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Read Techrights Every Day Without a Web Browser, Using a Cron Job

Operation Bloat Killa'

Kate  with Techrights



Summary: How to read the Web site Techrights (including Daily Links and IRC logs) without the hassles of bloat and manual work

SINCE OCTOBER of last year Techrights has been fully and entirely available as text files. We're programmers by trade (most of us), so it's not a big task. Over time we further refined a number of things in order to enhance clarity, automate generation, 'upload' (the technical term is add) everything to IPFS automatically 'in the background' (making copies or placing mirrors of the objects in several countries around the planet) and so on. It's periodically updated around 3 AM every morning (British time). It's almost the quietest time of the day.



"Each time we bypass the Web to receive information (or at least bypass browsers) we exercise some level of liberty and if enough of us do it, change for the better will happen."A lot of people quite likely ignore everything we've said about IPFS ("it's not for me" and "I don't care!") and prefer HTTP/HTML because unlike text file it contains images and other stuff. But let's face it; much clutter can be avoided by reading news from one's text editor or command like. Speaking for myself, I read most of the news in my text editor, Kate, which imports from RSS feeds and prepares neat summaries, sorted chronologically and logically. It's the only feasible way to 'consume' a lot of information and keep abreast of world affairs.

For Techrights, unlike with most sites, the process is greatly simplified because we're making the conversions at our end, every night, and then generate complete daily bulletins.

Assuming you are using a UNIX-like system (BSD, GNU/Linux and even MacOS), it ought to be very simple to set up the machine for reading the site without a Web browser, only an Internet connection and a text editor, either command line (lynx, curl, wget etc.) or a graphical user interface. As the bulletins are generated overnight at roughly the same (predictable) time it's also possible to set up cron jobs and automate the fetching process. Here's an example

$ crontab -l



05 04 * * * DISPLAY=:0.0 kate http://techrights.org/txt 05 04 * * * DISPLAY=:0.0 falkon http://techrights.org/ipfs


The above says that every morning at 5:04 AM (my time, GMT) the KDE text editor "kate" will fetch the bulletin generated a couple of hours earlier. It'll open it in a new window.

Then, my Web browser "falkon" will open a page with the list of all IPFS objects, sorted and grouped by type. For a text version of these objects use falkon http://techrights.org/ipfs/txt (or "firefox" instead of "falkon" if you prefer that browser). Of course kate http://techrights.org/ipfs/txt is also a possibility because it's just a plain text file. Some people prefer fetching this index and then processing it from the command line, e.g. ipfs cat [some latest CID/s]. We've formatted the file for easy consumption from the command line. This file is being updated and kept complete 3 times per day.

crontab -e will let you edit the list of cron jobs in order to add something like the above. It may depend on what programs you prefer, what times of the day suit you, and what operating system is used (Wayland was never tested, but this ought to work with systemd too).

Here's another example. Type crontab -e and then add the following:

0 09 * * * DISPLAY=:0.0 gedit  http://techrights.org/txt
30 10 * * * DISPLAY=:0.0 gedit http://techrights.org/ipfs/txt


This has been tested at my end as well. It means to say (instruct) that the GNOME editor will open the bulletin at 9AM every morning and then at 10:30 it will fetch the latest list of IPFS objects, which include all the IRC logs (as HTML and plain text files).

Gedit with TechrightsThe Bloat Wide Web (WWW) has been a boon to the surveillance industry. Even many Web browsers are nowadays just spying on the users on behalf of browsers owners. It's their business model. Each time we bypass the Web to receive information (or at least bypass browsers) we exercise some level of liberty and if enough of us do it, change for the better will happen. The same is true to some degree when it comes to RSS feeds, as opposed to social control media and mind-reading 'search' engines.

If Techrights can be served in a decentralised fashion and in lightweight form, it'll ease the strain on our server, which has just come under ma assive DDOS attack (literally while I was typing this post). We're growing over time and we want to ensure that access to the site will be preserved (along with free speech, which a social control media oligopoly is eager to suppress).

