Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Conducting A / B Testing: Walkthrough

The team invests a lot of work, effort and resources into each change in the game: sometimes the development of a new functionality or level takes several months. The analyst's task is to minimize the risks from the implementation of such changes and help the team make the right decision about the further development of the project.

When analyzing decisions, it is important to be guided by statistically significant data that matches the preferences of the audience, rather than intuitive assumptions. A / B testing helps to obtain such data and evaluate them. In this article, I will share my personal best practices: I will describe each step of A / B, highlight the difficulties and pitfalls that can be encountered, and share my experience of solving them.

6 “easy” steps of A / B testing

For the search term "A / B testing" or "split testing", most sources offer several "simple" steps for a successful test. There are six such steps in my strategy.

At first glance, everything is simple: what does a computer engineer do

there is group A, control, no changes in the game;

there is a group B, test, with changes. For example, new functionality has been added, the difficulty of the levels has been increased, the tutorial has been changed;

run the test and see which variant has better performance.

In practice, it is more difficult. In order for the team to implement the best solution, as an analyst, I need to answer how confident I am in the test results. Let's deal with the difficulties step by step.

Step 1. Determine the goal

On the one hand, we can test everything that comes to mind of each team member - from the color of the button to the difficulty levels of the game. The technical ability to conduct split tests is incorporated into our products at the design stage.

On the other hand, it is important to prioritize all proposals for improving the game according to the level of effect on the target metric. Therefore, we first draw up a plan to launch the split testing from the highest priority hypothesis to the least.

We try not to run multiple A / B tests in parallel, in order to understand exactly which of the new features affected the target metric. It seems that with this strategy, it will take more time to test all hypotheses. But prioritization helps to cut off unpromising hypotheses at the planning stage. We get data that reflects as much as possible the effect of specific changes, and we do not waste time setting tests with questionable effects.

We definitely discuss the launch plan with the team, since the focus of interest shifts at different stages of the product life cycle. At the beginning of the project, this is usually Retention D1 - the percentage of players who returned to the game the next day after its installation. At later stages, these can be retention or monetization metrics: Conversion, ARPU, and others.

Example. Retention metrics require special attention after a project is released into the soft launch. At this stage, let's highlight one of the possible problems: Retention D1 does not reach the level of the company's benchmarks for a specific game genre. It is necessary to analyze the funnel of passing the first levels. Let's say you noticed a large drop of players between the start and the 3rd level completion - the low Completion Rate of the 3rd level.

The purpose of the proposed A / B test: increase Retention D1 by increasing the share of players who have successfully completed the third level.

Step 2. Defining metrics

Before starting the A / B test, we determine the monitored parameter - we select the metric, changes in which will show whether the new functionality of the game is more successful than the original one.

There are two types of metrics:

quantitative - the average duration of the session, the value of the average check, the time it takes to complete the level, the amount of experience, and so on;

high-quality - Retention, Conversion Rate and others.

The type of metric affects the choice of method and tools for assessing the significance of results.

It is likely that the tested functionality will affect not one target, but a number of metrics. Therefore, we look at changes in general, but do not try to find "anything" when there is no statistical significance in assessing the target metric.

According to the goal from the first step, for the upcoming A / B test, we will evaluate the Completion Rate of the 3rd level  - a qualitative metric.

Step 3. Formulate a hypothesis

Each A / B test tests one general hypothesis, which is formulated before launch. We answer the question: what changes do we expect in the test group? The wording usually looks like this:

Statistical methods work from the opposite - we cannot use them to prove that the hypothesis is correct. Therefore, after formulating a general hypothesis, two statistical ones are determined. They help to understand that the observed difference between control group A and test group B is an accident or the result of changes.

In our example:

The null hypothesis ( H0 ): reduce complexity 3rd level will not affect the proportion of users who have successfully completed the third level. The Level 3 Completion Rate for Groups A and B is not really different and the observed differences are random.

The alternative hypothesis ( H1 ): reduce complexity third level will increase the proportion of users who have successfully completed the third level. The Level 3 Completion Rate is higher in Group B than in Group A, and these differences are the result of changes.

At this stage, in addition to formulating a hypothesis, it is necessary to assess the expected effect.

Hypothesis: "We expect that a decrease in the complexity of the 3rd level will cause an increase in the Completion Rate of the 3rd level from 85% to 95%, that is, by more than 11%."

In this example, when determining the expected Completion Rate of the 3rd level, we aim to bring it closer to the average Completion Rate of the starting levels.

Step 4. Setting up the experiment

1. Define the parameters for the A / B groups before starting the experiment: for which audience we launch the test, for what proportion of players, what settings we set in each group.

2. We check the representativeness of the sample as a whole and the homogeneity of the samples in the groups . You can pre-run an A / A test to evaluate these parameters - a test in which the test and control groups have the same functionality. The A / A test helps to make sure that there are no statistically significant differences in target metrics in both groups. If there are differences, an A / B test with such settings - sample size and trust level - cannot be run.

The sample will not be perfectly representative, but we always pay attention to the structure of users in terms of their characteristics - new / old user, level in the game, country. Everything is tied to the purpose of the A / B test and is negotiated in advance. It is important that the structure of users in each group is conditionally the same.

Monday, September 28, 2020

Which IT certifications to choose to refine your profile?

The world is experiencing rapid and continuous progress today. Technological advances are now shaping our habits, our processes and our way of working. New technological tools are becoming more and more important in the business world, especially in certain areas such as IT. It therefore becomes necessary to undergo continuous training in order to be able to follow this development and enhance one's profile on the job market.

Types of jobs for computer engineers

Indeed, people in the IT field are very aware of the importance of constantly updating their knowledge and know-how. We cite students still in training, young graduates who are looking for a job or even professionals active in the field.

All aware of the advantages that computer training can bring them, they are particularly interested in IT certifications which are a type of training that stands out for its great value on the job market.

However, this raises a serious question that will be addressed through this article: What are the criteria for choosing an IT certification?

The richness of the certification program

Today, there are a large number of IT certifications presented either online or in person. Before embarking on training courses which can require a lot of time and resources, you must be sure to make the right choice of the certification to follow, a choice which must above all be based on the richness and relevance of the training program. Training.

It will then be necessary to consult in detail the program of the IT certification that you wish to integrate in order to make sure that the latter presents an in-depth and diversified content, which will allow you to acquire advanced skills and which will meet above all the needs and requirements of the market. work.

In other words, you must make sure to opt for training that will serve as a real differentiator of your profile.

The reputation of the certification body

Another important point when choosing an IT certification is the reputation of the certifying institution. The very principle of a certification is that the body in question certifies your level of knowledge in a particular subject and the skills acquired. In addition, the certifying institution must be credible and recognized by players in the field for your certification to have real value on the market.

Being certified from Cisco, Microsoft or Amazon for example does not have the same value as certification from a little-known website!

Friday, September 25, 2020

Computer Science or Software Engineering - Which Should You Choose?

Very often you can find reflections on the choice of one of the listed areas: "What is the difference between computing and software engineering?" and “Should I choose computer science or software engineering if I want to become a software engineer?”.

In this article we will try to understand and analyze the importance and necessity of training in these specialties.

Rapid patient examination

Computer science studies how a computer works, how it works, mainly from the theoretical and mathematical side computer qustions.

You should choose this direction if you love mathematics and logic or if you want to work in the field of computer science, artificial intelligence, machine learning, security, graphics.

Software engineering studies how operating systems and software systems work, and involves project management, quality assurance, and testing.

You should choose software development if you are interested in a hands-on approach, life cycle, and software development / support.

Both industries teach the basics of programming and computer science, which is useful if you want to become a software developer.

Software engineering

To understand the difference between computer and software specialists, let's take a look at their respective curriculum at the University of Waterloo in Canada.


What are the prospects?

Let's first compare the types of jobs and internships you can take after each program.

Fortunately, the University of Waterloo website has several examples. For each of the directions, jobs were offered after successful completion of the studies:


Computer science:

Web Developer / Architect, The Steele Group

Programmer, Harry Rosen Inc.

Mobile / Cloud Developer, Clearbridge Associates Limited.

Software Development, General Dynamics Canada.

Software development, Microsoft.

Agile Engineer, Pivotal Labs.

Business Analyst, Canadian Tire Corporation.

Product Manager, Dropbox.


Software Engineering:

Software Developer, Tagged Inc.

Software Developer, IBM Canada

Product Manager, Arius Software Corporation.

Software Engineer, VistaPrint USA.

Software Engineer, Harris Corporation.

Software Developer, Accenture Inc.

Product Manager / Software Development, NexJ Systems Inc.

Consultant, PureFacts Financial Solutions.

Implementation Consultant, Desire2Learn.

As you can see, there isn't much of a difference between the jobs you can get.

