= 2025-08-09, Saturday = 

I fired up my Swiss Micros DM15L today for the first time in a
while. It was still loaded with the 3rd party firmware from the 
HP Forum user jebedeo [0]

This firmware added much usefulness, with a permanent complex
stack (real and imaginary parts visible together) and display
of X and Y stacks. It is also very fast!

There are a few minor niggles, but it's a nice alternative
to the stock HP ROM from the original HP15c

I decided, though, to switch back to the "official" Swiss
Micros firmware - which now also has 2-level stack display and 
some other added features. Still has the arcane complex number
format of the HP15C, of course.

The initial release of Swiss Micros 2-line display firmware
had a few issues itself (v33) and I see these have been fixed
and a new version (v34) is out.
I've loaded M1B_V34.

I then found that Swiss Micros MIGHT be releasing the R47
calculator - their own hardware platform for the 3rd party
C47/R47 firmware. This is GOOD NEWS.  I've used C47 a few times
and have a keyboard overlay for it - but found that on a stock
DM42 (not the faster DM42n version) it was a bit sluggish, but
with great features & functions.

A faster hardware version (based on the DM32/DM42n hardware) 
with a properly manufactured front panel & key labels will 
certainly be on my shopping list!


[0] https://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-20046.html

=2025-08-06, Wednesday =

I had a brief flirtation with Arch Linux on my laptop, in place
of Devuan. It /was/ interesting to play with a different way
of managing packages etc. - some from pacman as binary 
packages and some from the AUR as compiled->packaged->installed.

Systemd was a pain, though.

And something was causing the machine to suspend during the night
and it wouldn't wake up... needed power-off/reboot.

Couldn't find what was 1) causing the Suspend or 2) why it caused
a crash. Normal suspend/wake worked properly when I initiated
myself via the Suspend key or via xfce4-power-manager.

I gave up hunting, and went back to the safety and reliability
of Devuan.

But for excitement I upgraded to "testing" (Excalibur) after 
installing "stable" (Daedalus).

Apart from the broken version of urxvt (9.31) everything else
seems to work as expected. I removed the installed urxvt and 
compiled my own from the 9.30 sources, which doesn't have the
"cursor in the middle of the screen" bug.

Onwards and upwards.



= 2025-08-02, Saturday =

An update ....

I'm trying to update this journal directly from my laptop
at home, using the "dmenu_notes" function to write the note
and sync it to /srv/gopher/notes/

and I've updated the gophermap entry to point to its new location


notes/journal.txt


This makes updating the journal entry much more straightforward
which is the point of Linux - write tools that make life easier.




= 2025-08-02, Saturday = 

Tilde.Pink!

I got access to my tilde.pink account yesterday.

I've logged in, changed my shell from sh to bash, configured mutt
and tested my new email address:

g4slv@tilde.pink

I've put a couple of things in the gopherhole, but I'm unfamiliar
with the format of gph files used by the gopherd used there, which
is geomyidae. I'll have a play later...

There doesn't appear to the the same inter-user communication there
that I've seen described at other tilde sites. I'll keep poking
about there.



= 2025-07-29, Tuesday = 

I've been exploring other tiling dynamic window managers.

So far I've tried:

dwm
sxwm
dk
qtile

they all have good points and a few niggles.

DWM is cumbersome to configure, and I guess onward maintenance will
be tricky. However I /do/ like using it, once it's set up with the
features I want.

SXWM is very good, with some of the good bits of DWM and much
easier configuration. There are a few issues that aren't
showstoppers, but which make be go back to DWM occasionally.

DK is also very good. Lots more relatively easily configured
options, layouts etc. Again, as with SXWM, it's good and will
probably be easier to maintain in future, as the changes are in
config files, not in patches to the actual source code.

QTILE was interesting, and I only tried it for a short time, but it
probably needs longer to get used to how it's configured. It seems
to have LOTS of options for layout/behaviour.

On the whole, despite the obvious drawbacks of DWM, I find I go
back to it the most. 

I also tried Polybar with both DK and SXWM, and it works very
nicely - it's probably got many more functions and features than
I'd ever want.

I'm happy enough with either the native bar & DWMBLOCKs of DWM or
the "under development" SXBAR of SXWM - using my own DWMBLOCKs
scripts to populate it.


~~ Floodgap ~~

I've been added to floodgap's list of "new gopher servers since
1999" [0]

Hopefully my site will start getting indexed by Veronica2 and show
up in searches of gopherspace!

I've requested tp join 3 different Tilde sites now, and heard
nothing from any of them.... tilde.team, tilde.town and tilde.pink

Perhaps one will reply sometime. At least I've got my own server to
host my gopherhole (and a gemini capsule, that's not really being
added to).



[0] gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/1/new

= 2025-07-26, Saturday = 

I've spent a lot of time this week trying different tiling window
managers. I've used i3 for a long time, but a You Tube video
extolling the virtues of "dynamic tiling" managers, such as DWM, led
me to look into DWM itself.

After a lot of tweaking, patching, compiling, re-compiling,
re-patching, re-compiling... I got something I quite like using. 

I also spent a log time wrestling with "st" the suckless.org
terminal emulator - more patches, etc. etc...


Then I saw another You Tube video showing a new tiling manager, similar
to DWM, but being developed by a single person (and young, too!)

It's SXWM. I really like it. There are a few minor issues, but on
the whole it provides everything my patched DWM provides, with the
added advantage of easy configuration, via a text file, and
reloading in-place.

