Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 05/08/2023: New SIM and a Goodbye



  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal/Opinions

      • Mass Air Flow Senso

        I have two vehicles, one is 17 years old, the other is 23 years old. I've always driven older cars, and I try to work on them myself, when the repair is something I can tackle--when it's not, the car is usually ready to get rid of.

      • Brakes! What brakes?

        At Wednesday I was on a bicycle trip. Some 130 km in relatively flat terrain (the middle parts was in Nizky Jesenik mountain so ther e were some hills). A very nice trip except the strong headwind.

      • Working late

        Well,it's summer and I am not able to do any creative work in my office where the lowest temperature is over 30 C. So I am working now at 22:00.

      • Menuet in F

        except for the modulation (if you could call it that) to the dominant, and another to the dominant of that dominant, or F to C and then C to G Major (but not for very long). In theory you're supposed to go back to the original key, I guess. Minuets are also supposed to be dancable, though music has something of a tradition of turning danceable music into that which is not. There was even a diet of worms edict when church music got itself too fancy, or you can find chorus music from the 1500s that used chromaticism not seen again until some while later:

      • Cycling

        I purchased a bicycle in 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and a time when most gyms and swimming pools in my area were closed. Though I had Ring Fit Adventure and a Pump It Up arcade machine at home, I get cabin fever very quickly, and I needed something to do outside the house.

        As the region began to reopen in 2022, I found myself cycling less and less. This was primarily because I could satisfy my itch to go outside in other ways, but as I began cycling regularly before then, I found that it wasn't easy to use my bike as anything other than a dedicated exercise machine.

      • Chair

        I feel like I am broken. On the surface I might seem ok but under-neath, it feels like something is seriously wrong here, mission control. There is now a cast on my leg where I tore my achilles, which has further impeded my mobility. This injury has put the brakes on, or even halted many things that could be going on had it not manifested. I think this was not happenstance, rather, this needed to happen. My trajectory has not been sustainable,

        Recently, I have been reacquainted with an old chair. It is a chair that I was gifted by my friend, Sandy, when he was moving out of his studio, almost 30 years ago (I feel so old now.) The chair is old, metal, and heavy for its size. Not sure how old it really is, but it was made during a time when things were built to last and made to be repaired by the owner of the chair with common parts found at a local hardware store. Over the years I have replaced various parts, even re-riveting a couple broken rivets on the hinge that attaches the back of the chair to the back post and also adding a tie-on seat cushion since the original chair padding has long since flattened over the course of use and time.

      • AEILSTZ Wordo: MILES
      • Universes Beyond

        Just a heads up: gonna be some spoilers for the Lord of the Rings novels down below.

        Magic has started making cards from other games, books, or shows like The Walking Dead, Street Fighter, Arcane, Fortnite, Warhammer 40000, Doctor Who, and The Lord of the Rings. That’s called “Universes Beyond”.

        I’ve been all for that, with one exception—I don’t ever want to see “brands”, like “I tap your 3/3 Pepsi with my Tide pod”. I get that an IP is a brand but I hope the line between what’s a cultural artifact, like a novel, versus a product with a logo, is clear enough even for Hasbro.

      • Metagaming, part one—D&D

        My players are pretty strict with meta information.

        I had three parties step into the same trap and die and I was like “guys, what’s going on!” and they were like “our new chars don’t know what our old chars knew!”

        I was satisfied with that. In the end made PCs quick-witted enough to deal with the situation without meta knowledge.

        I’ve said they are free to meta as much and as little as they want, it’s a lever they’re completely on their own for, I don’t mind it at all but to the extent that it takes away from their experience, they don’t do it

    • Technology and Free Software

      • Modern WWW browsing on IRIX

        You know, the SGI IRIX is dead at last from 2006 so there are almost no new apps. Definitely there is no "current" WWW browser (people have been trying hard but it seems to be impossible). The latest one is the Firefox 3.0.19 with ages old SSL suppurt (so almsot no https://).

      • Forgot to replace batteries

        Some devices have very long battery live. So long so I usually forget that they are batteries at all. This time it was the PSION MC600.

        The main battery is just an 8xAA block and there is a backup battery. But the backup can work for days and not for the whole month. These old PSIONs use RAM cards as storage. They are also backed up by batteries (all backup batteries are the CR1620). This time one of them don't survive so I lost the whole G: drive (about 2 MB of data and programs).

