Take Care

Uninspired

I am a reckless uninspired person. I call myself a map-maker but I don't really get to make maps for reasons that I don't think I should venture outside of my requesters' requests. But mostly, I am compelled to get it right and I feel good if I can deliver what they need. The thing is, I no longer get spontaneously inspired to make maps anymore. Just as the rules become clearer the more you read books on cartography, fear just crop themselves up like 'Plant vs Zombies' 🌱 in PlayStation.

So, I am scared that I'm beginning to wear off my excitement about making map; really making them and not just knowing how to make them.

What sort of idea is great? I mean, what should I focus on trying to make? There are so many data out there that what I will attempt may be missing the train or just pale in comparison to other incredible work. I don't really mind it but I'm not that young to not understand self-esteem does ease the thinking process.

Can't say much, I mean...30 Days of Map Challenge hasn't been all that well with me. I should've prepared something before the event event started. I quit after the 3rd challenge cause I overthink and get panic attacks every time I feel I'm doing stuff half-ass.

Despite all that, I am lucky to have aggressively supportive siblings. They just can't seem to stop the tough love and always kicking me to just barf something out.

'It's the process that matters!'

When did I start forgetting how wonderful the process, huh?

zero to pandas

There are alot of Python courses out there that we can jump into and get started with. But to a certain extent in that attempt to learn the language, the process becomes unbearably long and frustratingly slow. We all know the feeling of wanting to run before we could learn how to walk; we really wanna get started with some subtantial project but we do not know enough to even call the data into the terminal for viewing.

Back in August, freeCodeCamp in collaboration with Jovian.ai, organized a very interesting 6-week MOOC called Data Analysis with Python: Zero to Pandas and as a self-proclaimed Python groupie, I pledged my allegiance!

If there are any expectation that I've managed to whizz myself through the course and obtained a certificate, nothing of that sort happened; I missed the deadline cause I was busy testing out every single code I found and work had my brain on overdrive. I can't...I just...can't. Even with the extension, I was short of 2 Pythonic answers required to earn the certificate. But don't mistake my blunders for the quality of the content this course has to offer; is worth every gratitude of its graduates!

Zero to Pandas MOOC is a course that spans over 6 weeks with one lecture webinar per week that compacts the basics of Python modules that are relevant in executing data analysis. Like the play on its name, this course assumes no prior knowledge in Python language and aims to teach prospective students the basics on Python language structure AND the steps in analyzing real data. The course does not pretend that data analytics is easy and cut-corners to simplify anything. It is a very 'honest' demonstration that effectively gives overly ambitious future data analysts a flick on the forehead about data analysis. Who are we kidding? Data analysis using programming language requires sturdy knowledge in some nifty codes clean, splice and feature engineer the raw data and real critical thinking on figuring out 'Pythonic' ways to answer analytical questions. What does it even mean by Pythonic ways? Please refer to this article by Robert Clark, How to be Pythonic and Why You Should Care. We can discuss it somewhere down the line, when I am more experienced to understand it better. But for now, Packt Hub has the more comprehensive simple answer; it simply is an adjective coined to describe a way/code/structure of a code that utilizes or take advantage of the Python idioms well and displays the natural fluency in the language.

The bottom line is, we want to be able to fully utilize Python in its context and using its idioms to analyze data.

The course is conducted at Jovian.ai platform by its founder; Aakash and it takes advantage of Jupyter-like notebook format; Binder, in addition to making the synchronization available at Kaggle and Google's Colab. Each webinar in this course spans over close to 2 hours and each week, there are assignments on the lecture given. The assignments are due in a week but given the very disproportionate ratio of students and instructors, there were some extensions on the submission dates that I truly was grateful for. Forum for students is available at Jovian to engage students into discussing their ideas and question and the teaching body also conducts office hours where students can actively ask questions.

The instructor's method of teaching is something I believe to be effective for technical learners. In each lectures, he will be teaching the codes and module requires to execute certain tasks in the thorough procedure of the data analysis task itself. From importing the .csv formatted data into Python to establishing navigation to the data repository...from explaining what the hell loops are to touching base with creating functions. All in the controlled context of two most important module for the real objective of this course; Numpy and Pandas.

