fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Algorithms In Python: Quicksort
By: Annamariya Tharayil
Tags: Sorting Algorithms, Algorithms, Coding, Python, Software Engineering

Photo by Martin Adams on Unsplash

Today we will not be solving any leetcode question. Instead, we will be looking at a sorting algorithm.

Quicksort

Quicksort is an efficient sorting algorithm and falls in the divide-and-conquer category of sorting algorithms. Quicksort is an unstable sorting algorithm, which means if two values are the same in a list, the algorithm can still swap them.

The idea behind quicksort is having a pivot, and finding the correct position in the list.

Let us walk through an example. It should be easier to understand the algorithm.

Suppose we have a list with the following numbers.

A = [8, 1, 6, 10, 5]

We need to consider a pivot. We can choose the pivot element randomly. In this case, we have considered the last element in the list as the pivot.

In the next step, we need two variables. Let us name it as “i” and “j”. We need to run “j” from start to end of the list. Compare the value of “j” and pivot. If “j” is smaller or equal to the pivot value exchange the values in position “i” and “j” and increment the value of “i”. Continue this step until “j” reaches the end of the loop.

Once “j” reaches the end of the list, the exchange value of “i” and pivot. We can notice that the position of the pivot is in its sorted position.

Next, we break the array into two-part, one before the pivot and one after the pivot. All the elements before the pivot will be smaller than the pivot. While all the elements after the pivot will be larger than the pivot.

Repeat the same steps until no more elements are required to be sorted.

Let us look into the code.

class Solution:



def partition(self, low, high, array):



i = low

pivot = array[high] # pivot for j in range(low , high): # If current element is smaller than or

# equal to pivot

if array[j] <= pivot: array[i],array[j] = array[j],array[i]

# increment index of smaller element

i = i+1 array[i],array[high] = array[high],array[i]

return ( i )





def quicksort(self, low, high, array):



if(low < high):

pi = self.partition(low, high, array)

self.quicksort(low, pi-1, array)

self.quicksort(pi+1, high, array)

return array

Complexity analysis

Time Complexity

In the worst-case scenario, if the partitions are imbalanced, the time complexity is O(N²). In the best-case scenario, if we have the most balanced partition, the time complexity is O(logN). In the average case, the time complexity is O(NlogN).

Space Complexity

In the worst case, scenario space complexity is O(N) since it is recursive calls, while in the best case, it is O(logN).
Android TensorFlow Lite Machine Learning Example
By: Amit Shekhar
Tags: Machine Learning, AI, Android, Artificial Intelligence, TensorFlow

Using TensorFlow Lite Library For Object Detection

TensorFlow Lite is TensorFlow’s lightweight solution for mobile devices.

TensorFlow Lite is better as:

TensorFlow Lite enables on-device machine learning inference with low latency. Hence, it is fast.

TensorFlow Lite takes a small binary size. Hence, good for mobile devices.

TensorFlow Lite also supports hardware acceleration with the Android Neural Networks API.

TensorFlow Lite uses many techniques for achieving low latency such as:

Optimizing the kernels for mobile apps.

Pre-fused activations.

Quantized kernels that allow smaller and faster (fixed-point math) models.

How to use TensorFlow Lite in an Android application?

The most important tricky part while using the TensorFlow Lite is to prepare the model(.tflite) which is different from the normal TensorFlow model.

In order to run the model with the TensorFlow Lite, you will have to convert the model into the model(.tflite) which is accepted by the TensorFlow Lite. Follow the steps from here.

Now, you will have the model(.tflite) and the label file. You can start using these model and label files in your Android application to load the model and to predict the output using the TensorFlow Lite library.

I have created a complete running sample application using the TensorFlow Lite for object detection. Check out the project here.

Credit: The classifier example has been taken from the Google TensorFlow example.

Sample Application — Object Detection Example

Object Detection

Object Detection

Complete Project Link.

Originally published on AfterAcademy.com

Check out my other articles on Machine Learning

Recommended Reading

Happy Learning AI :)

Also, Let’s become friends on Twitter, Linkedin, Github, and Facebook.

Check out all the top articles at blog.mindorks.com

Learn Data Structures & Algorithms By AfterAcademy from here.
Kite Launches AI-Powered JavaScript Completions — Code Faster with Kite
By: The Kite Team
Tags: AI, JavaScript, Deep Learning, Python, Machine Learning

Let’s take a look…

Now let’s break it down…

Kite can complete up to multiple lines of code at a time, reducing the time you spend writing repetitive code.

Kite is able to provide completions when editors like VS Code cannot understand the code.

Kite shows completions in more situations, for example after a space.

Kite works alongside your editor’s completions. We use carefully-designed filters to reduce noise.

