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.
Popular Posts
- Early Modern English for Authors
- Resources for Reverse-Engineering 16-bit Applications
- Fanfiction – A Quick Overview of The Whole Pureblood Pretense Series
- Recommended “Politics in Harry Potter” fics
- Learning Materials for getting into Windows 3.1 programming
- Recommended Battlestar Galactica “Earth-contact” fics
- Home-made tamper-evident security seals for kids and adults alike
- A Simple “Modpack Info” Generator for SMAPI
- Recommended “More-Than-Human Shinji” Evangelion fics
- Nicer Terminal Commands For Flatpak-Installed Applications
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Author Archives: Stephan Sokolow
Book Review: Venus Equilateral
Note: Venus Equilateral is more correctly a series of novelettes which may be bound in one or more volumes. The edition which I’m reading and reviewing is the second printing of The Complete Venus Equilateral with introduction by Arthur C. … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews
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Topic Glimpse: Distributed Issue Tracking
One topic that’s been getting explored off and on for the last half-decade is distributed issue tracking. The idea is that, with distributed version control systems like Git and Mercurial, maybe it’d be a good idea to also store your … Continue reading
Posted in Web Wandering & Opinion
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Chrome vs. Firefox: August 2011
With Firefox making various controversial decisions lately, like wanting to remove the version number from the About dialog and following Chrome in removing http:// from the address bar without any reasonable justification I’m aware of, now feels like a good … Continue reading
Posted in Geek Stuff
4 Comments
Open Source: The Scientific Community in Technology
tl;dr Free/open-source software is to producing software as science is to accumulating knowledge… science just had a “different upbringing” and more time to build up formal structures. Note: This was originally written in October of 2010 as an essay for … Continue reading
Posted in Geek Stuff
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“Tangled” and Disney’s Big Weakness
Since rediscovering and posting my little essay on the problem with having a big bad, I’ve been thinking on how this relates to the problems in Disney “cheapquels” and their more modern animated works like The Princess and the Frog … Continue reading
Posted in Writing
8 Comments
Why Disney Cartoons Grow Up With You And Looney Tunes Don’t
Note: I originally wrote this in April of 2009, but I forgot about it until recently when I started tidying up my notes on how to write better fiction. Many of the most iconic Warner Brothers and Disney cartoons were … Continue reading
Posted in Writing
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Why A Big Bad Is A Bad Idea
Note: I originally wrote this at the beginning of December of 2008, but I forgot about it until recently when I started tidying up my notes on how to write better fiction. Update 2011-08-14: I now also have a more … Continue reading
