Someone recently turned me on to a vintage science fiction book series called “The Culture” by Ian M Banks. The series takes place within an intergalactic, fully automated communist federation called “The Culture”. Scarcity no longer exists so everything is run by robots, drone and AI while all organic life no longer has to work, die or suffer. In a world where a person can never move from a couch and still live to be 700 years old, the search for meaning in one’s life becomes… meaningless, which is the psychological aspect of some of the stories. The level of technology and the expanse through the galaxies makes “The Culture” one of the most wondrous and psychedelic scifi wonderlands I’ve ever read about. In this federation there are large space ships that are miles by miles big that carry major cities through space. They generally have some humorous names that are funny little phrases. One of the GSVs is called “Nervous Energy”. I was hired to do an artists interpretation of what life aboard a GSV would look like. Since nobody has to work anymore, everyone lives a life of leisure which I worked to show in this piece. This original GSV design I named “Your Friendly Neighbor”. I made it using my Ipad pro and the software Procreate to bring this piece to life. I used reference photos of crowds and parks in order to design a foreground park where the people look and are positioned in natural human poses. This was a lot of fun to make and I hope you enjoy using your eyes to find all of the details, people and places!#illustration#sciencefictionillustration#ianbanks#theculture#literature#fanart#conceptart#enivronmentart#psychedelicart#alien#space#ship#author#musician#gamedesigner#drawing#digitalart#procreate#ipadpro#fantasyart#commission#freelance#interpretation#sciencefiction#moebius#comicart#comic#ligneclaire#paradise
I’ve been working on improving my digital painting skills for the last couple months! I used a lot of random Youtube speed-paints and tutorials for some specific ideas. This piece I used in order to practice creating more volumetric and deliberate lighting schemes as well as practicing with making more realistic clothing folds. I find that when I’m trying to improve and practice for the sake of practice, it makes it easier and more beneficial to not give yourself a deadline, especially if you don’t HAVE to give yourself one. I started this piece as well as several others that I’m still working on, over three and a half months ago. I can’t tell you how many times I had to go back and redraw so many parts of this piece but I’m glad I took the time to really dive in and learn about lighting and volume in this piece. The concept behind this piece was to be a cyberpunk genre flip and I decided to do ii in honor of the 100th anniversary of “The Legend of Zorro” movie. This piece is the first piece of an ongoing effort to update/overhaul my current concept art and character design portfolio. I hope you all like it! And if you want to see more work by moi, then you can visit http://www.instagram.com/sam_fontaine_studios or http://www.samfontainestudios.com
I have been exploring Python and R, and stumbled on a dashboard called Jupyter Notebook.
The Jupyter Notebook is an open-source web application that allows you to create and share documents that contain live code, equations, visualizations and narrative text. Uses include: data cleaning and transformation, numerical simulation, statistical modeling, data visualization, machine learning, and much more.
I have found that as an instructor, I can share files with my students and they can collaborate together and with me. This is done through a program called Anaconda which acts as a server. Anaconda is a free package manager that contains over 1,000 open source packages with community support and can be used on Windows MacOS or Linux.
Make sure you have Python with PIP already installed.
If you have Python 3 installed, use PIP to install it
python3 -m pip install –upgrade pip
python 3 -m pip install jupyter
Run the following command at the terminal or command prompt.
jupyter notebook
I created a new folder called My Notebooks where I will store everything. You can create a new folder by either selecting New in the upper right hand corner of the notebook or create and name a new folder on your computer and navigate to it.
Let’s get started and create a Python program.
Select New and select Python 3
Type or copy/paste the following code:
# This program adds two numbers
num1 = 2.75
num2 = 3.50
# Add two numbers
sum = float(num1) + float(num2)
# Display the sum
print(‘The sum of {0} and {1} is {2}.format(num1, num2, sum))
Hi everyone, for the last few weeks I’ve been working on a series of 6 character illustrations based on the characters in my current dungeons and dragons campaign. I’m posting them one at a time, and this one is a dark elf named Genevieve DeBruma, our power mage of the team.
Python is a programming language used widely by companies and individuals. It is an easy and versatile language that can be run from Linux, Unix and Windows devices. This blog will walk you through each step in downloading, installing and getting started with Python.
