Python Representation Error: This article explains why floating-point arithmetic can lead you astray in Python. Floating-point arithmetic cannot represent some numbers precisely. While many people think it’s a bug, it’s actually not. Have a look at the following code snippet: In the code snippet, you have assumed that the number 0.1 actually represents the decimal … Read more
Almost precisely four years ago I watched a TED talk that changed my life. I had just finished my computer science master and was starting out as a fresh Ph.D. student in the department of distributed systems… … and I was overwhelmed. There are many computer science students reading the Finxter blog so I hope … Read more
The following answer is based on my experience during the last four years as a doctoral researcher in the area of distributed systems. I don’t know about practices in all different areas in computer science. Computer science is a big field and there are extremely large differences in the quality and quantity requirements of your … Read more
Want to make your website more interactive? Embed a Python interpreter into your website! This does not only increase the interactivity and usability of your website — and create happy users for your web business. It also increases the average time spent on your website because people will try out things. So it’s actually a … Read more
Can you invest one minute now to instantly double your productivity? Watch out, the following trick can earn you tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars and make you a productivity animal in no time. Block all websites that are not leading you towards your goal. Extremely simple but powerful nonetheless. Type “Editor” into … Read more
What are the most important skills you can have as a freelance developer? You may ask this question because you need to know where to focus and concentrate your learning effort. While I focus on the most important technologies in this article, I believe that the ultimate driver of your success is your knowledge of … Read more
What is more important for your success as a coder: intelligence or persistence? In my opinion, there’s a clear winner. You may know the Marshmallow test where kids participate in the following experiment. Every kid gets one Marshmallow as a gift. The kid then can either eat the Marshmallow immediately or wait for an agreed-upon … Read more
Most of the function names in Python can be intuitively connected to the meaning of the function. The NumPy reshape() function is not an exception. The reshape() function brings an array into another shape while keeping all the original data. NumPy’s reshape() function takes an array to be reshaped as a first argument and the … Read more
Do you dream of becoming self-employed? More than 50% of people in America want to become self-employed and becoming their own boss. But many people have limiting beliefs regarding becoming self-employed. They fear to be forced to file for bankruptcy because of a lack of cash coming in. They fear of creating something new in … Read more
Short circuit evaluation in any programming language is the act of not executing unnecessary parts of a Boolean expression. Say, you want to calculate the result of the expression “A and B” but you already know that “A=False”. Because of your knowledge of the first part of the expression, you already know that the result … Read more
Why do YOU want to improve your coding skills? I vividly remember my first semester studying computer science more than 10 years ago. I knew almost nothing about coding. My uncle, a professional software developer, had quickly shown me the programming language “Visual Basic” and told me something which you may find helpful in your … Read more
If you are a coder and you’ve developed software which you want to sell on the marketplace, you need to determine a strategy to protect your business in the long run. And if I write “protect”, I don’t mean from a legal point of view because most people cannot afford large legal departments. It’s more … Read more