#what is ones array in python

[randomness-is-my-order]

wwx is sooo smart! in a modern setting, what subject do you think he would teach? what about in college?

seriously, i can wax poetic about wwx’s intelligence, ingenuity and smartness any day!! and ooooh, your question puts me in a bind because i cannot just name one subject. i think wei wuxian is good at too many things and the younger generations deserve to have his mentorship for an array of subjects. but i’m gonna try my best to just discuss one for this post!

see, i don’t want to mention fine arts because i think wwx would be a hobbyist about it and prefer to be one of those guys hopping around museums and galleries and curating a small but insightful review blog to engage with that side of the arts. an aspect of him that his students would probably find a bit later once they go stalking their professor’s social media profiles (which wwx would be VERY lowkey about) and find that, oh, the cool professor is so much cooler still.

also, because this got me thinking way too much, before we get to the subject, imagining wwx as a full time faculty member–i’ll go out on this fanfic fuelled limb and say he would totally be the teacher coordinator for a university play and/or the debate society! the latter especially, because if the second siege showed us nothing else, it made clear that wwx knows how to frame his arguments logically w/o getting too personal/emotional (not that some debates don’t need an emotional input!) and knows how to keep the audience hooked to his words. the same goes for the deft way in which he handled his defence at the nightless city. so, yeah.

okay, so the subject i think wwx would teach has to be....

physics!!!!!

like this is the one that pops in my mind first and foremost and it fits wwx so well and not just in the realm of engineering. not that wwx’s inventing streak won’t be profoundly useful there but when it comes teaching the subject, when i say “physics” i mean the pure science. that would be wei wuxian’s jam!! he would come up with elaborate setups to simply but elegantly explain and exhibit a complex physics law or phenomenon. he would assign practical-oriented projects to his students and allow for fun which is sorely lacking in intensive pure science classes! he would make time to go over some relevant historic trivia about some theory a guy in the 18th century came up with and he would TOTALLY gossip about the scientists of the past and the scandals so many of them were engaged in. and the most important part!! he would conceptualise different and unique experiments for his class to practice for that part of their grade! alot of the time we forget how important the practical ingenuity of physics professors need to be when it’s not applied physics because the emphasis on the theoretical classes overshadows it. but wei wuxian would plan the practical course himself, even discuss the experimental configurations with his students, and design a whole booklet with them! and ykw?? he’d teach them coding too! which is one aspect of our technological era that i think wwx would excel at because there is so much craftiness required for coding and since coding is so essential for simulations and analysis in physics, wwx could teach them...some python, lol. 😭😭 also, i want to add, wei wuxian would 100% be that college professor with a league of papers published and held in high regard so that for each course he teaches, his own work could be a relevant reference which his students would find SO cool and maybe even funny.

okay, i’m done feeding you my physics professor!wwx agenda but i also think him teaching an ethics class would be fun. and also P.E. no but imagine a sociology course with wei wuxian? or a music major? the possibilities are literally endless but you probably won’t catch wwx anywhere near a culinary school.

[nylpad]

CAFFEINE, CODE, AND COUCH CONFESSIONS

Warnings: coffee addiction

Tim Drake, the resident tech genius of Wayne Manor, had a mission: to teach you the intricacies of coding. Armed with a whiteboard, a stack of textbooks, and a steely determination, he embarked on this noble quest. Little did he know that unraveling the mysteries of Python and JavaScript would be the least challenging part.

Tim sat you down in the cozy corner of the Batcave, the glow of the Batcomputer casting shadows on his face. He explained loops, variables, and functions with the fervor of a preacher. But your brain? It was like a stubborn old laptop running Windows 95—slow, glitchy, and prone to crashing.

"Okay, so if you have a nested loop," Tim said, pointing at the whiteboard, "you'll need to—"

You interrupted. Again. "Wait, wait. What's a nested loop? Is it like a Russian doll situation?"

Tim sighed, rubbing his temples. "No, it's not—"

"But what if the Russian doll is an array?" you asked, eyes wide.

Tim's patience wavered. "It's not—"

"But what if the array contains Batman's utility belt gadgets?" you persisted.

He pinched the bridge of his nose. "That's not—"

Coding fatigue set in. Tim's eyes glazed over as you continued your relentless questioning. He needed a distraction—a break from the syntax and semicolons. So, he proposed a truce: "How about we take a snack break?"

You perked up. "Snacks? Now you're speaking my language."

Soon, the Batcave echoed with the rustling of chip bags and the clinking of coffee mugs. Tim brewed a fresh pot of coffee—the fifth one that day—and you raised an eyebrow.

"Tim, you're going to turn into a jittery metahuman," you warned.

He grinned, sipping from his mug. "Nah, I've built up a tolerance."

The couch beckoned, its cushions inviting. Tim abandoned the whiteboard, and you both sank into its plush embrace. Laptops forgotten, you fired up the gaming console. The Batcave's massive screen displayed the latest multiplayer shooter.

"Ready to kick some virtual butt?" you asked, controller in hand.

Tim hesitated. "Actually, can we watch movies instead?"

You raised an eyebrow. "Movies? Since when do you—"

"—binge-watch romantic comedies?" Tim finished, cheeks flushing. "I may or may not have a soft spot for cheesy love stories."

And so, you traded code for rom-coms, coffee for popcorn. Tim's head found its way to your lap, and you stroked his hair absentmindedly.

"Promise me," you said, "no more coffee. Your heart rate is rivaling the Bat-Signal."

He grumbled but complied. "Fine. But only because you're the best code-cracking partner."

As the credits rolled on the screen, Tim whispered, "Maybe I'll write an algorithm to predict our next movie choice."

You chuckled. "Or we could just flip a coin."

And there, in the dim glow of the Batcave, you realized that maybe—just maybe—love was the most complex code of all.

[jeremy-ken-anderson]

All Right, Let's Do a Dumb One

LeetCode has a bunch of problems that are at this point almost famous for how laughably unrepresentative they are of work in the coding world. Like, there are points where demonstrating that you can solve one also incidentally demonstrates that you know certain kinds of critical thinking, and those questions are genuinely quite good, but most of the time it's just a Credit Score kind of thing where what you demonstrate is that you spent time practicing on LeetCode, and therefore the site made itself necessary by getting enough business decision-makers to trust it. Anyway.

This is a good example because if I got this as a question during the interview the first thing I'd do is include a disclaimer.

The challenge is to rotate an image 90 degrees. The "image" is represented by a 2D array numbered, so this happens. 123 741 456 -> 852 789 963

Now, the question says they want you to change it in-place, meaning no making a new array and slotting things in. The disclaimer I'd include is: This is a terrible idea. Making a 2D array - even a very large one, such as the kind you'd need to display something hi-def on an IMAX theater screen - is not horribly memory-intensive in the scale of memory that our computers work with today. And working in-place is terribly error-prone, both in initial creation (which someone could theoretically lay at your feet - shouldn't you be good enough to get around that?) AND in maintenance, meaning even if I know I'M hypercompetent at coding and can do it all in-place, I'm metaphorically making a bridge out of hard-to-replace materials and setting that bridge up to fall apart when the maintenance guy doesn't know how to repair it. Not doing it the way they demand you do it for the question would be part of coding best practices.

