This is a mini-theme Lazy Reading, where I find small groups of related things.

• Exploratory data analysis with Unix tools.  The command line is a far better place to mangle data than you’d expect.  Well, maybe not your expectations, given that you’re reading this site.
• “The UNIX System: Making Computers More Productive”  Brian Kernighan, Dennis Ritchie, and Ken Thompson in 1982.  I found that after reading “Open Source Guilt & Passion“, which is a quite accurate description of working on open source, or perhaps any volunteer work.   (via).
• While talking about people of that generation: Here’s Rob Pike’s Go slideshow (linked previously) in a single-page text format.  (via)
• And we can get even older with this article about the Computer History Museum in California.  There’s a lot of pictures of hardware ‘firsts’, like a light tracking, self driving robot from the 1940s, or the first mass-produced transistor radio.   Look for the hardware that shows where ‘core dumps’ came from. (via)
• Found on the previous link: Rebuilding the IBM 1401.  I like looking at the old “fill-up-a-room” computers, since they look like supercomputers.  I wouldn’t want to actually possess a mainframe; they aren’t powerful, eat electricity, and so on.  Well…  I can think of one that would be OK.
• The Enduring Object.  I find it oddly reassuring when hardware doesn’t change because it works so well.  It’s sort of like an inherited tool from an older relative; something worn from use but distinctly better than buying new.
• The 2012 Good Gift Games Guide.  There’s some really neat board games in there.
• Along the same lines, Designing Board Games with Perl.
• The First Few Milliseconds of an HTTPS Connection.  An in-depth dive with Wireshark and an explanation of RSA.  My cup of nerditry runneth over! (via)
• It wouldn’t be a Lazy Reading post without some Git thingie.  This time, it’s  “Git: Twelve Curated Tips And Workflows From The Trenches“.  (via)
• The DuckDuckGo command line.  (via)
• Exploring Emacs.  Posted mostly in the interests of equal time to vi-ish stuff.  (via)
• “What a Wonder is a Terrible Monitor“.  A Jason Scott article about emulating old monitors in software, with videos showing the difference.  I’ve seen the hardware difference he’s talking about.  I’m distressed just knowing my children probably don’t recognize analog static.  (via)

Your unrelated link of the week: The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things.  Also known as ‘old weird crap’, but that’s OK – still interesting.