Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 13/08/2023: Browsing Gemini with Lynx



  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal/Opinions

      • Simplicity 4 -- Eyecare

        Applying eye drops every hour the analog way.

        Some time ago I had to deal with a health issue regarding my eyes. This involved applying two kinds of eye drops regularly: once every hour and once every three hours. If both are due, wait 15 minutes between them.

        Of course everyone else would just charge their timer app on their smartphone and be done with it, right? Except, I do not have such a newfangled contraption. So other means had to make due.

      • Our “Twenty Questions” houserules

        Twenty questions is a game where one person things of something secret and the other person has twenty yes-or-no questions to narrow down who it can be and finally guess it. “Is the person alive today?” “Yes.” That sort of thing.

        The way we play it these days, it’s almost more like a puzzle or co-op experience because of the first rule, which is that the person who came up with the secret should aim for something that will be discovered by question number 17 or thereabouts. If they find the secret a lot sooner, you came up with a too easy secret, and if they don’t find the answer within 20 questions, you came up with a too difficult secret. For that reason, you obviously should pick something that you believe they are aware of.

      • Two down, two to go

        This morning a little bit before 09:00 I got another PREP notification that it was going to rain. Within a few minutes it did start raining, and then suddenly the skies opened up and it came down with a ferocity I don't think I've ever experienced before. It was so bad we could barely see out the windows, but within a few minutes it stopped and for the rest of the day the sun was out. Of course after it stopped raining the humidity went over 85%.

      • Mountain Day

        Friday was a national holiday in Japan - Mountain Day - and this coming week is Obon (or Bon?) and so I'm on vacation. As is the rest of the nation; my SO and I hit the road yesterday, and the roads were crowded in places. It was my first time in an EV, which was interesting.

        The navigation system (what's it called in the West, a satnav?) was functional, but only that. I'm used to pinching and swiping but this system didn't have that feature, and the UI's response to button and screen taps was slow.

      • Brussels restaurant recommendations 🍽️

        They bring you four courses, no choice, but they upsell extras. The staff were enthusiastic but disorganised. The food was small amounts of intense flavours. They have a sommelier (fancy!) who's equally as loquatious about canned beer as he is about wine. Don't sit inside unless you want loud music; outside in the square is pleasant.

    • Technology and Free Software

      • Earned my Terraform certification but not for a good reason

        This is a bit of a rant, I just need to vent.

        I work as a Platform Engineer, and I use Terraform daily for deploying infrastructure in Azure/AWS and writing modules. The problem is my current place of employment; they have a very unique take on Terraform design that goes against many, scrap that, all documented best practices. This is a "design" decision they have actively chosen.

      • open source

        yesterday was the day when hashi decided that it didn't need the open source community which helped build it. hashi has decided to switch from mpl to busl. busl is not open source, it reverts to open source after 4 years. this is unfortunate, to start, it's a security risk.

      • Internet/Gemini

        • Browsing Gemini with Lynx at portal.mozz.us

          A couple of years ago, I posted on the Lynx mailing list about adding Gemini support to the browser.[1] That's never happened. It's too bad, because Lynx supports a *lot* of protocols: gopher, http(s), telnet, ftp, nntp, wais, finger... the list goes on.[2]

          I like Lynx a lot and I want it to be my go-to browser in the terminal for Gopher, Gemini, and the web. So in the absence of built-in Gemini support, I browse Gemini sites through Michael Lazar's great SmolNet Portal at portal.mozz.us.


