GNU/Linux shell: A bit of random

From a number of different tasks of equal priority listed in a file (for the sake of argument listed in the lines 123 through 321) I wanted to choose the next one to perform in a random manner using ordinary shell tools. I came up with this solution:

    seq 123 312 | sort -R | head -1

This generates a sequence from 123 through 321, sorts it in a random manner and prints the first number of the randomized list.

This solution neither generates cryptographic random numbers nor saves memory or CPU time but it is straightforward and does the job at hand without any fancy tools or tricks. Perhaps you like it.

My Polar Sea Ice Page may soon be dysfunctional thanks to Trump

If Donald Trump goes on with his War on Truth, he will likely drain the source I tap with my page. I use data provided by the US National Snow & Ice Data Center and it is very likely that Trump will do anything he can to stop them from providing current data about the sea ice coverage. For the very simple reason that the plain data alone already clearly shows that the world's climate is going haywire. This is because the Arctic and Antarctic region is hit hardest by climate change in terms.

Interactive Maps and JavaScript

There are two major libraries for displaying interactive maps using JavaScript.

• Leaflet is quite easy to use, yet powerful enough for many if not most applications.
• OpenLayers 3 has more features but requires you to learn more before you can use it.

OpenLayers is used at our company to provide an application that is used in a number of locations, namely for the map of Cologne (at www.cologne.de). Seems as if they don't update their English pages that regularly, koeln.de is updated considerably more frequently.

Anyway, for a private project I use Leaflet instead. It visualizes the location of the Stolpersteins in Bonn and the nearby region. You can find it at stolpersteine.codeforbonn.de. It is part of the Code for Bonn project which in turn is part of the Code for Germany project, the German twin of Code for America.

The stolpersteins shown are taken directly from the OpenStreetMap database so adding a new stolperstein to the database means improving OpenStreetMap.

Math in the World of HTML and JavaScript

At work I use a lot of JavaScript as our company (among other products) offers a map client that runs in browsers. As a side effect I frequently come across interesing JavaScript libraries. I find worth sharing. Here is an example of using JavaScript to display math formulas in a nicely formatted manner. To give an example, Einstein's famous formula will look like this:

$E=mc^2$

The library used for this display is MathJax. It should be sufficient for everything formula you reasonably expect on a website that does not dig deep into natural sciences or mathemtatics. In most cases it should even suffice for these fields of application. Here is a slightly odder example:

$U^{ik} = \frac{c_g^2}{4\pi G} = \left(-g^{im} \Phi_{mr}\Phi^{rk} + \frac{1}{4} g^{ik}\Phi_{rm}\Phi^{mr} \right), \quad -\nabla_\beta U^{\alpha\beta} = \Phi_k^\alpha J^k$

Well, maybe we better say it should be sufficient for almost any application ;-)

A cute little bluetooth keyboard

I finally have one.

万歳🙌!
万歳🙌!
万歳🙌!

Odd Marlboro ad

So true.

Hanami 2016 in Bonn

Almost in front of the house I live in 😀