Random Bits and Bytes
Books and Computers and Comics! Oh my!
ITEM 1. Project Gutenberg is having issues with their Search functions, and they say these issues are due to AI systems scraping their libraries.
If you’ve tried searching for a specific book on Project Gutenberg of late, you may have seen this notice pop up in your browser window instead of the results you wanted.
Busy, busy, busy little server! No time to answer your search request. “I’m too busy serving up something to a dozen bots who can’t comprehend it, and they are gobbling up your ability to read and comprehend what you were seeking.”
Sign of the times. So, are you stymied? Turns out, no you are not. As long as you have a little hard drive space (or a lot of it, depending on your mood) to install some software.
What software, you ask?
Why, Kiwix, says I.
This is an Open Source downloader and viewer that can display the contents of compressed files (in the Kiwix .ZIM format) for offline file browsing. Kiwix has captured a good number of sites, or portions thereof, that you can download and browse at your leisure without need of an Internet connection.
There are mobile versions, PC (Linux and Windows) versions, and Mac versions available, and you can also install Kiwix as a server application and make a browsable home library available via Wi-Fi or Wired connections, if you so choose.
If you have a SD card or internal drive with at least 210 Gb of free space, you could carry all of Project Gutenberg on your mobile device. Imagine that! Searchable and readable from within the app. Not only Project Gutenberg, but a host of other offline library modules are available to you, limited only by your hard drive capacity.
Check their Catalog for the full range of items for download and browsing offline.
ITEM 2. Computer Operating System (OS) level Age-Verification & Identification mandates.
These laws and regulations are being pushed by various States and “Silicone Valley” techbros, ostensibly to “protect the children.”
That lie just gets SO old, it hurts.
It’s really to track people on line and find out what they do, likely for commercial purposes, but possibly for political ones as well. Meta — your Facebook overlords — have dumped millions of dollars into these age verification mandate efforts, probably because the ads they sell are being targeted by their own (and other Silicone Valley companies’) spam bots. Any bets that Alphabet (Google Ads) might be in the same boat?
Computer ID? That’s to help the bots target real people over other bots, not to help protect kids. Follow the money as always.
Various operating systems of the Linux kind are refusing to comply, regardless of how the laws roll out. One distribution even suggested they may build a “1984 Surveillance State Edition” in case you live in the Peoples’ Republic of California or the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (Colorado Region.)
If you want to find a Linux distribution that might fill the “NO ID/NO AGE VERIFICATION/NO TRACKING to use my computer” bill, you can follow this page to see which distros are falling on the Refusnik side, and which are bending the knee.
”Does It Age Verify” GitHub Page
Me? I’m a Devuan user from the “systemd refusnik” era. It serves me well.
ITEM 3. Independent Comic Book Creators to Watch and Follow.
Hey, comic books are supposedly one of the big reasons why I’m here, right? Let’s list some folks I follow, in no particular order. Please check out their comic work and their writing/podcasting. Guaranteed I’ll miss some, but this is a start:
Michael DiBaggio and Shell Presto DiBaggio at Heroic Adventure Fiction, where they post chapters of their books from their shared-world adventure stories and a good deal of Shell’s artwork.
K.M. Carroll posts at K.M.’s Substack where she shares posts from her novels and also her comic book pages from her novels-become-comics.
Ulysses is at Comics Odyssey with his ongoing Spirit-Girl series.
Henry Brown at Tales of the Earthbound, who is getting ready to launch his fundraiser to get his graphic novel into physical form. Henry also podcasts with Ulysses, so check them out.
Hannah Rose Williams at Novels, Comics, and Webcomics has a history of producing intellectually stimulating comics, and she does a killer set of Batman Beyond fan fiction stories.
That’s enough to get readers started. Please visit these fine people and read some of their writing and analysis, and enjoy their art.
That’s all for now!
Later, folks!
Great read. It’s probably time I ditch my Mac and go back to Linux. Been a few years, but I enjoyed my time there when I was younger.