Exercise in Thinking: Do Racing Stripes Make a Car Go Faster?

The progress from a junior to a senior software developer shows in various ways:

• Coding: Years of working with different languages, frameworks, libraries and architectures help developing a gut feeling for technology.
• Planning: Having experienced a large number of projects or product releases with their milestones, last-minute changes, hotfixes, updates, etc., senior developers usually have a better sense of what to do and what to avoid.
• Analytical thinking: (Good) senior developers tend to ask the right question at the right time, digging deep to find out what they don’t know – and whether what they think they know is true.

For developers, improving their analytical skills is an important part of personal growth. That is why I like to cover non-technical topics both in my conference talks as well in my blog articles.

In a previous post called “How to Approach Problems in Development (and Pretty Much Everywhere Else)”, I wrote about (among other things) what Indiana Jones can teach you about problem solving.

The article you are reading now asks whether “racing stripes” make a car go faster. A strange question on a software development blog. This is by design, because strange things tend to be remembered more easily (fun fact: The word “strange” can be translated to German as “merkwürdig”, which in a literal translation back to English could be “worthy to be noticed” or “worthy to be remembered”).

So: Do Racing Stripes Make a Car Go Faster?

When being pressed for a quick answer, most of us would likely go for a “No”.

On second thought, various considerations come into mind:

• Is the racing stripe applied in addition to the existing paint job?
• What about the weight of the paint for the racing stripe?
• What if the stripe is not done in paint, but with adhesive film?
• Or what if the whole paint job is replaced with a design including a racing stripe – and lighter paint is used?
• How much does the weight of the paint influence the car’s performance, anyway?
• …

Many well-intentioned questions, unfortunately focusing too much on details. On the other hand, one important question is missing: What kind of “car” are we talking about here, exactly?

What if the question is actually about toy cars?

• The car in question is now significantly smaller, while the size of the air molecules stays the same. Does aerodynamics play an important role here?
• Does the car have an engine? If not, is the car intended to roll down a hill? Maybe then more weight could be beneficial?

But: Are we not missing something here? If “car” was not what we expected, are our assumptions about “faster” still valid?

• What do we know about the context of the question?
• How exactly is “faster” determined?

Now imagine the following situation: You give two identical toy cars to a young child with an interest in cars. One car has a racing stripe (or a cool design in general), the other does not.

Now you ask the child “which car is faster?”, and if the child answers “the one with the stripes”, then this is the correct answer (for this child).

From our grown-up point of view, the faster car is the one that travels more units of distance per unit time. From the child’s point of view, the car that wins the race in their mind (“wroom, wroom!”) is the faster one. The laws of physics do not necessarily apply here.

#english #go

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How to Build an On-Demand Car Wash App And How Much Does It Cost?

As many industries are going through a lot in the US and across the world. The carwash industry is one of the industries whose demand is never-ending across the country. From a report given by IBISWorld Industry, the annual revenue over a five-year period from 2016-2021 is estimated at about $10.2 billion with $1.9 billion in profit.

The car wash services are very important and necessary for car owners to maintain their car look and feel better. Many people think that lockdown might take this business downside, but the important fact is that every vehicle owner takes this as an opportunity to maintain their cars at a good outlook and appearance. There is an enormous market for the on-demand car washing market which you should make benefit out of it.

The amount of 75% of car owners avails car washing services in the US. As you will know, it is more effortless to bring in customers to your business by making the most out of the digital marketing strategies. The first step in building the digital value for your business is through a sleek website and a seamless mobile application. When it comes to car wash business, the On-demand application is the best choice to attract new costumers and retain old customers.

Many businesses have transformed their services by developing applications on both iOS and Android platforms. With the next-generation technology, make the most out of the present opportunities.

You shouldn’t build an On-demand Car wash Application without reading this article.

**ALSO READ: **How To Build A Custom CRM From Scratch

This comprehensive blog is to help you decide on how to strategically build your On-demand Car wash Application for your business or as a car wash business marketplace.

Read this article to find answers to the questions in your mind about building a car wash mobile application that will help you make the right decisions. Being a technology specialist Agira technologies have always been serving startups and help entrepreneurs break through the struggles in converting the intellectual business idea into reality.

