Well, you probably recognized already that I’m always trying to better myself. I recently decided I wanted to learn more about artificial intelligence and machine learning. So, I found this cool course on Udacity, called Intro to Machine learning. I may end up taking the full program at some point… but first I needed to see if I really had an interest or an aptitude. Well, like so many other thing I decide to do, there are always prerequisites. One of the first was learning a new language called Python. Lucky for me, Udacity had an intro course on that too 🙂
So I took the intro to Python course, and found that learning computer languages still comes pretty easy to me. (good thing something comes easy, ha ha). What surprised me was just how powerful that Python was in such a small package. With a small install, I quickly learned how easy it was manipulate things on the web, on my desktop, and even send texts to my phone. Last night, I went through my monthly exercise of backing up all the photos on my wife’s phone and my phone, and then sending them over to our family so they can see the fun things we’ve done. I know, I’m still a bit old school, but I like to have the photos backed up to several hard drives. I’m sure eventually I’ll trust the cloud to handle it all, but there is something to be said for a bit of privacy 🙂 Anyway, when I dump the photos off our phones, there is often naming conflicts. So up until now, I’ve had to go and manually rename all the conflicts. Well, this time around, I used a quick Python program to rename every file that I got off of my wife’s phone, so there wouldn’t be any conflicts. Then I just needed to review all the pictures for duplicates (this is the painful part that will never go away, even if I use the cloud. ugh). So, I spent about 5 mins doing a program, and 10 seconds after running it, all the files were perfectly renamed. Who know how easy it could be to manipulate things in my own file structure. It saved me at least 10 minutes this time around, and next month it’ll save me 15 or more minutes of time.
Why am I talking about something so simple? Well, I’ve been lost in the ABAP world for so long, that I lost track of just how powerful most computer languages are. And more importantly, when you pick a language that a lot of people use for many different things, it means you have access to a huge library of functionality that you don’t have to write yourself. As opposed to ABAP where the only extensions you get are the ones the Germans think you want… everything else is pretty much a closed loop and no one shares. Anyway, even if you aren’t a programmer, Python is so crazy easy, that I recommend you take the course in Udacity. It’s worth your time and is well laid out.
Thanks for reading,
As always, thanks for reading and don't forget to check out our SAP Service Management Products at my other company JaveLLin Solutions,Mike