Anchor Buoy Alternative, No Parachute, CO2 to Gas, and more

Kevin Frank posted an in depth article on a replacement to the Anchor Buoy system:

INTRODUCTION Earlier this month I was contacted by a DevCon presenter asking permission to include some slides from my eleven-year old anchor/buoy materials as part of his presentation. I said I’d be honored, but then added, “You might mention that I haven’t used A/B on a new project in about eight years.” He asked what system I was using instead, and a number of other colleagues have wondered as well, which brings us to the topic of today’s article.

After studying his ideas, I think most FileMaker developers will find it useful and I recommend to all to study his system

Our team is experimenting with changes to the Anchor/Buoy theory in our current project, and we have, independently, adopted many of Frank’s replacement system:

• Color coding underlying tables (all Contacts TO’s are colored green for example)
• Table names are always a single word and never contain underscores
• Underlying table name is always in CAPS
• Buoys can stretch left and right
• Anchors can be linked to other anchors
• Anchor Name = Table Name

Frank, however, has added several more, and I have to say I like them and will be using some of them in the future:

• Each table has a single authoritative representation on the graph, i.e., an anchor
  • Layouts are always attached to anchors
  • Calculations, auto-enter calcs, etc. always “start” from anchors
• Underscore characters…
  • Only appear in buoy names
  • Are used as a table separator exclusively
  • Multiple consecutive underscores are not used; they will only cause confusion, and #3 and #10 render them unnecessary
• Buoy names reflect path from anchor

There are other suggestions, but more study is necessary before deciding to implement those on our projects.

Thank you, Kevin Frank, for sharing your well thought out alternative!

Source: Life After Anchor/Buoy | FileMakerHacks

Scientists turn CO2 into fuel with solar power

More research on effectively battling climate change is needed, and it’s good to see progress being made:

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago believe that they’ve perfected the art of photosynthetic solar cells. It’s a technology that mimics a plant’s ability to inhale carbon dioxide and, with water, convert it into glucose and oxygen. This system is capable of drawing in carbon dioxide and processing it into a synthetic fuel that could be used to power vehicles. Theoretically, this device could create a virtuous cycle where climate-altering carbon could be removed from the atmosphere and pumped back into cars.

No word on whether or not it is scalable, but here’s hoping…

Skydiver becomes first person to jump and land without a parachute

That headline is a bit misleading…plenty of people have done this before.  He’s the only one to have done it and survived without injury. And he jumped from 25,000 feet for a 2 minute free fall.  It’s hard to even see the target from that height.  Worth watching, though!

There are some that only employ words for the purpose of disguising their thoughts.

Voltaire, Dialogue, XIV, “Le Chapon et la Poularde” (1766)
French author, humanist, rationalist, & satirist (1694 – 1778)

And they are usually called politicians.