Python is an incredibly powerful and useful computer programming language that many of the biggest websites in the world rely on for their foundation. Python provides reliable results that are functional and involve a variety of dynamic scripted and non-scripted contexts. And because it is free and open source, it has remained a popular choice for a variety of different developers who are looking to build new sites on one of the most reliable languages available. Here is a look at 10 of the most famous software programs that are written in Python and what they do.

YouTube
If you love watching hours of homemade and professional quality video clips on YouTube, you can thank Python for giving you that option. The foundation for Python helped YouTube integrate streaming videos into their pages, as well as the ability to like videos and embed certain information. YouTube is one of the most popular sites on the Internet, and it runs off of one of the most powerful languages in Python.

DropBox
What started as a powerful app, DropBox is now used by a variety of individuals, businesses, companies, organizations and more. This program lets you save files to a cloud-based service, that you can then access from anywhere in the world. With Python at the root of DropBox, there is no longer a need for USB sticks or blank CDs, since you can now save and share everything with your cloud-based account.

Google
It takes a lot of power to be able to handle the most popular search engine in the entire world. That is why Google uses Python for its mainframe foundation, as well as in addition to various apps that it runs in conjunction with the main site. The ease that Google provides for finding certain information, would be impossible without Python at the core.

Quora
Got a question? Ask it on Quora. This site compiles a list of questions and answers that come from a community of individuals. Those questions are then organized by various members of the community, which puts the most relevant information at the top. The creators of Quora, who happened to be former Facebook employees, decided to use Python to help them create the world’s best Magic 8 ball in Quora.

Instagram
If you love taking photos of your food or a new outfit and posting it online for all of your friends to see, you can thank Python for that ability. Granted, Instagram has both a very powerful app and a website, but the latter runs on Python language. The system allows for users to browse, find and post pictures that they like on the site.

BitTorrent
BitTorrent has evolved quite a bit in recent years, but its foundation and earlier years were built on Python. When it comes to one of the largest databases of knowledge, media and content, BitTorrent is the way to go. But you wouldn’t be able to get any of those lectures or other legal stuff that you are downloading from BitTorrent, if it wasn’t for Python.

Spotify
Spotify changed the music game when it allowed you to listen to ad-free music of your choice. This wasn’t a program where you got to select a playlist, but rather full songs that you love, on repeat as many times as you can imagine, if you so desire. But whether you are rocking out to the latest K-Pop song from Psy or a classic jazz tune, you are doing so because Spotify was built on Python.

Reddit
Reddit is one of the biggest open communities on the web. You have a question, want to talk about something in specific, or find tons of information regarding a particular topic, you can just look on Reddit. The site relies on Python to help them store user names, categorize subreddits, upload links to GIFs and, of course, award gold to valued posters.

Yahoo Maps
Much like Google, Yahoo also uses Python for a variety of different resources. Most valued may be Yahoo Maps. The API and programming behind the maps program, which is built with Python, allows for users to find locations, get directions and even find reviews about local places.

Hipmunk
If you love to travel, you have likely come across Hipmunk. And while the site lets you save money on booking your itinerary through Hipmunk, it is Python that keeps everything organized. Python also helps sort the best discounts and rates, so you can get the best packages available.

Python is an incredibly powerful tool for web development. More and more sites rely on it, including 10 of the most powerful sites in the world that are listed here.

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Current Active List of Organizations that use Python 

Working With Lists In Python

One of the biggest challenges faced by senior IT professionals in organizations is the choice of the right software vendor. In the highly competitive enterprise software industry, there are lot of vendors who claim to offer the best software for the problem and it can be really daunting to narrow down the best choice. Additionally, enterprise software costs can often run into millions of dollars thereby leaving very little margin of error. The real cost of choosing a wrong software can often result into losses much more than the cost of the software itself as highlighted by software disasters experienced by leading companies like HP, Nike etc. In such a scenario, senior IT professionals despite years of expertise can find it very difficult to choose the right business software vendor for their organization.

Here are some of the proven ways of short-listing and selecting the right business software vendor for your organization,

·         Understand and Define The Exact Need First: Before embarking on a journey to select the software vendor, it is critical to understand and define the exact problem you want the software to solve. The paramount question to be asked is what business objective does the software need to solve. Is the software required to “reduce costs” or is it to “improve productivity”? Extracting and defining this fundamental question is the bare minimum but necessary step to go searching for the right vendor. It will then form the basis of comparing multiple vendors on this very need that your organization has and will help drive the selection process going forward. The detailed approach involves creating a set of parameters that the software needs to meet in order to be considered. In fact, consider categorizing these parameters further in “must-haves”, “good to have” etc. which will help you assign relevant weights to these parameter and how the software’s fare on each of these parameters

·         Building The List of Vendors Who Meet The Need: Once you have defined your need and distilled that need into various parameters, it’s time to built the list of vendors who you think will meet the need. This is akin to a lead generation model wherein you want to identify a large enough pool and then filters your list down to the best ones. There are multiple ways of building a list of vendors and more often than not, you must use a combination of these methods to build a good enough list.

o   Use Industry Reports: We discussed the IT intelligence offered by leading industry firms Gartner and Forrester in How To Keep On Top Of Latest Trends In Information Technology. These firms based on their access to leading software vendors and CIO network publish vendor comparison research reports across specific verticals as well as specific technologies. Gartner’s Magic Quadrant and Forrester’s Wave are a very good starting point to get an insight into the best software vendors. For example, if you were looking for a CRM solution, you could look for Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for CRM and look at the vendors that make the list. These reports can be pricey but well worth the money if you are going to invest hundreds of thousands in the software. Having said that, you don’t have to trust these report blindly because how these firms define the best software may not match how you define the best software for your organization

o   Competitive Intelligence: If you are a smart professional, you are already keeping tabs of your competition. Chances are that if you are a big organization, you might see a Press Release either from your competitor or their vendor announcing the implementation of new software. Extrapolate that across 5-10 key competitors of yours and you might discover the vendors that your competitors are choosing. This gives you a good indicator that the vendors used by your competitors must be offering something right.

