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Month: May 2018 (Page 1 of 2)

Preparing for college and career

May 23, 2018 /

My eldest is finishing up her junior year of high school; thus, we’re deep in the throes of college planning. It’s quite an intimidating process and I’m doing what I can to educate myself as fast as possible. This post will be Part 1 of N number of posts about the adventure of college and career planning for my kids.

As podcasts are a chief conduit for my learning, I’m always looking for content that speak to the challenge of helping your kids prepare for college and career. One that I’ve found recently is the Plan for College Now podcast. The fourth episode–Get hired! Be the grad every employer will want to hire!–is dense with material for the soon-to-be college graduate, but can easily be applied to high schoolers and even present day laborers. Here are notes I took on this episode that you may find useful.

Think career first

The traditional American template for college planning seems to be: 1) choose a college that feels like the right fit for you, 2) once at that college, choose a major that feels like a good fit, and 3) once in that major, near your graduation date, begin to ponder your career options. This thinking is backwards. Individuals should: 1) first peruse the job market and try to identify several potential careers that might fit their goals, then 2) identify one or more college majors that match such careers and finally 3) match those majors to an appropriate college.

Prepare for the working world

You should constantly be monitoring the job market, especially in order to pick a degree that won’t soon go obsolete. As an aside, I’m reminded of the book Worthless that I read recently imploring youth not to pick degrees that aren’t worth the price of tuition. Someday I’ll have to write a review of that book.

Students should build their set of skills. Mentorships and internships are two important ways to do this. Would developing a specialty in your field of study boost your earning potential and increase your marketability? If so, specialize! The host then rattled off a number of ways you can set up an internship:

Network

Yes, actually talking to people can help you land a great job. Of course, the 21st century puts an interesting spin on this time-tested tradition. You can begin networking by simply talking to family, friends, school career counselors, professors, and school administrators. Another aside: check out this Art of Maniless podcast on the Art of Mingling…I imagine those skills would be very helpful in developing a professional network.

Later in the podcast, the host interviewed an expert of professional networking and she offered these tips for getting started building your network:

  • Tip 1: Focus on the outcomes of building relationships for your future career, not just your current job. This tip certainly speaks to me. I am not an extrovert and so, when I’m happy in my present job, I don’t feel inclined to be social with other professionals. Big mistake. I should always be thinking about building my professional network–you never know what sort of wonderful opportunity might be out there.
  • Tip 2: Communicate what you do, how you do it, and who you do it for so that people can see how they’ll benefit from meeting you.
  • Tip 3: Don’t forget to develop your online profile. Include a picture, too. Remember that your online networking and your profile is your marketing brochure. LinkedIn, of course, seems the obvious place to begin this work.
  • Tip 4: Create a routine of reaching out, especially with LinkedIn requests.

Social Media dos and don’ts

Do: use social media vehicles, such as LinkedIn, to stay in touch with people in particular industries in which you’re interested
Don’t: use social media for foolishness. Don’t be vulgar online, don’t post indiscreet pictures, and be extremely careful about posting your social and political views. There are plenty of stories out there about people losing job opportunities because of foolish things they’ve done online. Heck, in the recent NFL draft, one draftee might have placed his career at stake for stupid statements he posted while in high school. Take this lesson seriously!

Research the job market

The host reeled off a number of awesome tools and sites for researching hot industries and jobs:

Students should ask themselves, what skills are employers looking for in new hires? Apparently, the site Inside Higher Ed has some helpful hints in this area.

Regarding STEM jobs (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math), host Jim Wilkerson had this piece of wisdom:

“It’s a high tech digital world, folks, so you better embrace it because that’s where the jobs are going to be and the good paying jobs, as well.”

Agreed (but I am a little biased).

Employers want employees with excellent written and verbal skills. I certainly concur. Should you wish to improve these skills, check out this list of free writing courses.

Apparently, you can tailor your job market research by geographies of interest or interest in simply working from home. To that end, he mentioned the following resources:

Of course, the work-from-home-thing is rife with scams, so check out these resources to make sure that awesome work-from-home opportunity isn’t too good to be true:

Maintain good physical and financial health

I took some issue with this part of the podcast. The host said, “due to the high cost of financial stress, many companies now do credit checks on all new hires.” Really? Is that even legal? He was suggesting that it can be expensive for companies to hire professionals that are distracted by their personal financial issues and/or succumb to illness from such stress. I suppose that makes sense, but I just can’t see how that would fly in today’s super anti-discrimination climate. The host goes on to talk about the importance of staying physically healthy and certainly offer the appearance of being physically healthy. I’m sure appearing physically ill or unfit (or appearing old, like me) will diminish your job prospects to some degree, but, again, I would guess today’s climate would rail against such things.

Learn about your prospective companies

The host summed up this point pretty succinctly:

“Never go into an interview without looking at their [the company’s] website….Employers are not impressed with candidates who don’t take the time to complete this simple step.”

Research the company to which you are applying and/or interviewing with. Read press releases, read their website, and read about their core values. In your cover letter, include the same language they use in their values statements, mission and goals. Your resume and cover letter should include words from their job description in case they do word matches to compare your resume to their job posting and make sure your resume is tailored for the job to which you’re applying. Here are two more resources he noted to help with this endeavor:

Also, never lie to your prospective employer. You will get caught and it won’t be pretty.

Your attitude

Whether networking or interviewing, project the right attitude: be energetic, confident, make eye contact, and be positive. Think about what value you can offer the company and make sure you speak in these terms.

“Always keep your eye on the goal: a good job offer once you graduate.” (Jim Wilkerson)

Again, this was a great podcast brimming over with valuable resources to help your child or even yourself succeed in the job market. The only other thing I would add that doesn’t seem to get mentioned in these types of discussions is Entrepreneurship. I try to always make sure my kids know that there is a second option: come up with a great idea and build a business around it yourself. Keep your options open and understand that there’s more than one route to success.

Watermarking Jupyter Notebooks

May 19, 2018 /

Watermarked content can be annoying, but I get it: you work hard on a product and you should get credit for it. At my job, I sometimes have the same challenges–I work hard on a report or product, hand it over to the co-worker who requested it, and he takes it to upper management passing the content off, either unintentionally or otherwise, as his own. If only I could in some way watermark my work to make it clear where it originated.

Since I do a fair amount of work these days in Jupyter Notebook, I decided to take this question there and came up with three approaches:

1. The traditional image file approach

The most common approach to watermarking a web page seems to be creating an image file with your watermark and referencing that image file in your CSS. In Jupyter Notebook, you can use the IPython API to load your CSS:



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from IPython.core.display import HTML





HTML('<style type="text/css">'

    'div#notebook {'

    'background-image: url("dadoverflow_wm.png");'

    'background-repeat: repeat;}'

    '</style>')

(The full notebook is here)

Alternatively, you can use this clever custom.css approach so that your watermark loads automatically in all your notebooks without any extra coding on your part.

One big drawback to this solution is that if you hand off your notebook to your customer, that image file needs to go with it. If your customer wants to get rid of your watermark, all he has to do is throw away the image file. Bummer!

2. Base64 encode that image file

Files can be embedded in a web page, so to speak, by base64 encoding them and pasting the encoding right into your HTML. You can take this approach with your watermark and then never have to worry about the image file having to travel side-by-side with your notebook. Here, I first base64 encode my image file and then use the IPython API to shove my markup, including my base64, into the CSS:



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import base64

from IPython.core.display import HTML





with open('dadoverflow_wm.png', 'rb') as f:

    encoded_string = base64.b64encode(f.read()).decode()

    

image_url = 'data:image/png;base64,{0}'.format(encoded_string)

HTML('<style type="text/css">'

    'div#notebook {'

    'background-image: url("' + image_url + '");'

    'background-repeat: repeat;}'

    '</style>')

(The full notebook is here)

Same deal as above, you can also paste that markup in a custom.css that all your notebooks will inherit. While this eliminates your dependence on that image file, base64 strings, like this one, are huge! It is not fun dealing with such things. Fortunately, there’s yet a better solution.

