23 October 2024

Cryptography comes from the word kryptos which means hidden. The most common cipher, Caeser Cipher is based off of Caeser himself using letter substitution when he communicated with his generals.

21 October 2024

Sudoku was first called “Number Place” and was designed in the 1970s. The hardest level is called “diabolical” and generally have only one solution.

19 October 2024

The first water park was called Lake Dolores Waterpark and opened in Southern California in the 1950s. The most visited water park is Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon.

17 October 2024

Sneakers are called so because the rubber sole allowed you to sneak around without making sound. They were called sneaks at first, but later sneakers was adopted as the nomenclature.

15 October 2024

The Fossa is a large cat from Madagascar, and has a long tail like a monkey. Different from most cats though, their semi retractable claws allows them to walk down a tree rather than jump. They like being alone. Yay Fossas!

13 October 2024

In general, September stock market is no good, October stock market is volatile, and the rest of the year is up to your research.

11 October 2024

If you are in the market for something a bit more risky, Somalia has a “pirate stock exchange” where the locals invest in pirate gangs and hijacking missions. Don’t do this.

09 October 2024

Although NYSE and NASDAQ are the two largest stock exchanges in the world, they are just two of more than 60 in the world. Next on the list are Japan Exchange Group, Shanghai Stock Exchange, and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

07 October 2024

The New York Stock Exchange stopped operations for four and a half months during World War I. It was the longest stop in all of it’s history.

05 October 2024

Morbid as it may be, a Dead Cat Bounce is the temporary bounce back from a bad market decline. A dead cat will bounce if dropped from high enough.

03 October 2024

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK-A) is the most expensive stock as of today, $693,839.00.

01 October 2024

Back in the day, stock prices were listed as fractions rather than the dollar amounts that we see today. So if a stock price showed 7 3/4, it was $7.75. The problem though was precision was not the best during these times.

29 September 2024

Fun challenges I like when writing a poem is to restrict myself. Although its fun to think outside the box, there is also something to say about staying inside the box, or in some cases, maximizing the box. Set some restrictions and try to follow them.

27 September 2024

On the weirder side of the insect world are Turtle Ants, who sometimes have flat round heads that act as doors. Usually used to protect the colony, some have damage and scars from would be intruders. Yay Turtle Ants…

25 September 2024

In the lands that grow deadly beasts, Australia, is the Thorny Devil. They live up to 20 years and eat ants mostly, lots of ants. They drink water using their feet with tiny grooves on their skin. And if they need to make a run for it, they can run up to 37 miles per hour. Yay for Thorny Devils!

23 September 2024

The Shoebill is a hefty bird that looks closer to a dinosaur than an actual bird. With an oversized bill, they can hunt bigger prey, fish, snakes, and sometimes small crocodiles. Their sharp bills allow them to behead their prey swiftly. And sometimes they clatter their bills which can be mistaken for machine gun fire. Yay shoebills!

21 September 2024

The Yeti Crab, or furry lobster, lives in the Pacific Ocean. Fun facts, it uses its arms to farm its own food, usually bacteria that grows on it. The Yeti Crab was discovered recently, around 2005, so its a fairly new species. They tend to live in small places near hydrothermal vents in the deep depths. Yay for the Yeti Crab!

19 September 2024

Keeping with odd animals, the Pink Fairy Armadillo, pichiciego, is the tiniest of the armadillo family. Its nocturnal and eats the usual suspects of insects, worms, and snails. The pink color comes from their blood vessels which can be seen through their armor. And depending on the temperature, it can change its shell color. Yay for the Pink Fairy Armadillo!

17 September 2024

The great potoo blends in with dead tree branches and will stay completely still for the entire day. Their eyelids have a small fold on the upper portion which allows them to see movement even when their eyes are closed. Their call to other potoos is also their nickname, Ayaymama, which has sparked myths of them through the years as it sounds like someone calling for their mama in the forests. Yay Potoos!