Before you download, I recommend opening File Explorer (the little yellow folder found on your Windows task bar). Click on the C:\ drive, right-click anywhere in the folder and select New and Folder. Name the folder Python.
When you download the installation file as show in the image above, the file will be downloaded into your Downloads folder. Double-click the file.
Check the box to Add Python 3.7 to PATH
Click Customize Installation. On the next screen, you can uncheck the box – Documentation and click Next
On the next screen, check the box – Precompile standard library and under where it says Customize install location, browse and select the Python folder you created and then click Install
Click Close
Step 2: Running Python
There are several IDE (Integrated Development Environment) applications and basic text editors available. Notepad can be used and is already available on Windows.
In Notepad, type the following lines as shown below:
# program to create a simple calculator
Before we go any further, click File and Save as
Change the Save as type to *.* and type in the name Calculator.Py
Now we have to write the code starting with defining what we want the program to do and the functions to perform. Following the image below, type in each line as indicated.
The next step is to take input from the user and define the user input as variables. Follow the image below and type each line as indicated.
The last steps are to create if/else if statements to allow for each of the choices and a statement for any invalid input. Follow the image below and type each line as indicated.
Save the file. The easiest way to run it is to first copy the file onto the C:\ directory and then open up the command prompt by right-clicking the Windows icon located on the lower left side of the screen and Run cmd
On the cmd screen, you will see c:\users\yourname
Type the following command: cd c:\ and click enter
Type the following command to run the calculator: python calculator.py
Congratulations, you just created and ran your first python program.
Social media is a growing and
continual source of data. Sites like Twitter, Foursquare, and Flickr are just a
few of the social media sites being used to post microblogs and multi-media
information. A recent article by Chen, Lin and Yuan (2017) summarize the visual
analytics pipeline and investigate the challenges and trends in using this data
in strategic decision making. The purpose of the article was to propose a new
taxonomy for classifying the social media visualization and visual analytics
process. This article is relevant to the
topic of predictive analysis at large corporations because they demonstration
through the literature and research that there are many different types of data
based on users’ activities in social media, range from what they post, where
they post it from, and how. The authors
use JP Morgan Chase as a global organization as a case where prediction
analysis is done based on keywords found in financial news and financial time
series intervals with financial static data are identified. Information is
extracted and then summarized to provide an event timeline which is created to
identify the relationship with the social media messages and mood with the
financial markets. The article’s unique characteristics include that is framed
a social media visual analytics taxonomy and created a guide for future trends
in visual analytics using data found in social media. A major strength of the
study is that is identified nine categories of entities and the corresponding
visualization techniques with details.
Another major strength of the study is that they discussed using a
combination of multiple entities with visual analytics serving for six types of
goals. A weakness of the study was that
more was not it was not able to focus on the demographics of the users where
the data was coming from (Chen, Lin & Yuan, 2017).
Using keywords from social
media is a growing trend as discussed in an article by Grover, Chiang, Liang
and Zhang (2018). The purpose of the
article was to help develop a significant research agenda for big data analytics
which increases the efficiency of targeting research and practice based on
better use of data resources. The authors describe the value of big data
analytics, offer a framing of its value by extending current frameworks of
technology value, and then show how the framework through big data analytics
can be applied in practice. This article is relevant to the topic of predictive
analysis at large corporations because it provides a framework of value
creation showing how the leveraging big data can help organizations achieve a
strategic business value but at a major investment in data infrastructure,
analytic technology, and skilled analysts. The authors reference a case where
Walmart has been using business data analytics to improve their customers’
shopping experience and its operational efficiency. Walmart is pulling information for 200
sources through a private cloud and analytics hub known as Data Café. The global retailers is leveraging data from
social media and combining it with public data from the web and its own
proprietary data. Similar to what JP Morgan Chase is doing by using keywords,
Walmart is also using keywords found in social media as one of its key
resources. (Grover, Chiang, Liang and Zhang, 2018)
An article by Hewett, Rand,
Rust and Van Heerde (2016) further discuss the use of social media and keywords
as a strategy in predictive analytics. The purpose of this article was to how
keywords found in social media have changed the direction of word-of-mouth and
increased its power on a global scale. The research results show how companies
benefit from using sites like Twitter to provide personalized customer
responses but must also maintain traditional brand communications in the form
of press releases and advertising. The
authors show through their research that a wide-reaching change exists and that
traditional media news, online word of mouth and firm communications all exist
within and outside of each other. Firms much manage the balance to get the
business outcomes needed which means managing online word of mouth from social
media and organizational communication.
