Midnight Pub

an Intenet hub, in my kitchen

~tffb

I am here at my desk, in the kitchen, where I always keep my computer desk (reasons) and I have the curtain open, but not window, yet, as it is still warm. I just finished watching a HAM mini documentary (DX'ing) that I downloaded forever ago from yt. I think: I like that concept, that of a "hub" of long distance comunication - a spot, like the dimly lit basements in the 80s with a modem plugged into a Commodore 64, pirating software and chatting on BBS's, forums, and having a "nook within a nook". A nook in one's home, a nook on the Internet.

Alas, I was not part of the 80s computer culture (no PC until 97) but I still experience, and love, the "nook" vibe of personal "routine" (or even ritual) of settling down to the desk at night to write, e-mail, listen to music, anything I want.

So I revisit prioritization of the desk rig.

I type this on the Acer laptop, the last standing laptop in my home, and consider computing options. A GMKtec NUCbox is most likely. Hell, I can get "bare bones" and put in a 256gb SSD + 8gb RAM myself (harvested from this very laptop). Then a display is needed - a 15 inch number, perhaps used (definitely used, from Etsy.com) that is *just* a simple display. I can even forgo 1080p as long as it can swing 720p. The usual suspects for input/navigation: Dell L100 mechanical keyboard, Lenovo mouse.

Debian 12 will be the OS of choice. I have Deb 12 (bookworm) on a thumb drive right now. So just install and go.

Nothing else too ambitious about this rig. Just a Computer On The Internet(tm). Me on the other side. Folks and weirdos of unforseen nature on the other.


wolfinthewoods

there's something to be said

about the old

dusty nooks

everything is slick an curated

they took the walled garden concept

and made a walled fortress of the internet

i miss the days of the late 90s/early 00s

where the internet still had that

<<<\\\w e i r d -ness///>>>

in it's dna

sadly these nooks are far and few

but at least we're still here

pounding keys away into the ether

hell i still use irc

and once in awhile muds

i miss real forums though

even most forums have turned pretty much to trash

glad i found gemini though

a last piece of

atlantis

before it sank

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inquiry

Shit happening seems proportional to amount/proportion of shit for brains involved.

Cf.:

Eternal September
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wolfinthewoods

isn't that the

tR 
ut
H
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tffb

I haven't Gem'd, yet, but I use IRC (Irssi in CLI) in tilde.chat, and fosstodon/libera.chat. Gopher seems like a good protocol, to me, so I may explore that at some point. Then `finger` and whatever else is there, and will always be.

Hubs and corners and nooks and dark corners of the Internet (avoiding the (smaller) term "Web", as computer communication is so much more) are still where I/we make them. I recall sitting in front of the Atari 2600 with a 32 inch CRT TV with crickets and silence, bleeping and booping though an 8 bit game after the family had fallen asleep - no calls were made/received, nothing awake at that hour other than crickets, just in a dark void of thought and tranquility, lit by only the colors of the game in front.

It's the same now, if one creates that environment. No rules to say one can't. An amber-tinted command line with IRC or whatever TUI shenanigans I like, little Web use (as the Web simply sucks, I have little use for it), and I'm a happy camper.

Stay well, wolf

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wolfinthewoods

absolutely

it's up to you

to curate your own

experience

the big companies

are like shoveling

fast food down

your throat

i prefer the ala carte

farmer's market

of small

hidden places

may the advertisers

never find us

i'll have to explore

tilde.chat

i have it book'd

also

never heard of fosstodon

but will investigate further

thanks, you too, tffb

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tffb

Mastodon instance for free open source software enthusiasts. They are on libera.chat (#fosstodon) and have a large instance on Masto.

I lurk #ctrl-c on tilde.chat and #fosstodon/libera equally throughout the day. I pop into SDF on IRC, too, but logging into their server and chatting via com[] (their proprietary chat service) is the way to go there, I think.

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wolfinthewoods

right up my alley

i'm all about foss

just about to install

nixos on a

asus vivobook i just got

ah, i have an sdf account

haven't used it yet

been meaning to get on a few places

nightfall city

tilde

some others

will prob be more active

on those when nix is up

thanks for the info

<<3

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tffb

highly recommend Ctrl-c.club for a tilde server (of course, anyone can join as many as they want). I am ~loghead on ^c. I am ttt2600 on SDF. ~tffb here, so many things, so many names, ha! Oh and lh2600 on IRC. I should consolidate and choose a name. I am likely to go with x2600 across the board, as I have x2600.cc now. I need to get with m15o to see if I can change my UN on here. I doubt I can on ^c, though sending an email to the admin there is worth a shot. SDF, likely a no-go, too.

I am in the midst of cleaning up some digital junk, and life things, as well. Things to consolidate:

- UN for the several services I DO use

- making a phone call (on an actual phone) and cancelling my Amazon account (yes, it requires a phone call to some trained upseller)

- (somehow) cancelling my Google acct, but first finding some sort of SIM-accepting home/cordless phone base. I can keep Cricket Wireless and my number, but I need to use a smartphone of some sort as a phone "base" and then connect with Bluetooth Cell Connect (or whatever the term is called) to pipe in my smartphone calls to a cordless phone.

- putting 2FA on a few services, namely ones where I use my credit card

- and just lowering my online presence overall, albeit with proper privacy/security taken into account with the few things I DO use the Web for

In truth, SDF and Ctrl-c get neglected by me in a lot of ways. ^c IRC is incredible, but I lurk mostly these days. The server and the activites there have died off (in interest, for me), and the zine we ran, which I started, has tapered off in submissions (albeit over six(6) submissions this month, then my laptop died!) and publishing the thing which was once a labor of love, is now just an open invitation for people to blow up my inbox with suggestions and corrections, et al, when designing/formatting the thing was the ONLY creative outlet/fun I had with it. So, now it's just digital labor, a liability to my fun online.

Hence, me writing (more) again. I can always make up words.

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wolfinthewoods

that's been my modus operandi

get off the damn

(mainstream)

web

my gmail is now an alt spam mail

i use proton for my main

eventually getting a pixel 6 pro

and installing graphene os as

a privacy oriented android experience

also looking into making zines myself

going to seed them around town

and just experiment with print

but mostly

yeah, trying to write write write

just jumped on ctrl-c btw

turns out i was on tilde.chat

and i forgot i had joined

ha, so many accounts

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