05 Aug 2026: rot is a fun little Python script for encoding and decoding text using the ROT13, ROT18 and ROT47 ciphers. It supports files and stdin. Examples:
rot -r13 file.txt > out.txt
finger user@domain.com | rot -r18
echo "dir/file.txt" | nc nightfall.city 1900 | rot -r47
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...)
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 (see echo@plan.cat).
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/markdownfinger markdown@happynetbox.com | chawan -T text/markdownPreviously 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 -stdinfinger markdown@happynetbox.com | pandoc -s -f markdown -t html | w3m -T text/html
Chawan is still in beta - it has done an incredible job on tables but had some other issues with processing other elements in the MD when it's being streamed remotely (I had to remove the problem areas from the file, for now - keeping mostly tables). It had no such problems rendering all the original MD locally.
Still, I'm finding that it does a great job already on so many of the protocols it supports (HTML, Gemini, Gopher, Spartan, Finger and others) - that I created a smolnet page with this browser (and Dillo) in mind.
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. | | | | Unofficial. 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 | | * 30 Apr 2020: mozz.us: Finger | | * 14 Aug 2020: plan.cat | | * 25 Jan 2021: finger.farm | | * 24 Apr 2021: happynetbox.com | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
14 Jul 2026: Updated the smolnet page with lots of Gemini-specific links. On my next pass, I'll focus on Gopher links (update, 16jul: added the gopher links I had collected. Need to still work on organization). The page is still a work in progress (links & organization) but keeping it online helps me access Gemini and Gopher more frequently.
It's also a Chawan & Dillo page because of each browser's ability to access HTTPS directly and render HTML well (see the Chawan screenshot, for example).
There are many great Gemini/Gopher browsers but few that also support HTTPS/HTML. Kristall and Alhena are the only other smolnet browsers that I'm aware of that also support HTTPS but they don't render HTML as well.
Eventually, I think, the smolnet page will contain only Gemini and Gopher links - served, ironically, over HTTPS in HTML. The idea is to showcase how browsers like Chawan and Dillo handle multiprotocols seamlessly. It also gives me more of a reason to use them regularly - both of which are excellent browsers that are under active development.
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.
11 Jul 2026: fab at redterminal.org built a Gemini server that runs on an ESP32 microcontroller in multithreaded mode using Arduino FreeRTOS.
I tested it using Lagrange from its gemini page and everything loaded great. It was a blast knowing that the pages were being served from this.
There are lots of great projects being built around esp32, including interesting devices like the handheld T-Deck Plus. I first came across the ESP32 when I was looking into LoRa Mesh Networks.
10 Jul 2026: updates on the Free Apps page.
08 Jul 2026: Finally updated the Binary Markdown Killer. I had been meaning to get to it for a long time. Added all the replacement pairs from uni2asc - both apps are now functionally the same. Also, lots of code improvement and a (subjectively) better UI. You should see all three textareas without having to scroll (1080p). (see Free Apps for the latest)
Note: If you add or remove a mapping from the charMap table, you must also update the regex pattern in the normalizeCharacters() function below. The regex pattern must include every binary character listed in the charMap.
function normalizeCharacters(text) {
return text.replace(/[“”‘’…—–→•´©®™°┌┐└┘│─├┤┼✓✔✗✘×÷]/g, function(m) {
return charMap[m] || m;
});
}
06 Jul 2026: Added an article about the use of ID verify laws to build a state-controlled algorithm that targets children and adults across the entire web with pro-fascist, epstein-friendly propaganda. From the article:
When the operators of this new nudge machine is a government that has abandoned morality and turned truth into an abomination, not a single one of us is safe ... We have a right, as people, not to be preyed upon by evil and to keep our children safe from an epstein class that runs our government.
02 Jul 2026
I watched Supergirl last night and made a few spoiler-rich notes. The film has got its faults but there is one thing I am sure of...
I want to see Milly Alcock as Supergirl again with all the depth, vulnerability, humanity and physical appeal she brings to the role.
01 Jul 2026: So I started playing (testing) some mp3s with mpxplay for DOS. What a great looking interface. I miss it. It's handling modern mp3s mostly without issue under DOSBox (occasional static but maybe I can fix this via config).
There really isn't anything else as nice looking for playing mp3s on the command line anywhere (as far as I know). (Screenshot)
30 Jun 2026: I came across Uptime Funk today - haven't heard in a long time. Possibly the most polished tech-parody of all-time. A few other songs popped up in the suggestions:
27 Jun 2026: bike-demo is both a demo and a template for creating simple ASCII-based animations. Its purpose is to make frame-by-frame animation editing as visually friendly as possible - just add your own frames and adjust sleep values.
I wanted a terminal-based storytelling format and tried several methods. This approach seemed best suited for the short-form storytelling and other little projects I had in mind. Likely no more than 1 to 3 times as many frames as this demo itself. (Free Apps)
26 Jun 2026: Updated The ASCII News Network template with a new character - Brenda Hardcastle. She is a minor tweak of the original ASCII creation and joins April Mercedes in the news room;-)
16 Jun 2026: Updated the Finger Protocol section of the Free Apps page with plancat - a dedicated .plan file updater for plan.cat
plancat uses plan.cat's API to automate posting to your account via the command line. In the configuration section of the script - just enter your plan.cat username, preferred editor and optionally your password. Once the information is typed in, run "plancat".