Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 27/07/2023: Communal Fragmentation, Launching Gaming Sites/Companies in Gemini

Links 27/07/2023:

Links for the day

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal/Opinions

      • Red Sun (Fairbanks, AK, USA, 2023-07-27)

        I read yesterday in the News-Miner that 30 new forest-fires had started recently in Alaska, due to lightning. This morning, there was enough haze that I was able to look directly at the sun without any pain or discomfort. So, I took a few photos on the way to work.

    • Politics and World Events

      • Real Everyday Activism

        I encounter many people who _think_ they are doing the right thing, because it makes them feel good. They tell acquaintances to boycott Kevin Spacey after "cancelling" him because someone said something on Twitter. They yell at the old Asian guy for packing their fancy take-out in styrofoam (after paying with Venmo or Apple Pay). They buy a Tesla because it's "green". They get angry about the Supreme Court for undermining gay rights, even the 'right' to support a fascist business!

        [...]

        Avoid giving money to fascists and megacorporations.

        Maybe it's convenient to venmo money to a friend or pay with paypal, but you are directly supporting a fascist billionaire. Surely you don't want to do that.

        Housing costs are through the roof because of AirBNB. You don't have to extract every bit of value out of your apartment, like some horrible capitalist you like to criticize. And you don't have to make them richer by staying at such places. There are alternatives.

        "Ride sharing". That misapproprioated term means sharing rides with friends and neighbors, not extracting money with demand-priced algrothims to maximize profit.

        Don't drive. Buying an electric car and making Elon Stench another billion is not green. That "man" is responsible for more pollution and suffering by miners than anyone else I can think of. Put your money where your very large mouth is and get a used bike, the kind without a motor. Or walk. Move somewhere where you can live without a car, or as my LGBT friends like to say, "Just shut the fuck up, it's not for you to talk about this".

        Avoid ultra-capitalist startups that raise millions to extract every bit of profit from anything standing. You can live without some app that rents out your driveway while you are at work.

    • Science

      • National Ripoff

        The “numbers game” is type of illegal lottery that was common in the United States, and there are two interesting things about it.



        [...]

        The first interesting thing is the problem: if the whole thing is illegal, how do you generate a random number that everyone can trust, and without it being an obvious event for law enforcement to target?

        It turns out to be not that hard: the games used some well known published random number: the last digits of the balance of the US Treasury, or middle digits of the number of shares traded on a public stock exchange.

        So, everyone could easily agree on whether some individual had won—and in a way that was obviously fair.
    • Technology and Free Software

      • Just kinda here

        I’m at a conference this week, and honestly I’m just kinda here. I don’t have a lot to do and I’m uncomfortable in this environment, but I’ve reconnected with some friends I haven’t seen for a long time. I’m practicing my Byzantine music at actual church services, and it’s about 110℉ (about 43.33℃ for my eurofriends).

      • Thumby goodness

        I was given a Thumby for Christmas. It's a ridiculously small gameboy-style console. It's so small that it's hard to believe it works. It's also hard to use because you have to press buttons with your thumbnails. There are pre-loaded games, more available on line, and a web-based IDE for writing your own in Python. I've started on a mine game based on one that I vaguely remember playing long ago as a coin-op. So far I can scroll around the mine (taking no notice of walls, floors, etc). It seems pretty straightforward to deal with the Thumby API. My issues have been with figuring how to implement the game concept and my lack of Python experience.

      • Internet/Gemini

        • Communal Fragmentation

          It feels to me that the Internet is fragmenting at a surprising pace. Twitter, now rebranding to X, is losing more users by the day, as is the traditional Facebook site. Alternatives, at least nominal alternatives, are gaining more and more users: Threads, Bluesky, the invasion of Mastodon, Substack, Rumble, the list is endless. While many alternate services are still owned by major Internet companies, the individual users of separate platforms don't communicate with each other. The result is still a splintering of the global marketplace of ideas. More and more people, beyond simply not wanting to talk to each other, now simply have no opportunity to talk to each other.