This is the generation, where peoples use the internet to buy products and started to buy from the company mobile app itself. This mobile app technology influenced all the businesses including the car wash industry also.

Must-have Features of On-Demand Car Wash Application

When you are building a mobile application, it is important to understand the requirements of your business and especially the customers. The users of this application should feel comfortable using the application to make use of the car washing services around their neighborhood.

If you are starting a business, and building an application to support your business, it is better to launch the application with a minimum viable product and then add up the additional features according to the requirements of your customers or by studying their behavior on using the application.

• User Registration
• Service Request
• Geolocation
• Service Packages
• Service Availability
• Multiple payment options
• Push Notifications

Desirable Features

• Social Sign-in
• Reviews and Ratings
• Order history
• Heat Map view
• Discounts and offers
• Loyalty programs

Admin App Features

• Order Management
• Profile Management
• Schedule Management
• Wallet Management

To build a complete application that can cater to the business needs and the logic would require a strong backend that can work effectively in any situation and a front end development that lets the customers immerse into the application.

Also, as an entrepreneur, you should be able to decide if you want to build native applications on both platforms or opt for cross-platform application development. Each application development involves its own pros and cons. So, it is important to find the right application development approach that is suitable for your business, budget, and time frame.

**ALSO READ: **How to Build a Local Events App Like Eventbrite and YPlan

How Much Does It Cost To Build A Car Wash Application?

After deciding on the features for your minimum viable product, you can come up with the approximate number that cost to build an On-Demand car wash application. As already mentioned, every feature that is added to application results in adding up more time to build. As you will pay the application developers on an hourly basis, the more it takes to develop, it cost you more. This means that more features approach is equal to an increase in development cost, delay in time to market.

To build a top-notch mobile application, you will need to hire a mobile application development company or hire a team of development teams. In order to build an enterprise application, you will need a development team of the following.

• UI/UX Designers
• Backend Developer
• Android Developers and iOS Developers or cross-platform developers
• QA Specialists
• Project Manager

If you want to know the exact cost of building an On-demand Car Wash application, plan your idea, list your requirements, and contact us to get a precise cost estimation for your business project.

We, Agira technologies are a technology solution company with business services and domain solutions that support global clients who comprise the current world economy. Some of the exclusive services that we offer are web development, mobile app development, Blockchain, IoT, and DevOps Consulting.

Do you find it interesting? you might also like these articles. Top 10 Best Tech Companies For Employees To Work In The USA In 2020 and Top 10 IT Staffing and Recruiting Agencies in the USA.

If you have a business idea in your mind and search for a reliable web development company, you are in the right place. Hire the best web developers in the industry from Agira technologies.

Looking For A Tech Partner To Domina

#enterprise application #automatic car wash #car wash android app #car wash app india #car wash booking app #diy car wash near me #how to make a car wash app #manual car wash near me #self car wash near me

Exercise in Thinking: Do Racing Stripes Make a Car Go Faster?

The progress from a junior to a senior software developer shows in various ways:

• Coding: Years of working with different languages, frameworks, libraries and architectures help developing a gut feeling for technology.
• Planning: Having experienced a large number of projects or product releases with their milestones, last-minute changes, hotfixes, updates, etc., senior developers usually have a better sense of what to do and what to avoid.
• Analytical thinking: (Good) senior developers tend to ask the right question at the right time, digging deep to find out what they don’t know – and whether what they think they know is true.

For developers, improving their analytical skills is an important part of personal growth. That is why I like to cover non-technical topics both in my conference talks as well in my blog articles.

In a previous post called “How to Approach Problems in Development (and Pretty Much Everywhere Else)”, I wrote about (among other things) what Indiana Jones can teach you about problem solving.

The article you are reading now asks whether “racing stripes” make a car go faster. A strange question on a software development blog. This is by design, because strange things tend to be remembered more easily (fun fact: The word “strange” can be translated to German as “merkwürdig”, which in a literal translation back to English could be “worthy to be noticed” or “worthy to be remembered”).

So: Do Racing Stripes Make a Car Go Faster?

When being pressed for a quick answer, most of us would likely go for a “No”.

