Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 03/08/2023: Illusionary Democracy and All Things Illegal



  • Personal/Opinions

    • 🔤SpellBinding: AIMNTUY Wordo: RETRO
    • Appenzell

      OK, so what's the deal with Appenzell? We already heard that their history is related to St. Gallen. You need to look at the map of St. Gallen: Appenzell is completely surrounded by St. Gallen. Appenzell is mountainous. St. Gallen rules over the lands by the Bodensee to the north, the wide Rhine valley to the east, and the Thur valley to the south.

    • Zürich

      I’ve lived in the Canton of Zürich for 30 years. When I was 18, my father and my stepmum left for Indonesia for two years and when they came back I didn’t want to be there so I moved out when I was twenty or so, to Zürich, to live in shared apartments like many other students did. And then I just never went back to Aargau.

    • St. Gallen

      St. Gallen is an abbey with a famous library. It’s really very nice. Apparently it was founded by an Irish missionary. This dude was 612; the monastery was founded by St. Othmar in 720; the Magyars attacked in 926 and subsequent years. The books were moved to its books were removed to Reichenau to keep them safe. To quote Wikipedia: “Not all the books were returned.” Just saying.

    • Aargau

      A few days ago I started reading up on the Swiss cantons, creating a post on fedi based on those Wikipedia articles. I'm reposting these posts on the blog because they're starting to grow on my.

  • Politics and World Events

    • Illusionary Democracy

      There’s so much to unpack here that I’ve been struggling to formulate a single coherent post on the topic, so I’m going to ignore 95% of the problem and just go for something about which I feel on thoroughly safe ground.

  • Technology and Free Software

    • All Things Illegal

      It is a logical fallacy to assume that since the State is evil, _all_ laws it enforces are likewise, evil. However, _many_ laws are in fact, are fruits of the poisoned tree. While I will focus on the US, many of the issues mentioned apply universally.

    • Internet/Gemini

      • Rebuilding my gopher server

        So here's something not to do: don't blindly flail at a system upgrade on your server!

        A couple of nights ago, I decided to upgrade gopher.visiblink.ca. It runs Raspberry Pi OS on a Pi Zero W. Raspberry Pi OS is based on Debian and the /etc/apt/sources.list file uses the same codenames as Debian.

        So, without going to the Raspberry Pi OS homepage to check on the latest version, I just assumed that it was Debian 12 "Bookworm" and went ahead with the regular steps toward a dist-upgrade. It turns out that the latest version of Raspberry Pi OS is Debian 11 "Bullseye." Ouch.


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

SLAPP Censorship - Part 158 Out of 200: Making Alliances With Men Arrested for Strangling Women Was Always a Terrible Strategy
They work for American slop companies
 
Links 22/08/2026: Prince Harry, Elton John and Others Pay High Price for Frivolous Litigation in the UK
Links for the day
'Voluntary' Mass Layoffs at IBM/Red Hat
IBM does not want people to notice what truly goes on there
Another Round of GAFAM Layoffs, This Time Apple
Now Apple "is shutting down an entire Vision Pro team focused on developing gaming features for the mixed-reality headset."
Gemini Links 22/08/2026: The Bodyguard (1992), Minimalism, Backups, and IPFS
Links for the day
Links 22/08/2026: TikTok Settles With Feds, Harms Caused by Social Control Media Gaining Attention
Links for the day
New Data Shows Microsoft's XBox is Really Dying
XBox is a "burning platform"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, August 21, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, August 21, 2026
Sources-First Publication
Thank you for keeping us on track
Ubuntu is Not Linux
I was one of the first users of Ubuntu
Links 21/08/2026: Outrage Over Politicians Who Support Slop-Feeding Data Centres, "America Is About to Get More Expensive"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/08/2026: Rain Coming Back and "Small Internet"
Links for the day
Mass Layoffs at IBM, But Mostly in Secret (PIPs and 'Voluntary' Redundancies)
Gerstner laid off a record number of people; Krishna tries to find 'innovative' new ways to cause workers to leave
Slop-ware: Nobody Knows What Code Goes Into Linux and Most Developers Cannot Understand the Rust Code (Even If They Tried)
So nobody is in charge
The Slop Pyramid Scheme (Not Boon!) Isn't Good for GNU/Linux, Even If the Plagiarism Engines (Framed as "Training" or "Intelligence") Almost Always Run GNU/Linux
We need the slop pop - we need the bubble to pop
North America: GNU/Linux Measured at 13%-15% Every Night
many (north) Americans use GNU/Linux at home and are using it to access the Web in the small hours of the morning
Links 21/08/2026: "Silicon Valley’s Billionaire Cults Are Coming for Democracy" and "Who’s Raking it in as the National Debt Explodes?"
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 157 Out of 200: What is a 'Defamation Troll'?
"Defamation Mill" also
Northern Europe Leads the Pack in Abandoning Windows After Threats Made to Greenland (Says Clownflare Data)
Clownflare has a vast trove of data, so it cannot be easily dismissed as pure nonsense
Clownflare: In Past 12 Months Microsoft Windows Fell From ~80% to ~75% on Desktops/Laptops in Asia
Microsoft is deep in debt
Secret Layoffs at Microsoft, Apparently More Sites Will Shut Down Entirely
vindicates us and serves to affirm what we've said for over a month
The State of Slopfarms About "Linux" in August 2026
The Web needs serious cleanup, which curation can help deliver
IBM Offers Workers Some Money to Fire Themselves, It's Called "Next Step" and It's Allegedly 'Extended' (Not Enough Fools Have Fired Themselves)
Will IBM executives - including the CEO - ever be held accountable?
£5 Million Unsolicited/Undisclosed Bribes and What That Means to British Politics
It still remains unknown (disclosure denied) who helps fund the £1 million lawfare against us
[Satire] Pocock, Binface & nobodies vs Farage: defamation before UK High Court
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The IBM Censorship Team, PIPs (Silent Layoffs) in IBM Europe
There seem to be many de facto layoffs going on at IBM right there
SLAPP Censorship - Part 156 Out of 200: Brett Wilson LLP Becoming Wilson FC
Now acting almost like one-person shop (lots of staff has fled this past year)
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 20, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, August 20, 2026
Gemini Links 21/08/2026: "Ensmallening the BigWeb", "Rust Dependencies"
Links for the day
Links 20/08/2026: 'Linux' Foundation Promoting Slop Hype for Money (Hype as a Service), Malaysia’s Exports Jump 38% Year-on-Year
Links for the day
Gemini Links 20/08/2026: A "Break From Routine" and "Modem Was the Problem"
Links for the day
Clownflare Reckons GNU/Linux is on Almost 1 in 10 Laptops/Desktops in Western Europe
Western Europe and China are leaving more of GAFAM behind them
Looking Ahead at September
Rianne and I look forward to a productive September
Links 20/08/2026: Facebook "Ran Ads for an App That Promised to Nudify Female Politicians" and Facebook Faces "Social [Control] Media Addiction Trial"
Links for the day
Clownflare Sees GNU/Linux at 16% Market Share on Desktops/Laptops in Tajikistan
in Tajikistan it seems like adoption of GNU/Linux is exceptionally high, based on a very large data set associated with Web access
The Demise of Social Control Media Continues
Entering (anew) social control media in 2026 seems foolish
SLAPP Censorship - Part 155 Out of 200: Throwing Stones in Houses Made of Glass
character-assassination-as-a-service
Gemini Links 20/08/2026: Planners, Pantsing, Vinylyssee
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 19, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 19, 2026