Spinner - I had a long-running process that I didn't want to make spammy, but wanted to know it was /going/. So...

spinner.rb

    SPINNER = ("\u2800".."\u28ff").to_a.shuffle
    def spinner
      if @spinstep.nil?
        @spinstep = 0
      else
        return if (Time.now - @spintime) < 0.1
        STDOUT.print "\b \b"
      end
      @spintime = Time.now
      STDOUT.print SPINNER[(@spinstep += 1) % SPINNER.length]
    end
    def unspinner
      if @spinstep
        STDOUT.puts "\b \b"
        @spinstep = nil
        @spintime = nil
      end
    end