@ericphelps@mastodon.social
@ericphelps@mastodon.social avatar

ericphelps

@ericphelps@mastodon.social

Worked in USA, Canada, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Venezuela, Nicaragua, UAE, Morocco, Iraq, Nigeria, South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, India -- and all of them full of good people. Still working, now back in the USA.

Weekends are usually biking, kayaking, or hiking. I follow #hiking and #kayaking, so even if it looks like I'm not following you... I'm following you ;)

I usually post a couple times a week.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

isagalaev, (edited ) to random
@isagalaev@mastodon.social avatar

First 5-miler in a year. https://runkeeper.com/cardio/edbd031b-f58d-478e-a294-7e6fde2a8fa9
#running

ericphelps,
@ericphelps@mastodon.social avatar

@isagalaev How crowded are the trails there?

ericphelps, to whitewater
@ericphelps@mastodon.social avatar

Did an end-to-end test. Towed the kayak with my bike 5 miles to the lake, then disassembled the cart and stowed it in the kayak. Folded up the bike and bungeed it down on the rear deck. Went kayaking around the lake for a while, then reversed everything and biked back home.

It's a lot slower than putting the kayak on the car, but... I gotta say, it felt pretty awesome to head out knowing I could go anywhere there's water or a trail. And switch between them as needed.

My kayak out on Lake Natoma. Some shallow submerged rocks are on the right. The water is an unattractive greenish-brown.
The assembled kayak cart with my kayak on it. My fold-up bike is attached in the front, ready to tow the whole thing.

jerzone, to MountainBiking
@jerzone@techhub.social avatar

For my birthday I rode the Northern Rail Trail today. Longest I’ve ever ridden is under 40 miles and this clocks in at 60, but it’s mostly flat, even a little downhill sometimes. Also had idea of going same number of miles as my age, but ran out of rail trail and didn’t feel like going a few extra miles through rainy streets just for that.

Train depot near Andover with a red caboose
Turtle along side of trail
Map of the trail with distances

ericphelps,
@ericphelps@mastodon.social avatar

@jerzone How did you get back?

ericphelps, to random
@ericphelps@mastodon.social avatar

The long . Mile 15. Grrrr... Halfway and it's taken me 9 hours. Probably due to getting lost so much and finding so many flooded trails. I need to make up some time. Time to get serious about this if I want to get home by 9PM.

Purple flowers with the lake and hills in the background.
The lake, trees, and driftwood.
Some kind of flower. It's a ball about 20mm across, mostly white, but with a slight purple tint.

ericphelps, to random
@ericphelps@mastodon.social avatar

The long #walk. Mile 10. Got lost again and didn't realize it until I'd done a lot of climbing. Free exercise! Also had to double back a lot because marked trails were under water. The picture with the geese? The map says there's a trail there. But it's all good because that meant I got to go off-trail and walk through fields of flowers.

A field of purple flowers. The American River is in the background.
A black butterfly on wildflowers
Geese swimming away from me on the American River.

ericphelps, to random
@ericphelps@mastodon.social avatar

The long . Starting out 30 minutes before sunrise. Waking the Shirland Canal, looking down the mountain at the river. I can hear the rapids, it sounds like a freeway. It'll take me an hour to get to the rapids... And that's where the real starts.

A dirt path alongside a 1 meter wide canal

isagalaev, to photography
@isagalaev@mastodon.social avatar

I developed a dislike to another category of , in addition to flowers. For context, I consider shooting flowers to be the cheapest way to look like you're doing something: they always come out good.

So another one is birds shot with a long focus. You don't need skill, you need a huge-ass, expensive lens and a bird filling up the entire frame right in the center. You're pretty much guaranteed sharp focus with terrific bokeh, and birds are pretty already. Not interesting!

(cont.)

ericphelps,
@ericphelps@mastodon.social avatar

@isagalaev I think you're right. The ones I like the most are the ones where I say "I would never have framed that shot that way. If I'd shot that same scene, it would be boring." But that's hard work, finding that unusual view. I'm probably the wrong guy to be showing you the world in a new way.

But flowers are always pretty, and they're patient while you move around trying to find a better angle. Sooo... Flowers.

ericphelps, to random
@ericphelps@mastodon.social avatar

It took me long enough, but I've finally built a cart that should be safe to tow (from a bicycle) for 20 or 30 miles. The wheels have actual bearings and the kayak is suspended in a hammock. Swinging suspension arms act as shock absorbers.

The whole thing breaks down with no tools and stows inside the kayak.

I've taken it around the block, but let me get reasonably hydrated and I'll take it out for 5 or 10 miles to see if I can get used to it.

ericphelps,
@ericphelps@mastodon.social avatar

My wife decided to make a video of me leaving on my test ride. She was sure something horrible would happen. Someone would steal the kayak, I'd fall down, the kayak would break, I'd lose the kayak on the side of the trail... It was a long list.