15 September 2024

When I find I’m unable to write, I assign a genre randomly to the numbers 1 thru 20 (using Excel of course) from a list (Narrative, Mystery, Non-fiction, Science, Fantasy, Poetry, Horror, Adventure, Fairy tale, Fable, Drama, Romance, Magical, Humor, Tragedy, Detective, Self-help, Speculative, Thriller). Roll a d20 that every household should have somewhere. Set a timer for 5 minutes and take notes, or not, its your story, and take the next 15 minutes (again a timer) to write out a 5 minute scene.

13 September 2024

The marmot is related to large ground squirrels, and found in mountains up in northern USA. They are referred to as rock chucks, or my favorite, whistle pigs. The males are territorial and usually cover between 4-7 acres of land. They spend about 60% of their life hibernating in their tunnels that can run 20+ feet deep. Yay marmots!

11 September 2024

The pika is a mouse looking little fella that is related to the family of rabbits. Unlike some of their mammal friends, they don’t hibernate but rather stay inside for the winter eating stored veggies. Because they are territorial creatures, they chirp, scream, and sing to ward off their enemies. Yay for pikas!

09 September 2024

If there is a fire nearby sending up smoke in your local area, there are a few precautions you can take to avoid smoke and ash. Stay inside as much as you can, avoid outside. If you need to go outside, an N95 is enough to stop the larger particles, but avoid outside as much as possible. Change your cabin air filter in your car on time and often depending on your area that you live and drive. Invest in an air purifier for your home, and if possible a small personal air purifier if you work at a desk. And lastly, if you have central air, a MERV 5-8 filter should be enough for your home without putting stress on your system. Be safe in these hot times.

07 September 2024

It’s been found that in 2500 BC, the Greeks made more than 80 different types of bread. And in ancient Egypt, at one point it was used as a currency. To keep from being fined due to loves being underweight, bakers would add an extra loaf to the dozen hence, “a baker’s dozen.” Now I’m hungry for bread.

05 September 2024

Meerkats have about the same lifespan as a cat, 12-14 years old in captivity. Like humans, they are omnivores and are a natural enemy of scorpions, also they are immune to venom. And all their moisture from living in the desert are from the bugs they eat. Yay for Meerkats!

03 September 2024

Baby camels can weight between 50 and 100 pounds when born, and full grown adults up 2,500 pounds (a small car, or 6 motorcycles). Some adults can carry up to 600 pounds. And their 3 eyelids and two rows of eyelashes help keep dirt out of their eyes. Yay for camels!

01 September 2024

About two thirds of an octopus’ neurons are located in its arms which means the arms can taste, touch, and even act on their own. And if gone missing, they can regrow their limbs. Yay for octopuses, not “octopi” because the word originates from Greek, not Latin.

31 August 2024

For large data sets in Excel that have blanks or empty rows, select the data, press Ctrl+G, click on ‘Special’, select ‘Blanks’, and select ‘Delete Entire Row’. So rather than selecting them one by one and deleting them manually, this makes it a whole lot faster.

29 August 2024

I’m on an Excel roll… to format a cell, highlight the cell(s), right click, and select “Format Cells” from the menu. Or… highlight the cells and press Ctrl+1. Boom, format them cells.

27 August 2024

Back to the Excels! Ctrl+Shift+L sets up your filters with having to go through the arduous task of going to the Home tab, selecting ‘Sort and Filter’ and selecting ‘Filter’. I like shortcuts every now and again.

25 August 2024

Using the “=SUM” in Excel is a great way to sum multiple inputs. However, if you have a large array of or a large matrix to sum horizontally, vertically, or both, highlight the array in its entirety and press “alt”+”=” keys. Bam, it automatically puts in the formula as well.

23 August 2024

Just one milliliter of ocean water can contain approximately 10 million viruses. Taking that into account, the number of viruses in the ocean outnumbers the amount of stars in the Milky Way. Also, there are about 3 million shipwrecks at the bottom of the ocean. More than 80% of the ocean is yet to be explored. Scary ocean stuff yay…

21 August 2024

Clean air… Vacuuming should be done at least every three days to pick up dust and other particles that settled in your home. More if you have pets. It’s good to circulate the outside air with your inside air as it can become stagnant, about every other day. And a last bit to having happy clean air, run an air purifier while you’re gone and while sleeping.

