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+++ Happy Holidays, and a Reply to Sysdharma +++ |
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Friday, December 29, 2017 |
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I hope everyone is having a good holiday season! I've been perusing |
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gopherspace today and have a reply to sysdharma@sdf, who has a new |
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phlog [0] - welcome to the phlogosphere! |
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 |
Continued... |
text/plain |
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+++ Gophernicus and Scripts in Gophermaps +++ |
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Friday, December 15, 2017 |
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Gophernicus (the gopher server used at SDF) has a nice script |
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feature for gophermaps. Any line that starts with '=' is assumed to |
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refer to a script, and the output is sent to the client. |
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Continued... |
text/plain |
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+++ The Unix Console +++ |
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|
Monday, December 11, 2017 |
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Jynx [0],[1] and Jandal [2] phosted on their favorite programs, and |
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use of the Unix console in particular. I love hearing about how |
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|
other people work in the console so I can try out new utilities or |
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|
ways of getting things done. |
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Continued... |
text/plain |
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+++ On Mutt and Email Servers +++ |
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Monday, December 04, 2017 |
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I read some recent phosts by jynx ([0],[1]) on email, where he |
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mentions mutt and the fact that self-hosting is difficult. I've been |
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using mutt and self-hosting my own domains' email for many years, |
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and have had few problems with blacklisting or blocking. Here is a |
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broad overview of what I do and recommend. I haven't changed this |
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setup in a long time, it just runs: |
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Continued... |
text/plain |
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+++ Old Books and Old Tech +++ |
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Saturday, November 25, 2017 |
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I was back in the States last week to visit friends and family. We |
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generally travel the week before the US Thanksgiving, just to avoid |
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huge delays at the border. Anyway, while there I was able to grab |
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some boxes of books that have been in storage for a while - not all |
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of them but just the ones I'm likely to re-read or that have some |
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sentimental significance. Most of the others I'll be giving away, |
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but I have the fantasy and scifi classics I've collected over the |
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years, including Heinlein, Bradbury, Asimov and Clarke. |
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Continued... |
text/plain |
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+++ Weekend Update +++ |
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Thursday, November 02, 2017 |
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Finally some downtime! Work has been crazy lately, and I just |
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haven't had the energy or motivation to update the ol' |
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gopherhole. But I'm off for a long weekend, headed south into |
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Vermont tomorrow with the family for some r&r, and I feel a bit |
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rejuvenated already. |
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Continued... |
text/plain |
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+++ Of Cabins and Simple Living +++ |
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|
Saturday, October 21, 2017 |
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Jynx started off the fascinating discussion on simple living, |
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asceticism, and technology use [0]: |
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Continued... |
text/plain |
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+++ Old Time Radio +++ |
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Tuesday, October 17, 2017 |
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My wife and I enjoy listening to old-time radio shows (OTR), mainly |
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CBS's Radio Mystery Theater (CBSRMT) [0], but also CBC's Nightfall |
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|
[1] series. This past weekend we listened to Orson Welles' rendition |
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|
of Dracula, from 1938 [2]. They make a nice change from TV if you |
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want some entertainment for an evening. |
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Continued... |
text/plain |
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+++ Thoughts on Privacy +++ |
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|
Saturday, October 07, 2017 |
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Like many other privacy-minded geeks, I've been trying to lessen my |
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public footprint and use of big-provider emails. I've had my own |
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mail server for many years - In the US I ran my own server from a |
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|
decent business-class connection with static IPs, but that all went |
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|
away when we moved to Canada. So I migrated my mail server to |
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|
