Libertarian Discussion
Smashing the Western Illusion of Democracy
fratermus
4 days ago
•
100%
My guess is this reaction is what happens when community posts show up in All. Communities really need an option to keep posts in house.
Living in vans, cars, RVs, etc
Interesting interaction with a NF ranger
fratermus
1 week ago
•
100%
part of Lincoln National Forest closed due to the the fires near Ruidoso.
I saw that on the news. Now the burn scars are causing runoff flooding. :-(
The closure notice described the designated area for closure in such a way it was very hard to understand and visualize
The NF districts really could do a better job of it. At least have an English major read the GIS wonk's writeup before publishing.
We moved from Fort Stanton/Snowy River Cave NCA
That site is a gem; I try to hit it in spring/fall when I pass through. Too bad the cave is closed because of white nose.
BTW, water fills are free at the nearby paid campsite if one asks the host. Used to be a day use fee for it but they removed that spigot a couple years ago.
www.blm.gov
>> the Business Plan proposes to increase current fees from $180 to $600 per long-term permit, and from $40 to $200 per short-term permit. It would also modify the short-term permit length from 14 days to 30 days There is a comment period for the public.
Living in vans, cars, RVs, etc
Capitan, NM, betting dinner on the weather
fratermus
2 weeks ago
•
100%
Sorry to hear it didn't work.
I subscribe to the RSS feeds of all the NF/BLM districts I [boondock](https://rvwiki.mousetrap.net/doku.php?id=camping:dispersed) in while [snowbirding](https://rvwiki.mousetrap.net/doku.php?id=camping:snowbirding). So I knew that a small section of NF land outside Santa Fe, NM where I was headed next was [closed for a year](https://www.fs.usda.gov/alerts/santafe/alerts-notices/?aid=88339). I picked a spot at least a mile outside the "designated area" that was closed. A friendly ranger pulled up this morning and asked how long I'd been here (4 days). He started to gently/professionally inform me the area was closed. I pointed out this spot was outside the designated area. He was skeptical and rechecked the map on his phone. I think he was embarrassed (and thinking of others he might have punted) because he wanted to show me how hard the map was to read on his phone. He also said I was the first person he talked to that had actually read the closure notice. We commiserated a while about the misuse that caused the closure. He was a good guy and I assume he will go back and clarify the situation for anyone else he misinformed. #takeaways - reading the district's announcements can be both directly and indirectly useful - bringing up the NF's official language ("designated area", "dispersed camping") seems help establish rapport
Details are on reddit. Hopefully going back there won't give anyone PTSD. :-)
Linux
Dogs
fratermus
2 months ago
•
100%
What's on your "Everyday Carry" USB stick?
- scans of my DL and other licenses
- scan of my DD214
- system rescue ISO
- a TEMP dir with random things I need in the short term
- portable apps versions of putty, WinSCP, etc.
... in which I relate my first wild bear sighting (with crappy pic) & and double the size of my LiFePO4 house battery bank .
Living in vans, cars, RVs, etc
vehicle security system
fratermus
2 months ago
•
100%
If employee vehicles are in danger perhaps the employer (or property owner) could hire a security detail? Might present this as a benefit to them to keep customers from getting scared off by crime?
I worked at a place in a ratty part of time once. Literal crackheads and prostitutes wandering through our lot. After a couple break-ins the company put up a fence.
Living in vans, cars, RVs, etc
vehicle security system
fratermus
2 months ago
•
100%
people are starting to catch onto my patterns and hover around my vehicle like vultures. Please tell me the best security system you know of.
A free first step would be to have no observable pattern. And/or leaving that general area if possible.
I would think about the actual threat model and what I could do about it. If someone steals your doodad with an airtag on it are you going to find it and take it back from them?
fratermus
3 months ago
•
100%
Do normal people who don’t do this stuff for a living use Linux now, outside handheld gaming devices?
I run into folks using linux fairly often in tech hobbies. Ham operators, DIY solar folk, people dorking around with a RasPi, etc. And some Normals who want a lighter experience than Win.
