Author Archives: jcs

Obama and the NSA

Posted on 2013-12-15 by jcs

Over at The New Yorker, Ryan Lizza has a fascinating article on the history of the NSA’s latest extra-legal surveillance on Americans. These programs all started under the Bush administration as a reaction to 9-11 and, significantly, over the strenuous … Continue reading →

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Uncommon Lisp Functions

Posted on 2013-12-14 by jcs

Over at WordPress on cneufeld.ca, Christopher Neufeld is writing a nice series on the less familiar Common Lisp functions. The idea is to give Lisp beginners an idea of how to leverage the power of some of the less commonly … Continue reading →

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Your Government at Work

Posted on 2013-12-13 by jcs

Here in the U.S. we have something called the Federal Register. It’s the official journal of the U.S. Government in which are published public notices and other routine publications of the various government agencies. It’s published daily except for holidays … Continue reading →

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A Simple EmacsGolf Challenge

Posted on 2013-12-12 by jcs

We haven’t had an EmacsGolf challenge for a while so here’s something simple that was suggested by Xah Lee based on a Stack Overflow question. The Stack Overflow questioner wanted a solution in Vim so the whole thing fits right … Continue reading →

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Mickey on Magit

Posted on 2013-12-11 by jcs

As many of you know, I’m a long time user of Magit and really like it. I’m not, however, a power user and haven’t bothered to learn all the details. It’s hard to find documentation that describes how you go … Continue reading →

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The Importance of Mathematical Literacy

Posted on 2013-12-10 by jcs

The other day, I saw this amusing posting on Headlines from a Mathematically Literate World. I chuckled and moved on but then I read an article saying that American students had slipped to 26th place in world-wide mathematics test results … Continue reading →

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Stacking the Deck

Posted on 2013-12-09 by jcs

Just when I thought the surveillance establishment couldn’t get more Orwellian or that I couldn’t get more cynical, I came across this story. Here in the U.S. we have the infamous no-fly list. It’s right out of Kafka: no one … Continue reading →

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SSL and the NSA

Posted on 2013-12-08 by jcs

If you’re a crypto-nerd or even have a passing interest, you might enjoy Matthew Green‘s post speculating on how the NSA breaks SSL. We know, courtesy of Edward Snowden’s leaked documents, that they’ve had some sort of success with SSL … Continue reading →

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Why Python Replaced Scheme in MIT’s Undergraduate CS Course

Posted on 2013-12-07 by jcs

If you who have spent anytime at all on Irreal, you know that I’m a huge fan of SICP (Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs) the seminal work by Gerry Sussman and Hal Abelson that was used for years in … Continue reading →

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Spies and Other Cartoons

Posted on 2013-12-06 by jcs

Those of a certain age will remember spy vs. spy, a cartoon in Mad Magazine dating from 1961 but extant to this day (here’s an example of the original by Antonio Prohías). I haven’t thought of the cartoon in years … Continue reading →

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