Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 25/07/2023: A Kids' Wallpaper



  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal/Opinions

      • 3 Day Weekend - Day 3

        At 07:46 this morning it was 31c / 86f, with 72% humidity. By midday it was terribly hot and stuffy, and the TV news was full of heat warnings all around the region. I decided to go out later in the day because I thought it wouldn't be so hot and I didn't want to sit at home under the A/C all day long.

      • Summer fatigue

        Last weekend my walk was interupted because I didn't feel well, and Sunday I had planned on going back and continuing where I'd left off, but it was just too hot again. So I went downtown to a bookstore instead, to peruse the stacks and use someone else's A/C for a while.

      • 🔤SpellBinding: CEIOSTY Wordo: FOWLS
    • Technology and Free Software

      • A nice, quiet place

        Every evening this week I dove into more things *NIX, for example rsync. Put in a few scripts to push or pull data, rsync has made backups a real breeze.

        It's interesting for me to look back to 2020 when I found the BSDs to be rather daunting and complex. Now I find them quite comfortable and have moved over full time. Nothing against Linux (which I use for jpilot, for example) but it seems be the New Hotness and I've never been one for crowds or the mainstream. The NetBSD scene conversely, strikes me as a real quiet one, and that's just my style.

      • Special Containment Procedures

        Jools is to be fed 1/4 cup of cat food at regular intervals throughout the day. If she has been fed within the last two hours, she is not to be fed again.

        The contents of Jools’ litterbox are not anomalous in nature and may be disposed of, but should not be handled by researchers who are pregnant or suspect they may become pregnant.

      • A wallpaper for those with kids

        Took some time to mess around with Inkscape last night. In my day job I use Figma, so I'm familiar with vector editing, but I've never given Inkscape a shot. I was very impressed, but there's definitely a learning curve (much like GIMP). That said, it's incredible how powerful and capable FOSS software is.

        I've been into simplistic wallpapers as of late, ever since I discovered simpledesktops.com, so I naturally tried to use Inkscape to create my own. I wanted something to represent my son, and here it is. Hope somebody out there enjoys it!

        In the version currently set as my desktop I have my son's name under the image, but I removed it here. If you want to add a name, I recommend the Ysabeau Office font on Google Fonts. If your Desktop Environment doesn't support SVG wallpapers, you'll need to convert it (a simple "convert paccy_wallpaper.svg paccy_wallpaper.png" with Imagemagick will do the trick).


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

Legal Letters Are Not Postcards
It seems like intimidation, nothing more
European Patent Office (EPO) Strikes Persist, EPO Management Tries to Give False Impression of "Happy Staff"
EPO is trying to broadcast to the world a totally phony image of itself
The End of FOSSPost (fosspost.org), It Has become an LLM Slopfarm Like FOSSLinux
These sites will never get lucky with slop. These experiments always end badly.
 
Government Bailouts Won't be Enough to Save IBM
Bailouts from taxpayers in the US
Links 23/05/2026: Social Media Bans and Demise of Userbase of LLM Chatbots
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 85 Out of 200: The United Kingdom's Rating for Press Freedom Has Improved, But We Can Do Even Better
we see the US at #64
Sites Realise That Becoming More Active by Using Bots (LLM Slop) is Self-Destructive
We'll soon (maybe next year) also show that some of the 85+ KG of legal papers sent our way are computer-generated garbage, which might run afoul of some rules
Gemini Links 23/05/2026: Patience, LLM Chatbts Being Bad, and Unexpected Computer Surgery
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 22, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, May 22, 2026
Links 22/05/2026: Ebola Crisis and Samsung Averts a Walkout With Big Bonuses
Links for the day
Links 22/05/2026: Inflation Fears and Thailand Tightens Visa Rules for Tourists From Dozens of Nations
Links for the day
EPO Staff Representation Speaks of This Week's Discussion With the EPO's Budget and Finance Committee (BFC) Amid Mass Strikes
The Central Staff Committee's outline (prepared in a rush) or the "flash report"
SLAPP Censorship - Part 84 Out of 200: New Legislation Against SLAPPs on the Way (After We Reached Out to Ministers)
They dealt with the matter individually too, but we won't share this in public, at least not at this time
The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part XXX - Where Was "The Ethics and Compliance Team" When the Family of EPO President Campinos Was Caught Doing Cocaine?
It remains to be seen if national delegates will tolerate this in future meetings
Gemini Links 22/05/2026: Esperanto Music History, Suspicious Adoption of Signal, and Unauthorised LLM Slop in Code
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 21, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, May 21, 2026
Links 21/05/2026: "Declining America" and Why Slop 'Code' is Made to Fail
Links for the day
Techrights and Tux Machines Subjected to Cyberattacks for Several Weeks
In the past I spoke to the cybercrime unit of British Police. Maybe it's time to do so again.
The Register MS Has Become a 'Content' Farm Promoting Slop for Hostile Corporations
Now they call it "PARTNER CONTENT" - not "SPONSORED" - as if semantics make the difference
Latest Example of Widespread Fake Assertions (False News) About "Hey Hi"
The false narrative of "Hey Hi layoffs"
Links 21/05/2026: Facebook Rewarded With Tax Breaks to Destroy the Environment and Cause Global Warming, Shortages, Pollution; SpaceX (SPCX) Continues Losing Billions of Dollars
Links for the day
Codecs and Software Patents - Part VIII - GNU Audio/Video Team Has Chosen the AV1 Video Codec and It Explains Why (They've Researched Their Options)
AV1 video codec will be used to encode and share GNU videos online
Dr. Stallman Helps Establish Free Software Advocacy Outside the Free Software Foundation (FSF) as Well
The ideals or principles of Free Software needn't be centralised or monopolised; they can be federated
22 Years of Tux Machines and a Community Stronger Than Ever Before
We've already received some feedback from the community and improved it accordingly
Microsoft Under Investigation for Breaches of Law in the UK
Just like the Microsofters
More Microsoft Layoffs on the Way (June and July 2026)
with or without PIPs
LWN Sponsored by the Linux Foundation (Monopolies)
We must be able to casually point this out
The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part XXIX - European Patent Office (EPO) Tells Staff "Speaking up" is Good, But Not When the "Brother-in-law" of EPO's President Does Cocaine
Do we still have a functioning democracy and potent press?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, May 20, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, May 20, 2026
Gemini Links 21/05/2026: Immigration, Slop, and Slop 'Code' Suggestions Infesting Code Repositories
Links for the dayGemini Links 21/05/2026: Immigration, Slop, and Slop 'Code' Suggestions Infesting Code Repositories