I’m going for pull quotes and dedicated paragraphs this week, just to mix it up.

The Slow Winter.  It’s about the history and trends of chip design, if you can believe it.  “Modern software barely works when the hardware is correct, so relying on software to correct hardware errors is like asking Godzilla to prevent Mega-Godzilla from terrorizing Japan. THIS DOES NOT LEAD TO RISING PROPERTY VALUES IN TOKYO.” I love it so much.   (via)

Richard Stallman on 30 years of GNU.  I don’t agree with everything he says, but the basic point is correct.  “If you use a program to carry out activities in your life, your freedom depends on your having control over the program. ”  (via multiple places)

When Pipes Get Names.  For some reason, I’ve never had to deal with named pipes – directly.  I’ve used them via other programs, of course.

The person who invented Whack-A-Mole also created dedicated email terminals in the 80s/90s called Anti Gravity Freedom Machines.  All those smaller ‘Maker‘ projects seem unenthusiastic compared to this guy.  Anyway, his warehouse full of robots blew up.  I haven’t found pictures yet.

Joblint, a job description checker.  This has more value than I thought.  I’m curious about statistical results over a large number of jobs.  Take a look at those warnings, too – they’re mentioning the possible dark side of a lot of job ‘benefits’.  (via)

This XOXO presentation by Maciej Ceglowski, creator of Pinboard, makes some good points about work, going against countervailing wisdom to some extent.  “You can work on a lot of projects, but you will only get a couple of opportunities to work on something long-term.”  Pinboard is one of those businesses that remains relatively successful without having to get bought by Google to return any profit.  That’s a sort of success I find fascinating.  (via)

CERN has created an in-browser version of… the first web browser.  It accurately displays like a green-screen terminal, including key clicks.  Watching the screen draw gives me flashbacks to playing MUDs.

Adding Vi To Your Zsh.  Can you add vi-like keybindings to tcsh?  (via)

Your unrelated comics link of the week: Art comics links.  It’s a link to more links, but it’s all worthwhile stuff.  Be prepared for difficult but rewarding reading.