My gain from this course is immensely vast and that's why I truly think that freeCodeCamp and Jovian.ai really put the word 'tea' to 'teachers'. Taking advantage of the fact that people are involuntarily quarantined in their house, this course is something that should not be placed aside in the 'LATER' basket. I managed to clear my head to understand what 'loop' is! So I do think it can solve the world's problem!

In conclusion, this is the best course I have ever completed (90%!) on data analysis using Python. I look forward to attending it again and really finish up that last coursework.

Oh. Did I not mention why I got stuck? It was the last coursework. We are required to demonstrate all the steps of data analysis on data of our choice, create 5 questions and answer them using what we've learned throughout the course. Easy eh? Well, I've always had the tendency of digging my own grave everytime I get awesome cool assignments. But I'm not saying I did not do it :). Have a look-see at this notebook and consider the possibilities you can grasp after you've completed the course. And that's just my work...I'm a standard C-grade student.

And the exciting latest news from Jovian.ai is that they have upcoming course at Jovian for Deep Learning called Deep Learning with PyTorch: Zero to GANS! That's actually yesterday's news since they organized it earlier this year...so yeah...this is an impending second cohort! Tentatively, the course will start on Nov 14th. Click the link below to sign-up and get ready to attack the nitty-gritty. Don't say I didn't warn ya.

And that's me, reporting live from the confinement of COVID pandemic somewhere in a developing country at Southeast Asia....

Yes peeps. I’ve been studying and on contrary to all my previous attempts to make beautiful notes, I say f it and just work with what helps me clear my head the fastest 🏃🏻‍♀️. I love writing notes, but I realize, to gather my thoughts properly, I need some sort of way to not waste paper just to arrange and rearrange my ideas or comprehension of things. 

What better way of doing that than using a mind map!

So you kiddos out there who are starting out with Python and just can’t wait to get into deep learning or machine learning, I’d say, hold your horses for a minute and have some preview of that pond you’re trying to jump into. And don’t be scared, cause we’re all friends here in the hell-hole of learning plateau. Will it get better? I believe so. I am positive I understand more of the principles of deep learning and the relevance of Python libraries associated with it. Yes...this is a Python bar, darling. 👩🏻‍💻

There’s no real shortcut if you ask me since we have different way of comprehending things; my pre-existing mold may have harder time grasping the things I am learning right now than you would. So don’t be afraid to doodle while you think. No amount of paper will be enough to help you understand things, so better start being sustainable by using some digital platforms and saving those papers to when you’re truly ready to pen out your understanding of things; not what you read. There’s a difference!

Check out the mind map of some essential Python libraries you can get started with before you start doing some deep learning. It’s worth reviewing all that prior, I promise. 

Have fun! 🙆🏻‍♀️

Taskade: Multi-platform planner and task manager

The year 2021 is looming over us and I am dying to have some sort of control over what I could be doing for the next 365 days. While 2020 had been a year of 'character building', I discover alot of things about everything around me and myself. For starters, I am an avid planner; surprisingly. But it does not mean that I follow through with them. See what I did right there? I am admitting the truth behind self-study and lifetime of learning.

With alot of things I have planned to breathe new life to my own progress and time management, I went hunting for some interesting stuff in the internet for inspiration and try-outs. And guess what? I found one and I think most people may have been using this already in full swing because the review is 5 ⭐!

🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑

Taskade is simply a project/team management tool. Ah ah ah...before you write me off, hear me out. Taskade is aimed to help teams to plan, organize or manage their tasks and prioritize output for decision-making. It is simply an interactive planner sans organizer sans dashboard that sees where you're at with your work, what you've managed to get done and communicate tasks among people in your team; IF you have a whole team working on some sort of project. Hence, the chat capability that is implemented in this tool.

