Surprisingly, the sky got quite some lovely colors this evening. I approve! https://lyse.isobeef.org/abendhimmel-2025-08-21/
You can explicitly use colors in manpages. I saw this in the apt manpage of Ubuntu recently, which, for some reason, uses blue text in one place:
https://movq.de/v/de5ab72016/s.png
Makes little sense to me. I’m glad that most manpages don’t do this. I wouldn’t want unicorn vomit all over the place.
Using colors can be done using the low level commands \m and \M:
.TH foo_program 3
\m[blue]I'm blue\m[], da ba dee.
\m[red]\M[yellow]I'm red on yellow.\m[]\M[]
This is quite horrible.
@kat@yarn.girlonthemoon.xyz On the one hand, all these programs have a very long history and the technology behind manpages is actually very powerful – you can use it to write books:
https://www.troff.org/pubs.html
I have two books from that list, for example “The UNIX programming environment”:
https://movq.de/v/c3dab75c97/upe.jpg
It’s a bit older, of course, but it looks and feels like a normal book, and it uses the same tech as manpages – which I think is really cool. 😎
It’s comparable to LaTeX (just harder/different to use) but much faster than LaTeX. You can also do stuff like render manpages as a PDF (man -Tpdf cp >cp.pdf) or as an HTML file (man -Thtml cp >cp.html). I think I once made slides for a talk this way.
On the other hand, traditional manpages (i.e., ones that are not written in mandoc) do not use semantic markup. They literally say, “this text is bold, that text over here is italics”, and so on.
So when you run man foo, it has no other choice but to show it in black, white, bold, underline – showing it in color would be wrong, because that’s not what the source code of that manpage says.
Colorizing them is a hack, to be honest. You’re not meant to do this. (The devs actually broke this by accident recently. They themselves aren’t really aware that people use colors.)
If mandoc and semantic markup was more commonly used, I think it would be easier to convince the devs to add proper customizable colors.
@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org @kat@yarn.girlonthemoon.xyz Colorized manpages have been a thing for a very long time:
https://movq.de/v/81219d7f7a/s.png
Problem is, hardly anybody knows this, because you configure this by … drumroll … overwriting TERMCAP entries of less in your ~/.bashrc:
export LESS_TERMCAP_md=$'\e[38;5;3m' # Bold
export LESS_TERMCAP_me=$'\e[0m' # End Bold
export LESS_TERMCAP_us=$'\e[4;38;5;6m' # Underline
export LESS_TERMCAP_ue=$'\e[0m' # End Underline
export GROFF_NO_SGR=1 # Needed since groff 1.23
@movq@www.uninformativ.de @kat@yarn.girlonthemoon.xyz I also wondered for a very long time why nobody improved the man experience in the terminal. I’d love to see links and more colors.
@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org Oh, huh, maybe it was just my GNOME 2 themes back then that didn’t show the icon. 🤔
I like the looks of your window manager. That’s using Wayland, right?
Oh, no. It’s still X11. All my recent Wayland comments resulted from me trying to switch, but I think it’s still too early. Being unable to use QEMU (because it can’t capture the mouse pointer) is a pretty big blocker for me. This is completely broken, it just happens to be unnoticeable with modern guest OSes, so it’s probably not a priority for devs.
(Not to mention that I would have to fork and substantially extend dwl in order to “replicate” my X11 WM. And then, after having done that, I’d have to follow upstream Wayland development, for which I don’t have the resources. Things would need to slow down before I can do that.)
all that wasted space of the windows not making use of the full screen!!!1
Heh. I’ve been using tiling WMs for ~15 years now, so it’s actually kind of refreshing to see something different for a change. 😅
Probably close to the older Windowses.
