Nothing has changed; everything has changed

The coronavirus has taken over. South Africa has been locked down for three weeks. Canada is under self-isolation orders. I read somewhere that there are something like a billion people staying at home, like you’re supposed to when trying to reduce the global pandemic of a bug more virulent than the flu. Italy is levellingContinue reading Nothing has changed; everything has changed

Gender pronouns and the pronunciation of the word “GIF”

In 1987, a new file format was released by CompuServe, the Graphics Interchange Format, or GIF for short. While the format has been surpassed by better compression algorithms with no loss in quality (for example, PNG), GIF files made a comeback because they support animation. Animated GIFs are the bread and butter of modern informalContinue reading Gender pronouns and the pronunciation of the word “GIF”

Thank you from the bottom of my heart

On 19 June 2018, I wrote on Twitter that I was available for hire. https://twitter.com/_randolph_west/status/1009234713167347713 The economy in Calgary, where we live, was going through a slump. My regular customers in the energy sector weren’t doing the consultant thing, and I was not busy. I even considered going back to full-time employment, as long asContinue reading Thank you from the bottom of my heart