Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • Will people prefer books from before 2026?

    A book published after 2025 is suspicious. The newer the book, the harder to know if it was written by a human being.

    Which results in another reason to prefer older books.

    Test of time

    ------------

    Firstly, I already prefer older books because those books have stood the test of time.

    Books that are just coming from the printing press can appear on best seller lists, editor picks, and so on, but we all know this is just marketing or at least because the publisher is better at gaming the system.

    When a book is not as good as the marketing promised, it will soon be forgotten and won't see many reprints.

    Older books that still get good reviews, have stood the test of time. Of course, being popular will not mean that you will appreciate it. but is gives you some prognoses about how you are going to like it or not.

  • Esperanto Music History

    Today, the 2nd of August 2026, marks exactly one hundred years since the release of the first ever Esperanto music records: a set of two shellac 78rpm gramophone records consisting of two versions of La Espero (an instrumental by the band of the Honorable Artillery Company and a sung version by Gladys Cosmetto), and La Tagiĝo / Al la Fratoj (sung by Maurits Boeren with piano accompaniment), released by the Esperanto Institute of Welwyn Garden City, UK, and branded Esperinst.

    I previously described these records in detail back in 2023, at which time I stated that I suspected these records were the very earliest Esperanto music records, but that I couldn’t be sure. However, further research has convinced me that these are indeed the very earliest music records in Esperanto. While they are not the first Esperanto records of any type, the few Esperanto records that I could find prior to the Esperinst records all contained only spoken word.

  • you and the green

    the green floods in through the windows
    the colour turning deeper
    in the darkness of your room
    you're enveloped in its comfort
    the calm it brings undisturbed
    

• Technology and Free Software

  • Three sentences against AI

    Just as we as a company do not work with weapons manufacturers I don't want to work with the tools of people that "optimize the kill chain."

    I know you think that everybody is doing it but I want this company to exist in twenty or thirty years as well and depending on AI tech from the USA does not look like a good long-term strategy.

    Nobody studied computer science in order to be a prompter and if most of the job positions in this company involve prompting, I want to have one of the few remaining positions where original work is being done.