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b0rk.jvns.ca
Julia Evans
@b0rk.jvns.ca
54K followers 320 following 6.8K posts
programming and exclamation marks

blog: jvns.ca
zines: wizardzines.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
b0rk.jvns.ca
Over the years I've been hearing from folks that it's hard to remember which zines you've bought

So we built a new library website where you can see & download all your zines!

library.wizardzines.com
Image of a person sitting next to a bookshelf with their zines Welcome! Enter your email address and we'll send you a link to download all of the zines that you've ordered in the past.
February 3, 2026 at 4:42 PM
b0rk.jvns.ca
some notes on starting to use Django jvns.ca/blog/2026/01...
January 29, 2026 at 2:34 PM
b0rk.jvns.ca
really cool to see Blacksky moving further towards having fully separate infrastructure
rude1.blacksky.team Rudy wants revolution. @rude1.blacksky.team · 16d
Bluesky runs an appview.
Blacksky runs an appview.

A complete appview is a several terabytes sized database of the >18 billion follows, likes and posts of all bsky users, ever and forever.

To run a different appview is to make a fork in bsky’s timeline.

One has new posts from Łink.
One doesn’t.
staging.blacksky.community Following kink. Follows you @spacelawshitpost.me 12.1K followers 2.1K following 62.5K posts Shitposts and Space Law. Blacksky Elder. Banned from Bluesky. Apex User. Profile: Link holding a baby on a playground sun. Banner: Black Charlie Brown with a kufi looking out of a window. Followed by Tarik Moody, Dr Abeba Birhane, and 67 others Posts Replies Media Videos Starter Packs 4 Pinned kink. @spacelawshitpost.me • 11/14/2024 Thanks for the follow (or profile lurk). I really value digital accessibility and accessibility in gener Here's a basic guide to make sure your so posting is more accessible and inclusive (h alt text, etc.).
January 19, 2026 at 1:42 PM
b0rk.jvns.ca
A data model for Git (and other docs updates) jvns.ca/blog/2026/01...
A data model for Git (and other docs updates)
A data model for Git (and other docs updates)
jvns.ca
January 9, 2026 at 9:53 PM
Reposted by Julia Evans
jwcat757.bsky.social
Just got in the mail! Going to keep on my desk. Thank you @b0rk.jvns.ca for making cool shit!
January 9, 2026 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Julia Evans
grimalkina.bsky.social
I have a December gift for you all 🎁

I am finally able to open up a general call for ADVANCE READERS for my book: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SOFTWARE TEAMS (coming 2026). I cannot tell you how much it means to me to share this!

Indicate your interest here:

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Request to be an advance reader of The Psychology of Software Teams by Cat Hicks
Thank you for your interest in being an advance reader for The Psychology of Software Teams (working title) by Cat Hicks. I am selecting some interested readers to receive a free advance copy of this ...
docs.google.com
December 2, 2025 at 6:58 PM
b0rk.jvns.ca
this fall I worked with the core Git folks on writing an official data model for Git and it just got merged! I learned a few new things from writing it. github.com/git/git/blob...
git/Documentation/gitdatamodel.adoc at master · git/git
Git Source Code Mirror - This is a publish-only repository but pull requests can be turned into patches to the mailing list via GitGitGadget (https://gitgitgadget.github.io/). Please follow Documen...
github.com
December 2, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Reposted by Julia Evans
mattzaske.com
Here it is folks! If you've been to one of my conference sessions on Git and other things, these are the zines I mention you should buy!

