Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 09/03/2023: Mesa 22.3.7, Samba 4.18.0, Peek Discontinued



  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

      • conflicted

        i've never had a hard time making decisions. when conflicted with two options, i always chose fast and logically. this is why this situation i've encountered myself in is quite odd for me.

        i don't remember the last time i couldn't make a decision swiftly. i'm debating wether i should let a random chance choose for me.

      • Abyss of links

        If your capsule has URLs with numbers in them, and the resulting pages have a link to "next" that adds a constant to the current number, you have this issue, and crawlers may well crawl all the possible numbers. I found another one of these that accepted very big numbers indeed, up to the point where it gave an error about not being able to translate a string to a number.

      • Well-defined Blacks and Stark Whites

        I soaked up myriad musings stretching back to the dawn of the universe as I sat on that bench. I *was* the babe without a single drop of remembrance. I absorbed and penned a novel about the collective consciousness of every being that ever crossed the perimeter of the park. I experienced once again that one must remind oneself to clear the mind completely when traversing a space one has traversed before. If not, the danger of letting one's own past interfere in the current moment looms.

        What I was trying to say, surely, in a non-elliptical tangle, was that it'd be groovy were the park an accumulator of memories from all that traversed it. A container of sorts. Given that, I'll write about something tangential to it.

      • Spring is here!

        Formally is is still winter (night temperatures are still often under zero degrees) but during daytime temperatures are going over 10C here and my spring allergy is back once more.

        It seems that I wrote no phlog after the last SDF server OS upgrade (to the NetBSD 9.3) because only no I realised that the par(1) is not installed.

      • The Nature of Home

        I've found myself in Nightfall City during a layover on my journey back to my hometown, so I figured I'd take a break from typing away in some old office suite on my Motorola Droid Pro and hop into the pub while I'm here.

        Throughout my travels today, the nature of what home is has been on my mind. As a college student, studying hundreds of miles away from where I grew up, it's a peculiar split. On the one hand, my hometown is an integral part of my identity, It's where my partner, parents, brother, and dog are. It's the central point where I can see all my friends who scatter to various corners of the country most of the year. It's the place I go back to so I can connect to all of the people that are close to my heart.

    • Politics

      • Integration

        In Swedish politics, the faction (the blue-brown alliance of KD, M, L, and SD) that has claimed “integration and immigration” as their main talking point has policies that are the opposite of integration.

    • Technical

      • Low Tech in the Midwest

        The double-whammy of a warmer planet and a cooler economy has renewed my interest in reducing my consumption of resources and my impact on the world around me. To that end, I spent the last few evenings reading many posts at Low Tech Magazine ^, a site dedicated to identifying problems caused by modern technology and proposing low-tech solutions to them.

        Some of the ideas proffered by the site made me consider some of the particular challenges I face. I live in the American Midwest, not far from a large metropolis, and conditions in the area seem a tough fit for a number of the site's proposals.

      • Hypocrisy of enterprise IT security

        Quick rant. In work I've been debuging issue with some customers. Recently we updated how our virtual camera works on MacOS. Before we use the DAL interface and now switched to the more secure system extension. DAL works more like how Windows implements virtual camera using Direct Show. The system loads a dynamic library into apps that wants to use it. There's obvious problems, any DAL plugin can execute arbitrary code at that point. Including reading the process's memory and steal confidential information. Also, since DAL is executing as another app. You need a daemon to transport video frames from source to destination.

        So Apple introduced the new API, System extensions. It runs the extension in it's own "sandbox" (ignoring technical details here) and the system does the IPC. Basically a microkernel design so app developers can have low level access to the system while keeping system integrity. Extension can't read anything it shouldn't. After we released this upgrade. Some of our enterprice customers started to complain that they can't install the system extension. We did soem debugging with them. Turns out MDM software can and commonly will block 3rd party system extensions from loading.

      • Losing Signal

        Warning to my friends : Until further notice, consider I’m not receiving your Signal messages.

        Signal, the messaging system, published a blog post on how we were all different and they were trying to adapt to those differences. Signal was for everyone, told the title. Ironically, that very same day, I’ve lost access to my signal account. We are all different, they said. Except myself.

      • Loopy links 🔄

        One thing I found by looking at where my #hashtag crawler went was that some people have a bottomless pit of links.

        The first one I saw was someone exposing a repository of the site content. That included a link to the content itself. Not a link to the actual site, but to the copy of it in the repo. That had a repo link, where you could find a site link, and so on. I spotted this when it got to several levels of site/repo/site/repo/site/repo and told the crawler to give up. I'm mildy curious how deep that could go. I suppose it's limited by the maximum length of a gemini request (assuming that either the server or the client respected that limit).

      • Re: Why it's bad that the web is so feature-rich

        The thing I really hate about stage 4 web (to borrow idiomdrottning's terminology) is being gaslit by webdevs about accessibility, especially as it relates to JavaScript. When I bring up the topic, it's like, "JavaScript isn't harmful for accessibility. In fact, the web is inaccessible without JS." Yeah, I much prefer being able to use the web with command-line tooling and other comfortable tools. But the thing often doesn't even work from the environments that web designers and developers insist that I use.

