● 08.16.23

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 16/08/2023: First Contact With an Antenna, Ben’s Gemcast Has New Episode

Posted in News Roundup at 10:31 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Gemini* and Gopher

Personal/Opinions

• Yesterday was spent at my Grandma’s funeral. She died 2 or so weeks ago in a quiet manner after not really eating or drinking for the past 4 months. My Grandma had been suffering from vascular dementia for 6 or so years although managed to stay in her home thanks to carers until the last 5 months. The day I realised that the woman I loved had changed significantly was when she went grey. If she was well, she would never of not dyed her hair. I still have no idea what her natural hair colour was. I am not sure my mum knows really.

• My response to the call that she had died was very matter of fact and there was relief that she had stopped suffering. The last time I visited, she was just lying in bed in the dark. There was a response but she was not able to really concentrate. Luckily my brother was there and went into his work mode. He works as a pharmacist in care homes so is used to patients in her condition. Following that, there were tears but weird tears.

• So do I! Or, well, probabably more likely a skirt. A skirt seems like a more versatile replacement for pants and shorts, and I would expect to have better luck finding a skirt that fits well. Lately I have been trying to improve my sewing skills beyond clothing repair so I can reliably make my own clothes. If anyone knows of some good skirt patterns, let me know.

• When I was a senior in high school, I was afraid of the prospect of my childhood ending and that I’d have to go out into the real world. I struggled with self-confidence for much of my life, and I doubted that I’d be able to succeed in anything I tried. I was also afraid of leaving the comfort and familiarity of home. When it came time to choose a university to attend, I gave up on my first choice because I was intimidated by how far I’d be from my family and friends.

• That trend continued in college. I didn’t apply myself very hard, partially because I was lazy and partially because I feared I wouldn’t do well even if I tried. I ended up graduating with a GPA lower than 3, and with no hope of continuing into graduate school–a goal I’d adopted by default because I was scared of entering the business world.

Technology and Free Software

• I’m a radio amateur newbie and I’ve struggled to get on the air with my shortwave BITX40 radio and my 20m long wire antenna on my balcony. For a long time I’ve also owned a Baofeng UV-5R+ handheld radio for the VHF/UHF bands, but never actually used it. It’s very cheap (about $25 when I bought it), doesn’t have many bells and whistles, but still as a lot of bang for the buck.

• Compared to shortwave, VHF/UHF is much easier to get into. No need for a huge wire antenna. The tradeoff is that you only are limited to line of sight range, compared to the bounce-off-the-ionosphere action that allows shortwave to reach between continents. On the other hand you have VHF/UHF repeaters on hilltops that have powerful radios and good antennas (and this very good range). These allow people to talk to each other using the repeater as a hub.

• One evening I programmed the freqencies for the repeaters in my area into my handheld and listened in on a conversation. I thought I recognized one of the guys from an antenna day in Motala the year before. Maybe it was him… Another night I felt it was time to call CQ and see if anyone would answer. Lo and behold, the same guy answered my call! Well, he heard that someone was trying to call, but he said he couldn’t read the call sign.

• I’m in the process of selling my flat. Therefore I’ve learned how to put up new wallpapers, and I’m using my amateur handyman skills to fix smaller aesthetic blemishes.

• I’m updating my OpenTTD mod Tea Tea Deluxe, adding custom train carriages for monorail and maglev. And tweaking smaller things, of course. Because why wouldn’t I?

• I’ve done a whole lot of kit and scratch bashing lately. The kids and I are getting into Warhammer 40k (not playing, though, because that was just boring). Models are expensive, but a package will give you a lot more than it says on the box. Lots of extra arms, heads, and weapons for alternative builds. The sprues are great for bashing too. I scored an expensive box for half price because it was incomplete. Still a bargain compared to buying the included models separately. With fimo clay, extra bits, and select pieces of trash one can make pretty cool stuff.

• So I decided to rewatch one of the old flash animations from Homestuck today. Thanks, youtube Music algorithm for suggesting that activity. I guess.

• I remember being so hype about Homestuck back in the day, circa 2011-2012. Any time Hussie updated it was like an Unannounced Random Christmas. My then-boyfriend now-husband and I would freak the fuck out and go read or watch them with ravenous fervor. Like, to use the terms of nowadays for back then, we were positively *pogging* out our goddamned *gourds*.

• The old domain is valid until 10th of september 2024. Until this date it will permanently redirect all requests to the new domain to prevent broken links (status code 31). Hopefully this works good enough.

• Besides the fact that I didn’t like the “foobucket.xyz” name (I’m not good at naming things), the new domain “redterminal.org” has the advantage that it’s more search engine friendly (already got some “web creators”/”SEO” spam after 3 days). Search engines like wiby.me or marginalia.nu didn’t accept the old domain. I’m not completely sure why, but I think these judge “xyz” TLDs as spam domains.

• I really wish I could get the paper edition, but it was sold out. I got the digital version for $25 (pdf, epub and text), but… The book has tons of insets, photos, and graphics, and the epub, unfortunately, cannot keep up with it. CoolReader, my favorite epub viewer, does not break lines correctly in example text, and surrounds each inset with things like

Internet/Gemini

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