G-J van Rooyen
@gvrooyen.com
Director: Engineering & Innovation @ http://octoco.ltd. Associate Professor Extra-Ordinary in Industrial Engineering @ Stellenbosch University.
programming languages · trail running · innovation management · startups · good wine · business · reading
programming languages · trail running · innovation management · startups · good wine · business · reading
With the sad passing of Tom Lehrer, a flashback to the place where I heard one of his songs for the very 1st time more than three decades ago
July 28, 2025 at 8:30 AM
With the sad passing of Tom Lehrer, a flashback to the place where I heard one of his songs for the very 1st time more than three decades ago
The prompt string I use in my `.zshrc` to just show the current minimal change ID. Since the working copy is always committed, no need to check for any uncommitted changes.
May 26, 2025 at 5:19 AM
The prompt string I use in my `.zshrc` to just show the current minimal change ID. Since the working copy is always committed, no need to check for any uncommitted changes.
Love using plain chat as a scratchpad where I can back-and-forth with the AI until I get what I need (I've been desperate to turn my bank's old email statements into flexible machine-readable data for DECADES) and then just ask for a prompt that I can use in future or pass along to an agent
May 25, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Love using plain chat as a scratchpad where I can back-and-forth with the AI until I get what I need (I've been desperate to turn my bank's old email statements into flexible machine-readable data for DECADES) and then just ask for a prompt that I can use in future or pass along to an agent
I think the git workflow bit is worth talking and writing about even more. This is definitely a topic I'll pick up with my team. I love how new tools can unexpectedly level-up old tools – thanks for pointing this one out!
May 15, 2025 at 7:07 PM
I think the git workflow bit is worth talking and writing about even more. This is definitely a topic I'll pick up with my team. I love how new tools can unexpectedly level-up old tools – thanks for pointing this one out!
This feels right out of Snow Crash. Read the wrong text and you might catch a serious mind-altering (or -destroying) neuro-linguistic virus.
(It's thrilling! Like a new frontier still waiting to be tamed)
(It's thrilling! Like a new frontier still waiting to be tamed)
May 14, 2025 at 6:33 PM
This feels right out of Snow Crash. Read the wrong text and you might catch a serious mind-altering (or -destroying) neuro-linguistic virus.
(It's thrilling! Like a new frontier still waiting to be tamed)
(It's thrilling! Like a new frontier still waiting to be tamed)
Upping you one uppance 😁
Yes, it is still functional. Mid-50s wood and bakelite with a vacuum-tube receiver
Yes, it is still functional. Mid-50s wood and bakelite with a vacuum-tube receiver
March 28, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Upping you one uppance 😁
Yes, it is still functional. Mid-50s wood and bakelite with a vacuum-tube receiver
Yes, it is still functional. Mid-50s wood and bakelite with a vacuum-tube receiver
What I adore about South Africa's constitution is how clear it is to understand. E.g. §2 sets out the powers of the President (Hi, Uncle C! 👋) and it's just so simple, direct, and democratic. The Prez has no authoritative powers (we've had enough of that). The director conducts, the orchestra plays.
March 15, 2025 at 8:37 PM
What I adore about South Africa's constitution is how clear it is to understand. E.g. §2 sets out the powers of the President (Hi, Uncle C! 👋) and it's just so simple, direct, and democratic. The Prez has no authoritative powers (we've had enough of that). The director conducts, the orchestra plays.
Well, according to the instructions on my shaving foam can I should spit into the palm of my hand and then tip a cigarette into it. After applying the paste to my cheeks I can shave.
Not sure where the shaving foam factors into this
Not sure where the shaving foam factors into this
March 3, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Well, according to the instructions on my shaving foam can I should spit into the palm of my hand and then tip a cigarette into it. After applying the paste to my cheeks I can shave.
Not sure where the shaving foam factors into this
Not sure where the shaving foam factors into this
Well they *did* control the 6th-largest navy in the world in 1989, right?
February 20, 2025 at 7:53 AM
Well they *did* control the 6th-largest navy in the world in 1989, right?
Gave the neighbours a heads-up that there's a visitor on the block. The snake handler rescued it from their compost heap just now 🐍
February 3, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Gave the neighbours a heads-up that there's a visitor on the block. The snake handler rescued it from their compost heap just now 🐍
December 20, 2024 at 12:05 PM
Each Faculty has its own design in its traditional colour. The patterns' symbolism capture elements of the various academic disciplines.
I think it's beautiful!
#Stellenbosch #Stellies #StellenboschUniversity #academia #graduation #design
I think it's beautiful!
#Stellenbosch #Stellies #StellenboschUniversity #academia #graduation #design
December 13, 2024 at 4:33 PM
Each Faculty has its own design in its traditional colour. The patterns' symbolism capture elements of the various academic disciplines.
I think it's beautiful!
#Stellenbosch #Stellies #StellenboschUniversity #academia #graduation #design
I think it's beautiful!
#Stellenbosch #Stellies #StellenboschUniversity #academia #graduation #design
It's lovely to see graduates in the tastefully updated academic dress at Stellenbosch University this week. Undergraduates still wear plain black robes, doctorandi scarlet – but the hoods now have the most intricate embossed patterns reminiscent of shweshwe design (www.google.com/search?q=shw...)
