Replace wildcard imports in Python code
From our just-in-case-you’re-Googling-for-it department… In Python code, wildcard import statements, such as: from foo import * can be very convenient, but are now usually considered bad practice. I’ve...
View ArticleUsing nginx as a load-balancing proxy with the Docker service-scaling facilities
There’s a geeky title for you! But it might help anyone Googling for those keywords… Recent versions of Docker have many nice new facilities. Here’s a demo of how you can use the service-scaling to run...
View ArticleOptimising the size of Docker containers
Or ‘Optimizing the size of Docker containers’, in case people from America or from Oxford are Googling for it… For Docker users, here are a couple of tricks when writing Dockerfiles which can help keep...
View ArticleWhat’s in a name?
Many years ago, I was helping a local church with a project which involved a database of the participating parishioners. This was stored in the columns of a spreadsheet, and occasionally printed out...
View ArticleTips for using a private Docker registry
This is a geeky post for those Googling for relevant phrases. Sometimes a Docker Registry is referred to as a ‘Docker repository’; technically, they’re different things, but the terms are often used...
View ArticleConway’s Law
Somehow, I hadn’t come across Conway’s Law until today, despite the fact that Melvin Conway came up with it when I was still wearing nappies. Conway’s Law states that: Organizations which design...
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Old News
A couple of days ago, I received some suggestions for improvements to a program I had written. This isn’t unusual: I’m writing code all the time, and much of it needs improving. (Thanks, Sam!) No, the...
View ArticleRetro Space Invaders
I think this is wonderful. Today I got to play with Gareth Bailey’s Space Invaders game – a quick hack, he claims, which he put together yesterday. This uses an oscilloscope as an X-Y plotter to draw...
View ArticleRoses are red
I came across a thread on Twitter with geeky poems on the ‘Roses are red…’ model. So here’s mine: Roses are #ff0000 Violets are #0000ff? I think violets should be More like #ee82ee Don’t you? Mmm.
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A healthy glow
Here’s a little video selfie of me breathing. Pretty exciting stuff, eh? The reason I look so strange is that it’s taken with a thermal camera: the white and yellow areas are warm, the blue and black...
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The Modern Lab Notebook
I’ve just uploaded my longest YouTube video yet! Entitled The Modern Lab Notebook: Scientific computing with Jupyter and Python, it’s a two-and-a-quarter hour blockbuster! But you can think of it as...
View ArticleGeek wisdom of the day
Some people, when confronted with a problem, think ‘I know, I’ll use multithreading’. Nothhw tpe yawrve o oblems. Eiríkr Åsheim
View ArticleArtificial History?
Here are some lovely examples of what can be achieved with a combination of technological prowess and human patience. Denis Shiryaev takes old, noisy, shaky black and white videos, and adds...
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A work of art is never finished
“A work of art”, so the saying goes, “is never finished, merely abandoned.” This assertion rings true in many artistic spheres, to the extent that I’ve seen variations attributed to people as diverse...
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