phase-deuce

Welcome to the daily log. This program was written during the COVID-19 pandemic, as a way to demonstrate that manual "contact tracing" can be spoofed.

The code is cross-platform, and most of it is (I think) written well. Let me know what you think.

How do I use this?

Windows

From the command line, type phase-deuce.py (or phase-deuce.py -h for a list of options)

macOS/Linux

From the command line, type ./phase-deuce.py (or ./phase-deuce.py -h for a list of options)

Note that phase-deuce is a console application, written in Python. That means you'll need to open a terminal window and execute it manually, from the command line. If you don't already have the Python language installed on your computer, you'll need to install it before this app will work.

What does phase-deuce actually do?

Every time you press the space bar, a .CSV formatted row of data is added to a "daily log" database file. The database files are named according to the current day.

The rows of each daily log file are formatted with the following columns:

unix_time,full_name,email_address,phone_number,checksum

Each log file will be named according to "phase-deuce-log_YYYY-MM-DD.csv"

I'm not sure if I can run Python apps. How do I install Python?

Windows

• First of all, try to install Python from the Windows Store. If you're unable to do this, keep reading...
• Go to Python Releases for Windows
• Under Stable Releases, select and download the most recent Windows x86-64 executable installer
• Run the downloaded file
• This will bring up the Python wizard which will guide you throughout the installation
• Choose Customize installation
• Check the box Add Python to environment variables, so you can run Python from any folder
• Accept the remaining settings and wait until the installation is finished

macOS

• Recent Macs come with Python pre-installed, but it might be outdated! (Oh no!)
• Checking the latest releases and related instructions might be a good idea, so click here
• The macOS installer should automatically handle your path settings

Unix and Linux

• First of all, try to install Python using your package manager. If you're unable to do this, keep reading...
• Open a web browser and head over to Python Source Releases
• Download the latest zipped source code available for Unix/Linux
• Download and extract files
• Open terminal and navigate to the directory where you extracted the files
• Run the following commands:

    ./configure
    make
    make install

• This will install Python at the default location /usr/local/bin and its libraries at /usr/local/lib/pythonXX where XX is the version of Python you installed

• Then set your PATH environment variable:

  In the bash shell, type export PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/bin/python" and press ENTER

  In the csh shell, type setenv PATH "$PATH:/usr/local/bin/python" and press ENTER

  In the sh or ksh shell, type PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/bin/python" and press ENTER

How do I use this again?

One you have the application running, just press SPACE every time you want to simulate a customer coming in.

When you're finished testing, press Q, X, or CTRL-C to exit.

To view the output data, open the .CSV file with Microsoft Excel, LibreOffice Calc, or any text editor.

(If you'd like to convert the UNIX timestamps to a friendlier datetime string, you can do a formula from within your spreadsheet, as shown here)

Your code sucks. Can I make changes?

Yes! Please fork the repo and submit a pull request. I'd appreciate it.

Feel free to also submit a new issue if there's something you'd like me to address.