sqliteviz

While I'm likely going to be a "native app" proponent 4eva, browser-based apps do make tools widely accessible, which is important, especially for democratizing access to educational resources.

While sqliteviz is not necessarily purely an educational resource, it provides direct and offline access to databases, SQL queries, and data visualization components in a risk-free environment.

Under the covers, sqliteviz is a single-page, offline-first, progressive web app (PWA) for fully client-side visualisation of SQLite databases or CSV files developed by GH user lana-k.

With it, you can: (pulled directly from the GH README)

• run SQL queries against a SQLite database and create Plotly charts and pivot tables based on the result sets

• import a CSV file into a SQLite database and visualize imported data

• export result set to CSV file

• manage inquiries and run them against different databases

• import/export inquiries from/to a JSON file

• export a modified SQLite database

• use it offline from your OS application menu like any other desktop app

Adding data is easy (below is an import of R's mtcars dataset):

Sqliteviz is not going to replace R or Python, but it does provide a safe place to learn database concepts and experiment with different data views.

ALSO: TIL (because of the sqlive viz README) that one can now place a bare link to an in-repo MP4 file and have it show up as a playable element right on GH.

logseq

(It seems today is quickly becoming "offline first" day.)

I rely (too) heavily on memory, tools such as Raindrop and Inoreader, and very loosely organized local markdown files and have been in search of a personal knowledge management app that fits how I think/work. I've dabbled with Roam, Notability, and many others and have yet to settle on one.

Today's dabble is logseq, which is the category of "networked outliners", which essentially means you're working with and thinking in a graph idiom vs hierarchical lists.

I'll be giving this a go as I continue to get a handle on the myriad of tasks and diverse bits of organizational knowledge at GreyNoise, so stay tuned for more than just a link drop (the above link to logseq has an impressive overview that does more to intro the tool than I could post here).

You can use it in browser mode (it stores everything locally) or via a local Electron (yuk) app, and it's pretty risk-free if you presently use Roam or another tool that is compatible with Roam's JSON export format.

The Nimatron

I have a few Twitter/IRL mates who build, collect, and/or refurbish "old" arcade games and consoles as a hobby. I doubt any of them have what is considered to be the first arcade "video game", the Nimatron:

Created in 1939 by Westinghouse for the New York World's Fair, this giant, blinking arcade distraction from the depression was based on a maths meatspace game called Nim [PDF]:

Nim is a two-player game played with several piles of stones. You can use as many piles and as many stones in each pile as you want, but in order to better understand the game, we’ll start off with just a few small piles of stones. The two players take turns removing stones from the game. On each turn, the player removing stones can only take stones from one pile, but they can remove as many stones from that pile as they want. If they want, they can even remove the entire pile from the game! The winner is the player who removes the final stone.

The game provides an 2.5 meter-tall mechanical opponent (check out the patent diagrams!) that weighed nearly 1,000 kilograms. With over 100 electric relays, it took nearly 3.5 kilometers-worth of copper wire to connect it all up.

Players received a "Nim Champ" coin if they won.

Many did not, and the Westinghouse folks expected this, so they built in fake delays to avoid further crushing the souls of foiled players.

You can read more about the Nimatron over at Wikipedia.

FIN

It e reads today’s installment, I double-dog-dare him to add a Nimatron to his collection. ☮