author: fripster
new Phlog up on my gopher site: gopher://fripster.ydns.eu:70/0/phlog/2024-11-24
Preparing a bit for what is to come in Europe with this orange baboon at the helm in the USA now. Got plenty water, water filters, plenty fuel and a heater, petrol lamp, lots of canned and dry foods, power (105Ah battery), dc-dc converter for the appliances, solar panel and blankets. Feeling a little bit better prepared. What is your approach?
Reddit is down… How can I get my fix of dumb internet comsumption now? 😀
Finally travelling for work again... I missed it. Will fly to Finland tomorrow. Wish me luck!
Is NM03 okay? I used to always read his/her phlogs... but suddenly these dried up. Does anyone know? (gopher://gopher.club:70/1/users/nm03/)
I had a new fiber connection set up today... boy what a hassle. Read more here: gopher://fripster.ydns.eu:70/0/phlog/2024-04-17
Sunday.... Sleeping a bit longer than normal. Making good coffee with some extra attention to detail. Surf the SmallWeb with no time pressure at all... Bliss!
Recently found /dev/shm in Debian Linux. I love it so much that there is a RamDisk by default. What else will they think of? Been a Debian user for 11 years now.. Still lovin' it
Hapy New Year everyone in GeminiSpace! Hope for a good year on the smol web...
I just read an excellent piece on Wired Magazine on the three hacker boys behind the once notorious Mirai botnet. It's thrilling to read, and gives me flashbacks of some kind to Clifford Stoll's The Cuckoo's egg....
My wife bought spanish slippers for me to wear around the house....Sooo comfy! Finally I am warm when sitting at the table browsing gemini and gopher... yay!
I love watching video's about old computer stuff. Today I watched a video about an IBM laserprinter that was HUUUUGE. It's called the IBM3800 and threading paper through it needed a trainining video... go figure. If you want to see it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdwStGvI0zU
I am rediscovering planning our projects with Taskjuggler... and I love it. Made a front end (in Lazarus / fpc) for our people to make editing of the Taskjuggler files simpler. It seems to work well. What a planning power at your fingertips once you get past the entry barrier...
Today was a good day... People understood me, and I understood them. It was a good day... The weather was fine as well. So nice and warm still for the beginning of October. Sometimes I really crave for days like these...
Just had a bout of belly flu (as we say in the Netherlands) and have just recovered. Not fun. I just remembered that my Dad used to say "Healthy people want many things, but sick people only want one thing, that is to be healthy"
Went swimming today at the local pool. Great experience, very clean pool, and people who actually listen to the pool supervisor. That's a nice change. French people listen to the supervisors a lot better then my fellow dutch citizens... We are sometimes a wild bunch!
I need your opinion guys/gals/whatever! I have been programming all my life in Turbo Pascal/Delphi/Lazarus/FPC and it has always served me well. I really like the Delphi/Lazarus RAD method of GUI building. I am not a professional programmer, but I am in industrial automation so I have been known to make some programs here and there (and they work well, over long time periods). But I feel old and behind the times. What new language would be good for me? Rust has a lot of followers, but it's hard to do GUIs... And there are so many choices... What do you think would be a good one for me? I need GUI, but also access to IO ports (like RasPI). Surprise me!
I just came to the simple insight that I just do not watch TV anymore. It is just so boring and the constant ads are so annoying. My TV use has been in decline for some years now, and it sure looks that I am not watching TV at all anymore nowadays. And you know... I do not miss it at all. I get all news that I need, and my interests have always been on the tech side of things, so the Internet is much more the place for me.... And with a well set-up PiHole, and Gemini and Gopher I can avoid most of the bloat. Also by choosing the right sites and not being on the "Socials". I like it here a lot better.... ;-)
Got myself a new (to me) oscilloscope today! Happy.... It's a Handykit 202e, 20MHz dual trace unit from 1989. For 30 euros... In super condition still. All functions work. Very nice. When my former scope (Philips PM3200X) broke I was not happy. Now I have a proper 'scope again....
Watching Halt and Catch Fire... Nice series! But I was a bit disappointed about the first episode. They take an (E)prom from an IBM PC (BIOS (E)prom), give it address lines with a computer and then read it out *BY HAND* using Leds... It looks good for the screen, but it is so bonkers not to let the computer read out the data... Further I am enjoying it...
Normally I am managing a bunch of engineers... But as a result of severe lack of capacity in the team I am currently helping out doing technical (as opposed to managerial) work again to help the team cope. Feels good man... I did not know I missed it so much...
I just finished reading Dave Eggers "Every". Chilling... It's like "The Circle" but on steroids. I think these books (and 1984 and the like) make that I like Gemini- and Gopherspace so much. Hope our little nook will not be taken over by BigTech....
Was visiting Canada last week. Coming from Europe, I can only say that I think the roads are sooo wide there. We could fit our european roads twice in theirs (width-wise). Why is that? Is space so cheap or do people have a problem with accurately driving? Questions, Questions....
WooHoo... weekend at last. Now on to some serious BBQ-ing and preparations for my trip to Canada on monday. Have a nice weekend all!
I am getting more and more confused about the world. Exactly who is now at war with whom? And who is winning? And why was there a war in the first place in those places? Is Eurasia still at war with Oceania...or do I misremember that? Ignorance is strength... War is peace, innit?
Purism finally came through with an update for the Librem 5 that makes the battery last a whole day. It's a night-and-day experience. This phone goes from a nice gadget for Linux fans to a fully usable smartphone like this. I love it. They are late, very late even, but they came through and finally found out how to get the processor to sleep properly.
I f*cked my Debian unstable up yesterday by running "apt dist-upgrade" and not paying attention. It threw away the whole of Xorg. I was only left with a text-only login. I held broken packages it said. So I waited a day. And lo-and-behold the issue was solved today, I could update and upgrade, and reinstall Xorg. After that all was good and unf*cked again. I love Debian (and I am very stupid at times...)
The weather is sooo good today. Sunny, warm and welcoming. It feels so good to drive around with all windows open (we call this ARKO - "Alle ramen kunnen open" - "All windows can be opened" - It's a pun on AIRCO of course) and to feel the wind in your hair. It feels like holiday... I really am looking forward to the holidays. I just don't know yet where we will be going this year. We'll see...
Small follow up to my Mental Health day yesterday.... What a difference a day makes! Today I had lots more energy for work and it really made a difference. I should listen to my body and mind more, instead of just "getting it done". Have a nice evening all.
Took a mental health day from work today... Just too tired to do any good work today. Had it coming the last few days. Starting at 8:00 and then being already burnt out at 14:00... As always I feel a bit guilty, but I also know that I must learn to put my (mental) health first. This is better in the long run for all, including my employer. I am enjoying the sun and charging my batteries...
Found Station today.... and after some hesitation decided to join. Let's see where this brings us. I am from the Netherlands and have been running a gopher server (fripster.ydns.eu) for a few years now. Have a nice day!