LOVE TRUMPS HATE? – A student’s views on politics

--Originally published at Coding The Future

Image by Jamie Street

It's been a while since I wrote my last article, and truly I tell you, I wanted to write this article before. I was planning to write this article right after the U.S. election. But then I decided to write it after Remembrance Day. And then I had to push it again, but for a legitimate reason: I needed time. Time to think about the current situation, and time to process all the events that happened in just a matter of days.

Today's topic is not necessarily related to my career, but I am writing about it because it will have an impact in my future, especially since I am part of a minority, and I am Mexican.

After a tough fight, Donald Trump became the president-elect of the United States on November the 8th (also my grandma's birthday). At first, I could not believe it, because all the polls clearly pointed at Clinton as the potential winner, but apparently things weren't as good as they appeared to be. And don't misinterpret me, I am not saying that Hillary was a perfect candidate (she wasn't), but at least I believe that she was more a inclusive and open-minded candidate.

The following days, I sank into a strange kind of crisis, because I was worried about what the future would hold, not only for me, but for my fellow Mexicans. Even though I am not in the US, and I am a permanent resident in Canada, I worry about my country's economy being affected, I worry about the effects that the possible mass-deportation could bring, I worry about the violence that could come as a result of the US government forcing Mexico to pay for the wall, I worry about the suffering that many families will Continue reading "LOVE TRUMPS HATE? – A student’s views on politics"

TEACH ME HOW TO BOT – Building a simple Twitter Bot

--Originally published at Coding The Future

Greetings everyone! I am back, and although this is long overdue, it's finally here!

Today I am releasing my tutorial on how to build a simple Twitter Bot. I have been working on a bot called Manny's Fortune Ball, a simple bot that replies with future predictions every time you ask it a question. You can go check it out by visiting its Twitter profile, and asking him a question. Its handle is @askemanuel.

Above I have attached a interactive slideshow. To move on to the next slide, just click on it, or tap the arrows.

Finally, this is the link to the GitHub repository so that you can check my source code: https://github.com/emamex98/TwitterFortuneBall

I hope you enjoy the tutorial! If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me:
Twitter: @emamex98
Email: em (at) nuel.xyz

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FOR ALL THOSE PROCRASTINATORS

--Originally published at Coding The Future

If you are reading this right now, you were probably procrastinating, and just started studying for tomorrow's test, right?

Well, as always, I've got you covered. Here's a quick video summary of what you need to know for the first partial. I hope things are not too strange.

Good luck!

SPREADING THE WORD – An initiative to teach kids to code

--Originally published at Coding The Future

Hey everyone! I know it's been a while since I last posted, but guess what? I'm in the middle of first-term partials.

Partials in almost any university mean long hours of reviewing content and doing exercises over and over until mastering every possible math problem.

However, in the mist of exam-time chaos, ideas seem to come to me more often than usual, but obviously I cannot currently work on these genius ideas due to obvious reasons. So today, I decided to take a brief break from stuDYING and from Python to talk to you about something that really interests me: teaching kids how to code.

Coding is basically an essential ability now a days, and according to CODE.org only 1 in every 4 schools teach computer science, in the US alone! So, if we are speaking about the whole world, we are obviously talking about less than 1 in every 4, especially in developing countries. Why are kids learning biology, geography, or even math, and not programming, if they are all equally relevant?

Source: CODE.org

For this reason (and because my professor @Ken_Bauer was also talking about it in class) I have pledged to help kids in my community learn how to code.

Sometime right after exam time is over, I will be contacting my sister's elementary school to propose them a free coding course in the first week of December. I have chosen my sister's elementary for a particular reason: it's an girls-only school. It is no lie there is a lack of women in the tech industry, and that begins from a very early phase, because schools usually encourage girls to pursue other types of careers, especially in conservative countries like mine.

The awesomest part about it, is that I've got mayor companies backing me up Continue reading "SPREADING THE WORD – An initiative to teach kids to code"