          I fond this so interesting because it reflects how the world largely was before the rise of mass information in the 19th and 20th centuries. Before the telegraph, the radio, the television and the computer, people did not get news from very far away. They tended to stay within their own communities, becoming deeply and intimately familiar with those they communicated with every day. Conversely, they strongly distrusted and looked down on outsiders, preferring dissociation or even persecution.

        • Launching soon!

          My game dev company will probably one of the first to have a Gemini site. (Launching soon!)

        • Favorite Interweb Tools

          What are some of you guys' favorite tools for general computer use?

          F.lux is great for me, along with ventoy for my USB drives.

      • Programming

        • Permissions Mirror

          Someone asked how to mirror the permissions and ownership from one file to another, so here's a provisional script to do that. The question concerned OpenBSD so extended ACL and other such fancy things (such as selinux making your life hell) are not considered.


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

They Don't Tell Us that 'Digitalisation' (Now Sold as "Hey Hi") Just Means Customers Become Unpaid Staff and Are Made Accountable
People are being conditioned to associate technology with something undesirable, at times even unbearable
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Has Layoffs and Microsoft Gaming/Entertainment Division Has an Uncertain Future
it's good to see all those horrible things crashing and burning
 
Gemini Links 22/07/2025: Thinkpad and Pinephone
Links for the day
Links 22/07/2025: "Blog Restart" and Microsoft Clobbered by “ToolShell"
Links for the day
Global Warming and Global GAFAM Energy-Wasting
Burn more money (borrowed, loans), then hope the waste will somehow translate into profit?
No Compliance With the European Patent Convention (EPC) at the European Patent Office (EPO)
It's about preventing competition against this autocracy
Blue-Collar Trolls vs White-Collar Trolls
Examples of white-collar trolls
Apple Vision Pro Failed So Badly That Its Sales Are About 2,000 Times Smaller Than iPhone Sales
What's left for Apple to offer other than hype?
To Millions of People "Year of the Linux Desktop" Was Some Time in the 1990s (Bootable GNU/Linux as a Complete Operating System is Over 33 in Age)
In some sense, "year of the Linux desktop" was 33 years ago
Make No Assumptions (or Demands) About the Screen Resolution Used by Other People
There are usability aspects, aside from accessibility aspects
Why Wayland (and XWayland) Won't Solve the Key Problem It Proclaims to be Tackling (the Same Is True for Rust)
The problem isn't Wayland per se but the false promises and efforts to force everybody to move to it whilst insulting or demonising everyone who won't play along
Diplomatic Immunity Should Not Exist for Anybody
The EPO in its current form gradually 'normalises' the end of European democracy
Brett Wilson LLP Stopped Sending Me Papers When I Showed It had Sent Me Over 5 Kilograms of Legal Papers
A week ago we lodged our third lawsuit
Microsoft Mass Layoffs and Shutdowns Became the New Normal at Microsoft
Microsoft mass layoffs became a topic of everyday media coverage since May
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 21, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 21, 2025
FSF "Raised Almost $139,000 During This Summer Campaign"
"Thank you for making a stand against dystopia!"
Gemini Links 22/07/2025: VPS Exploited and Fear of View
Links for the day
LLM Bots vs Techrights
Slows things down a bit
New Publication Sheds Lights on Abuse of Workers at the European Patent Office (EPO)
Put in simple terms, they're killing the Office, harming remaining staff, try to hire rubber-stampers
Links 21/07/2025: Hardware, Health, and Imperialism
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/07/2025: "When Buying Isn't Owning" and "CMS Special Edition"
Links for the day
Links 21/07/2025: Indie Web and Toxic Politics
Links for the day
[Meme] Microsoft Lawyers Throwing Stones in Glass Houses
threatened me with bankruptcy
Google "AI Overview" is Not AI and Not Overview
