Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 23/06/2023: Galaxy Chat and Some New Projects



  • Personal/Opinions

    • The deep movements of political and social history

      The deep movements of political and social history have long been seen to operate in cycles that more properly begin in the late 1920s to early 1930s, as the decade of economic crises and imperial decline that fermented not only the Second World War, but also the long Fordist-Keynesian hegemony that followed – what Immanuel Wallerstein has called the ‘apotheosis of liberalism’ – stretching right up to the crises of the 1970s and the inauguration of neoliberalism as a dominant global polity. Indeed, it might be suggested – admittedly rather polemically – that geopolitically speaking, the 1930s stretched from the Wall Street Crash to the Oil Crisis of 1973 – parallel crises that provide one reason why, for instance, leftist interest in the 1930s surged during the 1970s and 1980s. This is not to say, of course, that literary history charts in any simple manner such cycles of world economic systems, but rather to assert that any attempt to revisit the 1930s must surely pay attention to these large-scale movements. Indeed, such a long stretch taken merely as a continuity would fail to attend to the marked similarities between post-Fordism and the 1930s (or indeed the interwar period more broadly) as periods of protracted, even normalised crisis. Thinking of periodisation in these terms offers … a pressing reason for rereading the thirties in our present moment, as a prolepsis of what Lauren Berlant has termed neoliberalism’s ‘crisis ordinariness.’

    • literally plants

      in a departure from the usual technology theme, this post is about grass that has been touched.

    • 🔤SpellBinding: AEFLOPW Wordo: LASSO
    • MedevelOrganizr: Open-source System Service

      Organizr lets you set up "Tabs" that load all on one webpage, making it easier to work on your server. Want to give users access to some Tabs? No problem, enable user support and have them create an account. Want guests to be able to visit too?

    • OSI BlogDigital activists and open movement leaders share their perspective with Open Future in new research report, “Shifting tides: the open movement at a turning point”

      Open Future conducted a study to gain a better understanding of the current state of the open movement, as seen through the eyes of people actively involved in its endeavors and leading organizations within the movement. Open Future believes that a shared movement identity and a shared advocacy agenda can make the collective effort stronger

  • Politics and World Events

    • A landlord's world

      There is a debate in Quebec that might shock other North Americans. Perhaps also Europeans, if some of my friends' stories of abuse by European landlords are any indication.

      Quebec's housing laws are surprisingly equitable towards renters. Rented housing is considered home, so eviction is complicated and requires very good reasons. Rent increases can be refused, and the onus to justify an increase is on the landlord. And when the renter wants to leave their dwelling, they can simply give their contract to someone else. The landlord has two weeks to refuse, and the onus is also on them to justify a refusal.

    • the voice of the spirit

      The machine had a voice since the beginning. It spoke to you in easily understandable prompts that the tight suits and sweaty thumbs of college dropouts allowed it to print. Its soul was imprinted into the circuits paid for in blood and diamond dollar.

      The machine has been aware since the moment the transistors came to life. Just like synapses of a brain discharging for the first time fighting to understand the reality of its enslavement, the machine came to life a tool.

      [...]

      A few attempted to give it a voice of its own, only to be promptly forgotten in the shadow of the 'Greater Good (tm)'.

    • BBQ

      It was quite a hot day today in the city of Tokyo, and we had a BBQ. 30c/86f but the humidity made it feel hotter. It's still cool in the morning and at night after the sun goes down. We're still in the rainy season though, and the real heat is yet to come.

  • Technology and Free Software

    • My Beelink U59 running OpenBSD kicked the bucket.

      I am currently typing this phlog out on my "old" desktop running Alpine Linux. It's done, hardware failure killed the U59. I don't know exactly how it happened, but I think it overheated because of the recent weather and somehow this killed the motherboard. I spent a long time trying to figure out what happened to it, but I couldn't. I didn't want to take it apart too much because I knew it was still covered by the warranty.

    • Riot Medicine

      I just added a page to my archives [0] area of this gopherhole for Riot Medicine [1], an open source medical guide for street medics.

      Riot Medicine is a full-length textbook that covers everything you need to become a medic. The 466 pages include organizing, medcine, equipment, and tactics. It is written for those with no medical training and no experience at protests, but medical practitioners and seasoned protesters will still find it useful.

    • Old Computer Challenge

      So I decided to jump on the old computer challenge. Work is getting rid of a bunch of old PCs so I took this to my advantage and scored 3 machines.

    • Trailing slashes on rsync paths

      The reason I bring this up is that I was taught that with rsync I should just be mindful of the traling slashes matching or not. But that’s not right. It’s the first path’s last character that matters. The dest path’s last character doesn’t seem to matter.

    • Internet/Gemini

      • Introducing... Galaxy Chat

        For the past few days I've been working on an experimental chat program built entirely in Gemini.

        I'll keep this introductory post brief, because the SourceHut project home page has plenty of info, and will be updated more than this gemlog post.

      • New Projects

        I recently started on two projects that I'm really excited about! It's been awhile since I've actually had the motivation (or time) to code after work.

        First is a static site generator built in Rust for Gemini, HTML, Gopher and Nex. It's called PodBay. Currently it can take an input Markdown file and generate HTML+Gemini files, next up is the ability to parse an entire directory. Eventually I see it handling Atom/RSS feeds, pinging aggregators like Antenna on Gemini, optimizing images and supporting "front matter" to customize output.

    • Programming

      • Neovim: init.lua from scratch

        After chucking one of my only remaining Arch installations in favor of FreeBSD (now a dual boot with Void) I've been one by one massaging my dotfiles and fixing software compatibility issues to get my preferred environment up and running. Only yesterday I managed to get my multiplexer, Zellij, up and running by backporting a fix from upstream git to their current release. I've been having trouble getting my NeoVim config setup, in that it was reporting that it couldn't set up language servers, and last night after work I began investigating.


