Descending the Right Curve in Machine Learning - A relation to science fiction and science in practice

 *  Machine Learning may appear as a magic trick to any newcomer to the  discipline - something to expect from any application of advanced scientific discovery , as similar as Arthur C Clarke , the futurist and author of popular  science fiction stories like 2001: A Space Odyssey. This sentence suggests that  ML is largely a construct of so many things combined which has the ability to deem itself incomprehensible by the sheer magnitude of the level of machinery and engineering involved which could help a general user to ascertain models and predictions based on the patterns identified from a particular dataset

*  Supporting his theory of Machine Learning , Mr Arthur C Clarke had stated in his third law stating that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" which appeals to a common user that the when it comes to user level perception of any sufficiently high level technology , then to a common user the technology seems some form of magic . Since in magic , the trick is to carry off a spectacle without letting the viewer of the trick to get to know the underlying working principle involved in the magic

 

* Though it is greatly believed that Machine Learning's underlying strength  is some form of imperceptible mathematical , statistical and coding based magic , however , this is not a form of magic but rather one needs to understand the underlying foundational concepts from the scratch so that so of the more complex working mechanism could be understood . Therefore , it is said that machine learning is is the application of mathematical formulations to have a r great learning experience

 

*  Expecting that the world itself is a representation of mathematical and statistical formulations , machine learning algorithms strive to learn about such formulations by tracking them back from a limited number of observations .

 

*  Just as humans have the power of distinction and perception , and can  recognise what is a ball and which one is a tree , machine learning algorithms can also use the computational power of the computers to deploy the widely available data on all the subjects and domains , human beings can use the computational power of computers and leverage their wide availability to learn how to solve a large number of important and useful problems

*  It is being said that though Machine Learning is a complex subject , humans devised this and in its initial inception , Machine Learning started mimicking the way in which one can learn from the surrounding world . One can also on top of that express simple data problems and basic learning algorithms based on how  a child would perceive and understand the problems of the world or to solve a challenging learning problem by using the analogy of descending from the top of the mountains by taking the right slope of descent .

 

*  Now with a somewhat better understanding of the capabilities of machine learning and how they can help in the direction of solving a problem , one can now start to learn the more complex facets of the technology in greaer detail with  more examples of their proper usages .

Static Methods in Python - Example of a Static Method in a Class in Python

 

    Static Methods in Python

* One can use Static Methods while the class level but one may not involve the class or the constituting instances .

 

* Static Methods are used when one wants to process an element in relation to a class but does not need the class or its instance to perform any work .

 

* Example :

writing the environmental variables that go inside creation of a class , counting the number of instances of the class or changing an attribute in another class are the tasks related to a class .. such tasks can be handled by Static Methods

 

* Static Methods can be used to accept some values , process the values and then return the result .

 

* Also one could use Static Methods to accept some values , process the values and then return the result

 

* In this case , the involvement of neither the class nor the objects is of paramount importance .

 

* Static methods are written with a decorator @staticmethod above the methods

 

* Static Methods are called in the form of classname,method()

 

* In the following method , one is creating a static method "noObjects()" that counts the number of objects or instances created in MyClass . In MyClass , one can write a constructor that increments the class variable 'n' everytime an instance of the class is created . This incremented value of 'n' gets displayed by the "noObject()" method

  

 

Tech Commandments for a safer digital life - 5 principles to adhere to when using Internet

 

Tech Commandments for a safer digital life

 

* Technology has become a mammoth sized factor in our daily lives and to top it all , Technology is always on the change which means that one should always stay vigil of the changes happening around us as many perpetrators and miscreants are on the lookout for finding new ways to infiltrate into the loopholes that we set knowingly or unknowingly which leads them directly in hold of sensitive information which can lead to a big devastation if left unguarded and unprotected

 

* Some experts from leading security firms assert that one should always remember that any piece of our identity that we post online could eventually be used by fraudsters and hijackers / hackers to pervade into our online accounts for which one needs to keep oneself and connected members safe when online . These days bots ( trackers) can track any account and collect account information at any point of time

 

* Therefore in order to keep oneself on the guard and stay safe , some of the commandments that one needs to adhere to all the time are the following :

 

1) One should not overshare personal info

As many of us use high ended camera phones with very high or unlimited storage capacity , one gets into a clicking mode and becomes a self-proclaimed cameraman / photographer . But these days thanks to highly developed AI programs which can take even pictures as input parameters and retrieve all relevant information from the photo , one should stay vigil about the photos that one clicks , location , people in that photo , context and backdrop for that photo and several other factors before one gets into clicking mode to showcase one's photography skills

 

2) One should not use Weak and Easy to crack passwords

We all have a tendency to associate easy passwords which are small and easy to remember for all of our accounts as we normally want to skip ahead of all the mental work of recalling big and complex things whenever we want to get into our accounts .. be it social media accounts , bank accounts , insurance accounts

(and Swiss Bank Deposit accounts too .. ) . As mentioned , these days tracker bots can track all the gateways of access that an individual leaves upon their online pathways , so unrecognised and unregulated access into our trails can beonline pathways , so unrecognised and unregulated access into our trails can be

discovered by bots and provide the information to the collecting agency which is on the lookout of such paths which could be exploited . Many such agencies pass on these trail paths to hackers to peek into and steal out money / documents .. anything precious to them (remember .. "precious" of LOTR , one can turn into

Gollum for such "precious" things ) . Therefore , always make use of stronger and lengthier passwords which is one's somewhat safety check for stopping unwanted and malicious intrusion . Many people make use of password managers who make use of multiple accounts , but this is also vulnerable as these are stored in the form of either xml , json objects in the form of cookies which could be again collected from the browser plugins that one uses on a regular basis . Thats why , one should also try disconnecting from cookie storage from browser when one closes the session . And thus , the best thing to do is to note down all the important passwords over a piece of paper and keep them at a safe storage space .

