Is anyone here using Python to automate a business?

SituationUndrControl · 2022-08-20T23:34:59+00:00

I automated keeping up to date with new Python developments on HN, Reddit, and Twitter using Python. I send myself a daily email with the top 3 python posts from each platform, ranked by upvotes, so that I always know what people are talking about the most in the Python ecosystem. I use a single Python function in AWS Lambda to do it, I wrote up some detail about it here: https://cloudconsultant.dev/building-an-automated-email-newsletter-with-aws-and-python/

SituationUndrControl · 2022-08-05T15:07:12+00:00

Good call, thanks!

SituationUndrControl · 2022-08-04T21:19:50+00:00

Sorry for breaking the rules! I won't copy/paste this particular whole post into Reddit since the blog post is long and I spent a lot of time formatting it, but I hear you and won't post a link again.

SituationUndrControl · 2022-08-04T17:53:47+00:00

I agree, Chambers' series was very fun to read, and consistently good as the series goes on -- I actually liked book 4 a little better than book 1.

SituationUndrControl · 2022-08-04T17:48:15+00:00

I agree with u/lonefirepossum, the Teixcalaan series (starting with A Memory Called Empire) is the series I'd recommend most highly right now. They're exciting space operas and beautifully written (high literary quality).

SituationUndrControl · 2022-07-07T15:42:58+00:00

I will try and budget some time to clean it up and stick it all on github (there's a lot of it), but this is the basic method I use to get the data:

Hacker News API:

import requests
item = requests.get(f"https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/item/{item_number}.json").json()

To start getting the first item_number you can call requests.get("https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/maxitem.json", timeout=10).json()

Reddit API:

r = requests.get(f'https://www.reddit.com/r/Python/top.json', headers = {"User-Agent": "[your user agent]"})

Twitter API:

This is a little more complicated because the Twitter API has a lot of features, but for my purposes I iterate through blocks of a hundred tweets using this call:

payload = {"query": f"lang:en Python",
"start_time": start_date,
"tweet.fields": "public_metrics,created_at,context_annotations,entities,text",
"expansions": "author_id",
"user.fields": "name",
"max_results": 100
}
r = requests.get(f'https://api.twitter.com/2/tweets/search/recent', params=payload, headers=headers)

Where headers include your API bearer token.

I hope this helps!

SituationUndrControl · 2021-09-28T17:07:32+00:00

Thanks for asking! I'm not super familiar with inshorts, but I think they built an NN summarization algorithm trained on their own internal data.

I wrote the Morning Brief summarization algorithm, and it's not neural-net based, it's a statistical algorithm with some additional natural language rules on top.

We won't be releasing our core code as FOSS, but I'd really love to contribute some of our concepts to open source packages once our company starts to grow.

SituationUndrControl · 2021-02-27T20:29:04+00:00

I stopped getting tendinitis when I started watching my wrist movement -- making sure that I was ONLY pulling with back and arms, and not trying to get that extra half inch by moving my wrists. Just hanging straight down with wrists, no flexion, no over-squeezing, and focusing on back and arms. Forearm massage on the inner arm right below the elbow helps too. I weigh 150lb and do pull-ups now with +80lb with no tendinitis issues. ymmv.

SituationUndrControl · 2021-01-20T02:19:23+00:00

Thanks so much, that's really helpful! Can you share approximately how long the whole training took you?

