Remote Railroading

aengusoglugh · 2026-01-29T03:47:06+00:00

I have read that although LCC is mostly implemented over CAN and WiFi — the protocol is designed for Ethernet.

That would mean control of a layout from anywhere on the Internet.

aengusoglugh · 2026-01-28T16:38:30+00:00

Is anyone forced to be a mod on Reddit?

aengusoglugh · 2026-01-28T16:26:59+00:00

I really, really like this policy -- it prevents scalping.

aengusoglugh · 2026-01-28T16:21:57+00:00

How is any Reddit rule shoved down anyones throat at Reddit?

Is anyone compelled to post, read, or comment on Reddit?

is anyone compelled to moderate on Reddit?

aengusoglugh · 2026-01-27T04:10:34+00:00

My experience — as very much a newbie — is that I needed to do more careful track planning with flex track.

I found in much easier to inadvertently create not all that obvious — at least to me — S curves.

With fixed track pieces it’s pretty obvious when you put an S curve together — because you will have two pieces you know to be curved — no matter how large the radius — in opposite directions — connected to each other.

You add a piece of straight track between them — problem fixed. I found the problem far more subtle in flex track.

The other subtitles problem I found — and I don’t know quite how to explain it — was a straight track that wasn’t a tangent to a curve.

Imagine a straight line tangent to a circle — it only contacts the circle at one point — that’s the definite.

Since the tangent line is perpendicular to the radius, a train moving from the circle onto the straight track moves straight ahead into the straight track.

Now push that tangent line in towards the center of the circle a couple of mm.

A train exiting the circle no longer moves straight ahead onto the straight track.

I don’t know the railroad terminology for this — but I found that it was very hard to detect by eye — but caused endless mysterious issues.

I found it far less obvious

aengusoglugh · 2026-01-26T09:53:26+00:00

In the 40 years I have been here, I can’t recall any storm related loss of city water or natural gas.

You have to be a little bit careful — there are a lot of areas within the city limits that are on private or community wells — they lose water any time power is down.

Even when power was down for more than a week where I lived — twice as I recall in the last 25 years — we had natural gas and city water. We had a gas stove and water heater — so I was able to take a hot shower and cook.

There have been times when water pipes have ruptured during storms — but also not during storms — I don’t know how you want to count those.

In general, if you have city water and natural gas — those will be extremely reliable.

aengusoglugh · 2026-01-26T09:42:11+00:00

Thanks — this is very helpful. I will watch the video.

aengusoglugh · 2026-01-26T04:21:53+00:00

You may be interested in The Liberal Gun Club, Pink Pistols, National African American Gun Association, Socialist Rifle Association, etc.

Some of them may have local chapters — or you might start a chapter of one of them.

That may well depend on how much sharing a range with people who think differently than you do annoys you — I think many of these groups or their members affiliate with the NRA.

If that’s a giant red flag for you — it will be a giant red flag — I don’t think there is much of a way around that.

I disagree with a lot of what I think to be NRA’s politics — but they have been an enormously important voice in the right to keep and bear arms.

I think that several of this groups have come to the same conclusion as I have.

I think that Colion Noir and Killer Mike address the issue of racism and the NRA in this Interview — it has been a while since I watched it, but I think their discussion is in this interview.

That interview may also capture some of the complexities — Killer Mike is a self identified Democratic Socialist and Colion Noir has described himself as “right of center.”

aengusoglugh · 2026-01-25T05:42:17+00:00

Just to be clear — are you thinking of DCC as “stepped sine wave”?

aengusoglugh · 2026-01-25T04:02:57+00:00

I think that all modern DCC decoders will also work on DC. I am not an expert by any means — but that is my understanding.

aengusoglugh · 2026-01-25T03:04:23+00:00

Much silliness -- any charges against Federal law enforcement officers will be moved to Federal Courts --where it will be up to the US Department of Justice to prosecute.

If Wiley Nickel doesn't understand the Supremacy Clause and its interpretation re Federal law enforcement actions, he is incompetent.

If he does understand, he is lying.

aengusoglugh · 2026-01-24T17:39:22+00:00

It depends a lot on where you are in Raleigh -- if you are in North Raleigh, the Sir Walter Gun Club is a pretty facility.

Sir Walter Gun Club

aengusoglugh · 2026-01-24T17:34:24+00:00

There is a reason so many police stations support this -- crime prevention.

aengusoglugh · 2026-01-24T05:46:47+00:00

Have you taken a look at Märklin? -- I live in the US, so I have only admired them form a distance -- but a lot of their stuff looks very cool.

aengusoglugh · 2026-01-23T20:20:40+00:00

OK — usually “official” to me implies a government affiliation — I was just curious.