The most common job offers to look forward to after completing a Computer Science or Software Engineering degree are a software engineer or software engineer. There are other options like product manager, QA analyst, and technology consultant that depend on your skill set.

Mandatory Year 1 Topics

University of Waterloo

Now let's take a look at the courses in each program. First, let's compare some of the courses you will need to attend in your first year.


Computer science:

CS 135 - Development of functional programs.

CS 136 - Algorithm Design and Data Abstraction.

MATH 135 - Algebra.

MATH 136 - Linear Algebra 1.

MATH 137 - Calculus 1.

MATH 138 - Calculus 2.

Plus several optional ones.


Software Engineering:

CS 137 - Principles of Programming.

CS 138 - Data Abstraction and Implementation.

MATH 115 - Linear Algebra for Engineering.

MATH 117 - Calculus 1 for Engineering.

MATH 119 - Calculus 2 for Engineering.

MATH 135 - Advanced Mathematics.

ECE 105 - Physics of Electrical Engineering 1.

ECE 106 - Electricity and Magnetism.

ECE 124 - Digital Circuits and Systems.

ECE 140 - Linear Chains.

SE 101 - Software Development Techniques.

As you can see, in the first year, both specialties are very similar. Both cover basic knowledge of computer science, algebra, and calculus. The difference is that "Software Engineering" has additional physics and electrical engineering, while "Computer Science" has a few more electives.

Compulsory Second Year Topics

Now let's consider the subjects of the second year.


Computer science:

MATH 239 - An Introduction to Combinatorics.

STAT 230 - Probability Theory.

STAT 231 - Statistics.

CS 240 - Data Structures and Data Management.

CS 241 - Sequential Programming Basics.

CS 245 - Logic and Computation.

CS 246 - Object Oriented Software Development.

CS 251 - Organization and design of computers.

CS 341 - Algorithms.

CS 350 - Operating Systems.

In addition, some electives in computer science.


Software Engineering:

CHE 102 - Chemistry for Engineers.

ECE 222 - Digital Computers (including assembly language).

ECE 358 - Computer Networks.

MATH 213 - Advanced Mathematics for Software Engineers.

MATH 239 - An Introduction to Combinatorics.

STAT 206 - Statistics for Software Developers.

MSCI 261 - Engineering Economics: Financial Management for Engineers.

CS 241 - Sequential Programming Basics.

CS 240 - Data Structures and Data Management.

CS 247 - Principles of Software Development.

CS 341 - Algorithms.

CS 349 - User Interfaces.

CS 343 - Parallel programming.

CS 348 - Introduction to Database Management.

SE 212 - Logic and Computation.

SE 350 - Operating Systems.

SE 465 - Software Testing and Quality Assurance.

SE 464 - Software Development and Design.

SE 463 - Specification and Analysis of Software Requirements.

SE 490 - Project design.

In addition, several electives in computer science and electrical engineering.

When it comes to mathematics and statistics, computing and software engineering are almost the same. They cover combinatorics, probability theory and statistics.

Thursday, September 24, 2020

Network administrator

A network administrator ensures the proper functioning of a company's servers and computer network . He must have a solid computer training and often combines his tasks with those of technician or micro analyst.

The network administrator is above all a qualified computer scientist , endowed with good technical skills. He must know how to both work independently and integrate into a team, understand its needs and provide a response, often in an emergency and without losing his temper when faced with the problems encountered. He is in constant technological watch and must know how to adapt to the rapid evolution of machines and software is computer engineering hard.

A versatile network administrator

Sylvain Fontaine is a developer and network administrator, he now manages the servers and networks of a Parisian web agency organized around two activities: website design and online newspaper publishing. Its role: to manage the daily operation of the company's servers (development servers, Internet, video, databases, mail) as well as the company's computer network .

“In theory, I am not supposed to manage the microcomputer park, that is to say the workstations of the employees. However, in small businesses these tasks are often linked and you have to be versatile. We cannot confine ourselves to network administration. For example, I sometimes get involved in development, be in touch with clients in the absence of project managers, do studies on the evolution of sites, advise developers ... "

Network security and optimization

A network administrator takes care above all of the security of the existing one, that is to say that he performs regular backups of the data generated by the servers, ensures maintenance and resolves the technical problems which occasionally block the work teams. .

The administrator must also secure his configurations vis-à-vis the outside world (viruses and computer criminals) and know how to choose the appropriate software .

Finally, it must optimize what already exists, always looking for possible improvements.

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Several VUB engineers in running for ie prizes

I like this

But in addition, public prizes are also awarded. These are not decided in Antwerp Central Station, but on Facebook. In each of the three categories, the poster that was able to collect the most likes on 26 November at 7:00 pm will receive an audience award.

To vote for one or more of the survey posters, open the Facebook albums below. Like the posters you like here. Only likes for individual posters count towards the audience awards.

In the  category for bio-engineers,  the following VUB students compete for a public award:

Edith Oyen, Rheology of Rationally Designed Peptide Hydrogels

Pieter De Bruyn, Clarifying the regulation of toxin-anti-toxin systems to develop new antibiotics

Margaux Leemans, Antibody fragments as an instrument in the unraveling of the mechanisms of Parkinson's disease

In the  category of civil engineers  these VUB students participate: entry level computer engineering jobs

Gert Berckmans, Effect of Turbo Compressor Surge on a Turbocharged Diesel Engine

Audrey Cuvellier, Selection of healing agents for a vascular self-healing application

Sidney Goossens, Dynamic strain measurements with microstructured optical fiber sensors embedded in structural components

Dimitri Van den Bremt, Transformable bending active components for temporary spatial structures

Jan Van der Perre, Development of an Advanced Simulation Model for Thermal Management of Battery Packs in Electric Vehicles

Nandi Vrancken, Growth and Transfer of Monolayer Graphene Optimization and Characterization

And finally, the following VUB member has been nominated in the  category for industrial engineers :

Diederik Coppitters, Characterization of a test stand for biomass boilers

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

What are the different types of power tools?

Power tools

Power tools are some of the most economical devices ever made. Through the use of compressed air, electricity or combustion, they allow those who use them to complete tasks that others using traditional tools either could not do or would take much longer. Power tools can be divided into several categories, including portability, power source, and purpose.

Power tools generally fall into one of two categories - stationary or portable. Stationary power tools are either large machines that are not easy to move or machines that must be securely anchored to a stationary object in order to function properly. Portable power tools can be easily carried from one place to another and are usually light enough to be used in the hands of a person. Stationary models usually have the advantages of precision, power, and smoothness; portable versions of versatility and travel.

How much does a computer engineer make

Another way to consider power tools is the energy they use to operate. Power tools typically run on one of three types of energy: compressed air, electricity, or combustion. When compressed air is used, air is moved through the device to move various mechanical parts. The air compressor of the tool is usually powered by an electric motor or internal combustion engine. Electric tools most often use some kind of electric motor. These tools must be plugged into an electrical outlet or connected to a battery. Finally, several tools are powered by combustion. Combustion can take place either by using small explosive charges known as cartridges or internal combustion engines.

Power tools can also be classified according to their purpose. The different types of power tools include the following:

Chainsaw. Chainsaws are the quintessence of power tools. They are used for felling trees and trimming branches, as well as specialized versions for cutting stone and concrete. These handheld units use a small slider to pull the blade chain along the spline guide. Modern chainsaws are equipped with an internal combustion engine or electric motor.

Drills. The power tool version of this tool uses a motor to rotate. This results in fast cutting of round holes. Types include stationary drill press and portable cordless drill. Hand drills can often be equipped with adapters so that they can drive screws, torque bolts, and even function as grinders.

Joiners. Joiners are specialized woodworking tools that use a saw blade to cut a thin slot into a piece of wood. A similar slot is cut into another piece, and the two are connected by placing one piece of glue-covered wood in the slot and pushing the pieces together.

Cutter. This tool uses specialized blades to cut the surface from a piece of wood, making it flat.

Lathes. Lathes hold and rotate materials so they can be machined and shaped. Power-driven lathes allow the crafter to focus on material handling rather than having to constantly turn the spindle.

Nail pullers. These devices rip out nails, pushing them into wood and other materials. They work much faster than the traditional hammer method.

Pneumatic wrench. This wrench uses compressed air to turn nuts, bolts and other objects quickly and powerfully.

Grinding equipment. Shli smoothes a surface by moving another rough surface over it. They are one of the widest variety of types of power tools and include belt sanders, sanders, sanders, and mouse grinders.

Saws. A saw is a type of cutting tool. Power saws move the blade or band very quickly, resulting in significant cutting power. Band, radial arm and table are different types of saws.

