Category Archives: General

Big Data

Posted on 2015-07-03 by jcs

Cory Doctorow has an interesting piece in The Guardian positing that in the commercial sphere, if not the world of spies, big data has run its course. I especially like this quote: The fact that the billions spent spying on … Continue reading →

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Magit 2.1.0

Posted on 2015-07-03 by jcs

I just installed the new version of magit (2.1.0) and even though I’ve made only two commits so far, I really like the new functionality. One of the first things you’ll notice is that when you commit, a diff is … Continue reading →

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Flash and Security

Posted on 2015-07-02 by jcs

In an editor’s note to the SANS Newsbites piece on Flash being used as a vector for the ransomware CryptoWall, William Hugh Murray speaks the uncomfortable truth on what Flash tells us about security.

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Emacs and Data Science

Posted on 2015-07-02 by jcs

Robert Vesco has an interesting post on why he uses Emacs in his data science work. Vesco is a data scientist for Bloomberg so he’s a serious practitioner of the art. Working in data science means he uses a variety … Continue reading →

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org-goto

Posted on 2015-07-01 by jcs

I learned a really useful Org mode command from Artur Malabarba’s first anniversary post: org-goto. The idea is that you want to navigate to somewhere else in the current Org buffer. You could fold the buffer and navigate to the … Continue reading →

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Making My Org Agenda More Useful

Posted on 2015-06-30 by jcs

I’ve written before (1, 2, 3) about my efforts to implement a system like the one Karl Voit has for managing personal data. Voit uses his Memacs system to automatically collect data from a variety of sources and add them … Continue reading →

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What is a Hacker?

Posted on 2015-06-29 by jcs

That’s a notoriously difficult question. Nik Ferrier has his own answer, which seems to me as good as any other I’ve read. Hop on over and see if it resonates for you.

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Org-Babel Examples

Posted on 2015-06-29 by jcs

I haven’t written about using Babel with Org mode for a long time but it’s something I use everyday. Most of those uses are trivial but the full power is there when I need it. I can produce summary data … Continue reading →

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Schneier on Why We Encrypt

Posted on 2015-06-28 by jcs

Bruce Schneier has a nice post on Why We Encrypt. Encryption maintains our privacy, keeps our money safe, and, sometimes, saves our lives. Most Irreal readers will be familiar with these reasons but here’s another that we hear about less … Continue reading →

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Happens to Me Every Day

Posted on 2015-06-27 by jcs

Happily, with OS X you can make a lot of the Emacs key chords work in other apps but it’s still not the same. That moment when you have spent enough time in #emacs that are pissed at applications that … Continue reading →

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