On sale -- today only!
b0rk.jvns.ca Julia Evans @b0rk.jvns.ca · Nov 28
it's happening!!!

from now until the end of the day on Friday, November 28th (if it’s Friday anywhere, the sale’s still on!), all my pdf zines are 50% off, and print zines are 30% off!

wizardzines.com
woman with shell necklace and a redirects belt accessory
November 28, 2025 at 2:38 PM
b0rk.jvns.ca
it's happening!!!

from now until the end of the day on Friday, November 28th (if it’s Friday anywhere, the sale’s still on!), all my pdf zines are 50% off, and print zines are 30% off!

wizardzines.com
woman with shell necklace and a redirects belt accessory
November 28, 2025 at 12:14 PM
b0rk.jvns.ca
tomorrow November 28 we're doing a Big Zine Sale! Here's a thread about every zine that will be on sale (it's all of them)

(feel free to mute this thread :))

wizardzines.com

(1/16)
zine sale! coming november 28, 50% off PDF zines, 30% off print zines A cartoon of a person in a spacesuit, accompanied by a penguin (also in a spacesuit), flying through a colourful tunnel. The person has an excited expression, a medium skin tone, and big curly hair that fills the bubble helmet of their spacesuit.
November 27, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Reposted by Julia Evans
greylibertine.bsky.social
Hey everyone! These tech zines are awesome and there's a great sale coming up! I really like "The Secret Rules of the Terminal" but the bite size series and the DNS zine are also really great. I mean they're all great honestly. You should order some as gifts or for yourself.
b0rk.jvns.ca Julia Evans @b0rk.jvns.ca · Nov 18
Wizard Zines is doing another Big Zine Sale again this year on Friday, November 28th! One day only.

here’s a google calendar link for the duration of the sale if you want a reminder: wzrd.page/cal
zine sale! coming november 28, 50% off PDF zines, 30% off print zines A cartoon of a person in a spacesuit, accompanied by a penguin (also in a spacesuit), flying through a colourful tunnel. The person has an excited expression, a medium skin tone, and big curly hair that fills the bubble helmet of their spacesuit.
November 26, 2025 at 4:25 PM
b0rk.jvns.ca
this is happening on Friday!
b0rk.jvns.ca Julia Evans @b0rk.jvns.ca · Nov 18
Wizard Zines is doing another Big Zine Sale again this year on Friday, November 28th! One day only.

here’s a google calendar link for the duration of the sale if you want a reminder: wzrd.page/cal
zine sale! coming november 28, 50% off PDF zines, 30% off print zines A cartoon of a person in a spacesuit, accompanied by a penguin (also in a spacesuit), flying through a colourful tunnel. The person has an excited expression, a medium skin tone, and big curly hair that fills the bubble helmet of their spacesuit.
November 25, 2025 at 4:14 PM
b0rk.jvns.ca
Wizard Zines is doing another Big Zine Sale again this year on Friday, November 28th! One day only.

here’s a google calendar link for the duration of the sale if you want a reminder: wzrd.page/cal
zine sale! coming november 28, 50% off PDF zines, 30% off print zines A cartoon of a person in a spacesuit, accompanied by a penguin (also in a spacesuit), flying through a colourful tunnel. The person has an excited expression, a medium skin tone, and big curly hair that fills the bubble helmet of their spacesuit.
November 18, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Reposted by Julia Evans
catrionaagg.bsky.social
❤️ Love this ❤️

@mathforge.org has done what I’ve never been organised enough to do myself, and catalogued every #geometrypuzzle I’ve ever posted on social media. It looks amazing!
A screenshot of the puzzle gallery (https://notes.mathforge.org/notes/published/puzzle+gallery) showing lots of tiny geometry colourful puzzles
November 17, 2025 at 6:33 AM
b0rk.jvns.ca
we just finished a huge project: all of the paid zines at wizardzines.com now have a transcript for screen reader users!!!