But what the hell. Let's do it. For the sake of argument.

I'd still be doing a microcosm of the same. You have to record what's in a slot without deleting it.

I'm wondering whether the intent is to run this via breadth-first search, in order to work out which spaces have already been processed? I'm going to go on that assumption.

So in a Rubik's Cube kind of way, I'm going to start from the corners. Because they're the easiest to mathematically transform to each other regardless of size, right? We're supposed to be able to do this whether the square we're rotating is 3x3 or 300x300. For a mercy, it is at least guaranteed to be a square.

We make a (starts off empty) list of processed spaces.

We make a (starts off empty) list of spaces to look at.

for x, y what happens on "rotate" exactly? In terms of corners, for an nxn grid (0, 0) gets moved to (n-1, 0) which gets moved to (n-1, n-1) which gets moved to (0, n-1) which gets moved to (0, 0). Like, in a 4x4 grid (3, 3)'s contents get moved to (0, 3). What about that second space? (1, 0) turns into (3, 1). (2, 0) turns into (3, 2). So for the top row at least, you can reverse the x and y values and invert the number of the y value, and that does it?

...I think this means you want depth-first search, actually. Because you want to be handling the square each time in order to minimize how much info you're holding at a time.

What happens is you make a nested for loop, like

for i in array: for j in list: while (i,j) not in fixed: {Block of code that adds the 4 permutations of (x,y), (-y-1,x), (-x-1,-y-1), (y,-x-1) to a list for processing and then processes them in order, finally adding i,j to fixed when it's done}

The reason this works in Python is that calling for "-1" in a list is the same as saying "length of the list -1." So on a 4x4, calling "-x-1" when x is 0 will loop around the other side of the list to find the 3.

At that point, you're only holding two points of data - the item you've just "picked up" from a given space and then the contents of the space you'll be "putting it down" in. Then you swap it out for what's in the target location.

Again, this would all be a LOT easier to just do by writing to a new list.

At that point, for each space you'd just find the space 90 degrees counterclockwise from it and set that value into the corresponding space.

[encyclopediacr]

Last month at the wiki — March 2024

Every month, we highlight significant work done in the previous month by our editing community at Encyclopedia Exandria. This one is a LONG one, so fair warning...

March 2024 saw the creation of 83 (eighty-three) new mainspace articles! A bit more on why so many later, but first here's a selection of ten of them. You can find more at the 50 newest pages report.

Zora Manning, Lightkeeper for the Circle of the Crimson Mirror

Nokari, Lightkeeper for the Circle of Tide & Bone

Isle of Serenity, island in the Glass Sea

Nymph, type of fey

Pyre, sect of the Ascendancy

Ashley Middlebrook, producer at Critical Role Productions

Ruidian glass, material found on Ruidus

Rashinna, leader member of the Volition

Gaz Tomo, member of the Volition

Vezoden Amerai, champion of the Strife Emperor

So, why so many new articles? We created individual articles for every episode of Midst! Using information we already had in list of Midst episodes, we were able to create episode articles painlessly, programmatically, and promptly with Python magic. We've also made updates to our episode infobox for Midst to document airdates for the re-releases and for subscribers, illustrators for the video versions, and appendices links. Now that we've got individual articles, the summaries on the list were made more concise to provide different levels of summarization and to make appendices links easier to see. Work is also underway on the individual articles, including more robust summaries (now that they're standalone rather than in a table), appendices summaries, and illustration galleries. You can check out the articles for Unrise, Switcheroo, and Tempest for a peek at what we're aiming for and slowly moving toward.

Character infoboxes now have a place for movement speeds, making it easier to do thought experiments about which PC will win in a race. Also, we've historically had explanatory notes for multiple stats or DCs in a hover. We've changed our best practices to instead place these into a footnote formatted similar to references so that these notes can be accessed by mobile users.

The character infobox was also updated to handle stats for systems other than Dungeons & Dragons. We've added new items for Daggerheart (we're still getting a feel for what should be included), and we have options for a full custom stat array. This allows us to better handle Daggerheart characters in the future, should we see more of them, but also to better handle PCs in past one-shots who were not well-serviced by the less flexible stat handling. We've also inserted new fields to properly reflect Daggerheart's Community and Ancestry character options.

As always, check out our Candela Obscura coverage. Newfaire has been updated with more points of interest from the core rulebook. We've also got a lengthy bibliography of interviews related to the show on top of our regular coverage for this month's continuing adventures of the Circle of the Crimson Mirror.

[apriltempleos]

october 2nd 2024: some code stuff

preacher: the original idea behind "APRIL" was that she would be able to pull up word strings from the templeOS god word app on command – this was supposed to be her primary/only function.

we're going to put up a post on templeOS later because it's completely fascinating and i've been obsessed with it for a while, but for now what's important to know is that due to some decompiler issues, it's not really possible to run templeOS on the raspberry pi which is the computer that we are using. scott's here to explain this at length – find a detailed technical explanation below the cut.

scott: Initially I was gonna start coding the whole program in Python starting with the godword random prophecy function. But then after looking into how the original godword program worked on the og TempleOS worked, with FIFO (First-in-First-out) queues, of which I was pretty unfamiliar with, I decided to code the bulk in C because I know C a lot more than Python and the queues seemed easier to implement in C. Pi allows both Python and C coding languages naturally anyways so why not.

The original TempleOS was written in a variation of the C/C++ language called HolyC by Terry A. Davis who wrote the language variant and compiler himself. Because of this, it's hard to decompile it manually to look at source code, or to run it on certain machines. Because of this I couldn't run the actual godword program or TempleOS on the raspberry pi so I knew I was gonna have to recreate the godword function as close as I could (which I initially called "heresyword" lol). After some research, I found one of the only breakdowns of how TempleOS worked by Xe Iaso [1].* They have such a good breakdown of the whole operating system thats really context inclusive and even includes extracts from Terry Davis' actual comments on how TempleOS works which are really hard to interpret actually. * (preacher: btw, i highly recommend everyone read this link. it really does a great job of explaining everything and once again, templeOS is endlessly fascinating so i think it's really worth the read. see the picture below for an example)

So from Xe's blog I found that TempleOS has a public global class called "God" that is used in several areas of the operating system. For godword it loads all words from the database Happy.txt into a separate array and then uses random entropy bits from several areas, including an "internal microsecond stopwatch" and data form keypresses, to choose random words from the word variable and loads them into a FIFO queue, printing them one by one when needed. I was initially gonna recreate this FIFO queue and all these random entropy bits but decided it to be too much complicated work for little result so just decided to generate random words from the Happy.txt using the cpu clock for entropy and save them to a separate .txt file to be called and read later on, acting in place of the queue system.

