You know, I was supposed to be learning SQLAlchemy in the hopes adding something employable my resume (all I have right now is ‘knows some python’). But I end up messing around on reddit instead. Sigh. Anyway, if you’ve used reddit for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed a few bot accounts. They’re usually there to perform some tasks on behalf of the humans. Automoderator is ubiquitous throughout reddit. RemindMeBot can be called on demand to set a reminder for yourself by calling for it in the comments or via PM. Read more ...

I realize that the posting schedule has gone to whack but that last post was too long to finish in one day. And so I decided I could skip a day as a reward (not that I dislike writing these, mind! But I didn’t want to overextend myself). Also I realize this is not necessarily a technical post but it is something I need to address, for my own sake. Read more ...

I love Neal Stephenson’s books. He is the God Uncle of cyberpunk (the Godfather of cyberpunk is, of course, William Gibson). One of Stephenson’s doorstoppers is Cryptonomicon, a MASSIVE, 1100+ page monstrosity jam packed with everything you could want in a historical fiction/sorta cyberpunk novel. It’s got action, World War II code breaking, guest appearances by Alan Turing, digressions on cryptography, a few predictions about the future (internet banking being one of them. Read more ...