Ramnode, where it has been ever since. But for a time during the |
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|
move, when things were uncertain, I relied more heavily on |
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|
gmail/yahoo mail. Now that we're settled, I've stopped use of both |
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|
of them entirely and moved everything back to my own email server |
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|
again. I don't consider using SDF email in this context, since I |
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|
don't want to associate my real name with my SDF account. |
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Continued... |
text/plain |
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+++ Francisation +++ |
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|
Friday, October 06, 2017 |
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|
I started a conversational French class this week, what they call |
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here 'francisation'. It's basically a group conversation course, |
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|
taught by a native speaker of Quebec French - actually it's better |
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|
than that, as the instructor speaks both English and French and did |
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|
so from a young age. So he can explain the nuances of both languages |
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|
and how they might translate. I'm rather jealous of his ability to |
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|
switch freely between languages. For me, I just want my French to |
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|
get to a basic conversational level, where I don't have to struggle |
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|
to find words. My goal is to be in a conversation with a native |
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|
speaker, and _not_ have them switch to English, something that |
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|
happens a lot. I don't blame them, they see someone struggling and |
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|
want to help, or maybe they are busy and don't want to |
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|
wait. Sometimes they even want to practice their English. |
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Continued... |
text/plain |
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+++ Weekend Update +++ |
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|
Sunday, October 01, 2017 |
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|
My wife continues to recover from her concussion. She can't watch TV |
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|
or read, so she's settled on audio books as a way to pass the |
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|
time. Our local library doesn't participate in Overdrive, but I was |
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|
able to get a card at the provincial library in Montreal, which |
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|
does. We found the android app Libby which is quite usable as a |
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|
wrapper around Overdrive. It has its own reader built-in, so my wife |
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|
has been able to listen to audio books with her phone. |
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Continued... |
text/plain |
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+++ Tales of a Former Paramedic +++ |
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|
Saturday, September 30, 2017 |
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|
I've seen lots of death. I'm not proud of that fact, and sometimes I |
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|
wish I hadn't. But it is part of me, part of my past. You may not |
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|
want to read this if you are bothered by descriptions of death. |
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|
Continued... |
text/plain |
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|
+++ Bike Crash and Comments to Tomasino +++ |
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|
Sunday, September 17, 2017 |
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|
My family had a scare yesterday when my wife crashed on her mountain |
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|
bike, going down a steep trail. She was dizzy afterwards and had no |
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|
memory of the accident, and her friends she was riding with ended up |
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|
calling for the mountain rescue, who did a great job packaging her |
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|
up and getting her to an ambulance. After an ER visit and CT scan, |
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|
she was diagnosed with a mild concussion, and has lots of bruises |
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|
and scrapes. So she will be fine as long as she takes it easy for a |
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|
while, and of course we're thankful as it could have been much |
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|
worse. When we moved to Quebec she bought an upgraded helmet (MIPS), |
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|
because she knew how much downhill biking there was here. Given that |
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|
her injuries are not serious, I'd say the helmet worked. To anyone |
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|
riding a bike - don't skimp on the helmet. |
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|
Continued... |
text/plain |
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|
+++ Citizenship Ceremony and Thoughts on Immigration +++ |
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|
|
Friday, September 15, 2017 |
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|
My son received his Canadian citizenship certificate this week, at a |
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|
|
ceremony in Montreal. He was with about 200 others, a group |
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|
|
unsurprisingly as diverse as you can imagine. The ceremony itself |
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|
|
consisted of a group oath-taking, presided over by a judge, then the |
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|
|
newly-minted citizens received their certificates. Finally, they |
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|
|
sang the Canadian national anthem. The whole thing took about two |