Sidenote: Xe's blog also had the Happy.txt file which was really useful and which I also realised was just every single word from the King James Bible.

[simerjeet]

Mastering Data Structures: A Comprehensive Course for Beginners

Data structures are one of the foundational concepts in computer science and software development. Mastering data structures is essential for anyone looking to pursue a career in programming, software engineering, or computer science. This article will explore the importance of a Data Structure Course, what it covers, and how it can help you excel in coding challenges and interviews.

1. What Is a Data Structure Course?

A Data Structure Course teaches students about the various ways data can be organized, stored, and manipulated efficiently. These structures are crucial for solving complex problems and optimizing the performance of applications. The course generally covers theoretical concepts along with practical applications using programming languages like C++, Java, or Python.

By the end of the course, students will gain proficiency in selecting the right data structure for different problem types, improving their problem-solving abilities.

2. Why Take a Data Structure Course?

Learning data structures is vital for both beginners and experienced developers. Here are some key reasons to enroll in a Data Structure Course:

a) Essential for Coding Interviews

Companies like Google, Amazon, and Facebook focus heavily on data structures in their coding interviews. A solid understanding of data structures is essential to pass these interviews successfully. Employers assess your problem-solving skills, and your knowledge of data structures can set you apart from other candidates.

b) Improves Problem-Solving Skills

With the right data structure knowledge, you can solve real-world problems more efficiently. A well-designed data structure leads to faster algorithms, which is critical when handling large datasets or working on performance-sensitive applications.

c) Boosts Programming Competency

A good grasp of data structures makes coding more intuitive. Whether you are developing an app, building a website, or working on software tools, understanding how to work with different data structures will help you write clean and efficient code.

3. Key Topics Covered in a Data Structure Course

A Data Structure Course typically spans a range of topics designed to teach students how to use and implement different structures. Below are some key topics you will encounter:

a) Arrays and Linked Lists

Arrays are one of the most basic data structures. A Data Structure Course will teach you how to use arrays for storing and accessing data in contiguous memory locations. Linked lists, on the other hand, involve nodes that hold data and pointers to the next node. Students will learn the differences, advantages, and disadvantages of both structures.

b) Stacks and Queues

Stacks and queues are fundamental data structures used to store and retrieve data in a specific order. A Data Structure Course will cover the LIFO (Last In, First Out) principle for stacks and FIFO (First In, First Out) for queues, explaining their use in various algorithms and applications like web browsers and task scheduling.

c) Trees and Graphs

Trees and graphs are hierarchical structures used in organizing data. A Data Structure Course teaches how trees, such as binary trees, binary search trees (BST), and AVL trees, are used in organizing hierarchical data. Graphs are important for representing relationships between entities, such as in social networks, and are used in algorithms like Dijkstra's and BFS/DFS.

d) Hashing

Hashing is a technique used to convert a given key into an index in an array. A Data Structure Course will cover hash tables, hash maps, and collision resolution techniques, which are crucial for fast data retrieval and manipulation.

e) Sorting and Searching Algorithms

Sorting and searching are essential operations for working with data. A Data Structure Course provides a detailed study of algorithms like quicksort, merge sort, and binary search. Understanding these algorithms and how they interact with data structures can help you optimize solutions to various problems.

4. Practical Benefits of Enrolling in a Data Structure Course

a) Hands-on Experience

A Data Structure Course typically includes plenty of coding exercises, allowing students to implement data structures and algorithms from scratch. This hands-on experience is invaluable when applying concepts to real-world problems.

b) Critical Thinking and Efficiency

Data structures are all about optimizing efficiency. By learning the most effective ways to store and manipulate data, students improve their critical thinking skills, which are essential in programming. Selecting the right data structure for a problem can drastically reduce time and space complexity.

c) Better Understanding of Memory Management

Understanding how data is stored and accessed in memory is crucial for writing efficient code. A Data Structure Course will help you gain insights into memory management, pointers, and references, which are important concepts, especially in languages like C and C++.

5. Best Programming Languages for Data Structure Courses

While many programming languages can be used to teach data structures, some are particularly well-suited due to their memory management capabilities and ease of implementation. Some popular programming languages used in Data Structure Courses include:

C++: Offers low-level memory management and is perfect for teaching data structures.

Java: Widely used for teaching object-oriented principles and offers a rich set of libraries for implementing data structures.

Python: Known for its simplicity and ease of use, Python is great for beginners, though it may not offer the same level of control over memory as C++.

6. How to Choose the Right Data Structure Course?

Selecting the right Data Structure Course depends on several factors such as your learning goals, background, and preferred learning style. Consider the following when choosing:

a) Course Content and Curriculum

Make sure the course covers the topics you are interested in and aligns with your learning objectives. A comprehensive Data Structure Course should provide a balance between theory and practical coding exercises.

b) Instructor Expertise

Look for courses taught by experienced instructors who have a solid background in computer science and software development.

c) Course Reviews and Ratings

Reviews and ratings from other students can provide valuable insights into the course’s quality and how well it prepares you for real-world applications.

7. Conclusion: Unlock Your Coding Potential with a Data Structure Course

In conclusion, a Data Structure Course is an essential investment for anyone serious about pursuing a career in software development or computer science. It equips you with the tools and skills to optimize your code, solve problems more efficiently, and excel in technical interviews. Whether you're a beginner or looking to strengthen your existing knowledge, a well-structured course can help you unlock your full coding potential.

By mastering data structures, you are not only preparing for interviews but also becoming a better programmer who can tackle complex challenges with ease.

[reversedumbrella]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU 💥💥💥 (ON TIME THIS TIME)

for the q&a: what projects are you currently working on? what projects would you *like* to do in the future?

