IBM Training Classes in Billings, Montana

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Python is a powerful tool that can be used for many automation tasks in the workplace. It’s notorious for being one of the most simple and versatile options available in the world of programming languages. For this reason, many people choose to automate an enormous amount of their workflow with Python. We’ve compiled a few ideas for automating the boring stuff using Python. Let’s take a look.
 
Managing Emails
 
Most businesses rely on emails being sent out regularly in order to ensure everything runs smoothly. Doing this by hand can be boring and time-consuming. To alleviate this, there are packages written with and for Python that enable you to automate certain aspects of this process. Adding and removing individuals from mailing lists can be automated as well, especially if your business has a policy to automatically add and remove people from certain mailing lists when certain conditions are met. For example, after a customer of yours doesn’t interact with your company after an extended period of time, it may be prudent to remove them from your mailing list, or you can send them a premade email reminding them of your services. This is just one way that you can save your company time and money using automation with Python.
 
Repetitive File System Operations
 
Even for personal tasks, Python excels at performing repetitive file system operations. For example, it can convert files, rename, move, delete, and sort files as much as you need it to. This can be useful in many ways. If you have a folder of mp3 files that you need to compress, this can be sped up using Python. Additionally, you can create a set of criteria that need to be met in order for a given file to be considered useless, and then delete it. As a side note, be extremely careful when automating any sort of file deletion or altering, because a bug in your program can cause severe damage to your data and even to your computer. Still, these tools are extremely powerful and can be life-saving when used properly. 
 
Start-up Tasks
 
Whether you’re running a server or just using your own personal computer, there are always tasks that need to be done when your computer starts up, or you’re beginning a certain process. For example, you can automate the task of backing up your email inbox. This can ensure your files are being kept safe, and it can be triggered whenever your start up your computer. Additionally, if you need to collect or create any sort of logging data in order to document daily operations, you can use Python to alleviate some of these time-consuming processes. 
 
Web Scraping
 
And finally, we have Web Scraping. This process may be slightly more advanced for a beginner Python user, but it doesn’t take a terribly long time to learn, and it opens up a whole new world of opportunity in terms of data collection and management. Web scraping is extremely important because it not only allows you to automatically search for certain pieces of content on the internet, but it can also alert you to changes and updates to existing websites. If your business relies on certain trends on social media, you can scrape sites while searching for the presence of certain keywords, and if you’re a stock trader or bitcoin guru, you can automate some of your price-checking and set custom alerts for price changes. The field of web scraping is enormous, and there is a practically infinite amount of content written on this particular subject. If you’re interested in learning more, there are vast amounts of free resources on the internet that can help you get started. Web scraping is certainly one of the most important skills to have in almost any line of work.
 
Get Creative!
 
At this point, we’d like to advise you to get more familiar with the libraries and APIs that are available to you. Each individual workflow is different and requires familiarity with different technologies. Because of this, you will know better than anybody else which items are worth automating and which aren’t. Some people try to automate everything, and some people prefer to do certain tasks manually, but sometimes spending a few hours automating a job that takes one minute will end up being a time-saver after only a few months.
 
We’ve gone over quite a few options in this article, but no single human alive is familiar with absolutely everything Python can do. Hopefully, you’re now more familiar with the options available to you, and you should now be better equipped to search for further information that is more relevant to your specific use case. Have fun digging into the many nuances and functionalities that the Python language has to offer!

In programming, memory leaks are a common issue, and it occurs when a computer uses memory but does not give it back to the operating system. Experienced programmers have the ability to diagnose a leak based on the symptoms. Some believe every undesired increase in memory usage is a memory leak, but this is not an accurate representation of a leak. Certain leaks only run for a short time and are virtually undetectable.

Memory Leak Consequences

Applications that suffer severe memory leaks will eventually exceed the memory resulting in a severe slowdown or a termination of the application.

How to Protect Code from Memory Leaks?

Preventing memory leaks in the first place is more convenient than trying to locate the leak later. To do this, you can use defensive programming techniques such as smart pointers for C++.  A smart pointer is safer than a raw pointer because it provides augmented behavior that raw pointers do not have. This includes garbage collection and checking for nulls.