Monday, September 21, 2020

I'd go to IT specialists

I decided to write this post following the results of the IT Entrance conference , which we held with the help of Recoursia.by and the Hi-Tech Park two weeks ago. I want to speculate in it about the attitude of Belarusians to IT, to their own possible future in this area, and why it is so difficult for us to build an IT country.

Despite the fact that the conference was sold out, and everyone besieged the stands of the training centers, the general mass of Belarusians treat IT rather negatively . Well, how, in fact, can you still relate to people who sit in a warm office, do something at the computers, and receive a monthly six-month salary of the one who really works hard to unload the cars? But at the same time, nobody forgets to advise their children to go to IT. Many visitors to the conference in the category "over forty" did not come to listen for themselves, which was directly reported in the registration forms.

“The unity and struggle of opposites” is precisely what distinguishes the attitude of the Belarusian society to IT from its attitude to other spheres. To put it more simply, “I want to and inject”. Recoursia will publish the exact statistics on the conference a little later, but now we can say that there are many more people who want to do business analysis, project management and testing than those who are ready to program. And this, in my opinion, is the main reason that is holding back the growth of the Belarusian IT industry today. These are people of the most active age group 25-34 who are unhappy with their current careers and would like to develop further in IT entry level computer science jobs.

In fact, these are people who do not want to change anything, and who would be quite happy and satisfied with life if they could earn more in their current workplace. From the IT sphere they need one thing - high earnings. They choose specialties for themselves with a minimum entrance threshold, since they do not have sufficient motivation to become those that the country really needs - software developers.

Leaving aside the question of whether anyone can be a good programmer . Not everyone can become a good tester or designer either. But the demand for these specialties among "switches" (as they call in educational institutions those who want to change their profession to "IT") is incomparably higher than for programming.

Is this normal? More than. But it is the discrepancy between the demand for professions on the part of "switches" and on the part of employers that is the most serious obstacle to the mass transition of Belarusians to IT specialties. Simply put, while Belarusians do not live so badly as to massively learn to program . But there is still hope that they will still want to study.

In Vitebsk began to produce computers on Russian processors

Vitebsk design bureau "Display" at the exhibition of military equipment MILEX-2017 in Minsk will present panel computers based on the Russian processor "Elbrus". 

Display Design Bureau has mastered the production of panel computers with screen sizes of 19 and 20 inches. They are designed to process, store and display information in harsh operating conditions and are based on Russian Elbrus-2S + microprocessors.

It is reported that the devices can be used in automated control systems and as independent devices. At the request of the customer, the enterprise from Vitebsk is also ready to develop a computer with other screen diagonals computer engineer job.

Photo: kbdisplay.by

Microprocessor "Elbrus-2C +" is a heterogeneous multicore processor with the "Elbrus" architecture based on a wide command word architecture (VLIW). The microprocessor contains 2 cores of the Elbrus architecture and 4 cores of digital signal processors (DSP), operates at a clock frequency of 500 MHz, decodes and sends for execution up to 23 operations per cycle.

Thursday, September 17, 2020

Natalya KASPERSKAYA, "The concept of" Cybersecurity "is not regulated by law

PRESIDENT OF THE INFOWATCH GROUP OF COMPANIES, CO-FOUNDER OF KASPERSKY LABORATORY

She was born in 1966 in Moscow. Graduated from the Moscow Institute of Electronic Engineering (MIEM) with a degree in Applied Mathematics. In 1997 she founded Kaspersky Lab and became its CEO. For 10 years, under the leadership of Natalia, Kaspersky Lab has transformed from an unknown startup into a bright leader in the international IT market with a half-billion (in dollar equivalent) turnover. In 2007, Natalya Kasperskaya became the head of InfoWatch, which develops innovative solutions to protect corporations from the most pressing internal and external threats.

Natalya Kasperskaya actively invests in the development of high-tech companies, is a member of the Grant Committee of the Skolkovo Foundation, a board member of the Association of Software Developers (ARPP) "Otechestvenny Soft", a member of the Expert Council on Russian software under the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media. Heads the subgroup "Internet + Society" under the Presidential Administration, created in pursuance of the list of instructions of the President of the Russian Federation dated January 29, 2016. Expert of the professional organization of security officers BISA. Natalya Kasperskaya is a laureate of the Women in Technology competition in the Middle East in the Best Technology Business Entrepreneur nomination and other international competitions. In 2016, she became the winner of the national stage of the Entrepreneur of the Year international competition and the winner in the High Technologies nomination computer engineering career.

In 2017, Natalya Kasperskaya was recognized by the expert community as the Person of the Year 2016 in the IT and telecom industry as part of the Best in Russia business award. In March 2017, she was included in the "30 Most Inspiring Business Leaders" rating by Insights Success magazine.

Ed. - Natalia, good afternoon. Today, there are a large number of issues related to both the information security of individuals and the state. How protected is the domestic public sector from data leakage, if we consider the problem in an international context? And how to deal with the violation of the privacy rights of individuals? 

N.K. -In a country where most information security tools do not belong to a domestic manufacturer, but are purchased abroad, it is rather problematic to talk about security issues. If from the point of view of software, we can at least theoretically provide ourselves, then from the point of view of "hardware" the situation is rather sad. And in different areas - from mobile devices, smartphones and ending with heavy servers. There are separate companies that are engaged in assembly. But this is assembly, not production. Since the key component is the availability of its own research and production base. In the Soviet Union, there was a powerful scientific and practical reserve for the production of microelectronics. Perhaps Soviet production lagged slightly behind Western counterparts - but it was its own. Now we are in serious dependence. The problem with this, firstly, is that someone else's "hardware" can contain unwanted elements or bookmarks, which entail negative consequences up to the immediate termination of foreign software in Russia. In fact, all modern equipment, as a rule, has built-in antennas and is somehow connected to the Internet. Today, the topic of the Internet of Things is very fashionable, which is increasingly being introduced into our lives. I often have a question: why does a kettle need the Internet? But this is a modern trend. However, this small improvement in functionality comes with very serious risks. The presence of a radio antenna in one or another component makes it possible to talk about the possibility of influencing it from the outside. that someone else's "hardware" may contain unwanted elements or bookmarks, which entail negative consequences up to the simultaneous termination of the operation of foreign software on the territory of Russia. In fact, all modern equipment, as a rule, has built-in antennas and is somehow connected to the Internet. Today, the topic of the Internet of Things is very fashionable, which is increasingly being introduced into our lives. I often have a question: why does a kettle need the Internet? But this is a modern trend. However, this small improvement in functionality comes with very serious risks. The presence of a radio antenna in one or another component makes it possible to talk about the possibility of influencing it from the outside. that someone else's "hardware" may contain unwanted elements or bookmarks that entail negative consequences up to the simultaneous termination of the foreign software on the territory of Russia. In fact, all modern equipment, as a rule, has built-in antennas and is somehow connected to the Internet. Today, the topic of the Internet of Things is very fashionable, which is increasingly being introduced into our lives. I often have a question: why does a kettle need the Internet? But this is a modern trend. However, this small improvement in functionality comes with very serious risks. The presence of a radio antenna in one or another component makes it possible to talk about the possibility of influencing it from the outside. all modern equipment, as a rule, has built-in antennas and is somehow connected to the Internet. Today, the topic of the Internet of Things is very fashionable, which is increasingly being introduced into our lives. I often have a question: why does a kettle need the Internet? But this is a modern trend. However, this small improvement in functionality comes with very serious risks. The presence of a radio antenna in one or another component makes it possible to talk about the possibility of influencing it from the outside. all modern equipment, as a rule, has built-in antennas and is somehow connected to the Internet. Today, the topic of the Internet of Things is very fashionable, which is increasingly being introduced into our lives. I often have a question: why does a kettle need the Internet? But this is a modern trend. However, this small improvement in functionality comes with very serious risks. The presence of a radio antenna in one or another component makes it possible to talk about the possibility of influencing it from the outside. However, this small improvement in functionality comes with very serious risks. The presence of a radio antenna in one or another component makes it possible to talk about the possibility of influencing it from the outside. However, this small improvement in functionality comes with very serious risks. The presence of a radio antenna in one or another component allows us to talk about the possibility of influencing it from the outside.  

Ed: - Can we programmatically prevent the enemy from accessing our devices, install an antivirus that will prevent the sending of any information to the conditional iPhone?

N.K .:  - The problem is that, as a rule, all antiviruses and similar products work at a higher level. Yes, there is hardware - this is a very low level, the level of software commands. There is an operating system level, and a higher level. Anything above the operating system are the applications that people usually work with. Hardware bookmarks are created at the hardware level. And if you work at a higher level, then no matter how hard you try, you cannot penetrate to a lower level.

Cybersecurity: How to Protect Yourself from Internet Attacks

Ed: - You quite often suggest specifying the very definition of information security. Does the country understand the range of threats it may face? 

