Jasper St. Pierre explains the Linux graphics stack in detail.
I think X11 is the most complex piece of software I’ve ever tried to work with. It has been a long time since I’ve had to open up xorg.conf (and before that I think it was x11.conf) to fix something that’s broken, and that’s a testament to the quality of modern versions of Ubuntu and Debian. But there was a day when I had to open that massive config file up quite often to get the video card, or mouse, or keyboard or whatever working properly.…
I end up using GNU “screen” a lot. It lets me SSH into my laptop, run something, then close the SSH connection with the task still running in the background. Later I can SSH in and regain control of the task. It’s helpful for Counter-Strike server admin, compiling stuff, or building a test corpus…
Anyway, screen interferes with the regular terminal’s ability to scroll back and view previous program output. Today I found a description of how to fix that problem.…
Wired has a great article up right now.
When the sun rises on December 22, as it surely will, do not expect apologies or even a rethink. No matter how often apocalyptic predictions fail to come true, another one soon arrives.
They chronicle some of the apocalyptic predictions of the past 50 years or so, including acid rain, CFCs, famine, and oil shortage. I think the folks who make these predictions often want to focus humanity’s attention on some important issue.…
I just finished reading Animal Farm and found a great quote attributed to Orwell by Wikipedia.
The sinister fact about literary censorship in England is that it is largely voluntary. … Things are kept right out of the British press, not because the Government intervenes but because of a general tacit agreement that ‘it wouldn’t do’ to mention that particular fact.
He was speaking sometime around World War II. Someone on Slashdot the other day said that only governments censor, because only they may do so by force.…
So, maybe a year ago I changed my “religion” on Facebook, because I wanted to make sure I had something in there that really defined me. I settled on “Coed Naked Motorcycle Hiking”, because I like motorcycles and I like hiking and “coed naked” seems to go pretty well in front of anything. Facebook didn’t think this religion existed, so I created a page complete with a photo from Waking Ned Devine.…
Star Trek had it right. They were a bunch of peace loving (except for Worf) scientists roaming the universe in a war ship. They always kept their cool when someone faced them down, but if they needed to Jean Luc had no problem blasting the enemy out of the sky.
I’ve been reading Animal Farm recently, and it has impressed upon me the need to maintain arms and a force capable of using them no matter how peaceful society gets.…
Here’s a list of great papers in Computer Science. There are some great papers on there, but one thing missing is the book, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. That’s not exactly a paper, I suppose, but it is one of the most influential programming books.
Regarding books that I need to read, here’s a list of 88 books that influenced America. I need to remember to read some of those, along with The Old Man and the Sea… I guess I just need to finish that last one at some point……
“Here’s your coffee. I gave it to you in a large mug because I think I broke all the medium ones.”
Laughing, “what?”
“Yeah, well, we moved all the glasses down low, and whenever I open the cabinet one falls out.”…
Wired has some great reporting, and this story is no different.
On July 3rd, I installed this exhibition app on all the free computers at the 14th Street Apple Store. […] When the slideshow first opened, it would capture an image of whoever was standing in front of the computer, and show them first before fading into the previously captured photos.
It’s the backstory behind the “People Staring at Computers” art exhibit.…
This article from NPR will be interesting to any chili pepper fans, and to anybody who has enjoyed drinking coffee on a hot day.
“The hot drink somehow has an effect on your systemic cooling mechanisms, which exceeds its actual effect in terms of heating your body,” says McNaughton.
It’s a look at why Indians drink hot tea, because you know, it’s hot there. Why wouldn’t they drink cold water or a soda?…