opus4: build all articles - tgtimes - The Gopher Times HTML git clone git://bitreich.org/tgtimes git://enlrupgkhuxnvlhsf6lc3fziv5h2hhfrinws65d7roiv6bfj7d652fid.onion/tgtimes DIR Log DIR Files DIR Refs DIR Tags DIR README --- DIR commit 6af3e24c4b5e54a33ad442faafdb720e054dfab0 DIR parent 9f80d704e5144f0eba06cf1fa881433b1ef1d7f5 HTML Author: Josuah Demangeon <me@josuah.net> Date: Sat, 2 Apr 2022 16:26:03 +0200 opus4: build all articles Diffstat: M bitreich/news.gph | 18 ++++++++++++++++++ A opus4/article-20h-interview.mw | 272 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ A opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-06T… | 22 ++++++++++++++++++++++ A opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-07T… | 87 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ A opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-25T… | 34 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ A opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-25T… | 28 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ A opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-26T… | 14 ++++++++++++++ A opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-27T… | 34 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ A opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-29T… | 27 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ A opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-31T… | 35 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ M opus4/article-gopherml-molasses-cl… | 2 +- M opus4/article-tgtimes-bbc-reviving… | 31 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ A opus4/article-tgtimes-high-tech-lo… | 74 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ A opus4/article-tgtimes-st-lazare-tr… | 40 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ A opus4/article-tgtimes-what-on-mars… | 64 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ M opus4/tgtimes4.mw | 18 +++++++++++++++--- M opus4/tgtimes4.pdf | 0 M opus4/tgtimes4.txt | 859 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--- M tmac.w | 2 +- 19 files changed, 1585 insertions(+), 76 deletions(-) --- DIR diff --git a/bitreich/news.gph b/bitreich/news.gph @@ -4,6 +4,24 @@ [0|Atom news feed|/news.atom.xml|server|port] ___[ News Aggregator ] +[0|2022-04-01 – »Bitreich migrating to Windows Server 2022« by 20h|/usr/20h/phlog/2022-03-31T18-15-46-415338.md|server|port] +[0|2022-03-29 – »Bitreich Council allows secret voting.« by 20h|/usr/20h/phlog/2022-03-29T17-17-55-362953.md|server|port] +[0|2022-03-27 – »FreeDOOMDay results.« by 20h|/usr/20h/phlog/2022-03-27T20-00-55-040395.md|server|port] +[0|2022-03-26 – »Memecache atom feed now available!« by 20h|/usr/20h/phlog/2022-03-26T19-55-05-578948.md|server|port] +[0|2022-03-25 – »FreeDOOMDay on 2022-03-27 20:00 CEST« by 20h|/usr/20h/phlog/2022-03-25T18-32-52-134235.md|server|port] +[0|2022-03-25 – »New Bitreich Project: rfcommd« by 20h|/usr/20h/phlog/2022-03-25T18-22-39-498139.md|server|port] +[0|2022-03-05 – »sfeed 1.3 was released. I want to thank all people who gave feedback.« by bob|/usr/bob/phlog/2022-03-07T13-00-00-133769.md|server|port] +[0|2022-03-06 – »2022-03-06 GangBAN aftermaths.« by 20h|/usr/20h/phlog/2022-03-06T21-20-12-652045.md|server|port] +[0|2022-03-03 – »GangBAN on 2022-03-06.« by 20h|/usr/20h/phlog/2022-03-03T18-20-23-228378.md|server|port] +[0|2022-02-27 – »Brcon2022 Date and Week; CfP« by 20h|/usr/20h/phlog/2022-02-27T08-59-39-825642.md|server|port] +[0|2022-02-13 – »Gopher Vulture Standard« by 20h|/usr/20h/phlog/2022-02-13T07-18-09-761227.md|server|port] +[0|2022-02-10 – »Reed-alert no release« by 20h|/usr/20h/phlog/2022-02-10T13-22-39-411533.md|server|port] +[0|2022-02-09 – »Brcon2022 Weekend Poll« by 20h|/usr/20h/phlog/2022-02-09T14-30-37-986301.md|server|port] +[0|2022-02-06 – »sfeed 1.2 was released. I want to thank all people who gave feedback.« by bob|/usr/bob/phlog/2022-02-06T13-00-00-133769.md|server|port] +[0|2022-02-05 – »Free BitreichCoin Mining« by 20h|/usr/20h/phlog/2022-02-05T20-28-04-808235.md|server|port] +[0|2022-02-05 – »BitreichNFT released.« by 20h|/usr/20h/phlog/2022-02-05T15-58-20-073321.md|server|port] +[0|2022-02-04 – »Bitreich Gameroom now with 27 games!« by 20h|/usr/20h/phlog/2022-02-04T18-55-35-188243.md|server|port] +[0|2022-01-30 – »Brcon2022 Month Poll« by 20h|/usr/20h/phlog/2022-01-30T20-29-28-533461.md|server|port] [0|2022-01-19 – »GangBAN on 2022-01-23!« by 20h|/usr/20h/phlog/2022-01-19T18-48-27-806469.md|server|port] [0|2022-01-16 – »BitTwiddle - Your daily bit twiddle.« by 20h|/usr/20h/phlog/2022-01-16T11-16-09-556756.md|server|port] [0|2022-01-15 – »Welcome Trinity!« by 20h|/usr/20h/phlog/2022-01-15T18-41-29-975050.md|server|port] DIR diff --git a/opus4/article-20h-interview.mw b/opus4/article-20h-interview.mw @@ -0,0 +1,272 @@ +.SH 20h +Breaking free from medical devices +. +.PP +Unlike most USB gadgets around, medical devices require a specification +to be proven fit for handling patients data. +This makes doctor-hacking difficult for the sake of better control +over what is allowed for medical use. +. +.PP +While this may sound as a non-starter for many, not all doctors are +discouraged. +Interview with 20h: +. +.QP +You are __20h__, a doctor in Falken, the best village to live in +in Germany, is that correct? +. +.PP +Yes. +. +.QP +You managed to do some hacking around a medical device. +What was it? +How did it help you in your diagnostics? +. +.PP +I wrote \fCrfcommd\fR to have my spirometer print out the results +to a standard printer. +It helps me having a more detailed view on the results. +. +.PP +The normal printout is just like 8 centimeters wide. +Now it is A4. +. +.PP +I plan on using rfcommd to read out ECG data from a ECG for further +analysis. +. +.PP +The collecting computer is a gentoo hardened on x86_64, with a +standard bluetooth dongle, sending the print jobs via TCP/IP to a +network printer. +. +.PP +For printing there is a cups installation, converting the PCL output +of the spirometer to postscript for the network printer. +. +.QP +What software were provided to collect the data on a computer? +On which kind of system was that running? +. +.PP +Before rfcommd there was no collection of the data. +The spirometer has some built-in printer, +which is very expensive and the printout is small. +. +.QP +Are you using it often? +. +.PP +I/We are using it every day for printing out spirometry (lung +function) results. +. +.PP +By the way. +A secondary function why rfcommd has filters: We have +a sterilization device, which has a serial printout of sterilization +runs. +. +.PP +This is what rfcommd does print out too. +. +.PP +The features of rfcommd moved from: Accept every rfcomm request to +having filters per device mac, was because of those two devices. +. +.PP +But it will allow to have the ecg readout as a filter for free. +. +.QP +It had limited interaction, and yet you managed to made it available +from a linux computer. +How did you do it? +. +.PP +First I had a python script using pybluez to offer some bluetooth +printer service, which bluetooth clients connect to and send print +jobs. +. +.PP +But I migrated this to some C implementation and generalized it as +rfcommd so it is more modular for me and others can reuse it too. +. +.PP +Bluez stack had some rfcomm client application, but it was removed +in newer version because they hate commandline users. +. +.QP +Was it difficult? How long did it take? +. +.PP +Digging around bluetooth is difficult. +It looks similar to TCP/IP, but is its own terminology, protocols +and principles. +Look at rfcommd for how to announce some service. +. +.PP +It took me two weekends to write rfcommd as it is now. +. +.QP +What would you advise to designers of such devices to make everyone's +life easier? +. +.PP +If you mean medical devices: Please open source