Backups are a hassle, off-site ones doubly so. However, there are a few tools which make life easier — this post discusses some of them.

Python’s behaviour with regards to destructors can be a little surprising in some cases.

Python’s simple scoping rules occasionally hide some surprising behaviour.

I’ve always avoided C++ streams as they never seemed as convenient as printf() and friends for formatted output, but I’ve decided I should finally take the plunge.

Function template specialisation is a tricky beast — the short answer is, avoid it.

Git’s filename filtering surprisingly works as you’d expect. To an extent.

File capabilities offer a secure alternative to SUID executables, but can be a little confusing at first.

Writing some notes on IEEE 754 led to discovering a nifty way to render formulae on the web.

It’s possible to manage multiple subprocesses in Python, but there are a few gotchas.

The SO_REUSEADDR option has quite different functionality on Windows than it does on Unix.