Tag Archives: Tech

Rethinking Your Desk

Posted on 2026-05-31 by jcs

I’ve always had a thing about desks. I really enjoy looking at pictures of people’s work areas and in particular their desks. I’ve gone through stages. Sometimes I really liked renaissance desks, sometimes colonial desks, and sometime modern desks. Basically, … Continue reading →

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ICanHazShortcut 2.0

Posted on 2026-05-11 by jcs

I’ve been using ICanHazShortcut for years. I originally started using it to have an easy way to switch to Emacs from anywhere in my system. Eventually, I added Safari and HomeKit to the list of apps I can invoke with … Continue reading →

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Microsoft, IBM, And The TAB Key

Posted on 2026-05-06 by jcs

Raymond Chen has an amusing story just in time for Mothers’ Day. It’s a story from the joint OS/2 development effort of Microsoft and IBM about the mismatch in organizational structures between Microsoft and IBM. In those days, at least, … Continue reading →

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Coffee: It’s Good For You

Posted on 2026-05-04 by jcs

An old joke, known and beloved by every developer, is “A programmer is a machine for turning coffee into code.” It’s certainly true that it’s an important component of my productivity, coding and otherwise. An overwhelming proportion of Irreal readers, … Continue reading →

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Fast16

Posted on 2026-04-28 by jcs

There are few Irreal readers, I sure, who don’t know what Stuxnet was and, whatever their feelings about the underlying politics, don’t consider it a tour de force of software engineering. Recently a new candidate for the championship of such … Continue reading →

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Changing Of The Guard

Posted on 2026-04-21 by jcs

The much predicted succession of Apple’s top management is underway. In a community letter from Tim Cook, Cook announced that he is transitioning to Apple’s executive chairman and as long expected, John Ternus, the current Senior Vice President of Engineering, … Continue reading →

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Artemis II’s Fault Tolerant Computer

Posted on 2026-04-19 by jcs

The other day, I wrote about the amazing engineering behind Voyager 1. Space is a harsh environment and equipment that would be perfectly fine here on Earth would not survive in space. Artemis II, which carried the crew farther away … Continue reading →

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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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