smolZINE - Issue 15

2021-12-01

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Hidden (and not so hidden) Gems

Emanations

Spelunking

Recreation

Community Contributions & Discussion

Thanks

Introduction

You may have noticed that new Recreation section up there where Word Search normally is. Don't worry, Jone's Word Search is taking an issue off but will back and have some company going forward. Now it is joined by more fun and games so a new section of smolZINE is born! This issue there is a chess puzzle by carriunix and a word game called Stinky Pinky by yours truly. It might sound slightly lewd but Stinky Pinky is family friendly I promise!

Hidden (and not so hidden) Gems

jdj.golf

It was unintentional but this gem fits in nicely with the little fun and games theme we've got going on this issue. This capsule features some mazes for your enjoyment as well as a gemlog, bash scripts and photos.

jdj.golf

An Inconsistent Universe

A capsule that features quite an interesting gemlog as well as other writings.

An Inconsistent Universe

SpellBinding

Another fun and games theme gem. SpellBinding is a word game where you try to put together as many words as possible from the provided letters while following some additional rules. The game tracks how many valid words you have found and keeps a leaderboard via client certificates. A very cool addition to geminispace!

SpellBinding

Emanations

The Invincible Army of Amateurs

Anecdote 1

I'm not a native English speaker, but I have a great love for the language. On many occasions I've been told that I have a "perfect British accent" which I very much disagree with after hearing recorded talks by myself. But I do try. I try to adhere to British spelling too, which is sometimes very hard.

For a long time I had higher demands on myself. I didn't want to slip into that blended dialect that somehow emerges when second language English speakers hang out a lot with each other and pick up idiosyncracies from each other's native languages that slip in now and then.

My attitude towards English changed when I read somewhere (that I can't seem to find now) that more than two thirds of English speakers are non-native. For me it just then dawned on me: there is no "correct" English. Sure, linguistic rules are descriptive and all that, but I always subconsciously placed native speakers on a pedestal; as authorities. And they are, if one seeks to emulate them completely. But English is also my language. And yours, whether your native to it or not. If I have a Swedish tang to my speech, or get the grammar messed up, or toggle between American and British words and spelling within the same sentences... None of that is wrong. It's how I use English my way.

Anecdote 2

In my work I get a lot of support requests from other parts of the organisation. Mostly from developers needing stuff set up in kubernetes or other tools in our cloud. Sometimes from others, who just happen to have to use tools within our domain. Maybe they have to connect to an sftp server, or reach something in a storage bucket without even knowing that's what they're doing. I love helping these people. It always requires a bit of detective work, and sometimes a bit of hand-holding.

And somewhere in there many of them say "I'm sorry I don't know more about this" and that breaks my heart. Of course they know nothing about ssh keypairs or cloud storage! That's not their domain, and it's abstract and complicated. They're amateurs in my field.

So What Am I Getting At Anyway?

For every expert in a field there will always be ten with enough skill to get by, a hundred that are working on the basics, and a thousand that would like to learn but haven't gotten into it yet. Maybe they're lacking time. Maybe they're like me and just very often find it hard to take the first couple of steps, because it's too hard to find that initial footing.

The meddling amateurs of today are the self-reliant mediocres of tomorrow. Some of them will have to or want to solve the difficult problems and they will become the experts of next week. They were all meddling amateurs at some point, and some will forever stay that way because that level is enough to solve the small subset of problems they're interested in.

Not everyone needs to be an expert. The subject matter is theirs as much as it is the master's. The amateurs will always outnumber the experts. No matter the subject there will always be a proverbial army of amateurs. And they have the right to charge forwards and conquer every bit of knowledge they can and want.

Never apologize for being an amateur. Never assume that knowledge belongs to someone else. Never feel like you need permission to learn.

- ew0k

Spelunking

Gemini Oracle

The Internet Oracle is a mail server where you send questions to be answered by strangers, and in return you also get sent questions for you to answer. The best of these were then posted on Usenet. Perhaps they still are? The Transjovian Oracle strives to do something similar, for Gemini. Visit the site, using a client certificate, and pose a question, or answer questions. The one asking the question can delete the answers they don't like. When they're happy, they can "publish" the question and the remaining answers. As soon as a question has three answers, it disappears from the front page until it is either deleted or published by the question asker.

Oracle

- Alex Schroeder

Easy Gemini Bookmark Management

While discussing gemini I have seen a recurring question about how to keep your bookmarks in sync if you use more than one client or device. There are a whole lot of ways this could potentially be solved and this is just the way that I have settled on which makes the most sense to me and it has worked out quite well. Instead of trying to actually sync bookmarks between devices I use my own capsule as a kind of pseudo bookmark server.

Make a page on your capsule of all the other capsules you want to have easy access to and all you have to do is bookmark that page on your different clients. There are some drawbacks to doing it this way. You need to have your own capsule for this to be possible so those without a capsule will have to find a different strategy. However, there are a number of free hosted gemini servers you can sign up to that are very easy regardless of technical ability. Another one is that if your capsule is down you won't have access to your bookmarks. That's something that I haven't found to be an issue but might not be ideal for some. I think the ease of doing it this way is worth the possible downsides.

With my gemini client of choice Amfora and the excellent aggregator software comitium, I take this concept a little bit further. Also on my capsule, comitium enables me to have a feed of the latest posts from all the gemlogs and other gemini pages that I want to follow. In any client that supports bookmarks you could bookmark this comitium feed page as well and have your bookmarks and subscriptions available on all of your clients just by bookmarking these two links. Amfora supports writing your own new tab page. What I have done is make one with my bookmarks and subscriptions links and a nice gemini ascii art header for looks. Then all I have to do is copy my newtab file to any device where I use Amfora and I have my bookmarks and subscriptions easily accessible. There are plenty of other good ways of skinning this cat. If you've got a good one let us know about it!

- kelbot

Recreation

Chess Puzzle

Solution

Stinky Pinky

To play Stinky Pinky you will need to read the two descriptions below. They each describe a word and the two words rhyme. Example: 1. Smelly, 2. Finger; Answer: Stinky Pinky. Get it? You can email your answer to the address found at the bottom of each smolZINE to confirm if you are correct. The first to answer wins...uhhh I haven't figured that out yet so my congrats will have to do for now.

1. Extraterrestrial area

2. Decorative fabric

Community Contributions & Discussion

Please consider taking part in making this zine better and more diverse by contributing your thoughts and finds. If you are interested in contributing a short article or capsule picks email me at: smolzine (at) cyberbot.space.

If you have any feedback or just want to discuss anything related to gemini or smolZINE hit me up at the above email or ping me on the fediverse at kelbot@retro.social and/or use the #smolZINE tag.

Thanks

Thank you to the following geminauts for their contributions to this issue of smolZINE.

ew0k

Alex Schroeder

carriunix