# sapien (blogs) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 1 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover sapien. Page: Feed: --- ## [Adding syntax highlighting to my blog via Haunt and guile-syntax-highlight: challenging!](https://aloysberger.com/20260821-193841.html) _2026-08-21 · Aloys Berger · Aloys' corner_ Challenging, but slowly getting there. There is not other way but to read the source code. Scheme is starting to click, and reading it is becoming easier everyday. It's growing on me. ## [Emacs is the gift that keeps on giving](https://aloysberger.com/20260819-122356.html) _2026-08-19 · Aloys Berger · Aloys' corner_ The learning curve of emacs was quite steep; in a way, steeper than (neo)vim. Vim is clearly an editor, whereas emacs is a lisp interpreter with text editing capabilities. This makes its footprint much larger, making the upfront learning cost higher. However, it seems to make its reward comparatively higher as emacs and elisp start to click . I absolutely enjoy it, and rarely open vim these days. ## [AI;DR: AI; Didn't read](https://aloysberger.com/20260818-075508.html) _2026-08-18 · Aloys Berger · Aloys' corner_ Rick Manelius on reading AI material. Whatever your stance is on generative AI, this is relevant. I totally follow the AI;DR policy. If it's not worth the time writing, it's not worth the time reading. ## [Writing a Guix service from scratch, as beginner.](https://aloysberger.com/guix-custom-service-from-scratch-as-beginner.html) _2026-08-17 · Aloys Berger · Aloys' corner_ I am in the middle of migrating my machines from Nix to Guix. My first milestone is to migrate my VPS to Guix. My VPS has essentially three majors roles: host my email server. host my wireguard server. act as a proxy server to access services on my home server (thus, hiding my home IP). The mail server is up and running, using exim as the MTA and dovecot as the IMAP server. I had to jump through a… ## [Book review: Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari.](https://aloysberger.com/book-review-sapiens-yuval-noah-harari.html) _2026-08-17 · Aloys Berger · Aloys' corner_ Sapiens appears on many book recommendation lists, and I now understand why. The author, Yuval Noah Harari, gives you a brief commented history of humankind. He explains how, as a specie, we arrived to where we are today and why we think the way we do 1 . In each chapter, Yuval introduce and discuss an aspect of humanity, in a chronological order. For example, the birth of money, the difference… ## [Finished reading "Sapiens" by Yuval Noah Harari](https://aloysberger.com/20260817-113648.html) _2026-08-17 · Aloys Berger · Aloys' corner_ I will write a short review shortly, but I understand why this often comes as a highly recommended book. It contains a lot of intriguing ideas, and challenge some widely accepted view on humanity. ## [AI Manifesto](https://aloysberger.com/ai-manifesto.html) _2026-08-14 · Aloys Berger · Aloys' corner_ This page explain my current views, opinions and usage around the use of generative AI. It is a manifesto, both as a reminder to myself and an explanation of my position to others. This is a inspired by Damola Morinekeji and Derek Sivers /ai page . Disclaimer Generative AI is a very cleaving subject, where we tend to put people in one basket or the other. You might find my position starkly against… ## ["It is more efficient to determinate that something is not a priority, than to automate something that is not a priority" (on AI in the business workplace)](https://aloysberger.com/20260814-153126.html) _2026-08-14 · Aloys Berger · Aloys' corner_ From Alex Hormozi "Wenig Aber Esser" ("less, but better") ## [Demetri Spanos: "To get additive performance \[with AI\] you need to double the amount of compute and data"](https://aloysberger.com/20260813-183536.html) _2026-08-13 · Aloys Berger · Aloys' corner_ This is according to Demetri Spanos in this interview: Why AI Companies Need Scale \[Wading Through AI - Episode 7\]​ This is apparently well known in the field of AI: the performance of the AI system has a logarithmic relationship to its input. There are theories behind it and so far they have been empirically validated. He says that AI decision makers are taking decision based on