https://lobsters-planet.thangqt.com Latest posts from Lobste.rs users' personal sites. Mon, 08 Jun 2026 20:36:39 +0000 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/05/27/1003448877519323242 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/05/27/1003448877519323242 And writing software feels like being Marge in that go-kart race. Work slow and steady for a year writing something neat that had never been brought to a platform before, but someone can hear about it and use Claude to whiz by you in a week and make something with 10 times the functionality. jcs Thu, 28 May 2026 02:13:51 +0000 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/05/27/1003448877519323137 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/05/27/1003448877519323137 I have lost all enthusiasm for reading about new software projects, especially dealing with vintage computing. What would have sounded amazing a year or two ago and made me want to engage with the author, I now just assume was something AI spit out and feels hollow and boring so I skim past it. jcs Thu, 28 May 2026 02:13:51 +0000 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/05/27/1003344849129705473 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/05/27/1003344849129705473 we all directly and indirectly live in the shade, but not the shadow, of colossus jcs Wed, 27 May 2026 19:30:00 +0000 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/05/25/1002523565446606849 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/05/25/1002523565446606849 Franco . . . . . . Ordoñez, NPR News jcs Mon, 25 May 2026 14:19:49 +0000 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/05/18/999938759773732865 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/05/18/999938759773732865 Another Pomera DM250 special release: the DM250XYZ in a translucent purple color Interesting that the keys aren't translucent like on the DM250X and DM250XY https://kingjim.com/products/dm250xyz jcs Mon, 18 May 2026 15:10:54 +0000 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/05/15/998851089162711041 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/05/15/998851089162711041 What good is a laptop that can't go to sleep Your browser doesn't seem to support HTML video. You can download the video instead. jcs Fri, 15 May 2026 16:43:15 +0000 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/05/10/997113530169065473 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/05/10/997113530169065473 jcs Mon, 11 May 2026 00:21:52 +0000 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/05/09/996796827831476225 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/05/09/996796827831476225 well that's gonna cost some money jcs Sun, 10 May 2026 04:00:12 +0000 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/05/08/996208116721344513 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/05/08/996208116721344513 has AI figured out how to put toothpaste back in the tube yet jcs Fri, 08 May 2026 13:55:41 +0000 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/05/05/995089977752510465 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/05/05/995089977752510465 🚫 root ✅ privilegemaxxing jcs Tue, 05 May 2026 13:37:06 +0000 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/05/04/994840285535244289 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/05/04/994840285535244289 they're good barrels brent jcs Mon, 04 May 2026 21:28:04 +0000 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/05/01/993706938202320897 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/05/01/993706938202320897 CRT friends: how would you describe what is happening with the image on this? jcs Fri, 01 May 2026 20:09:21 +0000 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/04/30/993283158047010817 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/04/30/993283158047010817 wow, has apple used their old rainbow logo on anything else since they switched to the flat one? https://www.motorsport.com/imsa/news/porsche-penske-motorsport-running-throwback-apple-computer-livery-at-laguna-seca/10816610/ jcs Thu, 30 Apr 2026 16:45:06 +0000 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/04/24/991113976213229569 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/04/24/991113976213229569 does anyone remember this jcs Fri, 24 Apr 2026 20:27:33 +0000 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/04/22/990429869592092673 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/04/22/990429869592092673 me: hey bank can you move some of this money to my savings account over at that bank? you've done it hundreds of times bank: sure, it'll get there in 2 days me: oh, can i pretend i'm sending a zelle payment to myself? bank: sure, it'll be there in 2 seconds why is ach still so slow jcs Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:12:53 +0000 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/04/19/989170000941420545 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/04/19/989170000941420545 hello, cyberpals what are you working on lately? jcs Sun, 19 Apr 2026 14:44:10 +0000 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/04/18/988807432787005441 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/04/18/988807432787005441 hello past me where does the time go jcs Sat, 18 Apr 2026 15:17:18 +0000 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/04/17/988509061389520897 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/04/17/988509061389520897 Once a device can boot multiuser, compile its kernel, and has display and keyboard drivers, all further development for it must be done on the device itself Sorry, it's the law jcs Fri, 17 Apr 2026 19:59:14 +0000 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/04/16/988077258429505537 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/04/16/988077258429505537 Eternal November https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2026/apr/15/eternal-november-generative-ai-llm/ (November 2025 was when Claude Opus 4.5 was released) jcs Thu, 16 Apr 2026 16:03:41 +0000 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/04/16/988044436086824961 https://jcs.org/notes/2026/04/16/988044436086824961 I over-use parentheses because I don't like having to think about the order of operations every time I glance at my code but from now on I'm going to use this as my justification so I don't seem so dumb jcs Thu, 16 Apr 2026 13:52:05 +0000 https://jcs.org/2026/04/09/openbsd-dm250#2026-04-15 https://jcs.org/2026/04/09/openbsd-dm250#2026-04-15 These are my notes and pre-built images for getting OpenBSD-current installed on the Pomera DM250, DM250X, DM250XY, and DM250US. Table of Contents Top Throat-clearing Making a backup Some DM250 hardware notes Making an OpenBSD installation SD card Installing OpenBSD Post-Installation Building a custom installation ramdisk Recovery Throat-clearing Much of my work has not yet been committed upstream so installation currently requires a custom kernel and U-Boot images which are provided here. OpenB… jcs Thu, 09 Apr 2026 05:00:00 +0000 https://jcs.org/2026/02/02/wallops22 https://jcs.org/2026/02/02/wallops22 A new release of my Wallops IRC client is available: wallops-2.2.sit (StuffIt 3 archive) SHA256: adc2b473664ec096 0b5b028335566831 dd69f4a1de40f79e 22bf1337292cca88 SHA1: 603c5080c41a0d57 52cae49a08376db4 e18628b1 This update includes a number of new features and bugfixes: Auto-connect with the last