MichaelSCHRENK

BOT DEVELOPMENT
There isn't a website that you can't scrape, control, or automate with Selenium Python. These skills can be used to conduct Competitive Intelligence, Test Engineering, Web Scraping, Data Mining, or Market Analysis.

 

SECTION ONE provides context and helps you configure your development environment.

 

SECTION TWO details Ten Bot Projects that explore specific aspects of Selenium Python. Each project uses web pages developed specifically for this book. And, in addition to the material in the book, each project has a Video on YouTube that provides a Bot Demo and Code Walk-through, making the book a true multimedia experience.

 

SECTION THREE contains ten chapters of theory that explore everything from Legal Obligations to Bot Architectures, Handling Big Data, How Webdriver works, and Fault Tolerance. All scripts are provided either online or in the book.

 

Watch on YouTube

 

Buy on Amazon
COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE
Competitive Intelligence creates advantages from information that other businesses ignore, or don’t have the wherewithal to process. Competitive Intelligence works by capitalizing on both unintentional communication and market dynamics.

 

For many organizations, Competitive Intelligence is a source of actionable intelligence that makes them both more competitive and better aware of upcoming challenges.

 

Spying on Success represents twenty-five years of experience in developing and managing Competitive Intelligence campaigns for:

 

  • Fortune 500 Companies,
  • Silicon Valley Start-ups,
  • Foreign Governments,
  • Law Enforcement, and
  • Investigative Journalists.

     

    Watch on YouTube

     

    Buy on Amazon
    • ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
    It’s easy to be impressed with Artificial Intelligence’s capabilities, but it lacks accuracy and repeatability. Yes, it’s handy to enter one or two quick lines of instruction into a ChatBot to see what happens, but this is inadequate for most professional applications.

     

    Here are five specific areas where imprecise Generative Artificial Intelligence prompts fail.

     

    1. Repeatability: When there is need to show continuity, as in a sequence of AI generated images or video clips.
    2. Compliance: When one needs to comply to communication standards, like a brand book.
    3. Reliability: When one needs to lock-down the actions of AI agents.
    4. Specificity: When inconsistent results force users toadopt a trial-and-error approach to design, which is costly and often doesn’t end well.
    5. Reusability: When there is a need to use a known good prompt again, and expect the same results.

     

    This book guides you how to use structured prompts to model three unique characters—Judy, Leo, and Taylor—each with defined personalities and physical traits. You'll learn to design interactions between these characters and their environments while preserving their emotional and physical attributes. These models, along with their office environment, will serve as a foundation for generating diverse media, including stories, images, videos, and even HR evaluations and work schedules. As a result, the depictions of Judy, Leo, and Taylor will remain recognizable, whether rendered in rendered images, videos, or other media. This doesn’t mean that one should abandon simple one-line prompts. In fact, we’ll use them to build and critique our structured prompts.

     

    Launching Mid March 2025
    ABOUT
    Michael Schrenk is a software developer, author and instructor. He specializes in Competitive Intelligence and in developing bots to perform intelligence gathering and automation. His first book, "Webbots, Spiders, & Screen Scrapers" (2007, No Starch Press, San Francisco) was called by Dr. Dobbs Journal, "The definitive work on the subject." Michael uses the Internet in new and innovative (odd?) ways to provide competitive advantages for his clients in The US, Europe and Asia.

     

    He also helps journalists more effectively use computers to conduct online research through automation and by describing where and how to find otherwise hidden online information. Mike is also a regular at DEF CON--the world's largest gathering of hackers, where he has presented nine times (including DEF CON China).

     

    No stranger to Europe--he's spent much time in both Moscow Russia and Madrid Spain, both as a consultant and as a keynote speaker at security and software development conferences. He has also taught at The Centre for Investigative Journalism at City College, London, and for the VVOJ in Belgium and The Netherlands.

     

    He's been featured in The Christian Science Monitor, California Public Radio, Radiotelevisione italiana, BBC World Service, and many others.

     

    Contact Mike via his YouTube Channel.