About the Author
I'm Stephan, a Linux user with a passion for open-source, UI/UX design, and exploring what makes fiction work.
In my spare time, I focus on (and write about):
- Programming (mainly in Python and Rust)
- Retrocomputing (mostly DOS but, as of January 2023, I also own a machine running Mac OS 9.2)
- Reading and Reviewing Fiction
- The odd bit of UI/UX design or literary theory
For notification of significant updates to existing posts, consider following me on Mastodon.
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Category Archives: General
Getting your way with setxkbmap
If you’ve ever poked around in the KDE or GNOME control panels, you know that the X11 keyboard system is very customizable and, as the KDE keyboard controls clearly show, that it’s all done using a little command named setxkbmap. … Continue reading
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Activism and Human Psychology
Given the recent focus on harmful attempts at law like SOPA and ACTA, I’ve spent more than the usual amount of time, lately, thinking on why it’s so hard to build up a stable, strong political movement and I’ve narrowed … Continue reading
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Personal Status Update and Some Extra Modules for Porteus
TL;DR: Porteus modules here Roughly two weeks ago, my main PC died and, since I didn’t feel like re-ripping 2.5TiB of movies and music, I spent two weeks of playing Towers of Hanoi with my media library to squeeze it … Continue reading
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Ultra-lightweight Network File Moving for Linux/UNIX
A few days ago, my main machine went kaput and I needed a fast way to copy several hundred gigs of data to a slow, old 2Ghz Celeron. Thus began my search for the lightest file-copying solution I could find. … Continue reading
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Voting Systems: Why Civics Is Important
TL;DR: Here are some entertaining, easy-to-understand videos explaining the fundamental flaws and relative merits of different voting systems. Update: See also this video on the best voting system for simple things like “What restaurant should we go to?” Of all … Continue reading
Posted in Web Wandering & Opinion
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How And Why To Bring Back The Border On The Firefox 8 Reload Button
TL;DR: Install this userstyle. After about a week of delay (not bad), Gentoo Unstable finally offered up Firefox 8 and, much to my dismay, the removal of the border on the in-address bar reload button wasn’t just another graphical glitch … Continue reading
On Bureaucracy And Giant, Killer Rabbits
I know I’m rather late to the party, on this point, but it occurs to me that there’s one very under-explored way to look at the problems of bureaucratic structures: Night of the Lepus. Here’s a 1972 horror film… about … Continue reading
Posted in Web Wandering & Opinion
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