Monthly Archives: June 2015

Making My Org Agenda More Useful

Posted on 2015-06-30 by jcs

I’ve written before (1, 2, 3) about my efforts to implement a system like the one Karl Voit has for managing personal data. Voit uses his Memacs system to automatically collect data from a variety of sources and add them … Continue reading →

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What is a Hacker?

Posted on 2015-06-29 by jcs

That’s a notoriously difficult question. Nik Ferrier has his own answer, which seems to me as good as any other I’ve read. Hop on over and see if it resonates for you.

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Org-Babel Examples

Posted on 2015-06-29 by jcs

I haven’t written about using Babel with Org mode for a long time but it’s something I use everyday. Most of those uses are trivial but the full power is there when I need it. I can produce summary data … Continue reading →

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Schneier on Why We Encrypt

Posted on 2015-06-28 by jcs

Bruce Schneier has a nice post on Why We Encrypt. Encryption maintains our privacy, keeps our money safe, and, sometimes, saves our lives. Most Irreal readers will be familiar with these reasons but here’s another that we hear about less … Continue reading →

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Happens to Me Every Day

Posted on 2015-06-27 by jcs

Happily, with OS X you can make a lot of the Emacs key chords work in other apps but it’s still not the same. That moment when you have spent enough time in #emacs that are pissed at applications that … Continue reading →

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Annual Who Has Your Back Report

Posted on 2015-06-27 by jcs

The EFF has published its annual Who Has Your Back? report. The idea is that they look at those technology companies that deal with our private data and rate them on the following criteria Follows industry-accepted best practices Tells users … Continue reading →

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A Tip for Artist Mode

Posted on 2015-06-26 by jcs

If you use artist mode in Org mode, you may find this tip useful. use artist-mode in #emacs to do ascii-art block diagrams, if using org-mode do it inside of #+BEGIN_EXAMPLE block after hitting C-c ' — Bryan Murdock (@bdmurdock) … Continue reading →

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DuckDuckGo Bang Searches

Posted on 2015-06-26 by jcs

If you’re a DuckDuckGo user—and you really should be unless you like having your search history logged and sold—there’s a very nice shortcut you can use when searching specific sites. Suppose, for example, you want to find the documentation for … Continue reading →

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Lisp Functions in Org Table Calculations

Posted on 2015-06-25 by jcs

Sacha Chua has a nice post on how she uses an Org table to keep track of medications her family needs and how it automatically calculates how many she needs to buy based on how long they need to be … Continue reading →

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2 or b

Posted on 2015-06-24 by jcs

Over at the Google+ ErgoEmacs community, Xah Lee asks is it easier to type 2 or b on a QWERTY keyboard. The majority of people said ‘b’ but I was surprised at how many felt ‘2’ was easier. If you … Continue reading →

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