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Diffstat (limited to 'personal')
| -rw-r--r-- | personal/gophermap | 13 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | personal/phlog/23-06-23-welcome.txt | 15 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | personal/phlog/23-07-11-fediverse.txt | 94 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | personal/phlog/23-07-18-emacs.txt | 60 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | personal/phlog/gophermap | 7 |
5 files changed, 189 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/personal/gophermap b/personal/gophermap new file mode 100644 index 0000000..71ffe3e --- /dev/null +++ b/personal/gophermap @@ -0,0 +1,13 @@ +i \ /\ ---------------- null.host 1 +i ) ( ') <| mounderfod | null.host 1 +i ( / ) ---------------- null.host 1 +i \(__)| null.host 1 +i null.host 1 +iWelcome to my gopher space! My name is Noah, but I go by mounderfod. null.host 1 +iI am interested in music, programming and video games. null.host 1 +i null.host 1 +iLanguages I speak: French, English null.host 1 +iPronouns: he/him null.host 1 +i null.host 1 +hMy WWW site URL:https://mounderfod.online gopher.mounderfod.online 70 +1Phlog (mirror of my blog) /personal/phlog gopher.mounderfod.online 70 diff --git a/personal/phlog/23-06-23-welcome.txt b/personal/phlog/23-06-23-welcome.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dd74824 --- /dev/null +++ b/personal/phlog/23-06-23-welcome.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15 @@ +Welcome to my blog! +=================== +23 June 2023 | https://www.mounderfod.online/2023/06/23/welcome-to-my-blog.html + +Hello, I have decided to set up a blog on my website :) +Basically, I will use this page to create more long-form posts to express various ideas and other things that +I've found cool recently. + +How does the website work? +-------------------------- +The frontend was all written by me in raw HTML/CSS. +The little time marquee at the top of the page was my own idea, +but I "borrowed" the time formatting code from Stack Overflow. +In terms of backend, the website uses Jekyll and is being hosted on GitHub using Vercel to deploy it. +If anything is not working or you just want to contact me, contact me on Discord @mounderfod. diff --git a/personal/phlog/23-07-11-fediverse.txt b/personal/phlog/23-07-11-fediverse.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ef30e1b --- /dev/null +++ b/personal/phlog/23-07-11-fediverse.txt @@ -0,0 +1,94 @@ +Enter The Fediverse +=================== +11 July 2023 | https://www.mounderfod.online/2023/07/11/enter-the-fediverse.html + +If you havent heard, Reddit is in a bit of a pickle. In short, they have changed their API pricing +in such a way as to effectively make it impossible for 3rd party apps to continue, presumably in +order to improve that sweet ad revenue (a move probably inspired by Twitter's). In any case, the lack +of Reddit for a few days (and my general dissatisfaction with the platform at that time) led me to +explore alternatives, which led me to Lemmy, a finding which would cause me to dive much deeper into a much +wider thing - the Fediverse. This article will explore this process and how Ive found it so far. + +Lemmy +----- +As I said, the first thing that I'd found for this was Lemmy. Lemmy is, according to its own website: + +"a selfhosted social link aggregation and discussion platform. It is completely free and open, and not +controlled by any company. This means that there is no advertising, tracking, or secret algorithms. Content is +organized into communities, so it is easy to subscribe to topics that you are interested in, and ignore others. +Voting is used to bring the most interesting items to the top." + +Sounds cool, and most importantly, very similar to Reddit UX-wise, so I went and made an account. + +I should probably explain something out of the gate - there isnt one Lemmy website. Thats the whole point of +the Fediverse. Instead, there are many instances of Lemmy, all of which are federated, that is to say, they are +all interconnected. From my instance, I can make a post on another instance, which a user from yet another +instance can comment on. This way, there is no central authority for the whole site. Its like crypto, but +without the enormous range of scams and profiteering. + +Anyway, the instance that I decided to start with was lemmy.blahaj.zone. I was told that the instance you start +with doesnt really matter, so I chose this one on somewhat silly grounds - I own a Blahaj myself. + +It worked pretty well to begin with, as from my perspective it seemed to be working just like Reddit; I could +make