PurpleJillybeans
@jillybeans@blog.n8fq.org
Location: 43.0,-86.1
9 following, 71 followers
I tried to see if I could implement ActivityPub into the old PHP/MariaDB-based system but didn't have much luck. There are a lot of beginner-level AP tutorials on the web, but they all seem to be out-of-date and I wasn't able to get it to work. I decided the path of least resistance would be to fire up a SNAC instance, so that's where I am now.
For my kind.social friends, worry not! I'm still going to be using Mastodon as my main outlet; this is just for the longer-form stuff.
*boost for reach*
Do you pirate media?
#askfedi #question #piracy #netflix #streaming #movies #enshittification #sysadmin #programming
| Yes: | 367 |
| No: | 135 |
What should our next #Monsterdon movie be?
| Journey to the Center of Time (1967): | 63 |
| Monster on the Campus (1958): | 28 |
| Demons (1985): | 33 |
| The Visitor (1979): | 39 |
| Cellar Dweller (1987): | 29 |
| The Howling III (1987): | 20 |
So, what was the purpose of the underground blood-draining base, like before the comet dusted everybody? Or did they know years in advance it would happen?
@PurpleJillybeans The idea was that it would be a survivor vault. They'd carry civilisation on. But it didn't work because they fucked up the ventilation system.
Looks like another case of the double feature being worse than the main movie. Should at least be worth a laugh though.
#Monsterdon #MonsterdonDoubleFeature #PrisonersOfTheLostUniverse
@PurpleJillybeans TBH we haven't had all that many of those in a while
#Monsterdon #MonsterdonDoubleFeature #PrisonersOfTheLostUniverse1983
Isn't this the plot to Doom?
#Monsterdon #MonsterdonDoubleFeature #PrisonersOfTheLostUniverse1983
That is not an American dial tone.
#Monsterdon #MonsterdonDoubleFeature #PrisonersOfTheLostUniverse1983
At least these guys aren't green.
#Monsterdon #MonsterdonDoubleFeature #PrisonersOfTheLostUniverse1983
Too hot and muggy to do anything tonight so might as well watch a movie!
What happened to the cat, anyway?
I've been light on riffs because I'm actually kinda enjoying this movie. It's one of the least-horrible Monsterdons we've had in awhile.
The ending was kinda random, but really not a terrible movie all told.
Thanks for organizing @Taweret !
This is going to be a rare example of the double feature being *worse* than the main movie.
I wonder what Tiny Teenage Mall Tramp is doing right now...
@neocolapsar #SvarDOS here. The DR-DOS kernel seems to work better with some of my games, so that puts it ahead.
I remembered seeing the leaked source code to the v1.3.1 server back in the day and I wondered if it was still out there. That set me off on a trip down a deep and twisted rabbit hole.
graal. That turned up a partial client collection taken from the remnants of an old fansite called Spider's Page of Stuff, as well as a collection of playerworld backups that included a few historic dumps of the original main world.The v1.3.1 server source I was looking for wasn't in there, but I did see an "unlimited server" for v1.1. This was a Win32 server with a GUI, rather than Linux as the other one was. Some reading revealed that this server was included with the v1.1.9 release of "Graal Gold." The v1.1.9 client wasn't part of the set, but the v1.1 client was, and that seemed to be compatible. I fired up the server under WINE, connected to it with the v1.1 client, and tested things out.
I ran into two issues early on, both related to one another. First, the v1.1 client was hard-coded to connect to a server at www.graalonline.com, so a DNS override was needed in order to connect to my test server. Second, I was getting failures whenever I tried to leave the online start map. I suspected that it might be trying to pull map data from an HTTP server, so I started one up and watched the logs. Sure enough, I was seeing 404'd requests for files under /levels. A quick redirect to the levels directory in the game data was all it took to fix that; the game worked!
