Author Archives: jcs

The Future is S-expressions

Posted on 2015-06-03 by jcs

Jean-Philippe Paradis makes an astute observation: .@PuercoPop After XML→JSON, next step is JSON→sexp. There'll be unnecessary intermediary steps but the world's asymptotically getting there. — Jean-PhilippeParadis (@HexstreamSoft) May 7, 2015 For some time, I’ve recommended JSON because it’s a sort … Continue reading →

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Email Templates with Yasnippet

Posted on 2015-06-03 by jcs

Bin Chen is a busy guy and as a freelancer he gets lots of emails offering jobs. Each type of reply is mostly the same as all the others of that type so it makes sense to automate those replies … Continue reading →

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Metadata

Posted on 2015-06-02 by jcs

When they tell you it’s just metadata, show them this Sen. McConnell argues that 215 spying is not a problem since its 'just metadata.' Wrong – metadata matters. pic.twitter.com/XsSa0en1XE — Kurt Opsahl (@kurtopsahl) May 31, 2015

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Reproducible Research in the Small

Posted on 2015-06-02 by jcs

As most of you know, I’m a big fan of reproducible research and have written about it many times. I usually think of it as something you do with a large project that is going to produce one or more … Continue reading →

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Nothing to Hide

Posted on 2015-06-01 by jcs

Edward Snowden has a nice rejoinder for those who say they aren’t worried about government surveillance because they have nothing to hide (via Jean-PhilippeParadis): In One Quote, Edward Snowden Just Destroyed the Biggest Myth About Privacy #Snowden http://t.co/dfthA4kMBd pic.twitter.com/7RbIp4sw9b — Help Edward … Continue reading →

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From Date to Agenda

Posted on 2015-06-01 by jcs

Here’s a useful tip for bringing up the agenda for a given date. If you have the point on an Org date, typing 【Ctrl+c Ctrl+o】 will bring up the agenda for that date. This is really useful if you have … Continue reading →

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Ding Dong the Witch is Dead?

Posted on 2015-05-31 by jcs

Is the wicked witch really dead? Although I’m running the risk of suffering ignominy at the hands of Betteridge’s law, The Daily Beast is speculating just that. Namely, that the Patriot Act may soon be gone for good. We can … Continue reading →

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The Power of Plain Text Explained

Posted on 2015-05-30 by jcs

In a short tweet, Karl Voit explains the power of plain text and why you should avoid lock in: Devastating: how much money/human-life-time/information is lost because #Microsoft #Word was used to archive things. #digitalhumanities — n0v0id (@n0v0id) April 7, 2015

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Making Open Offices Less Bad

Posted on 2015-05-30 by jcs

I’ve written many times about the evils and absurdities of open plan offices. There’s lots of duckspeak about improving communication or culture building but everyone knows that its real—and only—virtue is that it’s cheap. Given that fact, if you find … Continue reading →

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A Guy Named Null

Posted on 2015-05-29 by jcs

From the art reflecting life department, we have this story of a guy named Null and what he does to databases.

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