diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index e6b45300..261f1f6f 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,2 +1,4 @@
 _build/
-.DS_Store
\ No newline at end of file
+.DS_Store
+__pycache__/
+*.pyc
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/lectures/_static/lecture_specific/amss2/recursive_allocation.py b/lectures/_static/lecture_specific/amss2/recursive_allocation.py
index 82f2f818..3dd83501 100644
--- a/lectures/_static/lecture_specific/amss2/recursive_allocation.py
+++ b/lectures/_static/lecture_specific/amss2/recursive_allocation.py
@@ -230,7 +230,7 @@ def objf(z):
         def objf_prime(x):
 
             epsilon = 1e-7
-            x0 = np.asfarray(x)
+            x0 = np.asarray(x, dtype=float)
             f0 = np.atleast_1d(objf(x0))
             jac = np.zeros([len(x0), len(f0)])
             dx = np.zeros(len(x0))