saved settings on startup, if they are available, unless the Command key is held down Add support for sending Pushover notifications when the user's nick is mentioned or directly messaged, when a scr… jcs Mon, 02 Feb 2026 05:00:00 +0000 https://agnishom.github.io/blog/2025/duolingo/ https://agnishom.github.io/blog/2025/duolingo beyond the green owl, from streaks and potions to pedagogy and politics agnishom Tue, 30 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/talks/python-superpower/ https://hynek.me/talks/python-superpower/ Python appears to be everywhere nowadays! How did it happen, that a language that almost died in the Python 2 to 3 process is now the lingua franca a default choice when people talk about programming? There must be some secret superpower and I think I found it! hynek Fri, 19 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://jcs.org/2025/08/19/wifi_da14 https://jcs.org/2025/08/19/wifi_da14 BlueSCSI Wi-Fi Desk Accessory 1.4 has been released: wifi_da-1.4.sit (StuffIt 3 archive) SHA256: aed32aced3fc2cff 301a61930df654fc a641cd830aa21d8a 824dafde1b17e671 SHA1: 13f5c624598d9956 4922eb807d7231a3 631c995c This update fixes a bug that was breaking hidden SSID entry. jcs Tue, 19 Aug 2025 05:00:00 +0000 https://jcs.org/2025/08/15/cmaster https://jcs.org/2025/08/15/cmaster I found a neat THINK C extension that I wanted to share, and I'm going to have a table at the Vintage Computer Festival Midwest next month. Your browser doesn't seem to support HTML video. You can download the video (H.264/AAC format) instead. Video notes: Vintage Computer Festival Midwest THINK C 5.0.4 CMaster (I'm using 1.2.5) Please contact me with any feedback or questions, view past videos in this series , and subscribe to my RSS feed to be notified about future videos and other posts. Join… jcs Fri, 15 Aug 2025 05:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/talks/design-pressure/ https://hynek.me/talks/design-pressure/ Ever had this weird gut feeling that something is off in your code, but couldn’t put the finger on why? Are you starting your projects with the best intentions, following all best practices, and still feel like your architecture turns weird eventually? hynek Fri, 16 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://agnishom.github.io/blog/2025/indian-colleges/ https://agnishom.github.io/blog/2025/indian-colleges some colleges keep students confined, in the name of safety agnishom Mon, 05 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://jcs.org/2025/03/14/dm250#2026-03-23 https://jcs.org/2025/03/14/dm250#2026-03-23 The KING JIM Pomera DM250 "digital typewriter" is a small Linux-powered ARM computer that boots up into a custom word processor application. I've been tinkering with it to try to get OpenBSD booted on it. I'd normally wait until the end and write up a proper article explaining everything, but this process is taking a lot longer than I expected so I figured I'd document it all as I go. Background KING JIM has made a number of portable word processors starting with the DM5 , the DM10 and DM20 with… jcs Fri, 14 Mar 2025 05:00:00 +0000 https://jcs.org/2025/02/26/imacg4k#2026-02-17 https://jcs.org/2025/02/26/imacg4k#2026-02-17 A year ago I tried using an M1 iMac for work duty but its 21" screen took up too much room on my desk. After seeing Sean's video on Action Retro about putting an M4 Mac Mini inside an iMac G4 , I thought I'd give it a try. Table of Contents Top Trying the Juicy Crumb DockLite G4 Color Banding iMac Screen Resolution Exposed Ports Screen Blanking Upgrading the Screen iMac Neck Mac Mini Mouting Remaining Issues Update: Speakers Trying the Juicy Crumb DockLite G4 The Juicy Crumb DockLite G4 replaces… jcs Wed, 26 Feb 2025 05:00:00 +0000 https://jcs.org/2025/02/24/kindle https://jcs.org/2025/02/24/kindle Last year I upgraded my Kindle Paperwhite to a Kindle Scribe to be able to write notes and draw diagrams while programming to help visualize things. One thing that bothered me about the Scribe was that its sleep screen images were pretty boring and because I'm now often reading PDFs or writing in a notebook, I couldn't benefit from the Kindle OS's new functionality that uses the cover of the book being read as the sleep screen image (which previously required a jailbreak and custom software). Si… jcs Mon, 24 Feb 2025 05:00:00 +0000 https://jcs.org/2025/01/13/wifi_da13 https://jcs.org/2025/01/13/wifi_da13 BlueSCSI Wi-Fi Desk Accessory 1.3 has been released: wifi_da-1.3.sit (StuffIt 3 archive) SHA256: 40b49ef83b6512bd e571171aa42e9041 9a8577efa895cfae b19bf18a0c82d4de SHA1: b8fa941eb104c0f9 25436cc8fbc3018a 3ded5b96 This update brings internationalization support for Macs running non-English installations, and a number of bug fixes. Changes in this version: Fix a handful of bugs Add a log window that can be toggled by clicking on the signal icon Add localization for strings shown in the UI for Mac… jcs Mon, 13 Jan 2025 05:00:00 +0000 https://jonbaer.com/post/771362791883948032 https://jonbaer.com/post/771362791883948032 jonbaer Tue, 31 Dec 2024 07:08:03 +0000 https://jonbaer.com/post/768809886231478272 https://jonbaer.com/post/768809886231478272 jonbaer Tue, 03 Dec 2024 02:50:42 +0000 https://agnishom.github.io/blog/2024/car-free-houston/ https://agnishom.github.io/blog/2024/car-free-houston my experience of living in Houston without a car, and the North American obsession with them agnishom Thu, 07 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://jcs.org/2024/09/23/wallops21 https://jcs.org/2024/09/23/wallops21 Another update to Wallops building on the 2.0 release is available: wallops-2.1.sit (StuffIt 3 archive) SHA256: 7cb16046e076488e 1997e1232631cf2d c9737bac0a94f034 8caf5d183927f4a9 SHA1: fd1d7145aa4baaf5 322175f348644d10 57267a65 This update includes a number of new features and bugfixes: Implement tab completion in channels; by typing part of a user's nick and pressing tab, the input bar will show their completed nick with ":" after it Do UTF-8 to MacRoman conversion of incoming text, where poss… jcs Mon, 23 Sep 2024 05:00:00 +0000 https://jcs.org/2024/09/23/wifi_da12 https://jcs.org/2024/09/23/wifi_da12 BlueSCSI Wi-Fi Desk Accessory 1.2 has been released: wifi_da-1.2.sit (StuffIt 3 archive) SHA256: 984935cc5e3e2510 2849cd41c52764cb 08060d183d48cfb4 9f9da3eead49aea8 SHA1: 980b17f58babb839 977b7d714f8556a8 2bf33c7e Changes in this version: Added an "(Other Network)" option to the SSID list to manually enter a hidden SSID jcs Mon, 23 Sep 2024 05:00:00 +0000 https://jcs.org/2024/09/12/wallops2 https://jcs.org/2024/09/12/wallops2 Another large update to my Wallops IRC client is available: wallops-2.0.sit (StuffIt 3 archive, includes source code and THINK C 5 project file) SHA256: 532f6c72eadbb9e7 ce74dded1bfcd713 69a61d818f7c7716 0bb8a66d6f1ccf9c SHA1: c375a24e00900378 e84745c1e11d3d69 76ef749c This release features an overhaul of the interface bringing tabs allowing multiple channels and private message queries, including a number of other new features and bugfixes: Support window resizing, using an initial window size … jcs Thu, 12 Sep 2024 05:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/docker-virtualenv/ https://hynek.me/articles/docker-virtualenv/ Whenever I publish something about my Python Docker workflows, I invariably get challenged about whether it makes sense to use virtual environments in Docker containers. As always, it’s a trade-off, and