redirector: an URL Shortener
24 Sep 2026: redirector is a simple personal URL Shortener. The script has a single purpose... feed it a unique 4-digit number and the page will redirect the user to a website mapped to that number. Built into the page are a documentation section and a configuration area.
redirector.html was built because I got tired of trying to find an URL Shortener that respected user privacy. I have previously used v.gd and is.gd but, too often, the sites have had various issues accepting new URLs.
The file cannot be accessed directly because the built-in mapped samples force the page to fulfill its core mission - to redirect upon access. LOL. You must right-click & save.
redirector.html can be found in the neocities section of the FreeApps page.
ribbit - a twtxt microblog
Update, 24 Sep 2026: See the
ribbit microblog in action. I am using it daily - testing, tweaking. Updates on the status of ribbit (and tons of unrelated thoughts) can be found on this page. This is the
twtxt.txt file.
17 Sep 2026: I've been rewriting ribbit since I last posted (post removed, irrelevant now). I decided to follow the twtxt.txt spec more closely. It just makes sense to embrace an existing terminal-friendly format and infrastructure.
My need for a microblog started with a post I made about a new site named GET together. After building the scripts for that site, I fell in love with typing post2get username "quick message" at the command line and watching it go live seconds later. Unfortunately, the site is already quite dead.
ribbit (a play on "tweet") tries to bring the same workflow - funflow? - to personal microblogging within the greater twtxt universe. It's at the point now where all I have to type is:
ribbit "message..."
and it automatically updates (or creates) the spec-compliant twtxt.txt file and refreshes the ribbit.xml RSS file on neocities.org (using their free API key). Nothing else needs updating, since the HTML viewer/parser just reads the new twtxt.txt everytime it is accessed.
It currently looks like this.
I still have some work to do - testing, tweaks, docs.
command prompt minimalism
09 Sep 2026: In my '~/.bashrc' file, I changed the prompt from this:
PS1="\[\e]0;${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u@\h: \w\a\]$PS1"
to this:
PS1="\[\e]0;\w\a\]\[\033[01;34m\](\[\033[01;36m\]\W\[\033[01;34m\])\[\033[00m\] \[\033[01;34m\]\$\[\033[00m\] "
The end result is so much cleaner. The prompt shows only the current directory (with a little added color), while the full path lives in the terminal window's title. Long directory paths in the terminal are gone (along with user@host). Example:
|
Prompt
|
Terminal window title displays full path
|
|
(bin) $
|
/gnu/store/0c1yfbxyv877mlgychfgvmk5ha2jqh52-gzip-1.10/bin
|
|
(pref) $
|
/etc/firefox/pref
|
It takes a little getting used to after decades of seeing the full path but eventually I'll make the adjustment. It really does help (me) by removing unnecessary clutter when I'm deep in a path. I can always 'pwd' if I get lost:-)
Updating .plan files via the command-line
02 Sep 2026: Updated plancat (for plan.cat) and added planup (for happynetbox.com) to the Finger section of the Free Apps page.
Both scripts update .plan files from the command-line. So much fun!
planup: post to happynetbox via the command-line
26 Aug 2026: planup is a happynetbox script that automates posting to your account via the command line. The script retrieves your current plan file, loads it into your editor of choice, and uploads the updated content after you save and exit the editor.
I've been using the script since about 21 Aug 2026 without issue. UPDATE (02sep2026): It fully supports 8-bit uploads/special characters.
Although the script is working perfectly, it's still unsupported software by happynetbox (backup your content). I've commented it heavily because it includes a few workarounds in order to give it the right amount of polish (using sed to clean up server output, for example).
Special thanks to Bboysoul!
This script was developed based on the methods described in "Introduction Finger" (20 Aug 2026) by bboysoul: https://www.bboy.app/2026/08/20/introduction-finger
planup is available here. I'll add an entry in Free Apps soon.
Usage: Save the script, make it executable, edit the config section at the top to set your USERNAME, PASSWORD and EDITOR.
smarks (Smart Marks): HTML Bookmarks
25 Aug 2026: smarks (Smart Marks) is a python script that takes a text file (demo.txt) and creates a single portable html page with bookmarks, tags and search (demo.html).
The script is useful for creating a page for general (private) bookmarks, bookmarks focusing on a specific topic (linux apps, for example), shareable online bookmark pages (with RSS) and even a local intranet of links (file:/// supported).
The script is available at the Free Apps page
Finger Farm
21 Aug 2026: One of the comments from Andros Fenollosa's recent article on finger was this:
Honestly, it would be amazing to see Finger Farm return. It was one of the three dedicated finger servers that were part of the Finger Revival. It's been down since very late/2023.
Fingerverse: Update & News
.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| https://640kb.neocities.org/fingerverse |
:-----------------------------------------------------------------------------:
| 19 Aug 2026 |
| |
| - New service: finger help@crossed-fingers.andros.dev |
| The fingerverse has its own search engine! |
| Searchable index of the contents of all added .plan files. |
| |
| - New service: On this Date Calendar: finger://flanigan.us/calendar |
| |
| - New personal domains added. |
| |
| - Added the finger addresses for all developers I could find (into each |
| of their respective client sections) |
:-----------------------------------------------------------------------------:
| General News |
| |
| - Lookit (the world's first browser for the Finger protocol) is seeing new |
| updates, including a home/start page, bookmarking. Portable, stable. |
| https://github.com/jonathandeamer/lookit |
| |
| - Rogallo, and the supporting framework, has turned into a feature-rich, |
| full-fledged smolnet solution for the terminal. Immersive updates: |
| https://blog.davep.org/feed.xml |
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
Spider-Man: Brand New Day
12 Aug 2026
Watched Spider-man: Brand New Day yesterday. Felt good to watch a superhero film with a solid script and well-developed characters. The current ~8 rating is about right.
cypher
11 Aug 2026: I've replaced the previous rot script (uploaded 05 August) with cypher - a more versatile text transformation tool. It still includes the ROT13/18/47 transformations but now adds reverse and binary conversion.
