Tag: English Post

#Humor – CSS is awesome

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No more words …

Happy coding!

Greetings

El Bruno

#Office – New Microsoft Word editor helps support Inclusive Language.

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Hi!

I already write about some cool features embedded in Office to help us to be more productive. These features are mostly based on Artificial Intelligence. And one great example is the Microsoft Word Editor feature.

Today I was reading an article “New AI tools help writers be more clear, concise and inclusive in Office and across the web” (see references) , and I realize that the Microsoft Word Editor focus not only on productivity, it also help us to fight bias and to be more inclusive while we are writing.

Important: this feature is not enabled by default. In order to enable this, we must follow these steps “

  • Open Word Options
  • Select Proofing section
  • Go to [When correcting spelling …. / Writing Style] option
  • Open Settings
  • Enable the [Inclusiveness] options
enable Inclusiveness options in Microsoft Word

Once we enable these features, the editor will start to analyze for age bias, cultural bias, and more.

I’ve tested this, and it’s nice to get suggestions based on gender bias, like use firefighter instead of fireman.

suggestion change fireman by firefighter

It also suggest other options if we are using “whitelist”

suggestion, do not use whitelist

In the references sections, I shared 2 amazing articles where Microsoft explains the details about this feature.

And, in the personal side, this is also a great tool for non-english speakers like myself, to learn Inclusiveness and also to do a better work.

Super cool !

Happy coding!

Greetings

El Bruno

References

Office and AI

#SomeGoodNews: Reminder, less than 24 hr for Talk 4 Kids 2020. #t4k2020 @talks4kids

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Hi !

Let’s share Some Good News.

Before moving to Canada, my last event in Spain was probably one of the the best one ever: with a couple of friends we hosted the Talk 4 Kids.

Talk 4 Kids

The event is focused on technology, with amazing speakers, and the funds raised will go entirely to an NGO or foundation, which has programs and actions focused on children (see Theodora Foundation below).

In 2015 we set ourselves a goal of € 1,500.00. If we managed to reach this figure, all the speakers would give their talks in disguise. Luckily for everyone and unfortunately for the speakers, we raised € 1,895, dressed up …. you can still find these images / photos in internet.

This year, we will have an online version, with tons of surprises and you have 2 ways to collaborate / donate:

The speaker lineup is almost ready, and the agenda will be released soon. So, if you want to share some smiles with kids, this is an amazing opportunity to be part of something amazing.

Theodora Foundation

At the Theodora Children’s Charity we believe that all children deserve laughter. The mission at the heart of our work is to contribute to the wellbeing of children in hospitals, hospices and specialist care centres by providing visits from professional performers who have been trained to work in a medical environment.

Our Giggle Doctors visit children in hospitals, hospices and specialist care centres across England. By combining music, play, magic and storytelling these professional performers bring magical moments to brave children in challenging times. We believe that every sick or disabled child should get the giggles that only a Giggle Doctor can bring.

Although a Giggle Doctor visit may only last a few minutes, the effect it can have on a child can last a lifetime. The visits often have a lasting impact on the children and families they visit. We often receive feedback from parents telling us the visits have helped to improve a child’s long-term experience of hospital.

“Because of the Giggle Doctors my daughter actually looks forward to coming to hospital for chemotherapy”

“The Giggle Doctor visits have helped my son to interact as he has developed a phobia of medical staff and the Giggle Doctors have helped him be less scared of people on the ward”

A Giggle Doctor visit isn’t just about one magical moment, it can have a significant and lasting impact on a child’s well-being and perception of the hospital environment. 

Happy coding!

Greetings

El Bruno

#Python – Update all Python Packages using pip with #PowerShell

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Hi !

Here is a small script that I always go back to search in my notes. I found this on internet sometime ago, and is the easiest way to update all packages in a specific environment using pip and PowerShell:

pip freeze | %{$_.split('==')[0]} | %{pip install --upgrade $_}

Depending on your environment, it may take some time. The output is cool, your packages are updated !

Happy coding!

Greetings

El Bruno

#event – #GlobalAI On Tour Toronto, on Saturday June 27, let’s rock a full morning about AI

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Hi !

The Global AI On Tour is a free event organized across the world in April, May and June by local communities that are passionate about artificial intelligence on Microsoft Azure.

We will run this in Virtual mode, so for our local one, the one for the Great Toronto Area, we are going to have speakers from all over the world !!!

Registration: https://www.meetup.com/metrotorontoug/events/267885516/

Agenda

https://sessionize.com/api/v2/tti45lz7/view/GridSmart?preview=True

9:30 – 9:45
Introduction and Opening

9:45 – 10:35
Computer, make it so! by Veronika Kolesnikova

10:40 – 11:30
Make your Mixed Reality App include AI with Cognitive Services by Ivana Tilca

11:35 – 12:25
AI and Cognitive Services in Power BI by Ashraf Ghonaim

Happy coding!

Greetings

El Bruno

#Opinion – Face-Depixelizer , a sad sample of how ML illustrates preexisting bias

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Hi !

During the past days, you may see this images about how a new ML model can start with a pixelated image of a face, and .. let me share the official project description:

Given a low-resolution input image, Face Depixelizer searches the outputs of a generative model (here, StyleGAN) for high-resolution images that are perceptually realistic and downscale correctly

GitHub, Face-Depixelizer (see references)

Great Idea, sadly, one of the first tested images show this

You probably guess the source image, and you can see how wrong is the guess. However, it’s not just a mistake, after a quick search we can find some other bad samples of the tool.

And we can even find some scary face generation from video game characters (see references)

Why this is wrong ?

Just taking a look at the generated faces, will give you a sense of what’s wrong here.

