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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Category Archives: Geek Stuff
A little tool for command-line playlist building
For the last few years, I’ve been amassing a collection of little scripts I use every day to build playlists, both for Audacious and for MPlayer. About a week ago, I realized that they’d started to duplicate each others’ functionality … Continue reading
Posted in Geek Stuff
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Making Coveralls work with PyPy and skip Python 2.5 on Travis-CI
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
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How To Invert Your X11 NumLock LED
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
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Error 400: The Web’s Most Under-Appreciated Response
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
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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Constant Vigilance: Not Just For Fantasy Characters
Arthur C. Clarke famously said that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic and, but for our knowledge that it’s not, most people would already say information technology fits that criteria. The problem is that we computer wizards, being … Continue reading
Posted in Web Wandering & Opinion
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American Politics: What Does “Liberty” Actually Mean?
I just ran across an episode of The Young Turks which mentioned and briefly summarized a very interesting article. Here’s the relevant part: Now I’ll understand if you don’t have time to read the full article (linked to on Salon.com … Continue reading
Posted in Web Wandering & Opinion
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