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: General
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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On-Demand Loading for your .zshrc or .bashrc
Recently, I’ve been trying to make my coding environment snappier, and one thing I was never happy with was how slow my .zshrc is. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those people using oh-my-zsh with a ton … Continue reading
Posted in Geek Stuff
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So… What Does Your Government Do With Culture?
So often, asking people about culture is like asking a fish “How’s the water?” (The answer you’ll get is “What’s water?”) but it’s still useful to ask the question and, sometimes, you get interesting answers. This time I’m wondering about … Continue reading
Posted in Web Wandering & Opinion
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Forcing Firefox to Open CBZ Files Properly
If you’ve ever downloaded a .cbz file using Firefox and then tried to click it in the downloads panel, you might have noticed that Firefox ignores the association for the .cbz extension and instead opens it as a .zip file. … Continue reading
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Displaying An Image or Animated GIF in Qt With Aspect Ratio-Preserving Scaling
When it comes to me and organizing images, GQView (now Geeqie) has always been a “best of a bunch of bad options” sort of thing and, with my move off Kubuntu 14.04 LTS, it’s become downright unusable in some cases. … Continue reading
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