almanac.sh

RSS feed birthday

The first release of RSS was on March 15, 1999: Happy birthday!

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Colophon

almanac.sh a project curated Federico Poni; supported by a conversational agent known as dvd -- Davide Bevilacqua;

Technological Craft by Holly Zijderveld; Memory echoes by Federico Poni;

Tangible Cloud Oracle: Card design and text by Marloes de Valk; Coloring, design of the manual and production by Alex Levray; Box design by Muriel Gerhart; Riso printing by Rinan Deriez;

Thanks to every participant at the almanc.sh | init workshop;

Infrastructure by Servus.at;

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Here is the second alamac.sh bulletin.

Just an introduction:
Starting from the etymology of computation I would state that the act of computing is not only a mechanical discipline. Computation comes from Latin "computare", from "-com", together, plus "putare", to reckon. Computation is intrinsically a collective discipline, the act of "recognizing" together.

It's been a few years I'm interested in this wider meaning of computation. I hope we both can have epiphany on the topic. ciao.

Now, I hope there is a nice weather from where you are reading this bulletin + I hope your keyboard is working well, mine is not and I'm thinking about pigeons and handwritten mails for the next bulletin.

Would you like to receive postmails..? Let's think about it!

Last Minute edits:

happy new chinese year! The chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar, FYI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_calendar

Also, in a few days, the Ramadan will starts. Cheers to all the muslim sisters and brothers!
Quoting from Wikipedia: The annual observance of Ramadan is regarded as one of the five pillars of Islam and lasts 29 to 30 days, from one sighting of the crescent moon to the next.

Another Last Minute edit:

We're a bit late, but we prefer to take care of our personal issues rather then be extremely on time. ciaoooo

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2 February 2026: It was a night in full sun.

It was a night in full sun.
A dreamlike scene steeped in all its brutal realism. The moon, in addition to revealing itself, forces all organic and inorganic existence to show themselves. I walk towards the Holy Mountain without the need for artificial lights; indeed I left my smartphone at home: in addition to the solemnity of the moment of divination - which I want to be without artificial devices - I am beginning to feel pain in the tendons of my right hand these days.

The palliative of scrolling strikes me, galvanizes boredom and I suffer at the thought that we have tried to deconstruct boredom from the very beginning of our lives and now we have to totally relearn non-stimulation.

It may be dangerous to talk about the concept of contemplation, but I mention this practice to give myself and us a collective courage to lose ourselves in our thoughts without giving in to productivity planning, at least not before 1 minute immersed in nothingness.

Even if I left my cell phone at home, I feel like I'm starting to decode the messages coming and going from the antenna - the one I mentioned in my last writing. I activate my organic jammer, blocking the various electrical signals. I look with dark clarity at the evergreens trees that look like a Magritte canvas: there is no trace of wind, they stand stiff and motionless.

The days of the blackbird have just passed: a significant cold in the last three days of January, which according to popular belief means that winter will end soon.

I shuffled the cards and activated the random library of my gestures. If you don't understand what I'm talking about, take a look at the first bulletin.

XV digital discomfort

Two people are chained to a computer, on which the devil is seated. Their legs are tied by network and power cables. The devil greets you with a wistful hand gesture, remembering they were once a pagan god of nature, but were transformed by Christianity into a (d)evil symbolizing wild nature as subservient to mankind, in need of suppression and control.

VI server gardening

an angelical fixer balances one foot in the water and one foot on land, being both grounded and in a flow. Energy is preserved. They are repairing a broken laptop.

XIV waste of resource

A person on a chariot is holding a staff with a power button. They gaze victoriously into the distance, aware and in control, even without reins to steer. The chariot is not pulled because the two sphinxes that should be pulling are on their phones.

I resume writing about the cards after digesting the symbolic connotations of the three cards in several stomachs. Today is a sunny day. At Cà de Monti, Habitat's headquarters, we are three people, and we woke up in unison with a smile that is not too common: the gray weather of the last week was beginning to get us down.

Let's start with Digital Discomfort: pain in the right tendon is one expression of it :) Living with the complexity of digital chaos, surfing the discomfort it brings and trying to modulate it? Discomfort as solidarity in collective suffering... Contradictions are no longer a strange novelty but an obvious fact to be understood and experienced. But never bow: Server Gardening is precisely a form of infrastructural and aesthetic resistance. Governing and claiming your own digital space with vernacular tools (such as single HTML pages or open source repositories) is an important act.

