Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 27/06/2023: The Gemini PDA, Leadership and Management



  • Personal/Opinions

    • 🔤SpellBinding: GILURSO Wordo: GEOID
    • On the Cusp of Summer

      There's summer, and then there's _summer_ - that point at which, regardless of what the season says, regardless of what the weather's been, it feels like something's changed, and a new season begins. For me, that's always been July. My partner is a teacher, and has the summer months off. So for her, summer is Summer Vacation, July and August, and for me it's taken on that meaning as well. In school, and then in university, I kept this schedule too, so as I met my partner in university and have been with her since, I've never really known anything different. I can't really defend it in any meaningful way, but summer begins in July.

    • All signs point to her
    • Tree/Shrub TBD

      Yesterday (2023-06-26) this little (shrub? tree?) caught my eye.

  • Technology and Free Software

    • ReactOS, or: The Thinkpad lives!

      With the friendly help of my local electronic waste disposal service i got a new mainboard for my old Thinkpad R60 that has died a while ago (i wrote about it in another post)... so, its back in the land of the living and it comes near the point where we have to ask the "Ship of Theseus" question ;-)

      Now i am at the point where i have not only one but TWO usable fairly (for my circumstances) daily driver capable computers, so what to do with the Thinkpad? I could simply go back and install OpenBSD on it like i had for the most time of having it in my posession, but that somehow feels a bit too... "normal"

    • The Gemini PDA and Time-capsule Computing

      I write this log on a Planet Computers Gemini PDA. Released in 2018, the Gemini PDA is a small UMPC aesthetically based on the Psion Series 5 from the late 1990s. It was the first PDA released by Planet Computers and came in WiFi and 4G models--the latter can make telephone calls and use cellular data to connect to the Internet. The PDA was primarily designed to run Android and is based on an SoC for Android phones, but it can also run Debian, Kali Linux or Sailfish. It can also dual-boot between any of these.

    • Leadership and Management

      I'm in my 40s and a good majority of my life has revolved around being or becoming a technical expert. In school I was the nerdy kid in the 90s that just kept my head down, had a few friends, and grew to love computers. I took my computer to LAN parties, and usually did my work to the best of my abilities. I wasn't the top of my class, I was in the middle, and I wasn't an outcast, I was just there. I blended in, and I wasn't part of any popular crowds. I was kind and friendly, and of course joked with my friends and was angsty just like the rest of the teenagers there, but most of all, my primary focus in school was to learn, and so that's what I did. Whether I was learning the things my teachers needed me to was another story, but I was driven to learn because I didn't like not knowing things and above all, failing.

    • Games Showcase: Baba Is You

      “Baba is you” is a sliding blocks puzzle game—yawn. Where the rules are encoded as blocks on the board—wait, what?

    • Getting the width of the current monitor in Emacs

      If you have virtual workspaces on macOS and you use the emacs function display-pixel-width it will give the combined with of ALL the monitors you are using. You are better off using (caddr (frame-monitor-attribute 'geometry)), since frame-monitor-attribute gets the specified attribute from the monitor which the current frame is actually on. BTW: The function frame-monitor-attributes returns all the monitor attributes. The function display-monitor-attributes-list returns the attributes for ALL the monitors you are using.

    • Internet/Gemini

      • The always something of software

        A while back I wrote a Lua script called 'gemlink' leveraging 'gemget' to fetch the content of a given argument-specified Gemini URL, processing/formatting links so they stand out a bit more to me. I then created another called "gemlink-all" that reads all lines of stdin, running "gemlink" against all such links, facilitating getting the content of numerous Gemini documents into a single file, should I feel like having a bit of a quote-and-comment fest.

    • Programming

      • Useless things? ➰🗿🤏

        I like making software things that may not quite be useless, but only get used by me. I like making whatever I have a whim to make. I don't have to care about what anyone else wants or needs.

      • Re: Interleaved 2D Notation for Concatenative Programming

        I am always curious about structure editors, and ways to represent structured data, especially code. So I was pretty curious about this post and the provided links to the pdf file and a web IDE. However, I think this is one is totally pointless (like most attempts at 2d/graphical programming paradigms).

        The beauty of concatenative languages such as Forth is that the arguments precede the operation dynamically/temporally, and can therefore be decoupled. Arguments can come from anywhere as long as they get pushed onto the stack -- at any time prior to the execution of this particular instruction! This is crucial, as that is how we concatenate.


