Python dev

I am finally working in Python again, although it is the wrong tool for the job at hand right now at work, but never mind that we have limited access and it is the right tool for working around the artificial barriers that they placed on us.

I got very productive with debugging python3 by having a free IDE that has powerful plugins.  I think that vim is pretty good and VScode is for me as it can also do vim commands.  It is worth setting up the interactive debugging before you get too deep in code and can't spare the time.  I personally like VScode, however I have seem people productive on PyCharm and Sublime (which I used for about 2 months and abandoned for Atom)

I send people to VScode these days as it seems to have the most mindshare and frequent updates.

Pixel 3 vs new iPhone 12

 Mint has a deal, buy an iPhone 12, get 6 months free, only $15/month for a 4 GigB plan after free. I don't need another cellphone right now because I still have a Pixel $60, XL $76 and Moto Play $199 new that are fairly usable, but darn, for $90 I might just upgrade to a Pixel 3 $90.  A quick look on eBay says that this is a good deal.

If anyone wants one of my used phones hit me up, the prices I quoted are what I paid.

This post is for you my bestie who says I don't post anymore and therefor you don't read my blog.

Robinhood 2.5% margin

Robinhood has 2.5% margin rates, looked at Schwab and Webull, rates are from 3.99%-8.32% for smaller amounts, use my referral if you want to sign up and get up to 4 free stocks if you open an account.

Excessive Android phone battery drain

 I had my battery on a Pixel phone go from 100% to 30% overnight with the phone turned off so I think that either the battery sucks and has an internal resistance or there is something running on the phone even if it is turned off, which is even scarier.  So I get similar results several times and I try to leave the phone in airplane mode, no big overnight drain, very strange.  So next I try to drain the battery all the way, I get a 24 hour usage on battery saver with airplane mode at 2% for 24 hours, well now we are getting somewhere, it is a miscalibrated indicator.  I will next try to calibrate it by running the phone up to 100% twice then running it down to shutdown twice and try again to measure the result. 

Freshbooks review

 I was advising PChelperTeam.com a 1 person PC support company in LA that wants to hire employees to expand an ever growing clientele of small offices using Windows PCs.  Services are: "PCHelperTeam is a one-stop shop for all your computer equipment, software and technical support services at your convinient time and place. PCHelperTeam is a team of experienced and friendly IT professionals. We at PCHT love what we do and we are good at it. We will customize technology to fit your wishes and needs so you enjoy life without the hassle and clutter."

So I recommended Freshbooks to Soroush since he was enamored with the idea of creating his own service and selling it to his competitors I joined ReqFoot.com to build it from a collection of open source software.  The deal ReqFoot got was a free first customer in turnsys.com and get tech support from the ReachableCEO as well as a pre-selected team.  I started working there without tracking my time and eventually left without any equity, but perhaps some good will and the knowledge that I helped get this off the ground.

Time being my most valuable commodity sometimes it helps to track where it all goes:

I just picked up a quick contract and was told to invoice them so I used Freshbooks as my contract from 2009 had recommended it to me.  It has gotten better over the years.  I like that I can get epay, email invoices without a fuss and do estimates, I can add team members and the user interface is simpoe and intuitive.  I wish I had timed my setup, but estimate that I was up and running in 20 min.

Funny thing is that at the same time I was involved in reqfoot.com which builds a competing product, but we were a bit to early for me to use it.

I will gladly help them with your referrals as I have a good experience (: 

Solar Car

I was pretty stoked to see Zak talk about this solar car.  Running on sun juice as they call it and charging while parked in the sun is the way to go.  I have wanted something like this for a long time as it reduces the battery size and the need for charging.  The promo video confirms it is in fact a very low drag, high range car that you don't need to plug in most of the time.  Seems like it only is a WeFunder so far, but they have some pretty good promo.

Multimeter

Cyber Monday had me thinking I need a digital multimeter so I bought one off Ali for US $21.72 free shipping.

Seems you can get one for free if you sign up and get a US $24.00 signup bonus.