Merge branch 'submissions'

Sundog pre-release of first issue.
A separate branch for submissions may not be necessary.
A single folder should suffice. For now I am deleting this
branch.

src/issue001/ask-jone-001.gmi

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+# Ask Jone
+
+-- Do you have a problem? Send your questions to joneworlds@mailbox.org
+
+W. asks:
+>"I have a strained relationship with my sister. What are some things I can do to help repair it?"
+
+I remember my dad and I went through this patch where we were both pretty pissed off at each other, not that I remember why at this point. But sharing is caring, right? So to keep things going, I'm still dropping off cans of Chunk'n'Dunk soup for him, because it's all he ever feels like eating anymore. Although that stuff is just not very nutritious. But because I'm mad at him, I don't bother to bring his favorite, the meatball-carrot stew one. Instead, I bring him can after can of turkey-a-la-king. You ever try that one from Chunk'n'Dunk? Not great. And I guess dad's thinking along the same lines as me, because every time I come by he leaves me another pair of snow tires he found. But I'm not selling tires any more by then, so I don't want them. And he knows that, but he keeps on getting tires anyhow.
+
+And so we go on like this for weeks: I come by and put like 5 more cans of turkey-a-la-king on his kitchen counter, and he stacks a few more snow tires outside his door for me. And all this stuff is piling higher and higher and higher, and we're gradually getting madder and madder at each other. Until one day I go over there with another box of cans, and he starts screaming and yelling about how he hates turkey-a-la-king. And he gets so mad he accidentally knocks over the stack of cans. And some falls on his head and he falls over, and the rest of the cans come crashing down on him. Pretty bad scene. So I go to help him up, but I slip and trip on a can on the floor, and hit the ground hard too. And if you've ever fallen on a pile of Chunk'n'Dunk turkey-a-la-king cans, you know that hurts pretty bad.
+
+So we're both groaning on the ground, and then there's this weird sound by the front door. When I get out there to check it I find that co-incidentally the big pile of snow tires out there has also fallen over, and it's crushed some unlucky little gnome who must have been milling around by there. Those things are so bad at staying alive, I just can't believe it sometimes.
+
+Anyways, if you're looking to patch things up with your sister, I would say maybe don't do it with canned soup, or snow tires. It sure didn't help us any. It just wasn't a good result for anyone, especially for that gnome. Or if you have to go with soup, at least stick with the meatball-carrot one. It's actually not bad.
+
+Thanks for writing in. I hope that helps.

src/issue001/durtal_hearth-of-the-matter.gmi

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+# THE HEARTH OF THE MATTER
+
+It seems that Kepler first used the Latin word 'focus' in 1604 to refer to 'the point of convergence' in the mathematical sphere. It is possible that this is an analogical use of the term and may reference the point of light created with a lens. You probably know what I mean. I remember another child showing me a trick with a magnifying glass outside one sunny day. He quickly adjusted the glass's height over my forearm to effect a sharp pain as the converging rays burned a hole in my skin.
+
+Hobbes brought 'focus' into broader English parlance nearly fifty years later. I don't know if he did this with a magnifying glass or not. But, Hobbes is certainly not my favourite philosopher. With its particular take on human nature, he published Leviathan about the same time he popularised a word whose use is ubiquitous but whose original meaning is too often unknown. Sometimes the abstractions of science and a specific sort of philosophy separate us from the mundane realities of life in unfortunate ways.  
+
+Ironically, the political philosopher who espoused that humans are "all take and little give" used a word that belied his contentions in the original. Focus is the Latin equivalent of the Old English word 'hearth'. People still used the latter term in my youth, especially in rural regions. Phrases like "hearth and home" and "keep the home fires burning" catch something of its ethos. The hearth was where household members gathered to cook or to work by the hearthstone's firelight. In its warmth, children sat to hear the stories of the family and community after dusk. Kith and kin entertained themselves with music and drinking and dance nearby. In some cultures, families kept ancestral bones beneath the hearthstone. Here was a point of convergence in the human habitat.
+
+The rising or setting sun reminds me of a hearth fire as it converges on the horizon. I know what it is to wait in anticipation for the warmth of a fire on a cold winter's morning. Other's gather close to you, hoping to absorb a little of your body's heat while they wait too. You each rub and blow warm breaths onto your hands and comment on the cold, and you remark on the day ahead. As the kindling catches, hope builds and blossoms as the flames devour the larger pieces of wood. The fire roars madly as you back away, waiting for the wooden pyramid to collapse. When there are coals left mostly, you cook your breakfast over them and drink your morning coffee. You smile and share a joke or two with your fellows. One of them ruefully remembers that it is his day to do the dishes; they are piling up as the others finish and go. This time, like its later double, is a short space of intimacy before separation.
+
+By analogy, sunrise is like the birth of a child for whom the family cares. Such brief familial intimacy is still most often the case for the young. But, not so for the elderly. We fill the noon meridians of our lives so completely with striving and drift so far from one another that, too often, family members no longer live near to one another at the sunset of a loved one's life. Now others, not family members, nurse the frail and wash their bodies late in life and at its very end. Frequently, there is only the intimacy of strangers who alone know where the bare bones of our final days lie before we slip into the deep dark of death's night. This is all that the world offers in this day when hearth fires and home are all but forgotten. We now only focus camera lenses (automatically).
+
+Did old Thomas Hobbes have a point?
+
+Durtal+

src/issue001/preface.gmi

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+# Preface
+
+Back in February, around the time of the ogre incident, Jone wondered out loud on the circumlunar.space BBS, telem, about the possibility of a CS zine. The idea was well-received by the rest of us sundogs, and for some time, talk of the zine flooded telem as we proceeded to howl at the moon in excitement. Amidst this jubilee, I somehow ended up wearing the proverbial editor pants--for this inaugural issue, at least.
+
+Anyone who has had the pleasure of perusing the many phlogs and gemlogs here at circumlunar.space will be aware of the impressive diversity of interests, talents, and backgrounds of the sundogs residing here. It will be interesting to see how these influence the zine over time, but currently what the zine is and how it will be produced is largely still up in the air. It's really just a fun experiment, and this first issue is a kind of pilot episode.
+
+The strategy of this first run has been to just get it out there. Rather than prematurely exhausting our energy on determining what it should be, or pidgeonholing ourselves into a niche or format without actually having produced any content, we elected to first just give it a go and see what we get. So for this first issue, we have what has been endearingly termed a "topic salad." And I believe it has turned out to be quite a nutritious one at that.
+
+Circumlunar Transmissions will be distributed exclusively over Gopher and Gemini by whoever would like to host a copy on their own gopherhole or capsule. That is, anyone can clone the git repo of the project and serve its contents from their own smolnet space. This kind of "newstand" method of distribution solves a lot of the logistical issues of where and how to bi-host such a thing in an accessible way. In addition to Gopher and Gemini editions, we intend to provide printable formats that readers can easily print-and-bind for their own enjoyment offline or to distribute locally.
+
+It has been a pleasure to contribute something to this wonderful community of thoughtful and creative individuals whom I respect and admire sincerely. During my relatively brief inhabitation of the Zaibatsu, I've learnt a great many things and have been inspired to create and wonder about things I would not have otherwise. It is with profound gratitude and pride for this habitat and its inhabitants, and the smolnet ecosystem at large, that I present to you this first issue of our smolzine, Circumlunar Transmissions.
+
+~mieum
+April 25, 2021
+Incheon, Korea

src/issue001/sloum_cirucmlunar-mixtape-001.gmi

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+# Circumlunar Mixtape
+
+Circumlunar Mixtape is an ongoing series for Circumlunar Transmissions where one user per issue shares 10 tracks they have been listening to. Y'all have all kinds of ways to stream or otherwise find and listen to music, so tracks are just listed and it is on the reader to locate them. As a courtesy, when a weblink to streaming is available playlist curators may choose to supply it.
+
+## sloum's covid-year playlist
+
+These are songs I have listened to at various points throughout the last year. Some are old some are new. It has been a weird year and this is a kind of weird mix. I provided Bandcamp weblinks for each track except the Charlie Parr, which is a Youtube link because I like this song live and this is my favorite performance recording of it and the recording doesn't appear on any of his albums.
+
+Enjoy!
+
+Format: [track name] by [artist name] from [album name]
+
+=> https://adriannelenker.bandcamp.com/track/forwards-beckon-rebound Forwards Beckon Rebound by Adrianne Lenker from Songs
+=> https://talons.bandcamp.com/track/catamaran Catamaran by talons' from Songs for Boats
+=> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P46hGYUycoE Possessed By the Devil by Charlie Parr from N/A (live video on Youtube)
+=> https://pinback.bandcamp.com/track/some-voices Some Voices by Pinback from Some Voices e.p.
+=> https://tomomusic.bandcamp.com/track/get-to-know-you Get To Know You by Tomo Nakayama from Melonday
+=> https://lusine.bandcamp.com/track/just-a-cloud-feat-vilja-larjosto Just a Cloud by Lusine from Sensorimotor
+=> https://slint.bandcamp.com/track/good-morning-captain-remastered Good Morning Captain by Slint from Spiderland (Remastered)
+=> https://humband.bandcamp.com/track/step-into-you Step Into You by Hum from Inlet
+=> https://windhand.bandcamp.com/track/kingfisher Kingfisher by Windhand from Grief's Infernal Flower
+=> https://nilsfrahm.bandcamp.com/track/nue Nue by Nils Frahm from Wintermusik
+

src/issue001/solderpunk_whats-the-deal-with-leapseconds.gmi

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+# What's the deal with leap seconds?  A brief overview of timescales
+
+## Astronomical seconds
+
+Why is a second as long as it is, and not a little shorter or a little longer?  This is a seemingly simple question which leads down a deep and delightfully twisted rabbit hole.  It's something that I wish Neal Stephenson had written an epically long, inexplicably compelling 1990s Wired article about, in the spirit of his "Mother Earth, Mother Board" or "In the Kingdom of Mao Bell".  But he didn't, so you're stuck reading this, instead: a brief, incomplete, possibly slightly inaccurate overview based on my own characteristically obsessive reading on the topic over the past week or so.
+
+For most of the time that the concept of the second has been around, its length has been defined implicitly by that of the day.  Everybody knows the answer to "why is a day as long as it is?" - one day is the time it takes the Earth to complete a single revolution about its axis.  And since there are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour and 24 hours in a day, a second is simply one 86,400th of the time it takes the Earth to rotate once.  Or, if you like, a second is the time it takes for the Earth to rotate one 240th of a degree, out of the full 360.  End of story, right?
+
+Well, no.  This is a perfectly sensible way to define time - for some applications, it's the best way to do it.  This astronomically defined time scale is still in use today in certain contexts.  The official name of its modern incarnation is Universal Time, or UT (technically, there are a few subtly different variants, denoted UT0, UT1 and UT2, but we'll gloss over that here).  The official determination of UT nowadays is based mostly on measurements made at observatories tracking the movement of distant radio sources across the sky as the Earth rotates.  This is easier than making precision measurements of the sun, but is still measuring the exact same thing.
+
+## Earth is a nice place to live, but it's not the best clock
+
+The problem with an astronomical definition of the second is this: the Earth doesn't actually rotate at a perfectly constant rate (it wasn't until the 19th century that we could build clocks accurate enough to notice this).  In fact, the Earth's rotation is slowing down.  Very slowly, of course.  Every century, a complete rotation takes about 2 milliseconds longer than it used to.  The rate of slowing down is not steady.  Some years the change is more and other years it's less.  In fact, even though the overall trend is one of slowing down, some years the rotation actually speeds up.  The dynamics of the process are complicated, and we can't make accurate long term forecasts.  Gravitational interaction between the Earth and the moon is the primary driver, but the movement of tectonic plates and friction between Earth's surface and its atmosphere and oceans have their say, too.  The Indian Ocean Earthquake in 2004 was powerful enough to shorten the length of a day by 2.68 microseconds.  There are even periodic variations in the rate of rotation that we just don't understand the cause of yet.  But the take home message is that, whatever the causes, astronomical seconds actually have small, random fluctuations in their duration over long time spans.  If you define the second by looking into the skies, no two seconds are exactly the same.
+
+That's a pretty inconvenient property for the official definition of a fundamentally important unit like the second to have.  For most of the time this definition was used, the fluctuations were smaller than we could reliably measure.  Certainly, they weren't enough to have an impact on everyday life.  Nobody was going to be late to lunch because of the Earth's unsteady rotation.  But by the 20th century, scientific and technological progress meant these tiny fluctuations started to matter, as we began measuring natural phenomena and building machines which operated on very small time scales.  A 10 megahertz radio oscillator, for example, has a period of 0.0000001 seconds - only 100 nanoseconds!  Gigahertz radiation, which is important in radio astronomy and was used for communications and radar during WWII decades before it came to underpin modern technology like GPS, WiFi, and mobile data networks, has periods measured in *picoseconds*.  Even very, very small variations in the length of a second are enough to make the measured frequency of radio waves change, even if the *actual* frequency is fixed.  Modern technological society simply couldn't be built using a wobbly clock like the Earth.
+
+## Atomic seconds
+
+Fortunately, in the 1950s, atomic clocks were invented which kept time better than any previous mechanism.  I'll gloss right over the details, but suffice it to say, we came up with a new way to define the second which involved measuring the properties of caesium atoms instead of looking at things moving through the sky.  In 1967, the relatively young International System (or SI, for the French "Système International") of units redefined the second on this basis.  The new atomic second was defined such that it had the same length as the astronomical second in use before it, as far as measurements at the time could tell, but it had the added bonus that the length of the second was then fixed and unchanging.  Caesium atoms at a given temperature "vibrate" (very loosely speaking) at a frequency which, as far as we can tell, is completely and perfectly stable, and which can be measured very accurately in a sufficiently advanced laboratory.
+
+With the arrival of atomic seconds, a new time scale was also defined: International Atomic Time (or TAI, for the French "Temps Atomique International").  At midnight on January 1st in 1958, TAI and UT were perfectly synchronised.  Ever since then, they have slowly but surely drifted apart.  The seconds of TAI are of perfectly unchanging length (as measured by averaging hundreds of atomic clocks all over the world), but the seconds of UT fluctuate with the Earth's rotation.  The accumulated drift up until now is a little less than 40 seconds, but it will continue to grow, without limit.  And while the perfectly uniform seconds of TAI make it the perfect tool for some tasks, this drift apart from UT makes it problematic for others.  If you go outside at noon UT in Greenwich, England (or anywhere else at 0 degrees longitude), the sun will *always* be high in the sky.  This is true today and it will be true in a thousand years, Because UT is fundamentally linked to the Earth's rotation.  TAI, on the other hand, is fundamentally divorced from it.  Thousands of years in the future, there will come a day when, according to TAI, the sun rises in Greenwich at midnight.
+
+This isn't just an abstract concern for the distant future.  In the late '50s when TAI was defined, it was still common for ships at sea to figure out where they were by using a sextant to record the position of the sun above the horizon at a certain time and consulting a printed table of conversions.  For this purpose, ships carried the most accurate clocks they could afford, and compared them regularly against true UT time using time signals broadcast by radio stations all over the world.  Celestial navigation works very well when using a timescale which is tightly linked to Earth's rotation, and hence the position of things in the sky.  But if the radio time signals switched to broadcasting TAI instead of UT, celestial navigation would become increasingly less accurate as TAI drifted further out of synch with the Earth and the stars.  This meant that the "new and improved" TAI time scale wasn't actually an improvement for everybody.
+
+## Coordinating chaos
+
+Instead of broadcasting two different time signals for different purposes, which could easily lead to confusion, on January 1st in 1960 the powers that be (back then that was the International Time Bureau, or BIH, for the French "Bureau International de l'Heure", but today the torch has been passed to a combination of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, or BIPM, for the French "Bureau International des Poids et Mesures" and the International Earth Rotation Service, who have the gall to abbreviate the *English* version of their name and go by IERS) defined yet another time scale, in an attempt to achieve the best of both worlds and make everybody happy.  Enter Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC - at last, something normal people have heard of!
+
+The abbreviation UTC is a strange compromise between the English abbreviation CUT and the French abbreviation TUC (for "Temps Universel Coordonné").  This is somewhat fitting, because UTC itself is a strange compromise time scale between UT and TAI.  Like TAI, UTC is an atomic time scale.  Every second of UTC is exactly as long as any other, using the SI standard second based on caesium atoms, allowing scientists and engineers around the world to calibrate their instruments and reliably measure time intervals and frequencies very precisely.  But whereas TAI is destined to drift ever further away from UT, to the chagrin of sailors and astronomers, UTC is kept synchronised closely enough with UT that it allows seafarers to perform celestial navigation with sufficient accuracy for safe ocean passage.  This synchronisation is achieved, like all technical compromises, using ugly hacks.  It cannot be any other way, as UTC is a stubborn attempt to reconcile two desirable but fundamentally incompatible properties of a timescale: perfectly regular seconds, and synchronisation with a spinning globe whose rate of rotation is unpredictably irregular.
+
+The precise nature of the ugly hack underlying UTC has changed somewhat since it was first defined, but for almost 50 years now, starting in 1972, the ugly hack of choice has been the leap second.  The way it works is this.  The difference between UTC and UT - a quantity denoted DUT - is carefully monitored.  Any time it looks like that difference is on track to exceed 0.9 seconds, in either direction, UTC is kicked back into alignment by either inserting or removing a single second on one particular day.  This makes UTC the *only* time scale where the number of seconds in a day is not absolutely fixed at 86,400 by definition.  There almost always *are* 86,400 seconds in a UTC day, but 86,401 and 86,399 are also allowed when necessary to keep the time scale locked to the movement of the sun across the sky.
+
+So far, there have been 27 leap seconds defined, although UTC and ATI are today exactly 37 seconds apart - the other 10 seconds come from hacks applied before leap seconds were established in 1972.  All of them to date have been insertions rather than removals.  They don't happen on a regular, predictable basis, like leap years (which are an adjustment for the fact that the time it takes the Earth to orbit the sun once, defining a year, is not perfectly divisible by the time it takes the Earth to rotate once, defining a day).  Because the Earth's rate of rotation fluctuates randomly, sometimes slowing down and sometimes speeding up, astronomers need to be actively on the lookout for excessive values of DUT.  When it's decided a leap second is needed - it's the IERS who makes that call - they are announced at least six months in advance.  They're allowed to occur on either June 30th or December 31st, and are inserted or deleted at midnight UTC (which is the middle of the day in some time zones, of course) on those days.  At the time of writing, the last leap second happened on December 31st, 2016.  In principle, six months is enough advance warning that nobody doing anything which depends on precise time synchronisation should be caught by surprise when a leap second rolls around.  In practice, it's not always so simple.
+
+## Increasing implementation burden and an uncertain future
+
+Leap seconds have always had their critics, but at the time they were adopted, their benefits arguably balanced their associated hassle.  50 years later, this hack is starting to show its age.  The advent of cheap and reliable GPS technology means that celestial navigation at sea is now rarely a matter of life or death (although some sailors still appreciate the relative simplicity of the technology it relies on), removing some of the argument for making sure UTC stays in lock step with the Earth's rotation.  At the same time, the internet has come along: a massive network of computers talking to each other, with the frequent need for activity on one to be synchronised with activity on another (hence tools like the Network Time Protocol, NTP).  Computer programmers *hate* leap seconds, for the same reason they hate Daylight Saving Time: they complicate time calculations (you can't accurately calculate the number of seconds between two UTC timestamps without consulting a table of when previous leap seconds were inserted) and are a frequent cause of confusion and errors, when one system implements them differently from another its trying to interoperate with.
+
+Affordances for leap seconds are often added to software as an afterthought - if they are added at all.  Some systems represent the extra second using the timestamp 23:59:60, but others instead repeat the timestamp 23:59:59 twice (since some software will fail to parse a timestamp ending in :60).  Other systems "smear" the leap second out over longer time periods, like 24 hours, to avoid problems associated with sudden discontinuities.  This just leads to a whole day of small, slowly varying errors compared to non-smearing systems.  Some systems, of course, forget to do anything at all.  Because all the leap seconds to date have been insertions rather than removals, it's a safe bet that there's plenty of software out there which has worked correctly so far but will fail the first time a second is removed.  And the Earth's rotation is going through a bit of a fast phase right now, so the first negative leap second might be looming on the horizon.
+
+The software interoperability situation at the time of a leap second is bad enough that several major stock exchanges simply agreed to voluntarily shut down for an hour around midnight UTC in 2016, rather than risk problems by continuing to trade during the leap second.  Given that a number of major web services, including Amazon, Instagram, Netflix and Twitter, experienced outages around this time, this was probably not a bad idea.  Of course, simply shutting time critical services off for every leap second isn't always an option.  It's one thing to shut down the New York Stock Exchange for an hour, but Air Traffic Control has to stay up 24/7.  It's no surprise that increasingly many voices in the tech industry are calling for leap seconds to be abolished.  Plenty of people are very unhappy with that idea, of course, not to mention there's no consensus on what to do instead.
+
+It's far from clear what the future holds for the leap second.  As software continues to eat the world, the headaches leap seconds cause are only likely to get worse.  The atomic definition of second likely isn't going away any time soon, though, and that means that getting rid of leap seconds entirely means abandoning the millennia old notion that the way we represent time is intimately linked with the natural cycle of night and day.  Assuming we're not willing to do that, there are only two alternatives: coming up with a new ugly hack which is somehow less problematic, or giving up on a "one size fits all" time scale.
+
+## But wait, there's more!
+
+If you think this story has been needlessly fiddly and complicated, rest assured I have skipped over a tonne of details.  If you're actually interested to learn more, I highly recommend the article "The leap second: its history and possible future", which you can easily find on the web (full citation below), along with, as always, following Wikipedia links wherever they take you.  Along the way you can learn the difference between UT0, UT1 and UT2, meet other exciting astronomic and atomic time scales like Ephemeris Time (ET), GPS Time (GPST) and Terrestrial Time (TT), and discover that the SI system of units defined the second based on something other than Earth's rotation when it was established in 1960, seven years before the caesium definition was adopted.
+
+## References
+
+Nelson, R., McCarthy, D., Malys, S., Levine, J.M., Guinot, B., Fliegel, H., Beard, R., & Bartholomew, T. (2001). The Leap Second - Its History and Possible Future. Metrologia, 38, 509-529.
+=> https://efos3.com/TimeNut.html "Time-nuttery 101" by Ole Petter Ronningen
+=> https://ucolick.org/~sla/leapsecs/timescales.html "UTC might be redefined without Leap Seconds" by Steve Allen