        This morning, I've asked Deedra to pay our Internet bill, because I couldn't manage it with either Firefox or Chromium on Linux. She tried Brave on Linux, and now she's booted into a Windows VM. If Windows browsers don't work, I'll try my phone. If that doesn't work, we'll try Safari on her iPhone.

      • Video Switch hack

        It seems that I can't concentrate on software much these days.

        A friend had asked me to see what I can do with a broken 80's video switch with about 100 lit pushbuttons. Ah, I remember seeing one of these at a high-end studio back in the day. I found myself drawn to it. How does one light up dozens of incandescent lamps with a microcontroller?

        Well, all the lights were blown out, so I stuck LEDs into the switches. Reverse engineering the board I traced past the drivers to flip-flops for the lamps -- and it worked. I McGivered these into a shift register through creative soldering and lead-clipping, but it the thing was unreliable and after replacing a few chips I gave up on in-circuit modification. I think that someone attached a 12-volt power supply to 5-volt logic, blowing out every lamp and making the logic flaky.

      • Programming

        • Returns

          I've got an old macbook air. The "Enter" key also says "Return" on it. An old Smith-Corona that lives near my desk also has a "Return" key. My PC just says "Enter" at me. Neither word makes a lot of sense in the modern world, but I think "Return" makes more.


* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.



Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft's Bing Falls to Fourth in the Europe/Asia-Based Turkey, Share Halved Since LLM Hype, Now Only 1% (Sometimes Less)
Turkey (Eurasia) is another example of Microsoft failing with LLM hype and just burning a lot of energy in vain (investment without returns)
Backlash and Negative Press After Microsoft Tells Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) People to DIE
Follow-up stories
Censorship as Signal of Opportunity for Reform
It remains sad and ironic that Wikileaks outsourced so much of its official communications to Twitter (now X)
The World Wide Web Has Been Rotting for Years (Quality, Accuracy, and Depth Consistently Decreasing)
In the past people said that the Web had both "good" and "bad" and that the good outweighed the bad
Comoros: Windows Plunges to Record Low of About 6% in Country of a Million People (in 2010 Windows Was 100%)
Many of these people earn a few dollars a day; they don't care for Microsoft's "Hey Hi PC" hype
The Mail (MX) Server Survey for July 2024 Shows Microsoft Collapsing to Only 689 Servers or 0.17% of the Whole (It Used to be About 25%)
Microsoft became so insignificant and the most astounding thing is how the media deliberate ignores it or refuses to cover it
Windows Down From 98.5% to 22.9% in Hungary
Android is up because more people buy smaller mobile devices than laptops
Microsoft Windows in Algeria: From 100% to Less Than 15%
Notice that not too long ago Windows was measured at 100%. Now? Not even 15%.
Microsoft Windows "Market Share" in New Zealand Plunges to 25%
Android rising
SUSE Goes Aryan: You May Not Use the Germanic Brand Anymore (It's Monopolised by the Corporation)
Worse than grammar Nazis
Gratis But Not Free as in Freedom: How Let's Encrypt is Dying in Geminispace
Let's Encrypt is somewhat of a dying breed where the misguided CA model is shunned
 
