glow.li: 2018

Drawing maps using a text editor

Fri, 28 Dec 2018 15:11:00 +0000

To calm myself I like to "draw" maps. This is one of them. Try exploring it.

View it in the terminal

curl -s https://glow.li/map | less -RS

16-color fallback

curl -s https://glow.li/map16 | less -RS

To make working with the map a lot easier, I created recipes that generate only small sections of the map. Because I don't always have to regenerate the whole map, and don't have to find the place every time it gets much faster. This also means that there are recipes for almost all interesting (hand drawn) places on the map.

Drawing the map

While I did draw maps using GIMP before, I wanted something more portable, as in I could do it in the terminal and my phone using #termux. That's why this map is "written". The source file will look like weird text, and then a converter will convert it into colors and Unicode symbols.

w,.(Port Kalau)aa.a..
w,BB.bbbbBbb...aa....
w,xb.xxxxxxxbba.a....
w,xxxxb.b.bxxx+++++++
w,xbu.wwwwwjwb..wwwww
wLxubbw.b.bxwwwww....
w.b...wxxxxx++++++...
wwwwwwwxbayyy+yyy+...
wwwssBB7₄+yyy+yyy+...
wwwsssxx.+yyy+yyy+...
wwwssBB3.+++++++++...

At first the source will look like gibberish, but it's actually always just one letter per tile.

Map key

╔══════════════════╦════════╦══════════╗
║         Legend for Mapmakers         ║
╚════════╦═════════╩════════╩══════════╝
 w ≈ water 
 W ~ water_shallow 
 D ≈ water_deep 
 , ░ sand 
 . " grass 
 i ▓ snow 
 l ░ lava 
 y ▉ farmland 
 U ░ dirt 
 ; ░ gravel 
 a ● forest on grass 
 ä ● forest on plaza 
 â ● forest on sand 
 u * palmforest on sand 
 ü * palmforest on plaza 
 ú * palmforest on grass 
 b ▘ building 
 B █ multiblock_building 
 L ◘ lighthouse 
 O ○ Well 
 g ⌂ gravestones 
 m ▲ mountain 
 s █ plaza 
 S █ plaza_connecting 
 x ┃ street 
 0 ╋ street_crossing 
 - ━ street_h 
 | ┃ street_v 
 1 ┓ street_1 
 2 ┏ street_2 
 3 ┛ street_3 
 4 ┗ street_4 
 5 ┳ street_5 
 6 ┻ street_6 
 7 ┫ street_7 
 8 ┣ street_8 
 ╹ ╹ street_10 
 ╻ ╻ street_11 
 ╺ ╺ street_12 
 ╸ ╸ street_12 
 9 ▪ street_none 
 + ╷ dirtroad 
 ₀ ┼ dirtroad_crossing 
 ~ ─ dirtroad_h 
 ! │ dirtroad_v 
 ₁ ┐ dirtroad_1 
 ₂ ┌ dirtroad_2 
 ₃ ┘ dirtroad_3 
 ₄ └ dirtroad_4 
 ₅ ┬ dirtroad_5 
 ₆ ┴ dirtroad_6 
 ₇ ┤ dirtroad_7 
 ₈ ├ dirtroad_8 
 ₉ ▪ dirtroad_none 
 ╴ ╴ dirtroad_9 
 ╶ ╶ dirtroad_10 
 ╵ ╵ dirtroad_11 
 ╷ ╷ dirtroad_12 
 r ║ rails 
 ⁰ ╬ rails_crossing 
 = ═ rails_h 
 § ║ rails_v 
 ¹ ╗ rails_1 
 ² ╔ rails_2 
 ³ ╝ rails_3 
 ⁴ ╚ rails_4 
 ⁵ ╦ rails_5 
 ⁶ ╩ rails_6 
 ⁷ ╣ rails_7 
 ⁸ ╠ rails_8 
 ⁹ ▪ rails_none 
 ⒑ ═ rails_10 
 ⒒ ═ rails_11 
 ⒓ ║ rails_12 
 ⒔ ║ rails_13 
 c ╫ street-rails-crossing 
 C ╪ street-rails-crossing-vertical 
 * ╵ waterway 
 ⑮ ╴ waterway_9 
 ⑯ ╶ waterway_10 
 ⑰ ╵ waterway_11 
 ⑱ ╷ waterway_12 
 ⑩ ┼ waterway_crossing 
 ⑪ ─ waterway_h 
 ⑫ │ waterway_v 
 ① ┐ waterway_1 
 ② ┌ waterway_2 
 ③ ┘ waterway_3 
 ④ └ waterway_4 
 ⑤ ┬ waterway_5 
 ⑥ ┴ waterway_6 
 ⑦ ┤ waterway_7 
 ⑧ ├ waterway_8 
 ⑨ ▪ waterway_none 
 q ═ bridge 
 j ║ bridgev 
 p ▐ pool_right 
 P ▌ pool_left 
 o ● pond 
 F ✈ airplane 
 t . animal 
 ? ? label 
 $ $ debugger 
 E E error 
 N N null space for testing 
 ¬ ▗ wall 
 ᴬ ▐ wall_v 
 ᴮ ▀ wall_h 
 ᴰ ▜ wall_crossing 
 ᴱ ▜ wall_1 
 ᴳ ▐ wall_2 
 ᴴ ▀ wall_3 
 ᴵ ▝ wall_4 
 ᴶ ▜ wall_5 
 ᴷ ▀ wall_6 
 ᴸ ▜ wall_7 
 ᴹ ▐ wall_8 
 ᴺ ▝ wall_10 
 ᴼ ▗ wall_11 
 ᴾ ▝ wall_12 
 ᴿ ▘ wall_12 
 ᵀ ▜ wall_none