src/issue001/tfurrows_granular-ideologue.gmi

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+# Manifesto of a Granular Ideologue
+
+## Passing Thoughts of an Impractical Idealist
+
+Our ancestors stood on the banks of the Euphrates and cast their ideas into the 
+inexhaustible current. First they cast in words, ephemeral. Then they learned 
+permanence; epochs brought clay tablets and papyrus, script and type, bits and 
+clouds.
+
+Permanence dammed the river, a logjam of ideas tossed in as if each was a 
+consummate standard. Life-giving waters slowed, intelligence waned, the elastic 
+mind seized and crumbled. The word manifesto dates to the fourteenth century, 
+but the notion dates to our earliest written conclusions.
+
+This is not the manifesto to end all manifestos. It is a message in a bottle 
+that few will find. It is a loose model for dealing with the mountainous dam of 
+manifestos that stop the flow of creativity, passion, and progress. At the risk 
+of making the problem worse, I proffer: 
+
+## From a Message in a Bottle, Sitting Atop the Dam of Manifestos
+
+> Let your mind move freely, become a seeker
+> Accept that knowledge is scattered broadly
+> Find kernels of truth and germinate thoughts
+>
+> Take something from every ideology, fear nothing
+> Subscribe to that which you find value in
+> Mistrust labels, they carry unimaginable baggage
+>
+> Acknowledge all that came before, but accept the utility of your journey
+> Never believe that you have the best vision for the world
+> Don't try to fashion the world to your ideals; your ideals are cursory
+>
+> Be a maximal minimalist, distill purity from immensity
+> Find, purify, share, repeat
+> To conclude means to cease to grow
+
+<tfurrows@circumlunar.space>
+<tfurrows@sdf.org>

src/issue001/wholesomedonut_why-i-still-game-proprietary.gmi

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+# Why I still game proprietary
+
+## Proprietary gaming isn't all bad
+Since getting into the FOSS community, I see a lot of pushback towards the gaming industry as a whole. I can see why: DRM runs rampant, terrible business practices regularly conflagrate internet forums, anti-cheat programs are basically consensual (and mandatory for official online play in some cases) trojans, and to make it all worse it costs a mint to get into the hobby nowadays due to scalpers and crypto miners running rampant in the market.
+
+I agree with all of those observations. They tire me. They concern me. They frustrate me daily.
+
+However! There are still reasons -not- to go the route of some I see in the FOSS world and eschew gaming altogether on anything but a FOSS platform, with FOSS games, because.... FOSS. That argument is just as dumb in practice, because it's an artificial limitation that stands on somewhat subjective, opinionated reasoning. "But wholesomedonut, thou angereth me!" I hear in the imaginary comments section because this is Gemini and you can't do that. I am certain you will find peace through measured contemplation and a cup of whatever warm or cold liquid you enjoy.
+
+## Why do I use Steam?
+Well.... everyone else that isn't a computer nerd usually does too. And the overhead for getting people of minimum technical understanding (that like playing video games) into FOSS gaming generally is much more costly in terms of mental and social capacity than the clout I usually have with my friends or family on such matters.
+
+King's English: If I have to instruct them to download the latest version of the game directly from Github in the Releases tab, or from some random website they've never heard of (even if it looks nice and is HTTPS secure) instead of just adding it on Steam or Epic or Microsoft Store or PS/Xbox or some-other thing, there is a solid 90% chance I'm going to lose that argument unless they are very specifically interested in that particular kind of game, its' content, or have a better socially-driven reason. This comes from years of trying and f'nagling with people from many walks of life; the UI and UX of FOSS gaming needs to be on-par with modern commercial offerings; this means all the way from landing on a page, to funneling through a sales conversion or free download, to playing the game with their friends needs to be understandable, unobtrusive and transparent. That is, if the overall userbase is to grow and sustain itself on a higher magnitude than current.
+
+### Give people the benefit of the doubt.
+People are intelligent, generally. They're very skilled in a multitude of things that aren't computers. But asking someone who -isn't- tech savvy to figure out how to pull down the right version of a FOSS game from a code repo (or heaven forbid build it themselves with cmake or whatever) is like asking ME to diagnose a car's problems using nothing but a flashlight and a screwdriver. I have no idea what the hell I'm doing anyway in that department. Without the proper tools and education too? I'm screwed. Therefore I urge empathy and patience in introducing others to FOSS gaming. It's a bit more finicky than the plug-and-play mentality commercial systems have fostered.
+
+## Enter the Mech Man
+A good example of a FOSS game that has plenty of good and bad would be MegaMek. It's basically a fully computerized version of the Classic Battletech rules, which is a board game that's existed since the 1980s and is going on 40 years of conniving, number-crunching tomfoolery that only a particular subset of people even enjoy. All in the name of combined-arms strategy on a hex board that involves groups of multi-ton robots, tanks, airplanes and infantry taking and giving damage to individual components, weapons and armor locations in a somewhat realistic and highly detailed simulation of 31st-century warfare.
+
+To alleviate the issue of significant calculational overhead for every-single-action-attack-or-damage-roll-ever, this program does all of the math, calculations, and rules proofing for you. So you can enjoy the game with others, wherever they may be, instead of reaching for your G.A.T.O.R. card for the tenth time to show the newbie of the group what happens when an SRM-6 missile spread hits a light vehicle whose armor is already exposed on its' left flank. There are plenty of grognards out there who know these rules well and can do half the game in their head: they're obviously not the target of this article.
+
+I shiver at the thought of doing all that stuff manually if I don't have to. That kind of tedium takes away from the moment-by-moment gameplay, forcing everybody to get ox-in-the-mired over details that don't matter overall instead of letting their big stompy robots blow each other up.
+
+Megamek works wonders in that regard. A game of Classic Battletech that could easily take 5 or 6 hours in person without any sort of calculator apps or an otherwise breakneck pace of gameplay and rules-lawyering will only take an hour or two maximum with Megamek. It's a godsend for a hobby that would otherwise be relegated to local play over predetermined days, not a "Hey want to play a match? Sure!" kind of casual pickup on a boring afternoon.
+
+### But it isn't all sunshine and rainbows.
+Nope! Megamek is, in my humble and donut-shaped opinion, a terrible example of UI and UX. I played a round recently, and another aficionado of the series played against me. Quoth my opponent: "This program looks like something out of Windows 95." Neither of us had played the most recent version of the game. I hadn't touched it in a year at least.
+
+Some changes were welcome, and the development progresses smoothly. But it's still just as much a spaghetti plate in terms of user experience: configuration options laid out in long lists of check boxes organized by multiple top-window tabs; a decidedly 15-years-old design language that clashes with modern perceptions of UI and UX (which is bad considering that taking in new blood is crucial for both userbase and developer contribution reasons); and the final nail in the coffin is the fact that the much easier and more recent Alpha Strike ruleset isn't included at all by default, to my knowledge. You might be able to configure something like that using plugins, but we're already putting the cart before the horse at that point.
+
+### To be fair,
+The project started in 2000. It's 21 years old in some places, if only in logic and not literal syntax. It's written in Java. And it's been a community effort by dozens of talented people over the decades. The fact that it's alive at all is impressive, but so's the fact that the franchise whose boardgame it emulates even has a fanbase still. BT fans aren't quitters, certainly. And this is all considering the fact that trying to automate, obfuscate and de-FUBAR the mountain of minutiae that Battletech's rulesets and technical data (on a per unit and per variant basis no less) is a monumental task. I can hardly think of a video-game adaptation of a more complex board game that does a better job, in proportion to the complexity of the physical source material and gameplay flow.
+
+So considering it was made in the waning days of Win98 (because Windows ME doesn't exist and you can't convince me otherwise) it's expected that it's ugly as most things were back then. It was written in Java (yea verily, begone foul JVM!), which for all its' foibles makes a very easy cross-platform distributable program. It's solidly a relic of an earlier time of online gaming, where dial-up connections were still common. That's a given. And it is what it is. I won't waste time bemoaning those facts that are immutable in this context. I'm only stating them to set the stage.
+
+## I'm left at an interesting impasse.
+There is no other way I could ever play Battletech with friends from all over the world in such a great degree of fidelity. Megamek serves its' purpose very well for what it is: a highly detailed computerization of a niche franchise that has a fanbase spanning generations. However, it also stands out to me as one of the prime examples of a FOSS project being understandably opaque to newcomers. It's hard to use at first, hard to look at always, and sometimes hard to find other people to play it with. Those three things will nail the coffin of any fledgling game shut. That concept is true regardless of genre, art style, or UI/UX.
+
+So, I leave it to you to put the pieces together here. I can choose to play with average people that A) aren't technically inclined, B) don't have a heart that beats for free-as-in-freedom, and C) want something that "just works," or confine myself to a much smaller content base with an even smaller playerbase to share it with.
+
+Call me the gaming nerd Whore of Babylon, but I don't see the point in beating my head against the wall overtly trying to make my hobby free and open if there isn't a platform for those newcomers to even stand on and explore once (or if ever) they choose to get involved in FOSS gaming of their own volition.
+
+## At the end of the day,
+I encourage people who play video games which are also interested in free and open source software to consider the prospect of inviting others into this world of free-as-in-freedom/beer/whatever with a grain of salt. Until we make it easier to onboard new people from all walks of life, significant adoption of FOSS systems or the games that run on them will not be seen. And therefore we will not see the requisite uptick in talent, contribution and playerbase that will consequently drive a growth in production quality, variety, and competitiveness in the market space of people's free time.
+
+
+### Contact Me
+external email: wholesomedonut at tuta dot io
+mastodon: at wholesomedonut at fosstodon dot org
+matrix: at wholesomedonut colon matrix dot org

zine/distributing.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+TODO
+
+Include information about where to clone repo and how to serve it
+from your capsule/gopherhole.
+
+Contact info??
+
+License?

zine/gophermap

@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+       ⠤⠤ ⠠⠤⠤⠤⠄⠠⠤⠤    ⠤⠤ ⠠⠤ ⠤⠄⠠⠤ ⠤⠄ ⠤⠄  ⠠⠤ ⠤⠄⠠⠤ ⠤⠄ ⠠⠤⠄ ⠠⠤⠤        
+     ⠰⠿⠉⠈⠁⠈⠉⠿⠏⠁⠸⠿⠈⠽⠇⠰⠿⠋⠈⠁⠸⠿ ⠿⠇⠸⠟⠦⠿⠇ ⠿⠇  ⠸⠿ ⠿⠇⠸⠟⠧⠻⠇ ⠾⠛⠿ ⠸⠿⠈⠽⠇      
+     ⠸⠿⠄⠠   ⠿⠇ ⠸⠿⠙⠿⠄⠘⠿⠄  ⠸⠿ ⠿⠇⠸⠇⠛⠸⠇ ⠿⠇  ⠸⠿ ⠿⠇⠸⠿⠸⠾⠇⠸⠿⠶⠿⠇⠸⠿⠙⠿       
+      ⠈⠉⠉⠁⠈⠉⠉⠉⠁⠈⠉ ⠈⠉ ⠈⠉⠉⠁ ⠉⠉⠉ ⠈⠁ ⠈⠁ ⠉⠉⠉⠁ ⠈⠉⠉ ⠈⠉ ⠉⠁⠉⠁ ⠈⠉⠈⠉ ⠈⠉      
+
+           [[ the offical zine of circumlunar.space ]]
+
+⠈⠉⠿⠋⠉⠸⠿⠉⠻⠇ ⠸⠟⠷ ⠸⠟⠧⠻⠇⠰⠿⠍⠙⠁⠸⠿⠦⠿⠇⠈⠉⠿⠋⠁⠰⠿⠍⠙⠁⠰⠿⠍⠙⠁⠈⠉⠿⠋⠁⠰⠿⠉⠿⠆⠸⠿⠆⠿⠇⠰⠿⠍⠙⠁ 
+  ⠿⠅ ⠸⠿⠻⠿⠁⠠⠿⠶⠿⠇⠸⠿⠹⠼⠇ ⠉⠙⠿⠆⠸⠇⠿⠸⠇  ⠿⠅  ⠈⠙⠿⠧ ⠈⠙⠿⠇  ⠿⠅ ⠸⠿ ⠼⠏⠸⠿⠹⠼⠇ ⠈⠙⠿⠇ 
+  ⠛⠂ ⠘⠛ ⠙⠓⠚⠃ ⠘⠛⠘⠛ ⠛⠃⠈⠛⠛⠙⠁⠘⠃ ⠘⠃⠘⠛⠛⠛⠃⠈⠙⠛⠋⠁⠈⠙⠛⠋⠁⠘⠛⠛⠛⠃ ⠙⠛⠋ ⠘⠛ ⠛⠃⠈⠙⠛⠋⠁ 
+
+Circumlunar Transmissions is a smolnet zine written and produced by
+the sundogs of circumlunar.space--distributed entirely by smolnet
+inhabitants and marauders like you. 
+
+0Publish CT on your own smolnet space!  distributing.txt
+
+
+                             ISSUES
+                             ^^^^^^
+1Issue One - April 2021	issue001/
+
+
+i- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -	false	null.host	1
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 

zine/index.gmi

@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+```
+       ⠤⠤ ⠠⠤⠤⠤⠄⠠⠤⠤    ⠤⠤ ⠠⠤ ⠤⠄⠠⠤ ⠤⠄ ⠤⠄  ⠠⠤ ⠤⠄⠠⠤ ⠤⠄ ⠠⠤⠄ ⠠⠤⠤        
+     ⠰⠿⠉⠈⠁⠈⠉⠿⠏⠁⠸⠿⠈⠽⠇⠰⠿⠋⠈⠁⠸⠿ ⠿⠇⠸⠟⠦⠿⠇ ⠿⠇  ⠸⠿ ⠿⠇⠸⠟⠧⠻⠇ ⠾⠛⠿ ⠸⠿⠈⠽⠇      
+     ⠸⠿⠄⠠   ⠿⠇ ⠸⠿⠙⠿⠄⠘⠿⠄  ⠸⠿ ⠿⠇⠸⠇⠛⠸⠇ ⠿⠇  ⠸⠿ ⠿⠇⠸⠿⠸⠾⠇⠸⠿⠶⠿⠇⠸⠿⠙⠿       
+      ⠈⠉⠉⠁⠈⠉⠉⠉⠁⠈⠉ ⠈⠉ ⠈⠉⠉⠁ ⠉⠉⠉ ⠈⠁ ⠈⠁ ⠉⠉⠉⠁ ⠈⠉⠉ ⠈⠉ ⠉⠁⠉⠁ ⠈⠉⠈⠉ ⠈⠉      
+
+           [[ the offical zine of circumlunar.space ]]
+
+⠈⠉⠿⠋⠉⠸⠿⠉⠻⠇ ⠸⠟⠷ ⠸⠟⠧⠻⠇⠰⠿⠍⠙⠁⠸⠿⠦⠿⠇⠈⠉⠿⠋⠁⠰⠿⠍⠙⠁⠰⠿⠍⠙⠁⠈⠉⠿⠋⠁⠰⠿⠉⠿⠆⠸⠿⠆⠿⠇⠰⠿⠍⠙⠁ 
+  ⠿⠅ ⠸⠿⠻⠿⠁⠠⠿⠶⠿⠇⠸⠿⠹⠼⠇ ⠉⠙⠿⠆⠸⠇⠿⠸⠇  ⠿⠅  ⠈⠙⠿⠧ ⠈⠙⠿⠇  ⠿⠅ ⠸⠿ ⠼⠏⠸⠿⠹⠼⠇ ⠈⠙⠿⠇ 
+  ⠛⠂ ⠘⠛ ⠙⠓⠚⠃ ⠘⠛⠘⠛ ⠛⠃⠈⠛⠛⠙⠁⠘⠃ ⠘⠃⠘⠛⠛⠛⠃⠈⠙⠛⠋⠁⠈⠙⠛⠋⠁⠘⠛⠛⠛⠃ ⠙⠛⠋ ⠘⠛ ⠛⠃⠈⠙⠛⠋⠁ 
+```
+
+# Circumlunar Transmissions - Home
+
+Circumlunar Transmissions is a smolnet zine written and produced by the sundogs of circumlunar.space--distributed entirely by smolnet inhabitants and marauders like you. 
+=> distributing.txt Publish CT on your own smolnet space!
+
+## Issues
+=> issue001/index.gmi Issue One - April 2021
+
+```
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 
+``` 

zine/issue001/ask-jone-001.gmi

@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+``` 
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 
+                       C I R C U M L U N A R
+                     T R A N S M I S S I O N S
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+Issue One                                                April 2021
+```
+
+# Ask Jone
+
+-- Do you have a problem? Send your questions to joneworlds@mailbox.org
+
+W. asks:
+> "I have a strained relationship with my sister. What are some things I can do to help repair it?"
+
+I remember my dad and I went through this patch where we were both pretty pissed off at each other, not that I remember why at this point. But sharing is caring, right? So to keep things going, I'm still dropping off cans of Chunk'n'Dunk soup for him, because it's all he ever feels like eating anymore. Although that stuff is just not very nutritious. But because I'm mad at him, I don't bother to bring his favorite, the meatball-carrot stew one. Instead, I bring him can after can of turkey-a-la-king. You ever try that one from Chunk'n'Dunk? Not great. And I guess dad's thinking along the same lines as me, because every time I come by he leaves me another pair of snow tires he found. But I'm not selling tires any more by then, so I don't want them. And he knows that, but he keeps on getting tires anyhow.
+
+And so we go on like this for weeks: I come by and put like 5 more cans of turkey-a-la-king on his kitchen counter, and he stacks a few more snow tires outside his door for me. And all this stuff is piling higher and higher and higher, and we're gradually getting madder and madder at each other. Until one day I go over there with another box of cans, and he starts screaming and yelling about how he hates turkey-a-la-king. And he gets so mad he accidentally knocks over the stack of cans. And some falls on his head and he falls over, and the rest of the cans come crashing down on him. Pretty bad scene. So I go to help him up, but I slip and trip on a can on the floor, and hit the ground hard too. And if you've ever fallen on a pile of Chunk'n'Dunk turkey-a-la-king cans, you know that hurts pretty bad.
+
+So we're both groaning on the ground, and then there's this weird sound by the front door. When I get out there to check it I find that co-incidentally the big pile of snow tires out there has also fallen over, and it's crushed some unlucky little gnome who must have been milling around by there. Those things are so bad at staying alive, I just can't believe it sometimes.
+
+Anyways, if you're looking to patch things up with your sister, I would say maybe don't do it with canned soup, or snow tires. It sure didn't help us any. It just wasn't a good result for anyone, especially for that gnome. Or if you have to go with soup, at least stick with the meatball-carrot one. It's actually not bad.
+
+Thanks for writing in. I hope that helps.
+
+-JONE
+
+```
+ ________________________
+|\                      /|
+| \     joneworlds     / |
+|  \        @         /  |
+|   \   mailbox.org  /   |
+|    \______________/    |
+|      /         \       |
+|     /           \      |
+|____/_____________\_____|
+
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+```
+=> sloum_circumlunar-mixtape-001.gmi << [ii] sloum's covid-year playlist
+=> tfurrows_granular-ideologue.gmi >> [I] Manifesto of a Granular Ideologue - tfurrows
+=> index.gmi Circumlunar Transmisisons - Issue 1
+```
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 
+```

