Tag: Dynamic Programming – Learn to Solve Algorithmic Problems & Coding Challenges

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 Construct – Tabulation

Good day software engineers / developers. Hope your day has started on the right note. Today is Wednesday (hump day). Two more workdays and the weekend will be here.

I have read on different articles that airline traffic in the USA is back to pre COVID-19 pandemic levels. After reading the articles I felt good about the pandemic coming to an end and for the airlines and their employees. That said; I live in a suburb of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. MSP is an international airport and a hub for several airlines (including Delta). The airport is located next to Bloomington, MN. I used to own a software development company which was based in Bloomington. Every day on my way back home, depending on the wind direction, I could see two lines of six or more airplanes on final to land at MSP. In addition, the city in which I live is very close to a pattern used by planes to land on a third runway at MSP. Depending on the time and wind patterns, we could see several dozen planes around lunch time.

Today you can see a few planes if you spend an hour watching for them to land or after takeoff. By no means, the amount of traffic is close to pre COVID-19 pandemic levels. Being generous I would say that the traffic at MSP is about 10% of what is used to be a couple years ago when the pandemic started. So why are we seeing FAKE NEWS? Is there a presidential election coming up that I have missed? Of course not! In my opinion airlines are so desperate in getting people to vacation this summer, that they might have recruited writers and reporters to spread the need to take a vacation in the USA or better yet in Europe.

For reasons I do not wish to get into at this time, my wife and I decided on a weeklong vacation OUS this summer. We have done this before for the birthday of a good friend. We booked our tickets and hotel via Delta. A week or so we added our two granddaughters that wanted to meet my friend and family and just wanted to relax for a few days.

In the recent weeks we decided that the flights are good, but want to make changes to the accommodations to a different resort. The resort we are currently booked on has a one day policy for cancelation. In other words, you can cancel without penalty if you do so one day before you are scheduled to arrive. Nice!

I have tried to cancel the resort component of our trip using the Delta website. I have tried calling Delta Vacations (800.800.1504) on multiple occasions. A recording states that there are busy. After indicating to do a search on-line, the call disconnects. You cannot wait for an attendant. VERY POOR SERVICE CHOICE DELTA!!!

I have also called General Sales & Services (800.323.2323) on multiple occasions. As I am typing this post, I am holding for about two hours waiting for a representative. After half hour on-hold I hang up.

While waiting I found a different number for International Sales & Service (800.241.241). I will also give it a try. In addition I found on the Delta app on my iPhone Silver Medallion Reservations (800.325.6330) so I called. There was a two-hour wait. I left my phone number. I should be receiving a call from Delta within a couple hours. I placed my call at 13:27 CDT. Will let you know my findings after lunch. It seems that a couple family members from my wife will be joining us today.

We are done with lunch. We usually have lunch around 12:30 CDT, but today it was a couple hours later.

I have not received the call from Delta yet. Believe or not, having to wait for hours allows customers to continue searching the web and finding answers to most of their problems. I found what I needed on-line. I was able to cancel the resort reservations. My wife and I will book on a different resort tomorrow morning. We have stayed at this other resort a few times. The grounds are quite larger and the facilities seem to be newer. Continue reading “Can Construct – Tabulation”

Best Sum Tabulation

It is a nice Tuesday in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Today is the 15 day of June, 2021 and the temperature is forecasted to reach the low 80s.

My wife and I typically do not grill during the week due to the time it takes me to get the grill ready, cook the meat we are preparing, and then clean the unit. Our granddaughters stopped by to go shopping with my wife so my wife decided to grill some steaks. She did a nice tomato salad, some fries in the oven, and some rice in the stovetop. Overall lunch was quite tasty. I prefer grilling on weekends when I can have an adult beverage or two. Today we just had some Pellegrino water.

In Peru the government agency in charge of elections is still counting votes. It seems that the winner will be the communist candidate. Fearing for what seems to be inevitable, many people have left the country with bags of money to be deposited in foreign banks. Hopefully a miracle (I do not believe in them) may happen and the candidate representing democracy will be elected president. Continue reading “Best Sum Tabulation”

How Sum – Tabulation

Good day gals and guys. It is a nice Monday morning in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Believe it or not but the high temperatures in the mid to upper 90s F that we have been getting for the past two weeks this Spring has changed in the forecast for the last 10 days of Spring 2021. The forecast call for highs in the upper 70’s to low 80’s F which represents on average a 20F degree reduction. One way or the other, unless it is raining, my wife and I are planning of getting up before 06:00 AM, having breakfast and then heading out for a daily walk. It seems that every day there are more people out and about early in order to avoid the heat in the afternoon.

Our weekend was uneventful. We walked, chatted with people, and prepared food in the grill. Yesterday we made fish and chips in the grill. We want to master the technique because frying potatoes and fish indoors unnecessarily heats the house and leaves food odors that tend to last for a couple hours after we are done consuming lunch. That said, at work and personal life, the only way to learn and become efficient with different tasks is to read, practice, get feedback, make modifications and repeat! In addition you must like what you do; otherwise it is very difficult to improve.

I continue to install applications on my new iPhone. Hopefully this week I will be done installing some Google apps and hopefully getting the data into the iPhone. Continue reading “How Sum – Tabulation”

Can Sum – Tabulation

Hope you are having a wonderful day! The temperature in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul continues to be way above normal. Today is going to be another spring day with temperatures in the upper 90Fs. My wife and I continue to walk after breakfast. The days are sunny so it is very nice to get our daily walk out of the way early.

