Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 26/07/2023: On Writing Documentation and Twitter's Suicide



  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal/Opinions

      • 🔤SpellBinding: CDIPYUT Wordo: SWIFT
      • Is it just me?

        I'm often convinced most humans are incurably moronic.

        I mean, I know I'm likely being unreasonable by mapping actually witnessed/experienced behavior onto the masses. But certain idiocies just plain seem to happen incessantly. Here are a few coming mind that regularly have me rolling my eyes just before closing them and slapping my forehead whilst forcibly - and audibly - expelling breath:

        - There are two cars on a road. The one in front is driving over the speed limit. The other is less than a car length behind it repeatedly veering slightly into the other lane. They're both in a "passing zone". But the car in back stays there putting on their show of impatience as though what ought to happen is the car in front go as fast as the driver of car in back thinks they should - which of course is infinity miles/kilometers per hour.

      • EFFFBI Seizure of Mastodon Server is a Wakeup Call to Fediverse Users and Hosts to Protect their Users

        Last May, Mastodon server Kolektiva.social was compromised when one of the server’s admins had their home raided by the FBI for unrelated charges. All of their electronics, including a backup of the instance database, were seized.

        It’s a chillingly familiar story which should serve as a reminder for the hosts, users, and developers of decentralized platforms: if you care about privacy, you have to do the work to protect it. We have a chance to do better from the start in the fediverse, so let’s take it.

        A story where “all their electronics were seized” echoes many digital rights stories. EFF’s founding case over 30 years ago, Steve Jackson Games v. Secret Service, was in part a story about the overbroad seizures of equipment in the offices of Steve Jackson Games in Texas, based upon unfounded claims about illegal behavior in a 1990s version of a chat room. That seizure nearly drove the small games company out of business. It also spurred the newly-formed EFF into action. We won the case, but law enforcement's blunderbuss approach continues through today.

    • Art

      • Slow art

        I like to return to Kandinsky's observation in Point and Line to Plane that simple visual elements take short time to perceive, while complex elements take longer time. The point is instantaneous, as is the staccato note, appropriately written with a dot under or over the note head. A line takes some time to follow with the eye, longer the more wiggly it is.

        In fact, we are capable of taking in complex stimuli and making sense of them even in a brief glimpse, at least at a crude level. As you enter a museum, a few seconds of looking around might suffice to categorise works as painting or sculpture, assess their complexity, style, and probable epoch, and to decide whether it might be worth taking a closer look at the works. Similarly, a few tenths of a second of sound is often sufficient to identify a musical genre, sometimes even to recognise which song it is. The blasé visitor at a gallery show opening might inspect the room rapidly to find that there is nothing insteresting there, so better rush off to the next opening across the street. Certain art, minimalist works in particular, might not reaveal more about themselves the longer you stare at them, but some works of art benefit from sustained scrutiny.

    • Technology and Free Software

      • Later

        I've been using Pocket since it was called Read it Later.

        Pocket's origins are in the world of "Web 2.0" and RSS readers, a time before smartphones when blogs and RSS readers were the hot thing. It's been hugely useful to me over the years, so much so that I've published no less than three separate open source projects for managing Pocket collections via their API.

        But Pocket's limitations have become increasingly obvious over the years. Earlier this year I took another look at Zotero, an open source reference management tool, and realised with sudden clarity that not only could I use Zotero instead of Pocket, but that it was really much better suited to what I wanted from a "read it later" application. I told myself I'd stop saving things to Pocket and save them to Zotero instead using the browser plugins and mobile app. Eventually I'd read everything in my Pocket "saves" and switch.

      • Internet/Gemini

        • On Writing Documentation

          I'm in the process of adding manpage support to smolver, my Gemini server, and I've found the easiest way to do so is to simply refactor the main project README markdown file in such a way that when handed off to pandoc, the format looks like a typical manpage, no changes needed. This approach will save me from having to maintain separate documentation moving forward, and lets me kill two birds with one stone (both of which are on the project backlog): provide a manpage and cleanup the documentation (it was getting a bit unwieldy to read).

        • X gon give it to ya

          okay so Elon is definitely just running Twitter into the ground huh. okay

        • In the name of The Protocol, and The Space, and The Holy Content... Amen!

          It's fascinating to me that the Gemini *protocol* magickally - i.e. by way of enough people talking about it as though it were so - becomes Gemini as a place/space, complete with people talking about content being "in [or - sometimes - 'on'] Gemini". And once enough beings obsessed with the notions of right/wrong believe it's literally a place/space, it starts making sense to them to discuss what content should/shouldn't live therein. And from there it morphs even further into being a mindset/attitude, from which emerges a seeming morality.

          And (this is going to be intentionally hyperbolic for emphasis), since that's what a majority of people using the protocol seem to believe, it makes sense (per the right/wrong thingie) to them to consider those in compliance with that morality "good", and those who aren't "evil".