On second thought, various considerations come into mind:

• Is the racing stripe applied in addition to the existing paint job?
• What about the weight of the paint for the racing stripe?
• What if the stripe is not done in paint, but with adhesive film?
• Or what if the whole paint job is replaced with a design including a racing stripe – and lighter paint is used?
• How much does the weight of the paint influence the car’s performance, anyway?
• …

Many well-intentioned questions, unfortunately focusing too much on details. On the other hand, one important question is missing: What kind of “car” are we talking about here, exactly?

What if the question is actually about toy cars?

• The car in question is now significantly smaller, while the size of the air molecules stays the same. Does aerodynamics play an important role here?
• Does the car have an engine? If not, is the car intended to roll down a hill? Maybe then more weight could be beneficial?

But: Are we not missing something here? If “car” was not what we expected, are our assumptions about “faster” still valid?

• What do we know about the context of the question?
• How exactly is “faster” determined?

Now imagine the following situation: You give two identical toy cars to a young child with an interest in cars. One car has a racing stripe (or a cool design in general), the other does not.

Now you ask the child “which car is faster?”, and if the child answers “the one with the stripes”, then this is the correct answer (for this child).

From our grown-up point of view, the faster car is the one that travels more units of distance per unit time. From the child’s point of view, the car that wins the race in their mind (“wroom, wroom!”) is the faster one. The laws of physics do not necessarily apply here.

#english #go

What's new in the go 1.15

Go announced Go 1.15 version on 11 Aug 2020. Highlighted updates and features include Substantial improvements to the Go linker, Improved allocation for small objects at high core counts, X.509 CommonName deprecation, GOPROXY supports skipping proxies that return errors, New embedded tzdata package, Several Core Library improvements and more.

As Go promise for maintaining backward compatibility. After upgrading to the latest Go 1.15 version, almost all existing Golang applications or programs continue to compile and run as older Golang version.

#go #golang #go 1.15 #go features #go improvement #go package #go new features

Creating Winning Car Dealer Websites

When a developer creates a car dealer website, he needs to keep several things in mind. Instead of following a generic template to build a car dealer website, a developer should take an in-depth overview of the purpose of the website and create it accordingly.

The top kinds of car dealer websites include car dealer inventory website and used car dealer website, and a developer needs to go ahead with car dealer website design accordingly.

So car dealer website development should be conducted according to the template and the range of options available before a developer should not overwhelm a developer. There are nevertheless some best design practices that work for all car dealer websites. They create winning websites and deliver a matchless first impression.

Just as an instance, navigation tools should be made to be eye-catching and the CTAs should be innovatively placed at a familiar location. They may be made static. Using the best practices, a developer should be able to come up with a matchless WordPress car dealer website. While being oriented towards the end-user, the website should simplify the dealership experience as well.

Adding in functionalities within car dealer website

A car dealership website is likely to require a range of add-in functionalities for simplifying its use and delivering value. This may be accomplished through coding or seamlessly integrating third-party software.

Just as an instance, a visitor should be able to search among the options available easily, based upon parameters such as petrol-driven or diesel driven, make, model, MRP, and savings. Cross search should be enabled. Similarly, if a visitor can compare two cars he likes, it boosts the odds of conversion. A clear idea of pricing and financial information will further enhance the odds of making a purchase and makes it easier for a consumer to find the best deal.

Placing the CTAs right also helps with the same. 360-degree images, magnifying glass, personalized suggestions, and product description further delivers value to search. Over 30% of visitors to your website will use the search functionality.

Car dealer responsive website

A dealer should come up with a fully responsive car dealer website because most of the visitors will view and use the website over their mobile devices. Other features that a car dealer website should have include pricing and finance calculators, ease of finding limited-time offers, friction-free forms, and easy to add reviews and testimonials. Professional car dealer website providers will be in the best position to create a winning Auto dealer websites for your enterprise.

#car website #used car website #car dealer website #best car dealer websites #car dealer website template #wordpress car dealer website

Matplotlib Cheat Sheet: Plotting in Python

This Matplotlib cheat sheet introduces you to the basics that you need to plot your data with Python and includes code samples.

Data visualization and storytelling with your data are essential skills that every data scientist needs to communicate insights gained from analyses effectively to any audience out there. 