posts, join communities, and so on. However, I quickly noticed that choosing an instance wasnt going to be +as simple for me as I had anticipated, due to my own pickiness and the particulars of federation. + +How federation works (a crude explanation) +------------------------------------------ +Obviously, it would be wildly inefficient if every server shared everything that happened on it with every +server. As a result, federation on ActivityPub (the protocol that Lemmy, Mastodon, and more - including the +dreaded Meta Threads - use as their base) works like this: + +1. a user on server A requests a post/user/community on server B by using the search function +2. server B provides what they requested and creates a federated link between it and server A +3. any future activity on the post/user/community is sent to server A for anyone to see + +This is probably an oversimplification, and it doesnt work 100% of the time (particularly when federating +between servers running different software), but from my observations this is basically how it works. + +This is also where my issue with the instance Id chosen came up. There was nothing inherently wrong with the +instance or its admins, and in fact it was a lovely instance, but several of the communities that I was +interested in (such as the Modded Minecraft or RetroWeb ones) had not yet federated properly. This is no fault +of the instances, and once I had searched for them myself, any new activity would be visible to me. But I am an +impatient moron, and I wanted to see what the existing activity was, and besides I began to notice that not all +comments on posts were being federated to me (such that going to the home instance of the post showed more +comments than I could see or respond to on my own instance), and this bothered me for some reason, so I decided +that I would begin to look for another instance. + +Side note: This issue is probably fixed now as the instance has grown some since the time of this experience. + +Conveniently, it became apparent to me on that same day that the SDF network, a lovely network of Internet +services, including a public Unix shell, had recently set up a Lemmy server. I had been a member of SDF for a +couple of weeks, and had been using their IRC and bulletin board during that time, so I figured I would set up +an account there - and besides, I checked in advance, and the federation seemed to be more to my liking - so +now Ive been using lemmy.sdf.org as my home instance and its been great - my username is +@mounderfod@lemmy.sdf.org if youre curious. + +Mastodon +-------- +Of course, if youre familiar with the Fediverse (or have read the article up to this point), +you know that Lemmy is not the only Fediverse service that exists. Next for me was a replacement for Twitter, +which Id ditched on the day it was bought by Elon Musk (a fact which turned out to be excellent foresight on my +part, but realistically I was going to delete my account anyway, so it wasnt exactly a stroke of genius). + +This one was a little easier, since I discovered that SDF also had a Mastodon instance. I have to say that in +recent times Ive found myself using Mastodon a lot more than Lemmy; theres more users so theres more content +for me to access, and the lack of algorithm is really refreshing because it allows me to build my feed with +only the content (and people) that I want to see. + +If youd like to follow me on Mastodon my account is @mounderfod@mastodon.sdf.org. + +Other services and conclusion +----------------------------- +By this point I was fully immersed in the Fediverse, and quickly set up Pixelfed to replace Instagram and +Funkwhale to store my personal music collection. I also intend to set up my website with IndieWeb, which is +basically federation for blogs. + +At the start of this article, I explained that this all started because of Reddits API changes. But the truth +is, I was starting to become disillusioned with the mainstream social media networks long before this, with the +constant algorithms, ragebait and promotion of far-right content putting a drain on my own energy. I was +perhaps longing for freedom to control what I put my attention on. If this sounds like you, then I would +strongly recommend that you at least try the Fediverse networks - in any case, its much easier to delete your +account with them than with e.g. Facebook if you dont like it! + +I hope this article was of at least some interest to you, and thank you for making it this far :D diff --git a/personal/phlog/23-07-18-emacs.txt b/personal/phlog/23-07-18-emacs.