We’ve trained a new deep learning model on 22 million open-source JavaScript files to ensure Kite works with your favorite libraries and frameworks like React, Vue, Angular, and Node.js.

Kite for JavaScript is free and works 100% locally. You can download it here .

Kite makes coding faster and easier

The JavaScript ecosystem continually invents new frameworks and design patterns. These inventions make it a vibrant place to be, but it also creates the need to learn an ever-changing set of code patterns and APIs.

Kite’s deep learning models have learned all of these patterns, understand the context of your code, so Kite can predict chunks of code and put them in your completions. This can be useful in two ways:

If you already know what you need to type, Kite helps you jump ahead to the next task. If you’re having trouble remembering an API or design pattern, Kite can remind you so you don’t need to search on Google.

As a result, writing JavaScript with Kite becomes faster and more fun.

We’re just getting started

Kite can help you ship software faster today.

And we’re just getting started. We believe that machine learning can automate away the tedious parts of writing code, and there’s so much more to do. We’re continually exploring ways ML can unlock productivity gains for developers, and we hope that you will join us.

A big thanks to the 250,000 developers who use Kite

We’re thrilled to share today that over 250,000 people are coding with Kite every month . We feel grateful to have reached this milestone, and we’d like to thank everyone who uses Kite. This amazing progress wouldn’t be possible without each of you giving us the encouragement and feedback that fuels the hard work — 30,000 code commits to date — that got us here.

We hope you’ll join us on this journey by downloading Kite!

Happy coding,

The Kite Team

P.S. We are also announcing Kite Pro today, which is our first paid product for Python professionals. Check out our separate blog post about Kite Pro for more info!
The Fountain of Life
By: Vincent Van Patten
Tags: Creativity, Life, Life Lessons, Inspiration, Writing

It’s five in the morning; I live for this time of day. Outside it’s dark and cool, unsullied by the rays of the sun. I listen to the sound of the birds. They speak with the voice of the earth.

I listen and I write with no rigidity or hesitation.

The page of my notebook is a canvas, mercurial in its ability to adapt and become anything I imagine. The only boundaries are the depths of my mind. A new day approaches — a page in the book of our lives to explore.

I’m inspired; I can do no harm.
Open Submissions To The Loners’ Hideout
By: Laura Gulbranson
Tags: Personal Essay, Creativity, Poetry, The Loners Hideout, Writing

Hey guys!

This is Laura. I started The Loners’ Hideout over a month ago as a 30-day challenge to write every single day in the most authentic place I could — from the heart.

Just some background about the Hideout. The intention behind it is to create the safe space for writers to write from the heart.

The hope is that if you need some “alone time” to just write and let it vacate empty space in the universe, it can and will here at The Loners’ Hideout.

My sincere hope for The Hideout is not really growth, but authentic engagement.

What I don’t want to see is a “I follow you, you follow me” mentality when it comes to building and fostering relationships and never reading that person’s work again.

I want this to be a real place for real writers (aren’t we all ;)) to connect and not hold back on our writing.

I am currently abroad, but I will check for submissions at least 5 days out of the week. Either in August or September, I plan on restarting a 30-day challenge of sorts where I will post consistently every day on The Loners’ Hideout. Feel free to join me when the writing challenge begins. :)

This is a small, small publication. Don’t be afraid to reach out to other people who might have interest in the Hideout. All are welcome.

Submission Guidelines:

Write from the heart. Poetry, prose, short stories, personal essays, food for thought, and guides are all accepted here. I want the hideout to be the creative hub for our imaginations to take off as well as the spot to relax. (here’s an imaginary cup of coffee for you). If I see that there is a trend, I will create sub-categories for our writing. Accepting ALL Writers: I’m not a big stickler when it comes to grammar, but if you struggle with grammar, do your best to self-edit and I will do the rest. Again, I encourage all writers to submit no matter if you are just starting or are prolific with your work. If you think your ideas are too odd, join the club. If you keep the content between G and PG-13, it more than likely will be accepted. Submit anyways and don’t hesitate. This is a safe space to make mistakes. That’s how we learn. :) Create a resonating title that even you yourself would want to click and read. Choose your title image. It’s better if I leave it to you to do this. You know your story — your heart — best. Email me at theordinarylovestory@gmail.com if you are interested in becoming a contributor. Tell me a little bit about yourself, your profile on Medium, and I will add you. You can also write in the comments if you would like to contribute.

Just like anything in life, this Hideout will transform, but the essence will always remain the same:

When the world is too loud, sometimes we just need a safe space to hide out.

I look forward to reading what we come up with!

With love,

Laura
A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats
By: Attila Adam
Tags: Storytelling, Community, Creativity, Photography, Collaboration

As we’ve worked to make Chance Encounters stand out as a publication, LB and I have noticed that a few of our talented writers ran into some difficulties finding original images for their work. Rather than looking at this as a problem, we saw a solution.

