Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 10/06/2023: Wordle for Gemini



  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal/Opinions

      • 🔤SpellBinding: AGHNRUY Wordo: ???
      • Making/Meeting

        Last year I managed to download my entire LiveJournal archives. My last post there was over a decade ago, and for at least five years my posting had slowed to every few months (at best), but all in all I wrote there for eleven years. Kind of incredible. Everything I said, and others, dumped to text and XML. Hard to read, so often I explore by means of grepping a name, or a phrase.

        In addition to this, I've got an almost-complete archive of my old HTML journal, the handwritten kind, gathered in pieces from the Wayback across three or four of my old sites whose robots.txt allowed crawling.

        [...]

        But then there are the handful of places that did stick, or click, or however you want to look at it. For me those include dialup BBSs, online journals, the forum for fucked up teens when I was 18 (and whew, that last one's complicated). But also: the people of the poetry community on Twitter, something good in the sludge of that site. Then, geminispace.

      • writing as a writer

        Think of stuff. Write it down. If blogging, hit "Publish", too.

        Do this with no time compartmentalization nor boundaries (either time-wise or word-wise) every day. Seven days a week, most weeks. Birthdays/Xmas: optional (for me, the holidays themselves are optional, and now the writing part, too, but...)

        This is how I see writing.

      • Saturday afternoon at the MP

        On my way home from running some errands I decide to take a detour via The Midnight Pub. Its hot, there is no need to hurry. I scan the messages on the board. Uh, ~jack has been "redacted". Hmmm. Digital suicide? I wonder. And there is some mention of plausible looking word frequencies. Sigh. "Is there still some place without the new shiny technology ..." I ask myself.

    • Technology and Free Software

      • gsettings command

        One of the things I find annoying about Ubuntu Desktop defaults is that when I open a new application it opens in the upper left corner. I then drag it to the center screen and start working. It's amazing how a small inconvenience can grind on you over time. When I've search the net for changing this behavior the usual suggestions are "install gnome-tweaks". This seems ham-handed. I think continue searching and eventually find the command below. So I am making a note of the command here in my blog so I can find it latter.

      • Excel Scottish Land Tax calculator

        Me and my partner are in the process of buying our first house. In Scotland, property transactions are subject to Land Tax[1]. Land Tax is calculated based on the property price and is based on tiers. The first 145k is free, then 145-250k is subject to 2% tax, 250-325k is 5% and so on. For first time buyers the tax free amount is raised to 175k.

      • Internet/Gemini

        • Wordle for Gemini published

          First, pardon my english but I want to get the word out. Since I saw winter's comments about how NYT was transforming Wordle's experience into a crappy one, I remembered I still have in this capsule my own clone that works over Gemini and it is simple enough to have anyone put it on their own. Mine works with a spanish word dictionary, but you can have it generate the database with *any* word list. It will take care of the client certificates to keep a way of a session and track if you've already solved or not the current word and pick a new one when 16 minutes have passed.

        • How Online Ads Work

          Gemini tries to avoid the worst of the web, and for most people ads and tracking are high on that list.

          But, there is a lot about how ads work that is not common knowledge.

          You almost certainly know what online ads look like; you may even have clicked on them from time to time—possibly by mistake. You might have considered what information is flying around in the cloud to support those ads. You’re less likely, I think, to have considered how much money changed hands, and between whom.

      • Programming


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

Skype Fell Off a Cliff (Microsoft Killed It), All Microsoft Has Left Now is Slop and Spaghetti Code
"This isn’t about AI. This is a puppet show to drive stock prices up and down."
Slopfarms (Machine-Generated Fake News Sites Authored by Bots With Slop Images) Spread GNU FUD
This isn't about Linux (GNU doesn't run just on Linux)
United States Federal Government's Digital Analytics Program (DAP): GNU/Linux Users Represent Close to 6% of Visitors This Year
How far has GNU/Linux gotten? Very far!
The "LLM Ouroboros of Shit" is Complemented by Even Worse Phenomena Caused by Microsoft's Contribution of SPAM and Pollution
Microsoft became a world leader in promotion of LLM slop
The LLM Ouroboros Phenomenon
Fact #1: over time slop gets worse (training set is like some blurry JPEG). Fact #2: People's "smell" for slop improves over time, as they 'train' on slop and can detect it based on prior encounters. Put 1 and 2 together.
How We Defeated DDoS Attacks
One of the best things one can do is migrate to an SSG
Microsofters Issuing Threats to Microsoft Critics Who Blog About Microsoft
So far we see that their "legal strategy" revolves around trying to discredit people like Theodore Ts'o
 
