Tutorial

Elasticsearch has become the de-facto standard for search and analytics in modern applications. Whether you’re building a search bar for your product, analyzing logs at scale, or powering real-time dashboards, Elasticsearch is likely on your shortlist. This “zero to hero” guide is designed to take you from no prior knowledge to a solid, practical understanding of how Elasticsearch works and how to use it effectively in real-world systems. Along the way, you’ll get code examples, architectural explanations, and curated learning resources. ...

Introduction vLLM has quickly become one of the most popular inference engines for serving large language models efficiently, thanks to its paged attention and strong OpenAI-compatible API. But as soon as you move beyond a single GPU or a single model server, you run into familiar infrastructure questions: How do I distribute traffic across multiple vLLM servers? How do I handle failures and keep latency predictable? How do I roll out new model versions without breaking clients? This is where the vLLM Router comes in. ...

Introduction Small Language Models (sLLMs) are quickly becoming the workhorses of practical AI applications. While frontier models (with hundreds of billions of parameters) grab headlines, small models in the 1B–15B parameter range often deliver better latency, lower cost, easier deployment, and stronger privacy—especially when fine‑tuned for a specific use case. This tutorial is a step‑by‑step, implementation‑oriented guide to working with sLLMs: What sLLMs are and why they matter How to choose the right model for your use case Setting up your environment and hardware Running inference with a small LLM Prompting and system design specific to sLLMs Fine‑tuning a small LLM with Low‑Rank Adaptation (LoRA) Quantization and optimization for constrained hardware Evaluation strategies and monitoring Deployment patterns (local, cloud, on‑device) Safety, governance, and risk considerations Curated learning resources and model hubs at the end All code examples use Python and popular open‑source tools like Hugging Face Transformers and PEFT. ...

Modern large language models (LLMs) like GPT-4, Llama, and Claude look magical—but they are built on concepts that have matured over decades: neural networks, gradient descent, and clever architectural choices. This tutorial walks you step by step from classic neural networks all the way to LLMs. You’ll see how each idea builds on the previous one, and you’ll get practical code examples along the way. Table of Contents Foundations: What Is a Neural Network? 1.1 The Perceptron 1.2 From Perceptron to Multi-Layer Networks 1.3 Activation Functions ...

Zcash is one of the most technically sophisticated cryptocurrencies in existence. It combines Bitcoin-style sound money with cutting-edge zero-knowledge cryptography to provide strong financial privacy. But that sophistication also makes it intimidating. This guide is a step-by-step roadmap—with curated resources at every level—to take you from zero (no prior Zcash knowledge) to hero (able to understand, reason about, and even build on Zcash). You’ll learn: What Zcash is and why it matters Which prerequisites you actually need (and which you can safely skip) Exactly what to study in what order How to go from user to node operator to developer Where to find the best, up-to-date resources for each stage Table of Contents What Is Zcash and Why Learn It? Prerequisites and Learning Strategy 2.1. Mindset 2.2. Background Knowledge Checklist Stage 1: Crypto & Blockchain Foundations 3.1. Goals 3.2. Key Concepts 3.3. Recommended Resources Stage 2: Zcash at a High Level 4.1. Goals 4.2. Core Zcash Concepts 4.3. High-Level Zcash Resources 4.4. Hands-On: Your First Shielded Transaction Stage 3: Zero-Knowledge Proofs & zk-SNARKs Fundamentals 5.1. Goals 5.2. Conceptual Understanding of ZKPs 5.3. ZK & zk-SNARK Learning Resources Stage 4: Zcash Protocol & Architecture 6.1. Goals 6.2. Key Protocol Concepts 6.3. Core Technical Resources Stage 5: Running a Zcash Node 7.1. zcashd vs Zebra 7.2. Installing zcashd (Example: Ubuntu/Debian) 7.3. Basic zcash-cli Commands Stage 6: Developing on Zcash 8.1. Development Approaches 8.2. Using zcashd’s JSON-RPC 8.3. Sample Python Script: Querying zcashd 8.4. Light Clients and lightwalletd 8.5. Developer-Focused Resources Stage 7: Advanced / “Hero” Track 9.1. Deep Protocol Mastery 9.2. Cryptography & Research Papers 9.3. Contributing to Zcash Sample 3–6 Month Study Plan Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them Consolidated Resource List (Annotated) Conclusion What Is Zcash and Why Learn It? Zcash is a decentralized cryptocurrency that offers selective, strong privacy using zero-knowledge proofs (zk-SNARKs). It’s based on a Bitcoin-like model (UTXO, proof-of-work) but enables transactions where: ...