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

Brigading Against Women - Part XIV - Mastery of Distraction
The finger-pointing actions themselves prove the saying that even an accusation is likely a confession
 
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: A Costa-Benefit Analysis: Has the Asset Become a Liability?
All other things being equal, one could expect the Portuguese political establishment to support Campinos in his reappointment bid. But what if all other things are no longer equal because the former "asset" has in the meantime become a "liability"?
Links 02/10/2026: "McDonald's Caught Cheating Consumers for Profit" and "It's Not Illegal If You Buy New Laws"
Links for the day
EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part XVII - A Vote for Campinos This Month (Reappointment) Would be an Endorsement of Cocaine
The harder they try to silence critics, the worse it'll get
The Cyber Show on "Career Scientists" (Resellers of Establishment Brands Like GAFAM)
"The "career scientist" - with PhD and research office by their mid-twenties - follows well oiled tracks and institutional signposts, steering away from controversial or "difficult" subjects."
Reporting Court Matters While Preserving Dignity of Staff
There's a high and growing probability we'll take our appeal to the Court of Appeal next year
Broligarchs Speech-Policing, Faux 'Community' or 'Hub' in 'User-Driven' Clothing
Until a broligarch decides to "flag" inconvenient stories
Gemini Links 02/10/2026: Haiku, Microsoft EEE ('Linux' as a Container in Windows), and ROOPHLOCH 2026 Roundup
Links for the day
Microsoft Promised Them Bonuses, Instead They May Get Laid Off
Laid off or paid off?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 01, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, October 01, 2026
Lots of People Left Red Hat This Week, No Announcement Made of Layoffs
Companies just find ways and excuses not to announce their layoffs
Gemini Links 01/10/2026: Gemini-to-Web Proxies Considered Harmful, ROOPHLOCH 2026 at Griffith Park Observatory
Links for the day
"SPONSORED FEATURE" of HPE and NVIDIA at The Register MS Has Just Mentioned "AI" 68 Times in One Page!
Meanwhile, grown-ups ignore the hype and get work done without slop
Microsoft's XBox Layoffs Not Finished, Won't be Finished, It's Called "Forever Layoffs"
Microsoft will shut down (XBox) after shrinking it, there's no need to sell anything (a straw man)
IBM's Red Hat Lost Lots of People Today, Chief People Officer (CPO) Dethroned
Headcount falls shortly in secret.
Microsoft is "Pushing Up Daisies" Amid Mass Layoffs (Secret Ones)
"Longtime Microsoft research leader Peter Lee and former LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky to depart"
Links 01/10/2026: "Lawyer Cites ChatGPT-Invented Fake Witnesses in Murder Appeal" and The 'Linux' Foundation Technical Advisory Board (TAB) Has Vacuum
Links for the day
Brigading Against Women - Part XIII - The Offer We Didn't Ask For (and Under Threats to a Lady at the Webhost, a Form of Extortion From America)
Two and a half months ago Garrett made an offer to my wife
Creditors beware: VMS Enterprises Ltd vs Brexit Party (Reform UK Party Ltd)
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Techrights Turning 20 Next Month
Our image is under attack, our finances are constantly under attack and so on
Links 01/10/2026: "Meat Proxies" and "Japan’s Far Right Is Courting Young Voters"
Links for the day
Red Hat Being Phased Out of Existence (Like Many Other Companies That IBM Bought)
The "Red Hat" brand (and badge) is being dissolved some more today [...] IBM is imploding 'creatively'.
