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 I asked for the address associated with the account—and they had a wrong, out of date, address for me.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

Linux Foundation Buys Misleading Puff Pieces About Itself, Earns Some LLM Slop to Accompany the PR (Openwashing and Propaganda as a Service, With the Brand "Linux" Needlessly Borrowed)
Isn't it funny that after the "LF" (misusing the brand "Linux") flooded the Web with press releases and fake articles (that it had paid for) it now gets some LLM slop doing the same?
It's About So Much More Than 2 Microsofters, It's About Freedom to Speak About Crimes at Microsoft
Suffice to say, if some people related to our professional field attack women and get arrested for it, then there's nothing immoral about relaying this information
Links 22/03/2025: Social Security Attacks and More Attacks on the Press
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/03/2025: INTERPOL, DDoS by "Hey Hi" Hype, and RSS/Feed Readers
Links for the day
Links 22/03/2025: Alzheimer Research and Mega-breaches in the US
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, March 21, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, March 21, 2025
Gemini Links 21/03/2025: Leasehold, LOTI, and Project Managers
Links for the day
Links 21/03/2025: Energy Facilities Under Fire (or on Fire), EU "Solidarity with Ukraine" and First Console
Links for the day
Links 21/03/2025: "IBM cuts Thousands" and Outlook Outage Again (Microsoft Looks for Excuses)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/03/2025: "Happy Spring" and Leaving "The Enterprise"
Links for the day
Many Articles About Layoffs Are Still Fake, Still LLM Slop, Even About IBM Layoffs
No wonder tech and tech journalism are getting so much worse
Speak More About the GNU Manifesto (40 Years Old This Month), It Helps Remind People That GNU/Linux Was Started by Richard Stallman and the Ultimate Goal is Freedom
We generally encourage people to speak about Software Freedom
Slappification: Using More SLAPP to Cover Up SLAPP and Chaining SLAPPs (From Microsoft) in a Failed Bid to Censor Techrights
How low can a person with a law degree stoop?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 20, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, March 20, 2025
Hidden from coroners and the public: tech industry cultural contagion
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Richard Stallman on Patents
uploaded a day ago by Aleksandar Popovic
What Happened to the Open Source Initiative (OSI) Elections: Leaking Information of Members (Even in 2025)
More nonsense about Hey Hi (AI), which OSI has been openwashing on Microsoft's payroll
Recommended New Article From Dr. Andy Farnell and Some Site Miscellany
Andy says he and his daughter successfully avoid GAFAM
Links 20/03/2025: Executions in China and Crackdowns on Science in the US
Links for the day
Gemini Links 20/03/2025: Ubuntu Shafting Common Sense and Blocking of Bots of the Net
Links for the day
Links 20/03/2025: IBM Layoffs (Thousands Reportedly Laid Off) and Lots More Corruption in the White House
Links for the day
Techrights Will Never Capitulate to Threats From Microsofters
Set aside violence against women and all sorts of other things; it's not about personal issues
The Microsoft-Led Open Source Initiative (OSI) is Hurting, It'll Try to Hurt Its Critics and Exposers Now
The OSI's chief meanwhile issues a bunch of meaningless waffle, a sort of "damage control" or "face-saving" platitudes
Apple is Still an Enemy of Open Standards and Software Freedom
Apple did not get any more benign
Gemini Links 20/03/2025: Wanting the Future Back and "Society That Lost Focus"
Links for the day
Fake Articles About GNOME
betanews again
Richard Stallman's Personal Site Says He's Looking for More Opportunities to Speak in Europe
He does not charge people for the talk
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 19, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 19, 2025
Debian Pregnancy Cluster, when I stopped using IRC
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Mass Layoffs at IBM Confirmed
Thousands believed to have been laid off