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╔─*──*──*──*──*──*──*──*──*──*──*�… |
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║1 ........................................ 1║ |
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║2* ........................................ *2║ |
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║1 ...........Posted: 2025-08-05........... 1║ |
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║2* .......Tags: gopher art smallnet ....... *2║ |
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║1 ........................................ 1║ |
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╚─────────────────────────�… |
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If you haven't noticed, I am a member of Bitreich, which is one of the |
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forerunners in not just preserving The Internet Gopher Protocol, but propelling |
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it forward. The Gopher Protocol is a very simple barebones protocol from the |
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early 90s which predated the web. Think of a different way of navigating |
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information than a web browser, kinda. |
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Bitreich hosts a yearly conference which is held both online and in person via |
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their very neat conferencing ecosystem. They have a "conference in gopherspace" |
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guide[1] where you can read more. |
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I had the honor of speaking at brcon2025 last Saturday, August 2nd: |
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* brcon2025 general archive[2] |
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* brcon2025 post-talk announcement[3] |
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I presented my in-progress documentary which covers the smallnet: from Gopher |
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history, to smallnet present and future. Fun interviews with most of the |
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original Gopher RFC people, like Mark P. McCahill, Bob Alberti, Paul Lindner. I |
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also interviewed Cory Doctorow and Melon King (of MelonLand). I mentioned plans |
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to interview the founder of Bitreich for this documentary and also that this |
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documentary plans to bring awareness to a retro tech/video game museum which is |
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important to me/I volunteer at: The MADE[4]. Interestingly, I noticed I wasn't |
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the only one talking about museums. |
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Here's my copy of the assets from the talk, although you can find the originals |
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on the official brcon2025 archive[5]: |
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* .ogg recording of my talk[6] |
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* slides (.zip of .md files)[7] |
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* transcription of the .ogg recording[8] |
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If you explore the archives, you'll see there's actually a lot of really amazing |
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work being done in gopherspace, with `.ogg` recordings and transcripts. On that |
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note, one of my favorite things about Bitreich is its ecosystem. For example, |
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all the presenters used a very unix-y streaming setup for audio and presenting |
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using a tool they called `catpoint` (like PowerPoint, but text-based). |
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Personally, I streamed to their server using `ffmpeg`--which was a lot of fun. |
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Thankfully, for my expediency I used ChatGPT to help with exactly what command I |
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needed to accomplish such with their Darkice server. All this lines up with a |
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lot of my philosophy which was passed on to me from wonderful Unix boomers: |
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don't reinvent the wheel, these old tools, like icecast, are tried and true. |
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Keep it simple, not monolithic. Interoperable. Let people use the tools they |
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want. |
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Here are some highlights I've chosen from brcon2025: |
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* 20h's presentation on Gopher Game Programming[9] |
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* Hackathon, developing out features for `sacc`, which is definitely my favorite |
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TUI gopher client. |
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Hack the planet! |
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-- someodd |
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## Footnotes |
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[1]: They have a "conference in gopherspace" guide: gopher://bitreich.org:70/0/… |
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[2]: brcon2025 general archive: gopher://bitreich.org/1/con/2025 |
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[3]: brcon2025 post-talk announcement: gopher://bitreich.org:70/0/usr/20h/phlog… |
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[4]: The MADE: https://themade.org |
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[5]: the official brcon2025 archive: gopher://bitreich.org/1/con/2025 |
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s[6]: .ogg recording of my talk: /assets/posts/brcon2025/2025-08-02-someodd-gop… |
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[7]: slides (.zip of .md files): /assets/posts/brcon2025/gopher-documentary.zip |
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s[8]: transcription of the .ogg recording: /assets/posts/brcon2025/2025-08-02-s… |
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[9]: 20h's presentation on Gopher Game Programming: gopher://bitreich.org:70/0/… |
