From the Editor’s Desk

Jason Ellis

Jason Ellis

RandomStringOfWords.com

a space for sharing ideas, reflections, and the occasional strong opinion. If you're here, you're probably curious about something I've built, said, or am working on. Either way, I'm glad you found your way here.

More about the editor

The Front Page

Most Recent Blog Posts

What are AI Notes?

Some posts on this site carry AI Notes — short, sourced annotations that add factual context to specific claims in the article.

How to use them

Open a post and look for this button near the top of the article:

Toggle it on and phrases throughout the article light up. Each one gets a numbered note underneath its paragraph with the relevant fact, a verdict, and a link to where it came from. Not every post has them.

Keeping Jason honest. The notes aren't a victory lap. They confirm a claim when it holds up, supply the date or number the article skipped, and say plainly when something needs more context than it got. A note that disagrees with the post stays in.

They are generated entirely by AI — not written, curated, fact-checked, or endorsed by me, and they don't necessarily reflect my views. The article stands exactly as written. Treat them as an automated starting point, not gospel: every note links to a source so you can check it yourself. Spot an error? The comments are open.

Knowledge: When to use semicolon.

Society

Knowledge: When to use semicolon.

The semicolon is a simple piece of punctuation, much easier to work with than the comma because it follows fairly clear rules.  If you learn the two simple rules explained here, you'll rarely go wrong.  It has two main uses, which are both easy to identify....

I hate commercial airplanes

Aviation

I hate commercial airplanes

I used to think I hated traveling in general, but the more I ponder it the more I realize that I like to travel. ... I just don't like to fly commercial....

Cryptic Studios

Games

Cryptic Studios

Shooting themselves in the foot? Mmm maybe.. I'm an avid MMO player and ever since Cryptic first announced City of Heroes back in 2002 I...

Warhammer and Warhammer Online

Games

Warhammer and Warhammer Online

I play Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy table top games. I also used to play the Warhammer fantasy role playing game when I was in...

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Media

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is LEGEN-DARY! (er.. sorry.. wrong show).. Joss Whedon put together this little internet mini-series during the writers strike and its really...

City of Heroes and Ubuntu

Games

City of Heroes and Ubuntu

I have been playing the hell out of City of Heroes over the last month or two. I have enjoyed it but will be happy...

In Brief

IBM and Agile Programming

Software

IBM and Agile Programming

So I have been pretty busy of late. Work has been on endless "crunch" period which promises to continue in this vein for the time...

I can play the radio...

Hobbies

I can play the radio...

... and that's about it. When I was in middle and high school I was in band and played everything from the trombone to the...

Web based games

Games

Web based games

So I find I have been playing quite a few web based games of late. And just about all of them has brought to the...

Javascript Obfuscation

Software

Javascript Obfuscation

Code obfuscators will strip out the unnecessary characters like white space, tabs, newlines and comments.. but that's not all.

Which format to use; Gif, Jpeg, Png

Software

Which format to use; Gif, Jpeg, Png

I was asked today what my professional opinion was with regards to which graphical format to use in web design. I pondered it a bit...

OH dear god.. EW!

Society

OH dear god.. EW!

I go on a lot of walks here in my neighborhood in order to unwind for the day.  I also like to delude myself and...

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