      • Speed of computers

        I was in the Prague last week. I had only the GPD Pocket with me (an Item Atom-based machine). I did some light computing here (some FEA) and found that speed on my unoptimised software is still rather acceptable here. After return I tried to do the same on the MNT Reform. As expected the MNT was about 2 times slower (it has an industrial ARM CPU which is wasn't the fastest even when it was new).

      • New SIM, new phone

        My Palm Centro decided to die. So I have had to replace it. Things have not been so easy because my old full-sized SIM (trimmed to the microSIM format anyway) do not fit any modern (or semi-modern) phone.

        Thus I visited my phone provider's shop today. It was a story for itself: the Sturmey-Archer hub on my Brompton bike have started work incorrectly. Then was a heavy rainfall. But I ahve got a new SIM.

      • Living with a 7" laptop

        I'm in the process of renovating my office so as my desktop computer is stashed away, I've been using my travel laptop, i.e. my only laptop, as my main computer for nearly a week now. I've been aware of all of its pitfalls since day one but using that computer for that long, has made them harder to bear.

        I bought a GPD Pocket 2 a few years ago, as a replacement for a slightly bigger netbook, which in turn came in replacement of my beloved first generation eeePC that perished in battle. It's insanely practical, and portable. It will fit into any bag, and probably into cargo pant or spacious coat pockets. It's also much beefier than most currently sold sub-12" laptop on the market. The screen is however 7".

      • Internet/Gemini

        • Bye, Gemini

          This will be my last post on Gemini, as I just don't have a good reason to use it anymore. You can read more about my thoughts in my latest blog post, linked below.

        • Magic: the Gathering’s announcement day, 2023

          So Magic had an announcement day where they laid out their plans for the next three years. I’ve sorted everything that they announced by how much I’m into it, and a short thought on each.

          So this is not the order they’re gonna come out in. Instead, I’ve placed them from “aww yeah” gradually down to “Not into it”. For me personally. And not having seen the sets.

        • Hyperion online music store download helper bookmarklet

          I sometimes buy classical music from Hyperion Records, because they are one of few classical labels to provide downloadable lossless audio files. However, their site is rather outdated and they push you to use a 'downloader' application (for Windows or Mac only) to download your purchases. That doesn't work for me.

          They do provide a webpage with all your purchases to download regularly, but with individual links per track! That quickly gets annoying.

        • I started a literary magazine

          So, it seems that I have started a literary magazine[1]! I have thought about it on and off for a few years, but nothing seemed to really come together. The idea that finally did it as something that came about after reading one of my wife's recent stories. It just felt so comfortable and nice and I felt like I wanted more stories like that in my life. So, Hearth Stories was born.


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft ("a Dying Megacorporation that Does Not Create") and IBM: An Era of Dying Giants With Leadership Deficits and Corporate Bailouts (Subsidies From Taxpayers)
Microsoft seems to be resorting to lots of bribes and chasing of bailouts (i.e. money from taxpayers worldwide)
Daniel Pocock: "I've Gone to Some Lengths to Demonstrate How Corporate Bad Actors Have Used Amateur-hour Codes of Conduct to Push Volunteers Into Modern Slavery"
"As David explains, the Codes of Conduct should work the other way around to regulate the poor behavior of corporations who have been far too close to the Debian Suicide Cluster."
 
