Author Archives: jcs

Lisp Types

Posted on 2014-04-27 by jcs

There’s been a lot of talk lately about static versus dynamic typing. The partisans on both sides are adamant in their positions and absolutely secure in their righteousness. It has, in other words, become a religious issue. Although I’ve used … Continue reading →

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Irreal Turns Three

Posted on 2014-04-26 by jcs

Three years ago on April 26, 2011, I published the first post in this instantiation of Irreal. I guess that means that the terrible twos are finally over.

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The Ultimate Privacy Guide

Posted on 2014-04-25 by jcs

From time to time I’ve mentioned articles that help you maintain your privacy. Some of us grumpy and misanthropic types have nothing to hide but do everything we can to maintain our privacy out of orneriness. If that sounds like … Continue reading →

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Guile and Emacs

Posted on 2014-04-24 by jcs

Three years ago, I wrote about a talk by Andy Wingo on the new Guile architecture. One of the most interesting things in the talk for me was Wingo’s plans to integrate Guile into Emacs by replacing the Elisp engine … Continue reading →

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Sacha’s Emacs Beginner Resources

Posted on 2014-04-23 by jcs

Speaking of Sacha Chua—as I did yesterday—she’s got a nice page on beginner resources for Emacs. Chua tasked one of her assistants to seek out resources for learning Emacs and published the results. She’s got all the sites you’d expect: … Continue reading →

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Sacha Chats with Jānis Mancēviĉs

Posted on 2014-04-22 by jcs

Sacha Chua has another Emacs chat up. This time it’s with Jānis Mancēviĉs. It’s a far ranging talk but one of the interesting aspects is Mancēviĉs’s use of Org mode for Literate Programming. He and his team mate use Org … Continue reading →

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More Password Field Silliness

Posted on 2014-04-21 by jcs

The other day I wrote about the stupid password policies and handling that many sites have. It appears that I’m not alone in being infuriated by this nonsense. David Pashley has his own post documenting some of the silliness. In … Continue reading →

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The Iron Law of Data Collection Strikes the UK

Posted on 2014-04-20 by jcs

I’ve written before about the Iron Law of Data Collection, the idea that no matter the rationale given for the collection of the data or the promises made about its confidentiality there will always be mission creep that finds new … Continue reading →

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Cyberterrorism

Posted on 2014-04-19 by jcs

An excellent suggestion from Ryan Paul (via Jean-Philippe Paradis) Let’s start describing NSA’s activities as “state-sponsored cyberterrorism” because that’s what the US would call it if anybody else did it. — Ryan Paul (@segphault) April 11, 2014

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Encrypt Everything?

Posted on 2014-04-18 by jcs

Klint Finley over at Wired has an article that discusses the pros and cons of encrypting the Internet. By that he means using SSL/TLS instead of plain HTTP for every connection. It’s not a new idea. For example, the EFF … Continue reading →

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