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|
|
hours, and was quite well-run. I imagine it has to be to keep 200 |
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|
|
people moving along. |
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|
Continued... |
text/plain |
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|
+++ Of Fairs and French +++ |
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|
|
Friday, September 08, 2017 |
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|
|
Over the Labor Day weekend we went to a local fair, the 'Brome |
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|
|
Fair'. It was a bit nostalgic because when we lived in Connecticut, |
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|
|
every year we also went to a local fair - you know the kind, with |
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|
|
fried food, games, rides and farm animals. This was the same, but |
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|
|
was even more similar since Brome is in a part of Quebec that is |
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|
|
heavily anglophone. There are a few of those areas in Quebec, |
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|
|
including the West Island of Montreal. A region is termed |
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|
|
'anglophone' when a majority of families speak English at home as a |
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|
|
first language. What we've noticed is that most young people in |
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|
|
Quebec are bilingual, and talking to natives, it seems to be a |
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|
|
trend. The Quebec language law has done a good job keeping French |
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|
|
relevant (holding a job is impossible without at least an |
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|
|
intermediate level of spoken French), but parents are increasingly |
|
|
|
realizing that English is important for their kids to learn. |
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|
Continued... |
text/plain |
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|
+++ Comments on Free Speech +++ |
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|
|
Saturday, August 26, 2017 |
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|
|
There is some good commentary on free speech and protest rights |
|
|
|
lately in the gopher-verse [0], [1], [2]. I thought I'd add some |
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|
|
comments on the matter. |
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|
Continued... |
text/plain |
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|
+++ Random Gopher Updates and Replies +++ |
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|
|
Sunday, August 20, 2017 |
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|
|
There continues to be lots of new activity in gopherspace. Always |
|
|
|
great to see. I notice leveck.us moved his phlog to SDF [0], and is |
|
|
|
now using slerm. Let me know how it works for you, also note there |
|
|
|
is a newer version of slerm with a few bugfixes (1.8) available in |
|
|
|
my gopherspace [1]. |
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|
Continued... |
text/plain |
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|
+++ Vacation and Other Goings On +++ |
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|
|
Saturday, August 19, 2017 |
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|
|
I was on vacation this past week, it was nice to get away from work |
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|
|
for a while and spend more time with my family. A full week it was - |
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|
|
including my 50th birthday, a visit to a water park, some tennis, |
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|
|
hiking with my wife and camping with my son. |
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|
Continued... |
text/plain |
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|
|
+++ Thoughts on Terror and Trump +++ |
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|
|
Tuesday, August 15, 2017 |
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|
|
Tomasino writes on his phlog about the recent terror attack in |
|
|
|
Virginia [0]. I have the same visceral reaction to these events, and |
|
|
|
I'm saddened to see hatred for race or political beliefs reach such |
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|
|
a point that someone feels they have to kill for it. |
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|
Continued... |
text/plain |
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|
+++ More Gopher Thoughts +++ |
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|
|
Friday, August 11, 2017 |
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|
|
First a quick thanks to Logout for his phlog aggregator 'bongusta' |
|
|
|
[0]. This is a great resource, if anyone reading wants to get their |
|
|
|
phlog on his list, let him know, he has a contact email on his phlog |
|
|
|
[1]. |
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|
|
Continued... |
text/plain |
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|
|
+++ Trip to the Library +++ |
|
|
|
Thursday, August 10, 2017 |
|
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|
|
I made a trip to the local library yesterday, something I'd been |
|
|
|
meaning to do since we moved. Libraries in general are an amazing |
|
|
|
but underused resource. |
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|
Continued... |
text/plain |
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|
|
+++ Books +++ |
|
|
|
Sunday, August 06, 2017 |
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|
|
I mentioned previously [0] that most of our books are in storage, |
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|
|
about 20 boxes. I estimate there are 300-400 books. Since they have |
|
|
|
been in storage for over a year, I'm beginning to think I need to |
|
|
|
get rid of a big chunk of them. Books I read once but will probably |
|
|
|
never read again, or books I never read at all. |
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|
Continued... |
text/plain |
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|
|
+++ Ham Radio +++ |
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|
|
Saturday, August 05, 2017 |
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|
|
Hobbsc's latest phlog entry [0] got me thinking about amateur radio. |
|
|
|
I've been a ham for nine years, I have a general license in the |
|
|
|
US. I never did too much with it, although I have an HF transceiver |
|
|
|
and at one point I had started to learn morse code [1]. |
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|
Continued... |
text/plain |
