Author: Ajay Ohri

https://linkedin.com/in/ajayohri

Planet Python #python #analytics

Planet Python is an excellent site for people keeping an eye on Python http://planet.python.org/ – you can grab the Feedburner RSS feed here http://feeds.feedburner.com/python/PMUk

With almost 300 plus feeds flowing in, this is the Pythonic version of R Bloggers (with hat tip to R bloggers founder, Tal G for pointing me to this site). Note I have written before on FOAS   and it’s Pythonic counterpart NumFocus – those are basically foundations  for encouraging language development and usage while Planet Python and R bloggers are blog aggregators

The Planet Python site has no ads, and is actually supported by the Python Official Website. It also has an OPML feed in case you want to replicate it easily –http://planet.python.org/opml.xml

However the lack of ads is a dual edged sword as it hurts startups, corporates and trainers in the Python ecosystem. Also there seems no easy way to get the newsletter in a daily email.

Do you blog on, write on or read Python- here is Planet Pythonpy

 

  • For bloggers- To request addition or removal:
    e-mail planet at python.org (note, responses can take up to a few days)

Game Review: Ingress Calgary versus Ingress Delhi

  1. I apologize in advance to non gaming readers of this blog.
  2. I have written about Ingress before here
  3. I am also experimenting with a new way of writing- in bullet points than in paragraphs.
  4. Huge number of portals in downtown Calgary compared to Delhi
  5. Huge number of mind units in Delhi/ India- just made a field with 220 K MUs which is impossible to make or hold in Calgary 13 - 1 (1)
  6. The smurfs have beaten the frogs in submission in Delhi, with the ability to put up giant 50 million MUs almost at will
  7. Complete domination in one area leads to boring play for everyone especially for fields that are huge
  8. Very tough to see the roads etc in a quadruple layer blue field as was the case for last two weeks in Delhi
  9. Easily the least number of AP I have been scoring since I began playing 5 months ago.
  10. To my surprise , Ingress keeps rejecting things like Transit stations etc. There seems to be a different strict criterion in different countries in accepting portals. Maybe this is due to bandwidth constraint since Ingress is totally free as to the best of my knowledge.
  11. I still dont know how Ingress makes money but yeah the geo-game-play data would be awesome for simulations!
  12. The new stats in Agent tab are good, but maybe some graphs can help
  13. On a LG phone , Ingress fonts are bloated
  14. Heaven is a good and cheap data plan on your phone and a great Metro system to transport you to portal glory without wasting much time
  15. Delhi has a tonne of history. Pity not so many portals!

 

Cyber Reconnaissance of foreign leaders through implantable medical devices

In an earlier article I had talked of the frightening under preparation of medicine against cyber attacks I had listed some resources- here

https://decisionstats.com/2011/09/21/denial-of-service-attacks-against-hospitals-and-emergency-rooms/

Some more papers on this are here  https://spqr.eecs.umich.edu/papers/b1kohFINAL2.pdf and here http://www.cis.temple.edu/~jiewu/research/publications/Publication_files/Defending%20Resource%20Depletion%20Attacks%20on.pdf  and here http://gao.gov/assets/650/647767.pdf

Sadly there is a complete lack of updated research in public arena. I wonder if the cloud era needs a new eco system of Information Security. Where is John McAffee when you need him?

With Cyber Snooping or Cyber Reconnaissance  (NSA) much in the news lately, I wonder if countries monitor the health of foreign leaders  like Sonia Gandhi etc through medical devices- a good number of these surgeries are done in the United States for political leaders.

Movie Review- The Fifth Estate

Benedict Cumberbatch, adorable and cerebral, anti-hero in Star Trek, Sherlock and maybe even Star Wars, is curiously underplayed in this curious movie about a curious man. It is half-way between a spin job by Illumnati, US State Department, Murdochian forces (choose your conspiracy) and a simple hatch job by an ex disgruntled employee. Julian Assange, Hacker Ground Zero is portrayed with adequate subtlety but inadequate credibility as an abused child, paranoid, abusive , manipulative liar while the associate who acted as consultant to the movie and founded Openleaks which hasnt really leaked anything- this is a bad job and bad art. However on 23 December 2012 Domscheit-Berg announced on the website that the organisation will not go ahead as previously intended, and would now only focus on spreading information and expertise regarding how to set up and run leak websites rather than directly facilitating leaks themselves.[29]

At times the movie is boring, at times educational. The nice Matrix like visual special effects fail to bring the emotional connection. Mr Cumberbatch risks alienating his core geek fan club- ironically the movie which has shown bad box office results only shows the irony- Benedict Cumberbatch made more money acting as Julian Assange than Julian Assange did acting as himself.

Fifth Estate indeed- but a second rate movie!

The_Fifth_Estate_poster

SAS Inc promotes coding in Hour of Code

Impressive Initiative from SAS. I hope they also do something for the skilled coders in the analytics community as a whole not just webinars, downloadable white papers and/or conferences /lunches

from-

http://blogs.sas.com/content/sascom/2013/10/28/what-are-you-doing-to-promote-the-hour-of-code/

Teachers are encouraged to expose students to online tutorials that may be completed with just a web-browser, tablet, or smartphone. My personal favorite is Blockly.  Just try it, and I promise you’ll be fascinated.

There are also unplugged tutorials for students without computer access. No experience is needed! The idea is to help students experience the power of coding and get them “hooked” so they will enroll in at least one computer science course.

I’d like to share what we are doing at SAS to promote the Hour of Code in order to spark ideas for how other companies can do the same.

We are educating SAS employees and arming them with resources to act as advocates. On Dec. 10, SAS CIO Keith Collins will provide an overview at a special lunch event and will encourage employees to be ambassadors for the Hour of Code.  For those not able to attend, we will archive the video so folks can watch at their convenience.

Why does NSA not track child pornography, fake pharma on Internet

I mean how much of the NSA’s budget is spent on combating evils like Merkel’s sms , versus trivial things like baby and child pornographers, people selling fake and illegal drugs and prescription medicine on Internet, and scams like shareware, hostage ware, viruses and simple people downloading illegal intellectual property.

I MEAN HOW MUCH DO THEY SPEND to combat true evil versus assumed security risks like Paris Hilton’s Google Search History or  Lady Gaga’s Facebook

If they can build Stuxnet-can they build backdoors that disable wifi on, wifi off signs, or even transmit data for intellectual property theft to give American companies advantages in trade negotiations with the Commies.

hey hey NSA, how many kids do you save from rape today?