Monthly Archives: March 2015

Git Problems and Solutions

Posted on 2015-03-24 by jcs

Nava Whiteford over at 41j has a useful list of common Git problems and their solutions. It’s almost like a mini-recipe book. For example, what if you made a mistake in your commit message? Whiteford tells you to use the … Continue reading →

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Using Org Mode for Writing Specifications

Posted on 2015-03-23 by jcs

Irreal regulars know that I use Org mode for almost all my writing. There are these blog posts, of course, written with Org mode and published with org2blog but also reports, letters, and pretty much everything else. Org mode is … Continue reading →

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Packing C Structures

Posted on 2015-03-22 by jcs

I’m writing this on my MacBook Pro, a small, light-weight laptop that has 16 GB of memory. Nothing I do on it ever runs out of memory. It wasn’t always that way, of course. Bill Gates famously quipped that he … Continue reading →

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The New Yorker and GNU

Posted on 2015-03-21 by jcs

The New Yorker is celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the GNU manifesto with a nice article on RMS and his work on Free Software. All-in-all it’s a pretty good article considering that it’s appearing in a non-technical venue. They get … Continue reading →

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Yet Another Reason…

Posted on 2015-03-20 by jcs

… I’ve got to learn calc: Emacs Calc has probability distribution functions (ltp, utp), but alas no inverses. https://t.co/eiIArll7pL Still, pretty impressive. #emacs — Barton Yadlowski (@bmorphism) February 28, 2015 I keep finding more reasons I should spend some time on … Continue reading →

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JS;DR

Posted on 2015-03-19 by jcs

An idea whose time has come. I have nothing against using Javascript to provide enhanced navigation and things like menus but if the site won’t render without it, there’s a problem.

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Tips on Everyday Emacs Use

Posted on 2015-03-19 by jcs

Daniel Ehrman has a nice post on 11 tips for solving everyday editing problems with Emacs. The list is a must-read for Emacs n00bs but even experienced Emacsers might benefit by being reminded of a few of the tips. I … Continue reading →

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Literate DevOps

Posted on 2015-03-18 by jcs

As regular readers know, I’m a big fan of reproducible research. It makes it possible for anyone—even yourself—to reproduce all the steps of your research exactly as you performed it. A related concept, termed Literate DevOps by Howard Abrams, does … Continue reading →

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An Apropos Hydra

Posted on 2015-03-17 by jcs

Abo-abo is still blogging up a storm. I haven’t commented on every post because if I did I wouldn’t have time for writing about anything else. His latest post is about a hydra for apropos. My first reaction was, “Meh, … Continue reading →

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The Difference Between Malware and Adware

Posted on 2015-03-16 by jcs

Infosec Taylor Swift has a clarification for Lenovo, other computer manufacturers, and the journalists who report on them: Journalists: "Adware" is malware with a legal team. — InfoSec Taylor Swift (@SwiftOnSecurity) February 19, 2015

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