Author Archives: Stephan Sokolow

Trifles Make Perfection

Posted on 2013-05-10 by Stephan Sokolow

TL;DR: When you’re doing something creative, look for details which, with only minimal change, could greatly broaden your work’s appeal and staying power. (Also includes examples.) Every now and then, I run across a creative work which frustrates me, not … Continue reading →

Posted in Otaku Stuff, Writing | 2 Comments

Making Coveralls work with PyPy and skip Python 2.5 on Travis-CI

Posted on 2013-05-01 by Stephan Sokolow

I have a couple of projects that get tested on Travis-CI and I just discovered Coveralls, a tool which integrates with it to provide a code coverage badge to go alongside your build status badge. (and is also free for … Continue reading →

Posted in Geek Stuff | Leave a comment

How To Invert Your X11 NumLock LED

Posted on 2013-04-18 by Stephan Sokolow

TL;DR: numlockx off; xdotool key Num_Lock I like to leave NumLock on all the time but, with my current keyboard, the indicator light is a blindingly bright blue. I noticed that the numlock light would sometimes get confused, so its … Continue reading →

Posted in Geek Stuff | 2 Comments

Error 400: The Web’s Most Under-Appreciated Response

Posted on 2013-03-09 by Stephan Sokolow

TL;DR: You should respond with Error 400 if the URL is malformed or the parameters fail validation rather than with Error 404. If you’ve ever run a website which reports 404ed requests to the admin, you’ve probably noticed that, every … Continue reading →

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Schedule Importer for TaskWarrior

Posted on 2013-03-06 by Stephan Sokolow

I just wrote another useful little script. This one takes a CSV representation of any schedule in this form and imports it into TaskWarrior for easy time management Week 1 Read pages 1-25 Week 2 Read pages 26-50 Do Exercise … Continue reading →

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Sekirei Fics Which Fight/Fix Canon

Posted on 2013-02-25 by Stephan Sokolow

Last Updated 2020-09-10: Added an entry for Angry, Angry Wizards. Since my last post on Familiar of Zero fics, it occurred to me that there is another series that’s not to my taste but which still manages to make interesting … Continue reading →

Posted in Fanfiction | 6 Comments

Worthwhile Familiars of Zero

Posted on 2013-02-20 by Stephan Sokolow

Updated 2020-12-12: Added “Loopholes” Of all the stories I’ve encountered, Familiar of Zero (or “Zero no Tsukaima” as I still think of it) is an interesting case. I’ve never really seen the appeal of the anime and, while I haven’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Fanfiction | 12 Comments