zine/issue001/ask-jone-001.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 
+                       C I R C U M L U N A R
+                     T R A N S M I S S I O N S
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+Issue One                                                April 2021
+
+===========================[ ASK JONE ]===========================
+
+          Do you have a problem? Send your questions to:
+                      joneworlds@mailbox.org
+
+                              W. asks:
+          "I have a strained relationship with my sister.   
+           What are some things I can do to help repair it?"
+
+
+I remember my dad      feels like eating      Chunk'n'Dunk? Not     
+and I went through     anymore. Although      great. And I guess    
+this patch where       that stuff is          dad's thinking along  
+we were both pretty    just not very          the same lines as me, 
+pissed off at each     nutritious. But        because every time I  
+other, not that I      because I'm mad        come by he leaves me  
+remember why at        at him, I don't        another pair of snow  
+this point. But        bother to bring        tires he found. But   
+sharing is caring,     his favorite, the      I'm not selling tires 
+right? So to keep      meatball-carrot stew   any more by then,     
+things going, I'm      one. Instead, I bring  so I don't want       
+still dropping off     him can after can of   them. And he knows    
+cans of Chunk'n'Dunk   turkey-a-la-king. You  that, but he keeps on 
+soup for him, because  ever try               getting tires anyhow. 
+it's all he ever       that one from                                
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+And so we go on like   of cans. And some      it I find that        
+this for weeks:        falls on his head      co-incidentally the   
+I come by and put      and he falls over,     big pile of snow      
+like 5 more cans of    and the rest of the    tires out there has   
+turkey-a-la-king on    cans come crashing     also fallen over,     
+his kitchen counter,   down on him. Pretty    and it's crushed some 
+and he stacks a few    bad scene. So I go     unlucky little gnome  
+more snow tires        to help him up, but    who must have been    
+outside his door       I slip and trip on a   milling around by     
+for me. And all        can on the floor, and  there. Those things   
+this stuff is piling   hit the ground hard    are so bad at staying 
+higher and higher and  too. And if you've     alive, I just can't   
+higher, and we're      ever fallen on a       believe it sometimes. 
+gradually getting      pile of Chunk'n'Dunk                         
+madder and madder at   turkey-a-la-king       Anyways, if you're    
+each other. Until one  cans, you know that    looking to patch      
+day I go over there    hurts pretty bad.      things up with your   
+with another box of                           sister, I would say   
+cans, and he starts    So we're both          maybe don't do it     
+screaming and yelling  groaning on the        with canned soup,     
+about how he hates     ground, and then       or snow tires. It     
+turkey-a-la-king. And  there's this weird     sure didn't help us   
+he gets so mad he      sound by the front     any. It just wasn't   
+accidentally knocks    door. When I get       a good result for     
+over the stack         out there to check     anyone, especially    
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+for that gnome. Or  
+if you have to      
+go with soup, at                  ________________________
+least stick with                 |\                      /|
+the meatball-carrot              | \     joneworlds     / |
+one. It's actually               |  \        @         /  |
+not bad.                         |   \   mailbox.org  /   |
+                                 |    \______________/    |
+Thanks for writing               |      /         \       |
+in. I hope that                  |     /           \      |
+helps.                           |____/_____________\_____|  
+                 -JONE   
+
+
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 

