Category Archives: General

Serializable Emacs Objects

Posted on 2014-01-04 by jcs

Christopher Wellons over at null program has a very nice post on readable closures in Emacs. With the introduction of lexical scoping and, consequently, closures in Emacs 24 it’s nice to discover that Elisp closures are readable. That is, you … Continue reading →

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The Sins of the Technical Press

Posted on 2014-01-03 by jcs

Regular readers know that I’m inclined to a jaundiced view of the press. They are, far too often, biased and lazy and write stories that aren’t simply wrong but the opposite of the truth. The late Michael Crichton famously described … Continue reading →

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Bozhidar Batsov on Emacs 24.4

Posted on 2014-01-01 by jcs

Over at Emacs Redux, Bozhidar Batsov is promising a peek at some of the Emacs 24.4 features. Because he contributed code to the release, he’s followed the development carefully and has been using it exclusively for the last six months … Continue reading →

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RTFM

Posted on 2013-12-31 by jcs

Some time ago1, I noticed that the Org footnote mechanism was not working correctly. As with similar footnote facilities, you add a footnote by marking where you want the footnote to appear in the text and then adding a paragraph … Continue reading →

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Mickey on Emacs 24.4

Posted on 2013-12-30 by jcs

As he has for the past several releases, Mickey over at Mastering Emacs has perused the NEWS file for the upcoming Emacs 24.4 and produced an informative post on what’s new. There are a couple of good reasons to read … Continue reading →

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Progress on the Discrete Logarithm Problem

Posted on 2013-12-29 by jcs

A team of French mathematicians and computer scientists have developed a new algorithm that makes substantial progress on certain types of discrete logarithms. The general discrete log problem is given a and b from a finite field find n also … Continue reading →

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No

Posted on 2013-12-28 by jcs

Why not?

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Data Loss and Reproducible Research

Posted on 2013-12-26 by jcs

As long-time readers know, I’m a big fan of reproducible research (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). The aspect that I’m particularly interested in is keeping the data, software, and other supporting material together with the source for the … Continue reading →

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Emacs 24.4 Draws Nigh

Posted on 2013-12-25 by jcs

Not quite in time for Christmas but a new Emacs is coming our way. Stefan Monnier has announced the feature freeze for Emacs 24.4 on the emacs-devel list. I am hearing that things are pretty much working now so if … Continue reading →

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Tor Best Practices

Posted on 2013-12-24 by jcs

Over at Digital Era there’s a nice post on Tor best practices. While the Tor protocol and software are reasonably secure, you can’t use them blindly. The most recent example of what happens when you do is demonstrated by Eldo … Continue reading →

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