Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 22/08/2023: Pokes and Terminal Metronome



  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal/Opinions

      • The passing of Kenneth Evans Jr.

        It wasn't exactly like I didn't know it was coming. He had been going downhill in the last year and COVID didn't do him any favors. He had a number of heart attacks over the decades including a quadruple bypass that he outlived the repair and had to have it done again.

        But, knowing it was happening and having it happen are sometimes two different things. For some of us more than others.

        [...]

        In the end, he made sure we knew that he loved talking to my children and that he was proud of us. He was apologetic for dying in the same year as our mother and was struggling to make sure my brother knew the password to his BitWarden before he passed.

        My dad is the inspiration for my exit planning[4]. He was one of the most well-organized people I knew, even when it came to planning out his death. He had his paperwork gather together, his notes distributed and an archived drive with (almost) everything we needed.

      • A Farewell to Leaderboards

        Some...things...came up today, the result of which was that I ended up making my Duolingo profile private. This has a couple of effects: it stops you from having friends in-app; and, it turns off the leaderboard.

        I was sad for the former, though in my group chat, my Duo friends totally understood the reason: unwanted attention. But turning off rankings and leaderboards? Holy hell. That was amazing. This app is for learning again.

      • Work From Home: Pros and Cons
      • WILDER, an indie magazine about nature (in Portuguese)

        A couple of weeks ago I found this Portuguese[^0] indie magazine about nature called WILDER... and boy it's pretty fucking good!

        They publish around two articles per day, about news or scientific studies. There's a section titled "Que espécie é esta?" ("What species is this?") where readers send observations of their own, and specialists collaborating with the magazine try to determine the species (on a best effort basis) -- it's pretty cool to learn of so many different life forms living around here. And for some weeks now there's been a running series of interviews of those specialists, titled "Embaixadores por Natureza" ("Ambassadors for Nature").

    • Technology and Free Software

      • more pokes

        I was looking for anything that might hint at what went wrong in the commits. I first found a closed issue about windows computers not being able to connect to the bootstrap.

      • poking at the thing

        woke up this morning, booted my computer, and saw veilid-server had been failing to bootstrap. so, ofc I bother someone on the internet with the problem before I actually look into it and get the "did you update it?" response. ofc I had not. I do that. and it still does the thing from before the update, and this is where I started poking. I found that the bootstrap server is bootstrap.veilid.net. appropriate enough. I dig the domain for the A and AAAA records, and ping to make sure they are all pingable.

      • Terminal Metronome

        So today I sat down to practice guitar and I realized that I left both my metronomes at my sister's room. Obviously I wasn't going to get up to go and fetch one, so I picked up a bash spell tome (man SoX) and with a little bash magic, made a basic metronome.

      • Migrating prosody internal storage to SQLite on OpenBSD

        As some may know, I'm an XMPP user, an instant messaging protocol which used to be known as Jabber. My server is running Prosody XMPP server on OpenBSD. Recently, I got more users on my server, and I wanted to improve performance a bit by switching from the internal storage to SQLite.

        Actually, prosody comes with a tool to switch from a storage to another, but I found the documentation lacking and on OpenBSD the migration tool isn't packaged (yet?).

      • Internet/Gemini

        • Hello!



          I'm Day. I stumbled upon Geminispace somehow last week, and thought this would be a good place to get to know everyone :)

          I'm probably going to be treating my profile page? site? as a sandbox for playing with Gemtext, and figuring out how to make fun stuff within the constraints of Gemini, so I might not make too many posts of my own.


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

On the Internet, Nobody Knows Microsoft and Windows Are Becoming Niche Players Until Data is Shown Correctly, Not Microsoft-Sponsored Articles in Microsoft Publishers
Microsoft controls a lot of publishers and thus it controls information
All That's Left of MSNBC (Microsoft-NBC) is Microsoft NOW
When plutocrats and large corporations (even deep in debt) buy all the communication channels
Accessibility Isn't Overrated
Making things simpler typically means better accessibility
 
