Monthly Archives: April 2014

Working Through SICP

Posted on 2014-04-10 by jcs

As I’ve said many times before, I’m a huge fan of The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP), Hal Abelson’s and Jerry Sussman’s seminal work on computer science. It’s a tremendous resource and one that’s available on the Web … Continue reading →

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Another GnuPG Tutorial

Posted on 2014-04-09 by jcs

I’ve written many times about GnuPG and other programs that support the OpenPGP standard (the last time here). I really, really wish that everyone would start using it. That would certainly put a crimp in the NSA’s operations. Over at … Continue reading →

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Left Turns

Posted on 2014-04-08 by jcs

Do you avoid left turns when you’re driving? I do. I’ll take different routes to destinations that are across the street from each other to avoid making a left-hand turn against traffic if the destination street has more than light … Continue reading →

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Narrowing to Multiple Regions

Posted on 2014-04-07 by jcs

One of the joys of writing this blog is the things I learn from the comments. The other day, I wrote about fancy-narrow and that provoked an interesting discussion between Wilfred and Phil. Wilfred compared fancy-narrow to narrow-to-region-indirect. I assumed … Continue reading →

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The New Luddites Strike Again

Posted on 2014-04-06 by jcs

From time to time I take note of some particularly egregious example of stupidity from the new Luddites. The last time was here; see that post for links to the others. Today, we have another example in Judith Shulevitz’s article … Continue reading →

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NSA Admits to Warrantless Searches of Americans Phone Calls and Emails

Posted on 2014-04-05 by jcs

Surprise! It turns out that the NSA was looking at the phone calls and emails of Americans without a warrant after all. According The Guardian, James Clapper sent a letter to Sen. Ron Wyden admiting to the practice. What’s surprising … Continue reading →

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Getting Started With the Common Lisp Hyperspec

Posted on 2014-04-04 by jcs

Jean-Philippe Paradis over at HexstreamSoft has a nice page about getting started with the Common Lisp Hyperspec. If you’re already familiar with the Hyperspec, you’re probably with most of the material. If you’re not, it’s a nice introduction. One thing … Continue reading →

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Ace-Link

Posted on 2014-04-03 by jcs

Oleh Krehel has a nifty new package that brings ace-jump-mode functionality to links in help and info buffers. The package, ace-link, makes following links easy by putting letters in front of each link. You follow the link by picking the … Continue reading →

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SBCL 1.1.17

Posted on 2014-04-02 by jcs

SBCL 1.1.17 is out. As usual, it built and passed the tests without problems. This months release has a bunch of bug fixes and a couple of enhancements/optimizations. See the NEWS page for details. And no, despite Rainer Joswig’s April … Continue reading →

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Narrowing the Fancy Way

Posted on 2014-04-01 by jcs

Bruce Connor has an interesting new package up at GitHub. It’s the fancy-narrow package that, as he puts it, imitates narrow-to-region with more eye candy. At first I hated the idea. Being crotchety and grumpy, I’m inclined to treat “eye-candy” … Continue reading →

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