How I got through my inbox in only two months
Concluding the thing I started three entries ago, I've replied to the pile of email I'd let accumulate. And I'm really pleased with my new hand-rolled personal contact database...
Ratfactor Feed
Dave Gauer's personal website. Mostly technical articles.
Latest posts
Two month calendar format for pocket notebooks
Hello RSS readers! Project Inbox 2026 is coming along very nicely, thank you. Don't worry, that's still my only MAIN project. I do other small things in parallel with the main project. This entry is a small thing I did recently in my pocket notebook "system" that I'm very pleased with and would like to share...
What should a personal website be?
Personal websites. I have some thoughts...
Project Inbox 2026
It's starting! Those sweet, sweet email replies shall begin to make their way starting now...
Ascetic Computing
I hope this comes across as fun rather than preachy! At least it has some drawings...
This too shall pass
A little bit of philosophy to get through the tough spots...
The First of a Double-Take
A fun little creativity/art tip I've been wanting to write for a while...
Correction: Text FILES as a user interface
I'm sorry, that previous title was very misleading! I also added a whole new example that I'm hoping will get the idea across a lot better...
A text editor as a user interface
Here's a fun technique I've been using a lot for the last couple years - calling upon a text editor and simple text files as a powerful and flexible "user interface" for command-line programs...
Finishing Things
I can't believe how long this page ended up. But if you want to know the state-of-the-art for Ratfactor project completion "tips" and "tricks" and haunted crypts, this has got it all...
My home network observes bedtime with OpenBSD and pf
Another OpenBSD article. There's at least two more coming, so brace yourselves. This one is about setting up OpenBSD as a router and controlling traffic with pf (Packet Filter)...
OpenBSD Blog #13: Moving ratfactor.com to OpenBSD.amsterdam
This website has moved to a new OS and web server and host! You shouldn't really notice anything different, but there are probably more broken links than usual...
Fitted sheet update: Unfolding a professionally folded fitted sheet!
SECRETS REVEALED!!! I know a lot of you have been waiting for this update. The unfolding of a brand-new fitted sheet set. What will we discover? Let's find out...
Dave's book review for The Art of Doing Science and Engineering
My rather long book review and/or collection of notes from reading Richard W. Hamming's opus.
A programmer's loss of identity
A year later, another piece of text I had to get off my chest. I trust I won't have to do this again in another year? I did not enjoy writing it, but I had to write it...
LibreWolf
I've hit the last straw with Mozilla's antics in Firefox. I've been a Firefox champion for years and years. But every danged upgrade has some new insane junk I don't want or need and they keep popping up these little "tips" to rub my nose in it. I'm sick of it. I'm done. THANKFULLY we have LibreWolf to solve all of that. I'm a heavy browser user migrating from the fox to the wolf and here are my…
Dave's Paper Notes: A Tutorial for the Sam Command Language
I slowly read this paper while brushing my teeth at night. I really enjoyed what it demonstrates about language design...
Make a Web Font Subset
Related to the Faceclick Emoji picker two entries ago, I've learned how to make custom subsets of fonts and package them as Web Fonts (and how to use and debug them).
Why I Read Technical Books
A relatively quick and much more "blog-like" entry today...
Faceclick: A lightweight Emoji picker with keyword search
It's done! A side-quest that turned into a project of its own: An Emoji-picking popup library with 130Kb of Emoji data into 70Kb (un-minified, un-gzipped, with comments and everything)...
Ratfactor's Illustrated Guide to Folding Fitted Sheets
Hey, want to learn something new? And now for something completely different...
Super Easy* 2-Stage Git Deployment
The asterisk after "Easy" is explained. This is how I'm pushing Web software changes for my little PHP projects these days...
Stack Display (cardboard desk toy for small paper notes)
A real quick cardboard project to go with that paper "project stack" post in June...
Store as HTML, Edit as LML
From the ashes of WYSIWYG rises a lightweight markup language "interface" to the HTML pages in the wiki, and I think this is going to work...
Death to WYSIWYG!
Oh no! That wiki editing interface was TOO easy to make...
