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bluewing

@bluewing@lemm.ee

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bluewing ,

Yeah, I stopped asking questions about any problems years ago because of the cli bros and god forbid you tried to help and didn't offer an "crowd approved" answer. It just wasn't worth the effort. I just switched to searching for an answer on my own. It makes me pretty bad at solving problems sometimes/often times when I do have an issue, but I still manage to muddle through well enough for my own personal amusement.

Thankfully, unless you choose to walk a path of sackcloth and ashes, these days distros are pretty fool proof and don't need much cli effort anymore. And the older I get, the less I want to bother with anything exotic with any distro I want to use. I just want something that works.

bluewing ,

The only issue that has cropped up on my current release LM Cinnamon install, is I have added 2 extra storage devices added to a cheapie AWOW micro box. They are both easily recognized, (formatted Ext4), and are available through the file manager for use. One is an 250gb internal drive and the other is a MicroSD is a 128gb card in an external slot. And both show as extra storage and neither are available as bootable disks - only the usb ports allow that.

What I have found is, on boot the main drive shows up on the desktop and the smaller microSD card automagically also shows up and is available for use from there. But the 250gb added internal drive has never shown up on the desktop on boot until I open the file manager and click on it. When I do that, it appears on the desktop but locks out the microSD card shortcut/icon on my desktop, (still accessible through the file manager).

I'm not sure if this is an issue with LM or just how this Cheap, Cheerful, Chinese micro box has it's firmware set up. I lean towards the firmware in the box myself, if so it probably isn't fixable then. And honestly, this isn't really a showstopper problem and more of a quality of life issue that isn't all that difficult to work around - just use the file manage and it isn't a problem. But it would awesome if all three desktop shortcuts played nice together.

bluewing ,

Are you paying for a seat to use Fusion or just the freebie hobby licence? You can switch over to OnShape if you want something commercial. It's totally OS agnostic because it runs in a browser window. Otherwise you can don the sackcloth and ashes and switch to FreeCAD like I did, (it's not as hard to learn as it gets made out to be), and be free of controlling corporations.

bluewing ,

That is a price to pay for universal accessibility I guess. But I find it's not particularly onerous in practical application - I teach it to high school students because it will run on a simple school issued Chromebook. And since the majority of CAD users are 3D printing, most are only working on single part items anyway. Very few are trying to create multipart assemblies anyway. YMMV of course.

I use FreeCAD because where I live, the internet connection can be iffy, (along with electric service and mail period), and I prefer the local install vs the half-arsed local/cloud install of Fusion or the total cloud base of OnShape for my personal use. YMMV for your needs of course.

bluewing ,

I use Brave on occasions and it's pretty good. But for some reason I just can't seem to make it my everyday driver.

bluewing ,

Which is odd because I do want the health stuff, but don't want the rest of that stuff that is useless to me. I don't need the texting, music, weather, or the phone stuff - my smart phone still needs to be in bluetooth range for it to work anyway.

But I do value the ability to take a pulse, blood pressure, and count steps. It has increased my self-awareness and improved my health consciousness - small changes can make big differences. And for $40US, I found a decent watch that actually works pretty well.

bluewing ,

I bought a FITVII smartwatch from Amazon, (the price has gone up a bit since I ordered mine), after seeing a review of smart watches on a tech website. It was rated as their "Best Budget" -YMMV- smart watch.

A word of warning - it took over 3 months to receive the watch even though it was listed as in stock with 10pcs available. In truth I forgot about it until it showed up in the mail.....

bluewing ,

You can buy a lithium car battery these days. Expensive as all get out, but you can get one.

bluewing ,

And unless you keep that EV plugged in and charging during frigid temperatures, that warming will cost you in usable mileage. And you might need a better charging system than a simple 110/120V circuit. Because that might not be enough to prevent some loss of charge.

The point is, there ain't no free lunch here. Batteries, at the current tech, just tend to suck at low and high temps outside of their intended operating range.

bluewing ,

That ain't getting me to town for groceries at that rate.