Yesterday we had a short thunderstorm with heavy rain. The rain lasted about 30 minutes. It was good for the plants. Tomorrow we also expect some rain.

Something that we have noted in the past couple weeks is that there are more insects. We had to swat a couple flies and a couple bugs in our place. We can also see a few of mosquitoes and wasps. I guess that is to be expected when the weather gets warmer than average. Hope all is going well with farmers. Their crops feed livestock and us. This weekend my wife and I will go to a couple Farmers Markets. On Saturday we will stop by the one in Apple Valley and on Sunday the one in St. Paul. Will let you know our findings next week. Continue reading “Can Sum – Tabulation”

Grid Traveler – Tabulation

It is another nice and hot spring day in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Yesterday after work my wife and I headed to the bank. On our way back I noticed that the temperature had gone up to 99F.

Earlier today after breakfast my wife and I went out on our daily walk. There were more people than usual. We stopped to talk with a neighbor that was also out and about. She likes to walk at a good pace. She was covered in sweat.

The forecasted temperatures for the next couple weeks will are in the mid 80s to the mid 90s. During lunch time the temperature went up to 93F. In general the high temperature for the day occurs around 05:00 PM.

A couple weeks ago we were talking with a couple of neighbors. They mentioned that some of our plants in the front yard were dead. Today during lunch the company that handles plants and lawns stopped by to remove and replace all the dead shrubs.

On a separate note, things are not going well with the vote counting process. There seems to be a lot of cheating going on. It seems that the candidate that represents communism and terrorism will get elected president. The economy has come to a standstill. The Peruvian currency is devaluating.

In addition the candidate from the left is instigating people to go after the upper and middle classes. Hope this things is resolved peacefully in the next few days. Continue reading “Grid Traveler – Tabulation”

Fib Tabulation

The temperature for the next week or so in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul will be in the lower 90F’s. That is rather hot for this time of the year. Due to this fact, my wife and I will be having breakfast as usual and then heading out for our daily walk. This way we should avoid the high temperatures in the afternoon hours and in addition most bugs. Most bugs then to come out in the late afternoon hours.

Friends in Peru have been sending my wife and me messages with the current results of the presidential election that took place this past Sunday. At this time it seems that the democratic candidate is slightly ahead of the communist one. Not sure how long it would take to have a final count but there is a lot of animosity in the air. If interested you can check what is happening with the vote tallies on the internet. Continue reading “Fib Tabulation”

All Construct

It is Saturday morning in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. According to the forecast today is going to be a scorcher. The temperature will rise to 97F. I live in a suburb of the Twin Cities. Typically the city of Minneapolis gets at least a couple more degrees higher.

Yesterday my wife and I went to the Mall of America which is located in the city of Bloomington. On our way back home the temperature was 102F.

Given the hot spell we are experiencing in this part of the country, this morning my wife and I had breakfast and headed out for a walk. When we got back I was perspiring. After a nice shower I headed down to my office to get in a 2-hour block of work.

Tomorrow Sunday presidential elections will be held in Peru. There are two candidates. One is an open communist and terrorist and the other is pro democracy. Hopefully the elections will favor the right. Politically and economically South America is slowly falling to communism and the economies of most (never generalize) are getting worse by the day. Will see what happens tomorrow during election day. Continue reading “All Construct”

Count Construct

This short week after Memorial Day seems to be flying by. I have not been outside today yet, but the day looks quite nice. The high for today is 87F. Somewhat low when comparing to what is expected for the next three days: 92F, 94F and 91F.

The cleaning lady typically comes on Fridays. She will be here today Thursday around 09:30 AM. Not sure if the nice weekend has affected her plans.

As I have previously mentioned, I move to the dark side when I decided to get an iPhone instead of an Android cell phone. My Google Pixel 4 phone died with less than two years of service. The actual phone looks like I just purchased it. I like to keep my cell phones in good shape so they are as reliable as possible. A day or two before my Pixel phone dies, the Pixel 4 phone of my daughter in law dies in a similar way. My son lives in a different city about five miles from us. What a coincidence!!!

So far I like my new phone and watch. I can do a lot of things from the watch without having to access the phone. The watch displays a lot of information that I like to have readily available (i.e., temperature, heart rate and to top it off it has access to Siri).I spoke with my wife a few minutes ago. It seems that the cleaning lady will not be coming today or tomorrow due to personal issues. Wonder if the nice weather had something to do with it.

One last thing, while getting ready to publish this post I found out that this blog has reached 8,000 subscribers. Thank you a lot, I appreciate your support. I am targeting 10,000 subscribers in order to make a switch from WordPress to YouTube. If you wish to express your opinion please leave a message bellow. I will take it into account!

Continue reading “Count Construct”

Can Construct

It is Wednesday on a nice and warm day in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. To be honest with you, it does not matter much if the day is nice or not. I have not been outside today. On the other hand the forecast for Friday, Saturday and Sunday is calling for temperatures in the low 90’s. Hopefully my wife and I will be able to enjoy the days. In particular we are planning on walking early morning so we can avoid the high temperatures. We are planning on grilling and consuming some adult beverages. I believe we are almost out of beer so we might stop by Friday evening after work by the liquor store. Continue reading “Can Construct”