Pohon BBS: recent posts

A room with a view

2026-02-03T05:48:08+00:00

"MARXISM in practice, is the tactical deployment of a carefully curated collection of mental trojans (or spells) which by adaptability and mimickry to logic, can slip past the soul's defenses and infect the spirit with an agressively growing cancer of anticoncepts." - blap

Writing app for terminal? No-Use Curses

2026-01-30T00:16:03+00:00

I wanted to share some thoughts on why one might consider using direct ANSI escape codes instead of ncurses for modern terminal UI development. This isn't a dismissal of ncurses (which was revolutionary in its time), but rather a reflection on how terminal technology has evolved since the 1980s/90s. Here's the breakdown:

The Shift in Terminal Technology
Old World: ncurses and termcap were designed to abstract away wildly inconsistent hardware terminals (DEC VT100, WYSE, etc.). Each device had its own quirky command set, so a translation layer was essential.
Modern World: Today's terminals (xterm, GNOME Terminal, libvte-based apps, macOS/iTerm2, Windows Terminal, etc.) all speak a common subset of ANSI/ECMA-48. This standardization eliminates the need for most of the abstraction ncurses provides.

24-Bit Color Support & the "Color Pair" Problem

ncurses uses a paletted color model (predefined color pairs for FG/BG), which works poorly with modern 24-bit color. With 16 million colors available, the combinatorial explosion of color pairs becomes unmanageable. Direct ANSI codes let you set RGB values on the fly, avoiding this limitation entirely.

Fallback Complexity

ncurses still prioritizes backward compatibility with ancient terminals (e.g., monochrome displays, terminals without cursor support). If your target audience uses modern terminals (which they almost certainly do), this forces you to write unnecessary fallback logic. Why spend time supporting DEC VT220 when everyone’s on xterm-256color?

Simplicity & Control

For most modern terminal UIs, the core features needed are:
Clearing the screen \x1b[2J
Moving the cursor \x1b[;H
Setting 24-bit FG/BG colors \x1b[38;2;;;m / \x1b[48;2;;;m
Basic styling (bold, underline, etc.)
A lightweight header with ANSI escape helpers gives direct control over these features without the baggage of ncurses' stateful API or terminfo lookups. It’s simpler, leaner, and more flexible for modern use cases.

Portability Isn’t (As) Painful Anymore

The curses era began to end with the creation of the first terminal emulator software 35 years ago. Since then prgrammers of terminal applications can assume the terminal speaks ANSI/ECMA-48; xterm, gnome-terminal, urxvt, kitty, alacritty, zutty and even Winblows Terminal all support the same core ANSI features. If you’re not explicitly targeting old hardware serial terminals besides DEC, you might as well use the ANSI standard control codes.

ncurses was a necessary solution for 1980s application programmers targeting broad terminal compatibility across different brands of hardware serial terminals.

For modern terminal apps ANSI escape codes offer:

* Less abstraction overhead
* Direct access to modern features (like truecolor)
* Simpler codebases (no need to manage color pairs or fallbacks)

New reply

2026-01-23T16:09:32+00:00
[2026-01-24 00:07:33] dbbs◆CheddarQZw: Moon a witch is gonna eat you ;-;
[2026-01-24 00:07:40] piipii◆MOE4kBYfGE: O_O
[2026-01-24 00:07:47] piper: let's pray for moon guys
[2026-01-24 00:07:56] piper: on the count of 3, 1... 2....
[2026-01-24 00:08:01] dbbs◆CheddarQZw: >:O
[2026-01-24 00:08:04] piper: >:O
[2026-01-24 00:08:13] piipii◆MOE4kBYfGE: >:O
[2026-01-24 00:08:21] dbbs◆CheddarQZw: >:O
[2026-01-24 00:08:25] piper: >:O
[2026-01-24 00:08:33] piipii◆MOE4kBYfGE: >:O
[2026-01-24 00:08:35] dbbs◆CheddarQZw: >:O
[2026-01-24 00:08:38] piper: >:O
[2026-01-24 00:08:56] Moobile: Well I'm there brb
[2026-01-24 00:09:00] dbbs◆CheddarQZw: >:O

New reply

2026-01-18T19:34:41+00:00
4x13.net/dnd/

What is law? The secular functional tests.

