path: root/content-org/blog.org

#+TITLE: Blog
#+AUTHOR: Michał Sapka
#+URL: https://michal.sapka.me/blog/
#+STARTUP: show2levels indent logdone

#+HUGO_BASE_DIR: ~/ghq/michal.sapka.me/mms/site
#+HUGO_WEIGHT: auto
#+HUGO_SECTION: blog


* 2024  [107/109]                                                     :@blog:
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_HUGO_SECTION: blog/2024
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image_dir "blog/images" :image_max_width 600
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: image yt bookmark-month
:END:


** TODO Why I don't have header images

Recently, I've seen at least a few discussions around stable diffusion generated header images for blog posts.
The general consensus was: "don't".
I agree.
They are insulting to the reader and make the blog lesser.
It's not even due to the finger counting game, but because very often then they have very little to do with the article.
They just sit there, ocupying space.

But I don't have any header images, and comes to why I have this blog.
In general, there are two types of personal blogs: one comes from passion, the latter from the need for self promotion.
I am not a brand, I don't need to promote myself.
I am just a lazy, grumpy nerd who likes to write.

I would lie if I said that I don't care if anyone reads what I write (each email from a reader bring a huge grim to my face), but it's not the goal itself.
If it was then focusing on social media sharing makes sense.
It's the easiest way to get readers - put it on twttr, linkedin or some other rathole.
When all you care about are entries, having a header image makes sense.
It stands out out of other non-linky posts.
Add a catchy title (/I ate a whole rat, got sick and died. See how this applies to your business/), and boom - you're drowning in shares.
But those are the worst entries to your site.
Those people won't return, they have just cliecked a link on their feed.
Your site is just an entry on the feed.

I do share my articles on Mastodon, of course.
I want people to /read/ what I write, but we can't forget about the communal aspect.
Blogs were social media before social media was a thing.
It was in the pre-unification of the entire cybperspace into 5 sites, so they had lots of personality.
Say what you will about my design skills, this site has a unique feel to it.
Do I need an image for that?
Does a image-based social media share make what I write here any more interesting?
Does it improve my mediocre english language skill?
No, but what it would impact writing - I have no graphical skills, so I would need to fiverr.
I paid for all custom images on my sites[fn:cool].
Would I do it for all my publications?
Hell no, I am not made of money!

Lastly, I want to connect to like-minded folks.
And, with huge certainty, I can tell tell that this crowd doesn't care about any header image.
Their blogs don't have any after all.
Heck, they even use a proper [[https://rubenerd.com/i-now-refer-to-rss-et-al-as-web-feeds/][webfeed reader]].

Images are made to add additional value to the text, not to make it load slower.

[fn:cool] Except of [[https://emacs.crys.site/][Coolmacs]].
Love you, Drew!


** Archive and Wiki
** Timothy Cain on Capitalism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OsWuFo2jp4

** Microsoft GitHub and Open Source 

I, like many others, were lured into (non-MS) GitHub years ago.
It was nicer than the entire competition - it worked better, it looked better, it was where *all* the Open Source lived.
Well, not all.
But it was standard for any new project to begin with creating a GitHub repository.

But is still a good idea?
I don't think so.
In fact, I think that Microsoft GitHub is the single worse place for Open Source to live.

Funny thing is, that only one thing changed - the owner.
Microsoft, in their past-Ballmer era, in their "pro-open source" phase (mom! It's not a phase!) bought the single most important place for software.
Not only software development, but software in general.
It is near impossible to use software without touching something that was stored on Microsoft GitHub.

But, let's face it, Microsoft hasn't changed one bit.
They may own Torvald's soul and body, but they are still actively against Open Source.

Why do *care* about Open Source?
It's not a popularity contest, it's a bullet point in CV.
Open Source is based on community, as groups of people who have nothing in common, join forces to create something.
They may come from different backgrounds, location, believes, and so on.
The one thing that connect them, is this project they are developing.
Open Source is built on the idea of free access to the source code and access to modify it, ergo anyone can work on it.

(non-MS) GitHub was great for it.
You had all the developers out there.
You could collaborate with the entire world!
GitHub was a great place to share code.

But Microsoft GitHub is going in the other direction.
To make any change to a forge-based repository, one needs some kind of authentication.
It would be dangerous to allow anyone to change the code.
To participate in GitHub one needs an GitHub account.
It was always shady, but now one needs to give personal data to Microsoft.
This alone should be a red flag.
To help develop an Open-Source project, you need to ask Microsoft to allow that.
Account can be revoked at any moment, repository can be deleted without prior notice.
Microsoft GitHub is a mean to, de-facto, own Open-Source ecosystem.
You can't suggest change or inform maintainers about a problem without this account.

I hate to say it, but for cooperation nothing comes close to [[https://sourcehut.org/][Source Hut]].
There is only one (AFAIK) big, open forge which allows anyone with an email account to participate.
You can send patches via email, and the maintainers can process solely using email.

Microsoft GitHub even started making it harder to use for people who don't want to give their data to Redmond by disabling search for visitors.
When you encounter a bug, you go to the source - it's obvious.
But now you need to clone it locally.
It's small annoyance, but it shows the general direction.

Microsoft GitHub is still not near the biggest sin an Open Source can commit when it comes to cooperation (that crown still goes to using Discord), but it's far from being "Open".

**


** DONE New license plate frame
CLOSED: [2024-12-21 Sat 21:08]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: frame
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract RunBSD!
:END:

My car's license plate frame broke, so I had to get new one.
I could get a boring, all-black one... or add a few /PLN/ and have it personalized.

#+attr_shortcode: :file license-frame.JPEG
#+attr_shortcode: :alt A black license plate frame. On the left a white "FreeBSD" can be seen, an on the right "RunBSD"
#+attr_shortcode: :class centered
#+begin_image
My new frame
#+end_image

You can now easily spot me on the road and say hello (or curse me)!

If my back one breaks as well, I'll need something Emacs-themed.

** DONE Hiatus due to Advent of Code
CLOSED: [2024-12-09 Mon 00:01]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: aoc-hiatus
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract See you next year!
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening Sue Kasper - Sim City 200 OST
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening_Url https://mdvhimself.bandcamp.com/album/sim-city-2000
:END:

I was tricked into participating into Advent of Code.
I had no idea much time it would take!
Therefore, don't expect many updates here till the end of the year outside of fresh batches of the [[/more/bookmarks][hottest bookmarks]] out there.
I'll try to spend all the little free time I have on those assignments.
See you!

** DONE Things I care about: documentation
CLOSED: [2024-12-04 Wed 22:08]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: good-documentation
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract The stuff dreams are made of
:END:

This is a new passion for me.
For /ages/ I was googling-first, and only then looking into documentation.
And it was one of the worst mistakes I've ever made.
It's the standard way to start things, but it makes it impossible to be good at them.

I know how this changed: I moved to FreeBSD.
Say what you will about Linux/Mac/and so on - their documentation is terrible.
BSDs however threat their docs with love and care they deserve.

There is, however, another reason.
And thisone makes me sad.
So many of my colleagues limit themselves to asking ChatGPT "how to I reverse a string".
That's no way to learn, to grow.
The only thing you are achieving by that is making themselves more reliant on some new gadget and the destruction the planet.
There should a world for people like me, who judge others based on their use of GenAI.
Something positive, of course.

But back to documentation.
I participate in Advent of Code, which requires me to find APIs I may have used 10 years ago.
But all I really need is to know if I'm thinking about string, enumerable, or integer.
Everything else is simply there, waitin, happy to share it's knowledge.
It's available for free and written in languge I understand.

At this point, the first place I go to when encountering a problem are man-pages, then online docs.
Stack Overflow, Reddit, and so on are simply terrible.
Outdated, full of hate, done for some internet points.
Having your documentation be Github or Discord is a slap in the face - I can't search or /even access/ it without giving my data to a malicious agent.

I now understand why /gurus/[fn:guru] in their 50s, 60s and so on are so good at whey did.
They had to look up documentation, so they had to know what they were looking for.
And in the process they most likely learned a lot of random things.
They didn't waste their time with "Learn SQL in 20 minutes. Complete Course from begginer to expert" on YouTube by "TechChan2000".

I've mentioned that I use Vim(1) quite a lot now.
And while yes, sometimes I hit a wall and ask on IRC, most of my problems can be simply solved by a quick =:h=.
There is nothing better than having documentation distributed with programs or operating systems.
Good documentation is the goal, but /having it/ is the first step.

A lot of modern software doesn't come with manual.
Some of it even doesn't have online documentation.
And while I get that one may sometimes need to pay for it (is it still the case?), it needs to exist.

At this point I want my docs to:
1. Be easily accessible, preferably from shell. Browser depletes my small reserves of focus.
2. Have general introduction (think =man man=). I want to know what we are talking about.
3. Have details. Yeah, this is most likely what I am looking for.
4. Have EXAMPLES. BSDs have this perfected.

Pretty soon I will refuse to use software without proper documentation.
And I find this as a surprise, as it wasn't the case, but  having /good/ documentation at hand is additive.
Not having to rely on mediocre search engine is the stuff dreams are made of.

----

=Man pages= have a bad rap, as they tend to be long and difficult to comprehend.
But if one dedicates enough time to learn how to use them, it will pay significant dividends.

People also tend to have a hard time finding things in there.
Luckily there is =apropos(1)= and =whatis(1)=, which, in tandem, let us search for manpages related to what we are looking for.
Of couse, we can =man apropos= and =man man=.

[fn:guru]n. [UNIX] An expert. Implies not only wizard skill but
also a history of being a knowledge resource for others. Less
often, used (with a qualifier) for other experts on other systems,
as in `VMS guru' (via [[https://latel.upf.edu/morgana/altres/cibres/hackers/Hacker_G.html#entr_089][The Hacker's Dictionary]])

** DONE Things I care about: stable APIs
CLOSED: [2024-12-03 Tue 22:23]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: stable-api
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract Let a good thing be a good thing
:END:

I'm a FreeBSD guy, not a Linux person.
I use Emacs(1), plain HTML, jpg/gifs.
I love Irssi, notmuch, xmpp.
I code in Ruby, not in Python.
I'm using more and more vim, but not neovim.

What is the pattern here?
Stable APIs.
I'm too old to chase the current trend just to chase it.
I want to lay down and have a nice time.
I want to tinker with the software because I want to tinker it, not because the API changed.
I don't even auto-update apps on my phone!
But it seems that things are changing just to be changed.
Nothing can be good /enough/, there is always this new crazy idea we simply have to chase.

Case in point: Hugo.
I used to love Hugo.
Hugo is amazing! when you first start to use it.
But then your site grows; I now have over 6000 sub pages.
So, what does Hugo do?
Break things.
I am afraid to update this damn thing, as there is a significant chance there will be some breaking change.
Sure, it may be a warning here and there, but then it will stop working.
Don't like where I put my name for RSS?
It was OK a month ago.
Hate my use of HTML in markdown?
We had a deal!
I was to do it when markdown shows its huge limits.

I used to run neovim(1).
It was shiny, it was fast, it was multi-threaded.
But the community doesn't care for old farts like me, and each update of packages was a lottery - what will break _this time_?
Neovim broke vim, so why the hell not, right?
(btw, hating of neovim community is a subject for a different time).

Yeah, no.
Thank you.
Since I'm using tmux(1) more and more, I'll stick to good, old vim(1).
My Emacs(1) config will most likely work for at least a few years before something breaks.
I don't expect FreeBSD to adapt SystemD/the-whatitsname-ifconfig-replacement.

And yes, they can rip Xorg from my cold, dead hands.

I'm not against progress, I love my multi threading, I love my fast internet.
What I hate is progress at all cost.
Sometimes it's nothing at all cost, as GPT doesn't offer anything new.
But the cost it always there in the form of something that was there, working, having a great time.

Do you know that there are people solving Advent of Code using awk(1)?
Yes, this old rusty thing.
Somehow, after all those years, it is still /good enough/ for the task.

** DONE Bookmark dump for November 2024
CLOSED: [2024-12-02 Mon 22:00]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: bookmarks-nov
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract Link dump!
:END:

#+attr_shortcode: :month 2024-11
#+begin_bookmark-month
2024-11
#+end_bookmark-month

** DONE GenAI dealers and self awareness
CLOSED: [2024-12-02 Mon 14:49]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: gen-ai-awerness
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract Dia browse is a new browser, but it's promoted as something else
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue
:END:

I watched a very long promo movie for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C25g53PC5QQ][an AI browser.]]
At first I was afraid on what kind of new nightmares are they planning, but luckily it's nothing like that.
Yes, it's close to useless and takes too much energy, but nothing for me to be worried about.

What  coughed my eye however was how they made the movie.
It's full of soft lighting, kind chat, drawing on paper.
It's a nice, comfy, warm scene.
It's everything the product is not.
Remember when oil companies bought ads to show them as the nice guys?
Now the most vile of technology is pretending to be this nice, older fella.

While creating the final straw in the tech bubble, they are pretending to use a /real/ video tape.
And while I get it (I also wouln't like to be connected to any of GenAI), it's fake.
It's as a fake as the grain we see in the movie.
It leaves me wondering, how much of this is good advertising, and how much is self-awareness.
The are the bad guys, but do they know it?
The third chapter of the movie tells how GenAI are still useless, so maybe they are starting to see the bigger context?


Guess it's time to start blocking not only AI Bots, but also AI browsers.

** DONE Useless things you may want to know: on the origin of "vi"
CLOSED: [2024-11-25 Mon 23:44]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: origins-of-vi
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract Where did vi(1) came from?
:END:

We all know, that =vim(1)= stands for "vi improved", but what the buttocks is "vi"?

Well, in the ancient times, a great editor was born - =ex(1)=.
While =ed(1)= still is /the/ standard editor, it's lineage is not that simple.
The =ex(1)= editor expanded on =ed(1)='s line-oriented text editing.
In short: =ed(1)= was designed before computer displays were common, but =ex(1)= came out later.

Therefore, =ex(1)= added a visual mode, where changes were displayed on the display.
Like in Star Trek!
This mode was enabled by calling the =:visual= command, or (in short) =:vi=.

There you go, cyberpalls.
You're now armed with a bulletproof story for the upcoming X-Mass parties!

=vim(1)= stands for =visual mode of ex, the improved standard text editor, improved=.
(and, yup. =vi(1)= is a standalone program as well.
But we're talking about naming here).

** DONE RE: Self-Hosting Isn't a Solution; It's A Patch
CLOSED: [2024-11-25 Mon 21:14]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: re-self-hosting
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract A replly
:END:
Recently, an article written by Mathew Duggan titled [[https://matduggan.com/self-hosting-isnt-a-solution-its-a-patch/][Self-Hosting Isn't a Solution; It's A Patch]] has been shared everywhere.
Frankly, I disagree with it quite deeply.
It's not even about giving terrible examples of Apple and Fastmail as /private/ services (with servers in Australia and US, governments have a open line to get the data. Also, Apple is an ad company now as well), but more on the definition of /decentralization/.

Mathew argues that "Self-hosting platforms are fragile."
Well, this where I can not agree, as this not the type of services I advocate for.

Self-hosting platforms are, for the most part, ultra resilient because they don't rely on any single provider.
My Mastodon instance can be shut down by a lunatic (again), but then I can simply move to any other server.
This it root of /decentralization/ as it's based on /interoperability/.
You can't change Twitter provider, it doesn't work like this.
When Musk gets bored with ruining it, he may very well turn of the lights and all of Twitter will never to be seen again.

Self-hosting is not the goal in itself, as it would make no sense.
You can't self-host for self-hosting sake, as no one will be able to use it.
Only by allowing interoperability, you give it a raison d'etre.
WWW is decentralized, Email is decentralized, IRC is decentralized and so on.
And while I love the idea of self-hosting all of it, unless people who won't, can access it, it makes non sense.
This site could have been hidden behind a firewall, never to be exposed to a random visitor.
But while it is self-hosted in my living room, I allowed it to be accessed from the wild, open net.
It may go down any minute (and it will; I have no UPS), it will not matter in the grand scheme of things and millions of other sites will be there, unmoved by my sheer lack of better things to do.

Imagine world where all of the web relies on a single provider.
It's a VC's wet dream.
We are close to that (please, don't use AWS), but we are not there yet.
The web is decentralized, interoperable and you /may/ self host how much of it as you want.

What's more, Mathew also assumes that it's free labor.
Is it?
Some of if it, yes.
But people (like me) earn a living from developing and maintaining the open-web.
Threads, while still being Meta, is available from the Fediverse.
It's not self-hosted, but your self-hosted instance can be accessed from it.
And Zuck sure earns a lot from it.

In fact, a lot of /centralized/ services stared as /decentralized/.
Remember when Slack was accessible from IRC clients?
When Google Talk was just an XMPP?
It worked much better than it does now.
And this is exactly what I advocate for.
It never was a Utopian idea, it was a reality and a normal thing.
It's the centralization of the web which is the outlier.

Privacy is a side-product of decentralization, of self-hosting.
While it the essential, it's not the whole picture.
GDRP is a bare minimum, it's tax /we/ pay for the web of today.
We should have never needed it.

** DONE Updated pages
CLOSED: [2024-11-23 Sat 22:39]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: updated-pages
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract Winter cleaning. 
:END:

Recently, I have updated some pages:

- [[/more/now][Now]] - which shows my current interest in =finger(1)=
- [[/more/links][Links]] - which are finally manageable
- [[/more/contact][Contact]] - which look like they look now thank to envy of [[https://jcs.org/contact][joshua's site]].

Most likely I'll recreate more in the coming weeks, but for now I am focusing on bringing [[/projects/chotto][Chotto]] to version 0.1, which will have enough features to be usable.

** DONE Lost keys
CLOSED: [2024-11-22 Fri 20:23]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: lost-keys
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract I am without GPG key. 
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening Dr Dre - 2001
:END:
Remember my recent [[https://crys.site/blog/2024/broken-system/][post]] where I came out as the stupid one?
Well, lack of backup strikes again!

Turns out that one of the things I've lost were my GPG keys and I can't seem to find my revoke key.
At least I didn't upload any of those to any keyserver...

So, as a result I am not using any GPG key at the time being.
I'll re-upload a new one, but only after I come it with a fool-proof backup plan.

Good thing that my migration to pass(1) didn't even start.

** DONE Sir! We reinvent the wheel here!
CLOSED: [2024-11-21 Thu 20:00]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: reinventint-the-weel
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract On creating a million other problems while fixing other problems
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening Michael Land - Curse of Monkey Island OST
:END:

I spend the last few days at $DAYJOB trying to create metrics monitor.
A Sidekiq services may (or may not) have emitted some stats which may (or may not) have been received by DataDog agent which may (or may not) have been received by data dog which may (or may not have) processed it and they may (or may not) be queried.
Turns out, that on step 831 of this pipeline *my* logs were rejected to save costs.
I cursed more than I will ever admit and I named everyone in proximity of this hellscape while cursing.
Screw you, Mr. Observability!

Now, analyzing logs and metrics is kinda in the epicenter of of being a software engineer.
They may say it's building software, but sometimes we build software just to maintain it.
It's not a new concept.
Ever since we became able to curve numbers on rock plates, someone had to analyze it.

Remember grep?
Tail?
Cat?
Our good old pals?
They served us pretty well over the years, didn't they?
And then we took them the the shed, shot them, and decorated our editors with their carcasses.
They are not adequate for /cloud scale/.

Well, we at $DAYJOB produce close to 20Tb of logs a day.
Is this a lot?
Certainly not enough to make Alhtole salivate, but much too much for a laptop to /grep/ over.

We, as an industry, did what we always do: reinvent it.
Somehow the "disruption" idea is so etched into our very selves, that we do it to ourselves.
When we had a small problem of performance, we solved it by covering in layers upon layers of complexity.

#+attr_shortcode: :file how-youju-get-genai.jpg
#+attr_shortcode: :alt A drawing of a man in a suit. top text: Do you want to get GenAI? bottom text: Because this is how you get GenAI
#+attr_shortcode: :class pull-right
#+attr_shortcode: :forced_width 200
#+begin_image
noop
#+end_image

Now, I hate DataDog mostly because their UX is abysmal.
It's a constant flood of popovers over hovers.
If you know how to use it with keyboard alone, please let me know.
My Vimium is not flexible enough.

But sucking is at the core of DataDog.
It's contrary to their best interest to reuse skills we already had.
Grep?
Forget it!
It's colorful blobs of structured data.
You just click on things which allow you to click on other things.
No need to worry your pretty little head with it.
If they build it, we will come.
And then we will not know anything else.

They could have /built/ upon what was there, but this would not put them on a VC happy path.
They could have created a simple system, but instead a company needs to have people fluent in DataDog to operate DataDog.

And even with that, it's not /good/ and certainly not great.
It's slow, clunky, takes horrendous amount of horse power to use their web interface.
The data is significantly delayed, and you need to sample it, as you can not afford not to.
But don't worry, if your have a blind spot as a result, you will never find the charts ever again!
Problem solved!
It's one in one of your 77622145201 dashboards.

I'm currently angry at Data Dog, but it's not only them.
Our entire industry hates improving.
It's not enough to fix a problem, you should aim at changing the paradigm (and I have no idea what it even means!).
A coworker once joked that Google created Kubernetes to ensure that spinning new product is complex enough, for them to never have a competition.

This mindset results in us, not even being out of current tech bubble, looking for the next tech bubble.
Just let me grep logs!

** DONE This site now has an IRC channel
CLOSED: [2024-11-20 Wed 20:22]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: cryschan
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract on PC gaming and it's demise
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening Michael Land - Curse of Monkey Island OST
:END:

My IP was unbanned from libera.chat (I wasn't the one who got banned!), so I want to use it more.
After all, where else am I meet with my cyberpals?
Discord?
Let's have some self respect!

One of ways to achieve that is to have an IRC channel for this site.

*The official IRC channel for crys.site is _##cryschan_ on libera.chat*

----

IRC sure has changed since I used it.
I had a brief period of using it earlier this year, but it ended when my ISP changed my IP to a banned one.
But I've learned that now:

- You can register a nick on a server. It's done via "nameserver"
- You can register a channel, so no hostile takeover is possible. It's done via "chanserv"
- You can have persistent connection with multiple clients attached. It's done via proxy service called "bouncer"
- All the good, old clients still work
- There's still a couple of hundred thousand people using IRC at any given moment
  
** DONE The Rock Paper Shotgun 100 and PC gaming
CLOSED: [2024-11-17 Sun 22:14]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: rps-100
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract on PC gaming and it's demise
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening Michael Land - Curse of Monkey Island OST
:END:
Recently, the web page Rock Paper Shotgun published [[https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-rps-100-2024][a list of best 100 PC games.]]
And what a list that is.
100 games from close to 45 years of PC history.

However, I consider it to be a complete misunderstanding of what made PC gaming different.

Currently, the biggest differentiating factor is the presence of thriving indie scene.
Ignoring it, all the mainstream games, are released everywhere.
And they are the same games, running on the same engines, having the same boring designs, having the same control scheme.
Yes, you can use keyboard with a PC, but you can pretend that it doesn't exist - gamepad /will/ be supported.
What I'm saying is that there is no difference between PC and console gaming in 2024.

20, 30, 40 years ago, it wasn't the case.
Not only were there a lot more systems ([[http://retro.ruben.com][Amiga! Commodore 64! Saturn! BBC Micro!]]) than survived till today, but they all had their strengths and weaknesses.
Consoles were action-focused.
NES games were fast.
PC, for a long time, was catching up.
It was far behind of what Amiga was capable of.

However, at some point in the 90s, those gray boxes exploded as gaming machines.
This is where imagination ran wild, where a game from a year before looked ancient.
But most importantly, different genres rules the PC marked.

First, it was the adventure game.
We had Sierra, with it's Quest series, Phantasmagorias, Gabriel Knights and son.
We had Lucasarts, Tex Murphy, 3 Skulls of the Toltec, Flight of the Amazon Queen, or Discworlds.
PC inherited those genres from older computers, where text-based adventures were /the thing/.
This is where the children of Zork found their new homes.

Then we moved to RPGs, a genre for which I was too young for.
Gold box games, Dungeon Master, Wizardy, Might and Magic, and so on - just to limit ourselves the early ones.
Later, there was no competition of Fallouts, Baldurs, or Diablos.

Then RTS were everywhere.
C&C, Warcraft, KKND, Polanie, Total Annihilation, Age of Empires...

Yes, most of those games moved to consoles, or came from other /computers/ but they were designed with a computer person in mind.
Someone sitting in a dark room with a notepad, ready to draw a map.
Someone who was ready to click all things on other things for the entire evening.
Someone ready to do the same thing, all over again - build base, exterminate enemies, build another base.

Those games are almost absent from RPS's list.
Those were not action-oriented games.
They evolved into such, but action was not at their core.

But things changed dramatically.
No other company changed the gaming landscape as much as ID Software.
There were 3d games before, but none were Wolfenstein.
Duke was great, but it never got the never-ending popularity of Quake.
It may have been a better game, but it was not as fast.

For a long time, PC became the FPS machines.
There was no better platform for it, and there was not better input device than keyboard.
Console may have had better platformers, but it was the PC where angry, stinky teens shot rockets up each other's asses.
This changed, as I stated at the begging.

Meanwhile, RPS list names mostly games which DNA is rooted in modern unification of gaming as best PC games.
Yakuza?
Witcher?
Resident Evil?
Nier?
God of War?
Those are as different from what PC gaming was it gets.
They may be great, but they are action oriented spins on the old ideas.
They don't represent what PC gaming was and can be.

In fact, the only few games from the list that are /trully/ PC are Crusader Kings, Factorio, Dwarf Fortess, Monkey Island, Fallout, and Deus Ex.
They were designed for PC, they are complex and slow - up to fault.
They not only /allow/ playing on keyboard and mouse, but mandate it.

Yes, Doom and Quake were a PC games primary, but only because consoles of the time were unable to process data fast enough.
If they were, they would be a great place for them.

And where the hell is Nethack!?

** DONE Migration complete
CLOSED: [2024-11-15 Fri 23:13]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: migration-complete
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract One-website person type of a guy
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
:END:

I finally finished migrating =brain-rot= back here.
Now, the [[/reviews][reviews]] section contains all of that, which is nice.
This also marks the first moment, when I am content with its structure.

I have crossed this task on the [[/now][Now|Finger]] page.

** DONE My old computer books
CLOSED: [2024-11-14 Thu 23:09]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: my-old-comp-books
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract The books from my childhood
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening The Cure - Songs of a Lost World
:END:
Recently, I've been to my family home and there, behind other books, were them:
my old computer books.
I read them on repeat when I was a little kid, just learning about =nc= and how to break my machine via =autoexec.bat=.

#+attr_shortcode: :file sam-na-sam-z-jezykiem-c.jpg
#+attr_shortcode: :alt an two color book. Most of it's white, with some black accents.
#+attr_shortcode: :class centered
#+begin_image
Jan Bielicki's "Alone with the C language".
This one's actually belonged to my mother.
#+end_image

#+attr_shortcode: :file z-dosem-w-domu.jpg
#+attr_shortcode: :alt Cover of an horizontal book. A big title in red occupies most of it. A clipart-style house is on the left.
#+attr_shortcode: :class centered
#+begin_image
Paul McFedries' "At home with MS-DOS"
#+end_image

#+attr_shortcode: :file norton-commander-wiecznie-mlody.jpg
#+attr_shortcode: :alt a yellow book cover. An old CRT sceen with Norton Commander can be seen on it
#+attr_shortcode: :class centered
#+begin_image
Piotr Kustra's "Norton Commander 4.0: Forever young"
#+end_image

None of them are advanced, as they were to introduce me /into/ computers.
My mother was the only adult person with any computer literacy around me, if we don't count my "Informatics" teacher.
They sure did their job pretty well if you ask me.

The first one was too advanced for little me, but the other two were very welcoming.
Authors aimed at Poles in the 90s, who lived in post-USSR country, and were finally able to experience freedom.
One of it's aspect were the first PC computers which, though crazy expensive, started to be present in most homes.

That's one the reasons I've never seen a Macintosh.
Most of us had either, a PC or Commodore.
Lucky ones had Amigas.
And with them, a new wave of computer related press and books flooded the market.

/Member when your knowledge didn't become outdated even before you finished learning anything?/

** DONE Joshua Stein's website
CLOSED: [2024-11-13 Wed 22:10]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: jcs-org
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract A great website
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening The Cure - Songs of a Lost World
:END:

Recently, I've re-stumbled upon [[https://jcs.org][Joshua Stein's website]] and I simply had to share it.

Joshua's hobbies include:
- running OpenBSD on everything (which is very cool)
- writing software for classic Macintoshes (which is extremely cool).
  
I've never used an old Macintosh, as the first Mac I was able to afford was a 2013 MacBook Air (currently in use by my mother).
But even not having those pink-stained glasses, I marveled at his programs & vlogs.

Vlogs, yes.
And they come with a great twist - not being hosted on Google Youtube.
Well, you see, Joshua (like me) host his entire website from his house (which is absolutely cool).

Don't miss his other [[https://jcs.org/projects][other projects]], as as lot of them is - at the very least - interesting.

#+attr_shortcode: :file joshua-stein.png
#+attr_shortcode: :alt a webpage with an image covering most of the screen. On it an email compose window from Macintosh is presented. On top-right, a white male is shown.
#+attr_shortcode: :class centered
#+begin_image
noop
#+end_image

** DONE Digipacks
CLOSED: [2024-11-13 Wed 21:15]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: digipacks
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract My gripe with "premium" CD packaging
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening The Cure - Songs of a Lost World
:END:

With the resurgence of CDs, something had to break.
We could not simply get a *great* format, they had to break it.
My guess it went like this:

#+begin_quote
You know what people loved about vinyl?
Paper sleeves.
Let's put them everywhere

-- some random CEO
#+end_quote

And so we got the digipack.
They are not new, we had them back in the day.
But now they are /in/.
New CD releases seems to abandon that old, boring jewel-case in favor of paper.
But even that was not enough!
Yes, they may shred any minute but wait.
What if, and this is very important, the would damagey the disc?
Brilliant!

Case in point, a /good/ digipack (as much as a digipack can be good):

#+attr_shortcode: :file jazz-sabbath.jpg
#+attr_shortcode: :alt Orange paper case for CD. The CD is locked in a plastic container.
#+attr_shortcode: :class Centered
#+begin_image
Jazz Sabath - Vol I
#+end_image

CD cases were designed to protect the disc.
And the one containing /Jazz Sabbath/ does this.
We've got a plastic inlay making sure the disc:
- can be removed easily, without touching the bottom
- never touches the case with their backs, even if rotated like crazy.

But here have we have a terrible one:

#+attr_shortcode: :file the-cure-songs-odw.jpg
#+attr_shortcode: :alt A blurry image of a long, paper envelope on cds. The discs are hidden inside the envelope.
#+attr_shortcode: :class Centered
#+begin_image
The Cure - Songs of a Lost World
(yes, it is blurry. I have noticed)
#+end_image


You will notice, that the disc needs to be picked with two fingers even after pushing it to eject from the envelope.
Not only is any dust in the envelope scratching the disc, right after it escapes the (much to narrow) case, it needs to be cleaned as there is no way not to grease its bottom.
And the bottom is what is important!
That's where the laser goes lalalala!
That's also where the finger grease and sand scratches will go.

Argh.

** DONE Back to Evil Mode
CLOSED: [2024-11-04 Mon 20:53]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: back-to-evil
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract My emacs is cosplaying as Ed again
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening Thelonious Monk - Brilliant Corners
:END:

It's been half a year on [[http://xahlee.info/emacs/misc/xah-fly-keys.html][Xah's Fly Keys]] and it's a wonderful bindings system.
A lot of the ideas there are amazing: shortcuts for inserting all the brackets, great case change, bookmark support, to name just a few.
It was also very /comfy/ to use with =jkli= instead of =hjkl=.

#+attr_shortcode: :file evilmode.png
#+attr_shortcode: :alt Black and white logo "evil"
#+attr_shortcode: :class pull-right
#+attr_shortcode: :forced_width 150
#+begin_image
noop
#+end_image
But now I'm back at Evil.
First of all, I am (once again) watching old Luke Smith's videos and became very nostalgic for the keys I've spent years learning.
Secondly, I got what I wanted out  of Fly Keys - Emacs mindset.
It kinda like BSD - for the untrained eye it's Linux, but the differences go deep.

