Plurrrr

week 08, 2020

Invertebrate Show: another visit

In the morning my brother came to pick us up in order to visit the Invertebrate show in Harmelen. Alice wanted a giant African snail, Adam an Asian forest scorpion, Heterometrus petersii, and I wanted a tarantula, Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens, and the following 3 scorpion species:

  • Orthochirus innesi
  • Liocheles australasiae
  • Lychas marmoreus
Alice holding a giant African snail, Archachatina marginata var. ovum
Alice holding a giant African snail, Archachatina marginata var. ovum. Photo taken by Esme.

Soon, Alice was holding her first African snail, which actually was not for sale. Later, she was holding a large millipede.

Heterometrus petersii in its terrarium
Heterometrus petersii "poison berry" in its terrarium.

After looking around for a while it was time to start buying. First, we bought Adam his scorpion, a Heterometrus petersii, which was according to the lady who sold it to us one instar away from adulthood. We paid 10 euro for the scorpion. Adam named it "poison berry".

Next up was Alice, who settled on an Archachatina marginata var. suturalis, for which we paid 20 euro. She had decided to name it "London".

Heterometrus petersii under black light in its terrarium
Heterometrus petersii "poison berry" under black light in its terrarium.

Next, was my turn. I had already found sellers of Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens, the Green Bottle Blue tarantula. Each had one specimen albeit a very young, and hence, very small one. I had also found sellers of Orthochirus innesi, a tiny dark scorpion species. But, I had no luck with finding the other two scorpion species for sale. So I settled on one tarantula, 14 euro, and one scorpion, 35 euro.

Orthochirus innesi in a plastic cup
Orthochirus innesi in a plastic cup.

After I had bought some other things: two UV flash lights, two forceps, cuttlefish bone, coco peat, a water dish, sphagnum, and meal worms, my brother Marco took us to the city of Zoetermeer so we all could have lunch.

Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens on thumb
Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens on my thumb. Photo by Marco.

After the pigeon incident; Adam managed to scare one into a shop where it ended up in the window display sitting on top of a shoe, Marco drove us back home.

Archachatina marginata var. suturalis eating a piece of apple
Archachatina marginata var. suturalis eating a piece of apple.

Back home we prepared two terrariums for the new pets of the children; each a large plastic box we bought yesterday at the Action shop nearby.

For Adam's terrarium we used a deep layer of coco peat I had bought at the same shop and we put a small layer of coco husk chunks on top, also bought at the Action shop. We also added a large piece of wood for the scorpion to burrow under and a bottle cap to provide access to water.

For Alice's terrarium we used the coco peat I had bought at the invertebrate show. Alice put a thin layer of sphagnum on top and added the water dish. I added the cuttle fish bone and the snail had a new home.

Quickly seeing the age of your branches

Have you ever asked yourself 'how old are all my branches?'. I have not, and it's not a common question. But recently someone did ask me how to find this out. You can of course dig through history manually, but where's the fun in that? I prefer to use our good friends: the plumbing commands.

Source: Quickly seeing the age of your branches, an article by Dennis Kaarsemaker.

Type Witnesses in Haskell

If you read articles that describe some advanced type-level stuff in Haskell or other languages with a similar type system, chances are that you have come across this thing called ‘type witness’ or ‘runtime evidence’. In this post, we will be trying to gain an understanding of what the heck it is.

Source: Type Witnesses in Haskell, an article by Sandeep Chandrika.

Flask RCE Debug Mode

Flask is a very popular Python library for creating websites and APIs. I personally use it a lot in my projects and I see it deployed in production environments as well. When software engineers are developing applications they often enable debug mode for testing purposes. If this mode is enabled on production servers it can lead to remote code execution (RCE).

Source: Flask RCE Debug Mode, an article by Alex Thomas.

The Noise Within

On the brink of perfecting the long sought-after human/AI interface, Philip Kaufman finds his world thrown into turmoil as a scandal from the past returns to haunt him and dangerous information falls into his hands. Pursued by assassins and attacked in his own home, he flees. Leyton, a government black-ops specialist, is diverted from his usual duties to hunt down the elusive pirate vessel The Noise Within, wondering all the while why this particular freebooter is considered so important. Two lives collide in this stunning space-opera from debut novelist Ian Whates!

In the afternoon I started in The Noise within by Ian Whates. The book was given to me by my friend Simon as part of a birthday present two days ago.

Cover of The Noise Within by Ian Whates
Cover of The Noise Within by Ian Whates.

On Sigils

One thing that distinguishes Perl from other languages is its use of sigils; the funny looking symbols placed in front of variable names. As experienced Perl programmers, we assume sigils are an essential part of Perl, but when I dream about my ideal version of Perl, I go back-and-forth as to how sigils would work, and even whether they’re required at all.

Source: On Sigils, an article by David Farrell.

7 Principles of Icon Design

Creating a high-quality icon family requires a thoughtful approach, a trained eye, a bit of iteration, and a lot of practice. Below, I’ll illustrate the hallmarks of quality through 7 principles and plenty of real-world examples. The goal is to tune you to the key attributes of great icon design.

Source: 7 Principles of Icon Design, an article by Helena Zhang.

A Birthday Present: Books

In the evening I had a dinner with my friend Simon. Since my birthday was last Saturday he had brought a present: books.

The books Simon gave me for my birthday
The books Simon gave me for my birthday

I had already read Old Man's War by John Scalzi, but many years ago. So I probably will reread it soon as I liked the book a lot back then.

I am going to start reading The Noise within tomorrow.