A still from the recording of last night’s class. Tap to view at full size.
Yesterday was Evening 3 of the 10-evening “Learn Python” class that I’m teaching on behalf of Computer Coach, a tech training center here in Tampa. It started last Wednesday and takes place online every Monday and Wednesday from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.. There are 15 students in the class.
So far, the class is going well. In fact, I’m rather impressed. Even though some of them have only a little programming experience and others have none, they’re learning at a great pace, and better still, they’re cleverly applying what they’re learning, and they’re not afraid to ask questions and experiment.
For example, there’s the Fizzbuzz exercise. It’s where the challenge is to a program that counts from 1 to 100 and prints out the current number as it does this, while following these rules:
If the current number is divisible by 3, don’t print the number. Print “fizz” instead.
If the current number is divisible by 5, don’t print the number. Print “buzz” instead.
If the current number is divisible by both 3 and 5, don’t print the number. Print “fizzbuzz” instead.
Not only did they figure out how to make it work — not bad for evening 2! — but some of them started add their own ideas to the application. One said “I’m tweaking the program so that you can enter what numbers get turned into ‘fizz’ and ‘buzz’ instead of just 3 and 5.” And those modifications worked.
While covering if for comparing numbers, another student asked “Is there some way where I can compare a number to see if it’s part of a group of different numbers?” This led me to introduce lists and the in operator a little early, but it was a sign that one of them was already trying to come up with ways to apply a concept they’d just learned minutes before.
Last night, while I was demonstrating some list methods, yet another student asked “How do I pop an item from one list and then add it to another?” Again, that’s something someone does only when they grasp a new concept and start thinking up applications for it.
I just have to say this: I’m very impressed with this Python class.
Here’s the list of tech, entrepreneur, and nerd events for Tampa Bay and surrounding areas for the week of Monday, September 12 through Sunday, September 18, 2022.
Every week, with the assistance of a couple of Jupyter Notebooks that I put together, I compile this list for the Tampa Bay tech community.
As far as event types go, this list casts a rather wide net. It includes events that would be of interest to techies, nerds, and entrepreneurs. It includes (but isn’t limited to) events that fall under the category of:
Programming, DevOps, systems administration, and testing
Tech project management / agile processes
Video, board, and role-playing games
Book, philosophy, and discussion clubs
Tech, business, and entrepreneur networking events
Toastmasters (because nerds really need to up their presentation game)
Sci-fi, fantasy, and other genre fandoms
Anything I deem geeky
By “Tampa Bay and surrounding areas”, this list covers events that originate or are aimed at the area within 100 miles of the Port of Tampa. At the very least, that includes the cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater, but as far north as Ocala, as far south as Fort Myers, and includes Orlando and its surrounding cities.
This week’s events
I try to keep this list up-to-date. I add new events as soon as I hear about them, so be sure to check the latest version of this week’s list here on Global Nerdy!
If you’d like to get this list in your email inbox every week, enter your email address below. You’ll only be emailed once a week, and the email will contain this list, plus links to any interesting news, upcoming events, and tech articles. Join the Tampa Bay Tech Events list and always be informed of what’s coming up in Tampa Bay!
What:An introductory Python course! I’m teaching it on behalf of Computer Coach, a Tampa-based training company and friends of mine.
Where: Online, via Zoom.
When: Monday and Wednesday evenings, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., starting this Wednesday, September 7th.
How to enroll or find out more: Contact Computer Coach’s Kasandra Perez at kasandra@computercoach.com or (813)-254-6459 to find out more about the course or register.
You’ll need the following to participate in the course:
Zoom and an internet connection. I’ll be teaching the course via Zoom — this is an online course — and we’ll also visit some web sites and download some software during the course.
The state of Python
All you have to do is look at the current developer surveys and tech news headlines to know that right now, Python is having its “moment”:
Developer research company Slashdata’s 22nd State of the Developer Nation report puts Python as the second-most popular programming language behind JavaScript, having added 3.3 million net new developers in late 2021/early 2022.
CodingNomads, a coding school in California, looked at thousands of job postings in North America and Europe and declared Python as the most in-demand coding language for 2022.
As for salaries…
These are salaries from 2020, found at CareerFoundry.
…you can say that the pay is decent. Pair Python with another tech skill (for instance, JavaScript) or a people skill (say, managing developers), and you can make even more.
The schedule
This is the course schedule for Learn Python. It’s flexible — if there’s a need spend more time on a specific topic, we’ll do that. The point isn’t to cover every topic on the list; it’s to give you the necessary grounding in Python and programming to continue after the course is over!
Sessions will take place via Zoom, which means that you can take the course from wherever you happen to be. There will be ten sessions, and each will run from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., with ten-minute breaks at the end of the first, second, and third hour.
Day 1 : Hello, Python! Wednesday, September 7, 6:00 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Setting up the programming environment
Introducing Jupyter Notebook
Variables and simple data types
Programming in sequence
Day 2: Algorithms aren’t just for Facebook Monday, September 12, 6:00 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Branching (a.k.a. “If” / “elif” / “else”)
Lists
Looping
Day 3: Organizing data and code, and listening to the user Wednesday, September 14, 6:00 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Dictionaries
Functions
Getting input from the user
Day 4: Getting serious Monday, September 19, 6:00 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Object-oriented programming
Working with files
Handling exceptions
Day 5: When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro Wednesday, September 21, 6:00 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Running Python programs from the command line
Importing Python modules
Organizing files
Day 6: The web and data Monday, September 26, 6:00 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Web programming with Flask
SQLite: The database built into Python
Day 7: Just enough data science to be dangerous Wednesday, September 28, 6:00 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Introduction to data science and Python’s data science libraries
Days 8 – 9: Using your Python powers for good Monday, October 3, 6:00 p.m. – 10 p.m. Wednesday, October 5, 6:00 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Using Python to handle all sorts of programming tasks, which could include:
Building the scripts that generate the Tampa Bay Tech Events list
Automating email and spreadsheets
Building a weather app
Day 10: Just the beginning Monday, October 10, 6:00 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Review of everything covered
What you should cover next
Programming interview questions
What happens in the course?
