Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • Another kind of political division

    In a political landscape that has shifted so much to the right, the historical Left/Right distinction no longer means what it used to. Another reason why some people feel the labels no longer make sense is that the left, or most of it, has abandoned the peace project at the same time as fractions on the right actually are in favour of de-escalation and de-funding foreign wars. Both the right-shift and the attitude shift in geo-politics can be observed, to varying degrees, in the US and Europe.

  • heatwave, bloody heatwave

    I live in the sticks in western Arkansas, and we are currently experiencing some of the most consistently hot temps of my lifetime here (today 95F with a "feels-like" temp of 104F), so I keep putting off some of the yardwork I really need to get done.

    Thankfully there is a chance of rain in the next few days, so I am going to take advantage of that if we get some precipitation, as it will hopefully bring a slightly cooler front with it.

  • Spinning false narratives

    Maybe I really need to cut down on the almost-now-subconscious habit of checking Instagram too often. There was a time when Instagram was about beautiful pictures without words. Now the news media, commentators, pundits, and activists have moved in and turned it into a Twitter with pictures (even though there is Threads that serves this very purpose).

  • Humanity

    First off, I want to write "out loud" that I think the small-internet provides a comfortable and intimate space to write authentically and personally. It's nice.

    I've been thinking a lot about my humanity. Just what it means to be a person and contrast that to societal obligations and expectations to strive to achieve a high status of career capability. This is about my feelings.

  • Midnight drifter, and the Pub-logged transition

    Here I sit. Back from clubhouse after a day of cooking, cleaning, et al. A few quick smokes were had in the sunroom/smoking area at the place I am at until Monday (basically a short term "bed" (really a single-room occupancy) at a old folks home). Here a moment, gone another. Reading The Midnight daily (capital D and it becomes a newspaper!) :)

    I will be at Ben Nor Apartments Monday afternoon. A place of 100% solace, refuge, calm, quiet, and complete and total ambiguity. As I need it.

  • I remain bearish on the eventual invention of “general AI”

    Consciousness, I’m convinced, originates in desire. Every living being “wants” things, complex reasoning capability is one strategy (uncovered by evolution) that can help one acquire things, and complex reasoning can lead to self-awareness — especially in social creatures.

    This belief isn’t necessarily “settled science”, but it’s not completely idiosyncratic; I can attest that this is how many practicing neuroscientists and psychologists think about consciousness, at least informally.

  • Something something Independence something something Declaration something something Blow Stuff Up

    It just now became the Forth of July™ and earlier this evening (which was technically yesterday, Wednesday, July 3^rd) some people were illegally lighting off fireworks already. I guess as a random quality test of the munitions they've aquired. So to them, and to you, I wish you a happy and safe National Blow Stuff Up Day!

  • the world is beautiful, humanity is beautiful

    i have been thinking about the world recently, im sure everyone has, but i have been trying to focus on the good an beautiful. did you know we have turned horrible viruses into tools to help fight cancer? that's not even recent, that's been going on for years! and artists. artists exist, they make art constantly. in this era art is one of the most accessible it has ever been!

• Technology and Free Software

  • Port Knocking

    Port knocking is a method of altering the configuration of a server, usually its firewall rules, in response to particular sequences of connections to network ports that need not be open. The firewall logs or network traffic is monitored by something that takes the necessary actions when a correct knock sequence is observed. I've never used port knocking, though there may be situations where one has a "hidden fortress" that runs no external services yet where one will want to open up SSH or wireguard to only particular remote addresses.

  • More NixOS on my GPD Win 2

    The last time I played with NixOS on my GPD Win 2, I managed to get it installed, but then I didn’t use it too much after that. I didn’t even fix the display rotation issue.

    A few days ago I picked it up, dusted it off, and ran software updates. Then I copied some elements from my MacBook’s configuration.nix just to try to keep the software configurations somewhat consistent between my different systems.

  • Internet/Gemini

    • Suomiward bound

      In about 36 hours I will set off on my five day tour of the Saariston Rengastie in the Finnish archipelago, the one I mentioned previously in my "Blazing Star" post. I won't have access to my email again until the 15th, so please be patient when waiting for responses! I feel a bit silly saying that, because, let's be honest, sometimes it takes me 12 days or longer to reply even when I'm not off rolling around without a computer, but I'm trying to get better at that, and it still seemed polite to say something. Please look forward to a very complete report on the trip sometime later in July.