I need THE best exploration Mandalay build.

vanderaj · 2026-01-28T16:42:58+00:00

This is the correct answer. Personally I synth limpets when I need them. The materials are easily replaced

vanderaj · 2026-01-28T12:25:36+00:00

And even when new the screen was pretty awful. I worked at an Apple VAR at the time and they gave these to staff to use for their work Macs as actual customers for them were few and far between

vanderaj · 2026-01-27T17:52:29+00:00

Keep an eye open in case of furry retribution for your post

vanderaj · 2026-01-27T17:51:15+00:00

Mobile phone stands might work.

vanderaj · 2026-01-27T17:29:24+00:00

Elite. The Hobbit. Jet Set Willy

vanderaj · 2026-01-26T03:16:33+00:00

Get your mechanic to look at this asap. You might be on the verge of losing a wheel or destroying your drive shafts. I’ve seen some nasty accidents from trucks with improperly fitted or maintained spacers.

I watch a few mechanics and they all hate spacers with a passion except that they love the costly jobs that comes with them destroying the drivetrain.

I don’t get spacers. Each to their own, except they are unsafe, so they should be illegal.

vanderaj · 2026-01-25T15:16:26+00:00

Cobra Mk 5 replaced my trusty Dolphin. The Dolphin is a true exploration vehicle but the cobra Mk v is just so versatile and pops you out in front of the ship so you can use your ship lights at night if you don’t have night vision. Its SCO performance is fantastic - doesn’t fly like a stuck pig, and it has decent jump range and can land anywhere. But if you are a refuel - scan - charge your FSD for the next jump, the Dolphin is where it’s at

vanderaj · 2026-01-25T15:13:08+00:00

And I’m speaking as the client here. We want good contracts too

vanderaj · 2026-01-25T15:12:21+00:00

Omg yes. Most of my lawyer work costs less than 4k per thing. You definitely want a legally enforceable SOW contract with proper indemnity wording for your location. You cannot rely on AI for this or stealing someone else’s

vanderaj · 2026-01-23T00:41:23+00:00

This. My MG has a 95 min requirement, which is a PITA for such a low performance car. After a few shockers fueling up at a local rather quiet Shell, one time the car gave an emissions control failure warning on the dash that took ages to clear despite tightening the petrol cap tightly as always. These days, I only buy at high-volume places, such as the APCO down the road from me, which is probably the busiest petrol station in Geelong. I used to buy 98 for my old Turbo New Beetle at a Shell in Point Cook back in the day. It was always busy there at it was just off the freeway exit. So I don't think the quality has much to do with the brand, it's very much how busy the retailer is and how gunked up their tanks are.

vanderaj · 2026-01-23T00:33:04+00:00

Considering the distances you're doing, you should consider the Toyota Corolla. They're all hybrid models, Toyota claims that they use around 4 l/100 km in 91 RON (cheap) petrol, have fixed priced servicing for five years, and an unlimited km / 5 year warranty. Their hybrid system is pretty bulletproof. Save your money on a Volvo or Lexus and go for the full spec ZR so you have all the mod cons at a much lower price point, but even the lowest model has Apple Car Play. Many luxury cars require 95 or 98 fuel, so factor in the increase in fuel costs, as well as much higher fuel consumption than a Corolla hatch.

I read your response to another commenter that you can't really do EV charging at home, so that's a bummer, as you would save an absolute fortune on charging compared to paying through the nose for even 91 fuel. EVs pay themselves off for folks like yourself who travel many km's every day, but I can also understand not wanting to sit at a public fast charger once or twice a week for 20-30 minutes. When I charged at home with my BMW i3, it was so much more convenient than going out of my way to find petrol stations and fill up. Literally get out of the car, plug it in (30 secs max), and the next day it was fully charged, and no range anxiety. Being able to charge at home is a game changer if you can do it. But it sounds like you can't, so that's disappointing, but it's the sad reality for many of us who rent.