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

European Patent Office (EPO) Series: Legal Concerns and Suspicions of Irregularities
complaints submitted to OLAF
GAFAM and IBM Dying in Massive Debt, Hence the Mass Layoffs (Increasingly Silent Layoffs That the Media Fails to Mention)
the integrity of this economy is only as good as its leaders or those who govern the market
SLAPP Censorship - Part 134 Out of 200: What "Majority Rules" Tell Us About the Litigant
we press on with this series
Overshoot Day Sites That Contribute to the Problem
Some of these are not even accessible (at all) without JavaScript
As Expected, Facebook Collapses, Microsoft Hides Massive Debt
GAFAM is a giant mountain of debt
Staff of EPO Cautions Against Unlawful Weaponisation of PIPs Against Industrial Actions That Protest Corruption
PIP-like sanctions against anybody who does not toe the line of Cocaine King?
IBM, Running Out of Things It Can Sell, is Selling Software Patents
IBM is not just pathetic; it's actively harmful because it lobbies for software patents and spreads software patents around
The 'Church' of Moglen/Stallman
'reunion' with Eben Moglen
 
Today The Register MS Published "AI" Spam and Fake Article by "Senior Technical Marketing Engineer"
unethical practices
Cult inquiry parliament leak fallout
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Techrights Will Always Protect Sources
Our #1 priority is sources
The Era of Silence
So stay silent, remain hidden
TheLayoff.com Deletes Comment That Called IBM's Previous CEO, Ginni Rometty, "Gin 'n Tonic"
It is hard to believe the comment was deleted for being a duplicate (in another thread)
The Mainstream Media Continues to Overlook or Intentionally Ignore Hundreds of Billions in Hidden/Secret Microsoft Debt
the issue is that Microsoft's crisis is a lot greater and broader than this
Microsoft May Have Gotten Rid of 8% of Its Workforce This Month
It's hard to know what's really going on because there's no transparency due to NDAs
Links 30/07/2026: "Age of Irrationality", Google Losing Money, and "House of Ellison is on the Brink"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/07/2026: Homeworlds Notes and Manuscript Submitted
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 29, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 29, 2026
At The Register MS "PARTNER CONTENT" Means Company Writing Fake Articles About Itself and Its Own Products
At The Register MS, content-farming has become a thing
Gemini Links 29/07/2026: Star Trek, Retirement, and ODEs in GNU Octave
Links for the day
Links 29/07/2026: "BuzzFeed Lays Off 33 Percent of Remaining Staff" (Trying LLM Slop Some More), Scam Altman Mocked by the Media
Links for the day
GNOME Curated and Censored by IBM (Under the Guise of "Code of Conduct")
Felipe Borges (IBM) has just posted a follow-up
Digital Mass Surveillance as a Hallmark of Failed Societies
"small leap forward in tech ethics"
I Found a Typo, Don't Vote!
Social control media isn't good at adding any meaningful signal
Jeremy Sands Explained the Harms of Codes of Conduct
next week the 500th show milestone [is reached]
Tonight's Earnings Report From Microsoft and Facebook ('Meta') Will be Faked Because They Hide Almost a Trillion Dollars in Debt
The US economic system is only as honest as the people who govern it
The Vacuum Syndrome
Parables help
The Only Old People Who Can Survive IBM Are the CEO and His Circle of Enablers
very similar to what's happening at the EPO
Microsoft Layoffs Aren't Done Ahead of the Need to Tell Shareholders About "Efficiency" (Tonight)
Microsoft layoffs won't be "Done" until what's left of Microsoft is "None"
Microsoft Lacks Growth. Ahead of 'Results' The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) Finds Merit in Allegations Slop is Microsoft's Excuse for Price Hikes (Piggybacking Vendor Lock-in).
At this stage it's not hard to see why many nations gravitate away from Microsoft
Parliament leaks confidential cult inquiry witness contact list (COFG Victoria)
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Troll-Feeding is Time-Wasting
in social control media
WordPress is Technical Debt
There are a number of technical tasks underway and maybe some testing (this coming weekend or later)
Will Red Hat Still Exist in 2027 or Just Become a "Brand" at IBM?
Whistleblowers told us IBM was laying off about 500 Red Hat engineers earlier this year
Call for IBM Whistleblowers
If you work for IBM and have something material (like balance sheets) to prove financial misconduct, please try to 'touch base' and establish a secure communication channel we can both use
EPO Series on EU and Pan-European Corruption, Vote-Rigging, Extending Beyond the EPO Itself
By Saturday it will be August already, so we'll start preparing for Rianne's birthday
SLAPP Censorship - Part 133 Out of 200: Lies by Omission