Knowing where your website or blog file is physically located is wonderful and resilient. You know that you can take the server's hard drives out and throw it out the window, you know that it's okay for your online assets to be slow or unavailable for a few hours (I remember some Christian church related website whose server was turned off on Sundays), you know that the network is about relationships and that power should not be centralized nor decentralized, but distributed.

And above all, there is nothing more satisfying (yes, just for my nerdy ass and other fellow nerdy asses) than recovering a computer from a few decades ago and installing a Linux operating system without a graphical user interface and a web server on it. Instead of sending it to the dump, you have a working server. Set up port forwarding on your router and voilà, you're part of the internet infrastructure: Waste of resources, which is actually only waste when you consider it to be so, so it's a matter of choice.

I would like to mention the wonderful research carried out by Reincantamento friends: https://reincantamento-publishing.metalabel.com/nchant01

And also Nami Kim's HTML zine club: https://htmlzine.club/ Do you feel the HTML energy??

If you would like to propose other readings of these cards or reflections or comparisons, we are extremely curious, so please write to us! At poni at riseup dot net

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Computer-less computation. Weather forecast (or patterns?)

In the past, when there was no radio, television or internet to provide weather forecasts, p>

Here are some of these natural indicators:

• If clover stems stand upright, RAIN.
• If sorrel flowers bloom, GOOD WEATHER.
• Dew indicates good weather, while frost indicates RAIN.
• If the olive tree turns its leaves and becomes silver, RAIN.
• When the spider stretches its threads, it is a sign of fine, calm weather. But if the spider remains still and inert, it is a sign of RAIN.
• It is a sign of imminent RAIN when domestic pigeons return early to the farm.
• It is a sign of an approaching STORM when hens scratch in the dust and ruffle their feathers, or roosters crow at unusual hours.
• It is a sign of RAIN when birds clean their feathers and when swallows fly close to the ground, when sparrows gather in swarms on the ground chirping loudly.
• When fish jump out of the water, it is always a sign of RAIN coming, as when you see lizards hiding, tree frogs croaking, large snails moving around and flies being more annoying than usual.
• When pigeons fly offshore and return late, it is a sign of GOOD WEATHER: the same is true when swallows fly high, nightingales sing all night and mosquitoes swarm in their evening dances.
• If the moon is surrounded by a cloudy circle, it indicates RAIN; if its circle is red, it indicates WIND. If the moon shines without a halo, it will be GOOD WEATHER.

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Fire

A small chapter from my MA thesis, “Towards a cosmology for Rural Computing”

A common characteristic of any media is its relation to power. Ownership, management and maintenance of communication networks by organized societies have a big importance in their spread and expansion.

Let's dig into the classic western culture references system, let's see how the technic comes from greek mythology. A key character here is Prometheus, the Titan that challenged the gods by stealing fire from the heavens.

From this myth comes the term "Prometheanism", a term that describes an environmental orientation that perceives the World as a resource whose utility is determined primarily by human needs and interests. It sounds like a familiar problem, doesn't it?

There are different mythologies concerning creation and technics in China, Japan, India, etc… Each of these mythologies gives a different origin for technics, each case involves different relations between the gods, technics, humans, and the cosmos.

But "Prometheanism" states itself as universal, becoming a kind of quality at the core of capitalist globalization. Prometheus' story is well-known in the Mediterranean tradition, the narration in which the Titan brings fire to humans, however, often the entire story is not well known.

The myth narrates that it is Prometheus who created the human race. Tired of seeing the earth populated only by animals, he shapes some statues with clay, in the image and likeness of the gods. Athena blows on the statues and gives them life. Both humans and animals, however, are naked and helpless. Epimetheus, brother of Prometheus, is tasked with distributing qualities to the animals that can be used for survival. Epimetheus just forgot humans.

Zeus, king of the gods, thinks the human race is too weak to survive, without qualities. He then decides to give humans the coup de grace: to starve them, he demands from them the best parts of hunted animals. Prometheus moved with compassion, intervenes in defense of the human species. The Titan kills a bull. He then puts the bones in a bag, hidden by a layer of fat, and the good meat to eat in another bag. He then asks Zeus to choose one of the two bags. The content will be what men will have to sacrifice for eternity. Zeus, deceived by the layer of fat, chooses the bag with the bones. From that moment, only the bones of animals will be sacrificed to him during sacred ceremonies.