I wanted to buy an EV, but after doing a serious evaluation of where I live and what I need to drive for distances and road conditions plus the temperatures I need it to work in, a pure EV is a no go for me. I could get by with a hybrid most of the time. But winter time road conditions can make it pretty iffy for winter and spring and uncomfortable number of times to make even that choice dicey.

bluewing ,

There are vehicles that have those features. Back before I retired as a medic, the new ambulance we got had that feature from Ford, (Ford makes 90% of all certified ambulance chassis in the US). It was quite disconcerting to hear the engine shutdown and restart by itself.

I was less than impressed by it because of all the electrical devices and lights we constantly run. If it fails to restart and the batteries are dead, someone else might be also.

bluewing ,

You can't open a garage door remotely? I can.

bluewing ,

I live in a cold climate. I have a 2 stall garage and the north facing insulated doors seal very well to hold in the heat. In fact the whole garage is insulated and I even heat it. Holding the building a 45F it takes 2 years between refills with a 200 gallon LP tank. And this is with temperatures than hit -40F over night with highs still well below 0F for several days or weeks at a time. And even unheated, that garage will never drop below freezing over an entire winter.

If you a drafty doors, you are doing something wrong. Fix them.

bluewing ,

Even if the garage is attached, there will be an exterior door between the garage and the house proper that will be as heat loss resistant as your front door. So I don't know how you get anymore heat loss than you would from any exterior door in the house. In fact, that door will have LESS heat loss than your front door because it's shielded from the elements that your front door isn't.

bluewing ,

They are. It's just most urban people don't bother with them anymore because the electronic ignitions and fuel injectors make ICE engines very reliable starters even in quite cold weather. My, now eight year old vehicles, still start reliably at -40F even parked outside because I know I will be faced with those temperatures every year and I keep them well repaired to handle that.

Mostly you will see block heaters on diesels and older unreliable cars. And yes, they do work very well and are a cheap insurance policy for getting your car started.

bluewing ,

You can get in engine block heaters that heat the water jacket of the engine in the US and Canada. Or you can get an in-line coolant heater also. I haven't seen a oil pan heater in 40 years. They aren't really a need anymore with 0-30W engine oils anymore.

A block heater will set you back about $120US installed at your local repair station. The in-line coolant heater is some cheaper being only about $75US installed. They both work off of common 115/120V/15A power. No fixed install required for either. At worst you will need to buy an extension cord of the proper gauge. Maybe another $50US. This is well below the costs you cite.

bluewing ,

Only if you didn't get the extra gasoline heater that mounted under trunk hood, I owned a 1965 Beetle in my youth. Those would cook you well done in minutes in the coldest temperatures. Turns out it's hard to get good heat from an air cooled engine.

bluewing ,

What happens if you aren't at home? How much extra planning is needed to check possible hotels along a long distance route to see if they offer overnight chargers? And knowing the lack of commercial charge points outside of metro areas, or even in metro areas that might not even be working when you get there, what do you do then? People don't just never travel long distances. And traveling by plane, train, or bus is not always an option.

And yes, I know about the charging programs, I would love to buy an EV, but the sad hard facts are they will not work for me. Even a Hybrid is kind of iffy. And I will probably be well dead before they will be viable choices for where I live.

bluewing ,

Just go to your local auto parts store and ask for one. They will hook you up.

bluewing ,

I try very hard to not need to make those types of trips. But I have often have a need to several times of the year whether I like it or not. But this fall I made two 1000 mile round trips to go pheasant hunting with my one Son in Law's family and friends. It was a kind of bucket list thing. More often, I need to make 300 mile round trips to see a medical specialist every 3 months. And it's below freezing here 6+ months a year where I live.

The nearest airport that I could fly from is an easy 50 miles away. But, transporting 2 dogs, a shotgun, cooler, and a 5 gallon buck of wild rice as gifts plus clothes wasn't going to work. There is no bus or train service to be had either. And I'm pretty sure Hertz wouldn't be real happy about dirty, wet, and muddy dogs being transported, (and yes, I own travel kennels), in their rentals nor would they be very impressed by the variety of grasses, weeds and mud hanging from the underside of the car either.

