Trinity
16 Jul 2026
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.
smolnet: Gemini, Gopher (and some lightHTML)
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.
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.
ESP32: A Gemini Server
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.
Free Apps: Updates
10 Jul 2026: updates on the Free Apps page.
- bfinger: added finger://domain.com/user format support.
- Simple HTML 3.2 Editor: I will be deleting the editor soon and replacing it with a standalone HTML previewer.
- sv (Spartan Viewer): I'll be deleting this app too. There are many better Spartan browsers available. Will update the Spartan page to better reflect this.
- sbl (Spartan Bookmark Launcher): will be updated to remove its dependency on sv (Spartan Viewer). Internally, netcat and gmir will replace sv.
- Simple Ciphers: added a 2006 htmlApp (GPL v2), originally named ROT Converter. The app includes support for ROT5, ROT13, ROT18 and ROT47. I will be adding support for additional simple ciphers.
Binary Markdown Killer
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;
});
}
ID Verify: A Tool for Evil
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.
Supergirl 2026
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.
mpxplay
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)
Don't reboot it, just patch!
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:
- Every Byte You Take. Sarah De Graw on vocals. Fire! Love her voice.
- Vulcan Has No Moon. Beautiful Uhura. If well-written, I would so much watch new episodes of Star Trek: TOS using AI. This video is a good example that the tech is getting close.
- Man Baby. (Warning: catchy tune)
- Christelle Berthon. Not a YT suggestion, just wanted to share. A part of my playlist since 2010. Deep, haunting, beautiful. Harmonica.
bike-demo. An ASCII Animation
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)
The ASCII News Network Update
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;-)
plancat: a command line .plan updater
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".
Blog to .Plan File Converter
15 Jun 2026: Finished an app that takes an HTML-based blog post and converts it into a 72-column (default; user configurable), plan-ready text file. It's essentially an html2text converter with extras.
It's been a while since I posted to my finger account and wanted to start with a few blog posts. Automating some aspects of this helps. The blog.to.plan converter is available in the Finger Protocol section of the Free Apps page.
A sample of the results can sometimes be found at echo@plan.cat or 640kb@happynetbox.com (if I haven't made another type of post).
Finger Services
14 Jun 2026: A recent Gemini post (translate) led me to bbs.airandwave.net, which hosts an impressively large number of finger services. I've updated the fingerverse with just a few of the many services listed on that page.
On a side note, this discovery feels like it's from an alternate universe. I can't believe that such a treasure trove, an entire ecosystem, was thriving all this time and I hadn't come across it sooner in my searches. It simply isn't discoverable (png) using legacy search tools (domain check).
Lookit
11 Jun 2026: The fingerverse was updated with a new browser-like finger client called lookit. I've tested the interactive features on @plan.cat, @happynetbox.com and @tilde.team and it has performed excellently - even at this early stage of development.
The Fieldset
10 Jun 2026: I always liked the look of the fieldset tag. I liked how it was able to incorporate so many stylistic niceties. What follows is The Fieldset - a template that's built around a single tag and only minor CSS.
The Monospace
07 Jun 2026: I was working toward creating a basic CSS template and eventually came up with The Monospace (permanent home at the Free Apps page). The template is just the CSS itself (<style>...</style>) and serves as a quick way to post static pages in the style presented in the linked demo.
It's not too dissimilar to bettermotherfuckingwebsite.com (7 declarations) in intent but it has 39 declarations in total: 10 of which are CSS 3.
Short Films (AI)
28 May 2026: I came across a nice link today - AI short films. The page doesn't rate the shorts, just provides some basic information.
I went through a few of them and kinda' liked the following (meh-ok):