Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 22/06/2023: Cool Capsules of the Week and What Dystopia?



  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal/Opinions

      • Absinth make the beer taste fonder.

        Finally! Some time to blog!

        Man, it has been crazy over here. I have two part time jobs, recently moved and had covid last week. It was pretty brutal all round.

        So let me summarize all things related to me.

      • What the Hell Can I Do? (translation)

        I posted this to my blog-blog (on write.as), but realized that I had not done so here.

        This is my translation of a poem (of this name) by Jaime Sabines.

      • Scarlet Heroes Character Creation Thoughts

        After looking through a lot of OSR systems, I finally settled on trying out Scarlet Heroes. It looked like it offers the best balance between what I wanted out of a system.

        For the first game, I am a player, and someone else kind enough to be the GM. It's going to be a duet game, which Scarlet Heroes is designed for. The first step for me in this is to create a character.

      • Can cities be sustainable?

        I've been reading an old-ish book on sustainable city planning this morning

        Newman & Jennings (2008) Cities as sustainable ecosystems: principles and practices, Island press.

        And like I'm not criticizing the book per se I'm just kinda stuck thinking about whether we actually can make cities as we think of them, which are primarily---for lack of a better word--- endothermic entities that have to take in energy and resources to function rather than generate them and turn them into entities that can more efficiently provide for their own needs

      • There Is Only Power

        There is only wrath and what it lays waste to in its wake!

        There is no justice, no law, and no right or wrong, except for the one that replaces them!

        All can change, and most will...

        He who has the power will shape the reality of the world...



      • Beyond Dream's Door

        I had some friends over and got drunk and laughed until I cried at these two fuckin things.

        Beyond Dream's Door is a late-80s horror film with a student-film vibe; that is, wildly inventive and completely undisciplined. The acting, the cinematography, and frankly the script all conspire to make you think you're watching the leadup to a porno. It feels like it's already uploaded to Everything is Terrible.

    • Technology and Free Software

      • What Dystopia?

        There have been a few posts recently about the state of the Free Software movement.

        I was a member of the FSF for quite a few years, but gave back my badge and hung up my coat—because I think we’re pretty much done. The big battles are over, and freedom won.

        As a child I grew up in Microsoft land—first DOS, then Windows 3, 95, 98. Then I discovered Linux, and that I had been using junk: cheap consumer products aimed at control, when there was a world of high quality software for the sake of software that had been denied to me. I was deeply unhappy about this.

        The battles, then: that you had to buy a computer with a Microsoft operating system; that you had to use closed source software, and pay money for it; and that you had to trade files in proprietary formats that required that for-pay software. Oh, and you had to use Internet Explorer to browse the web, because so many pages were made specifically for it.

        [...]

        The are new problems that we didn’t have twenty years ago: the rise of social media, the dominance of algorithm-optimized information feeds.

      • 1 Bit Lifestyle, Beepberry, Playdate, Watchy

        I am slowly descending into madness...or actually color is being drained from my computing devices. Ok, maybe both of these things can be true. In addition to the monochrome (though it's 4-bit grayscale not 1-bit :-P) PDA I use everyday I should soon* finally have my Playdate handheld that uses a 1-bit monochrome sharp memory lcd. But that's not all. A few weeks back SQFMI, the folks behind the Watchy epaper smartwatch (yes I have one of these), unveiled a really neat little pocket computer called the Beepberry that uses the same sharp memory lcd. You can probably guess whether I ordered one. Yes, yes I did.

      • To anyone who's followed me from elsewhere

        So I recently made a post on my Tumblr that since I won't be using it anymore, you can find updates on my life and coding progress on here. If anyone is from there, I'll reiterate that it won't be Tumblr content and that's kind of the point, so I'm not expecting many people will keep up with this. I think I'll add a curious cat link so people can send me messages if they want, but the intention is definitely to not be doing what I was on Tumblr. You can subscribe to my RSS feed or bookmark my blog if you like, but I don't know if many people will, so if I get no engagement that's perfectly fine. I'm doing this for me.

