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Dave Gauer

Howdy, I’m Dave Gauer. I’ve worked in web technologies since the late 1990s. Some interests: computer programming of all kinds, Linux/BSD/Unix, art, books (genre fiction, computing, history, biographies, art monographs), film, music (metal!), boardgames, and watching small creatures in the back yard.

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I think Zig is hard...but worth it

ratfactor · 2y

After a long hiatus, I'm back on the Zig train. Choo choo! You know, I don't see a lot of people addressing what I *personally* find difficult about Zig, so I've collected my...

Temporal Workspaces

ratfactor · 2y

That last entry felt a bit unhinged, but it truthfully describes the meta-task that has been occupying my head for weeks. Thankfully, I've found some peace with the idea of...

Project Balance - how many to juggle?

ratfactor · 2y

Have I reached peak time fragmentation? I knew I was doing a lot of different projects, but I had no idea I was juggling *this* much...

Dave's Paper Notes: Programming as Theory Building

ratfactor · 2y

It finally dawned on me that I should write up summaries of the [computer science] papers I read and put them somewhere so the thoughts aren't lost forever. Here's the first...

MC2023 Chapter 4: I2C and an OLED

ratfactor · 2y

This was a really great "chapter" for me. I'd done some I2C with Micropython before, so I decided to tackle something more challenging with an OLED display. I ended up writing...

MC2023 Chapter 3: PWM with a servo

ratfactor · 3y

It's alive! I did the math and made a thing move in the real world. Also dusted off the oscilloscope for this one...

MC2023 Chapter 2: Blinking, buzzing, events, PWM, and a great book

ratfactor · 3y

I'm back on track! This second "chapter" of The Year of the Microcontroller is finally complete...

** RSS Club ** | nosurf4

ratfactor · 3y

RSS Club* Exclusive FOURTH "nosurf" post. Distractions can't compete with these two techniques. The only problem is that they're both pretty indulgent...

Do it the dumb way first

ratfactor · 3y

I think it's usually a mistake to try to write a "correct" program from a blank slate...

Build It Twice

ratfactor · 3y

I wonder what it would be like if we all approached software development with a "build it twice" mentality...

Ziglings needed help and I got it!

ratfactor · 3y

Simply asking for help was the best thing I've done in a while. Scroll to the bottom for my t-shirt design. I can't wait for mine to come in the mail...

RetroV

ratfactor · 3y

So I basically lost my mind for two weeks and the result is a new JavaScript VDOM library. This was a side quest I did not need in my life and the world probably did not need in...

Three monitors with Linux (Slackware)

ratfactor · 3y

A saga nearly a year in the making: Then a new Linux kernel and a new video card make the whole thing trivial...

Slackbuilds.org is pretty amazing

ratfactor · 3y

Installing the Hare programming language on Slackware just got easier thanks to yours truly. But this is really a love note to the tireless volunteers at slackbuilds.org...

zignew and zigswitch (Bash scripts)

ratfactor · 3y

Just some scripts here. Nothing too exciting, but might give you some ideas for automating the tasks in your life. The *coolest part* is definitely using a fuzzy matcher (zf in...

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