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.
-
Author Archives: Stephan Sokolow
FocusWriter… whether or not you need “distraction-free”
Those who know me well know that I’m a bit of a paradox when it comes to writing. On the one hand, I do have issues with distraction and I do approve of the concept of separating composition and typesetting, … Continue reading
Posted in Writing
Leave a comment
Free resources for making games
UPDATE: See also the libre assets list I’ve started building on Itch.io. For assets, it’s a more updated, more comprehensive list. I got a little carried away while assembling a list of game-development resources as an activity for a course … Continue reading
Posted in Geek Stuff
Leave a comment
Recommendations for an Interactive Fiction Engine
If you’re writing a piece of interactive fiction (A.K.A. a text adventure game),writing your own engine is the last thing you want to do. (That’s no fun. The fun is in providing off-the-wall responses to crazy instructions.) Instead, there are … Continue reading
Posted in Geek Stuff
Leave a comment
Non-interactive batch-deleting in TaskWarrior
Well, given how much time I spent squashing bugs on my system after updating it, I missed quite a few instances of daily routine tasks (eg. doing my exercises) in TaskWarrior. Given that I don’t have a GUI installed and … Continue reading
Posted in Geek Stuff
Leave a comment
Hacking together a quick update notifier
NOTE: I’ve written a newer post on this, covering an improved version of the script. Since upgrading to Lubuntu 14.04 (more vitriol on the bugs therein later), I’ve discovered that the update notifier has lost the dconf key to disable … Continue reading
Posted in Geek Stuff
Leave a comment
Extracting music from XWB files on Linux
I just picked up Shipwreck for $1 on sale and decided I really liked two of the tracks. Like other MonoGame ports, it uses the same XWB-format bundles for music as XNA games on Windows and X-Box do, so you … Continue reading
Posted in Web Wandering & Opinion
1 Comment
Early Modern English for Authors
Last Updated: August 30th, 2019 Since I seem to keep offering bits and pieces of this advice to people over and over, here’s a guide (which I’ll probably amend as things occur to me) for writing consistent, believable, and easy-to-understand … Continue reading
Posted in Literary Geekdom, Writing
Leave a comment