Last dedicated windows box I ran at home was Windows NT 4, IIRC. Last time I had to use it at work was Win7 (?) before I retired. I do have a Win7 virtual somewhere around here I spin up every couple years to run something obscure I can't get to run in WINE.
fratermus
3 months ago
•
100%
Was it mainly a hobbyist thing at the time
Yes, I'd say so. Lots of tech geeks were playing with it but no Normals. Getting audio running was not always pleasant....
Living in vans, cars, RVs, etc
Capitan, NM, betting dinner on the weather
fratermus
3 months ago
•
100%
I picked up a solar garden light from walmart. I pop the hood and trap the light in the lid so the light is under the hood and the minipanel outside it. I haven't had a problem since then, but it it could be coincidence, or my being more careful scouting for mouseholes before pitching camp.
Living in vans, cars, RVs, etc
cheap solar panels at Home Depot, with a catch
fratermus
3 months ago
•
100%
I put it under a secondary cover and used it for my outside DC outlet, and replaced my external solar panel outlet with a CNLINKO LP-28 2-Pin IP67 Waterproof Connector rated up to 50A.
That connector looks interesting. It addresses one of my unstated concerns, the panel wires pulling down on the connector. This one looks like it has enough "neck" to relieve the strain. If I were doing the van again I'd mount all the inlets in one place under a secondary cover as you describe.
The domain name is up for purchase ($9999.99 according to my registrar), so it looks like it's lost rather than just temporarily parked for a slightly overdue bill. Luckily the site was recently [backed up by the Internet Archive](https://web.archive.org/web/20240603054512/https://boondocking.org/) and the archived All, gpx, and csv links seem to work.
SolarDIY
fratermus
3 months ago
•
100%
10W? What kind of roof? Residential? RV?
fratermus
3 months ago
•
100%
When I was in the army the S1 desk jockeys were using dedicated word processors with 8" floppies. Get off my lawn! :-)
Living in vans, cars, RVs, etc
July 2024 I'll finally be freed from my extortionate Verizon contract, have been aiming for Starlink but...
fratermus
3 months ago
•
100%
I have Visible (Verizon MVNO) for $25/month. I put the SIM in an LTE router I got off amazon (open box) for $42.
sdfpubnix
fratermus
3 months ago
•
100%
Could my 10 year old SDF account still exist?
Mine does. I finally remembered to log back in and there she is...
Caveat: the hostname had changed; I signed up at lonestar.sdf.org IIRC (no longer extant) and now it is on freeshell.org
I found my notes from ten years ago so I know what my username was
Another caveat: I think usernames were truncated to 8 chars in that time period. Don't know if that's the case now or not, or if extra chars are thrown away anyhow.
>> a swamp cooler and humidifier of this design are doing the same thing: blowing air through a wetted, porous medium. The goals are different (humidification vs cooling) but the mechanism is the same.
fratermus
4 months ago
•
100%
Wireguard self hosting
I parsed this as Wireguard self-loathing and thought "that's a little harsh". :-)
fratermus
4 months ago
•
100%
warning: some non-linux included below
- minix
- slackware
- early Debian
- FreeBSD (ftp installs instead of 20 floppies! OMG!)
- Debian
- Crunchbang <-- loved that original project
- Solaris (friend gave me a Sparc 5)
- DSL, Puppy linux (had a tiny netbook)
- **Debian on workstations and servers since ~2014 **
- various debian-based distros on RPI
I do spin up other distros in a VM from time to time to see what's what. Most recently NixOS since people won't STFU about it. :-)
fratermus
4 months ago
•
100%
Yeah, they look like horses and act like cats. My grey was the finest doggo I ever had.
Libertarian Discussion
Chase Oliver Is the Libertarian Party's Presidential Pick Chase Oliver is the Libertarian Party's Presidential pick
fratermus
4 months ago
•
100%
I’m not a fan of the Mises Caucus, so I think this is hilarious.
Same. the Mises Caucus was to the LP as Trump was to the GOP - a takeover by opportunists.
I know next to nothing about Chase Oliver
Seems broadly in line with (pre-Mises Caucus) libertarianism. Definitely more in line with my thinking than anything the D or R parties are putting out.
being gay and young will certainly set him apart from the old men he’s competing against
I don't think young and gay necessarily carries intrinsic benefit, but I agree there is some instrumental benefit. It will set him apart as you say, and also will reveal bigots and reactionaries for what they are.