THANK YOU (ONE DAY LATER)

I ve just started my second semester so obviously its time for me to start working on a wide array of projects lmao

i still have the color deconstructor and the pixelart choose-your-adventure game on the backburner. my teacher gave me some advice for the first one and i was gonna do it during hollidays but then i realized it'd be the 4th time i do it and i almost lost all my motivation. im thinking about doing both of them as part of my neocity site but i need to learn openGL/webGL so that's dependent on me finding a good book for that

ideas for drawings are few and far between and the motivation to do them is even lower. i've actually thinking about doing an extra comic for my terumob comic series

once in a while i do some coding but the results aren't flashy enough for me to talk about it here. lots of color manipulation and stuff using images like this code that limits the colors of an image based on the colors of the second image (i know it looks ugly, i coded it just now)

something i've been thinking about is the way dwarf fortress deals with animals and other creatures. you have RAW files made out of tokens, like these from the unicorn (incomplete):

[CREATURE:UNICORN] [DESCRIPTION:A horse-like creature with a spiral horn growing from its forehead.] [NAME:unicorn:unicorns:unicorn] [CASTE_NAME:unicorn:unicorns:unicorn] [CREATURE_TILE:'U'][COLOR:7:0:1] [CREATURE_CLASS:MAMMAL] [PETVALUE:1000] [PREFSTRING:horns] [VISION_ARC:50:310] [GOOD] [LARGE_ROAMING] [POPULATION_NUMBER:15:30] [CLUSTER_NUMBER:3:7] [GRASSTRAMPLE:0] [NO_VEGETATION_PERTURB] [STANDARD_GRAZER] [BIOME:FOREST_TAIGA] [BIOME:ANY_TEMPERATE_FOREST] [BIOME:ANY_TROPICAL_FOREST] [BIOME:SHRUBLAND_TEMPERATE] [BIOME:SHRUBLAND_TROPICAL] [BENIGN][MEANDERER] [BODY:QUADRUPED_NECK_HOOF:TAIL:2EYES:2EARS:NOSE:2LUNGS:HEART:GUTS:ORGANS:THROAT:NECK:SPINE:BRAIN:SKULL:MOUTH:TONGUE:GENERIC_TEETH:RIBCAGE:HEAD_HORN:EYELIDS:CHEEKS] [PET][MOUNT][PACK_ANIMAL]

the game looks at these and creates a creature with those characteristics. this is also the reasin dwarf fortress has like 200 animals. everything in the game is based on raws but im mostly focused on the animal part of it. i've been thinking about trying to recreate this system just for the fun of it (no idea what i'd use it for lol) i have some ideas but i'd like to do some more research

im also thinking about doing this on python bc i really wanna learn python

[intothetlkverse]

Decided to challenge myself by drawing every single TLK character out there, up until this point in time, and post it here. You can see the finished project on my main account, though I figured to post it on my tumblr just show I could proudly show off my work and a few of my head canons.

Here's all the 'bugs'(i.e. spiders, mollusks, insects, etc) across TLG/K:

Starting off with the arachnids and the spiders, starting off with the most widespread real-life and apparently in-universe figure as well, Anansi. Anansi the spider serves a similar story to the ones we have in real-life for the animals in the world of TLK/G, so if you want to learn more about him, please reference any story out there, though the ones with humans are probably replaced with other animals or removed entirely in this universe. Anansi is a trickster spider who can either be friend or foe, depending on what story. Sometimes he is a beneficial character, such as earning the world's stories/knowledge and spreading it to the world, other times he is a slothful, thieving trickster. Whatever the story, he mostly certainly is a well-known character in this world, and even seen as a figure for more 'thieving' animals like jackals and scavengers, offering prayers in his name to help them be more clever and sneaky. Because of this deific status. I took the same approach as my take on the Werehog and Mooks, making it more artistic and elaborate, not so much as drawing a character, more like a story idea. I took inspiration from this AI-art of Anansi, which I feel is what AI art should be used for, not as a replacement, but as a tool, something to aid, but not replace your own talents/skill. I had considered also doing his wife and son, but this sheet was already kinda difficult to figure out what to do, so I skipped it, plus he apparently has multiple children across the stories.

I also depicted a few scenes from his stories around him, namely, the story of how he got the right to all the world's stories by depicting each of the trials in order to prove himself worthy; catching the hornets in the gourd, capturing both the python and leopard, and trapping the fairy with the yams and the gum doll, which I figured a butterfly for the fairy would work just as well here. I might've taken a few ideas from Tinga Tinga tales animal designs here.

Next spider is Makuru Kasiksi('Great'-Shona + 'Prosecutor'-Sudanese), from Operations Pridelands and is one of the animals Timon and Pumbaa must bring back. She is a spider sleeping in her web and the player must use fireflies to light Timon and Pumbaa's path as they steal her food in order to force her back into the Pridelands. In truth, Simba was hoping to get back as many animals as he could in order to replenish the ecosystem, so spiders, if possible, were asked to be brought back along. Makuru is a golden orb weaver spider, which, surprisingly, do have white/black markings that can resemble faces or skulls, so purple coloring aside her original design is rather solid, though I did give her eight eyes to fit her species.

Last of the spiders come from the duo we see in TLK 1 1/2; Kusuka(weave) and Mtandao(web), and 'Anansi'-'spider' from "The Cave Monster". The happy couple are a pair of Napoleon spiders, mostly because due to looking for 'colorful African spiders' was pretty hard to get through and I really couldn't find any blue/pink striped ones. Napoleon spiders seem to come in a multiple array of colors, from red through yellow and white, however if TLK can have blue hornbills and red lions, I figured it be alright if we have a blue Napoleon spider. As for the latter, some say that giving the name Anansi or other gods' names, or naming one after their own species, to animals allow them to inhabit you or share their divine aspects with you(i.e. a lion named Simba or a elephant name Tembo, etc.). Regardless, this "Anansi" is just a common tiny African bark spider, cleverly using some light tricks and echoes to make himself look more intimidating and bogger to keep away predators.

Finishing up with the arachnids, we got our only scorpion: Sumu(poison) the Tanzanian red clawed scorpion. A very mildly venomous scorpion species, so here's my pitch for Sumu. I really like the story, a race against the clock to get the medicine for Simba as his life hangs in the balance from the venom. However, I think they could've gone more with it. Sumu's real-life species, whole should be handled with care, are nowhere near the levels of lethality for taking out an adult male lion. So there's three ways I could fix this: first being is that Sumu's venom isn't actually that dangerous, and Sumu knows this, so he dips his stinger with herbs and pother things that would increase the potency of his stinger, sort of like Scorpion from Kung Fu Panda Legends of Awesomeness. The second option is to just turn him into a more lethal scorpion species, like fat-tailed or even a deathstalker scorpion. Though then we'd lose the edgy, dark coloring. The third option, and the one I prefer, is just losing the scorpion overall and swapping him with a black mamba. Quick, notorious, lethal, it do just a good of job if not better then a scorpion, and I even have an entire picture detailing my argument as well as how implementing it would even be better for the overall storyline. But I digress, plus this is a 'bugs'-only picture, so here's Sumu in all his scorpion glory. Nothing much different, though I did notice he had only four eyes while scorpions have between six and twelve, so I just added two extra, plus actually give him the red claws, and turned those gross, inaccurate head hairs into markings. Also referenced my black mamba picture of him with the shadow in the background.

I was surprised that we had a dung beetle character introduced in the Pride Lands Pedia; Dembe(sack), voiced none other then Ono's voice actor Atticus Shaffer. Good for him. Anyways, I kinda feel like this character would be a sort of a meta-narrator for bug stories, as in every story told by other creatures about bugs has a sort of inner-story narrator and its him.