19 August 2024

Bunnies are social creatures, so when you decide on having pet rabbits, it needs to be plural. Just don’t mix them with guinea pigs. Under proper conditions, they live to about 12 years old. And when they are happy, they do a dance in the air called a binky. Yay for furry bunnies!

17 August 2024

A group of penguins is called a raft, and a group of penguins on land is called a waddle. Other group names are colony, huddle, and rookery. Penguins live in the southern hemisphere, except for those in zoos. And unlike other bird species, their bones are solid. Yay for penguins!

15 August 2024

Scary facts… There’s a brain-eating amoeba that lives in lakes and rivers of the southern United States, so don’t drink the water. When you die, your house cat is going to want to eat you, so make sure they’re well fed first.

13 August 2024

Cats have nearly twice the amount of neurons in their cerebral cortex as dogs, which is why they are so sassy. Cats have the largest eyes relative to their head size of any mammal, which makes them great for anime, I think. Cats will refuse an unpalatable food to the point of starvation, also adding to their sassyness.

11 August 2024

To find if a company is selling your data (it works sometimes but not all the time) take your email [email protected] when signing up and make it [email protected]. The +FB will appear in the data that is sent, and you can see what data broker sold your data.

09 August 2024

Simple but useful… When using the paintbrush in Microsoft Office to copy a format, rather than clicking once and highlighting once, click the paintbrush twice. This locks it to the “on”position for use multiple times.

07 August 2024

Excel has a great set of comparison operators to use in “IF” statements or any other Boolean statements when writing code for data tables. Here is a list of the most commonly used ones for filtering large sets of data or manipulating the data to tell a story.

• “==” True statements
• “>”, “<” Greater than, Less than
• “>=”, “<=” Greater or equal to, Less than or equal to
• “<>” Not equal

05 August 2024

Stoats in the winter have their white winter coat and are called ermines. And no matter the season, the tips of their tails are always black. Because of their good sense of smell, they use it for both hunting and communicating. Yay Stoats!

03 August 2024

In 1992, Nintendo made a game on MS-DOS, “Mario Teaches Typing.” It was a great alternative to Mavis Beacon and can still be played for free on some websites. It seems all they ask for is a small donation for keeping retro games alive.

01 August 2024

Fun Excel tip: Sometimes when dropping in data, mistakes are made, especially with formatting. “=PROPER” is nice to use in this case. If you have capitalization in the wrong place. If cell A1 said, “fROsted flAKEs are AWEsome”, you use =PROPER(A1), and it outputs “Frosted Flakes are Awesome.”

31 July 2024

Yay for Python! CPython is the Python language’s reference implementation. Python and C are used to write it. Jython is an implementation of the Python language for the Java platform. IronPython is written entirely in C# and designed to work with the .NET Framework. My favorite, MicroPython runs on micro-controllers.

29 July 2024

When learning a new language, other than building your vocabulary and speaking with people, a fun medium to use is children’s books! Simple, easy to read, and understand.

27 July 2024

For big data sets in Excel, select the table (with the headers), go under the “Insert” and select “Pivot Table”. There are items for Filters, Columns, Rows, and Values which help to filter out large data sets, especially if you want to be lazy but look cool doing it and you show off to the managers.

25 July 2024

Adult cats only meow at humans, not at other cats. Cats can rotate their ears 180 degrees from pointing directly forward to all the way back. Cats can dream. There are about 88 million pet cats in the United States, which makes them the most popular pet in the country. So yay for cats.

23 July 2024

Rather than using a filter for a table in Excel, go to the “Insert” tab under “Tables”, make the table a table. Redundant, but that’s what it is… Back under the “Insert” tab under “Filters” select the “Slicer” tab (while the table is highlighted) and select the headers you want to use at filters. It’s easier than using the drop down menu that is used when you apply filters to the data.

21 July 2024

Scotland’s national animal is the unicorn. Let that sink in…

19 July 2024

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia: the fear of long words.

17 July 2024

You can write the numbers one through nine hundred ninety nine without ever using the letter “A”.