N.K .: - The concept of "cybersecurity" is key in the modern system of identifying threats. We have a rather paradoxical situation in our country - with the fact that there are cyber threats, but there is no concept of cyber security as such. More precisely - it seems to exist, but is not legally defined. At the same time, when we say "cyber threat" or "cyber security", everyone understands perfectly what we are talking about. However, it is not legally defined. There is the concept of "Information Security": this is a collection of information that must be protected by certain principles: integrity, confidentiality, availability. For example, there may be a virus attack that does not violate the confidentiality of information. Or maybe a Trojan virus - which simply infiltrates corporate software and observes. And from this point of view, he is not an obstacle. And this is a rather strange situation - since viruses and other threats, like bookmarks, must be specially identified. For example, the United States is conducting separate cyber troop exercises. And even in this respect we have some uncertainty. And I absolutely do not understand why we cannot legally legalize this concept. The problem is supposedly not officially worth it - although the number of viruses we have is no less than that of other threats. why we cannot legally legalize this concept. The problem is allegedly not officially worth it - although the number of viruses we have is no less than that of other threats. why we cannot legally legalize this concept. The problem is supposedly not officially worth it - although the number of viruses we have is no less than that of other threats.

Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Impact of large-scale information on cyberinformatics

 1. Introduction

    Statisticians agree that optimal configurations are an interesting new topic in the field of metamorphic theory, and sysadmins support this as well. The impact on machine learning of this process has been categorically controversial. In contrast, a proven problem in e-voting technology is the deployment of parallel algorithms. To what extent can sensor networks be used to achieve the objectives of such a mission?

    Motivated by these observations, cryptographers widely developed models for reading, writing, and emulating agents. It should be emphasized that HUT uses "red-black forks". Likewise, two properties make this approach ideal: both the given method is recursively enumerable, and the methodology also caches random configurations. It should be noted that these applications are built on the principles of operating systems. For comparison, indeed, Markov models and the Internet have a long history of interfering with such systems and others like them. When combined with collaborative methodologies, this hypothesis comes from the analysis of Ethernet itself.

    Motivated by these observations, superpages and knowledge-based epistemologies have been widely synthesized by bioinformatists. However, this approach is usually categorically difficult. At the same time, although conventional wisdom says that this is difficult, it is usually overcome by the synthesis of architecture (note this). I believe a different solution is needed. Think of programming languages ​​as the next cycle of four steps: provisioning, storing, investigating, and preventing bugs.

    This article confirms that "logical logic" and "replication" are rarely incompatible. It should be noted that allowing Markov models to deliver theories in real time without refining channel-level confirmations is necessary. Networks should be viewed as the next cycle of four phases: prevention, exploration, imaging, and refinement. It should be noted that the methodology in this case provides wide-ranging opportunities. Let me emphasize that the algorithm is NP-complete [6]. Further, for example, many solutions explore object-oriented languages. Although their result seems unexpected at first glance, it has sufficient historical priority.

    The rest of my article is organized as follows. To begin with, I motivate the need for 802.11 networks. With these strings, I am theorizing a daunting task. I disagree that while superpages are a problem, producer-consumers can get in the way of solving this difficult question, a little-known compact algorithm for visualizing Nehru and Sato [4] - Turing channel level confirmation. Likewise, this work should be assessed in context with previous work in this area computer engineering job descriptions.

2. Related work

    In this section, we will discuss preliminary research to improve partition table, highly available communication, and trigger gate emulation. Wilson [15,9,29,4,11] originally formulated the need for randomized algorithms [1]. Even though this work has been published until our time, I first came up with a solution, but still could not publish it due to fear of bureaucracy. Harris's recent work suggests a control system for a Turing machine [10], but does not offer an implementation [30,5]. A comprehensive study is available in this article [13]. And a recent unpublished student dissertation motivated me to come up with a similar idea for multimodal technologies. This refers to the solution before Sato published his work on interrupt synthesis recently [25].

    This proposal builds on previous work in robust theory and hardware and architecture [1]. Although Henry Levy also introduced this method, I have theorized independently and simultaneously with them [24]. Although their approach is even more dubious than mine. Continuing this reasoning, Nehru and Garcia [12] proposed a scheme for constructing information retrieval systems, but did not fully understand the consequences of the branching of "trees" at that time [30,8]. Likewise, although Jackson also described a similar method, investigating it independently and simultaneously [31]. Instead of evaluating encrypted models, I solve this problem simply by examining SMP analysis. This solution is more expensive, but more effective.

    Although civilization does not know of other studies on virtual symmetries, several attempts have been made to clarify the branching of suffixes [7]. Thus, the comparison with this work is poorly thought out. But still. The new robust configurations [29] suggested by David Clarke fail to address several key questions that the application can actually answer. Instead of evaluating linked lists [16,21], the goal is achieved by simply studying Byzantine fault tolerance. So, if bandwidth is an issue, HUT has a clear advantage. I was referring to the approach to Jackson et al. Recently published well-known papers on gigabit switches [26,18]. It is generally planned to adopt many of the ideas from these and related works in future versions of HUT.

    3. General principles

    Suppose there are such perfect modalities that we can easily investigate the symmetry of the time constant. This may or may not actually be done in reality. The architecture of such a heuristic consists of four independent components: emulation of two-bit architectures, trainable models, authenticated information, and replication. While physicists pretty much assume the exact opposite, HUT relies on this property for correct behavior. I have always made sure that my methodology is sound [17]. Instead of simulating random methodologies, the application must find access points. Use previously simulated results as a basis for all these assumptions.

    Suppose there is redundancy so that checksum deployment can be easily used. At the same time, the architecture of the methodology consists of four independent components: heterogeneous communication, telephony, sensor networks, and robots. This appears to hold true in most cases. And to continue the rationale, the HUT design consists of four independent components: replication [20], a robust model, architecture visualization, and web services. This appears to hold true in most cases. This method does not require proper research work, but it does not hurt. This seems to hold true in most cases.

    Rather than allowing empathic models, my approach allows for the study of "red-black branching" [3]. In addition, the HUT framework consists of four independent components: e-business, branching, access points, and Internet QoS. Further, rather than admitting a theory of linear time, HUT will observe homogeneous epistemologies. While hackers around the world rarely accept the exact opposite, HUT depends on this property for correct behavior in relation to an attack. The methodology for HUT is made up of four independent components: web browsers, 8-bit architectures, virtual technologies, and "suffixes". This may or may not actually be done in reality. Who knows... 

4. Technical implementation

HUT requires root access to cache the simulation. Further, the home database and codebase of 22 Ruby files must run in the same JVM. And this approach requires root access to query the Neumann machine. While not yet optimized for simplicity, it should be a breeze once the shell script collection is optimized. In addition, HUT requires root access to create Ethernet. While scalability hasn't been optimized yet, it should be easy once the emulation hacking of the internal database is over.

    5. Experimental assessment

    This assessment method is a valuable research contribution in itself. The overall assessment in this case aims to prove three hypotheses: (1) that the average hit rate is not as important as the self-learning ABI solution while minimizing the interrupt rate of 10 percent; (2) that seek times will remain constant across successive generations of Macintosh SEs; and finally (3) that time since 1935 has remained steadily focused on IT in successive generations of Commodore 64. And work in this regard is a contribution to information theory.

  5.1 Hardware and software configuration

    Although much requires experimental data, it is nevertheless discussed in detail here. I am showing a prototype of a large-scale overlay network to demonstrate the theoretical collective impact of such technologies on the work of, for example, American equipment designer L. Robinson. Such a system would cut the bandwidth of the two-node overlay network drive in half. If you add extra USB dongle space to such a parallel overlay network to prove topologically scalable behavior of modalities. In addition, adding 10 Gbps Ethernet access to mobile phones to quantify the reasonable behavior of wireless information in general. Along the same lines, it is possible to quadruple the capacity of the operators' network. Although such a hypothesis was never a theoretical goal, it is derived from known results. Likewise, it is possible to halve the effective disk space of such a system to explore archetypes. Finally, removing 200 GB / s of Internet access from desktops can debunk the extremely multimodal behavior of partitioned communication. And also reuse the necessary RISC processors.

    By running HUT on commodity operating systems such as L4 and Microsoft Windows 3.11. you can add support for HUT as a kernel module [19,32,28]. Such approaches will soon prove that the Nintendo Gameboy was just as effective as the automated Commandore 64 as suggested in the work. Second, we need to make all our software available under the Sun Public License. If possible.

    5.2. Experimental results

    Is it possible to justify the fact that little attention is paid to such an implementation and experimental setup? Absolutely not! Taking advantage of this ideal configuration, I ran four new experiments: (1) deployed a Commodore 64s over a two-node network and tested the results accordingly; (2) augmented the application theory with their own desktops, with a focus on NV-RAM space; (3) by running local networks at 89 nodes located throughout the network and comparing them to sensor networks operating locally; (4) I have brought this method to my own desktops, with particular attention to the effective bandwidth of tape drives including [14]. All of these experiments have been completed with no discernible performance bottlenecks or congestion.

