Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • 🔤SpellBinding: YHIPRTC Wordo: PLUSH

  • LQ’s account of the end

     
    
    
    LQ
     When amethyst woke up, I went to White diamond’s palace.
    White diamond, welcomes me. 
    There she spots something.
    
    
    White diamond
     Your gems looks dimmer than normal.
    Is spinel is back at earth again?
    
    
    Louq
     No, I havn’t seen her ever since that attack.
    
    
    White diamond
     I think that gems getting dimmer is normal.
    I dont see an issue, but who am I to judge.
    You should see the other diamonds, they might be happy to see you.
    
    
    Louq 
     Okay then, I will do what you say.
    

  • The Silver Pigs and more Foundation

    The last two books I read were The Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis and Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov.

    The Silver Pigs is the first in a long series of historical mysteries set in ancient Rome focused on a detective called Didius Falco. It's in the noir style, with Falco himself narrating with a cynical and comical eye. There's interesting stuff. He's a republican, so opposes the emperor in principle, but also gets wrapped up in an imperial case. He travels between Rome, the city, and England, and the historical detail seems well researched and authentic. He has a fun home life, with various colourful characters that will become regulars in the series. I was surprised that the romance was one of the most enjoyable things for me, but maybe that's a sign I should read more romance stuff!

• Technology and Free Software

  • I really dislike computers sometimes

    I've got to figure something out with the arrangement of my bedroom/office. Right now, I have two desks in the shape of an L in the corner. This corner is necessary because that's where the outlets are. One of the desks holds my gaming PC, and the other desk holds my main Linux workstation along with my NAS and homelab machines. I'd rather have: (1) one desk for my gaming PC and Linux workstation, and (2) the other desk for my homelab equipment.

    The problem with (1) is that I'd like to be able to have one set of peripheral devices that can connect to both my gaming PC and Linux workstation, and conveniently switch between them when I want to. One way this is possible is just by unplugging and plugging in each peripheral device (keyboard, mouse, monitor) into the desired machine. But this would be a pain in the fundament, because my gaming PC doesn't have any ports conveniently on the front of the machine, so I'd have to crawl down under the desk and reach into the back of the machine every time. I could also use USB hubs for this and save myself from having to crawl under the desk. I can have a USB hub for each machine. This would at least cover the keyboard and mouse. As for the monitor, my current monitor only has one DisplayPort port, so I'd have to keep unplugging and plugging in DisplayPort cables for both machines. Maybe I can find a monitor that has more than one DisplayPort, and use the monitor's buttons to toggle between them. Or some kind of splitter/switch hub thingy that has a button that I can just press to toggle which machine uses the monitor (if such a thing exists?). Another way would be Bluetooth peripheral devices that I'd have to keep charged and paired constantly – but that idea can go straight the fuck to Hell where it belongs.

  • OLauncher and decorating imaginary places

    Sometimes when I'm sat in front of a computer I'll find myself moving the mouse cursor around in patterns, as a kind of fidgeting. It's not to navigate through anything or interact with an application, I'm just zoned out and I'm moving something to see it move. 

    Sometimes when I'm using a terminal-based application I'm struck by the lack of mouse functionality. It's just me and the keyboard. If I press a key I'm doing something towards some end; if I don't, I'm just considering what to do next. In this case the tool doesn't have an aimless fidgeting option.

  • OH BROTHER

    It's been a while since I posted, by my usual standards. The frustrations of my usual business failings have been getting me pretty depressed lately, and not conducive to producing text that's worth uploading. But at the same time I did finish that little website project (its usefulness apparantly appreciated mainly by myself) and obtained a good few new toys for free.

    One less interesting toy, only in my custody for the sake of its repair, is the ~10 year old Brother A3 ink-jet printer/scanner from the fire station. I don't think anyone else actually cares much if it's fixed. The fire brigade just spent over $100 on new ink for it, but that only reinforces their opinion that the vaguely similar cost of buying a whole new printer is easily justified, and even if I fix it some gung ho type might still do that anyway. Of course since it hardly gets used, 90% of that $100 ink gets squirted into the sponge inside when it does head cleaning whever someone does actually print with it. A laser printer would be a vastly saner option, but that costs more to begin with so per the half-second of thought the average consumer puts towards purchasing decisions it's not an option.

    It's all playing the printer manufacturer's game to a T, and that really annoys me since it's charity funds being wasted. In fact this is the sort of thing that puts me off funding or getting involved with charities in the first place. Or really, puts me off dealing with other people entirely. They're all in their own separate world, and it's no place I want to be.

  • Internet/Gemini

    • Gopher drama, a review

      Tonight I caught up on the scuttlebutt with gopher aggregators. They turn our little dynamic corner of the mostly static set of ftp directories linked by gophermaps into social media. I love the quiet gopher "stacks" where things rarely change, and our little network of diaries, 'zines, and logbooks.

      There's drama this week, rare and delightful in our little network of directories!

      Spring, always one of my favorite gopher writers, wrote a sweet little ode to good earplugs. Spring's a fellow devotee of letting go of overly complex, fragile means and unnecessary ends.

      Morena wrote a great complaint, dripping with opin- ionated aesthetic and technical judgement, excor- iating Spring's little ode and many of the rest of us, including me I'm sure.