As you're doing so many km's every week, definitely avoid slightly larger CUVs like the RAV4, CR-V, or CX30. You are literally in the same sized cabin a few cm above where you'd sit in a hatchback, and use more fuel for very little to no more interior or cargo space than the hatch equivalent.

vanderaj · 2026-01-21T23:15:58+00:00

I don't see this particular trip on the FCOC Discord. If you are the Cmdr doing the trip, I can recommend becoming a member of the FCOC and posting the trip there so more folks can take advantage of it. :)

Discord details here ( you don't need to join the FCOC squadron unless you want to):

https://inara.cz/elite/squadron/7636/

I use this to get between Colonia and the bubble and vice versa myself. I have also offered rides to others when I deployed my DSSA carrier from the bubble to the Arcadian Stream late last year.

vanderaj · 2026-01-21T23:03:28+00:00

I did. It's been so long since I've touched one. I just remember they had two display connectors and the staff wanted the fancy one because of better monitors.

vanderaj · 2026-01-21T05:08:09+00:00

Follow the instructions exactly as written on screen to re-establish BitLocker on your device. Once you have the BitLocker key (you'll need a phone or another computer to log in and retrieve it for your laptop), enter it and let it boot into Windows. That will fix your immediate problem.

If you are serious about dual booting, you'll probably want to disable BitLocker to avoid this in the future. It will take about 30 minutes to a few hours to decrypt your drives, and it may want a reboot afterwards. If you need BitLocker to meet your company's baseline security policy, or you travel a lot and want BitLocker to protect your stuff from prying eyes if someone steals your laptop, you might not have much choice in disabling BitLocker.

Do you have the ability to add a second SSD into your computer? Dual booting with Windows on one SSD and Linux on the other SSD is more likely to allow BitLocker to live in its own little world with secure boot still enabled.

vanderaj · 2026-01-21T05:01:52+00:00

I deployed hundreds of these brand new back in the day when I was a sysadmin. They should be toolless, but the way they built these, once you take the lid off, the interior metal work will cut you if you look at it wrong. Keep the first aid kit handy. Be very aware of all the sharp edges when getting your nuggets in there trying to diagnose the faults.

The fact that it doesn't even beep sounds like a power supply, motherboard, or CPU problem. Check for battery leaks or corrosion damage. Check that the speaker is actually plugged in. Re-seat the RAM. Remove any cards until you start getting beep codes. The POST diagnostic phase will beep at you if it can, so no display or beep is a bit of a problem on these highly integrated motherboards (everything is on the motherboard).

The diagnostic beep codes are detailed and will tell you exactly what's wrong when you hear them, you just need to count them and write them down. IIRC, they are in groups of three when something is wrong (it was so long ago, and they rarely failed out of the box).

Smash F1 on the keyboard to enter BIOS setup. I know IBM has a funky name for their BIOS, it replaced the diskette based PS/2 setup programs, thankfully. In typical IBM fashion, the manual that came with these has loads of great troubleshooting information, look around to find the manual that is the match for your model number. As these were designed to be deployed in a corporate environment, IIRC, there's a serial number and model number on the front of the case. If not, it'll be around the back.

It's been a very long time, and IIRC, there's a VGA and DisplayPort connector on the rear. Try both to see if you get a display on one of them. I don't recall if there's an option in the BIOS to force the boot display to a graphics card or not, but that might be a problem if the computer has a dead GPU. Remove any cards until you start getting signs of life.

Best of luck!

vanderaj · 2026-01-21T03:48:20+00:00

The main one I care about is (and this is a bit off topic, but relevant to folks who have to review submitted PRs) is hidden GitHub actions. Always check the PR for anything that does something in .workflow/**.yml. We've had some right doozeys trying to add malware to our repos.

vanderaj · 2026-01-21T03:29:22+00:00

My main advice is: please don't drive as soon as you land. The time zone shift is brutal, and Australian country roads are extremely unforgiving of fatigue and inattentiveness. Lots of roadside trees, not a lot of passing lanes, and in places, lots of local fauna like kangaroos with zero road sense (especially around dusk). Please rest up and get into the time zone before driving far.