Our initial thought of, “How cool would it be if writers paired up with photographers to tell their stories in a unique way?” was realized faster than we could have imagined. We have already published stories (with new ones on the way) that incorporate this hybrid approach. This feels like a good moment to thank the photographers for their contribution, and the writers for being open to the idea. We know it’s not always an easy decision.

Furthermore, if any other photographers out there would like to lend their talents to interesting, meaningful, and beautiful stories, let us know! This can be a great way to have your photos seen (with proper credit of course) while making friends. We couldn’t have imagined a better opportunity to create a chance collaboration! So meta of us, no?

And as we bring up help and collaboration, we should also mention that Chance Encounters was created exactly with this same mindset. We want every published story here to be seen, read and shared, regardless of how many followers its author may have. These kind of stories happen in split seconds, but we want them to live out there for a while.

By creating a life cycle and some consistency, we aim to run Chance Encounters like an old school publication, or tv/radio program, with the hopes of releasing a printed version in the future. It would be exciting to see our best work on printed pages. NOW you know why we’re ‘obsessing’ over original imagery.

Lastly, I’d like to share my thoughts on how I support fellow artists. As a film school graduate I’ve seen tons of stories and scripts that never got off the ground, and plenty of video footage that never got edited or finished. So my support doesn’t reflect my taste, nor does it depend on my critique. My support celebrates a completion of an idea, the hard work and effort behind it. That’s why I highlight passages that resonate with me, I leave notes, and I clap the maximum I’m allowed. If there was a virtual hug option, I would be all over it.

Imagine if everyone supported each other in the same every time one of our editors published a story. Our support could push their work further, and new many readers could discover their work, not to mention the Medium staff.

We all want our stories read, our voices heard, and our pictures seen — we could help each other achieve that. Especially when we tune in and engage. All I know is, as a community we can help each other tremendously just by showing up.

I know all this sounds like Utopia rather than a reality, and by no means is it a requirement to participate here. But by being open to collaboration, I just feel that we can do it much differently than others. I’m genuinely looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this topic. Feel free to leave your questions and feedback below.

~Attila
เมื่อไหร่จึงควรใช้แผนภูมิวงกลม (Pie chart)
By: Krist Wongsuphasawat
Tags: Design, Business, Visualization, Data, Charts

Written by

Data Experience @airbnb / Prev: Turn data into pixels @twitter • Invent new vis @UofMaryland HCIL PhD • From @Thailand • http://kristw.yellowpigz.com
Seven Different Visualizations of Immunization Data
By: Sarah Mason
Tags: Analytics, Big Data, AI, Data Science, Data Visualization

Photo by Joshua Sortino on Unsplash

When using data, analytics show answers and insight into facts collected in a spreadsheet, document, or database. Being able to understand data in a visual context makes a story pop from numbers and is easily understood by a wide range of readers or viewers. Visualizations are a quick and easy way to tell a data story making numbers pop and information easy to understand. There are many types of visualizations. Using data, let’s show seven ways to see the same information.

How is Immunization and Exemption of Immunization Displayed?

Immunization Records of school age children in Washington State 2014–2015 to show the seven visualizations that make analysis of data easy to understand and showcase for an audience using Power BI.

Area Plot

Area plots show a count by placing shading under the line from data points on the x axis and y axis. Shown are three lines with shading for comparing data graphically.

Bar Chart

Bar Charts show a count by shading to show a value for a specific label. Shown are three values with shading for each Educational Service District in the dataset horizontally.

Key Influencers

Key Influencers is a newer visualization that answers a binary style question. Based on an algorithm, the display shows top correlation of variables for proving a influence on data from a key variable.

Line Plot

Line plots show a count by connecting data points with a line. Shown are three lines of different colors for comparing data graphically.

Pie Chart

Pie Charts show a count by shading and size of wedge to show percentage of a whole in as wedges of a circle. Shown are “slices” of pie that show total immunization and exemption per Educational Service District adding to total state enrollment.

Scatter Plot

Scatter Plots show a count by size of dot and placement on a plane to show data. Shown are points with size to represent intensity and placement of enrollment by immunization count.

Word Cloud

Word Cloud shows most used words in a sample of text or an input file by displaying most used words larger and less used words smaller to evaluate written content. In graphic, website for the dataset is used in an online app for generating Word Cloud.

