What is a container? Video

What is a container? Video by Liz Rice

What is a containers? From Scratch - Liz Rice

Containers From Scratch • Liz Rice • GOTO 2018

Why is Data Science or Datalogy important?

Why is Data Science or Datalogy important?

Have you sat in a meeting discussing various point of views without going forward because the participants are not able to convince the team regarding suggested action because they do not have data to substantiate their argument? The right way for an enterprise to take a decision is to analyze data and take decision based on data points. Data Analytics helps us to analyze data and take informed decisions.  

Data Science is the combination of

1. Statistics / Mathematics skills
2. Coding skills
3. Domain Knowledge / Business Knowledge

Data is about numbers – and when you are working with numbers, you are going to use statistical and mathematical concepts. Coding skills are required because the data you will work with is often hard-to-access, broken, messy, has missing values and so on and code can help solve these issues once and for all. Finally the domain knowledge and business thinking are as essential as statistics and coding. If you don’t have the business knowledge, you won’t be able to evaluate whether your data makes a difference or not.

For a data scientist the languages that can be useful are SQL, Python, Bash & R.
SQL is a simple query language. It’s well structured and easy to interpret.
Python is also easy to interpret and easy to learn as well, but much more complex than SQL. Python is better for certain data tasks and SQL is better for others.

What is the origin of Data Science?
Over the years, data science has become an integral part of many industry like agriculture, marketing optimization, risk management, fraud detection, marketing analytics and public policy among others.  By using data preparation, statistics, predictive modeling and machine learning, data science tries to resolve many issues within individual sectors and the economy at large.

Data science emphasizes the use of general methods without changing its application, irrespective of the domain. This approach is different from traditional statistics tend to focus on providing solutions that are specific to particular sectors or domains.

The traditional methods depend on providing sectors with solutions that tailored to each problem rather than applying the standard solution.

Today, data science has far reaching implications in many fields, both academic and applied research domains like machine translation, speech recognition, digital economy on one hand and fields like healthcare, social science, medical informatics, on the other hand.

It effects the growth and development of brand by providing a lot of intelligence about consumers and campaigns, through techniques like data mining and data analysis.

The history of data science can be traced to 1960. Peter Naur a Danish computer science pioneer and Turing award winner disliked the very term "computer science" and suggested it be called "datalogy" or "data science". In the year 1974, Peter published Concise Survey of Computer Methods, where he used the term data science in its survey of the contemporary data processing methods.

These methods were then used in a number of applications. Almost twenty two years later in 1996, the members of the International Federation of Classification Societies met Kobe for their biennial conference, where the term data science was used for the first time, in the title of conference which was called Data Science, classification and related methods. C.F. Jeff Wu in 1997 gave an inaugural lecture on the topic where he spoke about statistics being a form of data science.

Later in 2001, William S. Cleveland introduced data science as an independent discipline. In his article, Data Science: An Action Plan for Expanding the Technical Areas of Statistics, he incorporated advances in computing with data, which was published in the the International Statistical Review. In his report, William mentions six areas which he thought formed the base of data science: these includes multidisciplinary investigations, models and methods for data, pedagogy, computing with data, theory and tool evaluation.

The International Council for Science: Committee on Data for Science and Technology started the publication of Data Science Journal in 2002. DSJ focuses on topics related to data science like description of data systems, their publication on the internet, application and legal issues. Columbia University also began the publication of the Journal of Data Science which was a platform for data workers to share their opinions and exchange ideas about the use and benefits of data science. A journal that was devoted to the application of statistical methods and qualitative research, this journal was a platform that provided data workers with a voice of their own in the field of data science.

In 2005, the National Science Board published long lived digital Data Collections: Enabling Research and Education in the 21st century.

This article defined data scientist as the information and computer scientists, database and software programmers, disciplinary experts, curators and expert annotators, librarians who are extremely important for the successful management of digital data collection.

The primary activity of Data Scientist is to conduct creative inquiry and analysis so that data can be utilized in a proper and effective manner, by organization across all sectors.