zine/issue001/broadsheet-001.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,877 @@
+       ⠤⠤ ⠠⠤⠤⠤⠄⠠⠤⠤    ⠤⠤ ⠠⠤ ⠤⠄⠠⠤ ⠤⠄ ⠤⠄  ⠠⠤ ⠤⠄⠠⠤ ⠤⠄ ⠠⠤⠄ ⠠⠤⠤        
+     ⠰⠿⠉⠈⠁⠈⠉⠿⠏⠁⠸⠿⠈⠽⠇⠰⠿⠋⠈⠁⠸⠿ ⠿⠇⠸⠟⠦⠿⠇ ⠿⠇  ⠸⠿ ⠿⠇⠸⠟⠧⠻⠇ ⠾⠛⠿ ⠸⠿⠈⠽⠇      
+     ⠸⠿⠄⠠   ⠿⠇ ⠸⠿⠙⠿⠄⠘⠿⠄  ⠸⠿ ⠿⠇⠸⠇⠛⠸⠇ ⠿⠇  ⠸⠿ ⠿⠇⠸⠿⠸⠾⠇⠸⠿⠶⠿⠇⠸⠿⠙⠿       
+      ⠈⠉⠉⠁⠈⠉⠉⠉⠁⠈⠉ ⠈⠉ ⠈⠉⠉⠁ ⠉⠉⠉ ⠈⠁ ⠈⠁ ⠉⠉⠉⠁ ⠈⠉⠉ ⠈⠉ ⠉⠁⠉⠁ ⠈⠉⠈⠉ ⠈⠉      
+
+           [[ the offical zine of circumlunar.space ]]
+
+⠈⠉⠿⠋⠉⠸⠿⠉⠻⠇ ⠸⠟⠷ ⠸⠟⠧⠻⠇⠰⠿⠍⠙⠁⠸⠿⠦⠿⠇⠈⠉⠿⠋⠁⠰⠿⠍⠙⠁⠰⠿⠍⠙⠁⠈⠉⠿⠋⠁⠰⠿⠉⠿⠆⠸⠿⠆⠿⠇⠰⠿⠍⠙⠁ 
+  ⠿⠅ ⠸⠿⠻⠿⠁⠠⠿⠶⠿⠇⠸⠿⠹⠼⠇ ⠉⠙⠿⠆⠸⠇⠿⠸⠇  ⠿⠅  ⠈⠙⠿⠧ ⠈⠙⠿⠇  ⠿⠅ ⠸⠿ ⠼⠏⠸⠿⠹⠼⠇ ⠈⠙⠿⠇ 
+  ⠛⠂ ⠘⠛ ⠙⠓⠚⠃ ⠘⠛⠘⠛ ⠛⠃⠈⠛⠛⠙⠁⠘⠃ ⠘⠃⠘⠛⠛⠛⠃⠈⠙⠛⠋⠁⠈⠙⠛⠋⠁⠘⠛⠛⠛⠃ ⠙⠛⠋ ⠘⠛ ⠛⠃⠈⠙⠛⠋⠁ 
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+Issue One                                                April 2021
+
+===========================[ PREFACE ]=============================
+
+Back in February,      Anyone who has had     The strategy of this  
+around the time of     the pleasure of        first run has been to 
+the ogre incident,     perusing the many      just get it out       
+Jone wondered out      phlogs and gemlogs     there. Rather than    
+loud on the            here at                prematurely           
+circumlunar.space      circumlunar.space      exhausting our energy 
+BBS, telem, about the  will be aware of the   on determining what   
+possibility of a CS    impressive diversity   it should be, or      
+zine. The idea was     of interests,          pidgeonholing         
+well-received by the   talents, and           ourselves into a      
+rest of us sundogs,    backgrounds of the     niche or format       
+and for some time,     sundogs residing       without actually      
+talk of the zine       here. It will be       having produced any   
+flooded telem as we    interesting to see     content, we elected   
+proceeded to howl at   how these influence    to first just give it 
+the moon in            the zine over time,    a go and see what we  
+excitement. Amidst     but currently what     get. So for this      
+this jubilee, I        the zine is and how    first issue, we have  
+somehow ended up       it will be produced    what has been         
+wearing the            is largely still up    endearingly termed a  
+proverbial editor      in the air. It's       "topic salad." And I  
+pants--for this        really just a fun      believe it has turned 
+inaugural issue, at    experiment, and this   out to be quite a     
+least.                 first issue is a kind  nutritious one at     
+                       of pilot episode.      that.                 
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+Circumlunar            printable formats      have otherwise. It is 
+Transmissions will be  that readers can       with profound         
+distributed            easily print-and-bind  gratitude and pride   
+exclusively over       for their own          for this habitat and  
+Gopher and Gemini by   enjoyment offline      its inhabitants,      
+whoever would like to  or to distribute       and the smolnet       
+host a copy on their   locally.               ecosystem at          
+own gopherhole or                             large, that I         
+capsule. That is,      It has been a          present to you        
+anyone can clone the   pleasure to            this first issue      
+git repo of the        contribute something   of our smolzine,      
+project and serve its  to this wonderful      Circumlunar           
+contents from their    community of           Transmissions.        
+own smolnet space.     thoughtful and                               
+This kind of           creative individuals                   
+"newstand" method of   whom I respect and             
+distribution solves a  admire sincerely.              
+lot of the logistical  During my relatively                  ~mieum
+issues of where and    brief inhabitation of         April 25, 2021
+how to bi-host such a  the Zaibatsu, I've            Incheon, Korea
+thing in an            learnt a great many   
+accessible way. In     things and have been  
+addition to Gopher     inspired to create    
+and Gemini editions,   and wonder about      
+we intend to provide   things I would not    
+
+
+
+
+======================[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]========================
+
+
+[title]                                                  [line no.]
+
+The Circumlunar Mixtape..........................................97
+by sloum
+
+Ask Jone........................................................159
+by joneworlds
+
+Manifesto of a Granular Ideologue...............................227
+by tfurrows
+
+What's the Deal with Leap Seconds?..............................279
+by solderpunk
+
+The Hearth of the Matter........................................596
+by durtal
+
+Why I Still Game Proprietary....................................668
+by wholesomedonut
+
+
+
+
+===================[ THE CIRCUMLUNAR MIXTAPE ]=====================
+
+            - - -[ sloum's covid-year playlist ]- - -
+
+The Circumlunar Mixtape is an ongoing series for Circumlunar
+Transmissions where one user per issue shares 10 tracks they have
+been listening to.   .------------------------. Y'all have all 
+kinds of ways to     | CT001                  | stream music, or
+otherwise find and   |     __  ______  __     | listen to music, so
+tracks are just      |    /. \|\.....|/  \    | listed and it is on
+the reader to locate |    \__/|/_____|\__/    | them. As a court-
+esy, when a weblink  |                  sloum | to streaming is
+available, playlist  |    ________________    | curators may choose
+to supply it.        |___/_._o________o_._\___|
+
+These are songs I have listened to at various points throughout the
+last year. Some are old some are new. It has been a weird year and
+this is a kind of weird mix. I provided Bandcamp weblinks for each
+track except the Charlie Parr, which is a Youtube link because I
+like this song live and this is my favorite performance recording
+of it and the recording doesn't appear on any of his albums.
+
+                               Enjoy!
+
+
+[track name]                [artist name]              [album name]
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+
+Forward Becons Rebound     Adrianne Lenker                    Songs
+https://adriannelenker.bandcamp.com/track/forwards-beckon-rebound
+
+Catamaran                      talons'              Songs for Boats
+https://talons.bandcamp.com/track/catamaran
+
+Possessed by the Devil       Charlie Parr                N/A (live)
+https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P46hGYUycoE
+
+Some Voices                    Pinback               Some Voices EP
+https://pinback.bandcamp.com/track/some-voices
+
+Get To Know You             Tomo Nakayama                  Melonday
+https://tomomusic.bandcamp.com/track/get-to-know-you
+
+Just a Cloud                   Lusine                  Sensorimotor
+https://lusine.bandcamp.com/track/just-a-cloud-feat-vilja-larjosto
+
+Good Morning Captain            Slint        Spiderland(Remastered)
+https://slint.bandcamp.com/track/good-morning-captain-remastered
+
+Step Into You                    Hum                          Inlet
+https://humband.bandcamp.com/track/step-into-you
+
+Kingfisher                     Windhand     Grief's Infernal Flower    
+https://windhand.bandcamp.com/track/kingfisher
+
+Nue                           Nils Frahm                Wintermusik
+https://nilsfrahm.bandcamp.com/track/nue
+
+
+
+
+
+===========================[ ASK JONE ]===========================
+
+          Do you have a problem? Send your questions to:
+                      joneworlds@mailbox.org
+
+                              W. asks:
+          "I have a strained relationship with my sister.   
+           What are some things I can do to help repair it?"
+
+
+I remember my dad      feels like eating      Chunk'n'Dunk? Not     
+and I went through     anymore. Although      great. And I guess    
+this patch where       that stuff is          dad's thinking along  
+we were both pretty    just not very          the same lines as me, 
+pissed off at each     nutritious. But        because every time I  
+other, not that I      because I'm mad        come by he leaves me  
+remember why at        at him, I don't        another pair of snow  
+this point. But        bother to bring        tires he found. But   
+sharing is caring,     his favorite, the      I'm not selling tires 
+right? So to keep      meatball-carrot stew   any more by then,     
+things going, I'm      one. Instead, I bring  so I don't want       
+still dropping off     him can after can of   them. And he knows    
+cans of Chunk'n'Dunk   turkey-a-la-king. You  that, but he keeps on 
+soup for him, because  ever try               getting tires anyhow. 
+it's all he ever       that one from                                
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+And so we go on like   of cans. And some      it I find that        
+this for weeks:        falls on his head      co-incidentally the   
+I come by and put      and he falls over,     big pile of snow      
+like 5 more cans of    and the rest of the    tires out there has   
+turkey-a-la-king on    cans come crashing     also fallen over,     
+his kitchen counter,   down on him. Pretty    and it's crushed some 
+and he stacks a few    bad scene. So I go     unlucky little gnome  
+more snow tires        to help him up, but    who must have been    
+outside his door       I slip and trip on a   milling around by     
+for me. And all        can on the floor, and  there. Those things   
+this stuff is piling   hit the ground hard    are so bad at staying 
+higher and higher and  too. And if you've     alive, I just can't   
+higher, and we're      ever fallen on a       believe it sometimes. 
+gradually getting      pile of Chunk'n'Dunk                         
+madder and madder at   turkey-a-la-king       Anyways, if you're    
+each other. Until one  cans, you know that    looking to patch      
+day I go over there    hurts pretty bad.      things up with your   
+with another box of                           sister, I would say   
+cans, and he starts    So we're both          maybe don't do it     
+screaming and yelling  groaning on the        with canned soup,     
+about how he hates     ground, and then       or snow tires. It     
+turkey-a-la-king. And  there's this weird     sure didn't help us   
+he gets so mad he      sound by the front     any. It just wasn't   
+accidentally knocks    door. When I get       a good result for     
+over the stack         out there to check     anyone, especially    
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+for that gnome. Or  
+if you have to      
+go with soup, at                  ________________________
+least stick with                 |\                      /|
+the meatball-carrot              | \     joneworlds     / |
+one. It's actually               |  \        @         /  |
+not bad.                         |   \   mailbox.org  /   |
+                                 |    \______________/    |
+Thanks for writing               |      /         \       |
+in. I hope that                  |     /           \      |
+helps.                           |____/_____________\_____|  
+                 -JONE   
+
+
+
+
+================[ MANIFESTO OF A GRANULAR IDEOLOGUE ]==============
+                            by tfurrows
+
+     - - -[ Passing Thoughts of an Impractical Idealist ]- - -
+
+Our ancestors stood on Permanence dammed the  This is not the        
+the banks of the       river, a logjam of     manifesto to end all   
+Euphrates and cast     ideas tossed in as if  manifestos. It is a    
+their ideas into the   each was a consummate  message in a bottle    
+inexhaustible current. standard. Life-giving  that few will find. It 
+First they cast in     waters slowed,         is a loose model for   
+words, ephemeral. Then intelligence waned,    dealing with the       
+they learned           the elastic mind       mountainous dam of     
+permanence; epochs     seized and crumbled.   manifestos that stop   
+brought clay tablets   The word manifesto     the flow of            
+and papyrus, script    dates to the           creativity, passion,   
+and type, bits and     fourteenth century,    and progress. At the   
+clouds.                but the notion dates   risk of making the     
+                       to our earliest        problem worse, I       
+                       written conclusions.   proffer:               
+
+  From a Message in a Bottle, Sitting Atop the Dam of Manifestos
+  ..............................................................
+
+          * Let your mind move freely, become a seeker
+          * Accept that knowledge is scattered broadly
+          * Find kernels of truth and germinate thoughts
+          
+          * Take something from every ideology, 
+              fear nothing
+          * Subscribe to that which you find value in
+          * Mistrust labels, they carry unimaginable
+              baggage
+          
+          * Acknowledge all that came before, but accept
+              the utility of your journey
+          * Never believe that you have the best vision
+              for the world
+          * Don't try to fashion the world to your
+              ideals; your ideals are cursory
+
+          * Be a maximal minimalist, distill purity from
+              immensity
+          * Find, purify, share, repeat
+          * To conclude means to cease to grow
+
+                                       <tfurrows@circumlunar.space>
+                                                 <tfurrows@sdf.org>
+
+
+
+
+==============[ WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH LEAP SECONDS? ]===============
+================[ A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF TIMESCALES ]=================
+                          by solderpunk
+
+ASTRONOMICAL SECONDS
+
+Why is a second as     didn't, so you're      "why is a day as long  
+long as it is, and not stuck reading this,    as it is?" - one day   
+a little shorter or a  instead: a brief,      is the time it takes   
+little longer?  This   incomplete, possibly   the Earth to complete  
+is a seemingly simple  slightly inaccurate    a single revolution    
+question which leads   overview based on my   about its axis.  And   
+down a deep and        own characteristically since there are 60     
+delightfully twisted   obsessive reading on   seconds in a minute,   
+rabbit hole.  It's     the topic over the     60 minutes in an hour  
+something that I wish  past week or so.       and 24 hours in a day, 
+Neal Stephenson had                           a second is simply one 
+written an epically    For most of the time   86,400th of the time   
+long, inexplicably     that the concept of    it takes the Earth to  
+compelling 1990s Wired the second has been    rotate once.  Or, if   
+article about, in the  around, its length has you like, a second is  
+spirit of his "Mother  been defined           the time it takes for  
+Earth, Mother Board"   implicitly by that of  the Earth to rotate    
+or "In the Kingdom of  the day.  Everybody    one 240th of a degree, 
+Mao Bell".  But he     knows the answer to    out of the full 360.   
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+End of story, right?   observatories tracking enough to notice       
+                       the movement of        this).  In fact, the   
+Well, no.  This is a   distant radio sources  Earth's rotation is    
+perfectly sensible way across the sky as the  slowing down.  Very    
+to define time - for   Earth rotates.  This   slowly, of course.     
+some applications,     is easier than making  Every century, a       
+it's the best way to   precision measurements complete rotation      
+do it.  This           of the sun, but is     takes about 2          
+astronomically         still measuring the    milliseconds longer    
+defined time scale is  exact same thing.      than it used to.  The  
+still in use today in                         rate of slowing down   
+certain contexts.  The EARTH IS A NICE PLACE  is not steady.  Some   
+official name of its   TO LIVE, BUT IT'S NOT  years the change is    
+modern incarnation is  THE BEST CLOCK         more and other years   
+Universal Time, or UT                         it's less.  In fact,  
+(technically, there    The problem with an    even though the       
+are a few subtly       astronomical           overall trend is one  
+different variants,    definition of the      of slowing down, some 
+denoted UT0, UT1 and   second is this: the    years the rotation    
+UT2, but we'll gloss   Earth doesn't actually actually speeds up.   
+over that here). The   rotate at a perfectly  The dynamics of the   
+official determination constant rate (it      process are           
+of UT nowadays is      wasn't until the 19th  complicated, and we   
+based mostly on        century that we could  can't make accurate   
+measurements made at   build clocks accurate  long term forecasts.  
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+Gravitational          small, random          was going to be late
+interaction between    fluctuations in their  to lunch because of
+the Earth and the moon duration over long     the Earth's unsteady
+is the primary driver, time spans.  If you    rotation. But by the
+but the movement of    define the second by   20th century, sci-
+tectonic plates and    looking into the       entific and techno-
+friction between       skies, no two seconds  logical progress 
+Earth's surface and    are exactly the same.  meant these tiny 
+its atmosphere and                            fluctuations started 
+oceans have their say, That's a pretty        to matter, as we 
+too.  The Indian Ocean inconvenient property  began measuring 
+Earthquake in 2004 was for the official       natural phenomena and
+powerful enough to     definition of a        building machines
+shorten the length of  fundamentally          which operated on
+a day by 2.68          important unit like    very small time 
+microseconds.  There   the second to have.    scales. A 10 mega-
+are even periodic      For most of the time   hertz radio 
+variations in the rate this definition was    oscillator, for
+of rotation that we    used, the fluctuations example, has a period
+just don't understand  were smaller than we   of 0.0000001 seconds  
+the cause of yet.  But could reliably         --only 100 nano-
+the take home message  measure. Certainly,    seconds! Gigahertz
+is that, whatever the  they weren't enough to radiation, which is
+causes, astronomical   have an impact on      important in radio 
+seconds actually have  everyday life. Nobody  astronomy and was
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+used for communi-      Fortunately, in the    The new atomic second   
+cations and radar      1950s, atomic clocks   was defined such that   
+during WWII decades    were invented which    it had the same         
+before it came to      kept time better than  length as the           
+underpin modern        any previous           astronomical second     
+technology like GPS,   mechanism. I'll gloss  in use before it, as    
+WiFi, and mobile data  right over the         far as measurements     
+networks, has periods  details, but suffice   at the time could       
+measured in            it to say, we came up  tell, but it had the    
+*picoseconds*. Even    with a new way to      added bonus that the    
+very, very small       define the second      length of the second    
+variations in the      which involved         was then fixed and      
+length of a second are measuring the          unchanging. Caesium     
+enough to make the     properties of caesium  atoms at a given        
+measured frequency of  atoms instead of       temperature "vibrate"   
+radio waves change,    looking at things      (very loosely           
+even if the *actual*   moving through the     speaking) at a          
+frequency is fixed.    sky. In 1967, the      frequency which, as     
+Modern technological   relatively young       far as we can tell,     
+society simply         International System   is completely and       
+couldn't be built      (or SI, for the French perfectly stable, and   
+using a wobbly clock   "Système               which can be measured   
+like the Earth.        International") of     very accurately in a    
+                       units redefined the    sufficiently advanced   
+ATOMIC SECONDS         second on this basis.  laboratory.             
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+With the arrival of    until now is a little  other hand, is        
+atomic seconds, a new  less than 40 seconds,  fundamentally         
+time scale was also    but it will continue   divorced from it.     
+defined: International to grow, without       Thousands of years in 
+Atomic Time (or TAI,   limit. And while the   the future, there     
+for the French "Temps  perfectly uniform      will come a day when, 
+Atomique Inter-        seconds of TAI make it according to TAI, the 
+national"). At mid-    the perfect tool for   sun rises in          
+night on January 1st   some tasks, this drift Greenwich at          
+in 1958, TAI and UT    apart from UT makes it midnight.             
+were perfectly         problematic for                              
+synchronised. Ever     others. If you go      This isn't just an    
+since then, they have  outside at noon UT in  abstract concern for  
+slowly but surely      Greenwich, England (or the distant future.   
+drifted apart. The     anywhere else at 0     In the late '50s when 
+seconds of TAI are of  degrees longitude),    TAI was defined, it   
+perfectly unchanging   the sun will *always*  was still common for  
+length (as measured by be high in the sky.    ships at sea to       
+averaging hundreds of  This is true today and figure out where they 
+atomic clocks all over it will be true in a   were by using a       
+the world), but the    thousand years,        sextant to record the 
+seconds of UT          Because UT is          position of the sun   
+fluctuate with the     fundamentally linked   above the horizon at  
+Earth's rotation. The  to the Earth's         a certain time and    
+accumulated drift up   rotation. TAI, on the  consulting a printed  
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+table of conversions.  increasingly less      International de       
+For this purpose,      accurate as TAI        l'Heure", but today    
+ships carried the most drifted further out of the torch has been     
+accurate clocks they   synch with the Earth   passed to a            
+could afford, and      and the stars. This    combination of the     
+compared them          meant that the "new    International Bureau   
+regularly against true and improved" TAI time of Weights and         
+UT time using time     scale wasn't actually  Measures, or BIPM,     
+signals broadcast by   an improvement for     for the French         
+radio stations all     everybody.             "Bureau International  
+over the world.                               des Poids et Mesures"  
+Celestial navigation   COORDINATING CHAOS     and the International  
+works very well when   Instead of             Earth Rotation         
+using a timescale      broadcasting two       Service, who have the  
+which is tightly       different time signals gall to abbreviate     
+linked to Earth's      for different          the *English* version  
+rotation, and hence    purposes, which could  of their name and go   
+the position of things easily lead to         by IERS) defined yet   
+in the sky. But if the confusion, on January  another time scale,    
+radio time signals     1st in 1960 the powers in an attempt to       
+switched to            that be (back then     achieve the best of    
+broadcasting TAI       that was the           both worlds and make   
+instead of UT,         International Time     everybody happy.       
+celestial navigation   Bureau, or BIH, for    Enter Coordinated      
+would become           the French "Bureau     Universal Time, or     
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+ UTC - at last,        allowing scientists    technical             
+ something normal      and engineers around   compromises, using    
+ people have heard of! the world to           ugly hacks. It cannot 
+                       calibrate their        be any other way, as  
+ The abbreviation UTC  instruments and        UTC is a stubborn     
+ is a strange          reliably measure time  attempt to reconcile  
+ compromise between    intervals and          two desirable but     
+ the English           frequencies very       fundamentally         
+ abbreviation CUT and  precisely. But         incompatible          
+ the French            whereas TAI is         properties of a       
+ abbreviation TUC (for destined to drift      timescale: perfectly  
+ "Temps Universel      ever further away      regular seconds, and  
+ Coordonné"). This is  from UT, to the        synchronisation with  
+ somewhat fitting,     chagrin of sailors     a spinning globe      
+ because UTC itself is and astronomers, UTC   whose rate of         
+ a strange compromise  is kept synchronised   rotation is           
+ time scale between UT closely enough with    unpredictably         
+ and TAI. Like TAI,    UT that it allows      irregular.            
+ UTC is an atomic time seafarers to perform                         
+ scale. Every second   celestial navigation   The precise nature of 
+ of UTC is exactly as  with sufficient        the ugly hack         
+ long as any other,    accuracy for safe      underlying UTC has    
+ using the SI standard ocean passage. This    changed somewhat      
+ second based on       synchronisation is     since it was first    
+ caesium atoms,        achieved, like all     defined, but for      
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+almost 50 years now,   not absolutely fixed   rather than removals. 
+starting in 1972, the  at 86,400 by           They don't happen on  
+ugly hack of choice    definition. There      a regular,            
+has been the leap      almost always *are*    predictable basis,    
+second. The way it     86,400 seconds in a    like leap years       
+works is this. The     UTC day, but 86,401    (which are an         
+difference between     and 86,399 are also    adjustment for the    
+UTC and UT - a         allowed when           fact that the time it 
+quantity denoted DUT   necessary to keep the  takes the Earth to    
+- is carefully         time scale locked to   orbit the sun once,   
+monitored. Any time    the movement of the    defining a year, is   
+it looks like that     sun across the sky.    not perfectly         
+difference is on                              divisible by the time 
+track to exceed 0.9    So far, there have     it takes the Earth to 
+seconds, in either     been 27 leap seconds   rotate once, defining 
+direction, UTC is      defined, although UTC  a day). Because the   
+kicked back into       and ATI are today      Earth's rate of       
+alignment by either    exactly 37 seconds     rotation fluctuates   
+inserting or removing  apart - the other 10   randomly, sometimes   
+a single second on     seconds come from      slowing down and      
+one particular day.    hacks applied before   sometimes speeding    
+This makes UTC the     leap seconds were      up, astronomers need  
+*only* time scale      established in 1972.   to be actively on the 
+where the number of    All of them to date    lookout for excessive 
+seconds in a day is    have been insertions   values of DUT. When   
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+it's decided a leap    precise time           technology means that  
+second is needed -     synchronisation        celestial navigation   
+it's the IERS who      should be caught by    at sea is now rarely   
+makes that call -      surprise when a leap   a matter of life or    
+they are announced at  second rolls around.   death (although some   
+least six months in    In practice, it's not  sailors still          
+advance. They're       always so simple.      appreciate the         
+allowed to occur on                           relative simplicity    
+either June 30th or    INCREASING             of the technology it   
+December 31st, and     IMPLEMENTATION BURDEN  relies on), removing   
+are inserted or        AND AN UNCERTAIN       some of the argument   
+deleted at midnight    FUTURE                 for making sure UTC    
+UTC (which is the                             stays in lock step     
+middle of the day in   Leap seconds have      with the Earth's       
+some time zones, of    always had their       rotation. At the same  
+course) on those       critics, but at the    time, the internet     
+days. At the time of   time they were         has come along: a      
+writing, the last      adopted, their         massive network of     
+leap second happened   benefits arguably      computers talking to   
+on December 31st,      balanced their         each other, with the   
+2016. In principle,    associated hassle. 50  frequent need for      
+six months is enough   years later, this hack activity on one to be  
+advance warning that   is starting to show    synchronised with      
+nobody doing anything  its age. The advent of activity on another    
+which depends on       cheap and reliable GPS (hence tools like the  
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+Network Time Protocol, added to software as   Some systems, of      
+NTP). Computer         an afterthought - if   course, forget to do  
+programmers *hate*     they are added at all. anything at all.      
+leap seconds, for the  Some systems represent Because all the leap  
+same reason they hate  the extra second using seconds to date have  
+Daylight Saving Time:  the timestamp          been insertions       
+they complicate time   23:59:60, but others   rather than removals, 
+calculations (you      instead repeat the     it's a safe bet that  
+can't accurately       timestamp 23:59:59     there's plenty of     
+calculate the number   twice (since some      software out there    
+of seconds between two software will fail to  which has worked      
+UTC timestamps without parse a timestamp      correctly so far but  
+consulting a table of  ending in :60). Other  will fail the first   
+when previous leap     systems "smear" the    time a second is      
+seconds were inserted) leap second out over   removed. And the      
+and are a frequent     longer time periods,   Earth's rotation is   
+cause of confusion and like 24 hours, to      going through a bit   
+errors, when one       avoid problems         of a fast phase right 
+system implements them associated with sudden now, so the first     
+differently from       discontinuities. This  negative leap second  
+another its trying to  just leads to a whole  might be looming on   
+interoperate with.     day of small, slowly   the horizon.          
+                       varying errors                               
+Affordances for leap   compared to            The software          
+seconds are often      non-smearing systems.  interoperability      
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+situation at the time  option. It's one thing cause are only likely 
+of a leap second is    to shut down the New   to get worse. The     
+bad enough that        York Stock Exchange    atomic definition of  
+several major stock    for an hour, but Air   second likely isn't   
+exchanges simply       Traffic Control has to going away any time   
+agreed to voluntarily  stay up 24/7. It's no  soon, though, and     
+shut down for an hour  surprise that          that means that       
+around midnight UTC in increasingly many      getting rid of leap   
+2016, rather than risk voices in the tech     seconds entirely      
+problems by continuing industry are calling   means abandoning the  
+to trade during the    for leap seconds to be millennia old notion  
+leap second. Given     abolished. Plenty of   that the way we       
+that a number of major people are very        represent time is     
+web services,          unhappy with that      intimately linked     
+including Amazon,      idea, of course, not   with the natural      
+Instagram, Netflix and to mention there's no  cycle of night and    
+Twitter, experienced   consensus on what to   day. Assuming we're   
+outages around this    do instead.            not willing to do     
+time, this was                                that, there are only  
+probably not a bad     It's far from clear    two alternatives:     
+idea. Of course,       what the future holds  coming up with a new  
+simply shutting time   for the leap second.   ugly hack which is    
+critical services off  As software continues  somehow less          
+for every leap second  to eat the world, the  problematic, or       
+isn't always an        headaches leap seconds giving up on a  "one      
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+size fits all" time    recommend the article  time scales like      
+scale.                 "The leap second: its  Ephemeris Time (ET),  
+                       history and possible   GPS Time (GPST) and   
+BUT WAIT,              future", which you can Terrestrial Time      
+THERE'S MORE!          easily find on the web (TT), and discover    
+                       (full citation below), that the SI system of 
+If you think this      along with, as always, units defined the     
+story has been         following Wikipedia    second based on       
+needlessly fiddly and  links wherever they    something other than  
+complicated, rest      take you. Along the    Earth's rotation when 
+assured I have skipped way you can learn the  it was established in 
+over a tonne of        difference between     1960, seven years     
+details. If you're     UT0, UT1 and UT2, meet before the caesium    
+actually interested to other exciting         definition was        
+learn more, I highly   astronomic and atomic  adopted.              
+ 
+                      - - -[ REFERENCES ]- - -
+
+Nelson, R., McCarthy, D., Malys, S., Levine, J.M., Guinot, B.,
+  Fliegel, H., Beard, R., & Bartholomew, T. (2001). The Leap Second 
+  - Its History and Possible Future. Metrologia, 38, 509-529.
+
+"Time-nuttery 101" by Ole Petter Ronningen 
+https://efos3.com/TimeNut.html 
+
+"UTC might be redefined without Leap Seconds" by Steve Allen 
+https://ucolick.org/~sla/leapsecs/timescales.html 
+
+
+
+
+====================[ THE HEARTH OF THE MATTER ]===================
+                              by durtal
+
+It seems that Kepler   Hobbes brought 'focus' life in unfortunate   
+first used the Latin   into broader English   ways.                 
+word 'focus' in 1604   parlance nearly fifty                        
+to refer to 'the point years later. I don't   Ironically, the       
+of convergence' in the know if he did this    political philosopher 
+mathematical sphere.   with a magnifying      who espoused that     
+It is possible that    glass or not. But,     humans are "all take  
+this is an analogical  Hobbes is certainly    and little give" used 
+use of the term and    not my favourite       a word that belied    
+may reference the      philosopher. With its  his contentions in    
+point of light created particular take on     the original. Focus   
+with a lens. You       human nature, he       is the Latin          
+probably know what I   published Leviathan    equivalent of the Old 
+mean. I remember       about the same time he English word          
+another child showing  popularised a word     'hearth'. People      
+me a trick with a      whose use is           still used the latter 
+magnifying glass       ubiquitous but whose   term in my youth,     
+outside one sunny day. original meaning is    especially in rural   
+He quickly adjusted    too often unknown.     regions. Phrases like 
+the glass's height     Sometimes the          "hearth and home" and 
+over my forearm to     abstractions of        "keep the home fires  
+effect a sharp pain as science and a specific burning" catch        
+the converging rays    sort of philosophy     something of its      
+burned a hole in my    separate us from the   ethos. The hearth was 
+skin.                  mundane realities of   where household       
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+members gathered to    it is to wait in       them and drink your   
+cook or to work by the anticipation for the   morning coffee. You   
+hearthstone's          warmth of a fire on a  smile and share a     
+firelight. In its      cold winter's morning. joke or two with your 
+warmth, children sat   Others gather close to fellows. One of them  
+to hear the stories of you, hoping to absorb  ruefully remembers    
+the family and         a little of your       that it is his day to 
+community after dusk.  body's heat while they do the dishes; they   
+Kith and kin           wait too. You each rub are piling up as      
+entertained themselves and blow warm breaths  the others finish     
+with music and         onto your hands and    and go. This time,    
+drinking and dance     comment on the cold,   like its later        
+nearby. In some        and you remark on the  double, is            
+cultures, families     day ahead. As the      a short space of      
+kept ancestral bones   kindling catches, hope intimacy before       
+beneath the            builds and blossoms as separation.           
+hearthstone. Here was  the flames devour the                        
+a point of convergence larger pieces of wood. By analogy, sunrise   
+in the human habitat.  The fire roars madly   is like the birth of  
+                       as you back away,      a child for whom the  
+The rising or setting  waiting for the wooden family cares. Such    
+sun reminds me of a    pyramid to collapse.   brief familial        
+hearth fire as it      When there are coals   intimacy is still     
+converges on the       left mostly, you cook  most often the case   
+horizon. I know what   your breakfast over    for the young. But,   
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+not so for the         members, nurse the     that the world offers 
+elderly. We fill the   frail and wash their   in this day when      
+noon meridians of our  bodies late in life    hearth fires and home 
+lives so completely    and at its very end.   are all but           
+with striving and      Frequently, there is   forgotten. We now     
+drift so far from one  only the intimacy of   only focus camera     
+another that, too      strangers who alone    lenses                
+often, family members  know where the bare    (automatically).      
+no longer live near    bones of our final                           
+to one another at the  days lie before we     Did old Thomas Hobbes 
+sunset of a loved      slip into the deep     have a point?         
+one's life. Now        dark of death's      
+others, not family     night. This is all   
+
+
+
+
+==================[ WHY I STILL GAME PROPRIETARY ]=================
+                          by wholesomedonut
+                         
+PROPRIETARY GAMING     in the market.         thou angereth me!" I
+ISN'T ALL BAD                                 hear in the imaginary 
+                       I agree with all of    comments section      
+Since getting into the those observations.    because this is       
+FOSS community, I see  They tire me. They     Gemini and you can't  
+a lot of pushback      concern me. They       do that. I am certain 
+towards the gaming     frustrate me daily.    you will find         
+industry as a whole. I                        peace through         
+can see why: DRM runs  However! There are     measured              
+rampant, terrible      still reasons -not- to contemplation and     
+business practices     go the route of some I a cup of whatever     
+regularly conflagrate  see in the FOSS world  warm or cold          
+internet forums,       and eschew gaming      liquid you enjoy.     
+anti-cheat programs    altogether on anything                       
+are basically          but a FOSS platform,   WHY DO I USE STEAM?   
+consensual (and        with FOSS games,       
+mandatory for official because.... FOSS. That Well.... everyone   
+online play in some    argument is just as    else that isn't a   
+cases) trojans, and to dumb in practice,      computer nerd       
+make it all worse it   because it's an        usually does too.   
+costs a mint to get    artificial limitation  And the overhead    
+into the hobby         that stands on         for getting         
+nowadays due to        somewhat subjective,   people of minimum   
+scalpers and crypto    opinionated reasoning. technical under-    
+miners running rampant "But wholesomedonut,   standing (that like 
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+playing video games)   gaming generally is    than current.         
+into FOSS gaming       much more costly in                          
+generally is much more terms of mental and    GIVE PEOPLE THE       
+costly in terms of     social capacity than   BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT  
+mental and social      the clout I usually                          
+capacity than the      have with my friends   People are            
+clout I usually have   or family on such      intelligent,          
+with my friends or     matters.               generally. They're    
+family on such                                very skilled in a     
+matters.               King's English: If I   multitude of things   
+                       have to instruct them  that aren't           
+King's English: If I   to download the latest computers. But asking 
+have to instruct them  version of the game    someone who -isn't-   
+to download the latest directly from Github   tech savvy to figure  
+version of the game    in the Releases tab,   out how to pull down  
+directly from Github   or from some random    the right version of  
+in the Releases tab,   playing the game with  a FOSS game from a    
+or from some random    their friends needs to code repo (or heaven  
+website they've never  be understandable,     forbid build it       
+heard of (even if it   unobtrusive and        themselves with cmake 
+looks nice and is      transparent. That is,  or whatever) is like  
+HTTPS secure) instead  if the overall         asking ME to diagnose 
+of just adding it on   userbase is to grow    a car's problems      
+Steam or Epic or       and sustain itself on  using nothing but a   
+Microsoft Store or     a higher magnitude     flashlight and a      
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+screwdriver. I have no Battletech rules,      To alleviate the      
+idea what the hell I'm which is a board game  issue of significant  
+doing anyway in that   that's existed since   calculational         
+department. Without    the 1980s and is going overhead for          
+the proper tools and   on 40 years of         every-single-action-  
+education too? I'm     conniving,             attack-or-damage-     
+screwed. Therefore I   number-crunching       roll-ever,            
+urge empathy and       tomfoolery that only a this program does all 
+patience in            particular subset of   of the math,          
+introducing others to  people even enjoy. All calculations, and     
+FOSS gaming. It's a    in the name of         rules proofing for    
+bit more finicky than  combined-arms strategy you. So you can enjoy 
+the plug-and-play      on a hex board that    the game with others, 
+mentality commercial   involves groups of     wherever they may be, 
+systems have fostered. multi-ton robots,      instead of reaching   
+                       tanks, airplanes and   for your G.A.T.O.R.   
+ENTER THE MECH MAN     infantry taking and    card for the tenth    
+                       giving damage to       time to show the      
+A good example of a    individual components, newbie of the group   
+FOSS game that has     weapons and armor      what happens when an  
+plenty of good and bad locations in a         SRM-6 missile spread  
+would be MegaMek. It's somewhat realistic and hits a light vehicle  
+basically a fully      highly detailed        whose armor is        
+computerized version   simulation of          already exposed       
+of the Classic         31st-century warfare.  on its' left flank.   
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+There are plenty of    Megamek works wonders  RAINBOWS              
+grognards out there    in that regard. A game                       
+who know these rules   of Classic Battletech  Nope! Megamek is, in  
+well and can do half   that could easily take my humble and         
+the game in their      5 or 6 hours in person donut-shaped opinion, 
+head: they're          without any sort of    a terrible example of 
+obviously not the      calculator apps or an  UI and UX. I played a 
+target of this         otherwise breakneck    round recently, and   
+article.               pace of gameplay and   another aficionado of 
+                       rules-lawyering will   the series played     
+I shiver at the        only take an hour or   against me. Quoth my  
+thought of doing all   two maximum with       opponent: "This       
+that stuff manually if Megamek. It's a        program looks like    
+I don't have to. That  godsend for a hobby    something out of      
+kind of tedium takes   that would otherwise   Windows 95." Neither  
+away from the          be relegated to local  of us had played the  
+moment-by-moment       play over              most recent version   
+gameplay, forcing      predetermined days,    of the game. I hadn't 
+everybody to get       not a "Hey want to     touched it in a year  
+ox-in-the-mired over   play a match? Sure!"   at least.             
+details that don't     kind of casual pickup                        
+matter overall instead on a boring afternoon. Some changes were     
+of letting their big                          welcome, and the      
+stompy robots blow     BUT IT ISN'T ALL       development           
+each other up.         SUNSHINE AND           progresses smoothly.  
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+But it's still just    and more recent Alpha  that it's alive at    
+as much a spaghetti    Strike ruleset isn't   all is impressive,    
+plate in terms of      included at all by     but so's the fact     
+user experience:       default, to my         that the franchise    
+configuration options  knowledge. You might   whose boardgame it    
+laid out in long       be able to configure   emulates even has a   
+lists of check boxes   something like that    fanbase still. BT     
+organized by multiple  using plugins, but     fans aren't quitters, 
+top-window tabs; a     we're already putting  certainly. And this   
+decidedly              the cart before the    is all considering    
+15-years-old design    horse at that point.   the fact that trying  
+language that clashes                         to automate,          
+with modern            TO BE FAIR             obfuscate and         
+perceptions of UI and                         de-FUBAR the mountain 
+UX (which is bad       The project started    of minutiae that      
+considering that       in 2000. It's 21       Battletech's rulesets 
+taking in new blood    years old in some      and technical data    
+is crucial for both    places, if only in     (on a per unit and    
+userbase and           logic and not literal  per variant basis no  
+developer              syntax. It's written   less) is a monumental 
+contribution           in Java. And it's      task. I can hardly    
+reasons); and the      been a community       think of a video-game 
+final nail in the      effort by dozens of    adaptation of a more  
+coffin is the fact     talented people over   complex board game    
+that the much easier   the decades. The fact  that does a better    
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+job, in proportion to  time of online         is: a highly detailed 
+the complexity of the  gaming, where dial-up  computerization of a  
+physical source        connections were       niche franchise that  
+material and gameplay  still common. That's   has a fanbase         
+flow.                  a given. And it is     spanning generations. 
+                       what it is. I won't    However, it also      
+So considering it was  waste time bemoaning   stands out to me as   
+made in the waning     those facts that are   one of the prime      
+days of Win98          immutable in this      examples of a FOSS    
+(because Windows ME    context. I'm only      project being         
+doesn't exist and you  stating them to set    understandably opaque 
+can't convince me      the stage.             to newcomers. It's    
+otherwise) it's                               hard to use at first, 
+expected that it's     I'M LEFT AT AN         hard to look at       
+ugly as most things    INTERESTING IMPASSE    always, and sometimes 
+were back then. It                            hard to find other    
+was written in Java    There is no other way  people to play it     
+(yea verily, begone    I could ever play      with. Those three     
+foul JVM!), which for  Battletech with        things will nail the  
+all its' foibles       friends from all over  coffin of any         
+makes a very easy      the world in such a    fledgling game shut.  
+cross-platform         great degree of        That concept is true  
+distributable          fidelity. Megamek      regardless of genre,  
+program. It's solidly  serves its' purpose    art style, or UI/UX.  
+a relic of an earlier  very well for what it                        
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+ So, I leave it to you make my hobby free     Until we make it      
+ to put the pieces     and open if there      easier to onboard new 
+ together here. I can  isn't a platform for   people from all walks 
+ choose to play with   those newcomers to     of life, significant  
+ average people that   even stand on and      adoption of FOSS      
+ A) aren't technically explore once (or if    systems or the games  
+ inclined, B) don't    ever) they choose to   that run on them will 
+ have a heart that     get involved in FOSS   not be seen. And      
+ beats for             gaming of their own    therefore we will not 
+ free-as-in-freedom,   volition.              see the requisite     
+ and C) want something                        uptick in talent,     
+ that "just works," or AT THE END OF THE DAY  contribution and      
+ confine myself to a                          playerbase that will  
+ much smaller content  I encourage people     consequently drive a  
+ base with an even     who play video games   growth in production  
+ smaller playerbase to which are also         quality, variety, and 
+ share it with.        interested in free     competitiveness in    
+                       and open source        the market space of   
+ Call me the gaming    software to consider   people's free time.   
+ nerd Whore of         the prospect of       
+ Babylon, but I don't  inviting others into  
+ see the point in      this world of         
+ beating my head       free-as-in-freedom    
+ against the wall      /beer/whatever        
+ overtly trying to     with a grain of salt. 
+
+                      - - -[ CONTACT ME ]- - - 
+
+           external email: wholesomedonut at tuta dot io
+           mastodon: at wholesomedonut at fosstodon dot org
+           matrix: at wholesomedonut colon matrix dot org
+
+
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 
+   - - - - - - - --------------------------------- - - - - - - -   
+     -   - - - - - - ------------------------- - - - - - -   -     
+       -   -   - - - - - ----------------- - - -   -   -   -       
+         -   -   -   - - - - --------- - - - -   -   -   -         
+           -   -   -   -   - - CT001 - -   -   -   -   -           
+             -   -    -   -   -  ~  -   -   -   -   -
+               -   -   -   -  ~mieum  -   -   -   -
+                 -   -   -    ~sloum    -   -   -
+                   -   -    ~joneworlds   -   -
+                     -   -   ~tfurrows  -   -
+                       -    ~solderpunk   -
+                          -   ~durtal   -
+                          ~wholesomedonut
+                              -  -  - 
+                                - -
+                                 . 

