Robert A. Uhl

RFC 1855: Netiquette Guidelines

RFCs (Requests for Comments) are the working standards of the Internet; while a very few are eventually promoted to official Internet Standards, most never do, and yet are no less important for that. Some are superseded; some obsoleted; but most are still in effect. RFC 1855: Netiquette Guidelines (dating back to 1995) is one such RFC. It’s an important document, and should be read by all newbies. Its guidelines are not mandatory in letter but rather in spirit (e. Read more →

Happy Hacking Keyboard

I just bought myself a Happy Hacking Keyboard (actually, the Happy Hacking Keyboard Lite2, to be completely exact); it’s a small keyboard which cuts the unwieldy 101-or-so-key standard layout down to a much more manageable 64. It has an incredibly small footprint (4.7" × 11.6") and does things the Right Way: there is no accurséd Caps Lock key (the Control key goes there, as God intended); the SEC is next to the 1 and the tilde/backtick is above the Backspace. Read more →

Happy Hacking Keyboard

I just bought myself a Happy Hacking Keyboard (actually, the Happy Hacking Keyboard Lite2, to be completely exact); it’s a small keyboard which cuts the unwieldy 101-or-so-key standard layout down to a much more manageable 64. It has an incredibly small footprint (4.7" × 11.6") and does things the Right Way: there is no accurséd Caps Lock key (the Control key goes there, as God intended); the SEC is next to the 1 and the tilde/backtick is above the Backspace. Read more →

[weather.com] (http://www.weather.com/) Saves $$$ with Free Software

weather.com saved money by switching to Linux, Tomcat and other free software. Your company can too. I do disagree with their use of MySQL; it’d be much smarter to go with PostgreSQL, which is a much better, database — which is also free. 07 February 2018: updated URL Read more →

weather.com Saves $$$ with Free Software

weather.com saved money by switching to Linux, Tomcat and other free software. Your company can too. I do disagree with their use of MySQL; it’d be much smarter to go with PostgreSQL, which is a much better, database — which is also free. 07 February 2018: updated URL Read more →

Does performance matter?

James Hague argues that on modern computer systems, performance tuning is different from what one might expect — more concerned with algorithms and other such high-level optimisations than with language choice, tweaking and such low-level approaches. A very good read. Read more →

Does performance matter?

James Hague argues that on modern computer systems, performance tuning is different from what one might expect — more concerned with algorithms and other such high-level optimisations than with language choice, tweaking and such low-level approaches. A very good read. Read more →

Marathon Aleph One

Way back when, Marathon was a great game for the Macintosh. Released at about the same time as Doom, it featured an intriguing story as well as exceptional gameplay. Future versions upped the ante in the story-telling realm considerably; some still count Marathon among the greatest of games purely for its story. I wasted a considerable number of hours playing the trilogy in college. Before its maker — Bungie, of lamented memory — was bought by Microsoft, they freed the source to Marathon, and after Marathon, Marathon 2 and Marathon ∞, we now have Marathon Aleph One (math geeks wil recognise that Aleph One is the power of the continuum, which is larger than simple infinity …). Read more →

Marathon Aleph One

Way back when, Marathon was a great game for the Macintosh. Released at about the same time as Doom, it featured an intriguing story as well as exceptional gameplay. Future versions upped the ante in the story-telling realm considerably; some still count Marathon among the greatest of games purely for its story. I wasted a considerable number of hours playing the trilogy in college. Before its maker — Bungie, of lamented memory — was bought by Microsoft, they freed the source to Marathon, and after Marathon, Marathon 2 and Marathon ∞, we now have Marathon Aleph One (math geeks wil recognise that Aleph One is the power of the continuum, which is larger than simple infinity …). Read more →

Browne on spreadsheets

Christopher Browne has an excellent article on spreadsheets, why they’re good and why they’re bad, among many other excellent pieces. A fine site in general. 31 January 2018: updated URL Read more →