• DdCno1@kbin.social
    301·
    9 months ago

    There’s a new application-layer Internet protocol like (but also very much unlike) http by the name of Gemini. It was first launched in 2019 and until yesterday, flew completely under my radar. It’s primarily meant to be used for uncluttered text-only pages (although any type of file can be distributed), which are created using a deliberately simple and limited markdown language. Unsurprisingly, this results in a plethora of small niche blogs being published through it.

    The basic user experience is essentially the same as browsing the web, until you notice just how much it isn’t. You enter URLs (except that they start with gemini://) you read texts and you click on hyperlinks - except that every page looks exactly the same due to the markdown language. There are no pop-ups, no ads, nothing autoplays, nothing wants your consent to exploit your user data. Even images only load when the user clicks on them. It shows just how little is actually needed, how many aspects of the modern web are completely unnecessary and mere pointless distractions.

    Gemini pages - and this is a small hurdle that will keep most people away from it - can not be accessed with a normal web browser and instead require a specialized client for viewing (although paradoxically, creating pages often requires a web browser, at least for now). The idea is that both the underlying tech and the browsers are much more straightforward than anything related to http and html. A Gemini client is not effectively an entire operating system of its own that can execute near arbitrary code. It displays formatted text with basic images and videos - that’s it.

    Here’s a neat, but slightly outdated introduction that also recommends a few clients and where to find pages to read:

    https://geminiquickst.art/

    The entire thing feels very early, tiny, experimental and odd, almost like a parallel reality, as if the World Wide Web didn’t exist and someone came up with something like it only now, using today’s hard- and software. If Lemmy is a response to social media in general and reddit in particular, Gemini feels more like a response to the World Wide Web as a whole or like a time machine back to a highly idealized version of the early days of the information system (the primary difference being the lack of horrendous '90s UX design and malware everywhere), including some unfortunate aspects that I had long forgotten about, like how the common method of finding content next to feeds - manually updated indexes instead of search engines - is plagued by dead links; and these dead links, unlike on the normal Internet, cannot be attempted to be resolved using the Wayback Machine or some other cache, at least not yet.

    Gemini is equally parts exciting and promising, like a new frontier, but also at times confusing and frustrating. Don’t expect your Gemini client of choice to replace your web browser any time soon (or ever), but it’s still worth trying out, if for the novelty alone.

    • teawrecks@sopuli.xyz
      101·
      9 months ago

      I was initially interested in the idea of Gemini, but when looking for a client, I happened upon this blog post by the creator of one of the clients about why they were abandoning it.

      After a lot of thinking, I’ve realized there is one main reason I don’t keep coming back to Gemini: it offers no advantage over how I already use the Web.

      In practice, the Web already has all the Gemini content I’m interested in from various people, and then of course everything else. Having everything in one place (whether my web browser or feed reader) makes for a much nicer experience.

      Gemini is a reaction to bloated modern websites, but in fact I don’t actually visit that many gross websites like that. When I do, my ad blocker and paywall bypasser usually make them decent again. Otherwise, I spend the majority of my non-work Internet time on lightweight sites like my feed reader and Hacker News, and some time on sites that Gemini can’t emulate: YouTube, Reddit, Discord. The reality is that Gemini just wouldn’t actually improve this experience for me.

      These are exactly the reservations I had about the concept, so to have someone so invested in it reach this exact conclusion and leave it made me decide to forego it. I think it’s a neat toy, and if it becomes relevant I’ll definitely take another look, but I think it’s a bit of putting the cart before the horse. I don’t want to use a protocol for the sake of using a protocol, I want it to serve a purpose and solve an actual problem I have.

      • currawong@lemmy.ml
        2·
        9 months ago

        I enjoyed browsing Gemini capsules using the Lagrange browser. Its look and feel is awesome and made me want to write smol websites again. I’m appalled by what modern websites have become. I miss making light but cool sites without an ounce of scripts in them.

        • teawrecks@sopuli.xyz
          3·
          9 months ago

          I’m not familiar with the Gemini protocol, but how does it differ from just starting up a webserver pointed at a single folder with an index.html? Isn’t it still just as possible to make a simple site using http?

      • krash@lemmy.ml
        7·
        9 months ago

        Gemini is encrypted by default, but they both share a lot of similarities.

