Monthly Archives: September 2017

Org Mind Map

Posted on 2017-09-10 by jcs

I don’t use mind mapping so I never paid much attention to org-mind-map, thinking it was a way of organizing mind maps. It is that, I suppose, but what makes it interesting to me is that it’s a handy way … Continue reading →

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Jerry Pournelle, RIP

Posted on 2017-09-09 by jcs

Jerry Pournelle, a well known Science Fiction writer and computer columnist died yesterday. For years, Pournelle wrote the popular Chaos Manor column for BYTE. The column considered computer software and hardware from the users’ perspective. I’ve long been a fan … Continue reading →

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Happy Birthday Dennis Ritchie

Posted on 2017-09-09 by jcs

Six years ago, one of my heroes, Dennis Ritchie, died. No one here needs to be told who dmr was or what he did. He’s no longer with us but it’s worth remembering his birthday and sparing a few minutes … Continue reading →

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Possible Posting Hiatus

Posted on 2017-09-08 by jcs

As many of you know, The Irreal International Headquarters is in Tampa, Florida. Hurricane Irma is currently bearing down on us although at the moment it doesn’t look as if we’ll get a direct hit. Nonetheless, it’s likely that we’ll … Continue reading →

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Reading EPUBs in Emacs

Posted on 2017-09-07 by jcs

In yet another win for moving your digital life into Emacs, wasamasa has released nov.el, a package for reading EPUBs in Emacs. Until now, I have always opted to get digital content as PDFs rather than EPUBs or MOBIs because … Continue reading →

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Org Mode 9.1 Released

Posted on 2017-09-06 by jcs

#Emacs #Orgmode 9.1 is out. A big thanks to every contributor for this major release! — Bastien Guerry (@bzg2) September 6, 2017 I’ve already updated, of course, but Phil tells me I may have a bit of OCD. In any … Continue reading →

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Making a Case for Eshell

Posted on 2017-09-05 by jcs

Over at the Emacs subreddit, ambrevar has an interesting post in which he makes the case for Eshell. One of the frequent complaints about Eshell is that it doesn’t work like a “normal” Unix shell. Ambrevar acknowledges that but says … Continue reading →

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Webster and Emacs

Posted on 2017-09-04 by jcs

Yesterday, I mentioned that the 1913 + 1828 Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary that used to be hosted by the University of Chicago appears to be permanently offline. Back in January, I wrote that I had emailed the site asking whether … Continue reading →

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Draft #4, The Book

Posted on 2017-09-03 by jcs

Those of you who read and enjoyed my post on Draft #4, about John McPhee and why you’re probably using the wrong dictionary, will be happy to know that McPhee has a new book, Draft No. 4, that discusses his … Continue reading →

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Magit Kickstarter

Posted on 2017-09-02 by jcs

Regular readers know that I’m a huge fan of Magit. It is, along with Org Mode, one of the killer apps in Emacs. Now Jonas Bernoulli has announced a Kickstarter campaign to fund further development: Magit, the magical Git client … Continue reading →

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