Roundup: ASCII diagrams, tube cooling, extraterrestrial maps, spaceport, ruby keywords and Luna
June 23, 2017
Ascii Diagram Tool - Murray S
http://asciiflow.com/
I recently wanted to draw a diagram to help illustrate the details of a story I was working on. I wanted to include the diagram in my comment, rather than attach it as an image so I thought I would do it as ascii. The diagram turned out to be quite complex and beyond my threshold for faffing about with punctuation to draw it properly. Luckily asciiflow was only a google away and so I used that.
Cooling the tube - Henry T
https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2017/06/10/cooling-the-tube-engineering-heat-out-of-the-underground/
Be warned - this isn't a metaphor. It's about the challenges involved with cooling the London Underground. Considering the weather it feels like a good week to be thinking about this.
Google Maps now covers Mars and the Moon! - James C
https://www.google.com/maps/space/mars/@7.189878,-40.5235811,9528848m/data=!3m1!1e3
I always knew this day would come. It seemed like an obvious direction for Google Maps/Earth to head in. You can now explore the Moon and Mars from Google Maps! Frickin' awesome!
Newquay, Cornwall might have the UK's first SPACEPORT - James C
https://www.engadget.com/2017/06/21/queens-speech-2017-uk-tech/
The Queen spoke about the UKs 'Space Industry Bill' in her latest speech and apparently Newquay in Cornwall is the ideal candidate for the UK's first spaceport.
Unlocking Ruby Keywords: Begin, End, Ensure, Rescue - James C
http://vaidehijoshi.github.io/blog/2015/08/25/unlocking-ruby-keywords-begin-end-ensure-rescue/
Although this might be very basic Ruby for some, I actually found this article very helpful. Sometimes it's good to go back to the basics.
One pattern I've been desperately in need of and didn't realise I could do until now is:
ruby
@foo ||= begin
Foo.create(foo_attrs)
end
Luna - Crystal
http://www.luna-lang.org/
An interesting new "language" which seems like a mix and match from various languages. I'm yet to try it but I'm curious to see if/how it takes off, and who uses it.
Track of the Week - Martyn E
This is a track by my friend Sean O'Hagan and his band The High Llamas. It's the title track from a performance piece based on conversations overheard in Peckham Square and it's a fine example of Sean's genius.