https://systemstack.dev/ Recent content on System Stack Hugo -- gohugo.io en-us Sat, 24 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://systemstack.dev/2022/12/new-old-computer/ Sat, 24 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://systemstack.dev/2022/12/new-old-computer/ I finally decided to sit down and collect my thoughts about permacomputing, and the main thing I discovered was that I need to do more thinking. Contents I. The seed is planted II. The Dream III. The hardware IV. The software V. What’s next? The seed is planted I’ve been thinking about permacomputing since I first read Steve Lord’s excellent piece about “heirloom computing” quite some time ago. In all honesty, it’s something I’ve been thinking about since I was in high school in one way or another, when I would print out old Altair and Fairchild F8 manuals (because I thought I might try to write a Channel F game, of course) and read them obsessively. https://systemstack.dev/code/ Sat, 04 Jun 2022 22:22:24 -0500 https://systemstack.dev/code/ I have a couple of open source things on Sourcehut which I think are decent enough to set to “public,” which is rare. systemstack - This is a Hugo theme created from the original look and feel of this site. It’s not dissimilar from the current way the site looks and operates, but it’s simpler, and blog-oriented. 0BSD licensed. .emacs.d - My Emacs config is set up as a literate Org file (also published to Markdown via Pandoc to create the README) that gets you up and running quickly with a decent (though perhaps a bit “basic”) Emacs setup good for a lot of things but especially for prose writing. https://systemstack.dev/2022/05/waking-up/ Wed, 04 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://systemstack.dev/2022/05/waking-up/ It hasn’t really been that long since I’ve posted here, in the grand scheme of things. But in other ways, it has. This isn’t going to be one of those “well, I sure meant to write a lot more and promise to do better” posts–I don’t owe anybody anything, especially not some imagined audience clamoring for more Content. But I do want to write, because writing is how I process things, and there’s some processing to be done. https://systemstack.dev/2021/08/writing-is-bad/ Tue, 31 Aug 2021 11:16:34 +0000 https://systemstack.dev/2021/08/writing-is-bad/ I’ve followed the Plan 9 philosophy so far down the rabbit hole that I now understand that computers are tools, usually half-assed ones, and that basically every possible system for using them so far is merely trying to be less bad than a previous one. I used to be an optimist about such things; I wanted to believe that the reason writing was so hard was because I just hadn’t found my tool for doing it yet. https://systemstack.dev/2021/04/9front/ Thu, 22 Apr 2021 15:33:15 +0000 https://systemstack.dev/2021/04/9front/ I’ve been participating in the SDF Plan 9 Boot Camp and I have to say, the farther I go into Plan 9 and specifically into 9front, the more I feel like one of those people who discovers a new religion and then immediately begins a descent into being a rabid fundamentalist. There are things I don’t like, of course. I’m still trying to retrofit my writing workflow to 9front, but it’s made me realize some things about tools I’ve been using forever, and I’d like to catalog them here: https://systemstack.dev/about/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://systemstack.dev/about/ This is System Stack, a blog by Kevin Lipe. I’ve written other stuff other places, and done a lot of things, but ideally none of that really matters here. This is just (“just”) a space for writing about computers and the way we (or I) use them, and the things people use them for. I’m interested in the history of computers, in the idea that a computer is a “bicycle for the mind” in that Dream Machines/Computer Lib way that almost feels childish now, and I hope that sensibility carries through into my writing here. https://systemstack.dev/books/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://systemstack.dev/books/ Testing