15 July 2024

The Wason Test is used in psychology as a confirmation bias test that shows our tendency to confirm our beliefs rather than search for data that challenges those beliefs. Bias tends to degrade our judgement and may not allow us to discover better solutions.

13 July 2024

A great way to keep the shoe rack near your door from smelling like hell, newspaper and a little drop of an essential oil can go a long way. For longer time periods, make use of a piece of wood that fits inside. Maple is great for that, but no sap leakages.

11 July 2024

A great way to look for text within a string, use =FIND or =FINDB. The result give the starting position of the first string from the first character of the second string. Great for when building a database.

09 July 2024

The “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” was a radio show first, then a television show, then a book, and then the movie. People might not like it because the move is not like the book, which isn’t like the television show, which is not like the radio show. The subtle differences is due to the Infinite Improbability Drive on the Heart of Gold that changes all of the realities.

07 July 2024

When writing a story, setting the scene is a great way to grab the reader’s attention. Even describing the characters helps. The dialogue though is what grabs the reader’s imagination. Keep this in mind when designing a story.

05 July 2024

Sometimes sharing a little bit of knowledge with a wide eyed and interested kid who wants to know how fireworks work, will go a long way in their near term and long term future. Invest a few minutes to give them years of wonder.

03 July 2024

Generally most people need about 7-8 hours of sleep through the night for a good night’s rest. However, there is a small percentage of people, one percent roughly, that only need 4-5 hours of sleep with no apparent negative side effects. These are called “short sleepers”. Some people believe that they are short sleepers but are actually sleep deprived. Have a sleep doctor check first.

01 July 2024

Modulus is a great function to know about in programming languages, especially for determining prime numbers, or factors. In Excel, you can use “=MOD()” to perform the same function. For example, if you type in “=MOD(10, 3)” the output will give you a remainder of “1”.

29 June 2024

A group of ferrets is called a business. A group of cats is called a clowder. A group of tigers is called a streak. A group of turtles is called a bale. And a group of zebras is called a dazzle.

27 June 2024

Ferrets were once a very common pet in the U.S. If you decide to get a ferret as a pet, you should consider getting two or more as they are social animals. They like to dance.

25 June 2024

A domestic cat purrs at a frequency between 25 and 150 Hertz. Most humans at the low end can hear down to 20 Hertz. We can both hear and feel when the cat is angry or happy.

23 June 2024

While writing a story or on a subject, stop after a page, a paragraph, or where you are comfortable. Out loud, read what you had just wrote. You are more than likely going to catch a few grammatical errors, and maybe catch something that you meant to say a different way. Walk around while reading it for a better physical and mental exercise.

21 June 2024

In most cases while in traffic, drive in the lane second from the left. The “fast” has cars entering and exiting the carpool lane and causes more stop and go’s. Same with the second lane from the right while people are entering the freeway.

19 June 2024

When determining a proposal, be sure to take into consideration not only the current, but also projected inflation for the amount of years for the contract. In addition to that, research the industry inflation and add that to the proposal as well. As an example, year after year, electronics can reach an inflation rate of 10-150%.

17 June 2024

Checking tire pressure (every two weeks) and rotating your tires regularly (every or every other oil change, ~6,000 miles) can extend the life of the tires between 10-20%. The tire pressure is found on the sticker inside the driver side door jam. An additional 4-5 psi helps with daily commutes as well.

15 June 2024

When driving a manual uphill, remember to downshift and keep the RPMs fairly high. Just as important, watch the engine temperature, especially depending on the weather and height of which you are traveling. If it creeps up to higher than usual temperature, pull to the side for a while. It’s better to be late than to never get there at all.

13 June 2024

When determining the length of time that you want to look up in a stock using yfinance, the parameters are “y” for year, “mo” for month, “d” for day, “ytd” for year to date, and “max” for the maximum length of time.

11 June 2024

For a great Developer Roadmap, go to https://roadmap.sh/. It’s a great way to look at paths for what it takes to reach those areas.

09 June 2024

LEDs have been available since the 1960s, usually found in home products such as stereo systems and other appliances. The blue LED however was only commercially available since 1992.

