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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Author Archives: Stephan Sokolow
Embedding the DPMI Extender for your Open Watcom C/C++ EXE (And Related Knowledge)
NOTE: Scroll to the appendix at the bottom If you’re using DJGPP, Free Pascal, or Free Basic. They use a different and incompatible DPMI host. Sooner or later, everyone who plays around with 32-bit DOS programming using Open Watcom C/C++ … Continue reading
Posted in Retrocomputing
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Helper for Finding Python 2.x Scripts Still To Be Ported
I’ve written a lot of little scripts over the years, and it’d be nice to be able to migrate to Kubuntu 20.04 LTS when it comes out, so I decided to write a little helper to find creations of mine … Continue reading
Posted in Geek Stuff
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New QuickTile Release… Finally!
For those who follow my programming projects, you may be familiar with the name QuickTile. It’s my most popular project and, in short, it adds hotkeys to your existing X11 window manager to make it easy to tile windows in … Continue reading
Posted in Geek Stuff
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Novel – Decision at Doona
While working on another blog post (still to come), I needed a point of comparison, so I decided to re-read one of my old favourites. Decision at Doona by Anne McCaffrey At its core, this 1969 novel is a soft … Continue reading
Novel – Mother of Demons
Here’s a book I read on the Baen Free Library ages ago and finally got around to buying and reading in print at the beginning of December. Mother of Demons by Eric Flint (sadly, no longer in the Free Library) … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews
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A virtualenv indicator that works everywhere
NOTE: While none of the significant elements of this approach require zsh, the formatting syntax and mechanism for updating a prompt dynamically differ between zsh and bash. See the end for a version with zsh-specific bits stripped out. For a … Continue reading
Posted in Geek Stuff
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How to skip the fortune command when your shell is slow to start
A.K.A. How to get and compare timestamps without external commands in shell script (and without even invoking subshells in Zsh) I love the fortune command. It’s a charming little addition to each new tab I open… until something (like a … Continue reading
Posted in Geek Stuff
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