this. It is a… ## [Comparing \`changeset\` and \`release-please\` for our repositories at $dayjob](https://aloysberger.com/20260812-121720.html) _2026-08-12 · Aloys Berger · Aloys' corner_ It's interesting to see how the ubiquitous nature of LLM-coding agentic workflow have impacted the entire industry. I'm not making a judgement of the technology here; I'm simply observing how it does drive a lot of choices, all the way to versioning tools. ## [Sync bookmarks across every browser (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/NjBSbTk6P8io) _2026-08-12 · **Sponsored**_ Two-way sync across Chrome, Firefox and Safari; built-in ad and tracker blocker. ## [Starting to get more comfortable with elisp, making emacs even more powerful](https://aloysberger.com/20260811-143330.html) _2026-08-11 · Aloys Berger · Aloys' corner_ I am starting to get my head around elisp and it is very powerful. The more I use it, the more I enjoy it. In the past, I would put a few scripts together, pipe CLI or rely on someone else's TUI. But there is something awesome about elisp and emacs, I can't quite put my finger on. I believe it's the tight integration of scripting abilities and CLI-like features. It allows you to create "TUI-like"… ## [In the software engineering world, most of the time we spend more resources maintaining the software than building it. It's the rule, rather than the exception.](https://aloysberger.com/20260810-100248.html) _2026-08-10 · Aloys Berger · Aloys' corner_ In other engineering endeavours and industries, we put a lot of emphasis on the running costs of a system. Yet, this does not apply to software, where Time To Market is very often the #1 metric by which "productivity" is measured. Is that acceptable? ## [Working on my "Define a custom Guix service as a beginner" last night.](https://aloysberger.com/20260807-124004.html) _2026-08-07 · Aloys Berger · Aloys' corner_ Writing and teaching is a great way of learning; but it certainly isn't quick! It gives me appreciation for all those developers blogging; it is a real skill. I hope that the more I write, the faster I can get articles out. It is rather a long piece, I am already at 5,000 words and note quite there. I am quite happy to how the end the result will be, I am probably only a few hours \[of works\] away… ## [Yesterday I rode my bike 201.5km from the Sunshine Coast to Springfield, south-west of Brisbane](https://aloysberger.com/20260806-092936.html) _2026-08-06 · Aloys Berger · Aloys' corner_ The last 30km were tough, between the fatigue and the traffic. In a way, it's very calming to push yourself with a physical challenge. Your mind has only one purpose for the day, it's so alien in our modern world were we juggle many things at once. ## [Life without a smartphone is difficult, it's hard to realise how "central" to our life smartphone have become](https://aloysberger.com/20260804-184313.html) _2026-08-04 · Aloys Berger · Aloys' corner_ In this example, I'm trying to upload a cycling map to my cycling computer. You now need a smartphone, or a tablet. A computer won't do. ## [Halfway through /Structure and Interpretation of Computer Program/ and it keeps on getting better](https://aloysberger.com/20260804-095259.html) _2026-08-04 · Aloys Berger · Aloys' corner_ Such a fascinating book. In a way, I can see it being an "introduction" book to computer program - but it another hand, it has a tremendous amount of value for seasoned programmers. Especially if you are like me, a "up-to-bottom" developer who started from developing websites and working your way down to lower levels. ## [Re-reading /The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy/](https://aloysberger.com/20260730-090014.html) _2026-07-30 · Aloys Berger · Aloys' corner_ After finishing The Stand from Stephen King, I needed a light read! I forgot how funny Douglas Adams is. This is very enjoyable! ## [Bought a "feature phone" which is the official Aussie term for "dumb phone"](https://aloysberger.com/20260728-080319.html) _2026-07-28 · Aloys Berger · Aloys' corner_ After probably two years of deliberating, if not more, I finally took the leap to a "dumb phone". The phone isn't that "dumb", it actually has an old version of Android which gives me access to Whatsapp. My