Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 25/07/2023: No Change Friday, Twitter Getting Worse



  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal/Opinions

      • Things are going Okay

        Some time ago I reduced my exposure to doom-feeling-inducting websites even more. After initial FOMO eased up I noticed a lot of positive changes in my life. I’ve always know that I alone will not save the World but it has never sunk in. You cannot help everyone, but you can help your family, friends or neighbors. You cannot save the World, but you can make your vicinity a little better. Think simple, think small. This philosophy made me for the first time since forever feel completely calm. Politics is still shitty here and around the World. The war abroad is still going on. The internet is still collapsing. Corporations are still doing their power grab. But I’m not feeling that everything is lost.

        So instead of shouting: “Doom is near! Everything is lost!” I’ll write something positive.

      • Life is but a I have a dream

        I awoke to pee at 2:31am last night, and became enchanted with the title of this - albeit fearful I'd not remember it by the morning given how it seems memory is no longer a gimme.

        I returned to bed, and oriented this nearer-the-end-than-the-beginning body the opposite the way it was pre-pee, knowing it was just a matter of time before my wife's nasal foghorn would kick in.

        But soon enough the other side of the bodily waste elimination game was tapping me on the inner shoulder loudly enough to prevent falling back asleep. So I showed it its due respect, then walked slowly out into the house proper, and opened most of the windows, as it was pleasantly cool outside, remembering the central air could just barely keep the insides 76F yesterday. Service for that is supposed to arrive today. But I wanted to get the house as cool as possible before the environment started bringing the heat.

      • Red Rising book review

        Red Rising is a science ficiton novel written by Pierce Brown in 2014. It tells the story of a dystopian universe ruled by a society that enforces a caste system based on colors. At the top, the almost inhuman Golds, physically and mentally stronger than the rest, born to enforce the rule of their class. At the bottom, the Reds, born to work the mines and treated as less than human. As the title of the novel suggests, the Reds grow tired of being slaves of the Golds and begin to rise against the society.

        I found this book after finishing the Silo series by Hugh Howey. I was initially drawn to the novel as it starts off similar to Silo. The Reds live deep underground, safe from the inhospitable surface of Mars above them. They work to one day make the planet safe for themselves, and other members of the society. Similarly, Silo is the story of the last of humanity living in a massive underground bunker, safe from the toxic wasteland that has consumed Earth.

    • Technology and Free Software

      • No Change Friday

        Sysadmins (or whatever it is they are called these days) may push for no changes to production on various days, Friday for example. There is plenty else to do meanwhile. Some developers instead push for all changes all the time. This probably depends where one is on the "change nothing, ever" to "move fast and break things" line and may also depend on who is going to be woken up at two in the morning to do triage (a sysadmin, usually). There will be variance by industry: an experimental lab may differ from a bank as to what regulations apply, when changes can be made in production, etc.

      • Whoooooo are you... who who .. who who?

        Are all of you essentially non-player characters in my dream/simulation?

        Or is it that all of you *and* "I" are essentially NPC's in <can't be said>'s dream/simulation?

      • Internet/Gemini

        • Twitter's Getting Worse and I'm Saying My Goodbyes, Again

          Yesterday, completing what felt like a weekend whim by its owner, Twitter rebranded to X. I refuse to call the new service X, in the same way that the stadium the Blue Jays play at will always be the SkyDome, and not the Rogers Centre: the people in power can change an official name, but you don't have to go along with it. You can call things whatever you want.


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

European Patent Office (EPO) Series: Battistelli's "Baltic Crusader"
Gilles Requena, Battistelli's erstwhile "Baltic Crusader" and the loyal servant of his successor Campinos
Microsoft's XBox "Bloodbath" Seems to Have Already Begun (Informally), Studios Allegedly to Face Shutdowns, Layoff Notices Handed Out, 100% Layoffs in Some Cases, 10% in Others or on Average
So is a complete closure/shutdown imminent? (Compulsion Games in this case)
SLAPP Censorship - Part 105 Out of 200: When Bad Legal Advice Results in Your Client, Dale Vince, Ordered to Pay £600k - or 801,930 United States Dollar (USD) - to the Person Frivolously Sued (Lord Bailey of Paddington)
"A judge has ruled that Dale Vince must pay punitive costs to Lord Bailey of Paddington, the Tory peer, over the 'unexplained abandonment' of his" SLAPP
IBM is Importing/Exporting Corporations' Regime of Censorship (Hiding the Wrongdoing) to Free Software Communities
Is IBM protecting criminals in the name of "manners"?
 
