The Burren

Image: The Burren, this photo is available to licence on EyeEm.

#326

Friday, August 5, 2022

In This Edition:
5 hour trains, UTF-8 character encoding, reusing silica gel packs, small scale nuclear reactor approval, GPS jamming map!

5 Hour Trains

Benjamin TD created a handy map that shows you how far you can travel by train in 5 hours from any main station on a map.

 

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UTF-8 Character Encoding

Image: Frederico Bittencourt

When I was studying computer science, myself and my class mates always had at least one topic that was a blind spot. An area that we were either too afraid or too lazy to dive into and learn the details properly. For me and some others, character encoding was one such topic.

Thankfully, Frederico Bittencourt posted a great primer blog post on UTF-8 character encoding, describing the format used to encode special characters in more than one byte. A great place to start shining a light on some of those learning blind spots. (See also Regex).

Reusing Silica Gel Packs

Image: Pixabay

Popsci posted an interesting piece about why you shouldn't throw away those little silica gel packs because they are harmful to the environment. The article lists some ways you can reuse them to keep things like electronics and documents free of moisture.

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Small Scale Nuclear Reactor Approval

Image: NuScale

The Nuclear Regulator Commission is set to approve NuScale modular nuclear reactor for use. The NuScale reactor is small enough to be manufactured and shipped to its site of use, uses external water supplies for cooling and features an operator free shut down procedure using gravity if a problem occurs.

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GPS Jamming Map

Image: John Wiseman

John Wiseman created a map showing areas around the world where GPS jamming is in place. The data is based on aircraft reports of their navigation system accuracy.

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About Found This Week

Found This Week is a curated blog of interesting posts, articles, links and stories in the world of technology, science and life in general.
Each edition is curated by Daryl Feehely every Friday and highlights cool stuff found each week.
The first 104 editions were published on Medium before this site was created, check out the archive here.

Daryl Feehely

I’m a web consultant, contract web developer, technical project manager & photographer originally from Cork, now based in London. I offer my clients strategy, planning & technical delivery services, remotely & in person. I also offer freelance CTO services to companies in need of technical bootstrapping or reinvention. If you think I can help you in your business, check out my details on http://darylfeehely.com

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