Monthly Archives: December 2015

Integrating iCal and Org Mode

Posted on 2015-12-31 by jcs

Rob Rohan has a very nice video up on integrating Org mode and OS X1 iCal. In his case, he wants to create a physical training schedule that will be reflected in his desktop calendar as well as on his … Continue reading →

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Operator Precedence

Posted on 2015-12-30 by jcs

This seems funny until you realize that it’s true: Operator precedence is a workaround for the problem of having forgotten to make your programming language a lisp. — Gary Fredericks (@gfredericks_) October 7, 2015

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The Eighties Called…

Posted on 2015-12-29 by jcs

…with a message for today’s new Luddites moaning about smart phones and the end of times. "In real life you won't always have a calculator with you." — math teachers in the 80s — Joe Sondow (@JoeSondow) December 28, 2015 … Continue reading →

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Learning the Right Tools

Posted on 2015-12-28 by jcs

I was going to let this go It's almost 2016. Let's stop telling newbies to learn #Emacs or Vim, or any other "1337" command line shit. https://t.co/RiOg03tLhG #elitism — Niko Rosvall (@NikoRosvall) December 13, 2015 but it kept bothering me … Continue reading →

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The EFF Talks Encryption

Posted on 2015-12-27 by jcs

Everyone interested in the encryption wars knows that the EFF has done yeoman’s service defending our right to have access to strong, uncompromised encryption. Certain parts of the government hate this and insist that they need—for our own good, of … Continue reading →

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We Don’t Care About No Stinkin’ Keys

Posted on 2015-12-26 by jcs

In a world in which the FBI is intent on bullying tech companies into giving them “golden keys” that they can use to unlock encrypted communications, the TSA’s compromise of their own golden keys (used to open luggage for inspection) … Continue reading →

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Adjusting Text Size in Emacs

Posted on 2015-12-25 by jcs

For some reason I have a hard time remembering this. If you have a hard time too, consider this my Christmas gift to you. #Emacs of the day: Demoing code to at your desk? C-x C-+ to increase font size, … Continue reading →

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Productivity Packages for Emacs

Posted on 2015-12-24 by jcs

Adrien Brochard over at Xmodulo has a list of 10 productivity packages for Emacs. Some of them are actually built-ins but they’re all something that every Emacs user should consider installing or using. I’m a user of almost all of … Continue reading →

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Org-Ref Update

Posted on 2015-12-23 by jcs

I’ve written about John Kitchin’s org-ref package a couple of times before [1, 2] but now it’s available on Melpa. If you write papers or reports that have references (either internal or external), you need this package. It makes handling … Continue reading →

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A Demonstration of How Hard Cryptography Is

Posted on 2015-12-22 by jcs

In the battle over whether the government should require backdoors in cryptography products, the primary objection from those who actually know what they’re talking about is that we’re not smart enough to safely build in backdoors. That point is often … Continue reading →

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