With that milestone cleared, I set up a Windows NT 4.0 VM on my vintage VMware GSX box and installed the Graal server on it, along with a web server for level data. I asked to have the CGHMN DNS server poisoned to direct www.graalonline.com to my VM. With that, CGHMN had its first Graal server!
weapons.txt with info about available inventory items, and a directory of account data. I figured I could put together some account files by tracing through the parser functions, but I was at a loss for what to do with the weapon data. I set it aside.I did more reading and found a mention that all Graal clients from v1.1.9 to v1.3 beta included a Win32-based server, like the one I had just set up. I grabbed the v1.3 one and gave the server a try. Much to my surprise, this one didn't seem to require a weapons.txt file, and it had a built-in graphical account manager! On shutdown, it saved the account data to a file called accounts.txt, which the v1.3.1 server source seemed to have an ability to import and convert to its own broken-out directory format. That seemed like it would make getting the v1.3.1 server going a bit easier, but I still didn't have any kind of lead on the weapons.txt file.
Continuing to dig, I came across a mention of NekoRoy's Graal Site, which was well-covered by the Wayback Machine and held a massive treasure trove of old Graal files, including a bunch of clients and servers that weren't on Spider's Page. That included the Graal Gold v1.1.9 client! I grabbed it and gave it a test. First revelation: unlike the v1.1 client, this one wasn't hard-coded to www.graalonline.com, so I could simply enter another domain or IP and connect. It did still seem to want to get levels from there though, so the DNS redirect was still needed to make it fully functional.
One thing did catch my eye though: one of these packages, the one for Matriark's GServer 1.3.9 fork, included a weapons.txt file! That, combined with account data from the 1.3 beta server, would probably allow me to get the v1.3.1 server going. At this point, though, I no longer considered that a priority. Nice to have the option open at least.
I transferred everything over to my NT4 VM and fired up the server. Using the GUI account manager I created a guest account, plus an admin account for myself. Because the server seems to only load account data at launch (unlike the Linux v1.3.1 server which used a broken-out format), there would likely be no way to add or edit accounts from an outside source (like a PHP or CGI script) aside from trying to implement the GServer Remote Control protocol. That'd probably be doable, but given the low level of expected demand I decided that just doing things manually was good enough. Aside from that, I suspect that this server was one of the LAN servers with an eight-player cap. I doubt there'd ever even be that many players active on CGHMN at one time, but if demand ever start growing I'll probably have to try something different.
Limitations like that aside, everything seemed to be going well. I did run into one oddity while testing: if you're logged in with the guest account, most of the treasure chests with equipment upgrades don't appear. They only show up if you're using a 'real' account. That one took me awhile to figure out.
If you're not on CGHMN, and retro stuff like this interests you, you should be!
=> https://cghmn.org
#RetroComputing #RetroGaming #blog
Alt...
Screenshot of Graal Online, showing three characters (two of which are actually NPCs) in a small bar.
Yeah, every single one of these kids is gonna be dead by the end of the movie. Except for Ann probably.
Is the crappy focus supposed to be "fog?"
So, what are the odds we'll come across some of the stuff Hercules yeeted into space awhile back tonight?
Y'know what? This movie is just completely beyond my ability to riff on effectively. I'm just gonna watch.
Well, let's see if the #MonsterdonDoubleFeature saves the night like it usually does.
@PurpleJillybeans I think I can catch this one. I saw it a while back and it kind of had... It's hard to say exactly how to put it, but it was good bad, not bad bad.
I'll bet that silver makeup has some SERIOUSLY toxic ingredients.
@PurpleJillybeans Yes, but how else are they going to look like...
...
Uh, whatever it is they look like?
They literally just repeated the same shot twice back-to-back.
I still don't understand what exactly the seeds are doing to help the heroes, aside from just *being there*.
