Monthly Archives: October 2008

Hal Hardenbegh has passed away (in June, actually).  Link. Who? Why, the author of the 80s newsletter DTACK Grounded. What? DTACK Grounded was the rant forum for the smart, driven and idiosyncratic Hal Hardenbergh, who was on a mission to … Continue reading →

In the beginning was Big God Mainframe, cared for by a carefully selected and well trained priesthood that dusted The Machine, changed-out components on the ordained Master Schedule, protected The Machine from environmental harm, and very occasionally and begrudgingly let … Continue reading →

Once upon a time I thought it would be “good for me” to learn denotational semantics. It looked like people were doing cool things with it, it looked like languages that leaned on it heavily (like ML) were worth learning, … Continue reading →

Forget computers, massive multiplayer online games, the ubiquitous presence of instantly findable facts and opinions, my son is growing up in a world where yellow stickies will always have been around.

Enough ranting. I want to talk about code that I liked, and what I learned from it. The first really good stuff I encountered — after a number of years of reading Byte and Dr. Dobbs — was the late … Continue reading →

“Aunt Juice. Not a relative, but as in, “I want juice.” “Uh! Ah!” (points) I want something out of reach that I’m too lazy to tell you exactly what it is, and also it’s entertaining seeing you struggle with the … Continue reading →

On optimizing Linux boots: “The X Window System runs the C preprocessor and compiler on startup, in order to build its keyboard mappings.” And that [gulp … hrullphh] is all you need to know about X [grwawwwlphh!]. Link. Later in … Continue reading →

Apologies for lack of posting.  I’m buried at work, and must also keep the yard from turning yet again into jungle.  Additionally, having little to grip about besides politics (which I am miserable at), I’d rather just hole up with … Continue reading →