The biggest problem with FK however is that I needed to adjust every freaking thing to it, as I am not smart enough to use two similar key bindings at the same time.
Ed is everywhere - terminal, browser, remote connection and so on.
I was fighting with my muscle memory all the time, while =hjkl= were just /there/.
At the same time, Fly Keys are open-sourced Xah's workflow.
It's not a general use case, and I didn't use most od the provided functionality.
But those which I used, I /loved/.
Guess I'll need to port them to my new Evil setup.

Currently, my brain is readjsuting and I can barely control the cursor :-)
I sure missed some of Vim quality of life improvements, like =:sort= or the amazing macro system.
 
** DONE MacOS X 2001-2024
CLOSED: [2024-11-03 Sun 09:42]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: end-of-osx
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract Apple makes OS X even more closed with another step towards blocking free application.
:END:

#+begin_quote
 Apple is eliminating the option to Control-click to open Mac software that is not correctly signed or notarized in macOS Sequoia. To install apps that Gatekeeper blocks, users will need to open up System Settings and go to the Privacy and Security section to "review security information" before being able to run the software.

 -- [[https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-sequoia-makes-it-harder-to-override-gatekeeper-security.2433066/][MacRumors]]
#+end_quote

At this point, effectively you can not develop for MacOS without paying Apple.

** DONE AI radio was straight out of a nightmare
CLOSED: [2024-10-31 Thu 22:09]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: was-ai-radio
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract OFF Radio is no longer AI Radio
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening "[podcast] 2.5 Admins 219: Spooky Stories"
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening_Url https://2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-219/
:END:

We, at Crys Jurnal are happy to report... no, I'm not doing such scary Halloween.

A few days ago, I wrote [[file:/blog/2024/ai-radio/][about AI radio]].
Well, we can now talk about it in past tense as they gave up.
The response was so negative, that they are no longer doing it.
This is the happy part.

But they are not the only ones doing such "experiments".
LLMs may have proven themselves to be unreliable doing anything, but this won't stop evil people from using it everywhere.
We can only oppose.

In a completely unrelated story...

Recently, at my day job I was tasked with converting some Scala code to Ruby.
I tried to do it manually, to actually understand what the hell am I committing.
But at two occasions, I gave up and asked Chat GPT to rewrite a method 1:1.
It did it poorly, but after some back and forth accompanied by cursing, it worked.
I've been told, that even for Scala devs the code was convoluted.
But at a result, the Ruby code was convoluted.
It looked like they hired a Java guy to write Ruby.
It works, technically it's correct... but it's not Ruby.
Therefore, I added a comment

#+begin_quote
Warning. This method was converted from Scala code by LLM
#+end_quote

I may have played with the devil, but this allowed me to feel better about it.
I even had to explain myself during patch review.
One thing I didn't do, was to normalize its usage.
But, in the end, I noticed that it didn't saved me any time.
I still needed to refactor it, understand what the original code did, and test it.
All it did was adding uncertainty.

So, in my book, one of things LLMs can't do reliably is helping in coding.
This was the first time I've tried to use Altman to help me in work, and it was a failure.
Just like AI Radio.
This is the sad part.

** DONE Upcoming books by Michael Lucas
CLOSED: [2024-10-30 Wed 22:21]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: upcoming-mwl
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract Two new tech books from our favorite writer
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening Thelonious Monk - Brilliant Corners
:END:

Our favorite footnote writer is currently preparing two technical books, which you can pre-order:
- /Dead Abyss: TheFreeBSD Journal Letters/ on [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/dear-abyss-the-freebsd-journal-letters-column-years-1-6][Kickstarter]],
- /Networking for Systems Administrators, 2nd Edition/ on [[https://www.tiltedwindmillpress.com/product/n4sa2e-sponsor/][his Tilted Windmill Press store.]]

I pre-ordered the second one some time ago, even though I still haven't got around to reading the first edition.
I got it as a bonus for backing [[https://www.tiltedwindmillpress.com/product/ryoms-ebook/][Run Your Own Mail Server]], which I also haven't started yet.
I have to write less here and read more /there/.

Have I mentioned that Michael is one the reasons BSD is so amazing?
[[/bsd/why-bsd/#community-and-culture][Oh, I have]].
Good.

** DONE Cool things I didn't knew: multiple Git repositories in a single directory
CLOSED: [2024-10-29 Tue 22:51]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: multiple-git-repos-single-dir
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract How to combine files from multiple repositories in one directory?
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
:END:

I am trying to find a nice way to add sync to my org.
I can't use any syncthing nor dropbox on my work computer, but I won't ever put google drive on my personal one.
When asked on Mastodon, people proposed me to use git.

I'm sure you know that =git worktree= allows you to have multiple branches available at the same time.
But, did you knew that the =.git= folder, although standard, is not mandated?
In fact, all your git data can live anywhere.

First, you need a standard =.git= folder, so let's

#+begin_src shell
git init
mv .git .git-one
#+end_src

Now, if you =git status=, there won't be no git repository found.
But we can force git to use our new dir

#+begin_src shell
git --git-dir=.git-one status
#+end_src

This tricks allows us to have any number of git repositories co-exist in the same directory.
Those can share files (just =git add= them), or be completely different.

So, want to have a =work_org= and =private_org= side by side?
No problem!

Each repository has it own:
- origin
- staging area
- history

and so on.

Pretty cool, I might add.

** DONE RE: Michał Sapka’s new home
CLOSED: [2024-10-29 Tue 21:13]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: re-michal-sapkas-new-home
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract Reply to Ruben's post
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening Metallica - Garage, Inc.
:END:

If you read this site regularly, you may have noticed that I mention Rubenerd from time to time.
Actually, I do it all the time.

But this time, Ruben made me a bday surprise and [[https://rubenerd.com/michal-sapkas-new-home/][wrote about me]].
This post is a small reply.

Yes, I am merging all my sites into one, once again.
While it was cool to have 6 pages, the real question was: do I want multiple mediocre ones, or one ok-ish?
Looking at this from this point, reunification makes sense.

I changed the domains because I moved the site to my homelab and having DDNS on my mail domain seemed scary.
Most likely nothing bad would happen, but better safe then sorry.
Plus, "Crys Site" is a wordplay and no one has yet guessed it.

The merging project is still in progress, as I am fixing some outstanding bugs.
I love toying with this site, even if no one cares ;-)

Ruben, you are a wonderful human being and the creator of my favorite blog out there.

** DONE Bezos's fortune is too big to care about you
CLOSED: [2024-10-26 Sat 21:17]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: bezos-washington-post
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract Washington Post was a small purchase
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening Moonspell - Irreligious
:END:

Tech billionaire is being evil again.
This time [[https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/25/24279602/jeff-bezos-washington-post-kamala-harris-endorsement][Jeff Bezos kills Washington Post's endorsement for one of the US presidential candidates.]]
It doesn't matter which one, but people are canceling their subscriptions.
But, let's face it.
He is too rich to care.

Bezoss bought Washington Post [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/washington-post-to-be-sold-to-jeff-bezos/2013/08/05/ca537c9e-fe0c-11e2-9711-3708310f6f4d_story.html][a decade ago]] for 250000000 USD (25 million).
This seems a lot but almost the entire human race, but not for him.

At the moment of buying the gazette, his net worth was 25000000   (25,2 billion).
It was less than 1% of his net worth.

If you bought the entire Austen Powers collection on Amazon, it would cost you 13,7USD (I lie here, as this is today price).
For you to care as much as Bezos about buying Washington Post, you would need to have just shy of 1370USD.
In 2013.

But in 2024, his net worth grew to 211000000000 (211 billion).
Are you 10x richer than 10 years ago?
But then, if you bought that BluRay 10 years ago for that 13,7USD, you would now  have 13700SD.
Would you even care about that BluRay?
I'm guessing you have already given it /for free/ to someone.

So, if Washington Post died today, he would not notice.
But what are some other things he owns some stake in, that you can stop using?
#+attr_shortcode: :file dr-evil.jpg
#+attr_shortcode: :alt Headshot of a bold, white man with a scar. This is a character Dr Evil from Austen Powers series of movies
#+attr_shortcode: :class pull-right
#+attr_shortcode: :forced_width 250
#+begin_image
Jeff Bezos, circa 2025
#+end_image

- Amazon
- Whole Foods
- Zappos
- Twitch
- MGM
- Audible
- IMDB
- Ring
- Eero
- Goodreads
- ComiXology
- Cloud9 IDE
- Antropic
- Blue Origin
- Book Depisitory
- Airbnb
- Workday

** DONE Moving pages in Hugo
CLOSED: [2024-10-26 Sat 00:29]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: moving-pages-in-hugo
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract How to move pages without annoying everyone
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening Moonspell - Alma Matter
:END:

Moving =.html= files around is great fun, but can annoy visitors.
Linkrot is a nightmare, and =Hugo= has terrible idea on what an =guid= of a page is.

First, =RSS=.
By default, Hugo uses the =permalink= as =id= of each item.
So, when we move a file, the id changes, and RSS readers will treat it a new file.
To fix this, we need to have our own rss layout.
Grab the original one from [[https://github.com/gohugoio/hugo/blob/master/tpl/tplimpl/embedded/templates/_default/rss.xml][Microsoft GitHub]] and create a new layout file =rss.xml=.
Then, adjust =channel.item.guid= (line 54 as of this moment) and put something unique there.
I use Publishing date:

#+begin_src xml
<guid>{{ crypto.MD5 .Date }}</guid>
#+end_src

Now, moving pages will be invisible to RSS readers.
But then we've got the old links.
What we want is to have automatic redirects to new locations.
Hugo has it built in as [[https://gohugo.io/methods/page/aliases/][aliases]].
You can add =aliases= key in front matter of any page.
Hugo will create an .html file with redirect in place of each alias you define

#+begin_src md
...
aliases = ["/contact/", "/me/contact/", "/blog/contact/"]
...
#+end_src

Note, that aliases work only for =single= pages.
If you want an =list= to redirect to a new location, you need to use something external, like nginx redirects.

** DONE Docker free since 2024
CLOSED: [2024-10-25 Fri 23:24]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: docker-free
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract I have stopped the last personal Docker container
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening Moonspell - Alma Matter
:END:


#+attr_shortcode: :file fallout-whale.webp 
#+attr_shortcode: :alt Screenshot from an isometric computerr game. Shirtless guy stands next to whale's remainses.
#+attr_shortcode: :class pull-right
#+attr_shortcode: :forced_width 250
#+begin_image
noop
#+end_image

I, for one, am tired of modern complexity.
I much prefer /older/ complexity akin to to Emacs.
But I also love simplicity.

For years my home-lab was rocking a few Docker containers running on Synology.
Mostly due to no simple alternative (thanks Synology!), but still.
However now I'm moving to FreeBSD based home-lab, and everything which was running on Docker is supposed to run in jails.
Much, much [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PivpCKEiQOQ][simplier]] and this way I run what I want, not what Linuxserver has prepared.

As of today, my entire infrastructure is migrated.
I no longer need to care about Docker dancing for VC's moneys - at least personally; at work I am still forced to use it... and a Mac.
Some services will follow soon (like [[https://jellyfin.org/][Jellyfin]]), as I want them to behave differently but today I have stopped the last Docker container.

Docker /used to be/ great.
What was once open, is now a company focuses on enshittification.
They won't be missed.

** DONE AI radio is straight out of a nightmare
CLOSED: [2024-10-22 Tue 17:58]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: ai-radio
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract A radio replaced speakers with GenAI
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening GenAI bullshit
:END:

So, [[https://off.radiokrakow.pl/][OFF Radio]] fired all their contractors and replaced them with AI.
It went smooth as butter.

I tuned in just to check how it's going and, oh boy, if it isn't the stuff of nightmares.
AI Emilia is interviewing Wisława Szymborska.
What shocked me first, was that the AI persona is perfectly mimicking human tone - pauses, tones, sometimes mispronounces and corrects itself.
If I didn't knew, I would not know from the audio alone.

But that's not the biggest problem.
Szymborska died 12 years ago.
She *was* a word-renowned poet awarded with a Nobel prize.
How shameless OFF Radio needs to be?

One of the questions the AI was asking was "which polish books deserve Nobel prizes".
AI Szymborska proposed Olga Tokarczuk's /Empuzjon/ which was released just 2 years ago:

#+begin_quote
...In my humble opinion, /Empozjum/ is a masterpiece...
#+end_quote


It also stated that /this year's/ Nobel award was well earned:

#+begin_quote
...I know her prose and I like the way she writes about...
#+end_quote

Does it count as "bullshitting" or is it still within normal operation of the model?

Also, interviews with Szymborska were made a long time ago.
Therefore, the audio quality of the training materials was not perfect.
As a result, fake-Szymbroska voice was accompanied by constant hiss.

I am simply sad.
Not even angry, as I hope this "experiment" will stop extremely soon, but milking Szymborska is disgusting.
OFF radio is part of the Polish, national radio, what adds injury to the insult.

There was a warning that this program was created with help of AI and I tuned in halfway through, so there may have been better warnings because "help" is not what I got.
I have no reason to listen to OFF Radio ever again and the social media is furious.

As a cherry on top: the AI personas have descriptions under "Off Peple" link.
[[https://off.radiokrakow.pl/off-ludzie/alex][One]] of those is supposed to be an social activist working for human rights. 
Fits nicely with "hey, let's fire 12 people".

But the bigger question is: how fast will *all* of human knowledge be polluted and intertwined with such records enough, to become useless?
How fast will people start thinking that Szymborska had a chance to read /Empozjum/?

(you can read the entire "interview" [[https://off.radiokrakow.pl/newsy/wislawa-szymborska-o-literackiej-nagrodzie-nobla-2024-i-literaturze-koreanskiej][online)]].

** DONE RFC1885 and "speaks for themselves"
CLOSED: [2024-10-21 Mon 23:03]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: speaks-for-themselves
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract my views represent the view of every Pole out there
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening Pink Floyd - Momentary Lapse of Reason
:END:

Another cool tidbit from the RFC which was lost in the great war of Twitter:

#+begin_quote
    Assume that individuals speak for themselves, and what they
      say does not represent their organization (unless stated
      explicitly).

         -- [[https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt][rfc1855]]
#+end_quote

I never understood those "my views do not represent my employer" marks, as they are as obvious as the color of aliens (gray, of course).
Yet people state it as having any opinion on the web is dangerous.
And I mean any, as someone may always it questionable.
And loosing job, means of living over a stupid joke is terrible.
We could have just left it where it was, but no.

FLAME ON

Personally, I hate putting people in boxes.
I like some of what Drew DeVault does, but I do not support everything he stands for.
I follow Lunduke's reports, but I don't approve of everything he says.
I like Luke Smith's tutorials, but I also like roads.
I am a member of FSF, but I do not approve of a lot of what Stallman promotes.
None of this has ever stopped me from following trans people or self proclaimed communists.

I try to not create a too narrow bubble where everyone is saying the same thing.
From one side, this gives me a chance to be less of a moron.
On the other, even if I hate what someone believes, I may enjoy what they say and do on (at least) some occasion.
People are much more complex than any ideology, and this is what makes them interesting.

Of course, I also draw a line of what I will accept.
But the harshest thing I'll do is to [[/blog/2024/flame-on-web/][stop listening]].
I'll try not to argue because it's better to let people believe I am dumb, than to talk and remove any doubt.
I will certainly not try [[/blog/2024/bsd-cafe/][ruin someone's life]] because I disagree with some views.

I wonder if this has anything to do with me growing in the 90s, the era of "diffent but equal"?

FLAME OFF

** DONE FLAME ON: web
CLOSED: [2024-10-19 Sat 23:38]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: flame-on-web
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract Web sure was innocent
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
:END:

Speaking of the [[https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt][RFC1855]] I've mentioned [[/blog/2024/email-again/][yesterday]], the idea of "flame" is a bit lost on us.
Let me give you a few short snippets from that guide:

1:
#+begin_quote
A good rule of thumb:  Be conservative in what you send and
      liberal in what you receive.  You should not send heated messages
      (we call these "flames") even if you are provoked.  On the other
      hand, you shouldn't be surprised if you get flamed and it's
      prudent not to respond to flames.
#+end_quote

2:
#+begin_quote
Wait overnight to send emotional responses to messages.  If you
      have really strong feelings about a subject, indicate it vi
      FLAME ON/OFF enclosures.  For example:
      FLAME ON:  This type of argument is not worth the bandwidth
                 it takes to send it.  It's illogical and poorly
                 reasoned.  The rest of the world agrees with me.
      FLAME OFF
#+end_quote

3:
#+begin_quote
Don't get involved in flame wars.  Neither post nor respond
      to incendiary material.
#+end_quote

Image if we, as the global village, followed those rules.
There would be no Twitter, not social media.
There would be much less news sites, as those feed on anger.
The web would great - it would the antithesis of our current social status-quo.

It seems that breaking the first rule one is expected.
There are subject and names in the Open Source community alone, that have a 90% chance of starting a small flame.
And this is a very small community!
There are touchy subjects all around!

Now, the only social media I partake is [[https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/@mms][mastodon]] which is full of nice people.
But even there I fell into trap of typing something stupid just to get some attention.

So, I for one, am starting to follow RFC1885 in my everyday life.
No more starting flames, or partaking in them.
But if still feel the urge, I will use the =FLAME ON=/=FLAME OFF= enclosures as those are so freaking cool.

btw - have you noticed the "wait over night" part?
It was expected to wait and think of response.
Magical times /man/, magical.



** DONE Email, again
CLOSED: [2024-10-18 Fri 23:28]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: email-again
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract Another part of me rambling on email
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
:END:

One of the things I am seeing up again is my email system.
I like calling it a system, but basically it's just [[/emacs/notmuch/][a very standard mbsync(1) + notmuch(1)]] combo.
But this puts me in the vanguard of email fantastic.
Nothing fancy, just basic stun *which works*.
I am therefore the only person who loves using email I know in meat-space.

And I think I know there reason why:

#+begin_quote

In the past, the population of people using the Internet had "grown
   up" with the Internet, were technically minded, and understood the
   nature of the transport and the protocols.  Today, the community of
   Internet users includes people who are new to the environment.  These
   "Newbies" are unfamiliar with the culture and don't need to know
   about transport and protocols. In order to bring these new users into
   the Internet culture quickly, this Guide offers a minimum set of
   behaviors which organizations and individuals may take and adapt for
   their own use.

   -- [[https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt][rfc1855]]
#+end_quote

The above is from RFC definite netiquette guidelines.
Yup, the thing we heard about since we were in our win-modem age was an official guideline.

It's from 1995 and yet we learn that people are new to the web and may not know how to use it.
Email is an old protocol, it was created for a much smaller internet, less hostile one.
It expects users to own their communication - to learn the tools, and the tribe culture.
Is very much like Usenet in that matter.
To use it properly, one should study it.

People don't study things anymore.
They expect instant feed of memes, not a long text.
There are people who love the long text (present company included, I assume), but we are not the norm.
An everyday, normal guy doesn't know that nothing comes close to scripting capabilities of email.
He doesn't care that it's one of the very few things one is capable of owning on the inter-webs.
For them email is that old thing where notifications and spam live.

Email is an elegant tool for more civilized times, and as that it requires our special attention.
It needs love, it needs usage.
No one else will give it, especially not people forced to use terrible clients, like Gmail or Outlook.


** DONE New Mastodon server
CLOSED: [2024-10-17 Thu 21:16]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: bsd-cafe
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract I had to change server
:END:


There's a lot of hostilty on the web.
It seems that it's worse than it's ever been.
The creator of emacs.ch Mastodon server, which I loved to be part of, was subjected to attacks and doxing.
He did what every sane person would do, and removed himself from the attack line; together with the server.
I will remember emacs.ch as a great place with wonderful people.
But soon, it will only a memory.

I now part of [[https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/@mms][bsd.cafe]], as my love to BSD only grows stronger.
It is also a great place with wonderful community.
I just hope my new admin, Stefano, won't be subjected to similiar treatment.

** DONE Broken system
CLOSED: [2024-10-16 Wed 22:28]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: broken-system
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract I am not a smart person
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening Steve Kirk -  Thimbleweed Park (Original Soundtrack) 
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening_url https://thimbleweedpark.bandcamp.com/album/thimbleweed-park-original-soundtrack
:END:


A very short update: last week I broke my computer. FreeBSD did its best, but my sheer stupidity wouldn't listen.

I updated my ZFS, which worked fine. It informed me info about potentially needing to update my bootloader, but what the hell. I'll have time for it later!

Later was when I forgot about that and rebooted my system. "ReBOOTING" is not the correct word, as it was not booting. FreeBSD was starting, but it could not find any bootable partition. They warned me, but I didn't listen.

After two evenings of trying to fix it (I still think it's possible), I gave up. I downloaded GhostBSD, mounted my ZFS datasets (the problem was not with them, but with booting up), created a small tar backup which I moved to my NAS. Then, making sure I had the backup, I reinstalled the system as fresh.

About that backup, well. For one, I had stuff I didn't want to lose, but I had yet to add any external storage, like git server. Not a smart move on my side. Good thing, that ZFS is designed to be moron-resilient. The other part is that my tar command didn't include dotfiles, and I never bothered to back those as well. My GNUS state is lost, never to be recovered ever again.

But the upside here is that I am much more experienced local-admin than I was when I first moved to FreeBSD. Setup when smooth like butter. Real butter.

I used this occasion to move this site to my server & create the next iteration. I'm still evolving, but backwards. What you are seeing here is, of course, a work in progress.

** DONE Yey USA!
CLOSED: [2024-10-16 Wed 00:10]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: usa-big-tech
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract USA doing something... right?
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening MC Frontalot - Nerdcore Rising
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening_url https://frontalot.com/
:END:

We can (and should) blame the modern USA for a lot of what is bad about the web today.
But we also need to praise it, so it knows it did good and maybe, just maybe, it will do it again.

Firstly, the Google's Antitrust Case is going into very interesting areas.
Not only was the scolding pretty hard, but now we have very rational remediation items: split Google into manageable parts.
I, for one, would love to see it happen.
As things are now, nothing can stand in its way.
Google may break everything, and they would still be the standard.
Have I said "may"?
I meant "has"!
The examples are numerous - [[https://mashable.com/article/google-search-low-quality-research][1]], [[https://killedbygoogle.com/][2]], [[https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/15/24270981/google-chrome-ublock-origin-phaseout-manifest-v3-ad-blocker][3]], [[https://superuser.com/questions/1773208/how-can-i-block-the-sign-in-with-google-prompt-on-websites][4]], [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/10/08/google-meta-omaha-data-centers/][5]], [[https://www.2600.com/content/hope-needs-your-help-update][6]], among others.
They are the de-facto keepers of the web, and all of it because they can fuel their machine with ad revenue.
[[https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/10/googles-ai-deals-could-hurt-its-search-monopoly-appeal-expert-says/][It may no longer be the case.]]
Fingers fully crossed!

Second: [[https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/09/sony-ubisoft-scandals-prompt-calif-ban-on-deceptive-sales-of-digital-goods/][California bans using the word "buy" when there was no actual purchase.]]
I wrote about my position on what it means to "own" something in the digital year [[/blog/2023/digital-ownership/][last year]], so yeah.
Lawmakers have my full support.
[[https://www.tomsguide.com/gaming/pc-gaming/steam-now-confirms-youre-buying-a-license-not-a-game-heres-why-that-sucks][Steam has already updated their buttons]], so now we can all avoid it.

The EU is gripping pretty hard, USA is joining the fun as well.
Maybe good times will come again?

** DONE Modern gaming on FreeBSD, first attempt
CLOSED: [2024-10-03 Thu 21:04]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: gaming-on-freebsd
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract A pre-note of some sort?
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening Steve Kirk -  Thimbleweed Park (Original Soundtrack) 
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening_url https://thimbleweedpark.bandcamp.com/album/thimbleweed-park-original-soundtrack
:END:

A little update before a bigger update, sometime in the near future, on my [[https://bsd.crys.site][Guide to BSD]].
I am not a gamer, and I have no idea what is going on in Redmond land.
But I *want* to run a few new games, like Baldur 3, Myst remake, or Return to Monkey Island.
What I don't want is to dual-boot.
Ergo, what I want is a working =wine(1)= gaming setup.

What I've learned today: my laptop is a bit on the older site (Nvidia GTX1060 Mobile), but it should support Vulcan... whatever that Vulcan thingy is.
However, =winetricks(1)= are unable to install it.
But I can easily install direct3d:

#+begin_src shell
pkg install winetricks
winetricks d3dx9 d3dcompiler_42 d3dcompiler_43 d3dcompiler_47
#+end_src

And games suddenly start to work!
What a time to be alive, even though it appears that I am limited to DirectX9.
Well, I stopped being in the loop around when DX6 was introduced.
/RTMI/ is a DX12-only game, so I'll have to find a way.

For now, [[https://www.gog.com/pl/game/delores_a_thimbleweed_park_miniadventure][Delores]], here I come!

** DONE Thomas the Transformer
CLOSED: [2024-10-02 Wed 11:19]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: thomas-the-transfomer
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract Best toy ever or best toy ever?
:END:


Somehow, bootlegs are spectacular.
Nothing stops the creativity of those /crazy Chinese/.
They stop at nothing and nothing is sacred, as it appears.

Our local /Kiosk/ specializes in Chinese imports and trademark infringement.
Often it's a miss, but when he hits, he hits.
May I present to you, /Thomas the Transformer/.

#+attr_shortcode: :file thomas-transformer.jpg 
#+attr_shortcode: :alt A plastic robot consisitig of three Thomas the Tank Engine trains
#+attr_shortcode: :class centered
#+begin_image
Thomas the Transformer
#+end_image

There's even a [[https://www.wired.com/2009/08/thomas-the-transformer-steam-powered-railway-robots-in-disguise/][wired.com]] piece on this beast

#+begin_quote
Unlicensed, undefeatable, and undoubtedly awesome.
Toot-toot is his death cry, and he will crush you as he screams his sweet revenge, all in the voice of Ringo Starr.
#+end_quote

My kid knows what he is filling his piggy bank (45PLN, so 11,6USD) for, and I can't wait to play with it.

** DONE Notes on Star Trek
CLOSED: [2024-10-01 Tue 20:39]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: notes-on-star-trek
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract Star Trek now on crys!
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening Jazz Sabbath - Jazz Sabbath
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening_url https://jazzsabbath.bandcamp.com/album/jazz-sabbath
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening_img Steve-Kirk-Thimbleweed-Park.Jpg
:END:

And another one bites the... well, nope.
My Star Trek site is became a [[https://startrek.crys.site/voy/index.html][site with notes on Star Trek]].
It's amazing what you can do with HTML and CSS alone.
A single evening and a complete, nice looking site is born.
Having simplicity as a goal didn't make it any harder, but it made it much more fun!
Just to think, that the initial version of my blog was a NextJS monstrosity.

This leaves me with this blog alone left to migrate.

** DONE My server is now a virtual machine
CLOSED: [2024-09-26 Thu 21:29]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: Crys-Vm
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract Memoir From A Forced Migation
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening Steve Kirk -  Thimbleweed Park (Original Soundtrack) 
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening_url https://Thimbleweedpark.Bandcamp.Com/Album/Thimbleweed-Park-Original-Soundtrack
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening_img Steve-Kirk-Thimbleweed-Park.Jpg
:END:

The unthinkable has happened - and by that, I mean it was a matter of time, but I wasn't expecting a week.
The SD card used in Raspberry Pi behind [[https://crys.site][crys.site]] got corrupted beyond fixing.
I tried, tried (I gave it good 30 mins) and failed.
Super block was borked, fixing the filesystem was impossible.

But I will not let go of my FreeBSD server!
/Beastie or Bust!/.
I have this quite modern Synology, so why not use it?
The UI is not for me, but I can set up a virtual machine there and boom - everything will be all right with the world.
On the host FreeBSD all I had to do was:
- enable sshd(8)
- install doas(1)

And add a bridge to the network, which will be used by the jails:

#+begin_src shell
# /etc/rc.conf

cloned_interfaces="bridge0"
ifconfig_bridge0="addm em0 up"
kld_list="if_bridge if_epair"
#+end_src

The SD card used UFS (default image for FreeBSD on Raspberry), so I lost it.
But all my data, the sites and jails were stored on external thumb drive in a ZFS pool.
This made the transition incredibly fast.
First, I had to create a recursive (=-r=) snapshot of the root dataset.
I found naming it =fun= funny.

#+begin_src shell
zfs snapsot -r extdata@fin 
#+end_src

And I was able to transfer all descendant datasets to to the new machine

#+begin_src shell
zfs send -R extdata/jail@fin | ssh 10.0.7.0 zfs recv zroot/jail
#+end_src

Oh ZFS, we don't deserve you.

Then I recreated my jail.conf[fn:jsrc] with DHCP VNET:

#+begin_src shell
# STARTUP/LOGGING
exec.clean;
exec.start = "/bin/sh /etc/rc";
exec.stop = "/bin/sh /etc/rc.shutdown";
exec.consolelog = "/var/log/jail_console_${name}.log";

# PERMISSIONS
allow.raw_sockets;
exec.clean;
mount.devfs;
devfs_ruleset = 5;
vnet;
allow.raw_sockets = 1;

host.hostname = "${name}.dune.local";
path = "/usr/local/jails/containers/${name}";
$epair = "epair${id}";
$bridge = "bridge0";
vnet.interface = "${epair}b";

exec.start += "dhclient ${epair}b";
exec.prestart  = "/sbin/ifconfig ${epair} create up";
exec.prestart += "/sbin/ifconfig ${epair}a up descr jail:${name}";
exec.prestart += "/sbin/ifconfig ${bridge} addm ${epair}a up";

exec.poststop = "/sbin/ifconfig ${bridge} deletem ${epair}a";
exec.poststop += "/sbin/ifconfig ${epair}a destroy";

nginx {
  $id=1;
}

sites {
  $id=10;
}

#+end_src

and... nothing.
Nada.
The jails won't start.

Raspberry Pi is ARM, my VM is x86.
I had to create new jails - which is a breeze thanks to, again, ZFS.
Since jails are normal directories, I was able to simply copy configs to new jails.
In all, this forced migration took 2 hours.
And that includes downloading data.

Emacs made it very easy, since I can use =tramp= with =doas= to edit remote files as root:

#+begin_src shell
/sshx:mms@10.0.7.0|doas::
#+end_src

The last missing puzzle was strange change from RPI, as jail's Mac addresses started changing after each start.
Luckily, BSD is a community so [[https://bsd.network/@meka][meka]] provided me with config to force Mac address for jail, and I've added:

#+begin_src shell
exec.prestart += "/sbin/ifconfig ${epair}b ether ${mac}";
#+end_src

Truly, FreeBSD is a gift that keeps on giving.

[fn:jsrc] This config is a combination of what [[https://rubenerd.com/starting-with-freebsd-jails/][Ruben]], [[https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/jails/][FreeBSD Guides]], and [[https://wiki.freebsd.org/Jails][FreeBSD Wiki]] has thought me.
I'll need to step up and buy [[https://mwl.io/nonfiction/os#fmjail][Jail Mastery]] book from MWL sometime in the near future.

** DONE Gatekeeping in tech
CLOSED: [2024-09-25 Wed 17:33]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: gatekeeping-in-tech
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract Hidden complexity is the real gatekeer
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :listening Tomasz Stanko Quintet - Dark Eyes
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :listening_url https://ecmrecords.com/product/dark-eyes-tomasz-stanko-quintet/
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :listening_img stanko-dark-eyes.webp
:END:

A few months ago I've read that promoting usage of basic tools, like Vim, is gatekeeping.
The reasoning behind this made sense - those tools are complex, require time and dedication, and therefore may lock people out.
But I can't stop thinking about this idea because I deeply disagree with it.

Vim is complex, sure.
Terminal is complex, of course.
I won't even go into Emacs, as it's complexity within complexity and should be considered a field of its own.
But is gatekeeping?
Are people like me just up our smug butts, thinking how almighty we are and how we hate the /pleb/?
Some of us, sure, as using aforementioned Vim is a badge of honour.
Yet, I don't think it's gatekeeping.

Firstly, why do we promote those "difficult" tools?
Because computers are complex machines.
It was true at any point of computing history.
Initially, all tools were complex, abstractions were unachievable due to technical limitations.
So yes, /starting/ was much more difficult than it is now.

