Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 04/05/2023: IDEs Reviewed, Chatbots Debunked



  • Games

  • Technical

    • IDE Shopping

      Emacs was the first alternative I tried, really just because I know some people are able to really get into it and turn it into something powerful.

      I learn new tools best by finding a good starter config and making tweaks until I'm familiar enough where I could do it from scratch. I learned tiling window managers this way and am now currently using my own unique config, and it's also how I got into Linux in the first place by starting with Ubuntu Gnome (back when Unity was still the default DE) and eventually finding my way to Arch. So to tackle Emacs I set myself up with a popular configuration framework called Doom Emacs.

      [...]

      If you're interested in the differences between Vim and Neovim you're probably better off having someone else explain them to you. But from what I understand, Neovim is just a fork of Vim that's meant to be more maintainable and allow for more powerful plugins.

      After looking into and trying a couple different starter configs for Neovim, I eventually settled on LunarVim. Now LunarVim isn't so much a starter config. The project's website describes it as an "IDE layer for Neovim with sane defaults", and because LunarVim installs itself alongside your existing Neovim install and separates the user's config from its own, I'd say that feels accurate.

    • Pumpkin Patch

      Today I saw Brodie Robertson's latest video on the latest systemd feature, where you can reboot only the user space. I think that is pretty cool and welcome it's development. However, I can't entirely think of scenarios where it would be needed, I mostly reboot because I want to reboot my entire system. AFAIK the user space reboot is everything except the kernel, so I guess one would use it when you undergone a "standard" update of packages, mostly?

    • Science/Sci-Fi

      • The Forth

        That was from last year, but I remembered it was forth day too late this year and didn't have any ideas for something that could be quickly churn out.

      • Proof That ChatGPT Is Not Sentient

        There’s a childish variation of the Turing Test that ChatGPT fails today.

        Simply parrot whatever ChatGPT says.

        Then keep doing it.

        It won’t notice what you’re doing, and it won’t get bored or frustrated.

        If you’ve never played this game, find any sentient being and try it. But I suspect you already know how it should go.

        QED.

        [...]

        If you’re not convinced, just keep repeating. It must eventually become clear to you that there is nothing behind the curtain—just as it will never become clear to (this iteration of) ChatGPT that something untoward is going on.

    • Internet/Gemini

      • Metaverses

        I am perpetually late to the party. andi (@mcc on cohost), who I sort of peripherally knew-of when she was on Twitter, posted an essay in the early bird-migration days at cohost, on the various ideas of the metaverse: Stephenson's original conception, Facebook's ambitions (largely jettisonned), and others.

        [...]

        In some sense we've reached feature parity, thirty years later. We've also got the same level of control over our own identities on the platform, which is to say, barely any at all; we can choose to use the platform or not, but if we go, that's it. We can't take our Instagram data and import it elsewhere, not in any meaningful sense. We're stuck with apps and no overarching protocol.

        The Fediverse is a partial answer to that, allowing social verbs or ideas that work across a variety of platforms. But as you may have seen when trying to convince your mutuals to make the move to Mastodon, it comes with a tradeoff. It's not as instinctively simple as shitposting on Twitter. It requires people to think a little bit about their data and interactions. Most people don't want to do that, and so Mastodon won't take off until Twitter's last day. Maybe after that we'll start to see people other than idealistic free software types and disaffected tweeps in the Fediverse.

      • Writing process

        Like many geminauts, I've coded my own content management script.

        [...]

        Now, this assumes that I am to write and publish my text in the same session. This doesn't necessarily encourage afterthought and reflection.

        My last post "broke" my content management script. A geminaut very kindly sent me a message to tell me. I was very grateful, but also, it made me realize that people actually read my posts... which I should have expected, right? That is, after all, why I write?

        Certainly, but I suspect that actively ignoring that fact was what made it possible for me to write without getting caught in doubts and anxiety. But if I am to become a better writer, I also need to think about the audience, about the necessary context I have to include and the unnecessary grumbling I can spare them. Therefore, I need a bit more space to think, or at least some space to have distance.

