Author Archives: Stephan Sokolow

RAR Test Files

Posted on 2021-04-04 by Stephan Sokolow

Quick question. How many people realized that it’s legally impossible to create a RAR file without using WinRAR, RAR for Linux, etc., all of which are shareware? At first, that might seem like no big deal, given that we have … Continue reading →

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Stripping Emoji from File And Folder Names

Posted on 2021-03-17 by Stephan Sokolow

There’s an annoying little problem that happens sometimes when you save stuff off the web, which the popularity of emoji has brought into the spotlight: Some tools still assume Unicode code points will fit within 16 bits and break with … Continue reading →

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Food For Thought

Posted on 2021-03-01 by Stephan Sokolow

I was making food and my mind got to wandering. “Broccoli… sounds like broccoly… same construction as shiny or smelly… what does it mean to have the characteristic of broccol?” “Cucumber… OK, If the vegetable is a “cucumb-er”, what does … Continue reading →

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Fanfiction – A Quick Overview of The Whole Pureblood Pretense Series

Posted on 2021-02-23 by Stephan Sokolow

In the wake of the final chapter of murkybluematter’s The Futile Facade, I found myself stuck dwelling on the huge cliffhanger it ends on. Enough so, that I’ve just finished a marathon re-read of the series to wear out my … Continue reading →

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Fanfiction – Loopholes

Posted on 2020-12-12 by Stephan Sokolow

I decided that this story is so different from the usual Zero no Tsukaima/Familiar of Zero fare that it deserves a full review of its own. Loopholes by DschingisKhan The basic plot is that Louise summons Tabitha from across the … Continue reading →

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Platformer Design Trends: Then and Now

Posted on 2020-11-27 by Stephan Sokolow

I started playing Celeste a couple of days ago and, while I was playing it, I started tallying up some of the ways that the average modern platformer, retro-styled or not, differs from its counterparts in the 80s and 90s. … Continue reading →

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Automated Testing for Open Watcom C/C++ and DOS

Posted on 2020-10-31 by Stephan Sokolow

UPDATE 2022-10-21: Added update on 86Box’s porting status One of the hobby projects I’ve been poking at again is written for DOS using Open Watcom C/C++ (v2 fork), and, being as averse to drudgework (and spoiled by modern tooling) as … Continue reading →

Posted in Retrocomputing | 2 Comments