IBM Layoffs Cover-up
thelayoff.com is censoring threads
"Restricted Boot" Garrett's State is Now Implementing Kill Switches (Just What We've Warned About All Along)
The underlying concept is hardly new
Brett Wilson LLP Has Had No Annual Report in 16 Months
A cynic might hint that they try to hide something
Reform UK last minute accounts filing
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 01/10/2026: "Babel With Better Hardware", Software Input That's Slop, and DWeb Cascadia 2026
Links for the day
Today is D-Day at Red Hat and People Leave in Droves
They said there would be "bluewashing", we're mostly seeing people announcing they're leaving
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, September 30, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Gemini Links 30/09/2026: Fish Leather, Slop Formation, and ROOPHLOCH
Links for the day
In a Lot of Europe (or EU) Android (With Linux) is Bigger Than Windows
For example in Greece
Slop-Posting is a New Form of S---posting
We recently caught several more "linux" sites (with "linux" in their domain name) turning to slop
EPO Cocainegate: Lots of Money (Over a Million Euros) for Cocaine Addicts, Not for Children With Special Needs
Next month we'll bring out some more Campinos scandals
High Court victory: Nigel Farage is 'the Company's own candidate'
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
It Took GNOME's Code of Conduct Committee (CoCC) Over 8 Months to Realise CoC Reports Went Into /dev/null/
It would be ironic if the blunder's culprits were punished for it, would it not?
Links 30/09/2026: Microsoft "OpenAI Ignored Employees’ Warnings About Safely" and "Pentagon Personnel Agency Data Breach Impacts 3 Million People"
Links for the day
The Register MS "Events" As Paid Spam That Promotes and Keeps Afloat Hype About Slop
This dreary sort of media reads like a soup of words, i.e. like the thing it is advertising
Digital Independence in the UK and in Western Europe
We have the technical capacity and skilled personnel to achieve this
IBM's Anderon as a Mass Layoffs Ritual With a Bailout (From US Taxpayers to IBM) and Other Perks
Like those empty promises in the first term of the Cheeto dictator
Gemini Links 30/09/2026: David Bowie, Web Rendering Proxy, Ink and Letters, Gemlog Nostalgia
Links for the day
EPO Annual General Meeting (AGM) Will Speak of Financial State of the EPO's Union
Their work is needed because the EPO breaks the law
Rust Causes Upgrade Issues in Ubuntu
They could just keep GNU coreutils in place (nothing was broken about it) and avoid Microsoft's back doors and TPMs
Losses From Slop Are "Investment", Hundreds of Billions in Debt Are "Growth Opportunity", Layoffs Are "Great to See", and Loss of Business Means "We Need a Slowdown" (for "Safety")
Microsoft is removing staff, as investment is apparently the act of shrtinking
Brigading Against Women - Part XII - Toxic Masculinity, Hunting Women, Will Code for Sex
Who says things like these?
The Microsoft Lunduke Slop Problem
Microsoft Lunduke does not support Software Freedom; he serves to discredit many ideas championed by Free software or ideals articulated which are apolitical for the most part
Links 30/09/2026: "Understanding the LLM Bubble" and "Florida Senate Threatened Legal Action Against Newspapers"
Links for the day
It Looks Like Mass Layoffs at "Nordcloud, an IBM Company" Today (a Day Ahead of Red Hat)
Expect the same from Red Hat next
British Prime Minister Recognises Social Control Media as National Cohesion Problem
one has to wonder if addiction to social control media is not compatible with peace
The Future Isn't Social Control Media (Nothing Will be Left of It, Not Even Archives)
"Error code: 502 Bad Gateway"
GNU/Linux Usage in China is Increasing
China is leaving Microsoft and Windows behind
43 Years of GNU and GAFAM's (Especially Microsoft's) Attacks On It
GNU is very widely used (when people say "Linux commands" they typically mean "GNU programs"), hence it's being attacked a lot
CDMAG Covers Free Software, New Magazine From Decent People
If enough people accessed their site, they would not rely on social control media (third parties, censorship platforms)
Brigading Against Women - Part XI - An Abject Lack of Social Skills (and Not Knowing How to Handle Women)
GGG enjoy - if that's the right term - very bizarre or esoteric sex life
Gemini Links 30/09/2026: Accelerationism, "The Billionaire is Wrong", Rant About LLM-generated Support E-mails
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 29, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 29, 2026