@douglasvb@mastodon.social
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douglasvb

@douglasvb@mastodon.social

I mostly post about #DinkeyCreek, the #Sierra, #Monterey, #beavers, #forests, and #meadows. Quite fond of #motorcycles, #scuba diving, #nudibranchs, #hiking, 4x4ing/rock crawling, seeing new places, #AmateurRadio, retro technology, #trains, and cats.

Temporarily embarrassed Oregonian living somewhere much too dry.

All opinions are my own.

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ai6yr, to TeslaMotors
@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org avatar

(nonfunctional) 2013 Tesla Model S, LOL. $8000 but "car is immobile"

douglasvb,
@douglasvb@mastodon.social avatar

@ai6yr if the motor is in good shape, that's worth a few thousand bucks. There are kits to use those motors for EV swaps into other vehicles.

douglasvb,
@douglasvb@mastodon.social avatar

@ai6yr pretty sure you can!

douglasvb, to random
@douglasvb@mastodon.social avatar

✅ the big tent is ready for another year of car camping

douglasvb,
@douglasvb@mastodon.social avatar

@Lizette603_23 it takes about an hour to fully setup including staking it out, inflating the mattresses, and getting all of our stuff inside. It's about the same to tear down.

I'm thinking about building a quick setup camper for our truck for when we want to be moving around daily. It will be less of a mental barrier to going when it's not a big production every day to put a tent up and take it down 😅

douglasvb,
@douglasvb@mastodon.social avatar

@Lizette603_23 but you really can't argue with the amount of space this tent provides. It is supposed to sleep four plus it's got that garage area which is great to get out of the sun or when it's raining.

The square footage is about 2/3 of what my parents have in their 5th wheel although there is no full kitchen or bathroom in this tent 🤣

Well... Not yet anyway.

MLE_online, to random
@MLE_online@social.afront.org avatar

Somehow the new macbook pro issued to me for work feels slower than the old one (from 2015). I don't know if all of the software on it is just that much more bloated, or if the hardware just isn't that good. but it's distinctly more lumbering.

douglasvb,
@douglasvb@mastodon.social avatar

@MLE_online have they installed a bunch of background IT management software on it?

The stuff my organization installs on MacBooks really slows them down.

John, to random
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

Jeff Geerling did an interesting project with the raspberry pi 5, to be a set-top box(*), but his parts cost came to $110 which is dangerously close to that of an N100 mini PC. So unless you really want to stay inside the raspberry pi ecosystem, I don't recommend.

    • archaic naming. We can't balance things on top of tv sets anymore.
douglasvb,
@douglasvb@mastodon.social avatar

@ai6yr @John it's interesting to me how raspberry pi hasn't gotten any cheaper with the newer models (and is getting more expensive it seems) while the computer market gets cheaper and is now almost intersecting on price.

douglasvb,
@douglasvb@mastodon.social avatar

@ai6yr @John the only thing I've got a Pi doing these days is being an APRS receiver. And the Pi 4b I've got is fantastically overpowered for the job.

But it's very small and takes up very little room where I was able to land the coax cables from the antennas on the roof so it's an okay fit for now.

Mini computers are in my future though for other projects... I've got a bunch of IP security cameras with microphones that I plan to use with the Cornell bird lab's software 🐦🎶🎙️

douglasvb,
@douglasvb@mastodon.social avatar

@eheisman @ai6yr @John there's raspberry pi software that'll do one IP cam audio feed. And I think there's maybe a Windows version somewhere. It shouldn't be too hard to be lazy and run a bunch of instances in Docker to support multiple cameras.

I need to figure out though how to combine the output of a bunch of cameras and push the detections up to a publicly accessible website.

It would be cool if I could feed the Cornell lab as well but I haven't seen any implementations to do that yet.

douglasvb, to random
@douglasvb@mastodon.social avatar

Hmm I need to find good gifts for my 👸 and both of our 🐈🐈 who all have birthdays coming up soon.

I'm thinking something other than jewelry because that's my standard go-to.

Probably it should be ocean-themed.

The challenge is I'm rarely out of the house on my own unless I'm going to work so I can't just pop up the road 30 minutes to where a bunch of artists are to do shopping without giving away the surprise.

douglasvb,
@douglasvb@mastodon.social avatar

@Lizette603_23 haha well she's the daughter of a dentist so she would see through that ruse.

douglasvb,
@douglasvb@mastodon.social avatar

@Lizette603_23 I've managed to magically make gifts appear for almost 15 years. So I need to get that magic back for this birthday 😅

I ordered some sea gnomes from Etsy but they probably won't be here in time.

I might be able to actually take a lunch break today or drag a co-worker with me during a meeting today to go shopping in town. We shall see.

douglasvb,
@douglasvb@mastodon.social avatar

@Lizette603_23 hahaha I love it!

MLE_online, to random
@MLE_online@social.afront.org avatar

A contraption is coming into existence

douglasvb,
@douglasvb@mastodon.social avatar

@MLE_online temperature controller?

douglasvb, to RaspberryPi
@douglasvb@mastodon.social avatar

sigh I really need to come up with a reliable and inexpensive way to power cycle some equipment remotely.

My is up and running but the two software defined radios aren't responding even after rebooting the computer. The computer was involuntarily power cycled twice yesterday when the power went out and when the backup generator transferred the house back to the grid after grid power was restored.

Or maybe the SDRs need to be reseated in their USB ports? 🤔

douglasvb,
@douglasvb@mastodon.social avatar

I had looked into various ways of remotely power cycling the last time I had issues and lots of folks had good ideas but I never identified exactly what I should use.

At least this Raspberry Pi doesn't cook SD cards when it gets involuntarily power cycled.

douglasvb,
@douglasvb@mastodon.social avatar

@ai6yr

what year is it

douglasvb,
@douglasvb@mastodon.social avatar

@ai6yr I think that I need to physically remove and reinsert the USB sticks for the software defined radios.

This happened once before in a similar circumstance a few years back and that's what it took to remedy the problem.

But the Raspberry Pi is four hours away from me and I'm not sure I want to ask my dad to do that for me.

douglasvb,
@douglasvb@mastodon.social avatar

@kc2ihx @ai6yr that might work! I wonder if it would cause issues with these SWRs or with the USB data 🤔

I bet there's an industrial control module that has this problem solved already 🤔🤔

douglasvb,
@douglasvb@mastodon.social avatar

@ai6yr @kc2ihx ooo maybe I can do this remotely!

Let's see what I can break via SSH today 🤣🤣

douglasvb,
@douglasvb@mastodon.social avatar

@kc2ihx @ai6yr Oh that's interesting! Do you know the manufacturer of that switch dongle?

douglasvb,
@douglasvb@mastodon.social avatar

@ai6yr @kc2ihx

This is the package I'm using: https://github.com/mvp/uhubctl

I sent this command first (I have a RaspberryPi 4B): uhubctl -l 1-1 -a 0

Then I sent this: uhubctl -l 1-1 -a 1

Then I rebooted.

AND NOW THE SWR ADS-B RECEIVERS ARE WORKING AGAIN!!!!

😄

(I need to pin this comment for later...)

eheisman, to random
@eheisman@vis.social avatar

spouse complains about the alarm clock and our coffee maker slowly drifting apart.

me: "I once read this article in a early 2000s Mac magazine about how this thing called Bluetooth was going to synchronize all these things"

spouse: "it exists, it's called a smart home, and we choose not to have one"

me: "... yeah, but it was, like, without the targeted advertising"

douglasvb,
@douglasvb@mastodon.social avatar

@ai6yr @eheisman

Grid time is all good until it isn't.

https://medium.com/@bramus/grid-time-or-why-are-clocks-in-europe-lagging-behind-by-5-minutes-dbc2dd028bfa

And GPS time is all good until it isn't

https://www.militaryaerospace.com/communications/article/14306054/new-ruggedized-timing-technology-addresses-the-challenges-of-gps-synchronized-defense-equipment

https://www.spirent.com/blogs/defcon-25

And the atomic clock signal is all good until it isn't

https://blog.meinbergglobal.com/2016/06/28/messing-radio-time-signal/

And NTP servers are great until they're not

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTP_server_misuse_and_abuse

In conclusion: https://youtu.be/yl-Ms_ek-kE

douglasvb,
@douglasvb@mastodon.social avatar

@ai6yr @eheisman I'm curious what vulnerabilities that atomic clock module you posted has. I bet there are some interesting ones.

douglasvb,
@douglasvb@mastodon.social avatar

@ai6yr @eheisman

That's why none of my appliances are smart 😅

And I'm uncomfortable around my parents dishwasher which is connected to their Wi-Fi.

In my house, our most accurate clock is our two cats. They have atomic precision for when it's food time.

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