3. The SVG way

SVG tags are the continuum transfunctioners of HTML–their mystery is only exceeded by their power. But you can do amazing things with SVGs, watermarking your pages among them. Here, I don’t even need to rely on an image file, base64 encode or not. I simply adjust the properties of my SVG and TEXT tags as needed to get the effect I’m after:



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from IPython.core.display import HTML





svg = ("<svg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' version='1.1' height='600px' width='600px'>"

       "<text x='-350' y='500' fill='lightgray' font-size='80' font-family='Arial' transform='translate(30) rotate(-45 0 0)'>DadOverflow.com</text></svg>")

HTML('<style type="text/css">'

    'div#notebook {'

    'background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;utf8,' + svg + '");'

    'background-repeat: repeat;}'

    '</style>')

 

You can find all three of these examples in my GitHub page.

Saving time in Windows

May 13, 2018 /

I’m always trying to find ways to save time and working on the computer is no exception. At work, I do some work in Linux, but probably 95% of my computing time at work and at home is in Microsoft Windows. While I certainly do look to free and pay software to save time, Windows itself has a lot of nifty features that can cut down a lot of work time. Here are a few you might find helpful (NB: many of these reference the Windows key found on Windows-friendly keyboards, so I’d highly recommend becoming familiar with that key):

1. The Run Window (Win+R)

The Run Window is a great place to quickly fire up many applications you use without having to find the icon on your desktop or search through the Start Menu. Need a new instance of Notepad? Go to the Run Window and type “notepad”. Microsoft Word? Type “winword”. The calculator? Type “calc”. You can easily launch the Run Window with the Windows key plus R (Win+R) or by right-clicking on the Start Menu icon and selecting “Run” from the context menu.

2. Copy as Path

Often, I will need to have the full path to a file: say, I’m running an application and wish to open a file in it, such as an image or document. I could select the “Open” menu item and navigate through several folders to find my file. However, another option is to find my file in Windows Explorer, then hold the Shift button down and right-click on the file. A context menu will appear that includes a selection called “Copy as path”. This will copy the full path to your file in your clipboard. Now, you can paste that path in the “Open” dialog box and open your file more quickly.

3. “Cmd” in explorer

Sometimes I need to work with my files at the command line. I could certainly open a new command window by going to the Run Window and typing “cmd”, by then I would have to do a lot of change directory commands to get to the folder where my files are. Lots of wasted time. Alternatively, you can navigate to where your files are in Windows Explorer. Then, click in the address bar. The path to that folder becomes highlighted. Now, just type “cmd” and hit <Enter>. A new command window will open that’s immediately at your folder location.

4. Locking your computer with Win+L

When working on your computer, security should always be a top priority. So, whenever you get up and walk away from your workstation, you should lock your computer so that no one else can come up to it while you’re away and do nefarious things on it. The easiest way to lock your computer is the key combination of the Windows Key+L. I use this combination multiple times throughout the day.

5. Pin to taskbar

The newer versions of Windows allow you to “pin” an application to your taskbar. This way, an icon for your application will be permanently affixed to your taskbar allowing you to very easily launch the application when you need it. To pin an application to the taskbar, first launch it. You’ll see that the icon of your application now appears on the taskbar. Right-click on that icon. In the context menu, you’ll see a “Pin to taskbar” option, so go ahead and click that. When you close your application, the icon will remain allowing you to easily re-launch it. You can also move those icons around in case you want to group certain types of software together.

6. Open Windows Explorer with Win+E

I spend a fair amount of my computer time navigating around folders and files in Windows Explorer. You can launch an instance of Windows Explorer by looking for it in the Start Menu or you can even type “explorer” in the Run Window, but an even easier option is to click the key combination Windows Key+E.