all firmware and +open up all schematics. +In ten years you will be dead or in pension but still people can +extend or update your devices. +. +.PP +And second: Never have specific assumptions and fool end users into +costly standard. +You never know better than your users. +. +.PP +For example in the spirometry description, they say, that only some +bluetooth printers are compatible. +. +.PP +This is due to the bluetooth standard not having defined, *what* +is sent to bluetooth printers. +. +.PP +It should be the minimum, to define this, as it is in the USB +printing standard. +. +.QP +What kind of protocol interface would have been the easiest? +. +.PP +The easiest protocol interface, also considering security and data +protection standard, would be ssh over TCP/IP. +Everyone knows SSH, it can be integrated into everything and it is +easily upgradable to newer security standards. +. +.QP +What does it permits to do that was not possible before? +. +.PP +With the spirometry data ready as simple text data, I can further +process it using standard unix tools, in case I ever need this. +. +.QP +Are other people using it in the practice as well? Even indirectly? +. +.PP +My nurses use it mainly. +They press the »print« button on the spirometry device and it prints +the results. +. +.PP +I, as doctor, only see the printed out results and explain them to +patients. +. +.QP +Do she does not have to use command line interface for that? +. +.PP +No, it's all practical. +The spirometer starts its bluetooth client for rfcommd and rfcommd +runs the spirofilter printing filter script, which invokes lpr(1). +. +.QP +Are there many situations like that, where cumbersome interfaces +makes life harder for working with medical devices? +. +.PP +Yes, it's built into all medical devices to enforce proprietary and +expensive Windows software to be bought. +. +.PP +For example the newer version of my ECG device has some undocumented +network mode. +The ECG standard I will be using over serial was defined in 1990. +Since then old devices only got bluetooth and ethernet, but did +nothing else new. +. +.PP +The price stayed the same, of course. +. +.QP +Do you think designers would benefits themself from offering another +interface that is easier to use? +. +.PP +In the short term viewpoint it protects you from competitors to +enter the market. +But in the long run, this now stops me from easily processing patient +data for further research. +I am using a 25 yr old ECG and some 10 yr old spirometer. +. +.QP +What could have motivated the designers to use something this-much +cumbersome? +[not asked, already answered] +. +.QP +Are there any similarities in other devices to reuse the existing +work you just did? +. +.PP +Yes. +Bluetooth is the new hype in medical devices. +All those smart devices for body measurement are for example BLE, +some insecure bluetooth standard to read out key=value from bluetooth +clients. +Some bled(8) should be easy to write. +. +.PP +Nearly every medical device still has some serial port, either for +communication or measurement. +. +.PP +For measurement this will never die out, since raw data is required. +. +.PP +And some serial2bluetooth, that's what I am using for my practical +examples. +. +.QP +Would it have been possible to build such device yourself from +parts, but with sane interfaces instead? +. +.PP +Building such a device is not the hard part. +The hard part is licensing the device as being a medical device. +. +.PP +I am, as a doctor, am allowed to license some medical device for +my patients. +But if I'd want to sell or give this device to some other doctor, +I'd need some EU medical device license. +. +.PP +This is a complex process. +. +.PP +You have severial medical device classes. +Some always require some EU-wide licensing. +. +.PP +The logic of some ECG is very simple. +But licensing it for selling is what makes it expensive and/or keeps +the competition low. +. +.QP +What do you advise to people also stuck with cumbersome device, but +without reverse engineer superpowers? +. +.PP +Force the device producers to open up standards. +Write into contracts, that devices have to be interoperable, so +producers need to adapt. +. +.PP +It's the same for software. +If you can't write it on your own, force them to open up standards, +because you want to extend the software. +. +.PP +For extension of software, reverse engineering is legal. DIR diff --git a/opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-06T21-20-12-652045.mw b/opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-06T21-20-12-652045.mw @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +.SH 20h +2022-03-06 GangBAN aftermaths +. +.PP +This Sunday was a fun one. +After lunch we had the supertuxkart tournament of five(!) players competing against eachother on various tracks. +All kind of CPUs and hardware setups participates and rushed off the cliffs. +. +.PP +In the evening there was the huge OpenRA battlefield. +Sadly the hardware requirement of OpenRA is too high, so only two players could participate. +But this time against seven other AIs. +The humans won multiple times! +. +.PP +See you at the next GangBAN! +. +.PP +Sincerely yours, +. +.PP +20h Chief Gaming Officer (CGO) DIR diff --git a/opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-07T13-00-00-133769.mw b/opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-07T13-00-00-133769.mw @@ -0,0 +1,87 @@ +.SH Hiltjo +sfeed 1.3 released +. +.PP +sfeed 1.3 was released. +I want to thank all people who gave feedback. +. +.PP +sfeed is a tool to convert RSS or Atom feeds from XML to a TAB-separated +file. +. +.PP +It can be found at: +. +.IP - +git://git.codemadness.org/sfeed +. +.IP - +gopher://codemadness.org/1/git/sfeed +. +.IP - +https://codemadness.org/releases/sfeed/ +. +.IP - +gopher://codemadness.org/1/releases/sfeed/ +. +.PP +sfeed has the following notable changes compared to 1.2: +. +.NH 2 +Fixes +. +.IP - +Fix a compiler warning with some curses implementations, like NetBSD +curses. +. +.IP - +sfeed_curses: add keybinds for the home key and the default home +and end key for urxvt. +. +.IP - +sfeed_curses: fix a redraw when reloading a file with a feed file +read from stdin and using an URL file and changing this URL file +externally. +. +.IP - +sfeed_curses: cast character for SFEED_AUTOCMD to unsigned char to +allow character sequences outside the ASCII range. +. +.NH 2 +Documentation +. +.IP - +README: add an example script to count new and unread items. +This can be useful for some statusbar indicator (asked about by +e-mail). +. +.IP - +Small code-style, comments and documentation improvements and fixes. +. +.NH 2 +Testsuite improvements +. +.PP +The testsuite repo has had improvements to test the most important +code paths of sfeed_curses in an automated way (currently 95% +automated coverage). +The sfeed.c and xml.c parser coverage has also near 100% coverage. +. +.PP +The goal is to find bugs and avoid regressions. +. +.PP +The input/sfeed/realworld/ directory contains files with various +feeds from popular systems to more obscure ones. +These may be useful to test other RSS/Atom programs aswell. +. +.PP +These tests can be found here: +. +.DS +https://git.codemadness.org/sfeed_tests/ +gopher://codemadness.org/1/git/sfeed_tests/ +.DE +. +.PP +Thanks, Hiltjo DIR diff --git a/opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-25T18-22-39-498139.mw b/opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-25T18-22-39-498139.mw @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +.SH 20h +New Bitreich Project: rfcommd +. +.PP +There is a new project on bitreich: rfcommd. +Rfcommd is a daemon sitting on top of your bluez/bluetooth stack, waiting for RFCOMM devices to connect. +The daemon will then run scripts or daemons on that new rfcomm connection. +This