But you learn.
Some may say: you pay the high cost of entry, but is it cost?
You've learned things.
With each problem you've fixed, you gained knowledge.
And this knowledge was transplantable!
Learned how the system hierarchy works?
Great, now you can use it everywhere!
Next time you encounter this problem, it will be much easier.

This allowed for /bedroom coders/, kids who were able to master the computer.
Not everyone was as smart as Carmack, but we were still able to operate the beige boxes.
The complexity was there, but it was for us to toy around with.

This has not changed one bit.
Computers became much more complex, but if you can use /basic/ tooling it means that the complexity is close, you can reach it.
Does it require time?
Sure.
Is it doable?
Sure!

Now, back to 2020s.
Vim is a thing of the past , you can write sentences of simple english and it may even work.
You don't need to use a terminal - everything has a web UI.
Perhaps you don't even need to learn anything, simply subscribe and have it ready for you within minutes.
Why try to run a bare-metal server, when you can get a ready machine using docker within minutes?
I think this is the idea behind "vim is gatekeeping".

But the complexity is *there*, like it always was.
The only difference is that it's hidden, unreachable.
You may be able to understand how ec2 works, but most likely you won't have time to it.
There are too many problems with the abstraction.

And even if there are none, someone is paying for making it "easy" to use.
It doesn't come from the goodness of the heart, there is expectation of "speed".
You can spin up a server with one little commit in terraform, so you will not spend time there.
You've learned how to use the abstraction (or an abstraction over abstraction), but it's not transplantable.
Your Datadog skills are useless unless someone will pay for Datadog.
You will never master anything, as it will be obsolete before that.
Remember when you could buy a book about Pascal and teach yourself some programming?
Just enough to have fun?
Good luck with this approach now - before even writing some code, you need to set up dozens of dependencies... or pretend they don't exist and dockerize it.

I often whine about money ruing computers, but computers were ruined by money.
Unix was envisioned as a communal system, where people would gather and toy around.
It was sold as a mean to make money, but it was not crated for that.

The current trend towards hiding complexity has only one winner - big tech.
It was never harder to /play/ with a computer than it now.
Everything is aimed at non-technical folks, simple.
It is near impossible for a teenager to get the bottom of the bag of complexity.
Big tech made sure to gate keep that.
Learning the basics is easy, /anyone can code/.
Digging deeper is near impossible.

Let's not forget that the same companies providing those "simple" tools are the ones which started because tinkering was so easy.
Hiding the inner workings of computers makes it difficult for anyone to remove from their trillion dollar piles.
You can work for them, not against them.

Guess that's why I found FreeBSD so great.
It's a complex system, but the complexity is known, documented and changing slowly.
I feel that I am able to get to understand it well by just using it[fn:fbsd].


[fn:fbsd] People often say that FreeBSD is like Linux 20 years ago.
Nothing works without a fight.
I agree - FreeBSD is like Linux 20 years ago, when you were capable of understanding things.
It's a system ready for a multi-million company fuelled by interns.
What it is, is a perfect hobby home system, which just happens to beat Linux at being a server OS.

** DONE Disenshittify or die!
CLOSED: [2024-09-24 Tue 20:30]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: desenshittify-or-die
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract Another classic from Cory Doctorow
:END:


It may seem that Cory Doctorow is giving the same talk over and over again, and most likely it the case.
But nothing changes, therefore it's up to us.
He can say it until something changes  and I'll listen to him over and over again.

#+attr_shortcode: "4EmstuO0Em8"
#+begin_yt
DEF CON 32 - Disenshittify or die! How hackers can seize the means of computation - Cory Doctorow
#+end_yt



** DONE A million Googles
CLOSED: [2024-09-24 Tue 20:13]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: a-million-googles
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract You can't outgoogle a Google
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :listening Kamasi Washington - Fearless Movement
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :listening_url https://kamasiwashington.bandcamp.com/album/fearless-movement
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :listening_img kamasi-washington-fearless.jpg
:END:

I have left the Google Search Engine a few months ago - first for Duck Duck Go, and now for Kagi[fn:louis].
The field is very potent now - we've dozens of different engines.
Sadly, they all follow the same formula which has been already perfected by Google.
You type what you are looking for, some magic happens, algorithms are algorithming, databases are databasing and boom.
You get results.
This is what Google was great at some 20 years ago, but sucks at now.

But why?
The simple answer seems to be "enshiftification".
They replaced their technical founders with some random seller of opium - be it ads, server space, or (more recently) GenAI.
And yes, Google got progressively worse in a relatively short time span.
Yet, no one comes close to Google in its prime time.

The web has changed.
All the principles that made Google great were discovered, analysed and weaponised against the search engine.
"SEO" is what make the web worse because your clients/users/whatever are not your visitors, but the Algorithm.
With each following round, Google's engineers would try to adjust to the status quo, but the SEO crowd would win again.
Sooner of later, the Search Algorithm would fail, and it would again be used against the poor bloke searching for the best printer out there.

It's not that Pichai came and decided to make the search useless.
His money-chasing decisions made it worse, but even without his interference, the results would get worse.
Google had the best engineers out there, and they were destined to fail.
What makes you think that *you* will win this battle?

I am in full support for new search engines.
There is nothing worse than a monopoly, even if that monopoly would be effective.
But I don't believe that simply trying to outgoogle a Google is the way to go.
We need a new paradigm.

Kagi proposed something new with manual boosting of websites and "lenses", but it's not enough to become amazing.
It's better, but not great.
It's still only trying to add a quad damage to an Algorithm.
The only reason that SEOholes are not winning against Kagi is that Kagi is invisible.
Too small for them to care.
The web they create is still enshittifieed, but it's done against Google.
Is this an accept table solution?
Well, they may have crapped the carpet, but not in my bedroom!

We *deserve* a better web.
We can even call it Web3 (as no one remembers that Web3 was to be about crypto), but it needs fresh ideas.
Simply walking the same old paths, just with a funny walk, is not enough.
And no, GenAi is not an answer, unless the question is the reason of our destruction.
Death to the omnipotent algorithm!

[fn:louis] Thanks, Louis!

** DONE We have failed computer journalism
CLOSED: [2024-09-23 Mon 22:45]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: internet-and-press
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract Grumpy mc grumps grumping
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :listening Milt Jackson & John Coltrane - Bags and Trane
:END:


As a kid, I loved reading computer related press.
Be it gaming titles (/Secret Service/, /Gambler/, /Gry Komputerowe/, or /Świat Gier Komputerowych/), or general computing ones (/PC World/ or /Chip/) it was a monthly feast.
Those have since either died or moved to the interwebs.
It was clear that they were doomed, as who would move to cyberspace faster than people, who were already living in the digital world?
The thing that was not clear, was that those which simply closed were the lucky ones.

#+attr_shortcode: :file ss-31.jpg
#+attr_shortcode: :alt Cover of a polish gaming magazine in red
#+attr_shortcode: :class pull-right
#+attr_shortcode: :forced_width 200
#+attr_shortcode: :source https://lubimyczytac.pl/ksiazka/141263/secret-service-32-luty-1996
#+begin_image
with anime!
#+end_image
There was this hidden difference.
The reader has different expectation when he spends his entire allowance for 100–200 pages of texts, compared to when simply opening a website.
We had long, insightful (and sometimes wrong) texts which took time, now we have crap but fast.
It's not the publisher's fault, there are not many people left who would read an approximation of a 5-page analysis of the latest printer offering from HP.
That's not how you make a business any more.
You make it by being /fast/.
And boy are we fast now.
Review within minutes of release are not uncommon.

But there is another part of this equation.
The business became dull.
Remember when there were /multiple/ GPU vendors?
Not producers of cards based on AMD and Nvidia, but an actual market of multiple players?
Remember when you could get excited by an amazing scanner/printer combo?
When you could have fun by just scanning your butt[fn:work]?
Yeah - it all got consolidated.
A desk full of cool peripherals you were too poor to get is now a boring slab of glass that happens to have a GSM modem attached.
There is no wonder, no sense of aspiration, as it's all the same.

Therefore, modern tech journalism has a huge uphill battle.
You've got boring stuff to cover, and you won't pay your salary by being insightful.
There are not many text-based sites I'd gladly pay for.

And vlogs are mostly a downgrade because they don't let the imagination go wild.
When you read a description of how it feels to play /Quake/ and had a few screenshots, your imagination went wild.
At least mine did.
When you get 10 minutes of gameplay a week before a game is out, you know it all.

It's much easier to be know-it-all today, a professional.
But that's also why everyone is so mean.
Too much information makes jack a grumpy boy.
It was not always like that.
A printer used to be cool!
Love was poured not only on the new and shiny, but on everything that was out there.

It's not that proper computer press went away, it's that it was too good for us.
We rejected it and replaced with bland portals and Canadian vloggers

[fn:work] without making your job.

** DONE Another two websites moved
CLOSED: [2024-09-20 Fri 20:05]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: emacs-bsd-moved
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract Third site moved to my flat
:END:

Technical update: [[https://emacs.crys.site][Cool Emacs]] is now moved to crys site; [[https://bsd.crys.site][my BSD site]] was also extracted and moved.
This leaves me with Star Trek and then the blog itself.

I'm becoming an internet mogul.

** DONE Brain Rots moved
CLOSED: [2024-09-14 Sat 22:33]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: br-moved
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract Third site moved to my flat
:END:

And another move - this time [[https://brainrot.crys.site/][Brain Rots]] are served locally.
This forced me to tidy it a bit, so there are extra pluses!

** DONE Unix History moved
CLOSED: [2024-09-13 Fri 23:03]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: uh-moved
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract Second site moved to my flat
:END:


Moving sites to my flat is a breeze, thanks to FreeBSD.
Splitting them into separate hugo sites is not.
But here we are, [[https://unixhist.crys.site/][Unix History]] is no on [[https://crys.site][Crys Site]].

btw, no one guessed the reference in cryssite name.

** DONE I most definetelly should (self-host)!
CLOSED: [2024-09-12 Thu 22:55]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: i-will-self-host-this-site
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract Time to self host
:END:
A few days ago, I asked myself if I should self-host my site.
The answer is a clear *yes*!

Firstly, say hello to my server's homepage under [[https://crys.site/][crys.site]] (bonus points if you get the reference).

I have repurposed an old Raspberry Pi 4b, which I had lyingrg- around.
There, I've installed FreeBSD 14.
Damn, I really love FreeBSD.
I fell much comfier there than on OpenBSD or any Linux I've ever tried.

Anyway, there are two jails there:
- the first, which works as reverse proxy.
  It has nginx(8), certbot(1) (for ssl) and DDClient (for keeping my IP up to date in the DNS).
  It proxies all requests to the second one
- the second has nginx(8) which serves statically build sites.

The jails and static data is not stored in SD card of the RPi, but on a thumb drive with ZFS.
The thumb drive is faster than my upload (which is 40 MB/sec).
It may wear out, but then I'll either connect and m2 drive via USB, or upgrade to an X86 thin client as the server machine.

I tried to do deployment using zfs-send(8) and zfs-receive(8).
The initial sync is great, but I can't send updates.
The way my jails are configured is that they don't access the ZFS mount points directly.
Instead, I mount them as /nullfs/ in =fstab=.
This means that zfs-receive(8) can't unmount the ZFS mount because it's busy from the fstab mount.
Hell.
Instead, for now, I returned to old, trusty rsync(1).

I have migrated [[https://uf.crys.site/][User Friendly Archive]] first, and the rest of the sites will follow.
They are *very* coupled together as under the hood, they are a singe Hugo site.
I will need to think of a nice way to make it work.

All this and all I got was a huge grim on my face.
Love it!

I had a lot of help on mastodon, especially from [[https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/@stefano][Stefano]].
Thank you!

/Btw, I write Emacs running on a FreeBSD system and I then send my writings to my self-hosted site/.

** DONE Should I self-host my site?
CLOSED: [2024-09-08 Sun 21:07]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: should-i-self-host-this-site
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract A genius idea?!
:END:

Up until recently, I was sure that my upload is limited to 20MB.
I was wrong - it's 40MB, and (if Ubiquity is to believed), it's /stable/ 40MB.
Way more than my low-traffic sites need.
If we don't count the bots, it's a few dozen people every day.

As I wrote [[/blog/2024/desktop-nas/][recently]], I am thinking about getting a dedicated compute server.
Playing with Synology is effective, but it's no fun at all.

But then another idea came: I have an unused Raspberry PI4.
Sometimes my genius scares me.
This little fella is /way/ more than a FreeBSD server serving just this site needs.

This would lead to separating my sites even more, like
- /unix-history/ becomes unixhist.<domain>
- /brain-rot/ becomes brainrot.<domain>

I have to say, that just thinking about it makes me smile.
What's sexier than an elf princess's swo... self-hosted site?
And dedicating RPi would delay purchasing a full-blown thin-client PC, which would be "I have all the power now" moment.

This raises a few concerns:
- I have a dynamic IP. I can use a dynamic DNS service, but maybe a relayd on my current OpenBSD Amsterdam can be used?
- Can I be doxed? I mean, you could simply WHOIS me, so most likely not a risk?
- With all the bots out there which can kill any server, would I be DDOSed all the time?
- How do I start every sentence with "btw, I host my website in my living room".
  It's already difficult enough to put Emacs and BSD there!

Hosting a website is infinitely less complex than doing it for E-mail, so it's as close to a cakewalk as it gets.
If you can help me with those questions, please do.

** DONE Retro games are PC games for me
CLOSED: [2024-09-06 Fri 21:38]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: retro-pc-games
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract Tomb Raider is a PC game
:END:

Like with everything recently, I tend not to be interested at all in new games and rely on so-called "retro" gaming (I'm almost 40. I wonder if that's related).
Not that I play them, but there are other ways to relive them.

However, once I went that rabbit hole, I found that my experience was much different than of many other folks.
I never owned a console.
I never owned an Amiga, or Commodore.
All I experienced were outdated PCs.
Now, I use a PSX4, but it doesn't count as I can't be nostalgic for something that happened 4 years ago.

This also means I have no memory of the PSX, SNES or the Game Boy.
When English speaking vloggers discuss games I remember as PC games, they refer to them as console games.
Gex? It was a PC game that came with Microsoft Sidewinder.
Resident Evil? PC, of course.
Mortal Kombat? A PC game!
Earthworm Jim? You guessed it - a PC game.
GTA? Just as PC as Microsoft Excel.
Tomb Raider? To no surprise - a PC game.

I won't even mention games, which were /designed/ for PC, other than Grim Fandango or Diablo.

Every time I hear someone refer to such titles as "PSX" or "Sega", I feel disjointed.
But we are both right in our memories!
Yes, there were exclusives and Nintendo is hateful towards other platforms as ever (Chrono Trigger? That's Snes9X game!).
But it most cases we played the same games, but the memory of that experienced differ.
I never sat in front of the TV to control Lara, I did on my desk in the lowest resolution out there.
This makes it hard for me to emphasize with [[https://joelchrono.xyz/blog/august-2024-summary/][Joel]].
He bought a retro emulator in a for of a handheld to relive games of his youth.
For me, a complete QWERTY keyboard would be needed.
Even if we played the same games, we did in a different way.


** DONE Fvwm - day 3 (window decoration)
CLOSED: [2024-09-04 Wed 22:16]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: fvwm-part-3
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract CDE babe!
:END:

Mission for today: window decoration.
In Xorg, the WM is responsible for drawing titlebars, borders and so on.
Those are the =decorations=.

By default, Fvwm comes with a modern, flat design.
A bit boring for my taste.

#+attr_shortcode: :file fvwm-wd-vanila.png
#+attr_shortcode: :alt Screenshot of St terminal editor
#+attr_shortcode: :class centered
#+begin_image
Default look
#+end_image

What I want is the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motif_%28software%29][Motif]] style.
It's as cool as it gets - my taste in design is evolving, just backwards.

Luckily, Fvwm has me covered here!
This [[https://www.fvwm.org/Wiki/Decor/CDE/][decor]] is ready to use.
It even comes with multiple colours to choose from.
All I had to do is to add the decor from documentation and replace colours.

For me, I've chosen the SkyRed colours.
This is an escape from the gray hell of Apple design.

I've also:
- made the title bar a bit taller.
  I've got 4k monitor, after all.
- move the title of the window to the left.

This resulted in this marvel:

#+attr_shortcode: :file fvwm-wd-cde.png
#+attr_shortcode: :alt Screenshot of St terminal editor
#+attr_shortcode: :class centered
#+begin_image
3D madness!
#+end_image

You can easily change all the sizes, colours - but I am happy with this.
I have also decided not to modify any buttons in the title bar - but it's also straightforward.

In 10 minutes (including finding out how) I've done what MacOS makes impossible.
Now I really don't want to return to that gray pit.

** DONE Multi OS life is terrible
CLOSED: [2024-09-04 Wed 10:53]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: multi-os-life
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract Remove Mac from my life with a buzzsaw if you can
:END:


I am very much invested in my personal computer.
It's still a laptop, but all the software there is chosen to give me as much control as I can.
My OS is FreeBSD, my browser is (still) Firefox, my editor (and the way of life is) Emacs, and now my windows manager is Fvwm.
All of those allow me to adjust them to my liking.

But this is not the computer I use the most.
For 8 hours a day, I am forced to macOS.
It's a system that used to be good, but each version is getting progressively worse.
But it also removes all power from now.
It should be the IT department I am fighting with, not Tim Cook!

I am able to reproduce *some* life necessities on Mac via external programs, like Yabai or skhd.
Unfortunately, that takes me only a few steps, and still I am forced to look at the blandest interface ever conceived.

But at the same time, this makes me appreciate non-corporate ridden software even more.
It can't get much worse than macOS, right?[fn:win]

[fn:win] The last Windows I've used extensively was XP.
My computers were always to slow for anything newer.

** DONE Fvwm - day 2 (keyboard control)
CLOSED: [2024-09-03 Tue 22:29]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: fvwm-part-2
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract Adjusting Fvwm to my basic instincts
:END:


I'm a day in Fvwm, and it's rock solid.
Time to adjust it to my needs
Let's start with keyboard control, as I prefer over using mouse.

We can open =~/.fvwm/config= and make changes.
The default one is /very/ nicely commented, so it's a pleasure to modify.
Then, all we need is to =restart= the wm and we're ready.

By default, you can use =C^F1= - =C^F2= to change active desktop.
The problem is that I don't have F-keys on my keyboard and I want to relegate all WM bindings to =super= key (aka "windows" key).
Ergo, I want =Super^1= to =Super^4=.

First of all, I don't want my =Super= to star terminal - all I needed to do was to comment out
#+begin_src shell
Silent Key Super_R A A Exec exec $[infostore.terminal]
#+end_src

I will reassign it later on.

The [[https://www.fvwm.org/Wiki/Config/Bindings/][bindings documentation]] inform us that the binding format is
#+begin_src shell
Key Name Context Modifier Command
#+end_src

So, what I want to achieve is

#+begin_src shell
Silent Key 1      A Super GotoDesk 0 0
#+end_src

There is no super as modifier as default, but we can use any =mod= key.
It varies between OSes, so we need to check:

#+begin_src shell
  $ xmodmap                       # 

  xmodmap:  up to 4 keys per modifier, (keycodes in parentheses):

  shift       Shift_L (0x32),  Shift_R (0x3e)
  lock        Caps_Lock (0x42)
  control     Control_L (0x25),  Control_R (0x69)
  mod1        Alt_L (0x40),  Alt_R (0x6c),  Alt_L (0xcc),  Meta_L (0xcd)
  mod2        Num_Lock (0x4d)
  mod3        ISO_Level5_Shift (0xcb)
  mod4        Super_L (0x85),  Super_R (0x86),  Super_L (0xce),  Hyper_L (0xcf)
  mod5        ISO_Level3_Shift (0x5c)
#+end_src

Therefore, my =super= keys is =mod4= and the bindings will be
#+begin_src shell
Silent Key 1      A 4 GotoDesk 0 0
Silent Key 2      A 4 GotoDesk 0 1
Silent Key 3      A 4 GotoDesk 0 2
Silent Key 4      A 4 GotoDesk 0 3
#+end_src

Now, back to the terminal.
I want =Super+Shift+Enter= to open the terminal
We can join multiple modifiers by simply putting all of them as the mod:

#+begin_src shell
Silent Key Return      A 4S Exec exec $[infostore.terminal]
#+end_src

The terminal command is a variable (=infostore=) because it's used in multiple places.
I'm still using the good, old st, so I modified to

#+begin_src shell
InfoStoreAdd terminal st
#+end_src

I also want to have a quick way to run emacs

#+begin_src shell
Silent Key E      A 4 Exec exec emacs
#+end_src

And to mimic MacOS =Ctrl+shift+Q= to close active window
#+begin_src shell
Silent Key Q      A CS Close
#+end_src

This makes Fvwm very much usable.
My muscle memory is again in use.
It's still far from where I want it to be, but it's getting there.

** DONE Replies to my last post about Youtube
CLOSED: [2024-09-03 Tue 16:03]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: re-microdosing-google-yt
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract Replies from readers
:END:
A few days ago I asked my readers about ways they used to [[https://michal.sapka.me/blog/2024/microdosing-google-yt/][stop Google Youtube addiction.]]
To my surprise, people contacted me.
There *are* people reading this site and I could not be happier.

It seem there are two ways people are addressing the problem:

1. Remove algorithm.
   Be it via browser plugin that blocks rendering of proposed videos, or removing the site all together using RSS.
   I've tried those and failed.

2. Relegate YT to a single device.
   You watch the videos only on a tablet or the TV.
   This is the expensive option.
   
I don't have a tablet, and my TV is where my kid plays with his toys.
Guess I'll retry all the from the first proposal.
I'll remove all algorithms from my YT, and then see what the future will bring.

** DONE Fvwm - day 1
CLOSED: [2024-09-02 Mon 22:31]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: fvwm-part-1
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract Descend into madness
:END:

Ever since I moved back to Linux (and then FreeBSD) I've rocking near stock DWM.
Well, for quite some time I've been eyeing this other gorgeous windows manager - Fvwm.
Today, I stumbled upon [[https://www.datagubbe.se/fvwm/][Carl Svensson's config]][fn:dg] and decided to finally pull the plug.

I have a very short experience with Fvwm3, as it comes as the default Xorg WM on [[https://man.openbsd.org/fvwm][OpenBSD.]]

But I'm on FreeBSD, so I had to install the package:

#+begin_src shell
pkg install fvwm3
#+end_src

And 3 megs later I was rocking a spanking new wm.
At first, it was confusing as I've been told that there should be some panel on the right, but there was none.

#+attr_shortcode: :file fvwm-240902-1.png
#+attr_shortcode: :alt Screenshot of Fvwm with panel in the middle.
#+attr_shortcode: :class centered
#+begin_image
What the hell?
All screenshots made with Gimp.
#+end_image

If you look at my [[https://michal.sapka.me/blog/uses/][setup]], you will notice that I have a laptop in permanently closed state.
The docked laptop is the right screen, I just never see it.
It was time to say goodbye to it and my =.xinit.rc= now has a
#+begin_src shell
  ...
  xrandr --output DP-2 --off & \
  ...
#+end_src

Which resolved the issue!

#+attr_shortcode: :file fvwm-240902-2.png
#+attr_shortcode: :alt Screenshot of Fvwm with panel on the right.
#+attr_shortcode: :class centered
#+begin_image
A very usable desktop. 
#+end_image

Time to explore!
Fvwm may be old, but it rocks features I've never seen anywhere else.
In this way, it is a bit like Emacs - it plays in a league of its own.

#+attr_shortcode: :file fvwm-desktops.png
#+attr_shortcode: :alt A 2x2 grid
#+attr_shortcode: :class pull-left
#+begin_image
Desks and pages
#+end_image

We are pretty used to having multiple virtual desktops, even Windows has them.
Those are called =desks= here - a separate workspace.
But each desk is separated into multiple =pages= you can move to by moving the pointer to the edge of screen.
Kind of like RTS game, where you scroll the map the same way.
Therefore, the virtual desktop is larger than the physical screen.
The size here is 2x2.
You can, of course, move windows between pages by dragging them.

This will be difficult to adjust.
First, by default there is no keyboard control.
Second, when scrolling, the mouse pointer maintains its virtual position - so, you move the screen down to move below and the cursor moves to the top of the screen.
Thirdly, a scroll is not always the same size - sometimes I move a full page down, sometimes I am in-between two.
I have no idea how to use this feature.
It is as cool as confusing.

Mouse centrism doesn't end here.
Click on wallpaper with any mouse button to see a dedicated menu.

#+attr_shortcode: :file fvwm-winops.png
#+attr_shortcode: :alt A 2x2 grid
#+attr_shortcode: :class pull-left
#+begin_image
Windows operations
#+end_image

Even though you can resize, move, and so on every window by interacting with it, it's also available from this menu.
You first select what you want to achieve, then click the window and perform the action.
Fvwm is a child of TWM, which is the default WM for Xorg and this how it was done it there.

Note, the "(un)" prefix - those work as switches, not flags.

Iconified is just like "hiding" windows in other WM.
Shading hides the window, living only title bar.
Sticky windows will be present on all pages.
You can also move the window to given desktop/page, and define Y position relative to other windows.

#+attr_shortcode: :file fvwm-fvwm.png
#+attr_shortcode: :alt A 2x2 grid
#+attr_shortcode: :class pull-right
#+begin_image
The Fvwm menu
#+end_image

The second menu is more of what I would expect.
You can run programs (list is loaded dynamically), open XTerm.
In my case "Run Command" opened dmenu, which was a huge surprise.

Then you've got the "Fvwm prompt" with is a command line way to interact with the window manager.
You can change the wallpaper, open Fvwm related man pages and copy your config to clipboard.
For now, I have no config, so this will come later.

The last three options allow you to refresh (redraw all windows), restart Fvwm without killing running programs and quit Fvwm completely.

#+attr_shortcode: :file fvwm-appswitcher.png
#+attr_shortcode: :alt A 2x2 grid
#+attr_shortcode: :class centered
#+begin_image
Application switcher
#+end_image

Maybe the one straight-forward one: app switcher.
Switching app will move you to page on desk with given application, and activate it

So, this is out-of-the-box experience with Fvwm.
It's different from anything I've used recently.
From what I've been told, anything here can be adjusted, so I'll start working on my config file soon.
As for now, I have to get used to paging as it's the one thing which I have no idea how to use.

[fn:dg] Datagubbe is one of the sites which inspired me to start my own.
It's outstanding!
 

** DONE A desktop AND a NAS?
CLOSED: [2024-08-31 Sat 21:05]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: desktop-nas
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract How many computers does one need?
:END:

I've been using a Synology NAS for a few years now.
It served me well, but I never liked the UI... nor the lack of ZFS.

With the coming of autumn (which can't come soon enough) I am starting to prepare to build a desktop for myself.
I don't really need it, but I've never done it before.
Somehow I always had someone to do it for me, and then the era of notebooks came upon us.

But this makes me think if I still need a NAS?
My Synology just sits in the corner and serves movies to TV and backups photos.
None of this requires a 24/7 on device, and serving movies in 2024 is pretty taxing on the little fella.
Too taxing, since transcoding a 10 bit HEVC monster in real time is impossible.
Having a dedicated GPU for that would solve this pickle, so I'd install Jellyfin on my new desktop either way.

I also don't have that many hard drives - just 4, plus 2 SSDs for cache.
Any decent non-gamer oriented case should accommodate that.
I'd need one that *also* fits a recent Radeon, as Baldur 3 seems to be a must-play for me.
I don't care about big AAA games, so except of BG3, I'd most likely mostly play whatever [[https://adventuregamers.com/][Adventure Gamers]] rates high.

How dumb idea is this?
Are there any downsides?
I have no idea!

I would not be able to run things like photo gallery for my family, but I could relegate a Raspberry Pi just for this.
We are currently using Apple something-something, so it's also not the case where anyone can access all the photos.
Or I could go crazy with it, and get myself a tiny PC and treat is firewall (about which I've been thinking for some time) and make it the actual computational server.
Just decouple the storage.

** DONE Ruben's Retro Corner
CLOSED: [2024-08-31 Sat 19:11]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: rubens-retro-corner
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract A site
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image blog/images/ruben-retro-corner.png
:END:

There are not many sites I visit for the /feeling good inc/.
I would if there were more!
But then, there's [[http://retro.rubenerd.com/][Ruben's Retro Corner]].
It as old school as it gets, and it gives me the joy I had when I first discovered the web.
I don't go there for the content (which is cool), but for that smile it brings to my face each and every time.
The fact, that it's written in human-readable HTML 3 is just a cherry on the top.

I understand that the web is not like this any more, it was ruined.
It's not marketable, it's not a data gathering machine.
But this is why it makes me so happy.
It's a tiny site that has only one reason to exist - Ruben's love for his old stuff.
The love and happiness is pouring out of every pixel here!

#+attr_shortcode: :file ruben-retro-corner.png
#+attr_shortcode: :alt screenshot of a site. 
#+attr_shortcode: :class centered
#+begin_image
Site by Ruben Schade. First version 1998.
#+end_image


** DONE Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars: Reforged
CLOSED: [2024-08-27 Tue 21:24]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: bs-sottr
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract Look ma! And even longer title.
:END:

Look ma!
And even longer title.
But yeah - one of the greatest video games I've ever played is getting an HD remaster.
It's time for younger people than me to get an unhealthy image of France.

#+attr_shortcode: :file broken-sword-reforged-1.jpg
#+attr_shortcode: :alt A hand drawn scene of a front of a caffee in Paris
#+attr_shortcode: :class centered
#+begin_image
I've already got goosebumps.
#+end_image

You will be able to buy it in a month from [[https://www.gog.com/pl/game/broken_sword_shadow_of_the_templars_reforged][GOG.]]

** DONE Microdosing Google Youtube
CLOSED: [2024-08-26 Mon 19:24]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: microdosing-google-yt
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract How do I break free?
:END:

The one aspect of moden which enrages me above all else is the expecation of always being there.

It was just a few short years ago, before the plague of iPhone plugged us online 24/7, when I could spent a few hours on the web, and it was enough for me to be considered weird.
Since I was active on a few message boards and I was one the webmasters for an anime-theme site, I had things to do.
There was constant arguing over which NGE girl was the best, there were reviews to write.
But it was fully on/of - I was either /online/ or /offline/.

And this is the way I would like to live my cyberlife again.
It was much healfier.
Lain was warning us that /no matter where you go, everyone is connected/ and it seemed so cool.
15 year old me would run to get a cyber-implant without any hesitation.

But now?
I don't use Instagram, Tik Tok or whatever is popular now.
My online life consists of:
- some blogs (which rock)
- [[https://emacs.ch/@mms][Mastodon]] (which I am growing tired of as it proves itself to be nothing more than a better Twtr)
- A few, selected news sites (which sadly suck)
- Google Youtube (which sucks the worst)

Out of those, Youtube has the biggest hold of me.
I can refresh the homapage a dozen times before finding something mildly interesting (most often not at all), leve it for 10 minutes and then return for another dose of refresh.
But at the same time, Google Youtube is *the* place where people post interesting things.
It's just hidden under terabytes of useless crap.

I'd love to be able to simply rely on the few channels I subscribe to (I even have them in my RSS reader).
But the pull of "hey, maybe I will find something interesting now" is too strong.

If I'd break my Google Youtube addiction, my relation with the internet would be much healther.
I may even like it again!
I just don't want to put out my damn phone in front of my kid.
YT is the easiest thing to fill 5 mintutes of empty time.
But it sucks your soul in the process.

So, if you broke your addition, please tell my how.
# I tried screen time (too easy to ignore), packages to block all recomendations for browsers (too easy to disable "just for 5 minutes". Also Tim Apple doesn't like my alternative browser enough), [[https://michal.sapka.me/blog/2023/using-rss-to-stop-youtube-homepage-induced-damage/][using RSS only]] (too easy to ctrl+t and open the site), [[https://michal.sapka.me/cool-emacs/watch-youtube/][and even using Emacs for YT]].
All those were effective for a few days, but none of them stayed with me.

Anyway, here are 7 habbits of very effective people who follow Murakami's schedule for a week and it changed their lives.
Oh, look! An [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFHpuc4yqzk][2 hour long Ultima III]] analysis.

** TODO no wait?

I was never much of a gamer.
I played games, mind you.
I played a lot of games actually.
And I still regularly indulge myself in a game on a borrowed PS4.
But, if anything, I would call myself an extremely casual gamer.
Sunday gamer, as we call similar type of a driver here in Poland.
Funny enough, sunday evenings are when I game most often.

