Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • Culture Is Stuck

    Same film again, same story again, same product on the shelf again. Why does almost nothing get time to breathe before it gets recycled and chewed back out?

    The Same Cultural Loop, Again and Again

    In cinemas and on electronics shelves I keep running into the same things. New films recycle old material, series reuse familiar characters, products copy successful predecessors almost exactly. In the last century, a subculture had years to build its own language and aesthetic before marketers even noticed something interesting was happening. Only then did the machine chew it up. Today the cycles are so short that almost nothing gets the chance to become known before the next trend gets demanded. Is that really just exploitation, or also a sign that nobody has the patience left to try or get to know something completely new?

  • in a language unknown

    the way you respond only to me
    in a language 
    unknown to almost everyone else
    makes me forget 
    there are people watching 
    silently
    and then the moment is over 
    until next time
    

• Science

  • Can a Robot Write a Symphony? (Part 1)

    Well, yes, it can.

    Thank you for your attention, see you next time!

    ...or see you right now, if you also feel confused when it comes to AI art, what it is, how it relates to old-fashioned human art and whether it is art at all.

  • On Maths, Science and Faith

    John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was convinced that should he study mathematics to any depth he’d become an atheist. If he had taken that journey, I venture to suggest he would have discovered that he was wrong.

    I’m not any kind of mathematician. I pretty much crashed and burned in my university maths classes, though I have always had a fascination for the subject. One of the most remarkable and beautiful things I’ve ever seen is “Euler’s identity”:

    "e to the i pi = -1"

• Technology and Free Software

  • Replacing the battery in my SteelSeries Arctis 1 Headset

    After writing that, I felt I should really attempt to fix the headset in an attempt the divert it from landfill for at least another few years. After all, it's still a good headset and I like that it has a RF dongle that works with OpenBSD (which has no Bluetooth stack!).

    So I sourced a replacement battery, which came in a kit along with some socketed cables, sticky pads and spudgers. I did manage the repair, and the headset is now fully functional, but I feel like the experience serves as a good example of why most people simply wouldn't bother.

  • Internet/Gemini

    • I've been neglecting my capsule... here's an update

      My last log was well over two weeks ago. I've had a lot going on in life, but I feel like I should post a little more regularly. But then again, isn't that the nature of Geminispace? No pressure, a laisser-faire attitude?

      Maybe...

      I started my first class in pursuit of my master's of arts in American History this week. Last time I was in a college class was 11 years ago. I've been focused on that.