      • Internet/Gemini

        • Cool Capsule Of The Week

          Each week, I will decide on a cool Gemini capsule to focus on, and write a short article about what makes it cool. This is basically the Gemini version of the early Web’s Cool Site Of The Day.

      • Programming

        • activity pub

          I've done a lot of changes to my code. Can't remember them all. Actually ran into the request verification recursively causing more verification requests problem. It was my server actor requesting its own public key from itself because it didn't bother to recognize itself and short circuit the logic. I disabled signature verification for now.

        • Webdev seemed so easy, but now it seems so hard...

          Just last week, it seemed like all I was going to need was a webserver and something to run TypeScript, now there's all this stuff about tech stacks and databases and endless tools to run frameworks to manage tools for running frameworks, then I've gotta figure out how to deploy all of it...

          It seems like full-stack web development is a lot harder than it probably should be. I'm starting to understand why out of the 4ish billion people on the internet, there are only a few thousand developers actively making cool things on the net.

        • Sublime Text snippets

          Unfortunately, each snippet must be placed in its own separate file. If multiple snippets are in the same file, only the first one will work.

        • Rogue

          rogue, or at least the oldest version I could find at the time on the Internet, did not compile on modern systems.


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

The Register UK Seems to Have Become American and Management is Changing (Microsofter as Editor in Chief)
The Register 'UK' is now controlled by the Directions on Microsoft guy
Doing My Share to Tackle Online Slop and SPAM
Trying my best to 'fix' the Web
Microsoft Windows Lost 400 Million Users in a Few Years, Why Does The Register Double Down on Windows With New US Editor?
days ago they hired a new US editor
Links 25/07/2025: NOAA Cuts Endanger Lives, "Europe's Self Inflicted Cloud Crisis"
Links for the day
 
