From: Sander Land <sander.land@...>
Date: 2006-05-04T04:00:09+09:00
Subject: Re: Golfing a signature.

de-obfuscated it a bit to understand it :)

L = 0.3  # % of #
s = 20   # size
o = "#"
f = " "
c = nil
b = ([nil]*s).map{ (0..s).map{ (rand < L) ? o : f } };

$> << "\e[2J";

until c==b;
  $> << "\e[H" << b.map{|x|x * " "} * "\n"

  c = b.map{|z| z.dup };
  b.each_index{|y|
    b[y].each_index{|x|
	  q = -1..1
	  z = []
	  q.map{|dx| q.map{|dy| z << [dx,dy]}};
	  z -= [[0,0]]
	  n = ( z.map{|dxy| c[y + dxy[0]][x + dxy[1]] rescue nil } - [f,nil] ).size
      if b[y][x]==o
	    b[y][x] = f if (n>3||n<2)
      else
        b[y][x] = o if n==3
	  end
    }
  }
  sleep 0.2
end

some ways i found to decrease the size:
remove "-[[0,0]]" and change the condition to (n>4||n<3) to account for the +1
"rescue f" over "rescue ()", and -[f] over -[f,nil]

possible bug here though:
c[i+x[0]][e+x[1]]
take  i=e=0 and x=[-1,-1],  this results in c[-1][-1] which is
bottom-right, i don't think this is what you want (unless i
misunderstood the 'game').