Photoshots during Corona Virus Times

It is time for introspection and looking out for things that one may not notice usually. There are always wonderful and deadly(New Corona Virus) things in nature. They humble us and bring us to our knees. We have come a long way from our primitive beginnings, but have we really conquered the world with our superior knowledge.  We probably have made just a little nick in knowing the existing universe.

Here is an arresting picture of the clear skies by Ben Lockett that appeared in BBC's article. The photographer found easy to capture this courtesy of corona virus with no flights spoiling his picture.

Here is my attempt to capture a spider's web on my lilikoi (passion fruit) creeper. I tried to juxtaposition Waikiki in the distance and barely made it.

Installing lxml on Windows 10

lxml is a parser for XML and HTML. It binds c libraries linxml2 and licxslt to Python and should work with Python versions 2.8 through 3.8.

lxml is better than ElementTree I used with python 3.7:

https://hodentek.blogspot.com/2018/07/parsing-xml-with-python-37.html

You can download the complete and this te documentation in pdf from here:
https://lxml.de/lxmldoc-4.5.0.pdf

The HTML parsing may be available here:
https://lxml.de/index.html#download

As a parser, it builds a data structure (parse tree) given the XML. There are many programs to parse XML but this is python specific.

How do you install?

Get the lxml from here:

http://pypi.python.org/pypi/lxml/ 

 use the following public key:

https://lxml.de/3.8/pubkey.asc 

If you have Python 3.8, like I have, the lxml 3.8.0 is here:

https://lxml.de/files/lxml-3.8.0.tgz
Documentation here:
https://lxml.de/3.8/lxmldoc-3.8.0.pdf

If you are using Windows 10 and already have Python 3.8 use the following steps:

Step 1: Verify you can run 'pip' as shown here:
-------
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.18362.657]
(c) 2019 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>pip

Usage:
  C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\PythonSoftwareFoundation.Python.3.7_qbz5n2kfra8p0\python.exe -m pip [options]

Commands:
  install                     Install packages.
  download                    Download packages.
  uninstall                   Uninstall packages.
  freeze                      Output installed packages in requirements format.
  list                        List installed packages.
  show                        Show information about installed packages.
  check                       Verify installed packages have compatible dependencies.
  config                      Manage local and global configuration.
  search                      Search PyPI for packages.
  wheel                       Build wheels from your requirements.
  hash                        Compute hashes of package archives.
  completion                  A helper command used for command completion.
  debug                       Show information useful for debugging.
  help                        Show help for commands.

General Options:
  -h, --help                  Show help.
  --isolated                  Run pip in an isolated mode, ignoring environment variables and user configuration.
  -v, --verbose               Give more output. Option is additive, and can be used up to 3 times.
  -V, --version               Show version and exit.
  -q, --quiet                 Give less output. Option is additive, and can be used up to 3 times (corresponding to
                              WARNING, ERROR, and CRITICAL logging levels).
  --log                 Path to a verbose appending log.
  --proxy              Specify a proxy in the form [user:passwd@]proxy.server:port.
  --retries          Maximum number of retries each connection should attempt (default 5 times).
  --timeout              Set the socket timeout (default 15 seconds).
  --exists-action     Default action when a path already exists: (s)witch, (i)gnore, (w)ipe, (b)ackup,
                              (a)bort.
  --trusted-host    Mark this host as trusted, even though it does not have valid or any HTTPS.
  --cert                Path to alternate CA bundle.
  --client-cert         Path to SSL client certificate, a single file containing the private key and the
                              certificate in PEM format.
  --cache-dir

           Store the cache data in.
  --no-cache-dir              Disable the cache.
  --disable-pip-version-check
                              Don't periodically check PyPI to determine whether a new version of pip is available for
                              download. Implied with --no-index.
  --no-color                  Suppress colored output
---------------------

Step 2: Use this command to install lxml:

MySQL is the DB of year 2019

In the DB-Engines ranking MySQL takes top place, Oracle is 2nd and Microsoft SQL Server is 3.

Read more here for the reasons:
https://db-engines.com/en/blog_post/83

Kirk Douglas was a legend and I loved his movies

Kirk Douglas dead at 103.

Kirk Douglas was a great actor, and I am not sure Michael will attain the heights his father reached.

Most of the movies I saw and enjoyed, were released during the 1960s and 1970s. I had fewer opportunities to watch Hollywood movies outside India in the later years.

The movies were riveting largely due to Kirk. I miss him and so does Hollywood. He was a role model for a person in the entertainment industry who was also of high moral caliber. He must have had great genes, healthy habits and discipline to live beyond 100.  I miss him, and so does Hollywood. 

May his soul RIP.

Here are some of the movies I enjoyed:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_Was_a_Crooked_Man...--There was a crooked man
https://www.amazon.com/Ace-Hole-Kirk-Douglas/dp/B00170F0MK --Ace in the Hole
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054331/ --Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046672/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_74--20,000 leagues under the sea
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050468/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_68  --Gunfight at O.K. Corral
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047630/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_76  --Ulysses

Zebra bands on Windows Desktop

Well, this looks really odd. Where did these bands come from?

I wonder whether it is the problem with the display hardware. If I capture the window and look at it, it has no bands. Also, the display resolution does not have any effect.

Here is a solution from Window Central.

https://hodentekhelp.blogspot.com/2020/02/how-do-you-correct-windows-10-display.html