Tag Archives: Tech

A Brief History of Sun Microsystems

Posted on 2023-02-08 by jcs

If you’re involved with computer/software engineering and aren’t just starting out, you’ll be familiar with Sun Microsystems. For a long time their computers seemed to many of us to be the very apotheosis of a “workstation”. Many software folks still … Continue reading →

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Sussman Explains the End of SICP

Posted on 2023-02-04 by jcs

If you’ve spent any time at all on Irreal, you know that I consider Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP) one of the best—arguably the best—books on computer science. It’s influence was tremendous and served as the backbone of … Continue reading →

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Layoffs Generally Don’t Make Sense

Posted on 2023-01-26 by jcs

Sadly, our industry is undergoing another of its periodic spasms of layoffs. Most of the major software companies—Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and many others with the exception of Apple—have announced significant layoffs. Almost all of us have experienced this and … Continue reading →

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Cord and Cable Management

Posted on 2023-01-18 by jcs

One of the things I really admire but that also makes me feel guilty is people who have all their computer cables under control and mostly hidden from sight. Every time I see one of those videos by someone who … Continue reading →

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Why Use Emacs, Vim, and Other Nerdy Software

Posted on 2023-01-17 by jcs

Derek Taylor over at DistroTube has a video that asks the question, “Why should you use Emacs, Vim, and other nerdy software?” That’s not a hard question for Irreal readers but Taylor has an unusual perspective. Even though he constantly … Continue reading →

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On The Collaboration of Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie

Posted on 2023-01-11 by jcs

Periodically I see a reference to Ken Thompson’s 1983 Turning Award Lecture, Reflections on Trusting Trust, and I almost always end up commenting on it. It’s, by far, my favorite CS paper and I’m always delighted at the brilliant trick … Continue reading →

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Another Take On Rss

Posted on 2023-01-02 by jcs

I’ve written numerous posts—the latest one here—about my admiration for RSS and how I use it to deliver interesting posts directly to my Emacs. I’m an unabashed fan and have never understood those who claim it died when Google Reader … Continue reading →

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The Year of RSS

Posted on 2022-12-24 by jcs

Irreal has considered RSS many times, especially since Google’s liquidation of RSS reader, There’s too many posts to cite here; just do a search for “RSS” on the Irreal site to see them. If you aren’t a silly person, you … Continue reading →

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Peer Review

Posted on 2022-12-21 by jcs

Adam Mastroianni has a thoughtful and interesting article on peer review. The idea of having outside “experts” evaluate a prospective paper before it’s published in a journal seems to be obviously the right thing and something that has been the … Continue reading →

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Plan 9: If It’s Not Broke, Don’t Fix It

Posted on 2022-12-11 by jcs

I just came across an interesting article that appears to be from Francesco Nidito—although I’m not sure about the provenance—concerning the Plan 9 operating system. The gist of the post was that Plan 9 was a brilliant piece of software … Continue reading →

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