Toolsmith

Fred Brooks, ACM Allen Newell Award acceptance speech:

Any thing which has to call itself a science isn’t. By this criterion, physics, chemistry, geology, and astronomy may be sciences; political science, military science, social science, and computer science are not.

We make things that do not themselves directly satisfy human needs, but which others use in making things that enrich human living. In a word, the computer scientist is a toolsmith—no more, but no less. It is an honorable calling.

You will be missed.

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Github Actions

November 10, 2022

It's a little excessive for this site, but researching various automation options led me to glue a Hugo CLI install and build template provided by GitHub to a Neocities Github Action. It took a couple of tries to get the pieces together and GitHub's Node.js 12 warning isn't the most reassuring thing, but deploy on commit works.

Oregon Trail (Apple Arcade Version)

April 3, 2021

Do yourself a favor, download an emulator and play the Windows or Mac version from the 1990's. Read on if you want a rant about an unpolished trainwreck.

Apple Notes: This Note Is Unavailable

November 9, 2020

It’s my fucking note Apple. I just want to link to it. On my computer. With a real link that opens a real program. Not one that punts to a browser tab that soft-locks the entire browser because an unnecessary request for TouchID took precedent over: the system, the running application and user input.