If you are going to use a raw pointer, avoid operations that are dangerous for specific contexts. This means pointer arithmetic and pointer copying. Smart pointers use a reference count for the object being referred to. Once the reference count reaches zero, the excess goes into garbage collection. The most commonly used smart pointer is shared_ptr from the TR1 extensions of the C++ standard library.

Static Analysis

The second approach to memory leaks is referred to as static analysis and attempts to detect errors in your source-code. CodeSonar is one of the effective tools for detection. It provides checkers for the Power of Ten coding rules, and it is especially competent at procedural analysis. However, some might find it lagging for bigger code bases.

How to Handle a Memory Leak

For some memory leaks, the only solution is to read through the code to find and correct the error. Another one of the common approaches to C++ is to use RAII, which an acronym for Resource Acquisition Is Initialization. This approach means associating scoped objects using the acquired resources, which automatically releases the resources when the objects are no longer within scope. RAII has the advantage of knowing when objects exist and when they do not. This gives it a distinct advantage over garbage collection. Regardless, RAII is not always recommended because some situations require ordinary pointers to manage raw memory and increase performance. Use it with caution.

The Most Serious Leaks

Urgency of a leak depends on the situation, and where the leak has occurred in the operating system. Additionally, it becomes more urgent if the leak occurs where the memory is limited such as in embedded systems and portable devices.

To protect code from memory leaks, people have to stay vigilant and avoid codes that could result in a leak. Memory leaks continue until someone turns the system off, which makes the memory available again, but the slow process of a leak can eventually prejudice a machine that normally runs correctly.

 

Related:

The Five Principles of Performance

In Demand IT Skills

It is hard not to wonder how current technology would have altered the events surrounding the tragic death of John F. Kennedy. On the afternoon of November 22, 1963, shots rang out in Dallas, TX, taking the life of JFK, one of the most beloved Americans. Given the same circumstances today, surely the advances in IT alone, would have drastically changed the outcome of that horrible day. Would the government have recognized that there was a viable threat looming over JFK? Would local and government agencies have been more prepared for a possible assassination attempt? Would the assortment of everyday communication devices assisted in the prevention of the assassination, not to mention, provided greater resources into the investigation? With all that the IT world has to offer today, how would it have altered the JFK tragedy?

 

As many conspiracy theories have rocked the foundation of the official story presented by government agencies, realization of the expansive nature of technology provides equal consideration as to how the event would have been changed had this technology been available during the time of the shooting. There were T.V. cameras, home 8mm recorders, even single shot-hand held cameras snapping away as the car caravan approached. Yet, there remains little documentation of the shooting and even less information pertaining to the precautions taken by officials prior to JFK's arrival. Theorists consider these possibilities along with how the world would have turned out had the great John F. Kennedynever been assassinated on that day.

 

 
Technology is changing all the time, and the jobs that are associated with technology are changing as well. People that are looking at careers in technology will see some jobs that are being phased out as others increase in popularity. This means that people that are interested in tech jobs should be vigilant in researching those opportunities that are growing in demand.
 
A Dying Breed of Legacy Systems
 
The mainframe programmers i.e., COBOL, have been getting phased out for years, and are reaching retirement age. The demand for these skills are at an end of an era as more technology surfaces with needs for app development and cloud migration. These jobs will be phased out and are being replaced with developers that are knowledgeable in more object-oriented programming positions such as Java, C#, and etc. 
 
Programmers / Analysts
 
Professionals that work in software development, can find work in a number of different tech careers. People that know how to program, particularly in object oriented programming, can expect to be employed and in demand for some time to come. The salaries for programmers range from $50k – millions, depending on the skillsets one has mastered. Like any other profession, one can opt to learn just enough to get by or hone in on a discipline currently in demand and master it, such as data analysts, machine learning analyst and cloud migration specialists.  
 
 
Tech Support for Portable Devices
 
The healthcare industry is seeing a rise in jobs in Information Technology because more hospitals are going paperless. There is a great demand for people that have the ability to work with portable devices because this is what many doctors and nurses will be using as they move away from the long paper trail that has been created from patients. People that have the ability to configure and troubleshoot portable devices like tablets and phones are able to support the applications for these devices will be in high demand. In this case, learning programming languages such a C++ is the perfect route to go in. 
 