As usual, the other side wants people to ignore how much they lost
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: Streamlining the Decision-Making Process
Negrão was one of 17 applicants for the position but he somehow managed to end up as the sole candidate on the shortlist prepared by the Management Board in June 2020
Links 29/07/2026: "Hugging Face Has a Deepfake Nudes Problem" and "$1.5B Anthropic Copyright Infringement Ruling" (Plagiarism is Not "Training")
Links for the day
Comments on Today's Judgment
It hopefully helps clarify what actually happened
Microsoft Has Fallen to #3 in Singapore
There are many technically talented people in Singapore or overseas workers who lodge in Singapore
Thank You, Andy
Burnham and "Tech Rights"
Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Inaction and Incompetence - Part II - 77 Messages Sent, Did Not Even Investigate or Examine Any of the Actual Evidence (British Taxpayers' Money Wasted)
SRA has become known (even notorious) for inaction
Inevitable Politics
In technology, provided the work you do has growing impact (we served almost 2 million requests yesterday), things will inevitably become more political - whether you like it or not does not matter
Not Only "Loonies Take on Farage"
pretending that the opposition to the right wing is "Loonies"
Brigading Against Women - Part I - Bypassing the Legal System by Threatening Companies in Another Continent
In the next part we'll begin to connect Lozza's online activities (and court activities) to those of Garrett
IBM is Trying to Turn Debt (Borrowed Money) Into Fake Growth and It'll Worsen Matters
they put in their balance sheets a fake "growth" in something that does not even exist
Microsoft Relies on Misleading Narrative of Studios Going 'Independent'; in Reality There Are Mass Layoffs in Them
This is not a good narrative for Microsoft
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 28, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 28, 2026
Gemini Links 29/07/2026: Arosa, Tired Tuesday, and Constellation Browser
Links for the day
In IBM, PIPs and RAs (Layoffs) Have Become Almost the Same Thing, Workers 'Expire' With Age (Seniority, Experience) and Empathy is Punishable by Termination
IBM does seem like a dead company
At Microsoft, PIPs Are Sometimes Known as "LITE" (a Silent Layoffs Legal Hack or a Shrewd Workaround to Skirt WARN Act)
Zero "layoffs" to report
Gemini Links 28/07/2026: “Strategies Against Algorithms” and DIYers
Links for the day
"Social Dialogue" With the Man Who Never Faced Real Competition at the European Patent Office (EPO), He Buys the Voters and Eliminates Rivals
Will the "Pretender" write back?
Digital Restrictions (DRM) and Microsoft: What Kills XBox Will Kill Windows Next
Microsoft wrongly and very arrogantly assumed that users would tolerate everything it throws their way
GNU/Linux in Afghanistan Reaches 7%
For many years it was stuck at less than 1%
Greenwashing Corruption With a "Chief Sustainability Officer", Who Infamously Defended Battisetelli's Crimes at the EPO and Petitioned for Him
She was rewarded for conspiring against EPO staff, as usual
What I Explained to Police About Blackmail and Death Threats via Burner Accounts (a Practice Which Generally Constitutes a Crime)
Today I've communicated several times with police
Links 28/07/2026: "People’s Claude Chats Are Publicly Accessible Online" and SpaceX Stock Crashes Like Its Products
Links for the day
UK tech sector missing from democratic process
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
How Not to Cover Elections (Democracy Relies on Reliable, Complete Information)
Misinformed voters are a recipe for disaster
Microsoft E.E.E. (and "Bait and Switch") Going Exactly According to Plan
That is what they are trying to tell us and the companies that employ us
IBM: An Old Company That Hates Old People
Remember that's coming to Red Hat workers in 2 months
Strict Policy on Violence and Violent Language
This matter is now being escalated to law firms
Avoiding Discrimination Against People With Disabilities
work underway to improve the system which runs the sites
Links 28/07/2026: XBox DRM Doomed Everyone (Cannot Play Anything), Slop (Ponzi Scheme) Being Pinkwashed Now
Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/07/2026: Ethics, GIMP Script-Fu, SMTP Versus Gemini, and Proposal for Better TOFU
Links for the day
To a Sociopath, Ethical People Are Bad People. Don't Fall for It.
If you put sociopaths on a pedestal, the pedestal will break
Improving the Static Site Generator
Our system has fixes triaged
Diversity in Debian
bringing up the topic is the real problem, diversity itself is a taboo subject
GNU/Linux in Brazil. The B in BRIC(S).
the "market share" is assessed to be around 5%
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 27, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, July 27, 2026