Open source software and nice hardware

Confessions about my favorite color

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 18:52:50 +0200

+++ Wednesday  3 June 2026 +++

Confessions about my favorite color
===================================

Lately I overheard some people discussing their favorite color.
When it came to their personal favorite color, they were quite
outspoken.

Sometimes people ask what your favorite color is. This
question always baffles me, I don't have a favorite color.

I don't know if this makes me a divergent person, and is it
quite ordinary to actually have a favorite color. Perhaps there
is some statistical data about this?

So here it is, my confession. I have been going through this
life on planet earth for more than six decades, and haven't
even got a favorite color to show for it ...


Last edited: $Date: 2026/06/03 18:52:50 $

You are paying for AI search

Wed, 20 May 2026 20:41:53 +0200

+++ Wednesday 20 May 2026 +++

You are paying for AI search
============================

Google announced that they are moving to AI, "Google search
is AI search". Of course, their rivals can't stay behind,
and must follow this path.

As we all know, these moves require incredible investments.

Giants like Google are there to make profit, they must
expect a big enough return on investment. Advertising is
the only source of revenue for search engines.

Cost of advertising
-------------------
Ultimately, the money for advertising has to be payed by
someone. Which means us, the "consumers". The cost of
advertising is part of the retail price of products and
services.

Even if you never use Google, never use Facebook, you are
still paying for it.


Last edited: $Date: 2026/05/20 20:41:53 $

Re: Publishing content on both gemini and gopher

Sun, 17 May 2026 08:07:48 +0200

+++ Sunday 17 May 2026 +++

Re: Publishing content on both gemini and gopher
================================================

Recently Koen Martens started a small discussion on usenet,
in comp.infosystems.gemini, and in comp.infosystems.gopher,
about publishing content on both gemini and gopher [1].

His usenet post addresses tooling for combined posting, but here I
would like to take a step back and just look at combined posting.

Combined posting
----------------
Probably many of us have been thinking about combined posting, like
on Gopher and on Gemimi, or on Gopher and the web, or all three. And
some people do indeed do some form of combined posting. I too have
some posts that are both on Gopher as well as on the web.

Fragmentation
-------------
Gopher and Gemini are tiny platforms with a limited number
of people posting and a limited number of visitors.

The existence of Gopher and Gemini leads to fragmentation,
dividing those small numbers into even smaller numbers.

When publishing the same post on Gopher and Gemini both platforms
gain some content. People who only visit a single platform won't
notice and for them the post have made it richer.

Relevance
---------
On the other hand, when both platforms mirror the same content,
one might wonder what's the need for having these two platforms
side by side in the first place.

Difficult
--------
This is something I have wrestled with. For a very short time I have
run a Gemini capsule next to my Gopher hole, and published different
posts. But this turned out not doable for me. Gopher is the platform
I like most, therefor I quickly killed my Gemini capsule, focusing
purely on Gopher.

I still have a website, and publish blog posts there. And for me
this too is difficult. The post from Koen on usenet made me think
about this again.

The outcome is that I see the web more as a platform for wide but
shallow reach and Gopher for small but deeper reach.

Now to put that into practice...

I already have differentiated and seldom publish the same post on
the web as on Gopher, so that's a start :)

[1]: Message-ID: <10u7idm$19b7$2@nntp.sonologic.net>


Last edited: $Date: 2026/05/17 08:07:48 $

Extract images from a PDF file

Sat, 02 May 2026 10:31:46 +0200

+++ Saturday  2 May 2026 +++

Extract images from a PDF file
==============================

From the note-to-self department.

A great tool to extract images embedded in a PDF file is
`pdfimages'.

pdfimages is easy to use.

List elements in the PDF file
-----------------------------

   pdfimages -list 

Extract elements from the PDF file
----------------------------------

   pdfimages -all  

`image-root' is just a name for the files that are going to be extracted.

Say you use `this' as image-root, than the extracted files will be called
this-000.jpeg
this-001.jpeg
...
and so on.

For more information, see --as usual-- the friendly manual.


Last edited: $Date: 2026/05/02 10:31:46 $

ESP32 and STM32 to play with

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 11:05:54 +0200

+++ Thursday 23 April 2026 +++

ESP32 and STM32 to play with
============================

This week I ordered a few things to play with:
- ESP32 starterkit
- STM32 bluepill
- ESP32-WROVER
- Extra breadboard, and breadboard wires

Not the best moment
-------------------
There are still some chapters to do on the translation of the
Emacs Lisp introduction into Dutch. Also I have some other work
on my to-do list.

Better in the winter
--------------------
Of course, it is better to order these things at the beginning of
the winter and not in spring time.
But given the oil crisis I wouldn't be surprised if these little
boards get a lot more expensive, or even less available.

Now I have to see how long I can postpone playing with them :)


Last edited: $Date: 2026/04/23 11:05:54 $