Category Archives: General

Is Cash Still King?

Posted on 2020-01-05 by jcs

As most of you know by now, I’m very interested in being able to pay for everything with my phone and not having to carry around credit cards, let alone cash. I’m also aware that not everyone shares that desire … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged | Leave a comment

Adding System Notifications to Your Org Agenda

Posted on 2020-01-04 by jcs

If you’re a Unix/Linux/MacOS user, chances are you have one or more cron jobs set up to handle routine maintenance chores. Cron jobs are an extraordinarily useful tool to make a lot of busy work disappear. Still, sometimes things go … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , | Leave a comment

SICP with JavaScript

Posted on 2020-01-03 by jcs

ADDED BEFORE PUBLICATION: This isn’t really a Red Meat Friday item but the content could be considered controversial and it is Friday so if you’ve been yearning for another Red Meat Friday post, you’re welcome. I’ve been dithering on whether … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged | Leave a comment

Why (or Why Not) Switch to Emacs

Posted on 2020-01-01 by jcs

Protesilaos Stavrou has a very nice, detailed video that addresses the question of switching to Emacs. His approach to Emacs is, it seems to me, the correct one. He starts by stating—emphatically—that Emacs is not an editor; it’s a Lisp … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged | Leave a comment

Emacs for Writers

Posted on 2019-12-31 by jcs

Jacob Moena has a long post on using Emacs for creative writing. He begins by explaining why anyone would want to do such a thing. Of course, Emacsers already know the answer: Emacs will make you more productive, especially if … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged | Leave a comment

Easing the Use of Strong Passwords on a WiFi Router

Posted on 2019-12-30 by jcs

François Marier has a cute trick to make using long and secure passwords on your WiFi router a little less painful. Setting a, say, 64 random character password isn’t too much trouble if you’re the only one using the router … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged | Leave a comment

Remote Work Will Become the New Normal

Posted on 2019-12-29 by jcs

The forward march of remote work continues apace. Despite setbacks like Marissa Mayer of Yahoo! putting an end to their remote work program, researchers continue to gather evidence that remote work is a win for both employers and employees. Over … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged | Leave a comment

Query Replace with Occur

Posted on 2019-12-28 by jcs

Over at (with-Emacs, Clemens Radermacher has posted a short tutorial on using occur and query-replace across several files. It’s sort of a riff on abo-abo’s post on refactoring multiple files. To a first order approximation, the idea is to use … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged | Leave a comment

Org Mode 9.3.1

Posted on 2019-12-27 by jcs

Batien writes that he’s released Org 9.3.1. It’s a bug fix so you should probably update if you’re having any problems with Org 9.3. I updated yesterday and haven’t had any problems. Of course, that’s a study of \(n=1\) so … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Implementing Palindrome Predicates

Posted on 2019-12-26 by jcs

Joe Marshall is a long-time Lisper with an ability to come up with really elegant solutions. Indeed, the second ever Irreal post was about Marshall’s brilliant solution to a problem from SICP. Recently, he recounted a story about a recent … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , , | Leave a comment