That particular theme is a ripoff of OS/2 Warp 3: https://movq.de/v/6c2a948882/s.png 😅
We ran some similar brownish color scheme (don’t recall its name) on Win95 or Win98
Oh god. Yeah, I wasn’t a fan of those, either. 🥴
@movq@www.uninformativ.de According to this screenshot, KDE still shows good old application icons: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/KDE_Plasma_5.21_Breeze_Twilight_screenshot.png
And GNOME used to have them, too: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Gnome-2-22_%284%29.png
I like the looks of your window manager. That’s using Wayland, right? The only thing on this screenshot to critique is all that wasted space of the windows not making use of the full screen!!!1 At least the file browser. 8-)
This drives me nuts when my workmates share their screens. I really don’t get it how people can work like that. You can’t even read the whole line in the IDE or log viewer with all the expanded side bars. And then there’s 200 pixels on the left and another 300 pixels on the right where the desktop wallpaper shows. Gnaa! There’s the other extreme end when somebody shares their ultra wide screen and I just have a “regularish” 16:10 monitor and don’t see shit, because it’s resized way too tiny to fit my width. Good times. :-D
Sorry for going off on a tangent here. :-) Back to your WM: It has the right mix of being subtle and still similar to motif. Probably close to the older Windowses. My memory doesn’t serve me well, but I think they actually got it fairly good in my opinion. Your purple active window title looks killer. It just fits so well. This brown one (https://www.uninformativ.de/blog/postings/2025-07-22/0/leafpads.png) gives me also classic vibes. Awww. We ran some similar brownish color scheme (don’t recall its name) on Win95 or Win98 for some time on the family computer. I remember other people visting us not liking these colors. :-D
Folks, another unicorn vomited in our sky tonight: https://lyse.isobeef.org/abendhimmel-2025-07-19/

We covered quite some ground in the two and a half hours today. The weather was nice, mostly cloudy and just 23°C. That’s also why we decided to take a longer tour. We saw four deer in the wild, three of which I managed to just ban on film, quality could be better, though. My camera produced a hell lot of defocused photos this time. Not sure what’s going on with the autofocus. https://lyse.isobeef.org/waldspaziergang-2025-07-10/
When the sun came out, colors were just beautiful:

We got some colorful spots in the sky this evening: https://lyse.isobeef.org/abendhimmel-2025-07-08/

@prologic@twtxt.net Yeah, this really could use a proper definition or a “manifest”. 😅 Many of these ideas are not very wide spread. And I haven’t come across similar projects in all these years.
Let’s take the farbfeld image format as an example again. I think this captures the “spirit” quite well, because this isn’t even about code.
This is the entire farbfeld spec:
farbfeld is a lossless image format which is easy to parse, pipe and compress. It has the following format:
╔════════╤═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ Bytes │ Description ║
╠════════╪═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
║ 8 │ "farbfeld" magic value ║
╟────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╢
║ 4 │ 32-Bit BE unsigned integer (width) ║
╟────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╢
║ 4 │ 32-Bit BE unsigned integer (height) ║
╟────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╢
║ [2222] │ 4x16-Bit BE unsigned integers [RGBA] / pixel, row-major ║
╚════════╧═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
The RGB-data should be sRGB for best interoperability and not alpha-premultiplied.
(Now, I don’t know if your screen reader can work with this. Let me know if it doesn’t.)
I think these are some of the properties worth mentioning:
- The spec is extremely short. You can read this in under a minute and fully understand it. That alone is gold.
- There are no “knobs”: It’s just a single version, it’s not like there’s also an 8-bit color depth version and one for 16-bit and one for extra large images and one that supports layers and so on. This makes it much easier to implement a fully compliant program.
- Despite being so simple, it’s useful. I’ve used it in various programs, like my window manager, my status bars, some toy programs like “tuxeyes” (an Xeyes variant), or Advent of Code.
- The format does not include compression because it doesn’t need to. Just use something like bzip2 to get file sizes similar to PNG.
- It doesn’t cover every use case under the sun, but it does cover the most important ones (imho). They have discussed using something other than RGBA and decided it’s not worth the trouble.
- They refrained from adding extra baggage like metadata. It would have needlessly complicated things.
