Updated to Emacs 29.2

Updated to Emacs 29.2, just now. Took me and my four core workhorse about fifteen minutes tops, from start to finish. Emacs 29.0 was the first version I compiled from source, because I wanted the latest release as soon as it was out and I no longer had the patience for the kindly distribution folk (or third party packagers) to give me a binary. The first time was a nightmare. I didn’t have various bits and bobs that were needed. Stuff that the guides say should work a certain way wouldn’t. But it did happen eventually and I learnt a lot along the way about what I wanted compiled in, in my Emacs. I also appreciated just how much easier it is now to compile stuff and recover from errors. I tried this last in the late 90s1 and it scared me off. ...

January 19, 2024 · Mario Jason Braganza

A Signed Copy of Neil Gaiman’s, “What You Need to Be Warm”

I went and fulfilled an old dream of mine. A signed copy of Neil Gaiman’s, What You Need to Be Warm. Click to see bigger A New Year’s Gift! From me, to me 😂 ...

January 14, 2024 · Mario Jason Braganza

Read, Read, Read, Everything

With eternal gratitude to Bruinhilda the Librarian, for writing this. And with lots of apologies for stealing it wholesale and making it my new reading manifesto :) As a library worker, there’s something I want to say to you. You do not have to apologize for the books you choose to read. At all. To anyone. You owe nobody any explanations; you need no excuse or “good reason” to be reading the book. ...

January 10, 2024 · Mario Jason Braganza

My Year in Reading, 2023 Edition

I normally hide Easter eggs or just random comments into my footnotes. And so normally it does not matter if you folk read it or not. But this post was really off the cuff and there are some details that have snuck into the footnotes. So, please do give ’em a peek courtesy, Tom Gauld ...

December 31, 2023 · Mario Jason Braganza

Emacs, Three and a Half Years On

If someone had told me three and a half years ago, that I would: Use Emacs as my primary editor nearly everywhere. Not just as an editor. In fact, I would stop thinking of it as an editor and come to see it for what it really is. A whole computer with an editor bolted on. Use Emacs not just for writing, but also have it serve as the cornerstone for two other extremely important activities in my life, organising my life (with Org Mode) and tending to my commonplace book (with Org Roam) Come so far as to scrape a web page, set it up as a connected node in my Zettelkasten, strip close to fifty superfluous lines, edit the rest to my liking, change the title to title case, and then file it way within minutes, and learn do all this by osmosis and research over the years, just by using it daily and being curious1 Have a kind community support all my crazy attempts to bend Emacs to my will I would have told you, you were off your rocker. But I do, do these things (which, I’m ridiculously pleased with) and have this wonderful community (which, I am earnestly grateful for). Here’s to three and a half decades! ...

December 30, 2023 · Mario Jason Braganza

On How the Kubernetes v1.29 Logo Came About

Kubernetes v1.29 was released a couple of days ago. And just like every other release before it, it has a distinct name and theme (Mandala) as well as its own unique logo. In whose creation, I’m proud to say, I had a part to play! ...

December 15, 2023 · Mario Jason Braganza