For most beginners, the first package that they use to get in touch with data visualization and storytelling is, naturally, Matplotlib: it is a Python 2D plotting library that enables users to make publication-quality figures. But, what might be even more convincing is the fact that other packages, such as Pandas, intend to build more plotting integration with Matplotlib as time goes on.

However, what might slow down beginners is the fact that this package is pretty extensive. There is so much that you can do with it and it might be hard to still keep a structure when you're learning how to work with Matplotlib.   

DataCamp has created a Matplotlib cheat sheet for those who might already know how to use the package to their advantage to make beautiful plots in Python, but that still want to keep a one-page reference handy. Of course, for those who don't know how to work with Matplotlib, this might be the extra push be convinced and to finally get started with data visualization in Python. 

You'll see that this cheat sheet presents you with the six basic steps that you can go through to make beautiful plots. 

Check out the infographic by clicking on the button below:

With this handy reference, you'll familiarize yourself in no time with the basics of Matplotlib: you'll learn how you can prepare your data, create a new plot, use some basic plotting routines to your advantage, add customizations to your plots, and save, show and close the plots that you make.

What might have looked difficult before will definitely be more clear once you start using this cheat sheet! Use it in combination with the Matplotlib Gallery, the documentation.

Matplotlib 

Matplotlib is a Python 2D plotting library which produces publication-quality figures in a variety of hardcopy formats and interactive environments across platforms.

Prepare the Data 

1D Data 

>>> import numpy as np
>>> x = np.linspace(0, 10, 100)
>>> y = np.cos(x)
>>> z = np.sin(x)

2D Data or Images 

>>> data = 2 * np.random.random((10, 10))
>>> data2 = 3 * np.random.random((10, 10))
>>> Y, X = np.mgrid[-3:3:100j, -3:3:100j]
>>> U = 1 X** 2 + Y
>>> V = 1 + X Y**2
>>> from matplotlib.cbook import get_sample_data
>>> img = np.load(get_sample_data('axes_grid/bivariate_normal.npy'))

Create Plot

>>> import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

Figure 

>>> fig = plt.figure()
>>> fig2 = plt.figure(figsize=plt.figaspect(2.0))

Axes 

>>> fig.add_axes()
>>> ax1 = fig.add_subplot(221) #row-col-num
>>> ax3 = fig.add_subplot(212)
>>> fig3, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=2,ncols=2)
>>> fig4, axes2 = plt.subplots(ncols=3)

Save Plot 

>>> plt.savefig('foo.png') #Save figures
>>> plt.savefig('foo.png',  transparent=True) #Save transparent figures

Show Plot

>>> plt.show()

Plotting Routines 

1D Data 

>>> fig, ax = plt.subplots()
>>> lines = ax.plot(x,y) #Draw points with lines or markers connecting them
>>> ax.scatter(x,y) #Draw unconnected points, scaled or colored
>>> axes[0,0].bar([1,2,3],[3,4,5]) #Plot vertical rectangles (constant width)
>>> axes[1,0].barh([0.5,1,2.5],[0,1,2]) #Plot horiontal rectangles (constant height)
>>> axes[1,1].axhline(0.45) #Draw a horizontal line across axes
>>> axes[0,1].axvline(0.65) #Draw a vertical line across axes
>>> ax.fill(x,y,color='blue') #Draw filled polygons
>>> ax.fill_between(x,y,color='yellow') #Fill between y values and 0

2D Data 

>>> fig, ax = plt.subplots()
>>> im = ax.imshow(img, #Colormapped or RGB arrays
      cmap= 'gist_earth', 
      interpolation= 'nearest',
      vmin=-2,
      vmax=2)
>>> axes2[0].pcolor(data2) #Pseudocolor plot of 2D array
>>> axes2[0].pcolormesh(data) #Pseudocolor plot of 2D array
>>> CS = plt.contour(Y,X,U) #Plot contours
>>> axes2[2].contourf(data1) #Plot filled contours
>>> axes2[2]= ax.clabel(CS) #Label a contour plot

Vector Fields 

>>> axes[0,1].arrow(0,0,0.5,0.5) #Add an arrow to the axes
>>> axes[1,1].quiver(y,z) #Plot a 2D field of arrows
>>> axes[0,1].streamplot(X,Y,U,V) #Plot a 2D field of arrows