HTML WARDen (a wiki)
A new wiki appears! Here's the thing I alluded to in the previous two entries. It's one of those "mini-sites" that appear on this feed from time to time with: A project page, a repo, and a 5-part "making of" article series that I hope is fun and interesting...
SVG Sourcecode Shapes (A Little Ruby Script that can make a self-portrait in SVG)
This is tangentially related to the previous entry. I'm really looking forward to using this little script for its intended purpose. One more thing popped off the paper stack! Anyway, look at how cute that is...
The Project Stack! (an actual paper stack)
Clickbait summary: Here's a fun thing you can do with Post-it notes that might save your poor brain from a meltdown...
Small Programs and Languages
I really enjoyed the feedback I got on Implementing a Forth. It's a fun subject! I updated it with new notes, an even smaller 'Forth', and a link to this oversized "card" that resulted from thinking about smallness...
Implementing a Forth
This page started as a tiny kernel of three ideas, little more than just some notes. But I think it ended up being a pretty fun read...
Making a first Luanti mod: A new block type appears!
Luanti is a FOSS voxel game engine. I made an illustrated tutorial for creating a first mod that makes a new block with a custom texture...
The One-Tree Website
The human race can survive my website because of a tree in my front yard...
Forever Worlds
We all deserve something shorter and sweeter in the RSS feed for the weekend. This whole concept brings a smile to my face...
Of CSS and Palm Oil
Here's an essay I started last month and finally finished. I read something that helped me sort out what happened the last time I put my foot in my mouth online...
I learned Snobol and then wrote a toy Forth
As I teased in the previous item, this update links to what basically amounts to a "mini-site" of four web pages and one software repo. This is exactly what it says in the title as well as my personal review of Snobol4 and related thoughts...
Explanation of the Ratfactor Feed
In the next couple days, I expect to be posting a link to a "mini-site" of content about a fun programming subject. With that upcoming example in mind, this seems like as good time as any to explain why this feed doesn't contain the full text of the linked "posts", amongst other things...
Go read Peter Naur's "Programming as Theory Building" and then come back and tell me that LLMs can replace human programmers
In revisiting Naur's paper, I had some additional thoughts about how it applies to our current era...
Famsite - a tiny social site for families
An extremely tiny family posting site (lets a handful of people post text and images and that's it!). Written in PHP, JavaScript, HTML, and SQLite. About 1K lines of source combined! Stupidly simple. The only interesting thing about it is that it's mine and it uses my RetroV JS library for virtual DOM UI rendering...
I'm an American software developer and the "broligarchs" don't speak for me
Hello! It feels like ages since my last update. This has been baking quite a while in the oven and it's a great relief (and also a little scary) to put it out into the world. You can see what it's about from the title...
(untitled)
I've finished a new tool to add to the site - I made this one to "do the counting" for my daily physical therapy exercises...
MNT Pocket Reform - Unboxing and First Impressions
It came! I like it...
** RSS Club ** | Rip-Off
Hey RSS readers! Time for another RSS-only article. I really need to vent about this because two days later, it's still bothering me...
Wrapping up 2023, plans for 2024
My first ever year wrap-up. Also, 2024 is happening, but not happening...
Leopard-Free Programming
A short parable by Franz Kafka describes our crummy code? I think so and it feels good to escape this fate...
Multiple Tools
All of a sudden, I realized I never fully made the transition from Thunderbird to aerc for email and...I never will and...that's okay! If you're not sure if that's okay or not for *you*, maybe this page will be a comfort...
Fake Trees: Using Indents For Simpler UIs
A UI programming "hack" in which your mileage varies and the dead return to extract vengeance upon the living.
The Tale of this and the JavaScript developer
A fable! And a drawing!
Archive Your Projects!
Why and how you should preserve your projects for your future self (and possibly other people too) to enjoy!
SVG Minifier in Ruby
Another thing emerges from the ongoing December Adventure 2023: a super simple Ruby utility for making super tiny SVG line art!
Interpreting if/else logic with a simple flat list of booleans
Just a quick little "discovery" during the aforementioned and ongoing December Adventure 2023 that I thought should have its own page...