Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • You've Got Quail

    Friday night, while I was out for a walk with my partner, we found something surprising and disturbing: two half-dead newborn birds, shivering and alone on the side of a rarely-used road. No nest and no mother were to be found.

    This situation did not present many favorable options, but we took them home and warmed them as best we could. Research revealed them to be California quail, likely only a few hours old, and a hardware store trip produced a heat lamp and straw. A day later, they were doing better - eating, drinking, walking around. We called multiple wildlife rehab ceters, and one invited us to bring the birds in as patients until they're old enough to re-wild.

  • thought buildup - exhale

    Apple Intelligence - people will think AI *stands for* Apple Intelligence in a year (normies anyway). Sounds like a dumb thing to take away from the event, but I didn't expect the Xerox'ing of the initials "AI" itself to be happening (I could be wrong, likely am not wrong)

  • Homeownership

    There are so many things that you have to learn along the way. I think many people think that it becomes easier with time but I'm not sure that's true.

    Today, I own a home and as the landlord of this estate I must make all repairs. The kitchen faucet failed last week. The dishwasher is failing too. Today I made the attempt to replace the anode in the water heater a long over due repair. I'm not sure most people even think to do this but it can extend the working life of the machine significantly.

  • Rodents

    I've always struggled with wildlife management. I know we're predators and that killing is in us. I was trained as a marksman and the conflict of sensations is tremendous. Everything I was crafted to do lets me rip a 5mm hole through a woodchuck. Everything I was also taught leaves me in moral pain watching them die.

    Part of owning a property will always involve some degree of wildlife/pest management. I'm not for killing, but balance must be maintained and when it's an issue of destructive behavior, no matter how natural, actions must be taken. I own several have a heart traps though anymore they've been rather heartlessly employed. I have enough backbone not to make my burden someone else's.

  • Toyota Tacoma

    So let’s talk about the latest Toyota Tacoma and its lack of sales. It’s no surprise that car sales are down across all of the USA due to the economy. The halcyon days for car dealers during the pandemic years are all over and now we return to normalcy. As always during economic downturns, it’s kind of a crappy time to launch a new model.

    Even worse for Toyota, it’s kind of a crappy time to launch a new model car of a storied marque like the Tacoma with major differences aka the powertrain.

• Technology and Free Software

  • OpenBSD extreme privacy setup

    This blog post explains how to configure an OpenBSD workstation with extreme privacy in mind.

  • Programming

    • The Wall CGI - source published

      I added the C sources for my Wall CGI.

      It is an example of a minimal CGI - compiles to 14KB, minimal execution footprint, and the data is limited to 64KB max (old messages will be truncated).