Why did #Gartner advice #GoSlow or #SayNo to blockchain? Happy that Gartner agrees with me about #blockchain

According to the updated definition by #Gartner A blockchain is an expanding list of cryptographically signed, irrevocable transactional records shared by all participants in a network. Each record contains a time stamp and reference links to previous transactions. With this information, anyone with access rights can trace back a transactional event, at any point in its history, belonging to any participant. 
                          For those who are new to blockchain technology, a blockchain is one architectural design of the broader concept of distributed ledgers. While everybody is most people are giving a Thumbs-up to blockchain it is interesting that #Gartner has advised to #GoSlow or rather #SayNo to those intending to implement  #blockchain in near future.
                                                                        Nothing wrong in changing your view about a technology, Gartner researchers have changed their views and gone against majority opinion about about a technology hype in the past. It is interesting that Gartner researcher have enough data & case studies to advice the world to #SayNo to investment in blockchain. I am happy #Gartner think so and would love to know the data points that have made them change their opnion but but I am not surprised.

Note - You can read what #Gartner has to say on this link  (Just say no to blockchain (for now) advises Gartner)

Like many other experts I have always maintained that

1. Blockchain is a great idea but as of 2018 it is premature to implement blockchain for the enterprise
2. Distributed Ledger in the blockchain technology is a great concept but it's implementation is also the biggest challenge
3. The 'Concept of Ledger' is not new and 'immutable ledger' has been implemented using various technologies but no one has a perfectly secure, distributed & cost effective solution for a truly distributed ledger.
4. More research and thought needs to go into the technologies to implement blockchain before throwing traditional databases ledgers out of the window.

As I have posted earlier, the concept of Distributed Ledger or a Cryptographically signed ,  irrevocable transactional records is great idea and but for all we know it may have been implemented in various ways in the past. What I am not sure is whether Blockchain is the 'ONLY WAY' to implement a 'signed, immutable, irrevocable transactional record'. Concern is particularly the blockchain environment/technology that is required to support a blockchain solution and I feel it may not be feasible to sustain blockchain for long time. Of course it is a new idea, there is a huge hype and someone ( no not the inventor!) is going to make lots of money if and when blockchain finally takes off.

 If you want to know why I am excited about immutable ledger yet skeptical about blockchain you can go through my past posts on #blockchain -

1. Don't you Blockchain yet? 
2. Does RDBMS tick all the check-boxes of a blockchain database for your system?   
3. How Blockchain could have prevented the 'Great Indian 11000 Crore PNB Bank Fraud' ?
4. Could blockchain have prevented the CBSE Data Leak in India?
5. Is blockchain viable for a Business Process Management solution?

 

 

Does government have a plan to manage #metooindia movement or will it become a social disaster?

We are in the middle of #MeTooIndia storm. A Storm that took a lot of powerful people unawares. People who never thought that Indian Woman, #Savitri would come out in the open and speak about the harassment that she had faced and shame the harasser on a social platform.

If you can look few years into the future you will realize that #MeTooIndia is a revolution, almost as it was destined that #Indian woman would awaken on so and so date. I pretend what has happened is normal but even I am shocked that these woman have spoken out in-spite of knowing that the #Indian society may label them & for years people will use this incident to attack them. Society has been questioning woman for 1000s of years even at the time of Lord Ram a respectable woman of high society had to pass the Agni Pariksha (Test of Fire) to prove she was chaste and pure. Indian society will not change overnight but the process of change has been triggered with a bang! At this time  it is important that people who believe in equality should respect these woman, show empathy and be grateful to them for exposing the dangerous predators who were in hiding in our society for so long. If you have any doubt put yourself or your family member in her position and try to live the experience in your imagination. It is horrifying particularly because the perpetrators were and still are influential people who could have ruined their careers and life forever.  

     
Today the main questions before #India is how are we going to handle the #MeTooIndia ?

