Officially disguised as a Canadian
Author: RandolphIn 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”
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
One thing I’ve been saying for many years, even as a young twink, was that if you have any questions about queer stuff, just ask. I’ve answered a lot of questions over the years, and wrote about some of them in a chapter in a book last year. Increasingly I’m finding myself answering questions onContinue reading Just ask
His nickname was Peanut, and that night, in the rain, I feared for my life while an 18-year-old boy tried to assert his masculinity over me by threatening to kill me. I was a year older than him (on account of spending a year at another college before transferring), and I remember thinking that IContinue reading I’m going to rip your heart out
(This post contains profanity.) Speaking of time in fractions of a century seems more dramatic than just saying “twenty-five years”. It’s been a quarter of a century since the last Father’s Day I celebrated. In ten days from now, my father will have been dead for a quarter of a century. About a year agoContinue reading Twenty-five years
The Twitter account known as SwiftOnSecurity deleted a short thread of tweets today stating that the vast majority of 4K resolution laptop screens could be scaled down to 1080p. This would improve performance owing to the reduction in pixels being refreshed, and those users would scarcely notice the difference. Swift was referring to a display’sContinue reading Enhance
In the US and Canada, June is Pride Month. We’ve come a long way from 2001 when South Africa was lucky to have its first Pride Week in Johannesburg, a concept that has apparently continued since we invented it. I wrote some things on Twitter about Pride in the last few days, which I’m goingContinue reading Pride month
We went to Peru this month.
Yesterday I responded to a blog post by my friend Jason, who (prolific writer that he is) has responded in kind less than a day later. I don’t want to dismiss the lengthy post in which he makes some interesting observations, but I have thoughts about the last line: Randolph says I’m a writer. 18,767Continue reading On writing
My friend Jason Irwin, whom I’ve never met in real life, is one of the most prolific writers I know personally. One can expect a blog post from him every day. I honestly don’t know how he does it. Yesterday I spent seven hours working on the next SQL Server book for Microsoft Press, andContinue reading What makes a writer?