Gemini Articles of Interest

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Aug 21, 2023

A Gemini client^* is needed for the following links.

• Technology and Free Software

  • Re: Dark mode/light mode

    The good news is that Lagrange is already fully equipped for this because it has been implemented for macOS and iOS.

    The bad news is that supporting this on further platforms requires specialized code for each platform. There's already a feature request open on GitHub about adding support for this on Windows, for instance.

    I understand you're talking about GNOME, though. Since Lagrange uses none of the GNOME libraries, it cannot easily access the system-wide setting for dark mode. At a glance it seems at least D-Bus is required, and Lagrange does not use that (directly) either. D-Bus would be a pretty useful addition for Linux desktop environments for a few other reasons, though.

  • Retro Mail Call (New pickup!)

    Every now and then I get nostalgic, get online and order some of the gadgets that I craved for back in the day. I am a Palm OS enthusiast, former dev and these devices will always have a soft spot in my heart.

    In todays mail bag, we get a Palm Tungsten T3! It's one of the more "modern" Palm devices that sport Bluetooth (which can be handy for setting up a internet connection, routing it through your phone or computer). Only appropriately that I would take a picture of it using my Palm Zire 71, hence the slightly blurry pictures.

  • Internet/Gemini

    • Thoughs on trust, SSL and Gemini

      People criticize Gemini for standardizing trust-of-first-use policy of TLS certificate verification (FAQ:4.5.5), discussing security and scaling. Here is my take on these issues.

      [...]

      Whenever you connect to a server you never connected before and have no a-priory reason to trust, it doesn't really matter whether it has a self-signed certificate or a certificate signed by CA. Well, there is a little difference -- you will know if your DNS response was spoofed in case of CA-signed certificate. But you still has no reason to trust the content server sends to you.

      Now suppose this server happens to publish source code of some useful program. You download the source, audit it diligently and deem non-malicious and useful. Server publishes new version of the software, and another one, and you eventually develop trust into the server and its certificate.

    • Gemini Radio - Episode 54

^* Gemini links can be opened using Gemini software. It’s like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.