idupree, a feminist linux rat

The command-line program to use for ConTeXt is texexec. (The lower-level context command may work in other distros but it doesn't in Arch currently. Luckily, texexec is great.)

ConTeXt currently requires Ruby older than Arch Linux's 2.0. Install e.g. Ruby 1.9 from AUR. Use env PATH="/opt/ruby1.9/bin:$PATH" texexec.

Hopefully this will be out of date by the time you read it!

Have you ever done svn checkout http://include-what-you-use.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ include-what-you-use?

How about download; ./configure; make; make install when the connection is HTTP and you haven't checked your download against a cryptographic hash (e.g. SHA256) or public key (e.g. PGP) provided via an authenticated channel (e.g. HTTPS)? [1]

Have you ever done these while using coffee shop or train or cellular Internet without a VPN? Or even on home WiFi in a crowded area? [2]

It's not just you whose security is at risk by these deeds.
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What car technologies would we choose "if the playing field were level again" (-Felix21 on HN) and we didn't already have gas stations *or* electrical fueling stations to bias our choice of fuel?

Counterfactuals are surprisingly complicated. The basics have already been invented for other reasons (internal combustion engine, battery, electric motor, etc) so any sort of car should work fine aside from the infrastructure (power distribution, roads). Which sort is best depends on e.g. whether there's cheap oil (there might be if we hadn't used so much oil already) and what people are using cars for (people would be used to another mode with different capabilities; I've read that humans regardless of transit mode tend to prefer about an hour commuting per day and the distance of an hour depends on the prevalent mode). Random thoughts follow:
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Xdmx

Xdmx is an X11 tool that lets you treat two or more* X11 servers as two or more monitors. I tried to use it to make an old laptop be an external monitor (connecting over Ethernet). The old laptop would run an X server, and Xdmx would connect to that X server and to the one on my regular laptop. Then X11 applications would connect to Xdmx (which itself provides an X-server API), and I could move them between screens at will. Theoretically.
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I love Hubway and data, but was it really a good idea to release everyone's trip data? This is past, somewhat-anonymized data, for a contest to visualize how people are using the bike-sharing system. I can history-stalk everyone in Southborough who has a Hubway membership now :-(
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A: Have you met Zermelo, Fraenkel, or Choice? I hear Choice is rather famous. Somewhat controversial.
B: What's Choice's first name? Axiom, was it?
A: Yeah.
B: *groans*
B: I met a guy named Axiom in a bar once. He claimed to be able to double my volume.
A: Really?!! That's so exciting! What did he look like?
B: I doubt it was him. He claimed he'd double my volume by buying me drinks.
A: Awwwwww.

(Written last week.)

When I search the web, sometimes I feel like I'm cheating.

Today - browser history:

I've known for a while that shaders (e.g. OpenGL vertex and fragment shaders) were important, but had a devil of a time finding out a few specific examples of anything they were good for. I learned various things about them but but my chief discovery was some Valve documentation about their shaders. (Valve is a company I'd heard of and would know what they're talking about in this realm.)

Learning about Qt was a bit tricky. It's a storied toolkit that's been good for a long time. ( Read more... )