But the games changed significantly since my younger days.
No longer can one play for an hour here and there, no.
If you have a longer break (and I have longer breaks), you will forget what you've learned and what the game expects of you.
There so many mechanics,  combinations and so on, that for the dozens of hours of a single playthgough it seem to be expected to treat the game as a job.
You could easily play Duke 3d or Quake 3 an hour a month, just to have some fun.
It was simple, focued and transplantable inside a genre.

If you want to be good a game, any particular game, you need to dedicate a lot of time.
I don't even start multiplayer, because that alone is an infinite timesink, with all that games as a service nonsense

And I am 38.
I have a job and I have a kid.
What I don't have is 100 hours in 3 days to play Witcher 3 in a week.

I prefer it that way.
Instead of being a "gamer", I try get a varried dose of entertainment in this time constrained environment.
Recently I've beenreading a lot of books.
Something I was unable to do for quite some time, due to varius personal reasons.

I love them becase the are of a singular vission.
One person wrote them and envisione them.
There was no meeting of a focus group and multi-level acceptance process.
Books are not games, and books are not TV shows.
This is why I value them the highest - they are an expression of the writer, even if editor had a lot to say.

This is also why I love older tv shows.
They were episodic, so one bad expisode was not a catastrophy.
You could take risks and not care that much about /lore/.
It was fun.

One thing I don't get from currently released big production is this exact fun.
They are well made, they are huge in scope, they know what the public wants after all.
But there is very little /joy/.
When I enter particularly large area I don't feel excitement.
What lies ahead is not full of amusement, but of annoyances.
And this is my primary reason why I don't see Games as the highest form of entertainment.
There may be great story, but it's all serving the /gameplay/ which more often than not it a series of annoayanes.

** DONE Never invest in DRM-ed content
CLOSED: [2024-07-29 Mon 01:25]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: never-drm
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract DRM is a fools investement 
:END:
When I was young and dumb, I bought a few movies on iTunes.
I can still access them, at least as long as I have my AppleTV (which is at its last days).
But I will never invest in an Apple Device unless Tim Cook resigns and someone makes a 180° for the company.

I *bought* them, but I don't own them.
All of this is because of DRM.
And breaking DRM in USA is a crime, as per DMCA, so there are not many ready made tools to automate this process.

In a completely unrelated news, Louis Rossmann talks about people loosing access to their bought online content.

#+attr_shortcode: "RtTdOBCLsyo" 
#+begin_yt
Redbox revokes access to ALL PURCHASED MOVIES & TV: Piracy is COMPLETELY JUSTIFIED! 
#+end_yt

It's not that I am against digital purchases, but they need to be *[[/blog/2023/digital-ownership/][purchases]]*.
Not a file poisoned by DRM, which removes any ownership.

As with most of the modern digital media, the crime is the only way forward.
If you want to pay for something, be it on Steam of iTunes, you need to break the DRM.

But the solution is simple: never buy anything that has any form of DRM.
It's better to subscribe to something like Netflix.
It still sucks, but at least they don't lie in your face.

The better solution: purchase directly from authors (if there is an option) and download illegal copies of anything else.
You can /share/ them with your friends!
For this you need to buy hardware that is not locked, so no consoles or popular mobile phones - which is an additional plus!

Also: don't call it piracy, this word implies that you made something immoral.
Pirates murdered people!

** DONE Crowd Strike and single point of failure
CLOSED: [2024-07-22 Mon 21:35]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: crowdstrike
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract Our industry is rotten to the core
:END:

We've all seen what Crowd Strike did a few days ago.
Most of us had our share of laughs - unless you had to fix it.
If that's the case - best of luck.

We're already seeing unofficial post-mortems.
CrowdStrike Holdings seems to be a joke of a company with rotten engineering culture.
Those were written by people smarter than me.

What I, however, can't fully understand is how was it even possible?
How one company offering (apparently) mediocre software was able to bring down so many systems?
How have we allowed companies we work in to use such software?
And I mean "we" very figuratively, as most of us has no saying in the decision.
People in control did what other people in control did - bought the same offering and created the same systems.
No one was ever fired for choosing IBM... Crowd Strike!
We have this checkmark checken, so get off our asses.

I mean "we" is our entire industry.
Slowly, step by step, we allowed the rotten business to standardize.
Now we have 2 desktop OSes, 3 server ones.
We run our code on 3 cloud providers.
And, as we see, we install one crappy program.

Until recently, it was entirely different.
Different vendors provided dozens of competing alternatives.
AmigaOS, BeOS, Novel, OS/2.
All of those were viable options, but no.
It had to come to the sad, sorry state of things.
Little guys in 2024 have close to zero chance of creating an alternative.
Big Players don't compete on quality, as they don't need to.
They have all the power to squash any new offering, and the purchasing managers don't care.
It's a standard, so let's use it!

And this is the reason why on Friday, planes couldn't fly and people died as hospitals were down.
It's not because of FOSS, it's not because of any malicious agent.
The reason is standardization of our industry.
It's not only never been as boring as it is now, but it has never been less resident.
If the market was healthy and there were dozens of bigger players instead of a few gigantic ones, no single outage would be as severe.

And the worst part?
No one, who is actually responsible, will be to blame.
No C level asshole will go to jail, or will even visit court.
CrowdStrike will lose some stock value for a few weeks, then it will all be forgotten.
Business as usual.

I grew to think that whatever the stock market likes, is the opposite of what is right.
LLMs, Lay-offs, planet destruction - those are the things the brokers love.
Not healthcare, education, or /preservation of mankind/.
Those things don't make a good get-rich-quick scheme, and therefore are not promoted.
And CEOs are paid in stock!
No wonder that even though we have all the means to make the world a better place, we are making everything to make sure it won't.

** DONE Free Software and the wrong crowd
CLOSED: [2024-07-16 Tue 21:01]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: foss-wrong-crowd
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract An essey about Free Software and the "wrong crowd" for it
:END:
Free Software is a movement aiming at changing the world.
Seize the means of computation!


#+begin_quote
Complete system sources will be available to everyone.
As a result, a user who needs changes in the system will always be free to make them himself, or hire any available programmer or company to make them for him.
Users will no longer be at the mercy of one programmer or company which owns the sources and is in sole position to make changes.

[...]

Copying all or parts of a program is as natural to a programmer as breathing, and as productive. It ought to be as free.

-- [[https://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.en.html][The GNU Manifesto, Richard Stallman, 1983]]
#+end_quote

Stallman wrote it 40 years ago.
It's obvious that Free Software has won!
We have GNU/Linux, Redis, Android, Emacs.
Time to open champagne and dance on the grave of System V.
But is it really the best it's ever been?

Personal computing is more widespread as it ever has been.
Virtually everyone, in every mildly developed country, has used a computer - even if in the form of a phone.
We are living in the world of tomorrow.

Free Software is the backbone of this world.
While there are still places where propriety systems run the server land, Linux is the default.
Most people don't even think about too deep.
Web services run Linux (be it GNU or not) - install Linux on AWS, throw Docker on top of it, sprinkle with Kubernetes and boom - a startup was born.

The desktop is also having a penguin moment.
Steam gave it the biggest push towards mass appeal.
People can finally do their computing on a Linux machine - use the browser and play games.

But note the trend here.
It's all intertwined with proprietary software.
Linux popularity is here not because it's free (as freedom), but /despite/ of it.
The push is happening because proprietary software can run on it!
It is owned by big tech, and while Linus still controls the kernel, he is paid by them.

It made him a (very) rich man, but in the process broader Linux is less GNU.

#+begin_quote
 ... many people will program with absolutely no monetary incentive.
 Programming has an irresistible fascination for some people, usually the people who are best at it.
 There is no shortage of professional musicians who keep at it even though they have no hope of making a living that way.

 -- [[https://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.en.html][The GNU Manifesto, Richard Stallman, 1983]]
#+end_quote

And people clap, and party, and pat each other on the backs.
/Open Source/ is eating the world!
Even your phone most likely run a semi-open source operating system.

But in reality, unless you are speaking with people into FOSS, they don't care about any ideology behind the software.
Whatever makes them productive, or simply get the thing done.
Tinkering is just a nuisance, a problem one needs to overcome to do /the thing/.

The only thing which makes Linux popular is the opposite of what it was.
Linux is no longer a free land, ruled by the masses.
It went to bed with Big Tech, and stayed there.

The moment of Linux is created by Valve and Steam.
They /made/ what thousands of open-source developers couldn't - run the software, which people want to use.
It just happens, that this kind of software is not free.
It's closed source, paid, full of licensing hells, DRMed throughout.
The kind of software Stallman warned us about.

So no.
I am not thinking about the "year of Linux" as something good.
For me, this kind of /success/ is a failure of society.
Linux is fully usable by the "wrong" crowd for it, the one that would not touch it with a mile long pole when it was in the hands of hackers.
But this crowd is almost everyone who uses computers now.

And Linux is simply a better version of Windows now.
Not the enemy we were though it is, but a companion.


** DONE Sports ruin everything 
CLOSED: [2024-07-14 Sun 19:06]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: sports
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract One short word to ruin everything
:END:


#+begin_quote
George: If it's not about sports, I find it very hard to concentrate.

Jerry: You're not very bright, are you?

George: No I'm not. I would like to be, but I'm not.

-- Seinfeld, S06E05 - The Couch
#+end_quote


If there is one word I absolutely despise, it's /sport/.
If it's sports, then I'm out.

It's not that I dislike physical activity.
I find it boring, dull, and depressing — but I don't hate it.
It's what we need to do, not to die to young.

But sports?
Adding sports to anything worsens it.
Be it running, kicking a soccer ball, chess, or computer games.
If you add competition, scores, the idea that someone is /better/ at it, it all falls apart.

When I was a kid, it was always the same.
We were having a great time, just goofing around.
"OK, now it's for real. Zero to zero, you start".
And boom, just like that.
All enjoyment is gone.

I think there are three types of people here:
- those who hate competition
- those who can still appreciate the fun ignoring the competition
- those who live for the competition.

Coincidentally, this is very much correlates with how much I will hate being around such a person.

And sports read their ugly heads out of everything, not only /games/.
We've got competitive cooking, programming, excel.
I find no joy in such things.

I love programming, but I would never do it to be /better/ at it than someone else.
I liked multiplayer games which were focused on having fun (think late 1999), but nowadays you need to specialize at them to have any fun.
Damn you, e-sports!

So yeah.
Sports ruin everything for me.

** DONE Even bionic implants are being abandoned by companies
CLOSED: [2024-07-09 Tue 22:22]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: bioninc-impalant-abandoned
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract Tech world is trying to be the absolute worst
:END:

Just when I thought tech can't get any worse, companies are abandoning working implants.

#+begin_quote
 … Byland had to find out secondhand that the company had abandoned the technology and was on the verge of going bankrupt.
 While his two-implant system is still working, he doesn’t know how long that will be the case.
 “As long as nothing goes wrong, I’m fine,” he says. “But if something does go wrong with it, well, I’m screwed. Because there’s no way of getting it fixed.”
#+end_quote

Long story short: we have working vision-implants (of which I didn't know until today).
They were implanted into patients with varying success, but they mostly improve patient's life quality.

And then the company loosing financing.

Let that sink in: at the same time bullshitting generators are dawning in cash, actual marvels of technology are dawning in debt.
We have remarkable technology, but VCs ruin it, again.
I mostly react with sadness to such stories, but not this time.
This time I finished the article with real anger.
I'm reading of the single coolest piece of tech in *ages*, and then it'd all horror and the worst aspects of capitalism.

[[https://spectrum.ieee.org/bionic-eye-obsolete][Read the full article on IEEE]].

** DONE Computing happy
CLOSED: [2024-07-08 Mon 23:24]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: computing-happy
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract A short, 3-hour long video essay
:END:
One thing I've noticed about myself and my relationship with technology is that I care.
Not about productivity, getting stuff done and all those things.
I do them at my job, they pay bills.

But what I actually want to do with computes is to have a damn good time.
This is why I am so peculiar when it comes to choosing software.
In my =meatsuit= life, I am the only person I know who uses Emacs or BSD.
There are some folks who used to us Emacs, some use Linux.
But I am on the far end of the popular-obscure software spectrum.

I do this not because I like to make things harder to myself, but because I love tinkering.
Yes, I can get a clean MacBook into a working shape faster than my personal laptop, but it doesn't spark any joy.
Apple hardware and software in 2024 is devoid of any happiness.
It's boring, it's corporate, it =locked down=.
And while I understand why they pay me to use it, I don't enjoy it.

But should work bring happiness?
It should not bring sorrow, that's for sure.
My previous job, 10 years ago, was a gruelling MS Office sadness fest.
It gave me a lot of spare time, but I really wanted to go into software development.

And I did.
I learned Ruby on Rails and joined a software product company.
It was full of joy and excitement!
For the first few months, going to the office was /the shit/.

But 10 years have passed.
I still enjoy what I do, and I like our product.
But does it spark any actual excitement?
I am not the same person I've been back then.

I grew to love computers on a whole different level.
They are not a /tool/, but a /goal/.
And it all comes to this: I don't care if my software is making me productive.
I want to enjoy using it.
And for the last few years, this means only one thing: free software… and lack of web browser in between.

That's the distinction between software I /have/ to use and which I /choose/ to use.
But this also means I look at the computer-crowd differently.
People I care about are not the ones who I cared about before.
I can proudly say, Apple is out of my bloodstream.
It /used/ to be great, but it became terrible even before I was earning enough to buy myself a Mac.
Currently, everyone I admire are on the other side of the FOSS battlefield.
Stallman is where it's at, not Jobs!
And most definitely not Nadella/Cook/Bezos/Musk/Zuck or whoever there is now.

But this is me.
You may be entirely different.
You may /enjoy/ getting stuff done and be glad to be done with it.
Likewise, you make love that IntelliJ and spinning EC2 instances.
I get it.
I disagree fundamentally, but I get it.
It's the same with cars: there are people who know everything about them, and then there's me who only knows where my mechanic is.
And while I have no idea how to fix a car, I admire people who can do it.

Similarly, I grew to /envy/ sysadmins.
Damn, how I wish I was administering a bunch of Open/Net/FreeBSD…. But wait! I do.
I don't get paid for it, but I do it on my personal infrastructure.
It all /ties together/: I choose the software which makes me happy, as computers are my only hobby.
And what a hobby would be, if it didn't bring me fun?

Computes were a passion for many, and they still are for many people.
And that's what great about them.

But really, sysadmins are amazing.

** DONE The Rise and Fall of The Witcher
CLOSED: [2024-07-05 Fri 11:23]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: raise-and-fall-of-the-witcher
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract A short, 3-hour long video essay
:END:

I have only recently [[https://michal.sapka.me/brain-rot/fantasy/witcher/][finished reading the /Witcher/ series]], which removed on the biggest stains on my honour.
It was political, it was intelligent - sure.
But I am used to it, as basically every important Polish work of fiction is full of them.
Most of this is the sub-context, as the goal was to raise our spirits, not the oppressors.

Note, that recent Polish history is quite short.
First we start with 100 years of Partitions, then we've got 20 years of Poland exiting.
After that, The Second World War started, and Poland ended under Soviet option for the next 50 years.

There is the saying, that when western countries were developing their culture in the open, we were locked in dark rooms thinking of how to harm yet other oppressors.

Most of our education is this: we read old books (mostly: boring books), which are full of allusions and subtexts.

One of those that are like that, but not taught in school, is the Witcher series.

Inis Vitre released a short, 3-hour video essay about that and the anti-intellectualism of Netflix's adaptation.
It's sure worth watching!


#+Attr_shortcode: "Z7-xXPxNZZY" 
#+begin_yt
The Rise and Fall of The Witcher (Essay & Deep Dive)
#+end_yT

** DONE Ladybird is a thing now
CLOSED: [2024-07-03 Wed 16:36]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: ladybird-inc
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract I am cautionary optimistic
:END:

*This is not a post about social issues. Those are a thing for different time*

[[/blog/2024/leaving-firefix-behind/][Just a few days ago]] I published a post about me leaving Firefox behind.
One of the alternatives I've mentioned was [[https://ladybird.org/][Ladybird.]]
And a lot has changed since then.

Ladybird started as a part of Serenity OS, but recently the main dev left the OS part and decided to fully focus on the browser.
And now he has a million dollars secured for development.
He even hired (HIRED!) full-time developers.
Hell has frozen over; there is a viable way out of Mozilla/Google duopoly.
I /am/ excited, but there are three things that makes me worry.
It's not that they have money, or that the money comes from a billionaire.
They are attacking a moving target, and Google can break the web faster than the can try to fix it.
Any help is welcome.

But they use Discord!
And Microsoft GitHub!
Ladybird is to be the viable alternative to things breaking the web, but they have decided that using the same forces is OK?
And even ignoring ethics, having all knowledge in a Discord is a risky game.
I can find solutions to a million issues in BSD because they use mailing lists—a medium that is open, resilient, and publicly searchable.
None of this applies to Discord.

But hey, Microsoft GitHub is the standard, right?
I'd love if they used a suitable alternative, but it's the easiest way for folks to participate.
Every developer has a Microsoft GitHub account, so why not?

Well, just /forcing/ people to pass their private data to Microsoft and Discord is a huge red flag.
Tracking business is web's biggest problem, and /not/ using a browser made for AD targeting is one of the reasons I'll try Ladybird on day 1.
But to participate in the community, one needs to feed that machine?

Furthermore, their new web page is pretty terrible.
It looks like every startup hungry for more VC bucks.
They even have a new, forgettable logo.
Pretty considerable downgrade if you ask me.

#+attr_shortcode: :file ladybird-new-old.png
#+attr_shortcode: :alt A blue, minimalist on the left. An ladybird on top shaded earth on the right.
#+attr_shortcode: :class centered
#+begin_image
New, boring to the left.
Cool, classic to the right.
What the hell does it even represent now?
#+end_image

And they used a GenAI picture on their site.
You can find a free picture of a generic laptop within 15 mins, but someone decided that it has to be GenAI?

And this raises more questions for me.
Serenity OS has a policy of zero external dependencies.
Ladybird project has no such policy, so they will use 3rd party code.
Will it GenAI it?
If so — I'm out.
The moment someone mentions that Ladybird uses Microsoft Copilot anything, I'm removing all interest in the project.
Browser is too complex, too important tool to be full of bullshit code.

But for now, I am optimistic.
I'll follow the development (well, the part outside closed Discord) and I'll happily use it.

---

This post is the 100th text have I published this year.
Party!
 

** DONE Updated setup
CLOSED: [2024-07-02 Tue 17:47]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: setup-07
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract The tech is here, we just need a good product
:END:

I've switched places with my wife on our /king-size be... desk/, and got the wall side.
A keen eye will notice that the bed is very close.
Central European bedroom setup!

#+attr_shortcode: :file setup-2024-07.jpg
#+attr_shortcode: :alt A computer on a desk
#+attr_shortcode: :class centered
#+begin_image
Look ma!
No bluetooth!
#+end_image

[[/blog/uses/][I have a =/uses/= page]] if you want to know more.

** DONE Federation is the one new concept which excites me
CLOSED: [2024-07-01 Mon 23:55]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: fediverse
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: :abstract The tech is here, we just need a good product
:END:

While it seems you can't even open a [[https://www.samsung.com/us/home-appliances/refrigerators/bespoke/bespoke-4-door-flex-refrigerator-29-cu-ft-with-ai-family-hub-and-ai-vision-inside-n-stainless-steel-rf29db9900qdaa/][fridge without some AI jumping at you]], or [[https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2024/06/07/update-on-the-recall-preview-feature-for-copilot-pcs/][your computer coming with hardware enabled spyware]], somewhere in the dark something cool lurks.
Not much in the dark, as ActivityPub is an open standard, and millions of peoples are using it via Mastodon, but the idea behind /federation/ doesn't get near enough attention.

For decades, The Open Web was under attack by shady companies, like Zuckernet or Muskitter.
There is a generation now who was raised on the web, but has no experience of even the simplest of Bulletin Boards, even though they were raised on the web.
They know the internet as "Wi-Fi", and the web is just a series of apps on their phones.
All attempts to educate them failed because it needed a yet another login on a platform none of their friends use.
Unless you have just finished investing in VC money, your app will not be a hit.
Kids won't join them because they want their celebrities, their YouTubers, their pop idols.
XMPP has no chance for a wide acceptance in this Discord riddled word.

Federation may be just what we need.
You get a single account, which becomes your identity across the entire federated web.
Want to send some shitpost to Lemmy?
If you're already using mastodon.social, then you've already got what you need.
It's a technology built /for people/ instead of [[https://michal.sapka.me/blog/2024/are-llms-worth-it/][yet another one]] designed to give money to Big Tech.

But federation requires significant effort to be easy enough for the /common folk/.
Twitter can paint your homepage with millions of cool posts because it has them (sadly).
Your Mastodon server does not, as the sexy girl from 3rd class may be on a different server.
It may seem like a no-problem, but if you are reading this, chances are you're familiar with dad-platforms, like Email and IRC.

We're seeing people returning to Twitter because the entire multiserver/service idea is not easy to get a grasp on, and even harder to effectively use.
You need /active work/ to build a network.
There is no algorithm that will fill in the blanks.
For me, this is a plus, but I am old.
Kids don't want to do anything more than swipe right (or whatever they do on tiktalk).

Federation is a fantastic idea, it's a technological solution to a social problem.
It's ready for prime time, but only for nerds.
And we're seeing it on Mastodon - there is a bigger chance to meet someone rocking a Linux desktop than to see a celebrity in between flights in her private jet.
Yes, we've got [[https://mastodon.social/@GreatDismal][William Gibson]], but he is not Taylor Swift.

We're now seeing the [[https://engineering.fb.com/2024/03/21/networking-traffic/threads-has-entered-the-fediverse/][Threads opening itself to federation]], but most of us see it more as a thread than a risk.
How will they enshitify it to make money?
Google was also happily [[https://support.google.com/code/answer/62464?hl=en][supporting XMPP]], but this was since discontinued and replaced with a mediocre product.
Even Microsoft now has [[https://www.linuxfoundation.org/about/members][a significant saying in Linux]].

Federation is great for the people, not for the gatekeepers.
DMA is failing here because it allows Facebook to choose who they make Messenger interoperable with.
There will be no official XMPP bridge anytime soon, and therefore there will be no real interoperability.

/We've got the technology/, but will it be enough?


** DONE Are the LLMs worth it?
CLOSED: [2024-06-30 Sun 20:06]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: are-llms-worth-it
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: :abstract What is the cost and what is the value here?
:END:

Recently, half of my waking time seems to be spent actively ignoring the current AI boom.
Every investor, every product, even some open source project - all are part of the biggest craze I've ever witnessed.
My skepticism for all this /crap/ doesn't come from being against the idea behind it.
I love AI, but LLMs are different.

How do you measure if something is worth it?
I guess it's something akin to a simple equation:


#+begin_src shell
  c = v * N
#+end_src 

Where
c - cost
v - value
N - your personal acceptance factor

So, a product is worth the cost, if it gives enough value based on how much you are willing accept.
What is the cost?
It's hard to tell.
What is value?
It's even harder to tell.

When it comes to LLMs, the cost is /huge/.
It may very much be the most costly tech we will see in our lives.
It costs very little when we limit ourselves to /monetary value/.
It's a few bucks here, a few bucks there.
Anyone into subscriptions most likely already has bigger sinkholes.

But that approach is significantly shortsighted; reduced to minimum.
The actual cost of the technology is far more reaching.

Firstly, the development.
VCs all around the globe can't throw their money fast enough.
It seems that just adding "AI" to a shampoo gives significant chance of a hefty A series.
So much of the current world economy is based on the idea that one day all that investment will be paid.
Just look at the stock value of Nvidia!
It seems that just yesterday they were known primarily for overpriced graphic card for gamers.
But they were lucky, their product powered the last two big crazes - first crypto, now LLMs.

The second aspect of this part of life cycle is the man power.
Just how many engineers are now tasked with integrating every, imaginable system with ChatGPT?
And how many product managers are forced to think of an idea of what that integration is supposed to do?
Those product are, almost aways, /worse/ in the process.
Even something as simple as Expensify became unusable when they changed their product into a chatbot.

And then comes the running cost that will be paid by our children.
The environmental impact is unimaginable.
We're producing huge amounts of air pollution, using water and rare minerals like there's no tomorrow.
For the last century or so, we've abused our planet, but then we've decided that enough is enough.
Time to think of survival and become /green/.
All this is thrown out the window.
No survival of human race will stop Altman from becoming a multi billioner!

Then there are the social costs.
We're just starting to see them, but it's already dreadfully.
LLM companies are treating all human creation as a free buffet, ignoring everything we've had before.
The web, as we grew to know and love, may soon come to an end.
Sometimes even I have hard time justifying existence of this site.
I have a lot of fun, do something here almost daily.
But in reality I make the /assholes/ richer, as they will harvest everything here and put in their huge data models.

And, of course, people are starting to lose their jobs.
Not that many yet, as the CEOs need to be crazy enough, but it's starting.
And it will only get worse, as more and more product /promise/ automation.
Most likely it will happen before the promise is fulfilled, but that's beside the point.

The costs are huge, but what are the benefits?
I've tried to read what all the proponents say, and the responses I've found differ very slightly:
some small auto generation, here and there.
Nothing grand, a few dozen minutes of manual labor each time - unless we're talking about image/multimedia generation.
You ma even get what you want it to be, assuming you've already got some experience in prompting.
Mind you, when an LLM works, it works like magic.
It is, however, not the case most of the time.
You get a result, you try to convince the machine that there is something wrong, you get a result, you find something and so on.
Up until it's ready for manual fixes.

Looking at this, we've got a huge =c=, very small =v=.
If you say that this is worth it, your =N= needs to be huge.

But there's this notion, that we're just at the start.
We've got the first version and there will be huge breakthroughs soon.
Either the cost needs to be decreased, or the value needs to skyrocket.
Both are possible.
There's enough money thrown for there to be more people working on those problems than there are scientists working on curing cancer.
Will they achieve anything of value?
We can /guess/, but guessing will not change the fact, that the current [[https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10676-024-09775-5][bullshit machines]] are *not* worth it.

But let's be realistic here: betting on /scientific breakthrough/ is not something a sane mind should do.
Especially not one data-driven!
Events like this rarely happen, and the unravel ChatGPT 2 proved that we've already witnessed one, just a few short years ago.
The next one may take years, or decades.
We will be paying the cost until the LLM craze ends, and perhaps it will not even destroy us before that.

Personally, I am sure that AI Winter is inevitable.
And it will be winter like we've never seen before, as never before so much money was thrown into furnace.
There are /great/ uses of AI - just think of image recognition, or weather forecasting.
All of this may be lost, as one fucking Altman stole all the air from the room, just to burn us all in the process.
I am afraid that the winter will not only stop significant work on LLMs, but for general Artificial Intelligence.

Note, that I ignore all the /risks/ here, and just look a the technology.
But the costs are even higher, as we should put things which it enables - disinformation for one.

** DONE LLM honeypot
CLOSED: [2024-06-28 Fri 14:14]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: llm-honeypot
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: :abstract The only way to fight I see
:END:

Big tech doesn't care about people; LLM industry actively seeks harm.
We're [[https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/27/24187405/perplexity-ai-twitter-lie-plagiarism][seeing it time after time again]].
They consider the open web to be a resource that exists only for them to harvest.

But the web was designed with good intentions in mind.
There is no way to actively /block/ them.
Copyright? Nope, fair use.
Robots.txt? Nope, some don't care - other pretend to care after the theft.
Identifying them? Good luck. Not only the IPs are in /millions/, but they lie in their user-agents.

Some are trying to poison the LLM by prompt injection, but this will not work in any bigger dataset.

Personally, I want to at least try.
Therefore, my site contains a honeypot: /open [[https://michal.sapka.me/git/mms/Library-of-knowledge][a git repository]] and your IP will be logged/.
For now I collect them, but soon they will be blocked on my firewall for some time - a week maybe?

This repo is:
- disallowed by robots.txt, so no good agents would harvest it
- labeled as ban hammer in the description.

I'll wait for some time and publish results.
** DONE Yey EU
CLOSED: [2024-06-26 Wed 22:10]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: eu-vs-tech-giants
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: :abstract EU is picking up the slack since US is not doing their job
:END:

I may have been a Randroid in the past, but I grew out of it.
No amount of Galts can stop us from huge monopolies.
In the past, US govt was capable of putting AT&T in its place, and giving the world [[https://michal.sapka.me/unix-history/02_unix/][Unix]] as a result.
Now?
Not so much.
Too much lovemaking between big business and the regulators makes it impossible for any /meaningful/ actions to be taken.

Luckily, the European Union is picking up the slack.
Apple is on trial for App Store policies and Microsoft for bundling Teams with office.
At least for now.

For me, this doesn't go anywhere near where it should, as I don't think allowing Apple to even /compete/ with 3rd party developers is a level playing field.
You should not run the market you are competing on.
This could lead to one party getting all the sales data and copying the competition offering.
Oh wait, Apple and Amazon are already doing it. 

But just as me and most folks around see those moves of EU as an absolute win, many Americans see it differently.
Some of them see it as an attack on America, since Europe doesn't have big players.
Yes, most of the companies named Gatekeepers are American players.
Nowhere else, the market is corrupt enough for such behemoths to emerge.

But I also see a cultural clash.
US and Europe use different law approaches.
While Americans expect a clearly defined borders of accepted behavior (letter of the law), we in EU expect a more general ruling allowing the regulators to act in the changing market (spirit of the law).
And that's where the dog is buried: US makes it easier for companies to proceed, EU puts citizens up front.
It's much easier to bypass the legal limitations if there's a bullet point list.
But companies are not humans, they /should never have it easier than your typical Joe/.
I much prefer the /spirit/ approach, since it defines the goal and not the method.

I can't wait to see the fines, but not because /screw you Tim Apple/.
We're living in a cyberpunk dystopia, and I want to see it reversed.
No company should be benevolent dictator for life, hindering competition by /owning/ the field.

I'd love to see FAANG broken up into smaller companies, just like we've seen with Microsoft.
It didn't last long, but it was enough for the Internet to flourish.


** DONE User Friendly, daily
CLOSED: [2024-06-25 Tue 16:56]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: uf-daily
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract Experience User Friendly like it's 1998
:END:

For some time I've been hosting a mirror of [[https://michal.sapka.me/userfriendly/][User Friendly]] comic.
You can jump in and read it all - it's still amazing.

But this is not how we experienced it /back in the day/.
[[https://emacs.ch/@publicvoit@graz.social/112642904850023592][Karl]] proposed a way to read get one comic per day.
We've been testing if for a few days, and it's working.

There are now dedicated RSS feeds with UF as if started in a given year.
Each day, if on the given day there was a new strip, it will be added.
You can start reading from 2023, catch up to *today*, and then get one new comic daily.

You can find the [[https://michal.sapka.me/userfriendly-daily/][RSS feeds here.]]
The files are named based on simulated start year, so "2022" assumes the first comic was released on 2022-11-17.
There are services that may send you the comic to mail, but I don't use those.

Each item has embedded <img> tag, so no need to click anything.

If this made you smile (like it did for me), you can [[https://ko-fi.com/mmspl][buy me a Ko-fi]].


#+attr_shortcode: :file userfriendly-1.gif
#+attr_shortcode: :alt A black and white comic. Two male characters talk about Quake.
#+attr_shortcode: :class centered
#+begin_image
The first User Friendly
#+end_image


** DONE Looking for a new web browser
CLOSED: [2024-06-21 Fri 14:46]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: leaving-firefix-behind
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: :abstract Leaving Mozilla
:END:

For years,I've been saying "just use Firefox" like it was my personal mantra.
I used Mozilla (back when it was a browser's name), then I moved to Firefox.
After that, like everyone, I jumped to Chrome.
In time however, Google changed.
I've seen them as a vital part of the web, but now they became the /enemy/.
They infested the web with surveillance based ad network.

Firefox /was/ the alternative.
It /was/ the good browser, developed by a great organization.

But this also changed.
/Mozilla/ is not the good guy anymore.
The organization seems [[https://lunduke.locals.com/post/5765292/mozilla-sued-for-discrimination-by-former-ceo-to-be][rotten to the core]].
They are investing in AI, and just recently they even bought [[https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/18/mozilla_buys_anonym_betting_privacy/][an ad broker]].
All this wile [[https://lunduke.locals.com/post/5053290/mozilla-2023-annual-report-ceo-pay-skyrockets-while-firefox-marketshare-nosedives][their CEO pay skyrockets.]]

