Carlos Fenollosa — Blog

Thoughts on science and tips for researchers who use computers

KONPEITO, Gemini and Gopher

December 07, 2019 — Carlos Fenollosa

KONPEITO is quarterly Lo-fi hip hop & chill bootleg mixtape, distributed exclusively through the Gemini protocol. Each tape is a half-hour mix, clean on side A and repeated on side B with an added ambient background noise layer for atmosphere. Tapes are generally released in the first week of each meteorological season.

Okay, so there's a lot to unpack here.

  • KONPEITO is a very nice chill mixtape with a couple mp3 files that I found thanks to Tomasino on Mastodon
  • These files are distributed over the Gemini protocol, via this link
  • Gemini is a new internet procotol in between Gopher and HTTP
  • There is one Gemini client available, AV-98
  • The specs of the Gemini protocol can be accessed via this Gopher link
  • Gopher is a protocol that ruled over the internet once but got replaced by HTTP, what we know as "the Web" nowadays
  • You can reach Gopher links with lynx or a web proxy, but there are no modern graphical clients
  • Gopher is making a niche comeback among a few enthusiasts and you should definitely check it out if only for its nostalgic and historical value

Now that's one hell of a rabbit hole. If you reach the end you'll find a very cool mp3 mixtape.

Tags: internet, retro

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