@PurpleJillybeans@kind.social @jillybeans@blog.n8fq.org This movie brought to you by Big Walnut. #Monsterdon #MessageFromSpace1978
@PurpleJillybeans same
I had thought the seeds were just meant to go find the heroes. Maybe psychically influence them to congregate at the right place or something, but it's not clear
@PurpleJillybeans they're the glue that holds the whole movie together, but are probably just a macguffin
Y'know, if you ignore the whole "Star Wars knockoff" aspect this really wasn't a bad movie. At least by 70s tokusatsu standards.
@PurpleJillybeans #Monsterdon #WrongOdyssey
And to be fair, the Star Wars franchise re-used the whole "send a little ship to attack a big ship" multiple times.
"Son of a bitch must pay!"
"How are ya gonna spring us?"
"I have no idea."
@PurpleJillybeans She couldn't just say "Are you going to help us out get of here?"
Is this what they do at traditional Chinese weddings?
@PurpleJillybeans not exactly 🤣 but the OUTFITS are coming up! #KungFuSat 🐲 #BigTroubleInLittleChina
Alt...
traditional Chinese wedding outfits
I downloaded a few Flash and Shockwave collections from archive.org, and pretty much all the Java games I could get from Java Boutique for my initial population. The curation process is slow since I'm working alone. For each game I have to figure out the correct window size, minimum plugin version, any needed parameters, and often the correct locations and filenames for extra data files. For most games I use my own viewer page written in PHP but some need to be run from a static HTML file in a separate directory in order to work correctly. And then there's getting a screenshot, writing a description, and correctly crediting the author. I try to add a game or two each day.
Flash games are generally pretty easy to deal with, but Shockwave and Java are harder. Java games are often extremely picky about what browser and JVM you use, while Shockwave games sometimes need Xtras which the player tries to download from a no-longer-existent (but thankfully somewhat-preserved) server. Both usually need data files and parameters to run properly. Getting the necessary info often involves trying to find the original website in the Wayback Machine and digging through the HTML source.
Anyway, if you're on CGHMN and you want to take a look, it's at:
http://www.n8fq.retro/webgames/
#RetroComputing #RetroWeb #blog
Alt...
Screenshot of Netscape 4 running on Windows XP, displaying a page with a list of Java games
When I first announced it, several people asked if I had any plans to make a #GeminiProtocol capsule. I wasn't really considering it at the time since I felt like I was accomplishing all I wanted to do with Gopher, but now I've decided I want to give it a shot. I installed Solderpunk's Molly Brown server (which I chose because it was the only one in Debian's repo) and, after much struggle with cert permissions, got it up and running.
For content, I went with the same thing as with Gopher: a gemlog powered by a snac-to-Gemini exporter. snac uses Markdown for formatting, which is of course very similar to Gemtext. I went back and edited my earlier blog posts to make them more Gemtext-like, which mostly meant adding header lines. The only real complication was inline links: I would need to strip them out of the Markdown source. Since I'm doing this all with shell scripts (as opposed to something like Python that'd probably work better), an actual Markdown parser wasn't really an option, so I decided to do it with a regex. The thing is, I'm not very good at writing regexes. After many, many fruitless searches trying to find an existing solution I came across a bash script that did what I wanted. The script itself was obvious vibe-coded filth, but it did contain a sed -E command that did exactly what I needed.
The exporter is a comically-inept hackjob and has a backslash-itis problem (which I imagine is coming from the JSON parser I'm using) but it does, somehow, work. Some day I'll see about redoing the whole thing in Python, but for now it's good enough.
Take a look if you're interested: gemini://gemini.n8fq.org
If he pulls it out, does he become king of China?
Oh sure. When *he* pulls it out, he gets to be king of China. But when *I* pull it out, I get put on a register!!!
@jillybeans "This is a summer town, we need summer dollars!"
The "we have to get back to normal for the economy" of 1975.
Somehow I don't think the $3000 bounty is going to cover their losses on this one...
@PurpleJillybeans What are the contractual implications of the party of the first part being split into two parts?
Which isn't necessarily a bad thing...
Still think tiny teenage mall tramp was kinda cute though.