Next up we are heading into more obscure territory. Most of these are from the Timon and Pumbaa Show or TLG, though I'm going to mostly just list them out and move on.

Starting off with the bees we have Buzz/Nyuki(bee) and Queen bee/Inyosi(bee-Zulu) from "To Be Bee or Not To Be Bee". Next is Tok the toktokkie beetle from Rafiki Remembers: "Toktokkie the Beetle". They're a kind of beetle known for unique clicking noise they make, caused by them raising and lowering their abdomen onto surfaces, like knocking, in quick sequences. Additionally, they also do 'headstands' in the early morning/late evening when the fog roles in, allowing them to collect condensation which then rolls down to their mouths. I chosed the striped variant for this sheet,

Continuing on with the Timon and Pumbaa Show bugs we have Stinky/Uvundo(stinky) the black stinkbug from "Rocky Mountain Lie", and Big Bad Bug/Baya(bad) from "One Tough Bug", who is a Giant African Fruit Beetle, a massive and beautiful bug that feeds on rotting wood and fruits. Also some of the largest beetles in the world. Not exactly what I would call bad, unless you're a fruit farmer, in which case probably would be bad. Next is Bookworm/Ikpuru(worms) from "Library Brouhaha". He's a caterpillar here, since, you know, no books in TLK, plus there was a green caterpillar in TLG that kinda looked like him. Honestly the original character feels like he belongs in SpongeBob.

Next we have the termites; Woody Woodeater III/Idiya(eat-Nyanja) from "Going Uruguay" and Kisangani("City on the Island") the termite queen, who imprisoned Gozi the frog in a termite hill. Because these creatures don't have sapience, the two are mostly names given to them by the characters, mostly as brief descriptors. Woody Woodeater III was probably a termite Timon named as part of an example to Simba of what insects were good to eat, while Kisangani, the last of our Operation Pridelands characters, was the name Ngozi/Gozi the frog gave to the termite mound that had mistakenly entrapped her during her hibernation period by building their mound over and around her, forcing Timon and Pumbaa to figure out how to break her out. In my verse, Idiya and Kisangani are part of the same mound, though since there's apparently is such a thing as a king termite, Idiya has a very important role as Kisangani's partner in keeping the populations up.

Next up we have the more general creatures, aka insect species which didn't get a name/character per say, but are mentioned in the show/movie/etc, though I just love making extra work for myself, so here's the animal and a brief fact about them.

Cockroaches: Apparently cockroach can live up to a week without its head and can live up to three months without food and a month without water. All the more reason to believe that if we do end up with a nuclear apocalypse, these guys will most likely survive.

Ladybugs: evidently they can also come in pink like this Lipstick Lady Beetle from South Africa, as well as yellow, orange, black, and white, spotted, striped, blotched, plain or even smiley faced.

Scarab beetles: Apparently the reason why many of them are so shiny is because these beetles manipulate the reflection of light to make themselves appear daringly flashy to certain eyes and completely camouflaged to others. Also there are some that look completely golden.

Grasshoppers: Went with an elegant grasshopper, since not only are they lovely, but apparently their bright colors have deter predators for so long they almost completely lost their wings and are entirely unable to fly, though some still do due to recessive genes. Also these things are massive, like really big.

Crickets: Almost went with an armored cricket, since those things are massive and cool, though apparently they aren't true crickets and are actually more related to katydids, so went with your standard brown cricket. Also tiny next to their grasshopper cousins... yeah he's gonna get eaten by that guy. Worms: Don't show up in the show, but in the first film and The Lion Guard Magazine. These guys are able to absorb air right out of the air into their skin and directly into their bloodstream. Also the world's largest segmented worm can be found in Africa, ranging from 4.5 ft to 22 ft long.

Ants: Used an African army ant/driver ant here, which do actually play a big role in the story "How True, Zazu?" in where a giant swarm of them descends on the Pridelands, only to be stopped when the Pridelanders dam up the river and flood them away. Apparently some indigenous African tribes will actually use army ants as makeshift sutures, having them bit down on gnashes and then breaking off the body, leaving the jaws in as stiches. Also while looking up the army ants on my personal copy of 6NAs, I discovered apparently TLK wasn't the only Disney property to get them, as Pocahontas, Aladdin and Hunchback of Notre Dame received them as well. Neat.

Butterflies: Went with a giant blue swallowtail, a beautiful butterfly species of the family Papilionidae, named in the honor of Zalmoxis, a divinity of the Getae people of the lower Danube, the second biggest river in Europe.

Dragonflies: Went with a scarlet darter, since it was a striking red. Also found out that with the publication of the new discoveries in recent years, the number of dragonfly species known in Africa has increased from 700 to 760 species.

Fireflies: You probably know these guys, though do you know how they make their light is that they have special organs under their abdomens that take in oxygen, and inside special cells, they combine the oxygen with a substance called luciferin to make light with almost no heat? Also apparently their eggs glow too. Underneath we have Madame Credenza/Mkadam(ahead) the African moon moth from "Beetle Romania", a truly beautiful moth.

Tsetse flies: Tsetse flies are the scourge of Central Africa, known for their painful bites that can transmit African trypanosomiasis or 'sleeping sickness'. With the fleas, I figured to group the pests together. I found out whole researching fleas that apparently fossil records in China show they've been around for at least 165 million years ago, meaning dinosaurs could've had fleas. Shingo might not be as ancient or big as those animals, though he still probably hates them just as much. Getting double trouble here.

Finishing off with the last two groups, first we have three tasty grubs for Timon, Pumbaa, Bunga, and any insectivore really; Gourmetus Salavati from "Paraguay Parable", now interpreted be a type of beetle, TLG's Utamu, a type of moth/butterfly caterpillar I assume, as well as the one grub we see in the first film, you know the one.

And last, but certainly not least, the mollusks; Slippy/Shimizi(slip) the giant African land snail from "The Missing Monkey" and Speedy/Spidi(speed) the now giant tiger land snail from the Timon and Pumbaa Show. Giant African land snail, the largest of all land snails and native to East Africa, though unfortunately an invasive species in most of the world. I remember going to Hawaii a few years back, seeing a big shell on a grassy spot, went to go pick it up, whoops, its a large freaking snail. The giant tiger land snail is around the same size and same distribution as the other, though doesn't seem to be as much as an invasive species. To be honest I pretty much blended Speedy's regular and Super Duper Hero X's appearances together.

[clumsysprings]

Working on a Python project for weeks and I'm adamant we use Numpy. I'm new to numpy, and my partner knows no Python. I'm convinced this'll be super efficient because Numpy is good.

We can't get Numpy to work, we spend weeks getting everything working and nothing is working.

We end up getting rid of all of it and using standard Python arrays.

Make more progress in one night than we did in weeks.