There is a trend which basically denied an error here. Researchers in deep generative modeling are obsessed with generating photo-realistic images from more abstract/low-information representations (down-sampled, cartoons, sketches, etc.). The technology behind this is amazing, however in this case, is not just “lack of data”, or a very poor trained ML model. The Model uses the popular FFHQ faces dataset, which seems to have a very diverse group of faces.

And here goes my question: how far did the author tested this before publishing? I’m guessing that if you just share this with a couple of friends (ML enthusiasts), someone will point all these errors back to you. Unless, your test circle is so poorly diverse, that you didn’t get to this point.

So, I’ll assume the best from the author, but I’ll also realize how these practices defines a specific type of bias in ML, or in software development in general.

These days, I learned a lot about history, empathy and, and the end I think we all need to do our best to be better humans.

In the following video, you will find an amazing story and samples about bias in Machine Learning.

Bonus: if you wonder how this works with Asian group? Let’s share a Lucy Lu sample

Happy coding!

Greetings

El Bruno

Resources

#Tools – AutoHotKey + Display Changer II to quickly change screen resolutions with a hot key

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Hi !

A couple of weeks ago, wrote a post where I explained how we can use Display Changer II to quickly change between monitor / screens configurations. Quoting myself:

I mainly share my landscape monitor, however my default resolution in this monitor is 2560×1080. So, every time I share my screen, I found myself in Windows 10 Display Settings, to change the monitor resolution to 1920 x 1080.

My self sometime ago.
Bruno Office

I have 2 BAT files to change between ShareScreen mode and WorkMode. And, chatting with Frank Boucher (@fboucheros), he mentioned an amazing app for Windows: AutoHotKey (see references).

You can do several tasks with AutoHotKey, however the hotkey / keybindings part is important:

Define hotkeys for the mouse and keyboard, remap keys or buttons and autocorrect-like replacements. Creating simple hotkeys has never been easier; you can do it in just a few lines or less!

AutoHotKey Key Bindings

I created a AutoHotKey file with the following content:

+!s::
run, %comspec% /c "d:\Program Files\dc2\ShareScreenMode.bat",,hide
return

+!w::
run, %comspec% /c "d:\Program Files\dc2\WorkMode.bat",,hide
return

This file, will hook up to the following keys combination

  • Shift + Alt + S, change resolutions for Share Screen
  • Shift + Alt + W, change resolutions for Default Work Screen

I may mention that I’m using the command 

run, %comspec% /c "d:\Program Files\dc2\WorkMode.bat",,hide

to run the command without displaying any window. Another option is to run the following command, where you will see the command prompt for a couple of seconds.

RunWait "d:\Program Files\dc2\ShareScreenMode.bat"

And, my next step will be to hide the clock in the system tray when I’m in share screen mode. This is work in progress

; Simulate Press Windows Key
Send, {Ctrl down}{Escape down}
; type on the search
Send, turn system icons on or off
; hit return
Send, {Return}
; activate and wait for Settings windows
WinActivate, Settings 
WinWaitActive, Settings
; crappy sleep code
Sleep, 2000
; enable / disable the 1st item, time
SendInput, {Space}
; crappy sleep code 
Sleep, 2000

Happy coding!

Greetings

El Bruno

Resources

#Event – Resources used during the #AI session on the Best of Build 2020 – Canada Community Edition event

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Hi !

After an amazing event last Saturday, where we shared our best choices after Microsoft Build, now it’s time to share the resources used in the Artificial Intellitence session.

Slides

Resources

Virtual Stage

AI KeyNote

AI Super Computer

Cognitive Services

Project Bonsai

Happy coding!

Greetings

El Bruno

#Event – Best of Build 2020 – Canada Community Edition

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Hi !

Build 2020 took place on May 19-20, 2020 – a 48 hour marathon of 600+ sessions, exciting announcements and a lot more. Our community leaders, MVPs, Microsoft Cloud Advocates and PMMs are getting together to share some of the excitement with you – do join us as we plan this Canada wide virtual event – delivered by some of the best we have, from East to the West of Canada!

Link to join: https://aka.ms/Best_Of_Build_2020_Teams_Link

Agenda

  • 11:00 – 11:30
    Enabling Remote Developer Productivity using Visual Studio Codespace + Liveshare
    by Anthony Chu (Program Manager, Azure Functions – Microsoft) and Jen Looper (Cloud Developer Advocate Lead, Microsoft)
  • 11:30 – 12:00
    Azure Static web app, Automatic CI/CD with GitHub Actions, Backend Api with Azure Functions
    by Callon Campbell(Solution Architect, MVP) and Jay Gordon (Cloud Advocate, Azure Modern Ops – Microsoft)
  • 12:00 – 12:30
    IoT announcements
    by Glen Colpaert(Founder Zure Belgium, MVP) and Ehsan Eskandari (Sr, Technical Consultant, MVP)
  • 12:30 – 1:00
    Microsoft Power Apps announcements
    by Eli Robillard (Consulting Strategist, MVP)
  • 1:00 – 1:30
    Developer Technologies: C# announcements
    by Anthony Giretti (MVP) and Frank Boucher (Cloud Advocate, Microsoft) and Brandon Minnick (Cloud Advocate, Microsoft)
  • 1:30 – 2:00
    Kubernetes announcements
    by Roy Kim(Solution Architect, MVP)
  • 2:00 – 2:30
    AI announcements
    by Bruno Capuano (Innovation Lead, Avanade & MVP) and Frank Boucher (Cloud Advocate, Microsoft)
  • 2:30 – 3:00
    Power BI announcements
    by Ashraf Ghonaim (Strategic Management – City of Toronto, MVP)

Link to join: https://aka.ms/Best_Of_Build_2020_Teams_Link

Happy coding!

Greetings

El Bruno