i ordered some fun colorful new minidiscs so i can finally get back to recording my mixes :D looking forward to it
Deals: M4 MacBook Air for $812! MacBook Pro 16″ M4 Max 48GB/1TB for $3440, & More
Amazon isn’t letting up on the great deals, with the M4 Macbook Air 13″ model now being offered at just $812 for the base 13″ model with 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD, and Midnight color. You can also get great deals on other colors, but the cheapest by far is the dark Midnight color at the … [Read More](https://osxdaily.com/2025/06/03/deals-m4-macbook-air-for-812-macbook-pro-16 … ⌘ Read more
Deals: Up to $198 Off M4 MacBook Air in 13″ & 15″
Amazon is offering nice discounts on the M4 MacBook Air series, in either the 13″ or 15″ screen sizes. You’ll find the best deal on the 24GB RAM models ($198 off the 24GB / 512GB model in 13″!), but there are discounts available on all memory/storage configurations and color options (Sky Blue, Midnight, Starlight, Silver). … Read More ⌘ Read more
10 Ancient “Smart” Materials Scientists Still Can’t Reproduce
As civilizations from Rome to the Maya harnessed empirical ingenuity to create materials with built-in healing, color-shifting, or structural resilience, they left behind recipes that modern science is only now decoding. From rust-proof iron pillars and self-repairing concrete to nanotech-level glass and ancient vulcanized rubber, these ten remarkable “smart” materials demonstrate how our ancestors engineered […] … ⌘ Read more
Deals: iPad mini 7 for $399
iPad mini 7 is a powerful miniature tablet that features the A17 processor with Apple Intelligence support, 8″ LCD display, a 12mp front and rear camera, 128 GB storage, USB-C charging, and support for optional Apple Pencil Pro. iPad mini is offered in multiple color options at this 20% discount price, taking $100 off the … Read More ⌘ Read more
10 Times Governments Banned Colors for Bizarre Reasons
When we think of banned things, we tend to imagine books, political speech, or the occasional controversial cartoon. But throughout history, governments have cracked down on something far stranger: colors. Whether tied to class, ideology, or sheer paranoia, certain shades have been restricted, outlawed, or made dangerous to wear—all because they said too much without […]
The post [10 Times Governments Banned Colors for Biz … ⌘ Read more
Deals: Up to $173 Off M4 MacBook Air in 13″ & 15″
Amazon is taking up to $173 off the price of the new M4 MacBook Air series, in both 13″ and 15″ display sizes, and in a variety of RAM, SSD storage, and color configurations (Sky Blue, Midnight, Starlight, Silver). The M4 MacBook Air features an M4 chip with Apple Intelligence support, LCD display in 13″ … Read More ⌘ Read more
IT ROCKS!! oh my god do they do their art on paper with colored pencils then scan it & tweak everything digitally….. it looks it…… sick :0
Forgot to post these here: A bunch of Mandelbrot images using the trans, ace, and aro color palettes.
More and full res PNGs:
Love all the funky colors though 😎
I’m keeping this color scheme on my laptop for now:
Why did Windows 7, for a few months, log on slower if you have a solid color background?
Time for another story from Raymond Chen, about why, in Windows 7, logging in took 30 seconds if you had set a solid colour as your background. Windows 7’s logon system needs to wait for a number of tasks to be completed, like creating the taskbar, populating the desktop with icons, and setting the background. If all of those tasks are completed or 30 seconds … ⌘ Read more
Why did Windows 7, for a few months, log on slower if you have a solid color background?
Comments ⌘ Read more
Deals: Save $100 on New M4 MacBook Air
Amazon is offering up to $102 off the price of the brand new M4 MacBook Air series in select configurations and color options, in both 13″ and 15″ display sizes. The M4 series MacBook Air features an M4 chip with Apple Intelligence support, a Liquid Retina LCD display, 12MP camera with Center Stage, Touch ID, … Read More ⌘ Read more
Istio publishes results of ztunnel security audit
Passes with flying colors Istio’s ambient mode splits the service mesh into two distinct layers: Layer 7 processing (the “waypoint proxy”), which remains powered by the traditional Envoy proxy; and a secure overlay (the “zero-trust tunnel”… ⌘ Read more
@bender@twtxt.net Shall we remove this primary/secondary color sttting? 🧐
10 Psychological Tricks Brands Use to Influence You
You’re not just buying a product—you’re stepping into a carefully crafted psychological trap. Modern brands work with behavioral economists, neuro marketers, and data scientists to make sure everything—from colors to prices to your choices—leads you exactly where they want. These aren’t generic marketing clichés—these are real, specific strategies currently being used to win your attention, […]
The post [10 Psychological Tricks … ⌘ Read more
10 OCD Themes That Are Not About Cleanliness
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a “mental health condition where distressing, intrusive thoughts (obsessions) trigger repetitive behaviors (compulsions) aimed at reducing anxiety or preventing something bad from occurring.” When most people think of OCD, they think of orderliness, cleanliness, color-coded closets, pristine lists, and grouping your Skittles into colors before eating them. Television and movies like […]
The post [10 OCD … ⌘ Read more
UNIHIKER K10 is an ESP32-S3 based platform with TinyML and built-in sensors