I was a gigantic asshat for insisting we do something a certain way. Legitimately detrimental to doing what we need to do. Now that the professor and my partner are working on it because this went from a class assignment to a potential research paper. (Worth noting that we couldn't have succeeded without assistance from the professor so he's cool) everything I contributed has been removed at the end of the day except wasting weeks of sleepless nights and it's specifically and unequivocally at my hands.

I feel stupid and asshattish and as if I owe someone something. I'm acting defensive and I shouldn't because they're right when they say that this should be done in the easy straightforward way.

I feel like lashing out and I can't do that. I'm aware I'm in the wrong. I was wrong and I'm angry that it feels like I'm a prick

[saucy-mesothelioma]

Is there any piece of British media you enjoy a lot? I want to learn the British accent (for my career, ofc) and it's the best way to get myself into it

Ooh, that's a really intriguing question, and I'd love to hear about your career if you don't mind sharing because it sounds interesting! I like to do voiceovers for a hobby so I definitely get the importance of having media to compare and go off of. Of course, I have no clue about specific accents so you might have to do additional research if you need a very specific region, but I'll try my best to give a few pieces of media that might be able to help.

•The Magnus Archives/The Magnus Protocol: It's a horror podcast about an institute that takes in statements on the paranormal, and has a wide array of characters to use for reference. And since it's an audio performance, it might be easier to pick up inflections and things like that. Not to mention it's incredibly entertaining.

•The Outlaws: I never got around to finishing this show, but it's pretty good. It's about a group of people doing community service that end up getting involved in a drug gang ring. It's pretty funny even though quite a bit of the comedy comes from second-hand embarrassment, but it's definitely not bad.

•End of the F***ing World: That's another show I haven't finished primarily because I was watching it with my brother. From what I can remember, it's about two kids (one a moody teen girl and the other a teen boy who thinks he's a psychopath) who run off to find the girl's estranged father. Unfortunately, I don't remember much about it, but from what I do know it was entertaining.

•Extras: It's sort've like The Office (in fact it was written and stars two of the guys who wrote the UK Office) but it follows a guy who's trying to become a prominent actor and fails miserably. It's got a lot of guest appearances and it's a relatively short series as well. I personally hate shows like The Office, but this was one I liked.

•Haunting of Bly Manor: Not as good as Haunting of Hill House in my opinion, but it's still an incredibly good although short horror series. It's about a woman who goes to care for two kids for their uncle after they were orphaned. It'll definitely be entertaining to watch and it's worth a try.

•Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Radio Show/TV Series: You already know what Hitchhiker's Guide is so I won't explain it, but if I had to choose one or the other to suggest I would go with the radio show. The TV series is amazing, don't get me wrong, but for your purposes I find that audio-only pieces of media would work best. This is the version I prefer to listen to.

•Anything Monty Python: I can't guarantee that this would be the best source because it genuinely might be too entertaining. I fuckin love Monty Python with everything I have and there's not much I can say about it because it's just something you have to experience.

Of course, you can also look towards prominent British actors like Tim Curry, Angela Lansbury, and John Oliver, which is something I would suggest doing as well. Personally another thing that I've found to be helpful is also practicing a transatlantic accent, which is basically halfway between an American accent and a British accent. The only two people I can think of off the top of my head that have a very good transatlantic accent are Vincent Price and David Ogden Stiers (specifically as his role as Charles Winchester in M*A*S*H), so that might be some good warm-up. Hopefully this was of some help!

[stephantom]

(If you are still doing the film asks!) 4. 9., and 15. :)

4. Answered!

9. What was the last movie you watched? What did you think of it?

Cleopatra (1963)! I liked it, I think, mostly? I didn’t do it in one sitting or even one day—it’s 4 hours long and it felt it. It was uneven, but some parts were very good. Richard Burton in a skimpy Roman skirt and Elizabeth Taylor in an endless array of beautifully garish low-cut dresses, acting their hearts out! I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re curious about big ancient historical epics of the 50s and 60s (even those considered less-good, like this) or interested in some cast members. But it was neat.

15. What is the funniest movie you've seen?

This is so hard. Hmmm, probably the funniest movie I think I’ve seen RECENTLY is “Totally Killer.” I found myself laughing a lot, but I’d be extremely hesitant to call it the funnest movie I’ve ever seen. (It’s kind of a pastiche of “Scream”, “Back to the Future”, and “The Breakfast Club”—toss in some “Only Murders In The Building” and “Modern Family.” I didn’t have high expectations, but I really enjoyed it.)

K, I came up with some movies I think are funny, but I’d hesitate to call ANY of them “the funniest!” so, here’s a very tentative top 10 (no particular order):

The Nice Guys

Booksmart

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Wet Hot American Summer

Marcel The Shell With Shoes On

Robin Hood: Men In Tights (prob doesn’t hold up?)

The Birdcage

The General

Totally Killer

The Princess Bride

[pizza-is-my-buziness]

Fictober 2023 Day One! Prompt: "It's not too late, let's go."

Pairing: Elena Fisher/Chloe Frazer (Uncharted)

Read the story below or on AO3!

Elena runs a hand through her hair, collecting the dusty strands around her fingers for a moment before blowing out a breath and letting the tresses drop back to her shoulders. The sun has left her cheeks a rosy pink, the tip of her nose red, and somehow managed to brown her skin simultaneously so that bright blue eyes look even sharper, especially as they narrow to study the papers in her hands. “I don’t understand,” she murmurs, lifting her head to gaze out on the endless expanse of nothingness around them. “It should be somewhere around here…” 

Let it be stated for the record that Chloe Frazer has never been one to shy away from a little detour. Or a sizable one, all things considered. Just like she’s never been one to turn down an adventure or a pretty face, and, despite repeated lessons in the contrary, has yet to figure out that those two things together are almost never a good combination. The exception being, of course, when both the pretty face and the catalyst for the adventure happens to be Elena Fisher, who is so meticulously thorough and thoughtful that adventure almost seems like an afterthought. 

Almost. 

Considering that Chloe is pretty sure that they’re lost, regardless of whether Elena will use that particular word.

Or, if not lost, then certainly not where Elena wishes that they were. 

Chloe shifts from her spot leaning against the hood of the rented Jeep, tipping her head up to briefly consider the sky overhead. It won’t be much longer before twilight settles over them, casting both the narrow road and the encroaching undergrowth in velvety darkness. “We could always go back and ask that python for directions,” she remarks cheerfully, tipping her chin back in the direction they’d come. “He seemed like a friendly fellow.” 

Elena looks up at her, brow furrowing as she processes the comment. “Be my guest, but I don’t think he knows how to read a map.” She pauses before looking up again. “And I’m pretty sure it was a boa.” 