zine/issue001/durtal_hearth-of-the-matter.gmi

@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+``` 
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 
+                       C I R C U M L U N A R
+                     T R A N S M I S S I O N S
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+Issue One                                                April 2021
+```
+
+# The Hearth of the Matter
+by durtal
+
+It seems that Kepler first used the Latin word 'focus' in 1604 to refer to 'the point of convergence' in the mathematical sphere. It is possible that this is an analogical use of the term and may reference the point of light created with a lens. You probably know what I mean. I remember another child showing me a trick with a magnifying glass outside one sunny day. He quickly adjusted the glass's height over my forearm to effect a sharp pain as the converging rays burned a hole in my skin.
+
+Hobbes brought 'focus' into broader English parlance nearly fifty years later. I don't know if he did this with a magnifying glass or not. But, Hobbes is certainly not my favourite philosopher. With its particular take on human nature, he published Leviathan about the same time he popularised a word whose use is ubiquitous but whose original meaning is too often unknown. Sometimes the abstractions of science and a specific sort of philosophy separate us from the mundane realities of life in unfortunate ways.  
+
+Ironically, the political philosopher who espoused that humans are "all take and little give" used a word that belied his contentions in the original. Focus is the Latin equivalent of the Old English word 'hearth'. People still used the latter term in my youth, especially in rural regions. Phrases like "hearth and home" and "keep the home fires burning" catch something of its ethos. The hearth was where household members gathered to cook or to work by the hearthstone's firelight. In its warmth, children sat to hear the stories of the family and community after dusk. Kith and kin entertained themselves with music and drinking and dance nearby. In some cultures, families kept ancestral bones beneath the hearthstone. Here was a point of convergence in the human habitat.
+
+The rising or setting sun reminds me of a hearth fire as it converges on the horizon. I know what it is to wait in anticipation for the warmth of a fire on a cold winter's morning. Others gather close to you, hoping to absorb a little of your body's heat while they wait too. You each rub and blow warm breaths onto your hands and comment on the cold, and you remark on the day ahead. As the kindling catches, hope builds and blossoms as the flames devour the larger pieces of wood. The fire roars madly as you back away, waiting for the wooden pyramid to collapse. When there are coals left mostly, you cook your breakfast over them and drink your morning coffee. You smile and share a joke or two with your fellows. One of them ruefully remembers that it is his day to do the dishes; they are piling up as the others finish and go. This time, like its later double, is a short space of intimacy before separation.
+
+By analogy, sunrise is like the birth of a child for whom the family cares. Such brief familial intimacy is still most often the case for the young. But, not so for the elderly. We fill the noon meridians of our lives so completely with striving and drift so far from one another that, too often, family members no longer live near to one another at the sunset of a loved one's life. Now others, not family members, nurse the frail and wash their bodies late in life and at its very end. Frequently, there is only the intimacy of strangers who alone know where the bare bones of our final days lie before we slip into the deep dark of death's night. This is all that the world offers in this day when hearth fires and home are all but forgotten. We now only focus camera lenses (automatically).
+
+Did old Thomas Hobbes have a point?
+
+```
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+```
+=> solderpunk_whats-the-deal-with-leapseconds.gmi << [II] What's the Deal with Leap Seconds?
+=> wholesomedonut_why-i-still-game-proprietary.gmi >> [IV] Why I Still Game Proprietary - wholesomedonut
+=> index.gmi Circumlunar Transmisisons - Issue 1
+```
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 
+```

zine/issue001/durtal_hearth-of-the-matter.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 
+                       C I R C U M L U N A R
+                     T R A N S M I S S I O N S
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+Issue One                                                April 2021
+
+====================[ THE HEARTH OF THE MATTER ]===================
+                              by durtal
+
+It seems that Kepler   Hobbes brought 'focus' life in unfortunate   
+first used the Latin   into broader English   ways.                 
+word 'focus' in 1604   parlance nearly fifty                        
+to refer to 'the point years later. I don't   Ironically, the       
+of convergence' in the know if he did this    political philosopher 
+mathematical sphere.   with a magnifying      who espoused that     
+It is possible that    glass or not. But,     humans are "all take  
+this is an analogical  Hobbes is certainly    and little give" used 
+use of the term and    not my favourite       a word that belied    
+may reference the      philosopher. With its  his contentions in    
+point of light created particular take on     the original. Focus   
+with a lens. You       human nature, he       is the Latin          
+probably know what I   published Leviathan    equivalent of the Old 
+mean. I remember       about the same time he English word          
+another child showing  popularised a word     'hearth'. People      
+me a trick with a      whose use is           still used the latter 
+magnifying glass       ubiquitous but whose   term in my youth,     
+outside one sunny day. original meaning is    especially in rural   
+He quickly adjusted    too often unknown.     regions. Phrases like 
+the glass's height     Sometimes the          "hearth and home" and 
+over my forearm to     abstractions of        "keep the home fires  
+effect a sharp pain as science and a specific burning" catch        
+the converging rays    sort of philosophy     something of its      
+burned a hole in my    separate us from the   ethos. The hearth was 
+skin.                  mundane realities of   where household       
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+members gathered to    it is to wait in       them and drink your   
+cook or to work by the anticipation for the   morning coffee. You   
+hearthstone's          warmth of a fire on a  smile and share a     
+firelight. In its      cold winter's morning. joke or two with your 
+warmth, children sat   Others gather close to fellows. One of them  
+to hear the stories of you, hoping to absorb  ruefully remembers    
+the family and         a little of your       that it is his day to 
+community after dusk.  body's heat while they do the dishes; they   
+Kith and kin           wait too. You each rub are piling up as      
+entertained themselves and blow warm breaths  the others finish     
+with music and         onto your hands and    and go. This time,    
+drinking and dance     comment on the cold,   like its later        
+nearby. In some        and you remark on the  double, is            
+cultures, families     day ahead. As the      a short space of      
+kept ancestral bones   kindling catches, hope intimacy before       
+beneath the            builds and blossoms as separation.           
+hearthstone. Here was  the flames devour the                        
+a point of convergence larger pieces of wood. By analogy, sunrise   
+in the human habitat.  The fire roars madly   is like the birth of  
+                       as you back away,      a child for whom the  
+The rising or setting  waiting for the wooden family cares. Such    
+sun reminds me of a    pyramid to collapse.   brief familial        
+hearth fire as it      When there are coals   intimacy is still     
+converges on the       left mostly, you cook  most often the case   
+horizon. I know what   your breakfast over    for the young. But,   
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+not so for the         members, nurse the     that the world offers 
+elderly. We fill the   frail and wash their   in this day when      
+noon meridians of our  bodies late in life    hearth fires and home 
+lives so completely    and at its very end.   are all but           
+with striving and      Frequently, there is   forgotten. We now     
+drift so far from one  only the intimacy of   only focus camera     
+another that, too      strangers who alone    lenses                
+often, family members  know where the bare    (automatically).      
+no longer live near    bones of our final                           
+to one another at the  days lie before we     Did old Thomas Hobbes 
+sunset of a loved      slip into the deep     have a point?         
+one's life. Now        dark of death's      
+others, not family     night. This is all   
+
+
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 

zine/issue001/gophermap

@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+       ⠤⠤ ⠠⠤⠤⠤⠄⠠⠤⠤    ⠤⠤ ⠠⠤ ⠤⠄⠠⠤ ⠤⠄ ⠤⠄  ⠠⠤ ⠤⠄⠠⠤ ⠤⠄ ⠠⠤⠄ ⠠⠤⠤        
+     ⠰⠿⠉⠈⠁⠈⠉⠿⠏⠁⠸⠿⠈⠽⠇⠰⠿⠋⠈⠁⠸⠿ ⠿⠇⠸⠟⠦⠿⠇ ⠿⠇  ⠸⠿ ⠿⠇⠸⠟⠧⠻⠇ ⠾⠛⠿ ⠸⠿⠈⠽⠇      
+     ⠸⠿⠄⠠   ⠿⠇ ⠸⠿⠙⠿⠄⠘⠿⠄  ⠸⠿ ⠿⠇⠸⠇⠛⠸⠇ ⠿⠇  ⠸⠿ ⠿⠇⠸⠿⠸⠾⠇⠸⠿⠶⠿⠇⠸⠿⠙⠿       
+      ⠈⠉⠉⠁⠈⠉⠉⠉⠁⠈⠉ ⠈⠉ ⠈⠉⠉⠁ ⠉⠉⠉ ⠈⠁ ⠈⠁ ⠉⠉⠉⠁ ⠈⠉⠉ ⠈⠉ ⠉⠁⠉⠁ ⠈⠉⠈⠉ ⠈⠉      
+
+           [[ the offical zine of circumlunar.space ]]
+
+⠈⠉⠿⠋⠉⠸⠿⠉⠻⠇ ⠸⠟⠷ ⠸⠟⠧⠻⠇⠰⠿⠍⠙⠁⠸⠿⠦⠿⠇⠈⠉⠿⠋⠁⠰⠿⠍⠙⠁⠰⠿⠍⠙⠁⠈⠉⠿⠋⠁⠰⠿⠉⠿⠆⠸⠿⠆⠿⠇⠰⠿⠍⠙⠁ 
+  ⠿⠅ ⠸⠿⠻⠿⠁⠠⠿⠶⠿⠇⠸⠿⠹⠼⠇ ⠉⠙⠿⠆⠸⠇⠿⠸⠇  ⠿⠅  ⠈⠙⠿⠧ ⠈⠙⠿⠇  ⠿⠅ ⠸⠿ ⠼⠏⠸⠿⠹⠼⠇ ⠈⠙⠿⠇ 
+  ⠛⠂ ⠘⠛ ⠙⠓⠚⠃ ⠘⠛⠘⠛ ⠛⠃⠈⠛⠛⠙⠁⠘⠃ ⠘⠃⠘⠛⠛⠛⠃⠈⠙⠛⠋⠁⠈⠙⠛⠋⠁⠘⠛⠛⠛⠃ ⠙⠛⠋ ⠘⠛ ⠛⠃⠈⠙⠛⠋⠁ 
+i- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -	false	null.host	1
+Issue One                                                April 2021
+
+                         E D I T I O N S 
+                         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+1Pre-formatted Printouts	prints/
+0Plaintext Broadsheet	broadsheet-001.txt
+
+                          P R E F A C E 
+                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+0Editor's Introduction  preface.txt
+
+                          C O L U M N S 
+                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+                   < THE CIRCUMLUNAR MIXTAPE >
+
+The Circumlunar Mixtape is a playlist of ten songs curated for
+every issue of the zine by a sundog of circumlunar.space. For this
+inaugural issue, sloum hand-picks an ecclectic mix of tracks that
+provided quality ear candy for them during the first year of the
+pandemic. 
+
+0[ii] sloum's covid-year playlist	sloum_circumlunar-mixtape-001.txt
+
+                           < ASK JONE >
+
+Having family troubles? Lost in life? Stumped on a crossword
+puzzle? Need a good waffle recipe? 
+
+0[iii] Ask Jone!	ask-jone-001.txt
+
+
+                          F E A T U R E S 
+                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+0[I] Manifesto of a Granular Ideologue - tfurrows	tfurrows_granular-ideologue.txt
+
+0[II] What's the Deal with Leap Seconds? - solderpunk	solderpunk_whats-the-deal-with-leapseconds.txt
+
+0[III] The Hearth of the Matter - durtal	durtal_hearth-of-the-matter.txt
+
+0[IV] Why I Still Game Proprietary - wholesomedonut	wholesomedonut_why-i-still-game-proprietary.txt
+
+
+i- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -	false	null.host	1
+1Circumlunar Transmisisons - Home	../
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 

zine/issue001/index.gmi

@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+```
+       ⠤⠤ ⠠⠤⠤⠤⠄⠠⠤⠤    ⠤⠤ ⠠⠤ ⠤⠄⠠⠤ ⠤⠄ ⠤⠄  ⠠⠤ ⠤⠄⠠⠤ ⠤⠄ ⠠⠤⠄ ⠠⠤⠤        
+     ⠰⠿⠉⠈⠁⠈⠉⠿⠏⠁⠸⠿⠈⠽⠇⠰⠿⠋⠈⠁⠸⠿ ⠿⠇⠸⠟⠦⠿⠇ ⠿⠇  ⠸⠿ ⠿⠇⠸⠟⠧⠻⠇ ⠾⠛⠿ ⠸⠿⠈⠽⠇      
+     ⠸⠿⠄⠠   ⠿⠇ ⠸⠿⠙⠿⠄⠘⠿⠄  ⠸⠿ ⠿⠇⠸⠇⠛⠸⠇ ⠿⠇  ⠸⠿ ⠿⠇⠸⠿⠸⠾⠇⠸⠿⠶⠿⠇⠸⠿⠙⠿       
+      ⠈⠉⠉⠁⠈⠉⠉⠉⠁⠈⠉ ⠈⠉ ⠈⠉⠉⠁ ⠉⠉⠉ ⠈⠁ ⠈⠁ ⠉⠉⠉⠁ ⠈⠉⠉ ⠈⠉ ⠉⠁⠉⠁ ⠈⠉⠈⠉ ⠈⠉      
+
+           [[ the offical zine of circumlunar.space ]]
+
+⠈⠉⠿⠋⠉⠸⠿⠉⠻⠇ ⠸⠟⠷ ⠸⠟⠧⠻⠇⠰⠿⠍⠙⠁⠸⠿⠦⠿⠇⠈⠉⠿⠋⠁⠰⠿⠍⠙⠁⠰⠿⠍⠙⠁⠈⠉⠿⠋⠁⠰⠿⠉⠿⠆⠸⠿⠆⠿⠇⠰⠿⠍⠙⠁ 
+  ⠿⠅ ⠸⠿⠻⠿⠁⠠⠿⠶⠿⠇⠸⠿⠹⠼⠇ ⠉⠙⠿⠆⠸⠇⠿⠸⠇  ⠿⠅  ⠈⠙⠿⠧ ⠈⠙⠿⠇  ⠿⠅ ⠸⠿ ⠼⠏⠸⠿⠹⠼⠇ ⠈⠙⠿⠇ 
+  ⠛⠂ ⠘⠛ ⠙⠓⠚⠃ ⠘⠛⠘⠛ ⠛⠃⠈⠛⠛⠙⠁⠘⠃ ⠘⠃⠘⠛⠛⠛⠃⠈⠙⠛⠋⠁⠈⠙⠛⠋⠁⠘⠛⠛⠛⠃ ⠙⠛⠋ ⠘⠛ ⠛⠃⠈⠙⠛⠋⠁ 
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+Issue One                                                April 2021
+```
+
+# Circumlunar Transmissions - Issue 1
+
+## Editions
+=> prints/ Pre-formatted Printouts
+=> broadsheet-001.txt Plaintext Broadsheet
+
+## Preface
+
+=> preface.gmi [i] Editor's Introduction
+
+## Columns
+
+### The Circumlunar Mixtape
+
+The Circumlunar Mixtape is a playlist of ten songs curated for every issue of the zine by a sundog of circumlunar.space. For this inaugural issue, sloum hand-picks an ecclectic mix of tracks that provided quality ear candy for them during the first year of the pandemic.
+=> sloum_circumlunar-mixtape-001.gmi [ii] sloum's covid-year playlist
+
+### Ask Jone
+
+Having family troubles? Lost in life? Stumped on a crossword puzzle? Need a good waffle recipe?
+=> ask-jone-001.gmi [iii] Ask Jone!
+
+## Features
+
+=> tfurrows_granular-ideologue.gmi [I] Manifesto of a Granular Ideologue - tfurrows
+
+=> solderpunk_whats-the-deal-with-leapseconds.gmi [II] What's the Deal with Leap Seconds? - solderpunk
+
+=> durtal_hearth-of-the-matter.gmi [III] The Hearth of the Matter - durtal
+
+=> wholesomedonut_why-i-still-game-proprietary.gmi [IV] Why I Still Game Proprietary - wholesomedonut
+
+```
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+```
+=> ../ Circumlunar Transmisisons - Home
+```
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 
+```

