Author Archives: jcs

Journaling with Org-roam

David Wilson over at System Crafters has the third video up in his series on Org-roam. I’ve said before, I’ve found his series more useful than any other introduction to Org-roam that I’ve seen. This episode focuses on the journaling … Continue reading

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Introduction to Dired

Ashok Khanna has a quick introduction to the basics of Dired. It’s not even a précis of the Dired section of the Emacs manual and doesn’t mention the essential Wdired mode but it is a useful post to get you … Continue reading

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Why The Government Should Not Be Trusted With A Backdoor

As you all know, Apple is building spyware into iOS 15. This is ostensibly in service of fighting child pornography but will, you can be sure, be expanded to detect other illegal activities and finally wrong think™. Apple, of course, … Continue reading

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Another Step for Open Access in the UK

The UK is already a leader in achieving open access for journal articles but have recently taken a further step. The UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), a major funder of UK research, has announced that starting in April 2022, researchers … Continue reading

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The Most Useful Emacs Operations

The other day it popped into my mind to wonder what the most useful Emacs editing functions are. Various people—like Xah Lee—have taken actual measurements of the most used functions. The most often used function is, of course, self-insert-command, which … Continue reading

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How To Reach Apple

A week ago I wrote about my difficulties in contacting Apple about my concerns regarding their CSAM scanning. In addition to signing an online petition, I wanted to personally reach out to Apple and tell them of my disappointment at … Continue reading

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The Tale of the Fake Sign

Even though it’s Friday, this is not a red meat Friday post. But it is a whimsical tale to serve as a digestif for your week. It’s a charming story that is reminiscent of the famous MIT hacks except that … Continue reading

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Emacs for Screenwriters

As regular readers know, I’m fascinated with how non-technical users employ Emacs in their work. Paul Rankin has a video on how to set up fountain-mode for screenwriting. Artistic people are like the rest of us in that they like … Continue reading

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Amazon and Walmart

Back in April, I gave a status update on my quest to go walletless. In that post, I wrote that although I had been a frequent Walmart customer, COVID-19 had taught me that Amazon would deliver to my door the … Continue reading

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War Is Peace

WAR IS PEACE FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH That’s the motto of the party in Orwell’s 1984. Apple’s Craig Federighi appears to want to add a fourth item: SURVEILLANCE IS PRIVACY Big Brother would approve. Federighi gave an interview … Continue reading

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