 
Technology Trainers 
 
There will always be a need for someone that can learn, utilize and teach proprietary programs to others. Internal proprietary technology will need to be updated which means that technology trainers are expected to be current in the knowledge base for  companies that are utilizing this software. People that are in the training field, will need to stay updated with new technology, grasp new concepts quickly and be able to teach it efficiently. As more companies take hold of proprietary programs, it becomes important for software application trainers to be put in place to teach this technology. 
 
Printer Support Jobs Dwindle
 
People that are working in the technology field of printer support will need to consider looking at other opportunities because some of these printer support jobs will be phased out.  There is a reason for this. More jobs are becoming phased out in the world of printer technology because fewer people are using printers. It has become easier to read the documents and transfer these documents to other workers inside an organization. This means that less money is being spent on printers. Even less money is being spent on printer support. People that have acquired jobs where their primary role is to work in printer repair will see a decline in the number of people that are needed for these types of positions. It becomes a lot less feasible to have printer repair people in place when there is no printer in the office.
 
 
Graphic Design
 
Technology also holds a special place for those that have the experience in graphic design. Websites and social media really engage people in visual art and people that know how to display it on web pages have a plethora of jobs. This leaves this field wide open for those that know about design structures and editing images that can result in eye catching imagery.
 
Wan/ Lan Management
 
One big area that offers an array of different jobs is the area of wide and local network router and switch management. People that are proficient in programming switches and building networks can get themselves a number of jobs dealing with the network topology. Tech careers are booming when it comes to this type of field because many people do not have this experience. They may know how to set up computers, but they may not have any idea about what to do if the network connection is no longer working properly.
 
People that know how to configure switches for networks and troubleshoot these issues with network connectivity will have a wide range of geographical locations that they connect together to build one network for a business.

Tech Life in Montana

According to the Nielsen Media Research, as of 2010 Missoula is 166th largest media market in the U.S. Some famous Montanans are: Actors… Gary Cooper, Dirk Benedict and Myrna Loy, George Montgomery Authors/journalists…Dorothy Baker, Chet Huntley, Will James Film makers…David Lynch Daredevil motorcyclist, Evel Knievel
His studies were pursued but never effectually overtaken.  ~H.G. Wells
other Learning Options
Software developers near Billings have ample opportunities to meet like minded techie individuals, collaborate and expend their career choices by participating in Meet-Up Groups. The following is a list of Technology Groups in the area.

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the hartmann software group advantage
A successful career as a software developer or other IT professional requires a solid understanding of software development processes, design patterns, enterprise application architectures, web services, security, networking and much more. The progression from novice to expert can be a daunting endeavor; this is especially true when traversing the learning curve without expert guidance. A common experience is that too much time and money is wasted on a career plan or application due to misinformation.

The Hartmann Software Group understands these issues and addresses them and others during any training engagement. Although no IT educational institution can guarantee career or application development success, HSG can get you closer to your goals at a far faster rate than self paced learning and, arguably, than the competition. Here are the reasons why we are so successful at teaching:

  • Learn from the experts.
    1. We have provided software development and other IT related training to many major corporations in Montana since 2002.
    2. Our educators have years of consulting and training experience; moreover, we require each trainer to have cross-discipline expertise i.e. be Java and .NET experts so that you get a broad understanding of how industry wide experts work and think.
  • Discover tips and tricks about IBM programming
  • Get your questions answered by easy to follow, organized IBM experts
  • Get up to speed with vital IBM programming tools
  • Save on travel expenses by learning right from your desk or home office. Enroll in an online instructor led class. Nearly all of our classes are offered in this way.
  • Prepare to hit the ground running for a new job or a new position
  • See the big picture and have the instructor fill in the gaps
  • We teach with sophisticated learning tools and provide excellent supporting course material
  • Books and course material are provided in advance
  • Get a book of your choice from the HSG Store as a gift from us when you register for a class
  • Gain a lot of practical skills in a short amount of time
  • We teach what we know…software
  • We care…
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