Python's issues in Europe, Italy Banning ChatGPT
... and Microsoft named their chip after my cat!
💭 A Word From the Owner
Another month, another newsletter. If you’re new here, welcome! This newsletter is designed to give you a snapshot of what’s going on with us over here at Learning Code Online, as well as provide some nifty tidbits such as industry news, AI tools, and other bits. Think of it like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re gonna get (except we tell you… Sometimes).
This month’s newsletter is quite long compared to the previous month’s. We’ve got a lot of updates of cool things we’re doing behind the scenes. We’re also going to highlight a bunch of different AI tools for you to check out, as well as some really juicy tech industry highlights.
Here’s the short, sweet, and simple version on what’s going on with us:
We’ve updated our website to be more simplified and more visually appealing. It should also be quicker!
Released a new course - Introduction to HTML (woo!)
Added a few readings in our Coder’s Nook.
We’re now offering Python tutoring sessions!
We started up our YouTube channel with tutorials and other things.
More details are below. Let’s get on with it!
👨🏫 Announcement: Python Tutoring
We’re excited to announce that we're now offering Python tutoring sessions for beginners and advanced students. Whether you're just starting out, need help to get through a course, looking to start on a new project, or looking to take your skills to the next level, we can help out with that. We offer a flexible evening schedule Monday through Friday, with all day Sunday availability so that you can learn on your own schedule (kinda).
Hint: if you mention this newsletter’s bonus fun fact, you may receive a discount on the first session 👀 (only available to subscribers to this newsletter).
📺️ YouTube Channel Announcement
We’re focusing our sights on growing, and starting the YouTube channel is going to allow us to do so. In turn, you get free tutorials and other things we may put out! We’re currently testing the waters with this, so please let us know if this is something you’d be interested in seeing more of.
Our first video is how to create your first plot using Python’s matplotlib library. Being able to visualize your data is critical in understanding your dataset. It’s also used as a way to communicate with colleagues, shareholders, and partners.
Be sure to subscribe to us, as we’ll be working on more content over the forthcoming months!
📚️ Latest Readings from Learning Code Online
We haven’t been writing a lot because of other things that are in the works, but…
10 Tips for Software Engineering Students - If you’re a student who’s currently in school for software engineering, check out this article to get a few tips to help you through your coding classes.
In case you missed a few, here’s a few other readings we’ve put together in our Coder’s Nook for you while you’re sitting on the porcelain throne:
The History of HTML - How did the internet get to where it’s at today? It all started with Tim’s idea of trying to share files over the internet.
Using ChatGPT to help write Pytest Test Cases - Sometimes, tests are a pain to write. Don’t be afraid to leverage ChatGPT to help you complete this task!
🤖 AI Tools
This month, I decided to include 8 different AI tools. Let us know what you think:
Sdpaint is a tool that lets you interact with Stable Diffusion in real time by including a prompt while you draw. This is really cool! Check out the demo in this tweet:
drawing the rest of the🦉is now a reality. real time painting with stable diffusion 🤯
— kitze (@thekitze)
Apr 19, 2023
People who like to work out, here’s one for you: HealthGPT is an app that connects with your Apple Health app and allows you to query it using natural language to give you a bunch of stats, tell you how your workouts were, and so much more.
Want to (try to) stump your friends in a game of trivia? Triviai lets you type in a topic to produce a few questions about the topic of your choice.
I sometimes use Jupyter Notebooks as a Python developer. ipython-gpt allows you to integrate ChatGPT into Jupyter Notebooks directly. How neat!
e2b is a tool that lets you specify technical requirements for a system and an AI agent does the writing for you. The README file in their GitHub has an example of a human giving it instructions on writing out Stripe checkout and the AI agent writing the code.
I personally haven’t used any copilot tools, but TurboPilot is built straight into your editor. These copilot tools are AI to help you write more code quicker.
Uncody lets you create a landing page website in a matter of seconds. It’s got its limitations, but this can change the landscape of no-code website builders.
🧑💻 Industry Highlights
A new European Cyber Resilience Act may cause problems for languages like Python, which are open source. The Cyber Resilience Act wants to make digital products more secure. It requires the people who make these products to check for security issues, fix any problems they find, and tell customers about how to stay safe. The Python Software Foundation (PSF) is concerned that the law would unfairly hold open-source software authors responsible for any issues with their code that appears in someone else's commercial product. This could discourage developers from contributing to public repositories, like PyPI, and harm the entire ecosystem. Additionally, it would be difficult for PSF to continue providing Python and PyPI to the European public because they could be held liable for products that use Python code, even if they never received any monetary gain from those products. Click to see the full statement.
Italy has banned ChatGPT due to privacy concerns. OpenAI was given 20 days to remediate this, and they are working closely with the GPDP on allowing OpenAI back into the EU.
Microsoft has been sneakily creating a chip that will allow them to build large AI language models since 2019 called “Athena”, which just so happens to be my cat’s name. Clearly they stole her name. I want commission off of this!
ChatGPT has been integrated with robots made by the Levatas team (buliding off of Boston Dynamic’s hardware). Check out the video from Santiago on Twitter:
We integrated ChatGPT with our robots.
We had a ton of fun building this!
Read on for the details:
— Santiago (@svpino)
Apr 25, 2023
📰 Newsletter Coding Fun Fact
Java and JavaScript are often confused due to their similar names and use in web development. Knowledge of Java is not necessary for learning or using JavaScript.
We put out a string of tweets with 10 other fun facts. Check them out on Twitter!
💻️ Online Courses from LCO
We’ve released our Introduction to HTML course. This course is a first look at HTML to get you going on your web development journey. As a subscriber to this newsletter, use the discount code HTML5 on checkout to get 30% off. Check out the course here!
We’ve got a few coming down the pipeline, and one of them I hinted at in the last newsletter: Python for Meteorologists. Yes, this is in the works but it’s likely not going to come any time soon. We have more in the works, but stay tuned!
📣 I want to hear from you
Yes. I want to hear from you about your programming journey, what you’re looking to learn, etc. Please reach out with ideas! I am always open for ideas: [email protected]. It’s early on and I am willing to look at different ways to create programming educational content.
📱 Follow us on Social Media
We’re on socials, give us a follow! We put out random bits of programming content.
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