Articles about technology and human language, pictures, limericks, poems,  and art. Some of it might actually be related to TCP/IP or Unix or Mac OS X, or IT security. Also tips and articles on the unique health and fitness problems facing IT people.

Mar 08 23:48

African American Vernacular English

By: lshep Tags:

Bernie Mac, who died too young, really showed the richness of AAVE in his comedy.Some people get all political and hung up about so-called Ebonics (a non-linguistic term used for political discussions in some school districs in the US), aka Black Vernacular English (BVE), aka African American Vernacular English (AAVE). Whatever.

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Mar 08 23:41

Cryptanalysis & Ciphers

By: lshep Tags:
Cryptanalysis is not just for mathematicians. It can be very fun for regular folks. My favorite hand cipher is the Playfair cipher. It was used by the British in WW I. The Germans modified it a bit and used it in WW II. The British cracked it by hand (no computers) and read much of the secret communications of the Nazis. You can read about it in this awesome book.
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Mar 08 23:35

Things I Miss About the 20th Century

By: lshep Tags:

1. The funnies in the newspaper really were funny. 2. Telephones sounded better and you didn't have to carry them everywhere you went. 3. Cars had more leg room and looked cooler. 4. TV was not 24/7/365. 5. TV shows and movies had real actors that looked like real people, not models. Remember Claude Akins? Ugly Badass!

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Mar 08 23:27

Limericks I Wrote

By: lshep Tags:

Disclaimer: As anyone with a pulse knows, the dirtier limericks are always the funniest. So if you can’t handle X-rated content (or humor), what in the fuck are you doing on the goddamn fucking Internet, dumbshit?

 

It’s said that a handsome young sailor

Learns much from his very first jailer

For down in the brig

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Mar 08 23:22

Operating Systems

By: lshep Tags:
Operating systems were invented to replace or help computer operators. Operators were people who sat in data centers and managed the computers' memory, and hard disk space. They were also the people who input programs and data into the computer. This was important because there was usually a shortage of memory and disk space. Often the operator had to manually type the program into the computer's memory by using a teletype machine.
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