Lazy Reading for 2014/05/25

Lots to read this week – enjoy!

Your unrelated link of the week: Well, not really unrelated, but this thought occurred to me.

Lazy Reading for 2014/05/18

Another week, another linkpile.  I’d probably have more links if it wasn’t for Lost Alpha coming out.

Your unrelated link of the week: Dragonfly (the bug) closeups.

Lazy Reading for 2014/05/11

I’ve linked to Wizzywig (free complete book PDF at that link before, as a sort of early semi-fictional history of personal computing.  I met the author at TCAF this weekend; his Brain Rot comics about the start of hip-hop are enjoyable too.  There’s about a zillion more books I wanted to buy at TCAF, too…

Your unrelated link of the week: Memorex.  As a friend from years ago said, “Eiiiiiiiiighteeeeeees”.  (via)

Lazy Reading for 2014/05/04

Busy week, but lots to read.

Your unrelated link of the week: Doc Brown on My Proper Tea.  Language warning.

Lazy Reading for 2014/04/20

This is another week where I find neat stuff at the start of the week, start the post, and by the time the post date rolls around, those links have been seen everywhere.  Yes, I’m complaining I don’t get “First Post!” the way I want.

Your unrelated comics link of the week: Heads or Tails.  Chris Ware’s comics are all about using the comic as a way of expressing the movement of time, in so many ways.  (via)

Lazy Reading for 2014/04/13

I am all over the map this week.

Your unrelated animated image of the week: a seal with hiccups.

Lazy Reading for 2014/04/06

This is the first Lazy Reading in a while that I hadn’t already started before the previous week’s Lazy Reading was displayed.

Your unrelated comics link of the day: The Very Hungry Rust Monster.

 

Lazy Reading for 2014/02/23

Pardon me as I wander through a lot of topics.

Your unrelated comics link of the week: Top Shelf is now selling their excellent comics without DRM, so they can be stored/read however you like.

Lazy Reading for 2014/01/19

The Internet overfloweth with good links, lately.  Nothing this week that requires a lot of reading, but plenty of things to click.  Enjoy!

Your unrelated link of the week:  Fail Forward, a collection of writing about pen and paper RPGs.  (via)

Lazy Reading for 2013/11/24

There’s some in-depth items to look at this week; pull up a chair and get something warm to drink.  You will be rewarded.

  • James Mickens, who you may remember from The Slow Winter a few weeks back, has written again with The Night Watch.  Gonzo tech writing is the best.  Note to self: a ;login: subscription might not be a bad idea, as apparently there’s more like that.
  • Another note to self: watch the USENIX blog.  There’s some interesting things on there.
  • Citation Needed.   There’s a plausible claim in this that the reason we have 0-based indexing in most languages is because of yacht-racing.  Seriously, read the article, and follow some of the links in it.  (via)
  • Engelbart’s Violin.  Because “a computer system should maximally reward learning.”  Found in that previous essay; good enough I had to break it out.
  • Found in the comments from that previous link: SiWriter.  One-handed phone typing, simulating a chorded keyboard.
  • History of T.  I was wondering if it was something about tea, but no, it’s a discussion about a Lisp implementation.  Lisp all seems to originate from a magical time, when computers were faster, dragons were common, and elves hadn’t retreated across the sea yet, or at least all the stories have that mythical vibe.  See the ycominator link for additional discussion about system languages like Rust, of which I have only heard in passing so far.
  • The video and audio from LISA 2013 has been posted.  There’s lots there; I’m sure you’ll find an interesting topic.
  • I wasn’t kidding about this being a dense week for links, was I?
  • This should have been in yesterday, but I only read about it this morning: Darwin/BSD on ARM.  More ARM work everywhere, please; there’s a tidal wave of these processors washing about.  (thanks, J.C. Roberts)
  • Why I use a 20-year-old Model M keyboard.  See the ycombinator discussion for alternatives.  They all may seem expensive, but it’s equipment you’re going to smash your fingers against for many years; it should be good.
  • That discussion link in the previous item led me to this image.  An old-style Thinkpad keyboard?  Now that would be pleasant to use.  Apparently these existed, though the Lenovo keyboards section doesn’t have anything exactly by that name; the keyboards there look generic.  There’s some on eBay.  Anyone ever used one?
  • The Homebrew Computer Club reconvenes.  A computer club nowadays is “we downloaded some of the same software”, while back then it was “I built a computer.”  A bit more hardcore.
  • chibitronics.  It’s ‘circuit stickers’, and a good idea.
  • mattext, a matrix-style pager.  Does it work on DragonFly?  Haven’t had a chance to find out.  It needs a video demo.  (via)
  • More UNIX script debugging.  Still Bash-specific, but still useful.
  • Puppet vs. Chef  vs. Ansible vs. Salt.  A useful comparison for those not familiar with these types of tool.  (via)
  • UNIX Proves Staying Power as Enterprise Computing Platform.  Gives a short history of commercial UNIX platforms.
  • I find stories about closing cloud companies compelling.  I’d probably feel different if it was my problems to sort out.

