Build and install Emacs24 on Debian squeeze

Hacking in Debian is so easy (one of the reasons I switched). Take, for instance, building Emacs. This is such a piece of cake compared to the weird hoops you have to go through to get all the build dependencies on other platforms. It’s something I never tried before, simply because it was too daunting trying to figure out all the packages I need to install. But apt-get has this awesome –build-deps switch…

Implementing a caching-only DNS on Debian

After 3 years of sticking with Novell, I recently switched away from openSUSE to Debian. There are a few reasons why, but I won’t bore you with them. So far I’m liking it. There are a few things to set up before I settle in, and one is slow DNS lookup.

Blogging with Emacs Org Mode

My blog is really in need of some love. One of the reasons I’m not posting very frequently (apart from just not having much to say or making time to say it) is that it is such a pain to write posts in WordPress’ built in editor. I briefly considered editing in a text editor and then cut/pasting, but usually there’s a mess to clean up anyway, so it’s not much fun either.

Curious cursor complication with Emacs and Windows Magnifier

I recently noticed a bug when you start GNU Emacs win32 after starting Windows Magnifier: Emacs’ cursor becomes a single-pixel “caret” instead of the box cursor. This makes the cursor very hard to find.

Java 7 is here – but it’s lacking the dolphin’s grace

Well, after 5 years and the setting of the Sun, Java SE 1.7 (originally code-named “dolphin”) has finally been released. Joyous celebrations from the land of Duke.