Microsoft a Top Sponsor at Red Hat Summit (IBM Selling Proprietary Spyware and Back Doors in a "Red" Trench Coat)
They both work for Microsoft
The Official SUSE Blog Uses LLM Slop to Compose Fake Articles Promoting Microsoft and Azure
even a little slop spoils the broth
Links 19/05/2025: Charges of Blackmailing Over Son Heung-min, Chad Opposition Leader Detained
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/05/2025: Ableism, Silicon Monkeys, and More
Links for the day
Links 19/05/2025: Political Catchup and CISA Advisories
Links for the day
TheLayoff.com Has Begun Deleting Trolls/AstroTurfers Infesting the IBM Section to Discourage On-Topic Discussion About Culls and Maladministration (Bad Strategy)
Moderators have realised there's a problem
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 18, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, May 18, 2025
Gemini Links 18/05/2025: Five Years on Gemini and Atom Feeds over Gopher
Links for the day
Links 18/05/2025: F.D.A. More Sceptical of COVID-19 Vaccines, UK Charges 3 Iranian Nationals In Alleged Attack Plot Against Journalists
Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/05/2025: "Finally Upgraded" and "Rebooting"
Links for the day
There Are Days or Occasions Where gemini:// Requests Almost Exceed http(s):// and Gemini Protocol Isn't Even 6 Yet
Gemini Protocol turns 6 one month from now
Abundance of Good Code, "Just Like Air."
Richard Stallman's seminal manifesto and foundational (practical) work on GNU gave us a very solid system that facilitates productive work without concerns over spyware
Messages in TheLayoff.com Drowned Out by LLM Slop (Comments Focused on Replying to Bot-Generated Provocation)
apparently shaking hands with nazis isn't as bad as calling your git repository's main branch "master"
The Importance of Full Disclosure and Transparency Online
there will be full transparency, as always
Slopwatch: Slopfarms and Serial Sloppers Still at It
Apparently Google is too understaffed to figure that out
Links 18/05/2025: Decreased Prospects of Science Careers, Disappearance of Journalists
Links for the day
Microsofters Have a Long History Trying to Take Down Techrights by Sending Threats to Webhosts
picking on women
Links 18/05/2025: Science, Censorship and European Commission Taking on Monopoly Abuse by Microsoft
Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/05/2025: Šibenik and SFJAZZ Historical Archive
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 17, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, May 17, 2025
Links 17/05/2025: Microsoft Kills "Surface Laptop Studio" (More Canceled Products/Units), Groups Caution About Harms of Social Control Media
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/05/2025: Sympathy Algorithm and SSH on Alternative Ports
Links for the day
Inviting the Founder of GNU/Linux to Events (It Only Costs His Travel Expenses) and Recalling the True Origins
It's reassuring to see belated recognition
Slopwatch: Microsoft's Anti-Linux Propaganda and Cover-up, Slopfarms Clogging Up Google News
slop-tracking activities that observe googlebombing of "Linux"
AstroTurfing by IBM in thelayoff.com is Highly Risky (and Likely Outsourced)
Microsoft did this in Reddit (and got caught), so why won't IBM too?
Links 17/05/2025: Stabber of Salman Rushdie Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison
Links for the day
The Microsofters Have Just Shared Privileged Trial Data With Microsoft
There are serious ramifications for liability accountability as Microsoft salaries sponsor these SLAPPs
Trolls With LLM Slop Are Disrupting Communications About Mass Layoffs at IBM
LLM slop to drown out the signal
Gemini Links 17/05/2025: Happier on Gemini and Manipulating Reddit
Links for the day
ComEd and Microsoft: A Mess of Spaghetti Held Together By Circus Clowns
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 16, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, May 16, 2025