Weekend Reading: Ubiquitous Computing, Versioning SQL, and Video Game Maps
🎙 Computing is Everywhere
A great interview with Bret Victor on the Track Changes podcast. His work has always been an inspiration for how to think about both creating things and teaching people.
📊 Git Your SQL Together
This post from Caitlin Hudon is a great reminder for anyone that works with data. Combining git versioning with your SQL is super helpful for archiving and searching previous analysis queries.
- You will always need that query again
- Queries are living artifacts that change over time
- If it’s useful to you, it’s useful to others (and vice versa)
🎮 The Brilliance of Video Game Maps
I love the map and exploration of Skyrim. As an artistic achievement, the map there isn’t as eye-catching as Grand Theft Auto, the Ultima games, or even previous Elder Scrolls games. But I love the unlabeled overhead picture of the world that forces you to get out and walk to find your way.
The absolute piece de resistance of a game world map has to be the continent of Tamriel for The Elder Scrolls. People have tried to wrangle Skyrim’s map into submission with mods and interactive versions of it, but it fundamentally is a map that doesn’t explain itself to you or aspire to be particularly helpful. The world is what it is - now you have to go and find your way across it.