do not be misled; what Google does isn't smart, it's just ripping off the sites it already crawled for as long as 27 years
Making the Case to Dump Microsoft and GAFAM for National and Digital Sovereignty
"Sovereignty is difficult"
The Tactics of the Opposition (Microsoft Lunduke): Associate With K00ks, Throw in Vaccines to Muddy the Water
Who stands to gain from this?
Europe's Second-Largest Institution (EPO) and Largest Patent Monopoly Office Needs More Transparency, Not Less Transparency
In the EPO, what good are elections when one candidate literally bribes all the voters?
How Not to Report News About Microsoft
This pattern of misreporting is so widespread that it's hard to believe it's not intentional
Computer Science is Under Attack, They Want Everyone to be a Consumer
If people can no longer acquire Computer Science education and real Computer Science experience, they will not know how to control their own digital destiny or emancipate the very same universities that now control the syllabus and instead of teaching Computer Science encourage the outsourcing of systems
The Best Tools Are the Simplest Tools
There's a hidden message here about the merits of sticking with X
Ofcom Online Safety Group Speaks of Protecting Women Online, Will Brett Wilson LLP Ever Listen?
They've essentially became like the Taliban's "burka police"
Social Control Media Relies on Advertisers, So It'll Always Be Hostile Towards Free Software
Sales, sales, sales
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 20, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 20, 2025
Fragmentation of Data
Life is too short to "hoard" data
In Defence of "Spinning Rust"
Just because something is "old" (or older) doesn't mean it ought to become extinct
Using Free Software to Prepare Legal Documents
LibreOffice is openly complaining about OOXML as an obstacle
Tech and Technology Are Not the Same Anymore
"Are you into tech, Sir?"
Our Articles About SLAPPs Receive Recognition and Interest
This week we shall continue writing about the 3 lawsuits we filed
Are You Served?
For many people, advocacy of Free software and GPL enforcement are assumed to be happening
Conspiracy or grooming? Alex Jurado, Voice of Reason compared to Outreachy
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 20/07/2025: Security Breaches and Former 'Open' 'AI' Engineer on Hype and Culture Issues
Links for the day
Links 20/07/2025: Fending Off BRICS and US Government Attacks Its Own Media (Like China and Russia)
Links for the day
Framed by social control media: Alex Belfield, Voice of Reason
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 20/07/2025: Summertime and OCC25 Wrap-up
Links for the day
Jamie Zawinski Complained About Wayland, Then Decided to Give It a Go, Now Complains Again About Wayland
Ask IBM (Red Hat) why it's worth throwing so much away just for Wayland fanaticism
Slopwatch: Planet Ubuntu, LinuxSecurity, and More
former "Linux" blogs which basically became slopfarms
Russia Set to Ban Facebook?
If WhatsApp is made to "leave", that means Facebook or "Meta".
Links 20/07/2025: More GAFAM Lawsuits, Layoffs, and SLAPPs
Links for the day
Taking Stock of a Good and Productive Week
We shall now be taking a break, unpacking the new hard drive (8 TB), and making backups of everything
Nice Recovery (From Actual Fire) by PCLinuxOS, New Version of PCLinuxOS Released, Now Top of DistoWatch
PCLinuxOS is a community-driven distro
More Microsoft Shutdowns That Mostly Slipped Under the Radar
Remember what happened to books 'sold' by Microsoft?
Microsoft Lunduke Still Fighting Cancel Culture With... Cancel Culture
There will be no "winners" in such 'debates'
The History of Daily Links and Politics
"I support Wayland, but I also support abortion..."
Ageism in Tech
Your protocol is "old"...
Microsoft is at 0% "Market Share" in Most Areas
Depending on the taxonomy chosen, there may be dozens of categories other than desktops and laptops
"The moment MSFT stock fails to start tumbling, that’s the beginning of another corporate giant going under."
There are far more layoffs at Microsoft than at Intel, but you would not get this impression based on Wall Street media
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 19, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 19, 2025