The only bad thing that happened was that I was slower than expected and had to eat a cold dinner.

Me taking the kayak cart out on a short 5-mile test ride.

ericphelps, to random
@ericphelps@mastodon.social avatar

Hey @chris , I can see your house! Well... Maybe not.

From a business trip this week. Man, I hate postponed flights, midnight arrivals, mandatory parties, and the food I ate. Okay, that last one is on me.

Been a zombie all week. I need to get outside!

ericphelps, to random
@ericphelps@mastodon.social avatar

We have a lot of fidgeters at work. They walk into my office to talk and end up grabbing my tools, cables, connectors – basically anything that isn't nailed down – to play with. So I bought a bunch of toys. For the most part, it works. But you know what remains a popular fidget toy? The pipe cutter I bought to cut down rolling racks so they'd fit through doors.

ericphelps, to random
@ericphelps@mastodon.social avatar

Well, I foolishly generated a 24-character random password for my computer at work. And I found out our password policy prohibits changing passwords more than once per 60 days. So I had to live with it. And now it's second nature. Get a login prompt, open KeePass on my phone and tell it to type the password through my InputStick.

Rather than carry it with me, I got an extra InputStick for home use. Highly recommended.

http://inputstick.com/

ericphelps, to random
@ericphelps@mastodon.social avatar

Nothing exciting, just pics of the industrial area where I work (USA / California/ Sacramento). Yes, we still have leaves on the trees in late November!

Solar powered car chargers in a government parking lot. I never see cars charging here.
A giant electrical switching center across the street from my office. The whole thing spreads out maybe 500x1000 feet. It reminds me of the old movie "Forbidden Planet" because it's just so big.

chris, to random
@chris@mastodon.chriswiegman.com avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    ericphelps,
    @ericphelps@mastodon.social avatar

    @chris Leftover pizza is totally compatible with a shower. Ahhh, fun times when I was young.

    Now I try to minimize the number of times I hear "WHAT ARE YOU DOING"?

    ericphelps, to random
    @ericphelps@mastodon.social avatar

    Ooh, look, a big concrete thing. I wonder if I can squeeze my in behind it? Why yes, I can! Ooh, look, a 2-foot square hole cut in the concrete. I wonder if I can squeeze through that hole? Why yes, I can!

    I have no idea what this is, but I've hiked uphill of it. It's abandoned infrastructure.

    My kayak in the narrow area behind the big concrete structure
    A square hole cut in the concrete at the waterline. It's just wide enough to let my kayak through, and just tall enough for me... If I lean forward and lay down flat on the kayak.
    Hey look! I'm inside the big concrete box! There's nothing here. It's just 4 walls and one hole.

    isagalaev, to random
    @isagalaev@mastodon.social avatar

    Lazily evaluating options for a new laptop (the gap between body parts of my current one is getting larger by the week.)

    Comparing the AMD-based 16" ThinkPad P16v Gen 1 vs 17" System 76 Serwal WS. The Thinkpad is slightly cheaper and better (Ryzen 9, bigger screen). System 76 is Linux out of the box, so I want to support that. Don't know what to choose…

    ericphelps,
    @ericphelps@mastodon.social avatar

    @isagalaev Your post inspired me to pull the trigger on purchasing a much smaller system: The surprisingly capable Meerkat:
    https://system76.com/desktops/meerkat

    ethanschoonover, to random
    @ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar

    Today I had to log into a server that wouldn’t bring up networking, so on site.

    I was sent the password: SIXTY random characters. CaSe Num3rics, Symb0ls~! Everything. Random. Strong.

    We had a problem. /bin/login was configured to timeout at 60 seconds.

    I touch type but 60 fully random characters? I couldn’t break 50 before the minute was up.

    Then I solved it:

    I read them outloud, quickly, in a voice memo. Played it back so I could focus on rapid entry.

    55 seconds later I had a root prompt.

    ericphelps,
    @ericphelps@mastodon.social avatar

    @ethanschoonover I use this...
    http://inputstick.com/
    ...to act as a keyboard I can type into (or paste into) from my phone. That in itself has a bunch of uses, but a bonus is there's a plugin for my favorite password manager KeePass. Of course nobody else uses KeePass, but using your phone as a keyboard and mouse? That's handy!

    fribbledom, to random
    @fribbledom@mastodon.social avatar

    How about no?

    ericphelps,
    @ericphelps@mastodon.social avatar

    @fribbledom Or you can play the game.

    You can get a genuine VoIP+SMS number for less than $1 per month. Sign up for junk with that number. Recycle it every few months. Only run a VoIP client when you're expecting something.