        I'll try to implement something like a 12- or 24-hours quarantine. This way, I get a chance to revise posts before sending them. But also, since it's a one-time quarantine, I don't get to revise indefinitely. Maybe it's more akin to having an editor (except it's me). A busy one, who doesn't want back and forth.


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Hijacked Again by Patent Litigation Industry, as President Cheeto Prioritises Aggressors
The "mafia" has taken over the "industry" and the Federal system (justice and constitutions trampled upon)
Ubuntu Slop and FUD Manufactured With LLMs and Funded (by Oneself) 'Studies'
Slop and FUD are ruining the Web
Gemini Links 01/04/2025: Games and More
Links for the day
Why We're Reporting Brett Wilson LLP for Apparently Misusing Their Licence to Protect American Microsofters Who Attack Women
For those who have not been keeping abreast
Stefano Maffulli and His Microsoft-Funded OSI Staff Are Killing the OSI and Killing "Open Source" (All for Money!)
This is far from over
Techrights Headlines as Semaphore
"If you are hearing this, thank you"
 
The Web Can Survive LLM Slop, But Only If We Collectively Shun and Discourage Serial Sloppers
Doing nothing ought not be a possibility
Amid Secret Shut-downs and Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (4 Waves of Layoffs in 3 Months of 2025) Some Microsoft Staff Expected to Go On Strike
workers going on strike
Gemini Links 02/04/2025: No more on Mastodon and Gemini Mention Script in Go
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, April 01, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, April 01, 2025
My Motion Disbarring or “Striking Off” Brett Wilson LLP for Enabling Violent Americans Who Try to Crush Microsoft Critics in the United Kingdom by Multiple SLAPPs
"Guns for hire" (for Microsoft people who received Microsoft salaries)
Links 01/04/2025: Apple Fined $162M for Privacy Abuses, Disinformation Online a Growing Concern
Links for the day
Newer Press Reports Confirm That Microsoft Shuts Down 'Hey Hi' (AI) Labs Despite All the Hype
The "hey hi" (AI) bubble is not sustainable
Links 01/04/2025: Mass Layoffs at Eidos and "Microsoft Pulls Back on Data Centers" (Demand Lacking); "Racist and Sexist" Slop From Microsoft
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/04/2025: XKCDpunk and worldclock.py
Links for the day
50 Years of Sabotage and a Gut Punch to Computer Science (and Science in General)
Will we get back to science-based computing rather than cult-like following?
3 Months in 2025, 4 Waves of Mass Layoffs at Microsoft, Now Offices Shut Down Permanently
"A recent visit by the South China Morning Post confirmed that the office was dark, unoccupied, and had its logo removed."
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 31, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, March 31, 2025
Links 31/03/2025: China Tensions, Bombs Falling in Myanmar After Earthquake
Links for the day
Gemini Links 31/03/2025: Falling Out of Love With Tech, Sunsetting openSNP
Links for the day
R.T.O. at IBM in Texas and Atlanta (State of Georgia) Expected as "Soft Layoffs" Catalyst This Coming Year
It also sounds like more IBM layoffs are in the making
Law Firms Can Also Lose Their Licence for Clearly Misusing It
The bottom line is, never made the false assumption that because you can pile up SLAPPs in a docket you will not suffer from bad reputation or even get disbarred
Link between institutional abuse, Swiss jurists, Debianism and FSFE
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
LLM Slop Piggybacking News About GNU/Linux and Distorting It
new examples
Links 31/03/2025: Press and Democracy Under Further Attacks in the US, Attitudes Towards Slop Sour
Links for the day
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Privacy Fiasco in Detail: The OSI Does Not Respect Anybody's Privacy
The surveillance mafia that bans dissent or key people (even co-founders) with dissenting views
Gemini Links 31/03/2025: More X-Filesposting and Dreaming in Emacs
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 30, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, March 30, 2025