Gemini Links 16/06/2024: Hand Held Maneuvering Unit and Hugo Static Files
-
Gemini* and Gopher
-
Personal/Opinions
-
Nourishing fictions
It started as a desire to read less "news", which lately seems to mostly not be "new" in any real sense. Quintessential never-ending war continues not to end. Corrupt, lying politicians continue to lie about their corruption. Centrist gonna centrist, etc etc.
But as I've drifted away–in fits and starts, I should admit–from filling my eyeballs with the same depressing journalism every couple of hours, I've noticed something else. I barely read any fiction novels, but I occassionally watch things on streaming TV. And what The Algorithm wants to give me seems to be endless stories that when I think about it are just "the news" in a period or fantasy setting. The same senseless and ultimately pointless violence. The same cynical politics, or bizarely sycophantic embrace of Big Men - whether kings, presidents, or just physically strong men who really need therapy.
-
Has it been that long?
Almost three years to the day since I made my first post here. Technically, that was my last post too, until today. I've often dropped by in the years since however, though it's unlikely that anyone other than the proprietor has noticed my occasional and silent presence in the corner, the light from the fireplace landing on my smile as I catch up on the latest going-ons.
-
The secret language of the ea
It is common sense that the ears collect sounds, and with the sounds sometimes information. Unbeknownst to most is the fact that some people make use of their ears to communicate, though visibly, still secretly with one another.
The actual process is done by wiggling. Some have achieved a level of perfection - they can move both ears completely independently and at will, others can only wiggle both at once, while some poor souls achieve only movements of their entire scalp.
-
-
Technology and Free Software
-
The Hand Held Maneuvering Unit
Ok I've changed the name of the gemini reader device. I was reading through the Gemini wikipedia articles and found that on the EVA missions they tested several iterations of something called the Hand Held Maneuvering Unit (HHMU). It was a portable gas thruster which fired a gas out of a nozzle to propel the user around. Astronauts found it hard to use as you had to align it with your centre of mass, or it causes you to spin.
My gemini reader will be a handheld unit for maneuvering around Geminispace, so the name fits perfectly. Like the real HHMU, the device will probably be a bit cumbersome to use! The name is also a little clunky but I'll probably mostly refer to it as the HHMU or HMU.
-
goodbye Zellij
After a [brief foray into using Zellij], I dropped it a while back and have continued to use tmux.
Turns out my favorable view of Zellij is mostly based on decent default key bindings. I thought I’d miss the stack – which I did like and didn’t find a decent way to do in tmux – but it’s been months and I haven’t missed it yet.
I drifted away from Zellij due to lack of status bar and control over appearance. Theoretically there are add-ons for it, but it wasn’t straightforward and the setup for tmux requires no add-ons for this very basic functionality.
-
Internet/Gemini
-
Welcome
I’m a big fan of the “smol net”. For that reason, I’ve decided to set up my substitute for social media here on smol.pub.
-
Hugo Static Files
I have finally got my website sorted for flux playlists. Yes, my gopher is a great place but for ease, I thought I could get a website going. It is https://stug.uk.
I have a vps running FreeBSD which costs me 10 a year. Throw in 12 for the domain for 2 years and we have a cheap box to muck around with. I am inherently lazy and did not want to muck around too much with site generation. So I decided to use Hugo to build a static site.
One of the blockers I found with Hugo was that it does not like you linking to text files or PDFs. It seems to be a key failing. After some search fu, I found a particularly helpful chap, Justin Pearson. I am recording this in gopher so I don't lose it and hopefully it can help others. It worked a treat and over multiple builds.
-
-
-
* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.