Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • 🔤SpellBinding — DILORYW Wordo: JEERS

  • Approaching Other's Dislikes

    Just approach them.

    If they truly get hurt from it, at least make sure they understand that they should be more resillent to different opinions.

    Also just because someone dislikes certain things/topics doesn't mean you should go out of your way to avoid the topic, communication is and has always been about mutual compromise, there is only a need to avoid said topics when the person states that the topic is uncomfortable to talk with, or if they have this tendency on anything they dislike in general.

    Assuming the need to avoid certain topics after knowing the person dislikes the topic itself as a default behaviour is high-key disrespectful to both you and the person you're talking to because you're essentially censoring yourself while assuming the other person is probably as sensitive as you are. You refuse to even attempt to get out of your own comfort zone and you refuse to assume the better of others.

  • bundle

    I ache and I ache and I ache 
    and you are not here
    if I bury the ache
    it slowly gnaws my soul away
    it would be easier still
    than to feel this fully
    to hurt this fully
    a bundle of nerves, exposed
    a bundle of nerves, raw
    

  • Human in cosmos

    I had a short electronic conversation (written, in instant messenger), one of those in which every utterance is pregnant with the potential for side threads. So I thought I would try to address these side threads in the form of a monologue. The conversation did not touch on personal matters and was more of a generic exchange between bearers of specific worldviews, so I see no obstacle to not quoting some of the statements to which I will refer. From this place I greet you, dear interlocutor, and invite you, of course, to respond if you feel so inclined. If not, we’re also good. I’m writing, as usual, to sort things through in my head.

    It started with a conversation about a book on the cosmos, about which I voiced my concern that it probably looks at the cosmos in a modern way, that is, in a flat-materialistic way. The cosmos, which for the ancients was the totality of being, the order of the world, has become for us, sarcastic in our understanding, a mere physical manifestation, a totality but only of the material world.

• Technology and Free Software

  • The AI Hype

    In a previous blog of mine on Linux, I talk about how the commonplace ignorance towards technology is becoming more detrimental with each day. This is an idea that one of my favourite writers Niel Stepehnson introduced in his essay "In the Beginning was the Command Line". To provide a brief summary, the essay outlines the development of major operating systems and reflects on how since the inception of the "GUI", end users have come to increasingly relinquish the control they have over computers. Ease of use always entails a certain amount of ignorance and sometimes it is warranted. But when this interface, which is supposed to facilitate unmitigated communication, falsifies or subtly leads you towards performing a specific task, it becomes something else entirely.

    I have found this frame of reference extremely useful in discerning between good and bad software. If a particular program strives to be transparent and fulfills its task as effectively as possible, I usually consider it well written. Recently I have been exposed to a fair bit of discourse surrounding AI which prompted me to evaluate it along these lines. While some regard the technology to be revolutionary, others dismiss it altogether on the basis of describing AI to be nothing more than a glorified auto complete.

  • Internet/Gemini

    • A Home Server Proxy in the Cloud, Using HAProxy and Tailscale

      The goal was to stop using my home's IP address as the public IP for my home server, while at the same time:

      * continue to host my websites and services on a machine that I physically control;

      * terminate TLS on that same machine rather than decrypting traffic on Someone Else's Computer;

      * allow the home server to see the actual clients' IP addresses (not just the IP of the machine forwarding traffic) so that I can keep running AI poisoning software [1] and fail2ban.

    • The New AuraGem Ask

      AuraGem Ask's overhaul is about 95% complete, but it's done enough to announce publicly!

      AuraGem Ask is basically like Stack Exchange, but for Gemini. You can post questions within specific topics, people can post answers to those questions. Users can upvote answers they like, and the person who posted the question will (in the future) be able to select their preferred answer.

    • Scripts in Gemini

      Brad at Ultimatum Labs posted about a potential loophole in Gemini to allow the execution of scripts.^ I didn't see the initial post, but JBanana linked to it yesterday.^^

      The loophole is based on the fact that Gemini clients are allowed to render Gemtext any way they please. This leaves room for clients to read preformatted blocks, perhaps containing an alt text denoting that the contain scripts, and execute the cone contained therein. Such functionality would essentially allow Gemini to re-implement Javascript, including the ability to make further requests.

      Imagine a Gemtext file that contains several such "script blocks" at the bottom of the page. A malicious (or at least privacy-unfriendly) Gemini client could implement the blocks transparently, refusing to display their content in the user window, and silently execute them in the background. They could use redirects or other trickery to check if the client supports script blocks and refuse to load the target content otherwise. Putting them at the bottom could hide their presence from an unsuspecting client until the page has already been loaded in its entirety.