Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 13/08/2023: Browsing Gemini with Lynx



  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal/Opinions

      • Simplicity 4 -- Eyecare

        Applying eye drops every hour the analog way.

        Some time ago I had to deal with a health issue regarding my eyes. This involved applying two kinds of eye drops regularly: once every hour and once every three hours. If both are due, wait 15 minutes between them.

        Of course everyone else would just charge their timer app on their smartphone and be done with it, right? Except, I do not have such a newfangled contraption. So other means had to make due.

      • Our “Twenty Questions” houserules

        Twenty questions is a game where one person things of something secret and the other person has twenty yes-or-no questions to narrow down who it can be and finally guess it. “Is the person alive today?” “Yes.” That sort of thing.

        The way we play it these days, it’s almost more like a puzzle or co-op experience because of the first rule, which is that the person who came up with the secret should aim for something that will be discovered by question number 17 or thereabouts. If they find the secret a lot sooner, you came up with a too easy secret, and if they don’t find the answer within 20 questions, you came up with a too difficult secret. For that reason, you obviously should pick something that you believe they are aware of.

      • Two down, two to go

        This morning a little bit before 09:00 I got another PREP notification that it was going to rain. Within a few minutes it did start raining, and then suddenly the skies opened up and it came down with a ferocity I don't think I've ever experienced before. It was so bad we could barely see out the windows, but within a few minutes it stopped and for the rest of the day the sun was out. Of course after it stopped raining the humidity went over 85%.

      • Mountain Day

        Friday was a national holiday in Japan - Mountain Day - and this coming week is Obon (or Bon?) and so I'm on vacation. As is the rest of the nation; my SO and I hit the road yesterday, and the roads were crowded in places. It was my first time in an EV, which was interesting.

        The navigation system (what's it called in the West, a satnav?) was functional, but only that. I'm used to pinching and swiping but this system didn't have that feature, and the UI's response to button and screen taps was slow.

      • Brussels restaurant recommendations 🍽️

        They bring you four courses, no choice, but they upsell extras. The staff were enthusiastic but disorganised. The food was small amounts of intense flavours. They have a sommelier (fancy!) who's equally as loquatious about canned beer as he is about wine. Don't sit inside unless you want loud music; outside in the square is pleasant.

    • Technology and Free Software

      • Earned my Terraform certification but not for a good reason

        This is a bit of a rant, I just need to vent.

        I work as a Platform Engineer, and I use Terraform daily for deploying infrastructure in Azure/AWS and writing modules. The problem is my current place of employment; they have a very unique take on Terraform design that goes against many, scrap that, all documented best practices. This is a "design" decision they have actively chosen.

      • open source

        yesterday was the day when hashi decided that it didn't need the open source community which helped build it. hashi has decided to switch from mpl to busl. busl is not open source, it reverts to open source after 4 years. this is unfortunate, to start, it's a security risk.

      • Internet/Gemini

        • Browsing Gemini with Lynx at portal.mozz.us

          A couple of years ago, I posted on the Lynx mailing list about adding Gemini support to the browser.[1] That's never happened. It's too bad, because Lynx supports a *lot* of protocols: gopher, http(s), telnet, ftp, nntp, wais, finger... the list goes on.[2]

          I like Lynx a lot and I want it to be my go-to browser in the terminal for Gopher, Gemini, and the web. So in the absence of built-in Gemini support, I browse Gemini sites through Michael Lazar's great SmolNet Portal at portal.mozz.us.


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

When You're Evil and You're Publicly Attacking Something, That Something Will Become More Popular
when an oppressor becomes openly oppressive and does anything to squash/censor critics, the outcome will typically be detrimental to the oppressor
 
Tell Me Something I Don't Know
Those who have a stake in the secrecy would do anything to maintain secrecy
Gemini Links 10/08/2026: Recollections and Washing Machine That Only Last a Few Years
Links for the day
Claims of Mass Layoffs at IBM (in Finance)
IBM tries hard to maintain an illusion of normality - to the point of viciously censoring critics and whistleblowers.
The Slop Bubble (Pyramid Scheme) is Becoming Bigger and Everyone Should be Terrified (Its Implosion Will Cause More Damage)
there's no plan for a turnaround
Microsoft and Apple Lose Ground to GNU/Linux in the United States
This contributes a lot to the international curve
Escaping Ads
When users do not want ads, then no ads should show up, period
For Second Year in a Row Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) Loses Money (Over $3,000,000 Lost in 2 Years), Bradley M Kuhn Steps Down as Treasurer
lost almost $600,000 last year
Microsoft/GAFAM Operating at a Loss
Microsoft has financial problems
Nigel Farage crisis: Taylor Swift & Jeffrey Epstein both shunned cryptocurrency bosses
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
statCounter Now Sees GNU/Linux "Market Share Worldwide" at 9.21%, Soon 10%
If this data is more or less accurate, it's time for panic at Microsoft
Rumours of Impending Mass Layoffs in IBM's Yorktown Office, Impacting the LLM (Slop) Staff
Bubbles never last forever, hence their name
Links 10/08/2026: "Long COVID Linked to Lasting Damage in The Brain's Dopamine System", Microsoft’s Weather App Uses Over 1,000 Megabytes of RAM
Links for the day
Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) Does Not Support Women, It Imitates Authentic Organisations, Embraces Misogynists, Then Projects
They try to monetise for personal gain at the expense of unpaid volunteers
Links 10/08/2026: "Against Oligarch" and "The Invisible Women"
Links for the day
Social Control Media Deathwatch: After Nearly a Million Posts Sent EchoFeed Shuts Down
EchoFeed is hardly unique
When the LLM Chatbots Industry (Trillions in the Red) Quits Paying the Media for FOMO
fear of missing out, or FOMO for short
Microsoft Killing Morale
branding the process “inhumane” and “demoralizing”
Google's "AI Overview" as Proprietary Censorship Engine and Gatekeeper
People do not choose to use this, Google is just shoving that in people's faces, encouraging laziness and misinformation
SLAPP Censorship - Part 145 Out of 200: They Tried Hard to Hide the Fact Their Client Had Been Sued, Twice Even
A month ago Brett Wilson LLP tried to take my wife "to the side" (in effect isolated) to make her an offer
statCounter: GNU/Linux Up to 8.95% Globally
So the estimates are being "corrected" upwards, not downwards
Explaining How Someone Attempted to Cancel RMS This Year (and Failed)
The process itself involved debunking some falsehoods
Microsoft's "XBOX Ranks Last", IBM is Headed for Extinction
If Microsoft cannot dominate its own "home turf", what prospects are there elsewhere?
DebConf6 fight denied by Google artificial intelligence
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 09, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, August 09, 2026
Gemini Links 10/08/2026: A Mild Monday, Sleepy Saturday, OUYA, and Moving to GNU/Linux
Links for the day
Links 09/08/2026: US Blackouts (Energy Wasted), Slop to Evade Accountability, and Software Patents Framed as "Hey Hi"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/08/2026: Parakeets in Britain and Rant About 'Modern' Washing Machines
Links for the day
Links 09/08/2026: Social Control Media Weaponises Immigration, Europe Suffers Severe Drought, and "Internet of Stuff" Explained
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 144 Out of 200: The "Hired Guns" ("Media" at BW) Shrank Almost Three-Fold Since They Sued Us in 2024
No wonder they're so visibly outnumbered
10 Days Ago Red Hat Formally Terminated Employment of About 500 Technical Workers (the Media Didn't Mention This)
IBM has nothing left to do except fire people (in secret) whilst attacking sites that give these people a voice
Freenode Continues to Shed Off Servers and Users, Good Thing We Abandoned It
you cannot sell communities. It leads to chaos
Daniel Pocock in the Sunday Times (Today)
Expect the attacks (from Pocock's haters, motivated by envy) to intensify
Controlling One's Platform
We need to strive for or actively pursue a Web where everyone has their own platform/s and where censors ("moderators") have no direct control over these platforms
Improving the Static Site Generator (SSG), Fixing Bugs
Next month the site's SSG turns 3
Gemini Links 09/08/2026: Meatballs (1979), Gopher, RSS Experiment
Links for the day
2026: The Year Richard Stallman Came Back to American Campuses
There's more on the way
IBM's "Next Step" Program
Apparently close to 1,000 people being laid off by IBM wasn't worth reporting
XBox is Rotting Away, Technical Issues for Second Time in Two Weeks
XBox is dying
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 08, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, August 08, 2026
Red Hat is in Need of a 'Jolla', as an IBM-Controlled Red Hat is Becoming Like the Microsoft-Infiltrated Nokia
Dying fast, partly by design
Gemini Links 08/08/2026: Gigs, Poems, SREs, and Shared Passion
Links for the day
If GNU/Linux Rising is Just "Bots" (It's Not, Many Surveys Show the Same), Why Does Microsoft Rush to Lie About System Requirements of Vista 11?
The real reason is, GNU/Linux is rising
Kompromat Tactics in GNU and Linux
Kompromat as a concept was covered here in the past in relation to Microsoft
SLAPP Censorship - Part 143 Out of 200: After Nearly 10 Attempts to Settle With Us and Over a Million Pounds Spent on Lawyers and Barristers
We are in no particular hurry
20 Years and 43 Years
GNU/Linux is not just code, it's a philosophy, licence (copyleft), and community
GNU/Linux Turns 43 Next Month, Many Distros Actively Maintained
A lot of Debian-based distros are still actively maintained (we talk about this in IRC this evening), so the stability of the Debian Project is important
Links 08/08/2026: GAFAM Colonialism "Paved Over Protected Wetlands", Slop Companies Hoard Software Patents as Debt Soars to Trillions
Links for the day
Links 08/08/2026: "Palantir Paid No Federal Income Tax" and "Who's Responsible for This Mess?"
Links for the day
Retained: The Time IBM's Red Hat Tried to Hijack or Take Offline Site of Critics, Failed on All Grounds (Meritless Action Intended to Harass Critics)
Replicated from adrforum.com
IBM's 'Final Solution': Censor Sites Not Controlled by IBM, Sites Where Dissent is Expressed
IBM has no culture of free speech
More Mass Layoffs Coming IBM's Way (Ones IBM Cannot Hide, Cannot Convince Enough People to Leave or Unjustifiably PIP Them When They Say No)
The company that was like a "father of modern computing" is now stingy when it comes to travel. Not a good sign.
What Will it Take for Mainstream Media to Report Silent or Secret Layoffs at IBM?
"Silent" or "secret" sometimes because the media won't cover them
Is the Future of IBM Red Hat Temporary Staff, Contractors?
They want cheap, obedient lemmings
Gemini Links 08/08/2026: Tribute to Lloyd Center, Radio Amateurism, Homeworlds
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, August 07, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, August 07, 2026