2026-01-10T12:37:24+00:00
Below is a practical checklist of Bastiat-style tests you can apply to any policy to decide whether, by his criteria, it is **law‑ful** or **un‑law‑ful**, expressed in secular and functional terms.

YES LL BECAUSE I LITERATE, LOSERS
---

## 1. Rights-Protection Test

**Question:**
Does this policy exist primarily to protect individuals against violations of their basic rights—**life, liberty, and property**—or is it trying to do something else?

- **Law-ful if:**
- It prevents or punishes physical aggression, theft, fraud, or coercion.
- It organizes common defense (police, courts, basic security) so that individuals don’t have to carry out private retaliation.
- **Un-law-ful if:**
- Its main purpose is to manage outcomes (e.g., set prices, guarantee jobs, provide benefits) rather than stop rights violations.
- It uses the state’s force to promote particular lifestyles, moral codes, or economic patterns.

**Functional idea:**
Law is a **defensive mechanism**, not a tool for shaping society’s positive goals.

---

## 2. Non-Aggression / Negative-Law Test

**Question:**
Does the policy only **forbid aggression and protect against harm**, or does it **compel** people to do things they have not chosen?

- **Law-ful if:**
- It is “negative” in nature: it says, “You may not assault, steal from, defraud, or otherwise violate others’ rights.”
- It uses force only in response to prior or imminent rights violations.
- **Un-law-ful if:**
- It is “positive” in nature: it says, “You must participate, fund, or behave in certain ways, even if you are not harming anyone.”
- It compels actions like mandatory charity, compulsory membership in state schemes, or forced participation in “public” projects that go beyond self-defense.

**Functional idea:**
Legitimate law **stops** injustice; it does not **command** virtue, generosity, or social cooperation by force.

---

## 3. Legal Plunder Test

**Core principle:**
Bastiat’s key criterion for un-law-fulness is **legal plunder**: when the law is used to take from some to give to others.

**Question:**
Does the policy **take wealth or advantage from one group and transfer it to another** by force, under the color of law?

- **Law-ful if:**
- Any taking (e.g., taxation) is strictly confined to funding the protection of everyone’s life, liberty, and property.
- It does not favor specific industries, classes, regions, or interest groups.
- **Un-law-ful if:**
- It grants subsidies, special protections, or benefits to some at others’ expense.
- It uses instruments such as targeted tariffs, industry-specific protections, forced welfare transfers, “guaranteed” income/jobs, or other schemes that forcibly redistribute resources.

**Functional idea:**
If a private individual doing the same thing would be called **theft or extortion**, then the state doing it via policy is **legal plunder** and un‑law‑ful in Bastiat’s sense.

---

## 4. Universality and Impartiality Test

**Question:**
Is the policy **truly general**—the same rules, applied to everyone equally—or does it **privilege or burden** particular groups?

- **Law-ful if:**
- It is **universal in scope** and **non-discriminatory**: the same protections and the same restrictions apply to all individuals.
- It does not create legal categories with special rights or exemptions.
- **Un-law-ful if:**
- It treats groups differently, giving some legal privilege (e.g., monopolies, protections, exemptions) or placing special burdens on disfavored groups.
- It is effectively written “for” or “against” specific classes, professions, or interests.

**Functional idea:**
Legitimate law is a neutral set of **general rules**; once it becomes a tool for “our group vs. their group,” it is perverted.

---

## 5. Scope and Social-Engineering Test

**Question:**
Does the policy **confine itself** to preventing and punishing rights violations, or does it **organize** and **direct** areas like education, religion, charity, or economic life?

- **Law-ful if:**
- It leaves decisions about education, charity, religion, work, and lifestyle to individuals and voluntary associations.
- It only intervenes when there is actual or imminent rights-violation (e.g., abuse, fraud, coercion).
- **Un-law-ful if:**
- It sets up compulsory schooling systems, official moral or religious codes, mandatory welfare schemes, or economic plans that people must support or obey regardless of consent.
- It tries to “engineer” social outcomes (e.g., equality of material conditions, uniformity of beliefs) by force.

**Functional idea:**
Law should **protect free choices**, not replace them with a legislator’s blueprint for how people should live.