Living in vans, cars, RVs, etc
cheap solar panels at Home Depot, with a catch
fratermus
4 months ago
•
100%
Is there a good online tool for calculating the cosign of solar Zenith
There are an online calculators like this one from NOAA. This fork adds the ability to update the time with a click rather than manually. There are others but I haven't played with them much.
Since I travel constantly I've been on casual lookout for an app that does the calcs for us based on local time / position but I haven't seen any. Several apps show the solar zenith angle and we can take the COS of that manually with a calculator with trig functions. The standard android calculator app will do it.
so I can know how much solar my my panels could be making in ideal conditions?
Yeah, it's an imperfect tool for our purposes but better than nothing. Combining it with data from a solar irradiance meter would be great but right now I can't justify ~$100 to devote to the cause. :-)
TL:DR: I saw a set of cheap panels with weird specs at Home Depot. I bought some to experiment on and to use as portables to augment my mounted solar. ----- Home Depot is selling 200w of panel for $114. That's $0.57/Watt. Not *amazing* compared to used panels (typically $0.33/Watt) but HD is all over the place and has free ship-to-store. It also comes with mounting brackets and one of those [single-stage PWM controllers](https://rvwiki.mousetrap.net/doku.php?id=electrical:solar:charge_controller#single-stage_chargers). I'm not bagging on that kind of controller, but it's not a great fit for this particular set of panels. #THE CATCH The panels are a weird design, apparently 24 cells in series. Normal "12v nominal" panels have 36 in series for ~18Vmp. These have a Vmp of 12.0v, so I think we would call them "8v nominal". This makes them practically unusable in parallel for charging lead or LiFePO4. You *could* run the panels in series on the PWM controller since it has a 50v input max and the series Voc would be 30v. But, due to [the way PWM works](https://rvwiki.mousetrap.net/doku.php?id=electrical:solar:charge_controller#pwm) the panels would be running at in the 14v range at the most. This is way, *way* off the 24.0Vmp of the series array. I'd expect a max harvest of ~120w with that kind of setup. If these were normal panels in parallel and on PWM I'd expect a max of ~160w. We can go into the math on that if anyone wants. The **best case scenario** IMO would be to run the panels in series with an MPPT controller. This would get us closer to ~170w max harvest. some other thoughts: - The panels might work well enough in parallel for 3S Li-NMC because of that chemistry's lower voltage - HD has a 10% discount program for veterans if you provide them with a bit of documentation.
Lemmy
fratermus
4 months ago
•
100%
I’d rather mods who don’t want outside participation to be able to stop their communities from showing in All.
Agreed. Niche communities can get hammered with downvotes and "I don't want to read this" comments from readers of ALL.
It's confounding: "show me everything", then "I don't like the content in your niche community". WTF?
Mildly Interesting
The solar panels on top of my campervan have generated 1 megawatt hour of energy as of today
fratermus
5 months ago
•
100%
the stove over to induction next. I hate it when the batteries fill back up by 10am and I waste solar meanwhile I am still buying propane for the appliances.
It's possible. For the 11 months I've been cooking from excess solar power (December is a little short). I still carry propane for heating and a few things that seem to work better over flame.
fratermus
5 months ago
•
100%
In the past I've aliased rm to a wrapper that showed PWD and the files to be affected, slept a couple seconds in case I wanted to abort, then shredded smaller files, rm'ed big files, or placed in a Trash dir for certain kinds of files (.conf, .cfg, etc).
I might try to find or rewrite it.
fratermus
5 months ago
•
100%
PDAnet I've tethered a laptop to a phone via usb and bluetooth that way. Nowadays I just run my SIM in an LTE router and share the connection via wifi.
hide tether usage if possible
Some solutions involving tweaking TTL.
fratermus
5 months ago
•
100%
I have made countless mistakes since the 90s, mostly involving rm. The most recent one was yesterday when I was trying to rm files in a directory with lots of other unrelated files.
I don't remember the exact failure, but I was shooting for something like rm *lng and typo'ed rm *;ng (those chars are next to each other on the kb). This happily rm'ed * (d'oh!) then errored on the nonexistance ng. :-(
... in which I camped in a spot infested by mule deer, picked up spent brass, and trusted the local forecast enough to do my cooking off solar....