When he realizes that he has been deceived, Zeus was furious and decides to take the fire out of the men. Prometheus runs to their aid again. He steals an ember from the forge of Hephaestus, the god of fire, hides it in a fennel stalk and secretly brings it to earth.

This power and artfulness -- the Greek tekhnē -- is thus in humankind the result of a double fault: forgetfulness and theft. The name of Epimetheus translates to 'after teaching', in other words, hindsight. Forgetfulness, errors and foolishness produce hindsight. Epimetheus is the god of overconfidence in his own means, of presumption: its error is the original sin of technic.

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Four tips from the moon

from the “almanac.sh | init” workshop happened during AMRO24

Regular: use txt and markup files instead of docx

Necessary: Condensed your every day downloads to the size of a Floppy (1.44MB)

Evil: use multiple mice and keyboards or use none

Chaotic: write alt descriptions, don't take photos

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Hello,

We've been trying to reach you about your car's extended warranty. They got you a warrant for free. Did you, know that? Warranties are just growing these days. They give them away, they're everywhere so get yourself one that is extended just for you to fit in. And in the afternoon, you could get some hot tea and just wait there. No ads of course. Sign directly on your finger.

Appart from that you know life in the office is pretty tough these days but I don't really care. I just dig in there you know, I got my places. They won't take that away for sure. Felix sends you xeir teeth. The others here well they don't seem very blood-hearted these days. But you know what I got them in here, and9648 I cherish them just like we used to do together. Looking at faces and inducting love with one eye, a slight flinch you know, slightly noticeable ̶m̶i̶r̶r̶o̶r̶ twitch around the chin that says some quiet words. And I think about you when I can.

Make ̶m̶e̶ us remember your name, it's very important. And now the usual;

   Rabbit card biometrics: [PLEASE_FILL_THIS_FIELD]
        Life expectations: [PLEASE_FILL_THIS_FIELDS]
 The four symbols in the back: [PLEASE_FILL_THIS_FIELD]
             Title: [PLEASE_FILL_THIS_FIELD]
               Age: [FILL_THIS_FIELD_LATER]

Thank yourself. You will need it.
(Please understand that I hear your cries and they break my heart.)

Have one.
-- Breval on behalf of the Team

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The aim of almanac.sh is to attempt a non-technical reading of everyday (and not) technology, questioning its serialized use and escaping the complete full-productivity fetishism of current tech trends.

Proposing an esoteric approach to the aforementioned topics, we want to imagine a different narration for the devices we have in front of us right now, doing what machines cannot do: imagination and real randomness.

What we call a computer is an apparatus with different shapes (laptop, smartphone, wearable, IoT...): some have called it an extension of us, while others describe it as a fragmentation of perceptions and therefore an impoverishment of the original source. These days, the second vision seems probably the more fitting one.

Is the digital pool of memory that we call devices an extension of ourselves or a truncation of our inner (and possibly, ancestral) memory?

We won't (maybe) know, but we can invent and narrate some other stories, departing from a monolithic reality.

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Colophon

almanac.sh a project curated Federico Poni; supported by a conversational agent known as dvd -- Davide Bevilacqua;

Hello, a speculative poetic spam by Breval Ferrari;

The Weather Patterns was found on Almanacco Rurale 2023, text written by Paolo Prada;

Tangible Cloud Oracle: Card design and text by Marloes de Valk; Coloring, design of the manual and production by Alex Levray; Box design by Muriel Gerhart; Riso printing by Rinan Deriez;

Thanks to every participant at the almanc.sh | init workshop;

Infrastructure by Servus.at;

Here is the first alamac.sh bulletin. I (Federico) will begin by explaining how we got here.

The interest in the themes of this project is a synthesis of various topics that are generally not very popular. During my master's studies and the beginning of the Habitat project, I became interested in topics such as low-tech, the community use of technology and the concept of limits. I also encountered a sphere that I had not yet been able to decode, namely that of the metaphysical and the sacred. During those years (around 2022), Davide and I met at the Reassemble Lab in Amsterdam, where we began a friendship as well as sharing our concerns about the same topics. We were introduced by Marloes, who was also my thesis supervisor. I read one of her articles regarding a review of Computing within Limits related terminology and discovered the concept of permacomputing. Ecstatic about these discoveries, I tried to lay the foundations, outlining a cosmology of rural computing, which will often appear in the bulletins.