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

Sonny Piers Finally Spills the Beans on GNOME Cover-up, Points Finger at Robert McQueen, Misusing "Defamation" to Silence Critics of Wrongdoing
Robert McQueen, who is extremely connected to Garrett (they share digital nests)
Techrights Was Months Ahead of "XBox" News (Mass Layoffs)
Next: end of XBox as a console
More Commentary on June 2026 IBM Layoffs and Why They Happen
It sounds a lot like what happened to the EPO
The Cyber Show: Remember That Code is Art
The article is very long, very profound, and speaks of "the next installation"
Only Days After Mass Layoffs in Microsoft's Azure There Are Headlines About Much-Expected XBox Layoffs
XBox as a console is basically dead or "fast-dying"
 
SLAPP Censorship - Part 104 Out of 200: Exactly Two Years Ago Brett Wilson LLP Humiliated or Weaponised Our Solicitor's Judaism in an Effort to Censor and Gag Us
dated 12/06/24
Half a Year Since Slopwatch Died
To Google's credit, it did manage to delist a lot of slopfarms in recent months
Links 12/06/2026: Science, Windows TCO, and More
Links for the day
"AI" 46 Times in One 'Article' Because The Register MS Got Paid to Push it
Today is just another opportunity to remind people that the slop bubble and GPU bubble are based on inauthentic fake 'journalism'
Gemini Links 12/06/2026: FTP and Gopher, Cluster Outage Postmortem After Cleaning by Wife
Links for the day
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: Transcending Partisan Rivalry in the National Interest
Up until now, Campinos has generally been regarded as a Portuguese "asset" on the international stage
Gratitude to Whistleblowers or Sources of Techrights
Whistleblowers are what makes journalism work
Links 12/06/2026: "NearlyFreeSpeech" No More, Openwashing by Google (DiffusionGemma)
Links for the day
Today There's a Massive EPO Strike (Like Every Friday), Workers Explain Further Cuts Despite the EPO Making More Income by Granting Illegal Patents (or Invalid Patents Illegally)
"Recent exchange with the Administration on the implications of the SAP on the Education and Childcare Allowance"
Communicating With Freedom - Part IV - Quibble Now in quibble.chat, Open for Contributions Via Codeberg
Today we continue the series about Quibble
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: The Importance of Having "Pals from the Palacete"
for his reappointment bid to succeed, Campinos will need to be able to rely on the support of both the Portuguese Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, and the President of the European Council, António Costa
Cyber Show on How Updates or Upgrades Break Workflows, Even in Free Software
"We did a big upgrade on the AV production pipeline"
Discussions About IBM Layoffs in June, Including by RTO and PIPs
mass layoffs are becoming increasingly difficult to conceal
Gemini Links 12/06/2026: Decks and Work Essay
Links for the day
"Rolling Strikes" Continue at the European Patent Office, the Administrative Council Needs to Take Action Against Crooked Office Management
This coming weekend we'll talk about some of the other issues and concerns expressed by the union
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 11, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, June 11, 2026
Links 11/06/2026: Disputes Over Copyright Infringement, Failure to Meet Climate Goals, "ChatGPT Caught Recommending “Products” That Are Just Scams"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 11/06/2026: Programmable Systems and Slop "is Coming for Your Serifs"
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 103 Out of 200: Telling People What They Know and Don't Know About Death Threats They Receive
patronising letters sent on behalf of the Serial Strangler from Microsoft
IBM Genies in the Bottle
for ordinary people working who at at IBM, it's not hard to see that IBM is floundering
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 10, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 10, 2026
Links 11/06/2026: LF Openwashing of Slop and "Azerbaijan Bans TikTok and Other Social Media Apps in School"
Links for the day
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: The Centre (in Portugal) Falls Apart…
Luís Montenegro became embroiled in a conflict-of-interest controversy
IBM Lost About 18% of Its "Market Value" This Month
In IBM's case, a lot of the latest "pump" was Arvind's "quantum" hype/fantasy
Gemini Links 10/06/2026: Signal to Noise, Cancer, and Permacomputing
Links for the day
Links 10/06/2026: More Microsoft Layoffs, Sweden to "Ban Mobile Phones in Schools"
Links for the day
Communities and "Prosumers."
today's meetup will be about community
Gemini and Gopher Links 10/06/2026: Roasting, Changes, and Harms of Slop
Links for the day
Microsoft Azure Shrinking With More Mass Layoffs
"Reports suggest the layoffs will impact close to 200 out of 400 workers, who are set to cease employment at Azure on July 6"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 09, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 09, 2026