“My mistake.” Chloe grins, pushing off from the car and coming to stand behind Elena, peering over her shoulder at the collection of papers that had brought them here in the first place. Even a respectable journalist apparently couldn’t resist the draw of the mythical every now and then apparently. Chloe’s chin brushes against Elena’s shoulder, her skin warmed from the sun, from their day of traveling. “What about that spot there?” She points to something on a map that, by all accounts, had been drawn a century ago. “Could that be a turn we missed?” 

Elena glances over her shoulder, hair brushing against Chloe’s nose, like she expects to see the missed turn or answer right there behind them. But it’s just jungle and jungle and, yes, more jungle. “I guess we could’ve…there might have been a turn off, or another path…” She pauses, shaking her head, scrunching up her nose as she looks as Chloe. “This is stupid, isn’t it?”

Chloe scoffs, lifting her eyebrows. “Not sure I’m the one you should be asking that particular question, sweetheart.” 

“I don’t need any of this for the story,” Elena says, worrying a thumbnail between her teeth. They’ve been chasing down one lead or another for the past three days, plenty of time for most of the powder blue polish to chip and flake away. “We should just go back to the hotel.” 

The hotel has a claw foot tub with an impressive array of little shampoo and soap bottles, an extensive room service menu, and a pillowy soft bed that Chloe could easily spend a day in provided that Elena was there beside her. But she hasn’t quite minded all of…this either. The sun and smell of gasoline. The weathered and worn missives of people before them, guiding them on a trail that might not even exist. The quiet calls of a world guarding its secrets against outsiders. A world they’ve been able to slip into anyway. 

“We could,” Chloe says with a noncommittal hum.

Not that Elena seems to notice. Instead, her attention has drifted back toward the map, to the promise of what might lay at the end of it. “But if we did miss a path back there somewhere…that could be the direction we need to head in…” 

Chloe smiles, the lazy grin entirely wasted on Elena. “It could.” 

Elena is wearing the same expression Chloe has seen many times, the look of concentration that she gets whenever she’s in the throes of a story, or when she’s working through a particularly tangled angle, or when she’s sorting through notes and interviews, determined to find the truth buried among everyone’s vague answers. Sometimes, Chloe likes to just indulge in studying Elena’s furrowed brow, her pursed lips, the way she tilts her head when she comes across something that catches her interest. Sometimes it’s too difficult to resist the urge to inch her way closer, to press a kiss to shoulder, to throat, to cheek, to lips. To distract Elena for as long as she’s able.

Now, Chloe just watches as Elena glances back toward the undergrowth once more, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. She seems to settle on something for a moment, eyes brightening, only to shake her head again, gaze shifting to Chloe. “It’ll be dark soon.”

“We have flashlights.” They’ve got all that and more in the car, a whole thoughtfully packed kit in case of emergency situations. Chloe has never been the “in case of emergency” type, all things considered. Her contingency plan usually centered around a gun and some hopefully witty banter. Another perk of adventuring in the company of Elena Fisher, she figures. 

Though there is something about Elena that seems to make everything an adventure, even the more mundane day-to-day events and trips that don’t involve tracking down ancient, mythical treasure. 

Elena sighs despite Chloe’s very valid point. “Tomorrow we can-” 

“Come on,” Chloe argues, stepping closer to Elena once more, giving her a nudge. “It’s not too late. Let’s go.” 

“Into the jungle at nightfall,” Elena says, as though to clarify the plan.

Chloe nods, hoping for guileless. “For treasure.”

“Possible treasure.”

“Good enough for me.” 

Elena glances behind them once more and Chloe knows she’s got her. That Elena had already made up her mind long before this moment anyway, that she was going to see this thing through. And Chloe with her.

“I guess it couldn’t hurt…”

Chloe grins, putting her hands on Elena’s hips and pulling her closer and crumpling the likely priceless pages between them. “Now you’re talking.” 

Let it be said, for the record, that Chloe Frazer has never been one to walk away from an adventure. Especially when there’s a pretty face involved.

[excludedmiddle]

Another one

This is another cute problem - actually easier than the previous one imo:

We have an array and a bunch of additional numbers we could maybe add to the array - how do we add them in a way that avoids increasing the length of the longest increasing subsequence as much as possible?

This is an example of a codeforces problem that is very much a math problem at heart. You are looking to translate your requirements into some property that gets you what you want.

I don't have a lot to say about the solving process here because my intuition found the right answer pretty quickly - first, you sort your set of additional numbers b because you want to add them largest to smallest, and then you add the largest remaining number in b if it's >= the next number of a. If you have numbers left over at the end, add them all into the result from largest to smallest.

I think why this is rated 1700 despite having such a simple solution is that it's a little tricky to prove this intuition. You have to first imagine the largest increasing subsequence(s) preexisting in a (noting that it must still exist in the result), then argue that if you add larger numbers before that you cannot possibly make it longer. Similarly, adding the smallest numbers in reverse order at the end also cannot be worse, because they're all smaller than every element of a and in reverse order, so at best one of them can take the place of the last element of a.

Again let's look at Egor's implementation:

Particularly instructive here is his use of while let. In my implementation I used a more traditional Pythonic while loop ported over to Rust, but Rust very elegantly lets you unwrap the last element of b while also checking if it exists via pattern matching.

[thevulcanbobdylan]

cactus ⇢ something you’re currently learning (about)?

abelia ⇢ do you have a particular piece of jewelry you always wear or can’t part with?

mahonia ⇢ what place, thing, activity inspires you most and how do you express yourself when it does?

😁

Currently learning: python! It was the first programming language I learned, but after I self-studied through the basics of conditionals, loops, arrays etc, I switched to Java and went deep into OOP. By trade, I am currently a C# dev. But I got a really cool opportunity at work over the past six months to work with some really talented people on a data driven project, so I'm getting my feet wet with real production-ready python code and I really like it

Jewelry: I have a ring that might be called a wedding ring (though whether I had the wedding to match is a story for another ask) which is a hammered gold band with an opal. I wear it every day. I also have two rings that I had made with my breast milk set in resin. (Weird? Not sure but I busted my ass to breastfeed these kids lol) I got one after weaning each kid so they are a set.

Inspiration: the place that inspires me most is the Great Plains. Particularly something to do with the way we experience seasons here. I've been a pagan since I was a kid, and the Wheel of the Year feels very visceral, almost like spatial sequence synaesthesia, maybe. I don't know why, but everything I create comes from this place of feeling time move across the sweeping prairie. Can I justify this? The light is rose gold and the sky is towering and the heat perches over everything like a great bird of prey, until the wind giants come and swirl it away in a roar of thunder. I feel the spirit of the land like the buffalo-headed god from American Gods, or like Tom Bombadil, except she's an impossibly ancient grandmother with terrifying wisdom

[vivekavicky12]

The Ever-Evolving Canvas of Data Science: A Comprehensive Guide

In the ever-evolving landscape of data science, the journey begins with unraveling the intricate threads that weave through vast datasets. This multidisciplinary field encompasses a diverse array of topics designed to empower professionals to extract meaningful insights from the wealth of available data. Choosing the  Top Data Science Institute can further accelerate your journey into this thriving industry. This educational journey is a fascinating exploration of the multifaceted facets that constitute the heart of data science education.