Firefox is still a great browers.
It requires a lot of tinkering to disable all the tracking, but it's nothing compared to Chrome.
*Still*.

But looking at this from higher perspective, I can not support wider Mozilla.
Promoting /Firefox/ is promoting the Mozilla Board - and this not something that I can continue with clear consciousness.

This forces me to look for a new browser.

There are ready forks of /Firefox/ (like /Librewolf/) and /Chrome/.
All of them seem like a better alternative, but I also despise the homogeneity of web browner engines.
/Chromium/ is *owned* by Google, as Google sponsors most of the work there.
A for-profit company having significant stake in making the web worse?
Nope.
This removes most of the alternatives.

However, My interest peaks at the /real/ alternatives:
- [[https://nyxt.atlas.engineer/][Nyxt]], because of LISP
- [[https://ladybird.dev/][Ladybird]], as it's a rebel ship in the corporate infested wasteland
- [[https://dillo-browser.github.io/][Dillo]], because of the same reasons as the above.

The last two develop their own rendering engines, which have my full moral support.
But it also means that they are not viable as /primary/ browser.
And as for secondary I already use [[https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/eww.html][Emacs Web Browser]], because of course I do.

I will start using /Nyxt/ when binaries are ready to =pkg install= on FreeBSD, but for now?
For now, I have a tough decision to make.

** DONE From Infocom to 80 Days: An oral history of text games and interactive fiction
CLOSED: [2024-06-20 Thu 20:23]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: ars-ifiction
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: :abstract Ars knocks is out of the park
:END:

When *Ars Technica* does it, it truly does it.
This time - an amazing look at Interactive Fiction:

#+begin_quote
To understand the history of IF, the best place to turn for insight is the authors themselves.
Not just the authors of notable text games—although many of the people I interviewed for this article do have that claim to fame—but the authors of the communities and the tools that have kept the torch burning.
Here's what they had to say about IF and its legacy.
#+end_quote

Be sure to [[https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/06/from-infocom-to-80-days-an-oral-history-of-text-games-and-interactive-fiction/][read the piece]] by Anna Washenko.

** DONE New Blog
CLOSED: [2024-06-19 Wed 09:46]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: new-blog
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: :abstract Yet another redesign
:END:

My descend into web's past (or midlife crisis) continues.
My Blog is now rocking a new skin.
It's etched in the past - stripes and 3d borders.
Of course, like everything on my sites it's fully hand coded and created /just/ for this blog.

But I stole the idea from [[https://www.jlsksr.de/][Julius Kaiser]] (what a name!), but I think it's still distinctly /mine/.

Now, it's still full of bugs and missing things.
The most enraging one it Hugo's inability to create unique footnote IDs on list pages.

As a bonus - if you have JS enabled, you can click on my face in header and have some fun.

Since I, one again, *love* the look of this blog, I'll try to post here often.
I was preoccupied with my other sites recently.

** DONE Cool Emacs
CLOSED: [2024-06-18 Tue 13:00]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: cool-emacs
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: :abstract On my new site
:END:

I'm /decoupling/ more and more of this site. I run:
- legacy website (part of which is this blog, soon to be changed)
- [[https://michal.sapka.me/unix-history/][Unix History]]
- [[https://michal.sapka.me/brain-rot/][Brain Rot]] (with reviews of books, games, and movies).

Since yesterday, I can add [[/cool-Emacs/][Cool Emacs]] to that list.

Creating those /vintage-inspired/ layouts gave my much joy, but maybe requires a bit more explanation.
This will come in the future, but please know that there are two reasons:
- they are *cool as ice*
- they are rebellion against modern web.
  Screw modern web!

More to come.

** DONE Having fun with website: new Brain Rots
CLOSED: [2024-05-26 Sun 18:59]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: fun-brain-rots
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: :abstract The coolest places out there
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-c
:END:
As you may have noticed, [[/brain-rot/][Brain Rots]] now rock a very stylish look.
Retro, some may say.
Midlife crisis, others will scream.
Cool, I'll reply.

#+attr_shortcode: "brot-2.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Yup, it looks like sites looked 30 years ago, when I first became a cyber-citizen.
Funny, how mobile-friendly such designs are.
#+end_img-c

I stopped thinking about this site as a /blog/, and instead I consider a hub of different things which interest /me/.
The first period of sapka.me was a blog, but now I am closer to [[https://cyber.dabamos.de/][Cyber Vanguard.]]
I've already noticed that there are things that are best served as blog, but those things are not everything.
There's also the evergreen texts; the longer pieces.
Those deserve a dedicated train of thought, and therefore being split by publish date would be disservice.

I have to admit to toying with the idea behind the site more than with the site itself.
But wasn't it always the point?
This site is trying to sell me; I don't write articles about what would interest a headhunter.
It's place I love to tinker with.
It's fun, because computers should be fun!

Technically, it's still part if my Hugo site, just with dedicated layout.
I'd move it to a separate project, but that would break the combined RSS feed.

There will be more such changes here soon.

** DONE Libraries
CLOSED: [2024-05-21 Tue 21:50]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: libraries
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: :abstract The coolest places out there
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-c
:END:

You may have noticed that I've added quite a lot of media reviews recently under the name of "brain rots".
Yup, I've returned to watching and reading fiction.

But since space if not made of gum and book publishers are [[/blog/2024/book-size/][at war]] with the remaining shelf space I've still got, buying is not an option.
This led me back to an old friend of mine - library.
There's so much /magic/ involved in renting a book!

It is fashionable to have house stuffed with art.
I fully get it - the only reason I have not bought many more bookcases is my wife.
I'd overflow the apartment with books, music and old games.
But I would not read all of that.
I am software engineer, and it allows me for a comfortable life.
Buying /full/ set of /Discworld/ is not out the question.
I won't have time to enjoy them, and before finishing I'd buy something else.

In the same time library books have seen a lot.
They were touched by a lot of greasy fingers, seen a lot of toilets.
Just look at those two.
Both are still fully usable, despite the tired look.

#+attr_shortcode: "lib1.JPEG" 
#+begin_img-c
Lady of the Lake and The Heaven Makers.
I hate such oversized reissues as we have here, with Witcher.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "lib2.JPEG" 
#+begin_img-c
They have seen better days
#+end_img-c

There is something beautiful that I am only just another person who can enjoy them.
It has a calming effect on me, which I desperately need.

Now, I use a very small location of Krakow Library network.
I am mostly interested in SciFi[fn:sf] and the selection of "fantasy and scifi" is /very/ small.
We've got some great classics, but the likes of Dune or Hyperion are missing.
When I open online bookstore, the selection is overwhelming, even if Poland publishing stats are a joke.
Having a small set of books to choose from allows for discovery and randomness.
Now, I knew of /The Heaven Makers/, but most likely I would never bother in the vast sea of the greatest books ever.
Here?
Having it my hand?
Risking nothing?
It was an instant pick.

Libraries have a distinct soul.
Slow, quiet, full of surprises.
We need to preserve them at all cost.

#+attr_shortcode: "lib4.JPEG" 
#+begin_img-c
And they come with their own badgadge of experience.
In Poland such stamps indicate when the books is to be returned.
#+end_img-c

[fn:sf] with age comes acceptance.
I no longer read what I think I should enjoy, but rather what I will enjoy.

** DONE Run Your Own Mail Server
CLOSED: [2024-05-20 Mon 21:46]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: ryoms-kickstarter
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: :abstract There's a new tech book on the horrizon!
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-c
:END:

I am a fan of Michael W. Lucas's writing.
Someday I'll even read some of his fiction, but now I squeal just thinking of his tech books.
You may find my review of some of his works on this site: [[https://michal.sapka.me/blog/2024/absolute-freebsd/][Absolute Freebsd]] and [[https://michal.sapka.me/blog/2023/zfs-mastery/][ZFS Mastery.]]
A few months ago I supported his work on a book called /Run Your Own Email Server/, because of course I'd love to!

And guess what?
There's a [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/run-your-own-mail-server][Kickstarter]] for it now.
Great chance to back it.

I've flipped through the review copy (as all supporters got a digital copy), and the contents floored me.
Can't wait for the final version, so I can complicate my life even more.

#+attr_shortcode: "ryoem-paint.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
As always, cover is amazing.
#+end_img-c

My pen pal (I have a pen pal), Jeff, had a chance to meat Michael Lucas in Las Vegas a few weeks ago.
It seems, that he is as cool and wholesome live as he seems to be.
Backing him makes me happy, even if I ignore the quality of his books.

** DONE Audio gear: my new old CD player
CLOSED: [2024-05-18 Sat 20:13]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: cdp-897
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: :abstract I've added archive of User Friendly comic to the site.
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-c
:END:

I've been [[https://emacs.ch/@mms][tooting]] my recent CD purchase journey.
I love music and I want to listen to it on my own terms.
The superiority of CDs is a subject for a different occasion, but know that I consider it a fact.

I've bought the CD, ripped it to flac and listened to it from computer[fn:listen].
But, I thought, why not listen to the disc in its natural habitant?
And so my journey has a side quest: an old-school stereo system.

I decided to go with the inventors of CDs, Sony.
Luckily, since all the kids out there use their phones, used gear became very affordable.
And therefore I became a proud owner of a Sony CDP-987.

I'm old enough to had been an owner of a stereo system, but those were /mini/ systems.
This is 40 cm wide monster.
The first time I opened the box I almost cursed at this cow.
It looks comical, as I have connected my Ruard MR-1 *desk* speakers.
But hey, they play nice for their size and allow for toslink input.
This allows me to delay purchase of an amp.

CDP-897 is a unit from 1992.
It's 32 years old, and it works flawlessly.
All buttons work, CD reading is spot on, audio it generates through all outputs is clear.
It even came with a full service manual, which till this can day can be easily found on the web.
Nowadays not many things exist after 5 years of purchase, and here I am.
Just another happy owner in the 30-year history of this player.

I got what wanted, but two things shocked me.

Real buttons.
I know that I dislike touch screens, but I never knew how much.
Having a real button alone is worth the price of admission (here, about 100USD).
I love touching them, my 5yo son loves pressing them and my wife can finally turn it off without fighting with a phone.
We lost so much.

The second thing is the speed.
This is a Speedy Gonazalez.
I can open a CD box, turn it on, insert the disk and start playing faster than I would be able to use /Spotify/.
This is a single purpose device and it excels.


#+attr_shortcode: "audio-may-2024.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Huge player, tiny speakers, pretentious selection of music.
#+end_img-c

[fn:listen] Recently released [[https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/doc/listen/listen.html][listen.el]] made it much nicer.
** DONE Omake: A User Friendly archive
CLOSED: [2024-05-17 Fri 23:06]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: omake-uf-archive
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: :abstract I've added archive of User Friendly comic to the site.
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-r
:END:
A few (not many) decades I spent most of my summer and dial-up time reading the User Friendly Cartoon.
Those were the times when you used tabs in browser to prefetch images!
#+attr_shortcode: "onigiri.png" 
#+begin_img-r
Poster
#+end_img-r
I loved it and I still have to find something similar.

But a few years ago, Iliad took it down after a long hiatus.
It's still available on The Internet Archive and I tried to re-read it.
Well, long story short: I got lost and stopped.

But I still /love/ this cartoon.
I'd love it to still be there to simply hop-on and laugh.
And boom: it's there!

I am proudly introducing the first Omake[fn:ruben] on this site: [[https://michal.sapka.me/userfriendly/][User Friendly Archive]].
This adds over 5000 subpages, so I am now a webmaster of a significant website.

Time to read it as it was meant to: slow and using a browser.

[fn:ruben] Yup, it's yet-another-idea I took from [[https://rubenerd.com/omake.xml][Ruben.]]
Huge fan!

** DONE Cyberpunk in design is back!
CLOSED: [2024-05-10 Fri 21:36]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: cyberpunk-is-back
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: :abstract Cool designs are back on the menu
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-c
:END:

Last year I [[https://michal.sapka.me/blog/2023/industrial-design-used-to-be-cool/][lamended on the state of industrial design.]]
Personally, I blame John Ive.
Everyone tries to copy the bland slabs of metal and glass that Apple help to popularize.
They became boring very fast, and we're second decade into it.
iPhones may be the most boring looking devices I've ever seen - and I'm eyeing a black Sony HiFi system from 80s!

But are things changing?
It's hard to make devices that are more boring than the most boring.
And who is on the forefront of such change?
Those crazy Chinese.

It's as a good time as any to give you a warning: this is an audio post.

Hiby is a well known brand.
I even bought a DAP[fn:dap] from them but had to return it due to scratchy volume wheel.
Recently they've released a very cyberpunky looking device, [[https://store.hiby.com/products/hiby-r4][Hiby H4]]:

#+attr_shortcode: "hiby-h4-1.webp" 
#+begin_img-c
Cool on the outside
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hiby-h4-2.webp" 
#+begin_img-c
And even cool on the inside
#+end_img-c

I have to fully agree with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUnU2rrI9lg][Z's review]] (warning: youtube): they had no reasons to go this hard with design.
They could have released yet another boring rectangle, slap a good DAP there and call it a day.
But they did and it's marvelous.
I love how this device looks!
And it seems the sound it produces is as good as the design, therefore someone just made it harder for the entire DAP industry.

It's still an android device created to reproduce music via wires, but all the colors and cutouts make it this much more appealing.

But there's more!
The well-known Moondrop is releasing a phone!
The [[https://moondroplab.com/en/products/miad01][Miad01]] looks great:

#+attr_shortcode: "moondrop-miad1-1.webp" "https://shiftdelete.net/moondrop-miad-01-jak-cikisi" 
#+begin_img-c
Is it a DAP?
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "moondrop-miad1-1.jpg" "https://trinityelectronic.boutir.com/item/Moondrop-Miad-01-5G/5429734836404224" 
#+begin_img-c
Is is it a plane?
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "moondrop-miad1-2.jpg" "https://trinityelectronic.boutir.com/item/Moondrop-Miad-01-5G/5429734836404224" 
#+begin_img-c
No, it's a phone
#+end_img-c

It's an amazingly looking android phone with a freaking audio jack!
And a 4.4 balanced out!
Is it a dream?

The back is perfect.
The bump houses camera, DACs and audio outputs.
They managed to /not/ have camera bump, as they did not focus on creating a rectangle.

The front is boring, as it's just a slab of glass.
And there are no buttons for playback control, which is the reason I will not buy it.
This and lack of user-replacable battery, but it's a battle for another time.

So, it's 2024 and we are seeing playful industrial designs again.
Apple is boring, Samsung is busy copying boring, and Google is too preoccupied with layoffs to even know what they are designing.
And at the same time Hiby and Moondrop made me drool.

If Moondrop releases a Miad 02 with buttons, I'll have to place an order instantly.

For now, I can only with for them to go even crazier.
Don't limit yourself to slab of glass, don't EVER make it round cornered.
Squares are still the best, cutouts are annoying.

I am happy with this turn of events.

An, and a cherry on top: those are dirt cheap compared to their peers.
Hiby H4 costs 250USD and MIAD01 400USD - and since those are Chinese products, expect huge discounts on Aliexpress.

[fn:dap] Digital Audio Player.
That's what we call Mp3 players now.

** DONE New homepage and breaking RSS
CLOSED: [2024-04-18 Thu 21:19]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: new-homepage-and-breaking-rss
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: :abstract Treat this as a pre-mortem.
:END:

Recently, I have stumbled upon [[https://cyber.dabamos.de/index.html][The Cyber Vanguard]][fn:src], a very Web 1.0 inspired website.
I am much more of a Web 1.0 guy as I never fully got all that Web 2.0 /zeitgeist/.
The last revolution here[fn:web] was a step in similar direction, but the hell with that.
I am remodeling my index to be an index!

And since we are on the subject, my near plans are:
- continue [[https://michal.sapka.me/bsd/history/][Unix and BSD history]]
- write about Xah Fly Keys (emacs) which I am using now
- write a tutorial on hosting a website in OpenBSD. I already have something like this here, but I don't like it very much.
- write about ox-hugo (which is how I author this site).
- continue writing reviews under the sexy name /brain rots/.
  
But having site in constant renovation has one downside: I break RSS.
Since I move files around, and since Hugo treats the permalink as unique ID, after every move, RSS readers treat the item as new site.
I will be changing the ID to be the timestamp of post publish date (I write so rarely, that there is 0 chance of overlap), so I can move the files how much I want.
But this will change IDs of all existing pages, so your reader may treat everything here as new.
Sorry!

And btw, I have a [[https://ko-fi.com/mmspl][ko-fi]] now if you want to, you know, buy me a coffee.

[fn:src] via [[https://emacs.ch/@jlsksr@mastodon.online/111784575662713642][Julius Kasier on Mastodon]]
[fn:web] [[https://michal.sapka.me/blog/2024/webmaster/][Being a webmaster is freaking cool]]


** DONE OpenBSD 7.5 released
CLOSED: [2024-04-05 Fri 09:39]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: openbsd-7-5
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: abstract new OpenBSD was released
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-r
:END:

#+attr_shortcode: "open-bsd-7-5.jpg" 
#+begin_img-r
Poster
#+end_img-r

There's a new OpenBSDD release in 

See the full changelog on [[https://www.openbsd.org/75.html][the release page]].
** DONE AI is already used for genocide
CLOSED: [2024-04-04 Thu 21:28]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: ai-genocide
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: abstract Israel already uses AI systems during wartime without care of civilian casualties. 
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-r
:END:

Today, an article on use of AI systems for selecting and targeting Hamas soldiers was published by [[https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/][972 magazine.]]
The entire article is an essential read for anyone, but one paragraph especially caught my eye:

#+begin_quote
The Lavender software analyzes information collected on most of the 2.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip through a system of mass surveillance, then assesses and ranks the likelihood that each particular person is active in the military wing of Hamas or PIJ.
According to sources, the machine gives almost every single person in Gaza a rating from 1 to 100, expressing how likely it is that they are a militant."
#+end_quote

We already have an active AI system which is capable of mass surveillance of gigantic population.
A system which is used to target people for extermination.
A system which has 10% error rate:

#+begin_quote
[...] knowing that the system makes what are regarded as “errors” in approximately 10 percent of cases, and is known to occasionally mark individuals who have merely a loose connection to militant groups, or no connection at all.
#+end_quote

Think, what would have happened if your bank made an error in 1 on 10 transactions?
And we are talking about human lives here.

Not only is the system correct only 90% of time times, but also the results are used to target bombings where it is accepted that few hundred civilians will be killed.

1 in 10 chance, that 300 people will just for nothing.
Dumb computer error.

As a software engineer, I refused to work on GenAI, and at the same time someone worked on mass murder system with a random chance of being correct. 

Please, read the entire  [[https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/][article]].
We're already in worst-case scenario.
This is the doomsday scenario we were so afraid of.

** DONE Absolute FreeBSD
CLOSED: [2024-03-28 Thu 22:08]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: absolute-freebsd
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: abstract The ultimate guide to FreeBSD
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-r
:END:

I may have been a BSD devotee for almost a year, but I have close to zero knowledge about it.
I get by, but I see the benefits, but it's all surface-level.
It was the same with Linux - I can /use/ Linux, but I don't /know/ Linux.

Absolute FreeBSD is a Tour de France of FreeBSD.
You get to know how the OS operates, what tools are provided, and how to use it effectively.

Let's start with the bad, as I have two gripes with the book.

#+attr_shortcode: "mwl-absolute-freebsd.jpg" 
#+begin_img-r
Cover
#+end_img-r
First, only halfway through MWL informs the reader that this book is aimed at /server administrators/.
I am primarily a PC user of FreeBSD, so not all the knowledge is usable.
Counter argument: if you run FreeBSD, out of all other OSes, there is a huge chance you will want to know its ins and outs.

Second: this book is partially an advert.
MWL wrote other books which deepen the knowledge one might get from this book - Jails, ZFS, and other file systems.
Those are huge subjects, and they well deserve a dedicated book each, but even though we have /Absolute/ book here, it is not absolute.
Want to use Jails?
Better get yourself /FreeBSD Mastery: Jails/.

For the rest of this review I'll ignore the /absolute/ claim and look at the book for what it is.
And what it is, is nothing short of amazing.

We start with learning what FreeBSD is, why to use it, and how to install it.
All of those go much deeper than the official /Guide/ go.

After this brief (if 100 pages can be considered brief) introduction, we are thrown into the deepest pits of /FreeBSD/.
We have no idea how to use it, but MWL jumps into the booting process.
It makes sense, as not using SystemD is one of the most praised elements of BSDs, but I would prefer to learn how to install a program.
Nope!
It's rc time!

Having read the book in its entirety, it makes a lot of sense, but when I was reading it, it made little sense.
MWL shows the new administrator how the OS /operates/ before showing how to /operate it/.
To be an effective administrator, one needs to know the /whats/ more than /hows/.
It's much easier to do something when one has the base knowledge.

Then, we jump to backing up the OS.
Surely, any administrator needs to know how to do it[fn:tarsnap].
It's one of those things, which are impossible to fix /during/ an outage.

The next few chapters were especially challenging for me.
Ever tried to recompile a kernel?
Let's learn how to recompile a custom one.
Ever wondered how networking works?
Let's talk about networking in /FreeBSD/.
Want to have a secure system?
Sure you do, so there's a chapter for you!
Interested in how the hard drive is used?
ZFS, UFS, and other acronyms?
Here you go!
There's a lot of info on how data becomes 1s and 0s on a disc.
MWL even throws tidbits of historical knowledge as one may encounter such systems.

We are now on page 371, the middle point.
The reader has proven himself worthy, and the plot thickens.
Time to learn how to use the OS!
And we start with a great surprise: in my Linux days the =/etc= was always a labyrinth of random files.
For /FreeBSD,/ we've got an in-depth analysis of everything that the default installation throws there.
After that, we *finally* learn how to install Firefox in a chapter called "Making Your System Useful".
After that, we're wrapping up with upgrading the system and advanced topics for specific installs - like email send-out or DHCP.
We end with the (aforementioned) Jails and information about how to engage with the community and involve yourself with FreeBSD development.

Is /Absolute FreeBSD/ an absolute book?
Nope.
That's false advertising.
I'd be pretty angry if the book wasn't as good as it is.
It made FreeBSD the /comfiest/ OS I've ever used.
Nowhere else has a single book given me enough confidence in my ability to not only not break the system, but to fix it.

Essential read.
I give it a 4.75/5.

*** Meta
- Read as PDF on Onyx Boox Note Air 2.
- Book bought from Humble Bundle
- Next up: "The C programming language" by K&R.
  Wish me luck!

[fn:tarsnap] You guessed it, There is related a book and it's amazing! Vide [[https://www.tiltedwindmillpress.com/product/tarsnap-mastery-online-backups-for-the-truly-paranoid/][Tarsnap mastery]]

** DONE Elite: "The game that couldn't be written"
CLOSED: [2024-03-15 Fri 16:25]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: how-elite-was-made
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: abstract Link blog entry
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: yt
:END:

This is the best YT movie I've seen in months.
It's *about* elite, but half of the movie is about how BBC Micro works.

#+Attr_shortcode: "lC4YLMLar5I" 
#+begin_yt
Elite: "The game that couldn't be written"
#+end_yT

If you have any interest in classic gaming and/or computing, it's highly recommended.

#+begin_quote
Elite may be the most complex 8-bit game ever produced.
And it was arguably the most groundbreaking game ever released for its time.
Back in the early 1980s when arcade-shooters reigned supreme, two undergraduates at Cambridge redefined what computer games even were.

In this video we'll look at some of the technical aspects of how David Braben and Ian Bell were able to construct an entire universe, economy, 3D engine and backstory in 22KB on a 2MHZ processor.
This story is well known in the UK, but computer games history is largely told through the lens of the US and Japan....so overseas viewers may not be familiar with the impact Elite had on gaming, and the wider world.
#+end_quote

** DONE Desk reveal 2024
CLOSED: [2024-03-11 Mon 21:14]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: desk-reveal
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: abstract My battlestation
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-c
:END:

This is my first desk reveal post.
I always liked those, so here we go.

I share my bedroom/office with my wife.
I am able to work remotely 5 days a week, so this is where I spend my days, and significant part of evenings.

#+attr_shortcode: "desk-24-01.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Hers (left) and his (right)
#+end_img-c

You can get detailed info on what is on /my/ part of the +bed+ desk in my /[[https://michal.sapka.me/me/uses/][uses]]/ page.
One thing that is not there is the geometry of the room.
I have the window *directly* behind me.
Terrible location, but since the apartment was designed before WFH times, this was the only option.
One thing we don't have in excess is space.

#+attr_shortcode: "desk-24-02.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Where the magic happens
#+end_img-c

Even though the monitor is a /USB-hub/, it is not a switch.
This is why I have this Ugreen USB switch here.
Now, I need to press the button to change my IO target, change input on the monitor and boom - I can switch between computers.

#+attr_shortcode: "desk-24-03.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Close up on the switch
#+end_img-c

(the photos are dark, I noticed.
Next year I'll try to learn proper exposure.)
** DONE Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) 
CLOSED: [2024-03-03 Sun 16:52]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: colossus-1970
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: abstract A short review of SciFi classic 
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-c
:END:
Finally, in my series of discovering the roots of cyberpunk in American Cyberpunk I've seen a real gem.

/Colossus/ is a 1970 movie about a not-so-distant-future where Americans decide that it would be a great idea to give control of their military potential to a computer.
On paper, it sounds great - a computer has no emotions, so it will not be stopped by petty things, like morality.
Guess how well that turned out?
Soon after switching on, Colossus learns about the existence of another such system - The Guardian, in the territory of CCCP.

#+attr_shortcode: "colossus-1970-0001.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
The movie starts with sexy old-comp scenes.
Fitting, as Control Data Corporation supplied close to 5 million USD in computer equipment.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "colossus-1970-0002.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Sexy!
Rest of the movie is not as sexy.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "colossus-1970-0003.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Colossus in person.
#+end_img-c
And then this SciFi thriller stops being so /crazy-computer/ focused, and analyzes /crazy-human/ reaction.
Colossus starts exhibiting features which were never implemented.
It[fn:it] starts /demanding/ to be connected with the Guardian, so they can communicate.
And the scientist decide that it would be a great idea.
The computers start exchanging data and developing language.
Still - looks cool, let's see what happens.
Only after Colossus threatens humans with ICBMs, Forbin (Colossus's creator) starts thinking that maybe this wasn't the best idea.

#+attr_shortcode: "colossus-1970-0004.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
At first Colossus communicates only via text.
Funny, as those screens sound like matrix printers.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "colossus-1970-0005.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
This one as well.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "colossus-1970-0006.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Because it has a printer!
It took me half of the movie to get that.
Guess I'm too millenial for that to be obvious.
#+end_img-c
The movie is often described as an evil-computer story.
Colossus is never evil in the movie.
It does exactly what it was designed to do - to act without mercy.
The evil ones here are the humans who never stop and think that maybe we are on the verge of the end of humanity.

So yeah, it's an movie about Altman.
We may have destroyed the civilization, but at lest we made a cool program which does things.
No one know what those things are, but those are details you should not worry about.


Story wise, /Colossus: The Forbin Project/ holds splendidly.
Yes, we've got casual alcoholism and the female character exists only to have sex with Forbin[fn:sex].
But the actual meat of the movie could be a base of an amazing movie today.
The questions and subject are more relevant now that half a century ago.
What was a huge /what-if/ scenario becomes a real /ok, but how do we stop it/.
The Pentagon is already working on militarization of AI[fn:pent].
We're pretty much screwed already.

The best SciFi is not about giant battles or space travel for space travel sake.
It's always about humans, a warning for us.
And the /best/ SciFi is a warning for the next generations, as the threads become more real as years go by.

There is a moment in the movie, where the entire day of Forbin is planned and monitored by an AI.
What was a horror story, is now what a lot of us /expect/.

/Colossus/ in a movie version of earlier book of same.
There are 2 more in the series, and (as I've been told), Aliens make an appearance later on.
Maybe someday!

As for the movie, I give it a 4.25/5.
[fn:it] There's an interesting discussion about what pronoum to use - He or It.
[fn:sex] It is a plot point!
A terrible one, but still.
[fn:pent] Vide: [[https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3682355/pentagon-official-lays-out-dod-vision-for-ai/][Pentagon Official Lays Out DOD Vision for AI]].
Note, it's from the official website of US Department of Defense.
** DONE Send links to your friends and make the Web a better place
CLOSED: [2024-02-29 Thu 22:49]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: send-links
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: abstract The missing part of web ressurgence
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-r
:END:
On the web of the past we had no all-knowing algorithm.
To find something on the web, we were limited to two possibilities: to search for it, or to get it from other folks.
And yet the web flourished not despite but due to that way.
We've discovered cool, new places all the time.

As you may have noticed, I love what the web /was/.
Not the platform-cum-spam-infested thing we have today, but that crazy intertwined /web/ of small websites.
What /the web/ was 20 years ago, we now call /small web,/ or the /indieweb[fn:iweb]/.
And it is beautiful.
We may have more websites than we ever had, but discovering them is near impossible.
Google became useless, and no other search engine has yet reached its quality of the past.
It's not that they are worse, but the evil agents of /cyberspace/ are much more effective.
Spam sites, Reddit, Wikipedia, etm.[fn:etm] dominate, and it's near impossible to get significant traffic from search.

#+attr_shortcode: "icq.png" 
#+begin_img-r
ICQ logo.
Personally I used "Gadu Gadu", which was a polish response.
#+end_img-r
But we had the ace in our sleeves: we were not alone.
We knew people who were into the same things that we were into.
This means that we shared links to interesting sites as we knew they also may find them cool.
For a long time, finding an actually /cool/ link and keeping for ourselves was unnatural.

Today, people go to some big platform website and get /content/ shoved up their faces.
Unfortunately, this is not the good part of the web.
It's either SEO optimized beyond being of any quality, or simply promoted content.
A small writer (like me) has no chance to be visible there.

The small web is born from passion, not from chase of profit.
Only we can make it flourish like it used to flourish.
Simply sending a cool link from time to time to your friends is enough.

So: *[[https://www.wovenmemories.net/2023/10/30/First.Operating.System_Part.1.html][First Operating System -- Part One]] on [[https://www.wovenmemories.net/index.html][Woven Memories]]* is an amazing introduction to how Operating Systems came to be.
It is one of blogs where new posts are much to rare, as each is a treat.

[fn:iweb] Vide [[https://indieweb.org/][Indiewebcamp]].
[fn:etm] /A Latin abbreviation for the literal translation of "and shit", specifically "et merda". Similar to "etc"., and "ie"./
Love it!
And yes, I have huge problems with Wikipedia.
I'll write about it someday.

** DONE Being a webmaster is freaking cool
CLOSED: [2024-02-28 Wed 19:25]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: webmaster
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: abstract On the joyes of peronal webpage
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-r
:END:
Occasionally I'm seeing articles about the benefits of /blogging/.
It's to be a way to socialize, or to counter the platforms.
Both of those are true and great,
But there is one more, which drives /me/: being a /webmaster/ is a way to create a place of my own.

Most of this website is coded, designed[fn:design], and written by yours truly.
There is a reason that this website doesn't look like any platform - be it wordpress, medium or twitter.
What I am aiming for is a place on the web that will reflect who I am.
Or at least who I perceive as me.

When I was starting, I had a few failed attempts at actually doing something here.
I wanted to pretend to be someone who I am not - a sad professional.
I even had a version written in Next.js!
Only when I abandoned any pretense and made this a /my/ place everything clicked.

#+attr_shortcode: "netscape-v.png"
#+begin_img-r
Netscape, from days of past.
#+end_img-r
What allowed for that was an absolute power to do whatever I want.
This is not something I would be able to do with any SASS platform.
What is the biggest benefit hereis that doing everything myself reignited my passion from teen years - passion towards doing /cool things in the cyberspace/.
I want to have an Emacs site? Sure, it takes 10 mins.
I want it to look like a technical manual? Why not. CSS will accept even the dumbest idea.
I want web buttons? Let's spend a full evening browsing and choosing.
I want to try OpenBSD? Amsterdam[fn:ams] has me covered!

I want to try something almost no one will ever notice?
Here's my [[/me/now/][now]] page with ratings of movies, books and series I've recently finished.
I think of putting more data-driven parts, like scrobbing from EMMS.
It's so much fun!
The possibilites with plain, old HTML and CSS are limitless.