 

 

3) One should use Multi-factor authentication or two-step verification

 

 

These days password comprehension can be done is so different forms by hackers that , if someone wants to any way hack into some account , then they will eventually get into the account and that too using several tools . Thats why most of the security experts recommend that one should make use of multifactor authentication (two-factor , three-factor etc) in order to access a given account which involves a user's verification before logging into account using a system of OTP over phone and authenticator apps that send temporary always changing codes that ensure that the user who is using the account is the real one and not a dummy or someone else

 

 

4) One should not share data about friends and Contacts

 

This comes as a completely new method of data siphoning which occurs when someone accepts any permissions to any app or software over the phone . This makes the app-owner a party to the shared information as requested by the app within the permission page of the application . Therefore, one thing that one needs to keep in mind is to keep a check over the permission page of the

applications that one installs .Best is .. one should try to limitise one's wants , keep few applications and software over one's phone and do not install those software that require a lot of permissions to be accepted before making use of the software .

 

5) One should always stay vigilant and skeptical

These days all the security experts accept the one rule of thumb for all security practices -- " Trust No One in this Greed Infested World" . Whenever you recieve any call ,message , email soliciting any personal information .. then do not trust any of message , email soliciting any personal information .. then do not trust any of the mails . This could be a phishing attack from someone who wants to profit out of undoubting people who out of trust and foolishness get entrapped in their untrustworthy traps , thereby losing security over their devices and mediums .Fraudsters nowadays can embed malware over legitimate looking emails within hyperlinks which once clicked could install unsuspecting software over your system all without anyone's coming to know of such a background activity running on your system . Therefore, whenever any suspicion occurs , always opt out of such apps , softwares , emails , anything (sigh ... wish I had known these earlier )

 

 

These days I personally feel .. the days of Nokia 1100 and Nokia 1600 , movies without real-looking CGI , games like Tetris and Mario were the best .

 

Future Shock of Technology - Cyber Threats on the Rise

 

Future Shock of Technology - Threats on Rise

 

* India is on a high alert after several cyber attacks have jeopardised the operations of major business houses and market establishments in the aftermath of UpStock's data theft

 

* One of the articles in a major newspaper circulated in India states that “With conventional weapons of mass destruction having reached frightening proportions, incentivisation of cyber warfare has become a daily news affair which requires a few resources and could be carried out discretely "

 

* So what is Cyber-Warfare.. " Cyber-Warfare by its very nature is well suited for grey-zone warfare where offensive activities are carried out below the thresholdof all out war and assymmetric attacks " . So all of those who do not have a great idea of this can relate to those scenes in hi-fi sci-fi movies over where Hackers launch their malicious automated code at targeted companies / individuals / institutions in order to either usurp classified data or usurp money in order to jolt the financial system of targeted entity or launch a series of malicious code which would infiltrate into their database and throw the complex database system out of order in order to de-stabilize the system or corrupt the system as these days most of the organisations have their secured systems connected to the world wide web and not all have secure and robust tech to deal with a cyber invasive attack of a gigantic to deal with a cyber invasive attack of a gigantic proportion until and unless the organisations that keep vigil let go off their vigilance and purport themselves as a party involved in it .

 

* It is mentioned and also needs mentioning that these could be classified as a type of threat from both China-Pakistan axis or single entities .

 

* The Union Home Ministry recently informed the Parliament that cyberattacks have risen nearly 300% during the last year amidst the growing Covid Pandemic

 

* Additionally, the Union Power and Resources Ministry of the GoI has admitted that state sponsored Chinese hacker groups have tried targeting India's critical power infrastructure . One such group whichhas surfaced called as "Red Echo" was behind the Mumbai power outage last year

 

* The article has cited its apprehensions and urges the netizens to imagine the chaos that could be caused if by chance a Chinese or Pakistani cyber strike on an Indian nuclear facility happens in future . In such a scenario , the country should cultivate both "defensive and offensive" cyberwarfare capabilities . Chief of Defense Services Mr Bipin Rawat recently revealed that the country is taking steps to counter China's cyber warfare through risk mitigation strategies , building firewalls and recovery systems and integrating the firewalls and recovery systems and integrating the three services cybersecurity resources . But it is touted that India is still way behind China in Cyber Crimes and Offences . And in order to bridge the difference, GoI (Govt of India)has to work in close range with other higher powers like USA and Russia in order to quickly upgrade their cyber tech . The article in its closing points mentions that , this being the need of the hour is a major arena where the Quad nations need to coordinate .