Tech Talk with Toni

  A floating cotton candy that brings rain, hail and snow. Since modern day technology is a relatively new invention, we tend to warp the meanings of words a lot.  For instance, a tablet used to be medicine, but now it's a portable computer with touch input.   Naming conventions also draw inspiration from nature, like "ecosystem," "virus," "bug," and "mouse." Today I would like to talk about the cloud as it is now a word that is being used outside of conversations about the weather.  I first learnt about the intricacies of clouds back in Geography class, from cirrus clouds to cumulonimbus clouds, as well as what they meant.   Spot a cumulonimbus cloud? Brace for a thunderstorm! (You're welcome!) Now, "cloud" metaphorically represents remote data storage and processing—ubiquitous, vast, and intangible, like an actual cloud. "So, Toni, what's so special about the cloud?" To answer, let's imagine a cloud-less 2023...

  Fun Fact: Trees in a forest communicate and support each other through an underground network.  As I cross the one-year milestone at the bank, I would like to take a moment to reflect on the significance of networking. When I think about networking, I think of this quote : "Show me your friends, and I will tell you who you are".  I would like to reword it to say "Show, me your network and I will tell you who you are". Like it or not, we are all stuck in this human web made up of direct and indirect relationships. Direct relationships encompass parents and peers, while indirect connections involve relying on people overseas for goods and services.  Essentially, you can work as hard as you want alone, but true growth does not take place in a vacuum.  To go up, you must first establish a foundation, part of which is built through your own efforts, such as attending school and achieving good grades.  The Great Pyramid of Giza took 20 years to complete with th...

  XLS is the default format used with Office 97-2003 The iconic logo of Microsoft, with its red, blue, green, and yellow squares, immediately comes to mind when I think about the company. I also think of Excel, Word and PowerPoint but, there is more to Microsoft than these three desktop staples.  My perception of Microsoft expanded when I started my first technology-related role and discovered Power BI, an impressive visualization tool. During the pandemic, I opted for a graphics tablet instead of an iPad due to budget constraints.  It was then that I became familiar with Microsoft's Whiteboard, which proved invaluable for my online tutoring. Given Microsoft's ubiquitous presence across industries and its significance in the modern workplace, investing time to learn their offerings can be highly advantageous for personal and professional growth. With that being said, here are some of my top picks for Microsoft software worth learning:  PowerApps  A low-code deve...

  Two dialogue blurbs containing characters I first stumbled on this fancy term in Year 3 of my degree at UWI, and since then, I have been intrigued by the capabilities of Natural Language Processing, affectionately called NLP in the data community. Now, you might be wondering, "What in the world is a Natural Language anyway?"  A quick Google search will provide the following definition as the first result: "a language that has developed naturally in use (as contrasted with an artificial language or computer code)." Essentially, natural languages are what humans speak, such as German and Arabic. But guess what? Computers don't understand words and numbers like we do.  Their whole world is built on a language of zeros and ones called binary. However, they can understand computer languages such as Python and Java, which can then be translated into machine code. The next question you may ask is, "How can a computer that speaks in zeros and ones process thousan...