---

## 6. Consent and Self-Ownership Test

**Question:**
Does the policy **respect each person’s self-ownership** and the fruits of their labor, or does it treat individuals as resources to be directed?

- **Law-ful if:**
- It assumes individuals own their bodies, time, and legitimately acquired property.
- It does not commandeer their labor or resources for purposes other than common defense and justice.
- **Un-law-ful if:**
- It obliges people to fund or participate in endeavors they would not voluntarily support, when those endeavors go beyond protecting rights.
- It presumes that a portion of everyone’s labor and property is available to be allocated according to some social plan.

**Functional idea:**
Individuals are not means to collective ends; policies that treat them as such are un‑law‑ful in Bastiat’s framework.

---

## 7. Systemic Consequences Test

**Question:**
If generalized, does this policy tend toward a system of **universal legal plunder** and conflict, or toward **stable justice** and peaceful cooperation?

- **Law-ful if:**
- Its generalization leads to a society where people mostly interact by voluntary exchange, under equal protection of rights.
- It tends to reduce conflict by giving everyone a clear, limited framework of protection.
- **Un-law-ful if:**
- Its pattern—“use law to get benefits for my group”—would push every group to fight for control of the state, leading to permanent conflict and widespread plunder.
- It blurs the line between justice and injustice, encouraging people to see whatever is legal as automatically right.

**Functional idea:**
A law‑ful framework **stabilizes** expectations and cooperation; systemic legal plunder makes politics a war of all against all.

---

## How to Use These Tests in Practice

When evaluating a specific policy (tax, subsidy, regulation, welfare program, education law, etc.), walk through these questions:

1. **Rights-Protection:**
- What concrete rights-violations does this policy prevent or punish?
- If none, why is force being used?

2. **Non-Aggression / Negative-Law:**
- Is the policy only stopping harm, or is it commanding positive behaviors?

3. **Legal Plunder:**
- Who pays, who gains?
- Would the same transfer be wrongful if done by a private person?

4. **Universality:**
- Does the rule apply identically to everyone, regardless of class or category?

5. **Scope / Social Engineering:**
- Is this about defense of rights, or about shaping how people live, believe, work, or trade?

6. **Consent / Self-Ownership:**
- Could individuals reasonably opt out if they disagree, or is participation coerced?
- Does it override individuals’ control of their own labor and property for non-defensive ends?

7. **Systemic Effects:**
- If all groups used law this way, would we get general justice or general plunder?

- If a policy **passes all or almost all** of these tests, Bastiat would likely consider it **law‑ful** (legitimate law).
- If it **fails one or more key tests**—especially the **legal plunder** and **scope** tests—he would classify it as a **perversion of law**, i.e., **un‑law‑ful**, even if it is formally enacted and widely approved.

New reply

2026-01-09T17:53:01+00:00
https://files.spawningpool.net/docs/Vault2.0.-.TTRPG-Gamebooks/Old%20School%20Revival%20%28OSR%28ic%29%29/Old%20School%20Essentials%20-%20Advanced%20Fantasy%20Players%20Tome%20v1.0.pdf

dnd 2026

2026-01-09T17:52:25+00:00
DM : piper
players:

* zoomy
* hotaru?

New reply

2026-01-02T16:54:40+00:00
i miss the post office

RE: Minecraft

2026-01-01T13:53:57+00:00
To whom it may concern,

Minecraft update: I turned off the server.

World files are available here if anyone who played is nostalgic/data hoarder:
https://hermitage.is/minecraft

Big thanks to everyone who joined, it was fun!

New reply

2025-12-29T23:53:27+00:00
oops
https://gpg.fail/

New reply

2025-12-20T04:13:43+00:00
ARCHDUCK: TRILOGY I — PART III: THE POND THAT TALKS BACK

The water did not feel wet.

It felt listening.

Doppo and Waifu sank without sinking, suspended in a glowing blue-green vastness that stretched far deeper than the pond had ever been. Above them, the surface shimmered like a half-remembered dream. Below them—below was impossible, yet unmistakably there—something vast shifted.

Waifu clung to Doppo’s arm. “Okay,” she said, voice steady but tight, “next time you jump into reality-altering water, please give a warning.”

