When it comes to privacy on the internet, the safest approach is to cut your Ethernet cable or power down your device. But, because you can't really do that and remain somewhat productive, you need other options. This article provides a general overview of the situation, steps you can take to mitigate risks and finishes with a tutorial on setting up a virtual private network.

Want to learn Golang and build something useful? Learn how to write a tool to back up your GitHub and GitLab repositories. GitHub and GitLab are two popular Git repository hosting services that are used to host and manage open-source projects. They also have become an easy way for content creators to be able to invite others to share and collaborate without needing to have their own infrastructure setup.

Passwords. They're the bane of computer users and a necessary evil, but they have risks and challenges associated with them. None of the choices are great. If it's up to your memory, you'll end up using the same password again and again. Use a password manager like 1Password, and you're reliant on its database security and portability. Two-factor? Um, can I borrow your phone for a minute?

You don't need to be a data scientist to use Pandas for some basic analysis. Traditionally, people who program in Python use the data types that come with the language, such as integers, strings, lists, tuples and dictionaries. Sure, you can create objects in Python, but those objects typically are built out of those fundamental data structures.

Nextcloud could be the first step toward replacing proprietary services like Dropbox and Skype. In its simplest form, the Nextcloud server is "just" a personal, free software alternative to services like Dropbox or iCloud. You can set it up so your files are always accessible via the internet, from wherever you are, and share them with your friends. However, Nextcloud can do so much more.

Dave starts a new method for generating secure passwords with the help of 1Password. A while back I shared a script concept that would let you enter a proposed password for an account and evaluate whether it was very good (well, maybe "secure" would be a better word to describe the set of tests to ensure that the proposed password included uppercase, lowercase, a digit and a punctuation symbol to make it more unguessable).

How to get started with AWS, install Apache, create an EFS volume and much more. The cloud is here to stay, regardless of how you access data day to day. Whether you are uploading and sharing new photos with friends in your social-media account or updating documents and spreadsheets alongside your peers in your office or school, chances are you're connecting to the cloud in some form or another.

As a novice software developer, the one thing I look for when choosing a programming language is this: is there a library that allows me to interface with the system to accomplish a task? If Python didn't have Flask, I might choose a different language to write a web application. For this same reason, I've begun to develop many, admittedly small, applications with Bash. Although Python, for example, has many modules to import and extend functionality, Bash has thousands of commands that perform a variety of features, including string manipulation, mathematic computation, encryption and database operations. In this article, I take a look at these features and how to use them easily within a Bash application.

Dave wraps up the shell-script L33t generator Last time, I talked about what's known informally as l33t-speak, a series of letter and letter-pair substitutions that marks the jargon of the hacker elite (or some subset of hacker elite, because I'm pretty sure that real computer security experts don't need to substitute vowels with digits to sound cool and hip).

Dave continues with his shell-script L33t translator. In my last article, I talked about the inside jargon of hackers and computer geeks known as "Leet Speak" or just "Leet". Of course, that's a shortened version of the word Elite, and it's best written as L33T or perhaps L337 to be ultimately kewl. But hey, I don't judge.

Python's "multiprocessing" module feels like threads, but actually launches processes. Many people, when they start to work with Python, are excited to hear that the language supports threading. And, as I've discussed in previous articles, Python does indeed support native-level threads with an easy-to-use and convenient interface.

How to script a l33t-speak translator. My daughter and I were bantering with each other via text message this morning as we often do, and I dropped into a sort of mock "leet speak". She wasn't impressed, but it got me thinking about formulaic substitutions in language and how they represent interesting programming challenges.

Think it's complex to connect your Python program to the UNIX shell? Think again!