Links 18/05/2024: Caledonia Emergency Powers, "UK Prosecutor's Office Went Too Far in the Assange Case"
Links for the day
US Patent and Trademark Office Sends Out a Warning to People Who Do Not Use Microsoft's Proprietary Formats
They're punishing people who wish to use open formats
Links 18/05/2024: Fury in Microsoft Over Studio Shutdowns, More Gaming Layoffs
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 17, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, May 17, 2024
Links 18/05/2024: KOReader, Benben v0.5.0 Progress Update, and More
Links for the day
Microsoft-Connected Sites Trying to Shift Attention Away From Microsoft's Megebreach Only Days Before Important If Not Unprecedented Grilling by the US Government?
Why does the mainstream media not entertain the possibility a lot of these talking points are directed out of Redmond?
[Meme] UEFI 'Secure' Boot Boiling Frog
UEFI 'Secure' Boot: You can just ignore it. You can just turn it off. You can hack on it as a workaround. Just use Windows dammit!
The Market Wants to Delete Windows and Install GNU/Linux, UEFI 'Secure' Boot Must Go!
To be very clear, this has nothing to do with security and those who insist that it is have absolutely no credentials
In the United States Of America the Estimated Share of Google Search Grew After Microsoft's Chatbot Hype (Which Coincided With Mass Layoffs at Bing)
Microsoft's chatbot hype started in late 2022
Techrights Will Categorically Object to Any Attempts to Deny Its Right to Publish Informative, Factual Material
we'll continue to publish about 20 pages per day while challenging censorship attempts
Links 17/05/2024: Microsoft Masks Layoffs With Return-to-office (RTO) Mandates, More YouTube Censorship
Links for the day
YouTube Progresses to the Next Level
YouTube is a ticking time bomb
Journalists and Human Rights Groups Back Julian Assange Ahead of Monday's Likely Very Final Decision
From the past 24 hours...
[Meme] George Washington and the Bill of Rights
Centuries have passed since the days of George Washington, but the principles are still the same
Video of Richard Stallman's Talk From Four Weeks Ago
2-hour video of Richard Stallman speaking less than a month ago
statCounter Says Twitter/X Share in Russia Fell From 23% to 2.3% in 3 Years
it seems like YouTube gained a lot
Journalist Who Won Awards for His Coverage of the Julian Assange Ordeals Excluded and Denied Access to Final Hearing
One can speculate about the true reason/s
Richard Stallman's Talk, Scheduled for Two Days Ago, Was Not Canceled But Really Delayed
American in Paris
3 More Weeks for Daniel Pocock's Campaign to Win a Seat in European Parliament Elections
Friday 3 weeks from now is polling day
Microsoft Should Have Been Fined and Sanctioned Over UEFI 'Lockout' (Locking GNU/Linux Out of New PCs)
Why did that not happen?
Gemini Links 16/05/2024: Microsoft Masks Layoffs With Return-to-office (RTO) Mandates, Cash Issues
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 16, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, May 16, 2024
Ex-Red Hat CEO Paul Cormier Did Not Retire, He Just Left IBM/Red Hat a Month Ago (Ahead of Layoff Speculations)
Rather than retire he took a similar position at another company
Linux.com Made Its First 'Article' in Over and Month, It Was 10 Words in Total, and It's Not About Linux
play some 'webapp' and maybe get some digital 'certificate' for a meme like 'clown computing'
[Meme] Never Appease the Occupiers
Freedom requires truth. Free speech emancipates.
Thorny Issues, Violent Response
They say protests (or strikes) that do not disrupt anything are simply not effective. The same can be said about reporting.
GNU/Linux in Malaysia: From 0.2 Percent to 6+ Percent
That's like 30-fold increase in relative share
Liberty in Liberia? Windows Falls Below 10% and Below iOS
This is clearly a problem for Microsoft
Techrights Congratulates Raspberry Pi (With Caution and Reservations)
Raspberry Pi will "make or break" based on the decisions made in its boardroom
OSI Makes a Killing for Bill Gates and Microsoft (Plagiarism and GPL Violations Whitewashed and Openwashed)
meme and more
The FSF Ought to Protest Against UEFI 'Secure Boot' (Like It Used To)
libreplanet-discuss stuff
People Who Defend Richard Stallman's Right to Deliver Talks About His Work Are Subjected to Online Abuse and Censorship
Stallman video removed
GNU/Linux Grows in Denmark, But Much of That is ChromeOS, Which Means No Freedom
Google never designs operating systems with freedom in mind
Links 16/05/2024: Vehicles Lasting Fewer Years, Habitat Fragmentation Concerns
Links for the day
GNU/Linux Reaches 6.5% in Canada (Including ChromeOS), Based on statCounter
Not many news sites are left to cover this, let alone advocate for GNU/Linux
Links 16/05/2024: Orangutans as Political Props, VMware Calls Proprietary 'Free'
Links for the day
The Only Thing the So-called 'Hey Hi Revolution' Gave Microsoft is More Debt
Microsoft bailouts
TechTarget (and Computer Weekly et al): We Target 'Audiences' to Sell Your Products (Using Fake Articles and Surveillance)
It is a deeply rogue industry that's killing legitimate journalism by drowning out the signal (real journalism) with sponsored fodder
FUD Alert: 2024 is Not 2011 and Ebury is Not "Linux"
We've seen Microsofers (actual Microsoft employees) putting in a lot of effort to shift the heat to Linux
Links 15/05/2024: XBox Trouble, Slovakia PM Shot 5 Times
Links for the day
Windows in Times of Conflict
In pictures
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, May 15, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, May 15, 2024