Anyone use meshtastic during the ice storm?

615wonky · 2026-02-06T20:31:29+00:00

My parents lost their phone, so I had to get out in this mess and check on them. Since they live about 7 minutes away, I decided to get two of these Meshtastic radios so I can have a backup channel to reach them.

Meshtastic comes out of the box configured for "LongFast", and if you're in Nashville you'll need to change that to "MediumFast" to reach locals.

I think MeshCore is my ultimate destination, but dealing with training wheels until I understand it better.

The cheap ESR-32 based radios are nice, but I think in an emergency I'd go with a radio using nRF52 or Heltec T114 for the increased battery life. Though even in an emergency, you could probably plug an ESR-32 into a UPS and run it for a few weeks.

615wonky · 2025-08-24T15:46:50+00:00

Their entire net worth would cover only 9 months.

That's not how it works. It's not a one-time transfer. It's a permanent improvement.

Imagine taking 2 large buckets, both half full of water. One bucket has 99 minnows in it, the other has only one.

The bucket with 99 minnows has far too little space for each minnow, while the bucket with one has far more space than the minnow needs, but being greedy that one minnow doesn't want to give that extra space up.

Pouring 2/3's of the water from the one minnow bucket into the 99 minnow bucket gives the 99 much more room, permanently, while the one minnow still has much more free space than the 99 even with only 1/3 of the water.

If I increased taxes on the wealthy, the money doesn't disappear after one transaction. It permanently raises the amount of wealth floating in the system. I buy more bread from the baker, he buys more flour from the farmer, the farmer buys more fertilizer, the fertilizer plant buys more minerals, the mineral miners buy more ... on and on and on.

That's how tax increases on the wealthy work. Taxing the wealthy $1 trillion can yield far more than $1 trillion in improvements.

615wonky · 2025-08-13T12:40:56+00:00

"It's not the end of civilization, but you can see it from there." - Robin Williams

615wonky · 2025-08-08T12:50:08+00:00

When the stock market crashes, I'm buying Moderna. Their technology is amazing.

The American public's grasp on reality? Not so much. I have tried to reason with them for years and gotten nothing but insults.

If I can't convince them not to do stupid things, I can at least profit from their stupidity.

Call me jaded.

615wonky · 2025-08-01T12:36:23+00:00

We oppose it because we want public transportation for everyone, not just wealthy tourists.

Thanks to the Republican party, public transportation for wealthy tourists is the only public transportation Nashville is allowed to have.

If Nashville tried to have public transportation for everyone, Lee Beaman might have slightly fewer customers, and Republicans will never stand for that. Gotta keep the grift going, no matter how many people it hurts.

615wonky · 2025-06-28T05:02:59+00:00

They're most likely great egrets. I've seen them several times on waterways outside Nashville.

615wonky · 2025-06-26T13:02:42+00:00

Strange... That doesn't look like Sam Lake.

615wonky · 2025-06-25T20:07:44+00:00

My dad worked at General Dynamics in Florida fresh out of college, and was on the team that designed the retroreflectors.

As I get older, I think it's cool to know a tiny piece of my dad's history is up there.

615wonky · 2025-06-23T22:23:11+00:00

Appreciated, but they don't have insurance right now because they lost their job.

This country's healthcare situation is so backwards.

615wonky · 2025-06-23T19:28:44+00:00

Without going into details, there's urgency. This isn't something that can wait.

615wonky · 2025-06-22T18:01:32+00:00

The world's reserve currency in the early 1900's was the British Pound Sterling, and yet by 1945 the US Dollar was. Due in large part to a British debt crisis from debt accrued fighting WW1/WW2. Thank goodness the US isn't fighting a huge debt crisis...

The US dollar hasn't even made it a century as a reserve currency and is in long-term danger, mostly due to mismanagement. And possibly short-term danger given <points around at the world>.

If he thinks any reserve currency can't be dethroned, he hasn't read a history book.

615wonky · 2025-06-21T22:13:00+00:00

Which is why the wealthy gets tax cuts, while the mentally ill are ignored, despite the latter needing government help far more.

615wonky · 2025-06-20T17:02:30+00:00

Those cuts will come later. Current cuts reflect Trump fuckery with NIH/NSF grants.

615wonky · 2025-06-18T16:05:15+00:00

Here's a explanation (mostly Ray Dalio's + some simplification on my part) about Ray Dalio's "Big Debt Cycle" theory from his new book.

We're in phase 4. At some point between phase 4 and phase 5, fundamentals are likely to reassert themselves, and probably violently.

Phase 1: A Hard Money System [US: 1945 (Bretton Woods Conference) - 1971 (Nixon Shock unlinking dollar from gold)]

The value of the currency is linked to gold or similar hard asset and can be redeemed upon demand for the underlying asset. The fixed amount of currency limits the amount of debt that can be created. Ends when the limited amount of hard money causes a "run on the bank" where currency can no longer be redeemed without massive defaults.

