February 2026

The Gemini Protocol in 2026: growing, but still not setting the Internet aflame (publ. Feb 2026, edit. Mar 2026)

The Gemini protocol has been around for over five years, but the world-wide web remains broken. This articles reviews what's changed for the better over the last five years -- and what hasn't.

Categories: small web

This site is now webmention-aware (publ. Feb 2026, edit. Mar 2026)

This site now supports webmention, so you can notify me easily if you respond to one of my posts on your own site or blog.

Categories: small web

Command-line hacking: a really simple console music player (Feb 2026)

Select a directory from a list, and play all the music files in that directory. How difficult can that be?

Categories: Linux, command-line hacking

Rant: 2026 will not be the 'Year of Linux on the Desktop' -- and I'm glad (Feb 2026)

Why are we complaining about the smallness of the proportion of desktop computers that run Linux -- perhaps we should be celebrating instead?

Categories: Linux

Battle of the privacy-focused search engines: Kagi vs. DuckDuckGo (Feb 2026)

Kagi and DuckDuckGo both provide reasonable alternatives to Google's and Microsoft's search services, without compromising your privacy. How different are they?

Categories: degoogling

Digital voice assistants vs. privacy in 2026 (Feb 2026)

What's going on with digital voice assistants? Are they really snooping on us all the time?

Categories: degoogling