Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • Paper Bag's Ocarina-Like Vape Synth Reuses As Many Parts as Possible From a "Disposable" Vape

    Paper Bag, a collaboration between makers and musicians shuang cai, David Rios, and Kari Love, has released a guide to turning disposable battery-powered vapes into ocarina-inspired synthesizers — with plans for a MIDI-capable version to follow in the near future.

    "With over 11 million disposable vapes sold per month, the impact of their e-waste, including discarding rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, is outsized," the Paper Bag team explains. "To highlight the salvageable parts, and divert them into open source hardware projects, we are developing two models of Vape Synthesizers roughly inspired by an ocarina. Both models make use of the original batteries, charging circuit with LED, and case."

  • Because I had to

    My job asked to repost/retweet/share this. I have no idea why I actually did.

• Literature

  • Choosing a License for Literary Work

    When you publish a blog post, an essay, or a self-published book, you’re making a choice that goes beyond writing and design. You’re deciding how other people are allowed to interact with your work — today, next year, and long after you’ve moved on to something else.

    That choice is your **license**.

    Many writers don’t think about licensing at first. They publish a post, maybe add a footer, and assume copyright “just works.” And it does — but often in ways that quietly limit the future life of the work. If you’re writing casually or temporarily, that may not matter. But if your blog is a **long-term project**, or something you hope will eventually be compiled, archived, or cited, licensing becomes a structural decision rather than a legal afterthought.

• Technology and Free Software

  • My hot take about SPF records

    Almost nobody should be listed in your SPF record, and if anybody asks to be listed in your SPF record, you should cease doing business with them immediately.

    The only thing you should list in your SPF record is whatever service you use to actually write and send out emails. Nothing automated, no third-parties, just your primary mail host.

  • Internet/Gemini

    • Social Media Is Not Social Networking (Anymore)

      (From friends’ updates to endless feeds: rethinking what “social” means on the internet today.)

      For a long time, I’ve felt that something about “social media” doesn’t quite sit right with me—and the more I think about it, the clearer the distinction becomes: **most platforms we call social networks today are no longer about networking at all**. They are primarily **media consumption platforms**.

      In my understanding, *social networks* exist to help people connect with friends, family, and communities. *Social media platforms*, as they exist today, are optimized to keep us scrolling, watching, reacting, and consuming—often passively. The social part has become secondary.

      What makes this especially interesting is that many of the biggest platforms **started** as genuine social networks. Over time, though, their incentives shifted. Once advertising became the primary revenue model, the user stopped being the customer and became the product. Engagement—not connection—became the metric that mattered.