Technology

Here are a collection of works about technology, programming, web design, and hackerdom. You may also be interested in the open source software projects section and possibly Technonomicon: Technology, Nature, Ascesis. If you're looking for a place to start, I suggest The Luddite's Guide to Technology: fasting from technologies or Passwords Maker.

Ajax without JavaScript or Client-Side Scripting (short)

It's common knowledge among front-end web developers that Ajax is not necessarily "Asynchronous JavaScript and XML": XML can quite well be replaced by JSON. But JavaScript and client-side scripting languages aren't strictly necessary, and here is a proof of concept.

All I really needed to learn about programming, I learned From Java (short)

As I look back on my programming experience, the most important things were not writing low-level serialization routines, or stunning optimizations that drew on deep theory. All I Really Needed to Learn About Programming, I Learned from Java.

The Case for Uncreative Web Design

Many people think good web design means making a design that's different from other websites. This article argues another perspective.

Changes in Mac OS Over Time: The Good Parts

Mac OSX and now iOS have a reputation for pushing the envelope on user experience.

But at the same time, they've grown increasingly nasty to Unix aficionados.

Here's a suggestion about what is good in OSX.

International Obfuscated Python Contest Winner 2022

The result may surprise you.

The Luddite's Guide to Technology: Fasting from Technologies (long)

The title "The Luddite's Guide to Technology" is quite deliberately ironic. The content, a work of Orthodox mystical theology, is not ironic, and is a discussion of spiritually disciplined use of today's technology. The discussion is meant to provide a roadmap and provoke reflection.

Macs are now Super.Computer.s running "IRIX," a Super.Computer. OS!

Once upon a time Apple worked hard to make overtures to the Unix community, and the NSString used in programming iOS has the initials of "NeXTSTEP" Unix that Steve Jobs worked on before returning to Apple as CEO.

Times have changed.

An Open Letter to Other Link Prospectors

I've received plenty of requests for people who want the precious gift of an unpaid one-way inbound link but write letters that telegraph, "I neither know nor care what your site is about." Among these are letters that claim to be tremendously impressed by my whole work but do not mention any particular detail of any particular work. (I do get the sporadic email from people who are genuinely very impressed, but they usually do not have the slightest difficulty pinpointing what, exactly, impressed them.)

This is an article about how to make link requests that won't make it to my spam folder... and, perhaps, how to avoid other website owners' spam folders as well.

Passwords Maker (short)

It can be surprisingly difficult to make a password that is both strong and secure on the one hand, and not impossible to remember. Sure, if your password is "BQRaW3@8-i--d5bce" it is going to be a hard password for anyone malicious to guess, but that kind of password is hard to remember, and for that matter hard enough to type in!

Passwords Maker makes passwords that are hard to guess but easy to remember. Curious how that is possible? Take a look!

So, You've Hired a Hacker (Revised and Expanded) (medium)

This is a revision of a classic guide for managers confused by hackers they've hired. Not the vandals who break into other people's computers—the other kind of hacker, the law-abiding kind. Haven't heard of them? Here's a chance to do just that.

Tinkering With Perl (long)

Something I wrote when my brothers were twelve to introduce them to programming. It tries to be very simple—just enough so kids can start tinkering.

Theory of alien minds: A UX Copernican Shift (medium)

A look at a 'theory of alien minds' that is relevant, and profoundly useful to, UX and especially usability.

Usability for Hackers: Developers, Anthropology, and Making Software More Usable (medium)

Programmers can easily enough make software with an interface that makes sense only to them. This is a discussion of personal attributes that many programmers can draw on to make software that is much more usable.

Usability, the Soul of Python: an introduction to the Python programming language (medium)

An introduction to Python that looks at usability as one of the most fundamental aspects of the language.