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f59db3f --- /dev/null +++ b/personal/phlog/23-07-18-emacs.txt @@ -0,0 +1,60 @@ +Using Emacs +=========== +18 July 2023 | https://www.mounderfod.online/2023/07/18/using-emacs.html + +This post is being written in Emacs :) + +What? +----- +Emacs is, according to its own website: + +"An extensible, customizable, free/libre text editor and more." + +Basically, its one of the oldest text editors to exist, is (technically) entirely keyboard-based, and manages to combine simplicity with +power. In short, its great and Im going to talk about it now. + +Why? +---- +Why am I using Emacs? Well, theres a few reasons: + +- Id heard of it before and it sounded cool +- Its complex enough that it would present an interesting learning curve, but not so difficult as to discourage me +- Its useful for editing posts and HTML like this +- It ships with Tetris built in (need I say more?) + +How? +---- +I went to the website and downloaded it. My laptop currently uses Windows, and Emacs is made by GNU so as +expected I was berated for my choice of OS: + +"To improve the use of proprietary systems is a misguided goal. Our aim, rather, is to eliminate them." + +But I wasnt going to concern myself with GNUs plans for world domination; thats a problem for another day. The install was fairly simple, like any other +application, and upon running the program I am greeted with a pleasant menu screen. + +Now it was time for me to learn how to use Emacs. Emacs is primarily keyboard-based, as it was developed at a time where not all computers had GUIs at all, +let alone mice to interact with them. As such, and also due to its age, it has its own set of keybinding patterns which are overall very different to that +of most applications. For example, saving a file in MS Word is Ctrl-S, while in Emacs it is C-x C-s, which means Ctrl-x followed by Ctrl-S. Youll notice that in +this example, two keybindings need to be pressed to perform one action. This is common in Emacs, as there are lots of commands and not many keys, +and there are even some commands that dont have keybindings and must be invoked by pressing M-x (M meaning Alt) and then typing the command name out. + +This was all a bit complex for me to understand at first, but I quickly got the hang of it (as I had done with the more standard keybinding patterns that existed +elsewhere in the computing world). + +Customising Emacs +----------------- +Now that I had gotten the grips of Emacs' basic usage, I needed to tailor it to my own needs. My plan was to use Emacs for editing Markdown posts (such as this one) +or HTML files, and my website is hosted on GitHub, so I needed something to cover both bases. + +For the latter, there was already Emacs VersionControl, but this was a generic version control tool +and wasnt tailored to the specifics of Git. Therefore, I did some googling and came across Magit. A few more googles educated me in how to add the package +repository it was in and how to then install the package (M-x package-install RET magit RET), and I was quickly able to clone, commit, and push to the website +repository. Perfect! Now I needed to improve my Markdown editing experience. .md files are text, and so I could edit them as normal in Emacs, but then I wouldnt +be able to enjoy things such as syntax highlighting and easy access to various formatting options without typing them out manually. Again, a quick google found +markdown-mode, and within moments it was installed. The package adds a major mode to Emacs - Emacs is mode-based, meaning that there are modes of editing which +result in different functionality of the editor for different purposes - in this case, the markdown mode (enabled with M-x markdown-mode) provides syntax +highlighting and commands to automatically paste in the syntax for links, etc. + +And that was it! +I had installed, learned to use, and configured Emacs and could now use it to edit blog posts for this very website (or Gopher phlog, if youre reading it on that +mirror). Next I shall get it set up for developing my Python/Java projects - Ill keep you posted! diff --git a/personal/phlog/gophermap b/personal/phlog/gophermap new file mode 100644 index 0000000..71ea7c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/personal/phlog/gophermap @@ -0,0 +1,7 @@ +1Back to homepage / gopher.mounderfod.online 70 +i null.host 1 +imounderfod's Phlog (Gopher blog) null.host 1 +i null.host 1 +018 July 2023 - Using Emacs /personal/phlog/23-07-18-emacs.txt gopher.mounderfod.online 70 +011 July 2023 - Enter the Fediverse /personal/phlog/23-07-11-fediverse.txt gopher.mounderfod.online 70 +023 June 2023 - Welcome to my blog! /personal/phlog/23-06-23-welcome.txt gopher.mounderfod.online 70 |