• Is there a process to handle #MeTooIndia type of cases? 
• Does the police and judiciary have any guidelines to handle such cases?
• What steps have to be taken after naming and shaming? 
• How is society going to handle it? 
• How is government going to handle it? 
• Which government body will overlook the #MeTooIndia ?
• What needs to be done so that today's woman does not have to wait for next #MeTooIndia

When woman decides to speak about harassment or abuse that happened 20 yrs back it is almost impossible to get witness and proof of the incident and that is advantage abuser. Government machinery seems to be paralyzed and indecisive . There seems to be no direction to the movement because it is a social-network based movement and no organization has any framework for handling such cases. Government has to support the movement and define a structure and process for handling such cases. The NCW (National Commission For Woman) which is a government body and under guidance of the government and eminent #SupremeCourt judges it should define a process to handle these cases that are broadcast over social network, electronic media, news papers or even if the case is registered in police station. If there is no defined process social media will continue to be become platform of verbal massacre and the victims will never get justice.

Here is what I think and needs to be done to have a structured approach to handle #MeTooIndia cases

1. Once a victim has spoken out of a old harassment case she should  approach NCW with a written statement  or log a police complaint
2. NCW should provide legal assistance to the victim who cannot afford a lawyer
3. NCW should categorize the case and should have authority to advice the employer of the accused to sack the employee particularly those in influential positions
4. NCW should also have guidelines and to identify and handle false cases
5. NCW should form a dynamic panel of renowned experts with authority to filter false or baseless claims based on the set guidelines
6. NCW should have the authority and responsibility to give clean chit to the people who are found to were wrongly accused y the legal process or their experts panel

The #MeTooIndia campaign which has now become a social movement is also a social awakening and has to be managed responsibly. We should be ready to see few false accusations under the #MeTooIndia campaign. And this is the reason why I think a framework to handle the genuine as well as false cases has to be in place because one false claim by some mischievous person will torpedo the entire movement and damage the remaining genuine cases of harassment. I shiver when I think what would happen if the genuine cases are not given justice because of one false claim. I believe it is responsibility of the government to ensure that social justice is delivered in a fair and transparent manner. If the government and its institutions don't give direction to the movement it will inflict a huge irreparable loss to the #Indian society. I hope the law makers are aware of this tsunami and are already working on defining a framework to handle it. This is the biggest #revolution of my lifetime and I am so happy we will be weaning out the predators from the society and at the same time creating a deterrent. I wish all the best to the #MeTooIndia and #MeToo movement.

How To Take Control of the troubled waters in Jammu & Kashmir? - IT Manager's Views

Disclaimer - I am an information technology architect (aka Digital Technology Architect) and this post is not about technology! We technology managers in IT encounter most tough and dynamic challenges of project management. Industry veterans will tell you that IT is one industry where expectation is to deliver most of the deliverables as of 'yesterday'! Yesterday is a way of speak and nothings gets delivered yesterday but IT managers often have to plan delivery with a very aggressive target date with an imaginary start date in the 'Past'!

                                           I don't have experience of working with Indian government but when I see politicians complicate simple problems by not following principles of management I am often tempted to work in government for few years. If today's politicians were in IT industry none of them would last in their job for more than a month! Imagine a minster who is elected for 5 years talking about target delivery date 15 years into future! Dude, Which management institute did you graduate from?

     Governance in any sector, at any level and in any situation requires the leader to analyze the problem, plan a solution with clearly defined target and time lines, highlight the risks  and get it reviewed before implementing it and finally be accountable for the outcome. A manger of a small company, a general in the army, a CEO of a large corporation and top executive of governments follow the same basic principles of governance. Does not matter if you are graduate from Wharton or if you picked management skills on the job your success and failure as a manager depends on how well you are able to implement the core principles of governance.  My father is a management guru and my management training started early in life when I was in school. I started observing how my dad managed thousands of  employee, a mix of laborer, engineer, chartered accountants and doctors. My father sometimes allowed me to accompany him to office and sit in the conference room where he conducted management trainings. I learned that good managers never stop learning, good managers attend trainings conducted by junior employees, not always to learn something new but to promote the culture of learning from each other. I observed that my father was most happy when he know all his employees were happy and he was disturbed when even one employee or employee’s family member was facing trouble. I realized that there are no working hours for a manager. As the top boss you have to be there for your team, your employees 24/7  all days of the year. I realized that many times a manager’s family has to take a back seat because your team comes first.  I also came to know that if you are a good manager the genuine feedback should also come from the families of the employee because that reflects the state of  your employee’s family. When the employee is happy and content Manager can see the reflection in face of his family members.

