An Intro. to Coding Java with Skillstorm

Java 

  1. Portability
  2. Easy to use
  3. Documentation
  4. Powerful APIs
  5. High Performance
  6. Development Simplicity

Java has been around since 1995. Object-oriented programming.

Becoming a Stormer means acquiring the following abilities so that, by the end of the course, you are able to:

  1. Explain basic object-oriented programming fundamentals such as encapsulation, inheritance, abstraction, and polymorphism
  2. Construct basic Java application logic and code, such as variables, conditional and iterative execution, methods, loops, etc.
  3. Identify how common data structures are implemented and be able to appropriately leverage the Java Collection API.
  4. See Apply algorithmic logic for sorting, searching, and other foundational problems.
  5. Store, manipulate, and query data in a relational database using SQL.
  6. Explain technical concepts in an interview format.
  7. Integrate code and add new features into a larger application.

Python is an experiment in how much freedom programmers need. Too much freedom and nobody can read another’s code; too little and expressiveness is endangered. — (Guido.van.Rossum)

Java fundamentals
  1. Oops Object-Oriented Programming
  1. Encapsulation
  2. Inheritance
  3. Abstraction
  4. Polymorphism

It’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields the results that make our hearts sing — Steve Jobs

Classes in Java

Classes are blueprints used to define objects.

Real-world objects

Application components

Class members include:
  1. Variables (state)
  2. Methods (behavior)
  3. Constructors (initialization)

An Intro. to Coding Java with Skillstorm. “An Intro. to Coding Java with Skillstorm” course, Instructor, Patrick Walsh, Skillstorm. (2025, March).

January Art Show

Artwork is available for sale at The Boxcar Bakery & Ice Cream during the month of January. This artwork can be ordered on my website at https://www.valmarketing.net/paintings-for-sale.

Blackburn, Valerie. (2026, January 31). January Art Exhibition. Val Marketing.

Orgininally Published

Blackburn, Valerie. (2025, February 25). February and March Art Display. Boxcar Bakery & Ice Cream. 

Snowflake conference

This conference series manifests what an AI powered marketing agency of the future looks like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtPrpqh5Kxc

Snowflake conference,Snowflake’s Free AI Training Investment, Vivek Raghunathan, SVP of Engineering, Snowflake. (2025, February).

Snowflake conference,presenter, Erin Foxworthy, Industry Principal Marketing Advertising, Snowflake. (2025, February).

Snowflake conference, presenter, Ben Dutter, Chief Strategy Officer, Snowflake. (2025, February).

Snowflake conference, presenter, John Saunders, VP of Product, Power Digital. (2025, February).

Snowflake conference, presenter, Ryan Green, host, Data Cloud Now. (2025, February).

Snowflake conference, presenter, Baris Gultekin, Head of AI, Snowflake. (2025, February).

Snowflake conference, Christian Carter, presenter, Snowflake. (2025, February).

Snowflake conference, Anoosh Saboori, Head of product security, Snowflake. (2025, February).

Snowflake conference, Brad Jones, presenter, Snowflake. (2025, February).

Snowflake conference, Amanda Kelly, Director of product experiences, Snowflake. (2025, February).

Snowflake conference, Danielle Moore, presenter, Adweek. (2025, February).

Snowflake conference, David Fisher, Industry Principal Media & Entertainment UK & EMEA, Snowflake. (2025, February).

Snowflake conference, Bill Stratton, presenter, Snowflake. (2025, February).

Wp State of the word

State of the Word is the annual keynote address delivered by the WordPress project’s co-founder, Matt Mullenweg, celebrating the progress of the open source project and offering a glimpse into its future.

This year, State of the Word was broadcast live from Tokyo Node Hall, in Tokyo, Japan. This event will be live-streamed to WordPress enthusiasts and newcomers around the globe via the WordPress YouTube channel.

WordPress publishing is not just about publishing books and websites, but building community. — Matt Mullenweg

Japan was the first language to localize WordPress 21 years ago.

WordPress powers 43.6% of the worlds websites and has 62.3% market share. That’s the power of open source.