I err on the side of standards and predictability. hynek Mon, 02 Sep 2024 11:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/docker-uv/ https://hynek.me/articles/docker-uv/ Starting with 0.3.0 , Astral’s uv brought many great features, including support for cross-platform lock files uv.lock . Together with subsequent fixes, it has become Python’s finest workflow tool for my (non-scientific) use cases. Here’s how I build production-ready containers, as fast as possible. hynek Wed, 28 Aug 2024 11:00:00 +0000 https://agnishom.github.io/blog/2024/steam-deck/ https://agnishom.github.io/blog/2024/steam-deck in an era where tech giants increasingly control our digital experiences, the Steam Deck stands as a beacon of user freedom agnishom Sat, 03 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://jcs.org/2024/05/29/x1usb https://jcs.org/2024/05/29/x1usb I wanted to add an internal USB port to my ThinkPad X1 Nano which should have been a fairly easy thing to do, but it wasn't. Of course, if I were still using my Framework Laptop it would be as easy as plugging in a custom module but I've been using my X1 Nano as my primary laptop for quite some time now. Table of Contents Top Logitech Mouse M.2 Firmware Hacking? Fingerprint Reader USB Power Designing a PCB 3D-Printed Shim Logitech Mouse As convenient as the TrackPoint is on my ThinkPad, having a… jcs Wed, 29 May 2024 05:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/python-virtualenv-redux/ https://hynek.me/articles/python-virtualenv-redux/ One of my first TIL entries was about how you can imitate Node’s node_modules semantics in Python on UNIX-like operating systems. A lot has happened since then (to the better!) and it’s time for an update. direnv still rocks, though. hynek Tue, 02 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://jcs.org/2024/02/20/carl https://jcs.org/2024/02/20/carl I've been working on Carl, my IMAP e-mail client, for the past few months. Your browser doesn't seem to support HTML video. You can download the video (H.264/AAC format) instead. I need to work on not saying "like" so much. Video notes: Remaining PowerBook 1xx Batteries Subtext 4 Kludge BBS on Mastodon IMAP4rev2 rev2 RFC Encoded-word RFC MicroBug and SM 0 A9F4 and G 0 MacsBug My stack walking code Stack layout showing A6 links: Please contact me with any feedback or questions, view past videos i… jcs Tue, 20 Feb 2024 05:00:00 +0000 https://jcs.org/2024/02/19/subtext4 https://jcs.org/2024/02/19/subtext4 Subtext 4.0 has been released: subtext-4.0.sit (StuffIt 3 archive, includes source code and THINK C 5 project file) SHA256: c33a6abe15e7f071 59a18d936dce7c43 5d9619f80d6c53d1 cdd26fabf06712f7 SHA1: 0f4bdcd08b57b568 125d8ddcab5ad97f 1f5dd586 ipdb-2023-11.db (Free IP Geolocation from DB-IP , converted to Subtext IPdb format) Changes in this version: Move views out of database to flat files in a "views" directory, allowing them to be edited by other text editors and backed up; views are cached at s… jcs Mon, 19 Feb 2024 05:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/pull-requests-branch/ https://hynek.me/articles/pull-requests-branch/ When contributing to other users’ repositories, always start a new branch in your fork. hynek Thu, 21 Dec 2023 05:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/turbo-charge-tox/ https://hynek.me/articles/turbo-charge-tox/ No, it’s not (just) run-parallel – let’s cut the local tox runtime by 75%! hynek Mon, 26 Jun 2023 14:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/talks/subclassing/ https://hynek.me/talks/subclassing/ Ever seen a code base where understanding a simple method meant jumping through tangled class hierarchies? We all have! And while “Favor composition over inheritance!” is almost as old as object-oriented programming, strictly avoiding all types of subclassing leads to verbose, un-Pythonic code. So, what to do? hynek Sat, 22 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://jonbaer.com/post/711888195396288512 https://jonbaer.com/post/711888195396288512 jonbaer Wed, 15 Mar 2023 19:44:48 +0000 https://jonbaer.com/post/711805762588049408 https://jonbaer.com/post/711805762588049408 jonbaer Tue, 14 Mar 2023 21:54:34 +0000 https://jonbaer.com/post/711805577602400256 https://jonbaer.com/post/711805577602400256 “Geo-economics by contrast is a game that is played by countries that have already ruled out any warfare at all among themselves. Supercomputers kept out by import barriers cannot be forcibly delivered by airborne assault to the banks or universities that might buy them, nor can competition in the world automobile market be pursued by sinking the car ferries of competitors on the high seas. Armed force has thus entirely lost the dominant role it once had in the age of mercantilism — as an ad… jonbaer Tue, 14 Mar 2023 21:51:37 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/why-i-like-nox/ https://hynek.me/articles/why-i-like-nox/ Ever since I got involved with open-source Python projects, tox has been vital for testing packages across Python versions (and other factors). However, lately, I’ve been increasingly using Nox for my projects instead. Since I’ve been asked why repeatedly, I’ll sum up my thoughts. hynek Wed, 18 Jan 2023 12:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/macos-dyld-env/ https://hynek.me/articles/macos-dyld-env/ Why does DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH keep disappearing!? hynek Mon, 09 Jan 2023 08:00:00 +0000 https://jonbaer.com/post/705674078747508736 https://jonbaer.com/post/705674078747508736 jonbaer Fri, 06 Jan 2023 05:34:04 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/productive-fruit-fly-programmer/ https://hynek.me/articles/productive-fruit-fly-programmer/ A love letter to tools that changed everything for me. hynek Mon, 19 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/python-recursive-optional-dependencies/ https://hynek.me/articles/python-recursive-optional-dependencies/ One of my (slowly evaporating) reasons why I like putting packaging metadata into an executable setup.py is the ability to have optional dependencies that are combinations of others. As of pip 21.2, this is possible without running code. hynek Fri, 29 Jul 2022 06:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/what-to-mock-in-5-mins/ https://hynek.me/articles/what-to-mock-in-5-mins/ A common issue when writing tests for real-world software is how to deal with third-party dependencies. Let’s examine an old, but counter-intuitive principle. hynek Tue, 21 Jun 2022 09:00:00 +0000 https://agnishom.github.io/blog/2022/rating-systems/ https://agnishom.github.io/blog/2022/rating-systems what makes an appropriate rating system and how to rate agnishom Sun, 06 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/import-attrs/ https://hynek.me/articles/import-attrs/ An attempt at catharsis. This is a deeply personal blog post about the most influential project I’ve ever created: attrs , the progenitor of modern Python class utilities. I’m retelling its history from my perspective, how it begot dataclasses , and how I’m leading it into the future. hynek Tue, 28 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/ditch-codecov-python/ https://hynek.me/articles/ditch-codecov-python/ Codecov’s unreliability breaking CI on my open source projects has been a constant source of frustration for me for years. I have found a way to enforce coverage over a whole