Francis George

@[email protected]
218 Followers
265 Following
999 Posts
He/him. Comp sci full stack tech lead. Rubyist for 12 years strong. #Ruby #Rails, #PostgreSQL, #UX, #Design, #3dPrinting, #Electronics, #Keyboards, #Photography and whatever makes my heart sing. My views are not my own.
Websitehttps://www.sfcgeorge.co.uk
GitHubhttps://github.com/sfcgeorge
Glasshttps://glass.photo/sfcgeorge
Francis GeorgeJan 25

Gnuplot is such a good example of basically impenetrable to beginners unixy software.

Homepage: lotta "stuff", no clear getting started link.
Manual: Opens with credits? Still no getting started.
Overview: Now we have an index, and subtopics that are alphabetised so you can't tell which to read first?! Start-up maybe...
Start-up: Something about dotfiles and INIs. I'm out.

(And if you thought the tutorials link was the answer, wrong! That's where the foreign language guides live 🤷‍♀️ )

Francis GeorgeJul 24, 2025
I kinda want an original Kindle with the absolutely unhinged controls. I would jailbreak it then immediately run out of ideas
Francis GeorgeFeb 2, 2025
I found this very cool about Postgres enums: they're ordered and so you can query using comparison operators and even ORDER BY. It's a more enticing reason to use them over a string than just "correctness" or size on disk.
Francis GeorgeSep 11, 2024
Thought my sewing machine box looked like an old computer terminal so I used my craft cutter to turn it into one!
Francis GeorgeAug 9, 2024

Just came across CUE config / data validation language. I love its "types are values” concept.

Having not thought it through at all, I think a programming language that worked this way would be really cool - would simplify type definition syntax.

https://cuelang.org/docs/introduction/#types-are-values

Introduction

Welcome! CUE is an open-source data validation language and inference engine with its roots in logic programming. Although the language is not a general-purpose programming language, it has many applications, such as data validation, data templating, configuration, querying, code generation and even scripting. The inference engine can be used to validate data in code or to include it as part of a code generation pipeline. A key thing that sets CUE apart from its peer languages is that it merges types and values into a single concept.

CUE
Francis GeorgeJun 28, 2024
I vaguely remembered this was a thing. You can define Ruby methods inside each other, but they seem to end up in the same scope so I don’t think there’s anything fun you can do with it @DRBragg @Dan2552
Francis GeorgeMay 24, 2024
USB soldering irons are so cursed. USB-C one end, TRS jack the other. Let me just plug these 350Âşc headphones into my iPhone why not! (I think they're neat, just cursed) https://www.crowdsupply.com/sitron-labs/solder-ninja-pen
Solder Ninja Pen

A 45 W USB-powered soldering iron compatible with Weller RT Micro tips

Crowd Supply
Francis GeorgeApr 15, 2024
I don't mind analytics cookies in theory. I want them to make their service better. They need to know how it's used to do so. Except then they get greedy and use the same cookie for ads, so of course I opt out and nobody wins. This is GitHub fyi, accessed by clicking the footer link "Do not share my personal information” 🤔
Francis GeorgeApr 7, 2024

I needed to 3D model a timing belt profile and slightly tweak it for 3D printing. But the technical drawing is deceivingly complex.

I normally use OpenSCAD which is parametric (you specify shapes & dimensions), but that won't work here. See all the arcs relative to other arcs relative to points… it needs a constraint solver.

FreeCAD can probably do it but the UX Is inscrutable to me.

So I tried SolveSpace; another open source constrain modeller. And it was a breeze! https://solvespace.com/

SolveSpace - parametric 3d CAD

Francis GeorgeJul 21, 2023
I wonder why my internet is broken, I'll see if there's a status update. Ah.