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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 18th, 2023

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  • I was working for a guy setting to 2.4Ghz WiFi links up to 10 miles from a tower. I was mainly running the office and doing network tech support with the odd pc repair job. He was working for a conglomerate about 5 hours away. He had an installer who would come through every couple weeks so I would have the equipment configured and ready to go for him, he would also grab stuff that was no longer in service and bring it back to the office.

    Anyway the installer quit and I had to drive 2 hours each way to go get the truck. No big deal but now no installer. Had a friend who was smart enough to do the job and learn so started going with him and teaching him what to do and how to set stuff up. We did a couple jobs no problem, our longest connection being 7.5 miles on a mast about 20 feet tall. Get to a site to set things up and could literally see the tower but no connection, owner was no help but he had plotted it all out in software showing we software have a great signal. Ask he could say was just to get more height and get it done. Signal went from barely there to non existent. He had told the woman for months that it wouldn’t be an issue and we would get her setup when her landlord agreed to the equipment install.

    Figured out that the issue was that the sector antenna were installed with a 5 degree downward cant. We were slightly above the tower even though it was in line of site we would have needed to be lower down the hillside on another person’s piece of property to get a stable signal then have a couple repeaters to make it work. So here I am with a pissed off woman who was told over and over it would work and I can’t provide what was promised, give him a call and he stopped answering.

    I apologized to the woman and told her someone would be back, gave her his cell number, and packed up the truck. Went to the office, locked up the truck, and dropped the keys in the office mall slot.








  • More and more apps messing things up. Companies want you to use an app so they have more access to data and better ability to control your habits driving more money into their coffers.

    More radicalization and sensationalization of everything. Use the news as an example. It used to be straight reporting of what happened, now it’s about ratings and how many descriptive words you can use to make the news more dramatic.

    Advertising will get worse, more ads, larger ads, more annoying ads.

    There will be a bigger divide between the corporate conglomerate internet and the decentralized internet. People who feel marginalized will begin to break away and and the rest of the internet will look at them like they are crazy.



  • Layers.

    Plant something with thorns or pointy leaves to block easy access to windows. Even better as a hedge around the whole property. Anti break film on windows. Heavy duty exterior doors. Motion sensing lights. Cameras, +1 for cameras with built in lights that can recognize people and automatically turn on.

    Every layer should either strengthen, increase risk of being caught, or make access painful. They will go towards easier targets.


  • Absolutely. Already replaced the roof, plumbing supply lines, and electrical systems. 18K houses need work but the payoff is huge.

    Right now I’ve got about 5600 invested in my solar system. Mainly the racking and then batteries. Once it’s in place I have the option to add another up to 4.8KW. Local power rate sucks for the area. Mid summer the power is around .20 per kwh, the co-op nearby is less than half that. House is all electric and I run a couple servers so it adds up quick.

    Google is building a datacenter in the next county over and a few more are coming in elsewhere, they are supposed to provide most of their own power but no one is sure if they are or not. I’ve seen a couple high renewable line upgrades and additions for power equipment which seem to be upgrades for reliability and filtering in the local grid. All the original 230kv lines have been upgraded to 345kv.

    I’m in town but my house is ideal for a small vertical axis wind turbine. Generally at times wind is up solar is down, but gotta figure a few things out. One of the turbines that sit along a wall would be great but I have to figure out a design I can make and will be practical.



  • I’ve got 7.2KW waiting to go on the roof. 400W bifacial panels with Enphase IQ8A’S. I have 3 panels running now and they generally shave 3kwh per day of my bill right now. In the summer peak the same 3 panels shave twice that off. Just have to get the racking materials and a few other things so I can get started.

    I’m lucky that I can DIY the whole system where I am at. Hopefully the battery systems will start to drop in price before long.




  • I was told once many years ago by a retired (kinda) member of a major biker gang the following:

    “Getting old ain’t for pussies.”

    I was around twelve, he wasn’t lying, I’m forty-six now. All the stupid crap you have done early on in your life will come back around and cause aches and pains. You have to force yourself to keep moving through the pain or you will end up doing next to nothing every chance you get.

    My mind has always kept me at home so I can’t say much there, I’ve never been to a club and rarely go to bars. I’m just not a social person.


  • Because I use my phone for banking I am stuck with OEM android. I have an S21 that loses support soon, that pushes me to upgrade when the next version comes out but will also be jumping to the S26 Ultra. The S26 series gets updates for 7 years so after that I will look at upgrading again.

    Hardware changes are no longer huge leaps like they used to be. With devices no longer being functionally obsolete every few years squeezing as much life as possible is the new game.

    My old devices end up being used for dashboards for HomeAssistant or turned into picture frames. So they will live on and still be useful for a long time.




  • In first grade I dreamed of taking my own life because I was miserable. I guess I instinctively knew my mother hated my existence. She stored a 5 gallon bucket nearly full of paint thinner in my closet that leaked and I lived in that for around 6 months before she “found” it. We had a garage and a basement so why store it in a child’s closet? She confirmed that when she later told me while drunk that she had her whole life planned out and then she had me.

    I was an outcast in school. I’ve been literally thrown on the ground and kicked so badly the school sent me to the hospital because they were worried about internal bleeding. I didn’t even know the kid and was locking my bicycle up and blind sided that time.

    I was molested by my cousin. Told I was worthless by my mother and her boyfriends, forced to eat adult sized food portions from a young age. Thrown on the ground and had my head shoved in the gravel because I couldn’t keep a grip on an old trash water heater and dropped it by her boyfriend/2nd cousin. Punched by him because I didn’t find something fast enough. Among other things.

    Ended up married to a woman who had multiple miscarriages, had a son born 3 months premature who died in the NICU at 9 days old. Eventually gave up on the idea of children after another miscarriage. She was injured at work and got hooked on pain killers, then decided to leave me.

    My second wife passed away after a long illness. I woke up one morning to find her warm and not breathing. I started CPR and nearly lost it when I broke her ribs.

    I’m also considered high intelligence. My iq is around 140. I honestly feel like a failure.

    Feel free to feed the following prompts into your favorite Ai and let it do the math.

    What would an assumed IQ of a 3rd grade child be if they were told they were ranked in the top ten percentile of children through standardized testing.

    And in 8th grade the same child was told that their standardized testing showed they had all of their scores ranked at a minimum of a sophmore in college with some area’s being closer to graduate school levels what would their assumed IQ be.

    I literally relive my life all the time with memories playing in my head on repeat while I process them. It’s a form of C-PTSD caused by my experiences and intelligence. I also deal with recurring headaches and body pain. I truly only feel at peace when I am under water.

    I’ve nearly died a couple times for various reasons. I nearly had my foot ripped off by a machine while working construction. My hands are all scarred from injuries. I made peace with my life ending years ago. I’m not suicidal I just don’t really care.