GitHub Actions build matrix that doesn’t rely on third-party services. hynek Thu, 18 Nov 2021 08:00:00 +0000 https://jonbaer.com/post/667274095277342720 https://jonbaer.com/post/667274095277342720 “While they wrestle with the immediate danger posed by hackers today, US government officials are preparing for another, longer-term threat: attackers who are collecting sensitive, encrypted data now in the hope that they’ll be able to unlock it at some point in the future.” - Hackers are stealing data today so quantum computers can crack it in a decade | MIT Technology Review jonbaer Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:02:46 +0000 https://jonbaer.com/post/667273971241205760 https://jonbaer.com/post/667273971241205760 Two of World’s Biggest Quantum Computers Made in China : Two of the most powerful quantum computers in the world to date now both come from China, and new experiments with them re-ignite the controversy over what kinds of problems might be quantum computationally solvable that couldn’t begin to be solved by a conventional supercomputer. jonbaer Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:00:47 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/til/ https://hynek.me/articles/til/ Trying out something new: today I’m launching my own Today I Learned section. In this essay I will sum up what my plans and hopes are. hynek Wed, 25 Aug 2021 12:00:00 +0000 https://agnishom.github.io/blog/2021/diagrams/ https://agnishom.github.io/blog/2021/diagrams an example of a blog post with diagrams agnishom Sun, 04 Jul 2021 17:39:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/python-subclassing-redux/ https://hynek.me/articles/python-subclassing-redux/ The conflict between subclassing and composition is as old as object-oriented programming. The latest crop of languages like Go or Rust prove that you don’t need subclassing to successfully write code. But what’s a pragmatic approach to subclassing in Python, specifically? hynek Tue, 22 Jun 2021 15:00:00 +0000 https://agnishom.github.io/blog/2021/distill/ https://agnishom.github.io/blog/2021/distill an example of a distill-style blog post and main elements agnishom Sat, 22 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/canonical-seo-fail/ https://hynek.me/articles/canonical-seo-fail/ This post is less about teaching and more about schadenfreude amusement for you, and catharsis for me. It’s the story of how one unfortunate HTML tag kicked me off almost all search engines and my months-long way back. And why it didn’t matter in the end. hynek Wed, 28 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://jonbaer.com/post/645835801710804992 https://jonbaer.com/post/645835801710804992 jonbaer Tue, 16 Mar 2021 17:50:16 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/semver-will-not-save-you/ https://hynek.me/articles/semver-will-not-save-you/ The widely used Python package cryptography changed their build system to use Rust for low-level code, which caused an emotional GitHub thread. Enthusiasts of 32-bit hardware from the 1990s aside, a vocal faction stipulated adherence to Semantic Versioning from the maintainers, claiming it would’ve prevented all grief. I will show you not only why this is wrong but also how relying on Semantic Versioning hurts you – the user. hynek Tue, 02 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/lie-vs-lay/ https://hynek.me/articles/lie-vs-lay/ Lie and lay are infamously confusing to non-native speakers. It’s so bad that it sparked a cottage industry of click-baity articles full of sketchy ads. Since English is my third language, I stumbled a lot myself until I wrote this cheatsheet. hynek Wed, 03 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://jcs.org/2021/01/27/x1nano#2024-06-25 https://jcs.org/2021/01/27/x1nano#2024-06-25 Lenovo has finally made a smaller version of its X1 Carbon , something I've been looking forward to for years. Table of Contents Top Hardware Firmware Current OpenBSD Support Summary Updates Hardware The X1 Nano is basically a 13" version of the 14" X1 Carbon, reducing its footprint, thickness, and weight. Availability in the US has been fairly limited (and expensive) at the moment, offering no WWAN or any customizable options, and Core i7 models are not shipping out for months. I purchased the … jcs Wed, 27 Jan 2021 05:00:00 +0000 https://jonbaer.com/post/637629431339433984 https://jonbaer.com/post/637629431339433984 jonbaer Wed, 16 Dec 2020 03:53:32 +0000 https://jonbaer.com/post/635701192599748608 https://jonbaer.com/post/635701192599748608 jonbaer Tue, 24 Nov 2020 21:05:00 +0000 https://agnishom.github.io/blog/2020/github-metadata/ https://agnishom.github.io/blog/2020/github-metadata a quick run down on accessing github metadata. agnishom Mon, 28 Sep 2020 21:01:00 +0000 https://agnishom.github.io/blog/2020/twitter/ https://agnishom.github.io/blog/2020/twitter an example of a blog post with twitter agnishom Mon, 28 Sep 2020 15:12:00 +0000 https://jonbaer.com/post/626131603871186945 https://jonbaer.com/post/626131603871186945 ‘Quantum secret sharing’ scheme allows 10 parties to communicate securely – Physics World : A “quantum secret sharing” scheme that allows 10 parties share information securely – the highest number so far – has been developed and demonstrated by researchers in South Africa. The protocol involves each party performing quantum operations on the photon without measuring its state and the team says it could help increase both the rate at which data is shared on secure quantum networks a… jonbaer Tue, 11 Aug 2020 06:00:28 +0000 https://jonbaer.com/post/626130641411571712 https://jonbaer.com/post/626130641411571712 jonbaer Tue, 11 Aug 2020 05:45:11 +0000 https://jonbaer.com/post/622793151737905152 https://jonbaer.com/post/622793151737905152 jonbaer Sun, 05 Jul 2020 09:37:13 +0000 https://jonbaer.com/post/620222200853774336 https://jonbaer.com/post/620222200853774336 jonbaer Sun, 07 Jun 2020 00:33:03 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/waiting-in-asyncio/ https://hynek.me/articles/waiting-in-asyncio/ One of the main appeals of using Python’s asyncio is being able to fire off many coroutines and run them concurrently. How many ways do you know for waiting for their results? hynek Thu, 21 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/talks/abstractions/ https://hynek.me/talks/abstractions/ Let’s talk about abstractions and Pythonic code. hynek Mon, 18 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/document-your-tests/ https://hynek.me/articles/document-your-tests/ Some projects have the policy that all tests must have an explanatory comment – including all of mine. At first, I found that baffling. If that’s you right now, this article is for you. hynek Mon, 04 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://jonbaer.com/post/615150273431814144 https://jonbaer.com/post/615150273431814144 John Horton Conway (26 December 1937 – 11 April 2020) jonbaer Sun, 12 Apr 2020 00:56:56 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/python-github-actions/ https://hynek.me/articles/python-github-actions/ GitHub’s own CI called GitHub Actions has been out of closed beta for a while and offers generous free quotas and a seamless integration with the rest of the site. Let’s have a look at how to use it for an open source Python package. hynek Mon, 09 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/python-in-production/ https://hynek.me/articles/python-in-production/ I’m missing a key part from the public Python discourse and I would like to help to change that. hynek Sun, 23 Feb 2020 16:45:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/packaging-metadata/ https://hynek.me/articles/packaging-metadata/ Since this topic keeps coming up, I’d like to briefly share my thoughts on Python package metadata because it’s – as always – more complex than it seems. hynek Fri, 14 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://jonbaer.com/post/189890847341 https://jonbaer.com/post/189890847341 jonbaer Fri, 27 Dec 2019 01:24:10 +0000 https://jonbaer.com/post/189564054026 https://jonbaer.com/post/189564054026 jonbaer Mon, 09 Dec 2019 03:31:08 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/books-that-changed-my-life/ https://hynek.me/articles/books-that-changed-my-life/ People always ask for book recommendations, so here’s my list of books that changed my life in one way or another. None of them is related to tech or programming, but all affect how I think and work. hynek Mon, 23 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://jonbaer.com/post/186689297541 https://jonbaer.com/post/186689297541 Every transistor has a unique quantum fingerprint—but can it be used as a form of ID? : As trap sites are basically tiny defects that are randomly distributed in an uncontrollable way during fabrication, the number, location, and energy levels of trap sites differ for every transistor. As a result, single-electron effects lead to a unique modification in the current-voltage characteristics, effectively giving each transistor a unique “fingerprint.” jonbaer Thu, 01 Aug 2019 01:21:42 +0000 https://jonbaer.com/post/186689276716 https://jonbaer.com/post/186689276716 Illinois Physics Researchers Awarded DoE Grants to Advance Quantum Information Science : Physics Professors Bryan Clark and Taylor Hughes of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have been awarded US Department of Energy (DOE) grants to develop new quantum computing capabilities. The awards are part of a $37-million DOE initiative supporting research that will lay the groundwork for the development of new quantum information systems and that will use current quantum information capabili… jonbaer Thu, 01 Aug 2019 01:20:27 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/simple-python-azure-pipelines/ https://hynek.me/articles/simple-python-azure-pipelines/ Since the acquisition of Travis CI , the future of their free offering is unclear. Azure Pipelines has a generous free tier, but the examples I found are discouragingly complex and take advantage of features like templating that most projects don’t need. To close that gap, this article shows you how to move a Python project with simple CI needs from Travis CI to Azure Pipelines. hynek Mon, 03 Jun 2019 09:14:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/hallway-track/ https://hynek.me/articles/hallway-track/ There are many good reasons not to go to every talk possible when attending conferences. However, increasingly, it became hip to boast about avoiding going to talks – encouraging others to follow suit. That rubs me the wrong way as a speaker, and I’ll try to explain why. hynek Wed, 15 May 2019 18:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/talks/python-foss/ https://hynek.me/talks/python-foss/ PyPI is a gold mine of great packages but those packages have to be written first. More often than not, projects that millions of people depend on are written and maintained by only one person. If you’re unlucky, that person is you! This talk tries to lighten the burden by giving you useful tools and approaches. hynek Fri, 03 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/python-app-deps-2018/ https://hynek.me/articles/python-app-deps-2018/ We have more ways to manage dependencies in Python applications than ever. But how do they fare in production? Unfortunately this topic turned out to be quite polarizing and was at the center of a lot of heated debates. This is my attempt at an opinionated review through a DevOps lens. hynek Thu, 29 Nov 2018 17:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/talks/deploy-friendly/ https://hynek.me/talks/deploy-friendly/ The DevOps movement gave us many ways to put Python applications into production. But how can you practically structure and configure your applications to make them indifferent to the environment they run in? How do secrets fit into the picture? And where do you put that log file? hynek Sat, 12 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/hashes-and-equality/ https://hynek.me/articles/hashes-and-equality/ Most Python programmers don’t spend a lot of time thinking about how equality and hashing works. It usually just works. However there’s quite a bit of gotchas and edge cases that can lead to subtle and frustrating bugs once one starts to customize their behavior – especially if the rules on how they interact aren’t understood. hynek Mon, 20 Nov 2017 06:45:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/docker-signals/ https://hynek.me/articles/docker-signals/ Proper cleanup when terminating your application isn’t less important when it’s running inside of a Docker container. Although it only comes down to making sure signals reach your application and handling them, there’s a bunch of things that can go wrong. hynek Mon, 19 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/speaking/ https://hynek.me/articles/speaking/ I’ve seen quite a bit of the world thanks to being invited to speak at conferences. Since some people are under the impression that serial conference speakers possess some special talents, I’d like to demystify my process by walking you through my latest talk from start to finish. hynek Tue, 30 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/talks/reliability/ https://hynek.me/talks/reliability/ No matter whether you run a web app, search for gravitational waves, or maintain a backup script: reliability of your systems make the difference between sweet dreams and production nightmares at 4am. hynek Fri, 19 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000 http://darrennewton.com/2016/12/21/components-a-la-carte/ urn:uuid:5d2b4e70-b1ed-5b60-a540-1ede0e4c0515 TL;DR - By exploiting Webpack’s async loading feature you can roll a feature-gating mechanism in your JavaScript app that only loads the code your end user is supposed to see. This is great for beta testing features and making smaller initial loads. You probably don’t need to do this in your application. d_run Wed, 21 Dec 2016 08:00:00 +0000 http://darrennewton.com/2016/12/17/identicons-with-clojurescript/ urn:uuid:6e914559-e3ec-566e-82d6-f409c6fca05f A while back I put together a little graphics package written in Racket for generating identicons. This summer someone at work stumbled across it and asked if I could generate some of those identicons in the browser. I decided to give it a shot and whipped up a small subset of the original package in ClojureScript: identikon-cljs d_run Sat, 17 Dec 2016 14:56:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/serialization/ https://hynek.me/articles/serialization/ The Python standard library is full of underappreciated gems. One of them allows for simple and elegant function dispatching based on argument types . This makes it perfect for serialization of arbitrary objects – for example to JSON in web