Author Archives: jcs

The TSA (Again)

Posted on 2012-03-26 by jcs

Yesterday I wrote that I don’t often post about the TSA but the latest news is just too good to pass up. Congress is holding hearings on the TSA so naturally they invited Bruce Schneier to testify. That only makes … Continue reading →

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Huh?

Posted on 2012-03-25 by jcs

Why the Programming Language C is Obsolete. C obsolete? Really? Someone forgot to tell Linus. Bjarne Stroustrup is clearly a smart guy and by all accounts a nice guy so I hate to call his baby ugly but Damn! that’s … Continue reading →

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You Can’t Make This Stuff Up

Posted on 2012-03-25 by jcs

One of our interests here at Irreal is security so we are occasionally obligated to report on the doings of the TSA. The reason for this is that the TSA so often serves as an example of how not to … Continue reading →

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Note Taking With Org

Posted on 2012-03-23 by jcs

I written a few posts recently about how I use Org mode to organize my projects and life (1, 2) so of course I was interested to see Da Zhang’s post on how he uses org-mode as the ultimate note … Continue reading →

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About Those Insecure RSA Keys

Posted on 2012-03-22 by jcs

Last month I wrote a short post on some research that showed some RSA public keys are insecure. A couple days ago I noticed that the excellent Programming Praxis has a challenge based on that research and subsequent reporting in … Continue reading →

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Sending Mail Semi-Programmatically In Emacs

Posted on 2012-03-21 by jcs

I have an ongoing project that I manage with an Org mode file. The file has the structure * [2012-03-21 Wed] ** Second Level Headline Some information about the second level headline … where the level one headlines are the … Continue reading →

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Org-Drill

Posted on 2012-03-20 by jcs

When I was browsing Hacker News today, I stumbled upon a neat Org mode extension called org-drill. The idea is that it implements an electronic version of flash cards that are useful for learning vocabulary or other facts. Obviously, this … Continue reading →

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Org-Mac-Link-Grabber

Posted on 2012-03-18 by jcs

Yesterday I wrote about my on-going effort to get rid of paper and to keep all my records and projects anchored in Org files. Yesterday’s post was about easily linking to receipts from my tax file. That’s nice because I … Continue reading →

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Spam: There’s A Lot Of That Going Around

Posted on 2012-03-17 by jcs

Last week I wrote about a spike in forum spam that Irreal is seeing (1, 2). Of course, Irreal is a small site and even on our worst days we see at most 10–15 spam comments. Charlie Stross, a noted … Continue reading →

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Linking To Receipts

Posted on 2012-03-17 by jcs

I’ve written before about how I use Emacs and Org mode to track expenses for tax purposes. At the heart of the system are Org tables for various categories of expenses. Last month, I wrote about how a small piece … Continue reading →

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