Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 27/06/2023: Gemini Communities and errno



  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal/Opinions

      • mary louise pratt, toward a speech act theory of literary discourse

        it is one thing for the poet, or even the poet-critic, to claim that his art exists in a universe of its own and bears no relation to the society in which he and his readers live. it is quite another for the literary analyst to unquestioningly accept such a view as the basis for a theory of literature. the poet's declaration that he no longer wishes his work to be associated with 'society' or 'reality' or 'commerce' or 'the masses' is hardly grounds for the critic to decide that the associations have in fact ceased to exist or ceased to pertain to the critical enterprise.

        mary louise pratt, toward a speech act theory of literary discourse

      • 2023 Week 24/25: Status and Photos

        I have a few items in the works for Rob's Gemini Capsule, mainly a new math article and some CGI projects. However, I've stalled on them in the last few months, as pressures from real life have been taking up most of my time and energy. As a result, I've primarily been updating my log on the capsule and little else. I hope that'll change soon.

    • Technology and Free Software

      • Installing Ethernet

        My house used to be connected to Comcast before we switched over to a local fiber ISP. This switch has happened years ago and the house was outfitted with coax back in the Comcast days. Of course now, there is no use for Coax. The local antenna stations are not great and we don't have cable coming in either. So I figured that I would replace our existing coax with ethernet.

        We have three coax ports. One in the basement that goes outside along the wall. And two in the house that share the same wall across two floors. The basement port was very easy to replace as I just had to poke the ethernet out the wall and re-enter into the boiler room—where the networking is located.

      • hottail -- tail -f with a heat-map

        I am a big fan of log files. As I develop and test, and deploy code, logs provide invaluable information for debugging and improving (and sometimes, understanding) the system.

        While watching logs with 'tail -f' works pretty well, I would _really_ like to see a heat-mapped view of a log. By that I mean colorized lines which start hot and slowly cool -- allowing me to instantly see if anything happened recently, as well as the relative age of entries -- at a glance!

        I assumed that anything I can think someone has already done -- the world is now big enough for that. But it appears that no one has, in this case. There are many ways to colorize a log based on its content, but not time-based.a

      • Finishing the BITX40 Case

        Last time I had powered up the front panel to test the radio, and were just about to try some power filter components to get rid of the "tuning clicks". I experimented and found that the clicks went away with a 56 Ω series and 33 €µF parallel low pass filter added to the Raduino power input. I went with a 330 €µF capacitor to have some extra margin.

        Next I soldered shielded cables to the volume knob, the audio out jack and the and microphone in jack. The "mono" cable used for the jacks was quite nice to work with. The "stereo" cable used for the volume knob was a bit bulky. I didn't have a crimp tool for the Molex KK connectors used on the BITX main board, so I soldered the wires into the pins (I had bought a lot of them). I continued with a red-black twin cable for the power and a short run of RG316 coax for the VFO.

      • The Semi-Ultimate ATRAC Encoding Comparison

        In which I present samples of ATRAC1 and ATRAC3 audio compressed using various methods, so you can both compare different ATRAC encoders as well as the different ATRAC versions and bitrates.

      • Backups of RK3588 TRM and Datasheet (on the decentralized web)

        My plan of running language models on my RK3588 board failed because the official SDK segfaults with the simplest of examples. Nothing I can do until Rockchip fixes it. In the mean time, me and my friend cam across the RK3588(S) Technical Reference Manuals on GitHub (not linked in the hope that Rockchip will not spend time to take it down). We decided to look into it and see if we can build our own drivers and SDK. I also made backups of the datasheets and TRMs in case they get taken down.

      • re: Installing Ethernet

        ttocsneb wrote about their plans to run Ethernet through the house. Running wire through the wall is a complete pain! I've heard a chain is a great way to pull calbe from the attic up, and I've used cable fishing lines before for smaller jobs. Even used speaker wire for a recent project haha.