                                I want to talk about governance of #Jammu&Kashmir because for years I have wondered why a state like #Jammu&Kashmir has to continue to suffer when they religiously vote to elect their government which they expect to improve their living conditions but nothing changes. The difference between a company and country is that country allows you to choose your manager and that’s amazing power in hand of the people.  It also means additional responsibility for the manager because he does not get the post because of his education but because of the trust of the people. I fail to understand why Chief Ministers and Prime Ministers do not understand that they are being promoted directly to the top job by the people and it is their solemn responsibility to ensure well being of each and every citizen with uttermost commitment. The other advantage a elected leader has is to select his own team of best people to ensure good governance, something that is not always possible for a manager governing a company. 

                         It is a privilege and honor to manage the country and states of India. A Prime Minster has the luxury to pick his team of ministers (even if they have lost the election!), pick best experts from the market, he has power to manage finances & he does not have to report to a supervisor for 5 years. Which means PM has the luxury to plan well, set his own timelines and implement all that he has promised to the voters. Sadly I do not see political leaders use this opportunity to deliver their promises made to the people.  Possibly because some promises were made only to get votes and others fail because of lack of vision and planning. A state is a big company with interests across vast variety of subjects ranging from infrastructure, social welfare, industrialization, job creation, tourism, health, law and security. Every state has unique requirements and a political leader is fully aware of what are the priorities for the state. We are familiar with 5 year and 10 year programs run by governments which I would assume were fairly successful in delivering a large portion of the desired outcome. Lately we see political leaders talking about plans for 2022, 2050 , Gandhiji's 125th Birth anniversary and what not. I fail to understand how a government elected for 5 yrs can can align its vision with some leaders birth centenary without a plan and resources to implement the plan. In last 20 years I have seen many  things being promised to people of #Jammu&Kashmir and hardly 1% of the promises were delivered. 

                                        As a manager when I am handed a project my work starts with reviewing the project and creating a list of things that are going well and things that are not going well. We need to keep improving on the initiatives that are doing well and use the learning to implement the plans in areas where the project is not doing well. I would identify the processes that are not giving results and scrap them and setup processes that can give  measurable results and ensure a transparent monitoring.  I do not see that happening in #Jammu&Kashmir and so I thought of analyzing what could be going wrong and what should be done to correct it. At the first glance you realize that the state management has been totally ineffective in delivering results. In a company when this happens a senior executive is sent to take charge of the situation and guide the lower managers to start delivering. We do not wait for the officers to retire so that next batch of officers would  deliver result so why not follow the same process for #Jammu&Kashmir? From media interviews, social-media comments and Kasmiri's working in my city I realized that people seem to have lost faith in the local leaders and their expectations are continuously being marred by the performance of the state leaders. A state that is being terrorized by agents across the border where security personals are being abducted and killed is very unnerving & unsettling for any common man. In such a situation the Prime Minister who is also the CEO of the country should have realized that he does not have the required skill in his #J&K team and it is time that he should roll-up his sleeves and take steps to build the confidence of J&K people. The constitution did not define boundaries for the Prime Minister and there is no protocol that stops the Prime Minster from visiting the state of #Jammu&Kashmir every week for next 8 to 10 weeks to personally supervise the efforts of his team, meet the citizen, understand their concerns, meet the families of the victims and assure them that they are as important to him as any person sitting in Delhi or Mumbai. Gradually as things improve and Kashmiri's  gain confidence in their Prime Minster and their country he can reduce his visits to once a month for next 12 months and so on. We in-fact see that the CEO has forgotten all the promises he made to the share-holders/voters of his country. By delegating the tasks to subordinates a CEO of the company cannot shun the responsibility bestowed upon him

      So here is my advice to the Prime Minister so that he can plan better and get the state  of #Jammu&Kashmir to normalcy ASAP.    

