March 11 2020, 15:32

Came up with a mask that’s 100% virus-proof (including COVID-19) πŸ˜‰ πŸ˜‰ a fan on the nose! True, it’s also a quick way to infect others around you, but let’s keep that between us! here’s a quick sketch for you

P.S. Just to clarify, this is just for lulz, don’t tell me it won’t work

March 09 2020, 09:57

Once on television, a deathly pale Minister of Finance appeared and declared:

β€” The financial crisis will not affect us. Because. I’m telling you for sure.

The population, knowing a thing or two about official statements, swore quietly and went off to stockpile salt, matches, and sugar.

The next day, an extremely embarrassed Minister of Trade appeared on TV and said:

β€” The supplies of bread and essential goods allow us to proudly state that neither hunger nor commodity shortages will threaten us. Here are the figures.

“Oh!”, said the population and bought additional flour and cereals.

The Minister of Agriculture, for emphasis, danced on the podium and joyfully said:

β€” Unprecedented harvest! Hopes for export! We are reviving! The granaries are bursting!

“Wow, really!”, the population was horrified and rushed to convert their savings into foreign currency.

β€” Real estate prices will fall! A penthouse for every student! In the near future! – the Minister of Construction said without a grimace.

β€” What is going on, eh? – the population howled and rushed to buy kerosene, kerosene lamps, wood, and coal.

β€” A modern army on a contractual basis. Starting tomorrow. And grenades of a new system. They don’t have these in the world yet. β€” the Minister of Defense stated solemnly. β€” Well, why not? There’s plenty of money. Reserves, stockpiles, and generally a surplus.

β€” Mommy!… – the population squeaked and began digging dugouts.

β€” Everything is awe-some! Do you understand?! AWE-SOME!!! – the President insisted. β€” We could have built communism today already. The only thing stopping us β€” we’d all have nothing to do. So you can sleep peacefully! It doesn’t get more stable! Pensioners are buying caviar by the bucket! I foresee a qualitative leap, surge, and jump. And quantitatively – a full run! Taking giant strides towards prosperity and wealth. The Caribbean is getting closer. From here we shall threaten the world. A hundred and thirty centners of roses from each flower bed. We’re going to reduce milk output. Cows can’t carry their udders around. The population is outraged by the cheapness. South America is begging to join us as a state-run farm. Hurrah!

β€” What on earth are you preparing, you beasts?! – the population shouted and just in case changed into all its clean clothes.

M. Zhvanetsky

March 08 2020, 22:25

Published a new article on Performance Testing. This time – about testing with Python scripts. Python’s flexibility allows for constructing very complex test plans, and I share how to use Python correctly for this purpose, and how not to. Also sharing a sample code for a load testing utility (asyncio+await/async). Furthermore, I demonstrate the benefits such testing can bring through showcasing concurrency issues in the SAP Commerce Cloud Integration API. There, I create twenty-five parallel updates of a single product, and everything goes awry.

March 08 2020, 00:51

I found some interesting statistics. It turns out that in the USA during 2017-2018, “flu-like” diseases (influenza) affected 45,000,000 people, and 61,000 died from the flu. Thus, the death rate was 0.13%, and the incidence rate was 13.7%, or 13,700 per 100,000 people. In Russia, according to Kommersant, the incidence rate is 703 cases per 100,000 people, which equates to 1 million people across the country, or 0.66%. Thus, just looking at flu and similar illnesses, the official statistics show a 20-fold difference between the USA and Russia. As for flu deaths, according to the official Rosstat statistics in Russia, 87 people died from the flu in 2017. Compared to 61,000 in the USA. There’s no genetic barrier against the flu in Russia. Just something to note, for those who count and those who do not.

In the case of COVID-19, the death rate among those infected is 3.3%, which is certainly high. On the other hand, in the USA, 30 million people suffer from heart diseases and 647,457 deaths, which is 2.1% of the sick, but only among the sick – every tenth person. In Russia, 47% of all deaths (about 700K per year) are due to cardiovascular diseases. So, the statistics show that if a patient already has heart disease, the probability of dying from COVID-19 greatly increases. Obviously, if you already have it, you can’t just get rid of it, but it’s definitely time to think about health.

So, the best advice for non-elderly people to survive the era of “coronaviruses and others” – move more, get plenty of sleep, and eat right; and for the elderly – all the same, but try to do all this away from sick people.

And for children – not to worry at all. So far, out of three thousand, no one under 9 has been affected, and the age group “up to 45 years” has a death rate of 0.2% among registered cases. This also looks scary until you consider the number of unregistered cases and recovered individuals. For instance, if it suddenly turns out that traces of the virus are found in an additional hundred thousand healthy (already) people, the percentages will drop very quickly. The problem for now is that testing is still expensive and complicated.

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/2017-2018.htm