Links 30/08/2026: Apple Rant and LLM (Slop) Scrapers Target Gemini Protocol and Gopher

A new AI MCP server for the Gemini protocol and Gopher has been released, lacking robots.txt support but including a rate limiter for Gemini that defaults to 60 seconds on '44 Slow Down' status, with configurable rate limiting for both protocols. The server was highlighted in a blog post by Michael Nordmeyer on August 30, 2026, expressing concern about AI scraping of these platforms.

Links 30/08/2026: Apple Rant and LLM Slop Scrapers Target Gemini Protocol and Gopher Contents - Gemini and Gopher - Personal/Opinions - september decks gemini://dogboy.smol.pub/septemberdecks took these out a week early as well. they don't really "go together" - the italian is more of an end of summer deck while the cat people are fully autumn, so they match the vibes of the month despite not aesthetically gelling together. - THESE BOOTS WERE MADE FOR ROLLING gopher://aussies.space:70/0/~freet/phlog/2026-08-30These Boots Were Made for Rolling.txt Before I glance at my mile-long weekend jobs list and inevitably see something that makes me realise "oh no, I really need to drop everything and do that", I'll jot down some notes on one of my simple, seemingly successful, but quite long-running DIY attempts. In 2024-01-02Fitting Tyres on my Carport.txt I babbled on about reusing old tyres to make weatherproof shade flaps hanging off the roof of my carport, which besides the minor inconvenience of causing my carport to collapse has otherwise worked out pretty well since I rebuilt it. Then recently I talked in the ideas section 2026-07-04Tyre Road.txt about using earth-filled tyres for building roads and car ramps, the latter being somewhere so far down my weekend to-do list that I haven't actually bothered writing it on physical copies yet, but definitely intended. - - Technology and Free Software - Dissociated Jekyll And Hyde 📖 gemini://freeshell.de/gemlog/2026-05-06 Dissociated Jekyll And Hyde.gmi You feed it some text and it returns you a mangled version that almost makes sense, but not quite. My implementation always begins at the beginning which helps for inputs that start with something recognisable. Project Gutenberg is a good place to get suitable texts. Here's what it did with "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde". - They said Mac is easy to use gopher://sdf.org:70/0/users/jirka/Phlog/2026 08 01.txt Well, we have a new Apple machine at work - the MacBook Neo. Yes, that think which looks like a computer but has old phone internals. Looks good, of course. But... Well, we have it for travelling. That means generally just the e-mail, some basic WWW browsing/searching, a bit of note taking, and maybe reading of various stuff in PDF. For that things it should be fully adequate. But, of course, I wished to do a little bit more. I do have a few Tcl/Tk programs which I sometimes wish to use or to showcase to someone. And the MacOS is said to have the Tcl/Tk interpreter build in. So yes, it does have the Tcl/Tk 8.6. You can click on the Tcl/Tk program and it will start. Easy, of course. - Internet/Gemini - FYI, There’s an AI MCP Server for the Gemini Protocol and Gopher gemini://michaelnordmeyer.com/transmissions/2026-08-30-fyi-theres-an-ai-mcp-server-for-the-gemini-protocol-and-gopher.gmi Of course, it was only a question of time, but it doesn’t feel great nonetheless. This MCP has no support for robots.txt , but at least a rate limiter for Gemini that uses a default of 60 seconds if the return status is 44 Slow Down , and configurable rate limiting for Gemini and Gopher. - If I could turn back time gemini://kunulo.smol.pub/2026-08-30-turn-back-time I was a blogger for a long time. You could say that I was blogging before I knew what blogging was. In the last couple of years of the 1990s I had acquired a bit of webspace and was handcoding an HTML page with updates perhaps 2 or 3 times a week, sharing random thoughts with the world. OK, not blogging exactly, but certainly "blogging adjacent". I bought my first web domain in the year 2000 and suddenly I was able to install and run Perl scripts. I had barely the faintest idea about Perl, but the possibilities were exciting. I had some big ideas, almost none of which came anywhere near being realised — there was a wiki, a forum and a webmail offer as I recall — but I enjoyed the interaction with others that they provided. The possibilities for community were intriguing. - - - Programming - Lua as a practical "soft-bedrock" language gemini://zaibatsu.circumlunar.space/~solderpunk/gemlog/lua-as-a-practical-soft-bedrock-language.gmi The folks behind the Lua programming language maintain a page detailing the release dates of all released versions of the language. My favourite thing about that page is that right at the top there is a graphical timeline, with years marked below the line and a little vertical marker above the line at the appropriate place for each release. This timeline makes it immediately obvious at a glance that Lua is doing something all software projects ought to aspire to but very few actually manage to achieve: it is slowing down. - - Gemini Primer /gemini links can be opened using Gemini software https://geminiprotocol.net/software/ . It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter. Image source : Portuguese Old Town https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=18457&picture=portuguese-old-town