At my job, I work in a team of only 2 people; me and another colleague, and we're the regional programme unit which is apart of the bigger unit of team mates spread elsewhere in other regions. So, just because your unit is small, it doesn't mean that your task load complements your pint-sized manpower. So, I've been looking for platforms that could help me organize our productivity and ensure high-quality output. Just because technology is more advanced, it doesn'e mean there isn't any learning curve, right? So I tried just about anything under the sun for project/team management; Asana, Slack, Discord, the pre-existing Google..., but none of them could nail all shortcomings precisely; due dates, assignment of tasks, progress, sub-tasks, interactive commenting, multiplatform sync, brainstorming etc. Channels in Slack gives me headache -- same with Discord, and Telegram channels is too 'static' and 'one-way street' for me to view everything.

I found Taskade after trying to find a complementary 'Forest: Focus' extension at the Google Chrome extensions marketplace. There are plenty of interesting high-quality extensions as of late and I am pleasantyl surprised because earlier this year, most of them were quite 'beta' in their functionality. I saw a 'Bullet Journal' extension that someone raved about and another individual commented: 'Isn't this Taskade?'. The curious cat I am, I googled it and was not disappointed. What are the main keywords that hooked me?:

FREE

Google-integrated

Remote work environment advocacy

Multi-platform

What features do Taskade actually have? ✨

Given that it is an All-in-One Collaboration tool, it is understandable if the GUI is pleasing on the eyes. I do understand that first-impression is everything; color, packaging, fore-front information and visual, but it was really the functionality that delivers me to salvation. If you're an active member of Dev.to, then you'll catch feels with this theme that Taskade delivers. Key features in Taskade that you should try out:

Task list

Collaborators invitation feature (no organizational handle required)

Chat feature (with a call feature!)

Workspace feature (nothing new but...I'll get back to this later)

5 interchangeable neural-forest task list templates; List, Board, Action, Mindmap and Org Chart -- seamless with no error.

The capability to utilize this very platform as a presentation or exported into PDF task list printout.

Safe to say, Taskade buried me alive with the curation of beautiful images for the background; again...not relevant but needed to be said.

The Live Demosandbo lets you try it out for yourself although, at first glance, you may be wondering what on earth you are looking at. But it won't take long before you discover that it is quite intuitive.

Did I mention you can download and access it from just about ANYWHERE? Laptops, browser extensions and even smartphone apps. I'm not kidding when I said Taskade is multiplatform; they work on Windows, Mac, Android, iOS and Linux. Currently, I am testing it out using the Chrome extension and installed the app in my Android phone. It works like I expect it to so far.

What is the difference between the FREE and PAID version? 💰💰💰

As I just mentioned, you can sign-up for it for free and use it for life...for free. The priced version is seemingly there to accommodate the file size per upload you require; as of now. For free plan, you can upload 5MB file per upload while the paid version increases the size to 50MB per upload. Both versions offer:

Unlimited storage

Unlimited tasks entry

Unlimited project creation

Unlimited collaborators addition

The development team is currently adding more functionalities such as Project Activity Tracking, Integration to Dropbox, Google Drive and One Drive as well as Email Integration -- available for free.

Although it is mentioned that the free version of Taskade includes unlimited tasks, collaborators and all essential features, it was also mentioned that you will need to upgrade if you exceed the workspace limits which doesn't actually have any entailing elaborations which I will try to dig soon enough. But safe to say that if you are a single person using this tool, you are considered a team of 'one' where your shared projects in workspace to your 'editors' are still considered free. Only workspace the addition of workspace members are billed. This may imply that there are certain limits to how many individuals you can add into your workspace before you are required to upgrade. So far, visually, I see that the limit may be 2 people that makes up to 3 people per workspace (including yourself). You can find some details to pricing and FAQs here:

Taskade | Simple Pricing

Personally, I don't think USD5 is a hard bargain if you're self-employed and work with external parties collaboratively. If you're apart of an organization, feel free to ask for demo from them. Discount is possible if you're from a nonprofit or educational institution.

How I use Taskade? ☕

Well, given that it was free to sign-up, I tried it out straight away and I'm happy to report that I successfully managed to use it without having to google nor view any how-tos. That is a good thing! In fact, I am quite elated with just how easy it is to use this tool that I have used my personal email to help centralize and manage my work and personal work side-by-side. If you prefer some satellite view of your progress and all the task you need to complete to clear off certain objective, this is not a bad organization.

So I created 2 workspace: one for work and one for my personal tasks. Then I just collate all my tasks into monthly projects.

