In the last post, we touched on energy inputs required to store,
process, transport and finally parse data on the internet. Kris
De Decker in his usual scholarly fashion has detailed out the need
for a speed limit on the internet (worth the read):
https://tinyurl.com/y9t9cg2e
I would add that the gopher protocol requires a minuscule amount of
energy for storage, processing and transport compared to the bloated
web standards today since it deals only with plain text.
Admittedly, it is not the answer to all needs, but obviously more
work can be accomplished via the gopher protocol with 1 joule
(1/3600 watt hours) than with current web standards. Something to
ponder...
While on the topic of the gopher protocol, it appears major social
media sites such as Twitter have been accused of shadow
banning supporters of the U.S. Republican party. Of course Twitter
denies the charges, but I would not be surprised if there has been
some surreptitious tweaking of the algorithms:
https://tinyurl.com/ycpshydn
It would also not be surprising if supporters of both parties have
been victims of this, but I wonder if Gopher is going to experience
a resurgence as a result of some of this type of censorship? I'm
not an expert, but it appears to be relatively simple to set up and
host on your own machine. Alas, I have a perpetual free time
deficit, so I'll have to rely on SDF to do the hosting for now.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, I was giving the filter in the water
tank it's monthly back flush. While I was at it, I decided to test
the deep well pump which had been turned off for the last two years
thinking the well had gone dry or recovering so slow that it wasn't
worth using. I switched the breaker on and then went back to the
tank to see if any water was pumping. At that point nothing was
happening. I lifted up the float switch to simulate a dropped water
level and to my surprise water began gushing into the tank.
Although I have no idea what the recovery rate is right now on the
deep well, I decided to shut off the tank supply valve from the
shallow well for now which should give an opportunity for the
shallow well to recover from a slow trickle. My hope is that
between the two wells, we should be okay for our household needs
provided we continue to be judicious in our water use. Not very
exciting stuff, but water is a valuable commodity in these parts.
I stepped out this morning to find a thin layer of frost on the
deck. This was a bit unexpected, so I thought today I will be
rigging up covers for the more sensitive plants like the Arabian
Jasmine and moving whatever I can into our little green house.
Unfortunately another wildfire to east has blanketed the area in
smoke. Air quality is in the hazardous zone according to
airnow.gov, so now we stay indoors with the air filter going.
Nothing will be happening outside today.
