Time to sign off all social media for a while and get shit done. Wish me luck

Put up a #meshtastic node on a wooden lightpole today at a local brewery. 6 dbi gain antenna, RAK Wireless board, huge battery pack and a solar panel to keep it charged. The coverage in the area is *much* improved. Probably got up about 30 feet. Could have easily gone double that if we had a boom lift or bucket truck. But we did the best we could with the extension ladder for now. If we ever get access to better lifts, we can move it up.

I just made a second cutting board by hand. And when I say by hand, I mean using a standard a hand saw to cut the log. It takes literally hours of sawing, and I can't handle more than like 15 minutes at a time. Why am I doing this? My bandsaw only goes up 6" and I just really wanted to make some cutting boards from the tree that grew on our property. I did but a 3 tpi saw, but the blade twists and I don't get a straight cut. The normal 12 tpi saw is wide so it naturally goes straight. I could use the electric chainsaw, but I'd rather have the nice staight cut with a parallel plane to the face. If I was trying to make a living out of this, it'd make sense to hone that skill (or make a jig), but I'm taking the simple, old-fashion approach: hand saw.

Remember that time that American inteligence services were like "Saddam totally has nukes" and then after going to war we found out that he didn't? Remember that time the US was bogged down in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for 20 years, when the mastermind of 9/11 attacks wasn't even in either of those countries? Does any of this sound familiar? It wasn't even that long ago.

Congratulations Americans, you hit $37T (and counting)

U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time

US National Debt Clock : Real Time U.S. National Debt Clock : DOGE Clock

Hackathons are fiat. Sorry, not sorry. They are, by design, a toy project that was thrown together as quickly as possible and then abandoned. Virtually no thought to design, little understanding of the actual problem space, and zero maintainability. They are peak Silicon Valley mentality. Maximum hype and minimum effort. Contrast this to a project which was born out of necessity, by someone who is very passionate about the topic, who plans on using this project forever, and has a focus on quality instead of cranking out new features just to get attention. That's not to say hackathons don't have any value. They help people get over insecurities about whatever they do not being good enough, show team how to slap something together in an emergency that will hold you over for a few hours while someone properly solves the problem, and a few other things. But as for the technology they produce... no thank you.

Proof of work

I spent like $2000 USD on ten #solar powered #meshtastic nodes, sold two (will be 3), donated one to charity, published the BOM, and I think I'm going to keep the rest of the nodes. Lost about $1500. Gained half a dozen VERY nice nodes. I'm good with this. I've taken decentralization to heart. Nodes should be built locally. It's not hard to do and any Makerspace will have a soldering iron and 3D printer. I'll build nodes for my local community. If other communities want them, they can build them.

Use Matrix. No AI clutter, and no surveillance ads, whatever the rest of the industry does. <3 And it's not based solely on a promise either! You have the choice of open source clients you can use. If one does anything you don't like, you can switch. No need to sign up for a new account, or get anyone else to switch to another system. It's real freedom.

"The guy who was "detained" by the US Marines (hands zip tied) was a U.S. Veteran just trying to cross the street to go to the VA office. 🙄" Via:

AI6YR's Mastodon

AI6YR Ben (@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org)

The guy who was "detained" by the US Marines (hands zip tied) was a U.S. Veteran just trying to cross the street to go to the VA office. 🙄 LA ...

Here's a fun thought: Stablecoins are losing value, when measured against bitcoin.

I removed two wheelbarrow loads of thistles (a mixture of bull and Canada) from our yard today. You have to pull them up by the roots so they come back more slowly, or eventually not at all. They were irritating me as I was trying to do other yard work and then after I got started everywhere I looked I saw more and thought "well I better take that one too, before they get more energy down onto their roots and pop up in more places". Hopefully next time I go out there I can focus on the task I intended to do instead of the one that turned out to be higher priority.

Remember at the end of last year when some people were saying Trump was going to use the military against Americans on US soil and most people thought they were blowing things out of proportion? Pepperidge Farms remembers. What else were those people saying? Seems relevant now that the national guard, marines and a predator drone have all been deployed.

"What is economic imperialism?" Answered by John Perkins, author of "Confessions of an Economic Hitman"