Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Protocol and Gemini Space Are Not a Niche; for Techrights, Gemini Means Half a Million Page Requests a Month

Techrights on gemini://

Summary: Techrights on gemini:// has become very big and we'll soon regenerate all the pages (about 37,500 of them) to improve clarity, consistency, and general integrity

THOSE who follow our work over Git will know that we're actively improving page conversions. Images, for example, are being transformed into texts that describe what's in those images. Some time soon we'll upload new versions of all the pages.



The above suggests we may be the biggest Gemini capsule among almost 1,700 known ones (new screenshot is taken from Lupa's pages, and those are based on a spider which limits page traversal to a maximum of 10,000). We keep growing in terms of scale and traffic with about half a million page requests over gemini:// projected for the month of October. We didn't anticipate a growth so fast.

As an aside, we'll soon turn 15. It all started as "boycottnovell" in the winter of 2006 when I was finishing my Ph.D. and had some spare time to muck about online, writing about all sorts of technology issues whilst posting in mailing lists, USENET (lots of that at the time!), and getting involved in a number of Free software projects, way before "Social [Control] Media" was a 'thing'.

The domain "boycottnovell" is very clearly self-limiting (but we keep it to avoid links breaking or what's sometimes known as 'Web rot'/'Internet rot'); we succeeded at "boycott[ing] novell" (this was the original goal) and in 2010 Novell was dead (sold), scuttled to pieces and relegated into an ashtray of history, so in early 2010 we moved to "techrights" -- basically the same site and similar goals with a broader, all-in-one/over-encompassing name. The choice of name was Tracy's (the webhost at the time). As per the records, our 15th anniversary is on the 7th of November:




Domain Name: boycottnovell.com Registry Domain ID: 661408793_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN Registrar WHOIS Server: WHOIS.ENOM.COM Registrar URL: WWW.ENOM.COM Updated Date: 2021-10-18T05:01:26.00Z Creation Date: 2006-11-07T14:21:00.00Z Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2023-11-07T14:21:12.00Z Registrar: ENOM, INC. Registrar IANA ID: 48 Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited Domain Status: renewPeriod https://www.icann.org/epp#renewPeriod Registrant Name: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY Registrant Organization: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY Registrant Street: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY Registrant Street: Registrant City: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY Registrant State/Province: GB Registrant Postal Code: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY Registrant Country: GB Registrant Phone: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY Registrant Phone Ext: Registrant Fax: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY Registrant Email: https://tieredaccess.com/contact/119ef4c8-9c57-483a-ad5a-8c58d0aa12dc Admin Name: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY Admin Organization: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY Admin Street: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY Admin Street: Admin City: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY Admin State/Province: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY Admin Postal Code: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY Admin Country: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY Admin Phone: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY Admin Phone Ext: Admin Fax: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY Admin Email: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY Tech Name: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY Tech Organization: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY Tech Street: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY Tech Street: Tech City: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY Tech State/Province: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY Tech Postal Code: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY Tech Country: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY Tech Phone: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY Tech Phone Ext: Tech Fax: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY Tech Email: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY Name Server: NS5.CATALYST2.NET Name Server: NS6.CATALYST2.NET



As indicated above, days ago I renewed this domain's registration for another 2 years (it's not cheap; it's about 50 euros) because we expect to grow and thrive for years to come. COVID-19 and lock-downs have had almost no impact on us. In Gemini it's not simple to have two domain names (or subdomains) linking to the same capsule because of TLS, but in theory we could also have gemini.boycottnovell.com (though boycottnovell.com predates Gemini by over a decade).

We don't plan anything special for the anniversary; instead we'll try to stay productive as we soon exceed 32,000 blog posts in total.

Recent Techrights' Posts

End of the Smartphone Era? No.
Maybe the media should focus on producing accurate, factual news
Slopwatch: Sites Gone Rogue, Google Promoting Lies, and DDoS Attacks by Plagiarism Giants
Charlatans and frauds engage in a war against artistic industries, mislabeling plagiarism as "AI"
Latest Is Not Greatest: The Case of "Foldable" Tech
don't be shamed into abandoning old things just because the "fashion industry" of Apple and Samsung tells you to
Gemini Links 21/08/2025: The Attraction of Back Alleys, Initramfs, and BSD ISPs
Links for the day
 
