Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 12/06/2023: Opal 1.7.0 and More



  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal/Opinions

      • Funeral For a Friend - Casually Dressed & Deep In Conversation

        I've talked about this album a lot. Every now and again I'll feel in the mood to just be 12 again: sad confused and angry.

        Disclaimer: This kinda got away from me! Bare with what is basically a listen along once I get into the song breakdowns. I highly recommend listening along if you want to! Back to the gemlog!

      • Introduction to the series (no album)

        The CS nerd in me is sad number 0 isn't an actual entry. But I figure this requires its own introduction!

        For the longest time I have considered a few albums I love "perfect". A perfect album to me is one I can press play on and I never get bored, tired, or that urge to "ugh let me skip this track" (cough uncough Drive by Incubus). But especially those that once I start listening I can't stop. I just want to keep listening or if a track comes on I have to just continue forward. That doesn't necessarily mean they have to be "album albums" where they require that context and ordering - but just an overall solid album through and through!

      • the art of letting go

        late at night, i'm the most productive. and when you used to be able to smoke inside, writing, smoking, and drinking is probably the best combination for successful prose on paper since liber and mercury bestowed us with their gifts. but even still, there is not much cooler a vibe than a writer at the end of the bar at a local pub, scribbling in a notebook in between sips of their beverage of choice—and it does say a lot about them, doesn't it?

        a pint: probably a more lover of language who writes for the hell of it. a dirty martini: some emotions are a bit built up in that one, there. an old-fashioned: who are you kidding? i see ~bartender shaking his head; i must've gotten that all wrong, but generalizations are more fun to write.

    • Science

      • Problematic Monoculture Reductivism in Literary Analysis

        In reading opinions of literary analysis, I sometimes come across large sweeping claims with little justification. Statements such as "Western stories focus on a singular power fantasy hero, while Eastern stories focus on unity to overcome threats." Usually they try to tie this in as a cultural analysis.

        They'll point to examples like *John Wick* to demonstrate their idea of Western stories, then *Sailor Moon* for Eastern stories. This ends up painting the stories of both cultures as one singular idea. It over-simplifies to a point where the the nuances of the cultures are ignored for the sake of the author's thesis statement.

      • the little things

        i tend to speak very openly about my mental health. about three to four years ago, i was at my absolute worst. i got stuck in really dangerous thought patterns, things like "if i were to jump out this window then i could knock myself out for a week at least at best". i was fortunate enough to (almost) never pull through with these ideas and sought help when i was at my lowest. within two weeks i got a first appointment with a psychotherapist in training. preliminary diagnosis: f32.1 moderate depressive episode. five months later i found myself in group therapy. i filled out a questionnaire at the beginning of every session which had me reflecting on my mental state of the past two weeks. the result was a score representative of the severity of my depression. before my first session i got a score of 33 out of 63, thinking it wasn't that bad. we weren't given the scale until late into therapy where we had the opportunity to look at our past scores and reflect on our mental growth. as it turned out, a score of 29 and above is classified as a severe depressive episode. it hadn't dawned on me just how messed up my mind was until then. at my last session, i got a score of 5. the scale didn't speak of depression up until a score of 8.

    • Technology and Free Software

      • Bad Loops

        A bad loop might be "10 open up reddit, read all the posts, close reddit, open hacker news, read all the posts, close hacker news, GOTO 10". Sure, you might learn a few things, and put even more things into the ever-growing list of things to get to, but then where did the day go? Where were the other things you wanted to do?

      • Yet Another Homelab Setup

        I have a new homelab setup. I've been homelab-hopping for the past year or so, and with each new setup, something or other just never sit right with me. It always felt like there was something that could be made better or more effcient with the resources I had. I recently discovered the wonderful world of LXD, and I was excited over how robust the technology is, so I endeavored to make my homelab setup with it.

      • so many standards

        This is also a way of identifying a URL as the location of an avatar, and works pretty decently as just an extra class that can be added to what would otherwise be a normal HTML page containing information about a person.

      • Internet/Gemini

        • Identity Again: Visual Hashing

          Feedback on my ideas around identity on Gemini has emphasized the need for decentralizaton and privacy.

        • I am Spartacus — Anonymous Identities on Gemini

          After a few days of musing, I am of the opinion that Morgan's Gemini identity proposals are fundamentally flawed and I am not going to implement them in Bubble.

        • gemini client testing

          The original torture tests that were up at => gemini://gemini.conman.org/test/torture had been taken down some time ago, and I started writing some new ones for shits and giggles and talked about it in

      • Software Releases/Announcements

        • Opal 1.7.0 - now with Titan!

          Last night I finished the initial implementation of support for the Titan protocol in Opal.

          Opal is a Gemini client library written for the C# world (.NET Standard 2.0 and .NET 7).


