Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 24/07/2023: Checking out FreeBSD 13.2-RELEASE and X.com is Stupid



  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal/Opinions

      • 🔤SpellBinding: CHULRSI Wordo: PLYER
      • the image of an adult woman

        Over the years, I thought I'd be finally free from this teenage mindset to appear as mature as possible - like an adult, like a hyper organized successful person, who cares about the right things and discards the others, who never indulges in childish things and always knows what to say etc. - but I realize recently that it only changed its face, its expression, the overall goals, but at its core it remained and stayed the same! No matter the specifics, at its core was always the idea of becoming a type (or even trope) of desirable adult woman that was currently hyped in the view of society, someone who ticks all the boxes regarding her interest and hobbies and style, who is working, who is 'girlbossing', glamorous, eating a certain way etc etc.

      • Harvesting onions



        This is half of the crop: 43 onions (one isn't visible). I planted some sets out in April, on a whim (I wasn't planning to grow any this year), then felt bad for the left-over sets and planted those too, a month later. Successional planting isn't actually a very good idea with onions, and that second planting is looking a bit weedy compared to this one, but I'll make the best of it.

        When onions are ready to harvest, the green tops start to fall over; once around half of the crop has done that, you bend over the neck of the remaining ones, pull them, and set them out in a dry, airy place to start drying out. These onions are bred for storage - if they're harvested in optimum conditions and "cured" correctly, they might last for a whole year after harvest - at which point the new crop of onions will be ready. Plant enough of them each year, and you'll never have to buy an onion again.

    • Politics and World Events

      • Limping back to the center of the cyclone

        If Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Donald Trump represent above-average human beings, Vivek Ramaswamy and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. are the insanely intelligent aliens us dumb-asses have been struggling to find. That ilk is *already among us*!

        Too bad stupidity can't see above its grade, huh?

        BTW, if you're unfamiliar with Scott Adams' daily YouTube show (he's a cartoonist cancelled by throngs of murmuring half-brained morons who believed the out-of-context script-ure fed them by their fundamentalist high-priests/high-priestesses (high-priestLesses? high-priestGesses? high-priestBesses? high-priestTesses? high-priestQesses? high-priest+esses?)), do make haste, as it was particularly fun today (and of course the past shows are retained).

      • A Haiku

        Stick head up own ass.

        ### Will it soon emerge, from mouth?

        ### Silently, waiting...

      • Sunset Gets Political II - Dark Days

        I normally avoid talking about politics outside of areas I feel like I have a strong enough understanding, and I usually don't feel comfortable expressing strong opinions on day-to-day politics. I'm uncomfortable with the political system in general and with both major US parties, and I'm ashamed of some of my past bad takes. I'm also really bad at expressing a lot of this kind of thing.

      • Getting Over Getting Dumped

        I get dumped more often than I'd like to admit. Well, I guess I'm admitting it right now to the tens of people reading this, but still. I just got dumped out of nowhere, again, so I went through my usual processes of getting over it and I figured I'd share what I do with all y'all for some fucking reason.

      • Emma Flint: "why the Barbie movie’s body diversity message shortchanges Ken"
    • Technology and Free Software

      • Checking out FreeBSD 13.2-RELEASE

        There are several differences compared to Linux. For example in the development process: unlike GNU/Linux, where the kernel, the userland tools and everything else is made by different projects, FreeBSD is a complete operating system. Everything (kernel, userland tools, some servers and documentation) is developed and maintained by the FreeBSD team.

        While the Linux kernel and most of the userland tools are licensed under the "copyleft" GNU GPL, the FreeBSD system is licensed under the "permissive" BSD license. As a result Apple could base main parts of it's MacOS on FreeBSD and make it proprietary software. I leave it to the reader if this is a good thing or not.

      • Internet/Gemini

        • I'm in love with Gem, and I feel fine

          I'm envious, but just don't have the time to go beyond a large list at this point in time.

        • Heads up: don't read this if you're a Gemini Content Idealist, because I guarantee it will disappoint - if not horrify - you

          I find the "MAGA wing" as detestably ignorant as the let's-repurpose-the-alphabet-to-describe-mostly-made-up-genders wing.