The other part of the equation is complete abandonment of any chance of monetization.
The web runs on ads and sponsors (and porn), but do I want to participate?
While earning millions from doing video edutainment may sound cool, for me it's a sad life.
Mixing hobbies and work is ok up to a point.
After that your hobby stops being fun.

Those two ideas give mu (near) full freedom of expression.
Do I want to criticize big tech?
Do I want to promote piracy?
Do I want to talk how much I love the open web?
Nothing stops me, as I am not working for Google under the boot of The Algorithm.

Here's the neat part: I love the technical aspect.
Learning how to host a site in an unknown environment is cool.
Doing HTML and CSS is cool.
Designing simple site is cool.
Doing what you /love/ is the coolest feeling out there.

It may not be for everyone, but if you are reading this, I am sure you would succeed at creating your own space.
It may be easy to just throw something on Instagram and watch the like counter go up, but it is not something that would fill me with joy.
Participation in creation web of my dreams does.
Not making Musk even richer also.
Blocking Yandex from DDOSing me not so much[fn:yandex], but having learned how to do it does.

So, this is my pledge: create a /website/.
Want to write regularly? Have a blog.
Want to write a Nethack guide?
This, alone, is a great website.
A /good/ website does not need to be regularly updated.
Don't want to write?
Create a Hello website.
Give us a few tidbits about you, or about something dear to you.
It is /your/ website after all.
Your dog deserves a website!

But make it your /own/.
Go off-platform as far as you can.
Know how to maintain a server?
Do it!
Want to have a site without the hustle?
There are still great WYSIWYG SAAS product.
Want to have video content?
A simple index page with list of links is great!

Just create your public space and send me a link :-)

[fn:design] With mandatory credit to [[http://fabiensanglard.net/][http://fabiensanglard.net/]]
[fn:ams] This site is running on a VPS provided by [[https://openbsd.amsterdam/][OpenBSD Amsterdam]] in exchange for money.
No data is being sold, as it should never be.
[fn:yandex] For the last few days Yandex tried to learn my code so freaking hard, that my Gitea instance was being killed all the time.
The solution?
Blocking that bot on my firewall.

** DONE Audio formats
CLOSED: [2024-02-26 Mon 19:31]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: audio-formats
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: abstract Why I stopped caring and loved the digital files
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-r
:END:
I, like many others, like to romanticize useless things.
One of those things, up to recently, were /Vinyl records/.

#+begin_quote
The two things that really drew me to vinyl are the expense and inconvenience.

-- unkown, some Reddit most likely
#+end_quote

Now, I still fully get why people invest in Vinyl, as those are /sexy/ as hell.
It is one of the sexiest formats out there.
The spinning disc certainly does have its magic.

It is also expensive, annoying to use and - as it turns out - dangerous.
There is a semi-recent vlog about it on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az2czfuiymq][YouTube]].

My collection is very small (less than 20 records) and I currently have no record player.
But I was planning on investing in having more.
In hindsight, it was mostly a result to exposure on =/r/jazzvinyl= and similar.
One of the worst things Reddit did to me, is to convince me to invest is some expensive things i never needed... nor I have a huge joy of having.

But I still refuse to listen to /streaming/.
Spotify can go destroy itself - like it is doing with music.
But I still want to enjoy music.
Where does this leave me?

Files!
Files are all that matter.
I can listen to files on my computer, and on the go.
I can have my files on every machine, I can even get them remotely (using programs like =rsync (1)=).
And, what is also important, I can play music files inside Emacs.

How do I get them?
Except of the /alternative means/, there are still legit and good ways to aquire music.
Contrary to the movie business, which is deep in the DMR hell, music is still /purchbsable/[fn:purchase].
We've got lots of stores selling music files - some so detailed, that only a 75-year-old audiophile can fully appreciate the fidelity[fn:hq].

#+attr_shortcode: "23-haul-jan-haul.jpg" 
#+begin_img-r
A small CD haul from last year.
#+end_img-r
And (up till recently), you could get anything on CDs, and then simply rip it.
Funny, that CDs cost about the same as they did 30 years ago, at least in Poland.
I am sure that USA, with their Good Will will get great prices.
But you can use those CDs after 30 years, without any problems.
No clicks, pops or speck of dust ruining your audio.

Here comes the great part - there is a /lot/ of music that was never, nor will ever be on streaming services.
You can get them on CDs and on YouTube[fn:yt] (which is the biggest source of music right now).

We also have great new formats.
There is FLAC for all you nerds, but almost anyone will be more than happy with an OGG file.
MP3 is no longer the golden standard.

I am also thinking of the social aspect of music sharing that was completely lost with that autogenerated playlists, but this is an orthogonal subject.

Therefore, I am doubling down on getting my own, local music collection.
I will not only help to /not/ destroy the environment[fn:bb], but also I will not feed the data-gathering machine[fn:lastfm], and not kill myself with the pollution.
I fail to see any downside!

[fn:purchase] Vide my article on [[https://michal.sapka.me/articles/digital-ownership/][Digital Ownership]].
[fn:hq] I get HQ music.
I hear no difference, but I get it.
But investing into DSP is nothing short of madness.
How much drive space do you have?!
[fn:bb] [[https://brainbaking.com/post/2024/02/the-environmental-impact-of-cloud-computing/][The Environmental Impact of Cloud Computing]]
[fn:yt] Yes, YT is a streaming service.
But it's what we call "music streaming", as it's closer to pirate paradise than to a music businessman.
[fn:lastfm] If I'd want it, I'd rather feed [[https://last.fm][last.fm.]]

** DONE Lawmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (1996)
CLOSED: [2024-02-23 Fri 20:29]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: lawmower-man-2-1996
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: abstract My mirco reviview of the sequeo to a vr killer thriller
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-c
:END:
Fun fact: I remembered close to nothing about this movie back.
When I was watching the first, everything seems familiar.
Here?
Not so much.
Guess /Polsat/ consider the second one too expensive for regular broadcast.


In /Lawnmawer Man[fn:reviewlm]/ we meet Jobe, now a genius being living in the cyberspace.
But not so much, because in the first few minutes of /Lawmnower Man 2/ we learn that he has not left his meatsuit for the cyberspace.
The explosion at the lab left him an amputee.
But his talents are now in use of the Evil Corporation designing the future of cyberspace.

Of course, Jobe wants the cyberspace for himself.

The general plot seems similar to the first one, but they are very much different.
The plot is much more complex, there are many more explosions and I think it makes much less sense than the first one.
I would rate it at 2/5.

But the biggest difference is that this movie is target towards certain audience.
/Lawmower Man/ was a kid-friendly horror.
/Lawmower Man 2/ is a kids' movie.
They completely removed the part which tried to be scary.

We've got bunch od kids (and a dog) fighting and winning against a grown-up.
Yes, they get the help from an adult - the creator of cyberspace.
But the main heroes are the kids.
And the main target are the kids.

#+attr_shortcode: "lawnmower-man-2-1996-0002.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Kids flying in cyberspace
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "lawnmower-man-2-1996-0012.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
And flying even more.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "lawnmower-man-2-1996-0003.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Dog preparing to save a day...
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "lawnmower-man-2-1996-0004.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
And saving the day by inserting a CD in the drive.
How can anyone consider this to be a movie for adoults?
#+end_img-c

I've read that the director was locked out of the editing room as he was trying to make a different movie.
The producers said a firm "no" and made /Lawmower Man 2/ close to the likes of /Goonies/, /Explorers/ or /Flight of the Navigator/.
It never reaches the coolness of those, but it tries.
A lot of people on the interweb bash the movie on logical problems or being goofy.
Yes - occasionally the plot makes so little sense that they needed to add voice over explaining why the hell the /gang/ is going where they are going.
Yes, it has a dog who saves the day.
38 years old me was not amused, but the 10-year-old inside me screamed "yeah! Radical!".
He was not doing well with being /modern/ back then as well.

#+attr_shortcode: "lawnmower-man-2-1996-0005.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Her hair is the closest thing to a "scare" in the entire movie
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "lawnmower-man-2-1996-0006.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
This hippie is the inventor of VR.
Tech geniuses leaving all the tech behind to live in the wild is now more real than ever
#+end_img-c

Jobe is being played by Matt Frewer, who quite often acts like Jim Carey, which is fitting.
He is not the magical-killer he used to be.
He is goofy.

Even the music sounds like something Spielberg would use.

There is no Pierce Brosnan here, as only Austin O'Brien returns from the first one, once again reprising the role of Peter Parkette.

My biggest gripe is the special effect here.
The movie takes place in the future, so we're no longer seeing green grass.
The real world vibe is close to /Blade Runner/ or /Dark City/.
I dig it!

#+attr_shortcode: "lawnmower-man-2-1996-0001.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Cyberpunk!
I'm pretty sure that almost all those scenes happened on the same crossroad.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "lawnmower-man-2-1996-0011.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Almost Blade Runner.
#+end_img-c

But then there is the /cyberspace/.
In /Lawmower Man/ we had amazing, early CGI closer to an acid trip than anything else.
Here, the cyberspace looks like ours.
They just added CGI here and there.
It looks like an episode of /The Next Generation/, but without most of the campiness.
For the most part it is competent, but there is no spark.
It's not /cool/.

#+attr_shortcode: "lawnmower-man-2-1996-0010.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Our first meeting with new Jobe in the cyberspace.
Yes, this is VR-forest.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "lawnmower-man-2-1996-0007.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Cyberspace here give more of FMV-game kind of vibe than I would have expected
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "lawnmower-man-2-1996-0008.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
The VR here more social than what Apple showed.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "lawnmower-man-2-1996-0009.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Luckily, sometimes the VR almost delivers.
#+end_img-c

But the 10-year-old me would not care.
He would rate it as 3.75/5 or "that was cool!".
But he he wasn't picky at all.

[fn:reviewlm] Vide: [[/blog/2024/lawmower-man-1229/][my review of Lawmower Man]].
** DONE The Lawnmower Man (1992)
CLOSED: [2024-02-19 Mon 23:03]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: lawmower-man-1992
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: abstract My mirco reviview of a vr killer  thriller
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-c
:END:

Back in the glorious 90s, when kids still enjoyed linear TV, we had /Polsat/.
In the post-communist Poland, this was the first /western/ TV station.
Filled with western movies, and western series[fn:series]
Among those, there were constant replays of /The Lawnmower Man/[fn:trans]
I watched it on every occasion and loved it.

Now, 30 years later it is time for a rewatch.
No cyberpunk deep dive can be considered a good one without /The Lawnmower Man/.

/The Lawnmower Man/ is a movie about a disabled lawnmower man, Jobe, who, with the usage of virtual reality, becomes a genius.
Soon after, an Evil Company, stars secretly giving him drugs contracted by the military.
And as result, he starts exhibiting mind reading abilities and telekinesis (because, obviously, why not?).
We've got the (popular at the time) subtext about the dangers of corporates who, without supervision, play God.
Somehow we stopped doing that, and now we've got Altman killing humanity with the clap of happy crowd.
/Lawmower Man/ is a movie about a great technology twisted by corporate overlords.
Fitting.

Jobe becomes a psychic, genius killer (like every mad genius), who decides to take over the cyberspace.

#+attr_shortcode: "lawnmower-man-1992-0001.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Remember when huge companies were scary?
#+end_img-c

The movie was initially released as a /Stephen King/ movie.
King, however, sued the producers, as the movie has nothing to do the short story of the same name.
And he won, because it was based on original script called /CyberGod/.
Damn, I miss /cyber/ sounding cool.
They should have the original name, instead of forcing King on everyone.
And yes, I know King was the king back then.

#+attr_shortcode: "lawnmower-man-1992-0002.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
That's one way to save your neck from Apple Vision
#+end_img-c

The movie is we have here is a much dumbed down version of /Flowers for Algeron/, which I intend to finally read.
I don't think anyone ever called it a /good/ movie, and for a good reason.
It's cool, it's got great cyberspace CGI, it's got Pierce Brosnan.
It also has an opening scene with a monkey using a gun, so yeah.

Story-wise is as straight forward as it gets.
The first half is full of sweet shots of grass and sexualization of a lawnmower.
And the most awkward sex scene I've seen in ages... or two.
Then, through a heavy-handed comment about religion and corporations we go the killing part.

This movie fails as horror (there is not even blood or any scare here), and fails as morality play (it's not smart enough).
But it is a testament to the glorious time, when /cyberspace/ was magical and full of potential.
We sure deserve more of that.

#+attr_shortcode: "lawnmower-man-1992-0006.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
The cyberspace we all need.
#+end_img-c

I give it a 3.0/5.

I was *sure* the ending of this film was from the sequel.
But nope - I don't remember anything from the second one.
Therefore, see you on the other side, /Beyond Cyberspace/.

If anything, it's a great movie to show everyone how amazing trackballs are.
And we all know it is a fact.
No one can tell me otherwise.

#+attr_shortcode: "lawnmower-man-1992-0004.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
The hidden star of the movie, right behind that hairy guy.
Look at that keyboard!
Look at how beige it is!
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "lawnmower-man-1992-0005.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Cyber God indeed.
#+end_img-c

[fn:series] And Polish version of those.
We had a great copy of /The Honeymooners/ named /Miodowe Lata/.
The translation of the title is surprisingly spot-on.
[fn:trans] Under an amazingly translated title, which would translate back as /The Lawmower Man of Minds/.
Perfection.
We knew /Dirty Dancing/ as /Spinning Sex/ and /Die Hard/ as /Glass Trap/.
Those were simpler times.
** DONE Hardware (1990)
CLOSED: [2024-02-17 Sat 19:39]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: hardware-1990
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: abstract My mirco reviview of a killer-robot thriller
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-c
:END:

I continue my descend into American cyberpunk cinema[fn:cp].
I spent my formative years watching /Anime, art house/ and ignoring most of USA movies.
This means I haven't watched a lot of the /cult/ movies out there.

/Hardware/ is a 1990 movie about a killer robot in a post-nuclear world.
Think of a mix of Terminator, Aliens and Short Circuit.

I heard of this movie years ago, but it seemed to be noting more than a cash grab after the success of /Terminator/ - a movie which I  don't partially enjoy.
After watching, I have to say that there was a of true in this assumption.
But somehow I ended enjoying /Hardware/ much more.

Not that the story is better - if anything, it is much simpler, or just plain /simplistic/.
Say what you will about /Terminator/, but the basic premise was great.
/Hardware/ on the other hand doesn't offer a great idea.
This is a straight movie about a killer robot.

However, I enjoyed it more, as it is much closer to what /Alien[fn:alien]/ achieved
The entire action is encapsulated in only a few, closed locations.
Half of the runtime is spent in a single apartment, where the /Mark-13/ robot shows up from to time a try to murder someone.
Much like the /Nostromo/!

This allowed the movie to be *stunning* visually.
I loved every frame here!
I know that most of the effect is based on fog and lighting, but I dig it!
Just take a look at the gallery below.

Another thing which reminded me of /Alien/ is how they handled the special effects of the /monster/.
We see very little of /Mark-13/ - he is often hard to see, covered in darkness.
From time to time we see his movements, and well.
Hiding him was clearly a good idea... just like with the /Xenomorph/.

All in all, I enjoyed the movie.
I'm not calling it one of my favorites, but I enjoyed  every minute of its short runtime.

I give it a =3.5/5=.

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0001.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Red sky of postnuclear... summer?
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0002.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
The Nomad.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0003.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Nomad searching the desert for stuff for sale.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0004.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
An ordinary store.
Great vibes!
Fun for the whole family.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0005.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Same store, different view.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0006.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
The perfect glasses.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0007.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Seems like somene realy liked Jin-Roh.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0008.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
What posses as art now.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0009.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Computer we want but don't deserve.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0010.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
An art studio. Nothing out of the ordinary.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0011.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Remember when spirituality was cool?
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0012.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Let's give our murder-robot eyes from a camera lense.
I'm sure no one will drop it.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0013.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
UI we all want.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0014.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
What lurks in the shadows.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0015.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Yup, Jin-Roh.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0016.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Yankee-Roh.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0017.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
With some striking shadows.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0018.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
I have become bread, the destroyer of worlds.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0019.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Prelude...
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0020.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
And the (most likely) last usage of a refrigerator as a safe place which makes any sense in the history of cinema.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0021.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Yup, a hand.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0022.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Hold the presses!
The glasses are back!
I repeat: the glasses are back.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0023.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Mark-13 in all of its glory.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0024.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
This is only a window, but what a window it is.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0025.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
They have not used Wilhelm's scream.
What a wasted opportunity.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0026.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
In 2024 those are rookie number when it comes to unnecessary lights inside a computer.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0027.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
I am a sucker for this type of fish eye.
Always reminds me of /City of Lost Children./
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0028.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
It doesn't get more era-apporiate than this.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0029.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Ok, it does.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0030.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
One of the few CGI moments here.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0031.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
And one of /many/ lighting shots.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0032.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Look how black it is. Classy.
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0033.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
But does it run Quake?
#+end_img-c

#+attr_shortcode: "hardware-1990-0034.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Back to the desert, like a fine sandwich.
#+end_img-c

And a few nice /gore/ sceenes which I won't show it.
This is a family-friendly website!

Links:
- [[https://thetvdb.com/movies/hardware][Hardware on TVDB]]
- [[https://www.theofficialrichardstanley.com/][Director's official website]]

[fn:cp] I disagree with calling those movies "cyberpunk" as they lack the "punk" element... or most of "cyber".
No one rebels against the system, no one enters the /cyberspace/.
But following this definition, I am not sure if we can call any movie other than /Johny Menomic/ a /Cyberpunk/.
Often we put all dark-sf into "cyberpunk" genre, which limits our ability to be pricks about it.
[fn:alien] Aka "the clearly superior of the /Alien/ series"

** DONE STD of Apple
CLOSED: [2024-02-16 Fri 16:29]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: apple-std
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: abstract Apple is making the world worse for next genrations
:END:
First: I was an Apple fanboy, but damn.

To get you up to speed:
EU forces Apple to support different web rendering engines on iOS, which means full Chrome and Firefox are finally viable.
As a result, Apple decided to stop supporting Progressive Web Apps[fn:pwa].

Officially it is to /not decrease/ security of iOS, since Apple no longer controls the referring engine and it's capabilities.
You can read the full support article on [[https://developer.apple.com/support/dma-and-apps-in-the-eu][developer.apple.com]].

But under the legal and marketing buzz it's clear to see that Apple will no longer support PWA exactly because the /capabilities/ are no longer under their control.
Those /web apps/ are currently able to support almost everything what native apps can - just not on iOS.
Without Apple's control, we could have full spectrum of capabilities just waiting for developers.

Now, I dislike PWA as the usability is a nightmare.
But then again, native /touch/ apps are not much better.

It's clear that this move has only monetary reasoning, as almost all apps could completely bypass App Store.
This goes amazingly well with their recent policy on alternative App Store[fn:appstore], and shows what an anti-consumer company Apple has become.

Much to the lack of my surprise, it's not clear enough.
Reading comments on one of the primer Apple news sites you can easily find opinions like:

#+begin_quote
Petty and vindictive

Modern Apple in a nutshell
#+end_quote

but also:

#+begin_quote
thanks for screwing up things again, EU.

next time people pat themselves on the back for regulating Apple, show them this.
#+end_quote

#+begin_quote
I just hope that the EU DMA act, inflicts so much pain, to users in the EU, that the users demand the EU. Change the laws OR the users are forced to abandon Apple, and “choose” Android. … it will prove what is Factual. That users Always had a choice, and no one is forcing them to use an iPhone. Apple will survive, no worries there
#+end_quote

#+begin_quote
For those of you trashing Apple over this move: Really? Do you seriously think that these new EU legislations gave them any other choice, given that PWAs were integrated into the OS itself, and directly reliant upon the Webkit engine?

Nope... it's absolutely guaranteed that someone in the EU would have eventually sued, if Apple had simply left this feature intact. From Apple's point of view, this was a decision made entirely by their legal department, to avoid that potential lawsuit.
#+end_quote

#+begin_quote
Perfect example of unintended consequence of EU meddling in things they don't understand.
#+end_quote

Luckily most comments on this [[https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-confirms-ios-17-4-disables-home-screen-web-apps-in-the-european-union.2419554/page-3][thread]] are closer to the first quote than the rest of those quotes.

However, this makes me less angry with /Apple/ (is it's to be expected from them) but instead with people who would defend them.
And as a result with myself, as I could see myself being one of those.

Apple is so close-knit ecosystem that one can use the entire digital world thought their lens only.
I remember how shocked I was seeing a humble ThinkPad with it's user-replacable memory[fn:tpad], SSD, and even Wi-Fi card[fn:wifi].
Things, which are standard and extremely pro-consumer, are imaginable when all you know is Apple.

Kids this day's (I always wanted to use this term. Get of my lawn) /live/ on their computers - be it a laptop of a phone.
But they are completely computer illiterate.
All they can do is to buy a device and tap the screen.

It would be completely fine if this was nothing more than a hobby, but computers in 2024 are much more than that.
The outside world is driven and shaped by them, so knowing how they work is /essential/.
However, instead of people being able to /understand/ how all of this works, they've accepted this close word.

Let's not call it /garden/ as this world has mostly positive vibe - even it's /walled/.
We should come with a more descriptive term, one that would be as disgusting as the entire idea being it.
I propose „surface traversable domain” - as one can only use what is on the surface.
Everything underneath or outside is inaccessible.
/STD/ for short.

[fn:pwa] [[https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Progressive_web_apps][Intro to PWA on mdm web docs]]
[fn:appstore] Read more on in my post [[/blog/2024/apple-dma/][Software devolution in the hands of Apple]]
[fn:wifi] Vide: [[/bsd/thinkpad/fixing-thinkpad-x1-wifi-on-freebsd/][Fixing ThinkPad X1 Wifi on Freebsd]]
[fn:tpad] Vide: [[/blog/2022/month_without_apple/][A month with a disgusting ThinkPad]]. I am still proud of this cheeky title.
** DONE Let me buy your stuff
CLOSED: [2024-02-14 Wed 16:08]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: let-me-buy-your-stuff
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: abstract Stream-only is not an option
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-r
:END:
I don't think many artists[fn:artists] visit my site, but no can can stop me from pledging you.

Musicians, writers, game developers. Please, let me buy your stuff.
Preferably /directly/ from you.

The only streaming I pay for is YouTube, and I want to drop it as well soon.
This means I am getting my dose of media locally.
From /files/ and /audio players/, like a gentleman.

Now, this gives me two options: high seas or purchasing.

Most of the artist I listen to are long dead.
And this makes the problem easy: I have no moral problem with simply downloading the stuff without any care for copyright.
If there is some new translation or the offer is good - sure.
But, looking at /A Love Supreme/:
- Coltrane: dead since the 60s
- Elvin Jones: dead since 2004[fn:props]
- Jimmy Garrison: dead since the 70s
- McCoy Tyner: dead since 2020[fn:props]
The album itself was released almost 60 years ago.
That's a lot longer than I am even alive!

But there are also new, young, and very much alive artists.
Just recently I've been listening to [[https://www.ambroseakinmusire.com/][Ambrose Akinmusire]]. I've bought both of his albums available on [[https://ambroseakinmusire.bandcamp.com/][Bandcamp]], and they are amazing.
I can't recommend Owl Song enough!

But that's just a portion of his work.
The rest is available only on streaming of by importing CD from the USA.
The first option is a *strong no* for me, as I respect artists too much to just participate in their destruction.
The other is acceptable, but the shipping costs are high (there's also the Amazon problem, but it's nothing compared to streaming).

So, please: if you create any form of art, consider direct sale.
Spotify, steam[fn:steam], netflix, amazon - those are not the only options.
I'm not saying to abandon them, as it would be crazy.
We're not in the good timeline after all.
But let me buy it as well!
I /will/ buy it and, as a result, give you more money from a single album than it's physically possible using Spotify.

[fn:artists] I respect you too much to use the word "content".
[fn:props] Mad respect for living such a long jazz-filled life.
When you read biographies of the Great Cats of the Past you learn that long lifespan is not something that comes from life on road... and drugs.
[fn:steam] Vide my article on [[/articles/digital-ownership/][Digital Ownership]].
** DONE Terry Pratchett's Interesting Times
CLOSED: [2024-02-13 Tue 21:06]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: interesting-times
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: abstract A very short review
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-r
:END:
Cover blurp:
#+begin_quote
Mighty Battles! Revolution! Death! War! (and his sons Terror and Panic, and daughter Clancy).

The oldest and most inscrutable empire on the Discworld is in turmoil, brought about by the revolutionary treatise What I Did On My Holidays. Workers are uniting, with nothing to lose but their water buffaloes. Warlords are struggling for power. War (and Clancy) are spreading through the ancient cities.

And all that stands in the way of terrible doom for eveyone is:

Rincewind the Wizard, who can't even spell the word 'wizard' ...

Cohen the barbarian hero, five foot tall in his surgical sandals, who has had a lifetime's experience of not dying ...

...and a very special butterfly.
#+end_quote

#+attr_shortcode: "pratchett-interesting-times.jpg" 
#+begin_img-r
Cover
#+end_img-r
I am, what one could call, an old school /nerd/.
All I care about are old operating systems, ancient editors and old SCIFI[fn:manga]
Ah, and some text based game where you are a cute "@".
/Of course/ I like Pratchett.

I started reading him /years/ ago in the only way acceptable - chronological[fn:wrong].
And I had a few years long pause.
Now, after a series of reading /only/ technical books I am returning to fiction.

/[[https://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/books/interesting-times/][Interesting Times]]/ is an ok-level Pratchett book.
It's not close to his best, it's not close to his worst[fn:worst].

This time Rincewind has to travel to Counterweight Continent and help a rebellion.
There he reconnects with old acquaintances - Twoflower, and Cohen to Barbarian.

The problem is that there is not much more.
We've got a lot of Chinese things, which is new.
But the story itself is extremely straight-forward.
Nothing memorable happens.
I finished it 2 days ago, and already I would have a problem recollecting any standing out moment.
I still remember moments from other /Discworld/ books a decade after I read them!

But Terry's writing makes me not care and just enjoy the journey.
He is able to make a boring story interesting, and his characters are always great.
I was reading the book while putting my son to sleep, and I almost gave him a heart attack with a laughter attack.
This alone makes it worth it!

Not the best place to start with //Discworld// (the best is, of course, /Colour of Magic/) but as n-th book in the series it's very enjoyable.

I give it a =3.75/5=.

*** Meta
- Read as EPUB on Onyx Boox Note Air 2.
- Read in Polish translation
- Next up: back to Andrzej Sapkowski's with "Time of Contempt". I am not a good pole, having not read the entire saga. I promise to do it before my 40th birthday[fn:fort]


[fn:wrong] It's ok to disagree, just like it's ok to be wrong.
[fn:worst] Being a bad Pratchett's book still means being a very good one.
Most authors would love to reach the level of one of those at least once.
[fn:fort] Which is closer that I expected
[fn:manga] And manga&anime, but that's beside the point.
Not American comics though.
Never cared about those, and it seems I never will.
** DONE Wireless free since 2023
CLOSED: [2024-02-12 Mon 11:17]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: upgraded-to-wired
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: abstract I have upgraded my setup to fully wired
:END:
I just noticed that my entire primary computer status is wired now:
- network is running through a copper cable,
- audio is going through a cable to headphones,
- my keyboard and trackball are integrated and wired.

I have to say, that upgrading from (legacy) wireless options was easy and good in the long run.
No longer have I think about batteries or spotty connections.
The setup works without any problems now.
Not only is the connection perfect, but also higher quality perfumeries were never downgraded to wireless connection, so when looking for premium headphones there simply is no BT based option[fn:hp]

Yes, cables *may* break - especially those for headphones, but since they are easily replaceable it's no problem.
Luckily, no one would buy headphones without detachable cable, right?

I can wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone.
The biggest surprise is that cables often come with /lower/ price compared to Bluetooth.
After a few months, I see no reason to downgrade it.

And pro hint: with an /USB switch/ I can move between personal and work computer /with a single keypress/.

[fn:hp] Well, there are but let's be real.
They will open their wings only with connected cable.
Even if there is a BT connection, it's better just use wire.

** DONE Ghost in the Machine (1993)
CLOSED: [2024-02-09 Fri 22:59]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: ghost-in-the-machine
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: abstract My mirco reviview of a computer thriller
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-r
:END:
Talk about a surprise!
I was expecting a /schlock/, but I've seen a nice move.
A dumb one, but still.

The plot is the biggest problem: a serial killer has an MRI and due to electric storm gets his soul moved to computer network.
With this, he becomes able to:
- kill person by moving to a microwave and changing its settings,
- kill a dog by arousing it with a TV program (using nothing by electric breakers), then hitting the dog with a VHS tape ejected from a VHS player which causes the animal to run towards the pool

#+attr_shortcode: "ghost-in-the-machine.jpg" 
#+begin_img-r
Cover
#+end_img-r
It makes as little sense in the context of the movie as it does here.
But the acting is (at the very least) acceptable and the FX are better than they should - and there is a lot of them.
Moreover, the camera work is crazy!
The movie /looks/ better than it should.
It seems that this dumb, little movie got more passion in it than the entire MCU combined.

The problem is that I have no idea what was going on.
People were dying, cool computer interfaces were shown, but the plot barely connected those scenes together.

It's a classic thriller from early days of personal computing revolution.
I enjoyed it a lot.
It is not a /good/ movie, but it is enjoyable.

I give it a =3.0/5.=

links:
- [[https://utf.thetvdb.com/movies/ghost-in-the-machine][Ghost in the Machine on TVDB]]

** DONE Phone usage and thoughts on Linux phone
CLOSED: [2024-02-08 Thu 22:08]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: phone-usage
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: abstract I want Linux phone, but it doesn't seem ready yet
:END:
Recently, I've become very angry with my iPhone.
Not only Apple is actively trying to become the worse company in the business[fn:apple], but the UI of the phone is getting worse with each version.
This makes me sure that my next phone won't be an iPhone.

But then, what do I need the device for?
Do I even need an /Android/ and toy with de-googling it?

It seems that I primarily need:
- phone calls
- SMS
- Browser
- SSH Client
- XMPP client
- Email
- Acceptable camera
- Audio jack and local music playback.[fn:ip]
  
It isn't much, so it looks like /Linux/ phone, like /PinePhone[fn:pine]/ would be more than enough.

The one thing which stops me from ordering one (together with that amazing keyboard case[fn:pinekb]) are the not-great reviews, like the one [[https://zerwuerfnis.org/daily-driving-the-pinephone-pro][Zerwuerfnis]] recently posted.

Now, as listed above: I don't need a lot.
But I want the phone do those things great.
I can accept ok-camera (with sadness), as there still are great point-and-shoots on the market - often much better than the ones in phones.
I stopped taking lots of photos[fn:photos] some time ago anyway.

What I can not accept is bad reception and bad battery life.
I am a father, and therefore phone is primarily an emergency device.
I need to be able to call the doctor whenever I need to, and I need to be reachable by the daycare.
And, from what I read, /Linux/ fails here.
It is much better than /iOS/Android/ and being geeky toy, but it is not ready to be a phone.

Seems I will need to wait a while longer to surround myself with superior mobile experiences, like SXMO[fn:sxmo]

[fn:pine] [[https://pine64.org/devices/pinephone_pro/][PinePhonePro on pine64.com]]
[fn:pinekb] [[https://pine64.com/product/pinephone-pinephone-pro-keyboard-case/][Keyboard on pine64.com]]
[fn:apple] [[/blog/2024/apple-dma/][Software devolution in the hands of Apple]]
[fn:ip] iPhone, of course, looses this test.
[fn:photos] Which, itself, is a subject for a different day.
[fn:sxmo] A tiling WM for a phone. Vide [[https://sxmo.org][official website]].
 
** DONE Music Monday: Owl Song 1 by Ambrose Akinmusire
CLOSED: [2024-02-08 Thu 21:11]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: owl-song-1
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: abstract An amazing new jazz release
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: yt
:END:

*Every Monday I will try to post some music, just to brighten up someone's day.*
*I stole this idea from [Ruben](https://rubenerd.com/tag/music-monday/).*

/Yes, it's Thursday./
And yes, it's been a while.

A lot of new Jazz releases add some drum machines, rapping and so on.
I am all for progress, but I don't like this particular route.

[[https://www.ambroseakinmusire.com][Ambrose Akinmusire]]  goes a different route.
I am not an expert (far from it), but what I hear are **amazing** harmonies and trumpet in the mellow style of Tomasz Stanko.
It's unapologetically modern without jumping onto pop music.
I love it!

