Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • hollow

    empty smiles
    empty words
    empty laughs
    

  • Shadows of the Upper Peninsula

    Just about a year ago, I published my first book, "Shadows of the Upper Peninsula". It is a ghost story that starts in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, in Houghton, an area I know quite well! Though there are inklings of "Shadows" going all the way back to 2019, I started it over from scratch in October 2024, and finished it in June 2025. I officially released it the following month.

    Writing a book is very rewarding, especially one where your imagination comes to life. It is kind of like letting people take a peek inside your head, seeing what you think about, the stories you tell, when you close your eyes.

• Technology and Free Software

  • 2026 Old Computer challenge: Day 1

    Didn't make any progress on the Music today, I got distracted setting up things like RSS/Atom feed reading (copied from previous years on the older machine) and reading Fedi (using the scripts I also developed in previous years). In doing so, though, I also found out that the Multiple Desktops feature of flwm-topside is a bit temperamental: windows seem to randomly jump between desktops. I had hoped that feature would help me negotiate the fact that I only have 800x600 resolution, but it appears not ideal.

    This is not as nice to type on as the Dell Inspiron beast I usually use for the challenge; probably as a result of the form-factor, though the keyboard uses late 2000s keyswitches instead of the nice more-mechanical-like ones from the late 1990s used by the Inspiron, so that could also be to blame.

  • Old Computer Challenge, 2026

    Well dang. I have been neglecting the old phlog lately. Although that's not quite as true as it might appear. I have two phlog posts in the works, one of which attempts to trace the origins of the professional specialization of "systems librarian" (hey, it's a topic that could conceivably be of interest to someone other than me ... maybe) and the other which offers some reflections on an online conference I attended a couple of weeks ago, LIMITS 2026. Both are pretty far along, but somehow they seem to get less interesting with every additional paragraph I write, so I haven't been able to dredge up the motivation to finish them yet.

    Which brings me to the topic of this post, the 2026 Old Computer Challenge [1]. It starts today (July 5) and runs all week, so if I want to participate I pretty much have to get something online today. Now there's some good motivation!