t would be absolutely impossible for me to know when I began using IRC unless I somehow, miraculously, manage to have found the receipt for my modem purchase. My mom bought it for me. She probably won’t remember it anymore (I spoke to her in length yesterday, I still love her even if she has scarce understanding of what I do, she says I am “activist who focuses on battling corruption”).

I am pretty certain that it was a 14,400 bps (14.4K) Dynamode modem and I think my mother discarded the PC that I personally (manually) installed this on. I think I was 13 or 14 at the time (after I had begun programming). I will never forget how awful I felt when I tried to install a hard drive (I think it was a year later) and caused it to blow up/burn (rancid smoke) due to stupidity/sloppiness. It wasn’t new, it was just about 50 megabytes in size (compared to my 170 megabytes main drive), and I paid not much for it (a friend sold it to me at school). I didn’t ask for a refund, I think I paid only about 10 pounds, maybe 20+ pounds in today’s money.

I think this was the first time I installed hard drive using my bare fists and a screwdriver. We didn’t “google it” (this predates Google and you’d need a modem to read the Web) and there was no YouTube. Cable television had no show in the programme that said, “watch how to install a hard drive or modem.”

The modem installation was a lot easier (fewer bits to plug in) and they say you only ever learn from errors. At age 19 I fixed my own laptop; it cost me 1-2 pounds (components from RS Components) instead of over 200 pounds at the repair shop.

IRC was one of the first things I used once connected at home and about 32 years later I administer IRC at a fairly large network.

I still love IRC. It’s not perfect. As a grownup, last year and this year I got to explain to High Court judges what IRC is and how it works.

Thanks, mom, for buying me that modem. I’ve been on the Net since then! And that no longer hijacks the phone line at home.

do not look forward to the LFC match as it might be the first match for Enzo not to win. Thankfully, we’re more than 3 weeks away from that, owing to a long break. The players could use a recess.

The next match (Sunday) is here and we plan – weather permitting – to visit the park again. It’s our day to relax and the weather is expected to be cooperative.

Today we received our energy bill and I think it is our lowest in years, it’s under 70 pounds! I keep hearing from couples that pay over 200 per month, especially during winters. I attribute this to energy efficiency and a lack of nonsensical, energy-wasting gadgets. The laptops are configured to snooze when unattended and it probably helps a lot. High-voltage ‘gadgets’ (home appliances) are a luxury except a few.

In terms of expenses, we still enjoy football and need not pay for it. We can see summaries and live updates online, I can see the stadium from my desk (while seated) and hear the audience chanting when there’s a goal, booing, a near miss/hit, or penalty awarded. Sometimes it can even wake me up (if the window is open).

I think we’ve learned and got accustomed to living a simple life.

Life’s simplicity if the secret to happiness.

e have returned home from 3 rounds of bird-feeding to catch up with news and post critical links. It is a very successfully planned and a fun anniversary so far today. Tomorrow it’s already our 15^th year of happy marriage and we’ve exchanged cards; it sounds silly/corny, sure, but we’re romantic and simple like that. We know how to make a lot out of little, or how to pursue real happiness and personal freedom even on a very small budget.

Next year (2027) we hope or look forward to having our case heard by the Court of Appeal (if appeal is granted, or permission for it gets granted, which can take time and persistence).

n a matter of ~2 weeks Wikileaks (not Wikipedia) is turning 20. I used to write a great deal here about Wikileaks and some accounts associated with Wikileaks wished to replicate some of my posts.

Over the years many pro-Wikileaks accounts perished in Twitter (now X) and Wikileaks’ Twitter handle has been dead for months. I wonder if Wikileaks will bother saying anything at all on the day it turns 20.

he irrelevant loser who sends my wife and I veiled threats via social control media (all he ever does to people is threaten them; he does so even to his own spouse) is talking to himself again. Nobody bothers reading what he says, yet he insists that he has reputation. When it comes to technology, 2-3 days were not enough for him to fix a laptop and he simply gave up. This means that his lack of reputation in tech is also self-evident. He has no publications in that area because he is a pretending-at-best socialite and a thug, a bully.

Dealing with bullies is a common problem. There are ways to deal with it.

Having become known for restricted boot infamy, he is not popular. As a purveyor of restricted boot (who landed restricted boot in Linux), he’s known for sucking up to monopolies. He acts like them, too.

T is rather amusing to see how discussion about an anonymity group was ended abruptly by the FSF’s Eko Kai Alanah Owen because of a sort of CoC that basically says: talk about this, but not about that…

From what I can gather, the only thing making it “political” was the Cheeto Dictator in the United States, otherwise it’s a topic of a technical and legal nature.

We probably deserve a discussion about censorship and deplatforming that is not painted with political brushes (to avoid having the discussion).

As of 3 hours ago, one of them who is connected to the threats issued a public veiled threat and it should not be taken lightly. 2 months ago he failed to attend his own hearing (this was wilful, he made this choice), now he is trying to compensate for it with threats made online, from America, via social control media.

Stay classy. Remember this is the man who is the principal purveyor of restricted boot and who landed restricted boot in Linux. It’s causing problems this month. It impacts many millions of people.

t is our special day today and at 4AM I gave my card. Despite people trying to blackmail and intimidate us this year, it has been a productive year and we see those terrorisation tactics as signals of weakness, of utter defeat.

Tomorrow it is Software Freedom Day 2026 [1, 2] and we have some plans for that. Freedom is not measured in money (which some conflate with safety or certainty), freedom is a more intricate concept. People who have freedom know and feel what it means.

Last night we visited the stadium and fed birds. It cost less than a pound but was very rewarding and without time constraints.

As I like to put it, why wait until retirement to do the things many people “wait until retirement” to do?

nother win for Enzo some hours ago, a perfect winning streak so far this season, and new talent found in the process. Quoting BBC: <>em>”Samba was prolific in City’s under-18 side last season and those impressive performances led to him being promoted to the first-team set-up by new manager Enzo Maresca this summer.” (Video of highlights)

Sunderland is next.

I woke up around midnight to try to publish a lot before we leave the home.

‘ve just returned from the park and stadium (which we went past twice ahead of Enzo’s first cup match for this club). They play music there and the staff outnumbers the spectators at these early hours.

Despite unpredictable weather we went to feed the flock of 70+ birds and it was fantastic. There were some sunny spells too and the ducks joined in.

Tonight we eat popcorn with cheese and tomorrow we have an exceptional schedule, including card exchange.

I am still eagerly awaiting the birthday of GNU. GNU/Linux is going mainstream this year.