 

Your unrelated link of the week: Mr. T PSA.  It’s a parody of the real thing.  I explicitly mention it because you, the reader, might not be just the right age to remember this.

If that’s not confusing enough, watch this.

Lazy Reading for 2013/11/17

It’s been snowing this week in the northeast US, which makes me happy.

  • Unix: sending signals to processes.  Signals have always struck me as a somewhat byzantine messaging system that everyone uses for the equivalent of Ctrl-C.
  • Unix: Debugging your scripts.  This will be useful if it’s not already familiar to you.
  • Compatibility is Hard.  Contrary to popular belief, Microsoft Word documents are not backward or forward compatible, from release to release.
  • From that previous link: Why Microsoft Word Must Die.  The worst problems to troubleshoot are when someone says “Word/Excel is acting funny”.  There’s so many intermediate layers of software in those programs that it’s difficult to find the actual data and the actions being performed on it, much less troubleshoot any process.
  • SparkFun.com moved from MySQL/MariaDB to Postgres.  I agree with the sentiments in the article, but I want to know the technical reasons that made Postgres the choice for scaling.  (via)
  • Apple ][ DOS source code.  I don’t have anything I can actually do with the source, but there’s a 1977 price list pictured in the the article that shows some interesting numbers: A 4Kb RAM system costs about $1300, and the prices just go up from there.

Your unrelated comics link of the week: the first four pages of Necropolis.  This comic looks to be fun.

Lazy Reading for 2013/11/03

This was a loooooong week, with me working 24 of the last 48 hours.  It didn’t get in the way of the link-gathering, though!

Your unrelated animated image of the day: (via via)

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Lazy Reading for 2013/10/27

Whee!

Your unrelated link of the week: Deep into Youtube, the top-rated films.  You may want to turn your volume down, and make sure nobody is around.  Not for NSFW content, but because some of those films are so confusing that it’s impossible to explain to someone else why you are watching them.  (via)  There’s some Nico Nico Douga-sourced stuff in there, which I thought I’ve mentioned before, but I can’t find it now.  Why do I even know these things?

Lazy Reading for 2013/10/20

Whee!

  • The Shady Characters blog talks about alternate phone dial layouts.  I’ve mentioned those here before, but Shady Characters links to this video describing the testing that went on for the keypads.  Check at about 2:40 for the story on how AT&T figured out the ‘correct’ length for the phone handset cable.
  • The Youtube channel for Numberphile, the source of that previous video link, has some pretty entertaining math videos…
  • The UNIX as a Second Language blog has an article up about using strace.
  • The Roland SP-808.  I didn’t know these had a built-in Zip drive.  (via)
  • The ICT 1301 runs again.  This is what big computers are supposed to look like, with large cabinets, and spinning tapes, and oversized operator consoles.  (via)
  • Cryptogeddon, a sort of augmented reality game where I think you sneak your way across real systems.  ‘Real’ as in not someone else’s computers, but real systems set up for this game.  (via)

Your unrelated link of the week: Here’s a weird coincidence.  I was looking at this list of pixelated iconic album covers.  The #3 item is “Trout Mask Replica”, from Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band.  I scanned that specific image back in 1994, on a Mac IIsi in my college lab.  For whatever reason, I’ve seen copies of my scan (color corrected much better than I did) many times since.  I know I’m not hallucinating because I still have the record, with the same wear pattern on the album cover.  It’s odd to see a 20-year-old copy of a 40-year-old album scan you did just pop up out of nowhere.

Lazy Reading for 2013/10/13

This week just built up and built up.

Your unrelated comic link of the week: Nimona.

Lazy Reading for 2013/09/08

By the time you read this, I’ll have already been sitting on an island for a few days.  There’s so much stuff to post lately I’m scheduling material a week out.

Your unrelated comic link of the week: The Scout, by Malachi Ward.  A self-contained sci-fi story.

Lazy Reading for 2013/07/28

So many links came up recently that I had already finished this week’s entry when last week’s Lazy Reading was posted.

Your unrelated link of the week: Release the Kraken!

Lazy Reading for 2013/07/21

Last week was relatively light, but somehow this week I read a zillion interesting things.  It’s been too dang hot to do much else, other than flop in a chair and point a fan at my head.

Your unrelated link of the week: Bones Don’t Lie.  An anthropologist who blogs about various discoveries of human remains.  I really enjoy blogs where someone is talking about a subject they care about – not to sell a product, not to be paid (directly), but just because they like the topic and they want to share it with others.  Of course I would think that, wouldn’t I?

Lazy reading for 2013/06/30

Some of the links this week go pretty in-depth.  Enjoy!

Your unrelated link(s) of the week: Candy Box and A Dark Room.  Both are text-only games, but they use HTML5 for animation.  They start minimal, and build up – be patient; there’s a lot of gameplay in there.  These minimal  games fascinate me.  It’s like reading a book, where it goes from just static text to an entire world being built.  (somewhat via)

Your bonus unrelated comics link of the week: Jack Kirby double-page spreads.  It’s not an exaggeration to say this artwork crackles.  (via I forget)