My personal tasks involve me updating my study progress and curating stuff I like online into my Tumblr blog.

Create studyblr workspace

Create new project in the studyblr workspace to organize and brainstorm Tumblr contents I plan to create and post: Tumblr: 2021/01.

Utilize the Mindmap template from all the options of templates shared and start creating the and organizing the content I want and tasks I need to execute to develop them.

Et voila! There all there is to it! It is easy peasy and you can start adding due dates as reminders and links as resources as well as hashtags for filtering in future. Check out some drafting I did so far in the screenshots below!

For more updates, check out their Updates page that fully utilizes Taskade to share all the updates straight from December 2017 till present and the chat function is there available for you to ask the Taskade team about the feature updates directly. Now that's awesome cause you know something's good if the one who makes them, actually uses them.😎😎😎

33rd National Geoscience Conference 2021 (NGC 2021)

Tool: ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Pro Deep Learning extension, Python, Jupyter Notebook Technique: Deep learning; semantic segmentation, cartography, remote sensing

The presentation of abstract outlining the implementation of deep learning in land cover classification across the Borneo island. It uses the Sentinel-2 image data and the band combination that differentiates the bareland, tree cover as well as waterbodies and croplands whilst training the U-Net model using the referenced data collected.

Please find the abstract published here:

Warta Geologi, Vol. 47, No. 1, April 2021

The presentation slide can be accessed at the following link 👇🏻:

The Forest App: Build a forest with your focus

Forest: Stay Focus

🔍 Background

In my line of work, there are alot of things that require Google search that could stretch for hours as I slid down one rabbit hole after another. So, I used timer to actually remind me if I am spending too much time on certain things that I am researching. True enough, there are many options available; real kitchen timer, phone, watch, smart-watch, computer alarm etc. But since it’s a new year and there are lots of new apps popping up in the recommendation from Playstore, I noticed how the trend of tracking your habits is becoming more popular despite the pandemic. You would expect that the pandemic will slow people down career-wise or personal upkeep, but the technological development just won’t leave alone. They’ve served you with contactless transaction and centralized delivery system…now, they’re telling you that you could keep yourself in check by tracking your habits.

I used to utilize Hourglass app that I installed in my computer to time my work. It is free and you can customize it; the time duration, name of the time allocated and change the color of the interface. Simple and easy to use. Quite generic. But I wonder just how much time I spent with doing my research or study or rest? Hourglass doesn’t record the time spent on the tasks so there’s no recall or record feature. And there isn’t much to customize in Hourglass since it is pretty much what-you-see-is-what-you-get.

❓ What sort of features we would like to have in a timer at this age?

There has got to be more to life, no? I mean, we can do better with 64-bit resolution and all. Stretching out the functionality may be unnecessary but I don’t mind exploring.

Having a visually pleasant interface for the timer would be a plus but what I needed was a record of all the time spent on doing of the focused work I did for certain tasks. And I with that sort of feature, it would be great if it can be synchronized in multiple platform so that I can extend the usage to not only when I am face with my own laptop.

So I randomly scrolled though the Playstore and found that the app Forest: Stay Focus by Seekrtech. It is a productivity tool that helps you allocate limited time for certain subject or work in intervals with rest time or so. Most people like to refer this sort of technique as Pomodoro, which I believe is not something new; 25 minutes of focused work/ study followed by 5 minutes rest before repeating it again for as much cycle as you want. Nevertheless, long before Pomodoro, we’ve been taught that 30 minutes is the limit of non-stop focus if you intent to maximize information retention.

❓ What does Forest app offer?

Forest app, for all intent and purposes, is a timer and a fancy one at that. In fact, it gamifies the 'productivity’ challenge to a new level. By using the tree-growing concept.

_“You focus in your allocated time, your tree will reach full growth. Do it many times, you’ll have a forest”

And it’s not hard to stay motivated with this app. With its pleasant vibrant but muted colors, it's easy on eyes and kind to your mind.

“Forest app is pretty. Cheerful muted colors with a concept that encourages you to use it more.”

