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	Gemini first impressions
	July 29th, 2019
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	I finally spent the 5 minutes necessary to download one of the few
	available Gemini clients. I went with AV-98 [0] from solderpunk.
	It's interface is basically the same as VF-1, so it had that going
	for it. Also, I didn't need to download a rust compiler. ;)

	[0] AV-98

	While there's not a lot of content around gemini-space (more on
	this in a second), it was still nice to have a way in to poke
	around. I see some journal activity already taking shape, and
	that's a great place to start.

	I'll be honest. At first I thought of Gemini as a neat but
	ultimately useless side project of the already-tiny gopher
	community. The more I've seen it worked on and thought about it
	the more I've come to consider it a "real thing" of some
	importance. But lets come back to that idea in a minute.

	First, lets talk about the naming of things.

	"Gemini" is the protocol. It appears to be capitalized in all
	occurences within solderpunk's FAQ.

	"Gemini maps" are the temporary term for the document format of
	a Gemini server. It's coined by solderpunk here [1] and only named
	that "until a better name comes along."

	[1] Gemini maps

	"Geminiholes" - mentioned by solderpunk, but noone is using it.

	"Gemini server/client" are the defacto name for individual tools
	that power it.

	"Gemini-verse / Gemini-sphere / Gemini ecosystem" - I haven't
	noted any special term for this akin to "the web" or
	"gopherspace". Is there something already in use?

	"Journal" - weB LOG / goPHer LOG like structure. Is there
	a playful term for these yet?

	What other terms are we missing?

	Okay, enough of that. Time for THOUGHTS OF IMPORTANCE!

	The built-in TLS by design of Gemini is great, and combined with
	the natural ability to run it unpriviliged and require very little
	bandwidth I can see it serving a valuable purpose in safely
	providing a platform for authors in situations where the web is
	not. Take Khazikstan, for instance, who is MITMing the entire
	country. Gopher was always a nice idea to help in these
	situations, but the lack of reliable security on it meant major
	problems for real applications. Gemini fixes that. What's more,
	Gemini over tor adds in anonymity.

	I have more thoughts on the tor thing, and around real-world
	applications for a minimalist hyperlinkable publishing protocol
	with built in anonymity and safety, but my internet connection is
	dying and I have to finish this post while tethered to my phone.
	Thank goodness for low bandwidth stuff like gopher and Gemini,
	right?

	In the meantime, what are your thoughts on using Gemini (one day)
	in a setting that's not just hobby play?