In 2023, Davide organised a research session at Servus.at where we started studying, unpacking and formulating meaning, especially regarding permacomputing. Almanac.sh is an output that came out of that week and from a workshop held at AMRO24

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Computer-less computation. Calculating the moons: the epact

The epact is a value that represents the age of the moon at the beginning of the new year and corresponds to the days separating the NEW MOON in December from 31st December (with some complicated exceptions that we will not discuss here).

Each year, the epact number increases by 11, and if the sum is greater than 30, then 30 is subtracted.

Remember that every 19 years, in 1976, 1995, 2014, 2033, 2052, 2071..., it increases by I2.

Thanks to the epact, at any time of the year you can know on which day the NEW MOON falls and, therefore, when the other three phases of the Moon fall (first quarter waxing, full moon, last quarter waning).

BUT TO MAKE THE CALCULATIONS CORRECTLY, YOU NEED TO KNOW THAT

• the epact is counted from 1 March: therefore, for the first two months of the year - January and February - the epact of the previous year is used. In our case: for 2026 the epact is 11, in 2025 the epact was 0, which should be used for January and February;

• each month, from March to February of the following year, corresponds to a month number ranging from 1 to 12: the “month number” for March is 1, April 2, May 3, June 4, July 5, August 6, September 7, October 8, November 9, December 10, January 11, February 12.

NOW LET'S LEARN HOW TO RECOGNISE WHEN THE NEW MOON OCCURS

• add the month number to the epact number (remember: from 1 March the number is going to be 11);

• if the total is greater than 30, then subtract 30, otherwise leave it as it is;

• subtract the result from 30 again (except for February, September and November: for these months, subtract from 29) and you will get the day of the NEW MOON;

There is little difference between the results obtained by calculating the epact and those obtained by astronomical calculation: at most one day, two at the most... The real difference, however, lies in another aspect: astronomical measurement requires complicated calculation tools, computers and scientists, while calculating the moon with the epact requires only ten fingers, and anyone can do it.

some example:

when is the new moon in January 2026?
0 (epact in january, considering the epact of previous year) + 11 (month number) = 11
30-11 = 19
the new moon is around the 19th of January. (the 18^th according to astronomical calculation)

When is the new moon in May 2026?

11 (epact of 2026) + 3 (month number) = 14
30-14 = 16
the new moon is on the 16th of May (It’s going to be the last day of AMRO26** :O ).

approximately: from the day of the new moon, subtract 7 days to get the LAST QUARTER; subtract 15 to get the FULL MOON; subtract 22 to get the FIRST QUARTER.

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3 January 2026: Full moon on a night with fast-moving clouds.

Living outside the city, light pollution is virtually non-existent and I can walk without a torch when our satellite allows it.

On the table in my garden, there are some mineral stones, probably calcite. The moon reflects a little light on them and makes them sparkle.

They are not used (at least for now) as amulets or anything else, they are just minerals found on the paths in the surrounding woods. They tell the story of thousands and thousands of years of chemical and physical events, and then, voilà, they sometimes reveal themselves during a walk. Holding the result of this complex geological struggle in my hand causes me conscious amazement and unconscious resonances on these themes. Or perhaps exactly the opposite.

I have decided that every full moon of the year I will do a reading of the Tangible Cloud Oracle - a deck of cards inspired by the classic Marseille Tarot. The major arcana are reworked with virtues and criticalities in the macro topic of “tech” and, in fact, we can consider it a dramaturgical tool.

With the deck in my hand, I head towards what at Habitat we call Holy Mountain. Perhaps it is more of a large clay rock, but that is not important. We consider it a bit of a hotspot, a basic beacon: it sends one signal, its existence. But that's not all: the symbolic connotation we attribute to it lies in the desire to stabilise the vertical dimension, a way to feel a connection with the up there. In the horizontal dimension, the stones were signals which revealed the geography of the place, serving to describe its physical structure and its productive and/or mystical-religious utilisation.

At our rock we perform, we contemplate the landscape from the top, we dance, we sing, we read poems.

In front of the hill there is a large antenna for mobile communications. I would like to quote the philosopher Gilbert Simondon:

Look at this antenna of television as it is… it is rigid but it is oriented; we see that it looks into the distance and that it can receive [signals] from an emitter far away. For me, it appears to be more than a symbol; it seems to represent a gesture of sorts, an almost magical power of intentionality, a contemporary form of magic. [...] there is a sort of “co-naturality” between the human network and the natural geography of the region.

