Nathaniel V. KELSO nvkelso

Open Source code doesn’t always come in big complex packages. At ProPublica we sometimes share small, simple snippets of using GitHub "Gists." These Gists range from single-byte file delimiters to an entire JavaScript framework for making stepper graphics. They rarely have documentation and don’t even always have names, but they can be super-useful. Here are some we’ve shared over the past few years:

A simple way to grab remote template elements in your Rails app (after Brian Boyer's RemoteSnippets) https://gist.github.com/1664329
A single byte gist that contains ASCII character 28, which the FEC uses as a field delimiter. https://gist.github.com/2191300
A [quine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quine_(computing) in Ruby https://gist.github.com/523940
Check links on a page using JavaScript [https://gist.github.com/

	import mapnik
	# wget http://www.naturalearthdata.com/http//www.naturalearthdata.com/download/10m/cultural/ne_10m_populated_places.zip
	ds = mapnik.Shapefile(file='ne_10m_populated_places.shp',row_limit=1)

	# fixes the shape:
	# ogr2ogr ne_10m_populated_places_fixed.shp ne_10m_populated_places.shp
	#ds = mapnik.Shapefile(file='ne_10m_populated_places_fixed.shp',row_limit=1)

	feats = ds.all_features()
	print feats[0]

	import arcpy
	from arcpy import env
	import os

	# Set the workspace for the ListFeatureClass function
	#
	env.workspace = "C:\\data\\mydata"

	# Use the ListFeatureClasses function to return a list of
	# all shapefiles.

	'''

	#!/bin/sh -x

	apt-get -y update
	apt-get -y install htop osmosis git python-pip python-shapely python-pyproj python-networkx qhull-bin

	git clone git://github.com/migurski/Skeletron.git ~/Skeletron
	cd ~/Skeletron
	python setup.py install

	WITH RECURSIVE dims AS (SELECT 2sqrt(sum(ST_Area(the_geom))) as d, sqrt(sum(ST_Area(the_geom)))/20 as w, count() as rows FROM osm_export_polygon WHERE the_geom IS NOT NULL),
	geoms AS (SELECT the_geom, ST_YMax(the_geom)-ST_YMin(the_geom) as height FROM osm_export_polygon WHERE the_geom IS NOT NULL ORDER BY ST_YMax(the_geom)-ST_YMin(the_geom) DESC),
	geomval AS (SELECT the_geom, row_number() OVER (ORDER BY height DESC) as id from geoms),
	positions(the_geom,x_offset,y_offset,new_row,row_offset) AS (
	(SELECT the_geom, 0.0::float, 0.0::float, FALSE, 2 from geomval limit 1)
	UNION ALL
	(
	SELECT
	(SELECT the_geom FROM geomval WHERE id = p.row_offset),
	CASE WHEN

	var fs = require("fs");

	var roundPrecision = 1e6;

	fs.readFile("/dev/stdin", "utf-8", function(error, input) {
	var collection = JSON.parse(input);
	switch (collection.type) {
	case "FeatureCollection": return cleanupFeatureCollection(collection);
	case "GeometryCollection": return cleanupGeometryCollection(collection);
	default: throw "unknown type: " + collection.type;

	#!/usr/bin/env python
	# distance_from_shore.py: compute true distance between points
	# and closest geometry.

	# shaun walbridge, 2012.05.15

	# TODO: no indexing used currently, could stand if performance needs
	# improving (currently runs in ~1.5hr for 13k points)

	from geopy import distance

	from sys import argv
	from shapely.ops import polygonize
	from shapely.geometry import asShape, LineString

	import json

	if __name__ == '__main__':

	input = argv[1]
	input = json.load(open(input))

	/*
	Red Pen turns red (and blue!) dots on Field Papers tiles into markers automatically
	Tested with Sharpie and PaperMate ballpoint pens
	Write a description to save the marker
	I don't understand the server-side installation or the QR-scanning, so I'm using a bookmarklet
	Client-side HTML5 Canvas for tile inspection
	*/

	// collect the most zoomed-in tiles from the scan
	var zoomimgs = document.getElementsByTagName("img");

	#!/usr/bin/python

	# This script should be considered CC0 licensed

	# the deg2num function is from http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Slippy_map_tilenames#lon.2Flat_to_tile_numbers_2
	import math

	def deg2num(lat_deg, lon_deg, zoom):
	lat_rad = math.radians(lat_deg)
	n = 2.0 ** zoom