Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • 🐱 The Cat Has Demands

    I regret to inform you that my cat (Luna) has unionized.

    After extensive negotiations (and several bites), we've reached an agreement: I continue to provide food, warmth, and admiration, and in return, the cat continues to ... exist loudly.

    However, there is a new clause: coffee must be provided. Not for me. For the cat. Don't ask questions.

• Technology and Free Software

  • Internet/Gemini

    • Five Years on Gemini

      Rob's Gemini Capsule launched into orbit five years ago today.

      My life was in quite a different place back then. Professionally, 2021 was two jobs ago. I lived in a different city, and though I worked at a local company, I was not allowed to travel on-site due to COVID-19 concerns. America had just experienced a bitterly-divisive Presidential election. Social media became the only mechanism we had to stay in touch with each other--and it was heavily tracked, surveilled and censored. I was overwhelmed by the negative news and caustic slapfights happening all over the mainline Internet. I had already deactivated my Facebook and deleted my Twitter and Reddit accounts, so in 2021, I began to explore the small Web.

      Though the Gemini protocol dates back to 2019, it saw an explosion of popularity in 2021. According to Lupa, the number of Gemini capsules quadrupled from 2021-01-01 to 2022-01-01. Some early adopters embraced Gemini's expansion, and others were alarmed at the new culture that came with it, and some of those pioneers left while others remained. Many have speculated on why Gemini became so popular at that time: I believe COVID-19 restrictions, a toxic social media landscape, and some key signal boosts on HackerNews and Lobste.rs were the big drivers.

    • Switching web browsers - Vivaldi

      For literal decades, I have used Firefox as my daily web browser. Unfortunately, they have been pivoting hard into AI stuff lately, which I'm not a fan of. There aren't many options in the browser world, so I'm not sure that anything else will be any better, but I've been feeling an obligation recently to try something different.

    • OFFLIFIRSOCH 2026 entry

      Naturally I did not have time to do everything I wanted to, but I was able to use the program to input my spendings of March.

      I don't expect anyone else but me to actually use this - or more precisely to be able to use it. I didn't have time to package it any way, so the program is just launched by cloning the repo and saying python main.py. And it really requires understanding of my mental model of it, and understanding my mental state is often a challenge for myself, not to mention others.