Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • Retirement party

    My weeks have been exhausting lately. Work has been a lot, I've been putting in some terribly long hours, and I spend most nights wishing I had the energy to do something creative, but failing utterly. Instead, I sit in a kind of numb shock, occasionally managing to progress in one of the books I've been reading, but mostly occupying that static void of anxious fatigue, unable to decompress before the cycle starts again the next day.

    One day this week, to my great pride and mild astonishment, I was able to break this cycle a little bit. I left work early, and went to a retirement party for a colleague whose tenure was old enough to vote.

    I do not consider myself a party person, but this party was wonderful. It was heartwarming. Many current and former colleagues came out for the retiree. Her team members were so sweet and kind in their interactions. Some people say that you should not confuse work with family, but this group acted like they were a family. There was a lot of hugging, and even some tears. It was a good vibe that I haven't been getting enough of lately.

  • future crafts

    ideas for things i'd like to try:

    * making a frame loom and weaving on it (but what?) a big one or a little one, to then sew the pieces together? more sewing but more flexibility on what to make

    * try sprong (with store-bought, maybe acrylic, yarn so that it doesn't felt as it moves?)

    * clay and cloth dollies (would salt dough work?)

    * maybe those (what is it even called?) aluminium etching decorations? would fit with our usual christmas tree aesthetic

  • Tighter than a fish's arse.

    Why is it, that people with the most money seem to be upset if they perceive that you want to charge for things like they clearly do... almost like they don't want you to possibly make money from them. Is this because they know how they charge for their stuff, and therefore assume everyone else is doing the same? I can only assume that to be the case. They just can't perceive that someone would only be charging enough to cover their costs plus a bit to actually live.

  • I've retired early years ago already

    After some misunderstanding with Matto[1], who congratulated me for my retirement, because he thought I just retired recently, I think I have to put things strait for everybody, to stay authentic.

    I've retired early already years ago, because of some health issues, but I feel fine, so no worries.

    But for some reason, the song "Maggie's Farm" from Bob Dylan came to my mind[2] and reminded me, how fantastic I feel, because I don't have to worry about work anymore and can stay up the whole night to hack on my computers.

  • Could Barely Sleep Last Night

    Had our first gig of the summer last night. It went really well, and it felt surreal stepping out onto a stage I'd watched from the crowd countless times (most recently, Whitehorse, Aysanabee...). But we were ready. I cacked a couple notes. That's the instrument. For a live performance, and my first big performance in a small group maybe ever, I couldn't be more pleased.

  • Elogio della parola - In praise of words

    Starting today, I'll write mostly in Italian but I'll provide a revised automatic English translation at the bottom of the page. We need more languages on Gemini.

  • Caterpillar

    We found two big swallowtail caterpillars on the wild carrots growing on our balcony. My wife wrapped the plants in a net to protect them from birds and ordered a butterfly home. The next day one caterpillar had disappeared. 😭 But when the butterfly home arrived on day three we still had one and on day four we found a third caterpillar on a wild carrot on the lawn nearby. We took it in. 😍

  • Bike Trips

    This summer we had 2 less or more planned bike trips. Or rather trips with bikes a we usually arrive by train, bike to the hotel, and then have some trekking and some biking from the hotel.

    Nothing exactly special. There was a short visit to Graz (in Austrie) with the Moulton [1] TSR9 bikes. These machines can be divided in half and stored in relatively small (about 1.5x1.0x0.3n) bags but we (we=me and my wife) decided to use them as a "big" bikes. So we selected a train with bike space the Polish trains (which usually are there on their Poland->Czechia->Austria line) don't have well-designed bike holders (their lower part interferes with derraileurs of our 20" bikes) so I worked out a solution - I carry a silicon strap to attach the rim to the outermost part of the stand. It usually works. I noticed that people with large wheels on their bikes are OK at bottom part but have issues at top park of the holder vecause of limited space.

• Technology and Free Software

  • Cool Quake Stuff

    It's just ticked past 30 years since the original Quake was released, and there is still cool stuff being created.

  • Oddμ workflow

    How do I use Oddmu to write blog posts on my phone? Here’s a photo documentary, so to speak. 😅

  • Lenovo X61s

    I don't use this device too much. Actually it wasn't used to a few years. It's slow with modern OS (I mean Linux as Window are out of game here for a long time already) and battery is weak (I replaced it before about 10 years, I think). Also 1024x768 is something that modern WWW pages tend to ignore.

    I needed to have a Linux machine a few days ago (to test some Tcl code). Thi was on my work desk, charged. So I tried it. WiFi worked (better tahn it does on my MNT) and Tcl/Tk code worked quite well, too (I only have had to install dev files to make C accelerator library working). My code is expected to run on a SGI Indigo with basic graphics (1024x768) so the screen size wasn't an issued here. Quite nice!

  • Going full grayscale

    This is not a new topic, I found a lot information about it on Internet. It resembles a kind of perpetual topic. There is always someone curious about this topic, like myself, who asks about it or shows how they did it.

    Personally, this started as a test: I wanted to see whether putting my Android phone in black and white — or, more properly, grayscale — would make it less attractive to my daughter. In terms of neurological stimulus, colors do have an effect on our brain, while grayscale images do not. But it turned out that I was the one who found the grayscale screen more comfortable.

  • Internet/Gemini

    • No RSS

      I have been using RSS channels for ages. It' has been my preferred way to get new information. I used the SnowNews on my IRIX (the irix port has been very fragile and often fails but I used it for years), the Vienna on the OS X (when I was still using the OS X frequently) and the Liferea recently (from about 2019). I also used integrated RSS clienst son my Linux dvices (the SnowNews on the Ben Nanonote, and clients on Nokia's 770/N800/N81/N900 devices).

    • thelovebug: Resurgence

      Ok, so not really a blockbuster movie. But the name would be really cool.

      [...]

      I think what did it for me originally was the lack of interactivity within the Gemini platform. But now with the addition of social networking (of a fashion) and games, there definitely appears to be something to do on Gemini

    • usenet_reborn 1.0, RRChat and Micron-Navigator

      viernes, julio 31, 2026

      Hola hackers! Happy Hacking to all the DIY, creators and tinkers out there. Been heads down on the Reticulum/mesh side of things and it's time for an update - one update, two brand new tools.

      usenet_reborn hits 1.0.0!

      usenet_reborn is OUT at 1.0.0! It now has all the features needed to run as a lite TUI Usenet client. Today I added X-post - forward an article you're reading straight to other newsgroups - which is what it needed to be fully usable for everyday use.