Entries with no specified language (Page 14)

The web is too slow for most of what it's providing.

Entry created on 2024-08-16 Authors: steeph (376) Categories: #100DaysToOffload (41) EDGE (1) Gemini (2) Mobile Internet (1) World Wide Web (10) edit

I have a certain fondness for the Gemini space ever since its initiation. I like the main idea and am continuesly glad to see it growing in size and usefulness. I imagine that this is similar to how the web looked like at some point. Although I'm not about to make a Gemini site, I sometimes end up browsing other's sites. And it's a better experience every time. New search engines and other services, new blogs, geeky, topical sites and collections. It's such a great space for consuming interesting information when you're not exclusively looking for one specific piece of information.

Recently I was reading some personal Gemini sites and regretting not having more time before initiating a long duration of sleep is inevitable, when I suddenly noticed that I wasn't connected to the WiFi I thought I was getting my internet through. I was getting my internet through an EDGE connection with one bar on my Unighertz. That is generally not enough to do anything on the web noawadays. I wouldn't even deem it enough for today's emails. Mastodon works with that kind of connection. But you have to wait a very long time for thumbnails. Twitter didn't work at that speed when it still existed. But browsing Gemini capsules it hardly makes a difference. Not different from what I expected. But having had this experience I'm even more confident now in saying that most web sites are shit. Even a page from this site with relatively few data to load besides the actual content often consists of more than 50% of things that are not the blog article (CSS, menu, markup).

I've often thought about different ways how the Web could be used in a way that provides a better experience by making sure that bloated, malicious and faux sites aren't even linked to, without impairing the usability too much. People had so many ideas. Some of them more viable than others. But neither those I've read or heard about nor those that I could come up with fundamentally solve the problem (if you want to see it as one) that the web technologies are extremely flexible and powerful to the extend that they might as well be seen as infinitely capable of any function (and resource usage) imaginable only restricted by the client and server hardware in combination with the fact (and I think it has been sufficiently proven as such by reality) that people will create web sites that make use of the possibilities simplified by the accumulation of abstraction layers built on the core web technologies. Bad web sites will be built and linked to. Avoiding them will always be a hassle and can probably only be reliable if huge cutbacks are made by excluding the majority of web sites completely. An improved web experience in the form I imagine it would likely be easiest to achieve by starting from the ground up and creating a new web, possibly by restricting to a set of older technologies. Often suggested are CSS2, (X)HTML4 and a very limited set of JS instructions, although any set of technologies in various versions, no JavaScript, a new set of HTML tags, etc. has been suggested by now. Trying to find a way to technologically realise such a new, independent web might be a moot task.

A web built exclusively on older versions of the technologies that make up the World Wide Web seems desirable. It's what I and many others are used to already. It's very easy to make sure existing web sites work as expected on that new web: If they worked in Firefox 2, they're good. But taking this idea of a new web further, one might want to modify the feature set to prevent the same development happen to parts of the new web that happened to parts of the current web. And that's exactly the path of thoughts that Solderpunk seems to have followed and that might have lead them to the feature set of Gemini. (I'm sepculating here.) I don't agree with every single design decision. But almost all have a very good reason that adresses something that went wrong with the Web.

I've come to believe that this is the way to go if you want to escape the bloated web.

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The fucked up films that I like

Entry created on 2025-12-03 (edited 2026-01-04) Authors: steeph (376) Categories: Drama (1) Films (22) Trageties (1) edit

There are many different films that I like. But among those I value the most and left impressions in my life are noticably many of a sort I struggled to describe in the past. Since I write about Films here almost as much as I talk about them I thought an attempt at a description of what films I enjoy might be relevant to the blog.