You are visually growing a tree with your dedication or focus to your work. The more time you spent focusing, the more coins and badges you accumulate. There are many types of trees that you can 'purchase’ with the coins you gain as you successfully focus during the allocated time you have set. And the trees have interesting designs with limited time designs offered all year round.

What happens when you quit before you finish the time allocated? Well, your tree more or less die. You’ll find a tree stump to prove it.

🕹️ Gamify productivity, at global scale

There’s a feature in Forest app called Plant Mode where you can enable the Deep Focus Mode where you will be guided back to the app if you attempt to open any app in your phone that isn’t in the allowed list. But here’s the catch; you’ll only be able to create an 'Allowed List’ if you’re a Pro user. But even without it, it’s not necessary if your goal is to stay focused, no?

Are you feeling lonely planting trees on your own? You can create a 'focus group’ room by enabling the Plant Together mode. In this mode your friends, families or team will be focusing on the tasks/ subject of interest when you create the room session. Of course, they too need to have the app installed to be able to participate. The one who quits first will 'reward’ everyone will the same tree stump. Yes, you win and lose together. Pretty cool way to motivate the gang for any study prep time eh?

“Add your friends with existing Forest app account via their registered email address and start your focus group.”

Are you a lone ranger looking for a 'nemesis’ to compete with? No worries, there’s the global leaderboard called Deep Focus Mode Ranking. You can see the ranking of all global users’ focused time for the week for your motivation. Compete with the rest of the global population in Deep Focus Mode weekly and relish in seeing yourself in the ranks.

In summary, the Forest app is more than a cute app to grow trees. Total win in the concept and reward system.

Aspect Details 🎨 Visual Nurturning and simple ⭕ 🎮 Concept Nurturing and simple ⭕ 📊 Record Forest: Daily, monthly & yearly ⭕ 🏅 Reward Very motivating ⭕ 🔄 Synchronization Chrome & Firefox extension and app ⭕

Real Forest

Forest app has become the sponsor for Trees for the Future organization that plant trees globally in impoverished countries with degraded lands with Forest Garden Programs in Cameroon, Kenya, Senegal, Uganda and Tanzania. By using this app, you will be able to accumulate coins that you can donate to the organization to plant a tree in the participating regions. The threshold is 2500 coins.

Not too bad considering that you are trying to cure your phone addiction, practice self-restrain and counter climate change with reforestation.

💰 Price

It is a one-time lifetime purchase at only RM10.50 at Google Playstore ~$USD 2. That’s it. No subscription fees.

🎯 Conclusion

All of the features that I have shared are enabled with Pro version which I can assure you, isn’t a waste to invest.

You can be part of the NGO program that helps global reforestation.

Have detailed record and statistics of your productivity

Configure allow list for apps that you need for your work

Synchronize your data everywhere and have a safe backup

Access to more collection of visually pleasing trees

Participate in online events and obtain more visual rewards for your personal collection

Compete with friends

Have customized tags for your tasks; you can include ALOT of things for this, trust me

Compete in more challenges

No ads. Period.

Have you ever used Forest before? If you did, do share with me how you optimize it for your productivity!

Don't break the chain peeps! Reblog cause I'm looking for inspiration for my next masterpiece! 🙇🙇🙇

reblog/like if you’re an active studyblr/langblr

I’ve just unfollowed a bunch of inactive blogs, now that I follow ONLY 54 blogs??? pls reblog/like so I can have an active dashboard and new friends hehehe

In ArcGIS Pro, the Erase tool only comes with the Advanced license. There are other ways to go about removing parts of a polygon/line data layer like the Clip tool. But Union is that tool where it makes more sense by principle.

It works by marking overlapping parts of two different data layer with integers; 1, 2 and so forth. Those that do not overlap is universally -1. So, remove everything else that you want out of the picture by deleting output features that contain FID integer values of more than -1! Simple eh?

Check out the <3 minutes demo below!

P/S: Happy New Year peeps! ♥

Python: Geospatial Environment Setup (Part 1)

Here’s a quick run down of what you’re supposed to do to prepare yourself to use Python for data analysis.

