Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • Tea

    Time to order some tea.

• Politics and World Events

  • Mute

    All these days I keep hearing about the terrible situation in Palestine, in Ukraine, and the madness of the Trump administration, and I just don't know what to say. Kidnapping a dictator like they did Noriega in Panama. Threatening Denmark and its allies -- theoretically still allies of the USA! -- and mercilessly trying to push the USA into riots, maybe civil unrest, maybe civil war, maybe a collapse.

  • Re: The Sysop's Tale Phlog from 2026-01-17

    I just read your post from Sat, 17 Jan 2026. And I can't tell you enough how much I agree! I was born in 1975, when Germany was still under occupation. But the Americans seemed the good guys like you said. And they did a lot for the "denazification" of the next generation after WWII. They were generally honored for bringing democracy to Germany (together with Britain and France).

    But as much as I'm against right-wing people and Nazis, the Germans suffered a lot for the "collective guilt" for the first 30 years after the war, like Alex Schroeder said in a post. That may be understandable, but then, they shouldn't be wondering why everybody hates the US today, which they seem to do.

• Technology and Free Software

  • Analog cameras in 2025

    Not much happened here. For the most cases I used the Olympus [mju:] (the oldes version with no zoom) because of it's size. I used the Minolta XD5 less frequently then I would like. I thing mainly because in the most of cases I had no space for full-sized analog camera with bigger lens (I tend to use very small bags on my bikes and also trying to be as light as possible because I'm not good in climbing on a bike). I still have the old and simple Agfa Click (and I'm still being surprised how good pictures this basic device makes). But I used the device very infrequently. I also used my Smena 8M (one roll of a film in total).

  • Plucker in 2026

    Do you remember the Plucker [1] software for the Palm Pilot devices? Some years ago I did used it on daily basis to get news into my Palm (or other device which can read this format). The FBreader can read the Plucker format so I used to read documents in the Plucker format on my Nokia 770/N800/N810 or on my Zaurus machines.

    During the time I have ceased to use this format. Mainly because my changing habits (I ceased to read in my bed and stopped to carry a PDA, for example). I still have documents in the Plucker format here and there.

    To download RSS feeds and WWW sites and cot convert them to the Plucker format I used the jPluck [2],[3] on the IRIX macjines (mainly on my SGI O2). It's a Java software so it runs on the IRIX reliably but extremelyslowly. Thiw wasn't an issue as it usually worked in background (my SGI O2 has 250MHz CPU).

  • SOMA, off the backlog after nine years

    I finally have gotten around to playing SOMA. I got it in 2017 and always put off playing it for other games. So far, it's been keeping me engaged for the most part, but some parts have also been bothering me, which is leaving me with mixed feelings that I haven't completely sorted out.

    By my count, SOMA is actually the first pure horror game I've played! I've played games with horror sections (like Half-Life Alyx) and comedy horror games (like Anthology of the Killer, though it's only mild horror). SOMA is my first time playing a game that's entirely about being scared. As a result, my impression of SOMA is also mixed in with my first experience with a horror game.