Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 27/07/2023: Old Computer Challenge and Dumping Twitter



  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal/Opinions

      • A couple more hours of sleep would be really nice

        Seems like I'm back to awakening after just five hours of sleep. I mean, it's sorta maybe kinda enough. But yawn....

        It occurred to me a little while ago that it takes (someone like) a Biden to be okay with (someone like) a Biden.

        Okay, I'll be fair:

        It occurred to me a little while ago that it takes (someone like) a Trump to be okay with (someone like) a Trump.

      • 🔤SpellBinding: AEKLMRW Wordo: PODIA
      • Unicorn MediaWhy Kolektiva.social Is a Cautionary Tale for Activists Using Mastodon

        The recent news that a copy of Kolektiva.social’s database was confiscated by the FBI as the result of a raid at the home of one of the organization’s administrators, should serve as a cautionary tale for activists taking advantage of Mastodon’s federated nature to form online communities. Specifically, you should should do some research into the security in place at an activist-focused server, as well as the servers privacy policies.

        Actually, the same advice would hold even if you were joining a server for, say, people who like knitting, but if you’re a political activist it’s even more important because law enforcement loves to keep tabs on folks whose politics fall outside the mainstream.

    • Politics and World Events

      • The Philosophy of the Act

        Only the first word of the Cartesian philosophy is true; it was not really possible for Descartes to say cogito **ergo sum,** but only **cogito**. The first (and last) thing that I perceive is my own act of spirit, myself perceiving. The spirit, which is life woken into self-consciousness, discovered its likeness to itself, or identity, through the act of thinking about thinking. All further perception is only an explication of this idea, which **is the** idea **par excellence.** I know that I think, that I am spiritually active, or, – since there is no other kind of activity – that I am active, but I do not know that I am. Not being, but the act, is the first and last.

        If we go on to an explication of this act, we find it to be threefold: the thinking, the thought-about, and the identity of these two, the “I.” “I think” means: the “I” places itself (or sets itself) before itself as another, but passes through this reflection back to itself, in the same way that the discovery of one’s own life in a mirror is something that comes from the outside. It perceives that the image in the mirror is its own.

      • “Black comrades” against the Japanese occupation

        In the second half of the 19th century, small Korea, and formerly a frequent target of aggressive campaigns of neighboring China and Japan, became one of the main goals of Japanese colonial expansion. The Japanese power that gained strength saw Korea as its potential possession. Preparations for the colonization of Korea, however, faced certain problems, among which were the attempts of the Korean people to defend their independence, and the positions of China and the Russian Empire. However, after the Russo-Japanese War 1904–1905, Japan still managed to establish a protectorate over Korea. 22 August 1910 Korea was finally annexed to Japan and passed under the control of the Japanese governor-general.

        Of course, such a situation could not please the advanced part of Korean society. Moreover, in the Japanese Empire, all non-Japanese people were treated as second-rate people, and Koreans were no exception. However, since Japan was nevertheless more developed not only militarily and economically, but also culturally, a country, revolutionary ideas popular in Japan began to spread in Korea. So anarchism penetrated Korean land — an ideology that at some point became dominant in the East Asian revolutionary movement.

    • Technology and Free Software

      • Getting started with a megadungeon

        Yesterday I was trying to explain my anxieties regarding Arden Vul to my wife. This is about the megadungeon with a PDF of more than 1122 pages. It's long. The levels are long. The rooms are long. The intro is long. The explanations are long.

      • Nobody ever said complicating simple things would be easy

        I'm one of the lucky ones whose computer came with something called a "lid". I've discovered that when I cause it to become facing-ly parallel to the keyboard, I don't have have to concern myself with the stuff you mention at all. It's really quite miraculous.

      • Old Computer Challenge Epiphlogue

        The Old Computer Challenge has concluded. I enjoyed taking on the challenge, as well as reading about everybody's experiences in various protocols out there, gopher, gemini, irc, hypertext transfer, etc. When I first read about the challenge, I told myself that I needed to particpiate this year. I enjoy when the "smolnet" communities call for participating in shared experiences like occ, or ROOPLOCH, or christyotwisty's monthly 5 questions, and we are able to come together as community and have fun![1][2][3]

        There are many things I have learned, not just from my direct involvement with my old hardware and software, but also from you people in the community. I have been keeping notes and still continue to take notes of what you all share.

      • ERC with soju: update

        A couple of months ago i wrote about setting up soju on OpenBSD (it was pretty straightforward) and trying to get Emacs' ERC working with it (shenanigans were required)...

      • Thumby app released 🎮😸

        I still haven't finished the mine game that I mentioned, but I have released a music editor, TinyTunes. It's currently the first thing listed on the Thumby Arcade, but I think that just means it's the most recent.

      • Internet/Gemini

        • Fighting Social Internet Burn Out

          Slowly over the past year I've noticed I've not been getting the same enjoyment out of places like Mastodon that I used to.

          There's a lot of goings on that might explain this, but I suspect the main culprit is myself and my changing tastes over time.

          Over the past year I've migrated Mastodon servers. I've made heavier use of filters to block politics, activism, and outrage porn. I've become quicker to block and mute people who I'm not interested in interacting with. All these things have been a help but not a cure.

        • Sometimes the Decision Gets Made for You

          Sometimes, a decision gets made by the restriction of the possible options to a single plausible choice.

          I'm done with Twitter. Locked my account, cleared my info, posted a message to the effect of the following: I won't use a platform that doesn't take CSE seriously, where the posting of such doesn't earn you a ban and a report to the Feds.

          Left as subtext: maybe all of you can justify it to yourself, but I can't. And maybe you didn't know about it before, but if you see this, you'll know about it now.


