In this chapter you’ll:
Learn about exciting recent developments in computing.
Learn computer hardware, software and Internet basics.
Understand the data hierarchy from bits to databases.
Understand the different types of programming languages.
Understand object-oriented programming basics.
Understand the strengths of Python and other leading programming languages.
Understand the importance of libraries.
Be introduced to key Python and data-science libraries you’ll use in this book.
Test-drive the IPython interpreter’s interactive mode for executing Python code.
Execute a Python script that animates a bar chart.
Create and test-drive a web-browser-based Jupyter Notebook for executing Python code.
Learn how big “big data” is and how quickly it’s getting even bigger.
Study a big-data case study on a mobile navigation app.
Be introduced to artificial intelligence—the intersection between computer science and data science.