I’ve been listening to a lot of history books, courses, and podcasts and here’s what I have learned about the Roman state, both republic and empire: it was run purely on the basis of raw power. That’s a nice family you have there — yeah, I’ll take it. Whatever I can do is what isContinue reading “Thug History”
Author Archives: pirateguillermo
Never Ending Commerce
Is it ever not cinnamon scented pine cone season? Asking for every grocery store in Northern California.
Effort “humps”
You know what makes me hate processing the mail and paying bills? Calling a billing phone number only to get a robot voice tree that starts out telling me the business hours … when I am calling during those business hours. Then, making me jump through a bunch of hoops to pay a goddamn bill.Continue reading “Effort “humps””
Rebuild progress
Since I deleted my social media accounts (and I’m not sorry), it may be that the one or two humans who look at this blog may not know that I’m updating a different blog with status updates on our rebuild process. If you are at all interested, or would ever consider asking me the question,Continue reading “Rebuild progress”
Offline VS Code – maybe?
I just went on a week-long vacation wherein I was programming, among other things, in locations with dodgy or nonexistent network connections. My offline Swift modifications worked great; so, local mirroring of packages is a total win! But here’s a thing: a dinner conversation got me working in Flutter again. And, a few days beforeContinue reading “Offline VS Code – maybe?”
Insidious Arrogance
There’s this problem that comes when one deals with a complicated system or process for a long time — one internalizes all the details and complexity, and starts to factor all the weird inner workings of the system into communication about the system. In human terms, this is where professional jargon comes from. There’s stuffContinue reading “Insidious Arrogance”
Data Representation
I’m currently working on a suite of programs (which sounds a hell of a lot fancier than, “a couple of apps and a database,” — word to the wise, &c.) that deals with people. A person record has, as an option, a birthdate. You never know, someone, somewhere, might like to commemorate great-great-great-uncle Ralph’s birthdayContinue reading “Data Representation”
Oh, Syntax
I’m working on a new application. I got the basics done, and because I’m an old crank, I made the data storage a file. So, you can do all kinds of cool things with the data you enter, and you can do it without having a network connection. It’s like a spreadsheet! But then, myContinue reading “Oh, Syntax”
Put a Computer In It, Part…A Jillion
Got an email just now, from the marketing department of a company that makes some server software that I occasionally use. The notification of new email popped up on my screen, with a snippet of the body saying that cyberattacks are increasing in sophistication and volume, so I should…presumably, the rest of the email wasContinue reading “Put a Computer In It, Part…A Jillion”
Bill Processing
It’s bill-pay day, so of course I’m confronted once more with several payment portals that have security theater. What do I mean by that? I mean, stuff that looks like it’s some kind of security (preventing theft of personal information, verifying that the actor is the right person, etc.) but which doesn’t actually provide anyContinue reading “Bill Processing”