Author Archives: jcs

A Handy Calc Tip

Posted on 2015-06-19 by jcs

mxavier has a nifty tip for calc: Tiny but nice #emacs TIL: in calc-mode, y will insert the current calculation into the buffer from which you called calc-mode. — mxavier (@mxavier) June 12, 2015 It’s hard to put a lot … Continue reading →

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Storing and Retrieving Files by Tags

Posted on 2015-06-18 by jcs

Wilfred Hughes points us to this interesting paper on tag-based file systems. The idea is that rather than storing files in the traditional hierarchical manner, they are stored and retrieved by tags. The idea of tags is quite general and … Continue reading →

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Adding Custom CSS to a WordPress Site

Posted on 2015-06-17 by jcs

When I first started blogging with WordPress, I needed some custom CSS. Being a WordPress n00b, I simply added it to the theme’s CSS file that controls what the site looks like. Of course, that bad decision came back to … Continue reading →

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Sacha on Supplying an Argument to a Capture Template Function

Posted on 2015-06-16 by jcs

Org mode capture templates are more flexible than you might think. You can specify that the entry be stored in a file in a variety of ways. You can, for instance, ask that it be put in a date tree … Continue reading →

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Writing Mastering Emacs

Posted on 2015-06-15 by jcs

Mickey Petersen has a really interesting post on the technical details of how he wrote Mastering Emacs. It’s not surprising that he used Emacs, of course, but less obviously he chose reStructedText as his source format. That choice was driven … Continue reading →

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Evaluate An Expression and Insert the Result

Posted on 2015-06-14 by jcs

A handy tip from Wilfred Hughes Emacs tip of the day: M-: evaluates elisp snippets, but C-u M-: inserts the result into the current buffer. Really handy for quick scripts. — Wilfred Hughes (@_wilfredh) May 26, 2015 It’s easy to … Continue reading →

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The FBI and Computer Games

Posted on 2015-06-14 by jcs

If you’re like me you’re probably often bemused by law enforcement’s almost comical misunderstanding of computers and software. As entertaining as it can be, it can also lead to tragedy. A recent example is the prosecutorial abuse in the Aaron … Continue reading →

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The TSA and Airport Security

Posted on 2015-06-13 by jcs

Bruce Schneier talks sense on the TSA and airport security. After recent reports that the TSA missed 96% of Red Team attempts to smuggle simulated guns and bombs through the check points many are asking why we even have a … Continue reading →

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History of BSD Unix

Posted on 2015-06-12 by jcs

I just stumbled across a nice Salon article on the history of BSD Unix. The article is from 2000 but still very interesting and relevant. Although it examines many of the key players in project, especially Bill Joy, the theme … Continue reading →

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The Editor Wars

Posted on 2015-06-11 by jcs

Colin Weir nicely captures the absurdity of the editor wars: @marcoarment We also argue which 1970s text editor is best to use in a 1990s emulator of a 1980s terminal — Colin Weir (@radiocolin) May 18, 2015

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