Slopwatch: Fakes, FUD, Duplicates, and Charlatans Galore
The Web as we once know it is collapsing. Some opportunists try to replace it with low-quality slop.
Many People Still Read Techrights Because It Says the Truth, Produces Evidence, and Does Not Self-Censor
Unlike so many other sites
The Register is Desperate for Money, According to The Register
I decided to check how they're doing as a business
Microsoft Finally Finds a Use Case for Slop?
Create low-quality chaff to shift the media's attention?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 25, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 25, 2025
For Libel Reform One Must First Bring (or Raise) Awareness to the Issues and Their Magnitude
I myself know, from personal experience
Links 26/07/2025: Rationed Meals in the US and TikTok Repels Investments (Too Toxic)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/07/2025: "Bloody Google" and New People in Geminispace
Links for the day
Response to Solderpunk (Father of Gemini Protocol) About the Gemini Community
Solderpunk responds to non-sequitur
HTML and the Web Used to be Something a Child Could Learn, "Modern" Web is a Puzzle of Frameworks, Bloat, and Worse
When the Web was more like Gemini Protocol
New US Editor in The Register is 84% Microsoft/Windows Booster
It'll be worrying if it carries on like this
Links 25/07/2025: Slop Blunders and China Has Code of Conduct for Lawmakers in HK
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/07/2025: Some Books and Babies and Capital
Links for the day
They Try to Lecture Us on Ethics
They even removed "master" from Microsoft GitHub
The Future of the Web is One Rendering Engine or 'Flavours' of Chrome
The future of the Web does not look bright at all
Best Sites Are Not Optimised for Any Browser, They Work Equally Well With All of Them
Red Hat (IBM) is making rubbish sites
YouTube is a Spamfarm, Slopfarm, and Clickfarm (a Lot of Numbers There Are Fake)
Those who don't fake look unpopular and unimportant
We Don't Do JavaScript and Pages Are Small
Thankfully Gemini Protocol has nothing like JavaScript
'Tech' is Not Technology
Some people use terms like 'Old Tech'
IBM's Debt Rose by Almost 10 Billion Dollars in the Past 6 Months Alone
The "hey hi" circus is coming to an end
Yes, Master
Gaslighting by actual racists
Microsoft Bribes and Buys Politicians to Tell Europe What to Do About Free Software (Which It's Attacking)
Microsoft: we speak for the thing that we are attacking! Follow the money...
Making Backups Quickly and Reliably
Backups are imperative, more so in an age of uncertainty, unpredictable weather, and worsening standards (quality of products going down while prices go up)
Techrights Investigation: Estimating the Point in Time LinuxIac Turned Into LLM Slop (Part of the Time)
Bobby Borisov got lazy
10th Month, Ten Weeks From Now, at Ten AM
In Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 24, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 24, 2025
A Nadella Memo Distracts From Microsoft's Cheapening Of the Workforce
Right now the "MSM" (mainstream media) is flooded/overwhelmed by garbage pieces that relay lies for Nadella
Vanishing Faces of GNU/Linux
Free software projects do not depend on any one person or company to still exist
Microsoft Says It Lost 400 Million Windows Users, Now It's Waiting for GNU/Linux to Stop Booting on 'Old' PCs
When it comes to Windows, Microsoft is fully aware of the issue and statements it made earlier this summer suggest it lost 400 million Windows users
Slopwatch: LinuxTechLab, linuxsecurity.com, LinuxIac, and More
Also: The Register's Microsoft agenda (new editor)
Gemini Links 25/07/2025: Gemtext Aware Titan Editor and Gemini Protocol Comeback
Links for the day
Links 24/07/2025: Convicted Felon Quits UNESCO, "Vibe Coding Goes Wrong", and Signalgate Gets Worse
Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/07/2025: Forgejo Woes and Smolnet Directory Week
Links for the day
Misinformation is Not Intelligence
It's low-grade plagiarism and it fails to show any signs of intelligence
Links 24/07/2025: Storage Tapes Still Kicking, Windows TCO 'on Steroids' (Microsoft-Induced Catastrophes)
Links for the day
Bobby Borisov (LinuxIac) Has Apparently Begun Experimenting With LLM Slop, So We Cannot Trust LinuxIac Anymore
So did LinuxIac become a slopfarm? Maybe not yet, but it's getting there
Informa TechTarget's ITProToday is Becoming a Slopfarm Generated by Microsoft Chatbots
Busted.
'Tech' Gimmicks Are for Advertising, Not for Usability
In the case of Microsoft, they latched onto slop
BetaNews Sacked Brian Fagioli and Deleted His Comments, But He Still Tries to Use the "BetaNews" Brand for Self-Affirmation
Fagioli takes the work of other people
[Meme] Hard to Be a Better Person?
Sooner or later they'll realise that for each pound I spend they need to spend about 1,000 times more
The LLM Con Artists Are Highly Destructive
Who will ever be held accountable for this scam?
Too Bribed by Microsoft to Move to Free Software?
Microsoft lies and Microsoft bribery (in politics)
New US Editor for The Register is a Microsoft Booster
"Avram Piltch has served as US editor for The Register since July 2025."
Microsoft Hiring European Politicians is Another Form of Bribery; There Should be a European Investigation
When Microsoft bribed people in Europe for OOXML (there's no denying this!) a European government delegate said that Microsoft operated like a cult
Reda Demanded That FSF Removes Its Founder, Now Reda Works Directly for Microsoft
A sellout and a traitor, first working for GAFAM, now Microsoft
PCLinuxOS is Raising Money to Support Development After Fire Incident at the Host
PCLinuxOS has not had announcements lately
Speed of the Site Should be Better Now
The "bot attacks" impact the speed of the sister site too
Getting More From AnalogNowhere
Recently we used many images from AnalogNowhere
Microsoft, Microsofters and 'Secure' Boot Shills Already Storming the LWN Report About Expiring Certificate, Shooting the Messenger
LWN has clearly stuck a nerve
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 23, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 23, 2025
Disable "Secure" Boot Today (the Only Better Time to Do So Was Yesterday)
Don't trust anything Red Hat tells you about security
Links 23/07/2025: Windows Killed Company After 150+ Years, US Government Mimics Russia's Attacks on the Media
Links for the day
Freedom Generally Wins at the End, History Shows (But It's Constantly Attacked, Too)
At the moment people realise "Linux" (e.g. Android) isn't enough to guarantee any freedoms
Over 3 Months Later Brett Wilson LLP Still Unable to Recruit a Media Lawyer?
"Immediate start", but not found... still unfilled