Monthly Archives: July 2013

Jekor #3

Posted on 2013-07-22 by jcs

Jekor has a new Emacs video up. This time it explores loading packages through ELPA in Emacs 24. The new video continues the excellent production values of the first two. This series is shaping up to be a really useful … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged | Leave a comment

Prism Break

Posted on 2013-07-21 by jcs

If you’re looking for ways to make your Internet activities more opaque, here’s a very useful site that discusses alternative software to help you be more secure. It also discusses phone services that may help too. Most of us, of … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged | Leave a comment

I Have Nothing To Hide

Posted on 2013-07-20 by jcs

Jamie Zawinski links to a frightening response to a post on Reddit that offered the usual tripe about not caring about government surveillance because “I have nothing to hide.” The responder purports to be living in an Arab country that … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged | Leave a comment

Applying defadvice to Several Functions at Once

Posted on 2013-07-19 by jcs

One of the distinguishing—and most useful—features of Lisp is the macro. Sadly, we don’t often see them discussed in the Emacs blogosphere so I was happy to see Bozhidar Batsov over at Emacs Redux give a beautiful example of macro … Continue reading →

Posted in Programming | Tagged , | Leave a comment

EFF

Posted on 2013-07-18 by jcs

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has filed suit in Federal Court on behalf of 19 organizations. The suit asks that the court rule that the NSA mass surveillance violates the first, fourth, and fifth amendments to the U.S. Constitution and … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged | Leave a comment

A Random Emacs Wiki Page

Posted on 2013-07-17 by jcs

Here’s a nice little trick to help you waste time on the Emacs Wiki. As the Redit post explains, if you navigate to http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/?action=random you get a random page from the Emacs Wiki. It’s easy to imagine building a simple … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged | 1 Comment

A Second Jekor Emacs Video

Posted on 2013-07-16 by jcs

I was alerted by this Magnar Sveen tweet that Jekor has another Emacs video up on YouTube. As I mentioned in my post about the first video, these videos are extraordinarily well done and worth your time. This episode discusses … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged | Leave a comment

The Other Side

Posted on 2013-07-15 by jcs

In my The Good Guys and Bad post, I had harsh words for Microsoft’s collaboration with the NSA and FBI. I still find their actions over the top and inexcusable but there is another side to the story. Declan McCullagh … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged | Leave a comment

Last Chance

Posted on 2013-07-14 by jcs

By way of a public service announcement, Google will be deleting all Google Reader information tomorrow. This is your last chance to get your subscription (and other) data out of the system. It’s easy to do so. Just go to … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Leave a comment

GPG Tutorial

Posted on 2013-07-14 by jcs

If you aren’t already using GPG (or one of its OpenPGP brethren) you should start. Happily, Alan Eliasen has a nice tutorial on how to set up and use GPG. The tutorial covers everything you need to use GPG in … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , | Leave a comment