Asklemmy
can you help me formulate an answer to a colleague who is not my boss but feels entitled to tell me how I have to work?
fratermus
5 months ago
•
100%
"You're not the boss of me" :-)
fratermus
5 months ago
•
100%
Agreed. I haven't read the article yet, but my first thought was "how am I going to turn that off"
in which I bumblefsck through figuring out why my solar setup no worky
fratermus
5 months ago
•
100%
genmai cha, as is
fratermus
5 months ago
•
100%
ambient
Examples from Eno, the OG: 1/1, An Ending (Ascent)
Food and Cooking
Your Coffee Is About to Change, Whether You’re Ready or Not
fratermus
5 months ago
•
100%
During periods of short supply and/or increased coffee has been often been replaced or augmented by various other ingredients. For example:
... during the American Civil War, Louisianans looked to adding chicory root to their coffee when Union naval blockades cut off the port of New Orleans. With shipments coming to a halt, desperate New Orleanians looking for their coffee fix began mixing things with coffee to stretch out the supply. Acorns or beets (cafe de betterave) also did the trick. Though chicory alone is devoid of the alkaloid that gives you a caffeine buzz, the grounds taste similar and can be sold at a lower rate. -- source
fratermus
5 months ago
•
100%
What are everyone’s thoughts on bots like piped bot and tdlr bot
I don't mind them. If I did I'd block them.
I was outside the zone of totality, so was still making some power. Notice that panel voltage did not decrease like many think, it does. Vpanel is stable above ~10%-15% insolation, depending on the panel
I did this because the hotplate was a bit more than my offgrid rig could handle comfortably. Been using it at ~500w to very good effect.
fratermus
6 months ago
•
100%
Closest I've come to Mad Scientist was probably yeast ranching to control costs in homebrewing.
- sterilize agar media and plates/tubes in poor man's autoclave (pressure coooker) and hood (open oven door and vent fan) - infection rates were surprisingly low with this low-tech approach. I lost maybe 5% of cultures to spurious growth.
- streak yeast from $$$ pure liquid cultures, grow, store if successful.
- also experimented with yeast suspensions in sterile distilled water based on a 1930s science journal article from a dude in Africa. The suspensions did better in the heat where agar would just remelt....
- a few days before needed scrape the streak into a small amount of sterile wort (20ml? on a homemade stirplate (PC fan and HD magnets under an unpended tupperware bowl!), stepping up to pitchable volume coinciding with the batch cooling to pitch temperature....
It was a lot of fun and instead of one 5gal batch of beer from an exotic $20 yeast sample you could get as many as you wanted. In practice I usually did 5-10 cultures from each pure sample. Could do more than that but there was a limit to how much stuff I could sterilize in my "autoclave" at one time.
Edited to add: I successfully cultured yeast from hefeweizen, but since what's in the bottle is typically for secondary/priming rather than primary it was only for fun. I had 100% failure trying to harvest wild yeast from the air or sampled from fruit skins. I couldn't isolate the yeast from other critters.
fratermus
6 months ago
•
100%
I have driven and found joy in many cars: Pinto, beetle, 2CV, original 500s, 1940s Ford tractors, beater pickups including a 1949 International, HMMWV, etc. Mopeds (like 1970s Puch), ratty motorcycles. They all make me giggly.
I had to think a few minutes about one that was just terrible, no redeeming points I could find: first (north american) gen Hyunda Excel What a soul-sucking turd.
fratermus
6 months ago
•
100%
Can't find it now, but someone once made a vi [gVim?} version with a Clippy-style helper: "I see you've pressed ESC. Would you like to...."