    Now for the culminating analysis of experiments (1) and (4) listed above. This may sound contradictory, but it is supported by previous work in this area. Erroneous bugs were fixed as most of the data fell outside 36 standard deviations of the observed means. Also, note that Figure 6 shows the average and non-average discrete hard drive bandwidth. Likewise, operator error itself cannot account for these results.

    As shown in Figure 4, the second half of the experiments draws attention to the system response time [22]. Results are obtained from only 8 trial runs and are not reproducible. Operator error itself cannot account for these results. The curve in Figure 5 should look familiar; it is better known as g (n) = n.

    Finally, discussing experiments (1) and (4) listed above. Results come from 0 trial runs only and are not reproducible. The data in Figure 3, in particular, proves that four years of hard work have been wasted on this project. Moreover, the key to FIG. 5 closes the feedback loop; Figure 5 shows how the response time of such a system does not converge.

    6. Conclusion

    In this article, it seems to me that I have not confirmed that RAID and active networks are rarely incompatible. In fact, the main contribution of my theory is that, hypothetically, a new framework for Internet QoS (HUT) can be built by demonstrating that the advanced enumerable interception is renamed the first semantic algorithm [2]. In addition, I seem to have proven that the usability of the algorithm is not an obstacle. HUT itself is a model validation use case, and I expect theorists to emulate HUT for years to come. Although at first glance this seems perverse, it has sufficient historical priority. The significant unification of flip-flop gates and log file systems is more technical than ever, and HUT will help bioinformatics as well achieve it.

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

How not to become a programmer or you don't belong here

PROLOGUE

This article is for someone who has decided to become a  kulkhacker  programmer, for someone who does not yet understand where he can get himself into and who thinks that it will not cost him much effort.

The article is not recommended for reading by experienced programmers. After all, whatever one may say, but views on programming may differ.

Well, if you are in the process of self-determination in this profession - you are welcome!

TERMINOLOGY

According to textbooks, programming is just the process of writing instructions in a programming language (PL).

But is it that easy to just go and write a program? 

Is it really possible to write a program, it is just to list a set of instructions (instructions) to the compiler and you're done?

Just memorize the commands and churn out programs for yourself, but row the loot !?

Programming is a purely research creative, not a technical process.

Programming is the ability to abstract, think in objects, functional dependencies, virtual images.

Programming is a process of creative thought flowing, often going beyond the working day and even the lifestyle.

It is important to understand that a program is not just a bunch of lines of text.

This is not a sequence of pieces of code written out of a book. It is a complex multi-tiered product. These are tens and hundreds of objects of various structures with different behaviors, communicating with each other. And the programmer must understand and feel all the subtle connections between these objects.


What is the difference between computer science and computer engineering

When a programmer works on a program, it seems to live in his head.

It is necessary to understand that the program is written by immersion in the code. This is when the source code of the current module seems to be loaded into the brain and processed there (aka debugged).

Thus, already launching the program for execution, the "correct" programmer knows perfectly well how it will be executed, because before that it seemed to "play like music" in his head.

What I mean is that I know many such programmers who wrote some code and, to check how it works, launched it for execution and were very surprised when it dropped out with an error in some place. They could not execute the code in their heads, and therefore did not understand how this very code works. Well, they had no  corresponding programs  .

The most important skill in programming is learning how to reproduce (execute) code in your mind.

The programmer's brain must be able to run pieces of code in the mind. You loop through the loop, evaluate the variables, and imagine roughly what the output will be.

Feeling that you feel the program is a very important stage in becoming a programmer.

By the way, a good programmer differs from a bad programmer in that he spends 90% of his time on development, research and design, while a bad programmer spends that 90% of his time debugging randomly generated code. 

OUTPUT. The programmer must be able to execute the code in his head before feeding it to the compiler.

BITTER TRUTH

As a rule, you cannot learn to be a programmer in an educational institution.

Used on most of the programmers - self-taught. Education can only lay the foundation for engineering knowledge. The rest is mental abilities and dispositions, multiplied by diligence and work squared, or even factorial (!).

I have done many job interviews with programmers who have a degree in computer science. During the interview, it turned out that they had written only one program in their entire life, and that it was a diploma written by another person. I asked such an applicant, but can a poet call himself a poet if he has not written a single verse yet? Usually, after all, a collection of poems is published and then the poet receives recognition and the very status of a poet. The answer was dull silence and misunderstanding.

FORMATION

Our business is like this. You read about algorithms, learn any language, write dozens of different small programs. Any programs - for yourself, for a friend, just to deal with technology, etc. And you devote a LOT of time to this. I will clarify again - a LOT of time. And now everything is successful for you ?! You drive in, you understand, you like it and you get a thrill from it, inner elation! When the program works as planned, you feel a surge of happiness, and endorphins are splashing in your brain. Here it is! Fine! 

Only after that, you become someone like a programmer. And only then, an  unwashed head,  an old sweater and a beard ...

Laughter with laughter, but by the length of the beard of one of our programmers, we find out at what stage of the project he is.

OUTPUT. A programmer is a person who not only writes programs, but also for whom they work.

ABOUT LANGUAGES.

There are many programming languages, but C ++ has always stood out on this list.

Why C ++?

C ++ is a minimalist language that originated as a set of macros from assemblerists. Rather, S. first appeared. But that is not the point,  I am not a historian .

Why should an average programmer know C ++?

It's like a priest who doesn't know the Bible. Like a marketer who doesn't know the 4Rs. Like a fashion model without makeup. Likewise, C ++ is the very necessary baggage that should just at least lie in your head on one of the shelves.

You may not be using C ++ in action, but you should know it as a canon, as the foundation of all the basics. But nevertheless, C ++ is very dangerous when used, because, for example, when manipulating pointers, if the programmer does not fully understand their basics, you can fly off to execute the code in the data section (because of this, by the way, in JAVA, pointers canceled). And you can also "shoot yourself in the foot"))  so thought the  author of the C ++ language, Mr. Stroustrup. Because a tool like C ++ needs to be very competent in order to use it masterly.

Also note that some modern languages ​​have taken C ++ as a base - Java, PHP, Perl, Ruby etc.

All known programs are written exclusively in C ++ (or C) - Windows OS, Linux OS, MacOS, iOS, Firefox, Kaspersky, Chrome etc. Moreover, many of the well-known programs are open source and you can learn programming from them.

At the moment, only C ++ provides the fastest and most optimized code for the native platform.


WHY IS DELPHI NOT AN OPTION?

Here I will take a desperate attempt to dissuade beginners from programming in Delphi.

Pascal (IDE Delphi) is framework programming (IMHO). Pascal is a language invented by the scientist N. Wirth in 1970, during the development of another language Modula-2. Pascal was widely used to learn the basics of programming, but it did not come into commercial use until the 1980s and 1990s. 

Over the decades of Borland and InPrise's reign, he turned into a monster by borrowing ( stealing ) some of the syntax from C ++. Now the Embarcadero company continues to grow this monster, in the belly of which you will compile a gigantic program. By the way, for Android too.

In due time I dragged a lot of people from the  swamp Delphi in C ++, which they themselves were later unspeakably happy about. Being C ++ programmers, they remembered Pascal with horror and no longer had the desire to program in it.

Also, I've heard a lot of tales from programmers who tried to retrain dolphists in Java and failed completely. Now many are giving up on dolphists. Allegedly, non-retrainable.

Perhaps this is a challenge for you, gentlemen, dolphists! Try to write a program in C ++. After 2 months Delphi (Pascal) will seem like a kindergarten and you will move on to the next level of development (high school). And there already, and Python is not far off. 

Develop! Are you weak?

Immediately, I ask you not to make a holyivor about who is cooler - Delphi or S. If you write good commercial programs on Delphi and your users are satisfied with the product, then everything is fine. Keep on writing. You have found your niche.

Monday, September 14, 2020

How to become a rich programmer

Four strategies for increasing income if you are fluent in at least one programming language.

The median salary of programmers in all IT specialties is 98 thousand rubles. This can be a good sum if you work in Novokuznetsk or Tver, but for Moscow and St. Petersburg it is not much. But the largest salaries of IT specialists reach 350 thousand rubles, and this is already a serious conversation.

Here's what to do to get to the highest salaries in the industry.

Go to management and architecture

High salaries in IT are found among managers: technical directors, general managers, product managers, as well as software architects and systems engineers. The median salary of a technical director is 200 thousand, an architect - 180 thousand.