          But I'll likely be voting with the former because the latter thinks they know me and my character by way of my age ("old"), skin color ("white"), and gender ("male"). And what they "know" of me - not merely suspect, but know with certainty! - through that ridiculously moronic categorization is I'm "privileged", a "supremacist", and spent all my life plotting to ruin life for all who aren't an "old white male".

          Can you see why I might vote against that - if not occasionally want to seek refuge in a "small town"? ;-)

        • The LLM's Aren't Looking Here Yet

          When I ask Google Bard to access specific websites, it usually has no trouble finding the information I'm looking for. This can be helpful if I'm looking for answers in a large body of documentation - instead of combing the docs for an answer to an obscure question, I can ask Bard where I need to look and save a lot of trouble.

        • X is stupid

          I make no secret of my disdain for Elon Musk (nor indeed for any m/billionaire). The man is certifiable and incredibly immature, which combined with his immense wealth and incurious nature makes for a pretty dangerous person. I guess we're lucky he seems to be focusing all his efforts on destroying the brand of his new expensive toy. It could be worse.

          When I was a kid, I used to play a Sega Genesis game called "Road Rash" a lot. I loved that game. The motorbikes, the violence, the incredible soundtrack. It had it all. One thing I remember really liking was the character names. Names like "Axle" and "Teflon Mike" just sounded so cool to my 8 year old ears, to the point that I started trying to create similarly cool names for stories I wrote. My sister mocked me relentlessly, but she just didn't get it.

          I get the feeling that Elon feels the same way about "X" as I did about those character names. A overwhelming sense of childish "that's cool!" that everyone else thinks is foolish.

        • ChatGPT4 spam will help the internet because companies will have to trade growth for trust
        • GPT4 Spam Not Gonna Help

          Yeah, right. First, IDs?? This doesn't sacrifice anything besides privacy, and probably only makes things more centralized, since users won't trust anyone but a few reputable Big Guys with their government ID.

          Second, subscriptions. Well, that just decreases accessibility and makes social networks private clubs for rich people. Also, centrally reliant on credit card companies.

          Third, invite-only signups. This one has less problems, and definitely "sacrific[es] growth for trust". But do we want to be in closed-off invite-only silos? Wouldn't this scenario make federation pretty tricky? Most importantly, I doubt big growth-oriented companies will choose this option if they can avoid it. More likely, they'll go the centralized and privacy invading route of government ID verification.


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

The Register Bill
The Register MS - putting the "MS" in your centre of the universe
Analogies for "Memory Safety" in Rust
Don't worry, it's Rust! It can do anything!
 
