Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 02/06/2023: Vimwiki Revisited, SGGS Revisited



  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

      • Happy June!

        On the first day of June, it's a good time to reflect on the past season and make intentions for the coming one.

        For me, looking back is the harder part. I'm less used to that; I'm always thinking about the future, but spending time on the past is less obviously useful.

      • A worker-owned cooperative concept

        Worker-owned cooperatives aren't a new idea. I should really find a good book or web site with some case studies about how they've been done in the past. In particular, I really ought to look into the Mondragon Corporation, which I always hear about but have never really studied.

        But lack of background knowledge won't stop me from trying to spin up my own thoughts on how a person might structure a worker-owned cooperative, so that's what this article contains.

        My starting point was that I wanted a structure where people build equity in the cooperative as they work, and when they leave the cooperative (by retiring, for example, but also for any other reason), that equity is paid back to them.

      • 🔤SpellBinding: AFGLNRT Wordo: BLURB
      • And Now, Back To Inflation

        As predicted, Important Men got together and saved the world at the last moment, by signing a piece of paper that authorizes further borrowing. Woo-hoo!

        And now, as more debt is to be monetized while the Fed is shitting in their collective pants, we can look forward to higher prices.

        Inflation is a monetary phenomenon, regardless of what these jerks tell you. Rising prices are a _consequence_ of cheap money. It is not because of 'evil CEOs' or profiteering landlords. It is entirely due to the vast amounts of counterfeit currency our senile president had forced into the system by handing money out to his croneys. Not that other presidents are much better, but this one kind of jumped the shart with the handouts. And of course it's not really Biden, as I doubt he can put on his underwear without help, so it's whoever is behind it this time.

      • This Friday feels way too much like a Saturday

        Huh. I've somehow not encountered the "dead Internet" theory 'til reading the above.

        Makes me wonder, just what is it that drives people toward the "TeeHeeVille" of deceiving others with respect to individuality, e.g. writing a "bot" to hopefully give some the impression they're interacting with an "actual person"?

      • My Ideal F1 Weekend

        Having finally returned this weekend to a permanent track (albeit with upgrades!) I have finally figured out exactly what my ideal weekend is! One Practice, One Qualifying, One Race. That's it.

        How original I know. But I actually like televised practice. I like it because I don't really like off coverage talks. Having an hour where teams test and push and work to trial their upgrades gives us fans time to understand whats changed between each session and gives the commentators some time to give their recaps and other notes from the weekend and time between.

    • Technical

      • Is it live, or is it AIREX?

        Whaddaya do when when you think someone's pasting AI responses your way?

        I went to a favorite online place and was happy to see I had a reply to peruse... except by the time I got to the end of it I was under the distinct, disappointing impression it was the kind of hollow, prosaic verbiage I've come to expect from so-called AI.

        Grant it, I've no proof, so that impression could have been the result of too-much-yardwork mental weariness.

      • Vimwiki looks wonderful, but....

        My latest foray into software installation mystification involves something called "vimwiki", whose installation instructions I followed to a tee, and yet for the life of me I can't open what I imagine to be a "vimwiki" session within a vim session.

      • AI and the Dead Internet

        I very rarely use customer support or feedback channels on the mainline Internet these days. I have always preferred to call or even visit in person. Especially when I see chat assistants on a Web site, I always assume they're powered by AI and not staffed by a real human.

        Today textmonger wondered^ if replies and even full conversations over other channels are actually AI-driven--and if so, how often that happens. textmonger noted that if this is a common occurrence, it erodes further the individuality of all Internet users, not just the bots themselves. It also adds a kind of paranoia as to whether one is investing emotional energy into a soulless computer.

      • Typing seems easier today
      • Internet/Gemini

        • Gemini and curl

          Based on my own experience writing various Gemini clients and servers, I think Stenberg makes some good points regarding the implementation Gemini programs.

