Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • Taking yet another two-week break

    Life can be strange, and this is the first time I'm taking a break from posting not just because of exhaustion but because so much has been happening recently that I genuinely don't have time to sit down and collect my thoughts into a coherent story. I think I'll be back on Gopher after the first phase of my work project ends: either on Sep 29 or on Oct 6. And believe me, I'm gonna have a lot to tell you about.

  • Finding Balance in a Connected World

    Modern life often feels like a constant negotiation between connection and overwhelm. The pull of digital tools, endless notifications, and the pressure to always be available can quietly drain our energy and attention. Stepping back, even briefly, can reveal how much of our time is shaped by habits that don’t serve us, and how easily we can lose sight of what matters most.

    It’s easy to get caught up in cycles of consumption—whether it’s scrolling, shopping, or chasing the next distraction. These patterns can build invisible walls, making it harder to connect with ourselves and others in meaningful ways. The comfort of convenience sometimes comes at the cost of clarity and depth, both in our relationships and in our sense of purpose.

  • Navigating the Digital Landscape: Finding Balance in a Connected World

    In a world shaped by constant digital engagement, many of us find ourselves caught between the pull of online life and the desire for something more tangible. The drive to stay connected, to be seen, and to keep up with the pace of technology can leave us feeling disconnected from our own experiences. This tension is not just about screens or apps—it’s about how our habits and routines shape our sense of self and our ability to be present.

    For some, the pressure to perform online or keep up with consumer trends leads to a sense of emptiness. The endless scroll and the need for validation can drain our energy and leave us questioning what really matters. Others feel the weight of working in tech, building tools that sometimes seem to pull us further from the real world we crave. There’s a growing awareness that our choices—what we consume, how we spend our time, and the ways we interact—have real impacts on our daily lives.

  • Travel with the system

    Transportation is more than getting from A to B. Central routes and pooled rides cut the resource load and keep costs shared.

    - Plan for emissions and cost before convenience.

    - Join rail or carpool networks over private trips.

    - Support lighter infrastructure along the way.

  • mean little things

    the voice in my head sounds like you when it whispers to me mean little things

  • Where money moves slowly, growth often means compromise.

    Pressure shapes choices, and people pull for lower-cost fulfillment because there is little room for anything else.

  • Are you still confusing value-comparison and personal compatibility when it comes to romance?

    Every day there are tasks needing time, energy and resources. Countless seconds that went, determined by the very real need to secure partnering-capacity: Fostering time spent together, intimacy, co-creating value and for the ease of walking through life - together. With a bit of consideration, the cost of years of repeating mismatches and trying, can be drastically reduced.

  • Shared vaults, shared responsibility

    Banks pool security so no one hauls cash or hires guards alone. Keep accounts lean and fees low to let safety stay a collective cost. A small shared account spreads card fees and keeps deposits in one watched spot.

  • Choose with narrow focus

    There’s comfort in a shop that knows its purpose. Limiting where you buy and who you support cuts distraction and turns every spend into a vote for what matters. Familiar vendors grow to recognize you, decision‑fatigue drops, and money flows to lives you trust.

  • VCFM(J)W 2025

    This year's VCFMW retrospective is up, sort of- I ended up reviewing our side-conference, VCFJW instead ;)

    [...]

    But something tells me there will be enough coverage already from others, given the scale of the event these days.

• Technology and Free Software

  • Self-Learned UNIX

    As a sidequest, $* should probably be written as "$@" to avoid the at best surprising or at worst security-vulnerability introducing shell word-splitting rules. One might also write "exec /usr/pkg/..." as the last line of the script to replace the ksh script with the program being run, but that's less important.

    Replacing a command with some other command may also be bad, as that may change the interface, and break scripts that assume "finger" behaves like finger(1). Some folks tried to replace rm(1) with a script that moved files to ~/.trash instead of deleting them, which mostly worked, except when it did not. A better option might be to teach your users to run "trash ..." which does the ~/.trash thing instead of breaking the interface to a commonly used system tool. The risks here depend on how dangerous the tool is. finger, not very; rm, very much so.

  • Reclaiming Authenticity in a Digital Age

    In a world where digital noise and consumer pressures shape our daily routines, it’s easy to lose sight of who we are and what truly matters. Many of us feel pulled between the desire to be seen and the exhaustion that comes from constant online engagement. This cycle drains our energy, leaving us disconnected from our own values and from genuine experiences.

    The urge to step away from screens and reclaim a sense of reality is not just nostalgia—it’s a response to the fatigue that comes from living by algorithms and external expectations. When we pause to reflect, we notice how much time and attention are spent on things that don’t align with our deeper priorities. The pressure to conform, to keep up, and to participate in systems that don’t serve us can leave us feeling empty and conflicted.

  • Reclaiming Presence in a Digital Age

    In a world shaped by constant digital engagement, many of us find ourselves caught between the allure of connectivity and the desire for a more grounded, authentic existence. The daily pull of social platforms, endless notifications, and algorithm-driven feeds can quietly drain our energy and sense of self, leaving us feeling scattered and disconnected from what matters most. This tension is not just about technology—it’s about how our habits and choices shape our days, our relationships, and our ability to live with intention.

    As we navigate loss, change, and the pressures of consumer culture, it’s easy to lose sight of our own needs and values. The push to keep up, to always be visible, or to chase the next new thing can distract us from deeper self-discovery and meaningful connection. At the same time, the systems we participate in—whether technological, economic, or social—carry ethical weight. Our choices ripple outward, affecting not just ourselves but the world around us.

  • Internet/Gemini

    • Read It Bookmarklet for Websites

      When I do read news sites on the web, I often encounter paywalls or signup gates or other junk preventing me from reading the content. And while there are a variety of techniques that can work to bypass this nonsense, Archive.is is usually a good option. Archive.is is nominally a free web archiving service that allows users to create public permanent snapshots of webpages. However, it is often used to get around paywalls for web content. Someone who can read the content of a URL accesses it and saves a copy to Archive.is, where other people can read it.

    • ON GOPHER-OPTICS

      So with my last phlog post, 2025-09-15Optical_ROOPHLOCH.txt, I've finally fulfilled my long-running intention since 2023-09-30Last_Radio_Roophloc.txt to make a ROOPHLOCH post via optical communications. Unfortunately since it turned out to be a drizzly night, it ended up a pretty short message, but received very well. I measured out the distance from my optical transmitter to the receiver perched on the verandah of my house as about 17m. Not exactly a record breaking distance, but a step up from the 9.5m of my first test down the longest unobstructed path inside my house. The receiving laptop on the verandah automatically uploaded the message using my home WiFi, which I probably could have picked up from the transmitter laptop anyway, but that's not the point.

  • Programming

    • New CGI: Moon Phases

      Because of life and family, when I'm working on Gemini things, it tends to be late at night. And while working on this project, I was kind of going a little insane. Here is why:

      Here is the emoji for a New Moon: 🌑 The New Moon phase is when the Moon is entirely dark and not visible.

      Here is the emoji for a Full Moon: 🌕 The Full Moon phase is when the entire Moon is bright and visible.

      If you are using a Gemini browser that uses monochrome emojis (like Lagrange), and you are in dark mode (as I always was, because it was late at night), the emojis above will appear backwards! The New Moon is a solid white space, while the Full Moon is a dark space with a white outline. This was.... incredibly confusing.