Value in Features

These are some of the visualizations that many apps or libraries can create from data. The purpose of this form of results is to quickly illustrate information and knowledge for a wide audience, or form a story out of data for consumption. From the results, some types are better for telling a story with this data. Creating a dashboard from placing multiple visuals together, requires finding the best visuals for the analysis to view results that are meaningful and weave data into a compelling story for knowledge.
Podcast: How To Handle Success & the Challenges of a Growing R&D Team — Karin Moscovici (Hebrew)
By: Riskified Technology
Tags: Development Methods, Managment, Development, Podcast, Engineering

How To Handle Success & the Challenges of a Growing R&D Team — Karin Moscovici

Podcast: How To Handle Success & the Challenges of a Growing R&D Team — Karin Moscovici (Hebrew) Riskified Technology Follow Oct 4 · 1 min read

There are many technological challenges at a scaling startup, like architecture changes, implementing new technologies, and more.

Listen to Karin Moscovici, our VP R&D, on how it’s like to manage a growing R&D organization and create a technological culture.

Recorded as part of Osim Tochna podcast — Click here to hear the full episode.
S.O.L.I.D Principles Explained In Five Minutes
Tags: Engineering, Software, Software Development, Programming, Design Patterns

Dependency inversion Principle (DIP)

This principle states that the high-level module must not depend on the low-level module, but they should depend on abstractions.

Consider the MessageBoard code snippet below

public class MessageBoard

{

private WhatUpMessage message; public MessageBoard(WhatsUpMessage message)

{

this.message = message;

}

}

The high-level module MessageBoard now depends on the low-level WhatsUpMessage. If we needed to print the underlying message in the high-level module, we would now find ourselves at the mercy of the low-level module. We would have to write WhatsUpMessage specific logic to print that message. If later, FacebookMessage needed to be supported, we would have to modify the high-level module( tightly-coupled code). That violates the Dependency inversion principle.

A way to fix that would be to extract that dependency. Create an interface and add whatever your high-level module needs. Any class that needed to use your high-level module would have to implement that interface.

Your interface would look something like this

public interface IMessage

{

public void PrintMessage();

}

Your MessageBoard now would look like this

public class MessageBoard

{

private IMessage message; public MessageBoard(IMessage message)

{

this.message = message;

} public void PrintMessage()

{

this.message.PrintMessage();

}

}

The low-level module would look like this

public class WhatUpMessage : IMessage

{

public void PrintMessage()

{

//print whatsup message

}

} public class FacebookMessage : IMessage

{

public void PrintMessage()

{

//print facebook message

}

}

That abstraction removes the dependency of the low-level module in your high-level module. The high-level module is now completely independent of any low-level module.

Using the S.O.L.I.D principles when writing code will make you a better developer and make your life a lot easier. You might even become the new popular person on the block if you’re the only one doing it. Thank you for making it to the end. Until next time, Happy coding.
Organise your Jupyter Notebook with these tips
By: Zolzaya Luvsandorj
Tags: Python, Data Science, Jupyter Notebook, Data, Workflow

📍 Tip 4. Create user-defined functions and save it in a module

You may have heard of the DRY principle: Don’t Repeat Yourself. If you haven’t heard of this software engineering principle before, it is about “not duplicating a piece of knowledge within a system”. One of my interpretation of this principle in Data Science is to create functions to abstract away the reoccurring tasks to reduce copy pasting. You can even use classes if it makes sense in your case.

Here are the suggested steps for this tip:

Create a function Ensure the function has an intuitive name Document the function with docstring (Ideally) Unit test the function Save the function in a .py file (.py file is referred as module) Import module in Notebook to access the function Use the function in Notebook

Let’s try to contextualise these steps with examples:

Here’s a simple way to assess if a function has an intuitive name: If you think a colleague who hasn’t seen the function before could roughly guess what the function does just by looking at its name, then you are on the right track. When documenting these functions, I have adapted a few different styles in a way it made more sense to me. While these examples serve as a working example function for Data Science, I highly encourage you to check out official guides such as below to learn the best practices in naming and documentation conventions, style guides and type hints:

You can even browse through modules in well-established package’s Github repository to get inspirations.

If you saved these functions in a helpers.py file and imported helpers module (by the way, Python module just means a .py file) in our Notebook with import helpers , you can access the documentation by writing the function name followed by Shift + Tab:

If you have many functions, you could even categorise and put them in separate modules. If you take this approach, you may even want to create a folder containing all the modules. While putting stable code into a module makes sense, I think it is fine to keep experimental functions in your Notebook.

If you implement this tip, you will soon notice that your Notebook start to look less cluttered and more organised. In addition, using functions will make you less prone to silly copy paste mistakes.

Unit testing was not covered in this post as it deserves its own section. If you would like learn about unit testing for Data Science, this PyData talk may be a good starting point.
This fascinating photo is of a
By: Toni Tails
Tags: Culture, History, Creativity, Art, Productivity

This fascinating photo is of a suit called The Wildman. No one knows the purpose of this 18th Century suit of armor. It may have been used for bear hunting or worse — bear baiting. It could also be a costume for a festival or a piece of folk art.