With stiff penalties for being caught and the whiff of secretive underground or even nefarious acts, computer hacking can be seen as a somewhat dubious pursuit. Not all hackers operate with the motive of emptying your Paypal account, however; there are many hackers who utilize their skills to aid companies in locating security flaws ("penetration testing") or engage in hacking with the goal of becoming cyber-freedom-fighters that champion simple human freedoms, such as the right to free speech.

Computer hacking is as much an art as it is a skill. At its simplest distillation, hacking is the systematic search for chinks in programming armor. While advanced problem-solving, intuition and sophisticated understanding of programming languages are a distinct advantage, there does exist a number of push-button programs that computing wizards have written allowing those less sophisticated in the art of hacking to break into remote computers in a variety of ways. Because of this new ubiquity, today's hackers no longer need to be a programming Wunderkind; they simply need to know where to download software and be able to turn on a computer. It really is that simple and the implications can be disturbing.

Phishing, Push-Button Programs and Brute Force Tactics

There's no need to crack a company's firewall if you have direct physical access to their computers. One aspect of hacking is the impersonation of an employee or service worker with the goal of gaining access to a company's database, where the hacker can then unleash whatever havoc he or she has planned into the system. Another is to engage in simple phishing techniques, such as impersonating an employee who forgot their password and needs help logging into the system.

Because such impersonations often fail thanks to companies becoming more security-conscious, taking over operations of a computer remotely is often the preferred method of gaining access. Such attempts can be facilitated in a variety of ways. One is the brute-force method, in which a program such as SQLmap, Nmap or Burpsuite is used; running one of these programs is analogous to trying every doorknob in a neighborhood to see which house is unlocked. Using a variety of different parameters, these programs can find access to a vulnerable computer or network in less than a minute.

Hackers can also attempt to gain access with a program like Metasploit. With literally a few clicks of a mouse, access to a remote and vulnerable computer can be achieved by a relative newbie. With a related hacking aid, called Meterpreter, a backdoor is created that allows access into an operating system. It does not install itself onto the remote computer, running instead using the computer's memory; in fact, Meterpreter can hide itself inside the operations of a perfectly valid program, so it cannot be detected even by sophisticated programmers. Once engaged, it allows a remote user carte blanche access to the system in question.

Where to Learn the Art of Hacking

Of course, for those who wish to learn the actual skills rather than download someone else's hack, there are a number of practice sites that pose an increasingly difficult set of challenges intended to train neophytes in the art of hacking. For example, Hack This Site starts beginners with the goal of cracking simple flaws in coding scripts or software such as HTML, Unix, Javascript and Apache. Their structured series of tests increase in complexity, incorporating real-word scenarios and even old-fashioned "phone phreaking" challenges that recall the bygone golden age of hacking skills displayed by Matthew Broderick in "WarGames."

Using just these simple tools and free practice sites, beginners have a powerful array of hacking resources just a simple mouse click away.

One of the most recent updates to the iPhone, and more specifically the operating system that is packaged with the iPhone, iOS, brought one of the most fantastic and phenomenal updates ever: an update to Maps. Maps has been used as an application that provides an easy way to find routes, and (obviously) maps about certain areas, businesses in the local vicinity, and also leaving pins on favorited locations, or pins where you have explored, and for many other reasons. However, although Maps has always been a great way to travel with, it has always been redundant to travel with, also. When you used Maps a while ago, you had to route your map, and then manually click each next button as you reached each turn or freeway exit, and the like. So, if you had to turn left on a certain street, you had to tell your phone you had done so, so it would give you the next directions. As a result, it could become very dangerous to always have your phone out, looking at it, while you are on a high-speed freeway. But, the newest update solved that, and brought a great amount of new features.

Using Maps GPS

Using Maps is as easy as it gets. Most of the time, when you are using Maps, you are using it to search for a location, and finding a way to get there. To start off, let’s search for the nearest mall, and routes to get there. Simply search a nearby mall you know about, or search the general word “mall” by tapping on the top text box, and typing in mall, and searching. Pins will drop down on the screen, and locating the mall by zooming into certain streets and locations will help you find the mall you want. Once you find the mall you desire to go to, click on the blue arrow, and scroll down, and tap on the button that says “Directions To Here.”

As a result of tapping on that particular button, a new window should show up asking where your starting location is. On default, this location is your current location; if it is anything else, simply type in the starting location into the top address bar, such as your house. Once you are ready to go, tap on route, and you should be ready to go. Well, not exactly. One of the best features that has been implemented in the new system is suggested routes, and alternative routes. If you don’t like to drive on certain streets, or roads, the system provides you with different methods to get to your destination, which may avoid a road you don’t feel like driving on that certain day, or time, or you simply don’t want to take the freeway. It’s all okay, as Maps provides you with many different routes to take. Once you find the route you want (by tapping on the certain route’s outline), click start, and you should be ready to go. Make sure you turn up your volume so you can hear the directions!

Maps for Alternative Transportation