The point of the story is, lots of people make these kinds of trips to go camping and hiking, boating, fishing, skiing, hunting, or Christmas trips to Grandma's house loaded with food and gifts. And the places they are going to are often pretty much barren of support for EVs. And renting a car to get there and back would be prohibitively expensive. And people do these types of travel regularly.

I hope more and more people switch to EVs. They DO make a lot of sense in a metropolitan area. Personally, I think electric bikes would even better for most urbaine urbanites. But not everyone lives in such places. And there is a noticeable number of people who can't afford to buy an EV either - even if they wanted to.

I really, really wanted to buy a Chevy Bolt because I thought it would work for me. But, my one Daughter, (who has a PhD in engineering and is a research engineer doing long term studies on HVac systems and EV charging in real world installations), talked me out of it because of lack of infrastructure support. local conditions, the logistics, and total costs of ownership, (it still costs money to not use an asset also). Even buying a Hybrid really doesn't make a lot of sense where I live since it would be simply running the ICE engine 95%+ of the time anyway. And again, the total cost of ownership is pretty break even at best. Sadly, it's going to take decades longer to get EVs affordably usable for everyone. (That does NOT mean we should to stop all development and traveling that path).

TL:DR - There is a non-zero number of people for whom EVs just don't work out, whether from lack of access to them, non-existent infrastructure, or lack of financial ability to even afford ownership or use case. And it seems a very large number of EV enthusiasts I have interacted with simply ignore those issues when making the flat statement "EVs good. ICE bad" and imply that "No one should ever need to own an ICE powered car". Which is just as poor of logic as those who keep saying EVs are stupid and should go away. So go buy your EV if you can. Or at least buy an electric bike if you can't. But for me, they just don't work yet.

bluewing ,

There is a noticeable non-zero number of people who fall into that category. And you cannot simply handwave them away or the fact that for many the cost of purchase an EV simply isn't possible yet or the infrastructure isn't there to support such a purchase.

And YOU willfully choose to ignore those people and situations. You are no better than the clowns that state "EVs are stupid".

bluewing ,

I've been told there are addon charge controllers available for such situations. But as I said, it's stupidly expensive.

bluewing ,

So, you are fine doubling the cost of ownership for those people can't use EVs all the time for everything? Nor did I say that my, and a noticeable number of other people, want to hold society back on EVs. Only that's it NOT the clear cut solution for everyone 90% of the time. But you would seem to want to "force a square peg into the round hole solution".

bluewing ,

My local school has a simple system. Every student is required to place their phones in a clear plastic similar to this - []https://www.amazon.com/Gorilla-Grip-Breathable-Organizer-Accessories/dp/B09MJH9V2V/ref=sr_1_6?crid=1X4FP5L6YX60T&keywords=hanging%2Bshoe%2Bcaddy&sprefix=hanging%2Bshoe%2Bcaddy%2Caps%2C239&sr=8-6&th=1 - hanging right next to the door. The pockets are transparent so the teacher can quickly see if everyone has done so and they are cheap.

bluewing ,

Schools are a disease factory and kids are dirty disease carrying little monsters. A little more isn't a real problem. The janitorial staff does clean them though. But a school as a rule is very good place to go if you ever want to catch some nasty disease.

bluewing ,

Been 'wet shaving' since I started shaving a very long time ago and never stopped. When the blade slots went away in the back of the medicine cabinets in every bathroom, I made a blade bank from a steel can with a lid that I cut a slot in. I takes me years to fill it.

***For those too young to have seen it.
The medicine cabinet in every bathroom used to have a slot in the back of it to drop used razor blades into when they got dull. The would simply fall in between the studs in the wall and pretty much just rust away since the blade back then were made of plain high carbon steel. I remember helping to do several bathroom remodels and when pulling the cabinet and the plaster and lath wall, we would find a small pile of rusted to nearly dust razor blades.

bluewing ,

That's a good idea also!

bluewing ,

Joke's on the surgeon - prostrate surgery is done through the penis with a laser.

