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• 2024-01-05 美国入关记

  2024-01-06

  lydxlx

  css

  US  custom  SEA  MPC

  4年多之后再次入境美国（上海 PVG –> 西雅图 SEA)，很多东西发生了变化，在这记录一下。

  • 入境的蓝色申报表不再发放填写了。
    • 在我老旧的记忆力里一上飞机就会发这张表，接着就可以看到几种不同态度的人：刚发表格就立马填好的，中途想起来填写的，和一直到最后降落之前才开始填写的。
  • 入关的顺序发生了变化
    • 以前是下飞机先带着随身行李通过海关，然后再前往转盘拿托运行李决定是再次托运还是直接离开航站楼。
    • 现在是所有的航班旅客都在集中拿行李，然后再集中排队通过海关。在高峰的时期大概有20-30个海关工作人员同时处理，消化队伍的速度确实比以前高不少。但缺点也很明显，拿行李的人和排队入关的人混杂在一起，没人指挥，场面一度非常混乱。尤其是排队入关的队伍非常长，绕着3、4个行李转盘转了好多圈，很长时间分不清队头队尾（可以联想一下贪吃蛇玩的很长的时候的状态）
  • 一些小tips
    • 行李小车很充足，行李多的话拿一个会很省心（经常看到有家庭让小朋友直接坐在小车箱子上面）
    • 举着黄色”Passport Control”牌子的人其实代表的是队尾，所以在队伍中的人不要跟着他走 hhh
    • US / CA citizen和绿卡用户强烈建议下载App MPC (Mobile Passport Control)进行操作。一个家庭填写一份，之后拿到bar code就可以走MPC通道（号称5分钟就可以搞定）。这个通道好像和Global Entry在一起，感觉也应该相对丝滑。
  • 海关问我的一些问题（基本上都是以前申报表上的）
    • 从哪儿来，这次航班之前有没有经停其他的国家？
    • 上一趟旅行呆了多久？
    • 有没有带什么来美国？我说了茶叶和饼干
    • 带了多少现金？
    • 全部对话，包括一开始脱掉口罩眼睛扫描人脸，加在一起不超过一分钟，相当高效
  • 假期结束，开始搬砖。。。
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• ChatGPT helps write an email for garbage bin replacement

  2023-06-04

  lydxlx

  css

  chatgpt
  • ChatGPT drafted email
  • Reply from City of XXX Service
  • It works!

  I asked ChatGPT to prepare me an email draft for requesting a replacement of my damaged green garbage bin. It worked very well – I just needed to copy and paste the email to the city service, and I got the reply from the city on the next business day and received a new bin on the garbage collection day!

  ChatGPT drafted email

  Request for Replacement of Damaged Green Garbage Bin

  Dear City of XXX Service,

  I hope this message finds you well. My name is XXX, and I am a residential customer residing at the following address:

  … … …

  I am writing to you to request a replacement for our green garbage bin. Unfortunately, over the past few years, our current bin has suffered from significant cracks and damages, rendering it less effective and harder to use. The situation has reached a point where it is necessary for us to request a new bin.

  We understand that items like these suffer from wear and tear over time, and we appreciate your understanding and assistance in addressing this issue. Please let me know if there is any additional information needed or if there are any procedures that I need to follow in order to facilitate this replacement.

  Thank you very much for your attention to this matter. I am looking forward to hearing from you soon.

  Reply from City of XXX Service

  Thank you for contacting XXX regarding your damaged container. I understand how frustrating it can be to receive a delayed response to your request. I apologize for this experience and assure you I will work to resolve this matter with the highest priority.

  I have arranged for the replacement of the trash container to take place on 06/02/2023. Please ensure your damaged container is placed at the curb on or before 06/02/2023, so our driver has easy access to replace it. Your confirmation number is 237112.

  If you have any additional questions, please feel free to respond to this email or chat with us online at xxx.

  Thanks again for contacting XXX. We appreciate the opportunity to be your environmental service and solutions partner.

  It works!

  We got a new bin on the garbage collection day, and here is the photo of the new bin! :)

  

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• How to merge and extract tgz files from Google Takeout?

  2023-02-19

  lydxlx

  css

  tgz  google  takeout

  Source: https://gist.github.com/chabala/22ed01d7acf9ee0de9e3d867133f83fb

  One solution that works for me on Mac:

  pv takeout-* | gtar -xzif -
  

  Where we need to install pv and gnu-tar from Homebrew, i.e.,

  brew install pv
  brew install gnu-tar
  

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• How to auto-reload all the modules and classes in Python Notebook?

  2022-07-24

  lydxlx

  css

  python  notebook  autoreload

  The answer is autoreload. See the following Line Magics.

  In [1]: %load_ext autoreload
  
  In [2]: %autoreload 2
  
  In [3]: from foo import some_function
  
  In [4]: some_function()
  Out[4]: 42
  
  In [5]: # open foo.py in an editor and change some_function to return 43
  
  In [6]: some_function()
  Out[6]: 43
  

  This official page contains more details on autoreload.

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• How to hide WPM box in Typeracer?

  2021-11-28

  lydxlx

  css

  typeracer  wpm  css

  Typeracer is one of my favorite typing websites, and I have used the “Practice Yourself” feature a lot to improve my typing accuracy and speed (and also for fun!).

  Recently, I have been thinking whether it’s possible to hide the WPM (words per minute) box while typing so that I will get less distracted by the real-time WPM number and thus can focus more on the typing paragraph.

  

  I posted the question in the Typeracer Discord channel, and KeeganT proposed a very neat solution using CSS.

  .rankPanel {
      display: none;
  }
  

  To enable it, one can follow these steps, assuming using Chrome as the browser.

  • Open “Inspect” tool
  • Go to “Sources” tab
  • Locate the website’s CSS file. As of now, it’s named as TypeRacer.css.
  • Append the above code snippet at the end of the file.

  

  If everything is done correctly, the change should be applied immediately to the website. To cancel the effect, one can simply remove the line display: none;.

  Big thanks to KeeganT again for providing this awesome solution.

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• How to Skip Duplicate Files on Mac

  2021-10-10

  lydxlx

  mac

  mac  skip  option

  Normally, you see the following dialog box when copying files from one folder to another and hitting a conflict.

  

  There are three options:

  • Keep Both
  • Stop
  • Replace

  But what if you want to SKIP duplicated files and still copy the remaining new files? The trick is the “option” key. When pressed, the “Keep Both” button will replaced with “Skip”!

  

  Lastly, here are some fun facts:

  • The icon of the “option” key is a circuit switch, indicating that you can choose either options.
  • The “option” key is also useful to remove the boarder in taking screenshots.
  • Mac seems to be clever enough to remember my previous decision as now “Skip” is shown by default and “Keep Both” becomes the hidden one once “option” key is pressed.
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