WordPress. ’State of the Word 2024.’, Matt Mullenweg, Co founder , WordPress. (2024, December).

Google Public Sector Summit

An event focusing on the “art of the possible” in AI, cybersecurity, and data analysis for government customers.

This year, Google is seeing incredible momentum among customers who are digitally transforming with AI to support their missions. The uses range from using Gen AI for language translation, to building an AI-powered microscope to identify cancer, to helping identify underground water leaks.

Google is thrilled to showcase innovations that will help public sector organizations on their AI journeys, as well as help expand offerings to agencies. In addition, they have expanded partnerships that will enable organizations to prototype, create, and deploy AI-powered solutions faster, as well as upskill their workforces. This is how they are transforming missions.

Google public sector is excited to announce Gemini in Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) is available for Secret and Top Secret workloads in early 2025. Gemini in GDC empowers public sector agencies to build next-generation AI agents to improve efficiency and effectiveness across departments. These workloads could include agents built to help government employees streamline workflows and code development, gain deeper insights from data to drive better decision-making, and enhance the agency’s cybersecurity posture to navigate evolving threats.

Gemini in GDC is air-gapped, empowering agencies to adhere to the highest standards of security, compliance, and privacy, with enterprise-grade security built in to protect sensitive government data. With a focus on data privacy and high availability, Gemini in GDC ensures reliable access to critical AI capabilities that can improve public services, increase productivity, and ultimately better serve citizens.

Google Achieves IL4|5 ATO for Air Force Cloud One

Google public sector announced it achieved Impact Level (IL) 4 and IL5 Authorization to Operate (ATO) Air Force Cloud One, a contract vehicle that provides innovative cloud technologies to the Department of the Air Force. This milestone underscores our commitment to providing the DoD with secure and reliable cloud solutions for sensitive workloads.

Google’s use of a Zero Trust security architecture is the assumption that no part of the network is inherently secure, and constant verification of access is required. The U.S. Air Force has access to Google Cloud’s scalable, flexible cloud services to support government applications.

Google is a pioneer in Zero Trust security. This achievement builds on the existing FedRAMP authorizations and further solidifies a position as a trusted partner for the DoD’s digital transformation journey.

A Playbook for Minting the New Chief AI Officer

According to the White House Executive Order on AI, each federal agency needs to fill the role of Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer (CAIO) this year.

That’s why Google public sector commissioned leading analyst firm IDC to produce The Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer (CAIO) Playbook: A Practical Guide for Advancing AI Innovation in Government, offering guidance for U.S. federal agencies navigating the evolving CAIO role¹. The playbook explores challenges and opportunities, drawing comparisons to similar roles, and emphasizes the importance of clear role definition, stakeholder engagement, and early project success.

Google Accelerates Government Upskilling with $15M AI Grants

According to Apolitical’s research, only 15% of public servants have received training in AI. That’s why they announced $15 million in Google.org funding to two leading public sector organizations — the Partnership for Public Service and InnovateUS — to further upskill the U.S. government workforce. The grants will be used to establish a Center for Federal AI, a hub dedicated to cultivating AI leadership and talent within the federal government, and to offer no-cost, at-your-own-pace AI training courses, workshops, and coaching programs.

Google Launches National Institute of Health STRIDES Marketplace

At the Summit, Google Cloud is launching a curated Google Cloud NIH STRIDES Marketplace to provide a one stop shop for researchers in the National Institute of Health (NIH) Science and Technology Research Infrastructure for Discovery, Experimentation, and Sustainability (STRIDES) initiative. The Marketplace will allow scientists to find, purchase, and deploy cloud-based tools and services from Google Cloud partners to accelerate biomedical research.

Google Cloud is the preferred platform for researchers around the world because of its scalability, ease of use, and openness. The new Google NIH STRIDES Marketplace will offer easy access to a wide range of tools and services that benefit researchers and scientists.

The Google Cloud partners include Redis, Box for Life Sciences, Augmedix (a Commure company), Sorcero, Egnyte, MongoDB, WEKA, Form Bio, Red Hat, Rhino Health, and Aiforia.

