Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 06/07/2023: Fire Retardants and lp0 on fire



  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal/Opinions

    • Politics and World Events

      • What should the government do for us?

        Often, some people make remarks like “Don’t expect the goverment to just hand you things!” in response to concerns about healthcare, food, housing, what have you. This, I think, fundamentally misses the point of what a government, or at least a democratic government, *should be*.

        (Note: I understand there is a massive difference between “should be” and “is”.)

        See, like, if you’re just in a small group of people, you probably get along just fine talking things out with each other and making compromises. This is how things work in my family of all adults, for example. Most friend groups are this way too.

        This kind of breaks down when you have a much larger group. Maybe, *maybe* you could gather everyone in a small town together and have them hash out budgets and laws, but a big city? An entire nation?

      • Re: Fire Retardants are not a legal requirement

        The source in the original article lists only legislation for Delaware, and even then it only prohibits "harmful flame retardant chemicals".

    • Technology and Free Software

      • lp0 on fire

        A user once showed up at the office door, and claimed that the "printer smelled funny". That is never a good sign. What had happened was that they had loaded iron-on t-shirt paper into a laserwriter. The paper, or rather its coating, had in turn melted around the fusor, the most expensive replaceable part. No actual fire, but it did smell pretty bad.

        Fire is rare in server rooms, or rather "significant heat incidents" as one might see in the official reports. There may not actually have been a fire despite all sorts of burn damage from the, I don't know, electrical arcs.

      • Just some yet another day kind of whatever

        Fun couple days, in no small part for having less to do with monitors and/or keyboards.

        Grant it, I had to deal with so called "4th of July" activities. I think I summed up my take on that well when I turned to a couple adult guests and said, "This is what the people not good at math consider entertainment."

        I honestly have very little to say. I don't even like talking. And forget about listening to others unless they've an intriguing voice *and* come up for air regularly so others can get a word or three in.

      • Teaching physics with code

        I'm probably going to get a chance to help write a class that teaches physics majors how to code and how computation integrates with physics.

        This is actually a topic I love a lot and I've been low-key thinking for years that I wanted to write a textbook that teaches intro physics and intro programming at the same time, to avoid the panic-inducing nature of anything that requires calculus.

      • Internet/Gemini

        • revolting

          A few months ago, I happen to notice some crazy spikes in my gopher server stats.

        • I'm on Lemmy now!

          Following reddit's decision to monetize their public API, I decided to simply get off the platform. I'm however a fervent lurker, and love to mindlessly scroll through links and memes posted by random people. Hopefully for me, a bunch of nerds were already working on a decentralized link aggregator: Lemmy[0] (see also kbin[1]).

          It's a link aggregator one can self-host, but which can talk to other software involved in the €« Fediverse €». Long story short, all servers can communicate together, and with an account created on website A, you can read, post and comment on website B. Many software use this principle of federation, starting with emails (but also Mastodon, Matrix, …).

        • Fundamentals in Reform

          My purpose, in this address, is to bring about a juster understanding and appreciation of different classes of reformers among one another and to direct their attention to what seems the most practical as well as the easiest method of reform which is already within their grasp whenever they are willing to undertake it. I have no expectation of bringing about any formal union of those different classes; but only to favorably incline the most thoughtful individuals among them toward united action; and to soften, in some degree, the asperities which now prevail. Hoping that it will not entirely fail of its purpose, is the hope of…

        • activity pub (lemmy)



          I wanted to be able to find a post and just hit a "like" button to upvote them directly from my desktop.

          Found out that lemmy is kind of picky with the Accept header.


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

Linux Kernel Tainted by Software Patents That Make Linux Worse and the 'Linux' Foundation is Compiling Bribes to Enable This (Promotion of Monopolies and Tolerance of Software Patenting)
Why you need to reboot when a serious bug is found in Linux? "Licencing"...
Links 04/05/2026: Energy Shortages Become More Visible, Germans Reject Military Service, Merz Says US 'Humiliated' Over Iran
Links for the day
KDE's Cornelius Schumacher Explains Why You Should be Slop-Free
Output is not measured by quantity of words
Links 03/05/2026: Insolvent US Bailing Out Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia, Oracle, OpenAI, and SpaceX
Links for the day
 
IBM's "FutureNow" is the Rebranding of the Client Innovation Center (CIC), for Lobbying Purposes by IBM While Halving People's Salaries
So says a new comment
Libera.​Chat Openly and Publicly Admits It Has an LLM Slop Problem (Chatbots in Its Channels)
If there's a policy that bans chatbots (not humans), there's even a moral imperative for it
Microsoft: Yes, We Are Losing Windows Users and Yes, We Have Problems With Payroll (So We Lay Off Essential Workers)
From what we can gather, "hey hi" is now the name of everything at Microsoft
Ubuntu.com While Ubuntu.com is Under DDoS Attack and Intermittently Offline Due to Windows Botnets: Don't Use Ubuntu, Use Windows Instead
Unbelievable, as this is their advice when Windows zombies hammer away at their Web site and general infrastructure
Links 04/05/2026: "DNC Covering Up Its 2024 Autopsy" and Rudy Giuliani in Critical Condition
Links for the day
ChromeOS and GNU/Linux Exceed 5% in New Zealand
Can we expect New Zealand and Australia to divest from GAFAM?
The Real News is Botnets (e.g. Windows With Back Doors), Not Iran
Let's focus on the botnets [...] Microsoft's aim is the opposite of security
SLAPP Censorship - Part 66 Out of 200: Alex Graveley Did Illegal Things, Then Asserted Mentioning Those Illegal Things is Privacy Violation
Alex Graveley "has suffered damage and distress" when the public found out he told women to kill themselves
The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part XII - Outsourcing Everything to Microsoft, Which is Illegal
Today's EPO isn't about technology or law
Melissa Chan on Why Press Freedom Matters to Everyone, Not Just Journalists
dispelling a myth
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 03, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, May 03, 2026
Gemini Links 04/05/2026: Another Old Web Pillar Gone and Simple Lobsters Mirror for Gemini
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 65 Out of 200: Graveley and Garrett Claims Are Word-by-Word Similar (They Also Collaborated All Along)
We'll keep it short today
IBM Has a Long and Rich History of Showing Chatbots Bear No Business Prospects (From Jeopardy to Watson Healthcare and McDonalds)
Watson Healthcare is already in the dustpan, so they are rebranding it again
Europe Decoupling is Bad News for GAFAM, Especially Bad to Microsoft
Countries want independence
India Needs to Recognise That the World Wide Web is Monoculture in India
In the US, a judge with Indian roots dealt with a case related to this; why won't India?
All-Time Lows for Windows Down Under
seeing the demise of Windows in Australia (historically a slow or low adopter of GNU/Linux) is good news
IBM's Kyndryl Accounting Fraud Explained and More Recently the Insiders Talk About Mass Layoffs
Judging by how the media totally ignored 800+ layoffs at IBM's Confluent and 400+ layoffs at Red Hat a few weeks ago don't expect to hear anything about Kyndryl layoffs
Links 03/05/2026: Water Shortages Crises and Slop Fakes "Are Coming for Your Bank Account" (Slop-Enabled Fraud)
Links for the day
All-Time Lows for Windows in Spain and Portugal
data which became publicly available less than 24 hours ago in statCounter
The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part XI - EPO 'Products' to Cement Asian and American Monopolies
Only a fool would believe Lame Duck Campinos
Microsoft Windows Falls Below 9% in South Africa
As one can expect, GNU/Linux is measured as going up in France
Gemini Links 03/05/2026: The Black Side of the Web, LiveJournal, Chimarrão
Links for the day
A Month Since Mass Layoffs at Red Hat (400+ Engineers Laid Off), The Media Didn't Cover It
We are very concerned about the state of the media
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 02, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, May 02, 2026
Gemini Links 02/05/2026: Strange Psychosis and TUIs
Links for the day
Links 02/05/2026: Microsoft Has Begun Rebranding Vista 11 as 'XBox' (Because the Console is Dying), Slop Rejected by Oscars
Links for the day
IBM's CEO 10 Years Ago in IBM-Sponsored Forbes: "For those willing to embrace [blockchains], the future will indeed be bright."
How well did this prediction materialise?
SLAPP Censorship - Part 64 Out of 200: Not Amused by Repeated Threats (to "Shut Down" My "Existence" While Mentioning My Wife Too)
it's about censorship
RightsCon Cancellation as a Data Point in a World Gone Astray
RightsCon should not even be controversial
The NHS is Under Attack by Anthropic and Microsoft (or Their Lemmings That Infect the NHS)
They are kidding themselves if they seriously believe Web-facing source code repositories are the real threat to patients
cPanel is Not Linux, cPanel is Proprietary Software
It's fair to say I've used cPanel for 23 years
Links 02/05/2026: Gen Z is Turning Against Slop and OpenAI/Microsoft Rift Explained
Links for the day
Storage and Memory Prices Are Rising Not Because of High Demand (Production Can Match Demand), It's Partly Because of Price-Fixing (Same as Food Price Increases)
Sophisticated robberies are still robberies
Thousands of Layoffs at IBM, So IBM Pays Mainstream Media to Claim That IBM is Hiring (Paid Lies)
This is a story about the media failing us, not just IBM failing as a company
A Look at DataStax Bluewashing (IBM and Layoffs)
IBM is a place that many people leave or get pushed out of
Gemini Links 02/05/2026: Leaving Session, Alhena 5.5.7, and Slop Failing Customers
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 01, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, May 01, 2026