One of the problems with using typed commands for doing things on a computer is that you need to know the command – you can’t just browse a list to find one. That particular problem has been tackled. The How-To-Geek describes How to Get Help With a Command from the Linux Terminal: 8 Tricks for […]
The climate research messaging archive that was released surreptitiously, in two parts with a protected archive so far, provides a good example for learning about how electronic messaging works and the laws regarding privacy and retention that have been put together to balance privacy and legal openness. Anthony Watts provides a very good synopsis of […]
Elegant Coding looks like a good blog to keep an eye on. Eleven Equations True Computer Science Geeks Should (at Least Pretend to) Know has a list that will have me going back to the books to figure out what the symbols mean (again) and figure out what these important mathematical concepts mean. A Confederacy […]
The I’net is like a neighborhood with a bunch of teenagers constantly checking the doors and windows to see if they can get into houses and do something to brag about their successes. Seldom is it worse than just trespassing and graffiti but every now and then the behavior can have more important consequences such […]
Manuel Jose describes 15 Things I Did After Installing New Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot and the list provides a good idea of how little is really needed. The commentary has some of typical ‘anti Unity interface’ trolling but the post is worth a look. 1) (as always) update the install 2) Ubuntu extras by check […]
Perhaps the premier computing effort these days is at the search engines. On one side is the folks trying to game the system to drive people to their website. On the other is the search engine companies trying to provide the service their users demand. Michael Martinez describes Why you cannot reverse engineer Google’s algorithm. […]
Nick Coghlan has a nice perspective on where Python might be going and his ideas apply to a much broader software development community. I used to consider it rather funny back in the IBM 360 days, that computers used four letter words. Eight bit characters and 32 bit words. Nowadays even PC’s are making the […]
Lately, some folks have noted that Linux isn’t very kind to batteries in laptops compared to previous kernel versions or Windows. The cause of this brings to mind the ‘just works’ goal that developers express. The conflict is with standards. When it comes to PC’s, standards, especially those at BIOS level such as power management, […]
The 30th birthday of the date when Microsoft bought the operating system it needed to meet IBM contracts from Seattle Computers was a couple of days ago. It had a good ten year run during the 80’s and it marked the end of the early PC era. David Strom waxes nostalgic in My Love Affair […]
It seems the Isostick is getting a lot of press lately. They must’ve put out a PSA? But I don’t get it. Why pay a couple hundred bucks for a USB memory stick and software when you can get the memory for a couple of tens and the software for free? See multiple boot from […]