      • DdCno1@kbin.social
        0·
        9 months ago

        Similar idea, but entirely new. I don’t think many people even here know what Gopher is.

          • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
            1·
            9 months ago

            I used Gopher a bit, but we were just looking for free games, and usually ended up on a big college FTP server.

            Then Netscape changed it all.

            Eventually Hotline came along and was our favorite way to get warez.

    • Mr. Satan@monyet.cc
      5·
      9 months ago

      It’s cool and all, but this feels more like a toy than a tool. I can make dead simple web site in minutes with current stack. Nothing, but plain static pages.

      Heck, if I looked for it, I bet I could set up markdown to HTML converter as this is already a widely used functionality throughout the web.

    • dan@upvote.au
      3·
      9 months ago

      I’d love to host my personal site over Gemini but that site doesn’t have any details about self-hosting. Guess I’ve got to research it in more detail. Do you have any recommendations? Should I just write my own server? 🤔

    • tobiah@lemmy.world
      2·
      9 months ago

      That’s like html when it started out. The idea was that the user got to choose what all pages would look like. That gave way to the author having total control.

        • XTL@sopuli.xyz
          0·
          9 months ago

          And the star system and sign. Naming projects after very common words (or even worse, just letters or numbers) is really stupid as it makes searching for them or discussing them difficult and context sensitive and prone to fail.

    • Hjalmar@feddit.nu
      0·
      9 months ago

      I have seen Gemini before but never tried it. Maybe i will but i do have a few questions first:

      • Is there a Gemini search engine?
      • Is there support for Forms/server side code
      • How big is it? Is there like just a few sites or a few hundred?
      • DdCno1@kbin.social
        4·
        9 months ago

        Is there a Gemini search engine?

        I’ve found this one:

        gemini://geminispace.info/

        Needs a client to access, of course. Basic, but functional. I found a general-purpose forum not too different from reddit or lemmy through it (and they decided to call it a BBS, because the Eternal September hasn’t happened to Gemini yet):

        gemini://bbs.geminispace.org/

        Is there support for Forms/server side code

        To the best of my understanding (and it’s highly limited, since I only just learned about this, so take everything with a grain of salt), what Gemini does is primarily limit what the client can do. No local scripts, highly limited markdown. The server side is not limited. You can write any complex code you want that works behind the scenes - but it still has to deliver static pages (called “capsules”) to the end user. This series of articles explains the basic underlying tech and uses the example of a simple server to illustrate how Gemini works:

        https://medium.com/erus-encodia/creating-your-own-gemini-server-part-1-what-is-the-gemini-protocol-cf497477c4d

        And yes, forms are possible, even though there appears to be a somewhat widespread misconception that they are impossible. Please excuse the sketchy-looking IP address instead of a URL, this was the best resource I was able to find on this (and yes, I checked if this page is on Gemini - this appears to be not the case):

        http://216.218.220.144/tutorials/sig-tutorials/misc/gemini-forms.gmi

        Screenshot if you don’t want to click on the above link: https://i.imgur.com/s2mL3bM.png

        Disclaimer: This is two years old and I have not tried to implement it myself. Looks entirely plausible though.

        How big is it? Is there like just a few sites or a few hundred?

        According to the search engine linked above, there are 2420 domains and 1,854,666 individual pages as of yesterday. This is about comparable to the World Wide Web at the same time 1994, a number that grew to 10,000 by the end of that year; I wouldn’t expect the same explosive growth from Gemini - the field has already been plowed, after all. Gemini Space is small, but not a ghost town.

    • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
      113·
      9 months ago

      I find it hard to believe young guys still plan any aspects of their lives around watching sports events.

      • Croquette@sh.itjust.works
        7·
        9 months ago

        Not everyone lives in a busling city with lots to do. For some, sport is one of not many outlets, so it becomes almost like a religion

        • oxjox@lemmy.mlEnglish
          9·
          9 months ago

          Ummm… as someone who lives in Philadelphia, I can inform you that young men who live in and around this bustling city have adopted sports as their primary religion.

        • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
          31·
          9 months ago

          Fair enough. I some times am jealous of people who like following sports. Hanging in a bar watching the sports game and getting drunk sounds fun. I just don’t find it fun.

          • Croquette@sh.itjust.works
            3·
            9 months ago

            You can hang, drink tea and knit if that’s what you like. But it is easy to understand why people get tribal for their sport’s favorite team.