There'd better be some stop motion in this movie or I'm going to be disappointed.
I'm sitting in a wind tunnel of box fans so having to turn the volume up a bit in hopes of hearing any of the dialogue. Not that dialogue is what any of us are here for. 😁
URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
National Weather Service Grand Rapids MI
231 AM EDT Sun Jun 28 2026
MIZ037>040-043>046-050>052-056>059-064>067-071>074-290015-
/O.NEW.KGRR.XH.A.0001.260629T1800Z-260703T0000Z/
Mason-Lake-Osceola-Clare-Oceana-Newaygo-Mecosta-Isabella-Muskegon-
Montcalm-Gratiot-Ottawa-Kent-Ionia-Clinton-Allegan-Barry-Eaton-
Ingham-Van Buren-Kalamazoo-Calhoun-Jackson-
Including the cities of Fremont, Grand Rapids, Grand Haven,
Charlotte, Muskegon, Lansing, Mount Pleasant, Greenville, Reed
City, St. Johns, South Haven, Baldwin, Ludington, Holland,
Kalamazoo, Jenison, Alma, Hart, Battle Creek, Ionia, Clare, Big
Rapids, Hastings, and Jackson
231 AM EDT Sun Jun 28 2026
...EXTREME HEAT WATCH IN EFFECT FROM MONDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH
THURSDAY EVENING...
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of
the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors.
Do not leave young children and pets in unattended vehicles. Car
interiors will reach lethal temperatures in a matter of minutes.
Farmers should take action now to protect vulnerable populations of
livestock, poultry and equines.
URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
National Weather Service Grand Rapids MI
126 PM EDT Sun Jun 28 2026
MIZ037>040-043>046-050>052-056>059-064>067-071>074-290130-
/O.UPG.KGRR.XH.A.0001.260629T1800Z-260703T0000Z/
/O.NEW.KGRR.XH.W.0001.260629T1800Z-260703T0000Z/
Mason-Lake-Osceola-Clare-Oceana-Newaygo-Mecosta-Isabella-Muskegon-
Montcalm-Gratiot-Ottawa-Kent-Ionia-Clinton-Allegan-Barry-Eaton-
Ingham-Van Buren-Kalamazoo-Calhoun-Jackson-
Including the cities of South Haven, Grand Haven, Muskegon, Mount
Pleasant, Clare, St. Johns, Charlotte, Jenison, Battle Creek,
Hastings, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Ludington, Alma, Ionia, Jackson,
Holland, Fremont, Kalamazoo, Baldwin, Hart, Reed City, Big
Rapids, and Greenville
126 PM EDT Sun Jun 28 2026
...EXTREME HEAT WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 2 PM MONDAY TO 8 PM EDT THURSDAY...
Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of
the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors.
🧚♀️ Fae of the Starlight ✨ [Fae/Faer or She/Her] » 🌐
@arisingvoice@weirder.earth
So, seems my laptop has reached its end of life, sadly and I'm in need of a new one.
I need it to:
• Have very good build quality
• Have cooling that will not fail
• Be easy to take apart, repair and upgrade
• Be compatible with Linux (and be designed as open as possible)
• Have enough graphics etc power to play fairly recent games and do graphics intensive work well.
With that all said, which of the following options would y'all recommend?
#AskFedi #InNeedOfALaptop #System76 #ThinkPad #Laptop #Laptops #PleaseHelpMeDecide #Linux #Gaming #LinuxGaming #GraphicDesign #LinuxGraphicsWork #GraphicsWork
| System76 (please specify model): | 1 |
| Thinkpad (please specify model): | 7 |
| Other (please specify make and model): | 3 |
Closed
OK movie. Not good, but somewhat entertaining.
OK movie. Not good, but somewhat entertaining.
@jillybeans@blog.n8fq.org Because it reached its preprogrammed maximum kill count, probably#Monsterdon #ClassOf1999
History