The Loop

Are you the victim of a finite automation? You could be entitled to compensation!

A finite automation is a driven process that forces an outcome. An engineer is both an orchestrator and a facilitator. Facilitation always has an answer ready, orchestration has to be known. Left alone, facilitation …

I rename a lot of files. So do you.

I respect the Unix way — mv file1 file2 — but in practice, file1 and file2 are usually the same name failing by one to three characters. Re-typing 97% of a filename feels ceremonial rather than intentional, especially when what I want is …

Introducing Parsm: A Universal Structured Text Parser

When scientists and engineers created the UNIX system, they built utilities that each performed a specific task exceptionally well. Commands such as grep, awk, and sed have become the atoms of text and data processing workflows. However, today's computing landscape is dominated by …

How to use ed

ed file.txt
1,$p         # Print all lines.
3d           # Delete line 3.
$s/foo/bar/g # Replace "foo" with "bar" in all lines.
w            # Save changes.
q            # Quit the editor.
i            # insert previous line
a            # append next line

Part of my .emacs

    ;; LOL LOL - WOW mid '90s config returns from the grave
    ;; Load ladebug mode on OSF4
    (if (file-exists-p '"/usr/lib/emacs/lisp/ladebug.el")
      (load-file '"/usr/lib/emacs/lisp/ladebug.el"))

Shoutout to all those who used the C++ debugger on OSF with Digital hardware in mid-anthropocene …

For years, I have been hosting Unifi controller in AWS. AWS is both more convenient and reliable than hosting a local server. I am also convinced that hosting a minimalist server is about the same cost on AWS as running locally. In the past, I have purchased a one year …