Python Monthly (April 2020)

5th issue! That's right, you're right at the beginning of this journey! If there is enough interest, I will keep doing these every month so please share it with your friends!

If you missed them, you can read the previous issues of the Python Monthly newsletter here.

If it’s your first time here… (otherwise, skip this part)

Being a Python developer is a fantastic career option. Python is now the most popular language with lots of growing job demand (especially in the fields of Web, Data Science and Machine Learning). You have many job opportunities, you can work around the world, and you get to solve hard problems. One thing that is hard, however, is staying up to date with the constantly evolving ecosystem. You want to be a top-performing python developer, coder, programmer, software developer, but you don’t have time to select from hundreds of articles, videos and podcasts each day.

This monthly newsletter is focused on keeping you up to date with the industry, keeping your skills sharp, without wasting your valuable time. I will be sharing the most important articles, podcasts and videos of the month. Think Tim Ferriss and the Pareto Principle (80/20 rule) meeting the Software Development world. What’s the 20% that will get you 80% of the results?

What you missed in April as a Python Developer…

Free Python Tutorial From Microsoft 🛰

Microsoft released a free Python tutorial on their youtube channel. More Microsoft kindness is coming in this newsletter so hold on tight... oh how times have changed.

Strings Strings Strings 🧶

Have you ever thought to yourself... I want to know everything about Strings in Python Well, lucky for you, your wish has come true because this article gives you all the details for your weird obsession.

Project To Try This Weekend ⛲️

A fun project for you to try building this weekend using OpenCV and Python: Age Detection from video and images. It is not as hard as you think and will be a nice one to add to your portfolio.

Naming Things Is Hard 🧐

It is said that naming things is one of the hardest things in programming. Who knew naming variables and classes was so hard? This article gives an argument as to why you shouldn't have a utils module.

What's New In Python 3.9 🎀

Python 3.9 is coming later in May but that doesn't mean you shouldn't learn about the new features now. The big one is a new Dictionary operator |. Check out this one plus a few others in this article.

os.path vs Pathlib 🦹‍♀️ 🦹‍♂️

This is a topic I discuss in my python course, but it is good to repeat. The traditional way to access file paths with python was through the os module. However, the new pathlib modules may be a better solution. Read about it here.

Test Everything 🏗

One of the most popular tools when you test code in Python is using pytest. In this pytest tutorial you will learn how it works and how you can test your code with it.

Final Version of Python 2 😭

That's it. No more. The end. The very last version of Python 2 has been released and moving forward there will no longer be version 2 updates in Python. 2.7.18 is the final one.

Deploying Your Django 📯

For those curious on how to properly deploy your Django apps, here is a nice walkthrough to make sure you are covering your bases and doing everything properly.

When and Where 🤔

Generators, Iterables, Iterators in Python: When and Where. Learn how to extend your code to make it easy to loop through the elements of your classes or to generate data on the fly. As the article suggests, it takes you through when you use what for repetitive tasks that require looping.

Github Teams Is Free! 🎟

Microsoft continues to try and dominate the programmer toolchain market and offer more value since acquiring Github. They just announced free private repositories with unlimited collaborators for teams with GitHub. If you are curious why Microsoft keeps doing these nice things for us, I explained their strategy in a past post here.

News Around the World 🗺

Iranian version of Telegram (since they do not have access to the official Telegram messaging app because of sanctions) leaked 42 million user data. Not good.
After 50 Years of Effort, Researchers Made Silicon Emit Light. What did you just read? Trust me on this... this is a super interesting and easy to read article on some of the things happening in the hardware space.
Mongolia is planning on restoring their traditional alphabet and replacing the Cyrillic script adopted under the Soviet period. Not sure how this is related to web development but pretty interesting...

Big Tech News 🏢

Google and Apple are going to start introducing something called Contact Tracing on their mobile devices. The promise is to make this feature available that allows apps to be built that help with reporting of Covid-19 cases while still keeping user data anonymous. Here is a nice recap of how this is supposed to work.
It's a bad time for most businesses during these tough times. It definitely doesn't help WeWork and the company Meetup that they bought a while back. WeWork has now had to sell Meetup.
You can't do much these days without hearing some news about Zoom video conferencing app. Their meteoric rise during these quarantine times has seen their user base skyrocket. It also showed how little they have paid attention to security on their side. Like [this]((https://9to5mac.com/2020/04/03/zoom-vulnerabilities/) and this. Reporting Zoom vulnerabilities might become an Olympic sport. Google wants to catch up now so they are making Google Meet free for use (used to be a paid enterprise video conferencing app).
Apple announced a more budget-friendly iPhone. Expect the Apple phone user base to increase because of this. Apple also gave this programmer $75,000 for discovering a vulnerability in Safari that allowed unauthorized websites to access your camera on iOS and macOS.
IBM is offering free COBOL programming courses because there is a bump in demand, and there are not a lot of people who still know this ancient programming language.
Did you know that if you are a Windows user you can have Linux running by using something called the Windows Subsystem for Linux? Well, the 2nd version, Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 is now generally available. As a Windows user, this means you can do a lot of terminal things that users on MacOS and Linux do and feel like part of the club.
Google is slowing down hiring for the rest of 2020. Not good news for those trying to land a job at these big tech companies since I am sure the other big tech giants are doing the same.

Completely useless to your career but still great 🙃

Who needs to learn Unity? Psssht... Anybody can be a game developer using Google Docs now. That's right, here is a choose your own adventure game built just with Google Documents.

I have to share this because it is hilarious. Check out the cover image of this website. Introducing the most depressing thing I have ever seen in remote office design. Just me?

Also, people have too much time on their hands...

Best Resource of the Month 🥽

Cognitive biases in software development. These types of articles to me are more important than overly technical ones. Being a good programmer isn't just about your technical knowledge. This article is a must read this month to understand some of the biases we have as programmers. Knowing that they exist will help you notice them in the future... hopefully.

Trick of the Month 🎩

Can you make a youtube video with a dynamic title? That is, a title that is constantly changing based on the number of views? This video will blow your mind and teach you things that you may not have even realized.
And remember, dealing with isolation is not suppose to be easy. Stay safe out there and take care of yourself. This may help.

See you next month everyone!

By the way, my full time job is to teach people to code in the most efficient way possible as the Lead Instructor of Zero To Mastery Academy. You can see a few of my courses below or see all of my courses by visiting the courses page.