This article is relevant to the topic of predictive analysis at large
corporations because it shows through the research how companies like Chase,
Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citibank can better improve their brand
through active and aggressive social media management. One of the strengths of
the article is that it created a foundation for future research into the lack
of relationship between advertising and consumer sentiment using similar
analytics (Hewett, Rand, Rust & Van Heerde, 2016).
It is estimated that by the end
of 2019, data from sensors and other IoT technology will generate over 500
zettabytes of structured and unstructured data.
The purpose of the article by Djedouboum, Ari, Gueroui, Mohamadou, and
Alioat (2018) was to review the background of big data collection in
large-scale wireless sensor networks. The authors conducted a comprehensive
review and proposed a better approach to collecting data by presenting
horizontal overviews of wireless sensor networks and big data. The authors also
reviewed the collection architectures available and the data transferring
schemes showing the challenges of collection on large scale wireless sensor
networks. This article is relevant to the topic of predictive analysis at large
corporations because it shows how sensors and data from those sensors are being
used to create more efficient operations. This information ties into the
article by Grover, Chiang, Liang and Zhang (2018) who discuss how United Parcel
Service [UPS] uses sensor data to improve the efficiency of operations. As
drivers work their routes making their deliveries, sensors measure over 200
elements including speed, direction, braking and seat-belt use, just to name a
few. At the end of each day, the data is uploaded and sent to the UPS data
center to help identify when drivers can make adjustments and help reduce fuel
consumption, emissions and maintenance costs while improving customer service
and driver safety. The article’s unique characteristics is that it is a review
of how data is collected and transferred in large scale wireless sensor
networks. While the article provides a thorough review, it does not show any
application or cases where the collection and transfer processes are being used
Djedouboum, Ari, Gueroui, Mohamadou & Alioat, 2018).
Conclusion
Once
specific area that warrants future research in the area of predictive analytics
by global organizations is the issue of big data in multimedia analytics. This
paper has discussed some use of multimedia include use of keywords and sensor
data, but there is much more to be learned about other multimedia sources
including data gained from video and audio. There are many opportunities to
make major advancements in multimedia big data analytics where all multimedia
sources can be utilized (Pouyanfar, Yang & Chen, 2018).
References
Chen, S., Lin, Lijing &
Yuanh, X. (2017). Social media visual analytics. Computer Graphics Forum, 36(3). 563-587. DOI: 10.1111/cgf.13211
Djedouboum, A. C., Ari, A. A.,
Gueroui, A. M., Mohamadou, A. & Alioat, Z. (2018). Big data collection in
large-scale wireless sensor networks. Sensors,
18. Doi: 10.3390/s18124474
Grover, Varun., Chiang, R. H.,
Ting-Peng, L & Donsong, Z. (2018). Creating strategic business value from
big data analytics: A research framework. Journal
of Management Information Systems, 35(2). 388-423. DOI:
10.1080/07421222.2018.1451951
Hewett, KI., Rand, W., Rust, R.
T., & Van Heerde, H. J. (2016). Brand buzz in the echoverse. Journal of Marketing, 80(3). 1-24.
Pouyanfar, S., Yan, Y., Chen,
S., Shyu, M. & Iyengar, S. S. (2018). Multimedia big data analytics: A
survey. ACM Computing Surveys, 51(1),
10-44.
Going to the Emergency Room is sometimes a tough decision to make. If you do not have health insurance or there is a high co-pay; or you are so busy, that you feel like you just need to push through instead of being seen at the hospital because it is the weekend or after hours, this blog is for you.
My husband said he wasn’t feeling well on Monday evening but when I took his temperature, it was 99.0. So, I gave him Motrin and Tylenol every couple of hours to try and keep the fever down.
Tuesday, he woke up saying he just didn’t feel quite right and I was tired so we found about 30 minutes to get in a rare nap before the grandchildren had to be picked up from school. His fever was hanging in the 99 degrees range so I reminded him to take the Motrin and Tylenol. He had no other symptoms.
Wednesday morning, he could not get out of bed because he was so tired. We had been working a lot and figured it was just his body needing rest. I was concerned because his fever was spiking at 101, but I thought it may have been the flu and kept a close eye on him.