    But if you're a real player, you get a throwaway number that's pure trash. It's just good enough to grab a confirmation code. Lots of places to get such a number, e.g.,
    https://smsreceivefree.com/
    https://www.receivesms.co/
    https://freephonenum.com/

    ericphelps, to MountainBiking
    @ericphelps@mastodon.social avatar

    No kayak or hiking this weekend. Took the little fold-up out for some . No GPS, but it's roughly 15 miles or 24 kilometers. Got passed by everyone, even parents pulling kids in trailers. But I made it, and that's the point.

    It's all exploratory to see if I need to make changes to the bike. And I do! I need a much lower low gear. At 69 years old, I'm not sure I can get in much better shape, so I'm going to have to get a better bike.

    Ahhh, my favorite view. A picture of Lake Natoma and Folsom's two oldest bridges -- as viewed from the new bridge.
    The calm waters of Lake Natoma reflecting clouds and trees.
    Red and green berries laying on a bike path. The berries are small, only about 5mm (1/4 inch). I just sat down to tie my shoe and found the wind had blown all the berries right to my sitting spot.

    chris, to random
    @chris@mastodon.chriswiegman.com avatar

    deleted_by_author

    •
    ericphelps,
    @ericphelps@mastodon.social avatar

    @chris Filters. My feed is doom and argument free.

    afif, to random
    @afif@mastodon.social avatar

    We're running out of places to eat in Bangi. All the good ones are expensive (RM20-40 per person)

    ericphelps,
    @ericphelps@mastodon.social avatar

    @afif Ahhh, reminds me of a story. We had some Indonesians here (California US) for training. Come lunchtime, we were discussing where to go. They said "Let's be simple. We can go anywhere they serve rice. How about McDonald's?"

    Now, I know Indonesia and I'm guessing Malaysia is the same: The menu for "US" restaurants isn't the same as in the US. This came as a shock to everyone in the office (including the Indonesians).

    ericphelps, to MountainBiking
    @ericphelps@mastodon.social avatar

    The plan is progressing. Just bought a folding bike (that will eventually be carried by the kayak and in turn tow the kayak). First time on a bike in... 20 years? Riding a bicycle gets your heart rate up way more than hiking over the same paths! I'll need to get in shape :(

    Things will get interesting when I try to tow the 60 pound kayak up the local hills. The bike is a "commuter bike" and I think the low gear might not be low enough. I guess I'll find out!

    martijnbraam, to random
    @martijnbraam@fosstodon.org avatar

    Apparently the precision of GPS coordinates in the TIFF file format is increments of 7.5 nanometer if you use all the bits.

    ericphelps,
    @ericphelps@mastodon.social avatar

    @martijnbraam https://xkcd.com/2170/

    isagalaev, to random
    @isagalaev@mastodon.social avatar

    Feeling anxious about hanging a collage of nine picture on the wall. They need to be aligned just so, but the hardware on the frames is… merely an excuse to have something. A single hook in the middle-ish of the back is a guarantee for it to go askew, and it does matter when they all hang near each other.

    I'm sure I'll solve it eventually, but every night when I have some time on my hands I just can't force myself to start doing it! Oh well, waiting for an inspiration I guess :-)

    ericphelps,
    @ericphelps@mastodon.social avatar

    @isagalaev At framing shops they sell better mounting hardware. My favorite is one you mount to the frame, hold the picture on the wall, bang on the picture, and it leaves dimples in the wall so you know where to put the corresponding wall mount. But I can't find them online :(

    But this is a similar way of marking the wall:
    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BM3PSSDZ

    whitequark, to random
    @whitequark@mastodon.social avatar

    the catgirl interprets organizational failure as damage and builds around it

    ericphelps,
    @ericphelps@mastodon.social avatar

    @whitequark

    • There's more than one of me. Keep it to yourself. I'm trying to avoid official questions.
    • I'm stalking you. I was trying to be discreet about it. But now it's out there, and, I, uhhh...
    • Sometimes I get lost in other universes. You're really unique, so I use you as a homing beacon to be sure I don't end up in that damned universe with no letter "J".
  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • provamag3
  • thenastyranch
  • magazineikmin
  • ngwrru68w68
  • mdbf
  • rosin
  • Youngstown
  • vwfavf
  • slotface
  • modclub
  • khanakhh
  • cubers
  • kavyap
  • DreamBathrooms
  • cisconetworking
  • PowerRangers
  • everett
  • Durango
  • InstantRegret
  • osvaldo12
  • tester
  • normalnudes
  • tacticalgear
  • ethstaker
  • GTA5RPClips
  • anitta
  • Leos
  • megavids
  • All magazines
    •