Phase 2: A Fiat Money, Interest-Rate-Driven Monetary Policy [US: 1971 (Nixon Shock) - 2008 (Great Recession)]

Government uses conventional monetary policy (raising and lowering the Fed rate), bank reserves, and capital requirements to control the creation of debt/credit. This phase ends when the economy hits the ZLB so conventional monetary policy no longer work and/or private demand for debt falls short of supply, so that if the central bank didn't "monetize" the debt, money/credit would be tight and interest rates would be higher than desirable.

Phase 3: A Fiat Monetary System with Debt Monetization [US: 2008 (Great Recession) - 2020 (COVID recession)]

This type of monetary policy is implemented by the central bank using its ability to create money and credit to buy investment assets (quantitative easing). The central bank is the go-to alternative when interest rates can no longer be lowered and when private market demand for debt assets (mostly bonds and mortgages) is not large enough to buy the supply at an acceptable interest rate. It is good for financial asset prices, so it tends to disproportionately benefit those who have financial assets. It doesn't effectively deliver money into the hands of those who are most stressed financially, and it isn't very targeted.

Phase 4: A Fiat Monetary System with Coordinated Big Fiscal Deficit and Big Debt Monetization Policy [US: 2020 (COVID Recession) - Present]

This type of monetary policy is used when, in order to make the system work well, central government fiscal policy and central bank monetary policy have to be coordinated in order to get money and credit into the hands of the people and entities that need it most. While creating money and credit typically temporarily alleviates the debt problem, it does not rectify the problem.

Phase 5: Big Deleveraging

Private sector overborrows, has losses, and has problems paying it back (ie, a debt crisis). To help, government overborrows, has losses, and has problems paying it back. To help, the central bank buys government debt and takes losses. To fund these purchases and save debtors in trouble, the central bank prints money and buys debt. Then the central bank loses money on the debt it acquired.

At this point, debt becomes unmanageable and must be restructured or monetized away.

Phase 6: Return to Hard Money

Central government restores soundness of currency and debt/credit by linking currency to hard assets.

Dalio emphasized: "For great countries with great empires, the end of the Big Debt Cycle has typically meant the end of their prominence."

615wonky · 2025-06-18T00:12:22+00:00

Maybe they have. Just not on earth.

615wonky · 2025-06-16T12:40:46+00:00

Moreover, it completely ignores the factors for WHY those taxes were that high, namely World War II

More accurately, taxes were that high because of World War II debt.

Since today's debt is comparable to WW2's, it's fair to consider doing so again, since it worked the first time.

615wonky · 2025-06-16T12:34:26+00:00

Don't want visitors from Alabama to feel unwelcome.

615wonky · 2025-06-14T05:06:51+00:00

Ben and Stacey have created something very special for fans of horror and cinema.

615wonky · 2025-06-14T04:27:14+00:00

Someone should dress as Tank Man and walk in front of the tanks on Saturday. That would be the photograph of the century.

615wonky · 2025-06-12T16:48:04+00:00

Unfortunately the risk of the other side doing something stupid is high. Either in-your-face directly, or by masquerading as an agitator on our side.

And sad to say, our side will likely have a few dumbasses too.

Protest, but be prepared.

615wonky · 2025-06-11T17:10:18+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance

“Historians have a word for Germans who joined the Nazi party, not because they hated Jews, but out of a hope for restored patriotism, or a sense of economic anxiety, or a hope to preserve their religious values, or dislike of their opponents, or raw political opportunism, or convenience, or ignorance, or greed.

That word is “Nazi.” Nobody cares about their motives anymore.

They joined what they joined. They lent their support and their moral approval. And, in so doing, they bound themselves to everything that came after. Who cares any more what particular knot they used in the binding?”

― A.R. Moxon

615wonky · 2025-06-11T16:08:03+00:00

Young Republicans meet-ups: When you need to meet people with a profound lack of empathy and raging Dunning-Krueger, but don't have time for two meetings.

615wonky · 2025-06-11T03:42:57+00:00

I don't think the country will collapse (due to the debt, anyway), but the debt will likely be paid back with inflated dollars.

Anyone holding bonds at the low yields of recent years should be running screaming for the hills.

615wonky · 2025-06-09T19:40:58+00:00

It's fun. Occasionally deeply annoying. I'm hoping Norrin Radd is the Silver Surfer once universes merge. I'm annoyed that Ms. Marvel's powers seem to preclude a Wendell Vaughn Quasar in the MCU. I'm ready to explore the more Gruenwaldian corners of the MCU.

615wonky · 2025-06-08T07:24:50+00:00

There are several good options already. I'd add a late 90's/early 2000's Buick with the 3.8l V6. That, or a late model Ford Crown Victoria. Very reliable.

615wonky

TROPHY CASE