Posts

Gemini vs Minimalist HTML

Feb 20, 2022 · 3 min read · FOSS Gemini

A lot of people who see the Gemini protocol for the first time come up with the same criticism: If you hate the modern web's bloat, why not just use minimal html? Gemini has a number of advantages over a series of small html websites. Unity When people say 'minimal html', they all have different ideas about what that …

Background Noise

Feb 20, 2022 · 1 min read · Prattle

Sysadmins refer to the low-level scripted hacks as 'the background noise of the internet'. So apparently if the internet could speak, it would sound like Let me in, I am admin. Password is admin. Let me in. I am root. Let me in...are you still there? Let me in...

Sile: The LaTeX Alternative

Feb 15, 2022 · 2 min read · Typography

Sile's a typesetting program which makes nifty pdfs. It's been going great for me, so I thought I'd share the journey so far. The Good It's based on lua, which is super-simple. You don't need to know any lua to use it, but if you want to poke about, it's easier enough for a non programmer to get an idea of what's going …

False FOSS Dichotomies

Feb 11, 2022 · 2 min read · Prattle FOSS

People often talk in terms of the false dichotomy between pragmatic software use, and ethical software use. 'Us pragmatic folks', they begin, 'just want to use what works'. We should understand of course that they have nothing against people who have principles, but would prefer functioning to non-functioning …

LaTeX is Broken

Feb 5, 2022 · 9 min read · FOSS Typography

I love LaTeX because it can do things nothing else can. I have to use it, because it can do things nothing else can. But it has some deep problems. Packages I think the biggest root of problems is having packages, rather than just having people submit a pull request on a central repository and add whatever feature …

Fun Terminal APIs

Jan 26, 2022 · 2 min read · Linux FOSS

These are some commands you can do from any Linux terminal. They all run through someone else's server, so any information you send will be visible to the owner. Get the Current Weather curl wttr.in It's best to open the terminal full-screen here to see the full result. You can also do a city. For some reason, the …

Overview: Void Linux

Jan 13, 2022 · 6 min read · Linux

It's the little things that make me feel comfy. Services are Simple Systemd is fine, but I have to look up how to make a new unit file every time, and then input the path to the executable, which is generally some script I've written. With Void's runit, the service file is the script. There's nothing to learn or look …

Self Driving Cars may not happen

Jan 4, 2022 · 3 min read · Prattle Prognostication

I have doubts about self-driving cars. The entire argument rests on analogy with software translators. Software translators began as simple dictionaries. You type in 'cat', it returns 'le chat'. Next, programmers started to feed in simple rules, so 'black cats' could return 'les chats noire'. The rules became so …

The Jimbo Problem

Jan 2, 2022 · 5 min read · Prattle

In one episode of the cartoon South Park, Chef declares that the town flag is racist, and should be replaced. Uncle Jimbo disagrees that it should be taken down, and makes arguments about the importance of history. However, at this point the KKK arrive behind Jimbo and start shouting in support. From that point on he …

Privacy for One

Dec 23, 2021 · 2 min read · FOSS Politics

Privacy for one makes very little sense. As individual as an individual might be, humans think in groups. We talk, research, and revise ideas together. I once had super-encrypted email with Tutanota. Nobody could see it, even with a court order, because the emails were persistently encrypted on the server's disk, and …