7. Selecting files (or text) with either Shift, Ctrl, or both

As I alluded to above, I spend a portion of my computer time in Windows Explorer working on folders and files including moving them around. For instance, I’ll frequently download pictures and video off phones and cameras and move them off to my NAS and other storage devices. If I need to move all files from one folder to another, I can drag my mouse across all the files to select them all at once and then move them in bulk. However, what if I only want to move a portion of the list? That’s where the Shift and Ctrl buttons can help. Say I have 10 files in a folder but I only want to move the first 5. I can left-click on the first file then, holding my Shift key down, I can click on the fifth file and effectively select all the files in between. Now I can move all five at once. What if I only want to move the first, third, and fifth files? That’s where the Ctrl key can help. I can left-click on the first file, then, holding the Ctrl key down, left-click on the third and then the fifth files. This will surgically select just those three files allowing me to work with just those three.

The Shift and Ctrl keys come in handy with word editing, too. I tend to do a lot of editing of my kids’ various school papers. Much of my editing consists of removing and/or replacing whole words and sentences. You can do this sort of pruning with a mouse, but a mouse can be a rather clumsy instrument when performing surgery on that book report (not unlike a clumsy blaster). Instead, I’ll use the arrow keys on my keyboard to position the cursor in front of the word I wish to edit, then, holding the Shift key down, I’ll click the right arrow button across the word and simultaneously highlight the letters of the word one-by-one. If I want to edit the entire word instead of a few characters, I can hold both the Shift and Ctrl keys down together and then click the right arrow key once to highlight that word. I can hit the arrow key a second time to highlight the next word and so on. If I want to take out the entire line, I can click the Home button to position my cursor at the start of the line then, holding the Shift key down, click the End button to highlight the entire row. If I’m deep into a lengthy research paper and just want to get back to the start of it, Ctrl+Home will do the job; conversely, Ctrl+End will take me to the end of the document. Whatever you do, don’t forget to periodically Ctrl+S to save your modifications!

8. Copy/Paste alternative

Copy, Cut, and pasting (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X and Ctrl+V) are Windows staples I assume most of you are already familiar with. Here’s a handy alternative, though. Suppose your kid writes, “to boldly go…”, and you decide the phrase should be “to go boldly.” With your mouse, double-click “go” to highlight the word then, holding your left button down, drag the word in front of “boldly”. You’ve effectively performed and pretty slick Cut-and-Paste operation.

Now, suppose your child is writing a retrospective on the fantastic Forrest Gump and decides to quote Private Bubba Blue: “There’s pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut, pepper shrimp…”. Uh-oh: it’s coconut shrimp, not coconut. To fix this error of omission, double-click on the word “shrimp” used elsewhere. Normally, you might hit Ctrl+C then move your cursor to after coconut and click Ctrl+V. Instead, hold the Ctrl key down and drag your highlighted shrimp to just after coconut and then let go: you’ve just performed a nifty Copy-and-Paste. Neat, huh?

9. Ctrl+T in browsers

Admittedly, I do spend a lot of time in my browser. Like most of us, I take full advantage of tabs in our modern-day browsers. Need to open a new tab and don’t want to take your hands off your keyboard? Most browsers honor Ctrl+T as a way to open a new tab. Furthermore, once you open a new tab, most browsers will place your cursor directly in the address bar, so you can immediately start typing the url or search term you wish to execute.

10. Wheel clicking

I’m a big fan of mice that have a wheel between the left and right buttons. Wheels allow you to quickly scroll vertically in web pages, documents, etc. Most mouse wheels also allow you to click them like a button. What does this button do, you might ask? Well, the next time you’re in your browser, find a hyperlink and wheel-click on the link. The default behavior will be twofold: 1) a new tab will open in your browser and 2) the new tab will immediately navigate to the url on the link you clicked on. Nice little hack over what you’re probably already doing: right-clicking on the link then selecting “Open Link in New Tab” from the context menu. Now, try this: choose any tab in your browser (even one that doesn’t have focus), position your mouse pointer anywhere on the tab and then click your wheel. The default behavior will be to close that tab. This feature can help you quickly close all those tabs you’re done viewing. Many other tab-based applications, like Notepad++, also honor this behavior.

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