Python Monthly 💻🐍

**9th issue! If you missed the previous ones, 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 August as a Python Developer…

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What To Expect In Python 3.9 ☔️

Python 3.9 is coming soon and we all love learning the shiniest features of our beloved Python. So what's new? Check out this article to get you excited about what we have coming up.

How Tracking Works 🛰

I almost put this in the Best Resource of the Month section. It shows you how tracking pixels work, and even how to implement it yourself using some front end code and Python. Learned a lot reading this one, so don't skip it!

Python Wishlist ⛲️

Programmers always want more from their languages. Although adding more and more features is never the solution, this is the top 4 features that some people wish Python had. Inspired by other languages.

NLP And SEO Goodness 🎰

This is a fun article you don't see often: How can you use Natural Language Processing and building a knowledge graph in order to improve your website's SEO? A great way to learn the basics of SEO using Python.

Plotly Wizardry 📊

Plotly is one of my favourites when it comes to quick data visualizations. If you have not looked at using Plotly for python data visualization lately, you might want to take it for a spin. This article will discuss some of the most recent changes with Plotly, what the benefits are and why Plotly is worth considering for your data visualization needs (it's very easy to use).

Python Data API 🤹‍♀️

This is big news. A new consortium was created to unify the Python data world together and solving a huge problem: Python has exploded in popularity for data science, machine learning, deep learning and numerical computing. New frameworks pushing forward the state of the art in these fields are appearing every year. One unintended consequence of all this activity and creativity has been fragmentation in the fundamental building blocks - multidimensional array (tensor) and dataframe libraries - that underpin the whole Python data ecosystem. For example, arrays are fragmented between Tensorflow, PyTorch, NumPy, CuPy, MXNet, Xarray, Dask, and others. Dataframes are fragmented between Pandas, PySpark, cuDF, Vaex, Modin, Dask, Ibis, Apache Arrow, and more. This fragmentation comes with significant costs, from whole libraries being reimplemented for a different array or dataframe library to end users having to re-learn APIs and best practices when they move from one framework to another. See the solution here.

Weekend Project Idea 🎏

Want to take longer than it already takes to make the perfect sandwich? Want to over-engineer the whole process? Ask no more, because here is your next weekend project. Follow along and see if you can make your own sandwich.

Why You Shouldn't Run Python Here 🧨

Did you know that it isn't a good idea to run Python in your Downloads folder? Can you guess why? Here is the explanation. Stay safe out there.

Python Web Scraping 🧽

If you don't know how to do web scraping by now? Well, you probably didn't do my Python course. Shame on you. Until we make up, you can check out this free web scraping tutorial.

Delegation, Composition, Inheritance 🤖

All big words. All important concepts when it comes to Object Oriented Programming. Here is a breakdown of what they mean and why they are useful.

Data Version Control 🎰

You probably already know that Python is heavily used in the Data Science world when working with data. Did you know that there is such a thing as Data Version Control, just like we have version control with code? Learn about it here.

Everything You Wanted To Know: lambda 🐑

The title explains it all. Learn the powerful lambda in Python accompanied by cute lamb pictures.

Python map 🚏

How to use the map function in Python. I would argue it is one of the most used functions for any python programmer. So learns the ins and outs!

News Around the World 🗺

• An interesting article showing how the FBI tracked down the teenagers responsible for the big Twitter hack last month. A pretty fun read.
• A look at the very polite and business-like exchange between an organization that was asked for ransom and the hackers. Interesting to see how this all works.
• The popular website Have I Been Pwned is being open sourced.
• We discovered that Ceres has oceans
• Highest recorded temperature since 1931. It's in Fahrenheit so I'm going to take their word for it that it was hot.

Big Tech News 🏢

• Google announced a bunch of new Pixel phones.

• Apple says "nah" to Google and Microsoft gaming platforms Stadia and xCloud. Apple is getting into some hot water lately with their App store policies: Here is one with Wordpress. Then they apologized. They are also in a big fight with Epic Games (Creators of Fortnite).

• Anthony Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in prison as new $4B lawsuit against Uber is filed. Pretty standard Silicon Valley news.

• Facebook just doing Facebook things.

Completely useless to your career but still great 🙃

Trust me. You need to watch this. How can you make an impossibly diffcult maze in Roller Coaster Tycoon using the game algorithm? The power of understanding how an algorithm works.

Ever wanted to be a game developer? Riot Games just put out a fun tutorial to get you started in this industry.

Best Resource of the Month 🥽

I love articles that explain how to write clean code in an intuitive non technical way. This article will show you the two concepts and which one is "cleaner": Ask for permission vs Look before you leap. Try to guess before you read the conclusion.

Trick of the Month 🎩

• This is how you should vet all dependencies and libraries you are adding to a project.

• How to move a server to another building without turning it off.

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.