Microsoft Sites Now Talking About September's Mass Layoffs at Microsoft
It's noteworthy that even Microsoft's MSN now covers the latest revelations about mass layoffs
Gemini Links 06/09/2025: SpellBinding Moving and "The Cloud" Ridiculed
Links for the day
Slopwatch: On "the Apology Industry", Chatbots (Punchbag for Customers), and Fake Articles About "Linux"
"news reporting priorities changed"
Links 06/09/2025: "Covid Incidence on the Rise" and Many Attacks on the Press Worldwide
Links for the day
Nobody Denies That SecureBoot Will Cause Problems After September 11
Not even Microsoft
Gemini Links 06/09/2025: Infinite Scrolling and Posting from Emacs
Links for the day
Links 06/09/2025: GitHub Meltdown Over Slop, "U.S. Jury Says Google Should Pay $425 Million in Privacy Lawsuit"
Links for the day
Despite Its Severe Financial Problems Gnome Foundation Inc Paid Rosanna Yuen Over 100,000 Dollars Last Year
maybe relocation should be considered
The "Left" and the Right"
It poisons everything
Mozilla and Rust Are Not Leftists
they're part of the mass consumerism machine
Disposable to Microsoft
There is an extensive set of people who got used by Microsoft, only to be thrown away a month later or a year later or a decade later
The UEFI 9/11 - Part VII - This Coming Week Many PCs Will Refuse to Boot "Linux" (Because of Microsoft's Expired Certificate)
The real solution is, disable "secure boot" or "SecureBoot" while it's still possible. [...] Just like submarine patents, a lot of this problem was "hibernating" for a while
The Thing Nobody in Red Hat Wants to Talk About Openly
There is a real sentiment or worry among Red Hatters, Europeans and Americans in particulars (because of higher salary expectations)
Slopwatch: Small Parade of Fake News About "Linux" and Scams Borrowing the Name (or Word) "Linux"
In practice, LLMs are a risk
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 05, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, September 05, 2025
Genini Links 05/09/2025: Community, ROOPHLOCH, and PITkit
Links for the day
Links 05/09/2025: Vaccine Sceptics Poison the Well, Two Exploited Vulnerabilities Patched in Android
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/09/2025: Logitech Lift and DIY Gemini Servers
Links for the day
Links 05/09/2025: Sainsbury's Caught Spying on In-Store Shoppers and Microsoft "OpenAI is Using Legal Threats to Harass its Critics"
Links for the day
BASIC Predates Microsoft by Over a Decade, Microsoft-Controlled Sites Like The Register MS Don't Want You to Know This
The state of the media is really bad when it relies a lot on oligarchs' money and is appointing editors who are working for oligarchs
Brian Kernighan, "Only Third to Dennis Richie and Ken Thompson" (UNIX), Agreed With Someone Who Said Rust Was Just Hype, Should Not Replace C
17 hours ago
Reminder: Microsoft's "Secure Boot" Certificate for "Linux" Will be Expired in One Week
Many PCs won't manage to 'rotate' to another certificate
"Many of the Red Hat Employees Are Still Looking for Work"
Shame on IBM's CEO
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 04, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, September 04, 2025
Microsoft Started With Code Literally From The Trash, Nothing Has Improved Since
The reality is, there are systems and code that are reliable. But they're not Microsoft's.
Hypothesis That New McKinsey/Microsoft Executive Inside Red Hat Will Outsource Research and Development Operations to India (Like They Do in IBM)
IBM is floundering
Slopwatch: Scams, Fake Articles About "Linux", Plagiarism, and Worse
Perhaps some time soon the LLMs or the "Big LLMs" will run out of money (to borrow) and go offline, leaving those slopfarms in a tough place
Gemini Links 04/09/2025: Means of Production and Rusting Out
Links for the day
Links 04/09/2025: Science, Hardware, and Eyes on China
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/09/2025: Digital Minimalism and Social Control Media
Links for the day
IBM's GNU/Linux Divestment, Based on Hard But Anecdotal Evidence (IBM Fails to Recognise How Much Money It Made and Can Still Make From "Linux")
Love us or hate us, a lot of what we've been saying about Red Hat under IBM turns out to be rather accurate
Links 04/09/2025: Massive Microsoft Staff Cuts (Barely Reported), "Strange Conspiracy Theory Is Reportedly Spreading Inside OpenAI"
Links for the day
Activists Can Win, But Keep an Eye on the Ball and on the Trophy
GitHub is dying, it was a loss-making trap, not free hosting
Gemini Links 04/09/2025: Katrina Remembered, Distracted Driving, and Virtual Economics
Links for the day
At This Point It's No Longer Matthew Garrett But People Who Fund Matthew Garrett (or Companies That Fund His SLAPPs Against My Wife and I)
The only thing worse than misogynists are misogynists who fail to respect other people's right to go on holiday
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, September 03, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, September 03, 2025
The UEFI 9/11 - Part VI - This Serious Harm Was Planned for Over a Decade, Not an Accident or Merely Some Misfortune
The term "Serious Harm" is legally meaningful here
GNOME Unfit for Diversity and Inclusion
GNOME's leadership is using "bad words"
Brodie Robertson Addressing the Recently-Discovered Comments
Most people probably knew nothing about this until he wrote a response
Red Hat QA Team "Had Shrunk by Half Over the Past Year." (After IBM Divestment)
If Red Hat's workforce is being moved to the East, then RHEL can become a national security problem
Slopwatch: "Open Source" and "Linux" News Faked, Made by Bots and Entered Into Google News
Spam combined with slop about "Linux" has entered Google News