can be used to create a custom bluetooth printer without buying some dedicated hardware device. +See the filter spirofilter in the repository for some pcl printer script. +.DS +gopher://bitreich.org/1/scm/rfcommd +.DE +.PP +Here is the first release: +.DS +gopher://bitreich.org/9/scm/rfcommd/tag/rfcommd-v0.2.tar.lz +gopher://bitreich.org/9/scm/rfcommd/tag/rfcommd-v0.2.tar.lz.sha512sum +ftp://ftp@bitreich.org/releases/rfcommd/rfcommd-v0.2.tar.lz +ftp://ftp@bitreich.org/releases/rfcommd/rfcommd-v0.2.tar.lz.sha512sum +gopher://bitreich.org/9/scm/rfcommd/tag/rfcommd-v0.2.tar.gz +gopher://bitreich.org/9/scm/rfcommd/tag/rfcommd-v0.2.tar.gz.sha512sum +ftp://ftp@bitreich.org/releases/rfcommd/rfcommd-v0.2.tar.gz +ftp://ftp@bitreich.org/releases/rfcommd/rfcommd-v0.2.tar.gz.sha512sum +.DE +All questions and comments welcome! +.PP +Please send them to: +.DS +Christoph Lohmann <20h@r-36.net> +.DE +.PP +or come on bitreich.org IRC #bitreich-en. +.PP +Have fun! DIR diff --git a/opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-25T18-32-52-134235.mw b/opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-25T18-32-52-134235.mw @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +.SH +FreeDOOMDay on 2022-03-27 +.PP +In comemoration of the beginning summer time in central Europe, we will celebrate FreeDOOMDay! On 2022-03-27 20:00 CEST (be careful!), we will play chocolate-doom +.DS +https://www.chocolate-doom.org +.DE +.PP +This is a doom variant which runs on nearly every machine out there and supports extra modes: +.DS +https://www.chocolate-doom.org/wiki/index.php/Three_screen_mode +.DE +.PP +Please try to install the FreeDOOM wad files as a base: +.DS +https://www.chocolate-doom.org/wiki/index.php/Freedoom +.DE +.PP +See you on Sunday! +.PP +Sincerely yours, +.PP +20h Chief Gaming Officer (CGO) +.DS + +.DE +.PP + DIR diff --git a/opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-26T19-55-05-578948.mw b/opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-26T19-55-05-578948.mw @@ -0,0 +1,14 @@ +.SH +Memecache atom feed +.PP +Thanks to the innovation from the Netherlands, +we can now offer an atom feed for the memecache at bitreich.org: +.DS +gopher://bitreich.org/0/memecache/news.atom +.DE +.PP +Please subscribe for your newest meme pleasure! +.PP +Sincerely yours, +.PP +20h Chief Meme Officer (CMO) DIR diff --git a/opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-27T20-00-55-040395.mw b/opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-27T20-00-55-040395.mw @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +.SH +FreeDOOMDay results +.PP +Thanks to everyone participating in our first tryout to play doom over our bitreich infrastructure. +It worked out pretty well. +In the end we played the freedm.wad of freedoom. +.PP +Some statistics: Maximum up and down bandwidth required was 14 kbytes/s. +Maximum CPU usage here: 2% of one core. +RAM: 400 kb. +.PP +Chocolate Doom is compatible to vanilla doom. +Everyone having some old DOS doom can join in using rfcommd: +.DS +git://bitreich.org/rfcommd +.DE +.PP +Just attach a serial2bluetooth dongle and some bluetooth dongle in your linux machine, then use the new added filter: +.DS +gopher://bitreich.org/1/scm/rfcommd/commit/9b77ca90e9cf4ca7cd9521e6756dc2b833cdefce.gph +.DE +.PP +This will automatically connect your serial connection to a doom server over tcp/ip. +Change it to bitreich.org and the standard port and you are set. +.PP +Of course you can use socat from some ttyUSB0 or ttyS0 too. +Nothing stops you, but your own laziness. +The possibilities are endless. +.PP +See you next time, with whatever machine you can find and which runs DOOM! +.PP +Sincerely yours, +.PP +20h Chief Gaming Officer (CGO) DIR diff --git a/opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-29T17-17-55-362953.mw b/opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-29T17-17-55-362953.mw @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +.SH 20h +Secret voting for Bitreich Council +.PP +Bitreich is always ahead in its structure, organisation and technology. +So is our democracy: +. +.DS +gopher://bitreich.org/1/scm/bitreich-council/commit/f43daad938405d966c158a12b6fcb8f13a9d1868.gph +.DE +. +.PP +The majority of council members has decided, that: +.QP +Secret voting is possible on certain topics. +When council members vote in secret, they need to vote under a bedcover. +Multiple council members can be under one bedcover. +.PP +Bitreich is reacting to the decision of Debian to introduce back chamber corruption in its decision making: +.DS +https://lwn.net/Articles/889444/ +.DE +.PP +This is completely prevented in the Bitreich model, since multiple council members are allowed under one bedcover, while hidden from any eavesdropper in the room. +.PP +Sincerely yours, +.PP +20h Chief Democracy Officer (CDO) DIR diff --git a/opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-31T18-15-46-415338.mw b/opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-31T18-15-46-415338.mw @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +.SH +Bitreich migrating to Windows Server 2022 +. +.PP +Yesterday the last SSH.com license we had expired. +We are now unable to access Linux on the old bitreich.org servers. +In an approach to modernize Bitreich, the council decided to go further: +. +.IP - +Windows Server 2022 will be the new server OS for growing our +business opportunities and fast deployment of critical workloads +such as SQL Server with confidence using 48TB of memory, 64 sockets, +and 2048 logical cores. +. +.IP - +Irc.bitreich.org will be replaced by Microsoft Teams to create a +more engaging meeting experience with together mode. +Focus on faces, pick up on nonverbal cues, and easily see who is +talking. +. +.IP - +The ed(1) cloud will be replaced by Microsoft Office 365 to connect +and empower every employee, from the office to the frontline worker, +with a Microsoft 365 solution that enhances productivity and drives +innovation. +. +.PP +We hope to see you on the new services, which enrich your daily +business life. +. +.PP +Sincerely yours, +. +.PP +20h Chief Technology Officer (CTO) DIR diff --git a/opus4/article-gopherml-molasses-client.mw b/opus4/article-gopherml-molasses-client.mw @@ -1,5 +1,5 @@ .SH gopherml -Molasses Gopher and Gemini Client +Molasses Gopher/Gemini Client . .PP Jonathan Simpson is announcing a new Gopher client: Molasses. DIR diff --git a/opus4/article-tgtimes-bbc-reviving-the-radio.mw b/opus4/article-tgtimes-bbc-reviving-the-radio.mw @@ -29,3 +29,34 @@ can be received clearly in Kyiv and parts of Russia. .DS https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2022/millions-of-russians-turn-to-bbc-news .DE +. +.PP +Shortly after, possessing a shortwave radio device at home became +forbidden, proving that in spite of being a low-technology solution, +it was efficient enough to disturb the control of the press by the +government. +. +.PP +This showcases how quickly-deployed and resilient simple technologies +can be in comparison to fragile, high-tech interdependent ecosystems. +. +.PP +Radio is also trivially interfaced with high-tech: Any person with +access to a source of information and an analog emitter may start +reading a daily digest of news read from web newspapers. +. +.PP +Given instructions, a receiver is also very easy to build with +scavenged parts. An antenna is simply a wire producing an input +signal, that after demodulation, becomes a sound signal to be fed +to a speaker. +. +.PP +It also shows the benefits of putting all the technically difficult +parts onto the side of the content producer helps with adoption of +a new technology: Making the client device/software trivial and safe +to build, setup and use. +. +.DS +https://hackaday.com/2022/03/17/owning-a-shortwave-radio +.DE DIR diff --git a/opus4/article-tgtimes-high-tech-low-life.mw