Blog Rants by Steve Yegge

Ejacs: a JavaScript interpreter for Emacs

Stevey's Blog Rants — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 06:41:39 GMT

So! I have all these cool things I want to write about, but I broke my thumbnail. Can you tell that's a long story? See, this summer I got excited about playing guitar again. I usually switch between all-guitar and all-piano every other year or so...(read more)

A programmer's view of the Universe, part 1: The fish

Stevey's Blog Rants — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 05:19:22 GMT

I write a column for computer programmers called "Stevey's Blog Rants." It's basically a magazine column — I publish to it about once a month. The average length of my articles is about 12 pages, although they can range anywhere from...(read more)

The Universal Design Pattern

Stevey's Blog Rants — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 10:33:38 GMT

This idea that there is generality in the specific is of far-reaching importance. — Douglas Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach Note: Today's entry is a technical article: it isn't funny. At least not intentionally. Contents Introduction Three Great...(read more)

The Bellic School of Management Training

Stevey's Blog Rants — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 06:16:39 GMT

I haven't been blogging much this summer. Mostly it's because all my free time has been spent engaged in an important research project called "What Would Niko Bellic Do?" I've been enrolled in a high-quality Management Scenario Simulator...(read more)

Programming's Dirtiest Little Secret

Stevey's Blog Rants — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:28:12 GMT

"And as for this non-college bullshit I got two words for that: learn to fuckin' type"— Mr. Pink This is another one I've wanted to write forever. Man, I've tried a bunch of times. No ruck. Not Rucky. Once again I'm stuck feeling...(read more)

Business Requirements are Bullshit

Stevey's Blog Rants — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 10:24:51 GMT

Some CEO emailed me the other day. I don't remember who it was; people mail me all the time about their blah blah yawn product service thingy, and on the rare occasions I bother to read mail from strangers, I don't usually remember anything about...(read more)

Done, and Gets Things Smart

Stevey's Blog Rants — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 03:59:36 GMT

Disclaimer: I do not speak for Google! These are my own views and opinions, and are not endorsed in any way by my employer, nor anyone else, for that matter. Everyone knows and quotes Joel's old chestnut, "Smart, and Gets Things Done." It...(read more)

Rhinos and Tigers

Stevey's Blog Rants — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:26:33 GMT

I will once again plagiarize myself by transcribing a talk I gave. First: be warned! I offer this gesture of respect to you — yes, you! — when I say that this is at least 20 minutes of reading. This is long even for me. If you're surfing reddit, gobbling...(read more)

Dynamic Languages Strike Back

Stevey's Blog Rants — Mon, 12 May 2008 06:52:18 GMT

Some guys at Stanford invited me to speak at their EE Computer Systems Colloquium last week. Pretty cool, eh? It was quite an honor. I wound up giving a talk on dynamic languages: the tools, the performance, the history, the religion, everything. It was...(read more)

XEmacs is Dead. Long Live XEmacs!

Stevey's Blog Rants — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:53:10 GMT

"We're going to get lynched, aren't we?" — Phouchg And you thought I'd given up on controversial blogs. Hah! Preamble This must be said: Jamie Zawinski is a hero. A living legend. A major powerhouse programmer who, among his many...(read more)

Settling the OS/X focus-follows-mouse debate

Stevey's Blog Rants — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:28:23 GMT

I recently switched to using OS/X full-time for all my client-side computing. Still using Linux on the backends, of course, at home and at work, but I now use Macs for my client machines. I'm not a Mac fanboy. I'm sort of a wannabe Mac fanboy...(read more)

js2-mode: a new JavaScript mode for Emacs

Stevey's Blog Rants — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 04:43:35 GMT

I've written a new JavaScript editing mode for GNU Emacs, and released it on code.google.com. This is part of a larger project, in progress, to permit writing Emacs extensions in JavaScript instead of Emacs-Lisp. Lest ye judge: hey, some people swing...(read more)

Four console games you might like...

