Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 10/06/2023: Wordle for Gemini



  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal/Opinions

      • 🔤SpellBinding: AGHNRUY Wordo: ???
      • Making/Meeting

        Last year I managed to download my entire LiveJournal archives. My last post there was over a decade ago, and for at least five years my posting had slowed to every few months (at best), but all in all I wrote there for eleven years. Kind of incredible. Everything I said, and others, dumped to text and XML. Hard to read, so often I explore by means of grepping a name, or a phrase.

        In addition to this, I've got an almost-complete archive of my old HTML journal, the handwritten kind, gathered in pieces from the Wayback across three or four of my old sites whose robots.txt allowed crawling.

        [...]

        But then there are the handful of places that did stick, or click, or however you want to look at it. For me those include dialup BBSs, online journals, the forum for fucked up teens when I was 18 (and whew, that last one's complicated). But also: the people of the poetry community on Twitter, something good in the sludge of that site. Then, geminispace.

      • writing as a writer

        Think of stuff. Write it down. If blogging, hit "Publish", too.

        Do this with no time compartmentalization nor boundaries (either time-wise or word-wise) every day. Seven days a week, most weeks. Birthdays/Xmas: optional (for me, the holidays themselves are optional, and now the writing part, too, but...)

        This is how I see writing.

      • Saturday afternoon at the MP

        On my way home from running some errands I decide to take a detour via The Midnight Pub. Its hot, there is no need to hurry. I scan the messages on the board. Uh, ~jack has been "redacted". Hmmm. Digital suicide? I wonder. And there is some mention of plausible looking word frequencies. Sigh. "Is there still some place without the new shiny technology ..." I ask myself.

    • Technology and Free Software

      • gsettings command

        One of the things I find annoying about Ubuntu Desktop defaults is that when I open a new application it opens in the upper left corner. I then drag it to the center screen and start working. It's amazing how a small inconvenience can grind on you over time. When I've search the net for changing this behavior the usual suggestions are "install gnome-tweaks". This seems ham-handed. I think continue searching and eventually find the command below. So I am making a note of the command here in my blog so I can find it latter.

      • Excel Scottish Land Tax calculator

        Me and my partner are in the process of buying our first house. In Scotland, property transactions are subject to Land Tax[1]. Land Tax is calculated based on the property price and is based on tiers. The first 145k is free, then 145-250k is subject to 2% tax, 250-325k is 5% and so on. For first time buyers the tax free amount is raised to 175k.

      • Internet/Gemini

        • Wordle for Gemini published

          First, pardon my english but I want to get the word out. Since I saw winter's comments about how NYT was transforming Wordle's experience into a crappy one, I remembered I still have in this capsule my own clone that works over Gemini and it is simple enough to have anyone put it on their own. Mine works with a spanish word dictionary, but you can have it generate the database with *any* word list. It will take care of the client certificates to keep a way of a session and track if you've already solved or not the current word and pick a new one when 16 minutes have passed.

        • How Online Ads Work

          Gemini tries to avoid the worst of the web, and for most people ads and tracking are high on that list.

          But, there is a lot about how ads work that is not common knowledge.

          You almost certainly know what online ads look like; you may even have clicked on them from time to time—possibly by mistake. You might have considered what information is flying around in the cloud to support those ads. You’re less likely, I think, to have considered how much money changed hands, and between whom.

      • Programming


* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.



Recent Techrights' Posts

Walmart Vizio TVs Scream At Immigrants to Leave America
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
How Corporations Such as Microsoft Try to Crush Critics and Dissolve Activism
Stay focused
Wikipedia Can Lower Its Hosting Bill by Going More Static, Not Just by Caching, But It Would Not Solve Its Biggest Problems (Bribes and AstroTurfing)
For about 15 years we had a Wiki in this site
Urgent Need for SLAPP Litigation Transparency
Microsofters really want to shut us up
On Shutdowns and 2,000 More Layoffs at Microsoft (10,000 Microsoft Staff May Have Already Been Laid Off in 2025)
Microsoft tries to hide and belittle mass layoffs; its data centre business also flounders, so it issues puff pieces about some anniversary over and over again
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Privacy Fiasco in Detail: A "Deep Dive" Into the Complaint at the California Privacy Protection Agency
There are many facets to it and it may be the first complaint of several
Microsoft Problems in Europe Even Before the Cheeto Tariffs
The case of Romania, Europe's notorious Microsoft fan
Oman in 2025: GNU/Linux Growing to 5%
what can Microsoft do about it except sabotage the PCs?
Microsoft Shares Collapse Again (Down $101), Fifth Round of Microsoft Mass Layoffs in Less Than 100 Days in 2025
disaster
 