b/opus4/article-tgtimes-high-tech-low-life.mw @@ -0,0 +1,74 @@ +.SH tgtimes +High-Tech, Low-Life +. +.IP "High-Tech" +Refers to the ability to use complex tools created by engineering, +or in the absence of a large corporation to build them, hacking +things together. +. +.PP "Low-Life" +Refers to those put aside by society, such as criminal or drug +dealer, making itself edgy; or hobos and beggars, pushed to the +edge by more or less everyone. +. +.PP +One way to develop the idea of High-Tech Low-Life would be a +criminal using modern tools such to empower its crimes. +A transaction giving the bad guys the big guns. Not helpful. +. +.PP +But another way to portray it is someone rejected by its surroundings, +seeking support through technological tools. May it be as a source of +direct income, or as a way to get informed, or inform its surrounding, +perhaps the entire world such as what did happen with the late +revolts in China. +. +.PP +The "High Tech, Low Life" (2012) documentary shows us that it is +not an alternate science-fiction plot, but a phenomenon happenning +today. +. +.PP +Giving High-Tech toys to poor population sounds more like a GAFAM +plan to rule over the thirld-world while looking like a humanitarian +hero saving the world, but a bit of honesty would reveal that it is +closer to offering the Low-Life people to the High-Tech corps, by +extending further the frontiers of ad-tech. +. +.PP +Giving entertainment platform is probably not the most urgent kind +of technology people without a meal a day is going to need. What +about a tractor though? In its simplest form, in China again, a 55 +years-old lady farmer started to use a hoverboard (board onto which +to stand, with a wheel on left and right) to change 3 hours of daily +walk to carry the vegetables harvested, into 40 minutes riding this +board. +. +.DS +https://nextshark.com/chinese-farmer-hoverboard-life/ +https://www.chinanews.com.cn/tp/hd2011/2018/02-13/800254.shtml +.DE +. +.PP +Or what about deploying long-range point-to-point wireless links +in west Africa to circumvent the poor power and inexistant cable +infrastructure, as well as escape the lobby and regulations that +take over the few IT resources of that country? +. +.DS +http://www.melissadensmore.com/papers/m4d08-mho-reassessing.pdf +.DE +. +.PP +Or even trying to figure out how to make small solar or wind-power +stations that are affordable enough for the budget of a small +off-grid village (with a few subventions)? Or an on-street display +continuously showing live job offers? +. +.QP +Open-sourced a driver for the community? +Installed Linux on an old laptop for someone in need? +Convincing the boss to make the project open-source? +Attended a surprising situation of that kind? +Tell us your story of High-Tech given to Low-Life on #bitreich-en +IRC channel on the irc.bitreich.org server DIR diff --git a/opus4/article-tgtimes-st-lazare-transforms.mw b/opus4/article-tgtimes-st-lazare-transforms.mw @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +.SH tgtimes +St-Lazare's Paris Train Station +. +.PP +Ah! The \fISaint Lazare\fR train station. Emblem of the Parisian +train station, and today still looking like on the painting by the +XIXth century painter Monet. +. +.PP +This typical look were somehow preserved regardless of the modernisation +of the train equipments. Lately, new equipments have been installed to +prevent fraud: ticket barriers are now surrounding all the stations and +their surrounding, only letting those owning a ticket onto the station. +. +.PP +Not unexpected from a train company for a country with fraud around +10% on long train lines. Mr. Monet would probably still be able to come +and settle down for painting the train station nowaday, although to the +price of a ticket to anywhere. +. +.PP +Yet the devices themself seems not of the greatest comfort to both +fraudsters, beggars frequently coming where most passengers are, +and legitimate passengers alike. While it might be improved shortly, +there is an high error rate for passengers trying to insert their +ticket or NFC card. +. +.PP +In case of a misunderstanding of how to use these devices, the train +stations are not overcrowded with staff to welcome passengers in need +for information, and it would take a bit of time. +. +.PP +Setting-up a new solution seems a difficult challenge, putting in +compromise price to setup, comfort of use, reliability, finding the +new staff in charge of maintenance... A reminder that technical +solutions only solve technical problems. +. +.PP +https://lenouvelautomobiliste.fr/actualites/39949/des-portes-pour-transformer-la-vie-de-la-gare-saint-lazare/ DIR diff --git a/opus4/article-tgtimes-what-on-mars.mw b/opus4/article-tgtimes-what-on-mars.mw @@ -0,0 +1,64 @@ +.SH tgtimes +What really happened on Mars? +. +.PP +What can possibly go wrong while sending a device entirely controlled +by software on a remote location where noone would ever be able to +go for a long while? The question opens a vast field of answers. +. +.PP +1997, Pathfinder, a solar-powered ground lander and station, with +VxWorks proprietary real time operating system onboard, embedding +an 6-wheeled Sojourner rover with custom firmware, landed on Mars. +. +.PP +During a field data collection mission a priority inversion did +happen on the Pathfinder station total loss of control for the time +of a reboot. +. +.PP +The bug was reproduced on earth and patched, latter explained on a +mailing list, published online. +. +.DS +https://www.cs.unc.edu/~anderson/teach/comp790/papers/mars_pathfinder_long_version.html +.DE +. +.PP +At its core, most operating systems are built around a scheduler +that orchestrates execution of many tasks onto one or several CPUs. +It is a critical piece of software in the case of real-time operating +systems, that must ensure to deliver some actions right on time. +. +.PP +Complex systems may be unfit for such purposes, and software +simplicity has found its way through experimenting how complex +systems may end-up in difficult-to-debug situations. +. +.PP +Picturing oneself in charge of reproducing a bug on earth for +something that went wrong on another planet, with a patch expected +for next Monday is a strong pressure toward keeping systems simple +and easier to debug. +. +.PP +Although, the Mars operating system landscape is not all VxWorks and +nothing else. For instance, the RTEMS system, Real-Time Executive +for Multiprocessor Systems was open-sourced from US army 1993 and is +today actively maintained by both corporations and the open source +community. +. +.PP +Being part of Google Summer of Code, it is also welcoming newcomers +to real-time operating system development, who might be able to +contribute to embedded software making its way onto space. +. +.DS +https://www.rtems.org/ +.DE +. +.PP +While the ISS project was put at threat by the current events in +Ukraine involving all nations, outter-space still represents a middle +ground where all sides have a same objective and can collaborate: +extending the horizons above what could be reached before. DIR diff --git a/opus4/tgtimes4.mw b/opus4/tgtimes4.mw @@ -1,14 +1,26 @@ .TL The Gopher Times .AB -Opus 4 - Gopher news and more - Mar. 2022 +Opus 4 - Gopher news and more - Apr. 2022 .AE . -.so opus4/article-tgtimes-carrying-the-cross.mw -.so opus4/article-ganssle-fortran-compiler.mw .so opus4/article-gopherml-molasses-client.mw +.so opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-07T13-00-00-133769.mw .so opus4/article-tgtimes-bbc-reviving-the-radio.mw +.so opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-25T18-22-39-498139.mw +.so opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-06T21-20-12-652045.mw +.so opus4/article-20h-interview.mw +.so opus4/article-tgtimes-carrying-the-cross.mw +.so