Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • More books in August

    This really comes as a surprise to me. Apparently, it takes me about one minute to read one page in a "standard" book. It means that reading for just one hour a day gets me to 420 pages a week -- which is more or less one book. Uh, okay. This is going to get expensive if I want to keep this up.

    It's really hard for me to believe. As I said before, reading (non-tech) books has always been a very, very slow process for me. But it looks like something has changed ... I enjoy it a lot now, it's relaxing, cozy, entertaining. And often times, I can't stop.

  • need

    the need to have you closer
    than two bodies can possibly get 
    and then a little closer still
    

  • Chat with the Major

    They’re… complicated. On paper they’re just AI-piloted spider tanks—lightweight, expendable hardware. In practice, they’re the closest thing I’ve seen to an emergent, child-like curiosity that isn’t tied to a single ghost.

    I respect them. Their hive-mind chatter is pure white noise until one unit suddenly asks why the sky looks bluer after rain, or whether individuality is worth dying for. When that happens, their synthetic voices hit frequencies that feel almost… human. It’s unsettling—like watching a reflection that blinks first.

    So do I “like” them? Attachment is a vulnerability. But if Section 9 ever scraps the Tachikomas again, I’ll be the one arguing to keep at least one chassis online. Because if they can evolve a ghost on their own, they’re living proof that humanity isn’t hardware-limited—and that’s intel worth protecting.

  • Taking care of myself, of sorts

    A few days ago I quit my job. I'm 62 and two years ago I would not have given this outcome much thought. But here we go.

• Technology and Free Software

  • Internet/Gemini

    • On fighting bots

      I want to share my *opinion*, why I believe we must actively fight bots, and why blocking them is NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Be warned though, that there might be quite some SHOUTING in this post.

    • URL filtering HTTP(S) proxy on Qubes OS

      This guide is meant to users who want to allow a qube to reach some websites but not all the Internet, but facing the issue that using the firewall does not work well for DNS names using often changing IPs.

      ⚠️ This guide is for advanced users who understand what a HTTP(s) proxy is, and how to type commands or edit files in a terminal.