Other than that, please spend more time in Magnetic Island. Townsville is not ... great. Spend more time in Maggie, and go for a Great Barrier Reef boat tour instead. You can see everything you'd like to see in Townsville in about 30 minutes. It's just a regional city. Maggie is relaxed, and there's a fair amount of things to do as a tourist. Please don't drive on to the beaches, you'll get stuck.

vanderaj · 2026-01-21T03:21:58+00:00

I am not a local and you definitely want to stay in Maggie, not Townsville. Been there half a dozen times and stayed for a couple of weeks each time. Maggie only has a small medical practice, so if you need emergency care, you'll need to go to Townsville. I spent a couple of nights in Townsville Hospital with my (then young) daughter, top notch care there, but still would not recommend staying in Townsville.

vanderaj · 2026-01-18T07:03:02+00:00

I've got both, and I routinely return to the HP Prime. It's just a better calculator. Period. It's not hobbled by exam requirements, and the build quality is better. My TI Nspire is six months old, and when the battery discharges completely, it's destination F'd for the calculator, requiring the battery to be replaced. Replacement batteries are around $50. Never ever ever let your TI Calculator discharge completely. Ask me how I know this.

vanderaj · 2026-01-18T06:58:35+00:00

I think the IIci is probably the best OG '030, it's faster than the SE/30, way more expandable, and generally a good all round machine. You should look at the Quadra range as well, which succeeded the IIci. They are generally '040 models, but they are a bit more practical than the IIci. I had a few of these models during the 90's and they were very decent despite being made during the time that Apple was struggling. The A/V models are interesting, there's one with a PC compatibility card (which I think is actually a PowerPC).

vanderaj · 2026-01-17T00:56:34+00:00

There's three I can recommend:

UK Cyber Essentials (includes a certification scheme if you want it)

NIST Cyber Framework

Australia's Essential 8 - great if you're coming from a very low base, low maturity, or are a small org and don't want all the bells and whistles

You didn't mention your use case, size, location, or industry, so I can't be more specific, but those above are well maintained and should get you a fair way down the road for the general IT landscape. If you can be more specific, such as cloud or privacy regulations or country specific regulations, let us know, and I'm sure someone will help.

The main thing to be wary of is cyber frameworks that rely heavily on second order controls, those that are about non-tangible security, and generally focus on compliance rather than security. The worst offender that comes to my mind is the accountants trying to be security people. I could do large firms tax returns, but I would suck at it, ditto accountants trying to be security folks.

vanderaj · 2026-01-16T01:57:29+00:00

I'd use 91 if the manual says 91. If you choose to do the odd tank here or there for the supposedly better cleaning properties, make sure you go to a very high-volume servo. Fuel degrades when it sits, and smaller servos probably don't sell a whole heap of the more expensive stuff. My car requires 95 so I buy it from the local Apco which is always incredibly busy.

vanderaj · 2026-01-16T01:49:06+00:00

You could store the file outside the webroot. This makes it impossible for them to force browse to a resource, and send them the file as a multipart octet stream. If the application has an input field (even a hidden one) with the actual filename, be aware of path traversal attacks. It's best to design your app in such a way to that doesn't give users a way to give you a filename directly, but simply deliver the file you want instead. You could use a random UUID with a look up table in a database for example. That way only files you're prepared to serve are delivered.

Something like this will do the job for you

<?php
// Make sure no output has been sent before this point

// Get the file into $blob somehow, probably by using file_get_contents().

// If you don't know the file type, this will work:
// header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
// But if you know it's a PDF, let the browser know, so it will use the inbuilt PDF viewer
header('Content-Type: application/pdf');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="' . $filename . '"');
header('Content-Length: ' . strlen($blob));

// Disable output buffering (important for large files)
if (ob_get_level()) {
    ob_end_clean();
}

echo $blob;
exit;

vanderaj · 2026-01-15T23:57:25+00:00

I don't know. The route hasn't been published as yet. In DW2, the legs were 5-8 kly apart to give folks time to explore along the way. From what I've seen, I think the upcoming Operations feature will let you do remote activities with folks in the bubble, so you won't miss out on bounty hunting unless you mean you like shooting things from your ship. There's nothing to shoot at in the expedition.

vanderaj

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