        I got lucky in my house that the phone jacks found in each room were actually wired with Cat5e, all going to a central location in the basement. Was easy enough to replace with RJ45 keystone jacks. I did have to run new cable through to the garage for my PoE security cameras though. Went up through from the basement, through a joist and terminated with 2 keystone jacks. I still have to run one to the back patio though, and I've been dreading that job. Will probably have to drill through my siding and exterior wall to run the cable into the basement. I hate making permament changes 'ya know?

      • Internet/Gemini

        • ✍ Gemtext enhancements...

          I believe I found a method to make tables and ordered list in GemText without any major changes. I will post my take on this subject ASAP!

        • gemini feed'

          I'm looking for a protocol description of 'gemlog' and 'gemini feed'. Can anyone point me to links? (I am studiously avoiding the word 'definitive' here intentionally) 🤔

        • 2023-W26: Locrian.zone

          Locrian.zone has a “Friday link roundup”, which initially piqued my interest in the capsule. The “Friday link roundup” has links of interesting things from multiple protocols.

        • Gemini, the Devil's Advocate

          People who write Gemini software, like myself, are occasionally annoyed by the incompleteness and ambiguousness in the spec. But oh man it is so, so, so much more comfy to write Gemini software than nearly any other network protocol ecosystem. Maybe IRC comes close but even then Gemini beats it in brevity.

          Folks have been repeating variations of the above five criticisms since at least I joined the Gemini community nearly four years ago. In 2021 some of these had some merit, and I had my own specific complaints about Gemini born from actually writing software for it (URLs were still the wrong choice vs IRIs, TLS was still the wrong choice vs a custom noise channel, etc), but it is becoming increasingly obvious now that all the people who criticise Gemini on rational and objective merits have an egg on their face.

        • On communities, centralization and capitalism

          I recently watched a YouTube video talking about the demise of a website called Tumblr (well, demise... the place is still working, but its current numbers make it a very low traffic place), how the NSFW content there made it what it was, how it turned into a very queer friendly place and how ads, revenue and the subsequent companies that owned it didn't want to do any with that content... and that was it.

        • My (third) first gemlog entry

          The FIRST first was on gemlog.blue, which I quickly left after realizing it was completely unmoderated. The SECOND first was on smol.pub, which is a lovely place with a great dev, but over time I came to decide I wanted to keep my gemlog here on my capsule and maintain it myself.

        • Re: The Devil's Advocate

          I'm a relative newcomer here I guess. This capsule's first post is dated from March 5th of last year. I had a capsule up for a few months the previous summer but had a pretty bad hardware failure with data loss. Gemini was pretty much exactly what I was wanting for the past twenty years really. I missed the start of the internet, as I didn't even have a computer until the turn of the millenium, but once I did get started I had just enough time to realize the potential of the web and start learning html before Web2.0 came along and began to slowly swallow as much of the open web as possible under corporate umbrellas. I always felt cheated for having missed out on those earliest years of the web. More to the point, I absolutely hated the change from thousands of interlinked island nations to everyone having a little studio apartment on a few big corporate servers. By the time I had my own blog it was so difficult for anyone to find it that it really was like shouting into the void. I hated everything about SEO and Adsense and social media features creaping into every space that they didn't fit. Gemini, with a spec that was actively designed to make it next to immpossible to extend, gamify, track and advertise immediately resonated with me. I didn't know if anyone would read my capsule, but it still felt like the place I should be.

      • Programming

        • Interleaved 2D Notation for Concatenative Programming

          A really cool 2D concatenative programming language. There's even an online IDE for it.

        • errno

          errno is a global variable; anything can change it within a process. errno may also remain unchanged across who knows how much code, until it emerges with some non-zero value. This can be surprising, especially as the abstractions pile up and errno emerges from who knows where.


* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.