Asklemmy
what are the advantages and disadvantages of working in a mostly male/female environment?
fratermus
6 months ago
•
100%
Main advantage I've found in unmixed workgroups is less (no) fighting over the thermostat
fratermus
6 months ago
•
100%
My only hard rule is refrigerated/frozen items together so I can handle that bag first when I put groceries up.
fratermus
6 months ago
•
100%
Living in vans, cars, RVs, etc
Nomad tip: have accounts at more than just one bank
fratermus
6 months ago
•
100%
Agreed. I normally have cash but I knew this check was coming in so I delayed taking a distribution from my retirement account. Bit me in the butt... :-(
This is probably worth considering in general, but dealing with financial lockouts on the road is a particular kind of dumpster fire. TL:DR: I deposited a check and things went weird (not an NSF scenario). My bank got spooked and locked not just that one account but all of my access for two weeks. I scrambled to open new accounts elsewhere and move direct deposits over. Soon (like 12 hours) after completion my bank said "oopsie!" and restored my access to the accounts this morning. Having pre-existing accounts at other locations would have been stressful because one institution could not bogart my funds.
fratermus
6 months ago
•
100%
Like any other automated tool, I'd want them to master the manual skills first.
With math and calculators first we show we can do it longhand then get the calc. Show you can search and assess sources first then incorporate AI.
> ... up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Yay. BTW, I keep track of laws like this in [this RVwiki article](https://rvwiki.mousetrap.net/doku.php?id=camping:banned)
Like an idjit I smoked my old shunt by shorting it while moving stuff around. I eventually replaced it with the Aili type. It works fine, but I don't like how the data is presented. Totally my fault, I saw what the display looked like when I bought it. Grrr......
> House Bill 1365 was filed in January. It prohibits camping or sleeping on public property without a permit. The bill would give local municipalities the power to designate specific areas for sleeping or camping. Such properties must have restrooms, running water, security, and access to health care for mental and physical health. Also under the provision the specified areas may not negatively impact local businesses. [Here](https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2024/1365) is the info if you want to follow along
www.sandiegouniontribune.com
> This year was more tumultuous than usual. A couple things were literal once in a lifetime events.
>> [I found a] 3qt crockpot to replace the 2qt and 4qt. Back to my original setup. The Crockpot 3120 is rated at 75w/150w and I measured it at 69w/134w.
>>I believed the forecast, which said it would be partly cloudy. In reality it was overcast all day, no blue sky at all. It was lightly raining most of the time. Pic to the right (PF parking lot) shows how low the cloud cover was. Clouds were obscuring the top of the nearby Franklin Mountains.
> I noticed the panels were unusually filthy. An excellent opportunity for an experiment! I dug out the ladder, put the pushbroom head on the multi-purpose stick, and found a suitable terrycloth hand towel...
including a prediction that I will need to use shore power for the first time in over 5 years :-\
> I just realized it’s been two years since I installed the LiFePO4. No regrets.
> Just before the eclipse started (0913 local) the system was making 260w.... “first contact” began and the MPPT algo started thrashing around... at full annularity (1037 local) it was making only 26w. This lines up with the prediction of “89.6% obscuration”.
I recently bought some closeout honeycrisp apples and bosch pears and ate most of them. I had one of each left over and decided to skin each and cook them down with a bit of cinnamon and lime juice. Then I decided I'd make pancakes the next morning to make use of it. I cooked down the fruit on the [300w lab hotplate](https://mouse.mousetrap.net/cooking/#electric-cooking). Tried to use it for the pancakes in the *naan* pan but the 4" head was too hot in center. Tried to use a flame diffiuser but 300w wasn't enough grunt to get through that. So I ended up cooking the pancakes over a single-burner propane stove. They tasted better than they looked. :-) - [cooking down the fruit](https://img.mousetrap.net/2023/IMG_20231011_101548.jpg) - [pancake](https://img.mousetrap.net/2023/IMG_20231012_102549.jpg) - [pancake recipe](https://mouse.mousetrap.net/cooking/recipes/recipesStandard.html#pancakes)
> I found a tennis ball in a park in SF, and figured it’d make a good aromatic medium for the peppermint oil I bought to repel mousemonsters. I cut it into quarters with a utility knife. > I applied peppermint oil to each fuzzy surface and mounted one under the hood and one on the floorboard near where I saw mice enter.
