Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 04/09/2023: Web Environment Integrity Rant and Inbox Zero in Hindsight



  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal/Opinions

      • 🔤SpellBinding: ACEHYTI Wordo: RANKS
      • One Particular Harbour

        I grew up on that big peninsula in Wisconsin that sticks out into Lake Michigan. Nearly every weekend during the summer I could be found on the family boat, jet skiing with friends or just hanging out on the beach. The radio was always playing oldies and boat rock. About half of the CD's we owned were Jimmy Buffett. We all knew the words to every song, the classics, the deep cuts. His music was the soundtrack to my childhood.

        I saw Jimmy Buffett in concert half a dozen times over the years. The first time I was probably 12 or 13. Pre-show tailgating at Alpine Valley was a mix of celebrating music and a lot of drinking, drugs and sex. Went every other year well into college. Grass seats, singing the same songs, it was always an amazing time.

    • Technology and Free Software

      • Internet/Gemini

        • Web Environment Integrity

          So, on the off-chance it does happen, I feel that some of the hackers and hobbyists on the fediverse, gopherspace, and geminispace could start looking into spoofing the PrivateToken challenge that the system is based around. You see, unless I'm talking shit, the second-worst case scenario would result in the entire internet splintering, and so a multi-web browser would be quite handy.

          That's not to say that splintering would necessarily be Google's fault. The idea of the so-called "splinternet" has been tossed around for years; but that's a subject for Wired to cover.

        • How to strengthen the Small net

          So probably without those interpersonal ties, this place will be like any other place on the Internet. It's a common way of thinking that we must be doing our best. So we are pushing Geminispace to be superior to everything else. But it shouldn't be.

        • This week — Going Through My Blog Task List

          TL;DR: I had another long weekend, so I drafted up some pages that I've been wanting to create. I also decided to scrap some past plans for this blog.

          Work has been busy as usual: I juggled different tasks during the workweek, but thankfully none were urgent. Unfortunately, we experienced rough weather here in the city, which culminated in Friday work being suspended thanks to the developing typhoon. Thus, I had another long weekend.

          Hence, I took the opportunity to work more on my blog, and cross off some tasks that I wanted to accomplish.

        • What was Inbox Zero?

          Inbox Zero was the philosophy that there should be super clear edges between “email you’ve never even seen before”, “email you still need to reply to but you don’t need to do anything else first”, “email that’s waiting for you or someone else to do something external”, and “email you’re done with but might wanna look up things in later”, and using folders to do that.

          I’m not sure if people are still using folders and stuff to organize email, but yeah, in general, fishing out “I need to do something” things from your notes or emails or RSS or socials or phone calls or meetings, and then making yourself aware of what are the practical and concrete actions I need to take and what context I need to be in, practicing that is pretty clutch.

      • Programming

        • Address Randomization Tribulations

          So, I have a tiny 32-bit application (a Forth) taking up about 4K, written in fasm. Pure minimalism, including an iffy elf header that fasm creates, with a fixed load address. More on that later.

          It's been unstable, and I tracked the instability down to the initial memory allocation. Right at the start I add my desired memory size to the code base (the top label in asm code), and invoke `brk` system call. This worked as long as I allocated a largish amount, but failed on anything smaller than 16MB or so. Furthermore, it failed intermittently.