I don't know why - and I'm not interested in analysing why - but I enjoy watching heavy family dramas. I mean real dramas, not just films that are less comedy than drama. Films that manipulate the tear glands right. It doesn't have to be about a whole family either. The absence of one or a dysfunctioning family works as well. Story components that often work well for the sort of drama that I mean are injustice, unfair treatment, underdogs that don't get theit wishes fulfilled, life circumstances outside of someone's reach, tragedies. Child characters are easy to write into several of these circumstances. And it's easier to provoke strong empathy for them. Similarly, sad things that happen to them are usually more sad. For example a child of a heroin-addicted single mom doesn't choose its life circumstances. It's unfair, it's sad and circumstances are more likely to lead to another tragic event on top of the difficulties inherent the child's fateful situation. Love stories can also create strong feelings and evoke tears. But the best ones still use tragic story elements to get there. ("Oh, would they only know...") Sickness, death, child abuse, mental illness and accitents are resourceful and, in my opinion complementary and seldom extreme enough, story elements for dramas.

It might sound weird to enjoy watching other (fictional characters') misery as entertainment because crying feels good. And it sounds just as weird to me when I say it like that. But when it comes down to it, that's what it is that puts a film on my list of relevant, good dramas. Tragic situations with tragic developments and tragic outcomes. Scenes specifically written to pull at your heartstrings. My heartstrings let themseves be pulled by such scenes, even when the story seems excessively sad or annecessarily tragic to some. A film where you're not surprised that it doesn't have a happy ending is the sort of dramna that I enjoy. A film where you're not surprised by the fact that it doesn't have a happy ending but by how suprprisingly tragic it is has a good chance to maske it on my list of favourite films.

It's not that I enjoy seeing the misfortune or pain of others. It hurts to watch some movies. And when I learn that the movie was actually based on a true story it can hit even harder. But in some weird way, the distress caused by a tragic drama, making me not touch dramas at all for weeks or months or making me have bad dreams, and the excitement from watching a tragic drama, making me want to watch more, are the same feeling. The difference lies in my (current) ability to cope with the feelings.

This post is some sort of confession. I don't always feel comfortable explaining what sort of drama stories I'm looking for most. I put this reluctance aside for a few moments for writing this post. Maybe this will help me in the future to explain better what I'm looking for or what I like to watch. And if not, at least now you know and can recommend relevant media when the opportuunity comes.

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These are some films that I think more people should watch.

Entry Permalink Authors: steeph (376) Categories: Films (22) Shared (17) edit

Edit: I realised that there is no reason for this post to exist becaue that post there already became what I intended this one to be become. I'll leave the below for a bit but I'll replace this post with a redirection eventually.

I thougfht I'd just start collecting a few titles here of independent or lesser known films that I think more people might enjoy or get something out of. I don't actually check how welkl known a movie is befgore I put it on here. I'm pretty sure there will more than a few titles of independent films that havbe won numerous awords or are widely known among film enthusiasts. I just go by feeling whether I think a film belongs on this list or not. I have started this list as an addition to my list of favourite movies. These here are movies that don't belong on my favourites listr but that I still like or like to share. Actually there is no clear rule whether a film goes here or there or in a separate post. It will stay that chaotic, I guess.

This list is meant to grow slowly over time.

In This Very Moment (2003)

German – Moods: Calm (Dramatic, Adventurous, Worried)

Their step mother drops off a young girl and her younger brother at the side of a country road in Poland because she needs a minute without them. When she calmed down and comes back shortly after, the two children have disappeared. The film follows the siblings through different places, getting picked up and lost again as well as the worrying father and his wife who can't bring hertself to confess what she did/what has happened.

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Film: Angela (1996)

Entry created on 2025-11-28 Authors: steeph (376) Categories: Child Neglect (1) Childhood (1) Depression (1) Mental Health (2) Run Away From Home (1) Trauma (1) edit

This is a film about the good and the bad, child neglect, illness, wrong angels, fallen angels, faith, fear, trust, self-worth vulnerability and childhood in general. I intentionally didn't include sins in this list. Angels can fall for various different reasons, including bad luck. The film uses a lot of christian metaphor. But I wouldn't call it religious as a whole.

Two sisters of roughly 9 and 5 years, a father who works a lot and a mother who cries a lot make up this poor family. The two children are amongst themselves most of the time. The older sister, Angela, takes the lead during everything they do together. She uses religious rituals to hold on to sanity and innocence, to banish the devil and to entice good angels to make her mother happy again. At home they encounter various chances of enriching their collection of traumas. During their one-day adventure of running away after their mother is hospitalised, they meet very different people for short amounts of time. In some cases you wish they had had more time to become better friends; in another case you can't believe their luck that cut their encounter short. In the end, though, they only have each other - and their trust in god.