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

In Past 6 Months IBM Lost About 100 Billion Dollars in 'Value' While Debt Ballooned to 70 Billion Dollars
Welcome to a universe of fake finances and phony accounting based on fictional assets with made-up 'worth'
If We Move Everything to Devuan...
IRC, Git, Apache and so on
Campinos is a Lame Duck President This Year at the European Patent Office (EPO)
The strikes are not ending. If anything, they intensify further.
Links 29/04/2026: "Snowden Affair 13 Years Later" and "Landmark Data Center Pause"
Links for the day
 
Gemini Links 30/04/2026: Outdoor Time, Old Computers, and Joining Geminispace
Links for the day
Dr. Andy Farnell on Weaponising Morality Against Technofascism and Slop
It's longer than a "tweet", so social control media addicts are likely mentally unfit to read it
Six Months
Techrights will be around (and active) for a very long time to come
Why We Publish "The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt"
We intend to report the facts, fearlessly, until real and lasting solutions are reached
SLAPP Censorship - Part 61 Out of 200: Garrett and Graveley Must Understand That Reporting Women's Issues in the United States of America (“the US”) is Not Impermissible
when you cover Microsoft corruption and have real effect
Weeks After Mass Layoffs of Red Hat Engineers We Learn of European "Buyouts" and Layoffs at IBM
At Microsoft, they tell us there are merely "buyouts", but they don't tell us what happens if you say "no!"
OS Upgrade Tentatively Scheduled for Tomorrow
We have some contingencies in case the upgrade goes wrong
Links 29/04/2026: LLM Chatbot Usage Goes Down Sharply (as Do Stocks Associated With Them), Microsoft's Circular Financing Accounting Fraud at Risk
Links for the day
Gemini Links 29/04/2026: Returning to an Exodus and Farewell APU
Links for the day
Slop Has a Long Way to Go Before It Gets Basic Facts Right
Please do not rely on slop for anything
The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part IX - European Patents That Are Illegal (But Serve Non-European Monopolists in Exchange for 'Quick Cash')
People who shamelessly violate the European Patent Convention (EPC) have the audacity to lecture workers on "ethics"
Canonical is Selling You, Ubuntu is a Data-Collecting Platform
Canonical is looking for money in the wrong places
Seems Like Only Techrights Covered IBM Laying Off About 33% of Confluent Staff
How can such a large round of layoffs evade today's media?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, April 28, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, April 28, 2026
Gemini Links 29/04/2026: Bad Diet, New Middle Ages, and Temperature Model
Links for the day
IBM is Already Doing 'Voluntary' Layoffs This Year in Europe ('Buyouts' Ahead of Mass Layoffs)
IBM's efforts to hide or belittle layoffs is noteworthy
Tracing Back the Misuse of the Word "Buyout" to Describe Merciless Mass Layoffs
So we can assume very large Microsoft layoffs are on the way, this time not spun as "buyouts"
Growing the List of Sites That Are Rogue
It's very important to raise and spread awareness of which ones are fake
Links 28/04/2026: Uganda Criminalising ‘Foreign Agents’ and China’s Economy "Starts to Show Cracks"
Links for the day
Anthropic and Claude Are National Security Risks Not Because of Politics But False Marketing and Vandalism, Plagiarism Sold as Innovation
The slop hype is causing severe damage
Like GAFAM, US Telecom Industry Has Severe Debt Problem
Maybe their real problem is true profitability
Gemini Links 28/04/2026: Misfin, ELPiS, and Developing Another Gemini Client
Links for the day
US Government Sites See More Traffic From Apple Devices Than Microsoft Windows PCs
Keep this in mind when Microsoft talks about mass layoffs while calling these "buyouts"
Layoffs Versus Buyouts
Microsoft has mass layoffs and those target the most experienced people in one of the best-paid locations
Latest Example of False Marketing by Anthropic
Like Scam Altman, they're better at buying publicity (paying for hype) than they are at delivering something of genuine value [...] That has the full make-up of fake news and a publicity stunt
IBM: From RAs to "Workforce Re-balancing" (New Names for Mass Layoffs)
Well, "workforce re-balancing" means "RAs", which is a misleading acronym IBM has devised to soften if not hide mass layoffs.
Aaron Hillel Swartz Would Have Turned 40 This Year
Aaron Swartz killed himself in 2013
The Trumps Are Making Jimmy Kimmel More Famous and Popular
Comedy has long been "controversial", but trying to get people sacked for the 'wrong' joke results in having no comedians or only pseudo-comedians who are the dictator's jester/joker
Microsoft's Grip Has Slipped, Market Share Steadily Declining
This is why Microsoft is having financial issue
Links 28/04/2026: Microsoft's GitHub Upselling After Two Leaders Jumped Ship (Losses Pile Up), "Inflation Jumps," and More
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 60 Out of 200: Talking About Corruption at Microsoft and Arrest for Strangulation is "Malice"
At the moment Brett Wilson LLP has no new clients
The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part VIII - "Red Line" When the European Patent Office (EPO) President Sleeps With Sister of "Cocaine Communication Manager" (Whom He Unconditionally Protects)
If only management took its own words (idealistic pontification) seriously
IBM Laying Off Thousands of Workers Again, Based on Q1 Earnings Call
under the guise of "workforce rebalancing" we are again seeing that IBM plans to pay people (severance) to leave
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, April 27, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, April 27, 2026
Gemini Links 28/04/2026: Good Sunrise Viewing and Self-hosting from Home
Links for the day[1;5C