Geospatial Goblins
When someone says “a map is just a picture,” every GIS analyst feels a cold chill and remembers this three-word truism: data plus geography.
What is spatial data
This classic Halloween color symbolizes harvest, pumpkins, and autumn — its hex code is roughly #FF7518
What is Orange
A hidden stash that remembers things long after you wish it wouldn’t — clearing it is like lifting a digital curse.
What is cache
That misty digital realm where files go and sometimes never return
What is The Cloud
This basic SQL statement retrieves data from one or more tables — or as wizards say, “scrying for rows.”
What is SELECT
This coordinate system uses latitude and longitude, and has haunted mapmakers since ancient Greece.
What is a geographic coordinate system (or GCS)
#000000
What is Black
This scripting language shares its name with a deadly snake and was designed for simplicity.
What is Python
This protocol assigns IP addresses dynamically — or leaves your host wandering the underworld with 169.254.x.x.
What is DHCP
This clause limits results to only those rows matching specific conditions — or banishes unwanted spirits from your dataset.
What is WHERE
This familiar file type is one of the most common ways to store map data — despite its name, it contains multiple files, not just one.
What is a shapefile
Often used for witches’ potions and eerie lighting hex code #6A0DAD.
What is Purple
This object-oriented language sounds like something you’d sip from a bubbling cauldron.
What is Java
This high-speed, non-volatile storage medium replaced spinning disks — and sounds like something ghosts don’t have.
What is an SSD (solid-state drive)
This join keeps all records from the first table, even if the second table has nothing to match — the loneliest kind of magic.
What is LEFT JOIN
In GIS, every feature must close cleanly — but when polygons leave tiny gaps or overlaps, analysts speak of this cursed topology error.
What are slivers
It's sliiiiiiiime #39FF14
What is Neon Green
In Harry Potter, the spell “Accio” summons objects; in coding, this verb in REST APIs serves the same purpose.
What is GET
In high-availability architecture, when a primary server dies and its twin rises to take its place without a scream from users, this process has occurred.
What is failover
This keyword seals away unwanted duplicates in your results.
What is DISTINCT
This method of finding a feature’s nearest neighbor is as magical as divination — and as dangerous if your data isn’t clean: think “which point lurks closest in the darkness?”
What is spatial querying (nearest-neighbor / spatial join)
Uttered from a Kubrick film "#FF0000 - RUM"
What is Red
In spellbooks and scripts alike, this word means “run it again” — in code, it repeats its ritual until a condition changes.
What is while (or “loop”)
This protocol, whose name evokes ghouls rising from the grave, wakes powered-off computers on a LAN.
What is Wake-on-LAN
In SQL, this command deletes everything — a catastrophic incantation for the careless.
What is DELETE FROM without a WHERE clause