Category: Uncategorized

Induced Signals and Obtained Waves

In this post I will go back to an article that I read around 30 years ago. At the time I was working for a Fortune 500 company. After lunch some of our team members would stop by the technical library in our building. The library had a nice collection of books and magazines.

I believe that the article of interest appeared in the IEEE Spectrum magazine. It dealt with a technique to troubleshoot computer cards. I believe the article was about the Xerox company. Continue reading “Induced Signals and Obtained Waves”

Element Replication

Motivation

When one decides to take a paid on-line course there may be one or more reasons behind it. I can think of a few. You need or want to learn the skills offered by the course. You might just want to refresh and/or learn new things. Or you might just want to have the completion certificate that you finished and met the requirements for the course to get a diploma. I personally like to refresh, learn, and have proof that I actually completed the course. Continue reading “Element Replication”

Rotate Array

It is Friday and a week since the problem with our furnace showed up. We have switched service companies. We are now going to replace the furnace. Have not heard from the technician yet. Hope to have the new unit installed earlier next week. The temperature in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul is slowly going down.

Due to the COVID pandemic, I stopped donating blood to the Red Cross. For the past decade or so, I have been giving blood twice a year. I do it once for my wife and the second for me. Not sure if we will ever be in need of blood, but I am aware that it is constantly needed. My next appointment is towards the beginning of November. Continue reading “Rotate Array”

Binary Tree Upside Down

Today is Sunday. As usual I woke up at 06:00 AM and it was dark. I decided to stay in bed for a few minutes before getting up and fixing breakfast for my wife and me. The next thing was waking up around 06:45 AM. The day was clearing some, but still dark enough to require artificial light. I understand that if you fall asleep after your alarm clock goes off, that it is an indication from your body that you need additional sleep. That said; I do not recall doing much yesterday. Go figure!

As usual, for breakfast I make espresso on our Bialetti 6-cup Moka pot. Growing up my parents owned several Moka pots of different capacities. Some were used on a daily basis and others when my parents entertained family and friends. With time my mother started using a drip pot. She liked to get the first few drops and add some hot water. It was almost impossible to drink it straight up. Continue reading “Binary Tree Upside Down”

All Construct – Tabulation

Good day!!! Hope your day is going well. The day started relatively cold at 58F with relative humidity around 93%. The weather, according to my iPhone, was fair. My wife and I did our daily morning walk as soon as we were done with breakfast. On my way back I usually water the plans, but due to the weather conditions, I decided to skip. I will water them tomorrow morning.

In my previous post Can Construct – Tabulation I was not please with the telephone support provided by Delta Airlines. They offer a callback when you are waiting to speak with a representative. For example, a callback was promised while being informed that the wait was about 3-hours long. The callback would be received about 12 hours latter; sometimes in the middle of the night.

It is a fact that airlines were hit hard with the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of them (never generalize) let go a large part of their staff. In the past few weeks things are starting to return to normal with customer service at Delta. Earlier this week I placed a call to change several things on a reservation. There was a delay of about two hours (2:15). I requested a callback and as usual wrote the time I expected a representative to call me. About two hours later, Ronda from Delta called. She was very pleasant. She spent a lot of time (15 minutes or so) to make all the changes I requested. Not only that, but she suggested alternatives that could save me some money and make the travelling experience better. Felt like service was back to pre COVID-19 pandemic. Great job Ronda!!!

You probably have heard of competitive programming. It seems that software engineers need to solve a problem as soon as possible. Sounds good, but imagine if you go for a surgery and the surgeon wants to perform the procedure in the least amount of time. Not sure about you, but I would prefer someone with experience that takes its time and wants to produce the best results, not just finish faster than others. Seems to me like a compromise between quality and time. That said; I will try my first competition on Saturday. Will let you know my findings. Perhaps I will change my opinion. Continue reading “All Construct – Tabulation”

Can Sum?

Today is a cold and dark day in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. It has been raining all day. The forecast matched the day. Hopefully tomorrow it will be nicer.

Yesterday evening my wife and I were sitting in the living room watching YouTube videos. All was working as expected. At some point I decided to look for a video to watch so I picked up my phone that was sitting next to me on the couch. The phone was dead. I tried powering it up at no avail. I thought the battery might have discharged. Strange because when I picked it up from the wireless charger the phone was about 100% charged.

I tried pressing button sequences to restart the phone. That did not work.

I pulled my cell phone out of the OtterBox case. The phone looks like new. I decided not to open the actual phone thinking I might cause an additional problem. I put my phone back into the OtterBox case.

I then decided to put the phone to charge on a wireless charger. After half hour or so later I tried to power up the phone. It was not able to power up. I then tried with a regular plug-in charger. Half hour later the phone was still completely dead. Decided to take my Pixel 4 phone to T-Mobile and see if they can diagnose and hopefully fix the issue. We will find more about it today after work…

…Later in the day I took my cell phone to the T-Mobile store closest to home. They were able to rest the phone. All is back to normal. I did ask if T-Mobile would carry the Pixel 5 phone. Apparently they have no plans to do so. My wife and I might switch to Apple for the first time when our Pixel phones need to be replaced. Continue reading “Can Sum?”

Longest Substring without Repeating Characters

Good day ladies and gentlemen. It is Monday and I am taking this week off from work. I have not taken enough days off so for health reasons I have to take of this week. That said, if I am called to solve and issue I will be available. I am spending the entire week at home.

Today my wife was preparing lunch. She noticed some zucchini in the refrigerator and decided to prepare them stuffed. It is funny that after my wife and I got married, she asked my mother for her recipe on several occasions. The reason is that at my parent’s house, when zucchini were in season they were the first plate for lunch at least once a week. I really liked them the way my Nona and mother prepared them. My mother did not pass on the recipe. Good thing that my wife and I cook. We are on our way to a better recipe. Will let you know when we achieve the goal. Continue reading “Longest Substring without Repeating Characters”

Reverse Only Letters

Definitely the weather is changing in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Last night my wife and I slept with a windows in the kitchen opened just a crack. This morning the upstairs temperature was at 69F. During winter we keep the upstairs at 68F. Chances are that this evening will sleep with the windows closed and the heater on.

I need to update my post previous post Count Negative Numbers in a Sorted Matrix. I made an incorrect statement and would like to generate an update. If you are curios, I left the body of the post as it was. I generated an opening note. Continue reading “Reverse Only Letters”

Debugging React Applications

The temperature in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul in the past couple days has dropped a few degrees. We just started the month of August which should be midsummer. My wife always says that around the birthday of one of our sons (which is around mid March) fall arrives. I do just do not want to believe that summer is almost over. To tell you the truth, COVID-19 has not helped and to top it off this year the Minnesota State Fair has been cancelled. The fair is what marks the end of summer around here. Continue reading “Debugging React Applications”