Difficulties with certain formats

The generator can generate many different formats, but piping the ANSI-colored output to less -RS is the best way.

PNG

It can technically do PNG, and it's doing that for generating the tiles for the interactive map, but displaying the whole map as a single PNG would use about 6 Gb of video RAM and a really beefy computer to render. I tried; eventually my computer will run out of RAM before completing. That's why I even bothered with the tiled map.

Repository

You can view the generator and the map source in this repository. If you want to make your own town in my map, shoot me a pull request.

https://github.com/Neo-Oli/fantasymap

How I got the initial map

The original template for the map was generated with this fantasy map generator. This huge PNG I indexed to a few colors.

This file I then converted into the X PixMap file format

/* XPM */
static char * /home/glow/fantasymap/map_xpm[] = {
"1000 500 6 1",
"   c #130903",
".  c #1A0707",
"X  c #09E1F4",
"o  c #5C3D06",
"O  c #245950",
"+  c #DCCECE",
/* pixels */
"iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii[...]",
"iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii[...]",
[...]

After this I just copy-and-replaced a few things and ended up with the blank map, to which I added towns streets and did large scale landscaping.

Anime building in Akihabara, Tokyo

Sat, 01 Dec 2018 10:04:00 +0000

Small garden in Kyoto

Fri, 23 Nov 2018 00:17:17 +0000

I found this small garden in Kyoto in the middle of a Bamboo forest near a temple. It is probably famous as there where a lot of people there.

Graffiti Underpass

Fri, 23 Nov 2018 00:16:04 +0000

I went out to take a new background image for my website. This is that image.

Photo of me in Tokyo

Tue, 20 Nov 2018 22:14:22 +0000

Here's a photo that I am actually in, instead of taking it. That this was Sensō-ji in Asakusa. The oldest Buddhist temple in Tokyo.

Mt. Fuji

Sat, 10 Nov 2018 00:20:42 +0000

I realized that I never posted any pictures from my Japan trip last year. So here's the first one. Mt. Fuji.

Browser Presentation Tool

Wed, 07 Nov 2018 21:10:00 +0000

⇱ View fullscreen

Because I keep struggling with LateX I created a small tool to create presentations. The presentations are made with HTML, CSS and JavaScript and the generator and template is written in PHP.

Repository: https://github.com/Neo-Oli/browser-presentation-tool

Harbor in Santa Cruz

Mon, 05 Nov 2018 20:00:00 +0000

I found some cool places in Teneriffe. Like the harbor area of Santa Cruz.