DWM seems cumbersome by comparison.

I've tweaked my DWM config to change some of its keybindings to
match the (better?) ones set by default in SXWM.


I also like the occasional dabble in "ratpoison" but I think I'd
really need to spend A LOT of time developing muscle memory to find
it comfortable.

....

Tildes....

I applied to join tilde.team a week or more ago, but have heard
nothing back. Today I applied to join tilde.pink which is
gopher/gemini centric, and doesn't provide web-space, or have a web
presence itself. I'm getting more heavily involved in my own Gopher
space, and would like to get more involved in gopher-oriented
community.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
= 2025-07-19, Saturday = 

I've been spending most of my spare time tinkering with a new
laptop. Initially I installed FreeBSD, and enjoyed setting it 
up, but it kept crashing...?

I then installed Devuan (systemd-free fork of Debian) and I'm
enjoying this, too.

more to follow....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


= 2025-07-13, Sunday =

It's HOT HOT HOT here in Shetland today. Over 20C, which counts as
"blisteringly hot".

I've been sitting in the darkness of the house bashing out a rough
1st attempt at a gopher phlog aggregator.

It's pointing out how little I know/remember about bash scripting.

Perhaps I should look at doing it in Python. It's been a long time
since I wrote a lot of Python, but I /did/ get quite into it for
simple jobs like this, when I was actively developing various
radio-related Python programs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

= 2025-07-11, Friday =

I started working on my Old Computer Challenge project.

Eventually set up Debian Lenny on my old, old white Samsung NC10.

Telnet, finger, rwho... ftp, email, NNTP, IRC .... all working.

SSH is partially working - it's too old to have the correct host
key protocols needed by modern SSH implementations.

Lynx can't access HTTPS websites. 

WiFi works!

Gopher  browsing using Lynx or UMN Gopher client works.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

= 2025-07-09, Wednesday =

I've been tinkering more and looking around gemini-space as well as
gopher-space. Not sure of the benefits gemini brings over gopher.
Must read more.

I've been thinking too about replacing Windows$ on my only good
laptop... now I'm thinking of getting another old/refurbished
laptop from eBay to use as my Linux workstation. This gives much
more freedom to tinker and break things without risking my ability
to work (I still need a reliable laptop for running my business and
earning money)

So... today I'll have a look on eBay and select something suitable.

## Update : I've ordered one...  Windows 11 Laptop Dell Latitude
7390 Core i5-8350U 16GB Ram 256GB SSD Webcam

which is almost the same spec as the one I already have and works
nicely, even booted into a "live" session all in RAM... 16GB RAM -
when I think back to the days I first started meddling with Linux
on old 486/DX2 machines with 32MB of RAM - and buying RAM chips to
add more... sometimes up to a mighty 96MB!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

= 2025-07-08, Tuesday =

I've installed Alpine on the little netbook, which runs Antix 23.
It's a real step back in time to a better place for me, to use an
old familiar interface. The netbook is a little small, and I think
it's destined to be my "carry about in my backpack" machine.

I don't have a desktop machine any more, so the only other user
machine is my Dell Laptop, currently booted into Antix-Live USB.

I'm /REALLY/ trying hard not to do a full install of Antix (or
another lightweight debian-like distro) on this lapop, and get away
from using Linux only via a USB-stick live session.

The more I think about it, the less I feel I need to keep Window$
hanging around. 

As an experiment I might install Thunderbird & Claws Mail (I use
both interchangably already on Window$ anyway after using Claws for
years on Linux when I had NO Window$ machines at all) and Firefox ,
on this USB-Live version and keep the laptop booted in Linux for a
week or two and see how I get on. I already use Libre Office in
Window$ and can't think of any specifically M$ software I really
rely on.

A terminal emulator (I use PuTTY on Window$, and I have always
found minicom to be a bit arcane - but I think there's a Linux port
of PuTTY now....?) might be the only thing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

= 2025-07-07, Monday = 

Installed AntiX "live" on a USB stick, with persistence. I can now
use my Dell laptop in Linux. I've put i3-wm on and I'm slowly
remembering the key-strokes to navigate from the keyboard. I forgot
how much better it is to eschew the touchpad!

I have to keep stopping myself from clicking "Install" to put it on
the HDD and wipe Win11 into oblivion. There are still some things
(work related) that I /think/ I need in Window$ so I'll resist the
urge for now. I might give in at any time. I forgot how much I hate
Window$ and how much more comfortable I feel in *nix. I've got
several R.Pis and 3 cloud VPS machines which run Debian and Ubuntu,
so I've always been able to use *nix as a headless server OS, but
it's ages since I used a *nix user-machine. 

I've also put my gopherhole into the mix at The Observable
Gopherspace Universe Project

gopher://gopher.viste.fr

==================================================================

= 2025-07-06, Sunday =

I spent a long time last night burrowing around gopher space and
following links from hole to hole to hole. There's a lot of stuff
out there, but it's not as overwhelming as the web has become. It's
certainly a niche part of the internet. I'm going to start
collating my findings of interesting gopher spaces, and to start
building up some content of my own - copying some existing stuff
from my DokuWiki site will be an easy start, reference material,
memory jogging stuff etc.

=================================================================

= 2025-07-05, Saturday =

Setting up Gopher Server for the first time and getting my head
around Gopher Space. A new learning curve that takes me back to
happier times before the web got broken.

=======================================================