The "End Software Patents" Initiative of the FSF Explains "WHY [to] ABOLISH SOFTWARE PATENTS"
We hope to cover patent-related issues more and more as the big anniversary of the FSF approaches
This Saturday It's Gonna be 3.5 Years Since Russia Invaded Ukraine. No Microsoft Protests Against Microsoft Having Provided Russia With Services.
Companies do not have consistent policies and enforcement of "corporate values" is somewhat of an egg salad
Freenode Sniffing
The grown-ups left the building
The Only Thing Worse Than Misinformation is Misinformation Sold to Everyone as "Intelligence"
Misplaced trust is worse than none at all
The Register MS Now Openly Admits LLM Hype Does Damage, But It's Also Being Paid to Participate in the LLM Hype (With Paid 'Articles' and 'Webcasts' for Paying Advertisers)
The Register MS gets paid to do this
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 21, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, August 21, 2025
Enshittification of Airports, Airlines, and Airplanes
If people are willing to tolerate standard declines and enshittification (nowadays sold as "pivot to AI" or "replaced by AI" or "AI layoffs") they will pay for it some other way
Airlines and Their Tricks That Only Work in the 'Digital Age'
People sceptical of the direction technology has taken are not "Luddites"
Open Source Initiative (OSI), Which Became a Propaganda Front of Microsoft and "Hey Hi" (Hype, Misnomer), Wants You to Forget These Scandals
A lot of these issues won't be set aside until there's a resolution
The Culture of Overnight Coding
An industry-wise push-back is needed
Windows Down to New Lows in Guinea Bissau and Many Countries Around It
If Android is accounted for, Windows is down to about 10%
Gemini Links 21/08/2025: Modern Dating, Debian 13, and Apache
Links for the day
Microsoft Has Had About 10 Waves of Mass Layoffs So Far This Year (Not Two as Mainstream Media and Slopfarms Endlessly Claim)
Notice how the MSM (Mainstream Media) never mentions the debt of Microsoft. It is a conscious, deliberate decision.
Links 21/08/2025: Covid Cases on the Rise, "Social Media Trolls", Russia's Attacks Intensify
Links for the day
Links 21/08/2025: Stephanie Shirley Dies and "Groklaw Domain Hijacked?"
Links for the day
Search in 2025 (Age of DDoS Attacks Under the Guise of "AI" "Innovation")
One common concern when things go "live" is that any random bot out there can execute queries, pumping up RAM and CPU usage, as happened when we used MediaWiki and WordPress
Using Slop for Images Does Not Make Your Site Look Advanced or Witty, It Just Makes Your Whole Work Look Like Presumed Plagiarism
Lazy slobs and Serial Sloppers use the guise/excuse of "AI" to plagiarise and spam the Web
Financing of the "Hey Hi" (AI) Bubble by Those Who Profit From Planetary Destruction (Global Warming)
It's about personal gain, too
Richard Stallman Will Speak in Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress
it's good to see that the FSF pays considerable respect to it founder, who is moreover invited to speak at events
(At Least) Second Wave of Mass Layoffs in Microsoft This Month
This is not the first time this month that Microsoft has mass layoffs
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 20, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 20, 2025
IBM Operatives Inside The Register MS and More Shady Money to Follow
The Register MS bites every banknote it can sink its teeth into
On the Internet, Nobody Knows Microsoft and Windows Are Becoming Niche Players Until Data is Shown Correctly, Not Microsoft-Sponsored Articles in Microsoft Publishers
Microsoft controls a lot of publishers and thus it controls information
Slopwatch: Serial Sloppers and Slopfarms in Google News (e.g. Linux Journal and WebProNews)
Google plays an active role (if not deliberately then through utter neglect and carelessness) in plagiarism
Links 20/08/2025: Mass Surveillance Framed as "Artificial Intelligence" (All Old Things Reworded to Misframe Old Computer Issues), Europe Resists Capitulation to US(SR)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 20/08/2025: Trips and Permacomputing
Links for the day
Links 20/08/2025: Oracle Layoffs in India, "AI" Scammers/Profiteers Admit It's a "Bubble", Softbank-Saudi (Oil) Control Tech Companies
Links for the day
Social Control Networks Give You False Metrics to 'Addict' You To Them
Leaving social control media may seem hard, but the same is true for any other addiction
A Lot of What Happened in Twitter Was Bots, Botfarms, and Troll Farms. It's Even Worse Now (Under X.com) and People Are Noticing.
Last month we said the same was happening in YouTube
Microsoft May Have Become - at Least Partially - Like a Boiler Room Scam
Giving imaginary salaries using imaginary tokens based on imaginary value (with restrictions on conversion to cash)
In Vietnam, Microsoft's Search Engine "Market Share" Fell to Almost 0%, CocCoc More Than 5 Times Bigger
Why are people still investing in this company?
All That's Left of MSNBC (Microsoft-NBC) is Microsoft NOW
When plutocrats and large corporations (even deep in debt) buy all the communication channels
The Register MS, Paid to Promote "AI" Hype, Does "Sez" (Says) Pieces
every bubble-funded "news" site tries to make it a story about "AI"
Many Companies Are Run by Liars Who Ride Other People's Money
Or steal it
Before CoreAI There Was Builder.ai
GitHub isn't about "AI" (just a bunch of lies and storytelling for shareholders' patience)
Microsoft Windows in Croatia at New Lows
We've been keeping track of this trend for a while
Using the Best Tool/s for the Job: RSS Feeds and RSS Readers
Use RSS feeds. Reject those "modern" Web things
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 19, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 19, 2025
Gemini Links 20/08/2025: Neovim, XML, and Alhena 5.2.9
Links for the day