James Lin

Reason (programming language) - Wikipedia

I also updated the Wikipedia article on ReasonML on how it’s moved on to using Melange for compiling to JavaScript. Hopefully, these changes will make the difference between Reason and ReScript more clear! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reason_...

After listening to an episode of the excellent Developer Voices podcast (hosted by @krisajenkins.bsky.social) about @rescript-lang.org, I noticed that ReScript didn’t have its own Wikipedia article. So I created one: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReScrip...

I submitted a passport renewal application online last Sunday. It was approved and my new passport was mailed on Tuesday. I received it on Friday 🎉 This is the way it should be!

A homeless youth asked a stranger for food. The man responded with a question that changed the kid’s life forever | CNN Peter Mutabazi has fostered 47 children and adopted three more. He can trace it all back to a day from his rough childhood, when he met a man who challenged everything he believed.

Here is an incredibly inspiring story about a homeless boy in Uganda who grew up to be a child advocate in the U.S., who has fostered 47 kids and adopted 3 more, and the man who changed his life. www.cnn.com/2025/09/14/u...

Stephanie Shirley, Who Created a Tech World for Women, Dies at 91

I think my knowledge of computer history is decent, yet only now am I learning about Stephanie Shirley, a pioneer in the tech industry who started a software company in 1962 employing mostly women working part-time at home. Way ahead of her time 🫡 www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/b...

Done! Of course above I meant to say “Elwro 800 Junior,” not just “Elwro” (akin to just saying “IBM” instead of “IBM PC”).

Not sure, but perhaps it’s trying to contrast the Cobra 1 (not a clone of anything) with the Meritum (based on TRS-80) or the Elwro (based on ZX Spectrum). In fact, I’ll just update the article to say that

@aresluna.org has already made an edit to the article 😄

Cobra 1 - Wikipedia

Among all the amazing retrotech I saw at #vcfwest, there were a few 1980s Polish home computers. I noticed that one of them, the Cobra 1, only had an article in Polish Wikipedia, so I used it as the basis of a new article in English Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_1

It’s the MingKwai!

A Professor’s Hunt for the Rarest Chinese Typewriter

The moment I read the headline, I knew it was about @tsmullaney.bsky.social — looks like an update to his book “The Chinese Typewriter” is needed 😄 www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/n...

The hardest working font in Manhattan A story of a 150-year-old font you have never heard of – and one you probably saw earlier today.

As I read Marcin (@aresluna.org)’s wonderful essay on the Gorton font, I realized I had been noticing it my whole life subconsciously, and the words using it always felt important, since it was almost always engraved. If it’s engraved, it must be important, right? aresluna.org/the-hardest-...

Lots of PC companies in the 1990s put shells on top of Windows 3 to make it friendlier, and I feel like at least some of them were room-like.

Marcin, sounds like this could be your next project 😂

That’s awesome! What are you using to bridge Python with JavaScript?

Original ukrainian version of Carol of the Bells: Mykola Leontovych - Shchedryk choir. Ukraine Music YouTube video by Дивіться, митець! Look, that is the artist!

This holiday season, I learned that the melody of the Christmas carol “Carol of the Bells” is from a Ukrainian New Year’s song, “Shchedryk“ (Щедрик), which is based on a traditional Ukrainian folk song. Here it is in the original Ukrainian: www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6Rl...

Happy New Year everyone 🇺🇦

Examples of folks making hand-crafted software I can think of: @panic.com, @goodenough.us, 37signals, all the indie developers featured in @macstories.net

The case for handcrafted software in a mass-produced world As AI automates programming, it could be worth exploring the value of bespoke code

I’ve joked with my friends that I want to get into building hand-crafted, artisan software. Then Lian Proven of The Register makes the case for it, such as higher quality and being more attuned to a specific group’s needs. www.theregister.com/2024/09/18/t...

Bob James - Angela (theme from 'Taxi') (4K) YouTube video by BobJamesVEVO

I’m a bit too young to have watched (or certainly understood) the sitcom Taxi, but I remember the opening theme song vividly. Here is Bob James, who wrote the song, performing it with his jazz trio at age 82. (Sometimes the YouTube algorithm is good for something 🙂) www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqw3...

Just watched Yang Liping’s Rite of Spring at Stanford. Totally stunning and worth watching. Also enjoyed her conversation with @tsmullaney.bsky.social — like him, I didn’t fully understand what I saw 😂 but it set off my brain in all sorts of directions. live.stanford.edu/events/24-25...

BASIC co-creator Thomas Kurtz hits END at 96 Pioneering Dartmouth College mathematician died last week

Salute to Thomas Kurtz, who created BASIC with John Kemeny in 1964. BASIC was my first programming language, and I stuck with it long enough to graduate to QuickBASIC, without GOTOs or line numbers. In fact, I first really got structured programming in QuickBASIC. www.theregister.com/2024/11/20/r...

Let's Get Creative A collection of high-quality, free, online creativity tools.

I love this collection of free online creativity tools, from drawing and music to creative coding. www.bryanbraun.com/lets-get-cre...

Roy Clay Sr., a Silicon Valley pioneer who knocked down racial barriers, dies at 95 A Hewlett-Packard veteran who helped develop the personal computer, Clay rose from the Jim Crow south to the height of the tech world.

Roy Clay Sr. was such a pioneer: led development of HP’s first computer, first Black executive at HP, first Black elected to the Palo Alto City Council… The history of Black Americans in Silicon Valley and the tech industry needs to be better known. www.usatoday.com/story/money/...