Source: I've had 3 prostrate surgeries.

bluewing ,

It ain't never for fun. But it beats dying.....

Electric school buses are a breath of fresh air for children | Nearly $1B in federal funding could help clean up the unequal health impacts of diesel pollution. (grist.org)

Electric school buses are a breath of fresh air for children | Nearly $1B in federal funding could help clean up the unequal health impacts of diesel pollution.::Nearly $1B in federal funding will help decarbonize transportation and clean up some of the unequal health impacts of diesel pollution

bluewing ,

Best you start walking now. School could be a mere 60 miles/96K one way from your home, (even if you live "in town" it's still a 2 mile walk to school). Oh and the temperature outside is -35C this morning. Good luck! And yes, where I live that's how far we need to bus students due to low population densities. And also yes, the winter time temperatures do get that low - it's been around -15F/-26C every morning for the last 2 weeks. Toss in a nice amount of wind, and frostbite can occur in a mere handful of minutes on bare skin.

School buses also ensure all students arrive at the same time. Usually a 10 minute window. It also limits possible accidents, with young children in particular, crossing uncontrolled intersections in busy neighborhoods. Since school buses drop their passengers off at the door.

Lots of reasons to use school buses because not everyone lives within walking distance in quiet places or somewhere warm.

bluewing ,

Nope, school does NOT get closed here because it's too cold. If it did, we would seldom have a school day. A blizzard might have school be a couple hours late, icy road conditions will get school closed. But cold? Only once were all the schools closed when the windchill hit -75C about 15 or 20 years ago. It was unprecedented and caused a lot of controversy. And yes, we know how to dress properly here - it's below freezing 6+ months out of a year. But, while it's a mere -26C right now, the windchill is currently -35C. It's foolish to expect a 5 or 6 year old to wait 15 or 20 minutes in the open for a public bus or to walk a kilometer plus to school. Frostbite can happen in as little as 10 minutes to exposed skin. Dedicated school buses avoid those possibilities.

And due to the low population density, there is NO public transportation here. And we do need to bus some children 95km one way everyday. Otherwise they would need to travel well over 100km one way to the next closest school. The average bus route here is about 30-40km one way.

And if you REALLY want to save on transportation, you should keep all the children at home and just have them attend classes on-line. After all, we have the technology to do so, (and did so during covid). But be mindful of the tanking educational scores. Turns out children really suck at showing up for on-line classes..........

Not everyone lives in a nice warm place like you with all the amenities you personally expect to have.

bluewing ,

No the surgeon isn't available to talk to, but you can call and speak directly to a ENT department nurse for after surgery issues. This is a far better option than ANY search engine answer.

Use the right tool for the job.

bluewing ,

Still the wrong tool. You either can wait and call when they are there or you need the ER at 3AM. And evidently you could wait.

bluewing ,

A question because I don't really understand:

Does those "really minute" voltage adjustments really matter for the vast majority of things you can use USB PPS for? I'm sure there are some devices out there that do, but I would think most don't care too much if the power is 9VDC or even 6VDC or 12VDC for brief periods. Perhaps the slightly increased lifespan might matter or not.

bluewing ,

I think there might be an issue with the propensity of people to use random chargers. If it fits, it has to be OK right? I'm not sure one should trust the charger to step down the voltage as it charges a device. Lots of poorly designed aftermarket chargers out there and you won't be able to make the bad ones all disappear overnight. The device needs to protect itself from the stupidity of the user.

bluewing ,

When the store is 100 mile/160 kilometer round trip, you either figure out a substitute or do without. And if you don't know what else to use, your favorite search engine is only seconds away from helping you with your problem. It ain't rocket surgery.

bluewing ,

I think self checkout works for one or two items. But not much more than that. I don't want to have two or three things to checkout and be stuck behind someone with a cart full.

But If I have much more than that, an "old fashioned" checkout is a lot better.

bluewing ,

Xitter.........

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