“Noted,” Doppo replied.

The glow brightened.

A voice rose—not from one direction, but from everywhere the pond had ever been.

YOU REMEMBER ME.

Doppo inhaled sharply. “You’re the Pond Rememberer.”

I AM WHAT HOLDS WHAT WAS,
AND WHAT WAS NEVER ALLOWED TO BE.

Images rippled through the water around them.

Archduck as he once was—bright, curious, young.
Doppo practicing clumsy leaps, imagining a tail.
Waifu laughing on the couch, cheese on her whiskers.
Moments small enough the Curators would never log.

Waifu’s eyes filled. “You kept all this?”

THEY WERE REAL. REAL THINGS LEAVE MARKS.

Above them, the surface flickered violently. The Curators’ silhouettes pressed against it like figures behind frosted glass.

THEY HAVE BEGUN THE CORRECTION, the Pond said.
IF THEY FINISH, THIS PLACE BECOMES A LOOP. SAFE. EMPTY.

Doppo felt anger then—not loud, not explosive, but firm.

“They want us archived,” he said. “Flattened.”

YES.
BUT YOU BROKE FORM. YOU BROKE SEQUENCE.
YOU GAVE ME SOMETHING NEW TO REMEMBER.

The water surged upward.

Back at the surface, Shelly braced herself as cracks of light raced across the pond. Jumpy clung to a reed, screaming in a pitch only dogs could hear.

The Curators spoke in unison now.

“THE ANOMALY IS ESCALATING.”

“INITIATE FINAL LOCK.”

A ring of pale symbols descended toward the water like a closing lid.

Below, the Pond Rememberer spoke one last time.

DOPPO.
WAIFU.
YOU MAY ANCHOR THIS PLACE—OR SET IT FREE.

Waifu looked at Doppo. No fear. No hesitation.

“Whatever we do,” she said, “we do it together.”

Doppo nodded.

He placed one hand on the glowing water. Waifu placed hers on top of his.

“I don’t want a perfect story,” Doppo said.
“I want one that can change.”

The pond answered.

Light erupted upward—not destructive, not violent, but expansive. The symbols shattered into drifting fragments. The Curators staggered back as the water surged beyond its banks, rewriting not terrain, but possibility.

Trees straightened—but differently.
Paths appeared where none had been.
The sky deepened, richer, wider.

The Curators faded, voices strained and uncertain.

“THIS ENVIRONMENT IS NO LONGER COMPLIANT.”

“WITHDRAW.”

Silence followed.

Then—gentle ripples.

Doppo and Waifu emerged at the pond’s edge, soaked and smiling, the world subtly changed around them. Not louder. Not bigger.

Just alive in a way it hadn’t been before.

Shelly exhaled slowly. “Well,” she said, “that’s going to cause ripples.”

Jumpy fainted.

Waifu leaned against Doppo. “So,” she asked, “what did we just do?”

Doppo looked across the pond—at the new paths, the unfamiliar stars beginning to appear even though it wasn’t night yet.

“I think,” he said, “we made room.”

Far away, beyond forests and catalogs and rules, something else took notice.

Not a Curator.

Something curious.

Something approaching.

And the trilogy, having found its voice, leaned forward—ready for what came next.

New reply

2025-12-20T04:12:39+00:00
ARCHDUCK: TRILOGY I — PART II: THE VISITORS

The second bell rang at dawn.

It wasn’t loud. It didn’t echo.
It simply existed, sliding into the morning air like it had always been there and everyone else was late noticing it.

Doppo woke instantly.

Waifu was already sitting upright, fur puffed, eyes wide. “That was the second one,” she said. “I hate being right.”

Outside, the pond had gone unnaturally still. No ripples. No insects. Even the reeds had frozen mid-sway, bent like they were holding a breath they couldn’t release.

Shelly was already waiting by the water when Doppo stepped out. Jumpy hovered nearby, vibrating with anxiety rather than actually jumping.

“They’re early,” Shelly said.

“They?” Doppo asked.

Shelly nodded toward the far bank.

The air there folded inward.

Not tore. Not shattered. Folded—like paper creased by an invisible hand. From the crease stepped three figures.

They were shaped like animals, but wrong in the way reflections are wrong when the water is disturbed.