If you bought a previous version of the zines and don't have the transcript, you can email us at [email protected] to get it. More here: wizardzines.com/accessibility/
November 11, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Reposted by Julia Evans
danielpipk.in
I'm trying to get more comfortable with C. @b0rk.jvns.ca's Memory Spy tool has really strengthened my intuition for the bits behind the variables.
memory-spy.wizardzines.com
Screenshot of memory spy website showing why negative one equals 65535 because they are both 1 away from zero.
November 3, 2025 at 3:04 AM
b0rk.jvns.ca
just added the MEGA TERMINAL CHEAT SHEET from "The Secret Rules of the Terminal" to our list of posters at wizardzines.com#posters
October 20, 2025 at 3:22 PM
b0rk.jvns.ca
TERM

wizardzines.com/comics/term/

(from The Secret Rules of the Terminal, out now! wizardzines.com/zines/terminal)
different terminal emulators use different escape codes terminal emulator 1: if you print out ESC[2J I’ll clear the screen! terminal emulator 2: for me it’s ESC[HESC[J! your system has a database called “terminfo” with escape codes in it how if plays out when you press Ctrl+L to clear the screen: program, with a little heart over it, thinking: ah, she wants fo clear the screen! I’ll look up how to do that in the terminfo database… (on my machine, the database is in /usr/share/terminfo) program: ESC[HESC[J terminal emulator, thinking: ok, clearing the screen! how programs know what terminal you’re using: TERM your terminal emulator sets the TERM environment variable when it starts fun fact: terminal emulators often say they’re “xterm-256color” even if they’re not this can break when SSHing into an old system with a new terminal emulator (in a VERY annoying way) happy little stick fiture: I am using ghostty program, with a little heart over it: NOPE never heard of it some ways to fix TERM install the terminfo file for your terminal emulator on the system use a different terminal emulator just set TERM=xterm-256color, it’ll often sort of work
October 14, 2025 at 3:08 PM
b0rk.jvns.ca
notes on switching to Helix from vim jvns.ca/blog/2025/10...
October 10, 2025 at 2:25 PM
b0rk.jvns.ca
watching this was such a fun way to learn a little about Ethernet
tracketpacer.com TracketPacer @tracketpacer.com · Oct 9
what happens if u cut 4 wires out of an ethernet cable & then plug it into yr PC
October 9, 2025 at 2:32 PM
b0rk.jvns.ca
redirects

wizardzines.com/comics/termi...

(from "The Secret Rules of the Terminal", out now! wizardzines.com/zines/termin...)
redirect to a file: cmd > file.txt terminal emulator into program, program out to file.txt, error out to terminal emulator append to a file: cmd >> file.txt terminal emulator into program, program out to file.txt (append mode), error out to terminal emulator send a file to stdin: cmd < file.txt file.txt into program, program out and err to terminal emulator redirect stderr to a file: cmd 2 > file.txt terminal emulator into program, program out to nowhere, err out to file.txt redirect stdout AND stderr: cmd > file.txt 2>&1 terminal emulator into program, out and err to file.txt pipe stdout: cmd1 | cmd2 terminal emulator into program 1, 1 out to program 2 via pipe, 2 out to command line, program 2 out 1 and 2 to terminal emulator pipe stdout AND stderr: cmd1 2>&1 | cmd2 terminal emulator into program 1, 1 and 2 out to program 2 via pipe, program 2 out 1 and 2 to terminal emulator three gotchas cmd file.txt > file.txt will delete the contents of file.txt some people use set -o noclobber (in bash/zsh) to avoid this but I just have “never read from redirect to the same file” seared into my memory. sudo echo blah > /root/file.txt doesn’t write to /root/file.txt as root. Instead, do: echo blah | sudo tee /root/file.txt or sudo sh -c 'echo blah > /root/file.txt' cmd 2>&1 > file.txt doesn’t write both stdout and stderr to file.txt. Instead, do: cmd > file.txt 2>&1 cat vs < I almost always prefer to do: cat file.txt | cmd instead of cmd < file.txt it works fine & it feels better to me using cat can be slower if if’s a GIANT file though &> and &| some shells support &> and &| to redirect/pipe both stdout and stderr (also some shells use |& instead of &|)
October 7, 2025 at 3:03 PM
b0rk.jvns.ca
meet the terminal emulator wizardzines.com/comics/meet-...