Our Partners, Our Key to Success

At a pivotal time for innovation in the public sector, Google Public Sector continues to focus on accelerating growth, fostering deeper collaboration, and maximizing profitability for our valued partners.

Google announced two expansions to existing partnerships:

  • Accenture Federal Services and the Google Public Sector’s Rapid Innovation Team have launched a new “AI Federal Solution Factory” to speed the prototyping and piloting of AI-powered solutions purpose built for federal agencies.
  • Slalom Solution Factory announced an expanded partnership with Google Public Sector, which focuses on the development of cutting edge AI solutions, leveraging Google Public Sector’s Rapid Innovation Team and professional Google Career certifications to help drive customer success via U.S. state and local government and education (SLED) initiatives.

Google public sector continues to be a source of pride as they work with industry partners to explore the “art of the possible” with customers.

¹IDC Signature White Paper, The Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer (CAIO) Playbook: A Practical Guide for Advancing AI Innovation in Government, sponsored by Google Public Sector, Doc# US52616824, October 2024

Google Cloud Summit, CEO Keynote CEO Keynote, Karen Dahut, CEO, Google Public Sector. (2024, December).

Google Cloud Summit, CEO Keynote Fireside Chat with Thomas Kurian, Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud. (2024, December).

Google Cloud Summit. ’Beyond LLMs: Reimagining Higher Education in the Age of Gen AI‘, Ron Bushar, Field CTO Research and Education. Google Cloud. (2024, December).

Google Cloud Summit. ‘Luminary Talks by Public Sector Leaders’, Katharyn White, Director of Marketing. Google Public Sector. (2024, December).

Google Cloud Summit. ‘Data, Infrastructure, Partnership: Unlocking AI’s Potential in the Public Sector’, Sachin Gupta, Vice President and GM, Infrastructure and Solutions Group, Google Cloud. (2024, December).

Google Cloud Summit. ’Beyond LLMs: Reimagining Higher Education in the Age of Gen AI‘, Charles Elliot, Field CTO Research and Education. Google Cloud. (2024, December).

Google Cloud Summit. ‘ Powering the Next Wave of Transformation and Mission Impact‘, MK Palamor, Director, Office of the CISO, Google Cloud. (2024, December).

Google Cloud Summit. ‘ Powering the Next Wave of Transformation and Mission Impact‘, Elizabeth Moon, Managing Director, Customer Engineering. Google Public Sector. (2024, December).

Google Cloud Summit. ‘New Way To Cloud: Allen Institute for Research Intelligence’, Ali Farhadi, CEO, Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence. (2024, December).

datacommons.org

g.co/research/greenlight

 innovate-us.org

Generative AI

Prototyping with Generative AI: Essential Patterns for Building Innovative Applications

Embark on a journey into the world of generative AI prototyping and discover the most impactful development patterns for building innovative applications using Google Cloud’s powerful tools. This session provides a practical guide to rapidly transforming your ideas into functional prototypes, empowering you to explore the potential of generative AI. In this session, here are the lessons.

  • Rapid Prototyping with Gemini and Vertex AI: Quickly get started with generative AI development using the Gemini API and Vertex AI platform.
  • The Art of Prompt Engineering: Learn prompt design and tuning techniques to elicit accurate and creative outputs from Gemini.
  • Unlocking Multimodal Magic: Integrate various data types, including images and text, into your prototypes using Gemini’s multimodal capabilities.
  • Building with Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG): Leverage your existing data to enhance the knowledge and context of your prototypes with RAG.

Products Covered: 

Vertex AI Studio, Gemini 1.5 Pro/Flash, Model Garden, Model Builder, Workspace

Project IDX in beta

Complete developer workspace in the browser. 

Building a server in 24 hrs.

Rag Retrieval augmented generation.

Scaling Generative AI: Advanced Patterns & Production Techniques

  • Advanced Gemini Capabilities: Unlock the power of Gemini 1.5 Pro/Flash, exploring features like enhanced reasoning, function calling and AI agents to build more sophisticated and interactive applications.
  • Integrating Visuals with Imagen 3: Learn how to integrate Imagen 3 for advanced image generation and understanding, creating visually compelling and interactive user experiences within your applications.
  • Building with Function Calling and AI Agents: Dive deeper into function calling and AI agents, exploring how to connect your application to external APIs and data sources, enabling dynamic interactions and automation.
  • Optimizing for Production with Context Caching and Deployment Strategies: Discover techniques like context caching to enhance performance and efficiency, and explore best practices for deploying and scaling your generative AI applications on Google Cloud for production readiness.

