Tag Archives: Tech

Should We Stop Avoiding Politics?

Posted on 2025-10-13 by jcs

If you’re familiar with Betteridge’s law of headlines you know that the answer is “no”. Every engineer recognizes politics for what it is: A process used by the unscrupulous to achieve ends that benefit no one but themselves and their … Continue reading →

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Why RSS Is The Right Thing

Posted on 2025-10-08 by jcs

Tom Burkert has a nice post in which he extols the virtues of RSS. You might wonder what there is to extol. RSS is a simple protocol—the “simple” is in its name, after all—and it’s pretty easy to implement. That … Continue reading →

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How RSS Beat Microsoft

Posted on 2025-10-05 by jcs

As many of you know, I’m a big fan of RSS and use it everyday to scour the Internet for potential Irreal topics and also just for topics that I find interesting or useful. I was there at the beginning—although … Continue reading →

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The Brilliance of UTF-8

Posted on 2025-09-13 by jcs

Vishnu Haridas has a nice post on UTF-8 and how it works. He’s impressed with the brilliance of its design. And why not? It provides code points for virtually every written language in the world while maintaining compatibility with ASCII. … Continue reading →

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Bell Labs

Posted on 2025-09-12 by jcs

Editorial Note I’ve had this post in my queue for over a month because just as I was about to publish it, the link to Tasbolatov’s post stopped working. It’s just now come back on line so I’m happy to … Continue reading →

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🥩 Red Meat Friday: Can We Stop Acting Like 5 Year Olds

Posted on 2025-09-05 by jcs

I recently saw this Tweet by John Carmack about developing new operating systems. Carmack is of the opinion that it’s rarely justifiable and when it is, “[Y]ou practically need an isolated monastic order of computer engineers.” I don’t have an … Continue reading →

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🥩 Red Meat Friday: Hell On Earth

Posted on 2025-08-29 by jcs

Did you ever wonder what Hell on earth would look like? Here you go. Imagine having to rely on Windows XP, Windows 3.11, or even MS-DOS to get your daily work done. Imagine waiting 15 minutes for your computer to … Continue reading →

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Hey! I know. Let’s Make Another Boeing

Posted on 2025-08-18 by jcs

In an apparent attempt to prove that stupidity is a bipartisan trait, the current administration has decided to force Taiwan to acquire a 49% interest in Intel. The U.S. government thinks that the survival of Intel is essential to the … Continue reading →

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Steve Jobs’ Cabinet

Posted on 2025-08-01 by jcs

Over at Perfect Days, Padraig has a post that really resonated with me. He begins by quoting Steve Jobs on cabinet making. Jobs says that a real craftsman wouldn’t use a piece of plywood on the back of a beautiful … Continue reading →

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The NTSB Speaks

Posted on 2025-07-11 by jcs

As you probably know, we here at Irreal take a dim view of Management meddling in the inner workings of Engineering. That is not at all the same as taking a dim view of Management: they are an important and … Continue reading →

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