Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • Spiking the Camera

    For some reason I'm wondering if in a movie or other “professional production”, if a character looking into the camera is as bad now as it was previously. From some editors I've talked to and discussions I've read online, the general line of thought is that an actor spiking the camera instantly and irrevocably ruins (that part of) the shot, and it must not under any circumstances be used because “the audience *will* notice.”[1]

    But with youtube and such where videos tend to have conversational styles where looking into the camera is commonplace and appropriate[2], I have to wonder if people are more used to looking into the camera where it isn't seen as immediately out of place. Like, when all media everywhere avoids it at all costs, then it'll stand out much more than when just before you put the movie on you watched a video with someone looking into the camera the whole time.

  • let's talk politics (not a joke)

    In the broadest sense, publishing one's own site is a form of samizdat. As a writer, I'm increasingly interested in alternate, "self-published" means ot preserving and disseminating information - particularly in uncertain political times. I'll exercise my First Amendment rights as long as I have them, and I'll exercise my human rights to expression when I don't.

• Science

  • State the Problem Before Describing the Solution

    My colleague pointed me to this 1978 memo / note from Leslie Lamport, "State the Problem Before Describing the Solution". Such beautiful and succinct product management advice. Lots of books on this topic, but this one sheet of paper really cuts to the heart of the problem I see on a lot of teams when it comes to defining the work they want to do, and why they are doing it.

• Technology and Free Software

  • Internet/Gemini

    • neil in gemini space - update - 2025-04-01

      well almost a year since my last post!

      today: a short swim at Malahide between night shifts instructing AT76 ground school; but i get to do that in a non-moving, full-motion simulator:-)

      SO health continues to fluctuate, and recently unfortunately, another major organ involved.

      last year loads of work, so more like full-time rather than part-time. overall satisfying and interesting work.

    • No more on Mastodon

      I finally deleted my Mastodon account. It is for the second time. For the first time it was when many T*****r users moved to the Mastodon with all their habits and agendas. Then I deleted my original account but after some time I decided to open the new one at the [1].

      But... even the people who post generally about technical stuff (opensource software and hardware, old computers and so) now tend to post a lot about politics. I wasn't able to find a viable way to filter that. And being on the Mastodon and following (almost) no one makes no sense, I think. So I finally idecided that there is the only solution.

      For time being, I will keep my pixelfed account.

      I'm still available in the gopherspace, of course.

  • Programming

    • I wrote a Gemini Mention script in Go

      I'm developing a Gemini Mention CGI script in Go. I've been working on it for about 2-3 days, and I already set up my gmid Gemini Server with FCGIWrap to support Gemini Mentions yesterday.

      I was under the impression that I couldn't use Bash, Perl, or Python for this because I'm running my capsule in a gmid chroot. I thought this meant I didn't have access to these tools. Now I know that the FastCGI wrapper itself has access to the system as the gmid user, so there was no need to put all the code into a single binary.