Recent Techrights' Posts

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Delusion - Part IV - Machos in Charge of the House (and System), Even If the Faces Are Female (Optics)
basically a Windows/Microsoft (US) shop
Brett Wilson LLP Seems to Have Done for Roberto Foa What It Did a Year Earlier for the Serial Strangler from Microsoft
Repeat abusers (of the legal system) will misuse it as long as regulators do nothing
Where We Stand With the Winter Series
We'll need to protect names and sources
Gemini Links 10/02/2026: "The Last Messiah", Discord for Adults
Links for the day
Mobbing at the European Patent Office (EPO) - Part V - Strongest Strike Under António Campinos
SUEPO Munich is also reminding people of the threat of PIPs
 
Kyndryl CFO Harsh Chugh Comes From IBM (17+ Years)
Who would want such a position?
IBM RAs (or PIPs) in London, England?
They try to keep the lid on it
International Buybacks Machines
Will the current US administration/regime look into IBM's accounting or only its mini me's?
IBM Could be the Next Kyndryl, a Dinosaur With Accounting Fraud
Many shareholders (or even pension funds) are taking a big hit today
Ian Murdock Died in San Francisco 10 Years Ago. Cops Led to His Death.
10 years ago Ian Murdock died after cops had messed him up
US/Europe divergence: health & safety, criminality & Debian harassment culture: Open Digital Ecosystems submission F33370170
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 10/02/2026: Splinternets and "Meta Goes to Trial in a New Mexico Child Safety Case"
Links for the day
Russia and China Best Off Without GAFAM
What if they abandoned GAFAM?
Will Finns Put Out the Online Cigarettes?
More people recognise that the child porn site formerly known as "Twitter" and Cheeto/Pooh-tin controlled TikTok are no longer trustworthy
As the US Economy Sags Microsoft Layoffs Carry on (Now in Larger Waves Like 15,000 Per Season or 30,000+ Per Year)
They try to avoid "negative" topics
GNU/Linux at 3.99% in Australia
now that Australians can no longer keep Vista 10
Microsoft Windows Falling
analytics.usa.gov Shows Rapid Erosion of Windows Market Share Since 'End of 10' (Vista 10)
Microsoft Windows Hits All-Time Low in The Netherlands in 2026
Europe needs to rid itself or wean itself off GAFAM
SRA: SLAPPs From Russian War Criminals and American Men Who Strangle Women Are Acceptable
The SRA, by inaction, is complicit in this
From Weber Shandwick (Microsoft PR) to Brett Wilson LLP (Hired Gun of the Serial Strangler of Microsoft)
they basically tried to charge me a lot of money for a PR project of someone who strangled women
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is Not a Regulator, It's Part of the Litigation "Industry" in the UK (They Overlap Each Other)
Does nothing except talk about SLAPPs
In Finland, Microsoft Falls Behind Yandex (Russia)
Bing has had many layoffs in recent years
Security More Advanced in Geminispace Than on the Web (Bloat)
For real security, use Geminispace capsules, not Web sites
Slop at Microsoft is a Miserable Failure, Now Microsoft Takes the "Vista Route" (Paying People to Say Good Things About It)
This is brainwash, it's meant to delay the implosion of the bubble
Rumours About February 2026 Microsoft Layoffs: Silent Layoffs or 30,000 Culled Tomorrow
Sooner or later (and soon) Microsoft will need to say something and file some WARN notifications
GNU/Linux at 12% in Guam, Based on statCounter (Compared to 2-3% a Year Ago)
Guam's "uptick" in GNU/Linux usage started weeks after "end of 10"
Fighting Slop With the Public Domain (and Why Slopfarms Perish Faster Than New Ones Appear)
We can combat the nonsense by producing more human-made works until the slop bubble implodes
After Employee Reviews at IBM Staff Expects Another Large Wave of PIPs and "RAs" (Layoffs)
From what we can see in the "public Web"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, February 09, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, February 09, 2026
Is Europe Abandoning Digital Opium?
GAFAM-controlled social control media
Microslop is Slop, Slop is Considered "Quality"
no wonder Microsoft's stuff breaks down so often
thelayoff.com Deletes On-Topic Discussions (Layoffs) While Leaving in Tact Pro-Corporate Trolling Made by LLMs (Slop)
Who at thelayoff.com deems spam made by LLMs (slop) to be on-topic and unworthy of zapping, whereas actually on-topic and authentic threads get routinely deleted?
Gemini Links 09/02/2026: Great Salt Lake Ecological Observatory and Offpunk 3.0 "A Community is Born" Release
Links for the day