Stevey's Blog Rants — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 04:21:49 GMT

I only play a handful of games a year, so I haven't written a game review since my post on Oblivion a year ago. But since then I've played a few unusually good games, including one awesome PS/3 title last weekend, so I figured it's time for...(read more)

Get that job at Google

Stevey's Blog Rants — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 01:52:28 GMT

I've been meaning to write up some tips on interviewing at Google for a good long time now. I keep putting it off, though, because it's going to make you mad. Probably. For some statistical definition of "you", it's very likely to...(read more)

Portrait of a N00b

Stevey's Blog Rants — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 04:58:30 GMT

Emergency Elisp

Stevey's Blog Rants — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 22:51:26 GMT

Are you an Emacs user but don't know Lisp? Welcome to my first Emacs Lisp primer! This should hopefully help get you over the hurdle so you can have more control over your Emacs sessions. There are lots of ways to do things in Lisp, and some are "Lispier"...(read more)

Blogging Theory 201: Size Does Matter

Stevey's Blog Rants — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 14:50:13 GMT

I'm always getting criticized for writing long blogs. "Way too verbose! Couldn't he have said all that in two paragraphs?" Not everyone feels that way, of course; lots of people tell me to keep doing what I'm doing. But the size...(read more)

Code's Worst Enemy

Stevey's Blog Rants — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 14:52:30 GMT

I'm a programmer, and I'm on vacation today. Guess what I'm doing? As much as I'd love to tell you I'm sipping Mai Tais in the Bahamas, what I'm actually doing on my vacation is programming. So it's a "vacation" only...(read more)

Boring Stevey Status Update

Stevey's Blog Rants — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 00:50:46 GMT

I had an exciting morning of not getting fired today. Get this: I'm on a trip to Google's Mountain View headquarters, and was glancing at Reddit between meetings, and lo and behold, I was inexplicably in the Reddit Tabloids again, this time for...(read more)

Ten Tips for a (Slightly) Less Awful Resume

Stevey's Blog Rants — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 04:39:06 GMT

Objective: Obtain a position at IBM-- some idiot applying to Amazon.com WARNING: These are my own *personal* opinions, not Google's or Amazon's or anyone else's. I do think you'll find that most resume screeners at tech companies — particularly...(read more)

Stevey's Tech News, Issue #1

Stevey's Blog Rants — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 04:59:05 GMT

Welcome to the first-ever edition of Stevey's Tech News! And possibly last-ever as well! I've managed to get the scoop on a number of important tech-industry stories before they hit the presses, and I'm sticking it to The Man by getting this...(read more)

How To Make a Funny Talk Title Without Using The Word "Weasel"

Stevey's Blog Rants — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 09:54:54 GMT

I haven't blogged in a while. So much fun stuff going on! You have no idea. Fun! This blog entry is a bit overdue, though, and my muse hasn't visited me lately, so I'll just wing it tonight and hope for the best. OK. So branding. Yeah. Branding...(read more)

Rhino on Rails

Stevey's Blog Rants — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 06:02:59 GMT

What a day. Apparently getting John Lam'd is worse than getting Slashdotted. My team has been laughing at me all day; we have no idea how I get into messes like this. Rather than reply individually to the crush of email, I guess I'll just do a...(read more)

Rich Programmer Food

Stevey's Blog Rants — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 15:10:43 GMT

The Olive Garden: it's where poor people go to eat rich people food. — Dave Yegge This is another one of those blog topics I've been sitting on for way too long, trying to find a polite way of saying something fundamentally impolite. I don't...(read more)

That Old Marshmallow Maze Spell

Stevey's Blog Rants — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 07:39:27 GMT

First thing I notice, walking into the familiar old Great Room, is that the crowd hasn't changed. There's one small difference that I can't put my finger on... it'll come to me, I'm sure. More familiarity: mature fires are burning...(read more)