07 June 2024

Always keep a bottle of sunscreen in your car, at your desk, in your backpack/purse, and on the counter before you leave. sometimes you just forget to put it on in the morning and you’ll be glad you have it readily available elsewhere.

05 June 2024

API calls in a sandbox versus using yfinance are two completely different beasts. Although it is good to know and understand how to use tokens for different sites providing stock data, yahoo finance is by far the easiest to start,

03 June 2024

If you need to filter large amounts of data, Excel is certainly your best friend. However, Notepad++ is also a great way to filter out text, of course that’s if you enjoy learning a bit of RegEx.

01 June 2024

The day after a surgery, when the doctor tells you to get plenty of rest, rest until you cannot rest anymore. Especially after an eye surgery. That will knock you out for at least a day. Better rest equals better health.

30 May 2024

There are a few different choices out for AI search engines. ChatGPT is great and Google is working on one as well. What I found works well and is fairly unbiased is Perplexity.

28 May 2024

When you need to make a long sequence of numbers in Excel, use the “SEQUENCE” command. This is especially helpful with thousands to tens of thousands of rows of data depending on what needs to be collected.

26 May 2024

Camera time

• Program Mode – For taking pictures of people and events.
• Manual Mode – Nice for landscape and details.
• Shutter Priority – Good for wildlife, be careful the lighting though.
• Aperture Priority – Faster capture and much more manageable for everyday pictures
• Bulb Mode – Good for long exposures

24 May 2024

When calling the data for the S&P 500 from a csv file, it’s important to do one of two things. Either update the list consistently and look for any deltas so that when using an API call your program won’t run into any errors. Or two, use an error fix to just ignore it.

22 May 2024

When you’re in a rush to dry your clothes, toss in a clean towel or two with the wet laundry. It takes about 15% to 20% off the time. Even with just one article of clothing and you need the wrinkles out, place a clean, dry, mostly lint free towel.

20 May 2024

Sometimes when a problem gets too complicated, it helps to go back to the basics, all the way back. Circuit design for example, if in doubt, EE 101, nodal equations, or even V=IR is the best bet. Programming? Go all the way back to the basics. Did you set the correct variable? Are you calling the correct libraries? It solves more than you would think.

18 May 2024

When in doubt, sometimes it’s just easier to uninstall everything, restart the computer, download the latest version, and set it all back up again. This is especially true when you have seven versions of Python, three versions of Anaconda, and three versions of Spyder. You only need Anaconda, and the rest comes with it.

16 May 2024

A scoop of protein powder, one tablespoon of beet powder, and a tablespoon of apple vinegar with your morning multivitamin and two cups of water. A great way to kick in your metabolism into high gear. Pinch the nose because it tastes like licking the rubber off of tires. Your stomach may not like it initially, but you get some calories and stay hydrated. I don’t recommend it for weak stomachs.

14 May 2024

Saying that you want to learn a computer language is along the lines of saying you want to learn hammer. Computer languages are tools. Simply put, decide on a project and determine which language best suits that project. Then learn how to use that language to finish the project. Sometimes you might have to use multiple languages. Think of it like building a picture frame. It requires tools such as a saw, hammer, sandpaper, and paint. That’s all that computer languages are.

12 May 2024

When working out, if you feel your muscle begin to strain, either stop, or bring the weight down to something more reasonable. Slow and steady lifts also provide a workout.

If that does not work, then BioFreeze is the next best option to ease the pain, and give yourself a rest. Also, some frozen fresh squeezed orange juice goes a long way.

10May 2024

Sometimes the best way to learn something new is to dig in and work backwards. It’s called reverse engineering. Breaking down the bigger concepts into smaller ones working back, makes the smaller ones easier to understand.

08 May 2024

You can have a full vegetarian diet and still have well balanced nutrition. The tougher part is finding the right balance of nutrients for your body that includes sugars, salts, irons, amino acids and so forth. Beets for example tend to be high in iron, and beans are a great source of various proteins. It takes time and research though to find that right balance.

