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On Learning C, Part 4: What Should I Read? Why Should I believe you?
Table of Contents Part 1: K&R Part 2: Zed Shaw’s Learn C the Hard Way Part 3: C Programming Substance Guidelines Part 4: What Should I Read? Why Should I believe you? (You are here.) Why should I...
View ArticleWarrantless Fingerprinting
Imagine a world in which the police needed a warrant to dust for latent fingerprints. That is, after a crime is discovered or reported, the police have to go to a judge and demonstrate probable cause...
View ArticleInteresting Tech that is Just Around the Corner
When talking about near-future technologies, much of the discussion surrounds stuff like self-driving cars and CRISPR. Rarely do people notice the more modest things that are both closer to fruition...
View ArticleBikepacking: The Idaho Hot Springs Loop
I recently rode the Idaho Hot Springs loop with my dad & my uncle. In nine days, we traveled 510 miles and climbed 37,000 feet. It was rather enjoyable. Read my dad’s write-up for all the details....
View ArticleAge of Em
Back in June, I read Robin Hanson’s book: Age of Em: Work, Love and Life when Robots Rule the Earth. I found it fascinating. Two months later, the book’s ideas still pop into my mind daily. Nothing...
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GNOME Terminal Cursor Blinking Saga
When setting up a new computer, one of the first things I do is disable cursor blinking in the terminal. For the past decade, the Gnome team has worked diligently to make this as hard as possible. The...
View ArticleAg & Ripgrep: .ignore
A few days ago, Andrew Gallant (AKA BurntSushi) released ripgrep, a search tool similar to to ag. To coincide with the initial release, Gallant wrote a blog post comparing various search tools. In it,...
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Oldest Viable Laptop
What’s the oldest laptop you could reasonably do your job with? 3 years old? 5 years? 10? And if asked the same question 10 years ago, would your number be higher or lower? Thanks to a failing battery...
View ArticleSoftware Rot
In his book Age of Em: Work, Love and Life when Robots Rule the Earth, Robin Hanson briefly discusses software rot: As software that was designed to match one set of tasks, tools, and situations is...
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GNOME Terminal Antialiasing Saga
Previously. On lower-DPI displays, I like to use bitmap fonts in my terminals and text editors. I was surprised to see that Gnome Terminal still antialiased and hinted my bitmap font: Here’s a...
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Thinkpad X62
Back in January, I used an old Thinkpad while my 12” Macbook was being repaired. I found myself really enjoying some aspects of it. This nudged me down a path that ended with me modding a frankenpad...
View ArticleGrandfathered In
A useful way to recognize status quo bias is to ask, “What things wouldn’t be allowed if they were introduced today?” Here are some examples. Drugs The obvious ones: alcohol and tobacco. These are...
View ArticleFreedom of Speech isn't About Speech
There’s been a lot of debate about free speech lately, and I’ve noticed that people on both sides often misunderstand why it’s a good idea. It’s commonly assumed that freedom of speech is about the...
View ArticleLinux Laptop Locking
If you wrote your own systemd unit to lock your laptop on suspend, you might want to double-check its behavior. The top two Google results for “systemd lock laptop on suspend” both provide examples...
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Conserve Vertical Pixels
Every vertical pixel used for the UI bar signifies a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. — Fakey Fakerson1 Here’s a screenshot of Red Hat’s OpenShift...
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Thinkpad X210
A couple years ago, I used an old Thinkpad while my MacBook was being repaired. I enjoyed the experience so much that I ended up getting a Thinkpad X62 (an X61 chassis with modern internals). Last...
View ArticleSocial Media
I just re-read the Unabomer’s manifesto. … It is a slightly crazy document… but the truth is that it is better reasoned and modulated than half of what I see on Twitter. And this is from people with...
View ArticleIn Defense of Richard Stallman
Richard Stallman has had a rough month. This article is a decent summary of the events. In short: Stallman made some technically-correct-but-utterly-tactless comments on a private mailing list, mostly...
View ArticleAgainst the New York Times
I’ve been reading Scott Alexander since the days of his LiveJournal and Lesswrong posts (over a decade ago). Scott is an amazing writer. Over the years he has provided countless thoughtful and...
View ArticleGasoline Car Review
I recently purchased a Mazda Miata. This car is interesting because instead of running on electricity, it is powered by a combustible liquid called gasoline. The vehicle has an engine that mixes the...
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