December 13, 2024 at 4:33 PM
It's lovely to see graduates in the tastefully updated academic dress at Stellenbosch University this week. Undergraduates still wear plain black robes, doctorandi scarlet – but the hoods now have the most intricate embossed patterns reminiscent of shweshwe design (www.google.com/search?q=shw...)
Day 9 of #AdventOfCode was a pleasure in #Odin, mostly because it favoured in-memory processing and I could use the language's concise loop syntax. And pretty fast! 2.6 ms for both parts to run in WSL2 Ubuntu on my rather ordinary laptop.
December 9, 2024 at 8:46 PM
Day 9 of #AdventOfCode was a pleasure in #Odin, mostly because it favoured in-memory processing and I could use the language's concise loop syntax. And pretty fast! 2.6 ms for both parts to run in WSL2 Ubuntu on my rather ordinary laptop.
But mostly, it's just super easy and computationally efficient to write a power function that does exactly what you do for your specific use case. Libraries don't have to provide trivial utilities that have non-trivial edge cases.
You don't need someone else to write your single-liners for you.
You don't need someone else to write your single-liners for you.
December 7, 2024 at 10:48 AM
But mostly, it's just super easy and computationally efficient to write a power function that does exactly what you do for your specific use case. Libraries don't have to provide trivial utilities that have non-trivial edge cases.
You don't need someone else to write your single-liners for you.
You don't need someone else to write your single-liners for you.
After that, procedural data processing is straightforward. You can natively just add two arrays like a vector sum!
Part 2 was a bit of addition logic to also take visited locations' direction into the account... but not that much more
Overall, a very joyful bit of puzzle #pogramming!
Part 2 was a bit of addition logic to also take visited locations' direction into the account... but not that much more
Overall, a very joyful bit of puzzle #pogramming!
December 6, 2024 at 6:47 PM
After that, procedural data processing is straightforward. You can natively just add two arrays like a vector sum!
Part 2 was a bit of addition logic to also take visited locations' direction into the account... but not that much more
Overall, a very joyful bit of puzzle #pogramming!
Part 2 was a bit of addition logic to also take visited locations' direction into the account... but not that much more
Overall, a very joyful bit of puzzle #pogramming!
Business rules go into data structures. For today's solution we don't have steenking funkshins, we have data, and we'll have procedures to wrangle them safely, and oh so efficiently!
I love that Odin doens't have "glyphs", it has "runes" as 1st-order types. It's a lo-ki in-joke I guess 💜
I love that Odin doens't have "glyphs", it has "runes" as 1st-order types. It's a lo-ki in-joke I guess 💜
December 6, 2024 at 6:47 PM
Business rules go into data structures. For today's solution we don't have steenking funkshins, we have data, and we'll have procedures to wrangle them safely, and oh so efficiently!
I love that Odin doens't have "glyphs", it has "runes" as 1st-order types. It's a lo-ki in-joke I guess 💜
I love that Odin doens't have "glyphs", it has "runes" as 1st-order types. It's a lo-ki in-joke I guess 💜
Love it! Had a similar experience earlier this year flying to Mafia Island just south of Zanzibar. The airport on the island is basically a strip of tarmac and a building that looks like a big red shed. Makes travelling so much more fun!
December 5, 2024 at 3:38 PM
Love it! Had a similar experience earlier this year flying to Mafia Island just south of Zanzibar. The airport on the island is basically a strip of tarmac and a building that looks like a big red shed. Makes travelling so much more fun!
Pretty happy with #AdventOfCode Day 5 in #Odin.
I happened to solve Part 1 with a map to all values smaller than the key. That meant Part 2 became a simple sort with a custom comparator. This is also a nice example of using an anonymous procedure in Odin.
github.com/gvrooyen/AoC...
#Programming
I happened to solve Part 1 with a map to all values smaller than the key. That meant Part 2 became a simple sort with a custom comparator. This is also a nice example of using an anonymous procedure in Odin.
github.com/gvrooyen/AoC...
#Programming
December 5, 2024 at 3:23 PM
Pretty happy with #AdventOfCode Day 5 in #Odin.
I happened to solve Part 1 with a map to all values smaller than the key. That meant Part 2 became a simple sort with a custom comparator. This is also a nice example of using an anonymous procedure in Odin.
github.com/gvrooyen/AoC...
#Programming
I happened to solve Part 1 with a map to all values smaller than the key. That meant Part 2 became a simple sort with a custom comparator. This is also a nice example of using an anonymous procedure in Odin.
github.com/gvrooyen/AoC...
#Programming
My abyss gazes back expectantly, hoping for a backrub or a bite to eat
December 3, 2024 at 7:44 PM
My abyss gazes back expectantly, hoping for a backrub or a bite to eat
Odin's built-ins also felt too powerful here! Here's the Counter() equivalent. Odin leans towards "I'll give you sane defaults; ask me if you'd like an error result too." Which means that a simple hashmap counter needs no initialisation or extra checks.
December 1, 2024 at 4:52 PM
Odin's built-ins also felt too powerful here! Here's the Counter() equivalent. Odin leans towards "I'll give you sane defaults; ask me if you'd like an error result too." Which means that a simple hashmap counter needs no initialisation or extra checks.