Let's embark on a comprehensive exploration of what one typically studies in the realm of data science.

1. Mathematics and Statistics Fundamentals: Building the Foundation

At the core of data science lies a robust understanding of mathematical and statistical principles. Professionals delve into Linear Algebra, equipping themselves with the knowledge of mathematical structures and operations crucial for manipulating and transforming data. Simultaneously, they explore Probability and Statistics, mastering concepts that are instrumental in analyzing and interpreting data patterns.

2. Programming Proficiency: The Power of Code

Programming proficiency is a cornerstone skill in data science. Learners are encouraged to acquire mastery in programming languages such as Python or R. These languages serve as powerful tools for implementing complex data science algorithms and are renowned for their versatility and extensive libraries designed specifically for data science applications.

3. Data Cleaning and Preprocessing Techniques: Refining the Raw Material

Data rarely comes in a pristine state. Hence, understanding techniques for Handling Missing Data becomes imperative. Professionals delve into strategies for managing and imputing missing data, ensuring accuracy in subsequent analyses. Additionally, they explore Normalization and Transformation techniques, preparing datasets through standardization and transformation of variables.

4. Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA): Unveiling Data Patterns

Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) is a pivotal aspect of the data science journey. Professionals leverage Visualization Tools like Matplotlib and Seaborn to create insightful graphical representations of data. Simultaneously, they employ Descriptive Statistics to summarize and interpret data distributions, gaining crucial insights into the underlying patterns.

5. Machine Learning Algorithms: Decoding the Secrets

Machine Learning is a cornerstone of data science, encompassing both supervised and unsupervised learning. Professionals delve into Supervised Learning, which includes algorithms for tasks such as regression and classification. Additionally, they explore Unsupervised Learning, delving into clustering and dimensionality reduction for uncovering hidden patterns within datasets.

6. Real-world Application and Ethical Considerations: Bridging Theory and Practice

The application of data science extends beyond theoretical knowledge to real-world problem-solving. Professionals learn to apply data science techniques to practical scenarios, making informed decisions based on empirical evidence. Furthermore, they navigate the ethical landscape, considering the implications of data usage on privacy and societal values.

7. Big Data Technologies: Navigating the Sea of Data

With the exponential growth of data, professionals delve into big data technologies. They acquaint themselves with tools like Hadoop and Spark, designed for processing and analyzing massive datasets efficiently.

8. Database Management: Organizing the Data Universe

Professionals gain proficiency in database management, encompassing both SQL and NoSQL databases. This skill set enables them to manage and query databases effectively, ensuring seamless data retrieval.

9. Advanced Topics: Pushing the Boundaries

As professionals progress, they explore advanced topics that push the boundaries of data science. Deep Learning introduces neural networks for intricate pattern recognition, while Natural Language Processing (NLP) focuses on analyzing and interpreting human language data.

10. Continuous Learning and Adaptation: Embracing the Data Revolution

Data science is a field in constant flux. Professionals embrace a mindset of continuous learning, staying updated on evolving technologies and methodologies. This proactive approach ensures they remain at the forefront of the data revolution.

In conclusion, the study of data science is a dynamic and multifaceted journey. By mastering mathematical foundations, programming languages, and ethical considerations, professionals unlock the potential of data, making data-driven decisions that impact industries across the spectrum. The comprehensive exploration of these diverse topics equips individuals with the skills needed to thrive in the dynamic world of data science. Choosing the best Data Science Courses in Chennai is a crucial step in acquiring the necessary expertise for a successful career in the evolving landscape of data science.

[tparadox]

While I was able to use the holiday Monday at work to catch up on stuff I haven't been able to do in the last six weeks I've been doing my job alone, I spent way more of that time than I wanted to in trying to find a way around Excel breaking my labor saving spreadsheet by refusing to follow its own rules.

I help out my supervisor by turning the reports our phone system generates into a chart of call times she can analyze for coverage purposes. There are two hurdles the way it generates the reports creates. One of them is that the date, beginning time, and ending time, are all in the same cell of its line, and the other is that if there's no active call time in that span, it will more likely than not skip that span.

The easiest way I've come up with to find those times it skipped is to break up the time stamps into separate date, start, and stop cells, and then use conditional formatting to highlight the start times that are different from the end time of the line above. Originally I was using text to columns to do this, but then I decided I wanted to automate that. I set up a spreadsheet that would take the file name of the report and fetch the date and time cell from it, then an array of cells using the MID function to pull out the individual pieces of it.

It worked great! I could just tell it the file to look at and it got the data I needed. And then I'd go to add a line for a skipped time span and all of the formulas would break, because they were referenced based on the line number, and Excel ever so helpfully updates those references when your data moves. But it's okay because if you don't want the reference to be updated, there's a character for that. To keep the same line number, use B$2 instead of B2.

I worked out a fancy formula with INDIRECT, LEFT, and the new to me FORMULATEXT function to automatically assemble a new version of the formula with the crucial absolute reference for each row, since the absolute meant it wouldn't update by line if I just filled down and I was not going into over 300 cells to add one character by hand.

EXCEPT! Marking the reference as absolute only freezes the reference for pasting and directional filling! It turns out it totally ignores the $ if you're shifting and inserting! Excel broke my plans because it doesn't follow its own rules!

After like two hours of beating my head against it and reading a bunch of forum help threads where the answer was "just use INDIRECT" when I was already using INDIRECT, using COUNTIF to count only the cells above that had data in them seemed promising, but it kept giving reference errors as part of the INDIRECT, probably because the COUNTIF syntax needs you to tell it what to look for, and I think the quotation marks around the asterisk weren't playing nicely with the quotation marks of the INDIRECT even though I was using " for the latter and ' for the former. Finally I started looking into other COUNT_____ functions and it turns out that plan old COUNT does exactly what I was looking for. Where "count cells that have data" with COUNTIF needs you to specify cells containing "*", COUNT just does it. By some miracle, I found the right syntax to have the INDIRECT assemble the COUNT with a range from B1 to (current cell) in only one or two tries, and now I finally have a formula that doesn't care if I add lines which are empty in the column it's looking at.

Now I just need to automate adding the missing rows and filling in the zero values in the column I'm doing this all for, but that seems beyond what I can do with just Excel on its own. Seems like something that would be simple to execute in Python if I export a CSV, and if I could get anything to work in VBasic I could probably do a macro, but I'd prefer not to step it out of Excel and back in, and I don't think our workstations have Python, and if they don't have it, I can't add it...