Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 14/07/2023: Retro and Comebacks



  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal/Opinions

      • Are my Eidolons Merging?

        I failed the universe's tenuous strands that hold its gauze together two days ago when I did not write about the dream I had which featured not Lucía herself, but a physical search for where she might be. I used to have tangible address books and there were essential to me. They were sacred. Tangible address books! Ones one could actually touch! Imagine that! And one of these tangible address books still exists and it is in a box in the closet in my bedroom in Seminole. When I was last there in March, I did not peruse it. Next time I shall.

      • New arrival: First post

        There's more coming, but I expect to fill this gemlog with musings on food, society, culture, technology, and the intersection of all the above.

      • Secure Your Corner

        Unforseen 99999 IQ mass brain fuckery will occur soon and the only thing slowing it potentially down is the friction of society.

        AI isn't going to steal anything, people with energy & access will.

      • "vampire boys" (2011)

        so if you watch horror on tubitv you're probably aware of this movie. it's just 70 minutes, it's a vampire movie, it's gay, it's TV-MA, i gave it a shot this week.

        so. if you don't know me, hi, i'm sol, i like women and vampires. i watch and write about lesbian vampire movies (mostly 70s sexploitation) as a hobby.

      • summer, at pace

        feeling persimmon-swelter-anxious. i'm on break. i'm putting it out there:

        day-month list:

        - watch two movies, three movies, two shows - dawn-walk

      • UAF Botanical Garden Photos

        I took these photos over a week ago (July 4th) but I haven't had time to rename or label them. Rather than wait for that, I'll just dump them here as they are. I might come back and label them later. These were taken with the S5300 — no post-processing.

    • Politics and World Events

      • Food systems and the myth of individual responsibility

        I used to be in IT, so I think a lot about systems. Modern life is full of systems. The size, depth, breadth and interconnectedness of them is so vast, but also somewhat obscured from the end-user. Not just technical ones, although those are probably the ones that most immediately come to mind for most people here. Beyond the systems and algorithms involved in serving content on the web, there's logistics systems that get packages and products where they need to go. Our food environment is one such system; from farm to manufacturer to retailer, although that is a gross oversimplification. The scale of these systems cannot be understated, and it is only growing.

      • It was never about clothes

        I began crossdressing around the age of 10. That may sound scary to some people but there was something there that drew me to it inside myself.

    • Science

      • A Proof that 0.999...=1

        This inequality implies that the value of 1-x is non-negative but less than the inverse of any positive integer. 0 is the only number to have this property: any possible nonzero value of 1-x could be written as 1/r for some real r, but by choosing n such that r<10^n, the inequality would fail to hold. Thus 1-x must be 0, and x must be 1. Thus 1 is the smallest number no less than 0.(9)_n for all n; extending this indefinitely, 0.999...=1.

    • Technology and Free Software

      • NoteTaking Navelgazing

        Time for another mojito while navel gazing. /sip

        I've been thinking about my reading and keeping organized about it. It is less of a big deal with fiction where either I finish or drop it quickly. Then mark it accordingly on storygraph (https://app.thestorygraph.com/).

        But when I'm reading non-fiction, and I am reading more of it lately, its less of a one and done situation. I want to take notes, and then at a later date be able to add on further/linking discoveries, but where?

        [...]

        Digitally I suppose I can just use a website and make a webgarden kind of thing. Maybe on Neocities. While I like Storygraph in terms of keeping track of what I complete, I find keeping track of where I am/progress in it obnoxious.

      • Day 5

        Today I've mostly been catching up on the OCC blogs and IRC chat. Basically a relaxed day as the rain hammers down outside. I should be doing some programming, maybe improving my scripts for Mastodon, but I haven't been in the right mindset/mood.

      • Day 4

        Today I got to see more family I haven't seen for a while, including my cousin and her children. Also stumbled across a swarm of burnett moths amongst the lavendar.

        Being away, I haven't done much computing yet. I've caught up on Mastodon notifications for my .social account via the scripts (I haven't got my TopSpicy.social account set up with them yet) though.

        [...]

        Trying to connect to the #OldComputerChallenge IRC channel for the first time since my preparatory period and it just seems to be hanging for some reason? Not sure why.

