Tag Archives: Tech

Voyager 1

Posted on 2026-04-09 by jcs

About 50 years ago some engineers at JPL were building a space vehicle with the Star Trek-like 5 year mission to go to unvisited places and seek out new knowledge. That vehicle was, of course, Voyager 1 and the unvisited … Continue reading →

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Lisp Machines!

Posted on 2026-03-30 by jcs

Anyone who’s been around Irreal for a while knows of my fascination with Lisp Machines. Part of my love or Emacs is that it’s (sort of) a reimagining of the Lisp Machines. Sadly, I never had a chance to work … Continue reading →

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How CHM Recovered The Unix v4 Tape

Posted on 2026-03-09 by jcs

I’ve written a few posts [1, 2, 3] on the recently discovered Unix v4 tape. The tape is significant because it is the only known extant copy of Unix v4. Unix v4 is significant because it was the first copy … Continue reading →

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Dark Sky Redux

Posted on 2026-02-25 by jcs

I have to admit to being a bit of a weather nerd. Florida, of course, has very active weather—especially in the Summer—so some of my obsession is self preservation but I also follow the weather where family members reside and … Continue reading →

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Disaster At The Bunker

Posted on 2026-02-20 by jcs

I returned home Wednesday night to discover that the minions, far from guarding the bunker, had been enjoying a nonstop Bacchanalia and that the bunker had been without Internet connectivity for a couple of days. I should have known something … Continue reading →

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Why I Use Ad Blockers

Posted on 2026-02-14 by jcs

If you’ve been around Irreal for a while, you know that I’ve always been conflicted about ad blockers. On the one hand, I recognize that content providers have to make money some how and that the only reasonably way in … Continue reading →

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Remote Work: Advice From A Veteran

Posted on 2026-02-05 by jcs

For reasons having to do with adverse serendipity, I’ve never been able to achieve one of my long held employment goals: remote work. For one reason or another, I’ve always ended up working for control freaks who just knew that … Continue reading →

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Goodhart’s Law

Posted on 2026-02-01 by jcs

Michał Poczwardowski has a nice post on Goodhart’s Law. The law is usually expressed as “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” That may seem a little abstract but its application is familiar to … Continue reading →

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Revisiting The 500 Mile Email

Posted on 2026-01-31 by jcs

Someone reposted Trey Harris’ famous story about the 500 mile email. The TL;DR is that Harris, working as a university system administrator, received a call from the Statistics Department claiming that they couldn’t send an email further than about 500 … Continue reading →

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Microsoft 365

Posted on 2026-01-24 by jcs

I was going to make the fact that Microsoft 365 and other Microsoft tools are down into a Red Meat Friday post with a title that included the word “schadenfreude” but my better nature prevailed and I forebore. Today, though, … Continue reading →

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