This movie plays with the feelings of the viewer. It builds up empathy quickly, then slowly destroys any good thing that may be carried by it. It pokes at your heart, pushes it around, only gently enough to keep you watching until the end.

I think I like this film because it takes the innocent view of a child from a broken family and really uses its potential to create sad moments that this setting allows for. The ending of course is also one that leaves an impression if you're emotionally invested in the characters. Although I didn't consciously see it that way while watching, the film contrasts the careless freedom that child-like innocence can offer with harsh and dangerous reality of life. The children escape their worrisome environment, mentally and then also physically, which allows them to live this freedom that we expect children to have. But it is not in the frame of a save home.

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Discordianism

Entry created on 2026-02-15 Authors: steeph (376) Categories: Discordianism (1) Philosophy (5) Politics (6) Religion (2) edit

I used to call myself a believer in Discordianism on occasions where it suited me in the 2000s. And I was a follower of its ideas, on occasions where it suited me. After the 2000s it simply didn't come up much. But some of the Erisian mentality always stayed with me, like it has always been part of my thought processes; before I knew about Discordia and after I have stopped reading the Principia. But lately, some of the concepts and stories idealised by disciples of Erisianism – including myself 20 years ago – have occupied my mind – occasionally – in a different way than back then. Some of those thoughts I feel are worth sharing. Let's see if I can remember them and translate them into words.

(…tbc)

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Old Cherry Keyboard Repair

Entry created on 2025-09-14 (edited 2025-11-17) Authors: steeph (376) Categories: Computers (22) Electronics (16) Keyboards (10) Vintage Computing (2) edit

I found a Cherry G81-1000 in the scrap recently. It's one of those old 101 key models with a metal board and oldish mechanical switched. Model M fans would probably disagree. But it is comparible with an IBM Model M in many ways. Maybe it's becasue Model Ms are still produced that, from what I saw, Cherry G81-1000s are offered for more on eBay. So they do seem to be of interest to other vintage computer fans, not just me.

To test it I first had to replace the cable. I decided for a cheap, black audio cable with two 5-pin DIN plugs. I say audio cable because hat's what it was advertised as. It has no shielding at all. Anyway, just becausew they used proper shielding back then doesn't mean I need it. Because I'm not involved with the computer keyboard fan bubble I had no idea where to find the pinout on ther PCB. Web search engines were of no help. But since a stub of the original cable was still on it, I knew which colour of the original cable goes where. I then checkerd three other (a bit newer) Cherry keybards and found them to use the same colours. I tried the same pinout and it works. I'll attach a diagram just in case anybody needs to do the same thing.

The keybnoard is generally working. But typing does not feel nice and some keys stopped working after a while. From their arrangement it is pretty obvious that one trace on the board must be broken. Here starts the bigger problem. Because of the way the board is constructed, the most of the traces aren't accessible. They are covered by a metal shet from the back and the switches from the front, which are connected to the metal sheet. I know how to repair traces of a keyboard matrix on such a flexible PCB. But if I can't reach them without destroying either be PCB or the switches, that knowledge is not worth anything.

During my research on those old boards I also found out why the switches look so different from MX switches and why they feel so weird. They aren't really mechanical switches, but rather Cherry MY switches, which use indivisual membranes inside. This explains why typing on it feels so bad. I did not find a way to repait the trace, yet. But knowing now that nor cleaning nor using the switches for a while will make them feel better, it does not feel worth putting more time into this.

I initially thought it might be a good idea to design a PCB with a key matrix that replaces the original switch PCB. The new one could be populated with MX switches and thus the entire device updated to an excellent version of itself. But there are free open source PCB designs out there that replace the entire inside of the keyboard. That would be the easier route. And it would upgrade the keyboard to USB at the same time. Although the Atmega used in those could probably be programmed to use a simpler serial interface as well.

It would be nice to continuie here with "So I ordered one of those, done up the keyboard and it's now my favourite one." But I have enough unfinished and unstarted projects already. So no, not right now.

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