#+attr_shortcode: "9bren_zvQwE" 
#+begin_yt
Owl Song 1
#+end_yt

You can buy the full album on [[https://ambroseakinmusire.bandcamp.com/album/owl-song][Band Camp]].
You can also check their [[https://daily.bandcamp.com/best-jazz/the-best-jazz-on-bandcamp-january-2024][best of January releases list]].

** DONE Books and their sizes
CLOSED: [2024-02-06 Tue 19:25]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: book-size
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: abstract A short rant about huge books
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-c
:END:
I used to /love/ buying physical books.
I would still /love/ to, but I am no longer able to.
It's not that the books are too expensive[fn:exp].
The problem is that I live in a typical European flat (64 square meters or 688 square feet) which means I am limited on space.
Books, however, have became /gigantic!/

#+attr_shortcode: "br-size-1.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Old and new polish edition of Blade Runner.
The new one is gigantic in comparison.
#+end_img-c

The publishers started internal war on my shelf space.
I would accept it if there were usability improvements, like bigger font size.
But nope - I fail to see any significant difference.

#+attr_shortcode: "br-size-2.jpg" 
#+begin_img-c
Old and new polish edition of Blade Runner.
The text sizes are very similar.
#+end_img-c

Back in the 90s, books were a wanted good and the published could not print enough.
In 2024, they lose the battle against yet another bore fest from Netflix.
They are a luxury now.

It's funny, as my last purchase (/Masters of Doom/) is a US issue which is much better sized.
It is bought to be stored in gigantic US houses, but it's much easier to store.

Guess I'll sell most of my post 2010 issues and replace them with older one.
There is an amazing 1993 issue of /Dune/ which gives me painful level of nostalgia.

[fn:exp] they are, but that's not the point here.
** DONE I no longer love The Web
CLOSED: [2024-01-31 Wed 18:54]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: i-no-loger-love-the-web
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: abstract I think I finally get why web no longer excites me
:END:
When I first started using The Web, sometime in the late 90s, I fell in love.
Unfortunately, the love is gone.
I don't feel inspired, or energized.
Most often I am anxious whenever a new fad enters the collective mind - be it crypto, NFT, VR or AI.

It wasn't always like that.
I was deeply into new tech things.
I devoured magazines and news sites and whenever I found something new, it seemed cool and even though I would not be able to afford it, it still made me feel engaged.

For a long time I've been trying to understand reasons for this change.
I now think there are two.

*** Big tech

When I think of inventions of the past, I think of small groups of people coming out with great ideas.
Be it Wozniak, Torvalds, Carmack, Knuth, or Stallman.
They were heroes, geniuses.
They gave their best and changed the world.
Nowadays, we've got Musk, Cook, or Zuckerberg on the forefront of the verge.

We've still got folks driven by hunger and ambition.
But they are powerless against capital.

"We're making something fucking cool" was changed to "we've made a great return of investment".
When I think of ClosedAI or Apple Vision, I am unable to admire the tech.
It is amazing, but I couldn't care less.
Instead, I wonder how will the drive for profit destroy it.

Technologically we are already living in what cyberpunk fiction warned us about.
What we use, and what defines us, is owned by a few incomprehensibly humongous companies.
Google and Apple are trying to own the digital world.
Altman and Zuckerberg are actively racing who will destroy the society faster.

We've allowed Silicon Valley to take the web from us.
One bite after another, we've given them everything.
Websites became social media profiles; IRC became Discord; email became gmail.

But we all know that.
The web is enshifitified beyond recognition.
But this is not it.
This alone is not why I fell this way.
All of this could be easily reverted.

This would break the web, but, by itself wound not be enough for me to loose faith in it.

*** No longer a safe space

The bigger problem is that there is no longer space here for people like me.
I joined The Web as an escape.
Most of the people I've met online were (at the very least) socially awkward.
It was different from now, in the sense that we treated The Internet as a completely separate place.
It was /our/ safe space.
We were not who were in the flesh word.
We were who we /wished/ we were.
Not for profit, but the heck of it.

In 2024 *everyone* is on The Web.
The Web is omnipresent, it became intertwined with the offline world.
You no longer /log in/ as it is no longer a separate entity.
It's all one and the same.

And with this all the problems of the /offline/ world polluted cyberspace.
The same people we were avoiding on our IRC channels, are the people who shape what The Web is.

Personally I blame iPhone.
This is the device that removed the barer.
"No mater where you go, everyone is connected"[fn:lain].
The Internet molded into the Flesh World.

The web was taken from us, and with that, it stopped being a truly safe place.
No longer one can be their true self, as we need to promote our meat suites.
How many people lost their jobs due to some random joke?
How many people pretend to be someone, who /others/ want them to be?

Yes, I was a troll and I felt that the web is /my/ control.
It was my escape, but it is no longer.
It is controlled by the same crowd who made my younger days much worse than it should be.

[fn:lain] A quote from "Serial Experiments Lain"

*** Escaping the failed escapism

This is why I find /retro/ so appealing.
I join small communities which are connected not by superficial, or physical attributes.
I am not on the Polish web, nor on man web, nor on guys who can't grow beard despite being almost 40 web.

These days I am into Emacs, and BSD.
Both are classic tech and people into them are into the same things I am into[fn:cool].
It's easy to find privacy, and cyber-independence oriented folks out there.
And it is exactly what the web was.
A community of people who had a lot in common, despite having nothing to do with each other.
I've met people online who I connected on a deeper level, than to people who I've eactually met.

On the web, I was not surrounded by classmates, or family.
I was surrounded by /my/ friends.
And we were playing on /our/ rules.

Those rules are no longer accepted.

It seems that by searching for like-minded communities I inevitably find people who are just much of a relict as I am.
But we are still on the hostile, soulless Web on today.

I have a son now.
He is 5.
20 years ago I would not be able to curb my enthusiasm for showing him around the web, for sharing our passion for cyberspace.
In 2024, I am afraid of what he will find here because he is so much like me.
Will he find his own /safe space/?

----

I am publishing this text with huge hesitation.
I know that most people won't agree, as they may see it as a personal attack.
It may be read as "not girls allowed".
It was not the intention.

But maybe I am looking at this wrong?
Maybe there is silver lining somewhere?

But hey, this is what /blogs/ are for.

[fn:cool] Not to mention that they are extremely cool!

** DONE Software devolution in the hands of Apple
CLOSED: [2024-01-26 Fri 19:51]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: apple-dma
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: abstract Apple tries dodging creating user freedom once again
:END:
Let's go back some 60 years into the past.
Image buying a /mainframe/ computer for a low price of 200k USD.
You can not install any arbitrary software there, as the architecture is closed.
PC with its openness will come in some 30 years.
For now, you have bought machine, but you are also renting it.
Any changes require a dedicated team to come to your site.
You are also forced to pay constant fee every month for the privilege to use the machine.

This was the standard way to /compute/ in the 60s.
But we have evolved.
Nowadays, you buy a computer and nothing keeps you from doing anything with it.

Unless you bought it from Apple.
Yesterday the Big A dropped a news article[fn:apple] about how they will comply with Digital Markets Act[fn:dma].

In short: they Cook-ed it.
They fulfilled the letter of the law, completely bypassing any reasoning behind the act.
One may say: Apple made the Cookie popup of the DMA.

Yes, external store will be possible and one may install[fn:sideload] programs bypassing Apple App Store.
It may even be possible to bypass Apple requirements for programs this way.
Hooray?

First of all: no /truly/ independent store will emerge.
Apple still needs to accept store before it is allowed to install anything.
And this comes with two requirements:
- 0.5Eur fee for each first install from so-called "Core Technology Fee" [fn:fee].
- 1 million EUR credit[fn:fee] [sic].
  Yup, to secure the above you need a letter of credit from a bank.
  This ensures that no independent store, akin to F-Droid will emerge.

But that's not all!
Apple requires that each version of you program distributed from different stores needs to be the same.
So, if you even think of having it /also/ on Apple App Store, you are forbidden from giving more freedom to a user in version sold /outside/.

And with those two Catch-22 requirements Apple stopped any real user freedom on their platform.
You may create an independent, non-for-profit store if you have enough profits to do that.

This goes against everything I believe in when it comes to /software/.
I want open computers empowering users, not closed ones guarding them.

And the scariest part?
Some folks are defending this policy.
Sometimes I feel like a relict of the past.

And I wonder how will they the botch opening iMessage.
I used to be an Apple fanboy.
I even owned an Airport Extreme.
But, as a father and person living from software development, I am at this point where I don't want to have anything to do with this company.

I own an iPhone 13 Mini and I hate UI.
I am forced to work on an MacBook and I hate how little one can customize there.
I also own an AppleTV and the availability of programs there is a joke.

I planned to /never/ buy an Apple device ever again.

But with this I am no longer just an ex-fanboy.
I am now actively *against* what they do and what they stand for.
This is no longer the company I fell in love with[fn:love].
For some time we've been discovering that a single provider shouldn't control the entire chain.
Apple became the /worst/ enemy when it comes to software freedom simply because /they can/.
Little by little, they prove Stallman's take[fn:stallman] is stop on.

Wake me up when Linux is ready for everyday phone use, because Google is a poor alternative.

[fn:dma] [[https://digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu/index_en][The Digital Markets Act on EC site]]
[fn:apple] [[https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/01/apple-announces-changes-to-ios-safari-and-the-app-store-in-the-european-union/][Apple announces changes to iOS, Safari, and the App Store in the European Union]]
[fn:sideload] let's not call it "sideloading".
[fn:fee] [[https://9to5mac.com/2024/01/25/apple-says-third-party-app-marketplace-creators-must-have-e1000000-letter-of-credit/][Apple says third-party app marketplace creators must have €1,000,000 ‘letter of credit’]]
[fn:love] yup, having any positive feelings towards a company is not a good idea.
Proven by case in point.
[fn:stallman] [[https://stallman.org/apple.html][Reasons not to use Apple]]
** DONE Technical book review: Hacking APIs
CLOSED: [2024-01-19 Fri 20:01]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: hacking-apis
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: abstract Short impression of 2600 magazine
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-r
:END:

#+attr_shortcode: "hacking-apis.jpg" 
#+begin_img-r
Cover
#+end_img-r
I am a software developer with a new-found interest in security.
Childhood spent watching hacking-related entertainment didn't go to waste.
When I saw the /hacking/ humble bundle, I knew I needed it.
My first read[fn:smnet] from that bundle was not a love at first sight I expected it to be.
Luckily, /Hacking APIs/ is a completely different beast.

The title says it all: it's about hacking web APIs.
The target audience seems to be aspiring pentesters.
I may even say that no prior experience is expected, as the author explains /a lot/.
You will learn how those APIs work, what to look when testing them and how to exploit them.

The book gives a really nice overview of most common vulnerabilities types, giving me new ways to be smug.
It is always welcomed.

Still, I will not benefit from a huge part of this book as it reads like a commercial for Burp Suite.
Yes, it is a standard and learning what one can do with it is great.
But I am not a pentester, so I will not need all that practical knowledge.
It's a great exercise for me, nothing more.

It will also come in handy if I decide to switch trades.

Highly recommended book!

*** Meta
- Read as PDF on Onyx Boox Note Air 2.
- Issues bought from Humble Bundle
- Next up: back to "Absolute FreeBSD".
[fn:smnet] [[/blog/2023/cybersecurity-for-small-networks/][Cybersecurity for Small Networks]]

** DONE 2600
CLOSED: [2024-01-12 Thu 21:23]

:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: 2600-magazine
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: abstract Short impression of 2600 magazine
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-r
:END:
For quite some time I've been looking for a magazine to read.
In my younger days, reading computer game magazines was the best thing.
Way before the +internet+ big tech ruined everything, polish gamers have already found a safe haven.
In the dark days of post-communistic 90s, we were feeling like living in the future.

And then they, one by one, died.
Killed by "free" sites filled with ads and sponsored content.

It may very well be anachronistic to wait for a review that will not even move on the screen.
But this is exactly what I found to be great about them - slow moving, regular, without much fuss, much more deliberate.

I've been reading quite a few magazines recently, but finally I have found the one which fills me with passion - just like the ones from my childhood.
Now I have something to wait from, to learn from and, well, feel to be a part of it.

I have finally found *2600*[fn:site].

What is 2600 you ask?
Well, the magazine self-describes as /The Hacker Quarterly/ and it fully shows the purpose.
It's a magazine written, edited and read by /hackers/ that is released since 1984[fn:1984]
Hackers in the /original/ sense of the word - tinkerers trying to expand what is possible to do with electronic devices.
Other than that, the team behind 2600 also organized *Hope*, a hacker-focused conference (known as what Defcon was when Defcon was good. I've never been to either one, so I'm just repeating) and even made a few movies.
They were also very involved in the "Free Kevin"[fn:kevin] campaign.

All in all, 2600 encompasses everything that is good about computer-oriented communities, and it rejects the current status quo of closed, surveillance based systems.

It's not that this is the first time I've heard of it, but with the digital version, it finally became economically sane to get familiar.

Funny enough, I've bought my first issue late in December - just a few days before the next issue came out.
After finishing those two, I feel extremely satisfied.
I don't remember when was the last time I wanted to read a magazine from cover to cover.
This is exactly what the doctor ordered.

The biggest shock for me was how /soft/ the magazine is.
On the Internet, all /hackers sites/ focus on the technical stuff.
/2600/ also has some articles that are strictly technical, but there's not much of them.
It is, however, full of /hacker/ culture.
For me, as a /hacker/ much more in /spirit/ than in /abilities/, this is simply wonderful.

It seems that U found what I was looking for a long ass time.
All this, because 2600 is finally available as digital download.
I need to give my data to make the payment, but the PDF comes without any DRM.
Beats paying dozens USD just for shipping by a mile!

Though paying by Monero would be much more l33t.

Finally, as part of [[/blog/2024/email-project/][The Email Project]] I have emailed the editing team.
A significant portion of these 2 issues I've bought is occupied by letters from readers.

*** Contents of  Winter 2023/2024 issue (40-4)
#+attr_shortcode: "2600-40-4.webp" 
#+begin_img-r
Cover of issue 40-4
#+end_img-r
- The Road Behind
- The Dark Side of DNA Data
- The BoneBox
- Artificial Intelligence and Creativity
- Career and Gloating in Las Vegas
- TELECOM INFORMER
- Enhance Your Typing Experience With Mechanical Keyboards
- Adventures in Lockpicking
- Ooops; v97.129
- Geo-Distributed Bug Bounty Hunting
- Being a Hacker
- Byte-Sized Justice: A Tale of Hacker Ethics and Copy Protection
- A Quick Intro to Biohacking
- HACKER PERSPECTIVE
- Privacy: Protecting Your Personal Information Online
- The AI Risk Nobody Seems to Mention
- American Shanzhai, Part 4
- EFFECTING DIGITAL FREEDOM
- Quantum Computer Algorithms, Part III: DES Decryption
- GPT Revolution: Reimagining Programming in the Era of AI
- Snitched Out by Tech
- I Fight for the Users
- ARTIFICIAL INTERRUPTION
- Platform Capitalism Can't Surveil Absurdism (and Worse)
- Alzheimer's and AR Tech
- Book Review: Pegasus
- Book Review: Fancy Bear Goes Phishing

*** Contents of Autumn 2023 issue (40-3)
#+attr_shortcode: "2600-40-3.webp" 
#+begin_img-r
Cover of issue 40-3
#+end_img-r
- Memories to Come
- Designing an OpenAI Powered IRC Chat Bot for Fun and Profit
- Cute App, But I'll Use My Own
- Saying Goodbye to an Old (GPFS) Friend
- TELECOM INFORMER
- The Arrival of 2600 Digital Delivery
- Why Aren't You Cracking Your Users' Passwords?
- A Technology Life Story
- Social Engineering is Forever
- Is AI More of a Tool or an Ethical Challenge?
- Quantum Proof Encryption
- But I Don't Want a Copilot
- HACKER PERSPECTIVE
- Diskless Malware
- Hacking the Airwaves
- Adventures in Zero Trust
- American Shanzhai, Part 3
- EFFECTING DIGITAL FREEDOM
- Go On a Journey
- Morbid Curiosity in the Weaponized AI Era
- See You on the C-Drive (A Series of Late 20th Century Fragments)
- ARTIFICIAL INTERRUPTION
- Is 2600 Still Relevant?
- Learn Linux, People!
- WasteTrackers and More


*** Meta
- Read as PDF on Onyx Boox Note Air 2.
- Issues bought from [[https://2600.com][2600.com store]] <BR>
- Next up: back to "Hacking APIs". It's great!

[fn:site] [[https://2600.com][Official website of 2600]]
[fn:kevin] [[https://www.mitnicksecurity.com/blog/how-the-free-kevin-movement-changed-the-cyber-security-industry][How the Free Kevin Movement Changed the Cyber Security Industry]]
[fn:1984] that's one year older than me!

** DONE The Email Project
CLOSED: [2024-01-03 Wed 18:26]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: email-project
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: abstract This year I want to rely on Email even more!
:END:
I have no resolutions for 2024, as the last ones were dropped long before December.
There is however one thing I wanted to do for a long time: to rely on Email more.

So my project for 2024 is as simple as sending email.
I will not use any other means (sigh, social media) to reach people I want to contact.
Instead, I will use plain, old email.http://localhost:1313/blog/2023/cybersecurity-for-small-networks/

Last year one person (won't name publicly due to respect and privacy) emailed me, and we've been exchanging messages since then.
It was the surprise of the year and I met a person I would never have a chance otherwise.
I would like it to happen more, as this is a great growth experience.

I'm not leaving [[https://emacs.ch/@mms][Mastodon]], but I will not approach people using it.
Furthermore, I'd love to leave Discord and Messenger, but folks there are pretty stubborn :)

** DONE Links for week #01
CLOSED: [2024-01-03 Wed 18:12]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: links-01
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: abstract Cool links from week 01 of 2024
:END:

It's the New Year, so here are some cool links I've stumbled upon recently:
- **[[https://www.anildash.com/2024/01/03/human-web-renaissance/][The Web Renaissance Takes Off]]** -
  Maybe the web is not lost?
  A very short opinion piece.
- **[[https://www.jwz.org/blog/2023/12/remember-when-mozilla-made-a-web-browser/][Remember when Mozilla made a web browser?]]** -
  I use Firefox, I promote Firefox, and I am very sad to have to agree with author
- **[[https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/things-are-about-to-get-a-lot-worse][Things are about to get a lot worse for Generative AI]]** -
  Guess who got caught training on and recreating copyrighted content?
  Spoiler: it's AI
- **[[https://blogsystem5.substack.com/p/the-ides-we-had-30-years-ago-and][The IDEs we had 30 years ago... and we lost]]** -
  A cool, short article on IDEs of the past and how little have they progressed
- **[[https://aftermath.site/true-lies-4k-uhd-blu-ray-james-cameron-peter-jackson-park-road-post][They Want You To Forget What A Film Looks Like]]** -
  jump from VHS to DVD was huge; from DVD to HD big; from HD to 4k was incremental at best.
  In this article we explore a few recent upscales and how bad they are.
  Spoiler: it's AI

But, most importantly, The Weaver published _TWO_ new articles on computer history:
- [[http://wovenmemories.net/2023/12/30/First.Operating.System_Part.2.html][First Operating System -- Part Two]]
- [[http://wovenmemories.net/2024/01/02/Subroutines.html][Subroutines]]



* 2023
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_HUGO_SECTION: blog/2023
:END:

*** DONE Ownership in the digital age                             :@update:
CLOSED: [2023-12-08 Wed 23:00]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: digital-ownership
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract Digital economy has taken over and with this we need to reevaluate what it means to actually own something. In this article I try to present my definition of ownership and what results from it.
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :aliases '(/articles/digital-ownership)
:END:

It is often said that you can't own anything unless you have a physical thing in your hand.
So, any digital purchase is not ownership. 
A Blu-ray is.

> ... And in the case of "Oppenheimer", we put a lot of care and attention into the Blu-ray version […] and trying to translate the photography and the sound, putting that into the digital realm with a version you can buy and own at home and put on a shelf so no evil streaming service can come steal it from you. ...  \
> Christopher Nolan

This made me wonder and the longer I thought, the less I could agree.
The simple fact that you own the carrier does not necessary mean that you own the content.

**** 1. What it means to own something?

Here are a few questions I asked myself to get to that conclusion

- *Can you access it?*
This is simple. 
I have paid for it, can I access it assuming all requirements are fulfilled?
If not, this is a scam.
- *Does it require subscription?*
Do I need to pay again to use it? 
Case in point: any SASS. 
You don't own any Netflix content.
- *Can you run it locally?*
I have paid for it. Can I run (play) it on my local machine? 
Or is the provider infrastructure needed?
Example: any cloud software.
You can't run Notion on your machine.
- *Can someone take it from you?*
Can someone block me from accessing it?
Case in point: Amazon removing copy of /1984/ from Kindles[^1984].  
Note, that the situation where law enforcement or judge can take it from you is completely valid.
We have a different relation with governments than with private companies.
- *Are there any locked features?*
Are there features provider can use, but you can not?
You need to /hack/ your android device to gain root privileges.
- *Can you sell it?*
Can I sell my copy?
You can't sell previously bought game on Steam[^steam-acc].
- *Can you back it up*
Can I create a copy in case of breaking the original?
Disks can break and data stored on them can rot.
You can't back up Blu-ray without defeating DRM mechanisms.
This is the first moment I disagree with Nolan.
- *Can you copy it?*
Can you create an identical copy?
It's a digital entity, so identical copy is the easiest out there.
I don't mention selling here, just to create a copy.
Again, Blu-ray with DRM block copying.
- *Can you borrow it?*
Can I borrow it to a friend?
You can borrow a Blu-ray, but not a Kindle book or PSN game.
- *Can you access it on wide range of devices?*
Can I access it on a device fulfilling technical requirements?
I don't expect to run an TRS-80 game on PlayStation 5, but why can't I play my DVD bought in Europe after traveling to North America?
Ergo, any DRM "secured" digital good is not owned.
- *Can you modify it?*
Can you change the home screen layout of iPhone outside what the designers provided?
- *Can you repair it?*
A bit self-explanatory.
Can you repair your MacBook assuming you have the skills required?
What about the Windows copy you use?

[^1984]: [[https://archive.nytimes.com/pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/some-e-books-are-more-equal-than-others/][Some E-Books Are More Equal Than Others]]
[^steam-acc]: I know that people sell entire Steam accounts with games, but this is bypassing the no-sell policy; not a feature.

Nowadays, it's almost impossible to make a transition regarding a digital good which would tick most of those ticks.
Back before everything went digital it would be difficult to find cases which *wouldn't*.
Not all of them, as it would be difficult to copy a refrigerator (but not impossible) but the sentiment remains.
It used to be that owner was able to exercise much broader freedom of usage.

**** 2. Impact of ownership on my perceived value

As I've hopefully explained before, almost all digital goods on the mark don't fall into "possible to own" category.
But if we pay for it, where does it leave us?
I needed a word to define the result of transaction which does not pass ownership.
And there is such word: /rent/.

Renting was always there.
I would rent videotape for a local rental.
I would rent a book from local library.
I would rent a car from car rental company.
None of these were ever considered a /purchase/, because why would we?
I paid for access, but whatever I rented was still owned by the other party.

This is not the exact case as with the primary subject here.
I am lured to believe that I own "my digital purchase" because the timeframe is not defined upfront.
Therefore, I think of a Steam, Amazon, PSN, iTunes "purchase" as indefinite renal.
I may lose access at any moment[^sony], I just don't know when.
It may happen due to multitude of reasons: the company may go bankrupt, the license may expire[^sony], my account may become blocked[^sony2], or the company may pull out and close the service[^google].
[^sony]: [[https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/12/playstation-is-erasing-1318-seasons-of-discovery-shows-from-customer-libraries/][PlayStation is erasing 1,318 seasons of Discovery shows from customer libraries]]. Seriously.
[^sony2]: [[https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/several-playstation-users-locked-out-of-their-accounts-get-permanent-suspension-message-from-sony-2472107-2023-12-05][Several PlayStation users locked out of their accounts, get permanent suspension message from Sony]]
[^google]: [[https://www.wired.com/story/google-stadia-shutting-down-phil-harrison/][The End of Google Stadia]]

The wording here is exact: I may /loose access/. Yup, this is what I mean when I think of renting.

There was, however, one huge benefit of renting when compared to buying: the price.
It was always much cheaper to rent a move than buy one.
It made perfect sense.
I was able to watch a rented movie for a few days, and then return it.
The renter would invest in purchase, I would pay a small amount and the world would still do its thing.

In the digital age this gain is no longer valid.
When renting becomes the only option, there is no reason to offer it cheaper than ownership.
And therefore renting of digital goods is expensive.

Too expensive.
If we start to think that the "buy" button actually means "rent", that $60 shiny new game stops making so much sense.

**** 3. Digital scarcity

But since it is commonly understood as "purchase", then companies can try to use our collecting impulses.
And they are strong, just look at any random tech channel.
People want to collect, and to put things in their collections.

Steam library is often a reason to brag about.
I have a thousand games they say!
I played 10, but I have 1000!

And so there are preorders.
Get you digital purchase early, be the first to own it.
Get *rare* add-ons (as if anything digital can be rare).
Pay extra for super-duper version with limited horse armor (nothing stops them from releasing the bonus content later on).

The idea come from olden days, where getting stuff soon may have been the only way to actually get it.
If it's vinyl record they are selling, they indeed may run of it.
If it's download, the only way to stop next person from it is greed.

**** 4. "My" page

A special mention goes to Facebook with their brilliant "My page" marketing.
"Visit our Facebook page" is what I often see and hear.
And yet there nothing "theirs" on that page except of content, to which right were transferred to Meta the moment someone hit "send".
This is (still) free, but using the "My" word is further eroding the meaning of ownership.
Please, don't.

**** 5 The pirate in the room

And now the sad part: the closest way to own digitual stuff  warez[^dmca].
Crackers, in order to bypass the DRM mechanism (now called jail breaking) need to remove limitations enforced on the end user.
You can copy a pirated game, you can borrow it, you can modify it, you can archive it.
It's more /yours/ than the biggest of Steam libraries.

[^dmca]: My views on DMCA are not part of this article. Someday I'll write one and get banned from Google.

**** 6. Conclusion

Where does this leave me?
I can't change anything and the transformation to digital-renting of everything is here to stay.
Everyone wants me to rent to something - be it streaming service, or a car company.

However, when I stopped thinking that I can actually own anything, my perceived value of digital stuff couldn't be lower.
I may drop a few bucks for a digital-download.
But above that?
Hard sell.

Meaning of words change over time, and they always had.
The definition of "ownership" was clear but no longer is.
The word can mean any financial transaction or be nothing more than marketing ploy.
You can have zero ownership (Netflix), a bit of it (PSN), a lot of it (GOG[^gog]).
And this gradation correlates my interest of doing business.
I'll **gladly** pay an author for a DRM-free PDF of their book if I can download it. 
I'll happily buy a DRM-free game from GOG.

But below that level of purchasing? Well, I can either skip it completely or think of other ways of obtaining it.

[^gog]: [GOG 2022 update #2: our commitment to DRM-free gaming](https://www.gog.com/news/bgog_2022_update_2b_our_commitment_to_drmfree_gaming).


*** DONE On generative content                                    :@update:
CLOSED: [2023-12-20 Wed 22:47]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: generative-content
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract I don't believe that AI will kill us, but I strongly believe it will lessen us. Here I try to describe that by looking at impact on art, culture, tech, and potential benefits.
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :aliases '(/articles/generative-content/)
:END:
It seems that generative content from "modern" AI models has been with us forever.
In reality this is still a new fad.
The feeling is here because it seems that every few days we hear new product or controversy.

However, I still remember that computers were to be unable to replace humans in /creative/ work.
That the /human/ part is irreplaceable, and machines can only reproduce.
I think it still the case.
But, somehow, artists, techies, and all kinds of other folks all over the world are afraid of loosing their means of living.
Rightfully so.
But why?
**** 1. Mass-art market
When I was younger, I was very into cinematography.
We had so many directors with their voices - Jarmush, Lynch, Smith, Tarantino, Cronenberg, Carpenter, Boyle, Ritchie, Anderson, or Fincher.
And that's just the USA!
They had the voice - even when imitating, the movies were distinctly /theirs/.
They got chances, so we all knew them.
It is no longer the case.
The mid-budget movie is almost non-existent, and that's where the creativity strived.
The popular movies, the ones that make all the money, are indistinguishable copies of each other.
What earns the money is the same, big budget CGI fest without any real meaning or personal touch.

In photography the end product is so removed from the original, that often it is impossible to see similarities.
Everything that is not perfect is corrected and removed.
We don't see people from posters on the street because they don't exist in the same reality we do.
This is what we call /content/, this shapeless blob filling platforms.

The mass-market "art" (and I use the term here very loosely) was removed from the /human/ a long time ago.
Why take chances, when we know what will work?
And if you know what will work, why even bother with humans?
An AI can create the script, and we can reuse that 3d model of Bogart - because why not?
What we see and what we pay for is no longer /human/.
It's more machine than that - endlessly modified to be as close the blob of mass appeal as possible.
Indistinguishable from each other.

And this is where generative algorithms strive.
When we exactly know what we want to produce, where there is a mathematical equation of beauty, we're no longer in *human* creativity.

Since the most popular /content/ is made from the same mold, LLM models can create it as well.
In fact, it can create it better, as those /imperfections/ that a human might have missed, an AI can easily remove.

All the Dall-E pictures are perfect. They are impossibly complex and complying to the popular norms.

They are also boring. 
It's the imperfections that make /art/, well, /Art/.
No human creation is perfect and this why computer generated /content/ can not be called art.
It's too studied, too ideal, too perfect.

But the mass market pulp is what allows /artists/ to live.
This is where they make the money.
This is what pays the bills, what puts the food on the table.
Why pay 50EUR and wait 2 weeks for a Fiver order?
You can get just as good result in 10 minute chat with a bot.

LLMs have reversed humanity.
I fear that we are getting back to the state where /art/ may come only from /suffering/;
where artists live to create that one piece which may immortalize them, but this life is not what modern world promises.
We are to no longer see /hungry/ people in developed countries.
We are to no longer experience /pain/ in pursue of /happiness/.
Why would anyone choose it?

Therefore, I am afraid that this will decrease the number of people who choose creativity as their living hood.
Without them, we will be destined to status-quo of mediocrity
It will be perfect, but it will be soulless.

Just as the mass market is now, just without anyone pushing it forward.
And with us, running the hamster wheel of never ending /content/.
**** 2. Tech market
The other, very popular, use case is code generation.

GitHub Copilot can translate a short query into an evaluable code.
It is sold as a mean to automate the /boring/ and /repetitive/ tasks - creating boilerplate, configurations, loops, or simple algorithms.
But are those really lesser tasks than the big ones?

I've been a professional Software Engineer for 10 years now.
My journey has not been the typical, one where one finishes either IT college, or a boot camp.
I'm self-thought, and I joined It Crowd from other occupation by sheer luck.
The company needed /Ruby/ developer and boom - there I was.
Not the perfect candidate, but I was capable, eager and hungry.

I've made a lot of mistakes, I've wasted a lot of time, I've taken down the production on a few occasions.
All of those could have been avoided if I used a code generation.

But it's impossible of overstate how important those menial tasks were in making me into a real /Software Engineer/.

With every mistake, I learned. 
With every issue, I became swifter to jump into action,
With every boring, repetitive task[^ruby] I gained insights into how stuff works.
[^ruby]: with /Ruby/ and /Ruby on Rails/ there aren't many of those but still, you do the same things from time to time.

But the biggest growth came from the most hated task of all - writing tests.
It is there where I learned how to write a usable contract; it is there where I learned the value of documentation-as-a-code[^cdac]
Would I learn anything from "hey copilot, write tests for this class"?
I doubt.
[^cdac]: very often the best documentation of a contract is the test for it.

This was what every intern/junior would do - the dirty work.
With the dirty work comes the realization that the real world is not perfect, not every code is good and not every developer is good at being a developer.
And with Copilot we are loosing it.

We are losing it two ways: first, juniors will not learn; second junior will not be hired.
We are already seeing that there are much fewer offers for sub-senior positions.
Why would it be different?
A senior aimed with code generation can do the work of many junior and one senior.
It makes /perfect/ economic sense.