[I've noted before](https://mouse.mousetrap.net/blog/2022-12-05-isolator-charging-while-stealthing--water-use--appointments--etc.html#the-alternator-v-solar-charging-mix) that when I stealth camp in cities my charging percentage from alternator increases from ~5% to ~10% of total production. The increase isn't needed (solar could cover it) but the alt gets a chance to play. Since I am moving at least twice a day (3x with PF showers) I've had an opportunity to record a higher frequency of engine starts and LFP bank acceptance. The setup: * 180A alternator that typically runs at 14.2v * Battery Doctor [VSR](https://rvwiki.mousetrap.net/doku.php?id=electrical:12v:alternator#voltage-sensing_relays) setup left over from my previous FLA bank * 150Ah 12v LFP bank * SoC and voltage measurements below taken from BMS before engine start * current measurements taken from BMS though it agrees with shunted battery monitor. (I can see the BMS via bluetooth from the driver's seat but I can't see the monitor) * solar contribution and loads ranged widely, leading to variance. Over the last ~20 runs, the average state of charge was 72%, bank voltage 13.20v, charge acceptance 0.183C (27.39A) ``` SoC Vbatt C A 60 13.07 0.245 36.75 72 13.15 0.130 19.50 69 13.13 0.120 18.00 27 12.95 0.270 40.50 80 13.29 0.150 22.50 80 13.27 0.240 36.00 81 13.30 0.170 25.50 77 13.22 0.165 24.75 39 13.03 0.260 39.00 95 13.30 0.115 17.25 48 13.06 0.235 35.25 86 13.56 0.120 18.00 90 13.25 0.220 33.00 90 13.26 0.165 24.75 62 13.08 0.240 36.00 92 13.27 0.084 12.60 92 13.27 0.090 13.50 58 13.07 0.235 35.25 89 13.26 0.140 21.00 84 13.26 0.215 32.25 49 13.07 0.225 33.75 ``` Given average charge acceptance of 27.39A, the obvious comparison here is to a 30A DC-DC like the Orion-TR. The DC-DC would have a much more stable charge rate, typically ~30A except late in the charging process when acceptance at Vabs tapers.
> Charge to ~100% SoC then allow the system to settle back to the quasi-float voltage... Final measurements taken when the sun had gone down enough that solar could no longer hold Vfloat.
my first vinagaroon IRL and *I did not like it*. Also a tarantula, but that was much less freaky.
> I have a prescription from the VA coming in, and an Amazon order in the queue. I’ll try to time everything arriving in 14d so I can collect everything, get a shower at PF, etc
> Heavy rain was forecast in Los Alamos for the next few days (and lighter for the next week). Highs in the 60s. I needed to move (14d) so I could either scout a location within acceptable distance or chance going into Santa Fe.
> You know the locals are well-paid when you see a Ferarri at the grocery store.
Made some cheddar biscuits in a sandwich press; yummy! Normally the dog is in the pics looking at the food but she was still [busy on cleanup duty](https://img.mousetrap.net/2023/IMG_20230904_102023.jpg). recipe in blog link
> [Vpanel] can reveal much after we learn what the controller is doing.
> The spot was lovely but had mice. I trapped them but they kept coming. By the time I decided to relo it was too late; they had chewed into the wiring harness...
>> Last night I watched Oppenheier. I took Muffin out for a break afterwards and could see the lights from Los Alamos, the town Oppie built for Project Y.
I saw some pipe vids on YT talking about which 5 you'd choose if that's all you could smoke. This week my answer would be: - Balkan: C&D Star of the East, H&H Marquee Magnum Opus, Sutliffe English Oriental Supreme - Codger: Sir Walter Raleigh - Aromatic: C&D Epiphany
> I moved into the campervan on Aug 18th, 2018 and headed off to the job I transferred to in El Paso. I hadn’t planned on moving into the van FT until 2028 when I retired but everything fell into place ahead of schedule.
Not only is it [a weekend](https://img.mousetrap.net/misc/weekenders.jpg), but the so-called "Ring of Fire" eclipse will be visible from states where boondocking is common: >> The narrow path of annularity begins in Oregon and crosses Northern California, Nevada, Utah, northeastern Arizona, southwestern Colorado, New Mexico and Texas - [livescience](https://www.livescience.com/space/the-sun/ring-of-fire-solar-eclipse-2023-how-to-watch-in-person-and-virtually) Be prepared for a deluge of casual campers looking for spots from which to ~~burn their eyes out~~ watch the eclipse.
... in which the high pressure dome moves off New Mexico so the monsoon weather can approach on little cat feet. Musings on relocating in mud, water provisions, and a wiley coyote