Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • A Few More Photos (publ. 2024-08-19)

    I took these sunrise photos a few weeks ago (2024-08-08) but am just getting around to uploading them...

  • less evening computering

    My Health Improvement Practitioner (HIP) recommended that I shut down my computer by 8pm each night to help me get better rest.

    I then proceeded to work on a bash script that shuts down at an input time, with a notification and dimming of the screen.

  • Something new: intrigue

    A while ago, @enfors@ttrpg-hangout.social said he wanted his sandbox generator supplement to have something special. I wasn't exactly sure what he was thinking of, but I started thinking about the things that I feel are under-explored.

    A while ago, for example, I wondered: What would be the simplest game that emphasises how many friends you make, that rewards the size of the community you build? Back in 2016 I wrote a game called Best Friends that I never used. It was still an adventure game. Basically, replace your "level" with the number of friends you have. Something like that.

  • Foster dogs

    As of today, two little Spitz ladies are living with us temporarily. Their names are Candy and Cookie. This afternoon we took them for a walk along the Weser.

  • 19th August 2024 - The Playdate

    I received a Playdate yesterday. For those who are not aware, the Playdate is a small yellow handheld games console which is a touch perculiar.

    The device itself is roughly half a smart phone in size albeit slightly thicker. The body is yellow plastic with 40% being a screen. The rest are a d pad, an A button and a B button. Along side the screen is a speaker grill and a menu button. In 3 corners, there are metal 'screw holes'. On the bottom is a microphone, a 3.5 mm headphone socket and a USB C connector. The top has a small button with a LED. This is the standby button and notification light. So far, fairly normal. The right hand side has possibly the most distinctive part. There is a metal bar which can be pulled out and turned into a crank. This is a rather curious analogue input method. The screen itself is simply black and white with no backlight. The lack of a backlight is annoying but the black and white adds plenty of character. It makes the artwork pop in a way I think it would fail to do with colour. The device is pretty light and certainly pocketable.There are flip cases available for added protection.

• Politics and Religion

  • Isaiah 30:27-28: God's Burning Wrath

• Science

  • Happy Blue Moon!

    This is the second August in a row where some news and popsci sites mention that the full moon is a blue moon. The thing is though, they are using 2 different definitions. My local news station was even a bit smug about how the definition of this full moon is the correct definition of the blue moon, even though they also used the other definition last year. So many sites will also start off by stating something along the lines of "A blue moon is not actually blue in color".

• Technology and Free Software

  • Petri Nets Log #011

    As a short summary: the problem was how to group tokens of the same "case"; and the solution (for simple patterns) was to group tokens by a key, taken from a given index of a tuple. In this log I'll elaborate on different patterns where keying could be an acceptable solution (or not).

    The simplest possible pattern is when all input places have keyed tokens, and the keys are on the same indices. As an example, assume a 2-step asynchronous call. The client asks the server to perform some task, and later asks for its result. Keys residing in different indices across places could be a possibility; but it seems easy to remediate on the net's implementation.

  • DNS Debugging

    One problem with DNS debugging is that useful information may not have been obtained prior to the problem exhibiting itself; in particular the old SOA record serial number and whether it has recently changed may not be available.

  • Internet/Gemini

    • an abacus of ideas - blogging/writing brings small thoughts to life

      like sliding the bead of an abacus from one side to another, a blog post representing words formerly reserved to "just" thought, gets slid to the side of the mind of significance Real World Relevance.

      The opposing compartment, that of adjacent or contrarian views/ideas, contrast the initial beads put forward. A calculation, or evening out, of thoughts, ideas, concepts. In the end, one returns a sum. Like The Socratic Method and the practice of a courtroom, one can come to truth/justice via two sides of both opposition, yet mandated potential compromise - neither acquitting all or finding guilt all, contrasting the potential of *this* or *that* to arrive at what IS. A common goal.