It is Wednesday in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. My wife and I spent most of the morning dealing with health insurance. Hopefully all will be done in the next few days. I am in the process of changing health insurance companies. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic everyone is using some type of video application to communicate. The proposed application was Zoom, but due to the security issues, we prefer using Jitsi. It did not take more than a minute to switch applications. It is interesting that video on Jitsi was working great but one of the participants decided to use our cell phones for voice because he did not have a camera or microphone on his computer. The cellular signals were not that great, but we managed. Continue reading “Using with in Python”
Month: April 2020
Working with Files – Python
A couple weeks ago one of my wife’s nice told her that there is a Costco store in Minneapolis that seems to sell different items and in larger packages than others. The Costco Minneapolis Business Center Warehouse is located at 3311 Broadway St NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413-4553. We have not visited the store yet.
A couple days ago there was an article by CBS News titled Groceries could see meat shortages by end of week amid plant closings. I read it and twitted it. In addition I sent a message with the link to my two sons. Apparently they both decided to resupply on meats yesterday. One of my sons lives in Madison, WI so he just went to the Costco store near him. The other lives in MN. The one in WI periodically orders a side of beef and a side of pork. I believe he should be fine for a while.
My son who lives in MN decided to visit the Costco store on Broadway Street. He was impressed by the size of the packages of meat. The prices were very appealing. The only drawback for some might be that you need to buy a large and uncut piece (e.g., full rib eye) and when you get home you need to cut in servings, put them in plastic bags, and then store them in a freezer. If you do not do so and just put it in a freezer, you will have to consume it all in a few days after thawing it. You should never refreeze meats. My sons and we at home are used to this process. We get most of our protein at restaurant suppliers. Continue reading “Working with Files – Python”
Object Oriented Programming in Python
!!! UPDATE !!!
Sorry for the formatting issue on most screen captures. Not sure what happened. I went back and pasted the same text as before. It seems to be fine at this time. Not sure what is causing this to happen. Perhaps it is time to look for a better plugin :o(
Unless something changes in the next few days, MN should enter Phase One in the process of “Opening up America Again” next week. Hopefully all will go as planned.
I am not sure if there is something on my Windows computers, but one of the first things I do every day is to power each computer up and log on into Gmail. Most of the times I just click on my user name and my password and I am in Gmail. Now and then, I get prompted to enter a code which is sent as a message to my phone. I have a checkbox selected which should tell Google not to use 2FA on this computer, but it ignores my wishes and requests me to enter the code. Not sure why this is happening. It cannot be so difficult to Google to write such code. If you have comments on this subject please let me know. Continue reading “Object Oriented Programming in Python”
Python Tutorial – CS50
It is Thursday April 23, 2020 and in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul we are still in lockdown for the COVID-19 pandemic, but with some eased restrictions. The Federal Government has defined a very specific set of steps to gradually lift the quarantine in the country. Now it is up to the different States to apply the rules as they fit. If there is a recurrence then the state MUST go back to square one (full quarantine) and repeat the process somewhat slower in order not to overtax the healthcare system. Continue reading “Python Tutorial – CS50”
Robot in a Grid
This past weekend my wife and I spent time looking for protein-rich groceries. We were attempting to get those and additional items for a few families that wish to stay in lockdown despite the governor of Minnesota starting to relax the lockdown. The current orders went into effect last Saturday April 18, 2020 at midnight. Among the main items is that people in the state can go golfing and shooting in open ranges. Both Saturday and Sunday were sunny days. We could tell for the number of cars and people walking the dogs, jogging and just strolling that many people took advantage of the new rules.
On our side we will continue to try stay home as much as we can by limiting trips to the grocery stores and continue to use Jitsi to communicate more often with family and friends. Continue reading “Robot in a Grid”
Missing Number – Revisited
It is Friday, April 17, 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic is still around. It seems like China is responsible for this pandemic that has affected the entire world. It is a shame that China put the lives of thousands in front of their reputation and ambitions. Hopefully the world will stop manufacturing products in China. Remember that China copies and steals all product and manufacturing technologies they collect from foreign companies manufacturing there. Continue reading “Missing Number – Revisited”
Compose Ranges
It is a rather cold spring day in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. I believe there is a winter storm warning for today all day. This morning when I got up, there was a thin coating of snow on roofs and lawns. The roads seem to just be wet. One way or the other my wife and I are not planning on going out. We are under lockdown due to the Wuhan virus (also known as COVID-19) pandemic.
Besides work I have been taking a few courses, reading technical documents, reading non-technical stuff and watching the news. As of today April 12, 2020 in Dakota County, MN (I live in the city of Apple Valley which is in Dakota County) the total number of deaths attributed to the pandemic in
Dakota County is 4 which represents 0.001% of the population. The previous count of 3 held for several weeks. In the USA the total number of deaths is 20,411 which represent 0.006% of the population of about 330 million. Seems like in this area we are doing well. No matter which city or country you live in, please keep social distancing and do not leave home unless it is needed. In order to beat the pandemic we all need to follow social distancing until a vaccine is available or until the CDC (do not trust unofficial sources) informs us that it is safe for people that have antibodies for them to resume normal activities. Continue reading “Compose Ranges”
Contains Close Numbers
It is another COVID-19 (Wuhan virus) pandemic day. Seems like the stats for Minnesota and Dakota Country, the county I live in, are not increasing out of control. As a matter of fact they might be in a plateau. As we speak Minnesota has 34 total deaths which represents .001% of the population, and Dakota County continues to have 3 deaths which represents .001%. Best wishes that things are getting better where ever you are.
Italy is already talking about different ways to get people back to work. Hopefully they can do it in the near future. The United States will hopefully also get back to normal in a month or two. Failure to get the economy up and running will have very bad repercussions. Let’s continue to keep social distance and slow down new COVID-19 cases. Continue reading “Contains Close Numbers”
Graph Breadth First Search
I had to add a few paragraphs before finishing this post. My wife called me to go up to have lunch. During the COVID-19 pandemic, during the workweek, I help my wife with some lunch items just like I do on weekends. Today I made open face toasts with avocado; simple and delicious.
First take a couple ripe avocados, cut them in half and remove the pits. Then peel them. Leave them alone until the toasts are ready (about 3 to 4 minutes).
Today I used four slices of brioche bread that we purchased at Trader Joe’s a week ago. If you are not familiar with brioche, it is fluffy and somewhat 
sweet. Our bread loaf has been used and is still sitting in the refrigerator.
I pulled out our panini press (a.k.a. Breville Smart Grill & Griddle) and set it to start warming up to 400 F. Any electric grill, waffle maker or plain pan can be used as a substitute for a panini press. Continue reading “Graph Breadth First Search”
Graph Multiple Costs
Due to the Corona Virus or COVID-19 the entire world is experiencing situations that we have never seen before. The Internet, TV and other news sources are full of reports. Some of them have good and valuable information while most are just opinions which have no scientific background. We should seek information from reliable sources and when possible check our findings against multiple reliable sources and use common sense, which as we know is not the most common of the senses.
Yesterday evening I started this post and wrote about two pages regarding 
COVID-19. Today started reading it and decided to delete them with the exception of the first sentence. There is already too much information out there. Please stay home. If you need to go out for groceries, please keep social distance. Healthcare facilities are already taking care of more patients that they were designed for. Continue reading “Graph Multiple Costs”