Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • compelling change

• Technology and Free Software

  • Oddμ hashtags

    I was recently looking at my homepage and wondered about all the hashtags I used and how not all of them had a topic page. The Oddμ page, for example, collects all the blogposts tagged ​#Oddμ (including this one). So I looked at the hashtags command and figured, "this is going to be easy." 🤣

  • KomoDo my first KDE app

    During all my time with KDE projects, I've never made an app from scratch.. Except now.

    [...]

    Working on the application was not that bad either. I've worked on various C++ and QML files during my work on KDE software, so I had easy time getting into the flow.

    I think the most difficult part for me was the CMake files: I couldn't really understand them or what they do, I mostly followed what other projects did and replicated them.

    This of course caused me to do unnecessary things, like installing libraries I made for the app: TodoModel which the QML code uses to parse the todo.txt file and generate the view was accidentally installed among the system libraries, which was not ideal, since I'm not building a framework.

    Luckily with tons of help and reviews from my friends in the KDE fam, we got CMake to build things nicely. Then with kde-builder the feedback loop of code->build->test was fast enough, especially in small app like this, that I could iterate on the application in a good pace.

    I also had a lot of help from a friend with the CI and sysadmin stuff. That side of development is very confusing to me so I'm glad with the help. I dunno if you want to be named so I didn't, but you know who you are: Big thanks. :)

  • What's Missing from "Retro"

    You know, often, when I say I miss older ways of computing or connecting online, people tell me "there's nothing stopping you from doing that now!" and they are technicay correct in most cases (though I can't, for example, chat with friends on MSN ever again...) However, let me explain that while this type of thing can *sort of* fill that hole in my heart, it isn't *the same.*

    Say, for example, I wanted to connect with others over a BBS. This wouldn't offer the same types of connections it used to. While there are BBSes around with active users, they're no longer there to discuss movies, Star Trek, D&D, games, etc. They're there to discuss *BBSes.* The same can be said for Gopher, old-school forums and all sorts of revival projects (such as Escargot, Spacehey, etc.) Retrocomputing enthusiasts, while they have a variety of interests, are often in these spaces to discuss the medium itself and not other topics. This exists at a stark contrast from how things were in the past, where a non-tech-inclined person may learn the tech to connect with likeminded others (as I did as a Zelda-obsessed kid.)

  • Briefer History

    64 is probably too high, as all the important stuff is in a script, Makefile, or documentation somewhere. That's the inclusive 'or', English being somewhat lacking in this distinction.

  • Internet/Gemini

    • Site structure: blog, wiki, digital garden?

      I started using it as a wiki, which is why the SiteMap still uses "camel case". I ended up foregoing the wiki page approach because my opinion and experience with a topic would keep changing and I didn’t want to keep rewriting my own pages. And so the site slowly morphed from garden style to blog style and now it’s explicitly a diary. And I guess the topic pages are in fact the tag pages where I collect the links to all the tagged pages. 😬

    • Gemini trademark conflict

      Anyone else notice that Google is using the Gemini branding for their AI crap? It's taking over the search results for gemini. Getting harder and harder to find things Gemini-related without stumbling over Google's AI rubbish.