Lean & AI

Lean is the hip thing in math these days, especially in connection with AI. That's all I know, but here's more: ‘It is incredible’: How AI is transforming mathematics

Cartokit

Cartokit is a direct manipulation programming environment for interactive cartography on the web. Vey cool! See more over on GitHub: https://github.com/parkerziegler/cartokit

RUST

RUST is apparently the new hip programming language: https://rust-lang.org/

Brilliant!

Brilliant has been around for a while, but the free version always has been a little limited. But there is an Education Version for K-12 as well that offer free premium access - might be interesting!

The Top-20 Programming Languages

Here's the latest TIOBE index: https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/

• Learn Python, it's that simple!
• Or, one of the many versions of C!
• Don't bother with any of the other!

ToolUniverse

ToolUniverse is a unified ecosystem that transforms any large language model (LLM)—open or closed—into a powerful AI scientist. By standardizing how LLMs identify and call tools, it integrates over 600 scientific resources, including machine learning models, datasets, APIs, and analysis packages.

With its AI-Tool Interaction Protocol, ToolUniverse provides a common interface for seamless communication between LLMs and tools, ensuring compatibility across platforms such as GPT, Claude, Gemini, and open-source models.

More over here: ToolUniverse Documentation

The End of GIS: AI!

The AI Revolution is Coming for GIS: What You Need to Know About Microsoft’s Latest Warning is a pretty dire read...but you probably should add 5-10 years to this timeline. Here are a few take-home messages for me:

• The impact will be most-significant on the entry-level jobs.
• But, field work and basic project management will still be around for a while.
• Coding is still a key skill, but it will be all about AI-assisted coding in the very near future. But, you will need to have a good understanding of coding and how AI 'thinks' in-order to effectively prompt the AI.
• Take an online class in maschine learning for geospatial applications.
• Combine GIS expertise with complementary skills such as urban planning, environmental science, and more.

Nerd Alert: Python, The Documentary!

Read more about it here: Python, the movie! The programming language’s origin story comes to the silver screen. Then watch it!

Want more? Here's the NumPy and SciPy video.

The Coding Train

The Coding Train is a great YouTube Channel and here's his most-recent book: The Nature Of Code.

A Virtual World With Self-Driving Cars

Seen on Maps Mania: A Virtual World With Self-Driving Cars, created from scratch. Create your own by taking this YouTube course. Here's an example: https://radufromfinland.com/projects/virtualworld/

Python in Excel

Nerd alert: Python in Excel!

Marine Geospatial Ecology Tools (MGET)

The Marine Geospatial Ecology Tools (MGET) (by Duke University) is a free, open-source geoprocessing toolbox that can help you solve a wide variety of marine research, conservation, and spatial planning problems.

There you have it - somehow it connects ArcGIS & R via Python.

Stats with R or Python!

Nerd alert: An Introduction to Statistical Learning is now available in two versions - one with applications in R and one with applications in Python. That's already pretty awesome & now add that both versions are free to download as a PDF!

From Python to R

The Starter Guide For Transitioning Your Python Projects To R walks you through the differences between Python and R and includes a nice tutorial.

Ice Tools

Here are a bunch of resources for glacier modeling:

• https://cryo-tools.org/
• https://www.grss-ieee.org/publications/remote-sensing-code-library/
• https://vhub.org/groups/ghub
• https://github.com/awesome-cryosphere/cryosphere-links

The PYPL

 The PYPL Index is the PopularitY of Programming Language Index and comes with a cool interactive chart and the data are visualized here in a video: https://youtu.be/DL37toLMCJ8.

What does all that mean? Well, in my opinion, if you have a choice: learn on of the Top-10 languages (unless you have a very specific reason to learn Lua or Haskell or Dart.

Python Scripting and ArcGIS Pro

Looks like Esri Press is releasing two new books: Python Scripting for ArcGIS Pro and Advanced Python Scripting for ArcGIS Pro.

Docker, Binder, Colaboratory, and more

If you are interested in any of these: Make code accessible with these cloud services (Nature 7 November 2019). Try Binder @ https://mybinder.org/.

Julia

Julia = the speed of C with the convenience of Python. If you don't know what any of this means...have a look at Julia: come for the syntax, stay for the speed, download Julia, and start your coding with Juno.

Machine Learning / AI

Or as we also call it: voodoo. Something that some people do somehow using this thing called Big Data that is out there, but nobody can see (= dark matter). Here are a couple of days to do this voodoo yourself and makes a lot of money.

• Ludwig (by Uber) available on GitHub.
• Northstar by DSAIL at MIT.