     1) Be on the ground zero - When things are going wrong whats most critical is for the team to see their leader standing with them shoulder to shoulder. CEO's cannot run troubled companies by sitting in AC offices and delegating work when there is a crisis. Right now the Indian citizen is J&K is scared. He is like a kid lost in the jungle and needs his family to hold his hand and assure him. I do not see the Hon Prime Minister reaching out to hold hands of the common man. You don't have to celebrate Diwali with the soldiers because soldiers are trained to take the pressure. You will have to spend Diwali, Id, Baisakhi and X'mas with the common man of J&K. When the son gets martyred and the father has his Prime Minsters shoulder to cry on and his country's assurance that he will be taken care of in his old age the father will gladly send his other son/daughter to lay their life for the country. So I request you to start going to different cities of J&K every week to supervise your plans and start confidence building measure Mr Prime Minister because your ministers can live without saluting you for one day a week and the rupee will not fall any lower.

    2) Create a list of whats working and what's not working -  India's Kashmir policy has not succeeded but is not a total failure - for that matter no policy can be a total failure. There are degrees of success and failures in any organization. There are things that are going well an there are things that are failing in J&K. You have to manage your limited resources to fix the things that are not going well and we do not seem to be doing that. We look at J&k and we speak of J&K as a single problem which it is not. How do you account for success of security forces, success of individual sports persons at international level, varying terrorist activities across the state & success of plans in some areas of the state? A what's working/not-working list is a statement of assertive planning. It shows your willingness to accept failure and introspect. It also means learning from success of one scheme and implementing key learning's to other areas and I hope the state will do it. 

  3) Vision & Plan - So whats the short term vision for next 6 & 12 months for #Jammu&Kashmir? Are we going to take militancy as it comes? In a company when we work on product that has major issues all across we conduct a review, break down the problem into smaller problem,  make small teams to attack each problem and a senior person works with each team to create a plan of action that gets monitored daily till we achieve the end result.  Or are you flying a plane without a flight plan? That's bloody dangerous because you have limited fuel and you will eventually crash land if your destination and flight plan are not decided. So please create a vision along with experts and tell every member of your cabinet about your vision. Work with them to create sort and long term plans and ask the ministers to dream of their plan every night and work on it everyday till we achieve our vision. The current state of affairs in #J&K demand daily monitoring of progress of you plan an in-charge and at least weekly monitoring by PM himself.  Are you following AVPMA for #J&K (analyze-visualize-plan-monitor-act-repeat) Mr Prime Minister? I think you have left everything to army and governor and under crisis this will not work. It requires the experience and stakes of CEO to revive a sick company.

4)  Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam - Kashmiri's have been living an alien life for decades. When did a Kashmiri interact with his brothers in other states of India? His brothers who live peacefully, brothers who don't worry about terrorist attacks and their daughters can party alone at night and return home safely. If it can happen in Mumbai why not in Shrinagar or Kupwara ? Let the government start exchange of students and citizen. Let the Kasmiri's see what they are missing in their life, let them experience the effervescence of our beautiful  democracy. We the tax payers will gladly pay higher tax for such initiatives that will unite us even further. Forget the bullet train Mr Prime Minister lets use the 1000Cr loan to invest in the concept of #India. If there is peace we will build 1000 bullet trains across India and that too without charity of Japanese. Let the Kashmiri's know that some Hindu/Muslim/Sikh/Christian sitting in Kodaikanal, Mumbai or Boddhgaya cares for him and will gladly break bread with him. Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam should start with brotherhood in India and the world will follow later. 

5)  Heal the scarred - What are we doing for families of those who have been martyred by terrorism? We don't see govt taking any special efforts for rehabilitation. Terrorism is India's problem and not just J&K's problem. When you have cancer you need holistic healing of the body, you don't neglect the cancer affected part because it is malignant. What are the special efforts done to reach out to the families, to provide for them, to ensure that they get support in return of the sacrifice of their family member. The citizen of J&K is facing unprecedented circumstances and need innovative healing approach. Some NGO's are doing their bit but Indian government which usually is not in business of healing & rehabilitation will have to take unparalleled steps to bring normalcy to these scarred families. You wanted people to support #SwacchBharat, we will take 4 steps to support your initiative for #RehabilitationJammu&Kashmir but you will have to tell us your plan and we will do out bit to support the implementation. Mr Prime Minister country is looking at you because you are our leader and people expect you to guide them. 