          What does UTF-8 and URLs actually mean? Internationalized Resource Identifier (IRI), punycode (but for hostnames only), and so on. It's tricky to get right and easy to just treat the URLs as ASCII with punycode and percent encoding. If you're in an ISO Latin-1 locale and pasting an IRI on the command line, the tool needs to decode the bytes from the locale and encode as UTF-8, for example. You don't find that in the spec. I think it's implied. Back when the mailing list still existed, such questions would cause long discussions that I found tiring. So here we are.

          [...]

          Stenberg also says that Gemini is "quite similar to going back to GOPHER." I disagree with that. Gopher maps are a pain. No TLS for Gopher is not cool. I think from a visual perspective it depends on the client. There's Lagrange which looks beautiful.

        • SGGS Revisited

          A couple of years ago, I wrote SGGS, a system for playing turn-based games over gemini, primarily as an experiment in using streaming to support synchronous play. But it didn't see much use, and I accepted it as an essentially failed experiment.


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

Confirmed in the Mainstream Media: A Lot of Microsoft "Workloads" Were Just LLM Slop (Helping to Fake Growth for Years, as Microsoft Had Paid "Open" "AI" to Become a "Client") and Demand is Rapidly Waning, Datacentres Canceled and/or Shut Down
Anything to facilitate further accounting fraud
Taiwan's Media Covers Closure of Microsoft's "AI" Lab, It's Time to Talk About the Gradual Death of Windows and Implosion of the "AI" Bubble
Earlier this week we showed that mostly Asian media had the 'nerve' to mention Microsoft silently shutting down its 'AI' lab
More Gains for GNU/Linux, Based on Web Surveys
the Steam site shows rapid growth for "Linux" this month
 
StatCounter: Microsoft is Masking a Disaster, It's Way Behind DeepSeek Already and Interest in LLMs Has Waned
it turns out the money "raised" for "Open" "AI" may not even exist at all
Links 03/04/2025: SoftBank Money for Microsoft "Open" "AI" Probably Doesn't Even Exist, Wikimedia Foundation Blasts LLM Nuisance While Microsoft Admits Demand Has Shrunk
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/04/2025: Patch Panel and Pictures
Links for the day
Islamic Republic of Iran: GNU/Linux at All-time High This Month, Windows Falls to 12%
Vista 10 is up this month despite being "end of life" (EoL) soon
Indonesia: All-Time Highs for GNU/Linux
What's noteworthy right now is the growth of GNU/Linux
statCounter Says GNU/Linux Usage is Up Again (Internationally)
some preliminary April data
Only on April 1st Can the Free Software Foundation Associate With Microsoft's Open Source Initiative (OSI)
We saw some pranks that day linking the FSF to Microsoft (e.g. "endorsing" Windows)
IBM Gets Rid of Kelly Chambliss as Mass Layoffs Reported in IBM Consulting, IBM Loses Key Contracts/Graft
IBM Consulting has been in disarray lately
Slopwatch: Anti-Linux Articles, Not Even Written by Humans
Why aren't Web sites more vocal about this problem?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 02, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 02, 2025
Links 03/04/2025: Apple Fined Over Secret Surveillance, "Elegant Writer For A More Civilized Age"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 02/04/2025: Books and Cold Tea
Links for the day
Links 02/04/2025: More Layoffs, Nokia Again Takes Advantage of Illegal and Unconstitutional Patent Court With Nokia Staff as 'Judges'
Links for the day
Links 02/04/2025: Seizures and Returns to Windows of 24 Years Ago
Links for the day
LLM Slop Helps Obscure and Distort News About Layoffs (IBM, GAFAM)
It's hard to find accurate information
Links 02/04/2025: Microsoft Developers Are Threatening to Go on Strike, World Backup Day Noted
Links for the day
Gemini Protocol Has Growing Appeal (the Web Got Too Bloated and Full of LLM Slop)
For any "data plan" with bandwidth limits or "tiers" it would be cheaper to use/browse Geminispace
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)
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
Links 01/04/2025: Apple Fined $162M for Privacy Abuses, Disinformation Online a Growing Concern
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
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
Stefano Maffulli and His Microsoft-Funded OSI Staff Are Killing the OSI and Killing "Open Source" (All for Money!)
This is far from over
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?
Techrights Headlines as Semaphore
"If you are hearing this, thank you"
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