Category Archives: General

Digital Nomads in 2022

Posted on 2022-07-24 by jcs

Long time readers know that I’ve been fascinated by the idea of digital nomads since reading Mike Elgan’s article on The New Bedouins in 2007. Back then, it was mostly journalists and a few IT people who were able to … Continue reading →

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The Case for Emacs, Vim, and Nano

Posted on 2022-07-23 by jcs

Over on the Red Hat site there’s a post that makes the cases for the Emacs, Vim, and Nano editors. That may seem like blasphemy to some but different people do have different needs and expectations from their editors. The … Continue reading →

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Red Meat Friday: Seek Help

Posted on 2022-07-22 by jcs

Here’s a stunning example of retro abuse. I get that it’s fun—for some people—to revisit old tech but if this looks good to you, seek help. I’m old enough to have worked with those terminals—both the green and amber versions—and … Continue reading →

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Mickey On Shells & Emulators

Posted on 2022-07-21 by jcs

Mickey from Mastering Emacs has posted an excellent summary of shells & emulators in Emacs. The subject can be a little confusing—mostly centering around the difference between a shell and an emulator—so if you’ve ever been uncertain if you should … Continue reading →

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Google and Your Data

Posted on 2022-07-20 by jcs

I’ve told you, and told you, and told you but some people aren’t listening. Here’s a tweet from a graduate student who, as part of a Digital Archiving class, had a list of people running in a local election and … Continue reading →

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Eshell Prompts

Posted on 2022-07-19 by jcs

Just a quickie today. Bytedude wanted to customize his Eshell prompt to add the date/time. With most shells, that’s simply a matter of changing an environment variable but with Eshell it’s a little more complicated. It turns out the Eshell … Continue reading →

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Quadratic Equations Reconsidered Redux

Posted on 2022-07-18 by jcs

I did a poor job of making my intended point in Irreal’s Quadratic Equations Reconsidered post. The intended point was that Loh had discovered a method of solving quadratic equations without having to remember—or, heaven forefend, rederive—the quadratic formula or … Continue reading →

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DWIM Shell Now Supports Multiple Languages

Posted on 2022-07-17 by jcs

Álvaro Ramírez continues to experiment with his DWIM Shell Command package. The basic idea was that to provide a framework that made it simple to invoke a command that has complex arguments and options directly from Emacs. Ramírez has published … Continue reading →

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Mickey on Keyboard Macros

Posted on 2022-07-16 by jcs

The incomparable Mickey of Mastering Emacs fame has a really nice post on the power of keyboard macros. Most of us, even experienced Emacs users, tend to think of keyboard macros as a way of automating repetitive text editing but … Continue reading →

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Quadratic Equations Reconsidered

Posted on 2022-07-15 by jcs

All of us remember quadratic equations, probably not fondly. If the need arises to solve one in our professional lives, our usual solution is to use the quadratic equation, which we may or may not have memorized through having had … Continue reading →

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