Tag Archives: Tech

All of us remember quadratic equations, probably not fondly. If the need arises to solve one in our professional lives, our usual solution is to use the quadratic equation, which we may or may not have memorized through having had … Continue reading →

One thing that we programmers tend to obsess about is our code font. They’re mostly the same, of course, but there are a few characteristics that matter to individual programmers and there’s also the general appearance of the font. For … Continue reading →

These days, my main hammer is Emacs and most tasks can be made to look like nails. Throughout my career, though, one of my go to tools was awk. It’s perfect for processing text files with its implied do loop … Continue reading →

Here’s a little quiz to test your regex-fu. Suppose you want to match any of the strings ab,cd ab-cd ab.cd Someone proposes the regex ab[,-.]cd but you object that that’s incorrect because the – will be treated as specifying the … Continue reading →

If you’re over 10 years old, you’ve almost certainly had your blood pressure taken and it is even more likely that it was done with a blood pressure cuff, a technology that dates from the 1800s. Its age notwithstanding, it’s … Continue reading →

Long time readers know that Irreal doesn’t hold journalists in high regard. Oddly, the worst offenders are journalists on the tech beat. It’s odd because you’d expect them to know the difference between a computer and a composter but they … Continue reading →