Monthly Archives: September 2014

Automobiles and Apple

Posted on 2014-09-30 by jcs

For those who have been off-planet and haven’t heard the news, Apple’s iOS 8 encrypts the contents of users’ iPhone and iPads in such a way that only the user—not Apple—can access it. That means that Apple can no longer … Continue reading →

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Emacs Idioms

Posted on 2014-09-30 by jcs

Learning to configure and extend Emacs is pretty easy for those with a modicum of Lisp experience. Much has been written about the shortcomings of Elisp and while those criticisms have merit, it’s easy for a Lisper to become comfortable … Continue reading →

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SBCL 1.2.4 Released

Posted on 2014-09-29 by jcs

Steel Bank Common Lisp 1.2.4 has been released and is available at the usual place. Check the NEWS page for what’s new in this release (mostly some improvements in how certain sequence functions are implemented). As usual, there were no … Continue reading →

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Wilfred Hughes on Macro Systems

Posted on 2014-09-28 by jcs

Wilfred Hughes has an interesting post, Comparitive Macrology, in which he looks at the macro systems of various languages. For each, he implements two macros: A swap macro to exercise hygiene An anaphoric macro to exercise (intentional) variable capture He … Continue reading →

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BSD Unix Repository

Posted on 2014-09-27 by jcs

As I’ve written before, I believe that one of the best ways of becoming a master programmer is to study the work of the masters. One of the best sources for this that I know of is the BSD Unix … Continue reading →

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The Virtue of Practice

Posted on 2014-09-26 by jcs

Via Jean-Philippe Paradis: What enlightenment feels like: RT @katrinolina: We’re eternal students. pic.twitter.com/pNuGEB3SAV — Footnote (@FootnoteMedia) August 8, 2014 I love this. It represents the attitude of a master who is forever striving to improve.

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Privacy for the Rest of Us

Posted on 2014-09-26 by jcs

A recurrent theme around here has been the need to give crypto-enabled apps a user interface that is transparent to Aunt Millie. This is important because no matter how well-protected the geeks make themselves, no one is truly safe until … Continue reading →

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The Java Virtual Machine Tax

Posted on 2014-09-25 by jcs

Via Wilfred Hughes Much-needed straight talk about the "JVM tax" in Clojure and Scala, among other new language issues. RT @AidyLewis https://t.co/OpS1kuafTa — Alex Chamberlain (@dodgethestmrlr) September 23, 2014 I’ve often been tempted by Clojure but the JVM tax that … Continue reading →

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Spring Fall Cleaning

Posted on 2014-09-25 by jcs

In a comment to my Mathematics in a Blog Post post, Grant Rettke asked what versions of WordPress and org2blog/wp I was using. It turned out I had a pretty old version of org2blog/wp installed so I decided to upgrade. … Continue reading →

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Rock & Roll and a Rare Personal Item

Posted on 2014-09-24 by jcs

I don’t often write about myself on Irreal because, really, who cares? I’m going to make a rare exception and share something about myself: I am a HUGE Pink Floyd fan and consider them the best Rock and Roll band … Continue reading →

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