As of today, it’s displayed in The Menil Collection in Texas, along with other interesting historical artifacts. As far as we know, it’s the only suit of it’s kind.

One thing is for sure. Whoever wore this was not going to be getting a lot of hugs.
Attached To The Familiar
By: 𝘋𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘢 𝘊.
Tags: Storytelling, Short Story, Parable, Energy, Creativity

Rumi says that if a drop of the wine of vision could rinse our eyes, everywhere we looked, we would weep with wonder. Sadly, many of us are stuck in the confines of our culture and beliefs, and are unaware of the splendor that lies beyond what we know, beyond our perceptions and attachments.

“One way to expand our awareness, is to travel and experience a variety of unfamiliar cultures […] Another way to embrace the mystery and beauty of life is to learn the art of letting go of all that stands in the way of our inner development: for example, a belief that does not serve the common good, an argument that serves no purpose except saving face, a relationship that is toxic, a grudge that depletes our being.” (Sacred Laughter of The Sufis)

What are your thoughts on this matter? Leave some feedback if you feel like it or submit something in response to this article and tag it under “storytelling”.

Take care! See you next Thursday with brand new challenges.
The case of the missing deno_modules
By: Daniel Bark
Tags: Nodejs, JavaScript, Software Development, Typescript, Deno

When running code in Deno with external dependencies for the first time you might have noticed some downloading of packages taking place. Also if the file was a Typescript file you might have seen some indication of Typescript to Javascript compilation taking place. However the second time you ran the file none of that took place and the code just ran immediately.

You start to look around for any created folders or files that might be responsible for the immediate execution of the code. But you find nothing.

Where are my deno_modules?

Let’s shed some light on the mystery. Enter DENO_DIR .

By default, DENO_DIR is located in $HOME/.deno . However, since it is an ENV variable one could customise this. I also found cached Deno files in: $HOME/Library/Caches/deno

DENO_DIR is structured in the following way:

️ The case of the missing deno_modules is solved.🕵️‍

Hope you learned something new about Deno reading this.

Happy Hacking!
Bernie Sander’s Dreams Are a Movement, Not a Personality Cult
By: Glen Hendrix
Tags: Politics, Society, Life, Future, Leadership

Bernie Sander’s Dreams Are a Movement, Not a Personality Cult

There is hope for the future.

I love Bernie Sander’s political ideas, and I hate that he did not win the nomination and go on to win the presidency. He is a caring, intelligent guy. He wants to serve. He eschews power. He really and truly wants a society where equality and justice mean something, the least of jobs can be life sustaining, health care is a human right and not something to be held ransom by corporate thieves, there is affordable housing and education, corporations are denied the purchase of legislation or political offices, the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes, we begin to restore our planet’s climate, and drug laws aren’t adding to the millions incarcerated in a class war waged on the poor and minorities.

His campaign is over, but his values and beliefs and the fire he ignited will burn bright into the future. One must keep in mind this is a movement, not a personality cult like Trump’s. As such, it does not need Bernie. If Bernie decides to retire, there are others that think and feel like Bernie to fill his shoes. Notably, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will be eligible for the Presidency in 2024. Biden better watch out.

Upcoming generations of voters are realizing the current Democratic Party is the Republican Party Light. They may act a little smarter and more humane than their Republican counterparts, but they owe a monetary fealty to corporations and wealthy individuals just like Republicans do.

Along with health care and climate, the elimination of the influence of money in government is the key to turning around our corrupt political system. It was one of those things Bernie was most focused on. Without eliminating this exchange of money for power those other things are not obtainable. Who, except for a bunch of crooks, would think it was okay to legalize bribery like we’ve done in the U.S.? They’ve been doing it so long they no longer comprehend, or think about, the immorality.

The pandemic has pointed out how appropriate Bernie’s political ideas are for this day and age. He may be offered the position of Secretary of Labor in the Biden administration. So don’t give up hope. Stay safe and alive and keep that fire kindled for the day it joins other small fires to become a bonfire celebrating the arrival of justice and equality to American society. Here’s to Bernie or AOC in 2024.
Google Play Music Is Dead. Long Live Spotify And Apple Music
By: Anupam Chugh
Tags: Business, Marketing, Google, Technology, Social Media

Google Play Music Is Dead. Long Live Spotify And Apple Music

As another product bites the dust, Google now stands at the risk of killing its own music business

Images from Google, altered

We knew this was coming. Google had been planning to draw curtains over their decade-old music and podcast streaming service for a while now.

Now when the time has finally arrived, this all feels so sudden. However, it isn’t too surprising. The search engine giant has such a long history of discontinuing products that there’s a whole graveyard named after them.

Yet, seeing the doom of Google Play Music really hurts. After all, only last year, it was the default music player app shipped across millions of Android devices.