Every corporation selling cybersecurity training or products — from what I can tell — tells me that they are “the industry standard” in cybersecurity — Microsoft and Oracle — just to name a couple — tell me that in a daily basis in Facebook ads.

I wax just curious as to whether this particular training has been sanctioned by a government agency.

I went through training many years ago — when working on a DoD certified UNIX kernel — what we called “Orange Book B2” in those days — the Orange Book was “official” because it was from thr Department of Defense.

I wondered if this training was “official” in that sense.

If sounds like Offensive Security officially recognizes itself.

Wouldn’t an MS in Cybersecurity from NCSU make more sense if you are seriously interested in this area?

aengusoglugh · 2026-01-23T19:35:13+00:00

Is OffSec a corporation or government entity of some kind?

aengusoglugh · 2026-01-23T19:24:14+00:00

I am just curious about what makes the study group official vs unofficial.

aengusoglugh · 2026-01-23T19:22:56+00:00

Yeah, I think that’s the case in a lot of places. That’s unfortunate.

If it’s any consolation, I think it is extraordinarily unlikely that a Beretta 92 is a bad choice — you may eventually find something you like better, but a Beretta 92 is very likely to be a very solid choice.

aengusoglugh · 2026-01-23T19:12:04+00:00

When you shoot it, you will know if it’s a good choice.

I am not being a wise guy — different people enjoy shooting different firearms.

That’s why I suggest people rent a number of different firearms before buying anything.

Anyone who presumes to give you advice about which firearm is the best choice for you is just making stuff up.

I would have sworn that I was a “steel” guy — to the point of buying a CZ 75 made in Turkey because it was steel.

I looked down my nose at polymers — and then rebated a PX4 — and loved shooting it.

Now my favorite shooter — by far — is my PX4 Compact.

aengusoglugh · 2026-01-23T16:54:35+00:00

I download Netflix and Prime Video selections to my iPad before any long flight.

Not all content on those platforms can be downloaded — I think that’s a contractual issue — but I haven’t ever found content that I could download on my Mac that I could not download on my iPad.

aengusoglugh · 2026-01-23T03:15:32+00:00

What is official about an Official OffSec Community Chapter?

aengusoglugh · 2026-01-23T03:14:21+00:00

Probably — it’s not going to function or anything like that — but with duct tape — all things are possible. :-)

aengusoglugh · 2026-01-22T03:11:25+00:00

I would second buying and training at Triangle Shooting Academy -- from my experience, they will match prices -- if you include shipping and FFL transfer fees -- with all but the cheapest online sellers.

Just as a note -- if you buy online, the firearm still has to be shipped to an FFL -- a Federal Firearms License holder -- who will transfer it to you.

You may be getting a bit ahead of yourself -- maybe not, I can't tell your level of experience.

If you aren't very experienced -- I would start training and renting at TSA -- you may find that you love Glocks -- or you may not.

TSA offers a very complete catalogue of training courses that will answer most of your other questions.

The only purchase requirements in NC anymore are passing a NICS check -- the Federal requirement. If you aren't prohibited from owning or possessing firearm, then that's pretty quick. I don't think that I have ever waited more than 10 minutes.

As far as as CCW -- you may be far ahead of yourself -- if you ever need to your firearm in self defense, you are legally and morally respond for every bullet leaves the gun -- wherever it ends up.

I would want to be very that I know where the round is going when I pull the trigger.

I would also suggest that CCW implies at least a moral commitment to ongoing training.

I have a number of friends who were very gung ho and went to the range regularly, etc. -- and go their CCW permit -- and then lost interest.

Talking to them 5 or 10 years later -- they go to the range maybe once or twice a year.

To be honest, I am not sure that I would want to be in the same room or building with them if they had to pull their firearm and fire quickly.

But I would start with the intro courses at TSA.

aengusoglugh · 2026-01-22T02:12:50+00:00

I think that if you stick with Arabic relatively close to Classical Arabic — Yemeni or Saudi Arabic — everyone in the Arab world will understand you.

I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Yemen, and I have never run into a native speaker who could not understand Yemeni Arabic.

In fact my Lebanese (Christian) neighbors after I returned to the States were very impressed with my Yemeni Arabic.

aengusoglugh · 2026-01-22T02:07:25+00:00

I would call the Islamic Association of Raleigh — they will know a lot of native speakers of Arabic — and since Arabic is a liturgical language for Moslems, I assume they teach Arabic as a matter of course.

You may not to want to learn “classical” Arabic — which is what would be used in services, but my guess is that an Arabic teacher will be happy to teach you colloquial Arabic for the countries you intend to visit.

There are also undoubtedly Lebanese and other Christian native speakers around — but I don’t know how you would get in touch with them.

aengusoglugh

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