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

Unless a Third of All Microsoft Layoffs Worldwide Are in Redmond (Washington) Alone, Microsoft Has Just Lied to Everyone Via Jordan Novet in CNBC (i.e. the Usual Any Time There's Mass Layoffs and Novet Weighs in With False Numbers)
Maybe when Microsoft said 3% it meant ~6,000 or more in the US alone
As Expected, Microsoft Uses Media Operative (Jordan Novet) to Downplay the Scale of Mass Layoffs
here we go
Last Week's Public Talk by Richard Stallman Well Attended and Covered in Technical News Sites
and we're looking at about 60,000 Microsoft layoffs in 3 years
 
Gemini Links 13/05/2025: Apocalyptic Future and More
Links for the day
There Are Also Loads of Microsoft LinkedIn Layoffs Today (Keep Track of the Subsidiaries They Keep Out of Headlines)
Perhaps lost in the smokescreen
McKinsey (McK) is Killing IBM, It's All About Killing This Goose, "National Sales Team 80% on PIP Now" (Preceding Layoffs Without Severance)
PIPs are not based on performance
Links 13/05/2025: Microsoft Breaks Windows Very Badly Again, Mass Layoffs Reported (But False Figures, It's a Lot Higher)
Links for the day
2025 Will be a Big Year For GNU/Linux on Desktops/Laptops
with an economy like this, people who don't live in rich countries won't turn to Apple
Signs of Trouble: Microsoft Job Openings for Jobs That Do Not Exist!
Keeping up appearances?
"Special Place in Hell" for Women Who Help Violent Microsofters From Another Continent Attack Local Women Who Did Nothing Wrong, They Just Got Bullied and Deserve Sympathy or Compensation
Nothing says "Brat" like men who attack women, right?
The Numbers Game: 50,000-60,000 Microsoft Workers Laid Off in 2.5 Years? And Debt Still Tripled Under Nadella.
under Nadella Microsoft's debt trebled
The Slow Death of Windows Will Mean the Inevitable Demise of Microsoft
Once people stop using Windows, it'll be hard for Microsoft to sell anything to them
Gemini Links 13/05/2025: Shopping is an Exasperating Nightmare and Making Phones Minimal
Links for the day
23,000 More Microsoft Layoffs by the End of June If the Estimates Are Correct (In Addition to About 6,000 Layoffs So Far This Year)
There's no questions about many layoffs happening this month. It got leaked already. The only question is when (and also how many).
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, May 12, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, May 12, 2025
Major Microsoft Layoffs This Week (Discussed Online)
later we can expect a lot of spin, even misinformation
What Happened to the Open Source Initiative (OSI) Elections: Missed Deadline
they helped expose a number of other scandals
Links 12/05/2025: Measles Rising and Taliban Outlaws Chess in Afghanistan
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/05/2025: Advice, Iorist Ethics, and Touchscreens
Links for the day
The Finances of GAFAM Aren't as They Seem
MICROSOFT FINANCIAL PYRAMID revisited
Links 12/05/2025: US Brain Drain and Reminder That "Microsoft's Lobbying Efforts Eclipsed Enron" (Fraud Coverup)
Links for the day
The Enshittification of Royal Mail (Post Office/Postal Services) Continues
Enshittification is a thing, not only in the digital realm
Red Hat's Owner is Called "America's Worst Tech Company" (IBM) and Microsoft's Liabilities Grow
Microsoft has about a quarter of a trillion (yes, trillion with a "T") in liabilities
If the Gossip is True, Today Microsoft Has "Large M1 Meetings" to Discuss Almost 30,000 More Microsoft Layoffs in 2025
the claim is that Microsoft is preparing to lay off 10% of its staff
Microsoft Has a Long and Proven History of Funding Meritless Lawsuits Against Rivals and Critics (It Always Backfires)
It also looks like the solicitor used by two Microsofters to SLAPP us is being urgently replaced
Links 12/05/2025: Gardens and Kitchens
Links for the day
Links 12/05/2025: Media Being Attacked (New Forms of Attack on the Press), Many Data Breaches
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 11, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, May 11, 2025
Links 11/05/2025: Pyotr Wrangel and Kubernetes With FreeBSD
Links for the day
What Happened to the Open Source Initiative (OSI) Elections: A Moment of Silence and Revisionism Amid US Government Investigation and Community Uproar
Not a word this month
Microsoft Florian Becomes Patent Troll, Arranges to Sue Companies (Extorting Money Out of Them)
From campaigner against software patents to paid Microsoft shill to "FOSS patents" (actually attacking FOSS) to revisionism as "books" (for Microsoft)... and now this
How the SLAPPs From Microsoft Staff Are Connected to the Corrupt OSI, Whose Majority of Money Comes From Microsoft for Openwashing, LLM Hype, and Whitewashing GPL Violations During Class Action Trial
Let's explain how some of these things are connected
Links 11/05/2025: China's Fentanylware (TikTok) Tells Kids to Vandalise Schools' Chromebooks and Increased Censorship in India
Links for the day
You Need Not Be a Big Company to Defeat Microsoft If You Can Successfully Challenge Its Core "Ideas"
Maybe that's just a sign that the ideas of RMS have become too effective and thus "dangerous"
Gemini Links 11/05/2025: Yeeting Oligarch Tech, Offline Browsing
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 10, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, May 10, 2025