Today as Google begins forcing users to switch over to the newer YouTube Music app, it's hard to digest the fact that the much-loved Google Music product is officially dead.

Now, this would have been fine if YouTube Music was an equal substitution for Google Play Music. But the thing is, currently, YT Music doesn’t fill that void. Instead, it's a service that primarily focuses on boosting video viewing time rather than music playlists.

This makes Google’s whole strategy of replacing a working product by shoehorning it into another one a very questionable decision. It won’t be an overstretch to say that Google’s current move could inadvertently benefit its competitors even more.
You’re Creating a New Programming Language — What Will the Syntax Look Like?
By: Yakko Majuri
Tags: JavaScript, Technology, Programming, Software Engineering, Python

You’re Creating a New Programming Language — What Will the Syntax Look Like?

I asked a bunch of programmers about their favorite syntax — here’s what they said

A little while ago I decided to have a little fun and wrote an article titled “My Favorite Pieces of Syntax in 8 Different Programming Languages.”

I published it and then decided to share it on a subreddit — r/ProgrammingLanguages. This led to an interesting discussion about programming language syntax, as users shared their own favorites.

It left me with no choice: I had to write a new article with my favorite pieces of syntax from the r/ProgrammingLanguages community.
Creative Construction: How Artists and Engineers Collaborate
Tags: Design, Collaboration, Architecture, Art, Engineering

From the monumental Picasso sculpture in Chicago’s Daley Plaza, to Isamu Noguchi’s Red Cube in Lower Manhattan, SOM’s history of integrating iconic artworks into a wide variety of building sites is well documented. Perhaps less known, however, is the role that engineers have played in helping to realize various works of art. In some cases, SOM has developed structural engineering solutions for executing the artist’s vision. In others, an exploration of technical issues has led the artist to refine or expand their ideas.

Over the past decade, SOM’s structural engineers have developed tools, techniques, and approaches that have enhanced the impact of public art installed around the world — from a university campus in Omaha, Nebraska, to the lobby of the world’s tallest building in Dubai. In the summer of 2018, a number of these recent collaborations were featured as part of the exhibition “Poetic Structure: Art + Engineering + Architecture,” at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture in Los Angeles. The contents of this show are now making their way to Mexico City for the annual MEXTRÓPOLI Festival, in March 2019. In anticipation of the opening, we invite you to explore the engineering of art (and the art of engineering) across five creative collaborations.

Janet Echelman, “Dream Catcher” (2017)

Known for her colorful fiber net sculptures, Janet Echelman describes her installations as a “team sport,” with contributions from engineers, architects, and more. When she was commissioned to create a public artwork for The Jeremy Hotel in West Hollywood, Echelman envisioned a sculpture suspended above an open-air plaza between the hotel’s two buildings on the Sunset Strip. As the architects and engineers for the project, SOM worked closely with Echelman to seamlessly integrate the artwork into the new development.

Titled “Dream Catcher,” the sculpture is inspired by the idea of dreaming hotel guests — its interweaving forms of fiber netting are modeled after brainwave activity that occurs during dream states. Suspended 100 feet in the air, the translucent sculpture turns The Jeremy’s plaza into a dynamic and ethereal public space, while making a striking contribution to the streetscape of West Hollywood.
Alone You Can Make a Difference, United We Can Transform
By: Chetna Jai
Tags: Environment, Illumination, Earth, Future, Climate Change

The Reality is

We take so much time and effort in bettering ourselves.

➰Mentally we look to meditate, do yoga, and be mindful.

➰Physically we exercise, take care of our skin and hair, and spend tons of time and money shopping to look good.

➰Financially we save and invest money to make more money.

➰Professionally we learn new skills, upgrade our qualifications, take new courses, and network with others.

Are we doing enough individually to heal the earth? Are we investing our time and money in making decisions and giving back, to that which has provided bountifully?
Google extends its horrible streak with a new set of icon designs
By: Anupam Chugh
Tags: Google, UI, Design, Business, UX

Google extends its horrible streak with a new set of icon designs

Everything is wrong with the redesigned Google workspace logos

Image Credits: Google

A logo is the face or identity of the company. It helps set them apart from their competitors. Through visual designs, every brand looks to leave a strong impression in the minds of the customer while also building a sense of loyalty and trust.

In some ways, logos provide visual clarity and act like mini-mission statements. Customers are strongly associated with their favorite brand icons and hence crave consistency and familiarity.

Yet, as companies evolve with time, they are compelled to go through design shifts in order to represent their current business more accurately and of course, for staying afresh. From Slack to Spotify to Facebook to Medium, they all have done it and Google is no different.