Data Distributions 

>>> ax1.hist(y) #Plot a histogram
>>> ax3.boxplot(y) #Make a box and whisker plot
>>> ax3.violinplot(z)  #Make a violin plot

Plot Anatomy & Workflow 

Plot Anatomy 

 y-axis      

                           x-axis 

Workflow 

The basic steps to creating plots with matplotlib are:

1 Prepare Data
2 Create Plot
3 Plot
4 Customized Plot
5 Save Plot
6 Show Plot

>>> import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
>>> x = [1,2,3,4]  #Step 1
>>> y = [10,20,25,30] 
>>> fig = plt.figure() #Step 2
>>> ax = fig.add_subplot(111) #Step 3
>>> ax.plot(x, y, color= 'lightblue', linewidth=3)  #Step 3, 4
>>> ax.scatter([2,4,6],
          [5,15,25],
          color= 'darkgreen',
          marker= '^' )
>>> ax.set_xlim(1, 6.5)
>>> plt.savefig('foo.png' ) #Step 5
>>> plt.show() #Step 6

Close and Clear 

>>> plt.cla()  #Clear an axis
>>> plt.clf(). #Clear the entire figure
>>> plt.close(). #Close a window

Plotting Customize Plot 

Colors, Color Bars & Color Maps 

>>> plt.plot(x, x, x, x**2, x, x** 3)
>>> ax.plot(x, y, alpha = 0.4)
>>> ax.plot(x, y, c= 'k')
>>> fig.colorbar(im, orientation= 'horizontal')
>>> im = ax.imshow(img,
            cmap= 'seismic' )

Markers 

>>> fig, ax = plt.subplots()
>>> ax.scatter(x,y,marker= ".")
>>> ax.plot(x,y,marker= "o")

Linestyles 

>>> plt.plot(x,y,linewidth=4.0)
>>> plt.plot(x,y,ls= 'solid') 
>>> plt.plot(x,y,ls= '--') 
>>> plt.plot(x,y,'--' ,x**2,y**2,'-.' ) 
>>> plt.setp(lines,color= 'r',linewidth=4.0)

Text & Annotations 

>>> ax.text(1,
           -2.1, 
           'Example Graph', 
            style= 'italic' )
>>> ax.annotate("Sine", 
xy=(8, 0),
xycoords= 'data', 
xytext=(10.5, 0),
textcoords= 'data', 
arrowprops=dict(arrowstyle= "->", 
connectionstyle="arc3"),)

Mathtext 

>>> plt.title(r '$sigma_i=15$', fontsize=20)

Limits, Legends and Layouts 

Limits & Autoscaling 

>>> ax.margins(x=0.0,y=0.1) #Add padding to a plot
>>> ax.axis('equal')  #Set the aspect ratio of the plot to 1
>>> ax.set(xlim=[0,10.5],ylim=[-1.5,1.5])  #Set limits for x-and y-axis
>>> ax.set_xlim(0,10.5) #Set limits for x-axis

Legends 

>>> ax.set(title= 'An Example Axes',  #Set a title and x-and y-axis labels
            ylabel= 'Y-Axis', 
            xlabel= 'X-Axis')
>>> ax.legend(loc= 'best')  #No overlapping plot elements

Ticks 

>>> ax.xaxis.set(ticks=range(1,5),  #Manually set x-ticks
             ticklabels=[3,100, 12,"foo" ])
>>> ax.tick_params(axis= 'y', #Make y-ticks longer and go in and out
             direction= 'inout', 
              length=10)

Subplot Spacing 

>>> fig3.subplots_adjust(wspace=0.5,   #Adjust the spacing between subplots
             hspace=0.3,
             left=0.125,
             right=0.9,
             top=0.9,
             bottom=0.1)
>>> fig.tight_layout() #Fit subplot(s) in to the figure area

Axis Spines 

>>> ax1.spines[ 'top'].set_visible(False) #Make the top axis line for a plot invisible
>>> ax1.spines['bottom' ].set_position(( 'outward',10))  #Move the bottom axis line outward

Have this Cheat Sheet at your fingertips

Original article source at https://www.datacamp.com

#matplotlib #cheatsheet #python