zine/issue001/preface.gmi

@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+``` 
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 
+                       C I R C U M L U N A R
+                     T R A N S M I S S I O N S
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+Issue One                                                April 2021
+```
+
+# Preface
+
+Back in February, around the time of the ogre incident, Jone wondered out loud on the circumlunar.space BBS, telem, about the possibility of a CS zine. The idea was well-received by the rest of us sundogs, and for some time, talk of the zine flooded telem as we proceeded to howl at the moon in excitement. Amidst this jubilee, I somehow ended up wearing the proverbial editor pants--for this inaugural issue, at least.
+
+Anyone who has had the pleasure of perusing the many phlogs and gemlogs here at circumlunar.space will be aware of the impressive diversity of interests, talents, and backgrounds of the sundogs residing here. It will be interesting to see how these influence the zine over time, but currently what the zine is and how it will be produced is largely still up in the air. It's really just a fun experiment, and this first issue is a kind of pilot episode.
+
+The strategy of this first run has been to just get it out there. Rather than prematurely exhausting our energy on determining what it should be, or pidgeonholing ourselves into a niche or format without actually having produced any content, we elected to first just give it a go and see what we get. So for this first issue, we have what has been endearingly termed a "topic salad." And I believe it has turned out to be quite a nutritious one at that.
+
+Circumlunar Transmissions will be distributed exclusively over Gopher and Gemini by whoever would like to host a copy on their own gopherhole or capsule. That is, anyone can clone the git repo of the project and serve its contents from their own smolnet space. This kind of "newstand" method of distribution solves a lot of the logistical issues of where and how to bi-host such a thing in an accessible way. In addition to Gopher and Gemini editions, we intend to provide printable formats that readers can easily print-and-bind for their own enjoyment offline or to distribute locally.
+
+It has been a pleasure to contribute something to this wonderful community of thoughtful and creative individuals whom I respect and admire sincerely. During my relatively brief inhabitation of the Zaibatsu, I've learnt a great many things and have been inspired to create and wonder about things I would not have otherwise. It is with profound gratitude and pride for this habitat and its inhabitants, and the smolnet ecosystem at large, that I present to you this first issue of our smolzine, Circumlunar Transmissions.
+
+~mieum
+April 25, 2021
+Incheon, Korea
+
+```
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+```
+=> sloum_circumlunar-mixtape-001.gmi >> [ii] The Circumlunar Mixtape
+=> index.gmi Circumlunar Transmisisons - Issue 1
+```
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 
+```

zine/issue001/preface.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 
+                       C I R C U M L U N A R
+                     T R A N S M I S S I O N S
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+Issue One                                                April 2021
+
+===========================[ PREFACE ]=============================
+
+Back in February,      Anyone who has had     The strategy of this  
+around the time of     the pleasure of        first run has been to 
+the ogre incident,     perusing the many      just get it out       
+Jone wondered out      phlogs and gemlogs     there. Rather than    
+loud on the            here at                prematurely           
+circumlunar.space      circumlunar.space      exhausting our energy 
+BBS, telem, about the  will be aware of the   on determining what   
+possibility of a CS    impressive diversity   it should be, or      
+zine. The idea was     of interests,          pidgeonholing         
+well-received by the   talents, and           ourselves into a      
+rest of us sundogs,    backgrounds of the     niche or format       
+and for some time,     sundogs residing       without actually      
+talk of the zine       here. It will be       having produced any   
+flooded telem as we    interesting to see     content, we elected   
+proceeded to howl at   how these influence    to first just give it 
+the moon in            the zine over time,    a go and see what we  
+excitement. Amidst     but currently what     get. So for this      
+this jubilee, I        the zine is and how    first issue, we have  
+somehow ended up       it will be produced    what has been         
+wearing the            is largely still up    endearingly termed a  
+proverbial editor      in the air. It's       "topic salad." And I  
+pants--for this        really just a fun      believe it has turned 
+inaugural issue, at    experiment, and this   out to be quite a     
+least.                 first issue is a kind  nutritious one at     
+                       of pilot episode.      that.                 
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+Circumlunar            printable formats      have otherwise. It is 
+Transmissions will be  that readers can       with profound         
+distributed            easily print-and-bind  gratitude and pride   
+exclusively over       for their own          for this habitat and  
+Gopher and Gemini by   enjoyment offline      its inhabitants,      
+whoever would like to  or to distribute       and the smolnet       
+host a copy on their   locally.               ecosystem at          
+own gopherhole or                             large, that I         
+capsule. That is,      It has been a          present to you        
+anyone can clone the   pleasure to            this first issue      
+git repo of the        contribute something   of our smolzine,      
+project and serve its  to this wonderful      Circumlunar           
+contents from their    community of           Transmissions.        
+own smolnet space.     thoughtful and                               
+This kind of           creative individuals                   
+"newstand" method of   whom I respect and             
+distribution solves a  admire sincerely.              
+lot of the logistical  During my relatively                  ~mieum
+issues of where and    brief inhabitation of         April 25, 2021
+how to bi-host such a  the Zaibatsu, I've            Incheon, Korea
+thing in an            learnt a great many   
+accessible way. In     things and have been  
+addition to Gopher     inspired to create    
+and Gemini editions,   and wonder about      
+we intend to provide   things I would not    
+
+
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 

zine/issue001/prints/gophermap

@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+Prints
+^^^^^^
+
+TODO!
+
+This will link to all the printable formats available

zine/issue001/prints/index.gmi

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+# Prints
+
+TODO!
+
+This will link to the printable formats available

zine/issue001/sloum_circumlunar-mixtape-001.gmi

@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+``` 
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 
+                       C I R C U M L U N A R
+                     T R A N S M I S S I O N S
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+Issue One                                                April 2021
+```
+
+# The Circumlunar Mixtape
+
+The Circumlunar Mixtape is an ongoing series for Circumlunar Transmissions where one user per issue shares 10 tracks they have been listening to. Y'all have all kinds of ways to stream or otherwise find and listen to music, so tracks are just listed and it is on the reader to locate them. As a courtesy, when a weblink to streaming is available playlist curators may choose to supply it.
+
+## sloum's covid-year playlist
+
+These are songs I have listened to at various points throughout the last year. Some are old some are new. It has been a weird year and this is a kind of weird mix. I provided Bandcamp weblinks for each track except the Charlie Parr, which is a Youtube link because I like this song live and this is my favorite performance recording of it and the recording doesn't appear on any of his albums.
+
+Enjoy!
+
+```
+.------------------------.
+| CT001                  |
+|     __  ______  __     |
+|    /. \|\.....|/  \    |
+|    \__/|/_____|\__/    |
+|                  sloum |
+|    ________________    |
+|___/_._o________o_._\___|
+
+```
+Format: [track name] by [artist name] from [album name]
+
+=> https://adriannelenker.bandcamp.com/track/forwards-beckon-rebound Forwards Beckon Rebound by Adrianne Lenker from Songs
+=> https://talons.bandcamp.com/track/catamaran Catamaran by talons' from Songs for Boats
+=> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P46hGYUycoE Possessed By the Devil by Charlie Parr from N/A (live video on Youtube)
+=> https://pinback.bandcamp.com/track/some-voices Some Voices by Pinback from Some Voices e.p.
+=> https://tomomusic.bandcamp.com/track/get-to-know-you Get To Know You by Tomo Nakayama from Melonday
+=> https://lusine.bandcamp.com/track/just-a-cloud-feat-vilja-larjosto Just a Cloud by Lusine from Sensorimotor
+=> https://slint.bandcamp.com/track/good-morning-captain-remastered Good Morning Captain by Slint from Spiderland (Remastered)
+=> https://humband.bandcamp.com/track/step-into-you Step Into You by Hum from Inlet
+=> https://windhand.bandcamp.com/track/kingfisher Kingfisher by Windhand from Grief's Infernal Flower
+=> https://nilsfrahm.bandcamp.com/track/nue Nue by Nils Frahm from Wintermusik
+
+```
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+```
+=> preface.gmi << [i] Editor's Introduction
+=> ask-jone-001.gmi >> [iii] Ask Jone!
+=> index.gmi Circumlunar Transmisisons - Issue 1
+```
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 
+```

zine/issue001/sloum_circumlunar-mixtape-001.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 
+                       C I R C U M L U N A R
+                     T R A N S M I S S I O N S
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+Issue One                                                April 2021
+
+===================[ THE CIRCUMLUNAR MIXTAPE ]=====================
+
+            - - -[ sloum's covid-year playlist ]- - -
+
+The Circumlunar Mixtape is an ongoing series for Circumlunar
+Transmissions where one user per issue shares 10 tracks they have
+been listening to.   .------------------------. Y'all have all 
+kinds of ways to     | CT001                  | stream music, or
+otherwise find and   |     __  ______  __     | listen to music, so
+tracks are just      |    /. \|\.....|/  \    | listed and it is on
+the reader to locate |    \__/|/_____|\__/    | them. As a court-
+esy, when a weblink  |                  sloum | to streaming is
+available, playlist  |    ________________    | curators may choose
+to supply it.        |___/_._o________o_._\___|
+
+These are songs I have listened to at various points throughout the
+last year. Some are old some are new. It has been a weird year and
+this is a kind of weird mix. I provided Bandcamp weblinks for each
+track except the Charlie Parr, which is a Youtube link because I
+like this song live and this is my favorite performance recording
+of it and the recording doesn't appear on any of his albums.
+
+                               Enjoy!
+
+
+[track name]                [artist name]              [album name]
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+
+Forward Becons Rebound     Adrianne Lenker                    Songs
+https://adriannelenker.bandcamp.com/track/forwards-beckon-rebound
+
+Catamaran                      talons'              Songs for Boats
+https://talons.bandcamp.com/track/catamaran
+
+Possessed by the Devil       Charlie Parr                N/A (live)
+https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P46hGYUycoE
+
+Some Voices                    Pinback               Some Voices EP
+https://pinback.bandcamp.com/track/some-voices
+
+Get To Know You             Tomo Nakayama                  Melonday
+https://tomomusic.bandcamp.com/track/get-to-know-you
+
+Just a Cloud                   Lusine                  Sensorimotor
+https://lusine.bandcamp.com/track/just-a-cloud-feat-vilja-larjosto
+
+Good Morning Captain            Slint        Spiderland(Remastered)
+https://slint.bandcamp.com/track/good-morning-captain-remastered
+
+Step Into You                    Hum                          Inlet
+https://humband.bandcamp.com/track/step-into-you
+
+Kingfisher                     Windhand     Grief's Infernal Flower    
+https://windhand.bandcamp.com/track/kingfisher
+
+Nue                           Nils Frahm                Wintermusik
+https://nilsfrahm.bandcamp.com/track/nue
+
+
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 

zine/issue001/solderpunk_whats-the-deal-with-leapseconds.gmi

@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+``` 
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 
+                       C I R C U M L U N A R
+                     T R A N S M I S S I O N S
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+Issue One                                                April 2021
+```
+
+# What's the Deal with Leap Seconds? A Brief Overview of Timescales
+by solderpunk
+
+## Astronomical Seconds
+
+Why is a second as long as it is, and not a little shorter or a little longer?  This is a seemingly simple question which leads down a deep and delightfully twisted rabbit hole.  It's something that I wish Neal Stephenson had written an epically long, inexplicably compelling 1990s Wired article about, in the spirit of his "Mother Earth, Mother Board" or "In the Kingdom of Mao Bell".  But he didn't, so you're stuck reading this, instead: a brief, incomplete, possibly slightly inaccurate overview based on my own characteristically obsessive reading on the topic over the past week or so.
+
+For most of the time that the concept of the second has been around, its length has been defined implicitly by that of the day.  Everybody knows the answer to "why is a day as long as it is?" - one day is the time it takes the Earth to complete a single revolution about its axis.  And since there are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour and 24 hours in a day, a second is simply one 86,400th of the time it takes the Earth to rotate once.  Or, if you like, a second is the time it takes for the Earth to rotate one 240th of a degree, out of the full 360.  End of story, right?
+
+Well, no.  This is a perfectly sensible way to define time - for some applications, it's the best way to do it.  This astronomically defined time scale is still in use today in certain contexts.  The official name of its modern incarnation is Universal Time, or UT (technically, there are a few subtly different variants, denoted UT0, UT1 and UT2, but we'll gloss over that here).  The official determination of UT nowadays is based mostly on measurements made at observatories tracking the movement of distant radio sources across the sky as the Earth rotates.  This is easier than making precision measurements of the sun, but is still measuring the exact same thing.
+
+## Earth is a Nice Place to Live, But it's not the Best Clock
+
+The problem with an astronomical definition of the second is this: the Earth doesn't actually rotate at a perfectly constant rate (it wasn't until the 19th century that we could build clocks accurate enough to notice this).  In fact, the Earth's rotation is slowing down.  Very slowly, of course.  Every century, a complete rotation takes about 2 milliseconds longer than it used to.  The rate of slowing down is not steady.  Some years the change is more and other years it's less.  In fact, even though the overall trend is one of slowing down, some years the rotation actually speeds up.  The dynamics of the process are complicated, and we can't make accurate long term forecasts.  Gravitational interaction between the Earth and the moon is the primary driver, but the movement of tectonic plates and friction between Earth's surface and its atmosphere and oceans have their say, too.  The Indian Ocean Earthquake in 2004 was powerful enough to shorten the length of a day by 2.68 microseconds.  There are even periodic variations in the rate of rotation that we just don't understand the cause of yet.  But the take home message is that, whatever the causes, astronomical seconds actually have small, random fluctuations in their duration over long time spans.  If you define the second by looking into the skies, no two seconds are exactly the same.
+
+That's a pretty inconvenient property for the official definition of a fundamentally important unit like the second to have.  For most of the time this definition was used, the fluctuations were smaller than we could reliably measure.  Certainly, they weren't enough to have an impact on everyday life.  Nobody was going to be late to lunch because of the Earth's unsteady rotation.  But by the 20th century, scientific and technological progress meant these tiny fluctuations started to matter, as we began measuring natural phenomena and building machines which operated on very small time scales.  A 10 megahertz radio oscillator, for example, has a period of 0.0000001 seconds - only 100 nanoseconds!  Gigahertz radiation, which is important in radio astronomy and was used for communications and radar during WWII decades before it came to underpin modern technology like GPS, WiFi, and mobile data networks, has periods measured in *picoseconds*.  Even very, very small variations in the length of a second are enough to make the measured frequency of radio waves change, even if the *actual* frequency is fixed.  Modern technological society simply couldn't be built using a wobbly clock like the Earth.
+
+## Atomic seconds
+
+Fortunately, in the 1950s, atomic clocks were invented which kept time better than any previous mechanism.  I'll gloss right over the details, but suffice it to say, we came up with a new way to define the second which involved measuring the properties of caesium atoms instead of looking at things moving through the sky.  In 1967, the relatively young International System (or SI, for the French "Système International") of units redefined the second on this basis.  The new atomic second was defined such that it had the same length as the astronomical second in use before it, as far as measurements at the time could tell, but it had the added bonus that the length of the second was then fixed and unchanging.  Caesium atoms at a given temperature "vibrate" (very loosely speaking) at a frequency which, as far as we can tell, is completely and perfectly stable, and which can be measured very accurately in a sufficiently advanced laboratory.
+
+With the arrival of atomic seconds, a new time scale was also defined: International Atomic Time (or TAI, for the French "Temps Atomique International").  At midnight on January 1st in 1958, TAI and UT were perfectly synchronised.  Ever since then, they have slowly but surely drifted apart.  The seconds of TAI are of perfectly unchanging length (as measured by averaging hundreds of atomic clocks all over the world), but the seconds of UT fluctuate with the Earth's rotation.  The accumulated drift up until now is a little less than 40 seconds, but it will continue to grow, without limit.  And while the perfectly uniform seconds of TAI make it the perfect tool for some tasks, this drift apart from UT makes it problematic for others.  If you go outside at noon UT in Greenwich, England (or anywhere else at 0 degrees longitude), the sun will *always* be high in the sky.  This is true today and it will be true in a thousand years, Because UT is fundamentally linked to the Earth's rotation.  TAI, on the other hand, is fundamentally divorced from it.  Thousands of years in the future, there will come a day when, according to TAI, the sun rises in Greenwich at midnight.
+
+This isn't just an abstract concern for the distant future.  In the late '50s when TAI was defined, it was still common for ships at sea to figure out where they were by using a sextant to record the position of the sun above the horizon at a certain time and consulting a printed table of conversions.  For this purpose, ships carried the most accurate clocks they could afford, and compared them regularly against true UT time using time signals broadcast by radio stations all over the world.  Celestial navigation works very well when using a timescale which is tightly linked to Earth's rotation, and hence the position of things in the sky.  But if the radio time signals switched to broadcasting TAI instead of UT, celestial navigation would become increasingly less accurate as TAI drifted further out of synch with the Earth and the stars.  This meant that the "new and improved" TAI time scale wasn't actually an improvement for everybody.
+
+## Coordinating chaos
+
+Instead of broadcasting two different time signals for different purposes, which could easily lead to confusion, on January 1st in 1960 the powers that be (back then that was the International Time Bureau, or BIH, for the French "Bureau International de l'Heure", but today the torch has been passed to a combination of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, or BIPM, for the French "Bureau International des Poids et Mesures" and the International Earth Rotation Service, who have the gall to abbreviate the *English* version of their name and go by IERS) defined yet another time scale, in an attempt to achieve the best of both worlds and make everybody happy.  Enter Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC - at last, something normal people have heard of!
+
+The abbreviation UTC is a strange compromise between the English abbreviation CUT and the French abbreviation TUC (for "Temps Universel Coordonné").  This is somewhat fitting, because UTC itself is a strange compromise time scale between UT and TAI.  Like TAI, UTC is an atomic time scale.  Every second of UTC is exactly as long as any other, using the SI standard second based on caesium atoms, allowing scientists and engineers around the world to calibrate their instruments and reliably measure time intervals and frequencies very precisely.  But whereas TAI is destined to drift ever further away from UT, to the chagrin of sailors and astronomers, UTC is kept synchronised closely enough with UT that it allows seafarers to perform celestial navigation with sufficient accuracy for safe ocean passage.  This synchronisation is achieved, like all technical compromises, using ugly hacks.  It cannot be any other way, as UTC is a stubborn attempt to reconcile two desirable but fundamentally incompatible properties of a timescale: perfectly regular seconds, and synchronisation with a spinning globe whose rate of rotation is unpredictably irregular.
+
+The precise nature of the ugly hack underlying UTC has changed somewhat since it was first defined, but for almost 50 years now, starting in 1972, the ugly hack of choice has been the leap second.  The way it works is this.  The difference between UTC and UT - a quantity denoted DUT - is carefully monitored.  Any time it looks like that difference is on track to exceed 0.9 seconds, in either direction, UTC is kicked back into alignment by either inserting or removing a single second on one particular day.  This makes UTC the *only* time scale where the number of seconds in a day is not absolutely fixed at 86,400 by definition.  There almost always *are* 86,400 seconds in a UTC day, but 86,401 and 86,399 are also allowed when necessary to keep the time scale locked to the movement of the sun across the sky.
+
+So far, there have been 27 leap seconds defined, although UTC and ATI are today exactly 37 seconds apart - the other 10 seconds come from hacks applied before leap seconds were established in 1972.  All of them to date have been insertions rather than removals.  They don't happen on a regular, predictable basis, like leap years (which are an adjustment for the fact that the time it takes the Earth to orbit the sun once, defining a year, is not perfectly divisible by the time it takes the Earth to rotate once, defining a day).  Because the Earth's rate of rotation fluctuates randomly, sometimes slowing down and sometimes speeding up, astronomers need to be actively on the lookout for excessive values of DUT.  When it's decided a leap second is needed - it's the IERS who makes that call - they are announced at least six months in advance.  They're allowed to occur on either June 30th or December 31st, and are inserted or deleted at midnight UTC (which is the middle of the day in some time zones, of course) on those days.  At the time of writing, the last leap second happened on December 31st, 2016.  In principle, six months is enough advance warning that nobody doing anything which depends on precise time synchronisation should be caught by surprise when a leap second rolls around.  In practice, it's not always so simple.
+
+## Increasing Implementation Burden and an Uncertain Future
+
+Leap seconds have always had their critics, but at the time they were adopted, their benefits arguably balanced their associated hassle.  50 years later, this hack is starting to show its age.  The advent of cheap and reliable GPS technology means that celestial navigation at sea is now rarely a matter of life or death (although some sailors still appreciate the relative simplicity of the technology it relies on), removing some of the argument for making sure UTC stays in lock step with the Earth's rotation.  At the same time, the internet has come along: a massive network of computers talking to each other, with the frequent need for activity on one to be synchronised with activity on another (hence tools like the Network Time Protocol, NTP).  Computer programmers *hate* leap seconds, for the same reason they hate Daylight Saving Time: they complicate time calculations (you can't accurately calculate the number of seconds between two UTC timestamps without consulting a table of when previous leap seconds were inserted) and are a frequent cause of confusion and errors, when one system implements them differently from another its trying to interoperate with.
+
+Affordances for leap seconds are often added to software as an afterthought - if they are added at all.  Some systems represent the extra second using the timestamp 23:59:60, but others instead repeat the timestamp 23:59:59 twice (since some software will fail to parse a timestamp ending in :60).  Other systems "smear" the leap second out over longer time periods, like 24 hours, to avoid problems associated with sudden discontinuities.  This just leads to a whole day of small, slowly varying errors compared to non-smearing systems.  Some systems, of course, forget to do anything at all.  Because all the leap seconds to date have been insertions rather than removals, it's a safe bet that there's plenty of software out there which has worked correctly so far but will fail the first time a second is removed.  And the Earth's rotation is going through a bit of a fast phase right now, so the first negative leap second might be looming on the horizon.
+
+The software interoperability situation at the time of a leap second is bad enough that several major stock exchanges simply agreed to voluntarily shut down for an hour around midnight UTC in 2016, rather than risk problems by continuing to trade during the leap second.  Given that a number of major web services, including Amazon, Instagram, Netflix and Twitter, experienced outages around this time, this was probably not a bad idea.  Of course, simply shutting time critical services off for every leap second isn't always an option.  It's one thing to shut down the New York Stock Exchange for an hour, but Air Traffic Control has to stay up 24/7.  It's no surprise that increasingly many voices in the tech industry are calling for leap seconds to be abolished.  Plenty of people are very unhappy with that idea, of course, not to mention there's no consensus on what to do instead.
+
+It's far from clear what the future holds for the leap second.  As software continues to eat the world, the headaches leap seconds cause are only likely to get worse.  The atomic definition of second likely isn't going away any time soon, though, and that means that getting rid of leap seconds entirely means abandoning the millennia old notion that the way we represent time is intimately linked with the natural cycle of night and day.  Assuming we're not willing to do that, there are only two alternatives: coming up with a new ugly hack which is somehow less problematic, or giving up on a "one size fits all" time scale.
+
+## But wait, there's more!
+
+If you think this story has been needlessly fiddly and complicated, rest assured I have skipped over a tonne of details.  If you're actually interested to learn more, I highly recommend the article "The leap second: its history and possible future", which you can easily find on the web (full citation below), along with, as always, following Wikipedia links wherever they take you.  Along the way you can learn the difference between UT0, UT1 and UT2, meet other exciting astronomic and atomic time scales like Ephemeris Time (ET), GPS Time (GPST) and Terrestrial Time (TT), and discover that the SI system of units defined the second based on something other than Earth's rotation when it was established in 1960, seven years before the caesium definition was adopted.
+
+## References
+
+Nelson, R., McCarthy, D., Malys, S., Levine, J.M., Guinot, B., Fliegel, H., Beard, R., & Bartholomew, T. (2001). The Leap Second - Its History and Possible Future. Metrologia, 38, 509-529.
+=> https://efos3.com/TimeNut.html "Time-nuttery 101" by Ole Petter Ronningen
+=> https://ucolick.org/~sla/leapsecs/timescales.html "UTC might be redefined without Leap Seconds" by Steve Allen
+
+```
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+```
+=> tfurrows_granular-ideologue.gmi << [I] Manifesto of a Granular Ideologue - tfurrows
+=> durtal_hearth-of-the-matter.gmi >> [III] The Hearth of the Matter - durtal
+=> index.gmi Circumlunar Transmisisons - Issue 1
+```
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 
+```