APIs and structured logs. hynek Mon, 22 Aug 2016 12:30:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/decorators/ https://hynek.me/articles/decorators/ If your Python decorator unintentionally changes the signatures of my callables or doesn’t work with class methods, it’s broken and should be fixed. Sadly most decorators are broken because the web is full of bad advice. hynek Mon, 01 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/talks/prometheus/ https://hynek.me/talks/prometheus/ To get real time insight into running applications you need to instrument them and collect metrics: count events, measure times, expose numbers. That used to be a clusterfuck of technologies and approaches. Prometheus changes that. hynek Tue, 31 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/conditional-python-dependencies/ https://hynek.me/articles/conditional-python-dependencies/ Since the inception of wheels that install Python packages without executing arbitrary code, we need a static way to encode conditional dependencies for our packages. Thanks to PEP 508 we do have a blessed way but sadly the prevalence of old setuptools and pip versions make it a minefield to use. hynek Thu, 19 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/python3-2016/ https://hynek.me/articles/python3-2016/ My completely anecdotal view on the state of Python 3 in 2016. Based on my own recent experience, observations, and exchanges with other members of the Python community. hynek Wed, 17 Feb 2016 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/hasattr/ https://hynek.me/articles/hasattr/ Don’t use Python’s hasattr() unless you’re writing Python 3- only code and understand how it works. hynek Wed, 13 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/storing-passwords/ https://hynek.me/articles/storing-passwords/ Why “Use bcrypt .” is not the best recommendation (anymore). hynek Wed, 06 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000 https://agnishom.github.io/blog/2015/comments/ https://agnishom.github.io/blog/2015/comments an example of a blog post with comments agnishom Tue, 20 Oct 2015 15:59:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/testing-packaging/ https://hynek.me/articles/testing-packaging/ How to ensure that your tests run code that you think they are running, and how to measure your coverage over multiple tox runs (in parallel!). hynek Mon, 19 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/talks/beyond-grep/ https://hynek.me/talks/beyond-grep/ Your Python applications are running but you’re wondering what they are doing? The only clue about their current state is the server load after ssh -ing into the servers? Let’s change that! hynek Sun, 12 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000 http://darrennewton.com/2015/03/08/sour-mash-getting-your-clojure-into-a-jar/ urn:uuid:fe51b3b6-28a3-57d8-8abf-0cf83d2bcede This weekend I decided to finally bite the bullet and deploy one of my Clojure apps as a JAR. “Certainly” I thought to myself, “there are great tutorials for this online”. Yes, yes there are, except none of them worked for me and in fact did lead to the consumption of some rye whiskey. Caveats: Every Clojure app is different, and the details of your app will determine the steps necessary to build a JAR. None of the information I found online specifically addressed the problems I had, so … d_run Sun, 08 Mar 2015 19:09:00 +0000 http://darrennewton.com/2015/01/04/deterministic-pixels/ urn:uuid:fb953db8-aec6-5a31-becd-b4e98ae7ff79 I’ve always liked identicons, which WordPress and GitHub have used to great effect. The premise is simple: take a user identifier such as an IP or email address and deterministically convert it into an image based on a simple algorithm. To that I end I started hacking on Identikon - a little Racket program that generates different types of identicons based on rules modules. d_run Sun, 04 Jan 2015 17:17:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/virtualenv-lives/ https://hynek.me/articles/virtualenv-lives/ Setting up Python to the point to be able install packages from PyPI can be annoying and time-intensive. Even worse are OS-provided installations that start throwing cryptic error messages. Especially desktops are prone to that but it’s possible to break the whole toolchain of a server by installing some shiny package you heard about on reddit . hynek Mon, 15 Sep 2014 15:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/talks/tls/ https://hynek.me/talks/tls/ TLS is the best technology we have for securing our communications. It comes with many sharp edges though. This talk tries to jumpstart a rough understanding and these links should help you to complete the picture. hynek Sat, 12 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/apple-openssl-verification-surprises/ https://hynek.me/articles/apple-openssl-verification-surprises/ Apple ships a patched version of OpenSSL with macOS. If no precautions are taken, their changes rob you of the power to choose your trusted certificate authorities (CAs) and break the semantics of a callback that can be used for custom checks and verifications in client software. hynek Mon, 03 Mar 2014 15:30:00 +0000 http://darrennewton.com/2013/11/16/evented-arrays-a-javascript-conveyor-belt/ urn:uuid:fd998589-4fe3-5067-8353-83bd8e8b5092 This post takes a quick look at EventedArray, a small Array-like JavaScript data structure (written in CoffeeScript) that allows you to register callbacks on accessor/mutator operations and also create fixed size buffers. All examples are in JavaScript. d_run Sat, 16 Nov 2013 09:30:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/sharing-your-labor-of-love-pypi-quick-and-dirty/ https://hynek.me/articles/sharing-your-labor-of-love-pypi-quick-and-dirty/ A completely incomplete guide to packaging a Python module and sharing it with the world on PyPI. hynek Mon, 29 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/life-after-google-reader/ https://hynek.me/articles/life-after-google-reader/ Google killed its Reader and my beloved Reeder for Mac and iPad officially won’t get updated in time. I think to have found an adequate setup to replace both. hynek Thu, 27 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/a-short-summary-on-sybase-sql-anywhere-python/ https://hynek.me/articles/a-short-summary-on-sybase-sql-anywhere-python/ As some of my older rage-filled articles indicated, we’re still running some services on SAP’s SQL Anywhere . Since it cost me many hours and sanity wrangling, I think it may be helpful to others to summarize the current situation for Python developers. hynek Wed, 29 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/know-your-models/ https://hynek.me/articles/know-your-models/ In web development, we have an unfortunate double meaning for the word models . As evident as the separation of those two seems to seasoned developers, it shows again and again that it’s not as apparent to beginners. hynek Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000 http://darrennewton.com/2013/05/05/get-functional-with-underscore-contrib/ urn:uuid:d7124fe7-0b08-5a50-9220-8d7dcfb6bd35 TL;DR - Fogus and Jeremy Ashkenas published the underscore-contrib repo recently which is loaded with functional JavaScript goodness based on the popular underscore library. I walk through a few examples of how I use it in the hopes you’ll get interested in working out new