Fedora Week of Diversity (FWD) 2024 Attracting 0.01% of the IBM Staff "Was a Success"
They expect volunteers (unpaid slaves) to do the PR for them...
African's Largest Population (Nigeria) Approaching 80% Android "Market Share" Amid Steady Monthly Increases While Microsoft Has Mass Layoffs in Nigeria
Microsoft- and Apple-sponsored Western (or English-speaking) media chooses to ignore that or treat it as irrelevant (a racist disposition in its own right)
[Meme] The Warlord's Catspaw
Thugs that troll us
Microsoft Misogyny Will be the Fall of Microsoft (Covering Up for Misogynists is a Huge Mistake and Highly Misguided Short-term Strategy)
Microsoft's undoing may in fact be its attitude towards women
Red Hat Keeps Behaving Like a Microsoft Reseller (for Proprietary Stuff!), Microsoft Employees as Authors in redhat.com
In some ways this reminds us of Novell
UEFI 'Secure Boot' Once Again Bricking PCs and Fake Security Models Are Perishing in Geminispace
Let's Encrypt has just fallen again
Links 17/07/2024: New Attacks on the Press, European Patents Squashed Even at Kangaroo Court (UPC)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/07/2024: Proponents of Censorship and New Arrivals at Gemini
Links for the day
Links 17/07/2024: School Budget Meltdown and Modern Cars as Tracking Nightmares
Links for the day
This Should Certainly be Illegal, But the Person Who Helped Microsoft Do This is Still Attacking the Critics of It
perhaps time for an "I told you so post"
[Meme] A Computer With an Extra Key on the Keyboard Isn't Everyone's Priority
(so your telling me meme)
Africa as an Important Reminder That Eradicating Microsoft Doesn't Go Far Enough
Ideally, if our top goal is bigger than "get rid of Microsoft", we need to teach people to choose and use devices that obey them, not GAFAM
Billions of Computers Run Linux and Many Use Debian (or a Derivative of It)
many devices never get updated or even communicate with the Net, so exhaustive tallies are infeasible
[Meme] Microsoft is Firing
Don't worry, Microsoft will have some new vapourware coming soon
More DEI (or Similar) Layoffs on the Way, According to Microsoft Team Leader
What happened shortly before Independence Day wasn't the end of it, apparently
[Meme] Many Volunteers Now Realise the "Open" in "OpenSUSE" or "openSUSE" Was Labour-Mining
Back to coding, packaging and testing, slaves
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 16, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 16, 2024
[Meme] Ein Factory
A choice between "masters" (or "master race") is a false choice that results in mass exploitation and ultimately eradication (when there's little left to exploit)
Links 17/07/2024: Open Source Initiative Lies and Dark Net Thoughts
Links for the day
Media Distorting Truth to Promote Ignorance
online media is rapidly collapsing
Android Rises to New Highs of Almost 80% in Cameroon
How many dozens of nations will see Windows at under 10% this coming winter?
Links 16/07/2024: TikTok Ban in Europe and Yandex Split
Links for the day
Gemini Links 16/07/2024: On Packrafting and on Trump Shot
Links for the day
[Meme] Firefox Users Who Think They Know Better Than Mozilla
Enjoy Firebook
Firefox Used to Have About Half the Market in Switzerland, But It Doesn't Stand a Chance Anymore (Chrome Surging This Summer)
Mozilla has managed to alienate some of the biggest fans of Firefox
Microsoft's Biggest Losses Are in Europe This Summer
Microsoft's ability to milk a relatively rich Europe is fast diminishing
How to Make Software Suck and Discriminate Against People at the Same Time
ageism glorified
Bing Was at 2.6% in Russia When LLM Hype Started. Now It's Down to 0.8% (for 3 Months in a Row Already)
The sharp fall of Bing may mean that exiting the Russian market won't matter to anybody
[Meme] Microsoft Seems to be Failing to Comply With WARN Act (by Refusing to Announce Mass Layoffs as They Happen)
since when does Microsoft obey the law anyway?
Microsoft Layoffs Are Still Too Frequent to Keep Abreast of and Properly (or Exhaustively) Classify
The "HR" department knows what's happening, but whistleblowers from there are rare
Bahamas Joined the "5% Windows" Club
statCounter only traces back about 1 in 20 Web requests to Windows
Links 16/07/2024: Salesforce Layoffs and Microsoft's DMARC Fail
Links for the day
Antenna Abuse and Gemini Abuse (Self-hosting Perils)
Perhaps all this junk is a sign of Gemini growing up
Possibly Worse Than Bribes: US Politicians and Lawmakers Who Are Microsoft Shareholders
They will keep bailing out Microsoft to bail themselves out
The Software Freedom Conservancy Folks Don't Even Believe in Free Speech and They Act As Imposters (Also in the Trademark Arena/Sense)
Software Freedom Conservancy was already establishing a reputation for itself as a G(I)AFAM censor/gatekeeper
Djibouti Enters the Windows "10% Club" (Windows Was 99% in 2010)
In Africa in general Microsoft lost control
GNU/Linux Share Doubled in the United States of America (USA) in the Past 12 Months
Or so says statCounter
Even in North Korea (Democratic People's Republic Of Korea) Google Said to Dominate, Microsoft Around 1%
Google at 93.26%
[Meme] The Red Bait (Embrace... Extinguish)
They set centos on fire, then offer a (de facto) proprietary substitute for a fee
Shooting the Messenger to Spite the Message
segment of a Noam Chomsky talk
[Video] Boston Area Assange Defense (Yesterday)
It was published only hours ago
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Guinea is not a small country
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GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 15, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, July 15, 2024
What's Meant by "Antenna Abuse" (Gemini)
syndication is not a monopoly in Gemini and if one doesn't condone political censorship, then one can create one's own syndication service/capsule
Microsoft Layoffs and Entire Unit Termination: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
What an announcement to make just before Independence Day
Links 16/07/2024: Old Computer Challenge and One Page Dungeon Contest
Links for the day
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more countries entering the "single-digit Windows" (under 10%) club
Gemini Links 15/07/2024: Antenna's Pro-Hamas Bias Revisited and Old Computer Challenge
Links for the day
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video is not new
Homage to Malta
Malta is probably easy for Microsoft to bribe
IRC at 16
Logging has been used for us and against us
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statCounter milestone?
Links 15/07/2024: China’s Economic Problems, Boeing Under Fire
Links for the day
500 Days' Uptime Very Soon
Good luck doing that with Windows...
Windows Falls Below 20% in Tunisia
A month ago we wrote about GNU/Linux in Tunisia
Links 15/07/2024: Google Wants Wiz and Why "Sports Ruin Everything"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 15/07/2024: Old Computer Challenge and Sending Files via NNCP
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
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IRC logs for Sunday, July 14, 2024