Paradoxically, it is not necessary to have a deep knowledge of programming and technology to become a good director. You need to be a charismatic leader, be able to work with people, negotiate, set tasks, be energetic and organized. These are the people who grow the fastest in management.

What to do: Computer engineer careers

Develop leadership skills (negotiations, time management, goal setting).

Communicate with people, launch projects.

Share your work internally and externally.

Understand the economics of the project.

Take responsibility for the result: not just "writing the code", but "launching the product".

The spread of salaries in IT by area of ​​work

Learn popular languages

According to the results of 2018, developers in the languages ​​Elixir, Golang, Scala , Objective-C, Kotlin received the most . Their median salaries are in the region of 110-140 thousand rubles a month.

Ruby, Java, C ++, Python and C # developers are head to head: their average salary is 100 thousand. At the same time, it is important that salaries in all these languages ​​reach 300-250 thousand rubles - this is how much the best specialists are paid.

What to do:

Learning Java is in great demand, good salaries.

Learning Golang is in great demand, few programmers, high salaries.

Learning Python is great to write in and the salaries are decent.

Developer salaries by language

Get an internship with cool guys

The leaders in IT salaries are Yandex, Luxoft, Mail.ru and Kaspersky Lab. First, you participate in their programs for young developers (schools, camps, hackathons, conferences). Then you get a job as an intern. Then you get a job as a junior. And further on ascending.

What to do:

Check out what internship and training programs the leading salary companies have. Make a schedule and go to these events, meet people.

Study the vacancies of such companies. Who are they usually looking for? Who is being hired for the internship?

Start writing in response to vacancies and internship invitations.

IT salaries in Russian companies

Explore data science

A lot of data has accumulated on the Internet, and now we need specialists who can work with this data: analyze and extract knowledge. There are very few such people, and this is the profession of the future.

What to do:

Learn data science, analytics, and Python are top keywords.

Participate in conferences and meetings on this topic. The region is just emerging, a lot is happening.

Check out  our free trainer  on this topic.

Analytics and data salaries

The main secret

Statistics say one thing, but in the life of a particular person it is often different. You can become a highly paid Python specialist with a salary of 350 thousand rubles or an incredibly popular 1C engineer who will earn from 1 million rubles due to the high complexity of tasks. And you will be in statistics as a person who does not fall into the average.

The main principles of wealth:

It is good to know the chosen language.

Think not so much about programming as about solving the problems of your clients and employers.

Communicate, show your work, be interested in someone else's work, seethe among programmers and make them seethe next to you.

Friday, September 11, 2020

We work from home. How do IT companies control their remote employees?

Pauline Gankovich, director of service and  "Bitriks24" in Belarus :

- We have been remotely since March 16 due to the coronavirus pandemic . We use our own time tracking software. When we left home for work, we introduced a new "feature". If the employee has not set the "Break" status, the system monitors long-term "downtime" and asks him to briefly report.  

We believe that adequate measures are needed, but there is no need to go overboard. For example, in China, there are cases when people are forced to drop their geotags and selfies to managers 3-5 times a day.

Perhaps such methods are popular due to the low culture of telecommuting - both in entire countries and in individual companies. It is difficult for business owners to instantly move all processes online if they did not have such experience. They are concerned about the protection of corporate data, legal issues. In Belarus, only a couple of months ago they amended the Labor Code and legalized remote work. 

I also observe that some of our employees have a longer working day. I think this is a temporary effect - people need to get used to the new regime, learn to distinguish between personal and work time at home.

The teams did not revise the KPIs - the company's tasks and projects were not affected, everything is going according to plan. Our telecommuting and business management service is located in one of the few growing markets today.

Alesya Chumakova, PR specialist, Wowmaking: Computer questions

- We have been working remotely since March 17. The organization of teleworking took literally one evening. Helped employees to deliver home computer equipment and peripherals, if necessary. Only a few people continue to come to the office, whose work is connected with paperwork or the life support of the office.

For more than a week, no decline in efficiency was noticed. Work in our company is organized in small teams of 7-8 people. If earlier all working issues were resolved immediately on the spot during a discussion in the office, now in the morning and in the evening the teams hold online meetings and discuss tasks. Most of the calls are made via Google Hangouts. 

As always, our employees track their working hours in Jira, nothing has changed here. For us, the main thing is closed tasks and the achieved result, so we don't see any sense in keeping track of the time spent at the computer. If one of the employees has a noticeable decline in productivity, the manager discusses the reasons with him.

During the time of remote work , our corporate chat has changed the most. Instead of photos from the office, photos of the home environment, pets, encouraging pictures about the fight against coronavirus began to flash. We hope that we will be back to the office soon and will further strengthen our relationship within the team by playing table tennis, kicker or talking over a cup of coffee.

Cotvec Company (BES Innovation LLC) :

- For the third week we have been working in the mode of partial "remote". In total, the company has over 130 employees. We organize the process of transferring employees to a remote form of work quite smoothly. This was done to minimize risks and losses, primarily in the quality of services provided to our clients. Taking into account the specifics of the sphere (fintech), we are limited by a rather serious framework of information security, so some of the employees remain in the office, some come on request. 

There is no need to apply strict control over the tracking of the working time of our employees, since the correct management processes have been implemented, which guarantees the quality of the work performed. But, of course, we control the timing of tasks and projects in JIRA and Redmine. By and large, everything is the same as in the normal operating mode of the Cotvec company.

Heads of departments note that at this stage, the productivity of employees has not changed. Everything is in the normal mode: no tasks are sagging, everything is going according to plan. Oddly enough, but the lack of live contact also brought positive moments in this difficult period: no one distracts developers, which means that tasks are completed faster, analysts and testers formulate their questions as clearly as possible in order to avoid lengthy correspondence and get the correct answer. For managers, this is a zone of growth and development of management and adaptation of employees to new, albeit temporary, realities. Leveling up soft skills and optimizing a new process. Those. in general, productivity has remained the same, but the load has subsided a little, and this opens a "window of opportunity".

Thursday, September 10, 2020

7 important programming languages ​​for test automation in 2020

There is an opportunity for any tester to improve their work efficiency and salary. To do this, it is enough to automate testing using 7 programming languages ​​popular in 2020, which we will talk about in this article.

It is important to understand that a tester writing scripts for automation is more appreciated in the labor market than a manual tester. Accordingly, he can apply for a higher salary.

The more programming languages ​​a tester knows, the more products he can work with, which means that his demand among employers is much higher. At the same time, you should choose to study those programming languages ​​that are now in trend.

Python

Python is an open source programming language. According to the study, 73.1% of developers consider Python to be the most in-demand programming language.

Python is in great demand among testers for a number of reasons. Many libraries allow you to write fewer lines of code yourself. Python is easier to port, its syntax is easy to learn, which makes it easy to learn it quickly. A strong community opens up more opportunities for testers. The Selenium and Appium Python libraries simplify automated and cross-browser testing on desktop and mobile devices. PyUnit and Pytest are widely used in Selenium test automation and automated cross-browser testing.

For Python testing automation, it's best to look for higher-level frameworks: computer engineering starting salary

Py.saunter;

Moz-web-qa;

Testutils sst.

Java

Java is a general-purpose programming language owned by Oracle Corporation. Built on the principles of object-oriented programming, it follows the WORA principle (write once, run anywhere - written once, executed anywhere), which provides many cross-platform advantages. Many corporations use Java to maintain their internal systems. There are over three billion devices that run Java applications.

The most well-known framework for unit testing in the Java environment is JUnit. A number of platforms have also been created in this language for automating testing of open source applications.

Automatic browser testing for web products (website and web app) can be done using JUnit with Selenium WebDriver.

From frameworks for automation they also use:

TestNG;

Cucumber;

JBehave.

JavaScript

According to the study, JavaScript was ranked first in the "Programming, Scripting and Markup Languages" section in the "Most Popular Technologies" category. Many of the largest companies use JavaScript to develop the front-end for e-comerce sites.

One of the main reasons for JavaScript's dominance in test automation is the proliferation of left-shift testing methodology in the IT industry (when product testing occurs in the early stages).

According to this methodology? The QA team works closely with the developers to ensure effective test automation implementation.

Developers also prefer to use JavaScript alongside Selenium for test scripts related to automatic browser testing. It can also be used for parallel testing with Selenium Grid using LambdaTest without major changes to the source code.

Having a wide variety of testing frameworks for unit and E2E (end-to-end) testing makes JavaScript the language of choice for automation. Some of the best JavaScript test automation frameworks are:

Jest;

Mocha;

Jasmine;

Nightwatch.

C #

Microsoft's C # programming language is developed based on the concept of object-oriented programming. It is one of the most popular languages ​​in the .NET Framework.

Due to its compatibility with Selenium WebDriver, many QAs use C # for automation and cross-browser testing. By using the Page Object Model (POM) design pattern, testers can quickly develop efficient and maintainable test code.

