November 2009 archive

Now Playing: 'DejaVu Sans' Font

I'm learning the joys of typography. Up until now I haven't really specified fonts on this web site. I've just let the browser and system defaults run the show. For me, using Ubuntu and Firefox, that meant I was seeing my site and many other web pages with DejaVu Serif. That isn't a [...]

Python Sequence Generator

I was looking for Python "sequence generator" code earlier today. By that, I'm thinking of a method to increment an arbitrary string of letters and numbers in an orderly way.
I figured there should be code samples out there to make quick work of it, but it was more challenging to find something than expected. Part [...]

Every Shadow of a Shade of an Idea...

Just so, 126 years later:

U.S. Supreme Court
Atlantic Works v. Brady, 107 U.S. 192 (1883)
Decided March 5, 1883
MR. JUSTICE BRADLEY delivered the opinion of the Court.
It was never the object of those laws to grant a monopoly for every trifling device, every shadow of a shade of an idea, which would naturally and spontaneously occur to [...]

Python CSS Shrinker for WordPress

This isn't really specific to WordPress, but it preserves the first comment for WordPress theme management, WordPress is awesome, and I'm specifically using this for WordPress style sheets, so I'm making the connection.
I wrote this script to condense my style sheets into smaller files for faster download times. I'm all about customer service here.
And [...]

I Do Want to Write!

I love Brenda Ueland and her book, If You Want to Write. Her passion is so infectious, and she inspires me every time I read her encouraging words.
As I think about what I might write on this blog and what I might do with my life, this passage seems particularly helpful right now:

I tell you [...]

Rubbing sticks together to make math on Mars.

I think Robert Heinlein's Red Planet was the first "grown up" science fiction book I read, in 1982. It was published in 1949, but seemed modern enough to my eleven-year-old self. (With one notable exception, which prompts this post.)
Wikipedia says: "The first Golden Age of Science Fiction -- often recognized as the period from [...]

You've reached Chewbacca's voice mail; please leave a message.

I'm reading Han Solo's Revenge, which I first read as a teenager in the 80s. (The book was published in 1979.)
In one scene, at a spaceport on a "highly industrialized, densely inhabited planet," Han has sent Chewie away on a task, but then a potentially dangerous meeting comes up:

His first impulse was to find Chewbacca [...]