          • Zagorath@aussie.zoneEnglish
            1·
            9 months ago

            I don’t know about bars for it, but I do know people who have shows they watch together with a large group of friends, and alcohol can easily be involved there. Works especially well for trash reality TV. The people I first learnt about this practice from watch the Bachelor.

  • Interstellar_1@pawb.socialOP
    11·
    9 months ago

    Ferrero (the company that owns Kinder, Nutella and Ferrero Rocher) controlled one quarter of the global production of hazelnuts in 2014.

    (Edited to remove some unintentionally deceptive language)

    • SorteKanin@feddit.dk
      3·
      9 months ago

      That’s way too much for one company. Is it just me or does the world just keep making more and more monopolies?

      • Altima NEO@lemmy.zipEnglish
        2·
        9 months ago

        It’s just deceivingly worded. It’s not like they took that much out of the total supply, taking away from others that would have needed it. Reality is that hazelnut farmers were farming them in order to sell them to Ferrero.

      • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.world
        0·
        9 months ago

        Or we just don’t actually have that many hazelnuts. Or Ferrero just makes some really yummy stuff and hence it’s bought in insane amounts.

        • SorteKanin@feddit.dk
          0·
          9 months ago

          If its such a lucrative business for Ferrero, how come there aren’t competitors enough to make it so they can’t hog 25%?

          • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
            1·
            9 months ago

            American candy manufacturing mostly uses peanuts and/or almonds instead, so they compete but not for filberts/hazelnuts.

            I will also contend that they’re not that good a nut on their own, they need chocolate to achieve their true destiny.

            • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
              1·
              9 months ago

              I have to downvote you on the hazelnuts not being very good. They’re one of my favorite nuts, and they look cool!

    • Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de
      3·
      9 months ago

      Interesting fact, but what came to mind for me was camels, dumpster diving like raccoons, running away when the driveway light turns on.

      • ace_garp@lemmy.world
        3·
        9 months ago

        They are chill when you drive past them.

        They can be a hazard for vehicles if in an accident, because of their size. Think moose size.

        The main feralness is that they can smell water, and will head to water-mills to get a drink. They destroy water tanks and pipes to get access. Can’t blame them, the outback is hot.

        Also can outgraze native animals for grasses and shrubs.

        Water-mills look like this:

    • kat_angstrom@lemmy.world
      4·
      9 months ago

      One of my favorite moments from last summer was sitting on my back patio watching a hummingbird flying circles around my back yard in the dying light of sunset, gobbling up insects with every lap. Adorable.

      They also repeatedly killed wasps that were attracted to the sugar water from the feeder I set up for them, that was pretty fun to see

  • BallShapedMan@lemmy.world
    8·
    9 months ago

    Traffic (the book) says most Americans merge into traffic wrong when lanes reduce (from say 3 lanes to 2 lanes for example.)

    The right way is waiting until you are at the very end of the lane that’s reducing. When that happens up to 60% more cars per hour get through the bottle neck in heavy traffic and accidents resulting in killed or serious injury are reduced by up to 80%.

    Bottom line having multiple entry points in a queue with multiple slow down points due to the multiple entry points is the cause of the reduced performance with the way most Americans do it.

    • toomanypancakes@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      9 months ago

      But, if I merge as soon as there’s space for me I don’t have to stress and panic about not having room to get into the other lane or keep driving forward. What do you do if you get to the end of the lane and people aren’t letting you in?

    • callouscomic@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      And you tell other Americans this and they think you’re rude. “No, you need to merge as soon as you can, that’s rude to drive all the way to the end!”

      • NewNewAccount@lemmy.world
        01·
        9 months ago

        If traffic is free flowing and an opportunity presents itself then it’s still better to merge earlier.

        • callouscomic@lemm.eeEnglish
          1·
          9 months ago
          1. That’s not the discussion.
          2. Why/How is it better? If traffic is flowing and there is space to be literally NOT disruptive to flow, then it doesn’t make a difference where you merge.

          I’ll bet though that when you merge, it is actually slightly disrupting flow as the person behind backs off, and then everyone else slightly adjusts. Now multiply this by more cars merging wherever they damn well feel like? If traffic is flowing and enough gaps exist so nobody has to adjust at all, then the merging literally doesn’t matter and it’s not the same argument.