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims of says can be trusted
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
 
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Plagiarism, Fake Articles, and FUD About Linux
not a day goes by without Google News feeding FUD from slopfarms
Gemini Links 01/10/2025: Chat Control and End of Life
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: Long Covid Risk Reiterated, "Bitcoin Queen" Caught
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: EA $55 Billion Deal is Debt and Slop "Raises Vishing Risks"
Links for the day
Bluewashing at Red Hat Means Redundancies
The man who sold Red Hat to IBM meanwhile became a Microsoft Mono booster
After Killing OpenSource.com, IBM ('Red Hat') and OSI Told Us OpenSource.net Would Replace It (But That Didn't Happen)
Now it's time to move on, perhaps tarnishing the "Open Source" label some more (for whatever sponsor wants this)
Linux is Not a Community Project, It's a Wall Street Product
The core goal should be freedom
Bad Actors Abusing the Free Software Community, Vandalising It Using Rogue Politics and Old Tactics
Oil giants have long attempted to do this; now, the digital equivalent of Big Oil does this in technology
Social Control Media Isn't the Future, The Federation or Fediverse Isn't Growing, People's Accounts Vanish for Good
users' accounts will get deleted, not just become inactive
IBM is Failing, This Helps Show Wall Street is Entirely Detached From Actual Commercial Performance
IBM is unable to grow, it's just constantly shrinking
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Clerical Aspects of Publishing and Development
In Free software, the management aspects are considerably reduced
Slopwatch: Fake Articles and Google News Promoting "Linux" Spam or Bot-Generated Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
These slopfarms help misplace blame
Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in September, This Time Many in Liverpool Affected
Be ready for more waves of layoffs ahead of the so-called "results" in late October
Gemini Links 30/09/2025: Motorcycling in Central Oregon, Protocol Styles and the Flag of Sark
Links for the day
Links 30/09/2025: Death Sentences, Internet Censorship, and Internet Shutdowns
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/09/2025: Social Control Media and ROOPHLOCH
Links for the day
Richard Stallman About to Give More Talks in Europe, Some Confirmed Already
In Göteborg
Links 30/09/2025: CERN in "Have I Been Pwned" and More Windows TCO Blunders
Links for the day
Microsoft Canonical is Selling Mass Surveillance and Back Doors as "Security for Ubuntu"
If you are looking for a GNU/Linux distro to use, just remember that Microsoft has Ubuntu in the bag
Justice for Wildlife
animals cannot speak to humans who hate animals
Cowboys Gonna Be Cowboys (on the Internet, They're Not a New Problem)
Boys will be boys
Cowboys of the "Left" and Cowboys of the "Right"
Don't believe the lie that this is some "leftist" thing
When Codes of Conduct Serve to Protect Criminals From Much-Deserved Scrutiny
CoCs are typically unfit for purpose because enforcement lacks context and suitable understanding of the full background (the "full story")
It Took the Open Source Initiative (OSI) 4+ Years to Address the 'Data Breach' or Data Protection Violation Reported to the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) in March 2025
We may never know the dialogue or its nature
Even Microsoft's Biggest Boosters (and Media Operatives) Are Turning Against Microsoft
Expect many more layoffs before the fake "results" next month
GNU Was Right 42+ Years Ago
Since then the abusive, user-hostile technology has spread like mushrooms
Old Isn't Always Inadequate
How many gadgets manufactured today (in 2025) will still work in 2075?
The Monkey Business of Rust People
Compatibility won't matter
Almost Half of the FSFE's Money (the Fake 'FSF', Misusing the Brand) Comes From Vodafone
That money always comes with strings, even if they're invisible to most of us
Microsoft Lunduke Spreads Deliberate Lies to Incite Online Mobs
Has he lost his reading comprehension skills?
Our 19th Birthday (in Just Over 5 Weeks From Now)
We meanwhile have ongoing, solid plans to cover patent-related issues when the FSF turns 40
British GNU/Linux Distro FydeOS Tops DistroWatch
That seems like a decent site and decent effort to keep an eye on
We'll Soon Have 75,000 GemText Pages
avoid many perils of today's Web
Google Used Free Software to Build a Monopoly. Now Google Kicks Free Software to the Curb
The "G" in "Google" does not stand for GNU. It never did. It's just another greedy company.
Gemini Links 30/09/2025: Retro Hardware, Federated Fragmentation, and Nex Server Written in C
Links for the day
4 More Days Till "4 decades, 4 freedoms, 4 all users"
We are now just 4 days away from the rare anniversary
Two Months After Merging to Hide GitHub Losses Microsoft is Doing It Again (This Time Windows)
Merging those two together is not a sign of strength but a tightening of budget
Speculations About the Next Large Wave of IBM/Red Hat Layoffs
the mass layoffs are likely to happen on week 3 or 4 in October
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 29, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, September 29, 2025