Gemini Articles of Interest
A Gemini client* is needed for the following links.
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Technology and Free Software
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Avoiding Feature Creep
A few years ago I wrote a shell script to create and manage a local, Twitter-like "microblog" file. Though I don't use it often anymore, for a while I used that script to document all my thoughts and feelings in a micro-journal. The script is available in the "Files" section of my capsule--to this day the only script I've ever written that I feel confident in sharing publicly.
The script takes a single argument at the command line, namely the location of the timeline file. During creation of the timeline, however, the user specifies a username, and it does not have to match the name of the timeline file itself. Nothing in the invocation of the script reflects what the username might be. This is inconvenient if the script is ever deployed in a multi-use environment.
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The Extent of the Metaverse Scam
I've been spending too much time on Twitter lately. It feels a bit like watching the last few seconds before a catastrophic trainwreck. One of the articles on my timeline last night was a piece in the Nation, talking about the extent to which Meta manufactured (with the breathless, complicit help of tech journalism) the narrative of the Metaverse, and the extent to which they deceived us.
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Internet/Gemini
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Stop Trying to Make Social Networks Succeed
Lot is happening in the social network landscape with the demises of Twitter and Reddit, the apparition of Bluesky and Threads, the growing popularity of Mastodon. Many pundits are trying to guess which one will be successful and trying to explain why others will fail. Which completely misses the point.
Particular social networks will never "succeed". Nobody even agree on the definition of "success".
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Finding PDFs, MP3s, and more in Geminispace with Kennedy
My Gemini search engine Kennedy now lets you filter a search query to a specific type of file like PDFs, MP3s, or ZIPs. This makes it really easy to specific types of files about a subject.
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Done with the Social Web
With the release of Threads by Meta and the never-ending discussion of it on the fediverse, I feel myself retreating from online 'social' spaces once again.
A few years ago I retreated from centralized mainstream social media. I learned about the fediverse and it felt like a much better space to be. However, with the impending tsunami that is Threads' federation with, I think I'm at a point where I don't want to be in any online space that exceeds a certain threshold of users.
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