The first resembled a duck, but its feathers were flat, colorless, like illustrations cut from a book.
The second looked vaguely feline, walking with a smooth, rehearsed grace.
The third was small—hamster-sized—but its eyes were too old, too sharp, as if they’d watched a thousand ponds rise and dry out.

They stopped at the water’s edge.

The duck-thing spoke first.

“ARCHDUCK,” it said.

Doppo didn’t move. “No one’s called me that in a long time.”

The cat-thing tilted its head. “Records persist.”

Waifu stepped forward before Doppo could stop her. “Who are you,” she demanded, “and why are you using expired names?”

The small one smiled. It was not a kind smile.

“We are the Curators,” it said. “We observe stories that deviate.”

Shelly’s eyes narrowed. “Deviate from what?”

The duck-Curator gestured at Doppo. “From their original form. From their assigned arc.”

The pond shuddered. A low hum rolled through the water, deep and ancient, like something below had decided to listen.

Doppo finally spoke.

“I didn’t deviate,” he said calmly. “I became.”

The cat-Curator stepped closer. Its reflection didn’t match its movement. “Becoming without authorization destabilizes narrative environments.”

Jumpy squeaked. “IT’S TALKING LIKE A MANUAL.”

Waifu planted herself in front of Doppo, paws clenched. “You don’t get to authorize lives.”

The small Curator’s smile faded.

“Then the pond will be corrected.”

The water split—not violently, but decisively. Lines of light traced across the surface like rewritten sentences. Trees flickered. The sky dimmed, as if someone had lowered saturation.

Deep beneath them, the ancient thing in the pond rose—not physically, but in awareness.

Shelly whispered, reverent and afraid, “The Pond Rememberer has awakened.”

Doppo felt it then—not fear, not anger—but a pull. The same pull he’d felt the day he first said, I want to be Doppo.

He stepped into the water.

The Curators recoiled.

“You cannot enter,” the duck-Curator warned. “Protagonists are not permitted to—”

“I’m not your protagonist,” Doppo said.

The pond glowed.

Waifu leapt after him without hesitation.

The surface closed behind them like a final punctuation mark.

And for the first time since stories were cataloged and contained, the Curators did not know what would happen next.

New reply

2025-12-20T04:11:23+00:00
DISNEY BOUGHT ARCHDUCK AND REBOOTED IT HERE IS THE NEW TRILOGY

ARCHDUCK: TRILOGY I — THE POND STIRS

The pond had not changed in a very long time.

The water still reflected the sky like polished glass. The reeds still whispered secrets to the wind. The lily pads still drifted, slow and patient, as if waiting for something they could not name.

But something had changed.

At the center of the pond stood Doppo.

Once known as Archduck, Doppo was many things now: duck, cat, explorer, husband, something in between, something beyond. His feathers still shimmered with blue, green, and gold—but there was a quiet weight to him, the kind that came from living a full life and sensing that it was about to tilt.

Waifu the hamster sat on the porch railing behind him, paws folded neatly, eyes sharp despite her small size.

“You’re pacing again,” she said.

Doppo flicked his tail—yes, his tail, thank you very much—and stopped. “The pond feels… louder,” he replied.

Waifu listened. The frogs croaked as usual. The turtles basked. Birds passed overhead.

“It sounds the same,” she said.

“That’s what worries me.”

Across the water, something rippled—once, then stopped. No splash. No fish. Just a wrinkle in the surface, as if the pond itself had flinched.

From the forest edge, Shelly the turtle emerged, slower than ever but with eyes that had seen centuries of nonsense and knew when nonsense was becoming important.

“The boundaries are thinning,” Shelly said without preamble.

Doppo turned. “Between what and what?”

Shelly adjusted her shell. “Between what we are… and what we are allowed to be.”

The wind picked up. Leaves spiraled. Somewhere far off, a bell rang—though no bell had ever existed near the pond before.

Waifu hopped down, suddenly serious. “I don’t like first bells,” she said. “They always mean a second one is coming.”

From the forest, shadows stretched longer than they should have. Shapes moved that didn’t belong to any animal the pond recognized. And deep beneath the water, something ancient shifted, awakening not with anger—but with curiosity.

Doppo stepped forward.