Links 09/02/2026: Mass Plagiarism and Pollution/FakeCoin Company Nvidia Contacted Anna’s Archives, Narges Mohammadi Gets Second Prison Sentence
Links for the day
GNU/Linux May Have Grown to 7% in Equatorial Guinea
Has there been some kind of mass migration there or is this just noise in the data?
Links 09/02/2026: Russia Intentionally Killing Civilians, Jimmy Lai Effectively Sentenced for Life for Publishing News
Links for the day
Microsoft Competitions, Addictions, and Popularity Contests Are Not Going to Help Perl, They'll Waste Everybody's Time and Give Microsoft More Control Over Its Competition
Microsoft does not like Perl
A Can of WORMS - Part IV - They Would Even Attack RMS for Criticising Autocrats (Saying This is "Politics")
Conforming to society's perceived expectations isn't how effective activism can ever be done or was ever done in the recent past
Gemini Links 09/02/2026: The Exploration Myth and Making JavaScript Fun
Links for the day
EPO Outrage and Maintaining the Pressure
A vending machine does not fall over after a first push
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, February 08, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, February 08, 2026
"Low Performer" and "Underperformer" as Harmful Misnomers That Damage a Company's Reputation
Misnomers need to be avoided or called out
Expensive errors: Forbes Gold price, $44 billion Bitcoin given away by Bithumb, South Korea
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 08/02/2026: Microsoft OSI (Openwashing Lobby) in Europe, Raised Against Social Control Media Provocateurs in EU
Links for the day
The Open Source Initiative (OSI) Lobbies for Microsoft in the EU, Promoting Proprietary Lock-in
OSI pushing and selling Microsoft and GitHub. OSI is Microsoft front group.
Getting the European Court of Justice to Annul the Illegal and Unconstitutional Unified Patent Kangaroo Court (UPC)
We're still working on it
Finland's Dependence on GAFAM (US) Needs to be Lessened, EU Must Follow This Path
It's unwise to make one's entire national infrastructure (computer systems) dependent on a regime which compares its black citizens to monkeys and assassinates nonviolent dissenters
Links 08/02/2026: Microsoft GitHub as Burden on Developers and "The Chomsky Epstein Files"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/02/2026: "Doing Not Much Tweaking" and "Reclaiming Digital Agency"
Links for the day
Forbes: BitCoin, Cryptocurrency pages removed from investment database, links stop working
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Bitcoin warning followed immediately by network outage
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Money Funneled to Protection of Software Freedom, But Nothing Really Lost
Crossposted from personal site
They Tell Us Slop Replaces Workers, But the Reality Is, US Debt Has Surged 2,300 Billion Dollars in Six Months (the Economy is Collapsing)
Oligarchy already entertains the option of running away to (or colonising) some other planet without pitchforks and "unwashed masses"
Mozilla Firefox Sinks to Just 1.5% in the United States
According to analytics.usa.gov
We're Still Fast
The site is even faster than the BBC's despite being on shoestring budget with only a small technical team
Gemini Protocol is Not a Waste of Time of Effort
We see more and more GNU/Linux- or BSD-focused bloggers turning to Gemini
Our Gemini Protocol Support Turns 5 Today
today is a rare anniversary for us
In Today's World, One Must be Tough and Principled to Get Ahead Morally
But not financially (sellouts)
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, February 07, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, February 07, 2026
The Right Wing in the United States Does Not Support Free Speech, It Supports Its Own Speech
Free speech is often opposed by those who also oppose Free software
IRC is a Lot Better Than Social Control Media (They're Not the Same at All)
A good social analogy for IRC is, there are many buildings with a party in each building
Microsoft 'Open' 'AI' is 'Dead Meat'
Or 0xDEADBEEF as some geeks might call it
When Identifying "Low Performers" and "PIPs" Aren't About Improving Performance But Reinforcing a Clique in Your Company/Organisation
It's very troubling to see once-respectable brands like IBM and institutions like the EPO resorting to this
Slop and Flop (IBM), Slopfarms and Hybrids (Linuxiac)
Did Bobby Borisov assume he would never get caught?
Crowdfunding vs Bitcoins: donations are better investment than digital tulip mania
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock