A headshot of Paul Leader

Paul Leader

Better out than in

Ruby on Rails developer at Mystery Applicant.
Occasional amateur theatre techie/designer/builder.
Father of two small dynamos.

Conway’s Game of Life in Ruby/Opal

A few years ago I was experimenting with the Opal Ruby-to-JS transpiler, and in the process knocked up a proof-of-concept implementation of Conway’s Game of Life in the browser.
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Let Your Customers Leave

You’d think that Which?, self-declared champion for consumer rights and campaigner against poor products & services, would make cancelling their service easy, perhaps a button on the website, wouldn’t you? You’d be wrong.
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Useful vs Helpful

A little bit of thought and effort can make a big difference between a system that is useful, and one that is helpful.
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An Insomniacs Guide to Sleep

Until a few years ago, I was a chronic insomniac. For as long as I can remember I’ve had what you might call a fractious relationship with sleep. Unlike my wife, who will be sound asleep half an hour after hitting the hay, I’ve gone through phases when I’ve not had more than an hour’s sleep each night for almost a week. Boy was that an odd week at school. Here are some of the things I’ve learnt over the years about sleep.
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