IBM Operatives Inside The Register MS and More Shady Money to Follow
The Register MS bites every banknote it can sink its teeth into
Slopwatch: Serial Sloppers and Slopfarms in Google News (e.g. Linux Journal and WebProNews)
Google plays an active role (if not deliberately then through utter neglect and carelessness) in plagiarism
Links 20/08/2025: Mass Surveillance Framed as "Artificial Intelligence" (All Old Things Reworded to Misframe Old Computer Issues), Europe Resists Capitulation to US(SR)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 20/08/2025: Trips and Permacomputing
Links for the day
Links 20/08/2025: Oracle Layoffs in India, "AI" Scammers/Profiteers Admit It's a "Bubble", Softbank-Saudi (Oil) Control Tech Companies
Links for the day
Social Control Networks Give You False Metrics to 'Addict' You To Them
Leaving social control media may seem hard, but the same is true for any other addiction
A Lot of What Happened in Twitter Was Bots, Botfarms, and Troll Farms. It's Even Worse Now (Under X.com) and People Are Noticing.
Last month we said the same was happening in YouTube
Microsoft May Have Become - at Least Partially - Like a Boiler Room Scam
Giving imaginary salaries using imaginary tokens based on imaginary value (with restrictions on conversion to cash)
In Vietnam, Microsoft's Search Engine "Market Share" Fell to Almost 0%, CocCoc More Than 5 Times Bigger
Why are people still investing in this company?
The Register MS, Paid to Promote "AI" Hype, Does "Sez" (Says) Pieces
every bubble-funded "news" site tries to make it a story about "AI"
Many Companies Are Run by Liars Who Ride Other People's Money
Or steal it
Before CoreAI There Was Builder.ai
GitHub isn't about "AI" (just a bunch of lies and storytelling for shareholders' patience)
Microsoft Windows in Croatia at New Lows
We've been keeping track of this trend for a while
Using the Best Tool/s for the Job: RSS Feeds and RSS Readers
Use RSS feeds. Reject those "modern" Web things
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 19, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 19, 2025
Gemini Links 20/08/2025: Neovim, XML, and Alhena 5.2.9
Links for the day
The Register's Slopfest
Remember when The Register UK (yes, UK) had better standards?
Latest Version of Windows (Vista 11) is a Failure 4 Years After Its Fake 'Leak'
Vista 11 became more scarce this month
Improving Our Archives
Our old archives are still accessed a lot. Making them better is well worth the investment.
Things One Learns as a Litigant in Person at the UK High Court
Don't fear the official manuals
Slopwatch: Lots of Fake Articles From Fake "Linux" Sites and About "Linux"
Google says it's committed to "AI" (it means slop, not AI); that seems like an excuse to dodge accountability
Links 19/08/2025: "Eavesdropping on Phone Conversations Through Vibrations" and Air Canada in Chaos
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/08/2025: Niche Spaces and "AI Pasta Sauce"
Links for the day
Links 19/08/2025: "NASA Is Giving Up on Climate Change Science" and "Earth's Continents Are Drying Out at an Unprecedented Rate"
Links for the day
Microsoft said “GitHub and its leadership team will continue its mission as part of Microsoft’s CoreAI organisation.” But it's just an empty shell created earlier this year.
In short, it's not too clear what Microsoft has just done except dumping GitHub - i.e. mostly a Web site that loses a ton of money (it always lost money) - into some mysterious new bucket
Phil Wyett evidence & Debian Zizian plagiarism, modern slavery tendencies
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
IBM Layoffs in MCC, or Marketing, Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
IBM and Microsoft inflate their share price by circular financing
In Many Countries People Move Away From Vista 11
Vista 11 has been available for download for 4 years already, but adoption has been poor
Desktops/Laptops Fall to All-Time Lows in the UK, So Why Does British Media Quote a Famous Criminal on "End of the Smartphone Era"?
mobile usage (for Web access) has never been higher, based on an Irish surveyor, statCounter
The Groklaw Web Site Has Been Hijacked by Scammers
Groklaw.net isn't a safe site to access at this time
The Register MS gets Lazy, Uses Slop
Unlike 3-D renderings or "Classic" CG, slop images aren't quite original and definitely not fair use
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 18, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, August 18, 2025
Online Safety Act Does Not Tackle the Worst (and Biggest) Culprits
if our governments are serious about tackling online harms, then they need to look closely at GAFAM and social control media giants
Chat Control (1 and 2) in the European Union Sends the Wrong Message
This is an EU law
Slopwatch: Google News and Serial Sloppers (Fake Articles About "Linux")
Calling out the culprits
Gemini Links 19/08/2025: Digital Legacy and Chat Control
Links for the day
English Law Misused by Americans and Irishmen Against Brits is Unfair
There's always a way to improve existing laws
Overly Maximalist, Expensive, Localised Patent Law is Dooming Western Companies, Argue 3-D Printing Champions
We've long warned (over 7 years already!) that China's approach to patents will impress WIPO by gaming the totals but will doom the West
Links 18/08/2025: "Microsoft Store" Gets Increasingly Hostile, "Cracking Abandonware DRM"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/08/2025: Summer "Gone" and Web Reposts in Gemini
Links for the day
Microsoft's Windows in Gabon: Still Moving Down
What is this Unknown? Who knows...
Links 18/08/2025: LLM Reputation Damaged, Australia Catches Google Foul Play
Links for the day
Geeks Like GNU/Linux
The technical community seems to be consolidating and rallying around GNU/Linux
GNU/Linux is 486 in Ireland
4.86% that is
End of Reliable Media
it makes the world a worse place, it renders the Web a misinformation machine
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 17, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, August 17, 2025
GitHub Won't Last Much Longer
Many things at Microsoft are going to go the way of the Skype (or "dodo"). GitHub will be among those.
We've Never Used Large Language Model (LLM)
we just never used an LLM
"Secure Boot" is a Security Problem, Not a Solution
These people don't try to improve security but to undermine security
Gemini Links 18/08/2025: Retro and Endless Escape from the WWW
Links for the day