Published in Geek Culture·Aug 5Member-onlyKeyword SEO on a BudgetOptimise100 articles for $10 Up until recently, I have tended to ignore SEO. But I’ve finally decided to bite the bullet and give it a try. What is SEO? Almost anyone with a website probably wants to attract as many viewers as possible. …SEO8 min read
Published in Geek Culture·Jul 24Member-onlyUsing Optionals in PythonSay ‘non’ to None. There are often situations in code where a required value doesn’t exist. A typical way of dealing with this is to return None but optionals provide a cleaner way, and the optional.py module provides an easy-to-use implementation of optionals. An example For example, suppose we had a customer…Python6 min read
Published in Geek Culture·Jul 21Member-onlyThe Hidden Traps of Python Truthy ValuesAnd how to avoid them. A truthy value is a value that is considered True when used in a boolean context. A falsy value is a value that is considered False when used in a boolean context. This is a useful feature of Python and several other languages. They are…Python6 min read
Published in Geek Culture·Jul 7Member-onlyThree Productivity Apps to Level Up your Side HustlesThe only productivity apps I use every day. There are many productivity systems, and even more apps that support them. They all have pros and cons, so how do you choose? It depends on your needs. In this article, I will list the apps I use, and why they suit…Productivity6 min read
Published in Geek Culture·Jun 26Member-onlyAn Atlas of Simple Matplotlib ChartsIncluding full source code. These code examples use Matplotlib to create various types of graph. Each example is self contained. They require Matplotlib and NumPy. For explanations of the code see the articles at pythoninformer.com. The data Many examples use real data relating to the temperatures and rainfall figures for the UK…Python4 min read
Published in Geek Culture·Jun 21Member-onlyFitting a line to a scatter plot in MatplotlibIn this article we see how to fit a straight line to the data in a scatter plot. As a simple example of a scatter plot, for a group of people we might record their height and their shoe size. …Python4 min read
Published in Geek Culture·May 26Member-only12 Ways to Use Function Decorators to Improve Your Python CodeApplying separation of concerns, the easy way. Python decorators provide a simple way to modify or enhance existing functions. They are often used to add extra steps before or after a function in executed, which can be useful in many scenarios. There are other ways to use them too. In…Python9 min read
Published in Geek Culture·May 18Member-only5 Advanced Vectorisation Techniques for Improved Python PerformanceUse NumPy to speed up your code. NumPy vectorisation applies a function to an entire array in one call. For example: a = np.array([1, 2, 3]) b = np.array([4, 5, 6]) u = np.sqrt(a) # [1. 1.414 1.732] v = a + b # [5 7 9] Calling np.sqrt calculates…Python5 min read
Published in Geek Culture·Apr 19Member-onlyStructural Optimisation in PythonLooking at the bigger picture. We looked at low level otimisation previously. In this article we will look at structural optimisation. Structural optimisation takes a big picture approach. It attempts to optimise code by solving the problem in a different way, for example: Using a faster algorithm or more efficient…Python9 min read
Published in Geek Culture·Mar 31Member-only9 Advanced Pie Chart Techniques in MatplotlibGoing beyond the basics. In this article, we will look at pie charts. A pie chart is used to compare the relative sizes of discrete categories, as a proportion of the total. A pie chart represents the entire data set as a circle and shows each category as a pie…Python7 min read
