Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 01/06/2023: Scam Call and Flying High With Gemini



  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

    • Technical

      • Backport OpenBSD 7.3 pkg_add enhancement

        Recently, OpenBSD package manager received a huge speed boost when updating packages, but it's currently only working in -current due to an issue.

        [...]

        On -current, there is a single directory to look for packages, but on release for architectures amd64, aarch64, sparc64 and i386, there are two directories: the packages generated for the release, and the packages-stable directory receiving updates during the release lifetime.

      • Scam Call

        I had an unusual experience yesterday: a call from a scammer claiming to be from my bank.

        Because the caller ID showed the correct name, I was initially taken in.

        They claimed that there had been a suspicious transfer from my bank account via online banking, and that they had blocked it. They then asked about how I use online banking—from what devices—and suggested that one of these must have been hacked.

        [...]

        I asked for the account number of the account with the issue, and they made up a number—it didn’t match anything I recognized. I asked for the address associated with the account—and they had a wrong, out of date, address for me.

      • Lagging Mouse Mystery

        For years I've been trying to figure out why, sometimes, my mouse starts pausing for 1/2 a second or so at random intervals.

        I went down many rabbit holes, but it looks like I have an old mouse that must be defective. `journalctl -b -e` (very useful for things like this) reports entries like 'kernel: usb 3-3.1: reset low-speed USB device number 14 using xhci_hcd' - several per minute when things get bad. That explains it.

      • Internet/Gemini

        • Flying High With Gemini

          So here I am on an airplane flying from Istanbul to Los Angeles. I thought it would be fun to take the opportunity to post on Gemini while I'm thousands of feet in the air. Bubble is the most convenient way to do so on my phone, although I could get out my laptop I can't be bothered.

          The flight came with some form of free WiFi, which is a shock to me because last year they wanted to charge an arm and a leg for it. The terms of service seem to have gotten a lot better, with lower cost packages back down to what I remember them being 10 years ago, and a longer duration of use, I think. (The flight is 12 hours and I have 24 hours of service.)

        • away with ye, for we have won the WWW

          Two camps. Two schools of thought.

          The despondent "partakers" in consumer tech

          The devoted...devotees of the WWW

          We are on the cusp (or IN) the New AI era of tech. I've said a million times, it (AI) IS the biggest innovation (through numerous iterations) in the tech space since the creation of the Web by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990.

        • What's in a Name

          The domain name of this capsule has been a topic of discussion.

          I've already added an introductory text to the Help page that sheds some light on what's the deal here, but to further alleviate potential confusion, I've decided to switch this Bubble instance over to a subdomain.

        • Oof

          Not posting this on main, too easy to connect the dots.

          Don't scroll Facebook, you'll only find bad things.

          Checking up on an old friend, it turns out he (regularly? semi-regularly?) plays board games with a known antagonist/pot-stirrer of Canadian letters, someone who devotes most of his space to being unkind, cruel, belittling; a person who, if it were me playing games with him, would have fellow writers taking me aside to tell me, "winter, dude, what the fuck."

        • Let's not be pitying the web, now

          There's never been anything wrong with the web.

          For how could a reflection be wrong?

          The web quite simply has far more moron-ia to reflect.

          Poor thing.... right?

        • Domains And Cathedrals

          The most recent excitement in Geminispace is about the domain `geminispace.org`.

          Is it appropriate that it be used for Bubble?

          Might it confuse newcomers into thinking it is somehow an “official” representative of Geminispace?

      • Announcements

        • Rosy Crow 1.1.2 Released

          The new menu button serves to visually indicate the function of the application menu to new users. The button also serves to provide an alternative method of expanding the menu for users who may not be able to (or may not wish to) use the swipe-down gesture.

