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Ruby Tips 15 - Don't let UTC trip you up
If you’re using Ruby and working with timestamps, there is a chance that every now and then, you need a timestamp converted to UTC or back to some other time zone. In such, you probably expect to do
timestamp.utcand Ruby doesn’t disappoint. You get the UTC timestamp and you probably continue with something liketimestamp.utc.strftime (...)and it seems perfect.…
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Short: Add an OpenStreetMap (OSM) Layer in QGIS
It’s easy to add an OpenStreetMap layer in QGIS…
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Opinion: The Upcoming AI Coding Syndrome
Generative AI, LLMs, AI-assisted coding and such remind me of something I heard when I was learning Japanese almost 20 years ago – the “word processor syndrome” or “word processor language disorder”.…
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RAISE: Evaluating if AI is helping me code
In 2026, as I hope to use AI coding tools, I am keen to follow a more disciplined approach to collect some data that I may be able to look back on after a few weeks or months to establish what value, if any, it brings me. Here’s how I am planning to do that.…
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DuckDB - Autoincrement Primary Key
In previous posts, we went through setting up DuckDB on Windows, exploring DuckDB for common tasks involving importing data, aggregate queries and type casting and Part 2 around date and time functions. Now, we look at how we get an
AUTOINCREMENTfield (usually as a default value for a primary key).…
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Ruby 4.0 on Windows: Day 0 - install and Hello World
Ruby is a dynamic, open source programming language with a focus on simplicity and productivity. It has an elegant syntax that is natural to read and easy to write (from the Ruby web site). On Christmas Day 2025, as is tradition now, the core team released version 4.0 – the next major version with ZJIT (not available on Windows yet) and experimental support for Ruby Box alongside other improvements and features – that has been in development for some time and replace the working version “Ruby 3.5”. The Windows RubyInstaller site has just added Ruby 4.0 to its downloads page, so let’s get it up and running.…
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Windows: Changing Icons for Office Files
I use small icons in Windows and the new Office icons are just not very good in a small size. In this post, we look at how to change the icons for the main Office document files (XLSX, DOCX, etc.) so that they are more visible at smaller icon sizes.…
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Windows: Fix Corrupted Icon Display in Explorer
On Windows, there are times when icon display gets messed up and you see a lot of generic icons or incorrect icons. There are also times when you change the icon for a category of files, but the new icons do not show up correctly.…
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Windows: How to see what icons are in an EXE or DLL
On Windows, icons are often deployed as resources within an EXE or DLL file. There is no built-in viewer on Windows for the multiple icons that are within the same file. Sometimes, you might want to see the list of icons so that you can use them for some purpose (e.g., I want to use different icons for Office 365 files). This post shows a simple way (workaround!?) to see these icons.…
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Thoughts on how we (could) know things and where technology helps
For a while, I have been thinking about how we know and learn things, especially in today’s world where we are constantly bombarded by information in the attention economy, told that search and AI will make us dumber, and the “algorithm” encourages us to participate and debate (put politely) on varying topics with people across the world. In thinking about how we know and learn things, I find that we (or at least, I) go through these phases:…
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Portable setup for PostgreSQL on Windows (Pg18 Edition)
The normal method for using PostgreSQL on your Windows machine is to download the installer and then set it up. It’s easy and will do all the necessary things that you need for it. It will also set up services and other things that you might need. On the other hand, if you’re someone who uses PostgreSQL only some times and do not want it running all the time, or if you want to use different versions and want to have them switched on from time to time, or if you just want a portable setup that you can copy to any computer and get it running, then this post is for you.…
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JRuby 10 on Windows: Day 0 - install and Hello World
JRuby is a Java implementation of Ruby that runs atop the Java Virtual Machine. The JRuby wiki has this to say:…
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Productivity: Organising the notebook in OneNote
With OneNote, I think the biggest challenge is deciding the correct number and organisation of the notebooks. This post explains the approach that I am currently using.…
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Exploring DuckDB - Part 2 (Dates, Times, CLI)
In the previous posts, we went through setting up DuckDB and exploring DuckDB for common tasks involving importing data, aggregate queries and type casting. In this post, we continue our exploration by looking at some more common things we need, especially around date and time functions.…
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Exploring DuckDB - Part 1 (Import, Aggregates, Casting)
Recently, I started using DuckDB for some quick analysis of large data files that I had received. In doing so, I needed to figure out how to do things within DuckDB. This post is a collection of "tips" for doing things that I commonly need to do. You’re unlikely to find advanced tips here but if you’re also just getting started, this post might save you some amount of searching.…
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Using DuckDB on Windows and with Ruby
DuckDB is a fast, open-source database for Online Analytics Processing (OLAP) workloads. It is similar to SQLite3 in the sense that it’s intended to be built directly into a host process and runs within it rather than a separate stand-alone server. Let’s look at setting this up and using it in Windows and also from Ruby.…
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Windows: Installing and Running Podman Desktop - Part 1
Podman Desktop (and Podman) helps you run Linux containers on Windows, backed by Windows Subsystem on Linux (WSL2). Let’s look at the normal installation flow.…
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Windows: Virtualisation and Running Linux
A short note on virtualisation for Linux applications and machines on your Windows machine.…
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Productivity: Creating a Year Overview Page for 2025 in OneNote
I am not sure where I read it or watched it (in the past 18 months, I have probably watched nearly 100 videos on organisation, productivity and using OneNote), but I think one idea that I find very useful is creating a summarised overview for the full year. This helps me note down in a simple way what the year looks like and it is updated by me as we go through the year. It provides a great way to see what has transpired and what is in play for the rest of the year, as we know it.…
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Ruby 3.4 on Windows: Day 0 - install and Hello World
Ruby is a dynamic, open source programming language with a focus on simplicity and productivity. It has an elegant syntax that is natural to read and easy to write (from the Ruby web site). On Christmas Day 2024, the core team released version 3.4 with major improvements and new features including a new parser that has been in development for some time. This was followed by a rapid release of 3.4.1 due to a minor oversight. The Windows RubyInstaller site has just added Ruby 3.4 to its downloads, so let’s get it up and running.…
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Ruby: 20 Day Gem Challenge Part 4
Recently on Bluesky, there was a #20DayGemChallenge where we were encouraged to choose 20 Ruby gems that we’ve used time and time again, or have inspired us in some way and post one gem per day in no particular order and with no explanation. This series of posts explains my specific reason for choosing each of these gems.…
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Ruby: 20 Day Gem Challenge Part 3
Recently on Bluesky, there was a #20DayGemChallenge where we were encouraged to choose 20 Ruby gems that we’ve used time and time again, or have inspired us in some way and post one gem per day in no particular order and with no explanation. This series of posts explains my specific reason for choosing each of these gems.…
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Ruby: 20 Day Gem Challenge Part 2
Recently on Bluesky, there was a #20DayGemChallenge where we were encouraged to choose 20 Ruby gems that we’ve used time and time again, or have inspired us in some way and post one gem per day in no particular order and with no explanation. This series of posts explains my specific reason for choosing each of these gems.…
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Ruby: 20 Day Gem Challenge Part 1
Recently on Bluesky, there was a #20DayGemChallenge where we were encouraged to choose 20 Ruby gems that we’ve used time and time again, or have inspired us in some way and post one gem per day in no particular order and with no explanation. This series of posts explains my specific reason for choosing each of these gems.…
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Windows: Use Graphviz without Installation
Graphviz is open source graph visualization software that is incredibly popular. In this post, we see how to run it on Windows without installing the software package.…