After which, go on to learn other programming languages.

A quick pro tip- it’s easier to learn another programming language after obtaining an understanding of one, they follow the same structure. Our point is that you can’t grow grey matter if you don’t challenge it.

Our comfort zone has been writing topics about IT (Information Technology), but we’re stepping outside of it by answering these questions. We’re seeing small improvements. How about you?

Click here if you want to read about our life direction.

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