      • Note for anyone using Oracle Cloud with Ubuntu - check your IPv6 addresses!

        It turns out that Oracle Cloud has recently introduced a bug that has broken IPv6 assignments for servers running Ubuntu. Any IPv6 assignments you've made in the management console will still be visible in the console, but won't actually apply to your server after a reboot.

        [...]

        While investigating this I tried to use the gemini web proxy proxy.vulpes.one, which I had used in the past, only to find that it now redirects to some sort of German cannabis retailer. If you've linked to that site from anywhere previously, you might want to go back and edit those links!

      • asking for advice about computers

        what are good computers? even the regular brands. i don't know much about specs and stuff (im happy to listen to someone explain), and though this forum tends to the smaller-scale indie retro aesthetic stuff it is also the most nerdy (endearing) place i know. thank you thank you thank you.

      • Fix Vivaldi Graphical Corruption after Linux Update

        I updated openSUSE today. And, after launching the Vivaldi web browser, there was clear graphical corruption within the Vivaldi window immediately after launch.

        This issue can also be triggered by a Vivaldi update. I originally experienced this issue a month ago when I updated Vivaldi on a different system.

        The problem appears to be an underlying graphics upgrade which invalidates Vivaldi's graphics cache.

      • re: christyotwisty's 5 questions for July, 2023

        Here are my July answers to christyotwisty's 5 monthly questions. Thank you for doing these, christyotwisty! You give me m0ar to write about aside from the usual computer geek stuff, even if my answers are dumb. ;)

      • OLD COMPUTER CHALLENGE: DAY ]|[

        LAB: 10:12 AM 76F/51% CONSUME: Parsing recent mastodon enteries in home timeline. CONSUME: Reading #oldcomputerchallenge entries in mastodon (toot) GOPHER: matto is also using eeepc. Follow: ENABLED!

      • OLD COMPUTER CHALLENGE: DAY IV

        IRC: #opencomputerchallenge on libera.chat has much activity @1840UTC

        Discussions of eeepc, gemlog, wifi on trains, rivella (beverage), occ hardware woes, firmware upgrades, etc.

      • Old Computer Challenge 2023 - Day Five

        Of all machines I have used with the ratpoison window manager, this one has the most simple setup.

        My plan for this edition of the Challenge was to do as much as possible with Emacs. Before the challenge I was already using Emacs for email, use-net, RSS-feeds and following mailing lists, as well as browse the Gemini- and Gopher space.

        I knew that the big browsers like Firefox were not going to work, so expected to use eww, the web browser in Emacs.

        A couple of weeks before the Challenges, I played a bit with "rde", which is a Linux distribution based on Guix, focused at developers and power user. It is developed by the brilliant Andrew Tropin.

      • Internet/Gemini

        • can i "afford" simplicity?

          I find myself occasionally smitten with the very tiny, very minimalist sites on the web. Websites found at the 1MB club, the well known "best motherfucking websites" out there, websites like starbreaker.org.

          It always makes me think: shouldn't I be doing this too? Is there any way I can implement that on my existing sites? What would I lose and what would I gain?

          [...]

          The thing holding me back is the implications such a design has for me as a person compared to others. Others who may use such a minimalist, lightweight and focused design are different from me. They may be male, they may be older, they may have a portfolio full of amazing tech stuff they have built. They are cut-to-the-chase people, they may not be artistically creative but they are seen as very logical and good at tech things. I get the impression that when they do it, they have enough of their work, their personality and other markers such as gender or age working to ensure others are seeing it as the deliberate choice that it is, and not lack of skill.

        • comeback

          With the end of August, i plan a comeback to Geminispace.

        • First thoughts on Gemini

          Okay, it's weird publishing here and not getting that instant feedback dopamine hit you'd get elsewhere. I know that's by design, and it's part of the reason I signed up, but it's still weird to actually experience. Everything here is slower and more deliberate. I have a feeling it'll be good in the long term, just takes some getting used to.

      • Programming

        • Wikipedia haste

          I threw these couple scripts together to quickly satisfy wondering what Wikipedia has per specified search/query terms.

        • Fake RNG for fake games

          There are antiquity that feature bros at dice; Achilles always beats Ajax. There are storytelling reasons for this; Achilles is the best, so therefore cannot lose, except when the plot demands it. A continent over Shakuni used dice that always rolled the desired number. More examples can doubtless be had.