Links 14/06/2026: More Google Layoffs, Wall Street Deems Companies That Lose Money "Worth" Trillions
Links for the day
Gemini Links 14/06/2026: "The Universe is a Hologram", "Matrix Brain Download", and "Happy 0th Year"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 13, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, June 13, 2026
Links 13/06/2026: University of Nottingham Confirms Data/System Breach, Courts Fuming at Fraudulent Lawyers Who Fling LLM Slop at Them
Links for the day
Gemini Links 13/06/2026: World Cups and 做人
Links for the day
Discussing Morale at IBM and Conversations Regarding IBM Layoffs (Disguised as Other Things)
Trolling can be a form of censorship
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: All the President's Men
Gilles Requena,Patrice Pellegrino, and Sandro Mendonça
SUEPO Elections Coming Up, Union Leaders at Europe's Second-Largest Institution (EPO) to be Determined Soon
The staff union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO) is having an election soon
How Long for Can American Taxpayers Justify Bailing Out Microsoft?
How many times need the American taxpayers give Microsoft money for vapourware that's neither necessary nor delivered?
Links 13/06/2026: Microsoft’s XBox Crisis and "Apple Deepfakes"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 13/06/2026: Why Humans Are Mostly Right Handed and "Getting Things Done"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 12, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, June 12, 2026
SLAPP Censorship - Part 104 Out of 200: Exactly Two Years Ago Brett Wilson LLP Humiliated or Weaponised Our Solicitor's Judaism in an Effort to Censor and Gag Us
dated 12/06/24
Half a Year Since Slopwatch Died
To Google's credit, it did manage to delist a lot of slopfarms in recent months
Links 12/06/2026: Science, Windows TCO, and More
Links for the day
"AI" 46 Times in One 'Article' Because The Register MS Got Paid to Push it
Today is just another opportunity to remind people that the slop bubble and GPU bubble are based on inauthentic fake 'journalism'
Gemini Links 12/06/2026: FTP and Gopher, Cluster Outage Postmortem After Cleaning by Wife
Links for the day
Sonny Piers Finally Spills the Beans on GNOME Cover-up, Points Finger at Robert McQueen, Misusing "Defamation" to Silence Critics of Wrongdoing
Robert McQueen, who is extremely connected to Garrett (they share digital nests)
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: Transcending Partisan Rivalry in the National Interest
Up until now, Campinos has generally been regarded as a Portuguese "asset" on the international stage
Gratitude to Whistleblowers or Sources of Techrights
Whistleblowers are what makes journalism work
Techrights Was Months Ahead of "XBox" News (Mass Layoffs)
Next: end of XBox as a console
More Commentary on June 2026 IBM Layoffs and Why They Happen
It sounds a lot like what happened to the EPO
Links 12/06/2026: "NearlyFreeSpeech" No More, Openwashing by Google (DiffusionGemma)
Links for the day
Today There's a Massive EPO Strike (Like Every Friday), Workers Explain Further Cuts Despite the EPO Making More Income by Granting Illegal Patents (or Invalid Patents Illegally)
"Recent exchange with the Administration on the implications of the SAP on the Education and Childcare Allowance"
The Cyber Show: Remember That Code is Art
The article is very long, very profound, and speaks of "the next installation"
Communicating With Freedom - Part IV - Quibble Now in quibble.chat, Open for Contributions Via Codeberg
Today we continue the series about Quibble
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: The Importance of Having "Pals from the Palacete"
for his reappointment bid to succeed, Campinos will need to be able to rely on the support of both the Portuguese Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, and the President of the European Council, António Costa
Cyber Show on How Updates or Upgrades Break Workflows, Even in Free Software
"We did a big upgrade on the AV production pipeline"
Discussions About IBM Layoffs in June, Including by RTO and PIPs
mass layoffs are becoming increasingly difficult to conceal
Gemini Links 12/06/2026: Decks and Work Essay
Links for the day
"Rolling Strikes" Continue at the European Patent Office, the Administrative Council Needs to Take Action Against Crooked Office Management
This coming weekend we'll talk about some of the other issues and concerns expressed by the union
Only Days After Mass Layoffs in Microsoft's Azure There Are Headlines About Much-Expected XBox Layoffs
XBox as a console is basically dead or "fast-dying"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 11, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, June 11, 2026