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

Televisions Have Become Billboards
Bottom line: you get what you pay for
 
Links 13/09/2026: Scam Altman Admits Issues (Financial), Rival Says Stop Slop (Plagiarism)
Links for the day
Windows Down to New Lows as Switzerland's Federal Government Abandons Microsoft (Where Feasible for Now)
That's how it starts...
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 12, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, September 12, 2026
Mass Layoffs at Microsoft as "Voluntary Separation Agreement" (or PIP)
the man who kept lying about the layoffs has just left the company
The Cyber Show on Media Clickbait About Slop as 'Existential Threat' and Derek Thompson's Response to That
Ignore the hype, focus on real news
Links 12/09/2026: "Revolt Is Here" Against Slop and "Top Chinese Court" Cracks Down on Slop That's Fake/Misleading
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/09/2026: Rants About Slop, Switching From QWERTY, and Why TVs Are 'Cheap'
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 180 Out of 200: A Third Act, (Mis)Using Your Client's Application to the Court for Your Own Purposes as a Law Firm (Reputation Management and Censorship)
How much can a lawfare firm get away with?
Canonical Has Withdrawn Ubuntu 24.04.5 Installer Due to a Critical Bug Connected to Microsoft-Controlled Restricted Boot and TPM
already breaking systems running GNU/Linux [...] Who asked for TPM in Linux?
SLAPP Censorship - Part 179 Out of 200: Using One's Clients to Save Face at Their Expense
Who's being served really?
Switzerland's Software Freedom/Digital Sovereignty is Improving as People Move to GNU/Linux
Well done to them
Links 12/09/2026: "U.S. Debt Surpasses $40 Trillion" and "Trump Wants to [Illegally] Bribe Voters."
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/09/2026: Readjusting, Fighting Sleep, and FreeBSD bhyve
Links for the day
Matt Mullenweg Got the 'Linus Treatment' or 'RMS Treatment'
"back, but not in charge any more..."
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 11, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, September 11, 2026
Earlier This Year Microsoft's Chief Liar Frank Shaw Lied About the Layoffs. Now He's Leaving.
he's nowhere near retirement age
Gemini Links 11/09/2026: Small Things and "Hitching Your Wagon"
Links for the day
Links 11/09/2026: Tristan Buckmaster Ripped Off by Slop, Social Control Media Spreads Hatred for Profit
Links for the day
Animals Smarter Than Chatbots
Quack quack goes the chatbot
Why Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) Won't Work
American companies don't follow laws, they work around them
IBM Isn't Reporting Layoffs, But It Removes Tens of Thousands of People From Its Workforce
Red Hat and IBM already mark people for removal
"A Tale of Two Antónios" Will Resume Soon
In November the site turns 20
Links 11/09/2026: Cyberattack in Berlin (Windows/Microsoft TCO) and Hype About Slop as 'Existential' Something; Scam Altman et al Caught Stealing/Plagiarising "Mathematical Breakthrough"
Links for the day
Microsoft/GNOME 9/11
Garrett and Graveley (Microsoft/GNOME) will have a lot to explain
Net Gain of 50 Gemini Capsules in Just One Month
a big jump in just one month
Keeping Linux Reliable
If Linux becomes a lot more reliable in the future, it'll be an "hey hi" miracle. If Linux becomes a lot less reliable in the future, we'll know why and who is responsible for it.
9/11 Was a National Event, Not an International Event
They insist that back doors will "save lives"
Very Sloppy PR From a Dying IBM, Company in Disarray and in Need of Distractions
IBM could really use distractions right now
Cyber Show on the Fallacy of Salary/Ego as a Function of Wisdom in the Era of Pyramid Schemes (Cheating People Using Buzzwords and Complicit Media)
"the remuneration fallacy and the role of reluctance as a negative feedback force."
What a Price-Fixing Cartel Can Look Like
If your prices increase five-fold or ten-fold and so do your revenues/income, what does that tell us?
SLAPP Censorship - Part 178 Out of 200: Explaining to Your American Clients That Spending 130,000+ United States Dollars on a Single Hearing in Another Continent Means the UK's National Archives Will Retain in Perpetuity What Your Spouse or Girlfriend Said
Balabhadra (Alex) Graveley should ask Garrett how much money he has lost so far
EPO's Local Staff Committee Munich Organises General Assembly Next Week, the Goal is to Oust the Corrupt President and Derail His Unlawful Agenda
They're aiming to show Campinos the door
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 10, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, September 10, 2026
Latest IBM Gossip is, Over 25,000 People to be PIPed (by Year's End)
That figure, 10%, is different from 15% (what we saw a lot). 10% is over 25,000 staff.
Solidarity at EPO
"Many colleagues have made personal and professional sacrifices by participating in the ongoing strike and work-to-rule action"
Gemini Links 11/09/2026: Culture Stuck, Robot Symphony, and Back to Geminispace
Links for the day