Early Thursday morning, the fever jumped to 102 and he felt something was really off so we bypassed our doctor and went right to the Emergency Room. Honestly, I thought they were going to tell us it was another strain of the flu and we just had to allow it to work its course. The doctor seemed worried but told us she was ordering several tests to see what was going on. She also told him that he had to where a mask. He was hooked up to numerous IVs where they gave him fluids and antibiotics.
Some of the events seemed to blur together because I saw my husband become weaker as each hour ticked by. Early afternoon, he was admitted and we were told that it appeared he may have pneumonia and sepsis. It took 3 long days of getting IVs, but his fever final broke, but not before the doctor said he was calling in a surgeon for a consultation.
During all of the tests, it was found that his gall bladder needed to be removed and they wanted to do a biopsy of his liver. But, they could not operate until there were 2 days of no fever. Thankfully, the fever stayed gone Saturday and Sunday. A nurse came by to draw blood so they could find his type in case a transfusion was needed. I am kind of surprised that all hospitals don’t ask family members to donate blood – while it may not be needed or a match, it may be helpful for someone else.
First thing Monday morning staff came in and started getting him prepped for surgery. I was stressed I could not be there but the nurse and doctor assured me that someone would call as soon as he was back in recovery. I received calls from both and was assured each time that he was doing well.
He called me when he was taken back to his room. He assured me he was okay but in a little pain – nurses were giving him medicine to keep it at bay. He sounded groggy but I knew that was from the anesthesia and I was able to breath a little bit. I had to work a 14-hour day but would see him sometime before midnight – then I would feel much better. The doctors say he is doing well and should be able to go home Wednesday.
If you are in the health profession, please know we appreciate all of your hard work and dedication. It is you who make going through our lowest times manageable.
A Raspberry Pi is a micro-computer that is very inexpensive and versatile. It is important to understand some of the key components of the device – what they are, what they do, and why they are important.
This is a top view of the Pi.
A) While the Pi has wireless and Bluetooth capabilities, there is a port (A) to connect a LAN into for faster connectivity. I have found wireless works fine so I generally don’t use that port at all.
B) There are 4 USB ports which I think is very useful. You can use one for a keyboard, one for a mouse, one for a speaker, and one for an external hard drive. I use a wireless keyboard and mouse which only requires one port. Most of the work I do on the Pi is done remotely and I will get into that later.
C) There is a port to plug in a speaker or headphones (C).
D) There is an HDMI port (D) to plug in a monitor – if you have a VGA monitor, its okay – you don’t need to buy a new monitor, just a VGA/HDMI adapter.
E) The Pi is powered with 5 volts, similar to what you would use to charge your cell phone. One great advantage to the small amount of power that the PI needs is that you can connect it to a battery and making it completely wireless and remote. You can buy battery chargers of any size, shape, and capability. Here is one I like but it is a little more expensive than some of the others I found: Ankor PowerCore
F) GPIO Pins (F) allow you to connect to other devices which I will cover later.
Now that we know a little bit about the outside of the Pi, let’s explore the operating system. If you purchased the Pi I referred to in the last article, it comes preloaded with NOOBS or Jesse. If you went for the less expensive route and just purchased the Raspberry Pi and 16G Micro SD Chip – you will need to format the chip before going further – here is a video to help you do that: Setting up the Micro SD Chip
Once you have the Pi setup and connected to your home wireless, click on the command line button which is located on the upper part of the screen, 4th icon from the left. The first icon is the Raspberry, the second is the Internet Browser, and the third icon will open up the folders. Once you have opened up the command line, a box will open with a blinking cursor. Type the following command: ifconfig
This is going to give you several lines of information. In order to find the wireless ip address for the PI, look for wlan0 — the number will probably be something like 192.168.0.10. Write this number down.
Last, click on the icon and select Configuration. Select the Interfaces tab and enable SSH, VNC and Remote GPIO. Click OK and reboot. At this point, you can disconnect the monitor, keyboard and mouse.
Now that you have setup your PI, let’s connect to it remotely.
You will need to download and install Putty onto your PC. Once you’ve installed Putty, open it. Putty allows you to connect to your Pi’s command line and there is a lot we can do from there. If you want to access the Pi’s operating system, you will need another application called TightVNC. Here is a great video that will help you get both of those downloaded, installed and setup. Video
My next blog will go over how to use the GPIO pins, connect the 8-channel relay box and turn lights on and off using basic commands.