06 May 2024

When using Excel and large sets of data, depending on the table and the type of filtering you need to sum certain values, a nice function is SUMIFS. Simply select the array as the first part of the function, then set the criteria, first selecting the array, then setting the boundaries.

04 May 2024

When learning a new language, it’s best to learn how to say daily tasks. While doing these tasks, say the sentence out loud and provide both a audible and visual queue. This way it’s easier to retain pronunciation, verbiage, and sentence structure. Even if you have to say it multiple times, because it’s a daily task, it’ll burn into memory.

02 May 2024

When looking at stocks, the beta tells you how the stock moves with the market. A beta higher than 1 typically indicates it has a higher volatility relative to the market. A beta lower than one is less volatile, but also lesser gains. Negative beta tells that the stock is moving opposite of the market. and a beta of 1 moves with the market. Something to keep in mind when looking at stocks.

30 April 2024

When using Excel, if you need to multiply a row of values, and there are empty cells, in some older versions it looks at an empty cell as a zero. So using the “Filter” function to remove the zeroes along with the “Product” function was necessary. However, in 2016 and above versions, the “Product” function ignores anything other than a number in the array, and no longer needs the “Filter” function.

28 April 2024

At the Griffith Observatory, there is a show in their planetarium called “Signs of Life.” The seating is laid back as you look up a the dome in which the video is being projected. It’s a live event with the presenter walking and talking throughout the video. Although I have a pretty decent stomach, their warning about motion sickness is nothing to scoff at. Even I was a little queezy. If you are at all vulnerable to motion sickness, do not go to this. Other than that, it’s a pretty neat event.

27 April 2024

When using most programming languages, there is usually an “if” statement followed by and “elseif”. When using Excel, you can imitate this, but going backwards. You start with the “if” statement in the cell, and work outwards by adding another “if” statement (the “elseif”), and the original “if” equation becomes the false of the outside “if” statement. Confusing to say the least, but it works.

25 April 2024

A friend of mine shared this with me some time ago. When he was trying to lose weight, he was watching his caloric intake, but he was always hungry. He always had water with him so that when the hunger does hit him and he wanted to snack, he’d take down a bottle of water. This would signal to his brain that the stomach was full and would hold off the hunger for at least an hour. He’d use the rest room quite a bit, but he did lose about 40 pounds in six months.

23 April 2024

Saunas are great after a workout as it promotes detoxification and release of toxins through profuse sweating, relieves muscle soreness, and joint pain. However, don’t stay in too long. Lower humidity can cause excessive dryness and dehydration if you are in too long without drinking enough water.

22 April 2024

If you enjoy the sauna after a workout, be sure to turn it on prior to the workout or at least check that it is on. Otherwise, a cold sauna is a no sauna.

Also, be sure to remember that when you buy new clothes, and they “fit” at the store, get one size up, they shrink after a wash and dry.

21 April 2024

A lot of programs cost quite a bit because of the development that went into it’s making. However, there are usually a ton of open source alternatives. My favorite at the moment is GIMP as an alternate to Adobe Photoshop, I just don’t have the money to shell out for something that is open source.

20 April 2024

Changing the aperture speed while capturing water flow allows to capture the water as it flows (slower speed), or individual droplets (faster speed). The cost however is the amount of light that is caught making the image darker while catching the smaller droplets. All can be fixed in post editing though.

19 April 2024

A teaching moment today: A friend’s car was having some trouble with something electronic in their car. In most vehicles, there is a fuse box in the engine bay, and in the car at either the driver or passenger’s feet. On the cover it has nomenclatures for what the fuse is for, and usually contains extra fuses. Simply pull, check that it is burnt, replace with the spare, and done. Good to know for any situation.

18 April 2024

The shutter speed is usually fine for auto focus, until you start messing with it. A steady hand or rather a steady tripod can make all the difference between a great moment that was captured, or a blurry photo.

16 April 2024

Today I’m learning about how to create a website. Making a site, choosing a host, and using a general template to get things started. After choosing a host, picking a domain, and selecting some basic characteristics that work in a particular situation, the trials and tribulations start. Preference is brute force, but then again a class or two might help.