Category Archives: General

Partying Like It’s The Last Century

Posted on 2024-08-28 by jcs

It’s hard to be too cynical about the security practices of software vendors: even those selling “security” solutions. Although most Irreal readers probably know a lot more about good security practices than the average user, security is a difficult discipline … Continue reading →

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Schneier On Staying Safe On The Internet

Posted on 2024-08-27 by jcs

There may be more knowledgeable people on security than Bruce Schneier but hardly any of them are talking to us. They mostly work for the NSA or its brethren or they’re cybercriminals. Happily, Schneier does talk to us and he … Continue reading →

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Ten Coding Fonts

Posted on 2024-08-26 by jcs

A perennial topic of interest to programmers is their coding font. I’ve been using Inconsolata for as long as I can remember. I adopted it when I was still a Vim user and carried it over to Emacs. In my … Continue reading →

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Nothing Today Because I’m Exhausted

Posted on 2024-08-25 by jcs

Yesterday was a lost day. I haven’t been happy with my WiFi router so I got a new one and yesterday was the day that I was going to spend an hour or so installing it and updating my network. … Continue reading →

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Why Isn’t Lisp Used More In Production Redux

Posted on 2024-08-24 by jcs

I just came across an excellent Medium article by Kenichi Sasagawa that addresses the question of Why Isn’t Lisp Used More In Production that I wrote about the other day. My post took the somewhat cynical view that Lisp lost … Continue reading →

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🥩 Red Meat Friday: Toilet paper

Posted on 2024-08-23 by jcs

Toilet paper? Wha? Most of us can go our entire lives—modulo COVID induced shortages—without ever thinking about it. You buy it, you use it, you buy some more. But COVID did make us think about this everyday item and wonder … Continue reading →

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On Sharing The Benefits Of Emacs

Posted on 2024-08-22 by jcs

Most experienced Emacsers recognize the futility of proselytizing for our favorite editor. Basically, no one but the already convinced want to hear about it. They’re sure the bling, menus, and mouse actions offered by those other editors are superior to … Continue reading →

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What Is Emacs and Why Should You Use It

Posted on 2024-08-21 by jcs

Explaining Emacs to non-users is challenging. A first order explanation is that it’s a text editor but as we all know that’s a pitifully inadequate explanation. As you’re all aware, my default explanation is that it’s a light-weight Lisp Machine … Continue reading →

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Working From Home: Is The Dream Over?

Posted on 2024-08-20 by jcs

I am so tired of reading the same excuses and nonsense from psychopathic control freaks on why it’s absolutely necessary for the good of the company/city/country/world/universe that all workers return to the mothership office. The latest horrifying example is from … Continue reading →

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Elfeed Org Links

Posted on 2024-08-19 by jcs

As most of you know, I’m a huge fan of Elfeed and, of course, Org mode. I use Elfeed to read my feed and I do all my writing and note taking in Org mode. It’s natural, therefore, that I’d … Continue reading →

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