Recent Techrights' Posts

Google Spreading Misinformation and Lies
Google is in the propaganda business
New Video Report About Microsoft Cancelling Multi-Billion Dollar Projects
direct link to the video
Microsoft is Already Laying Off Lots of Contractors
cost-cutting at Microsoft takes a new "edge"
Coming Soon: Microsoft Fake Results, Mass Layoffs, and Silence About All the People Microsoft Pressured to "Quit" (So That They Don't Get Counted as Layoffs)
there will be more mass layoffs
 
Just Sending More and More Threats Does Not Change the Fact We Got Abused for Many Years and Women Got Strangled
Wanting a "gag order" - or sometimes injunctions - by sending many threats
Links 29/04/2025: Water Scarcity, LLM Slop Backfiring Again in Legal Documents
Links for the day
statCounter: GNU/Linux Adoption Surging in Switzerland, Windows at All-time Low
What happened?
Gemini Links 28/04/2025: Free Speech and Perfectionism in Design
Links for the day
What Fake News Looks Like (IBM)
IBM told a lie. The media then just blindly repeated this lie.
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, April 28, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, April 28, 2025
China is Already Culling GAFAM (Not Just Microsoft Windows)
OS monoculture or "OS hegemony" may be coming to an end
The "Telephone Operating System in the Vatican" is 95 Years Old, Vatican Moved to GNU/Linux
Maybe Microsoft is down to zero already
If Tesla Shares (and Alleged Value) Fell 55% (From $489 to $222) in a Few Months Maybe It's Not Worth Anything At All (It's Just Gambling)
Tesla swasticars have turned from a "status symbol" into a "public embarrassment" and cause for casual humiliation
Chromebooks' Adoption in Sweden No Longer Depends on Schools
School breaks are when classrooms are shut
No, IBM is Not Investing $150 Billion in the US and It Doesn't Even Have That Kind of Money
Here we go again... media as a vehicle of lobbying and misinformation
Leak: The EPO's General Consultative Committee (GCC) Does Not Consult Staff on Crucial Matters and Bypasses the Administrative Council (AC) to Do Illegal Things
violations against the EPO's very staff
New Leaks Coming Soon, We Maintain 100% Record of Successful Resistance to Censorship
We won't be told what we can and cannot say (especially when it's true)
Central African Republic (CAR): Vista 11 is Only ~0.2% Market Share
99.8% to go!
BSD and GNU/Linux Replaced Microsoft in Secure Servers, All Microsoft Has Left is LLM Slop for Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD)
the FUD machine never rests
Gemini Links 28/04/2025: A Simple Task Tracking and Auto-Prioritization Tool and Other Programs
Links for the day
Links 28/04/2025: Canada's Election, Pakistan-India Conflict
Links for the day
Speed of GNU/Linux
The media seldom speaks of the dangers of "proprietary software"
Glue Inside Your Pizza (or Why People Will Get Fed Up With Slop)
People are given "answers" from non-intelligence word dumpsters
Proprietary Windows Versus "Linux" News (Trying to Keep People on Windows, Never Exploring GNU/Linux)
Good editors know better how to recognise threats and not give them lip service
Ensuring That Every Computer User Anywhere in the World Can Take Control of All His or Her Computers
We must fight the people who attack general-purpose computing, in particular those who push this agenda very aggressively inside Linux
Links 28/04/2025: Cyberattacks Happening, Chatbots Disappointing, and "Free Speech Under Fire"
Links for the day
Phone Adoption Very Low in Vatican, Windows Usage Fell Nonetheless
Even in places where people still use desktops/laptops most of the time (and have access to these) Windows is gradually losing ground
GNU/Linux 9% in Cuba, Vista 11 Waning, Android Dominant
Microsoft has pretty much lost Cuba
Gemini Links 28/04/2025: Autism and Structural Navigation
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, April 27, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, April 27, 2025
What Happened to the Open Source Initiative (OSI) Elections: The Purge, the Cover-up, and the Witch-hunts
OSI has gone "full Microsoft"
In 24 Countries Observed by statCounter Vista 11 is Still Less Than a Quarter of Windows Users Despite All Other Versions Being 'Expired'
They ought to move to GNU/Linux
Links 27/04/2025: Pope Goodbyes, "Politics of Fear", Slop Redux and More Google Shutdowns (Google Debt Had Grown This Year)
Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Serenity Dialectics, Hockey Jersey Ethics, and More
Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Death of Nest Thermostats, Death of Metaverse
Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Projects Workflow and Discovering Technology
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 26, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, April 26, 2025