I recommend purchasing an IOT Sensor kit as we will be using one during future blog because it includes various types of sensors.
Hi everyone! This is my first post with this community and I want to make a shout out to Tammy for this opportunity to connect with this community! My name is Samuel Fontaine, I’m a freelance illustrator, graphic designer and multimedia artist. You can see my work and my past commissioned projects with some wonderful musicians, authors and business owners at http://www.samfontainestudios.com and don’t hesitate to contact me at sfontain097@gmail.com if you’d like to discuss and commission a project.
This is my newest illustration! “The Conjurer” 18″ by 24″ graphite, charcoal and colored pencil. This one takes a lot of influence from the magnificent work of Allen Williams. This was an experiment with multimedia material mixing, and I greatly enjoyed the process and will continue to use this set of materials in future projects. If you’d like to see how the process went, you can see more at my blog at http://www.samfontainestudios.com or at my instagram: @sam_fontaine_studios, I hope to hear from you and I hope you enjoy my work!!
The Conjurer, 2018 18″ by 24″ Charcoal, Graphite and Colored Pencil.
One of the current trends today is automating your home. Applications like Alexa has made it almost turn-key allowing people to plug their devices into special sockets and their control their devices verbally or through an app on their phone.
There is a concern by some, including myself that those applications are collecting data which is being sold to businesses, and can be hacked. There is a way to keep your information private and secure yourself and your automated home however, it will take a little bit of preparation.
The first step is going to secure your home network connection because that is the front door to your home automation system. Doing this is easier than most people think. You do not need to be a technology expert or pay someone.
A router is the device that connects a cable from your Internet Service Provider or ISP to your home so you can connect to the Internet. You can control your router’s settings using any computer connected on your home network. If you are using Windows 8 or higher, right-click the windows icon located on the lower left corner of your monitor. Select Run. Type the following and click Enter: CMD
This command is going to open a new window that has a blinking cursor in front of C:\
Type in the following and click enter: ipconfig /all
This is going to provide your computers numerical address which is known as an IP Address. On the right side of the screen, you will see a scroll bar — scroll up until you find Default Gateway. This is the IP address for your router. It is probably 192.168.0.1
Open an internet window and in the address bar, type in that number and click Enter. This will bring up a sign-on screen for your router. Many people never bother to change the admin password which makes them vulnerable to attacks. If you don’t bother changing this password, you might as well just leave your front door open for intruders.
The User Name is probably already set to admin. Depending on your router and the manufacturer, the password may be password, admin, or 1234. The link here will give you a complete listing of all routes and their default passwords. Once you log-in, change your default password.
Another easy step to secure your home network requires a small purchase of an electronic timer costing approximately $12. Here is the link to one I found on Amazon. Plug your router into the timer and set the timer so it is on only when you plan on being on the internet. For example, if you sleep from 11:00pm to 6:00am, have the timer turn the router off during that period. If you are at work from 8:00am to 6pm, have the timer turn the router off during that time period as well. Attackers can easily find out when your network is most vulnerable and that is when they will attack. If your router is not on, they can’t access your home’s network and your smart devices can communicate out.
There are other things you can do to secure your home but it requires a little more knowledge of your home network because it involves reducing the amount of available addresses on your network. Your router has an address of 192.168.0.1. That last number is specific for your router and can go as high as 255, but we don’t use 192.168.1.255 because it is what is called a broadcast address. So that leaves 253 available addresses which most homes don’t need. For my home’s network, I have assigned four random blocks of available addresses for our use. The total number of available addresses is set to 30 which we will never need that many. By doing this, I am essentially reducing the number of windows of opportunity for potential attackers to get into my home’s network.
Now that your home network secure, we can get into automating. My next article will discuss how to prepare. I will be using a micro-computer called Raspberry Pi 3 — See link here: Raspberry Pi. This kit includes the most of what you will need to get started. You will also need a monitor with HDMI – if you don’t and only have a VGA adapter, you will need a cable that will connect to the HDMI port on the Raspberry Pi to your monitor: here
You will also need GPIO Wires here and an 8-channel relay box here. Everything else you will need I will go over in the next article.
AFA Books 
