generate slightly more human friendly UUID

markov

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

#usage file is optional, caches output in markov.yaml for subsequent runs
#./markov [<file>]

require './markov'
yaml = "markov.yaml"

m = Markov.new

m.load yaml unless file = ARGV[0]

if file
  m.add Words.from_file file
  m.save yaml
end

puts Words.from(m)

markov.rb

#  Markov Chain Generator
# based on the Python version by Gary Burd: http://gary.burd.info/2003/11/markov-chain-generator.html
# Released into the public domain, please keep this notice intact
# (c) InVisible GmbH
# http://www.invisible.ch

# considerable reworking/refactoring by Mark Burns


require "YAML"
require './words'

class Markov
  attr_accessor :data

  def initialize(data = nil )
    @data = data if data.class == Hash
    @data ||= Hash.new
  end

  def add words
    words.add_to @data
  end

  def save filename
    File.open(filename, "w") do |f|
      YAML.dump( @data, f )
    end
  end

  def load filename
    File.open(filename) do |f|
      @data = YAML.load f
    end
  end
end

words.rb

#  Markov Chain Generator
# based on the Python version by Gary Burd: http://gary.burd.info/2003/11/markov-chain-generator.html
# Released into the public domain, please keep this notice intact
# (c) InVisible GmbH
# http://www.invisible.ch

# considerable reworking/refactoring/re-purposing by Mark Burns



class Words
  SEPARATOR = "#-#-"

  def to_s i=8
    @words.join("")[0..i.to_i]
  end

  def initialize words
    @words = words
  end

  def add_to markov_data
    key = SEPARATOR

    @words.each do |word|
      (markov_data[key] ||= []) << word

      key = self.class.new_key(key, word)
    end
  end

  private

  class << self
    def from m, length = 100
      markov_data = m.data

      key = SEPARATOR
      word = ""

      result = 100.times.map do
        word =  markov_data[key].sample rescue nil
        key = new_key( key, word )
        word
      end

      new result
    end

    def from_string l
      l.gsub(/[^a-z]/i,'').split //
    end

    def from_file( f )
      new lines(f).map { |l| from_string l }.flatten
    end

    def new_key(key, word)
      return SEPARATOR if word == "\n"

      word or key
    end

    private

    def lines f
      content = File.read f
      c = content.length
      r = rand c
      content[r-c .. r+c].downcase.split "\n"
    end

  end
end

I downloaded 'The Complete Works of Shakespeare' from project Gothenburg

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/100.txt.utf-8

and saved as 'pg100.txt' for a sample file for generating markov text.

The markov gem only seems to do 2-grams so it could be improved by using larger n-grams

lol nice

Cheers. Now uses completely different code and will generate slightly more natural seeming output