The System That Inspired All Of Us Through Emacs

They say that Emacs was inspired by real LISP machines from Symbolics and more. Here are two of those Symbolics machines for sale on eBay:

A Mac with a LISP machine inside of it is pretty cool.

Making Sense of git-flow

Vincent’s Git workflow is powerful and simple. So it is the best one for most of us. When you tell somebody that you aren’t using it then they expect a pretty convincing explanation why not. There isn’t much to make sense of really.

gitflow-avh is the easiest way to use it. I tried doing it manually but it is easier to use the plugin. Here are some of the differences if you want compare the plugin with doing it manually. It is worth trying out manually if you want to appreciate the plugin, maybe.

This and this cheat-sheet aren’t all you need to know but they are a fine start.

How To Get A Vanity Ham Radio Call-sign

  • Read this and this for an overview with relevant links
  • Read this to try to come up with a call-sign that sticks to the rules (coffee may be required)
  • Search for the call sign you want. If you find it already taken you can search for variations you might like. When you submit your application you can submit up to twenty-five new call-signs in order of priority for the administrators to use if your first choice is not available.
  • As of 2017-02-12 the application is free (a fee of zero dollars)
  • Go back here to walk through the electronic process of applying and wait for your application to start being processed
  • Check here to see how the application is proceeding
    • Check here for call-signs that are predicted to be approved
  • Find your new call-sign in the license search
  • Wait for your official paperwork confirming your new call sign
  • Enjoy your new vanity call-sign

Easily Allowing and Forbidding Distractions on OS X macOS

Facebook and Instagram are better than television and like any good thing it is nice to have a break. Real televisions have an on/off switch but computers don’t really. Technical folks: here is one way to make it easy to give your OS X macOS box an on/off switch for your social sites: 

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# -*- mode: sh; -*-
if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then
    sudo cp /etc/hosts.distractions /etc/hosts
    printf "...forbidding distractions.\n"
else
    sudo cp /etc/hosts.org /etc/hosts
    printf "...allowing distractions.\n"
fi

Review of the The ARRL Ham Radio License Manual

The material follows a “flow of consciousness” writing style that is informal and wordy instead of concise and to the point, at times making the reading tedious. The order of topics covered mirrors the order of topics in the exam itself, instead of following the logical order, at times leaving the reader confused and frustrated. Because my “non-techie” friends don’t have the background they are probably unwilling to deal with it. My “techie” friends might be willing to put up with it but I wasn’t. So for both of them I would cautiously recommend it with the caveat that they need to be open to reading the book more than a few times, put up with its deficits and willing to take the exam as many times as required to pass. Another way to think about it is that you are getting a great deal if your time has no value.

Chapter 85. Text Threading 3:19

  • Threading text between separate containers
  • See the offset text plus sign: you can’t print the amount of text in there
  • Couple ways to handle this
    • Easiest click on the plus in the overflow flag and draw another text container into which overflow will occur
  • You can flow text through threading any way you want as you thread together text boxes. You easily layout text to different parts of the page say if you want to include an image on that location of the Artboard.
  • Can thread the text into any shape