opus4/article-ganssle-fortran-compiler.mw +.so opus4/article-tgtimes-high-tech-low-life.mw .so opus4/article-tgtimes-bistromatik.mw +.so opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-25T18-32-52-134235.mw .so opus4/article-tgtimes-national-library-medecine.mw +.so opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-26T19-55-05-578948.mw +.so opus4/article-tgtimes-st-lazare-transforms.mw +.so opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-27T20-00-55-040395.mw +.so opus4/article-tgtimes-what-on-mars.mw +.so opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-29T17-17-55-362953.mw .so opus4/article-tmpout-2.mw +.so opus4/article-bitreich-2022-03-31T18-15-46-415338.mw .so opus4/footer.mw DIR diff --git a/opus4/tgtimes4.pdf b/opus4/tgtimes4.pdf Binary files differ. DIR diff --git a/opus4/tgtimes4.txt b/opus4/tgtimes4.txt @@ -5,12 +5,457 @@ ____________________________________________________________ - Opus 4 - Gopher news and more - Mar. 2022 + Opus 4 - Gopher news and more - Apr. 2022 ____________________________________________________________ + Molasses Gopher/Gemini Client gopherml +____________________________________________________________ + + Jonathan Simpson is announcing a new Gopher client: + Molasses. + + >> A new gopher client, Molasses, is now available for + general use. It is a multi-platform graphical client + that runs on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. + + Leveraging functionnal programming with Racket, the + binaries come battery included, bundling the racket + runtime code, famous for building-up robust graphical + user interfaces straight from the core language + libraries. + + Inline images, multiple tabs, keyboard navigation, + Gopher and Gemini support, opening external http:// + links on an external browser, Molasses has everything + one might expect to browse the little Internet. + + >> Feedback is welcome and appreciated. + + https://github.com/jjsimpso/molasses/ + + + + sfeed 1.3 released Hiltjo +____________________________________________________________ + + sfeed 1.3 was released. I want to thank all people + who gave feedback. + + sfeed is a tool to convert RSS or Atom feeds from XML + to a TAB-separated file. + + It can be found at: + + - git://git.codemadness.org/sfeed + + - gopher://codemadness.org/1/git/sfeed + + - https://codemadness.org/releases/sfeed/ + + - gopher://codemadness.org/1/releases/sfeed/ + + sfeed has the following notable changes compared to + 1.2: Fixes + + - Fix a compiler warning with some curses + implementations, like NetBSD curses. + + - sfeed_curses: add keybinds for the home key and the + default home and end key for urxvt. + + - sfeed_curses: fix a redraw when reloading a file + with a feed file read from stdin and using an URL + file and changing this URL file externally. + + - sfeed_curses: cast character for SFEED_AUTOCMD to + unsigned char to allow character sequences outside + the ASCII range. Documentation + + - README: add an example script to count new and + unread items. This can be useful for some statusbar + indicator (asked about by e-mail). + + - Small code-style, comments and documentation + improvements and fixes. Testsuite improvements + + The testsuite repo has had improvements to test the + most important code paths of sfeed_curses in an + automated way (currently 95% automated coverage). The + sfeed.c and xml.c parser coverage has also near 100% + coverage. + + The goal is to find bugs and avoid regressions. + + The input/sfeed/realworld/ directory contains files + with various feeds from popular systems to more + obscure ones. These may be useful to test other + RSS/Atom programs aswell. + + These tests can be found here: + + https://git.codemadness.org/sfeed_tests/ + gopher://codemadness.org/1/git/sfeed_tests/ + + Thanks, Hiltjo + + + + + BBC Reviving the Plain Old Radio tgtimes +____________________________________________________________ + + BBC, one of the earliest if not the first radio + broadcasting ever, comes back to using a WWII era + technology, to overcome limitation Russia imposes over + Ukraine. + + In between a rain of missiles and a short moment of + temporary peace, fetching information on what is + happening around is a relief, maybe even a requirement + for survival. + + Internet infrastructure of Ukraine are being impacted, + and the backbone getting shackled by all kind of + limitations, provoked the BBC news bulletin to be + unreachable. + + A more primitive way to broadcast critical headlines + than Internet: shortwave radio, which can live off a + simple emitter for covering a large region. + + >> It has launched two new shortwave frequencies in + the region for four hours of World Service English + news a day. These frequencies can be received clearly + in Kyiv and parts of Russia. + + https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2022/millions-of-russians-turn-to-bbc-news + + Shortly after, possessing a shortwave radio device at + home became forbidden, proving that in spite of being + a low-technology solution, it was efficient enough to + disturb the control of the press by the government. + + This showcases how quickly-deployed and resilient + simple technologies can be in comparison to fragile, + high-tech interdependent ecosystems. + + Radio is also trivially interfaced with high-tech: Any + person with access to a source of information and an + analog emitter may start reading a daily digest of + news read from web newspapers. + + Given instructions, a receiver is also very easy to + build with scavenged parts. An antenna is simply a + wire producing an input signal, that after + demodulation, becomes a sound signal to be fed to a + speaker. + + It also shows the benefits of putting all the + technically difficult parts onto the side of the + content producer helps with adoption of a new + technology: Making the client device/software trivial + and safe to build, setup and use. + + https://hackaday.com/2022/03/17/owning-a-shortwave-radio + + + + New Bitreich Project: rfcommd 20h +____________________________________________________________ + + There is a new project on bitreich: rfcommd. Rfcommd + is a daemon sitting on top of your bluez/bluetooth + stack, waiting for RFCOMM devices to connect. The + daemon will then run scripts or daemons on that + new rfcomm connection. This can be used to + create a custom bluetooth printer without buying + some dedicated hardware device. See the filter + spirofilter in the repository for some pcl printer + script. + + gopher://bitreich.org/1/scm/rfcommd + + Here is the first release: + + gopher://bitreich.org/9/scm/rfcommd/tag/rfcommd-v0.2.tar.lz + gopher://bitreich.org/9/scm/rfcommd/tag/rfcommd-v0.2.tar.lz.sha512sum + ftp://ftp@bitreich.org/releases/rfcommd/rfcommd-v0.2.tar.lz + ftp://ftp@bitreich.org/releases/rfcommd/rfcommd-v0.2.tar.lz.sha512sum + gopher://bitreich.org/9/scm/rfcommd/tag/rfcommd-v0.2.tar.gz + gopher://bitreich.org/9/scm/rfcommd/tag/rfcommd-v0.2.tar.gz.sha512sum + ftp://ftp@bitreich.org/releases/rfcommd/rfcommd-v0.2.tar.gz + ftp://ftp@bitreich.org/releases/rfcommd/rfcommd-v0.2.tar.gz.sha512sum + All questions and comments welcome! + + Please send them to: + + Christoph Lohmann <20h@r-36.net> + + or come on bitreich.org IRC #bitreich-en. + + Have fun! + + + + + 2022-03-06 GangBAN aftermaths 20h +____________________________________________________________ + + This Sunday was a fun one. After lunch we had the + supertuxkart tournament of five(!) players competing + against eachother on various tracks. All kind of CPUs + and hardware setups participates and rushed off the + cliffs. + + In the evening there was the huge OpenRA battlefield. + Sadly the hardware requirement of OpenRA is too high, + so only two players could participate. But this time + against seven other AIs. The humans won multiple + times! + + See you