Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 29/07/2023: Communications Secretaries and Godwin’s Law



  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal/Opinions

      • Random Fooding

        Blueberries that are accidentally mashed and put in a jar with some water will need stirring now and then to help oxygenate the mix. Also be sure to use blueberries right off the bush; these have a fine powder on them that is the natural yeast.

      • Communications Secretaries

        Suppose you had enough money to be ridiculous. Here's something great you could do:

        Hire a few full-time Communications Secretaries, to live and travel with you. They could work in shifts, so you'd have 24/hr coverage, and they wouldn't get worn out. Build quarters for them, so they could be comfortable and have privacy yet be close at hand; and, so their families could be near them, if they have families and want them nearby during work shifts. And pay them fantastically well, more than they could make at any sensical job.

      • 🔤SpellBinding: AHIKOWR Wordo: FOSSE
    • Politics and World Events

      • The Kids Online Safety Act S.1409

        Senator Richard Blumenthal introduced S.3663 last year, the Kids Online Safety Act, and re-introduced it as S.1409 this year. In the next couple days, it will get marked up in the senate, and continue on its merry way.

        The act is stupid, as most acts of congress are. The name of the act is a manipulation of elemental protective feelings--as most act names are. In reality, they could call this act and so many others, the Give Government Control of Your Life Act. Government doesn't care about children, or humans in general--the evidence of that truth is depressingly overwhelming.

      • A friend in jail

        A friend of mine recently started serving a six-year prison sentence. The full story is long, as they usually are, but in brief he accepted a plea deal related to some images that he had on his Google drive. He may have some chance of getting out in three years, if all goes well.

        I've been in touch with him through Securustech.net. It's $0.25 for a "digital stamp" to send him an emessage (plus another $0.25 to send him a return stamp so he can reply.) We've also chatted on the phone, also through Securus; I believe that was about $0.65 for 10 minutes.

        The charges are understandable, when you consider the fact that some employee has to read my email to search for... I'm not sure, something illegal I suppose. And, some employee has to listen in on our phone call as well. Time is money, after all.

      • the truth

        this bullshit ufo congressional hearing shit where the bullshit ufo "whistleblower" has described the conspiracy from the x files before congress has popped up in the middle of an x files rewatch and now im inspired to write about it. not about the bullshit hearing, which is just bullshit, and obvious bullshit, but about the x files and its complicated relationship with the "truth" underlying conspiracy theories. so here goes nothing. this is going to spoil how the show ends without, in my opinion, actually spoiling anything, so if you care about spoilers for a 30 year old series youve been warned, but again, for complicated reasons ill get into i dont think its *actually* a spoiler.

    • Technology and Free Software

      • 2023-07-28

        I have been enjoying the Old Computer Challenge phlog posts. I was thinking about participating with an old MDD G4 PowerMac but I pretty much realized that I'm more in love with the idea of the OCC rather than actually participating.

        To be more specific, I adore old operating systems and UIs and hyper-efficient software and command lines...but the hardware part? not so much.

        The fact that we all connect to SDF to use gopher and links and irssi is already a pretty fulfilling "retro" computing style for me.

        I feel like if I had some version of Unix with a useable version of SSH, then I would be 90% able to do everything I need on a daily basis with one very big exception...youtube.

      • Mac Classic Expansion Card

        I bought a Macintosh Classic sometime early pandemic for nostalgia. I got a terminal emulator loaded up and connected to a Raspberry Pi, so I use it for writing or browsing the small web.

        A few weeks ago, I started getting gray, horizontal lines on boot. I opened it up- and the mainboard on this thing is so strange. There's the main board with ports and what looks like a processor- then *another* board of similar size with another with a Motorola chip and RAM. The two boards are only mounted together by a socket that overlaps the processor, and very flimsy.

      • Internet/Gemini

        • Blog Log No. 277

          I just cannot keep this blog updated, can I? I write so much but never on here. I think sometimes this just turns into a journal and not a blog and that's a little too personal for my taste. Even though I don't know any of you. And, as always, you can't write back.

        • I am alive!

          Someone on the Fediverse asked me why I am talking about using Gopher while I am silent here on my Gopherhole. Yes, I haven't posted for a longer while. But it isn't mean that I stopped using Gopher. I am alive and I am browsing Gophersphere daily. I for sure was reading [Old Computer Challenge Gopher Hole]. But this Phlog is intended for my Gopher research, and I haven't had anything interesting to add to that topic. I've been experimenting with Offpunk, but I've come across some problems with it. And during summer days I haven't found time for that. But the proper time will come in the future. Cheers!

          P.S. The latest news on the Gophersphere is [GitHub proxy]. A nice thing, and it's something new.

        • Godwin's Law: Gaiden

          this is a minor one, and will likely be a short one. this is in the genre of "using twitter drama as a jumping off point to complain about something".


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



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