6) Politics & Controversies - We are used to wild statement and controversies by politicians but J&K is not the play field for political games. Giving religious color to a heinous crime does not solve any issue as you are well aware and yet you have avoided restraining and reprimanding your leaders. It is your responsibility as the PM to ensure that every leader of your party to speak responsibly and display mature and responsible conduct. We Indian's are a matured community, much more sensible and sensitive then most of the western world yet our politicians are the most irresponsible politicians in the world. As a Prime Minister whenever you have given a positive call every Indian has supported you and will continue to support you. What is disappointing is to see that the most powerful man, the Prime Minister is not able to control the political leaders of his party and other parties. #MaanKiBaat is a failed one way street where you talk about your govt instead of addressing people's problems and that's why nobody listens to it and I wish you had realized it by now. There  should be a channel called #Jammu&KashmirKeMaanKiBaat where people can call in and entire India can listen to their grievances and your response. Do you think you can control political leaders Mr Prime Minister?

7) Jobs and livelihood - It is well known fact that unemployment and poverty lead to criminal tendencies and religious extremism. What has the government done to create job opportunities in #Jammu&Kashmir? How many of the 100 new mobile factories are setup in J&K? How many food processing units have been setup in J&K? What are we doing to promote travel to J&K? Mr Prime Minister we cannot wait to curb terrorism before we start promoting tourism.  The disillusioned youth who are throwing stones for paltry sum of 500Rs is indicator of the poverty in J&K. Are you aware of any other city in India where youth are ready to fight their own army and sacrifice their eye and life for 500Rs? Sir, the situation is grim and we have not acted to provide jobs to people of J&K. You have the  power to instruct companies to invest in J&K , you have the power to implement new schemes under president rule. Will you use your powers to bring the change Mr Prime Minister? The soldier is prepared for the battle but the Kashmiri has been pushed into the battlefield along with his wife and kids without any training to defend himself. I could see the tears and anger in the eyes of Aurangzeb's father and I did not see any disappointment in his eyes  because he still had faith in his country, his people and his Prime Minister. Will you fly to J&K and hold his hand and hand of other families Mr Prime Minister. 

      I have read in history books that a small army took on a mighty enemy and were winning the battle until they came to know that their Senapati, their General had run away. Suddenly they were demoralized, they lost the courage and will and they lost the battle they were winning. History remembers the brave and their sacrifices, even fragile looking men like Lal Bahadur Shastri are heroes because they humility & they were brave when it mattered. Do you have the courage and commitment to take feedback, introspect and change your ways Mr Prime Minister? Will you put the country and Indian's ahead of your ego Mr Prime Minister? OR will we all lose the battle to ego's of politicians?

Does your enterprise have a vision for success? Vision Conversations Part -1

‘A vision without a plan is just a dream. A plan without a vision is just drudgery…but a vision with a plan can change the world.’ - Ancient Proverb

You wouldn’t set out on a journey in your car without knowing where you were going, what is the condition of the road, weather conditions at the destination if it is long journey, would you be able to meet your objective of your journey. Even when you are planning a weekend camping trip if you find that the destination camp site has rain forecast then you would either change the camp location or invest the time in doing some other activity.  Why did you do that? Why not just pack the bags and leave? You did the ground work because you had a clear vision of the weekend camping trip. 

1. You knew list of activities you intended to do
2. You knew how much time you were going to spend on various activities 
3. You knew what activities were not feasible in your weekend plan
4. You had identified couple of extra activities that you would do if you could compete the original list of things before time.
5. You even had a alternate plan just in case one of the activity in your original plan could not be completed - For example what would you do if the planned para-sailing activity would not be possible due to poor wind conditions.
6. In short you visualized the entire weekend trip from beginning to end, visualized each step, each task and the end result of each task and the back-up plan and that's is why your trip was a success. 
7. Now looks at it the other way, you have visualized the entire trip but you did not bother to check the weather conditions and facilities at the camp location. When you reach destination you find it is raining like cats and dogs and it is not practical to setup the camp so all your plans go for a toss. You had a great vision, with attention to details but your planning was flawed and so you could not achieve all the goals of your camping trip. So  vision without plan is like para-jumping without a checking your parachute! If the parachute has a hole you are done deal!

