Category: Uncategorized

Gomez Puzzle

Señor Gomez is an eccentric person and has very strong opinions about certain things:
He likes skirts but hates dresses.
He likes computers but hates mobile phones.
He likes motorcycles but hates cars.
He likes tables but hates desks.
He likes jackets but hates coats.
He likes mugs but hates glasses.
He likes cards but hates cash.
He likes tortillas but hates bread.

All of his friends are confused. Can you understand his preferences?

Announcing Focus and Launch Menus

I’m pleased to announce the release of two new Xfce Panel applets, Focus Menu and Launch Menu, which reproduce functionality that existed on vintage Apple computers, from System 7 up to Mac OS 9.

Focus Menu works similarly to the application switcher menu, displaying a list of programs, as well as commands that allow their windows to be hidden or shown. Launch Menu works similarly to the Apple menu, showing a list of files, folders and programs that the user manually placed into the special Launch Menu Items folders.

Read about each release, and also my attempts to anticipate all the common questions, on their respective GitHub pages:

Focus Menu

Launch Menu

(Yes, I know… the retirement didn’t last long.)

Introducing gPress, again

Although I recently retired from computer programming, I didn’t intend to end my blogging. In fact, I hope to write more often than I have over the past couple of years. But I needed different software than my self-coded setup to do this with.

As a result, I’ve returned to WordPress. I recognize that it has its flaws. I am suspicious of the newer themes’ tendency to be more about becoming a ‘site builder’ than a blog platform. I’m irritated by the block editor and its interface, which seem to be more confusing than writing my own code was. I have no idea why the default post editor page seems to delight in concealing options, as though I am blogging on a phone, when my desktop screen has plenty of room to display everything on.

But nevertheless, it is still the best-established platform of its kind, with the most support. I’ve thought for some time that when it comes to software, there is safety in numbers. As long as the organization behind something is not completely onerous, it’s better to follow a mainstream solution than a relatively obscure one that may not be secure or up-to-date on the back-end.

This is my third attempt at running a blog. The first one, some years back, was also on WordPress. The second one was self-coded and lasted until just a few days ago. This is my third try, and we will see if it turns out to be ‘the charm’.

As before, here are some (but not all) of the subjects I may discuss in blog posts:

  • Logic: I naturally process statements in a logical fashion (some might say too much so) and I’ve enjoyed reading good examples of logical fallacies.
  • Theology: When it comes to spiritual matters, it can’t be said that I’m mature. But if my perspective isn’t instructive, it may prompt discussion.
  • Computing: I grew up using classic Macintoshes, and have since acquired an amount of experience with a variety of systems. This has been conducive to monologues in the past, and it seems expedient to continue it here.
  • Design: I’ve acquired ideals in software and in interface design, and it’s likely I will talk about them here.
  • Fan interests: I’ve written analyses of things like Adventures in Odyssey before, and this seems to be a good place to offload those when I need to.

I expect to roll out ‘classic’ posts, from the original and second gPress blogs, over the next weeks as opportunity allows.

If you’re interested in this site, get in touch with me. Journalism is a conversation, and I hope this discourse can help illuminate all of our lives.