Are you tearing your hair out trying to figure out how to create a bar-line chart (i.e. a combination of a bar chart and a line chart) in Microsoft Word? Look no further, we’ve got step-by-step instructions for you in this post.
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Posts categorised under:
Computing
“Git” good Part 1 — Let’s “Git” the basics
Looking to learn Git on your own, but not sure about where to get started? This article will be a great starting point for you. It’s the first in a series of articles called “Git” good, and it’s designed to help anyone learn Git online in a simple, linear and accessible manner.
In this article, we will be going through the install process for Git and exploring its most basic functionalities.
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A formula for rounding numbers
Most programming languages come with native functions that help us round our numbers, either upwards (i.e. ceiling operation), downwards (i.e. floor operation), or to the nearest whole (i.e. round operation). While this is convenient, we sometimes need a bit more than that — what if — for example — we want to round our numbers to the nearest 0.5, or the nearest 3rd?
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Adding virtual hosts on Bitnami Apache
Over the weekend, I’ve spent a substantial chunk of time figuring out how to add a virtual host onto a client’s subdomain. In laymen’s terms, this means that:
- My client has a website hosted on a domain (which we shall call example.com, for confidentiality reasons)
- We want to build a web application on app.example.com, which will be entirely separate from example.com.
- To save on cost, we want to host app.example.com on the same server that example.com is using (i.e. create a virtual host on the web server).
This means that we have to configure our web server so that it will serve a different webroot depending on the domain it is being accessed from.
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Shallow vs. deep copying in Python
If you’ve worked with Lists in Python before, you’ll quickly realise that they work differently from primitives like integers and strings. Consider the following:
a = "hello" b = a a = "world" print(a) # Outputs world print(b) # Outputs hello
Notice that changing the value of a does not change the value of b. This is called passing by value. In Python, Lists do not behave this way:
a = [2, 3, 4, 5] b = a a.append(6) print(a) # Outputs [2, 3, 4, 5, 6] print(b) # Outputs [2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
In the above example, notice that changing the value of List a also changes the value of List b. This is because both a and b are referring to the same List, and this is called passing by reference.
Setting up basic security for your Ubuntu Droplet
Have you recently spun up a new Ubuntu Droplet on DigitalOcean? The other day, when I checked my authentication logs in /var/log/auth.log, I came across several login attempts with random usernames.
We often take security for granted, but it becomes something of great concern once you start to manage servers of your own. If you were to leave your Droplet as it is, it is only a matter of time before hackers guess your login credentials and gain access to your system. Hence, here are some basic security measures you should set up to prevent others from breaking in:
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Calculating EVs needed to raise a stat in Pokémon
As a result of working on upgrades for this Pokémon Effort Value Calculator, math has been a pretty big part of my life for the past few months, as I’ve been rearranging the games’ formulas for stat and damage calculation to make my own that fit my needs.
One such formula was the EVs needed one, which gives you the amount of EVs you need to invest to raise a stat by n points. Everyone knows that at Level 100, you get 1 stat point for every 4 EV points you invest; but what happens when you’re not at Level 100, or when you factor in stat modifiers like Nature, or item and ability boosts?
Don’t know what effort values are? Start with this article from Bulbapedia. Don’t play the mainline Pokémon games? Then you should start with these.
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RAM, explained in English
RAM stands for Random-Access Memory, but that is something that you can find out just by doing a quick Google search. If you read the results of said Google search to understand what it is, you’ll start running into jargon that can be difficult to understand for a layperson. Here are some examples:
…a form of computer memory that can be read and changed in any order, typically used to store working data and machine code
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random-access_memory
…temporary storage that goes away when the power turns off
Avast: https://www.avast.com/c-what-is-ram-memory
…is used to load and run applications, such as your spreadsheet program, respond to commands, such as any edits you made in the spreadsheet, or toggle between multiple programs, such as when you left the spreadsheet to check email
Crucial.com: https://www.crucial.com/articles/about-memory/support-what-does-computer-memory-do
These are not bad examples, per se, but if you don’t work with computers a lot, these explanations will seem very abstract. What does working data mean, for example; or why is RAM temporary storage (why not just make it permanent)?
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