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

Gemini Links 26/05/2026: A Year of Composting, Fedora Bricks Itself and Infuriates Users With Slop and Wayland (Not What Users Want, What IBM Wants), Crawlers on Geminispace a Nuisance
Links for the day
 
SLAPP Censorship - Part 89 Out of 200: SRA Admits Malfunction, That's Why Transparency is Paramount
There have been more efforts than we can to count or can enumerate (probably over 100 such efforts) to gag us and to prevent us writing about what has happened
Our Free Software Activist in Connecticut (USA)
We'll soon revisit the latest round of legislation on "age" (surveillance, ID)
Links 27/05/2026: Living Without 'Smartphoones' and "Russia’s Biggest Attack on Ukraine in 18 Months"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/05/2026: The USA as an "Experiment" and Some Ubuntu Manuals
Links for the day
[Video] Full Video of Richard Stallman's Talk in Rome
It seems inevitable that the official GNU site will have it
Slop is a Passing Fad, It's About Faking Productivity (Plagiarism, Misinformation, and False Positives)
Slop is a bubble. Some people accept it later than others.
Anderon - Like Kyndryl - Could be Far Deeper in Debt Than Its Alleged Worth (Vapourware)
Time will tell, but it seems like a Federal-enabled (by the Federal Government) accounting scam, nothing more, nothing less
The Media That Keeps Covering "AI" Because the Pushers of It Pay for Spam
23 times in the page they mention "AI"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, May 26, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, May 26, 2026
Codecs and Software Patents - Part XI - The Stance of RMS (Dr. Stallman) Reassured GNU Regarding AV1
cautioned against software patents since the early 90s if not earlier
Google: We Are Locking You Out of Your Account (Since 15+ Years Ago) Because You Don't Have a Spyphone We Remotely Control
Google (GAFAM) is an evil company deep in debt
Red Hat: Bluewashing by IBM, Followed by RAs (Layoffs)
We could use some hints or evidence related to this
Links 26/05/2026: "Making the Digital Physical"; "The Medical System Abandons Women When They Are Most Vulnerable"
Links for the day
While US Government Greenlights (or Bluelights) Bailouts for IBM Some Foreign Governments Blacklist It
"Albany leadership doesn’t know what they are doing but are damn good at pretending they do."
Good Thing When Home Appliances Are Ancient Antiques
dealing with the alarm has cost only time
The Bloating of the Web Contributes to Global Warming and Causes Burnout (Slowdown, Hardware Erosion, Waste)
This problem isn't limited to weather sites or subsites
IBM Bailouts and the IBM People Inside the Administration
It seems possible/plausible that it is bailout money down the drain or that this money will never arrive at all
Links 26/05/2026: Lithium Batteries Causing Fires (Even on Planes), 'Timmy' the Whale Dies
Links for the day
Why It's Ludicrous to Call Us "Microsoft Haters"
Even if clustered together, news items still cover a broad spectrum (or spectra) of issues
Pursuing Facts in an Age of Lies and 'Hallucinations' (Falsehoods Without Anyone Accountable, They Try Calling Computer-Generated Lies or Forgeries "Intelligence").
Our aim is to relay information while bypassing gossip networks like social control media and slop in "search" clothing
Computer-Generated Legal Filings Get You Reported to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)
We'll write a lot more about this in the future
EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part XII - In the Second-Largest Institution in Europe One Can Take Paid 'Sick Leave' for Doing Cocaine, Then Come Back
Cocaine addicts in the management were bullying colleagues. They're still in charge.
Sites in Their Twenties
We currently run concurrently a handful of series and have a lot more in the backlog
SLAPP Censorship - Part 88 Out of 200: Brett Wilson LLP is Defaming Trans People in America Because Garrett Pays Hired Guns to Silence Them
Garrett is scoring many own goals this year
Sloppy "Resource Action," (RA) or IBM Layoff, Leads to Another IBM Lawsuit, Alleging IBM Tries to Pass Liability to Algorithms
IBM is meanwhile resorting to slop to gaslight its remaining shareholders
The Latest IBM Layoff Rumours
What has happened to the company that invented so much of modern computing?
Holy See Recognises the Threat of GAFAM and Slop
Will the Holy See move away from GAFAM?
The Old Ways of Computing Were Objectively Better
Not as fast, but certainly much better
Social Control Media is a Giant Waste of Time (and There Are No Future Remedies for This)
Social Control Media is considered unhealthy to young people, but it is also collectively unhealthy to nations and nation-building
Codecs and Software Patents - Part X - Florian Müller Still Muddying the Waters for FOSS, Using Software Patents
Some things never change...
Gemini Links 26/05/2026: Slop Bug Reports and Crawlers Considered Evil
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, May 25, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, May 25, 2026
Slop Causes Global Warming
in some parts of the world people die from overheat (heat strokes) as temperatures reach almost 50 degrees as early as May in the northern hemisphere
Vatican Speaks Out Against Slop, Promoting Instead "Truth, Dignity of Work, Social Justice, and Peace."
Religion (no matter which) does not oppose machines, but LLMs aren't useful machines
SLAPP Censorship - Part 87 Out of 200: Access to Justice
this part will be short
A Promise IBM/Red Hat Could Not Keep
"all about control, not so much optics."
Links 25/05/2026: Russia Lobbing Oreshnik Ballistic Missile Again, Slop Comes Under More Fire
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/05/2026: Injury in Gym and Abusive LLMs DDoSing Software Developers While Misusing Their Code
Links for the day
A 'Bank Holiday' When National Debt Doubles in a Decade
Maybe it's time to rename "Bank Holidays"
Links 25/05/2026: Lingering Environmental Concerns and Domain Registrars Targeted for Unmasking
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 24, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, May 24, 2026