zine/issue001/solderpunk_whats-the-deal-with-leapseconds.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,323 @@
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 
+                       C I R C U M L U N A R
+                     T R A N S M I S S I O N S
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+Issue One                                                April 2021
+
+==============[ What's the Deal with Leap Seconds? ]===============
+================[ A Brief Overview of Timescales ]=================
+                          by solderpunk
+
+ASTRONOMICAL SECONDS
+
+Why is a second as     didn't, so you're      "why is a day as long  
+long as it is, and not stuck reading this,    as it is?" - one day   
+a little shorter or a  instead: a brief,      is the time it takes   
+little longer?  This   incomplete, possibly   the Earth to complete  
+is a seemingly simple  slightly inaccurate    a single revolution    
+question which leads   overview based on my   about its axis.  And   
+down a deep and        own characteristically since there are 60     
+delightfully twisted   obsessive reading on   seconds in a minute,   
+rabbit hole.  It's     the topic over the     60 minutes in an hour  
+something that I wish  past week or so.       and 24 hours in a day, 
+Neal Stephenson had                           a second is simply one 
+written an epically    For most of the time   86,400th of the time   
+long, inexplicably     that the concept of    it takes the Earth to  
+compelling 1990s Wired the second has been    rotate once.  Or, if   
+article about, in the  around, its length has you like, a second is  
+spirit of his "Mother  been defined           the time it takes for  
+Earth, Mother Board"   implicitly by that of  the Earth to rotate    
+or "In the Kingdom of  the day.  Everybody    one 240th of a degree, 
+Mao Bell".  But he     knows the answer to    out of the full 360.   
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+End of story, right?   observatories tracking enough to notice       
+                       the movement of        this).  In fact, the   
+Well, no.  This is a   distant radio sources  Earth's rotation is    
+perfectly sensible way across the sky as the  slowing down.  Very    
+to define time - for   Earth rotates.  This   slowly, of course.     
+some applications,     is easier than making  Every century, a       
+it's the best way to   precision measurements complete rotation      
+do it.  This           of the sun, but is     takes about 2          
+astronomically         still measuring the    milliseconds longer    
+defined time scale is  exact same thing.      than it used to.  The  
+still in use today in                         rate of slowing down   
+certain contexts.  The EARTH IS A NICE PLACE  is not steady.  Some   
+official name of its   TO LIVE, BUT IT'S NOT  years the change is    
+modern incarnation is  THE BEST CLOCK         more and other years   
+Universal Time, or UT                         it's less.  In fact,  
+(technically, there    The problem with an    even though the       
+are a few subtly       astronomical           overall trend is one  
+different variants,    definition of the      of slowing down, some 
+denoted UT0, UT1 and   second is this: the    years the rotation    
+UT2, but we'll gloss   Earth doesn't actually actually speeds up.   
+over that here). The   rotate at a perfectly  The dynamics of the   
+official determination constant rate (it      process are           
+of UT nowadays is      wasn't until the 19th  complicated, and we   
+based mostly on        century that we could  can't make accurate   
+measurements made at   build clocks accurate  long term forecasts.  
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+Gravitational          small, random          was going to be late
+interaction between    fluctuations in their  to lunch because of
+the Earth and the moon duration over long     the Earth's unsteady
+is the primary driver, time spans.  If you    rotation. But by the
+but the movement of    define the second by   20th century, sci-
+tectonic plates and    looking into the       entific and techno-
+friction between       skies, no two seconds  logical progress 
+Earth's surface and    are exactly the same.  meant these tiny 
+its atmosphere and                            fluctuations started 
+oceans have their say, That's a pretty        to matter, as we 
+too.  The Indian Ocean inconvenient property  began measuring 
+Earthquake in 2004 was for the official       natural phenomena and
+powerful enough to     definition of a        building machines
+shorten the length of  fundamentally          which operated on
+a day by 2.68          important unit like    very small time 
+microseconds.  There   the second to have.    scales. A 10 mega-
+are even periodic      For most of the time   hertz radio 
+variations in the rate this definition was    oscillator, for
+of rotation that we    used, the fluctuations example, has a period
+just don't understand  were smaller than we   of 0.0000001 seconds  
+the cause of yet.  But could reliably         --only 100 nano-
+the take home message  measure. Certainly,    seconds! Gigahertz
+is that, whatever the  they weren't enough to radiation, which is
+causes, astronomical   have an impact on      important in radio 
+seconds actually have  everyday life. Nobody  astronomy and was
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+used for communi-      Fortunately, in the    The new atomic second   
+cations and radar      1950s, atomic clocks   was defined such that   
+during WWII decades    were invented which    it had the same         
+before it came to      kept time better than  length as the           
+underpin modern        any previous           astronomical second     
+technology like GPS,   mechanism. I'll gloss  in use before it, as    
+WiFi, and mobile data  right over the         far as measurements     
+networks, has periods  details, but suffice   at the time could       
+measured in            it to say, we came up  tell, but it had the    
+*picoseconds*. Even    with a new way to      added bonus that the    
+very, very small       define the second      length of the second    
+variations in the      which involved         was then fixed and      
+length of a second are measuring the          unchanging. Caesium     
+enough to make the     properties of caesium  atoms at a given        
+measured frequency of  atoms instead of       temperature "vibrate"   
+radio waves change,    looking at things      (very loosely           
+even if the *actual*   moving through the     speaking) at a          
+frequency is fixed.    sky. In 1967, the      frequency which, as     
+Modern technological   relatively young       far as we can tell,     
+society simply         International System   is completely and       
+couldn't be built      (or SI, for the French perfectly stable, and   
+using a wobbly clock   "Système               which can be measured   
+like the Earth.        International") of     very accurately in a    
+                       units redefined the    sufficiently advanced   
+ATOMIC SECONDS         second on this basis.  laboratory.             
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+With the arrival of    until now is a little  other hand, is        
+atomic seconds, a new  less than 40 seconds,  fundamentally         
+time scale was also    but it will continue   divorced from it.     
+defined: International to grow, without       Thousands of years in 
+Atomic Time (or TAI,   limit. And while the   the future, there     
+for the French "Temps  perfectly uniform      will come a day when, 
+Atomique Inter-        seconds of TAI make it according to TAI, the 
+national"). At mid-    the perfect tool for   sun rises in          
+night on January 1st   some tasks, this drift Greenwich at          
+in 1958, TAI and UT    apart from UT makes it midnight.             
+were perfectly         problematic for                              
+synchronised. Ever     others. If you go      This isn't just an    
+since then, they have  outside at noon UT in  abstract concern for  
+slowly but surely      Greenwich, England (or the distant future.   
+drifted apart. The     anywhere else at 0     In the late '50s when 
+seconds of TAI are of  degrees longitude),    TAI was defined, it   
+perfectly unchanging   the sun will *always*  was still common for  
+length (as measured by be high in the sky.    ships at sea to       
+averaging hundreds of  This is true today and figure out where they 
+atomic clocks all over it will be true in a   were by using a       
+the world), but the    thousand years,        sextant to record the 
+seconds of UT          Because UT is          position of the sun   
+fluctuate with the     fundamentally linked   above the horizon at  
+Earth's rotation. The  to the Earth's         a certain time and    
+accumulated drift up   rotation. TAI, on the  consulting a printed  
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+table of conversions.  increasingly less      International de       
+For this purpose,      accurate as TAI        l'Heure", but today    
+ships carried the most drifted further out of the torch has been     
+accurate clocks they   synch with the Earth   passed to a            
+could afford, and      and the stars. This    combination of the     
+compared them          meant that the "new    International Bureau   
+regularly against true and improved" TAI time of Weights and         
+UT time using time     scale wasn't actually  Measures, or BIPM,     
+signals broadcast by   an improvement for     for the French         
+radio stations all     everybody.             "Bureau International  
+over the world.                               des Poids et Mesures"  
+Celestial navigation   COORDINATING CHAOS     and the International  
+works very well when   Instead of             Earth Rotation         
+using a timescale      broadcasting two       Service, who have the  
+which is tightly       different time signals gall to abbreviate     
+linked to Earth's      for different          the *English* version  
+rotation, and hence    purposes, which could  of their name and go   
+the position of things easily lead to         by IERS) defined yet   
+in the sky. But if the confusion, on January  another time scale,    
+radio time signals     1st in 1960 the powers in an attempt to       
+switched to            that be (back then     achieve the best of    
+broadcasting TAI       that was the           both worlds and make   
+instead of UT,         International Time     everybody happy.       
+celestial navigation   Bureau, or BIH, for    Enter Coordinated      
+would become           the French "Bureau     Universal Time, or     
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+ UTC - at last,        allowing scientists    technical             
+ something normal      and engineers around   compromises, using    
+ people have heard of! the world to           ugly hacks. It cannot 
+                       calibrate their        be any other way, as  
+ The abbreviation UTC  instruments and        UTC is a stubborn     
+ is a strange          reliably measure time  attempt to reconcile  
+ compromise between    intervals and          two desirable but     
+ the English           frequencies very       fundamentally         
+ abbreviation CUT and  precisely. But         incompatible          
+ the French            whereas TAI is         properties of a       
+ abbreviation TUC (for destined to drift      timescale: perfectly  
+ "Temps Universel      ever further away      regular seconds, and  
+ Coordonné"). This is  from UT, to the        synchronisation with  
+ somewhat fitting,     chagrin of sailors     a spinning globe      
+ because UTC itself is and astronomers, UTC   whose rate of         
+ a strange compromise  is kept synchronised   rotation is           
+ time scale between UT closely enough with    unpredictably         
+ and TAI. Like TAI,    UT that it allows      irregular.            
+ UTC is an atomic time seafarers to perform                         
+ scale. Every second   celestial navigation   The precise nature of 
+ of UTC is exactly as  with sufficient        the ugly hack         
+ long as any other,    accuracy for safe      underlying UTC has    
+ using the SI standard ocean passage. This    changed somewhat      
+ second based on       synchronisation is     since it was first    
+ caesium atoms,        achieved, like all     defined, but for      
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+almost 50 years now,   not absolutely fixed   rather than removals. 
+starting in 1972, the  at 86,400 by           They don't happen on  
+ugly hack of choice    definition. There      a regular,            
+has been the leap      almost always *are*    predictable basis,    
+second. The way it     86,400 seconds in a    like leap years       
+works is this. The     UTC day, but 86,401    (which are an         
+difference between     and 86,399 are also    adjustment for the    
+UTC and UT - a         allowed when           fact that the time it 
+quantity denoted DUT   necessary to keep the  takes the Earth to    
+- is carefully         time scale locked to   orbit the sun once,   
+monitored. Any time    the movement of the    defining a year, is   
+it looks like that     sun across the sky.    not perfectly         
+difference is on                              divisible by the time 
+track to exceed 0.9    So far, there have     it takes the Earth to 
+seconds, in either     been 27 leap seconds   rotate once, defining 
+direction, UTC is      defined, although UTC  a day). Because the   
+kicked back into       and ATI are today      Earth's rate of       
+alignment by either    exactly 37 seconds     rotation fluctuates   
+inserting or removing  apart - the other 10   randomly, sometimes   
+a single second on     seconds come from      slowing down and      
+one particular day.    hacks applied before   sometimes speeding    
+This makes UTC the     leap seconds were      up, astronomers need  
+*only* time scale      established in 1972.   to be actively on the 
+where the number of    All of them to date    lookout for excessive 
+seconds in a day is    have been insertions   values of DUT. When   
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+it's decided a leap    precise time           technology means that  
+second is needed -     synchronisation        celestial navigation   
+it's the IERS who      should be caught by    at sea is now rarely   
+makes that call -      surprise when a leap   a matter of life or    
+they are announced at  second rolls around.   death (although some   
+least six months in    In practice, it's not  sailors still          
+advance. They're       always so simple.      appreciate the         
+allowed to occur on                           relative simplicity    
+either June 30th or    INCREASING             of the technology it   
+December 31st, and     IMPLEMENTATION BURDEN  relies on), removing   
+are inserted or        AND AN UNCERTAIN       some of the argument   
+deleted at midnight    FUTURE                 for making sure UTC    
+UTC (which is the                             stays in lock step     
+middle of the day in   Leap seconds have      with the Earth's       
+some time zones, of    always had their       rotation. At the same  
+course) on those       critics, but at the    time, the internet     
+days. At the time of   time they were         has come along: a      
+writing, the last      adopted, their         massive network of     
+leap second happened   benefits arguably      computers talking to   
+on December 31st,      balanced their         each other, with the   
+2016. In principle,    associated hassle. 50  frequent need for      
+six months is enough   years later, this hack activity on one to be  
+advance warning that   is starting to show    synchronised with      
+nobody doing anything  its age. The advent of activity on another    
+which depends on       cheap and reliable GPS (hence tools like the  
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+Network Time Protocol, added to software as   Some systems, of      
+NTP). Computer         an afterthought - if   course, forget to do  
+programmers *hate*     they are added at all. anything at all.      
+leap seconds, for the  Some systems represent Because all the leap  
+same reason they hate  the extra second using seconds to date have  
+Daylight Saving Time:  the timestamp          been insertions       
+they complicate time   23:59:60, but others   rather than removals, 
+calculations (you      instead repeat the     it's a safe bet that  
+can't accurately       timestamp 23:59:59     there's plenty of     
+calculate the number   twice (since some      software out there    
+of seconds between two software will fail to  which has worked      
+UTC timestamps without parse a timestamp      correctly so far but  
+consulting a table of  ending in :60). Other  will fail the first   
+when previous leap     systems "smear" the    time a second is      
+seconds were inserted) leap second out over   removed. And the      
+and are a frequent     longer time periods,   Earth's rotation is   
+cause of confusion and like 24 hours, to      going through a bit   
+errors, when one       avoid problems         of a fast phase right 
+system implements them associated with sudden now, so the first     
+differently from       discontinuities. This  negative leap second  
+another its trying to  just leads to a whole  might be looming on   
+interoperate with.     day of small, slowly   the horizon.          
+                       varying errors                               
+Affordances for leap   compared to            The software          
+seconds are often      non-smearing systems.  interoperability      
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+situation at the time  option. It's one thing cause are only likely 
+of a leap second is    to shut down the New   to get worse. The     
+bad enough that        York Stock Exchange    atomic definition of  
+several major stock    for an hour, but Air   second likely isn't   
+exchanges simply       Traffic Control has to going away any time   
+agreed to voluntarily  stay up 24/7. It's no  soon, though, and     
+shut down for an hour  surprise that          that means that       
+around midnight UTC in increasingly many      getting rid of leap   
+2016, rather than risk voices in the tech     seconds entirely      
+problems by continuing industry are calling   means abandoning the  
+to trade during the    for leap seconds to be millennia old notion  
+leap second. Given     abolished. Plenty of   that the way we       
+that a number of major people are very        represent time is     
+web services,          unhappy with that      intimately linked     
+including Amazon,      idea, of course, not   with the natural      
+Instagram, Netflix and to mention there's no  cycle of night and    
+Twitter, experienced   consensus on what to   day. Assuming we're   
+outages around this    do instead.            not willing to do     
+time, this was                                that, there are only  
+probably not a bad     It's far from clear    two alternatives:     
+idea. Of course,       what the future holds  coming up with a new  
+simply shutting time   for the leap second.   ugly hack which is    
+critical services off  As software continues  somehow less          
+for every leap second  to eat the world, the  problematic, or       
+isn't always an        headaches leap seconds giving up on a  "one      
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+size fits all" time    recommend the article  time scales like      
+scale.                 "The leap second: its  Ephemeris Time (ET),  
+                       history and possible   GPS Time (GPST) and   
+BUT WAIT,              future", which you can Terrestrial Time      
+THERE'S MORE!          easily find on the web (TT), and discover    
+                       (full citation below), that the SI system of 
+If you think this      along with, as always, units defined the     
+story has been         following Wikipedia    second based on       
+needlessly fiddly and  links wherever they    something other than  
+complicated, rest      take you. Along the    Earth's rotation when 
+assured I have skipped way you can learn the  it was established in 
+over a tonne of        difference between     1960, seven years     
+details. If you're     UT0, UT1 and UT2, meet before the caesium    
+actually interested to other exciting         definition was        
+learn more, I highly   astronomic and atomic  adopted.              
+ 
+                      - - -[ REFERENCES ]- - -
+
+Nelson, R., McCarthy, D., Malys, S., Levine, J.M., Guinot, B.,
+  Fliegel, H., Beard, R., & Bartholomew, T. (2001). The Leap Second 
+  - Its History and Possible Future. Metrologia, 38, 509-529.
+
+"Time-nuttery 101" by Ole Petter Ronningen 
+https://efos3.com/TimeNut.html 
+
+"UTC might be redefined without Leap Seconds" by Steve Allen 
+https://ucolick.org/~sla/leapsecs/timescales.html 
+
+
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 

zine/issue001/tfurrows_granular-ideologue.gmi

@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+``` 
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 
+                       C I R C U M L U N A R
+                     T R A N S M I S S I O N S
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+Issue One                                                April 2021
+```
+
+# Manifesto of a Granular Ideologue
+by tfurrows
+
+## Passing Thoughts of an Impractical Idealist
+
+Our ancestors stood on the banks of the Euphrates and cast their ideas into the inexhaustible current. First they cast in words, ephemeral. Then they learned permanence; epochs brought clay tablets and papyrus, script and type, bits and clouds.
+
+Permanence dammed the river, a logjam of ideas tossed in as if each was a consummate standard. Life-giving waters slowed, intelligence waned, the elastic mind seized and crumbled. The word manifesto dates to the fourteenth century, but the notion dates to our earliest written conclusions.
+
+This is not the manifesto to end all manifestos. It is a message in a bottle that few will find. It is a loose model for dealing with the mountainous dam of manifestos that stop the flow of creativity, passion, and progress. At the risk of making the problem worse, I proffer: 
+
+## From a Message in a Bottle, Sitting Atop the Dam of Manifestos
+
+* Let your mind move freely, become a seeker
+* Accept that knowledge is scattered broadly
+* Find kernels of truth and germinate thoughts
+
+* Take something from every ideology, fear nothing
+* Subscribe to that which you find value in
+* Mistrust labels, they carry unimaginable baggage
+
+* Acknowledge all that came before, but accept the utility of your journey
+* Never believe that you have the best vision for the world
+* Don't try to fashion the world to your ideals; your ideals are cursory
+
+* Be a maximal minimalist, distill purity from immensity
+* Find, purify, share, repeat
+* To conclude means to cease to grow
+
+<tfurrows@circumlunar.space>
+<tfurrows@sdf.org>
+
+```
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+```
+=> ask-jone-001.gmi << [iii] Ask Jone!
+=> solderpunk_whats-the-deal-with-leapseconds.gmi >> [II] What's the Deal with Leap Seconds?
+=> index.gmi Circumlunar Transmisisons - Issue 1
+```
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 
+```