ways to solve your own day-to-day issues. d_run Sun, 05 May 2013 09:09:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/talks/python-deployments/ https://hynek.me/talks/python-deployments/ Without orientation, deployments of Python applications can be tiresome and even painful. This talk attempts to replace anxiety and pain through informed annoyance. hynek Sat, 16 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/taking-some-pain-out-of-python-logging/ https://hynek.me/articles/taking-some-pain-out-of-python-logging/ Even the best of us hate logging in Python sometimes. And while a lot of its problems are actually just bad docs and terrible defaults in the past, there is some pain that can be avoided. hynek Wed, 06 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/hardening-your-web-servers-ssl-ciphers/ https://hynek.me/articles/hardening-your-web-servers-ssl-ciphers/ There are many wordy articles on configuring your web server’s TLS ciphers. This is not one of them. Instead, I will share a configuration that scores a straight “ A ” on Qualys’s SSL Server Test in 2023. hynek Tue, 05 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000 http://darrennewton.com/2012/09/16/hacking-up-sites-with-middleman/ urn:uuid:89d26709-b68f-5ff9-b4d7-d31927b03505 TL;DR - I’m going to walk through how I rebuilt this blog using a static site generator. In the first half I walk through my decision for moving to a static site. You can skip down to the tech talk if you want. d_run Sun, 16 Sep 2012 12:14:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/using-celery-with-pyramid/ https://hynek.me/articles/using-celery-with-pyramid/ This one falls under: “I knew there has to be an easy way!” hynek Fri, 20 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/how-i-stopped-worrying-and-started-loving-pyladies/ https://hynek.me/articles/how-i-stopped-worrying-and-started-loving-pyladies/ When I read about PyLadies for the first time, my thoughts were a common knee-jerk: “separation is bad, dividing the community, …”. Like many of my privileged peers, I was pro-diversity but I thought this is the wrong way. My views changed over time and I filed it under “lessons learned”. Unfortunately, my old thinking patterns don’t cease to pop up in discussions, so I decided to share my perspective. hynek Fri, 13 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://darrennewton.com/2012/07/08/heroku-and-your-demo/ urn:uuid:0dd849b2-a7ed-52db-a7c8-952d38432c7c In my previous blog post I linked to a demo application hosted on Heroku. Heroku is great, as you can use their free hosting to quickly get your demo up online using a variety of technologies. Unfortunately I ran into a few issues related to traffic spikes and bad weather. The cloud is great, until it’s not. d_run Sun, 08 Jul 2012 12:14:00 +0000 http://darrennewton.com/2012/06/24/backbonejs-and-you/ urn:uuid:fff06686-e951-5872-af27-5ff181d33596 I’m currently working with the amazing folks at Arc90 on a pretty hefty project. It’s a great working environment that really stresses collaboration and learning, with weekly code and design reviews. We’re starting to use Backbone.js on a number of projects, so a quick talk was organized to explain the ins and outs to everyone. Since I had worked on some previous projects using Backbone, they asked me to do an intro. d_run Sun, 24 Jun 2012 09:11:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/my-road-to-the-python-commit-bit/ https://hynek.me/articles/my-road-to-the-python-commit-bit/ Like many OSS fans, I always wanted to be an active part of the movement. My last big project was for the Amiga in the past millennium though. Nowadays I’m happy that after years of small-scale dabbling on various projects I’ve found my haven. I’d like to share my way to my recent gain of push privileges on the Python project and hope to inspire some of you to do the same. hynek Sat, 19 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/python-app-deployment-with-native-packages/ https://hynek.me/articles/python-app-deployment-with-native-packages/ Speed , reproducibility , easy rollbacks , and predictability is what we strive for when deploying our diverse Python applications. And that’s what we achieved by leveraging virtual environments and Linux system packages. hynek Thu, 03 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/python-deployment-anti-patterns/ https://hynek.me/articles/python-deployment-anti-patterns/ Deploying web applications is hard. No shiny continuous deployment talk and no DevOps coolness can change that. Or to use DevOps Borat’s words : “Is all fun and game until you are need of put it in production.“ There are some mistakes I see people doing again and again so I’d like to address them here. hynek Mon, 23 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/celery-and-sybase/ https://hynek.me/articles/celery-and-sybase/ In our newest installation of “why you should not use Sybase SQL Anywhere” I’d like to report the latest problem I had to solve: for some reason, I couldn’t connect using sqlanydb from Celery tasks. hynek Sat, 25 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/fleeing-from-gmail/ https://hynek.me/articles/fleeing-from-gmail/ So you came to the same conclusion as I: Google is actually evil indeed . That makes it kind of uncomfortable to have all your emails over there, doesn’t it? I for one decided that it’s time to leave and will show you how to do the same using an UNIX based OS. hynek Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/my-2011/ https://hynek.me/articles/my-2011/ I never did a retrospective but 2011 deserves one. hynek Sat, 31 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/dead-simple-connection-pooling-with-twisted/ https://hynek.me/articles/dead-simple-connection-pooling-with-twisted/ There is this common notion, that asynchronous IO is hard and that writing a custom connection pool is even harder. The nice thing however is, that in reality asynchronous IO is just “weird” in the beginning – and that a connection pool using async IO is so simple it hurts. hynek Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000 http://darrennewton.com/2011/12/08/protip-url-parameters-with-nginx-and-php/ urn:uuid:170972b3-d572-5b2f-aa39-388abf8adc9f If you’re using nginx as your webserver and need to pass URL parameters to your PHP front controller then some adjustments to your configuration file are necessary: d_run Thu, 08 Dec 2011 09:11:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/macvim-and-the-clipboard/ https://hynek.me/articles/macvim-and-the-clipboard/ After switching to the Mac, I had one big itch that spoiled all the bliss: MacVim sometimes simply refused to cooperate with the system clipboard. As you can imagine, an editor that can’t exchange text with other software is a rather painful thing. hynek Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000 http://darrennewton.com/2011/11/19/for-programmers-the-best-of-edw519/ urn:uuid:fc15fc5c-c22e-58fd-8c4a-682a0cc3e9f0 A while back on Hacker News, a.k.a Ed Weissman posted his collection of tips and advice for programmers. It was amazing stuff. d_run Sat, 19 Nov 2011 11:35:00 +0000 http://darrennewton.com/2011/11/06/my-little-friend-z/ urn:uuid:6a87c51d-bdd6-52de-9877-04c64b6f04f0 I’m a command line interface kind of guy, which is funny since I do everything on Macs. Then again, I first embraced PCs with an Apple IIe, which