But this is also the suicide of the industry.
Without new blood, the tech crowd will shrink.
Companies want infinite growth, and will not stop at anything to accomplish it.
We've seen all the visa scandals, the inclusivity actions, the offshoring[^contr].,
It's clear that all those had only one goal: to increase the pool of /cheaper/ candidates.
The typical programmer is expensive; someone fighting to leave poverty is not.
But now the competition is no longer /someone/ cheaper, but rather something that's never tired, and can create infinite number of creations, but is still /cheaper/ than a human can ever be.
When was the last time you tried to outrun a train?
When was the last time you tried to fight a machine to give your children a better start?
[^contr]: this is not the place where I want to address those subjects, but their existence is important for this article.
**** 3. Maybe I am wrong
But what if I am wrong?
We've seen similar things before.
Ever since the beginning of industrial revolution, more and more industries were mechanized and automated.
The machines needed someone to take care of them, to design them.
And the rest of the populi moved to other areas.

Will it be the same?
Well, how much work does an /algorithm/ need to operate?
We are still in development phase, so we see a lot of people working there.
But when we will reach plateau?
There will be a time when it will be good enough.
A moment when companies will buy it and not expect it to be better.
How many people will be needed then?
What will be left to do?

Will Universal Basic Income be enough?
It assumes infinite growth, and this may be in the hands of very few, gigantic companies.
We already see how big influence Altman and Open AI has.
There will still be rich, the 1%, so money will still be an issue.
Will we simply do yet another October Revolution?
**** 4. Utopia that is false
The best case scenario is that humanity, as a whole, will ascend.
Free from the shackles of menial task, we will all be poets and explorers.

This is what /Star Trek/[^old] is all about - a world where we no longer need to create and work to survive.
In place of that, we are free to pursue adventure, knowledge.
With nothing to gain, why one would need power? 
Money?
We can focus on the humanity as one entity, to make it better.
[^old]: old Trek, at last.

In /Star Trek/ this was not created by removing jobs but by presence of /replicators/ - a device capable of creating virtually anything.
No longer food is scarce, we can simply create it.

Replicators are like LLM, but they create things of intrinsic value.
This is what removed the shakles.
And this is the biggest difference: LLM don't create anything that will actually free us.
It will never make our lives better and freer.
It will make it easier for /few/ on the cost of /many/.
**** 4. Summary

I believe that LLMs will steal of us younger talent, who has yet to make a dent.
They won't have the chance to learn and earn on the basic stuff, so they will not be in position to create the big thing.
The cost of using LLMs is so low (and will only become cheaper), that there will be no place for them.
And I am afraid that the post-LLM market can find worthy place for them.


** DONE OpenBSD: Live from OpenBSD in Amsterdam
CLOSED: [2023-07-19 Mon 22:47]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: moved-to-openbsd
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract A short info on OpenBSD Amsterdam
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :aliases '(/2023/moved-to-openbsd /bsd/moved-to-openbsd/)
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-
:END:

This site, in its infancy, was running Debian on Linode.
Then I moved [fn:fbsd] to [[https://freebsd.org][FreeBSD]] on Vultr.
Today marks a day of another migration:
hello from [[https://www.openbsd.org/][OpenBSD]] running on [[https://openbsd.amsterdam/][OpenBSD Amsterdam]].[fn:bloggers]
[fn:fbsd] [[https://michal.sapka.me/2023/early-freebsd-thoughts/][Early FreeBSD Thoughts]] 
[fn:bloggers] for technical folks, tinkering with their sites is just as fun as making them.
I still have to create a "Yet Another Blog System", but discovering BSD was a great award in itself.

*** OpenBSD

#+attr_shortcode: "openbsd.png" 
#+begin_img-r
OpenBSD Logo
#+end_img-r
OpenBSD is one of the three most popular BSD distributions.
While [[https://www.netbsd.org/][NetBSD]] focuses on running on obscure hardware[fn:netbsd], and [[https://freebsd.org][FreeBSD]] has ZFS as its killer feature, OpenBSD is all about security[fn:security].
I was very happy with FreeBSD, but at the same time, I was never fully confident in my ability to configure it securely.
Not that my server hosts anything of real value[fn:mwl-mail], but I still wouldn't like a machine I administer to become a cog in some botnet.
Between learning forensics and a new OS, the latter seems nicer.

OpenBSD's official project goal[fn:goals] states that even though they aim to provide the most secure OS, each developer has their own goals and can freely pursue them as long as the project adheres to these goals.
It's a very different approach to what we see anywhere else.
There is no 10-year roadmap and constant consultations.
Instead, we have a hacker-oriented[fn:hackathon] culture.
This resulted in multiple projects having their inception in OpenBSD, like [[https://www.openssh.com/][OpenSSH]] or [[https://www.libressl.org/][LibreSSL]].

OpenBSD ships with a secure by-default mindset.
All non-essential services are disabled, and those running are using sensible configurations.
For example, I had huge problems configuring a firewall on FreeBSD, especially for IPv6[fn:ipv6].
On OpenBSD, it was much simpler.

OpenBSD being a BSD, provides a complete system - system and user space are developed together.
No GNU tools are needed, as everything comes together.
At the same time, BSDs come with a lot of surprising things out of the box.
FreeBSD wowed me with Jails[fn:jail].

All in all, a lot of things I've learned on FreeBSD are easily transplantable to OpenBSD.
They say that all BSDs are separate OSes, a stark difference from distributions of GNU/Linux.
I fail to see it, as so much works the same.
The package manager of FreeBSD may be more modern, and the separation between system space and user space[fn:hier] is not so evident here, but so many things work the same.
I can not pretend to be a pro-BSDer, but I fail to see evidence of them diverging so narrowly to call them completely different OSes.
But then again, maybe it's just my poor judgment and love for POSIX.

And still no SystemD(1) in sight. I don't have enough willpower to learn forensics or Rust, not even to mention an OS-level complex PID1 process.

** DONE FreeBSD on the Desktop won't improvide unless people are using it
CLOSED: [2023-03-29 Mon 22:09]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: desktop-freebsd-wont-improve-unless-people-are-using-it
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract I have hits from /r/bsd, but almost none of those people are using BSD
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-r img-c
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :aliases '(/bsd/desktop-freebsd-wont-improve-unless-people-are-using-it/ /2023/desktop-freebsd-wont-improve-unless-people-are-using-it)
:END:
Shamelessly, I posted my previous post, [[https://d-s.sh/2023/freebsd-on-thinkpad-x1-extreme-g2/][FreeBSD on a Thinkpad Extreme G2]] on [[https://www.reddit.com/r/BSD/comments/124v5cm/freebsd_on_a_thinkpad_x1_extreme_g2/][/r/bsd Reddit]].

The result, some 24 hours later, is 100 visitors.
Out of that 100, 57 are using a desktop.
Out of that 57, only 2 used FreeBSD—2%. No other BSDs are recorded.

People who are into BSD don't use BSD.
This seems to be a reason for lacking hardware support.
If no one uses FreeBSD, no one will encounter those problems. If no one encounters them, no one will fix them.

*** Update 2023-04-14

The article, got quite the round around the internets, gathering some interests from [[https://old.reddit.com/r/freebsd/comments/126fvkz/desktop_freebsd_wont_improve_unless_people_are/][Reddit]], [Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35378367), Twitter, Discover BSD, or [[https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2023/04/03/valuable-news-2023-04-03/][Vermaden]].
With all that interest come quite a few questions and comments.
The following is an attempt to summarize it all.

**** People who use FreeBSD don't care about FreeBSD hardware

This makes perfect sense.
If your FreeBSD installation on X220 works flawlessly, you may not care about anything more modern.
But there will come a time when you will need to replace the hardware. 

#+attr_shortcode: "freebsd-beastie.png" 
#+begin_img-r
FreeBSD Beastie
#+end_img-r
This comment, however, came as a proof that the sample from my blog is invalid.
This may be the case, but I don't buy it.
All traffic on the aforementioned post came from Reddit's BSD forum.
It's the one place where you could expect that people using BSD would hang.
It may also be that it's quite a random sample - it's small, and people who have yet to become into BSD but are BSD-curious opened my blog post.
I am in no place to debunk or confirm this.
I, however, know that many people presenting at FreeBSD conferences do it using Macs or Windows.
So even if the numbers are dubious, the overall feeling remains sorrowful.

To add to the above: there are also stats for the commented opinion piece.
Two hundred forty-four people opened it from /r/freebsd.
Of that, 24 people were using FreeBSD, and just 2 were using OpenBSD.

**** Your statistics may be invalid as people mask their browser agent.

This also may be the case.
Why, then, is the referer not spoofed?
It's a much more invasive data point than the underlying OS.
But I'm a simple Firefox user, never used Librewolf. 

**** FreeBSD is a server OS

Yeah, this is the sentiment I've read before jumping aboard.
My problem with this idea is that each and every FOSS OS is a value in itself.
The current poster boy,
Linux, also had huge problems getting to work on various machines.
In my opinion, it's limiting OS to a single use case is a completely valid point - your use case for FreeBSD is on a server, and this is where it currently shines (or not, depending on your experience).
Some folks despise allocating any FreeBSD dev time to the desktop as there are many server issues.

But again, I don't see it this way.
Limiting FreeBSD to the server only is short-lighted.
Unless you are already powering your servers with BSD, there will always be a question: "Why not Linux. It's what everyone else is doing".
And Linux got into its current position not by being a great server machine but rather by attracting the interest of some very skillful people.
And it did it by allowing more and more people to free themselves from Windows on their machines.

I see FreeBSD problems as having two primary causes: the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_wars][Unix wars]] of the past and limited resources now.
If FreeBSD were easier to use on a wide range of end-user machines (which tend to be laptops), the easier it would for people to want to develop it.
BSDs are now a far second choice.
Why would someone invest time?
They may fall in love with the OS, but unless they try it, it will never happen.

**** I like our small userbase

I'm as elitist as the other person. [[https://dwm.suckless.org/][DWM]] stated that

#+begin_quote
"This keeps its userbase small and elitist.
No novices asking stupid questions.
#+end_quote

I can't find this quote anymore, but the sentiment seems similar.
However, there are two aspects here.

FreeBSD comes with no graphical interface by default.
This makes it much closer to minimalist distros than Ubuntu.
This still allows anyone to feel like a hacker.

The second, however, is that some problems are unsolvable by end-user.
Writing drivers is EXTREMELY difficult, and, as I've recently learned (thanks, Jeff!), this is especially true when it comes to WiFi drivers, as there is no open implementation.
This means that any progress requires a trial-and-error process based on reverse engineering.
No one without deep knowledge of low-level programming will be able to make any progress, and even those few will need people with real hardware for testing.

**** Hardware support is years behind Linux

Yes, and this is what I was referring to.

**** Why would anyone use BSD on a desktop?

It's a great system, just needs a lot of work on hardware support :-)

**** Your post is worthless, and only the comments are interesting

It's more than I anticipated. That post was small and written without any deeper research. But the discussion around it makes me believe that I hit something real.



*** OpenBSD Amsterdam

#+attr_shortcode: "openbsd-amsterdam.png" 
#+begin_img-r
OpenBSD Amsterdam logo
#+end_img-r
I had a similar exodus of server providers.
First, it was Linode, then Vultr.
Linode became useless when I wanted to try BSD.
Vultr was great as it provided images of FreeBSD and OpenBSD for its VMs.
But why stop halfway?
Vultr doesn't use BSD as the base system.
While it may not be a big deal, I've recently learned of[[https://openbsd.amsterdam/][ OpenBSD Amsterdam]][fn:aws].

OpenBSD Amsterdam is a small company based in (to the surprise of everyone reading this) Amsterdam.
What's even better is that they serve OpenBSD VMS from OpenBSD hosts via vmm(4) and vmd(8) - a small virtualization driver baked into OpenBSD. Cool.

What's even cooler is that they give a significant part of their earnings to the [[https://www.openbsdfoundation.org/][OpenBSD Fundation]].

I could not resist, and a day after learning about them, I had already paid for a full year.

*** Updates

2023-12-12: moved info about web stack to a [[/bsd/open-bsd-web-stack][dedicated article]].

[fn:mwl-mail] at least until "[[https://www.tiltedwindmillpress.com/product/ryoms-esponsor/][Run Your Own Mail Server]]" finally lands in my digital hands
[fn:netbsd] There is a semi-widely known story about running NetBSD on a [[https://www.embeddedts.com/blog/netbsd-toaster-powered-by-the-ts-7200-arm9-sbc/][toaster]].
It may not support a modern WiFi card, but if the device is old, you can run NetBSD on it.
[fn:security] At least officially.
In reality, I'm test-driving it on my laptop and have much fewer problems than with FreeBSD[fn:tphistory].
[fn:tphistory] You may want to check my writing about this epic fight - [FreeBSD on Thinkpad X1 Extreme G2](https://michal.sapka.me/2023/freebsd-on-thinkpad-x1-extreme-g2/).
[fn:goals]: [[https://www.openbsd.org/goals.html][OpenBSD Project Goals]]
[fn:hackathon]: enough said that OpenBSD coined the term "Hackathon" before corporations stole it - like the internet.
[fn:jail]: Jails are FreeBSD containerization mechanisms based solely on chroot(8). Ever since I learned how simple it can be, I started vocalizing my disgust for Docker.
[fn:ipv6]: [[https://michal.sapka.me/2023/fixing-ipv6-and-securing-the-domain/][Fixing IPv6 and securing the domain]]
[fn:hier]: vide hier(7)of [[https://man.openbsd.org/hier][OpenBSD]] and of [[https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?hier(7)][FreeBSD]]
[fn:aws]: notice the lack of Amazon Web Services.
Screw them.
They have almost all of the interwebs in their server farm, but they will not have this blog!


** DONE FreeBSD: Early thoughts
CLOSED: [2023-02-15 Mon 21:12]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: early-freebsd-thoughts
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract I've been using FreeBSD on my server for the last few weeks and I like it!
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :aliases '(/bsd/early-freebsd-thoughts/ /bsd/early-freebsd-thoughts)
:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-r img-c
:END:
I'm leaning more and more towards joining the [[https://www.freebsd.org/][FreeBSD]] crowd. 

The community is small and welcoming, and I'm driven towards more minor groups.
But I was surprised to find out hoh welcoming it was.
People seem to be actually happy to help a noob - something the Linux crowd forgot how to do.

#+attr_shortcode: "freebsd-beastie.png" 
#+begin_img-r
FreeBSD Beastie
#+end_img-r
Another aspect is the documentation.
People say it's excellent, and I consider it to be selling short.
I'm reading [[https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/][The Official Handbook]]
It starts with the assumption that the reader has close to 0 knowledge but never treats him as a moron.
And chapter by chapter explains how and why things work this way.
It may not be for everyone, as you are expected to want to learn - but it is invaluable if you are in the target group.
It's worth reading even if you don't want to move to BSD, as a lot applies to other NIXs, like Linux.

And, of course, the system itself.
I've been using unix-inspired OSs exclusively for over a decade (and quite often before that).
FreeBSD is so close, that from day 0, I am able to navigate it.
And what I see is a very well-thought system without many pitfalls Linux fell into.
Just two examples that strike me the most.

In Linux, the root partition is a mess.
System and userland are intertwined, and I wonder if anyone understands where things should go.
Just look at how many explanations of the structure there are!
Should this particular config be in /var/ or maybe in /etc/?
AFAIK there are no generic guidelines, just tribal knowledge.
If FreeBSD, there's a [[https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/basics/#dirstructure][dedicated chapter]] in the documentation!
There's also a strict rule where userland should live - in /usr.
Everything you install goes to /usr - the executables, the configs, etc.
Finally, a new user can experiment without fearing breaking the system!

The other one is the `rc` subsystem.
The Linux world has a neverending war between Systemd and, well, everything else.
Here?
The system itself dictates how to manage the cattle - elegantly and logically.

#+attr_shortcode: "freebsd13-bootloader.png" 
#+begin_img-c
How the OS greats us.
#+end_img-c

FreeBSD comes with two package managers: pkg and ports.
Pkg is a standard replacement for brew/apt/pacman or whatever else is there.
What is nice is that the user can configure to use packages updated quarterly or the latest.
Want to have a stable infrastructure?
Go with quarterly - bug fixes will be included in between updates.
Want modern thingies? Go with the latest.
My biggest issue with Ubuntu and its derivatives is how far behind the packages in apt are, as they are tied to the yearly distro update circle.
You can mitigate this by using personal repositories, but those are a nuance to set up.
FreeBSD comes prepared for servers and workstations at the same time.

And then there are ports for the demanding crowd.
Since BSD is semi-compatible with Linux, you can compile most of its software.
But there are some differences, so it requires some manual configuration or looking for dependencies.
Or rather, it would, as FreeBSD has you covered.
Ports is a single repository with makefiles for different projects tailored for the system.
You can either compile anything with default settings or adjust the parameters easily.
Want Firefox without JS support? Why not! I have yet to use ports, as they seem excessive for my humble VPS, but I love the idea.

So, you have the best features from Ubuntu (stable versions), Arch (cutting edge), and from Gentoo (compile from source code) right at your disposal. 

I am **this** close to installing FreeBSD on my personal computer. My work-issued Macbook is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_(operating_system)#Kernel][already running a BSD derivative]]... for better or worse.

** 2022
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_HUGO_SECTION: blog/2022
:END:

*** DONE Dynamic DNS
CLOSED: [2022-05-13 Fri 22:26]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: ddns
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract DDNS is a DNS for folks with non-static IP. Here I try to choose the best for me.
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :aliases '(/2022/ddns/ /articles/ddns/)
:END:

I am one of the unlucky ones without static IP address.
I would get one from my ISP, but this would require me to upgrade to a business contract.
And to do such upgrade, I would need a company - which I do not own nor have I any plans to own in the near future.
Luckily, I can still have a domain.
There is a group of services under the umbrella term Dynamic DNS.

[[https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dynamic_DNS][DDNS on Arch Wiki]]

Basically, I need to point my domain to their name server and keep them up to date with changes of my IP.
The DDNS server acts as a middle-man when using a normal domain.
In most cases, I just need to fetch a given URL periodically ad the service will treat this as current IP set.

**** Self hosting vs 3rd party

There are ready-made packages I could install on any VPS, but debugging DNS is not something I would like to do.
Therefore, I will go with 3rd party.

I looked through the interwebs for providers and found lots of them.
Unfortunately, most of them are dead, so the choice is much less difficult.

**** Requirements

After a short analysis, I came up with few requirements:

| Max number of domains               | 3          |
| Max number of subdomains per domain | 20         |
| Expected uptime                     | 95.5       |
| Location                            | Europe/USA |
| MX Records                          | YES        |
| TTL                                 | 10min      |

**** Instant rejects

I instantly rejected some providers, since they will now work for my use case:

| Service               | Reason?
|-----------------------+-----------------------------
| activedns.co.za       | South Africa only
| bcu.cc                | Site does not open
| ddns.nu               | Site does not open
| dhcp.io               | Domain for sale
| dhs.org               | Site does not open
| dns.widge.net         | Site does not open
| dnsdynamic.org        | Some random site under the address
| dnsmadeeasy.com       | It's namecheap now
| dnspark.com           | It's namecheap now
| dtdns.com             | Broken site
| dyn.ee                | Domain for sale
| dyn.ro                | Domain for sale (I think)
| dynamicdomain.net     | Site reads like poor phising attempt
| dyndsl.com            | Domain for sale
| domain-dns.com        | Not accepting new zones
| dyndnsservices.com    | Offers self-host only
| dynfree.com           | Broken site
| dynup.net             | Broken site
| hldns.com             | No longer offers DDNS
| hn.org                | Site does not work
| homepc.org            | Site does not work
| hub.turnkeylinux.org  | Site does not work
| microtech.co.gg       | Site does not work
| minidns.net           | Site does not work
| myonlineportal.net    | Only 10 domains per account
| myserver.org          | Broken site
| nettica.com           | Domain for sale
| nicolas.cx            | No sign-up via web
| nubem.com             | Site does not work
| ods.org               | Domain for sale
| powerdns.com          | Self hosted solution
| prout.be              | Self hosted solution
| spdns.de              | No english site
| system-ns.com         | No longer offers DDNS
| tzo.com               | Site does not work
| whyi.org              | Site does not work
| worldwidedns.net      | Does not support enough zones
| xname.org             | Site does not work
| yi.org                | Site does not work

## The potential ones

After removing most positions from list, I dig a big deeper:

| Service               | Price         | Uptime    | Location
|                       | per year      |           |
|-----------------------+---------------+-----------+---
| changeip.com          | $6            | 99.9% (1) | USA
| dhis.org              | Donation      | ?         | ?
| dns2go.com            | lots$         | ?         | ?
| dnsexit.com           | FREE for TLD  | 100%      | Distributed
| duckdns.org           | FREE          | ?         | ?
| duiadns.net           | $11           | ?         | ?
| dynaccess.de          | 22EUR         | ?         | Germany
| dynamip.com           | $48           | ?         | ?
| dyndns.berlin         | FREE          | ?         | Germany
| dyndns.com            | $55           | ?         | ?
| dyndns.dk             | FREE          | ?         | ?
| dynip.com             | lots$         | ?         | ?
| dyns.cx               | Donation      | ?         | ?
| dynu.com              | FREE          | 100% (2)  | Distributed
| easydns.com           | FREE          | 100%      | ?   
| freedns.afraid.org    | $60           | ~99.3%(3) | ?
| noip.com              | $24.99        | 100% (2)  | ?
| planetdns.net         | $299.95       | ?         | ?
| staticcling.org       | FREE          | ?         | ?
| thatip.com            | $48           | ?         | ?
| thebbs.org            | FREE          | ?         | ?
| totaluptime.com       | $1188(SIC!)   | ?         | ?
| zonomi.com            | lots$         | ?         | ?

 - [(1) whtop.com](https://www.whtop.com/review/changeip.com)
 - [(2) comparingtech.com](https://www.comparitech.com/net-admin/dynamic-dns-providers/)
 - [(3) dnsperf.com](https://www.dnsperf.com/dns-provider/afraid-org)

Notes:
- "?" - I couldn't find data, but also I wasn't looking very hard
- "lots$" - some providers have a complicated pricing and at first glance it was obvious, that it will be expensive.

 As we see, some working providers are crazy expensive. They add extra features, but still - crazy expensive. 

**** Conclusion

DDNS is a strange market. It's mostly dead. But when the service is still available, it seems to be run from someone's basement. There are companies in the space, don't get me wrong - but most of it looks like hacker culture byproduct. And this makes sense, since the primary use case for DDNS is someone without static IP - ergo, an individual and not a company.

The sad aspect of this is lack of any SLAs in most cases.

The happy aspect of this is that you can get a lot for very little. 

**** Decision

Looking at the data, I have decided to go with dynu.com as it has 100% uptime, and it's free. 

**** Setting up dynu.com on Synology

First, create a dedicated IP update password on dynu.com. It's optional, but highly recommended. 

Then, in Synology Control Panel open External Access, then click on "DDNS" tab. Click "Customize Provider" and set query URL to

#+BEGIN_SRC
https://api.dynu.com/nic/update?myip=__MYIP__&username=__USERNAME__&password=__PASSWORD__&hostname__HOSTNAME__&myipv6=no
#+END_SRC

Now, add a subdomain. Note, that it would be best to MD5 the password.






*** DONE GNU Stow                                                 :@update:
CLOSED: [2022-06-09 Fri 22:26]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: gnu-stow
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract GNU Stow is a tool for managing symlink farms, used primarily for dotfiles. Here you can find a short guide on how to use it.
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :aliases '(/articles/gnu-stow)
:END:
If you are working with Linux/BSD based system, you are most likely accustomed to managing your configs with dotfiles.
And you most likely have them stored with Git.
But there is the never ending problem of how to actually use them.
I have moved management of this under GNU Stow.

Let's take a very typical dotfiles repository.

#+BEGIN_SRC shell
./nvim/init.lua
./tmux/tmux.conf
#+END_SRC

You want to have those files available as 

#+BEGIN_SRC shell
~/.config/nvim/init.lua
~/.tmux.conf
#+END_SRC

The most popular approach would be to symlink the files under the expected location.
We could also copy the files every time something changes, but that would be crazy.
Are we the stuck with having to do those symlinks manually every time we install a new machine or create a virtual one? And what if we have dozens of such configs stored under git? 

**** Symlink farm

GNU Stow is a symlink farm.
This means, that it's a system aimed at automating creating of those symlinks.

[[https://www.gnu.org/software/stow/manual/stow.html][GNU Stow website]]

For Stow, the dotfiles directory is called "Stowed" directory.
Now comes the cool part.
Each folder in the Stowed directory (called "Package directory") stores a separate directory tree.
GNU Stow will join all those separate trees and create a proper structure under Target Directory, which by default is the parent of Stowed directory.
Let's look at example.

#+BEGIN_SRC shell
~/target/stow/one/config/one.conf
~/target/stow/two/config/two.conf
~/target/stow/three/config/three.conf
#+END_SRC

So, our home director now has a "Target" directory, which has a "Stow" directory.
The Stow directory stores three configs which we want to symlink as

#+BEGIN_SRC shell
~/target/config/one.conf
~/target/config/two.conf
~/target/config/three.conf
#+END_SRC

Let's stow the first one

#+BEGIN_SRC shell
cd ~/target/stow
stow one
#+END_SRC

And see what happened

#+BEGIN_SRC shell
cd ~/target
ls -lA
#+END_SRC

We get something like

#+BEGIN_SRC shell
lrwxrwxrwx 1 msapka wheel   15 Jun  9 23:01 config -> stow/one/config
drwxr-xr-x 5 msapka wheel 4096 Jun  9 22:55 stow
#+END_SRC

Stow created a config symlink in the target directory.
Very cool, but it gets cooler! Let' stow the second one

#+BEGIN_SRC shell
cd ~/target/stow
stow two
#+END_SRC

and what we get

#+BEGIN_SRC shell
drwxr-xr-x 2 msapka wheel 4096 Jun  9 23:03 config
drwxr-xr-x 5 msapka wheel 4096 Jun  9 22:55 stow
#+END_SRC

Our config is no longer a symlink, but a real folder.
Let's see what's inside here.

#+BEGIN_SRC shell
cd config
ls -lA
#+END_SRC

#+BEGIN_SRC shell
lrwxrwxrwx 1 msapka wheel 27 Jun  9 23:03 one.conf -> ../stow/two/config/one.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 msapka wheel 26 Jun  9 23:03 two.conf -> ../stow/one/config/two.conf
#+END_SRC

We have our two configs, but what has happened?
Stow looked at both subtrees for "one" and "two" and joined them in a way, that is possible.
The only way for one.conf and two.conf to exist in config is if config is a normal directory. Extremely cool!

Let's image that our target is actually homedir, so we have a ~/dotfiles directory.
Then each package directory can mimic the tree structure of the actual config! Coming back to our example, we can have a 

#+BEGIN_SRC shell
~/dotfiles/tmux/.tmux.conf
~/dotfiles/nvim/.config/nvim/init.lua
#+END_SRC

Then, after stowing both packages we have symlinks under our desired

#+BEGIN_SRC shell
~/.config/nvim/init.lua
~/.tmux.conf
#+END_SRC

GNU Stow is a very simple tool. All we need to understand what will happen with each subtree.


*** DONE Adding simple music server to my network
CLOSED: [2022-05-25 Fri 22:26]
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: music-server
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract As part of my partitioning with streaming services, I have created a small music server on my home network. This article touches on how to get music, how to store and how to actually listen to it.
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :aliases '(/articles/music-server /2022/music-server)
:END:

/This is an old article, and even though it is still valid, I no longer use Linux/

One of my goals for 2022 is to not pay for music subscriptions anymore.
Nowadays, it's really easy and cheap to actually own my music.

**** Getting music
Internet is full of cheap, used CDs and new music is ready for purchase on sites like Bandcamp.
Since I mostly listen to dead people, CDs are my primary source. 

The first problem is having something to put a disc in.
I've gotten myself a cheap USB-CD/DVD drive.
It's very loud, but since I use it only for getting the data to my computer, it's not a problem.

I rip (a word that I have not seen in a long time) on MacBook using XLD app.
I plan to move this step to Linux soon.

[[https://tmkk.undo.jp/xld/index_e.html][XLD homepage]]

I rip the music to FLAC, which seems to be standard.
It's lossless and most file-based players have no problems with it.
Of course, not everywhere.
iOS is always problematic, but I don't listen to music on the go very often, so it's a problem for future me.

A single album in FLAC takes about 200-300 MB.
I still remember MP3 days, where it would go down to 60 MB or less, but back then storage and transfer were actually expensive.
I don't hear any noticeable difference between FLAC and good compressed file, but again - storage and transfer is cheap, Furthermore I have a single high-res album where half an hour takes 750 MBMB and there is zero difference.
Well, now I know, and I won't buy-high res ever again :)

**** Storing and serving music

The music will be accessed by multiple devices on local network, so putting it on the Home Server makes perfect sense.
I now have a dedicated share "music" which is shared via Samba and NFS.

Samba seems better than NFS, but then NFS on Linux is simpler to set up. 

For Samba, I need to add read+write access to Music share for each user from Synology web UI.

NFS on the other hand doesn't support users, but devices instead.
The first step is to set static IP for my devices (which is always a good idea).
How exactly this should be approached depends on the setup, but I use UniFi Dream Machine and forcing IP for a device is very straight forward.
After I have static IPs, I can add read/write access for those addresses, also via Synology web UI.

Served music is so small, that this does not add any noticeable overhead for the server.

**** Accessing the music on Linux

First, I needed to install NFS support. I use Arch, so:

#+BEGIN_SRC shell
  pacman -S nfs-utils
#+END_SRC

Then I checked if the share actually exists. My server's address is 10.0.1.200.

#+BEGIN_SRC shell
showmount -e 10.0.1.200
------------------
Export list for 10.0.1.200:
/volume2/music 10.0.1.10
#+END_SRC

Voilà! Next step: check if it works

#+BEGIN_SRC shell
  mkdir /mnt/music
  mount 10.0.1.200:/volume2/music /mnt/music/
  cd /mnt/music
  ls
#+END_SRC

And listing worked.
Noice.
To automate it for future, and to allow non-root users to actually mount the drive I added a new mount to /etc/fstab:

#+BEGIN_SRC shell
10.0.1.200:/volume2/music /mnt/music nfs _netdev,noauto,x-systemd.automount,x-systemd.mount-timeout=10,timeo=14,users,x-systemd.idle-timeout=1min 0 0
#+END_SRC

After the first user accesses /mnt/music, the drive will be mounted. 

**** Playing the music using CMUS

We have access to the files, let's play it.
Every modern music player for Linux should work with Flac, but I've chosen CMUS.
It's fast, it's terminal based, and it supports VIM keybindings. 

[[https://cmus.github.io/][CMUS on Github]]

#+BEGIN_SRC shell
pacman -S cmus
#+END_SRC

After we open cmus, we need to add music.
It's done similarly to VIM, via an ex command. 

#+BEGIN_SRC shell
:add /mnt/music/
#+END_SRC

And a few seconds later, the music is visible in the player.
Using CMUS requires reading the manual

#+BEGIN_SRC shell
man cmus-tutorial
#+END_SRC

but the basics I needed to play something from Artist/Album view were:

| key   | descrition                            |
|-------+---------------------------------------|
| j     | go up                                 |
| k     | go down                               |
| tab   | change active window (artists/tracks) |
| space | expand artist to album list           |
| c     | play track / pause track              |
| e     | add track to queue                    |
| q     | exit                                  |


Extra bonus: after first configuring system I had some problems with audio not working from time to time.
Moving from Pulse to Pipewire solved them all.

[[https://pipewire.org/][Pipewire webpage]]

**** Listening on Mac via CMUS

I have no idea how to auto mount a server on MacOS, so after every reboot or network change, I need access the Samba share via Finder.
After it's mounted, I can access it under /Volumes/music.

On Mac I also use CMUS, so all of the above apply as well.
One difference is adding the files due to different location

#+BEGIN_SRC shelll
:add /Volumes/music
#+END_SRC

**** Next up 

This doesn't solve all my needs. In the future I need to find out how to:

- Access The Music Outside My Home Network
- how to marry this setup with my multiroom system (Sonos + Homepods)




* WIP
** TODO Bringing back web buttons, antipixels, and banners
** TODO Wikipedia is a problem
French Wiki bans contributors based on their opposition to trans people naming (https://eldritch.cafe/@Pandora/111980158155555456)
Wikpedia has a list of /controvesion subjecs/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_controversial_issues


** New things make me sad
** TODO Don McMillan  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwz-