thoughts.md as a webpagemaster

4 files changed, 136 insertions, 8 deletions

diff --git a/atom.xml b/atom.xml
index 4fb43bb..c844ff5 100644
--- a/atom.xml
+++ b/atom.xml
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 <feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
   <id>gemini://l-3.space/</id>
   <title>l-3.space</title>
-  <updated>2025-08-25T08:15:00+00:00</updated>
+  <updated>2026-05-04T13:50:00+00:00</updated>
   <author>
     <name>tslil</name>
     <email>hello@l-3.space</email>
@@ -10,12 +10,6 @@
   <link href="gemini://l-3.space/atom.xml" rel="self"/>
   <link href="gemini://l-3.space/" rel="alternate"/>
   <entry>
-    <id>gemini://l-3.space/split-keys.gmi</id>
-    <title>Qubes split-SSH</title>
-    <updated>2023-12-23T13:59:51.267749+00:00</updated>
-    <link href="gemini://l-3.space/split-keys.gmi"/>
-  </entry>
-  <entry>
     <id>gemini://l-3.space/log-211006-1.gmi</id>
     <title>Play Tak against a bot over Gemini!</title>
     <updated>2021-10-06T22:28:00+00:00</updated>
@@ -69,4 +63,10 @@
     <updated>2025-08-25T08:15:00+00:00</updated>
     <link href="gemini://l-3.space/log-250825-1.gmi"/>
   </entry>
+  <entry>
+    <id>gemini://l-3.space/log-260504-1.gmi</id>
+    <title>Keeping track of thoughts.md as a webpage</title>
+    <updated>2026-05-04T13:50:00+00:00</updated>
+    <link href="gemini://l-3.space/log-260504-1.gmi"/>
+  </entry>
 </feed>
diff --git a/index-all.gmi b/index-all.gmi
index 751921a..0a17d5d 100644
--- a/index-all.gmi
+++ b/index-all.gmi
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 # l-3.space: all
 
 All content
+=> gemini://l-3.space/log-260504-1.gmi 2026-05-04 - Keeping track of thoughts.md as a webpage
 => gemini://l-3.space/log-250825-1.gmi 2025-08-25 - Updated certs to 99 years and post-post Antenna hook
 => gemini://l-3.space/log-250824-1.gmi 2025-08-24 - Thoughts about keyboard layouts i have used
 => gemini://l-3.space/log-250823-2.gmi 2025-08-23 - Maybe there are different kinds of lifters
diff --git a/index.gmi b/index.gmi
index 7c9ce65..3f27195 100644
--- a/index.gmi
+++ b/index.gmi
@@ -22,11 +22,11 @@ Contact: hello@l-3.space
 
 ## Recent posts
 
+=> gemini://l-3.space/log-260504-1.gmi 2026-05-04 - Keeping track of thoughts.md as a webpage
 => gemini://l-3.space/log-250825-1.gmi 2025-08-25 - Updated certs to 99 years and post-post Antenna hook
 => gemini://l-3.space/log-250824-1.gmi 2025-08-24 - Thoughts about keyboard layouts i have used
 => gemini://l-3.space/log-250823-2.gmi 2025-08-23 - Maybe there are different kinds of lifters
 => gemini://l-3.space/log-250823-1.gmi 2025-08-23 - Well done Debian team
-=> gemini://l-3.space/log-240222-1.gmi 2024-02-22 - Formatting strings with separators in BQN
 
 ## Indices
 
diff --git a/log-260504-1.gmi b/log-260504-1.gmi
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fe11f86
--- /dev/null
+++ b/log-260504-1.gmi
@@ -0,0 +1,127 @@
+Time-stamp: <2026-05-04 13h50 UTC>
+
+# Keeping track of thoughts.md as a webpage
+
+I realise that this is not exactly in the spirit of the smol web, and i have yet to decide on way to make this accessible over gemini, but here's a quick solution i found to scratch an itch i had.
+
+## The "problem"
+
+I have a file called `thoughts.md` on my laptop, where i keep track of things that i ought to write down™ lest they become eroded by steady march of entropy, so that i have a central place where i can forget about things. But, and this is important, that file is on my laptop --- only.
+
+What if it wasn't?
+
+## Enter python, bottle, nginx, systemd
+
+As i'm already hosting a website, what about a quick and dirty script that served a webpage with a textarea, and loaded the latest %YYYYMMDDHHMMSS.md file from a directory. If the user posts with "save", then make a new file.
+
+There are many, many features that this could grow, but for now having a text area i can reach from anyway, behind some auth'd endpoint from anywhere is all that i need.
+
+## Implementation details
+
+This takes a tiny amount of glue, but here's the basic idea
+
+```systemd unit file
+[Unit]
+Description=Note server
+After=network.target
+
+[Service]
+Type=simple
+DynamicUser=yes
+StateDirectory=notes
+WorkingDirectory=/var/lib/private/notes
+ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 /usr/local/bin/note.py /var/lib/private/notes --host 127.0.0.1 --port NNN-CHANGE-ME
+Restart=always
+RestartSec=5
+
+[Install]
+WantedBy=multi-user.target
+```
+
+```nginx config snippet
+location /CHANGE-ME-XXX {
+    rewrite ^/CHANGE-ME-XXX/?(.*)$ /$1 break;
+    proxy_pass         http://127.0.0.1:18088;
+    proxy_set_header   Host $host;
+    proxy_set_header   X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
+
+    auth_basic         "notes";
+    auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/.htpasswd;
+}
+```
+
+```python webserver
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+import argparse
+import re
+from datetime import datetime
+from pathlib import Path
+
+import bottle
+from bottle import request, run
+
+
+def latest_file(directory: Path) -> Path | None:
+    files = [p for p in directory.glob("*.md") if re.match(r"^\d{14}\.md$", p.name)]
+    return max(files, key=lambda p: p.stat().st_mtime) if files else None
+
+
+def save(directory: Path, text: str) -> Path:
+    filename = f"{datetime.now():%Y%m%d%H%M%S}.md"
+    path = directory / filename
+    _ = path.write_text(text, encoding="utf-8")
+    return path
+
+
+def make_page(directory: Path) -> str:
+    latest = latest_file(directory)
+    content = latest.read_text(encoding="utf-8") if latest else ""
+    filename = latest.name if latest else "(none)"
+    return f"""<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html>
+<head>
+<meta charset="utf-8">
+<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
+<title>notes</title>
+<style>
+body {{ max-width: 800px; margin: 2em auto; padding: 0 1em; font-family: system-ui, sans-serif; }}
+.meta {{ color: #666; font-size: 0.85em; margin-bottom: 1em; }}
+textarea {{ width: 100%; height: 75vh; font-family: monospace; font-size: 14px; padding: 0.5em; }}
+button {{ padding: 0.4em 1.2em; margin-top: 0.5em; }}
+</style>
+</head>
+<body>
+<div class="meta">latest: {filename}</div>
+<form method="POST" action="save">
+<textarea name="text" spellcheck="true">{bottle.html_escape(content)}</textarea>
+<br><button>save</button>
+</form>
+</body>
+</html>"""
+
+
+def main():
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="note server")
+    parser.add_argument("directory", type=Path, help="where to store .md files")
+    parser.add_argument("--host", default="127.0.0.1")
+    parser.add_argument("--port", type=int, default=8080)
+    args = parser.parse_args()
+
+    args.directory.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+
+    @bottle.route("/")
+    def index():
+        return make_page(args.directory)
+
+    @bottle.route("/save", method="POST")
+    def save_route():
+        text = request.forms.get("text", "")
+        path = save(args.directory, text)
+        return make_page(args.directory)
+
+    run(host=args.host, port=args.port)
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main()
+```