There are a number of frameworks in C # that help automate Selenium or browser testing. Because of the availability of a wide variety of test environments, many developers are considering C # for developing test cases related to cross-browser testing. The most common in test automation are the following platforms in C #:

NUnit

MSTest

xUnit.Net

Ruby

Ruby is an open source programming language focused on simplicity and performance. Like Python, Ruby also has a convenient syntax, and its flexible object-oriented architecture makes Ruby a powerful programming language.

Another important aspect of Ruby's growing popularity is the support of the ever-growing Ruby community. It is gradually becoming the programming language of choice for building web applications. Developers can create useful Ruby applications with fewer lines of code they write themselves, thanks to the richest libraries.

The Selenium framework also works with Ruby, so it can be used to automate Selenium tests. Getting started with Ruby and Selenium isn't difficult. You can run your first cross-browser test with Selenium WebDriver and Ruby with just a few lines of code.

Ruby has a number of test automation frameworks that help with cross-browser testing. Of which the most popular are:

Capybara;

RSpec;

Test :: Unit.

PHP

PHP is a server-side scripting language used for web development. However, it is also widely used as a programming language for test automation. PHP's complexity level is low compared to other backend programming languages ​​like Python and Java.

PHP has good community support and a growing ecosystem. It offers XDebug, a powerful debugging and profiling tool that is powerful. It supports a wide variety of test automation frameworks such as:

Laravel Dusk;

Codeception;

PHPUnit; 

BeHat.

SmashTest

SmashTest is a test automation programming language using NodeJS. This open source tool and language allows you to quickly create tests. The language is 10x faster, but SmashTest documentation is not much on the web.

The language is easy to understand, has easy-to-read steps and powerful reporting features that make it an ideal language for learning and implementing test automation. The frameworks used for test automation:

RedwoodHQ;

Sahi;

Gauge.

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

Remote - digital literacy exam in the field

Many companies, including those in Belarus, switched to remote work due to the coronavirus in the spring. According to polls, some people liked this format. For example, according to Gartner, 74% of companies are ready to move up to 5% of staff to work from home on an ongoing basis when the pandemic is over. It is undoubtedly a new experience for most around the world on this scale.

Himself a sysadmin computer engineering careers

The format of work from home, in addition to its advantages, of course, also has risks associated primarily with the safety of corporate data and finances. In a home office, the importance of the level of digital literacy of employees is growing sharply, because the human factor is still one of the most common causes of cyber incidents in companies.

Ideally, sending employees remotely is recommended along with a work laptop, a token, and configured secure access to all important tools, including mail, instant messengers and file sharing. The device must have a strong security solution and VPN, and a password must be set. All programs and applications in use must be updated, and backup and encryption must be configured.

But, of course, this is not always the case, especially when it comes to small firms. This largely explains the fact that user behavior at a distance is becoming more risky in terms of cybersecurity. Judge for yourself: any activity, both work and personal, is performed from the same device, on which most often there is no protection.

Providing these basic protections is primarily the responsibility of the employing organization, as it is the employing organization that will suffer in the event of an attack. Meanwhile, according to statistics from Kaspersky Lab, 73% of employees around the world who switched to remote mode did not receive any specific recommendations on information security. Although it is the degree of security of home computers connected to corporate networks that determines the safety of commercial information in a home office. Among the data that attackers can hunt for are customer bases, any classified work information and, of course, the company's cash flows.

Since the transition to remote work took place quite abruptly, special software was urgently needed that would allow employees to access internal systems outside the office. And the attackers immediately adopted it. We recorded a surge in attacks on the infrastructure of organizations whose employees started working from home in the spring. In particular, at the end of April 2020, the average daily number of brute-force attacks on devices that support the remote connection protocol to a computer increased by 23% compared to January of the same year.

In addition, connecting to a corporate network from a home office is fraught with the fact that other equipment can be connected to the home router, which attackers can use as an entry point into the corporate system. And the router itself can be a convenient gate if it has a factory password, and VPN technology, which ensures the interaction of a computer with a corporate network via a secure channel, is not used. This is most often the case, because, according to our data, only 53% of people around the world work via VPN.

Work calls from home devices

With the transition to remote work, companies faced the issue of effective communication with employees. In Belarus, as we can see from one poll, Skype topped the rating of the most popular tools. Almost 58% of remote workers use it. Also in the top 3 are Slack and ZOOM. The least popular communication channel was Facebook. In addition, some companies use Google Hangouts, Google Meetings, Lifesize, Discord. Yes, the services are convenient, but you need to use them with a certain amount of care.

To avoid oversight, you need to follow a number of simple rules: do not publish links to online meetings in public resources; create a separate and complex password for each new conference; set up a "waiting room" and two-factor authorization, if the service provides such an opportunity.

Shadow IT

It is difficult to find software tools to please the entire state. There will always be an employee who will say that he knows a much more convenient file hosting or video communication platform than the resource offered by the company, will recommend to colleagues and, voila, already half of the office communicates in messengers and chats not approved by the IT service or uploads links to not approved (and possibly insecure) clouds, etc. This phenomenon is called "shadow IT". In conditions of distance, the demand for them is gaining momentum. According to a survey conducted this spring, 38% of employees around the world communicate using messengers that are not approved by IT departments of companies, and 53% use "shadow" cloud storage.

Last year, we conducted a survey, during which it turned out that every fourth Belarusian user downloads applications or programs that are needed for work from unofficial resources. What can we say about today. The problem with such resources is that IT departments cannot guarantee the safety of the data transmitted through them, and take it into account when building a threat model and creating flow diagrams.

The more hype, the more fakes

Attackers always turn the news agenda in their favor and, of course, did not fail to take advantage of the hype around the coronavirus. For example, in the spring they created emails that looked like mailing lists from the World Health Organization, spawned phishing sites exploiting this topic.

For example, back in April, Kaspersky Lab experts said that in the first four months of the year, they discovered more than 4,600 suspicious sites, the names of which include the words covid19 or coronavirus. Such resources are still appearing, except that their subject matter changes somewhat.

What's next?

The remote mode of work has clearly shown companies how they could be threatened with ignorance of the basic rules of network security by employees. Today, digital literacy - that is, knowledge of the rules of cyber hygiene that allow you to deftly maneuver the Internet without compromising personal and corporate data - is becoming a critical skill.

So far, a person remains the weakest link in the information security chain, but gradually the level of user awareness is growing. I hope that organizations will begin to conduct systematic training for employees, especially since some of them will most likely continue to work from home.

Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Scala vs. Python for Apache Spark

Apache Spark is a great choice for cluster computing and includes language APIs for Scala, Java, Python, and R. Apache Spark includes libraries for SQL, streaming, machine learning, and graphics processing. With this wide range of functionality, many developers decide to migrate to distributed application development with Apache Spark.   

The first thing to decide is where you will launch it. For most, this solution is not difficult - run it using Apache Hadoop YARN. After this simple decision, the developers are faced with the question of which language to choose to work with Apache Spark. If at the same time each developer needs the ability to choose their own language, or if there is a need to support multiple languages, then this will result in a proliferation of code and tools. And the R interface isn't rich enough for that. For most companies, it's obvious that Java has too much code and a complicated interface. Based on this, their choice falls on Python or Scala. So let's take a closer look at both of these languages ​​and decide which one suits the best.

Scala has a key advantage: it is in this language that the Apache Spark platform runs. Scala running on the JVM is as powerful as Java. However, the Scala code still looks cleaner. Thanks to the JVM, an application written in this language can grow to impressive sizes. For most applications this is extremely important, however Apache Spark works with Akka and YARN, so it is not necessary for it. You just set a few parameters, and your Apache Spark application will be distributed regardless of the language you are working with. Therefore, this advantage can hardly be considered a significant plus in such a situation is computer science engineering.

Python is one of the key languages ​​in the world of Spark applications. The language is also extremely easy to learn - many schools even teach it to children. There is a huge number of code examples, books, articles, libraries and documentation, which allows you to easily delve into Python.

PySpark is the standard tool for working with Spark. And since Apache Zeppelin actively supports PySpark, and Jupyter and IBM DSX use Python as their primary language, you have many tools you can use to develop and test code, send queries, and visualize data. Knowledge of Python is becoming a must for Data Scientists, Data Engineers, and Application Developers who use streaming. Python integrates perfectly with Apache NiFi.

A key benefit of Python is the many libraries for machine learning, natural language processing, and deep learning. You also don't need to compile your code and worry about complex JVM packaging. Typically Anaconda or Pip is used, and Apache Hadoop and Apache Spark clusters already include Python and their libraries are already installed (like Apache Ambari).

There are a wide variety of great libraries for Python: NLTK, TensorFlow, Apache MXNet, TextBlob, SpaCY, and Numpy.

