Bonum Certa Men Certa

What Gemini and IPFS Are to the Internet (or Tackling Misconceptions About the Web and Web Browsers)

Video download link



Summary: There's a lot more to the Internet than bloated and manipulative Web browsers; let's examine how we've come to the current mess and means of change for the better

THE Internet and the Web are not the same thing. A lot of people cannot tell the difference. To many people the Internet means the Web browser (to some it used to mean "the blue E") and in some developing nations "Internet" just means Facebook or "apps". It's sad, but the terms mean different things to different people and there's usually a deep or profound misconception. To many young people, for example, Webmail is all there is to E-mail (usually controlled by companies that spy on or "scan" the mail, then "monetise" the data), just as to many people USENET or newsgroups (NNTP) is just "Google Groups". Many still remember the days a Web browser came with a mail client (SeaMonkey still does this) and trying to explain to people what IPFS is can be rather tricky, unless a Web gateway for IPFS is shown. The same is true for Gemini; gateways or Web proxies do exist, but that's just not the intended purpose. There's much more to the Internet than browsers and "apps" (nowadays many people call browsers just "apps").



"Thankfully, however, there's a lot more to the Internet than just the Web."I've attempted to explain what Gemini is, how it relates to the Web (almost not at all, it's light a substitute to it), and how IPFS generally works (it's related to neither Gemini nor the World Wide Web; its purpose too is different).

Techrights access requires an Internet connection. Whether one then uses it to fetch a text file (daily bulletins can be accessed directly from text editors), access Gemini capsules, open a Web browser or retrieve the latest objects from IPFS depends on one's preference. At the moment there are at least those 4 options. In theory we could also create an open (S)FTP connection, but we find it hard to believe anyone wishes to read Techrights by retrieving files from an FTP server.

InternetThe Web sucks, mostly because Web browsers became bloated and distorted Web standards to suit their monopolistic and user-hostile (e.g. DRM/EME) agenda. Thankfully, however, there's a lot more to the Internet than just the Web. The image on the right is the one drawn while making the video at the top.

The EPO management is certainly unhappy to see what we publish. This corrupt management is trying to prevent EPO staff from accessing this site. Benoît Battistelli and António Campinos have both blocked the site, but since there are many ways to access the stories they've basically fallen behind technologically. We try to stay ahead of the curve.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Slopwatch: Planet Ubuntu Became LLM Slop and Some People Fail to See the Immorality of Plagiarism
it lessens the incentive for people to publish real articles
Microsoft Layoffs Again in Bay Area
Microsoft relies on people's false belief that being "in LinkedIn" will get you a job; well, seems like even working inside LinkedIn really sucks and you lose the job
People's Understanding of the History of GNU/Linux is Changing
RMS is not a radical, he's just clever enough to see and foresee what's going on
Microsofters Were Scheming to Take Over This Entire Web Site (in Their Own Words!)
Money gets spent censoring/deplatforming people who speak about real issues; no money gets spent actually tackling those underlying issues
Bicycles for the Minds and the Story Harrison Bergeron
"The goal of having people in charge of the tools they use and that the tools should amplify ability" has long been abandoned
 
Signing Off Serious Lies With a Statement of Truth is No Joking Matter
It's not hard to see what's happening here
Links 30/05/2025: LLM Slop Already Ingests and Vomits Its Own Garbage, Facebook Exec Admits Copyrights a Concern Too
Links for the day
Mass Layoffs at Microsoft Result in More Whistleblowers From Microsoft
Microsoft's predatory pricing is further
EPO Poll: 68% Dissatisfied With Quality of Slop (Wrongly Framed as "AI") for Patent Classification
Slop does not work, it's just falsely advertised with extra hype (funded by slop pushers that sponsor the major media)
Big Crowds Gather to Learn About Software Freedom From the Man Who Started GNU/Linux in 1983
"It was a great success"
Gemini Links 30/05/2025: Fighting Against the Bad News, and Slop is Dehumanisation Disguised as "Intelligence"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 29, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, May 29, 2025
Links 29/05/2025: Chinese Cracking Against EU Institutions (Prague), More Assaults on Media and Its Funding Sources
Links for the day
EPO Workers Caution That the Officials Are Still Illegally Trying to Replace Staff With Slop (to Lower Quality and Validity of European Patents)
Nobody in Europe voted for any of this
Links 29/05/2025: US Health Deficit and Malware Disguised as Slop Generator
Links for the day
Links 29/05/2025: Turtle Roadkill, Modern 'Tech' as a Sting
Links for the day
Thanks for All the Fish, Linux Format
people who once wrote for it (or for other magazines) comment on the importance of this news
Links 29/05/2025: YouTube Problem and Giant Privacy Hole in Microsoft OneDrive
Links for the day
[Video] Cory Doctorow Explains DMCA: DRM in the Browser (or Webapp) Will "Make It a Felony to Protect Your Privacy While You Use It."
Pycon US Keynote Speaker Cory Doctorow
United States Courts With Sworn Testimonies Are on Our Side, We'll Present the Same Here
Chronicling what happened is a moral imperative
Serial Sloppers Ruin and Lessen the Incentive to Cover "Linux"
The Serial Sloppers (SSs) ought to be named and shamed, but almost nobody does this
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, May 28, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Links 28/05/2025: 'Emulation Layers' (Measurements and Linguistics), Libraries, and Discomfort
Links for the day
Links 28/05/2025: More Arrests for Bitcoin-Connected Torture and Prosecutions for Dieselgate-Linked Executives
Links for the day
Even Microsoft (MSN) Covers Richard Stallman's Public Talk in Milan 2 Days Ago
He spoke in Spanish earlier this month (Alicante)
Gemini Links 28/05/2025: Techo-authoritarianism With Slop Plagiarism and "No Online June" (Going Offline)
Links for the day
Links 28/05/2025: GitHub MCP Exploited and MathWorks Discovers Huge Windows TCO
Links for the day
Very High Attendance Level at Richard Stallman's Talk Shows People Can Relate to His Message
Smear campaigns have their limits
Gemini Links 28/05/2025: Celsius-Fahrenheit, Endless Scrolling/Infinite Scrolling, and Trapping LLM Slop Bots
Links for the day
Prison gate backdrop to baptism by Fr Sean O'Connell, St Paul's, Coburg
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
More Photos From This Week's Milan Talk by Richard Stallman
The posts are in Italian, not English
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, May 27, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, May 27, 2025