Found at: Hui, Y. (2017). On Cosmotechnics. Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology, 21(2), pp.319--341

Here Simondon describes antennas in a way that goes beyond the limits of the language of technic, it embraces the gesture that the antenna implies: the environment, the ecosystem.

Conscientiously blocking further reflections, let's move on to the oracle... but first, a note on tarot: tradition says that it should be the images, symbols and figures on the cards that speak.

The ineffable meaning of the gesture represented cannot be fully decoded through words. Here we will do the opposite: no images in the almanac, only written words, for two reasons: in recent decades, we have been bombarded with images, and digital images are heavy, they have a real and tangible impact. Of course, anything, even this word, even this transmission via email or RSS feed, even keeping the computer on. But this publication will, by choice, be reduced to text only, without fancy styling or images.

Now I reveal the cards that were drawn that night:

IV asymettric shimmering

an old king in full armour sits on a throne with the logos of Big Tech. He is holding a webcam pointed at you.

X Retournment

a sphinx, representing wisdom, sits on a wheel carrying the alchemical symbols for mercury, sulphur, water and salt, which represent a process of unfolding change and chance. The Egyptian gods of destruction and death encircle the wheel. The whole scene is surrounded by radically different yet interdependent lifeforms.

VII degrow screentime

A person on a chariot is holding a staff with a power button. They gaze victoriously into the distance, aware and in control, even without reins to steer. The chariot is not pulled because the two sphinxes that should be pulling are on their phones.

The IV and X cards resonate with each other in an almost overbearing way. “Where are you within the matrix of power?”

The anxiety of power, of exercising it outside and inside oneself, of losing it and finding it, of abandoning it and demanding it. The sphinx encapsulates its virtue in the mystery of its form: lion's paws, human head, bull's pelvis, eagle's wings. Monolithic in size, diffractive in its symbols. Is it perhaps time to completely de-Google ourselves? Perhaps the atomisation of applications is frightening, as is going through a few more authentication steps and writing down passwords on pieces of paper?

But the transformation of habits is what resonates in the recipe for the philosopher's stone established in the wheel: gold lies in the distribution of power.

Even limiting oneself is power - a chosen power: freedom is sometimes a form of discipline. The VII proposes the very elegant gesture of setting a time limit on screen use. The time we spend on screens is mostly passive cognitive work.

If you would like to propose other readings of these cards or reflections or comparisons, we are extremely curious, so please write to us! At poni at riseup dot net

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Four tips from the moon

from the “almanac.sh | init” workshop happened during AMRO24

Regular: use a simple script that hybernate your PC every night.

Necessary: use a plugin that limits your browser to 10 (or some other number) of open tabs - annoying at first but after a few weeks- peace.

Evil: for any backup you do, delete two previous backups.

Chaotic: type photos (ASCII) instead of integrated them.

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A poem

Gelato

by Yuna Leonis

Grandir

ici, une glace à fondue,

un enfant est triste par la simple action du soleil

Ce n'est la faute que du soleil,

qui ne fait rien.

Elle a fondue et c'est tout.

L'enfant comprends que la disparition existe.

Ma se fosse stato mio, avrei pianto anch'io

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The aim of almanac.sh is to attempt a non-technical reading of everyday (and not) technology, questioning its serialized use and escaping the complete full-productivity fetishism of current tech trends.

Proposing an esoteric approach to the aforementioned topics, we want to imagine a different narration for the devices we have in front of us right now, doing what machines cannot do: imagination and real randomness.

What we call a computer is an apparatus with different shapes (laptop, smartphone, wearable, IoT...): some have called it an extension of us, while others describe it as a fragmentation of perceptions and therefore an impoverishment of the original source. These days, the second vision seems probably the more fitting one.

Is the digital pool of memory that we call devices an extension of ourselves or a truncation of our inner (and possibly, ancestral) memory?

We won't (maybe) know, but we can invent and narrate some other stories, departing from a monolithic reality.

---

Colophon

almanac.sh a project curated Federico Poni; supported by a conversational agent known as dvd -- Davide Bevilacqua;

Poem of the first new moon by Yuna Leonis <3;

Epact calculation instructions translated from "Almanacco Rurale 2023 - Miraluna" - Il Grup;

Tangible Cloud Oracle: Card design and text by Marloes de Valk; Coloring, design of the manual and production by Alex Levray; Box design by Muriel Gerhart; Riso printing by Rinan Deriez;

Thanks to every participant at the almanc.sh | init workshop;

Infrastructure by Servus.at;