Monthly Archives: March 2015

Editing Files as Root

Posted on 2015-03-16 by jcs

How many times have you brought up a file to edit and discovered that you don’t have write permissions? Usually they’re system files but sometimes you’re tying to help a colleague and don’t have the proper permissions. You can always … Continue reading →

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And Make the Coffee

Posted on 2015-03-15 by jcs

So much more than a Swiss Army Knife: How to end any #vi <-> #emacs discussion; Emacs can make coffee http://t.co/xDfQyeuaUV — Joerg Rings (@JoergR) February 13, 2015

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The CIA and Apple

Posted on 2015-03-15 by jcs

Just when you thought it couldn’t get much worse, The//Intercept is reporting that the CIA has been conducting a sustained multi-year effort to exploit Apple’s iPhone and iPad. The idea was to defeat Apple’s efforts to provide their users with … Continue reading →

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Excession and Video Games

Posted on 2015-03-14 by jcs

Over at Tor.com, Peter Tieryas has a very nice post on the connection between Iain M. Banks’ Excession and a video game. Regular readers—or the merely observant—know that I’m a big fan of Banks’ Culture Novels and of Excession in … Continue reading →

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Working with Key Sequences

Posted on 2015-03-13 by jcs

Howard Abrams has a nice post on working with key sequences. He shows how to set up personal key maps with a common prefix. Abrams likes to use 【F9】 as a prefix to several maps. For example, 【F9 m】 is … Continue reading →

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Did You Know

Posted on 2015-03-12 by jcs

There are only 3 animals that don’t reproduce until they die? I didn’t. One of them is humans, of course, but what about the other two? And why are there only three? See the National Geographic article linked above for … Continue reading →

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Sacha on the Power of Plain Text

Posted on 2015-03-12 by jcs

Sacha Chua has a nice post on the power of plain text. There are, she says, three main ways of storing text1: The Heavy Weight Methods This is mainly database systems. Chua says she uses these tools mainly when she’s … Continue reading →

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Link to a Specific Line in a File from Org

Posted on 2015-03-11 by jcs

A nice tip from Robin Green: #Emacs of the day: Want to reference a line from a source file in your docs? Use OrgMode links formatted like file:/path/to/MyFile.cpp::216 — Robin Green (@fatlimey) February 10, 2015

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The Magic Story

Posted on 2015-03-11 by jcs

Years ago, I had a printed copy of The Jargon File and spent many happy hours reading through it. If you haven’t browsed through the file, you should. It’s full of screamingly funny tidbits about our Hacker Culture and Language. … Continue reading →

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Happy Birthday…

Posted on 2015-03-10 by jcs

…Dark Side of the Moon. The iconic Pink Floyd album was released 42 years ago today. One of the most successful albums of all time, it, even today, pops on and off the Billboard 200. Last week (March 7) it … Continue reading →

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