zine/issue001/tfurrows_granular-ideologue.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 
+                       C I R C U M L U N A R
+                     T R A N S M I S S I O N S
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+Issue One                                                April 2021
+
+================[ MANIFESTO OF A GRANULAR IDEOLOGUE ]==============
+                            by tfurrows
+
+     - - -[ Passing Thoughts of an Impractical Idealist ]- - -
+
+Our ancestors stood on Permanence dammed the  This is not the        
+the banks of the       river, a logjam of     manifesto to end all   
+Euphrates and cast     ideas tossed in as if  manifestos. It is a    
+their ideas into the   each was a consummate  message in a bottle    
+inexhaustible current. standard. Life-giving  that few will find. It 
+First they cast in     waters slowed,         is a loose model for   
+words, ephemeral. Then intelligence waned,    dealing with the       
+they learned           the elastic mind       mountainous dam of     
+permanence; epochs     seized and crumbled.   manifestos that stop   
+brought clay tablets   The word manifesto     the flow of            
+and papyrus, script    dates to the           creativity, passion,   
+and type, bits and     fourteenth century,    and progress. At the   
+clouds.                but the notion dates   risk of making the     
+                       to our earliest        problem worse, I       
+                       written conclusions.   proffer:               
+
+  From a Message in a Bottle, Sitting Atop the Dam of Manifestos
+  ..............................................................
+
+          * Let your mind move freely, become a seeker
+          * Accept that knowledge is scattered broadly
+          * Find kernels of truth and germinate thoughts
+          
+          * Take something from every ideology, 
+              fear nothing
+          * Subscribe to that which you find value in
+          * Mistrust labels, they carry unimaginable
+              baggage
+          
+          * Acknowledge all that came before, but accept
+              the utility of your journey
+          * Never believe that you have the best vision
+              for the world
+          * Don't try to fashion the world to your
+              ideals; your ideals are cursory
+
+          * Be a maximal minimalist, distill purity from
+              immensity
+          * Find, purify, share, repeat
+          * To conclude means to cease to grow
+
+                                       <tfurrows@circumlunar.space>
+                                                 <tfurrows@sdf.org>
+
+
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 

zine/issue001/wholesomedonut_why-i-still-game-proprietary.gmi

@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+``` 
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 
+                       C I R C U M L U N A R
+                     T R A N S M I S S I O N S
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+Issue One                                                April 2021
+```
+
+# Why I Still Game Proprietary
+by wholesomedonut
+
+## Proprietary Gaming Isn't All Bad
+
+Since getting into the FOSS community, I see a lot of pushback towards the gaming industry as a whole. I can see why: DRM runs rampant, terrible business practices regularly conflagrate internet forums, anti-cheat programs are basically consensual (and mandatory for official online play in some cases) trojans, and to make it all worse it costs a mint to get into the hobby nowadays due to scalpers and crypto miners running rampant in the market.
+
+I agree with all of those observations. They tire me. They concern me. They frustrate me daily.
+
+However! There are still reasons -not- to go the route of some I see in the FOSS world and eschew gaming altogether on anything but a FOSS platform, with FOSS games, because.... FOSS. That argument is just as dumb in practice, because it's an artificial limitation that stands on somewhat subjective, opinionated reasoning. "But wholesomedonut, thou angereth me!" I hear in the imaginary comments section because this is Gemini and you can't do that. I am certain you will find peace through measured contemplation and a cup of whatever warm or cold liquid you enjoy.
+
+## Why Do I Use Steam?
+
+Well.... everyone else that isn't a computer nerd usually does too. And the overhead for getting people of minimum technical understanding (that like playing video games) into FOSS gaming generally is much more costly in terms of mental and social capacity than the clout I usually have with my friends or family on such matters.
+
+King's English: If I have to instruct them to download the latest version of the game directly from Github in the Releases tab, or from some random website they've never heard of (even if it looks nice and is HTTPS secure) instead of just adding it on Steam or Epic or Microsoft Store or PS/Xbox or some-other thing, there is a solid 90% chance I'm going to lose that argument unless they are very specifically interested in that particular kind of game, its' content, or have a better socially-driven reason. This comes from years of trying and f'nagling with people from many walks of life; the UI and UX of FOSS gaming needs to be on-par with modern commercial offerings; this means all the way from landing on a page, to funneling through a sales conversion or free download, to playing the game with their friends needs to be understandable, unobtrusive and transparent. That is, if the overall userbase is to grow and sustain itself on a higher magnitude than current.
+
+### Give People the Benefit of the Doubt
+
+People are intelligent, generally. They're very skilled in a multitude of things that aren't computers. But asking someone who -isn't- tech savvy to figure out how to pull down the right version of a FOSS game from a code repo (or heaven forbid build it themselves with cmake or whatever) is like asking ME to diagnose a car's problems using nothing but a flashlight and a screwdriver. I have no idea what the hell I'm doing anyway in that department. Without the proper tools and education too? I'm screwed. Therefore I urge empathy and patience in introducing others to FOSS gaming. It's a bit more finicky than the plug-and-play mentality commercial systems have fostered.
+
+## Enter the Mech Man
+
+A good example of a FOSS game that has plenty of good and bad would be MegaMek. It's basically a fully computerized version of the Classic Battletech rules, which is a board game that's existed since the 1980s and is going on 40 years of conniving, number-crunching tomfoolery that only a particular subset of people even enjoy. All in the name of combined-arms strategy on a hex board that involves groups of multi-ton robots, tanks, airplanes and infantry taking and giving damage to individual components, weapons and armor locations in a somewhat realistic and highly detailed simulation of 31st-century warfare.
+
+To alleviate the issue of significant calculational overhead for every-single-action-attack-or-damage-roll-ever, this program does all of the math, calculations, and rules proofing for you. So you can enjoy the game with others, wherever they may be, instead of reaching for your G.A.T.O.R. card for the tenth time to show the newbie of the group what happens when an SRM-6 missile spread hits a light vehicle whose armor is already exposed on its' left flank. There are plenty of grognards out there who know these rules well and can do half the game in their head: they're obviously not the target of this article.
+
+I shiver at the thought of doing all that stuff manually if I don't have to. That kind of tedium takes away from the moment-by-moment gameplay, forcing everybody to get ox-in-the-mired over details that don't matter overall instead of letting their big stompy robots blow each other up.
+
+Megamek works wonders in that regard. A game of Classic Battletech that could easily take 5 or 6 hours in person without any sort of calculator apps or an otherwise breakneck pace of gameplay and rules-lawyering will only take an hour or two maximum with Megamek. It's a godsend for a hobby that would otherwise be relegated to local play over predetermined days, not a "Hey want to play a match? Sure!" kind of casual pickup on a boring afternoon.
+
+### But it Isn't All Sunshine and Rainbows
+
+Nope! Megamek is, in my humble and donut-shaped opinion, a terrible example of UI and UX. I played a round recently, and another aficionado of the series played against me. Quoth my opponent: "This program looks like something out of Windows 95." Neither of us had played the most recent version of the game. I hadn't touched it in a year at least.
+
+Some changes were welcome, and the development progresses smoothly. But it's still just as much a spaghetti plate in terms of user experience: configuration options laid out in long lists of check boxes organized by multiple top-window tabs; a decidedly 15-years-old design language that clashes with modern perceptions of UI and UX (which is bad considering that taking in new blood is crucial for both userbase and developer contribution reasons); and the final nail in the coffin is the fact that the much easier and more recent Alpha Strike ruleset isn't included at all by default, to my knowledge. You might be able to configure something like that using plugins, but we're already putting the cart before the horse at that point.
+
+### To Be Fair,
+
+The project started in 2000. It's 21 years old in some places, if only in logic and not literal syntax. It's written in Java. And it's been a community effort by dozens of talented people over the decades. The fact that it's alive at all is impressive, but so's the fact that the franchise whose boardgame it emulates even has a fanbase still. BT fans aren't quitters, certainly. And this is all considering the fact that trying to automate, obfuscate and de-FUBAR the mountain of minutiae that Battletech's rulesets and technical data (on a per unit and per variant basis no less) is a monumental task. I can hardly think of a video-game adaptation of a more complex board game that does a better job, in proportion to the complexity of the physical source material and gameplay flow.
+
+So considering it was made in the waning days of Win98 (because Windows ME doesn't exist and you can't convince me otherwise) it's expected that it's ugly as most things were back then. It was written in Java (yea verily, begone foul JVM!), which for all its' foibles makes a very easy cross-platform distributable program. It's solidly a relic of an earlier time of online gaming, where dial-up connections were still common. That's a given. And it is what it is. I won't waste time bemoaning those facts that are immutable in this context. I'm only stating them to set the stage.
+
+## I'm left at an interesting impasse.
+There is no other way I could ever play Battletech with friends from all over the world in such a great degree of fidelity. Megamek serves its' purpose very well for what it is: a highly detailed computerization of a niche franchise that has a fanbase spanning generations. However, it also stands out to me as one of the prime examples of a FOSS project being understandably opaque to newcomers. It's hard to use at first, hard to look at always, and sometimes hard to find other people to play it with. Those three things will nail the coffin of any fledgling game shut. That concept is true regardless of genre, art style, or UI/UX.
+
+So, I leave it to you to put the pieces together here. I can choose to play with average people that A) aren't technically inclined, B) don't have a heart that beats for free-as-in-freedom, and C) want something that "just works," or confine myself to a much smaller content base with an even smaller playerbase to share it with.
+
+Call me the gaming nerd Whore of Babylon, but I don't see the point in beating my head against the wall overtly trying to make my hobby free and open if there isn't a platform for those newcomers to even stand on and explore once (or if ever) they choose to get involved in FOSS gaming of their own volition.
+
+## At the end of the day,
+
+I encourage people who play video games which are also interested in free and open source software to consider the prospect of inviting others into this world of free-as-in-freedom/beer/whatever with a grain of salt. Until we make it easier to onboard new people from all walks of life, significant adoption of FOSS systems or the games that run on them will not be seen. And therefore we will not see the requisite uptick in talent, contribution and playerbase that will consequently drive a growth in production quality, variety, and competitiveness in the market space of people's free time.
+
+### Contact Me
+
+external email: wholesomedonut at tuta dot io
+mastodon: at wholesomedonut at fosstodon dot org
+matrix: at wholesomedonut colon matrix dot org
+
+```
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+```
+=> durtal_hearth-of-the-matter.gmi << [III] The Hearth of the Matter - durtal
+=> index.gmi Circumlunar Transmisisons - Issue 1
+```
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 
+```

zine/issue001/wholesomedonut_why-i-still-game-proprietary.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,200 @@
+ - - - - - --------------------------------------------- - - - - - 
+                       C I R C U M L U N A R
+                     T R A N S M I S S I O N S
+- - - ------------------------------------------------------- - - -
+Issue One                                                April 2021
+
+==================[ WHY I STILL GAME PROPRIETARY ]=================
+                          by wholesomedonut
+                         
+PROPRIETARY GAMING     in the market.         thou angereth me!" I
+ISN'T ALL BAD                                 hear in the imaginary 
+                       I agree with all of    comments section      
+Since getting into the those observations.    because this is       
+FOSS community, I see  They tire me. They     Gemini and you can't  
+a lot of pushback      concern me. They       do that. I am certain 
+towards the gaming     frustrate me daily.    you will find         
+industry as a whole. I                        peace through         
+can see why: DRM runs  However! There are     measured              
+rampant, terrible      still reasons -not- to contemplation and     
+business practices     go the route of some I a cup of whatever     
+regularly conflagrate  see in the FOSS world  warm or cold          
+internet forums,       and eschew gaming      liquid you enjoy.     
+anti-cheat programs    altogether on anything                       
+are basically          but a FOSS platform,   WHY DO I USE STEAM?   
+consensual (and        with FOSS games,       
+mandatory for official because.... FOSS. That Well.... everyone   
+online play in some    argument is just as    else that isn't a   
+cases) trojans, and to dumb in practice,      computer nerd       
+make it all worse it   because it's an        usually does too.   
+costs a mint to get    artificial limitation  And the overhead    
+into the hobby         that stands on         for getting         
+nowadays due to        somewhat subjective,   people of minimum   
+scalpers and crypto    opinionated reasoning. technical under-    
+miners running rampant "But wholesomedonut,   standing (that like 
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+playing video games)   gaming generally is    than current.         
+into FOSS gaming       much more costly in                          
+generally is much more terms of mental and    GIVE PEOPLE THE       
+costly in terms of     social capacity than   BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT  
+mental and social      the clout I usually                          
+capacity than the      have with my friends   People are            
+clout I usually have   or family on such      intelligent,          
+with my friends or     matters.               generally. They're    
+family on such                                very skilled in a     
+matters.               King's English: If I   multitude of things   
+                       have to instruct them  that aren't           
+King's English: If I   to download the latest computers. But asking 
+have to instruct them  version of the game    someone who -isn't-   
+to download the latest directly from Github   tech savvy to figure  
+version of the game    in the Releases tab,   out how to pull down  
+directly from Github   or from some random    the right version of  
+in the Releases tab,   playing the game with  a FOSS game from a    
+or from some random    their friends needs to code repo (or heaven  
+website they've never  be understandable,     forbid build it       
+heard of (even if it   unobtrusive and        themselves with cmake 
+looks nice and is      transparent. That is,  or whatever) is like  
+HTTPS secure) instead  if the overall         asking ME to diagnose 
+of just adding it on   userbase is to grow    a car's problems      
+Steam or Epic or       and sustain itself on  using nothing but a   
+Microsoft Store or     a higher magnitude     flashlight and a      
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+screwdriver. I have no Battletech rules,      To alleviate the      
+idea what the hell I'm which is a board game  issue of significant  
+doing anyway in that   that's existed since   calculational         
+department. Without    the 1980s and is going overhead for          
+the proper tools and   on 40 years of         every-single-action-  
+education too? I'm     conniving,             attack-or-damage-     
+screwed. Therefore I   number-crunching       roll-ever,            
+urge empathy and       tomfoolery that only a this program does all 
+patience in            particular subset of   of the math,          
+introducing others to  people even enjoy. All calculations, and     
+FOSS gaming. It's a    in the name of         rules proofing for    
+bit more finicky than  combined-arms strategy you. So you can enjoy 
+the plug-and-play      on a hex board that    the game with others, 
+mentality commercial   involves groups of     wherever they may be, 
+systems have fostered. multi-ton robots,      instead of reaching   
+                       tanks, airplanes and   for your G.A.T.O.R.   
+ENTER THE MECH MAN     infantry taking and    card for the tenth    
+                       giving damage to       time to show the      
+A good example of a    individual components, newbie of the group   
+FOSS game that has     weapons and armor      what happens when an  
+plenty of good and bad locations in a         SRM-6 missile spread  
+would be MegaMek. It's somewhat realistic and hits a light vehicle  
+basically a fully      highly detailed        whose armor is        
+computerized version   simulation of          already exposed       
+of the Classic         31st-century warfare.  on its' left flank.   
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+There are plenty of    Megamek works wonders  RAINBOWS              
+grognards out there    in that regard. A game                       
+who know these rules   of Classic Battletech  Nope! Megamek is, in  
+well and can do half   that could easily take my humble and         
+the game in their      5 or 6 hours in person donut-shaped opinion, 
+head: they're          without any sort of    a terrible example of 
+obviously not the      calculator apps or an  UI and UX. I played a 
+target of this         otherwise breakneck    round recently, and   
+article.               pace of gameplay and   another aficionado of 
+                       rules-lawyering will   the series played     
+I shiver at the        only take an hour or   against me. Quoth my  
+thought of doing all   two maximum with       opponent: "This       
+that stuff manually if Megamek. It's a        program looks like    
+I don't have to. That  godsend for a hobby    something out of      
+kind of tedium takes   that would otherwise   Windows 95." Neither  
+away from the          be relegated to local  of us had played the  
+moment-by-moment       play over              most recent version   
+gameplay, forcing      predetermined days,    of the game. I hadn't 
+everybody to get       not a "Hey want to     touched it in a year  
+ox-in-the-mired over   play a match? Sure!"   at least.             
+details that don't     kind of casual pickup                        
+matter overall instead on a boring afternoon. Some changes were     
+of letting their big                          welcome, and the      
+stompy robots blow     BUT IT ISN'T ALL       development           
+each other up.         SUNSHINE AND           progresses smoothly.  
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+But it's still just    and more recent Alpha  that it's alive at    
+as much a spaghetti    Strike ruleset isn't   all is impressive,    
+plate in terms of      included at all by     but so's the fact     
+user experience:       default, to my         that the franchise    
+configuration options  knowledge. You might   whose boardgame it    
+laid out in long       be able to configure   emulates even has a   
+lists of check boxes   something like that    fanbase still. BT     
+organized by multiple  using plugins, but     fans aren't quitters, 
+top-window tabs; a     we're already putting  certainly. And this   
+decidedly              the cart before the    is all considering    
+15-years-old design    horse at that point.   the fact that trying  
+language that clashes                         to automate,          
+with modern            TO BE FAIR             obfuscate and         
+perceptions of UI and                         de-FUBAR the mountain 
+UX (which is bad       The project started    of minutiae that      
+considering that       in 2000. It's 21       Battletech's rulesets 
+taking in new blood    years old in some      and technical data    
+is crucial for both    places, if only in     (on a per unit and    
+userbase and           logic and not literal  per variant basis no  
+developer              syntax. It's written   less) is a monumental 
+contribution           in Java. And it's      task. I can hardly    
+reasons); and the      been a community       think of a video-game 
+final nail in the      effort by dozens of    adaptation of a more  
+coffin is the fact     talented people over   complex board game    
+that the much easier   the decades. The fact  that does a better    
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+job, in proportion to  time of online         is: a highly detailed 
+the complexity of the  gaming, where dial-up  computerization of a  
+physical source        connections were       niche franchise that  
+material and gameplay  still common. That's   has a fanbase         
+flow.                  a given. And it is     spanning generations. 
+                       what it is. I won't    However, it also      
+So considering it was  waste time bemoaning   stands out to me as   
+made in the waning     those facts that are   one of the prime      
+days of Win98          immutable in this      examples of a FOSS    
+(because Windows ME    context. I'm only      project being         
+doesn't exist and you  stating them to set    understandably opaque 
+can't convince me      the stage.             to newcomers. It's    
+otherwise) it's                               hard to use at first, 
+expected that it's     I'M LEFT AT AN         hard to look at       
+ugly as most things    INTERESTING IMPASSE    always, and sometimes 
+were back then. It                            hard to find other    
+was written in Java    There is no other way  people to play it     
+(yea verily, begone    I could ever play      with. Those three     
+foul JVM!), which for  Battletech with        things will nail the  
+all its' foibles       friends from all over  coffin of any         
+makes a very easy      the world in such a    fledgling game shut.  
+cross-platform         great degree of        That concept is true  
+distributable          fidelity. Megamek      regardless of genre,  
+program. It's solidly  serves its' purpose    art style, or UI/UX.  
+a relic of an earlier  very well for what it                        
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+ So, I leave it to you make my hobby free     Until we make it      
+ to put the pieces     and open if there      easier to onboard new 
+ together here. I can  isn't a platform for   people from all walks 
+ choose to play with   those newcomers to     of life, significant  
+ average people that   even stand on and      adoption of FOSS      
+ A) aren't technically explore once (or if    systems or the games  
+ inclined, B) don't    ever) they choose to   that run on them will 
+ have a heart that     get involved in FOSS   not be seen. And      
+ beats for             gaming of their own    therefore we will not 
+ free-as-in-freedom,   volition.              see the requisite     
+ and C) want something                        uptick in talent,     
+ that "just works," or AT THE END OF THE DAY  contribution and      
+ confine myself to a                          playerbase that will  
+ much smaller content  I encourage people     consequently drive a  
+ base with an even     who play video games   growth in production  
+ smaller playerbase to which are also         quality, variety, and 
+ share it with.        interested in free     competitiveness in    
+                       and open source        the market space of   
+ Call me the gaming    software to consider   people's free time.   
+ nerd Whore of         the prospect of       
+ Babylon, but I don't  inviting others into  
+ see the point in      this world of         
+ beating my head       free-as-in-freedom    
+ against the wall      /beer/whatever        
+ overtly trying to     with a grain of salt. 
+
+                      - - -[ CONTACT ME ]- - - 
+
+           external email: wholesomedonut at tuta dot io
+           mastodon: at wholesomedonut at fosstodon dot org
+           matrix: at wholesomedonut colon matrix dot org
+
+
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