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|
+++ Phlogit Tutorial +++ |
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|
|
Sunday, July 30, 2017 |
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|
|
Just a quick note that I put the latest version of 'phlogit' in |
|
|
|
/sys/sdf/bin and checked it into RCS there, so it is available to |
|
|
|
all SDF users who have /sys/sdf/bin/ in their path. MetaARPA members |
|
|
|
can edit it. |
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|
Continued... |
text/plain |
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|
|
+++ The Indestructable HP 15-C Calculator +++ |
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|
|
Saturday, July 29, 2017 |
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|
|
I still have an HP-15C I bought new in 1987. I don't use its |
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|
|
programmable features anymore, but just as a desktop calculator |
|
|
|
(after getting used to RPN, I could never get the hang of 'normal' |
|
|
|
algebraic entry again). These are probably the slide rule of my |
|
|
|
generation - every computer science and engineering student had one. |
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|
Continued... |
text/plain |
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|
+++ Welcome to the New Phlog +++ |
|
|
|
Saturday, July 29, 2017 |
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|
|
As I hinted in my last post [0], I've moved the current slerm-based |
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|
|
phlog to a static one, using my phlogit script [1]. It simply |
|
|
|
updates a gophermap top-down with a date, title and a short blurb |
|
|
|
(just the first paragraph of text). I think I'll do yearly archives, |
|
|
|
with the current year always pointing at /phlog for the sake of |
|
|
|
people's bookmarks. For now, I have all of my prior years posts in |
|
|
|
the same format, that is 2009-2015 [2]. Along the way I converted |
|
|
|
some posts from my old motd blog that had never been posted on the |
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|
|
gopher side. |
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|
Continued... |
text/plain |
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|
+++ Days of our Phlogs +++ |
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|
|
Wednesday, July 26, 2017 at 15:46 |
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|
|
I've gotten some great feedback by email and bboard on how others |
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|
|
like to write phlogs. Thanks to those who have replied. I've |
|
|
|
discovered that the UMN gopher client sometimes truncates text when |
|
|
|
displaying a type-1 entry (normally directories but also CGI's), |
|
|
|
something I never noticed as I use lynx. As I was writing and |
|
|
|
thinking about this, some functional goals for the phlog came to |
|
|
|
mind: |
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|
|
Continued... |
text/plain |
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|
|
+++ Help me Decide How to Phlog +++ |
|
|
|
Monday, July 24, 2017 at 19:58 |
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|
|
I received a nice email today from a member of the SDF phlogging |
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|
|
community. In it he noted that he enjoyed reading my phlog, but was having |
|
|
|
layout and spacing issues while using the SDF gopher client. I'll share some |
|
|
|
of my response, then I'd love to hear your thoughts about what I should |
|
|
|
do. Reply by comment here, or shoot me an email, or grab me on SDF jabber. |
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|
Continued... |
text/plain |
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|
|
+++ More on Walled Gardens +++ |
|
|
|
Sunday, July 23, 2017 at 16:15 |
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|
|
The discussions from Solderpunk and Jandal around walled gardens and |
|
|
|
what makes them good or evil are interesting. Read them and come |
|
|
|
back here for my thoughts, just follow the 'View Post or Comment' |
|
|
|
link below. |
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|
|
Continued... |
text/plain |
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|
|
+++ Comments on Phlogs +++ |
|
|
|
Sunday, July 16, 2017 at 09:44 |
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|
|
|
Below are some collected thoughts on a few interesting phlog posts |
|
|
|
I've read recently where I felt I had something to comment on. I've |
|
|
|
put a link to the original post in each case so you can follow it |
|
|
|
through. |
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|
Continued... |
text/plain |
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|
+++ Privacy +++ |
|
|
|
Tuesday, July 11, 2017 at 16:18 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The new 2600 is out, and it has a few articles talking about various |
|
|
|
aspects of privacy and anonymity online, which got me to thinking |
|
|
|
how difficult it is to opt-out from, well basically anything that |
|
|
|
doesn't spy on you in some way. Take gmail. While it's relatively |
|
|
|
easy for us geeks to simply not use it, it provides the MX records |
|
|
|
for a remarkable number of private, edu and business domains. Many |
|
|
|
more people than that have @gmail.com addresses. So you can have |
|
|
|
your own email server, or use SDF for email, and in the end what |
|
|
|
does it get you? When you reply to or send an email to anyone using |
|
|
|
Google's email infrastructure, Google (and by extension, the NSA) |
|
|
|
gets your IP address, email address and content (because, let's face |
|
|
|
it, no one encrypts email). I've had my own email server for about |
|
|
|
15 years, and will keep it as long as practicable, but it is |
|
|
|
disheartening to see the hold one company has on email. |
|
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|
|
Continued... |
text/plain |
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|
+++ Downtime +++ |
|
|
|
Tuesday, July 04, 2017 at 14:05 |
|
|
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|
|
Happy 4th of July! It's been a quiet day today. One oddity of |
|
|
|
working for a US-based company in Canada is that I observe US |
|
|
|
holidays. So unlike the rest of Canada, I have today off, and am |
|
|
|
spending some time reading and catching up on various creative |
|
|
|
outlets. |
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|
|
Continued... |
text/plain |
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|
|
+++ Happy 150th Canada Day! +++ |
|
|
|
Saturday, July 01, 2017 at 16:10 |
|
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We're celebrating the sesquicentennial Canada Day here up |
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north. Since it's a Saturday, it kind of feels like a normal |