Products Covered: 

Vertex AI, Gemini 1.5 Pro/Flash, Imagen 3, LangChain, LangGraph, Agent Builder, Cloud Run

  1. Data
  2. Model
  3. Application 
  4. Infrastructure

The new genre of computing equals a more random model
of computing. It is good to have a random output.
That way it isn’t too robotic. 

GENERATIVE AI

With objective deterministic outputs and subjective probabilistic outputs, what problems can be uniquely solved by GenAI?

The IVO test

If you can immediately validate the output it is a good application. 

Generative ai

Legacy code generator creates static code analysis to perform static architecture. 

Decoding AI’s potential with Anthropic. A guide for technical business leaders.

Anthropic

Experts in engineering helped transform us to AI to function autonomously.

How to work with Claude

The upgrade to Claude 3.5 sonnet simulates a real work environment. With real world use cases we can look at a large scale code base.

The future impact of generative AI is yet to be seen. With proponents on both sides, do you think AI is necessary in order to advance technology?

Getting Started with Generative AI. ’Getting Started with Generative AI’, Zack Akil Sr. Full Stack Machine Learning Engineer & Developer Advocate. Google. (2024, November).

Welcome: Startup School. ’Welcome: Startup School’, Tymon Kokoszka, Go-To-Market Manager, Google for Startups. Google. (2024, November).

Deep dive: Vertex AI for ML practitioners. ’Deep dive: Vertex AI for ML practitioners’, Mona Mona, AI/ML Customer Engineer, Google Cloud. (2024, November).

Resources

Google Startup school https://cloudonair.withgoogle.com/events/startup-school

Vertex AI Studio https://cloud.google.com/generative-ai-studio

Vertex AI Platform https://cloud.google.com/vertex-ai

Generative AI Feedback goo.gle/GenAI-FeedbackW1

Gemini Google gemini.google.com

Email authorization changes

Gmail and Yahoo announced key changes in email authentication earlier this year.

What is changing?

  1. Using your own custom domain.

2. Authenticating emails correctly.

3. Keeping spam complaints below 0.3%.

4. Ensuring an easy one click unsubscribe process.

Who is impacted? Those that send 5,000 emails per day. Even if you send fewer, the advice is to use the rules to prepare for change.

Using your own custom domain

Using free domains is a negative practice. e.g. mynameis@gmail.com. It increases the chances your emails get rejected, or put in the spam folder.

Authenticating emails correctly

Authenticate your emails with SPF, DKM and DMARK. These tools help to keep your emails trustworthy and safe.

Keeping spam complaints low

Keep spam complaints below 0.3%. Pay attention to spam complaints. Why would anyone opt out of your email marketing list? Perhaps, they receive too many emails. Or, the content is irrelevant now.

Ensuring an easy one click unsubscribe process

Make it easy for users to unsubscribe. Tools to help with this are DKIM and DMARC. Using advanced DNS, add a new record, then copy and paste the DKIM string. Save the changes, then voila, you have an easy unsubscribe process.

Gmail and Yahoo! 2024 Email Authentication. ’Gmail and Yahoo! 2024 Email Authentication‘, Pedro Simao, Product Marketing Expert. GetResponse. (2024, November).

AI, For Better or Worse?

In a recent conversation with a gentleman at an after hours chamber event, the topic was all about AI.

Does it make technology better? The large tech companies would say so. AI speeds up productivity in allowing computer generated content.

A blog post becomes easier and faster to write. Stumped on how to vary the words in a sentence? Ask AI for suggestions. Magically, the words appear and can be inserted with just a click.

My response to him was, “What about rhetoric?” If we all rely on AI to fill in our sentences, then does all the content become the same? With human generated content the rhetoric is present.  With AI, “Does the computer generated content have the same ingenuity as what a human writes?”