It also lets users build their own custom substitution cipher. Here's the default mapping, which is easily reconfigured.
In the Privacy & Security section of the FreeApps page.
smarks (Smart Marks): Tag List Update
pymarks has been renamed to smarks (see: 25 Aug 2026).
09 Aug 2026: Added a configuration option to smarks pm (pymarks) that allows splitting the tag list based on any letter. This makes it easy to balance the two tag columns. Other customizations are now better documented in the script.
# ======================================================
# CONFIGURATION
# ======================================================
# TAG COLUMNS
# -----------
# Letters A through SPLIT_LETTER go in the left column.
# All letters after SPLIT_LETTER go in the right column.
#
# Example:
# SPLIT_LETTER = 'K' # Left: A-K, Right: L-Z
#
SPLIT_LETTER = 'K'
# ======================================================
smarks (Smart Marks): a static HTML bookmark page
pymarks has been renamed to smarks (see: 25 Aug 2026).
07 Aug 2026: I've had smarks pm (pymarks) - a Python script that generates a static HTML bookmark page - sitting around for about 2 1/2 months. During that time, I kept adding personal bookmarks (over 200), but the HTML page itself was becoming difficult to use because it needed improved usability features.
This is what it looked like when I last posted about its early stages on 21 May 2026. This is what it looks like now - a demo page with sample bookmarks from demo.txt.
The two key improvements: splitting the tag list across two columns (A-L and M-Z) and adding instant search with AND logic (all search terms must appear in the title, description or tags). These were the two things the page always needed in order to be useful. (current doc: smarks.txt)
I'm hoping to post the final script, docs and samples to the FreeApps page soon.
Axanar: The Trilogy Continues
28 Jul 2026: After a 12 year wait, the Axanar trilogy continues! In 2015, Paramount and CBS sued Axanar because part 1 of their trilogy (Prelude to Axanar) was "too good". This lawsuit was what eventually led to Paramount issuing the infamous 'fan film guidelines'.
It created a chilling effect, so much so that, on my end, I tracked down and downloaded every fan film I could find just to be sure they weren't lost forever. It turns out it wasn't necessary? (maybe... I don't know how many of those original sites still exist. I should check...)
plancat: update
22 Jul 2026: Update - plancat. All special and extended characters now upload properly - brackets, symbols, box-drawing characters and ASCII art spacing are fully supported.
Chawan: Markdown over Finger
21 Jul 2026: There are a few ways to do Markdown over the Finger protocol. I like chawan now because it has all the tools built in (screenshot):
chawan -T text/markdown finger://markdown@happynetbox.comchawan -T text/markdown finger://happynetbox.com/markdown- or...
finger markdown@happynetbox.com | chawan -T text/markdown
Previously I was converting the Markdown into HTML using Pandoc, and passing it off to Lynx & w3m (which also works well):
finger markdown@happynetbox.com | pandoc -s -f markdown -t html | lynx -stdin
finger markdown@happynetbox.com | pandoc -s -f markdown -t html | w3m -T text/html
The markdown is currently tables-only to showcase how well Chawan handles this. As a result, it looks pretty bad in raw (unrendered) mode - defeating the purpose of MD. I intend to update the page with general markdown in the future.
The Finger Revival: A Look Back
17 Jul 2026: Added the following section to the Fingerverse file:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Some key dates chronicling finger's revival, culminating in the creation |
| of three free hosting services dedicated to the finger protocol. |
| |
| A fascinating look at a little bit of niche history. |
| |
| * 02 Jan 2019: We're bringin' finger back! |
| * 08 Jan 2019: Finger Fever! |
| * 21 Sep 2019: portal.mozz.us .................... (wayback local copy) |
| * 30 Apr 2020: mozz.us: Finger |
| * 14 Aug 2020: plan.cat .................... (wayback local copy) |
| * 25 Jan 2021: finger.farm .................... (wayback local copy) |
| * 24 Apr 2021: happynetbox.com .................... (wayback local copy) |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trinity
16 Jul 2026 (
hover)
Trinity: July 16, 1945
On this date, the United States detonated the first nuclear weapon in human history. It was described as a weapon of almost incomprehensible force.
After witnessing the apocalyptic destruction, knowing what they had just created... the United States used two more nuclear bombs on cities full of civilians.
They congratulated themselves, they celebrated. To this day, they justify the horror.
Over 200,000 murdered. More than 90% were civilians. Women, children, the elderly. Eight decades later, the United States is the main reason the horrors of a genocide exist in our modern world. An unholy union with the region's treacherous apartheid terror state.
100s of thousands of civilians murdered. More women, children. Millions displaced, sick and starving.
Trinity was the name they gave the test explosion. It was a name tied to religious imagery. Poems he would say.
The symbol of The Father, The Son, The Holy Ghost... twisted and made obscene. A mockery of faith and life itself.
On the blood and suffering of the innocent, a nation was rebuilt - stripped of its soul, its humanity. That is the legacy of Trinity.
Spartan Protocol: Update
12 Jul 2026: Updated the Spartan protocol page with new links, deletions, general edits. I had a collection of things I had been meaning to get to for a while. Happy with the final results.