Install Python ☑

Install Miniconda ☑

Install the basic Python libraries ☑

Create new environment for your workspace

Install geospatial Python libraries

🐍 Installing Python

Let’s cut to the chase. It’s December 14th, 2021. Python 3 is currently at 3.10.1 version. It’s a great milestone for Python 3 but there were heresay of issues concerning 3.10 when it comes to using it with conda. Since we’re using conda for our Python libraries and environment management, we stay safe by installing Python 3.9.5.

Download 👉🏻 Python 3.10.1 if you want to give a hand at some adventurous troubleshooting

Or download 👉🏻 Python 3.9.5 for something quite fuss-free

📌 During installation, don’t forget to ✔ the option Add Python 3.x to PATH. This enables you to access your Python from the command prompt.

Installing Miniconda

As a beginner, you’ll be informed that Anaconda is the easiest Python library manager GUI to implement conda and where it contains all the core and scientific libraries you ever need for your data analysis upon installation. So far, I believe it’s unnecessarily heavy, the GUI isn’t too friendly and I don’t use most of the pre-installed libraries. So after a few years in the darkness about it, I resorted to jump-ship and use the skimped version of conda; Miniconda.

Yes, it does come with the warning that you should have some sort of experience with Python to know what core libraries you need. And that’s the beauty of it. We’ll get to installing those libraries in the next section.

◾ If you’re skeptical about installing libraries from scratch, you can download 👉🏻 Anaconda Individual Edition directly and install it without issues; it takes some time to download due to the big file and a tad bit longer to install.

◾ Download 👉🏻 Miniconda if you’re up to the challenge.

📌 After you’ve installed Miniconda, you will find that it is installed under the Anaconda folder at your Windows Start. By this time, you will already have Python 3 and Anaconda ready in your computer. Next we’ll jump into installing the basic Python libraries necessary for core data analysis and create an environment to house the geospatial libraries.

📚 Installing core Python libraries

Core libraries for data analysis in Python are the followings:

🔺 numpy: a Python library that enables scientific computing by handling multidimensional array objects, or masked objects including matrices and all the mathematical processes involved.

🔺 pandas: enables the handling of ‘relational’ or 'labeled’ data structure in a flexible and intuitive manner. Basically enables the handling of data in a tabular structure similar to what we see in Excel.

🔺matplotlib: a robust library that helps with the visualization of data; static, animated or interactive. It’s a fun library to explore.

🔺 seaborn: another visualization library that is built based on matplotlib which is more high-level and produces more crowd-appealing visualization. Subject to preference though.

🔺 jupyter lab: a web-based user interface for Project Jupyter where you can work with documents, text editors, terminals and or Jupyter Notebooks. We are installing this library to tap into the notebook package that is available with this library installation

To start installing:

1️⃣ At Start, access the Anaconda folder > Select Anaconda Prompt (miniconda3)

2️⃣ An Anaconda Prompt window similar to Windows command prompt will open > Navigate to the folder you would like to keep your analytics workspace using the following common command prompt codes:

◽ To backtrack folder location 👇🏻

◽ Change the current drive, to x drive 👇🏻

◽ Navigate to certain folders of interest e.g deeper from Lea folder i.e Lea\folder_x\folder_y 👇🏻

3️⃣ Once navigated to the folder of choice, you can start installing all of the libraries in a single command as follows:

The command above will enable the simultaneous installation of all the essential Python libraries needed by any data scientists.

💀 Should there be any issues during the installation such as uncharacteristically long installation time; 1 hour is stretching it, press Ctrl + c to cancel any pending processes and proceed to retry by installing the library one by one i.e

Once you manage to go through the installation of the basic Python libraries above, you are half way there! With these packages, you are already set to actually make some pretty serious data analysis. The numpy, pandas and matplotlib libraries are the triple threat for exploratory data analysis (EDA) processes and the jupyter lab library provides the documentation sans coding notebook that is shareable and editable among team mates or colleagues.

Since we’re the folks who like to make ourselves miserable with the spatial details of our data, we will climb up another 2 hurdles to creating a geospatial workspace using conda and installing the libraries needed for geospatial EDA.

If you're issues following the steps here, check out the real-time demonstration of the installations at this link 👇🏻

See you guys in part 2 soon!