E.g. Human generated content | “The energetic fox became friends with the lazy hound.”

E.g. AI generated content | “The fox and the hound are friends.”

Anyway, is E.T. still around to ask?

Adobe Max Conference

The Adobe Max Conference is filled with useful information about software updates and small business advice.

Need to increase your content’s views, likes, and conversions? Struggling to meet the high content demand of your quickly growing audience? I listened to the session with WellSaid, SVP, Head of Marketing, Patricia Rollins. She shares the latest trends and techniques for utilizing AI voiceover to wow audiences and scale your creative assets without sacrificing professional quality.

AI Voices

Design is a crowded field. Motion helps you stand out. Motion tells a story. Motion is information. — Victoria Nece, Motion Designer

Michelle Higa Fox has a session on After Effects, Michael Fugoso has a session on Adobe Live and Terry White has a session on Lightroom for motion designers.

One of the most content filled sessions was the Creativity Super Session Motion Design for Graphic Designers. Other sessions included Moving your brand into Video and Personal Brand, From Unseen to Unforgettable.

Personal Brand, From Unseen to Unforgettable is presented with Kristy Campbell.

Creativity unites us all. Build a personal brand with power. Create |Carve |Connect |Conquer — Kristy Campbell, Designer

Build your core framework & anchor your personal brand by embracing where you come from.

Your personal brand is about projecting you. Be authentic.

Build Chart with a business and a personal row containing the 4 facets of branding for each one.

4 Facets of personal branding

What you know | What you show | What you feel | What you hide

For instance, my personal brand has a very modern, iconic letter “V” and “M” that are connected in a bold red color.

The logo is animated when you visit my website, https://www.valmedia.net. I have successfully attracted business clients and career opportunities with this brand identity. — Valmedia | Sole Proprieter

Adobe Express was presented with Vratislav Pecka. He demonstrates a unique font and visual design in the program.

Adobe Max Conference. ‘From Unseen to Unforgettable: The Power of Personal Branding’, Kristy Campbell, Brand & Graphic Designer, Pink Pony Creative. (2024, October).

Adobe Max Conference. ’Creativity Super Session: Motion Design for Graphic Designers – SS2‘ , Victoria Nece, Principal Product Manager, Motion Graphics, Adobe. (2024, October).

Adobe Max Conference. ’Creativity Super Session: Motion Design for Graphic Designers – SS2‘ , Michelle Higa Fox, Group Creative Director (Experience) BUCK. (2024, October).

Adobe Max Conference. ’Quickly Scale Your Marketing Campaigns with AI Voice – OS705‘ , Patricia Rollins, SVP|Head of Marketing, WellSaid. (2024, October).

Adobe Max Conference. ‘Meet the Speaker: Michael Fugoso – AL690‘ Michael Fugoso, Sr. Design Evangelist for Next Gen Creative Pros, Adobe. (2024, October).

Adobe Max Conference. ’Opening Keynote‘, Terry White, Principal Director, Creative Cloud Evangelist and Community Advocate, Adobe. (2024, October).

Adobe Max Conference. ‘Using Adobe Express in Creative Workflows‘, Vratislav Pecka, Graphic Designer, PosterLad. (2024, October).

Case studies

A case study is a summarized presentation of a design project that typically includes:

1 | Project goal and objectives

2 | Your role in the project

3 | Process your team followed

4 | Outcome of the project

Case study 1 | payroll product application

Case study 2 | retail sales application

Case study 3 | retail sales application

Case study 4 | client project

UX Design Certificate. ‘Design a User Experience for Social Good & Prepare for Jobs!’  course, Instructor, Google. (2024, September).

UX Design Certificate. ‘Build Wireframes and Low-Fidelity Prototypes‘ course, Instructor, Google. (2024, July | August).

UX Design Certificate.’ Create High-Fidelity Designs and Prototypes in Figma‘ course, Instructor, Google. (2024, July | August).

UX Design Certificate. ‘Conduct UX Research and Test Early Concepts‘ course, Instructor, Google. (2024, July | August).