An emoji house with a shining star over it

social.pollux.casa

Profile for adele

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Display name
Adële 🐁
Username
@adele@social.pollux.casa
Role
admin

About adele

Fields

Blog
https://adele.pages.casa/md/
Smolweb
https://smolweb.org/
Static hosting
https://pages.casa/
Gemini hosting
https://pollux.casa/
Email/XMPP hosting
https://message.casa/

Bio

aka 아델
#French 🇫🇷​ #PHP / #JavaScript and #Java developer
#Korean 🇰🇷 ancestry (but I don’t speak the language)
Into #SmolWeb, #GeminiProtocol, #Smolnet, #LowTech
#ArchLinux / #Debian user
#Markdown 🇲⬇️ enthusiast
Instance running #GotToSocial 🦥
fr / en
:straightally:

Stats

Joined
Posts
930
Followed by
1137
Following
299

Recent posts

include boosts

The charm of ASCII smileys :-)

on my blog

Nowadays, it's easy to forget about ASCII smileys. These simple text faces were the first way to show feelings online. They have a special place in the history of the internet and in my heart.

A bit of history

The story of ASCII smileys starts in the early 1980s. Back then, the internet was just beginning, and people mostly communicated through text. Scott Fahlman, a computer scientist, had an idea. He suggested using :-) for jokes and :-( for serious comments. This small idea changed how we talk online forever.

Simple and for everyone

ASCII smileys are wonderfully simple. Unlike today's emojis, they look the same no matter where you see them. In an email or a text message, they always look familiar. This makes them a reliable way to share feelings.

But their simplicity is deceptive. With just a few keystrokes, you can make many different expressions. Some examples for youngest readers:

  • ;-) for a wink
  • :-D for a big grin
  • :'( for crying
  • >:-( for anger
  • :-/ for skepticism

These little combinations let us express a lot, even in plain text.

A touch of nostalgia

For those of us who remember the early days of the internet, ASCII smileys bring back memories. They remind us of simpler times, of chat rooms and the first social media sites.

Using ASCII smileys today can be a fun way to remember the past. It connects us with others who share those memories. It's a small way to celebrate how digital communication has evolved.

A spark of creativity

ASCII smileys also encourage creativity. With just a few characters, you can make unique faces. This adds a personal touch to your messages. For example, ^_^ can show a playful tone, and :-| can show indifference.

This creativity can be fun. Challenge your friends to make their own smileys. Use them to add a personal touch to your messages. I like and often use ^^. I remember a friend using o_0 because of his asymmetrical face caused by a childhood illness, we knew it was him when we read the forum posts!

Why they still matter

Even with all the new emojis, ASCII smileys are still around. They are used in emails, texts, and forums. Their appeal is in their simplicity and universality.

ASCII smileys are a nice return to basics. They remind us that simple things can be very effective. They also allow us to send plain text emails without worrying about compatibility issues.

So next time you write a message, think about adding an ASCII smiley. It's a small way to connect with the past and add a bit of personality to your words.

I like #CLI and #TUI tools. I use them everyday to read my emails, edit code, manage my agenda and todo list, access some websites and gemini capsules, even chat with my local LLM...

I miss these tools when I use my phone. I sometimes use ConnectBot to access them on one of my machines via ssh, but the phone keyboard and the screen size don't give me the same satisfaction.

Have you tried to use an external #keyboard with your Android phone to play with CLI/TUI software? Is it a solution? Which keyboard?

Are thin clients always used in GNU/Linux environment?
I mean dumb X terminals connected to a shared PC in multiuser mode.
Anybody here doing this at home?

I find this clever to have only one big PC, up-to-date and just basic terminals.

Which lightweight multi-accounts web platform (libre, I can install on my server) to publish #markdown content would you recommend?
I want something that produces simple web page (without js or heavy framework)
Each user has its own site/blog as a subfolder or a subdomain of the instance
#smolweb #smallweb

pollux.casa is offline due to a DSL problem.

The internet connection will be changed from DSL to fibre as soon as possible.

So, Pollux.casa #Gemini #capsule hosting is not available.

Edit: fibre installation is planed on 4th June between 06:30 and 10:30 UTC

#geminiprotocol #smolnet

So much money to protect nations… from the people who need help

The world is turning into something I don’t recognise, and certainly not something I like[...]

➡️​ https://adele.pages.casa/md/blog/so_much_mony_to_protect_nations.md

➡️​ gemini://adele.pollux.casa/gemlog/2025-05-31_so_much_mony_to_protect_nations.gmi

The pollux.casa server sometimes experiences load peaks due to AI training crawlers and search engines.

pollux.casa allows hosted Gemini capsules to be accessible through both https and gemini protocols. Of course, it's on the https side that the crawlers come into play.

Since the main reason for having a #capsule on pollux.casa is to offer it on the #smolnet #gemini, I'm going to take the liberty of installing a crawler blocker on the https version.

#smolweb #geminiprotocol