STG's

Advanced Generators and Coroutines is the final course in the Core Python learning path in PluralSight (I still got a project to do, though) This seemed way more confusing than necessary. Also, since I just took a course on Async programming in C#, I can't help but draw parallels, and to me it seems like C# wins handily in this case...

Yesterday there was a new offer in Appsumo , BiQ  , which is a all-in-one SEO solution. They have content planning, keyword research and tracking - starting at US$49 lifetime. But what I really signed for was the keyword research (they call it Rank Intelligence). I was disappointed at first, because I didn't get any decent keywords for the first sites I tried, but I tried some of the competition and got what seem like great keywords that should be possible to rank in.  For the price, this is pretty good, and I can continue using the tools for years (they do have monthly limits as well as permanent quotas depending on which offer you get - so pay attention). I also really like their tutorial  . Support seems good, I contacted them about some UI problems (such as columns that don't sort properly), and they answered right away.   US$10 off link  for Appsumo (yes, I get money if you buy).

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need, by Bill Gates, is a book about what we can do to avoid things getting much worse, climate wise, and perhaps one day better. Unfortunately, there are no magical solutions, just a lot of small things that could be done, as well as possibilities. The idea of green premiums - the extra cost between an alternative that causes carbon or carbon equivalent emissions and the version that emits less or none. I think I learned a lot about techniques in this area I didn't know about, as well as had some useful suggestions about what I can do personally, such as eat less meat (and eat meat substitutes, to show that there is a market for those as well as lower the price), invest in green tech, and be an earlier adopter of green tech (such as electric cars or use electric panels). Of course, the biggest thing that would help would be using nuclear power, but as all people see is 50s tech, they obviously see it a...

Managing Python Packages and Virtual Environments, by  Reindert-Jan Ekker, is another course in the Core Python learning path in PluralSight. Virtual environments are a solution to the Python version of DLL hell, which seems to be a common pattern among all languages (Delphi, my previous favorite language, did have the advantage of just having everything in the EXE - but you still got it in the IDE, and I don't recall having a solution at the time if you needed several versions of things - just reinstall/rename and re-run the IDE).  I have been using them, mostly by the way PyCharm handles them automatically, and the course was pretty useful to understand what is actually going on.

Decoding Sensor Data Using Python, by Hugo Valle,  is another project in the PluralSight Core Python Path. Their way to check projects is interesting. Basically, you fork a repo in github, tell them your github name, and they will test what you did after you push the code. This was pretty useful, but in a limited way - you mostly just do what you are told, such as adding methods to a class, and adding that exact call. So what you learn is much more limited than just telling you to do something. Yet more useful than the last, as it had some different stuff to do. Some bits were pretty much "type this", but I guess they were easier than students mismatching their exact formatting. There were some bits on the descriptions that referred wrong variables, as well as unit test instructions mismatched with the description (strptime vs strftime), but nothing too hard to fix.

 Python Best Practices for Code Quality, by  Reindert-Jan Ekker, is another course in the Core Python learning path in PluralSight. This one cover PEP8 - which I thought was silly, but after programming a while in Python I actually like how the code looks - , generating documentation from docstrings, and type hinting. The most interesting bit was the type hinting, as I am a big fan of static typing (which I feel saves typing, btw, as the compiler can tell what you can be passing).

 Core Python: Hashing and more Collections, by Jon Flanders, is another course in the Core Python learning path in PluralSight. This covered hashing and equals to use custom classes in mapping collection (covered elsewhere in the path, although here it was much more clear), as well as a few utility class I was not aware - Defaultdict, Counter, Namedtuple and Deque. Video was a little bad at spots, though, which I don't recall seeing recently on PluralSight.

Core Python: The Numeric tower, conversion and operators, by Matt Harrison, is another course in the Core Python learning path in PluralSight. This covered the user of int, float, decimal, datetime, and fraction. Sounds familiar? Yeah, that sounds a lot like Core python: numeric types, date and time (except for the date and time), and most of the content was similar. At this point it should be obvious that I'm only adding the reviews here for the sake of completeness.

Unit Testing with Python, by Emile Bache is another course in the Core Python learning path in PluralSight. Very nice. I am a big fan of unit testing - in a big part because before I started using it, my code quality was much worse, not so much because of bugs, but mostly because of way to many dependencies.