The UNIHIKER K10 is an AI learning device designed for education, integrating features for artificial intelligence, machine learning, and IoT applications. It includes a 2.8″ color screen, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a camera, microphone, speaker, RGB light, and multiple sensors. The device features an ESP32-S3 Xtensa LX7 microcontroller with 512KB SRAM and 16MB flash storage. It supports […] ⌘ Read more
M4 MacBook Air with Dual Display Support, & Spec-bumped Mac Studio Released by Apple
Apple has released updated MacBook Air and Mac Studio models with spec bumps, and a new color option for the MacBook Air. The MacBook Air gains the M4 chip and is now available in a new light blue color option that Apple calls ‘sky blue’. Meanwhile, the Mac Studio gains the M4 Max and M3 … [Read More](https://osxdaily.com/2025/03/05/m4-macbook-air-with-dual-displa … ⌘ Read more
M4 MacBook Air with Dual Display Support, & Spec-bumped Mac Studio Released by Apple
Apple has released updated MacBook Air and Mac Studio models with spec bumps, and a new color option for the MacBook Air. The MacBook Air gains the M4 chip and is now available in a new light blue color option that Apple calls ‘sky blue’. Meanwhile, the Mac Studio gains the M4 Max and M3 … [Read More](https://osxdaily.com/2025/03/05/m4-macbook-air-with-dual-displa … ⌘ Read more
MayQueen Introduces a 2.13″ Four Color E-Paper Display for Embedded Applications
MayQueen has introduced the PIXPAPER-213-C, a 2.13-inch prototype electronic paper display developed with Triangle Alien Studio. Featuring a four-color display and an SPI interface, it is designed for low-power, high-contrast embedded applications. The PIXPAPER-213-C supports black, white, yellow, and red colors with a resolution of 250×122 pixels and a density of 130 DPI. The active … ⌘ Read more
12 years of incubating Wayland color management
The Wayland color-management protocol extension has landed on Feb 13th, 2025, in upstream wayland-protocols repository in the staging directory. It was released with wayland-protocols 1.41. The extension enables proper interactions between traditional (sRGB), Wide Color Gamut (WCG), and High Dynamic Range (HDR) image sources and displays once implemented in Wayland compositors and used in applications. Of course, a protocol is just a la … ⌘ Read more
My boyfriend’s cross eyed cat likes to sit like this in front of the color changing light ⌘ Read more
10 Incredible Scenes of Cosmic Violence
The universe is full of awe-inspiring sights like colorful nebulae, giant planets of swirling gas, and brilliant stars that shine like gems. The universe is also full of chaos and violence, with constant destruction (and rebirth) keeping the cosmos in an eternal flux. The following discoveries are awe-inspiring for their sheer power, destructive majesty, and […]
The post [10 Incredible Scenes of Cosmic Violence](https://listverse.com/2025/02/16/10-incr … ⌘ Read more
Kaidan: Kaidan 0.11.0: Qt 6
Kaidan supports Qt 6 now!
In addition, this release improves the user interface and fixes some bugs.
Have a look at the changelog for more details.
Features:
- Highlight public XMPP provider titles while card is expanded (melvo)
- Round corners of cards and buttons (melvo)
- Add fading in/out hover effect to map previews (melvo)
- Collapse contact profiles by default if they have more than 3 entries (melvo)
- Show colored check mark for … ⌘ Read more
1980’s Computers on the Modern Internet with FujiNet
Because the Apple Il, 8 Bit Atari, Tandy Color Computer, and DOS PCs all deserve to be Online. ⌘ Read more
It looks AWESOME. Did you do the color grading yourself? Or is it an icon someone else made
Chess Zoo
⌘ Read more
@kat@yarn.girlonthemoon.xyz i wound up with xcolor AND pastel at the same time, because xcolor does exactly what i want while pastel and its picker subcommand does the same thing, relying on xcolor, but brings up a nice graphic of the picked color and related colors, plus more than just the hex code. neat.
just spent like half an hour finding a terminal based color picker that would just. turn the cursor into a cross hair and let me pick from the screen. in linux fashion this was somehow difficult
Deals: Get Apple Watch Series 10 for $329 (Discounted from $399)
Want to start the new year off with a great fitness tracker to help motivate your workouts and track your health stats and vitals? Then don’t miss this great deal on the all new Apple Watch Series 10 is available for just $329 in select color and band options, available right now on Amazon. Maybe … Read More ⌘ Read more
10 Fascinating Origins of New Year’s Eve Superstitions
New Year’s Eve is celebrated across the world with a mix of joy, hope, and anticipation, but it’s also steeped in superstitions that reflect the diverse cultural beliefs about starting the year off right. From wearing specific colors to performing quirky rituals, these traditions often revolve around themes of luck, prosperity, and protection. While some […]
The post [10 Fascinating Origins of New Year’s Eve Superstitions](ht … ⌘ Read more
** Neon **
I was bemoaning the lack of color at my desk and a friend sent me this link to a place that makes custom neon signs. I am likely much to indecisive, and faaaar too cheap to actually order one, but I keep having intrusive thoughts about what I’d get if I were to get one.
I think the Yiddish phrase“zol er krenken un gedenken” would be funny. It means“let him suffer and remember” which is very melodramatic, but totally rife with so much meaning. ⌘ Read more