Tell me if you’ve had this dream. For urgent dream-reasons1 you must call someone. You reach for your phone but it isn’t there! You frantically search for it. It isn’t in your pockets, on your desk, beside the couch, or in your car. Where the Hell is it? In desperation, you root through your closets … Continue reading The Broken Cellphone Dream
Neowise Nostalgia
Comet Neowise is fading fast. For the last two weeks, I've been watching Neowise climb higher and higher in the early evening northwestern sky. Neowise was a welcome sight in this shit-storm (2020) year. Gazing at its diffuse tail takes your mind off the Wuhan Coronavirus1 and the global, mostly self-inflicted, economic clusterfuck it caused. … Continue reading Neowise Nostalgia
Tweaking Jupyter export HTML with Templates
In a previous post, I outlined some handy hacks for converting Jupyter notebooks to WordPress.com oriented HTML. This addendum describes the use of Jupyter templates and CSS edits to fine-tune exported HTML. Jupyter exports notebooks in a variety of formats. I regularly export notebooks as Markdown, HTML, and $latex \LaTeX$. When blogging I mainly use … Continue reading Tweaking Jupyter export HTML with Templates
How Do You Check Your Vote?
How do you check your vote? It’s a simple question with a simple disturbing answer. You cannot check your vote! And when I say “you” I mean you. I don’t mean the system, the authorities, electoral officials, foreign auditors, or any third party. I mean you - just you. There isn’t an electoral system on … Continue reading How Do You Check Your Vote?
GitHub’s Silly Master Plan
The kids at GitHub have tested positive for Mad Woke Disease (MWD) - again! The last outbreak was over codes of conduct this time it’s about naming Git repository master branches! If you’re wondering what’s a Git master branch and why infantile wokesters are acting out I envy you. Perhaps you should stop reading now. … Continue reading GitHub’s Silly Master Plan
Better Blogging with Jupyter Notebooks on WordPress.com
When I discovered Jupyter notebooks a few years ago I instantly recognized their potential as a technical blogging tool. Jupyter notebooks support mixtures of text, mathematics, program code, and graphics in a completely interactive environment. It's easy to convert notebook JSON .ipynb files to markdown, $latex \LaTeX$, and HTML so it's not a big leap … Continue reading Better Blogging with Jupyter Notebooks on WordPress.com
Using jodliterate
The JODSOURCE addon, (a part of the JOD system), contains a handy literate programming tool that enables the generation of beautiful J source code documents. The Bible, Koran, and Bhagavad Gita of Literate Programming is Donald Knuth's masterful tome of the same name. Knuth applied Literate Programming to his $latex \TeX$ systems and produced what … Continue reading Using jodliterate
More J Pandoc Syntax HighLighting
Syntax highlighting is essential for blogging program code. Many blog hosts recognize this and provide tools for highlighting programming languages. WordPress.com (this host) has a nifty highlighting tool that handles dozens of mainstream programming languages. Unfortunately, one of my favorite programming languages, J, (yes it’s a single letter name), is way out of the mainstream … Continue reading More J Pandoc Syntax HighLighting
Extracting SQL code from SSIS dtsx packages with Python lxml
Lately, I've been refactoring a sprawling SSIS (SQL Server Integration Services) package that ineffectually wrestles with large XML files. In this programmer's opinion using SSIS for heavy-duty XML parsing is geeky self-abuse so I've opted to replace an eye-ball straining1 SSIS package with half a dozen, "as simple as possible but no simpler", Python scripts. … Continue reading Extracting SQL code from SSIS dtsx packages with Python lxml
Sudden Genocide
If genocide is sudden, painless, unexpected, complete and absolute, if a people simply vanish without screams, without fear, without anticipation, if one nanosecond they are and the next nanosecond they are not, and if somehow you are responsible, are you a war criminal or a savior? Ultimately we all vanish, usually with screams, usually with … Continue reading Sudden Genocide