      • Programming


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

Electronic Frontier Foundation Defends Companies That Attack Free Speech Online (Follow the Money)
One might joke that today's EFF has basically adopted the same stance as Donald Trump and has a "warm spot" for BRICS propaganda
 
Google Has Mass Layoffs (Again), But the Problem is Vastly Larger
started as a rumour about January 2025
On BetaNews Latest Technology News: "We are moderately confident this text was [LLM Chatbot] generated"
The future of newsrooms or another site circling down the drain with spam, slop, or both?
"The Real New Year" is Now
Happy solstice
Microsoft OSI Reads Techrights Closely
Microsoft OSI has also fraudulently attempted to censor Techrights several times over the years
"Warning About IBM's Labor Practices"
IBM is not growing and its revenue is just "borrowed" from companies it is buying; a lot of this revenue gets spent paying the interest on considerable debt
[Meme] The Easier Way to Make Money
With patents...
The Curse (to Microsoft) of the Faroe Islands
The common factor there seems to be Apple
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, December 20, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, December 20, 2024
Gemini Links 21/12/2024: Death of Mike Case, Slow and Sudden End of the Web
Links for the day
Links 20/12/2024: Security Patches, Openwashing by Open Source Initiative, Prison Sentence for Bitcoin Charlatan and Fraud
Links for the day
Another Terrible Month for Microsoft in Web Servers
Consistent downward curve
LLM Slop Disguised as Journalism: The Latest Threat to the Web
A lot of it is to do with proprietary GitHub, i.e. Microsoft
Gemini Links 20/12/2024: Regulation and Implementing Graphics
Links for the day
Links 20/12/2024: Windows Breaks Itself, Mass Layoffs Coming to Google Again (Big Wave)
Links for the day
Microsoft: "Upgrade" to Vista 11 Today, We'll Brick Your Audio and You Cannot Prevent This
Windows Update is obligatory, so...
The Unspeakable National Security Threat: Plasticwares as the New Industrial Standard
Made to last or made to be as cheap as possible? Meritocracy or industrial rat races are everywhere now.
Microsoft's All-Time Lows in Macao and Hong Kong
Microsoft is having a hard time in China, not only for political reasons
[Meme] "It Was Like a Nuclear Winter"
This won't happen again, will it?
If You Know That Hey Hi (AI) is Hype, Then Stop Participating in It
bogus narrative of "Hey Hi (AI) arms race" and "era/age of Hey Hi" and "Hey Hi Revolution"
Bangladesh (Population Close to 200 Million) Sees Highest GNU/Linux Adoption Levels Ever
Microsoft barely has a grip on this country. It used to.
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, December 19, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, December 19, 2024
Gemini Links 19/12/2024: Fast Year Passes and Advent of Code Ongoing
Links for the day
Twitter is Going to Fall Out of Top 100 Domains as Clownflare (DNS MitM) Sees It
evidence of Twitter's (X's) collapse
[Meme] Making Choices at the EPO
Decisions, decisions...
'Dark Patterns' or a Trap at the European Patent Office (EPO)
insincere if not malicious E-mail from the EPO's dictators
There's an Abundance of Articles About the New Release of Kali Linux, But This One is a Fake
It can add nothing except casual misinformation (fed back into the model to reinforce lies)
Large and Significant Error Correction in South America?
Windows now has less than half what Android achieved in terms of "market share"
IBM's Leadership Ruining Lives of People Who Thought Working for IBM Would be OK
Nobody gets fire-lined for buying IBM?
The United States' Authorities Ought to Become Enforcers of the General Public License (GPL) for National Security's Sake
US federal agencies ought to pursue availability of code and GPL compliance (copyleft), not bans
The Problem of Microsoft Security Problems is Microsoft (the Solution is to Quit Microsoft) and "Salt Typhoon" Coverage Must Name CALEA Back Doors
Name the holes, not those who exploit them.
A "Year of Efficiency"
No, we don't mean layoffs
Links 19/12/2024: Astronaut Record and Observer Absorbed
Links for the day
Links 19/12/2024: Seven Dirty Words and Isle Release v0.0.3 (Alpha)
Links for the day
Links 19/12/2024: Nurses Besieged by "Apps", More Harms of Social Control Media Illuminated
Links for the day
15 Countries Where Yandex is Already Seen to be Bigger Than Microsoft (in Search)
Georgia, Syrian Arab Republic, Cyprus, Moldova, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Belarus, Turkey, and Russia
Links 19/12/2024: Magnitude 7.3 Earthquake and Privacy Camp
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/12/2024: Port Of Miami Explosion, TurboQOA, Gnus
Links for the day
Fake Articles About 'Linux'
Dated yesterday
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, December 18, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, December 18, 2024