Links 08/04/2025: Microsoft Shrinking, Oracle's Clown Computing Cracked
Links for the day
Stolen Credit Card and LinkedIn. DHS Spies on Immigrant Social Media.
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
At 50, Microsoft Has Over 100 Billion Dollars in Debt and Less Than 25% "Market Share" (Windows)
statCounter basically sees less than a quarter of Web requests coming from Windows
linuxhint.com Died 12 Months Ago (After Adopting Image Slop)
Zombie sites
LLM Slop Will Eventually Stop Due to High Costs, Worse Training Sets (Polluted Models Ingesting Their Own Junk), and No Real Returns
This too shall pass
Courage is Contagious
I became a witness to acts of great courage from EPO examiners
Gemini Links 08/04/2025: Gabbro 0.1.4 and Disillusioned With Social Control Media
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows in Jordan: From 99% Down to 10%
This is becoming more "normal"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, April 07, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, April 07, 2025
Gemini Links 07/04/2025: Stock Market, Galène, and DMT Entities
Links for the day
During the Weekend We Said Fedora DEI Requires Proprietary Software, Now the Chat About It Is No Longer Accessible Over the Open Web
is this just a coincidence and an habitual change in Element?
Links 07/04/2025: US Measles Fatalities and China Launches HDMI and DisplayPort Alternative
Links for the day
Links 07/04/2025: More Cuts to Science Funding, Snail-speed Internet in Germany
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/04/2025: Leasehold and Safe Gifts
Links for the day
In Some Countries, Laptops and Desktops Become a Dying Breed (Even Before Tariffs), Windows Has Nowhere to Go
expect more GNU/Linux on new and existing laptops
When the Credibility or 'Quality' of Clients Ceases to Matter, It's About Helping Rich Companies Like Microsoft Censor Critics (No Matter the Risks)
Bad ideas typically result in undesirable outcomes
UAE: GNU/Linux and Android at Record Levels, Windows at New Lows and Falling Below Apple
Even iOS is measured as bigger than Windows this month
Links 07/04/2025: Reddit Occupied (Social Control Media Controlled by Oligarchy), Demise of Globalisation Ongoing
Links for the day
Windows Has Fallen to All-Time Lows in Switzerland Since GNU Celebrated 40th Anniversary (GNU’s 40th Birthday in Biel, Switzerland)
GNU/Linux has been doing well in Switzerland
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, April 06, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, April 06, 2025
Links 07/04/2025: Leaving Gemini/smolweb and Mastodon Migrations
Links for the day
In Iraq, Windows 3.1 (Percent)
There's also zero
One Person's Take on Jef Spaleta, the New Fedora Project Leader
"With a little searching, I wonder what else may be found regarding Microsoft."
Links 06/04/2025: Flood, Cool Gemini Capsule, and Long Form
Links for the day
Links 06/04/2025: Science, Politics, and Pricier Goods
Links for the day
LLM Slop Has Virtually Killed unixmen.com and Many Other Sites
There's no longer any incentive to write real articles in there
Sharp Declines for Microsoft Windows in Bangladesh (Pop. ~175,000,000), Big Gains for GNU/Linux
Microsoft Windows has been having a really hard time in poor countries
Links 06/04/2025: Fake Reviews, Privatisation Heists, and "AI" as Smokescreen for Impoverishing Humans
Links for the day
Taking a Moral Stand Against Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) and the Worst Offenders/Facilitators
Any other stance would sidle with moral depravity or moral hazard
Links 06/04/2025: Many New Acts of Repression and Elements of Financial Depression
Links for the day
In Qatar GNU/Linux Rose From Under 1% to Over 4% in Two Years (or Over 5% If Counting ChromeOS)
It's a big improvement compared to what we saw last year
LLM Scrapers Are a Nuisance, But They're Also a Reminder It's Time to Make Your Site Static
Perhaps the best protection is the ability to endure surges
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 05, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, April 05, 2025
Links 06/04/2025: Attacks on Education, Fake Patents, and Fake (Illegal) Patent Courts
Links for the day
France: Apple and Microsoft Down, GNU/Linux Up to New Record Levels
How will tariffs against France impact things in the coming months?