Google has recently revamped its G-Suite software and it’s now called Google Workspace. As a part of the rebranding strategy, the tech giant also rehauled the iconic logos of some of its popular productivity apps including Gmail, Drive, Meet, Calendar, and others. As soon as Google rolled out the new set of icons, customers were fuming in despair and denial. For some, the new icons looked specifically designed for kids.

But, the backslash Google has received for their latest rebranding isn’t surprising at all given their history. Before we dig into what’s wrong with Google’s new icon designs, let’s take a moment to delve into their past design blunders.
4 Meditation Practices to Tap into Your Creative Potential
By: Jean-Marc Buchert
Tags: Mindfulness, Meditation, Productivity, Creativity, Self Improvement

4 Meditation Practices to Tap into Your Creative Potential

Creative flow comes also from being mindful of your thoughts

Photo by Kreated Media on Unsplash

When researchers studied yogis with the most hours of meditation, they discovered with surprise their ability to produce high-frequency gamma waves in their brains.

This state is a sign of intense activity, a kind of “Eureka effect” also present when we realize new connections between our ideas.

These Yogi learned through a very long and rigorous work to put their minds on a state of strong creative energy.

According to Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson in The Science of Meditation, although we may never achieve the expertise of these masters, studies show that the practice of meditation triggers the different states conducive to your creativity.

By increasing your self-confidence, by clarifying and emptying your mind of distractions, by making you deeply focus on your thoughts and reflections, and by activating selective brain waves, it opens your mind to new creative resources.

Here’s how 4 meditative practices give you new connections in your ideas and emotions.
Ternary Conditional Operators in Python
By: Mohammad Ahmad
Tags: Coding, Programming, Software Development, Artificial Intelligence, Python

Ternary Conditional Operators in Python

Mastering Efficient List and Dictionary Comprehension

Photo by Belinda Fewings on Unsplash

Python is versatile to use and its goal is to make development easier for the user. Compared to C# or Java which are notoriously cumbersome to master, Python is relatively easy to get good at. Moreover, it’s relatively easy to get pretty damn good at.

List and Dictionary Comprehension are widely used methods but something I find that’s a bit less used (especially by beginners) is the Ternary Conditional Operator. The method really streamlines your code and makes it both visually and economically better to run and deal with. Just don’t make it too complicated!

They’re pretty easy to get your head around, so let’s get into it.
How Facebook Plans to Crack Down on Anti-Vax Content
By: Jake Shore
Tags: Technology, Social Media, Science, Facebook, Vaccines

When you search “vaccine” on Facebook, one of the first search results includes a group called “Vaccine Injury Stories,” where users share posts featuring common hoaxes that blame vaccinations for infant sickness and death.

With a quick search, more than 150 groups appear on Facebook — some with thousands of members — promoting misinformation about vaccines’ effects and acting as an echo chamber for pseudoscience. The social network pledged to crack down on these groups in March but has not announced any clear plans until now.

Next month, Facebook is rolling out a search tool to combat this kind of misinformation, the company told Cheddar, similar to what Twitter launched last week.

Once the tool is live, a search of “vaccines” or related terms on Facebook will link to a neutral medical institution, like the Center for Disease Control (CDC), and more medically-verified information about vaccines. Similar to what Facebook did with searches about buying opioids and white nationalism, the information will sit at the top of search results and present facts alongside misinformation, rather than banning or removing the content altogether.
Scammers Are Targeting COVID-19 Contact Tracing Efforts
By: George J. Ziogas
Tags: Privacy, Health, Cybersecurity, Coronavirus, Covid 19

The Vast Majority of Contact Tracing Takes Place on the Phone

You should immediately be suspicious of contact tracing outreach that takes place via email or text message. The vast majority of contact tracing efforts are done over the phone, and very few legitimate agencies use email or text messages for their initial outreach.

Even if you think the contact tracing email or text message may be legitimate, you should never click any embedded links. These links could harbor malware and viruses designed to steal your private information.

Contact Tracers Will Not Mention COVID-19 Patients by Name

In an effort to gain your trust, the scammers may tell you that a close family member or friend has tested positive for COVID-19, and that you should immediately schedule a test for the virus.

That kind of news is certainly alarming, but it’s likely not real. There are strict privacy laws in place surrounding healthcare and medical diagnoses, and contact tracers are not allowed to say who is infected, only where they have been and who they have been in contact with.

Unfortunately, the inclusion of a name often lends credibility to the scammers, fooling even those who are generally very wary of such efforts. Keep in mind, however, that bad actors can easily find this kind of information on social media, and you should not fall for the ruse.

Never Hand over Your Social Security Number or Banking Information

Another thing legitimate COVID-19 contact tracers will never do is ask for your Social Security number or banking information. If the person on the other end of the phone makes such a request, you should simply hang up.

If you have caller ID and the phone number is visible, you can contact the local police to report the suspected crime. These scams are gaining speed, and it’s important to protect your friends and neighbors as well as yourself.

