Tag Archives: Tech

The Myth of the Young Entrepreneur

Posted on 2019-12-05 by jcs

One of geekdom’s most cherished beliefs—especially among young hackers—is that of the 20 year old who comes up with a new idea, builds it into a fabulously successful business, sells it for millions after a few years, and retires a … Continue reading →

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An HTML Email Coda

Posted on 2019-12-03 by jcs

Last week, I wrote about Perry Metzger’s reasons for not using Emacs to read his email. His take on email is something on the order of, “These days, email is HTML. Deal with it.” Many of us would rather not … Continue reading →

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Claim: 95% of Users Prefer Dark Mode

Posted on 2019-11-29 by jcs

Over at Polar, they’re getting a lot of requests to implement Dark Mode for their application. They claim that 95% of users prefer dark over light mode. Actually, they’re a little more nuanced than that so you should follow the … Continue reading →

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HTML Email

Posted on 2019-11-27 by jcs

If you’ve watched Perry Metzger’s Emacs Conference 2019 talk, as I hope you have, you’ll know that Metzger believes that modern Email should be carried as HTML. He wants—needs, he says—to see his colleagues emails exactly as they were written … Continue reading →

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What Did They Think Was Going To Happen?

Posted on 2019-11-21 by jcs

I can’t stop laughing: Microsoft Office 365 down worldwide https://t.co/1uUw6fNN2B pic.twitter.com/Hi96L3JFnW — Newshub (@NewshubNZ) November 20, 2019 I’m evil, I know, but the schadenfreude is killing me. I don’t feel even a little sorry for these people. They’ve been warned … Continue reading →

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Ken Thompson Talks About Computer Chess

Posted on 2019-11-20 by jcs

Someone posted a pointer to a 2005 interview of Ken Thompson by John Mashey in which they discuss Thompson’s work on computer chess. It’s unusual, as far as Thompson interviews go, because it doesn’t mention Unix except to note that … Continue reading →

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Light-Mode vs. Dark-Mode Again

Posted on 2019-10-31 by jcs

This is my third post on the burning issue of whether light-mode or dark-mode is better and, more importantly, what do we mean by “better”. Given the frequency of my revisiting the matter, you might think it’s something I care … Continue reading →

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An Interview With Hal Abelson

Posted on 2019-10-29 by jcs

Many of you know that I consider Abelson’s & Sussman’s Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP) one of the best Computer Science books ever written. Although I read it late in my career, it opened my eyes to a … Continue reading →

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When Gmail Isn’t Free

Posted on 2019-10-27 by jcs

If you’re a Gmail user, the past is coming due. After years of what seemed like an infinite amount of free storage, Google is starting to charge for more space. Many people are surprised by the move. They shouldn’t be. … Continue reading →

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Red Meat Friday

Posted on 2019-10-25 by jcs

I’m a little behind today so let’s have another Red Meat Friday. For all you OO lovers and haters out there, Kontra has this offering: Rob Pike (of Unix, UTF-8, Go fame): “object-oriented design is the roman numerals of computing” … Continue reading →

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