Gopher: proddev

	________________________________________
	|Stuff I've developed in the past or |
	|are currently screwing with at the |
	| moment! |
	|______________________________________|
	My notes on a private PTT radio network	plain
	02JAN25
	Instant Messaging Client
	I have a certain affection for early IM
	clients. I feel a sense of loss and longing
	for them. This is despite the fact that we
	have SMS and almost every social network has
	some sort of 'DM' system. I will write some
	where else on the gopher about my 'why'.
	(I think I may have already typed most of my
	'why')
	I wanted to create a closed network client
	and chose to repurpose an XMPP client to
	do this.
	Despite being a closed network being completely
	against the spirit of XMPP there is a good
	reason. I require the ability to install stable
	private messengers in controlled environments.
	The turn key solutions for these such as corporate
	Slak, Teams and the like are EXPENSIVE.
	They also just feel so gross. There is zero room
	for fun. My company is not really all that fun itself
	but it is purposefuly made to feel stiff and dated.
	Much like IM clients I have an affinity for that
	mid 2000's phone company aesthetic with silvers,
	grays, greens and blues. Despite the somewhat
	drab exterior of the industry during that time I
	have distinct memories of taking my J2ME devices
	(I had many) and loading Trillian, Pigin, IIRC
	AIM, YIM, Zoiper, Viber to try them all out at
	least once. Anything to try to get past my SMS
	message limit. What's a data limit, am I right??
	I loved that despite the drab confining externals
	of the device and the backwards and some times
	obtuse nature of these app UIs, there were all
	kinds of interesting groups of people hanging out
	sharing weird pictures, videos, emojis and it wasn't
	for mass attention on a social media stage. It was
	happening on my boring silver brick while I was at
	the laundry mat, specifically for me and all 5 to
	10 people chatting. Fun times.
	This is the feeling I am going for. It does exactly
	as advertised. It sends messages and pictures, negotiates
	calls and video chats. Nothing else. There is no
	social net component, no contact lookup. I do allow
	'rooms' and have also grafted a window for feed
	viewing that gives links and user stats on various
	public rooms. I have easter egged my own emoji boards
	that you can get to by submitting a string into the
	chat input. Later I plan on also having hidden sticker
	boards as well.
	I will also place a link here as I make more progress
	-----
	The Astral Projector/Psi Daddy
	An improvement on some of the other
	underground 'digital drugs' being marketed.
	Sold the concept and all remaining on hand
	supply to a family that owns a well known
	smoking and glass supply company that
	franchises to other people. Think McDonalds
	for headshops. In the early 2000s that was a
	new concept!
	Some pictures	gopher-menu
	23OCT24
	There was a plucky little company that
	produced a product "Voodoo Majick Box" that
	was one of the first commercial available
	recreational digital drugs. It was produced
	in Canada. It was primarily targeted at
	the 'rave' scene and they played up the
	'digital drug' aspect of it way before
	the concept of binaural or electric
	entrainment were making the rounds on the
	2010s net'. As I have time I will post some
	of the golden pictures from their now defunct
	site. Compared to other devices available
	it was cheaper but not as available. They
	seemed to use scarcity as a gimmick (the
	law always on their trail!)
	27DEC24
	I have big kicking around investigating some
	of the devices the chinese companies are
	selling.
	There is one in particular on AliExpress that
	has a 5.00 - 10.00 price point with ear clips.
	It took me a few weeks but I was able to get
	in touch with an 'engineer' at the company that
	packages the devices. He shared translated
	spec sheets that show these devices have a
	10 - 25 hz mode and a 125 - 200hz mode. On the
	board itself there are four traces that go where
	the switches for the the modes go but aren't
	hooked to anything. This same company has a
	'premium' version of the same devices that does
	two other frequency modes with an extra switch.
	I'm thinking I am going to take a gamble on the
	cheaper ones and attempt to modify one.
	Cranial Electro Stimulation is really interesting.
	These devices don't do anything more than emit
	a charge at a set frequency, usually via the ears
	using clips or electrode pads to the forehead.
	The feeling achieved from using CES depends on
	the current and frequency. Low frequency brings
	on a slow pulse with jumping visuals and lighted
	distortions in the sides of one's vision. Higher
	frequencies over time cause a spacey, buzzy
	feeling much like MJ. Once the device is turned
	off, it's done. The effects over time aren't
	minimized and in my experience there is no potential
	for addiction or for abuse.
	What interests me about this is there are little
	to no downsides to this product. It by all measures
	is the drug for consumer convenience. No smells,
	no addiction, no stigma. These are all things
	that SHOULD make it an easy sell but from my
	experience were all the things that made it
	hard to sell.
	The druggies were amused but it didn't look like
	drugs and didn't leave lasting reverberations
	after. It was almost like since it could be
	immediately turned off that it wasn't 'real'. I
	supposed that part of the 'escape' of drugs is
	that you never know quite when it'll be over.
	The squares all seemed convinced there had to be
	some catastrophic downside. The ones that used it
	for more than a 3 week period told me that they
	couldn't shake the feeling they were doing something
	bad. One lady handed over the device at the end of
	her trial and told me she didn't like having it
	on her person and that it made her paranoid some
	one would see it and ask her about it.
	In the last 10 years I have seen the crowd funding
	community get a few CES/Neural entrainment projects
	and it seems like they have been able to chip away
	at this a little bit. The problem with most of
	these projects is that they have set their prices
	at an astronomical amount or have gone down the
	clinical medical device route. I think these two
	things have caused damage to the concept because
	it's either viewed as an overpriced gimmick or
	somethings that regulators can now poke at and
	attempt to control.