Well if we could spend some time to create a Vision for our weekend trip why would we not spend similar time to create a Vision for our important projects that decide the fate of our career or the fate of our company?  You agree? Great! So I hope we are on the same page and we agree with the old proverb that - A vision without a plan is just a dream. A plan without a vision is just drudgery, mindless hard-work with no guarantee of success. And a vision with a plan can change the world! I have seen many projects fail because of over zealous but over confident leaders who did not spend enough time on planning or started their planning without clear vision. In the next post lets discuss how do we go about Visionizing our projects. Same principles but at a larger and more complex scale.  

                                     

Bad Blood - Good Con (Book Review) - The Girl Startup That Fooled Everyone for Long Time

Recently I read a new book based on the very famous Theranos startup success story till it got exposed . I was following Theranos for a long time and marveled this intelligent woman Elizabeth Holmes (something about the name?) who was going to revolutionize health care.  The book Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou details the rise and fall of Theranos.

I am a fan of Agatha Christie,Erle Stanley Gardner, Robin Cook, Frederick Forsyth  & I also like to read books about great innovations. I think this book is a mix of everything (but no murders here!) and also a guide to what care should be taken before funding a #StartUp .

In 2015, Forbes named Holmes as the youngest and wealthiest self-made female billionaire in America due to a $9 billion valuation of her company 'Theranos'. Elizabeth Holmes founded Theranos when she was just 19 years old. By 2013, Theranos was valued at nearly $10 billion and she partnered with Walgreens to put their blood tests in stores around the country. Fact is her story was fake and the technology never worked. In fact whatever she wanted to build never came close to working but Holmes was so good at selling her vision that she wasn’t stopped until after real patients were using the company’s “tests” to make decisions about their health. A wall street journal reporter Caarreyrou exposed her con. Now she and her former business partner are now facing potential jail time on fraud charges, and Theranos officially shut down in Aug 2018.

What Elizabeth Holmes did is nothing less than a clever magicians illusion trick! Holmes would invite prospective investors to the lab, so they could get their blood tested on a Theranos machine. The device had been programmed to show a really slow progress bar instead of an error message. When results didn’t come back right away, Holmes sent the investors home and promised to follow up with results. As soon as investor left, an employee would remove the blood sample from the device and transfer it to a commercial blood analyzer. Her investors got their blood tested by the same machines available in any pathology lab in the country, and they had no idea and none of the investors ever bothered to check. So none of the investors had ever seen any live demonstration of the Theranos machine, they just believed what Holmes told them. Clever ? No! Dumb investors!

All through you and I thought all Elizabeth Holmes claimed has been verified and re-verified by  investors who had pumped in billions of dollars. I wonder was it her charm or her speech that mesmerized the investors! Nope it was her tact of targeting investors who were not expert in of he field and avoiding VC who has expertise in her field of 'specialization'/ In fact it is rumored that initially Holmes had walked out of VC meeting when she was unable to answer probing questions about the technology. Must admire this wo,am was able to fool people fro so long and had the guts to present her vision on TED MED and other conferences attended by senior experts from the industry. Shocking! S watch her video at TEDMED Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos CEO at TEDMED 2014 /
And you must also watch this interesting video about Body Language - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf3rudZ5QT8

You can buy the book at Amazon - Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou

         

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Beginners - How to get started with Python (2018)

Here are steps to get started with Python.

1. Go to automatetheboringstuff.com and download the the free pdf book Automate The Boring Stuff written by Al Sweigart. 
2. The book is not boring at all and one of the best to get started. If you prefer video lessons Udemy.com has a paid video tutorial for the same book. Support the author by purchasing the print & ebook bundle from No Starch Press or separately on Amazon.
3. There are many flavors of Python and you can download any one. Download Python from https://www.anaconda.com if you do not have preferences. 
4. Python has a inbuilt IDE called IDLE  just type IDLE in search once you have installed Python. The best IDE for Python is Spyder IDE and you can either download it or use IDLE.  
5. Once you install python if you have programming experience you can directly get started by looking at the demo examples in the Tools/demo folder of your Python installation.
6. The last 2 images below show the beer bottle demo code and its execution.
7. This is all you need to get started. For any issues you can drop an email or check solutions on stackoverflow.com/python

Python default IDLE IDE

Sample code with Python installation

Demo code beer.py

Execution of beer.py