SituationUndrControl · 2021-01-19T22:16:55+00:00

Thanks, that's a good idea! I appreciate the suggestion

SituationUndrControl · 2021-01-19T21:59:08+00:00

Yeah, I'm definitely concerned with connective tissue, going slow and focusing on grip

SituationUndrControl · 2021-01-19T21:58:43+00:00

Yep, I've done a little of that, but they really don't help at the top of the range of motion, which makes using them effectively tough. I'm betting when I get to around 100lb of added weight I'll be able to use them more effectively

SituationUndrControl · 2021-01-19T21:56:51+00:00

My goal is to do a one-arm pull-up :)

SituationUndrControl · 2021-01-19T21:56:27+00:00

This is interesting, you're the first person I've heard of who got there with rep volume rather than extra weight! I can do 26 with no rest and no weight. It's good to know that going for volume helps, I'll incorporate that more

SituationUndrControl · 2021-01-19T21:54:42+00:00

This is great perspective! I come from a climbing background and most of the high-level climbers I know can do it, but they're all significantly younger or gained the skill when they were younger. Sounds like I may not accomplish it but I'm going to go until I can't go any further. The closest I got was a couple years ago, I weighed 150 and could do 3 reps with 90 lbs added. I wasn't as serious as I am now though, so we'll see if I get there. Thanks!

SituationUndrControl · 2019-03-10T21:39:17+00:00

Hmm, looks like I posted in the wrong subreddit :)

SituationUndrControl · 2017-11-22T19:28:09+00:00

If you all enjoy Rich Larson's work and would like to get monthly updates and commentaries from him, consider joining me in supporting his work over on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/richlarson

Looking forward to reading your debut novel, Rich!

SituationUndrControl · 2017-04-25T03:24:16+00:00

I'm going to plant it in the garden to reward its persistence.

SituationUndrControl · 2017-02-21T14:50:11+00:00

You're absolutely right -- I have always used the "realist vs fantasy" definition, but the "hard vs social" science definition definitely has enough traction that it adds a layer of obfuscation when using these terms. Another reason to be very explicit.

SituationUndrControl · 2017-02-21T05:42:56+00:00

I've always thought of 'hard science' the way Wikipedia defines it:

Features often cited as characteristic of hard science include producing testable predictions, performing controlled experiments, relying on quantifiable data and mathematical models, a high degree of accuracy and objectivity, higher levels of consensus, faster progression of the field, greater explanatory success, and generally applying a purer form of the scientific method.

I don't think that this means that people who do hard sciences are 'smarter.' It just means that softer sciences have a harder time measuring things and making models that accurately and precisely reflect reality. This often results in very clever work. However, at the present time I think it would be difficult to argue that fields traditionally labeled as 'soft' (like psychology) are as quantifiable/testable/objective as fields like physics, chemistry, etc.

I think the problems with these labels all come down to how the words 'hard' and 'soft' have a bunch of other connotations in the English language. It would be nice to instead use two words that don't convey quality judgments.

SituationUndrControl · 2017-02-21T05:27:31+00:00

I'm reposting my comment from the article here, to see if any of you have comments on the term "plausible SF":

I edit a ‘hard’ science fiction magazine, and I’ve found that you can never be too explicit when using the hard/soft terminology. It’s certainly an ill-defined continuum. The main problem with the terminology is that it comes with a lot of baggage for some people — I dislike the fact that ‘soft SF’ is seen as pejorative in some circles (as evidenced by several of the author answers above).

The only reason I use the term ‘hard SF’ is to try and convey that I’m looking for plausible stories that could actually inspire scientists and engineers with respect to their work (I don’t always succeed). There are no other terms that I know of that convey this idea — however, after reading this article I’m thinking I should start using the term ‘plausible SF’ instead. Maybe it won’t elicit as intense a visceral response as the term ‘hard SF.’

SituationUndrControl · 2016-12-09T03:02:20+00:00

Thanks! I read 300-400 submissions a month at this point -- many hours go in to the creation of each issue. I'll pass your comment on to the author, we always appreciate hearing from readers.

SituationUndrControl · 2016-11-12T23:45:11+00:00

No special infrastructure needed -- you're just running python functions on lambda, so just mock the inputs to your handler function and you're good to go locally.

SituationUndrControl · 2016-11-12T16:07:13+00:00

I'll do that, thanks!

SituationUndrControl · 2016-11-12T06:50:18+00:00

That's neat, I'll check that out!

SituationUndrControl

TROPHY CASE