Swatch Internet Time (beats) in JavaScript

Tue, 03 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Show Swatch Internet Time in Javascript. Source. I've long since been obsessed with Swatch Internet Time.

Tmux-text-macros: Emojis for your Tmux

Mon, 23 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Click to view the video. Did you ever want emojis in your terminal? Do you find yourself constantly writing the same text snippets?

With Tmux-text-macros you can easily save and recall these inside Tmux. Powered by fzf the search allows you to easily search macros by content or description. It comes with all emojis, box-drawing characters and block characters, as well as a few emoticons.

Now I can use all the emojis when writing this blog. 🐦🐻 🕴💀

Download

Repository: https://github.com/Neo-Oli/tmux-text-macros

Requirements

fzf
fzf-tmux

Installation

clone repository to ~/.tmux/plugins/
add run-shell ~/.tmux/plugins/tmux-text-macros/tmux-text-macros.tmux to your ~/.tmux.conf
run tmux source ~/.tmux.conf to enable the changes

Configuration

You can add your own custom macros to ~/.tmux/custom-macros. You can use the custom-macros file as a template.

If you want to disable all the default macros put set -g @load-default-macros off before loading the plugin in your .tmux.conf

Usage

Press Prefix e (normally Ctrl+b e) and choose a string by choosing it with the arrow keys or by entering a search string and press enter.

So, the weather, huh?

Tue, 10 Apr 2018 06:19:17 +0000

So, the weather, huh?

Crontroll: A cronjob controller

Tue, 20 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Enabling and disabling cronjobs is so annoying and really hard to do from a script. That's why I wrote a small shell script called crontroll.

Examples

$ crontroll status updatedb
enabled: updatedb; 0 3 * * * updatedb

$ crontroll disable updatedb

$ crontroll status updatedb
disabled: updatedb; 0 3 * * * updatedb

$ crontroll enable updatedb

$ crontroll list
[x] apt-cron
[ ] at
[x] backup
[x] greg
[ ] mail
[x] tracking
[x] updatedb
[x] vdirsyncer

Setting up cronjobs

Instead of writing directly to your crontab file, create a file per cronjob in ~/.cron.

Example

~/.cron $ cat updatedb
0 3 * * * updatedb -U ~/drive

Then run crontroll reload to enable your new cronjob.

Download

Repository: https://github.com/Neo-Oli/crontroll

Kehrichtverbrennungsanlage Forsthaus

Tue, 13 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

"How do we make our big smokestack seem more friendly?" - "I know, let's illuminate the smoke blood red!"

There is going to be a microbe emoji. The Unicode Consortium must be a fan of my game 🦠

Thu, 08 Feb 2018 15:38:05 +0000

There is going to be a microbe emoji. The Unicode Consortium must be a fan of my game 🦠

Game: Microbes

Wed, 10 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

⇱ Play the game

To learn how to use HTML5 Canvases with JavaScript I decided to program a little game. Do you remember the Live Wallpaper on those old Android Phones? My Galaxy SII had it. Where you have to feed microbes and they would divide. This is that game with the added features of evolving colors, speed, health etc. A microbe has many different attributes. Each attribute has a chance of mutating (in any direction) when a microbe splits. Depending on how you feed your microbes different strengths are required and microbes with that strength have a higher chance of survival. The longer you play the better your microbes get.

Repository: https://github.com/Neo-Oli/Microbes

glow.li: 2018

Drawing maps using a text editor

History of the map

Interesting Places

Drawing the map

Map key

Difficulties with certain formats

PNG

Repository

How I got the initial map

Anime building in Akihabara, Tokyo

Small garden in Kyoto

Graffiti Underpass

Photo of me in Tokyo

Mt. Fuji

Browser Presentation Tool

Harbor in Santa Cruz

Swatch Internet Time (beats) in JavaScript

Tmux-text-macros: Emojis for your Tmux

Download

Requirements

Installation

Configuration

Usage

So, the weather, huh?

Crontroll: A cronjob controller

Examples

Setting up cronjobs

Example

Download

Kehrichtverbrennungsanlage Forsthaus

There is going to be a microbe emoji. The Unicode Consortium must be a fan of my game 🦠

Game: Microbes