was a CLI only experience. One little tool I’ve had installed for a while is z by Rupa. It’s a nice little shell script that keeps tabs on the directories you’ve been cding in and out of and then lets you quickjump to them using a simple regex. So instead of remembering a long path like: d_run Sun, 06 Nov 2011 16:50:00 +0000 http://darrennewton.com/2011/11/05/occupy-wall-street-design-edition/ urn:uuid:fb34858a-460f-5f4e-98dc-947c23cc4114 My fellow worker bees over at Gabardine.com decided to flex their design chops by lending a hand to the folks downtown at Liberty Square. While Occupy Wall Street gives us a much needed civics lesson, and the 1% continues to skim the cream off your bank accounts, Scott Grant took some of the DIY signs from the occupation and re-made them as snappy posters. d_run Sat, 05 Nov 2011 14:23:00 +0000 http://darrennewton.com/2011/10/30/mirror-site-and-convert-to-pdf/ urn:uuid:fa4775c5-3868-500d-9df5-4358b6bdb7e9 A friend of mine emailed me the other day with a quick question: “What’s an easy way to convert an entire site to PDF? Are there tools for this?” Why yes, yes there are. In fact, it’s pretty easy to do if you’re on a Mac or Linux OS using wget and wkhtmltopdf: d_run Sun, 30 Oct 2011 18:29:00 +0000 http://darrennewton.com/2011/10/29/darth-small/ urn:uuid:cc62fb32-aa28-51a3-bed5-d9c58ca24a81 d_run Sat, 29 Oct 2011 20:23:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/why-tomatoes-are-awesome/ https://hynek.me/articles/why-tomatoes-are-awesome/ No, this isn’t going to be a smug post about nutrition. These tomatoes I’m going to talk about aren’t for eating but for kicking my ass to be more productive. I’m talking about the Pomodoro Technique of course. hynek Sat, 01 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000 http://darrennewton.com/2011/08/28/phrap-php-pdo-wrapper/ urn:uuid:3c263ce9-d75a-5fb7-9f7a-ff0755bdef8d Phrap is a super-light PHP database wrapper using PDO for basic CRUD operations with MySQL. If that doesn’t sound sexy, well, that’s because it isn’t. d_run Sun, 28 Aug 2011 19:46:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/my-mutt-gmail-setup/ https://hynek.me/articles/my-mutt-gmail-setup/ So you want quick offline access to your mails using mutt to fully exploit your SSD and yet still have everything nicely working in Google’s web interface? Additionally, you would like to have access to your Google Contacts just like in your phone and everywhere else? I’ll show you how! hynek Mon, 22 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/solarized-love-on-first-sight/ https://hynek.me/articles/solarized-love-on-first-sight/ There’s one thing hackers are opinionated about as about the right editor: The right color scheme. hynek Sun, 10 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/mercurial-to-git/ https://hynek.me/articles/mercurial-to-git/ Mostly a note to myself as I forget it regularly. hynek Tue, 10 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/twisted-sybase/ https://hynek.me/articles/twisted-sybase/ Using the official sqlanydb driver for Python together with Twisted’s adbapi produces not-so-occasional crashes as of today (sqlanydb 1.0.2, Twisted 11.0.0). Apparently, the official SQL Anywhere drivers aren’t thread-safe. It cost me several days to figure out because I was searching the fault in my code so I hope to spare you some pain. hynek Wed, 27 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/django-postgres-ssl/ https://hynek.me/articles/django-postgres-ssl/ I’d thought something like this is a FAQ but the database docs on postgres don’t write a bit about forcing Django to connect using SSL to the database server. hynek Tue, 12 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/information-diet/ https://hynek.me/articles/information-diet/ Be careful to not overeat. hynek Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/django-and-remote-sybase-servers/ https://hynek.me/articles/django-and-remote-sybase-servers/ It took me a while to figure it out, so I decided to share. hynek Mon, 07 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000 http://darrennewton.com/2011/01/30/rvm-compile-ruby-with-iconv/ urn:uuid:4f271790-21fb-535d-9ea6-08c38eeeefe9 I spent a very frustrating hour this morning trying to get the JSON gem to work on Ruby 1.9.2 p136 installed via RVM on Snow Leopard. I thought I would post my solution to help any other unfortunate souls. d_run Sun, 30 Jan 2011 19:46:00 +0000 http://darrennewton.com/2011/01/28/i-got-gamed-on-stack-overflow/ urn:uuid:a00b8987-b075-5c04-8a62-a689f66cd0a2 Silly me. I stumbled across a question on Stack Overflow that was right up my alley, as it was something I had worked on before: Extract Relevant Tag/Keywords from Text block. The question posted by user593778 indicated that they wanted to use PHP or JavaScript to lift relevant keywords from a block of text. d_run Fri, 28 Jan 2011 19:46:00 +0000 http://darrennewton.com/2010/12/21/euler3coffeescript/ urn:uuid:5e1a4ac4-e8e9-5494-a740-95258d046762 I always figure one of the best ways to learn a new language is to try out a couple of Project Euler exercises using it. I had solved this one with JavaScript previously, but using CoffeeScript let me use some more Python-style comprehensions to get to the same solution: d_run Tue, 21 Dec 2010 11:43:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/freezing-kindle/ https://hynek.me/articles/freezing-kindle/ After a few months of use my Kindle started to freeze randomly. At first I blamed the cold as it happened to be winter in that moment. Fortunately, it turned out to be something different. hynek Tue, 07 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000 http://darrennewton.com/2010/09/05/convert-csv-to-text-with-ruby/ urn:uuid:f52926a1-aa52-5b2c-81ac-73857042eee9 I’m currently working on a large print project. It’s a membership directory for a non-profit organization and I’m laying it out with Adobe InDesign. The client handed me a CSV dump of their member database for the directory. I’ve mentioned more times than I can count how much I dislike repetition (cutting, pasting, rinse, repeat) so I cooked up some Ruby scripts to parse the CSV into various XML and plaintext formats. d_run Sun, 05 Sep 2010 19:46:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/ldap-a-gentle-introduction/ https://hynek.me/articles/ldap-a-gentle-introduction/ The perception of LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) is ambivalent. On the one hand, it is widely supported as a common authentication backend. On the other hand, there’s very little and poor documentation mainly targeted toward a particular case (for example, replacing NIS with LDAP). hynek Tue, 13 Feb 2007 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/mysql-replication/ https://hynek.me/articles/mysql-replication/ Sounds harder than it is – especially when reading the official docs. But if you want to synchronize two DBs, just tell the “master” to write a log and slave to read it. hynek Fri, 09 Feb 2007 00:00:00 +0000 https://hynek.me/articles/pcap-format-for-logs/ https://hynek.me/articles/pcap-format-for-logs/ While developing a network sniffer I had to find a way to write pcap logs. However the docs I found were rather fragmented. I try to do a short roundup here. In fact, the format is pretty plain and it’s a pity that there seems not to be a quick’n’easy doc for it. hynek Tue, 22 Nov 2005 00:00:00 +0000