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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

France: Apple and Microsoft Down, GNU/Linux Up to New Record Levels
How will tariffs against France impact things in the coming months?
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Privacy Fiasco in Detail: What Was Reported to the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA)
We hope to finish this whole lot within a week, then move on to election, lobbying etc.
Techrights Will Spend the Next Few Years Writing a Lot About Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs)
It's a growing problem
The State of EPO Staff's Health in Rijswijk or The Hague
We're going to cover the EPO some more later in the month
NVIDIA Corp Lost 36% of Its "Value" Since Cheeto Inauguration, But "Gen Hey Hi" (GenAI) is Totally Not a Bubble
Selling loads of unneeded hardware based on hysterical hype; like selling shovels during a Gold Rush
 
Taking a Moral Stand Against Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) and the Worst Offenders/Facilitators
Any other stance would sidle with moral depravity or moral hazard
Links 06/04/2025: Many New Acts of Repression and Elements of Financial Depression
Links for the day
In Qatar GNU/Linux Rose From Under 1% to Over 4% in Two Years (or Over 5% If Counting ChromeOS)
It's a big improvement compared to what we saw last year
LLM Scrapers Are a Nuisance, But They're Also a Reminder It's Time to Make Your Site Static
Perhaps the best protection is the ability to endure surges
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 05, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, April 05, 2025
Links 06/04/2025: Attacks on Education, Fake Patents, and Fake (Illegal) Patent Courts
Links for the day
Links 05/04/2025: Tariffs Backfiring, YouTuber Arrested, X/Twitter Set to be Fined
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/04/2025: Offline is For Everyone, Copyright Colonialism, and More
Links for the day
Links 05/04/2025: TikTok Unsold (Still), Royal Society is Dead
Links for the day
GNU/Linux Growing in East Asia, Windows by Default No More?
GNU/Linux is now on the shelf
Slopwatch: Anti-Linux 'Articles' From Linux-Hostile LLMs
It is almost always negative things and nobody can be held responsible for it except the charlatans prompting the LLMs
Links 05/04/2025: Fentanylware (TikTok) "Sale Looks Highly Imminent" (US), Stock Market Drowning in Panic
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/04/2025: Moving Plants, No to Smartwatches, RAID Hygiene
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 04, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, April 04, 2025
Techrights Has Dealt With More Potent SLAPPs Than Violent Microsofters Begging to Hide What They Did to Women
I became accustomed to SLAPPs
Links 04/04/2025: Fury in South Korea, Flight MH370 Remains Mystery
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/04/2025: Anger and Raspberry Pi CM4
Links for the day
Links 04/04/2025: LLM Slop Bubble Bursting and Korea Music Copyright Association Bans Slop 'Music'
Links for the day
Traf-O-Data, the Company That Jeffrey Epstein's BFF (Bill Gates) (Co)Founded 53 Years and Went Out of Business Due to Heavy Losses
Who will die first, Bill or Microsoft?
Why Microsoft's Shares Sank Almost 20% in Recent Months (the Bubble is Imploding)
verified press reports from the past 24 hours
A Note on SimilarWeb
Or why SimilarWeb is meaningless for more than 99% of the sites on the Web
GNU/Linux Rises to Almost 5% in Algeria While Windows Sinks to All-Time Low
GNU/Linux grew tenfold
Where to Get More Gags
A valued reader recommended that to us
Links 04/04/2025: Tech Stock (Inc. GAFAM) Fall, Google Pretends to Do End-to-End Encrypted Emails (With Google in Control)
Links for the day
IBM Said to be Shutting Down Offices or Sites in the United States
the press can no longer avoid admitting that IBM moves many jobs to India
To Participate in Fedora Diversity You Must Use Proprietary Software
Not for the first time either
LLM Slop as Attack Vector on the Reputation of Linux
The attacks on Linux have escalated to information warfare
Yandex About to Be Three Times Bigger Than Microsoft (Bing) in Asia
That's about 60% of the world's population
Gemini Links 04/04/2025: Decoupling Updates, Elaho as Gemini Client
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 03, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 03, 2025