          • NewNewAccount@lemmy.world
            0·
            9 months ago

            Because as the lane is ending, the entire distance from wherever you are to wherever the lane ends is an opportunity to merge without disturbing other traffic. When the lane ends, that moment is now forced, leading to a higher likelihood of the driver(s) behind having to brake more abruptly and/or to an even lower speed.

            • callouscomic@lemm.eeEnglish
              1·
              9 months ago

              Both drivers knew the merge end was coming. Unless they’re morons. People are morons. That’s why this is an argument.

    • Today@lemmy.world
      0·
      9 months ago

      The people who drive up the shoulder around everyone and then cut in past the end are the real problem.

      • BallShapedMan@lemmy.world
        1·
        9 months ago

        I mean they aren’t increasing the KSI rate, so I disagree with that position. They may be assholes, or maybe they have a loved one dying in the hospital and are trying to get there before they die?

      • BallShapedMan@lemmy.world
        1·
        9 months ago

        I read this wrong… Let me see if I can find one.

        This gives you an idea. Nothing special about the lane, it’s like a lane anywhere else. We just overall merge early and at random distances causing chaos.

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
      22·
      9 months ago

      Does the book mention that the Zipper merge is inherently flawed as it relies on drivers to be far more cooperative than they are?

      Yeah. So, like communism, the entire theory breaks down when humans are actually involved.

      • Hazzia@discuss.tchncs.de
        3·
        9 months ago

        I’ve never been myself, but I heard that in some european country (Germany, I think) zipper merging is SUPER fluid because everybody’s on the same page. Which makes me think the issue is less about humans and more about americans, specifically

  • ivanafterall@kbin.social
    7·
    9 months ago

    Earlier today I learned the voice of Shredder from the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon was Uncle Phil from Fresh Prince. I never knew.

      • Flamangoman@leminal.space
        1·
        9 months ago

        Sounds like a text book case of remembering. There’s a great tragically hip line that goes “it would seem to me, I remember every single fucking thing I know!”

      • Dasus@lemmy.world
        1·
        9 months ago

        Oh lol.

        I woke up like 3min before writing that, hahahaha

        Good catch

        But I would contend that I know quite s few human who I wouldn’t necessarily call people and quite a a few non-people I definitely consider worthy of personhood

    • Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      This is very dubious. I tried recreating this experiment with my dogs over months and found them to pee anywhere from 7 seconds to almost a full minute. Is there another detail I’m missing here?

  • CelloMike@startrek.website
    5·
    9 months ago

    The word “asteroid” literally means “star-like”, because when they were first observed, no telescope could see enough detail to know what they were, so they were basically just called “those things that look a bit like stars”.

    Even when eventually we figured out what they were, they were generally considered to all be spherical like tiny planets (see: The Little Prince) until the 1970s when one of the Mars probes flew close enough to have a look at one.

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
      2·
      9 months ago

      Is it an ocean? What makes that an ocean and not the Mediterranean? And is it younger than the Mediterranean, regardless of which counts as an ocean and which doesn’t?

        • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
          4·
          9 months ago

          My understanding of oceans involves a lack of continental crust (which the Baltic and Mediterranean both have). I thought that was the defining difference between an ocean and a sea. And bi-directional connection to oceans or other seas is the difference between a sea and a lake.

          Though reading more about it leaves me feeling like the definitions themselves are fluid (heh).

          • noobnarski@feddit.de
            1·
            9 months ago

            Huh, I didnt even think about the word sea, as a non native English speaker I didnt think of it. I get the argument that the baltic sea and the Meditarranean are both seas and not oceans, but I looked it up too and, yeah the definitions flow into each other (lol). (Also, greetings from someone who lives a few kilometers away from the baltic sea).

            • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
              1·
              9 months ago

              Oh lol it didn’t even occur to me that this might be a language thing rather than a… uh, different kind of language thing lol.

              And greetings back from Canada, about as far as you can get from the Baltic Sea in the northern hemisphere lol. Actually, that looks more like Alaska or Hawaii. Lol Russia is too big, it’s on the Baltic Sea but is also one of the farthest points from it in the northern hemisphere.

  • The Snark Urge@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    9 months ago

    Reagan made it legal to use cartoons to sell toys by deregulating marketing to children, according to the recent Wizard and the Bruiser episode