(from The Secret Rules of the Terminal, out now! (wizardzines.com/zines/termin...)
your terminal emulator has two main jobs turn your actions (typing & clicking) into bytes and send them receive bytes and display them visually Illustration of a terminal emulator, with a winking cursor face, and a program, represented by a box with a smiley face. The program has a heart above it, and there are arrows going back and forth between them labelled “bytes” a little bit of history it’s called an “emulator” because in the 80s a “terminal” was a separate machine from the computer Illustration of a bulky old monitor, with a keyboard attached with a spiral cord, and a wire running to a panl of buttons and displays, labelld “mainframe”. There are arrows going back and forth between them labelled “bytes” We still use the same 80s protocol! what are these “bytes”? the bytes are either: text (like cat blah.txt) escape codes (for example to tell the terminal what colour to display the text in) control characters example Ctrl+C is the byte 3) it’s in charge of copy and paste your terminal emulator lets you select text and copy/paste it (usually with Ctrl+Shift+C (Linux) or Cmd+C (Mac)) (copy & paste tips on page 18!) it manages colours and fonts! some terminal emulators come with a big theme library of different colourschemes! if yours doesn’t, this site has colourschemes for many terminal emulators: iterm2colorschemes.com fun fact: how Ctrl-X gets translated to bytes Ctrl-A => 1 Ctrl-B => 2 ... Ctrl-Z => 26 Ctrl is the only modifier key I trust in the terminal, all of the others can work differently depending on the situation
September 29, 2025 at 3:03 PM
b0rk.jvns.ca
stty

wizardzines.com/comics/stty/

(from The Secret Rules of the Terminal, out now! wizardzines.com/zines/termin...)
your TTY driver has configuration you can see how it’s configured by running: stty -a for example it print out the current window size! Ctrl+S by default, pressing Ctrl+S wi(( freeze your terminal (and Ctrl+Q wi(( unfreeze) I have never wanted this in my life, you can turn it off with stty -ixon (fish turns it off by default) ###fun fact: changing Ctrl+C technically you can use stty to set a different keyboard shortcut for Ctrl+C, (ike “u” stty intr u this is extremely chaotic and I can’t imagine a reason that I would ever do this though programs have to configure the TTY driver to get friendly features developer: I want arrow keys to work in my program! other person: better tell the TTY driver to turn off canonical mode! (more on the next page) the TTY driver’s settings are called “termios settings” for the gnarly details: man termios but if you’re writing a terminal program libraries like readline or ncurses will handle setting up the TTY driver panel 6 smiling stick figure with short curly hair: I’ve only needed to use stty once in the last 20 years and I mostly don’t understand its output but I think it’s a fun view into terminal internals!
September 24, 2025 at 3:21 PM
b0rk.jvns.ca
added a cheat sheet to the official Git website

(with a lot of help from other folks who work on the website)

git-scm.com/cheat-sheet
Git Cheat Sheet
git-scm.com
September 16, 2025 at 6:28 PM
b0rk.jvns.ca
TERM

wizardzines.com/comics/term/

(from "The Secret Rules of the Terminal", out now! wizardzines.com/zines/termin...)
different terminal emulators use different escape codes terminal emulator 1: if you print out ESC[2J I’ll clear the screen! terminal emulator 2: for me it’s ESC[HESC[J! your system has a database called “terminfo” with escape codes in it how if plays out when you press Ctrl+L to clear the screen: program, with a little heart over it, thinking: ah, she wants fo clear the screen! I’ll look up how to do that in the terminfo database… (on my machine, the database is in /usr/share/terminfo) program: ESC[HESC[J terminal emulator, thinking: ok, clearing the screen! how programs know what terminal you’re using: TERM your terminal emulator sets the TERM environment variable when it starts fun fact: terminal emulators often say they’re “xterm-256color” even if they’re not this can break when SSHing into an old system with a new terminal emulator (in a VERY annoying way) happy little stick fiture: I am using ghostty program, with a little heart over it: NOPE never heard of it some ways to fix TERM install the terminfo file for your terminal emulator on the system use a different terminal emulator just set TERM=xterm-256color, it’ll often sort of work
September 15, 2025 at 3:06 PM