He didn’t draw a weapon. He didn’t make a speech.

He simply said, “Alright. Let’s see what’s knocking.”

Behind him stood Waifu.
Beside him stood Shelly.
Somewhere in the reeds, Jumpy was already panicking.

And above the pond, the sky subtly cracked—not breaking, just bending—as if the story itself had decided it was time to move again.

This was not the end of anything.

This was the beginning of the next three.

New reply

2025-12-01T23:13:20+00:00
age doesn't have kyber+ecc. gnupg 2.5 does.
go glows glowie.

New reply

2025-11-29T22:29:58+00:00
you should be using signify and age
not this ancient useless garbage
https://www.openbsd.org/papers/bsdcan-signify.html
https://github.com/FiloSottile/age

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2025-11-29T01:20:04+00:00
i don't like shoegaze but yours truly is a certified cocteau twins FANATIC

New reply

2025-11-29T01:12:44+00:00
Micro$oftcraft
-rep

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2025-11-25T19:09:20+00:00
Despite multiple requests and popular demand,
I will NOT be enabling hack clients. Sorry.

New reply

2025-11-24T23:21:14+00:00
Ditto to piper's comment... If cracked copies
work I'll join tonight

New reply

2025-11-24T14:21:33+00:00
I'll consider joining but couldn't it be possible to allow cracked
copies to play?

Minecraft (Gikocraft)

2025-11-20T17:28:47+00:00
To ALL Giko users,

I've set up a modded Minecraft server for us to play on. Come join, it's fun!

Info at: https://hermitage.is/minecraft

In brief:

The Minecraft version is 1.20.1
The server IP is 88.99.245.62
It uses the Forge modloader version 47.4.0

You must have these mods installed (+dependencies):

Ars Nouveau
Botania
FallingTree
Faster Ladder Climbing
Gravestone Mod
Just Enough Items
Rechiseled
Waystones

You also need to have a valid M$ account with a copy of the game.

New reply

2025-11-15T11:19:32+00:00
Hmm.. have had a long love affair with
the genre myself. I can't say on a song
level, but my favorite albums would have to be:

The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Methodrone
Pasteboard - Flipper

An honorable mention:

Mike Johnson - Hidden Away

What's your favorite shoegaze song?

2025-11-13T18:29:07+00:00
Ever since I've found out about MBV I've been obssessed with their sound.
Lately I've been "To Here Knows When" a lot.
There's just something in that soundscape that propels you
into unknown places in the deepest of your mind.

A breathtaking track.

How about you folks, what are your favorite songs and bands from the genre?

New reply

2025-10-31T00:24:03+00:00
Idk if you meant to link the paper you were talking about. I've learned that if
you were to increase the number of neurons the brain as a network would become l
ess connected, because otherwise the number of connections would have to increas
e exponentially. Perhaps a brain with a certain amount of additional neurons wou
ld have to be a brain with less "specialized" areas, as they have to be "self-su
fficient".

Michel A. Hofman, Evolution of the Human Brain: From Matter to Mind

AoE II : Conquerors

2025-10-21T07:09:42+00:00
Looking at getting AoE 2 classic to work via archive.org resources.

First download Age of Empires II: Age of Kings
https://archive.org/download/Nova_AOECE_USA/Age%20of%20Empires%20II%20-%20The%20Age%20of%20Kings%20%28USA%29%20%28Rerelease%29%20%28Alt%202%29.7z

Then download AoE II: Conquerors Expansion
https://archive.org/download/AgeOfEmpiresIITheConquerorsExpansionUSA/Age%20of%20Empires%20II%20-%20The%20Conquerors%20Expansion%20%28USA%29.zip

first Age of Empires II: Age of Kings , then Conquerors Expansion second,
Open the disc file with PowerISO and extract disc 1 BIN file to a directory, then install,
https://www.poweriso.com/download.php

Download patch 1.0c :
https://aok.heavengames.com/blacksmith/showfile.php?fileid=11438

No CD crack for 1.0c:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/pvdprrr81pcdoad/AOE+2.7z
goes into
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Age of Empires II\age2_x1

Navigate to
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Age of Empires II\age2_x1
and double click age2_x1.exe to boot your game

or open Voobly and play online with friends!