family living overseas, Whatsapp is the primary mean of communication, unfortunately. I will write a review on it after a few months of usage; I'm waiting for my physical SIM card to arrive (it… ## [Book review: The Stand by Stephen King.](https://aloysberger.com/book-review-the-stand-stephen-king.html) _2026-07-27 · Aloys Berger · Aloys' corner_ This is my second attempt to read this book. The first time I lost interest in the first third, roughly when Larry crosses the tunnel out of New York. This time I was resolute to finish it; I dislike not finishing books. I believe there are two types of readers: those whose adage is "life is too short to read a book you don't enjoy". Then there is the second type of readers: those who would rather… ## [The more I get to know emacs, the more I enjoy using it](https://aloysberger.com/20260727-161027.html) _2026-07-27 · Aloys Berger · Aloys' corner_ ## [AI QA that opens fix PRs (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/5K6pddNCXKBZ) _2026-07-27 · **Sponsored**_ Run a browser QA from plain-English instructions; get GitHub issues and optional fix PRs. ## [Set up the EasyGPG package that is built-in in emacs, quite handy when you use GPG for your SSH keys!](https://aloysberger.com/20260723-124617.html) _2026-07-23 · Aloys Berger · Aloys' corner_ I'm yet to integrate it with other process such as email, but it was bothering me when opening files via SSH tramp: I needed to first register the passphrase in a terminal as pinentry didn't play well with emacs. Easy GPG solves this issue, now I can enter my passphrase directly in the minibuffer. ## [TUIs are bridging the gap with GUIs](https://aloysberger.com/20260722-080046.html) _2026-07-22 · Aloys Berger · Aloys' corner_ Yesterday a colleague of mine gave a demo of a tool called "hunk". It is a TUI to review code, specifically in the context of using coding agents. The demo was driven by the mouse (even though I am sure you can drive it via keyboard) and even a had a classic drill-down menu bar. I joked with him that at this stage, you may as well use a GUI at this stage. Before using emacs I was only using a… ## [Watched the Odyssey, from C. Nolan yesterday at the cinema](https://aloysberger.com/20260721-105618.html) _2026-07-21 · Aloys Berger · Aloys' corner_ Disclaimer: I am not a cinephile, so my judgment on the movie is very superficial. What an epic movie! The highlight were, by far, the sound effects. The music and sound effects were incredible and deserve a powerful, high quality sound system. I believe it is one of those movies that must be watched at a good quality cinema. Good movies are always better at the cinema, but Nolan's movies are… ## [Caught one of the longest wave I have ever caught this morning, from the end of Little Cover, all the way to First point](https://aloysberger.com/20260720-085700.html) _2026-07-20 · Aloys Berger · Aloys' corner_ The only wave I caught this morning, but what a feeling! The strong south wind then took over and the combination of the crowd (typical Noosa morning), the wind and the tide didn't help. Sunrise surf is always amazing for the soul. ## [TIL: Distraction free editing in Emacs via "C-x n"(narrow commands)](https://aloysberger.com/til-org-mode-narrow-commands.html) _2026-07-15 · Aloys Berger · Aloys' corner_ I dread noisy, busy interfaces. I always preferred minimalist interfaces for my day to day work, and that's why I found the terminal so appealing before switching to emacs. Today, I was thrilled to find the "narrow" subset of commands under \`C-x n\`. (I am still fumbling my way around emacs additionalhellip like any typical emacs user I guess!) "Narrow" commands allow you to narrow your buffer down… ## [Thoughts on the downside of LLMs agent in the context of a team](https://aloysberger.com/20260715-144229.html) _2026-07-15 · Aloys Berger · Aloys' corner_ Armin puts his finger on something important in the tower of babel keeps rising ; the current usage of LLMs agent in organisation is impacting communication, and slowly destroying institutional knowledge. I do enjoy this take as this is something I am acutely aware. The speed gains from LLMs are real in certain use cases, but the cost paid by teams is real. Often, this result in a lot of technical…