Watch out for COVID-19 Testing Charges

One of the most important goals of COVID-19 contact tracing is to identify potential sources of infection and facilitate testing for the disease. Legitimate contact tracers will urge those they call to schedule a COVID-19 test as soon as possible, and they will provide a list of resources and testing sites as well.

What legitimate contact tracers will not do is demand payment up front. They will not require you to hand over credit card or bank account information, and if they do, again, just hang up.

In the vast majority of cases, you will not have to pay anything at all for a COVID-19 test, especially if you’ve been in contact with someone who has tested positive for the disease. Insurance companies are required to cover COVID-19 testing and treatment at no cost to their subscribers, and government funding generally covers testing costs for the uninsured.
Radar Chart Basics with Python’s Matplotlib
By: Thiago Carvalho
Tags: Python, Matplotlib, Radar Charts, Data Science, Data Visualization

Radar Chart Basics with Python’s Matplotlib

One handy alternative for displaying multiple variables

In this article, I’ll go through the basics of building a Radar chart, a.k.a — Polar, Web, Spider, and Star charts.

The purpose of this visualization is to display in a single viewing, multiple quantitative variables. That allows us to compare the variables with each other, visualize outliers, and even comparisons with various sets of variables by visualizing multiple radar charts.

The idea comes from Pie charts, more precisely one of its variations, the Polar Area Chart.

Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale — Considered to be the precursor of modern nursing, was also the first to publish a polar area chart.

Her aesthetic and informative chart brings information about the Crimean war, more specifically about the causes of deaths. The areas of the slices represent the number of deaths in each month, where blue are deaths by preventable or mitigable Zymotic diseases, red are deaths from wounds, and black are other causes of death. With that, she was able to clarify the importance of nursing, by displaying that most deaths were not caused by war wounds, but rather by mitigable diseases.

Later in 1877, the German scientist Georg von Mayr would publish the first Radar Chart.

Even though both divide a circumference into equal parts, and have similar origins, they differ a lot, starting by how they encode the values — The Polar Area chart use slices and their areas. In contrast, Radar charts use the distance from the center to mark a point.
Better understanding of matplot-library
By: Saroj Humagain
Tags: Machine Learning, Python, Data Science, Matplotlib, Data Visualization

“Picture is worth a thousand words”, the plots and graphs can be very effective to convey a clear description of the data to an audience or sharing the data with other peer data scientists. Data visualization is a way of showing complex data in a graphical form to make it understandable. When you are trying to explore the data and getting familiar with it, data visualization is used. In any corporate industry, it can be very valuable to support any recommendations to clients, managers, or decision-makers.

Darkhorse Analytics is a company that runs a research lab at the University of Alberta since 2008. They have done really fascinating work on data visualization. Their approach to visualizing data depends on three key points: less is more effective, it is more attractive, and it is more impactive. In other words, any feature incorporated in the plot to make it attractive and pleasing must support the message that the plot is meant to get across not to distract from it.

Matplotlib

Matplotlib is one of the most popular data visualization library in python. It was created by a neurobiologist, John Hunter(1968–2012). Matplotlib’s architecture is composed of three layers:

Architecture of matplotlib

Backend layer

The back-end layer has three built-in abstract interface classes:

A. FigureCanvas: matplotlib.backend_bases.FigureCanvas

It defines and encompasses the area onto which the figure is drawn.

B. Renderer : matplotlib.backend_bases.Renderer

An instance of the renderer class knows how to draw on the FigureCanvas.

C. Event: matplotlib.backend_bases.Event

It handles user input such as keyboard strokes and mouse clicks. Artist layer

It is composed of one main object, i.e Artist. The artist is the object that knows how to use the renderer to draw on the canvas. Everything we see in the Matplotlib figure is an artist instance. There are two types of artist object

A. Primitive: Line2d, Rectangle, Circle, and Text.

B. Composite: Axis, Tick, Axes, and Figure

Each composite can contain other Composite artists as well as primitive artists. For example, a figure artist would contain as axis artist as well as a text artist or rectangle artist. Scripting layer

It was developed for those scientists who are not professional programmers. The goal of this layer is to perform a quick exploratory analysis of data. It is essentially the Matplotlib.pyplot interface. It automates the process of defining a canvas and defining a figure artist and connecting them. Since it automatically defines canvas, artist and connects them. It makes data analysts easy to do things. So most of the data scientists prefer this scripting layer to visualize their data.

The above code plots a histogram of a hundred random numbers and saves the histogram as matplotlib_histogram.png.

The versatility of Matplotlib can be used to make many visualization types:-

Scatter Plots

The output of the above code

Bar charts and Histograms

Bargraph

Histogram

Line plots

Line plots

Pie charts

pie chart

Stem plots