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weekend. We're just taking it easy, doing some outstanding home |
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projects and enjoying the company of family. I found this neat |
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ascii-art Canadian flag, and gopherpedia has more: |
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Continued... |
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+++ The Value of a Canadian Citizenship +++ |
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Friday, June 23, 2017 at 14:15 |
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Yesterday my daughter received her Canadian citizenship |
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certificate. Kids under 19 who are permanent residents get automatic |
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citizenship, the parent who is already a citizen just has to apply |
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on their behalf. If they are under 14 (which is the case with my |
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daughter) they do not have to take a written test or go to an oath |
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ceremony. My son, who is 16, took his citizenship test today, and |
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passed. So in a couple of months he gets sworn in and given his |
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certificate in a group ceremony. |
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Continued... |
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+++ Happy 30th Anniversary SDF! +++ |
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Friday, June 16, 2017 at 17:21 |
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) ) |# | ( * |
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. ( . \___/ . |
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+ .-"-. * /^ + ( |
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/ \ ) ( .-"-. ) + |
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. |# | ( * / \ ( ) |
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\___/ ) ( |# | ( ' |
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* /^ ) \___/ |
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( * ' ( ^\ * ' |
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. \ , , , , , ' \ + |
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) | | | | | ) . |
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* . @%@%@%@%@%@%@ ( ) |
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( { happy } \ ( * |
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) * { birthday! } ) ( |
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( @%@%@%@%@%@%@%@%@ ) ' |
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+ { SDF } * ( |
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{ 1987 - 2017 } . ) |
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jgs { June 16 } ( |
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* @%@%@%@%@%@%@%@%@%@ + |
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Continued... |
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+++ The Modern Web +++ |
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Thursday, May 18, 2017 at 13:44 |
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Solderpunk has a well thought-out commentary on the issues with web |
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apps: |
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Continued... |
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+++ Gopher to Web Proxy +++ |
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Tuesday, May 09, 2017 at 15:51 |
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I recently setup the gophper proxy [0] on my SDF web page [1]. It |
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has a few quirks (like not handling binary downloads all the time), |
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but overall seems to work reasonably well. |
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Continued... |
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+++ Update to the Slerm Phlogging Engine +++ |
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Monday, May 08, 2017 at 09:58 |
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This is a small update fixing a bug with selector line |
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endings. Basically, with my last update I mistakenly used \r\n as |
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the line ending for the comment file output, resulting in odd |
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formatting bugs. So now \r\n is strictly limited to direct gopher |
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output. |
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Continued... |
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+++ Settling Down in Canada +++ |
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Saturday, February 25, 2017 at 19:40 |
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I've mentioned before our intent to move to Canada. I'm a dual |
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US-Canadian citizen, so at least for me it was easy. I moved last |
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April to Quebec, in the process sponsoring my wife and kids for |
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permanent residency. It took 16 months in total, but after much |
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paperwork and stress, it is done. On January 23rd, 2017, my family |
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became landed Canadian immigrants. Now begins the process of |
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settling in - my wife has to trade in her US driver's license, we |
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had to sign everyone up for provincial healthcare, and we are |
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learning french. |
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Continued... |
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+++ Other SDF Phlogs +++ |
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Tuesday, January 03, 2017 at 16:28 |
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I was pleased to see a bit more activity in gopherspace here at SDF, |
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a few more phlogs I found linked from the phlogosphere page. I |
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linked to them on the main page of my own gopher space, under a new |
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heading 'Other SDF Users With Interesting Gopher Spaces'. |
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Continued... |
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