at the next GangBAN! + + Sincerely yours, + + 20h Chief Gaming Officer (CGO) + + + + Breaking free from medical devices 20h +____________________________________________________________ + + Unlike most USB gadgets around, medical devices + require a specification to be proven fit for handling + patients data. This makes doctor-hacking difficult + for the sake of better control over what is allowed + for medical use. + + While this may sound as a non-starter for many, not + all doctors are discouraged. Interview with 20h: + + >> You are __20h__, a doctor in Falken, the best + village to live in in Germany, is that correct? + + Yes. + + >> You managed to do some hacking around a medical + device. What was it? How did it help you in your + diagnostics? + + I wrote rfcommd to have my spirometer print out the + results to a standard printer. It helps me having a + more detailed view on the results. + + The normal printout is just like 8 centimeters wide. + Now it is A4. + + I plan on using rfcommd to read out ECG data from a + ECG for further analysis. + + The collecting computer is a gentoo hardened on + x86_64, with a standard bluetooth dongle, sending the + print jobs via TCP/IP to a network printer. + + For printing there is a cups installation, converting + the PCL output of the spirometer to postscript for the + network printer. + + >> What software were provided to collect the data on + a computer? On which kind of system was that + running? + + Before rfcommd there was no collection of the data. + The spirometer has some built-in printer, which is + very expensive and the printout is small. + + >> Are you using it often? + + I/We are using it every day for printing out + spirometry (lung function) results. + + By the way. A secondary function why rfcommd has + filters: We have a sterilization device, which has a + serial printout of sterilization runs. + + This is what rfcommd does print out too. + + The features of rfcommd moved from: Accept every + rfcomm request to having filters per device mac, was + because of those two devices. + + But it will allow to have the ecg readout as a filter + for free. + + >> It had limited interaction, and yet you managed to + made it available from a linux computer. How did you + do it? + + First I had a python script using pybluez to offer + some bluetooth printer service, which bluetooth + clients connect to and send print jobs. + + But I migrated this to some C implementation and + generalized it as rfcommd so it is more modular for me + and others can reuse it too. + + Bluez stack had some rfcomm client application, but it + was removed in newer version because they hate + commandline users. + + >> Was it difficult? How long did it take? + + Digging around bluetooth is difficult. It looks + similar to TCP/IP, but is its own terminology, + protocols and principles. Look at rfcommd for how to + announce some service. + + It took me two weekends to write rfcommd as it is now. + + >> What would you advise to designers of such devices + to make everyone's life easier? + + If you mean medical devices: Please open source all + firmware and open up all schematics. In ten years you + will be dead or in pension but still people can extend + or update your devices. + + And second: Never have specific assumptions and fool + end users into costly standard. You never know better + than your users. + + For example in the spirometry description, they say, + that only some bluetooth printers are compatible. + + This is due to the bluetooth standard not having + defined, *what* is sent to bluetooth printers. + + It should be the minimum, to define this, as it is in + the USB printing standard. + + >> What kind of protocol interface would have been the + easiest? + + The easiest protocol interface, also considering + security and data protection standard, would be ssh + over TCP/IP. Everyone knows SSH, it can be integrated + into everything and it is easily upgradable to newer + security standards. + + >> What does it permits to do that was not possible + before? + + With the spirometry data ready as simple text data, I + can further process it using standard unix tools, in + case I ever need this. + + >> Are other people using it in the practice as well? + Even indirectly? + + My nurses use it mainly. They press the »print« + button on the spirometry device and it prints the + results. + + I, as doctor, only see the printed out results and + explain them to patients. + + >> Do she does not have to use command line interface + for that? + + No, it's all practical. The spirometer starts its + bluetooth client for rfcommd and rfcommd runs the + spirofilter printing filter script, which invokes + lpr(1). + + >> Are there many situations like that, where + cumbersome interfaces makes life harder for working + with medical devices? + + Yes, it's built into all medical devices to enforce + proprietary and expensive Windows software to be + bought. + + For example the newer version of my ECG device has + some undocumented network mode. The ECG standard I + will be using over serial was defined in 1990. Since + then old devices only got bluetooth and ethernet, but + did nothing else new. + + The price stayed the same, of course. + + >> Do you think designers would benefits themself from + offering another interface that is easier to use? + + In the short term viewpoint it protects you from + competitors to enter the market. But in the long run, + this now stops me from easily processing patient data + for further research. I am using a 25 yr old ECG and + some 10 yr old spirometer. + + >> What could have motivated the designers to use + something this-much cumbersome? [not asked, already + answered] + + >> Are there any similarities in other devices to + reuse the existing work you just did? + + Yes. Bluetooth is the new hype in medical devices. + All those smart devices for body measurement are for + example BLE, some insecure bluetooth standard to read + out key=value from bluetooth clients. Some bled(8) + should be easy to write. + + Nearly every medical device still has some serial + port, either for communication or measurement. + + For measurement this will never die out, since raw + data is required. + + And some serial2bluetooth, that's what I am using for + my practical examples. + + >> Would it have been possible to build such device + yourself from parts, but with sane interfaces + instead? + + Building such a device is not the hard part. The hard + part is licensing the device as being a medical + device. + + I am, as a doctor, am allowed to license some medical + device for my patients. But if I'd want to sell or + give this device to some other doctor, I'd need some + EU medical device license. + + This is a complex process. + + You have severial medical device classes. Some always + require some EU-wide licensing. + + The logic of some ECG is very simple. But licensing + it for selling is what makes it expensive and/or keeps + the competition low. + + >> What do you advise to people also stuck with + cumbersome device, but without reverse engineer + superpowers? + + Force the device producers to open up standards. + Write into contracts, that devices have to be + interoperable, so producers need to adapt. + + It's the same for software. If you can't write it on + your own, force them to open up standards, because you + want to extend the software. + + For extension of software, reverse engineering is + legal. + + + + Carrying the Cross tgtimes ____________________________________________________________ @@ -67,62 +512,73 @@ ____________________________________________________________ - Molasses Gopher and Gemini Client gopherml -____________________________________________________________ - - Jonathan Simpson is announcing a new Gopher client: - Molasses. - - >> A new gopher client, Molasses, is