L'America: What Really Happened to Theresa Halbach?
Netflix is trying something new. This time, a documentary spanning ten hour-long episodes about a murder case. Seems like an incredibly long time for a single case, considering that other shows present the “same” content in a few minutes and then move on to the next. I thought for sure it would end up being boring. Instead, I found it gripping, a true blueprint for a new brand of show, not unlike when Truman Capote jump-started the true crime fiction genre with his In Cold Blood. Continue readingCreating Pebble Apps: A Guide for the Novice (Like Me)
Great News! The intro I had written about smartwatches in general and why the Pebble is better than others is gone! Now more Pebble App Development tips! Developing for Pebble is fun! No, really! It’s complicated, but it’s fun. It has lots of moving parts, but it’s fun! I am going to skip the part where I tell you why you should develop for Pebble. Because it’s fun! And that’s all anyone needs to know, really. Continue readingShould You Watch “The Man in the High Castle?”
Yes! Philip K. Dick has long been one of my favorite science fiction authors, excelling in inventiveness and concision. His stories are plot-driven and to the point, which makes them almost perfect for movie adaptations. Some of those (think The Blade Runner) came out splendid, while others (think A Scanner Darkly) were more mixed blessings. Of course, this being science fiction, making movies out of novels was always hampered by cost. Continue readingL'America: What Do I Do When My Green Card Expires
I mentioned how (slightly) disappointed I was when my green card finally arrived. It simply came in the mail in an unmarked envelope. I wasn’t expecting a ticker tape parade, and it was certainly convenient. After so many years of tribulation, though, it seemed a little unspectacular. Wait ten years, and the thing expired. I had set a reminder in Google Calendar, but somehow it disappeared. Then, one horrifying morning, I woke up and checked. Continue readingL'America: The Republican Primary
Stop hounding me, already! Yes, I will explain the Republican primary to you. And get that smirk off your face: after all, for every Trump there has been a Berlusconi, and for every Huckabee you had a Harper or an Abbott. Primaries. When voters elect a person, instead of a party, it makes no sense to have a random set of characters show up. It’s smarter to pick a single candidate and pool all the votes of a group together. Continue readingL'America: Obergefell v. Hodges
Just in time for Gay Pride parades in much of the world, the Supreme Court of the United States announced that marriage was a universal right that couldn’t be withheld from same-sex couples. The world turned rainbow for a day, much happiness and sadness ensued, and a few readers asked me to explain what happened. Here is my account for the America-challenged. First, the ruling was not unexpected. In fact, the big suspense in June was whether it was going to be big majority or small majority ruling. Continue readingEllen Pao or the End of Internet Capitalism
Have you been following the Internet, lately? Its self-declared home page, reddit.com, has been splattered all over the news after the interim CEO, Ellen Pao, caused a major uproar and finally had to resign. If you’ve never been there, the idea of reddit is neither new nor innovative. Its users are grouped into named categories, called subreddits. They can post entries to the subreddits, and other users can vote them up or down. Continue reading
Automate Instant Messages with Pidgin and DBus
Despite being an overall fan of KDE, I always preferred the Gnome version of the Instant Messenger, Pidgin. It is really designed for ease of use, it is extensible with incredibly useful plugins, and is available on a ton of platforms. Also, it can be easily configured and you can synchronize the configuration files with no issues, even using OwnCloud or Dropbox. No surprise then that I would use Pidgin to automate all sorts of tasks. Continue reading