DuckDuckGo

15 Jan 2019

DuckDuckGo is a search engine. Like Google Search, you just throw some keywords into a box and get a list of results. Lots of people use Google, but I don’t. DuckDuckGo works better for me, and this is why.

Did you know that Google will give you different search results, based on who you are and what you have searched for in the past? This is called a filter bubble, and it’s annoying and dangerous. DuckDuckGo doesn’t put you in a filter bubble.

Editors, or The Tools of my Trade

6 Dec 2018

I spend a fair portion of every day writing programs. As with all professions, using the right tools makes a huge difference in my productivity and general happiness. Having good tools helps me keep my gumption up.

One of my favorite books is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Contrary to what the title suggests, this book is actually not about motorcycles. It’s about a lot of things; one topic is about tools and caring about your trade.

Emacs Tips and Tricks

23 Sep 2017

Emacs Tips and Tricks #

To Learn About #

• ☒ Company-mode (completion framework for lots of stuff)
• ☒ YASnippets (templates)
• ☒ Auto-YASnippets (something like that—I installed it for temporary templates)
• ☒ Alchemist mode (integrates with company mode—tooling for Elixir)
• ☐ What do M-. and M-, do?
• ☐ font-lock-add-keywords would let me add new keywords to a language
• ☐ hi-lock
• ☐ highlight-phrase, unhighlight-regex
• ☒ Registers
• ☐ Auto-loading packages to make startup time shorter

Things that make me happy #

• Undo in region (just highlight something and hit undo)
• Generate Backus-Nauer Forms with a slightly modified syntax with ebnf-eps-buffer

Helm #

You can filter buffers by pattern with Helm. Type: @pattern to find buffers matching pattern. If you want to have spaces in the pattern, you must escape them with a backslash.