          Computer games sometimes feature not exactly random numbers that favor storytelling or skill over cold hard statistics; the rolls are fudged to be more in line with what a human expects, which is that a skill that activates 33 percent of the time will roughly follow the pattern of hit miss miss. A 95% skill that misses twice in a row? Fuggedaboutit!


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

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Turkey (Eurasia) is another example of Microsoft failing with LLM hype and just burning a lot of energy in vain (investment without returns)
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Follow-up stories
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It remains sad and ironic that Wikileaks outsourced so much of its official communications to Twitter (now X)
The World Wide Web Has Been Rotting for Years (Quality, Accuracy, and Depth Consistently Decreasing)
In the past people said that the Web had both "good" and "bad" and that the good outweighed the bad
Comoros: Windows Plunges to Record Low of About 6% in Country of a Million People (in 2010 Windows Was 100%)
Many of these people earn a few dollars a day; they don't care for Microsoft's "Hey Hi PC" hype
The Mail (MX) Server Survey for July 2024 Shows Microsoft Collapsing to Only 689 Servers or 0.17% of the Whole (It Used to be About 25%)
Microsoft became so insignificant and the most astounding thing is how the media deliberate ignores it or refuses to cover it
Windows Down From 98.5% to 22.9% in Hungary
Android is up because more people buy smaller mobile devices than laptops
Microsoft Windows in Algeria: From 100% to Less Than 15%
Notice that not too long ago Windows was measured at 100%. Now? Not even 15%.
 
Joel Espy Klecker & Debian on Joe Biden's health and Donald Trump's assassination
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
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IRC logs for Wednesday, July 17, 2024
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Microsoft- and Apple-sponsored Western (or English-speaking) media chooses to ignore that or treat it as irrelevant (a racist disposition in its own right)
[Meme] The Warlord's Catspaw
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Let's Encrypt has just fallen again
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Gemini Links 17/07/2024: Proponents of Censorship and New Arrivals at Gemini
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Links 17/07/2024: School Budget Meltdown and Modern Cars as Tracking Nightmares
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This Should Certainly be Illegal, But the Person Who Helped Microsoft Do This is Still Attacking the Critics of It
perhaps time for an "I told you so post"
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(so your telling me meme)
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many devices never get updated or even communicate with the Net, so exhaustive tallies are infeasible
[Meme] Microsoft is Firing
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Over at Tux Machines...
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[Meme] Ein Factory
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Links 17/07/2024: Open Source Initiative Lies and Dark Net Thoughts
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Media Distorting Truth to Promote Ignorance
online media is rapidly collapsing
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Let's Encrypt is somewhat of a dying breed where the misguided CA model is shunned
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Links 16/07/2024: TikTok Ban in Europe and Yandex Split
Links for the day
Gemini Links 16/07/2024: On Packrafting and on Trump Shot
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[Meme] Firefox Users Who Think They Know Better Than Mozilla
Enjoy Firebook
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Mozilla has managed to alienate some of the biggest fans of Firefox
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Microsoft's ability to milk a relatively rich Europe is fast diminishing
How to Make Software Suck and Discriminate Against People at the Same Time
ageism glorified
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The sharp fall of Bing may mean that exiting the Russian market won't matter to anybody
[Meme] Microsoft Seems to be Failing to Comply With WARN Act (by Refusing to Announce Mass Layoffs as They Happen)
since when does Microsoft obey the law anyway?
Microsoft Layoffs Are Still Too Frequent to Keep Abreast of and Properly (or Exhaustively) Classify
The "HR" department knows what's happening, but whistleblowers from there are rare
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Links 16/07/2024: Salesforce Layoffs and Microsoft's DMARC Fail
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Antenna Abuse and Gemini Abuse (Self-hosting Perils)
Perhaps all this junk is a sign of Gemini growing up
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In Africa in general Microsoft lost control
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[Meme] The Red Bait (Embrace... Extinguish)
They set centos on fire, then offer a (de facto) proprietary substitute for a fee
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It was published only hours ago
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Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
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IRC logs for Monday, July 15, 2024
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Links 16/07/2024: Old Computer Challenge and One Page Dungeon Contest
Links for the day