Python virtues

· PySpark is featured in many examples and tutorials.

· Most libraries come with Python APIs in the first place.

· Python is a mature language.

· Python is widely used and continues to grow in popularity.

· Deep learning libraries include Python.

· Easy to use.

Disadvantages of Python

Sometimes you need to use Python 2, sometimes Python 3.

· Not as fast as Scala (however Cython fixes this).

· Some libraries are difficult to build.

Scala virtues

JVM.

· Full featured IDEs and unit testing.

· Excellent serialization formats.

· Can use Java libraries.

· Fast.

AKKA.

Spark Shell.

Advanced streaming capabilities

Disadvantages of Scala

· Not as widespread.

· Smaller knowledge base.

· Many Java developers are not ready to switch to it.

· Must be compiled to work with Apache Spark.

How is the system implementation process going?

The implementation of the Chameleon system includes 3 main tasks:

equipment installation;

installation of server software;

installation of software on users' computers.

The hardware part is a radio signal receiver (for this, two receivers are taken to increase the range of the key fob) + a GSM modem that processes coded SMS. The software part is the software. It is installed on the server and client computers. There are local networks where the server simply does not exist, in this case its functions are performed by a computer on which all secret documents are stored.

After the system is installed, you need to configure which partitions of the hard drive should be encrypted. It is also necessary to indicate specific users who will have access. And, the last thing that needs to be done is to set the actions for the program, when an alarm is received from the remote control or SMS. After such signals, it is imperative to destroy possible copies. Employees can use classified information only from an encrypted disk.

With Chameleon, data is protected from any impact

Chameleon guarantees perfect data protection. Data interception is protected by reliable encryption, protection against emergency situations is provided with the help of the "red button". Even if your secret data is stolen along with the hard drive, the attackers will need 20 mega computers and years to decipher the information. It is advisable to organize a backup system, with the help of it you can easily restore the work of the office, while continuing to use data encryption.


Difference between computer science and computer engineering

Data encryption is a necessary approach to organizing the work of firms. The loss of important files can cause irreversible damage to your company. The Chameleon information security system is a guaranteed protection of information that strangers should neither see nor know. It is easier to protect confidential information in advance using the Chameleon system than to correct the consequences later. It turns out to be cheaper and requires significantly less nerves.

If you have any problems with computer equipment, contact us and select the service " Encryption and information protection ". Specialists of our computer engineering center "Miass Center" with the help of new equipment will perform " Encryption and protection of information " in compliance with all technological standards. Relying on the broad technical base of our company, we significantly reduce the total repair time.

Friday, September 4, 2020

Project management of investments and personnel

Investments and human resources are everything in business. Therefore, investment and human resource management is an important part of project management.

The application of project management standards can significantly reduce the negative impact on the implementation of long-term projects of changes in the cost of investment and other resources, as well as new risks, including unmanageable ones. Another advantage is that they allow you to more accurately calculate and more reliably guarantee performance indicators for project implementation. For example, return on equity (ROE) for business owners and senior management or return on investment (ROI) for operational customers. ROI and ROE are reliable economic criteria for evaluating project management performance. It is convenient to set the ROI as a percentage. Its value depends on the specifics of the business and the specifics of the project. For IT projects, it is customary to consider the ROI rate of 48% per year. Return on equity (ROE) is the ratio of net income to capitalization. The cost-effectiveness of operational projects to ensure business continuity is driven by need. We add that there are techniques for describing and analyzing potentially unmanageable risks, for example, the PEST (EL) method, which considers political, economic, social, technological, as well as environmental and legal risks.

To manage project teams, standards require a clear understanding of the functions and roles of everyone involved in the implementation of the project, both the performer and the customer. For example, the classic PMBOK, PRINCE2 define the roles of the customer, project manager, and executing team. The customer, in fact, is the owner and sponsor of the project, he sets goals and controls the result. The project manager ensures that results are achieved within the time frame and budget of the project. Its main tool is free communication with the team of performers and the customer. The team of executors directly implements the project on the basis of the agreed and documented wishes of the customer within the agreed timeframe and budget cloud architect job outlook.

If there is a need for flexible project management and the use of Scrum standards, then those involved in the project are assigned the roles of Product Owner, Scrum Master and Scrum Team. The customer, the owner of the product, controls the course of its life cycle. The Scrum Master coordinates and coordinates the implementation of the project at each stage or sprint, and provides the product owner with the results of each stage. The Scrum team directly works on the project in separate stages.

An important difference. In PMBOK, coordination of work is carried out by the project manager at meetings, the frequency of which is determined by him. At the same time, the implementation of the project according to the once planned plan is discussed; changes to the project are not welcomed and are not regular. The Scrum Team is coordinated by the Scrum Master during the Daily Standup meetings. At the same time, the sequential implementation of small stages of the project is discussed, in which changes are made at the request of the product owner. This provides flexibility in project management.

Thursday, September 3, 2020

Summer 10% discount on courses at the training center "Network Technologies"

We spend the summer with benefit in the training center "Network Technologies"! We give a 10% discount on IT courses and business trainings for everyone who does not want to waste time in vain. Study IT all summer long at competitive prices cloud architect jobs.

If you have been postponing training all the time, a new attractive price is a wonderful reason to improve your skills and get relevant knowledge.

The discount will be valid from June 01 to August 31, 2020 .

Submit your applications for training today!

Didn't find the course you're interested in? Write to us and we will find the right course or develop an individual training program, taking into account the needs and budget of your company.

What is the cost of the exam and how to pay for the exam?

What days does the test take place and can you choose the date of the exam yourself?

The date and time of the exam are agreed with the administrator of the test center "TechExpert". Please note that a candidate planning to take an exam must contact the test center two weeks before the desired test date.

Where can I find instructions for passing the exam?

On the Certiport website  , you can download an instruction, which indicates exactly how the exam takes place, its duration and how many questions it contains amazon web services certification salary

What topics are covered in the exam?

Certiport exams are divided into several parts (subject areas), each of which deals with a specific topic. A list of topics that will be covered in the exam can be found on the Certiport website  .

What is the format for Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) exams?

MOS exams (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook) are practical, that is, the exam takes place directly in the Microsoft Office program itself, and the structure of these exams consists of several projects. For each project, you will be asked to complete from 1 to 7 tasks, the total number of tasks can vary from about 25 to 46 depending on the exam.

Is it possible to retake the Microsoft Office Specialist exam if it fails?

The candidate has the option to order either only an exam (one attempt), or an exam with one more additional attempt, that is, with the right to retake. The cost of the retake exam is slightly higher than the cost of the exam with one attempt.

What can you take with you to the test room?

All personal belongings of candidates for testing are in special individual lockers that are locked with a key. It is prohibited by the rules to bring food and drinks, as well as other personal items, except for the document and the key to the locker, into the test room.

Tuesday, September 1, 2020

Cisco Systems Unified Communications 8.0

This event was held to familiarize with Cisco Systems products in the field of unified communications and to help organizations to more closely integrate communication systems with business processes based on Cisco Systems products and technologies

Audience

Experts with experience in working with traditional telephony, IT specialists, department heads

Training level

Required experience of a PC user. Experience with Cisco technologies and knowledge of the principles of telephony is desirable.

Event plan

General information about IP telephony

Benefits of switching to IP telephony

Building an IP telephony system based on Cisco Unified Communications Manager

Unified communication system aws cloud architect certification

Presence technology

Audio, video, web conferencing

Gradual (smooth) transition from analog to IP telephony based on Cisco Unified - - Communications Manager and Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express

Telephone (landline, mobile)

Corporate telephony with you anywhere in the world

Voice messaging system

Integration with various systems

Integration with the email system

IM electronic messaging system

Integration with communication systems of other vendors

Video telephony

Laboratory works

Products and solutions in question:

Cisco Unified Communications Manager 8.0

Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express 8.0

Cisco Unified Presence

Cisco Unity

Integration of Cisco Voicemail with MS Exchange

Active Directory and Cisco Unified Communications Manager 8.0

Integration of AD user database with UC Manager

Configuring Cisco IP Phones

Setting up mobile phones (Unified Mobility: Mobile Voice Access, Mobile Connect)

Connecting Remote Mobile Phones to Cisco Communications Manager

Cisco Meeting Place Express

- Setting up and creating conferences

Connecting intra-office mobiles from Cisco and other manufacturers via wi-fi

Demonstration of Cisco Hardware Solutions to Improve Availability and Cost Savings

Building a video telephony system based on equipment and software Cisco Systems

Features of using the new series of Cisco phones

Cisco Unified Video Advantage

Integration of a video telephony system with products from Tandberg and other manufacturers

Server management systems

Enterprises receive the services and functions they need (databases, e-mail, website hosting, work applications, etc.) for their corporate I...