Week 306 - Interesting links

Transistor Fabrication: So simple a child can do it

Having had a go at building a NAND gate out of a couple of transistors at the first NAND2Tetris meeting of the LCC, I was interested in this demo of someone making a transistor. Someone also asked about vacuum tubes at the meeting - it turns out you can make those too! — JM

Cache is the new RAM

This is a nice recap of how web application architecture has evolved to work around various bottlenecks and a look forward at where the next ones are likely to be. — JM

OpenWorm

An open-source project to build the first “digital life form”, a virtual C. elegans nematode in a computer. — JM

Array#to_proc for Hash access

A simple “hack” which allows you to do things like:

[ { x: 1 }, { x: 2 } ].map(&[:x]) # => [ 1, 2 ]

Via Tom Stuart. — JM

Should I use a carousel?

A carousel full of good advice. — JM

Speed Up JavaScript Capybara Specs by Blacklisting URLs

Useful advice for tracking down slow external network requests in Capybara JavaScript tests (by using the :webkit_debug driver) and then using #url_blacklist to avoid them.

I hadn’t come across either of these things before but will certainly bear them in mind should I come across slow running tests in future. — CR

Taking the Ps

‘30 quid each? Fuck that. It’s not even got a roof,’ said Half-life, recounting how he had refused his own mother her life-long dream of a ride on an open-top London sightseeing bus.

The Deserter has recently become one of my favourite blogs (thanks, Paul B!). Definitely my kind of humour. — CR