now available for - general use. It is a multi-platform graphical client - that runs on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. - - Leveraging functionnal programming with Racket, the - binaries come battery included, bundling the racket - runtime code, famous for building-up robust graphical - user interfaces straight from the core language - libraries. - - Inline images, multiple tabs, keyboard navigation, - Gopher and Gemini support, opening external http:// - links on an external browser, Molasses has everything - one might expect to browse the little Internet. - - >> Feedback is welcome and appreciated. - - https://github.com/jjsimpso/molasses/ - - - - BBC Reviving the Plain Old Radio tgtimes + High-Tech, Low-Life tgtimes ____________________________________________________________ - BBC, one of the earliest if not the first radio - broadcasting ever, comes back to using a WWII era - technology, to overcome limitation Russia imposes over - Ukraine. - - In between a rain of missiles and a short moment of - temporary peace, fetching information on what is - happening around is a relief, maybe even a requirement - for survival. - - Internet infrastructure of Ukraine are being impacted, - and the backbone getting shackled by all kind of - limitations, provoked the BBC news bulletin to be - unreachable. - - A more primitive way to broadcast critical headlines - than Internet: shortwave radio, which can live off a - simple emitter for covering a large region. - - >> It has launched two new shortwave frequencies in - the region for four hours of World Service English - news a day. These frequencies can be received clearly - in Kyiv and parts of Russia. - - https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2022/millions-of-russians-turn-to-bbc-news - + High-Tech Refers to the ability to use complex tools + created by engineering, or in the absence of a large + corporation to build them, hacking things together. + + Refers to those put aside by society, such as criminal + or drug dealer, making itself edgy; or hobos and + beggars, pushed to the edge by more or less everyone. + + One way to develop the idea of High-Tech Low-Life + would be a criminal using modern tools such to empower + its crimes. A transaction giving the bad guys the big + guns. Not helpful. + + But another way to portray it is someone rejected by + its surroundings, seeking support through + technological tools. May it be as a source of direct + income, or as a way to get informed, or inform its + surrounding, perhaps the entire world such as what did + happen with the late revolts in China. + + The "High Tech, Low Life" (2012) documentary shows us + that it is not an alternate science-fiction plot, but + a phenomenon happenning today. + + Giving High-Tech toys to poor population sounds more + like a GAFAM plan to rule over the thirld-world while + looking like a humanitarian hero saving the world, but + a bit of honesty would reveal that it is closer to + offering the Low-Life people to the High-Tech corps, + by extending further the frontiers of ad-tech. + + Giving entertainment platform is probably not the most + urgent kind of technology people without a meal a day + is going to need. What about a tractor though? In its + simplest form, in China again, a 55 years-old lady + farmer started to use a hoverboard (board onto which + to stand, with a wheel on left and right) to change 3 + hours of daily walk to carry the vegetables harvested, + into 40 minutes riding this board. + + https://nextshark.com/chinese-farmer-hoverboard-life/ + https://www.chinanews.com.cn/tp/hd2011/2018/02-13/800254.shtml + + Or what about deploying long-range point-to-point + wireless links in west Africa to circumvent the poor + power and inexistant cable infrastructure, as well as + escape the lobby and regulations that take over the + few IT resources of that country? + + http://www.melissadensmore.com/papers/m4d08-mho-reassessing.pdf + + Or even trying to figure out how to make small solar + or wind-power stations that are affordable enough for + the budget of a small off-grid village (with a few + subventions)? Or an on-street display continuously + showing live job offers? + + >> Open-sourced a driver for the community? Installed + Linux on an old laptop for someone in need? + Convincing the boss to make the project open-source? + Attended a surprising situation of that kind? Tell + us your story of High-Tech given to Low-Life on + #bitreich-en IRC channel on the irc.bitreich.org + server @@ -158,6 +614,35 @@ ____________________________________________________________ + FreeDOOMDay on 2022-03-27 +____________________________________________________________ + + In comemoration of the beginning summer time in + central Europe, we will celebrate FreeDOOMDay! On + 2022-03-27 20:00 CEST (be careful!), we will play + chocolate-doom + + https://www.chocolate-doom.org + + This is a doom variant which runs on nearly every + machine out there and supports extra modes: + + https://www.chocolate-doom.org/wiki/index.php/Three_screen_mode + + Please try to install the FreeDOOM wad files as a + base: + + https://www.chocolate-doom.org/wiki/index.php/Freedoom + + See you on Sunday! + + Sincerely yours, + + 20h Chief Gaming Officer (CGO) + + + + Gopher for Medical Research tgtimes ____________________________________________________________ @@ -166,21 +651,21 @@ ____________________________________________________________ medical documentation. You named it: PubMed itself have been delivering documents through Gopher: - Phone bookswith name, phone number and e-mail + Phone books with name, phone number and e-mail addresses of those willing to submit it, - Imageslike weathermaps, + Images like weathermaps, - Audiosuch as 1992 presidential debates, + Audio such as 1992 presidential debates, - Booksand all kind of publcations, also proposed to + Books and all kind of publcations, also proposed to users as a way to publish their own content, - Videosshort ones, but also on-demand movies! + Videos short ones, but also on-demand movies! - Telnetinterfaces with login and password, + Telnet interfaces with login and password, - Search enginesFor browsing this entire content. + Search engines For browsing this entire content. The technical bulletin of March-April 1994 reveals as much. While 1994 does not sounds like a world gifted @@ -189,22 +674,23 @@ ____________________________________________________________ already widespread among providers, but much less used as they are today: - Spotifywere files through Gopher. + Spotify were files through Gopher. - Netflixwere files through Gopher. + Netflix were files through Gopher. - PubMed, ResearchGatewere files through Gopher. + PubMed, ResearchGate were files through Gopher. - Instagramwere files through Gopher. + Instagram were files through Gopher. - Facebookwere publication as files through Gopher. + Facebook were publication as files through Gopher. - Amazon Kindlewere text files through Gopher. + Amazon Kindle were text files through Gopher. - Office365were telnet interactive session, or WordStar, - PostScript, and ASCII files through Gopher. + Office365 were telnet interactive session, or + WordStar, PostScript, and ASCII files through + Gopher. - Googlewas either gopher search, or interactive telnet + Google was either gopher search, or interactive telnet sessions, with sometimes powerful query languages, permitting to filter the result held in the databases: Searching for references about Italians @@ -244,6 +730,203 @@ ____________________________________________________________ + Memecache atom feed +____________________________________________________________ + + Thanks to the innovation from the Netherlands, we can + now offer an atom feed for the memecache at + bitreich.org: + + gopher://bitreich.org/0/memecache/news.atom + + Please subscribe for your newest meme pleasure! + + Sincerely yours, + + 20h Chief Meme Officer (CMO) + + + + St-Lazare's Paris Train Station tgtimes +____________________________________________________________ + + Ah! The Saint Lazare train station. Emblem of the + Parisian train station, and today still looking like + on the painting by the XIXth century painter Monet. + + This typical look were somehow preserved regardless of + the modernisation of the train equipments. Lately, new + equipments have been installed to prevent fraud: + ticket barriers are now surrounding all the stations + and their surrounding, only letting those owning a + ticket onto the station. + + Not unexpected from a train company for a country with + fraud around 10% on long train lines. Mr. Monet would + probably still be able to come and settle down for + painting the train station nowaday, although to the + price of a ticket to anywhere. + + Yet the devices themself seems not of the greatest + comfort to both fraudsters, beggars frequently coming + where most passengers are, and legitimate passengers + alike. While it might be improved shortly, there is an + high error rate for passengers trying to insert their + ticket or NFC card. + + In case of a misunderstanding of how to use these + devices, the train stations are not overcrowded with + staff to welcome passengers in need for information, + and it would take a bit of time. + + Setting-up a new solution seems a difficult challenge, + putting in compromise price to setup, comfort of use, + reliability, finding the new staff in charge of + maintenance... A reminder that technical solutions + only solve technical problems. + + https://lenouvelautomobiliste.fr/actualites/39949/des- + portes-pour-transformer-la-vie-de-la-gare- + saint-lazare/ + + + + FreeDOOMDay results +____________________________________________________________ + + Thanks to everyone participating in our first tryout + to play doom over our bitreich infrastructure. It + worked out pretty well. In the end we played the + freedm.wad of freedoom. + + Some statistics: Maximum up and down bandwidth + required was 14 kbytes/s. Maximum CPU usage here: 2% + of one core. RAM: 400 kb. + + Chocolate Doom is compatible to vanilla doom. + Everyone having some old DOS doom can join in using + rfcommd: + + git://bitreich.org/rfcommd + + Just attach a serial2bluetooth dongle and some + bluetooth dongle in your linux machine, then use the + new added filter: + + gopher://bitreich.org/1/scm/rfcommd/commit/9b77ca90e9cf4ca7cd9521e6756dc2b833cdefce.gph + + This will automatically connect your serial connection + to a doom server over tcp/ip. Change it to + bitreich.org and the standard port and you are set. + + Of course you can use socat from some ttyUSB0 or ttyS0 + too. Nothing stops you, but your own laziness. The + possibilities are endless. + + See you next time, with whatever machine you can find + and which runs DOOM! + + Sincerely yours, + + 20h Chief Gaming Officer (CGO) + + + + + What really happened on Mars? tgtimes +____________________________________________________________ + + What can possibly go wrong while sending a device + entirely controlled by software on a remote location + where noone would ever be able to go for a long while? + The question opens a vast field of answers. + + 1997, Pathfinder, a solar-powered ground lander and + station, with VxWorks proprietary real time operating + system onboard, embedding an 6-wheeled Sojourner rover + with custom firmware, landed on Mars. + + During a field data collection mission a priority + inversion did happen on the Pathfinder station total + loss of control for the time of a reboot. + + The bug was reproduced on earth and patched, latter + explained on a mailing list, published online. + + https://www.cs.unc.edu/~anderson/teach/comp790/papers/mars_pathfinder_long_version.html + + At its core, most operating systems are built around a + scheduler that orchestrates execution of many tasks + onto one or several CPUs. It is a critical piece of + software in the case of real-time operating systems, + that must ensure to deliver some actions right on + time. + + Complex systems may be unfit for such purposes, and + software simplicity has found its way through + experimenting how complex systems may end-up in + difficult-to-debug situations. + + Picturing oneself in charge of reproducing a bug on + earth for something that went wrong on another planet, + with a patch expected for next Monday is a strong + pressure toward keeping systems simple and easier to + debug. + + Although, the Mars operating system landscape is not + all VxWorks and nothing else. For instance, the RTEMS + system, Real-Time Executive for Multiprocessor Systems + was open-sourced from US army 1993 and is today + actively maintained by both corporations and the open + source community. + + Being part of Google Summer of Code, it is also + welcoming newcomers to real-time operating system + development, who might be able to contribute to + embedded software making its way onto space. + + https://www.rtems.org/ + + While the ISS project was put at threat by the current + events in Ukraine involving all nations, outter-space + still represents a middle ground where all sides have + a same objective and can collaborate: extending the + horizons above what could be reached before. + + + + Secret voting for Bitreich Council 20h +____________________________________________________________ + + Bitreich is always ahead in its structure, + organisation and technology. So is our democracy: + + gopher://bitreich.org/1/scm/bitreich-council/commit/f43daad938405d966c158a12b6fcb8f13a9d1868.gph + + The majority of council members has decided, that: + + >> Secret voting is possible on certain topics. When + council members vote in secret, they need to vote + under a bedcover. Multiple council members can be + under one bedcover. + + Bitreich is reacting to the decision of Debian to + introduce back chamber corruption in its decision + making: + + https://lwn.net/Articles/889444/ + + This is completely prevented in the Bitreich model, + since multiple council members are allowed under one + bedcover, while hidden from any eavesdropper in the + room. + + Sincerely yours, + + 20h Chief Democracy Officer (CDO) + + + TMP.0UT Volume 2 is Out tmpout ____________________________________________________________ @@ -274,6 +957,40 @@ ____________________________________________________________ + Bitreich migrating to Windows Server 2022 +____________________________________________________________ + + Yesterday the last SSH.com license we had expired. We + are now unable to access Linux on the old bitreich.org + servers. In an approach to modernize Bitreich, the + council decided to go further: + + - Windows Server 2022 will be the new server OS for + growing our business opportunities and fast + deployment of critical workloads such as SQL Server + with confidence using 48TB of memory, 64 sockets, + and 2048 logical cores. + + - Irc.bitreich.org will be replaced by Microsoft Teams + to create a more engaging meeting experience with + together mode. Focus on faces, pick up on nonverbal + cues, and easily see who is talking. + + - The ed(1) cloud will be replaced by Microsoft Office + 365 to connect and empower every employee, from the + office to the frontline worker, with a Microsoft 365 + solution that enhances productivity and drives + innovation. + + We hope to see you on the new services, which enrich + your daily business life. + + Sincerely yours, + + 20h Chief Technology Officer (CTO) + + + Publishing in The Gopher Times you ____________________________________________________________ DIR diff --git a/tmac.w b/tmac.w @@ -119,7 +119,7 @@ . in 2n . ta 2n . ti -2n -\fB\\$1\fR\t\c +\fB\\$1 \fR\t\c .. . .de QP \"start quoted paragraph