 I have already played Kingdom Rush: Vengeance on Android, but now I got it on PC. It is, as one would assume, pretty much the same. But graphics are much better in QuadHD. Pretty nice so far, although pretty the same thing as the other Kingdom Rush. I have played all of them, and they are pretty nice TD games, without any revolutionary additions, but well executed. I particularly like the references to movies in both of them, as well as the clickable scenary. In one case, you could even disable some of the enemies if you solved a "puzzle". I do like that this one has no shop, though. Grinding to get gems is very, very annoying.

 Ghost 1.0 is a cool side-scroller action RPG.  This was on sale, but it was very cheap (like under US$2), and it looked cool. I am glad I got it. It is a tiny download (250MB), the gameplay is ok so far (not sure if the orientation won't be a problem), graphics are good and there were plenty of funny moments. There seem to be some clever mechanics (such as hacking other robots), extra guns and more.

Build a Personal Budget Report with Python Collections and Iterables is a project in PluralSight, part of the Core Python Path. My opinion is just the same as on the previous course - you do learn stuff, but since you are mostly not supposed to think - just type their english into code - it is not that much. I can't help but imagine that a lot of the course could be generated with some heuristics, just reformatting the code as english. Still, somewhat useful. It doesn't take a lot of time, either.

 Valfaris is a side shooter, with slight platformer elements. I really like the graphics. They are a bit retro but they look great with the effects. Gameplay is OK, but for whatever reason it didn't click for me yet. There are adequate options so far, pistol, sword, shield, you can hang from some elements, etc.

The Pale Horse, by Agatha Christie. I decided to read this because I saw the mini-series. The book is different enough that it still had some surprises, even if they have some things in common. I found the first half or so to be very, very slow, but it does pick up later. I think the tone of the book does show its age much more than the series, though, even with the similarities.

Core python: numeric types, date and time, by Austin Bingham and Robert Smallshire, is another course in the Core Python learning path in PluralSight. This covered the user of int, float, decimal, datetime, and fraction. At this point it should be obvious that I'm only adding the reviews here for the sake of completeness. In this one I viewed part in a FireTV. It worked well. I did miss taking screenshots, though (photos work, but you can't pause or the UI covers it).

Core Python: Instrospection, by Austin Bingham and Robert Smallshire, is another course in the Core Python learning path in PluralSight. This mostly covered, as obviously for the name, several techniques for instrospection of classes and objects.

Core Python: robust resource and error handling, by Austin Bingham and Robert Smallshire, is another course in the Core Python learning path in PluralSight. This mostly covered custom and chaining exceptions, the exception hierarchy, and using the with statement, as well as context managers. Overall, pretty interesting. A bit longer than necessary, though - even at 1.2x.

Core Python: Implementing Iterators, Iterables and Collections, by Austin Bingham and Robert Smallshire, is another course in the Core Python learning path in PluralSight. It covered a number of the important protocols to create collections in Python. I liked that this one used TDD - it always bothered me how they keep running the same tests by hand over and over. Overall, pretty interesting.

 Tesla vs Lovecraft: For Science! is DLC for the excellent Tesla vs Lovecraft. It adds a lot of extra weapons (including epic versions of all existing ones), perks, abilities and even a couple of upgrades (health, generic damage increase). Very much worth the price if you already liked the base game.

Life in the Fasting Lane: The Essential Guide to Making Intermittent Fasting Simple, Sustainable, and Enjoyable, by Dr. Jason Fung, Eve Mayer, Dr. Megan Ramos. Everyone with obesity or medical problems should read this book, or something like it. To make it as short as possible, eating constantly is unnatural, and the body is not built for it. So it is no surprise that as snacking got popular, so did obesity and diabetes.  Some fasting, which happened all the time, is good for you, and specially helpful if you are trying to lose weight or improve your health. I have already been fasting for about an year (lost 12kg in 4 months, and then a little more over the course of the pandemic) and I saw a lot of his interviews and online advice when I started. Later I read one of his books . This book added a bit to it, including some useful advice on how to fast, as well as how to fit fasting in your life.

Add Extensions to a Static Site Generator with Python is a project in PluralSight, following the previous one. Their way to check projects is interesting. Basically, you fork a repo in github, tell them your github name, and they will test what you did after you push the code. This was pretty useful, but in a limited way - you mostly just do what you are told, such as adding methods to a class, and adding that exact call. So what you learn is much more limited than just telling you to do something. This project ended up a little more useful than the last, as the requests were a bit more complex. Tests in PyCharm didn't work, but running pytest directly did...