This is not a passive course! This isn’t the kind of course where the instructor lectures over slides while you take notes (or pretend to take notes while surfing the web or checking your social media feeds). In this course, you’ll follow along as I write code on my screen. You’ll actively take part in the learning process, entering code, experimenting, making mistakes, correcting those mistakes, and producing working applications. You will learn by doing. At the end of each session, you’ll have a collection of little Python programs that you wrote, and which you can use as the basis for your own work.
The course will start at the most basic level by walking you through the process of downloading and installing the necessary tools to start Python programming. From there, you’ll learn the building blocks of the Python programming language:
Control structures that determine what your programs do,
Data structures to store the information that your programs act on,
Functions and objects to organize your code, and
Using libraries as building blocks for your applications.
Better still, you’ll learn how to think like a programmer. You’ll learn how to look at a goal and learn how you could write a program to meet it, and how that program could be improved or enhanced. You’ll learn skills that will serve you well as you take up other programming languages, and even learn a little bit about the inner workings of computers, operating systems, and the internet.
What kind of apps will you build?
We’ll build as many applications as we can, based on your suggestions or needs. These include (and aren’t limited to):
CoverTron: My generator for cover letters for job applications. I actually used it in my last job search!
Tampa Bay Tech Events Transmogrifier: Every week, I put together a list of tech events for Tampa Bay, culled from Eventbrite and Meetup. It would take me hours to do it by hand, but it’s so much quicker with the automated help of a couple of Python scripts.
Find out when and where a digital photo was taken: When you take a picture with your phone or a present-day digital camera, that picture has EXIF data embedded in it, with the date, time, and location where the photo was taken. I’ll show you how to extract that info!
Editing photos: If you were assigned the task of shrinking a set of 100 photos by 25% (or any other similar basic photo editing task), you could do it manually, or you could make Python do it.
Creating interactive documents with Jupyter Notebook: It’s more than just a Python tool used by data scientists, Nobel Prize winners, and Netflix, but a useful programming environment and operations platform for everyday tasks!
Writing web applications with Flask: Just as Python makes programming much easier, the Python-powered Flask framework makes programming web applications much easier.
Passing interview coding tests: Learn how to deal with the most dreaded part of the interview for a programming job, and why Python is a key part of my coding interview strategy.
Using databases: Using databases is a key part of programming, and luckily, Python comes with a built-in database!
Data science: This is a giant topic and could easily take up the time to do this course three times, but I’d be happy to go over the basics.
Interactive storytelling and games: Python’s quite good at this, and I can walk you through the PyGame framework and Ren’Py interactive story system.
Mobile app development: Yes, there are ways to do mobile app development in Python.
How do you sign up for the course or find out more?
Once again, you’ll want to contact Computer Coach’s Kasandra Perez at Contact Kasandra Perez at kasandra@computercoach.com or (813)-254-6459 to find out more about the course or register.
I’m minding the Okta/Auth0 booth at ng-conf 2022, the conference for all things Angular, this week. I brought the accordion with me, and once again, it turned out to be a good idea.
On Day 1 of the conference (Wednesday) I got invited to do a quick last-minute accordion performance onstage before the afternoon break. So I broke out a favorite of mine, Should I Sleep of Should I Code? to the tune of The Clash’s Should I Stay or Should I Go?.
Here’s the list of tech, entrepreneur, and nerd events for Tampa Bay and surrounding areas for the week of Monday, September 5 through Sunday, September 11, 2022.
Every week, with the assistance of a couple of Jupyter Notebooks that I put together, I compile this list for the Tampa Bay tech community.
As far as event types go, this list casts a rather wide net. It includes events that would be of interest to techies, nerds, and entrepreneurs. It includes (but isn’t limited to) events that fall under the category of:
Programming, DevOps, systems administration, and testing
Tech project management / agile processes
Video, board, and role-playing games
Book, philosophy, and discussion clubs
Tech, business, and entrepreneur networking events
Toastmasters (because nerds really need to up their presentation game)
Sci-fi, fantasy, and other genre fandoms
Anything I deem geeky
By “Tampa Bay and surrounding areas”, this list covers events that originate or are aimed at the area within 100 miles of the Port of Tampa. At the very least, that includes the cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater, but as far north as Ocala, as far south as Fort Myers, and includes Orlando and its surrounding cities.
This week’s events
I try to keep this list up-to-date. I add new events as soon as I hear about them, so be sure to check the latest version of this week’s list here on Global Nerdy!
Monday, September 5 – Labor Day
Keep in mind that Monday is Labor Day, and some of the events listed below may not actually take place on that day (many people simply list their events as “every Monday,” which Meetup.com will simply accept, completely ignorant on holidays). If you plan to attend an event on Labor Day Monday, check with the organizers to make sure it’s actually happening!
If you’d like to get this list in your email inbox every week, enter your email address below. You’ll only be emailed once a week, and the email will contain this list, plus links to any interesting news, upcoming events, and tech articles. Join the Tampa Bay Tech Events list and always be informed of what’s coming up in Tampa Bay!
