Author Archives: jcs

What We Really Mean

Posted on 2015-09-27 by jcs

Like all great humor, it’s funny because it’s so true: Every time a developer says "temporary workaround" I remember this list. pic.twitter.com/OpI48BvJxo — Dare Obasanjo (@Carnage4Life) September 4, 2015

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Still Not Paranoid?

Posted on 2015-09-27 by jcs

Perhaps this will help. Remember yesterday when I wrote about the MI5’s Andrew Parker assuring us that “MI5 is not about “browsing the lives” of the public? Here’s what they do when they think no one’s watching: The Intercept reports … Continue reading →

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Turing Complete Documents

Posted on 2015-09-26 by jcs

I thought this was pretty funny until I realized it applies to my beloved Org mode too. Why is it that the first thing we do after developing a new document format is to make it Turing-complete? Seriously what is … Continue reading →

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Browsing Users’ Lives

Posted on 2015-09-26 by jcs

Andrew Parker, head of MI5 and Britain’s representative of the international cabal of nosey Parkers1 who wish to scrutinize every bit of our on-line activities—for our own good, of course—is complaining to the BBC about how hard it is to … Continue reading →

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You Can’t Make This Stuff Up

Posted on 2015-09-25 by jcs

Would be too snarky for me to point out that these are the same people who want us to give them our crypto keys? — matt blaze (@mattblaze) September 24, 2015

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The Scope of the Interactive Declaration

Posted on 2015-09-25 by jcs

One of the very useful things I learned from Xah Lee’s Emacs tutorials is that almost any code can be attached to the Emacs Interactive declaration. The only rule is that the code must return a list of values for … Continue reading →

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How to be a Real Language

Posted on 2015-09-24 by jcs

A language isn't really a *real* language until its got an #emacs major-mode ;-) https://t.co/wPicLkDvh8 — Ian Rumford (@ianrumford) August 18, 2015

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Adtech: Then and Now

Posted on 2015-09-24 by jcs

With the introduction of iOS 9 and its support for (easy) mobile ad blocking, the commentariat has been working overtime pumping out pixels on the issue of whether or not it is ethical to use ad blocking technology. Some folks … Continue reading →

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How Bad Apples Can Poison a Team

Posted on 2015-09-23 by jcs

Over at Coding Horror there’s an interesting but disturbing report on research by Will Felps on how a bad apple can affect team dynamics. Most of us have worked on a team where a single individual disrupts the smooth functioning … Continue reading →

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Writing a Book in Org Mode

Posted on 2015-09-22 by jcs

Grant Rettke over at Wisdom and Wonder points to an interesting discussion on the Org mailing list about writing a book in Org mode. The thread starts with Vikas Rawal’s announcement of his book, Ending Malnutrition: from commitment to action … Continue reading →

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